For someone in your situation, having some public information out there, you might want to consider something like LifeLock. It is an identity protection service that costs about $55 a year with a discount code (I can e-mail one to you if you want).

It may be worth looking into, or at the very least, you could do a post about the pros/cons if you learn anything about the service. I have some co-workers who have tried it and think it is great. It might help ease some of your fear.

Keep up the good writing. Just to clarify, I think you could really do well with the blog even without divulging more personal info.

Thank you for the compliment about my writing. I don’t know how Trent does it. It takes me hours to do a single post. Even the ING post I wrote today I started yesterday and finished today. In all, it took over an hour. On the flip side, if I took four hours a day to write one great post a day, and could make a full-time income from blogging, that would be pretty awesome. This blog is far from replacing my full time income, though.

Danielle – the specifics would be listing who I do my banking with, the types of credit cards I have, even loan payment amounts. I was pretty shocked once when I had to answer some questions to get a credit report and low and behold, the answers to a few of those questions could be found within this blog. That made me very uncomfortable.

About the flip – I agree. My husband does most of the household duties. I haven’t washed any dishes in weeks and it’s probably been months since I’ve done a load of laundry. He also does a lot of cooking during the week, but I usually do it on the weekends because I like to cook.

The discussion here has been great. I think I have been holding back my writing too much out of fear. I have a lot of to think about this weekend.

The comments about your husband’s employment/lack thereof are uncalled for. You are doing so great on your own, that I don’t think he needs to work. I think you all are fine with him at home with your son, working here and there, and throwing his money at your debt whenever he does work. Do you know how many families are the total flip of you- where the man works full time like you, and the woman is at home/works sometimes? If comments like that were given to a woman, it would be very untolerated!!!

At least, if he doesn’t find a job, you don’t have to move. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for responding regarding the details/reports. I understand not putting out the reports if there is a lot of extra work involved. I thought it was just a quick snapshot of something that you already did.

The only reason I “critiqued” your lack of detail is because you have a tremendous talent for writing, and I think you could make so much more from your blogging.

In all honesty, I feel like you have the voice to make a living from blogging like Trent at thesimpledollar. It seems the only thing really holding you back is time, when you have time your blog is great, when you are short on time you get a lot of posts saying “I am really busy”.

Keep up the good work.

Cost of living is HUGE. You are fortunate to live in a home and an area where your cost of living is very low. Stay there girl! We have considered moving to get out of high priced Western Washington, but the doors have not opened yet.

Keep up the good work! I love your blog.

As for the $600, it doesn’t mean that it was a payday in itself. It’s just that I run our checking account very low and when payday arrives it’s debt-paying time. That’s why I usually pay chunks at a time.

As for the Quicken reports, I stopped posting those. For one, I was spending too much time gathering all of my receipts and entering every last detail. I am a perfectionist that way and the reports took a long time to do. The other reason goes back to not posting specifics. As my blog grows, I know it may affect my career in a harmful way. If I lost my job right now, I don’t think I have to note how far up a creek we’d be without a paddle. Bloggers have lost their jobs due to their blogs (it’s called getting dooced).

I will definitely keep in mind what you said about details, and I’ll try to be a little more specific with as much as I’m comfortable with.

However, I think being too guarded about specific financial information might be holding the growth of this blog back a bit. People come on here looking for ideas that might help them, and when you say something like “we had a $600 payday” and not provide any more information it leaves the reader wondering “how can I generate a $600 payday to help pay down my debts?”

Also, you used to post your monthly Quicken spending and income reports, did you stop posting those? I found those to be very interesting and revealing for a person trying to escape debt myself.

Good luck and keep inspiring us with your debt paydown!

Mar – this idea takes my husband’s talents and my talents and meshes them together quite well. It will provide income, and it will open up so many doors to other opportunities that can generate more income.

I am so excited for you!

I’m continually shocked that some people think they know enough to criticize about someone else’s spouse and/or choices. If Tricia is excited about this opportunity and thinks it is good for her family, that should be good enough. Based on her previous postings, there aren’t that many jobs of any kind in their area. Yes, they can move so both of them can work, but their expenses will also go up; they are most likely not going to get such an inexpensive house in another area of the country. I don’t know what the new venture is, but it very well may be in her husband’s field. Even if it isn’t, if it’s good enough for them and they think it will be an income generator in 6 months (or 12 or however long they are willling to give it), I don’t think we can slam it unless we know more. Sorry if I offend you, but I found your comments brutal, offensive, and unwarranted.

Tricia, good luck with the new venture. You’ve done such a marvelous job with the debt payoff. I think your next blog, the one you start in June, 2009, should be “bloggingupsavings”!

Buying something that only cost $500 is not justification for making the project your husband’s only “job.” If you guys want to start a business, do it on the side while you are both working to pay off your debt. Paying off the debt rapidly will give you the flexibility to divert money to working capital if the business takes off. If the idea fails, you will not have lost another year of income.