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Archive for November, 2012

2hr phone call with the mortgage company

November 9th, 2012 at 12:53 am

Had a 2hr call with the mortgage company. I got transfered back and forth 5 times until I demaneded that we have a 3 way call. I am 2 months behind on my mortgage. I skipped 2 payments in the spring when I was between contracts. I have been paying regular monthly payments the past 4 months. Anyhow, I applied for the home owners relief program in Oct. Well my app was denied. Apparently I make too much money. But the bank has an internal program where they temporarly lower the interest rate. My forclosure prevention specialist applied for that program on my behalf without me knowing this. Well, apparently as soon as someone applies for this program, they automatically set up an escrow account (my mortgage never had one. I paid the taxes myself). So my property tax comes due in Oct and the mortgage company pays them without telling me. I found this out when I went to pay my property tax and saw that it was paid. So now I have a new escrow account and it is behind. So far this sounds bad but there is a silver lining. My homeowners insurance company dropped me a few months ago. So I found out that the mortgage company is also supplying insurance. The funny thing is that it is less then what I was paying. Now I am not stressing about finding new insurance like I was. So the bottom line is that my mortage payment will go up 200+ a month for a year to get the escrow caught up. After that, it will go down about 150. I used the money that I was going to pay the property tax to make up 1 of my 2 payments, so now I am only 1 payment behind. So overall, they will still get thier money, taxes and insurance are taken care of and at the moment with me and the wife working, we can pay they higher monthly payment. So, I guess overall this was a good thing. I will find out soon if I can get the interest rate deduction. Maybe that will offset some of the escrow account costs.

End of the month wrap up

November 2nd, 2012 at 01:45 am

Well, we are now into november. I did ok in Oct. My daily budget for living monthly expenses was 9516. I spent 8167 so I am living within my budget for day to day living. However, my goal is to pay down debts and other non typical expensses. I was able to make progress in those areas. I was a month behind on all of my utilities. I made double payments and I am current on them. I am still 1 payment behind on the car and 2 on the house.
I do have a few non normal expenses this month so I won't be able to do anything for the debt other then make my normally scheduled payments. The motor went out on the heat pump in my house in Atlanta so I had to fork out 350 today. Also, the property tax was due 2 weeks ago. I was going to pay it yesterday but the heat pump killed that plan. The good news is that I will be able to pay it next week and the late fee will only be about 20 or so. I do owe the State of Va about 300 for car tags. Even though I moved out of state in May, they still send me a tag bill. I also have to get 2 tires and an oil change on my car. I also am going to pay about 200 on back medical bills. I think I owe about 800 or so, the wife will total them out this weekend. It does help with the wife working. I will make my kids each pay 250 rent so that will help a bit.
Now the bad news and this really sucks. My contract at my job is not going to be renewed. That means my last day of work is Dec 31st. I do have a few irons in the fire so I am not worried about not having a paycheck, I just need to figure out what option will work for me.
Option 1: work for another company in Tampa which will be a long term job. That sounds good except they are lowballing on pay. I normally make about 70 an hour, they want to pay 40. I told them if they could meet met half way, we can do something.
Option 2. Go back to my former consulting company. That pays 80 an hour but it may not be steady. They may offer me salary but it would not be at 80!
Option 3, go to Roanoke. I talked to this company back in April and they still have not filled the position.( I am very niched in what I do). I have an interview with them on Monday. Not sure how much they will pay but I suspect it will be 50-60. That is doable in Roanoke and my wife would be able to go back to her old company there.
Option 4 is to stay tampa based and be an 'on the road' consultant. that means being gone m-th and flying home for weekends. The wife would hate it but she at least would get to stay here, there would be no moving expenses and it would pay 80 an hour.
So, we will see how this plays out.
My stepson said he will stay in the house another year, that means I won't let the house go but I will have to work with the mortgage company to make up the 2 payments. I don't qualify for any of the new mortgage programs. I guess if you are totally poor you get food stamps, free medical and housing assistance, if you make some money or at one time had some money, you don't qualify for anything.
Any how it was fun making the budget and all last month but soon the numbers will all change.
The good news is that my total debt and stuff I need to spend money on list went down from 36800 to 34400. I do expect some 'unexpected' expenses to mess that up though.