Archive results for “April 2007f 2007”

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Not a Good Day Financially

Today I sent out over $1,000 to pay for taxes that we owed. I also initiated a payment plan with the IRS and opted to have $250 automatically withdrawn monthly from our account to pay for the remaining balance. It’s not fun making things right, but I do feel better getting it resolved. Once I know the total amount due (once penalties and interest are added on) I will update our debt total.

That’s how the day started.

Then, in the mail I received a bill for the laboratory and ultrasound portion of my miscarriage. I cannot believe that what I had done cost over $1,000. I already called to get a detailed billing statement so I can audit each charge and make sure it is right. There is good news, though…my health insurance partially covered it (I was worried because my plan doesn’t cover prenatal care). The bad news is that we still owe our 30% so that’s about $360 that we don’t have at the moment.

We don’t have it because I paid as much as I could towards the tax debt and pretty much bled our checking account dry. I also pulled from our savings account and our new balance is showing on the right hand side. I left some money in there in case we need it for an emergency. I also want to go through and double check my check register and make sure I’m not missing anything because we are really cutting things close.

Overall, I feel like I really have to rethink a lot of things on a personal level and a financial level. Lately things have stalled for us financially and I have to figure out why.

Posted by Tricia on April 30, 2007 at 8:44 PM in Life Experiences, Spending Money | 30 Comments »
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Reader Question – Were Our Minimum Payments Ever More than Our Income?

A while ago, I asked if anyone had questions for me. Here’s one from The Money Wars:

“Iâ€™m just getting started at getting out of debt after a lot of mistakes I made right after graduating. And I was wondering was there ever a point where your income was less than the minimum payments of all your credit cards?”

To the best of my memory, there was never a point where our minimum payments were more than our income. But there were points where our income covered our payments and our main bills (rent and utilities) and nothing else.

When that happened, things like groceries, diapers and gas went on our credit cards. It feels like you are barely treading water when that happens. You pay money to have your debt go down, but you turn around and charge more on your card. Thinking back to how I felt back then, I do not want to go back there ever again.

If anyone else has any questions, feel free to ask

Posted by Tricia on April 29, 2007 at 11:59 PM in Credit Cards, General Debt | 6 Comments »
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Reader Question – The Ways We Are Making More Money

A while ago I asked you if you had any questions for me. I received the following question from Da big D:

“Can you go into more of what you and your husband are doing to make more money? Ever thought of selling junk on Ebay? What about part time jobs? I was so in debt once that I worked the night shift (more money w/ night diff) and took a part time job @ best buy (which then got me into computers) and changed my career path. I was wondering if you were doing anything like that or thinking of it?”

In 2006, I was working one full-time job and two part-time jobs. Shortly after starting this blog (in February 2006), I was near a breaking point with all of the work I was doing. The money was nice, but I missed my family. I did keep the part-time jobs for a while but I ended up quitting them. My husband actually picked up one of them (that’s his temporary job) and then the other job I quit fully in January of this year (more on that here).

With my main job, I make a very decent income for the area that I live in. I am very pleased with it although sometimes I do wish I was paid more. But, for what I do it’s good money. The only way I could probably beat my current income is to go into business for myself and I cannot do that at this time.

This blog is also a source of income, although it’s not something I can rely on for a constant amount each month. Lately, though, it has been a lifesaver because my husband’s temporary job hasn’t had much work for him. We can technically live off of my income so anything above and beyond that can go towards our debt and/or savings.

My husband also has a blog that he is working on. He currently does not have it monetized but it sounds like he is considering it right now. Even if it brought in a few dollars a month it is better than nothing. Once my son goes to school full-time next year, he has discussed possibly getting a job that he can work while my son is working.

I was going to try selling some of our things on eBay but I haven’t gotten around to it. I did do some research and found out that a couple things that we have would sell at a decent price. However, many things we have wouldn’t. I think instead of eBay we will have a huge garage sale this summer and use the proceeds to go towards our debt. I’ve already begun gathering things that I would like to get rid of (lots of odds and ends).

One thing I do is keep an eye out at the Work At Home Moms Forum. Sometimes from there I can pick up a few things that I can do to make a few dollars. If you decide to watch the site, please be careful of scams.

Here are a few articles that I wrote previously that may be of interest to some of you:

Eight Ideas to Make a Few Extra Bucks

The Ways I Make Money With My Blog

Posted by Tricia on April 28, 2007 at 11:48 PM in Making Money | 13 Comments »
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Friday Blog Highlight and Some Free Stuff

Work has been interesting this week, so I haven’t had much time to cruise the blog-o-sphere. So, I thought I would highlight a network that I belong to, and one that you can join whether you have a blog or not:

No Credit Needed Network

You can sign up and get a cool chart that shows your progress with paying off your debt.

In other news, I’ve been absent from the finance carnivals lately because I couldn’t seem to remember to submit articles before the deadline! But, I’m back and participating and here are the carnivals this week:

Getting Green hosted the Carnival of Debt Reduction and included my article on Who’s To Blame for Your Money Troubles?

Golbguru hosted the Festival of Frugality and included my article on How I Decorated My Son’s Room for Under $60.

Now, for the freebies:

John Frieda Frizz-Ease

Tylenol Rapid Release Gels

Enjoy!

Posted by Tricia on April 27, 2007 at 7:09 PM in Blogging Buddies, Carnivals/Festivals, Free Stuff | 4 Comments »
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And My Copy of “Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting” Goes To…

I used Random.org’s random number generator to select the commenter that would receive my copy of “Excuse Me, Your Job is Waiting” and it came back with #1.

Congrats to commenter #1, who was bluntmoney!

I’ve already emailed her this morning and have heard back.

Thanks to all that participated. I should be having another book giveaway sometime in the next few months

Posted by Tricia on April 27, 2007 at 9:39 AM in Book Reviews, Free Stuff | 1 Comment »
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I’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

A while ago, I mentioned that I had an idea. It was something that had the ability to bring in a very decent part-time income but it will take a lot of work to get going and then only a few hours a week to maintain.

If you are wondering, no it’s not my new blog. It’s something that involves a lot more writing and taking some photos.

There is a digital SLR (not an affiliate link) that I have had in my Amazon shopping cart for a month. It costs a little over $600, but it is a very good camera. A couple years ago I would have “Bought now, thought later” and I would already have the camera in my hands. Not this time. It’s still there waiting until I’m ready.

My idea is still there. I am still excited about it and still trying to find the time to make it come to life. I wish I had an entire day to devote to it, but I don’t. So I do a little bit here and there when I can. I’ll still need the camera but I am going to save up for it.

So far, I have worked really hard and sold some articles (non debt related). That will provide $125 when I get paid. I also wrote a story for a contest and I am hoping beyond hoping I win. It’s for a $200 gift certificate to Amazon.com and any day now I should find out if I won. I also wrote a tip over at Net Worth IQ about reducing your debt. I can win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com if I have the most votes for my tip or if NetWorth IQ chooses it as a favorite. I submitted it late in the game, so I am hoping it is chosen as a favorite.

If the contests work out, I would have $375 extra. It is still going to be difficult to not put extra money towards our debt, but it has been a month and I still want to bring my idea to life. It’s not an idea I came across on a whim. It’s real…I still want it.

That’s something I learned with reading about the laws of attraction. You really have to let yourself want something. I am focusing on that camera big time. I want it.

But I won’t put it on plastic!

Posted by Tricia on April 26, 2007 at 11:04 PM in Spending Money | 15 Comments »
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