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Archive for April, 2012

Thinking of the Future... (Input?)

April 30th, 2012 at 08:24 pm

Have recently been thinking, again, going to college. I am 24 years old, wife and baby, and need to figure out what I'm doing with the rest of our lives.

In the career I am in now, I could end up getting promoted to Supervisor within five or so years. With that comes a free two bedroom apartment (with most employers). This would be fine and dandy, but we do not enjoy living in an apartment as much as we would renting or owning a home with a yard where we could plant a garden, have chickens, etc.

So, school may have to be the route I go. But I don't want to do just anything. I was thinking of nursing before, but that is not what would make me the happiest, I don't think. Being outside, with nature, animals, would do it, I think. So I have been looking into Biology, Ecology, Environmental Science, etc. But as a working man, it will most definitely be hard. However, living in this new area, we have many more opportunities. There are online community colleges that offer two-year Associates that transfer to four-year colleges for a Bachelors. The online, I could do. But for the two years after that, I am not sure. We have cut costs everywhere we can, and things just keep getting harder. Trying to sell our car now, and it is proving most difficult. Also, our food assistance went down from $520/mo to $171/mo. Understandably so, but still - we cannot afford it! If we sold the car, yes, we could. Trying!

BTW, my wife is looking into doing some nannying. Smile

Text is Here and Link is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoMxlCeYZJVRdE5VS1pwSFNlZ2FRS01XUGFlUXpTUGc#gid=0
Here is the spreadsheet for my projections of what we will need to make.

Accept BECU CC offer?

April 18th, 2012 at 08:07 pm

Just got an email from BECU (my credit union) that says I am pre-approved for a $5,000 credit limit (current limits are $1,000 and $500) at 10.90% APR (current are 23%).

There is no annual fee for the first year, and after that it is $25/year.

I know the general idea is to avoid annual fees like the plague (which I do), but this seems like a great deal, and could help bolster my credit score. We would switch to using this card (instead of the Chase) for the first 90 days, as part of the promotion is that you get 2% back on purchases such as gas, groceries, etc. (all ones we use it for). However, the Chase card would remain our daily card, as it has cash-back at all times, rather than just the first 90 days.

What do you guys think? Despite the annual fee, get it?

EF up, CC's next!

April 11th, 2012 at 08:45 pm

Made some larger-than-normal deposits today, by way of refunds from the former insurance company.

We now have $1,119.91 in savings! Woohoo!

So we have $1,000 in EF, and $119 in the Auto fund (for repairs, maintenance, registration, etc.). We will keep that fund on hold and pay-down the credit cards with any further extra we may get. Smile

Also, in not-so-happy news, I did not get to do that job last Saturday. Unfortunately, people were concerned about it being a Conflict of Interest, due to the fact that our customer was a person at corporate. Ah well...

Determining a Strategy

April 4th, 2012 at 06:15 pm

As you know, we have been trying to decide whether or not to sell our car. We listed it for sale, then took it down. We are just not ready to see it go. A 2007 Focus with only 44,000 miles? Who would be? Our payment is only $136/mo. We owe $3,200. Insurance is now at $132/mo ($7 of which is for Renters Insurance). So we are doing a little better. It is nice to know that we can jump in our car on the weekends and know it won't die on us.

However, keeping this car means getting tires before the next winter. So that is $450-500.

But before we can do that, we need to tackle our credit card debt that we accumulated from moving over here for this better life (and believe me - I don't ever regret it!). That total comes out to $1,300.

Technically, we should be able to pay these down pretty quickly. However, our savings is pretty far behind. It is lingering at $770, which is not even half of a month's bills.

So, question: Should we build our savings first, or pay off the cards?

After getting the savings up, and credit cards back to zero, I plan on doubling-up on car payments.

All this and no health insurance for the wife and I. Hopefully, that will come soon...

I should have a $400+ side job coming up, as well as a promotion. I don't want to psych myself up for that one though, in case it does not happen.