In desperate need of some breath room!
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Hi, my name is Lachelle. I'm sure that everyone on here is wishing they didn't have to be. I am one of those people. I really need some breathing room. I'm hoping this message will be uploaded because the first time around it wasn't. That seems to be just my luck though. Funny, not so funny.
So, to take you back to when my financial crippling began, we need to go back to 2019. I met my handsome boyfriend, Z. We moved in together shortly after meeting. When I say shortly, I'm talking about 6 months after meeting. We rented a place pretty far out from our families because we wanted a large yard for our dogs. We have been through some sh*t storms in that house, pardon my French. It seems like when you think you might be able to come up for air, another huge wave hits and your leg is being sliced by coral. I started out with great credit, money in the bank, working from home when the Covid fiasco hit. His job was giving less and less hours, to then they let him go. I was covering his portion of expenses and was not expecting to let my debt get out of control but it did.
So, at the end of 2020 I decided to look into those Debt Resolution programs thinking okay, I got this. If I enroll, my credit will take a hit for a couple years, but I can build it back up once things get more stable. The law firm that handled the debt resolution promised that in 4 years I would completed the program and only pay 40% of my owed debt because they were experts at negotiating debt down with creditors. I believed it because why would they lie right?! It makes me upset with myself that I believed any of those false promises. I decided at the time to enroll only a portion of my accounts because some of them I didn't want to close.
Fast forward 4 years and I made the long-awaited call to make sure that my last payment would be in September. The representative I spoke with gave me the devasting news that unfortunately the creditors would not negotiate on the balances owed and in turn sued me instead. Yippy right?! So because the law firm is there to help they went to court on my behalf but they were still not able to negotiate any deals other than stopping the interest on the accounts. They made payment plans with these creditors and I still have to pay into this program another 4 years to pay off the debt. Which leads me to why I need help. There are 3 cards that have really high interest rates.... 26.99%,24.99% and 18.99%. Its difficult to make more than the minimum payments to help reduce the debt because we are already living paycheck to paycheck and paying for the settlements. In total I owe about $31,000 on the cards that are opened, not included in that before mentioned program. I pay about $1500 in credit card bills per month, payment for the settlements which is another $1081.
The main reason I get behind and end up getting into that vicious cycle of paying the card, using the card is because my boyfriend started a food truck business. When he falls short and this happens more often than not, I am left trying to find ways to pick up the slack. It's draining.... I know that the food truck could be lucrative. Thats why I give in to helping. It's like I feel I can't say no, especially when he tries so hard and unexpected expenses come up.
Just to give you a little back story to why we have been struggling more than usual here it is. After he was let go, my dad taught him how to do irrigation. Like sprinklers, drip systems, valves, testing for water pressure, things like that. He started his own little side hustle, and it was going great through until we got into that last quarter of 2022. Nobody was calling for work. So because he has a taste of being his own boss, he thought it would be a great idea to start a food stand. We did pop-ups here and there and last year we found a company that would build him a food truck and allow him to make payments directly to them. The interest rate was extremely high but it seemed fair since both of our credit scores were super low. The truck was finished being built mid October of last year. We used our paid off 2005 Sequoia to haul the trailer since the small Tacoma he had for irrigation work isn't strong enough to pull it. November 2 days after Thanksgiving he had his Tacoma parked on the street in front of our house and the catalytic converter was stolen. Two days after that happens a drunk driver speeding down our street t-bones my boyfriend in the Sequoia while he was reversing the food truck into out driveway. By the grace of God Z is alive. The Sequoia was totaled, the trailer is still in good condition because the tow hitch broke off at impact.
Now because that was the main source of his income we had to look for another truck to haul the trailer. Found a 2011 Tundra on offerup in December and thought okay, everything is going to work out still, no worries. January rolls around, the alternator goes out. My dad comes to the rescue and has a friend put it a new alternator. Then July the radiator goes bad. We learned how to change the radiator, shrout, and thermostat. Got that done, week later, blew a head gasket. Is it just me or is this a sign that the food truck may not be the line of work God wants for my boyfriend. So because it's just in my nature I guess, here I am trying to pick up the slack as if I ever stopped. I really just need help. We both try, but it seems like we can't get out of this hole.
Anything helps, anything. I'm sorry if I rambled. I know I hopped around quite a bit. But I was trying to give as much info and context as I could. Thank you so much for reading and thank you even more if you made it to the end. |
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