Bills, bills, bills...options??

[Cinbride]

I should have been more clearer. I was just trying to type fast. here is really my question?

is it a good idea to reconsolidate or just budget every month? I've heard people recon but doesn't seem worth it; for us. Everything is pretty low rate already and we have basics tv/home phone. yes, sometimes a month is hard bec/ something pops up. Otherwise, I am able to work from home w/ our income.

thats really the question.

 

[Robindianne]

 

[Sadiebird]

I'd recommend you read Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. He has a baby step program that will guide you through the process of getting out of debt. We were able to pay off a $20,000 debt and are now working on our 6 month savings. His plan really works.

 

[mrudman]

I'd be tempted to re-finance.. not sure what area of the country you live in, or what kind of interest rate you do have, but $1400 seems kinda high (around there, that would buy a pretty nice house! lol)

You can get a pretty good interest rate right now, which could definitely save you a couple hundred/month, and could turn right around and start putting that toward your CC.

Do have to ask though (not flaming, just curious), if you're really struggling financially, why are you going to WDW next week? I'd put that $4-5k(?) toward your CC instead... just my opinion though, don't know the circumstances.

 

[csmommy]

Have you talked with your CC company about lowering your interest rate? I would also try to refi it into a home equity loan ~ at least that interest can be tax deductable. Good luck.

 

[csmommy]

I'd recommend you read Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace. He has a baby step program that will guide you through the process of getting out of debt. We were able to pay off a $20,000 debt and are now working on our 6 month savings. His plan really works.

If I may ask ~ how long did it take?

 

[Cinbride]

thanks. we built about 5 yrs ago and have property. I was going to put that in bec/ I knew someone would ask about disney. we are spending no where near 4-5000 for disney. I don't know if I could/would ever do that. w/ everything it is around 2200. It has been paid for a few months. Like I said most of the time we are fine. Just some months it hits us; usually 1/2 times a year. Our interest is pretty low, i think. 6.25 on the house and cc of 10%. The cc was lower, actually like 5% but when they started raising them, they did ours. i was just curious what are some options to help pay debt faster.

thanks

 

[Sadiebird]

If I may ask ~ how long did it take?

Almost two years.

 

[DawnM]

There really is little info to go on in your post. What are you paying for food, child care, entertainment, cable, phones, internet, other bills?????? I am not asking you to reveal everything online, just saying that without knowing your full financial info there is no real advice to be given.

We started on the Dave Ramsey train about 4 years ago. We had no cc debt but we had $20K or so in car loans and about $15K in student loans. We paid it all off AND saved up cash to do some home repairs in a matter of about 3 years.

How did we do it???? It is a HUGE sacrifice....we cut cable to a min., cut cell phones to a min., and even all slept in the same room for a summer because our upstairs heat pump died and we didn't want to stop our huge payments on the loans to pay for a new one, so we suffered a bit.

No Disney trips, no vacations, couponing, very cheap eating out, clothing from thrift stores, yard sale finds, and basically ONLY NECESSITIES for 3 years.

Dawn

 

[Deffenm]

I don't know if this is possible but could you or your DH get a part time job? My husband is a stay at home dad but he got licensed to ref. soccer games in the evenings on weekends. He does not make a lot but what he does make fills up the gas tanks and buys some groceries.

Do you have anything you could sell?

We used to live paycheck to paycheck and I couldn't figure out why. I make a good salary and we don't have too many bills. So I sat down and figured out where the "extra" money was going and realized we wasted a lot. So now before the paychecks come in I have already "spent" the money. We now have an "extra" $1,000 every month. We don't spend anything that we have not budgeted on paper at the beginning of the month. If I budgeted $500 for groceries that is it. Once that money is gone its gone. It forces us to stick to a budget.

 

[Sadiebird]

There really is little info to go on in your post. What are you paying for food, child care, entertainment, cable, phones, internet, other bills?????? I am not asking you to reveal everything online, just saying that without knowing your full financial info there is no real advice to be given.

We started on the Dave Ramsey train about 4 years ago. We had no cc debt but we had $20K or so in car loans and about $15K in student loans. We paid it all off AND saved up cash to do some home repairs in a matter of about 3 years.

How did we do it???? It is a HUGE sacrifice....we cut cable to a min., cut cell phones to a min., and even all slept in the same room for a summer because our upstairs heat pump died and we didn't want to stop our huge payments on the loans to pay for a new one, so we suffered a bit.

No Disney trips, no vacations, couponing, very cheap eating out, clothing from thrift stores, yard sale finds, and basically ONLY NECESSITIES for 3 years.

Dawn

Sounds like my life.

 

[tazdeb]

To get out of a finacial mess you have to change the way you think and act about money. First of all, STOP USING CREDIT CARDS. They are the root of all evil. The banks that issue them are not your friends they are a buisness and their buisness is keeping you on the hook and paying them the rest of your life. Lets use an example of my old credit card....I had no balance and a 11% rate. We had no safety net saved (first mistake) and needed a new furnace. Charged $2500. Got the bill and the minimum payment was only $25. Now if we had only paid that amount for one year our balance after that year would have been $2400. 12 months at $25=300-$250 a year in interenst= only $100 twords the furnace. At that method and if we never charged another thing on that card it would have taken 25 YEARS to buy that furnace at a cost of over $6000. Also as you know if you are late one time with a payment your rate will go up sometimes to 29% and then the payments will kill you.The only way out is to cut back on things. You have to stop the trips out to eat, cut back on cable, no trips etc... until you have a safety net, then you put the extra twords the card and pay it off ahead of time. Change your out look about money and buy only what you need and not want, and in time you CAN buy what you want and need with cash. Good Luck, Credit Cards Suck.

