One step forward and two steps back.

So I have a ton to say but it seems as soon as I start a blog I feel my feelings aren't expressed right or that I came out too harshly which is why there hasn't been anything written for a while. Not like I have a huge audience but for those willing to listen to me and be my therapist here we go.
So if I were to be giving myself a grade of how well we are doing compared to last year I would say that even with the accident I'm doing just a little better not by a whole lot but by a little.  I'm now unsure about that because yesterday I needed to pay a credit card that got out of hand this year and realized that I am paying a whopping 169 dollars in interest.  That is just making me sick to think about.  So I'm hoping that this years tax return will help. Unfortunately I'm now unsure of when my car will be paid off.  My 401k loan is almost paid off which is what I was thinking about using to pay off my car but I'm unsure. My credit card interest on this card is 29 percent and even though my wife has good credit she won't have the upper hand until we have that card paid off so my 401 K Loan might just go toward that. I do have an idea on fixing my financial situation. My best solution is this.  If I could barrow 30000 dollars for around 2 months pay off everything except my 1st mortgage then go get a home equity loan for 30000 dollars pay off my loaner I would be golden.. I believe my payment would only go up by 119.00 dollars.  I could be wrong in fact my math doesn't add up right. I'm more thinking in the ballpark of 250 which is still better than all of my other debt combined.

So it's later Monday night and while doing finances I realized I had totally spaced my wife's credit card. I haven't paid it since September so now I don't know where we stand.  Seriously need some straightening up.  Time to be forced to be poor.

Nuggets of Happiness.

We decided to take a quick trip to Idaho this weekend for a Christmas Party. I pulled up to my sisters house and see a Ford windstar van that belongs to my younger brother.  He decided to sell his newer car and buy an older vehicle because his needs have changed not his wants. He figured out that if he sold his car today he would get 2000 dollars more than if he sold it 2 years from now. He now is prepared for the future has no car payments and 2000 dollars in the bank oh and did I mention he already has a rental property.  This is all because he knows he wants something bigger than what the present can offer him. He wants something bigger than a new truck or a new ATV on a loan. I couldn't be prouder of him I wish I had more people like him around me more often.
I was driving home today from a fun overnight trip at my family and I realized I was happy. I had my family with me my van was running really well.  I wasn't in any rush to get home. I was just enjoying the drive.
I've had a rough week this week.  I don't know what it was but I was really depressd this week. I would come home and dread going back to work.  Little by little I found happiness through little things.  By the end of the week I was excited that some of my goals are becoming reality. I will soon be having my car paid off. Credit cards will soon follow. I am having my second Christmas in a row where I feel guilty about my Christmas gifts being so expensive yet they're still under a hundred dollars.  Yes life is getting better. Not good enough for me to shut down this blog but better. I still have alot of tips and rants but for tonight I'm going to reflect on my happiness and hold onto it.

I want my car back

So remember that blog post I wrote a while back. The one where I wrote a short version of my life story and how a car purchase really screwed up my life?  Well I wanted to bring that up because I want that car back.

When we bought our Hyundai it had 40 original miles on it. It had a 23000 loan with 8.99% interest. My original payment was 380 for the first year but switched to 329.44 @ 6.49 the very next year. Yes the car that screwed up my financial life I want back. I believe if I hadn't bought that car and if my father in law hadn't convinced my wife with a burning bridges ultimatum I would be in a better situation right now. You can't change the past but you can change the future.

That car owned me for 5+ years of my life. Through the beginning of my marriage till we were expecting our 3rd. There were alot of times where we needed that extra 329.44 It was the discussion of many heated discussion. It put a toll on our marrage and it paralyzed our finances and our future decisions

It wasn't all bad. Of course there was many good memories.  My first vacation after my 1 year date at work we took it on a road trip. We went through AZ UT Stayed in Idaho stayed by the beach in Oregon. Stayed in Washington and then back to Arizona. It's been to the cat walk in new Mexico went to Silver City where we stayed at the Drifter (never again) been to Disneyland Sea World The California Beach.  In fact that was my first time in California. Unless you count the layover.

Right before we traded it in we celebrated its 100000 milestone about 5 miles outside the town of Vernonia Oregon.

My first and second daughter were taken home in that car so was our dog. We moved twice with it.

 Eventually I did have to break up with it. My family was growing but my budget wasn't.  It was a good decision to let it go and it may be a good decision to purchase it again except this time there will be no loan and a free and clear title that I had never seen. I'm contemplating on trying to find it. Things are looking up and I think an ultimate satisfaction would be to own the car  that once owned me.

All rolled into one

I've got to get a lot off my chest right now so without explaining any further here we go

First why are turkey bags so expensive? Seriously it's 3 bucks for 2 food grade plastic bags and they hide or don't offer the off brand. Turkey companies offer a gravy mix why don't they offer a turkey bag? At least I was able to find the off brand for 1.39 for 2 bags. Less than half the price.
Second I wonder how long I have left at my job. For a while there I thought I had a secure job. I still think I do but I'm getting sick and tired of my bosses judging me for someone else's mistakes. I'm almost ready to be fired I'm ready to move on.
Next. I have been playing Mr mom for the last 2 days. My advice. Put some diapers in your pockets. If you have cargo pants put some wipes in your side pocket. Keep a bucket and towel ready and at least have one area of the house clean. Also if you can pick out an outfit and shoes for for your kids. It makes it a lot easier when you want or need to get out of the house.
4th I'll be heading down to Arizona for Thanksgiving. I will be buying a lottery ticket. Please send all of your good vibes with me. I could really use that kind of money right now. P.s lottery is not sold in my state.
5 Speaking of money I'm kind of tight right now. Nothing abnormal just not receiving what I used to. I need to pay the mortgage by tomorrow and I had to dip into my getaway jar. I need to set up a go fund me page so I can make up some mental illness, be on disabilities, have kids that are not going to have a Christmas, and ask people for donations
6th. Seriously what is up with this whole go fund me page. I would guess most need the money but when I see your not working going to college and your car is about to be towed you have a better life than I do and your in college! I even saw one where a guy was complaining he didn't get enough financial aid and if he did he could pay his car payment. What?!? What happen to the poor college student who had a run down car and he's getting free money that's not going toward college expenses and your in college! Seriously people donate to me. I don't need it could use it and if you give me 150,000 dollars I would be completely out of debt and would be able to give more and I would. Just in my own way
7  Some eateries have been really bad lately. (Blank)and (blank) come to mind. I understand raising prices but when your svc and food don't match the value it sucks. I just bought a 6 buck combo at (blank) and it ended up close to 7 bucks. I don't know how tax is was 70 cents. It wasn't worth it and (blank2) sells you an upgrade without you knowing it. The offer you a 3rd or half pound when you don't know you have a smaller option. Not worth it. I'll be staying away from those 2 for a while. And to make it more confusing I erased their names. Don't want a defamation lawsuit.
8. My muffler just got loud yesterday so I will be working on that this week. At least it's the muffler and not the engine. It's still drivable and still has no car payments. Count your blessings.
9. I again had to put used oil in my car. I did filter it with a paper towel and I did get the vans oil change done. I guess used oil is better than no oil
And 10. Let's end on a bright note. My wife was just recently promoted. What's that mean. Well even though she could have the worst month in sells she will still get a cut of the company's profit. She could do nothing but offer support and get a pay check unfortunately we haven't had that pay check so we don't know what that looks like let's hope it's good. Thank you for reading and ya'all have a great week.

