My Payday LoanS nightmare

[rob8od]

I have 4 payday loans out right now. Yes, 4

 

one for $685.00

one for $560.00

one for $460.00

 

and last, but certainly not least, one for $460.00

 

at first it started out as a quick loan to pay off an unexpected bill that popped up.

 

oh wait, the bill was totally expected, but I decided to spend my money on FAST FOOD instead of my bill. yea, I wasted my money, on stupid crap.

 

so that was my first $685.00 loan. No biggie, it's really just an $85.00 bill each month because I just go back and borrow $600 again. but then number 2 loan came along. $560.00. No biggie, just another $60.00 each month after reloaning....then number 3 came, and I told myself that I would do it no more, I needed to stop this madness. But then last month, I got married, and I left my wife in charge of the wedding budget. Her parents gave us $8,000 to spend on the wedding, and she went through that as quick as hell and then some, hence the 4th and FINAL payday loan So now, here's what my bank account looks like, this is an actual screenshot of my online account:

 

 

yea, I got 2 accounts, one a joint account with my wife, and one with just me. that negative amount could have been much worse, the bank made a huge error by not crediting my deposit which caused 9 bounced debit card purchases (5 of them were under $5.00), but I called up the bank and got it down to 2 overdraft fees...

 

so what went wrong? I listened to my wife on money issues, and she is not budget concious at all. I ignored the problem until right now, and it piled up on me big time.

 

One good thing that is happening this month is that I'm getting an extra $900.00 from a refund of some auto protection plan that I signed up for but the car dealer messed it up and I didn't need the protection anyway...

 

Here's what my budget looks like:

 

Mortgage $1300.00 (includes tax and insurance)

Car payment $294

Car insurance $109

Cable bill $105.00 (internet plus cable TV) (I'm a month behind, I owe $250

Water/sewage/garbage $145.00 (also a month behind)

Power $100 (hopefully lower since I kept the heater off cuz it was hot)

Phones $150 (mine and my wife's cell phones) (had to pay extra because I missed a payment, it's usually $100.00)

credit cards $100.00

payday loan fees $280.00

groceries $200.00

Cats $50.00 (I have 8 cats)

Entertainment $100.00

Gas $120.00 (Hope to cut that in half by carpooling)

total of bills is $3192.00. I get paid after taxes 2226.89, my wife gets $790.00 from disability income, I get another for a total of $3016.89 income. subtract the -110 and the -38 and can you spell screwed? if it weren't for the extra $900.00 from that refund, I would be in bigger trouble than I am in now. plus i just found out my wife is pregnant!! Now I have to deduct an extra $271.00 each month (starting in July, thank GOD) for her to be on my insurance at work!

 

does anyone know of any payday loan relief information? I know I have to pay them off, but is there any company who specializes helping people who have shot themselves in the foot and are barely holding on? I plan on paying off one of the loans this month, but next month I am not getting an infusion of extra cash so it's not gonna be possible unless I come up with an alternative budget plan! (I plan on working a crapload of overtime this month, but it's only going to amount to about $300.00 more at the most)

 

I am cutting the entertainment down to $50.00, maybe lower.

 

feel free to call me an salamander, because that's what I have been, a huge stupid dumb salamander who knows better, but constructive criticism/ideas would be more than welcome.

[54regcab]

1: First of all I'd sit down with the wife and have a heart to heart with her. Talk to her about what happened and what you can do together to get back on track. Money fights are a leading cause of divorce and now is the time to get things in order with your new marriage.

2: Get on a written budget that you and your wife can agree on.

3: For the payday loan payoff, consider a "fire sale" selling everything on Ebay that isn't nailed down to get these loans paid off. Ask yourself "If I didn't own this widget would I take out a payday loan to buy it"

4: Fix our W4 so you get money throughout the year instead of a big check in April.

5: A $1,300 mortgage payment is tough on a $3,000 income, is there anything your wife can do (even part time) to bring some money in ?

