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Archive for August, 2008

Update to "Everything is Breaking"!

August 25th, 2008 at 06:08 am

Welllll.. lets see.
I got my tooth fixed, only had to pay a $5 co pay! Was told this will be the last time it can be done, so I will have to make it worth it! Big Grin
We got the van fixed (Finally, after 2 weeks!) It is sitting on a 90 days same as cash, but I told DH, we won't have that money in 90 days either, so he better cough it up out of his "savings account"!!! It was another $856! So $1656 out so far this year. They wanted $1049, but DH was able to get them to match another garages quote. I was really proud of his negotiating skill! He played hardball. Hopefully it will run like a good little van for a while now.
The wash machine broke - again - I actually buy the extended warranty on this Maytag lemon because this will be the 23rd, (Yes, I said 23!!) repair on this thing!!! No, there is no such thing as a lemon law when it comes to this stupid washer.
The ice maker stopped making ice. We are using trays. I have some stuff on ebay I am selling and then we will use it to buy a new filter and see if that works first. Buying it on ebay is cheaper than buying it from the dealer, I checked!
The light wash cycle stopped working on the lovely Maytag dishwasher. Definately not a big deal, just handy for loads that are not very dirty, uses less time and water, but oh well, regular wash is still working fine (knock on wood)!
Hopefully that will be all for now. Right now I am working on having the cheapest birthday parties!
Today was a no spender. I went to a bridal shower that served us dinner! I got to eat out for FREE! (Sans gift!) Good time, good food!

Called Charter about paring down the cable/phone/internet bill

August 21st, 2008 at 03:23 am

Very interesting. We pay about $120 for cable/phone/internet each month. It is a bundle package from charter. Yes, we could have expanded basic cable and no digital. We don't really use it. No, I do not want to go back to dial up, as it makes it too difficult to sell on ebay, but I would if I HAD to. No, we can not cut home phone service and just use cell phones. My youngest does not have a cell phone. The older two do, but they pay for it themselves, we don't. I would not feel right leaving them home alone with no phone service, I think it would be irresponsible. Anyway, I asked the lady if I cut digital and just had extended basic and phone/intenet, what would it save me? NOTHING! I would be MORE! Smile Can you believe it? YES! $137.00! Then she offered me the new package which comes with everything we already have, plus 2 movie channels and it will be about .60 cents cheaper than we are paying! At least she did save me some money!

How much do you have to live off of each month?

August 20th, 2008 at 07:06 am

If that is too personal, you can ignore it! DH brings home $640 every two weeks, for a total of $1280. DH also pulls out the $1500 for the house payment from our savings account, unless he gets a commission to pay it with. Any extra commission goes to the savings account, not to bills. At my work, on average, I make about $850 per month. So for 5 people, 2 dogs, 1 cat, a hamster, a fish and a 2100sq ft house, I have $2130 a month for everything. Gas, elec, phone, cell, trash, cable, car/life insurance, gasoline, water/sewer, piano lessons, food, credit card payments, medications, babysitting, car payment, misc. kids stuff, home maintainence and church. Whew!

Soooooo..... here is the million dollar question (I wish!) DH says that I should live within my means. I say HELP.THIS.CAN'T.STRETCH.THAT.FAR!! Am I out of line? I just wonder if a few brave folks would share, maybe I could compare???

(ANY NEW READERS ON THIS TOPIC, PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR CLARIFICATION ON OUR BUDGET. I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW WHAT YOU SPEND PER MONTH!!)

WaMu sucks, rant, rant, rant, those sons a dogs!!!!

August 19th, 2008 at 04:09 am

I am very disappointed. I feel tricked and stalked. Recently I received a 0% offer from WaMu. I was excited because my 0% offers had all expired and this was a chance to save some money. So I responded to the offer and listed my balance transfers. Turns out WaMu was not that interested in loaning me the money and they only transferred around $1250.00 worth. Not even a drop in the bucket to be sure! But since they transfer the money before they tell you they won’t approve you for much, I was STUCK.

Anyway, I waited for a statement, and became concerned when I had waited about 5 weeks. I wondered when my first payment would be due. So I went online and signed up for their online service.

(Turns out, I was ALREADY PAST DUE!! I HATE being past due and our credit shows very well for this!! No late pay here! )
So I requested a “replacement” statement and found they had already charged me a $39.99 fee and were charging 24.99% interest on it. Hmmmm.. So I saw the next due date was Sept. 4. I planned on making the first payment, the late fee, and the due payment before that date.

(The phone rings at work, YES, at my workplace!! Isn't that Illegal? A lovely foreigner informs me I must pay today. I calmly tell them I will pay them by the next due date. “I never received a statement” I explained, and could he remove the late fee? Yes, if you PAY TODAY! Give us your bank account info. Uhhh, HELLO!! I don’t think so!! He then gets angry, I get angry and I hang up on the son-of-a-dog.)

The lovely folk from WaMu have continued calling EVERYDAY, TWICE a day! I. HAVE. HAD. IT!!! I am going to use my balance transfer option on my Chase account and pay those sons of dogs even if I have to pay 4.9 instead of 0%.

There…. Now I feel better! Thanks for listening!!

Everything is breaking!! Ahhhhh!

August 11th, 2008 at 05:41 am

Lets see, DD2 broke the "steam mop" my mom just bought me, DH was able to splice it back together. Does'nt look pretty, but it works.

Oh, next the tooth broke. Lower molar. It sucks getting old. Will see the dentist on Tuesday. She does'nt fix things, so I will probably pay her to tell me to go to someone else very expensive.

Then, the van broke - again. We have put $800 into that sucker. DH refused to talk about trading in when the first problems reared their head. They have replace the battery and the alternator. Now, it starts up, drives for a little, and dies. Starts right back up, runs a little and dies. My mom said hers did this and it was a camshaft sensor? Who knows. It is sitting in the garage and I am driving DH's $200 paperweight.

Stay tuned.....

Randomness

August 6th, 2008 at 07:03 pm

Have'nt had a big financial breakthroughs lately. I am looking forward to digging up more stuff to list on ebay! I used my last ebay money to buy the stuff for DD1's room redo. Ugh! So now I want to sell some stuff to hammer out another CC! My goal is to pay off the next CC by the end of August and maybe the personal loan too! I want these suckers chipped away!

DH and I are going at about the same pace. I am paying the bills, he is relatively clueless about our money, but he has given me some of his bonus money to help things along!

Kids are going back to school and back to activities, so that is an extra financial pain in the butt!

Don't forget to run by Thrifty Rays blog and tell her congrats on the new grandbaby!! Smile

Made some money on ebay!

August 4th, 2008 at 06:49 am

It was amazing! Random things I had been putting off listing made me around $75!! Geeze, a windfall! What to do, what to do. I really want to hammer out the next card, but golly, when will this amount come again?? We have birthdays coming up and then Christmas. I guess I'll just look at the amount for a while. I have to relist something and maybe list a few more and see if I can make the number grow a little. It is AMAZING what people are buying and for heavens sake, what they are PAYING!! God bless them! Smile

Don't forget to come check out my new blog

Text is www.cutupthecards.org and Link is
www.cutupthecards.org. It has been lonely on the outside!

Paid off a card!

August 1st, 2008 at 07:40 am

Okay, it was a puny guy, but I paid off the JCPenney Card! I am now focused on paying off the Firestone card while making regular credit card payments.