More on HASP

As I told you yesterday, we decided to try to modify our mortgage using the Homeowner Stability and Affordability Program that President Obama set up last month. If we're approved for this, we'll be able to stay in our home, since hubby's work (as a journeyman plumber) is still hurting and his hours are low.

In fact, today his work schedule fell through (they currently have him doing service calls) and they're talking about sending him home. This would be very bad, considering he still isn't allowed to work Mondays, so that would give him just barely over a three day work week. If this happens, we'll have to use another of his already few vacation days (who can afford to take a real vacation anyway, right?) to make up for the shortage on our budget--which I'm constantly working to lower.

So yesterday we applied for HASP. I sent our Mortgage Company (Countrywide Financial) a 42 page fax--the longest fax I've ever sent in my life! Haha! Details of HASP can be found in this post I did yesterday.

I called Countrywide this morning to make sure they had all my paperwork. They did, and complimented me on how thorough I was (I'll gladly take the compliment!). They told me to continue making my mortgage payments as usual (which I planned to do anyway for as long as we're able), and that they will process everything once they know what's going on.

This wasn't really a big surprise to me. HASP is a brand new program, and while many mortgage companies are climbing on board, they are still unsure of all the details. In my mortgage company's case, they said they hope to have everything set and ready to go by April, which starts tomorrow! LOL. Anyway, they said it shouldn't take too long to get things up and running, and in the meantime they have all they need from me.

I'm telling you all this so that you will know that this is more than likely the situation with all the mortgage companies participating in HASP. They're still working out the details, and don't know everything yet, so make sure that you realize that when you call them. The company's participating in this program have said they will hold off on foreclosures for those trying to get approved for HASP.

In yesterday's post I gave you a link for participating mortgage companies, so if you haven't already, check to see if your company is on the list. The list is pretty long, so there's a good chance it is. If it isn't, you aren't out of options. Just call your mortgage company and ask what plans they offer for financial hardship. If you get someone who doesn't seem to know what they are talking about, ask to speak to someone else.

Another good resource is the Making Home Affordable website. It was set up for those looking for more information on HASP, but they offer information to anyone struggling financially.

Don't give up. This is a hard economy for so many of us. With the right tools we can all get through it together. You're not alone.

Loan Modification to Save Your Home

I spent over three hours this morning getting together all the materials I needed to do a loan modification with our mortgage company. We looked into refinancing first, but while our credit is good for the moment, our house has dropped at least $40,000 of its value in the last two years. Because of that we wouldn't meet the required loan-to-value ratio and so we didn't continue down that avenue.

We thought of selling, but we couldn't get what we needed and none of the houses in our area are selling (and there are so many!). So that idea was also quickly scrapped. I decided to find out what exactly our options were, and I'm going to share them here with you.

We were told by several of our friends the nightmare stories of trying to get the mortgage companies to work with you. We were told mixed stories of what your status on the loan had to be (some said you had to have missed a few payments, others said the loan had to be current). I decided to stop taking other people's words and experiences for it and give my mortgage company (Countrywide Financial) a call.

They were surprised, it seemed, to hear from me. "But you're not behind on your payments and your credit is good." Yes, I know this, and I'd like to keep it that way, but with no end in sight to hubby's pay cut, our savings is nearly gone, we're eating mainly out of our food storage and things don't look promising, to say the least. When I told them this, they transferred me to their Financial Hardship Department and I talked to a consultant there.

The woman I talked to was very friendly and helpful. She asked me a few questions about our situation, I answered her, and then she asked if I would be willing to tell them all of our expenses, fax them our recent tax returns, a 4506-T form, checking, savings and 401k statements, credit card and loan statements, and the last two months' pay stubs. I also had to write a Letter of Financial Hardship. I was more than willing to do whatever she asked if it meant we might be able to afford to stay in our home.

I got the 4506-T form off the IRS website. I found out what a financial hardship letter should include. I went to the Making Home Affordable Government website which I was told by the mortgage consultant to look at. On that site you can find out if you may be eligible and if your mortgage company participates in Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Program (HASP) set up in February. So far, it looks like we meet the requirements.

What HASP does is lower your mortgage payment within 31% of your gross monthly income. They can lower your interest rate down to as much as 2%. If that won't do it, then they look at extending the life of your loan to 40 years. If approved, you are put on "probation" for three months. If you make your payment on time for those three months, then you get that lowered rate for five years. If, in that five years, you have made all your payments on time, they will pay $5,000 toward the principal of your loan balance.

