Dh's Budget- what do U think

[dreamin_disney]

Hello. Dh and I have seprate accts. I know disaster. We've been together for 12 years but only married 1 year. He makesway more than I do. I use to pay for food, utilities, dd neccesities, my gas for work and household items, shampoo, soap etc. Dh paid the mortgage $1550.00, his gas, both our car insur, entertainment and his creditcards. He makes 3 times more than i do. His debt was increasing and nothing was getting paid so i decided to give him the utilites so i knew where his money was going and i focused on my creditcards. I have 3-4 cards left and will be done my april oe May. Since the change dh has done a bit better but not good enough in my opinion. We have seprate checking accts(automatically have payroll deposited) so I have no control of his money or bills.

Well I finally told him to give me his bills so i can see what is going on. I'm ready to get rid of debt and it needs to be a joint process.

Here's his debit. How can i motivate him. Is it better to pay off by snowball(i do this) or % ?
Bill------------ % --------Finance---------- Monthly----------- Total Debt Due
Kohl's---------21.90-------$18.18----------$29.00 ----------- $931.91
Lowe's--------22.99-------$7.21 -----------$15.00------------$321.55
Chase--------18.24--------$37.02----------$63.00------------$2,534.28
BofA-----------9.90------ -$36.64----------$78.00 -----------$4,141.77
BofA----------27.98--------$33.84----------$48.00 -----------$1,512.27
Best Buy 7/01/10-----------$0 ------------- $8.00-------------$1,069.78
Best Buy 10/08/10--------- $0-------------- $8.00------------ $505.69
Home Depot --15.99 -------$49.20 --------- $89.00 -----------$3,958.36
Tota Due ----------------- $182.09--------- $338.00----------$14,975.61

Best Buy is 0% until the dates posted next to it. I'm just so amazed at how much money dh is wasting on Finance charges

Any help or tip would be appreaciated

 

[GoofyGolferGirl]

I don't know were you live but here in KY DH bills are my bills too! I would give each other an allowance and be very strict for a few months take lunch no eating out only buying items that are a must. Start by paying down credit cards that are higher interest put EVERY extra penny toward paying off credit cards. I don't think you are to far off from being out of debt, I think if you really buckle down for 5-6 months you can be out BUT you can't continue to use the cards you are trying to pay off. With the credit card rules getting ready to change I would start this sooner rather than later. You may look at transferring some higher interest balances to lower interest cards and paying a higher % to that card. IE take Kohls Lowes chase and Bofa (27.98%) and consolidate to one card, that card would have a balance of about $5300.00 but it would have a lower interest. You will be so happy when you are out of debt!! Good Luck!!!

 

[DVCBELLE]

I don't really understand why you would keep seperate accounts - my first move would be to join your finances. If something happens to him or you get divorced - I am pretty sure his debt becomes the marital debt anyway.

Once you have done that - then you need to trim all the fat and start a snowball.

Start with the lowest balance and pay it off. Then move on to the next one. As you do this you will have more to pay on cards as you will have less minimum payments that you are making and therefore more to pay on the card you are currently working on.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

Well, I just want to say that my DH and I have been HAPPILY married for 11 years, and we keep separate accounts. I love it! Our spending habits are similar though. His checking account pays mortgage, utilities, & car ins.& gas. My checking is for groceries, household, and child expenses & gas for my car. We don't have any separate credit cards though. We have a JOINT Visa (Disney btw) and I keep track of our spending and how much he needs to come up with at the end of the billing cycle. Once you get out of cc debt, you could still keep separate accounts as long as your DH doesn't rack'em up again!!

 

[WizardLarz]

Could you explain your snowballing? Is that throwing alot at one and the minimum at the rest?

I would hit the 3 big amounts (Chase, BofA, Home Depot)hard by tripling the amount due!
Then Double the amount due on All the others.

Or

If possible add $100.00 to each bill. After 3 months Lowes is done, after 5 a best buy done ,after 9 Kohl's.

Of course he will also have to agree to cut back on any futher purchases in order to make any headway!

 

[Amandaj0831]

My ex and I kept our checking accounts separate and that actually went ok for us (other parts obviously did not work out so well)However I would sit down with him and set some goals financially. One thing that was hard was making sure that we were on the same page. We had periodic check ins with each other but also gave us some free money. We both had about the same amount of free money after bills. Do you guys want to maintain separate accounts or is it something you just haven't gotten around to changing yet?

 

[DVCBELLE]

Could you explain your snowballing? Is that throwing alot at one and the minimum at the rest?

I would hit the 3 big amounts (Chase, BofA, Home Depot)hard by tripling the amount due!
Then Double the amount due on All the others.

Or

If possible add $100.00 to each bill. After 3 months Lowes is done, after 5 a best buy done ,after 9 Kohl's.

