Introduce Yourself

[cemsmom]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi. My name is Christie, and I just joined last night. I am currently a SAHM to 3 wonderful children--ages 11, 9, and 3. I have worked from time to time in various jobs, but affording childcare has been a problem for us. I tried working 3rd shift for about 3 years in an effort to work around my husband's erratic schedule, but I was becoming far too exhausted to continue. I am taking an online class, and eventually I hope to work from home.

This looks like an excellent site. Everyone seems to have great ideas, and I think I can learn a lot here.

Nice to "meet" you all!

Christie

[tinapbeana]

Re: Introduce Yourself

welcome christy, jason, steve, christie, and chris (scanner)!

and scanner, i know you've been here a bit but i couldn't resist including another chris in the greeting!

[jodi]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Scanner - you mean you're not giving me professional advice! Eek! I've got to sell all the mutual funds I bought based on your posts!

just kidding I am very thankful for all the info you put on the forums here in layman's terms. Welcome all!

[jIM_Ohio]

Re: Introduce Yourself

I am 34 yo, wife is 33. I have aggressively paid off debt. When I graduated from college my rent was $680 and student loan payments were north of $700/mo (I owed close to 60k). I learned how to live on what I made and get out from under the debt.

Since then I am self taught how to invest and save. I know a thing or two about budgeting as well. My wife knows a thing or two about spending, so I also am learning how to negotiate.

[I-78 Commute]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi everybody! I'm Justin and it has become a mission and a goal of mine to get my family's financial situation under control. I love the site and all the information...it's really fun reading through so many different situations and threads.

I'm married with 2 kids (16 and 13) and I hope to get the whole family involved. It should be fun!

[nancy58]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Welcome I-78 Commute, jIM Ohio, cemsmom, Chaos151p, Scanner & christy38401...so many new people!!! hopefully a lot of new info, tips, stories and blogs. Enjoy...we're all a friendly bunch!

[areareare]

Hi Jeffrey
I happened upon your site quite by accident , and am so glad i did.It has helped me already, and its only been about a week since i joined . thanks to the people on this site , i'm glad to see i'm not alone in my interests

[Ima saver]

Welcome, area, glad you have joined us.

[dtjunkie]

Hi Everybody! I'm a little on the paranoid/shy side so i won't be saying my real name in here. Just in case some nut i actually know in real life Googles my real name and comes across all my posts on this site. Not that i'll be writing anything sordid, but i really can't write honestly if there is even a remote chance that someone i know might be reading it. But this site is great! My main goal this year is to purchase my first home so i am def. all about saving $$.

BTW - What does DH & DDH stand for? I get that DH is mostly likely a wife or husband and DDH is your child(ren). Does DH stand for "Dear Husband"?? "Darling Hubby""??

[Xmark]

Hi Everyone.

From Canada Here.
Looking forward to get some savings

[sparechange]

Hello all,

I found this site a few days ago by luck. I'm from Illinois, my significant other was laid off and we're trying to figure out how to live on half our budget til something comes along. I'm looking forward to learning some new ideas.

[Aleta]

Welcome Sparechange. We're happy to have you here. There are alot of people that can offer good advice here. If you can tell us where you are in your finances, if would help. Do you have any children, IRA's, 401's, credit card debt and if you do what is the interest rate or rates that you're paying. Alot of this will help sort out some of your concerns.

[areareare]

Welcome
Start a budget......

Using your net income....

10% savings
35% housing
15% transportation
25% food & everything else ( movies,clothes,etc. )
15% debt
This is what I use , but you can work it out to suit yourself .
I shop at the Goodwill store , get bargains on food etc.

I wish you luck.....

P.S. I really get a ton of valuable information on this site , especially from a lady called Kitty .

[areareare]

welcome

[sparechange]

Thanks for the replies, I guess I should have included more details but it's hard for me to write this kind of thing on a forum, and I wasn't sure if this was the right place.

Anyway, I have 2 kids, one at home and one away in college.

Our mortgage/taxes/utilities have depleted our savings. We have no investments, no pensions, no insurance, no IRA, no 401k.

We bought a house about 6 years ago as the prices in this area were just starting to go up, so all we have is a modest amount of home equity. Unfortunatly, due to the increase in housing prices, it would be impossible for us to rent or to buy anything else cheaper in this area than our current mortage payment. So we're kinda stuck here unless we relocate out of the region completely, which we're considering but hoping to put off until the youngest is out of high school in another year.

We took a home equity loan about a year ago (before the job loss) to pay off all our debt, and we cut up most of our credit cards at that time. We kept one that has an 8.4% interest rate. Since the layoff, we've racked up about $12k in debt on that, mostly for car repairs, gas, groceries, etc.

We live very simple lives, I've always shopped at thrift stores and get as many things used or free as I can. I cook all of our meals and I'm pretty good at the grocery deals. I have cut our expenses down but I can always learn more.

Thanks for listening. I will continue reading though the threads, and have already started getting some ideas. hopefully a lot of little changes will add up to something.