 

[deerhart]

unless you have more then $16k in equity in your home, it shouldn't be taken in bankruptcy (depending on how you file). But bankruptcy should be a last resort, we have tried everything and are sinking quickly option.

Usually with debt, the best thing to do is to pay the highest interest rate off first and then move on to the other items. If your paying off the minimum payment most of the time, your not going to get anywhere.

You may also look to see if you can do a transfer on the cc debt for a lower interest rate.

Is your car loan for one car or two? If it's one car, you may need to consider downsizing your car.

Also, look at your home owners insurance. Changing some of the options or the deductible amount you might see some savings there (if its paid through your mortgage).

Have you created a monthly budget? You would be surprised to see where you are spending money and having a budget and knowing where your money is spent and how much makes it much easier to look at areas to trim down or to make changes in.

Lets say your spouse eats out lunch every day of the work week and spends an average of $9 per day., thats $2,340 per year.. You will save almost $500 a year by replacing one meal, $1,400 by replacing 3 meals a week. That $1,400 would result in an extra $117.00 towards the credit cards each month.

One more thing that I do is that I pay all my bills that are due immediately after we get paid. Therefore, I KNOW how much money I have left over for discretionary spending until the next paycheck (our paychecks DO fluctuate each time we get paid depending on hours works for DH and bonuses for me). If I am paying off a cc (like right now I am working on my best buy card from christmas) I set an amount that I am going to pay and a frequency and then I pay it before I have any discretionary spending (eating out, entertainment, groceries etc). I've been paying $50 about every 10 days on it (Dh gets paid weekly, I get paid twice a month) as I need to have it paid off before my promotional deferred interest for 90 days expires.

 

[dd50]

The best thing to do it track your money. Whatever you spend write it in a pad. You will see what you can cut out. What you do cut out, you send that to that to the cc with what you normally pay. You have to pay more than the min or you will never pay it off. Don't be using your cc. Pay cash for every thing and when you run out of money you are done for that week or month, whatever.

 

[Stitch And Friends]

I'd be tempted to re-finance.. not sure what area of the country you live in, or what kind of interest rate you do have, but $1400 seems kinda high (around there, that would buy a pretty nice house! lol)

You can get a pretty good interest rate right now, which could definitely save you a couple hundred/month, and could turn right around and start putting that toward your CC.

Do have to ask though (not flaming, just curious), if you're really struggling financially, why are you going to WDW next week? I'd put that $4-5k(?) toward your CC instead... just my opinion though, don't know the circumstances.

Without knowing your full details, I would suggest looking into debt consolidation as well as small things you can cut out every month (lowering cable service maybe?) I know it doesn't help everyone, but a friend of mine and her husband both had significant debt when they got married (student loans, credit cards) and they were able to pay it down much faster with consolidation.

As for the above quote...it really must make a difference where you live!! My mortage is double that for a 3 bedroom townhouse - we put 20% down so it's not that high because we did 100% financing or anything like that. Prices are just very high in my area. In the part of NJ I live in, it would be tough to get a 2 bedroom condo on $1400/month

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

I'd be tempted to re-finance.. not sure what area of the country you live in, or what kind of interest rate you do have, but $1400 seems kinda high (around there, that would buy a pretty nice house! lol)

Wow...where are you that $1400 is a HIGH mortgage payment? I could only dream of having a mortgage that low (and our interest rate is 5.25%)!!!!

 

[DawnM]

Well, that is all relative. It all depends on your income and what you can actually afford.

DR suggests that a 15 year mortgage should be 25% of your take home pay.

So, if the OP bought more house than she could actually afford, that could be an issue too.

Dawn

Wow...where are you that $1400 is a HIGH mortgage payment? I could only dream of having a mortgage that low (and our interest rate is 5.25%)!!!!

 

[secretpantssam]

Wow...where are you that $1400 is a HIGH mortgage payment? I could only dream of having a mortgage that low (and our interest rate is 5.25%)!!!!

haha...I was thinking the same thing!

 

[The Iron Giant]

This is not a flame, BUT..........

Staying at a deluxe in Disney is really not the best idea if you are having some trouble paying bills.

If you're serious about getting the finances straight then I would look to rebook to a moderate at least if not a value resort.

I would also look at your budget and see where else you are going "deluxe" instead of "moderate or value" when possible.

That might make the difference during those 1 or 2 tough times a year.

Good luck.

 

[Cinbride]

oh I agree CC stink. We had the card for a long time and never had a balance then it slowly snowballed then lucky us they raised our limits. Instead of me calling and telling them to lower it I just said we would never get that much debt yes BIG MISTAKE. I regret it and if I could go back I would, but I can't. Our satellite is basic, home phone basic and no long distance. His student loan is 60/mth. The hard thing w/ us is we buy and sell. So while we may be low in the bank we have tons of money lying around in things. I think that this is mostly our problem. We can not get items up for sale as fast as we are buying them, yet it is how I am able to stay home so we have to get things when we find them. So, maybe we just need to really focus on selling more. Like I said I just had a really crappy day. and it just frustrates me when the mortgage company won't work w/ you unless your months late. Who wants to be late? I do think we will start writing down everything and trying to budget. The cc does not get used anymore. it sits there and I curse at it whenever I can

thanks