middle class without options

You have a combined income of 80grand a year and cannot make ends meet? Do you have a lot of children? Are you living well above your means? Cuz thats upper middle class....

I have $60 in my bank account. Unbeknownst to us, our bank ach'd the account for equity, and our insurance company took $290 on the 24th. Have no idea why that date. It's usually the 15th. I know....but when you get so far behind, and then you start also paying nsf fees.... But this is *exactly* why we can't get help or crawl out of debt. No one understand why we are in this boat, and no one thinks we need help or counseling to get out.

also, we have 2 children, and 1 on the way. We don't live above our means because we have NO expendible income to do so. I wish I could show you our bank statements. No vacations, no shopping at the malls, just a weekly trip to Walmart where we spend about $80 on groceries. Our house payment is $1008.00 per month. Our debt to income ratio is about 55%. If we could just come out on top, we'd be fine. But we are drowning.

I would not say that the whole financial world is against you. You are simply in a position that many of us find ourselves in - as you said in your post - poor habits in the past have made you a prisoner of debt in the present and the future if you don't change things.

If your budget looks good on paper, then it's time to find out exactly why it isn't working in reality. I realize things happen from time to time, but I would sit down with your spouse, the bills, the bank statements and a calculator and figure out exactly what's going on. Do you have a debit card for the checking account? Review your bank statements - if use of the debit card is causing your NSF problem, then it's time to get rid of the card or at least lock it away until you get a handle on things. I've had to do the same myself, because it was too easy to use the debit card when I knew the money in the bank account was earmarked for other debts (like the automatic insurance withdrawal - regardless of what day of the month it comes out).

I'm not trying to be hard-nosed, offensive, or mean. I'm just stating facts. If you have a budget that looks good on paper, it should be doable in reality, provided you take the time to figure out where the problems are. You can do this! I have faith in you! :-)

Thank you, SueBee for the encouragement and the time to post. :) It's hard for us to discuss this with our peers and family. We have one debit card that we use on Fridays, but honestly, our budget has been so tight that Monday through Thursday we can't use it as there's nothing left. We don't even own checks at the moment, we ran out and I haven't reordered. I figure if I don't have them, I won't bounce them. I know there's no reason we should be living like this. Nevermind the credit score, I just hope we can get caught up before December. :(

Good luck to you newman. I know the feeling of living pay check to paycheck all to well. We've been slowly getting a budget down over the last few months and it has been working. August is going to be hard for us again because they cut my husband's work hours back and therefore he wont get much overtime--so I have no idea what I'm going to do!
I wish you the best though and I do hope you find a plan and a budget that works right for you. Is there anything you can cancel (cable?) to help save money for a few months?

:shock: YOU Cannot be serious. I see this and I LOL. Im the one who's lower middle class. I work 2 get this right, 2 Jobs make around $62k per yr. Have 4 kids thats right, 4 kids 12,11,9 and 6. Monthly bills are : Mortgage $1856, 04 Acura $622, 06 RAv4 $365 utilities, student loans, Visa & MC, HomeDepot C.C, Best Buy C.C, Car Insurance $180, 2 personal loans which are $187 per month. I have a PS3, Boys have a Xbox 360. girls Wii ( I just brought Madden 08 for ps3 :) . Malls Dont remember what they look like. We eat out every Friday. I drink My heinekens 2-3 times a week and WE ARE grateful for what we HAVE/ SOME say I WORK TO PAY BILLS but my family and I are happy. OPS I forgot to say Im the SOLE PROVIDER FOR OUR FAMILY and Live IN CT were we pay the HIGHEST taxes in US. And I dont and NEVER WILL pay the Min. on Credit cards. If I made $80K Watch out TRUMP the world would be mines :) P.S and I have a couple of Mortgage payments saved in the bank. I contribute 20% to my 401k. I just don't see how your bills are lower than mine and you are struggling. Unless there is something you are not telling us. Gambling problems , Drugs dunno but where there's smoke there's usually is a fire.

It does not matter if you are rich are poor, unless you change your behavior and respect for money and how you spend it; you can be a millionare and have to use the dollar menu at Mcdonalds, or you can be poor as dirt and have a steak at chelamens. Its up to you!

Everyone is different and has different issues...when I finally sat down to work out a budget...I tracked what I spent for about 2 weeks to see where my money was going..you would be surprised!!! I found I was spending about $15 a week just in coffee..for the rides to and from work..and eating lunch out every day was costing me at least $25....That's $160. a month...and I was complaining about not having extra money...Now I take my lunch at least 4 x a week...and I bought a travel mug and take coffee from home. These are just a couple of the things I found myself doing...I have currently saved myself well over $200. a month in easy stuff and have a savings account for the first time in many years....

I'm not here to pass judgement - it really doesn't matter to me how you got where you are - we share that feeling of deperation. I'm a single mom of a 13 yr old with special needs. My gross income averages about $62K. And I was in a place that lead me to get 15 pdl's. In the end those pdl's were taking my entire paycheck. I have learned a hard lessen because to survive I was brown bagging it, never eating out and living on next to nothing. Now that things are looking up and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I still brown bag it, make my own "latte's" from home brewed coffee and plan on actually having a savings account that has more then a $1 balance. Bad habits and poor choices got me in to the mess I'm in but there were also things like high medical insurance premiums, copays on prescriptions alone were over $500 a month and then of course add the two or three doctor visit copays a month. I don't qualify for help because I gross too much. I'm not looking for anything by sharing this except to point out that you never know what someone is dealing with by looking at annual income and dependents and such so I just want to say to the OP I understand it can happen.

Your income surely is above the median average. It sounds like you might benefit from some sort of credit counceling.