Money Matters
Xstatic3333
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Hi and Reintro
Hi everyone and Happy Easter! I am hoping you all will have my back after a bit of a break from the boards. I needed to take some time away to focus on work, which has gotten pretty stressful. In a way I am glad that I did, because once I shut myself off I realized that TB, as comforting as it is for many, was contributing to some anxiety about TTC for me. I've missed the great tips and friendly people from MM, however, and would love to jump back in here if you will have me.
MM-wise, our biggest project in the past few weeks was getting through our trip to Amsterdam. It was amazing, and I am happy to report that it does not NEED to be quite as expensive as its reputation. We saved a lot by staying in a great AirBnb (though we had to grapple with a last minute cancellation by our original host while driving to the airport!), taking day trips instead of moving hotels , and buying a wonderful nationwide museum card (the Museumkaart). We also took a great day trip to Brussels exactly one week before last week's tragedy, which has been so sobering to think about. I know many others were planning trips to this region when I was last around, and I'd be glad to share more information about our trip if anyone would like.
Now that we are home, our new goal is to pay down some small low-interest debts we have. Although we're not debt averse, we see this as a good time to clear budget room while TTC. If and when TTC becomes successful, we'll switch to a savings-dominated strategy. We just received our reimbursement check for H's major dental work, and will be paying off our (0% offer) stove and my (4%) car loan as soon as it clears! Hooray! The next vacation we are daydreaming about is Austria, or perhaps Bonaire if our next trip ends up being post-baby, but realistically it's time to focus on more practical goals.
I hope all has been well with everyone here! Tried to get caught up a bit this afternoon, relaxing after Easter fun. Look forward to being involved again.
Re: Hi and Reintro
That's awesome! We really only dipped our toe into Belgium, but we totally fell in love with the Netherlands. Such an amazing country.
Good to see you back! I'm glad you all had a great trip, though I can definitely understand how sobering it must have been to have been in Brussels just a week before the bombings.
Good luck with the TTCing, paying down the small debts (woo hoo on the car/stove loans soon to be paid off), and perhaps future saving for the Austria trip.
You can get some decent Belgian beer at home! My favorite "splurge" that's commonly available is Delirium Tremens. There's also a NY brewery called Ommegang that trained at one of the Belgian Trappist monasteries and replicates the style very well. @hoffse, I looked up Neuhaus and there's one in Boston. Very excited! I was somewhat hampered in my chocolate tasting in Belgium by the unfortunate combination of a nut allergy and a language barrier. I was limited to choices with ingredient labels to be safe.
We do seem to have similar worry patterns! Hopefully all will go smoothly for us both