Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 15:41:43 GMT -5
I will read more in depth when I get home but thanks for all the suggestions so far! I just wanted to mention that we are only paying for data on the tablet because we got it free that way. My mom is apparently no longer paying for hers so she's going to look into canceling it or taking that cost herself.
We really don't go out and do things much other than for food. Which we absolutely need to cut back on. We go to movies maybe once or twice a year.
Our electric is high. I hate it. We get zero breeze in our apartment and the damn heat is always on. We have the thermostat all the way down and vents shut but it's still radiating from the base boards. So we end up having to use our AC way more than I'd like. We've used it in the middle of winter it's been so hot in there before!
Anyways, back to work and I will reread the responses in a couple hours
I've been out all day and just got online. You have received basically every piece of advice I was going to offer.
One new thing. Can you get a used washer and drier on craigslist? I hate to see you go more in debt for them. Ours has so many nice ones for pretty cheap.
Your biggest issue is daycare and unfortunately you can't just leave E home alone. Haha. I don't know your plans for future kids, but you're only 3 years max out from free preschool for him, so maybe you can look forward to that? I know I need good news to focus on in the midst of tough decisions.
Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 18:50:47 GMT -5
Ok, now I have more time to catch up
-I definitely want to meal plan and shop sales/coupons. I think I will start watching the sales for the week, then plan meals specifically with those ingredients. I will watch for sales on meat and buy a few packages to freeze at that time. I'll stick to simple, cheap meals as much as possible (spaghetti, meat/veggie, tacos, I'll have to look at all your ideas again). I also need to make lunches in advance, I just need to figure out what we can make. I'm not a salad person and sandwiches can get boring!
-We need to cut down on driving places. We are always the ones visiting our friends and now that we have a house, they can return the favor once in a while!
-I REALLY hope we can keep our electric bill down. The house has a lot of ceiling fans and windows so I really think we can keep the AC off more. I'm going to get on H's case more too. I hate to nag, but we're wasting money!
-TBH I'm not sure I'm willing to sacrifice Netflix and Hulu. Those were my compromises to cutting cable. I may reconsider this if we can't find another thing to cut and we end up really needing a few extra dollars a month.
-I use WiFi mostly on my phone but apparently H doesn't as much. We have open WiFi at work, I don't think he does. But he can afford to cut back. Somehow he went over 2gb but he needs to fix some settings so he isn't using background data.
-My company does put 3% in my 401k regardless of what I contribute, but they also match up to I think another 3%? Trying to remember.
-H had progressive for his insurance before and it's cheaper with State Farm.
-I don't shop online much and when I do, it's on Amazon, so my Ebates account only has a couple bucks sitting in it I can't redeem.
-I'm iffy on getting a used washer/dryer from a stranger but I'll look. We don't have the money up front though, so that's a big problem too.
-Free preschool? How do I look into this?
Did I cover everything? Lol. I will maybe have to look into some of those books at the library. I know this post got long but I wanted to cover everything!
Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 19:49:49 GMT -5
Oh, I remembered the 401k match. It's 3% no matter what, full match up to 3% you contribute, then half match for the next 3%. So I think it works out to be 7.5% to your 6%. Which is great, but in my mind I need the money more now. And morbidly I wonder if I'll even make it to retirement, KWIM? I know that's a bad way to think but I'm an anxious person!
If I still had my copy of Total Money Makeover, I would send it to you! But I gave it to my brother a couple years ago
His whole concept is live like no one else so you can live like no one else later on. So keeping that in mind, sometimes it sucks to cut things to the bone especially when you feel like you've already cut so much, but it's a necessary evil to get you where you want to be. It's temporary.
