We really let ourselves fall again. I still owe 32k in student loans and we were doing ok, paying the minimum, $1000 EF etc. All of a sudden this month we were hit hard. I owe an extra $1700 in a loan that needs to be paid by December. Our car needs major front end/brake repairs plus a new tire. My dental insurance did not cover the remaining 20% for our dental visits. DH needed extensive work done so now we owe the dentist $1000. This all happened in one month!! I'm starting to drive now, but I haven't been added to the insurance yet so I don't know how much extra that will be. I need to get my own car, so I'm saving towards that. Its ridiculous (yes I need a car, because I spend $100 a week to get to work, $15 for the bus, on weekends I have to take a cab so thats $80 for 2 days, I might as well get a car). So now I need to get it straight, I need to get down to it.
Part of the problem is getting DH into it. He's allways willing to do a budget, then at the end of the month, its blown. Im not blaming him entirely but here is an example. I budget $40 a week for gas money depending on how much he needs to drive (sometimes he does deliveries for his work). By the end of the week, he's asking for more money because he needs gas, he spent the $40 on snacks etc at work. He's getting better but its not helping that he spends it all.

I really want to cry, its making me so depressed. We need to pay all these things but it never happens.

I need some encouragement/advice. I'll be posting a budget soon.

TIA

I am so sorry youre going through this. I totally understand as we live constatly on this edge and will have to do so until we move back to Va when he graduates.

Can you fix a big batch of goodies/snacks and individually package them so that he has a variety of hm snacks to take, thereby discouraging him buying snacks with his gas money?

If necessary can you lay the student loan that you owe 1700 more on into forebearance or deferrement? You can get a forebearance for as little as 4 months or more if need be.

I hope things start to look up for you and you will be in my thoughts!!

Megan

Budget

Rent - 910
Insurance- 202
Food - 200
Gas - 160
Bus - 200 (sometimes higher or lower depending on shifts/rides etc.)
Laundry - 40
pets - 20
phone - 40
net - 50
xbox live - 10
games - 45
gym - 40

minimum payments
loan #1 - 145
Loan #2 - 145
loan #3 - 180
loan #4 - 122
cc - 20

Other
Vet - 70
Dentist - 1000

We also need to save for car work

Income - 3360
expenses - 2498

left over - 862 - this is theoretical because we NEVER have this left, EVER

Question about the bus... couldn't you get a monthly bus pass for less? I don't know that seems awfully high for public transit.

I know it gets frustrating at times. One thing that has helped me in dealing with the budget is to break things down individually. For example can you arrange a payment plan with your dentist, can you defer payment on the student loan, can you find someone to carpool with to and from work. What needs to be taken care of right now, what can wait. Is it possible for dh to take on an extra job for awhile? I had a coworker once who took a cab to and from work and it got very expensive and money was tight so her husband got an extra job driving cab and made extra money as well as picked her up nightly. I would have never thought of that but it worked for them.

I guess my point is don't let this overwhelm you to where you can't think things through. You can do this.

As for the bus...I looked into the monthly pass, its $100 a month. The problem lies on the weekends. The bus doesn't run to my work on weekends so I have to take a cab, thats where the $80 (average sometimes I have one day off on the weekend) per weekend. The bus fare is cheaper to pay per ride. As for carpooling, my hours are so messed up at this place. One day I will work from 6 pm to 2 am and the next day I'll work 9 am to 6 pm so its virtually impossible to find a ride, but when I can find one, I do take it.

I think you should look into finding employment where transporatation will not be an issue, like a job that does not require you to work weekends.

I have been looking into other jobs, unfortunatley, february is not the month to do it, the market is a little slow this time of year. The other problem is, I get paid a lot for the job I do, so I will probably take a cut in pay with any other job. But I am looking.

Perhaps you can try and convince hubby to write down what he spends and on what or if he balks at that just ask him for the reciepts. Sometimes showing a person exactly how much they are spending on soda each week helps. I know I didn't realize until I started writing it down. 2 a day at 1.25 each X 30 = $75 a month. Yikes.

Also, you may want to consider cutting the video game stuff, or if it's as I suspect and your husband uses it, get those reciepts and at the end of the month show him "Look, you can have snacks or video games but we can't do both."

Good luck, I'll be praying for you.

Christine

Can your dh take you to work and pick you up on the weekends? Or at least some of the time so you don't have to always get a cab? or if you start driving, you could take the car on the weekends. Good luck!
Jennifer

Questions first...I didn't see electric, water, or garbage, or any personal spending money budgeted. Do you have to pay on any of these? Have you missed anything in the budget?

