Pretty In Pink

An update...the good, the bad and the ugly.

2010-08-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the ugly. Since I've last posted, we've been sued by two creditors, Discover and Citicards. Discover was willing to work out a payment plan with us but Citicards refused. I offered them a settlement of $4,000 (I had $2,000 and was going to take money out of my 401k again). They refused saying that they wanted $800 a month payments or a $10,000 lump sum. My next step was to call consumer credit counseling in my area to see if they can help us set up some sort of debt management plan. They would have needed a monthly payment of $1800 a month in order to help us. The counselor called the law firm responsible for Citicards collection of our account and again they refused to negotiate the payment. By this point, I'm in tears and so upset with our situation.

That 2 months of not getting a paycheck in late 2008 has really impacted us and I now personally and painfully know what the terms "living paycheck to paycheck" means. The counselor looked over my entire budget and she said that there is no way I can pay them back and that at this point there is nothing for me to do but file for bankruptcy unless I was willing to work 24/7 to pay on the debts. After all the numbers were added up including all the interest and penalties, we owed over $68,000.

I fought filing for bankruptcy so long and kept holding out for the next bonus, next tax return...the next something. I finally realized that I had nothing else to give. After another 3 or 4 months, my husband finally convinces me to consult with several attorneys and they all tell me the same thing, "If you don't file bankruptcy now, it will get worse and in 2 years your unsecured debt will be well into the six digits because the credit card companies will continue to tack on interest and penalties." I did not sleep soundly at all during the months of March, April, May, June or July. I tried to negotiate with citicards daily and their answer was always, "No, we want what we want. Borrow from your neighbors, borrow from your friends. Stop paying your mortgage. Basically, do whatever you have to to pay us money for your credit card debts." After crying almost daily and not sleeping at all, I finally cave and retained an attorney in mid July. I'm ashamed to admit that we failed at paying our credit cards off. We failed at managing our money.

Our attorney recently filed our bankruptcy because Citicards served me with paperwork saying that they were going to garnish 25% of our net income in the next week. Because of that our lawyer filed an emergency petition of bankruptcy. But in order to pay him, we had to not pay the mortgage. So that means that our 2 paychecks in August and September will go towards catching up the mortgage again. I am so sad, so disgusted and so angry at our situation. Prior to the job loss in 2008, we were able to manage and pay off our debt and it only took 2 months to bankrupt us. So, if you are reading this post and you are in any position to save and be responsible...please do so because like I said, 2 months of no income for one person bankrupted us.

Now for the bad. I am petrified of ever being in this position again. So much so that I have become a tight fisted miser. I have stopped getting haircuts, I have stopped buying clothes and wear the same things over and over to work, I have stopped buying food at work and getting daily coffees. In short, I don't spend a cent unless I have to on bills. I am also completely jaded towards any and all banks. Yes, I borrowed that money and yes some of it was used to buy plane tickets. But for the most part 65% of what I now owed was all in interest and penalties. I used the credit cards to buy groceries and to pay for utilities when I didn't have the money to. I stress out about our family and friends finding out that we filed bankruptcy. I worry about my boss or co-workers finding out. I stress out about this happening to us again if we don't have adequate savings. In short, I am a mess and I have yet to find a way to deal with all the stress of the past few months. Because I fear that I may become further depressed, I've booked an appointment to see a counselor so I can have someone to talk to who does not judge.

And, finally some good. The same day we were forced to file bankruptcy, I earned a promotion and a pretty hefty pay increase. Because we had to provide so much information on our spending and bills for the bankruptcy paperwork, this forced me to de clutter all the paperwork in my office. I am now clean and organized. I'm still sad and depressed but...at least I'm cleaner now.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

In the past DH would make reservations at a great restaurant and get me a pretty good gift and I in turn would also get him a great gift as well. This year to celebrate our new frugalness, I'm making dinner at home. On the menu is grilled salmon, grilled asparagus and a homemade mixed green salad. We also have some left over vodka and are going to make lychee lemonade martinis. The recipe as follows:

Lychee Lemonade
1 ounce choice of vodka (I really like Grey Goose or Ciroc)
1 ounce lychee syrup
1 ounce pink lemonade or regular lemonade
Combine all ingredients wich ice in a cocktail shaker. Serve.

