Credit card debt is unfortunately a way of life for the average American family. We’re enticed daily with the backwards motto to “buy today, pay eventually”. Many struggle to simply make the minimum monthly payment. For the many moms who are the family bill-payers, here’s some effective and easy ways you can eliminate credit card debt.

First and foremost, pay for your purchases in cash. You can prepare for this in advance, once you are determined to eliminate your debt, by setting aside at least $20 a week or more if possible, to start a petty cash fund. Commit to using your credit cards only in an emergency or a situation that requires a credit card, such as renting a car.

Review charges you consistently make on a monthly basis. These charges may include membership fees, subscriptions, automatic bill payments, gas for your car, prescriptions, sports equipment and uniforms, school tuition or orthodontist appointments. After listing them, determine how much money is to be allocated monthly for each payment. You may need to cancel the non-essentials. You can exercise at home for free; and if you don’t read half of the magazines you’re subscribed to then cancel them. Eliminating gym fees and subscriptions alone could save you hundreds of dollars per month.

One common sense method for moms to eliminate credit card debt is known as the Debt Reduction Pyramid. Basically, it’s a process of determining all debts owed starting with your smallest debt, and then pay off each one fully, working your way down to the largest debt. Predetermine to pay above the minimum payment for credit card debts. Once some of the smaller debts are paid, begin to pay full monthly payments. Continue this process until you successfully pay off all your debts in full.

Moms, a budget may sound too simple and over-rated but it can be the single most important tool for eliminating credit card debt. By creating a personalized budget and strictly adhering to it on a daily basis, you will reap the benefits and see your debt dwindle before your eyes. Remember to place your non-essential expenses at the bottom of the budget’s priority list.

Just by following these simple steps, you are well on your way to eliminating credit card debt. Reconsider those club memberships and pointless magazine subscriptions in order to organize expenses in priority-categories. With a debt as small as $10,000, if you’re only able to make minimum monthly payments it will take you 40 years to pay off that debt.

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According to an article in USA, Today,

Citigroup, meanwhile, has started charging annual fees to card holders who don’t put more than a specific amount on their cards, typically $2,400 a year. Other banks are charging inactivity fees if customers don’t use their credit cards during a specific period of time. You heard that right: You could be spanked for staying out of debt.

These fees are the credit card industry’s response to credit card legislation that will, among other things, restrict credit card issuers’ ability to raise interest rates on existing balances. Credit card issuers are looking for ways to raise income before the new rules take effect in February. During the first quarter, 27% of credit card offers included annual fees, up from 18% a year earlier, according to Synovate Mail Monitor, a credit card direct-mail tracking service.

Other companies are just increasing or adding an annual fee for all credit cards.  USA Today, suggests that you make a decision on whether to keep your card or not by deciding how much you are going to use it and whether you can find a better deal elsewhere.  They suggest finding a credit union as they generally have lower rates and charges for their members.

Has your interest rate or annual fee changed on your credit cards in anticipation of the new legislation?

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Benefits of Wood Furnace

1. Free Heat – We cut downed trees up to use for firewood during the winter.  It doesn’t cost us anything but time and work.  Generally it takes us a day to get a truckload of wood and that includes splitting and stacking.
2. Free Hot Water – Our wood furnace uses hot water to heat the house.  The hot water goes through a coil and heats the air in the house.  We also use the furnace to heat our hot water during the winter.
3. Moist Heat -  Rather than having gas or electric burner heating the air in the house, it is heated by hot water.  It does not dry out the air and cause sinus and dry skin.
4. Burns Efficiently – The wood furnace has a draft fan on it that cuts on when the water temperature drops.  This blows air over the wood and the fire heats up.  When the water temperature  reaches 200 degrees, the draft fan cuts off.  At most during the coldest weather, we have to fill the furnace twice a day.
5. Lower Electric Bills – Because we use the wood furnace for both heat and hot water, our electric bill drops significantly during the winter.  I don’t believe we had one that was over $50 last winter.  This saves us hundreds of dollars over the year.
6. Renewable Resource – Unlike oil, coal, gas, etc. wood is a renewable source of fuel.  We can plant more trees while we cannot manufacture more oil, coal, or gas.

