I felt like we needed a good base point, so I ran our FICO scores. These do not include our 3 credit cards we just paid off... so it will be interesting to see how that changes things.

Just a note, before we lost our car, they were in the 500s (515 - 520 range). And now after the car (which does show up on our credit report), they barely dropped in my opinion. I thought they would have been a lot lower.

I am not proud, but as I told my husband, we can only go UP from here. We have been doing everything right since November, I am proud of that.

So here they are:

JJ:


DH:


Oh, and our total debt:

Grooooaaaan!

I cannot believe I did it again. Fell off the bandwagon, that is.

And only one month in this time. There is so much going on, I don't even know where to begin.

I need to go through and update everything; goals and balances.

Just doing some housekeeping...
and rearranging the blog... =)

First and foremost... Savings Plan!
I spent several hours coming up with a monthly goal - to put away $200 a month into our various savings accounts. That may not seem like a lot to some, but I have d.e.b.t. (blech!). So, a good portion of our income has to go to that as well.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


I know I said before, that I would keep this blog focused on savings, but I feel like I should give some additional background information.

In July of this year, we fell behind. A lot. I haven't been able to pay our one car, and some of our credit cards. I recently had a friend go through bankruptcy (with a much larger debt pile than us) - and it seemed easy, and fast and "cool". I called and got an appointment. The husband and I felt a little relieved... we could start over, we could BUY groceries. The "salesman" sold us. We signed on the dotted line, offered up 4 post-dated checks for the payment plan, all this even though we were told that they didn't know what to do with us. Our income was high, but we were over the allotted amount (in terms of monthly bills) by $500. So, it wasn't a pretty picture, but they couldn't tell us if we could file Chapter 13 or 7, or either at all. Regardless, we agreed to a $990 (discounted from $1200) Pre-Bankruptcy review.

The first of my payment plan checks cleared on October 15. And then I got to thinking. This is SERIOUS stuff. Never again will I be able to check mark "No" on the "Have you ever filed bankruptcy" question. I am in the banking industry - this could cause issues when applying for jobs. When would we be able to finally buy a house? What are we DOING?

We have about 10K in Credit Card debt (up $10K from 2 years ago when we had zero), and another 5-6K in medical bills (son was born premature - lots of medical bills!)

I called the lawyers on Monday, and told them we wanted to cancel. They asked what my plans were (seeing as I was 70 days late on our cards and 90 on our car). I told them we would do what we needed to - it just didn't involve BK. I don't feel we have tried to remedy the situation at all - that we jumped straight to BK. In my defense, I felt hopeless...I have been given notice at work (we were acquired by a big bank) - thankfully, I have until 9/2009 to find a new job - but it was still very fresh at the time, and I was ready to give up.

So, with the Pre-BK review cancelled (and after a cancellation fee of $250 - even though they had yet to do ANYTHING) I called Consumer Credit Counseling [CCCS]. They can help, and they won't kill my credit too much (or anymore that I already have).

And then I got a call from one of my credit card companies. They offered to allow me to make two $25 payments a month until I was caught up. Then two more of my cards called... I only had to pay the minimums that were behind - $30 on one, $42 on the other. They would worry about the over limit charges later. Suddenly, things didn't look so scary. These numbers were smaller than the DUE NOW amounts that screamed at me each month.

My husband and I decided to put our big people underoos on - and do what we could to fix our mess. (I cancelled the meeting with CCCS)

Some positives that have happened - he got promoted ($$$), we moved closer to our family and work, we pay less in daycare (thanks to his sister watching the little one).

We have decided to let go of our 4 year old car. It was a bad deal to begin with - our final payment is going to be around 3-4K due to the way the contract was written and our late payments(we got it when we didn't have awesome car credit). The payments are $455 a month - and we still owe $13K. I don't know if it's the RIGHT thing to do, but it's what we have decided to do. I cannot come up with the $1700 due, and they will not budge on offering to defer the payments or extend the contract.

So- that's where we are. I will be making small payments on each of the cards on Friday. I just had to pay $172 to the dentist for my daughter (3 baby teeth had to be pulled). That's tough...

It's going to be hard, but in the end - we will have accomplished something on our own. It may take a while to get caught up completely, and back on track with our credit - but I am in it to win it. I think we will be sitting pretty in 5 years. That's our 5 year plan. To be sitting pretty! =) And as the title of my blog states - NO PAIN, NO GAIN!

In the meantime... we will build our EF, sell what we can, save where we can, use coupons, and just plain do without.

I've been around before. I've read all of your blogs, followed some of your advice, posted some comments. But then July happened. And August. I became a stranger to my blog, to savings, and to our BIG PLAN. I was a Debt Dummy on a Mission... I am not so much a dummy any more - I have learned a lot. I just need to get the job done!

We've recently moved - the house we were renting was forclosed on. THAT was a surprise. Talk about added expenses. We are behind - a lot. BUT!! I won't let that stop us from getting back on the horse.

We are going to deal with our financial issues and at the same time, become frugal [scrimp and save]. That's what I am going to use this blog for... to keep me motivated to live with less, and save much more.