After five years, your interest rate will increase one percent each year--but will at no time go higher than what the current rate was at the time you modified (currently around 5%). This would be a great option for us, so we've sent them all the information they've asked for and are now awaiting the approval. They say the whole process takes about a month, so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Beware of Foreclosure Rescue Scams. This whole process is free and can be done by yourself. You do not need to pay anyone for this process and should not be charged for a single part of it. If you wish to know more about this program, go to the FAQ on the website.

If you're struggling to make your mortgage payment, please look into this program. If your bank doesn't offer it to you, ask them to. Don't necessarily take no for an answer. Ask to speak to someone else if you're not getting anywhere. Keep calm, you'll get further if you're clear-headed and non-threatening. Be persistent, the squeaky wheel gets the grease:)

If you have any questions throughout this process feel free to shoot me an email. I'll be happy to help if I can.

Saving on Garden Needs

I can't believe how much money we're saving doing our garden this year. As I told you over a week ago, we decided to start our own seeds (and they're growing beautifully under the florescent lights we bought from Walmart). We decided we needed to condition our soil before planting this year. We have clay dirt here and while the fruit trees don't seem to mind it, the garden didn't do as well as we'd hoped it would last year, and didn't produce enough for us to do any canning.

We knew from all the calling we did last year that compost wasn't cheap if you buy it from companies that specialize in it. It runs over $100 for a truck load (and sometimes closer to $200). That's just not financially feasible for us this year with hubby's pay cut. Here are a few options we've looked into instead:

To lessen the amount we'd need, we started our own compost pile. Not only is this a money saver, but it's a great way to reduce your waste. We bought a bin from Sam's Club for about $40 and started putting our table scraps and grass clippings in it. We have such a large garden area though that the one little bin isn't going to create enough right now to cover the whole area we're planting. It's a good start though, and we're going to keep it up. For more information on doing your own composting, go to the article I found on Earth911.

Some of our neighbors got some compost from the local sewer district. Yeah, I know what many of you are thinking, I've been thinking it too. Poop dirt? Haha! Well, it's really cheap (about $7 a cubic yard) and the plants love it. It's really stinky though from what I hear and I'd make sure you wore gloves while working in it (as you should anyway whenever working in any kind of soil).

Many landfills offer compost too. It's suppose to be high quality and very cheap. We priced out two landfills in our area. The first one, Wasatch Integrated Waste Management, offers it at $25 per 1 1/2 yards. The second was Bountiful Landfill, who offers it at $30 per ton. The research I did says that a ton is about one cubic yard. So they're pretty close in price (though not as cheap as the sewer district).

If you're looking to get your compost for less money where you live, just do a search for landfills or sewer districts in your town or county and then go to their websites. Most will tell you on their sites if they sell compost. You can even call them and find out.

We've already spent far less this year in our garden supplies than we did last year, and we'll be planting so much more than we did before. If you want to learn more about what we're doing to become more self-sufficient and save money, go to my article on gardening here. You dont have to have a large space to do this.

We won't be planting until after Mother's Day (that's the rule of thumb here), but we're doing all we can to be ready before then. It's so easy and you can do it, too. It's not too late. So go ahead, save money, eat better and be one step closer to being self-sufficient, too!

Text Me Those Coupons!

This world is full of technological advances and I'm forever being surprised by what they come up with next. I'm happy to say that this newest way to utilize technology means more savings for me and you.

In our family, with the our recent pay cut, we are always looking for ways to save money. Unfortunately, this has meant we have much less--if any--discretionary, or entertainment money. That was one of the first things to go. It just made sense for us to not go out anymore (not that we did much to begin with), and to make all of our meals here at home.

There have definitely been times when I didn't feel like cooking and longed to dine out with the family instead of coming up with a meal to please six people. I actually do enjoy cooking, but there are days that just get away from me and I'm left feeling exhausted and still have to figure out dinner (or lunch if we've been away from home and doing errands all morning). I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

We haven't gone out to eat in quite a while, because I just couldn't justify the expense when it costs so much less to make the same meal at home. For our household, we can easily drop $40 (with tip) at Wingers, and that's with the adults drinking only water. Conversely, if we were to make everyone a nice burger (we actually do those very well on the grill) and homemade french fries at home, and even splurged on a two liter of soda, we would spend maybe eight dollars--max.

Yesterday, however, I did not want to cook. It was my birthday and I wanted to take it easy. Go figure. Well, dear hubby was fine with that. He had planned, after a long day at work (trying to get 10 hours in one day to make up for the Mondays he is no longer allowed to work), to pick up some steaks at our favorite butcher shop and make me dinner. I was very much looking forward to this.

