My Plan

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
My Plan
4
Thu, 08-26-2004 - 2:03pm
Hi, my name is Lisa and I found this board yesterday. What a great board!

My problem is this, I had paid off all credit cards, paid off my vehicles, and had no debt except for the house payments, (one we live in, one rental).

We were so excited. This was about 2 years ago. Now I once again have huge credit card balances, 2 vehicle payments and other misc. loans. My dh and I make a decent living, and we should not be behind on our payments and barely surviving, but we are. So, here is my plan. If I sell the rental house, I will have enough money to pay off both vehicles, and all credit cards. Once again, I will be financially stable, (well, as stable as 2 people can be with 5 children, 3 in college at the same time).

My worry is that I must maintain the will power to cut up and cancel the cards after paying them off. Sadly, already we are talking about the trip to belize we could take next spring, or the new motorcycle I can get for myself once this debt is cleared up, and how we need to "keep one of the cards for "emergency" use".

I listed the house for sale last week, and have had 5 interested buyers already, but it will take up to 45 days to close the deal once we accept an offer, so I am kinda in a pickle as to how to make all these payments until then. We dipped into retirement to stay afloat a few months ago.

So anyway, I have a solution, even though i'll get burned on the taxes and will be needing this group in support for self control! Seems I have none.

Thanks Lisa
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-01-2004
In reply to: mtn73
Fri, 08-27-2004 - 12:47pm
Hi Lisa,

Welcome to the board - I just found it myself last week. I can sympathize with you, my husband and I make pretty decent money even with me working part-time (I have two small children) but with the two vehicle payments, living expenses we never seem to have much left over. We do have a house and owe about $2000.00 on a line of credit but we just don't understand where the money goes. We don't lead extravagant lifestyles, just normal, but once you get into the bank overdrafts, we never seem to catch up after pay day. Plus children are so expensive :-)

Good luck,

Margaret

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
In reply to: mtn73
Sat, 08-28-2004 - 9:16am

Welcome Lisa!!


I would definitely make sure you close the card for "keeping for emergency" since you don't want this to happen a 3rd time to you!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-12-2003
In reply to: mtn73
Sat, 08-28-2004 - 9:47am
Hi Lisa,

Stick with your plan to get out of debt! It's the best advice I can give. Save your money and pay cash for the things you want. Keep an emergency credit card or get a secured one through your credit union or bank. I have a 500$ credit card secured with my savings account, plus my interest is only 8%. I can pay it off anytime with the secured money. I can also add to the amount if I want to.My money in savings still earns interest. I too have two children in college and the money deal can really be a challenge. Please do not incurr more debt and keep it simple.

Charor

email is charleneorrn@cox.net
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
In reply to: mtn73
Sun, 08-29-2004 - 8:06am
I understand the bank overdrafts comments someone made a few posts back. My husband and I were constantly overdrawn in our accounts. We are actually still making payments on one. We made a drastic move and closed our checking accts. We now have one savings acct in his name and that's it. we pay everything in cash or money orders. Someone said to me "isnt' that expensive to pay for all those money orders?" well, it's nothing compared to the $30 fees you get for bouncing a check, and that's the first time it comes in! We have made a huge amount of progress this way and I recommend it to anyone who has the overdraft problem. Sure, it can be time consuming, but it really helps you see where you money is going. Good luck@

kel