What to Do?? - Novi,MI

HI S.
I'm a sahm too and I know what you mean. I started out cooking mostly vegetarian at home (I wasn't good at cooking meats being mostly vegetarian most of my life), and we have meat when we went out. Now we don't go out any more, and only the kids get meat. I cook 99% of all our meals, with little pre packaged foods. For fun we have pot luck dinners w/ friends rotating what house. We go to a movie about twice a year. Most of our fun stuff is out door free stuff at the parks, or family games.
I feel lucky most of my daughters clothes are handed down (some nice stuff too). Or I shop at the resale store. I hear the ones in more affluent communities have some fancy stuff. And I'm learning to sew kids clothes. Once I get the hang of it I'm going to remake resale stuff into new clothes.

And I've found planning a menu, and only buying those ingredients saves me money, and I know whats for dinner.

I did in home day care was nice while my girly was little.

We've thought of renting a room out.

You can try talking to your cc co., they might take an amount offered and drop the rest if your bordering on bankruptcy.

This site might have a program that helps
http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/mars/

Good luck, A. H

S.,

Go on-line and check out Dave Ramsey (The Total Money Makeover book) he also has a radio show on 103.5 (fm)from 7 - 9pm (Mon. - Friday) You can also check out Crown Ministries which deals with finances and Larry Burkette (has books on finances). These are the top three that I can think of at the moment.

Good luck to you and at least you are aware of the problem which is the first step to recover financially.

M. M.

I started reading DAve Ramsey "The Total Money Makeover". It has some really great tips on how to get out of debt, but you have to be committed. I checked it out at my library for free. :) Good luck to you!

Hi,
I advise you to stay away from bankruptcy, it may hurt you in the long run. I consolidated with Bank of America and they have a pretty good program. With their plan, I will be paying off approximately 50k of debt in 8 years, less if I pay more than the minimum monthly amount. Give them a call and see how it works for you. If your credit is good, the interest rates are very reasonable. Good luck....

A wonderful non-profit called Greenpath (located in MI) will counsel/ consult with you about your finances and help depending on your specific needs...hey can help you budget, consolidate debts, set up payment plans, go thorugh bankruptcy, etc...I just heard a presentation last week about their services and was blown away, it is free and they offer soo much! Heres the #, I really hope it helps! 1-888-860-4167

hello!

Try to do your best to avoid the bankruptcy route. It's not as easy as it used to be, and I think you have to still pay a lot of your debt still on top of damaging your credit for a long time.

I also went through Consumer Credit Management as someone else mentioned. You have to be prepared to close all your credit cards - it is a requirement of the program. Which is probably a good thing if you are in debt anyways :) It was hard for me at first but then I got used to it. They will also work with your creditors to lower your interest rates, and then you pay a single payment each month. There is no way I would have ever paid my debt off on my own - I am totally debt free now. If at all possible, try to overpay when you can to the debt with the highest interest.

Good luck!

I cut myself off the debit/credit card and have a atm card for emergency. My banking branch is the only one that will not charge me a fee so I get my gas money, kid & fun money and food money and stay away from the atm. I did be big B and put myself on a budget. It was soooo hard, but so far I have saved a lot of gas and stress. We have movie night - old fashion popcorn, and home made snack and Family Video has free kids movies. I fill up (keeping the tank on 1/2 so that it doesn't cost that much per week. I shop at Save a Lot and Audi's and collect coupons. I keep my sales papers that come through the mail and make a shopping plan. On the big things I just do it, like repairs to the house or car, cause those can get very expensive. Oh yea and I shop at resale - its a lot of fun. You can do it but it will take time, and prayer.
Good Luck

Hello S.

I too am a SAHM and since I stopped working to stay at home we have been struggling with just one income. So I decided to go through a debt management company to relieve some stress. Some people may frawn on these types of companies but personally I think that they are very helpful. You send one lump some to the debt management place and they disburse your funds. You don't have creditors calling you!

The company I am going through is called Consumer Credit Management and what I like about this company is that it is local. They are located in Farmington. And a friend of mine referred me to them and she highly recommended them.

Something else I do is I shop at Aldi's and the dollar store. You will be amazed at what you can get from the dollar store. I mean spices, sphagetti sauce, noodles, sugar, cooking oil, even cereal.

And I have just learned to do without! As long as my daughter has food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over her head I am good! All the other stuff is on a as NEEDED basis.

It is hard but you can do it.