DH got pay-cut and now we are living outside of our means. I could use some advice. - Page 2

[mnnice]

[QUOTE=laohaire;15768012]
The water bill seems EXTREMELY high to me. Ours is like $200 a year, and my husband is a huge water waster (drives me nuts). Of course it could just be a location thing; water might just plain be expensive in your area if you're in a dry place. (We're not).
QUOTE]

Not the OP, but some places water and sewer are just high (even in places that get lots of rainfall). We pay about the same per month and are very conservative with water. A coworker was complaining the a completely vacant house she owns has a $65 per month water/sewer bill.

[herbmama3-7]

Well, I lowerded our netflix acct. to the -$9 a month.
Cut out eating out -$70
Lowerd our Cell phone minutes -$50
looking into getting the student loans on the income based payment plan, which is only going to save us -$70
Shaved $100 off of groceries
Reduced tithe to -$50

So that is $349 in savings.

We don't feel good about cutting off our sponsored child @$35 and believe strongly in giving to our church. However if it came down to having a roof over our heads, we would look at it.

Next step is to contact the bank about the car and look into refinancing and also calling the credit cards about the interest rate.

Thanks everyone.
you have been very helpful, and inspiring.

[EviesMom]

Something I haven't seen mentioned but that I've noticed just based on our home-use patterns being different from school year versus summer--

Can you reduce your heat and electricity costs (might not make an immediate difference with the level billing, but might bring it down overall) by being away from house more during the day at free/already paid for places like the library or the Y? When DS was in Y preschool, DD and I did homeschool in the lobby room of the Y with tables and chairs. She thought it was fabulous and novel, and I found that since we weren't using electricity/heat/AC at home for a chunk of hours, our usage and cost dropped a bit.

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by herbmama3-7

Well, I lowerded our netflix acct. to the -$9 a month.
Cut out eating out -$70
Lowerd our Cell phone minutes -$50
looking into getting the student loans on the income based payment plan, which is only going to save us -$70
Shaved $100 off of groceries
Reduced tithe to -$50

So that is $349 in savings.

We don't feel good about cutting off our sponsored child @$35 and believe strongly in giving to our church. However if it came down to having a roof over our heads, we would look at it.

Next step is to contact the bank about the car and look into refinancing and also calling the credit cards about the interest rate.

Thanks everyone.
you have been very helpful, and inspiring.

Congrats on the changes made however I question sponsoring a child when you own children need food and shelter ya know? You are alreading doing tithe so its not like you aren't donating. If you continue to tithe and sponsor thats a total of $85.00 a month...I'd cut the sponsor a child for now and just tithe if you feel the need to donate at all.

I know colorado is $$ so congrats on the changes and keep plugging along. Also the LIBRARY is a great place to get movies FOR FREE!!

[Dandelionkid]

Originally Posted by zebra15

Congrats on the changes made however I question sponsoring a child when you own children need food and shelter ya know? You are alreading doing tithe so its not like you aren't donating. If you continue to tithe and sponsor thats a total of $85.00 a month...I'd cut the sponsor a child for now and just tithe if you feel the need to donate at all.

I know colorado is $$ so congrats on the changes and keep plugging along. Also the LIBRARY is a great place to get movies FOR FREE!!

Well she did say she would cut out the sponsorship if she couldn't feed or shelter her own kids. I agree with the OP that the child sponsorship should be kept unless absolutely necessary to stop payments. For the sponsored kid it could be the difference between a full stomach and an empty one

[manleywoman]

Just wanted to chime in and let you know I feel your pain. I live in an expensive city, and we both just got paycuts. It's very difficult for us to make ends meet right now. And while I know that there are many suffering, literally ALL of my friends have very well-paying jobs and large nest eggs that we never had to begin with. So I also while being very fincially tight right now, on the bad days I also just feel really badly about the career path I chose. Hang in there!

[choli]

Originally Posted by herbmama3-7

Thank you everyone, for taking a look at my life. I do appreciate the time and advice. I am going to take action on a few of the things listed.
I will talk to DH about the Netflix account, and I have already illiminated the eating out.
I am definately going to look into the income based student loan repayment plan, and got my gas and
electric set at a fixed rate. My grocery bill is a little high, but bear with me, I study holistic nutrition and herbology, health starts with the food you consume and I just can't buy the crappy junk, I just can't. I think I can feed us on $100 a week. It is pushing it though in this town. Not to mention I make a lot from scratch.
DH bikes and busses to work, we keep the car because of needing to see family a couple hours away and for little day trips to the mtns. For sanity sake.

I am praying for my Dh to be able to find a new job, until then I am going to get very diciplined and do my best.

Thanks again, keep the info coming if you have any!

Are there any options for carshare such as Zipcar in your town? Paying that kind of money for "little day trips" is not very practical if you do not need to use a car on a daily basis. You would be better off even renting a car occasionally.

Get a pay as you go cell phone (or two). You would probably spend less in a year than you are paying monthly.

[mad4mady]

I would call your student loans. You can use a unemployment deferment even if you are working part-time. If you do not qualify for the unemployment deferment because you work too many hours, then I believe you can do a 6 month deferment without cause. If you did that maybe you could put 1/2 of that payment towards a credit card and 1/2 in savings. Talk to your student loan people, they have always been really helpful with helping me figure out ways I can defer my loans.

I would probably put your ymca membership on hold. I think you can hold the membership for up to 6 months without having to pay renewal fees.

Can you possibly cut back your cell phone to the minimum minutes? I would only do this if you think you won't go over the minutes because if you go over the minutes it will cost you.

You could possibly cut the netflix membership to the min. I thinks its like $8.

Gook Luck and Hang in there!!