The only thing we purchased were cards for one another and I'm perfectly okay with that. Oh, and DH did the sweetest thing for me...he cleaned our entire house with the kids. I couldn't ask for more.

Don't You Want My Money, Bank of America?

2010-02-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

Since DH and I committed to paying down our debt, it's been a (sick) habit of mine to check my bank account online before I go to bed and right when I get to work. I've been tracking every penny and really trying to stop the bleeding. I logged onto our bank account this morning and voila, our tax refund was there!!

Excited to get completely caught up on our mortgage (yay!!!!!!!!), I logged into our BoA account and what do you know?? I cannot make an online payment because I don't have a checking account with them. If I want to pay with my own bank account there's a $6 fee. I picked up the phone and called them and they tell me the CANNOT take a payment and it has to be taken to a branch, mailed in or I have to have a BoA account. UGH. I. Just. Want. To. Pay. My. Mortgage. Why do they make it so hard??? It's this kind of thing that makes me loathe big banks. They want to nickel and dime consumers to death with their fees. Fee to talk to a customer service representative; fee to give them money; fee for them to process money...fees, fees, fees, fees!!!! Yet, at the same time they are making money hand over fist with our hard earned tax money with their bail outs. UGH.

In order to pay my mortgage today and not incur another late fee, I drove across town in absolute horrid weather, stood in line for 10 minutes and finally made my payment. Hallelulah!!!! We are caught up on our mortgage after 5 months of being behind. That's something to celebrate, despite BoA's best efforts to charge me for paying.

Cold and Dreary Day in Seattle

2010-02-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

I woke up late (which I hate) and after finally spending a ton of time getting ready, I go outside only to see that there's ice on my windshield. I had to start and warm up the car for about 5 minutes before the windshield defrosted. Then there was the frigid 20 minute walk from car to office .Brrrrrrrr. If it's going to be this cold, I want snow darn it!

Today was a pretty frugal day for me. I was treated to a latte by my boss, however I packed my breakfast, lunch and snacks. Not bad since I felt like I stuffed my face through out the day.

I did, however, have to venture to Target to get Valentine cards for my kids and noticed that they had a 15% off sale on Quarter Oats instant oatmeal, 30 packages at $5.98. I happen to have a $1 off coupon and took advantage of this deal.

Hope everyone stays nice and warm tonight.

We signed up for Financial Peace University

2010-02-09T16:57:00.000-08:00

I decided that DH and I really could benefit from taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University because even though we both say we are trying to live within our means, I think we both can learn more. Classes start in two weeks and materials will cost us $100 and run for 13 weeks. If I have time, I think I'm also going to start a series of postiings about my experience at each class.

Cheers :)

Cheap Recipe Review : Chili

2010-02-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

In my quest to save money and be frugal, I've been trying to look for really easy and cheap recipes to make for dinner AND to bring for lunch the following day. Tonight was one of those nights where I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner since I'm not feeling well but need to get something healthy on the table. DH wanted chili since beans are cheap and we had most of the ingredients on hand. Thanks to the powers of Google, I found The Best Chili You Will Ever Taste recipe and tweaked it to what I have on hand.

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb lean ground beef (can substitute with meat of choice)
3/4 lb beef sirloin, cubed (can substitute with meat of choice)
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 can dark beer
1 cup strong coffee
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 can beef broth
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons chili sauce
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon salt
4 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans
4 chili peppers, chopped

Instructions:
Heat oil in large pot.
Cook onions, garlic and meat until brown.
Add tomatoes, beer, coffee, tomato paste and beef broth.
Add spices Stir in 2 cans of kidney beans and peppers.
Reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
Add 2 remaining cans of kidney beans and simmer for another 30 minutes

I substituded the sirloin chunks with a half pound of ground turkey since that's what I had on hand and I didn't want to spend any money. I also added black beans and lentils into the mix. Afterwards, you can either garnish with shredded cheddar or minced cilantro.

I've never made chili before and this was an instant hit at my house. My children absolutely loved this dish. I now have enough to freeze for lunch for the next month.

