Women in Red Racers - Midwest Region

[sunflower64]

Yeah - not in last place on the under $25K club. Well still last place in Midwest.
I felt like I was going to have one of those January, new year what the heck am I doing meltdowns this week. Told my self to snap out of it and move on ... hopefully I listened.
Major accomplishment this week ... brought my lunch every day this week and have managed to ride the exercise bike that is usually my robe hanger every night this week.

[Deleted]

OMG ladies, just a few more days! Hee hee hee hee hee.

[lisamomof4]

right now i'm still about where kelly is, i just don't have my normal money bug.
we have had some intence money talks at home. dh is showing more interest, though i wanted to smack him one yesterday. back when i had the melt down he said he would keep an eye on the bank for me...it now appears he 'doesn't remember that' and asked me how much was there and i told him well you are watching it how's it doing. it's been resolved but it made me angry and i told him it was things like this that stress me out so bad. we are working on a revised budget and he is learning when and how much is due. food costs are a major issue. he has no idea what it costs and just assumes. have dragged him to grocery store last two weeks trying to get him over this. it doesn't matter what i budget for food if it is ignored by everyone. so that's the monster leak to plug. i spend too much time going over it with them all but it's only way to get through to them. it's frustrating to me.
cars looks like i am going to be in the market sometime this year. am trying to plan and if i can get a little cooperation we can handle a payment. i want to put down a decent payment and am looking into how to get the best deal. so far am looking at either ford fiesta or nissan versa. i like the 4 door hatchback and both have very good safety/repair/ mpg which is most important to me. i don't need fancy. i wanted to laugh at the salesman as he's telling me how for just a bit more we could upgrade to something really nice. hun at my age what i want is high mpg/low payments. and this car will be mine. i always let dh have the nice car or let the kids drive it...forget that. i may even get the lime green with the tatoo thing on the side...or at least tell them that. the thing is used cars are up so much in price in my range it's a joke when you factor cost of financing even a bit and most won't due it for under 7k so i would need to buy then send in rest of downpayment as a regular payment which is doable but annoying

[urdoingit]

I'm so excited! I just made another payment on Cap1 which should bring the balance under $1k when it posts...Cap1 your days are numbered!
Like other posters have said, if your total debt is too big to handle, break it down into more manageable chunks. I know how shocked I was at the total of our CC debt ... if I had tried to deal with the "total total" it would have sent me into cardiac arrest! Once the CC debt is gone, I'm going to start on our HELOC and later this year we're going to be purchasing a new car, so I'll add that. We are also interested in the Ford Fiesta but will have to test-fit and test drive one to be sure since DH and I are not exactly what anyone would consider petite or even average. In February I'm creating a "New Car" savings account with ING to stash away cash for a down payment. Hopefully it will be a pretty hefty amount by the time we are ready to go car shopping!
The beauty of WIRR is that there is no one method you have to use -- find the one that works for you and zoom on.
Only 145 days until we take the DGKs to California for vacation! I think I'm more excited about the trip than they are. This trip probably never would have happened if I hadn't joined the WIRR and started blasting our CC debt in a way that made sense. Now the plane tickets are purchased (with cash, of course) and I have $4k in savings to pay for the rest of the expenses.

[coffeegirl]

IMPORTANT
Hi there everyone! I wanted to answer a few questions about the board closings for you all:

1. We are moving to notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wir
2. There are temporary threads set up now for each region. By the end of January (hopefully by the end of next week) we will have permanent proboard regional threads. We haven't set them all the way up yet because we are still learning how things work there and how we have to adapt our practices.
3. Please stop posting on MSN now - while the boards aren't currently scheduled to close until 1/14, it makes it harder for the volunteers to do their jobs.
4. Taglines will stay the same for the time being. I am working on revised codes for the proboards sites and will let you all know of changes when we open the permanent threads.
5. New members should add a "PT" for their page number until further notice: WPT, IPT, MPT, NPT, SPT
6. Smiley faces will be back as soon as possible - we are looking at different options for how to best bring them back - best for you and best for the volunteers!
7. While the urgency is over, I am still collecting email addresses so that I can reach members as needed - you can email me at cgwirr at gmail dot com.
8. Please either use your MSN nic on proboards, or tell us who you used to be - otherwise we won't know it's you!

Thanks for your patience!
~CG

[kewee1131]

Minnesota nice job on the lists! They look great!
iascubagal You're getting me all excited for you update WIN!

