I’m alive, the vacation was a blast, we spent WAY too much money, and I’m very happy!
I owe links to carnivals/people and all sorts of stuff is overdue, in the meantime, I’m just enjoying the renewed energy this weekend brought.
I’ll be on vacation this weekend and playing with a few hundred of my favorite people. The original plan was a simple, no frills weekend that wouldn’t dink the pocket book. Instead, I got a wind of motivation yesterday and we’re heading down the path of personal investments in a good time for all. Spending started this afternoon with a special purchase of liquid nitrogen. I’ll let you know how the weekend goes and how much lighter our piggy bank is at the end of it. Hopefully I’ll be able to balance savings in the other areas to make up the difference of the recent motivation.
As summer quickly approaches, I’m starting to stress over what to do with the daughter. We have a standing camp commitment that fills two weeks, but those two weeks will go by pretty quick (especially since it’ll be our second child-free break as newlyweds). But after camp, then what and how to pay for it?
Previous years were simple: either I stayed home with her or I shipped her off to Oklahoma for the summer. Since all of our family is in Oklahoma, it worked out well as she traveled week-to-week to grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunts. But since we’ve decided she should stay home this summer, we’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do.
Summer Budget Overview:
Summer vacation is 10 weeks long. Her two-week, sleep-away summer camp is $985 and most summer day programs run $160/week. The sleep-away camp was paid for through child support payment (wow, they actually showed up for a full six months), so I’m not worried about that line item. However, we still need to fill the other weeks.
Summer Numbers:
If we do a day camp program for the entire time, it’ll run us $1,280 for the summer. In my current position, I’ll bring home $3,000 during that time (this is net minus retirement contributions). Summer income less summer camp fees is $1,720 of income for the summer break (certainly not enough to justify surviving there).
If I leave my job and stay home, I would need to find enough small jobs or save enough money to equal the $1,720 difference to call it a wash. This works out to $215/week. Some ways I could make/save that much:
By staying home, the partner and I can trade vehicles and reduce commuting costs. My commute will be $35/week in my car, his is $175/week in his car. By trading cars and eliminating my commute, our weekly gasoline budget will go from $210 to $40. Over the summer, that will work out to $1,360 in savings.
Since I’ll be home, there is no excuse for not cooking and eating at home.
Having more time to watch for specials and coordinate dinner plans will allow me to make better shopping choices.
I’m currently making between $70-$150 a week sewing. I’d just need to be proactive in finding more customers, but it seems like I’m doing well at the moment.
With just those simple steps, I’ll have a net savings/income of $345/week, $2,760 over the entire summer.
Summer Decision
It seems like such an obvious choice: don’t work this summer. That is, until you notice one major flaw. Our income is already spoken for and summer camp is an above and beyond addition to our budget. Trying to save the difference between camp fees and income isn’t the real solution – finding another $160/week is.
Of course: I don’t want my job and am trying to get out of it, I don’t think I can find another $160/week (on top of everything else), and something will have to be sacrificed to make camp happen if I keep working. But if I can’t find another $160/week for camp, how am I going to replace the $575/week gross income that I’m making now?
Got a call from another new sewing customer last night. Seems I’ll be helping her with her July wedding; we’re meeting tomorrow to talk shop. I was so excited that I called my ma and told her how awesome she is for suggesting that I take in sewing and for being such an amazing role model in handling customers and making things happen.
I’ve found that my customer service skills are modeled directly from her. When a new customer came over last Friday, I could hear her voice echoing mine as I greeted them and answered their questions. Everything I said was identical to what I’ve heard my mom say and I included all the social banter and good-hearted talk that my momma always brought to every transaction. Through out that visit, I couldn’t help smiling at the fact that all those years following her around to customer and client visits had a such an impact.
I’ve given little thought to all the transactions I witnessed over the years, but now it is an invaluable repository of information. I’m so proud of everything she did as a single mom to make ends meet and thankful that she was able to teach me so many things leading by example.
To top off the happy-gushy post, this weekend she gave me an amazing compliment: she called seeking some professional advice. She said that I always have valuable insight and suggestions and wanted to know what I thought about some of her recent plans and ideas. I’m honored that she feels my experience and insight is so valuable and glad to know that I can give back to her a fraction of what she has given me.
Something about this house purchase has really been bugging me: our interest rate. We’re using a loan product that uses the partners credit scores (mid-to-high 700s) and yet we’ve got what we feel is a pretty lame rate: 7.15%. She argues that it is because of market conditions and has nothing to do with the credit scores (mine are in the mid-to-upper 600s now) or report data – but is that true?
This is frustrating. It seems like it is too late to find another broker and I’m really annoyed that the rate is so high. From looking at current rates, it seems like we’re getting the very short end of the stick here (or places haven’t been updating their rates). While we’ll just refinance as soon as we can, we may find that to be more difficult that we think if the current housing market continues to correct itself.
