Our Budget

[gmarie]

Looking for feedback and ideas on our budget...

5157 (minimum take-home after health ins premiums).

68 Church Donation (the amount requested from each family)
0 Saving
895 Rent (includes trash removal, lawn care & well water)
0 Renters/Life Insurance (need to get both!)
141 Electricity(electric heat & hot water, currently no AC)
40 Household (includes laundrymat)
82 Internet/ Home Phone (no cable)
0 Cell Phone (cancelled cell phones; have prepaid for travel/emergencies at a minimal cost)
200 Food
40 Restaurants
11 Cat
300 Car Payment
250 Gas/Tolls
100 Auto Repair/ Maint. Sinking Fund (We have one newer car & one beater. We do have the step baby emergency fund so I'm while I'm thinking of stopping this fund, I am also nervous to let it go. It is nice to feel like we have some money to take care of the cars.
155 Car Insurance Fund
50 Work Clothes (lost 20 lbs a few yrs ago & sold all of my clothes!)
20 Clothing DH (includes shoes for work)
50 Gym Contract (DH was very persistent about joining a new gym... but he has lost 15 lbs so I'm not going to complain!)
35 Personal Care (Shampoo, Soap, razors, etc). Used to be MUCH higher.
28 Hair Cuts (18/ mo for DH, I save $10/ mo and get a haircut every 3-6 months). He REFUSES to let me cut his hair. Can't say that I blame him. ;-)
88 Gifts (this seems excessive but includes all bdays, christmas for DH 10+ nieces/nephews) and wedding/shower gifts.
45 Blow Money/ Entertainment
326 Student Loan Minimums
2233 Debt Snowball
5157

We use a modified envelope system and to be honest, we sometimes overspend in a few of these categories (mostly gas/tolls) which comes off the debt snowball amount.

My goal is to come up w/ $4593/mo so I can pay off a student loan and the car by the end of the summer. (I can dream, right?)

This month, I have "found" an extra $705 and have about 1900 left to go based current projections.

*Our monthly income shown is for 4 paychecks. 5th paychecks are additional $ for the snowball.

Thanks for your advice!

[krbshappy71]

My twoooo cents:

Get rid of the $45 blow money if you are already saving back $40 for eating out, and $82 for internet/phone and $50 for the gym. Those items are $172 that you've already slated for what I consider entertainment items.

Consider this: Hit the gym, go to dinner, then settle down for a nice movie on Hulu.com together.

Or break it up: Dinner on a Friday night, walks together on a Wednesday night, hit the gym on a Saturday or Sunday together, etc. Dance in the living room while streaming live radio from the computer, (or from the radio if you have one) cook dinner together when the dining-out money runs out.

Basically I think people tend to spend way too much money in several different areas in an effort to keep themselves entertained. But then, I have dogs, which I consider my entertainment, so who am I to talk but hey, you asked for input, ha ha!!

Next suggestion: I understand you are having to rebuild your wardrobe but I would like to suggest that you put an end date on this $50/month clothing. Say, within the next 3 months you will spend that amount but after that chop it down at least in half or more. You can use that money elsewhere.

Personally I think your electric is very high. I live with just a teen who isn't home much, in a 3 bedroom house, have to water my own yards, and have my current electric/water down to less than $90. Granted, every location is different and I don't know how much control you have in this area with renting but its worth looking into.

Ok that's all I have, I'll let someone else pipe up. Hugs and you are doing great!! Those were just my ramblings.

[Russ]

0 Renters/Life Insurance (need to get both!)

you are flirting with disaster IMO.

[gmarie]

Thanks Russ, it's on my list. This is why I am posting - to give myself some accountability!

These last few months have been a little crazy, and we started to get off track.

I call for Renters insurance quotes, and then I can never decide whether to spend the extra $$ to insure my engagement ring, and then I do nothing about it.

I am going to call today and make a decision!

And I'm looking for a safe driver class for DH and I to reduce our premiums. I am trying to find one on a Sunday so we can go together and consider it a date - we had so much fun in the DR class together!

Regarding the life insurance - I have been thinking of getting my life license (used to work in insurance years ago) so that is another decision I've been putting off...

[gmarie]

I agree that the electric bill is high. We have only lived here since Feb so I'm just using our last bill for the budget. The electric co's estimates from the last tenant are not reliable since the cottage has not always been rented & I'm not certain what dates it was occupied in the last few years.

