Making ends meet

Ok. So it's been a while. Actually it's been a very long time. I know most of you didn't even realize that I was gone, but I know for a FACT that a couple of you missed me.

I fell into a hole. Not a rut...a hole; and it was a big one. I had pretty much given up and had decided to just move on. The bills piled up and we began falling behind. Fell behind on the mortgage, fell behind on the utilities. It was perhaps the furthest I had fell. Don't mistake, I'm still not back on my feet. I am close though. Very close.

If you can back remember far enough, we had decided to sell our house. Seemed like the best thing to do at the time. A lot of things have changed though. Well, today they changed even more.

About a month ago we decided to get caught up. After all, it's easier to keep up than it is to play catch up. We decided to keep the house, but were going to need help. We decided to move out of the house and into the in-laws house. During this time we would keep making our mortgage payments, keep in mind that we were already behind almost two months. We temporarily suspended our utilities so that we could catch up. This would give us a lot of extra income to catch up and help get ahead.

You might notice I said, "almost two months" behind. Well as of last week we hit that second month. Not something I'm particularly proud of, but it's reality now. When it comes down to living, some things take priority. You might be thinking, "What takes priority over your house?" Life. Life does. You can't pay bills if you don't work. You can't work if you don't have gas. Kids have to eat. Hell, I have to eat. It would start off just taking a few bucks for gas. Then a few more for food. Then a bill came due, next thing you know it's gone. I know your going to call it bad money management. Please don't...I know I'm not the only one to ever go through this problem.

So I called up the mortgage company. Told them we were having problems with our current payment and also pointed out that our rate was supposed to go up at the end of this year. I was brutally honest with the guy. I had no shame. I'm past the point of having shame. Was I looking for a handout? No, just help...thats all. After 45 minutes of conversation, we came to a number. This number lifted a load off my chest. I write about this now, and it's not even a guarantee, but it's a sign they are going to work with us. The number was signifigantly lower than our current mortgage payment. Currently we pay about $840 a month, they are trying to lower it to $630 a month for three years. After these three years it will revert back to the old amount.

It's a start. If this deal goes through, we are still going to stay at the in-laws house until we get caught up. We think it's the right thing to do.