Help with my In Laws debt

[corawhite07]

My in laws are bad with money. I don't know all the details but they have debt, poor credit scores and I see no action on their part to improve their situation. They are nice people but recently put my wife and I in a tough spot.

Past history - they talked my wife (many years ago before I knew her) into taking out a loan against her car to help them pay off the mortgage (which was a few months past due). They also asked my wife (shortly after we were married) for a few hundred dollars and my wife said No.


But last month my wife got a call that if they didn't pay their power bill by 4pm that day (it was just past lunch) their power would be shut off. Since my wive's youngest brother is still living at home she paid the bill after asking me. I did say Ok when my wife asked me but felt I had no choice. It was irresponsible for them to wait to the last minute to ask and give us no time to talk it over.
I do not want this to be an issue between my wife and I (thankfully its not) and I also don't want to force my wife into a possible (and likely) argument with her parents over this issue. But I fear this is only the tip of the iceberg. We are married 1 year June 9th and I'm hoping to get advice from this forum.

Have you ever discuss it with all your family member? I think it would be nice if you were talk to this to make an solution how to resolve your problem.

[Randomsaver]

On a brighter side , there are people like me whose birth country customs include giving money to parents. So I give $500 a month to them, and $100 each on Mother's, Father's day, and another $100 each on Christmas. Since I'm having difficulty getting an American GF (maybe because I have almost no money for dating which is very expensive; can you imagine coming into a new country without knowing anybody? I'd have to be on the club/bar every other night just to know someone and then spend for the dates ). So most likely I'll end up marrying someone from birth country and most likely most of her income would be sent to help her parents, siblings, aunts, nephews, nieces.