Should You Buy a House in a Bad School District?

February 2, 2023 | Leave a Comment

My husband and I have lived in three different states. When we lived in Chicago, we chose a working-class neighborhood with bad schools. That was the only area where we could afford rent. (Buying a house was out of the question because of the high property taxes and our relatively low income.) When we lived in Arizona, we chose a good neighborhood with a meh school district. Finally, now that we live in New York, we live in a lovely community with a good school district. Sometimes when you’re house shopping, you find a nice house in a lousy school district within a good neighborhood. Should the quality of the school district be a deal breaker? The answer is, it depends.

Should You Buy a House in a Bad School District?

Of course, if the house is in a bad school district and neighborhood, you likely should pass. (Remember, location is everything when buying a home.) However, if the neighborhood is safe and sound, you have options.

Can Your Kids Go to School Out-of-District?

Some areas of the country allow a certain number of children to go to school out-of-district. If this is the case where you are, and there are good schools nearby, consider this option. You will avoid your neighborhood school that is less than desirable. You get a nice house, and your kids attend a good school. The only drawback is that you will likely need to drive them, and their commute to school will be longer than if they went to school locally.

Is Private School an Option?

When we lived in the Chicago suburbs, we had an academically solid private school within walking distance. However, we couldn’t afford the full tuition. Luckily, we applied for financial aid and received a significant tuition cut. Our child attended that school for three years.

Even if you think you can’t afford private school, you may find that with financial aid, it becomes an option.

Could You Homeschool?

Another option is to homeschool. If you choose this route, it doesn’t matter what neighborhood you live in. When we moved to Arizona, we had been homeschooling our three children for one year. Because we didn’t have to consider the schools, we could find a fixer-upper in a nice neighborhood with a not-so-great school district. When we moved eight years later, our house sold for over asking to a couple in their 50s who also didn’t care about the school district.

If, instead, we had considered the school district, we would have had to buy a house in a neighborhood that was outside our price range. We would have struggled financially to make a house payment in that neighborhood. Homeschooling offers you incredible freedom.

Final Thoughts

When house hunting, remember location is everything. If you find a good house in a nice neighborhood with a bad school district, don’t automatically rule that house out. You have options for your children’s education that don’t require you to live in the best school district in the area.

Is It Child Approved? The Best Home Buying Checklist When You’re House Hunting with Kids

Yaaa, We Sold Our House. . .We Hope

Melissa Batai

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

The Best Gifts for Teachers

December 8, 2022 | Leave a Comment

‘Tis the time of the year when people like to give gifts to those who help them in their and their children’s lives, such as teachers. I was a teacher for many years, and while I appreciated the gifts I received, many were duplicates or items I didn’t need. I felt bad giving them away or donating them, but there are only so many coffee mugs a person can have (and I don’t even drink coffee!). So, if you’re looking for the best gifts for teachers, here’s what I’d recommend.

Thank You Note

One of the best gifts for teachers is also an economical option—a simple thank-you note. You may not realize this, but teachers frequently have to handle upset parents or students. They also face administrative pressure. So, getting a heartfelt thank-you note stating why you appreciate your teacher is a welcome gift because teachers don’t hear thank you nearly enough.

Gift Cards

Most people don’t know their teachers well enough to know exactly what gift to buy, and even if they do, the teacher may get gifts from several students, so the chance of a repeat gift is high. Avoid that situation by giving the teacher a gift card. Then, the teacher can buy what she needs, for herself or the classroom. Popular gift card choices include bookstores, restaurants, and grocery stores.

Classroom Enrichment

Another idea is to buy something the teacher needs for the classroom.

Board Games

Educational board games like Ticket to Ride and 10 Days in Europe might be welcome because the kids can use them during rainy days when they can’t go out to recess.

Books

Many elementary school teachers have small libraries in their classrooms. A gift of books can help the teacher expand his library at no out-of-pocket cost to him.

Some teachers have classroom wish lists on sites like Amazon. If your child’s teacher has one, you’ll find plenty of welcome gift ideas.

Necessities

While teachers get too many mugs as gifts, they can likely always use what goes in them. For example, coffee is a favorite among teachers, and so is tea. Likewise, you and your child can make a cute hot chocolate kit for the teacher.

