pay off credit cards

We paid them off. We got back to about 10K in debt again. We paid them off AGAIN. We were definitely on the right track. We bought a house that costs $1,000 more a month than we were paying previously, but still was very doable because we had little debt and stable incomes/jobs. Enter big whammy of $1200/month pay cut at work. Ouch. They cut all overtime and decreased us to 3 days per week. I could not pick up another (second) job because I was in school full-time, and was having medical issues. I had to take off work for 2 months for surgery, and there went another $1,000 a month off the top of our income. We have basically lived off credit cards again, not even realizing it, while I was trying to adjust to the huge pay decrease and continue to go to college full-time. I don’t have the answer on this one. I just know we are head over heels in credit card debt again (28K or so). It’s sad, and I’m not seeing much light at the end of the tunnel on this one. Maybe we can somehow tread water until I finally finish my current (and last!) educational endeavor in 2 years or so, and I should have a significant pay increase with no more educational obligations of my own by then. We currently are consolidating credit cards with a credit service just to be able to decrease the monthly payment by $700/month. You gotta do what you gotta do. I know one thing; These accounts are closed, and they are going to stay closed. We need the one card that we have had forever with a decent limit in case of emergencies, until we build our emergency fund up. Whew. How disappointing. We didn’t even see it coming, even though we have been here 2 or 3 times before. The difference is that this time the amount of debt is much higher, and my income is much lower. If it wasn’t for grad school, I’d just work all the time. I’m trying not to lose my goal of being an FNP & nursing educator.

We were doing great paying off credit cards til we bought a house and I had to decrease my work hours to be able to finish college. It was a double whammy which cut our income about $2200 per month. Now, paying off the debt is super slow. We’ll get there though… we may not be able to do this until I finish grad school. We’ll see. I hate paying all this interest! We are just about maxed out on every card we have.