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My budget
Budget: Monthly take home is $4000/month. 401K and Insurance are already taken out of check. We have a HAS so I do not need to budget anything medical due to already taking out of my check.
Rent $607.00
Tax $123.00
Utilities $190.00
Comcast $134.48
Cell Phone $98.60
Insurance (2cars) $113.74
SL#1 $25.00/month, 10.62%, (bal. $6052.55)
SL#2 $5.00/month, 7.25%, (bal. $5890.45)
SL#3 $0.00/month, 2.30%, (bal. $8696.49)
SL#4 $10.00/month, 6.50%, (bal. $2499.46)
Daycare $300
Diapers $40
Dog $32
Birth Bill#1 $50/month (bal. 85.40?will be paid off in May)
Birth Bill#2 $25/month (bal. $1148.00)
Oil Change $61.00 (1 car gets it every month the other car is about every 3 months)
Car#1 $545.14, 10%, (bal. $19387.51)
Car#2 $237.47, 4%, ($11,781.05)
CC#1 $163.00/month, 0% til Apr 14 (Budgeted exactly to have paid off in April)
CC#2 $75/month, 12.5%, (bal. $3893.85)
CC#3 $100/month, 2.3% (bal. 1116.22)
CC#4 $400/month, 19% (bal. $813.05)
Groceries $400/month
Cleaning $15/month
Birthdays This varies, we only buy for nieces and nephews so we budget $20 for each kid when the correct month is up
Some back story: ** There is no gas budgeted because we use CC#4 and get reward points, so we pay an extra $100 on that to pay off the extra debt** **I know the car payments are high, with car#1, we had to trade 2 cars in for 1 at the time and had quite a bit of negative equity, there is no way we could sell either vehicle without taking a huge loss that would put us further into the hole. We have usually $100 extra every month, that we place either into savings, or put it onto debt. We have currently around $1200 in savings.
Re: My budget
I have a few questions, and then I have some suggestions.
Q1: What are the taxes for? It looks like you do not own, so I'm confused as to why you are paying taxes.
Q2: Is the amount budgeted for cleaning, actually paying a cleaning person, or just cleaning supplies?
Q3: Is Comcast for cable, internet, and phone, or just one item?
Q4: You are paying an extra $100/month toward CC#4 for gas, but does this equal how much is actually spent on gas? If you are changing the oil in 1 car each month, then my assumption is that it gets 3,000 miles put on it per month. In that case, it would cost more than $100/month in gas.
Q5: Is there a reason so little is being paid on the SL's? Those are very small payments for the amount of loan.
Suggestion 1: Try to refinance the car at a lower interest rate. This all depends on your credit, but there are a lot more options out there now than 10%.
S2: When your Birth Bill #1 is paid off, apply that $50 per month toward credit card #4 since it has the highest interest rate. Also apply that extra $100 each month toward CC #4. Once that one is paid off, focus on CC#2 that is at 12.5%.
S3: Look into doing your own oil changes. $61 per month is quite a bit for an oil change. Or look into a different place to get it done at.
S4: I would focus on paying off the CC's first, then begin to tackle the highest interest rate SL.
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
I have a few questions, and then I have some suggestions.
Q1: What are the taxes for? It looks like you do not own, so I'm confused as to why you are paying taxes. We rent from our in-laws, so the deal was to pay 100%, and they won' t charge more for making money.
Q2: Is the amount budgeted for cleaning, actually paying a cleaning person, or just cleaning supplies? These are cleaning supplies, I make my own stuff, but occasionally run out and have to cover a few bottles here and there
Q3: Is Comcast for cable, internet, and phone, or just one item? The comcast is for all three. We are locked in a 2 year contract for 6 more months, and then are going to cut back with a lot of this.
