Decided to work with a financial counselor. Need to make sure I'm not making any major mistakes and work on a real budget. Also looking into alot of the short sale/deficiency judgment issues. Getting Dave Ramsey's book soon. . .hopefully today. I'm checking out a big used book store that may have it.
New short term goal:
eliminate ~1300 of credit card debt.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Updates
Not too much to update. Short sale process drags on endlessly. No updates there.
Bills:
$100 for two months of Internet access. I don't have cable and rely on Netflix alot so this seemed like a reasonable expense.
Paid up on bills from the last paycheck now.
Expenses:
$3.00 yesterday (coffee + muffin in the morning)
Income:
$10 gift card to Dunkin Donuts! Woo-hoo! Used 4 dollars this afternoon for lunch.
Finances stable for the moment. I think I may start taking a screen shot of the amounts spent from my checking (with merchant and identifying info removed). Maybe once a week?
Also need some way to start figuring my debt consistently. Student debt just isn't going anywhere, all going to interest at this point. However cars are starting to finally turn the corner and get closer to paid off.
Possibility of a raise in July. . .but budgets are awfully tight around here so not sure on that one. How nice that performance doesn't factor into raises. Alas. Hmm that copy/paste seemed to work okay I guess.
Bills:
$100 for two months of Internet access. I don't have cable and rely on Netflix alot so this seemed like a reasonable expense.
Paid up on bills from the last paycheck now.
Expenses:
$3.00 yesterday (coffee + muffin in the morning)
Income:
$10 gift card to Dunkin Donuts! Woo-hoo! Used 4 dollars this afternoon for lunch.
Finances stable for the moment. I think I may start taking a screen shot of the amounts spent from my checking (with merchant and identifying info removed). Maybe once a week?
Also need some way to start figuring my debt consistently. Student debt just isn't going anywhere, all going to interest at this point. However cars are starting to finally turn the corner and get closer to paid off.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
New Plan
No exceptional expenses (muffins, coffee, gas, a few used DVDs, etc).
Latest short sale offer fell through but I have until August to finalize another. Not much can be done about this, just taking it one step at a time.
No ebay purchases or new DVDs or anything extravagant.
Bills:
$750 rent (paid early)
$250 to my mother. (No debt, just helping her retirement)
$200 HOA. . .at the least this will disappear in August with foreclosure. Or before that ideally.
That's about it.
A few things about these bills.
Rent (in a Boston suburb. . .not saying which one, but certainly not the nicest though no gunshots . . yet). One bedroom apartment. Nothing luxurious but could be worse I suppose.
Latest short sale offer fell through but I have until August to finalize another. Not much can be done about this, just taking it one step at a time.
No ebay purchases or new DVDs or anything extravagant.
Bills:
$750 rent (paid early)
$250 to my mother. (No debt, just helping her retirement)
$200 HOA. . .at the least this will disappear in August with foreclosure. Or before that ideally.
That's about it.
A few things about these bills.
Rent (in a Boston suburb. . .not saying which one, but certainly not the nicest though no gunshots . . yet). One bedroom apartment. Nothing luxurious but could be worse I suppose.
Friday, April 15, 2011
IRS Update
Filed 2010 taxes yesterday. $900 refund. Going to IRS for 2009 taxes but still nice to lower the tax bill. I'm not including it until I see it officially applied to my debt. Probably next month.
Short sale continues to drag on.
Me: "Hi, how are you?"
Bank" . . ."
Me: "okay. . .well anyhow. . .*asks questions"
Bank: *inarticulate response
Rudeness and confusion. So nice to deal with.
Short sale continues to drag on.
Me: "Hi, how are you?"
Bank" . . ."
Me: "okay. . .well anyhow. . .*asks questions"
Bank: *inarticulate response
Rudeness and confusion. So nice to deal with.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Weekend Update
Number of expenses in the past week:
$50 - eating out
$25 - movies (Tron and 7 movies from a going out of biz Blockbuster store)
$15 - muffins and coffee
$60 - curtains for apt.
$25 - groceries
Yea much money has been wasted. Though some was essential.
Some more information about myself -
30something working at the financial aid office of a US law school. North of Virginia. I don't want to say too much. Joe from Debtor in Paradise gave out far too much information and it was pretty easy to figure out his real name. So I won't be making that mistake.