When DH was unemployed/underemployed for 2+ years, we learned how to live frugally: We learned to cook and bought groceries based on weekly ads and coupons. I would avoid Target for groceries; I've never been able to do better there than at Kroger or Publix. Plus, Target has so many other temptations. Our weekend activities were the library, walking/hiking, and church. We cut cable. We had a digital antenna. This was before Netflix and Hulu were popular. DH had a TracFone. I had a company paid phone. DH found odd jobs to bring in side hustle money: $75 pizza taste testing, $100 legal case focus group, delivered phone books, manned a booth at a health fair for a coal mine, really random stuff, lol. We didn't drink
Washer and dryer situation: I would try to find used units on Craigslist or similar. Many people are selling like new units because they need to unload them in a hurry due to a move. Or you could compromise and buy a new washer, but a used dryer...again, many people are selling those because they are moving and have an incompatible dryer (gas vs. electric and vice versa.) If you do go new, go for basic basic basic. You do not need anything fancy. I promise you will not care in another year or two. You can always upgrade later if you still want the shiny ones I would treat any amount financed as an "emergency" and pay it off as quickly as possible, an extra $5 or $10 a month will help you get rid of the debt faster and improve your cash flow. I would also free up money in your budget to offset the extra $50 payment. That means cancelling Netflix, Hulu, and phones. I'd switch to prepaid phones ASAP if you're really in this long term to pay off debt. I'd sell the tablet and use any money recouped from that toward the W&D. Sell sell sell.
luv2rn4fun I'm jealous of your grocery budget!!! Teach me your ways!
MrsMB I love your side hustle - BRU customer service rep. Pretty cool.
The plus side of all that extra work were the stories I got...on top of paying down debt. Needless to say, I was SUPER careful setting up my baby registry. I have gotten all the crazy calls.
I have more to add, sorry. It's been 7 years since we started paying off debt, budgeting, and working at being frugal so I'm kind of obsessed at this point.
It is imperative to track all of your spending. The upside of this is you will avoid buying something because you simply do not want to go to the hassle of writing it down later.
Surround yourself with like minded people/content. Highly recommend the blog archives of The Simple Dollar, Get Rich Slowly, and Blogging Away Debt (especially on this last one, read the old stuff when only one person was blogging. I feel like the new stuff is total train wreck and I have difficulty following it.) Listen to Dave Ramsey show podcast. He can be somewhat extreme in his advice and ideas, but it's motivating to hear people who found ways to pay off debt.
We made ourselves stick to our grocery budget last month. One day toward the end I ate a can of pineapple and some jalapeno poppers that I unearthed in the freezer. We ended up coming in 10% under budget for groceries so I guess it was worth it, haha.
luv2rn4fun I'm jealous of your grocery budget!!! Teach me your ways!
MrsMB I love your side hustle - BRU customer service rep. Pretty cool.
I honestly don't know how we get by so cheap. It was much less pre C and before I quit work (I worked near Sprouts, which has much cheaper and better quality produce). I buy what we need but we have been doing this so long that it's just habit and always works out. It has been creeping up more lately but I attribute it to C and where we live.
Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 20:50:05 GMT -5
I'm going to be honest, I know I can get things paid off faster if we got rid of Netflix and Hulu, but I don't think I would be happy with that. It's only an extra ~20/month. Yes, that could go toward something else, but paying for those is nothing compared to cable. I mean, I could cut every little thing out of my life, but I also think I deserve something. Instead of treating myself to a manicure or something, I just want to watch my shows.
Also, Target has been cheaper than a lot of stores around here for groceries. One company pretty much has a monopoly on this area for grocery stores so they pretty much set the price. Byerly's is of course more expensive. I will try to check out Aldi more but we don't have any of the other places people have mentioned here (Kroger and Publix I don't even think are in this state at all, let alone this area) and we don't have Cub (where I used to shop, but they sold out to CashWise/Coborn's). So with Cartwheel and sales, Target ends up being cheaper. Better quality too a lot of the time. I do however want to watch it more closely and compare. There is only going to be one grocery store within 15 miles or so once we move. So while I plan on stopping at the cheaper stores on my way own of town, I'm going to really have to watch for sales and coupons at the store in my town.
I think I might start using Mint again, as much of a pain in the ass it is for me. I also will have to look up those blogs!
I know I probably sound stubborn about certain things (I know I am) but it's helping me see what is more important and what I want to free up money to keep. I really do appreciate all the advice. It's helping a lot.
