Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 3)

Get the United credit card. You’ll get 2 free club passes per year, bonus miles for getting the card, I think it’s free the first year, and 1 free bag for the traveler and their companions. It’s totally worth it. Also you get reimbursed for signing up for TSA precheck as well which is $85 for 5 years so that covers the annual fee in later years.

The other side of the coin is pick the airline you’ll be flying to Syracuse a lot and get that card for your daughter. She needs to be the primary to get the free baggage check. My daughter got a Delta Amex and while she doesn’t get club privileges, she gets the free bag, it was free for a year and it had something like 50k bonus miles. When my kids fly American they can use the club for free because of my credit card so that’s actually a nice perk for them and as far as United because I have the card if I wanted I can give them my passes to use but the negative is no free bags. Southwest is good when we’re desperate or everything else is too expensive but it’s just too far for us to drive to Midway and the cities they’re flying to from Ohare haven’t helped us yet. Hopefully soon because you definitely cannot beat the 2 free bags.

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@JennaMA Brown has substance-free on their questionnaire. I did request that S21 considers that.

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Today was S21’s last day. No C’s, so now I can for sure know his admission offer won’t be rescinded. Not being dramatic here, but I have a child who normally rides the A- line but the last two quarters he’s been burned out. Let’s just say he is blessed with test-taking abilities because his homework grade stinks as much as a teenage boy’s room.

We also had senior everything night today. Tennis had senior night, band, and women’s soccer. I helped with the senior soccer night since my daughter plays on the team. It was really wonderful to see the kids hang out again. My son and his friends moved from tennis to soccer to band senior night around the campus. He got to see his sister played and I realized that it will likely be the last high school soccer game he’d be able to watch D24 play. So sad.

Tomorrow they have graduation rehearsal and one more rehearsal, I think. Then graduation on Tuesday.

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PUR and Brita don’t filter out much. Check out: ZeroWater

United made the change at the beginning of April.

Yes. I looked into the United credit card. Maybe we’d do that. We just don’t do credit cards here at all. We have one for the family and pay it off each month and that’s it. I guess we should look at adding the United card as a money saver but it’s just not in our genes to have more credit cards.

I did get a Nordstrom one when we had some alterations done because you get those for “free” since they take that amount and give you Nordstrom bucks on your account. I then spent that credit the next month and closed the account. Lol.

Just walked S to school as he closes out his last “official” day. There was a senior meet up so I left him for that final stretch to go off in his own…another ‘send off’ moment. It was nice to take that quiet walk together and talk about his excitement for the next step in his life.

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I wanted to know what others are doing or suggestions when it comes to auto insurance for 17-18 years old who are going to college in Fall. My insurance doubled by having my DD on my auto insurance. She will be going away to college which is 300 miles away. She won’t have car for first 2 years. Is it ok to remove her from auto insurance? How does it work when she is home on breaks. My insurance (GEICO) have an option where she can be marked as student away for more than 200 miles. That reduces a premium only by a couple of hundred dollars.

Thanks

We put ours on “away at school”. We don’t completely remove them but essentially the cost is like $50 for the entire year for them on that status. Our insurance went WAY down once we put that in there. We have geico too.

As for home on breaks, Geico always told me just leave it as away at school. They’re still insured if they drive our cars or someone else’s cars but it’s ok if they drive on breaks and then you don’t have to go back and forth.

I would not take your student completely off. If you do and they drive a car and have an accident she can be liable for a lot more than if you just kept the away at school insurance. Kids drive other kids cars all the time and it is not worth taking them off just to save a hundred bucks.

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We are also putting our son as “away at school”. He will not be taking his car with him to college this year, but when he comes home for breaks or a weekend in between he still needs to be insured.

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Hi friends, I’m back at the winter clothing shopping again today. Great Memorial Day sales on some smart wool items, etc. Today is the best sale selection. I also bought a Patagonia “worn wear” item in “excellent” condition. Did not find the waterproof backpack that I wanted.

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Thank you. Looks like “Away at school” is best option.

I also have Geico. Like you, I found that putting S19 on “away” status barely made a dent in the premium. They told me I couldn’t drop him unless I proved he had coverage with another insurer, since they knew I had a licensed teen driver. I hate car insurance.

This is not my experience at all with Geico.

As for us, we just want the better taste that Brita provides.

Where is this sale?

Geico told me exactly the same. It is only going to be less by a couple of hundred. And, I can’t drop my DD without proof of alternative insurance. So, it is what it is.

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@jntwinmama My company used to own PUR so I know the technology works and filters out what’s needed, along with insoluble. We still own part of it to support clean drinking water in underdeveloped countries (charity). I just hadn’t found a smaller, slimmer option that could hold a lot of water for everytime S would need refills. We all walk around with a 32-40oz hydroflask in our family—even take them on vacas. Will likely opt for the 7-cup option.

Pretty much all of the major retailers are having a M Day sale. Rei sent coupons in the mail but they aren’t good on clearance. I’m shopping online at Backcountry (steep and cheap is their outlet) mainly. I’ll probably swing by REI too and check the racks. Patagonia worn wear has new factory seconds and excellent condition returns. My son needs like a whole new wardrobe almost as he only has a rain layer and wears college tees to school. We borrowed snow gear when we went.

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If you don’t have more cars than you and your spouse, you can keep your teen on your insurance as an occasional driver.

We tried the occasional driver route after reading about it here. Our plan, USAA, told us that option is only available for high value sports cars. They used a Ferrari as an example! Away at school seems to be the way to go.

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