We often go a little over $600 in one month
So, the exact spending pattern here isn't systematic, but the over spending is? That sounds to me like an honest to goodness crisis. I don't just mean MMM's in your face "your debt is an emergency - you're going to be working forever to pay it off", but the "you need to change now or you'll be filing for bankruptcy sooner rather than later" variety.
$100 on entertainment? This went to movies, our rock climbing membership (it's too cold and rainy to do outdoors for free right now) and concert tickets. This too is an easy area to start cutting back right away.You've already got the intertubes, netflix, and dining out - what are you spending $100 on exactly? how about limiting yourself to one trip to the movies (and no snacks while there), or one other outting (no monre than $25 each) per month?
I'm assuming since you climb out doors you own all your own gear. But how often do you actually hit the gym. Not how often would you like to, but how often in the past three months have you? Given your usage rate is a membership worth it over the cost of paying as you go? At my climbing gym you pretty much need to go three times a week for a monthly membership to be worthwhile. I go once a week, so it is much cheaper to simply fork over the $12 every time I make it out.
Travel, $283? Time to spend more time at home. Or find cheaper ways to travel. Right now you cannot afford to spend $3000 a year on travelling. That is a lot of travel for a couple $50 000 underwater. If you could cut that in half and put it all towards studen loans in five years you'd pay off $7000 from the loans AND save yourself $1000 in interest over that time. This was part of the misc. income given to us for the purpose of scheduling our honeymoon. It's typicially not in the budget at all.
Okay (that also explains the extra $650 Use It Up asked about). Weddings are expensive. I know. I'm guessing your already doing it, but I'll remind you to look at every expense carefully and decide how much value it will add to the big day - five years from now will anyone remember something or the lack of something?
We were recently married, and there were a lot of things we did (and did not do) to rein in our budget. Some examples and things for you two to think about / discuss if you haven't already:
Flowers: Bride had a beautiful bouquet, as did the maid of honour. Groom and best man had matching flowers in the lapels. No flowers at the church or anywhere else.
Decorations: We held the reception at a golf course. Included in the package was nothing more than a simple table cloth and napkins. We hung photos on the wall. On each table were two martini glasses (purchased at the dollar store) filled with river rocks and blue glass pebbles (purchased at the same place) with water and floating candles. They looked cool and matched our colours. Total cost of decorations under $60. (I think my dad now has a box of 17 martini glasses somewhere...)
Gifts: My wife made a curry mix and I made salsa, total cost of gifts for 70ish people, under $100 (including jars) - but a huge amount of work.
To put that in perspective, the church has a set 'floral arrangement & decoration' where volunteers come in and decorate the church and put up flowers for you, cost is $250. Fancy table cloths and seat covers for the reception would have cost a few hundred dollars more. Brand name 'gift jars' cost $1 each. We could have easily spent $50 per table in decorations at the local art store.
This isn't to say we skimped, we got good food and wine and everyone had a good party, but we chose to spend our money were we felt it would matter, and if it wasn't a big deal to us, we simply didn't spend the money. Where it did matter, but we didn't feel the cost was worth it, we did it ourselves (and asked for help from our family & friends).
Thanks for your thoughtful response! Cheers to better budgeting next month!
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