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Archive for July, 2011

Broke but have to spend money

July 29th, 2011 at 02:48 am

So yesterday we got our bankruptcy paperwork in the mail. We have our hearing date in late August. The thing that makes me laugh and go duh is the rules. I screwed up so I'm willing to pay the piper. My point is we had to take a credit counseling class before (and pay for it) and then to discharge our bankruptcy we have to take a debtor education class which will cost anywhere from $20 to $100. (I'm waiting for the attorney to tell me if there is a specific one). The reason we are filing bankruptcy is because we have no money, but hey let's go and make people spend more money to get out of debt. Genius.

Speaking of spending money. My car went kaput today. I was able to get to the place to fix it. Of course while fixing it they found something else wrong almost doubling the bill. The people were really nice though. They found me a $150 coupon online and are going to give me my next oil change free so that is cool. So instead of $1125 it was only $980. Luckily we have a credit card just for such emergencies or I would have been really S.O.L. I have a couple hundred bucks we saved and can put towards the card, but have to figure out where the rest comes from. If the plasma place would pay cash instead of debit card here, I would donate but they feel plastic is better. Go figure.

Otherwise, anytime that Karma or whatever it calls itself wants to stop making me the butt of some cosmic joke, that would be great. It can take its friend murphy with it. I have enough laws to deal with right now.

Okay, done whining. I don't have it as bad as some people and it will get better eventually.

An Open Letter to Government

July 28th, 2011 at 03:24 pm

To the members of Congress:
I am respectfully asking you to get it together and raise the debt ceiling. It doesn't matter what side of the isle you are on, it needs to be done.
To the Democrats, cut the entitlements. Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I know that is your pride and joy, but it is time to make some hard choices. Just so you are aware my son is on Social Security and I am on Medicaid, so I will be affected just like everyone else, but I am still willing to make the sacrifice. Are you?
To the Republicans. Why are you willing to let the middle and lower class shoulder the burden of tax cuts? Why aren't the people who can afford it the most having to pay their fair share? It's time to close some loopholes and raise revenue to help the budget.
I have no doubt that you all feel you are doing what's best for this Country. But in reality, you are not. If you cause the Government to default, you are putting the economy at risk, as well as the people who hired you. Why are you not willing to make the tough decisions? Are you afraid you will upset the voter base and not get re-elected? Oh well, you were sent there to do a job, it may be tough and it may eventually cost you the job, but nonetheless it is a job, so do it. Thank you for your time.

We're back.

July 26th, 2011 at 05:12 pm

Just got back from my brother's wedding in Chicago. I was in the party which was a blast except for the insane heat and humidity but I would do it in again in a heartbeat. It was of course one of those weddings that is a four day event. Which when you aren't filing bankruptcy and have a job is okay, but when you are broke off your arse, it gets a little tougher. Luckily we knew it was coming so we were able to save some money up for the event. Of course, having my parents step up and pay for the hotel and train tickets saved us about 600 dollars. So that was nice. I will say watching the people driving in Chicago remind me a lot of Vegas. Crazy arse people.

It would be nice if the freaking state would send us our refund. (our tax guy messed up and we had to amend our returns) So now instead of getting a refund, we have been getting letters that we owe almost $800 dollars. I have been calling and sending letters but they don't seem to care. If it is dealt with soon, I am going to throw it on the tax guys desk, and tell him you frakked it up, you spend the time fixing it, I'm done. That would be more money to put into an EF (If I ever get to start it).

My wife got told right before we left that she will be unable to work for 10 days because the doctor she works for is going on vacation. She will probably file for partial unemployment (he suggested it). She has vacation to use, but that PTO also includes her holiday pay, so if she uses it now she has nothing left for the holidays. I told her once I get some money it might be time to find a new job. Her hours are to erratic. 40 hours one week 30 the next making it hard to budget stuff. So when she goes back to work I will probably try to start an emergency fund with money we have left from the wedding and living.
And of course her cell phone died sunday night, but we had an extra one laying around that the verizon people were nice enough to switch phone number and let her use so that saved us from having to come up with a crapload of money.

On another note, we got $6.00 worth of coupons from Hershey's on any of their products. I complained when I found a piece of hair in some Twizzlers I ate. So that is good at least.

Good Grief

July 18th, 2011 at 10:11 pm

I had a doctor appointment today that somehow managed to get canceled and they didn't tell me. Luckily they were really good about it and got me in anyway. This was partly a follow up and partly something to do about my snoring. (It will wake sleeping zombie two rooms over.) I actually had people knock on a hotel wall before. Anyway, back to my story. He looks in my throat and shoves that tube thing down my nose. Things are supposed to come out the nose not in it. But he says if I take my tonsils out and get my deviated septum fixed that will big difference. He wants to get it done as soon as possible since it is giving me so many problems. My wife is going to love that another surgery. By the time I am done I am going to be the freakin bionic man.

