Thanks Sam! I appreciate the encouragement.

Arggh! About 3 months ago a friend of mine wanted me to hem her sons costume. I tried but failed because they were polyester and kept bunching up and slipping around. But trying broke my machine. The bobbin no longer picks up
correctly.

The machine cost $75 brand new. I just took it over to Singer to see what it would cost to repair it. The
technician starts at $75 just to look. It goes up from there.

I simply cannot believe it is going to be cheaper to throw out a 7 month old barely-used sewing machine and buy a new
replacement than it is to fix it.

This is going against everything I've been trying to instill in myself since I started watching my money so closely.

I'd shop around. Check with the fabric stores and such. I know when we got ours worked on it was about $35 total, and we're in Chicago. Little old ladies use sewing machines and little old ladies don't put up with ripoffs.

After I called the 3rd place and was sneered at I broke down and bought a new one.

The last guy came right out and said "That's a disposable machine ma'am. We generally service the expensive singers." Oh! Ouch.

So for $52.99, I ordered a new machine, free shipping from Target. My goodness. That just feels strange to me. My mother has had the same machine for my entire lifetime and I've just thrown my first one out.

Buying cheap is often more expensive than buying quality, that is definitely something I've learned quickly in my consumer life. Knowledge is your greatest tool in making purchases, and the internet is one of the easiest tools to use to gather it. Research all your purchases and make sure that they will meet your requirements. Personally, if I'm willing to buy something it probably means I really want to use it. I always buy quality when I want something to last. You pay more up front, but the superior performance and longevity of the things you buy will more than make up for it, as long as you take care of them.

For sewing machines, they are indeed pretty expensive if you want a quality one. The old Singers that your mom bought probably put her back a good amount of money, although it wouldn't seem like it today due to inflation. Either that, or she took very good care of it. Another factor is the disposable society we now have, where items are now designed for obsoleteness. Make sure you avoid the products designed to be disposable.

Well that was a nice break... but I never stopped thinking about my money.

I paid as close to cash as possible for the holiday week with my parents. I missed my budget by $245. That is remarkable considering. What I didn't pay for in cash I put on my Amex green card which, for all intents and purposes, is cash.... next months cash.

I'm starting to make Quicken spin out reports on last year. My first one says I averaged $43 a week on groceries. That is WAY better than I thought I did. Not quite the $30 a week I was shooting for but it was a big improvement over 2006 when the report says I average $71 a week on groceries. Only $220 on dining the whole year of 2007. 2006 I spent $1371.

I can't quite bear to look at the credit card reports yet. So much debt. Brrrrr.......

I have been letting my brain play out possiblities on debt reduction and have decided to completely restructure how I retire my debts.

I'm going to shoot for: Blue 12/08, IRS 7/09, Suntrust 1/10, OC 4/12, HELOC 10/14, SallieMae 7/15.

I'm still paying off my house in under 15 years. Because from the moment I pay off that student loan in July of 2015 I can send $3000 a month to my mortgage. At that point in time I'll owe about $97,000 on the house. And my favorite calculators over at mortgage-x.com says the house will be paid off 11/2018 if I send $2000 prepayments for 3.5 years.

Part of what has convinced me to change the order is a post on the GRS blog that was looking at the mental side of debt reduction. I found it depressing throwing money down the HELOC hole last fall. I think that I'll be able to hold myself to the goals better if I can get some zero balances going sooner than 3 years from now.

So for this year I will hold onto one thought only: Pay off Amex Blue. Send all extra cash to it. Tread water on the rest.

And a quote to wrap this up:

Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
-Abraham Lincoln.

Let's see where am I? I'm still on track budget-wise. Wells Fargo dropped my big fixed mortgage to $1019 from $1062 after reviewing my 2007 tax bill. Then the property tax office sent my new mortgage letter estimating 2008 taxes at $1965 because they finally (finally!) applied my homestead exemption. I thought I might have to wheedle another review out of Wells Fargo but they took me at my word and adjusted my payment again. I'm now down to $987 on my big fixed mortgage.

Next year it will be $967 because of the amendment that passed on tuesday increasing homestead exemption from $25K to $40K.

If I subtract the escrowed amounts from $967 my basic mortgage payment on the house is $712 a month.
And to think I rented it for $675 a month!

Wow wow wow.... I was so so lucky in the timing of it all.

Oh and the Feds keep doing their thing! My HELOC which I initially got at 9.50% is now down to 7.25%

My tax return is $1069 altho of course I do not actually get that back. It just is deducted off my 2006 tax bill which I pay on every month. Still. That is 1/6 of the total balance.

