Exciting Surprises

We've had a few exciting financial surprises lately. The last week has been tight financially - I've been spending as much as I can on debt leaving us very little to live off of. It is a challenge to our fiscal discipline but going alright so far. We've been eating a lot of yummy dinners at home to save money eating out.

Here are the surprises:

$100 Energy Star Rebate Check from when we bought our washer/dryer in June.

$71 Delivery Rebate from Sears for the Washer/Dryer. This is a Sears gift card, so we need to spend this wisely at Sears.

I found out that my employer is pushing a big wellness program. There are 5 Pillars of the program:

1. Know your numbers
2. Be Tobacco-Free
3. Eat Healthy
4. Get Fit
5. Manage Stress

For the 1st and 2nd pillar, they are offering incentives. For know your numbers, if you get your numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, body weight, and BMI and then enter those into the Health Risk appraisal online, then you get a $25 Healthy Incentive credit towards you monthly medical plan contribution for each employee and eligible spouse!

For being tobacco free, you and your spouse get an additional $25 credit if you can certify that you are tobacco free.

That adds up to $100/month savings on our monthly insurance contribution! That is $1200 saved!

Another exciting benefit at work is a Health Care Reimbursement account (FSA). This kind of account is risky, because if you don't use what you save, you loose it. However, it is tax free savings to be used for any health costs (deductibles, copay, vision, dental, prescriptions, etc.). Since we have a lot of costs coming up for my wife's pregnancy, we decided to try a $1000 for the account. They sent us a preloaded benefits card with $1000 and my check is automatically deducted each time to pay for it. I found out on an online calculator that this will save us about $275/yr in taxes!

Finally, as I was sorting through old paperwork I found a check from Hilary's old employer. It was her last paycheck and for some reason they send a hard copy instead of direct deposit. I had forgotten to cash it and it was for $72!

So, this week God has blessed us with $1728 in additional fund that will trickle in over the next 12 months.

We are praising God and so thankful for His provision; and for this great job and benefits.

Hopefully we can use these "snowflakes", as Dave Ramsey calls them, wisely towards expenses and debt payments.

Thanking the Visitors

I'd like to thank all the visitors to my blog. It is such an encouragement to even know that people stumble on and read for a few minutes. I hope you enjoy your peek into our lives. I'm a very transparent person, so that will show in my blog entries.


I'm excited to see that I've had over 2000 visitors now, and it is fun to watch where people are from using FeedJit and Statcounter.


The map below shows the location of recent visitors to the blog.
Thank you for following and God bless you!

Pay Day means Bill Day

We both got paid today. That means I get to pay bills and plan the rest of the month.

Here are the bills I've paid today and pending payments:

• Tithe to Church: $810
• Alabama Power: $162
• Windsor Lake Apartment: 146.98
• My credit card balance: $104.37
• Student Loan (Auburn Perkins): $100
• Student Loan (Sallie Mae): $190
• Student Loan (Direct Loan): $130
• Student Loan (Citibank): $1000
• Hilary's Credit Card: $400
• Babysitter: $25

That adds up to: $3068.35 in pending payments.

This leaves us about $300 to last until next payday, July 29th & July 30th.

My strategy is to pay the big bills first, and force us to live off the remainder.

We had a few unexpected expenses come up this week:

• Hilary's computer broke, so she bought a new one on credit: $500
• Hilary's scholarship contract at the hospital in Auburn wasn't worked off completely so we owe $1562.23, to be paid within the next 24 months. I will break this into 6 payments of $260.37. This happened because she quit early from being sick, and because we moved. Had she worked there up until the end of July the contract would have been fulfilled.

Due to the last two expenses, I consider that our debt has increased. Hilary spent money on 18 month pictures for Charlotte, the new computer, and groceries were put on her credit card for a balance of $882.63. I will add that, plus the new $105 from my credit card, plus the hospital scholarship payback to our overall debt on the Thermometer.

• Debt: $2,489.23 + $161,000 = $163,489.23

• Paid Off: $13,735.04 + $1,524.37 = $15,259.41

• Debt Remaining: $-148,229.82

I am doing this so that I can keep a tally of all the debt we accumulate & payoff.

I'm looking forward to the end of the month so that I can make some more debt payments!

June by the Numbers

Every month, I'd like to give a snapshot of our spending. June wasn't a great month, but I like to think I have some good excuses.

To provide background, I just graduated on May 14th. My wife was out of work for several months because of sickness during pregnancy. With me only working part time, our finances were surviving but not thriving.

