FESH ADVICE ON MONEY MANAGEMENT PLEASE

[tammy88]

ok
I HAVE DONE THE FAMILY BILLS FOREVER AND IM TIRED OF THE BILLS BEING SO HIGH AND IM TIRED OF THE COST AND NEED TO SAVE MONEY i did find my auto insurance for 1/2 the price but cant switch until im done with this company in august i tried to cut things but my son didnt understand no cartoons with the cable being off, and my husband said when he's worked all day he wanted to relax by the tv and watch movies or shows..cell phone i changed the minutes one time and im still paying those charges off so i cant alter the minutes so whats left? how can i make the money work, we have no savings

IT IS 2 ADULTS, ONE BOY WHOSE 2 AND ONE ON THE WAY

THIS IS WHAT I HAVE COMING IN NOT INCLUDING OVER TIME OR SIDE WORK
SPOUSE IS PAID EVERY TWO WEEKS

NET 1050.00 (X2)

ME UNEMPLOYMENT 127.00 (X4) FOR 14 WEEKS

total $2646.00


BILLS
rent $835
bankruptcy payment $523.00 for 2.58 more years
auto insurance $210.00 a month (until august 105.00 a month)
child support $160.00 a month (husband)
verizon $70.00 (internet/home phone)
CIngular $180.00 (3000 minutes and the hubby uses a lot of minutes)
and im about $180.00 behind with cingular
Electric $100-160.00 a month
Water $80.00 ( billed every other month)
Directv $72.00
netflix $20.00

total $2300.00


debt bills
Personal property taxes 231.00 by june 5th
AIG (old insurance) $175.00
Doctors Family, and hospital total 1800.00
storage facility $176.00
credit card $250.00 balance

Groceries i dont YET keep a tab probably between 180-300 a month


in August we have a vacation already paid for just need the spending and traveling $$ we split a condo with my parents and they have BIG plans for everyone

my husband is also starting his own company he has about 8000.00 worth of work this weekend to do and he may have just hit the big kahuna today with possibly signing into a LARGE realtors company and doing work for them, the estimate is inspecting 80-100 homes a week at 140.00 a piece plus his hvac side work which he may have to hire someone else to do now..im praying this takes off but im not getting my hopes up yet we have had a lot of disappointment in our lifes but i never count on side job money because you just never know

Oh and our anniversary is the 5th of June


any and all help or advice is really appreciated

[JerryG]

That is a tight budget. The only thing I would take a look at is the storage facility costs. Is this something you're currently using or an old debt?

Sending good vibes for the realtor's work - sounds like a good gig!

Keep your chin up!

[tammy88]

That is a tight budget. The only thing I would take a look at is the storage facility costs. Is this something you're currently using or an old debt?

Sending good vibes for the realtor's work - sounds like a good gig!

Keep your chin up!

Thanks Jerry
i know its really tight im working on a excel sheet now to start a budget going the storage thing was a error made we never even used it but we have to pay that one month and i just dont have all of it at once

[themartins903]

Jumping up and down waving hands in the air.... I was in the same boat and STILL am but what your doing... planning (spreadsheet) will help you see the full picture.

Is DirectTV a contract? If not, I would remove that and borrow movies from your public library. He must work outside alot and with the summer heat I know having a cool house when he comes home is appreciated.

Can you inventory what's in the storage room and possibly hold a sale at the storage place? You can ask questions like, "Do I really need this", etc.

Does your husband help with the budgeting? I can feel your stress and with you being pregnant that is the LAST thing you need. Just my two cents ((HUGS))

[themartins903]

Duh, I just read where the storage facility is empty... doh!

Sowwies!

[tammy88]

hi

no i dont have a contract with directv anymore but we actually were disconnected a couple of weeks ago my husband was miserable so as soon as we could we turned it back on, i on the other was okay with i like the computer more and books

the storage place was a one month thing, nothing was ever in it and it is basically a big waste of money

husband help? no way

[Dancing Lotus]

My budget is about the same as yours. OUr net 2,200 a month and my moraga payment 1,400. SO you can see that I only have 800 a month left for everything else.

2,200- 1,400+ 800

800- water $25
tellephone $75,
electric $150,
cable 69,
car insurance 74, Thank god we dont have a car payment. But I do need now tires that I cant pay for. Heck I dont even have enough for the oil change I need.

