<prompt> Human: Last year my spouse told me they wanted to take a credit card out to work on their credit. Weve been struggling a bit financially and I was a bit apprehensive,but they have a job so I gave in and relented. So a couple months later I noticed some suspicious mail and confronted them about just how many credit cards they had.Found out it was 3, but only for 300 apiece. I freaked out and wanted to open my own bank account. Unfortunately our current bank account is tied to our mortgage in my name, plus our finances are still tight and I worried about not being able to monitor the situation so I let it be. Ive tried pressing them about it and they finally relented a couple weeks ago and admitted they maxed them out and havent paid them, resulting in 1500 of debt, but were planning on taking out a payday loan to pay them off. I figured they wouldnt be too horrible i was guessing 15-30 interest at most and we would be able to pay them off or wouldnt take a big bite out of out budget. But they ended up being 126, resulting in now a grand total of 3.7k of debt. And the payments are over an 18 month period. A bit of background here, my spouse and I own a starter home 20k worth of debt remaining and have 3 kids. Ages 7 to 11. I make around 30kyear and they make 20kyear. So finances are quite tight as is and I dont know how to weather this. Im afraid of divorce because I feel like I wouldnt get custody of the kids, they are everything to me. But Im also afraid of them learning my spouses bad habits too.Is there anything I can do here? Any reasonable advice would be appreciated greatly. TL;DR spouse ran up 3500 in debt on a low income household and currently considering my options.  <response>: Dave Ramseys total money makeover is a good program. The both of you need to be onboard to make it work. 