So the husband is still not talking unless it is to yell about something. I can understand his anger and I am waiting for him to calm down.
I guess I didn't fully disclose everything. DH always had access to see what we owe, and to whom, he CHOSE not to look at it. He did'nt want to know and I forced him to know. That makes him not happy. (Well, that and the amount we owe.)
We are in $55,000 of CC debt, plus we owe around $8800 for the paperweight (DH's car) in the garage. I pay our bills on time every month, we still have credit left (unbelieveably) on the cards, our home is safe, and our credit ratings are very good. That said, the dangers of having $55,000 in unsecured debt is daunting.
Some ideas I have had for the "plan" he wants me to make to get us out of debt are>
1) I have asked for more hours at work. I don't think it will happen, so I am still on the hunt for a FT job somewhere and I have tweaked my resume in hopes I will get more calls!
2) If I get a m-f job, then I can apply for a PT job for eves and weekends.
3) I like the fact that one person on the blogs talked about how she "settled" her debts with the CC companies, offering them 30% less than she owed to settle and close the card. I think this is awesome, I just don't have the money to offer this. But this might be a good thing to save up for to help close maybe one of the cards.
4) Let go... and just cut up all the cards.
Obviously, if things continue exactly the way they are now, we just have to tighten our belts, find more things to sell, and do the snowball effect of paying off the smallest and hammering on the larger ones as we go along.
Any other thoughts for "the plan"???
And the battle continues......
July 13th, 2008 at 06:54 pm
July 13th, 2008 at 06:58 pm 1215975492
Also, yes you should be snowballing all this debt. This is the best way to stay focused and see progress.
July 13th, 2008 at 07:14 pm 1215976442
Have you created a comprehensive outline for him to see where you guys are at?
Are you in a position to snowball the debt? Like by living frugally you have extra money left over to feed your hungry credit cards?
To me $55,000 isnt SO bad. I dont know how old you are, but 55k is doable provided you are not 5 yrs from retirement or you are not struggling to survive now.
As a member on this forum you might be the type of person who has a goal to be debt free rather than managing credit card balances, so this seems like a huge hill to conquer, but you will get there. You have already done step 1 & 2. Told DH so he can get involved, and started up a plan.
July 13th, 2008 at 11:00 pm 1215990043
July 13th, 2008 at 11:55 pm 1215993318
It looks like you've got some good ideas for your plan.
One thing I'd like to mention though - for you to settle a debt with a creditor, you usually have to have fallen behind on the payments. Also, if you do settle, the amount of debt that is "forgiven" is counted as income for tax purposes.
You can do this!
July 14th, 2008 at 12:57 am 1215997026
Frankly, I'd figure out what to do with the 8K paperweight. Is it not running, a gas hog, or what? If there's a lot of debt, at least make sure that what was bought you are using to the fullest.
July 14th, 2008 at 01:58 am 1216000713
Laura - good tip! I did not know you had to be behind on your payments. Thank goodness we don't have that problem!!
Baselle - we had two cars, one older that we are passing onto my DD1 when she turns 16 in a few months. He decided to upgrade and buy a new car to replace that one that we are passing on. But he did it last summer when we still had another year to wait. So the new one sits in the garage for "special occassions" and he drives the old beater still. He will start driving the paperweight in October (hoping that DD1 passes the drivers test!)
Oh, and you'd think I did this debt by myself, but I did'nt. I'll admit to 75% fault, because I made many bad decisions, but he can no longer deny the debt.
July 14th, 2008 at 02:22 am 1216002166
I don't know exactly what happened. I wasn't there. However, whatever it is, he needs to know and get on board with you. Tackling debt is hard enough, but to do it with your spouse against you....
Again, I wasn't there, but sometimes, people don't adjust very well, especially when faced with the prospect of something being taken away (in this case, perhaps his comfort level/standard of living). I would keep working on that slowly and gently.
In the end, nobody does this just to bring more problems to the table. In the end, it's meant to solve the problems and save not just yourself, but your husband too.
Hang in there.
July 14th, 2008 at 03:09 am 1216004989
July 14th, 2008 at 03:55 pm 1216050938
The next step would then be seeing if you can cut expenses further and/or generate more income. Have you tried signing up with a temp agency and telling them to only contact you for temp-to-perm type jobs? That might get you in the door somewhere.
But none of this will work unless your husband agrees to share every bit of info about his spending, discuss major purchases with you, and only use his allotted spending money if he's going to buy something without your input. Give yourselves a cash allowance every week and when it's gone, it's gone. If he is not willing to do these things, then he truly is the one thing holding you guys back from having a plan for getting out of debt.
July 19th, 2008 at 03:48 pm 1216482513
October 21st, 2008 at 03:22 am 1224559377