The calls! grr.

The worst part of dealing with all these loans is the calls. I"m not home during the day when they call. They want me to call back, by the time I can its past the time they are there and I cant. I need to talk to these people to get something on the books about how to get these loans paid back. Sadly I can only handle so much. I need to see what is available to me right now.

This is a mess. I see why so many people just do not try. And just when I think I have something settled and confirmed they still call! What the heck. Never again in my life will I ever do this again. Its not worth it at my age. I'm not sure I would advise a young person to go this route either. Because it ruins your life. Its not fun having random stranger call you on the phone demanding money you so not have and will not have in the future  that you can tell them yes I can send you x amount of dollars. Who needs to live in a house, eat and get to work?? Yep I can do that. Sure no problem.

I am still going to continue to work on paying down my debt though. I only just started. So hopefully the calls will be a distance dream sometime here in my future.

So far I'm working on some survey sites and slowly earning money toward my first checks. It takes a few moments a few times a day or week to check on emails to earn a few cents. Its a slow process but hey a 30.00 - 50.00 check toward  a lone at some point is still extra money I did not have. So click away I will do. And I'll take a few surveys as well. Wish I had more time to do more than I do because I would earn that money a little faster. But it is what it is. I have stuff listed on Ebay as well. Its also going slow. Junk is junk. But a few dollars here and there will start to add up. Ebay is like a business where you have to keep it going to make any money. Its hard work. But fun too. Plus I'm thinking of all the clutter I can get rid of, and clutter from familys home too. Hey I'll split the profits with you to take and list your junk. Its extra money for the both of us. Lets do this! lol.

Still I just wish they would leave me along already. At least until I can figure out what I can send them and make an agreement they can live with. Which is never enough. Sadly.

Research

This planning on paying off a huge debt is hard work in it self. I"m doing research and so far what I am planning on doing seems to be the normal thing. Pay what you can on your loans or the minimum payments at least. Then any extra you make also send in. So one payment is on its way. I have a few dollars in my change jar that I'll deposit tomorrow and have it sent out also. So one week in and I have money sent! A small goal I think.

I have been looking to see what I can find to sell on ebay. I love selling on Ebay although there are times I do not do well. But I'm doing the research to find ways to sell better, and odd things to sell from around my home. Who knew people bought toilet paper rolls??  Points off of products, and who knows what else. How I see it is that 1. Its garbage to me in most cases so why not make a few dollars off of it right, 2 these things are easy to save up and package and are light. So shipping is cheaper too.

I set up a pintrest board for my ebay items that I"m selling. See if that helps get traffic to my stuff any better and people bidding on stuff any better.

Follow me on pintrest at  http://www.pinterest.com/buster3/boards/

I also have a board for paying off student debt, What a great way to save articles and what not to refer back to from time to time.

My name one ebay is dlsteincafelady. Stop in and see what pops up. Heck if you just want to see if I actually sold anything even. lol.

Tomorrow starts another week with Thanksgiving tossed into it. I hope by the end of the week I"ll have a few more dollars for that debt to pay.

The phone calls! ugg. Student loan hell.

I do admit I am one of those people who got to the point that when my loans was due I put it off for a bit. Bad bad idea. But truth be told I had no idea how I was going to pay them back. I did not finish school, I did not get to even apply for jobs in my field to have hope of finding the job I wanted. I would love to finish school. I got A's and B's in my classes! But I ran out of money. Online education is not what I expected in this way. I expected to have loans yes and I did get some grants. But I did not expect to have so much in loans to start with and not only that no one ever said there is a limit. How stupid was I?? But this not only happen to me it happens to millions of people all over the country.

We are told in order to have a good career and good paying job we need to be educated pass high school. I believed this well into my 40's. I had become the professional student. I went after a dream I always had and crashed and failed. Sort of. I"m proud I did as well as I did. I just wish I had the paper to prove it. But that is in the past I have learned and now I"m moving on. Do not get me wrong I"m all for education. But one must really know what they want in life, what their goals are and know down to the last cent what this is going to cost, what the payments will be after they graduate and can they make these payments regardless if they get the job in their field or not. This is reality. You do not always end up where you think you should.

So now I have to deal with the loan agency calling me until I get money sent in. They call my cell phone, my home phone and even my parents from time to time. Its annoying really. I cant wait to get them off my phone and sent back to their own world. Back to hell where they belong.

Yes I did this to myself. Yes I should of been smarter about it. Yes I followed my heart and not my head. But as with many things in life I can change this.

My first check went out yesterday. I'll be checking next week to see if its been posted. I'll be watching my loans like a hawk from now on. And I"m a little excited to send in smaller checks. hehe. Call me crazy but I'm am going to do everything I can to make extra money. If its a few dollars here and there then so be it. I will not miss it in the end right now. Its going toward my huge mistake in life. I have to pay it off somehow. Money in a check is still money going toward a debt. It may not be practical but when you live pay check to pay check you do what you can. At least I"ll know I"m trying. No on can argue that I am not doing nothing.

Making plans, and hoping for the best.

I have come to realize that I am very good at some things in my life. One being I discovered E bay selling. This started when my mother in law had passed away and we started to clean out her house. She used to buy at auctions and garage sales and what not. She had a lot of stuff. In fact my brother in law still lives in the house and there is still a bunch of stuff there. At the time I worked part time, could use extra money and so could my brother in law so I listed and sold stuff and made a deal with him on how to split the profits. I did pretty well until I kind of burnt out on it and the economy was not doing so well and I quit for a period of time.