The cost of this recipe was really cheap because I bought most of the ingredients on sale from past few weeks:
$.99 - 1 lb of ground beef
$.99 - 1 lb of ground turkey
$.10 - each can of tomato paste
$.50 - each can of diced tomatos
Guiness - Free from my dad
$.60 - each can of kidney beans
$.05 for 1 cup of lentils
$.20 - each can of beef broth

Not too shabby for a huge pot of chili.

Taxes Done!

2010-02-06T23:06:00.000-08:00

In years past, I've gone to H&R Block to have my taxes done and usually pay upwards of $350 for this service. This year, at the encouragement of my best friend R, I did them myself and I have to admit that it was pretty easy! I used TurboTax and it cost me only $19.45 to do them online here through Bank of America's webpage. The program is really intuitive and asks you questions that you truly understand. From start to finish it took me about a half an hour. And, being the anal retentive person that I am I also did mock taxes at HRBlock.com and Taxact.com and received the same refund at each site. I cannot believe that I wasted $350 every year since I turned 18 to get my taxes done.

Now, mind you, I filed jointly as married with children and a house. I didn't have anything else so if you have more than that then it might be best to go to a tax official. Your mileage may vary.

The great news is not only did I save on doing taxes myself this year.....but our return will be pretty good! Roughly a little over $7000 will be refunded to us. I cannot wait! I can't wait for the feeling of being caught up and actually paying off some debts AND having that $2,000 emergency fund in place.

Cheers!

Feeling Blue

2010-02-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'm just a little gloomy today. Not sure if it's weather related or if I'm just ready for some warm weather, but I am so tired of the grey skies here. It was sunny for an hour and then went back to doom and gloom.

Money wise, I spent $90 on groceries for the next 2 weeks after sales and coupons. The bulk of it went to my trip to Trader Joes. My youngest cannot have any dairy so once every 2 weeks I trek to Trader Joe's and get her rice milk. We stocked up on her gluten free, dairy free, totally allergen free snacks for pre school as well. I still have about 5 whole chickens I bought on sale from a month ago and even though my family's going to get tired of chicken, that's what we're having for the next two weeks. Currently our menu looks like this:

Breakfast
oatmeal
egg white omelet
english muffin with low fat turkey
bagel and cream cheese
cheerios
orange juice

Lunches
salad
chicken rice soup
chicken noodle soup
grilled chicken sandwich
teriyaki chicken
curry with chicken

Dinners
Roasted chicken with gravy, baked yams
sauteed spinach with pine nuts
kale with dried cranberries
collard greens
papaya salad
Chicken stir fries
turkey meatballs
lots of salads
turkey sandwiches

In other areas, DH is making me crazy because he's not on board with not spending money on Entertainment. I feel like a meanie for saying no to him since he insists on going out to dinner this weekend, but that's the entire entertainment budget. Forget Valentine's Day, forget anything else. He seems to think that $XX doesn't matter because the things he wants to do is only $XX. Grrr. $XX got us to where we are and I don't wantt it to be the map I follow all the time. There's got to be some sort of compromise and balance, no?

February's Spending Plan

2010-02-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

This is our first spending plan since I've been tracking. You can see that I cut down our spending in a lot of areas. I haven't been paying attention to the bills either and these are just estimates based on what they were during the past 6 months. I also haven't put any payments towards debt since I'm not sure which cards I'm going to pay off with the tax and bonuses yet. My main focus and goal is to catch up on the mortgage. Then it's to save a bit of money for ourselves, followed by the debt repayment. I'm sure I'm making mistakes but please bear with me while I try to gather my footing.

January wrap up and musings.

2010-02-01T22:17:00.000-08:00

I have been MIA a bit because I am juggling too much between work and family. I finally found 10 minutes to post. We have approximately $35 til payday this Friday. While going through some old mail, I found 2 checks for about $2O each. One was for a rebate from Kraft foods. The only thing is this check expired 12/13/09 and I'm not sure if I can cash it yet. I'm going to have to call them tomorrow to find out. The other was for a reimbursement of medical bills that we had from our doctor's office. That's roughly $40 of unaccounted for money .

I'm patiently just waiting for all of our tax forms to get here so we can hurry up and file. In years' past, I've let H&R do my taxes but they charged us $325 last year and I'm not keen on letting them charge me that again. I am seriously considering doing them myself with TurboTax but I'm scared that I'm going to miss some deductions and kick myself for them later. *Sigh*

Hubby and I agreed to limit our Entertainment and Food category because we clearly like to waste money in these areas. This wasn't even the end of the month yet. Since today is the first day of February, now is as good a time as any to recap January's tracking.