For debt payoff - what seems to be the best way to do it? Our car loan is about 10k, W/D will probably be around $900 after taxes and such (we plan on going with a cheaper one, definitely nothing top of the line), and between the two of us I think we owe around $40k in student loans. I have 2 loans that are $9k something and one that I think is around $2k. I got my payment lowered slightly and was planning on rounding the payments up a bit to pay an even $210 like I did this month. Should I not round them all up and push it all towards the cheapest one? Push that extra money towards the W/D when we buy it? Pay a little extra on each thing? I'm not sure what would be best.
estrellita For debt payoff, Dave Ramsey advocates a snowball approach. Pay off the smallest debt first by throwing all your extra money at it, then roll that debt payment into the next smallest debt, and so on. Pay the minimum on everything else while you do this. Baby step #1 is a $1,000 e-fund and baby step #2 is your debt snowball. To get to the $1,000, you may have to sell some things, find odd jobs, cut waaaaaay back for a month like have a buy nothing month. I know it seems like a lot of money to come up with. I managed to do it by having a small amount auto drafted from each paycheck into an online savings account (Capital One) so it was basically untouchable.
Here's a free calculator that I used that you can play around with various debt payoff scenarios:
Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 21:06:04 GMT -5
Thanks! I will check out the calculator. We have a savings at the same place but our checking is at another bank. The 360 account used to have a higher interest rate when we started it... haha. Oh well. I used to pretty much ignore it unless we needed the money but lately we've been needing it (see CC balance...). It's mostly stuff for the house so it's not like we're spending random money. Like we bought paint, trim, rented a Rug Doctor, things like that. It really adds up. We should be done with most of the house spending other than another can of paint. There are tons of things I want to do but we will just have to wait on them.
Actually I like ewall's suggestion for debt payoff - paying off the smallest one first and going from there. That sounds not only efficient, but also motivating because you can see progress done faster.
Post by estrellita on Sept 9, 2015 21:35:49 GMT -5
I was debating between going after the lowest balance or highest interest rate. Too bad they aren't the same thing I think I may focus my efforts on the W/D, then the lowest SL, etc. After attempting to make a solid e-fund. I want to pay off the CC and not touch it again for a while. And yes, we could get cheaper ones but they are also smaller. I'd be ok with that, but I would also being doing more loads. I'm not sure what the tradeoff would be there? We also may look into scratch and dent ones. I don't mind if they don't look perfect as long as they work!
I am definitely holding off on the decorating and organizing. I've also been trying to shop around for things like rugs, curtains (my mom could make some for cheap!), etc. We do need some things but I'm going to see what we can do as cheaply as possible and what we can hold off on temporarily. We got lucky and the seller left most of the curtains, a dehumidifier, and some other random things. Less money for us to spend!
I also try to cook extra and save what's left for lunch, but half the time H finishes it. Grr. Maybe I need to portion it out once it's cooked and immediately put leftovers in two containers. If he's still hungry, we have snack food!
estrellita see if and when your public school Starts preschool. It's different everywhere but my city has 4 year old for anyone, and a lottery for 3 year olds. If that isn't offered then look into Head Start programs. It's free or low tuition on a sliding scale based on your income. The numbers aren't super low so many families qualify. I think their services start at age 2-3. I hope you have that option because they often have great programming!
Post by HoneySpider on Sept 10, 2015 7:33:53 GMT -5
My preferred method of debt payoff was the highest interest rate first down to the lowest. I hated knowing I was paying more on the higher interest loans. But, I know a lot of people snowball and get rid of smaller amounts. It's whatever works for you/you will stick to.
Ditto others on Smart Couples Finish Rich, I read that years ago and it was a good read to add some motivation and perspective. If I can find my copy I'll mail it to you (a lot of my books are still packed up though).
For the car insurance I didn't mean go with Progressive, that was just as an example haha. It took me probably about 10-14 hours or so of calling companies, looking online for car insurance and it was SO worth all that extra time I put in for the savings we have gotten!
What about trading the car with the loan in and getting an older car for a few thousand then you wouldn't need the loan anymore eating up that money? Which brings me to my 2nd point, biking. Could either of you bicycle to work to cut down on gas and car mileage?
Also, is hubby on board with cutting everything way back because it's only going to work with both of you on the same page. The reason I ask is because my H didnt fully "get it" within our first year of marriage but the more he sees us saving etc he understands now.
*Sorry about possible spelling mistakes my phone doesn't always catch them*
Post by estrellita on Sept 10, 2015 8:47:01 GMT -5
We already bought a fairly cheap/older car. The reason we have so much left really is because H was underwater on his old car. It was hard for us to find a decently priced SUV that wasn't going to need a lot of expensive work soon after we bought it.
