happy thanksgiving!

I wish you good food, good company, and bountiful Black Friday deals :)

debt management

I am vocal about saying we are in debt. Not as bad now as it was two years ago but we still have to make payments every month. At the time the husband could not pay his credit card bills so he defaulted on all except one. He got phone calls daily from numerous creditors that he thought about switching phone numbers. He even considered debt management counseling so he will have an idea what to do or where to start. It was a mess. Aside from the calls, we also received threatening collection letters from lawyers and such. It was intimidating and having to go through all that was depressing and humiliating. The collectors did not know that if we had the money we would have paid them in time. They probably thought after spending all that money using the credit cards we don't care what happens anymore. We just didn't have the money so we stopped paying and whatever money we had we used for our basic needs. It was when we started recovering financially that we started paying the debts little by little. The husband said he does not want to go through all that again. We are now more careful on our spending. We try to make allowances for future expenses so we don't get short and risk having to default on bills. We could say we learned our lesson the hard way so we are more careful. We know now how to budget now which is the key to not incurring a lot of debts.

did not get a good night's sleep

My phone kept on ringing last night that I had to get up several times to tend to it. The culprit are my brother and our father. The first wanted me to get online at one in the morning because he was online so we could talk. Is he crazy? I said no, I need my rest. And that if he wanted to talk do it at a decent time. It did not matter that he was at some port in India. I still had to sleep. Then my phone rang again with a text message from Papsy asking me why the balikbayan box we sent is not delivered yet. Now this one I don't have an answer to. When I did not reply he called a few hours later which was two hours earlier than my normal waking hour. Agghhh! I had to get up early today after not having a good rest last night. And I still did not know the answer to the question. I may have to call the agent tonight to know what is going on. As for the brother, I hope he will get online early so we can talk. I hate to be loud in the middle of the night when everybody is asleep.

holiday buying guide

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

I am always in the look-out for discounts and coupons I can use when I buy an item either online or in stores. Saving a few cents really makes a difference in our budget especially since only the husband works. I have a couple of trusted websites I visit when I need a coupon for an item I want to buy. And I really think the said sites are what I needed until I chanced on the Dirt Devil Holiday Buying Guide. Boy, this guide has an extensive list of websites to get coupons and discounts. It includes the websites I frequent. If I will not be able to save using this guide when I do my shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday then there is something wrong with me, lol. Seriously! The Dirt Devil Guide not only lists coupon and discount websites, it also tells shoppers some promo code tricks to use when shopping online. But I think the best deal is in free shipping and rebates. I remember about two years ago when the husband and I bought electronics with rebate offers and it was fun. Waiting for the rebate checks to come in the mail is actually exciting. Right now I do avail of free shipping when I shop online. It saves me a lot of money when I do that. I know I have to start browsing before long since the holidays are coming and I do need some presents for my family. I am not very creative when it comes to giving gifts so I will check on family favorites from DirtDevil.com and see what I will choose.

shoes!

I wanted a new pair of shoes. My old pair still looks good and I am still using it but I had it in my head that I need a new pair. I guess I just wanted to shop. Anyway, so we went to the mall today to find me a nice pair and we ended up buying more shoes than we need. We bought shoes for my brother's little girl which was really cute and, well, girly. Also bought a pair for one of my cousin's daughter who I used to buy clothes when I was single. Then the husband went wild buying shoes for his son. Shoes that are still too big for the little man to wear. I must tell you the shoes were on sale and were marked way down to where we only paid 6-9 dollars a pair. Good deals? You bet! It took me a long time to find a pair for me. I was ready to go when the husband pointed this cute walking shoes to me and asked me to try it on. I said that same pair was on clearance so I went back and was lucky enough to find the perfect size (6) which felt comfortable when I tried them on. That was 50% off but still expensive but I really liked it so we bought it. Now I not only have a nice pair of shoes but we also have shoes for the little man and for the girls. We are slowly filling up another box to send to Leyte. I will wait for more sales to come :)

good idea

When the husband retires he wants us to move back to the Philippines. He said he loves it there and he thinks he will be fine living there with his family. I am fine with the idea. I have told him often enough that I will go with him wherever he wants us to go. But we have to have a means to come back should we have to for his and the little man's sake. And he said we will. He said he wants to bring most of our stuff with us. The first time he said that to me my reaction was Are you kidding me?. Well, apparently he was serious about it. He wants to bring with us his prized Jeep among other things. He said we need a four-wheeler so the Jeep must go with us. Then he said we will bring the things we have accumulated through the years. The idea of packing all these things and then shipping them to PI is already stressing me out and it will be another twenty or so years before it is going to happen anyway. Until I have heard of international removals which he actually researched in advance. You see, he is already setting things in motion so to speak. He knows that in order for us to be able to get all the things we want to bring with us get to its destination in one piece without problems he has to hire experts to do the removals of our things for us. After his explanation I was relieved, lol. Who wouldn't be if faced with the same dilemma? Anyway, since that issue is resolved for now I stopped worrying about what I am going to do when the time for us to move comes. REMOVALS I think is cool. Granted we have to pay more than when we have to do it ourselves but the stress will probably drive me nuts anyway so why not let somebody else take charge?

itching to go shopping

We received coupons from the store yesterday for a sale that actually started that day. It was a good deal too because the discounts were up to 75% and I so love it when we do not have to pay a lot of money for clothes or kitchen appliances and other things. But we did not go. The husband promised we will but it rained. The weather did not cooperate and I am a bit disappointed. I would love to browse and see what I can get that we need. I did not think of blowing off his credit on that store, I planned on buying things I think we will need or we could put in a box for our balikbayan box for next year. It is never too early to get things for that one, you know. But as I said we did not go. We might today because the sale runs for three days I think but there might not be anything if people decided to go yesterday. We can still try though. If nothing else, I can buy clothes for the little man for next year. All I have to do is get it a few sizes bigger so the clothes will still fit him. And maybe look at the clearance rack on shoes. I found a very nice pair a few months ago. I might get lucky again this year. That is if we will go. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

on cars and choices

The husband is a mechanic and it only follows that he loves cars, right? Right. He love them and I think he may have been a little obsessed on cars lately. He gets online to look at cars. New ones, old ones it does not matter to him. His passion right now is the cadillac because he said the caddies (as he calls it) make good cars. He is dreaming of owning one if only we can afford it. He said he will even settle for an older model so long as it is a cadillac. I asked him how about another car, say, a tesla roadster because I know how he loves sports cars. He even owned one when we got married which he traded for an SUV when I got pregnant. I know I somehow feel responsible for the loss of his baby but such is life and we can always buy one provided we have the money. I hope. So anyway, I asked and he said he will think about it. I think he is still gearing to get hold of a cadillac. I don't mind at all. I know he knows what he is doing. He is a mechanic after all, he should know what is good for us even if he does not read car reviews and just rely on his over twenty years of experience to decide on which car we should get. There are a lot of cars out there in the market now though and I think every one of them has its own characteristics that are appealing but we cannot have several cars even if we can afford them since I cannot even drive alone anyway. If I have the choice (and money is not a problem) I probably will switch cars every month. That is when I get my license, lol.