WillBe's Accountability Thread

[willbestressfree]

I hope this is ok. I saw that someone else is using a single thread to keep herself accountable and in check. It helps so much to have a place to brag about snowflakes and whine about Murphy, but since I'm a rare poster I don't want to show up with "look at me!" threads in a place where I'm unknown.

So support and constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated!

*********************

I introduced myself to Dave Ramsey's methods in August, when we were at our financial low point. After laying everything out in Quicken I was convinced we'd be building our baby e-fund by the end of October. I'm disappointed that hasn't happened.

But my DH has put some things in perspective, showing that we have made improvements. I'd rather not put all of our numbers online, but I have them in Quicken and on paper. So a general synopsis:

Where we were in August:
-Late rent and child care (our wonderful landlord is also our saintly babysitter)
-Paying most bills on receipt of shut off notice
-No e-fund
-Overdrawn checking account nearly every pay period
-Child support paid every pay period
-Past taxes taken from DH's check every pay period
-Good insurance through work, no supplemental or life insurance

[Russ]

Looking forward to reading your progress.

You can do it!


Then you can change your name to Amstressfree.

[RaineyDaye]

I like reading about other's progress in obtaining financial stability. How are you doing now, besides not yet being able to start an emergency fund?

[willbestressfree]

As of Dec 1, 2009:

IMPROVEMENTS:
-Child care and rent on time for the past 2 months. Rent will be 4 days late this week. I'm disappointed, but realize what an improvement this is.

-Still paying the water bill late, but all other utilities are back on track

-Checking account no longer overdrawn, even if we cut it close.

-Two days ago we signed up for whole and term life insurance. Yay!!!

SETBACKS AND FAILURES:
-No e-fund yet.
-Student loan is still behind/forebearanced

SNOWFLAKES:
-No more child support - full custody of kids
-No more garnished taxes
-Getting a raise Dec. 10 that includes back pay to August

LOOKING AHEAD:
-Planning for Christmas:
I've been making Christmas gifts for relatives. We're doing a large family gift from Santa that will actually cut our spending in half.
-Need to call student loan co.
-Need to open new checking/savings acct.
-Need to start e-fund in new savings acct.

[Russ]

-Two days ago we signed up for whole and term life insurance. Yay!!!

.

Why?

Read this short but informative thread > https://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/...highlight=life

[Greebo]

-Two days ago we signed up for whole and term life insurance. Yay!!!

Oh dear.

Insurance = good.

Whole life, however, is not.

Whole life *can* be good if your goal is to leave lots of money to your children even if you live to be 100. Otherwise, it's a crappy crappy investment - and you shouldn't be doing any investing right now ANYWAY.

[willbestressfree]

Thanks for the tips on whole life. It was part of the package with the term life, which was less expensive than another term life plan we'd considred. We'll look deeper into it.

Aaarrrrgghh! Just texted DH. He knew one was bad but couldn't remember what it was or why so he didn't say anything. He does agree, though that we need to reconsider. Wish he'd thought of that yesterday when we finished signing.

[NikoSan999]

You should have 3 days to cancel.

You are doing great. Don't expect everything to happen at once. You are showing great stride on accomplishments...be proud!!!

Looking forward to reading your thread along the way.

[willbestressfree]

WHAT'S NEW:
Still struggling with utility payments, but got a utility snowflake that is helping with that.

Checking accounts riding near $100 or more at the end of each pay period. I know this needs to go into a savings account, but we need to get enough of a grip to avoid overdraft, first.

Waiting to hear back from insurance agent friend who was asked to adjust our policy and remove the whole life insurance. I'm concerned that I haven't heard from him since I put in the request the day after my first post here.

Made payment arrangements to pay off the last $100 owed to Dell.

SETBACKS AND FAILURES:
-No e-fund yet, although there is a small surplus hanging out in the checking account right now.
-Student loan is still behind - Using the tail end of remaining forbearance time to get things back on track. Applying for deferment, although I don't think we'll qualify.

