My husband has had a number of medical issues that have plagued him for the past 2 years (2 months after our son was born it started). He's had to have surgery to fix one issue and just a multitude of other medical stuff. They haven't all been related, in fact the majority aren't related. He has a compromised immune system, so when our son comes home from daycare sick husband gets sick (quit sending your sick kids to daycare please). Sometimes its way worse than other times. With that being said, he had surgery 3 weeks ago and lost his job on Wednesday this past week days after returning from medical leave.
Here's the financial situation:
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~$34,000 in unsecured debts (debt consolidation loan, medical bills, and credit cards)
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I gross $44k a year (I'm a teacher, so this will not change by just getting a new job), however, my net pay is something like $28k.
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Husband is working on getting a new job (obviously) but it will be challenging given that he does not have a 4 year degree. He is enrolled in college and working towards it, but that doesn't matter. Most jobs that we find that he is qualified for are paying anywhere from $11/hr-$16/hr, so not exactly a glamorous amount.
Mandatory expenses:
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Car Insurance $250/month
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Car payments (2 car loans) $450/month
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Utilities: average about $350/month
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Rent: $1180/month (This is the cheapest we could find and we cannot afford to move, breaking the lease would also cost 2 months rent)
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Child will not be in daycare as long as dad is home, but daycare expenses are $230/week when he does return (he's 2, so he's not any where near school age).
We are both driving Uber and I'm tutoring for extra cash. We were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel 2 months ago when he was approved to work unlimited overtime. He was going to work an extra 25 hours a week and we were going to sock that away on the debt. Then he got sick 2 weeks after that.
Is this a situation where we need to look long and hard at chapter 13? Do we need to look into those financial advisor companies? I just don't see how we can realistically pay this down. I'm planning on calling all the people for the medical bills to get on a realistic payment plan. Chapter 7 is not an option. We had to file that in 2010, due to medical bills and very very dumb choices. Typing this all out is really having it set in. This is not a good situation to be in. If we can keep afloat another 2 years my parents are moving here and we can live with them while we get out from all of this. But 2 years is a long time. Especially when you're using the credit card to buy the groceries because your income is going to all the bills and there's nothing left.
*edit: Formatting
Submitted October 08, 2017 at 01:15PM by obvious_throwaway_12 http://ift.tt/2yRsEsO