We are going to be living 15-20 miles or so from my work, further to H's. Plus it's going to be winter soon. So biking isn't really an option. I think carpooling will help a lot. H can drop me off, then E, then come pick us up on his way home. It works perfectly with our schedules. I'm basically just stuck here though until he gets me but I could actually go work out (we have a gym here) or just bring a book. If it's nice I could walk to the daycare and wait for H there.
Post by estrellita on Sept 10, 2015 9:17:56 GMT -5
I definitely think that would save us money but i guess in my mind it doesn't make sense to sell a car i paid nothing for and works great. I plan on driving mine until it dies, lol. It's an 05 and has less than 80k miles on it. And we need the SUV because when we go places with E overnight, it won't all fit in my car. I know we could get some quick money by selling it but the only thing it's costing us is gas and minor maintenance here and there.
Post by estrellita on Sept 10, 2015 9:35:38 GMT -5
I did a quick search for preschools in our town and the town I work in and I'm only coming up with daycares, church preschools (not preferred) or they're more expensive than our daycare. I'm not sure where these free ones are
Post by wanderingenough on Sept 10, 2015 9:42:57 GMT -5
Honestly, it seems like you are not 100% there mentally ---and that's totally fine. You have to get there on your own terms. I know I did. But you seem to have rebuttals for many of the suggestions people offer. None of the things you are refuting are non-negotiables that you can't live without, so you could lessen some of your stress by following that advice. You don't NEED a new w/d, even if it's on 0% interest. Even if it does come out to $50 a month, that's $50 a month you don't have. You don't need things like paint for the new house. That stuff adds up quickly. As an example, my H and I have one car. We realized it wasn't worth it to us to have a payment on a second car (and it was only like $150/month and our debt is limited to SLs and mortgage) + insurance. Some days it really sucks figuring out carpooling and hanging out at work longer than needed if the other person is stuck, but that extra money is nice! We make it work and have to really communicate about things that need to get done each week. We also cut back on lots of other "nice to haves" to pay double on our SLs, because we decided we wanted them gone in 8 years (instead of 15-20). You just have to really go all in, or it's not gonna work.
Post by estrellita on Sept 10, 2015 9:55:44 GMT -5
So how are we supposed to buy a used washer and dryer from some stranger with no guarantee they really work when we don't have the money up front? I'm pretty sure people on Craigslist don't offer payment plans.
Yes, I realize I'm shooting down a lot of things. Why should I give up the $20/month thing that makes me happy? I've already given up playing a game that I love because it has a monthly cost, plus cable so now I can't watch sports which I really miss. I just don't feel like I should have to give up everything and sit around my house staring at the wall because we have nothing, but hey, we have a few extra bucks!
I guess I brought it on myself asking for help but I guess I was looking more for ways of cutting back on our current expenses and saving money on groceries. I do understand that giving up everything will save us money, but then what's the point? I know it's not all needed, but when do you decide it's worth a few bucks to keep your sanity? I just feel a little attacked because I don't find it reasonable to sell a car I'm not even paying for, I don't want to somehow bike 20 miles to work (then another 20 back) with a baby, I don't want to give up the small bit of entertainment we have, or buy a possibly broken appliances from someone I've never met with money I don't have.
I guess I'm looking for more minor changes instead of a compete life overhaul. Maybe I should have been more specific about that.
Post by wanderingenough on Sept 10, 2015 10:08:34 GMT -5
I never suggested giving up the tv stuff, though I do think that's an easy option. Many sports are online now and the majority of tv shows post full episodes every week on their website. Or give up one of the hulu/Netflix combo and keep the other.
If you can't afford a used washer and dryer in cash and already have trouble paying your bills, maybe you swallow your pride and go to the laundromat.
I'm not attacking you. I'm saying you might just not be ready to make the changes you need.
Post by estrellita on Sept 10, 2015 10:13:30 GMT -5
The only time we've been able to watch the games we want to watch has been when they're streaming on ESPNU by using our parents logins for the app. And a lot of laundromats won't allow people to wash cloth diapers, so then we'd have to start buying diapers again. I'd really rather not do that, both for the money and the extra trash I don't want.