Welcome to the ECA (economically challenged association)

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rayne89

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Well we have the mudgie’s clubhouse, the internet junkies treehouse, the Troglodytes guild -not a clue what that is, the pregnant clubhouse(really didn’t know a clubhouse could get pregnant), and the CA bed and breakfast
I have concluded a portion of our community is being under-represented. So I am introducing the Economically Challenged Association or the ECA.

Currently looking for member to commiserate about our daily struggles, share our fiscal faux-pas, encourage and pray for one another, and so ya’ll can alleviate some of my guilt for being budget challenged.😃

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=71561
the above link is about our current financial situation if you haven’t caught it yet.

I know I’ve got some qualifying members out there so feel free to join up.
 
I’ll join!

I’ll give you my “qualifications” lol.

I have a chronic illness that prevents me from working at this time. I did, however, just go through a tribunal to get disabilty benefits, so I could use any prayers you guys can offer( I will know the result in a few weeks). The little bit of extra money would not only help us out tremendously, but it would also help ease my feeling of being a burden to my husband.

He is in the military (Canadian) and his pay is just enough for us to live paycheck to paycheck. If I didn’t have a strict budget (and stick to it) we would be in big trouble!

Aside from the budget, we try to save money in other ways. I have recently started cutting his hair (poor guy, lol). I hardly ever get haircuts myself.

We drive a small, fuel efficient car so we save quite a bit on gas…especially now!

We rent movies on DVD instead of going out to movies.

We cut way back on our sattelite tv.

I can’t remember the last time either of us got any new clothes etc.

We shop wisely, but not cheaply. That is our area where we don’t compromise. With my health problems we try to eat as healthy as possible. So our food budget is probably larger than some of yours, but I can’t function on a diet of mac and cheese and lots of potatoes as filler. I wish we could!

I look forward to hearing your tips on surviving as a member of the ECA… thanks Rayne

Malia
 
I may as well start up a Chapter of the ECA here in San Diego, with the cost of living/housing so high. Betcha 70% of the population would probably qualify -

As for me, married, working mother of 3 boys (2 teenaged, 1 kindergarten). Just spent a bundle on school supplies and clothes, so unfortunately, had to apologize to my landlady for the late rent. My husband works, but not a full 40-hr week, due to the nature of his job, so each payday, we barely scrape by.

My credit is not bad/not good - have a pretty good handle on my credit cards and car loan - but still have some outstanding medical bills from 4 different hospitalizations in the last 5 years. I’m constantly borrowing money from my dad to cover my overdrafts in my checking account.

But I do thank God that by the seat of my pants, my family always has food, shelter, entertainment, transportation, and a close-knit family life! 👍
 
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Tonks40:
I may as well start up a Chapter of the ECA here in San Diego, with the cost of living/housing so high. Betcha 70% of the population would probably qualify -
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I hear you, DH had to turn out a lucrative job offer in San Diego a few years ago because cost of living and cost of home was astronomical, and the salary increase, while substantial, was nowhere near enough to enable us to live on without my working fulltime, which was not a good idea at the time.

Our actual retirement income is about 25% of what it was 5 years ago when we came down here for reasons too boring to relate. We had already cut expenses by 90% before we moved, so did not have a lot of wiggle room. I work for insurance and nominal salary (without DH I would be below the poverty line) but insurance is a biggie as DH is self-employed. He still finds time to golf (we have free golf here which of course is why we live here) so our major and most important expense is covered, and our housing cost is still less than it would be in most of the retirement parks here.

We eat pretty cheap since fresh fruit and vegetables locally grown are available year round here, a big farming area. We don’t buy junk foods, which watching my daughters shop, is a huge part of a lot of family grocery bills. DH wears golf shorts and shirts daily, of which he has an abundant supply, and I will never need to buy clothes except underwear unless I lose a lot more weight. biggest single monthly expense is prescription co-pay, but losing weight has let me drop 2 meds, lower dose on 2 more.
 
Can I join? We actually make decent money, have decent credit and can at least cover all our bills each month. However, we made a bundle of bad choices when we first got married and are up to our eyeballs in debt. We have been working for two years to climb our way out but it seems like it is two steps forward, one step back (and sometimes it seems like one step forward, two steps back).

