we're falling further and further behind each month. we owe money to family members who have helped us out the last two months to cover our bills. i read the budget threads all the time and i think i could trim some fat but i don't know if it's enough. we have a lot of debt from years of living on state assistance and DH schooling cost. our cards are maxed out and we can barely make the minimum payments. we don't have enough debt to file for bankruptcy but can't pay it down either. we have no savings.
DH is paid on the 15th and last day of the month approx. $1300 each pay period, $2600 a month to our main bank account. we have two other checking accounts at different banks so we can make online payments easier. we have $300 a month into one account for car and line of credit payment. $350 into the other account for DH's credit card and student loan. those both barely cover the minimum payments. i have had to tap into these and it's causing more debt in the long run since we're struggling to have enough money in them when the bills are actually due. i think this is what has triggered our recent downward spiral. if i can get a month under us where i don't touch these i think we'd be in a much better place.
DH has the maximum 401K deduction seeing as we have no retirement savings except his 401K and we're both nearing our 30's. we have dental and health insurance and have to lowest cost plan(HMO). i don't think there's anything we can do to adjust his income that would really be of much benefit to us in the long run. there are no other jobs in his field in this state and moving again(across country twice in 5 years) is not happening. he is expecting around $1500 total from a freelance job from last year. they contacted him for his mailing address over a month ago saying they had money for him. we haven't seen the check and i had DH email them asking if they had sent it yet. we are not counting on this money at all. they're know for taking forever to pay for work.
i'm currently looking for work. i have applied for about a dozen jobs in the last 3-4 months and not a single call back. i looked for places either close enough to walk to or that would pay me enough that i could pay for full time child care. at this point i'm just going to look for a summer babysitting job since my son will be out of school anyways. DH is going to pass around my info to the people at this work since our home is very conveniently located on the way to the office from where a good portion of the staff lives. i'll also be placing an ad on craigslist next week if no one responds from his work. i'm hoping to bring in a few hundred dollars, hopefully at least $400, depending on how many kids i end up watching.
the bills. i'll set this up how i usually do when i budget for the pay period.
1st though 15th-
$850 rent this is pretty good for a 3br 1ba house with solid wood floors in a wonderful neighborhood. we're sort of trapped here since we can't come up with a new security deposit or extra money for a moving truck.
$60-85 electric bill based on last years bills for the next 4 months but peaked at $95 in August.
$40-60 gas bill based on last years bills for the next 4 months.
$8 X-box monthly fee to stream Netflix and DH can game online.
$75 for car gas
=$222 for all groceries and house hold items if i expect the maximum for utilities. this is when i end up taping into our other accounts. this is barely enough to cover our food budget. we're really screwed if something pops up like an unexpected bill or extra gas for the car.
15th through last day of month-
-$231 for insurance. that covers two cars, two life insurance policies and renters insurance. we're dropping one car because it's not drivable and looking to get DH's life insurance rate dropped to the non smoker rate. he quit nearly two years ago. that should shave off $50-60 if we don't lose to much on our multiple policy discount.
$64 cable internet. there's only one other internet provider for our neighborhood and it's DSL. we could downgrade to DSL but then we risk losing our Netflix stream abilities. it would only be a $20 difference.
$200 minimum payment for my credit card
$20 minimum for a store credit card.
$75 for car gas
$10 for Netflix. it's the cheapest plan that lets us stream unlimited movies. we don't have cable nor do we want it.
$80-120 for water bill. this actually comes every other month but it's always due during the later half of the month. it will be due next month and i'll write it into my budget for the month.
=$580 left with the water bill paid. this pay period i usually hit Costco. i get things like eggs, coffee, o.j., frozen organic blueberries, 10lb bag of organic carrots, cheese and juice boxes for DS lunch which i won't need this summer. maybe a few other random things. i don't think i've spent more then $100 on food there and most of that last us the whole month. i've also have to take about $150 of this to pay back the other accounts i had to tap into in the previous pay period.
=$330 after Costco and payback of accounts. i can usually squeak by if i'm really careful and we don't need an oil change or school pictures or we need to pay a co-pay for a doctor's visit or ordering special flours for baking because we're gluten intolerant or ordering Charlie's soap....
since we're gluten intolerant we don't eat out... ever. we don't go to the movies, museums, state parks or anything that cost money like that. we don't get haircuts or buy clothes until ours are falling apart. we have not had any regular car maintenance other then oil changes and the car desperately needs some basic work. both kids and i need some dental work that would be in the thousands out of pocket. DD teeth are literally rotting out from nutritional deficiency. i haven't bought vitamins for about two months and probably won't be able to for a while.
i make nearly all our food from scratch. i think our food budget is pretty good considering what our diet is. i spend about $80 on mostly organic fruits, veggies, beans, rice, 1-2lbs of ground meat and 1-2 whole chickens at the farmers market. i'll spend up to $120 at TJ's for things like organic condiments, organic salt free tortilla chips, GF waffles, syrup, GF cereal, butter, a few organic canned items, toliet paper, dish washer soap, cat litter, dried fruits and nuts(which i make into GF granola bars). then it's another $50-75 at the regular grocery store for stuff like cat food, diapers(DD only uses them at night and is to big for any cloth i have left), filling our 5 gallon water jugs and what ever random odds and ends we might need. that's $275 at it's highest per pay period for all house hold items for 4 people and 2 cats.
i know i made some logical reasons for not cutting some cost out but i'm really open to hearing what others have to say. i tend to tunnel vision stuff like this. i need a reality check. i feel like we're drowning slowly and i can't do anything about it. we can't attack our debt until i can get through a pay period without going in the red.
