[the4parkers]

you sound like me a year ago. you just have to start .. just do it. for us.. we opened up an ing acct. get 15 dollars taken out of hubby's acct a week. sounds like not a whole lot, but when you need it to pay a bill it is a huge amount. we took the dive and soon found out that if you don't have it you won't spend it! ing acct is online so we have no mac card, no check book and it isn't available to us right away... perfect for dh and I. when the car died. we were able to borrow from it and actually break the credit card cycle FOR ONCE WE DIDN'T HAVE TO USE THE CREDIT CARD!!!!! we now have almost a thousand in there. perfect cushion for us. we are still struggling to pay the bills don't get me wrong, but it isn't nearly as stressful because we know we have that cushion, and since we see the statement and know we have it we do everything we can to watch it go up, and not borrow from it to pay the bills. you just have to take the plunge. have to start somewhere and the sooner the better. if you can't meet monthly bills then yes obviously extra income would be the answer. need to think though if you had the extra income would you throw it all towards bills?? usually the more you make the more you spend. bankruptcy is always an option for everyone, but i really think if you try the snowball effect there shouldn't be any reason why you can' tget out of this.. we were once over 50 grande in debt.. (i was 24) and we nailed it. wasn't easy. i had my poor me moments, and the man i wanna go to the mall moments, and i hate the fact that my kids always have hand me downs moments lol, but ya know.. seeing my bank acct arise from the negative was a big realty check for me.. you need to figure what works for you and what keeps you motivated to keep saving and scrimping. you need to see your money working for you rather than the bills. you can do this you just need to suck it up.
i don't agree with budgeting. it never did a darn thing for me.. no reprecussions if I didn't stick to it.. so why bother. what did work for me was writing myself a goal (financial goal) and stick it in my wallet, in my check book, taped one to the back of my atm card. whereever money was i wanted to remind myself over and over my goal. if my goal was to pay a huge gap card bill, so i could reward myself with a night at a hotel. i would write that down. everytime i was going to use my money i would see it and ask myself if i needed to spend this money that bad.. 9 out of 10 times i would put the money back in my purse..you just need to see what works for you