Well

Well, it's been a little bit since I've posted. I will update our stats in a little bit. In the past month we've consolidated our discover and our large Citibank card, so we have about $17,000 on one card, and we have a little over $1,000 on our other citibank card. We used that one quite a bit over the last month for large purchases. (Plane tickets, gas to and from Arkansas amongst a few other things). We're no longer using that card and we're back to using the citibank card that has the $17,000 on it, but at the same time, we're hardly using that one at all either, just for small purchases here and there and every now and then for gas. The nice thing about that large card is most of it has 1.99% apr. So we pay about $300 a month on that card and the interest is only $100, so we're paying down $200 a month on the pricnipal, which is nice. Okay time to update the stats. Have a good one!

Okay so after updating the stats, I just want to throw out there, that we are no longer paying on Gary's student loans right now. He has deffered them for 6 months for right now so that is one less thing that we are having to worry about until we can get some other bills paid off.

Also, we are in the process of looking for a house. We qualify for about $100,000 home. Right now we're looking at some new homes, but I am thinking about looking at some other less expensive homes with smaller payments. If we purchase our home soon then we'll qualify for the tax credit. With the $8,000 tax credit and roughly $3000 back in taxes this coming spring we will be able to pay a NICE chunk down on the credit cards. Looking forward to it! =)

Current Totals

Well, all of the balance transfers have now gone through, AND we have recieved Gary's first Student Loan bill in the mail. Also Gary has decided to use the option to defer his student loans for a year. We will still make small payments on them monthly due to the interest, but we will not have to pay 117 a month every month if we can't afford it. It's NICE being able to have a small sigh of relief for right now. So here are our update totals:

Student Loans: $8891.27
Child Support: $8315.25
Citibank 1: $16,109.17
Citibank 2: $59.44
Discover: $31.88

The total right now is: $33,407.01

So I just realized that I had forgotten the citibank card in the calculations and the debt has been ALL wrong since the beginning. I'm updating it now, so it's all current.

Whew a bunch of Transfers

Okay it's been a busy week for our crediting purposes. During this week I decided to say adios to our Discover Card. The Discover card has an APR of 18.99%. I have a citibank card that has an APR of 14.99% I transferred a total of $5500 from my Discover to my Citibank.

It would have only been $5100, but in the midst of things, I wanted to treat myself to something, so I bought a new laptop! YAY... Now I'm sure you're thinking what the hell did this crazy girl do, she must treat herself all of the time to be $16000 in Credit Card Debt. Well, I don't. LOL. I have a husband, and 3 step kids, along with a new baby on the way. That is where the debt comes from. Plus flying back home for custody court dates (3 times) all of us flying home for Christmas, and also hotel and gas from when we drive the oldest Step Daughter to and from her mom's all kind of adds up. I asked my husband what the last thing I bought for myself that I didn't NEED was, and he told me it was tickets to see Bon Jovi that I bought almost 2 years ago.(Back when I had a good paying job and money really wasn't an issue). So yes, I bought a laptop. Oh well...

So, the $5,500 that I transferred is at 1.99% until July of 2010 then the remaining balance is charged at 14.99%. ALL still better than the 18.99% I was paying before. Whew, that was long winded. So now I'm just waiting for the transfers to go through, so that I can try to guestimate what my monthly payment will be.

Speaking of monthly payments, I'm super excited this month because I just paid all of our bills and we still have $130 in the checkbook (and thats after putting $40 in our emergency fund. And Gary gets paid this week. YAY. The only questionable thing is that we don't know how much his student loan payment is anymore.

Gary finished his 'time' with the 'get out of default' creditor by paying his 10+consecutive payments every month. So now his student loan has been picked up by a lender and they have yet to inform us of what his payment will be every month. That scares me, but we can manage, right?!

So I need to update the totals on the right side, but I'm not surewhere all of the credit cards are sitting right now, so I don't want to change anything until I get that figured out. So look for that coming soon!

Wow

So my fiance and I got married! YAY!!!! Well, our wedding present from my parents was they paid off the remaining balance of the car loan. This was a gift, not a loan. Which is VERY exciting! That drops our total debt by almost 10,000. Which is great, plus it opens up $370 a month. Now this doesn't mean that I can pay that much extra on credit cards every month (I wish) but it means that we no longer will have to borrow money from my parents to pay bills or to buy groceries. AWESOME, right?! =) I'll update the rest of the debt in a few weeks when credit card statements come in the mail. Actually I will probably update the student loan info before then. Oh yeah, we just found out that this our last payment to the student loan get out of delinquency company because the rest of his loan has been picked up by a bank. We'll find out what those new payments are soon. YAY! (Hopefully they're not more than they were before... that would SUCK!)

More in a few days!

Major Debt

Okay, since my last post we have dug ourselves into even more debt. =( Pretty much G has to fly across the country to go to court for a custody hearing, and that was $450 that we weren't expecting putting on the credit cards, as well as a few other expenses that had to go on the Discover. So here is our current debt total as of right this second.

Car: $9,903.91
Discover: $4,756.55
Citibank 1: $10,012.72
Citibank 2: $0
Child Support: $8,718.04
Student Loans: $8,892.14

The grand total being: $42,269.32.

