Need Serious Budget Help Please!!
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| Tue, 06-03-2008 - 6:28pm |
Hello all,
I'm back for some help. DH works two jobs, has for years, and we just found out he's being let go from his current 2nd job at the end of this month. That will be an income cut of $1800 a month!! I'm freaking out and would appreciate any help/advice/suggestions. I do realize that a huge problem for us is the debt load we carry, but we haven't added to the debt since Jan., which is a big accomplishment for us. Anyway, here are our numbers as they will be starting July 1--have at it!!
Income:
$3010 DH
$500 me--baby-sitting in my home
Total monthly income: $3510
Monthly expenses:
train for DH's commute 139.05
parking at train station 40.00
Gas about 85-90 (budget plan)
Electric about 65-75
Son's meds 70.00
mortgage 1173.13
van 185.33
phone/cable/internet 144
cell phones (2) 76.00
haircuts (3) 40
gas--2 cars about 250
credit minimums 400
savings 100
church offering 225
home loan 602
cash for incidentals 80
garbage 14
water about 30
water reclamation about 15
groceries about 600 for everything household as well
My kids also go to a private school, but their tuition is paid for by their grandparents. The offering is tricky because we get "member" rates but are expected to give sacrificially. . . $225 is less than the $350 tuition but still not even a tithe.
The groceries could def. be cut, but everything is included in this amt and I've been tracking our spending the last several months--this is realistically what I've been spending for our family of 4.
I plan to buy some clippers and buzz my dh's and 2 ds' hair myself, saving on haircuts. I rarely get my hair cut.
I am currently watching two little ones MWF and I have an ad out to find one more full-time child.
We're headed for disaster when DH gets his last check from this employer. Any advice? Did I miss anything? I've never posted numbers before--it's hard to admit to all that debt (payments over $1000 a month just for debt, makes me sick).
DH is looking for another job, either another second job or a higher-paying main job. He has an interview on Thursday in another state--the cost of living is much less but I just don't know what to do.
I posted this earlier in the week on Frugal Families. Please be gentle with me, I'm sensitive and feeling fragile right now!
Thanks in advance!

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I only have a moment right now but I'll come back and look in more detail.
Girlfriend you are in trouble but I bet you already know that right.
Question 1 Is the 3510.00 before or after he loses his second job. If it is after then you got hope.
I did
- Cut your Church Offering from $225 to $25. When you get out of debt and have an emergency savings account, then you can increase it.
- Cancel all cable TV.
- Get a job during the hours your husband is home; he can watch the kids.
- Have your husband carpool to the train station and cut the parking cost in half.
You CAN do this!!
Best wishes,
Mary Jo
Ok, I'm back and ready to try and throw out some suggestions. This is pretty much stream of consciousness sort of suggestions. I post from a place of it never hurts to suggest. Take what your family can use and leave the rest.
In terms of things missing, I don't see any insurance costs. Also, are your property taxes escrowed in that mortgage payment? If not, you'll need to add this. Were you living pretty much paycheck to paycheck with his full 2 incomes? If so, you are missing some stuff because you have about $1k unaccounted for so you'll need to take that into consideration and see what's missing.
What sort of tax returns do you usually see? The one advantage of losing a second income may be the tax implications. It might be worth refiguring DH's W4 and seeing if it makes sense to adjust it so you can get more in his checks now instead of a return later.
I don't know about your church offering situation. I believe most churches would give you some sort of accomodation due to loss of a job like this but only you know your church and your obligations. That is almost 1/3 of your gap so I would say that is a place to do some serious discernment with your DH.
Grocery/household spending is an area to try and work on. I encourage you to look online about information for price books and loss-leaders. This can be an area you can take some time and really save your family some serious money by shopping for items that you use regularly when they are at their very lowest price. The good news it's summer and lots of times, you can do a bit better with produce in season. Check into farmer's markets maybe. If you can go towards the end of the hours, sometimes they mark things down substantially. I see some awesome deals in the meat dept if I happen to catch their markdowns. Ask at your grocery about what day or time of day they do their markdowns and see if you can't be there when that happens. You might check for Angel Ministries or other food programs in your area. Most are not income sensitive so you might be able to get some traction that way.
What are your employment options? Is daycare really the best option or would you be better off looking for something more lucrative in the evenings? Food service can often be flexible and give you even some cash flow because of tips. Any seasonal employment available in your area?