At Christmas, teachers frequently get home baked goods like cookies, fudge, and brownies. If they get these gifts from a handful of students, they likely will have more than they can (or should) eat before they go bad. Instead, consider buying cookie or brownie kits so the teachers can make the baked goods when they want them—maybe even in four months!

Final Thoughts

The best gifts for teachers are not mugs or homemade treats (though those are good). Instead, thank you notes, gift cards, and resources for the classroom will likely make the teacher’s holiday season and continue to give for both the teacher and the students long after the holidays are over.

The Best (and Worst) Baby Shower Gifts

What to Do When You’re Overspending at Christmas

Favorite Family Christmas Traditions–Modernized!

Melissa Batai

5 Ways We Inspire a Love of Reading in Our Kids

August 14, 2022 | Leave a Comment

As a child, one of my favorite activities was reading. This love of reading and later, writing, helped lead me to major in English in college, become a college English instructor, and learn more about the world than I ever could have without books. Because books enriched my life so heavily, when I had kids, I wanted them to love reading as much as I did. Luckily, most of them do. We inspire a love of reading in our kids using the following methods.

How We Inspire a Love of Reading in Our Kids

To help your kids fall in love with books and reading, you need to immerse them in the reading world.

Read Aloud to Them

From the time our kids were born, we read aloud to them. At first, we started with short board books like Goodnight Moon and The Going to Bed Book. (At this stage, don’t be surprised or annoyed if your child asks you to read the same book over, and over, and over again!) Then we expanded into longer stories until we were reading our kids chapter books when they were in preschool. I continued reading to them all through middle school.

Have a Home Library

To foster a love of reading, surround your kids with books. We always had bookshelves filled with books the kids could look through when they were little and read when they started school.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do this. For example, we picked up most of our kids’ books at garage sales for 10 cents or less.

Take Them to Library Activities

The public library is a wonderful resource that we utilize frequently. We started by bringing our kids to the library to pick out their books and to join in on story hour. Because of these early experiences, our kids always associated the library with fun.

Participate in Reading Rewards Programs

In the summer, sign your kids up for reading rewards programs. For example, Pizza Hut has the Book It program. Your public library likely has a reading program, too. Our son was one of the top readers one summer in elementary school, so he got to join the other top readers for a bowling and pizza excursion compliments of the library. He still talks about how much fun that was.

Let Them See You Read

Kids learn best by watching your actions. You can tell them that reading is fun, but if they don’t ever see you reading, you’re not reinforcing that lesson. My kids see me read books and hear me listen to audiobooks in the car. I love to read, and they see me regularly taking time to do so.

Final Thoughts

We inspire a love of reading in our kids, which was one of the best things we could do. Today, they still read for fun and recreation, enjoy learning, and have an exceptional vocabulary.

Why Our Child Decided to Take a Gap Year

Top 10 Sandra Boynton Books

Melissa Batai

5 States That Offer Empowerment Scholarships for Special Needs Children

February 3, 2022 | Leave a Comment

When you have a special needs child, you face many expenses. Your child may need intensive speech, physical, occupational, and behavioral therapy. While some families find they can receive some of the services they need for their child at school, others find that public schools cannot handle, or provide, the intervention a special needs child requires. If you’re frustrated with the public school system’s response to, and services for, your child, you may want to investigate whether you’re in one of the 5 states that offer empowerment scholarships for special needs children.

General Assistance

Nearly half of the states offer some type of school choice for their residents. (Ed Choice explains the different programs each state offers.) Programs vary from a tax credit, to a stipend to help children attend private schools instead of public, to empowerment scholarships.

States That Offer Empowerment Scholarships for Special Needs Children

Currently, five states offer empowerment scholarships (ESA):

Arizona,
Florida,
North Carolina,
Mississippi,
Tennessee

Who Qualifies for an ESA?

Students who meet certain requirements such as having a documented disability or residing in a school district with an underperforming school can receive empowerment scholarships. Requirements vary per state.

In Arizona, where I live, a student must attend public school for at least 45 days and have a documented disability, have a parent who is in the military, or live in an underperforming school district to be eligible for an ESA. Once a special needs student begins to receive an ESA, her siblings, even those without disabilities, can also receive one if they’ve met the requirement of attending a public school for 45 days.

