I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!The house is sold. It has been recorded and the money is sitting in our bank account. It is weird to see that much money in the account. It is very nice to have the weight of that house lifted from our shoulders.
It happened so late in the day that I was only able to cancel our homeowner's insurance and our phone. DH was able to cancel the security monitoring. We did get the good news that our contract was up. For some reason I thought it was 2 years, but I guess it was only 18 months, which we hit.
I will still have to call the electric and the water/sewer on Monday. I forgot to ask DH if he'd done the propane or not. He might have run out of time during business hours. We have almost a $50 credit with them and I want to get that back.
I called and left a message with the new house owners yesterday that the phone company says I have to give the phone modem back. Even though they are going to be using the same phone company. That seems really stupid to me. If we don't get it back it will cost $80. I wish I had known this as we kept the phone on to keep the security on until the house was no longer in our names.
I did not get a chance to see if the money in the bank has a hold on it or not before they closed. I will go down to the credit union on Monday and ask. For now it is sitting in the savings account there collecting .5% until I know I can move it or start using it to pay off the van and to pay the guy who remodeled the house. The next van statement hasn't come yet, anyway. It usually comes on the 9th and then I'll have the exact payoff number.
I will be so glad to have the van paid off and not have that monthly obligation any longer. Plus it means our car insurance will drop. To be out of consumer debt completely will be wonderful. Then we can start saving really, really hard.
Oh, I have a question. My son barely ever uses his phone. He texts maybe a few times a week. Is there a Tracfone or the like that is super cheap and does just texting? Or anything else like that? There is no point in having him on the expensive family plan at this point.
Woo Hoo! Now I Believe It!!!!!
March 7th, 2015 at 08:29 pm
March 7th, 2015 at 08:53 pm 1425761595
I would suggest Ting for your son. If all he does is text a few times a month, he could do it for $9/month +taxes (100 texts or less plus $6 phone charge) They can take GSM phones now, as well as Sprint phones.
March 7th, 2015 at 09:02 pm 1425762140
As to the phone, Ting could be a good option. It's only $6 per month plus usage, and it sounds like the usage won't amount to much of anything. The reason I mention though is that they are starting to provide GSM and so it's easier to bring over more phones. I'd certainly recommend if you can just keep the phone he already has. You can check if it's compatible:https://ting.com/byod OF course, if you have to sell that phone and buy another, they have all sorts of programs to reimburse you. So I guess I should probably just recommend Ting regardless.
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**HAPPY DANCE** for you!
March 8th, 2015 at 03:15 pm 1425827702
LR - When I was testing Ting out a few years ago, I bought a phone from them for around $50 if I remember correctly. He might be able to get away even cheaper though if he doesn't want a smartphone, but just something to use for texting.
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March 17th, 2015 at 10:49 pm 1426632589
As for tracfones, I personally have one and love it. I don't ever want another contract plan again. I love not having a monthly bill to pay. I bought my last phone with tracfone in October, I think. Because of some special deals, I had 400 + minutes when I got it and I have yet to buy more minutes. I checked the tracfone website and apparently, the price of text messages depends on the phone, but it says with some phones, texts are only 0.3 cents per message and are limited to around 160 characters. I don't know if you can get a tracfone that only does texting, but you can get many different kinds of phones (smart phones included). I bought my tracfone at a Dillon's supermarket and a phone card. There was a sale and the particular phone I got was only $4.99 (it is a basic phone, but there are other options). Buy whatever level of card you want (60, 120, 200, etc. minutes). Activate the phone and add the minutes. The screen of the phone gives you a display of how many minutes you have left. Just refill your minutes by buying a new card before you are out of minutes. You can also log into the website and reload your minutes there. Tracfone will send coupon codes once in awhile so you can get your minutes even cheaper.