I started my new job June 1st but didn't get a paycheck until June 15th. Hilary stared her job in mid June and didn't get paid until early July.

We had some large expenses:

• Mobile Home Repair: $2700
• Student Loan Payment: $216
• June Lot Rent: $180 (at old house)
• Power Bill: $162 (at old house)
• Childcare: $250 (during Hilary's orientation)
• New Cable/Internet + Setup fee: $137
• New desk and desktop computer for Thomas: $140
• Used Golf Clubs: $135 (my Father's day gift to myself)
• Mobile Home Loan Payment on Interest: $151
• New Battery for Hilary's Car: $102
• New work clothes for Thomas: $150
• Several other things...

A graphical summary from Mint.com:

As you can see, June was a bad month for food. I clump a lot of things into the "Restaurants" category. It covers any time we eat out, buy a soda, grab a snack, or do anything related to food that wasn't grocery shopping. This has to be controlled. My goal for food budget, overall, is $425/month. We need to shrink the Restaurant category down by about $400.

We won't meet this for July because our current spending so far is $450 and we are only half way into the month. So far, we have spent $290 in restaurant and $160 in grocery. This is a wake up call, and I'm glad I checked into this. It will help me to be more aware as I finish out July. At this rate, my goal is to be under $625 for food this month. That means for the 17 days left in the month, we have $10.25 a day to spend on food. That will feed a village in Africa but I'm lucky if that covers my lunch at Subway.

Simplicity....self control...patience...stewardship...

These are the traits I need to develop this month as I pursue financial responsibility.

Stay tuned to see how we finish out this month!

Grace to you all,

Thomas

NBC13.com

The article that was featured in the Corner News in Auburn was also featured on NBC13.com in Birmingham, AL!

You can find the article here.

Thank you Kathleen Watson at the Corner News!

Buy our Home!!

Anyone need a home in Auburn? Buy our mobile home!

We are trying to sell our place back in Auburn, AL, with not a lot of luck yet. The park that the mobile home is in is a student only park, so there are really 2 seasons (for the Summer and the Fall). We missed the summer season but hopefully will get a buyer this month or next.

The home has been listed since February, with only 1 offer so far. Unfortunately the offer fell through. We couldn't come to agreement on who would pay for a few repairs that needed to be made. I was asking $18500 - they offered $15000. I got them up to $17000 but they wanted me to pay for $3000 worth of repairs, leaving me with only $14000. They backed out because I only agreed to $2000 in repairs. After they backed out I had all the repairs done and we raised our asking price to $19500. We didn't get any interest after that so we lowered the asking price to $18250. I won't be able to go much lower but at the same time I need to sell it.

We owe about $6900 on the mobile home loan and it is paid up until August. If it doesn't sell by then, we will have to start making $350/month payments again. I also still have to pay for lot rent ($185/month) every month that it doesn't sell. Plus, there is still a power bill, lawn maintenance for $25 bucks a pop, AND my home insurance was dropped because we aren't occupying the residence anymore. Every month that goes by I lo0se $600 in this home. I could lower the asking price to make it more appealing, but I still run the risk of not selling and loosing even more money.

I NEED TO SELL!!! If I can sell, then I can pay off the mobile home loan AND most of the timeshare loan that we have (see earlier post). The timeshare is also paid up until August, but after that those payments will be about $425/month. As long as we own this home I won't be able to attack my student loans like I want too.

So far I've listed on the park website, Craigslist, and Facebook marketplace. I think I might try the Auburn newspaper soon.

Your prayers are much appreciated!! If you know anyone moving into the Auburn area and is looking for a place to live, please forward on my contact info!

You can see a slideshow with pictures here.

The Stupid Tax

I've been telling you all for a while now that we are paying off our stupid tax, but we haven't told much of anyone what that was, until now. A timeshare. Ugh. Before you rush to judgement let me tell the story.

Last February, Hilary and I had a wonderful weekend getaway to the Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, TN. It was a great trip, in a private cabin, perfect weather and a great time together. Hilary wasn't pregnant yet, so she wasn't sick. We had a friend watching Charlotte that weekend for us so we were able to enjoy the time to ourselves.

On the last day, practically on our way out of town, we stopped for some directions to a popular pancake place. The person giving directions wasn't just giving directions, they were recruiting potential timeshare buyers. After tempting us with a free breakfast and $75 cash for just a 2 hr tour and sales pitch we decided to check it out.

