Financial Gripes

A while back we did a financial study by Rick Warren in our church small group. We cut a lot of things out of our budget and decided we were going to work to become debt free. We completed the study and the computer software calculated 3 years to get completely out of debt. (not including mortgage)

Well life isnt that easy, just after deciding we would use no more credit cards Ashley became very sick, one thing after another. Heart problem, heat problem fixing itself still being medicated, and bad migraines. Long story short she didnt go to work much and her paycheck reflected that. So needless to say we fell back to credit cards. Hardcore! To be honest I dont know how we didnt lose everything as we had no money $2000+ short each month for about 6-7 months. Craigslist became my second full time job unloading everything not necessary. It tought me a lot about how much money we spend on stuff that wont change your life.

Anyhow, like most I have been getting a craving for a house to get out of our condo. The market is a tease unless you are currently renting. We looked at a 3000+sqft house with 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, full finished basement, and a huge fenced in yard. I only looked at it because it was a HUD house and figured it would be trashed anyhow and we wouldnt want that. Well the house was immaculate and when I asked what the estimated payment would be it was cheaper than our 1 bedroom 1 bath condo payment. I wanted to cry.

I knew it would never happen so I dont know why I do this to myself. The next day I called my lenders to ask to lower my interest rates as the economy is shot and its not fair what I am paying. Their response was I would need to refinance, but since we owe more than its worth it couldnt happen. Lovely..

I didnt really care before the realtor told me I could be living in that house for the same cost a month. I knew I was getting ripped off with interest but it never really hit home. Now the odd thing. I spoke to the lender for the hud homes. He spefically told me flat out if its just in your name claim bankruptcy and walk away. Great advice from a lender. Why not just drop my interest rate and collect what I owe. Its in both names so that isnt an option and I dont really like that option anyhow.

So back to the financial study. This was the first month that we didnt use a single credit card. Finally back to phase 1. I was online today checking all the bills and 1 looked very odd. I didnt use my card and the payment was $30 more this month compared to the month prior. Apparently I was rewarded for not using my card and my interest rate went up 3%. Not happy I decided to call CITI CARD. I asked why out of the blue it was raised and the nice lady's response was we altered your terms didnt you get the letter. I answer NO. She then said let me look when we sent it to you. Followed by we didnt send it to you. I then asked, you bill me for an interest rate you never notified me of, shouldnt this be applied to the next bill if I wasnt notified? She responded No, we altered your terms. I followed this up with I dont use my card one month and you jack my interest up, can I please have the previous rate back? She let me know I could get one for 2.75% more but not what I used to have. Well Citi Card Im not paying it. I rejected the rate increase and told them to close the account. Two birds killed with one stone. Cant use the card and got the original rate back.

Nice doing business with you.

Thanks!

Thanks for the hats! It is nice when "Santa" comes unexpectedly. Every day when we get home from work, Steve opens the door and says "Did Santa come?" He did today! His is too big, of course, with his little head :) Mine is perfect though! I actually have had it on all night since I tried it on! I will probably wear it in the morning too! Since I don't dry my hair my head has been a little cold the last few mornings, but it isn't cold enough to wear my TurtleFur hat with the ear flaps. This one will be perfect! Sorry no pictures. We tried to take a picture of each of us in our hats, but we weren't being very photogenic at the time :)

In other news, I am on call this week. My first time in my two years of being at CGL. I get to have a pager from Tuesday until Monday. After hours or on weekends I may get paged by hospitals or doctors about patients and samples. During the week there aren't too many responsibilities. Just call back people who page and check the messages on the main phone line before I go to bed. Nothing during the week is critical enough to have to go into work. The weekend could be different however. I have to go in Sunday for at least an hour, but I could get paged and have to be there for longer. It is really scary, but people say nothing usually happens when you are on call. But we have all these procedures and stuff in case! I will tell you all how it goes! I really don't want to have to talk to any doctors! I know I will be like "Ummm..this is my first time on call I don't know what to do!"

~*~ Ashley ~*~