New and need advice

[Trying2Learn]

Well I just have a question. We are relatively new to DR and wanting to get out of debt. We plan on taking his FPU online since my husband works nights and we can't physically go and take it. My question is this. If we are behind in our monthly bills how do we get started on a budget? Im talking like monthly utilities, phone, etc. So how do we even start to do a budget with a situation like that?

[Russ]

First, welcome to FV!

There are a lot of people in this forum who are willing to help you. With no knowledge of your bills and income it will be difficult to give you solid numbers on what to pay and how to budget.

Would you be willing to post your bills and income?

If you are behind then you HAVE to cut your expenses to "find" some money to get caught up. Are you ready for somebody to give you some tough choices to make and for somebody to show you what you really need to do?
If you are, we can help.

Most importantly, don't be ashamed of your money problems, a lot of us here have been in or are in the same boat as you. We are only going to try to help you.

[PrairieRose]

Hello and to the village!

Like Russ said above it's tough to know how to advise you with not knowing your numbers and it's ok if you don't want to post them, I'm a rather private person myself with stuff like that. The only other thing I'd like to add is you probably need to figure out how to not only cut your expenses (like cooking and eating at home exclusively.....honing your food shopping, couponing skills and gardening) but also find ways to bring in some extra money. Can you sell some things by having a garage sale or on craigs list or ebay? Can you take on a part time job of (one of Dave's faves) delivering pizzas, etc.? There are always solutions.....always. They're not always easy or easy to see but there are always solutions.

[Jamauk]

First, welcome to FV!

There are a lot of people in this forum who are willing to help you. With no knowledge of your bills and income it will be difficult to give you solid numbers on what to pay and how to budget.

Would you be willing to post your bills and income?

If you are behind then you HAVE to cut your expenses to "find" some money to get caught up. Are you ready for somebody to give you some tough choices to make and for somebody to show you what you really need to do?
If you are, we can help.

Most importantly, don't be ashamed of your money problems, a lot of us here have been in or are in the same boat as you. We are only going to try to help you.

yeah, what Russ said!

Welcome to FV! There are a lot of people here with a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge! You've come to right place if you want to squeeze some extra money out of each month. The first place I would start looking for extra money is your grocery budget. Do you have anything that you could sell for extra money?

In order to get caught up on your basic necessities (utitilites, mortgage/rent, etc...) you are going to need to cut way way way back on everything else. This is temporary. Getting out of financial crisis is tough, but its sssooo worth it. Once all of your basics are caught up and current (home, utilities, car) you can start working on a budget.

There are lots of great people here that are willing to help. You can lay everything out on the table and let us pick apart your financial situation, or you can just share genearalities ~ whatever you are comfortable with. The more you share the more we can help.

Again, welcome to FV. Look around a bit ~ there are lots of great ideas here!

[ChristopherJ]

That's pretty much what we did right from the start. We weren't behind on our bills per se...but just to maximize the potential of the budget, I went through everything we pay out on and hacked and slashed and minimized until it was more workable. Just the quick and easy stuff to start (we canceled Netflix, went to the bare minimums on TV/Internet costs, don't eat out anymore, killed all retirement/college investing for now, etc). I'm really frugal when it comes to grocery shopping too, if it doesn't say Kroger or Kroger Value with the white box, then I probably will pass on it.

Get lean, get mean, and attack that budget with everything you got. You can make it work and get current on your bills, but put some time, effort and soul into it.

[stoneking78]

Yeah, I agree with what others have said......first to get caught up you have to "find" money....cut cable, instead of renting movies, borrow from the library, slash the food budget, then once you can get current, then make a plan to cut the debit. Do you work also, maybe if you have kids you can babysit a few extras on a friday night for a parents night out and then make some extra $$ that way! Good luck, ask questions....they best way to find out is just ask, everyone here is pretty open about everything

[cissylu]

Hello and welcome! you`ve come to the right place. you can get plenty of advice about your problem. and support and friendship.
good luck
cissylu

[Ceashels]

welcome to the village! As stated above there is lots of knowledge here to learn and many to learn from. We all are here to succeed and enjoy helping others to succeed. We are the ear, the shoulder, and the sometimes the very tough love that make a cheering section for every little success along the way.

The more you can share about your situation the more we can help appropriately. Some have been in your situation Others here are still in it and Many have struggled thru it to find better days and financial peace. Welcome!

[Greebo]

GOOD advice so far.

Phase 1 - Get control.

First things first - regardless of your bill situation, you must take care of the household first. Those priorities are, IN ORDER:

1) Food
2) Lights (utilities)
3) Essential clothing
4) Shelter (roof over your head)
5) Transportation

Every month, your money first and foremost needs to go to covering those 5 areas before anything else. Those numbers need to be well constructed - that means you shop at the discount food store and minimize the use of utilities, buy clothes from goodwill, and keep the rent paid. That doesn't mean buying food at whole foods or wegmans, burning every light in the house, shopping at Neiman Marcus, and driving a hummer. (NOT saying you do that, just making the point...)

Anything NOT on that list, goes. Slash and burn, baby. Sell so much the kids think their next. If you can't afford the car or the house, sell it and go to cheaper. It's scorched earth time.

Use of debt MUST STOP. Borrowing money will NOT help you out in the long run. Borrowing money is selling the future to buy the present. If your situation is bad now, and you borrow money to make it better, now, then when you get to later (and I promise you, it WILL get here), things will be as bad AND worse, for owing even more.

Now you're ready for phase 2, where every extra dollar needs to go towards getting everything that's behind current.

Phase 2 - Get Free

After everything is current, you start off getting out of debt. Do this first by allocating your money to pay the minimum payments only on everything. Everything MUST stay current, to stop the bleeding (late fees, etc).

