Coupons and sales!

I know not everyone likes to cut coupons and go through the trouble of shopping the sales. But I have learned this is one way of saving money on the grocery budget. I have been lacking in my couponing lately due to many reasons. But I am going to get back into the groove of it again.

I will not go through my haul. I got bath products mostly and pet treats. I saved 1/2 on my bills and I also gave myself a budget too. So I know what I can and can not spend. I did not spend the whole budget today because well lets just say that Walmart was a zoo and I was in no mood to shop among those who go out once a month. I did got to places like Dollar Tree and Dollar General and the K-mart.

While out shopping today I was thinking of my mind set in the past. I always was a frugal shopper but at some point I let others lead me to believe that there are things you just can not buy cheap. That they are not good enough. And for a long time I did with out because I could not afford the better things. One reason I went back to school was because of this mind set. What if something happen to my husband, what would happen if I did not make enough?? What if we could not afford this and that??

Guess what?

Who cares!

See after spending 4 years of school, another year or so with a my mom who was sick and passed away last year. My life kind of came undone in that amount of time. I did not have time to stick to my frugal ways, I was stressed to the point where I no longer enjoyed it either and I just went through the motions of life and taking care of the basics. This is how we ended up where we are in debt. As this year comes to an end I come to realize that no while its nice to have the nicer things in life it does not mean you have to wait and do without and be miserable. Lately I have DYI a bathroom cabinet that looks great, found a shower curtain for .80cents and its so cute. My bathroom is not finished but it looks better these days just because I care enough just to do a little something to brighten it up a bit. I know strange but your home is your home and you can do with it what you want and be happy with it.

Same goes for my personal self. For years I did not buy make up. Really its expensive stuff to buy the right foundation, eye shadow, eye liners and what not. So I went with out. I'm not a big make up person but I do like to fix myself up from time to time. Guess what! I found makeup can be bought for 1.00 or free with coupons and it works just as nice as the more pricier stuff. Work with what you got and be happy. There may be a time you can invest in really good products but when you owe 60,000 in Student Loans. Lets just say the dollar store stuff is just as nice and no one will know any better. Its not like they are in your face taking a sample of your foundation.

So yes I have found laundry detergent that works for 1.00, fabric softener sheets that work also and smell good, cleaning supplies for cheap or make my own.


I have been thinking of this silly stuff because I do have debt to pay and I want to take the steps to pay it off. But I am not fooling myself I do enjoy decorating my home and getting myself a little something for me from time to time. Just keep myself sane so to speak. But I do not have to spend money I do not have on it either. My budget is small so I work with what I have  and I am OK with that too. I figured out that trying to keep up with someone else never works and will not make you happy. Being happy is a state of mind and I was there at one time. I am finding my way back and looking to enjoy those small things I used to at one time that did not cost much of anything at all. I really did not mind seeing a bill in the mail because I saw my progress in paying it off. I'm looking to that again. Watching the hard work pay off each month. At some point we can celebrate and take a vacation or something we want to do. But it will be on our terms and no one elses. We do what we want with what we have and be happy with it.

So yes its a big scary debt. The things you do to save money toward that debt does not have to be terrible. Sometimes it can be fun and rewarding.

This is just the beginning. I hope to discover some new frugal and saving things in the next year.

I will wear my dollar store makeup, decorate my home with my 90% off items, sell my ebay stuff,  cook the majority of our meals at home and not worry about who is looking into my life. Because I no longer care. If you have a problem with it you can pay my bills then. Until I am debt free this is how it is. And most likely from now on. Life is too short to worry about what others think about how you are living. Its your life make the best of it.

Pay day!

Pay day the day where you get paid for all the hard work you put into the week. Then sadly send that hard earned money out to the bills that makes your life your life. lol. hmm. 

This week is a short pay week for us. So I have decided to make this week as much as a free week as  I can. Going to find free things with my coupons, free or cheap entertainment. Not We need entertained mind you. We have work to be done around the house and I have a project to finish. So that most likely will be our entertainment. lol.  

Since this is short pay week I only pay out the 1/4 of our house payment. But I think I can find an extra 5-20.00 to send to a bill this week as well. I figure even the smallest of payments add up over time. At this point something is better than nothing. 

Nothing new on the Student loan crisis that is earth shattering news at this point. I hope that one day we can all wake up and find out some good news on this crisis. But I have come to the conclusion that it will not happen anytime soon. So move ahead and do the best I can to pay on my loans and hope that it does not mess up my life too badly. 

The one thing this mess had done is make me take a hard look at our finances and forced me to take action against our debt. And I am not sad about that at all. I welcome the challenge now even though to get here was a hard road. I got organized and now can see the small changes to our debt.  Even the smallest of payments makes a difference.  As each day or week passes I am thinking of ways to make an extra dollar, save an extra dollar and hope to see those debt numbers go down as each month passes. 

I say it all the time. This is hard and scary. But not impossible. Just do something about it. 

Debt reducing binder.

This is my plain Jane debt reducing binder. After researching daily planner, budget binders and things in that nature I have come to the conclusion that these are things that I would end up spending more money I do not need to spend on. So I kept mine simple and used things from around the house. First is the basic black binder I got at the Dollar Tree for a buck. 

This is a notebook that was decorated by a friend. I had it for a long while and hardly used it. So I put it to use in my binder. Why not have something pretty to use when working on your debt right. 

 Just plain lined paper on the inside. I can keep my notes, goals and accomplishments here. And any lists I might need to make.

I did add a little of my artwork  I did in here. Just things I drew on scrap paper. Just makes me a little happier to see if when have to deal with the bills and debt. 

These folders I had already from another file system that did not work for me. They was only 1.00 for 3 or 4 at Walmart at the time. They are pretty and good quality. I just punched holes in them so they will stay in the binder. I put on the side what bills is in that section. 

See the electric bill section. I just punch hole in the bill and stick it in here. I will write on the bill how much I paid and when to keep track of it myself and then compare the next bill when it comes in. 

Same with my cable bill. But this one mostly is just another bill that just gets paid. Nothing hard about it. 

More fancy folders and each section has my dr bills and then on the end the Student Loan and school debt. uggg. That one just makes me sick. The huge mistake in my life. But I need to move on. 

So all this is in one binder right by my computer. So each week or a few times a week I can look though it and take note of what I paid and what needs paid and all that good stuff. I might need a bigger binder but that is something we do have around the house that I can repurpose. 

So no post it notes, fancy pens, or stickers either. I just got a 3 hole punch from walmart for under 3.00. So I just punch the holes and in goes the paperwork into the binder. 

Today this came in handy because I have an extra 5.00. I know its not much but well I have bills to pay so every little penny counts right now. I figure I can send it off to a dr bill at least. I flipped to that section and found all the information I need. I'll be sending that money off here shortly. I only send in 5 or 10.00 to that account weekly anyways so they are used to getting those small checks from me. I'm not sure if they like it but its money and the amount I owe gets smaller each month. That is all that counts. I wish I could do the same with my SL but 5.00 would disappear into the sea of interest and not make a difference in the least. But that plan for that SL is developing and will be started in the next few months. 

If you are thinking about starting a system I say keep it simple. You do not need to buy out the office supply section at the store to get organized. Just a binder, old note book and some file folders and a hole punch. Ok add some art if you want but its not necessary. 

This whole paying off a huge amount of debt thing is a challenge. Its scary and stressful. But you have to see it for what it is and deal with it. Nothing in life is impossible if you just do something anything about it. 

Took a small step today toward paying off debt!

I have been paying on my debt but I made that decision to move forward and start paying extra on small bills I have. My car payment is first because its the smallest amount I owe right now. If I just pay the extra 40.00 a week  it will be paid off by the end of NOV!!! It was nice to watch that number go down today even though I already made my normal payment I jumped in and sent another 40! And I survived.

Now Dave Ramsey says to build a 1000.00 emergency fund. Sounds crazy when its hard to save money. But makes sense too because stuff happens and there is nothing more stressful than trying to figure out how to get the money to fix the car or furnace or what ever. So that will be something I am going to work on.

I got my binder all organized. It is not fancy at all. Just simple. I put my bills in there and write on them when I sent the payment and write down the owed amount in the calendar part.

