Starting off the New Year on the right track

Well, toy season was not all it was cracked up to be this year....I was completely unfocused, and didn't really hit my groove until the very end, so not much money was made, but I have learned a great deal and I'm already planning ahead to next toy season! LOL

Other than that, not much new going on. I'm going to try and tackle the income factor in the next few months. We are behind on 3 credit cards, and boy is that tough. The over-the-limit fees and the late fees just keep piling on and on and on.....what an uphill battle.

But I've set some goals for myself this year. I'm going to be selling a lot more on Ebay...I came across a fascinating ebook on how to sell topographical postcards on Ebay. I'm waiting for some money to come in before I buy it, but it really does look like a neat niche. You can check it out here. And if you happen to buy it before I do, let me know how you like it! :)

At the starting gate

Well, it's been a loooong time since I posted anything....

We are kind of percolating along.....I am gearing up for toy season on Ebay and will hopefully use those profits to start paying down some of this debt. No credit card purchases, just the debit card and plain ol' cash.

Anyway, as we get into toy season I hope to post when I can....I hope to be very busy. LOL

It is all in God's hands now....

I have been wrestling with this for a long time.... My mother and I have a joint CC that I got when I was in college....it has worked as the "emergency" many times in our life....when DH's tires got slashed....I used it to stockpile the food I got at the grocery store this week, because we don't get paid until Friday and the sales ended yesterday...I got gas today because my tank was empty and we had no cash in the bank....I used it today to get some hopefully hot toys for Christmas... My rationale was that I would use the money from my grocery budget on Fri to pay my share....I told Mom about the toys and she was ok with it.... So tonight I logged online to check the balance to see what my charges added up to....it is more than I thought (the ol' spending more with credit when you do with cash really comes into play here I guess.. ), but Mom had said not to worry about paying it, but I said no, I will pay what I can... Soooo, when I log in I happen to see that she has 2 other accounts (all with Chase)....and the interest rate for each of the 3 accounts is 29.99%!!!! Her min payments are like $500 a month for all of the three cards put together!!!! And she has other cards, too! She has really no assets anymore....when my grandmother passed away she left a sizeable inheritance to my mom and her sister....it's all gone now, except maybe about $7k and the equity in this house....some of it went to us to bail us out of our financial holes that we didn't seem to learn from...some of it was lost in stocks due to some unscrupulous investment advice and my poor mother never understanding what her money was invested in.... So that is it......I am cutting up the card tonight.....it is all in God's hands now completely....I cannot contribute any further to my mother's financial downfall under the guise of "emergency" or "convenient" spending....she has been very generous to us, but at what cost??????? It's done....I just cut it up.....the "safety net" is gone..... And I feel a whole lot better about it.....

Car Payments

My husband and I did a very stupid thing 3 years ago....we purchased a new minivan, with a massive car payment of $477 per month....our income no where near covers this, so my mom is graciously paying this for us in order for us to have a vehicle to use for the kids. We thought we only had 2 years left on the loan, but today my mother called and was told we had 38 payments left. YIKES!!!!

So we are contemplating options....we could sell but there is body damage, so we could only get about $9k for it....we owe $14k, so we would have to make up the $5k difference, plus have another 2-3k to get another vehicle large enough to carry everyone (including 2 car seats)...but as Dave Ramsey says, owing 7k is better than owing $14k.....so the jury is still out on this one for now...

But there is NO WAY WE WILL EVER HAVE ANOTHER CAR PAYMENT EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

NO MORE!

NO MORE!!!!!!!!

Creating the dream budget

Well, I decided to sit down and calculate what a dream budget for us would look like, given my husband's current salary and what I would like to net with my business. It would essentially double our income, and would make it a heck of a lot easier to care for all these pets properly - and we could get out of debt quicker, too.

Now we just have to make the dream budget a reality! :)

Reality Check

Today I started by calculating my husband's yearly net income. He's salary, and is eligible for bonuses, but the bonuses are hit or miss, so I didn't calculated them in my net income total. I currently stay at home with the kids....we live in kind of a rural area, so to commute to a PT job would not net anything after gas...plus, my husband is management, so I would need to work around his schedule, too, which could get really complicated.

So, anyway, for a family of 2 adults, 3 children, 6 cats (2 of whom are on prescription diets, and one of those 2 is diabetic), 5 big dogs and 2 ferrets, we are surviving on.....(are you ready for this?)

$28,600/year.

No wonder our paycheck is so tight every pay period! As Dave Ramsey would say, we not only have a debt and spending problem, we have an income problem as well.

So now the goal is to get the income up. I am trying to get something going on Ebay, but it's been a tough haul so far...I'm hoping things pick up for Christmas. (In case you are interested, my Ebay store is Art Prints Shoppe - I could always use a sale! LOL!)

Changing the Course

Well, here we are. A blog! A getting out of debt blog! Original? No, probably not. But, hey, it gets me back into writing. :)

I've titled my blog "Changing the Course" because that's exactly what my family is doing. Dave Ramsey calls it "changing the family tree", and that's a good way of putting it, too.

So, the whole focus of this blog will be my family's journey of getting out of debt and starting on a new road to Financial Peace. I will try and detail as much as I can about our ups, downs, sideways LOL....hopefully it's one you'll enjoy reading and will also inspire YOU to get out of debt!