I’ve gotten extremely tired of my apartment. It’s a one bedroom with a living room that doesn’t allow me to rearrange my furniture (I’ve tried a couple time … just not possible with how it is laid out). Plus my rent went up in August. This apartment isn’t worth what they’re charging me for it. As of the end of this month, I’ll have been living in this apartment for 6 years. It’s time to move on.

I’ve been putting money into 2 savings accounts for quite a while now. I actually started this process back in 2008, but I got laid off in October of that year, so the dream got put on indefinite hold.

I think that I’m at the right point in my life right now to own my own home. I’m 36 years old … I’m not getting any younger. Sure … I’m not making as much money as I was back in 2008 before I got laid off (by quite a bit actually … even after almost 2 years), but I have gotten raises every time I’ve had a review at work. And I have my annual review coming up soon. I’ll have been at my current job for 2 years once November hits. I’m hoping I’ll get another raise … I mean, I did build a custom CMS (both standalone and network) … that’s got to count for something, right?

I’ve looked at 7 houses (before today). I really liked one of them, but it was in extreme NW West Fargo. It was priced right and was the right size, but the location just didn’t work for me. 5 of the houses were in the same neighborhood, but they just didn’t work. One came close, but the seller wasn’t including the washer, dryer, fridge, OR stove … and no dishwasher. I could live without a dishwasher, but having to buy the other 4 appliances over the top of the price of the house … not possible.

Last Friday I found this house. It’s a little outside my price range, but not by much. And it’s in the same neighborhood that 5 of the first 7 houses were (which just so happens to be a street over from a friend of mine).

I met my realtor at the house this morning to take a peek at it. I really liked it. I’m not sure what I’d do with the basement, but I’m sure I could grow into it. I honestly couldn’t find anything wrong with it. It was in good condition, and the layout was pretty similar to Robin’s (which I like). In fact, the upstairs layout is identical to Robin’s house. It’s got a nice little yard too … even areas where I could plant some veggies in the spring (I’d have to dig out the plants that are in there now tho).

I need to do some number crunching this weekend (I was gonna do it tonite, but I’ve gotten distracted). My realtor asked my banker to send me some estimates on a loan for the house. At full asking price, and with the sellers paying closing costs, the monthly payments would be right around my sweet spot … a little higher than I’d hoped, but still manageable.

If the numbers come out in my favor … and if the bank agrees to lend me up to the full purchase price … I’ll probably make an offer on it (yeah … I liked it that much). Obviously there’s no guarantee that the sellers will like my offer or any subsequent offer, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.

So … keep your fingers crossed. I’d like to move in before the snow flies (or at least before the holidays).

The main reason I was waiting was because getting the phone would require me to get a data plan of at least $30/month. I wasn’t sure I could afford it since I was planning on buying a car, and I was close to being eligible for health insurance (so that would be taken out of my paycheck).

I bought my car toward the end of April and made my first car payment this month. We switched to a new insurance company at work with a cheaper premium. After working the numbers, it’s clear that I’ll easily be able to cover the data plan.

My intention was to order the Droid today. I usually get my phones online with Verizon because it ends up being cheaper than getting one in the store. I get a $50 discount for the New Every Two program, and there is a $100 online discount. The discounts brought the price of the Droid down to $149.99. That is until today. I was on the site looking at phones one last time before buying one, and the site was running ungodly slow. I couldn’t even load up the pages for the Droid or the Droid Incredible. Needless to say, I was getting pissed. I tried again about 10-15 minutes later and things were running like normal. So I pulled up the phones and looked at things. Then I took a look at the price for the Droid. It was down to $99.99. I was confused for a bit until Twitter and a Google search confirmed that Verizon dropped the price on the Droid today. I’m sure glad I didn’t order it earlier today or last nite.

Then @stevedrees told me the Droid 2 is rumored to come out next month. I had seen a couple articles earlier today about the Droid 2, but none mentioned a release date. The pictures in those articles showed a keyboard that caught my eye. It looks a lot nicer that the Droid’s keyboard (which I don’t really like). The articles didn’t really have a whole lot of additional info other than pretty much saying the Droid 2 is just the next generation Droid.

