What Do You Think?

[imamomx2]

Hi Ladies! I'm looking for some advice. I have been working for the past couple of years, and now that I have two kiddos, my heart is yearning to be back home. Here's the problem. After we budget for all of these things, only counting on dh's paycheck, we'd have less than 10% to put toward savings or unexpected expenses.

Please help in the following ways:
Have any of you felt like you were able to live comfortably, knowing you were only able to put a few hundred dollars extra (for debt or savings or unexpected stuff)? Is this too little?

What am I missing in our budget? Any category that we're missing? It's hard to know what life would be like with me home, b/c dining out would cut down, gas to work would go down - that sort of thing.

Mortgage (taxes, etc): 770
Food: 450
Tithe: 300
Spending: 150
Utilities (gas, electric, don't pay water): 250
Gasoline: 150
Student Loan: 150
TV/Internet/Cell Phone: 150
Car/Life Insurance: 150
House Maintenance: 150
Car: 100
Gifts: 50
Clothing: 50
Haircut: 30
Trash: 15

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

[honeybunmom]

Off the top of my head, it looks like health insurance is missing, current contributions to pension plans (if any), property taxes and home insurance. Do you currently pay home insurance monthly? If not, you'll want to incorporate a line item into your monthly save for that expense. Are your property taxes currently escrowed as part of your mortgage payment? If not, you need to add that (sorry, looks like you do have that in there). What does utilities include? I would expect electric, gas and water. Make sure you're not missing anything there. Do either of you maintain a cell phone? Don't see that bill. That about covers it for me.

One more - would you need to increase your life insurance covereage for you? Consider the cost it would be for your family to hire out everything you'd be doing now that you're at home.

Congrats to you to have the opportunity to come home!

[AAK]

I don't see garbage service in there? Do you have that bill where you live?

But, if you are looking to save a bit, I would look at the cable/phone/internet bill. A lot of tv can be watched online now, so perhaps eliminating the cable part would help. I will be trying to negotiate our internet rate, but will be dropping the cable tv part all together.

Amy

[imamomx2]

Thanks for your help! Our health and 401k contributions aren't taken out of net, so I didn't include them. Our property taxes and house insurance is included in our mortgage payment, so that's the total amount.

Oh, and yes, regarding the cable, we do so much with netflix, we barely even watch TV anymore. The ridiculous thing is that the package for cable tv/internet is cheaper than cable internet itself. Our rural area has a serious monopoly, too. Doesn't hurt to try to negotiate though.

I didn't add trash - speaking of which, I need to pay it! I'll edit for that.

Thanks!

Does this feel like too tight of a budget if there's only a few hundred left over? How much is "safe"? Maybe that differs for everyone.

[zinemama]

My advice: give yourself a set period of time - say 3 months - during which you bank your entire paycheck. See what it feels like living on that one salary.

Staying home with only a few hundred left over each month after meeting expenses is doable, I think IF:

You have a sizable emergency fund stashed away (10K is good)
You are disciplined about spending
You and dh are on the same page, in terms of financial decision-making

[honeybunmom]

Just thought about one more thing: what if you have to replace your car? Would you be able to take on a new car payment? Do you have sufficient savings to be able to purchase one outright or make a big enough down payment that your monthly obligation could fit into your existing budget? May not be an issue now or within the next year, but perhaps before you started working again it would be.

Personally, I like to have a bit more of a cushion, but if it were in any way feasible for me to stay home and have my dh be the breadwinner, I'd probably jump at the chance and really tighten up the belt to make it work.

[imamomx2]

Hmmm... good thought about the car. We're (hopefully) not to the point where we would need to worry about that for a long while, but things happen, right? I've considered working the rest of the year just to sock as much money away into savings as I can. I think the impatient, wanna be home side of me just wants to be home now though.

[Denvergirlie]

Are you currently or ever plan on saving for retirement? college for kiddos? what about a family vacation or new furniture?

Just a few other things to consider. I too would recommend you live on one salary for a while and see how it goes and build that savings account.