Money Matters
kelley198721
member
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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 as it is right now. Will probably need to tweak it later
Hi all, here is our budget right now. As I mentioned in my previous thread, our combined monthly take-home pay is $2,680. However, I am estimating a little bit on my pay because I just started a new job last month as an assistant pre-k teacher at an elementary school. I am due to receive my first paycheck tomorrow (finally! I hate how they hold back the first paycheck).
My FI works as a juvenile corrections officer and his job is very stable. As is mine. He just got POST certified, yay! He is also due to receive a 5% raise on his salary by November this year (his one year anniversary). We know this because his boss outright told him when he first started.
As for me, I love my job but I want to receive more pay so I am looking to become a parapro by this fall or next year. I would make more money (though granted, it wouldn't be a lot more) but every little bit helps.
Right now, I live with my aunt to save money and he lives with his parents rent-free. These are our expenses as it is right now.
Take home pay: $2,680
My rent to my aunt: $200
Our cell phone: $188.15 (we can't lower this because we both upgraded early on our phones a couple months ago)
My car payment: $272.38
Netflix: $7.99
Hulu: $7.99
My car insurance: $81
His car insurance: $50 (FI is on his parents' car insurance and only has to pay $50)
My old credit card: $50 (this should be paid off in full this year. This is when I was a stupid teenager and didn't pay a credit card. It went to collections and back in 2009, they brought a judgment against me. In 2011, I finally began making payments on it and now it's almost paid off! I only have $522 left on it. There is no interest being charged on it.)
Our Capital One credit card: $0. This is in FI's name only but we consider it to be our card. We got it six months ago to build FI's nonexistent credit and we have paid it off in full every single month. FI plans to use this to pay for his gas on his car when we move in together. We try not to charge more than $100 on it per month.
My student loans: $0. I just submitted the paperwork last month for my annual renewal of the IBR plan and apparently, I don't even make enough money at my job to be able to make payments. Of course, this will change once FI and I get married and if we file taxes jointly.
Gas for my car and FI's car: We estimate we spend about $180 combined on our cars. My car is a 2011 Kia Forte sedan and it's in good shape. FI's car is in good shape but his car is also old and has a lot of mileage. Over 230k miles on his car. I'm trying to prepare room in the budget to get a new car for him within the next two years.
Groceries: We estimate that once we're living together, we'll be spending $250 per month on groceries. I really don't know. Neither of us cooks right now but I'm determined to learn how to cook once we get married. I am so sick of going out to eat.
I think that's it for now. So with all that, what should we spend on rent and utilities? I guess utilities for us would be about $200 including electric, water, sewage, trash, etc. I'm thinking we should try to stay under $800 for rent.
ETA: Forgot to add that we have a couples' membership at the YMCA for $67. Though we might drop that if we go with an apartment complex that has a decent gym and pool.
I also pay for health insurance and right now, it's literally $6.23 per month for me. I got it through Obamacare. This will likely change though once FI and I get married and they consider his income. Or I wonder if I can get on FI's health insurance. He gets it through his job. My job offers health insurance but since I want to try to become a parapro later this year or next year, I'm not interested in getting health insurance through my job until I know for sure I'm staying put.
My FI works as a juvenile corrections officer and his job is very stable. As is mine. He just got POST certified, yay! He is also due to receive a 5% raise on his salary by November this year (his one year anniversary). We know this because his boss outright told him when he first started.
As for me, I love my job but I want to receive more pay so I am looking to become a parapro by this fall or next year. I would make more money (though granted, it wouldn't be a lot more) but every little bit helps.
Right now, I live with my aunt to save money and he lives with his parents rent-free. These are our expenses as it is right now.
Take home pay: $2,680
My rent to my aunt: $200
Our cell phone: $188.15 (we can't lower this because we both upgraded early on our phones a couple months ago)
My car payment: $272.38
Netflix: $7.99
Hulu: $7.99
My car insurance: $81
His car insurance: $50 (FI is on his parents' car insurance and only has to pay $50)
My old credit card: $50 (this should be paid off in full this year. This is when I was a stupid teenager and didn't pay a credit card. It went to collections and back in 2009, they brought a judgment against me. In 2011, I finally began making payments on it and now it's almost paid off! I only have $522 left on it. There is no interest being charged on it.)
Our Capital One credit card: $0. This is in FI's name only but we consider it to be our card. We got it six months ago to build FI's nonexistent credit and we have paid it off in full every single month. FI plans to use this to pay for his gas on his car when we move in together. We try not to charge more than $100 on it per month.
