I have never "blogged" before,so I thought I would give it a try.
My husband and I are $23,000 in debt. We have been that much in debt for 8 years! It does not go down, it does not go up. It just stays there despite all the money we throw at it. So we are now on board to do our very best at getting rid of it.
Today I am frustrated. I started up a freedom account with $300. The idea is to put $300 in each pay period, every two weeks. Well, the account is now down to $29. We spent it all. And on what? We spent it on school supplies, birthday presents, and pictures from film that needed to be developed. Our budget is so tight.
DH doesn't want to send every single penny to the CC's. He wants to keep some of it for us for spending money. I want to throw everything, everything, everything at the debt. Who's right? Probably both of us. I know I should set up a reasonable amount of money to send to the cards, but it seems that nothing is ever enough for me. $500 would be good...but $600 would be better...so why not $700?
Ok, so as of today, here is our CC debt: $23,707. Let's watch that number fall.
And so it begins
August 9th, 2006 at 01:46 am
August 9th, 2006 at 03:11 am 1155089515
Question for you? Have you cut up your credit cards? Or at least thought about putting them in a large block of ice in the freezer? If you keep paying on them and the amount never really changes you are likely in the habit of using them. Getting out of the habit of using them should help you be able to get them down quicker.
August 9th, 2006 at 03:29 am 1155090593
"First Rule of Holes: When you're in one, stop digging."
As Yummy says, you don't get out of credit card debt by using credit cards, so to need a budget that will allow you to live, month to month, without charging. That usually means you will have less than you might like for debt service, but the alternative is to bail with a leaky bucket.
And I think you should give your husband's idea about spending money some serious thought. Crash diets and crash budgets have a lot in common. It's lifestyle changes that bring about lasting effects.
Anyway, my two observations - stop charging and work out a budget that allows you to live sanely without resorting to credit cards. Then you can look at debt service.
Regards,
August 9th, 2006 at 03:28 pm 1155133705
August 10th, 2006 at 03:42 am 1155177757
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I did take your advice to listen a little bit to my husband. We are going to make sure we have enough in our savings that we will not have to resort to the cards. We've decided to build up $6000 in our savings account and then we can throw every solitary penny at the debt. Our budget is really just too tight when I get my hands on it, and that is part of our problem. I don't leave room for the dog's grooming, the kid's school supplies, a trip to the doctors...all unplanned necessities.
So, a planned $600/mo will go into our savings or Freedom Account. On top of that, every refund, rebate, unexpected check, birthday money, flute money, overtime money...all of that...will go into the savings account until we reach $6000. (We need $8000 in the freedom account for the full YEAR of planned for expenses. So I figured $6000 was a good start.) Also, $3000 will start us off immediately when DH finally gets his reimbursement money for his recent business trip.