wow..it's been a long time!!!

It's been a long time since I have even thought of doing a post. Almost 2 years. Jeesh!

Well time has been very crazy in my world. In 2009 DH had to have double hip replacement (yup at the ripe old age of 41).  That was good because he felt great for about a year. Unfortunately in 2010 the damn hips were recalled. Not sure how in the heck you recall body parts but they did. It's been a very crazy 2 years. Cobalt/Chromium poisoning, revision surgeries to remove affected parts, 3 lawyers (bankruptcy, social security disability and of course a major lawsuit for ruining our lives). 

Currently I am just so overwhelmed/angry/annoyed/frustrated/mad and just in general disbelief at the road we have been on. All in the name of corporate greed. There is evidence showing that the company knew PRIOR to his surgeries they were failing and they sat on the stuff for over a year before they did a recall. WTF! Marketing did their job but the rest of Depuy should be fired. I would love for someone to explain to my 2 daughters why their Dad is not like other Dad's.  He spends more time in pain and being just a general @sshat than anything. It's been a LONG winter!

Oh and let's not even get started on social security. They have denied him twice and now we have to wait to go in front of a judge which will take a year! We hired a lawyer but here we sit. I had them pull his records and they denied our claim less than 2 weeks after his last surgery. They had absolutely NO records on his surgery. When they did that surgery he had tissue necrosis and was rotting from the inside out. We still don't know if it's gone and he could end up with more surgery. Seriously. 4 surgeries in 2 years and they think he can work. If he were a crackhead, major alcoholic or an illegal alien though he would get it without having to go through hoops, end up in bankruptcy and probably losing the house. ugh.
 

Bank of America Strikes Again

I don't live in a fancy McMansion, just a plain Jane 1950's 3 bedroom rambler which is less than 1,000 square feet (with a "man" garage about the same size). I need insulation in the walls and new siding but I like our location and it's home to my kids.  Like a lot of people we bought the house when the market was at it's peak and at the time we were actually getting a good deal based on appraisal. My house is now worth about $40,000 less than we owe but I would like to keep our house. Stability for the kids and with a modification we can make it on my income.

I have been trying since June to get a mortgage modification with Bank of America. My husband has been out of work since May due to unforeseen medical issues that caught us by surprise and without his income things have really fallen by the wayside.  Unfortunately he worked for a small business owner and had no disability benefits so we were down to just my income.  This whole process has been a nightmare from the beginning and they are extremely difficult to work with. It's a definite case of an organization so big no one knows what other departments are doing.

In September 2009 I received paperwork telling me I was approved for a trial modification.  For those of you wondering, this is the "Obama modification" that everyone is talking about.  The goal is to get your mortgage payment to approximately 30% of your take home pay.  I was approved for a 3 month trial period reducing my payments by approximately $300 a month.  If the modification is permanent my lower payments will be achieved by a interest reduction from 6% to 3%.  There is no principal reducation, just the interest change. 

In December, I called to find out how long it takes for them to finish the review process and was told to keep making my trial payments until I hear from them.  I was welcome to call back and check on the status.  I made my January payment and called back the end of the month to find out what is going on because my online mortgage account used to tell me I was approved for a modification and I should hear something by February 6th and if I didn't to call them.  All of a sudden on 1/28 that message disappeared.  I was told they removed this from their system. (yeah...pardon me if I don't believe you).  I told the agent I have been working on this for a long time and he told me they have people who have been doing this since 2008. I told him there is no way I have the time or patience to let it drag on that long and that I am getting to the point where I am ready to just give my house back to the bank and let them have it because I have wasted countless hours calling to get problems fixed on my account.  We are almost to the point of filing bankruptcy due to the credit card debts I couldn't pay anymore with the loss of income and I can just lump this in with it and they can figure out how to sell it with 4 other foreclosure on our block alone. He put me on hold for a few minutes and came back to tell me he expedited my file to the underwriting department. (FINALLY!!)

When I got home from work yesterday I had a letter sent via FEDEX waiting for me from Bank of America that was dated 1/29 telling me that they have only received 1 out of 4 payments, that being my January payment and I need to cough up $X,XXX.XX within 30 days or I will forfeit my right to a modification and not be eligible again. If I feel differently and can provide proof of payment then I may send a letter to a PO Box ### with the information.

