Hi Mustachians,
I'm 35 weeks pregnant and panicking as I head towards maternity leave without enough saved, an out-of-control grocery bill, lots of medical expenses and husband making almost no money. Would love advice on further cutting our expenses and ways husband could find some income to help get us through that gap without (gasp) incurring credit card interest or borrowing from our parents.
I will be be going on maternity leave in 4 weeks--9 weeks fully paid, 9 weeks totally unpaid.
Income: - My take-home pay from a full-time job working at a nonprofit is $4,050 per month. I'm on partial bedrest now but allowed to work from home.
- Husband's current graphic design/illustration freelance income is meager--averaging $400 revenue per month as opposed to about $2,000 per month last year (he lost many clients who took work inhouse to save$). He has been applying to jobs of all kinds per week for months now with no luck--one or two interviews, but never anything more.
Basic family details: I'm in my mid-30s, husband in early 40s. We have a four-year-old daughter with severe multiple food allergies to 10 foods, plus asthma and severe eczema (this is relevant for grocery bill problem and medical bill problem), and are expecting Baby 2 in a month. We live in Brooklyn, NY in a 2-bedroom apartment with amazingly low rent.
The problem: How do we get through my maternity leave without running a credit card balance or borrowing from family?
Considering how Mustachian we would like to consider ourselves to be (no credit card or student loan debt, all our clothes except underwear/socks from thrift stores, cook everything we can from scratch with whole foods, buy food in bulk on sale and store inside bed/closet, have low rent, no cable TV or fancy cell phone plan, using bikes or public transport instead of cars, etc) we thought we would have zero problem saving for the unpaid 9-week portion of my 18-week maternity leave, especially once our daughter entered public pre-K and we could stop paying for preschool ...
But then...
- Right after I got pregnant, our 4-year-old daughter who had 5 severe food allergies had a series of reactions and developed 5 new allergies, suddenly making our already challenging grocery shopping and meal planning way more difficult/expensive.
- At the same time, she was also accepted to a medical treatment program that may actually CURE her asthma, food allergies and eczema in a few years... at a cost of $500+/month because it's not covered by insurance.
- Meanwhile, I've had a number of unexpected and expensive pregnancy complications -- and have often been so sick that I can't do all my usual grocery cost savings tricks or cooking from scratch and I have been having to take cabs to my weekly midwife visits because I can't take the subway or walk much these days.
So I think we're going to end up maybe $4,000 short or even more. The idea of running a credit card balance or borrowing money from parents makes me nauseous. So would love any help or ideas on cutting our expenses or finding other ways for husband to make money. I realize this is an epically long post, so I thank you in advance if you have any help to offer!
Also: I am not going to cut my maternity leave short. 18 weeks at home with a new baby is barely enough, and that is just not an option here!
Current average monthly expenses: Fixed and/or Mandatory Expenses:
Rent: $1,300
Childcare: $0 right now because kiddo in special allergy-free public Pre-K classroom and husband picks her up after school
Internet: $57 (I periodically threaten to cancel Time Warner to get this down to $45, but last time they did not care).
Netflix + Pandora: $35 (we still get 2 DVDs a month from Netflix, as we use them for family movie nights instead of going to movies and the selection of kid-appropriate movies on streaming is weak)
Phone: $47 (Ting service for 2 used Android smartphones bought on eBay)
Electrical/Gas: $95
Life Insurance: $41.35 (necessary since husband has no income and if something happened to me, would be catastrophic)
Medical bills: $800 ($500 for kiddo's food allergy treatment, and the rest for copays, cabs for me to midwife appointments because I can't walk nowadays, vitamins for my anemia and prenatal vitamins, kid's eczema lotions and allergy meds, husband's asthma meds, etc)
Groceries: $1,000 (Yeah, I know. Was more like $630 before my health problems and kiddo's new food allergies Will get into more detail below).
Household goods: $75
Public transport: $30 (for husband—my Metrocard is taken from my pay)
Laundry: $30 (machines in basement of apartment building)
Subtotal: $3,510Optional Expenses:Charitable giving: $7.50 (we used to give a lot more, but cut back to a small monthly gift to our favorite org)
Y family gym & pool membership: $125 (We joined the Y a block from us when I started having medical problems that meant I couldn't ride my bike or walk much anymore--midwife said only real OK exercise for me is swimming, so we all go swimming together regularly as a family)
Restaurants: $105 (used to be $25/month, especially since kiddo can't eat it, but husband and I have resorted to takeout lately sometimes for oursevles)
Entertainment/recreation: $30 (taking kid to movies or museums and such--we go to movies with discount AAA passes for $6.25 each)
My fun money: $40 (I have mostly spent this on yarn and fabric to make things for baby and for Christmas gifts and whatnot, plus paying occasional late library fines)
Husband's fun money: $40 (he mostly spends this on music, video games, and sometimes on buying lunch for himself)
Kiddo's fun money: $15 (for special desserts or occasional toys)
General clothing & shoes: $30 (thrift stores only, except for socks, shoes and underwear)
Baby stuff & maternity clothes: $50 (we still had most of our baby stuff but had to replace our expired car seat, bought a used cosleeper, got some gender-neutral baby clothes at Goodwill since we don't know baby's sex, and I've had to get used maternity clothes on eBay and from local moms since I had gotten rid of most of mine)
Personal care: $18 (though not every month, husband usually cuts his own hair and I only get mine cut 1 or 2 times per year)
Alcohol and bars: $25 (for husband to buy wine or beer, I don't drink even before I was pregnant)
Birthdays & gifts: $50 (I mostly make gifts but we've had a lot of weddings and baby showers to attend and even the supplies to make gifts cost $$$. We are not buying any Christmas gifts for anyone or each other this year, but are making some for kids in our family). [/li][/list]
Subtotal: $530.50Savings:Saving for maternity leave: $400 (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on husband's freelancing)[/li][/list]
Total monthly expenses: Approx $4,440Assets: We have $3,000 in checking saved up so for my maternity leave, and will probably have about $4,000 saved by the time it starts, plus a small emergency fund we never touch to ensure we never overdraft our checking account. We have $105,000 in retirement accounts (pitiful, I know--and we have stopped saving for retirement altogether in the last few months).
