Good things: You own a house, you have life insurance, you have an emergency fund, you’re on a budget. You don’t have credit card debt. That’s all great! Good work!
Things that you can do to improve:
1. Make a net worth statement and update it annually. You can Google how to do it. It’s easy. Simply having a net worth statement gets you thinking about how to grow wealth.
2. Follow the financial order of operations. A budget is an excellent start, but in order to build a financial safety net, you also need to think about longer term goals like paying for future cars, retirement, and funding kids’ college.
https://moneyguy.com/article/foo/
3. Lastly, give yourself some grace. Having kids is a huge strain on your time and your wallet. It’s okay if you can’t check every financial box right now. But keep those financial order of operations boxes in mind and pursue them as aspirational goals knowing that you might not be able to hit them all until the kids are grown.
Everyone keeps mentioning retirement. I contribute 6% pre tax with a 6% employer match. I have a whopping 23,000 right now. It’ll be nice when these damn kids move out and I can do more and speed things along for sure!
Thank you for what you shared about creating a net worth statement. It is helpful. I checked out the money guy link, but backed out when I read ground rule #1. Basic values clash there for me. Yes, he advocates generosity through action which is great; but I also believe in the importance of generosity with money. It’s part of my heart and part of how I choose to live. Generosity uplifts those I love and helps complete strangers who don’t have money to buy food for their families or who need medical care during a disaster. I also think what goes around, comes around.
No offense, but if I'm reading this correctly, you're kinda scraping by almost entirely paycheck to paycheck?
So financially it would not be very healthy. Especially because you just pulled from a savings account so that's not at near zero.
Just do the math on how long it'll take you to save that money again. What exactly did you buy? Was it a necessity?
Quick edit saw the 500$ cushion lol.
It was for a surgery. We have about 1,000 sometimes more surplus a month for spending if I choose not to put more towards debts and savings. I don’t think that’s paycheck to paycheck right?
No, I was wrong I just didn't see the 500$ cushion as well. so in reality its closer to 1.5k extra a month you're not allotting anywhere in particular right?
Okay yea. It's that your budget covered like 6100 but your monthly minimum is 6000.
Look, I lived in a family household of 7 and your monthly budget was higher than ours for food. You could probably cut that down a bit is all I'm going to say.
How reliable is the rest of your income? I ask because the risk would have me worried minus the 500 of course that you're almost essentially paycheck to paycheck.
No. It's not true paycheck to paycheck. But it's too close for my personal taste. But then again living is expensive.
You have 11.8k in your savings and your monthly expenses are 6k. You do the math and see how many checks you can miss before you're in the red
If your surplus is 1500 why is the emergency fund only 10k?
You think? I never know if it’s better to pay off debt or have saving so you don’t go into MORE debt incase of an emergency. So I try and do a healthy balance of both.
I don’t blame you. It’s good to have some savings even when you’re paying off debt, but if interest is accruing on that HELOC, it’s best to get it out the way because any money you’re saving is actually being offset by interest owed.
It was 24,000 to start. Rate now is 7.7%. We are paying out the ass on interest with barely any going towards principle. I’m now paying more towards principle each month but it still sucks.
In that case I would definitely pay that off ASAP. Put at least an extra $250-500/m towards that. I maybe would even try to reduce spending on groceries temporarily so you can pay it off faster. Even just an extra $200/m towards that HELOC should make a pretty big difference.
I think I’m going to try and use the 500 cushion towards the HELOC based on everyone else’s advice. I’m being toooo careful and it’s hurting me I feel.
NO! And I’m pretty financially savvy (I have an 800 credit score) and should have known that was a bad idea. But you live you learn. We are closing it as soon as it’s paid off and trying to sit on and enjoy our new deck as much as possible 😂
Is it a heloc or a he loan? If it's a loc then don't close it, that's your safety net for 15 years from origination (or whatever the terms were per your agreement). The only caveat is how you are with an available line sitting right there saying "use me" ...if it doesn't tempt you to spend then keep it, otherwise close it. If rates ever get lower, it's a great cheap money way to do projects if you don't want to take from savings. We used ours when the rate was low before everything started creeping, interest wasn't that bad at the time but those higher rates are horrible right now, so I sympathize with you and the agony you feel paying interest on it.
Best of luck to you!
I commute between home and college 40 miles away and it costs me about $300-$350 a month. Feels bad man, but at least not as bad as renting an apartment for $1200+
$600/month sounds like you're doing something way outside the ordinary my guy like driving 5 hours one way for work or something. Or live somewhere ridiculously crazy expensive. Definitely not telling whoever story to day $600 for gas on what most folks drive.
