Boomeyers's Digging Out of Debt

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!

Our sweet doggy, Bebe, and her best buddy!

I sure give thanks for all my wonderful encouraging friends here on SA! Have a blessed and "stuffed" Thanksgiving!

Imagine the sweeping verandah, the high ceiled massive rooms, with cozy strategic seating throughout..... and you would'nt be at my house!! We do have a breakfast area and dining room, an office and a family room. We will have 20 people over for Thanksgiving (gathering strays, I am!!) Where am I going to put all these people? I am thinking this is a buffet Thanksgiving year! Perhaps with Chinet instead of Chin-ah! :-) Hope I have enough food too!
I thought about setting up "stations", like a drink station in one room, appetizer station in another, maybe desserts somewhere else? And the buffet in the kitchen. Ahhh!
I give thanks for all the lovely family and friends that will gather here. Lord, please feed them and find them a place to sit! :-) AMEN!

So, still checking out the customers at my lovely second job. It is a store in the mall selling holiday decor and Christmas gifts. I can't say there has been too terribly much I have wanted to part with my money to buy, even with a 30% discount. I think I will get DH a really cool St. Louis Blues plaque as a gift, and I picked up a Mizzou ornament for DD3's teacher, but other than few other small items, nothing I want to waste my precious pennies on.
But anyway... The Customers... Most are still LOOKERS, not buyers and I must say most are paying with cash in exact change. Really odd. I have had a few less than $5 purchases on debit cards??? But other than that... the consumers are still not spending. Bad for my boss! I also ran down to Macys to return something for my mom and pick up a Christmas gift for my BIL. I was SOOO CREEPY!! A Satruday night at the mall, a month before Christmas and there was NOBODY in Macys except for the dazed and bored looking employees! Gives me the willies! On the other hand, when I cruised through the Super Walmart on Friday afternoon, I could'nt get a parking spot!!
Anyway, that is the report from the retail trenches.

Pounds that is! On the Weight Watchers. I'm pretty pleased, that is in 9 weeks. I could do better, I could do worse, I am just doing evenly! :-) It is a bit harder that there is no microwave at the store I am working at. Tempting to go to all those nice little resturants in the mall. Ugh! So far so good though. I did pick up two tacos one day, other than that, I am resisting. I am there to MAKE money. Why ruin one hours pay at $9 by eating out for $8-$12!!

I have been so lucky to retain my real estate job, despite my lack of management skills boss. But I am feeling uneasy. Our agents are very seasoned (Remax), but many deals are foreclosures and the ones that do go through are like pulling teeth!! Problems abound that make getting to closing more like a marathon! These people are working for their money, that is for sure! (And most commissions are cut!) The phones are just so eerily quiet. That is what bothers me.

Anyway, I feel bad for the friends I am working for at the mall. I know my friends husband is sweating it. He has owned a sports shop before and it was gangbusters. This is mind boggling for him. The store only made $125.00 today. That is in 11.5 hours. Yikes! He has slashed prices on lots of things. We keep waiting for the holiday spending to hit. I thought it would loosen up a little after the election, but then the stock market tumbled. And judging by the retail losses posted today by so many retailers, I am not feeling too optomistic for them.

Thats it. Just wanted to say, hey, I'm tired. Have a good night!

Yeah! We have had temps in the high 70's! I love that we are saving money on gas.

Tomorrow will be an over 12 hour day. Kind of dreading it. Been working with my 11 year old to make sure she is able to act more independently, as DD1 has a job at Steak n Shake now and can't be here to hold down the fort. Unfortunately, DD2 and DD3 (the 11 year old), don't exactly get along. Will see how it goes.

I have started on my two job journey. It is very interesting working in retail after all of these years.
Because the store is owned by neighbors (and friends too), I have a vested interest in seeing it succeed. So I don't find it quite as hard not to choke at some of the goofy items people waste money on.
BUT on a more interesting note, every sale I rang up today, was paid for in CASH and most amusingly, most people paid exact change. I wanted to cheer for them and say "Good job"! But they would have just thought I was goofy. So my report is...more folks using cash - YEAH. Will report back the closer we get to Christmas.

Well, I have been quite quiet on the blogs for a while.