[hurricanesfans27]

try prosper.com

 

join the CB group here and try for a loan to cover your payday loans. the interest is certainly alot less.

 

https://www.prosper.com/public/groups/group...=creditrecovery

[Uncle Leo]

Wedding money... ugh! To me, that's almost as big a waste as payday loan interest. Too bad you and your then-soon-to-be-wife couldn't have quietly taken some of the wedding money and paid those off, and you could've still had a nice wedding. But, I digress.

 

Anyway, do you have to renew them at the same amount each time? Maybe you could whittle them down and renew for $100 less total each payday, or something like that. Kinda like the snowball method for paying off other debt. It'll still hurt for awhile, but it'd be something.

 

Just another suggestion in addition to what others have suggested, though I think mine would be more of a back-up plan. Theirs were better, but I didn't feel the need to be redundant.

[radi8]

does anyone know of any payday loan relief information? I know I have to pay them off, but is there any company who specializes helping people who have shot themselves in the foot and are barely holding on?

 

I hear rumor that certain states either have passed or are considering legislation that would allow conversion to an installment type loan with lower payments. I have no details though.

Payday loans are tough. They are designed to keep you paying and paying and paying-

 

The best advice I have is to cram one of them down as low as you can so the payments drop. That will free up some cash allowing you to wipe that first loan out. Then apply that money to the second....then the third.

Kill every extraneous expense you can temporarily to do so. Cut the entertainment to zero, cut the groceries as low as you can, dump the cable TV, have the grand mother of all yard sales.... until you are rightside up again. It sucks, but it's only for a short while.

 

so what went wrong? I listened to my wife on money issues, and she is not budget concious at all

 

Rather than start off a marriage with grudges, (none of by Biz, I know, but I hate to see one bad thing turn into two bad things)

may I suggest chalking this up to lessons learned and using it as a catalyst to sit down and work out your money issues together? Don't blame your wife- remember you had 2 loans out beforehand, having spent foolishly yourself before you got married.

We all make mistakes, it's part of life. The key is to not repeat them. Set the blame aside as it isn't helpful and get to work- together- on the issue.

You'll get this worked out and in the process you will develop a plan for staying rightside-up, saving for the future, etc. It can be a good thing, or a bad one. Your choice.

[BBQ123]

Pay the payday loans ASAP

 

Even if you need to take a cash advance from a credit card.

 

Can you get BT checks to pay the payday loans?

[rob8od]

 

 

does anyone know of any payday loan relief information? I know I have to pay them off, but is there any company who specializes helping people who have shot themselves in the foot and are barely holding on?

 

I hear rumor that certain states either have passed or are considering legislation that would allow conversion to an installment type loan with lower payments. I have no details though.

Payday loans are tough. They are designed to keep you paying and paying and paying-

 

The best advice I have is to cram one of them down as low as you can so the payments drop. That will free up some cash allowing you to wipe that first loan out. Then apply that money to the second....then the third.

Kill every extraneous expense you can temporarily to do so. Cut the entertainment to zero, cut the groceries as low as you can, dump the cable TV, have the grand mother of all yard sales.... until you are rightside up again. It sucks, but it's only for a short while.

 

so what went wrong? I listened to my wife on money issues, and she is not budget concious at all

 

Rather than start off a marriage with grudges, (none of by Biz, I know, but I hate to see one bad thing turn into two bad things)

may I suggest chalking this up to lessons learned and using it as a catalyst to sit down and work out your money issues together? Don't blame your wife- remember you had 2 loans out beforehand, having spent foolishly yourself before you got married.

We all make mistakes, it's part of life. The key is to not repeat them. Set the blame aside as it isn't helpful and get to work- together- on the issue.

You'll get this worked out and in the process you will develop a plan for staying rightside-up, saving for the future, etc. It can be a good thing, or a bad one. Your choice.

 

I totally agree with your assessment, and I really wasn't trying to blame my wife. She trusts my money management judgment (apparently she probably shouldn't have) and asks me before she spends money...in the case of the wedding budget, I wasn't firm enough when she asked, and therefore it got us in deeper, so it was a team effort.

