How to clean when you absolutely positively do NOT want to clean

I will be stuck without Internet on the road for a while. I would estimate that at least 50% of my blog post are created edited and posted on the road which has created a drag on my family's data plan. So I have turned my data off but luckily can still blog thanks to my notepad app.

I wanted to share a creative way I use to motivate myself to clean. Sure it would be easy to hire some maid to clean my house but unfortunately if I want to maintain my current course on getting out of debt and creating a better life for me and my family
I need to keep this ship on it's current direcrion. Since my wife is pregnant alot of household chores are not getting done sometimes to the point the kitchen table cannot host anyone for any meal and at times we are having to hand wash single dishes to use them and in some cases wearing dirty clothes. I know it sucks and it's hard to admit it but I know I'm not the only one in this situation. So back around 2009 I created a way to force myself to clean and it's helped me stay motivated even in the toughest situations.

First and foremost before you begin cleaning don't get riled up over the little things. Kids are kids and they will make mistakes they will smash cerial into the carpet or smear jam on the couch. IT HAPPENS! and yelling at your kids while you are cleaning is not going to help your kids learn or your own stress levels. Remain calm and remember that it's just a mess. The term "I didn't sign up for this" will not help any situation. Forgiveness and a realization that we are all humans who are continually learning will. So stay calm.

Second, don't focus on a particular room or area. Do one thing. Clean. Thats it. Don't focus on the kitchen, living room, bedrooms or laundry, just clean anything and everything. Even if you don't make the progress you wanted you still made progress.

Lastely . I will share my secret weapon on cleaning. You ready?  Count. Thats it but don't  tell yourself your going to pick up a hundred things and give yourself a break instead try this. Set up a point system to award yourself points such as picking up items are 1 point and sweeping floors or a loaded dishwasher is a bonus 20 points. Also start at one then one two then one two three and so forth until you reach your goal number. Mine is 40 and usually by the time I'm at 15 there is a huge noticeable differencd. What you are doing on a psychological  level is creating small goals and achieving them which gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivates you to keep going all because your counting. So try it next time you absolutely positively do not want to clean but know you have to.

131829

That is my entire debt within 100 dollar accuracy range.

 Progress report. I wanted to calculate my ENTIRE debt to show myself where I stand compared to my neighbors. In this debt total there are, 2 mortgages, 7 credit cards, 4 medical, 2 401 K, 1 Hud loan, and 1 car loan.
If you look at this total and said it was a mortgage it wouldn't look bad at all. Some people would be ecstatic if this was their mortgage. Unfortunately for me because this is spread to 16 different debts with varying interest and higher payments it cost me a total of 1311 dollars a month (which actually shocks me. I thought it was alot more) If I were to combine all of my debt into 1 mortgage payment I would be spending in the ball park of around 850 to 900 bucks a month which would save me interest monthly income and surprisingly insurance.
A couple of fun facts before I close. 1. The total amount changes weekly( meaning it's going down). 2. The 401 K loans are drawn out of my account weekly so even if I don't have any other payments my total debt will go down. 3. Two of the medical bills could be gone by this weekend. And Lastly. Just 4 months ago this debt was around 143000 dollars. I was able to pay off close to 11000 dollars in 4 months so yay me.

The tale of two charities.

(Disclaimer although I have a strong opinion about this particular subject I'm in no way saying do or do not donate to any particular charity. I am just stating MY opinion which was formed by MY experience which can change. Tomorrow I may not feel the same way.)
This past weekend  while I was out shopping for mothers day I was aproached by two charities. One when I checked out at Walmart for Primary Children's Hospital and one at McDonald's for McDonald's House charities. I actually donated to one but refused to donate to the other. Which one did I refuse to donate to? Primary Children's and here is why.

