Any suggestions for a stargazing app? Is like to ideally be able to points it at a star and find out what it is. Bonus if it’s free!
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Stellarium
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Perfect! Ty
Nightsky - though I haven’t used it much.
My aunt just passed away with medical debt, I do not know the amount, but anything is too high. Is her daughter responsible for paying it? Aunt had basically nothing and was 3 months behind on mortgage payments, and her daughter also has nothing and was living with her. She’s just trying to keep the house paid for. Is there anything specific she needs to do? My sister helped make a go fund me, I don’t think that’s going to get her much, but anything helps.
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What do you buy in bulk that is totally worth it?
What did you buy in bulk that ended up being a waste?
For us:
Gallons of dish soap and rubbing alcohol both are used in multiple locations for multiple uses, so the bulk purchase works. 50# bags of potatoes, 25# bags of onions, 10# of garlic in the fall, used all winter.
Not worth it: large quantities of laundry detergent and dry milk. DH didn’t like the detergent and so didn’t want to use it. The milk went bad before we used it up.
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Is the house in the daughter’s name, co-owned with your aunt, or only in your aunt’s name? I don’t know if her daughter is responsible for the medical debt but my concern is them coming after any available assets like the house or a car.
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Bulk, good: we switched to Costco size bags of frozen green beans. We use these any time we don’t have other veggies planned for dinner. Let’s us prep just the right amount and cuts down on total plastic use over the smaller 1lb grocery store bags.
Diapers. Self explanatory 
so many.
Rice, oats, flour. These are all commonly used pantry staples for us, and I don’t mind decanting them, so they work well in bulk.
Bulk, not good (for us): any snacks where texture matters. I can’t go through chips fast enough that they don’t get “weird” by the end of the bag.
Dried beans. I don’t use them enough to have them not start effecting cooking texture by the end of a larger bag of them.
Wine. We don’t drink anymore, but when we did. More wine just led to drinking more wine 
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I don’t know the details but look up “filial responsibility laws” in their state.
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I know in Florida a spouse cannot be personally responsible for their spouse’s medical debt unless they sign for it. They could go after co-owned assets, but not separate ones.
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Was there a will? Unfortunately, this sounds like she needs the advice of a lawyer, which is an expensive proposition especially if you don’t have any $.
It might vary by state, but if her mom died without a will (intestate) I think the estate will be divided between all the primary heirs (goes to a spouse if there is one, or is divided among the children if there are any, etc.). The house is likely the major asset. The hospital will seek to get the bills paid through the estate. They, and any other debt holders will be first in line before the heirs. ETA: any debts are always taken out of the estate first, regardless of whether there was a will. In my state it’s required to publish news of the death twice to alert debt holders - not sure how you comply now that so much is digital but back in the old days (aka 2000] most debt was local so a post in the classified ads of the local newspaper fulfilled your obligation. The law is very slow to catch up with technology .
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Dry milk went bad? Hmm, I thought it was very shelf stable.
I don’t truly buy in bulk - just Costco level bulk. No perishables like cleaning supplies are my best bet (laundry detergent, non-scratch scrubbing sponges), flour and sugar, and rice have held up over time - but there might be some flirting with disaster there.
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Does the daughter or anyone in the household have the kind of job where theyd have an EAP through work? They typically can offer legal advice about questions like this.
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Aunt had a very recent will, leaving the (not in good shape) house to her daughter and a family friend who helped take care of her. House was in my aunts name. Daughter and friend get along well, no issues there. I believe everything else (not much, and nothing valuable) was left to her daughter, nothing was co-owned and aunts husband died last fall. Basically all there is, is a house and inexpensive car. My cousin cannot work and is trying to get disability but that takes time and she has no income. The situation is kind of a mess honestly, I am sure my cousin and the friend will sell the house, but they need to get to that point without it going into foreclosure. I assume she will simply ignore any medical bills and hope for the best. I have no idea if there is much equity in the house anyway, it is not in great shape and the upper floor is not even finished so it would need a fair amount of work.
Thanks for the info, all.
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in Canada the daughter would not be responsible for paying debts she didn’t cosign, but the estate would. And if the daughter was expecting to get money out of the estate (e.g. the proceeds of a house sale) then she would be second in line to the orgs owed money. But if there was no money in the estate they couldn’t go after the daughter for the money.
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My guess is that worst case scenario - they sell the house and the hospital seeks compensation from the proceeds of the sale.
Was aunt on Medicaid? That could be a factor and you should be able to contact them (or find online) what happens.
Cousin might get a deal on medical bills if she alerts them to the income issue and agrees to pay a lump sum once the house is sold. There may be charitable groups that could help as well. Some hospitals have social workers on staff (assuming aunt’s med bill are partially from a hospital group) - they might be able to help navigate this, as well as the billing office. Her senators or representatives office might be of help as well.
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My sister is helping our cousin with this stuff, hopefully she can get this figured out for her. Yes, aunt was on Medicaid, so fingers crossed the bills are not huge, but I am not sure. I will mention these things to my sister.
Aunt died at home cared for by her daughter and the friend after a hospital stay of a week or so. Plus I assume earlier medical bills also, because cancer for 2 years.
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This might not be the most direct path, but if the hospital has a social worker service they might be able to help, especially since your aunt was on Medicaid. It’s worth asking.
I forgot to say earlier, I’m sorry for your loss.
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Best bet honestly would be to call the hospital/clinics where the debt was accrued and state that the aunt has died and the heirs are destitute. Hospital systems have a big financial aid department and can write off most of not all of the cost of treatment. At least they might be willing to lower the amount owed.
Once you have a good grasp of the real number, then go looking into what the legal ramifications into the estate are.
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The daughter needs a lawyer or someone to help with the process of settling the estate.
Some of the steps I had to go through when I was an executive:
- Establish an account for the estate
- List of all property of the deceased
- List all potential creditors. The lawyer sent a letter advising all creditors of the death and how to submit outstanding bills. My lawyer says many businesses don’t go after debts of the deceased but some do.
- All bills are paid by the estate
- Remaining assets are distributed per the will
It may come down to how the house was owned. There was no real estate in the estate I settled but my understanding is the estate would pay the cost of any assets owned solely by the estate.
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