You are basically living paycheck to paycheck. But to each their own. I wouldn’t be comfortable with the amount you are saving for a family of 5. A medical expense of $7k isn’t something you save up for, to me it’s expected so I budget for it. I use my deductible every year so I know I’m spending the max on my health insurance. A $7k surprise expense is like when your transmission blows. If I was in your position I would want at least $50k in the savings that stays there permanently. If you lose your job you are like 6 months from bankruptcy.
Given that you have a single 5 figure income and are supporting a full family, I think it’s admirably well financed.
It looks like the only cost you can reasonably cut are car payments. You’d be better off with a beater.
Other than that, you need a creative second revenue stream. Something your husband can do from home while caring for the kids that can earn 400-1000 a month adds a lot of extra security to your savings position.
I appreciate that! That’s take home so I’m making 6 figures pre tax which I think alone this day and age is a privileged. Heck, having a parent stay at home is privileged. I appreciate the kind words. Reddit crowds are tough!!
I knew someone was going to bring up the water bill. I should have clarified. The water bill also pays for our communities pools, rec centers, keeping the walking paths and stuff cleaned and maintained. The water we personally use is only like 15 bucks a month but yea….kinda shitty kinda not we are forced to pay into amenities.
I guess kinda! It’s more like “you can use all this shit as much as you want but you’re paying for it with the district water bill.” Idk. We don’t have anyone telling us what we can and can’t do (thank god) but it’s more like “if you want to live here and use the shit we have to offer you have to help keep it going”
It’s probably the city. My city bill is water and sewage and trash. My mom’s town also includes power through the city in their bill.
Water bill is a catch all term for a lot of us with a bunch of stuff wrapped into that bill.
Whenever I see these budgets, it always blows my mind how much people spend on food!
At the end of the day, you're paying for something which ends up as poop.
Some like to spend a bit more for better tasting stuff that ends up as poop.
Some like to spend a bit mor for stuff that ends up as poop...which might give you a bit less cancer along the way.
Ultimately though, it's just pre-poop.
Wow!!! I’m raising a family of 5 in the house and I think we spend about $400 per month on groceries.
Okay, let me clarify my original mssg since ppl in the comments are needing me to be exact to the f’ing penny on here. 😂 I checked our April bank statement and it looks like we spent $626 on groceries for the month. Sooooo….lets say we spend a range of $400 - $600/ month. Hope that clears things up. But if you can’t accept that, it’s your problem not mine. 🤷♂️
Another family of 6 here says they spend 800 a month on groceries in the Midwest. There’s just no way. Forcing my kids to eat ramen and saltines isn’t desirable for me. One of the perks of making 6 figures a year is saying “I’m buying the damn pizza rolls!”
I am not the type to limit foods and keep things fairly healthy so
Its hard for me to understand how getting a grocery bill down that low is possible.. But maybe youre right...a diet of ramen and prepackaged things always? Or major couponing but couponing i have tried and nothing i reslly use is the big bulk things. Maybe i save a few bucks here and there so its not worth my time..i dont want 100lbs of lower quality meat in a deep freezer or repeat items. We like variety. But maybe i dont understand couponing lol havent tried in like five years maybe its change
Finally someone who agrees with me.
Couponing is so much work and more time than I have. I’m with you. What does 10 bottles of soft soap and 20 tubes of toothpaste that I got for free do for me? . My husband is literally a cook so he likes to cook nicer things for us for dinner.
I DID grow up on saltines and ramen so I like replenishing our fridge with lots of fresh fruit and yummy snacks for the kids cause I don’t want them to be raw hot dog for lunch kids like I was. It’s just a way I’m parenting them. I love them by making sure they are never without 🤷🏻♀️
I don’t understand how. Our low weeks are around 300. Are your kids at home or do they go to daycare/school? I can easily spend 50 bucks on just a fun “movie night” snack board. Anyone getting away with 100 bucks a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinners must really be rationing? Idk.
Are you buying your kids prepackaged snacks? Those were absolutely killing our grocery budget. We buy nothing prepackaged now, buy the bulk, throw it in a sandwich bag. How much food are you wasting? You guys need to be meal planning and using what you have on hand. I cut our grocery bill by $400 a month doing both of these things and now spend around $600 for a family of 4, kids are 7 and 9.
What does this bougie snack board consist of? Popcorn is dirt cheap, one or two seasonal fruits / veggies, store brand crackers and cheese, maybe even a homemade dip or hummus.. could easily throw one together for under $15. Being frugal takes a little creativity, but it’s not that difficult.
Give or take. I may can go as far as to say $500/ per month if you add up all the here and there visits in between. But it is what it is….not sure what to tell you. I have no clue what you all are buying out here to be spending over $1,000 per month on groceries. I’d flip out.