Clearly we need to cut down our entertainment and food categories. Entertainment included things such as going out, alcohol, repairing games etc. Food was anything that basically included eating out for lunch, coffee, snacks, dinner and groceries.

The totals are kind of deceiving because they included transfers to and from accounts. We paid a total of $10,106.35 to get almost caught up on our mortgage.

One time expenses that really screwed with us this month are the Medical (stupid me, broke my only pair of glasses), Fee (got a parking ticket), DH insisted on getting a new computer because ours kept turning off and it would cost us another $1200 to fix it.

Household included a $275.15 charge for our GE refrigerator dying on us. The mother board or CPU completely died and caused food to thaw, stopped dispensing water and ice (which we could have lived with) but when it wasn't freezing or keeping our food fresh, well it turned into a must do.

We have everything written out for February's spending plan and I'm confident that we will cut out unnecessary entertainment and eating out. I will post the spending plan up when I've got a bit more time. I hope everyone has a good start to February!

OUCH I can't believe my eyes!

2010-01-25T21:25:00.001-08:00

Since we lost our jobs earlier this year, I knew that we had an income problem but after religiously tracking our spending for the past month, I now realize that we have a spending problem as well. A prime example of that would be the totals just from January 1st to January 24th. It truly is an eye opening exercise and also a, "WOW, Golly Gee! We totally suck at eating in and staying in!" kind of a moment. The Entertainment, Food and to an extent Food categories are killing me.

Inclusive in the Entertainment category is us buying alcohol for our NYE's party since we didn't want to go out; us going out for birthdays (3 of them) celebrations, snowboarding for DH and kiddies, and anything that's recreation related. I know, I know...so unnecessary. Trust me, I've already said it to myself.

The Food category includes eating out, coffee and kids school lunch. I know that we can definitely eliminate all but $50 from this category.

The Expenses category includes the cost of gas, tabs for one of the cars, and pretty much anything that isn't a regular bill. But, for the most part it is mostly all gas for the car. DH cannot take the bus but does carpool 4 or 5 days a week. I on the other hand work 2.2 miles away from the house. You would think our gas bill isn't as bad but of course when you're busy eating and drinking as much as we do, you have to drive there. FML.

Education expenses are those that will be refunded to me from work. I have to put them on our debit card since we cut up all of our credit cards.

Beauty category is high this month due to me getting my hair cut and colored. I normally only do this every 5 months and I was due. What I should have done was cancel the appointment, but my gray hair was starting to show and my ends were drier than the Sahara desert.

Now, that $9,600 is what we took out of our 401(k) to catch up on our mortgage. To date we have sent them $10,106.32 and are still behind on our mortgage by $2,021.27. We should be all caught up by the end of February.

What did this exercise teach me?

First and foremost, it taught me that we spend too much money on STUPID things.
It also taught me that I need to relearn the word, "NO". NO to myself, NO to DH, NO to my kids, NO to my ALL MY FRIENDS. NO to EVERY DAMN PERSON that asks me to do anything other than sit in my house.
That even though we spent like we weren't in debt up to our eyeballs, there is room for us to catch up. All we needed was a smack upside the head and a dose of reality. You better believe I'm going to fix this for February.
That had we just stayed home and turned down all invitations to go anywhere, we would only be $265.00 behind in our mortgage and not a whopping $2,021.27.

Please excuse me while I go berate myself and my husband some more.

Another Check In The Mail

2010-01-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

Stamped, sealed and sent to Bank of America is another $2,021.27. This will have us caught up on the mortgage through December.

Today was sort of an odd day. I had 4 opportunities to spend money on coffee, breakfast, lumch and snacks. I had the money in my pocket to spend but I really thought twice about it. I had home made coffee and an omelet from home; also had lunch that DH packed for me, and had bunch of fruit to eat as well. I said, "Thanks, but no thanks." to my friends today and it felt good. I saved at least $20 today. I came home and was starting to sort all the dirty laundry when I decided to go through the bathroom drawers. In it was a brand new flat iron that I bought from Costco with every intention of using it daily. To date I've used it 2 times. Also, I purchased TurboTax for $39.99 only to find it for $20.95 if you go through a link Wachovia has. I promptly returned both flat iron and Turbo Tax and got back a cool $99.18. This is going into my mortgage catchup fund. Not too shabby of a day.

