My wife had a major mental health crisis back in April, lost her decent paying job as breadwinner & our plan to have all this debt paid off by the end of the year is now at the window & our life is in complete shambles. My wife was always the one to take care of the financials stuff, I admit I didn’t involve myself as much as I should of and so I too am to blame for everything being so fukked up. We are currently living in a camper on parents in laws property, shyts just bad. The only positive thing going for us right now is we’ve applied for income based housing which we hope to get approved for and into starting in September. My wife used to be very smart and in tune with this financial stuff, she was well aware of how in debt we were and was very keen on how we were going to better manage our finances & fix it asap. She’s had a majorly bad time & cannot handle dealing with any of our financials anymore (or much of anything for that matter) & I am just plain stupid when it comes to finances. No idea about interest rates, consolidating debt, no idea what the fukk to do. We have no health insurance, we’re trying to do what we can with what we’ve got & the more I try to add up these numbers and sort it all, the more depressed I get realizing we’re in a really bad position. My wife wants to kill herself everyday and I’m now seeing too why she’s having such a hard time dealing with her mental health on top of all of this. Lifes really fukked up. I guess this is what poverty looks like.
Here’s the numbers, I’m hoping someone can give an idea of what the fukk we should possibly do.
I bring home about $250-300/week as laborer, I plan to seek new employment in the next 6 months as soon as we get into some stable housing that is closer to work opportunities. I’m juggling so much trying to keep my wife okay,and get us into a stable living environment again on top of everything else we're dealing with on a day to day basis.
My wife was able to get re-hired at her former workplace & this is the only job she can manage right now with her severe mental health issues. We both have never had an kind of insurance provided with our jobs & she has no decent access to mental health care & we are unfortunately managing this crisis on our own as best as we can. She’s now bringing home $150-200/week when prior she brought home $350-400.
We have a 2003 Toyota Camry on finance, $400/month. We owe about $6500 on it still, and this is our only reliable means of transportation. Insurance is about $45/month. We’re spending more now in gas then ever cause we are very far away from our workplaces I’d estimate close to $150/200 a month on gas.
In exchange for living in this camper on relatives property, $200/month. We also have all of our items in storage right now costing us $45/month.
Phone bill is $120/month. We owe on the phones and cannot switch to a lower or cheaper plan until our phones are paid off which will not be until Jan 2016.
On the six credit cards, we’re paying all the minimums but owe as follows:
Capital One has a $3500 limit, 22% interest rate, & we owe around $1300, minimum payment each month is about $70 dollars
Quicksilver card has a $1200 limit, 22% interest rate, & we owe around $950, min. payment each month is about $30
Citibank card has a $1000 limit, not sure on the interest rate on this one but we owe $650 & the min. payment each month is about $25 (interest tends to be $15.00 or less I’ve noticed)
Wells Fargo has a $1000 limit, no interest on this one but I think the interest will kick in soon cause we’ve had it about a year now, we owe $850 with a min. $25 payment each month
We have a Chase Slate Card which we used to balance transfer some older debt off the capital one card sometime in the last 6 months, it has a $1000 limit, and we owe $890.00 on it, $25 minimum payment, no interest and I have no idea when the interest starts on this one.
We also got a Chase Freedom card with a $1200 limit, we owe $950 on it & I think it has no interest as well but not sure when the interest will kick in on it. $25 minimum payment on this one as well.
We’re skimping by on whatever food we can afford, typically we spend $60 a week which is meager.We have $500 in savings which was the return on our prior home deposit & we are trying not to dip into that but we’re cutting it close & fear we will have to soon just to eat. We can’t apply for food stamps because my wifes parents already apply & receive food stamps where we live & apparently if we apply & get approved it will “mess theres up”. This is our only living situation right now & so we can’t rock the boat trying to pursue these even though we desperately need them. We’re 26 & trying to figure this out as best as we can. Any advice would be appreciated.
The only advice I’ve had from outsiders is to try to get a bank loan or a loan online (Springleaf & Lending Tree have been mentioned) and pay off our debt to consolidate payments since they’re all over the place & of different interest rates,etc. Our credit scores are both in the 630/640,my wifes will soon suffer further when hospital bills start rolling in from her issues in April. I’ve got no idea what to do. Should we get a loan, can we do anything about these credit cards? I just wish we could pause paying on them for like a month & get on our feet little bit more so we can start figuring our better work prospects & gain a sense of stability again. So far the only thing I’ve thought of is calling the card companies & telling them I can’t make any payments for the month of August, let them ad late fees & start paying on it all again in September but I don’t think that is how that works & I realize we’ll be farther behind. Any advice appreciated
