Rose.Again's Personal Finance Blog

I hate to be blah, but the state I am in at the moment doesn't stir up much more than blah. We are eating at home - all meals. The bank account is better for it. I am able to pay all of our bills right now, but still not credit cards. Its an awful feeling. Garage sale is still planned. I have been listing 5-7 things every other day online. No sales yet. We are going to a free event this weekend that is nearby, so I think it will be nice to get out. Some days the debt is just overwhelming. On a better note...the weather is amazing right now. And my peach trees are in full bloom.

No real changes. We have rescheduled the garage sale due to weather. No one will come in the rain...not worth it. No extra income yet. I am contemplating DoorDash (food delivery). I work in a very populated, trendy area and I might be able to work a couple of shifts on my way home. Will it be worth it? Estimated $15/ hour for 3 hours for 2-3 days? And I am responsible for taxes, fuel, and wear and tear on my car? I wish I could just work a pt job with my taxes taken out and no driving. Or I wish I could work 40 hours at my job instead of 35. Which is not an option...already asked. I need to figure something out.

Every day I struggle to log in. I get errors and it says the site isn't working. Is this normal?

I finished our taxes this weekend. The final number is better than I expected. We only owe $145. I am so glad. We do not have to pay our Personal Loan for March. That is $500 that we can use to pay the taxes and put towards a bill or maybe some groceries. As for the loan, he is letting us skip the payment because we are trying to see how the land sale will work. There is no interest on the loan.

The garage sale is scheduled for 03/16. I am still looking for a second job. I have the ability to bake out of my house, but buying supplies is really hard right now. Our income will go up $318.02 in just 2 more months. The Jeep will be paid off in 8 months. That will add $390. If we sell the land, that will be $500 more a month. And in about 9-10 months, the IRS will be paid off, so that will be another $300 a month. At the end of the year, that means we could have $1500 to put towards bills and debt and expenses! I just have to make it through this year.

I didn't know what to expect with our taxes this year. We hardly made anything in 2018, then my husband was working as a contract employee with no taxes taken out. But...as of right now, we owe about $400. We will need to find that somehow. Its not a bill that we can put off. But I am going to check a couple of numbers and see if they are right on the business side.

I don't have any financial updates really. I got our cell phone bill reduced $8.99. And our mortgage will be going down about $65 a month starting in April. Its going to take a long time to chip away at this.

I am adding my debt to the sidebar. Its ugly. But hopefully I can only go up from here.

Some details about my expenses that I posted the other day.

I live in an area that is considered "rural." We are about 15-20 minutes from a big town. There are no options for electric and water. The electricity is for a 2400 sq foot house, a barn, and a shop.
I am trying to be better about leaving any lights on that aren't necessary. In the spring and fall, it will be a lot less. But $295 is about average for summer and winter. And there are only a few for tv or internet. We do not have a land line. I agree that our cell phones are high. We are currently both paying for new phones we got a couple of years ago. That is about $50.00 of the bill. If we changed providers, we would have to pay the remaining of what is owed on the phones. The Dish bill is lower that it has been in years. I am on a 2 year contract. I would have a cancellation fee if we cancelled. And in order to use Sling or some streaming service, I would have to increase our internet speeds. The internet is very limited in our area due to our location. So it is expensive and slow. So, if we did the change, it would save us about $29/ month. Not sure if it is worth the cancellation fees and debt it would cause. And yes, we could cancel Netflix. Maybe its an option. Right now we use our tv for entertainment a lot.

Putting some applications in today for part time jobs. Hopefully something will pan out.

Rose.
CC1 (ME) - $1620.62
CC2 (ME) - $2333.18
CC3 (ME) - $5850.00
CC4 (DH) - $5000.00
CC5 (DH) - $3678.03
FURNITURE - $900*
AUTO CARD - $3809.72
CARE CREDIT - $809.70
CAR LOAN - $11735.27
JEEP LOAN - $3132.73
TAX LOAN - $10003.74
PERSONAL LOAN - $11000
IRS - $2800*
MORTGAGE - $125794.59
________________________
TOTAL W/ MTG = $188,467.58

TOTAL W/O MTG = $62,672.99

TOTAL W/O MTG & CARS = $47,804.99

Bottom Line... I need more money somehow.

