The Ups and the Downs

Hi everyone-

It's been a long time since I had a chance to log in, and I have really missed participating in and reading all the new topics. When I have some time, I'll have to sit down and read over everything I missed. Nothing like staying informed!

So let's see, I didn't quite think this should go in my "progress" thread, as this is somewhat of a personal update.

Anyway, I now work 12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week. I was up for a promotion at my main workplace that I have been wanting for 5 years. It would have increased my yearly income 25K more than what I am currently making. Unfortunately, after accepting myself and a few others for the few positions that were available, the company made a TON of cut-backs, so our new positions were nulled before training even started. Sooooo disappointing, but you soldier on.

So in a continued effort to battle my debts,
I took a second job that was 6 days a week, 4 hours a day in the call center for a Home Remodeling Agency. I worked there for about a month, and found that not only was cold-calling not the type of work for me, but I wasn't making much profit considering the amount I spent in car gas to drive to two jobs everyday, especially when the call center job was a good half-hour commute one way from my home, then another half hour straight from there to my main job, and then from there to home. So I ended up quitting so I could find something else.

Remember that paper route that seems to be the running "get a job" remark around here? Well, I got one. I had never done anything like it before, so I had no idea the amount of work I was looking at when they told me the only route they had available was 300 papers on the weekdays, and 400 papers on the weekends. All I heard was "it pays $1500 a month" and I said, "sign me up!"

Actually, in the beginning, it was kind of fun, like a treasure hunt. I had my little map with the house numbers, and I had to find the houses and give them their paper. Of course, you never get a day off and after putting 8 hours in at my main job 5 days a week and then driving straight to the paper distribution warehouse, covering myself in newsprint ink and getting raw hands from folding papers and rubber-banding them, I am putting in 12-14 hours 5 days a week.

I'm still doing it. I don't mind it too much and sometimes it's actually enjoyable, and I keep telling myself this is only temporary. I am doing this now so I can pay off my debts so that hopefully in the future, I will be wiser and manage my money better so that I NEVER have to work two jobs again. My only complaint is the amount of car gas doing a paper route sucks up, especially with gasoline being well over $4 a gallon. However, if you do well on your route, they reward you with gas cards. I've worked hard to keep customer complaints to a minimum, so every other week I have gotten $50 in gas cards. Not a full tank, but still, every little bit helps.

The nice thing about the paper route is that it's paydays fall opposite to the ones at my main job, so I am getting money every Friday, which is usually enough to hold me over and get bills that are due paid. That was part of the reason I got into that mess with PDLs in the first place- I was using them to bridge a gap inbetween paydays to pay the amount of bills I had accumulated and was too teriffied to ever pay anything late.

I'd like to say I'm ahead, but not quite. In March, when I first posted on this forum, I had a payday coming up where I was due to be withdrawn over $1800 in payday loans and payday loan extension fees- and that was not counting the actual bills that needed to get paid, either. So when I think about it, I still have come a long way. I may still be struggling, but I'm not dead in the water, like I was a few months ago. While I wish I had taken a second job much earlier before my monthly bills became much larger than my monthly income, I can say I am still glad I got started when I did- I keep thinking, who KNOWS where'd I be without the support of this forum and the money I've been making from the route by now.

I have paid off most of my storefront payday loans, and am down to just 1 internet payday loan; when I originally got started on this journey in March, I had somewhere over 14.

I just recently paid off a $1500 installment loan that was so horrible, it was costing me $300 every payday- $600 a month for 6 months! I still have 5 installment loans hanging over my head, but even paying off just 1 of them, even if it was the smallest one, gives me a sense of accomplishment.

I would, however, like to make the additional income work hard at paying down my debt. I feel that if I didn't have Cashcall or QuickClick Loans, I could actually pay off things much faster and easier, but those 2 of the 5 remaining installment loans are sucking me dry. I will probably post another topic later, asking for advice. I was thinking of a debt management program since my credit history is 0-0-0 ( 0 charge-offs, 0 collections, 0 delinquent or late accounts ) and I want to manage my debt doing as little damage as possible to my credit score. However, I hate to put a management program on accounts I could easily pay off if I just didn't have that danged Cashcall and Quickclick and from what I hear, they typically will not agree to any kind of program anyway. So at the moment I'm kind of wondering if I should just stop paying on CashCall and Quickclick and let them send me to collections, where I can possibly get a better deal, and just take the ding on my credit for those two items only.

But anyway, that's a whole other topic :)

I hope everyone is doing well and getting ahead and winning in their fight against debt! I've missed the forum!