Monday midnight

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-22-1999
Monday midnight
1
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 12:19am

Long Sunday. I heard a lot of bad news ...also ended up spending and charging too much.....I keep saying I'll stop....then I don't............but I will keep working at it.

Well, one of my friends is having really bad financial and family problems, and a lot of it is intertwined. I was really shocked about how far things have gone. We were out grocery shopping today, and she told me just how bad it was, and I was just thankful I am not her situaton...I can handle my debt problems, but I wouldn't even begin to know how to untangle her problems. Her husband is playing games with the debt situation. He's hiding a lot from her, too, but she knows what is going on sort of.....I'm worried he is going to get arrested with the way he is playig his games, but this is a situation I can only watch from the sidelines...and it is painful to watch. I'm just listening to what she has to say....Her situation is beyond what I could offer advise to.

I am seeing more and more about those credit card minimum payments going up, and I think about the folks who are barely getting by on paying their current minimums. I have wiggle room in the budget so that I can handle a raise in the minimums, but my number of cards to pay off is low (3) so that I'm okay, but what about everyone who has a large number of cards to pay off? How is that going to be handled because it could be devistating to pay off many cards with higher minimums. Is anyone reworking budgets to accommodate this change? Anyone affecetd by it yet? Is this anyone's incentive to not charge on any new cards?....it is one of mine.

I'm going to hope this week works out well for all of us, and that we learn something interesting, too.

Littlesbigs

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-12-2004
Mon, 07-11-2005 - 2:48am
Hi, Littlebigs. Yes, indeed, I am trying to rework budget to accommodate the increases in cc payments. Cant find the article, but awhile back, there was information about increasing monthly payments. Math calculations. Estimation of paying minimums on $20K debt. (30+ years?). Have noticed creaping up of amounts due. Interest rates that are astronomical. Personally, I try to do the snowflake thing when possible---rounding up a bill of $26.50 to $30.00, etc. Thankfully, I have only one cc. Try to pay bimonthly. Minimum and something more, if I can. Start with the highest interest rate. Pay extra on that. WHiz.