I am just flabergasted that a trailer could cost so much. I mean, I know the quality and options available now make them really nice...but 72k? I am stunned.

I guess I live under a rock. I had no idea.

Haha, and I have to add that *I* buy new baby and kids clothes. I love nice second hand stores, but we buy plenty of stuff new.

Someone has to, haha, or the second hand stores won't have anything to sell!

It is okay to buy new clothes, sure, and kids clothes can be found cheap, but when you are scraping it is probably better to try other options.

Hey, we buy new when we can afford it. Why? Because it's fun!

I belive firmly children should be taught the value of thrift, but they should also be taught that nice things come because of hard work and dedication.

Hmmm...have you ever thought about working in a children's library?  My local library (I live in a very small, rural community) has a huge literacy section for kids.  There are two librarians who are in charge of it.  They stock the newest books, help kids find appropriate books.  But, more importantly, they come up with creative reading programs and a summer literacy program that ends with a party for the kids.  They also have fundraisers for their programs and work with the community.  They have special needs groups, and groups for different ages. 

Or, what about working with preschool aged Children, or working at a Parents as Teachers type group (it's a pre-preschool program that helps parents learn how to constructively play with their kids in a teaching manner, and also helps them deal with individual problems). 

Even if these things don't exist where you live,it doesn't mean you can't pursue them somewhere, or even try and start them in your community.

Considering that you live in a rental, and neither of you have been at your jobs for long (or have even started one), you should not consider it temporary until you have both been employed at the same jobs for at least 12 months.  It's your justifications for excessive spending that will be your financial doom.  You talk like everything is fine, then you state that you let your insurance lapse and the lender now charges you more for insurance.  You also bought a trailer that you couldn't really afford since you didn't have a decent down payment.  You really need to take a hard look at your justifications and ask yourself if this is how you want to live long term.  Is the part time use of a motorcycle worth the long term costs?  Really think about it.  Don't justify, look at the real costs of your lifestyle purchases.

That's insane.  My first house, which wasn't that long ago, was $110,000 including the land.  It was a modular cape cod and was 1,200 sq ft.  We had looked at trailers at the time (we didn't want much of a payment), and they were in the $50,000 range or less, even with the drywall option.  I can't even imagine how you would spend that much on a trailer, especially considering how fast they depreciate.

If you don't want to lose your butt on the trailer, I would suggest finding a piece of land that you can buy on land contract and plopping the trailer on it, put in a well and septic (or hook up to city if available) and either live in it or sell it with the land.  Even if you spent $40,000 on the land, with a 25 year land contract at %, you would be paying $283 per month is land payment (which will appreciate, and is sell-able).

 

It's very, incredibly easy to look back with 20/20 vision and say this or that about previous choices.
Going over our past choices is just like beating a dead horse. Various mindsets and whatever are set so whats the point?

I could go out and buy a plot of land. But heres the issue. Land is cheap and one would think....ooooh cheap land...gimme.

But the problem out here is that there is a statute that says you have to own x amount of land even before being able to dig for a well and install a septic (not sure about building an access road or getting power out there). So...while I could go out and buy a 40 acre plot...I can't do anything with it as far as bringing the house out there. Now, I could find another property somewhere that already has those features there, but the cost is going to be much higher. Plus it costs around 10 grand to move the trailers. Then I would need to pour a slab if one didn't exist already. The cost would be prohibitive.

I could find a lot in town, for example...the only one I can see that would let us build there and possibly install a well / septic or tap into the citys system...costs about 120k.

argh...sorry, that and this reply is by me, Ziggy.

Yes, it is easy to look back in hindsight.

However, the problem is, you guys aren't exactly doing it in hindsight. You asked what you should do, we offered our best advice, got blasted for it, and now you're talking about hindsight.

Every pitfall you are dealing with was discussed beforehand. Yes, it sucks to admit that you're wrong, and no, we shouldn't stand over and say "I told you so", but the truth is we did do our level best to warn you guys what you were up against. And got slammed for it. Which is why a lot of folks don't bother anymore.

As far as I know, nobody here is gloating over being right on this one. None of us wants to see you in that predicament. But I, at least, am hoping you'll take this as a lesson learned (albeit an incredibly hard one), and try to turn things around.

You see where you're at now. What I would advise is to go and pick up a Dave Ramsey book, and follow his advice to the letter (no excuses), even when it means making hard sacrifices. You may not have been given the gift of wise financial management skills, but there's no reason you can't learn that now.

However, the problem is, you guys aren't exactly doing it in hindsight. You asked what you should do, we offered our best advice, got blasted for it, and now you're talking about hindsight.

Did we ask for advice in buying the trailer before we bought it? I know I didn't, and I don't think my wife did either. Mainly because we had no internet access during that time. Could be mistaken.

But I, at least, am hoping you'll take this as a lesson learned (albeit an incredibly hard one), and try to turn things around.

I think there is some gloating going on...but not by you. Thanks for your offer of hope.

What I would advise is to go and pick up a Dave Ramsey book, and follow his advice to the letter (no excuses), even when it means making hard sacrifices.

We haven't bought a book (need money, lol...should check out the library). But I did look into his 7 steps and we were on our way towards that:
1 Pay minimum balances and save up 1k for emergency funds. We originally were paying minimum plus extra on all of our debts...but that wasn't working. I switched it around for us and we paid minimum while at the same time we made a larger payment to one particular debt. This allowed us to make a bigger dent in one debt and go from there. We also set up automatic transfers each month and opened up a money market account. Each month when we got paid...anything that we had the day before in the bank was transfered to the MM account.

2. pay off debts from smallest to largest. We were doing this...but we tweaked a little too and paid off the smaller ones with the largest interest first.

3. Emergency fund - we were in the process of doing this with the MM account.

4. retirement. Ugh...not there yet.

5. college stuff for kiddos - they can pay it off themselves. This right now isn't a concern for us. Marcie and I both feel that our kids can get funding on their own by working or other ways. If we have extra $$, we can fork it over to them. I think it would be nice to start saving for them a little on the side, but this is one of the least of our worries.

6. ultrafit and debt free. Well, if we sell the trailer, we could be debt free in five or so years, or less. Thats not counting however, getting a house....and this step involves that being paid off.
7. Investments. We had looked into this and this is down the road too as well, until we get more debt paid off. I wouldn't mind owning some rental properties either. I have the option of renting out our trailer (which is something our park doesnt normally allow), but I would much rather sell it than to rent it.

I guess I don't understand why you think its funny, especially since we paid off quite a bit of debts last year. Isn't that the goal? Besides, you said all....how many did I tweak?

It doesn't sound like he tweaked it much.

1k emergency fund, check.
Pay minimum balances, and then pile the rest into one debt, check, paying off smallest first with the option of paying off the higher interest rates first instead, check.
Big emergency fund, working on it.

After that, worry about the other things.

They're steps for a reason.

Woohoo! New clothes for my babies is a-ok! Hehe. Good thing, too, since I just bought baby girl some Pedipeds and a new Carters dress!

I may be an idiot for buying new clothes, but I'm an idiot with really cute kids! Hahaha.

You know what realy bothers me, Zig?  The fact that you're supposedly 'qualified' to teach little kids, yet you can't spell even simple words.  'Mute', for example.  As LW already pointed out, it's 'moot'.  My 13 year old knows that.  I know what you're going to say: that they're all just typos, right? 

WRONG. 

Thank gawd my kids aren't being taught by you.  If you were their 'teacher' I'd yank them out of your class so fast you wouldn't even see them leave.