Now I’m torn. I want a new phone now, and I’ve decided on the Droid. But I’ve already waited a little over 2 months since I became eligible for an upgrade … what’s another month. But when the Droid 2 comes out, it’s gonna cost more than what the Droid dropped to today. But how much more? I don’t know what to do.

If you were in my situation, what would you do? Would you wait for the Droid 2, which has an unknown release date but is rumored to be released next month, or would you get the Droid right now?

I decided early this year that I was going to get a new car. I currently have a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am. I’ve had it for almost 9 years (I’d hit 9 in July). I can’t roll down the driver’s side window … the motor is pretty much dead (would cost $300 to fix). The wiper switch is screwed up (has been since last summer). If I hit a bump, it sets off the wipers. And if I do need to turn the wipers on, I have to fiddle with the damn switch to get them to turn back off (and it would be another $300 to fix).

Since I first decided I wanted a new car, I was sure I wanted a Chevy Impala. I think part of it had to do w/ NASCAR (yes, I’m a silly girl). My uncle has 2 Impalas (one personal and one work), and another aunt and uncle have one as well. Both said they loved theirs and that they were good cars. I was also considering a Dodge Stratus. Robin has one, and it’s a nice car (I’ve ridden in it a time or 2 or 3 or 50). The only problem with that choice is that there really aren’t any around the area (and I’ve been looking in Fargo/Moorhead, Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes, and Wahpeton). I recently started to consider the Honda Accord. You just can’t overlook the Honda’s reliability.

I got a subscription for Consumer Reports online for a month to research things. As I said, my search was focused on the Impala, Stratus, and Accord. It was when I looked at the reports that I started to no be sure sure about the Impala anymore and starting considering the Accord a little more. But then again … I had my heart set on an Impala. I was seeing them all over town.

I talked to my bank to see what kind of rate I could get. It turns out they’ve got a special going on right now of 4.49%. I thought that was pretty damn good and didn’t think I could find a better rate at any dealership. The only bad thing about that is that they only financed 80% of the car. The other 20% would have to be a down payment and my trade in. I was planning on doing some sort of down payment, but I didn’t want to take that much out of savings.

I’ve been slowing researching things since the beginning of the month. I finally got down to business (last nite and this morning) with figuring my limit and my down payment limit and searching for a dealership that had the car I wanted on their lot. I was figuring things based on financing through my bank, and I didn’t even take into account any trade in (since I wasn’t sure what I’d get for my car). I put together a spreadsheet to figure out what I could afford. After figuring all that out, I was shopping online. I had already found some cars that I was interested in … mostly Impalas but a couple Accords.

The more that I looked at a 2007 Accord at Muscatell Kia, the more I wanted to at least check it out. I decided at about 4:15pm this afternoon that I would go over and check it out. I was just going to take a peek at it. I didn’t really plan to do much else. I wasn’t even sure I was going to do a test drive today, but I was at least considering doing so. As soon as I drove on the lot and got out of my car by the Accord, a salesman made a beeline for me (not surprising). He went and got the key and I sat down and checked things out … the fit of the driver’s seat, the trunk, the backseat (which folds down).

He then suggested a test drive, so we took it out. I went out on I-94 and then a little around the area of the dealership. The only thing I noticed was that there was a slight vibration at highway speeds. He said they’d check it out. Hopefully it’s just that a tire is out of balance or something simple like that. Otherwise it drove nice. I barely touched the accelerator and the thing took off … not used to that. Just as responsive with the brakes. Of course I had to check out the radio. Good sound. I’m not an audio geek, but it sounded good to me. It doesn’t have an auxiliary jack for my iPod, but it does have a 6 disc changer. I’ll look into some sort of FM transmitter thingy so I can use my iPod, but I having the ability to load 6 CDs should be good enough. The only other thing it’s missing is an auto start, but he said they could put that in and include it in the financed price. Of course he mentioned the ‘top of the line’ one … one that reports back if the car starts or not. I’m not sure I really need that. I might just go with the standard one that doesn’t report back. Either way, adding an auto start will add less than $10 to the monthly payments.