I tried starting my own blog, but Wordpress is such a confusing pain to use! Oh well, it was a free attempt and I may still update it till my year subscription runs out.

Anyway, I got the job at my friends store at the mall! Starting Nov. 1 till after Christmas! Woo hoo! This will really help us with Christmas, brakes and keeping up with the bills! I am looking for meal ideas though, because I will be going from one job to another, but I want to leave easy to prepare meals for the family that I can eat when I get home and hope to stay true to the Weight Watchers. I can use the crockpot and premake some other meals, but any ideas??

Yes, we're freezing, but think of the money we're saving!! I'm sure my husband will probably sneak the heat on when I'm at work or something, but we'll see. The whining hasn't revved up enough to crack!

I have been working 5 days a week. Some full time days, some part time days. I have Wednesdays and Saturdays off and really have fallen behind on keeping up with the house. I have been letting eating out sneak back in on us too and this has to stop!!

DH and I have been on Weight Watchers. I have lost around 10 pounds, DH a few more than that.

I downloaded a program called PearBudget that my friend at "I've Paid for it Twice Already" suggested and it looks pretty grim. I am considering another part time job to maybe help add some money to the budget. Not sure what kind of job I can find that will work around the weird hours I already work, but we'll see. I have a friend that is opening up a shop in the mall just for Christmas. Maybe I can work there? Here is the link to PearBudget if you would like to try it out. It is free!

https://www.pearbudget.com/spreadsheet.

I have been slowly buying Christmas gifts. I have to sell some more on ebay, so I can buy some more gifts! :-)

Well, I have been laying low waiting to make it through the birthday madness. Finally all the parties are done! We still have one more birthday, but mom and dad will be treating us to dinner that night, so hopefully we can get the resturant to give us a cupcake to stick a candle in!

I am now offically the parent of a driving teenager. Pray for me! (Really!) The license is hot off the press, so I need to call the insurnace company tomorrow and see how much it will kill me!

Still trying to keep a tournaquet on the bleeding. I did find a 2.9% card to toss some more of the astronomical AmEx onto. That will certainly help!

Hopefully the next few months will be financially quiet with a little coasting and some chipping away of Christmas presents!

I have stopped the bleeding!! Okay, call me crazy, but I am so excited that our debt WENT DOWN FINALLY!! Even with adding the van repair (which DH will need to cover if we do'nt get it paid off by the beginning of November or we will be charged interest) our total debt number went DOWN!! This is the first time in longer than I can remember that we have not incurred any new debt! This month we have 3 birthdays to contend with, but I am determined to keep the number going backward!!

Yesterday was Mom and Dads 50th Anniversary! We had a great time with family and friends. How amazing they are!

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!
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!

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! 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!

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!!)

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!!

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.....

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!!

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!

Don't forget to come check out my new blog

www.cutupthecards.org. It has been lonely on the outside!

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.

Today was my birthday and we tried to celebrate as cheap as possible! DH gave me breakfast in bed, some face wash (wouldn’t buy it for myself!) and some candy, oh and lottery tickets!
I had a great time a work. They did it up nice with lunch, gifts and a cake.
When I got home, I had left a roast in the crock pot, so we had that with mashed potatoes and corn. Then we had the leftover cake from the office.
The entertainment highlight was free tickets to the local community colleges production of Once Upon a Mattress. My neighbor is the director and gave us comp tickets, and my daughters’ piano teacher was the lead. She did great and it was so entertaining.
Then I fell off the wagon and picked up White Castle after the show for the whole family. I did have a coupon, so the splurge cost $16.00. Hopefully tomorrow will be a no spend day!

There is a neat website that has special blog giveaways a couple times a year. It helps the bloggers get new traffic to their sites and the commenters get a chance to win all kinds of goodies. Being that we are of a frugal mindset, simply commenting to win a gift card is easy and cheap! Go check it out and don't forget to sign up for www.cutupthecards.org's giveaway!

www.bloggygiveaways.com

Well my friends, I have a new baby!! Yep, its a ..... blog!! A few months ago I entered a contest to win a blog of all things. My very own, really own it (hence the .org) blog given to me by Heather at Desperately Seeking Sanity! Did you know you can make money with these things? And it was FREE, so why not?? I will still be here at "home" visiting and writing, but hopefully you will come see the "baby" and tickle it under the chin, and hopefully it won't spit up on you (I am VERY new at this!!) Feel free to subscribe, so the latest entries can be emailed to you! And all suggestions will be appreicated, except from the cranky people who hate it when other people move out into bloggy land!! (I know you are out there!)

