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slidebite posted:Go to Costco and buy what they have on the shelf. They carry good mattresses for 1/3 the price of other stores and, best of all, if it sucks you can return it no questions asked. Seriously.
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Jan 7, 2014 09:13
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SiGmA_X posted:This man speaks truth. The only thing Costco doesn't have going for them is free delivery, if this is an issue. I've always used Costco's online prices to negotiate at regular mattress stores -- usually after some wailing and gnashing of teeth, you can get them to around the same price, and extras like free pillows and free delivery.
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Jan 12, 2014 11:56
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Frustrated today. Financial aid had processed my income based payment, but didn't apply it until 2 days after the payments were due this month. That means that $684 was taken directly out of our checking account instead of $58. Since I bought my iPad and paid for school already, we had to take $600 out of savings to make sure we didn't overdraw. I called and talked to someone, and the payment is applied for next month but according to her there isn't anything they can do about the payment I just made. If I fought it and talked to someone else, I might be able to get something done but I'm not sure it's worth the fight. I'm trying to think positive, at least we had the money and it didn't destroy us. So thanks everyone! Haven't done anything more about the mattress besides swear at it every day when I get up. Would have had overtime this week but had to call in last night. Inner ear infection that was making me so dizzy I couldn't drive. Add a $35 doctor copay and $40 in meds to the budget. Yay. We were doing well with everything else this month so far. It's weird how hard it was to spend the money on the iPad. I got a 16GB mini and a case. It cost me $487 total. I'm going to have to buy a remote proctor device, but that can wait until March. We are switching our car and renter's insurance and going to save $27 until daughter gets her license, then it will go up $15. I'm sure our current insurance would have gone up too.
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Jan 15, 2014 06:06
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Depending on who your loan is through, it might be worth the fight. I had loans through Sallie Mae. I had sent in Loan Forgiveness paperwork in June. Mid-July they took out a payment. I was able to eventually get it refunded. It took several weeks to get a paper check in the mail, but I did!
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Jan 15, 2014 06:40
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I'd say that $600 is worth a few phone calls. Also, gently caress them, they should fix it for you, they're the ones who screwed up.
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Jan 15, 2014 14:43
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LoveMeDead posted:I'm going to have to buy a remote proctor device, but that can wait until March. Which one do you need? My wife bought the first version on eBay and then found out we needed the second version. The first is just chilling in our attic.
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Jan 15, 2014 14:55
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LoveMeDead posted:Frustrated today. Financial aid had processed my income based payment, but didn't apply it until 2 days after the payments were due this month. That means that $684 was taken directly out of our checking account instead of $58. I had something similar happen in college. My parents were paying my tuition, but I was still eligible for a few scholarship/financial aid. Normally my parents would go online and pay my tuition well before the semester started, but for whatever reason they forgot to do it, so what happened instead was that my tuition got subtracted from my financial aid/scholarships before payout. There was literally nothing anyone could do about it because it was an entirely automated system and they can't offer refunds on tuition payments. I'm not entirely sure it applies to your situation, but there was literally absolutely nothing they could do about it when it happened to me. In my situation I was relatively lucky because my parents just cut me a check.
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Jan 15, 2014 16:52
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From the price it sounds like you got the Retina Mini? Isn't the last-generation model $100 cheaper?
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Jan 15, 2014 17:10
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in_cahoots posted:From the price it sounds like you got the Retina Mini? Isn't the last-generation model $100 cheaper?
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Jan 15, 2014 18:16
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Cicero posted:The previous one is also based on a significantly older architecture and will probably lose iOS updates long before she finishes school. The $100 is worth it in this case. That's what I decided. I'm going to call about the financial aid tomorrow (taking a break in a class right now). It's through Sallie Mae and the Dept of Education.
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Jan 15, 2014 19:04
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LoveMeDead posted:It's through Sallie Mae.
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Jan 16, 2014 00:19
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Cicero posted:The previous one is also based on a significantly older architecture and will probably lose iOS updates long before she finishes school. The $100 is worth it in this case. Re Costco beds - you pay for delivery once for the life of the mattress' warranty, so usually 10yrs. Breaks every 2-3 years? Free replacement. (I don't mean breaks, but becomes less comfortable / more worn)
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Jan 16, 2014 03:39
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Nocheez posted:Which one do you need? My wife bought the first version on eBay and then found out we needed the second version. The first is just chilling in our attic. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XYBPLW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=18SLL1I4V6NP1&coliid=I1T08GH7997UAY This is the proctor device I need. I also have to now set up a clean desk area to study. I was just going to study on my bed, but I can't sit that way with the guidelines for testing. I shouldn't have to buy anything, just move things around.
