What if I was unemployed?

As we all know, the economy is in tough shape. People are losing their jobs left and right. Sharon, over at Musings from a Midlife Mom, was talking about putting her emergency fund into overdrive. I get it. It's a scary time right now and I want to be prepared. I sat down this week and figured out how our budget would work if I lost my job. Since I'm the breadwinner I wanted to know what it would look like if we had to live off of the hubby's salary and my unemployment.

It was a bit eye-opening to see how little we'd actually need to get by. Which tells me we've been over spending for wayyyyyyy too long! It's good that we are on track now. Anyway, here is the breakdown:

Together we'd take home $3000/Month (based on 4 pay periods)

-$795 Rent
-$35 Electricity
-$125 Cell Phones
-$365 Car Payment
-$83 Car Insurance
-$200 Food ($50/week)
-$240 Gas ($60/week)
-$400 CC #1
-$400 CC #2

For a remaining balance of $357 per month. That would have to be for savings and misc. items that we haven't really accounted for, such as our annual car registration, oil changes, etc. Unfortunately I don't have health insurance figured in here. I believe Cobra would cost about $1K per month for both medical ($890) and dental ($100). Ouch! Luckily we are both in good health for the most part, so we could take a chance for a little while until I found a new job with benefits.

Hopefully this won't happen, but I can breathe a little sigh of relief knowing that in the worst case scenario, we'd be okay to get by for a little bit. Not to mention any income that I'd be able to generate from being at home working on crafts or something. In addition, with each pay period that goes by where we are both still employed, we're able to send hefty sized payments in to the credit cards. This is helping to lower the minimum payments due, so we may even have a little more extra wiggle room if/when that time comes.

Question: Have you taken a hard look at your bills and what your backup plan will be if the unfortunate happens and you or your partner are laid off?

Discover Personal Loans

So, I received an offer in the mail last week for a Discover Personal Loan. I know people have different issues with the different credit card companies, but Discover is one that I've found to be fair (for the most part) throughout the years.

The offer was to borrow from $5K-$25K as a personal loan for debt consolidation (or whatever other reason you need it). The interest rate was going to vary based on your credit rating and the repayment terms started at 36 months and went up from there. They stated that there was no prepayment penalty.

Our current plan is to pay off one credit card by the end of this year and the other around May 2012 (HOPEFULLY!). I thought that this loan may be a good way to get the interest rate down on the 2nd card. We currently have about a $17K balance on that card. About $2K is at 19.24% and $15K at 15.24%.

I went through the application process and was approved for the $17K loan. Unfortunately the interest rate they offered was 16.99%. The person on the phone tried to explain that even though this rate is slightly higher than the rate on the majority of my balance, it would probably be less that I'd pay because the credit cards compound interest daily, versus the loan company which will just add the interest monthly.

I wasn't able to find a comparison calculator online to do the math out but it just doesn't feel right. If they came back with a lower interest rate that would have been different, but it just didn't work out that way. That's okay. I'll stick to our original plan and stay focused on getting there.

Question: Has anyone else looked into consolidation loans? Did it work for you? Would you recommend it?

Another Payment Lowered!

Not sure if you recently heard about how NetFlix is raising their prices. I was paying $14.99 per month for unlimited streaming and 2 DVD's at a time. This came to $16.30 with tax each month. I was recently notified that they are separating their plans and the prices are going up. My new plan would be $19.98 before taxes.

I decided that I didn't want to pay that much. I considered downgrading to the streaming with 1 DVD, but then figured it's just as easy to stop at RedBox on the way home and get a movie for $1. The streaming alone through Netflix is just $7.99. Although there is not a ton of options on there yet, there's usually something I can find to watch.

I know it's not a big savings each month, but that's about $8 more I can put towards our credit card payment! Every snowflake helps :)

Question: Do you use NetFlix? Did you change your plan or are you going to just accept the increase and maintain your current plan?

My Walk to Work

I walk 3.8 miles to work each morning. I was riding my bike for a while, but this month I decided to change it up. I'm really enjoying the walk. I've actually dropped 11 pounds since I've started being more active.

Today on my walk in to work this morning, my legs were a little tired. As I passed two other apartment complexes we looked into previously, I longingly thought how much closer they are to my work and what a short walk I'd have. It takes me about 50 minutes now. One complex would take about 25 minutes and one would take 10.

Then I recalled how much more the rent was at these places. One was $400 more per month and the other was almost $700 more! Although these places are nice and my walk would be shorter (read: I could sleep in at least 30 minutes longer!), the extra price isn't worth it to me.

I've chosen to put that extra money towards debt each month, instead of making my life a little easier. That's another reason we don't have a second vehicle. That would be extra money each month on a car payment and insurance. It's not worth it to me. Later down the road, it may be, but right now it's not.

Question : What have you given up that could make your life much easier, in your quest to be debt free?

What Will the Future Hold?

As I pour over our spreadsheets and calendars and dream about the day when we are out of debt, I begin to ponder what we will do at that point. What will the future hold for us?

We've talked about relocating to another part of the country. I suppose if we save up enough money, we'd be able to move anywhere. There's an excitement in exploring a different place and finding a new home!

My career is a good one, but to be honest, I'm not in love with it. I think that's the case with many people. Often, life just "happens" (kids, houses, cars, bills, etc) and you get kinda "stuck" doing the same old, same old.

I'm thinking of something different. I don't think it's a bad thing to re-assess your life path and try something new that may be a better fit. Something that you have a passion for! It thrills me to think that I could start something new, something different. It also scares the crap out of me!

As I've mentioned before, I love film. I'd love to work in the film industry, do something behind the scenes. I know that I'd have to take a big pay cut and start at the bottom, but I think I'd be willing to do that. I also enjoy baking. I can see myself going to culinary school and taking baking classes and see where that takes me. Just the idea, that I have the FREEDOM to explore different options is liberating. Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face :)

It's a good thing I have a year to ponder all these different options! I'll need it, so I can do all the research I need to so I feel confident in that next step... whatever it may be!

Question : Have you ever taken the leap and changed careers? If you could change your career, would you? What would you do instead?

What I'd do this weekend if we had extra money...

This weekend is the annual Balloon and Wine Festival locally. It seems like it would be such a fun event to attend. Unfortunately, it's out of our budget. I spent part of today daydreaming about what I would do if we had extra money this weekend. Here's my fairytale :)

- First off, I'd leave work a little early since it's a beautiful day and I'd grab my hubby and a few items from the house before we begin our lovely ride up the coastline.

- We'd stop for dinner at a quaint little restaurant along the coast so we can relax and enjoy the sunset together.

- Next, we'd continue along to our bed and breakfast, conveniently located right near the festival. We'd check in and take a walk over to the festival to enjoy a glass of wine by one of our favorite local wineries.

- After a leisurely stroll, we'd head back to our inn to get a good night's sleep since the weekend will be filled with lots of fun that we're sure to need energy for!

- Over the next two days, we'd sample delicious wines, taste scrumptious food, enjoy wonderful music and maybe even partake in a hot air balloon ride - if I can convince the hubby that he won't die. Late Sunday afternoon, we'd head back home with some new memories, a full belly and a little hangover.

So, that's what I'd do this weekend if we had extra money. Ahhh, it's fun to daydream!

Question : What fun activity would you do if you had extra money this weekend?

My $400 Challenge

I have a confession. I splurged with some of the money we got back from our rent deposit. The hubby and I came to an agreement to send $1,100 to our credit card. We were very excited because it was going to be one heckofa big snowflake!

Well, for one reason or another, I made a bad choice and spent some of that money. Actually, a good portion of it. I blew $400. (I'll pause for people to yell at me...) Okay, I know I made a mistake and I feel HORRIBLE. My husband is upset with me and that makes it worse. If only the damn bank cleared the check and I sent the payment in as planned, I wouldn't have been so tempted! Oh well, I need to learn how to deal better with temptation.

