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!