[many houseapes]

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]

June and December due to auto insurance.
April due to income taxes :ack:
I am trying to budget better so that I spread these expenses over the entire year.

 

[auntie2many]

January and June

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[frugalfranny]

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 - :yikes:, 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.

 

[ravenmaniac]

For us it is the Spring/Summer months. The electric bill hits us hard. I don't like the heat, I get migraines easily and for some reason when my head starts pounding it triggers a migraine. In the cooler/colder months we heat our house with our wood stove. We have been fortunate enough to not pay for wood. My husband has been able to cut and split our wood himself. Hanging up clothes in the winter is nice too. The heat from the wood stove dries them quickly.

We seem to be out more during the summer too. I don't necessarily go to the store more but people have cook outs and such. I spend money on annuals for my flower garden and mulch. This year I managed to cut back on the amount of annuals I buy. I had a hosta, fern, and astilbe garden that I turned into just a hosta garden. I dug up the ferns and astilbes and put them in containers I used to fill with annuals. I also dug up my jacob's ladder and coral bells. They are in containers too. My back deck gets a little bit of morning sun then shade for the rest of the day so all my plants are doing great.

I have a small pool so the electric for running the filter and chemicals are an added expense. Charcoal for the grill and citronella oil for the torches and lanterns, I hate bugs. Of course the warmer months are when most of the home maintenance is done.

All of our bills are paid monthly because that is what works for us. It just seems that Spring/Summer are more expensive.

 

[Incognito]

To be quite honest, the part of the year that is most financially difficult for me now is January 1 to December 31. Life's a hard struggle all the time. Still, God has provided for me over and over again, and my life is in His hands.

 

[TheresaRHPS]

Wow...that's a tough one, lol. It seems like most of the year is fairly equal in its financial toughness...with a respite being around February, lol.

I guess all winter long is what really takes the biggest toll. There's just a lot of birthdays, and of course, Christmas. Usually I'm also trying to scrape together some tuition money for the spring semester, and our gas bill is astronomical, even though we keep the house uncomfortably cold. WV roads wreak havoc on the cars, especially in winter.

I've done fairly well trying to offset the burden. Christmas and birthday presents are now being bought throughout the year, and I'm trying to make more homemade gifts.

We still try to keep the house chilly, and try to stay at home as much as possible...less trips to the store, and less damage to the cars.

 

[ladytoysdream]

For us, it's September when the school taxes and then end of December when the propery tax comes due. We don't have a escrow so it's go like heck the months prior to them being due, and set money aside. If I put money away monthly it would have to be in excess of $ 200 a month. Which would be the best idea but so far, I can't get that to work for this budget. He does get OT in the winter, so that would pay the December bill even if it has to be paid a month or so later. In the summer, I can make a few extra dollars here and there, so that helps with the September bill. Currently we have almost enough in the bank to make the Sept bill and that money is also our EF if we need to use it. We only have the one truck payment and a HEL fixed rate loan to pay monthly. Being low income means we have to stay focused year round to keep the budget balanced. So far, all our bills remain paid on time, and we are doing okay. I do plan on doing a lot of freezing and canning this summer to help with the groceries. All the little things do add up.

 

[Greebo]

Effect of having a budget that one maintains regularly and sticks to:

Before the Budget - Christmas thru April were the worst times - struggling to find money for gifts, going deeply into debt to buy them, then struggling to make the payments until the tax refund came in - miserable.

After the Budget - we have sinking funds for christmas, we never use debt, and we never get surprised by annual payments, because we set money aside *EVERY MONTH* for them. Our biggest single annual bill is my life insurance policy - $1,500 a year - comes due just about in November. We write a check and never bat an eye at it.

Using a budget consistently and properly makes the WHOLE YEAR predictable. It has set us free to enjoy life.