A Dime at a Time

Navigating life and finances

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Slave to the Lender

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“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”  Proverbs 22:7

There is certainly a lot of truth to this verse.  I really felt it yesterday when I placed a call to our credit union to inquire as to why they hadn’t yet taken out the mortgage payment.  I’ve been going in circles with them ever since we took out this mortgage with them.  Last Summer I thought I had it all straightened out whereas they would automatically take it out on the first of the month.  This had been working beautifully until yesterday when I saw our funds still hadn’t been transferred.  Lovely.  Waited a good 20 minutes to even speak to a real person who then proceeded to tell me that I had been calling every month to do this.  Um, no.  I most certainly have not!  Having gone rounds with them over this before, I then ask to speak directly with a supervisor.  Again, I get the same story.  Then this supervisor wants to know what phone number I used to initially set this up.  Good grief.  Between my old and new numbers, plus our landline (yeah, we still have one of those!) and my dh’s cell, how could I possibly remember which phone I used?  At that point I was half expecting her to ask what I had for breakfast that morning all those months ago.  I was told she would look into it and call me back in a few hours.  Didn’t happen.  Nor did the payment get credited.  To say that I was aggravated is putting it mildly.  DH is much more diplomatic with these things so he said he would take it from here.  God bless him.  After spending a good hour of my day on this, his offer was music to my ears.
While there will always be situations that may cause your blood to boil, this call to the credit union could have been completely avoided by not owing them a dime in the first place.  Yes, as in the Bible passage, we have become slave to the lender.
Given that this lender is who holds our mortgage, it will be years before we can discontinue our dealings with them.  Refinancing is simply not an option for financial reasons.  We simply have no choice but to continue dealing with their incompetence.  If you’re ever looking for a credit union not to use, ask me.  The least I can do is spare someone else the headache.

Oh how I cannot wait until we are no longer in the position of being slave to the lender.  Phone calls like yesterday make me all the more eager to get out of the position we are in.On a positive note, the sun is shining and that is always something to be thankful for!

 

Lucy

 

21 Days and 21 Posts

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All part of my journey to get debt free!

Wow.  Hard to believe that I have reached this mini milestone!  Somehow I have now managed to bore enlighten those of you who are following my journey for 21 days straight!  I started blogging for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I wanted something to help keep me financially accountable.  This blog is certainly helping me in that area.  Secondly, I wanted to reach out to others in similar situations.  Digging your way out of debt at any age isn’t any fun, let alone when you are in your 50’s.  I figured there had to others who were facing the same challenge.  Much like the many blogs I follow, I hope that my blog will also serve as a way to encourage others.  Yes, many of us have done stupid with zeros but that certainly doesn’t need to be the end of our stories.  We can do this!  We can dig ourselves out of the messes we created and go into our retirement years without the stress of debt.  Our stories can have happy endings!

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A $38 dollar bottle of oil

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Why does needing only one item end up costing so much?  

Forgetting to buy an item at the store sure can be expensive.  After going to work for a few hours I stopped at the grocery store for what was supposed to be just the oil I had forgotten to buy the last time I was there.  $38 dollars later, I now have the forgotten oil along with a lot of other items.  I hadn’t really planned on doing any additional grocery shopping this week.  On the bright side, these additional items were the result of the sales week turning over so I did get some good deals.  I bought several packages of meat which I put in the freezer and also more fruit.  Not entirely sure how the Doritos found their way into my shopping cart, but snack food has a sneaky way of doing that sometimes.

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The Year of the (fill in the blank)

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Have you ever felt a year was being dominated by a particular theme?  

I have.  Looking back over our past three years certain events really stand out in my mind.  2014 was dominated with prepping a house to sell.  2015 was dominated with selling the aforementioned home and then moving.  2016 was dominated with medical issues along with hefty (and I do mean hefty!) medical bills. [Read more…]

I left the house!

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There is actually a world out there!

After three days at home, I finally left the house.  Almost forgot how to drive.  Just kidding.  As I’ve mentioned before, I do try and stay home as much as possible.  Just to go out for the sake of going out feels wasteful to me.  To some people, staying home so much would probably drive them crazy.  For me, I am perfectly content in doing so.  So, where did I go?…

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The (almost) end of the month review

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Making some progress.

I know.  It isn’t quite the end of the month, but I couldn’t wait!  To see our debt go down is beyond exciting.  Prior to drawing this final line in the sand, there were a lot of months that sadly, our debt load increased.  So how did we do?  Drum roll…
For our non-mortgage debt, we paid off $718.26.  For our mortgage debt, we paid off $582.05 for a grand total of $1,300.31.  Making progress!  Before you wonder what happened to the $2,525 that we paid off with the refund from our escrow, I don’t want to count it until I see it credited to our account.  No worries, it will happen and reflect in February.
While we still have a long ways to go, this does give me hope.  This time around we will get debt free.  Anything we throw at our debt it is one step closer to financial peace.
Are you tracking your progress?  If so, how did you do for January?
Lucy

Visuals to help keep it real

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A very real one we intend on achieving!  

I am a very visual person.  Always have been.  Not sure if it has to do with a lack of imagination or simply the need to see something in order to understand it.  This applies to our finances as well.  Just saying that someday we will be out of debt simply isn’t enough for me.   If I wasn’t so embarrassed about our debt I’d probably have a huge debt thermometer hanging on our living room wall.  Well, I might not get quite that crazy, but at the very least I’d have one on the door of our fridge!

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Back to Frugality and Reality

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It has become my norm.

My dh once again left for work yesterday.  I have no idea how long he will be away this time.  I almost never do.  Usually he averages 3-4 weeks and then he comes home for a week.  This week was cut shorter on account of being robbed.  Those days of driving home rather than flying, cost him home time as well.  While I never like it when he leaves, this is the reality of the job he has.

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Dripping Pennies

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Are all those money earning sites worth the effort?  

That is one question I am often asked.  During what I now refer to as my “coupon days” I was often asked a very similar question.  For the record, I still use coupons.  With having moved to a remote area, my usage is just not as high as it was in the past.  I was never one of those hoarders having utterly ridiculous supplies of toothpaste, cereal, etc. , but did keep enough items on hand to last my family 3-6 months.  As much as I miss the saving, I wouldn’t trade where we live now.  I just need to focus more on what I can do to earn a little extra.

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