That leaves me with 407 for food , gas, and credit card bills. NOT one penny left for entertainment or clothes or even saveings.

I have slashed and burned as much as I can and now all I can do is hang on. I DONT HAVE ANY GOOD ADVICE I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

[ktsmama]

Could you possibly have a yard/garage sale to get rid of things you don't use, free up space and maybe make enough to pay off a smaller bill like the storage or your cell phone bill?

That's the only thing I can think of right now. Good luck.

[tammy88]

lol...im in a really tight budget
no i dont have anything to sell the only things worth money is our xmas gifts/b-day presents to one another i bought him a big screen tv and paid it off in 90 days same as cash and he buys me yorkies..

i have acquired 3 yorkies and i just sold my first litter a while back and that helped us out of a tight month

i need something i can make money at home really but nothing seems real out here

[3-boys-4-me]

Hi. The first thing I would suggest is to stop buying each other expensive gifts until your debts are paid off.
We have been where you are now so I can totally understand how frustrated you are. When we were having a tight month the first thing I would cut is the grocery bill. Shop loss leaders, buy and make only what you can find on sale. In the past we have eaten A LOT of spaghetti, hot dogs, sandwiches and breakfast for dinners. A good night was if we got to have homemade hamburgers, there was no eating out for us.
Do you both have cell phones? If so, why not cancel the home phone service? Can you reduce the cost of the cable? Perhaps order a slightly less expensive package. What about internet? Could you downgrade to dial up? Little downgrades can equal big savings. How about cancelling the netflix? If you have cable can't you watch movies on that?
Just some suggestions. I wish you much luck in figuring this budget out.

[tammy88]

hi

well we dont usually buy the exspensive gifts at the time of purchase he was a vp for a hvac company bring home excellent money each week so we purchased what we wanted and the only things we wanted was yorkies and a big tv i bought the tv used at those rental companies and paid it off in less then the 90 days i think we paid 550.00 for it the dogs well i bought one in nov and one in feb thats kinda my future i want to be a breeder which is also i little extra income. well things went down hill after xmas he was laid off and then he was helping out a friend who owns a car lot and was paying pretty good to but the checks started getting less and less dependable so he went back to work and we are basically starting over, with that friend owing us for at least a month it threw us behind big time. i have the cheapest plan with verizon 70.00 a month includes mid grade dsl and my home service even when i had the basic phone line and the internet i was paying the same now i have the actual plan that gives everything for what i was paying before. i cant canel i would lose the internet and we use that line as well as the cell line for business contacts
i could cancel net flix but its only 20.00 bucks unlimited movies

thank you for the advice its still something to think on

[3-boys-4-me]

I understand your situation. I hope I didn't sound mean or ugly, that wasn't my intent. I didn't understand that the TV and Yorkies were purchased long ago, when your finances were better. I am sorry you're having to deal with this.
Has your DH contacted his friend and asked for payment for that last month of work? You may need to take him to court to recieve the funds, unfortunatly.
I too am in VA, up around the Fredericksburg area. Do you have Verizon for your home phone service? If so I know what you mean about the internet. Here you can get the home phone service with unlimited long distance and DSL for the same price as just the home service with no long distance. Doesn't make any sense. We were going to cancel our home service but we wouldn't save any money so we just kept it all. It's frustrating how they work.

[tammy88]

your fine hun i didnt take offensivley at all we are big splurgers i remeber our first real xmas together before kids OMG!!! we spent clsoe to 7000.00 on family for xmas, i guess you can say we had the spirted of giving..then we got a little better than that then this year we wanted to give our son a great christmas and just concentrate on him so our birthday/xmas gifts came early to each other and just kinda combined the gifts and our son got more than he could handle. but it was the first time my husband was getting paid the money we felt he deserved and we werent good at being safe with the money we got hungary i guess is the right term..lol

he cant get the money from the guy he tried for a few months he wont return calls or answer the door, we cant take him to court because its he said she said basically he wasnt on a payroll, he wrote us personal checks

yeah verizon sucks!!! and all those taxes they charge!!!

[Luv2BeFrugal]

No real advice here...just wanted to send a big hug...

Could you watch one or two kids at your place? That would bring in some extra $$.

[tammy88]

Hi

thank you..no kids and me dont get along (even though i have 1 and another on the way) and i know it would bring extra money but we arent in the position to offer babysitting services,