For example - this absolutely burns me up - we have an AT&T Universal credit card. We were two days late last month, and they bumped our APR from 6% to 30.75%!!! I have to doublecheck my records, but I think it is the first time we have ever been late on that card. It makes me so mad! So we are in the process of transfering that balance to other cards. Ugh!
 
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maryalene:
Can I join? We actually make decent money, have decent credit and can at least cover all our bills each month. However, we made a bundle of bad choices when we first got married and are up to our eyeballs in debt. We have been working for two years to climb our way out but it seems like it is two steps forward, one step back (and sometimes it seems like one step forward, two steps back).

For example - this absolutely burns me up - we have an AT&T Universal credit card. We were two days late last month, and they bumped our APR from 6% to 30.75%!!! I have to doublecheck my records, but I think it is the first time we have ever been late on that card. It makes me so mad! So we are in the process of transfering that balance to other cards. Ugh!
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Sounds similar to our sitch right now. DH has a great job, but we also have car payments (had to get a new car (well it’s used but new to us) in March so we’ll be paying that off for the next 5 years by which time we’ll probably need a new one. And we’re paying off another loan that we got when we consolidated all of our credit card bills (did some dumb, dumb things with the credit cards when we were dating and first married) plus another $2,000 Mastercard bill. Plus rent, which isn’t cheap, and the other “normal” bills…groceries, electric, etc.
I’ve curbed my spending habits somewhat…haven’t bought any new clothes in a couple months. We’ve gone out to dinner maybe twice in the last few months. (we used to go a couple times a week :eek: ) and I canceled my gym membership which was $30 a month. I don’t know what else to do really, but sloooowly inch toward paying stuff off. I mean, we’re not poor or anything, but I hate having this debt on us and I really can’t wait to get rid of it.

I’ve got a couple job interviews this week, so we’ll see how things go 🙂
 
Welcome all!👋

Just got home from work, my first day back since I was in the hospital so I’m kind of pooped. :yawn: I’ll write more later just wanted check in with my fellow ECA members.😉
 
I’d like to join too!

We are actually not doing too bad right now- my husband is dedicated to being debt free, but that has also been keeping us from getting to buy a home. Right now, we rent from his parents, and that relationship isn’t exactly ideal. So, for almost 4 years now we’ve dealt with living here in a modest farm house, but we are outgrowing it. I just feel like we’re living under their thumb (and his mother likes us being there). Hopefully someday we can make the leap, but it seems so far off.
 
I am so in! We are a single income family and have sacrificed any financial “stability” to homeschool our three children. We came from Canada, which had a lot of economic “safeguards” like mother’s allowance. (I am American and husband is Canadian). He has worked labor since we moved south 9 years ago, just to feed us. We have been VERY humbled by our God in the last decade… My husband has never used his degree because the sweat of his labor made more money. God has been providential but we have not always been happy about it, though have definately seen miracles on a regular basis!. We have a deep spirituality but it is hard-won. It’s the Teresa of Avilia statement about how God treats His friends…

We are okay now, and both in Graduate school at a very Catholic University. But we have some financial challenges that I am setting back and watching our God work out. I have a tendency to be stubborn and ‘rebellious’ so God knocks me down a notch every so often-the last time being last week… 😃

Talk about the spiritual warfare just trying to type this post! My computer, (which is on its last leg) is doing things it has NEVER done before. :eek:

I would love a place to vent my woes and still hang on to what our God is doing for our perfection…
 
I actually should have added a little more background to give more info on the boat we’re in. I graduated college in 2001 with an education degree, taught for one year, and then quit to be a stay home mommy. We then had baby #2 and are doing comfortably on my husband’s income. He farms, so we usually get large checks at one time. It is enough to sustain our lives at this time, but it seems hopeless that we’ll be able to add a house payment onto our bills. Sometimes it’s tempting to go back to work just to get us ahead a little, but I can’t even imagine not staying home with my kiddos! I’m actually looking into seeing what I can do to make money at home, not those schemey jobs advertised, but rather baking things and other odds and ends. I’ve also thought about tutoring, but I don’t know when I’d be able to do that as my time is very limited in the evenings. So, anyway, it’s nice to have a place to unload financial frustrations!
 
