Help with budget!

**lauraashley2006** · 07-30-2008, 01:35 PM

I wanna start saving more, but i am having some trouble figuring out what I can cut.

My budget is as follows:

Rent: 495 mth
Electric:66 mth (average)
Gas Bill: 100 (average)
DH student loans: 85mth
My student loans:135 mth
daycare: 120 mth
car pymt: 320 mth
internet:40 mth
insurance: 137 mth
DD dr. bills:50mth
Grocerys: 300 mth (average)
Equals: 1844 mth
We bring home on average after taxes and insurance etc...2380
So we should have 536 extra $$ a month...but after gas (almost 300 a month) how to manage to save anything?

Just looking for some advice. I could consolidate my loans more, but I want to pay them off quicker.....

**Russ** · 07-30-2008, 01:43 PM

Insurance - Is this car insurance? If so, What is your deductable?
You have a budget but have you really tracked where you are spending the $536 a month?

**Greebo** · 07-30-2008, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by lauraashley2006

I wanna start saving more, but i am having some trouble figuring out what I can cut.

My budget is as follows:

Rent: 495 mth
Electric:66 mth (average)
Gas Bill: 100 (average)
DH student loans: 85mth
My student loans:135 mth
daycare: 120 mth
car pymt: 320 mth
internet:40 mth
insurance: 137 mth
DD dr. bills:50mth
Grocerys: 300 mth (average)
Equals: 1844 mth
We bring home on average after taxes and insurance etc...2380
So we should have 536 extra $$ a month...but after gas (almost 300 a month) how to manage to save anything?

Just looking for some advice. I could consolidate my loans more, but I want to pay them off quicker.....

Gas belongs as a budget line item along with everything else. Good news - gas prices are falling.

Are the student loans the ONLY debt you have? Would you be willing to list their balances, interest rates, and minimum payments?

On a net income of $28,560, having $236 extra after gasoline is ALMOST 10%. That is actually pretty good. You're fairly young, so you can expect your income to go up significantly over the next 10 years.

So what you do is this.

0) ACCUMULATE NO MORE DEBT.
1) Refine the budget. Down to the penny, EVERY MONTH, before the month starts. Every dollar you have coming in goes on a line item. Give yourselves a little fun money - not much - just a little - and put the rest in savings. Save up $1000 in a separate account and leave it alone for emergencies.
2) Put that $200/mo (or $150 - give yourselves some fun) extra towards your student loans. As you and DH accumulate higher incomes, apply those increases to your student loans. Pay them off as FAST as you can. Smaller one first, then larger. If you get a raise you don't get a raise - your debts get a faster payoff.
3) Once debt FREE - save 6 months of expenses in the emergency fund.

There are more steps - but you need to work on #1 first.

**lauraashley2006** · 07-30-2008, 02:11 PM

These are my student loans....... I'll have to find Dh's later

3,500 @6.8% interest
4,000@6.8%
4,290@7.25%
2,218.15@7.25%

The top two, I pay a total of 40.20$ a month for them, and the split the cost and apply it to both loans. The bottom 2 starting in Sept. I will be paying 130.97 a month for. and it will also be split up.

**missmanny** · 07-30-2008, 06:27 PM

what really worked for me was to tyrack all fo my spending for a month and then at the end I could see in black and white all of the miscellaneous things I bought, like how much I spent on lunch.

Once I could see it sitting in front of me, it was easier for me to make a definate change because I could see the figures there showing me how it was crippling me financially

**MTS04** · 07-30-2008, 09:39 PM

I don't know if this will help you, but when i had to make my first budget, for 2 months, my budget was broad. Listing line items such as electric, internet, car payment, etc. Then for 2 months I carried a notebook with me. Wrote down every expense not on the broad budget (ie a package of paper towels, toothpaste). Then when it came down to writing my budget, I was able to add in the incidentals. Such as an HBA category or as I put it "general shopping items". then i was able to tweak my budget and allowed the cash for the month for those things.

I hope that helps.

**3tomboys** · 07-30-2008, 10:26 PM

I see by your budget that you have a dd (not sure how old), but maybe this might help. When my children were infants and toddlers I signed up for different coupon offers. I remember calling Huggies, Pampers, Companies that made the formula I used , etc to do this. I was amazed at some of the great coupons I received. It was a great help with the grocery budget.

**ladykemma2** · 07-30-2008, 10:36 PM

what is your take home pay? what is his take home pay?

**Laura2** · 07-31-2008, 12:58 AM

It seems that you have over $200 at the end of each month. I know that alot of people aren't able to save that much. Currently we aren't.

Also, is there a way that you could get cheaper internet? We pay $19.99/month and it is very fast.

What kind of car do you have? And how close are you to paying it off? If it is a gas hog perhaps you could trade it in for a more efficient smaller cheaper car.

**Greebo** · 07-31-2008, 05:57 AM

Originally Posted by lauraashley2006

These are my student loans....... I'll have to find Dh's later

3,500 @6.8% interest
4,000@6.8%
4,290@7.25%
2,218.15@7.25%

The top two, I pay a total of 40.20$ a month for them, and the split the cost and apply it to both loans. The bottom 2 starting in Sept. I will be paying 130.97 a month for. and it will also be split up.

I'm not clear on what you're saying here.

Your budget says you pay $135/mo for your loans. Here you say you pay $40/mo for 2 of the loans and WILL be paying $130/mo for the other two. That doesn't quite add up in my head.

Help me out here?

As for the other advice - listen to them - track your and DH's spending for a month to get a better picture of what else your money goes to.

The two main things you need to do now are get your spending firmly under control, and get out of debt.

You and/or DH *might* consider picking up an extra job or two for the short term as well, to help pay those loans off. If you are able to pick up an extra $1000 a month or so doing odd jobs or part time work or mowing lawns or something, and you don't fall into the debt trap of financing cars, furniture, etc., you can be out of debt in about 18 months and be in a GREAT position for creating a long term secure financial future.