Budget and Save Money?

Question

My husband and I are making close to 78k a year. which is good in my area (douglas county, oregon). However it seems like we never have enough money. We have two cars (one is almost paid off in April 07) which equals to $625. With insurance of $175 a month. Then we have our utilities $120 a month. And our rent is $550. Then of course our credit card bills that are $150 a month. Plus a personal loan which is $200. However it always seems (again) that we don't have enough. We are always eating out, and spending money carelessly. However we are wanting to buy a house which would be $931 a month plus all the utilites.. which to us seems like a lot. but with how much we are making.. it really shouldn't be that much. Have any ideas on how to save money and budgett our money wisely? Please help!

Answer 1

You have already acknowledged the fact that you eat out alot and this can eat away at a persons cash flow very fast. You also acknowledged tht you spend money carelessly. That is good that you realize this. Now you must create a budget and their are many software and manula ways to do this. For one month you should record exactly where your money is going. Write it down in a ledger and be honest about it. Write down everything to include the soda or pack of gum you buy. Than after one month you can get a good idea of where your money is going. From there you can create a budget and allocate how much you will spend each month in specific categories. Stick to this and achieve your goal.

Answer 2

Think of it like this: the $550 in rent money will go toward the $931 mortgage leaving $381 per month that you have to come up with. The $120 in utilities you are paying now, you can figure on paying at least that or maybe more depending on the type of heating/cooling system, whether you have city or well water, and whether your electric come from a coop. ( I find that a RECC type company is much higher to have electricity.) What you need to do now is take as much money as you can manage every month and try to double the amount you pay to the credit card companies. That will pay them off much more quickly, then put them all away except one like mastercard for emergencies only type thing. The credit cards will have a much higher interest rate than anything else. I would also try to send in an extra $25 to $50 per month towards the vehicle that will be paid off the quickest. That will cut the amount of interest you pay and pay it off slightly sooner.(depending on payment you could make at least one extra payment doing this if not more).

When the credit cards and the one vehicle is paid off, then now is the time to start in on the personal loan. Double your payments if you can or want to. This will free up a lot of cash to apply to that $381 you need to meet the rest of the mortgage. I also would suggest you not eat out so much and don't buy things you don't need. Once you pay some things off, and have extra money you can lay the extra into a savings account and look for a house. In 6 months you could be in great shape with several things paid off and money in savings. I am in this process now and am getting ready to build a house it has been a long process for us but it doesn't sound like it will take that long for you. Good luck

Answer 3

The first thing I'd suggest you do is read a couple books. I recommend: The Automatic Millionaire and Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach and Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson (links below on the resources section). Do NOT buy these books!! Get them from the library or read them at the book store. If you MUST buy them, buy them used off of amazon.com or another site rather than paying full price in the store.

Educate yourself and you'll save a lot of heartache.

You need to get control of your spending. Set a budget. To do this, you need to figure out where your money goes now and where you can cut back. Spend the next month tracking every penny that you spend. Write it all down and categorize it by type of expense (housing, food, utilities, entertainment, etc.) and whether is was necessary or not (hint, the only things in the world that are necessary are basic food, shelter, clothing and water. Everything else is a luxury). Then, cut back. I bet you'll be shocked at how much you're wasting, especially on eating out.

Figure out what your budget is going to be and stick to it. Pay your bills the day you get paid, put aside grocery money (cash), each take an allowance to spend on whatever you want (cash $100/month for each should be more than enough) and put the rest into directly onto your credit card debt. No credit cards, no debt cards, cash only. When the cash is gone, you're done spending for the month.

Before you even think of buying a house, you have to get out of credit card debt. Pay it off, then start saving for a down payment. Put the entire amount you were paying on your credit card into a high yield savings account. When your car is paid off, add that too (and change your insurance so it's cheaper now that you don't have to have full coverage).

I know people that make half what you do and pay twice your rent. you can do this, you just have to decide it's more important than shopping and eating out.

Good luck!

Answer 4

You sound like you are making enough money to support a house payment and you should balance out pretty well once that car, personal loan and credit card debt is paid off in full but can you discipline yourself to take those amounts once the bills are paid and save them like clockwork for your home down payment and eventual mortgage, tax and insurance expense??? It sounds like the real problem is the "We are always eating out, and spending money carelessly" comment that you made. You have choices to make on the difference between wants and needs. There's not a single person that can help you save your money except you. You need a priority list, not a budget. You've got the money for a home but choose to spend it elsewhere so the home isn't a priority. If it were, you'd find the way to afford it. You can try increasing your income but the odds are you'll find other areas to spend it. The most practical things for you is to (a) save money off the top and spend what's left; and (b) reevaluate the values of what you are spending money on now. I wish I had better news but only YOU can make and stick to your own personal action plan.

