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Late night vent!
I feel like we're never, ever going to get out of credit card debt... ever. And it's really starting to get to me.
I know that realistically we'll be done with it in the next 12-18 months (absolute worst case scenario), but I just can't believe it's going to take that long!! I don't even know where it came from! It's like, we bought a house, got married, put little things here and there on it-- nothing for the wedding, nothing major-- then we looked at our statements once everything settled down and went, "Holy crap, what the hell happened?!" It just snowballs before you know it!
And now every month I just think about how much we could have in savings if we weren't making these ridiculous payments. Gah. And I feel like it still isn't going down.
Sorry. That's all a bit embarrassing, but I needed to get it off my chest! 
Re: Late night vent!
Right after college I was working 2 part time jobs until I could find a full time job, credit cards helped make ends meet (and buy stuff I clearly didn't need) and the next thing I knew I was thousands of dollars in credit card debt. It is so overwhelming and sucks to see your money going out like that, but keep making payments!
I had a few different cards so I started making as big of a payment as I could on the smallest balance. After that was paid off (huge relief and made it easy to stay on track!) I took all the money I was paying towards that and paid off the next lowest one. And then so on. My goal was to be out of debt (at least "rolling" debt - cars and student loans don't count) before we got married. It worked - we were both credit card debt free!
Don't get discouraged.. just keep doing what you can and it'll all work out!
You def aren't alone, we are going through the same thing. We bought a house, got married and are just trying to survive. We didn't put anything for the wedding on our cards. But buying a house adds up when its like oh we need to do this and do this. All the little things add up. Everytime I pay the bills it makes me ill. I always remind myself, this is the American dream, LOL. I say my parents did it somehow and so can we.
This really does work! Before we were married we had a couple credit cards that needed paid off. We did the same thing megerin is talking about, it really does pay them off faster. Credit card dept is nothing to be embarrassed about, I'm sure everyone has been in it at least a couple times in their life. Just keep working at paying it off!
It is very frustrating and makes you wonder, do we really have anything to show for it? Prior to meeting HH, I had gotten into CC debt all by myself and had been working through it using Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover approach. What megerin described in her post is Baby Step 2 - the Debt Snowball. It's a great approach because it gives you small victories along the way and as you move through it you gain velocity or "traction" as he calls it, and you plow through the debt as the snowball gets bigger and bigger. I was on track, having cut up all CC's and living on less than I make for the first time in my life and paying down my CC debt. I went to Financial Peace University and really got control of my financial life for the first time.
Then I got engaged, and it's like I had a license to spend again! We got a CC that had "points" and started paying for all kinds of things - mainly non-wedding-related - with the CC so we would have the points to use on the honeymoon. Then we didn't even go on the honeymoon we originally planned and there weren't any Marriott hotels where we went, so so much for those points! And now we're in deep.
So two weeks ago, we started Financial Peace University together, as a married couple. We shredded all of our CC's the day after we got home from the honeymoon (Aug 1). And have Baby Step 1 done ($1000 in an emergency fund that we don't touch except for true emergencies). We're up to our eyeballs in Baby Step 2, but it is working, and we're living on less than we make - even with HH in school full time and not working. Thank goodness for the Pell Grant and his IL Veterans Grant!
Just don't give up. Keep paying and get rid of the CC's and soon you'll notice a big difference each month. Suze Orman's approach is a little different than Dave Ramsey's, but it is still a good approach to paying down debt. Just figure out what works for you. And you and HH need to be on the same page so you are a united front against the debt.
Keep your chin up kiddo! You can do it!
I think a lot of us can sympathize. I've never carried cc debt and my student loans are quite manageable, but I married a walking credit risk. He was doing a very impressive job of paying stuff down before we got married (his salary is not that big, and looking at his bills and his paycheck, I have NO IDEA how he managed the first year or so that we were dating before a couple of things got paid off).
We got hit with a ton of unexpected car expenses and stuff this summer, and we're still struggling to recover from that. I just paid off the computer that we had to buy ahead of schedule, though, so I'm hopeful that we can finally start making some headway.
I'm the type of person who can never have a big enough safety net in the bank, so I'm struggling between my desire to beef up the periodic-expenses account and the need to pay down the smallest loan to just get RID of it. I want to feel like we're making progress, and it's hard when I balance the checkbook and have to say "okay, we have $62.50 to last us until your next paycheck."
Just keep plugging away at it. Tracking your expenses within a monthly budget (to ensure you stay within your means) can really help you be more accountable for income and outgo.
Another thing you can do is call your CC company and ask them to lower your APR so you're paying less in finance charges each month as you keep mnaking your payments.
Just hang in there and stay on track and you'll be out of debt before you know it.
Sorry I posted and ran-- the nest is blocked at school so I can't chat during the day anymore
Thank you all so much for your encouragement-- I'll definitely be looking up those books, and checking them out at a library-- no buying for me! haha
Kelly-- I think we have the same problem. I know that paying off CC should be number 1, but I get so worried about things like water heaters, vet bills, and cars that I keep wanting to boost our savings instead of putting every last thing we have on the cc. Last night we finally sat down and looked through everything, we made some cuts where we could, and we decided that what we have in savings is enough to put a down payment on a car or fix the roof, so from now on everything goes on the cards. It's not a ton more each month, but at least it's helping!
I had quite a bit of consumer credit card debt until two-ish years ago. I'm quite embarassed to say how much it was and that I had racked up all of it before the age of 21.
I didn't even have the option of paying them all off one at a time because I had gotten to the point where they were ALL in collections. (This was 3 or so years after I cut them all up) I luckily got a REALLY nice lady at the collections agency where 3 or 4 of my accounts had ended up. She went back to her supervisor time and time again to get my numbers down since I was paying ALL of the accounts and IN FULL. She got some REALLY good discounted amounts for me and it REALLY helped.
I haven't had a credit card since I was 20 (5 years). I use my debit card for literally everything. Now that all of the accounts have been paid off long enough for them to come off of my credit report, I'm planning on trying to get a card soon. And DH never really had credit but he has been making payments on his car for 2 years now so we're hoping that will have helped his credit enough for him to get a card.
We've all been there. You just have to work your way out of it. but let me just say... pay them off sooner rather than later and the minimum due will NEVER pay off your cards. I am ashamed of the position I ended up in, everyday. Looking back, I can't believe I let it go that far.
Oh and what CT said about calling the CC company about your APR... DO IT! If you ask them to lower it, they have to oblige as long as you are working to pay your bill.
Yeah, I'm going to call my card company and ask them to lower it-- it's not that bad, but any little bit will help! Greg's card on the other hand has about a 29% APR, which he somehow failed to notice until I started going over his bill with him! So now we're looking for a card that has 0% APR on transfers-- we applied for one but got denied because we have opened too many accounts recently-- which really got me worried because he hasn't opened ANYTHING since buying the house.