Bills, bills, bills...options??

[Cinbride]

no tink. i gotcha

 

[deerhart]

thanks for the laughs. compared to most people we know that is high. I don't think it is completely horrible considering all we have. We have looked at houses in town and w/ less for just as much.

hehe my parents mortgage payment is $300/mo (they pay taxes and insurance outside of the mortgage).

A $1,400 a month payment here will get you a very nice home, in an affluent suburb with great schools and lots of room. The average mortgage payment for our area is much closer to $800-$850 (as the avg housing prices are in the low to mid 100's)

 

[deerhart]

Yes, I am current. I don't want to pay a fee. My husbands check always goes in after mortgage is due. Refinancing is another story. Some guy called about refinacing, told me no fees. I didn't have his number, I called the company back finally got some lady and she basically stole us from that guy and took over. Then won't return our phone calls. and says it will cost us x amount to refinance. One says we are guaranteed to be able to another says they are not sure. One says you will get refunded, the other says it is a possibility? too many different stories. btw it is a big company

Talk to your mortgage company about having your due date moved to after your DH's paycheck is deposited. Some will do it you just have to pay the interest difference for the couple of days between the original due date to the new due date the first month.

I did this with one of my student loans and our car loan after I switched jobs from being payed once a month to being paid twice a month. I had everything top heavy (due right after I got paid) and was able to move some tings around to later in the month.

I also confirmed with my car and student loans what the grace period is before the payments are considered late. For many its 15 days or longer. I did this with my dh's new car last year because his payment date fell right before my paycheck date and the same date a student loan is due. As my grace period is 15 days, the payment is not considered late unless I don't pay it by the 29th of each month. So I send it after my paycheck comes.

 

[deerhart]

i'm trying to sell. It's hard w/ lil' ones. I am curious about the text books. Are they older or newer text books. I have some from awhile ago but don't know if they would be any good.

I have also found; well today. One problem is we sell then transfer it to the bank which takes 3-4 days. Meanwhile we are shipping things out; dont' do it online so we pay that; out of our pockets; while our bills are also going out. Since it is taking paypal long to transfer we have taken out w/ atm (free) just 1 charge by paypal and have taken that cash in the bank. I think we will do that at certain times or just pay the shipping out of our paypal debit instead of using checks. see our business grew faster than I think we were prepared for.

let me tell you I made over 3k selling books on amazon over the last two yeas of law school (that's how I paid for christmas, my text books each semester, and other extras). Not only did I sell my textbooks at the end of each semester (and usually bought my new ones on amazon), but I also sold off my dh's huge anthro collection. He had several books, which are now out of print, that he had acquired years ago when he had planned to Ph.D in antrho/arch. As he no longer used them (or needed them except for fun random knowledge) he gave me permission to sell them. Several of them sold for a couple hundred each.

He was also into miniature painting and I would sell off some of his completed projects or even supplies whenever I got tired of them sitting around the house. I have given him a reprieve over my dictate that if he hasn't used/painted in over 9 months I start selling since he's still working 50 hrs/ week and been in grad school full time (so he just doesn't have the time to do it)

 

[deerhart]

As for the above quote...it really must make a difference where you live!! My mortage is double that for a 3 bedroom townhouse - we put 20% down so it's not that high because we did 100% financing or anything like that. Prices are just very high in my area. In the part of NJ I live in, it would be tough to get a 2 bedroom condo on $1400/month

Geography is everything. We rent a 3 bedroom 2k+ sq feet townhome w/ garage and basement with community pool, playground, bball court, trash and water included for $1060/mo in one of the nicest suburbs in our area. The average home value in our school attendance area (which is 3 subdivisions all running into each other) run $200k-$400k. I could rent a larger home in the same area for $200-$300 more a month (but have to pay trash and water)

 

[bumbershoot]

I have also found; well today. One problem is we sell then transfer it to the bank which takes 3-4 days. Meanwhile we are shipping things out; dont' do it online so we pay that; out of our pockets; while our bills are also going out. Since it is taking paypal long to transfer we have taken out w/ atm (free) just 1 charge by paypal and have taken that cash in the bank. I think we will do that at certain times or just pay the shipping out of our paypal debit instead of using checks. see our business grew faster than I think we were prepared for.

So you're using future money to cover shipping current things? Or something like that?

Sounds like you need to get a bit of a cushion to cover those things so you aren't stretching it so far. Any local craigslist places you can list some stuff on, so that you aren't having to ship? That could then be kept separate from the bill money (I don't even use a register anymore; I use big notebooks with columns and all money named) and used for the shipping.

 

[Cinbride]

yes. bec buyers complain you don't ship immediately. When you don't use click in ship, but transfer money to bank it takes 3-4 bus. days. So the money I have for bills gets used to pay shipping. Ive posted I only ship once a week but they still complain.

 

[IndianaJ]

I agree with taking Dave Ramsey's FPU class. My DH and I took it two years ago. We have since paid off $44,000 and now have a six months of income saved.

The problem with re consolidation is that you are not changing your habits that got you into debt in the first place. You could easily be asking the same question again in five years. It's about changing your thinking.

Now if we want to take a trip to WDW it isn't a question about IF we can afford it, but when we want to go.

It's so nice to not have financial stress anymore. For instance, my husband was downsized last year, and while it was less than ideal, we didn't have to stress about falling behind on credit cards or car payments because we don't have any. When you only have a mortgage, a lot of the stress is gone.

I wish you luck and hope you give Financial Peace a try.

 

[tlh0726]

I did not read the responses, but what seems to happen to the majority of people when the consolidate bills for a lower payment per month is that instead of banking the extra money they now have each month, they create another bill because they have this extra money and are right back where they started.
If you consolidate, put this difference in payments into a bank account for emergency use, continue to budget as if this was an expense.

Good luck!!