<prompt> Human: Sorry for the long title. My wife needed emergency dental work last year when one of her teeth shattered at work. She has insurance through her dads work and called the dentist before going into make sure they took his insurance Delta. She went in, had a root canal done along with getting a few other procedures taken care of before they handed us a bill for nearly 3000 months after the procedures claiming that they didnt accept his insurance afterall. We handed the issue off to the insurance holder since his insurance wouldnt even talk to us about why they werent covering it, and it took nearly 8 months for them to finally tell us that her dad had Delta PPO and the dentist doesnt accept that after verbally telling my wife they took All Delta. Weve been slowly making payments after moving because of family health reasons nearly 10 hours away from the dentist. We had a verbal agreement in place to continue paying as much as we can not much, usually about 50 a month right now because were working on paying down other debts with higher interest rates, and throwing additional cash towards it when we can. Thursday they called and threatened my wife that they would send the bill to collections if it wasnt paid off by April in full. Thats roughly 600 a month, and we most certainly cant pay that. Our budget: Wifes monthly minimum income minimum after taxes if she doesnt pick up extra hours at work: 1000 My monthly minimum income: 1700 Usual additional income from overtimeextra hours: 300 rent: 1200 High risk fee until Feb when thats paid off 200 electric: 70 Internet: 50 Cell: 170 -70 monthly from family members who contribute to a family plan Credit cards: 250 Store cards: 200 misc payment cards: 50 Insurance: 120 subscription services 22 includes yearly subscriptions broken down monthly savings for car repairsreplacement 50 Perkins loan payment 100 Total Expenses: 2482 give or take Total remaining: 218 for gas and groceries monthly.The majority of the credit card debit came from some stupid spending decisions when moving putting moving truck on the card, putting move-in expenses on it, using it for groceries our first year married to get the points and then being short paying the whole balance at the end of the month, so only paying minimums, etc Store cards are the same way, havent touched most of them in nearly a year, and same with the misc expense cards. We have a Care Credit account that we have a large bill with, but also 18 months no interest to pay down after our dog ingested something he shouldnt have and we had to pay for.Total debt: 4700 - CC1 1050 - CC2 was a 0 interest card we used as a moving loan, but that period has ended 800 - Store card 1 450 - store card 2 200 - store card 3 800 - Care Credit account interest free for 18 months, making regular payments on 2400 - Dental bill 13,000 - Perkins loan not on income based repayment 42,000 - federal student loans on income based repayment 0 a month currentlyBecause we have so little left after all our bills for gas and groceries, the extra 200-300 we get monthly usually also goes towards groceries, paying down other store cards, trying to snowball a few payments away, etc. Since moving in July weve paid off 3 other cards totalling about 700, but there were a few months where we were also living with family and didnt have rent to pay, but had a car repair, and needed our deposit and moving expenses to pay as well. Its all a mess.So, our current thought is to explore a consolidation personal loan, roll up the majority of our debt with the dental debit into a single payment, and then throw additional income at it whenever possible. I get paid every other Friday, so roughly twice a year I get a third paycheck, along with bi-yearly bonuses. Were throwing all of that towards debt, and my next additional paycheck comes in June along with the bonus. Any side cash Craigslist sales, donating plasma, Ebay, etc goes towards paying down our store cards and other debts.Would getting a roughly 10,000 personal loan, putting our CCs on it, the dental bill, and some of the larger store cards be a bad idea? Are there any personal loan providers out there that would be recommended? Assistant: You could try a loan for sure, that would drop your interest rate on the credit cards. Is the dental bill accruing interest? Alternatively, you could look into getting another credit card that has 12 months interest free with free balance transfers, and that would at least stop accruing interest on the debt for the time being, but definitely not a long term solution.Might I also ask what the High Risk fee of 200mo is? Either way, make sure you allocate this when it is gone to tackling your highest interest debt. As far as dentists go, having them send you to collections isnt the end of the world. Your credit will take a hit, but you will likely be able to pay a of what the bill is and not in full. At this point, I assume your credit already isnt great, and you arent in the position to be making any major purchases soon where your credit rating will be a factor.The reality is that you both should be exploring ways in increase your full time income. How is it possible for your wife to only pull in 1000month? That is a minimum wage job at best, you are not doing much better. Especially for having student debt you would hope to be earning better than minimum wage. I would send resumes out and see what kind of other jobs are out there, on your current income you are clearly struggling to get out of debt, much less save for retirementother goals.Human: She initially got a job working 32 hours at a preschool what she is educated for and was pulling in 1500 a month, but they had an enrollment drop and she had her hours cut to 25 a week. Theyre expecting an enrollment boost in January though. My job pays 13 an hour plus overtime, in a sector Im trained for. It was hard enough finding this job close to where we live, and most of the other places we found for me to work at were either offering less, or offering less hours and no benefits.Assistant: Does your wife have a job for the other 15 hours a week? Human: Works from home maintaining a few different online stores. Assistant: How much time does that occupy and what income does that bring in? If I were in her shoes Id be looking at part time work, either in that field nannying? after school childcare? or not: uber, etc. Human: Cant do uber in a 1997 Buick lesabre, and not much part time work that would pay well enough between 8 and 11AM. Like I said, her hours were cut and are expected to return. Not everyone is blessed with the emotional and mental stability to take on two part time jobs full time.  <response>: Ok, Im just trying to help. I mean, if the only advice you want to hear is to take out more loans, then maybe others can advise. I just dont think that only working 25 hours a week is feasible given your income to debt ratio. Counting on future hours or future raises to address a current problem doesnt seem wise either. If January comes around and hours increase again, then congratulations and ignore everything else. I apologize if she has a disability that you havent mentioned, which may limit her ability to work. Most people work 40 hours a week at minimum, and many who are struggling work far more than that. I wouldnt even worry about whether it was high paying if I were in your shoes. A part time job for 15 hours a week at minimum wage would bring in an extra 570 a month. I dont understand how that wouldnt be a critical part of your solution to get out of debt. 