Liabilities: We have no student loans (we used to have $40,000 but finished paying off last year) and never run balances on our credit cards. We are car-free. We rent and do not own, so no mortgage.
And...
Our ideas so far for increasing husband's income and making extra cash: - Husband has been looking at the board here on side gigs -- he's applying to leapforce, fiverr and some of the others mentioned. He continues to apply to regular full-time jobs frequently and is also looking beyond "jobs he would actually find fulfilling" to "anything that pays any money at all" (such as temporarily working at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods--maybe we could get a grocery discount on those pricey allergy-free foods). And he is trying to find new freelance clients.
As we've decluttered the apartment to make room for baby 2, we've sold a lot of things on eBay or Amazon or the local parenting list-serves, but that's not yielding a huge amount and is a lot of work. - We opened up a Chase Ink card and are putting all spending on it for next 3 months to get the $625 cash bonus.
And... the
grocery bill problem.Like I said, even when kiddo had 5 food allergies, we were usually able to keep our grocery bill down to $600 a month. We bought in bulk on Amazon Subscribe & Save and Vitacost, watched sales cycles and flyers so we could stock up when safe foods were on sale, used coupons when possible (not usually possible with most of her safe items) and kept a price book of how much each item cost at any of the 5 supermarkets within walking or biking distance of us. Plus we cook from scratch as much as possible and avoided convenience foods (including most allergy-safe convenience foods).
But when she got 10 (sesame, nuts, peanuts, dairy, eggs, mustard, peas, canola, poppy, cumin), it got harder (especially sesame, mustard, peas and canola, which are in many otherwise allergy-free products) and the bill lately ranges from $900-$1,300 a month. She can't eat an item that has even been made on shared lines (or sometimes in the same factory) as one of her worst allergens without having a reaction--she's that sensitive. We can't comparison shop on almost anything except fresh produce or meat ... She has ONE safe brand of pasta, and it is $2-$3 a box even when bought in bulk. Her one safe fake milk (oat milk) is $3 - $5 a quart. Her one safe brand of dried or canned beans is $5 a box or $2.50 a can. Earth Balance fake butter that contains no peas or canola? $6 for a little container. Sunflower seed butter--$4 a jar online (or $11 in a store here). Safe bread (when we don't have time to make ourselves, which is almost always lately): $4.50-$7/loaf. And so on.
And we are supposed to only feed her organic or at least antibiotic-free meat or chicken, as exposure to antibiotics could worsen her already severe allergic march. (Pesticides are also implicated in food allergies, so though we certainly cannot afford all organic, we follow the Clean 15/Dirty Dozen most of the time).
And she is a somewhat picky eater, yet eats as much as an adult sometimes. And I am on a gestational diabetes diet and can't have many carbs, and an iron-rich diet because I'm significantly anemic.
Typical groceries we buy:Sunbutter (she and I live on this stuff)
Bonne maman jam (only safe jam)
Allergy-free bread (Angelic Bakehouse, sold only at Whole Foods, only confirmed safe bread for her allergies)
Lots and lots of fresh veggies -- potatoes, squash, spinach, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks, herbs, beets, whatever is in season and on sale. Some organic for items that are especially likely to have pesticides. We belong to a CSA but only in summer/early fall.
Fresh fruit when on sale -- bananas, apples, oranges, occasionally berries when on sale
Frozen organic veggies for emergency meal-making--mostly spinach, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc
Whole antibiotic-free chicken (roast or slow-cook, use carcass to make stocks)
Dark meat chicken parts, antibiotic free
Cheap stew meat or slow-cooker appropriate cuts of beef or pork (antibiotic free when possible)
Whole Soy soy yogurt
Soy cheese
Pacific oat milk ($3-$5/quart)
Allergy-free baking supplies: flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, salt, vanilla, etc.
Allergy-free oatmeal, grits and other hot cereals
Allergy-free deli meat and sausages and bacon from Applegate (SO EXPENSIVE but sometimes only way to get a quick meal for the kid in a pinch... Trader Joe's has best price on this)
Earth Balance soy garden buttery spread (only Earth Balance fake butter that is safe for kiddo)
McCormick spices and seasonings (only safe spice brand for us)
De Cecco pasta (only safe pasta)
Lundberg or Rice Select rice or couscous (confirmed safe)
Eden Organic dried and canned beans (only safe beans)
Rice noodles (Tinkyada only safe brand)
Soba noodles (Eden Organic only safe brand)
Muir Glen canned tomatoes (only safe brand)
Olive oil (we have a few safe brands)
Muir Glen ketchup
Safe crackers & chips: Wheat Thins, Triscuits, Tostitos
Safe tofu
Maple syrup
Safe raisins and dried fruit (Newman's Own is safe but pricey)
Cheerios
OK! So... if you read all that or even most of it, you have my gratitude. Ideas welcome!!! I do think our expenses should go down once baby actually arrives (we can cancel the Y once other free exercises are OK, we might buy SOME disposable diapers but we still have our cloth ones, we won't need formula because I'm going to breastfeed and hopefully after a while I'll be back on my feet and able to focus more on saving money on food and can take public transport again) but not sure they will go down ENOUGH without some work.