Budget

alice0422 · June 2015

H's Pay- 4816
My Pay- usually around 1000, but varies (I do medical transcription from home).

Groceries-600
Gas-400- this will go down for the summer and next school year (our daughter started in a charter school and the location was 30 minutes one way, but they have a new campus by our house now).
Car 1- 650 (I know its a lot).
H's Money- 110 (this includes hair cuts and he currently uses tobacco, but trying to quit)
Preschool- 140 (starts in August)
Card 4- 410 (10.9% interest)-22360
Card 2-200 (22.24% interest)- Balance is 2564
Card 3- 200 (0% interest)-2837
Card 1- 140 (10.9% interest)-7237
Family fun money- 200
Insurance- 128 (this recently went down we were paying 180 a month and I switched companies).
Phones- 120
TV- 100
Radio- 30
My car- 453
Internet 80- I'm not on the best plan but I do a little bit higher since my work is 100% online and if I have a slow connection I loose work
Housing money- 1300 (this includes everything all of taxes, mortgage, utilities, HOA fees, sewage and garbage, and is in a seperate account so that we have a balance in case we need to by things for the house.

The left over of the budget each month goes onto on of the cards, given the suggestions I will start with card 2.

Total Bills= 5261

I know we spend a lot on our cars at the moment, but they will be the next items on the list to take care of.

brij2006 · June 2015

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

brij2006 · June 2015

Also, get rid of TV and radio. There's no need to pay monthly for either. Buy an antenna for the TV and listen to the free radio stations in the car.

Cut the fun money down to $100/month.

All 3 of those right there free up $230/month to put toward the credit cards. Get those suckers gone!

alice0422 · June 2015

brij2006 said:

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

H's is a 2014 GMC Sierra and we owe probably 36280 on it and the interest rate is 3.9%. We've had it under a year, but the "bill" is not new, we have always had two car payments.

Mine is a 2011 GMC Acadia and we owe 20892 on it and the interest rate is 2.99%. When I stopped working we had to refinance it so that the payment would go down three years ago. It is next on my list after the other cards.

Fortunately we have extended warranties on both vehicles so if anything happens it is covered. In fact my air conditioner and power steering went out a month ago and it was 100% completely covered. That warranty is good for at least another year (its a year/ mileage warranty). Thing is we owe so much over on the vehicles at this point that we couldn't sale them for a profit and we wouldn't have the money to pay the remaining balance off.

alice0422 · June 2015

brij2006 said:

Also, get rid of TV and radio. There's no need to pay monthly for either. Buy an antenna for the TV and listen to the free radio stations in the car.
Cut the fun money down to $100/month.

All 3 of those right there free up $230/month to put toward the credit cards. Get those suckers gone!

Thanks. For the TV we have been thinking about using a streaming service just haven't jumped the gun yet. I just can't find information on news and sports. Do you know if there is a way to get those with streaming?

simplyelise · June 2015

alice0422 said:

H's Pay- 4816
My Pay- usually around 1000, but varies

INCOME: 5000 (plan on your low income and then anything above goes straight to debt)

Groceries-600 450
Gas-400 300?
Car 1- 650
H's Money- 110 50 - he'll make it work
Preschool- 140
Card 4- 410
Card 2-200
Card 3- 200
Card 1- 140
Family fun money- 200 100
Insurance- 128
Phones- 120
TV- 100 call and see if you can cancel this an buy an antenna. just keep repeating "we can't afford it anymore, what can you do to help?"
Radio- 30
My car- 453
Internet 80
Housing money- 1300 separate out your utilities so you know if you can reduce some of those by consuming less.

Total Bills= 5261 4721 - this means you can basically put everything you earn in your job towards extra debt payments.

Any way you could cut back on things right now, do it. I know you say you're underwater on cars because you rolled other debt in, but now is the time to get creative. Could you sell one and get a loan to cover the difference between what you get and what you owe and then buy a cheap $2000 car for H to take to work? You're currently spending around 20% of your income each month on cars. Yes, the credit cards are the top problem, but your cashflow problem is definitely from the cars.

Do you guys have an emergency fund of any kind?

simplyelise · June 2015

alice0422 said:

brij2006 said:

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

H's is a 2014 GMC Sierra and we owe probably 36280 on it and the interest rate is 3.9%. We've had it under a year, but the "bill" is not new, we have always had two car payments.

Mine is a 2011 GMC Acadia and we owe 20892 on it and the interest rate is 2.99%. When I stopped working we had to refinance it so that the payment would go down three years ago. It is next on my list after the other cards.