In 2012 my daughter got sick with RSV for the second time in her short life. We took her to Urgent care who instructed us to imediately take her to Primary Children's. She stayed there 4 days and was visited by at least 4 doctors who charged there own fees on top of Primary Children's fees to take care of her. They did nothing to help her treatment plan and still added thousands of dollars to our bill. But I'm not actually upset about that. What upsets me the most is after my insurance pays 80% and my final bill came instead of me trying to apply for financial assistance I went ahead and started to pay it and with it comes interest. Where the heck does the interest go?? Does it go into an account to help some underprivileged family who has a brand new van better house but fell on hard times??  I know I could of applied for their charity and got assistance  but felt I could afford my bills now because I have decided to pay I'm not only paying the 20 % I owe but also paying extra interest because I decided to pay my bills. They already got 80 % which would of easily more than covered everything they want more and even a little bit more, to go????where???? They don't pay state taxes so why do they need to collect interest on the last 20 percent I owe them?

Ronald McDonald house charities is one of the few as of right now that I trust. As a matter of fact I would rather donate to Ronald McDonald house than the food bank or even my church fast offerings. They do at least one main thing that I know of provide a comfortable stay near a a hospital so that a parent or family member doesn't have to be far away from the patient . It's an even playing for lower and middle class income families I see it completely different than hospital charities which you have to show them every little detail of your financial life then they will help you. I've also heard a rumor from a former collection employee who told me that most of the time if you had a Hispanic name they would just automatically send it to be paid out of the charity funds.
I always say this "If it feels right donate, if it doesn't, don't." I have donated to Primary Children's Hospital before this incident. I'm sorry but as of right now it does not feel right to donate to them.

Nomination #1 for May's "I can't afford it award.

Some of my leading arguments of this blog have changed and may continue to change. One being my objections to financing a car has been the forefront lately and will continue to do so probably until the fait of this blog is determined. To absolutely learn something it sometimes has to go through discussion and refined until an outcome is born that is not only just but pure and true. We do this in politics and in religion. Continually talking and learning the same thing over and over again until we learn new things and become experts ourselves. We become stronger individuals with our trials and become new and stronger than we were before. With that said my continuous fight for finding ways to succeed through life in a abnormal procedure avoiding paying the get rich quick schemers will continue on.

I've decided to change my "I can't afford it award up a bit. I'm going to have a few nomination per month. I'm hoping at least three. And since I am the founder of CPA (car payments anonymous) and nobody cares about this blog I will at the end of the month give you your winner.

Our first contestant is the owner of this beutiful 2011 Toyota Corolla.

I love Toyotas. Oddly I've never owned one but I know they are great cars. With care and maintenance I can almost guarantee you will get at least 350,000 miles. One thing jumped out at me imediately when I saw the price. See if you pick it up too.

So here's my first thought. How does he justify getting a price you could nearly buy a brand new vehicle with alot less miles?

You can find 10 year old cars with less miles than this. To me this is a big red flag. 

Through my research I'm already finding 2012 with less mileage selling for less than what this guy is asking. Why is he selling it? 

Wow that was too easy. At least he's honest and up front about it. I think this person shot himself in the foot when he first bought it. The car had way too many miles for the price he bought it. I'm imagining the total price was near 16000 which would put his payments around 320 a month. The high mileage could be a factor of why he won't get what he wants. Just imagine what he could of bought for that same amount. Truck, trailer, toys? It's seriously possible and I will prove it.

Don't finance a car but if you absolutely have to do not finance past 5000. There are plenty of  cars out there waiting for a couple of parts and they will last year's till you can upgrade.

So without saying anymore (trust me I have ALOT to say) I give you my first contestant I will name  "In order to keep this car I need a job?" 

What happens when you post this?

in less than a year you could be posting this!

and you thought I was kidding when I said your at a high risk of bankruptcy losing your home and relying on social programs if you finance a car you cannot afford. (a near 400 dollar payment I might add)

welcome to the real world hunny. P.S. it's people like you who have me AVOIDING 

donating to charity. Why should I when I know some of those funds are going to your less then common sense decision that you make and due to your OWN justification of what you deem as a need has helped destroy your credit and forced you to rely on someone else's hard earned money who MADE the right decisions.

5 thoughts from this previous weekend.

1. If you are going to own a dog relize this. No matter how old you are that dog is your responsibility. For some reason adults forger this at some point in their life when the dog becomes a financial burden. I've seen 2-3 begging post lately from irresponsible pet owners (it may be harsh but TRUE) asking for help because their pet either needs food or surgery. YOU made the decision to have that dog YOU get out there and provide for it. It's YOUR dog.
My 2nd thought on this first subject is Family goals and humans come before any animal. If it comes down to feeding the family, an individual human being, or a pet, HUMANS COME FIRST. I have no  objections to a person giving away or putting to sleep (if the animal is sick or injured) the animal to advance family or an individual's goals.