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Jan 16, 2014 03:45
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LoveMeDead posted:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009XYBPLW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=18SLL1I4V6NP1&coliid=I1T08GH7997UAY There are two revisions and they look identical. Let me check with the wife and see if she still needs either one. edit: she just started grad school and isn't sure if she will need it or not. We're going to hang on to it for now, just in case. Nocheez fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Jan 17, 2014 |
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Jan 17, 2014 15:48
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Nocheez posted:There are two revisions and they look identical. Let me check with the wife and see if she still needs either one. Thanks for checking. It's $150 through the student bookstore, and $90 on Amazon. The school will buy them back for $75, so it really only costs me $15. I just won't get back the $75 for 3 years. School is expensive. I think I may be able to buy it with financial aid money, but then I would have to buy it from the bookstore.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:28
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LoveMeDead posted:Thanks for checking. It's $150 through the student bookstore, and $90 on Amazon. The school will buy them back for $75, so it really only costs me $15. I just won't get back the $75 for 3 years. School is expensive. I think I may be able to buy it with financial aid money, but then I would have to buy it from the bookstore. Sorry if I missed this in a previous post, but why would you have to buy it from the bookstore if you used financial aid money? Do you not get cash for any financial aid above the cost of tuition/fees?
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Jan 18, 2014 07:12
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RogueLemming posted:Sorry if I missed this in a previous post, but why would you have to buy it from the bookstore if you used financial aid money? Do you not get cash for any financial aid above the cost of tuition/fees? I will probably need it before I get the money back. We don't get money back until 2-3 weeks in to the term. I don't even know if I'll be getting money back. I'll have to see how much financial aid I'm getting and weigh the loan against having the cash now.
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Jan 18, 2014 17:05
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Well, I'm getting almost $400 refunded from my student loan. They said it could take up to 6 weeks, but I'm getting it back! We also found cheaper auto and renters insurance with State Farm, so that's going to save us $45 a month. And Geico is refunding us $304 by the end of next week. We made payments to both so our budget is a mess again, but I can live with it. I have my W2, so when we get both of my husband's we will file taxes. I hope we don't have to pay this year, we've always gotten refunds. I am keeping all of my school receipts for next year's, but I didn't buy many uniforms or school stuff last year. Probably won't itemize, but we'll see.
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Jan 23, 2014 05:15
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LoveMeDead posted:Well, I'm getting almost $400 refunded from my student loan. They said it could take up to 6 weeks, but I'm getting it back! Yesssss. I am really pleased to hear this.
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Jan 23, 2014 14:36
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LoveMeDead posted:I know that hating the car is a lovely reason to buy another one. I'm going to be driving more in about a year when I have clinicals, and having a car with better gas mileage for each of us would be good. If I could find a car that seats 7 and gets good gas mileage, I would see the Mountaineer and get that. Those cars don't seem to exist in a reasonable price range. This kinda got lost a little, but have you actually worked out what the savings in gas mileage would be vs the cost of buying the car? Here are some total back-of-the-envelope estimates: New car cost (after selling old car): $10K Gas savings: You currently spend $300/month between two cars. Let's say you use one twice as much as the other, and you replace that one, so $200 of your gas payment is in question. Now let's say that the new car uses 50% as much fuel (this is probably a massive over-estimate of its actual efficiency). So you save $100/month on fuel. In order for the new car to pay for itself in fuel savings, you would need to own it for 100 months = 8.3 years. That also doesn't account for the opportunity cost of not putting that $10K towards your $40K student loan. I have no idea what the interest or payment period on that will be, but I strongly suspect that the extra interest on the loan would swallow up a good chunk of (and maybe even exceed) any fuel savings you might make on the car. You should run these figures yourself, but I hope the estimates are enough to disabuse you of any notion that blowing all your savings on a new car next year will in any way save you money.
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Jan 24, 2014 07:48
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Those are some good points about cars. Money was so screwed up for January that we aren't even really thinking about another car right now. The Altima smells weird, so we are taking it in to get looked at. I hope it's something easy. Husband talked to the lawyer last week. She ran our credit and found the mortgage company had discharged or debt. We have about $10k in misc bills, some of which I didn't realize we had. She is recommending we don't file bankruptcy but just pay off the debt. We now have to start contacting debt collectors and work out payments. I guess this is good. Mr credit score is 670, his is 510.
