My Debt Blog

I think my wife is realizing that I can’t manage everything for the both of us. Last week I showed her what it takes to keeps us moving forward. She knows we have bills but really didn’t take the time to even look at them, yet alone realize that we’re paying almost $300 to keep the lights and gas on. I reminded her that while my income alone is enough to operate our house and pay all the bills, it only provides just enough left over for gas and groceries. Going out to eat, buying expensive clothes, and other wants are lifestyle choices that I can’t pull off alone. I believe in a way her new job will become our bailout plan. She got the job!

We are very happy and this week she gets to go in 2 days to work with the teacher she will temporarily replace for the remainder of the year. Her pay rate is much higher than I thought it would be and she will essentially make the same amount in those 2 days than working an entire week at her former job. When she works two full weeks, her income is very close to what I bring home from my salary. The old song We’re in the Money from the Great Depression era comes to mind. I think a large amount, nearly 2/3 of what she will bring home could pay off debt.

I also think she needs to take responsibility for the debt she ran up on her store cards that we paid off earlier this year. These things could be gone early next month and there would still be a lot left over. After that I’m not sure what the next debt to focus on would be because I recently did a balance transfer to a card with 0% for 12 months. The other account is my old BoA card that I debated draining an IRA to clear a few months ago. It would be nice to get rid of either of these quickly since the debt on them is relatively old and inhibit our progress moving forward. The other major debt to tackle is her massive student loans coming due.

Our bailout plan is relatively simple when it comes down to the basics. Take a bunch of money we earn and use it to pay down our debt. The most important thing is to make sure lifestyle doesn’t get out of control so we can have that lifestyle when we can afford it later. The seasons are changing and my stress is changing into a renewed energy to keep at it. Thank you to my readers for your encouragement.

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My wife got a call from a school last week from a school that had a long term substitute teaching position available. They set up the interview for last Friday and she told me things went well and they would let her know either way this week. She finally got called back yesterday evening by the principle and they want to talk to her about the position. After many months of applying to just about everything, she will finally get to teach this year. I have no idea about specific details on pay and all that, but it will be much better than what she’s currently doing or even doing nothing for that matter.

I have done some basic calculations and she will essentially double her income with this new position. The key of course is to effectively use this increased cash flow to reduce debt. She also has some student loans that require payments going forward. Most of these are being held off right now so if we can reduce the credit card debt quickly first, it’ll be easier to make the payments on the student loans. My stress level is reduced to say the least, but until it’s in the bank we can’t be for certain.

As I said earlier this week I have been showing her the bills this week. She really wasn’t aware of what we were paying each month because I usually just take care of the bills. The next step is for us to sit down and actually pay the bills online together. I think we’re making progress but it takes time to get on the same page. While the income levels for September from her just starting her current job will get us through, when she transitions to the new job, October will see a big impact.

I’ve said in the past if we used the bulk of what she makes her student loan debt will be wiped out much quicker than making the regular payment. The credit cards have been reduced from what they used to be and we’re getting them paid down. Some new debt has wiped out past progress, but even in the year our debt is still down. I want to keep the debt levels going down instead of being increased. Looking back at the juggling act I was doing last year while she was student teaching, it was very stressful. This news is a big step forward for the both of us.

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There was a hurricane down in Texas this weekend, but up north near Chicago we were getting rain for three days straight. Flooding was the major worry because some areas were getting 8 inches an hour. My sump pump rarely stopped and I’m happy my basement is still dry. We didn’t go anywhere in the rain though given gas was $4.35 and the checking account was dry. I got paid today which is a huge sigh of relief.

So where do we go from here? Tonight I’m going to put some stuff together to outline a plan of action. Instead of myself paying the bills this week, I’m going to have my wife pay them with me. She needs to know where it is going and what we have left after the bills are spent. I’m tired of trying to come up with a plan to get us out of debt when it never seems to make the least bit of difference in the end. We also don’t have her regular check to work with yet, so spending needs to be reduced during times like this. I think she won’t receive her paycheck until the end of the month, which is going to be difficult.

I’m getting tired of the people advocating we get a divorce. Most of this advice is probably coming from people who have been divorced or have seen what can come from a divorce. Financial responsibility isn’t something everyone is naturally born with. As we grow up we learn behaviors, typically from our parents, on how to do things such as money management. I don’t think my wife is in a clinical depression either. It’s a slump that we go through and resort to stupid things to pick us back up. We’re getting through the rough patches, together.

Thank you to all the people that understand what we’re dealing with. I read the articles that were posted but haven’t shown them to my wife yet. These might be brought up over time because I’m still trying to get her on board with looking at our finances together. It’s obvious that I cannot get us out of debt alone, because the progress I make gets wiped out. Every year it seems our debt grows beyond what it could have been by this time the previous year. Obviously this trend line cannot continue or we will never be able to get out. Sometimes I casually ask her what we could do with an extra $700 a month. That is how much we put towards the payments every single month. The eye opening effect doesn’t seem to last though.