Now if it was me:
~chat with hubby with my forceful suggestions to-
~immediately cut the non-necessities such as gym, games, and so forth
~since he can't seem to use money for what it is budgeted for you'll by "fuel only" cards for him or put the fuel in yourself
~NOTHING other then what is budgetted for gets paid - all the extra at the end of the month goes immediately as additional to the minimum payment on the lowest amount debt
~DH would be driving me to work or vice versa. This is a VERY inconvienient solution for most people but it will be motivating to get a couple of things paid off to save for a car.

I would probably keep us uncomfortable and focused for a couple of the smaller debts and then switch focus to building the EF some (some people need a bigger baby EF than $1000) then switch back to a couple more debts and a small side pot of saving toward a vehicle.

Again this is how "I" would deal with this.

Sorry you've got hit so hard this month. I know it's always those unexpected expenses that blow the budget.

You show a surplus of over $800 in your budget but said it's never there by the end of the month. Do you track your expenses? We are recording every expense this month, every check, debit purchase and all the cash we spend.

My fiance stops almost every morning at a convience store for one of those huge sodas, it is all he buys for the day, but it's $4.00 a day. I know he enjoys his pop and it's a small pleasure, but these really add up. I know someone I can buy case pop from at wholesale so I will probably start doing this. As far as snacks and such I pack him a lunch with treats and some crackers so he doesn't have to eat in town.

I know it seems impossible now but try and bump up the emergency fund past your $1000 goal. Even $20 a week will add up.

For now, call your dentist and try and work out payments. Most will be willing to take what you can give if you show good faith. I don't have health insurance and have paid as little as $30 a month to pay off medical bills when things were tight. Of course they suggested putting it on my cc but ended up accepting my monthly payments.

Good luck.

Budget
phone - 40
net - 50
xbox live - 10
games - 45
gym - 40


I can understand about those student loans because I also owe a bunch on them. I would try to eliminate the xbox live, games and gym. I would try to reduce the phone bill. Could you purchase a couple exercise tapes at thrift stores versus paying for gym fees or take up running/walking in your neighborhood? Are there any overtime opportunities at your job? Could you get a second job close to home in which transportation would not be an issue? Call the student loan folks and apply for a forebearance I have never had any issue with them granting me one during my lean income days.

Have you thought of renting a car for the days you need it . They sometimes have specials and it might save you some on the taxi until you can get a car.

I'm just sending you a hug because yep, this time of the year SUCKS! The weather is horrible, the bills are as high as they get and the guys are just not cooperative :) Just make it through, I'm trying to here :)

With the warmer weather things WILL look better, and you will survive, we always do here at the village :)

Hugs to you,
kj

I would skip the games and gym...sounds like the $$ could be really useful to put on a car for you.

Do you have any friends or family who would "rent" you their car on the weekends? Or maybe you could pay them a "cab fee" (less than a real cab) to drive you? Whatever you can save will add up quickly!

Good luck to you!! Sending you big hugs...I know it's a frustrating situation... :(

I agree with the games and the gym. Walking or jogging outside or a workout video is much cheaper. good luck. I know what it feels like to be in that situation and its not a good feeling

You know what dave ramsey says, if you money and you have debt then at the end of the month you should have your baby EF at $1000 already and you should have ZERO money because it ALL goes on the snowball.

The paper budget is the BOSS of the money, Maybe you should budget MORE for your dh and then use ALL the money that is left and that way when the hands come out all you can say is sorry, we are baby stepping!

There should be money in the budget for everything according to your input so make sure your OUTPUT gets where it needs to go.

Money that sits gets spent on crud and not the debt, not the baby Ef, not the retirement and not getting the house paid for.

My dh always wants to put aside for "whatever" but I say he has $200 a month for "whatever" the bills are paid, debt is being dealt with, the ef is in place, we are paying for college for the kids and we have a 401k--what "whatever"??? is he talking about. Emergencies--we have an EF!

Remember Take your INPUT, pay the bills, establish the EF, pay down debt, budget in some fun money but make sure you whatever is left you spend it all on your snowball!!

I agree with the games. DH doesn't need the games, or at least he could cut out his 5 games to 1 game since we get a major coupon once a month that brings the price down. X-box live will be gone. I admit, the phone bill is my fault. Since I work very late nights/early mornings, I tend to call family and friends during the day. I'm going to stop that and call on weekends during the day. As for the rides, again, because I work so late DH was usually asleep because he works early mornings, but he said he'd pick me up...cuts the transportation bills in half. I'm going to talk to him about cutting the internet to slower connection but I don't think he'll budge on that because I used high-speed as a bargaining tool to cut the cable...lol. Water, heat and hydro are all included in the rent.
I want to work on the food budget since I think that is where our money is going (I'm no good at tracking it, I always forget to right it down, so does DH). The one thing that I won't get rid of is the gym. I know its $40, but DH had so little confidence because he was on the "bigger" side. Now that he has lost the weight and gained muscle from going to the gym, his self esteem is awesome! He's so happy, less stressed, I don't want to take that away from him, I'm will to pay $40 a month, to me, him being happy with himself is priceless!

