Good news to report. I heard back from Experian and the things that I disputed have been removed. They sent me an updated copy of my credit report and while there are still a few errors, it is starting to look 100 times better! I am going to now finish off what I have started with them and get everything cleaned up. Meaning, now I can actually start on my own stuff, not someone elses stuff on my credit report! lol
I had to update one of my last posts because I totally screwed up with my Equifax. See, since I got my score and report using myFico.com I was not able to dispute online. I had to print out the information, sign it, and mail it in. Well, I did it all but never mailed it in! No wonder why they did not get back to me…lol 100% my error! So obviously I am over the 30 day limit so since I have one free credit report left through annualcreditreport.com, I will get it there. I absolutely love myfico.com, because I usually get a deal with my credit report and score, which obviously with the free one you don’t get the score.
I really want to get everything cleaned up with all 3 credit bureaus. I am going to start working on clearing up my husband’s credit reports now. Of course he has an even more popular and common name than I do and I can guarantee he will not have the mix up that I had! We already pulled his Equifax report and naturally I filled out the dispute errors and guess what…? I found his with mine…not mailed! So I need to do all 3 of his credit reports. I can’t wait to see his Experian credit report. It will be interesting to see if it is all screwed up with someone elses like mine was. We will just have to see.
All the buzz today is about the new credit card rules and how this is going to be a great thing for consumers…blah, blah, blah. While I think these rules are a step in the right direction, I don’t think they are the solution to many credit card problems that exist. However, since they will affect many people, they are worth mentioning here. Here are a few of the new credit card rules that I found interesting.
The age requirement. Awesome. In the past you only had to be 18 to get a credit card on your own. Thanks to the new credit card rules, you need to be 21—unless you have a cosigner or can prove your ability to repay your credit card debt.
My husband and I personally got into credit card debt way before we turned 21. Me, I was living on my own way before then and credit was a huge crutch for me when money was tight. Yes, credit cards helped me stay afloat, but in the long-run they did more damage than anything. I do believe there are tons of responsible 18 year olds that can handle credit, but there are many more that probably can not. They end up wasting their young adult life (hmm, hmm like yours truly) trying to dig out of debt.
You are given more time to pay. Instead of 14 days, you now get 21 days. However, my view is if you don’t have the money in 14 days, will ya have it in 21? Maybe, maybe not.
Creditors need to give advance notice to hike your rate. We all have probably dealt with this before. I know I have. Banks loved to hike your interest rate up for the stupidest reasons, and sometimes for no reason at all. Of course, if you don’t agree to the rate hike, some creditors may close your account. Yeah, that’s a downside to this rule. If you recently have been notified of a rate hike, do your research before committing.
There are fee restrictions. You know the fees these credit card companies love to charge. There are some new restrictions to over-the-limit fees, late charges, and more. It is a good idea to read these rules over to educate yourself on the changes.
What paying the minimum payment is getting you. Yes, creditors now need to provide you with a disclosure along with your monthly statement that shows you exactly how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you only make the minimum payment. This is by far my favorite! You will clearly see that making a small $62.50 minimum monthly payment for that $2500 plasma TV @ 18% interest will really cost you. Yup, that $2500 TV will take you 204 months to pay off! Totaling over $3,173.22 in interest alone. By then, that TV will probably be long gone, and you’ll still be paying on it.
I have turned into a real numbers person after my deal with debt and seeing that stuff just blows my mind.
These are just some of the highlights of the new credit card rules. I could write about this stuff for hours, but luckily they are already online for you to see. I did a lot of reading on the new credit card rules and found this article very informative. It is located on creditcards.com
Happy reading!
Tags: new credit card rules
Well, here is my update for the week. I am really trying hard to keep up here because when I do, I keep myself more accountable for things.
OK, we’ll start with savings. After my last post, our savings dwindled down to just under $1k. Not where I wanted to be, that’s for sure. I will get into why in a minute. But, I did step up my game and I am really still aiming for my $5k by May goal. It is a savings goal I need to stick to because I need to move in June…yeah, I am not happy about that one either.
Why did our savings get down so low? Well, things at work went from bad to worse and I have been home a lot more. Instead of taking the time and doing it smart and writing when I was home, I fell into somewhat of a depression mode. I should just stop calling out sick and being a baby and just quit already. My fear is losing that “steady paycheck” and the stability of having a “job”, but this place is sucking the life out of me. I look like crap, I feel like crap, and I am upset that I can’t just cut the ties all together. Besides, what money am I really making going in a few days a week anyway?
Yes, I have my writing and I write part-time every week. Do I think I can do it full-time? It certainly looks like there is enough work for me in the field for a while, I am just so scared. You know, the company I got hired with months ago, I have yet to do a project for. I still have a job with them, but in order for me to complete any assignments for them I have to create an author bio and give them a pic of me for all online to see. For one, that is stepping out of my comfort zone. Two, I was fearful my job would see it. However, if I want to leave my job and make money writing, this company would be the way to go. I guess I need to get over it and get that bio and pic up there…
I do ghostwrite and actually love it! This other job would pay more so I guess I need to toughen up–this is my way out. I can’t believe I actually cried about this all week. I feel as bad as I did now as when I was carrying over 100k debt on my shoulders. I just really need to take that leap and get over my fears. I have been through a lot, how will I know if I can make it on my own if I don’t try? Surely I can’t keep up like this. I feel so miserable and unmotivated, yet I remain hopeful that I will get through this. Life is just too short…
I was reading a really interesting article earlier this week and it helped a lot. You know, everyone has it rough some days at work. We all have had a jerk boss or two in our lifetime. Not to mention our fair share of office politics and company BS…”did ya get that memo?” crap. Some of us have it worse than others. It just stinks that the economy makes it harder for many to leave a job that they do not want to be at for fear there won’t be another to go to. I am sure many put up with BS every single day…just to put food on the table each week. It sucks. I am there.
There is no use complaining about it though, I gotta do something. Here is the link to the article. Reading the comment section was a real eye opener…WOW, I am not alone.
Tags: quitting your job, quitting your job in a bad economy, the economy
Sorry for not posting my credit report outcome sooner. I have been so busy with work and side work, and really working hard to build my savings back up. I did over the course of the weekend get thrown off because of the shuttle launch, which I think is the neatest thing in the world to watch. So anyway, working long days and nights, combined with 4am wake ups 2 days in a row for shuttle launches(the first one got delayed) has really thrown me off–sorry.
Experian: They were the ones who really had everything all screwed up. Well, they mailed me an updated credit report last week and I am somewhat happy with the outcome… so far. All the really crazy stuff was taken off, but the things I initiated a dispute about are still “pending”—all except for the other bankruptcy that was showing up—that’s gone. Now, that all that whacked stuff is gone, I can finally dispute my own account info that is reporting wrong. There are a few things that are showing charged off, when in fact they were included in my Chapter 7 bankruptcy. That stuff I can do an online dispute for.