Luckily you will see the car going down still, that's positive, child support and student loans are declining, which is positive. Citibank and Discover have been going up. Not positive. BUT I did cut up the citibank card, so that will no longer be able to increase. Whoo hoo. That is positive. I will continue paying that down at about $200 a month, until the payment gets a bit lower, such as down to $150 a month, then I will put that extra $50 to paying off the Discover card, since the Discover has a higher balance. I cannot wait until the law goes into effect where the balance with the largest finance charge gets paid first, instead of the other way around. That will help with the citicard imensely due to the fact that 1/2 of the balance on there only has a 4.49 APR vs. the 14.99 APR as the rest of it.

When exactly is that law going into effect again? I'll have to look that up. Until then, I think that's it for today!

Wow

Wow, so I haven't posted in almost 2 whole weeks. Insane. Well, we paid the student loan payment. Unfortunately because we paid it 7 days late, (even though we get a 20 day grace period) it only took like $50.00 off of his loans. But hey, it's still coming down, right?

So our payment from his student loans was $117.00 but in all honestly it was only $48.68. I guess $48.68 off of the total balance is better than interest added and no payment? Right?

Where we REALLY screwed up this month is we put about another $200 on the Discover Card. We just had some expenses....like gas... that we couldn't live without and we had to do it. Luckily Gary has been working 40 hours the past few weeks, so his paychecks should be a bit bigger, AND my mom is planning on paying off my car, so that will open up an extra $370 a month. Whoo hooo.

Its gonna all go away sooner or later, right?!

Recent Payments:

Here are the most recent payments that have been made! Whoo hoo. Its nice to see things start to go down a bit! More to update when student loans are paid when the payment clears next week and we get a statement!

Discover: $165.41
Citibank 1: $175.08

Chippin away a little at a time.

What I'm Doing to Help

Well, other than applying for teaching jobs for the fall, I am doing what I can online to earn some extra money. I was going to work a second job, but with being pregnant and working a full time job as it is, I'm already exhausted. Lol. So I am working with a few different websites to earn some extra money. I will post the links for them, they're pretty awesome!



I have alredy received checks from them this site, VERY legit!



I have not gotten a check yet, but I have earned $9.05 so far!





So far I have earned $15.50... super easy!!

Like I said, these websites you can earn cash, they don't offer payouts until you get to $20.00 but honestly, it isn't hard to get to $20.00 if you put in some time and effort. I've been kind of lazy with the sites, but even with being lazy I've still earned quite a bit!

Some Ranting..

This is just a random rant/comment that I had with myself when in the shower. I am fully aware that being $37,822.86 in debt really isn't bad compared to a lot of people that are that in debt with JUST school loans. So I want to go over a normal month for us, bill-wise/income wise.

My income for month: about $1,120
Gary's income for month: about $200 (should be about $800 but child support takes most of it)

Total Income: $1,320

Bills:
Rent: $560
Car: $370
School Loan: $120
Discover: $90
Citibank 1: $190
Citibank 2: $ 32
Electricty: $75
Cable/Internet: $75

Total Bills: $1512

Total Short just on Bills Monthly: $192

Of course none of this includes gas for the car or for groceries, so about $350-$400 SHORT a month, that is what we are borrowing from my parents monthly. Luckily the Citibank 2 card will be going away after the next payment, And with Gary working extra hours, that will surely help. Plus he is about to become a manager, so that will help too. Will it be $350-400 help? Probably not, but even if it cuts that in half, thats less that we're borrowing from mom and dad. Whew.... now everything is pretty much out there and out in the open!

Wow Thats Scary

So now that I have everything all laid out in front of me, its a big smack in the face to know that I went from being just in debt with car payments to over $30,000 in debt, and all this in the past year. I feel that tonight and tomorrow I will be updating quite a bit so that I can get as much history as I can on here for everyone to read!

An awesome plus for right now, Gary (Fiancee) is now working between 38 and 40 hours a week instead of the 25 that he was working in the past, so that will help to bring in some extra money. Plus I have applied to a few schools to teach again in the fall. If I get a teaching job, that will help us tremndously. I don't want to get my hopes up, so I'm trying not to.

In the meantime, I'm doing a few things, I am using quite a few online websites to earn some extra money, and am little by little putting bits and pieces into an emergency fund. My goal is for $500 to start with. Then we'll move from there. I have also gotten back into the habit of cutting coupons, but only for things that we use already. No buying extras just because we have a coupon. Plus because I am pregnant, we are with the WIC program, so we are receiving help with some of our groceries.

Also, all 3 credit cards are chillin in the freezer. Litterally. If they're put away, we can't use them. It works quite well. I did break the discover out this month though to charge a 35 lb bag of dog food, dog treats, and a few other things. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that we have a puppy? We adopted him before we found out I was pregnant. Wonderful huh?

What Happened?

So within the past year instead of having just $11,000 in debt from my car payment, I now owe the following:

Car: $10,226.78
Discover Card: $4,411.49
Citi Card #1: $9,792.25
Citi Card #2: $32.97

Plus I have gotten engaged and we are getting married next month at the courthouse, and have thus inherited my fiancee's debt as well:

Child Support: $8,765.86
School Loans: $9,005.00

So needless to say, Our total debt is: $37,822.86. Not to mention I am pregnant and we are expecting in Novemeber. I used to be a teacher, but now work at a vet. hosptial making $9 an hour, and Gary (my fiancee) works at a fast food restaurant making $7 an hour, but he is also paying child support for 3 children as well. We have VERY little income compared to what we owe, but my parents are helping, and we're chipping away at stuff a little at a time.