Getting out of debt Spring thread!

[Peppermint]

Hi everybody- I lost the group, so I thought I'd start a new thread, and hopefully we can all get moved here. I'll try later on to locate the old threads and direct everyone here.

I am Patty, in major credit card debt, and I have been committed to GOOD for over a year now, ups and downs along the way, but I am still here working for it.

I am just now reading Your Money or Your Life, GREAT book!

[Europeanmom]

: Not sure if I have the courage to join you.

New member on mdc but could really need some inspiration on this area.
No creditcard debt, but student loans, etc.

What is the plan for this thread?

:

[Peppermint]

You can look back through our old threads, basically, we are a support system for each other in our plans to get out of debt. It has been a tremendous help for me to have this place to be accountable, get support, ideas, commiseration, etc. Sorry you have to be here, but we are here to help you along.

kerc, Newmainer, and others, where are you ladies?

[Childishgoth]

im here now. i wish i knew how i got this far in debt its like it happened over night. i was in NO cc debt in 2002 and now in 2005 im over 20,000

[maggiemae]

I want to join too! Today I made a spreadsheet of all my debt and I am going to talk with dh about it tonight.

[ekblad9]

I'm here too! Dh's salary has decreased over $15000 in the last two years and we moved into a house that was nearly triple what our old one cost. So, here we are. CC debt up to our ears. I've cut out nearly everything and still owe ridiculous amounts of money and can't seem to make ends meet. What a nightmare. We can't afford to move right now either, if that makes sense. Anyway, glad to have some support in this!

[MamaRBH]

Hi!

Joining the thread...

DH put himself through college and paid for all of his books, food, etc. all with CC's... then after we got married he lost his job and we used his and my credit to survive. You can imagine the thousands of dollars of debt that has us in now. In addition to that, we have his school loans... We've consiolidated most of the CC debt, but still have more monthly payments than we can handle...leaving us with almost nothing for grocheries and gas the second half of the month. (we had a yard sale saturday because we needed grocheries to get through this week...how pathetic we felt/feel)

Anyway...that's my sob story. :

I look forward to being a part of the thread...

[maggiemae]

Ok- Dh took a 50k pay cut about 6 months ago. Since then we have racked up some cc debt and now are barely able to make ends meet. Even with me working too we still make less than we once did I have heard about cc consolidation. Is this a good idea? does it hurt your credit? We also heard about taking a 2nd mortgage and paying off your debt. This would only work if you dod not rack up more cc debt, right? Plus we had better make sure that we can pay or our house is at stake. does anyone have any experience with this? Oh- Dh is starting a side business right now so hopefully our income will increase.

[ekblad9]

It's all so confusing and overwhelming, isn't it? I can't stand it. I just want to cry. I have tried so hard to be "frugal" but clearly I suck at it, LOL. I just want to have no debt besides our house. Of course everybody wants that, right? :LOL

[Europeanmom]

Glad I decided to join you

One thing that helps us is to have no further credit. If there is no money left, too bad, we'll have to learn how to manage and try harder the next month.
That helps us from getting into (too much ) more debt.

We also pay fixed (and relatively high) amounts to our (high rent) loans at the beginning of each month. And then we have to live really frugally for the rest our our money.

We hope to be out of all our student and consumer debt in less than two years. But we will still owe a lot in our house loan.

It is a continuing struggle to be realistic about what we can and cannot do. It is SO easy to think we can and deserve to have it all.
I want to be home as much as possible - but have to work
I want dh to start a million new projects in our house - but I don't want more debt.
I hate thinking about money, but if I don't, I'll really have to worry.

It isn't easy.

[Got_Cloth]

Can i join???

Hi, I am new to MDC and I have alot of experience in getting out of debt. and also getting into it. lOL
My Dh has a Devry education which was not cheap, especially since it took him 6 years for the 3 year program. Anyway. we had ZERO debt in 2001 when out dd1 was born. I needed new matreses so we putit on a card. and BAN here was are just 4 years later, with close to 27 thousand in debt. It is really not 27 in the credit reporting since 17 of it is in out home thru refinance. Our scores dropped like oyu woulndt belive, form closeto 700 to less than 500. Currenlty with our recivery hubbys is almost 600 and mine is just over 600. I know it is not a huge improvemtn but we have improved to where everyone wants us to get a card with them and we proudly say NO we dont ned it.
IN nov 2003 we joined a cerdit counseling service ( instead of filing bankruptcy) and we went to them with just over 11000 in debt. our min payment is just over what the min pmt was for 1 card and this was for 6 cards. We now are sitting at about 7K and we have 3 cards paid off!!!!!
We still struggle with living within our means but we have a greater outlook now. We KNOW that if we keep paying bills the way we are we can be out of all debt except for the house in Aug 2008, then we will have out home paid off in sept 2010. Keep in mind we just refninance the house for 30 years this february. so in 5 years we will be OUT OF DEBT
It is a long hard road, I have a bit of a depression issue that causes me to lose control and spend alot of money when I get down. this has only hurt our situation. but as I learn other coping means, I have been alot better.
Everytime we want to make a big purchase, we jsut think..... 3 years and we will be able to save for 1 month and buy this outright. What a great day that will be. We are really planning our next baby around this as well. I now it sounds silly but it will be a great time to have a baby, pay in cash for a homebirth, and be able to buy baby whatever we think he/she needs. LOL with 3 girls,if mumber 4 is a boy, then we will need lots of stuff LOL

anyway.
thought id tell a little aobut me (or alot LOL sorry)