Answer 5

You gotta stop the restaurants, especially if you have a beer or a drink when you go out. Your drinking bill is probably more than your rent when you throw the food in ! I pay half my monthly paycheck in rent in Florida, way out of line, but I can't get a job anywhere else, around $1,200 a month rent for about 400 ft2, and that is just wasted money, out the window, because I don't make enough to buy a little condo down here, qualify for a loan.

I tried lower price housing, almost got killed living in a drug slum, medical bill alone was over $4,000 on that rental deal.
I'm 58 years old with cancer, lucky to have any job at all. I'll die under a bridge. Do what you have to do to buy that house.

Try a written budget and talk to your husband about helping you.

Answer 6

I extremely have an automatic low-cost charges with ingdirect. ing takes a particular volume of money out of my bank account each and each month and places it into my ing low-cost charges account. you'd be surprised at how promptly that grows when you're basically forcing your self to placed away $50 or $one hundred a month. Many employers have low-cost charges plans the position the money is deducted out of your paycheck each and each month. You by no skill see the money so that you do not have a probability to even imagine about spending it. they are going to have diverse concepts of the position that money will be invested, both right into a instantly low-cost charges account or another funding. examine including your corporation. regularly, you in hardship-free words ought to make your self do it. both open an account someplace and initiate making established deposits or do between the automatic low-cost charges plans. the warm button is self-discipline. as far as budgeting is going, sit and make a itemizing of all of your manditory expenditures, mortgage fee or lease; utilities; mastercard debt; nutrients; clothing; and so on. upload in some thing else you favor to funds for like leisure. I comprise low-cost charges in my funds because i trust saving is manditory. (once you've mastercard debt, you favor to be paying better than the minimum fee and get that paid off). that's your funds. with slightly of success, it equals your take-abode pay. If it would not, you may want to rework your funds.

Answer 7

If you break it down, you bring in about $6,500/month. You definitely have a spending problem. If you add the above amounts you stated, you have $1820/month in bills. This leaves $4,680. You are telling me you guys are blowing over $4,600 a month? On what? You have left over more than what I make a month.

Time to eat at home and save. You should be building a savings account for rainy-day repairs on the house that you want to buy. You need to budget in order to survive with a house payment and all the responsibilities that come with owning a home (insurance, upkeep, garbage pickup, utilities, taxes, etc.)

Use link below to see how to save and use the worksheets. You will be surprised at what you can SAVE! If you seriously want to have your own home, you will step up to the plate and do what it takes to buy your own home. I did with way less than what you make and am doing fine.

Good luck in your decision.

Answer 8

My dad was a custodian and my mom was in charge of the money. (She worked too) What we didn't know as little kids was that each payday,my mom was depositing 10% of both checks into a savings acount. Within five years, she had a hefty sum to put as a down payment on our new house.
It takes a sacrifice but it's worth it. The bills will always be there. Just pay them slowly.
Here's another way. Divide both paychecks into three. One third goes to bills,another to deposit in the bank and the third to live on(food ,utilities).

Answer 9

Bottom line; Cut expenses. Why aren;t you cooking at home? Fet the ntoineette Pope cookbnook whose recipes are great. Get other cookbooks which claim you can cook a meal in under 1/2 hour.
Bring sandwhiches, dried fruit, nuts, dried soy beans, carrot sticks in platic bags, snack bars, a bottle of frozen water wrapped in two plastic bags and a wire tie to secure it. Stop buying coffee outside the house. Frankly you are wasting money because of convenience.

Butiung a house itself is laden with banbk and attorney coasts. You must have many thousands extra to close on the house, pay lawyers toi read and negotitate contracts, to move. Look at maybe ten grand more in cash!

You had better start now. Also, you must do a much better job of reasearching how much home owners actually pay. WHAT ABOUT INSUIRANCE AND TITLE SEARCHES?


http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/money/66ways/index.html

ways to save money
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debt proof yourself

Answer 10

How much you make is not as important as how much you are able to keep. Learn to access your expenses and cut down unnecessary expenses or expand your means of making money with proper financial education. I can't describe all the techniques to you here because there are too many. Click the resources below to learn how you can empower yourself to your financial success.