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Absolutely. We have charge everything possible for a long time. Easy paper trail, easy contesting charges. OP has no intentions of doing anything but whine.
We charge everything we can. Even my $6,000 operation! (I called the cc first to warn them). I wish we could charge more but this is mostly a cash society. We can charge our groceries at least but most small businesses won't take them.
It's a great convenience. Who wants to carry a bunch of cash around? It wasn't fun stuffing 2 grand in my underwear on a 5 hour bus ride to the dentist, lol (crowns).
We pay it off every month and get some rewards too.
I mean to keep checking accounts from overdrafting
This is a very very scary precedent and what happens is families especially with small children will say :
We can’t cut out childcare, we aren’t going to ruin our family Memorial Day outing , we aren’t going to cut out child’s soccer practice it’s not the child’s fault …. We MUST make a birthday party for our 5yo or he will be the only one in his class without one how will he feel? Grocery Food was higher and it caught us off guard
But if we pay the utility bill that leaves us $50 left in checking till next pay day and we can’t ….
Solution : Master card credit line $3000 ok charge the $150 electric it’s only $25 a month min payment
Next month goes by ….. another similar situation
Now what happens for anyone who does this is for a certain length of time it’s an attitude of “whatever its a little monthly fee, we’ll get by”
Then beyond a certain threshold at a very very very very rapid rate….. this becomes apparent NOT only is this NOT free money that has to be paid all back 100%…. And you’ll see this
Credit Statement Balance: $3,704.06…. “Ok ok ok it’s ….
New Pending charges …
Full outstanding credit: $5,379.58…. Min payment: 176.28
Pediatric physican bill from July 2001: $854.37
Children’s Hospital bill : $9,854.71Insurer paid: $8,100
Your Amount due : $1,754.71
Your student loan payment
2021 monthly payment: $374.58/month
New payment at renewal: $532.48
Your Amazon rewards card amount due $2,254.76
Notice: School is out in one Month…. Childcare options for summer are filled up fast …. One spot available required payment : $1,864.37
Then while stressing your kid on their last week of school you’ll find the car you have been driving for years fully owned in your name …. has a breakdown you call emergency road service you go to repair shop …. We are unfortunately understaffed you’re looking at at least 48 hours …. 48 hours later …. There’s some complications to your transmission we can fix it for you you’re looking at roughly $4,000-$4,500 parts labor and it’ll be ready tomorrow afternoon ….
But if you Were struggling to balance budget without going over in the first place, let alone need to stretch a few hundred onto a card……. NOW the ONLY way out is to cut back to a point where you have to manage with what would have given you a surplus of savings …. Just to balance …
If you deem that no longer possible, you excuse additional borrowing to cope with the existing debt cost … which add to this…. Rate hikes …. And you’re going to see some defaults, some will never be able to pay it all back or only by undergoing major life disruptions
Add to this even higher much higher inflation and no ability to save on top higher interest rates , on top desperate personal loans and eventually denied credit applications
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freesponge
Embarrassingly this is close to my situation
I was going to ask if you were you the poster who was running a small business that deals with produce where you were being cut off by a supplier but a quick look at your thread history shows that you are.
You really need to stop living the way you have. Sounds like you need to move too to a more affordable place where kids do not get these expensive parties because the majority of parents can't afford them.
I know you were looking to move at one time, your thread is below. Were you able to move? If not, why? You can't continue to live like this. IIRC you did have family that could help by lending you money to change houses.
Best thing you could do would be to find an affordable house to purchase, then declare bankruptcy, leaving the house out. I suggest buying a house because if you lose your rental during the bankruptcy it could be used against you to rent another place.
What you are doing with raising your kids is wrong because you can't afford to live that way. You have to stop the birthday parties, after school sports and other classes like karate and dance if they apply. You also most likely need to change the way you shop with buying "convenience items" like most people these days do with things like juice boxes, single serve snacks.
You need to go over your monthly bills too such as cell phones and cable TV. None of you will die without regular TV. Buy a firestick, or borrow a relatives Comcast log in so the kids can still watch a few shows on Comcast on demand app. If you are getting any type of welfare, I see you have an EBT card thread, Comcast has a net package for low income people to keep the kids connected during COVID, it is $10 or $15 per month.
If you buy coffee out every morning, go buy a $20 coffee pot, start making coffee at home. This can save about $10 per week which is about $40 per month. In 5 months it's $200, 10 it's $400. Think of the convenience items you buy the same thing. Those $10 a package convenience items really add up at the end of the week/month/year. Same with eating out for lunch plus buying drinks at a convenience store. Purchase a cooler and ice packs from Walmart for under $20, start bringing your lunch and drinks. Just doing that can save you $100 or more per week which would be over $500 a month, especially if you add the daily coffee to it.
You need to sit down and think about how you live, write it down how much you buy per month, what can you change? How much will that save you per month? Savings per year?
Do you regularly eat at restaurants? Stop that. How about Friday or weekend fast food night? Stop the weekend pizzas. Walmart sells pizza dough for $1 each in a cold case by their deli, it will make a pie. If you are just starting to learn to make pizza, you will need two or three of them. Buy one large pack of mozzarella to shred for 2 dough packs. Purchase 1/4lb pepperoni from the deli to top the pies. I've been making pizza and stromboli/calzones with my grandson since he was about 3. He's been able to make his own pie once I pound down the dough ball to shape it into a disk. He will finish stretching it, plus can put everything on himself since he was 4. Calzone/stromboli are easier to make to shape the dough into a rectangle, put your ingredients in it, fold it over, bake at 350 until done. Sam's club sells a pizza kit if you can't buy pizza dough from Walmart or a local pizza place. It's a lot cheaper than ordering out, plus the kids have fun making their own by adding sauce, cheese, toppings to the already shaped pizza dough. My grandson loved when I'd take a pic of him and his pies to post to my Facebook. My grandson enjoys making his own pizzas so much that he does not miss pizza from a pizza shop.