SNOWFLAKES:
-Extra $ in my last pay period - retroactive pay raise worth nearly half a paycheck.
-Utility snowflake - we'd been paying $45/month extra on our budgeted gas bill to pay off past debt from our last house. We've reached the end of the billing cycle and between those monthly payments and their overestimate of our gas usage, we had enough credit to wipe out the remaining $448 owed so we can start this year's cycle with a 0 balance. *Also, last January I stopped allowing estimations. Every month on the 30th I read my meter and report it. Their obscenely high estimations based on the year prior (before a new furnace and new windows were installed) were killing our budget billing. The reassessment dropped our monthly budgeted bill from $300 to $75! We continued to pay $100 just in case, which is how the surplus happened.
-Had a couple days off work this pay period, which reduced babysitter bill by $60. Christmas will give us a full week's reprieve, also!

LOOKING AHEAD:
-Planning for Christmas:
I'm anxious to see how much we spent/are spending this year vs. years prior. I've gotten some excellent deals and made many gifts myself.
--Need to call student loan co.
-Open new checking/savings acct.
-Start e-fund in new savings acct.
-Switch from Safe Auto to Progressive & add renter's insurance. It won't save us any $, but I'll feel more confident that we won't get shafted if we're in an accident.
-UNPLUG it when it's not in use! (need to get DH on board)
-Find out how to note cash payments in Quicken

[mauimagic]

WBSF - mahalo for sharing your journey with us - sounds as if you are actively engaged in working this all out!! Looking forward to your next post in this process - love learning from others!!

[Greebo]

Listen - you are listing yourself as failing on the BEF - stop that.

You are getting current on your active expenses. You HAVE to do that first to stop the bleeding or you will NEVER get traction.

Go back and RE study the expanded baby steps and stop beating yourself up!

[NikoSan999]

What he said....you're doing great. Everything, unfortunately dosen't happen all at once. Wish it did. You should be patting yourself on the back not knocking yourself down. And that includes hubby. AND unplugging does make a difference. I know first hand.

[willbestressfree]

OMG I'm so irritated! We got the papers last night for the life insurance we purchased a couple weeks ago. We'd met with the agent (our friend) on a Saturday. He was turning in the paperwork on Sunday, and I called him on Monday to ask him to remove the whole life. At the time, he said he could roll all of the payment into term life. I told him I didn't want to do that right now. I felt bad for all the trouble, as we were his last "sale" before moving 2 hours away the next day, to the city where he's working out of. But I keep reminding myself that it is my money and my life, and I need not sacrifice my own needs because of his inconvenience.

So he said he'd take care of it. I was getting nervous that I hadn't heard from him, and apparently for good reason. We got the papers today. He canceled the TERM life and kept the WHOLE!

I texted him this morning and haven't heard back yet. I'm determined that this will be fixed, without us losing the insurance we want, need, and asked for, and without paying any extra than if we'd originally signed up for just term.

*sigh*

Regarding the baby e-fund, thanks for the reminder, Greebo, and the boost from everyone! I do need to change my perspective on things. Any progress is still progress!

[Greebo]

Funny - Dave mentions in the FPU video on insurance that most whole life insurance is sold to family and friends of the agents.

I'd make it clear to him that the policy needs to change today or you'll go somewhere else. Some commission is better than no commission. Make him understand that.

[willbestressfree]

Grrrr he just called me back. He gave me the number of the home office and said I needed to call and tell them to cancel the whole life. I told him there was no info about term in the packet. He said, "hmmmm, there should be." I also noted that I'd asked him to cancel the whole the day after it was submitted. He said he left a message with my husband but no one returned it.

I think he's lying. I'm sure he didn't leave a message with my husband. I'd give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a wrong number or something, but my gut says he's covering his butt. I really think he screwed this up and is trying to avoid admitting his error. When I asked him for assurance that there would be no extra costs, he said there wouldn't be for canceling the whole life. Sure, that answered my question, but what I want is to have the agreed upon amount go towards term, and any moneys for the whole life refunded. I shouldn't have to pay for a month's worth of coverage for a policy I attempted to cancel within 2 days. I'm confident he canceled the wrong policy.

At first I was willing to be patient and careful for the sake of his job. He's a struggling new dad who was finally able to get this fairly secure job and is very good at it. I don't want to add negative marks to his record. Now I don't care. I'm not going to report him to anyone, but when I talk to the main office I will make it clear exactly what I asked for within 2 days of signing so that my money is spent as it should be and not put into policies I don't want.

Thanks for the space to vent!