Budgeting our Expenses

I've broken up our expenses into two different categories, based on the due dates. 
The list of our monthly expenses. 

Tithing to
my Church           $130
Rent                    $525
Car Insurance      $62.60
Rental Insurance  $15.82
IRA                     $50
Gas for Car          $70
Electricity              $50
Gas                       $40
Total for the 1st   $943.42-- leaves me $125 extra for groceries, dr visits, ect.

Tithing to my
Church                 $130
Cell Phone            $30
Savings                 $25
Internet, Phone,
& TV Bundle       $89
Gas for Car            $70
Diapers                 $40
Student Loan #1   $50
Student Loan #2   $206.24
Credit Card #1     $10
Credit Card #2     $106
Credit Card #3     $170
Credit Card #4     $20
Loan payment #1   $ 84
Total for 15th $1030.24 -- gives me $38 for food, unexpected expenses.

After we pay all our bills, we are left with $163 to buy groceries, personal items, pay for medicine, or unexpected dr. visits.   Had we not used our credit card, we would have an extra $390 to budget.  Add what I pay in Student Loans and that would be an extra $646 per month.  If only I could go back in time and tell my young self to STOP BORROWING!

Starting a Budget- Income

Our income.  Hubby makes $13.14/hr with a $.65 shift differential. An 80 hour pay period (2 weeks) give us $1,103.76 gross pay.  Minus $65.60 for taxes, $84.88 for retirement, $84.37 for insurance and we are left with $868.91.

I work at home for a wonderful company.  They pay me $10/hr and I work anywhere between 10-12 hours a week.  On average my pay check is $200 (for a two week pay period).

I also work with a MLM party planning company.  It is a 100% commission pay, so I never know what my paycheck will be.  I figure the best way to work this income into our budget it to apply all excess money I make toward our credit card bills.

So essentially I have $1068.91 to budget every two weeks.

The Car

Before I got married I drove a 3 year old Honda.  It had a V8 engine, leather Seats, 6 disc CD Changer.  It was beautiful.  I loved it. I didn't mind paying for the $300/month car payment or the $150/month insurance.  In the 3 years that I owned my car, it never broke down.  That is probably what I loved most about it. 

Hubby, on the other hand hated the car.  He didn't like how low to the ground it was, or how poorly it drove in the snow.  Most of all he hated the car payment. 

Before we got married, we talked about finances and what we could afford.  I remember siting in a park and telling him the things I like to have.  He took out a piece of paper and wrote a list of everything I mentioned, along with how much it costs.  Then he wrote down how much money we would have coming in each month.  Unfortunately there was a huge gap.  We didn't have enough monthly income to pay for everything we needed and wanted.  So I decided to sell my car. 

I was depressed for a month.

Then I got over it.  Someday I would have a nice car again.

We ended up buying my in-law's 11 year old SUV.  Hubby's dad was kind and sold it to us a little below blue book.  It had leather seats and a nice CD player, along with 120,000 miles.  I admit that I liked not having a car payment.  Then the car started to break down.  In the 4 years that we have owned the car we have paid around $5,000 in repairs.  Some of the things we've had to repair are the windshield (twice), the O2 censors, the Computer, tires, air conditioning, transmission, fuel pump, and radiator.  Most of the time we didn't have the cash to pay for the repairs, so we just put it on the credit card.  By now that $5,000 is up to $6,500.  Lovely.

Things Start To Look Up

I was three months pregnant when Hubby found four job openings in Law Enforcement, the field in which he always wanted to work.  He applied for all four.  He passed the preliminary requirements for the first job, tested well and was invited for an interview.  It was very exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Then two days before the scheduled interview, he received a call that the city had ran out of funds and they were suspending all hiring until further notice.  Sigh. At least we had 3 other options. 

Hubby drove 5 hours east for the 2nd job.  It was for a police officer position in a very small town.  About 50 applicants showed up for the testing/interview process.  Some of the applicants drove as much as 19 hours for the interview. About 1/3 of the individuals in attendance were either previous police officers, correctional officers or county sheriffs who had lost their jobs due to budget cuts.  That position was filled by someone who had a great deal of law enforcement experience.

The third position contacted us about a month after he applied and said "thanks but no thanks."  He didn't have the experience they were looking for. 

So that left one job, a correctional officer position in a city 5 1/2 hours north. Ironically, it paid the least, but it was in an area we both really wanted to live.  Two and a half months after he applied they invited him up for an interview.  Two weeks later they called and said that they didn't have the funds to hire anyone for the POST academy starting in March, but it was hopeful they would have funds for the June academy.  We would hear back again in May.  So our fingers were crossed.  In the meantime, I gave birth to a healthy, beautiful little girl.  Gratefully, she didn't need any extra medical care.  We also had medicaid in addition to our Blue Cross insurance my husband's terrible job offered.

