mercurial scribe

“Back in the saddle again…”

That’s right, folks. I’m back writing about the horrors of debt and how to get out from under that monster with a deeply personal saga. (I’m all about sagas lately!)

Let’s take a look at our progress over the past 5 months… (more…)

Every year I like to set some financial goals and compare to how reality took place at the end of the year. To be honest, I did this in the beginning to make sure I accomplished the rather lofty goals I set for our family. Now I do it as a lesson in crisis management as well as evaluating how realistic the goal was in the first place.

Now, this year was a doozy as far as curve balls went! (more…)

My printer took a dive over the weekend.

First, when I printed our Christmas party invitations early last week, it smeared the ink as it printed. This irritated me greatly because 1) I spent over $150 on this Epson all-in-one and 2) I’m a bit of a perfectionist and can’t stand the idea of sending out less-than-perfect-looking invitations. But alas, I had to.

Then today as I went to print an important financial document that needs to be faxed back right away, the printer stopped taking in any paper. No matter how full I made sure the tray was, it just stopped accepting paper and then valiantly scrolled alternately “Paper Out” or “Paper Jam - remove jammed paper” across its matrix screen.

What does this have to do with debt or money management, you ask?

I had purchased a warranty! (more…)

Despite the fact that to those of us afflicted with this “brilliant madness”, this illness is probably one of the most daunting source for various valid (and invalid) excuses and an endless source of problems. However, FICO doesn’t seem to give one rip that you’re surviving a serious brain disorder; they only care that your creditors were paid late or not at all.

Which is real nice, you know, since our medical bills are significantly higher than, say, the mentally “uninteresting”. I’ve heard quotes of $6,734 on average in the UK and between $11,720 to $624,785 in the States (depending on the number of manic episodes) as lifetime costs for medical care. I can tell you that for the past 3 years, I’ve averaged $3,000 per year and that’s because I’m without medical insurance. That’s not to mention the lost income from the total 8 months of lost work over the past 3 years… so total annual cost? $7,000 a year or $583 a month!

No wonder I’m broke.

What is to be done, then? Believe it or not, there are things you can do to help spare yourself unnecessary hardship and help save your credit score. (more…)

Each January 1st, nearly everyone I know has created a list of things they are going to change about themselves: their weight, their debt-to-income ratio, their savings account, their job. Yet by April, those gyms are empty of their first quarter rush and those credit cards? Hello credit limit.

It was for this reason I stopped doing New Year’s Resolutions back when I was a teenager. It didn’t work. It wasn’t personal. And I HATE failing which, inevitably, I always did.

Screw breaking up, it’s changing that’s so hard to do!

But why?
(more…)