Q4: You are paying an extra $100/month toward CC#4 for gas, but does this equal how much is actually spent on gas? If you are changing the oil in 1 car each month, then my assumption is that it gets 3,000 miles put on it per month. In that case, it would cost more than $100/month in gas. We pay $300 for gas on this card monthly, and then $100 extra to cover the extra debt trying to pay that down.
Q5: Is there a reason so little is being paid on the SL's? Those are very small payments for the amount of loan. They are all in deferrment currently until next spring. I am still paying what I can on the interest. I hope this helps! Thank you for the suggestions.
I have similar questions as the pp.
taxes?
You spend a lot of money on your cars and are basically financing your gas at 19%. Like the pp said, you have to spend more than $100 on gas per month.
Call a credit union and see if you can refinance that car loan,10% interest is crazy! I'm assuming you can't sell it since you traded in 2? Cars that had payments for this (I really don't understand why).
also, if you have a HSA why are you not paying off the birth bills with this?
Edit: I see your note about gas on the cc.
Call a credit union and see if you can refinance that car loan,10% interest is crazy! I'm assuming you can't sell it since you traded in 2? Cars that had payments for this (I really don't understand why).
We tried this, but right now we are too upside down. We have 3 1/2 years left, and then that will be extra money.
also, if you have a HSA why are you not paying off the birth bills with this?The birth bills are when I was with the previous job, where insurance was really bad. If I use my HSA it will not count towards the deductible.
Here are a few more suggestions after you answered those questions.
When your Comcast contract is up, cancel both phone and cable. Take that extra money and apply it toward the CC's.
I would focus on paying off those CC's before your SL's are out of deferrement. Based on the interest rates and loan amounts, your SL payments will be around $350-400 per month. I would also look into consolidating them at a lower interest rate at that time too.
Take a look around online at different banks for refinancing the car. I'm assuming you have financed more than what the car is worth, and that is why you can not refinance it at a local bank. Consider this a lesson learned. Put money down toward a car, do not buy new, and do not finance for more than 3 years. If you can not do these 3 items, then look for a cheaper vehicle.
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
Can either or both of you get second PT jobs and apply that to your debt?
Tax refund? - use on debt. Same with any gift money or bonuses.
I do not see personal care or clothing, entertainment or vacation in your budget.
Have you cut up your credit cards other than one with longest history?
Sell stuff you no longer need or use.
Cars - for the future - buy slightly used, put as much down as possible and finance no longer than 3 years. If that is too much for your budget - you are buying too much car!
I would add to this, your cars and toys should be less than 25% of your income because they lose value, so that may be something to keep in mind for future car purchases.
I agree with PP about the gas situation. You are buying gas on a credit card where you are paying interest every month, which means your gas bill is way more expensive than you may thing. Would going to cash work for you? That way you would accrue no interest on that gas money.
I would definitely consider taking up a part time job to gain more traction on this- you want to have more money free before you have to start paying on your student loans the regular payments. Delivering pizza can be a great part time, evening job to do around your day job.
Can either or both of you get second PT jobs and apply that to your debt?
We tried looking into that, but currently until after December, we are both in school, and my son has a class on Mondays that we take him too, so the only days to work are Friday-Sunday, and apparently our town is not doing much extra hiring unless you are available throughout the entire week (or so we keep getting told), after December we are re-evaluating our schedule since I will be done with school.
Tax refund? - use on debt. Same with any gift money or bonuses.
We did this currently, and thankfully paid off 2 1/2 credit cards already! But I will do that with all the extra money we get. Thanks for the idea!
I do not see personal care or clothing, entertainment or vacation in your budget.
This year we only plan a small vacation in October for our anniversay, so in August I will start pulling possibly $20 out of each check to cover everything (I have already planned the trip for a less than $100)
Have you cut up your credit cards other than one with longest history?
They are currently put away in our lockbox where we have very limited access except for 1.
Sell stuff you no longer need or use.
Cars - for the future - buy slightly used, put as much down as possible and finance no longer than 3 years. If that is too much for your budget - you are buying too much car!