Going to be a bad month - financially

**lisettelovebug** · 09-05-2008, 09:45 AM

This month is going to be tight. We had been hoping to build our savings back up but that won't be happening.

Got cell phone bill yesterday. We went over by 97 minutes! YIKES! We've never ever even got close to the 400 minutes allowed (had this plan for 4 years). It's because of all the phone calls to the construction company, to various town authorities, rural development people and now modular home sellers. We will be using the Magicjack from now on- I even put a sign above computer to remind dh.

We have $50 we owe the dentist that I need to start paying on, $30 of co-pays to the dermatologistn and I believe there was one more medical bill that needed to be paid. I had not budgeted these in so they will hurt.

Money was already going to be tight as it is. The one guy we were thinking about buying a modular with told us the deposit is $2000! We don't have that kind of money - for goodness sake we are going through rural development and he knows that. Anyway, I will do an update on the housing situation later, cuz I got a lot to say about this guy!

Luckily I have someone interested in buying some clothes I had listed on craigslist (though that will not be until next week when her husband gets paid. That will give us an extra $60. I'm going to hurry around tonight and get dd's 12/18 months winter clothes listed. Hopefully I will have some luck. Dh also got paid an extra 8 hours vacation time on top of his normal pay so that should help a little too.

I already have the food budget to a minumum. $150 for the month, of which we have spent about $23 of that so far. We do get WIC so that helps. But we will probably need to get diapers at some point this month. We will be eating out of the pantry and freezer for the month that is for sure.

Any tips on how to survive the month? It's only the first week!

**Momto2Boyz** · 09-05-2008, 10:14 AM

I feel for you. We spent most of last winter having months like that. Hopefully, you've got some good stuff put away in the pantry and freezer.

Can you pick up any extra jobs off of craigslist? Babysitting, cleaning, etc.? Might help. Otherwise, sounds like your doing what you can, listing things on craiglist already.

If you list what you have in the pantry and freezer, I'm sure we can help you put together a menu for the month with minimum expenses for other food items to make meals!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine and after you make it through this month...I'm sure next month will be better!

**lisettelovebug** · 09-05-2008, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by Momto2Boyz

I feel for you. We spent most of last winter having months like that. Hopefully, you've got some good stuff put away in the pantry and freezer.

Can you pick up any extra jobs off of craigslist? Babysitting, cleaning, etc.? Might help. Otherwise, sounds like your doing what you can, listing things on craiglist already.

If you list what you have in the pantry and freezer, I'm sure we can help you put together a menu for the month with minimum expenses for other food items to make meals!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine and after you make it through this month...I'm sure next month will be better!

I would love to be able to pick up some babysitting, etc, but right now, with my classes, 3 kids - 10, just turned 2, and a 10 month old, and trying to do all this running around for this house business, I can't tell ya when I'd be available to do those things. I was going to try to do chacha, but they wanted your availability and right now I can't.

Lisa

**LexTysMommy** · 09-05-2008, 11:28 AM

List an ad on craigslist for diapers? sometimes people have leftover bags, or extras. Can you try to get child to sit on potty for some parts of day? do you get coupons for the diapers?

As for cellphone, i was going to be over on my minutes one month and i called company to see what i could do, she checked into it and there was a 500 minute promotion IF i would be customer another year. Well my contract was up in 18 months so this was no brainer, cant hurt to call and ask if there is anything you can do, since you never went over before?

Good luck!

**jamie79** · 09-05-2008, 03:02 PM

Well first off, the first week is almost done so thats a good thing. If you only can spare $150 for food for the month, I would buy a few big things that you can get many meals out of. such as a turkey, a large roast etc. I dont know what you have in your pantry but a box of Biscuit you can make alot of things with. HTH