I have been going over the preliminary numbers for November and I am feeling a lot of stress. I just can't make them all balance in a pleasant way. I seem to be running about $250 over budget, and I know I have forgotten something! This is so not a pleasant feeling. I am waiting on a deposit refund from my last apartment. We made it a point to leave the place in good shape and we paid a sizeable deposit when we moved in. So I am having hopeful thoughts on that.
This time of year is always extra stressful for me. So little money and so much I want to buy. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching and then Christmas. I am trying to write a list of presents to buy, so I can keep the spending to a limited amount. These are things I am so not good at! I feel like I have been at this whole money thing for so long I should be a pro at it. Yet, I trip and stumble every day. I miss the opportunity I had the last few years to be working the extra job. Even though job 2 was only weekends, it brought in just enough money I felt I had a cushion. But it did cost me in several ways. I think the comfortable feeling from the money was more a placebo effect.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
update and start over
Ok, I know I've said this before. It is hard to believe it has been over 2 months since my last post. A lot has happened. I spent a lot of the summer helping with a family crisis where my dad was in the hospital for several weeks. Plus I actually had to work this summer. Didn't exactly get paid extra for it, but it was work that had to be done. I have also had the swine flu (coulda seen that one coming,s ince I work in a junior high, where is is running rampant). Plus I moved.
The rent in my old place was going up again. That means is was up to $900 for a place that was a bit over 1000 sq. feet. Originally I debated whether we should move or not. Then we found this place. I like it a lot. The middle one, not so much. But it is $870 a month for about 1500 sq. feet. Plus is has a garage. I'm nervous about the utilities. I think they will be considerably more.
I got extra duty money in September. That is the money I used to help finance this move. I also paid off a couple bills with it. Which was nice. But as I look at it, I realize I probably could have used the money a lot more effectively if I had written up a spending plan and stuck to it.
The rent in my old place was going up again. That means is was up to $900 for a place that was a bit over 1000 sq. feet. Originally I debated whether we should move or not. Then we found this place. I like it a lot. The middle one, not so much. But it is $870 a month for about 1500 sq. feet. Plus is has a garage. I'm nervous about the utilities. I think they will be considerably more.
I got extra duty money in September. That is the money I used to help finance this move. I also paid off a couple bills with it. Which was nice. But as I look at it, I realize I probably could have used the money a lot more effectively if I had written up a spending plan and stuck to it.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Health insurance and the need for reformed health care...
I can't even believe this summer is almost over. It has gone by so quickly, and I have accomplished so little! I set out the summer with such grand plans! Then life got in the way. My dad is finally out of the hospital. He was in there for about 6 weeks, grand total. Fortunately, my dad has really good insurance. They will cover most all the expenses.
Then, in comparison, there is my son. He fell and broke his jaw. THis required an emergency room visit, a follow up visit with a specialist and more. He needed surgery to have it wired shut. My son has a good job. He works for the post office. He has worked with them for about 4 years. He now delivers mail. He has been doing that for about 18 month. Even though he is full time, works 50+ hours each week, he is not considered a full time, permanent employee. Which means, while the post office has great benefits, including a wonderful health insurance package, he isn't eligilbe for any of it. Plus, a week before his accident, his partner got laid off. They have worked hard to pay off all their bills and save some money. Either way, they are going to have to pay for his medical expenses out of his pocket.
When you listen to the debate about health care, many of the people who worry about what a single payer system would do will say those without insurance are mainly people who choose to be without health insurance. That isn't necessarily true. Many, like my son, simply aren't able to get insurance at work, and individual plans can be prohibitively expensive. There needs to be a way to insure all of us. As I do research on this, it seems the U.S.A. is one of the very few industrialized nations that doesn't provide health care for its citizens.
We already have government health care. Medicare, VA benefits, military medical are all examples of government run health care. Granted, they aren't perfect. But they do have many benefits. For one, my dad and mom aren't having to stress out about his recent hospitalization.
