Raising your Debt Cieling
Today we are having a Toy Story marathon. Everybody has been sick and grumpy the last few days, with a wonderful break between the fevers and the hoarse coughing. and on to today's topic...Debt!
What do you do when your income drops unexpectedly? Lets just say you belong to a 2 income household and you lose one. Hypathetically. What is your first reaction?
Are you a spender, or a saver? Do you have reserves? Credit cards? Other sources of income? What should you cut first?
Let's play out this scenario with a hypothetical family. Joe and Jane Spenderson are dual breadwinners. they have 1 child. Mom and dad live with them too, as well as great grandma. They live in a large home on the coast of California. The kids are enrolled in private school as well as several activities. Great grandma requires full time care. Mom and dad pay a small rent to live in the "in-laws quarters" behind the house.
Jane loses her job.
Jon says not to worry, they have plenty in the bank. They continue their lifestyle with no changes, other than Jane is now at home full time, coordinating the maid service and meal deliveries. The months tick by, their savings is gone, their credit cards are maxed out.
At this point, they open a second mortgage on their home. Now flush with new cash, the whole family goes on a Cruise to relieve their stress. Their son takes on another activity and mom is just tired of it all and starts spending her time at the spa.
The funds run out again.
They dip into granny's Health Savings Account.
The funds run out again.
Jon drains out Juniors college funds.
The funds run out again.
You see where I am going with this?
The family is now hugely in debt, there are no college funds, there is nothing to provide for granny, or mom and dad for that matter, their house is underwater.
At this point they decide to hold a family meeting.
Jon announces that there needs to be some changes, and that the family is welcome to submit their ideas. An argument ensues, in which everybody holds on dearly to the things that matter most to them. Junior wants to stay in private school as well as hockey, football and fencing, Jane wants to continue at the spa. Jon likes his beamer. Mom and dad like their current rent rate. Granny needs her private nurse. After hours of arguing their new plan looks like this:
Jon will pull out a third mortgage on the property, Mom and dad will pay double the rent, granny's pills will be rationed and the family can't afford to buy groceries anymore so they will just eat out.
Hmmmm.....
Let's revisit this scenario, replacing the previous family with the Frugalsons.
Ben and Beth are dual breadwinners, They have 3 children. Mom and dad rent the apartment over the garage and great-grandpa lives with them.
Beth looses her job, their income is reduced by half.
Ben immediately holds a family meeting. Everybody agrees to cut back. Ben will carpool and take his lunch to work, Beth will take over helping granny out, Mom and Dad will pitch in a bit more rent and the kids will drop one activity each.
Time goes on and their savings slowly dwindles.
They dip into their vacation savings and replace the bills with IOU's.
Still they are not making it.
Ben feels bad for all the sacrifices his family made and takes out a credit card. Debt creeps in.
When that card is maxed out, they have another meeting.
First, the family agrees to tear up the vacation IOU's, it was imaginary debt anyway. Beth will start selling extra things around the house on e-bay. Ben will take on extra hours. Mom and dad have their eyes on an investment property next door, and ask to stop paying rent in order to invest in it, in return they will give a portion of the income to the family. The kids agree to help keep up the yard work on both houses.
The months pass, the debt is slowly eliminated. The neighboring property is bringing in a healthy rent and Mom and Dad are able to increase the amount they were paying in rent by 25% The kids found great satisfaction in doing the yard work and have branched out to mow several neighborhood lawns. They are now adding to their college funds. Ben got a promotion at work, Beth was able to hire on a home health nurse part time to give herself a bit of a break. The family took a small vacation that year and ended with a small surplus in their family fund.
Think on this awhile, we will analyze it later, as the movie has ended and my kiddos are hungry for dinner.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
100th post spectacualr!
Whilst the baby is occupied playing with a potato, and the boys are distracted by a cartoon I will quickly try to accomplish this, my 100th post spectacular!
I really mulled this one over, and fretted about it and then forgot about it for awhile. After spending may hours researching America's current demographic, generational, financial, economic and political condition I came to see the truth in the quote "Impression without Expression leads to Depression"
Boy have I been DEPRESSED. My darling daughter was born nearly a year ago, my hubby was laid off work nearly 9 months ago and I lost all motivation. I am taking steps now that have given me some hope. This blog is part of my "recovery" plan. I hope to begin posting more regularly again, and perhaps make a difference in my little corner of the universe. I would like to share some reflections and study I have done on the "bigger" picture and tie that into our "little" picture.