I put my financial goals in there also.

Working on the non student loan debt first will make facing that student loan debt a little easier. I am still looking and learning what is the best way to tackle this debt when I am ready to tackle it.

The hardest part is seeing what I am paying in these things and thinking how stupid we are to get to this point. Because we could be saving that money instead of paying off debt that we should not of gotten into in the first place. But it is what it is and it needs to be taken care of. Still its sad. But we will live.

Just taking that next step is the hardest.

Facing the debt monster on paper.

In my quest to figure out how to pay off my debt I am facing a few challenges that I do not like or care for or really hate seeing. 

I have not done this in a long time and its way way past time since I should be doing this. WRITING DOWN ON PAPER WHAT MY DEBT IS!  And folks is a scary not pretty and its a pretty ugly site. In fact my stress level starts to go up. My heart beats faster, my breathing is slowing down I feel faint. I hate it. But its necessary and needs to be faced head on! 

Start with the small stuff first. Things like the cable is behind a month, the electric, what is left of the car payment. All pretty much easier to handle at this moment. Take a look at my income do a little math. And well its not as bad as I think. We could be watching what we spend each week. So there is a little extra to do a little with. But I have to heat my house yet so well.... Another demon I rather not talk about. A necessary evil in the winter to keep warm. Anyways still there is a small amount left. 

The plan! I have a plan in the works! But its only on paper so far. I need to crunch a few numbers yet to get this in action. The goal is to have these small debts paid up or off by December! Crazy I know its the holidays people! But hey its not enjoyable when you owe a butt load of money to Sallie mae! So why not. 

In order to face good old Sallie in the near future again I have to take care of what is lingering around right now. Facing it is the first step. Then make a plan, go over the plan and then pick a date and put the plan into action. Mark it on the calendar and have a date to which you pay that last payment. Start small and move forward. Its not easy, its scary, but it can be done. 

I figure I can come up with 40.00 extra a week to put toward a debt. I figure that I could spend that much on eating out twice, buying things I do not need at Walmart, buying a few things at the thrift store, extra gas to get somewhere, a day out doing something on the weekend. There are lots of things that 40.00 can go for so fast and easy so instead of eating out I'll put it toward my debt. We can cut back on eating out no problem. We need to stay home and work around the house anyways and get things done here. 

So 40.00 a week for the next 8 weeks if 320.00. I have 429 to pay off my car loan. I think I"ll start there and pay it off early. Goal one is decided! Wish me luck. 

Todays thoughts.

This is Bill Dog and he says hi. :) He smiles like a person. lol.

Today I was listening to one of Dave RRamsey'svideo's on youtube. There are many just plug in his name. But it stuck me today that in order to get out of debt is to make the first move and make a plan.

I have been thinking on this for a while and I thought how to get everything together in order to keep track of it. I got me a binder and put all my bills into it. And its full. That is because I also put in all the student loan papers and information I collected throughout the years. I figured out that student loan stuff needs its very own folder. Go figure.

As I build these binders, make a get out of debt plan I am starting to see how things are really. Its not pretty. In fact its ugly. But its not impossible to tackle. It will take work and lots of it.

What I need to do and have not done yet is build a savings of 1000.00. And I tell you what its not going to be easy. As I write this I am thinking of the car repair I need done on my car. uggg. But I do plan on starting that savings this week and add to it.  This is so hard for me because we do not have much money. And it seems when there is a little I can find something to spend it on. But I am going to learn how to change my spending ways.

This is so important to make these first steps toward the big goal. I am ready to face those debt demons head on. I am ready to figure out my lowest bill to pay and get working on it. Then celebrate when Its done then move onto the next one. I hope that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel at some point in the next year. My goal is 5 years. Its scary because a lot can happen in that time.

Building the binder was a step into taking responsibility for us. To have it all in one place to open up and see it. Not having enveloped piled up on the table or desk somewhere. The loan information I will look at again with new eyes I think. Because this is my biggest scariest debt demon of them all. Its what is driving me to take control here and get rid of it.

I know we all are wishing for the government to come in and save us from this debt, I know we wish that someone will just take it all away. Or that the school will close or we get into a class action suit. But the reality is that these things are not happening and that we need to take  care of this our selves. No matter how we feel about how we got there. After all no one forced me into this, they did not force me to sing the loan papers. I was talked into a lot of things and I was stupid to listen to them at the time. Time has come that we need to own this. If in the event something happens along the way to help then that will be a blessing. Until then help yourself.

Why the book list?

Just wanted to tell you why the book list off to the right. In all this crazy mess of mine I decided that I had to do something to take my mind of things if even just a little while. I love to read and have not read what I enjoyed all during when I was taking classes. I decided I would try to read one book a month or two and keep track of it. Its nice to get away in your head for a 1/2 hour or so out of the day to take your mind off of your troubles.

Looking over the full picture.

I have been kind of out of the loop for a few weeks. Not feeling well with a backache and panic attacks. I saw my dr and have been feeling better and ready to face some of my life challenges.

I need to get a handle on what my debt is over all. So I am working on a debt journal of sorts. I searched the internet for tips and idea's on how to make a personal planner. Only to find that this is a thing these days to spend a lot of money on to get organized and in control of your time and money. Well since I"m a crafter and need to use up supplies as it is I decided to save my money and take a more simple  approach to this. I got a 1.00 binder from the dollar store, a 3 hole hole punch and that is it so far. I looked up a sheet for Dave Ramseys Snow ball repayment form and printed it out.

The hard thing is being honest with yourself. Sure we can look up how to pay off debt and find loads of useful information and how to's and what not but none of it works unless you put it to use and keep up with it. And take the time to go over it to make sure its still working for you.

I wrote down all my school debt and another bill and put the amount owed, what I am paying. The reality is not pretty.  The money I am sending out for no degree for nothing I could be saving. And nothing is getting paid off fast. At least at this point in time. I need to change how I am going about this. Time is not my friend right now to be honest. But I do what I can.

In my journal I will keep track of all my debt, what I am paying and the paperwork like the bills I get in the mail. This is why the 3 hole hole punch is nice. Just punch in the holes and stick it into the binder and you are done. All this is in one place not in envelopes, in files, in a closet somewhere. I stick the binder on my shelf near my computer where its easy to find and open it up.

In there I will also have a calendar so I can visually see that I am making payments. I have all this set up on line but its nice to have a quick visual to check from time to time.

This is not a fancy set up. Just keeping track of things monthly and have a way to go back and see the progress or not so much progress. At some point something will get paid off so I can then take that money and roll it into the other debt and so on. The key is getting the first bill paid off! hahaha.

The plan is not set in stone and is flexible. Our income is not the same all year round so I will have to make adjustments.

I kid you not this is scary stuff. Its reality people. Student loans are no joke and well lets face it no one is going to pay it off for us. I know that is my case so I need to take the steps to take care of it myself so that I have a future somewhere along the way. I mean I want to take a vacation and enjoy going toward my retirement knowing I will not have this hanging over my head.

As scary as this is to do. It also is good to have it there to see weekly. There is also things being paid off. Its not much at a time but the amounts is going down so  that is encouraging at least.

Life just sucks sometimes. We are tested to just see how far we can go, how much we can handle and how we overcome this stuff.  Sometimes I would rather not be tested for a long long time and just live life and enjoy it for awhile.

As I think about this it stresses me out big time. But this student loan and debt will not take care of itself.

Just have to make up you mind to do something about it.

Has Sallie Mae change your account over to another division.

Well its happening. Sallie Mae has another division to collect on our student loans. Navient is a division of Sallie Mae from what I understand. And they are now going to be taking care of our loans. I have not clue what this means other than things will not change other than we are dealing with them instead of Sallie Mae. 

Here is a bit more information.  http://www.mainstreet.com/article/navient-sallie-maes-new-student-loan-servicer

So it is what it is. 

I am not about to let this get me down. IF nothing else I am looking for other ways to make extra money to put toward these loans, heating my house this winter and what not. I am paying off smaller debt right now and if I can hold out for another year I can roll those payments into my loans somehow.  