There is still a bunch of stuff to sell. I need money any money even in forms of quarters to pay off these loans, the junk has got to go so I'm getting back into selling stuff again. If I could I might sell anything and everything that is not nailed down. If it makes a few cents then off it goes in a card board box to a new owner to take up space in their home. Another few cents goes toward my debt.

I have vintage salt and pepper shakers to start with. I like listing the small stuff. Its easy to photo graph, easy to pack and cheep to ship. I'll move onto vintage Tupperware next. lol. I'm going though my house and digging up what ever we do not need as well. From shoes to clothing to bad art. Its all going one way or another. If I can not sell it I"l donate it or toss it out.  Clutter and debt go hand in hand by the way. So hopefully I'll kill two stones with one throw as they say.

I started with scheduled regular payments on one loan. Now I"m off to work on the other that is in forbearance. One way or another I"m going to get rid of this. So I can get on with my life.

Getting back to frugal.

I remember a time when I became really frugal. I always was but I made it a point to really watch what we spent, how we spent money and what to save on. I also remember that at some point during that time I was happier for some reason. I think I love the challenge of saving money and paying off bills. I would rather save money but for now I"m paying off debt.

Today I had a crazy notion. What if I sent once a week a extra check to say my credit card payments, and student loans. But the catch is what if I only had 2.00 to send? hmmm. Well I thought then 2.00 x 4= 8.00 so that is at least that much  off the principal of the bill right? Times that by 12 months and that is 96.00 a year. So it does add up.

But I do hope to send in more than that but its a start for right now. How do I plan on this little sum of money?? A little change cashed in here and there, a little from filling out surveys, and reading emails, a little from selling stuff  I do not need, a little from here and there.

I'm going to coupon and cut back and work my way back to a more simple time where it was possible to save and live well. We did it before it will not take much to get back to it. Little did I realize that I love the challenge of finding free stuff, free entertainment, Or cheep entertainment. Stocking up my freezer with good food that is home made. Shopping thrift stores for bargains. And visiting the mall with coupons and looking for things that cost next to nothing. It can be done I done it before and I can do it again.

Life is not easy and sometimes you make huge mistakes. But its not impossible to fix those mistakes either. one can not just lay down and cry about it. Eventually you have to do something about it.

My one frugal thing I did today. Make my own bathroom cleaner. Go figure I had the ingredients in my house, I tried it and it worked pretty well. Its just plain old Vinegar and Dish washing soap. I think Dawn might work better I'll pick some up this weekend. But what I had seems to work on some of the soap scum in my tub. Heck that little bottle will save me from buying up cleaners to try to find something that works and wasting money on stuff that could not do 1/2 the job this did in a few moments! Oh joy.

Got to reach though the cob webs to remember what other little things I did. I"m determined to get rid of this debt. First check  is going out this Friday. Cant wait to knock that money off my balance. :) I have been paying on the balance at the school too. So that is 2 that I will keep track of more carefully. I'm thinking rewards to the 1/2 way point will be in order somehow. Got to keep this fun as well.

The worst mistake in my life.

It all began when my husband had health issues at a young age of 42. From diabetes to heart disease he has a laundry list of problems no man his age should have. It scared me and him and made us think about our futures and our daughters future. The advise from my mom go back to school and learn a skill. And that is what I did. My aunt worked for the Art Institute and got me signed up for my dream career of Graphic Artist. 4 years later and 60,000 in debt I did not get my degree because I ran out of money and I have no dream job. I"m a lunch lady cooking lunch for elementary kids.  

My first mistake was not paying attention to how the loans was adding up. Its not that I did not check it did not register in my brain how much. How does a person do that you ask?? I'm a busy mom, work, and was going to school and at the time seeing the end of the tunnel where I would earn that BS degree. I figure if I could get that good paying job paying back the loans would not be a problem. I did not realize or wanted to see just how much I ended up taking out in loans. It was a huge stupid mistake at my age. I should of known better. But yet I did it. All because I wanted to please my mom and I wanted to get that degree I always wanted. Only I should of thought this through more. Looking back if we just went to work and kept paying the little bit of bills we had today we would of been better off. But that was then and this is now and I"m facing a huge debt that will take 30 years or more to pay off. That my friends will be into my retirement days and my house will be paid off before these loans. Its not a pretty picture at all.

What am I going to do about this?? After putting one loan into forbearance, trying to ignore the other loan for a bit until I could not. Thinking and praying about this I have realize that I have to start to pay on these loans now and get it down and over with.

I"m not a stranger to living a frugal life and doing it well. We have slipped in the last few years and not paid as much attention to our budget as we should. Its me who pays the bills, buy the grocery's and tries to keep this house hold running so we do not loose our house, freeze in the winter and go with out electric and internet or phone. So I have to let my family know that we are going back on the wagon and getting us out of debt as fast as I can figure out how to do it.

It helps to keep in contact with the loan people. It does not help to ignore their calls. Trust me they will find a way to find you and talk to you. Just take a deep breath and get it over with as soon as you can. Then take a good hard look at your budget and make up your mind to create a new budget to include making payments on those loans. Its hard but you will be happier having a plan once you are done. I know I am so far.

So I am doing just what I suggested. I"m going to tackle that debt and find ways to make extra money to pay toward those loans. And I"m going to work on the graphic art design I learned in school and make it work for me somehow to make extra money to pay toward those loans. I have a good job now and I would be foolish to give it up now. I can work in freelancing into my day and have the summers off.

This is going to be a long journey for me. I got myself into this mess I'll get myself out of it. I hope to share what I am learning along the way. So get ready and lets find ways to make money to pay off this debt in less than 30 years. My dream would be to have it paid off in 5 years. But that is asking a lot. Lets start off with a 2500.00 loan and then tackle the next if I can. I have to start some where.