Fortunately we have extended warranties on both vehicles so if anything happens it is covered. In fact my air conditioner and power steering went out a month ago and it was 100% completely covered. That warranty is good for at least another year (its a year/ mileage warranty). Thing is we owe so much over on the vehicles at this point that we couldn't sale them for a profit and we wouldn't have the money to pay the remaining balance off.

So you guys bought a new car last year AND rolled extra debt into it meanwhile you have over 30,000 in credit card debt??? Does your H really understand what your situation is? You've got almost $90,000 in consumer debt. You're barely able to cover all the payments on your current income, it's seriously time to get drastic. No tv is a very small sacrifice to start working on the emergency situation you're in.

Xstatic3333 · June 2015

brij2006 said:
Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

I agree with this, big time! Especially since you work at home. Another easy cut you could make is canceling cable and doing Netflix instead. They have great kids options. I would also cut radio-plenty of free options.

Who is you cell phone provider? One option to lower that bill is to switch to Republic Wireless. They offer great Android phones for $200 down and $10 a month. The only catch is that the "smart" portion only works when you're in wifi coverage.

Do you have any savings or an emergency fund?

bparkhur · June 2015

I know you don't want to hear this, but BOTH cars need to go. They are way, way too expensive for your income. Take the above advice and sell them and buy crap cars until you're out of debt. Even if a car you buy needs repairs, it would need a LOT of repairs to come anywhere near your payments. At least get rid of DH's car...over $600 a month on a vehicle is insane. You need Dave Ramsay stat. You can listen to his podcast for free and rent Total Money Makeover from the library.

KAdams767 · June 2015

Your car payments are killing you. I would suspect that part of the reason you can never seem to get ahead is that you have really high car payments in relation to your income, and you said you've always had 2 car payments. I think you need to look at trading the cars in, at the very least one of them, for something more affordable that you can actually pay off within a reasonable amount of time and drive at least one vehicle that is totally paid for for several years. The payments aren't the only issue. Those cars are both huge and probably a big reason that your gas is so much as well. Do you really need two SUVs?

The other thing is your cable/internet/phone/radio situation. You need to find a bundle, $300 for phones, TV and Internet is nuts when you are $35,000 in credit card debt. I assume radio is for Sirius/XM? Call them and threaten to cancel, be hones that you can't afford it. I guarantee that they will offer you a cheap promo. I don't know anyone who pays more than like $10/month for this service. They run promos ALL THE TIME and everyone I know calls them when the promo is about to expire and they just extend it again for them.

What does your savings and retirement situation look like? Honestly, if you have anything in savings, this might be a situation to pull some out and just pay off that 22% card. If you can't do that, you should call and try and lower the rate.

bparkhur · June 2015

Also, why not use Pandora or Spotify instead of a radio service?

alice0422 · June 2015

simplyelise said:

alice0422 said:

H's Pay- 4816
My Pay- usually around 1000, but varies

INCOME: 5000 (plan on your low income and then anything above goes straight to debt)

Groceries-600 450-I'll work on finding some cheaper options for this too.
Gas-400 300?- It should go down to at least this much, hubby only fills up once a pay check, but I was having to fill up weekly during the school year.
Car 1- 650
H's Money- 110 50 - he'll make it work- 40 of that is his tobacco so hopefully he is able to quit this time (fingers crossed he's trying so hard!) which will put him at 70 and 30 is for haircuts, which are mandatory every pay check.
Preschool- 140
Card 4- 410
Card 2-200
Card 3- 200
Card 1- 140
Family fun money- 200 100- I'll reduce it for this next pay period and make sure we take out cash instead of using the debit card so we don't loose track of what we've spent.
Insurance- 128
Phones- 120
TV- 100 call and see if you can cancel this an buy an antenna. just keep repeating "we can't afford it anymore, what can you do to help?"
Radio- 30
My car- 453
Internet 80
Housing money- 1300 separate out your utilities so you know if you can reduce some of those by consuming less. For the housing budget, we use minimal on utilities our gas and water are usually 30 or under (in the winter the gas goes up to about 70), and electricity is usually 70-80 in the winter, but we live in Vegas and it goes up to about 250 in the summer with the thermostat set to 78 so I like to keep extra in there so that we aren't strapped for cash during the summer. Our mortgage is 1000 a month (this includes our taxes and insurance). Our sewage and trash is billed quarterly and is 110 every quarter.

