How To Pay Off Overwhelming Debt?

[u/maleygonster]

I posted an update comment, because every time I tried to add an update to the post it said error.

Good Morning.

My husband and I have been married for a few years now. When we first got together, I had $4,000 balance on my credit card that I was gradually bringing down. This was due to my college, and the monthly payments requested by the bank were only $100, but I was paying extra to stay ahead of the balance. Well, my husband was awful with money. This often left the bills to fall on me. I am a full-time college student with a job, but I only make about $900, so I was paying our water, electricity, internet, my car payment, food for the dogs, all of the dog's vet bills, all of my things for school. I know this doesn't seem like much, but when you only have $900 to spend every month that's your entire paycheck and then some. He didn't get better with money until I finally had someone intervene, my parents. He and my dad work the same job. I am so overwhelmed with the debt we've accumulated from me paying for everything with money that I don't have- we are $24,000 in debt on that card because he used it as his. I worked from the time I was 15 to the time I was 20 when we got married to have a credit score of 749. It is now barely 700 because of this. What do we do to pay this off quicker? We hardly make enough money to pay off the monthly payment (which is $550). He is MUCH better with his money now, and things have shaped up a bit, but the hole that this has made is gigantic. We pay $800 a month for our place, so one of the cheapest you can find. We stopped eating out. I stopped buying coffee at school. I now work somewhere that gives me a discount on everything I need, Including vet care, for my dogs. (3). We keep our thermostat as high as we safely can (don't want the dogs to overheat) to keep the power down. We hardly use lights in the house. We've made every small change that we can think of and we still can't seem to pay this card down. He had his realization about 9 months ago, and we developed a new routine, only spend what we need, all that jazz. But nothing is working. I've been getting offers in the mail to consolidate the debt, and they're saying because of covid $10,000 of it might be forgiven. I'm so desperate but I can't seem to find any resources that explain how these programs actually work or how, if at all, they would affect my credit.

Anywho, thank you so much if you actually read all of that. I'm just really trying to dig myself out of this hole. Husband is finally on board so any and all suggestions are welcome. (except for getting rid of the dogs. this is not an option.)

[u/izzabee2]

How are you married and not aware of his salary? You guys have credit that is tied to each other. Would suggest seeking financial counseling ASAP.