DH is paid on the 15th and last day of the month approx. $1300 each pay period, $2600 a month to our main bank account. we have two other checking accounts at different banks so we can make online payments easier. we have $300 a month into one account for car and line of credit payment. $350 into the other account for DH's credit card and student loan. those both barely cover the minimum payments. i have had to tap into these and it's causing more debt in the long run since we're struggling to have enough money in them when the bills are actually due. i think this is what has triggered our recent downward spiral. if i can get a month under us where i don't touch these i think we'd be in a much better place.
DH has the maximum 401K deduction seeing as we have no retirement savings except his 401K and we're both nearing our 30's. we have dental and health insurance and have to lowest cost plan(HMO). i don't think there's anything we can do to adjust his income that would really be of much benefit to us in the long run. there are no other jobs in his field in this state and moving again(across country twice in 5 years) is not happening. he is expecting around $1500 total from a freelance job from last year. they contacted him for his mailing address over a month ago saying they had money for him. we haven't seen the check and i had DH email them asking if they had sent it yet. we are not counting on this money at all. they're know for taking forever to pay for work.
i'm currently looking for work. i have applied for about a dozen jobs in the last 3-4 months and not a single call back. i looked for places either close enough to walk to or that would pay me enough that i could pay for full time child care. at this point i'm just going to look for a summer babysitting job since my son will be out of school anyways. DH is going to pass around my info to the people at this work since our home is very conveniently located on the way to the office from where a good portion of the staff lives. i'll also be placing an ad on craigslist next week if no one responds from his work. i'm hoping to bring in a few hundred dollars, hopefully at least $400, depending on how many kids i end up watching.
the bills. i'll set this up how i usually do when i budget for the pay period.
1st though 15th-
$850 rent this is pretty good for a 3br 1ba house with solid wood floors in a wonderful neighborhood. we're sort of trapped here since we can't come up with a new security deposit or extra money for a moving truck.
$60-85 electric bill based on last years bills for the next 4 months but peaked at $95 in August.
$40-60 gas bill based on last years bills for the next 4 months.
$8 X-box monthly fee to stream Netflix and DH can game online.
$75 for car gas
=$222 for all groceries and house hold items if i expect the maximum for utilities. this is when i end up taping into our other accounts. this is barely enough to cover our food budget. we're really screwed if something pops up like an unexpected bill or extra gas for the car.
15th through last day of month-
-$231 for insurance. that covers two cars, two life insurance policies and renters insurance. we're dropping one car because it's not drivable and looking to get DH's life insurance rate dropped to the non smoker rate. he quit nearly two years ago. that should shave off $50-60 if we don't lose to much on our multiple policy discount.
$64 cable internet. there's only one other internet provider for our neighborhood and it's DSL. we could downgrade to DSL but then we risk losing our Netflix stream abilities. it would only be a $20 difference.
$200 minimum payment for my credit card
$20 minimum for a store credit card.
$75 for car gas
$10 for Netflix. it's the cheapest plan that lets us stream unlimited movies. we don't have cable nor do we want it.
$80-120 for water bill. this actually comes every other month but it's always due during the later half of the month. it will be due next month and i'll write it into my budget for the month.
=$580 left with the water bill paid. this pay period i usually hit Costco. i get things like eggs, coffee, o.j., frozen organic blueberries, 10lb bag of organic carrots, cheese and juice boxes for DS lunch which i won't need this summer. maybe a few other random things. i don't think i've spent more then $100 on food there and most of that last us the whole month. i've also have to take about $150 of this to pay back the other accounts i had to tap into in the previous pay period.
=$330 after Costco and payback of accounts. i can usually squeak by if i'm really careful and we don't need an oil change or school pictures or we need to pay a co-pay for a doctor's visit or ordering special flours for baking because we're gluten intolerant or ordering Charlie's soap....
since we're gluten intolerant we don't eat out... ever. we don't go to the movies, museums, state parks or anything that cost money like that. we don't get haircuts or buy clothes until ours are falling apart. we have not had any regular car maintenance other then oil changes and the car desperately needs some basic work. both kids and i need some dental work that would be in the thousands out of pocket. DD teeth are literally rotting out from nutritional deficiency. i haven't bought vitamins for about two months and probably won't be able to for a while.
i make nearly all our food from scratch. i think our food budget is pretty good considering what our diet is. i spend about $80 on mostly organic fruits, veggies, beans, rice, 1-2lbs of ground meat and 1-2 whole chickens at the farmers market. i'll spend up to $120 at TJ's for things like organic condiments, organic salt free tortilla chips, GF waffles, syrup, GF cereal, butter, a few organic canned items, toliet paper, dish washer soap, cat litter, dried fruits and nuts(which i make into GF granola bars). then it's another $50-75 at the regular grocery store for stuff like cat food, diapers(DD only uses them at night and is to big for any cloth i have left), filling our 5 gallon water jugs and what ever random odds and ends we might need. that's $275 at it's highest per pay period for all house hold items for 4 people and 2 cats.
i know i made some logical reasons for not cutting some cost out but i'm really open to hearing what others have to say. i tend to tunnel vision stuff like this. i need a reality check. i feel like we're drowning slowly and i can't do anything about it. we can't attack our debt until i can get through a pay period without going in the red.
i had previously convinced DH to donate and take the tax right off but then he changed his mind. we owe less then $6000 on the daily driver. we plan on driving it to it's death. i've never considered selling it for a less expensive car because we never had that buffer to cover related expenses. DH is going to flip when i suggest selling it and cutting out the netflix/x-box. he's having a really hard time with all this and won't give up his "things".