Depression hitting me hard.

I'll probably put a few short post out there just to get me through this depression I am experiencing I'm not going to talk about the subject depression right now or how to deal with it except to say the earlier you learn to deal with it without medication the better off you will be. Control your mind with your mind.  I'll go deeper into that conversation at a later date.
I'm just realizing this morning that I still have alot of debt I can't get ahead and seem like I'm always behind. My credit card payments have sky rocketed due to my injury and my medical will be going up 15 bucks a week next year. Its a rainy gloomy day which is somewhat helping and not helping.  Its helping me feel the emotions to deal with it and also contributing to my depression. Oh if only I had 150 thousand dollars my debt would disappear.  My depression won't but triggers of it would.

The Get Away Jar

Last year before while I was struggling to stay in my house and put food on the table I really wanted to do something nice for me and my wife. Something we had never done before. Something other people would be jealous of. I started saving everything I could in a jar. Although I did want to take her to Hawaii or Jamaica (like my cousin did. JERK!)it was way out of my budget. I was able to turn a small 125 dollars into 500 dollars and was able to provide a pretty nice trip at least for our taste. Here is how you do it.
Now remember when I did this I was practically spending every penny just to get through the rest of 2013 but was able to save without hurting my budget. This can also work to save for an emergency fund.
First start with anything. Pocket change, a penny, even 5 buck from your
Bank account. Something you can say for sure unless your life depended on it is going to your vacation. Your mini getaway. Sacrifice as much as you can. Pack your lunch. Don't go out to eat until you get your vacation. Be mad about it. Next invest. Yeah your not going to have enough to put into the stock market nor would you want to. Look at the classifieds or the thrift stores for ideas. I was able to pick up a pair of snowboarding boots for 5 bucks a brand new air compressor for 15 and 10 car phone chargers for about 11 bucks. I sold the car phone chargers for 20 the air compressor for 35 and will sell the boots this year. My 30 dollars turned into 54 and I will hopefully get an extra 20 for the boots. Next put a little bit from your pay check. Anything. I started with 25 but ended with 5 a month but I put something.
When you hit your goal amount then comes the fun part. Try to save on your trip. Try turning your 500 dollar trip into a 400 dollar trip or make your 500 dollar trip more glamorous by buying packages or deals off of groupon or other deal sites. We have a local deal site I used. I was able to get a condo for 2 nights for 50 dollars a night. Try winning your trip through a radio station. Very unlikely but it could happen. Look at renting a condo vs a hotel. You might have to clean but it's well worth the savings plus you can cook in a condo and have a romantic candlelite dinner.Yeah it's not "normal" but some significant others are not looking for normal. Stay at a cozy cabin. Look for used or new gift cards people are selling. I found a gas card with 100 dollars on it for 70 bucks. 30 dollars saved. Use coupons. Pack a cooler. One of my most memorable short trip was to Pinetop Arizona. I stopped by the dollar store grabbed shasta and some snacks for my cooler and had an awesome weekend.( I still wonder what my wife wrote in that bible we found when we dropped it off at a church). Freeze your own ice or oarange juice to keep your food cold eat at a Costco or Sam's club for a meal. The point is get out away from your kids and go on an overnighter. When your done start over!

There's always #7

Sad news. After my 6th attempt of registration for free tickets to theMoTab Christmas concert I have once again lost. I received an email yesterday.

 Better luck next year.

Cheaters at the MoTab Christmas Concert.

Earlier this year before I deleted my entire blog I had a post titled cheaters of the church. Well it is a week away from entering for tickets for the Mormon tabernacle Christmas concert so I've decided to revisit this topic with more evidence of how members are getting an easy ticket or cheating at the system to secure their seats. I also want to let you know that even though I am starting this blog a week earlier than when the registration starts I'm not going to post it until the registration period ends. I don't want to decrease my chances of winning because I reminded someone to enter.

For the most part I think the lottery/drawing system the church ticket office has set up is fair. After alot of researching I have also found flaws and questionable integrity of the entire system that makes it unfair let me give you a couple of examples. First of all, all of the members of the Mormon tabernacle choir the orchestra actors maybe the sound and light crew all get tickets for whomever they would like to invite without entering the lottery.  Now this seems fair and I also believe it is fair but it hits a gray area for me. Say you have a member of the MoTab  that's been there for 10 years and gets tickets every year. He or she can't move over and let someone else receive tickets. Or a performer who is on their 3rd year of performing. Can they not move over and let someone else have a seat at the performance?  I think that should be my new ticket office slogan "move over let someone else have a seat"

Here are some evidence I've found on blogs of MoTab and performers receiving tickets without entering the drawing.

So these are actual screenshots of bloggers who have had the opportunity to go to the concert. I wanted to get evidence and ideas on how to increase my chances. Notice the supplier is in the MoTab and how often does she get tickets? Every YEAR! It doesn't really specify how many tickets they are able to acquire 

Again my frustration is not with performers or motab getting tickets it's the fact that they reserve them for them every year.  Can they not move over one year out of 3 and let more people who have tried for years to get tickets receive the opportunity to go.

Another thing that is unfair and is easily fixable is the ability to put multiple entries in for a small group of people who want tickets. For example you can get your aunt's, cousins, third uncle, half brother, 3rd daughters friend to all put in entries for you without any of them going. This happens every drawing. 

So did you catch that? Basically having a big family who have no intention of going is all you need to win.

This person didn't even know she was entered.  She probably hadn't even thought about it.

To help make the process more fair. The ticket office could put a statement on their website encouraging applicants to not enter  to increase another person's chances of winning. Only enter if you plan on attending.  Another idea is to have the persons name who is applying for the tickets on all of the tickets and require that they be in the party and have ID.

Those who work for the church and certain church leaders should not be guaranteed tickets

I have (I should say had) a friend who's dad worked for the church or had a leadership position. He was able to get tickets EVERY YEAR. and my friend was able to go twice because of his dad. He's never put in for the drawing but was still able to get tickets. 

I'm not sure what relationship my friends dad had with the church. I do remember my friend asking me if I wanted him to ask his dad if he could get us tickets. He shouldn't be getting tickets. If there are people out there who have put there names in continuously and have yet to go. All Leaders and workers should put their names in the drawing like everyone else

2 years ago KSL news bragged or talked about their news station receiving tickets. Again without entering a drawing like everyone else, they were able to take someone else's chances who has been waiting 5 years of putting in for the drawing or 29 years if your counting my age to go. I'm not the only one who's complaining either.

