The Financial Hurtle... Survival 101
This is a sample of some of the things I did to survive. It took time to learn to "tighten the belt" but it can be done. The most important thing to remember is that it is not forever. After the dust settles you can "loosen" the belt again. But a lesson learned is that I have a better knowledge of how to manage my money and spend it wisely.
When I left with only the cloths on my back my ex said "when I get done with you I will have bleed you dry and you will be living in your car." Dang, how was I going to prove him wrong on that one? he had half my salary, gotten away with charging me for half his attorney fees and left me to pay all the credit cards.
This is what I did:
- I talked to my counselor, at each meeting he had done research and gave me ideas on how to make extra money to survive.
- Took a loan out from my 401K. Did you know you can borrow money from your 401K and stretch out the payment to over 5 years. The payment comes out of my paycheck automatically and are re-deposited back to my 401K, building it back up again. This helped me buy what I needed to set up my new place and buy the basics to get started again.
- Started the service with the Credit Debit Counselors, now I was paying only $350 to a trust account instead of paying thousands directly to the credit card companies.
- One of the biggest sacrifices I made was to trim down my extra expenses. I decided to give up the hairstylist and dye my hair myself. This in it self saved me over $100 per month. I gave up manicures and did my nails myself. I started to shop at discount stores like Dollar Tree and the 99 cent store. It was amazing what I could buy at these store, sure it took more time to shop wisely but in the end I could buy a whole weeks of groceries for under 50 dollars. I still shopped are the regular grocery store but only for the items that the other stores did not have.
- Finally, with help from my counselor and some internet research I was able to find things that helped me make a little extra money and I even found a website where you could get stuff for free.
- One final thing I did discover it really important to keep an eye on your credit report. I dicovered that both my ex and his attorney had gotten a hold of my Soc Sec number and got into my credit report. I noticed a change and some inquiries that I didn't recognize.
What I did was go to http://www.experian.com/ and reported the incident and then put a security alert on my account. I also called all my creditors and notified them not to give out any information to anyone without my approval first. I also flagged my delinquent accounts with a comment stating that the accounts were delinquent because of divorce proceedings. That way any blemishes that remain on my report are flagged with a reason.
Here are some websites I found: