Hi-
I'm Sarah, 24 yo SAHM to 3 great kids. My hubby Bill works very hard to support us and I solely control our finances. Prior to our marriage my husband had very poor credit and no financial skills. We worked hard and cleaned it all up but I was young and was not prepared for the onslaught of buy it nows and credit cards we could get with good credit. I (pretty exclusively just me)racked them up with lots of nice new things. When I became pregnant with our 3rd child we refinanced and paid everything off. I became a stay at home mom. Stupidly it's been 8 months and yup...WE racked some of them back up. Here's the current picture:
Credit Cards Paid and Closed
Citibank
Paypal
Dell FS
Credit Cards Owing On
Capital One 929.26 @19.74%
Capital One 935.11 @19.00%
Discover 3720.00 @0.00% (till 11/07)
Menards HSBC 206.01 @0.00% (till 01/07)
Providian 1497.52 @24.00%
Deferred good debt
Student Loans
Current balance $11,000
Other debts in payment plans
Medical Bills $1400
We owe $38,000 on our home which is currently valued at $60,000 so we have some equity in it as well as $10,000 in some property we own. We are remodeling our house currently so I find we have to walk a fine line between putting money into the house and paying down the credit cards. The balance on the discover card is mutual debt we incurred while remodeling the house. The balance no the Providian is half mututal debt for a family vacation and half college tutition that will be reimbursed from financial aid. The balance on the Capital One cards is all MY DEBT. I don't know how they got they high again. I just started charging here and there and mostly on things like groceries, clothes...and hubby has no idea how high the balances really are. He has never really asked point blank and I have never brought the issue up. I am bothered by these balances because it's $1800 of his money that I need to use to pay them off and I can't account for what I borrowed money for in the first place.
So here is my situation. It's not dismal by any means and we do have some disposable income every month that I can apply to pay off these debts...but we are also trying to finish our real estate investment...this house. We do not plan on selling or moving for another 3 years yet but there are some things that demand attention right now. Our garage is falling down and we have two massive pine trees that are leaning that need to be removed as long as the garage isn't blocking them in.
Building the new garage (it is necessary to have one for all of hubby's tools) will cost all of our savings and probably max the Menards Card out at $2,500 @ 0% as well. After that, we need a new furnace with central air, that will run about $3,500 which we can pay for out of pocket once saved up. Realistically to get these things done we wouldn't even look at starting to pay off the credit cards until February of 2007. At that point our credit card debt would have risen to $9581.89! Ok that's my thought for today. Thanks for letting me let it all out of the dark closet. I hope to have a savings (or debt reduction or remodeling fund) blog. I love to blog and I think if I could record each little victory it might help motivate me to see progress in writing.
Intro
August 3rd, 2006 at 02:45 pm
August 3rd, 2006 at 02:55 pm 1154616934
August 3rd, 2006 at 03:26 pm 1154618793
August 3rd, 2006 at 03:28 pm 1154618934
You can achieve your financial goals. You need to develop a plan, STOP USING THE CREDIT CARDS, cut back where you can-even til you feel the squeeze, and stay the course.
Those interest rates are killers...have you tried to call the companies and get them lowered?
Good luck as you work through it all....YOU CAN DO IT!!!
August 3rd, 2006 at 05:08 pm 1154624908
And, yes - you CAN do it and this is one of the best places to start too.
I find that when I do blog about finance things - it really does help me to think things through and be more aware of my spending;
And also - it helps like you said, for when you record each little victory ... it helps to motivate and keep you on track [plus it's nice to look back and read things later on and see the progress you've made.
So glad you're here!
Love,
Jennelle
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:43 pm 1154644994
Okay that is what I would do now. At your age, I would just charge everything and figure we had lots of years to pay it off. If only I knew then what I know now!
Do you know about snowballing?? Like Mika said. Pay the minimums on all but one card. I would start with that 24% one. Once that is paid off, put what you were paying on high rate card on next card, etc, etc.
Looking forward to hearing more from you.
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:43 pm 1154644995
Okay that is what I would do now. At your age, I would just charge everything and figure we had lots of years to pay it off. If only I knew then what I know now!
Do you know about snowballing?? Like Mika said. Pay the minimums on all but one card. I would start with that 24% one. Once that is paid off, put what you were paying on high rate card on next card, etc, etc.
Looking forward to hearing more from you.
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:36 pm 1154648184