Thanks for all your suggestions! Keep the coming if you see any other areas to improve on!

Nothing really to add, I know how you feel, we never seem to be able to get ahead either. Just sending you some big hugs, and a thinking of you.

If your husband is making deliveries for work he needs to be re-imubursed for them by the company. .45 a mile is the going rate and he should be turning in that mileage every month.

Oh I'm not even going to go into that situation...lets just say its a sticky issue with him and his boss and I see both sides as being right so as of right now, thats going to stay the same. Once in a while his boss does give him his gas card to fill up but its not regular.

Transportation issues can be rough, especially if you live in a rural area and a car is pretty much it.

I am fortunate b/c hubby is mechanically inclined and if he can get it apart, he can put it back together... saves us a bundle on car repairs.

Do you know someone who can repair your brakes for either less than a mechanic or you can barter/trade? That way you can call around a get the best price on parts and that can help?

A few ideas...
you've already decided to cut down on the gaming costs: good call. I understand about the gym. You have to keep dh on board here and he won't get rid of everything.

You live in Toronto: is there a carsharing program in the city that you could join? That could really be cost effective for you on the weekends. I cannot recall the names of those carsharing programs - I'll google it and re-post.

If no carsharing, can you take a bus to a location CLOSER to your work and then cab it for a shorter distance than from your house? a pain, I know, but will help.

Your food budget: add all the extras in there. Convenience store stops, etc. You can buy large bags of chips, etc at the grocery then bag them up in ziplocs for dh to take.

You can also give dh a cash allowance for drinks/snacks. If you gave him $45-$50/week for gas and $20/week for snacks in addition to the ones you pack, you will probably end up with a lot more money at the end of each month.

As already posted: Your dentist will accept monthly payments and you can request forebearance on your student loans.

It sounds like you have a good job that you'll want to keep if it all works out. Hang in there -- it will start to get better.

All the best to you.

The two carsharing programs in Toronto are:
1: Autoshare, and 2: Zipcar

Not sure if these will help solve your issues, but they'll be worth a look.

Good luck!

I just wanted to send you a hug and good thoughts. I know it is hard and you are trying your best. I went through the same with my dh and snacks we know make brownies, gourmet brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and all kinds of snacks . I buy everything in bulk, on sale it is healthier then all the other snacks he use to choose ( as healthy as cookies etc go.....LOL) but much cheaper. Maybe you could have him help you bake snacks and that would help save.

Hey, I just wanted to add my input here as well.

I definitely agree with everyone about tracking your expenses. Missing over $800 a month is quite a bit...you have a lot of expenses, but your income seems to be pretty good overall... so you must be spending more than you realize somewhere. Also - are you sure your monthly income you listed is after taxes/etc.? I'm not sure how that works in Canada..but in the states we have taxes taken out each pay check....and if one forgets to figure this in, it can be quite a difference!

As for student loans - I would look into consolidating or getting a forbearance or something. You're paying almost $600 a month in loan payments..that's quite a bit! Maybe consolidating would be the way to go... or maybe just going with a longer payment plan on a couple may help. I know I have $300 a month in loan payments for three loans. 2 of them equal only about $100 - it was only one loan that made it so high at $200 a month!! :'( So, I applied for a forbearance, because I'm currently unemployed. I got it, and don't have to pay again until August... This makes my repayment longer...but later finances will be better in my life, so I know I'll eventually make bigger payments and get rid of the debt faster in the long run anyways. Just a thought!

But...I would definitely write expenses and figure out where that $800 is going!

Good Morning!

I agree with the other posters about tracking every expense. You need to find out where the money goes.

I think that getting a budget together that reflects what bills get paid out of which pay check may help. Then write the checks/pay online when you get paid. Right away. This way, you will get the money out of the checking account and off to the debt. There will be no way to lose $800 a month. When I know I have to pay a bill from a particular paycheck, I write the check, subtract it from the checking account and put it aside. Then it is as good as gone.

THanks for your responses. As for the income, yes, thats after taxes. The student loans are a bit tricky. 2 of the loans are bank loans so forebearance isn't possible. I did inquire about consolidating but they wouldn't do it because one is my husbands, the other is mine, something about having them before we were married, anyway the answer was no. The last one was a government loan. I asked for a deferal ( I don't think they call it forebearance in Canada) and they told me that I had to be unemployed, which I'm not. So basically the loans stay where they are for now. We did pay the dentist $500 this week and we should be able to pay them the rest by the time my next appt. comes up (2 weeks). We just got the oil changed in the car and we're putting off the rest of the repairs until after the dentist is paid. We've cut everything we could back, the xbox, games etc. so I'm sure we'll make it. Thanks for all your support and help!

Ok, busfare $100... however it is a tax deductible expense as of last year. So you would get a tax credit.

