So I have been lurking around the forum for a few weeks trying to get as educated as possible. Being as new to this as I am, I’m still really confused and frustrated. I ran up a lot of bad credit when I was in my late adult teens-early 20s and now it is coming back to bite me. I admit to each and every debt that I have, but I haven’t exactly had the funds to pay them (until now) or I have completely forgotten that they were there. I’m trying to get my credit in order b/c my husband and I really want to have a house in 2 years. I really don’t want my carelessness as a dumb kid to haunt me forever. Here is the breakdown of my credit report:
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3 apartment bills- all PAID
2 medical bills-Â totalling $1187 (still within SOL)
2 cable bills- both PAID
Capital One C/O- $745 (still within SOL)
Scholastic- $44 (still within SOL)
Columbia House- $107 (still within SOL)
medical bill- $50 (NOT within SOL)
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Any advice as to how I should tackle these? I am thinking that I need to send Goodwill letters to all of the paid collections, wait until I have the money to PIF for PFD on all of the collections that are withing the SOL. Which ones should I start with. Should I pay off more of the smaller amounts so I don’t have as many individual collections on my credit report or is it the large balance accounts that are hurting me more? And what about the medical bills? I keep hearing people mention HIPAA? Now I know that there are some accounts that are small and I could easily just pay, but I want to make sure I am doing the right thing to get this stuff off my credit.
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Also, I just applied for a secured credit card that I will use for groceries and gas (which are budgeted every week).
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Any advice is happily welcomed! 
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