get out of debt

I just passed up another milestone, after several setbacks. IRS audit, cha ching. Brother out of work, cha-ching again. Mom needed money for doctor bills, cha-ching again. BUT, dh got a third job. I became this super-frugal freak for groceries with very careful menu planning and shopping and got our monthly bill down to, like, half of what it was. So, despite all the setbacks, we managed to get to another magic number. HALF of our monthly take home. We are really getting into this. Only problem, it isn’t in time to have anything but another super-frugal Xmas.

Something really magical happened the other day. I had no idea that it was going to feel so incredible, in fact, it was altogether unexpected. I paid off the bills from yet another ridiculously frugal Christmas (we gave each other shirts, I mean really!) and then I sent everything else off to the cards, and the new total is: less than our income in a month. That is just a magic number, because somehow our new total debt is a Small Number. I had no idea. Yippee! We still have our TV from a dumpster. It makes a loud sound now after it has been on for a few minutes, a sort of a hum. It is my cross to bear.

So, basically, a digit has been dropped from the total amount of debt. This is very exciting, but it has been sooo long and it is soooo hard.
We cannot invite anyone to sit down when they stop by, because there is no place to sit. And, I am so sick and tired of nt having a place to sit. What furniture we have is froma dumpster, or whatever, and it is just so disheartening.
My car or his will die soon, if we are really unlucky, both. So, although the pace has been bruising and worth it, I just do not know how long we can keep it up. But, we are now to the point where our credit rating has really started to take off. And, I think the light is at the end of the tunnel- 2 more years? Maybe less? We’ll see.

My reservations about paying off the higher-rate cards have to do with the fact that I cannot control my husband’s spending. I’d love to cut the dratted things up—but they’re his, not mine. There is no way he’d do it. I mean, he swore he wouldn’t use this one that is in default right now, APR=30%, and today I see a charge of $350. It is a test he has to take for work- so he thought that’d be ok. I mean, what does No Charges mean?
So, I said the words today, that I’ve never said before- let’s get counseling. He spent 15 minutes telling me how we should get better software. (I keep our accounts in a complex Excel sheet.) Quickbooks will not solve our problem—unless it has some features I do not know about.

I’ve had a lawsuit pending for some time, and finally it is about to be settled. I’ll come into cash, and intend to only pay down debt with it. This will be the third time I’ve paid off my husband’s credit cards (this time, like the others, we’ve sworn we will not use them again.) I cannot close them—they are very old, and are responsible for a large portion of our reasonably-good credit score.
Although they are our highest interest rates, I do not feel like paying them off- isn’t that awful? I feel like we’ll only gain new debt, as he has access to those lines of credit. We are at 113% of total debt load as of June 2005, when we had Our Big Talk About Debt. This, despite being at close to 80% only a year ago. I feel like I am married to someone who will always be in debt. But, I do not want to be.

Well, the dh and I came to a new understanding over the holidays. He basically lost his mind when he was out of work and rather than reducing expenses charged like mad, went over the limit, and when he did not get work right away, missed payments and made them late and lied about it to me. He says he felt like he could not talk to me about it when he got in over his head, which bites, but I am a royal &*&^% in the you-know what about money, so all I did was not say anything snarky, but just took back responsibilities for the cards and paid off various things and transferred others, and we’ve decided to be more easy on each other and be more civil. We have been pleasant to each other ever since and as the disaster has unfolded before my eyes (I found out about the last one today) I have remained civil, nay, even understanding and pleasant. We made a bid on a house, I’ve no idea what the bank will say. Please pray for us.

Ok, the move is done. Very expensive, lots of mistakes. DH was out of work for 3 months, but has now found a new position, a well-paying, secure-seeming one at that! Yippee! We are at 77% and all our savings are run through. But, I now predict that we will making progress very soon, even right after the holidays.

Ok, I admit it, we are at 78% of our original amount, only. But, I got a new job, we are moving, and we hve saved a GINORMOUS amount toward a down payment on a house. This means, when we move I think we can start shopping for a house. So, even though we’ve not made much progress on this, we’ve acquired no new debt and made substantial progress on other goals. Therefore, for now I am pushing this goal back down on the list, where it really has been for a while, now.

The next 10% is easier than the first! I am now at 80% of the credit card debt load I had 11 months ago. My husband started his new job this week. Surely that will mean the progress will speed up a bit. So, 70% may not be so far away?

Well, this must be what they mean when they talk abut the snowball effect. Although, I shudder what will happen when I open the bills next month. But, I know that it’ll be just one month’s set bakc—we actually kept it all reasonably under control. So, we are now at 90% of the total debt from May, and the dh will try to return to work at least part-time soon.