[chelsea727]

Hey! So I'm surfing the web for personal finance articles, etc. and I came across a brand new site called payoff dot com which turns debt payoff into a game. I've only brushed the surface but it looks really interesting if you guys want to check it out. Whoever has the best story of 'what you will do when your debt free' could win a $5,000 cash prize, whoo hoo!

[chelsea727]

The site reminds me a little of mint.com where it uploads your bank info (completely secure though), only probably is that my credit union wasn't on the list so I can't include my loans. boo. Love the site though..it's colorful and happy looking haha

[lisamomof4]

well, still moving forward on the car project/plan after running numbers most of last night it LOOKS like we could do a small car payment. i've revised the budget to include this and will dry run it for a bit to see how things work. i don't want to dive off on this and make a major fubar. so i will set the money aside each month and see if we can do it in the 'real' world. one thing i've learned from here is plan, plan and plan some more. safety wise the ford is pulling ahead of the nissan but not by much and the same goes for mpg. we tend to keep cars for a long time and dh likes to do as much of the work as he can so whatever we get also has to be 'home mech. friendly' . i really liked some hyndai/kia cars but their repair parts/costs run much higher and adds to the long term costs. will continue the search. may go to ford dealer this weekend and see how it 'fits'. dh would like to go to car show as this would be easyest way to check all the cars of interest at one time. only concern with that is the cost for the show...will try to find free tickets...does anyone know how to do that??? have started to look into financing to see what rates/qualifications are out there. depressing part is so far most spots will not do lower than 7.5k
dd1 took the 1st of state cert. tests today will know know next week hopefully and then can go forward with 2nd part. it would be a huge help for her in the job hunt both in income and putting her ahead of the pack. we have started trying to work out something with her student loans (in her name only) to give her a bit more room to job hunt. there are just so many college kids out there trying.
i keep thinking of happycat and hope the testing is going well.
dh will have his 1yr review next month and plans to ask for a raise. not to count my chickens but that would be a huge help. at that same time he will be able to do the 401k thing they've got. i had hoped to put more into it but at this point it looks like we will do 5%. it's unclear as to wether they do matching funds or not. as the book reads the very unclear answer is 'maybe if we feel like it...sort of' but still it's better than nothing. sometimes this hole we are climbing out of feels like it's never-ending.
i have been looking into life insurance also. dh has policy through work and also a private one. i'm looking to get a small policy for myself it's been hard due to some underlying health issues. i had thought about getting a policy to cover the mortgage but after looking into that more will go a different road. it's still a good idea at the base of it but will get an extra life insurance so the covered amount doesn't go down over time. we are redoing our wills to give dd1 custody of the little one. we talked it over with the older kids and then again with dd1 and her SO to be sure but they both said yes, so that's the plan .

[Minnesotagirl7]

TGIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to see a movie tomorrow, and the rest of the weekend will be spent eating chili and watching playoff football. Go Colts!!

Have a great weekend racers!

[chelsea727]

I officially cut up my credit cards.....I'm a little scared...considering I only have $55 in savings. Oh boy...but clearly I need to stop using my capital one card so this is tough love until I get my act together! I have $30 to last me till next friday..gas tank is full, groceries are bought!
I'm also starting new fitness classes on monday. There's bootcamp, zumba, pilates, yoga at the ymca and it's only 20 bucks for a month and a half of classes. I shortened my goals to:::
1. Pay off debt leaving $3,000 or less!
2. Saving $1,000
3. Run a 5K
4. Lose the last 10 pounds

2 goals for finance...2 goals for fitness...Nice and simple. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[Jem0607]

Great goals Chelsea! I have been thinking about running a 5k this year- a couple years ago I did the Couch to 5k running program and really liked it but fizzled out when I got pregnant with DS2. Enjoy your classes! I wish there was a gym closer to my house.

[shopaholic814]

Chelsea: Congrats on taking the plunge & cutting up the cards!! I remember doing mine last summer, it was very empowering, but the shopaholic in me wishes almost weekly that I still had them available!! Its such a great feeling to know that you are not a slave to them anymore, and it is gonna be tough, especially since your EF is low, but I know that you can do it!! ;D

On another note, my DH has to go back to school to get his Masters of Education. He finally spoke with an admissions rep at one of the places I sent away info for & it's going to cost us $14K!!!!!! I knew it was going to be difficult, but that was a huge slap in the face for me. So I'm thinking about quitting my race after I get Bank of America paid off this month, leaving the US Bank LOC ($7400)alone by paying minimum, and dumping all extra $$ into an account to put toward his Masters. After the meltdown I had earlier this week over the SLs we will be paying on for another 14yrs, I really didn't need this news right now. I'm so fed up with this constant drain & feeling like we are never going to get ahead. If I could have gotten rid of our SL debt by filing Bankruptcy, I would have done it last year, even if we lost this house in the negotiations.

