Reply to Agh… no $$ left after I pay all the bills

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Op here. I need to start keeping track of what we spend on what. My hunch is that we spend a lot on small miscellaneous expenses ( like books). Also I think the current crisis is because last month we had a lot of extra expenses (hosted a passover seder for 20 people, and went on what turned out a too-expensive weekend trip for which I thought we could pay from our budget but we clearly cannot). Another factor is that DH has a lot of job0-related unreimbursed expenses every month (in the hundreds of dollars) so after we subtract that the HHI is probably more like 145k. It still should be enough. I will run the numbers and come back to this thread for advice. Thanks.[/quote]
It does sound like you might have hit some unexpected bumps in the road -- it happens. But if you find that you are regularly feeling a little strained from paycheck to paycheck, than it is worth writing down your expenses for a month and taking a careful look at them.

Zero-based budgeting is also a good idea, though unlike the previous poster, I am not going to *command* you to do it because you are a grownup. I've had success with a program called You Need a Budget (YNAB); I like it because instead of it telling you what you spent, it gives you a road map for what you're GOING to spend. If you budget (for example) $500 a month for groceries, then that's all you have. And if you want to spend more on groceries that's fine, it just means that it comes out of another category (maybe your entertainment budget.)

Anyway, I'm so sorry about your health, and the best of luck to you. I've found that I spend much less now that I'm really thinking about what I'm doing (single mom, kid in daycare, every dollar has to be accounted for). And I bet that if you move away from spending on autopilot, you'll see an improvement in your cash flow. [/quote]

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