by 0311-
We are struggling to pay our monthly bills due to multiple credit cards and loans. We’re married and both work full time. Take home income after taxes is $4,000 combined. We have tried to budget but we keep failing because we keep needing to do unexpected maintenance and we haven’t budgeted for household items or clothing. I worked a lot of overtime toward the end of last year and we were almost caught up but we were still short every month. We just pushed bills and talked with creditors. But now they stopped giving overtime at my job and my wife can’t get overtime. So we’re now a month behind and late payments are starting to affect our credit.
We messed up by getting multiple personal loans last year and now we’re in a huge hole. I have no idea how to prioritize paying these creditors with the money we have and to not wreck our credit further. I’m not sure if I should just stop paying certain creditors until we get on our feet and have a savings. We keep having big $1000+ expenses pop up(vehicle related) and having no savings crushes us. I listed below our income and expenses as well we balances on loans. I put “cc” next to the loans that are credit cards. Is there any way I can move debts into something else(balance transfer) or if I could just get some advice on what to do. I’m so stressed about this and I feel like I’m drowning.
Also I considered a second job but at only $10 an hour, I would have to use child care and if I worked 30 hours I would probably only bring home $125/$150 on that.. which is why I haven’t done that yet.
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Mortage $722
Car payment 1 $206
Car payment 2 $235
Car Insurance $280
Health Insurance $228
Consumers $150
Phones $180
Tv/internet $130
Gym $45
Gas $500
Groceries $500
Childcare $180
Heat $180
Medical bills $100
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Loan 1 $85
Loan 2 $50 cc
Loan 3 $50 cc
Loan 4 $235 cc
Loan 5 $20 cc
Loan 6 $100
Loan 7 $150
Loan 8 $50
Loan 9 $158.26
Student Loan 1 $93
Student Loan 2 $191
Total expenses = $4863.26
Total Income = $4,006.00
End of month balance = -$857.26
Loan Balances
Loan 1 $3000
Loan 2 $400 cc
Loan 3 $800 cc
Loan 4 $12,000 cc
Loan 5 $500 cc
Loan 6 $450
Loan 7 $1000
Loan 8 $340
Loan 9 $2500