Well, he gets to the butcher shop and finds it closed. The sign on the door said it was due to the hard economy. So....that was out. He went to our second favorite place to buy steaks and found they discontinued the ones we liked, but were offering lesser quality steaks at a higher price. I told him to just forget it and come home.

Our good friends offered to get some take-out with us, but they've already done so much for us, I couldn't possibly let them do this. Though I did like the idea of eating out with them. We decided to look for coupons online for restaurants in our town and go out to eat together.

As a result of this online search, I found the coolest site! It's called Frogzog-Mobile Frugality. You go there, type in the keyword of the type of business, or thing you're looking for, then enter your zipcode. It pulls up all businesses that work through them (and there were quite a few in our little town), and tells you the offers they have. You then choose the one you want, enter your cell phone number and they text you the coupon. That's it. No spam, no cost, just an easy way to save some money with a coupon. We got $5 off our order with this service. All we did was show the coupon when we got our check and it was taken off. Easy, easy!

So while I could feel guilty for splurging, I actually feel pretty good because we I found another way to save money. They have more than just food services participating in this, so go ahead and check it out. Of course, you do have to have a cell phone with text messaging for this to work.

There was another site I found, but it's only for the state where I live. It's called Go Utah. There you can print or email the coupons you find. We would have used this service, but the coupons we wanted were actually expired, so I think they need to work on keeping it updated.

If you don't have a cell phone, or if you aren't in Utah, just try doing a search for the coupon/business your looking for, you can usually find some great deals this way.

Also, I know that if you go to Coupon Mom, you can buy gift cards for restaurants at a reduced price and get more for less when you dine out. Sounds good to me!

I'm not planning on doing more dining out now, because we still save money by cooking at home, but it's nice to know that if we do decide to splurge on special occasions, we can find some great deals and it won't break the bank.

Go for those Samples

Sorry for the delay in posts these few days. My family has a stomach bug working its way through our house. It started with the baby, then with me, and is currently working on my poor hubby. So, of course, he has no hope of trying to get his 40 hours in this week, since he already has mandatory Mondays off and had to take today off. Thank heavens we haven't touched his vacation days yet (he only has seven to begin with, now we're down to six). Fun times! I'm really hoping it will stop with him, and spare our other three children. We can hope, right?

Anyway, to the point of today's tip: how to get free samples. Today I went to check the mail and to my delight I found that General Mills had sent me a whole box of FiberOne Granola Bars. I didn't pay a cent for it, nor the bunch of coupons for $1.35 off one box. I'm to give these coupons to family and friends (no problem) and try the product for myself. The best kind of new product to try is a free one, in my opinion. It just so happens, too, that I'm already familiar with FiberOne and buy those products for our household anyway.

I am also likely to receive more products/coupons like this in the future, too. How did I get this deal? It was easy, and didn't cost a cent. I joined Pssst. This is a word of mouth networking program designed to get the word out there for new products. I'm more than willing to do that if it means I get some perks. I'm always up for some freebies, and also another way to save money on my food budget.

If you're interested in joining you can go to their website. It's entirely free and all you have to do is answer a few questions. I assume this is so they have a better idea of what kind of products you use, and how you can help them get the word out. Anyway, I say it's entirely worth my time, especially since it requires so little.

If you're interested in looking for other freebies you can go to Freebies4mom, Freeflys and Sweeties Swag. Who says you can't get something for nothing? Check it out for yourself!

I Saved Money!

In my mission to cut the bottom line of my budget by lowering my bills, I'd say: Mission Accomplished! My budget plan for my gas bill came and they lowered my payment by $14 a month. I honestly think it will end up going even lower, but I'm happy to see it go down at all.

I also called my motor club company to cancel my benefits and they said if I kept it they would cut my payment 35%, so that was a win, too. They told me if I registered on their website, they even had discount offers for companies I'm already using, so I plan to look further into that to save more money. By the way, I use Allstate Motorclub, and have been with them for six years. I've successfully used the benefits they offer on a few occasions (flat tire once and my car broke down at the grocery store the other time--both times hubby was out of town!).

I already told you that I cut my phone and internet bill by switching to Comcast. I wasn't too happy with my first week of service because they kept having outages (I'm told that's rare). So I called in after the third one in a week and complained (nicely) and they credited my account for my first week of service! It can really pay to let companies know you're unsatisfied.

