Overwhelming debt. Time to get out of it.

C0282736

I graduated from college almost 2 years ago with a degree in music composition and $12,000 in debt. Not wanting to be a starving artist for the rest of my life I got into a "partnership"ish deal with a recording studio and went out on a limb to purchase a $28,000 dollar piano to entice classical clientelle to come to us since there aren't any studio's with a high quality grand piano's on the island I live on. Unfortunately the arrangement with the studio couldn't support my monthly loan payments and rent and everything else so I decided to start another business that I know quite a bit about. I started a lawn and garden maintenance business (http://www.mowvictoria.com) that was making quite good money and I half regret it now but I bought a large 2004 ford f 250 to put forth a more professional image. My monthly expenses are now above $2000 and I just make that every month. I feel like i'm in a hole that keeps getting deeper and deeper and I am overwhelmed with my almost $70,000 in debt that I have to carry. Can anybody share ANY ideas with me on how to get out of this pickle? I don't want to give up on my business because I think it could grow to something very profitable but I am so tight on funds and growth is slow because of it.

Thanks to anybody who can help me out.

seven-day-weekend

Noticed from your link that you are not in the UK. As this is a UK site, there may be a limit to the help that can be suggested, as some money-saving ideas may not be practical or possible where you are, and credit rules may be different.

That said, could you list your major incomings and outgoings and any debt with its APR and we'll see if we can help?

C0282736

I know this is a UK site but I couldn't find many good forums in canada on this topic.
I average an income of about $2600 a month
my expenses are
loan1-$465
loan2-$545
rent-$625
expenses-$150
food-$300
insurance-$160
gas-$300

Thanks for any help.
Also, I started a blog the other day to help out others as well as keep me in line. I'm desperate for something to work.

C0282736

anybody there? The more help the better.
Thanks everyone.

seven-day-weekend

You see, it's actually quite difficult to help someone from another country. We would be able to tell people in the Uk how to get cheaper gas bills and phone bills for example, or how to spend less on food. But we don't know how it works elsewhere, or how much anything costs, so it is quite difficult to advise.

All I can suggest is if you have any interest-bearing lcredit card debts is to pay the one with the highest interest off first, paying as much as you can towards it whilst paying minimum payment on the others. Then when that one has gone, put what you were spending on that, plus the minimum payment, onto the next one. This is called snowballing and there is an article about it (I think) on the main site.

Sorry I can't help more.

BlondeHeadOn

Is there any chance of selling your vehicle and buying a cheaper second hand one to release some funds? You say you half regret buying it now, and if the only reason for keeping it is image then I would buy a cheap second hand model and get some advertising artwork on it!

You need to free up enough money somehow to be able to start chipping away at the debt repayments - whether that is by sellling assets like the vehicle or earning more (more hours? higher charges?)

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!