Jen’s Journey

Hello everyone! Well thought I would post my update before I start my part time job – which starts tomorrow!! And hopefully everyone is having a Happy Thanksgiving! Well turns out as I’m in sales I got a few sales that will actually increase my bonus. It was going to be about 6K but now it’s up to 16K! It’s a year end type promotion and I earn $ for certain products I sell. So it may turn out to be even more by the end of they year! But at this point I know it’s at least 16K, wow it’s even amazing to write it. But they don’t take taxes out so I know that’s going to hurt us come tax time. At this point though I’m just trying to deal with what’s going on now. First I’ll update on my credit cards, bills and then on what’s going on with our house:

With the 16K this is my current plan:

Pay Reserve line - $800

Pay Business CC off - $2770

Pay CC 1 Off (not in our DS program) - $1050

Pay off personal Loan - $1500

Put $1000 in savings to start EF fund

Total $7120.00

Leaving $8880.00 from bonus – use the rest:

Medical bill $168

Bed for x-mas (ours is 6 years old and very bad on our backs) - $800

Bed for our younger son - $400

2^nd Used car - $800 – with me working at night and only one car we need the 2^nd.

Total $2168.00

Leaving $6712.00

About $1,000 will be used for regular bills in Dec. Phones, utilities, etc the rest I’m unsure about, I’m thinking of trying to use all the rest to pay down our machine loan which is $9800 right now. Our payment is $400 a month and this would really help if we get rid of this bill sooner rather than later. We’ll see still reviewing all the numbers. But with my plan above this will leave us with these bills:

Debt Settlement – need about 30K for three remaining cards. (the 1^st card I’m settling – last payment will be made 12/3 so I’ll have 3 cards left)

Machine loan – about $4500 left

Business CC #2 - $12K

Car $23500 – 0% interest

Total - $70,000

(nice having only 4 bills – will be much easier to manage)

And should be about 4 – 5K less after my part time job ends as all the $ I make is going directly into the DS fund.

So that’s my plan – let’s hope it works out

ON to the HOUSES:

So in Dec we will start making payments on our primary house, they are willing to work with us and I’ve reduced some expenses. It’s still going to be tight but we’re going to try and make it work. Our 1^st is willing to work with us so we’ll start making the payments and then keep trying to work with our 2^nd. I’m going to pay what I can to the second until we can get everything else caught back up. A lot of $ is still going to this house but in the long run I figure it’s better than a foreclosure on our credit and possible judgment later for the deficiency. But with this we then can’t keep making the 2^nd payment on our rental. So I am going to see if we can get a better paying, higher paying renter, if not I may be able to give this house back to the lender or sell. The rental is much more reasonable and in line with the current market so hopefully I can sell or give it back to help us continue to reduce monthly expenses. Financially I would like to move into the rental but the total overall financial/credit damage just won’t be worth it I think. So right now I think this is the best option.

Well that’s everything I think. Lots going on and just trying to keep everything straight and make the best possible choices I can with the funds and information I have.

Well everyone, I’m still around.  Everything has just gotten busier as is life I suppose.  My updates are alittle depressing as with the vacation, etc my debt is still about the same, although I was approved for a 6K bonus, so when I do update my numbers later this month it should be good and we will be back ontrack!  Also I start my 2nd temp job on 11/23 so just next week, I hope I can make it, it’s like a full time job at night for 5 weeks.  I’ll need lots of coffee I’m sure!  all this money will be going directly into my DS account so I can start saving for the other 3 cards I need to settle. So far I have one card that agreed to 65% and I have made 3 payments.  The last payment will be made 11/30 and then one card will be done!  Can’t wait for that to at least see some progress.

My house -

Still on the market and we haven’t had one person want to see it, but the good news is we got our statement and our interest is going down for the next year, so if we do the workout program with them and with the lower interest we should be able to make it, but only if our 2nd will work something out.  If so we can stay in this house, and put our rental up for sale - (which has a much better chance of selling because we purchased that one really low) we wouldn’t make anything on it, but we wouldn’t keep paying into it each month to make up the difference.   If we stay in our house, we will avoid foreclosure, but it’s not going to save us a ton.  But if we keep watching everything and maybe do some part time work next year we can still continue to pay of all the other debts.   Our debts do control us right now, we spent future money! if all our debts were paid, credit cards, etc, then we wouldn’t have any problem making the house and rental payments, but it is not so.  Thus we need to keep trying to forge ahead and make some progress.

So that’s my update for now, once I get the bonus, and some good stuff to report I’ll update my numbers!