Anyone got a solution?

[maat55]

But Maat, that's why it's an income problem. Even declaring BK they'll end up in the same position. They really aren't making enough to support a family of 6.

I hope maybe you can find a job and your husband can get a better job. He needs a better job or a second job. Otherwise you'll end up in a worse position if something goes wrong.

In some ways this is harder than someone with a huge income overspending wildly. That they can curb. You have to make a some tough choices especially regarding employment.

I agree, I stated that at the bottom of my post. They could also use help from the older children.

[myself]

Thanks Steve, Ok cable, internet, and phone are al bundled together with our cable company the cable could be lowered about $20.00 a month if we went down to just basic, (we currently have basic with the box thingy) but as internet cable are only forms of entertainment being allowed in the home I haven't pushed the point to much)
Car insurance is for 2 cars his and mine he has a dui on record he got after a bout with depression over failed marriage but has been clean since and as I said will drop in Jan or Feb

Child care I have cut we were paying $400.00 a month (which there mom pays half so its was totaled at $800.00 I got it down to the current $400.00 a month us paying $200.00) We talked about putting them into public school and paying for after school care but, when we worked with the school the reduced us down to our current total so I have reduced that as far as it will go what we pay now would be less than public school with after care.

The car sorry didnt notice typo til you brought it up is actually 306.60 is the cheapest thing I could find that still would fit the majority of us in it at one time its a pontiac grand am bought used still owe 12,000 on it and I bought that when I split with ex as I didn't have a car at all. I am pretty sure selling that is not an option as its the only thing I have to drive at all it is the main car we use it fits 5 of us at a time (he has small truck he uses for work owned outright) I do buy cars used and I use my cars until they die this car I plan on having 8 years or longer or until it dies.

No there is no emergancy fund which I know is bad (we are both rebuilding from messy divorces) And I do plan on working on but his debt freaks me out So I thought I'd get that under some kind of control and then tackle the
emergancy fund or is this the wrong way to think? I just always thought if I'm making 2% on savings and paying %14 on cc interest may as well pay debt down first.


I do not know interests rate on cc's at this time as bf doesnt pay attetion to those (something I'm working on) But balances are close to the following

$9800.00
$2800.00
$1500.00
$200.00
$550.00 18% (store card also cancelling when paid)
$450.00 22% (store card cancelling when paid)
$18,000 (on actually a home equity)(he used it to buy out his ex wife's portion of house)


Cell Phone was high this month normal bill usually $150.00 (he just informed of that) We did run numbers at one time and considered doing this but coming up with that money all at once seems to be issue at present time. So have decided to wait on just the contract to expire. (at least until we figure a way to come up with cancalation fees)

I'm sorry about the misadding but just know that any leftovers I find I am appling to debt reduction.


I have thought about that 0% intrest card. I am willing to do that but I am worried about his self control which hes getting better at but I am unsure if hes ready for that I think we could do that (i have issues with it as my ex would do that then run up debt on cleared cards all over again) Bf says he can do it and thus far has been very good with the plan I have thus far but I still worry because of past experiance but thanks for suggesting that at least I know I'm thinking like someone else and I am not to far off base on it.

1) How much are the cancellation fees for the cell phone? Even if they are $150, then cancel it TODAY. That gives you this month and next month to pay it off, which would have happened anyway making the normal monthly payments
2) Order your credit cards in descending order based on balance. And snoball the payments like this:
Get the $200 balance paid off first (3 months at the most). Then put the money you were putting toward this payment (about $80), towards the $450. This should would be about $130/month toward that $450 CC (assuming your payment of $80 that you were paying on the $200 CC plus $50 toward this one. Then work on the $550 CC, that should have a minimum payment of $180 ($130 from the $450 CC + $50 from this one). Now, you're only 9 months out, and have paid off 3 of the bills, with $180/month additional to put towards the $1,500 bill (which you're currently paying about $60/month). In 6 months or less, that bill will be gone. Then work on the $2,800 CC, by paying $220/month. The only reason it's not $240/month, is because I wanted to cut you some slack ($20) after a year. Now, LESS than 2 years later, you'll have paid off all but the $9,800 CC, the HEL, the car loand, and the Mortgage. But, you'll now have and extra $220/month to put towards that $9,800 CC loan (which will only have a balance of about $4,000 at that time). Finish this loan payment off within 9 months by paying the $475/month on this balance. Then, focus on the car loan by putting $450/month extra onto the payment (and letting yourself have an extra $25/month for groceries, etc.).

