Quote:
Originally Posted by Nitenites  If you're talking about contracts, that means cell phones and satellite TV, right? Those need to go. If you can't pay them, you can't pay them. They're both luxuries that you can't afford. End of story. What are they going to do if you stop paying? Stop your service? Fine. You'll still have a roof over your head, which you won't if you stop paying your mortgage.
As for food, you don't have to go down to ramen noodles, but you can cut costs dramatically and still eat healthfully. Do you garden in the summer?
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hahahahahahahah
Nope, we've never had cable tv nor cell phones, ever. We got a magic jack and use that for phone service, and we have the cheapeast internet, which I am required to have for work.
We can put in a small garden, and have started preparing for that. We've also talked to my parents, who have a larger piece of land(still in the city, but its like 3 lots attached to their house, so a very big yard for the city)
and are going to be able to use some of their land as well.
Our mortgage is $550 per month, which includes taxes and insurance. This is WAY lower than any amount of rent we could possibly pay.
I doubt anyone could possibly say we overbought on our house, lol.
Anyway, I wasn't really looking for help really, I'm sorry i went down that path. I am just interested in what people would say when the income and spending are not balancing, but yet you have done everything you can. I know we can cut, but what really shocked me was that even if we cut out EVERTYTHING extra, the amount of money that Dh and I earn does not cover the basic bills. Mortgage, water, gas, electricity, internet, food, car insurance. those are the absolutes we must have. Even when you cut out gym membership, car payment, credit card payments, organic coop food costs, and all the little things we buy, birthday parties and presents and xmas and clothes, etc -
if i eliminated them entirely, my dh and I , who are college educated adults who work a combined 80+ hours per week do not make enough money to pay for basic shelter, clothes and food for our family. I'm more in awe of the wretched commentary on society than in looking for ways to help. I'm great with budgeting and being frugal and all that....I'm just straight up shocked that this is where our life is.
But because my dh made
one mistake marrying and having kids with someone that wasn't the right person for him, and because I made
one mistake, as a CHILD, by having bought into the middle class mentailty of "you must go to college, don't worry, it's good debt" and signing up for crushing student loans when i was barely 18 years old and did NOT truly comprehend what i was doing, that now, 15 years later, we literally can't support ourselves in a bare subsistence level of existence.
I'm not all that worried, because even if we have to keep the debt riding, which we can do, we're good at it and actually have excellent credit, it'll all be over in 6 years anyway....that's when the child support is over.
He's paying the standard state rate, but it's for 3 kids, and he was the sole breadwinner when they divorced, so he got hit with a high percentage. 
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