In an effort to try to figure out how I can make things slightly better, I decided I would replenish the amount I spent. I've issued myself a $400 challenge. Come hell or high water (I'm not really even sure what that means!), I'm going to get $400 more to put towards our debt!

I'm changing, but I'm not perfect. The old me would have just chalked this up as no big deal and I would've put it behind me. Not really learning anything in the process. There is a price to pay for making poor decisions and I need to be accountable for that. So, the challenge is on!

I've started to think of some ideas as to how I'll come up with the money...

• Sell my plasma. I've been thinking about doing this for a while but haven't really made the effort. Our local plasma donation place pays about $50 per week if you donate twice. Their hours aren't the greatest, but I think I can try to work something out.
  
  
• Sell my excess crap. I have some old items that I've been thinking of listing for sale. I may put them up for sale in hopes to get some cash.
  
  
• Make and sell some crafts. I'm a crafty girl and I bet I could list a few items online to help the cause.
  
  
• Use my personal Mad Money to fund my challenge. I get $30 per week for my misc. items. (Since we don't have clothes or personal items really in our budget, I planned to use this for those items.)
  
  

Question : Did you screw up along the way? What was it? Did you hold yourself accountable in a real way or did you let yourself off the hook pretty easy?

Fresh & Easy Takes Change!

Staying with the theme this week of our empty fridge and spare change, I figured I'd share with you that our local grocery store, Fresh & Easy, takes change!

See, after moving, we realized we had a good amount of spare change to do something with. Since it's almost the end of the week and time to go grocery shopping again, we decided to bring our spare change with us and use some of it.

We debated rolling it and cashing it in, but 1) we didn't have any rollers, 2) we weren't going to pay to buy some and 3) the bank was closed. Plus, I'm not a super girly-girl, but I hate how gross my fingers get afterwards.

We could have gone to a grocery store that has one of those automatic coin counter machines and dumped our bag in, but they take a percentage of your money and we didn't feel like sharing!

So, instead we went to our new favorite grocery store here in California, Fresh & Easy and thankfully, it happened to be a rather slow time. We are starting to like this store more and more! Food is really what the store is called, Fresh & Easy. The prices are pretty fair too. Not to mention I found a cheap bottle of wine that actually tasted good! It was a chardonnay from The Big Kahuna for only $1.99. Major score :)

Anyway, typically (recalling from my poor college days) it can get a little embarrassing handing the cashier a bag full of change to pay for your items, but at Fresh & Easy, you are your own cashier, so it was totally fine! I was a little nervous at first that people may get impatient with me but there was no one else in line! I pulled out our huge bag of change and started to put it in, one coin at a time. Did we have enough actual cash (bills) that we could have just paid for our items with that? Yes. Did it feel good to use up the spare change we had lying around and actually get stuff we needed? Yes! Now we have a few extra dollars in our pocket and less change weighing us down. Winning!

Question : What's your favorite thing to do with your spare change? Have you used it to pay for things before? Do you snowflake it and put it towards your debt?

It's So Nice When You're on the Same Page

So, ever since the hubby and I had our talk about putting the refunded tuition money into our emergency savings account, he's taken more of an interest in our finances! This has been exciting for me, since I now have someone I can share my overly detailed spreadsheets with. Yup, I'm a nerd.

To my amazement, he recently created his own debt repayment spreadsheet! Hold on... Okay, I'm back - I just fell off my chair!

It's been a glorious week or so since he really started actively participating in our finances. However, a few days ago he threw me a curveball. He suggested going a little slower than originally planned. Although my head was screaming "WHAT? SLOWER? If there was some way I could rent you out and get money faster to pay this off, I probably would!" I sat there quietly and tried to understand where this proposal was coming from.