Of course he will also have to agree to cut back on any futher purchases in order to make any headway!

In snowball debt, you pay off your lowest card first, then go to the next lowest, etc. - not paying attention to interest (this is sometimes the hardest part!)

This is the reasoning - let's say each month I pay $200 in minimum payments. Each really just covering the interest. I have $50 extra dollars a month to pay towards debt. If I spread that out - I make very little dent in my debt. BUT - if I pay off my lowest balance first - I apply that minimum payment to my extra money and I now have $75 extra to pay on the next one - then I pay that off and now I have $100 to pay on the next debt - etc.

For me - I would have been content to keep paying my car loans. I only had a year of payments left on my DH's car at $400 a month. My payment was $200 and I had 2 years left. They were our lowest balances. I used my tax refund to pay them off and then I had $600 extra a month to pay on my other bills. That freed up a lot of cash for us!! I was then able to pay off my 2 credit cards very quickly.

There are debt snowball calculators that you can use to plug in your numbers to and figure out how long it will take to pay things off and what your interest will be.

This is the one I use: http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html

It allows you to move around the order you want to pay and see which pays things off the quickest and with the lowest interest.

 

[mrsklamc]

Is DH opposed to combining finances? There are SOME couples separate accounts work for but both financial and marital counselors would tell you that in the majority of cases this is a bad idea.

It sounds like you are saying you have no control
of his money anyway so not sure what the question is exactly at this point?

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

My husband would have a fit if i published his personal information on the internet.

 

[RachaelA]

My husband would have a fit if i published his personal information on the internet. I think that is really rude.

I don't think it is. She is trying to help get them both out of debt. He obviously can't do it himself so she is trying to attack it the best way possible.

 

[wdwfan16]

Hello. Dh and I have seprate accts. I know disaster. We've been together for 12 years but only married 1 year. He makesway more than I do. I use to pay for food, utilities, dd neccesities, my gas for work and household items, shampoo, soap etc. Dh paid the mortgage $1550.00, his gas, both our car insur, entertainment and his creditcards. He makes 3 times more than i do. His debt was increasing and nothing was getting paid so i decided to give him the utilites so i knew where his money was going and i focused on my creditcards. I have 3-4 cards left and will be done my april oe May. Since the change dh has done a bit better but not good enough in my opinion. We have seprate checking accts(automatically have payroll deposited) so I have no control of his money or bills.

Well I finally told him to give me his bills so i can see what is going on. I'm ready to get rid of debt and it needs to be a joint process.

Here's his debit. How can i motivate him. Is it better to pay off by snowball(i do this) or % ?
Bill------------ % --------Finance---------- Monthly----------- Total Debt Due
Kohl's---------21.90-------$18.18----------$29.00 ----------- $931.91
Lowe's--------22.99-------$7.21 -----------$15.00------------$321.55
Chase--------18.24--------$37.02----------$63.00------------$2,534.28
BofA-----------9.90------ -$36.64----------$78.00 -----------$4,141.77
BofA----------27.98--------$33.84----------$48.00 -----------$1,512.27
Best Buy 7/01 -------------$0 ------------- $8.00-------------$1,069.78
Best Buy 10/08------------ $0-------------- $8.00------------ $505.69
Home Depot --15.99 -------$49.20 --------- $89.00 -----------$3,958.36
Tota Due ----------------- $182.09--------- $338.00----------$14,975.61

Best Buy is 0% until the dates posted next to it. I'm just so amazed at how much money dh is wasting on Finance charges

Any help or tip would be appreaciated

How much extra money can you find now and with altering your budget.

Lowe's--------22.99-------$7.21 -----------$15.00------------$321.55
can be paid off in one or two months by putting more to it and get rid of the second highest interest rate.


Best Buy 10/08------------ $0-------------- $8.00------------ $505.69
can be paid off in 2-4 months. Since he is past the 10/08 date there interest rate must be more than $0.

Doing them will now make a huge dent but will get your DH stated.


Then tackle them in the most expensive interest rate to the least. Starting with

BofA----------27.98--------$33.84----------$48.00 -----------$1,512.27

 

[lisaross]

1st of all i think u should take control of his checking account - u are married and need to get everything in order!! Have ur direct deposit changed to his account and add ur name to his account! From their i would write down how much $ u have coming in alltogether - write down all the fixed bills. mortgage, gas, electric etc etc. Then write down all the other expenses that u could have lowered cable, cell etc etc - see where u could cut down on these bills. Then figure out a fair allowance u could both be on per month - my husband and I get $200.00 each a month which we spend however we want!

See how much extra u have a month after all that and i think i would start paying off the lower balance first while paying the miniumu on the rest (snowball effect) thi way you'll be down to a few cards only -Your husband has to be on b oard as well to do this and STOP using credit cards ASAP.

Good luck!