You and me both Josh. This will be my 6th year of entering and it's hard to keep losing when you know there are people who go every year. There are those who "cheat" to increase their chances.  Those who work for the church or hold leadership position keep their tickets every year instead of letting someone else have a shot. Keep going Josh you and I will make it there someday.
Unfortunately to Josh and I there are people who are lucky to win tickets almost every year

some people are just lucky. I am a believer in luck. It wasn't until I met a few "lucky" people.  There are those who just have the "lucky bug" but that's a toppic for another post. I congratulate this person for winning but they should move aside and let someone else win. An easy way to help prevent continuous winners is to ask them to wait a year before entering again.  

another example of a continuous winner. This one however cheated to get this result. This post is connected to the above post about having a big family across the country is all you need to win

This didn't make sense to me at first. Notice how she says she goes every year with her family. She also mentioned in a post that it's tradition for her family to go to the concert every year. At first I questioned how is this person getting tickets every year. I looked back four years and it was true. They really did have a tradition to go to the Christmas concert every year. Then I realized something.  Notice how she mentioned the next morning they headed to the concert?  There is one morning where there is a short version of the concert and a music and the spoken word and that's on Sunday.  I'm guessing that Sunday is not a desirable ticket.  You have to wake up early it's cold find a baby sitter.  I think they have found a way to go and that is through stand by on Sunday Morning.  So if you want a better chance of going put in for Sunday or go to stand by on Sunday.  

Does anyone find an Irony in this post.  Her family tradition is to go to the concert and break the Sabbath day? I'm not perfect I just thought that was oxymoronic to have a tradition to feel the Christmas spirit at the concert and go to fill your stomach with food you broke the Sabbath to obtain. 

One last thought.  I watched a few short segments of the concert on YouTube.  It may be just my imagination but does anyone else notice that a majority of the front middle rows of the conference center is of the older generation?  Do they reserve those seats for certain people every year?  Do they include those seats in the drawing or are they automatically reserved. Again something else that seems unfair with the whole ticket distribution

This year I decided I was going to cheat. My goal was 50 entries but I only got 10 people to help me. I've decided not to. I would be oxymoronic if I complained then did exactly what I was complaining about. I have my own entry my 6th one. I really hope I don't get that dumb email offering me a discount to the DVD. I want to see the real thing. For those who have lost know what I mean with the e-mail.

Good luck especially to those who are still waiting. 

Even miracles have restrictions, or do they?

I am one that normally avoids the news when it comes to children being sick or dying. I have a soft heart and sometimes become very emotional when I stumble upon a story.  It's just come to the point where I have decided to avoid some stories
There are stories I'm dragged into because of my wife and her charity work but for the most part I stay away. One particular story caught my eye this week. It's. About a boy who is in hospice waiting to die and it's breaking my heart. What really gets  to me is when a community rallies together to make his final days his best days.
It's during these times I and others rely on our faith to get us through.  We pray for understanding and comfort.
Through a different experience I learned that sometimes part of a persons mission is to strengthen a community toward God. One thing we never see is the miracle we want and that is for this young boy to live. I have never heard a person who is in hospice care who has been told they are going to die especially a young child and pull through and live a normal life.  I would like to see that once in my life. Miracles are not restricted but I/we have yet to experience a miracle like this.


Not my will but thine be done.

You have to be famous to meet famous church leaders....oh..

I once had an friendly argument with a coworker of mine. I was thinking about how we pay tithing and how you could properly pay tithing on your income.  My argument is if I own my own businesses my income would be calculated after all of my expenses and one of those expenses is fuel. I do co own a business and we do not include buying fuel as part of our income.  Our income comes after we pay for fuel and other expenses.  From our bottom line is where we would calculate tithing. My argument is this. If i owned my own business my gas to get to work and back would not be included as income my income comes after I deduct gas. My job should be no different. I need fuel to get to work so I shouldn't pay tithing off my full paycheck. This argument went on for a while until my coworker suggested I should set up an appointment with a general authority and  ask him to which I replied that would never happen.
My dad was set apart as a missionary by a member if the quorum of the 12. He has a special connection to this apostle and has requested him by mail that he perform his kids temple ceilings. I believe he has requested for each one of ours so so far he has requested 7  times.  He does get a response that the apostle is busy at this time to which I am fine with. What bugs me is when I hear stories or read blogs of encounters with "famous" Mormons who talk about their experiences with members of the quorum of the 12.  Wether it's a blessing of a Olympic athlete or a meeting with the tattooed lady. You might even have a famous blog get to meet one of them and they will include you in their talk. I just don't understand how so many of these "famous"Mormons get to meet them by chance but my dad doesn't.  I know they are busy but is it because he's busy or that his office thought my dads request was just to far fetch to even ask him.
There's still 2 more waiting to be married.
there's still a chance but we're not famous.

are restaurants the new addiction.

When I returned to work I got a new customer that I had never heard of. It was a order and eat type of place like your typical McDonald's or burger king.  It was in a new development where other convenient eateries are waiting to take your hard earned money turn it into a donut and coffee and wave you on your way. While i was servicing this place I couldn't help but notice how many loads of bread they have to keep in stock not to mention how much chicken beef or vegetables . I wondered how much of this stuff goes to waste and why this restaurant decided to be here in the first place. During the last 3 years I have seen a spike here in utah in food eateries.  Now I am all for free market to a certain extent but I just couldn't believe how many developments of restaurants and stores utah has had in the last 3 years not to mention all of the apartments townhouse and condos going up everywhere. Then I started thinking about restaurants. Are they the new addiction? Is having more restaurants around doing more damage then good?
In my line of work I have alot of customers who have ALOT of food waste and I'm not talking about the bad kind. I remember seeing a utah based company who specializes in soups salads and sandwiches where everyone thinks is "so good:/" throwthrow away barrels and I mean BARRELS of good 2foot long loaves of bread. I know of another popular restaurant in utah that specializes in made from scratch breads throw at least a barrel full of their popular bread  every 3 days. Gas stations probably throw away at least a third of their grill items and your grocery deli is the worst. You wonder why your macaroni Salad is 5.99 a pound? It's because half of it's THROWN AWAY!
Now i want to share with you why I am bringing this up. First of all I believe we here in utah and America but especially in Utah right now are eating out WAY too much. I've even noticed WOMEN are the worst.  I have been to several of these "popular" Utah based restaurants at lunch time and the majority of the customers are your stay at home moms meeting up with their friends for lunch. We are becoming addicted to their food. Another reason is food prices continuing to go up. Restaurants buy alot of food and turn around and sell it to their customers for profit then we go home buy food at the grocery store but don't end up eating it because we are lazy and don't want to make anything or we don't crave anything but we do crave southwest egg rolls or a ranch and bbq salad or maybe a juicy hamburger so we let our food go to waste while we go to the resturaunts where they produce more waste and more demand on our food supplies which makes the prices go up.
So I guess my point of this blog post is (and I'm getting bored of this posting) is to avoid eating out as much as you can when you have other bills to take care of. Get ahead of everyone. Their food is overpriced anyways. One more thing I thought of. When you buy a menu item do you ever think what goes into the calculation of the food. In short it's probably something like this. Cost of food, energy rent, loans, payroll, insurance, health coverage, taxes
 We are already paying that. Avoid restaurants and Learn how to cook. that is all.

un seen blessings.