Speaking of the monthly payments … My intention was to go through my bank, but I agreed to let the dealer check things out so I could see what they could offer. It turns out they were actually able to beat my bank. If I went through my bank, the financing would have been for 48 months since it was a 2007. Through the dealer, I could get 60 months. With my bank, it would have been 4.49%, but through the dealer (and since my credit is so good) it was 4.25%. That really surprised me. I didn’t think a dealer would go so low. And they’re gonna give me $1000 for my car. I thought I’d be lucky to get $500 for it, so I was very please to hear them say $1000. The car went from being at the top of my price range, almost out of my comfort zone to being right in the middle of my comfort zone.

I left the dealership without buying it, but I told them that I would be back on Monday during my lunch hour with my decision. I said I was 90% certain I would be buying it. In actuality, I think I made the decision before I left, but I wasn’t gonna buy it today. I need to make sure it’s the right choice. I did a little more looking around tonite and wasn’t able to find another Accord that I liked that was any cheaper. And after taking a peek inside an Impala while I was there, I no longer wanted one of those. It just didn’t look like it fit me. I think I fell in lust with the Accord just by looking at the listing online. Oops.

Tomorrow after the race I’ll clean all my crap out of my Grand Am and get all my papers together. Monday morning I’m going to call my insurance agent to see how much it would cost to insure the Accord. Then on lunch, I’ll go to the dealership (luckily it’s just down the street from work) and finalize everything. I wanna take it out on another test drive if they’ll let me, especially since I wasn’t really ready for the one I took (I didn’t have my notes or checklist from Consumer Reports). I’m hoping that by the end of the day, I’ll have a new car. I’m not sure how long it will take for them to address the vibration, but hopefully it won’t be too long. And I’m sure I can schedule the auto start installation at a later date. I set a goal of having a new car by the end of this month … it looks like I will actually meet that goal.

This is what it looks like. I hope it’s the right one for me.

I did find a contract job that I started in December 2008, but being that it was a contract job, I couldn’t get health insurance through it. The job lasted 4 months, and then I was unemployed again. I found another contract job that I started in May 2009. As with the other one, since it was a contract job, there was no insurance. This position was supposed to be a contract-to-hire position (6 month contract), but the company ended my contract early (due to financial reasons … they laid off 15 people the day after my contract ended).

Happily, I found a normal job (i.e. not a contract job) in November 2009. But due to company policy, I’m not eligible for health insurance until I’ve been working there for 6 months. I’ll hit that mark in May, so hopefully I’ll have insurance again shortly after that. Unless the insurance company makes me wait even longer since I’ve been without insurance for so damn long.

Other than the fact that I haven’t seen a doctor in I don’t know how long, I have chronic dry eye which means I need to take prescription eye drops … Restasis to be exact. These eye drops are NOT cheap.

I was first prescribed these eye drops back when I had health insurance through Medica. I only had to pay a $30 co-payment for the eye drops … Medica covered the rest. That was acceptable. The company I worked for that I had the Medica insurance through closed their doors, but the client we had been working for hired me on directly. But that meant a lapse of 2 months in my insurance. Once I had insurance again, it was through Blue Cross Blue Shield of ND. With them, I had to pay a $60 co-payment for the same damn eye drops. I guess Blue Cross needed to pay for their corporate retreats somehow. But still … at least it wasn’t full price.

When I got laid on in October 2008, it was up to me to foot the entire bill for the eye drops. I couldn’t afford that, so I stopped refilling the prescription. I couldn’t take it anymore this past summer, so I went back to the eye doctor in July 2009 to get the prescription again. I called around town, and the cheapest I could find it was at White Drug in CashWise.

One refill (of 30 vials) was $108.94. The vials are single use vials, meaning I’m supposed to open them, put them in my eyes, and throw the rest away. And I’m supposed to do this twice a day. That means 2 vials per day … 2 refills a month … $217.88 A MONTH. Oh HELL NO. My eye doctor told me that I could stretch a single vial out over 2 days. That means I can stretch one refill for 2 months rather than half a month. There is definitely enough of the eye drops in a vial to cover 4 applications. So the drug company who makes these eye drops (Allergan) puts enough of the eye drops in one vial to last for 2 days, but they want me to use it one time and then toss the rest away and end up having to spend more than $200 a month out of my own pocket since I don’t have insurance. Screw you.