Hello. Dh and I have seprate accts. I know disaster. We've been together for 12 years but only married 1 year. He makesway more than I do. I use to pay for food, utilities, dd neccesities, my gas for work and household items, shampoo, soap etc. Dh paid the mortgage $1550.00, his gas, both our car insur, entertainment and his creditcards. He makes 3 times more than i do. His debt was increasing and nothing was getting paid so i decided to give him the utilites so i knew where his money was going and i focused on my creditcards. I have 3-4 cards left and will be done my april oe May. Since the change dh has done a bit better but not good enough in my opinion. We have seprate checking accts(automatically have payroll deposited) so I have no control of his money or bills.

Well I finally told him to give me his bills so i can see what is going on. I'm ready to get rid of debt and it needs to be a joint process.

Here's his debit. How can i motivate him. Is it better to pay off by snowball(i do this) or % ?
Bill------------ % --------Finance---------- Monthly----------- Total Debt Due
Kohl's---------21.90-------$18.18----------$29.00 ----------- $931.91
Lowe's--------22.99-------$7.21 -----------$15.00------------$321.55
Chase--------18.24--------$37.02----------$63.00------------$2,534.28
BofA-----------9.90------ -$36.64----------$78.00 -----------$4,141.77
BofA----------27.98--------$33.84----------$48.00 -----------$1,512.27
Best Buy 7/01 -------------$0 ------------- $8.00-------------$1,069.78
Best Buy 10/08------------ $0-------------- $8.00------------ $505.69
Home Depot --15.99 -------$49.20 --------- $89.00 -----------$3,958.36
Tota Due ----------------- $182.09--------- $338.00----------$14,975.61

Best Buy is 0% until the dates posted next to it. I'm just so amazed at how much money dh is wasting on Finance charges

Any help or tip would be appreaciated

 

[lisaross]

Nobody knows him on these boards...

My husband would have a fit if i published his personal information on the internet. I think that is really rude.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I don't think it is. She is trying to help get them both out of debt. He obviously can't do it himself so she is trying to attack it the best way possible.

Maybe you are right. All I know is that i'd be ticked if my spouce put my personal information out there, and asked strangers about it. Maybe her husband doesn't care.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Nobody knows him on these boards...

Maybe, maybe not. I know 3 people from church that belong to this board. All of us discovered it on our own.

 

[kirbsam]

if my wife posted my debts on the internet, i would go ballistic. your husband appears to be a hardworking man who makes decent money. for you to post this for the world to see, behind his back is disloyal and betraying. shameful

 

[ACS228]

My husband is terrible with money. He uses his debit or credit card for everything and doesn't keep track of what he is spending. I balance my check book every week. What we do is he and I have seperate accounts and then we have a joint house account.

Figure out how much you will need from your husband to cover all the bills and have him transfer that amount into the house account each month. We each usually contribute 70-80% of our pay. Then you can handle what payments go where. Like paying off that 27% card and the Best Buy 0% interest until cards first. Pay the minimum on the rest and shift the money as you go along. We each have a debit card to this account for things like picking up groceries on the way home or any other house expense.

This system works for us because DH can spend money on whatever he wants as long as he has the money in his account and I can make sure bills are never paid late. If we just merged our accounts as others here have suggested, the checkbook would be a mess with all of DH few dollars here few dollars there debits that he doesn't keep track of.

 

[lovemygoofy]

My first tip is that you need to be talking to your husband about all this. Sit down and come up with a plan. Obviously you both have had spending problems in the past if you are still trying to pay off several credit cards and he has several in his name.

You've been together for 12 years, so it's not like this debt is a suprise. I would think you have benefited from whatever was charged. I think just because the card is in his name it's not just his debt unless he brought it to the relationship alone.

Instead of being frustrated and judging, sit down and see what will work for both of you. Maybe it's that he just doesn't see the big picture. Maybe he isn't ready to get down to work of getting the debt done. Are you planning to pay any of his credit cards when done with yours? You could be in charge of paying off the debts but it won't do any good if you aren't in control of spending in your family from both of you.

If he still wants his independence of his own account, let him have his account and have the majority of his paycheck put into your account to pay bills. There are all kinds of possibilties but you have to sit and talk with him in a reasonable manner.

 

[C_leen]

Hi-

I highly recommend debt snowball. You should probably terminate most of those credit cards to avoid this situation recurring. Does DH and you each have a small emergency fund to handle things that unexpectedly come up?

I've been married 15 years and we've kept separate accounts after the first year. However, we do communicate about the bills & where we are at with large ticket items, house projects or unexpected issues.

I do not follow Dave Ramsay exactly, but there is a website, livinglikenooneelse.com that you might find some inspiration and tips on how to work through this debt and bring you & your husband's fiscal goals into more unity.

 

[ChocolateQueen]

I would get Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover". Follow it to a T. It works!