I am excited to see so many other familes dedicated to getting out of debt!!!

[Al Dente]

I need to subscribe to this thread as I'm getting depressed over not being able to spend $$.

Here's my sad story:

Dh and I have never been good at limiting ourselves to spending what's actually in our bank account. We have traveled a lot, treated ourselves really well, and bought whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. THEN we bought a house and things got tighter...which should've stopped the credit card spending, but since I was working full-time, we kept right on.

Fast forward to a year ago and my beautiful ds was born. Realized I didn't want to go back to work, tried to make do without the extra $$ but not able to really stick to being frugal. Lost our house, moved in with the ils, paid off 3 out of 4 cc's and pay no rent but STILL unable to save very much.

Now our 4 year anniversary is coming up, and I haven't had a day for myself with hubby since ds was born. We desperately need pampering and I am SO MAD : that we don't have something saved for this day. I am inches away from clicking the 'reserve now' button on a 5-star hotel and spa for a night, just because I know the remaining credit card number by heart.

YIKES I need help! We are trying to move cross-country in 3 months and need about $8,000. So far we have $500! YIKES.

[dinade]

Ok posted this in the wrong thread...

Anyways here's my good thread.
WE've been working on getting a budget. Something I've not done before. We're 100.00 in the hole for what he makes. So I'm working at my son's school this summer to bring in some money. My youngest goes free...my oldest will cost me a little but the fun he will have will more than make up for it. Plus a lot of his friends are going as well so he'll have a blast.

I'm probably going to have to work there this fall. We;ve had an eye opening year. We thought we were doing very well and were planning on adopting from Russia. Well the bank said they'd give us half the money we needed so we'd have to come up with 20g. So we've decided to adopt US which will cost 1/5-1/10 the cost but their will be waiting involved but we're more than happy to wait as long as we get a child. We're talking about fostering as well. We have had a long road with inferitlity and multiple miscarriage. But I'm very happy to have my 2 sweet boys. Hoping to add another girl or boy or more. LOL.

We're having a yard sale this week. this money will go towards our adoption savings. WE have a savings account but it's going to be our adoption account whenever we adopt. I've thought of paying off a cc with it. But then I think i might just run it back up so I'm staying where I'm at and leaving that money alone. I know that doesn't really make sense but it does to me. even though I'm paying finance charges I'm not charging more.

My biz lost money last year in a big way. So I've raised my prices I hate to do that but basically I was paying people to shop with me. My sales have really dropped but what's the point of working if you dont ever make any money yk? I struggle with thinking about closing the store and getting a job that pays. But my dh wants me to stick it out for 2 more years. And then reevaluate. So I've been doing some major costcutting in the business area as well. Hopefully it will pay off and next year maybe I'll even have to pay taxes. LOL What a thing to hope for.

My dh has never been to college and he's never going to make any more money than he makes now. I struggle with wishing he had a better job. He's been there 14 years and he wants another job too. But he has no prospects. I know he's not happy either but there's nothing we can do about it except get our spending under control, our debt, and live a simpler life. I know people who make a lot less than we do and do just fine. but I know of people who make so much more and don't understand why we struggle all the time. Hellooooo we dont' come anywhere close to 6 figures. LOL Anywho...my sil once said she'd rather not eat and buy people presents...I thought to myself you've never had to ...you make 6 figures. She thinks she understands but she really has no clue. Groceries or a stupid 25.00 gift that the person who's getting it doesn't need. Umm groceries. Anyway she's a missonary now leaving for Africa. She's about to get an eyeopening experience. I'm going to miss her like crazy but maybe now she'll understand what we go through daily.

Well enough of my book today. We're hoping to have the van paid off in 2y5m and the home equity after that. Then we'll just have the mortgage. I'm so jealous of those of you who are able to pay more down on your morgage. One day I'm going to be there too. Have a wonderful day.
__________________________

[FireWithin]

We have been doing well with our budget, including our food budget. I'm really proud of us.
It is difficult for us to make extra money. DH is on salary so no matter how much OT he does, the pay doesn't increase.

