I’ll level with you all: We’ve weathered some rough years and need real advice to help us dig out of our debt, change our habits and get some financial stability. I’ve been following this group for a while but after looking into debt consolidation and bankruptcy and realizing how devastating it would be on our already bad credit, we’ve decided to finally bite the bullet and ask you all for help.
Background: My family spent a few years homeless following one huge and several small layoffs for both my wife and myself in a very short period of time. We lost our home, our vehicles, everything material and moved 6 times in just a couple years (always sleeping on couches or sharing one bed with our four kids… whatever it took) in pursuit of stability and jobs that always ended up falling through. Three years ago a local program helped pay the deposit on an apartment and provided interview clothes and within days I landed a reliable job working for our county and we’ve been in that apartment and I’ve been working at that job ever since. I’m even expecting a raise in November. My wife recently went back to work part time to help us catch up on payments. Unfortunately she can’t work full time because we have to rely on family members for childcare for our four children.
Two of our children overcame some pretty serious medical conditions during these past few years of stability, requiring us to live at hospitals for long periods of time. Having only recently started working and barely moving into an actual apartment at the time, we relied heavily on credit cards to stay afloat during those periods, even taking out several cards and maxing them out to cover living expenses, groceries and even our own costs while staying with our children at the hospitals. I know, I know: It’s bad. And just when we were finally financially recovering from the first child’s medical situation, our youngest ended up in the hospital (recently) and we dug ourselves back into credit card debt all over again.
We want to have an emergency fund. We want to have savings. We want to have financial stability and maybe even eventually buy a house. So we’re asking for your help. Any guidance and suggestions is deeply appreciated.
So far, we’ve downsized as much as we can at the moment. We live in northern California and our family of 6 lives in a tiny 800 square foot 2 bedroom/1 bath apartment. Our internet/cell phone bill is the minimal speed and data plan needed for my wife’s job, which requires her to work from home fairly often. Basic cable comes with the apartment for free. We are also responsible for maintaining a storage unit until a family dispute has been resolved and the contents can be distributed, most likely in a couple months. We have one vehicle that we bought used about a year ago and have never been late paying on. It has $4,500 remaining to pay it off and is really only used to take the kids to school and get groceries since we walk to work. We get an excellent rate on car and renters insurance through my work, which is deducted from my paycheck with my other benefits and therefore not reflected in the following breakdown. And yes, we know the payday loans are bad but they are another product of our daughter’s recent hospital situation but we are forced to renew it for the smallest possible amount each month until we can pay them off in full. We regret ever taking them out but are stuck until we can inch them down to an amount we can afford to payoff in full. At the time, it was the only way to pay rent while sleeping on folding chairs in a hospital several hours away from our home and our other children while our baby was fighting for her life. Here is the complete breakdown:
Income:
- $1,075 and $400 (so $1,475 total) bi-weekly (which will go up to $1,675 in November)
Expenses:
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$880 Rent
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$600 Food ($150 per week for a family of 6)
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$450 Credit card payments ($11,000 spread over 13 cards)
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$225 Car payment ($4,500 remaining balance)
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$150 Electricity
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$250 Other necessities (Diapers, wipes, toiletries, school needs, medical copays, gas)
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$100 Propane
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$100 Phone/Internet
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$90 Storage unit
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$88 monthly fees for rolling payday loan
Like I said, we understand the credit cards are the biggest problem but we need advice on the best way to tackle them and start a savings so we can build an emergency fund and never have to rely on cards and payday loans again. My wife does all kinds of odd jobs from home when she can (independant writer, mystery shopper, making things to sell, you name it) to bring in bits of extra money when possible while avoiding us from having to pay for childcare for her to work full time. We did the math and she would be actually making significantly LESS than she does now if she worked full time and we paid for childcare. I’ve also been submitting applications for higher paying positions, so fingers crossed one of those comes through. In the meantime I need advice on how to tackle our situation. I’ve read all the guides and links in this group but we’re so overwhelmed I’m not sure where to start. Any help is appreciated. THANK YOU.
Edit: Formatting
Submitted September 04, 2017 at 06:38PM by ILoatheYams http://ift.tt/2wzmhMB
