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Help with Budget/Bills
As suggested in a separate post, here is my financial information. Perhaps you ladies can help me get my stuff together.
My take home pay is $2822
Bills are
Care One Credit Bal 8088.99, Rate Various, Payment $286
Sallie Mae, Bal 5765.30, Rate 4.5%, Payment $65 (currently $131.66 past due)
(Car Payment) Ally Financial, Bal 20K, Rate 6.99%, Payment $525
(Mortgage) Chase. Bal 95K, Rate 3.125%, Payment $817 (currently 3 months behind)
Verizon $230 month (as of this month I am cancelling a line and changing to a cheaper plan)
Electric $275 (past due balance $490)
Groceries $200 (if we have the money, my pantries are empty at the moment)
Gas $250
Cable/Internet Phone (past due balance $500), I have already cancelled this service
HOA $50 (currently past due $150)
I think that is it. We do not go out (unless someone is treating us).
ETA
Auto Insurance $100/mo
IRS Payment $100/mo
Re: Help with Budget/Bills
I'm assuming there is some information missing. Mortgage/rent? Any car payments?
ETA: Or is the Chase balance, your mortgage?
Also, any income from your husband?
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
Sorry, I fixed it
(Car Payment) Ally Financial, Bal 20K, Rate 6.99%, Payment $525
(Mortgage) Chase. Bal 95K, Rate 3.125%, Payment $817 (currently 3 months behind)
Have you checked out Mint.com? I just started using the website / budget tracker in January and it has really helped me get things in order. It allows you to link all of your bills and bank accounts and tracks your balances, alerts you to payments due, and also notifies you when your bank balance is low. Definitely worth checking out... I'm not good at managing finances and this has really helped.
Does H have any income? It sucks but you may have to look at cutting somewhere - like the Verizon bill you mentioned. While it's nice to have an iPhone (making assumptions), it may have to be put on hold for a fancy flip phone with only calls / texts. Also is your $525 car payment for one car? If so, maybe look at getting into something smaller / less expensive to lower that payment.
GL!!
Well no wonder you're behind on all of your payments! Your take home is less than you were spending!
What is the Care One Credit? Can you call them and try to lower the monthly payment till you're able to get on track with all your bills?
That car payment is ridiculous. Can you sell the vehicle and buy a cheaper one?
For Verizon, I hope you're switching to a non-smartphone plan. That is a pretty big bill for just you (or is it you and someone else?).
You are hemorrhaging money as it is right now. Your priority needs to be to get everything current. Once everything is current, I would attempt to do a debt snowball and just start knocking off your debts (starting with the smallest) and then rolling those payments into bigger debts once it's paid off. This might be a good time to get a second part time job to start paying the debt down quicker.
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According to my calculations your bills are $2,898. So you are $76 over what you take home.
My first recommendation would be to have your husband get a job. I know it isn't easy, but some income from him is better than nothing at this point. I would also recommend you find a part time job on the side to help get your debts current.
1. Call Care Credit and explain your situation, and see if they will work with you on payments and interest.
2. Definitely call Verizon and get rid of internet on your phones.
3. Make your mortgage payment the #1 priority. You do not want to lose the roof over your heads, but still be current on a car payment of $525.
4. See about refinancing the car, or getting rid of it for a much lower payment.
5. Until you get 100% current on the past due balances, call each of the companies and explain your situation and tell them that you will be paying them something each month. Even if it's just paying that months bill + $20. It tells them that you do want to be current with your payments, and you will be paying them back on what you owe.
I'm sorry you are going through this. I would also recommend once your H gets a job again, that you continue to do this in order to save up an E-fund and snowball your debts. That way you are better prepared if either one of you loses a job again.
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
Care One Credit is a debt consolidation service, this is all my credit cards combined.
Car Payment is what it is. I owe more than its worth, I don't think I can sell it without losing my shirt. I had a car with negative equity I traded in and carried that over to the new car. Dumb mistake. Anyway I am halfway done making the payments.
For Verizon, we don't have iPhones or anything and this plan includes three phones. As of the end of this month we are dropping one of the phones and lowering the amount of minutes on our plan.
