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Thank you!

May 24th, 2018 at 03:43 pm

Huge thank you to all who have commented and made me feel welcome!

Trust me when I say I know I should tell my husband about my situation. I know it isn't fair to keep him in the dark. I guess I don't want to because he is very good with his money, pays off his credit card in full every month. I don't think he would understand and I think it would make him angry. I dug this hole, I am going to try really hard to get myself out of it. If a time comes when it looks like there is no way out I will confide in him, but I have to try on my own first.

Here are some ideas I have on how to get started:

1) reviewing my monthly budget I know I can cut back on food. Between groceries, school lunches and the occasional dinner out I have $640 budgeted to feed a family of 4 (one of which is a 13 year old boy who eats alot)! I would like to get this down to $440 to start with - giving me an additional $200/month

2) ditching my land line - $25/month

3) bring clothes to consignment store - between my stuff and the kids I think I can get $30

4) I do mystery shopping and can bring in $100/month

5) I use Ibotta, Checkout 51 and Saving Star - this usually brings in $20-30/month

6) I use Inbox Dollars and complete surveys - $10/month

7) I get reimbursed for a small portion of my cell phone bill through work - $9.50/month

I am sure there are other areas of my budget that can be cut too. So far I am at $394.50/month I can throw towards debts.

My monthly budget currently looks like this:

Gas/Electric 278.00
Water 28.00
Garbage 45.00
Cell phones 199.73
Cable/phone/internet 153.00 Subtotal 703.73

Gas for car 250 Subtotal 250.00

Groceries 450
School lunch 90
Eating out 100 Subtotal 640.00

School stuff (not lunch) 30.00
Amazon Prime 9.00
Sports 11.00
Entertainment 35.00
Cash on hand 80.00
Miscellaneous 50.00 Subtotal 215.00

Life Insurance 130.00
Car Insurance 90.00 Subtotal 220.00

Debt
TIAA Loan 190.62
Discover Loan 371.74
BOA 100.00
Citibank 150.00
Capital One 200.00 Subtotal 1012.36



I make about 3250.00 a month and 3041.09 goes out leaving me with 208.91 to throw towards debt - if nothing comes up. Add that to the 394.50 additional I am going to try to make and I have to say, it's pretty impressive! Now if I can just stick with it!




Posted in Budgeting | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Thank you!”

  1. Rose. Says:
    May 24th, 2018 at 05:56 pm 1527184602
    1527184602

    Your total debt is only $1012.36?

  2. AugustGril71 Says:
    May 24th, 2018 at 07:07 pm 1527188871
    1527188871

    I wish! No, that is what I pay towards debt each month. I have yet to post my balances.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    May 24th, 2018 at 07:18 pm 1527189523
    1527189523

    Augustgril71, I think you are double counting the benefit of saving $200 in groceries. You reduced in expenses, and thus show that as savings, but you included that savings in your additional funds, so you are adding it twice.

  4. AugustGril71 Says:
    May 25th, 2018 at 01:13 am 1527210788
    1527210788

    creditcardfree - did I? I listed $640 as my expense for food. That is before I try to cut it back $200 so I don't think I counted it at the bottom, did I? I know I counted it as an idea up top. The $200 I have at the end of the month exists before I cut my food budget.

  5. Jenn Says:
    May 25th, 2018 at 02:42 am 1527216147
    1527216147

    Your life insurance premium is $130 per MONTH??

  6. creditcardfree Says:
    May 25th, 2018 at 10:35 am 1527244533
    1527244533

    I'm sorry, I stand corrected! I did not see that you added $90 for lunches and $100 for eating out. I was only looking at groceries in the bottom portion of your budget. Yay!! That means you really do have those funds if you can stick to your new grocery budget.

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