My second daughter has been to the hospital twice in her life. Both times RSV was the culprit.  She has always worried me when it comes to her being sick because she doesn't know how to handle it. She used to hit me because she was so uncomfortable. That was a very trying time in my life that I'd rather not talk about at this time. Things have changed in how she acts and her strengths against sickness. One weekend sometime after these trials my mom had told me that she had put my daughter's name in the temple where they pray for you and I have no doubt that that is a contributing reason why she is handling herself so well. She also used to have growth issues but is now growing.
She just woke up dry heaving. I had flashbacks of her doing this while I stayed up all night with her. I remember how her heart would beat. Seemed like it was beating so fast and I couldn't get her to calm down.  I later found it was because she was getting little oxygen and her heart was racing to make up for that. I also had a thought that maybe I was punished for my post last night. I quickly turned away from that thought. Kids get sick. My daughter handled it so well. I'm being blessed and I do see those blessings.  I know I have other issues but that does not block my true core testimony that God loves us and wants what's best for us.

I'm trying to soften my heart

Before I begin this post I want everyone to know that even though I have strong feelings about certain things I talk about especially things related to the church like the Bishops Storehouse I actually have a strong testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints.  I know it may seem weird that a commandment like tithes and offerings that I struggle to understand is not leading me away from my church. There are experiences in my life that I will not deny that have strengthened my testimony.  I'm not going to dig deeper than that at this time. Maybe in a future post I will.
Today is conference and I wanted to share a few feelings I still have after listening to the talks. I did feel like two of the talks were directed at me they were about fast offerings. Again if you haven't seen my other post fast offerings pay for things to help those who are poor and needy like clothes food shelter and bills. I'm going to shorten this maybe at a later date I will dig deeper with these two talks. The first talk said without quoting word for word we need to dig deeper and give more based upon what are financial circumstance can give and that even though some people's hardships were caused by themselves we should not judge but rely on faith that the lord will bless us if we pay a generous fast offerings.  The second talk talked about bishops responsability to distribute the fast offerings to help the temporal (and emphasized temporal) needs of families who need assistance. I still have some difficulty with this. I know of people who have put themselves on church welfare through there own actions.  I know of families that don't intend on getting a job soon and they been on "temporal" church welfare for over 6 months. I read blogs where families have been on church welfare for up to 10 months. One family that had a blog was on it for 10 months and not once they couldn't lower there standards to go deliver pizzas instead they would go to the temple and wait for the lord to drop a job in their lap? This particular family went to Disneyland six flags (had season passes I believe) went to a work convention and flew all 7 from California to Alabama round trip while on assistance.  10 months is temporal?
 I do need to soften my heart.  I want to help the needy I want to feel that I am doing something right when I donate my fast offerings but I'm not. I know I need my heart softened but how do you soften it when those who have more than you also need your donations?  That's how I feel right now. Am I going to try to at least listen and act upon the council of this subject? Yes I will try and I hope the lord blesses me because I really do need it.

awww Disneyland. Thy secrets are out

So I went to Disneyland recently and I wanted to share a couple of feelings and ideas I have about that place. I'll admit it I have a love hate relationship with Disneyland and I think it will stay that way until I go there and feel like I've gotten value for the money I spend but until then I will share a few mistakes I made to help you make your time more enjoyable.  First make sure you're financially stable to go to Disneyland.  I would even suggest not to have debt with the exception of a mortgage and student loans and here's why. You will remove financial worries that will help when your bill is 95 bucks a meal for your whole family or 300 for the entire day. It's not worth it to go to Disneyland when you NEED to have other financial obligations to take care of. Could you imagine if everyone at Disneyland actually listened to that rule. I have no doubt that 60%+ would not be there and Disney ticket prices would be cheaper. Almost everyone at Disneyland has debt and they are going further into debt by going there.
Pack a cooler and drinks. One thing that ate my money while at Disneyland was buying my coke. I tried to save a little by buying at the convenient  store but I might as well bought it in the park because I only saved 50 cents. Later I found that my own hotel had coke for 1.50. I don't think Disneyland allows a cooler inside but if you can figure out how to cool your drink within a bag you could save alot.
Prices differ in Disneyland and luckily we now have an app that reveals prices. For example a 20 oz coke can cost 3.15 at the entrance but changes to 3 by it's a small world.  I highly recommend  Rancho Del in adventure land. It's the only place I feel like I am getting close to my money's worth plus they have free refills.
Just get in line. Your probably wasting more time talking about the ride than getting in line. If you want to go on a ride get in line.
Lastly, go without the kids. I know this is the hardest but if you were able to go without the kids you would minus a stroller bathroom breaks aches pains headaches and time.

New Truck buyers are selfish.

Let me ask you as I am always curious.  Do you truck owners ever have problems financially?  I ask this because lets face it. Trucks are expensive.  Second question. Who out there owns their truck free and clear from 2012 or newer? Out of all the vehicles I see bought new I think trucks irritate me the most (second is the smaller suv's but we will get to those later) I get a little bit  frusterated when I see new trucks on the road and here's why. I Think you're lying. I also think your selfish. I think you're lying to yourself , lying to the world and are selfish towards  your family and your future. You tell the world that you have it good. You don't have any financial woes and can withstand an economy downturn. Your not going to need any assistance of food or housing if you were to lose your income. (which is a bunch of bull crap because I can pin point a blog that talks about shopping at the Bishops Storehouse with a couple who came there in a brand new truck) For those of you who have paid off your truck and have funds to back up emergency if they happen you can stop reading now. For the rest of you truck owners lets examine how much you are potentially paying per month on your selfish purchase. Again this is for 2012 or newer. I still consider alot of truck owners who have older trucks selfish and deceivers but for this sake I think I'll take an argument I have a fighting chance of winning.  In an earlier post I showed you that if you had a truck loan for 18000 dollars you would think you're paying around 360 dollars a month but in fact you're actually paying closer to 600 a month when you calculate every expense of the truck but there is one expense I forgot to add to that calculation. I totally didn't even think about it till last week. That's tires. You will need to calculate a new set of tires every 18 -24 months which will be around 500 dollars and being friendly I'll calculate it at 24 months which puts your grand total of an 18000 truck of about 619 bucks and some change for an 18000 truck. (I also want to add that i had a brother buy new tires for his expedition and that was nearly 800 so that price might be low) BUT and I did write a BIG "BUT" a 2012 or newer truck is not going to cost 18 k it will probably cost more like double. Let me repeat that DOUBLE! more insurance more  monthly payments and you don't think your selfish.  A 36000 dollar will put your payments  at  640 a month if you had good credit. Take in calculations like fuel tires insurance registration and maintenance and that truck easily cost at least 1 thousand a month to maintain. That's not selfish?  I know of at least 1 person who fits this description.  He earns about 2400 dollars take home pay. Half of it goes to his truck and that's not selfish? At least to his future? I have a brother in law who bought a 2012 SUV.  He makes 80 k a year and wants to buy a house but he first bought that. Last week his wife asked for a loan to go to Disneyland because they couldn't afford to go.  He's not being selfish?  Especially to his kids?. Just because you want the best for your kids doesn't mean that getting the best will be the best for them. Security first then the best.
If you chose to buy a truck make sure it doesn't interfere with your security! Again trucks are expensive. Think about it before you purchase and again per my Car Payments Anonymous group rules only a 5000 dollar loan amount max if you chose to purchase. Otherwise stay out of debt and stay ahead.

Surprise collection! your neighbors need to keep their cable.