The last bill was $281.83 from Mar 2 - May 2. (they bill every two months). We are in the Northeast so our heat was on until the end of April. We used 1983 KhWh in 2 months and the average cost of energy was .06646. The delivery charges alone were $146.53. Does the usage seem high or are they just charging too much?

I try my best to keep things shut off & unplugged. We both take fairly short showers but can do better. We are running ceiling fans now most of the time but have no A/C.

I recently borrowed a "Killawatt" meter from the library, and plan to figure out how much energy the appliances are using, but that doesn't help with lights, ceiling fans, etc.

[gmarie]

and good advice about the clothes & the entertainment budget. Something to think about!

[Greebo]

A 2k snowball on a 5k income is awesome but it's all pointless if something happens to you or DH or your home w/o proper insurance in place.

I want to hear that you've gotten 3 quotes on both LI and RI by this time next week or I'm coming to your house with bundles of DRY noodles!

[gmarie]

Ok, got the first RI quote from from Progressive this morning... included a discount since they write my car ins. Any suggestions for others?

[MTS04]

SBLI for life insurance. They do term. Don't know if they are near you or not.

[Greebo]

Ok, got the first RI quote from from Progressive this morning... included a discount since they write my car ins. Any suggestions for others?

Do two sets of quotes - RI alone and also multi-part quotes for converting car and renters to a new company.

I like Nationwide, personally, but have also used AllState. Geico isn't so cheap, IMO. MetLife might be worth while as well.

[gmarie]

Yes when I worked in ins. SBLI was the usually the cheapest term - and we didn't have a contract w/ them so we would lose a lot of sales.

The difference in term premiums between the top carriers can be very small for Preferred rates but all carriers have very different underwriting guidelines so it pays to go through a broker who knows what they are doing.

For example, some companies don't care if you smoke an occasional cigar - and others will give smoker rates if you admit to smoking a cigar once in a while. And, the difference in premium between smoker and NS rates and huge.

[mndtrp]

I don't have a clue where you live, or what your current clothing standards are like, but $70 a month on clothing would get my wife and I a long ways. I don't think we spend $70 in 6 months. I would cut that way back.

I would immediately get renter's insurance, with or without the engagement ring coverage. If the ring is a breaking point, go without. You could easily live without replacing the ring, but you'd have a tough time living without a home.

Overall, though, I don't see much of a problem with what you are doing.

[gmarie]

Thank you. The funny thing is that I have an issue spending the $50. I feel guilty buying clothes in general. However, I do not have a wardrobe to fall back on since I sold ALL of my clothes to consignment when I lost weight. I have a few dresses, a few pairs of jeans, a few tops. I usually struggle not to repeat an outfit in the same week! I also tend to wear same shoes every day and therefore wear them out very quickly. My "dressy" flip flops that I bought last year are currently falling apart.

I do not always spend the $50. I had about $50 saved (plus this month). My husband does not agree with me not spending my clothes fund. He says he knows how bad it hurts me when others make comments on my clothes (mom, sisters, friends, inlaws, and bosses/coworkers) so he wants to see me spend at least the $50.

However, if I am trying to live like no one else to pay off our debt, my feeling is that I want to be more like people on this board, and less like the people I know in real life. You know, the broke people. ;-)

So, I have decided to just put towards the snowball (along with the balance of our car repair fund).

[Samigirl]

Thank you. The funny thing is that I have an issue spending the $50. I feel guilty buying clothes in general.

I do not always spend the $50. I had about $50 saved (plus this month). My husband does not agree with me not spending my clothes fund. He says he knows how bad it hurts me when others make comments on my clothes (mom, sisters, friends, inlaws, and bosses/coworkers) so he wants to see me spend at least the $50.

I don't know...it sounds to me the clothing budget is necessary right now. Keep the clothing allowance until you at least build up your wardrobe somewhat. Sometimes, we women tend to put ourselves last. Listen to your hubby on this one. You already have an excellent debt snowball going. GET THE INSURANCE though!

[gmarie]

Thank you - I know that Mndtrp did not mean I should give up my entire clothing budget... but I tend to be all or nothing in my thinking lol.

So instead, I am going to take an inventory of exactly what I have when I get home and figure out if there is any way to get through the summer with some of my dignity intact and go from there. (My flip flops did get a few weird looks during my public speaking class this afternoon).

I just hate shopping in general now, and hate that the weather changes so much here in NY that I am always in need of something. (like finding a great deal on sweaters at a consignment shop, and then the next month it is tank top weather!)

Anyway thanks for listening to me ramble.. it's nice to know there are kind people out there ;-)