[soccermom15]

Restart

UPDATE	6/8/2010	1/8/2011	Total Diff
Debt1	4,408.80	4,408.80	-
Debt2	9,990.00	9,795.44	194.56
Debt3	1,673.26	1,673.26	-
Debt4	4,309.13	3,547.21	761.92
Debt5	-	614.97	(614.97)
Debt6	129.39	178.13	(48.74)
Debt7	-	-	-
TOTAL	20,510.58	20,217.81	292.77

soccermom15: 1/8/11, $20,217.81 (6/8/10, $20,510.53 MU426)
Not sure I did this right but I think it's close. I'm restarting my race. I adjusted my starting totals to include a couple of debts that I originally didn't include. I divided our debts into long term and short term with short term being anything that we can reasonably expect to get paid off within the next 3 years. I'll tackle the long term debt after these get paid off.

I spent most of the day today playing with our finances. Since we ended up buying a new-to-us car last month, I had to find a way to work in that payment. We should be OK as long as we watch the spending.

One big win for us this week - I was able to pay cash for DS's books for his spring semester . Normally I would have just used the CC, but not this time!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

[chicg]

Shop - ugh, I'm sorry you found out about DHs masters requirement so quickly after your little meltdown. I Don't have your debt numbers handy but how about taking a breather, then working with DH to figure out how you guys can work this new debt into the picture. Also, look at several schools to compare prices. Ask yourself a few questions - will DH's job subsidize any of his master's costs? I thought teachers basically got their master's programs paid for or $X of their loans would be forgiven? If you have to pay out of pocket, you can look into additional loans or work a system where you pay part as you go and take loans for part. Since you have current debt, I Think it might be better to take out loans for his new student loans and work aggressively to get the current consumer debt paid off before the student debt comes due. Also, he can put his current student loans (I think) into forbearance while he's going back to school. I wouldn't always recommend that but since you have other debt to pay, add it to your options list. Is there a financial person at the college you guys can speak with? Try not to freak out, don't make any impulse decisions. Can you save some money up before he starts and the loans come due? He has at least until spring semester, right? $14K is a lot but it's not the end of the world and you don't need all the money tomorrow, you guys can do it. I think putting your race on hold to save money for the masters (where payments can be put off for a while and a low interest loan can be taken out for) might be a bad idea - your debts will just grow, nothing will get paid off and you'll be even more emotionally overwhelmed when it's all said and done. DOn't forget about schlorships and grants, ask the college and DH's school for help identifying them. Good luck honey, you have options, try to figure out what might work best for you, it's not a hopeless situation, we're here to help.

[chicg]

CHelsea - congrats on cutting up the cards! That's not easy but it's a huge step in changing your behavior which is ultimately what most all of us on this board need to do. Great goals, I have a 5K goal this year too. I'm going to try the C25K program, I know friends that say it works. I can walk a 5K pretty quickly but I'm SO BAD at running/jogging!
My positives for the day - I made it through kickboxing and zumba today! I've done kickboxing and the easier zumba class back to back before but today was the hard zumba class. Last time I these two I could barely move the next day so hopefully my fitness has improved a little. I'm signed up for two classes again tomorrow (ugh, and Monday and tuesday and a 90 minute class wednesday!) so we'll see how that goes. I'm also eating leftovers for dinner that I'd really rather just throw out but I've spent too much on groceries already this month and it's not even half over, I need to eat what I have and do a personal pantry challenge. I'll spend a few bucks on dinner and drinks tomorrow but so far it's been a no-spend weekend

[shopaholic814]

Chicg: Sorry about the rant, but thanks for the ideas. DH doesn't want me to quit the race b/c he has time to get his masters done. He has to take 2-3 courses before 2013 to keep his license up so he says he can start on his Masters & use the 1st few classes for the license (kill 2 birds w/1 stone). His school is pathetic when it comes to paying for continuing ed for its teachers. We were quoted about $450/credit hour for his Masters & his school will only reimburse $150/credit hour if he gets an A in the class. Any less than an A & it goes down in increments to $0 for a C or worse. DH wants to pay off the current B of A cc that we are racing & should be paid off at end of month, then start on the next one-US Bank ($7100) & get it paid off before he starts classes, saving nothing for school in the mean time. I don't know what is best, I'm really confused & so frustrated right now. We were just talking about saving some money to go on a 'real honeymoon' for our 10 yr anniv, but thats just not going to happen now. I think I am going to take your advise & take some time away from the race after getting B of A paid off. But I hadn't thought of financial aid, do online schools offer financial aid? I need a drink!!!