This is not easy by any means. It is hard. Not impossible yet. I have yet to find out how this is going to affect us. It already has in several ways. The ball has not dropped yet. I"m still waiting. 

Update from Aug to now.

August was a busy month and also one where we do not have a lot of income. Its the time where summer is winding down and I am getting ready to head back to work. Over all I have to say that we had some ups and downs over all it was not that bad budget wise.

Normally summer means we are really short on money and I have to make major adjustments in our budget in order to get by. That means something does not get paid. This year we made it to the end of summer and all the bills got paid the house payment is almost caught up to where it is showing on time not a week late and we did not starve, go naked and was able to find a little fun along the way and even managed to get 2 home improvement projects done. One was free material but I will take it and use it gladly!

Today I got my bill from the Art Institute that I owe them. I been paying a little every other week and I got my statement today.  I am rounding the bend to where I will owe less than 3000.00 on that bill starting in Oct! Trust me that 2 in front of all those numbers looks a lot better than the 3. So progress is being made. :)

Now that fall is settling in I need to check on my other student loan accounts and see where I am on one of them. What I hope is to get  the school bill paid and then use that money to work on the private loan. Then take those two amount and put it toward my Sallie Mae loans. That is the plan and that plan is far off yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I need to tread on some water here for awhile to get to that point.

I started on my ebay again and I am looking for items that sell high and do not take up much space. I need to get things sold and out the door in a timely manner and to make money to pay the bills all at the same time! Its a challenge trust me. But its this or get another job. And well that is not in the cards yet. It depends on what I find. I am looking because one never knows what they will find income wise.

I do have one bill that I am a tad bit worried about. It a hospital bill and I need to keep track of how much I paid on it and check in with them. I got a funny feeling about the company collecting the money and I looked it up and I did not find favorable reviews. But then again its a collection agency so who knows. But I will have to buckle down and talk to them to get a statement at least.

That is about it. I am happy to be back at work and getting my paycheck. I have other venues I am  working on to bring in an income as well. Plus this winter I hope to make crafts and things to hit a few craft shows next year to earn more money.  I am thinking of a home party thing too but nothing has got my attention yet. So we will see.

As always I am not giving up just keep looking and keeping things going as best I can.

Speck of light in a grand plan.

I 
I feel like this today. I went to check on my checking to see where we was this week as far as who got paid and where we spent money. Talked to my hubby about it a little bit, let him know that we have to pay the cable bill, talked about how much he needs for a few days to get to work and have lunch. It felt good to do this.

My idea of how to budget is kind of crazy. I mean I literally send out checks weekly for my bills to be paid. Really we should do this and save it up to send out monthly. For some reason that does not always pan out. This works to a point for the most part. We may have a time or two that we find ourselves short for some reason. Mostly because we are not paying attention to what we are doing.

This is my general debt and household utilities. You know credit cards, medical bills, electric, cable and a car and house payment. The way I see it I have to pay off the smaller debts like the medical and credit card payments first before I can settle into paying off those Student loan bills! ugg it makes me sick to think about it. But well its life we much face it at some time.

So if you have an idea that you think will help you budget then try it. What works for some people might not work for another. I am finding that just because my parents did things their way does not mean it works for me. After all I do not make their kind of income, live the same lifestyle either so their way just does not work for me at all.  Neither does the neighbors way of doing things, or Joe Smo down the road.

This is not a quick fix. You will not be out of debt overnight. Unless we win the lottery but that chance is slim to none. lol.

http://teespring.com/dashboard/campaigns



I quickly designed this shirt on Teespring. I am going to try this and see what happens. Its a campaign and I am going to use the money to go toward my student loans.  The way I see it nothing is beyond impossible right.   I am not giving up on my dreams to be an artist one day. I may not be the graphic artist I went to school for. Because there are no jobs out there anyways. But I can still find a way to make that second income like I want. The situation sucks not but we just can not give up on ourselves. There are ways out of this. I know I can not afford to wait for the government to do something about it.

Click on the link and buy a shirt. Use the saying to inspire you in any way.

Prayer. Off topic but not so much.

I just watched a video and I wanted to share it with you. I'm a believer in God and prayer. And this kind of got my attention because I have been praying about this student loan stuff and well nothing is happening that I can tell. At least nothing to help those of us who might need it somehow. So I slacked off quite a bit. Then I saw this video.  Now if you do not believe in God that is fine. Not everyone does. But I do and this hit home. The black hole in my life is my debt and student loans. If it was not there things would be different. Not necessarily easier but not hard in what would happen if something happen to my husband or if we wreck a car or if a major thing broke in our home.  Because I come to realize that I can handle that kind of stuff and get my budget working so that we save for those kinds of things that happen in life. Small potatoes compared to a 60,000 loan that is a black hole of debt.

So as simple as this is but it takes heart and belief and faith but I"m going to pray about it more and more. It will not hurt, its not a waste of time really. So I'm doing it. Why not. Who knows something may happen one day soon. I believe that its possible.

Have faith. Pray.

Sallie Mae in the news again

I came across this article this morning and wanted to share it with you. http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/education-planning/sallie-mae-poster-child-student-loan-crisis?page=1

Its about the same thing I have read in the past. Yes there is a crisis but what are we doing about it? How is it helping those of us who have these loans? I'm not saying that we are not responsible. But we need help to be able to pay this money back. Paying all interest for many years is not going to help at all. We have to be able to pay at least on the principle of the loans. Or I should say be able to pay more on our principal and less on the interest.  I think the problem is that these used to be low interest loans and now they are not. We overlook this fact these days.


I only hope something can be done soon. Time has run out and is running out on us.

Moving forward with life with a student loan.

I know this photo has nothing to do with Student Loan Debt. But this guy keeps me grounded most days. As silly as he is for a dog.

Hello there. I was thinking today I needed to do a little update here. It has been very quiet for awhile now. I have been working on my debt this summer. It is not easy or fun. But I am learning a few things along the way, I might be making mistakes also but I can learn from those as well.

What I am learning:

1. Take a look at your debt and own it.
2. Make any kind of payments you can even small payments will count toward your debt.
3. Find ways to make your life easier and less cluttered so you can focus on your debt.
4. Organize your bills, open them when you get them and take note of what is going on.
5. Pick up the phone and call and see if you can get help or an extension on a bill.
6. Brain Storm. (more on this in a bit)
7. Go over your budget weekly make it a habit. ( I am still learning to do this but when I do it helps make the week go by so much better)
8. Reward yourself somehow. (more on this below as well)
9. Do not give up on yourself.
10. Keep going and track your progress.

I have been thinking of these things lately. And one thing I have been doing is Brainstorming idea's of other ways to make an income. From second jobs to using my skills to bring in another income.

Another thing you have to do is get your home in order. No one can think about extra jobs, work, income and additional things if your home is a mess. I know because I am in the process of cleaning out my home. And it does make a difference when you realize that when it takes less time to get around the crap the more time you will have for other things like taking on another job one or two days a week, or creating another job for yourself.

I put reward yourself down as well. I know when you have not money how can you do this??  It can be as simple as sitting down and reading a book, catching up on a series of movies or TV shows, a day off of everything to recharge. You do not always need to spend money or spend a lot of money to have a reward. Even cooking a good meal can be a great reward. Sitting out on the porch and enjoying the summer evening can be a reward. Just something to get your mind and heart off the debt for a short time and enjoy something so you can face the next step in this challenge.

I did not put this down and I just thought of it. You need to make goals in your life.  I have started to make envelopes for things I want to save up for. When i get an extra dollar or two I put it in the envelope. Some weeks I might not have that extra sometimes I do. Right now I am saving toward a set of new sheets for my bed. This is something I do not want to take out of my grocery budget or other budgets. I am 1/2 way to my goal! Then I'll save up for the next envelope and so on. Its a reward all in it self.

You can not stop living life because this is the situation you find yourself in. We are capable of finding ways to pay this off. I know I will not stop finding ways to pay off this debt until I find something or a few things that will work. Life is to short to let this ruin your life any more than it already has. Own the debt and take care of it.