They drove us to the Westgate Smokey Mountain Resort, just a few minutes down the road. This place was beautiful. Great looking lodge, filled with slick salesmen. They breakfast was over, replaced by nasty hotdogs and chips. So much for pancakes. We sat down with a sales guy named Glenn. At this point, we had NO intention of buying. We just wanted a free breakfast and some cash.

Glenn was smooth. He slowly explained timeshare ownership at this particular resort, and explained reasons to own a timeshare with this particular company. All these were very convincing. He then did some math, explaining that financially, over a long period of time, it makes sense to invest in something like this because you basically pay for vacation now, and have it for free for the rest of your life (sort of). I can't explain it all now, but it made sense to us then. Now, keep in mind I have a VERY critical spirit towards these kinds of things, and so does my wife. We aren't gullible people. I've made plenty of mistakes in the past that have made me very cautious.

After the sales talk, we were taken on a tour. This is when our emotions got the best of us. This resort is in the heart of the Smokey Mountains and is a high class resort. Very nice. Glenn showed us the indoor water park, a few other things, and then showed us a 1 bedroom cabin. The cabin had a full, stocked kitchen, 1 bathrooms with large tub, a large bedroom, and a living room with a pull out couch. It supposedly can sleep 4-5 people. The view was incredible.

After the tour, impressed but still skeptical, we made it back to the lodge. At this point no prices had been thrown out, and I still assumed that something like this was way out of our price range. We sat down with Glenn and another sales manager who presented us with a 1 bedroom package - for right around $13,000. When they said that number, for some reason I went from "I'd never buy one of these things" to "I think this could actually work". It was all over from that point.

They told us about how you can rent these out to anyone - at any price you choose. You can let anyone use the timeshare - friends, family, whoever. You can trade you timeshare week (7 days) at this resort and exchange it for any of the other Westgate Resorts or Interval International Resorts around the world. There is also a cruise package - super cheap cruises OR you can even trade your resort week for a cruise instead (no cost obviously). Also, there are these things called buyer nights. If you don't want to use your week or if you run out, you can buy additional nights for $50/night. You can sell those to friends and family also, at any price you choose. The downside of all this is maintenance fees, $550/year. But the upside is very flexible scheduling. You aren't restricted to one particular week. If you schedule it right, you can get whatever week you want.

So after about 5 long hours, we signed the contract and bought a timeshare. I have the deed-it's mine. It is real property. I still can't believe it. We were financed with Westgate, but if you pay it off and get refinanced privately you can get better interest rates and 5% off your price.

After getting home from this very emotional and in the clouds experience, the realization of what we had done set in. I immediately started researching - they don't really give you that chance in the moment. Westgate has a horrible BBB rating (mostly because of the sales tactics and negative timeshare image). However, I did call the Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce and they said that Westgate is in good standing and they've never had a complaint.

Our local bank gave us a loan and we paid off Westgate. So, we currently have about $12,000 left on our Timeshare loan. When the mobile home sells, we will probably have enough to pay off the mobile home loan AND timeshare loan. We haven't used our timeshare yet this year, and I don't really think we will be able to since we moved further away from Gatlinburg and we also are about to have another baby and are busy with new jobs. Maybe we'll get to use it next year. A cruise would be nice.

Looking back, even though this isn't 100% negative, I still consider it a stupid tax. We are not travelers right now. We don't vacation regularly even though I'd love too. We are in NO financial position to owe $12K on a timeshare when that money SHOULD be going to my student loans. But, this is a lesson learned. I have to deal with it. I went to the store and I got suckered into buying some lemons. So, I'll have to just make some lemonade.

So what are we doing now? I listed our Timeshare with Timeshare Hotlist - who helps you to sell and rent your timeshares to corporate and business clients (for a fee). Nothing yet, but if it works it will be well worth it.

Until then - we are offering to rent our timeshare and benefits to anyone interested. Friends, family, anyone.

• Do you want a 7 day vacation in Gatlinburg? Make me an offer! I need to cover my maintenance fees and a little extra would be nice.
• Want a cheap cruise? Book through me!
• Want to go on a vacation, anywhere? Check with me! I can probably get you an amazing deal!

Think of me as your travel agent. I will make the arrangements and reservations. Just give me an idea of dates and locations when and where you might want to go.

Until we sell or rent this thing, we are going to try to get the best use out of it. If we can't sell or rent it, hopefully WE can actually get a chance to use it.

Visit the Westgate website for more info: http://www.wgsmokymountains.com/rooms.htm

So now you know my stupid tax. Hopefully it will all work out for the best. Hit me up for a cheap but amazing a vacation.

Till next time,

Thomas