But in good news.....SEAHAWKS WON!!!! THEY BEAT THE SAINTS TONIGHT!! YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!!!!!!!

[twinmama85]

Jan 8, 2011 20:54:08 GMT -5 shopaholic814 said:

But I hadn't thought of financial aid, do online schools offer financial aid? I need a drink!!

Just wanted to give you some FYI, YES!! Online schools absolutely give student loans. If its accredited, you may qualify for fed. student aid. my husband is working on his bachelors right with an online school and we have received pell grants and student loans....no matter what you may think, ALWAYS apply for aid...check out

www.fafsa.ed.gov/

and have your husband put in an application...if you have children and depending on your income, you may qualify for some kind of aid for a graduates degree...GOOD LUCK! hope this helps!

btw heres on me!

[chicg]

Twinmamma - great advice and news!
Shop - don't apologize! Ranting here helps us sort out our thoughts and sometimes just letting it out helps get over that initial panic. If you can get those 2 cc's paid off before the student loans are due, that's great! DH said he has time, he doesn't need to take all the classes and pay upfront all at once. Just tackle the debts day by day, get the consumer debt off the table and take care of the student loans when they become due. IN a perfect world you could pay as you go or save up but nothing is perfect, you can only do the best you can do. And if you have to put the honeymoon off, so be it. THe marriage is what's important and you guys are working through that, the honeymoon can come when comsumer debt is paid and you can afford it. RIght now DH's school is more important.
I know we all want to "take a break" at times (myself included, I've been there) but pretty much every member that takes a break and returns to us comes back with more debt. Even if you get overwhelmed, please try to at least keep up with tracking debt and paying minimums. IF you need a little break from high-gear, that's fine but don't throw in the towel completely. In my 3+ years here, the once that keep up consistently, even if they tone down the intensity of the race for a month are the ones that win their race!
Personal question - I know some women here have lost a significant amount of weight and work out a lot. Can anyone recommend sport bra for larger sizes? I'm looking for something with maximum high-impact support and the ones I'm finding in the stores only go up to C or they aren't supportive at all. I'm willing to pay the $65 for ones I found online but I'd like to get recommendations before taking that risk. I only have 2 good ones and neither brand makes them anymore and with the amount I work out, I can't keep up hand-washing them every other day in my sink (I can find the cross-back type that hook in the back in the stores but it's easier to get in/out of a straight-jacket! I don't know if I'm missing something but I can not figure out how to get in/out of those).

[twinmama85]

shop now i dont know if you have personal or federal student loans, but i just wanted to let you know that if your DH has fed student loans, you could put them in deferment while he is attending. you can still pay on them, but there is not a monthly payment required til 6months after he graduates or quites attending college. i know that might not be the most ideal situation to put debt on hold and it accures interest, but the thing about fed. student loans is that the interest rate is relatively low compared to consumer credit cards. then with the loan payment, you could funnel towrds your consumer debt or savings or whatever you need...dont give up and try your hardest not to work yourself up so much. it will work out, you just need some options....im speaking from experience with myself as well as my husband going to school. good luck!

[shopaholic814]

Chicg: I wear size 40/42D & the only sport bra that I've found that actually supports me is one I discovered at Kohl's a couple years ago. It is not one that you pull over your head, it actually hools in the back, which for me is a god-send, and I have gotten them on sale every time I've needed one. the brand is Champion & the style # is 6209, but there are underwires in them-but it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, it really help with the support, along with the straps which are 3/4-1" thick. I still 'bounce' a bit, but no more aching afterward from excessive movement in that area. I think full price was around $40 each, and like I said I think I get them during the "buy 1 get 1 50%" off sales at Kohls.

When we had our 1st son in 2003, we stupidly consolitated our SL's for the lower payment b/c we were really underwater & needed some breathing room. All of our loans are in DH's name, with a private company named ACS Student Loan Services, and I think we can apply for a forbearance if needed while he is taking classes. I'm feeling a little less hopeless today, Thank you everyone for your help/suggestions on this. I'm going to keep up my race for now, continue to not take on any more debt, and try to squeeze dimes out of nickels to save for whatever we decide to do. I think I am going to try to save some extra money in order to buy a sewing machine so that I can start quilting again-it was such a stress relief for me. Between that & starting to exercise again, I hope to be in a better frame of mind by summer!!! Also, hopefully we will sell DH's motorcycle by summer & have received something from the lawsuit over my DH & son being hit by the semi in 9/09 which we will use to pay off the vehicle we had to buy to replace the one that was totalled. That debt is a large portion of the US Bank balance ($7100) and it will be great if we can even get that cut in half by summer.