Drawbacks of Wood Furnace

1. Cost of Wood -  The wood furnace suits us very well because we have an almost unlimited supply of wood but if you had to purchase wood you would have to weigh the cost of wood against the cost of oil, gas or electricity.
2. Air Pollutant - While the newer wood furnaces burn efficiently and cause less pollution, they do cause some.
3. Load Outside -  Someone has to load the furnace twice a day.   This means going out and putting wood into it even when it’s 10 degrees outside and snowing.
4. Time, time, time – We do not buy wood but we do spend a few weeks a year cutting, splitting and stacking it.  We don’t do it all at the same time but this week we have gotten a load every day and it has taken most of the day to do it.  If you plan on cutting your own, you need to plan on spending several days per month getting wood.

Overall I love the wood furnace.  I love the heat, the really hot water and I REALLY love our electric bill during the winter.  I really don’t mind running out in the morning and loading the wood furnace.  And loading and stacking wood is great exercise for arms and shoulders.

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He wrote a letter to the court the week after surgery and asked that the date be continued as the clinic appointments are booked several months in advance.  The clerk of the court was not helpful to say the least and the best we could get was that she would show it to the judge.  This means that instead of rescheduling it in advance, they wait until the morning of court and R’s ex has to show up so they can set another date.

The last time they had to reschedule a date, we had an attorney.  The attorney made arrangements with the clerk to reschedule it and told R not to go to court.   The judge issued a warrant for his arrest for not showing up in court.  The sherrif’s department notified him and he turned himself in the next day.  This required us to bond him out.

We went to the clinic with no idea of whether there would be another warrant issued for his arrest when we returned home.  We came home and waited for the police to show up and haul him off.  We looked over our shoulder and waited on pins and needles for two days.  Finally the sheriff delivered a show cause summons for October 27th.   Whew.

While there is no possible way that we could pay her the $50,000 or the $1300 per month that the courts have awarded her, R is trying to pay her something every month.  It’s worse than a credit card debt as the amount due just keeps growing and growing and there is no way we can even begin to whittle it down.

He will go to court on the 27th with really no hope that anything will change.  The court will probably order him to pay another $5000 and give him 3 months to do it.  There is no hope at all that we could pay that much.  When the judge ordered it last time they put him in jail for 4 months or until the $5000 was paid.  A very, very good friend loaned us the money to get him out but we certainly cannot afford to borrow any more and cannot in good conscience accept it when we can’t pay it back.

I am still wondering why the courts awarded this much in spousal support when he was out of work on disability when they were first separated.  In Virginia, spousal support is not supposed to be punative.  It is not meant to be a punishment, it is meant to allow the spouse to continue to live in the same basic lifestyle that they were living.  How can this amount of spousal support be anything but punative when there is no hope of paying it?  How many other men or women are in the same situation?

Even if R could go back to work, the economy is so bad that it would be difficult to find a job.  This area is extremely depressed.  Factories that have been in business for decades are closing their doors.  I know of 3 major area employers who have either closed or layed of a large percentage of their employees in the last month.  This is a rural area and there are very few employers here anyway.

So R’s ex has won the right to be labeled my biggest aching debt.   There is no way to pay it off or even keep up with the monthly payments.  It is one of the few debts that can put you in jail for not paying.  It cannot be discharged by bankruptcy so it is hopeless.

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Now that I am getting adjusted to the physical part of my job, I find that I am getting just as much done at home.  The only one that it has affected negatively is R.  He doesn’t complain but I can tell that he is lonely and has a bit of cabin fever.  Since his operation, he really can’t get out and do the things that he used to do and he also can’t drive anywhere.  When I get home, he either wants to go somewhere or talk. I am ready to sit down and chill for an hour.

We are working through it.  The first few days, I was exhausted when I got home.  All I wanted to do was take a nap or go to bed.  Now I have a bit more energy and am more willing to run into town or go to the barn and do chores.

The biggest change has been having a set amount of money coming in at the end of the week.  It is different.  I cashed my paycheck and put 75% of it into the emergency fund.  I am going to keep adding as much as I can so that we will have something to fall back on.  I believe that since we have been making it without any outside income, that I should be able to save a good portion of it.

I have also got to sit down and redo our monthly budget.  Eventually, I would like to use my paycheck to pay the bills and have the farm income go into a savings account.  Right now though we are ahead on the farm and so I am just prolonging dedicating my salary to bills.   It feels REALLY GOOD to be growing our savings.

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I wish I could write some great posts on my job search but honestly, I didn’t even apply for this job.  A friend knew it was coming open and knew that I was qualified so they called me.  The employer knows me slightly and there you have it, I was employed.

In the long run it will be a good thing.  Right now it just makes life a little more complicated.  R is still pretty much house bound and even though he has gotten outside a few times this week, he can’t lift anything or do too much on the leg.  I am going to worry about him.