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Jan 30, 2014 06:45
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Hey LoveMeDead, I've been reading your thread for the last couple of days and am finally caught up! I don't have any advice, but I can relate to much of your situation and know just how hard it is. You've made huge improvements, I hope things continue that way. Please keep updating!
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Feb 4, 2014 11:23
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LoveMeDead posted:She is recommending we don't file bankruptcy but just pay off the debt. We now have to start contacting debt collectors and work out payments. I guess this is good. Rather than contacting the debt collectors, you might be better off saving a "debt payment" fund. Then, as they pop up over the next 7 or so years you can offer them a lump payment in exchange for forgiving remainder of the debt and marking it as paid. If they don't contact you before the 7 years is up too bad for them, they don't get any money. If they do then you only have to deal with them once and they're gone forever. A lot less stress and a lot less hassle if you can knock them down as they pop up vs hunting them down and trying to negotiate payments. This is all assuming that the debts have gone to collections and are already dinging your credit score.
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Feb 4, 2014 14:29
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Go read the thread in A/T about beating debt collected and get some of that poo poo knocked off!
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Feb 5, 2014 06:51
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I actually looked for that thread before replying and didn't have any luck finding it. Hopefully someone else has a link to it but I'm afraid it might have slid into the Archives. Too bad if that happened as it was a really good and informative thread. LoveMeDead, if that thread is in fact gone, check out CreditBoards.com's forums. It's a board dedicated to the discussion of improving credit, dealing with debt collectors, etc. It's a great repository of information that can help you develop a plan for dealing with these unpaid debts.
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Feb 5, 2014 13:20
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The thread hasn't been archived, it's simply not in the root A/T subforum. It's in BFC, here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3234974
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Feb 5, 2014 14:42
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LoveMeDead posted:Husband talked to the lawyer last week. She ran our credit and found the mortgage company had discharged or debt. We have about $10k in misc bills, some of which I didn't realize we had. She is recommending we don't file bankruptcy but just pay off the debt. We now have to start contacting debt collectors and work out payments. I guess this is good. You need to clarify exactly what she's talking about with regard to the mortgage company. They may have written off the debt but that's an accounting measure which doesn't affect their right to pursue the debt legally. If they've forgiven the remaining debt, which is something different again, then that can have tax implications. If the mortgage company's position is that you no longer owe them anything, then they should be willing to give you/your lawyer a written statement to that effect. Your lawyer should be clarifying the situation with the mortgage company by talking to them directly, not through running your credit. Is she actually an insolvency lawyer because there are a number of ways you can approach this and it's important that you don't blindly go contacting debt collectors yourself before you've worked out a realistic repayment plan which takes into account all your debts and that any agreements which are made are binding on the creditors with whom you make agreements. I'm also going to say that you need to be present during any conversations regarding your remaining debt so that unsustainable agreements are not made. Whether or not certain debts will "time out" depends on a couple of things. Different jurisdictions have different statutory time limits regarding pursuing debts and in some jurisdictions being out of state (and if you weren't aware of some of these debts it sounds like they could be from before you relocated) affects how the statutory limit is applied (how long judgements can remain enforceable also varies by jurisdiction an it's easier to extend that period in some places than others). Above all, make sure that you're not hearing selectively, especially with regard to the mortgage. Until you have a piece of paper from a creditor saying you now owe them nothing, take any reassurances to the contrary with a grain of salt - no matter who provides those assurances.
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Feb 7, 2014 05:36
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We did get a statement from the mortgage company saying the debt was discharged. It shows our balance is zero. We are still working on a plan to get rid of our debt. Life has been getting in the way recently and we haven't seen each other much.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:00
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I hate March. We have to pay $300 for a housing deposit for our son for college. I also have to buy my books which is going to be about $300. $150 of that is a remote proctor device that I can't find online anywhere but my school bookstore. The books I'm mostly getting used through Amazon. I also need to find a desk and lamp to set up a workspace. I'm off this weekend, so we are going to hit up some thrift stores. On top of this, we are driving to see my in-laws. We haven't seen them in a year, and there is no time to reschedule so off we go. We are celebrating "Christmas" with them so maybe we will get some gift cards I can use for my stuff. They are all getting cheap, homemade gifts and my sister in law will make some snide comment about it. So nothing is going into savings this month. I am getting back almost $2000 per term in student loan overpayment because of a scholarship, so that will help in May. Hopefully we can get a new mattress then. I feel defeated right now, but I guess I should feel good that we can do this and still pay all of our bills.
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Feb 28, 2014 11:07
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Depending on how active it is in your area, I'd check out Craigslist for a desk too. And you got an iPad, right? I've been renting digital copies of my textbooks from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and it has saved me a ton of money from buying them outright or even used.