Fast sunday was this last Sunday. I don't know why.  I think it's because of the temple dedication coming up. Usually it's at the beginning of the month so I was surprised when I heard a knock at the door to collect fast offerings. I found a 5 dollar bill earlier that day and was planning on spending it the next day. I almost would of said no except I have alot of respect for the guy who was collecting. I guess it's going to a good cause. I mean my neighbor who has been out of work for 5 months with no intention of finding a new job needs to keep his cable. We already know there on  church assistance but randomly found out they still have cable when she complained about missing a certain show that's only on cable on Facebook. Hope you enjoy my 5 dollar contribution neighbors.

They may look wealthier but are they?

I've decided to shorten my post. LatelyI have alot to say but not alot of time because of work.
A week ago my wife got a text from a friend to ask her if she wanted to go grocery shopping.  This friend of hers has a taste for the finer things in life. (Personally i think she wants the best for her adopted kids. Nothing wrong with that until it crosses the line where your actions cause you to ask for charity) She just recently bought a brand new house and spent alot with landscaping.  Before that she bought a near new van calculated at a 320 payment. She's been known to travel alot . Every weekend spent doing something.  She forgot pay day was a day later that week and couldn't go because of that. I bring this up because it just goes to show there are still those who's spending habits catch up with them. She could of easily gone if they weren't living paycheck to paycheck. Even though they look like they're doing well doesn't mean they are not vulnerable to financial drought. Avoid the finer things in life until you can live "below" your means because if you deserve a new house your bank account deserves to not be waiting for a paycheck to pay for life's needs like food.

why I love my van

I've been working on a post on how to buy a used car but it's taking alot of research and because I'm trying to finish a couple of projects I haven't had time to research and finish my blog post so at the same time I figured I would write some random post that I have felt like writing.
When ny wife and I first got married and even before that we made a rule that we would not be a minivan family.  I bought an Isuzu rodeo and loved it. (Fully paid off cash in hand) I had no desire to own a minivan.  After we moved to utah we had friends who bought a minivan from their parents and instead of driving 2 cars to our destination we were able to drive their van. That was the planting of the seed moment where my wife and I decided maybe a van wasn't so bad. I mean they did have better gas mileage than big SUV and being in utah where everyone has a van for sale they were readily available. Finally the day came. My wife was pregnant with our 3rd child and our Elantra was not going to fit all 3 car seats  so we decided it was time to get a  van and we were excited. After failed deal with a dealer full ofbroken promises (we won't go there) we found our deluxe leather seat van.
If I were to go back in time and go to college I would strongly consider driving a van. Here is why.  A van is a vehicle a mini bus and a cargo holder all in one. A van can easily get all of your college basics loaded. no need to rent a uhaul a van has plenty of room. Say you want to go camping with your friends your van doubles as a tent or shelter. You could offer shared rides and have everyone else pay your gas and nothing screams I'm ready to get married than a minivan.  Lastly, if worst comes to worst or if you're adventures and enjoy saving money you can live in a van. I have a cousin who moved to the oil fields to work. Rent was very expensive so he bought a 2002 Honda Odysey and put covers over the window even put a string across the back to hang up his clothes.  He probably saved up to 1400 a month and if you know me any purchase that saves me money is a great purchase.  A few more of why I like my 2003 chrysler town and country vs a newer chrysler or dodge van. One it's cheaper. I paid 75% less than most  people driving newer vans and I pay 66% on average less on my payment. My van is an actual arguable need with features I want vs your newer van which is a want justified as a need. One last thing before  I end this. Every time I see a newer van and to clarify a newer van is a van with a loan amount greater than 14000 dollars or 2010 or newer I get a little bit frusterated. Why? Most of the people who have these vans are young growing families.  Young growing families require alot of money to stay afloat and that van you bought and justified as a need for your growing family is robbing you a value per mile. Remember that phrase whenever you purchase a vehicles.  Your most vpm is not within the first 100000 miles.  It's also made you vulnerable.  How long will you last if you lose income and have to chose food or your van payment. Never think that happens?  There is a YouTube video that shows a families van being repo'd  right after they returned home from church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZhcib5u1yA Don't make yourself vulnerable. Have your   vehicles paid for or at least a low payment of a hundred dollars because if you did fall on hard times getting ahold of a hundred dollars is a little easier than 300.

Frustration with the Bishops Storehouse part 2

There was a handful of events that made me start questioning the people who rely on the Bishops Storehouse.  I want to be clear that I'm not bashing the integrity of the Bishops Storehouse. I'm questioning the integrity of certain people who use or have used the Bishops Storehouse when poor planning led them there and during the time they are on it to help them on their feet they are keeping all of their toys vehicles expensive house still going hunting or doing activities that could go towards basic living essentials.  There is a radio show that have text topics where they ask a question and you can text your answers.  There was a question on who told your clergy on you. One of the answers from a lady was that her kids told the Bishops kids that they used their tax  refund to go to Disneyland when they were on church assistance.  Wow a clear example of how they ended up on church assistance in the first place.  Instead of helping their situation they blew their funds.  Makes you wonder if they weren't receiving assistance if they would of made a different decision. Another example of why I am stuck on this subject is I service several payday loan places. When I was getting a signature for my work I clearly saw a check from the church.  The church doesn't do business with pay day lenders so who's loan were they paying?

I have not to this date asked the church for assistance. I am not working due to an injury and I can't justify it especially now. I have more than enough reasons.  I could simply go to my bishop with my finances I have less than 800 for my mortgage and 105 for my car. Today is not the day. I'm honestly doing good. In the past however there were alot of missed opportunities.  Yeah I didn't lose my job during the great recession but it was during those times I needed help the most. Like the time I moved to utah and was putting my rent on a credit card. I could not even afford to do laundry.  I sometimes did my laundry out of my bathtub because the laundromat was too expensive plus there washers were like half the size of a normal washer. My wife would do crafts to make us a little extra. The time my wife was pregnant with our second and I would sell plasma to pay for groceries diapers and formula. The church sent out a letter urging members to donate food to the food banks so my wife and I decided to donate half of the plasma money to buy protein items.  I remember we even said a prayer and asked that our dollars would stretch that week. Assistance would of really helped during the two trips to the hospital for rsv. Once when my second child was just 4 weeks and when she was 2 I remember asking our landlord for an extension and paying a 50 dollar late fee. The worst time I ever needed help was when we finally moved to our house. Our house we bought was only 120K much less than the 249 or 270 that are being bought every day out here. We had to put all of our belongings in our parking lot stall because we ran out of time  rent a budget truck, rent a storage unit, then were technically homeless. We lived in a hotel for 2 nights finally moved but due to some closing issues had to be very careful with our finances.  I would drive twice a week a half hour north to sell my plasma so I could buy formula and diapers. With whatever left I would buy whatever groceries I could. We even raided my daughter's piggy bank so we could buy 20 dollars worth of groceries. I remember being excited because I could buy corn tortillas and black bean and corn salsa that week. At least I could make chips and have salsa to dip them in.
I think I will bring this subject to a close but before I do I have a few questions for those who  justified getting assistance from the church. Do you have a car above 10,000? Can you sell it? Do you have a gas gussling truck or SUV you drive? Can you downsize get a car with better gas mileage that cost half to operate.  Are you struggling to pay your 1500  paiddollar a month mortgage?  Obviously if you're on church assistance you have to be. Even if you couldn't see the future you couldn't prepare for it either? What about guns, ATVs, RVs, boats, snowmobiles, trailers. Did you sell off your possessions before asking. Did you stop dance classes or sports to cut back on spending?  Did you fly anywhere (not for busines) while you were on assistance?  You couldn't use those funds to help your situation.  At last if I could leave you with some advice on how to tackle life it would be this and I may be  hypocritical of saying it. Build your life with 1 Paid for brick at a time and protect those brick and back them up. It's not worth it to finance some of those bricks. You risk losing them and having holes in your security.  Except for a modest house that you can afford and a college education do not finance anything else on your personal (not business) credit. Your not protecting your walls and are that much more vulnerable to showing up to ask for charity.