So, what do we do now? I would love to hear tips and tricks for stretching the money we have… having fun on a limited budget…and I would especially like to know about jobs I can do from home that aren’t scams…like MomTo2.

Malia
 
Feanaro's Wife:
I have a chronic illness that prevents me from working at this time.
I can’t remember the last time either of us got any new clothes etc
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Sounds like me! I also have been dealing with chronic illness for the last five years and cannot qualify for disability. I do a little bit of data entry and newsletter editing from home, but it doesn’t bring in much. My husband is working two businesses, both commission only, so we never know from month to month and it has been hard.

We have been fortunate to have so many friends and family who chip in and help out here and there when they can, but we are so ready to have enough to make ends meet on our own, and hope someday to give back to others.

It’s really difficult for one-income families. I know most really sacrifice to stay home with the kids. Our kids are 11 and 15 now, so they are good helpers, but it’s all I can do to try to keep up with household chores, get them where they need to go and make it to the store to get food.

So, I think I qualify to join, too! It’s good to be among friends 🙂
 
Well, maybe this thread can change our luck! 😃
Hubby has a job interview tomorrow night all of the sudden, so if you all could pray for him and our situation, I would appreciate it. Thank you and God bless! 🙂
 
Feanaro's Wife:
So, what do we do now? I would love to hear tips and tricks for stretching the money we have… having fun on a limited budget…and I would especially like to know about jobs I can do from home that aren’t scams…like MomTo2.

Malia
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Well, I’m on disability too. It took me two years to get it and it is not all that much. Hubby has a decent income for now, I hope and pray his company doesn’t downsize as there are rumors on that… Still, with my medication copays and credit card debt we live from paycheck to paycheck. I wish I could find a pt job with limited hours that I could do. I’ve sold things on Ebay and make a few extra bucks here and there. I’ve put myself on consumer research company’s lists so every so often I get called to do a survey or panel discussion. I buy clothes on sale or shop at resale shops. Around holidays Salvation Army usually has a big clothing sale and I pick up a few things. I tell my relatives what I NEED for Christmas so I get practical things. I also keep a wallet with dividers for gobs of coupons I clip every week from the papers. When I hit 50 I joined AARP, there are hotels and companies, even lawyers who offer discounts to AARP members. Hope these ideas help.
 
Many of you guys know me on the forum (I tend to talk about myself a lot 😃 )but for those who don’t -a little info.

Well let’s see… I got married at the ripe old age of 18 (almost 19) to my highschool sweety.:love: He had joined the navy at the the time. I was away from the church for the most part until I became pregnant 4 years into our marriage. Hubby had a multitude of negitive religious experiences growing up from JW to Pentecostal and had no interest in religion was pretty much a borderline atheist.

He converted 2 years after our daughter was born. I was pretty reckless with our credit cards after our daughter was born. I had stopped working full time, his hours had been cut and plain and simple I was very irresponsible. We also had some financial emergencies that went on the cards too.

Well about 5 years ago I suddenly looked at our card balances and went “What the h*** have I done.” Switched almost exclusively to debit card and the last time I used a credit card at all was close to 4 years ago. I have been trying desperately to get a handle on things but we are getting no where except paying mostly interest. Two years ago hubby was laid off for several months I was sick with Crohn’s disese at the same time and missed alot of work. That certainly didn’t help.

I also have a very serious heart problem that is progressing and I have had to make a decision to cut my hours back even further in order to try and maintain my health.

With all that spending in our earlier years I certainly have little to show for it. We live in a double wide mobile home, and drive 2 old cars. I haven’t bought myself new clothes in a least a year probably longer then that. I do pick up an occasion item form our local thrift store. My daughter’s clothes are almost entirely hand me downs from a dear friend (who has very nice taste in clothing) and the only vacation we’ve ever been on was a camping trip 3 years ago. We did also did go away for a weekend to a resort hotel up north during off season for our 10th anniversary (but we ate at taco bell:D .) No cell phones, no cable tv our only “luxurey” is internet service.