2 weeks after our little girl was born, we received the best call of the year.  Hubby was offered a position to start the first week in June.  I cried with happiness!  We packed up our things, put the move on the credit card and eagerly started a new chapter in our life.

Lousy Job

After having our little girl, we decided that I was going to be a stay at home mom.  Hubby found a sales job that paid $10/hr or commission.  They also offered insurance which costs us $250 a pay check.  It seemed a little high, but I figured it was better than not having insurance.  

Hubby was immediately well liked at work, and the managers in the company would send him warm leads to close.  His 3rd paycheck was around $4,000.  I was ecstatic!  We were going to be able to pay off our Hospitals Bills and start saving again! Unfortunately, this was short lived.

All of the managers and high sales reps at this company were buddies.  They played fantasy football, went paint-balling, went to concerts, and golfed together.  Their biggest thing was fantasy football.  One day the head of the department asked Hubby a question about fantasy football.  Hubby's response was an honest one, but one that cost him any chance of success at the company.  He said he wasn't into fantasy football, that he thought it was pretty dumb.  He never received a warm lead again.

His average pay check dropped to around $800.  That's when his commission was higher than the $10/hr.  Sometimes he would just get paid the $10 and the check was around $500.  Every couple of months he would have a great paycheck that was around $1500.

You probably are asking, why did he stay there that long?  He began working in the Summer of 2008.  And the lovely economy started to tank.  By 2009 he hated the job and wanted to leave, but couldn't find anything.  Later I found out he hated working there so much, that he would cry on his way to work.   And yet he still went to work everyday.  He would even go in on his days off to try to make more money.

In 2009, we made about $19,000. Even though he was miserable and the pay was terrible, we felt lucky to have a job and health insurance.  Many people were not that lucky. Our credit card balance grew.  We should have gone on food stamps, but I didn't know much about that program and I figured that because we had a job we wouldn't qualify for food stamps.  So I just put groceries on the credit card as well as gas, diapers, formula and follow up doctor's visits. 

Then in August of 2009 I found out I was pregnant again.

Babies Change Everything

They say life changes when you have kids.  They are right.  From a mom's point of view everything changes; your body, your relationships, your house, your sleep, your emotions, your love, and especially your finances.

We knew that kids can be expensive.  When we found out I was pregnant with our first baby, I contacted my insurance and the hospital to find out how much I should expect to pay for the baby.  I was told it would be around $1500.   So we started saving for our little one. 

We had a stash of Costco Cash cards saved up to purchase diapers.  My sister gave us a crib, and I received wonderful clothes from my baby shower.  Nine months into the pregnancy, I thought we were financially ready for our bundle of joy.

Then she came early, and had a bad case of Jaundice.  Luckily we didn't have to keep her in the hospital- we just had to rent a "suitcase" for 14 days at a rate of $100 a day.  Sure insurance would cover that, after we met the baby's $1000 deductible.  My deductible which was only $500 when we got pregnant changed to $1000 three months before baby was born.   So that $1500 I planed on paying changed to $4000 after all the bills came due.  Goodbye to all our savings and extra money in the bank.  I drained our resources and still owed about $1000.  I thought it would be best to pay off the doctors and hospital so I put our remaining balance on a credit card.  One of the worst mistakes I could have made.

Did you know that some hospitals will work with you?  They will set up a payment plan.  Some will take a look at your finances and if you qualify they will reduce your bill.  I didn't know all this.  I thought "The hospitals and doctors say I owe this by May 15th, so I better pay it by May 15th"

Oh how I hated that balance of $1000 on my credit card.

A time when my Credit Card balance was $0

When I got married 4 years ago our credit card balance was $0.  Yes $0.  And it stayed at $0 for about a year and a half.  We were even able to start a savings!  At one point we had $2500 in saving and $1500 in the bank on a consistent basis.  In fact, I had a automatic alert set up to tell me when our checking account went under $1500. 

I worked full time making $30,000 a year while my husband was going to school.  He was a student athlete on scholarship so his "job" brought in about $400 a month.  We would occasionally go out to eat.  Every once in a while we did buy a few "extras."  Like a suit for hubby and a Nixon watch for me.  I very rarely bought new clothes.  I was proud at how we were saving and staying away from excess spending.

Then I got pregnant.  And that changed everything.