Military Pay Sucks

There I said it. You know you were all thinking it anyway! ;-)

With that being said, I am SO ready for Superman to sew on SrA.  It's not even about the pay (mostly), it's about getting the damn letter A1C off the house.  I swear to you, the neighbors look at us like we're lepers.  I'm sure they're all judgy-judgy about the fact that we both drive newer cars (they existed before we ever took this foray into the land of military).  Hell, everyone around here is kinda judgy-judgy... especially the neighbor who's husband is deployed and I almost backed into her car coming out of my driveway (whoops).  But the reason I'm so excited is that I am OVER being lumped into the land of 21 year olds.  We are NOT 21, hell, I'm closer to 30 than even I prefer and I usually don't care how old I am.

Anyway, besides the joy of having to have all the uniforms re-sewn (luckily we've been shorted a few pairs of ABU's so I'm not redoing 4 sets!), we do get a little bump in pay.  We get by just fine.  I'm just jealous we aren't independently wealthy.  I am super excited that this year we WILL/SHOULD-barring a calamity be out of credit card debt (stupidest thing we've ever done, no joke).  It also doesn't help that I'm stressing about the future. 

You know what I realized though, it's really only the first 2 years that suck, lol.  Superman came in as a full-fledged A1C, so we only say those tiny annual raises up until this year.  It was frustrating, he felt like we weren't making any progress and I was just fed up.  Well, he got a second job and his paychecks from his part time job are almost more than mine (they have been more than mine a few times -- seriously, retail?!).  We developed our little "get the hell out of debt" plan.  I shared it with him... repeatedly until he drank the kool-aid.  Now, he's super excited about the light at the end of the tunnel since we've been failing wildly for a long time now at this game.  Living on one income has to be incredibly difficult given what most of the paychecks look like.  I have no idea how people do it.  I'm thankful that I work, I mostly enjoy working.  But, let's be serious.. at some point I might not want to work anymore.  At some point we may end up overseas where I can't find a decent paying job or even a new base where the unemployment rate is astronomical and no one is hiring.  I'm glad that I used MyCAA funding to progress towards a career that allows me to work in other states, especially now that they've changed federal requirements for my job.  Hopefully my program, accreditation and all, transfer with me with ease and I have the ability to find a flippin' job when we leave the booming state of North Dakota and it's plethora of jobs and opportunities.

It's not the pay that sucks, it's the fact that so many people don't know how to budget their money appropriately.  So if you're like me and you've been facing credit card debt from your past lives or you just don't know how to budget your money, I recommend (insist) learning.  If you don't know how, check out the family readiness center, they have people who can help and maybe explain to you some things you don't already know.  We all have to learn it eventually and what better than having a certified financial counselor guide you through the ropes?  We weren't born with this knowledge... just like learning to grocery shop. 

I look at the paychecks now and say, "ooo, how much more do I get to put in a savings account this month?!"  I plan ahead for leave and car repairs and hopefully next year we can start our buffer account.  I'd like it to be this year, but it's not going to happen.  One day, we'll be able to buy something that we need (like the dryer I need to replace or the new tires I need for my car) without freaking out, because we'll have money saved up for those instances. Until then, I'll hoard extra appliances in my garage for when my dryer offs itself so I don't run into the same problem I did with the washer and didn't get to wash clothes for 2 weeks and now I'm facing a $400 setback.  And hell, maybe one day I'll get a decent paycheck, lol.

That last part is up to me and how quickly I can get my program & certification done.  Sounds about time to get moving, eh?  I want an AWESOME paycheck sooner than later.

Student Loan Consolidation - The Final (yeah, right) Chapter!

I am officially making student loan payments!! YAY!

Yeah, I know, who the hell cheers about that?  Let me just tell you that I do! 

I have never been so thrilled to do this in my entire life.  After a year of 'working' with Direct Loans and Sallie Mae, a processor/server change, and hell on wheels... I am making student loan payment!  More importantly, I'm making the RIGHT student loan payments.  Extra bonus, so is Superman!

I'm not sure if I mentioned, but originally, they had my income pegged at $53K/year (or some crazy ass number) by myself (I'd really like to know where that money came from... or IS??!!).  That didn't include Superman's pay.  I had a "come-to-jesus" meeting with customer service and stopped talking to them for the most part entirely.  Eventually, I just started talking to a supervisor... I also made sure I wrote down their names.  I should add, they weren't real fond of me taking names but you know what?  After a year of being screwed around, it's done.  I even went so far to ask one of them if they would like to pay for my cell phone bill this month since I've been on the phone with them for over 13 hours in the past 8 months... and I had the log to prove it.  Things moved much faster at the end, payments were recalculated after 48 hours, stuff was taken care of super fast, and life goes on.  I did have to put a forbearance on my account while they recalculated Superman's payment though.  Mine came out right, but his hadn't been changed yet.