How Do ESA Programs Work?

In Arizona, a child who has an ESA receives 90% of the state money that would have been used to educate the child at a public school. (The other 10% goes to the child’s local public school even if the child is not attending.)

The size of a child’s ESA funding depends on his documented disability. Children with autism and Downs Syndrome receive the largest scholarships because they typically require more interventions than a child with ADHD, for example.

Every quarter, the child receives a financial distribution in his ESA account. That money can then be used for:

private school tuition,
homeschooling expenses,
therapies,
Educational testing,
Extracurricular activities, and
Other approved expenses

Our Experience with Arizona’s ESA Program

I have three children; each has two special needs. Two have autism, two have dyslexia, and two have ADHD. We became members of the ESA program in 2019.

ESA has been a lifesaver for my children. They have benefited from private Barton Reading & Spelling tutoring to help them with their dyslexia. They have received educational testing, speech therapy, and private math tutoring. I’m also able to homeschool the younger two children and pick curriculum that suits them and their learning styles.

Before receiving ESA for my kids, they received speech therapy through the public school. They had 30 minutes of group therapy with three other kids once a week. After ESA, they received 30 to 60 minutes of private speech therapy weekly. That made an enormous difference in how quickly they progressed and ultimately finished speech therapy.

Final Thoughts

If you have a child with special needs, you know how expensive providing for their academic and therapeutic needs can be. If you live in one of the states that offer Empowerment Scholarships for special needs children, consider looking into the program for your child. I’ve even heard from several parents of special needs children who specifically moved to Arizona for the Empowerment Scholarship and the opportunities it afforded their children.

Better Ways to Gift Money to Children,

Sensory Integration Strategies for Children with Autism

Melissa Batai

How Much Does Unschooling Cost?

August 12, 2021 | Leave a Comment

Homeschooling can take many different forms, from essentially recreating school at home by using workbooks and taking multiple tests to a Charlotte Mason method where children derive their education largely through reading living books. There is also the Classical Education philosophy based on learning the classics like Greek and Roman history and language. However, perhaps the most misunderstood homeschool philosophy is unschooling. While detractors say unschooling isn’t really schooling at all, unschoolers see it as a viable educational form. If you’re interested in unschooling, you first must understand what the philosophy is and how much unschooling costs.

What Is Unschooling

Unschooling is an educational philosophy. Unschoolers don’t typically have their children take standardized tests or any other test. They don’t use textbooks or follow a set curriculum. Instead, the child determines what he would like to study based on his interests.

Cooking, gardening, and raising animals can all be part of the school day for an unschooler. Unschoolers also may code a robot, research the Titanic, do a science experiment, or record a new YouTube video all in the name of school. The idea is that unschoolers will learn more deeply because they’re working on things that interest them and that they choose to pursue. Hopefully, this helps the child become a lifelong learner.

However, critics argue that unschooling does not lead to a well-rounded education necessary for adult life. If an unschooler is not interested in math, she may not study it, which could cause problems in adulthood. Similarly, one who is interested in science may not study writing because she’s not particularly strong in that area.

How Much Does Unschooling Cost?

Unschooling costs can vary widely depending on the amount of money the parent has to dedicate to unschooling and the child’s interests.

Ways to Unschool for Free

If you don’t have much money to dedicate to unschooling, that’s okay! You can still give your child a stellar education. Consider these opportunities:

The Library

The library offers many educational items for your child from library books to movies to foreign language learning programs. In addition, most libraries offer regular learning programs such as wildlife experts who bring animals to the library or scientists who teach astronomy. Most libraries also offer activities like chess club and teen time that your child can join.

The Outdoors

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

One of the greatest classrooms is the great outdoors. Give your child ample time to hike and take nature walks. Some children enjoy keeping a nature journal. They can search for animals, observe the seasonal changes, watch birds. . .the possibilities are endless.

The Internet

There are some high-quality educational services on the Internet.

EdX

EdX offers free online college classes from 160 universities including Harvard, MIT, Boston University, and the University of California, Berkeley, to name a few. You can study architecture, math, literature, engineering, food and nutrition, and many more subjects with some of the greatest minds in the United States.

