What can I do?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-2005
What can I do?
4
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 2:39pm

Well the hubby and I are not exactly financially stable. We make it but not much left over after bills.

#1 Problem I do not work not because I am lazy but because it is hard to find a job around where we live.
#2 We have a new car and the payments are high.
#3 We have lot's of bills -credit card"s",cable,phone,cell phone,etc...

We recently got 2 loans to pay off major things so we wouldn't have such a huge chunck of money taken out for credit card payments and things like that. Every month he gives me a set amount to put out of sight and out of our minds for emergencys and when he has change or $5.00 bills and under i stash it away so we wont spend it.

What can we do to get the bills out and money in the bank!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
In reply to: jers_wa
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 2:49pm

Not buying a new car with high payments would be a good start. Did you buy used? Could you have found a way to have lower payments? I'm guessing you had to have a car, is it your only car?

Another place to start is cutting out cable (saved me $60 per month), finding cheaper internet access (saved me $15 per month), switching to a cheaper cell phone plan (saved me $35 per month), paying attention to what you spend at the grocery store (saved me over $100 per month), not eating out, finding cheaper car insurance (saved me $540 per year), getting rid of voicemail and call waiting on your home phone and finding the cheapest plan (mine is $12 per month and I use my cell phone almost exclusively).

The next place is finding a job or any possible way of increasing your income. It sounds like you may be working on this.

You said you recently got two loans to pay off a bunch of credit cards. Did you cut up the credit cards after that? Not using them is one of the most important things you can do, and it's a very common trap people fall into. Why are the payments less, is the interest rates on the 2 new loans a lot better than on the credit cards, or is also because the new loans have a longer term? It sounds like you are ready to be rid of your debt, so the main thing is to live on less than you bring in each month and pay as much as possible to your debts without incurring any new debts.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-2005
In reply to: jers_wa
Thu, 03-17-2005 - 3:12pm
OK Our cable is the lowest it can go the Hubby would go crazy without it and so would i concidering i dont really leave the house.
It is connected to our internet
our house is cheapest and local only because only people call in ever.
our cell phones are cheapest plans we have to have to call our parents that we live 3000 miles away from.
groceries are no problem he's in the navy so we shop at the commissary cheap cheap cheap..
We rarely eat out
the car he thought about refinancing soon to get a lower payment. It was so high because his credit was ok/good but we had no money down. It is a new car and it is the only one we have. The credit cards are never used they were emergency cards and that's what we used then for .maxed them out and are now paying them off..
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-17-2005
In reply to: jers_wa
Fri, 03-18-2005 - 11:31pm
Even if it is not a well paying job,any job will help with your situation.I take it your military, if you live on base ,have you tried to find work on base? Anything is better than nothing.The money from your job can be used to double cc payments to pay them down faster, or pay down loan paymentsfaster.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-2005
In reply to: jers_wa
Sat, 03-19-2005 - 10:52am
My hubby's Navy and we live in navy housing. The biggest problem we have is that we did live in Illinois and the cost of living was much higher and he got paid more because of that. Now we live in WA and the cost of living is so low he get's paid almost 600 less than before which is A LOT! the bills were fine before. Also I know the ways to get and find a job, but also know that we live on a tiny island and there are a lot of perople that live here Navy people all mostly married and they took all the jobs. There is not much I can do out here with out lot's of college experience and degrees. We dont exactly have the money for school and there is only one nearby and it does not have any good programs that could get me anywhere around here.