Today I made a small purchase of eggs. They were on sale at Walgreens for $1.29 and I bought the max amount, 4 cartons. I eat eggs every day. Its a staple in my diet, a must-have! So I broke my grocery budget a little more. Next week I will do better.
Time to continue my story about how we got to the point of a spending freeze. Continued from DAY 4 Blog.
Once I quit working selling new homes I decided to hang my license with a Real Estate broker. One that I could do real estate transactions and loans. I also got certified as an Accredited Staging Professional and started my business The Wow Factor. I was the CEO and a Property Merchandising Consultant and Joel was the President. Well, my timing was terrible. No one wanted to stage their home, they were all foreclosing or short selling. We had two rentals we owned and had to pay out of pocket each month to make the mortgage. Plus we now had to pay for our own health insurance. We had to pay out $12,000 per month on all our bills. And I had no real estate transactions in the pipeline. So, it didn't take too long to see that we were both going to have to go back to work. I decided to go back first so that Joel could stay home with our daughter as long as possible. I got a job at CarMax. I had been a Community Sales Manager at the new home builder so I applied for a management position. They offered me a full time sales position with the thought of promotion once I worked hard. That was 2008. That is when the recession started. The same year that the gas prices took a huge jump. I was commuting from Stockton to Modesto and car sales were down, people were scared of the economy. The hours were crappy. I decided to quit. Within a few weeks I had another job. Back in real estate working for a busy agent. I was hired as her Escrow Coordinator and Office Manager. I worked there for a year. The hours were good, decent pay but she was demanding and tempermental. Joel also started working at a warehouse. But you can imagine we weren't generating $12,000 a month income to pay our bills. I cashed out my 401k and we started seriously considering short selling our properties.
After one year, I couldn't take it anymore with the tempermental diva. I tried working for a mortgage broker, it was a bad decision. I knew I didn't like it but I wanted out. I also started working part time and my favorite clothing store, LOFT. Within about six months I had the opportunity to go back to work for the new home builder that I was so successful with. I jumped at the chance because I was offered a good salary and I knew it could help us financially. But I had this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't shake. I was going back to working EVERY Saturday and Sunday. I was going to miss out on spending that time with my family every weekend. They were going to do things and make memories with out me. And at my core, this made me sad. My values were not aligned with my actions. And it didn't take long for my attitude to reflect that. Then, I started talking to one of our competitors who promised me Sundays off. My boss found out, I was fired. The competitor offered me a job but reneged on the deal, Sundays off were not going to happen. So, I turned them down. By this time we had short sold our home and moved into a rental. We tried to short sale our two rental properties but they ended up being foreclosed on. One of those properties was Joel's childhood home so, it was a tough time for us. I felt like I had let my family down. That was 2011.... to be continued....
Time to continue my story about how we got to the point of a spending freeze. Continued from DAY 4 Blog.
Once I quit working selling new homes I decided to hang my license with a Real Estate broker. One that I could do real estate transactions and loans. I also got certified as an Accredited Staging Professional and started my business The Wow Factor. I was the CEO and a Property Merchandising Consultant and Joel was the President. Well, my timing was terrible. No one wanted to stage their home, they were all foreclosing or short selling. We had two rentals we owned and had to pay out of pocket each month to make the mortgage. Plus we now had to pay for our own health insurance. We had to pay out $12,000 per month on all our bills. And I had no real estate transactions in the pipeline. So, it didn't take too long to see that we were both going to have to go back to work. I decided to go back first so that Joel could stay home with our daughter as long as possible. I got a job at CarMax. I had been a Community Sales Manager at the new home builder so I applied for a management position. They offered me a full time sales position with the thought of promotion once I worked hard. That was 2008. That is when the recession started. The same year that the gas prices took a huge jump. I was commuting from Stockton to Modesto and car sales were down, people were scared of the economy. The hours were crappy. I decided to quit. Within a few weeks I had another job. Back in real estate working for a busy agent. I was hired as her Escrow Coordinator and Office Manager. I worked there for a year. The hours were good, decent pay but she was demanding and tempermental. Joel also started working at a warehouse. But you can imagine we weren't generating $12,000 a month income to pay our bills. I cashed out my 401k and we started seriously considering short selling our properties.
After one year, I couldn't take it anymore with the tempermental diva. I tried working for a mortgage broker, it was a bad decision. I knew I didn't like it but I wanted out. I also started working part time and my favorite clothing store, LOFT. Within about six months I had the opportunity to go back to work for the new home builder that I was so successful with. I jumped at the chance because I was offered a good salary and I knew it could help us financially. But I had this feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that I couldn't shake. I was going back to working EVERY Saturday and Sunday. I was going to miss out on spending that time with my family every weekend. They were going to do things and make memories with out me. And at my core, this made me sad. My values were not aligned with my actions. And it didn't take long for my attitude to reflect that. Then, I started talking to one of our competitors who promised me Sundays off. My boss found out, I was fired. The competitor offered me a job but reneged on the deal, Sundays off were not going to happen. So, I turned them down. By this time we had short sold our home and moved into a rental. We tried to short sale our two rental properties but they ended up being foreclosed on. One of those properties was Joel's childhood home so, it was a tough time for us. I felt like I had let my family down. That was 2011.... to be continued....
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