Back again....need to turn things around

[hehateme000]

I just wanted to add that I put up 2 things on craigslist today. One is a granite table that we do not need anymore, and the other is a weight set. I listed the table for $250 and the weight set for $750. Those will immediately go to pay debt if they end up selling.

I will continue to look for more ways to earn money. After my wife is done being pregnant and our newborn is a few months old, she will most likely try and find a part time serving job at a local restaurant. She has always been really good at serving and always makes good tips. Even 2 days a week when it is slow and in a bad section, she will probably still make $50 a day. That would be an extra $400 a month.

[danielaa]

I think you should probably sell the car since it's too expensive. But keep gym membership, netflix etc. Also, I think tanning is not that necessary...

[msomnipotent]

There is no sense in selling a car when he will just be more underwater. There won't be any money to gain from it.

Do you know what your credit score is? Insurance companies factor your score into their rates for both auto and life, so it would benefit you to do what you can to raise it. If you can control your credit card spending, it would be good if you can get the credit card companies to raise your limits on the cards that are nearly maxed. It would also give you a little cushion if an emergency happened. But only do it if you know you won't use the additional credit.

[hehateme000]

I just sold my weight set today for $650. So that will be going straight to some CC's with low balances. I also need to file my taxes. We owe 600 in federal but get a 900 refund in state. Unfortunately it will all go to my Napa court fine, since they have taken from it the last 4 years. The good thing is that the 900 they take will completely pay that off.

I have forecasted by the end of the year to have $1,500 in Emergency fund, and have paid off $7,500 in credit cards. I just need to stick to it. I also need to remember that an emergency may happen, I am having my 3rd kid in a couple months, and that we may have unexpected expenses come up that I did not budget for. However I am confident that I can get there! Thank you for all the encouragement!

[hehateme000]

There is no sense in selling a car when he will just be more underwater. There won't be any money to gain from it.

Do you know what your credit score is? Insurance companies factor your score into their rates for both auto and life, so it would benefit you to do what you can to raise it. If you can control your credit card spending, it would be good if you can get the credit card companies to raise your limits on the cards that are nearly maxed. It would also give you a little cushion if an emergency happened. But only do it if you know you won't use the additional credit.

My credit score is around 700-720

[sblatner]

I just sent you a private message.

[porkpistol]

I just sold my weight set today for $650. So that will be going straight to some CC's with low balances. I also need to file my taxes. We owe 600 in federal but get a 900 refund in state. Unfortunately it will all go to my Napa court fine, since they have taken from it the last 4 years. The good thing is that the 900 they take will completely pay that off.

I have forecasted by the end of the year to have $1,500 in Emergency fund, and have paid off $7,500 in credit cards. I just need to stick to it. I also need to remember that an emergency may happen, I am having my 3rd kid in a couple months, and that we may have unexpected expenses come up that I did not budget for. However I am confident that I can get there! Thank you for all the encouragement!

I would really work on building up that emergency fund much faster than the end of the year. Get that built up to $1,500 as fast as possible. Otherwise if you do end up having an emergency the first thing you will have to turn to is a credit card and continue to put yourself in more debt. Get a little safety net built up first.

When I was in a debt situation and had no money saved that is what I did first. I saved $1,200 as fast as possible and didn't touch a debt. Two months after we saved that and started pushing money towards a debt the starter went out in my vehicle. Luckily we had the emergency fund cash to pay for it otherwise it would have went to a card for sure.

[disneysteve]

I have forecasted by the end of the year to have $1,500 in Emergency fund, and have paid off $7,500 in credit cards. I just need to stick to it. I also need to remember that an emergency may happen, I am having my 3rd kid in a couple months, and that we may have unexpected expenses come up that I did not budget for.

I think making the EF a priority now is the way to go, at least until after the baby is born. Once those costs are settled, you can get back to the debt repayment. A few months isn't going to make a big difference either way and having the EF can keep you from taking on new debt. Hopefully all goes smoothly with the baby and you can then take the money set aside to chip away at the debt.

[hehateme000]

Ok thanks, that does make more sense. I redid my budget so that I will have 1K in an EF by the end of this month and also file to pay taxes, then next month we need to actually pay our taxes (600) and also pay off some of the smaller cards. In case of any emergency, we can still have 1k to spend without touching our other credit cards. I'm liking the sound of this.

I was thinking of maybe making a journal/log of my bills/spending/savings. Is there another sub-forum for that kind of thread?

[creditcardfree]

I was thinking of maybe making a journal/log of my bills/spending/savings. Is there another sub-forum for that kind of thread?

Yes, the SavingAdvice blogs are a great place to journal. You can find it here.

[disneysteve]

I was thinking of maybe making a journal/log of my bills/spending/savings. Is there another sub-forum for that kind of thread?

If you mean a one-time post, this forum is fine. If you mean an ongoing series, perhaps a blog would be a better way to go, although there are threads here where people post periodic updates to their situation too. Either way is fine. Many people either frequent the forums or the blogs but not both, so you'll get a lot of different people depending on which way you go.

[hehateme000]

Yes, the SavingAdvice blogs are a great place to journal. You can find it here.

Thanks!

If you mean a one-time post, this forum is fine. If you mean an ongoing series, perhaps a blog would be a better way to go, although there are threads here where people post periodic updates to their situation too. Either way is fine. Many people either frequent the forums or the blogs but not both, so you'll get a lot of different people depending on which way you go.