I'll look at this later, off to dance. I know what it's like to be really tight budget. I'm sure we can figure something out?

wow, when it rains it pours, huh?
here's something that most people don't think about. when it comes to student loans, it looks good to have those - even after graduating. as long as you're paying the minimum payment (and you can always look into changing your interest rate too!), you're fine. worry more about current expenses. the average minimum payment is like 50$ a month for college loans. whatever yours is, stick w/minimum payment for a while til you even things out.
otherwise, if necessary, take a small loan from the bank. lots of people do this to get by when times are tough. again, loans look good on credit so long as you're paying the minimum requirement and aren't late. :)

what about taking on a part time job on weekends for a while?
like a local shop, working maybe 12 hrs over the weekend for a few months. sure it's tough - but i've worked 3 jobs, had a family & went to school - if I can do that, you can too. I knew it was temporary, and that's what got me through.

i wish you patience and a little luck never hurts. :)
let us know how you're doing. :hugz:

Budget

Rent - 910
Insurance- 202
Food - 200
Gas - 160
Bus - 200 (sometimes higher or lower depending on shifts/rides etc.)
Laundry - 40
pets - 20
phone - 40
net - 50
xbox live - 10
games - 45
gym - 40

minimum payments
loan #1 - 145
Loan #2 - 145
loan #3 - 180
loan #4 - 122
cc - 20

Other
Vet - 70
Dentist - 1000

We also need to save for car work

Income - 3360
expenses - 2498

left over - 862 - this is theoretical because we NEVER have this left, EVER


A couple suggestions. Track your spending. I know it's hard, the easiest way I've found is each of you carry a check register with you, and slip in the receipts or write it out as you use the debit, spend cash, write a check, etc. This will really help see where the cash is going. At the end of the day, consolidate into one master page at home. Computer, paper whatever. The debit card is terrible for being a leaky faucet.

Gas, with the prices being over $1/L $40 a week doesn't sound like enough especially with a job requiring deliveries. Dh drives to and from work 4 days a week then with a couple errands to sporting activities a tank is gone, that is $50 and it doesn't last a full 7 days. That could be one area that is eating more of the budget than planned.

Other than gaming, I don't see any areas other than the bussing situation to reduce in. your groceries are very reasonable.

How often are you ordering in, eating out? Are you accounting for that? A stop at Wendy's or McD's once a week for each of you adds up fast. I don't see that on there.

I get dh pop in bulk at home. So he grabs a couple cans from home. Store brand at .16 each as opposed to $2 each at the vending machine. chips I buy at home and he puts some in a container daily for work. I also bake for lunches. Today was was apple crisp that I made last night. All the kids took some too. Leftovers for lunches. Dh takes them and dd10 will too if it can go in a thermos, she prefers a hot lunch. So cook up a couple extra potatoes and an extra porkchop, and he'll have a hearty lunch the next day.

Make an extra lasagna, cool it completely, refridgerate it. Then cut into serving sizes, warp and free, an easy lunch, and enough for several days through the month.

Make breakfast an easy automatic process for everyone. chose a couple favorites and make it available. Make a big batch of pancakes to reheat through the week. Your own "instant" oatmeals, a favorite cereal. If you eat in the morning, you're less likely to grab a snack at the gasbar.

When planning lunches for work, plan something for coffee break too. This is where we lose money at this house if I forget to plan coffee breaks/snack time. A batch of muffins, ham cheese, apple cinnamon, whatever you like, have a big bag of chips that can be divided in to serving sizes. Be aware of serving sizes. (my kids have issues with that..lol). Fruit make great snacks, as do veggies and dip, yogurt, etc. If I don't plan for it, the kids and dh hit the vending machine or the gas bar or corner store and it's not good for the budget or a balanced diet.

Remember at tax time, your bus passes can now be claimed on you income tax, as is 100% of the interest you pay on your student loans.

On the bus, is it you live in an area with no weekend transit or work in the area with no weekend transit? As some one suggested, I'd see about bussing as close to work as possible, then cab it, or cab it to the nearest bus stop that is available. Whatever the scenario is.

As some one suggested, I'm seconding that motion. Once you know what you NEED to spend, write it down, and that becomes LAW. (I know harder said then done). Figure our when each thing needs to be paid as per each pay period. What ever must be assigned to cover bill this check but not until the next period(ie paying 12/ rent from one check 1/2 from the next) should be put aside in an account that you don't access daily. So that it doesnt' get spent. Figure out all the details, then when you pay it out, what ever is left gets put in the EF until that is built, then your car fund, then when that is done, it's the snowball. You each get some budgetted spending and tuck away a little "special occasion" money that you don't feel guilty if you use it, but the rest gets used to snowball. And work it and work it.

Don't forget the extra car insurance for yourself once you get your car.