Let's get started - A background

 A little background on me - I was raised by a single, stay at home mom. We (her, my older brother, and me) survived off food stamps, a low child support amount and living with her boyfriends (for the most part or my uncle). My dad had custody so child support was not granted by the state. 

I was lucky to have a lot of family around when I was young and growing. I played basketball through the school and baseball and later softball through the county. My mom didn't make many games. I remember her coming to 2 basketball games and really don't remember her coming to the baseball or softball games. 

I became a mother at a young age (17 - barely). I would later marry him. When I met him, I was unaware he was previously a drug dealer who had led a lavish lifestyle. We met when I was 16, and I soon found I was pregnant from our first night together. I was young and impressionable. I don't make excuses, just laying a little foundation for poor choices. 

When I started college after high school, I was fortunate enough I received around 1500  a semester to go to school after scholarships and grant money. However, roughly 1/2 way into my 1st semester my ex became jealous of the time I spent either at school or studying or working to pay for the car which drove me back and forth to college - an hour away from where we lived. He threatened me with taking our son and leaving if I didn't quit that or my job. I took a leave of absence from school. 

During my early years with him, we took out store credit cards, bought a home, bought a car, totaled a car, bought another (brand new), took out more credit cards, and due to our volatile relationship of on again off again, when I started back to school, I took out loans to cover school and living expenses and his lavish lifestyle, not a lot to start, but compounding interest now is no joke. 

Once we were officially over, I was finishing up my associates and heading to work on my bachelors. I wanted to finish what I had started so I went back to the private college I had taken a leave of absence. State schools averaged around 3,500 - 5,000 per semester and I was paying 9,000 per semester. This time around, scholarships and grants didn't fully cover, not to mention even though I was participating in work study and working (2) part time jobs, I still needed extra funds to cover living expenses, so still I took out more than necessary. 

At the end of my bachelors I owed 39,750 in student loans. Today, I owe 210,000 in student loans due to compounding interest. This is what people get so upset about with student loans. I have paid on my loans and yet I owe 5x more then I took out. 

So, that is a little back story, but lets focus on more of what I am trying to do. I have a large family now. I have 4 children total - 3 boys I birthed and 1 daughter who came with my current husband. 3 are grown - 1 in college, 1 about to head to college (I think) after serving a 2 year mission for the church, and 1 still at home. I enjoy travel and seeing new places. My son still at home is active in competitive swim and recreational soccer and ran cross country this year for his middle school. He is into gaming. He takes music lessons for piano, plays trumpet in the school band. He is busy and I am a busy mom. He isn't as busy as his older brother but close. 

We also just bought our home home in March. It needs a lot of TLC and we are working on home renovation projects we are trying to complete ourselves. 

My husband and I make decent money, but my bad habits learned from my first marriage have carried over to this marriage. He has (3) credit cards he opened (1) he has allowed my name on a card/account. I have 15 credit cards I've opened (1) which I have put his name on the card/account. Total = 18 credit cards; roughly 33,125 in debt; around 1,590/month in payments. 
We also have (3) car payments totaling 27,800 in debt and 880 in payments a month. 
Our house balance is 211,075 with a payment of 1,810 per month. 
We also owe the IRS around 6400 and pay 300 per month to them. 
My husband has been paying on his student loans for 10 years - he currently owes 1200 less now than his original borrowed amount and that is because he payed the whole time the loans were in moratorium - his payment is $300/month. 
We also have a ton of medical debt. My husband was traveling to spend time with my dad in 2022 and had to have an emergency appendectomy. Insurance claims max out of pocket for year is 3200 or something like that but somehow that procedure will cost us more than 7,000. Not to mention my youngest has a rare hypermobility condition which has caused several broken arms and I suffer from migraines since I was 12. 

So this is my start to paying down debt while still maintaining a normal lifestyle. No crazy extra jobs, no living off ramen noodles. 

My start - I have one of my credit cards with a $300 limit, current balance is $92, minimum payment is $40/month. I am pushing to pay off before Christmas and free up $40 in payments to roll to my next small card, which has a balance of $218 and payment of $30/month. 

Also on the agenda - swim meet 3 hours away 1st weekend of December. Home project of inserting an ladder attic access in the upstairs hall (relocated from a bedroom closet crawl entry in ceiling), and working on the garage door for home improvement projects, and the holidays themselves - traveling to see family, cooking our dinners, presents for the holidays, etc. 

I am hoping that maybe I can impart some of what I do on a budget or on the cheap to show that we can pay down debt and still somewhat maintain our living status -  athletic events (meets, games, etc), travel, home improvement, and so on. 

Step one - I try to cook at home more now. Tonight I chose no bean taco soup. My husband isn't a big soup fan, but lately, it stretches a little further, the ingredients are a little less, and my son likes to take soup for his lunches from home.  

This next week, I have no extra cash to cover bills, gas, or food. I will have to use some of my credit cards to buy groceries. This has been common practice for the past year but is getting much less necessary. Previously, I would pay the cards down, just to charge them back up the next day or so. Now, I have more wiggle room. 
I currently have almost 1,000 available credit on my credit cards and my husband has over 1500. I will lose $300 of that $1,000 when I pay off the 1st card, but I am not too worried about it. While I understand the need to have only 30% usage, I am more worried about paying down and only keeping the very necessary cards. 18 is way too many.