We finally decided on bankruptcy because it is killing me to watch my hubby work 12 hour days and have nothing to show for it. I have been paying on the cards for years so I know they have gotten their money probably a couple times over with all the interest. I never thought I’d be in the position but I really feel we’ve learned from our mistakes and need a fresh start. I haven’t used a credit card in 4 years so I know how to get by without one now.

Guess that covers it.😛
 
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MomTo2:
Well, maybe this thread can change our luck! 😃
Hubby has a job interview tomorrow night all of the sudden, so if you all could pray for him and our situation, I would appreciate it. Thank you and God bless! 🙂
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Praying! :gopray:
 
For those with small children, one thing we did when ours were little was to have a family movie night (like on Friday night). We wouldn’t let them watch a lot of TV or movies during the week, so it was something special. Sometimes it would be a movie we already had, or we might borrow one from a neighbor, or rent one with a coupon.

The kids would make their own tickets and money to spend at the concessions. We would make popcorn and have other snacks they could “purchase” before the movie started, and a choice of drink. We’d turn off the lights and each have our assigned seat for the movie. Then we’d talk about the movie when it was over (especially if there were good lessons to be emphasized) but also just what their favorite part was, etc. They thought it was fun!

We also have family game night and each child (and adult) gets to take their turn picking what board game, card game, etc. to play. We’ve also swapped games with friends and neighbors, so it doesn’t cost anything!
 
I guess I am humbly asking if I can join too.

Ditto. I have health problems, found out our son inherited some of them too. He is just one and we have already hit $4000 of out of pocket expense on insurance for him. (Last calendar year and this year.) Our insurance supposedly covers 80%. We are wrestling with “allowable” amounts verses actual amounts.

Married in April 2002, husband laid off in May with no unemployment. Back to work at a better job since August 2002. Lived on credit cards for 3 months. Still paying down that $7000.

Between the cost of maintaining hubby’s '83 Ford “tank” and putting gas in the monster we are out massive money there. We tried to get a smaller vehicle for him but he is just plain too tall! No car payments thank you but ugh, I can’t even drive the thing! We take my car when we go as a family and since I’m a stay-at-home we don’t rack up the miles there.

The reason I ask humbly to join is because I do have massive family support. We are so incredibly blessed there. I do have an in-home sewing business that usually does well but this year and last I had to cut back drastically on work to care for our sick baby.

We’re 34 but we feel like we’re 21, just starting out in life, with little to spare for anything.

Thanks. That whole vent felt good. Please let me know how many “Hail Mary’s” to submit for membership dues.
😉
 
Hey I’m in! “economically challenged” is the definition of our lives!

DH and I have been married for almost 9 years with 3 kids. We have struggled our entire marriage to stay afloat. The biggest problem for us is DH’s line of work. He is a very skilled auto mechanic and he works in a car dealership. The problem is he gets paid “flat rate”, which means he only gets paid a certain amount of time on each job he does. He could be at work all day standing around doing nothing when the work is slow and he doesn’t get paid for it. So we never know how much money we’re going to have each week. It all depends on how much work he has. It makes it VERY hard to budget!

So for the past 9 years we have struggled to pay our bills. Our credit was trashed when we first got married because I had to take several months off work when I was pregnant and we weren’t able to pay our credit cards bills and car payment. My car eventually got repoed. We were on a bad credit roller-coaster for years. Not that we intentionally ran up credit, because after our first year of marriage we didn’t have any credit cards. But both of our credit reports were slammed with medical collections, utility bills we couldn’t pay, etc. We completely lost hope of EVER getting out of that mess.

About 3 years ago, DH changed jobs and started making very good money. It was still unpredictable, but he was generally bringing home at least $1k a week. So we started working very hard to get his credit report cleaned up. (I haven’t even started on mine, it is A LOT of work). I worked for over a year and almost had his credit report clean.

At that point, DH got a very tempting job offer out of state. He had a chance to eventually move into his “dream job” and we decided to take the risk and go for it. So we moved to North Carolina. The job ended up not working out. DH butted heads with a new manager they brought in after him. So two months later here we were with DH unemployed. We came back home to Ohio with barely enough $$ from his last paycheck to pay for a moving truck and gas. DH’s friend offered to rent us an apartment he owned for $300 a month and we took him up on it. After being denied unemployment, it took DH 3 months to find a job. And guess what happened…collections started hitting his credit report again after all the work we had done to clean it up. I cannot even describe how frustrating that was!

