Please have a look...

[RuthNY]

and tell me this isn't as tight as I feel it is. I worry because I just don't know where anything else can come out of these # if I wanted to buy ...anything!
A little bit to familiarize you with my situation:

48, divorced no alimoney, in a pretty commited relationship with a wonderful man, 2 adult children, rent, own 2000 Buick (86,000 miles good condition fully insured). Aside from my car I own nothing but I owe nothing either. My desire is to retire in 2014 and have found that I have to pay back some monies ($33,000) I pulled out while married. I need to pay this back to have my 30 years in. I've checked it all out and there is no option as far as I am concerned. I maximize my TSP (401k gov't style) along with paying this money back, so I hope to be set come 2014.
I don't want to look at annual, I look at each paycheck to be the same. No surprizes that way, so I am budgeting bi-weekly. So, here are my Bi weekly #s. I am looking for any outside perspective.

$1008.28 take home (after 15% TSP contributions)

150.00 Retirement buy back
358.00 Bills (Rent, Gas & Elec, phone, cable, internet)
150.28 Groc & gas (gonna try this, haven't done this yet)
175.00 Freedom Acct ( car repair/med/gifts/clothing)
175.00 Emergency Fund ( with a goal of 3 months liv. expen)

This seems tight to me. I just don't see how I could afford a house or even a newer car if I wanted. Now, the EF will have a limit of $2500 - $3000 for now, so that would free up money.

So what do you think???

[Englishlady]

Ruth, I have to say upfront I am NOT familiar with US Bank Accounts and such like, BUT, I can try and make a few suggestions if it helps?

I can REALLY relate to your wanting to Retire in 9 years, but would working another year help to fund life NOW, so that you don't feel so hard pressed financially?

2015 is a nice round date to aim for?

Is the freedom account one that has easy access?
Will your Emergency Fund be put into an Account that has instant access?

If so how about cutting both A/c's by $25 to give you $50.00 "Spare"

Can you use Public transport to get to work/or on you days off?
That may save you some Gas $
What about groceries, have you made note of things you buy and how long they last? so you can titrate what you NEED rather than just go and buy a bunch of stuff.

I have in the past addressed a "Tight Budget", by cutting off little slivers of money from here and there and paring down to absoloute needs in areas of food/clothes etc.

A little off each is like giving a bit of blood, hopefully you won't notice any ill effects if you don't cut too far in one place

I don't know if that helps any, but I just wanted you to know I read your post and wanted to try and help........
I am sure those who have more experience of the US Banking/Retirement payment set up, will jump in and help

Good luck!
Karen

[homesteadmamma]

If I understand this right, your going to be paying these amounts every 2 weeks, is that correct?

If thats correct, you'll be making payments into your EF accout and FA account twice monthly. You might want to make your payment into each account the first pay period and then half of your $350 that you would put in the next pay period. That would give you $175 for leeway. Does that make sense. If you don't need that $175, you could start a house fund and put it in there.

Living on a tight budget though can be done. There are ways to cut grocery expenses (bake more from scratch, barter and have a good stockpile). Do your adult children live with you? If so, can they contribute to the overall expenses of your home.

The really good thing is you have no debt. Your well on your way to achieving your goal of retirement in 2014.

[peanut]

I'm not American but I can tell you you're doing well by Canadian standards, even figuring in the exchange, to get by on what you're doing with housing, gas and groceries.

I second working with your adult children. My daughters and I still see each other frequently, living in the same city, and often exchange ideas, skills and possessions. Don't overlook the value of getting together to pick a neighbor's apple tree (especially if he lets them rot on the ground) and having a processing day. There are lots of activities and ideas to save money that work better with a team effort. Car pooling errands for example.

The big thing for me is whether something I do is worth doing. That is, is picking and processing apples worth the time and money. How much would I earn if I worked those hours? That would include all incidental expenses related to work.

I really like Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robbins book "Your Money or Your Life" for that reason. They have you figure out your real hourly wage, and then assess your past spending patterns according to how many hours you had to work for certain budget categories. Excellent read!

If you really feel things are too tight on your budget, back down on the savings. Other than that, the only thing to do is to decrease expenses, which may mean moving to cheaper accomodation.

Where is the money for car insurance coming from? It doesn't seem to be calculated into the expenses.

You can always cut cable totally and use the library video/dvd collection. Or go to dial-up for the internet. Or if you don't want dial-up, there's a slow speed cable connect that's cheaper than the regular cable connect. We have that and honestly, the internet is plenty fast enough for us!

Also check your phone provider. You might be able to get cheaper service elsewhere. Drop any bundles you have. Use YAK for long distance, or Skype if you like computer based communication.

