Am I the only one?

[Heart-Of-God]

I would suggest that when you start a savings account to go with one of the online high yield money market or savings account. Just type that in the search bar and you should be able to pull up a lot of information. Capital One, HSBC, and ING are just a few. Hope this helps.

[LuxLiving]

cicy33 & maat55, I think this article is relevant:

http://www.cbn.com/finance/hunt_nodeprivation.aspx

[maat55]

cicy33 & maat55, I think this article is relevant:

http://www.cbn.com/finance/hunt_nodeprivation.aspx

Great article Lux, the sacrifice for me was very painless because the goal is so worthy and desired. The article spells it out well.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I feel just a bit uneasy suggesting to cicy33 that she needs to change her attitude to one of sacrifice rather than one of deprivation. It is possible she needs to do that, but I don't think there is anything she has said that makes it sound like she is not already sacrificing. The one thing she mentioned as a luxury which gives her plenty of entertainment pleasure is her cable and internet. Maat, you say you spent only $7 in two weeks for books. Well, maybe that is all cicy33 has spent on her cable-internet. I don't know, I don't know what cable goes for in southern Illinois, but I certainly have seen references in this forum for $11 a month cable, which would amount to less than $7 every two weeks for books.

Congrats on the new grandchild, cicy33! You must have been a young Mom, yourself. I hope, you'll be able to help ease the way for this next generation of your family. I hope you will read the blogs. And if you yourself will choose to blog, it could help yourself and others. Sometimes we get ideas from others. Sometimes it just keeps us energized to be a part of the savings trend. Are we an online support group? Maybe so.

[Ima saver]

When i first moved to the mountains, the only job I could get was waitress and the locals never heard of actually tipping. I would work all day long and a great day was making $20 in tips. (Tops on sundays was $12)
But, I still went home every night and put away 10% of my tips in a wooden box. Once a month, I sent that money off to a mutual fund.
It has taken me over 20 years, but once I got serious, I have built up a pretty nice nest egg in mutual funds and savings. Slow and steady wins the race!!

[cicy33]

Thank you Joan for seeming to understand me a little! I was a young mom. 17 to be exact! I do not regret it for a moment. I read the article and I don't see where it applies to me. I have never had the problem of trying to spend money that I did not have to pay for it. We are not in a desperate situation. We can pay our bills and I save some money every month. I can pay for birthdays, and xmas and whatever else I need and we do it all without credit cards. We aren't flat broke I just felt sometimes when I read the posts that the majority of the people here were more financially set than we are right now and I just wondered if there were more members out there that are in my current situation. I do feel we spend way to much on internet and cable. but there is not much alternative here. Unless I want to go back to a phone line which at the cheapest is about $40 a month to be able to use unlimited calls and then of course you have the dial up charge and I could go on and on. But yes, our internet and cable is, in my opinion high. It is $138 per month. This pays for my internet, which between my second job and my sanity will not let go, digital cable, two boxes, a small sport package (3.95 mnth) for my dh, the insurance on the wires, starz and show time which we don't watch but amazingly it is not cheaper to just drop the digital. Then the internet is no longer a combo package. and we pay higher for them individually. I have actually looked into this. It is my one point of contention in our expenses! However, I have a sports freak for a husband and he would go bonkers without his sports. And as said before, we don't go to the movies, bowling, partying, we don't really do much actually, pretty much at home. It is not that I could not cut ourselves to the bone and quote unquote get ahead faster. and I do cut most other expenses pretty tight. Groceries run me less than 200 per month. that includes shampoo and cleaners and stuff like that. and I feed four kids every weekend. We keep the heat as low as possible, turn off lights etc. I don't have a car payment, both vehicles are paid in full. I do have two loans that I am working to get paid off. I rarely shop at walmart for non essentials. I hate buying clothes. However, I am already 40 and am not at a point in my life where I want to sit in the dark and watch 3 lousy channels on tv. So I have one area that I do pay a little more for. I have a current goal of paying off all our debt completely before I turn 50. that is a little over 9 years and that would be nice. I would say honestly we neither one are desperate to become rich. I just want to be comfortable with a little money in the bank.