Total Bills= 5261 4721 - this means you can basically put everything you earn in your job towards extra debt payments.

Any way you could cut back on things right now, do it. I know you say you're underwater on cars because you rolled other debt in, but now is the time to get creative. Could you sell one and get a loan to cover the difference between what you get and what you owe and then buy a cheap $2000 car for H to take to work? You're currently spending around 20% of your income each month on cars. Yes, the credit cards are the top problem, but your cashflow problem is definitely from the cars.

Do you guys have an emergency fund of any kind?- Not at this time. We are lucky that we have full medical though and good warranties on the vehicles so we wouldn't be in a bind with medical bills but we do need to work on this. Would it be reasonable to do it after paying one of the cards off maybe?

Also I put all of the cards into my snowball spreadsheet and looks like I could have the three lower payments paid off in 02/2016, which isn't that far away. That's if I pay 1000 extra on them, and stop using them of course!

alice0422 · June 2015

bparkhur said:

Also, why not use Pandora or Spotify instead of a radio service?

I use spotify at home, but the radio charge is XM in the cars, but I'm going to call today and cancel it at least until the debt is paid off. It's nice to have it, but it is an unnecessary expense.

alice0422 · June 2015

KAdams767 said:

Your car payments are killing you. I would suspect that part of the reason you can never seem to get ahead is that you have really high car payments in relation to your income, and you said you've always had 2 car payments. I think you need to look at trading the cars in, at the very least one of them, for something more affordable that you can actually pay off within a reasonable amount of time and drive at least one vehicle that is totally paid for for several years. The payments aren't the only issue. Those cars are both huge and probably a big reason that your gas is so much as well. Do you really need two SUVs?

The other thing is your cable/internet/phone/radio situation. You need to find a bundle, $300 for phones, TV and Internet is nuts when you are $35,000 in credit card debt. I assume radio is for Sirius/XM? Call them and threaten to cancel, be hones that you can't afford it. I guarantee that they will offer you a cheap promo. I don't know anyone who pays more than like $10/month for this service. They run promos ALL THE TIME and everyone I know calls them when the promo is about to expire and they just extend it again for them.

What does your savings and retirement situation look like? Honestly, if you have anything in savings, this might be a situation to pull some out and just pay off that 22% card. If you can't do that, you should call and try and lower the rate.

Hubby is military so retirement is taken care of for now. Once debt is paid off the plan is to start putting a large amount in savings as we do not have any. I've looked into bundling for the TV service but it's not any cheaper here unfortunately, but I do think I'll just bite the bullet and cancel it. It's summer anyway so we may not even use it that much. My SUV isn't the larger SUV it is just a 6 cylinder and unfortunately we car pool so I do need to keep a car with room for five kids in the back. By carpooling I'm able to work from home more so if I had to pickup and take my daughter everyday then I would loose some of my income. However gas will probably go down this summer and next school year. The school was about 20 miles away and will now only be at most 10 and I won't be driving as much since the moms I am carpooling with next year are helping out more (this year I drove her everyday but Friday and picked up twice, next year I will only drop off once and pick up at most three times).

alice0422 · June 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?
I agree with this, big time! Especially since you work at home. Another easy cut you could make is canceling cable and doing Netflix instead. They have great kids options. I would also cut radio-plenty of free options. Who is you cell phone provider? One option to lower that bill is to switch to Republic Wireless. They offer great Android phones for $200 down and $10 a month. The only catch is that the "smart" portion only works when you're in wifi coverage. Do you have any savings or an emergency fund?

We currently have ATT for cell phone service. I've looked at canceling to switch to a cheaper version but we still have a year left on contracts I believe. They were giving me a discount because I called and said I wanted to cancel but it ran out a few months ago and when I called back they wouldn't offer the discount anymore and told me there were none available.

hoffse · June 2015

Agreed that the cars are the big issue here.

Could you sell both and be a single car family? If not, sell - at minimum - your H's car. It's probably worth more than yours, and the payment is higher. See if you can sell to a private party to get more for it.

Having 2 SUVs is just setting you guys up to spend a crapton of money on gas. H drives a sedan, and I drive a crossover. We virtually never spend more than $120/month on gas, and H frequently has to travel a few hours away for work. We get mileage for it, but we just cash flow the gas expense and bank the mileage.

Learn to cut your H's hair and save yourself the $30/month on that. I hope your H quits tobacco - not only is it horrible for his health, but as you can see it's incredibly expensive.