No word yet from the interview she had last Friday. I’ll post something when she finds out whether or not it panned out.

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I haven’t posted much lately because I don’t know what I can do anymore. My wife has been home for three weeks and finally starts a job on Monday next week, but it will take time to see that first paycheck. Money is just being spent left and right, on a lot of things we don’t need. I’m doing my best to keep our credit card balances from going up, but have failed.

About a week or so ago I did a balance transfer to a 0% card for 12 months. The money I transferred has paid off one of our higher rate cards, and the remainder was going to clear the high rate store cards. That extra $500 got spent on who knows what. I didn’t tell her about the balance transfer either, so if that money wasn’t in the account, we would be $500 in the hole right now. Now I don’t know if I should balance transfer more money to pay off these store cards or just keep chipping away at them each month.

She got her last paycheck from her prior job and wanted to cash it instead of contributing to our account. That did not sit well with me because I use my paycheck to pay bills and then some, and she would like to go buy new clothes for her job. Fortunately she put her paycheck into our account, yet bought new clothes using her credit card. I’m trying to dig us out of a hole we’re both in and it keeps filling back in.

We’re going to have to start dealing with her private student loans in coming months. Even with her having some income, half of it must go to this bill to keep them happy. These things cannot be put off for years and months on end without making effort to pay them back. I’d like for us to use the amount of money she is going to have to start paying to clear off smaller debt such as her store cards which together carry a $500 balance. If we can handle that I think the student loan payment will be possible.

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I know it’s been a bit since the last post, which I still haven’t taken much action on yet, we’re having a rough week. For this month we are fine and all the bills will get paid as usual. My wife has spent the past few months trying to find a full time teaching position. She has applied nearly everywhere within reasonable driving distance, even as far as 35 miles out. It’s frustrating when there are only a few interviews over that period of time.

Earlier this week she applied to a local middle school and missed the call, they left a voicemail though. The voicemail said that they would like to talk to her, so we were thinking she was being called to setup and interview. She calls back the next morning and as it turns out this position was filled last week and wasn’t available. He was willing to have her come in to talk to him though, we weren’t sure what would happen. I had a theory he might want to pull strings to move her into the position. As it turns out that school has no positions for her and it would have been better if the guy never called in the first place. I think it’s rude to call someone to call an applicant back to inform them a position no longer exists, and then insult them by saying they are a perfect fit for the position they don’t have anymore. She is emotionally drained right now from going through this, and I don’t know what to do.

In the time being I am trying to evaluate a way for us to get through the next month assuming she has no income. As sad as it may sound, it feels like deja vu from last year when she was a student teacher that didn’t get paid or even a stipend for her work. The last thing I want to do is resort to credit cards to get us through in the meantime. One of her student loans is only on economic hardship until September, so they will expect a payment come early October. She is going to need a job doing something to earn income, but right now she’s very depressed and I’m being as supportive as I can.

I am also starting to wonder if I should seriously consider a job that pays more to handle her student loan payments. We’re having a heck of a week already with the excitement on Monday completely gone Tuesday. That job would have paid her more than twice what she has made in the past, because the student loan payments will take one of her paychecks just like a mortgage. Schools start up next week and she is near out of time to get in somewhere.

Question for my readers: Have you gone through a period of unemployment, or spouse unemployment, and how did you get through it?

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We are all aware of Murphy and as the saying goes, if it could go wrong it will. He also has friends like broke, desperate, and stupid that follow in his footsteps. I started thinking about the possible situations that we’re currently looking at.

First major one is my wife will be done with her summer job this Friday. Temporary employment has a known end date unlike being a regular employee and receiving a pink slip or some other random job ending factor. Job loss can be a Murphy but we have known the end was coming and she is doing everything she can to find another source of income. I’m hoping someone, anyone, calls this week wanting her to come in for an interview. It would relieve a huge amount of stress that has been building on both of us.

My current place of employment is feeling the summer slump. I was curious the other day and looked around job sites online. One of the places I found is very close to my home and pays at least 10k more up to 50k more per year. Even being somewhere in the middle of the two could result in around 2k more per month. The downside is it is a dot com startup so I don’t know what kind of future a place like that has unlike where I am currently. Even with that said I might feel it out and see if it could work for me.

The private student loans my wife has breathing down her neck are only deferred on economic hardship until September and October. They expect payments on those because she has reached a time limit on how long a loan can be on deferment. This is where the first two things I mention can come into play. If she got a good regular job then she could pay these on her own. Otherwise I could get a hopefully higher paying job to handle them for her until her income picks up.

I guess it is better to have some sort of plan on how to deal with a situation rather than hiding from it. It was known before we got married that our student loans are primarily our own responsibility. At the same time being married I don’t want her credit to be trashed just because of not making payments to the student loans. Right now I don’t make enough money to handle household expenses as well as taking on the burden of her student loan payments. I already handle making her credit card payments for her otherwise they wouldn’t get paid on time. If only she realized back in college the problem excessive student loans cause.

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