Even those of us who have good health insurance still have problems with it. I continually have to fight with my insurance company to get them to pay claims. They continually change the rules about what they cover. And yes, I have someone that stands in between me and my doctor. My insurance continually dictates what medications I can take. Even if I have a prescription for a medicine I know works well, they may or may not cover it. I end up having to take a medicine that they will cover that isn't quite as effective.
Congress will be on summer break throughout August. I personally will be contacting my congressmen and letting them know how I feel about health care reform. I will be attending townhall meetings, writing letters and making phone calls.
What are your concerns about the health care/insurance system we have?
Then, in comparison, there is my son. He fell and broke his jaw. THis required an emergency room visit, a follow up visit with a specialist and more. He needed surgery to have it wired shut. My son has a good job. He works for the post office. He has worked with them for about 4 years. He now delivers mail. He has been doing that for about 18 month. Even though he is full time, works 50+ hours each week, he is not considered a full time, permanent employee. Which means, while the post office has great benefits, including a wonderful health insurance package, he isn't eligilbe for any of it. Plus, a week before his accident, his partner got laid off. They have worked hard to pay off all their bills and save some money. Either way, they are going to have to pay for his medical expenses out of his pocket.
When you listen to the debate about health care, many of the people who worry about what a single payer system would do will say those without insurance are mainly people who choose to be without health insurance. That isn't necessarily true. Many, like my son, simply aren't able to get insurance at work, and individual plans can be prohibitively expensive. There needs to be a way to insure all of us. As I do research on this, it seems the U.S.A. is one of the very few industrialized nations that doesn't provide health care for its citizens.
We already have government health care. Medicare, VA benefits, military medical are all examples of government run health care. Granted, they aren't perfect. But they do have many benefits. For one, my dad and mom aren't having to stress out about his recent hospitalization.
Even those of us who have good health insurance still have problems with it. I continually have to fight with my insurance company to get them to pay claims. They continually change the rules about what they cover. And yes, I have someone that stands in between me and my doctor. My insurance continually dictates what medications I can take. Even if I have a prescription for a medicine I know works well, they may or may not cover it. I end up having to take a medicine that they will cover that isn't quite as effective.
Congress will be on summer break throughout August. I personally will be contacting my congressmen and letting them know how I feel about health care reform. I will be attending townhall meetings, writing letters and making phone calls.
What are your concerns about the health care/insurance system we have?
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
July Budget Woes
I can't believe it has been 6 weeks since I last posted. My goal was to post several times a week, especially during the summer. I had planned on enjoying a very relaxing, quiet summer. But it really hasn't turned out to be that way. I have also been a huge slacker as far as my money goes as well. I make 2 steps forward then have a huge slide backwards.
My dad has been in and out of the hospital since the first part of June. He was in an auto accident. Then he started having some major health issues, they originally thought they were due to the accident. But it seems that was just kind of the tipping point. They have uncovered prostate issues, possible dementia or Alzheimer's. Then they have found bone cancer. Many huge health issues. Now he is in a rehab/convalescent center. Hopefully, he should be out soon.
As far as my finances go, since this is a personal finance blog, they are A MESS! Right now, I have about $150 left for the month. I am also expecting a reimbursement check from my work. That will be about $145. Hopefully, it will get deposited soon. I haven't been good about tracking my spending. I know I have all my monthly bills all taken care of. All I need to worry about now is all the little things, like food, gas, etc. The gas wouldn't be a big issue, but I am sharing my car with Middle One. The Ex was lending her his car, but they needed it back. Its registration was due, and their other car broke down. That is one thing The Ex never quite figured out. Car Maintenance. Anyway...because she is using my car, my gas expenses are high. I feel guilty asking her for gas money since I am paying her for that garnishment I posted about earlier.
Tomorrow, I am going to post my spending for the month.
My dad has been in and out of the hospital since the first part of June. He was in an auto accident. Then he started having some major health issues, they originally thought they were due to the accident. But it seems that was just kind of the tipping point. They have uncovered prostate issues, possible dementia or Alzheimer's. Then they have found bone cancer. Many huge health issues. Now he is in a rehab/convalescent center. Hopefully, he should be out soon.