Most of the things I have blogged about so far have been my story up to this point, so most of you know it, but I hope to include sooo much more about my life, new ideas, contest, receipes, etc!!

So please come visit

http://www.cutupthecards.org/
Thanks my friends!!

There you go, all the cards are cut up! Seems like such a tiny pile compared to the HUGE amount of debt on them!!

DH and I went round and round tonight. I guess we made peace with this weeks paycheck. I have BEGGED him to go grocery shopping, but to no avail. But he did say he will take DD3 to get her glasses this weekend. That will help greatly and I won't have to justify the cost.

I'm still working, working, working! Hope it will help us make a dent! Things at home sure get messy and crazy when I am gone, and dinners sure can be a challenge. I told DH tomorrow HE has to make dinner!

So, DH is talking again. That is nice. We still are at an impasse on money and etc. I will cut up the cards, and we will pay them off. This should be fun! He says he will put me on a $50 a week allowance for gas and food. I told him once I filled the tank in the van, he would starve. He said okay. I don't think we are seeing financial harmony here.

On a better note, we are using the Six Flags passes again tomorrow. And DD3 is going back to school on Thursday. I picked up an extra day at work starting next month too! That will help with the bills! This week etc I will be working 1/2 day Friday for someone, then Sat, Sun and Mon and Tues. Gotta figure out what to feed the family for dinners, cause obviously we won't have much money for this.

One store has a sale on Hamburger Helper and DH HATES it!! But by golly my friends, it is CHEAP and stretches for a family of 5. I think this is something I will definately invest in. Throw in some salad and viola! Let you know how it goes!

So the husband is still not talking unless it is to yell about something. I can understand his anger and I am waiting for him to calm down.

I guess I didn't fully disclose everything. DH always had access to see what we owe, and to whom, he CHOSE not to look at it. He did'nt want to know and I forced him to know. That makes him not happy. (Well, that and the amount we owe.)

We are in $55,000 of CC debt, plus we owe around $8800 for the paperweight (DH's car) in the garage. I pay our bills on time every month, we still have credit left (unbelieveably) on the cards, our home is safe, and our credit ratings are very good. That said, the dangers of having $55,000 in unsecured debt is daunting.

Some ideas I have had for the "plan" he wants me to make to get us out of debt are>
1) I have asked for more hours at work. I don't think it will happen, so I am still on the hunt for a FT job somewhere and I have tweaked my resume in hopes I will get more calls!
2) If I get a m-f job, then I can apply for a PT job for eves and weekends.
3) I like the fact that one person on the blogs talked about how she "settled" her debts with the CC companies, offering them 30% less than she owed to settle and close the card. I think this is awesome, I just don't have the money to offer this. But this might be a good thing to save up for to help close maybe one of the cards.
4) Let go... and just cut up all the cards.

Obviously, if things continue exactly the way they are now, we just have to tighten our belts, find more things to sell, and do the snowball effect of paying off the smallest and hammering on the larger ones as we go along.

Any other thoughts for "the plan"???

This is off Yahoo's home page. Very good info from a website called Divine Caroline. Check it out! Good common sense!

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22145/52070-20-healthi....

Stay tuned. He told me I "owed" him $30 for something. I just turned and looked at him and said "We are in debt $55,000, I don't have the money". Well, yes, I blindsided him I guess. I had'nt planned on saying it this way, but it is how it came out. He asked how I (hello, yes, I) got us into so much debt. (No WE here). Then he asked how I plan on getting us out of debt. I should have a full time job (yes, but no one will hire me!! I AM trying!!) And he guesses HE will have to take over paying the bills and I said NO, WE should handle this together, like it should have been long ago. Anyway, initial conversation. He left, probably to go buy beer, cause this is how he deals with things. At least no "D" word so far.