Introduce Yourself

[TwoNickles]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hello, my name is Jerry. I am 56 years young. I have seven children; oldest is 34, youngest is 17. For most of my married life I have been the only income earner, except for a short three year time when my wife worked outside the home. The reason I am coming to this group is to try to learn how to budget, save money, and pay off my/our CC debts. Throughout my entire life I have found it extremely hard to save money and budget. So now, I have a lot of CC debt that I'd like to get rid of. I know (well, I think) budgeting is the key to this, but I've never learned how to do it. I have always found it extremely boring and tedious. I *really* don't feel to bad about the debt, because being a single income family of nine, there was always glasses to buy, teeth to fix, clothes to buy, etc. that a large family needs. I have always tried to pay for everything with cash, but sometines there just wasn't enough. So now, with my youngest at 17, I'd like to tackle the debt and get it out of my life once and for all. So, I'm here to learn, and to apply what I learn. I welcome any and all comments or criticisms, good or bad. :

[CheaplyClever]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hello, I'm Beth, a college student (in my 40's) who is taking the summer off to play outside in the North Carolina sunshine. I am married to my best friend (17 years this week). Our only child is an elderly dog whose health is failing. I found this site searching Google with: "Pound of ground beef". I liked what I saw. Nice people, and an entertaining way to spend my coffee drinking morning.

[CRFSaver]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi I am Chris, 32 and single. Just came to the site a few days ago. Saw a reference to it on fat wallet so thought I would check it out. So I don't know if I should be telling you all this as it will probably get me banned from the site but, I work for....

...a credit card company (waits to be pelted with tomatoes and other unmentionable things). Yes it is one of the big ones, no I can't help your balance, no I don't decide who get's charged what fees. Has the credit card industry done some sleezy things? Yes! Have people abused their credit cards and then complained when they get dinged for it? Yes! Some changes are being required by the regulators, but my company is actually making changes in the way we do business.

I make a decent income, but even given where I live housing prices are through the roof. I would dearly love to go back to California where I was before this (I used to do investment management and institutional fixed income sales). I am not cheap but I love finding a good value. I have no debt (student loans paid off, car paid off and I use an Amex charge card that is required to be paid off every month, I know I know there is an annual fee but its worth the peace of mind).

Either way I am impressed by some of the ideas on here. I saved money by renting a room at a friends house. A friend of mine, her husband and her bought a house that was so expensive that they were happy to have me rent a few rooms upstairs. (I have a bedroom, den and bathroom all to myself). I share the kitchen and I dont pay for utilities except for my phone service (they just use cell phones but we are in a valley so cell service stinks. plus I have friends in Canada so I can call using the service built in). My rent was cut in more then half and dont pay utilities.

[dwilliams12]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi Everyone! My name is Dee. I'm 30, living in IL with my boyfriend and our DS who is 6 months. I have been lurking around for a couple of weeks now and have enjoyed viewing everyone's thoughts on the subject of money and all the issues that go along with it.

I stumbled upon the site while looking for advice on how to reduce debt since we have recently incurred some. I liked what I saw-The forum seems friendly and helpful and I liked the journaling idea to help us stay focused!

[zacsmum]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi, I'm Emma, i'm 22 and live an hour outside of Sydney, Australia. I've been engaged to a wonderful man for 3 1/2 years and we have a 10 month old son. We were hopeless with our money before our son was born and literally moved into my parents house while i was in hospital having the baby because we realised we couldn't afford for me to have maternity leave otherwise. We are moving back out on our own in just two months so i'm here trying to soak up as much money saving information as i can to prepare myself. I make all the decisions when it comes to our finances because that's the way my partner wants it, he says it's his job to earn the money and my job to spend it. I only work part time now that i am a mum because i don't want strangers raising my children and i'm going to have more time to implement money saving techniques such as cooking from scratch, packing work lunches, shopping around, using cloth nappies,etc

[rob62521]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi, everyone!
I don't always have time to post, but I enjoy reading what others have posted. I live in Illinois and am a teacher. My parents were hard working, but since they lacked education, basically poor. Education was the key to get out of the cycle, and I've come a long way where they started.
I enjoy reading and learning about finance and sound advice put in terms that I can understand. I am the frugal one and my husband is amazed when I get good deals.

[ruka420]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hello everyone,
I don't have a lot of time to post either but am very interested in checking this site out often. Both DH and I have full time jobs and raising two girls; Alexis 4 and Christina 1. Daycare is a killer for us, but we both enjoy our jobs. Neither of us have a college education, but currently looking into it. I love to save money by using coupons and finding sales. I was wondering if any of you are on a coupon chain, I have heard of them but never joined one!

Adrienne

[rob62521]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi!

You asked about a coupon chain. I am on one and when people are regular sending things it works pretty well. Mine is through yahoo. I tried starting one at work, but it didn't work. One person kept it for over two months and after we restarted it, no one was inclined to go with it.

Debbie

[nobs]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hello to all. I'am a stay at home mom, and student. Married, 3 kids. I love to garden, both flower and vegetable. Will can this year for the first time. I froze everything in the past. We are cheap, and we love it. People think we are weird! I'am sucking up the info on this forum like a sponge. Love it!

[BAGAGT1]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi all, I am married 30 YO male with a wonderful wife and a dog, I joined the forum as a way to help find my way out of debt. Although I am not drowning in debt, I want to once again taste the sweet nectar that is being debt free. I was once debt free, but then my wife went back to school and we bought a house (and the furniture and appliances to go with it). My goal is to be completely debt free within one year....maybe less. I will be reading regurlarly to find new tips on how save and make money.

[Fern]

Re: Introduce Yourself

My name's Fern. I've always earned a living as a writer and have always been frugal, i guess a trait inherited from my hard-working grandparents. Got to be more of a tightwad out of necessity during a few periods of unemployment, and I guess that characteristic just stuck, even after i found work again.

This is a great website, though I find it lacks some explanation/direction regarding how some parts of the site work, eg, the point system.

[HeatherW]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi everyone! I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce myself. My name is Heather and I'm from Georgia. I am married with 2 fur-kids (my dogs). Currently I am a full-time Culinary Arts student. I am so glad I found this site through an article on the Dollar Stretcher! :-)

HeatherW

[karie]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hi!

I'm new here. My name is Karie and I am a work at home mom from upstate NY. I have 1 son who is 13. Hubby and I are Ameriplan USA brokers and we love it. This looks like a great board.

~Karie

[wholelottacoffee]

Re: Introduce Yourself

Hello all! I just found this board while looking for coupons on the Internet and thought there would be a lot of good advice to be learned here. A bit about myself - my name is Elena. I live in San Francisco with my lovely daughter, husband and cats. I manage a small restaraunt, which I often mistake for my life, but I really enjoy reading, jogging, and spending time at home with my family.

Re: Introduce Yourself

Welcome all!