Bank of America Vent

2010-01-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

When DH lost his job and we were done to one income, Bank of American told us that they could not help us. I called and called and called. To no avail. They gave me phone numbers to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc. Everytime I called the phone would either be busy or it would just auto hang up on me. I visted Living Like No One Else and sure enough they gave me a phone number to a government agency who tries to work with consumers and the bank. I finally got through....only to be told that because DH has a job now we automatically disqualify for any remodification because our gross montly income is too high now. Our housing payment is only 27% of the mandated 30% and they cannot help us. They told us that had I called them earlier when DH wasn't working, they could have helped us lower our monthly payment.

To say that I'm upset would be an understatement. No wonder the government has blasted Bank of America as one of the worst lenders to work with their troubled homeowners. I didn't choose to stop paying for my mortgage while spending elsewhere. I lost half of our income and begged them for help. I am sick to my stomach because I am convinced that it is their ploy to string you along by asking for more and more information.

I know venting about is not going to do anything to change our situation. We took out the 401K money, we are will be caught up on the mortgage by the end of February. Deep breath in, deep breath out. I'm going to channel my frustration into doing something productive and useful, like calling up the utility companies and asking them if we can go on their budget plans.

The check's in the mail

2010-01-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

I just sent Bank of America a check for $8,085.08 for past due mortgage payments. Another $2,021.27 will be mailed to them on Thursday. And then we will only be behind by one payment, which I anticipate my husband's bonus will take care of next month. I feel like a load has been lifted. We're not out of the woods yet but once we get the mortgage all caught up, I feel like we can really do something about the debts.

My New Year Resolutions

2010-01-18T10:18:00.000-08:00

I usually never make these because I usually am never disciplined enough to follow through. However, this year I've decided that I will try my hardest to stick to it. So here goes.

Track our spending.
Cut expenses!
Install Quicken into our PC laptop that my mother in law gave me. We are a MAC family so this laptop is strictly for our financial lives.
Catch up on our mortgage.
Reduce debt by at least $2,400 considering we cut our expenses by $200 a month.
Keep my checkbook registar updated by making an appointment do this every week on my blackberry.
Pay our bills immediately. I hate, hate paying bills and will put it off until they are late or past due. I'm trying to do this immediately upon receiving.
Get our home office organized and all of our bills filed and the area clutter free.
Make better choices regarding my health - join a gym and learn to enjoy working out.
Learn how to say, "no". We have a lot of friends (for which I'm grateful) but this also means lots of invitations to go out to eat, party, etc. This year, I want to say no and be very selective as to when we go out and spend money.

I decided to keep it at 10 as it seems reasonable. We're on day 19 of the new year and so far I have managed to track all of our spending via an excel spreadsheet. As of yesterday, I've installed Quicken and am ready to use this awesome tool.

Have a blessed day!

Hello!

2010-01-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

Hello! I've thought about starting a blog for a while but was scared to share financial aspects of my life. As part of my New Year's Resolution, I finally decided to take the plunge and start one.

I live in Seattle and am married with small children. Between my husband and I we now make 6 figures but we hardly have anything in savings. My hope is that blogging about it will help me let out my frustrations, share my success and along the way get caught up on our bills and become debt free.

Our finances are a horrible mess right now, we have a ton of credit card debt and are also 6 months behind on our mortgage. My husband and I both lost our jobs last year and weren't working for 6 months. We are (thankfully!) employed now. We decided to take out money from our 401(k) to get caught up on our mortgage. I know everyone is screaming, "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" My husband and I are relatively young still (late twenties) and feel we can still have a good size retirement. Once we right our situation, we'll contribute a lot more.

To add to the stress, our home office is a complete mess. There are piles and piles of mail that I haven't had the heart to go through yet. I know I have to face it soon. I've just recently started tracking our spending and it's not pretty! My DH (dear husband) and I really need to get it together and cut our going out to eat and entertainment a lot.

Anyhow, I hope you stay around to read what I have to say. Cheers!