Now I'm lefting hoping that my April insurance renewal is nothing extreme and then I'll have one year under my belt as a home owner. whew! I can't believe I pulled it off!!!

This is very encouraging Cady. I'm glad things are working out for you. The sacrifices to pay the difference between rent and mortgage will be so worth it as you see the principal drop and eventually get to the point of having no mortgage.

Kate

Well wow...

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted here.

The cruise went very well. Was only $12 over my budget. Managed to not pay for any beverages, gifts, port o call trinkets, or extra food. ($3.25 for a small cup of ben and jerry's??) The gratuities came to $70. I gifted the family table with two bottles of wine on Thursday, ($50! Yikes!) and bought 1 picture and got the hell off that boat. What a racket! But I ate like a pig. My friends commented on the last day that I ate a lot of steak.... Didn't I like chicken? I replied: "Yep. I love chicken. I eat it everyday I'm not on this cruise ship. " I had top sirloin, ny strip, prime rib, and a couple more of the same for good measure. Yum! The food was really excellent.

As for the rest of my financial life... I got another escrow refund because the amendment passed increasing homestead exemptions. My new and permanent mortgage is now $931 a month. Down from $1062 last april when I closed. My HELOC is now down to $150 (7.25% interest,) but of course I send an additional $125 so I pay them $275. Down from a high of $348 last spring. (9.5%)

That is a difference of $200 in my housing costs. Whew! I made it through the worst of it. So now I'm just on crusie control. I need time to pass. I'm on track to pay off Amex Blue 8/1. The IRS 04/09. Suntrust 11/09. At that point I'll have $0 debt on credit cards. Then I begin pounding on my HELOC. Of course if the Feds start nudging the interest rates back up I'll move the HELOC up on my pay off list but right now that interest is below some of my others.

I opened up a Way2Save savings account with Wachovia and closed my static Suntrust savings. They put $1 in everytime I use my debit card or have an EFT and since both my mortgages are paid with EFT and I pay Amex electronically, that counts. So I force myself to save $130 a month just by doing what I always have done with my debit card PLUS I get 5% interest on it after the first 12 months. ( I can and will put $25 a week in there automatically plus $30 a month for my debit transactions.) That'll add up nicely. I merely looked at my suntrust balance and never did anything with it. So I'm happy.

More info is here and so is a calculator:
http://www.wachovia.com/personal/page/0 ... 60,00.html


Way2SaveSM is our new savings program. Here's how it works. We link your Way2Save account with your Wachovia checking account and automatically transfer $1 from your checking account to your Way2Save account when you do everyday banking like: Make Check Card purchases. Pay bills online, Set up automatic debits made from your checking account. To build balances even faster, you can set up an automatic transfer, up to $100 each month, from your checking to your Way2Save account.

The first year, we'll give you a 5% bonus on what you've socked away. Keep saving, and in the second and third years, we'll pay a 2% bonus on the dollars you have contributed within each year. Plus, for those first three years, you'll earn high interest rates on every dollar saved.

The calc says I'll have $5149 in there after 3 years, if I don't withdraw anything, $325 of that is all their money they are giving me.

Oh And my company credit union is closing. Sad. I'll miss those nice ladies. They are gifting all members with a 11% bonus when they transfer our accounts. I can't not go with them since that is a payroll deduction and I like squirreling away the $125 a week I put in that account. Otherwise I can only have 2 direct deposits and I already do that with suntrust and wachovia checking accounts. I can't trust myself so I have to automate it all. The older I get the more appreciation I have for the amount of discipline it must have taken in the old days to save money. The cookie jar, the mattress, the jar in the backyard. Folks had all kinds of tricks to keep their money hidden from themselves.

I can't think of anything else to add. I'm just not spending and waiting for money to accrue so I can pay off debts.

It is all so much easier once it is a habit. I felt true horror watching people spending money on that cruise ship.

Cady, thanks for the update. I was wondering how you were doing with the house. I'll bet having $200 off your housing costs is making a big difference in your mental comfort zone! Hang in there, you're doing great. :mrgreen:

I'll bet having $200 off your housing costs is making a big difference in your mental comfort zone!

Man! I actually bought TIRES for my truck. I'd been rolling on bald ones for a while now and opting to take the motorcycle whenever possible. It is nice to not have to chose between what I used to consider necessities, ya know?

