Losing my membership

[Lost]

I'm a very active alumna of the one of the top sororities (on any of the lists) and got a letter yesterday that says I'm being financially expelled from the sorority! It seems that at the last national convention, my registration check bounced. I wasn't notified about this for 7 months but as soon as I was told, I set up a payment plan. My husband handles all of our finances so I asked him to take care of this. He had me send in a couple of checks but it turns out that he never did anything else about it.

Now I'm supposed to send in a money order for almost $500 in the next two weeks or I lose my membership. I don't have that much money laying around because I'm in the process of paying off medical bills.

I am mortified. I feel like such "white trash"!!!. I'm in a panic and don't know what to do. When I don't feel like I'm going to throw up, I eat non-stop. This has just made me ill.

I tried to be rational and talk to my husband about this. He has never really cared about my org but he knows that I am devastated. I thought the bounced check a year ago was an aberration but now I'm looking at things closer and am finding a lot of problems with our finances. My husband and I both have good jobs with high income but we don't ever seem to have any money. There is NOT drinking, drugs, gambling or another woman involved because I definitely checked. I think he is just bad at managing money.

I've received national and local awards, am an advisor and alumnae chapter officer. I'm sure this will leave a big black mark against my name within the sorority. I was just passed over for a regional officer position and am wondering if this is why. I'm going to write a letter to our HQ explaining that I don't have the money right now and see if they'll grant an extension. I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions?