Debt Dumpers 2025

[barkley]

So, we don't want to leave a crockpot on and running while we're gone. But we do use the crock pot when we're home all day.

I get it if you are uncomfortable with letting it operate unsupervised but the crockpot cooking while we were at work was a lifesaver for us for years. dh and would meal plan stuff and prep veggies/soak beans/premeasure ingredients to toss in right before we left for work. when we got a bread maker we were set b/c we we set it up so we walked into the house to the smell of fresh hot bread and stew/soup/beans....ready to serve up.


I know you attend your church-do they ever do classes for members? I remember attending a 'quick-n-easy' cooking class at mil's church when dh and I were first married. someone got volunteers to offer up their go-to recipies for busy times (with bonus points for being budget friendly). they gave some simple instructions, provided each participant with a little print out of the recipies and we all had a potluck of the featured items. if your church does'nt do something like this you might suggest it (it was fun and informative).

 

[Tygerlilly]

Aldi is a perfectly legit store. Walmart isn't allowed to sell their "leftovers", they get donated or destroyed. They cut their costs by you either bringing or buying your own bags, returning your cart yourself, bagging your own items.. it's keeps overall costs down. Their house brands are no different from great value or always save. The produce at Aldi is almost always better looking than the stuff from walmart these days and cheaper too.

I used to be a "food snob" too (husband used a much different phrase ) and it cost us a small fortune. There's still a few things I have to get that are branded (oreos are one example), but they are planned and budgeted for or are on sale.

Now I also shop at legit discount food stores with stuff that is *gasp* past it's best by date.

 

[Bellex917]

@WDW_fan_in_TX I used to judge Aldi too... I went once and was so turned off by the quarter, bringing my own bags, the layout. Didn't go again for YEARS.

In 2022 I got serious about our finances and decided to give Aldi a fair shot... boy, was I wrong. Aldi is a huge part of my financial success. We LOVE their products and I am a true convert. I have a family of 4, one with an eating condition that requires very specific food, and I can routinely spend about $500-600 a month grocery shopping for my family if I stick to Aldi. For the whole month. That's less than half the number you listed above, and for twice the amount of people (one being a teenage boy lol). I really encourage you to give it another shot.

 

[barkley]

I used to be a "food snob" too (husband used a much different phrase ) and it cost us a small fortune. There's still a few things I have to get that are branded (oreos are one example), but they are planned and budgeted for or are on sale.

it's interesting to research a bit and learn how many of the store brands are made in/by the same manufacturing as the more expensive name brands. great value peanut butter is 'peter pan', their white bread is 'sara lee', costco's kirkland tuna is 'bumble bee' and their signature coffee is 'starbucks', aldi's millville cereals are made by 'post' ('kellogs' produces walmart's great value cereals). identical products at a fraction of the cost due to store brand name vs. big brand name.

btw-i get you on the Oreos, I could NOT belive how much the white fudge were going for during the holidays (and how few they put in a box anymore ).

 

[Tygerlilly]

it's interesting to research a bit and learn how many of the store brands are made in/by the same manufacturing as the more expensive name brands. great value peanut butter is 'peter pan', their white bread is 'sara lee', costco's kirkland tuna is 'bumble bee' and their signature coffee is 'starbucks', aldi's millville cereals are made by 'post' ('kellogs' produces walmart's great value cereals). identical products at a fraction of the cost due to store brand name vs. big brand name.

btw-i get you on the Oreos, I could NOT belive how much the white fudge were going for during the holidays (and how few they put in a box anymore ).

Working at the Walmart distribution center for 12 years taught me a lot about brand and off-brand items. I would say 9 out of 10 items were made in the same facility and just had different labels slapped on them. They all came together on the same truck, from the same place, with the same manufacturing info.

 

[Nettlelondon]

A popular consumer TV show here in the UK had a piece a little while ago about looking at batch numbers on different ranges within store brands. They showed examples of pasta in one store - the "economy" range was about 50p / packet and the "premium" range was £1 for the same sized bag. By looking at the batch number it became clear that there were in fact identical products just in different bags.

I used to find Aldi and Lidl (not sure if you have Lidl in the US but it operates in a similar way to Aldi) frustrating and didn't think they were really where I wanted to shop, other than during specific themed weeks when I knew there was something I wanted particularly. And then along came the pandemic and shopping became something of a challenge to track down the things we needed. Lidl had opened a store very close to us just before the pandemic hit so I took to popping in there when I couldn't find what I wanted in my normal store. Over a few weeks I got used to the layout and the things we did and didn't like - now I pop in on a regular basis and there are some things we prefer from there over our normal stores. And the savings can really mount up.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

All of this is very true. I've read and researched about this. That's why we buy store brands. Have a coworker that will not. Says he's not buying the cheap stuff when he can afford the real thing, lol. I love my store brand products (for the most part). And true on the Oreoes. We bought up every box we could find. Wife loves them and would go through a box about every 3 days. Now we're on to conversation hearts. I think we personally keep that company in business. She goes through about a bag every 3-4 days.

it's interesting to research a bit and learn how many of the store brands are made in/by the same manufacturing as the more expensive name brands. great value peanut butter is 'peter pan', their white bread is 'sara lee', costco's kirkland tuna is 'bumble bee' and their signature coffee is 'starbucks', aldi's millville cereals are made by 'post' ('kellogs' produces walmart's great value cereals). identical products at a fraction of the cost due to store brand name vs. big brand name.

btw-i get you on the Oreos, I could NOT belive how much the white fudge were going for during the holidays (and how few they put in a box anymore ).

 

[focusondisney]

it's interesting to research a bit and learn how many of the store brands are made in/by the same manufacturing as the more expensive name brands. great value peanut butter is 'peter pan', their white bread is 'sara lee', costco's kirkland tuna is 'bumble bee' and their signature coffee is 'starbucks', aldi's millville cereals are made by 'post' ('kellogs' produces walmart's great value cereals). identical products at a fraction of the cost due to store brand name vs. big brand name.

Absolutely true! My husband was in production management for 1 food production company & managed a plant for another. Both companies produced their own nationally known brands as well as what’s called “private label”. Those are grocery chains’ private brands. The private companies may have their own specific recipe the production company must follow. So their branded items may taste slightly different from the name brand. But the ingredients are absolutely the same for all the products they produce. The last company he worked for made frozen meat & pastas for both Aldi & Walmart, as well as other chains.

I agree Aldi’s produce can be hit or miss. But I think that has more to do with who they’re contracted with to supply them.

 

[bettertheangel]

I'm here for an end of January update and unfortunately I am not as far along as I'd hoped. I added $500 to my emergency fund, but I will have to withdraw that amount to pay my 2024 taxes. I haven't even begun to put a dent in my highest interest rate credit card. And I have made no progress on decluttering.

To be fair, I had a lot of work hiccups so the decluttering thing has had to take a backseat. I'm looking forward to making some progress on all three goals next month!

2025 Goals:
-Add $2000 to emergency fund
-Pay off highest interest rate credit card balance
-Dispose of items that no longer serve a purpose in my current lifestyle (hard to quantify, but it's an ongoing process)

 

[disney-inspired]

Here for end of January updates. This month has felt never-ending!

2025 Goals:
- Build up emergency fund again; I've been operating without one since I have very few fixed bills. I'd like to have that cushion again for future medical issues; I have an autoimmune disease so it's not a matter of if, but when. NOT STARTED
- Be more intentional with paying off off my DVC loan - IN PROGRESS: Paying an additional $40/month now.
- Cash flow my Epic Universe/WDW vacation in August 2025. This is a two week vacation with the family, very excited about it! IN PROGRESS: $742/ $4100
- Save up to move from CA to TX: Not sure when I'll move but my sister and her family are moving early summer 2025. I'll start apt/condo hunting once they get settled so I know their general location. I'm being very particular as to what kind of place I want so won't be moving until I find the perfect place for me. NOT STARTED

 

[goofytinkerbell]

I can't believe January is over already! I think I did really well this month, despite spending the first two weeks of it EXTREMELY sick. Or in some categories, because of it.

