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Across the Fence:  Airing My Dirty-Debt Laundry - Part 2  |
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JustAnAllAmericanGirl
True Blue Farmgirl
72 Posts
Jamie
Raleigh
North Carolina
USA
72 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 07:57:33 AM
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Okay ladies. Part 2 is now up on my blog.
This was a really difficult one to write today. I admited to a lot of things I'm not proud of, but thanks to all of your encouragement I braved through it.
www.JustAnAllAmericanGirl.blogspot.com |
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rschaaf
True Blue Farmgirl
174 Posts
Renee
Wooster
Ohio
USA
174 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 08:23:16 AM
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Jaime, I've been reading your blog and just saw your post here. I know a lot of people out there are in the same boat as you and I commend you for sharing and taking the initiative to fix the problem. I haven't read anything by Dave Ramsey. But, my husband and I are firm believers in the Lord. One of my friends told me that the money we get is God's money, he just lets us keep 90% of it. That statement really hit me. So, much like you, I looked at our financial situation and started making changes. The biggest thing that was hard to change was when my husband's income changed--not for the better. We had gotten accustomed to living on X amount of money and had financed things based on that income. When it changed, we had to live on less, but still had all the same bills. Then, we started reaching for the plastic...I put a stop to it before it got out of hand. One day I just got mad and took the scissors to them. I kept a low limit one for an emergency. It's still in the file cabinet stuck to the paper it was mailed on, not even activated. We started a strict budget making sure to tithe and save, even if it was $5.00. Since then, we've always had enough, not plenty, but enough. I was like you, I didn't feel like I was being a good steward of our (God's) money.
On another note, nice blog. I'm listening to Michael Buble from it right now. How did you get that added to your blog?
Keep up the good work!
"There is beauty, there is grace, in my peaceful country place!"
See what I'm up to at: http://www.lifeonctfarm.blogspot.com |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 08:31:44 AM
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Jamie- Thanks for a great post. Your post really resonated with me. I am cleaning house right now and one of the pitfalls we fall into is the Mail Pitfall. You know where you get the mail and see the names on the return address. You already know it's a piece of mail that you don't want so you set it aside. Then when you are picking up or sorting through the mail you realize that you have WAY more than you were paying attention to.
Also I subscribed to a service through my bank on a free trial- and part of the trial is they give you your FULL credit report. There are things on there that I need to dispute and others I need to take care of.
My goal is to be debt free including student loans in the next 3 years!
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com
www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com
Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com |
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acairnsmom
True Blue Farmgirl
1319 Posts
audrey
cheyenne
wy
1319 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 09:17:04 AM
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Good post Jamie! You could feel how hard it was for you to confess to your husband but I am so proud of you for doing it! It will take a lot of time and sacrifice but just remember you aren't just doing it for the two of you but those cute little ones pictured in your post.
You are also influencing a vast amount of people who read your blog. We all need to wake up and stop living like this. We have been lied to for years by the banks and the government and stores who offer all the credit in the world to us. We need to get mad and break this cycle of enslavement!
DH and I are right there on the front lines with you, we got our first budget in place and are ready to tackle our debt monster head on! Keep up the good work!
Audrey
Toto, we're not in Kansas any more! |
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clothedinscarlet
True Blue Farmgirl
1333 Posts
Siobhan
Battle Creek
MI
USA
1333 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 09:56:22 AM
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Great post Jamie! Once again, I'm with ya! My biggest issue right now is that, now that we've gotten debt free and we don't even have a mortgage because we are renting, I am finding it hard to swallow the idea of having a mortgage again (I also noticed the ridiculous amount of interest paid on our last home that we owned and I agree, it made me want to vomit). We are living in our dream home right now, but we are renting. The owner wants us to buy it, but aside from a miracle of God (which, I believe is totally possible) it is out of our pric range. We'd be making ourselves house poor to buy it and that is out of the question for me. Problem is, my husband knows I love the house and even though I told him I don't want it if I can't LIVE in it with my family, I feel like he wants to be the hero and make it happen no matter what. I'm terrified of that big mortgage again, even though, at this point buying low in the low economy should be a smart move because it SHOULD go up in value. But what if it doesn't? And what if hubby never gets those "raises" that he intends to so that we're not house poor forever? Ugh....it's so hard to own a home anymore without the big mortgage. And we don't make enough $$ to live in a rented house and save money to buy a house on the side. We would have to live in the projects to do so and I will not subject my family to that. I spent 2 years when we first moved to MI in a bad neighborhood while we paid a mortgage on a house that we didn't live in anymore in SC and I almost lost it living there. My kids would cry whenever we went home. The quality of life was just bad. The house made us sick and I couldn't send the kids outside because the yard was small and not fenced in and there were creepy people all around. Sigh....I don't want to go back to that just to be able to save. But I don't want to be house poor with a big mortgage either. I'm at a loss. I'm rambling....your post just got me thinking again about how scared I am to be 30 and just now thinking about where we're going to live for the next 30 years.
Farmgirl Sister #1110
Siobhan, wife to my best friend, Trent, and mommy to Camden (11/28/05) and Bennett (7/11/07). and Truman (7/28/09) |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2010 : 10:48:59 AM
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Siobhan- I know exactly what you mean- we are 27 and 29 and still renting. It scares me. But I do have an ace up our sleeve so to speak that we have a HUGE (for use) investment coming in about 3 more years. That is our house. We are scrambling to get our credit scores fixed before that 3 years is up so that we can get a better rate on any left over mortgage.
So I spent some time reading the material that I ordered through through that identity theft protectin service and found a debt tht I thought was charged off and sold to a debt collector was still with the originating institution AND that they are reporting every month. Yikes and Yeah all at the same time. I made a token payment of $20 today and will make another $20 payment this Friday on payday. Sure- the payments might not be huge but that will immediatly show I am making payments again and get that reporting on my credit report. Soon I will get the account current and then paid off. We have some other current bills that need caught up first but I might be able to pay this debt off by April. That is the great news!
Also I realized I had a "lost" savings account with a grand total of $20 in it (LOL) but I got to thinking- the bank I have it with is a state away and I didn't make the effort to re-learn the online banking information. My thought process is this- on our checking account when I write a check for something and change- like $9.50 I record it at $10. So I am thinking at the end of each month when I balance my checkbook I can write myself a check for the saved amount and mail that to my savings account bank. That way I will slowly build up my safety net fund and it will be hard enough to access that I won't want to steal from myself for fast food or a non emergency situation but easy enough to access that if I needed to I could have the funds in a day or two at most.
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com
www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com
Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com |
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Across the Fence: Airing My Dirty-Debt Laundry - Part 2 |
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Airing My Dirty-Debt Laundry - Part 2