Hopefully you do everything you can to keep your monthly utilities down such as not leaving lights on, not running water when brushing teeth. It does help. My daughter is one to keep the sink full blast to brush her teeth or wash her hands. My water bill went down by a lot when she moved out.
I was going to ask if you were you the poster who was running a small business that deals with produce where you were being cut off by a supplier but a quick look at your thread history shows that you are.
You really need to stop living the way you have. Sounds like you need to move too to a more affordable place where kids do not get these expensive parties because the majority of parents can't afford them.
Best thing you could do would be to find an affordable house to purchase, then declare bankruptcy, leaving the house out. I suggest buying a house because if you lose your rental during the bankruptcy it could be used against you to rent another place.
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BUY a house? The OP certainly doesn't have the money to buy any place outright and what lender in their right mind would approve financing for them? Even if they did manage to get a mortgage the last thing someone who can't manage the debt they have now needs is to take on another significant debt. BK is not something you want on your record either...
Last edited by Parnassia; 05-12-2022 at 12:43 PM..
My husband is a spendthrift and I am saver. He used his checking account bounce protection as an early paycheck and had over a dozen credit cards with high balances. Nightmare scenario.
In the late 1980's, I took away his credit cards. Every workday, he got two NYC subway tokens, a $5.00 bill, and a packed lunch. Then we began paying off all our credit cards at the end of the month.
It was painful, but he learned to live within his means. And, believe or not, we are still happily married.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freesponge
We can’t cut out childcare, we aren’t going to ruin our family Memorial Day outing , we aren’t going to cut out child’s soccer practice it’s not the child’s fault …. We MUST make a birthday party for our 5yo or he will be the only one in his class without one how will he feel? Grocery Food was higher and it caught us off guard
But if we pay the utility bill that leaves us $50 left in checking till next pay day and we can’t ….
Solution : Master card credit line $3000 ok charge the $150 electric it’s only $25 a month min payment
Next month goes by ….. another similar situation
Credit Statement Balance: $3,704.06…. “Ok ok ok it’s ….
New Pending charges …
Full outstanding credit: $5,379.58…. Min payment: 176.28
Pediatric physican bill from July 2001: $854.37
Children’s Hospital bill : $9,854.71Insurer paid: $8,100
Your Amount due : $1,754.71
Your student loan payment
2021 monthly payment: $374.58/month
New payment at renewal: $532.48
Your Amazon rewards card amount due $2,254.76
Notice: School is out in one Month…. Childcare options for summer are filled up fast …. One spot available required payment : $1,864.37
So, here is my two cents.
Do a saving analysis on childcare - does your salaries justify this expense? Could you save money by having one parent quit?
Tell your family you simply can not afford the Memorial Day outing. There - it's done!
I can see the child’s soccer practice bills . I can not see the birthday party. What happened to a homemade cake/ice cream in the backyard? Martha Stewart has great cupcake recipes and designs for birthday parties. One year, we had a make your own pizza party where I taught the kids to shape pizza dough and let them choose their own topping. Huge mess, great party!
Ask your parents for help with the medical bills. It's crazy they aren't paid.
It's better to pay off a student loan than a Memorial Day outing.
Lose your Amazon rewards card - never use it again and pay off the balance.
It's going to hurt - a lot!!! Ask my husband!!! It will hurt less than a bankruptcy! Pick your poison!
I agree fully with your need to move!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
Sounds like you need to move too to a more affordable place where kids do not get these expensive parties because the majority of parents can't afford them.
I know you were looking to move at one time, your thread is below. Were you able to move? If not, why? You can't continue to live like this. IIRC you did have family that could help by lending you money to change houses.
Last edited by YorktownGal; 05-13-2022 at 10:13 AM..
We charge everything we can. Even my $6,000 operation! (I called the cc first to warn them). I wish we could charge more but this is mostly a cash society. We can charge our groceries at least but most small businesses won't take them.
It's a great convenience. Who wants to carry a bunch of cash around? It wasn't fun stuffing 2 grand in my underwear on a 5 hour bus ride to the dentist, lol (crowns).
We pay it off every month and get some rewards too.
Yeah I think my parents charge everything because they get good rewards from it. I charge a lot for the same reason, but I have only ever carried a balance on some rare occasions where they had balance transfer promos, or periods with no or very low interest, and I bought a single large purchase.
A good friend of mine puts every single one of his regular household payments, including his mortgage, on his credit card. He does it for the travel points. Of course he pays the full balance every month.
A good friend of mine puts every single one of his regular household payments, including his mortgage, on his credit card. He does it for the travel points. Of course he pays the full balance every month.
I know someone who does that too!
Seems over-the-top to me, but it works for them.
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The OP certainly doesn't have the money to buy any place outright and what lender in their right mind would approve financing for them? Even if they did manage to get a mortgage the last thing someone who can't manage the debt they have now needs is to take on another significant debt. BK is not something you want on your record either...
