What steps are you personally taking?

With DH's layoff, we're currently just trying to stay afloat! But I think that will change ... at least I hope so! But once he returns to work, full time, I plan on keeping my little cashiering job. It brings in extra money that I can apply towards our existing debt. The layoff has opened our eyes in so many ways ... if we hadn't had as much debt we would have had a really nice summer with him not working but the stress of the extra bills has been very stressful. Those need to go.

DH and I have also taken in a very part time gig of writing for our local paper. It doesn't pay a lot but it is a little that we can keep applying to our debt.

We are not using credit cards at all. We are working on paying them off. We are researching cards to transfer our high interest balance to a lower interest offer since our current company says they don't lower interest rates.

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~Happiness is a large family~

we have sucessfully paid off all of our cc!!!! now we are working on consumer debt

dumb question, but I always assumed cc debt was consumer debt.... so what exactly is consumer debt? Car/boat loans?

Thanks

We paid off all our consumer debt this year.

We were in great financial shape until recent car repairs and hotel expenses for a wedding put us back into credit card debt.

I'm personally trying to only buy necessities.

we are only buying the necessities and paying down our cc debts i also called and our two cards that had the highest balances gave me 0% interest and made them into fixed loans for me in order to get them paid off. so that is great! i have one cc and one small loan that will be paid off by christmas then if we keep going we can be debt free in 2 years if we don't pay any extra(wich we will).

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

We have paid off all credit cards and everything that was 12 mos SAC. We are working on paying off the car now. We pay cash for everything and the budget is broke down into a ga-jillion lines.

When I was trying to get out of cc debt this is what I did:
cut dh's up, put mine in the safe, stopped shopping-literally amazing how much you save if you don't go to stores in the first place , sold stuff on ebay and craigslist and put all earnings towards debt, provided part-time childcare and babysitting-putting all earnings towards debt, dh worked overtime, cut back on grocery bill/eating out, never had cable or expensive cell phone plans, etc., put bonuses and tax returns towards debt.

Took awhile but it was worth it! Now we are paying extra to get vehicle paid off then we will be debt free other than the house, it really feels amazing and is a great motivator!

We also pay cash for everything now (we don't use cc's at all), and have savings in place for emergencies although it will never be high enough for me so we are saving a lot into that account and for next home down payment.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

NO dumb questions, only unanswered ones. Technically you are correct cc are consumer debt b/c purchases made on cc are consumer purchases but somehow, and probably b/c the cc companies have set themselves in a totally different realm of slime when it comes to their practices, we have come to the conclusion that it is better to have only car/rv/atv/boat/motorcycle (toys) loans than it is to have cc loans. We call these consumer loans and we can get a better finance rate (most of the time) on these items.

Hope that helps you out. My thing is I want to be totally debt free!!!!!

I think that would be an awesome feeling. I was debt free before DH and I were married (I was a single mom then). After DH and I married I began helping him pay off debt and we just never climbed out of that hole. I can see light at the end of the tunnel now and I am certain it is not an oncoming train!!! LOL