Altho I wouldn't not go so far as to call new tires a luxury, I have certainly learned how to rerank the lesser necessities below the requirements. The mortgage, food and toilet paper are definitely the top tier of necessities. "Making do until I can swing it" is the category where tires fall for me now.

But I can tell you that the best part of this entire year has been the move to cash. I love paying cash for things. It changes the entire tenor of the transaction. Makes it real, tangible. When I bring the item home I truly use it consciously. I'm aware of its real value and what its "cost" is in the entire scheme of my financial picture.

Take the tires. I bought my last set 38,000 miles and almost three years to the day. I paid just over $425 for them then. I paid about the same price this time. The additonal cost was repairing my leaky rear master brake cylinder. The guy called me when he took the rear tires off and said that my cost would be $750 with the brake repairs. I flatly told him: No. I can't go over $600. Make it work. Then I hung up and ran back to the tire place. I could hear him arguing with the manager over the price when I got there. I waltzed in just as the manager was slamming out. My final price was $599.14

That is $150 difference simply because I refused to pay it!!! The odd thing is I would never have done that if it was a credit card. I could afford to be that blunt because I had no more cash to throw at the problem. I truly had no choice. They would have had to leave the old front ones on otherwise and the manager didn't want me to leave the store on them because they were so bald. I don't feel like I "got over" on them but I feel like we each did what we had to do to reach an agreement. They can make a profit on the next customer. I got new tires and my brakes repaired.

Thanks for the encouragement!

The economy is starting to scare me. I keep having 2nd thoughts about how I've decided to reorder my debt payoff schedule. But I also keep thinking the the Feds simply can't raise the interest rates in the next 1.5 years *that* quickly or they will drive the folks teetering on the brink right over.

And it also occurs to me that since the credit cards can always raise their rates I ought to keep paying down the unsecured debt so that I'll be able to focus more of my money to free up my house eventually.

I'm just thinking aloud here.

One of the things I started doing way back when was to read business sections whether I understood what I was reading or not. I figured if I just keep reading them one day I'd understand it. It's been 4 years since I implemented that and I have to say that I almost wish I was more ignorant at this point. We have a depression coming on I fear. Recession will be the least of our worries. I'd give it 2.5 years before the systems fail completely. Yeah. I know. I have exactly zero qualifications to say that... but....

It feels odd to believe that yet just stick to my plans.

But I can't think of anything else I could do short of picking up a weekend job and paying stuff down even faster.
Which come to think of it... perhaps I'll look around.

Anyone else out there thinking differently about their personal plans based on what is happening out in the world?

Given the way the economy, and the market are going, and my growing irritation at sinking money into an investment account only to see it drop in value. I'm considering paying off my student loan until the market shows signs of at least stopping the bleeding. The loan is only at 2% interest, but at least I have a guaranteed 2% return on my money.

I think it's reasonable to reconsider your plans given market conditions. Just my uninformed opinion.

The market is scary, but I'm trying to think of it as getting shares of my index funds and retirement funds at a bargain. Dollar cost averaging is slowly working to build the number of shares I have, which means as long as the market recovers eventually, I'll have more money because each share I bought will be worth more.

It is hard to watch the accounts drop, however.

Nottheangel: That is exactly the way I'm thinking of it. Not how much my shares are worth but how many I can own so that when their value does go up again I'll be in a stronger position. I'm 25 years away from retirement. I can afford to ride out the market bumps.

I was actually referring to the whole rest of the economic engine. The credit card debts that people are carrying, the increase in defaults on those, forcing the credit card companies to raise all their good card holders interest rates over time. There is nothing that requires them to keep giving you that awesome 2.99% interest rate. They can increase it at their whim.

The price of staples increasing will force more people to use credit cards to acquire them which in turn will increase the defaults.

I can see that there is a potential for the system to fail. I'm hoping that my payoff scheme will be just ahead of that curve.

A side note comes from listening to several people on my job who commute from far away. They bought houses without really considering the commute distances. Now that the price of gas is making that paycheck they were commuting for less valuable they are unable to find jobs near their homes because they live in one of the oodles of gated communities here in Florida that do not have any jobs anywhere nearby. Interesting problem because they cannot sell their homes for all the usual myriad reasons... glut on the market, bought too high and would owe money if their sold blah blah blah. Those with small children especially will suffer the most I suspect. There is far less flexibility then. But what do they do? Keep working for less of a take-home amount at exactly the same time the cost of everything else is going up too? It is sad to consider and I am very very thankful I do not have to face any of those decisions.