I have to ask how many of you are affected.....

Worknprogress

Worknprogress

Cathlete
My husband is in the mortgage business and has been for nearly 20 years. I have two older children (20 and 15) from a previous marriage. I worked when I had them but after 10 years of marriage, my husband found someone who made him happier.

I was lucky to find a great guy, got remarried and had 2 more children (in my 40's!). He was financially stable so once I had the 2 little guys - I became a stay-at-home Mom.

Of course, things were great. We moved to a bigger house 4 1/2 years ago in anticipation of our growing family but we did not buy something reasonable. Even though we bought our home at the peak of his earnings, we did not buy "what THEY said we could afford." We bought a house we were comfortable in and was less than 1/3 of what we could afford.

But it doesn't seem to matter how "smart" we thought we were at the time, we have had to dip in to savings over and over. It's not for anything lavish - new heater, new A/C, new roof, etc.

I know I am not sleeping well at night, worried about rising costs, dwindling paychecks, etc. DH barely sleeps thinking about the little boys he had later in life and no matter what we did right, he's thinking about how much more we could have done.

How are all of you doing in this difficult time?
 
Debbie - My Dh and I have always pretty much lived pay check to pay check. We are VERY lucky to have a wonderful fixed mortgage at a super low rate (we refinanced when the rates where dipping down into the 4%'s), but we have a lot of other debt hanging over our heads. While we are in pretty good shape right now (able to pay our bills and some extra), all it would take is one layoff and we would be in deep dookie. I don't know that the recent hard times have really changed anything for us though besides the higher gas and food prices. Aside from that, it's business as usual. Until my company closes down because of all our business going to China. :( I could totally see that happening.
 
It is definitely getting rough for us. We have had a successful business for a number of years and right now it has slowed down so much that I wonder if it will ever pick up again. We are a retail business and haven't had a really solid sale in months--lots of small ones but no major ones. The cost of utilities is really hitting hard. This winter I am using my woodstoves as primary heat for the first time ever in my home. I am also so conscious of every light left on that I will probably break a leg navigating in dimly lit rooms. I live in upstate NY and I saw that electricity shutoffs are up 17 per cent this past month due to nonpayment. Thankfully my home is paid for so no mortgage hanging over us just property taxes which the town is considering raising by 8 percent! Are they nuts?! I think the thing now is that none of us can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My husband has been predicting this for the past 2 years and I shrugged him off. Ha!
 
DH is in real estate. Need I say more? :) Still, I am optimistic that things will turn around soon. And we are lucky to have several safety nets before we hit bottom. DH has been saying that this was going to happen for quite a while now - the real estate crash I mean - so we did what we could to prepare.

Sparrow
 
My husband and I both make decent salaries, and we own a very modestly priced home. We have always had a decent bit more coming in to the household than we pay out in bills...but we are definitely still feeling it. Like Lianne said, mostly with gas prices and rising food costs.

Luckily my husband works literally across the stress, but OF COURSE he still drives there every day:rolleyes: I drive a small SUV, but my commute each day to preschool then work is under 5 miles, so that's not terrible. We have definitely cut out extra weekend trips and such.

Also, I have really spent a lot of time and energy figuring out how to cut corners on our grocery bill. We also turned off the ac about a month ago and haven't had to cut it back on since (or heat).

My husband has always been the kind of guy who keeps a wad of cash in his sock drawer (we have a savings in a bank also :p) and, for the first time, I am so thankful!

With Christmas coming, we have gotten creative -- selling stuff on Craigs List and finding odd jobs we can do as a family for extra cash.

I really hope something gives, and soon. I am scared!
 
A quick correction

I accidentally typed we "did not" buy something reasonable. I meant to say we "bought something reasonable" and at the time was well below what "they" said we could afford.

Amber - my parents always said, "Buy America!" At my age, I now see why.

Sparrow - my best friend is a real estate agent and has recently taken a job as a real estate assistant to pay her bills.

Phyllis - property tax up that much? Are they telling you why?
 
Well, I'll join you here...I am leaving a job in the sailing industry after 7+ years because the economy is making it just really hard on the company.

Long story short...I couldn't handle the stress of holding creditors at bay...so, I found a job closer to home...with a little bit of a pay cut...but considering the cost of driving 40 minutes to an hour to work and another hour or more home...I'm saving what I would have been making at the old job.

But like many...the cost of everything is just making it hard to live without touching the savings...or the credit card.:(
 
Katie - yes, I am scared too. Is it easy to sell stuff on Craigs List. With my husband and I combining 2 households we always had extras and gave it all away to charity. Now I think we need to sell stuff, to get just that little bit extra that we need.
 