YouTube

If you think of YouTube as a place to waste time, think again. You can find tutorials and even educational lessons. My daughter and I are studying Japanese, in part through YouTube lessons that we find.

If You Have Money to Spend

If you have more money to spend on unschooling, you can take advantage of other academic resources.

Camps

Educational camps offer your child a unique way to learn. There are science camps, sports camps, liberal arts/reading camps. You can find what you need for your child if you have the money to pay for it.

Subscriptions

Likewise, you can also take advantage of subscription services to help your child in her educational endeavors.

Magazine Subscriptions

Magazine subscriptions from National Geographic to LEGO Magazine to Architectural Digest may feed your child’s desire to learn more about their current unschooling interests.

Box Subscriptions

Likewise, box subscriptions can also help spark your child’s creativity. Some of the most popular educational subscription boxes include Kiwi Crate for science and art, Atlas Crate for geography and culture, Tinker Crate for science and engineering, and Eureka Crate for engineering and design.

If your child is more creative, there are I Create Art boxes for budding artists. Young chefs may enjoy Eat2Explore cooking boxes.

For most interests a child can have, you can find a subscription box.

Tools & Learning Aids

If you have a budding scientist, and you can afford to buy a student microscope, your child can spend time creating slides and looking under the microscope.

Photo by Simon Delalande on Unsplash

You might buy a telescope for a child who is interested in astronomy or ample art supplies for a student who is interested in art.

A child who is interested in chemistry might benefit from a chemistry science kit. A history buff may want to take field trips to historic sites and museums to learn more.

If Money Is Available but Limited

Most of us aren’t independently wealthy. If you have some money to spend on your child’s education, but that money is limited, consider handing over control to your child. Let’s say you have $3,000 a year to spend on your child’s education. You can give your child $750 per quarter. Then, she can decide how to spend the money on her education each month.

If you feel comfortable letting her have this control, you are embracing the philosophy of unschooling as a child-lead schooling option. Plus, just letting her choose what to buy and deciding if the items were worth the money is an educational experience in itself. She’ll also learn how to budget the money. If she wants to attend an expensive camp in the summer, she’ll need to save the money from previous quarters to afford the camp.

Final Thoughts

Unschooling is a controversial form of homeschooling, but many unschoolers have gone on to be successful adults. If you opt for this form of homeschooling, know that unschooling costs as little or as much as you want it to.

How to Choose the Right Homeschooling Curriculum for Your Star Student

Where to Find Food If Your Children Are Going Hungry

Melissa Batai

Our Favorite Games to Teach Children Geography

July 23, 2020 | Leave a Comment

One of my favorite ways to sneak in extra education with my kids is to play games with them. Kids seems to just absorb knowledge this way because they’re having fun. I’ve shared some of our favorite geography games previously, but I’d like to share a few more of our favorite games to teach children geography.

Online Games

Kids will easily learn to play online geography games. Here are two that are highly recommended.

Sheppard Software

One of our favorite resources for learning geography is Sheppard Software. Kids can learn the states of the United States or learn the countries of other continents. My kids love this and play without complaint. As soon as one of my daughters is done with the geography portion, she goes over to the Brain Games portion.

This site is a great resource as they also have history, animal, science, and health games, plus more.

Stack the States

We’ve not personally used this game because we don’t have an Apple device. However, if you do, I’ve heard fabulous things about the app Stack the States. This game teaches state capitals, shapes, geographic locations, and flags, to name a few. Even better, it’s recommended for ages 4+, so it’s a fun way to help early elementary students learn their geography.

Board Games

10 Days in. . .Games

These games are perfect for family game night. There are several versions of this game including 10 Days in the USA and 10 Days in Europe. Players draw 10 cards. The objective is to make a 10 card trail to your destination. To make the trail, for instance, in 10 Days in the USA, you must either have a string of 10 cards that show a path through 10 states that connect, or you have a plane trip between to states that don’t touch.

Unfortunately, these games are a bit hard to find now. You can find them on eBay and Amazon, but for now, production on new games doesn’t seem to be happening.