As far as my finances go, since this is a personal finance blog, they are A MESS! Right now, I have about $150 left for the month. I am also expecting a reimbursement check from my work. That will be about $145. Hopefully, it will get deposited soon. I haven't been good about tracking my spending. I know I have all my monthly bills all taken care of. All I need to worry about now is all the little things, like food, gas, etc. The gas wouldn't be a big issue, but I am sharing my car with Middle One. The Ex was lending her his car, but they needed it back. Its registration was due, and their other car broke down. That is one thing The Ex never quite figured out. Car Maintenance. Anyway...because she is using my car, my gas expenses are high. I feel guilty asking her for gas money since I am paying her for that garnishment I posted about earlier.
Tomorrow, I am going to post my spending for the month.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The incident of the CAR
Yesterday in my post, I mentioned my daughter's car had been repossessed, but I didn't give any details. Here is what happened. Christmas day of 2007, the Middle One was involved in a rather large pile up on the freeway and ended up totalling her car. Fortunately she was ok. But the car she totalled was a car she completely loved. She immediately went into mourning. She knew she had to buy a new car, but was overwhelmed with the thought. We had a rental car, paid for by the insurance, but there was a time limit on that. She felt rushed into buying a car. She looked at several places, found a couple of possibilities. She went back to the dealer where she bought car 1. After she bought car one, she had a brief fling with the guy who sold it to her. She originally couldn't find a car with that dealer that she could get financing on. They asked if she could get a co-signer. New Little Thing said she would co-sign. The only problem was, while she had great credit, she had no income. She is a homemaker. So they said she couldn't use her. Middle One went to other car dealers. She found one who would allow her to use New Little Thing for a cosigner, because while she wasn't working, The Ex was. They could use her income. But Middle One couldn't find a car she really liked.
In the meantime, the guy that cold her the first car called back and said they had a new little car he thought she would really like, it had been a repo, he could get her a screaming deal, and he hadn't had a sale all month....(pity card). So she went in. They told her they had been able to get financing for her without a co-signer. The car was nice enough, but it truly wasn't a can she really liked. It was a 2000 and had high miles on it. It was a stick shift, which she had never driven. But the guy really played her, and she ended up buying it. They really screwed her on her loan. For some reason, which I had never been able to totally understand, she ended up paying over $16000 for it. It took a while for her to get all the financing set, even though they told her they had it all arranged. She finally ended up getting the loan through the credit union she went through for the first loan. It is a very small credit union with 2 offices, the closest of which was 30 miles away. Which, ironically, is the bank that repoed the car from the previous owner.
Middle one has bank trust issues. She would drive 30 miles to deliver her cash payment. Finally, she realized her credit union was a member of a local C.U. co-op. She could make her payments at a credit union down the street from us which was also a member of the co-op. Now this is where all the details get fuzzy. I will only tell you what I was told from her. Take it for what you will.
New Little THing started getting calls from the credit union saying she was late on her payments. Then is escalated to she wasn't making them. Middle One swears she made them. Some might have been a couple days late, but she made all of them. New LittleThing kept trying to get the credit union to quit calling her about it. She made sure they had Middle One's phone number, because they swore they didn't have it. She gave them her address, because the c.u. swore they didn't have an address for her. Which is really weird, because they sent her monthly statements at her address. Then the c.u. began saying she was totally missing payments. They told New Little Thing they would repo the car. Then they told New Little Thing she should worry about this because she had co-signed on the loan. This was a shock to everyone, since NLT had never been contacted about this car. But apparently, after Middle one took the car home, it looked like they wouldn't be able to get financing on the car. Yeah, I know. They said they already had it. Apparently they lied. Imagine that. A car dealer who lies...
So, what we found out was, they took the loan information from the car she had looked at earlier and put it on this loan, the forged New Little Things signature. The c.u. and the dealer all swear it must have been a clerical error, a big misunderstanding. At first, they said they would take NLT off the loan, but that would mean they would have to repo the car, since she wouldn't have a co-signer. But when NLT threatened to get an attorney, they decided to let her keep the car without the co-signer. But there was still the matter of the payments she hadne't made. The ones Middle One swears she made. But She couldn't find her reciepts. They had met with an awful accident, because this car didn't have cup holders. Now add into the middle of all this, Middle One is having to put easily $200 a month into the car just to keep it running. So, when late one night, the repo guy came and took the car, it was almost a relief, at least to me. Middle One, on the other hand, stood outside and screamed and yelled at the repo guy. Then she was confused about why all the neighbors were looking!