Financials:
1. Put an extra $2500 on my mortgage. $160/$2500
+$160
2. Put $2500 in savings to help pay for yearly bills (comes out in November). $885/$2500
+$885. There is a major bill that will come due in a couple months that will probably wipe out anything I put into savings right now and then some, so I'm trying to put away every spare bit I can... or can't, if we're being honest. But it's not something that can be put off, so one way or the other I have to find a way to pay it. Currently trying to determine a way to boost my income. Because I was so sick, I wasn't eating anything for a couple weeks, and I saved a ton of money on groceries. Certainly not a long term solution, but I also lost a few pounds.

Other:
1. Clean out 500 items of junk. 199/500
+199 - I'm hitting this one hard! I was hoping to put some things up for sale, but that will need to wait.
2. Get 4680 minutes of exercise. That works out to 90 minutes per week. 590/4680
+590
3. Read at least 1 non fiction book related to professional development. 0/1
No progress here
4. Do 12 hours of skills development (example, take a course). 1/12
+1hr
5. Find a new job! (carryover from previous years). 0/1
I did nothing on this while I was sick, but I picked up looking at the job boards again in the last week. There's usually nothing this time of year anyway.
6. Finish some of the partially done craft projects I have (there's a ton kicking around). 1/2
I finished a throw I'd been working on
7. Organize my "stuff". 0/10
I'm going to say no progress, but I did poke through a few things. Nothing I can point to and say "I did X" though, more like puttering?
8. Do at least 1 home/vehicle improvement/repair project. 0/1
Nothing yet. I think I'm going to put this one off until I figure out some financials. Winter tends to be rough. My area saw electricity bills that were double what we'd normally see for last month, which doesn't bode well for the winter.

 

[CinderEmma94]

End of January Update!

Okay, so first things first, we found out my husband (sole income earner in our household) is being laid off, his last day is next week (we found out a couple of weeks ago). He doesn't have another job lined up yet but has had several leads and job searching/applying/networking has become his full time job for now. I can not stress how grateful we are for our emergency fund! We have enough to cover around 4 months of expenses already set aside, and then on top of what we already have he is getting a severance check that is equal to a month of pay plus a payout for his unused PTO which is equal to three weeks of pay, and his current job is paying our health, dental and vision insurance through the end of March. All of that is going straight into the HYSA to gain interest while we wait to use it for rent and expenses as needed, we are moving to a bare-bones budget so we are keeping expenses as low as we possibly can. He is in tech, we have been here before and will be here again, but this is the first time we are in the financial position to deal with it without panicking and I can honestly say my stress level is nowhere near as high as it could be.

That said, January was actually a good month budget-wise, we stayed on or under budget in almost every category and were able to add to our savings goals.

Financial:
1. Save $18,000 toward potential cross-country move in October - Current: $2100 (added $1500), will likely have to be moved into the emergency fund, depending on the job situation we may change this goal, not sure if the move will happen or not anymore.
2. Pay off half of our last credit card balance (starting: 12,200) - Current: $11,700
3. Save $3,500 in travel sinking fund to go toward 2026 travel (this is on top of the funds we already have planned to use in 2024) - Current: $500


Personal:
1. 30 minute workout at least 5 days/week - done! I actually worked out 26/31 days this month.
2. Complete two 10k (Jan/April) and one 5k (Feb) races (already registered) - I completed my first 10k of the year! It was difficult (more mentally than physically), but I actually ended up with a PR on my 5k split so that was really encouraging and gave me the push I needed to finish the second half of the race.
3. Complete runDisney Valentines and Summer virtual challenges - started the Valentines challenge (completed the 2mi, still have the 5mi and 7mi to do).
4. Lose at least 40lbs - lost 6.8lbs in January
5. Get official ADHD diagnosis (This is a long time coming, fingers crossed this actually happens sooner rather than later.) - appointments set for March!
5. Read 350 books - 38 books read in January

 

[Nettlelondon]

SIL was at the hospital yesterday afternoon and tracked down a doctor to talk about what is going on with FIL.

