Life Situation: I am a 30 year old mom, working full time as a teacher. My husband works part time in the evenings, and we have two kids (6 and 2). We live in the Denver metro area, which has exploding home prices right now and is getting so crowded.
Gross Salary/Wages: 3855
Pre-tax deductions: 385 for dental, medical for just me, PERA contributions (like social security for employees of the state)
Other Ordinary Income: My husband's part time job provides us with about $300 a month take home pay, and medical coverage for him and the kids. (He used to be full time there and reduced his hours to be with our kids. So they let him keep the medical benefits, which makes it worth it for him to continue working about 18 hours per week there.)
Adjusted Gross Income: 3770
Taxes: 520 a month is taken from my check for this, but we always get a refund of about 4k.
Current expenses:
bills 1825
*my phone/republic $15
* husbands/tmobile $70 (we take lots of road trips and my data/service with republic is not great on the road, so we use his a lot.)
*auto insurance $40
*rent $700 (way below market renting from my mom)
*student loan min. payments $300 (details below)
*hospital bill - no interest $120
*teachers union $60
*taxes withheld from check $520 (we eventually get a tax refund of 4k, which we have never managed to save or use wisely in the past).
our ynab categories $1575
gas $60
groceries $800 (this is way better than we used to do but it still seems high. My daughter does have food allergies and I rely on convenience/freezer meals a bit too often when the pull of restaurant dining is so appealing).
gifts and celebrations $50 (we have a balance of $350 now for Christmas and my son's birthday party this month).
giving $50
cars and bikes fund $150 (just drained the balance paying for dental work)
medical/emergency fund $100 (drained the balance paying for dental work)
dates fund $15
vacation fund $40 (drained the balance going to a family wedding)
school supplies fund $15 (has like $30 now. I use this for my kids school supplies and things I need for teaching [professional classes or books, desk supplies] or for kids in my class [high poverty] so I consider this category to be part of "giving" too).
family purchases $160 (this is diapers [she can't use cloth because she has a skin condition which is irritated by any dampness. I sold our cloth diapers], kids clothing, toiletries, anything we use as a family that is not food, and pet supplies for our dog.)
dining out $60 (honestly overspend this category often. This is our main goal right now for trimming down spending).
Spending $120 (60 each) This might seem like a lot but it is for ANYTHING we buy that is not for family use. Our own clothes, shoes, beers with friends, music, books, lunch with coworkers, etc.
Son's allowance $10 (its actually $5 a month and he earns a dollar for each full ten he has in savings. And he is a good saver.)
Gross - bills - categories = $370 month for long term goals. We haven't begun to make a dent in these. Please advise:
Refill our categories for cars/bikes and medical, so we have some cushion.
Keep funding future months: we have a one month buffer in ynab right now.
Pay off husband's loan. It's at 3.5% interest and will be paid off by January. Probably going to let that one ride.
Pay off my loans: 46k at 4.8% I am right now on income adjusted repayment so I can get forgiveness in 9(!) years. The minimum payments above are not even covering the interest. This is a huge concern for me.
Buy a house: we want to move to a lower cost of living area and be near the great outdoors in a small town. Thinking Vermont, Utah, Michigan. Of course the teacher salaries are lower in these areas, so we probably want to have a big stockpile before we do this. We might be partially retired by the time we take this step.
Newer car: we share an 06 Honda now and I ride my bike to work most days. We try to put a little aside each month for the small repairs it often needs and for maintaining our bikes, plus eventually buying a different car for 8k or so when the need finally arises.
Retirement and long term savings: we are not contributing anything to retirement now and have no employer matching. We both used to contribute and have about only 4k total sitting in those accounts. I honestly don't even know what is going on with these as far as performance.
I also would like to hear if you see obvious ways to get our spending down or changes you would make so we can get closer to some of these long term goals.
The only suggestions I am not open to would be:
- any working more or side hustling. We only get to be together as a family on two week nights and one full day a week.
- cutting the vacation spending. Our little quick road trips on school breaks are a main way we recharge and reconnect together, and we are very frugal about these trips by camping out, packing our food, and driving our efficient little car.
Thanks in advance.