Day 100: 100 Days In

I made a stupid decision this morning, or maybe not. I paid a collection account. I know the experts say not to pay collections, that in most instances they can be gotten out of, especially on a debt that is four years old; however, I really felt that I needed to pay the medical bills for when I had my daughter.

I didn’t even know that a new collection agency had the bills. They’ve been passed around a lot. When I first incurred them, I fought them because the hospital hadn’t processed our application for financial assistance, then I fought them because I simply didn’t have the money to pay them. We didn’t hear anything for years, and it wasn’t until this spring that we heard from another collection agency. I actually originally thought that the collections were from when I had my son, but upon further examination, realized that they were from 2006.

So, why did I pay them, knowing that conventional wisdom says that I could keep disputing the debts and having them passed around until the seven years that they wouldn’t be able to put them on my credit report anymore? Because I don’t want to fight them on a debt that I know is legitimate. I honestly thought I’d paid them in 2007. And, they discounted it to half of the outstanding balance.

I figured if I was going to pay off debts, paying off a medical bill that’s been haunting me for four years wouldn’t be a bad one to start with. At least I feel like that’s one albatross that is no longer hanging around my neck.

In our financial world, things kind of took a deep dive this weekend. I learned that my husband can’t be reigned in financially, and when he splurges, so do I. If I’m being honest with myself, I did need to two new pairs of shoes that I bought. Realistically, working in an office, I needed shoes that didn’t have holes in the soles. It was a financial expense that I had to incur. It hurt, but it needed to be done.

We bought our daughter a new bed this weekend. As I stated, she is four years old, and she was still sleeping in a crib. She was above the weight limit for the crib, and it’s actually recalled, so I knew I needed to get her a new one. I wish we would have had a way to get it home ourselves because we spent $40 on delivery. Hopefully when we return the recalled crib, we’ll get some money back to offset the expense.

We also bought birthday gifts for our daughter. I had planned to buy her one toy and some clothes. My husband went crazy and spent close to $130 on toys for her. I reminded him that Christmas is only three months away, but it didn’t matter.

So we completely undid all of the good we had done on paying off our debt in one weekend. Now we’re back to square one.

My mother, sister, and I are going to have a garage sale the first weekend of October, so hopefully I’ll make a little money and be able to put it directly towards credit card debt. First of the month, with winter clothes as we’re entering fall, and some homegoods that we no longer need… I think we’ll make decent money, at least. Last time I made $200 with one box of clothes. Hopefully I do at least that this time.