Feeling the Prayers and Positive Thoughts

I sat down at my desk this morning with all intentions of going through our financial situation and getting it down on paper. That was almost 3 hours ago and I am finally finished.

First, I went through all the stacks (mine and hubbies) and kept only the bills with the most current dates on them and that left a huge pile on the floor (1 for shredding and 1 for recycling). When it was done, I felt such a relief at what was left behind. Remember, I like organization, so this was just a breath of clean fresh air to me. Hubby actually came home for lunch and breathed a huge sigh when he saw what I had done.

Secondly, I used my Quicken and updated all my bills, I almost fainted until I took a second look and realized that for some reason, Quicken had duplicated and some times triplicated my creditors. I removed all the duplicates and triplicates.

Thirdly, I organized the total of all bills including our home, vehicles and school loans. The amount was over $250,000 which took my breath away and I felt a panic attack coming on, but then, I began looking around for some ways to make that more manageable. I contacted my credit union and discovered I had my van as us owing $12K, in actuality, we owe just pennies over $9K, that was a huge swipe off the top.

Fourthly, I checked my Sallie Mae account and discovered that recently Americorps paid all my accrued interest for the year I worked for them in January, so that knocked my school loan down to under $50K, and making it so no payments are due until 2012.

Fifth, I contacted a local eye doctor and found out that the total cost for both my hubbies and my glasses with appointment will be less than $500. That may sound like a whole bunch, but he and I both wear progressive lens (he bifocals and me trifocals) and the last time I got glasses alone the cost was over $600 just for my glasses. If we keep the current frames we have, it will be under $400, but while he may, I have kept mine for as long as I can, I need something new.

When I was done, with Quicken, I went over to my handy dandy Excel spreadsheet and made three column headers:
-Bills with Mortgage
-Bills without Mortgage & School Loan
-Bills from low to high

I was happy when I was finished because all totaled, our bills without the house and school loans came to under $45K and for that, I feel much better. I know if all goes well, Papa and I will get new glasses soon, I might be able to see the dentist and get my 2 teeth fixed and we should be able to pay 16-18 bills completely off. Granted, they are between $9 and $2000, but they will be paid, no collections calls and it will free up hubbies OT and my money to pay off as many as we can between now and July when my checks stop coming!

My son just called, they just broke Katie's water, so the baby should arrive quickly! I will keep you posted!

Thank you all for your prayers, good thoughts and love! Knowing I have you all cheering me on, makes it easier to go through what we are going through now!