See, for a very long time we have done pretty much what we want to with our money (hence the situation we are in). He is proposing extending our repayment plan by about 6 months so we can enjoy ourselves a little more along the way. Believe me, I get that, I really do! Recall my question about taking a vacation while in debt? He thinks that giving ourselves a little more breathing room along the way is going to make this whole process a bit easier. In my opinion, although we only have small buffers in for fun and a possible trip in the mix, it's what we need to do right now to change our overspending ways and get this monkey off our back!

Although I was loving the few days when we were in sync and totally on the same page, it appears as though he's flipped a couple of pages without me and we're trying to get back to the same one. Any suggestions?

Question : Would you recommend moving forward as planned with a 12-13 month repayment plan or take the slower approach so we can have a little more wiggle room along the way?

Planning out purchases...

For the first time in a VERY LONG TIME, I'm actually waiting to purchase things. I know, it sounds revolutionary, doesn't it? I've been creating a mental list of the items I'd "like" to purchase once I have a little money.

-A new pair of black flats for work.

-Replenish my ancient makeup (I've literally worn a hole through the bottom of my 2 year old blush container)

-Buy some night cream as I'm starting to notice wrinkles on my neck :( (Although I fear, it may be too late!)

This is real progress given my previous behavior was to just go out and buy whatever item I needed. Our new budget is set up so that we each get spending money (aka "Mad Money") weekly. This week my Mad Money went to send my Mom a Mother's Day gift, so maybe next week I can get something off of my wish list. If our gift fund was built up a little bit, my Mom's gift would have come from that but we're just starting those funds now.

For anyone out there thinking they can't do it, YOU CAN! You just have to make changes. I'm actually getting excited about the changes we're going through. There are challenges that I look forward to succeeding at -

• Can we afford groceries on what we've budgeted?
• What fun things can we come up with to do with our limited weekly date night funds?
• Where are we going to find more snowflakes along the way to help us move even faster?

Question : Have you gotten to the stage where you plan out your purchases now or are you still just buying things on a whim? If you are pretty diligent about planning out your purchases, when do you find yourself straying?

Is it a bad thing to hide money from your spouse?

I have some exciting news!

My niece got word from her financial aid office last week that there appears to be a credit in her tuition account. It looks like an overpayment was made! She let me know that it's likely close to $1000 and that if I'm interested I could have it since I was the one paying into her tuition. Um, hello, YES PLEASE!!!

I was so excited that my first impulse was to tell my dear hubby! But something stopped me...

I started to think about how we don't have anything put away into an emergency savings account and how this would be a great start for us. I started to recall how I've noticed some traits from my husband that make me question sharing the news of new-found money with him. Whereas I'm a planner and enviously read other blogs where people actually plan out their meals for the week, my husband prefers that we go to the grocery store on a nightly basis (which I see as a waste of time and money). He has no problem with an empty fridge or completely empty pockets or wallet.

There's an excitement for him in the idea of living on the edge with nothing but the shirt on his back to get him through. This makes me nauseous and very nervous! He has this mentality that "everything will always work out". I love that about him in one sense but in another this phrase frustrates me because I'm typically the one making it work out!

I'm not angry about it and I don't really want or expect him to change, I'm just thinking that I need to quickly and quietly bank this money or else it may disappear into oblivion and we'll have nothing to show for it. I considered putting it towards our debt too but I constantly have this low grade anxiety when I think of us without a safety net and I think funding our emergency fund first is the way to go. If secretly locking this money away somewhere helps me get rid of that feeling, I think it may be worth it!

On the other hand, I want to be completely open and honest with my husband. I don't want to be dishonest or hide anything from him but too often I've seen money burn a hole in his pocket. Believe it or not, I'm actually the better one with the money! I'm the one who does the budget and looks at our bills. I enjoy it and he doesn't have much of an interest. If he ever were to ask if we had money in savings, I would be honest and tell him we did. I just don't know that I should volunteer the information beforehand.

