Getting out of Debt in November! - Page 4

[eh bien]

Thanks for the responses. I want to get the thrive chequing account with ING to avoid the bank fees with my account. It also kind of feels like a fresh start. I'm going through all my numbers now and figuring out what I need to save for.

[orangemomma]

Mini update on my student loans. The background - in Oct I talked with them and they changed my repayment plan at my request and reduced my monthly amount by $10 or so they said. When I went online to pay in November, it had not been reduced by the $10. I called them and complained. They promised it would be reduced for December.

Today I checked online. It has been reduced by $20 from the original amount it had been. YEA!

I think it was lilacvioletiris that said to be sure to celebrate the small victories = so this is me doing the happy dance (whatever that might look like LOL)

[SunRise]

Originally Posted by orangemomma 

Mini update on my student loans. The background - in Oct I talked with them and they changed my repayment plan at my request and reduced my monthly amount by $10 or so they said. When I went online to pay in November, it had not been reduced by the $10. I called them and complained. They promised it would be reduced for December.

Today I checked online. It has been reduced by $20 from the original amount it had been. YEA!

I think it was lilacvioletiris that said to be sure to celebrate the small victories = so this is me doing the happy dance (whatever that might look like LOL)

Hey, an orange is an orange. That is $10 (or $20) extra bucks to go towards other things right now!

[lilacvioletiris]

orangemomma, I have a vision of a happy dance in my head.  Isn't it exciting! One step closer to financial freedom.

eh bien, glad you are able to make a fresh start financially with a new bank.  I know I love my credit union because it has no fees on my accounts.  The crazy fees other financial institutions charge is ridiculous.

[eh bien]

Orangemama, I've also made a request to reduce the loan repayment for my school loan. Good for you for getting it decreased!

In my case I'm on maternity leave so my income is pretty much a third of my salary. I've been pre-approved for repayment assistance and am waiting for the application in the mail to fill out to see if I qualify. If I do I'll get 6 months where interest will not accrue and I won't have to pay in that time either. That will give me $240 x 6 months of "extra" money to put elsewhere.

[eirual]

Not to rain on your parade, Orange, but could they not have just taken the $20 off to make up for last month? Like $10 for this month and $10 off for the mistake last month??

[orangemomma]

well, eirual I hadn't thought of that - my happy dance may be short-lived - but I am still dancing for the month of December. Will see what January brings!

[trekkingirl]

Went to the store to christmas shop and left empty handed and totally uninspired. I wonder if I'm depressed or just sick of commercialism and materialistic holidays. hmmmmmmm?????????

[lilacvioletiris]

I am so with you trekking girl.  My DH's family loves to buy stuff, my family likes to make gifts with meaning.  I prefer to make things for DH's family because that is how I was raised.  Tonight I am making some flannel pillowcases for my SIL. She turned her nose up at the flannel pjs I made her last year, but my FIL loved his vest and my MIL loved her skirt so it that made me feel better.  I am so happy that my SIL isn't coming to her parents for Christmas this year. We are just going to mail SIL's gift to her.

[orangemomma]

Thought I would write down how things went with my goals for November - I have found that this is a good place for me to do this. I put it in my day planner too but this seems to give me more accountability :)

Goals for November:

1. I am still at DR's pre-step 0.8 - need to stay current on all bills. I learned alot about my budget last month and am making necessary adjustments today for the Nov budget. - I was able to keep current on my bills. I was short for one bill that was due Nov 30th - so I took the money needed for a December bill to pay it. Of course that is setting me up for anxiety for December but I am just going to trust the universe and go with it.

2. Try again to add to EF - perhaps $50 might be more realistic - I did add $50 to my baby EF - and it is safely tucked away in my ING account!

3. Tithe 1% of my income - I completely halted this for Sept/Oct and it just felt wrong. So 1%, not the 10% that everyone recommends - I can't do that yet. - Did this too! Send check for 1% of my November income to my favorite charity.

WOW! I did better than I had thought! On to post my December goals.

Edited by orangemomma - 12/2/12 at 1:36pm

[lactatinggirl]

Originally Posted by lilacvioletiris 

I am so with you trekking girl.  My DH's family loves to buy stuff, my family likes to make gifts with meaning.  I prefer to make things for DH's family because that is how I was raised.  Tonight I am making some flannel pillowcases for my SIL. She turned her nose up at the flannel pjs I made her last year, but my FIL loved his vest and my MIL loved her skirt so it that made me feel better.  I am so happy that my SIL isn't coming to her parents for Christmas this year. We are just going to mail SIL's gift to her.

I love making stuff for Christmas. I think it's so much more special when I've made something with my hands specifically for that person. It's also so much cheaper! :-P 

AFM- I've done really bad with the budget this past 2 weeks. I haven't overspent, but money from pretty much all of the envelopes is gone. It's in large part buying unexpected things for Christmas, but also just being bad. Whenever I'm stressed (which considering finals are next week, I am STRESSED), I go back to my old spending ways. :-/

[lilacvioletiris]

That is excellent orangemomma! You are moving one step closer to financial freedom.  Goals are so useful.

AFM, my DH had a great event on Friday night. His company Christmas party has a gift portion to it. DH had been wanting to update his computer so he could get his machinist software on it for drafting machine parts as part of his studies at the community college.  There were 4 big "gifts" (a blue ray player, a 32 inch LCD tv, an ipad, and an hp laptop) that people were able to put their names in to a hat for. DH put his name in the laptop box and he WON!  He was so excited to have his new laptop. Now we can sit next to each other on the love seat and do our work and my brother who also needs to use a computer to get his classwork done so having 3 computers is an answer to prayer. It was a great Christmas gift!

I hope others get a great surprise for Christmas!

[sarafi]

Originally Posted by trekkingirl 

so I offered $50k over the asking price and still no accepted offer.

Is there a chance your financing looks weird to people? You have a pre-approval letter, yes?

Also if your loan is an FHA some people might not want to risk dealing with it. In my state there are many more rules if you go that route and we had two bids accepted that were a few thousand lower than competing bids b/c we were not using an FHA loan. That's probably illegal or something, but we ended up backing out of both those deals in the end anyway.

Something to talk over with your Realtor maybe?

[eirual]

Orangemama, what's your story? I forget the details from your intro (if you wrote one...which I think you did when you joined the thread)....I have trouble connecting people's names to their circumstances.

[lactatinggirl]

Is someone going to start the December thread? 

[orangemomma]

Just put one up!