Money sucks... *vent*

[Kellie_MO4]

I just have to say that I HATE money. I am so tired of bills, interest, taxes... it all just sucks! We're about to lose our Condo, the renters we have in there don't pay rent on time (they still owe $$ for this month! It's due on the FIRST!grrrr) but we can't kick them out and get new tenants because with the way things are now it will sit empty for months on end. We would love to sell it and get rid of it, but it's worht about $30k less than we paid for it, so we'd still owe, IF we were able to sell it (the market sucks to much right now! I hate it!) so we're paying out of pocket every month for the dang condo mortgage, since we can't rent it for what we pay for it, we're paying the mortgage for the house we're in right now, utilities suck, we're still paying off bills for when DH got hurt last year and was out of work for 4 mos, and again for another 2 months the begining of this year. We're still paying the bill for having Luke (in july of '06!) I work a couple nights a week, but with no experience I don't make very much... I have no idea what I'm going to do for my older boys birthday, which is 5 days before Christmas, and then there's Christmas! I have all these great and inexpensive crafty things I'd love to do, but supplies cost $.... I just HATE MONEY!Or, more accurately, I hate not having enough to get by... It just doesn't seem fair! We don't have any health ins because we make too much for govt help, but not NEARLY enough to be able to afford our own ins, the kids need some winter clothes, but again, no $... DH doesn't know if he'll have work past this week, so we're trying to figure out what to do.... I would just love to walk away from all this debt and monthly bills and payments and all that crap and disappear to a stretch of land somewhere... build a house, have some animals.... just have peace, without the phone ringing every 10 minutes because these creditors want their money.... just feels like my head is about to explode, and there's nothing I can do about it...



K, I'm done now.... just good to be able to vent and not have DH stand there looking at me saying "so? what do you want me to do about it?" GRRRR

[normajean]

Are you buying or renting the place you are living in? If you are renting, can you kick out your renters and live there yourself? If you are buying, would the place you are living now be easier to rent out?

[Pepperdove]

I'm there with ya mama, I am hating money too, and I also want to escape to some land, build a house (with free materials), and raise (free) animals and (free) crops.

I sometimes question whether the modern world is really worth the trouble.

[Kellie_MO4]

The place we're in now is... complicated... My IL's own it (bought it for us, though I told DH that I didn't want to do it that way) and so we're paying their motgage on this house, which is a MAJOR fixer upper. DH is a construction specialist, so what his father was planning on doing is "selling" the house to us a few years after we moved in... after Matt did most of the remodeling and it would appraise for more so we would have to pay him more so he would make a profit off of DH;s hard work and move out of state... it makes me SO FREAKIN MAD that we moved into here.. it's a great house, but I HATE having the IL's so involved in OUR lives... they live around the corner, come over whenever they please (though I have TOLD them it's common courtesy to at least call first, and I don't open the dorr or let them in if they just show up on my doorstep and it's not a good time) and they think they have a say in pretty much every part of our lives... and this house has just put me over the
edge about it all... They want to refinance on the house now, even though all the work isn't close to being done, and told us this morning that an appraiser would be coming wed (this morning being tues)... uh, no, sorry, won't work for me... unless you don't mind the clutter 4 kids bring on and me in my pj's and robe, laying in bed with the kids watching cartoons while I try to rest a bit more)... So he rescheduled for monday... lucky me...

I personally would LOVE to move back into the condo! I keep telling Matt that that's what we should do, but he looks at it as we have added 1 kid since moving out of there, it's a 2 bdrm 2 story townhome that's 960 sp ft... the house we're in now is 1400 sqft give or take a few, 4 bdrm with a playroom and a nice backyard in a better part of town... I agree that it would be hard, but I HATE feeling like we constatnly OWE his parents for everything... it makes it SO hard for me to like them, which I want to do, they're nice people, but they're VERY controlling.