Cable needs to go - seriously, most people don't even miss it if you have a hulu plus or netflix subscription. Radio does too.

Look around for things you can sell, especially since you work at home. My mom has started ebaying my old toys to get them out of the house. She's made $300 since Saturday by selling my Polly Pockets from the 90's. I kid you not.

als1982 · June 2015

Another vote for getting rid of the cars. They are killing you. You can rationalize safety, warranties and not needing repairs all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you cannot afford them or the extra gas you're using to drive low efficiency vehicles.

alice0422 · June 2015

simplyelise said:

alice0422 said:

brij2006 said:

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

H's is a 2014 GMC Sierra and we owe probably 36280 on it and the interest rate is 3.9%. We've had it under a year, but the "bill" is not new, we have always had two car payments.

Mine is a 2011 GMC Acadia and we owe 20892 on it and the interest rate is 2.99%. When I stopped working we had to refinance it so that the payment would go down three years ago. It is next on my list after the other cards.

Fortunately we have extended warranties on both vehicles so if anything happens it is covered. In fact my air conditioner and power steering went out a month ago and it was 100% completely covered. That warranty is good for at least another year (its a year/ mileage warranty). Thing is we owe so much over on the vehicles at this point that we couldn't sale them for a profit and we wouldn't have the money to pay the remaining balance off.

So you guys bought a new car last year AND rolled extra debt into it meanwhile you have over 30,000 in credit card debt??? Does your H really understand what your situation is? You've got almost $90,000 in consumer debt. You're barely able to cover all the payments on your current income, it's seriously time to get drastic. No tv is a very small sacrifice to start working on the emergency situation you're in.

Unfortunately yes, but about 10000 of that was after... eek! I know its bad, unfortunately it's been a viscous cycle and I'm trying to brake it and do better.

hoffse · June 2015

If you need additional motivation, your children should be it. We've discussed financial role models on this board before, and kids learn to do what their parents do.

Prove to yourself and your kids that you can say "no" to consumerism and you can make a positive change to get your financial life under control. Your kids will learn by example. Set them up to make good financial choices when they are old enough.

Xstatic3333 · June 2015

als1982 said:
Another vote for getting rid of the cars. They are killing you. You can rationalize safety, warranties and not needing repairs all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you cannot afford them or the extra gas you're using to drive low efficiency vehicles.

Agreed. I bet between car payments, insurance, and gas savings you'd save more by driving an old Carolla then you make by participating in the car pool. If your H is military and not using his vehicle for work, he should go fuel efficient as well until your debt is gone.

I'd go to your local credit union, explain the situation, and see if you can get a loan that would allow you to sell one car and buy a beater instead. If you can sell both, even better. These cars are killing you.

brij2006 · June 2015

alice0422 said:

brij2006 said:

Honestly, your cars are breaking you and are way too much car for your income.

Sell them both, take any difference and buy yourselves beater cars. If that means you spend $1,000 on a car, then so be it. Take that extra 1,103 each month and get rid of the credit card debt.

You can do this! You can tackle this debt and get yourselves balanced out, but it's going to take sacrifice and hard work.

What's the information on the vehicles so I can get a better picture of the whole situation with them? Year make and model, amount owed, and interest rates?

H's is a 2014 GMC Sierra and we owe probably 36280 on it and the interest rate is 3.9%. We've had it under a year, but the "bill" is not new, we have always had two car payments.

Mine is a 2011 GMC Acadia and we owe 20892 on it and the interest rate is 2.99%. When I stopped working we had to refinance it so that the payment would go down three years ago. It is next on my list after the other cards.

Fortunately we have extended warranties on both vehicles so if anything happens it is covered. In fact my air conditioner and power steering went out a month ago and it was 100% completely covered. That warranty is good for at least another year (its a year/ mileage warranty). Thing is we owe so much over on the vehicles at this point that we couldn't sale them for a profit and we wouldn't have the money to pay the remaining balance off.

*I'm just going to pre-warn you that I'm harsh, and everyone on this board knows that* So I'm going to give you some tough love.

It doesn't matter how great your crappy warranty is. You can not afford these vehicles. Plain and simple. They both are breaking you. It's time to live like nobody else. Which means not having fancy big vehicles and never ever using credit cards again. It's time to stop trying to keep up with the Jones'.