Breaking the chains of debt. (Video by Dave Ramsey)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1UYs3Zr7Vs&list=RDI1UYs3Zr7Vs

Click on the link and just listen. It makes a lot of sense. We tend to believe what everyone says and we do not stop to think what is best for ourselves. In a way that is how I got into this student loan mess and some financial mess. I listen to others instead of believing that what I was doing was OK and right for us and it worked.

Its not too late. Really it is not. Its just going to take work.

Collection.

Sooner or later I guess it was going to happen. My only credit card went to their collections dept. But oddly enough its better this way. I have been paying what I could on the card for awhile now. Only with interest it just was not getting paid down fast enough. I talked to the guy today and he said that since I have been paying on the card that is good. Now I can make payments and the amount will go down faster. Of course they asked me how I got behind, what I make, what I can pay bla bla bla. We came to an agreement for now. Oddly enough I'm ok with this. My credit is bad now with the student loans so this will not make much of a difference. And it will be paid off sooner and out of my hair. So in 4 years or less if  I can make extra payments it will be gone.

So I have been thinking and considering our debt. I wish I had a better time line of how it will go. But so far the car will be paid off in Dec, 2 bills will be paid off in about 3-4 years. Give or take depending on if I make extra money to put toward those debts. The others will be paid off by spring. Which will leave me the mortgage and student loan.

It could be worse and it could be much better.

I did put into action an envelope system!  I have been thinking and well there are things that I want to do, we need to get away and a few things I need but hate to go out and just spend the money on them. So I have made up envelopes put on them what they are for and when I get a dollar or so hanging about I'll put it in one. Now this may seem slow but think about what you spend a dollar on? I like a lottery ticket from time to time, a sweet tea from McDonalds, ice cream cones, something from the thrift store, pop from the store, a donut, a McDonalds hamburger and well you get the picture. That adds up over time. So I figure if I have a dollar or more hanging around at the end of the week it will go into an envelope. One I have just for one's. Another I stick fives in there, other larger amounts I might stick a twenty in them. And that is what that money is for. Now I know I can use that to pay off my debt. But this to me is something that I keep myself from over spending on stuff. So instead of getting a tea today I'll save that dollar, if I have it until the end of the week it goes into and envelope. A silly game I know but its motivation. Anything is worth a try. If all else fails and I need to I can go in there and use the money for my debt if it looks like I can pay it off with what I have saved. I got to start saving something somewhere along the way.

And once again I am setting up my bills in my bank account to get paid weekly. This worked for me in the past until an emergency came up and then I messed it up. So I put it back into action. I think I will eventually set the utilities up to be monthly payments instead. But for now this works.

Always learning, always thinking of how to get out of debt. Starting is the hard part, keeping it going is the challenge but in the end is the reward.

New news today.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2014/07/02/4-changes-coming-to-student-loan-interest-rates-rules

Follow the link and this article tells you about the new rules put in place just recently. What does this mean to me or you?? I am not sure. It looks like new borrowers will have a 10 percent interest in stead of the 15 percent interest also the income based repayment plan could change. Read it and make you decide. I do not think this is a solution. Could be a start of something. So things sound Ok others well who knows.

Until then I owe I owe extra money to Sallie Mae it goes.

Snail mail from Sallie mae

These little fun little bits of mail came yesterday. All in one envelope. I needed 2 out of all these papers. The bottom 2. I think I should make a paper tree out of my SM mail. Because the money is going to go up into that tree and I'll never see it again. 

I changed from online mail to snail mail because SM's email was going to my spam box. And I did everything to get it to go to my inbox. Nothing worked so I'm doing this the old fashion way. Joy of joys. 

A paper to fill out and return. By the time this gets approved I'll be back at work. 

How much are we responsible for our loans?

Here is another article that popped up today. http://www.themainewire.com/2012/05/op-ed-student-loan-debt-%E2%80%93-it%E2%80%99s-governments-fault/

Now this person is saying we are responsible for our loans. Yes to a point I do agree with them. Because really no one twisted my arm to sign those papers. I also was under the illusion that I was going to finish school, get a job and be able to pay for those loans too.

If I was informed of the situation before it was too late I would of made different decisions. But that is not what happen. Also I had 10 classes or so transfer to that school as well. So my tuition would of been less or so I thought. If someone told me my education would have cost me 60,000 dollars out of my pocket I might of thought twice about doing what I did. All I did was talk to a recruiter, took a online tour of the online school. I knew I could get grants for the most part, but went through those as well. Just renewed my financial aid each year and then forgot about it because I was too busy trying to make good grades in my classes, work and take care of my family. Am I at fault?  I am not sure because many people are in the same exact boat I am in and having the same problems I am and its seems to be an issue for a whole lot of people who wanted to better their lives just like me and was told they could do it online, save time and money and get a degree. Only it did not happen that way. Its not like I did not make good grades either. Mostly A's and B's and once in a great while a C. Not often. So who is to blame? What is to be done?

I do know this has affected my family, my retirement, my home, and everything concerning money in my life. Its all we think about all that is on our minds and what we fight about the most. A mistake that is costing me so much more than what that degree will ever be worth in my lifetime.

So yes I am to blame, its my mistake, I own this fully. But I am not going to lie and hope that there will be a solution to this criss's also. This did not happen over night and this did not happen to just a few people who should've known better. This happen to millions of people.  Just like the housing market. People was told they could afford those homes on their income. Only to find out that interest rates went up, they could no longer afford the homes, no one was buying the homes and people was kicked out of their homes, and those houses went empty and it took a long time for many of those people to get back on their feet again.

What is the solution??  I dont know. I wish I would wake up and find that this never happen in the first place and that we can move on in our lives. That is what I want. But its a reality and here we are. Could be its not the government that should bail us out. I know I am do not have time to wait around for that to happen. I am going to take responsibility and start to pay back my loans. Any way I can think of for now.

Something to think about.

I came across this article. In short it tells you to budget, do a debt reduction plan to get out of debt. I know easier said then done. But it can be done if you work hard enough. The hard part is getting started. Think about that.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/05/05/how-to-pay-off-student-debt/#!slide=2128995

The debt collector that works with Sallie Mae.

I had this outfit calling me. American Education Loan Science? They are affiliated with the Art Institute and Sallie Mae. In truth I never called them back because I never recalled signing up for them or I thought it was a scammer from the Art Institute to get me to go back or what ever. I answered the phone yesterday and ended up talking to these people. They are a collection agency. In which I was a bit confused because I just talked to Sallie Mae last week and made arrangements directly with them because I am unemployed.  I guess this 3rd party did not get the message. I looked them up and got a headache and came to the conclusion they are working with Sallie Mae and the Art Institute to collect debt or help or what ever.

What happen is that the person asked if they can call Sallie Mae and ask them if I made these  arrangements and we will talk. OK fine because I did nothing wrong. The person from Sallie Mae. Joe I think was his name got on the phone. I asked how this Loan Science and Sallie Mae are affiliated with each other. He had no clue. hmmm. So I said Ok what can you do for me? The records did not show I talked to them about a forbarrence. Yep it figures. But this Loan Science could set up and unemployment forbearance for me so that I do not loose my other forbearance time just incase I needed it down the road.  Sounds good to me so I said OK. So we will see what happens from here.

I will have to call back once I am back at work and work out a payment arrangement. I have decided that even the IBR was too much for me to handle right now. See if for at least a year I can make smaller payments. It all goes to interest anyways and not the principal. I'll be dead once this is paid off. Unless I stick to my guns and continue on my get out of debt plan that I am working on. In time we will see what happens. One thing at a time here.

What I do not understand is that if there is all these ways to help you with your student loans, get around the times that you are not working, lower your payments when are you and all that jazz. Why can't they just say pay 50.00- 100.00 a month on these loans until the end of time and in so many years it will be forgiven. Sorry you did not get your degree, or that job you was working hard to get but there is no jobs in your area or anywhere for that matter. But hey for all your hard work we will forgive the loans in 25 years if you make regular payments.