After the steam stopped pouring from my ears I called them, sat on hold for 45 minutes until I got an agent who told me that he shows my payments so there isn't an issue. If that is the case then why am I getting this letter??? The only lame excuse he could tell me is that the case probably went to underwriting before the payment. I told him that makes no sense because the letter says they have payment #4 but not 1, 2 or 3? I was so mad I made the agent listen to me read the whole letter.  His only advice was if I wanted to cover myself then I could send a letter but they have the information. Again, why are you sending me a letter if that is the case?

Here is the ironic part. I have a Bank of America checking account just for the purposes of paying my mortgage so I spent my lunch hour writing a not so nice letter about how dumb it is that I am printing my BOA bank statements and the online BOA mortgage information that shows when they applied the payments to my account so that I can send this to BOA as proof that BOA received my payments. Are you confused yet? I had to draw it out with crayons to these morons that every transaction was done with the same company, their company so it baffles me that no one is able to connect the damn dots unless I print it out and send it to them.

I read an article on CNN.com last week saying the government was cracking down on all the "pending" modifications out there under the Help for Homeowners program. When I mentioned that to the agent last week he told me the funny thing is he has heard that from others as well as friends in other banks and none of the banks have apparently been told this. So is this lip service from the Obama administration or are the banks just not telling there people and then sending out all these letters to buy time.

I am going to keep at this because moving would be a nightmare but I am going to end up filing bankruptcy because of my other bills (credit cards & medical).  If they delay much longer I will just have to give my house back to the bank and figure out what to do.

Today started off on a bad note. It's raining here and supposed to turn to snow. Roads are icy and kids are housebound driving us nuts. So not fun. I am sick of winter. I slept in a little while but then started to clean house. Of course, DH was supposed to have some cash yesterday from a job he just started and of course he didn't get it. I'm super broke and we need the grocery basics (eggs, milk, etc.). My checkbook is dry and I'll be surprised if I don't start bouncing checks.

Got a call yesterday from Bank of America FIA card services and they are trying to get $120 out of me by Thursday or they will be turning my account over to see what they want to do. Whether they want to write it off or sue me or whatever. Well, go for it but we are going to end up in bankruptcy shortly anyways. I am just waiting for my mortgage modification's to be final. No word on Bank of America mortgage modification yet. I am through the trial period and now just waiting. Hard to believe it's been going on since July already. The government wonders why it's taking so long....well my case would be a good one to look at. I call them all the time and they tell me the same things. It takes XXX days after XXXX before they process it. Whatever! My 2nd mortgage with Citibank I filed in October, they requested paperwok in November, I had a little hiccup with trying to get them to figure out who was writing it but once I freaked out on a supervisor it got actioned right away. I got the final paperwork 3 days later. That has been returned.

I feel bad we are going to end up in bankruptcy but with the spouse not working due to medical issues the past year and no unemployment coming in my income hasn't been enough to keep up. If I could have gotten these mortgages modified a lot faster I would have been able to do something with the credit cards but unfortunately BofA screwed me big time.

Snuggie Time!!!

It's been a rough year and my Christmas wish list was small as it's all about the kids.  The two things I did want were a Snuggie (and a Couponizer - details on my earlier post here).  On a day like this where the temperature in MN is 10 and going down as I type it's nice to be bundled up at my desk with this. The sleeves are long enough to cover my hands but my fingers are still numb. I think the only thing I would do differently is sew some type of pockets on the end of the sleeves to anchor my fingers in place so they stay warm. I always have icy fingers and feet. BRRR!!!

Unemployement woes

I just have to say that Minnesota must have the dumbest people working at the unemployment office ever (no offense if you work there but I am seriously frustrated).  My hubby had to quit his job in May per doctor's orders. At 40 he had severe osteoarthritis in his hips and it was so bad he would periodically take a step and fall to the ground.  We knew that he would eventually need hip replacement surgery but it had deteriorated so bad his hip socket was crumbling, there was bone on bone in the joint and he was falling because the ball would come out of what was left in the cup. One look at the x-rays and he was put on a no work restriction by his doctor. He was an auto mechanic, working for a small business (1 owner and 3 workers) and had no type of disability insurance. It was questionable if he would ever be able to go back to his line of work once his surgeries would be complete.

