I HAVE A LOT OF DEBT!!!!!
Shelli: "Hi, my name is Shelli, and I have debt"
"Non"Support Group: "BOO HISSY SHELLI, WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE...
leave Leave LEAVE!!!!!!"
Yep, thats how I feel everytime I open up my mail. The bible says that we should confess our sins before man. Well, in this case, its before the blogger.
See, it all started when I graduated college 4 years ago. I had an apartment to furnish, a fridge to fill, new work clothes to buy, and a brand new car to put gas in. And my new job wouldn't pay for a whole month. So, what did I do? I applied for a Discover card as my very first credit card (thinking that I would only get about $1000.00 as a credit limit) OH NO!!!! LETS TRY OUT $6500 ON THIS CREDIT CARD VIRGIN!!!!! Muhahaha!!!!
Needless to say, in the course of about a year...the card was MAXED OUT! So, what do I do? I apply for another card to do a balance transfer to lower my rate. I received the card...but what did they do? They only transfered $1000.00 of the balance, but still gave me another $1500 of credit availible!!!!! MAXED IT OUT WITHIN ABOUT 4 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...so, are you doing math? Yep, I'm at $8000.00 in credit card debt!!!!!!!!!! 6500 + 1500 = 8000
So, by 23 years old, I had 8000 in credit card debt and I owed about 14,000 on my car. So...$22,000 in debt by 23 years old. Thank God that I came out of college with no student loans. I was a rare breed.
You may be asking yourself..."but where is she now??"...
Not including my new mortgage...I've only made a tiny little bitty dent in the number. And I mean tiny!!!
It really really sucks!
...and remember...I'm not even including the debt that Justin brought in when we got married. Thats a whole other stress!!!
Please pray for God to reveal to Justin and I exactly what steps we need to take in this situation. We've talked about Bankruptcy, debt consolidation, selling his truck, and everything else under the sun. We're just too stretched and too stressed!
...prayer please!
"Non"Support Group: "BOO HISSY SHELLI, WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE...
leave Leave LEAVE!!!!!!"
Yep, thats how I feel everytime I open up my mail. The bible says that we should confess our sins before man. Well, in this case, its before the blogger.
See, it all started when I graduated college 4 years ago. I had an apartment to furnish, a fridge to fill, new work clothes to buy, and a brand new car to put gas in. And my new job wouldn't pay for a whole month. So, what did I do? I applied for a Discover card as my very first credit card (thinking that I would only get about $1000.00 as a credit limit) OH NO!!!! LETS TRY OUT $6500 ON THIS CREDIT CARD VIRGIN!!!!! Muhahaha!!!!
Needless to say, in the course of about a year...the card was MAXED OUT! So, what do I do? I apply for another card to do a balance transfer to lower my rate. I received the card...but what did they do? They only transfered $1000.00 of the balance, but still gave me another $1500 of credit availible!!!!! MAXED IT OUT WITHIN ABOUT 4 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...so, are you doing math? Yep, I'm at $8000.00 in credit card debt!!!!!!!!!! 6500 + 1500 = 8000
So, by 23 years old, I had 8000 in credit card debt and I owed about 14,000 on my car. So...$22,000 in debt by 23 years old. Thank God that I came out of college with no student loans. I was a rare breed.
You may be asking yourself..."but where is she now??"...
Not including my new mortgage...I've only made a tiny little bitty dent in the number. And I mean tiny!!!
It really really sucks!
...and remember...I'm not even including the debt that Justin brought in when we got married. Thats a whole other stress!!!
Please pray for God to reveal to Justin and I exactly what steps we need to take in this situation. We've talked about Bankruptcy, debt consolidation, selling his truck, and everything else under the sun. We're just too stretched and too stressed!
...prayer please!
posted by Shelli at
5:01 PM
9 Comments:
eehhh-uhhhh.....eeehhhh....uhhhhh..... hyper....ventilating....
...can't breathe.....
[fiscally anal friend falls to floor when heart stops over shocking news of her beloved best friend
seriously, I love you and I support you and I will be on my knees for you and Justin!!
no bankruptcy!!!! the long term implications are no good. no good.
i just checked out a book called "debt proof your marriage" that might be worth a ready-read.
you guys might be great candidates for the envelope system. that's how my parents tackled 25 years worth of debt 10 years ago...and it worked. 2 skimpy christmases in a row, but it worked. and that's how i managed my little grad school budget. i ate lots of lentils and ramen, but again, it worked.
bill and i will pray for you guys.
yeah, i was feeling your pain too. yikes . . . i understand. i hate debt too.
i'm no expert on this stuff.
stu and i budget as best we can, and that's how we stay above water, along with the super generous help of his parents while stu's a student. as blessed as we are, we've definitely had to make sacrifices.
we feel your pain too.
sometimes I feel like we can see the end in sight, the credit card gets paid off, then we put something else back on it and the cycle continues. now we're looking at having to have our wisdom teeth out and other misc medical expenses. i think, "where is THAT going to come from?!?" we get close, but never quite on top of it all.
i agree with Karen...don't declare bankruptcy! you know, sister, it's not worth it...with all the people we have to deal with in the banking business. as hard as it is to stick to a budget, sometimes i think that's the point. if you set your budget reasonable but strict you might see that you'll have a little elbow room in the end.
we stick money aside each month for things like christmas gifts so that we don't have one big chunk in December (we spread it out all year, then only spend what we've saved). and we're on the envelope system for things like groceries and gasoline and date nights. once that cash is gone, its gone. plus it helps to have a physical visual of the cash dwindling instead of just the number in the checkbook.
the biggest thing is that YOU GUYS CAN DO IT! Don't give up.
I agree...no bankruptcy. The envelope system definitely saved us, and believe it or not, credit card companies will negotiate interest rates with you. But it takes discipline and more discipline to do it. It's not easy, but definitely worth it.
BTW, I'm Sarah J's friend.
I agree with everyone else, no bankruptcy! I have a lot of debt, too -- A LOT of student loan debt, but some credit card debt too. What I do is I pay the minimum on everything each month except one, and I work super hard on getting that one to go away. Once it's done, I move on to the next. this will clearly take a lot longer once I get to my big $70,000 student loan, but so far, it's been fairly successful.
Thanks for all of your support everyone!
Shelli,
That's funny, I JUST wrote a post on this about a week ago. I can honestly tell you that God can and will work miracles when He feels the time is right. I felt very overwhelmed by our debt, not just six months ago. Jason and I sat down and talked after Anna was born and we both felt strongly that I was meant to stay home with Anna. The only reason I was hedging on this was our debt.
Well, we bit the big one and I quit. God has been amazing. We will be debt-free by Christmas (not including house or school loans-- which I feel is "good" debt.) If it had happened sooner, and if I hadn't felt quite as helpless, I don't know that we would appreciate how much God is doing, nor would we have learned how much we DO NOT want to ever be in that situation again.
I know it's hard, but stop worrying about it and just keep making dents in it. I believe that God trusts us with little things before He trusts us with big things. He will wipe it out, I promise.
Love,
Ellen
Ellen-Your blog about it is what inspired me to spill all.
Thanks for the advice.
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