The other girls employer info and phone number still show up on my credit report too. I tried calling Experian, but was on hold for way too long, and eventually hung up. This stuff is minor, so I will do the online dispute option for that as well. Let’s see though if they are going to erase those things I started a dispute about. Why did I do that? Well, you live and learn…
This is a lesson for anyone who may find themself in a similar situation as mine–DO NOT DISPUTE MIXED UP CREDIT FILE STUFF ONLINE–CALL THE CREDIT BUREAU that is reporting the inaccuracies. Now, I am not talking about a few minor report screw-ups, I am talking about having tons of wrong info on there. If you have way too much stuff that does not look like right on your credit report like other birth-dates, social security numbers, etc. that are obviously not yours, there is a problem.
Transunion: They emailed me to tell me that all of my info is reporting corrrectly now. And yes, it is all good. 
Equifax: Haven’t heard a thing since I initiated my disputes.***update 3/1***my error! Since I obtained my Equifax report a different way, they did not allow me to dispute errors online. I filled out the paperwork but never mailed it in(I just found it in a pile of paperwork…ooops!). Totally 100% my fault! Now that 30 days has passed, I am going to get my free Equifax report (without the score) and dispute online rather than doing it by mail.
So there’s my update on my credit reports. The only thing I am not too thrilled about is the way my house short-sale is reporting on all 3 credit reports. One shows my short sale as a foreclosure–but then in the status part is says: Paid in Settlement. Apparently this is going to report until 2014 like this. They all word it differently, but it basically means the same thing: foreclosure. I am not sure if I should pursue getting that “foreclosure” off of there or just leave it. Hmmm? With so many home short sales in the past several years, they should really have an option for that, instead of automatically putting “foreclosure”. I don’t like that word. I didn’t go through a foreclosure, I sold my house for less than I owed the bank.
Let’s see what Equifax comes back with and then I will take it from there. And only time will tell if Experian ever gets my report 100% right.
Our savings were looking mighty well around December, and well, things happened. We had a death in the family, we got sick and missed some work, and last week we had major car troubles. None of these things that happened are ever planned, so it helped when we had money saved up for them. The problem now is, we have just hit under 2k in savings…so quickly.
Usually, if there are minor car troubles, my husband will work on them. If they are more involved, our mechanic friend will handle it. However, my husband had a feeling there was a major issue and since we had an extended warranty, we decided to get it checked out at the dealer. Long story short-we ended up paying almost $700…and that is after the warranty. Otherwise, the costs would have been in the thousands. We really thought long and hard on just picking up the car and getting the parts and everything ourselves, but by the time we averaged all the prices and labor costs–it was cheaper to get it done by the dealer. Our friend is a friend but doesn’t work for free–and we do not expect him to. We decided it would be cheaper to let the warranty cover it’s part and we will cover the rest.
So my Civic is out of the shop–again. With even more newer parts on it. Geese, that car is almost brand new if you go by everything that has been replaced on it. Word to the wise–if you ever get in a car accident in a new car–stick to your guns. These insurance companies will try to repair it and give it back to you to save money. I know the car wasn’t right and I refused to take it back. Of course, it was only by the advice of an attorney that I ended up back with the car. I did not want the car back-it should have been totaled. Look at all the problems I have with it.
Anyway…
Now it is February (where the heck did January go?) and it is time to get really budget-minded. I need to get that savings back up quickly. Who knows when another emergency might happen. Before, if emergencies would happen–credit cards were our crutch. Not anymore. So it is off to work I go. My goal:
$5k in savings by March …oops, had to edit that one. I meant May. May is much more realistic. 
Can I do it? Yeah, I think I can
Tags: savings
I waited all weekend to call Experian and when I got the chance to yesterday–all I did was deal with an automated machine that after 50 million prompts would tell me that no agent can help me because the office is closed. Hello, I was calling after 8am all the way to 9am and got the same recording. Their hours are 8am-5pm. I could not deal with it any longer. I was already late for work, my little one was sick and we ran into major car issues (more on that later). So yeah, “Monday, Monday” was playing in my head.
I would have loved to call from work but I have a boss that sits right on top of me..all day. So basically, I make no personal calls all day–and I don’t have a lunch break to do it either. Yeah, it’s legal…don’t even make me go there. So I am home because the little one that decided to go to school sick yesterday–so she wouldn’t fall behind, is flat-out sicker than ever. My husband is overloaded and can’t stay home. So I am here and I needed to be. Great time to catch up on my other work, be here for my little girl, and get someone on the phone at Experian.
I remember talk about sites that will tell you how to get a “live” person on the phone at some of these big companies. Wow-What a lifesaver. I found a number and directions for Experian. I am posting a link here and let me tell you…I was on and off the phone in less than 13 minutes! For them, that was awesome. As I was on hold, I was reading horror stories and I was nervous. Experian did alright. I am still pissed I had to wait all weekend, but I think I got to the bottom of it.
Basically after giving my basic info to the first rep(that was very nice by the way) that helped me, she recognized right away there was a problem. She then transferred me to “that department”. My next rep was nice too and she was helpful. My main concern was if creditors were going to start hounding me for this other person with the same name. She could not offer any answers about that but assured me they will handle my “credit reporting issues”.
She also seen there was a mix-up and I was getting questioned on what names and addresses were mine. I was then told my file is obviously mixed up with someone else and that there is another “special” department that will go through everything and clear it up. I will then receive an updated copy of my credit report when it is all straightened out.
So now, it is a waiting game. I am sure there will be the few legit discrepancies, but I am not touching anything until they are done with what they are doing. As far as the 4 disputes I initiated, I can only hope Experian intercepts them so the creditors do not get them. I don’t want to deal with relentless creditors and collection agencies again. Luckily, my credit report info shows my PO Box and Cell #. If they start, well then I guess it will be finally time to get a new phone number.
I’ll update here with the outcome.
I wanted to update my credit report situation. Well, Equifax had a few errors that I am going to dispute online. TransUnion, Believe it or not, was actually the credit reporting agency with the least amount of errors. I did a quick dispute of the 4 minor problems I found:
- The CRV showing a balance and repo-this was included in my bankruptcy
- The CIVIC is showing that it was included in my bankruptcy
- Mohawk GE showing charged off but it was included in bankruptcy
- City Furniture-same thing
Not bad for TransUnion. Now Experian, well pulling my credit file on a Friday night was not a smart idea. Experian nearly gave me a heart attack and I literally could not sleep at all Friday or last night. I have been on edge all weekend. Put it this way, my Experian report included almost 50 pages of charge offs, collection accounts, thousands in hospital bills, inquiries, multiple bankruptcies–apparently that are not even mine. I started disputing them until I realized there was a serious problem.