For clarification:
I work a full time job M-F
My husband works full time M-F
We are both earning a decent income now, we are just behind due to the closing of our business and my husband transitioning.

ELECTRIC 295
WATER 100
TRASH 76
CRAPPY LOAN 159.01 every 2 weeks
CAR 390
JEEP 390 - PAID OFF IN 8 MONTHS
INSURANCE 167
DISH 79
VISION 28.76 - HAVING TO PAY UNTIL JUNE 2019
LOAN 342 - TAXES
IRS 300 - TAXES
PERSONAL LOAN 500 - TAXES
CELLS 224
INTERNET 85
NETFLIX 11.90
MTG 1275.05
_____________________

$4429.72

INCOME

ME (AFTER INSURANCE & TAXES & 401K): $1580/ MONTH
My job requires me to contribute 2% and they match 5% on retirement.
DH: $3000

___________________________

WE SHOULD HAVE $150.28 LEFT A MONTH

This does not include food, gas, rxs, or dog food.

This also does not leave any room for debt repayment. I haven't posted those numbers yet, but you get the idea. We just aren't making it.

BUT...
The stupid loan from the crappy loan place will be paid off 05/10/19. That will add $318.02 a month. HUGE! And the jeep will be paid off in 8 months....so that will add $390 per month. We are planning on doing the garage sale in 2 weeks if weather permits. And we have 17 items listed for sale.

Thanks for all the support.

The struggle started more that 6 months ago, but I haven't blogged in 6 months. The last time I blogged, I was working at a job that I hated. I was miserable...I would go as far to say that I was depressed. I didn't have a single friend and I had worked there almost a year. They were mean and unkind. I was underpaid and disrespected. My husband had a string of health issues from April - June-ish, so I needed a j-o-b. The health insurance is the only reason I hung on. But most days ended in tears. Along with my awful job, our business was more than struggling. We were barely making ends meet. Actually...we weren't making them meet. We were months behind on taxes. We had taken 2 loans just to pay them. We weren't making enough to carry it and we finally made the decision to close. This happened for multiple reasons. It made me sad, but we would lose everything if we didn't. This was a horrible time for my DH and me. But we made it through. I got a new job in September. Making more money with potential. My husband has a job, although for 3 months he barely made anything. This is not an exaggeration.

So here we are. We are not able to pay our credit cards. We are behind on almost every bill we have. We have no savings. My credit score has tanked by 200 points. I don't have a budget for gas or food. I don't know how to make it work.

The thoughts.... we need more money. No way around it. In theory, we make enough, but we are so far behind. I have been really depressed and having a hard time doing basic daily functions. Not cleaning my house. Not taking care of myself. Finding no joy in life. But, this weekend things changed. I cleaned my entire house. Top to bottom. I have started our taxes. And have started looking for 2nd jobs. We have items from our business that we can sell. We are gathering things for a garage sale. I washed my hair. (This is a big deal.) I am trying to see that we will make it out of this. One of our loans was from a personal friend. We are negotiating a sale of part of our land to clear the debt. Possibly clear the loan and come out with a few thousand in cash.

So we have a lot of debt right now. IRS Debt, personal loans, stupid loan from one of those crappy loan places with the outrageous interest, 2 car loans (one will be paid off in 8 months), other loan for taxes, mortgage, 5 credit cards, 1 auto card, 1 pet care (pay for the death of our dog bit by a rattlesnake), medical bills for husbands injury in April 2018. I hope that is the complete list. I still have to come to terms with the numbers. I'm trying.

So that's it. That's how I got here.

I was blogging on SA a while back, but unfortunately when I came back, my blog was gone. So I am here again. You can call me Rose. I was struggling before and have now hit the proverbial "rock bottom." I will get all of my numbers for my sidebar, which I am honestly so scared to look at. But, I am looking forward to the support of this group. I am facing a monstrous climb from where I am. Thanks for having me back.