 

as for the payday laws in my state (washington), there really aren't many except this which I found on credit.com(http://www.credit.com/credit_information/credit_law/PaydayLoanLaws.jsp)

Licenses lenders may loan up to $700 at one time, In general the usury rate in Washington is 12% per year or 4% above the treasury bill rate. However Washington state-chartered Credit Unions may offer loans to their members at 15%

 

One of my loans allows a payment plan, but it amounts to paying one extra fee without reloaning (i.e. for the $500.00 loan, I pay the $60.00 fee one month, and can make 3 payments of $166.00 and then be done with it. That doesn't help, though, because I would really be paying $100.00 extra for that one loan over 3 months, and that would take $100.00 out of my budget for those 3 months. Then if I did it for the other 3 loans, it would be about 9 more months of paying $100.00 extra dollars...

 

what would help tremendously, though would be to take the total amount of all the loans put together and take a loan for that amount with lower interest. I would pay double the minimum payments to get the loan paid off sooner. but with my credit score sitting at 550, a personal loan is nearly impossible to get...so this month, I am definitely paying off the $685.00 loan with my extra money that I get, and getting a lower loan (ughhh!) for my other 3 loans, so that each month after, I can get $100.00 less, and $100.00 less until I owe nothing...I'm also starting in online college so that I get an extra $900.00 each month from the GI Bill, and then I'll hopefully be back to sanity within a few months...and the only reason I'm keeping my cable TV is that because we watch tv for entertainment, it saves us TONS of money on not going out...that and our other entertainment is playing badminton in the backyard, going for walks, fishing, etc. but another big expense we have is we eat out a lot...but not anymore, it's time to face reality and cut down on everything we can...

 

the ebay sale is another great idea...I'll have to look around to see what I can sell.

 

Keep the ideas coming...it's great to get feedback!

[GEORGE]

[hoapres]

You need to sit down with pen and paper to determine your income and expenses. Calculate the cost of the outstanding payday loans and will quickly come to the conclusion that they need to be paid off ASAP.

 

You need to increase income - can you get a second job or sell some assets - and decrease expenses - i.e. cook at home instead of eating out and reduce outside entertainement.

 

You need to get the payday loans under control as numerous NSF charges and bounced checks could lead to the closure of your deposit accounts along with being reported to Chexsystems.

 

Instead of looking at a big problem of 4 payday loans start looking at having 4 small problems being individual loans. As quickly as possible, pay one loan off leading you to 3 small problems and continue until you have no more payday loans.

[Blue Eyed Cat]

One good thing that is happening this month is that I'm getting an extra $900.00 from a refund of some auto protection plan that I signed up for but the car dealer messed it up and I didn't need the protection anyway...

 

Here's what my budget looks like:

 

Mortgage $1300.00 (includes tax and insurance)

Car payment $294

Car insurance $109

Cable bill $105.00 (internet plus cable TV) (I'm a month behind, I owe $250

Water/sewage/garbage $145.00 (also a month behind)

Power $100 (hopefully lower since I kept the heater off cuz it was hot)

Phones $150 (mine and my wife's cell phones) (had to pay extra because I missed a payment, it's usually $100.00)

credit cards $100.00

payday loan fees $280.00

groceries $200.00

Cats $50.00 (I have 8 cats)

Entertainment $100.00

Gas $120.00 (Hope to cut that in half by carpooling)

total of bills is $3192.00. I get paid after taxes 2226.89, my wife gets $790.00 from disability income, I get another for a total of $3016.89 income. subtract the -110 and the -38 and can you spell screwed? if it weren't for the extra $900.00 from that refund, I would be in bigger trouble than I am in now. plus i just found out my wife is pregnant!! Now I have to deduct an extra $271.00 each month (starting in July, thank GOD) for her to be on my insurance at work!

 

IMHO you need to go on a lifesyle budget until you get rid of the loans and get some emergency funds so you never need one again.

