Additional Source of Income - Real Estate Investing

A Real Estate opportunity. I found a great opportunity from one of my friends. She helped start a Real Estate Capital Company and was looking for individuals who would like to invest in Real Estate without having to do all the hard stuff.
We have finished closing on the house, 1715 E Bird Ave in Tampa FL on May 29th 2008. The process went fairly smooth and didn't cost us anything. The requirements were good credit, and a stable job.
How does it work? Basically the deal is that they locate foreclosing homes and buy them cheap then they sell that to you at a closer to market price while they do renovation and get a rental tenant. You then are the home owner and count it as a rental property, you receive a monthly payment and then when they sell the house (6 months to 2 years later) you receive up to 15% of the profits (which includes the initial difference from the foreclosing price to the price that you paid for it). Profits will vary depending on the house but typically it is close to $7,500. It takes some time and you won't become a millionaire off of this but it will be a good solid investment and you could hold multiple houses as your income increases.
With the market the way it is they are holding a lot of houses that they are trying to transfer over to another individual, if you would like to know more let me know by sending me an e-mail at outofutah(at)gmail(.)com and I'll pass them your inquiry.
Hopefully this extra $200 dollars a month will really help us drive down the debt and increase the savings - especially as our new budget is really tight! We've decided to split it equally. $100 towards our emergency fund and $100 as a power payment on our debt.

Thank Goodness for Cloth Diapers

Well, we did it. We finally crunched all the numbers and implemented our budget. I honestly do not know what we would get rid of out of our already conservative budget if we did not have our cloth diapers for little Lad. They truly are a lifesaver! This is going to be hard, but I know that if we stick to the course and persevere, we will make it and be out of debt within 5 years from now. 2013 here we come!

Recognition + Action equals Success, we hope

Recognition of a problem is the first step to recovery. Our problem is that we've recognized for quite a few years that we have a problem with spending more than we should and not saving enough money.
We've also known for years that budgeting is the only way we could overcome this addiction to debt - but 'budgeting' always seemed like an abstract thought. In theory we would budget, but we never implemented a real working budget that we stuck to. We would give into impulse buys.
This last week we have implemented a budget that we will be implementing this next paycheck. After 3-1/2 years of having the debt build up and weigh more and more upon our shoulders, and with me out of the workforce to stay home to take care of our little lad, I we feeling quite despondent over the amount of debt we have compared to the amount of savings. About a week ago, as I was looking over the amount of debt we have and how it will take us about 4-1/2 years to pay it off, I seriously considered getting a part time job at night when my husband would be home to watch the lad - but then I knew that I just couldn't do it.
And then a heaven-sent thought came to me, it said, "If you budget, you can eliminate the debt sooner." I knew it was a true thought and principle and that I should follow it - so we set up a budget and a plan. I invited my sister to be a contributor to this blog so that we can encourage each other in our own "debtors anonymous" as we slay this nasty beast.
More to follow!