Sallie Mae call.

Well I got the call. ugg. Was late on sending in my payment. But it was that or not get heating oil for my house and freeze.  I told her I will have a payment by the end of the month. A quick adjustment and forbearance and they will be off my phone once more. I am going to send in weekly small payments and see what happens. I was thinking of also sending in 1.00 a day. lol. Just for kicks. Sounds like a waste I know. But really sending in this money all goes to interest and the likelihood of these loans getting paid off is slim to none. So why not enjoy being a pain in their butt too.

Saw this article this morning I thought I would share. Its called "Colleges Follow Bait and Switch Pricing Measure to Lure Students.  Its a good article that explains how we end up in this mess. If nothing else its something else to warn those who is doing their homework about for profit colleges.

First payment ready.

Well I have to take the plunge and make these payments. I"m doing it weekly. Small chunks at a time. Heck since I am going to pay this until the day I die I might as well not take a huge hit monthly right. Smaller amounts are easier to deal with. Well until something happens that well I either win the Lottery or these loans are forgiven. And right now it does not look like either is going to happen fast.

I did hear from the Art Institute. They offered me to pay 1/2 of what I owe in full. Nice deal if I had that money. I admit it would be nice to get them out of the way.

On other debt news I"m plugging away at things a little at a time. The car loan is paid off! I need to send extra money to another bill. But right now with the weather being so cold our extra money went to heating oil instead. :(  

My bill binder is working for me. Its keeping me somewhat organized. I do have a envelope that i put in a few dollars here and there to work on my emergency fund. I have to say it feels good to stash a little money aside. Even if its just a very small amount right now. I think I"ll start selling stuff from around here again and put that toward this fund.

So far sadly I do not see an end to the student loan. But I have learned a lot about  myself from this experience. But what I should of done and what has been done are not going to change things. But I know that I can move forward.

I pray a lot about this student loan situation.  So hopefully something will happen one day. Right now I have decided to put it in God's hands and listen to him. He is saying pay what you can at the moment. For me personally this is a lesson I had to learn. Its a hard one at 48 I tell you.

Until next time. Pray, Keep up with the latest news, and do what you can. We are all in this together.

Happy New year!

I know I am a little late but we had a busy holiday season and things have just settled down enough here for me to catch up with my blogs, budget and goals for 2015!

Toward the end of the year Sallie Mae had created a collections branch called Navient. I got my paperwork in around Dec and took a quick peek at it and took note of the due date of my payment and set it aside. Yesterday I took a good look at it. OMG confusing! I did go onto the site to see if I can get any clearer info on what I was seeing. Basically a breakdown of all my loans, the interest rates for these loans and what my payments are and what I paid so far. Its not a pretty picture. I am on an income based repayment plan so it made it a bit easier. Still its not like I have the extra money. But I am doing to do my best to keep these people off my phone.

I am working on paying off other debt and I am happy to say I am seeing progress! I hope to make some good goals for this year. Like we do need to purchase a car or truck for my husband this year.  And hope to make another major home improvement this summer. But we will see in a few months what we can do or not do.

I organized my budget binder!

I found a free printable pack of sheets for my binder. I forget the link but just google free budget printable sheets and you will find many to choose from or make your own

These I laminated so I can use a dry erase marker on them. 

Nothing fancy or really pretty in my binder. Its pretty basic and easy to use. 

Student loan stuff. I used page protection sheets to keep this stuff in. 

I do want to work on my emergency fund this year. For now I am putting in loose dollar bills into the envelope to start it. How I am going to go from here I do not know just yet. I need to add this into my budget somehow. I do know I want to get this built up and put into a savings. 

If you look up binders, filo planners, planners etc you can find loads of information on how to create on. You can make them really fancy and colorful. I thought about this and decided that while it is great fun to have all the post it notes, colored pens etc that I am going to keep my pretty basic. I may stick in art work in there as  I go. But as far as color coding things that just sound like more work to me and a reason to spend money on things I do not really need. I do that enough now as it is. 

Things happen for a reason. I suppose that I have learned here a huge lesson on money, loans and debt. I'm always learning it seems. But this studen loan has forced me into taking a good look at my life, our money and how we live. I realize that I do not have to keep up with my neighbors, friends and family. I do not desire designer clothing, purses or fancy cars or homes. I am pretty happy living a frugal life and it suits me. I am working on my art and will work toward building on that dream again. I might not have the degree but there is lots of ways to reach that dream I am finding out.  

That loan will always be lurking in our lives unless something happens and its forgiven and wiped off my credit report. But for now I own it and it owns me. We meaning the loan and me have to learn to live with each other. It will not be easy to live with. Kind of like a rotten relative who moved in your home to stay a few months and never leaves.  

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.