 

Eliminate entertainment

Get into carpooling ASAP

Get rid of cable and internet. When you are financially "on track" you can consider getting them again.

Get a cheaper cell phone plan. We have a family plan where we talk to each other for free plus minutes for LD and it runs about $65 a month. I do realize you might need to complete your current contract first.

Put all of the $900 on the loans.

Do not get any more pets.

Eliminate all non-essential food items like soda, snacks, convenience foods. Just cooking "from scratch" can save a lot of money. Use coupons and buy sale items when possible.

 

You don't have a lot of wiggle room in your budget and you have to increase your insurance expense. You really need to go over everything carefully.

 

Any chance you could get a loan from a family member to get past this "crunch"?

[rob8od]

One good thing that is happening this month is that I'm getting an extra $900.00 from a refund of some auto protection plan that I signed up for but the car dealer messed it up and I didn't need the protection anyway...

 

Here's what my budget looks like:

 

Mortgage $1300.00 (includes tax and insurance)

Car payment $294

Car insurance $109

Cable bill $105.00 (internet plus cable TV) (I'm a month behind, I owe $250

Water/sewage/garbage $145.00 (also a month behind)

Power $100 (hopefully lower since I kept the heater off cuz it was hot)

Phones $150 (mine and my wife's cell phones) (had to pay extra because I missed a payment, it's usually $100.00)

credit cards $100.00

payday loan fees $280.00

groceries $200.00

Cats $50.00 (I have 8 cats)

Entertainment $100.00

Gas $120.00 (Hope to cut that in half by carpooling)

total of bills is $3192.00. I get paid after taxes 2226.89, my wife gets $790.00 from disability income, I get another for a total of $3016.89 income. subtract the -110 and the -38 and can you spell screwed? if it weren't for the extra $900.00 from that refund, I would be in bigger trouble than I am in now. plus i just found out my wife is pregnant!! Now I have to deduct an extra $271.00 each month (starting in July, thank GOD) for her to be on my insurance at work!

 

IMHO you need to go on a lifesyle budget until you get rid of the loans and get some emergency funds so you never need one again.

 

Eliminate entertainment

Get into carpooling ASAP

Get rid of cable and internet. When you are financially "on track" you can consider getting them again.

Get a cheaper cell phone plan. We have a family plan where we talk to each other for free plus minutes for LD and it runs about $65 a month. I do realize you might need to complete your current contract first.

Put all of the $900 on the loans.

Do not get any more pets.

Eliminate all non-essential food items like soda, snacks, convenience foods. Just cooking "from scratch" can save a lot of money. Use coupons and buy sale items when possible.

 

You don't have a lot of wiggle room in your budget and you have to increase your insurance expense. You really need to go over everything carefully.

 

Any chance you could get a loan from a family member to get past this "crunch"?

 

 

I'm afraid the only thing I'm unwilling to part with is the internet and cable. I use these 2 items to eliminate my other entertainment expenses. I know it sounds silly, but it does actually help my budget. My problems didn't come from excessive entertainment expenses (well some of them did, but mostly from eating out, which I will gladly eliminate). I am going to put all of the $900.00 on the loans, and I agree that paying off the payday loans is essential. I have done the grocery shopping for next month already, paying a total of $132.00, which leaves me $68.00 which I will apply to other areas of my budget. One thing that would be great is something like a "budget cookbook" which takes meals and makes them from scratch and leaves plenty of leftovers to use for other meals...I will find one I'm sure.

 

I can't change the cell phone plan right now...it is under contract, but after paying off my loans, I will consider eating the fee in exchange for long term savings (3 phones on the plan, $200.00 disconnect fee for each, but one my brother pays for so he can keep his on)

 

I do have a tiny chance of borrowing from a family member, I will ask him sometime this week...hopefully they say yes, but a backup plan is to work enough overtime to cover the extra $270.00 a month I'm paying for her being added to my health insurance, getting started in an online college course to get me that extra $900.00 from the GI Bill, and maybe even start a freakin' paper route or something...Hell, I need the excercise anyway!