I am also going to have to change his appointments at the doctor’s office to pull blood twice a week to a time when I can take him.  Working around this shouldn’t be a huge big deal but something else to add into the schedule.

I am very thankful that I am going back to work in this economy though.  The job market is tough and competitive especially here where even during normal times there are not many jobs.

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Steve Valdez went to Bank of America to cash his wife’s check.  For security reasons, Bank of America requires a thumbprint if you are cashing a check for someone else.  No problem for most of us but Mr. Valdez was born without thumbs.  I’m sure he would have given his right arm (pun intended) to be able to provide a thumbprint but the fact remained that he couldn’t.  Bank of America’s response…..  “Whatever”.

You can read the whole story here at  Fox News.  What a shame that a large corporation can treat the disabled so shabbily.  I don’t think that an apology days later from a vice president is quite enough.

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My daughter A inquired about taking classes at an Ashford University. She ended up applying for student loans through the school and registering for classes. She was approved for a pell grant and a student loan. She registered for classes and went through their tests to make sure she could log into her classes. At some point during the semester, she was unable to log into the blackboard. She contacted tech support who sent her a canned response. She did what they told her to do and was still unable to log in. She emailed them again and got no response. She called and left a message and got no response.

She got an email saying that if she did not log in she would fail the classes. She emailed tech support again with no response. She called and left a message with the admissions office and got no response. This went on until the semester was over and she had failed the classes.

B had a totally different experience. She wanted to go to school for nursing and decided to go to Kaplan University. Tuition didn’t seem too bad at their advertised cost of $353 per credit hour.  She applied for financial aid through the college and was awarded both a pell grant and a student loan. She registered for 2 classes at a tuition cost of $2824 and did well. At some point during the semester, she discovered that the local community college offered the same course.

Her surprise came toward the end of the semester when she found that the total cost of her two classes came to over $4500. At this cost, if she was taking a full course load, this would have come to over $9000 per semester. Multiply this by the two years that it takes to complete the Nursing program and it adds up to over $36,000 and this price is not including summer semesters.

In comparison, the tuition cost for attending the local community college would be $1142 per semester. This includes all student fees. Books would be extra but she can not only buy them from the college bookstore, she can also buy used books. The total cost should be less than the Pell Grant that she received. The community college also offers some classes online. They also have a 100% placement after graduation.

Even though she was not unhappy with the service that Kaplan was providing, she decided that the wisest thing to do financially would be to attend the community college as she would finish with no student loan debt. The community college also offers a very comparable curriculum.

B called Kaplan to withdraw for the next semester. She spoke with a counselor who told her that they would have to check on something and call her back. She never received a call back. She has called and left several messages with no result. She is now getting email and letters telling her what she needs to do to complete registration. Her calls have gotten no response.

B has taken some steps to prevent being automatically registered at Kaplan. She has transferred the Pell Grant to the community college and has called the student loan lender to advise them that she has withdrawn from Kaplan so they will not be dispursing any further funds to Kaplan. Unfortunately, this does not prevent Kaplan from registering her and billing her for the classes.

I am not sure what contracts either of these girls signed but to their knowledge they are not required to continue for the full two year program. Online learning is such an awesome opportunity and it is a shame that some unscrupulous institutions are taking advantage of unsuspecting people. Here is another horror story from someone who opted let the school finance her education and they are now withholding her diploma until the entire $40,000 is paid.   How does she go about getting a job in her field so that she can repay them without a diploma?

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I have been trying to keep up with all of my chores and those of R’s that I can do. Of course, the animals have first priority and they take up a few hours morning and evening. The garden has gone wild!! We have had frequent showers and good hot days. I picked two gallons of limas, 10 okra, two gallons of tomatoes and still have peppers and another row of limas.

R is going to shell the lima beans and I am going to freeze tomatoes. We are eating tomatoes at every meal and still can’t keep up with them all. I have been peeling and freezing them in quarters but one of my readers suggested just freezing them whole in a paper bag. I am going to try a couple gallons that way as I can blanch and peel them as needed. I am also freezing green, chili and jalapeno peppers whole. Again it’s easier to process them as I need them instead of all at one time.

I am very pleased with our garden this year despite the issues that we have had with it. The wire grass has been a constant battle but doesn’t seem to be affecting the vegetable plants. It just makes picking much more difficult. I am disappointed that we lost all of the green beans to the bunnies but we have enough limas to make up for it.

If we can get a good batch of greens this fall, it will feed the two of us for most of the year. All of this for under $15.

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Be back soon!!

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