Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but am in a desperate situation and need some advice from people who have been in my situation.
First, a little background. I'm a divorced mother of 3 teenagers who is up to her eyeballs in debt. My ex and I divorced 3 years ago and had a failing business at the time. Unfortunately a lot of that debt that was in my name because we had to constantly take cash advances to survive. I went back to work when things went downhill but he checked out and started drinking heavily and didn't work much. Years of a struggling business and then the divorce put me in debt about $20K. I have a decent job but it's salary and I can't increase my income there. I work about 45 hours a week but I'm also raising 3 teenagers who constantly have me on the run, leaving no time for another job. I try to keep our expenses down but with 2 kids in high school it gets out of control a lot. The ex and I have joint custody and are supposed to split certain expenses but he doesn't want to pay and I can't even afford to take him to court. All of this has left me with additional debt, including medical bills from surgery a few months ago. And to top it off I just found out that I had been accidentally claiming my children for EIC for the past 3 years when he should get the credit (we alternate child deductions). So now I owe the IRS $6K for that. He hasn't filed his taxes since we got divorced so it wasn't caught. I know it's my mistake but it could have been caught the first year if he would have filed.
So to make a long story short I'm struggling to make ends meet. I try not to eat out but sometimes it happens with all three kids in sports and I often go straight from work to games up to an hour away. I will post my budget on here but I don't have a lot of give. I have tried applying for debt consolidation loans and was denied because my debt to income ratio is too high. I'm scared of going through a bankruptcy but it may be my only other option. I'm always robbing Peter to pay Paul and now I can't even do that. Does anyone have any advice on even where to start? I do budget but it's often blown away but unexpected expenses for school, medical and sports. I tried predicting these things but with kids you can't always do that. The surgery was unexpected and now I owe $2400 for that. Has anyone else been in this situation and found help somewhere? I don't want to declare bankruptcy as I have maintained a fairly decent credit score even with all of this debt. Any advice???
Thanks,
Jennifer
First, a little background. I'm a divorced mother of 3 teenagers who is up to her eyeballs in debt. My ex and I divorced 3 years ago and had a failing business at the time. Unfortunately a lot of that debt that was in my name because we had to constantly take cash advances to survive. I went back to work when things went downhill but he checked out and started drinking heavily and didn't work much. Years of a struggling business and then the divorce put me in debt about $20K. I have a decent job but it's salary and I can't increase my income there. I work about 45 hours a week but I'm also raising 3 teenagers who constantly have me on the run, leaving no time for another job. I try to keep our expenses down but with 2 kids in high school it gets out of control a lot. The ex and I have joint custody and are supposed to split certain expenses but he doesn't want to pay and I can't even afford to take him to court. All of this has left me with additional debt, including medical bills from surgery a few months ago. And to top it off I just found out that I had been accidentally claiming my children for EIC for the past 3 years when he should get the credit (we alternate child deductions). So now I owe the IRS $6K for that. He hasn't filed his taxes since we got divorced so it wasn't caught. I know it's my mistake but it could have been caught the first year if he would have filed.
So to make a long story short I'm struggling to make ends meet. I try not to eat out but sometimes it happens with all three kids in sports and I often go straight from work to games up to an hour away. I will post my budget on here but I don't have a lot of give. I have tried applying for debt consolidation loans and was denied because my debt to income ratio is too high. I'm scared of going through a bankruptcy but it may be my only other option. I'm always robbing Peter to pay Paul and now I can't even do that. Does anyone have any advice on even where to start? I do budget but it's often blown away but unexpected expenses for school, medical and sports. I tried predicting these things but with kids you can't always do that. The surgery was unexpected and now I owe $2400 for that. Has anyone else been in this situation and found help somewhere? I don't want to declare bankruptcy as I have maintained a fairly decent credit score even with all of this debt. Any advice???
Thanks,
Jennifer
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