what a difference

3 weeks ago, we were planning to buy a new computer. Ours is about 7 years old and runs really slow. It is such a pain to work on. It did not take long into reading "The Total Money Makeover" to decide against buying a new computer and start to see where we have been going wrong. Yeah, the computer is annoying, but it still works. So, here is what we decided to do instead.

We have a loan that has 2 cars (1998 grand prix and 2000 alero) and our van attached to it as collateral. We used the $900 we were planning to buy the new computer with to pay down the loan enough to have the title released to the grand prix. I posted that car for sale on craigslist and it was sold within 24 hrs for $700. That $700 is going into the bank to build our first $1000 emergency fund.

Next, I started returning things. I can't believe how much "stuff" I have returned over the last few weeks. It was an easy thing to do and gave me a ton of motivation. I started going through the entire house looking for anything with tags still on. (clothes, toys etc.) Once I started returning, that was all I wanted to do. I ended up taking back a little over $500 worth. It was so nice to walk out of a store without a pit in the bottom of my stomach from spending money I did not have. Oh, I do not miss that pit!!

The next thing I did was started listing things on craigslist. I have already sold a digital camera that we don't use anymore and we have a couple coming to look at a second washing machine of ours tonight. I have many more things to list and sell. I am hoping to list a few new things each week. I will keep you updated on what sells.

The next "revelation" (I guess you could call it that) was to decided we did NOT really need the second car, the alero. We have a van and Dan has been generously been given a company car to drive. So really, why are we keeping the second car? We kept thinking that we should hang on to it "just in case". What if he gets his company car taken away? What if the van dies? And how would we get around needing that car as collateral to our loan? We decided to leave all that wondering and worrying to God and see if there was any way we could get that car sold. The money from that car would really help with a chunk of one of our credit cards. I called the bank, to see if they would accept our mobile home title and release both the car and van. Because this is an out of state bank, that was not something they could do. Okay.

We took the kids in to our local bank 2 weekends ago to open up their savings accounts. (we have them on board with saving too!!) I didn't think it would hurt to ask if they could help at all with our situation. Once they pulled our credit report, they wanted to know why were were not asking for more? WHAT? I did not understand what the lady was talking about. She thought that they not only could take over the loan from the other bank, freeing up both vehicle titles, but would also lend us enough to pay off a credit card with a high balance and super high interest rate. I almost started to cry. We have lots of debt, but we also have excellent credit. All we needed was an appraisal on our mobile home and they could get the paperwork started.

This is what we were able to accomplish with the two banks.

We had a loan through an out of state bank for $13,400 at 8.1% apr. We were using both vehicles as collateral. We also had a credit card bill of $11,000 at 24% apr. (I know, makes my stomach hurt too)

We now have a loan at our local bank for $18,000 at 8.3% apr. We are using our mobile home as collateral. And a second loan of just under $7,000 at 6.89% and using the van as collateral.

We lowered our monthly payments by $85, lowered the overall interest rate by a ton and we now have the title to the alero. We are hoping to get around $3000 for the alero which we will apply to the first credit card we are going to tackle.

I am so excited to know we are starting to turn things around, but honestly, I am more excited to know we have had a change in the way we think about our financial situation. We have a goal that we are working on together and that feels SO GOOD. The house has been a happier more upbeat place to hang out these days and I can already tell our marriage is begining to strengthen.
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