I ask because recently I’ve been particularly worried about this one credit card account I have. It was literally the first card I got when I decided to try reestablishing myself credit wise.

This means I had to pay an annual fee for the card and a pretty high interest rate. It was something I felt was necessary though since nobody would extend credit to me otherwise.

Well just the other day I got a notice from that credit card company about how the account terms are being changed. The annual fee is going up and so is the interest rate, big time. It’s been five years since I accepted that car and I actually forgot just how much I was paying them to extend credit to me!

Since accepting that credit card offer I’ve improved my credit tons and I now have several lower APR/ no annual fee cards that are a much better deal. I quickly decided that this first credit card is something I don’t need to be paying for any longer and am closing it.

Well, this all got me thinking about how much N and I are unknowingly throwing away on bank fees and interest charges each month. I was scared to sit down and figure out the exact dollar amount but I also knew that if I didn’t we wouldn’t truly see how much we can cut back and even save if we make some small changes.

Let me tell you adding it all up and listing it all really does put it in perspective folks! It also really helped me to see which accounts we wanted to focus on paying down first. Throwing less money away is always a good thing right? You gotta take those blinders off first though.

Plus, once it is all listed you can go through it and see how the interest rates and owed balances are looking. Available balances and interest rates are two very different things, just because you have the money available to spend doesn’t mean you should.

Listing your monthly interest and fees paid will also help you see if you are using high interest rate cards too often or if you have too much charged to them. It will help you determine if you should be paying more towards one card as opposed to another. It will also help you to see if certain cards are just charging you too much in comparison to all your other accounts. Ignorance is bliss… but it is bliss you probably can’t afford right now!

Are you convinced yet? If so you can use this free spreadsheet right now to plug in your own information. It will figure totals for you over a 6 month period, then you can print it out and keep it as a reference if you want.

I am also curious to see how much individuals are paying each month and how all my readers average so I made an anonymous survey I hope you’ll take.

It is just asking for your January 2009 numbers, no personal information. It’s all recorded on a spreadsheet and then I’ll share the anonymous values with you all in another post so you can see how you compare to other readers.

In these times of economic hardship everyone is looking for ways to cut back and to save money. Watching your monthly budget and spending trends is a simple and obvious way to find areas that you can cut back. How much interest and fees banks charge you is a big one many people overlook!

The post How much do you pay to banks each month? Take a closer look! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We’ve officially come out of our state of delusion and are actively looking for a new home that we want to be in BEFORE Tater Tot arrives (it is our perfect world goal but we’ll move after the baby comes if we really have to). Unfortunately this is dependent on several other things like getting out of our current lease… can we buy a home, will we just have to settle with renting, etc…

One specific tax incentive has us looking for more info, it is the home buying one that is proposed to be included in the stimulus package. The house passed a version of it that few republicans supported and now it is being messed with  and voted on in the senate today.

Personally I don’t prefer to keep offering incentives and tax breaks to those who already have money and are doing fine. I am hoping that we’ll get something in place that will actually help middle to lower class families. We don’t need more investors or multi home owners to buy right now we need to get non-home owners and first time buyers in homes they can afford.

I am sure many of you remember how often we’ve been home hunting. We have actually been in the market to buy for several years but because of economic reasons and lending practices we’ve been shut out.

We have a hefty down payment in an IRA for our first home purchase and we (as a couple) have less than $8,000 in revolving credit card debt (unlike most Americans). We aren’t making a car payment and the only other debt we have is N’s student loan that we are paying as agreed. Still we couldn’t get a mortgage to buy a decent home in Arizona when we tried.

Now that we are in a different housing market we are gearing up to try again for a mortgage, we’ll see though. It would be nice to be able to finally get in on the real estate market without overextending ourselves. It seems for many in our age group this is just not an option though.

In other news I am still eating conversation hearts like crazy and Tater is kicking me as a result. Tater is going to be a sugar addict before even coming out of the womb thanks to valentines day candy, the OBGYN would be so pleased…

Speaking of the OBGYN we are going in for our rescheduled ultrasound appointment Thursday. Oh and I gained another 3 pounds in 2 weeks briging my weight to about 115 and my waist is measuring at almost 29 inches so growth is still not an issue here. That is 25 pounds of gained weight and almost 5 inches in waist growth (that is not even the biggest part of my belly!). Now go enter your baby weight guess and get in on the betting pool guys!

So what are your thoughts on the stimulus package and all the stuff going on in the house & senate right now?

