Blogging Away Debt

Hitting a Low on the Roller Coaster Ride

For quite a while now, we have been doing great with reducing our debt. There would be times where I’d look at our finances and see how much we can squeeze out to put towards our debt (or savings). Usually, there was some breathing room. That’s not the case right now.

I feel a little helpless at the moment, and I haven’t felt like this in quite a while. I look at our Quicken file and I can’t do anything. Our account is dangerously close to being in the red at the end of this month. Right now I am preparing myself mentally because we may have to pull more money from our savings account. While we have our emergency fund there to help when we need it, that doesn’t make it any easier to have to use it.

As some of you noticed, I took a break from blogging. Part of it was technical (I changed all of my passwords after my blog was hacked and I misplaced the one sheet I wrote all of them down on – doh!). But part of it was the fact I have been debt-depressed. The series of events so far in June brought my mood down. It didn’t bug me too much when I wrote about it, but the next day when I said I was going to dig into our Quicken file to see how much we could put towards savings (but couldn’t) – that was the kicker.

We have also been anxiously waiting for some medical test results for my husband. They called today and all is well. Whew. That weighed very heavily on my mind. I feel bad about not blogging about it, but sometimes I have to step away from things and get my head back on straight.

I’m still not all that happy about our financial situation right now but I do feel better overall. It’s just one of those lows on the debt reduction roller coaster. I hope that means we are going to kick some debt booty once July rolls around. By then we should have some reimbursements for medical expenses we paid out of pocket and hopefully I will have the one payment an advertiser owes me. I was informed Friday that they had email problems and they are responding to emails sent the last few weeks as quickly as they can. So we’ll see how that plays out.

I do feel silly for letting things like this get to me. Things could be so much worse. I really should be thankful for what we have and not dwelling on what we don’t have. If there is one lesson that really needs to sink into my head during this journey – I think it’s that one right there.

Health Insurance Issue Partially Resolved

by Tricia

I noticed online today that my health insurance provider received the manual check that I wrote to them. I sent it Wednesday – they cashed it Friday. Whew. We are now officially covered and I can begin the claims process to get paid for things we paid out-of-pocket. I’m not looking forward to it, but at least it will be a learning experience.

I also found out that the original online bill payment that my bank sent did make it to Blue Cross and it was cashed on the 12th. I really goofed with how I handled everything, because now that check will bounce on them since we put a stop on it. That could result in a fee. I tried asking the customer service rep about it and he didn’t know. I guess we’ll see.

What I should have done was let that first check go for a while longer and then cut a check from my checkbook. I got really flustered, though, during this whole thing and didn’t think too clearly. I also seem to forget that I have a savings account I can pull from. You live…you learn.

With all of the information that I have, I believe my bank did its job and sent out the payment as they should have. I believe that the delay with everything lies with Blue Cross and I will confirm that when I call next week to find out when they cashed the second bill pay check from my bank. I believe that they are a company that is not equipped to handle online bill payments. Even though all of the necessary account information is included on the check, they delay the payment processing unless you have the voucher from your bill with the payment.

Now that this is somewhat resolved, I can dig into our finances and see if we can squeeze out some money to our savings account. I still would like to get that balance increased to $4,000.