He ended up getting another job, but it doesn’t pay what he used to make. He did alright last winter, but as soon as May hit, work slowed down and it has been extremely slow all summer. ( I think it has to do with the gas prices and all the employee discount incentives that are offered right now. People aren’t paying to get their cars fixed, they’re trading them in) So here we are again with not enough money to pay our bills. We are now living with my parents who only have a 2 bedroom home. DH and I are sleeping in their Kamper and don’t know where we’ll sleep when it gets cold. We’ll probably end up sleeping on the living room floor.

I have been a stay-at-home mom for most of our marriage. I went to school to be a nurse for a few years but had to take time off after our youngest was born. It was just impossible to study! So, this week I’m going job hunting. I probably won’t make much money, but at least it will be something.

So I feel a lot of hopelessness and frustration now. I’m still fighting to keep DH’s credit report clean and it feels like it’s a battle with Satan! But I’m not about to give up, I can’t!

I have completely left this in God’s hands. It’s pretty bad…I’m praying for someone’s car to break down so DH will have work to do! My mom always says, well why can’t he change fields? :rolleyes:…Why, so he can start back at the bottom again? He’s the BEST in his field now. He’s 2 classes away from being a GM Master World Class Technician. That’s not a title that is easy to get. There are only a handful in the State with that title.

OK, I’m done ranting now. (that IS what this thread is for, isn’t it? LOL!)
 
I’m not sure if I would qualify now, but I’ve sure been there. I worked almost full time through college, and between credit cards and student loans after I graduated I owed over $40K. I still owe a lot on my student loans, but I did take care of the credit cards with credit counseling. There are a lot of scams out there, but I had a wonderful experience with Genus (now called consolidated credit management I think). Here are some things to look for:
  1. They should be willing to debit your checking account. My brother got in with a company that required a money order, which kills not only for the inconvenience, but with the delay from when you take your money out of a (presumably interest-bearing) checking account to when they receive it.
  2. They should not ask for any up front payment. Genus didn’t receive a dime from me for almost a month and a half after I enrolled, because that was how long it took to get all of my creditors on board.
  3. They should be available whenever. I could forward creditors calls to Genus if I had that option on my phone. I didn’t, because it cost extra, but it was nice to know that it was an option.
  4. They should emphasize that your debts will eventually be paid in full.
  5. They should require you to submit a budget. Mine was pretty crude, but just doing it is a good exercise.
Anyway, I got rid of my credit card debt in 3 years, paying Genus $185 a month when my minimums were over $500 a month, and then paying the cards directly when I had the money to pay them off. After paying the cards, I simply called Genus and told them the debt was gone and they either applied my money elsewhere (they also provided advice on where to put the money each month) or lowered my payment. Probably the reason I was done in 3 years was that I never lowered my payment.

So now, fast forward 5 years, and I’m married to a man who makes good money, but we owe almost $70,000 in student loans. That’s the worst thing in our budget. We own our house, but have only lived here for 2 years, it’s a fixer-upper, and we have already had to put $15,000 into it for a new porch (which was sinking) and a new roof (which was original and over 30 years old). We have one truck payment and have one car that we own outright. I haven’t bought new clothes in almost a year (as I was losing weight after the baby I think I bought jeans that would actually stay up), we don’t eat out unless my Guard husband is being deployed the next day (with 24 hrs notice the last thing we want to do is dishes), and we buy everything we can in bulk.

Right now I really feel like I qualify, because since my husband has been deployed for Katrina we will be going 3 weeks with out any pay at all. So this week, I’m staying in, refusing to drive, and going without groceries. Thank God for canned goods bought in bulk!

Sorry to go on so long, but if any of you have credit card bills, credit counseling can do wonders. It comes off of your credit report much faster than a bankruptcy. I finished paying off my debts only 3 and 1/2 years ago, and my husband and I have credit scores over 700 (considered in the A range).
 
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