Financially - What Part of the Year is Most Difficult?

**many houseapes** · 07-08-2010, 08:22 PM

Thought that I would ask this question

What part of the year is the most difficult for your family financially? And what do you do to coushin the impact?

For us, it has been April - January..especially this year.
It seems that everything hits us from all sides.....the hardship season kicks off with the Mortgage shortage in April (they're always raising taxes/insurance), flood insurance,auto insurance,vehicle registration,HSLDA fee, dh's life insurance, and lifelock. Plus electricity rates that are going to outer space.Then it starts all over again with auto insurance (paid every 6 months) & my & the kids life insurance.

We will be looking for ways to lower our insurance...not to mention that we are doing everything possible to lower our electric. We pay all of the bills in one lump sum yearly to avoid the processing fees that they love to tack onto your bill if you pay monthly.
Whenever we get gift cards for Christmas/birthdays, we save them to use during our hardest part of the year...mypoints is a great way to get gift cards just by reading emails & earning points. Another thing is that this past year, we re-stocked our EF's (house repair,pets,auto,other repair EF & medical EF) so that has helped somewhat.

I am really afraid of what our tax refund is going to look like next year...we are in for a very rocky ride when all of the new taxes kick in

**larabelle** · 07-08-2010, 08:27 PM

June and December due to auto insurance.
April due to income taxes

I am trying to budget better so that I spread these expenses over the entire year.

**auntie2many** · 07-08-2010, 08:56 PM

January and June are the hardest for us when our car insurance is due. Then June has several birthdays. Including dh and myself for the birthday list. Sometimes money is so tight that we do not buy presents or cards for each other.

**Emjo** · 07-08-2010, 09:04 PM

It depends on the category...summer is hard on our entertainment budget, because there's a lot of festivals, etc going on. Dec-Mar is hard on the gift budget because of Christmas and a lot of birthdays/birthday parties. January and February usually have the highest utility bills.

**MaryCarney** · 07-08-2010, 09:09 PM

January and February - it's freezing (utilities) and dark, depressing and boring - I just want to go do something, anything no matter what it costs.

**jasper** · 07-08-2010, 09:21 PM

for us it starts in november we have thanksgiving,my birthday,our oldest daughters birthday in november then December come and we have home insurance is due for the year and then the one day out of the year that is just our day the day we said I do this year it will be 28 wonderful,scarey,rollercoaster of a ride.Then Christmas.

**Momto5RN** · 07-08-2010, 10:05 PM

october to january
things seem to come up unexpectedly - seems to be when car brakes need to be fixed- viruses hit so kids get sick so i cant work so miss work ( i get no sick time ) - bad winter storms = missed work ( again no pay for me if i dont work )
its right before tax time and we often end up using the tax return to refund our BEF because its often gone by Jan which leaves me a bit panicked.

**Mom2-3** · 07-08-2010, 10:05 PM

Our hardest time of year is right now. May-August. We have no overtime and it seems like our expenses are higher. I tried to account for this time of year last year, but I need to do a better job. At least we have cash flowed all expenses.

**Momto5RN** · 07-08-2010, 10:07 PM

oh i missed 2nd half- to cushion it i christmas shop year round - save any GC i earn year round for christmas gifts / shopping ,
so i dont have to worry about Holiday shopping on top of other stuff.

**starsapphire** · 07-08-2010, 10:54 PM

November, December, and January

There's several yearly bills, two car registrations and car insurance due at that time of year, plus Christmas.

I gotta say though, that this summer sure has been expensive as heck with both DH and I needing lots of dental work and DH is going to have a minor hand surgery next week which means several medical bills diagnosing what's wrong plus the surgery bills.

**Momma_Bailey** · 07-08-2010, 11:12 PM

Summertime (July-Sept) - We have a LOT of bday gifts to buy! DH's birthday July 3 (that means renewing tag "stickers" for both our vehicles,too - about $135!), my bday July 21, my Mom's bday Aug 9, my Neice & Nephew's bdays Aug 28 & Sept 2, then my oldest sister's bday Sept 12!! Then just a few months later its already Christmas!!

**forHISglory** · 07-08-2010, 11:28 PM

It's varied over the years. At one point, we were not paid in the summer months (we were teachers). Instead our pay was for 9 months, and we only got the pay during those 9 months. We tried to save up for the summer, but it was close.

We also managed to have car insurance (twice a year payment) and house insurance (once a year payment) occur at the same time in June. Talk about brilliance!

We are past those crisis times now, thankfully. But at the time, we kept a sinking fund all year just to meet those payments.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 07-08-2010, 11:32 PM

Our hardest time of the year is usually from August to March. August to October is hard because of birthdays and school shopping. November to January is hard because of Christmas. February to March is because things slow down and DH doesn't get so much OT.

I try to give a good cushion to cover the school expenses. We get a check in July that's pretty big. I then try to tuck away $200 a month minimum for Christmas.

**TigerGirl1226** · 07-09-2010, 12:04 AM

For us it is November thru February. The holidays obviously take a toll, but we also have to pay property taxes...blech!

**frugalfranny** · 07-09-2010, 12:49 AM

Spring......from about March through June. Not only am I making plans for the yard/garden and buying things for those plans, but I also have car tabs (not bad), property taxes -

, and car insurance, plus the utility bills haven't gone down yet.

Have another 'hit' in the fall but the yard stuff is over.......and the utility bills haven't gone up....so it is a little better Then it is car ins., prop taxes - again, and house insurance.