 

If I were to get a loan to cover all those payday loans, (possibly through prosper.com...thanks hurricanesfans27 for showing me that, if it works, it will help me hugely) that would clear up another $280.00!! and I would happily apply that to an emergency fund/savings to cover unexpected expenses...I am living on the extreme edge right now...inches from economic destruction! It's scary.

 

btw, thanks for letting me vent and helping me with ideas....you don't know how much it helps.

Edited May 29, 2006 by rob8od

[hurricanesfans27]

One good thing that is happening this month is that I'm getting an extra $900.00 from a refund of some auto protection plan that I signed up for but the car dealer messed it up and I didn't need the protection anyway...

 

Here's what my budget looks like:

 

Mortgage $1300.00 (includes tax and insurance)

Car payment $294

Car insurance $109

Cable bill $105.00 (internet plus cable TV) (I'm a month behind, I owe $250

Water/sewage/garbage $145.00 (also a month behind)

Power $100 (hopefully lower since I kept the heater off cuz it was hot)

Phones $150 (mine and my wife's cell phones) (had to pay extra because I missed a payment, it's usually $100.00)

credit cards $100.00

payday loan fees $280.00

groceries $200.00

Cats $50.00 (I have 8 cats)

Entertainment $100.00

Gas $120.00 (Hope to cut that in half by carpooling)

total of bills is $3192.00. I get paid after taxes 2226.89, my wife gets $790.00 from disability income, I get another for a total of $3016.89 income. subtract the -110 and the -38 and can you spell screwed? if it weren't for the extra $900.00 from that refund, I would be in bigger trouble than I am in now. plus i just found out my wife is pregnant!! Now I have to deduct an extra $271.00 each month (starting in July, thank GOD) for her to be on my insurance at work!

 

IMHO you need to go on a lifesyle budget until you get rid of the loans and get some emergency funds so you never need one again.

 

Eliminate entertainment

Get into carpooling ASAP

Get rid of cable and internet. When you are financially "on track" you can consider getting them again.

Get a cheaper cell phone plan. We have a family plan where we talk to each other for free plus minutes for LD and it runs about $65 a month. I do realize you might need to complete your current contract first.

Put all of the $900 on the loans.

Do not get any more pets.

Eliminate all non-essential food items like soda, snacks, convenience foods. Just cooking "from scratch" can save a lot of money. Use coupons and buy sale items when possible.

 

You don't have a lot of wiggle room in your budget and you have to increase your insurance expense. You really need to go over everything carefully.

 

Any chance you could get a loan from a family member to get past this "crunch"?

 

 

I'm afraid the only thing I'm unwilling to part with is the internet and cable. I use these 2 items to eliminate my other entertainment expenses. I know it sounds silly, but it does actually help my budget. My problems didn't come from excessive entertainment expenses (well some of them did, but mostly from eating out, which I will gladly eliminate). I am going to put all of the $900.00 on the loans, and I agree that paying off the payday loans is essential. I have done the grocery shopping for next month already, paying a total of $132.00, which leaves me $68.00 which I will apply to other areas of my budget. One thing that would be great is something like a "budget cookbook" which takes meals and makes them from scratch and leaves plenty of leftovers to use for other meals...I will find one I'm sure.

 

I can't change the cell phone plan right now...it is under contract, but after paying off my loans, I will consider eating the fee in exchange for long term savings (3 phones on the plan, $200.00 disconnect fee for each, but one my brother pays for so he can keep his on)

 

I do have a tiny chance of borrowing from a family member, I will ask him sometime this week...hopefully they say yes, but a backup plan is to work enough overtime to cover the extra $270.00 a month I'm paying for her being added to my health insurance, getting started in an online college course to get me that extra $900.00 from the GI Bill, and maybe even start a freakin' paper route or something...Hell, I need the excercise anyway!

