After you pay all the bills how much is left over?

[northernmom2boys]

After you pay alll the bills how much is left over to live on?

[Laurie in Bradenton]

Depends on the time of month and when the last paycheck came throught. As a subcontractor we don't get paid on a regular time frame so sometimes we can go weeks without a check then there are always more bills leftover after the money is spent. If its a good time and lots of jobs are running we may have several 100 leftover. Try my best to keep bills paid up that have to do with house and business. If paint bill isn't paid we can't work so its one of the most imporant bills to be paid. Then the mortagage, electric and insurances. Then we work down the list, food , fuel, credit card and other debts.

Laurie in Bradenton

[Darlene]

I don't know, I just pay the bills as they come in & am frugal when I shop.

[frugalbutterfly]

As of the last 18 1/2 months, none. We can't even keep up with all the bills now. We "use" to have a good amount left over.

[baronmom]

the first of the month I have more left over than the 15th. The 15th is when I pay the mortgage and two car payments. Not much left over after those.

[FrugalMomof3]

Well we have like $200 leftover (hubby is paid bi-weekly) but by the time the next paycheck comes in maybe $100, since we needed gas and little things like bread and milk for those 2 weeks.

[YankeeMom]

We are still in the negative since dh lost his job in January. His current job brings in per MONTH what he was making per WEEK at the old job But he's on a phone interview right now for a very lucrative position so hopefully things will be looking up soon.

[AmyBoz]

Until I go back to work in September, it's a negative amount. We are living frugally and drawing from savings to pay the bills, however, that's not going to last too much longer. We're looking at ways to cut more corners so that dh doesn't have to sell his stock. We'd like to save that for anything major or an emergency situation.

[pammy]

We should have around 1300 a month left over, seems like something always comes up to knock that down some. Will be more when the car's paid off in June. All left over gets thrown towards debt. Dh works very hard and makes a decent living, I just try to squeeze as much out of it as possible.

[guest7]

between DH and I, we have about $5000 left over each month. That's after putting $$ into the 401K and 403b.

We're saving for an early retirement.
After being out of work for injury... I've been mentioning to DH that perhaps I can stay home now that he makes plenty.

Nope.

[Katybird]

You mean you are supposed to have money left over?!?! Man, what a concept, LOL.

[SHOPGIRL]

I really haven't stopped to figure it out. After I pay the bills, I keep anything extra in savings.

[wendy]

After EVERYTHING, I mean like, all the bills paid off and putting aside $$ for gas, food, tobacco, etc., we have about $200.

We bring in a nice amount, we just owe out a lot. And I'm currently working on snowballing (scratch that word) AVALANCHING some debts we owe. If I have it planned out correctly, by next Fall '07, we should have at least $500 a month left.

[Jellybeanz]

We never know from month to month what will be left over after everything is paid and the necessities such as food and meds bought. We both have erratic incomes. He works construction and some months we may have 200- 500 left over with overtime, other months we have nothing, and some months we go negative.

I work part time as an independent contractor and can't predict with any accuracy what my income will be till the work is done for that month. I may have an extra 500 one month left and just barely enough the next month to cover biz expenses.

What I try to do is squirrel away the money during the higher income months and dole it out as little as possible during lean months, with the hope of keeping some back for emergencies while we attempt debt reduction at the same time. The hardest part is keeping my SO from spending all the extra on the good months. lol Because he is sooooo not with me on frugality, even though he says he hates having to work overtime and have debt. *shrug*

The good part is he never asks what I make, so if I have a good month, trust me, I keep it to myself and I get to feel better knowing I have something put back for a rainy day ;-) I would like to share the finances more and have someone to talk about with goals and such, but I learned a long time ago it just aint happening. He really doesn't want to talk about bills, he'd rather talk about what kind of new truck he'd like to get, or what kind of macho super duper power whatever it is he is wanting this week. *grin*

I guess opposites do attract............ ;-)

[Mojjo]

well, we get paid every two weeks and after taking out everything (including envelopes) we have about an average of $75 left.