Day 83 and up to my eyeballs in homework

Well, I'm up to my eyeballs in homework this weekend, ugh! I'd really like to be done before 10:20 tomorrow night this time.

Here is an updated debt list. With our house payment and car payment this past week, we areup to over $3000 paid off!

DLO: $14.40-PAID!
DLO: $34.11-PAID!
Radiology: $37-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $46.15 (August 2007)-PAID!
Urgent care clinic: $40.55 (November 2007) PAID!
Dr. Office: $79.20-PAID!
ER Doctor: $93.54-PAID!
dentist: PAID!!!
Auto parts store: $161.73-PAID!
Josten's-PAID!
Second half 2007 real estate taxes: $148.64-PAID!
Hospital: $261.16-PAID!
Car loan: Balance: $2559
House: paid $1005.18
Credit card #1: $2970
Credit card #2: $1104
Credit card #3: $990
Credit card #4: $899-paid $25
Credit card #5: $908
Credit card #6: $2509
My student loan: $12, 913 (in deferment due to my full time student status)
DH student loan: $53, 248(in forbearance)

As of April 4^th: $3414.80 in debt paid off!

Now an update on the van. The labor was $135 (I still owe Mark $30 because he forgot to put part of the work on there so he's going to add it to our next bill which I'll talk about in just a moment) and the parts were $84. That was to replace the o-ring, change the oil, and replace both the driver's side and passenger side door handles. The passenger side wasn't working at all anymore from the outside, and the driver's side only worked when it wanted to. I also had the oil changed in Josh's car while we were at it, and the mechanic discovered a problem with Josh's brake line that he will be fixing Monday. Then there is another repair that will need to be done on Josh's car, but he said it could wait until later this month and that will give us a little time to get the EF back up. After I paid Mark $105, the EF was down to $750, and then I added the $50 from Tom's paycheck which brought it back up to $800. After paying Napa this morning, it's down to $715 and then I'll pay for the rest of the van repair and Josh's car repairs out of that. So all I've got to say is THANK GOD for the EF!

Day 82 and I'm wiped out tonight

Well, I just got back from a marathon Wal-Mart and grocery shopping spree and I am wiped out! I have no sense of taste or smell and I am sick of this sinus crap. Eh, anyway, enough griping. Tomorrow, I'll post a debt update.

Day 81 and one of my kids is no longer a teen today!

Wow, today is Serenity's 20th birthday! I don't know how she got so grown up! So I only have two teenagers left, and as Tasha reminded me, in a year and six days, I'll just have one teenager left when Josh turns 20. Thanks for the reminder, Tasha!

Well, the credit counseling company called back yesterday afternoon and they wanted payments of $364 a month for 4 years, $48 a month (13%) of which would be their fee, so only $316 would be actually going towards the debt. Oh, and there was a one time fee of $75 when you start. Our FPU cd-rom has a financial calculator on it that you can use to figure up payments and if the interest rates stay the same as they are now and we were able to pay $360 a month towards the debts, we could have them paid off in 4 years anyway. So for now, we are going to make the payments that we can each month, I'm going to shoot for a total of $300 a month between the six credit cards, and hope that once we get some regular payments under our belt that they will work with us on dropping interest rates. Pray for us that we have made the right decision.

My van's oil light was coming on and it hadn't even been 3000 miles since I got the oil changed, so I called the mechanic to change the oil and take a look. Well, something was leaking (and I'm drawing a blank now on what it was called), but it sounded like the parts and labor wouldn't be more than $150ish. So that will be another dent in the EF, but what a blessing that we have it! Thank goodness we didn't drive the van to Norman to see Serenity last weekend. That would have been really bad. But I just had a feeling that it wasn't a good idea.

Tom's car goes in Monday for the repairs from the fender bender last week. He'll be getting a rental to drive. Hope he gets something cool and then lets me borrow it. LOL!

Day 80 and taking care of myself

Well, first an update on yesterday...I called a credit counseling service that a friend recommended to me to check into doing a debt management program through them. I'm waiting on them to call me back. Tom & I agreed last night that this may be the most effective route. We'll see what they have to say.

Something that I don't always do very well at is taking care of myself. I eat too much, period, and I definitely eat too much of stuff that I shouldn't. Stress causes me to eat more and so as you can imagine, I ate like a pig yesterday. LOL. Anyway, I'm setting some goals for myself in that area of my life:

1. Eat breakfast! Eating breakfast helps my blood sugar stay more stable, but I am not a big breakfast person.

2. Cut out the sweets. Even though studies show that diabetics can have a limited amount of sweets, I have been way over that limit lately!!!! So I'm going cold turkey!

Last summer, I started walking everyday, but my asthma started acting up to the point where I was wheezing all the time. The Dr told me that I had to stop until my asthma was under control. I would sure like to try again, but I'm a bit nervous about it.

Feeling Better

Well, after some time to let my emotions calm and some prayer, I'm feeling better tonight. It just took almost everything I had to work up the courage to start calling the people and when things went the way that they did, my emotions just boiled over. I know that God will get us through this, I just have to hand it over to him and not try to take it back when I start thinking things aren't happening as fast as I think they should. LOL.

Tracy

Day 79 and I feel like giving up

I wish I could say that this was an April Fool's joke, but it's not. After spending most of quiet time on the phone with just two different credit card collectors, I am worn out, frustrated, and upset. One lady told me at first that the payment I was offering was fine, then said she had to call me back. When she called me back, suddenly, it wasn't fine anymore, she wanted xxx amount. When I told her that I was not going to commit to more than I knew I could pay, she started telling me how strict the rules are on this account, etc (I"m not really sure what the heck she meant by that). The other one refused to lower our interest rate so the amount that I know we can pay on that is about $2 less than the interest accruing each month. So sure we can probably send in extra, but I don't know how much. The other two places (one of them has 3 of our accounts) I had to leave voice mails to call me back and have not heard back from them yet and naptime is almost over so I may not get to talk to them today. I started out feeling very hopeful, but I'm not anymore. I'm feeling very hopeless.

Don't get me wrong, I know we owe the money and we want to pay the money. But you would think they would be a little more willing to work with us when I'm calling them, wouldn't you? I told the lady who changed her mind about the payment amount that I was sending in what I could and they could refuse it if they wanted to.

Day 78 and I am not happy!

Danged if I don't feel like I'm trying to come down with another cold! For goodness's sake, I just finished a round of antibiotics for the sinus infection, wouldn't you think I'd have some resistance somewhere? Good grief!

This week promises to be a busy one with homework due next Sunday and it being the first of the month so we have to have the April budget meeting soon. I've got the first part of the month done, but not the last part yet. I listened this morning to the Dave Ramsey CD on dealing with creditors and I'm going to reread that chapter in our Financial Peace book so that I can work up my courage and formulate a plan to contact them and get somewhere on those bills. Oh, we did get a letter that Tom's student loan forbearance was approved through November of this year. That will be a huge blessing and help as we work through some of this other stuff.

Day 77 and Working in our Strengths

Tonight's FPU class was about Working in our Strengths. Dave says if we do what we love, the money will come. I'm not really sure that I buy into that, but maybe that's why the money isn't coming to us. LOL. For the most part, I really do love what I do. But the last few years have been really hard for me, both personally and professionally and I have found myself questioning my career more than once. Truthfully, it's what drove me to finally get up the guts to finish my degree. So I guess I don't really have a point tonight, other than wondering where exactly my strengths lie.