Money Matters
JuneMrs
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Budget Plan for 2014 (What changes would you make?)
DH and I are ready to pay off the last of our SL's and sell our home and finally get more space. When we were first married we had tons of student loan debt and we worked very hard to pay off nearly 100k plus two cars and some other financial goals. Fast forward we now have three retirement savings accounts we are maxing out, 529's for LO and soon a second account for baby due any day now, we also have a set amount in our e-fund we are comfortable with. We have been less than frugal the last 9 months due to excess stress of a complicated pregnancy, etc. and we are ready now to plan a budget for the new year and get our house sold next January and go bigger. Soooo all of that in mind we need to revisit a fixed budget plan that will put every extra dime away in hopes of expanding our down payment.
After taxes, health insurance, 401k's we make about 6200 a month (DH also gets bonus and commision which is not guaranteed so we don't budget for those and send them straight to savings.
Our fixed expenses are:
Daycare 200 a week (this will not change with LO #2)
Mortgage and HOA 1240
Water 65 (varies slightly)
Internet 65 (not negotiable used for DH's work)
Electric 253
Alarm
Car 356 (11,200 to go)
Car/House Insurance 2100
Security System 103 (4 times a year)
Furniture 61 (1100 to go)
SL 1 84 (4500 to go)
SL 2 58 (2700 to go)
529's 200 (a month)
Now the ugly of it all and what we have kind of let go is our variable expenses. We use our credit card for all purchases which we intend to continue to do. We put DH's work expenses on it too so those come back to us. We spend between 800-1000 a month on groceries, dog food, shampoo, etc. (after coupons, sales, etc), we rarely go out to eat but when we do it is about 100 for the month sometimes 200, gas equates to about 100 a month for me 200-250 for DH, the rest is any shopping we do for LO like new shoes, clothes for us, household items, etc. So break out for me your "variable" costs and how and what you budget for them. I'd like to see our variable amount be 2000 a month but most months we push 3000.
After taxes, health insurance, 401k's we make about 6200 a month (DH also gets bonus and commision which is not guaranteed so we don't budget for those and send them straight to savings.
Our fixed expenses are:
Daycare 200 a week (this will not change with LO #2)
Mortgage and HOA 1240
Water 65 (varies slightly)
Internet 65 (not negotiable used for DH's work)
Electric 253
Alarm
Car 356 (11,200 to go)
Car/House Insurance 2100
Security System 103 (4 times a year)
Furniture 61 (1100 to go)
SL 1 84 (4500 to go)
SL 2 58 (2700 to go)
529's 200 (a month)
Now the ugly of it all and what we have kind of let go is our variable expenses. We use our credit card for all purchases which we intend to continue to do. We put DH's work expenses on it too so those come back to us. We spend between 800-1000 a month on groceries, dog food, shampoo, etc. (after coupons, sales, etc), we rarely go out to eat but when we do it is about 100 for the month sometimes 200, gas equates to about 100 a month for me 200-250 for DH, the rest is any shopping we do for LO like new shoes, clothes for us, household items, etc. So break out for me your "variable" costs and how and what you budget for them. I'd like to see our variable amount be 2000 a month but most months we push 3000.
Re: Budget Plan for 2014 (What changes would you make?)
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
Clothes 50-100
Grocery 300
Baby- we were doing 300, but have cut this to 0 as we were saving a majority of this
laundry/cleaning/paper products/ ect $40
haircuts- 30. DH goes ever month, I try to go every other.
home repairs/improvements/decor is up to $200 a month
restaurant $300
entertainment $100
pocket money $200
car repairs $200
craft fund 0-20
gifts $50
post office $10-20
toll tag $50 (dh uses a toll road to get to work daily, I use it sometimes to get to the airport and stuff)
Hope that helps give you ideas for what 'funds' you might want to create. We also do several long term savings funds, and are doing college and retirement savings too.
If you are trying to look for places to cut, I would be looking at your groceries. I know that includes most household products for your family, but that seems very high to me (although we live in a pretty LCOL area). Can you shop sales more, buy in bulk when there are sales, etc?