Some debts:
9k 2007 Toyota Corolla. 74k miles. Nothing fancy. Green. Pretty utilitarian. Haven't had any problems with it so far and just have spent on normal maintenance. (60k check, tires, painting some scrapes)
75k student loans. undergrad plus law school. Not cheap. Entering into IBR this month and as I work in a law school I should have debt forgiven in 10 years.
1200. Credit card (Visa). Limit is 1600. Not using the card and slowly paying it down.
80,000. Mortgage for a condo I don't live in and can't afford. This is the biggest problem. Short sale underway but moving oh so slowly. Foreclosure coming soon.
4000. IRS. 2009 taxes. Agreement with IRS made and paying down rapidly (400 a month). A problem but going away.
~7000. 270 a month. Mother's car payment. Retired and I am paying for it. Under 2 years left. Will try to focus this down when there is only one year left. Perhaps can combine money with my mother to focus it down.
Those are the big expenses. Several other little ones are bouncing around. Comcast, Verizon, HOA on said condo, and probably something I am leaving out. Added it all up. About 185k total. Wow. Although if I remove the mortgage not so bad. Within the next year taxes, Visa and maybe mother's car should be paid off. Trainwreck? Anyone?
$50 - eating out
$25 - movies (Tron and 7 movies from a going out of biz Blockbuster store)
$15 - muffins and coffee
$60 - curtains for apt.
$25 - groceries
Yea much money has been wasted. Though some was essential.
Some more information about myself -
30something working at the financial aid office of a US law school. North of Virginia. I don't want to say too much. Joe from Debtor in Paradise gave out far too much information and it was pretty easy to figure out his real name. So I won't be making that mistake.
Some debts:
9k 2007 Toyota Corolla. 74k miles. Nothing fancy. Green. Pretty utilitarian. Haven't had any problems with it so far and just have spent on normal maintenance. (60k check, tires, painting some scrapes)
75k student loans. undergrad plus law school. Not cheap. Entering into IBR this month and as I work in a law school I should have debt forgiven in 10 years.
1200. Credit card (Visa). Limit is 1600. Not using the card and slowly paying it down.
80,000. Mortgage for a condo I don't live in and can't afford. This is the biggest problem. Short sale underway but moving oh so slowly. Foreclosure coming soon.
4000. IRS. 2009 taxes. Agreement with IRS made and paying down rapidly (400 a month). A problem but going away.
~7000. 270 a month. Mother's car payment. Retired and I am paying for it. Under 2 years left. Will try to focus this down when there is only one year left. Perhaps can combine money with my mother to focus it down.
Those are the big expenses. Several other little ones are bouncing around. Comcast, Verizon, HOA on said condo, and probably something I am leaving out. Added it all up. About 185k total. Wow. Although if I remove the mortgage not so bad. Within the next year taxes, Visa and maybe mother's car should be paid off. Trainwreck? Anyone?
Friday, April 8, 2011
Friday Fun
49.00 for a shirt on ebay. oops
42.00 gas
The shirt was stupid. But I really thought I'd be outbid because I similar one went for 60 last month and "buy it now" is set at 125 and 150 for others. Gas was 3.55 a gallon and I had been on empty for most of the week. No choice there.
Did offset the cost of the shirt slightly - no coffee, no muffin and no eating out. Groceries are holding out for a little longer I think.
42.00 gas
The shirt was stupid. But I really thought I'd be outbid because I similar one went for 60 last month and "buy it now" is set at 125 and 150 for others. Gas was 3.55 a gallon and I had been on empty for most of the week. No choice there.
Did offset the cost of the shirt slightly - no coffee, no muffin and no eating out. Groceries are holding out for a little longer I think.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Money
2.00 = muffin and coffee
Found some free coffee at work in then caved in and bought some more in the afternoon anyhow. Kept spending low, didn't eat out for lunch or dinner. Didn't buy anything stupid. . and held off buying gas for another day.
Still have a Comcast bill to pay when I can find it. No disasters so far. Doing taxes this weekend. Think I owe around $200 but unavoidable.
Found some free coffee at work in then caved in and bought some more in the afternoon anyhow. Kept spending low, didn't eat out for lunch or dinner. Didn't buy anything stupid. . and held off buying gas for another day.
Still have a Comcast bill to pay when I can find it. No disasters so far. Doing taxes this weekend. Think I owe around $200 but unavoidable.
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