Nothing is finalized yet and until I actually see a check for the credit, I'm hesitant to believe that there really will be one. I still have some time to decide how to move forward. What do you think?

Questions : Is a secret a bad thing when you believe it's for the overall good?

How much would you downsize to pay off debt faster?

As some of you know, we are looking for a new place to live. The countdown is on, as we have to be out of our current place by the end of the month. We were looking at an apartment complex within walking distance to my work (so we could still get by with one car) but in the past few weeks they have raised their rent almost $200 per month and added in a higher security deposit! FORGET THAT!

Yesterday I found another place for rent that is a bit further from my work (but along a bus route so I could take that). There was a one bedroom condo advertised but when I called to inquire, the gentleman told me that the one bedroom is likely going to be taken this week by the couple that is living in the studio condo he owns. They just found out they are expecting and want a slightly larger place. He asked if I'd be interested in seeing the studio. Wow, wait a sec, a studio?!? Hmmmm... I hadn't given that much thought. Could we maybe move into a studio for a year or so while we try to pay off our debt?

We are currently living in a 1325 square foot condo and we pay $1375 per month. The studio condo for rent is 525 square feet and only $795 per month! Wow, the rent really grabbed my attention. I decided I wanted to see it. I had a coworker go with me at lunch yesterday to check it out. I texted my husband to let him know I was viewing a condo that was only $795 per month! I conveniently didn't mention it was 800 square feet smaller than where we currently live. I just kept mentioning the almost $600 savings per month, that we could put right towards our debt!

I viewed the condo and yes, it's small. There's no getting around that. Yes, it's on the first floor, which I swore to myself I'd never live in again (I'm hyper-sensitive to sound). But, HELLO, did you hear that we could save almost $600 per month on our rent?!? I went home and discussed it at length with my husband. The biggest thing holding us back is our furniture. We naively purchased very large house type furniture when we moved here 4 years ago because we lived in a huge place. We didn't think much about what we would do if we had to downsize. Now we have to figure it out. Do we sell our large, comfy furniture and purchase studio sized stuff instead? Do we only move in what fits and put our excess furniture in storage for a possible larger home in the future? (This is an added cost that I'd rather not pay...)

Quickly playing around with this new possible budget, we're able to move our credit card debt repayment schedule up significantly! (I'll share details in a later post). So, what did we end up doing? We applied for the studio condo! We should find out today if we are approved. We'll figure out what to do with the furniture as it gets closer. We are serious about getting out of debt and in order to do that we are willing to sacrifice our comfort somewhat. I'll keep ya posted on how this all works out!

Questions : How much would you downsize to pay off debt faster? Have you done this before? If so, how did it work out?

Is it wrong to take a vacation while you are in debt?

So, I've been struggling with something lately. This past weekend was our 6 month anniversary. (No, we're not one of those couples that celebrate every month, I just happened to notice.) In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that we'll go back to Mexico to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. Lately however - I've started to feel a little guilty about the idea of planning a vacation while we're in debt...

See our budget works like this, basically I get paid every 2 weeks and one of my checks goes to our debt and one goes to our rent and other bills. My hubby gets paid weekly and that's the money we live off of for food, gas, and other misc. items. Although I've budgeted for 24 paychecks, I'll actually receive 26. I was hoping we could use the other two checks on things for us. We could plan a fully "paid in cash" vacation with these checks!

I'm of the mindset that you need to budget in some fun stuff along the way or else you'll go crazy. I work better and I'm more productive when I have something enjoyable to look forward to and as much as being debt free is a great goal to work towards... Mama needs a little vaca once in a while! Even with these little trips planned along the way, we're still on target to get out of credit card debt by December 2012. Sure, it could be a few months sooner if we skipped the trips, but I don't think we should. What do you think?

Question : Do you think it's wrong to vacation while you are in debt? Should 100% of your money go towards debt repayment and vacations and fun stuff be put on hold until you are completely debt free?