It feels as if every time we get extra money to pay down debt, something else pops up.
We got $750 from state taxes. 2 weeks later, we needed $725 work done on car.
We made $350 on geneology work for rich aunt, and we realized that we will need $350 for DH's university classes (which are mostly free because he works there, but books cost $$$)
This money would have made a big dent in our cc debt, so I am bumming.
On the flip side, thank god we had the money for these unexpected expenses otherwise we would be really struggling.

[Galatea]

Joining. I just put a thread in TAO about wanting to do a bankruptcy so I guess it will get moved here. http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=291394

Basically I have a ton of consumer debt that is in my name only. We have been paying and paying but with me never going to work for a long time (babies, homeschooling) and dh working towards his own business, we will never pay this off.

It sucks b/c I have a good credit rating, but I would almost rather have a terrible rating and be unable to buy anything I can't afford and not have these ridiculous bills strangling us.

I read YMOYL last year and it is a great book. I finally convinced dh to start the program with me.

[kerc]

good news:
We finally, in the last month, sold our second car. So far we're managing. I'll try to make the sob story short but in a nutshell...car was for sale for ~6-7 months. 3 calls total on it. dh never took the sign out of the window but we had basically decided he would drive it from minnesota to north carolina this summer for his phd exams. Next day guy calls and offers us the asking price. So we sold the car. I'll need a car for work (I have 2 jobs, I think, this sumemr and will need a car to get dd to daycare). We looked this weekend at buying a used car for 1200 bucks, but opted to not take on that burden, rather we'll rent a car for ~500 bucks for the month and get by. No insurance, no car maintenance on a rental car.

other good news: dh is defending his dissertation -- aka finishing his 10 year stint in graduate school. yay!

and I'm not sure I mentioned it here, but I'll continue in grad school i think I'll be done with my phd in a year. I was offerred and accepted a class at the local community college, which meant my boss here at the university is refusing to pay me : . So i looked at the enrollment in my course yesterday and there are only 7 students enrolled. It is possible they would cancel the class and then I'm stuck I think with no pay : . I think we'll get by, but I was hoping to put that extra 4K toward our mounting cc debt.

and the best news of all:
I get a raise next year.
I'm teaching an extra course at the cc this fall and winter
dh is making more this next year than ever before.

for the first time in our married lives we will be making more than we need to get by!


sorry that got long, no time to address questions right now. I'll come back later today or tomorrow and comment. Peppermint thanks for rekindling the thread.

[mommydoodle]

I read all the other posts the other day so I was glad to see this today! DH and I are in about 25,000 worth of debt (not counting our house) and I am working to pay it off ASAP. I joined a DMP last month and am paying 2 cards that way (the others are too new to be on it - will add them before Christmas) and the minimums on the others. I am living on cash only - I have a CC for emergencies (car and house repairs) We have also started a Christmas savings account so we don't go crazy this year.

I am getting help with groceries by doing the angel food program (angelfoodministries.com) which has helped a lot! No A/C yet so my power bill is lower - cut out the internet and long distance (we told MIL this and she makes the long distance calls to us - also got a 1.00 phone card at a dollar store for 20 min talk time)- no cell phones. I am cutting everything I can - you see I may be able to WAH if I pay these off and find a good business to do at home so I am cutting and searching! Hopefully when my car pays off (next summer : ) I can put that toward CC debt and get out of this hole we are in!!!!!

Sorry to ramble but I am so glad to find some ladies that know what I am feeling!

Tonya

[celia]

me too me too! I don't know HOW I got so far into debt but I finally, after three years, paid off over 20,000 in CC debt. BUT- I used extra student loan money because the interest rate on it is SO much lower. But my student loans are now in excess of $25,000, plus our mortgage and car payment.

I need help staying out of CC debt... I was completely out, decided I could use it for little things here and there- and now I'm back in almost $900 Why is it so HARD???

[kerc]

Originally Posted by celia

me too me too! I don't know HOW I got so far into debt but I finally, after three years, paid off over 20,000 in CC debt. BUT- I used extra student loan money because the interest rate on it is SO much lower. But my student loans are now in excess of $25,000, plus our mortgage and car payment.

I need help staying out of CC debt... I was completely out, decided I could use it for little things here and there- and now I'm back in almost $900 Why is it so HARD???

Honestly....have you read and done the steps in your money or your life? Reading it and doing some of the basic (but painful) calculations has really helped me learn that some of the things I spent money on are worthless. Your local library should have a copy, don't buy it, interlibrary loan it if they don't.

have ya'll seen this lady's stuff?
www.cindysporch.net

The site is down right now, I think for maintenance, but I really like her attitude -- "do instead of buy" is one of the key things she says. Also procrastinate when purchasing.

[CerridwenLorelei]

I also recommend

checking out
"how to get what you want with the money you already have " by Carol Keefe

There are a few things that *I* personally disagree with but I like the rest of it

and there are ways to dovetail it with YMOYL ..