Income:
DH grosses about 57K a year He has some put into 401K, HSA account, plus other taxes and deductions (federal, medicare, vision and medical insurance...more than $400/month).
What actually got deposited into our joint checking account last year from his job: 37,539.
I bring in about 450/month (5,400/yr).
Our expenses:
rent $450/mo. We are renting DH's dad's house. We've never bought a home. I think his dad wants to sell this house, but we don’t want to buy (foundation issues) and his wife is pressuring him to get the house sold. So the motor home (below) is our backup plan
Electric $150/mo. (we have it averaged. before we did this, summers are around 300, winters 100. I plan to set the thermostat to 82 this summer and acclimate myself to the heat. My husband will come home around 5pm and set it to 70 for the next 12 hours and there’s nothing I can do about that. Other than maybe sneak downstairs at 3am and turn it up.
water $60
gas $70
car ins $136
timewarner (internet only!) $63 for 100 mbps. Husband will not switch to slower speeds as he streams music/movies.
cell $200/mo. We're paying for two iphones: mine's got a balance of $366 left and his has 334. The kids each have a ‘free’ tablet that have contracts till around July 2016 and if we cancel we pay an additional $696 in early termination fees. We have 8 gigs shared data and unlimited talk and text. We typically use around 4 gigs. By switching to their 4 gig plan we could save $10/month but husband doesn’t want to worry about overages or go on a data diet. total cost to ditch sprint and start fresh with someone else: $1396.
student loan $100 (balance about 5,000)
gasoline $275
food/grocery $500
1994 winnebago elante motorhome $100 (my dad bought an RV several years ago and totally refinished the inside of it. He moved up north and never uses it, so offered it to us at around 8,000 less than what it's worth, zero interest loan, indefinite period of repayment as we get to pick our own monthly payment. We chose $100.)
home depot $130/mo. to pay back 780 balance in six months for interest free. Our oven went kaput.
2003 Toyota Sequoia (valued at 8,000 or more) paid off. We had to have a Toyota because my husband's a certified Toyota mechanic (free labor) and it had to seat a bunch of kids because that's what I do...I pickup kids from school and do afterschool care. We used to also 'need' it to haul my horse and trailer around. Sadly but in a way gladly, I was able to let the horse and trailer go. I’ve considered ditching the SUV but husband wants to keep it ‘in case we need to haul the flatbed or boat on the weekends, which are owned by my mother in law. Trailer used for projects around her ‘homestead.’
2005 Toyota Camry LE (valued at 4,300) (leather, heated seats, sunroof, premium sound, in really good shape with reasonable engine mileage), paid for by hubby's mom loaning us the cash...we owe her:
1,160. The car had needed a new engine and the customer decided to get a new car instead, so we bought it at a steal for 1,000 and bought a new motor. we sold our old camry to pay towards the debt to the in-laws and we still need to come up with the rest of the cash.
401K: contributed in 2014 was 2,303. Total in the acct. is 21,000.
entertainment: Netflix (we use the in-laws account so we don't actually pay for this. Thanks mom!) 0/month.
Hulu $7/month
Redbox (because for my movie-fiend husband, no amount of free or 7/month streaming movies is enough) $15-20/month
HSA covers things like medicines, dr. visit copays, supplements from my Holistic MD (thyroid condition and genetic disorder), although I really need much more to dial this medical thing in, it's just not happening right now. I'd like to get that budgeted in at some point eventually.
401k loan balance: 1,474
(loan was to pay off his huge tool cart work required him to have, and then the company got sold to someone else, and they rebuilt the shop, providing tool boxes, so now he has a huge one at home, in case he ever leaves this company and needs it for another job). tool cart current resale value: $5,000
Tools: $100/month (husband is an auto mechanic)
Pets (six chickens and two rabbits) $40/month. Chickens provide free eggs (we eat what we don't sell which pays for their feed). I gave my sister our guinea pigs on the condition that I’d still pay for their food ($11/month) so actual pet expense: $30
The kids' school lunches. $150/month. We have packed lunches in the past but it is such a struggle to get them out of bed on time to do it, and when they do get out of bed, they still don't seem to be organized enough to get it done by the time my husband has to leave for work. So we order. Luckily, DH (dear hubby) works literally across the street from the charter school four miles away. Plus we carpool two neighbor kids to the same school in the mornings and that's part of my monthly income, so the car trip is justified, we feel (feel free to prove me wrong).
If you go by what was deposited last year, it should be a combined income of an average of 3,578/month. Boy that sounds better on paper than what seems like actually comes in each month! I think this is because some of his paychecks are bigger than normal (1400 on a really good check) and some are much smaller than average (900 on a puny one). As a mechanic he gets paid by the ticket, not by the actual number of hours he's at work every day. Bummer deal. Most of the time it seems like we are dealing with more like 2,840/month. Some of the money is deposited into his bank of America account so is unaccounted for. He says that he uses it when our main account gets too low, probably because of miscellaneous overspending on both our parts.
Income adds up to 3578 averaged
Expenses add up to 2566/month
Difference equals to 1,012
So the un-assigned money comes down to $1012. I swear up and down that there is no way we have been wasting this ‘extra’ unbudgeted money per month. But numbers don’t lie so for now I’m staring straight at it.
If I had to pick wasted money holes, corner store trips would be one...if I had to guess, my DH spends about 15-25/week on beverages and snacks (read: junk food). I don't want to pick on him too much because he the main wage earner. Besides, this is not about picking on people and he will be the first to dig in his heels if he feels attacked.
We used to eat out more but this happens way less because of my income reduction from what it was before We eat out at fast food as a family maybe 2-4 times a month usually when we're on the run on the weekends working at the in-laws, or I'm too sick to cook dinner (which has happened all too frequently these last couple months), and my husband eats lunches out some days I don't have my hair or nails done, I cut the kids' hair, and the kids have school uniforms which thankfully, there is a uniform swap each year so we just round out whatever we can't get from that, usually that bill comes to around $100/year.
Things we have going for us: my willingness to look at the situation and try to make it better. My willingness to line dry clothes and curb my a/c use. My willingness to lower internet and cell (I DO NOT have my husbands willingness at this point). My willingness to change out the SUV for something more gas friendly, even though our school commute is short (husband wants to keep the SUV). My giving up my hobbies (horse, saltwater fish tank) to make up for my loss in income (we used to make about $10,000 more per year when I was working). No car debt. Very little credit card debt and overall debt.
Goals: To be one month ahead (using Feb's income to pay March's bills all at once at the first of the month)
To have a Rainy Day fund for unforeseeable expenses
To have money budgeted for each expense that we know will happen over the year (birthdays, Christmas etc.)
To be able to retire, ever.
Ok pick us apart.