2 Adults 2 Kids » Finances

OOps I (okay, we) Did It Again!!

KJ — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:06:28 +0000

You would think that we learned our lesson last time. But no, we didn’t! We’re still making plans and counting on money that we don’t have on hand. We did it with the RV and we got burned. We didn’t learn our lesson and we did it with this trip and we just got burned again!

Here’s the short version: We took out a $10,000 personal line of credit to buy a vending business last year. Since then we had paid it down to $7,000. (We could have paid it off sooner, but instead of making principle payments as we had originally planned, we went out to eat … a lot.) It showed up as a credit card on my credit reports and every month Bank of America (BofA) would send me checks that I could write to deposit more funds into my checking account from this line of credit.

Well, before we left Brooklyn CM was running ragged trying to find a buyer for the business. I think the ever-increasing gas prices made people wary of what was otherwise a very good deal. We didn’t blog about it because it didn’t seem central to the point of the blog.

So on the last day before we left, we got a buyer and we sold the vending route for exactly $7000. Well we had decided to pay back $5000, keep $2000 for backup, and transfer another $2000 when we got to Hawaii because everything is so expensive. $4000 in debt didn’t seem too horrible considering this was going to be the trip of a lifetime.

Fast forward to yesterday — I called BofA to make a transfer into my checking account and my request was DENIED. They said my debt/income ratio was too high. I was flabbergasted because not only had I not gotten any new credit since last year, but I had paid all of my credit cards off! Besides, since when is your credit reviewed every time you try to charge something? What would have happened had I tried to deposit one of those checks they keep sending me?

I asked how long was it going to be before I could access the money and they sales associate told me 4-6 months!!! What good is a line of credit that you can’t use for 4-6 months?!? CM & I made a quick decision to just close the account. That way I can get the full $10k off of my credit report.

By the way, we also thought that making such a huge payment on the principle would lower our monthly payments — WRONG!! I found out yesterday that our high payments are staying the same, my giant payment only shortened the amount of payments I have to make.

(If this is my short version, I’d hate to see the long version…) So, now CM and I are in Hawaii with only $1200 left in cash. If we were hanging out at the beach, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but before we left Brooklyn CM let me know how excited he was to see the volcano. (He doesn’t get excited about a lot of things.) The trip to see the volcano is going to cost $900. I, the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), came up with a budget to still go see the volcano and only charge $500 or so on a regular credit card.

CM is dead set against it. This other card has twice of the interest rate of BofA’s. We didn’t speak much last night, just a series of glares back and forth.

Culture Sidebar: In Hawaii a mean look is called “stink eye”. An example sentence: CM gave me stink eye all night because I wanted to use a credit card to pay for our trip.

Arguments/disagreements about money can really spoil a vacation. It’s 6:30 am here, and I’m watching the sun rise over the ocean and trying to get back into the spirit, but I’m torn. We might not make it back to Hawaii again, so why not stretch to see the volcano? Even if it does mean 1 or 2 unwise financial decisions?

Daily Wisdom: Don’t go on a trip until you have all of the money for it in the bank. Otherwise, you’re asking for it.

What would you do? Give up and just hang out at the beach for 4 more days or would you throw caution to the wind and go see an active volcano??

Finances: July 8 – 16, 2008

KJ — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:33:17 +0000

I finally sat down and added up all of our receipts. Here goes nothing:

Groceries, Meals at Restaurants, and Snacks – $394.16
Entertainment – $4
Campgrounds – $96.2
Diesel – $589.79
Misc. – 107.71
Total = $1191.86

July 7th Finances

KJ — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:44:59 +0000

Posting our finances is getting harder and harder to remember to do….

Camping World – $112.17 (Sewer Hose, Outdoor Chairs, etc.)
Toys ‘R Us – $24.92 (Booster Seats for the kids)
Lunch – $27.36
Total = $164.45

July 6th Finances

KJ — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:04:20 +0000

Wow! I’m beginning to notice that gas is really starting to add up. CM has a miles per gallon tracking tool and he says that our first two tanks got 15 MPGs and the next one got a little over 17 MPGs, but the last one got only 14 MPGs. He thinks it was because we were going over a lot of hills on that tank.