 

If I were to get a loan to cover all those payday loans, (possibly through prosper.com...thanks hurricanesfans27 for showing me that, if it works, it will help me hugely) that would clear up another $280.00!! and I would happily apply that to an emergency fund/savings to cover unexpected expenses...I am living on the extreme edge right now...inches from economic destruction! It's scary.

 

btw, thanks for letting me vent and helping me with ideas....you don't know how much it helps.

 

 

good luck to you.

[rob8od]

1: First of all I'd sit down with the wife and have a heart to heart with her. Talk to her about what happened and what you can do together to get back on track. Money fights are a leading cause of divorce and now is the time to get things in order with your new marriage.

2: Get on a written budget that you and your wife can agree on.

3: For the payday loan payoff, consider a "fire sale" selling everything on Ebay that isn't nailed down to get these loans paid off. Ask yourself "If I didn't own this widget would I take out a payday loan to buy it"

4: Fix our W4 so you get money throughout the year instead of a big check in April.

5: A $1,300 mortgage payment is tough on a $3,000 income, is there anything your wife can do (even part time) to bring some money in ?

 

 

by the way, the $3,000 equals my income of approximately $2200.00 a month and her disability income of $800.00 a month, so she can't work right now because she is pregnant but she is helping out! I am totally willing to work overtime/extra job to get this mess under control, and from the looks of it, I just may have to do that.

 

How do I fix my W-4 anyway?

[hoapres]

If you can increase your income NOW by working overtime/estra job then you should immediately start doing so. The employer can help you adjust the W4 for correct withholding. You can also save money on your food expenditures by shopping at Costco in bulk for staple goods. You don't have to join Costco as long as you know someone who is a member. By not eating out and preparing your own meals, you can save a lot of money.

 

The faster you can pay off ANY of the payday loans the easier it will become to pay off the other payday loans.

[doodlebugger]

Try this website for a $45 or $70 food plan. She gives you recipes, tells you how to use your time wisely to plan each meal, and she gives tips on how to eat healthier too.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com

I will warn you that this is a Christian woman, and she does have scripture and beliefs that are expressed throughout the site. I don't want to offend anyone who doesn't believe that way....so I'm giving you a warning ahead of time.

In my opinion, her food plans, recipes, and shopping lists are very helpful if you are on an extreme budget.

As for the payday loans -- definitely find a way to pay them off or get a loan to consolidate. Then start a budget, and stick to it. Good Luck!

[gettinganewlife]

You can take this or leave it but this is what we did when we got caught in the payday loan trap. Those things reproduce like bunnies. I went to our bank and talked to the banker about what to do because we had so many fees being taken out. We closed our checking acct down, stopped payment on all payday loans and reopened another acct. All the payday loans then eventually sent us a letter saying you owe us...yea yea yea I KNOW. Well because they took a postdated check there is some clause about them collecting on it...they cant file a judgement I think. Whatever it is, they are happy to get what they can when you can send it. So whenever I have a little extra in my budget, I send a payment. Its on my terms that way and there are no extra fees being charged anymore, and no interest. Just the amount I owed originally.

[hoapres]

You need to check your state statutes. I suspect with high probability that one can not be criminally charged but can be subject to a civil lawsuit and judgment for a defaulted payday loan. The best course of action from a credit viewpoint would be to retire the payday loans as quickly as possible pursuant to the agreement.

 

The payday loan business to a large extent a collection business. Given the exorbinant interest rate, defaults are not uncommon and payday lenders are likely to work with you should you fail to pay back the loan. However, you should expect to be reported to Teletrack and possibly also the CRAs.

[squirrelgirl]

1: First of all I'd sit down with the wife and have a heart to heart with her. Talk to her about what happened and what you can do together to get back on track. Money fights are a leading cause of divorce and now is the time to get things in order with your new marriage.

2: Get on a written budget that you and your wife can agree on.

3: For the payday loan payoff, consider a "fire sale" selling everything on Ebay that isn't nailed down to get these loans paid off. Ask yourself "If I didn't own this widget would I take out a payday loan to buy it"

4: Fix our W4 so you get money throughout the year instead of a big check in April.