Free Credit Report Time!

It's that time of year... time to get your free credit report. If you don't already know, you can get one free credit report (from each of the 3 major reporting agencies) every 12 months. This is the website you should go to to get yours: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

That means you can actually get one every 4 months. I'm trying to start a new habit and plan to get one in April, August and December. This time I went with Experian, but there's also TransUnion and Equifax as well. It's good to just rotate through each of them in the course of a year.

I just download mine and my husband's. Mine looked fine but my husband's had a few things we'll need to look at. If you don't already do this, you really should. It's a great opportunity to catch mistakes, see if anyone has stolen your identity and just check in on the status of your open accounts.

Good Idea : Get your free credit report at least once a year, if not every 4 months!

Question : When was the last time you checked your credit report? Is this something you are already doing?

99 cent store anyone?

So, we did a first this past weekend... we bought our groceries at the local 99 cent store! I had budgeted $50 for food for the hubby and I for the week. I knew that $50 wouldn't get us too far at our normal grocery store, so I decided to give this place a try. A co-worker mentioned that she lives on a very small income by getting her groceries here. At first, I thought it was kind of a crazy idea - but once I entered the store and saw that I could purchase items that I normally buy for $3-$4 (for only 99 cents) I was sold!

I couldn't believe the items they had there : lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, bread, milk, soda, pasta etc! I almost took a picture to show you guys. I was so proud of what we got for $35! I'm certain it would have easily cost us double if not close to triple what we paid if we went to a regular grocery store.

I'm not saying it's for everyone and they don't have the greatest selection, but I'd recommend you check out what they do have. If you can save some money shopping here, it's worth looking into. Happy shopping!

Good Idea : Look for less expensive places to buy groceries... you may be pleasantly surprised!

Question : Where do you shop to cut corners? Have you tried to buy food from a non-traditional grocery store?

Owing taxes may be a good thing for us!

I know this may sound crazy, but owing taxes may be a good thing for us! I have been a bit hesitant to mention this but we've been struggling to stay on our budget each pay period. For one reason or another, we tend to stray. We have the best of intentions but "being good" has been harder for us than we anticipated.



Don't get me wrong, we have definitely made some progress from where we were previously. I actually have a "plan" that we are supposed to follow now (which is progress) and we've made some dents in our debt, just smaller than we could be making. Until now, we would kind of look at the plan but then make other decisions...



For whatever reason though, I refuse to pay the government late. I do not want to go on a payment plan and be hit with penalties and late charges. Eff that! It's not happening. This mentality has forced us to follow our plan to the T these past two pay periods. I know it may not sound like much, but I think THIS is the kick in the *** we needed to start following the plan. We have 5 more pay periods where we HAVE to follow it exactly or we won't make it. Maybe it's our procrastinator mentality that is forcing us to now conform at the last minute, maybe we get off on the pressure and the idea of the tax man coming knocking on our door, I'm not sure what it is - but it's working!



My only hope is that a habit will be formed by the time this is done, that we will continue to follow the plan and get ourselves out of this mess. One can only hope, right?



Question : What was your "A-ha moment" when it came to your debt? When did you decide it was time to take action and was it then that you actually started really doing it, or was it later because of something else?

Is everything "free" worth taking?

I tend to say "yes" to a lot of things I'm offered, especially when they are free! But, as I'm starting to learn... maybe not everything free is worth taking?!? Gasp, I know! This past weekend, for example, we were offered free tickets to see Shirley MacLaine put on a show. I automatically said "yes!" thinking it would be a fun night out. I'm not even really too sure about what she does in a live show, I just thought it would be a fun, free night out for the hubby and I. I remember watching her over and over in Terms of Endearment when I was a kid. I loved that movie! I figured, whatever she did had to be worth seeing. My husband, on the other hand, had NO INTEREST AT ALL.

