Debt In Seattle

Though the mister & I refused help from my parents, we did talk to our bank about debt consolidation. Since we have been customers for over 10 years, the bank offered us a line of credit in the amount of $13,000 at a fixed interest rate of 10.9%. We will be using the line of credit to consolidate 2 cards freeing up at least $500 a month, not to mention our automatic snow flake of $329.56 for paying off our car last month. As soon as we complete the transfer, I’m going to put my negotiating skills to use. I’m going to call the cc companies & see if I couldn’t get them to lower their interest rates.

Consolidating this will help us tremendously. As soon as the tax rebate hits our account, we will be transferring it to pay off our smallest balance (American Express). DH just received a 5% raise and in addition, he will be receiving a bonus of at least $3000 in August. That will be used to pay off our Discover card. I feel much more in control of everything.

Whoo! It’s been insane the past few months. Anyhow, I aced all of my finals!! I had a 3.8 in Algebra, a 3.5 in Psych and a 4.0 in health! 14 days to relax and just go to work.

After carefully thinking my parents proposition through, we just couldn’t allow them to take out a loan for us. So, the Mister and I are just going to plug along as we have been. Our situation is not pretty but there is not much we can do about it right now.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in.

I don’t really share with people around me that we a have a lot of debt. My really, really close friends know but that’s about it. I’ve done my best not to let my parents know because I don’t like them to worry. They came over this past week end and asked me about our finances. Pointed and direct questions. Turns out that they had seen a statement from Citicard on my desk (incidentally, the largest balance we have and also the highest interest rate of 29.99%). My parents do not even have a debit card, let alone a credit card. To say that they freaked out is an understatement. They were really, really concerned about our debt load. I finally told them how much we owe and at what interest rate. They offered to open up a line of credit or credit cards with 0% interest rate and transfer the balances so that we have a chance of paying off these stupid cards. I haven’t accepted their offer yet.

I love my parents but I don’t know if I can accept their offer. We have made a mess out of our finances that I’m petrified that I might mess up their perfect credit. They’ve called me a couple of times today and really want me to let them help me. I just don’t know if I can let them help me….what are your thoughts??

For our household, that means we will be de-cluttering, cleaning, and paring down what we’ve accumulated in the winter. My winter break is the last week of March. During that week, I plan on going through all of our financial paperwork and re organizing our office/den. I am also going to be going through the kids’ clothing and toys, and I will see what we can donate, sell or keep. I think in May, I’m going to have a huge garage sale to get rid of “stuff” accumulated during our 9 years of marriage.

I also want to clean out our garage so we can fit both of our vehicles in the garage. My dad gave me some bulbs from his garden for peonies, that need to be planted. I want to have a pretty garden this year, but I don’t want to spend a bundle, so I need to get creative on this.

Above all, I just want a clean house, so that week will be spent cleaning.

For the month of March, my goals are as follows:

1. Bring lunch to work everyday.
2. Snowflake $329.56 to our lowest debt.
3. Pay all bills on time.
4. Stick to the budget.
5. Sign up for Spring courses.

In the past, I would tackle debts with the highest interest first to save me money in the long run. However, I think I’ve had a change of heart. Our balances are high on some cards and it would take a really long time to pay them off. So, I think I’m going to do a combination of both until I feel better about our finances. I’m going to focus for the next few months on the lower balances first so I can feel like I’m accomplishing something by paying them down quickly. Then, I’ll focus on the balance with the highest interest rate. This might take me about 6 months to pay down the smaller ones. Currently, I have 3 cards with balances lower than $3,000. I’m hoping I can take care of this with OT money that DH & I will be working in the next few months.

We received a nice chunk of change back from Uncle Sam and we paid off our car. We sent the credit union the entire remaining balance of $4,000. We now don’t have any car payments at all! I know some would argue that we should target the credit cards but honestly, this will free up $329.56 to snowball towards another debt. Yay!

I still had a severe cold/flu up until Jan 15th or so. I got better but then started to get sick again and am just NOW getting over the last of it (I hope!).

School started on Jan. 3rd and I have to say that I really love it! It’s taken a bit to get use to the schedules of work, kids, and school but DH and I are starting a nice little flow. I’m doing pretty well, not behind on homework or papers, so that’s a plus. Work is still busy. I still hate working with my co-worker, but I have no idea how to get out of it so am just sucking it up.

On the money front, we’re just hanging in there. Not moving forward, not falling backwards either. We just filed our taxes and are getting back $7,500!! Thank the lord that we were able to deduct property tax and our mortgage interest, or else we would have had to pay this year. It makes me sad that we made so much money but have nothing to show for it. GRRR. DH’s bonus is going to be at least $4,000 (most likely will be more), so this means that Mr. & Mrs. Seattle will be paying off approximately $11,000 by the end of February! I’m super excited because I really hate debt, but I also am so stoked to have our debt reduced so much! DH also has decided that he does not want to be a supervisor anymore so he will taking on different duties, with no reduction to his salary. The bonus is that he will be able to put in OT hours and have it count as OT hours!!! This means that once the dam breaks, we can really start to snowball our payments. I’ve also decided not to go to school during the summer, so I will be putting in a ton of OT hours again. I fully believe that we can bring our debt down by at least another $10 by the end of this year (I’m hoping we’ll start 2009 with $15K) if all goes according to plan.

I’m at home today feeling pretty under the weather.  It started last night when my eyes started to get the burning sensation and then towards the afternoon, it became difficult to swallow without pain.  When I get sick like this, I usually drink TheraFlu at night and if it’s a minor bug, by morning the cold is gone.  However, I woke up this morning with burning eyes, a sore throat and extremely painful sinuses.  A screaming headache compounded the other symptoms.  I called in sick for the first time in a long time.

My husband said, “I think you’re getting sick because you are working too much.”  I’m a pretty resilient person, having only getting sick about once every other year.  His comment had me thinking.  It’s been at least a year where I worked a normal 40 hour week.  Add to that the demands of running a household, three active children and caring for two sick parents, I can see where I am running myself too thin.  So, for today, I’m trying to rest as much as I can and just giving myself a time out.