Life Sucks (venting)
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Life Sucks (venting)
| Sun, 04-20-2008 - 7:07pm |
Life sucks, being poor sucks, Being old sucks more.
Since September I have worked so hard to get the bills paid down. Went without going out and doing anything. Watched every penny and I was so happy that I had the bills down to under 20,000 (from around 23,000) at last I even lowered the payments by 25.00 a month.


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Hi Mary Ann, you are so right.
I'm still waiting for my dentist bill. I finally got insurance again so went for the first time in 5 years and I had 7 cavities. Ins. is going to pick up my exam - but they pay crap for fillings so I'm worried about what its going to be - last check was almost $400 OOP. Eek! And now I'm having sensitivity to cold 3 weeks after all that was done. I'm scared to go back.
And DH ended up getting time off work unpaid which is costing us $3K. Luckily, we had a third car we sold to make up that money, but that was money we were going to snowball. :(
It's going to get better right?
Good luck with all of this.
Megan
Oh, Mary Ann, I hate this for you.
I just thought I'd chime in and give you a virtual hug - I know it sucks that you have such a huge bill to face, and the end of snowflaking really feels like a punch in the gut, but, like you said, it's not like you've got a choice. So, try to at least take comfort in the fact that you are doing what is best for you, even if it is more expensive than you had originally imagined. At least you don't have guilt to deal with.
Hang in there!
I really wish you did not have to confront all these extra costs.
Mary Ann,
I really feel for you. But you know, if you hadn't gotten your debt paid down to where you are, you would be so much more in the hole after the dentist. You know you can pay it down so get those teeth fixed, that's extremely important and get back on the wagon again so to speak. Yes, it will be longer before you are debt free but your teeth are more important than the debt.
You are right that being poor sucks and getting old sucks too. I'm so sick of being poor. DH has been unemployed for 3 years now because company he worked for went bankrupt. I'm on SSD so our income is really limited. This is the first time in my life that I've been poor so at times, I don't cope with it very well. Like you, I've cut everything I can from the budget. I even swallowed my pride and went and got food stamps and medicaid although I do have a spend down for that. It helps but it doesn't do much for the credit cards.
If all that isn't bad enough, DH had foot surgery two weeks ago and neck surgery a week ago. For the foot surgery, they wanted $720 up front! There went credit card payments for the month. Fortunately, the neck surgery won't cost us anything because we qualify for HCAP so there's about $8000 we won't have to worry about. Thank God!!! He has to have another foot surgery on May 1st. Our podiatrist/surgeon is going to do this one at one of the hospitals that has HCAP so this one won't be a financial burden either. In June, he's got another neck procedure then in July or August he has what will hopefully be the last neck procedure. The surgery that is killing us is the foot surgery two weeks ago. I'm dreading getting the bills for that but there's nothing I can do about it but find a way to pay it.
I've gone back to an old habit which my DH had gotten me out of. When bills come in the mail, I'm paying them that day and mailing them the next. This way while they will be paid early, they won't be late, get lost and will get paid. It's definitely taken a burden off my shoulders. Plus it's not nearly as painful writing one or two bills than it is trying to do 20.
I've gotten four credit cards paid off. Of course the van needed work done on it and there's $900 on the Firestone card so there goes one paid off card. The good news is if I can get it paid off in 6 months, I won't have to pay any interest on it. So, I'm holding my breath and praying that I can get it paid off in time to avoid the interest rate. Our credit card debt it now is about $15,000. That doesn't include the monthly storage unit fee or the layaway or the utilities or the mortgage or the one credit card that's over $17,000 that's in collections that I'm waiting for it to drop off my credit report and for the bill collectors to just write it off and let it go. If I get the $15,000 paid off, I'll be doing great. There's just no way that the $17,000 will ever get paid off. I've been told by a friend that's a bill collector and owns a bunch of check cashing stores that as long as they don't hire an attorney in Ohio, that I'm fine and to just let it go because eventually, it won't be worth their time and they'll just write it off and the process will end. So, I'm hanging tight and hoping that they don't hire an attorney in Ohio. If they do, I lose my retirement account which we really can't afford to have happen. Please don't flame me because we owe the money. This was a card that was run up by his ex wife after they had been divorced for 12 years. We tried to get it removed but he forgot about that card and it was a joint card between the two of them so we are stuck. I don't feel obligated to pay off a debt that I didn't run up. Our debt, I'll pay off no matter how long it takes but her debt, I'm not touching. When we found out, he did cancel the card so she at least can't do it again.
Kathleen
I am so sorry about your troubles. Sorry to say what you wrote made me a little better. Thank God we are not in that bad of shape. No collections or anything. I got to figuring after I borrow the money our paymentswill still be about 20.00 less then 15% of our bring home pay. But we too are on retirement and disablity So you can't just go out and get part time jobs and such.
We live on around 3000.00 a month and with the high prices of every thing these days it is hard. Well I haven't borrowed the money yet. I am waiting until the very last minute on the checks to do them. Also I am combining another credit card in the mix so it will not hurt so bad. If it was up to my husband I would borrow enough for everything we need for a year too along with it. Like a new bed a washer and new carpets for the living room but I told him no
Hi Mary Ann, I'm just a lurker but I want to tell you how sorry I am that you're having to go through all this.
THANKS for your support Yes UofL does have a dental school I applied for it when the top teeth started to
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