Really this situation is two sided. I decided to go back to school for something I always wanted to learn about. But I was not prepared not to graduate for one, have 60,000 in student loans that suddenly appeared. Truth be told it kind of happen that way for me. It did not sink in what was happening. What would've been helpful is the financial aid advisor would of said something at about 25,000 to warn me that I was 1/2 way though my money and would not have enough loan to finish school. I would  then made some better decisions on my part at that time. But the classes are 5 1/2 weeks long and go by fast and before you know it 4 years have past and working a full time job, taking care of your family and school is  part time yea things do not look at clear after a while. Boy do they look clear now. 10 classes and I would of been done. That would've been another 10,000 dollars I really really do not have. So here I am getting another education I did not ask for. Figuring out who is who and what is a debt collector and what they have to do with other ways to help me and what they have to do with the two thorns in my side called Pittsburgh Art Institute and Sallie Mae. More to come I am sure if I want to sort this all out at any time.  Until then life goes on. Its summer and I"m cleaning out my house, got ebay up and going, and I am trying to decide what color to paint my kitchen and redo my cabinets and counter tops. All done as frugal as I can manage. But I can not see letting things around me go back because of this thing. Sure the money I'll put into my kitchen. Under 200.00 or even 100.00 depending on what I decide to do.  Yes that money could go toward my debt. But really what good is it going to do me. I have to live my life still. I'm paying down my debt slowly. I have a plan in place. Life still goes on and I will not make things stop because of this. I just have to stick it in there somewhere and deal with it.  Other wise this huge student loan debt will make me crazy and depressed. I can not do that to myself or my family.

I'm living with this. That is all I can do.

New Article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/06/18/Two-whistleblowers-allowed-to-continue-in-lawsuit-against-Downtown-for-profit-educator/stories/201406180206

I'm not sure what this means for us who went to the Art Institute right now. At least someone is keeping it fresh in the news.

I keep watching for a class action suit to open for us. I would sign up for it.

For now I just keep plugging along. My latest update is that since I am not working my Sallie Mae loans are in forbearance. :( I'm not really happy about it but I would put myself further behind if I did not. Now to just make a few payments this summer to keep things up to date I guess.

I do have 2 loans with American Education? PNC personal loans. Those I am seeing some progress in the amount going lower. Its not much but at least something is happening there. I will continue to make those payments since those are less than the huge government loans.

I have started my ebay selling. Not so much a business but more like an online garage sale right now. When I make over 20.00 or more I send it into a bill that I owe on. This in addition to the monthly payment. I'm working on one bill now. Hope to get that caught up here in a month or so. Then onto the next one. Getting behind has not helped the situation any. So my goal is to catch up everyone and pay off bills by the end of the year. :)

Looking around my house I realize that it has been in a state of a mess and clutter for way too long. So I am cleaning out! I have to say it is a good exercise to see what you need and do not need. And having less clutter feels better also. I wonder how I can not focus on stuff much. Its because I live in a state of clutter and mess. Who can think that way. So stuff has been flying out the door.

Its not a perfect system here. I am doing what I can how ever I can to get out of this financial mess we are in. Life it too short to wallow in it. There is a whole lot of livin to do and having this student loan mess decide how I live my life will not do.

I think there is hope in the future that this may somehow become resolved for us who went to this school and got into this mess because we made a decision to better our lives. But now that I look back my life was not so bad to begin with. I wish I would of realized that then. But I went after a dream. It was just not the dream I was suppose to go after.

The dreaded collection calls and the people on the other end of the phone.

The Art Institue just called. I did not realize I had somehow stopped my payments. hmm I set it up though my bank to automatically send out payments for some of my bills. The Art Institute being one of them. Back in Feb I must of needed money for heating oil and thought I stopped one payment when I really stopped the whole series. hmm. So now they tell me. uggg. So I get this girl on the phone who is so nicely asking me what I can send. I tell her. Lo AND BEHOLD it not enough!! Really?? uggg. So if I can send more they can offer me a discount! Ok sounds nice lady and if I could I would and if I could I would pay off the whole thing today so I can not talk to you people ever again!!! Then she wants to have me do an "easy" over the phone payment, me giving them my checking account information so they can "easily" get my payment. Aaaaa no I do not give out my checking account information. I asked the girl does she give out her checking account information over the phone?? Silence and tried to get me to move forward. Then I got pissy. She quickly ended the phone conversation and told me to have a nice day. I told her to have one too and hung up.

The day was going along very nicely until then. Nothing like answering the phone when I knew I should not of. Need to turn the ringers back to one or two. Yep I think that is what I will do and move ahead with my life.

Payments are scheduled to go out again. Hope they are happy. I know I will be when I get a final bill of Zero!! It can not happen soon enough I think.

Happy days.

What about the other debt??

I know we all got into this student debt mess. You know going back to school in order to improve our lives right. And here we are in debt and who knows if it will ever go away.

What about your other debt?? Do you have any?? I do and since right now the amount of my student loans is so overwhelming I decided that I am going to focus on my other debt first. First of all its much smaller and easier to look at and plan than the big old Sallie Mae bill. Second its easier to pay off smaller bills than the bigger ones. And right now I need a sense of accomplishment so that I can move forward here in life. With or without Sallie Mae on my ass end of life.

I have been thinking and praying about what to do about a second job, other income, some what to make extra money. I said before I am learning Ebay. And so far so good. I'm not making huge money but I somehow managed to make about 100.00 extra a month. Hope to kick it up some this summer. Anyways I will be on the look out to make extra income on top of my job. Fun right?? No. But that is life at times.

I was thinking since I do get a little here and there on Ebay I have a few options of what to do with that money. And if it sits and I try to wait for it to build up I know that I will find reason to spend it. Let it be something comes up or what ever. So I thought knowing myself and I"m not perfect and I know I should wait until the end of the month but well I'm not wired to handle such things at times. I thought to myself. What if I just take once a week and any money made I'll send it to an outstanding bill. Let it be 5.00 or 100. Then I made a list of past due amounts. Got those suckers on paper to see what I am looking at. And well you know some are not that bad. And 5.00 or 20.00 or 100.00 in a week makes a dent in something that is 100.00 past due, or 100.00 due to be paid off. Or even 500.00 due to be paid off. By the end of the year those little payments add up and well if I figure this out right I can have a few bills paid up or even paid off!

One will be a car payment. That is 100.00 a month I get back! If I pay that loan off early I'll get that 100.00 sooner. And guess what! That is 100.00 toward another bill, and then that payment is gone and so on and so forth and it makes sense right. Yes. But well lets get back to reality for just a moment. There will be times I'll have to make changes, things come up and I will need to use that money for something else. Stuff breaks, houses need repair, cars break down, dr bills and who knows. So this is a short term plan to begin with. I'm starting this for a month and I'll see how it will work. Baby steps in the bigger plan to take back my life from Sallie Mae.

Always thinking always planning always figuring out something better to move ahead. Get back my life.

Changes in Sallie Mae that you may need to know

Here is a little article on what Sallie Mae is up to now. Seems as if they do other things other than Student loans. I knew that. So they are splitting the company. Basically if you have a loan with Sallie mae your information will have the new name of the company on it instead of Sallie Mae.

No they  are not doing anything to make things any easier or better for us. But we can always still hope for something like that. lol.

Here is the link Enjoy. http://www.bostonstudentloanlawyer.com/index_files/5-6-14.html

Question and why?

I saw this an ad on facebook this morning for this
 http://www.womanaroundtown.com/sections/living-around/the-fleecing-of-young-america-the-s-m-cabaret-slaves-of-sallie-mae-student-debt-stories-with-class-and-sass

Its a show and one that is suppose to be making fun at Sallie Mae and student loan debt.

I was looking at this and wonder?? If we all are suppose to go back to school and get an education and get a worthy job and have a good life. Why is it that so many of us is in this situation?? Is the American population of students, middle aged people and others so stupid that we all missed something about what we did?? I mean why are so many people in this debt to begin with. At what point of our second education did we not notice the huge amount of debt building up?? Or did all of us not notice there was no jobs at the end of that education journey??? How did some of us not know and there is a lot of us here. How did we not know that there is a odd limit on how much we can borrow?? I know odd we should of known  this at some point when we decided to go back to school. How did we not know this?? I know I"m not alone in that I did well in school but ran out of money and did not graduate!  They say read all the material. Well once you read it once I know many did what I did. Glance over the material the remaining years. Did we miss a little sentence somewhere along the way that was hidden in the documents. And I wonder after all this time. Did I sign off on all those loans?? Really I"m going to look back because I truly do not remember.

