Happy Mothers Day!
Well I spent most of the morning trying to update my version of Wordpress. For some reason it was not easy so I just started a whole new one. This new version is very easy with feeds and all. So please visit me over there!
girlndebt.wordpress.com
Well, you are seeing a new post and what does this mean? I have decided to keep blogging! Mainly for the same reason I started this thing for. Since I have stopped, I have driven my husband nuts crunching #’s and talking about finances and well I have so much FINANCIAL ANGER built up inside that I feel I need to get a couple of things off my chest. So here I am once again. Writing this stuff comforts me AND I also need some advice from anyone that can give it. I have a couple of dilemmas here. First off…
STIMULUS CHECK-WHAT A JOKE!
By my calculations and the IRS website-you get $600 each and $300 per each child. Well my long awaited refund deposited today. I was expecting $1800-I got $1271! I only got $71 Child Tax Credit for the 2 kids! What the heck? So I am waiting for an explanation in the mail but really it blows! There went paying off my lawyer and getting new tires on the car! I am very mad! Well I guess I will get my whole tax credit next year, huh?
Next Problem:
WORK. There are many cutbacks and we have had to let go of 2 long term employees. Business is bad-REAL BAD and my company is scrambling to cut anywhere they can. Talks are now of more people being let go or cutting out dental/health insurance benefits. All this is going on and it is added stress. It is bothering me so much. I went online and found a job right away. DOWN THE STREET FROM MY HOUSE. It is office work-nothing much but I wouldn’t even need a car anymore. It will probably pay a little less but no commute,no car payment, no high gas prices,insurance or aggravation! They are also a very big company here which means they may have very cheap health insurance. I think it should balance it all out moneywise. With gas prices going up even more-that alone is enough to make me want to give up the commute altogether. I will be getting off at 5pm like normal 9-5 people! I am so nervous to do it. I emailed the woman and she emailed me right back that she is interested in looking at my resume. I am really torn-really torn! Why? Because I didn’t want to do anything until after BK. I wanted to wait till I get my discharge and start ANEW with everything down to my job and where we live. (Oh-the living part is another one-I’ll get to that in a minute).
On top of all this-my boss has been really nice to me and she considers me a friend. Right now she is going through some health issues and I feel bad leaving her now. But, at the same time I ask myself-would she feel bad if she had to let me go? I will miss her but not the other boss (the mean one that makes my life hell everyday!). I also worry with BK lingering over my head-will I need to take time off at a new job to go to court, etc? Then I struggle with going to another “office job”. I am not one for office work. I hate drama and office politics. My main goal is to get into Family Law (paralegal) but working so much I have put school on the back burner. Without the education-nobody will give me a chance. YOU GOTTA HAVE THAT PIECE OF PAPER TO SHOW THESE PEOPLE YOU ARE CAPABLE-NOT JUST YOUR WORD ANYMORE!
So I think of all these benefits working close to home will do for us and why am I still torn? I get home at a decent hour and take my classes and be done with my program by next summer and start applying to that dream job. I also will be able to be home at a decent hour to eat dinner and hang out with the family more. So why is this bothering me? I have been with the same company almost 9 years! I am so confused on this one-really. I just never know with my company now. I NEVER thought we would be laying off people. Who knows-I may be next!
Next dilemma:
Where we live. Our lease is up in September and it couldn’t come any faster. We pay $1325 a month rent only no utilities. We just found a condo across the street that wants $1100 and includes water,sewer,trash and basic cable. AND they welcome my dog with ZERO deposit. That is AT LEAST a $250 savings per month. Things are not great here. They have started breaking into cars and we have had a whole lotta break-ins recently. We were advised by management to get renters insurance. This is a nice area too but right now doesn’t seem too safe. Police are here a lot more than usual. I could use that excuse to break my lease to jump on this other place that is cheaper AND safer. Also-the mold problem is back but not too bad. I just don’t want to create more problems. Should I just wait and let this opportunity pass us by? Maybe in September another one will come up?
