Help Cutting Expenses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

[Anonymous]

OP, even if you cut all of your discretionary spending in half, you're not going to cut your budget by $1,800 a month. Your food/gas/personal expenses/utilities combined add up to $2200 and there's no way to cut that by more than 80%.

That's not to say you shouldn't cut where you can, but don't bang your head against a wall trying to solve this problem by being thriftier, because the math just doesn't work on it.

You could potentially dramatically reduce your mortgage by refinancing, depending on how old your loan is and how much equity you have.

Otherwise it seems like you need to solve this problem with additional income. Perhaps DH could get a part-time crappy job not in his field while he looks for work (if he's in a professional field, he doesn't need to add it to his resume). Or maybe you could sublet a basement or similar.

Sorry you're in this situation and hope things look up soon!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

Starving to death ? Please, drama queen. The bitch spends too much money on foolishness. A little poverty and starvation might help her change her ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

$50 a MONTH on gas? Not unless you and your spouse are driving mopeds.

I spend around $150/wk for food for my family of 4. But I supplement with a trip to Costco every 5 weeks (11 X per year) and spend roughly 300. So that puts me at about $210/wk (compared to PP's $170 for same items) for food/household goods/cleaning products/pet products - we could pare out 40 bucks if we had to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

I don't shop at Whole Foods. I plan all of our meals. We don't buy snacks. We don't buy sweets. I buy crappy coffee (this makes me sad sometimes but I honestly don't notice anymore). I make everything from scratch, buy store brands and use coupons. I almost never buy any pre-packaged foods or things that are frozen except for frozen vegetables like peas and corn and spinach.

Also, DD is the only one who eats breakfast. DH and I mostly just have coffee. Occasionally I will eat a piece of toast. DD eats lunch at school, so I guess that's another $80 a month for her in food I forgot to include.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

$50 a MONTH on gas? Not unless you and your spouse are driving mopeds.

I spend around $150/wk for food for my family of 4. But I supplement with a trip to Costco every 5 weeks (11 X per year) and spend roughly 300. So that puts me at about $210/wk (compared to PP's $170 for same items) for food/household goods/cleaning products/pet products - we could pare out 40 bucks if we had to.

I guess you drive more than we do! We have one car and I take the bus to work/DD's school. DH drives to work twice a week but otherwise takes metro. OP didn't say what their car dependence was. My work gives a transit subsidy, so that costs me nothing.

[Anonymous]

^ To clarify: $150/wk at grocery store + $60 ($300 spent every 5 weeks so $300 divided by 5 = $60) = $210 spent weekly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

$50 a MONTH on gas? Not unless you and your spouse are driving mopeds.

I spend around $150/wk for food for my family of 4. But I supplement with a trip to Costco every 5 weeks (11 X per year) and spend roughly 300. So that puts me at about $210/wk (compared to PP's $170 for same items) for food/household goods/cleaning products/pet products - we could pare out 40 bucks if we had to.

I guess you drive more than we do! We have one car and I take the bus to work/DD's school. DH drives to work twice a week but otherwise takes metro. OP didn't say what their car dependence was. My work gives a transit subsidy, so that costs me nothing.

Well that's good. It sounds as though gas isn't really an expense for you. For most of us, we do have to take filling our tanks up into consideration.

[Anonymous]

She needs to downsize her home. $2500 mortgage? There was nothing left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

$50 a MONTH on gas? Not unless you and your spouse are driving mopeds.

I spend around $150/wk for food for my family of 4. But I supplement with a trip to Costco every 5 weeks (11 X per year) and spend roughly 300. So that puts me at about $210/wk (compared to PP's $170 for same items) for food/household goods/cleaning products/pet products - we could pare out 40 bucks if we had to.

That's about what our gas budget is. But I work mostly from home and DH works a mile from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

Starving to death ? Please, drama queen. The bitch spends too much money on foolishness. A little poverty and starvation might help her change her ways.

The problem is not that I'm being dramatic, its that you are bad at reading (also an asshole, but that's beside the point). I am saying that if OP literally purchases no food whatsoever, it will still not resolve the budget shortfall, so the value of severe cuts that won't work seems limited to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH, who has been out of work for a while and has no prospects (a separate issue I know but we no longer have daycare expenses), has student loans coming due and cannot seek a further forbearance. That will add about $1,800 to our monthly expenses. Based on my income (take home of about $6,000 after 401K, insurance, etc.), we can only cover about half of that and still live as we do. We aren't extravagant by any means - I mean lattes from Starbucks, clothes when we need them, toys for the kids, fast food meals out a couple of times a week. Is there any way to make up this much money with day-to-day cuts?

At least do the income contingent or income based repayment plan (IBR or ICR). Talk to a direct loans person at ed.gov.

If he worked 3 nites a week and every saturday, that could be like $800/month right there. At the very least. He can try working for an answering service - they pay well.

Cancel cable - save yourself $130/month.

Stop eating out/no starbucks/no clothes shopping - this could save you $300/month.

Eat beans&rice or pasta 3 times a week and only buy chicken when on sale and freeze it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$1500 - food/gas/misc. household expenses
$200 - personal expenses (hair cuts, clothes, etc.)

This is why you have no money.

$1500 is not a lot to spend on the combination of food, gas, AND household items. In any case, OP is about to owe another $1,800, so starving her family to death won't solve the shortfall anyhow.

She doesn't say how many people in her family, but for comparison, for my family of 2 adults and a 4 year old child, we have a weekly grocery store budget of $150. We don't go over, and we tend to spend an extra $100/month on dinner or brunch out. That's $700 in food. I have Amazon Prime delivering things like laundry detergent and dishwasher pellets and paper products. That costs about $100/month overall (some things are on a 3 month cycle, some aren't).

Food: $700
Household supplies: $100
Gas: $50

OP's budget for those things would give me an extra $650 a month to put toward other things.

How do you feed your family of 4 for only $150/week. Tell me!

$50 a MONTH on gas? Not unless you and your spouse are driving mopeds.

I spend around $150/wk for food for my family of 4. But I supplement with a trip to Costco every 5 weeks (11 X per year) and spend roughly 300. So that puts me at about $210/wk (compared to PP's $170 for same items) for food/household goods/cleaning products/pet products - we could pare out 40 bucks if we had to.

I guess you drive more than we do! We have one car and I take the bus to work/DD's school. DH drives to work twice a week but otherwise takes metro. OP didn't say what their car dependence was. My work gives a transit subsidy, so that costs me nothing.

Well that's good. It sounds as though gas isn't really an expense for you. For most of us, we do have to take filling our tanks up into consideration.

Sure, and I agree with you. We don't know how much OP is spending on gas. Do they have 2 cars or 1? Where are they driving? What of that driving is unnecessary? Could they double up trips and save gas that way? Do they participate in gas rewards programs?

There are ways to save money on things. Many people do not take advantage. If OP really wants to cut $900 out of their budget, that is possible to do, but it will take work and they will have to change their lifestyle (no more fast food, consider reducing use of car, etc.). Not everyone is willing to do that, even when it is fiscally the smart choice.