Keep in mind that if you have already cancelled the cell phone, you'll have an extra $150/month to put towards your debt, which will figure out to paying everything but the car, HEL, and mortgage off in less than 2 years!


Be much clearer to yourself, by doing this:

1. Write down the credit card balance, the minimum payment, and the interest rate on the same line.
2. Write down a budget. Do NOT depend upon yourself to keep it in your head. This can be done on paper/pencil, or in a spreadsheet.
3. Don't focus on paying down the mortgage earlier, unless you will be considered defaulting or going into foreclosure on it.
4. After paying down the first 3 credit cards, seriously consider building up an emergency fund of $1,000. That will cover REAL emergencies. I wouldn't consider "I want to buy an extra half gallon of ice cream" an emergency, nor would I consider "we want to eat out tonight" an emergency.

[myself]

Ok I went back the $1400 a month is what I want to pay to get caught up to where he should be, and the real total fully amortized would be $932.79 per month.

He makes 585.00 per week take home
Curently on unemployment I make $350.00 every 2 weeks
So total monthly income stands at $3040.00 per month

According to my calculations, that equates to an average of $3,293/month.
$585 * 52 (since there are 52 weeks a year) = $30,420
$350 * 26 = $9,100

$30,420
+$9,100
---------
$39,520

$39,520 / 12 = $3,293.33/month

Make absolutely sure that the budget you write down takes into account everything that you can think of, including but not limited to:

• Mortgage
• HEL
• Car lien
• CCs
• Electric
• Heat and hot water (gas, oil, or electric)
• Phone
• Gas for cars
• Groceries/incidentals
• Clothing
• Property taxes
• Homeowners insurance
• Auto insurance
• Life insurance (which should ONLY be TERM LIFE insurance for your situation). This can be $100k on your BF, and $50k to $100k on you. DO NOT get "whole life", "variable universal life", "permanent life", etc. policies at this stage of your lives.

[snafu]

We post hoping to be helpful. I suggest as appropriate you or He call all creditors to explain your situation and ask them to work with you reducing interest or even balance. Does your state have Orderly Payment of Debt plans? You need to be v/careful with this as you must run from those that are for profit businesses.

As your adult children return from time-to-time, you could ask them to bring some groceries to keep the food expenses down. Like so many others in this economic Tsunami you need to slash expenses to keep up. If you only buy food from the perimeter of the grocery store, you will be buying 'real' food, instead of prepared, pretend, chemically enhanced foods.

[LuckyRobin]

Just wanted to mention that if you have cable internet, which it sounds like you do, you can get almost every major network show streamed from that station's website. This is true of NBC, ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, Sci-Fi channel, ABC Family and many others. It's amazing how much is available and you don't need to actually have cable TV to see it. And if your particular show isn't, well everything comes out on DVD eventually nowadays and most of it ends up free to borrow from the public library eventually, or you can borrow whole seasons from friends and family. It's really not that big a sacrifice to give up cable TV when you can get it all anyway from a different service you are already paying for, and just use a simple S cable to hook your computer up to your TV if you want to watch it on a bigger screen. A little hassle for a smaller bill is worth it. I've done it so I'm not just saying it out of the blue. We honestly don't miss it and we watch far less now, as well. Our kids adapted quite well when we first went off cable. They read a lot more and they play outside a lot more and those are good things. A savings of $20 a month or $240 a year may not seem like a lot, but applied to principal over time, well, every little bit helps. I'm a firm believer in nickel and diming your debt to death.

[amarowsky]

$9800.00
$2800.00
$1500.00
$200.00
$550.00 18% (store card also cancelling when paid)
$450.00 22% (store card cancelling when paid)
$18,000 (on actually a home equity)(he used it to buy out his ex wife's portion of house)

Those are both really small debts with really high APR's, Those should be your priority. Plus that puts you down to 4 cards, one of which is only 200 bucks.

I also saw you have a $170 electric bill. That seems pretty high as well. Is there a way you can possibly switch out some bulbs if it's easily affordable, and be as conservative around the house (electric wise at least) as possible.


And for a $150 mandatory phone bill. My mom brother and I have a 3 person phone plan for all of us that is under $100 a month and we have something to the nature of 1500 minutes I believe. I say you Buy out of your contract (usually 1 months payment in advance) and then move to a Cheap affordable $50 plan for just your BF's work phone. Over the time it would take for your contract to expire, the contract ending fee would most likely be worth the extra $100 a month.