@Anonymous wrote:
We are trying to avoid bankruptcy because it's very expensive and we may end up losing our home and a car. The home we are in now is one that I was very blessed to find someone to do owner finance since our credit after the foreclosure wouldn't allow us to get a bank loan.
First and foremost I understand what you are going through. In order to help you a bit we need a bit more info also.
Is the large loan for the auto? If it is you will have to keep that current or face a repo. Have you called your creditors to make arrangement and explain what is going on?
This is important.......Can you or your husband get a 2nd job to get caught up? Since the cc's aren't huge a 2nd job would be the fastest way to get those paid off and save your credit from going into the toilet.
Have you started looking around to see what assets you have that you can sell? Perhaps on Craigslist? Stop any extras for now (this will be temporary) No going out to eat, no going to themovies, no mani or pedi's. In other words go to the bare essentials. Shop the dollar stores, shop goodwill, make less trips in the cars, pull the kids (if you have any) out of any expensive extras like dancing, music lessons and the like.
Do not just stop making payments. It will be harder to fix down the road and if your accts get charged off and go to collections, you'll be looking at even larger amounts owed. The impact of this on your scores will be brutal.
Trust me when I say that I was supporting a family of 3 during a crisis and was able to feed my family on $40 a week for almost a year and a half. We never went hungry. It was the pits but it can be done. We cut out every extra there was and lived bare bones. We kept the roof over our heads, clothes on our backs and stomachs full BUT we did make sacrifices during that time and now we are seeing the end of a very long tunnel.
You can do this!