It's therapeutic to write down your frustration.

I have a ton of ideas to blog about and they are not all in the negative category.  I'm actually a pretty positive guy. Even in the most severe depressing trials I have had I've actually found happiness in thoughts ideas actions but once again I do need to write down my frustrations. That's one of the main I would even call it therapeutic reasons I write on this blog. I want to tell someone but either you're going to be called jealous zealous or someone who just complains a lot. This blog is only going to be here short term maybe a year maybe 2 my hope is that I will either A:get my frustration out on paper feel better about myself or b my situation would change so much that I wouldn't have any complaint s and I'm not talking about striking it rich. I'm just saying as simple as my car being paid off. A move.  Picking up a summer recreational activity such as wave runners which you can pick up as cheap as 800 for 2 plus a trailer! Being able to take my kids to lagoon instead of antelope island. Moving!
Or being able to celebrate my anniversary properly. Just a couple levels higher standard living.than where I am right now.

A few more frustrations with the Bishops Storehouse part 1

On Monday and Wednesday day this week I decided to go by the Bishops Storehouse in Magna. I wanted to see if there was any truth of suspicion that in fact those who went to get there food from the Bishops Storehouse were not conserving there bank accounts.  Let me give you an example.(all of my examples include vehicles so get use to it)  Say a couple gets married both get  jobs husband buys a full size truck and wife buys a car. Both vehicles are near new and our put on car payments.  Wife gets pregnant but doesn't receive maternity leave.  She has the baby and they are down one income so they go to the Bishop for help because they don't have the funds to pay their rent or food . Now let's see why it is they don't have any money left. First lets estimate the 2 cars. Let's say the truck is estimated at 18000 and the car is around 14000 for the original loan amounts. We will say there credit is satisfactory so The loan on the truck is 324 dollars a month insurance for both vehicles is probably around 1000 every 6 month because both are under 25 and they need full coverage because it's on a loan it could be up to 1200 but we will be conservative. So that adds an additional 83.34 to the auto payment.  Registration will be estimated at about 300 for the first year so that adds another 25 and let's say that they put 8000 miles on it. Typically the average is 12k but they're probably not going to use it to go on a road trip.  I'll estimate gas at 3.50 a gallon and the truck probably gets around 15 mpg. So that adds an average of another 155.56. Even if the truck had warranty you would probably need to at least do oil changes so that adds another 12 dollars. So that truck you've been telling everyone that it only cost 324 dollars a month  actually cost 600 dollars a month.  Now let's figure out the car. The car payment is 266 a month. Insurance is estimated and sits at 83.34 registration is the same at 25 gas will be estimated at 30 mpg with 12000. That's considering they did most of their driving  on the car. That adds another 116.67 and then oil is the  12 dollars average a month with a grand total 503.11 a month.  So on vehicles alone they're probably paying more than rent. That's 1103.11 a month on running the cars. More than likely they are either going to school have part time jobs or not going to school and have full time jobs. If they had full time jobs I'm estimating that they will probably make around 50-55 k year. With a take home average after taxes of about 3000 to 3300 a month. We will estimate  that they spend about 850 a month in rent and if they are full tithe payers they would pay about 330 a month if they based it off net pay. That leaves 750 to 1020 dollars left for their utilities food credit cards medical fun. That only averages out to 255 dollars a week.  Imagine if that was the week you had to pay your phone bill. Groceries and a phone bill would wipe your bank account clean. Now let's imagine another couple who get married and need vehicles.  Husband and wife our conservitive and purchase 2 cars one for 2000 and the other for 500. They pay cash and we will estimate their zero interest loans. Husband has mechanical skills and puts both get running for about 3000 dollars.  Because both cars average the same gas mileage and registration I am going to do this estimate together. So to add to the yearly amount, insurance would be estimated at 700 a year.  Both cars have liability only because they are paid for. Gas would be 2333 dollars at 20000 miles. Registration would be about 200 because they are older and oil changes at about 160.  We will even  add another 600 for unexpected repairs.  The grand total is 6993 dollars the first year keep in mind that this is only for the first year. The next year it drops by 3000 dollars.  So that puts our monthly payment at 582. That's an extra 412 dollars a month over the top example. The next year it's an extra 662 dollars a month.When The top example loses one income they would not be able to cover rent and vehichle expenses.  So here is the question who deserves help more. They both have the same situation but the top example has larger expenses not due to circumstances but due to choices.
So I stop by the Bishops Storehouse house just to browse the parking lot and it's pretty close to my description.  I only focused on the ones that were loading up groceries and I practically just passed by. One that surprised me was a chrysler 300 or a dodge charger with aftermarket rims.  I'm not kidding I'm fasting and donating so some person or family can keep their rims? The other one that surprised me was a newer truck with a really nice camper shell. My question on that  is you can't sell that and downgrade to a car that cost 60 dollars less to fill up? Where is your justification.  How do you look at your car and your situation and justify asking for help. That's only in two trips with short drive by. In part 2 I will explain a couple of stories of where now I wish I would have asked for help but couldn't justify it. I had a job and a nice car. How could I ask. I knew there was things I could cut out of my budget but thinking back now I was doing everything I could and barely getting by. Maybe I should of.
P.S. I am putting my white flag on this subject I just want to get my story and frustration out. 2 more posts that's it.

Reflecting on the positive.

So I just wanted to share some exciting news but before I do I want to share a short version of how we came to this point and maybe you will understand why I loathe car payments.  I have once in the past told the story but it takes too long and I get angry when I am done so here is the short version.  I barrow a car from father in law because mine breaks down.  I make the payments while I barrow it. FIL buys a truck. FIL wants to sell me the car. I don't want the car wife does. I make a deal. She learns to drive it without my help we can buy it. It's a stick shift . She fails miserably. My car gets fixed. I convince wife not to buy. Wife and I tell in laws. They are mad. At home that night FIL tells wife to return the  car and that she's burning bridges. Wife caves buys the car. I drive the car and periodically had to pick up wife at work because Mother In Law is her transportation and is unreliable.  Wife and I want to become independent and a stick shift car is not going to get us there. Did I mention wife doesn't have her license.  Wife and I make the decision that we need to get an automatic car. Husband knows this before the first car. Wife and I buy a brand new 2007. Hyundai Elantra with only 43 miles on it. Freedom comes at a cost. Car is driven off the lot with a 23000 dollar price tag 8.99 % interest. Wife eventually gets licence.  One kid born no assistance not even wic. Move from AZ to UT No assistance.  Can't afford our place we move to another appt. new baby move to house. Find out we are pregnant trade the Elantra for a 2003 chrysler town and country.

