[crazyliblady]

Thank you, LuxLiving, for posting your approach to getting out of credit card debt. My husband and I were proud to get past a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. For those who do not know, Chapter 13 is a bankruptcy that is a structured debt payoff. You pay the bankruptcy trustee and that person pays the debt. We paid faithfully on the debt every payday and when we done, we restructured our budget to allow for eating something better than pork and beans and peanut butter. We were never late on a single payment. The bankruptcy was dischared in July 2004. Saving this money after the bankruptcy discharge allowed me the next year to look for a new, better job and accumulate a nest egg for the move. We only charged the moving van to the credit card and quickly paid it off. The only problem is, earlier this year, I had to have surgery that was not anticipated. My insurance paid for 80% of it, but I am still left with a bill of over $1000. I also had a bunch of measly little bills, like from the radiologist, anesthesiologist, and who knows what else. My husband also had to go to the emergency room (he is not covered by a health insurance plan) and his bill is over $3000. We also have $100 left to pay on our used truck. So, I have been paying as much as I can to get these paid off as soon as possible, but I find that we are nearly running out of money every month right before I get paid. My husband was laid off from his job at the beginning of August, but will begin working at another company starting this coming Saturday. He and I have worked out a deal where with every paycheck he gets, all but $50 of it goes towards some part of our debt. The truck debt and medical bills definitely do have to be paid, but there is no interest incurred with them. Once he starts getting paid, we will start with paying off my medical bill with all the extra money he can give me, because it is the smallest and we will get huge satisfaction from seeing it paid off. I am accumulating some coins and bills in an envelope and will go to the bank on Saturday and deposit it and pay off a little bit on one of the debts. I also have a credit card with a $600 balance and a whoppingly huge APR of 18%! I am going to apply for another card through my bank and transfer the balance. Hopefully, my good record with them will amount to a better rate. We rarely go out to eat or the movies. We only have cell phones with a family plan - no land line. We have Internet, but it is the cheapest Internet we can get without a land line. I take my lunch to work every single day. I am just not sure if there are a whole lot of other ways to cut our expenses. Anyone have any ideas?