From what I've heard of other Americans on-line, if it's just you in the apartment, you can definitely do food and gas for $150US/mth. One lady I 'knew' on-line fed her family of 8 on $200US/mth. However she did it with gardening, hunting, fishing, and raising livestock.

Make all your gifts, preferably by recycling things. Quilting and traditional rug hooking are good hobbies to take up. You can also make your own cards and wrapping paper/bags.

Clothing at thrift stores...I definitely think you have money there. Clothing here is about $800cdn/person...that's ~ $600US/year. We don't buy all thrift store either. If we did, we'd probably be able to get by on about half that.

Definitely the big things are the car repairs and medical. Medical can be a huge problem in the US. I think you'll have to talk to another American about how realistic your figures are there.

[RuthNY]

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate that you all took the time to read my post.
Karen, once again you are wonderfully supportive and helpful. It's as if you know me when you said "just go buy a bunch of stuff" that's how it's been since I've been on my own. No real plan, but I also find it hard to plan with such a wonderfully speratic boyfriend. Usually he buys when he feels spontaneous but sometimes I have to try to keep up, then the budget's shot. I'll work on this more.
cj, my kids don't live with me, but live in the area. In fact I'm moving in two weeks to be closer to them. YEAH! They're both thrilled with that.
I guess you are right, I could pare down the savings by 1/4, if I need to. Even the idea let's me breathe a bit easier. Yes these figures are for every other week.
peanut, the $358 includes $30 every pay for car insurance. I just forgot to add that on. I'm downsizing to a one bedroom apartment in two weeks to cut my living expenses. I'm not willing to live any cheaper than I am currently moving into. I'm on a cheap cell phone, no land line and the cheapest cable but I'm indulging in Road runner internet cuz I don't have a lot of time available for internet use and I don't want to pay for a phone line, so in one way I'm saving...
I guess I'll just have to work on this. I'm being so frugal but I can see that I need to be more so.
I'm proud that I've stopped using my cc for everyday purchases, this has stopped the catch-up game, as I always pay them off. I may have to go to the cash only envelope system for the $150 spending just to see how far I really can stretch it. I'm staring at an empty fridge/freezer and empty cupboards because I've been trying not to spend anything, but now I'll have to wise up and get real for the long term.
My retirement income should be more than I have coming in now and I won't have that buy-back money coming out. But I won't own a house at that point either so I will always have housing expenses...geesh!

[forestdale]

Ruth, you've received some excellent advice and I'd like to add my two cents worth.

If you keep paying $175 per fortnight to your EF, you'll have $4550 in a year. My suggestion is to pay $175 per month to your EF which will give you $2100 in a year. With the "spare" payment of $175 per month, when you move to your new apartment, why don't you build up a stockpile of the groceries, staples and household goods you need. If you have an EF and a stockpile you can weather short periods when cash is short.

You should be able to build up a reasonable stockpile in about 3 or 4 months. When you have that sorted, open a house deposit account and continue paying that $175 per month into that account. When you've got your EF to where you want it, pay that $175 into the house deposit account too. By paying $175 per fortnight into that account you'd have $4,200 in a year. In 3 years you'd have almost $13,000 - enough for your deposit on a house. Then you could use your $350 a month to continue paying off the house.

I wish you the best with whatever you do. It's not easy starting over again.

[babetteq]

What about your plan bothers you most? Is it tha your cupboars are bare and yu can't see filling them in a timely fashion? or buying clothes or your car?.....

Take the thing that bugs you most and set it down so that you can make it work for you. If you're moving and have an empty fride, there is nothing wrong with taking 25$ out of an emergency fund in order to set you up so that you aren't taken by any preventable emergencies.

Everything else,you can probably cut more. Can you container garden? it's a mazing what you can grow on a patio. can you trade work for excess garden produce or meat? do you make everything from scratch? (that includes condiments etc..) Is there anyway you can make "money for jam"? One saturday a month cleaning someone's house, or having a garage sale... somehing to bring in just enough to give youa litlte breath of air when you're between cheques..... there's gotta be some way so that you are comfortbale. churches sometimes have 'preserving the harvest' lessons in which you can keep what you jar. IN some rural places there are tree pickers groups to pick the fruit on trees before they drop to keep bears out of the towns and the picker gets a third fo the produce...

cna you do a clothing swap with sokmeone the same size as you? thrift store doesn't take much to find one or two things...
good luck, I hope those tips helped you.

babs

[peanut]

Wow! Good for you! You've already thought of a lot of things. And let me say I am amazed you could get your possessions down to fit in a one bedroom apartment. I've got a long way to go! Thanks for the motivation.