And if that’s not bad enough, the cost of the refill has been going up every 4 months, like clockwork. I checked my records today …

• July 2009 — $108.94
• September 2009 — $108.94
• November 2009 — $119.84
• January 2010 — $119.84
• March 2010 — $124.55

Are you fucking kidding me? $125 for a 15 day supply of eye drops (if you follow the recommended dosage instructions). That’s $250 a month … $250 a month. No wonder I stretch one vial out for 4 doses rather than 1.

From what I understand of the new health care bill that Congress passed yesterday, I will be fined if I don’t have health insurance. So if the bill was already in effect, I would have been fined ever since October 2008. Kind of ridiculous if you ask me. You’re going to make me pay a fine because I don’t have enough money to pay for health insurance? I’m sorry, but that’s fucked up. It’s a good thing that doesn’t go into effect right away. Hopefully within 2 months I’ll have health insurance. I don’t know what I’ll end up paying for these eye drops once I do get insurance again, but any little bit helps, especially when they keep raising the prices every 4 months.

One thing that I hope the health care bill will do is prevent the drug companies from raising the cost of prescriptions so damn often. Pretty soon, one refill is going to cost $200 if the drug company has their way. This is a prescription that I need. I went without it for several month only to have my eyes get so dry that it felt like I stuck my face in the sand with my eyes open. The eye drops are working. I was able to wear my contacts this weekend for the first time in over a year. I have to keep using them. The cost of them shouldn’t prohibit me from getting them.

I guess only time will tell if the health care bill is actually a good thing or not (I have my doubts), but I really hope it is. I know that there are people in worse situations health/insurance wise than I am. Something needs to be done. I just hope this bill helps more than it hurts.

I was wondering why the refund estimate that TurboTax was showing me was higher than what I estimated when I went through things before (based on paystubs since I was still waiting for tax docs). At one point, TurboTax told me about the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. ‘Scuse me … WTF is that? I didn’t see anything on the forms when I did my estimate. So I did some searching on the IRS website and found this information. I was still confused after reading it. I did some searching online, but that didn’t really clear anything up either. But I trusted TurboTax, so I forged ahead. If TurboTax was telling me I was getting a refund that was $400 more than I expected, I wasn’t going to question it. TurboTax is supposed to be accurate, so they must be right.

I did go back and look at the form I did my estimate on, and it turns out it was on there … line 40 of the 1040A. I usually skim over the section on credits since I never have any. I don’t have any kids or own any property or anything like that. That’ll teach me to skim over the tax forms based on how previous years have been. But then again, it was just an estimate. And that’s why I use a site like TurboTax so I can find out about things I might miss or not know about.

I don’t remember ever hearing about the “Making Work Pay Credit”. Where the hell have I been? But in my defense, I was more concerned with finding a permanent job around the time that this credit was announced. For a good part of the year, my career was in limbo since I was working contract jobs. Now that I have a permanent job again, I can pay more attention to stuff like that.

So … what am I going to do with that extra refund money? I was already planning on getting a monitor and a Windows 7 upgrade. I’ve been thinking about getting more memory for my laptop too (since I’m getting the Win7 upgrade). I was gonna go with 2GB of memory to keep the costs down, but now that I’m getting that extra money back, I might ramp it up to 4GB. I’m not convinced that I need that much memory though. The rest of the refund … well, that will go towards a down payment on a car that I’m planning to shop for in the spring. The more I can put down at the beginning, the lower the payments will be (and I doubt I’ll get much money for trading in my current car).

I lucked out that my stretch of unemployment was only 2 months and that I didn’t have to withdraw anything from savings to pay bills. I did take $100 out of one and $75 out of the other to cover my iPod when I got it. I probably wouldn’t have had to, but I did.

As for what the future holds … I’m not exactly sure. I had a chat with one of my managers this morning. I’m getting close to half way through my contract. He told me that he doesn’t know anything more now than when I interviewed as to if the position will become permanent. He asked me if I would be willing to work on a month to month basis after my contract ends. While I don’t like the uncertainty that brings, I do like where I’m at right now. So I told him that I was willing to do so. He said that he would try to give me as much notice as possible if they determine that they don’t have enough work to keep me on.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to look for another position. I’m just not going to look with a sense of urgency … yet. I’ll look to see what’s out there and keep in touch with my contacts at the placement agencies I’ve worked with in the past. But I’m not going to drive myself crazy trying to find something and then freak out because I can’t find anything around town and stress myself out thinking I’m going to have to move. But I’m not going to be naive and expect this position to become permanent. Yes, he said that they’d like to keep me on, but with the economy the way it is, there’s no certainty that they’ll have the work to keep me there.