DH is not working right now and hasn't for the past 5 months. This is what got us into this mess. I am hoping he will find a job soon but it isn't looking good.
We are in the process of a loan modification with the mortgage, hopefully this will lower the payments.
I know this is another subject entirely, but it is my hope to be financially stable on my own because I don't believe I am going to be married for much longer.
definitely look into getting rid of the car for something cheaper. That is a big car payment when you are so far behind on your other bills. I would even suggest selling it, paying off the loan and buying something cash (hopefully you aren't upside down on the car). I believe that payment was like $500/month, that would go a long way to helping you dig out of this quickly.
I agree with PP- get everything current (honestly would start on the mortgage first because you don't want to lose the roof over your head). Then start a debt snowball- starting with your smallest debt to your biggest.
How I would do this:
get current 1. mortgage 2. utilities. 3. anything else you are behind on
the start paying off whatever you can, smallest balance to largest balance. Make your normal mortgage payments and ignore the mortgage in this step. Once you have everything but the mortgage paid off, then get a good emergency fund established.
How many people is this budget for? If it's just you, then $200 for groceries per month seems pretty reasonable, but it sounds like from your post you have been struggling to do that. Stock up when the grocery store is on sale. Dave Ramsey says rice and beans, beans and rice should be your staples when you are getting out of debt to keep this as low as possible, but done right pasta can be about as cheap.
Is there anything else (besides the car) that you can sell to get this process moving? Is there the opportunity for you to work some extra hours/ a part time second job? Even an extra shift a week could seriously help you out.
That makes this all that much harder. I"m so sorry your DH lost his job. Hopefully he will find something soon, as that will help ease your stress. Can he find anything right now, even something is better than nothing. It may not be in his field, but something related, or something retail/managerial/ I don't know what, to help get your income up?
Have you called Sallie Mae to maybe defer the loan payment or put you on an income based payment plan?
Also, IMO, your electric bill looks high. Do things like turn up the thermostat to conserve on A/C, turn off lights when you leave a room, switch to CFL bulbs if you haven't already (these are usually pretty inexpensive at Home Depot).
Agree with PP about seeing if your H can get a job. Even a couple hundred a week could go a long way for you guys.
Good Luck!
Im sorry for your H's job loss and situation. It is tough.
If selling isn't possible, could you refinance your car?
Also.. I know you said you were getting your cell phone bill down which is good, it sounds incredibly high. We have 3 phones, one w a data plan and our bill is only 130 a month.
Your electric sounds really high also. Id look into ways to get that down if you can also.
Can you take on a 2nd part time job? Do you have things you need to get rid of.. maybe use craigslist.
Thanks ladies, I appreciate the suggestions. I wish I could get rid of the car, but how can I do that? I can't trade it in because the negative equity will just get transferred to whatever car I purchase. I can't sell it outright because I don't have the money to purchase another car and I am sure I cannot finance one because my credit has been ruined. I just feel stuck.
I just submitted the papers to my mortgage company for a loan modification. During this time, they said to not make any mortgage payments until they approve the modification, at which point they will tell me my new payment amount and add any past due amounts to the loan balance. Freeing up that mortgage money will help me catch up on other past due bills.
I am not able to get a second job at the moment, but I am selling lots of stuff on eBay. Sure wish I could sell my eRing from my first marriage but no luck so far.
We are trying to get DH a job, but he also dealing with some health issues.
Borrow money from somebody. Check out a credit union to see if you can get a personal loan. The rate may suck, but it's way better than a huge car bill. Buy something inexpensive cash- like 2-3K and see if you can add that to the personal loan. The bill will likely drop dramatically, and that could possibly be one of the first bills you try to pay off.
I have an old copy of the whole TMM program that DH bought. It includes all the cd's and stuff. I think I might dust it off and start listening to the cd's in the car on my way to work.
DH is an alcoholic and if he continues on this path then either the divorce or death scenario could happen. He said he was going to check himself into an alcohol treatment program today. So, we will see.