On that note, when I called to cancel my service with Qwest, they offered to give me six free months of internet if I stayed with them. I chose not to, but they said if I changed my mind at a later date they would offer me some good promotions. We shall see how Comcast does with my service for now, but it's good to know that I can get a good deal if it doesn't work out. See? Playing your company against their competition can save you money, too!

So, all-in-all I'd say I've had a successful time cutting down our spending. I'm not done yet, but I thought I'd let you know my progress and encourage you to do the same. We can make it through this hard economy!

If you're looking for ways to cut down on your grocery bill, you can read my article on Ehow. You can also check out the links I have on this page (toward the bottom) that will take you to coupon and freebie sites.

I wish you all the best of luck on lowering your bottom line. Now go save some money!

Scams and more scams

As cautious as I am, I suppose even I miss things. I decided to look further into the company I mentioned to you all not too long ago. It was called My-Data-Team. When I read the review, it said that there was another company by the same name who had a bad reputation, so I didn't focus too much on the name, but the detailed review I found on them.

Since then, I've continued to look into it and found another report on them on Reviewopedia. One part of that review says:

"I wouldn't call My-Data-Team.com a scam as they do provide some links to freelance resources and show you how to get jobs doing things for webmasters and bloggers such as getting paid to write articles.

They are different enough from the common data entry programs to not be called a scam but their main section on global data entry is still a training system that deals with affiliate marketing."

So while it may not be a scam, perhaps they aren't all they claim to be. I took their link off my "Make Money" listings and am going to modify my posting about them. I'm doing this because I'm not going to refer anyone to what I myself am not willing to try. That would be bad business on my part.

I found several sites that you can look up scams on. I'm going to give you the links here, so you can do your own homework too. I advise you to always check things out for yourself. Don't just take anyone's word for it, no matter how convincing they sound. I'm going to continue looking for legitimate work at home opportunities, as I know there are some good ones out there.

Reviewopedia
ScamXposer
Ripoff Report
Better Business Bureau

If ever you're being asked to pay money for something, I would advise you to go to any or all of those sites to find out more about the company you're thinking of paying. If it turns out to be legit, it will only make you feel better in the end. If they aren't, then you won't be out that money and will be patting yourself on the back.

Best of luck to you! I'm going to keep on looking for us all:)

Shopping for Money

I can't believe I didn't know about this before now. I mean, I'm always looking for ways to make some money, and I've tried my hand at many things, but it seems there's always something else out there. Well, I'm no longer in ignorance of this particular avenue.

I received an invitation last week to join a company called Shoppers Hotline. I tend to be cautious by nature, so before I even looked further into what the company was offering me, I did a search about it online. They checked out!

So I went to their website and filled out their questionnaire. I thought I was done for when they asked me if my phone was a land line or digital. Well, as of a few weeks ago, it's digital. When I clicked on that option, it asked me if I was sure, because that could possibly exclude me from being eligible to participate. It turns out, since I was willing to use my computer to run their software, I was again included.

What software? What is all this about? Well, I'm going to get paid for doing my shopping. No, I'm not teasing. They sent me a scanner, I installed the software on my computer, and so from now on when I make my shopping trips I will scan my purchases when I get them home. I will answer a few simple questions when they come up, let them know where I shopped, and consequently I will be awarded points that will be redeemed for cash on a debit card. I also signed up for the opportunities they offered for more points by telling them when I do or don't get a prescription and let them see how I use my internet (much like the Nielson Netratings Panel only this pays a bit more). Since I'm not doing anything fishy with my internet, I have no problems with this.

Anyway, I guess that if you have a land line phone then you don't have to install anything on your computer (unless you were going for the extra points), you would plug the scanner into your phone line instead. Easy, easy! And if you decide for whatever reason it's not for you, they include a free shipping return label.

Did I mention that this program is entirely free? I didn't pay a cent. This isn't a get rich quick (or anytime) scheme. This is just a way for you to make some extra money in this bad economy. It's not difficult, it's free and I don't really have to change my habits--only add the scanning step to them. They give you 40 points each week you participate in just the scanning portion.

So, I'm going to give this a shot. I got the scanner today, installed it (easy!) and completed my registration. I then clicked on their "Get More Rewards" tab and Viola! I'm ready to go!

So if any of you are interested, go fill out their questionnaire to see if you qualify (you can find the option to email them about your interest to join). Or for an even faster response, you can call this special number: 1-877-999-2949, ask for operator 10 and tell them member #041119255 referred you (They pay for referrals, so you can tell your family and friends). There's nothing special about my family (well, not to them anyway), and we qualified. Give it a shot and make some extra money from home!