In other news I haven't heard from the doctor about some moles they removed. I'm not worried about them and neither is the doctor but the family is. I tell you, you get one bout of melanoma and all of a sudden the world is going to end when moles show up.

We are three days until my brother's wedding in Chicago. They are making it a 4 day event, with all the free food and wine you can eat and drink. Because of our financial straits my parents are paying for our hotel and train ticket. So the only thing I pay for is the tux rental. So I am happy about that. Depressed I have to keep taking help, but that is another time.

It is to damn hot here right now. And we have no air conditioner. If we are lucky we get a breeze at night to cool things down a little. My wife can't sleep in this heat and humidity. So naturally I am not allowed to sleep either. Good thing we are going to a hotel in a couple of days.

Nothing Special

July 16th, 2011 at 04:41 pm

The last couple of days has been okay. Lets see. We got my son's high school enrollment stuff. He got the classes he wanted which was great but now we have to come up with $165 just to start for the classes. We get to pay for the privilege of taking the class as well as any of the supplies needed. They must be preparing for getting hosed at colleges on expenses. oh well. We also found out his health insurance premium is going up $50 a month. He is on his own plan because it is a hell of a lot cheaper. To put him on my wife's policy we would actually have to PAY her company each month for the privilege of health insurance. Luckily the insurance we figured was going to go up so we budgeted for it.

The bank found out we filed bankruptcy (we knew they would) and so they closed her zero balance credit card (we knew they would do that to) but it sucks they took all the points she had earned including bonus points. Oh well. We only wanted it so if we had to rent a car or something then we could without getting screwed on a bank hold. The attorney said they may or may not close it. Up to the bank.

I am going to try and start saving for an emergency fund. I don't know whether to open an account at someplace like ING or do the local credit union. I'm thinking it would be just a savings account. However, eventually I would like to open a medical savings plan, (maybe put a checking account with it) since we keep getting surprised by medical crap. So I'm leaning towards the credit union. Maybe I'll post the idea in the forum and see what they say. Before you ask our current banks is one of those that require a minimum each month in savings or they charge you a fee. Well a fee to hold my own money when they get the privilege of using it at little to no interest is against my standards. Actually, it just really pisses me off.

Okay I'm done for now. I'm sure there will be something later.

GAP finally paid off

July 14th, 2011 at 03:36 pm

Back in May, my wife was house sitting when a huge storm rolled thru the area. It was at that point that a tree decided it didn't want to stay there anymore and decided to run over my wife's car as it tried to get away. (It didn't get very far the car roof stopped it). It took our insurance about two weeks to decided to total it and pay the amount they were willing to pay the bank. Then the real fun started.

We had GAP insurance. So I had to get in touch with them and let them know what was going on. I also notified the bank about what happened and that GAP was going to pay it. Well after the bank sent the same 17 pages over and over for 3 days, they finally sent the right papers to GAP. I also found out they weren't making notes that I was calling and telling them why I wasn't going to pay. Which would explain why they didn't know what I was talking about when I called.

Anyway, its been two months since the car was totaled and the bank finally posted the GAP check they got. And they were nice enough to backdate the payment to the day of the loss, so all fees and interest was waived back to then. So we are officially rid of all our car payments. It feels good not to have to budget for that each month.

We filed

July 8th, 2011 at 01:47 pm

Last night we signed the papers to get our bankruptcy rolling. Talk about a bittersweet pill to swallow. One part of me is relieved because this lets us get a fresh start (eventually). The other part of me is really mad at myself. Regardless of how we got into this debt, it still shows I couldn't pay the debt I owed. Actually, I only accept about half our debt. The other half is about is due to the medical condition that the one company is supposed to pay. (I'll get more into that later). Anyway, we now have to wait about 6 weeks before we have to go meet with the trustee to finalize things. And then after that we wait another couple of months and then it is done. It would be nice if we could start 2012 with this monkey off our backs. The good thing is that now we can focus on saving money and building up an EF. This way we can pay cash for everything later. So that will be a good thing. Now if I could only get some sort of income then we will be on our way to saving.

Taking the plunge

July 6th, 2011 at 10:57 pm

Okay, so I decided to start blogging. I will write when I can or the mood strikes me.

I think the best place to start is that my family and I got into some financial trouble over the last several years. While we had managed to stay on top of things when we moved we found out I had to have another surgery which is going to keep me out of work for at least a year. Luckily my wife was able to get a job right away. Even though we had 6 months of living when we moved and moved in with mother our money was spent on keeping us above water. Unfortunetaly the people who were supposed to be paying for my surgery still haven't paid yet after a 8 months. So between that and our credit card debt we are broke. Tomorrow we are signing the papers to file bankruptcy. Talk about a pride hit. I have done everything I can but not enough. It's hard with one income and some social security for my son. We are filing tomorrow.

My point is that we need to start trying to save money with what we have, and I figure if I make it public, hopefully we can do it. I also thought, I would document my experiences with bankruptcy and anything else. I hope this stuff is interesting to you.