So here's what I recommend. List both of the vehicles for sale private party. So you list them on cars.com, autotrader, craigslist, etc. Look up on nada.com what they're worth for private party value. Do NOT go to a dealership and have them tell you their story of how they can get you out of these vehicles by giving you practically nothing for trade in and rolling the difference onto yet another vehicle.

Then go to your bank or a credit union and finance the difference, plus $1,000 to purchase a beater car. Yes, the interest rate may be 9-10% because it's a personal loan that isn't secured. However, at this point you need out of the $1,100/month that's breaking you in car payments.

Who gives a crap about warranties. If something breaks on your $1,000 car, you don't make your debt payment that month and instead buy another $1,000 beater car to get around. That's the beauty of freeing up so much in your month to month cash flow.

Here's a link to what Dave Ramsey says to do when you're upside down in a car.
http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-to-sell-an-upside-down-car

I'm sorry you're in this situation, but it's time to buck up and open your eyes to the mess you've gotten into. It's time to take drastic steps to build a financial future for yourselves and your children. You want them to know you as the parents who sacrificed to be able to provide for them, than the ones who had nice cars but no cash to their name.

brij2006 · June 2015

Also, look on Dave Ramseys' website, but I believe he does something special for military. Not sure if it's a cheaper rate on his class or something, but definitely look for it.

alice0422 · June 2015

brij2006 said:

Also, look on Dave Ramseys' website, but I believe he does something special for military. Not sure if it's a cheaper rate on his class or something, but definitely look for it.

Okay I'll check that out, also I called and the radios are done!

csuave · June 2015

I second what hoffse said. Can you DIY your husband's hair?

Do you have Aldi? They are great for low cost groceries.

Is there anything you can do to make extra income? Maybe do some house cleaning on the side or sign up to be a pet sitter on Rover.com? There are some good threads on the board about ways to make some extra cash, they may give you ideas.

hoffse · June 2015

Also, kudos to you for listening and taking some of our suggestions. Usually people just make excuses. The people on this board love talking about all things money, deals, budgets, financial changes, etc. We can help you if you embrace some of the tough love!

The worst part of all this is taking your head out of the sand for the first time and recognizing that you have a huge problem. That is now over. From here on out you are problem solving and creating a more secure future for you and your family.

alice0422 · June 2015

csuave said:

I second what hoffse said. Can you DIY your husband's hair?
Do you have Aldi? They are great for low cost groceries.
Is there anything you can do to make extra income? Maybe do some house cleaning on the side or sign up to be a pet sitter on Rover.com? There are some good threads on the board about ways to make some extra cash, they may give you ideas.

So our neighbor actually used to do hair and she just cut mine and my two daughter's hair for free pretty much (I have her $40 because I didn't want her to think I was taking advantage). She told my husband she would do his so maybe this time I'll have him go to her instead because even if we pay her $10 that's still cheaper than the $15.

I actually have the ability to make as much as I want at home. I can log on whenever I want and whenever there is work without questions. This month I am making myself get on more including in the am on weekends and staying on later during the afternoons on the days I don't have carpool pickup. The only thing is the work is pretty much free for all. I can have a total of five files downloaded at a time so it's really hurt my productivity driving my daughter to school in the a.m. for such an hour each day. That is why carpool really is a good option for me because a lot of work comes in during that window but there are also a lot of people on during that time frame. (They are all east coast and I'm west coast).

We don't have Aldi but we have Winco and Smith's. I think I might just start driving to the military grocery store for awhile for everything but produce (their produce is terrible and goes bad within a day or two of buying it). I've gotten lazy and haven't wanted to make the trip since I already drive so much but I think it would be worth it to do a monthly list of the items and make one trip.

alice0422 · June 2015

hoffse said:

Also, kudos to you for listening and taking some of our suggestions. Usually people just make excuses. The people on this board love talking about all things money, deals, budgets, financial changes, etc. We can help you if you embrace some of the tough love!

The worst part of all this is taking your head out of the sand for the first time and recognizing that you have a huge problem. That is now over. From here on out you are problem solving and creating a more secure future for you and your family.

Thanks, I don't want ya'll to think I am not taking your advice. I do understand what ya'll are saying with the cars, but I do know there are lots of other things I need to cut back on to such as the TV. I'm also going to try and call ATT again today and see if they have any promotions. The last one was 15-20 dollars a month which brought my bill under 100 a month. I've tried calling the internet provider before and they wouldn't help out but maybe since we've been customers longer they will. I am also calling dish today.

brij2006 · June 2015

It really is all about managing your time and being intentional about things. For the groceries, meal planning will go a long way. Since you have the option to purchase things at the commissary, do so. Be sure to price match, but for the most part everything is cheaper. And even better, you don't have to pay taxes on the purchase.

