<prompt> Human: My wife and I have never been good with money. When we first moved in together 10 years ago, I took over all of the finances. I tried to get her involved but she resisted and, eventually, I just said fuck it and decided to forge ahead on my own.Weve both had our ups and downs as far as credit goes, and weve managed to weather things fairly well; well enough to buy a house, have two cars, etc. We werent able to put much away in savings, but we were paying everything on time and our meager savings was slowly growing.Then, about two years ago, her brother and father moved in. Her brother had ample savings from his former job as an electrician he quit without finding another job - brilliant and her father had no income or savings and is disabled and cant work. Her brother was able to pay us rent and utilities for them both, and after about six or seven months he finally landed another job. About a year in to this living arrangement, we had a massive blow up and it was decided that her brother needed to move out.We were fine for about eight months after he moved out, and then things started getting rough. We re-organized a bit in the hopes that it would help, but we exhausted out small nest egg over those few months. We drew up a new grocery budget, seeing where we could cut costs, etc. She has done a great job with the grocery budget and, often, brings everything in just under budget; she has become really good with coupons. Despite this, however, we have gotten to a really bad place.Currently were a month to a month-and-a-half behind on some of our bills. I always make sure that were able to pay the mortgages, but were losing ground quicker than ever and Im not sure what to do about it. She also had to have a minor surgery a few months ago that has left us with about 500 in doctors bills, and I had to have physical therapy at the end of last year and Im still paying off some of it.Recently she just became part owner in the small business that she works for, and gets an extra paycheck each month with her portion of the profits. She had been getting paid hourly, but this moved her over toward a salary which is about 200month below what she was making. Her profit checks should make up for this, but weve only gotten one so far and, after setting money aside for taxes, it didnt make much of a difference. I work for the government and have a pretty good salary. With her new position, she works six days a week, anywhere between 8 and 10 hour days. I work a compressed schedule, having every other Friday off. Im considering a part-time job on the weekends, but Id have to get it approved first. I really would rather not do this, because I make a good salary, but Im actively looking. Between the two of us, I just dont understand why we cant pay our bills.Ive set up a Mint account recently, and am still trying to get it completed. Ive also taken the liberty of emailing my friends father, as he works as a financial adviser. I dont expect him to offer us an immediate panacea, but I think that we would do well to sit down with him and have him help us to see where were deficient and assist us in coming up with a plan so that this doesnt go any further.Were also going to be getting hit up for 1000 in repairs to my wifes car at the end of the week. Im fairly handy with basic auto maintenance, but this goes beyond my limited skill set brake work - which I havent done in about 20 years.Im trying to remain optimistic, and think that we can pull out of this. Im trying really hard to maintain for the next few months because my wifes car will be paid off as of next January, as long as we can keep up with the payments, and that will free up 400month to throw at the bills.In regard to my father-in-law, he receives some food stamps 200mo. that have helped with groceries. He recently qualified for state welfare, and some health programs. He waited for a long time to file for disability, but has in the past year and was turned down twice. He was able to find an attorney to work with him, and now were just waiting to hear what his date will be to find out if he will be receiving any monthly benefits. Depending upon what he is drawing, if he starts to receive benefits, I plan on charging him a little something for rent and utilities how much I cant say at the moment.Ive searched through rpersonalfinance and have seen a lot of great advice about saving and such, but not so much about getting out of trouble. Berate me for bad habits in the past, criticize my lack of financial foresight, ask me questions, anything - but can anybody offer me any insight as to how to get out of this?Thanks. EDIT - MORE INFOOnce again, things are somewhat in limbo because I dont know how things are going to shake out, exactly, with the wifes new part-ownership in the business. She owns 25, btw. We live close to the nations capitol, fortunate in some ways, unfortunate in regard to the money situation, as everything around here seems to be pretty freaking expensive. :My salary is roughly 75Kyr. hers is roughly 21Kyear, but I dont know how the profits from the business will average out. I know that this seems like a lot of money. It is, which is why I cant figure out what were doing wrong.Our mortgages total roughly 2100month. Heres a catch though. We refinanced after a year in the house, at the suggestion of my friends father. He suggested a really aggressive strategy, something that we thought on and agreed to, ultimately. Instead of a 30 or 15 year term on the second mortgage, we took a 7 year term through a program that my credit union offered. At the time it was fine and we were doing fine. The second mortgage is 765 and will be completely paid off in 2 more years. This will give us an enormous chunk of equity in the house, as long as we can make it that far.I budget about 1500month for consumables including groceries, gas, dog food, beer. This is something that Ive been keeping an eye on for the past few months to see where we can tweak things, and Im pretty sure that Ill be able to cut this by about 300 dollars each month.We have two revolving credit accounts and one account that was revolving but Ive closed in order to pay down. One is from my credit union that we used to pay taxes one year, when we got royally boned by the IRS. This is 90month and is withdrawn from the account automatically. I have a credit card with a small limit 1000 and am carrying an 800 balance. And the other is a Dell account with an 1800 balance.Her car is 435month, my car is 335month; theyre both rather conservative Hondas - a CR-V and my Civic. Nothing luxurious. My students loans are 305month. GasElectric is 335month will go up somewhat in winter. CableInternet is 200month cutting most of this service, with the exception of internet, is on the table. Auto Insurance is 150month for comprehensive on both cars. Netflix will be 20month this is on the table for discussionchopping block as well.My father-in-laws food stamps come out to 200month.I know that this seems like a lot of money and I know that we have a lot of work to do. We rarely go out to eat. If I get the yen to satisfy a hobby, Ill trade-in video games, sell dvds or books to the stores that will allow me, in order to bring down the cost. I do this, maybe 4 times a year. We drink a lot of beer and wine on the weekends, but weve been cutting back substantially in the past few months in order to reduce this cost. Ive decided to stop drinking entirely until we get this back on track, and Ive told my wife that she needs to quit smoking and buy one bottle of wine to last her for the weekend.Once again - I know that we have work to do. I get it. As I mentioned, we were doing well until we had to take care of family and some unexpected expenses medical bills hit us in the face. Im here for advice on how to get back on track, and everybody that has offered it, so far, has been awesome and it is very appreciated. Just wanted to say that the responses here have been incredible. You guys really have done a lot to change the way that Im thinking about all of this. Instead of seeing a hole with poor footing and no purchase, I see a rope dangling from overhead, just within my reach. Im grateful at how overwhelming and insightful the responses have been. Thank you so much.  <response>: Any chance either of you could take public transportation to work? Become a single car family and pocket the extra 435 per month along with the insurance and gas savings.Are you claiming her father as a dependent on your taxes? Since he is reliant on you for some type of care, I believe youre entitled to some compensation from Uncle Sam.Next, Id consider refinancing your home into a longer term note. Im not advocating a 30 year, but a 15 year would certainly ease your budget strain. I always tell people to get a 30 year and make extra payments each month. If they fall on hard times, theres an extra cushion. Making extra payments each month to principal on a 30 year note is the same as a 15 year with more flexibility, granted one stays disciplined.Lastly, how much equity is in your home? Since youre probably paying a nice bit of interest on the Dell and credit card accounts, Id be inclined to take out a HELOC for 4-5 and pay off those accounts, saving you a good amount in interest each month.One final work. Keep the Netflix account and internet. Its not the little 2030 things each month which are breaking you, its the two car payments and other big monthly expenses. At the end of the day, you need to keep some fun in your life, otherwise youll go nuts!Good luck, sir. : 