[maat55]

I feel just a bit uneasy suggesting to cicy33 that she needs to change her attitude to one of sacrifice rather than one of deprivation. It is possible she needs to do that, but I don't think there is anything she has said that makes it sound like she is not already sacrificing. The one thing she mentioned as a luxury which gives her plenty of entertainment pleasure is her cable and internet. Maat, you say you spent only $7 in two weeks for books. Well, maybe that is all cicy33 has spent on her cable-internet. I don't know, I don't know what cable goes for in southern Illinois, but I certainly have seen references in this forum for $11 a month cable, which would amount to less than $7 every two weeks for books.

Congrats on the new grandchild, cicy33! You must have been a young Mom, yourself. I hope, you'll be able to help ease the way for this next generation of your family. I hope you will read the blogs. And if you yourself will choose to blog, it could help yourself and others. Sometimes we get ideas from others. Sometimes it just keeps us energized to be a part of the savings trend. Are we an online support group? Maybe so.

Without knowing what cicy33's expenses are, I do know that she could rearrange her lifestyle to where she could live off 40,000 a year and save an EF fund then invest afterwards. It may mean moving into a smaller home, less car debt or car equity, less blow money etc.

To build an EF and build wealth, means she either has to earn more money or spend less money or both. She will do whatever she wants, I'm telling her that if she wants it bad enough, she can do it and with less, in her words, miserable.

[cicy33]

Well, we already live off about $40,000 per year max. I can't imagine what you must make to make a statement like that! We are not rich people. We are middle to lower class financially wise. I don't have a "lifestyle". I yardsale, coupon and try to cut costs where I can. I frequent the goodwill store, they have great deals on jeans for my dh. I make about 25,000 gross, my husband grosses about 52,000 which we lose almost half that just in supplies and subcontractors, so his net or what we actually get is around 25,000 or so. My net is about $20,000.00 We are buying our house it is a 3 bedroom that we just recently added a fourth bedroom, bath and office to. We have done the work ourselves so it is slow going but much cheaper. With four kids every weekend there is no way to move into something smaller. The three bedrooms was fine but I wanted the fourth for comfort. Well worth the cost. we paid for most of the addition when my grandmother died and left us some money. We are paying 5.5% interest on the house and our payment just dropped from 400.00 per month to $327.00 per month. We are going to continue to pay the $400 though cuz we are already used to it. We only owe about $37,000 on the house less interest. Way silly to move. We don't have car debt. NONE. both vehicles are paid for. We have a huge expense that is not going to go away for several more years. Child support. He pays $500 per month for his kids. and that is fine. But it sure makes it harder to get ahead right now. The youngest is 10, the oldest is 13 (almost). so around 8 more years total. Our bills are probably like most. I didn't list my bills or debt for a reason. I wasn't asking for assistance in paying off quicker or building an ef fund. I was only interested in there were more people in my financial area on this board. I utilize the debt snowball calculators on the net and am working on goals to pay off all our debt within 5 - 10 years, the house included. Keep in mind that I know that to some people we probably have awesome costs on a house but we live in a very bad economy area. and the cost of gas and everything else is just going up and up. We are probably considered well off to our friends. to me that is laughable!

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Cicy33, I know that much of southern Illinois is relatively poor, yet you still have the same state taxes as a suburban Chicagoan has. People may have to drive quite a aways to get to a work place. Even agriculture , forestry , and mining are iffy in southern Illinois. My gosh, anyone who wants some understanding of an "urban" portion of your state should Google Cairo, IL. And all I have to do is drive across the river that separates your state from mine and I see the gasoline prices go up by 20 cents per gallon or more....To tell the truth, though, when you give us a sample of your budget, the thing that occurs to me is that it might be smarter to put that extra money not into paying off the mortgage, but into your emergency fund and retirement savings. (My own mortgage would be easy as pie to pay off and it is only $298 a month, but I don't put my money there.)

