Debating on a big move in our lives...

So we've been trying to work the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover plan since November of 2006 and as you can see in my posts... Murphy just will not leave us alone and we can't get any traction. We have our house listed up for sale, still after 6 months of having it listed with only a couple of showings and my new realtor that we've had for the past few months is really trying to push it because he knows and understands our situation. We are currently looking into doing a deed in leiu of foreclosure because of our situation.

Chris got laid off his job and they pretty much said it was permanent. They never told him it was but said "If you can find another job you'd better take it cuz we won't have anything until next year" OH great another strike!! So he's been out every day this week looking for work and has some leads, but here's the deal....

He used to work in a laborer's union up north (by Chicago IL) made good money and had great benefits, we lived up there in Manteno Illinois at one point for almost a year. I loved it there and so did he, we were doing good. Now my kids, they liked it there but wanted to be back home by grandma, grandpa and their daddy (who has since joined the military). So we packed up and moved back here, lived in my parents old house for a few years until we bought this house last year. Chris has had a very hard time finding stable work around here. It's hard for everyone here right now. This last job he had was the best one yet, made good money for this area and had some good benefits, been there for almost 2 years. Anyway now that he's laid off, we're wondering what we should do. He can't find a decent enough paying job around here to pay all of our bills and dig ourselves out of debt, and he has an opportunity to go back to work up north where he would be making really good money again with good benefits.

Based on what his income would be up there and what our average place to rent would be up there we would have about $1300.00 a month left over from our budgeted items to throw towards our debt ... meaning we could be out of debt in NO TIME!

Now here's the kicker ... I know money isn't EVERYTHING but obviously in our case it's worth a lot right now to get us where we need to be for EVERYONE not just me ... I try to teach my kids that money isn't and shouldn't be TOP priority but is important and there's such a fine line there. See, my kids don't want to move back to Manteno, they want to stay here. I have twin girls that are 11 and they're in the 5th grade so they have their friends and they have been through sooo much in the last 5 years that I'm so afraid of making the wrong decision. I KNOW that if we move there it would be better in the long run for financial and stability reasons but I'm worried about them and how it will affect them. I keep thinking they'll grow up to resent me for pulling them away from "home".

So I'm praying that God will help us through this and give us the guidance we need.

Short Update

First let me say if you've read any of my pasts posts you'll know that we've been trying to get going on the DR plan since November 06, my DF was reluctant at getting going even though he has never been the spender of either of us he just wasn't too excited about getting on this, or not as excited as I was or needed him to be. Then he FINALLY came around, was looking for part time work and everything and hasn't found anything yet but still was looking. Well 2 weeks ago he got laid off work on a temporary basis and started drawing unemployment, gets his first check this week, plus he helped my brother while he was off do some remodeling and that helped with some extra cash too but then today he gets a call, expecting to go back to work on Monday and nope he was told "We are really slow right now, we've called 5 other people and told them the same thing but if you find other employment you'd better take it because we won't have anything going until next year" (He does construction/concrete work by the way). SO NOW WHAT??? Our house is getting ready to go into foreclosure, the mortgage co is working to see if they can do a remodification of the loan for us right now and we should know something within a few weeks but now with him getting laid off it's not looking good at all!!! Our electric/gas will be getting shut off if we don't get it paid and we have numerous other bills piling up. I am so scared and don't know what to do, I've been crying since he told me about this and don't know where to go what to do or anything. I can't even begin to do a budget right now because I don't know where to start with it. I had the budget all worked out once but well that's not going to happen now. Just wanted to vent. I am seriously so tired of this and thinking maybe this plan isn't meant for everyone. As much as I hate to say that I have to because I know how hard we've tried and we can't get traction!!

Update because Katrina said to ...

Ok so I haven't updated in a while and a TMMO friend of mine insisted that I needed to update, so Katrina here it is (don't kick me off your blogroll lol).

I got all the rooms cleaned in the house and we fired our old realtor and the new came out yesterday so we could sign the contract and get it listed YAYY.

We didnt' get approved for our refinance which is ok with me, currently the mortgage company that it is with is looking to see if they will do a modification on the loan or not can take up to 45 days to decide and in the meantime we're trying our hardest to get out of this house. We are keeping our eyes open to rental properties in the area since in this small town they are hard to come by. I really don't want to have to move my kids out of this school district so we're praying something comes up quickly.

Murphy keeps hitting us though too, Chris' car tire needs to be replaced since the steel belt was showing through it and so I'm hoping to find a good used one to last for a while. My van tires need to be replaced too I'm just hoping that they will last a little longer.

I did get my new online store open http://www.primmypad.com and it's going good so far. I currently have 25 distributors signed up to sell for me and on average am making an extra $70.00 a month right now. Which isn't bad for being a new company.

Things are picking up at the hair salon too, been working a lot more hours which in turn gives me more money to apply towards our debt snowball. I'm hoping to have an update soon on where we're at with the plan. All in all things seem to be going pretty good right now.

The kids started soccer practice this week and we went to the Zoo on Labor Day. Ended up being a really good day that was cheap too. I only took $40.00 cash with us and came home with $6.24 WOOHOO :)

Ok now I'll try to update again soon!