My student loans: $0. I just submitted the paperwork last month for my annual renewal of the IBR plan and apparently, I don't even make enough money at my job to be able to make payments. Of course, this will change once FI and I get married and if we file taxes jointly.
Gas for my car and FI's car: We estimate we spend about $180 combined on our cars. My car is a 2011 Kia Forte sedan and it's in good shape. FI's car is in good shape but his car is also old and has a lot of mileage. Over 230k miles on his car. I'm trying to prepare room in the budget to get a new car for him within the next two years.
Groceries: We estimate that once we're living together, we'll be spending $250 per month on groceries. I really don't know. Neither of us cooks right now but I'm determined to learn how to cook once we get married. I am so sick of going out to eat.
I think that's it for now. So with all that, what should we spend on rent and utilities? I guess utilities for us would be about $200 including electric, water, sewage, trash, etc. I'm thinking we should try to stay under $800 for rent.
ETA: Forgot to add that we have a couples' membership at the YMCA for $67. Though we might drop that if we go with an apartment complex that has a decent gym and pool.
I also pay for health insurance and right now, it's literally $6.23 per month for me. I got it through Obamacare. This will likely change though once FI and I get married and they consider his income. Or I wonder if I can get on FI's health insurance. He gets it through his job. My job offers health insurance but since I want to try to become a parapro later this year or next year, I'm not interested in getting health insurance through my job until I know for sure I'm staying put.
Re: Budget as it is right now. Will probably need to tweak it later
FI is already saving for retirement, that gets taken out of his paycheck. As for me, I want to start an IRA next year but I'm waiting until all the craziness from the wedding and moving in together dies down. I know that it's smarter to set up an IRA asap but I just don't feel like I can do that right now.
As for the wedding, we are very fortunate to have friends and family helping us out. Our venue is free, catering is being done at cost by a family friend, we just have to pay for the food.
I already got my dress. My MIL actually opened up a David's Bridal credit card and made me an authorized user because they had a promotion where if you ordered the dress using their card, you could have six months of no interest to pay it off. So my dress is $540 and I have six months to pay it off with 0% interest.
Another family friend is being our DJ for free at the reception and my brother is playing the piano for our ceremony.
We hired a photographer and already put a deposit down. We have about $600 to pay him and that's due on the wedding day.
I've already got a hair and makeup artist and I have to pay them $137 on the wedding day. They are friends so the $137 is for both of them.
We still have to get a florist, FI's suit, an officiant and save up money for our honeymoon. We are getting to stay at a nice condo for free in Florida for our honeymoon thanks to FI's aunt and uncle but we still have to pay for the travel expenses to get to said condo.
I think that's it...I feel like I'm forgetting some other wedding stuff but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head.
For the wedding expenses, FI and I are just planning to cash-flow it, I guess. I think that's the term. We will push back the apartment if we have to until August or September.
I'm not nearly as savvy with budgets as the other ladies on this board, but definitely start cooking for yourself NOW!!! Not only is it a huge money saver, but it is so much healthier. And it really isn't that hard to learn. As long as you know enough to be able to follow a recipe, you can do it! There are so many delicious and easy recipes out there...some of them even designed for budgets. To start, I'd stick to recipes that have minimal ingredients and instructions.
It is just my DH and myself. We probably spend about $350-$400/month on groceries, but then we also aren't really that careful about what we buy. I'm sure I could slash that by at least $50/month if we focused on cheaper meals. I'm a huge fan of Winn Dixie's BOGO deals. Our weekly meals are often centered around what was BOGO that week, lol.
Since you're a kid person, could you look into picking up some babysitting? With teaching experience you can charge top-dollar for your area. I used to add about $200/month to our budget just babysitting evenings here and there. I found most of my jobs on sittercity.com.
Thanks for the tip about property management companies though! Definitely will contact them next week.
I'm from MA, but a bit outside of Boston. I charged $12/hour for 1-2 kids or jobs where they are mostly sleeping, and $15/hour for 3+ kids or intensive daytime stuff. I have a teaching degree and infant/toddler/preschool lead teacher experience. Most families tended to "round up" which was nice. Maybe check some other listings from your area to get a good idea of the average?
If you can cut the gym, do it.
I know not everyone is a DR fan but just throwing numbers in might give you a better look.
We did this. It worked well with two caveats-rebate came as a Visa gift card, and came 6 weeks after our final Verizon bill arrived (two weeks after it was due) so we needed to borrow from savings for that bill.