Today's Topic: INFLATION and the COUPON CRAZE
I Love couponing! I am seriously addicted at this point. I have been doing the "Extreme Couponing" thing on and off for the last two years, since our first long term struggle with unemployment. My dear friend Amber introduced me to www.thekrazycouponlady.com website, which showcases the deals found in my area. I have now been able to save 90%+ on my toiletries/paper goods budget, and I save at least 50% on my food. This is a substantial amount for us and has enabled me to stretch our budget further than I could have imagined as I am definitely a frugal type. Having found this level of success I was so happy to see my favorite blogger featured on the TLC special "extreme couponing" early this year.
All of the sudden Everyone jumped on the band wagon, shelves were empty, people were literally racing in to my local rite aid to be the first to land a good deal. There was a great stir in the couponing world, wondering what was going to happen. Stores changed policies, new limitations were placed, coupons weren't as "good" anymore, prices rose. The influx of new converts was blamed.
I think this was actually a symptom of something greater. INFLATION.
The US government breaks down the prices of consumer goods and produces an index of cost in order to gauge inflation. Here is the official Government website noting inflation on food items is only 3.7% higher over the last 12 mos. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
Please note, these are only the prices over one year, if you start adding the increases up over time, you can see how prices have been rising.
In my experience, however, I believe the cost of food and products have gone up much, much more. This is a site that breaks down commodities and their inflation rate over the last year.
Here is a good list of consumer goods and their inflation rates, not included in the cpi
http://escapetyranny.com/2011/02/15/inflation-anyone-check-out-the-12-month-price-increases-on-this-commodity-price-index/
Many of us aren't going to go out an buy a bushel or corn, however it is found in nearly all of our food products. When Corn goes up, Manufacturers pass on their costs to us in their food prices.
Take a close look at some of the goods you always buy. Is it just me or are they getting smaller, serving less? Comparing my expired coupons to the ones that are being released as well shows a definite loss in savings for me some coupons are consistently 25 to 50 cents lower than they were two years ago. Prices in the supermarket have gone up as well. I don't even need to talk about gas prices.
All of these things are categorized under "hidden inflation" The blogger at the Modern survivalist has a wonderful post on this here: http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/?p=1033
This man lives in Argentina and has experienced first hand hyper inflation and the collapse of their currency.
Yes, great you say, but what does this have to do with me? I'll break it down.
We have been VERY blessed in America to spend so little to feed ourselves. That time may be ending due to our current fiscal policies. Expect food prices to go up. We are in the middle of a serious financial mess, and it is going to take some hard work to get out of it, in the meantime we CAN NOT rely on anyone but ourselves to look after the interests of our family. So, here is what to do.
1. Stockpile. If you haven't done it yet, do so! Start couponing. Take your budget for food and toiletries and see how far you can stretch it. Just last week i was able to buy toothbrushes for just the tax. You can too! Having been thru two periods of extended unemployment i highly recommend 1 YEARS worth of food. Seriously. We are working towards that end now.
2. Plant a garden. During WWII it was known as a Victory garden. Our country pulled together before and we can do so again. If you don't have dirt, form a community garden in you apartment complex, or look into indoor gardening. You will appreciate fresh produce while you live off of your stockpile. I highly recommend Heirloom or Open Pollinated seeds, you can save seeds from this years crop and grow more next year.
3. Give. There are many in our society who are totally dependent on the government. This is bad. We aer having trouble meeting our obligations now asn radical reforms may take place. Do your part, Help those around you and educate them in your frugal ways.
Times are changing, we need to change with them! Inflation is happening, in spite of what our Government reports. Remember when they kept insisting the housing market crash wasn't happening? It was. Look at your corner of the universe thru the big picture and you can connect the dots.
More later.