I think looking at a lower cost of living area is a great strategy if something comes together on your husband's job. The thing I'm wondering though is that your cost of living doesn't seem to be that high and sadly, the debt won't go down regardless of what your cost of living is (well, I guess the home loan might go away if you sell the house). I would just caution you guys don't get lulled too much into taking a lower salary under the presumption of lower cost of living.
Ok, that's all my brain has to dump on you. Hang in there sweetie. Panic probably won't help although I can certainly see how you'd feel that way.
Peg
Thank you Mary Ann, Mary Jo, and Peg for your responses. It gave me more options to think about, but I still just want to cry about the whole darn situation.
My DH works long hours and commutes from the suburbs to downtown Chicago. He is gone 5:30am-6:30pm M-F. He's really trying to work his way up in his chosen field but it has been slow going. Since he's gone so much, we really wanted me to be able to be home for the kids. That's why I started baby-sitting in my home, to bring in some extra money while still being home. My oldest is just finishing up first grade, and my youngest is in preschool. I have a teaching cert. but I only taught for 3 years before having my first child, then I quit to stay home (probably the worst financial decision of my entire life). I feel like I should try and find a teaching job, but I'm not very desirable because I've been out of the loop for 7 years and I don't speak any spanish (that would help a lot). If I go back to work, we add child care expenses and gas for driving back and forth. My old plan was to wait until my youngest was in first grade, then go back to work as a teacher's aide to "get back into the game," and work back up to being a full-time teacher as I gained more experience and contacts and recommendations. Another thought I recently had was that I should go back to school to become a nurse because they are in high demand and well paid. My youngest was born with lots of health problems (another reason I've been home so long and our debt is so high), but dealing with him gave me experiences I never thought I'd have. Feeding tubes, injections, post-surgery care, etc. But of course any schooling for me would mean child care costs and school costs, which we clearly cannot afford. Basically I feel stuck, trapped. . . . and I can only blame myself.
As far as my budget numbers, I did leave out a lot of stuff like insurance. Our home owners insurance is part of our mortgage, and our auto insurance always seemed pretty low because we drive two older cars (1997 Escort, 2000 Sienna). And like someone pointed out, with the higher income there were things not accounted for. We always had enough to pay the bills and buy stuff (sounds terrible, I know) but we did not work very hard on paying down debt and saving for disaster. I feel like an idiot. I'm 32 and I don't have a very bright financial future.
If you made it through all that, thank you. I am so glad to have this board for support and encouragement, because I don't talk about all of this in my real world.
:)
No No No No you are NOT and idiot! You know what they say . . . hindsight is 20/20! You didn't ask for a sick child, or a jobloss, or gas prices to do what they are doing. These are things that life has thrown at you, and now you deal with it the best you can.
Now all you can do it go into emergency mode and try to cope the best you can. Thats all you can do!
The PP's have given great advice so far. My $0.02 are as follows:
1) Cell phones. Are they really necessary or a convenience. Several of my friends with children don' t have them and
Bex -
I'm wondering about some of the things you've said you believe about your employability.
Peg, can I just give you a big ol' cyber hug!? Thank you for such an encouraging post. As far as teaching, I've been looking up job openings and they all say "highly qualified applicants only" or "masters degree preferred." That's why I feel unemployable! Also, having low self-esteem doesn't help. I don't feel capable of actually performing a real life job with responsibilities. Ten years ago, I was so excited about teaching! I couldn't wait to get into the classroom, even though I had no experience and was so young! Now, I have experience, 3 years of teaching and a whole lotta life, but I feel worthless. What happened?? I wish I knew.
Dh and I have an appt with our pastor this evening. I know everything will come together and work out somehow. Thanks so much for your posts. Really, I appreciate the time you took to offer me support!!
You're so very welcome.
Have you thought about substituting? Like someone else said, can you put your son in preschool for a couple full days a week? I agree that you shouldn't have to be a teacher's aide first if you have a teaching degree.
Another option might be tutoring. You could advertise in the local paper, at the library, or anywhere else you can think of. My DH currently tutors for Tutor.com at home. I think there are several online tutoring sites you could try. As a teacher, I'm sure you're more than qualified to do something like that. It might cut down on some of your family time in the evenings though. It's not going to make you rich. But depending on how many hours you do, you could probably make $200-$300 a month doing that.
Good luck!
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