O Adonai,If at any moment, You would like to reveal Your plan for our family and our seemingly continuous up-cropping of financial woes in "cloud and majesty and awe," we would be ever so grateful.
Trying to rejoice! rejoice! despite our car being towed today,
The 2nd Lts.
Patience...patience. All in His timing, which sometimes isn't the best. But you'll get there. I can tell you that it's never easy, but you CAN live debt free.
ReplyDeleteSome advice. If you're on post for housing, they'll take ALL your housing allowance. If you're off post, you can find something that isn't as expensive and bank some cash. Believe me, it does help.
If you get an overseas allowance, BANK the COLA....don't touch it. It's AMAZING how quickly it adds up.
Don't "DITY" move...you never really save money.
Pay off your credit cards, if you have them. Get rid of all but one or two. Then pay them off monthly. Seriously. Even when the debt seems high. That's where banking that extra cash comes in. (only once a year do we "extend" our card balance...usually at Christmas time).
Honestly...it took me the better part of 3 years to get completely out of debt. But I did that in 1999 and have been debt free since. Except for now, since we just bought a house, but it's a GOOD debt.
By the way, hope you got your ornament package!
Oh, I am sorry, Chica. That really stinks.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to be joyful when you feel like your always behind.
I would have to respectfully disagree with the above comment about not "saving money" with a DITY move. We have always done at least a partial DITY and made plenty of money off of it. It may take a bit more work but it is worth it to a. have your own stuff right away b. know that your belonging are well packed and safe and c. make the money that they pay your for packing/transporting your own stuff. And it is usually a good amount of money.
I hope that you find that this recent set-back is less expensive and troublesome than you had thought it was going to be.
-Andrea
Thanks ladies so much for your thoughts and tips!
ReplyDelete1) it WAS covered under warranty, woohoo!! St. Rita felt sorry for us this week! :) And, its funny, in some ways, I feel like Job - God allowed the devil to mess with us, but made him do it BEFORE we were driving 12 hours to MD! so, awesome possum :)
2) Great tip on the COLA pay; even if we dont get stationed OCONUS, we are planning to do that with the deployment extras that he will get. if it comes right out of my check and i never see it, i wont be spending it :)
3) we do have credit cards (2 - USAA with rewards and Amazon with amazon rewards), but we pay the balance in full every month. credit cards are only good, in my opinion, for short term loans - ie., until payday :) because for that time, they're interest free!
credit card debt would be horrific because the interest rates are so high, so we dont use what we dont or wont have. also, it makes so much more sense than cash because i get MONEY back for using them!
4) DITY move - i'm kind of with andrea on this - i'm so type A, i really need to pack my own stuff. AND, having just done the UPACK move, where I pack the truck, they ship it, i really think thats my answer. i just dont trust other people to pack my things and if something happens, at least i know its MY fault. lol, anal, i know.
obviously, OCONUS would be totally different! :-p
lastly, 4) off-post/post housing - i'm conflicted about that, because i know, for instance, this place isn't worth the $1116 they're charging.
BUT, you do still have to pay utilities AND, i really really love being so close to everything on post, and having built in people around me who are also doing the "army thing."
so, i know we def want onpost for BOLC-B, but am slightly conflicted for our PDS... we'll see.
thanks again ladies!