Just another day

Sorry I've been slacking in updating my blog, just not much to blog about lately. We did work something out on our 2nd, so we are now making $600 payments. If we ever save up enough we still have the option to settle but for now we will keep making the monthly payment. So that account is now out of collections. This is a pretty big payment, but we should be ok. We have the car paid off until Dec so I have some time to figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, I am trying to eat better, I have been working out 3 -4 times per week. Not losing any weight yet, but at least I've stopped gaining! My kids will be out of school May 20th, so summertime is right around the corner. Also, our oldest son finally got his driving permit so it should be an interest summer teaching him how to drive. He's 17 now and I almost had to force him to get it.. but I don't want him, 18, 19 years old and still not know how to drive. I will need to check into our insurance rates and see how that's going to affect our monthly budget. Otherwise for now, things just seem to be ticking along. Really do wish I could get back into shape overnight, of course that won't happen so maybe if I can keep at it, I will eventually see some progress.

Still no word

Still no word on whether the lawyer received a response or not from Citibank. So the waiting continues, I think I'll give them until tomorrow and then try calling them again. Otherwise things have been pretty slow. I've been out walking with my friend both Monday and Tuesday, I also managed to do some sculpting on Monday. I am working towards getting in two/three weight lifting days in to build some muscle and about 3 -4 days of at least some cardio. I really need to work on getting this extra weight off that I've accumulated over the last year. I have been eating better, bought some healthy choice type meals on sale to try and keep my calories down through out the day. It's slow going but I really hope to see some progress in the next few weeks. I've sort of been at a stand still this year with my weight and it's really unpleasant getting dressed to go anywhere as all my clothes are tight! ugg! I will not spend money on clothes! I just need to keep at it.

Also, it was my son's BD, our older son - he turned 17 yesterday. It so unbelievable we both made it! LOL we had a rough start, me being just 19 when I had him. But we both made it and he's a good boy, turning into a man. It's hard for me to watch sometimes because it seems like time just flew by us, but I suppose that is how it is for most. Our younger son is 13 (14 this year) and in 4 years time he will be heading off to college! That's hard as well, just 4 short years and then both of our boys will most likely be out on their own. Such changes, I feel to young to be an empty nester, but with having children so young, it's expected. I need a new 4 year plan. Where we want to be in four years, I keep pondering it, I have some ideas but will need to put something into action. Sigh.. so much to figure out.

Heloc Update

Spoke with the attorney today and finally they may be able to work something out, they said they will make an offer of $600 per month to Citibank and see what they say, of course this will be with interest which is unfortunate but Citi's offer of $1055 per month for 72 months no interest is just to much for us to manage. But the attorney also said we could always work a settlement. He first said right now they would take 50K (balance is 76K) but we don't have that kind of money. Then he mentioned if we are able to work something out, we could always make a settlement offer later, so I said if I had 30K and made an offer, he thought they would accept that at a later time. So our first goal is to get them to approve the $600, this would stop legal action and buy us some time. If Matt goes back to work in CA, and maybe if I get some bonus money in 4th qtr, we may be able to offer this. That would be a HUGE reduction in our outstanding debt. And if this was taken care of we would only owe on our 1st which is 210K - our house now is worth only about $235 now, down from about $270k, but then we would have equity again. How great would it be to settle this debt our largest one! What a relief that would be...ahhh.. but in the meantime, starting payments, getting this out of the courts so we won't have a judgement is our priority.

Humm, each year we are getting closer and closer to clearing everything up, takes time, but the reduction in stress is worth it!

Life update

My 401K is almost even for the year! Shocking, hopefully it stays that way and starts creeping upward! Work has been really slow for me and continues to be, I almost feel guilty getting a paycheck. Not much I can do right now, but maybe start using this time to work out and get spring cleaning done, just hard to get motivated to do either really but I really shouldn't be sitting around reading blogs all day. I might start working on our business websites. I did work alittle on one a few weeks ago, adding about 20 new items and deleting some old products that are discontinued, it is time consuming but worth it if people have more options and choose to purchase more. So I may start that today. We have been getting small orders and just got two more, but really not enough to make a huge difference. I'll be updating my side bars to show our business and personal savings as we strive to get to build a 30k Emergency Fund. That will be slow going. Nothing to exciting happening right now, the usual, we don't go out much, don't have many hobbies so were pretty boring right now. I suppose that's a good thing, we dont spend money if we don't go out!

sigh.. I need a life!

Time to tighten up

Well hubby is home which is nice, we get one last paycheck from his work tomorrow and all that is going to pay our 2008 taxes. Overall things are pretty good, but we will now need to start tightening up as I don't foresee any extra income for awhile. Our embroidery business is really SLOW! We have had some very small orders but overall it's just slow. I decided earlier this year to start putting any income we have from our business into a business savings account, sort of like building up another emergency fund. It's harder to get to so there is less chance of us spending it frivolously. Right now we have $500 in it and after these last very small orders it should be up to $700. Not much but just another side fund that's nice to have. I think since we really only do embroidery part time, that any $ that comes from it is a good thing. My plan is to just keep stocking away any profit into this account, maybe in a few years if things pick up it will be a really nice EF fund.

Nothing new to report on our HELOC, but this is coming and I need to make sure our bills and spending stay in check so when this does get worked out we can make the payments and not have any issues. We still may sell our car but it's an unknown right now. I have paid it down to 13,700 but at this point we have only had it about 2 years and might just be worth it to pay it off. The downside of course is the $440 payment a month. I have this paid down until Nov so we have 7 months to see what happens before we get to a must sell. We can't really afford both the car and paying the HELOC, it's one or the other unless things pick back up or Matt gets work in CA again. At least we have some breathing room not having to make a payment until Nov and we will see how this year goes.

There are some things I can still cut if need be but I'm kind of in a waiting period. I would really like to see if we can accomplish everything we want to this year with what we have but I'm always ready to make more changes. Right now we need tighten up and re-evaluate.