I think Emma Kenney's (Debbie) Instagram Story helped me figure out how they do the timeline for the show/possibly how S8 will be set-up!

On her story, it shows Debbie having a license that was issued during January of 2017. They're roughly halfway done with S8 and as we know, the show typically showcases multiple seasons of weather (as we saw with the seemingly summertime filming of the first few episodes).

This leads me to believe 2 things:

• The show is always supposed to be roughly behind 6+ months-year behind us, rather than stay around the same time. This makes sense, as characters could react to events going on around them and have the show play-out as they please.

• Since it's summertime, I'm guessing that Season 8 takes place roughly 2-7 months after S7 (we don't know if the season ended in Jan, February, or March, but Season 8 definitely starts between between May & August). From what we've seen, S7 ended at the beginning of 2016 and S8 will end towards the beginning or middle of 2017.

EDIT: Here's an image from a cringey fan-page: https://www.instagram.com/p/BXyRSHkA-fV/

AND LOL @ the fact that her birthday has been changed, AGAIN