Here’s the breakdown:

Gas – $188.93
Snacks – $4.99
Total – $193.92

July 5th Finances

KJ — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:36:31 +0000

Keeping track of the Day 1, Day 2, etc. was starting to stress me out, so I’m just including dates from now on.

Lunch – $17.66 (Poor planning, we should have cooked our own food.)

Snacks – $1.55 (Mostly sodas to keep us awake.)

Tolls – $24 (For 2 cars)

Gas – $117.20 (For 2 cars)

Total – $160.41

Day 3 Finances – Playing Catch Up (KJ)

KJ — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:50:49 +0000

So I need to update our finances for Day 2. The only problem is that I can’t find the receipts at the moment, so I’m going to “guesstimate”.

I know we didn’t spend any money, so basically all we paid for was the camp site for $20. Now that I think about it, I left out the camp site fees for Day 2 as well. So altogether, we spent $40 yesterday.

The Countdown is Out and “Money Spent” and “Miles Traveled” are in. (KJ)

KJ — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:00:41 +0000

Did you ever noticed how my countdowns on the sidebar were always off?? As soon as I made a countdown for picking up the RV, the dealer called and told me he needed me to pick it up now. As soon as I made one for NY, a campground reservation opened up in Jersey. CM & I joked that I need to make a countdown for us winning the lottery because everything has been happening sooner than we expect.

This endeavor has taught us to be flexible, really flexible.

That being said, no more countdowns. Now I am going to keep track of how much we spend and how far we travel. I’m still up in the air about whether or not to include the RV payment in our expenses.

What do you think?

Day 2 – Finances

KJ — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:15:02 +0000

Even though we spent most our day mulling around camp, we ended up spending quite a bit of money yesterday. Here’s the breakdown:

Groceries for 4 days: $75.76
Portable Grill (and Accessories), Deep Fryer, and a few other items for the RV: $102.22
Gas for the Van: 61.92
Total: $239.90

We are going to have to buy chairs soon. Our camp site has no place to sit.

Day 1 Part 2 (KJ)

KJ — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:00:27 +0000

I think I am going to try and keep track of our finances on this blog. I will admit that after we left Bed-Stuy we parked in Williamsburg for a few hours and I bought some t-shirts for everyone….and some shoes for myself. I spent almost $300, but I’m not including that since we hadn’t officially left NY yet. CM is always on my case for not “including” certain expenses.

Besides that, the majority of our money was spent on food today. We didn’t stop for gas at all, so our numbers are relatively low:

Snacks = $3.87
Dinner and Breakfast groceries = $24.25
1 Dozen Dunkin Donuts (because we went shopping on empty stomachs) = $5.69
Camp site = $20
Total spent today = $53.81

Hindsight 20/20 (KJ)

KJ — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:05:11 +0000

Most of the time when people say that, it’s because they are regretting some past action. Maybe they went right when they should have went left. Maybe they left a secure job for a higher paying job and then got fired. Today I can honestly say that I’m glad I made the wrong decision. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t be preparing for a cross-country trip.

If you were with me at the beginning o this blog you would know that when we were trying to figure out how we were going to pay for the RV I really goofed with the numbers. I included some money I thought I was getting. As it turned out, I wasn’t getting it and that meant we were short several thousand dollars and we ended up having to charge the balance. I really beat myself up about it.

I was talking to CM this morning and he told me that he would have never gone through with the plan if he had known that we were going to have to put even $100 on credit. Knowing that, I’m glad I goofed. It was the best goof of my life and our lives and going to be so much more enriched because of it.

By the way, we have finally sold enough of our furniture to pay off the balance on the credit card we used. Yea! Where there’s a will, there’s a way.