I imagine if you're doing this as a single person, it's amazingly easy.  The entire process was easy on Superman's side, wham, bam and done.  Mine was a nightmare and they even agreed that it was a nightmare.  I'm glad I printed off everything for them, repeatedly.  I highlighted the information I knew to be true and made sure they knew I knew what was going on.  Their CSR training is a little sub-par but that's to be expected of any company that does a bulk of their business online.  I couldn't believe that the people who do the applications and the people who deal with the aftermath are like night and day.  The people who run the applications know their stuff in and out (from my experience).

Not only am I actually glad to finally be making student loan payments... I'm glad I consolidated with Direct Loans.  I am no longer under the bullcrap of Sallie Mae (except for this pesky private loan) and dealing with Direct is much easier (now).  I do wish that they had more of an online presence though.  If you're following me on twitter, you'll know that I talk mad crap about the Dept. of Education.  Do you know that not once did they ever reply to my tweets?  Sallie Mae did.  That's about the only thing they had going for them because I will never see the $4k they added to my principal ever again... They conveniently stopped following up on that one and I gave up and just left.  I'm sick of having the same conversation for no reason at all.  I may have let them win that one, but they missed out on a TON of money from me because of how they dealt with the situation.

It'll be interesting to see what happens to the payments now that we've filed taxes, I hope they can get them fixed and not screw them up again.


P.S. My computer is still broken... and then the washing machine broke too.  The microwave is next, I just know it.

Diet Pills

How many of you know people who are on some type of diet pill?  How many of you have taken one before? 

It seems that the circles that run in proximity to mine (and I'm sure you've seen it as well), LOVE their diet pills.  I have a friend who sells one, she really seems to like it... other people really seem to like it too.  I read the ingredients on it and wasn't super impressed and hell, I tried it.  It has this fantastic ability to make you not hungry.  Not even just not hungry but downright full off of nothing.  It was kinda weird.

Anyway, she made a facebook group for all these people who were interested in it.  It's more of a desperation group of people who are just fed up with being heavier and lack the motivation to change their lives.  I'm probably one of them too, but whatever.

I read these conversations of people who are frustrated that they aren't losing any weight and blah blah blah... and then someone admits that their first meal was at 7pm that night.  Yeah, you heard that right, they ate dinner... that's it.  WHAT THE HELL!?  They are all talking about how they only eat once a day or they don't feel like they're losing the weight.  But here's the thing... they aren't doing anything about it.  They're taking a pill and eating less food (not sure what they eat at dinner though).  Ideally, this might work... except that they're not even eating the recommended minimum calories, hell they aren't even breaking 1000 calories.  None of them seem to realize that starving themselves (even though they can't feel it) isn't healthy and is a serious cause for alarm. 

I'm not nutritional guru, I have my faults.  I love chocolate and doritos, albeit, I don't eat them very often -- especially the doritos.  I know that I'm not super skinny or in shape and I can't run a marathon for multiple reasons.  I know that I'm having issues staying on any type of program, much less losing any weight... but I'm not starving myself and I'm not eating crap constantly.

It's like they don't realize that fruit snacks are not a fruit.  That cookies should be eaten in severe moderation, not a whole row -- yeah, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.  Chips are not a good snack food.  I know all of this.  I don't eat super healthy all the time, but I couldn't tell you the last time I had fried chicken, or a twinkie, a brownie, or even real ice cream.  I like some of that stuff, but my life does not depend on it.  The girls that work in my work cafeteria know me as the girl who buys the vegetables because sometimes that's what I eat for dinner. 

They're making me crazy and no one seems to understand that you can't just NOT eat.  It's called an eating disorder for a reason.  I understand no one wants to be a tundra wookie, but seriously... they just don't understand you can't starve yourself and it'll work.

Please don't develop an eating disorder... much less teach your kids how to do it.

It's been a Month?!

Wow, I'm a terrible blogger this month.  I've been flying low and redirecting some things in my life.  Today I applied for a new job, not because I hate my current job or even dislike it really, but because I want more out of life.  Maybe it's selfish, I'm sure my current department might freak out, I just don't want to deal with the crap anymore and there's about to be a whole lot more of it.

We've calculated some things in the world and it looks like we will be done with our credit card debt by November.  I am incredibly excited.  Oh, and my laptop died.  The hard drive ate itself and I'm in the long, tedious process of recovering and replacing things.  I have someone who's willing to do the recovery part for me since I just don't have the patience or time right now, which is awesome.  I'll end up with a laptop that has MORE memory than my original!  Now, if I can get my documents back that would be stellar.. but alas, we'll see.

Other than that, I'm around, I promise.  I've just been a little preoccupied currently with changing some things in my life.  I've got a list of like a thousand things I need to do and it's just not getting any shorter.

Hope everyone had a good April and now heading into May, let's make it great!