I suspect the doctor wishes he had been anywhere else.

SIL: so could you update me on what has been going on with dad?
Doc: he came in with a UTI, which we have treated with antibiotics
SIL: Oh, I wasn't aware of that. I know he had antibiotics before he came in, but could you clarify what antibiotics he has had since has been in here?
Doc: Let me check (pause as he reads notes). Ah, none.

SIL: how is the urinary retention going?
Doc: we believe that has been resolved, we are monitoring his liquid inputs & outputs
SIL: no you are not, he pee'd in that container 3 hours ago and no one has been near it, so unless you are remote monitoring I am not sure that is going well
Doc: Oh

SIL: the CT scan of his brain - we were told it was OK and then you told us it shows some problems. Which is it?
Doc: A&E said it was OK as they were looking at acute issues like stroke or tumour. We are looking at more subtle things. There is some age-related deterioration. `It isn't uncommon for this to go unnoticed by family.
SIL: two weeks ago he was living independently, regularly doing complex puzzles, playing the piano, learning guitar, using his phone & laptop. Now he can't even use a TV remote control and struggles with 1+2. Are you sure there isn't another possible explanation fro the sudden change?
Doc: Oh

SIL: one doctor has suggested the urinary retention is linked to an enlarged prostate. He has had an enlarged prostate for years, has it got larger?
Doc: we haven't looked at that
SIL: might it be an idea to do so? Otherwise, surely, the problem is just going to continue now you have removed the catheter. And indeed he is more confused today (36 hours after the removal of the catheter) and than he was yesterday.
Doc: Oh

SIL: Please ensure any conversations with occupational health (the people that will assess adjustments needed for his home/who pays for any continuing care) involve either my brother or I.
Doc: I am afraid we can't do that.
SIL: We hold his Health & Welfare Power of Attorney as he cannot make decisions so I believe you can.
Doc: Oh - I have made a note of that.

I don't think that was quite how he expected that to go at all.

We have started some serious research on the options once he comes out of hospital in terms of where he can live if his home can't be made suitable which is proving fun. Not.

 

[pblack]

Sending good thoughts and wishes your way @Nettlelondon. I can only imagine how stressful everything is right now. I hope you guys are able to get some definitive answers soon. Sending hugs.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Well that was an absolute sh!t show @Nettlelondon. Hopefully now you can have actual answers and updates. Why is it so hard to get real info from doctors? I'll never understand.

 

[Nettlelondon]

Well that was an absolute sh!t show @Nettlelondon. Hopefully now you can have actual answers and updates. Why is it so hard to get real info from doctors? I'll never understand.

That's a pretty good description. I was impressed with SIL's restraint - I might have lost my temper.

Today the summary notes for about 30 people were left on his table - not ideal, but we did find out quite a bit about what is going on from those.

Unfortunately he appears to have picked up a stomach bug, or at least has the symptoms of a stomach bug this afternoon, so that isn't going to help is recovery. He was classed a medically fit for discharge on Wednesday but by Friday that had a ? added, suggesting that maybe they hadn't quite got everything medical sorted.

When MIL was in the same hospital a few years ago DH and his family actually ended up with an apology from the authorities for the issues in her care and I feel this stay could go the same way. DH has made me promise that if he were to have a heart attack in the car park I would put him in the car and take him somewhere else, he hates the place that much.