Update on me /Back on the board!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Update on me /Back on the board!
2
Thu, 09-30-2004 - 10:03am
Hi All,

I've lurked a bit this summer and posted once or twice, but it's time for me to be back on a regular basis.

Some of you may remember that I decided to quit my job, which I loathed, and take the summer off. I'm 35, been married 10 years (no kids), and it's the first time I've been out of work since I became of working age at 15 (except for when I was laid off in 2002, and that was very brief). I wrote a cc check to myself at 1.9% APR (until fall, when it goes to 9.99%) to cover the lost income.

After 2 previous years of hard work and serious debt reduction, I had paid off my car loan, my school loan, and my cc debt (which was at zero before I took the advance). That left the mortgage, DH's car loan, and DH's school loan; mortgage and DH's school loan were paid off this summer (mostly with money from his mom's estate). He does not have a problem with debting, so none of his cards carry a balance. So that leaves us now with one car loan (we are on year 3 of 5), a small bank loan (which we took to be able to completely pay the mortgage company off), and the monthly bills.

Currently our regular monthly household bills (not incl groceries) come to about $1,600. I pay 33%; DH pays 66% (based on each of our most recent take-home pay). It probably seems odd that I would take a cash advance when we had the $$ to pay off the mortgage, but DH was not in favor of me quitting my job so I wanted to keep up my end of things while I was out of work (I do have a small home business to rely on). I will just have less discretionary income when I go back to work.

I extended my time off a bit past the summer, but plan to be back working (somewhere!) before the end of Oct. I am of course back in the cc hole (a well-planned hole, but still a hole), and will need to work extra hard to get back on track. I don't regret quitting my job AT ALL, but if I ever do anything like that in the future, I will save up the $$ first instead of relying on credit. This time, though, I just needed OUT.

I re-read J. Mundis cover-to-cover last week, and am determined not to borrow another dime, no matter what. For those who are wondering, I am skidding in at $6,300 worth of debt (more than originally planned, but I took more time off than originally planned). If I get in any futher, I won't be able to get back out any time soon. I figure it will take me about 18 months to pay it off. I have reached my limit and am starting to feel out-of-control. But I wouldn't trade these 6 months off, even for being debt free! I did a lot of fun things, planted a beautiful garden, redesigned my website, cleaned my house top to bottom, took some short trips, and was able to see more of friends & family.

So, that's all I can think of to share about my present financial/debt situation. The next few weeks will see me looking for gainful employment and tapping all non-debting sources of money. Last week I sold used books at Barnes & Noble and returned some unnecessary purchases for cash. I'm an antiques dealer, so I have a lot of merchandise that can go up on ebay. I had one good auction last week and one that ends tomorrow that is doing well.

BK

Not getting any further into debt

One day at a time




Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Thu, 09-30-2004 - 10:10am

Welcome back!!!

Avatar for mymartes
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 09-30-2004 - 10:24am
welcome back.

sounds like you have everything in perspective. also you took a much needed break.

good luck.

MYM