He gave his employer notice that he could no longer work there so they could find someone else. According to the unemployment webiste you can collect if you have illness or injury that prohibits you from doing employment. After spending several week submitting paperwork over and over we received a letter stating that unless he is able to look for employment he can't collect. We interpreted that as when his surgery is done and he is cleared by his doctor to work he can then collect until he is able to find another job.  That is the case but we have 3 issues with them and one of them was that he quit his job. They are telling us that since he quit and didn't give his employer opportunity to give him alternate arrangement he can't collect. Apparently a doctor's note that he is not allowed to work is not OK? With such a small shop there is nothing else he could have done. He was in so much pain he spent the time until his surgery on pain killers.  Not only that - he missed the appeal period and we can try to file a late appeal but they are saying good luck with that. Yet had we appealed in June they wouldn't have bothered to look at it since he couldn't look for work.

I am so frustrated and annoyed. I would like to handle the appeal process ourself and not have to involve a lawyer but I am not sure how easy that will be. 

Cutting expenses one cell phone at a time.

DH has been unemployed since April due to medical issues (more on that later) so we are trying to make it on my income. One of the first things I had to do is cut out unnecessary expenses. Unfortunately since we were already living paycheck to paycheck there wasn't a lot to cut from other than deciding which bills I couldn't pay anymore. Already didn't have cable TV, avidly clip coupons, no long distance, no gym or movie club memberships, no magazine subscriptions, etc.

The only luxury I have maintained is having internet service as I do work from home occasionally and with 2 girls in school it is a necessity.  To me this is the one thing I could not live without as it has proved beneficial. I have saved the cost of the service many times over by using internet printed coupons and reading blogs about the best deals at Target, Walgreen's etc.

Fortunately for us our cell phone service with Verizon was up and I made the decision to go prepaid. For me this has worked fabulously as I am very concientious about not using minutes unless necessary. I prefer to email. Unfortunately for DH it hasn't been the best decision. He will actually pick the cell phone up when it's sitting right next to the home phone to make a phone call. It drives me crazy and we have had many fights. The best deal we had so far was with Virgin Mobile for him but this past month he went for service without 2 weeks because I got mad that he blew threw his allotted minutes. :)

I was at Wal-Mart before Christmas and they have a fantastic new Wal-Mart only service called  Straight Talk that is the bomb!  For $30 a month he can get 1,000 minutes of talk, 1,000 texts and 30MB of internet service. If need be we can upgrade to $45 month for unlimited but I think this plan will work fine for him.  I just need to figure out how to activate the internet and he is good to go.  The only downfall to the plan is the minutes expire monthly and do not carry over but we are still spending less than we were with Virgin Mobile.

So far the service has been good. According to the website it's on the Trac-fone network which is nationwide so we hopefully shouldn't have problems.

Coupons Coupons - who loves coupons?

I am the dork queen of coupons. :)  I admit it - I buy Sunday papers just for the coupons. I also print coupons from the internet, scour the shelves at the grocery store for boxes with them or the handy little dispensers that pop them out at you. I admit - I pull them off boxes to use later and will take several from the dispenser to store away if they have a long expiration time on them. My kids have even started to notice them and will grab them from the shelf to give to me.  Obsessed -- maybe?? :) It drives my hubby nuts and he hates to shop with me which is fine by me. I think he is embarassed when I hand the checkout clerk a stack full of coupons. Plus I am guilty of spending 2 hours in the store digging through coupons if I see things that have a good price.

My biggest problem has been organizing them. I have read tons of blogs with different methods and for the longest time I used a 3 ring binder with all sorts of photo and baseball card pages. I loved it when I was in the store but let me tell you it is painful to cut, clip and organize and then remove all the expired ones later. I was getting to the point where I would drag my huge bag of coupons and resuable bags into the store becauase all my valid coupons were clipped together with a paper clip. Not good!

For Christmas Santa (aka my mommy whom I adore) bought  me The Couponizer (  The Smart Way to Organize Savings )
 OMG - I have had it for a week and am absolutely in love with this. I have been eyeing it for a year now but I couldn't bring myself to spend $20 on it.  I hadn't seen one other than on the internet and I felt like I would be wasting my money.  Well - I think next year I am going to be buying one for everyone I know that saves coupons! The clip mat alone saves me at least an hour on Sundays and when I went to the grocery store this week I was only there an hour. :) I also saves 48% off my bill. :) woo hoo!