Sept. MM Randoms

[midwestmama]

This last weekend was expensive, with nothing to show for it. We were supposed to go to a college football game on Saturday, but DS woke up with a sore throat, so we ended up giving the tickets away to a friend. (DH found out he couldn't resell them, not sure why they were non-resale tickets.) So there went that $200. Then we were supposed to board our dog, but he started having diarrhea Saturday morning, so he couldn't go to the boarding place. We've taken our dog there multiple times, and the owner is really nice, and he let us only pay half of the stay amount instead of the full amount. So that was $35. Our dog still has diarrhea as of Monday morning, so who knows, maybe we'll have a vet visit on top of the weekend costs.

[heygrey]

Sept 15, 2023 9:44:14 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

The only thing DH needs to do now is replace his destroyed DD214 which I’ve been nagging him to do for years (he can use it to show he is a Veteran and get things like a free National Park pass).

Does he have a veteran designation on his driver's license? My dad is a veteran and has it listed on his DL. He got a free lifetime National Park pass this summer, he uses it for discounts at stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, and we've gotten free/reduced admission to places my parents want to take DS. Maybe your husband needs the form to get it listed on his DL? Admittedly I know very little about the backend of veteran paperwork. I just know it was fairly simple for my dad to have it added and it's easy and accessible to use even when he's not expecting to need it. We didn't know about the NP pass, just went in to pay for a pass at Yellowstone and happened to overhear the person in front of us getting his for free. 

[ellipses84]

Sept 19, 2023 22:03:43 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Sept 15, 2023 9:44:14 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

The only thing DH needs to do now is replace his destroyed DD214 which I’ve been nagging him to do for years (he can use it to show he is a Veteran and get things like a free National Park pass).

Does he have a veteran designation on his driver's license? My dad is a veteran and has it listed on his DL. He got a free lifetime National Park pass this summer, he uses it for discounts at stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, and we've gotten free/reduced admission to places my parents want to take DS. Maybe your husband needs the form to get it listed on his DL? Admittedly I know very little about the backend of veteran paperwork. I just know it was fairly simple for my dad to have it added and it's easy and accessible to use even when he's not expecting to need it. We didn't know about the NP pass, just went in to pay for a pass at Yellowstone and happened to overhear the person in front of us getting his for free. 

I didn’t know that was an option! We’ve moved states and replaced licenses so I think he’ll need the VA paperwork in order to get it added to his license. That would make things so much easier to get veteran discounts though since he always has his license on him. I just googled it and apparently our state passed a law to eliminate the $5 fee to add Vetetan status to your license. I’m not sure why we’ve never seen the option on the forms.

[heygrey]

Sept 20, 2023 19:24:12 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

Sept 19, 2023 22:03:43 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Does he have a veteran designation on his driver's license? My dad is a veteran and has it listed on his DL. He got a free lifetime National Park pass this summer, he uses it for discounts at stores like Home Depot and Lowe's, and we've gotten free/reduced admission to places my parents want to take DS. Maybe your husband needs the form to get it listed on his DL? Admittedly I know very little about the backend of veteran paperwork. I just know it was fairly simple for my dad to have it added and it's easy and accessible to use even when he's not expecting to need it. We didn't know about the NP pass, just went in to pay for a pass at Yellowstone and happened to overhear the person in front of us getting his for free. 

I didn’t know that was an option! We’ve moved states and replaced licenses so I think he’ll need the VA paperwork in order to get it added to his license. That would make things so much easier to get veteran discounts though since he always has his license on him. I just googled it and apparently our state passed a law to eliminate the $5 fee to add Vetetan status to your license. I’m not sure why we’ve never seen the option on the forms.

I hope it’s easy for him to get added! My parents have gotten in the habit of asking if places offer a veterans discount and so many places do. We did a 3 week road trip together this summer and every hotel offered at least 10% off. They googled for a list of stores with discounts and now know the places they shop at regularly. Get every advantage you can!

[ssmjlm]

I was diagnosed with UC, so I don’t think using up the flexible spending will be an issue now.

And prepping for furlough <sob>. We can’t cover everything on DH’s pay. I’m the breadwinner.

[sadlebred]

ssmjlm I'm sorry for the diagnosis, but I hope you received some answered you may have needed!

[ohgillian]

Sept 18, 2023 6:49:21 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

This last weekend was expensive, with nothing to show for it. We were supposed to go to a college football game on Saturday, but DS woke up with a sore throat, so we ended up giving the tickets away to a friend. (DH found out he couldn't resell them, not sure why they were non-resale tickets.) So there went that $200. Then we were supposed to board our dog, but he started having diarrhea Saturday morning, so he couldn't go to the boarding place. We've taken our dog there multiple times, and the owner is really nice, and he let us only pay half of the stay amount instead of the full amount. So that was $35. Our dog still has diarrhea as of Monday morning, so who knows, maybe we'll have a vet visit on top of the weekend costs.

All of this stinks! :/ 

[midwestmama]

Sept 26, 2023 8:16:06 GMT -5 ohgillian said:

Sept 18, 2023 6:49:21 GMT -5 midwestmama said:

This last weekend was expensive, with nothing to show for it. We were supposed to go to a college football game on Saturday, but DS woke up with a sore throat, so we ended up giving the tickets away to a friend. (DH found out he couldn't resell them, not sure why they were non-resale tickets.) So there went that $200. Then we were supposed to board our dog, but he started having diarrhea Saturday morning, so he couldn't go to the boarding place. We've taken our dog there multiple times, and the owner is really nice, and he let us only pay half of the stay amount instead of the full amount. So that was $35. Our dog still has diarrhea as of Monday morning, so who knows, maybe we'll have a vet visit on top of the weekend costs.

All of this stinks! :/ 

Thanks.    We did end up having to take our dog to the vet, but it was only ("only") $130 for the visit and medicines.  But thankfully it seems like the medicines are working.  

Hoping October is a better month financially!

[sadlebred]

I just spent about 40% of my savings to get some scary pine trees taken down (only the portion of the job that is completed). They worried me every time we got storms. I am paying for 3/4 of the job because there is still one to be finished taken down. They are doing it in a couple of weeks when they come back to take down a bunch for the neighbor as they ran out of time this week. I'll spend $X thousand then for that double trunk tree-same price as my quote because they underestimated a bit how big/tall it was. It's been an expensive year between a new Speed Queen W/D ($3200 or so including delivery). I realize I didn't have to get that, but I'm tired of them breaking after 5-8 years. $1300 for an HVAC blower in August during the hottest week of the year (thank you window units I already have). About $1200 on an aborted vacation with no refunds. A dead microwave. There is something else, but I can't remember it right now.

Savings begin again in Nov. I have 1-2 other expenses in Oct., but I will "cash flow" those.

[brooke77]

This summer was super spendy, so we were in savings mode this month. I think we did well. Not a lot of frivolous purchases/dining out. We are closing on our new home next month, so we are prepping for a few very spendy months.

[Roc A Bee]

Update to my previous post: I saved $450 this month extra by watching spending/eating out.

[chpmnk1015]

Dh got a small job in town so that's helpful since he is kind of slow w regular work right now.
I had some good coupons w shopping this week so stocked up
Building up my fetch points lol
But, feeling behind on saving and really watching what w are spending right now