ETA: @Villanelle:
I agree we need to understand why we've been charged no interest. I assumed I had at least carried a small balance on my cards previously, but I'm guessing I have just successfully paid them off each month. That's what makes the most sense, since that's what I've always tried to do in the past, and clearly we would have been charged interest otherwise, right?
And I disagree with you on us being in an "emergency" situation. Our situation is less than stellar, yeah, but considering we actually ARE able to cover all of our expenses each month without going further into debt, I don't believe that constitutes as an emergency. Not being able save money right now sucks, but it isn't what most normal people would consider an emergency. Not being able to cover your bills, however, is another story entirely - and thankfully, we're not in that place! But considering I could pay off all our debt, still have more than $1k in an emergency fund plus cover all our living expenses...this isn't an "emergency".
Also, not really sure where you are getting that we've created a bad financial cycle? In spite of our low income, we've been relatively debt free our entire life, always paid our bills on time, saved up more than 20% down to buy a home in our area right next to work with a mortgage hundreds of dollars cheaper than rent. We've always had money in our savings. The credit card debt isn't there because we had needs we couldn't afford (clearly, since we are able to pay it off...), but because we use our cards to get rewards. Not being able to pay it in full at present is due to surprise decrease in hours, that is hopefully temporary, not a "bad financial cycle".
I realize I sound a bit defensive, but I truly don't understand how you're coming to the conclusions you've come to based on any of my posts here.
You have debt. You have almost no savings. Your monthly spend is $.13 away (now $83) from being in the red, and that's if you can lower it more than you've ever lowered it before. How is that not an emergency? What happens if your car gets even something as minor as a flat tire? Or the price of groceries goes up 2%? Or a pair of shoes falls apart and need to be replaced? Or your windshield gets hit by a rock? Or one of your kids gets sick or breaks a leg or gets a cavity? Or...
Your situation is terrible. You are struggling to simply afford life, much less to actually save for the future. How is that not an emergency? You are a very minor incident away from debt, and that means the following month your expenses go up even more, which means you are short even more, and so it goes. How is that not a bad financial cycle?
It sounds like you racked up $4300 in debt in a month (since you said before last month you had no debt). You've spent nearly every penny you've made up until now. (You did have $5k in savings, but that's not especially much, and you clearly felt free to spend almost all of that on what you admit were not wise decisions. That's a bad financial cycel.
Hm, well I just don't see it the same way you do. We actually have quite a bit of resources and help should we ever need it (like an abundance of people in our lives who know pretty much every trade possible and are willing and more than happy to give their time), and even $3,500 is enough to cover the expenses that
most often arise unexpectedly. Should, God forbid, we have a medical emergency, we are double insured and our coverage is excellent. Every single thing you listed would cost us a less than our piddly savings each month, if
anything at all. (And thankfully, my kids are cavity free, as we just had check-ups last week). We also have awesome home owners and car insurance with really low deductibles - not to mention 4 new tires in our garage as backups to our presently 2 month old tires. Also, DH works about 1.5 miles away. Driving is unnecessary most of the time, and I don't drive at all (really. I don't have a license)...so we really don't spend that much there. So we'll have to agree to disagree. We are quite blessed to be around a bunch of amazing & talented friends and family, have great insurance and live close to work - so I think God more than has us covered. I get that perspectives are different though.
I'm not saying our situation is amazing. We definitely should have waited to purchase the car, and had we foreseen the cut hours, would have - but our situation isn't *nearly* as bad as what you're describing. Perhaps the fact that we've been low income forever - and I'm guessing you probably earn quite a bit of money/have quite a bit of savings, gives me a little more knowledge about what's "doable" in
our situation, and what isn't. I can imagine if you're coming from a more cushy background our situation would be scary. And I do actually appreciate the fact that you care about a stranger's situation enough to give me advice, so I do thank you for that.
Again, thankful for the advice to pay off the CC's.
ETA:
Also, our situation isn't really as bad as it seemed initially either. I wasn't coming on here to post my budget, just to see if I should pay off my CC's now or not, so I didn't really think about this - but even when we only had $0.13 to save, that was excluding $84 we already put in our "sinking" fund every month (for misc. things like oil changes, etc). I know that's technically savings, but since it's fluid, I don't think of it as "savings" but just another budget category. I also left off the $100/mo my ex gives me for my daughter (yes, a very small child support, and he should pay more, but she's 15 and I don't want to fight) since it's not from our income. So really, we actually have a buffer of $268.13/mo...which is probably why I wasn't feeling like the situation was as dire as you were! Sorry to leave that off. I truly just forgot since I wasn't really thinking of the nitty gritty budget details in the OP.
Okay - I'm gonna go plant my kiwi berries now - a future fruit savings :-D