So, we pay them the mortgage for this house, and are also paying about $400 of the mortgage on the condo, since the rent won't cover it.. I just... wish something big would happen... something that would somehow force us to make a decision about something that could help change our situation (by something I mean something non deadly).. like, it would be GREAT if a truck could run into the front of the townhome when no one was in it and just tear it apart (the driver remaining unharmed, of course)... Or, hey, how about we find renters that would actually PAY the rent on time without us having to act like jerks trying to get our rent money... Ahhhhh, I dunno... I am just completely frustrated with this whole thing, I have no idea what to do, I would LOVE to just hand it back to the bank and say "here, I don't want it anymore" but I don't know if that would hurt us more financially or what... I just want to go to sleep and wake up with everything fixed... or go back 3 years and NOT buy that damn condo... or go back 2 years and NOT move into here... wake up and be happy, not stressed every minute about money, having none, having bills that must somehow get paid, birthdays and christmas right around the corner and want so badly to be happy and make my kiddos happy but I can't when I'm so freakin stressed... *I* know that money isn't what birthdays and holidays are about, but how do you explain that to kids that are 6 and under when they always got presents to open, always hear about what others want or are going to get...

ahhh... I don't even know it I'm making sense anymore... lol.. it's late, and my mind is going a million different directions trying to make things right but having no real idea which way to go.....

Although I stick to my original opinion about money.... it just plain sucks

[Kellie_MO4]

I'm there with ya mama, I am hating money too, and I also want to escape to some land, build a house (with free materials), and raise (free) animals and (free) crops.

Yeah, that would be awesome... When we had Netflix we rented Frontier something... it was a PBS special that picked 3 or 4 families (well, 2 families and 1 man and his father, who 1/2 way through his father left and his new bride came) and they basically lived the frontier life, with the food, livestock, housing, everything.. and Matt and I were sitting there SO wishing we could have lived then.. it would have been so great... If only I could transport us to Walnut Grove...LOL

[1happymom]

I'm so sorry for your stress and worry.

When DH and I got married we lived in a very tiny one bedroom apartment. We didn't even have room for a kitchen table. Honestly though if I were in your position I'd be willing to move back there even with 2 kids added to the family to have the peace of mind of my bills being paid and not having the wolf at the door. I realize that you and your DH have to agree or compromise on it but that's my take.

Also, maybe if you wanted to post on here about financial details there are a lot of great members who may be able to help you see where cutting back or creativity could help ease your load.

Please take care mama : )

[mum4boys]

Originally Posted by Kellie_MO4

When we had Netflix we rented Frontier something... it was a PBS special that picked 3 or 4 families (well, 2 families and 1 man and his father, who 1/2 way through his father left and his new bride came)

Totally off topic but you know you can watch it at PBS for free?

[Kellie_MO4]

Really? That's cool... but we have dialup, so I'm not sure it would work for me... but I'll still check it out. thanks!

Now for our finances...
DH brings home about $3500/month, and I make about $150/month, so income is usually around $3650

Food: we usually spend about $400/month on food (which I've been trying to cut
down, but DH is a *hefty* eater, and with the 4 kids, trying to eat healthier
seems to be so expensive and hard to do when you have limited funds for it)
Gas: (for the cars) is about $200/month
Mortgage(s): $1700/month (that's the $1400 for what we're in now, and the extra
$300 for the condo)
Utilities: aprox. $450/month for electric, gas, water, garbage/sewage, phone, basic cable and internet
Insurance: $350 for both cars, life, rental and landlord
Gym memb. $20 (yes, I know, should be one of the first things to go, but I *do* use it since I go work out after work and after Matt and the kids are asleep)
Car payment: $300/month
Loan payment: $150/month

.... but *then* we have all our other bills, CC bills (about $60/month when we pay all every month, which we don't... they take turns on which get paid)
and hospital/dr bills from when DH got hurt (both times), and bills still from Lukeys birth..... aghghghghghg..... AND I have a pretty heft library fine now, because I had asked DH to return my books for me, but I didn't think I had to ask to make sure he did and didn't just leave them in the back of the van... where I rarely go... but did when I cleaned it out a few weeks ago... and found them ALL.... so now I owe the library about $200, too (we always check out an insane amount of books, keep them for about 2 months (renew over the phone at 4 weeks) and then return, then go back whenever I get the time... I should have gone back sooner, but Ididn't, and now we can't check anymore out until we pay them.... can't pay them if we have no $ though.... grrrr
AND, I'm sure I could be missing others (though I've been sitting here for about an hour figuring it all out, so I hope I'm not).... but yeah, that's that...

When it all comes down to it, I think I just need to find a better job that will either work with me on what hours I can work, or something to do from home... but how in the world would I find something from home that's not a scam? ARGH... and I still stick with my previous statement... Money SUCKS!