My last problem-MAIN problem of the night…
Hubby is sending resumes out and getting zero calls back. He is still doing his work but since he works on the field driving most of the day-gas prices are making it nearly impossible for him to keep doing this. We have now dipped into the tax money we had saved just to cover bills. Oh and the project we did-we got paid for it on Monday…$1300 total for that little project. Yeah-but it is gone. It paid the rent. 
Now we have $700 left from taxes and $1271 from our “stimulus” money. We owe the attorney $1400. Should we take money out of our taxes and just pay him and get this over with? I am scared to touch that money because it is really tight here. Really tight. We are budgeting-I just don’t understand this. We are ALWAYS broke.
When I started this blog, I was happy to be sharing my experience of debt settlement with others. Obviously, with the economy the way it is and with the debt we had-it became impossible to save for any kind of settlement.
I got some good pointers and met some nice people along my journey with this blog. As anybody reading this knows, I have decided to file for Bankruptcy and start over. I did get a few emails and comments telling me that I was making a HUGE MISTAKE. At first I thought that too. However, after reading through other stories and blogs of people in similar positions, I realize filing Bankruptcy is the best option for us. Some people are doing great with their settlements and I applaud them. Some people have depleted their retirement and 401k’s to pay off creditors and it just confuses me. I don’t want to be 70 years old and depending on working and Social Security just to cover my necessities! I am 31 years old now and if I get through this Bankruptcy then I will have a fresh start. I will make sure to invest in our future and stay away from any kind of credit. I have learned my lesson!
Some people will say filing BK is taking the easy way out-OK I can take that. But before anyone judges ANYONE for filing, look at their situation as an individual. Most of us did not get here for frivolous spending but rather on medical and family emergencies/issues.
Right now the economy is very scary…very scary. I do not see it getting better anytime soon. I hope it would but that is just wishful thinking. I am very sad as I see small business owners closing shop and even the bigger companies closing it’s doors. Jobs are being lost everyday. People are losing their homes, their cars and their security. Times are very tough. I feel that writing this blog about my “debt problems” is minimal to what so many others are facing out there. I am filing bankruptcy and putting it behind me. There is not much more to write about on that.
This is my last post and eventually this blog will be deleted.
I wish everyone well and good luck in all your journeys! 
My husband does a lot of field work for a company and when gas prices started to go up, I told him he needs to ask for a raise to keep up with the rising fuel cost. Well, he asked in January and it has been this long since he has heard anything. The raise he got yesterday was very small but it is still a raise. So that goes in effect next week just as the gas prices go higher! In our area the cheapest is about $3.45 a gallon right now. I am wondering how we are going to be able to do this really. The public transportation is not so great here but I am highly considering it. I mentioned it at work and I kinda got the-EWWW you are gonna ride the bus look. What is so wrong with it? If I find a route that will take me in a decent amount of time, I am doing it. Everyone else can pretend they have a money tree and this doesn’t effect them. I thought about my husband doing something else but with his work-he can help out with our youngest. Especially on school days off and vacations. We have no help watching her. If we were to pay for child care-we should just sign over our check to child care because that is how much it costs here!
It is hard for us right now but I feel a little selfish when I go through these thoughts. There is so much worse going on out there. I can just imagine families that are going through tougher times. Everyone I talk to is losing their jobs or their houses or barely making it. I feel bad for people who are having a hard time keeping food on the table. I just wish things would get better. It is making me really sad to see all this.
Geese, it has been over 2 weeks since my last post. Time sure does fly. I have been good though. Those few vacation days off helped me out tremendously. I also helped my husband knock out some of his field work and if all goes well and it is accepted with no problems-we made an extra $650 bucks. I enjoyed working with him and being out of an office. It was a nice change. We also sold a few more things on Ebay. I have made almost $500 so far selling stuff. I am doing paid surveys at night and working OT again for the next 2 weeks so that should help out.
With the extra money coming in, you would think my BK lawyer has been paid off. Nope. I have made another payment to him but am not paying him off until May. Why? Because I found out our stimulus money we will be getting will be considered an asset. INCREDIBLE! So even though I have made some cash, I still have less than $1k in the bank at a time after all bills are paid. Florida law says I can have at the most that 1k without it becoming an issue. So once that stimulus money deposits, I will be paying the lawyer off with those funds. I can’t wait!
