We've had a house for sale for five years. We haven't lived in the house for all but one month that it's been on the market.

This past August, we began the paperwork to get approved for a short sale. The mortgage company has made the process as slow as they can. We send in paperwork, and they wait three or four weeks to get back to us only to tell us that we need to send in more paperwork. We didn't have an offer when we began this process. Our hope was to get ahead on the process, so that when there was an offer, it the short sale approval could be expedited.

We decided we should get an attorney involved in the process. Our thinking was that the attorney could help speed the process, and help with negotiations down the line. The first attorney we spoke with said he doesn't handle cases like these. It cost us $45 to hear that. We set up an appointment with another attorney. I tried to better explain our situation as I was setting up that appointment.

We talked with the attorney last Thursday. That was a very good meeting. The attorney is about our age, he's a bit arrogant, and kind of feisty. But he also came across as nice, and someone we can work with. The kind of guy we would like in our corner. He also assured us that he would attempt to negotiate no 1099 for any forgiven debt. That's about a $9,000 savings if it happens.

Less than 24 hours after our meeting, we got a viable offer on our house. $7,000 less than we're asking. I sent the offer to the attorney. We're scheduled to have a call with him this evening. We'll see where it goes. Regardless, things are looking much better for us than they were a week ago.

I've mentioned before that we don't have TV.

I'm at a conference, and am at a hotel. I had the TV on as I was getting ready this morning. There was a cheesy local car dealer commercial on.

Let's preface this by saying that over the past couple of years my thinking has been conditioned more by the SA site than by local car dealer commercials.

I heard the guy say something about no "crazy down payments". Then he said, "just $39!". So, either this guy sells $200 cars, or 20% is a crazy down payment. Sometimes I'm glad we don't have TV. Oh, and the political ads!

My grandparents gave me some Mercury dimes when I was young. I have 18 of them. They are not particularly nice Mercury dimes. None of them are rare mints.

I did some research on their value when I first graduated college, and was flat broke. I found out that their value was generally 2X face value, or about 20 cents each. I decided to hold on to them. Letting go of them was just not worth $3.60.

I did a little internet research recently, and found out, due to the price of silver, their melt value is around $2.40 each now, or $43.20 for the lot.

What to do? They sit in the top of my dresser drawer. They are not nice enough to display. All they ever were was pocket change. But, they were a gift from my grandparents. I don't particularly like the idea of selling those gifts for melt value.

I dug up CC information that I included in my first blog post. It included information from Nov. 2010. I compared it to my current credit card balances, and monthly due. The bottom line is that during the past two years, we have paid off a whopping $17.9K in CC debt!

We have eliminated two CC's, and dramatically cut the interest rate on two other CC's (one was at 16.99%, and has been transferred twice to 0.00% cards, and the other reduced the APR from 12.9% to 8.9%).

Our monthly minimum due has dropped from $990 to $250. In Nov. 2010, about $190 was going toward interest. This month, we will spend $24 on CC interest (still too much!). We didn't have two thin dimes to rub together at the end of the month two years ago.

It's been a long hill to climb, and the climb isn't over, but the terrain is a lot flatter now.

I dug up CC information that I included in my first blog post. It includes information from Nov. 2010. I compared it to our current credit card balances, and monthly due. The bottom line is that during the past two years, we have paid off a whopping $17.9K in CC debt!

Two years ago, we were obligated to pay a minimum of $990 toward CC debt. And, $190 was paid in interest. This month, we will pay $24 in CC interest, and that's still too much.

Two of our CCs have been paid off. A third was at 16.99% two years ago, and its balance has been transferred to three different 0.00% cards. Another CC had its APR dropped from 12.9% to 8.9%. Our income is up a bit, and we have had reliable renters for about 22 1/2 of those months, so clearly that's a big part of the solution. But, just as clearly, gaining control of where the dollars flow is huge.

Mort 1 $101,946
Mort 2 $65,660
CC1 $2,295
CC2 $1,251
CC3 PAID IN FULL
CC4 $1,041

Difference from last month: $844.

Not great, but I did stick $500 into our EF. Also, have I mentioned that CC3 is paid in full?

I've got the rest of October, plus Nov. and Dec. to get CC4 paid off before the crushing 23.99% APR hits. I'll be making minimum payments on CC1 (8.9% APR) until that happens. Then, all efforts will be made to slay CC1 by next March.