I really mulled this one over, and fretted about it and then forgot about it for awhile. After spending may hours researching America's current demographic, generational, financial, economic and political condition I came to see the truth in the quote "Impression without Expression leads to Depression"
Boy have I been DEPRESSED. My darling daughter was born nearly a year ago, my hubby was laid off work nearly 9 months ago and I lost all motivation. I am taking steps now that have given me some hope. This blog is part of my "recovery" plan. I hope to begin posting more regularly again, and perhaps make a difference in my little corner of the universe. I would like to share some reflections and study I have done on the "bigger" picture and tie that into our "little" picture.
Today's Topic: INFLATION and the COUPON CRAZE
I Love couponing! I am seriously addicted at this point. I have been doing the "Extreme Couponing" thing on and off for the last two years, since our first long term struggle with unemployment. My dear friend Amber introduced me to www.thekrazycouponlady.com website, which showcases the deals found in my area. I have now been able to save 90%+ on my toiletries/paper goods budget, and I save at least 50% on my food. This is a substantial amount for us and has enabled me to stretch our budget further than I could have imagined as I am definitely a frugal type. Having found this level of success I was so happy to see my favorite blogger featured on the TLC special "extreme couponing" early this year.
All of the sudden Everyone jumped on the band wagon, shelves were empty, people were literally racing in to my local rite aid to be the first to land a good deal. There was a great stir in the couponing world, wondering what was going to happen. Stores changed policies, new limitations were placed, coupons weren't as "good" anymore, prices rose. The influx of new converts was blamed.
I think this was actually a symptom of something greater. INFLATION.
The US government breaks down the prices of consumer goods and produces an index of cost in order to gauge inflation. Here is the official Government website noting inflation on food items is only 3.7% higher over the last 12 mos. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm
Please note, these are only the prices over one year, if you start adding the increases up over time, you can see how prices have been rising.
In my experience, however, I believe the cost of food and products have gone up much, much more. This is a site that breaks down commodities and their inflation rate over the last year.
Here is a good list of consumer goods and their inflation rates, not included in the cpi
http://escapetyranny.com/2011/02/15/inflation-anyone-check-out-the-12-month-price-increases-on-this-commodity-price-index/
Many of us aren't going to go out an buy a bushel or corn, however it is found in nearly all of our food products. When Corn goes up, Manufacturers pass on their costs to us in their food prices.
Take a close look at some of the goods you always buy. Is it just me or are they getting smaller, serving less? Comparing my expired coupons to the ones that are being released as well shows a definite loss in savings for me some coupons are consistently 25 to 50 cents lower than they were two years ago. Prices in the supermarket have gone up as well. I don't even need to talk about gas prices.
All of these things are categorized under "hidden inflation" The blogger at the Modern survivalist has a wonderful post on this here: http://www.themodernsurvivalist.com/?p=1033
This man lives in Argentina and has experienced first hand hyper inflation and the collapse of their currency.
Yes, great you say, but what does this have to do with me? I'll break it down.
We have been VERY blessed in America to spend so little to feed ourselves. That time may be ending due to our current fiscal policies. Expect food prices to go up. We are in the middle of a serious financial mess, and it is going to take some hard work to get out of it, in the meantime we CAN NOT rely on anyone but ourselves to look after the interests of our family. So, here is what to do.
1. Stockpile. If you haven't done it yet, do so! Start couponing. Take your budget for food and toiletries and see how far you can stretch it. Just last week i was able to buy toothbrushes for just the tax. You can too! Having been thru two periods of extended unemployment i highly recommend 1 YEARS worth of food. Seriously. We are working towards that end now.
2. Plant a garden. During WWII it was known as a Victory garden. Our country pulled together before and we can do so again. If you don't have dirt, form a community garden in you apartment complex, or look into indoor gardening. You will appreciate fresh produce while you live off of your stockpile. I highly recommend Heirloom or Open Pollinated seeds, you can save seeds from this years crop and grow more next year.
3. Give. There are many in our society who are totally dependent on the government. This is bad. We aer having trouble meeting our obligations now asn radical reforms may take place. Do your part, Help those around you and educate them in your frugal ways.
Times are changing, we need to change with them! Inflation is happening, in spite of what our Government reports. Remember when they kept insisting the housing market crash wasn't happening? It was. Look at your corner of the universe thru the big picture and you can connect the dots.
More later.
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