At first I thought identity theft but then I looked at the age of some of these accounts and it was during my bankruptcy period. All of that would have came up when I filed. Also, the other 2 credit reporting agencies were showing the correct accounts–they just were not reporting correctly. So I felt a little better.
When I got to the final pages of the credit report, I found something really alarming. I found my name, address, and other correct personal info like my phone number and husband’s name. What also showed up was personal information of other women–with the same first name as me! It also showed their DOB, last 4 of their social security numbers, their employer info. It goes on and on. Not only did that bother me–it is just disturbing on so many levels!
For one, the same way I am seeing their info–they are probably seeing mine. What also bothers me is the fact that after trying to research this, I see this is somewhat common but not so common where I could actually figure out what to do. It sounds like my credit file may have been mixed or split? Not sure really and not sure if it will be a hassle to fix. Experian, well they are closed on weekends so all I had was their 24/7 automated Fraud hot-line to get aggravated with.
What has me the most concerned is: now that I started disputing items that I thought were not mine, did I open up a can of worms? Because technically these are “someone’s” bills and creditors and collection agencies are going to be looking for their money. Once you open a dispute, the credit report agency contacts the creditor to verify information and may update your info with them. Great. Does this mean they are going to start hounding me for accounts that are not mine? This is what has me worried!
I just went through this whole debt nightmare and do not want to relive this crap all over again. So I am hoping I am just reading more into this than what I should. Gosh I hope so. My weekend has been screwed. I was feeling really good until all of this. I backed my work up because I could not concentrate. I did get to do my Disney Give a Day Get a Day volunteer work yesterday. That helped me get my mind off things for a while. But, as soon as I got home I was back to researching this stuff.
I can not wait until Experian opens tomorrow. I am calling before I go into work because I can’t sit and think about this all day. It will drive me crazy. I will update here with the outcome–if there is one.
Tags: credit reporting, credit reports, disputing credit report, Equifax, Experian, TransUnion
I have decided that I am going to take up the whole “cleaning up my credit” thing on my own. I am not going to consult our bankruptcy attorney or anything. I don’t think there is a need to. I have done a lot of research on cleaning up your credit after bankruptcy and I think, no as a matter of fact, I KNOW I can do it on my own.
I don’t have time to do it today because I have a HUGE deadline to meet for a writing client I have. I am so loving the fact that I can write on a subject I love. However, I have been writing about the same thing for a few hours now and I need to take a few minutes away from writing so I don’t start to sound too repetitious! lol
I got my FICO Score from myfico.com and just paid for my Equifax score. I didn’t pay for them all because I am not interested in all my credit scores right now. I also think Equifax is the leader, and to me their score is what I am going by–it let’s me know where I stand. When you get yourFICO score, you also get a copy of your Equifax credit report.
I then plan to get my free annual copy of my credit report from the other two credit reporting companies…Experian and TransUnion. Remember, you are entitled to one free credit report a year so if you haven’t checked yours…why not? It’s FREE! If you want your score though, you will have to pay for it. I have included the actual link to the “REAL” free annual credit report site–not one that will scam you! If you do decide to “google” free annual credit report on your own, make sure you get the official site, not one that will try to get your info and charge you for your reports.
Once I get my 2 other credit reports, I will compare all three and start doing my disputes. I am sure if Equifax is off, the others are wayyy off. I am pretty sure there will be some inaccuracies on both. I will dispute everything that is not correct and see just how “good” my credit can get after all the credit report cleaning up I am gonna do.
Tags: cleaning up credit, credit reports, credit scores, disputing credit report, improving credit after bankruptcy, improving credit score
Last January, my husband and I were told our credit scores were in the 400’s–478 to be exact. 1 year later, how do we measure up? Well, not so bad. First off, let me say that after owing so much and losing pretty much everything–the last thing I want to do is apply for credit or anything like that. I truly believe that the better your credit is, the more credit you get, and the more trouble you get into. The purpose of getting our score and credit report is for 2 reasons:
- To make sure everything since the BK is being reported accurately which I found out is not–not at all.
- Curiosity. In the past, we both loved seeing our high credit scores and were proud of our on-time payments and good credit history. Obviously, we let that all go down the drain once we we let that first credit card payment be late. After all that we have been through, we no longer care about credit scores or credit reports, but we were interested in knowing if what they say is true–after we file BK, our scores would jump. Did they? Well…
My score is 644 and my husbands is 631. OK, not great credit scores BUT not too shabby. Our scores would be a lot higher if things were reporting correctly. I want to take the time to go through it and post here because I think it can be useful information to anyone who is curious about how filing bankruptcy will affect their credit. The problem is–I am confused as heck on how to handle “cleaning up” our credit reports after filing bankruptcy. I am going to research more before I start disputing anything and may have to contact our BK lawyer to see what he says. Here’s why:
My husbands credit report:
- The bankruptcy is only showing up under hubby’s name only as a public record–not mine. Almost all of his creditors show up as ” Included in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy” Some of them are still showing 120 days past due.
- The car that we have as a joint account-the Civic that we kept is showing up as “Included in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy”–closed account and they are not reporting anymore for him. We want it to report–one purpose of keeping the car was so that he can re-establish his credit.
My credit report:
- The bankruptcy is not showing up under my name. In fact, all of my accounts show either charged off, transferred, sold, or have some kind of negative mark on them . Some are still showing 120+ days past due. So one of the negatives for me per FICO is that I am currently delinquent with some accounts–about 11k. Huh?
- The repo’d car is showing up as a revolving credit line that still has a balance owed. They did put “voluntary repossession” on the notes but never cleared the balance. It should read “included in Chapter 7 BK” . However, the Civic is showing up under my name as an active revolving credit line-and they are reporting that I am paying on it(which that is good).
- My house that I did a short sale on shows as–I don’t even understand how they are reporting it. The notes say “Paid for less than full balance”–closed or paid account/zero balance. Then it shows repossession/foreclosure.
It seems my credit report is just all screwed up. My husband and I both have an inquiry on there from 6/09 that we are still trying to figure out. It is a bank but neither of us has applied for anything. I have a call into our leasing office to see if they ran our credit when we transferred apartments in June. That is the only thing I can think of. However, the inquiry clearly states a name of a bank that neither one of us does business with…hmm? That one I will be following up on.
Everything else…well, I am just not sure what to do yet. Usually when I see things wrong, I just dispute them. However, I am not sure why my BK is not showing up. Is it because we are married and it only shows up under my husband? Also, we never got reaffirmation paperwork to keep the Civic and they do not bill us, but they report my payments to the credit bureaus.