The post Yep, we are moving AGAIN… Shoot me now! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I’ve seen commercials about S.A.D and the prescription pills that “I should ask my doctor about if I am experiencing similar symptoms”. I have always rolled my eyes about the idea of the winter season making people depressed enough to need a special prescription.

Well, N and I were chatting about how strangely productive we’re feeling as a result of the oddly warm and nice weather we are having and have been having all weekend. We might be coming out of our own winter depression or something! (by the way that is why I didn’t post all weekend, we were busy doing stuff outside…)

We got all our storm debris cut up and ready to be hauled away and we finished the 100% homemade rabbit hutch for Boner! We went grocery shopping, made yummy meals together for dinner, cleaned stuff, looked at rental home possibilities, toyed with the idea of trying to get approved for a mortgage, tried to have the brakes replaced and were outside in the fresh air. It was so nice.

I am super proud of N’s rabbit hutch project (I hope he’ll blog about it and share the plans). We are just waiting for the sealant to dry then it is ready for Boner to move in! Look how it turned out:

Oh, and we stopped in our local Circuit City just for fun to see what deals were to be had (N still wants a 42in flat screen LCD tv…). Have you been to their going out of business sale? We were just amazed at how many people were still looking for and actually buying those high ticket electronic items.

Actually all this weekend we saw people everywhere buying all this high priced non necessity stuff like big screen TV’s and other electronics despite the claimed economic hard times so many are experiencing. N and I just scratch our heads when we see it. We DIDN’T buy a tv by the way…

I mean these aren’t wealthy people, they appear to be mid to lower class and they are just lining up for a $2000 big screen tv or a new video game system. Um, hello! Save your money and think ahead about your economic future guys!

Oh and don’t even get me started on Nadya Suleman, the now mother of 14 who just had octuplets…

The post Coming out of the winter coma on a warm and sunny weekend… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The main reason we are looking to buy is because of the economic state, it is a buyers market for sure. Houses on the market are in abundance, home prices are falling and lots of people are desperately needing to sell the homes they can no longer afford.

Plus with President Obama it is likely we’ll see some type of housing market stimulus attempt, you know to get people buying again and to turn the market around. We suspect this will be most beneficial for those who have not been sucked in to the subprime mortgage mess and whom have not lost homes or even purchased them to begin with.

We have worked very hard to get money for a down payment in the bank. Thanks to employer sponsored 401K plans and roll over options we now have a decent down payment in an IRA ready for a home purchase, we are very pleased about this.

Now we are looking at our home buying options and considering what is truly in our best interest. Obviously we don’t want to remain in a mold filled rental home especially with a baby on the way so we have reinstated our home buying search.

We are looking at unconventional purchasing options at this time. Things like contract sales and owner carry buying options. We are doing this for credit reasons and also because we know somethings are going to change with the new president in regards to the housing market and financing options.

What cracks me up right now is how delusional sellers and agents are right now, they are still trying to be as greedy and shameless a possible even though the number of sellers clearly outnumbers the number of buyers in Evansville, IN.

The place we saw over the weekend was not spectacular by any means, the basement clearly had flooding issues and there were also structural issues on the 2nd floor. The seller made some crazy offer to us that was just a crock and we just laughed about (I don’t want to bore you with the specifics).

What I am wondering is when will people wake up? We are in a recession and greed just doesn’t work anymore. Seriously you selling me your house is NOT doing me any favors. We can rent forever and just keep making interest off that down payment money in the IRA, it’ll be more saved for retirement or whatever. Or we can buy another house, there isn’t a housing shortage you know.

When you have a buyer that is interested how can you honestly make such laughable requests when YOU are the one that is struggling under 2 mortgage payments YOU can’t make? We aren’t struggling financially to pay for our housing because we didn’t get in to an agreement that was impossible to make good on.

When you get someone who is willing to make your payments for you and help YOU out how can you still be so greedy? I know you really want to make your $50,000 profit off the home sale but which is better taking a profit cut or holding out in greed and risking foreclosure?

What kills me is that so many are honestly willing to loose their homes to foreclosure instead of just cutting their losses, learning from the mistake and just selling for what they can get. Those greedy people make me feel like foreclosure is deserved and that we shouldn’t care about their suffering or bail them out, I mean they did it to themselves right?

The post Home buying fun in Evansville, IN- sellers are still greedy even when screwed! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I mean there are too many other important issues to focus on right now and all we can dwell on is the celebrity ads. I have already made up my mind about the candidates but isn’t this petty stuff just ridiculous?

What are your thoughts on it all? Here are the videos in case you missed them, though I doubt you did.

The post The Celebrity Ads, what are your thoughts? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.