Where does this leave me? I guess the same place as when I first heard about this job … hope for the best but plan for the worst. I’ll keep saving as much money as I can. I’ll keep looking around for another job. But I’ll also keep in mind that it’s possible that I won’t have to find another job. I can’t let myself get stressed out. I can’t let myself freak out. I just need to take things day by day … month by month. Whatever the future holds, I’ll just have to deal with. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”, right?

My biggest question is this: What about those people who, like me, lost their jobs due to the shitty economy? Why can’t WE be ‘bailed out’?

I worked for a company that sells automotive accessories online … things like truck bed covers, bed rails, nerf bars, floor mats, etc. It’s no secret that truck sales have been down, due to the high gas prices earlier this year as well as the crappy economy, so sales of the accessories were down. I don’t know if I was the only person laid off or if others were as well. But it doesn’t really matter. I used to think that up here [in North Dakota], the economy wasn’t as bad off as in other parts of the country. Boy was I wrong.

Over the past few weeks, the news has been reporting that companies around the region have been laying off workers. Bobcat is suspending operations for 6 weeks, beginning on Dec. 15th [source]. And now they are asking more individuals to take early retirement [source]. Lund boats in New York Mills, MN laid off 140 people earlier this month [source]. And just today, it was reported that 30 people were laid off at JLG Industries in Oakes [source]. I’m sure there are others around the region, but those are some that have been in the news lately. And you know that this situation is happening all over the country.

Luckily, in my case, I’m the only one affected. I live alone and don’t have any kids. But what about those families where a parent got laid off. They have kids to feed and clothe and mortgages to pay and medical bills to worry about.

Yes, there are unemployment benefits. I don’t know what it’s like in other states, but I can say that in North Dakota, unemployment benefits have gone down hill. And I can say that because this isn’t my first walk around the block. I was unemployed almost 5 years ago. I was unemployed for about 7 months, but that is because I was in a career transition. Back then, there were orientation meetings and appointments with a case worker and classes that could be taken. Now there is absolutely nothing like that. I filed my claim online. I certify my weeks online. You only call the Bismarck office if you have a problem or questions (and we have an office here in Fargo). I know that this is all because of budget cuts that the department has faced. But it really hurts those that the department is supposed to help.

In my case, I’m not even getting unemployment benefits anymore. You have to make 2 job contacts a week, which seems simple enough. But my chosen career path isn’t exactly ‘mainstream’, so there aren’t many open positions around here. A couple of my opportunities involve waiting until the company starts interviewing. And I’m not gonna apply for jobs that I would never take just to get unemployment. So I’m basically screwed. Thank goodness I have savings.

There may be people out there who aren’t even eligible for unemployment benefits, for whatever reason. And even those people who DO get unemployment benefits, it’s not enough to live on while you’re looking for a new job. And in this economy, depending on what sort of work you are looking for, finding a new job is no picnic.

So, why should the banks and financial institutions and auto industry be getting bailed out when we are the ones who are really suffering. Why isn’t the government doing something for those people who have lost their jobs due to the economy. I’m not saying give us $700 billion dollars. But give us something to supplement unemployment benefits. And those people not eligible for unemployment, give us something too. Something to make our lives a little less stressful while we’re looking for a new job. We need to eat. We need to take care of our kids. We need to take care of OURSELVES!!!

I say we start a movement to get the government to bail US out. What do you say?

Well, I doubt it would do any good. But I do wish we could get the government to take a look at the job service agencies around the country and fix the unemployment benefits system. Pump some money into that system so that there can be orientation meetings and appointments with a case worker and classes again. And the number of job contacts would be affected by the individual situations. That would go a long way to helping out lots of people.

To those people who are in the same situation as I am … keep the faith. Times can get tough, but they won’t stay that way forever. I have a tough time remembering that at times, but it really is true. Eventually the economy will recover. I have no idea how long it will take, but it will happen some day. So keep your chin up … things will get better.