If all this sounds confusing…it is. I have loads of questions and I am not sure where to direct them. Looks like I got some work cut out for me to get our credit reports all cleaned up. I’ll keep my progress updated here of course, whenever there are any changes.
If I don’t care about credit or credit scores, why proceed with all of this? Honestly, because it is all such BS this whole credit reporting system. I busted my ass for years to pay on time, every month to keep my “good credit” and high credit score. I filed for BK for over what…$100k less than a year ago and my score is almost up to where it was when I was the “perfect” credit card holder. It sickens me actually. Geese, my score would probably be even higher if things were reporting correctly.
Another reason is, this whole world seems to be going by credit these days. If you want to get insurance or even cable TV, they want to pull your credit. I want to make sure everything is right on there.
My last reason, so I can share my experiences here with you. Some people care about their credit and I get it. I use to. Maybe my ramblings here about it give someone else a sense of direction…
I’ll post more when I have updates.
Tags: Bankruptcy, credit reporting, credit score
I am a huge Disney fan and last year when I knew this opportunity would be coming in 2010–I jumped all over it. Naturally, I signed up but had to wait like everyone else until the program officially started. Before I promoted it here, I wanted to make sure there was no “fine print”. Nope, I got the email today and it looks great!
I know times are tough for many and a trip to Disneyland or Disney World may sound far-fetched, but thanks to this program–it is not. In fact, up to 8 people in your family can sign up for a volunteer opportunity and score a free ticket to either park. It looks really simple actually.
It looks like the email went out today when we were not home and by the time I logged in to get a volunteer opportunity for us to do as a family, they were all taken. We had few options because my daughter is under 10. However, there were a ton of volunteer opportunities for older kids and adults–we were just trying to do it all at once as a family.
I have always been interested in volunteering so getting this kind of information is great. I want my kids to get more involved in things that are actually important in life–not movies or video games…you know what I mean. If we get free Disney tickets for doing so–great. If not, volunteering is a great way to give back and help others who are going through rough times.
Here is the link if anyone is interested:
Tags: Free Disney Tickets, Volunteering
I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years Eve. I welcomed in 2010 with open arms. 2009 did not start off so well since we were still in debt up to our eyeballs. It did not end so well either with the death of one of our closest family members. But you know what? We declared bankruptcy and we are pretty much debt free. All we owe is the car and I am working hard to pay that sucker off. The debt is gone, and our family member though gone, is in a much better place. So I know she would want us to move on.
These past few weeks, I got very ill–which would explain my lack of posting. Needless to say, I was sick all last week and enjoyed Christmas in bed and New Years Eve and Day working to catch up on all the money lost while I was sick. Because I was uninsured, I did not seek medical help. We are not really sure what I had, but I passed it along to my husband rather quickly, so he too was out of work for a while too while sick.
A few things happened while we were sick:
- I definitely took the health insurance for myself!
- I realized missing a couple days of work–non-paid is not going to financially cripple us since we have savings.
- I aggressively looked for private health insurance for hubby that we could afford and found a few plans through our state. Now we are in the process of narrowing down our choices.
So while we used some of our savings to catch up, I worked hard to replenish it-fast! Luckily for me, I have opportunities that I didn’t have a year ago to make more money. Isn’t it something? It is sort of like when you are unemployed–you can’t find work. But when you have a job, there are so many opportunities available to you.
As a matter of fact, I just accepted a small writing gig that allows me to write about something I enjoy writing about–debt settlement and bankruptcy. It is small but it wont feel like work at all.
We did blow our budget in December because of unforeseen circumstances, but I guess that is part of life and things will come up that we don’t always plan for–or don’t want to plan for…like death and sickness. As long as we don’t put it on credit-we are good.
Promise I will be posting more now that things have gotten back to somewhat normal…whatever normal is.
I mentioned earlier that it is open enrollment time at work for our health and life insurance. First I wrestled with the idea about even getting insurance coverage through my work because I felt like if I took the insurance, that was an incentive to get me to stay. But, as my husband pointed out–it doesn’t look like I am going anywhere anytime soon. I am not ready to give up a job that pays me on time and correctly–even though I can’t stand it 99.9% of the time. At least I have a job and that is more than what many people have right now. So while I have it, I might as well take advantage of what I can get, while I can…huh? My side jobs I am keeping and could eventually become my full-time income, but I don’t feel too comfortable yet going 100% on my own. Not in this economy.
First off, due to the death in the family and seeing what costs were involved–life insurance was my first priority. I upped mine, got hubby and the kids life insurance too. It is gonna cost only a few dollars a month for peace of mind. You never know. You just never know. I felt such a relief getting it. I thought about how wonderful it would be if my husband and girls were taken care of if I passed away. Not like I was happy about the thought of death…you know what I mean.
My next challenge is the health insurance. My husband and I right now seem to be in a HUGE disagreement about it. The cheapest plan that would have both of us covered would be about $6200 a year premium with a decent deductible and copays. He says it is way too much. Me, I worry about everything and just one ER trip can land us in debt again. However, paying that much for insurance is crazy–especially for what they consider a mid-grade HMO.
If I get the policy on my own, (my kids already have their own policy-that one was easy!), it would only cost about $35 a week. Which is affordable, but leaves hubby uninsured. He is healthy and I obviously have some sort of issues (woman problems). He says it is better to have one of us insured than none of us. I don’t know. I really need to think this one out.
Now that we are on the subject of health, I mentioned months ago about a cough my husband had gotten. Well, knock-on-wood it is gone. Turns out there was a mold problem at the temporary job he had. He found this out when he left. So once he left, no more exposure to it. He is healthier than ever-besides the excess weight we both have-but that is a whole other story!
Well, I am off to making some decisions. I sure do hope I make the right one.
Tags: Health insurance, Life insurance
I don’t really know how to start off this post, but I think the title pretty much sums up what I am going to talk about. Our relative that fought so hard for life, lost her battle a few days ago. When she started taking a turn for the worst, funeral arrangements had to be made. My husband was one of the closest to her and while we knew the day might come, let’s just say it hasn’t been easy.
What hit us all the most was that all of this should have been done–planned and paid for years ago. She was already getting up there in age, but nobody wanted to even talk about death or funerals or any of that stuff. Luckily, her plot was paid for by one her kids when her husband died years ago. However, everything else was not. We found out that buying the plot years ago saved the family thousands of dollars now. However, prices on everything else seemed to have skyrocketed. Trying to bury someone when everyone is having financial difficulties is not easy. If you have not looked into funeral costs–do it now! My husband and I were thinking to ourselves “how the heck does someone without any family or money get buried?”.
