I am so tired of being broke! We have a family of 5, 2 college degrees, one and a half incomes and we cannot afford to even get out of bed. My husband and I have been married 11 years. I spent the first 8 or 9 handling the money from a budgeting and bill paying standpoint. We've always struggled to make ends meet, so it was pretty stressful. When he agreed to take over a couple years ago I handed it ALL over and put my head in the sand to recover. I know - it wasn't smart.
We have so much in bills each month that we can't afford to save. Every social invitation is a struggle. We can't afford to do dinner with friends or go to the ball game, etc. Between 3 kids we get invited to every birthday party we can possibly write on a calendar. We can't afford that stuff and so we have to wiggle out somehow! It stinks not to be able to do that kind of stuff, but our real problem is way more basic - like, oh crap, I'm out of contact solution. Yet another expense.
We have credit card bills - about $150 a month just minimums, we have a signature loan - I forget why we even have that - $200 a month, medical bills here and there because apparently the plan we chose was not a better deal that we thought and ended up costing us more for basic care (thankfully no major health issues) but we still owe the pediatrician like $500 alone!
And Ohhhh the student loans. I am so MAD at our college-selves for being so dumb! Our payments are out of control and I don't think there is a thing we can do about it. We are getting hit with the full-fledged payments now and we are literally drowning. We've done the consolidation. We've done the deferments and the forebearance. We've done the income repayment plans. We have to pay Sallie Mae about $100 a month, AES $250 and Aspire $130. Until we die probably.
My husband works full time. I work part time (still have kids at home) and will be working more this fall while my youngest is in preschool. It's so disheartening to have to worry about dollar signs every moment of the day! We need a plan. I don't know how we're going to pay for what we owe already and my older kids are old enough (10 and 7) to want to be involved in things that we can't pay for! Where do we start?