As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
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One month down, 11 to go! Working towards being debt free isn't easy but from everything that I have read, you guys are making amazing strides!!! Even if January didn't produce all the results you wanted, February is a new month!! It's a clean slate!! Looking forward to seeing how everyone does this month!!
Hello to all. First thing is I sure hope my wife gets a job!!! They seem hard to come by these days. I am in a major saveings mode!! Lets continue togeath this process. I just want to get my financial life straightened out. Thats more important to me then getting out of debt. scott
Ginny
Sept 2007 First WDW Trip All Star Music
Sept 2008 All Star Music/Jan 2010 Pop Century
Dec 2010 Summer Bay/May 2011 All Star Music/Nov 2011 Summer Bay Timeshare
Jan 2013 Old Key West
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February is going to be hard for me Big insurance bill due (house/cars) but I guess I can't do anything about that. Between Colin's class birthday party, and his family party, plus Alexa's class room party for Valentine's Day (I'm room Mom), it's going to be a bit harried. Thank goodness DH's raise comes thru this month.....at least that will help!
Plus, do I buy plane tickets now for our August trip or wait
I'm in for February! Walt and I tried an experiment this week - we compared our food costs for a week without take-out to last week (busy week - lots of take-out) and even with an attempt to make those take-out favorites at home, we saved about HALF of our usual grocery/dining budget.
That's my goal for February - cut food/dining expenses in half and put the rest towards paying off medical bills. Don't know why we didn't try it sooner. We agreed on it as a new year's resolution, but we kept making excuses. In practice, it works!
Walt made a big pot of chili a few days ago and we've had that for dinner 2 nights this week. (A little goes a long way! ) Today, I have a pork roast on. In a few hours, I'll pull it out of the pot and shred it for Carnitas Fajitas for dinner. We bought a bunch of pork on sale at the beginning of January when it was on sale and vaccuum-sealed it in smaller portions for a few more meals. So all I had to do was pull one piece out to thaw. Walt picked up the rest of the stuff when he went grocery shopping and even with a second trip to the store for more milk this week, he spent less than $70! I can't get over how much money we were piddling away on take-out. Shameful!
I'm also getting back in the habit of clipping coupons. It's free money - as long as we only use coupons for things we'd buy anyway or need to stock up on.
I'm starting the month off with a clean slate and I'll keep a running total to keep myself honest:
Best of luck to your wife, Scott, for finding a job! And good luck to everyone as Frugal February starts!
I came late to the party in January, but one of my big goals in January was to stop all my Food Waste-age...I throw away way too much stuff by letting it spoil or sit around in the pantry. I'm trying to picture actually throwing the $5 bill in the trash when I throw away the spoiled food. It went pretty well for Jan. so here's to let's hoping I can keep it up for Feb.!
Just came from the grocery store actually, and stuck to my list so did ok! Other than that I've only been out to the gym for yoga class (DD loves the babysitting there which is great) and now I'm fighting with myself about going to TJ Maxx to get a different top to wear for yoga class because my t-shirt kept coming up over my face - I can't decide if it's "essential" or not...feel free to weigh in!
I've read that some of you are using Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps - DH and I also following the steps. I was a little nervous in the beginning, but I've found that once you get going it easier than you think it will be. We started only a month ago and have already put a MAJOR dent into our credit card debt. Our credit card debt isn't really killing us at this point, but paying off our house early and funding our children's college savings have been a concern for some time. Also, my husband can retire from the police department in 4 years, so we want to be debt free so that we can make major decisions about our future without having the pressure of credit card debt hangin over us. I now see that in order to do this, we have to have NO PAYMENTS!!! If all goes as planned we should be debt free in a few months and can start paying down our home.
Good luck to you all! I know it is a struggle, but like anything else, with hard work and diligence it will all pay off. Hopefully we can learn some great $$$ saving tips here on the boards.
Well my behavior was odd this morning!!! I had a creditor call me on the phone that I had made a purposal too!! (For debt repayment not marriage). When the phone rang I just got all scared and hide beside the futon!! Like he was gonna see me over the phone. So yea I got money issues. You all may think I am a idiot, but at least I am a honest one! I am at work now and things are better. I am starting to re read Dave Ramsey. And a few other not so famous authors about money management. Good luck to all here. My wife has a 3 in the afternoon today job interview. We can use pixies!!! And she is also gonna see some woman named Hillary tonight who is running for president. (for free--we volunteer at Demo headquarters). take care, scott
No $$$ spent today and hubby and I just figured out a better display system, so I can return $65 worth of crates to Staples! (now I have to find the darned receipts...) I'm still reeling from my major bank boo-boo, but it's one of those things that I'm just going to have to write up to lessons learned. I'm very peeved at the bank for not helping me out any and I'm closing my account there b/c of it. Yes, it was my mistake, no, it doesn't cost you $33 EACH to cover an AUTHORIZATION that I offered to transfer funds for before the actual charge comes through. I'm writing a letter along with it, so we'll see if anything happens, but I'm not holding my breath.
I just did my grocery shopping for at least a week, except for a milk/bread run in 3 days. $145 which included some stock up items, a birthday gift for my niece, and a splurge on steak which I haven't bought in at least 6 months. (it was Walmart steak so it wasn't a big splurge.)
I am amazed at the tiny pile of receipts I have from January. My purse is usually overflowing with receipts by the end of a month. And paying cash at Walmart has reduced the number of checks I use by at least 10 last month. (I almost live at Walmart. I should probably just suck it up and get a job there!) Good luck to Scott's wife on the job interview and to the rest of you for a Fabulous Frugal February!!
I spent 1.45 on a coffee this am at the corner store- my power was out and I was feeling sorry for myself!I wanted a doughnut and some fritos but my better sense prevailed and I settled for a black coffee! Weekends are the tough times for me so we'll see
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Even if January didn't produce all the results you wanted, February is a new month!! It's a clean slate!! Looking forward to seeing how everyone does this month!! 
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GEAUX SAINTS!!
) Today, I have a pork roast on. In a few hours, I'll pull it out of the pot and shred it for Carnitas Fajitas for dinner. We bought a bunch of pork on sale at the beginning of January when it was on sale and vaccuum-sealed it in smaller portions for a few more meals. So all I had to do was pull one piece out to thaw. Walt picked up the rest of the stuff when he went grocery shopping and even with a second trip to the store for more milk this week, he spent less than $70! I can't get over how much money we were piddling away on take-out. 
Shameful! 
We started only a month ago and have already put a MAJOR dent into our credit card debt. Our credit card debt isn't really killing us at this point, but paying off our house early and funding our children's college savings have been a concern for some time. 
Also, my husband can retire from the police department in 4 years, so we want to be debt free so that we can make major decisions about our future without having the pressure of credit card debt hangin over us. I now see that in order to do this, we have to have NO PAYMENTS!!! If all goes as planned we should be debt free in a few months and can start paying down our home. 
(now I have to find the darned receipts...) I'm still reeling from my major bank boo-boo, but it's one of those things that I'm just going to have to write up to lessons learned. I'm very peeved at the bank for not helping me out any and I'm closing my account there b/c of it. Yes, it was my mistake, no, it doesn't cost you $33 EACH to cover an AUTHORIZATION that I offered to transfer funds for before the actual charge comes through. 
and to the rest of you for a Fabulous Frugal February!!
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