I think we’re stuck at this point with just a month left until closing – would you ditch your mortgage broker and try to find a better one? Seems like an insane idea, but 7.15% also feels rather insane too.
The 30-day window has passed since my last round of action – time to take stock and plan my next steps. Part One and Part Two gave a basic overview of my credit correction challenge and outlined the first five steps:
Step four is partially completed. I submitted blanket dispute letters stating that certain accounts were “not mine.” Each of these accounts had some element of incorrect information and I was attacking “low hanging fruit” to see what would get deleted with the least amount of effort. I’ve received responses from all three credit reporting agencies (CRA).
Experian Results
My blanket dispute with Experian listed five accounts, including one judgment, that I wanted deleted. Of the five disputes, three accounts were deleted. I’m excited about one deletion in particular: a store credit account with very negative information (multiple 30-90-120-days late payment reporting). The balance was paid in full a couple years ago, but it was still wrecking havoc on my credit score. Aside from the judgment, it was the worst entry on my credit report.
Equifax Results
I disputed eight accounts, including one judgment, with the “not mine” letter. Four negative trade lines, including the judgment, were deleted. The amusing part is that two of the trade lines that Experian deleted, were marked “verified” by Equifax and remain on my report. Equifax also deleted the store credit account; my two worst entries are now gone from my Equifax report.
Trans Union Results
TU requested more information to verify my identity before processing my disputes. This really annoyed me because they didn’t need more information for the first round of address disputes. I still need to respond to this request.
Next Steps: Step Five
I need to draft letters to each individual Collection Agencies (CA). The CAs will be required to validate my debt or they must have the information deleted from my credit report. Validation includes:
One CA has already contacted me with a very lame attempt at validation, they’ll have to try again or delete. Once I contact the CAs, they will have only 30 days to respond. They can be fined and sued if they refuse to respond, respond incorrectly, or fail to delete an item. I will follow-up validation requests with an Intent to Sue letter as needed, and I’m willing to file suit in smalls claim court if it’s what I need to do to get this information off my credit report.
Stay tuned for more…
Disclaimer: I’m taking these steps in accordance with the research that I did at creditboards.com. The forums there are amazing for getting information and figuring out what you need to do to help shape up your credit. This is not advice of any kind, just my personal experience. If you want to give some of these ideas a try, you should read, read, read the forums, legal documents, and anything else you can before you get started. Failing to do so can have very negative affects on your credit and you may even get sued. Know what you’re doing before you start.
My professional wardrobe is wearing on me again — this time it’s the shift in temperatures. I bought clothes for the winter season forgetting that what gets cold must get hot again. So, here I’m at wits end with my job, watching the clock tick and the thermostat rise. What am I going to do about it?
I’ve started with summer skirt savings. I have one light-weight skirt that is so terribly comfortable that I could wear it every day — in fact, I’m going to wear it every day. It’s in basic black and nice enough to look professional in the office and casual enough when I ditch the hosiery (sheer knee-highs, baby! I got some sexy granny legs going on!).
This idea is partially inspired by the Little Brown Dress project. I remember stumbling across it several months ago and loved the economical impact of wearing the same thing everyday.
Having worn the same skirt for a couple of weeks now, I’ve decided to apply the same logic to the only cooler weather tops I have; I’ll wear each top twice a week. To better accommodate the ensemble ensemble, I’m switching my work hours to four days a week.
(Okay, so the clothes weren’t the main reason for changing my work hours, but they did factor into the decision.)
I just heard that our loan has been approved for the house, woohoo. Guess it just needs to pass the appraisal for the final go ahead. Yay, I’ll stop over stressing about that, though I still read plenty of horror stories where things were still dropped at the last minute, so until those keys are in hand, I’ll not be tooooo excited (just mostly excited).
Now for a staff meeting and I’ll be pretty swamped at work this week. However, I should have the middle of the week to take some time for updates.
wow, spam has been steadily increasing and I worry that I’m losing comments to it. I’ve found about 5+ comments mis-filtered as spam in the past. Now, the volume of spam is too great to go looking through it to see if is mis-identified something. Hopefully thats not the case, would hate to lose your valuable insight.
My stamina for work is steadily decreasing. The emotional environment is more hostile and negative each week. I’m sure my frustration and negativity is feeding this unhealthy cycle. Every day I’m at the point of walking out and never coming back, every single day! Of course, we don’t close on the house for another month, so I can’t walk just yet. Even though it is just a month, it feel like an eternity of waiting. Of course, I don’t have another job lined up, so what to do, what to do.
I’m picking up some extra sewing, but not sure that I can supplement my income with that alone. I’d have to sew up 10 sets of curtains a week, and I don’t imagine my one client has that much work for me.
I just got a job doing a bunch of ribbon shirts (indian shirts) because my mom was too swamped to do them. This will be about $300, but again, not something that will continue. I’d really need to build up business a bit more to make that happen and I’m not sure I’m at that point yet (in terms of time or networking).
So, I’ve got to pull through this, pull really hard through this and develop a plan.