Running a family is not just about taking care of your husband and children. I have realized with time there is a lot more to it than that. I am the CEO of the family, in a manner of speaking as running the family and coordinating with everyone is entirely upon me, and so is the running of the finances. Thus it was a huge blow for me when I realized suddenly that my husband and I have jointly accumulated quite a lot of debt advice together. I wouldn’t have realized perhaps if I hadn’t seen a friend fall into debt trouble. It was then that I decided that both my husband and I should sit together with all our credit cards and find out the total amount of debt that we have accrued.
It was quite a shock for us when we saw that the total amount of debt we had together on the seven credit cards that we have is 23,842. The breakup of the debt stands as follows;
Card 1 – 5286
Card 2 – 7,974
Card 3 – 6,492
Card 4 – 649
Card 5 – 1,024
Card 6 – 1,674
Card 7 - 743
Out of these cards, card 1 and card 3 belonged to the same credit card company while card 2, card 6 and card 7 belonged to another credit card company. The rest were from different credit card companies. Thus the total balance on card 1 and 3 was 11,778 while card 2, 6 and 7 was 10,391. We realized that we needed debt advice to get us out of our trouble. After a few debt counseling sessions, we decided that that best way to go is to settle out debts. Card 4 and card 5 had too little balance so it was best that we paid them off by increasing the monthly installments so that they would get over faster.
We approached a professional debt settlement company for help. The negotiator who looked after our debt problem managed to get a 34% off on the balance that 10,391 and a 47% off on the 11,778 debt. Thus we ultimately had to pay 6858.06 and 6242.34 for the two debts respectively. However, although a large portion of our debts were written off, still managing a total payment of 6858.06 and 6242.34 is also quite a lot. On top of that we had to pay this amount as a lump sum.
Thus I decided to take up some innovative methods to earn some money from home. First of all I held a garage sale to sell off all those items at house that are used but not of much significance. Along with this I auctioned some unused items on eBay which fetched quite an amount of money. Since I wasn’t working, I decided to take paid online surveys from home which provides quite a decent sum of money. All these measures were coupled by severe cost cutting methods and abstaining from any kind of luxury. Though we had to struggle for a few months, I am happy that we are debt free again and have got back the peace in our lives.
