Life Situation: 2 adults (Mr & Mrs Trouble), 2 kids ChildTrouble (3.5 years) and BabyTrouble (7 months) living in Darwin, Australia (fairly high cost of living area) due to Mr Trouble's job (military). I (MrsTrouble) am a Stay At Home Mum.
Gross Salary: Fortnightly $2,768
Net Salary: Fortnightly $2,075
Other Ordinary Income: We receive some interest on our savings but don't treat it as anything but added savings
Current expenses:
These are all per fortnight and have been averaged over the past ten months that I've been tracking on YNAB.
Phone $50
Internet $47
Electricity $142
Water $20
Rent $500
Sanity Money $200
Debt $100
Childcare $280
Eating Out $75
Groceries $215
Fuel $175
Dog $60
Fun $15
Car and motorbike $190
Health insurance $92
Minimum amount to go into Online Saver to earn bonus interest $100 (can't withdraw it)
TOTAL: $2,391 (faaaaaark)
Notes:
We don't have car insurance or home insurance but SHOULD have those and I will be looking into those.
Phone: I'm on $40 per month prepaid with Boost (Telstra) with unlimited text and calls. MrTrouble is on $60 per month with Optus, he got the phone free with a plan so he is still on that. He spends over $60 every month but extra spending comes out of his sanity money. We've had conversations about this before with no change in his plan.
Internet: We're in a Telstra smart community so are limited to Telstra. Plan is 500GB per month, we Skype and FaceTime family regularly as we're so far away from everyone. MrTrouble likes to download movies. Our plan was 200GB per month and they upped it to 500GB recently for no reason and with no change in cost. We were hitting right around 200GB per month usage.
Electricity: we currently live in Darwin which has an everyday temperature of 32 degrees celcius and quite a lot of humidity. The aircon doesn't generally go on except to sleep (in 2 bedrooms). Cheapest bill has been $550 and most expensive just over $1,000 (a quarter). I was pregnant in the 'buildup' last year and the aircon was on A LOT, this won't be happening again.
Water: Can't change that, it's a standard military deduction
Sanity Money: $100 each per fortnight, we came up with this arrangement when I had ChildTrouble and MrTrouble FINALLY let me manage all his money as well as my own. Previously MrTrouble had been spending all his pay (and paying 50% of our mutual expenses) and I'd been using mine to pay for 50% of our expenses plus my mortgage. This was a huge drop of money for him but he's now been at it for 3.5 years so maybe time for a drop down?
Debt: Centrelink debt due to overpayment, $4,400 remaining and I'm happy to slowly pay that off rather than take that lump sum out of savings.
Childcare: ChildTrouble is in 2 days per week for my mental wellbeing, started towards the end of my pregnancy. Looking over the crappy money situation I think (reluctantly) that should go down to 1 day. I will not drop it to zero, I won't cope having no break from him.
Fuel: I drive too much. I am waiting for BabyTrouble to hit 1 year so I can use the double bike trailer with both kids. I get out every day because ChildTrouble goes mental if we don't.
Car and Motorbike: We have one car and one motorbike. Car is a 2000 stationwagon that MrTrouble works on where possible (he uses youtube and stubbornness to figure things out), it cost us $3,750 a couple of years ago. It has had a few maintenance issues recently, we have replaced 2 tyres, brakes, rotors, the catalytic convertor and patched up a big scrape (my fault!), plus probably other things I have no idea about. Motorbike cost $5,000 a couple of years ago and is used solely for MrTrouble's commute. He can't bike due to back issues. He wants to replace the motorbike with one that costs abut $25-$30,000 (more comfort for his back, a legitimate reason) but understands that this is not happening just yet.
Health Insurance: Top Hospital and Top Extras. Yep, facepunch. I need to reduce the cover and it's on my long and unmotivating to-do list.
Assets:
Online Saver 3.5%: $60,000
Direct Shares: $33,400
Cash in Share Trading Account: $3,000
Liabilities: $4,400 debt with centrelink due to overpayment 2 or 3 years ago. Currently being paid off at $100 per fortnight.
Specific Question(s):
So, as you can see, I'm fucked. I've been tracking spending for a while now through YNAB and never really broken it down like this. I used to be awesome at budgeting, always going to a zero budget, living within my means, paying off a mortgage by myself etc.
I realised I was not fantastic when I started reading MMM. I've always vaguely wanted to retire early, but never really found the right information until now.
I have postnatal depression and MrTrouble has recently been diagnosed with depression due to chronic back pain so we're lacking in the motivation area (which we used to be great at pre-kids).
MrTrouble is getting medically discharged from the military next year (timeframe still unknown but hopefully between January and July) and will get some payouts ($45,000 or more) which are not taxed but do affect income for centrelink purposes. We will be moving to Melbourne and he will be starting his own business from home.
I guess my request is... PLEASE HELP ME.
I've been looking at this site for a few years and know I need to reduce expenses but just can't seem to. There's an element of 'no buy in' from MrTrouble and also a large part of 'lack of motivation' from me.
So please ask any questions, facepunch and provide suggestions. I appreciate all feedback, even the harsh stuff. I need a kick to get moving. Thank you!!