I read, research and find that there are millions of students, young and old that are in this same situation. We all started on this journey to better ourselves, to get educated so that we can be worthy of a better paying job so we can pay our bills and have a little bit of a better life. Why is it that instead we are finding ourselves in a worst situation than what we started out in???

Where do we go from here?? I"m not sure.

I do feel like I was scam out of 4 years of my life. Being suckered into believing that I was going for an education, only to have the school and government take advantage of this and use that so called money for their own evil agenda. After all the payments I'll be paying go mostly for interest. And if I just pay the monthly balance these loans will never get paid off. Where does all that money in interest go??

I think we all fell down the rabbit hole of Sallie Mae and the likes of her. We are all swimming in the Wonderland of student debt hoping to wake up one day and find it was all a bad weird dream.

Paying the interest on my loans.

Ok the time is here to start paying Sallie Mae and American Education on my loans. I have been sending AE 50.00 a month for awhile now. It is the required payment and does little to pay off any principal. In fact all it does is pay on the interest. I"m heading into the same boat with Sallie Mae this month. I"m mentally prepared in a way. Knowing that this does little to pay down any of the loan balance. But its a start to keep the collectors out of my hair and off my phone and out of my mail box.

I"m still learning the ways of ebay. So far I do manage to make 80-100.00 extra a month. This process is slow going so far and I do not want a household of stock to wait and get rid of.  I just do not have that kind of space. I have found that sourcing is great fun and I need to keep keep to a budget when out and about looking for items to sell. I'm putting myself on hold for a few weeks so I can get rid of some of what I have.

I also signed up for a flea market in a few weeks. Just to get rid of some I do not want to list on ebay. Some of the things that did not sell on ebay as well.

I sold a few books on Amazon also. Not much money to make there yet. I"m considering FBA but still researching to see if this is something that is for me and if I can make more money doing this. Those who do FBA seem to love it as far as  I can tell. But most sellers are seasoned sellers also and have a little to send out than I do right now. I also do not have the extra funds to go out a few times a week or once a week in search of good books and games to sell. I'll be learning the ways of Amazon slowly this summer in addition to ebay.

I'm also going to look into selling arts and crafts online. Etsy, ebay, facebook what ever. I went back to school to learn Graphic Design.  So I might as well take the little bit I did learn and put it to work. I'm going to dabble and learn. From working on my drawing skills, to making jewelry, to making dolls. Which I have made dolls in the past. I'm excited to make a few more again. I'm going to take some painting classes and find ways to sell my zentangle art. Either on cards, note books, t-shirts stuff like that.

And I work full time. I am off in the summer. So that is going to be my time to do all this stuff I need to work on. So far finding a summer job nothing is striking me as something I can work with. I'll know if something pops up.

So yea not great progress. I hope in a year I will see results in my efforts. I think it will take awhile to get up and going on any other money making venture, or job to see any results.

The key is not to give up. Never think this is not a possible thing to do.

There is no magic pill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZmwmDUacU

The above link is to a show that Dave Ramsey does.  He talks about some viewers who write in about their student loan's. He say's how stupid these loans are. I have to agree. We was told that we needed an education to get ahead in the world. That with out this we will be no one and get no where.

Looking back I wish I could of believed in myself enough to trust that no matter what happen to my family that I would be OK. That I could of taken care of us if I had to. That if God decided to change things I would be able to handle it.

The only thing I can do now is to tell others what not to do. Or at least try.

We all do make mistakes and it happens. Like I keep saying I can only go forward I can not go back and take back what has been done. I am paying the price in many ways for this. But I am also learning a few things also. School was not a total waste of time. But if I had not been in such a hurry or wanting to prove myself I might of taken the time to figure out if this is something I could do. If I had been smart I would of saw that our finances could not handle me going back to school. I would of done something else instead. But that was then this is now. I'm learning something new to make me an extra income. I'll continue to learn new things to better myself. I just will not be paying or taking out loans for my education from now on.

I laugh that one day I"ll declare I'll have a youtube degree. Or a internet learned degree. lol. Wish I knew then that this was possible without doing what I did in taking out those loans. I still can learn, find ways to live life. Its just going to have a black cloud over us for awhile.  A debt that is a lesson all in itself. One that I will never forget. One I will advise younger people about when they are thinking about their own lives.

Its all good to live a good life, have a nice house, good car, nice clothing and do the things you want. But at what cost will it be?? When in truth if you work hard enough at anything you still can accomplish those things in life you want. Who says that working a general kind of job is useless??  Its what you make of that job that counts. If you are McDonalds and doing a good job and can move up in the company than do it. If you are sweeping floors and you pay your bills than do that. If you own your own company and enjoy the profits than that is what you are suppose to do. Life it to short for regrets.

Student loans these days is stupid.  And when you do not make enough money to get that extra education then you need to be smart and make the decision not to go back to school until you can afford it. It may never happen. But you may find out that life had something else planned for you.

I see this now.

Live life even though there is a dark cloud called debt hanging around

As stressful as this debt I made up my mind to move on and live life in any way I can. I have made it a goal to read at least 1 book a month. I have my list on the right there for you to see. This is something I can enjoy and its does not cost a lot. Used books are cheep and plentyful and I can find books for free at the library and online. So endless amounts of reading. And any real book I read I can list it on Amazon when I'm done. Making a little extra change then.

There are other things I"m looking to do as well. Doing as much as I can on the cheep. Staying home and worrying about what am I going to do and how to pay the bills is not going to do me any good. Clearning my head, getting away from it for a bit does better. I can take a new look at things from time to time and assess my situation.

Life does not stop with debt. It just changes what you can do for awhile. But there is a whole world of things to do and enjoy that does not cost a lot.

Yes this debt is always on my mind. I would love nothing else but to get rid of it ASAP. But right now its not the case. But I get up each morning, my feet hit the ground and I"m off to work, or doing house work or working in the garden, finding ways to make my life better.

Sometimes God hands us a challange. Could be it was because I made such a wrong choice in my life. But its what one does with those decisions that makes us a better person somehow. We have to have bad times to appreciate the good times I think. But if I had to do this over again I would make a diffrent choice, stand up for myself and be more confident in who I am and how I would of taken care of myself and my family.

IBR and moving on.

I finally got approved for my IBR!  Now this is not the best solution. But for now it will take the edge off of  what I need to do. A 600 or 700 payment is down to 120. Not the best for my budget but it gives me something to work with at least. So the challange is to make these payments every month for 10 years. Yikes!

For now I'm looking at my short term goal here. Making that 120 extra. Lets face it this is only going toward the intrest on these loans. It does nothing to pay down the amount. But it will keep my credit in check. I hope. As it is its not great. But that is another story for another time how this affects the credit report.

So this step in this process is done. It did take a few months and I did have to call them to get it moving. Now I"ll have to reapply each year. Lovely just like filing the tax's. Something a person just hates to do. But we do what we have to right.

Like I said before I have to find a way to make the extra money to do this. And I said I am exploring ebay. That is my first thing other than my job that I"ll be using to make extra cash.

And I realize that in order to make things budget out in my life I have to work on my over all budget. So while I'll have that monthy payment I will be paying off some other debt which will then also lighten up money to use toward my student loan debt in the next year or so. I have a car that will be paid off, a credit card I need to pay off, catch up on 2 other bills. Its not much but it makes a diffrence in the monthly budget in the end. Also getting a car off my insurance and that will help as well.

I'll be working on getting though the summer time. I"m laied off for the summer so our income is not as much during that time. I'll be finding ways to make extra money. One ebay and I'm considering things like pet sitting, another job, making crafts and selling them, home parties ect. I'll be exporing anything that I think I can fit into my life as it is now.

After this summer I'll be saving up any extra money to put toward one single student loan. Say I have a loan for 1000.00. If I can save up that amount I"ll pay it off. Even if I save up 500.00 I'll put it toward the principal on that one loan. I'll start with the smalest loans first and work my way up to the bigger ones. Yes we can do this. You have to call and find out the best way to do this. What I was told last you have to send the amount directly out of your checking account. So the ideal thing is to open an account just for this purpose. Any online buying and paying things I have an special bank account for. I keep 0 to less than 100.00 in it at all times. Because if I get hacked into I"m not losing much.