As far as the work stuff, your $1,000 income includes when you utilize carpool? That really isn't worth the high car payment, full coverage insurance, and the higher gas cost to have the bigger car to do so. Almost half of your income goes toward just paying to have that vehicle that fits 5 kids. So not worth it.

Instead force yourself to get on before they go to school (especially if you're west coast and there's more work in the morning). If that means you get up at 4am, then so be it. It just means you get to stop working earlier. Be intentional about the work you do, and do what it takes to bring in more income to get these debts paid off and build up some wealth.

alice0422 · June 2015

hoffse said:

If you need additional motivation, your children should be it. We've discussed financial role models on this board before, and kids learn to do what their parents do.

Prove to yourself and your kids that you can say "no" to consumerism and you can make a positive change to get your financial life under control. Your kids will learn by example. Set them up to make good financial choices when they are old enough.

Such good points. Unfortunately our daughter has the mentality that money grows on trees because before we moved I made more than double what I make now so she was spoiled rotten. We are trying so hard to teach her that we don't have to have everything we see at the store and we definitely don't have to get something every time we go. Unfortunately my mom and sisters were just here and bought her sooo much stuff (junk mostly) and when I tried to stop them they said "we never get to see them so let us buy it for them."

I grew up with a mom who pretty much bought whatever and now these are the consequences. Out of four of us three of us are like this, but I am not as bad as my sisters, but still need to improve.

hoffse · June 2015

alice0422 said:

hoffse said:

If you need additional motivation, your children should be it. We've discussed financial role models on this board before, and kids learn to do what their parents do.

Prove to yourself and your kids that you can say "no" to consumerism and you can make a positive change to get your financial life under control. Your kids will learn by example. Set them up to make good financial choices when they are old enough.

Such good points. Unfortunately our daughter has the mentality that money grows on trees because before we moved I made more than double what I make now so she was spoiled rotten. We are trying so hard to teach her that we don't have to have everything we see at the store and we definitely don't have to get something every time we go. Unfortunately my mom and sisters were just here and bought her sooo much stuff (junk mostly) and when I tried to stop them they said "we never get to see them so let us buy it for them."

I grew up with a mom who pretty much bought whatever and now these are the consequences. Out of four of us three of us are like this, but I am not as bad as my sisters, but still need to improve.

It's slightly off topic, but there have been great posts in the past about things you can do to teach money skills to kids. We can start a new thread on that if that would be helpful.

There are lots of strategies, but all of them include involving kids in the family's financial process. They don't need details, but they need a general picture of what is happening. Kids also need training in certain things - for instance, it takes practice to be able to delay your own gratification. I think it's going to be even harder for the generation right below the Millenials (your daughters are in this group), because they've never had a world without the internet. But if they can't learn to do this, they're going to be up to their eyeballs in debt.

I won't clutter this thread with this discussion any more than I already have, but feel free to start a new thread on this if it's a concern of yours. Some of the techniques the parents on this board use are pretty great.

brij2006 · June 2015

alice0422 said:

hoffse said:

If you need additional motivation, your children should be it. We've discussed financial role models on this board before, and kids learn to do what their parents do.

Prove to yourself and your kids that you can say "no" to consumerism and you can make a positive change to get your financial life under control. Your kids will learn by example. Set them up to make good financial choices when they are old enough.

Such good points. Unfortunately our daughter has the mentality that money grows on trees because before we moved I made more than double what I make now so she was spoiled rotten. We are trying so hard to teach her that we don't have to have everything we see at the store and we definitely don't have to get something every time we go. Unfortunately my mom and sisters were just here and bought her sooo much stuff (junk mostly) and when I tried to stop them they said "we never get to see them so let us buy it for them."

I grew up with a mom who pretty much bought whatever and now these are the consequences. Out of four of us three of us are like this, but I am not as bad as my sisters, but still need to improve.

Sounds like it's a great time to change your family tree. Teach your daughters the right things about money. How to earn it, how to spent it, save, and give it.

Dave Ramsey has another book called "Smart Money, Smart Kids." It would be a good time to pick that up and read it. Along with your husband.

Also, the word "no" is a powerful and great word. If the kids want something, flat out tell them no. Or no, it isn't in the budget. It will become 2nd nature to them and they will quickly learn that they don't get everything they want.

Budget

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