Making Money from Home

Well, folks, making money from home isn't easy, and don't let anyone ever tell you it is. There are a lot of scams out there, and you have to weed through those to find the good opportunities. A lot of the working at home jobs are in sales, and I'm not much of a sales person (though I could be, I suppose, if I had the time and wanted to put the effort into it).

Some of the work-at-home opportunities I've been alerted to just aren't feasible for me with four very noisy little ones at home. But I'll pass on the information to you. These are call center jobs you do from home. They used to be sent overseas, but these companies realized they could still save money by letting people do these jobs from home.

The time is dedicated, so you can't have a lot of background noise going on while you do it (exactly the reason why I can't do it). Apparently you can set your own hours, so that's a real plus. I guess if I wanted to go to bed later, or get up earlier, I could do this, but I really value the little sleep I get with a baby in our home! Haha

Here's the links to those sites (thank you to Jody Connolly, for sending them my way):

Alpine Access
LiveOps
Arise
West at Home


On another note, I've made a few bucks off the survey sites (you can find the links to the ones I use on this site), and I also made a bit from youdata (which they transferred right into my paypal account at the end of the week.

My most promising opportunity ($50 from surveyspot for shopping at a location I've never been to before) has hit a glitch, in that I had problem with the links, but finally got through to participate in the 60 minute panel. There was an issue in the end where the link took me back to surveyspot and mistakenly said I didn't qualify for the survey (which obviously I did, and had already completed it), so I've emailed their member services and hopefully it will be taken care of. They are backed by the Better Business Bureau, so I have high hopes.

I've been checking out some of the employment websites we got at the agency last week. One that is all for those who want to work from home is called Rat Race Rebellion. They try to check out all their opportunities before listing them, but wisely caution you to be careful and check things out for yourself before signing up for anything (especially jobs that you have to pay for).

That's all for today. More to come.

Be More Self-Sufficient

Let's face it, if you don't have something you need, the easiest thing to do is to get it from someone who has it. When it comes to food, most of us get what we need by buying it from the grocery store. There are definitely times when that is unavoidable, and it's one of the biggest expenses here at our house. Okay, so we can't stop going to the store for a lot of our needs, but we can cut a big chunk out of what we spend there by having to buy less. How do we do that? No, we're not planning on booting out any of our kids--haha. But we are planning a garden.

Even if you think space is an issue that would exclude your from this option, keep reading, there is usually a way around this.

In our area, the general rule of thumb is to not plant anything until after Mother's Day--about the middle of May. We use to go and buy all of our tomatoes, squash, watermelon, pumpkin, cucumbers, cantaloupe, peppers and everything else at the garden centers. They were already started for us, and we just took those leafy greens out of their pots and transplanted them in our prepared soil.

We'd tried the seeds before, but the birds got them all, and we never got so much as a baby carrot. Instead of putting our thinking caps on, we gave up on them and would drop about $80 or so on the starters.

This year, we're planning ahead. My hubby got the idea to start our seeds inside. We didn't even come close to spending $80--It was $20 at the most, and with the seeds in each pack, we'll have so many more starters to transplant than our previous seasons that it's laughable.

We've done our homework. We're going to start them next weekend, giving them close to two months before we plant them outside (lessening the risk of freezing). We've saved up our cardboard egg cartons, have potting soil, are getting some florescent light bulbs and setting up shop on a big work table in our garage. For information on lights for your seedlings, you can go here. From what we've read, windowsill light is not always enough.

We've been enriching our soil with grass clippings and manure (fun stuff). And will also be picking up any extra soil or compost we need at the local landfill (saving quite a bit).

Another way to save with coupons, receiving email and postal mail offers, and also get gardening tips is to sign up for Home Depot's Garden Club, or Lowe's Learn2Grow Garden Club. You can even sign up for both and get double the offers and tips. We also have signed up at our local nurseries for offers and email tips. Look in your area to take advantage of those avenues.

We've already planted strawberry, raspberry and boysenberry bushes last year--along with several fruit trees. While the fruit trees won't produce much this year, the fruit bushes should do pretty well.

Not everyone has a lot of space for gardening, and in those cases you can look into container gardening, or even a garden box in your yard. It's a lot of fun, tastes so much better than store bought and gives you sense of accomplishment you can't get by going to the grocer's produce department.

So if you haven't considered doing this before now, you're not too late. If I can do it, anyone can. I didn't grow up doing this, but I wish I had! If you end up growing more than you can possibly use, then you can move on the the next step for self-sufficiency and start canning your harvest!

Happy Growing!

*The links in this post are not advertising, but will take you to more information on the topics that are highlighted.