Well, our worst nightmare has come true. DH got a lay off notice and has until until the end of the month to find a job in the company or he is laid off.

I'm a planner by nature and even the well laid plans...savings, paid off house, highly skilled DH and KABOOM there it all goes....<insert sound of toilet flushing>

I'm worried where we will end up but trying to keep the faith that the road will take us where we are meant to be no matter what plans we made.
 
I hear you!

Both my older brother and I are living at home with my parents. I came home to help out. At first I was transitioning from a dangerous job (I broke my foot in three places) into something new. I took my parent's offer to come home and focus on becoming something new-accept their small loan and invest in a new business. I'm hoping that it all works out. But, if I don't see a paycheck in the next four months I will be applying for work at the local casino because I had an internship at a theme park after college. I used to have other aspirations as my back up plan such as work at the state or teach piano but both of those are contingent based upon a decent economy. The state has a freeze on hiring. People cut piano lessons first in a bad economy. So. My alternate is less savory, the casino. But, I can't not work. I've lived on my loan for two years and I want to be financially independent. I have done so much for my parents in that time but I want to contribute financially.
 
Yup.

Not directly affected by mortgage industry, but as small business owners, my DH and I have seen a big slow-down due to the overall sluggish economy.

We've been self-employed for about 14 years, so I've always saved for a rainy day. Just didn't realize we'd get so many of them all at once!

You are not alone. Many others are worried too. It's a huge club that nobody wants to be in.
 
So far so good. One thing that worries me is we both work at the same place, so if it goes under, we both lose. We have very little debt, a mortgage and about 50% equity in our home, and I had to buy a car this year because mine was totaled. That loan is under 10,000 because insurance gave me a good deal(not my fault). Son is in college, but currently at Community college which is much cheaper, and daughter in HS has a 529 plan for college as long as that holds together.

Our company is a small company, but it makes more than 250,000 a year, so could really be impacted by a raise in taxes, and that could cause lay-offs, or worse folding.
 
We bought a new house in 2005. We're lucky that we put 1/2 down, have 0 credit card debt, own both cars-although dh's vehicle is 8 years old but only has 60k miles on it. So it's ok for now.
We both work for the same place also, so that makes me a little nervous as they are talking downsizing and lay offs. I had a dream the other night that my friend and I were out looking for new jobs. So this has been on my mind.:p
We both make good salaries and have no debt other than the mortgage however I'm starting to feel a little pinched.
 
Tami, a couple of years ago a large international company was looking to buy our company, with the intention of just wiping out competition and closing us down. We all caught wind about 18 months prior to when it would have gone down. Since we had a large amount of equity, even more than now, we refinanced because rates were good, and took a large amount of cash out and put it in FDIC funds that were liquid. This has given us a a little peace of mind that if something should happen, we have some funds. These are not touched and have in fact grown since then. The company who owned us undervalued us so much the London Trade commision would not OK the sale, so we ended up getting bought by a couple of gentlemen who want to make a go of the company. They are enthusiastic and raring to make us a success, so there is cautious hope.
 
dorothyrd said:
Tami, a couple of years ago a large international company was looking to buy our company, with the intention of just wiping out competition and closing us down. We all caught wind about 18 months prior to when it would have gone down. Since we had a large amount of equity, even more than now, we refinanced because rates were good, and took a large amount of cash out and put it in FDIC funds that were liquid. This has given us a a little peace of mind that if something should happen, we have some funds. These are not touched and have in fact grown since then. The company who owned us undervalued us so much the London Trade commision would not OK the sale, so we ended up getting bought by a couple of gentlemen who want to make a go of the company. They are enthusiastic and raring to make us a success, so there is cautious hope.
Click to expand...

I hope everything continues to go well for you :)
I know I will rest a lot better when our house is completely paid off. however even when that happens i'm sure I will find something to worry about. That's what I do best. ;)
 
I'm worried... we bought a house 3 years ago, we can afford the payments okay, but it was 70 miles from our jobs (the real estate market in our area was insane, so we had to go far to find something we could afford). When we realized that the commute was too hard on us, we tried to sell it, but with very little equity after 3 years (no wiggle room) and the crappy market, we couldn't sell. But we really couldn't keep doing the commute (my husband has spine/back issues and the 140 miles each day were killing him), it wasn't just a desire to move closer... it really was a necessity.

So we've rented the place out for only 50% of our mortgage and moved at the end of August... now we pay rent on top of 50% of our mortgage (more than $1,000), and we're really hoping that we can sell the house ASAP (probably looking at AT LEAST 2 more years).

