How to be done with credit card debt for good?
Married w/ two kids, 2 working parents make solidly middle class income in a HCOL area. Gross is about $178k household income.
We have paid off our credit card, and then due to household repairs, car repairs, and kid stuff (summer camps😳 ), somehow we always seem to sit at the $6,000-8,000 mark. How do we tackle this once and for all? I'm so tired of seeing the balance yo-yo. We have a car payment, mortgage, and Checking/Savings sits at around $10,000 liquid. We just cannot seem to get ahead of debt. Advice? TIA.
EDIT: here is a rough budget. On paper it adds up but we are definitely overspending in some categories. Last month our furnace broke. We paid some out of pocket, and dipped into our HELOC to replace it. We overspent on restaurants last month for sure. We ended the month in the red.
EDIT 2: This post really prompted me to do a line by line analysis. We DIDN'T end up in the red last month! We had $1800 left over. I've been using Rocket Money and what was in the red was budgeted versus spent, not actual income v. spent. I already feel better. That being said, we definitely have room to build up savings while also eliminating the debt. I appreciate the insights.
| Category | Budget |
|---|---|
| Income | 11000 |
| Spending | 9986 |
| Leftover | 1014 |
| Car Payments | 756 |
| Car Insurance | 180 |
| Electric | 300 |
| Heating Oil | 350 |
| Shopping | 1000 |
| Restaurants | 650 |
| Coffee | 150 |
| Entertainment | 100 |
| Pets | 100 |
| Gas | 275 |
| Groceries | 1200 |
| Gym Memberships | 250 |
| House Cleaners | 220 |
| Medical | 140 |
| Subscriptions | 85 |
| Mortgage | 2680 |
| Kids Activities | 150 |
| Credit Card Payment | 800 |
| HELOC Payment | 600 |