Quote:
Originally Posted by Kim 
Wow! You really are going through a rough time. My heart goes out to you!
I hope your lender comes around and you can readjust your mortgage. Are there any other drastic steps you can take to reduce your monthly expenses? Can you trade in cars for cheaper models? What other expenses can you eliminate? We'll be taking a closer look at this in the next two weeks of our spending freeze. Are there ways you can increase your income? Can dh get a second job? Are you working? If not, can you get a job?
Wow! You really are going through a rough time. My heart goes out to you!
I hope your lender comes around and you can readjust your mortgage. Are there any other drastic steps you can take to reduce your monthly expenses? Can you trade in cars for cheaper models? What other expenses can you eliminate? We'll be taking a closer look at this in the next two weeks of our spending freeze. Are there ways you can increase your income? Can dh get a second job? Are you working? If not, can you get a job?
We don't owe on our cars, thankfully (but we've been paying a lot in repairs lately - OUCH) Our biggest expenses are the credit cards. We bought our home in 2005 for $575K. Immediately, we put $30K into home improvements ON CREDIT CARDS. We planned to only live in the home for 3 years b/c our son was going to a special school nearby... after 3 years he would be going to a different school. We thought by putting money INTO the house (we re-landscaped the front and backyards, plus did some improvements inside too...) we would be able to sell the home quickly when we needed to in 2008. Needless to say, we are now STUCK here and our reason for being in this house (our son now goes to another school) no longer exists. It's all a mess. We now are trying to pay off the $30K in home improvements on the credit cards. Our same model home just sold for $290K!!!!!! We are just dying over it. We have an ARM which will adjust in 6 months, at which time we will probably have to do a short sale or walk away. I had a 4th child after moving into the home... he is only 2, so going back to work isn't an option yet. There is no way for me to get a part time job... who is hiring right now? And when would I do it... my husband travels for work. He works for the government and there is a clause (?) which states that he is not allowed to have a second job... I know that sounds crazy. He works for Public Health Service (uniformed services... he is active duty) and I guess the reasoning is that a second job would possibly mean he would perform second-rate at his "real" job??? Don't know. I am trying to cut back where I best know how - groceries. I am planning to have a yard sale in the next month to raise money for our initial $1,000 (following the Dave Ramsey program). We are OVER budget by several thousand each month as it is, and it has been this way for 4 years. We have eaten up our "savings" over that time, just to close the gap (to cover monthly expenses.) This house has eaten us alive... we didn't anticipate the cost of living here when we bought it. Besides, we figured we'd only be here for 3 years, so if it turned out to be "too much for us", we could buy a smaller home the next time around. Now we are STUCK. And we can't sell it... if we put it on the market for $300K, we'd have to come up with realtor fees ($21K) PLUS pay the amount that we owe above the $300K, which is $60K. We certainly don't have $80,000 laying around. And by the way, we put 31% down on this house, so we have truly lost our rearends in this housing crash. We were not irresponsible... we rolled forward our equity from our former home... and we have lost it ALL and then some.
I won't even mention how hard this has been on our marriage.