Explore the 50 States

This game is good for ages 7+. Players spin a spinner and either land on the icon for a question card, flag card, travel card, or you choose. If you get a question card, you can choose between answering a geography or history question. The flag cards have three different questions. You move forward once for each question you answer; if you can answer all three, you move forward three spaces. The travel cards give fun facts about a state or attractions in that state. Some make you do something before you move forward or some make you move back.

We find this to be a fun game to learn all sorts of things about the United States, from history, geography, trivia, and state flags.

Final Thoughts

Your kids are always learning, not just when they’re in school. We find our favorite games to teach children about geography are a great way to have fun as a family and learn more together. Luckily, there are many games available to help teach or reinforce knowledge for a variety of subjects.

Melissa Batai

The Pros and Cons of Online Schooling

June 4, 2020 | Leave a Comment

As the pandemic continues to rage and school guidelines for the fall emerge, many parents are looking at alternatives. While some parents are considering homeschooling, others are looking at online schooling. After all, online schooling takes some of the burden of education off the parents’ shoulders. However, before you make the leap, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of online schooling.

The Pros of Online Schooling

Parents’ Time Is Freed Up

If you’re children are in middle school or above, they will require little attention from you during school hours. They should be able to do their work independently. This is likely to be a huge benefit to parents who are also working from home during the pandemic.

The Credits Can Transfer

If you’re looking at online schooling just for a year or two while there is not a treatment or a vaccine, then you’ll want to be sure that your child can seamlessly rejoin brick and mortar school later. If you choose an accredited online school, your child will easily be able to transfer classes to a physical school later.

Students Have a More Flexible Schedule

When students learn online, they have a much more flexible schedule. For instance, teens are notorious for wanting to stay up late and get up late. If they attend online school, they can do exactly that with no serious repercussions. Or, if a student wants to get a part-time job, he could work any time of day and do school work during unconventional times. He’s not limited to getting his education between the hours of 8 and 3 as he would be if he attended a traditional school.

The Cons of Online Schooling

When considering the pros and cons of online schooling, you must give careful consideration to the cons, as they may ruin your online experience.

Children’s Motivation Is Important

How motivated is your child to do work? Kids who are highly motivated will likely do well in online school. Children who need peer pressure to get work done may struggle with online schooling. Think carefully about your child’s level of motivation before enrolling her in an online school.

Some Platforms Can Be Difficult to Navigate

Not all online schools are the same. Some platforms are boring and difficult to navigate, which can be frustrating, especially for young learners. Our oldest child tried online school a few years ago and hated the experience, largely because of the platform.

After two years in a brick and mortar school, we decided again to put him in an online school due to the pandemic. We chose carefully. The online school he’s currently enrolled in has an engaging, intuitive platform, and he’s enjoying his experience much more.

Final Thoughts

As you weigh your child’s education options as you consider next school year, carefully weigh the pros and cons of online schooling. For the right child, online school can offer some incredible freedoms. Or, online school can be a miserable experience. The choice largely depends on your child and the school you choose.

Melissa Batai

Free Ebook: How to Teach Your Kids About Money

September 6, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Readers, we’ve created an information-packed ebook on how to teach your children about money. It’s a guidebook for parents of kids at all ages.

Please click on the link below to download the ebook. After you’ve read it, please let us know what you think of it in the comments section beneath this post.

Click here to download our FREE ebook!

Jackie Cohen

Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.

www.jackiecohen.xyz

Is Private School Worth the Cost?

August 13, 2014 | 1 Comment

A lady I work with is paying for her daughter to go through an elite Catholic private school in the city. The other day at lunch she was telling me how stressed her and her husband were about now discussing paying for post secondary education.

Apparently the daughter announced that she was looking more closely at an expensive university in our nations capital, tens of thousands of kilometers away. The parents assumed she’d always stay close to home and live with them until university was finished, moving was never in the question.

I tried to remind her that she could still potentially get scholarships (she’s only in grade 11) or, worst case, get a student loan. Mom was appalled I had even suggested a loan. When I asked why, she said it was her ”duty” as a mother to provide 100% for her child, all education included. She would work full-time until she was 80 if it meant that her kid finished any and all post secondary debt-free. This, after paying $12,000 per year for the last 12 years for the private school.