The creditors are getting nasty. My husband started answering the phone and giving the creditors the lawyer info. It does nothing because all they do is have another rep call right back! So the ringers remain turned off but they still leave their nasty messages. So far in the last 2 weeks:
My GE card put me in Collections for my City Furniture Card
Capital One put me in collections
Hubby got a letter from Chase ASKING to settle his card for 35% less
Washington Mutual put him in collections
I know this is just the beginning of the creditor wrath so I need to get the lawyer paid and file already. I just think it is such BS that my stimulus money would be such a big deal. It will be under 2k and all it was going to was my used car purchase when I surrender my car. They won’t see it that way though. I could go and just buy that used car but then that would be a 2nd car for the family and would be considered an asset. Oh and if it has any equity in it-that could = BIG problems. Confusing huh? Yeah I think so too. I will do it this way though because I want ZERO problems when I file. ZERO
Goodnight everyone.
I could really get use to this staying at home stuff! I have gotten to spend some time at home and with my little one. We haven’t really gone out because my eye is still not healed but we are having fun at home. I am getting a lot done and I feel so much better!
Things are moving on Ebay. I have also been doing some paid surveys while I am home. They are not money makers at all but an extra $5 here and there is fine with me. I was doing mystery shopping for a while but stopped. I am thinking about adding that back in. Any extra money will help. I can add that to the attorney fund. I didn’t go and file this week as planned. Honestly, I am so scared spending the little money we have in savings on my attorney fees. That is why we are trying to make any extra money we can to pay him. I would love to just go and pay and get this BK going but I also don’t know what emergency may come up. Gosh, I haven’t seen my husband much while on my vacation. He has been working and is doing side work for extra money. It is OK because our short-term goal by the end of the year is to have this BK behind us and have a little money saved up.
I am a person who knows nothing about savings, never had a 401K and knows little about retirement, stocks/bonds, IRA’s but I am reading up on them. Going through all this has made me realize you need to save and be smart with your money. As I have been cleaning and going through old bank records and purchases we have made-I am floored at the stupid decisions we have made in life. We have wasted so much money!
I haven’t been able to update because I have been working 24/7. Well, my not so nice boss decided to show his appreciation for what I have done while they were out of town and piled more work on me and went right back to being a prick. It didn’t take long. I could write a book on what he did to me last week but why bother? I was so upset that I came in the next day and said… ya know what-I usually cash in my vacation but not this time-I am taking paid days off starting this day… (and circled them on the calender for all to see). What could any of them say? I am sure it didn’t sit well but I need this time. My girls are out of school and I need a break. I am still hurting from the accident and I need to get things organized. I still have boxes everywhere. I am only off 1/2 this week and 1/2 next week. I would have loved to take the full week off at a time but we had to sacrifice a little because of the kids having 2 different weeks off of school. Yep, when one gets done with vacation-the other is just starting. Sucks when you have no help with childcare. It really sucks when you have a little time off and can’t go anywhere or do anything because it costs so much just to drive there! What’s up with the gas prices anyway? The lowest gas price around here is about $3.36 a gallon. That is OK anyway. Right now I am fine with staying home and getting things on order.
Hubby is working hard and we are selling on Ebay. I am working towards that attorney fund. I got some kind of eye infection last week and ended up spending $100 to get an eye doc to look at me. My primary doc could not see me until May since I was a new patient. What the hell do I pay insurance for? So long story short, my eyelid is all red and raw and is in EXTREME PAIN from a contact moving around in it. I have an eye condition that contacts are better for my sight than glasses but apparently I will need special contacts—they cost over $320 a pair! Yup, they are medically necessary BUT I seen this doc “out of network” so insurance was not involved. I will need to go through the whole magic “referral” BS and see what I can do. I really would like insurance to pay for something. Because of this condition-I am not a good candidate for laser surgery. Although I am too scared for that anyway.