We're okay now, making all the payments and bills with enough for savings, but I've got us on a cash budget every week and I put off buying stuff until the last minute, no extras, and have switched to doing all my shopping at Wal-Mart (which I hate with a passion, but it's the cheapest in the area).

Unfortunately, all it takes is for one of us to lose our jobs (we're Department of Defense contractors and contracts are getting cut left and right) and we'll be completely up the creek without a paddle.

These are some tough times.
 
I worked in the real estate department for a credit union for 7 years -- in all that time I never bought a house. I knew that I could be approved for a mortgage, but deep down, I kept thinking "I really can't afford this". When you get approved for your loan, the bank considers what other debt you have (like car payments and credit cards), but doesn't count things like utilities, day care expenses, food, gas, etc.

So I came close to buying a house back when I was pregnant, but chickened out. Now, I look back and think I did the right thing! I live in my dad's house now (he passed away last year). We have no mortgage, and I paid off all my debt with some inheritance money. I chose to leave my job to take care of my 4 year old, so things are hard with one income, but I am so lucky that I don't have a ton of huge bills. Things could be so much worse.
 
If you go back and read all my posts from last month you can see that my personal fiscal crisis started before the banks all started tanking and, based on the discussion then, you'll see you have plenty of company. I like to think that once we're all out of this nation-wide mess we will be a changed nation. I know once my situation is cleared up I'll pay cash for everything (or I won't get it... I mean it) and I'm going to build up a serious savings and not touch it. It's my new goal to become one of those chicks who buys $200 worth of groceries for 39 cents. Yea, that's going to be me. Things look pretty ugly right now but I think we're all going to come out of this stronger, tougher, and smarter so it's not all bad. I am very optimistic. Besides, when everyone stops spending ridiculous amounts of money for everything the prices on everything are going to have to come down or nobody will buy anything.
 
PhyllisG said:
It is definitely getting rough for us. We have had a successful business for a number of years and right now it has slowed down so much that I wonder if it will ever pick up again. We are a retail business and haven't had a really solid sale in months--lots of small ones but no major ones. The cost of utilities is really hitting hard. This winter I am using my woodstoves as primary heat for the first time ever in my home. I am also so conscious of every light left on that I will probably break a leg navigating in dimly lit rooms. I live in upstate NY and I saw that electricity shutoffs are up 17 per cent this past month due to nonpayment. Thankfully my home is paid for so no mortgage hanging over us just property taxes which the town is considering raising by 8 percent! Are they nuts?! I think the thing now is that none of us can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My husband has been predicting this for the past 2 years and I shrugged him off. Ha!
Click to expand...

Did you (anyone) see Oprah today? The whole show was about ways for families to save money. I'm thrilled she's getting away from celebrity nonsense and getting back to real life issues. She's had all manner of financial experts on lately and she has more such shows coming up. Anyway, there was a woman on there today who talked about going around the house unplugging EVERYTHING, including her computer modem. I can't remember the exact figures but her electric bill dropped to about half. I know anything that stays plugged in eats up electricity, whether or not you're actually using it, but I had no idea the difference was so great. Then there was the coupon lady...

I'm thinking if things keep on going this way, Cathe and Chris may feel compelled to create a financial forum because it's going to get to the point where that's mostly what everyone's talking about! And there are A LOT of people here with great advice and ideas.
 
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Like a lot of others mentioned, DH and I live paycheck to paycheck. We made the choice a few years ago for DH to stay home with the kids. He is British and didn't have a work permit yet. Neither of us were used to living on any kind of a budget so we found living on only my income impossible. Soooo, we used credit, and used, and used, and...well, you get the idea. We are now in debt up to our eyeballs. We have a mortgage that we can easily afford on our incomes but because of the debt we accumulated, we are always short. I am currently refusing to turn on the heat. I just want one month with no AC and no heat bills! It gets down to about 57 in the house at night (BRRRRR!!!) but I am holding strong...mainly because my fingers are too frozen to let go:p. I think a lot of us are in the same boat. Every time I think we are doing alright and we can start to make larger payments on credit cards, something comes up (i.e. brakes on car, kitchen faucet/pipes leaking, etc.). I even tried getting a home equity line of credit to pay off the debt and close the cards. No one is lending at this point. It is so very frustrating!

Add to all this, I decided to start Weight Watchers (online only since that is the cheapest way) and eating healthy is EXPENSIVE!!! I am doing the Core plan which is mostly clean eating...fruits, veggies, whole wheat pastas, etc. Why is it it cost $2 or $3 for a teeny tiny box of whole wheat spaghetti but I can get a box 3-4 times the size of the bad processed stuff for 99 cents:(.

Gee! After typing all that, I am sure in a good mood now:eek:!!

Carrie
 
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