Need some help / advice?

[thestrongprofessional]

Debt consolidation

Hey everyone,

First off, I agree with the responses on this forum related to cutting spending. Cutting your expenses is the most powerful thing you can do to get your finances back on track. As for the debt consolidation route, there are options out there that could help you save money on your repayment plan. There are quite a few factors you need to take into consideration first but it does not rule out the option. Below I've provided a link to a helpful article I found on the subject:

https://www.credit.com/debt/5-tips-for-consolidating-credit-card-debt/

Hope it helps.

Raphael

[Gailete]

Tough spot, the truck is part of the problem but not the whole thing. I assume you aren't married? That brings up another bunch of expenses if you aren't. First off cancel the easy stuff, Hulu and Netflix, as you can live without them. A bare to the bones budget (which you need) means eliminating anything and everything that you can do without and watching dowloaded TV shows/movies is one of them. Get rid of Amazon Prime- yes it has its advantages, but it makes it so much easier for you to spend money under the premise that you get 'free' shipping. The shipping isn't free you just prepaid it. Prime is yet again something you can do without. What to do for entertainment you ask? Well a part time job will take up part of your time and most library have plenty of books, videos/DVDs you can check out as well as e/books to check out and libraries are FREE!

I have no idea why your phone bill is so much, I use a land line, but you need to bring that bill way down. I keep seeing TV ads for cell phone service for around $50. As to energy drinks. If you absolutely HAVE to have them, pick them up ahead of time at Walmart, where the cost of a 4 or 6-pack will probably be around what one can at a gas station will cost, and yes you will need to start cooking from scratch and keeping food in your house to avoid the cost of 'fast food'. Do you realize that I can buy a small prime rib roast (2 bones) when on sale for about the cost of a McD meal for the two of us? Would you rather have yet another burger or real food?

You need to find the absolute cheapest car insurer that you can find that still covers you appropriately. Any car insurance that advertises on late night TV, I would stay away from however as they are there to appeal to those who have trouble getting insurance and I suspect for barely minimal coverage they charge you a huge amount.

Without knowing where you live or housing costs, if it is possible to get less expensive housing, I would think about selling your house and renting an apartment for awhile - at least one that is cheaper to pay for monthly, cheaper to insure as you would only need renter's insurance, cheaper to live in as hopefully the water and electric bill would go way down, no property taxes to apy, etc. If that isn't an option, do you have 1-2 spare bedrooms that you could rent out to 1-2 others to help decrease your cost to live in your house? Open your eyes to opportunities everywhere to save money.

Not sure what your interest rates are on your credit cards, but as Amazon is your smallest bill, I would try to work on paying that off first, even if you are only throwing an extra $5 at it each month. Since it is the smallest bill having it out of the way will give your self-esteem a boost. Pay your credit card bills as soon as possible each month or even make partial payments during the course of the month as that will pay off the priciple and get rid of interest. Even one day paying early is a savings for all your monthly bills: mortgage, car, and credit cards. In the midst of this you need to be trying to stash some money into an emergency fund as those with no emergency funds are the ones that always have emergencies! This is why it is so imperative to get a second job or to get a renter in to share bills.

Getting out of this debt, can be done, but it won't be fast or easy.