Thanks again everyone!!

[twinmama85]

Shop have you ever thought of selling your quilts? my cousin makes baby clothes,bibs, and burp clothes and made a small company called burpies by design. that could be a great way to off-set the cost of making quilts while at the same time doing something that you love. you could use craigslist, craft shows etc

[shopaholic814]

Twinmama: Yeah, I thought about selling them, my DH thinks I should. But it takes me so long to create them, and then to actually quilt the layers together, it can take me months just to make 1 quilt since I don't have a longarm quilting machine to do it quickly. One of the last quilts I made cost me close to $250 just in materials, let alone the hours & hours it took to actually quilt it. I'd be lucky to break even on the materials alone. I was pretty new to the quilting world, and therefore pretty slow at the process. But the plan I had when I bought my expensive sewing/embroidery machine originally, was to make a side business out of it, and since I sold my machine last year to use the $$$ toward debt payoff, I kind of sold that dream along with it.

[lisamomof4]

CUTTING UP CARDS omg! i still remember that sick feeling in my stomache when i cut our cards up. i think my hands may have shook. while i would say it's the best move i made toward dealing with our debt it was the scariest. like walking off the edge of a cliff, i had used them as out 'safety net' for so long and wasn't sure how it would go. to be honest there are still days where i wish i had them which is how i know we shouldn't go back. i feel it's like an addiction
STUDENT LOANS i know for dd1 that if she goes back to school the ones' with SM can be put on hold but with the private ones you need to request forbearance but i've been told each company has there own rules
CAR SEARCH well it looks like the 'fiesta' isn't going to work. it's a wonderful car and is perfect for what i want on paper, which is hard to let go of, but as we tend to keep cars for 10+ years it just doesn't have the room. the backseat is to short on leg room for kids still at home and as dh and i get older i don't know if we are going to have the flexability to be able to get in and out. time to accept we need an 'older person' car and start planning toward that. i was just worn out after a while trying to find out what would work for our pushing 50 selves and the baby who is 4 (what was i thinking???)

[urdoingit]

Lisa: I'm so bummed to hear about the Fiesta being too small! We were really leaning in that direction for our next car. The other option that I tried out (but DH wasn't with me) was the Honda Fit. It certainly had enough rear seat leg room and I think it would work okay for us. We keep our vehicles for at least 10 years also and they get a lot of mileage racked up on them. At our age, these may be the last new cars we purchase so we want to make good choices. Good luck with your search!

[Pants]

chicg--I'm same sports bra boat. I really like champion hook-in-the-back as well. Have also found those hold up better than ones without hooks--straps don't get stretched out pulling them over your head and shoulders.
If you're going to shop online, take a look at title nine. They have a "barbell" rating system that lets you know how much hold a bra provides. That should at least give you a couple styles you could comparison shop elsewhere.
Good luck!

[rr234]

shop check out etsy dot com. It's an online marketplace for handmade goods. You can set up a store front and sell your quilted items. And people pay good money on this site. Not like craigslist where people are bargain hunting.

[Sam_2.0]

TEST POST

UPDATE: Sam814 1/10/2011 $26,790.66 (5-6-07 $34,991.19 81, M483, MU328)

UPDATE	Start	Current
Store CCs	3,382.01	-
LOC	-	300.54
Discover	-	300.00
USB CC	705.34	1,469.00
Combo #1	7,066.09	5,828.97
Combo #2	10,618.75	12,317.38
Citi	13,219.00	6,574.77
TOTAL	34,991.19	26,790.66

Total Paid: $8,200.53
Percent Paid: 23.44%

[Sam_2.0]

YAY! Thank you so so much Kewee & Turbo for formatting this!

[Sam_2.0]

I figured out a way to auto-generate the tagline so you don't have to keep changing it each time.

For the tagline, instead of putting it all in one cell, I spread it out over 6 cells:

#1 - name
#2 - today() function to get the current date
#3 - equals the current total
#4 - (start date
#5 - equals the starting total
#6 - page numbers)

It fits under the table, and seems to copy over well. I have used a similar format before too so that I don't have to worry about updating the tagline each time. HTH!