5: A $1,300 mortgage payment is tough on a $3,000 income, is there anything your wife can do (even part time) to bring some money in ?

 

 

by the way, the $3,000 equals my income of approximately $2200.00 a month and her disability income of $800.00 a month, so she can't work right now because she is pregnant but she is helping out! I am totally willing to work overtime/extra job to get this mess under control, and from the looks of it, I just may have to do that.

 

How do I fix my W-4 anyway?

 

Just wondering why she can't work just because she is pregnant? Is she on bedrest?

 

Good luck - hopefully your family member will lend you money.

 

To fix your W-4 - go to HR at your company and claim less exemptions.

[christyagain]

I fell into that trap about 2 years ago and it took me a good year to get out of it. First thing I did was stop redoing the payday loan. It was hard, but I had to. Next thing I did was call the 2 places that I still owed and explained to them that I just couldn't do the payments right now and would they work with me. Both did. I paid them both $50 a paycheck until I had them paid off. It took me quite sometime. You can always try it. All they can do is say no.

 

Another thing I did when my cell phone bill got out of hand was call my provider and request to change my plan. I have sprint and it was no big deal to do. I lowered the monthly bill and it helped, A LOT!

 

As for groceries, lots of spaghetti and bologna sandwiches. Cheap chips and even cheaper soda. It won't taste as good, but you won't starve. I don't know what you feed your cats, but I have 2 and when money was tight, I had to feed them the cheap food. Just be sure to mix it with the old stuff for a little while to acclimate them to it.

 

E-Bay is great if you have lots to sell, but I found that selling my camera, my palm pilot and other electronic stuff brought in the money. I paid a couple of bills with the money I got for the camera and all the bells and whistles that went with it. Clothes sell pretty good if they are in good shape, but sports jerseys sell really good. I sold about 4 of them and made a car payment.

 

You can get out of this rut, you have to disipline yourself to do so and it will hurt so bad while you do it, but you can do it! I am one of the most undisiplined people I know and I did it. Good luck and keep your head up. I know it's a hard hard trap to get out of!

[lilone]

Don't have any advice, but just wanted to wish you luck.

[Spell]

If you're looking for something to make money quickly:

 

(this only works if you have a pickup, or can borrow one)

 

The phone companies are delivering their phone books - they hire independent contractors to deliver them. You could make $100/day doing this part time. Its hard work, but a couple of weeks and you would have a couple of those loans paid.

 

Another is newspaper delivery - the job isn't hard, just tedious. Usually you get the morning paper by 1 AM Monday thru Saturday, if you have mainly houses its a 1.5 hour job. Sundays are a bear though. And you never get a day off. You could do it for a couple of months though, I've done that in the past.

 

Temp agencies are always hiring. And there are the moving companies on the weekends.

 

Been there, done that as far as scraping money to get by. Considering your situation, with just a little luck and some hard work you can get over the hump.

[phoenixbaseballmom]

For what it is worth, the pay day loan thing happened to me to, and I did end up closing my checking account and opening a new one. That put repayment on my terms, and the amounts were paid back sans the usery finance charges.

 

They were not happy about it but the grief was worth the savings - plus every phone call helped me remember why I will never look twice at a payday loan store again.

 

Check local statutes relating to bad checks and ensure you don't let your checking account close out in the negative.

 

Good Luck!!!

[rob8od]

Thank you everyone for the tips and hints. I knew I would get some good ideas from you all.

 

The first step I have taken is to sign up for school. The GI Bill gives me $1000.00 a month while I do school (I'm doing online courses to get my bachelor's degree). I had to redo my loans this month because if I didn't I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage/car payment/other bills. I am going to get my check for $900.00 this month the car maintenance program I mentioned before, and with that money I'm going to pay off 2 of the loans (my entertainment money will be minimal, but frankly I'll be more entertained by watching 2 payday disappear). My wife can't work because she is disabled and pregnant, and she's having a hard enough time with her disability let alone being pregnant AND starting to work at the same time, that's why I signed up for school, because I need the extra $1000.00 a month and I need to get my degree so I won't be stuck making $15.00 an hour forever! Using the online course, I'll have my bachelor's in 2 years 8 months, and I'm sure after I get my associates, I can start working in the field I'm wanting to (computer programming).