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Feb 28, 2014 14:20
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Yea if you have a decent local craigslist and/or buy/sell group on facebook you could maybe throw out a feeler for your remote proctor device, too. Maybe someone has one laying around for cheaper. Try to not get too discouraged, these months happen.
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Feb 28, 2014 14:35
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dreesemonkey posted:Yea if you have a decent local craigslist and/or buy/sell group on facebook you could maybe throw out a feeler for your remote proctor device, too. Maybe someone has one laying around for cheaper. Other students have reported issues with buying the devices used, either because they got the wrong version or because the previous owner didn't de authorize it. I've looked at renting the books and will probably rent a few of them.
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Mar 1, 2014 17:50
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LoveMeDead posted:Other students have reported issues with buying the devices used, either because they got the wrong version or because the previous owner didn't de authorize it. This is absolutely true. The two versions are almost indistinguishable and we paid $75 for one that didn't work. It sucks, but this is a cost you probably cannot get around unless you are able to test out in person. For us, that would have required 2-hours of travel for each of my wife's tests, and we decided that buying the proctor was worth the time savings.
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Mar 3, 2014 15:06
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Hey there LoveMeDead, How's it going? It's been a few months since we've heard from you. Hope it's all ok 
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May 15, 2014 12:39
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It's going pretty well. We still haven't gotten the mattress. We did spend 3 blissful hours laying on beds at the sleep number store one day while walking around the mall. I got a lovely Wal-Mart desk that I hate, but it was only $80 and came with a small bookshelf. It's barely enough space for what I need. But it was cheap and fits the space we have. I ended up buying a couple of my books as e-books, and one of the others used. It wasn't too expensive. The 18 year old got a job at Sonic, so he wanted to buy the Altima from us. We used some of our savings and bought a Chevy Impala for me to drive. It was $3800. Of course, the Altima's engine locked up last week and is too expensive to fix so we are back down to two cars. He's getting rides with two co workers on the days that dad and I both work. He's saving up to buy another car. When we told him that he had to continue making payments to us like it was a real loan, he wasn't happy. It's more of a lesson for him than about the money for us. The 16 year old got a job at the drive-in. She's barely spent any of her money. I don't think I have to worry about her making too many money mistakes. Overall, things are going pretty well. We are getting a little sloppy with the budget and need to stop that. It's mostly saying "We didn't spend this money we thought we were going to have to spend, so it's ok to go out to dinner." type stuff. It makes it a little easier that I've barely seen my family between work and doing school work. But right now there is about $2200 in our checking and $4400 in savings. That's pretty amazing for us.
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May 20, 2014 06:21
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 Love Me Dead, I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work. Most people with crappy financials who post here only have themselves or themselves and a spouse. Getting on your feet with a family of five mostly-adults has got to be crazy hard, but you're doing it.
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Jun 19, 2014 19:26
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How's it going, LoveMeDead?
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Aug 21, 2014 22:12
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It's going well but could probably be better. We had to pay $1200 for the 18 year old's tuition. We decided to max out my loans and pay his from the overage instead of taking out another loan or taking it from savings. Probably not the smartest decision, but we don't have to pay on it until I graduate in 2 years. Also, 80% of my loan will get forgiven if I work in a rural area after graduating. Still no mattress. Just haven't wanted to deplete our savings. It's getting critical though. We both hurt when we get up. Got a 2% raise which is barely noticeable but it's something. We started budgeting based on my base pay of about $3000/ month. So any overtime goes in to savings. We did have to pull from savings for $500 in car repairs and to pay for stuff for the kids' school. Savings is at around $5000 now. We are definitely a little sloppy with the budget. There is ~$200 difference between what the budget says and what is in our checking account. Need to stop that. It's a struggle sometimes to stay on track.
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Aug 22, 2014 14:41
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LoveMeDead posted:Still no mattress. Just haven't wanted to deplete our savings. It's getting critical though. We both hurt when we get up. Put a piece of plywood between the mattress and the box spring. It got my parents an extra 10 years or so out of their mattress. Your mileage etc etc. Oh, and good job building up the $5k.
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Aug 22, 2014 23:05
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slap me silly posted:Put a piece of plywood between the mattress and the box spring. It got my parents an extra 10 years or so out of their mattress. Your mileage etc etc. That won't help with the springs that are starting to poke out on the sides. We are definitely nearing the end of the life of this mattress. It's 14 years old, I think, and it wasn't an expensive mattress to begin with. We might try the plywood anyway until we can get a new one.
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Aug 23, 2014 00:27
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