So there's the short version. Now what could be so exciting? I have for the last seven years I've tried to pay off my car loan. We did switch cars and it helped. We went from just over 8k to 5500 but it's still a car loan and has been the discussion of many fights between us. It's not paid off but I just made a payment that puts it at around the 3500 mark.  That really lifted my spirits.  I am so close. If I had and could afford my original car payment I would have it paid off in less than 10 months. Here is a couple of cool facts.  My original car interest was 150 dollars a month. 3 days equivalent is more than I pay now. My car interest per month is just above 14 now. I'm so close I wish I could set up a fund just to pay that off. I'm thinking of going camping to celebrate.  We are almost there I want that gone so bad. In other news we are doing good.  All the bills are paid we are caught up and ahead except for medical bills. Thanks for reading.

white flag is going up on this subject.

I feel like I need to get this out there. Its been weighing heavily on my mind lately. And quite frankly I've been spending way to much time researching and thinking about this subject. It is time for me to let it go plant my white flag and put my time and effort elsewhere. What has been on my mind? Our own church welfare system The Bishops Storehouse. It's honestly a wonderful program where members pay fast offerings it goes into a fund and "needy" or "poor" members get help with all sorts of bills like mortgage, utilities, medical bills and in some instances car payments. From what i have read and understand most of the time bishops will avoid paying car payments but through a story my neighbor told me when he was a repo man I found that in some circumstances they will in fact pay car payments. Then there is the Bishops Storehouse where members can get basic necessities to keep them afloat. All the blogs I've read describe it as nothing fancy but life sustaining.  One blogger said that a worker would tell her that she wouldn't get enough for five people. She went on to say that she already had 2 frozen turkeys and she had plenty of food. I don't know about you but a whole turkey or any kind of meat right now is "fancy" to me. Fruit such as apples and peaches are "fancy" to me right now. Milk bread peanut butter and eggs would be "fancy" to me.
 I bring this up for several reasons and I have questions for those who have received assistance.  My wife and I have not asked for assistance from the church for our small family mainly because we couldn't justify it. How do you justify assistance?  When does it cross that line where you ask? Is it after you buy a nice new dodge ram 2500 and a nice newer home and unexpectedly your wife becomes pregnant with twins? Is it after you get laid off at your higher than average waige job after working there for several years and didn't live within your means? Is when you couldn't afford to feed your horse? Do you have a garage full of toys? A house full of dogs? Did you just recently return from Alaska Hawaii Ireland and then ask? A few of these examples are true.

I don't have the nicest of vehicles. I don't have a gas gussling high payment truck. I don't have a nice house built in a nice neighborhood I don't have dogs because dogs require vet bills and food. I can't afford that no matter how cute they are.  I struggle to put food in my fridge and to keep my bills paid while others with high mortgage payments ATVS horses dogs nice new gas gussling trucks camping trailers without resorting to selling their posessions  turn to their bishops for help when it was their poor choices that contributed to their bank accounts draining with no savings.  I'm not perfect but my hand is not asking for help out of a brand new van while parked at a 300,000 dollar house either. It seems as if the "needy" are greedy and the "poor" are poor choice makers.

I want to end by this last story and maybe a few pictures.  I am currently on short term disability due to an at home accident. My bishop did check on us but was surprised that I couldn't go back to work. Not once has he asked us if we needed help. My wife even noticed it today. He asked how my hand was but didn't ask if we needed anything. Not that all bishops are perfect but you would think that he knowing I'm out of work would have at least asked. I wish that he would have asked.  I wish more that he would show up at my door with the relief society president with an order in hand and a checkbook. One mortgage payment (which would be half of the average around here) and a food order would help substantly. I think tonight I am going to write down a "when I can justify asking formula" that way instead of questioning we will know. With our current plan of moveing I'm thinking we may need to consider assistance.
 Last question to those who  are currently on church assistance.  How does your fridge compare to mine?

 Just wondering. Mine is mostly condiments (half needs to be thrown away) my fruit compartment is the hardest to keep full. Below is my very lame deep freezer. Notice the fish I caught last week:)

 Time to go grocery shopping!

is it worth it to always fix it right.

Well first of all I'm still wondering about the fate of this blog. I found out on Sunday that according to the book of Job I'm not being punished but being tested out of love. I'll take that. Guess that means I can continue ranting right?.
Since my last post I have been on short term disability due to my injury and have come upon one challenge after another. One of my biggest challenges is not having funds to cover my expenses or surprise expenses so instead of asking for your help and set up a donation account, I've been  finding ways to save money while fixing my day to day problems. For example my car was overheating and instead of filling it up with antifreeze I filled it up with water. 1 it won't waste antifreeze if there is a leak and 2 antifreeze is pricey for me right now. I know my engine could have problems down the road if I kept the water in there that's why it's just a temporary fix until I have a little more cash flow or the first day of freezing temperature s which ever come first. I also was low on oil and that can contribute to engine cooling problems I filled it with used engine out of my van when I did my oil change. Now I know there might be some die hard mechanics out there who might chastise me and tell me that I should never do that and/or should always use a good synthetic blend and for those people I have 3 questions : How long have you owned your car that you babyd with synthetic oil changes? How much did you estimate you spent on all of your oil changes and did you get more than Kelly blue book or fair market value for your investment when you sold or trated it in.  Chances are that when I sell my car I will  get fair market value on my car if the engine is running. It doesn't matter what kind of oil I use. I'll have to reserve another post on that subject.  And besides oil is expensive now. Used oil isn't the right fix but a temporary fix in my situation is better than spending my cash cushion.  My last fix was a plug to my blower motor resistor which if not fixed means no ac heat or defrosters. My power cord to the plug burned up and melted the plastic and the entire plug needed to be replaced.  I started to think about how I would find one and ran into several pricing problems.  First if I went to the salvage yard there would be the gas to get there, an entrance fee and then even though it's cheaper than a new one I would feel like they are overpriced.  So I figured I would end up around 15 bucks which could help our cash cushion right now so I decided to see if I could German engineer it with duct tap and splicing wires and I was able to pull it off. So I feel like I won in 3 different ways. 1 the salvage yard doesn't get my hard earned money. 2 I fixed the problem and should last until there is a new owner. 3 it cost me absolutely nothing. Win win win. Always question if it's worth it. If I had unlimited cash flow trust me it would be fixed right (actually that might be a lie. I just can't stand people getting an easy buck from me) well that's it for tonight and I don't feel like editing so I'm leaving my blog raw tonight.

Am I Being Punished?

When i started this blog everything seemed normal until April. April Fools day was the day my transmission broke down.   Before it broke down I wrote heavily on car payments. Why I hate car payments,  why my Father in law shouldn't of bought a car for his wife. Why my Sister in law shouldn't have paid so much for a new car. On and on and all of a sudden i'm out of a car. I spent the next month working on my car and finally was able to get it fixed but not without it breaking down a few more times. I almost gave up. I tried getting a loan to buy a car with no luck. That is where I came up with the 5000 dollar rule. I realized that sometimes there is time where you absolutely need a car but again a need can easily creep into the want category. 5 K  should easily satisfy both. My car is now running ok. It still has a few issues. The latest i'm working on is it overheating which should be an easy fix.