 

I think my wife's disability pay is going to be cut because of being married to me, but I'm not sure about that yet, so really my $1000.00 a month extra will end up being only $200.00 a month extra, but I will also be eliminating a $280.00 a month payday loan habit (yea, it's like an addiction), so it will be more like $480.00 a month extra.

 

I checked out prosper.com, and it looks like I could get a loan to pay off the remaining payday loans, at the same time helping my credit (I encourage anyone to look into prosper.com, it is a great site, not only for getting loans, but making money from extra money you may have to loan to other people with interest!).

 

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice and encouragement, keep it coming! And if anyone else stuck in this rut can benefit, that's great too!

[jase]

I am/was in somewhat the same situation you are in. Not with the payday loans but trying to figure out how to pay $100 worth of bills out of $75. The thing I realized is, it's a complete lifestyle change. For a couple months I was just getting by, once the bills were paid I'd have about $30-40 to get me through 2 weeks. Then I got hit with a large unexpected expense and I actually had to overdraft my account just to buy groceries. I think thats when it hit me that this cycle was just going to continue until I did something about it.

 

The first thing I did was cut all non-essentials, fast food, vending machine food, tobacco products (quitting dipping saved me 50 a month). With all of those non-essentials cut out, it still only freed up an extra 100. Not good enough. So I started looking at other things I could cut. My expensive unlimited home phone plan, cable and internet went next and that freed up over 200 a month. Now I just have the basic phone for 10.00 a month and use prepaid calling cards from Sams Club (34.00 for 1000 min.) I also got rid of my storage unit that was costing me 75 a month.

 

I started bringing my lunch with me to work. Id leave my wallet at home so I wouldnt be tempted by the vending machines or the fat pills at the fat food restraunts.

 

To be honest though, I started going nuts. I couldnt watch tv any more because no more cable and I couldnt sit in front of the computer because no internet. Then I discovered the library. Free computer use, free DVD rentals, and free books. Instead of taking my son to the store and buying him toys we started going to the park and going on walks. Instead of shopping for clothes for him at Gap or Old Navy we'd go to garage sales (he's 3 so he dosent know the difference).

 

I took all of the money I saved and finally got caught up again. I was having about an extra 500.00 per paycheck but I was still looking for ways to bring home more. Id proven to myself that I could leave off 200.00 a paycheck, so I rolled the extra 300.00 back into my bills aggressively paying things off. By August I'll have all of my credit cards paid off and the only other payment Ill have not counting my vehicle loan, is a personal loan and Ill be out from under that by October.

 

It has sucked though, but this is what I had to do to break the cycle. Im not married so that made it easier for me and like I said my son is 3 so he dosent know any better. It got to the point though where I would obsessively track where all of my money was going. I DL a trial version of MSN Money and that helped me plan my budget and see where all of the money was going. I signed up for electronic bill pay through my bank so the money set aside for bills would never touch my pocket.

 

Like I said though its a lifestyle change. Once people realize that the only needs in life are shelter, food, clothing and for some spiritual it can make things a lot easier.

[Athena53]

jase-

 

thanks for an inspiring story! I think a lot of people never go through the exercise of tracking what they're spending and thinking about whether they're really getting any value out of it. My husband and I laugh at our cheap habits but we have good investments and a happy life. My SIL was (and probably still is) a garage-sale freak- from the very beginning her 2 sons' clothes and toys came mostly from garage sales and so did most of the furnishings in her beautiful home. One of the sons has an MBA and a very good job- the younger is in the same college and likely to do the same.

 

You're teaching your son a valuable lesson.