As the title says, fiance and I have two mortgages, one we can't get out of (at least any way we've looked at it).
Topic Title: What should we do to better our financial situation?
Income:
Mine: about $27,000/year before taxes. I make 22.28/hr working part time as a registered nurse (we live in a shitty, low paying area for nurses). I also work an as needed job where I make 22.75/hr, but this income is highly variable and at a location further away. So $2138/month, less obviously after taxes.
Fiance's: about $46,800/year before taxes. He makes 25/hr as a registered nurse as well. He does massages for one client off an on, she pays him $100 per massage, but this is highly variable also and definitely not the norm as far as massage income goes. $3600/month, less after taxes.
Current expenses:
Mortgage 1: $867/month. I'm looking at refinancing since I currently have a 30 year mortgage, which I know understand is not a good thing.
Mortgage 2: $550/month. This one's the killer. It's at a 9.4% interest rate (he bought it before the housing crash, and it was not a government backed loan, so he has been unable to refinance). The house is in really bad shape, its almost unlivable. We bought our current home in a hurry while I was pregnant because we did not feel this house was safe for a child (please no punches, my pregnancy was not expected so we did not have the opportunity to properly plan for a baby financially). Right now fiance is working full time night shift and going to school to complete his bachelor's degree, so has little extra time to fix the house (unless he doesn't sleep). I don't have any house fixing skills whatsoever.
Car insurance: $150/month for two cars (we don't have any car debt otherwise)
Cell phones: $180/month for two iPhones (I'm currently looking at other, cheaper plans)
Groceries: $400/month maximum. I cook most of our food, and I shop at Aldi to save money. This includes dog food and misc home stuff, cleaning products, etc.
Credit card debt: $1900 total. I know, I know. But I just found this site last week and have already paid off $1000 on one of the cards since, and will pay another $600 when I get paid tomorrow. I know this is an emergency and needs to be paid off immediately.
Gas: I fill up once a week for $40, fiance fills up more often due to working more. Probably $400/month.
Medical bills: $94/month to pay off our son's birth. $50/month to pay off bills from a car accident fiance and and son were involved in in March. Thankfully medical bills don't have interest, but they still suck.
Gas (home): $40/month
Electricity: $50/month
Internet: $28/month (we had a cheaper plan through Frontier that was awful and unreliable, and we prefer to have Internet because fiance is in online school).
Student loans: $328
Health insurance: $150/month
Total: $3237 in expenses
Expected ER expenses: I'm not sure what this means.
Assets: I currently have $10,897 in an employer 401k plan. I contribute 4% and my employer matches up to 4%. Fiance doesn't have a 401k, and I want to punch him because of it.
Liabilities: I may have mentioned these above, but I should note that fiance has about $20,000 in student loans (his current schooling is mostly being paid for by our hospital).
Specific Question(s): What should we do? At this rate we'll be working forever, and it is beyond frustrating that we are paying out the ass for a piece of junk house. We have a friend who is a lawyer who doesn't really see a way out of the crappy house. For example, if we sold it for what its worth, we would still owe on the difference. My fiance has considered filing bankruptcy to get rid of it, but we don't think that is a good idea, and in our state the bank can still come after you for the remaining cost on the home. Also, how have you all managed to convince your significant others? My fiance is an extremely hard worker and is realistic, but doesn't see the point in 'depriving' ourselves to pay off our debt. He doesn't think we make enough money for it to be worth it (ie, if we 'deprived' ourselves for a few years we'd still only pay off the debt in 7 years rather than 10). That being said, we aren't big spenders. We don't have nice cars, our nice TV was a gift, a lot of the furniture in our home was a gift, and I shop at second hand stores for our quickly growing son's clothes. My fiance wears the same clothes he did 10 years ago. I was definitely the spending culprit, I loved to buy clothes, jewelry, etc, but I've stopped, I swear! My bicycle is getting fixed right now and being attached with a baby seat, so hopefully I can ride around town more rather than drive, but I'm new to cycling and a bit nervous about riding with my son during a Midwestern winter. I'm not sure my fiance could be convinced to ride his bike more. He does have an extremely annoying habit of clown car driving that I'm working on.
Okay, if anyone made it through my rambling, thank you! I appreciate any and all advice, criticism, etc.