All of our savings would not have even covered half of her very simple funeral, but my husband and I would have given whatever we could to make sure she had a proper burial. Right away though, her sons stepped up and paid for it all…no matter what financial burden it was going to put them in. If they didn’t pay for it, I can’t even begin to wonder how the funeral would be paid for. ***Her final request was not to be cremated.*** Can you believe that many of these funeral homes allow payment plans while the person is alive, but not when they are gone? Even then, after reading over all the fine print–it seemed to me that you are actually paying more when you prepay–like a credit card kind of. I guess that is where credit comes in. I know if I had my $13,500 Chase card, the funeral would have been covered. But then again, if I had, I don’t know…15k in the bank in savings it would have covered it too. How many people though nowadays have that kind of money saved up? Seriously.
The funeral went on and she is in a much better place now. It’s hard on the family, and will be for a while. It definitely got us thinking more and more about life and death. When she died, she had nothing to leave…no life insurance, no house to sell, no estate for any family to fight over…nothing. I only wish we could have planned for her burial beforehand because we could have concentrated more on celebrating her life, rather than worrying about how we were going to pay for her burial.
Sorry for the somber post guys, I guess what I am really trying to get at here is that we are all going to die…eventually. I touched on the life insurance subject before but even I didn’t stick with it. Currently I have life insurance for myself through my work in the total of $80k. It’s not that bad, but it isn’t great either. My funeral alone would eat up a good portion. And seeing I am the sole provider in the house right now, my husband would be screwed. But, if my husband dies, I am in even more trouble because I don’t have enough to bury him. And his money helps pay many of our bills, I would be lost.
Earlier this month, I got all my renewal paperwork for my life insurance. I am considering upping my policy or looking elsewhere for a family plan. God forbid something happen to one of the kids too. Yeah, we don’t want to talk about it or think about it until it happens, but it could. I have a lot of work to do on this stuff. But I know I can’t procrastinate any longer. This experience opened my eyes and I see things in a whole new perspective.
I took a week off of work for all of this but go back tomorrow. I have a lot of soul searching to do..a lot. If you read my last post about redeeming the time, you will see what I am talking about. I am not so sure I want to keep living every day unfocused, unhappy, negative, defeated. This family member would always ask why I didn’t come visit her more often, and my husband would tell her that I was always working. And she would shrug it off and say that I worked too much. I do feel guilty about it now. In the past few months I have been trying to lessen my hours at my day job, do more writing at home that I love, and try to spend more time with family I have pushed away for so long. Because in the end, they are the ones that will be there–not my job.
So the point of my rambling here, is to start planning for things like this. Inquire about funeral costs, start thinking about your final arrangements. Try to get life insurance if you can. The day will come–I know we all want it later rather than sooner, but we have no control over it. When it is our time, it is our time.
Tags: funeral, Life insurance
About a week ago, I watched a Joel Osteen broadcast that I have been thinking about ever since. I do not consider myself religous, but I do enjoy listening to him speak. There are very few “famous” people that get my attention, but when Dave Ramsey or Joel Osteen speak, I listen. The particular message that got my attention was about “Redeeming the Time” .
There are 86,400 seconds in each day. Once the day is over, there is no way to get the time back. If you are like me, you have probably wasted much of your time worrying about bills, debt, and other non-important things in life. If you think about it, time is valuable. You can always make more money, but you can never get back time. I never thought about time like this.
I hope you will watch this and enjoy it like I did. It will make you look at life a whole lot different. It did for me anyway. So now that you know that time is much more valuable than money, what will you do with your day today?
Tags: joel osteen, motivation
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind. While my husband, my girls and I are OK, we have had a few extended family members that have not been doing so well. Illnesses seemed to have struck a few family members during this holiday season. While most of them are doing better so far, the oldest one is battling pneumonia. It has been a tough battle, but she is a tough woman. I have no doubts she will be OK.
Through all this, I have been working non-stop again. I have actually been asked to come in on my days off these past few weeks and I have not been too thrilled with it. It is the holiday season, and I am not going to be a grinch, but I think I may need to emphasize the 4 day thing again to my boss. Going in on my days off has backed up my writing jobs and I just made the deadline for an order. I definitely don’t want to screw up my writing gig–because eventually I want it to be my full-time source of income.
As far as our budget and income, we have been doing well this week. I went to Super Target and bought all of our Thanksgiving dinner and meals for the week for $40. Yup, that’s 40 bucks! Did I mention I got a 22 pound Turkey too? How did I do it? Coupons, and a Target gift card that I got as a reward from a survey company. I was very pleased with that shopping trip.
Black Friday came and I did not buy one thing. In fact, I was quite disturbed watching our local news on Black Friday. You know, in one breath everyone is talking about how bad everything is and how even the food banks in the area are hurting. Then, in the next they show mile-long lines around Best Buy and Brandsmart. As they are interviewing people, most were talking about how rough they had it this year and how standing in line to save a couple hundred bucks on a Plasma TV is worth it. HUH? If you are laid off and worried about paying your bills, getting a deal on a plasma TV is the LAST thing you need to worry about. I just cringed watching that newscast.
I am all for getting good deals and saving money, but spending money on video games, plasma TV’s, and other high-end stuff when you should be worried about paying your mortgage and putting food on your table just baffles me. I just don’t get it. When I was broke and had all that debt, the last thing I wanted to do was spend money on stuff like that. If you have the money, and bills are paid—have at it! But, most people that were in those lines knew darn well they should not have been there.
I will be buying my kids a few small things for Christmas, but nothing expensive or extravagant. As for my husband and I, we are trying to save. Every year we talk about how we want to see snow since here in South Fla, all we see is sun. So if we can save a little this month, we can take a drive and see some snow next month. It will be the first time the kids have ever seen it. It will be nice and a budget-friendly trip. All we would really need to pay for is gas and maybe a night at a hotel. I will start looking into that later on this month though.
Well, until next post. Oh–and anybody that reads this, try not to spend if you don’t have it this holiday season. Spend time with the ones you love, it means so much more than material things.
Tags: Black Friday, budgeting
It is hard to believe that the holidays are almost here. This year has flown by! I went to Target the day after Halloween and my gosh-the Christmas decorations were everywhere. Where did Thanksgiving go?
As the holidays approach, I am making sure we continue to stick to our budget and hold off on our spending. I am not gonna lie–it is hard. I still have no desire to buy big-ticket items or apply for any credit whatsoever, but I am really having a hard time sticking to a budget. I found it was easier to do when I was completely broke! I had no money to spend so I didn’t have to worry about spending it!
I was doing very well coupon clipping and saving money, but then I just started slacking. I still buy my papers and get my coupons but I don’t stick to a list or budget so it is useless. It is so easy to slip out of a budget. By us doing so, we have put zero towards savings this month–even with all the extra work I have been doing! That frustrates me!
