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!

Welcome & 2010 resolution

As a full time working mother of 2 young daughters I have decided I need to find a way to organize myself.  I love to read others' blogs and have found so many fun things to do and make but can never seem to find the time. It's time to clean out the bookmarked pages and gather my thoughts into one place.

My resolution for 2010 is to spend some time getting to know me again and learn to balance this with motherhood.

Welcome to my work in progress.