The transmission I had to replace.

This weekend I have relatives staying with us and my van decides to break down. It sounded like a misfire. The auto parts guy suggested that I replace all the plugs and wires but I just wasn't buying that it was a plug or wire so I did some individual firing test on all the cylinders and found that the 6 cylinder wasn't firing. I put started the engine with all cylinders firing and noticed a knocking sound. I opened up the valve cover and found my problem.

If you can't tell that is a broken valve spring to the left of the screen. 

Well it's been about a week since I worked on this post and yes I feel I am being punished.  I don't know the fate of this blog but I am going to tone it down quite a bit. While I wad modifying a tool to fix my van my angle grinder slipped and hit my hand. I had surgery this last Thursday and now am up to my eyeballs in medical debt and unsure when I will go back to work. In the mean time I will start a new blog on creative ways to get out of debt. Funny how the world can flip upside down. See you all.

The I can't afford award goes to...

In my research of finding out if some of my assumptions are true that is that although my neighbors comunity and friends have a great standard of living (vacations cars houses jobs) the real truth is that a hiccup in their paycheck could potentially bring there standard of living to a complete halt. They would probably then go to their church ask for assistance so they can get by all the while holding on to the house car and even rvs and ATVs.  I found a few examples of people like that. I don't know about  them asking for assistance but reading their adds you can tell they were greedy for themselves and it eventually caught up to them so I would like to highlight a few of these people I have found and eventually have a name of an award for them. For the sake of privacy I will not disclose real names.
Let's start with Lisa. Lisa lives in a very nice neighborhood in Utah.  Her original post said she had lost her job and needed to sell her motorcycle because she can no longer afford the payments.  She bought it for her husband for Christmas but due to a job loss she needs to sell it.

One of my rules of buying a gift is do not buy on a credit plan that you have to make payments. Have your gifts paid for because you don't know if you are going to lose your income and then tell the receiver of the gift "oh by the way you know that gift I bought you I really didn't  pay for it my finance company did and although it seemed as though we owned it we don't so I'm going to need it back so I can sell it to save my credit. It's the thought that counts right? " Also notice the house and neighborhood she lives in. It is a very nice neighborhood in her comunity. I personally know these houses are worth around 300 K. I bring this up because if your going to buy a luxury house (In my opinion a luxury house is anything above 220K in utah since the average wage is around 40 )back it up and I don't mean by a steady job because in my opinion most jobs are not steady. I mean by putting a large enough down payment to make your monthly payments affordable.  Have enough left over each month to save for an emergency fund. Have an fully funded emergency fund that will get you through 6 months of hardship.  In the end if you don't protect your what's important it can be taken away from you. Trust me I have close friends and family members who have taken advantage of people like this and have scored big time through someone else's mishandling of money.

Justifying wants as needs

I can't remember if I ever published this. It was written before my accident.  Enjoy.


I had some friends over last night who I consider great friends.  We have a lot of fun talking but unfortunately our time was limited.  They could barely squeezed us into there vacation schedule but I'm still greatful for them thinking of us and making time for us. As always if there is something that is bugging me I am going to share it on here and there was one thing that I have to rant about my good friends and of course it does have to do with car purchases. They showed up in a 2009 Chrysler Town and country. I found out during our conversation that they bought it for around 12500. I thought that was alright. It broke a couple of rules I have with my self proclaimed organization " car payments anonymous" which is if you absolutely have to buy a car do not finance past 5000 dollars. I did a quick calculation and said " so you are paying around 240 a month. ( a quick way to calculate a car payment is 18 dollars to 20 dollars per 1000 borrowed on a 60 month loan). He said not exactly.  We put a few upgrades that put the loan at about 18500.

First ofallWhat kind of upgrades did 6000 dollars get him.  I don't understand what he needed to get him from point a to point b for a higher price than what I paid for my van. It seems to me lately that there is alot of us out there JUSTIFYING our purchases as NEEDS when they are just wants. A vehicle for the family is a need. What crosses into a want zone is when your justifying mileage year and features for needs when you really think about it they are just wants.  We also are justifying reliability is why we are paying so much but although reliability is a need a reliable brand new car Is not.

I think I am so passionate about this is because I see these mistakes ruining credit and lives.  I see people continue to purchase new cars upgrading their houses or even buying a newer more expensive house and think that nothing wrong is going to happen but when it does and they lose their house over a car purchase that was too expensive then rely on society and church organizations to help them through a difficult time that they helped bring upon themselves then it affects the rest of us who thought about our purchases vs our income and made more wise decisions.

catchup time

So if you were reading my blog before you would of realized I had a lot more blog posts and all of a sudden they all vanished. Let me explain what happened.  I don't know how (honestly I don't remember) but my wife and I got into an argument where she eventually left the house. I would have text her but I was able to know without her knowledge that  she was alright because she had not logged off of her facebook on my kindle so I could read her Facebook messages without her knowing and they were all normal which led me to believe she was in good spirits even though she was somewhat mad at me. Anyways I needed to go to the store that night and forgot my phone. When I came home I noticed her upstairs where my phone was getting up and going downstairs.  I checked my phone and realized she had called me and she was on my phone.  I pulled up my chrome browser and there was a salt lake city divorce lawyer website. My heart sank. I became very fearful that she found something on my phone  that I could easily explain but at the wrong moment could look wrong so I quickly looked up my history and the only thing I realized on there was my blog I looked up. She doesn't know about the blog. The only thought I had was I bet she is reading this on her phone and gathering fuel for her divorce case. So I logged on and deleted every blog but the first one. The first blog is my foundation. It's the reason I started my blog. Well I decided instead of asking question or bringing up the divorce website I would just send her a text and tell her that i still think she's awesome and a great mom because she really is even when we fight. And that ended the fight and healed our relationship. That's the story.  I'm not planning on rewriting all the blogs but I do plan on revisiting my ideas and frustrations especially car loan frustration because if you read my blog before you would know how much I loath car payments.

Just Ranting

I have been inspired. And it's by all of you bloggers out there. Looking at your pictures and reading how great your vacations are going has inspired me. I love how one week you take a vacation and on a whim go to Disneyland because "It's tradition". Or that when your life is not going well you have that cabin up in the middle of no where to hide. You've been to the bahamas, on a cruise, Italy, and had to finish the year off by going to Hawaii because it's warm and you wanted to re live your honeymoon. You have 4 kids, one on the way, and your medical bills are not piling up because someone else is paying for them and it's not your relatives.One last 1 You've been married 8 years with 4 kids 6 of which have been living in your parents basement. Obviously the place your were living sucks rent free and all and you needed to move our of state to her parents basement(figertively speeking I know they don't have a basement)

Look if you fit the description of any of the above this blog is not for you. It is for those who dream of a life full of adventure but their paychecks tell them otherwise. They can't figure out why it is that their neighbors could afford that trip they just got back from or how their friends find time money and a sitter to go on their weekly dates.
I once ranted this to a fellow co worker of mine and he asked me what a Date was. He was obviously kidding but some of us just don't have the time financial well being or family help to even go on a simple date.