We were also given free tickets to a local gem faire and a home and garden show for this past weekend too! Of course, I took all of the free tickets thinking how lucky we were to have received so many free things for one fun-filled weekend. Not really thinking how we aren't really into gems or kinda get depressed when we go to home and garden shows since it reminds us of what we can't really afford right now.

My husband had a very valid point, why spend the gas money to go to something we weren't really interested in, just to be tempted to spend money that we don't really have, on items that we don't really need? Um, yeah, that kinda sums it all up.

So, in the end, although we scored free tickets, we didn't end up using any of them! I felt a bit guilty since I'm sure there are people who would have taken the tickets and found great pleasure in attending the events. It just wasn't us for whatever reason.

Question : Do you find yourself accepting free items (tickets or otherwise) just because it's free and not necessarily because you'll actually use it?

Lesson Learned : Think before accepting something that's free. It may not be my cup of tea and that's okay.

I love 4 day work weeks!

TGIF! I really love 4 day work weeks! They just make the week fly by. I'm definitely one of those people who could work 4 10-hour days so I could have an extra day on the weekend.

Our next one is scheduled for May, so I've got a few months to work through before I can enjoy this feeling again.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great week and that you stay on budget over the weekend! See ya next week :)

Question : Would you work 4 longer days per week if you could have an extra day on the weekend?

A little bad luck in 2011...

So, this year hasn't exactly been going my way. It started with the car accident, then I lost my cell phone (not sure if I even posted about that one!) and then we got the bad news about our taxes. I'm trying to stay positive though and make the most of what life is throwing my way. The most recent mishap was that a package my niece sent me with her old cell phone was ripped open and the cell phone and charger were stolen. (I had hoped to use this as a replacement for my phone now that she's on her fiance's plan.) The person was kind enough to leave me the cell phone packaging in the box, but took the other stuff. This picture shows how the box was delivered to my LOCKED mail box.

Needless to say, I was livid! I just felt so violated. I really hate that feeling. I felt helpless. (The only other time I felt that way was when we drove across country and our car was broken into. We had several items stolen, in addition to our passports, social security cards and bank info. Ugh, that was a nightmare!) I don't want to accuse anyone but the only people who had access to the box were the employees of the post office. This package came from MA to CA. Quite a long distance to have been delivered in that condition, which only leads me to believe that the incident happened once it left my local post office, en-route to my house. Usually the PO will tag an item as damaged if they knew about it while it was in their possession. The package had nothing on it.

I called our local PO and the person said he'd check with the driver this week. I have little hope that anything will come out of that. I also emailed the PO itself to formally log a complaint. They said they'll respond within 1-3 days, so we'll see what happens. Unfortunately the package wasn't insured, so I'm not sure that they'll do anything. It's bothersome that we have no real protection against something like that happening to our mail.

Question : Have you had anything stolen from your mail before? If so, were you able to get it resolved or did you just have to deal with it?

Frozen Credit Cards?

Has anyone heard the advice that you should take the credit cards out of your wallet and instead of cutting them up, put them in the freezer and freeze them? I've heard of this trick and in theory, I think it's a great idea. I just can't get myself to do it!

I start to imagine all of the possible bad things that could happen and how I wouldn't have a credit card handy to help me get out of mess. Realistically, I know the chances of anything majorly wrong happening are pretty slim, but I just can't seem to get the courage up to do it.

As I write that down, I realize how silly it sounds. Honestly, what's the worst that could happen? I could be far from home and stranded on the side of the road, needing help. Well, I have AAA and they could tow me home. At least, I have AAA until March anyway. Then I believe my car came with some plan to help you if you're stranded. If so, that gets rid of that worry.

Anything else I may encounter is probably something minor that I could handle and I shouldn't be using my card for anyway, right?

Question : Have you frozen any of your credit cards? Did you have to unfreeze them for any reason or were you able to keep them frozen? Do you think this is a useful trick to keep the temptation to use your cards at bay?