Cairo Illinois

[michele1955a]

yes, I am in a similar boat to you. I am on disability with a net income of roughly 1100.00/month. Luckily, I live with my father and only pay the cable and internet bills in exchange for room and board. My truck is paid for. I am bipolar and during a recent illness gambled and lost and went into debt to the tune of one years debt repayment. After that time, I can begin to dig out again.
Looking around me tonight, I see my net worth in money of 24.00 which will go to Walmart tomorrow to pay toward my cc bill so that I may be able to buy some more medicene.
I have a lifelong interest in money management and when i worked as a nurse i did well for myself. However, i became disabled and my life went topsy tervy. Compared to me you are wealthy.
I am not complaining. I caused my most recent downfall and only hope I can get my act together before my 83 yo father passes away when the going really gets tough.
The computer is my entertainment, i don't buy clothes because i have a whole closet full, i buy and sell gold and silver on ebay. Where there is a will there is a way to success and although a year seems to be a long time to me today, I know ten years is even longer. When I am well, I can save money like nobodys business simply by doing without the quirks.
When you start comparing yourself to others there will be some that have more than you because they have been working at there programs longer and then there will be those that have less than you because of other reasons. But trust me, you are not alone.

[aukxsona]

Not alone at all. I am 28. I own my home. We have a positive net worth, but I owe 30k in student loans. Together, hubby and I gross 27k a year with 5 kids. We get no assistance, so all food and medical is paid for out of 25k for 7 people. If we had your income we would be doing great! We have a car, but my husband bikes 30 miles to and form work to save on gas. I sew all the kids clothes form dollar bin fabric. I bake 90% of the goodies, the rest come from hubbies work. I have found numerous on line discounts for medical care. I even got my daughter glasses for 25 dollars. Our EF has 200 dollars in it, and has to be tapped this week for a transmission so I can use the car to get to the store...30 miles away. Every time we save a little bit something happens. I have 3 home businesses, and a regular job. My husband has a regular job. We really are just making ends meet. If energy prices rise to much, I don't know what we will do. As it is, we only spend 230 a month for groceries...that is HARD to feed 7 people on. I have a college degree, but can't find a decent job. One that actually pays all the bills, or is full time.
Don't feel bad hun. I have hope. Every year I get better. I learn how to grow more with less money. I learn more about wild foods to collect. I learn how to make more clothing. I started with hats and gloves, moved to pants and shirts, now do dresses too. This winter I hope to make them all winter jackets, which will save a bundle. It's learning skills. It's finding better ways of doing things. By next winter I hope to have all new blankets, from all the old clothes they tore up. I will just cut out the good pieces and re-use to piece a quilt. This summer I hope to can tomatoes...lots. I hope to grow lots of corn, and squash, and beans. Otherwise, I don't know. Your not alone though...we struggle. People can see us struggle. So don't feel bad....

[cicy33]

WOW! you are amazing! I wish I was that thrifty, would probably do so much better! I will also be gardening this summer and my mil is wonderful and does the canning and what not, so we have tomatoes and homemade salsa for the kids, and green beans and stuff like that. I am hoping to save a lot on food with the garden this year. We are doing okay, I don't mean to make it sound like we are not, I will just be glad when the last loan is paid off and all we pay every month is our regular bills like utilities and insurance and stuff like that.

[disneysteve]

hubby and I gross 27k a year with 5 kids. We get no assistance

Why do you get no assistance? The 2007 Federal poverty guideline for a family of 7 was $31,090. With you earning $4,000 less than that, surely you qualify for all kinds of aid.

[LuxLiving]

cicy33, I wasn't trying to imply anything about you personally. The article did correspond to the difference between sacrifice and deprevation that was being discussed. I do not know your entire situation and I'm sure you do like me, the best you can with what you've got. I too am looking forward to the day when all the bills we have are our utility bills! Even then, I'd love to go further and go solar and totally off grid so I didn't owe anyone anything!

Aukxsona, you are amazing!! I'm with disneysteve, with the income and number of children, there is surely some assistance available to you. Where all have you checked?

[DebbieL]

Michele1955a,

I just wanted to say best of luck to you. My brother is severely bipolar and I know the heartache. He went from being a successful steam engineer to living on disability and is hospitalized off and on. I'm so sorry you are going through this illness.

Do you have to pay for those expensive medications yourself? I know my brother's come to something like $500, but he doesn't actually have to pay that himself (thank goodness). We're in Canada, so maybe it's different here.

I wish you nothing but success, and please don't beat yourself up about the latest slip up. It happens to EVERYONE who is bipolar. You are not alone, and you didn't cause this or choose this for yourself.

Hugs,
Debbie

PS - If you are born in 1955 you are about my brother's age - he's 1956. I was actually born on his 14th birthday - he said I was the crappiest present he ever got, lol.