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I urge you to check out YouData. It really is a neat idea.

It only took me 13 years to pay it off. LOL I opened both accounts in early 1995 (during first year of college – second half of the year). Of course, those first several years (especially while I was in college) was where the debt got racked up to. It never got completely out of control. But it did grow more than it receded.

Several years ago is when I decided to start sending more than the minimum payment. I tried to get a loan to pay both cards off, but at the time, my debt to income ratio was too high, and I couldn’t get a loan. So I forged ahead sending as much money each month as I could. Over the past few years, I’ve been able to send more and more (thanks to raises). For the past 2 years or so, I’ve been sending from $200 to $350 to get the balances down quicker. I paid off my Discover Card in April of this year. So that meant I could send more to the Visa. And with that payment just before 1pm, the Visa now has a balance of $0. Such a good feeling. Now the only loan that I have is my student loan. And from what I’ve read, that’s a “good” debt to have, if debt can be called good.

My plan back when I started the larger payments was to cut up the Visa and cancel the account but keep the Discover for emergencies. But after reading some articles online and hearing advice on a few financial shows on TV, I’ve decided to keep both. I plan to use them every now and again and pay off the balance in full each month … probably putting gas on them. That way my credit report will show that I can manage my credit. Getting rid of one or both cards would damage my credit (at least that’s what I’ve been led to believe), and I don’t want that. Especially since it’s so good right now AND since I’m planning on buying a house within the next 14 months or so (hopefully ).

So, starting next month, that $350 that was going to the credit card will be going into my money market savings account (if not more than that). I’ll be putting money into my regular savings account as well. That way I’ll have some other money to use for furniture/appliances/repairs/etc once I get a house. I’m well on my way to becoming a home owner. Now to do more research so I know exactly what I’ll be getting myself in to.

Even though I didn’t think it would be possible for quite some time, I opened a money market savings account on July 1st. My plan for this account is to earmark it specifically as a housing fund … to have enough in it to cover closing costs (for sure), down payment (if needed), and have money left over for any maintenance needed. As of today, I have $650.53 sitting in that account. I plan to put in another $100 out of my latest paycheck (before the end of this month). My goal is to have about $5000 in there when I start house hunting. Why that amount? Well, that’s what Robin told me she needed for closing costs. That’s all I really have to go off of at this point.

My credit card will be paid off in October. When that is done, my plan is to take the amount I’ve been sending to get it paid off and put that in the money market account. That’s another $350/month, at least. Since I’ve already been sending that amount to the credit card company and been adding at least $100 a month to the account (if not $100 out of each paycheck), I could probably be able to put more than $350/month in there, but that’s the lowest amount. So that’s what I’m basing my figures off of.

I decided to work up a spreadsheet this afternoon to help me figure out when I *might* be able to start house hunting. That’s what I was talking about at the beginning of this post that I shouldn’t have done. LOL If I follow my plan, then I’d hit my $5000 goal in October 2009. That’s only 14 months from now. Is it really possible that I could start house hunting that soon? I really thought it would take me 2 to 3 years before I’d be able to. After looking at the numbers, it really looks like it would be possible to start before that. That would be so awesome. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I think it’s already too late. LOL

I know that the housing market isn’t in all that great of shape lately. But I think my credit score is something that will help me out. When I got my free credit report (from AnnualCreditrReport.com) at the beginning of the month, I also got my FICO credit score (it was only $7.95). I was surprised to see the number. I guess it really does pay to pay your bills on time. So I think I would definitely be able to get a loan/mortgage. Just how much I’d be eligible for, I don’t know.

I think I’m going to start researching things now so I know how to plan. I’m sure I can find a ton of info online. And Robin mentioned that it would be a good idea if I took some first time home owners classes (I think that’s what it was). But I’m also wondering if anyone reading this has bought a home in the last year or so or is currently house hunting. Do you have any tips? Is there anything that I should do and anything I shouldn’t do?

I have over a year to plan and save. That seems like a long time away, but I have a feeling (or at least I hope) it’ll go by fast. I just want to have all my “ducks in a row” when the times does come. So any insight I get get would be appreciated.