Sounds good. I already got the advice, now I just need to put it to action. I think the blog will help me keep track of the daily/weekly budget, and I can use this thread as a way to update my situation periodically. Also if anything comes up or I have a few questions I can always post those here, and at the blog.

Thank you again to everyone. It has been a long time, if ever, that I have had 1k just sitting around. I can't wait to have that stress taken off my shoulders and knowing I have some back-up and can crawl out of this deep hole I have dug myself.

[scfr]

Hopefully you'll enjoy blogging and working with your budget and coming up with creative ways to cut back on spending while maintaining your quality of life. Cutting back even in small ways can provide proof that life doesn't have to be any less enjoyable even though you are spending less. Once you get comfortable with small changes, you may decide to make even bigger ones.

With your growing family, are you taking advantage of free entertainment in your town? Is there a family-friendly library? Do they have DVDs that you can check out for free? Do they put on free programs that the family can enjoy together? Are there any bloggers or newspaper columns dedicated to highlighting free family-friendly activities in the area?

I have no doubt that you will be able to handle things differently this time around. I don't have statistics to back this up, but it seems to me that the age you are now (27 & 28) is an age when a lot of people who become serious about their finances begin to make real, substantive changes.

P.S. - I learned something from reading your post. I had no idea that Kay did not offer free cleaning for their jewelry! Some jewelry stores do. I wonder if many people factor in the cost of paying for cleaning vs. getting it cleaned for free when they calculate the lifelong cost of jewelry ownership, especially engagement rings.

[Milly]

I'm going to go against the grain and say pay off the credit cards before worrying about an emergency fund. If you put it towards your cards, eventually you'll have an extra $610 of power to work with. If disaster strikes, you can use the credit cards as your liquid funds. Even if that happens, you'll be better off than if you just saved because you wouldn't have saved as much with all that credit card payment due.

Warning: if you take that as an excuse to load up your credit cards on "emergency spending" and not build an emergency fund, I will personally reach through the internet and slap you very hard (is that cyber bullying?) You have to commit yourself to not using them with even more resolve than you would an emergency fund. I actually really like the idea above of freezing them in ice!

Note on children: Kids really don't have to be expensive at all.
Babies: If your wife can nurse him or her and you puree your own baby foods and you already have clothes/ equipment from your previous kids/cousin hand me downs, then they are pretty much just diapers ($30/month?)
Toddlers: Again fairly cheap. They eat very little and their clothes are widely available. It is easy to pick up a box stuffed with 2T boys clothes (or whatever you need) at a garage sale, thrift store, or Facebook page for like $15 and you can resell them at cost and get the next size for the same cost. As for going places and experiences, you need to break your mindset that it costs big bucks. Crowd out the bad with good. Don't think "I can't go to Disneyland" think "let's feed the seagulls fries at Burgerking". Your kid will love it! Take your kid to the beach, play "go fish", invite friends and have muffins at the park, ask your friend if you can give your kid a ride on their quad. There are TONS of experiences that are likely more memorable than expensive trips.
Small kids: my oldest is almost 4, so I haven't done it yet, but I imagine it is similar to toddlers. Writing from my own memories as a kid... They will be a little more likely to remember big things, so I wouldn't shake my head at you for doing something special, but you don't need to do big things every summer. We did a cross country drive when I was 8 that was memorable, but that is the earliest big thing I remember.

Bottom line: while they are little, your money has the most compound interest ahead of it and they won't really appreciate the stuff yet anyways. Invest in debt reduction now so you can do the lifelong memories when they are teenagers.

[hehateme000]

Hopefully you'll enjoy blogging and working with your budget and coming up with creative ways to cut back on spending while maintaining your quality of life. Cutting back even in small ways can provide proof that life doesn't have to be any less enjoyable even though you are spending less. Once you get comfortable with small changes, you may decide to make even bigger ones.

With your growing family, are you taking advantage of free entertainment in your town? Is there a family-friendly library? Do they have DVDs that you can check out for free? Do they put on free programs that the family can enjoy together? Are there any bloggers or newspaper columns dedicated to highlighting free family-friendly activities in the area?

I have no doubt that you will be able to handle things differently this time around. I don't have statistics to back this up, but it seems to me that the age you are now (27 & 28) is an age when a lot of people who become serious about their finances begin to make real, substantive changes.

P.S. - I learned something from reading your post. I had no idea that Kay did not offer free cleaning for their jewelry! Some jewelry stores do. I wonder if many people factor in the cost of paying for cleaning vs. getting it cleaned for free when they calculate the lifelong cost of jewelry ownership, especially engagement rings.

I should definitely look into that. The homeschool alliance we go through gives us a budget of $2,500 per kid, per year and we can use it on things like field trips, zoo tickets, etc. And a lot of stuff that we can't use it directly on, we can pay ourselves and then get 100% reimbursed. There are definitely free things we can do and thank you for bringing that up. It really is not about the big trips, I just have always felt that way for some reason. I did not get it as a kid and always wanted to be able to give it to my kids.

Kay's actually does clean your rings for free for life, if you purchased the warranty (or ESP - Extended Service Plan). But when I was talking with my wife about having to charge something on the card so it stays active, the least expensive thing she liked was a couple hundred dollars. Thats when I told her maybe we could get a ring cleaned there that we didn't buy from there. That is the only way I could think of adding something for cheap without having to buy her something that is super cheap and tat she probably wouldn't wear. I spoiled her in the past with jewelry and ruined her lol