While I agree that yes, it is a parents responsibility to provide for their child to the best of their abilities I am of the opinion that private school is a luxury and if my child choose to pursue a post secondary education beyond what my husband and I could help her with, then she’d be on her own to figure out the difference.

Private School Considerations

Our daughter is only two. We’re not yet thinking too much about where she will attend primary education, but I still think about whether or not we will enroll her in private school or public school. If we enroll her in private school there are many things to consider:

Arguable that she would get a better education and have a much more ”fun” time while in school since private schools have opportunities that public schools may not. However, both my husband and I, along with many of our friends who attended pubic school, had a very positive experience and many of us are quite successful. I have to wonder if, with our daughter growing up in an environment catered to nurturing her education, she would gain that much more in educational experience?
There’s the $12,000++ tuition every year for private school that, while a tax deduction for us parents, in my opinion may be much better used invested for post secondary opportunities (FYI: we already save monthly in a registered investment savings for post secondary for her). We could use the $1,000/month in many beneficial ways for our daughter in terms of extracurricular activities, travel, educational experiences as a family rather than for one member of the family.
Could be argued that if she is successful in private school, she may have more scholarship opportunities, combined with the arguable better education, may not need any savings from mom and dad.
Both private schools in the city are pretty far from where we would ever live and we’d need to deal with the expense of getting her to school everyday (gas, bridge tolls etc) in today’s dollars, based on our current location, would cost about $100 more per month in travel.

I’m leaning more towards public school and allocating a large portion of ”would be private school money” to other things for kiddo.

We couldn’t afford private school as well as many extracurricular activities. Both my husband and I will be very involved with her schooling, there’s no doubt she will be successful wherever she goes but we need to do what’s best for the family. If we have more than one child we certainly couldn’t afford two kids in private school, which is a whole other issue.

Did you/will your kids go to private school? Was it ”worth” it?

Catherine

Catherine is a first time momma to a rambunctious toddler. When she isn’t soaking up all that motherhood has to offer, you can find her blogging over at Plunged in Debt where she chronicles her and her husbands journey out of debt. You can also follow her on Twitter.

plungedindebt.com

Paying For Your Kids Education

March 5, 2014 | Leave a Comment

I had zero financial help when it came to post secondary and I don’t blame my mom at all. Our children didn’t ask to be born so it is our responsibility as parents to provide for them and make sure their needs are taken care of, as far as I am concerned, it is not the responsibility of the parent to pay for post secondary education. However, if you’re in a financial situation that allows it, you may want to help.

We are currently setting aside a little bit of money each month for our daughter because we’re able to. My mom, though she had a good job, was a single parent and many other financial responsibilities. Though we are setting aside a bit of money for her (including any financial gifts she may get) I will not jeopardize my retirement or other financial goals so she can get a degree debt free.

I know of many people who have remortgaged their house, taken out of their own retirement funds just to ensure their kids have no debt when they graduate. This is crazy to me. Kids who go into post secondary ideally will get a job that allows them to repay any debt they borrowed. Though it will take another three and half years for us to be debt free we are 100% doing it on our own and I have zero resentment to my mom for not helping me. I chose to further my education and opted to do two degrees, not her. At 18 I was making my own decisions.

If you do want to contribute to your kids education, start early. We opened an account for her before she was three months old and continue to contribute monthly. We made it quite clear that, especially when she is young, we didn’t need many gifts for her. We would rather have the money for her savings than another teddy bear. This helps beef up her savings and limiting the clutter in our home! Double win.

It is my hope that like both me and her father, come 16 our daughter will be able to balance a part-time job, school and extracurricular activities (though if she can’t job is first thing to go). It is important that we teach her the importance of saving and plan to match any savings she comes up with on her own (to a max we will decide when the time comes). I think this will encourage good saving behaviour, which hopefully will last a lifetime and allow us to reward her for a good behaviour. Saving money isn’t easy and I’m hopeful this will encourage her.

Though I have no intentions of giving up anything I want in my life her post secondary savings (I would gladly give up anything for something she needed) you’d be surprised how easy it is to find even $25 per month. Over 18 years, while it won’t pay for a degree, it will certainly help offset some post secondary costs and your child will appreciate it!

Do you save for your kids post secondary? Will you pay for all of it no matter what?

Catherine

plungedindebt.com