Help wanted

[Anonymous]

So hubby was out of work due to illness and we are still trying to play catch up. .I have 100% payment history but real high utization. Like 71% I have made sure to pay my mins even though we can't afford it at the moment. Which brings me to my issue, I have to constantly turn around and use those same cards to pay other bills...so I've been stuck in this cycle for a few months and our "catch up " isn't fixing itself anytime soon.. advice? Ideas?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So hubby was out of work due to illness and we are still trying to play catch up. .I have 100% payment history but real high utization. Like 71% I have made sure to pay my mins even though we can't afford it at the moment. Which brings me to my issue, I have to constantly turn around and use those same cards to pay other bills...so I've been stuck in this cycle for a few months and our "catch up " isn't fixing itself anytime soon.. advice? Ideas?

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You have to make a budget and make some potentially hard cuts (if there are any cuts left to make)

Do you have cable?

Overpriced cell bill?

Shopped cheaper insurances?

Subscriptions you can cancel?

Overpriced home?

Overpriced car? Two cars when you can get by on one?

Can one or both of you earn any extra money?

Do you go out to eat or order in?

[Anonymous]

Made every cut we can make atm

[Anonymous]

What are the limits and balances on your cards?

[Anonymous]

I would have to look, but they are all sitting at around 90% utilization except a online store account only has only has a $40 balance out of $600 and a gas card that has $0 out of $200

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
So hubby was out of work due to illness and we are still trying to play catch up. .I have 100% payment history but real high utization. Like 71% I have made sure to pay my mins even though we can't afford it at the moment. Which brings me to my issue, I have to constantly turn around and use those same cards to pay other bills...so I've been stuck in this cycle for a few months and our "catch up " isn't fixing itself anytime soon.. advice? Ideas?

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You have to make a budget and make some potentially hard cuts (if there are any cuts left to make)

Do you have cable? You can cancel cable and just get Netflix.

Overpriced cell bill? There are many providers out there now with cheap/good deals - My next step is to go from Sprint ($237/MO to T-Mobile $160/MO) 

Shopped cheaper insurances? You can do this by raising your deductible a little, lowering other items or change insurance altogether.

Subscriptions you can cancel?

Overpriced home?

Overpriced car? Two cars when you can get by on one? 

Can one or both of you earn any extra money?

Do you go out to eat or order in? Do this no more, get groceries for a week and just take lunch to work...this is what i do.

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Agree with above.  I did this back in 2005 and has been working for me.  I added some notes in red.

[Anonymous]

I don't even have internet at home anymore and canceled my Netflix, HBO, etc. For the handful of times I watch TV per year, I can watch one of the DVDs that I used to spend too much $ on or go borrow a new one from the library for free.

Phone gives me internet and I can use it as a hotspot if I need to do some work at home. I'm on the T-Mobile $160 plan. I got $600 in visa gift cards for switching. Coverage is as good as anyone else's for my famiy in Tampa Bay and when I'm down there. NYC is mostly decent. Other areas in NY state can be pretty spotty, but I'm generally happy for what I pay. I'm increasingly trying to put the internet down anyway.

Ohhhh . . . and if you can manage to use less than 2GB on any of the lines, they knock another $10 off. Theoretically, $160 could become $120 if all 4 lines were diligent about wi-fi and staying under 2GB. My Mom gets the credit every month. I used to, but not anymore that I've gotten rid of internet at home. My two nieces that are on the plan . . forget it! LOL.

[Anonymous]

Ok, everybody so far as been on the cut side, which is great and valid but there is also the CREATE income side.

Flip items on eBay...sale unneeded/wanted items around the house...hit up swap meets/ gargage sales, salvation army/thift stores and FLIP 'em for profit.

Start a home based business but treat it like a job or a hobby and put in real honest T.E.A. ( Time, Effort & Action) and I don't mean spending time FINDING ppl that want to JOIN your business type activity, I mean finding customers....there are ALWAYS ppl that have a need or want something ( like those items on eBay or ice cream and 🍬, to help with this or that)

With the internet, phone and desire way more ppl than "they" realize can FIND 100's if not 1000's of 💰 every month to add to the household....

We often only focus on cutting the cable bill ( which again is fine) but the $22/wk "saved" from downgrading the cable ain't gonna move the needle

STEALING the TIME away from WATCHING the cable and using it to CREATE even $99/wk is HUGE!

Again, 10hrs/wk = 43/mo if it's COMMITTED to like a job or a hobby ( like golf, bowling, stamp collecting etc) ppl CAN create some reliable income but we gotta commit to stealing that time from somewhere.

Example, I ask 'too busy, got kids but NEED the 💰' folks who have day jobs all the time

Do you have an hour for lunch... they say Yes
And you have a smartphone, right = Yes

Ok, so if the company TOLD you the lunch was cut to 30 minutes... folks would moan and complain but 4-6 months later ppl would just adust

Why not 60/40 your lunch yourself...take 36 min (20% more than a 30 min lunch) to eat and B.S. with your work mates and USE 24 minutes on personal income producing activities 5 times a week= 120 minutes that's 2 hours a week, almost 9 hours a month

Sitting there for the taking or you find burn the time talking about TV

With speed dial a person can dial an hour worth of calls in 20 minutes.... again only if the 💰 is important enough, there free/cheap apps all over the place to dial fast and send folks to your website, etc

2 nights a week Mommy/Daddy gets home 90 minutes later because directly after work one STEALS some time to create some income producing activity

Notarize some loan docs
Visit the Starbucks to hand out your card= meet & engage ppl
Or of course, don't do anything and wish it away

I don't want to SALE anything = Stop it
Ppl have plenty of wants/needs they just need to know that YOU can DO that, that you can help, that you do SERVICE that

No need to sale ice to Eskimos, they'll ask to BUY snowshoes, hats and gloves IF they know you have 'em....offer Ice in Arizona and you don't need to 'sale' anything, just be OPEN for business 💪

[Anonymous]

^^^all excellent ideas

Serious progress will really be made if you both cut and bring more money in. Ditching cable on it's own is a drop in the bucket, yes. But when I really went through my expenses, I found a lot more.

Cable was already gone, but canceling the internet saved $69.99

Switched cell providers, got the bill for two phones down $70 

Canceled Sirius XM in the car, pulled my CDs back out $15

Canceled HBO $15

Canceled Pandora Premium $5

Canceled Spotify Premium $10

Canceled Netflix $10

Changes to Car Insurance: $20

That's well over $200 bucks/month in cuts which helps a ton. You also become eligible to do the free trials on some of the above again. I also found that I don't really need all of the entertainment options at one time. You can rotate and have HBO for a month or two, then cancel and go Netflix, stuff like that. 

I next need to take your advice and bring some extra $$ in. At least starting with selling stuff I'm not using on eBay/Craigslist/etc. I have old iphones, a laptop and who knows what else just collecting dust and depreciating.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I would have to look, but they are all sitting at around 90% utilization except a online store account only has only has a $40 balance out of $600 and a gas card that has $0 out of $200

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OK, that really does not tell me anything useful. Need specific hard numbers to offer help and advice. List each credit account from largest to smallest, with balance, limit and payments.

Also how much you have in your budget to apply to the debt.