So it is time to buckle down and not spend anymore. The holidays will not cost much this year. I decided to volunteer and work Thanksgiving again this year for overtime. We will have a simple dinner at home when I get off. And Christmas–it will be light this year.
Why is budgeting so hard? Sticking to one is not as easy as I thought it would be!
A down economy? If you were in Disney World this weekend, you would never know it. The place was packed and people were spending like there was no tomorrow! Yeah, great for the economy, or Disney for that matter–but I hope people were not whipping out the credit cards and getting into debt while there.
As for us, we enjoyed spending time together, but honestly, I am glad it is over. It was just too packed to be enjoyable. We go to these events to bypass the crowds, not get caught up in them. Apparently other families who are watching their budget are realizing this is a cheaper way to enjoy Disney too. It was just too darn crowded and hot! I never thought I would say this, but I am so done with theme parks for a while!
I will admit though that the hotel I was so nervous about staying in, turned out to be thee best! Wow, my frugality totally paid off on that one! Word to anyone who wants to stay at a nice hotel for cheap– check their prices online at the actual hotel website, but also check the discount travel sites. I used Hotels.com and I was very impressed. I got an awesome deal and will use them again–that’s for sure.
As far as our budget, we spent a little more than I thought. Actually we went over budget because of food. We ended up eating at Disney World and since we forgot to bring our bottled waters, we ended up buying lots to drink there. It was so hot and this was at night too. We also ended up having breakfast at the hotel which I never do. First of all, I have never stayed in such a nice hotel (and for cheap!). We smelled the food as we were checking out and we had to eat–we were starved! lol Of course, when they don’t put prices on menus, you know it has gotta be expensive. So I remember my husband asking “how much could pancakes really be?” Ha! You know, it wasn’t that bad but I am use to the “$5.99 are you outta your mind” deals at Denny’s or McDonalds Drive-Thru.
I did enjoy this breakfast a lot-even though it was about $15 each for us to eat-yeah each. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t so anxious to get the bill to see just how much these pancakes were gonna cost! For some, this may not be much, but for me it was a budget buster. It was awesome food though and we were full all day.
When we returned, we picked up our dog from the Vet. Her costs were actually a lot less than what we budgeted for thanks to a coupon that the girl who works there offered us. I thought that was pretty nice.
Now we are back to our normal schedule and things are good. I plan on really busting my tail the next month and a half to work and contribute more to savings. I am not feeling too bad about the little extra we spent. We rarely go out of town anymore. It has been a year since our last trip. We only got to go for a whole day but it was wonderful to spend time with the family. The way I look at it is–we don’t spend money on habits most people have like: drinking, smoking, and eating out, which are HUGE budget busters. We work our tails off… why not splurge every once in a while on a family day?
I am on a weird schedule at work which may explain why I will be posting more frequently this week. I volunteered to cover a shift for someone who went on vacation this week and part of next week. My husband wasn’t too happy since it requires me to come home in the wee-hours of the night. I love it. I have no traffic, no bosses to deal with, and get a lot of “dead” time. This shift is awesome, but not great for those with families. I am missing out on dinnertime, homework, and listening to my husband yell at the TV while he is watching the World Series. Actually doesn’t sound too bad to me.
So, since I am off this Saturday, we decided to go to Orlando and the family will be trick-or-treating with Mickey Mouse again this year. I really like the fact that Halloween fell on the weekend. We get to go on a weekend and not worry about missing school or work. Gosh, I think it has been over a year since the last time we went out of town. My golly it has been over a year! I just looked up my old blog post from last year when we went. Yeah, I know, I keep track of these things well, don’t I? lol Time flies I tell ya. Besides budget restraints, we have animals. Traveling with animals is not easy, not with ours anyway. My dog does not bark, she howls and she howls quite loudly! Even though there are hotels that allow animals, we don’t do them unless we have to…like the one time we did with Hurricane Wilma. Oh gosh, it did not go well. So since our dog is due for her shots, she will stay at our vets office overnight. The other animals are going to grandmas.
This trip will definitely not be a budget buster. As much as I love my Disney Resorts, I could not find a good deal this month on them. I did find a brand new hotel that was very reasonable. I always get nervous when we stay somewhere I am not familiar with, but we will see. I also booked the room using my rewards points account so I not only saved money, I earned points towards a gift card for Christmas too. We are taking our non-gas-guzzling Honda for the drive and will be packing our own food for the day. The only thing we really had to pay for were the tickets, which were a little high for a frugal person like me, but still cheaper than going to Disney World on a normal day. We paid for the hotel and the tickets with money I earned for a writing project that I did for a private client a few weeks ago. So we did not need to touch our savings.
What’s really nice is we are going knowing that everything is all paid for. No credit card bill will be coming next month for it. I know, it is only a day trip but I am so happy to be going somewhere for a day.
Tags: budget, budget busters, Disney, Halloween, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Sorry for the lack of posting. Things have been hectic in our house. Our youngest had gotten the flu and was home sick for a while. Luckily the rest of us seemed to have dodged the worst of it…for now anyway. I did end up taking a few more days off of work to take care of my daughter while she was home sick… and I was glad I did. I am never the parent to take time off or deal with any of the kids when they are sick–my husband usually does because his schedule is much more flexible. With everything going on at work, I honestly did not care what they said or did and I had zero guilt for taking the time off. Not anymore, no way.
So, I did decide to go back to work. It was definitely not an easy decision and one I did not take lightly. The economy did have a lot to do with my decision–a lot to do with it. Although I am freelancing now part-time and earning money steadily, I am scared to take the leap to do it full-time. I see all these people out of jobs and hear horror stories in my own family and I am scared. Granted, my job is no guarantee–working for someone else is never a guarantee. I could get fired, laid off, company could close down—who knows? But, I know the status of my position right now and I am pretty comfortable that I will have a steady check–at least for a little while.
I was not happy going back to work. As a matter of fact, my first day back was horrible and I hated it. I kept trying to be positive but I was miserable. It was noticeable. Then I got mad at myself for being so miserable. I kept telling myself how lucky I was to have a paycheck. Some people don’t. But no matter what I did, I was unhappy. Finally I broke down and had a talk with my boss. I kept it short and sweet. Basically I offered to give up a day and work 4 days a week. It would put me just under 40 hours which is fine with me. The company saves money and I save my sanity! With that…I got my day off.
Yes, I am losing money per paycheck, but I freelance all day on my day off. No commute, I spend more time with my family, and honestly it is really helping me out. Now when I am at work for the 4 days, I have so much work to keep me busy, nothing really bothers me. I don’t have time to get bothered. For now anyway…
If I did not do it this way, I would have cracked. I would have quit. So right now I have the best of both worlds: I freelance and get a steady paycheck. It is my way to test out the waters. If I continue to do well writing, I will eventually leave my job permanently. For now though, I am taking my money I earn freelancing and putting it in savings. Gosh, I never thought I would have money in savings.
