There really are no short cuts!

Avatar for colomom99
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
There really are no short cuts!
2
Wed, 05-13-2009 - 8:17pm

I suppose this is the painful lesson I've needed to learn and know it is staring me in the face. I have been trying to find a way to give us some breathing room and get out from under a staggering amount of debt. We kicked around the idea of selling our house and buying something cheaper. No go. We didn't qualify for a mortgage because of our debt to income ratio and the fact my husband had to take a pay cut and I got laid off June 2007. I've been freelancing and actually just started having some success but they won't count any of my income until I can prove two full years of self employment on tax forms. Then we tried taking a line of credit against our house which has about 130K equity in it. I know it's not ideal but it seemed like the HELOC payment would be much, much less than the credit card payments. Again, no go. They said they would not count my income and my husband's is not enough on it's own.

So, hand me a shovel for a very big hole to dig out of. We are making our payments now but my income is unpredictable which scares me. I think after I finish up one last project I will put my freelancing aside and try (emphasis on try) to get a fulltime job. Once we can prove dual income maybe we can try again on a refi or buying something cheaper but still nice.

Maybe this is the kick in the butt I need. At least my husband finally knows how on the edge we are. He is pretty good at denial and not wanting to know.

aaargh,

Jenny

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2007
Wed, 05-13-2009 - 11:25pm

I am sorry that things are not working out for you. I really feel for you. I know how it was when our payments were 475.00 on a 3000.00 a month income. It was hard to make it and we sure did have to cut back on everything even our food bill and not go anywhere I mean anywhere. And that really gets old fast.


Can you just do something like clean house for people and keep trying to get

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-12-2007
Thu, 05-14-2009 - 8:06am

Hi, Jenny.


Just wanted to send you a cyber {{{hug}}} and say that you've done an impressive job hanging in there and trying to maneuver things.