I am not a person that is into politics but I totally agree with the idea of Universal Healthcare. The whole insurance industry needs to change.
We got our first collection letter. It was for my husband’s Washington Mutual card. That was quick. He just stopped paying them in January. He has started to give all his creditors the attorney’s phone number. I don’t think the attorney realized when he told us to forward all our creditor calls to him that we had 22 creditors! I haven’t picked up for any of mine yet. I have been so tired and haven’t wanted to talk to them just yet. I will though.
After I got my tax refund, we caught up everything we needed to and gave the attorney a deposit. All we owe him now is $1650. We have it in the bank now but with my DH being so slow, we held off touching that money in case we needed it. We have been trying to come up with other funds. We have started to sell a lot of my collectibles on Ebay. I do hate to part with most of them but right now we really have no room and we need the money more. So far, we have made $200. There are a few more things still for sale. My DH also just took on a side job that hopefully will get us some extra money in too. I really want to pay off the attorney next month. We are focused and I think we can do it.
As I was cleaning out my boxes, I found the paperwork for our cars. Gosh, I have been torn over what car is going but I made the final decision after reading these numbers. Being able to finance things could be good for some but now that I look at it, this was a pretty stupid move on our part. This is the #’s on our LEASED car:
6/07: Purchase price $23,410 2007 Honda CRV
After fees and all that other extra crap they throw in…including the $4,844 negative equity of my trade: the total was $29,946. I paid $1687 at signing and have been paying $504 a month since 6/07. So I have paid 10 payments-so almost 7k on this lease and I am not even on year one. I signed a 48 month not 36 month lease. The warranty expires after 36 months! I will be driving around in a leased vehicle for 1 year with no warranty. DUH??? So simple math because I suck at math (obviously) 4 years at $504 per month is $24,192. If I decide I want to keep the car, well I have to come up with an extra $11,956.95. So how much will this little Honda cost me? Too much for what it will be worth. I bought this car in a hurry. A girl ran a stop sign and hit my husband in the front end of our minivan. (yeah only DAYS after my 1st accident)We kept having problems with the motor after that accident. Nobody could fix it or figure out the problem so we traded it in. This was when I was going through the short sale with the house and my credit was just about to go down the toilet. Boy what were we thinking?
Will I do this again? Heck no!
I will keep my little 2006 Honda Civic that is a magnet for rear end crashes. It is awesome on gas and is affordable. I owe 14k on it but we may be able to negotiate that when we reaffirm it in BK. From what I hear, we will have to pay the present retail price. Still, I wont ever buy another new car or lease one. I now understand what people have told me all along and I was just too thick-headed to hear it…NEW CARS ARE A BAD INVESTMENT!
So this week I was hoping to update on only good news…well…
Friday night on my way home from work, I was hit in my little Honda by a nice sized Chevy truck. I am fine-a little banged up and sore but OK. From the impact-I thought the car was going to be totaled but it had minor damage! This is the same car I was hit in just after I bought it. That was my 1st accident ever in my life. Now this is accident #2 in less than 2 years! We decided not to involve the police or the insurance. For me 2 reasons…
The damage is minimal-not worth the claim. Last accident was worse and even though I got hit-my rates tripled! My medical bills were covered and I got a whole $1,200 for my losses (2k less attorneys fees just to get my bills paid) and it was just a big headache. This accident definitely aggravated my injuries but I can manage the pain. Besides. the insurance companies would have had a field day with the whole “pre-existing condition” crap.
My 2nd reason is simple-the guy was a working sap like me. It was obvious he was tired and on his way home from a long day. He was nervous he was going to lose his job because of this. He insisted I follow him to an ATM because he just cashed his check and wanted to give me what he had left to show in good faith he would pay for damages. We exchanged all info and I took pictures, etc. I think it will turn out alright.
I don’t know, before I start feeling like a person that life is just constantly throwing obstacles at, I say to myself-things could always be worse. It just sucks to constantly take 2 steps forward and 5 steps back. I do have to say I am so happy I wasn’t in the leased car-things could have been a lot worse all around.
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