2. An emotional support animal do not have the same rights as service dogs. You cannot bring an emotional support animal into a store when the stores policie states "service animals only" besides isn't part of your emotional support therapy is learning how to deal with your emotions. You can't spare a half hour away from your pet to practice dealing with your emotions? .Seriously pathetic.

3. Mercedes and BMW are expensive luxury cars that do not stop sucking money out if your wallet until you get rid of them. Unless you're in a position to maintain your lifestyle for decades to come, don't buy them. I recently ran into an add of a couple selling their dream car. Why, because they were expecting. You can't  have a luxury car if you don't have a luxury life.

4. The same goes for brand new cars. Odds are if you have a brand new car on a payment plan you will be paying more than you should to look good or impress "Who"? I am up to my 7th listing of people sellimg their used 2015 cars. They are months old and the owners are realizing they can't afford them. In one instance a person spent over 6000 dollars before trying to transfer his lease. That money is gone and could be the subject of many arguments to come with his wife. How's that higher education coming for you buddy? You're suppose to learn skills to make money not LOSE it.

5. Lastly if you are disabled there are a vast amount of programs and incentives to help make life easier. From discounts to social security benifits church help government programs and even skipping the line at most theme parks. Being disabled does not exclude you from having financial common sense. If you buy a van to help your disability you still have to pay for it. Don't rely on society to make your payments for you. You had less expensive options but decided to go with the more expensive option which tied up your finances.

And that my friends are 5 things that bugged me thus weekend.

Standing up for YOUR financial well being

So instead of ranting I actually have a money saving tip. Last Saturday I finally decided to get the knocking sound on my van fixed. For the longest time I thought it was the AC compressor which would require a lot if work and what I've calculated up to 300 dollars to get it done. Maybe more. Well I finally  decided to look elsewhere for the noise and found that the Alternator was making the noise. I looked on line(which is where I always start) to get a quote to get an idea of how much I was willing to spend. I found that the average I was finding was around 119 which put my spending limit to around 129. I was willing to go to 139. So I go to the auto parts store and have them test it to determine if Infact I was correct about the noise. I was and oddly it passed as a good alternator. So the employee finally  quotes me a price of 179 dollars without including tax! Total out the door price would  have been 191.26.

For you Auto parts dealers. How the hell do you guys figure that an Alternator is worth that much! Rental space? health insurance? wages? Bob's salary who is head of some department that doesn't make sense and he's overpaid anyways? Although they will never see this post here is a tip. I doubt auto parts dealers can offer the same price as an online dealer. I know that. But..what about at least protecting your sell through haggling. I was willing to go to 139. There was no way that your  employer through some dicount can't offer me that? They never discussed  a core charge either. I didn't know if that was the price with the core or without. So in the end I won. My alternator still worked it just made noise so I put it back in my  van and ordered a part for 111 dollars. Free shipping. 80 dollars difference. So look around.

My other money saving tip just happened over the weekend. My wife is going to have a baby. (post to come about my feelings on that) and she requires some pretty  Expensive pills to get her through the pregnancy . We are not going to be using her anti nausea pills which were originally 40 dollars a pill and our co pay was 8 (before Obama became president and made my insurance more expensive) because they have been proven to harm the baby. We do need progesterone  which is up there in the more expensive catigories of pills. My first quote with insurance was 182 dollars. my advantages were that that amount would  go towards my 6000 dollar deductible. After I hit my 6000 dollar deductible everything is covered. I more than likely will not hit that this year and even if I did I would have just over a month to take advantage of it. So saving money is 2nd priority to making sure the baby is going to develop strong.
So I looked online  and found a prescription discount card that had a price quote of around 60 bucks when it was all said and done I ended up paying just under 98 bucks still Almost 50% savings but I'm not satisfied. I still wonder if Infact they could of gave me the quoted price or just did a bate and switch tactics on me.

So look around. I saved over 140 dollars in 2 weekends. More money saved for the baby to come.