How can we pay down debt when jobs are

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2003
How can we pay down debt when jobs are
3
Sat, 09-25-2004 - 5:06pm
so scarce?

DH and I bought a house in March, based on my income only. It was a fixer upper, so immediately we started working on it. Three weeks later, I got fired from my job, and my unemployment was only about 2/3 of my income. We thought we'd be OK...then a week later, DH got laid off from his job. He was opn unemployment for 2 months before he found a job, that paid 30% less than his old job.

I busted my butt for 6 months looking for a job, with no luck. (I think my old boss was badmouthing me.) My unemployment ran out, and luckily, I found a part-time reatail job to tide me over while I'm looking.

So last week, DH was offered an amazing opportunity to earn some great money. He was offered a job with a very established roofing company in Florida (we're from Ohio) to repair hurricane damage. After some very serious thought, we decided to go for it.

Well, he's been down there a week, and it's not all it seemed to be. The boss wanted them to get up on a roof today (in Vero Beach, right where Hurricane Jeanne is heading!), and has been alluding to the fact that if they didn't go up and finish the roof they had been working on, and the hurricane ripped their work apart, they wouldn't get paid for the work they'd done (they get paid by the sq. ft.). He's worked four 14 hour days!! The rest of the crew that went down (5 in all) decided to leave and come back home, that it wasn't worth risking their lives.

But DH stayed! He's waiting out the hurricane in a hotel room right now. There's no guarantee when, if at all, he'll be able to work again. Now he wishes he'd come home with the other guys.

But that's another story, sorry, I'm getting off track!

Anyway, he gave up his job to go down there, now if he comes home, there's no guarantee he'll be able to find another job. We can't survive on my piddly little $700 a month salary! And jobs here in Southern Ohio (right next to West Virginia, not Cincinnati, like most people think), are non-existant. We have just over $10,000 in credit card debt, a car payment, and a house payment. Luckily, no kids yet.

I'm just beside myself. What in the world do we do?? Right now, we have $10 in our checking account, and $300 in bills due next week. I'm just so scared. Before he left, we had even been donating plasma for extra money. We had a yard sale and sold everything we could (even the 2nd TV, DVD player, and all of his tools).

I'm at the end of my rope and ready to hang myself with it (figuratively, of course).

Please give some words of encouragement.

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Sat, 09-25-2004 - 6:44pm

HUGS!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-20-2003
Mon, 09-27-2004 - 1:14pm
Hugs Jellybean! I know how scary it is when you have bills hanging over your head and just don't know where the money is going to come from. Hang in there. I hope everything will work out.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-06-2003
Mon, 09-27-2004 - 2:26pm
The one piece of advice I have is to call those people who you have those $300 bills for, and let them know what the situation is. Some of your creditors will be nice, some may be nasty, but at least you've done *something* to try and make other payment arrangements. This is especially important if some of those bills are with individuals or small companies, since they are often depending on your payment to help with their own finances. I do some of the "collections" for the company I work for, and I may just be especially lenient, but when someone calls me and says "Hey, I can't pay the whole bill up-front, can I send in payments?" I'm willing to take as little as $25/month if I have to to get it paid. Just make sure that you can stick to whatever arrangments you make.

And, if you haven't done it already, cut all unnecessary services, like cable TV, newspaper subscription, "extras" on the phone, even internet (public libraries usually offer free access), until you can get back on your feet. Good Luck.

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