So that is that for now. Sorry to be silent for so long. It took a long time to hear back from Good old Sallie Mae! And American Education about the IBR. So now we can move on. Like I said its not perfect but its better than having that huge payment looming over our heads. But lets face it the rest I'll have to take care on my own. Sometimes you have to find the little unknown ways to take care of these things. Its a challange I"m ready for how about you!

Until next time.

Called Sallie Mae Again! But it was productive this time I think,

I called Sallie Mae and Lo and Behold they had my income based repayment information but its not processed!!! Its sitting there doing nothing. So I had her do something with it.

While I had her on the phone I asked a few questions about how do I go about paying my loans if I want to pay extra on them. In my previous thoughts if I made a little extra money I could put extra just toward one loan at a time in order to pay them off. Not all at once. If I can keep the general payments low with the IBR then I might have a chance to save up money here and there by other means like a extra job, ebay, dog sitting ect to put toward just one loan at a time. The answer to this is yes you can do this!!!

A little trick I learned today as well. First do not use a debit or credit card. Pay from a checking account or a savings. So what I would do it open a checking just for this purpose. Keep little money in it so just in case of identy fraud you will not loose a lot. It happens just be safer than sorry. Make it your student loan account and just use it for that. Then if you do this online or talk to a person. Tell them you want to make next months payment. So this ways your extra payments goes toward the principal not the intrest!

These are small things they do not tell you that you can do when you have all those loans clumped into one. By tacking one loan at a time you have a better chance of paying off your loans sooner with less intrest in the long run. At least in theory it can work.

Now that I have that question answered all I need to do is see if my IBR goes though and I can see where my non budget is at now. I can see how much extra I will need to make in a month to do this. And I"ll have an idea of how to move ahead.

The end goal is to get out from under this debt asap. Breaking it down into smaller amounts and one loan at a time is easier than looking at the whole picture.

Salie Mae and they did not get my request??

Now I have to call Sally Mae again. I put in the request for the IBM they did a small deferment and now I got a even bigger bill that showed up in my inbox. What the heck is up with that. I never heard If I got approved or not for the IBM. So back on the phone with these people to get this settled.

Sad part is its not like I do not want to pay on my loan. I just cant pay the amount they want. Just need it lowered to a resonable amount. Then if I can I'll pay extra on it.

Never in my life do I want to deal with a goverment loan or Goverment anything again. Its like we do not exhist and they only collect the money off of us until we die. Actally if I have it my way I"m paying off those suckers as soon as I can.

Moving forward, now a step back. This is nuts.

You tube education

I just wanted to put this out there. I am doing some research on how to sell my art. Because one reason I went back to school is to learn how to do this! Ha. Ok no degree but I'm still learning with out school.

I am finding some good information some bad information on you tube lately. I think once I figure this all out and if I do manage to create an income I'm making myself a you tube degree. lol. Between that and the internet I am learning more than what I did in the 4 Years I spend at the Art Institute online division!

If I only went this route in the first place I would be better off. Big old 60,000 degree down the drain when I could of gotten the same education for nothing. Yea I'm feeling the "If I only Knew then what I Know now" thing. lol.

Things happen for a reason. I am sure my big old mistake going back into the world of education was not that big of a mistake. But lesson learned there are just some things you can learn on your own and you will do just as good or better down the road.

Most of all just because path one to a better life did not pan out, life seems impossible right now. Do not give up on your dreams, vacations, and other things in life. You can not possibly stop living because of the debt created by going back to school. The only thing you can do is work on a plan, stick to it and make the best of it. Save other wise for the things you want to do. A few dollars here and there and I mean a 1.00 here and a 1.00 there will add up in time. Get a budget in place and work on it monthly. Nothing even a huge life changing debt is not impossible to over come. It will just take time and hard work.

Credit card payments.

I talked to my credit card company this weekend. Not fun but enlightening all the same.  I figure hey I need to get them to stop calling for awhile at any rate. So we will see if they do. The girl said they  would. lol.. But one needs to do this from time to time when owing people money and have to make arrangements to work toward paying off that debt. Sometimes its just not as easy as it seems when you are limited in what you can send. 

But looking out into the future if I pay off this card, the car that will free up some money for student loan repayment. But we may have to purchase another car in the future as well. So there is always that possibility that payment will linger in the debt pool for a few years yet. We do have to get back and forth to work still. 

I"m still waiting to hear about my repayment options and if I was approved for anything. I hate waiting. 

Also went out on Sat and spent a little too much. :( Not that it was much at all but when one has debt to pay it was too much. I did have fun but really it was not a smart thing to do. That money could of went someplace else on the budget page. Lesson learned and we will be more careful in the future. I might have to stash away a little here and there in an envelope for special dinners and what not. The guilt is just too much when one does not plan for things like this. 

Also caught up on 2 bills. That does fill good. :)  

I picked up extra time at work this next week too. :) It does not happen often. As much as I hate going in on my day off I am. I will appreciate it when the pay comes in the mail. 

The end of the month is looking a little better. A few more dollars to stash away for extra down on bills. Hope I can keep this up for the rest of the year. 

Ebay has been a bit slow. But this is clearly something I will have to do daily and list stuff daily to keep up with it. So yes I think it will be a summer time thing when I"m not working. 

I"m also researching how to sell my art more too. I went to school I better put something I learned to work. I"m not great but there is a lot of people making money off their art that is not great either. I want in on that. 

Guess the week has been more productive than I thought. Here is to the next week. Lets see what we can accomplish toward the debt.  

Sallie Mae, IRP and now we wait.

I filled out the paper work, talked to a Sallie Mae representative and found all my information from Sallie in a spam box that I hardly ever check. I do now because some important stuff got sent there. :(  I had my mail switched back to snail mail so I know that I will get any important papers I need.

So now I wait to see  what the results are. I"m sure there is going to be more to this process like sending in pay check stubs or income tax information or something along those income lines. I'm still sending in payments to the one bank that has 2 of the loans.

I have to bring something up that all of this has caused. Something one does not think about when going back to school in order to get an education and find a good paying job. I never thought about what if  I did not finish or graduate and what would I do??  To me that was not an option because I have started school before and quit before and I knew this would be my very last chance. And here I am no degree and a large loan and it has caused problems in my life that I never dreamed up. It has upset my marriage in ways that I never though something like this would do. And it will take a long time to get things back on track and right again. Or my marriage or life may never be right again. I do not know only time will tell. Right now the mere mention of money, bills, vacation or anything that concerns large amounts of money is off topic or we tread lightly. The future as we know it is uncertain in ways that I never though it would be.

While I work on finding a good solution to the current problem there still lies a much larger problem at the end of this rather large bill. Lessons learned that I am passing onto my daughter so she does not make the same mistakes I did.

Right now I have worked up a small budget and I realize it will chance from month to month. I have to keep on top of it as much as I can. So far its working and its hard but its has shown up where our money is going so that is a good thing. We both are aware to take advantage of any opportunity to make extra money when we can too. For now I'll have a savings for just school loan money until I can see what will work best for us. I think for this year I can stash money into the savings. I also decided to have another savings too for things that come up that we need money for. I have done this before and it does come in handy. So I"m working on building that up again as a safety net for us. I decided to work on a vacation fund too and find ways to take small trips on the cheep. We need to get away and I might end up calling in a favor this year or next spring. I have not decided yet. It all depends on how much a hotel room is and how many days we will stay. Gas prices also is something to save up for. Not to mention food. Its a small goal. Just something we need to do for our marriage, our sanity too. I know it sounds a bit crazy but I hope we can manage this one small thing.

So while waiting to hear back about the income repayment plan I am thinking of ways to divide up bits of money here and there to stick and stash into savings or change jars. Small bits of a few dollars here and there will add up.

Income repayment update.

