I haven't posted in a while, I know! A couple of weeks ago I had to pay a rather large hospital bill from having a CT and an ultrasound done. Insurance did pay 80% but our 20% was still around $400. I don't like having debt nor do I like having to make payments. I had $400 to pay it so I paid it but now its been tight to pay for other things like gas and groceries.
There is this great Facebook group I belong to called Quad City Traders for my local area. Its great! Its like what Craigslist used to be and before Craigslist the classifieds. You take a photo of what you are selling, post it, say something about it, with a price you are comfortable with and where you live. If it weren't for this group I'm not sure how we would have survived these past couple of weeks.
I lost my job the first week of January so I have no new income coming into the equation. We also just got a $459 utility bill, biggest one we've ever had living in our home for almost 6 years. I called and its due to the infared heater we have in our son's room. Noah's room doesn't have a radiator. So I've had to unplug his heater, open the valve's on the two radiator's upstairs wider to try heating his room that way better.
I've been praying that either I get approved for unemployment or I get a job that will amazingly work with my husband's schedule or he gets the Supervisor position he's applied for or his W2 comes so we can file taxes, but something.
A few years ago we attended a local Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey to learn how to get rid of our debt and live like no one else. Well, we don't have credit card debt which a lot of people have a lot of. We do have vehicle debt and our house. Dave has 7 steps for financial freedom.
1) $1,000 in an emergency fund
2) Pay off all debt except the house utilizing the debt snowball
3) 3 to 6 months expenses in savings
4) Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs & pretax retirement
5) College Funding
6) Pay off home early
7) Build Wealth & Give
We are just shy of goal #1. But getting to goal #1 is proving to be hard with limited income and a little one. The money I'm making by selling stuff we own is going to pay for every day expenses like putting gas in the car, a few inexpensive groceries here and there, diapers, wipes, baby food/formula, etc. Granted when winter is over the utility bills won't be so big so we'll have some wiggle room.
I have made an appointment for tomorrow to meet with another insurance agency to see if we can lower our insurance costs on our home and our vehicles. Next is to call some mortgage companies to see if we can refinance since interest rates are so low. Our mortgage interest rate isn't high but if we could save some money, then lets save some money!
I've also started posting items on Ebay to see if I have any luck in selling there. Ebay offers 50 free listings each month so that's what I'm working on. No bids yet but I have noticed that there are views and people watching. When I find something on Ebay I watch it till it gets closer to the end of the auction before I bid too hoping no one else bids on it. You can set it for a minium price and see if it goes up from there.
I have finished painting the livingroom. Though I've been slacking on the curtains and the cushions. I've been awfully tired lately. So I'm taking Vit D as I live in north eastern Minnesota and its winter so we don't get much sunlight.
There is this great Facebook group I belong to called Quad City Traders for my local area. Its great! Its like what Craigslist used to be and before Craigslist the classifieds. You take a photo of what you are selling, post it, say something about it, with a price you are comfortable with and where you live. If it weren't for this group I'm not sure how we would have survived these past couple of weeks.
I lost my job the first week of January so I have no new income coming into the equation. We also just got a $459 utility bill, biggest one we've ever had living in our home for almost 6 years. I called and its due to the infared heater we have in our son's room. Noah's room doesn't have a radiator. So I've had to unplug his heater, open the valve's on the two radiator's upstairs wider to try heating his room that way better.
I've been praying that either I get approved for unemployment or I get a job that will amazingly work with my husband's schedule or he gets the Supervisor position he's applied for or his W2 comes so we can file taxes, but something.
A few years ago we attended a local Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey to learn how to get rid of our debt and live like no one else. Well, we don't have credit card debt which a lot of people have a lot of. We do have vehicle debt and our house. Dave has 7 steps for financial freedom.
1) $1,000 in an emergency fund
2) Pay off all debt except the house utilizing the debt snowball
3) 3 to 6 months expenses in savings
4) Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs & pretax retirement
5) College Funding
6) Pay off home early
7) Build Wealth & Give
We are just shy of goal #1. But getting to goal #1 is proving to be hard with limited income and a little one. The money I'm making by selling stuff we own is going to pay for every day expenses like putting gas in the car, a few inexpensive groceries here and there, diapers, wipes, baby food/formula, etc. Granted when winter is over the utility bills won't be so big so we'll have some wiggle room.
I have made an appointment for tomorrow to meet with another insurance agency to see if we can lower our insurance costs on our home and our vehicles. Next is to call some mortgage companies to see if we can refinance since interest rates are so low. Our mortgage interest rate isn't high but if we could save some money, then lets save some money!
I've also started posting items on Ebay to see if I have any luck in selling there. Ebay offers 50 free listings each month so that's what I'm working on. No bids yet but I have noticed that there are views and people watching. When I find something on Ebay I watch it till it gets closer to the end of the auction before I bid too hoping no one else bids on it. You can set it for a minium price and see if it goes up from there.
I have finished painting the livingroom. Though I've been slacking on the curtains and the cushions. I've been awfully tired lately. So I'm taking Vit D as I live in north eastern Minnesota and its winter so we don't get much sunlight.
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