So now that the little one is all better and things are getting back to normal here–I will be posting more frequently. Luckily on the financial front we are doing a lot better than we were this time last year. That is always a good thing.
I seen this story on GMA the other day and thought it was wonderful news! I did not want to post the video here until I read more about it though. Yup, it is official and many banks are changing the way they charge over-the-limit fees now. This is great news and has been a long time coming. I know a year ago when I had a bunch of over-the-limit fees and bounced checks-this would have really helped me out. This should of happened a long time ago in my honest opinion.
If your bank is not making changes, maybe it’s time to look for a new bank. While I totally and 100% agree that you should not write checks if you don’t have the funds, things happen beyond our control. Besides, I don’t think it is right how they process checks-putting the larger check through first and bounce the 5 little ones after. I know some of us have had that happen…
Watch the video for yourself here…
Tags: banks, overdraft fees
So my week in review-did I accomplish everything I set out to do? Yes, and no. Monday went well and I wrote…a lot. My little one came home sick from school later that afternoon-and by nightfall-I was sick! She got well the next day-me, I have been sick ALL WEEK. I thought it was just a 24 hour thing-nope. I tried to work but noticed I wasn’t doing too good of a job so I stopped. What a week to get sick-I guess it was good that I was home.
I talked to my boss yesterday-my nice one. We have always gotten along great and I don’t have any problems with her-except when I am kept in the dark about important things-like uh, like losing my job! So basically it seems the daughter has no desire to do my job or whatever. They created another job there for her. So I am safe-for now. Shouldn’t I be happy about that? Well, I really am not. You know why? Because after facing the possibility of losing my job and seeing how disposable I am- I’m not feeling too good about the whole deal.
After speaking to several people about my situation this past week-I was kind of bothered that most of them could not believe I was not begging to keep my job! Since so many of them have been laid off, out of work-whatever, I guess I could see their point. So taking what I do just for a “steady” paycheck is something I should want to fight for? In the past I would’ve probably answered yes to that question-but not now.
The only really good advice I got about all this was from the comments I got here, from other people who have been in debt like me, and my husband and daughters. Of course, these are the same people that have been there with me through it all…the good-the bad-the ugly.
This has me torn. I agreed to go back to work Monday, but I just don’t know. I wish, I wish, I wish that I did not get sick this week so I could have brought home the same pay-if not more, to prove to myself that I can do it at home. I also wish I could get over my fear of…change. I think in the back of my mind I am a little scared of failing and if I fail-we could end up right back where we were-in debt and struggling.
I got some decisions to make before Monday. For now though, I am off to burn the midnight oil and meet some deadlines!
Well y’all, I sit speechless as I write this. It is almost midnight here, yet my mind is racing. My emotions are…well, I don’t know yet. I could write a book on here but my husband keeps telling me to get to bed so I don’t sleep late tomorrow-on my first day off…yeah my first day off… on a Wednesday. How is this?
I am really tired, and as I started to type this, I took a look over at my “tweets”-which I hardly ever do. Wow, this came at the right time.
Be confident in your dream. Act like it’s a done deal. Plan like it’s already happened. Be confident God will finish what He started. Ph 1:6
As you know, I am no religious person. I do enjoy listening to Joel Osteen and subscribe to his updates. I always seem to get sent a message at all the right times. Those messages always seem to make me feel confident and better about what is going on in my life at the time.
I am off for at least one week as my replacement, gets trained in. Yup, you read it right. I have not been officially told this, but I know it. I have been with the company for…gosh last month made 10 years. I know how they work-I know how they operate. You will remember, I have a good boss and I have the not-so-nice boss. For years, this man has hated me, but his wife and I get along great. She is my boss, but they are family. And as much as he hated to admit it, I did do a great job and I have kept the business flowing and moral up, when everyone was feeling down.
So after college was over, their daughter was left unable to find a job. I would hear talks about the budget and how we can’t afford another person, blah, blah, blah. So I inquired about it- so that I know what is going on. She is a great kid and why not work there-it is her family’s company. I asked my nice boss (her mother) about it and even gave scenarios about how we could fit her in even if it meant tweaking my schedule around. Let’s face it, she is a young girl and enjoys hers weekends and nights off. I was told, nope. I am not going anywhere and she will not be changing any schedule around-her daughter will not be coming in-and if she does she will be working on the field….no worries.That was Friday.
Monday I come into the office to find the daughter sitting there ready to work-pretty much doing my job. My prick boss paid no mind to me and just gave me a very cold shoulder— and everything that went on in the office, I was now not to be involved in. Wow, a flashback to high school days. You know, you’re not “in” with the crowd kind of childish crap. So as I sat there, silent for 9 hours, doing absolutely nothing-my mind was just going a hundred miles a minute. I became the ultimate clock watcher. Boy, time could not go by any slower.
I wanted to leave so bad-I kept thinking of excuses to make up, just to get out of there. I wish I had a job that we could leave for lunch break because I would have gotten up so fast and never came back-but I didn’t. I also just happened to get dropped off too, and hubby was far away. Anyway, I made it through the day, emotionally drained when I got home, I went right to bed. My husband told me to just relax and call out sick the next day. What is that going to solve? That wont solve anything. What they are ultimately doing is having me train this girl in-and once she learns the ropes, see ya. You know, she is a nice girl really, this is not her fault. Her father just wants her to keep the family legacy going and her mother can’t just be open and honest with someone who has busted her tail there for her for 10 years.
It’s OK.
So yesterday I did go to work, but I asked for my last weeks vacation—starting today. Why not take paid time off before I lose it? I am not stupid-I am not losing that vacation time I worked hard for. My boss (the nice one) knew right away that I was upset but told me no problem. We sat in silence all day. She emailed me later to say she was “Sorry about everything”. Yeah, OK.
I spent most of the afternoon cleaning out my desk and cleaning out my work email, just in case I do not make it back. My coworkers are a little shocked. I am not. Actually if this happened last year or anytime before, I would be hysterical and crying. I wont be now. What have I always said? After I file BK, I will leave. I filed in March but the fears of not finding another job in this economy scared me to death. I did however, start freelance writing around the time I started this blog. Nothing major, just articles here and there for extra money. Over the weekend I threw together a new resume and writing sample and applied to a company that I did not think I had a chance in hell with—and guess what? I got in!