I signed up for the income repayement plan. I also called Sallie Mae to find out what to do next. Since I was not getting any emails that I knew of. I had to search out my span folder in order to find any communications with Sallie Mae.  I told Sallie Mae to just switch me over to snail mail so I'm sure to get their invoices and updates and what not. I have also put them in my white list box in my email so if I do get something I am sure to see it. At least I hope I do.

I had to go on a little deferment again. :( Just until they review my information and make a decision on what my payments will be, or what ever they do. Most likely my information is waiting in a long line of other students applications waiting for the same thing. One would think in the computer age this might be a faster process for some reason??? Oh wait we are dealing with the Goverment so well No.

The Art Institue is trying to get me to pay off their bill I owe them. lol. Kind of funny in a way. If I had the amount they are offering. Which is 1/2 of what I owe I would gladly get them out of my hair. But sadly I do not have that in one lump sum right now. But the amount I owe is going down. A little light at the end of the tunnel. Although I think they would like to get me out of their hair. lol. Something tells me having my debt and others like it on their books does not look so good.

So at this point I'm waiting. That is all I can do right now.

Getting started is not easy.

I applied for the income repayment plan. You would think they could send you an email at least to say hey this is how it works, we got your information, you pay x amount by this date. You are all set. Reapply in a year. Done and done. Nope. I hear nothing. I am going to have to call someone, sit on the phone and wait for someone to answer and take down all my information again! As if doing it twice online already is not enough. Hello. Lets get this moving already so I can move onto the next step in this hell called Student Loan repayment.

Oh and Sallie Mae does not send out email to say oh hey you have a payment due, or your over due or your deferment is up so you need to do something. Nope weeks and months can go by and then the  phone will ring with an automatic thing on it saying you need to call them! Hello just send a paper bill or email! Geeze.

Until next time.

Student Loan Repayment plans.

I have finally jumped into the waters of the repayment plans for my student loans. I filled out the request and now I wait to see what happens. This is a scary thing because I do not know right now what the payments will be. They should be lower than the 600.00 a month payment they want me to pay now. We are also a small family and that makes a difference. I suppose they do not include a dog and a cat into that family equation size.

Part of what sucks about this is that if I had more kids I would be eligible for a better payment. But I only have one kid and that makes a difference. She is also heading into her adult years and I only have so much time that I can claim her as a dependent. I do wonder how long she would like to stay home and in college. lol.

The first part of the process was fairly easy. Go here to get started. Take a deep breath and read all the information. Go over your options and move forward.

What sucks also about all of this is that they will collect more interest. So by no means is this going to mean that the loans will ever be paid off.  But it may just be that little something to keep them from calling all the time and time to build up the extra to pay on the principal of the loans.

I think that in a way we have to out smart the Dreaded Loan people.  I can only hope to find a little loop hole though the tangle mess that I"m in right now. This will take time. One day at a time.

Finding ways to meet those goals.

On this long get out of debt journey toward those student loans I have figured out a way to take care of our Mortgage and other bills. As crazy as it sounded at the time this worked for me. It took a little time to get to where I needed to be. That being I had to get my payments paid up and paid on time. But when you are living paycheck to paycheck this is not easy to come up with an extra months mortgage. Here is what I did and it took a little time but we are now paying on time. I send out weekly payments to my mortgage company. Keep in mind they do not like this they would like it all in one sum each month at the beginning of the month. But keeping that payment even in another account monthly did not work well for us. So I figure I'll take it out asap each pay and we eventually will not miss it. And we do not miss it at all. It took a few months to get the payments caught up. See every once in awhile you get an extra week in the month so that is an extra payment. Soon the calls stopped. And I just checked my bill today and lo and behold the payment was made for this month on time!!!! Relief!!! One small victory in our battle here. Now I"ll keep this the same and I'll have extra little payments every once in awhile going toward my house. :) Hopefully we can take off a little time and have our home paid off early! I'm not sure how early yet but one day I'll figure it out. Even a few months would be wonderful. lol.

My next goal is to catch up on a few bills that got behind because I lost a bit of work days due to the bad weather we had. Its small things that are do able up you sure do miss it when the money is not there.

I also will be listing my bills from the smallest to the largest. Time has come to wittle down the debt. Now that our house payment is good I can move onto the next one. And a few should be paid up in a matter of a month. Cant wait!

Dave Ramsey Total money make over.

Who does not love You tube when looking for free entertainment and resources and information and help for anything.

I found Dave Ramsey Total money make over.  I would suggest listening this audio book with a nice hot cup of something and sit back and relax. Its long. I have been listening to it in pieces. Its free and it has some common sense advise in it. Things that we should know but have over looked and do instead and that is why we are in the state we are in as adults.

This is a good read for any young people who are just beginning their financial life. It could save them a lot of grief down the road.

I am learning again how to budget, taking a good look at my bills and facing the reality of what is going on with our finances. I have to say that just taking these first small steps toward the bigger goal has been a blessing. Just knowing where your money is going is less stressful in a way. And watching numbers go down is also a good thing. Although not a whole lot of that going on here. But I just got started.

On my student loans. I did figure out a little thing with my privet loans or non government loans. I can pay them off individually if I get a lump sum in order to do so. My smallest loan is a little over 200.00. So if I save up or get 200.00 somehow I can request a pay off for just that loan. So that is a good thing for future reference. I did find something else out to. I had to do a small deferment to catch up 2 months worth a payments and the interest was added onto my loan making me owe a little more now. :(  This is how these loan companies make money off of us. We keep paying on the interest and not the principal and we are forever sending money into the loan company and never see the end of the loan or paying so much more than we should. We are stuck in a financial nightmare.

I"m not about to let my hard earned money go to the government forever on end and never see the principal of my loans be decreased. So in any way possible I'm determined to find a way to get this done and out of my life so I can move on to better things. Like a retirement, vacations, a newer car, fix up my house and so on.

I'm started with looking up any free information Dave Ramsey has available. I might venture into buying a book or two or attend a class if one pops up local. Why I chose him is because he is popular in his methods and people say they work. There are other people who I will most likely look up as well and review some old favorites from the past.

Since I"m getting another education on how to pay for my education I think I should make myself a bachelors degree from you-tube and internet university. I wonder if an employer would accept it on a resume??

Research.

Its been awhile since I posted anything. Things have been calm here for now. So that is good. But I"m gearing up to the next big thing I have to deal with. Sally Mae and the income based application. :( I'm not really looking forward to that but it has to be done and than some. I need to start paying on those loans and a payment I can afford. I feel that this is going to take some time get get somewhere where we can all agree one for now.

This morning I"m doing a little research on other ways to pay off these loans. After all just because you make an arrangement with the dreaded loan people does not mean you can not pay more if you can.

Here is a good article I found. http://www.clearpointcreditcounselingsolutions.org/best-way-to-pay-off-student-loans/. 

For example I started to pay my house payment weekly. Much the upset of PHFA.  :) But at the time when I started to do this I had to figure out how to get my loan payments into them with out end up spending them on something else we had to do. So I broke down my payments into weekly amounts and just have them sent off to the mortgage company. They keep the payments until it adds up to a monthly payment and then post it to my account. For awhile I was a week or two behind. But I knew sooner or later I would catch that time up. I just had to put up with the calls and let them know when to expect the next full payment in a week or two. They would document it and then we was good for another month. But what happen is that the calls suddenly quit. And it seems I have finally caught up on my payments! Oh joy its nice not getting that call finally and not seeing the past payments on my bills each month. :) So now as with a biweekly payment I hope to have a few extra payments and pay my house off sooner. In time we will see this result. I have not yet sat down and figured out the how long it will end up taking. Another time for that. I'm just happen to have things caught up again.

So on to this student loan. I want to put the same kind of thing into practice. But with a twist and this is what I"m on the hunt to find out. Can I pay off one loan at a time when I have several that are clumped together?? The thought keeps going though my head. And I want to find out if this is something that can be done.

This is what I'm talking about! Read it here. But there is still more research to do on this. According to the article this will not be easy. I'll have to stick to my guns about this and work hard. First get the initial payment plan in place then move on to the other.

I have been paying on my small loans first on time with monthly payments. So I'm going to start with those then move on to the government loans. Its a challenge. I kind of like it. lol.