But before you put any extra money against debt, your extra money goes to build up a BABY emergency fund of $1000. Why? Because if you don't have a little reserve, the next hiccup that happens will put you right back into debt. So save up $1000 while paying the minimums.

THEN, and only AFTER you have the BEF, take the smallest debt (by balance, not interest rate) and pay every extra penny you have to it, to pay it off as fast as you can! When that debt is paid, take the minimum from that debt, add it into the extra money, and attack the next debt. Each debt you pay off makes your "debt snowball" gain money, getting larger and larger.

Proceed in this fashion until all debts but the house are paid off in full.

THEN divert that snowball into an emergency fund for real. You want to save up at least six months worth of *expenses* to be able to live off of in a worst case scenario.

Once that is done, you're ready for phase 3 - build wealth.

But we'll talk about that later...

[Samigirl]

Greebo explained it well.

I just want to say, "Welcome...and good luck with your frugal journey".

[itlw8]

welcome!

make a list of your bad habits and what they cost each month you will be surprized how much of a leak in the budget they make.

soda, smoking, buying what you do not need. ( I have to stay away from garage sales , auctions, and walmart. It may be cheap but if it is not a need at that time it is still wasting money.)

coffee or soda on your way to work going to the bar

Everyone has a bad habit what ever yours is if you can cut it back it will help the budget.

[nvmommyx6]

It is easier than you think to cut the bad habit spending on things like others have mentioned, soda, candy bars lunch or dinner out yadah yadah!!
Either that or I am Iron Woman! Grab some of the old water bottles you've bought and fill them with water or home made juices from home to take with, make a lunch and bring it to work with you instead of buying one! Cut down on the junk food you buy, chips, dips, candy, cookies etc...start making home made treats and bring them to work or play!
Sell somethings you dont need or use on craigslist and have a yard sale! Call the utility companies and see if you can get on the equal pay programs with them, if not, let them know your financial hardship and ask them if there is something they will do to work with you! Offer some services online at craigslist.com for local things like babysitting, home cleaning, yardwork, office work or any other things your skilled at!
Welcome to FV, looking forward to future posts on how you get back on track!
Mommy

[Cricketlegs]

Hello and welcome!

I find that when most people are behind on the bills it is possible to catch up rather quickly because the money is usually in the house it is just being spent on all the wrong things.

Put the bills on paper. Put the debt on paper.

Put your income on paper.

Do the math.

Then come back and let us take a crack at it.

[Trying2Learn]

Wow thanks to all who responded.

So this is what we are doing. Right now we both work full time (I work from home). My husband works 1.5 hours away and the gas to work is killing us. Unfortunately him getting another job is not an option for us. We have cut all unnecessary items out, netflix, xm radio, anyting not needed to live on. Kids are homeschooling this year so no need for new clothes and basically we dont buy ourselves any new clothes or shoes. I get alot of our stuff from freecycle or just passed on from someone else. Also Ive shaved our grocery bill down to about 125 a week. I make sure I get all the coupons I can find, take my big calculator to the store to make sure I dont go over, and everything is generic. I only buy brand if its on sale cheaper than the store brand.

We have our mortgage, utilities, car pmt, etc. I would love to get rid of the car pmt and have taken it to several places this summer to try and trade down but we are so upside down right now theres no way. I would even like to just sell it and not have a car but cant get anyone to buy it.

Im working as much as I can to keep a steady amount in (work on commissions) and my husband just got hired by Bass Pro to start working part time. We are hoping he makes enough there to cover his gas to work which would help us to stay on track and leave a little left over to start knocking out some old credit debt and a family loan, but first it will go towards getting caught up.

Thanks for all the suggestions. As far as selling things, well we've sold so much stuff this summer as is and really theres nothing left to sell. My kids have even gone through their things and offered up items they didnt want anymore.

[ladykemma2]

there's a really good thread on here like 100 pages long about best frugal tips. start there.

it took me a year to get a good realistic spending plan going on. i went through a divorce and was a wreck financially as well as emotionally. i read the posts and did what they said:

the nice people here had a post about Phantom load of electricity. I did what they said and unplugged everything in the house. I put microwave and tv area on power strips. the electricity bill immediately went down 100 dollars.

then i turned the heat on 68, and the a/c "off" or 78 degrees, with immediate results.

i re-learned how to shop with a list, and "meal plan" around what was already in the pantry. i still struggle with going overbudget on groceries.

i cut off cable and anything unnecessary.

i cook more often with a crockpot. saves electricity and i am ravenous when i get home from work. get to eat right away.

i wash on cold, on the "hand wash" cycle, and use half the detergent. hang to dry.

i mend, re-dye and sew.

i have the best spending plan results using mary hunt's idea of "freedom account" to save monthly for the expenses of the year. i learned that my spending plan is much tighter than first appeared.

and lately, i have been listening to radio archives of the dave ramsey show in the evenings, in place of cable.

it took about 6 months for the fear to abate, and now i am more confident because the monthly savings have allowed me to step away from the debtors edge.

here is what currently is on my spending plan
MONTHLY
elec
water
nat gas
lawn
gasoline
groceries/supplies
tithe/fast offering
prescription drugs
lunch best friend
credit report
phone land line
cell phone
internet
lds dating service
spending money


FREEDOM ACCOUNT annual/12 = monthly deposit
escrow (taxes/ins)
trash
home maintenance
hoa
flood insurance
termite contract
a/c heat maintenance
oil change
car maintenance
car insurance
car registration
car inspection
ez tag
new car fund
computer upkeep
computer replacement
dr schenk
travel christmas
travel summer
optometrist
school startup
dentist
co-pays
vet bills
xmas