I am no professional writer, but I love it. Geese, this post is already almost 900 words long and still going. To actually make money doing it-would be awesome. I am not gonna lie, I am still scared, nervous, and wondering what the future holds. But just as I got accepted to this job, out of the blue someone just emailed me some freelance work! I wrote an article for someone (a subject I love!) and he loved it and wants me to do more work for him on a project. I have never had this luck-NEVER! Reading that email made me feel awesome! I have had no time to cry about what is going on or feel upset or hurt or anything. I am grateful that through all this financial turmoil I have been through, I learned to never have all my eggs in one basket. Luckily I had this what seemed to be a part-time extra money gig-turn out to be possibly my lifelong dream. If it works out, life will be sweet.
So I will let my bosses enjoy working with their daughter, I am not officially out of that job-not yet anyways. Their daughter will either work out-or not. I will let them figure it out. I may get an email asking me when I am coming back to work or telling me not to come back to work. Either way, it was a HUGE wake-up call and a “time to get off your ass” moment for me. As it should be for everyone-always be on your toes and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Never depend on someone else to feed you. Jobs will come and go-I don’t care what you do or where you work. I was there-10 years! Always have a back-up plan and always live within your means. If this would have happened to me when we had 2 car payments, debt, a mortgage-oh gosh! I feel comfortable that it is happening now.
In the meantime, I am off. I will start working from home in about an hour or so. I am going to post frequently here to update on my progress. I am so eager to know if I could really make a living at this. At least I am getting the opportunity to try it out while I am on my paid vacation time.
You know what is really cool though? I got to take my daughter to school today and I will be home to pick her up! I love that. It doesn’t happen too often.
As you can see, I have written a lot. I didn’t finish this post last night but carried it on to this morning. OK, enough rambling. I gotta work with this gorgeous view of the lake behind me and my pooch at my feet. Today feels like it is going to be a good day.
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Tags: back-up plan, job security, layoff, Writer
After going over my account and trying to figure out where the money went, I realized a few things I had not factored into my budget.
- School clothes, uniforms and school supplies.
- Fast food-yeah not good!
- Morning coffee-kicked the energy drink habit but found myself in the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru every day.
- Car expenses-we needed new brakes and minor car parts for both cars. At least we installed them ourselves saving some money.
- OK, one last tiny little splurge-a few Starbucks Pumpkin Lattes. Their seasonal and only around for a few months.
- My husbands lottery habit-I am seeing at least $20 a week going to that.
- Looked over our water bill, and found some overcharges-of over $30 this month and last month.
I know now where the money is going and I know why. I can’t justify $10 a day on coffee for me and my husband. It is ironic, that is what everyone tells you to drop when you are budgeting and I somehow did the opposite. I have been drinking energy drinks for years and thought I’d never stop. These specialty coffee drinks I like are a heck of a lot more expensive than my Red Bull!
Solution: I bought some coffee at Target on Clearance for $3.50, some flavored creamer and took the old coffee maker out of the box. We will start making our own coffee tomorrow. I will not deprive though, maybe for Thanksgiving and Christmas I’ll get a nice Pumpkin Spice Latte for a treat. No Starbucks every day though-do I think I am rich or something? I know it is expensive! I tell you, being addicted to coffee(caffeine) is probably more expensive than a drug habit!
No more fast food! My girls don’t need it and we sure as heck don’t need it. Besides, we started our official diet last Monday…more on that next post.
Car expenses should be done with…
School clothes are bought for the year.
Husbands lottery habit…I am working on it. He is not budging. I am getting the “I don’t smoke-I don’t drink” speech-he enjoys playing his lottery. We will come to some kind of compromise.
Called the water company and seen apartment management about the water bill-they are doing an investigation. Something is not right with that water bill.
If you don’t keep track of what you spend, little things here and there add up. So if buy coffee 5 times a week, that is $50 bucks a week-$200 a month. Add that to my husbands lottery numbers he plays every week—$20 x’s 4 weeks=’s $80 a month-$280 bucks spent on…what? Gosh, math hurts my head-no more math for the day…lol
So there are my changes so far. They may seem little but these slip ups can turn into bigger ones if I let them. And I will not!
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Tags: budget busters
I obviously know what can happen when you don’t stick to a budget. But for some reason, I just can’t stick to one. No, I don’t buy extravagant things, in fact-I have become somewhat of a “cheapo” since by whole debt fiasco. So where am I going wrong?
So I am sitting here on my balcony on a nice Saturday afternoon, a nice windy afternoon I may add, and I am going through my bills and figuring out where the heck our money goes to every week. Yes, I have savings and I hate to sound greedy, but I should have more. I am doing more freelance work now and our expenses are lower, so where is that extra money going?
I really need to keep track of every penny we spend. Before, when we were in debt up to our eyeballs and my husband had no work, I budgeted every penny. It seems I get comfortable with money when we have it-even though I bust my tail to get it. I am clipping coupons and only buy what is needed on sale-so what’s going on?
I need to track our spending and see where the loopholes are in our budget. Obviously they are there.
Tags: budget
School has started and the whacked out schedule has begun-which would explain my lack of posting…lol.
Everything is going well on the home front and money is going into savings every week. I have been working and having my husband home at night has been nice. We finally just started using the 2001 Toyota yesterday. It has been forever since we have gotten time to work on that car! So far so good though, it is running smooth. (knock on wood) A few little tweaks will be needed here and there with the car but nothing major.I thought it would be worse and I didn’t want to drive too far just in case, but it drove great. I mean the car sat for years-I am surprised how great it is running so far. Gosh, I can’t get over getting that car. It is awesome.
I have been busy trying to get more money into savings that I am up late nights working part-time from home. Yes, I finally got something. Actually it is nothing permanent, more like freelancing. I write content. Yup, I get paid to do what I love! I am a beginner so I do not make much-not much at all, but I will not complain because I still make a little extra money doing it. It is funny though, when you actually enjoy what you are doing, it doesn’t feel like work at all.I would love to do this full time!
Although I love to write, I never thought I had what it takes to make money at it. Lord knows I got the gift of gab—ya see it here on my posts. I found content writing while niche blogging. Sad to say, I suck at promoting niche blogs, but I sure do love writing content. So I turned my love for that into my niche…:) So if anyone needs content-keep me in mind. (hint, hint)
I would love to have 10k in savings by December. That would be wonderful. Mentally, having money in savings is great. For one, I have no credit so if any emergency comes up, I wont be whipping out a Visa or Mastercard. I will need to pay cash. It is nice to know it will be there.
Went to the eye doc yesterday too, my eye is a little better, but not good enough. No contacts for me for at least another month. I see the doc in 1 month and if my eye is not clear-we gotta go the prescription route. But, I am going to take care of my eye and take my flaxseed oil. We’ll see what happens. I found an eye doc I love and he works with me and no health insurance. I wish they all were all like that.
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Tags: Mastercard, Money, Niche blogging, Personal finance, Visa
