We had a financial disaster!
@happythoughts (4109)
United States
July 27, 2008 11:51pm CST
My Hubby went in for Lasik. His parents offerd him $1000 toward the surgery so we figured we should do it now while we have the offer. We applied for interest free financing for the rest and figured we would just pay the remaining ballance as fast as we could planning on about 12 months of payments and then using the tax refund to pay it off. It was all planned out.
It didnt work out that way. We got to the office and at payment time I asked my dear Hubby for the payment information. He didnt bring it. We had to pay right then or cancel the surgery, so we payed then. We had to put it all on out visa and now we need to pay it off fast. We are paying interest and are trying so hard to get out of debt. It might not seem like a lot but we put an extra $2950 on our card and we usualy pay it off at the end of the month.
I now need to go through our budget and figure out where we can cut. I cancled our home phone, but everything else has to stay. We can live off food storage, but we cant think of a way to pay it off as fast as we feel like we need to.
I feel the pressure to find a way to bring in money and save even more.
What do you do when money is already tight and then it gets tighter?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
29 Jul 08
I think selling things sounds like the best option. You still may not get it paid off as fast as you think you need to but every extra dollar you can put towards it will at least feel like a little progress.
Right now I'm teetering on the edge of your question. Things are tight with our budget as it is right now. S/o has to go in the morning to have his child support order ammended. It's been so long since it was last done that even though he'll only have to pay for one child instead of two, the amount might still go up because he's making more money now. Besides that issue, I am so tired of everything here and am trying to figure out how I can get enough income of my own to at least get somewhat out on my own.
@happythoughts (4109)
• United States
29 Jul 08
It seems like everything is going up higher and higher right now. We are just taking each day one at a time and trying to get through it all. If we dont get it payed off fast we will have to miss our vacation that we have not been able to take in 2 years. Not an emergency but I really need it.
@snowy22315 (208885)
• United States
29 Jul 08
Well, you can certainly do a lot of mylotting. That is one thing you can do. I am selling some things around the house that I dont need. I bought a guitar on a whim a couple of years ago becasue I used ot play when I was in college. I just dont have the interest in it anymore and have decided I'm going to sell it. It's just taking up space anyway and I could use the money.
,
@happythoughts (4109)
• United States
29 Jul 08
I have been here more since then. This is my go to place for ides. There are so many great minds here I can learn from.
@cher913 (25781)
• Canada
28 Jul 08
we are in that position right now and we have had a few garage sales, sold some stuff on ebay, i am making some crafts to sell plus i am working on making some christmas presents. that will make money/save us money. plus we are careful when we shop for groceries and when we need clothing, we shop at the thrift store!
@happythoughts (4109)
• United States
29 Jul 08
We were just getting ready to go back to school shopping. My son is ony 6 so it isnt that expensive, we set aside about $100 that we will be putting towards debt and he will wear last years clothes. Im sure it will be okay in the long run but for now we are in panic mode. I didnt think about selling things on ebay or garage sales. That is a great idea! Thank you.
@beaniecat (329)
• United States
29 Jul 08
To reduce debt, I save and roll coins, sell off items we no longer need on ebay. I sold a bunch of books on Amazon this year. I also take clothes to consignment shops. I make more with consignment shops than garage sales, but whenever we have a neighborhood garage sale I try to sell off some stuff. That helped make some extra payments. I also took advantage of one of those short term 0% interest deals on a credit card off and transferred debt to that so that all my payments went to principle instead of continuing to accrue interest.
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
1 Aug 08
Ouch! After all that, I hope your husbands operation went well? I'd love to have Lasik surgery one day.
I have no real suggesting for the problem of paying off the bill though. What a bummer! I bet your husband feels like a right lemon after forgetting the paperwork.
All you can do really is just knuckle down, dig in, and refuse to spend a single cent unnecessarily until the debt is paid off. It's no fun at all, but it's what I do when life and my finances clash.
Best of luck!
