Man, look @ my sidebar go... I have knocked out a BUNCH of medical collection accounts. All the ones remaining are with one company... I am trying to decide how best to attack those. I am starting by having the Credit Reporting agencies validating them... and will go from there.

I've been playing with our Credit Reports for the last 3-4 days. For one, we are trying to remove that house/mortgage in WI that I mentioned in an earlier post, from my DH's file.

They removed the loan.
They then added the guys name to my DH's file.
They then removed the address, but put it back on.

I have faxed them at least 4 times...all the info they requested... today I finally sent paper copies and sent them via Certified Mail. Hopefully that will work.

I wonder how his score will change once the mortgage no longer reports...

I've also done clean-up on the reports, such as removing variations of our names and SSNs that are not ours... My goal is to get our score up by June so MAYBE we can start looking at new home builders...

keeping my fingers crossed...

I swear - it's so difficult to pay collection accounts. Having to track down some of these older companies is killer. It's like a game of Hide and Seek.

I managed to get two more accounts paid this week (updated sidebar). I have a good sized snowball at the end of the month that will help to eliminate a few more!

Yeah!

Added another $100 to my Emergency Fund... Added another $150 to our Short Term account, and also moved some money to my oldest son's ING Savings account - he added 10% of his birthday money!

We have my niece's birthday tomorrow - I have $50 set aside for that... and finally, to bring us to a zero-based-budget, I have $110 for groceries for the week.

I do have about $200 extra in my checking account - no idea where that came from. I will wait a few more days, maybe on Tuesday, and check to see if I forgot to send something out, or if we just did real good at not spending so much this past week!

Oh... I also started a new stash cash fund... It's in a Christmas Tin... and it started with a few $1's before Halloween... but every time I got to the grocery store, I get $5 cash back - and now there is a little over $100 in there!! Its purpose is not yet defined, but I am hoping I can keep adding to it so that when we buy our house next November, we will have some extra cash for stuff if we need it. I like it because I feel as if I cannot take money from it... just like my ING accounts...

The plan is working... I am saving!

So... I paid a medical collection bill that's been around for a while, but has NEVER been on my credit report. I paid the sucker... and now it was added to my report with a Zero Balance. WHAT?!?!

Is that right?


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Edited to add:

Pulled out the collection letter, and it was a newer letter, one I got in October that said Pay Not and we won't Report. So I paid... I called the Credit Bureau and they said that if the account is in collections, they can report at any time, even after it's paid.

So I called the collection agency and he said "weird. we will get that taken of." I got his name and date & time of the call... I will check back later!

Hopefully it's gonna be taken off in no time!

November 7th came and went, anyone looking at a calendar could tell you that.

It's been a year since I restarted this blog... Since we decided to get serious AGAIN!

This time, it has worked. We are so close to our finish line, I think we need to get a little hardcore for the next few months. We will start stockpiling our monthly snowball into our House Down Payment savings account in April (about $1500 a month)... but before then, we have to make sure everything has been paid, that there are no unpaid collection accounts, and that we are on track for a very serious mission.

It's getting to seem almost real...

Well, a new-to-us truck! It's a 2003 Ford Ranger...5 speed. Only one owner, CarFax was clean and guarenteed...My husband spied on it for days before we decided to test drive it.

Let me tell you, paying for a decent used vechicle in CASH is fantastic!! $3900. And I no longer have to take my husband to and from work! Huge stress relief.

Our ins. only went up $21 a month - not bad.

I am looking forward to the next 12 months of SAVING for our house!! It's gonna be here before we know it.