About Sweetmama Editor
Nadine Silverthorne’s love of journaling began in Grade One with the entry, “I am the greatest dancer!” Two babies (and countless diaper changes) later, she has found her home away from home as editor of SweetMama. Don’t miss her humorous bi-weekly accounts of the joys and pains of working while raising them fabulous.
When it comes to the Recession of 2009, I feel like I’ve entered into a new relationship -- or rather, an abusive new relationship.
Instead of showing up at my doorstep with gerbera daisies and an Eddie Haskell-type compliment for my mother, the Recession honked its horn from the driveway and then picked its teeth while telling me what I can no longer do. Perhaps it’s more of an arranged marriage: I may grow to love its limitations, but right now I hate it and feel as though I have no way out.
Our family has been approaching us with worried looks. “Are you OK? How are you managing? Do you need help?” Truth be told, we are managing. Though my husband is not on the schedule, he still manages to pick up a couple shifts a week. I got a half decent tax return, but that’s rapidly dwindling, so it was time to do some reshuffling.
With interest rates so low, we contacted our mortgage broker to see what our options were. While a new mortgage wasn’t feasible (the penalty to break the existing mortgage was higher than the savings), a home equity line of credit at 3.25 per cent would save us hundreds, if not thousands in debt repayments every month.
Like most Canadian families, we’ve accrued unpaid balances on a few credit cards, some loans (a new car, a bathroom redo) and an over-extended line of credit over the years. We were paying $600 a month to Line of Credit A and then $300 to High Interest Credit Card B, and the monthly debt shards were making a huge gash in our bottom line. We haven’t really made a dent in our debt. By consolidating, we’re left with a smaller monthly minimum payment, so we can weather the storm of the recession and pay off bigger chunks when the paychecks start coming in again. We’ll also avoid incurring more debt by not being maxed out every month.
So far it’s been fun watching our other debt accounts have $0.00 balances finally (though the giant lump sum debt isn’t the prettiest thing on my account overview). I’ll let you know how it works out in the coming weeks.
If you’ve got any recession-friendly tips to share, log in and let me know in the comments below! I enjoy hearing from you. (This relationship feels a little one-sided sometimes. Heh.)
Thought that was sweet? You'll enjoy past recession-themed posts: