Discover was due yesterday. At this point…oh well. I am sure there are going to be people that reply to this post and say-JUST PAY YOUR BILLS. I have seen those comments on other blogs. It is a matter of time before I get it too. Well, if these banks didn’t make it so hard to keep up, well I would still be paying them. Depressing but it is true. They are going to get paid, just the amount that is fair. Not all this other interest, late fees,etc. Besides, they are not losing. Not with most people. I have paid what I spent in the form of interest at least 10 times over! They know it too. After all this, they will send me another credit card because that is what they do. Of course I will rip up anything that comes from creditors once this is all over but I guarantee it will happen!
Well Citi sent me my new and improved statement today. My $130 minimum has turned into $625.39. Of course they added the late and over the limit fees. They did something for me that Chase didn’t…jacked me up to 31.24% interest. Yeah I am really motivated to save that card now!
I have been working on my husbands #’s for a few days and I stop because there is just so much! He has a little less than me but spread out over all kinds of cards and loans. I am having one problem with him and that is…he feels some type of loyalty to some of these cards like HOME DEPOT. See, he doesn’t read Dave Ramsey or blogs or debt forums so even though he is onboard-I don’t really feel he is in 100%. We are probably the strongest couple I know yet this pile of debt is making us argue. I am noticing it is every single time now that we talk about bills. Tonight was no different. After I told him all or nothing with these cards, he told me don’t talk about it the rest of the night. OK? I don’t care what anyone says or how much anyone wants to sugarcoat it, debt causes problems especially in a strong marriage. That is my mission by Sunday, to have his numbers all worked up. If he can’t commit, I will not lie, it will be hard and will cause more problems for us. We will have a sit down and I am laying it down. I didn’t dig myself into this mess alone.
That is why I enjoy writing in my blog. I have found so many wonderful people on here and support. It is strange how I can come on here and write this down for everyone in “cyberspace” to see but I don’t dare talk to anyone I know about it. People around me including family have no idea about this stuff. Also I don’t tell anyone the struggles my husband and I are having together with this whole debt mess because people just don’t get it. They will assume it is marital problems and we’re headed for divorce! No, we are having financial problems that we are trying to work out. Most people have problems too but don’t want to admit it and pretend their lives are so great. Like the “Joneses”- better house, nicer cars…no family issues. Yeah right. This is the real world! We will get thru it. Maybe someone reading this is going thru it too but is like me and keeps it to his or herself. It is OK, these things happen and it just felt really nice to get it off my chest!
Well, I started writing this post last night and didn’t save it but I got a little to add to it. That company never called my husband back or send him his money. Well last night we found an email with a Christmas party invite with several email addresses on it. We typed up a nice professional MASS email to everyone that was on there not giving too much information (because we don’t know exactly who they are) but enough to let them know this company is up to something. Well, out of 35 people, 5 were returned undeliverable and 7 wrote back they are having the same problems! None of them actually got any checks like my husband but they are waiting to be paid since October! OK, so now we are not sure how we are gonna pursue it next but we are not done. We have never done anything like that…sending a mass email but then again we have never gotten screwed like this.
Last night I had a really messed up nightmare and I know it is because I am going to bed stressed. I took the dog for a very long walk and figured it calmed me down, I guess it didn’t. I woke up early this morning to find my husband online shaking his head again. We bounced another check! This time in our other account. Luckily it was paid. It was a check to my daughters school. I would have been so embarrassed if that check got returned unpaid! There goes another overdraft fee. We are people that have NEVER bounced a check in our lives-well not before all of this. I know why it bounced too. He decided to pay a huge minimum to one of his credit cards and he didn’t think they were gonna take the money so quickly. I said nothing. I am hoping he sees now, we really can’t pick and choose these cards, they all gotta go. We gotta save money and get funds in our settlement account.
Well, I am off to go finish cleaning out my storage. That is one payment we are getting out of. We gotta have everything out by tomorrow. Last weekend we had to stop due to the rain. Then it is home to figure out ways to make some cash and then our sit down.
you will come out of this with a new level of financial discipline.
you are dealing with many little crises. so every day one of them is going to strike at you. i encourage you to create and maintain a spreadsheet that shows balance, interest rate, last minimum payment and date due. you will need something like this to make decisions.
credit is the kind of thing that can smooth out your husband’s sporadic pay situation, except when you run out of credit, as has happened to you. and his recent experience with a bounced check is terrible, of course.
i went pretty far into debt, and i came out of it. the experience helped me develop fiscal discipline. it sounds like you’re just becoming aware off the scope of your challenge. at this point i enocourage you to develop one spreadsheet (GMail has one, or Microsoft sells Excel) that describes all of your debt in one place. That will be your command center. And yes, stop using credit. Even debit could be a problem because it might bounce your checks. It’s time for cash allowances.