Last day of NaBloPoMo!!

I had almost made it, too. Forgot a couple of days in there - but oh well. Maybe next year, right? Maybe I'll have more interesting things to blog about than my random thoughts and complaints about this and that.

Today church was all about finances. ALL about finances. Sacrament meeting was about finances. I don't think Sunday School was (I didn't go, got sidetracked in the hall). Joint Relief Society/Priesthood was about finances.

I left third hour feeling pretty hopeless. I am not in any way harping on the teacher or the doctrine. I know we need to get out of debt. I know we need to be better at budgeting. The reason I felt so hopeless leaving class was because I don't feel I have an out now. We had the young men and young women join us and the Bishop showed them where all of our money goes. He used a pay scale similar to ours and showed where every penny (should) go. I think it opened the eyes of the youth a lot. But by the time he factored in $350 food budget, the budget was in the hole $7. That didn't even factor in medical bills, cell phone (which is required for Popeye to have), cable, internet, miscellaneous debt, etc... We weren't really given a plan of action, which is what I was secretly hoping for. I don't think I am alone in feeling the pressure of getting ahold of our finances. I wonder if anyone else feels as disheartened as I do.

So, that being said, Popeye and I need to come up with a plan. We need to figure this stuff out. Some of the random thoughts going through my head are:
~Do we take out a massive loan to consolidate debt (including the van payment) and then use the van payment to pay a new massive loan? This would also finish the fixing of the house.
~Do we make our creditors wait until February and then pay most of them off with our tax refund? And then save to fix the house?
~Do we make minimum payments and hope for the best?
~Do we play the lotto and pray (this one time) that we win (because really we could do so much good with $92 million)?
~Do we burden our bishop with our problems and ask the church for help?
So many thoughts with not a lot of hope.........

That's how I feel today. Popeye says it's because we didn't pay our tithing right away. I reminded him that we did. We might've waited until TODAY to pay our tithing, but none of our other bills have been paid yet and it IS the first Sunday after payday - so it's not like I'm ripping off the Lord.

Anyway. I know there must be a way out. Can anyone tell me how you're doing it and what has helped you? And if you're lurking - I hope you will answer this - at least this one time.