In the end, it has been kind of a relief all the way around. She still doesn't have a car. The Ex is letting her use one of his cars. We know she will probably have to face some legal hassles when everything is totally finished. She maye even have to take out bankruptcy herself. This has truly been a huge lesson to her. And a painful lesson as well. I have wished throughout I was able to help her with it financially. There are still lessons I wish she would have figured out with this. Things about keeping records and reciepts. Things about not having to drive 30 miles to make a payment. But one lesson and one day at a time, right?
In the meantime, the guy that cold her the first car called back and said they had a new little car he thought she would really like, it had been a repo, he could get her a screaming deal, and he hadn't had a sale all month....(pity card). So she went in. They told her they had been able to get financing for her without a co-signer. The car was nice enough, but it truly wasn't a can she really liked. It was a 2000 and had high miles on it. It was a stick shift, which she had never driven. But the guy really played her, and she ended up buying it. They really screwed her on her loan. For some reason, which I had never been able to totally understand, she ended up paying over $16000 for it. It took a while for her to get all the financing set, even though they told her they had it all arranged. She finally ended up getting the loan through the credit union she went through for the first loan. It is a very small credit union with 2 offices, the closest of which was 30 miles away. Which, ironically, is the bank that repoed the car from the previous owner.
Middle one has bank trust issues. She would drive 30 miles to deliver her cash payment. Finally, she realized her credit union was a member of a local C.U. co-op. She could make her payments at a credit union down the street from us which was also a member of the co-op. Now this is where all the details get fuzzy. I will only tell you what I was told from her. Take it for what you will.
New Little THing started getting calls from the credit union saying she was late on her payments. Then is escalated to she wasn't making them. Middle One swears she made them. Some might have been a couple days late, but she made all of them. New LittleThing kept trying to get the credit union to quit calling her about it. She made sure they had Middle One's phone number, because they swore they didn't have it. She gave them her address, because the c.u. swore they didn't have an address for her. Which is really weird, because they sent her monthly statements at her address. Then the c.u. began saying she was totally missing payments. They told New Little Thing they would repo the car. Then they told New Little Thing she should worry about this because she had co-signed on the loan. This was a shock to everyone, since NLT had never been contacted about this car. But apparently, after Middle one took the car home, it looked like they wouldn't be able to get financing on the car. Yeah, I know. They said they already had it. Apparently they lied. Imagine that. A car dealer who lies...
So, what we found out was, they took the loan information from the car she had looked at earlier and put it on this loan, the forged New Little Things signature. The c.u. and the dealer all swear it must have been a clerical error, a big misunderstanding. At first, they said they would take NLT off the loan, but that would mean they would have to repo the car, since she wouldn't have a co-signer. But when NLT threatened to get an attorney, they decided to let her keep the car without the co-signer. But there was still the matter of the payments she hadne't made. The ones Middle One swears she made. But She couldn't find her reciepts. They had met with an awful accident, because this car didn't have cup holders. Now add into the middle of all this, Middle One is having to put easily $200 a month into the car just to keep it running. So, when late one night, the repo guy came and took the car, it was almost a relief, at least to me. Middle One, on the other hand, stood outside and screamed and yelled at the repo guy. Then she was confused about why all the neighbors were looking!
In the end, it has been kind of a relief all the way around. She still doesn't have a car. The Ex is letting her use one of his cars. We know she will probably have to face some legal hassles when everything is totally finished. She maye even have to take out bankruptcy herself. This has truly been a huge lesson to her. And a painful lesson as well. I have wished throughout I was able to help her with it financially. There are still lessons I wish she would have figured out with this. Things about keeping records and reciepts. Things about not having to drive 30 miles to make a payment. But one lesson and one day at a time, right?
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