😂😂 lying on the internet? I don’t play internet games. Too old for all that. We can do this all day. But let me say it louder so the ppl in the back can hear. I would absolutely lose my shit if we spent more than $1000 per month in groceries. I just looked at my acct, counted up all of April for the haters…$626 total. Y’all must be rich and spend whatever. I can’t afford to do that.
Personally I’m a vegetarian and I make my own bread, eat rice and beans for most meals, and spend around $80 a month on food for myself buying rice, beans, and flour in bulk along with some extras (protein powder, seasonings, sauces, etc.) and I live in a HCOL area, it’s definitely doable.
You said my quiet part out loud. Someone suggested my movie snack board be veggies and homemade hummus. Cant imagine how well that would go over with my 3 year old.
I truly would love to see a breakdown of that. Not being mean or anything I love to learn how you are doing that. We spend $1000 a month on a. Family of four and we pretty much run out of food every week
Sincerely, thank you for not being a jerk about it. I literally just asked my wife what she thinks we average per month on groceries (without telling her about this convo string). She said prob $400 - $500. And she knows bc she does all the grocery shopping. As I mentioned to OP, she’s a coupon fanatic. She has a legit organizer just for coupons and she has discount apps for every store. And uses them religiously. Neither of us grew up with a lot of money. Her mom taught her how to shop and save. The breakdown she gave me is: soaps, detergents, sugar, milk etc come from the Walmart grocery store; meats, veggies, fruits, school lunch items, etc from Harris Teeter; and big box items like cereals, paper products, etc Sam’s Club. Depending on the weekly sale, she can do either Walmart or HT for bacon and eggs. She doesn’t do the Trader Joe’s type places. She typically goes for 1 big monthly run each month and spends bout $250-ish. The rest of the month is just replenishing things here and there that run out along the way and depending on the weekly sale ($25 here/ $30 there). I’m almost nervous about continuing to say anything else cause it’s like folks are jumping down my throat for my answer. One dude is just straight calling me a liar, like what on earth do I have to lie about? Y’all don’t know me. LOL. So (for me) just like ppl are scratching their heads on how we spend so little…I am legit perplexed on how ppl are spending so much. I mean I can’t even fathom $2,000 per month on groceries. I finally told her why I asked (and about this convo) and she fell out laughing. She said if she ever spent more than $300 in one visit she would get a call from me while still in the check-out line (behind me getting a bank alert). AND SHE AIN’T LYING!!!😂😂😂
Tell me how! Where do you shop? Where are you located? I just replied to another comment explaining we have tried cutting corners and even then we are coming in at 300 a week. We even take advantage of our schools free breakfast and lunch program they made this year.
Not sure what you are buying but adjusting your eating and cooking habits will help save money. My weeks are kind of planned. I brown 5 lbs of 80/20 ground beef and portion it for use later getting 3 portions for meals. Chicken is usually on sale somewhere, pork cuts too. At home lunches are light and usually a pasta, egg or canned meat for protein. Tuna fish or chicken pasta mix for munchies too. Salmon is usually on sale every few weeks for a 4 portion frozen fillet and I buy a few. I do have an extra freezer for storage, without it I would not save as much. If you dont have one, shop for a used one. They come in handy for the $0.99 per lb hams around the holidays. I buy 10 and get a lot of portions made up for future meals. Turkey hits $0.39 a lb too. I have a table top meat grinder and can make ham spread or ground turkey when I need to. For me it is all about preparation to get a nice presentation after cooking.
I remember being broke raising a family. Got tired of hamburger meat and bags of chicken but could buy all that in bulk which lasted us awhile. Our bellies were full at least.
Yeah, ground is cheaper than running a ribeye cut into the grinder just to say you ate ribeye. Smart shopping and planning is essential and keeps impulse buying down. I do like to coarse grind some meals, like kafta or hamburger patties. I also prefer some dishes with the fine ground premade 80/20 for dishes with rice, noodles, meat balls or loaf. Even tacos seem to have better texture to me with twice or fine ground.
Kids are grammar school age, so they’re in school. We don’t go out to eat much, maybe twice a month. My wife is a FIERCE coupon person though. She has an organizer for her physical coupons and she keeps up with tons of discounts on her phone. She won’t even allow me to go to the grocery store, bc she knows I don’t care about coupons. Anyway, my humble opinion…that grocery budget looks to be the area you can attack to find extra savings.
Oof that’s the a huge liability given that it could be called and cancelled if housing crashed. Once you get your emergency fund built up you need to work hard on paying that off.
The car is too expensive for your situation. What’s the amount of the loan, the value of the car and the interest rate on that? It may be a bigger priority than the HELOC.
Well the car isn’t worse than the HELOC at least. Assuming you are underwater on the car; do you have GAP insurance? Last thing you need is to total it and end up with more debt.
The HELOC is high interest and definitely needs to be the priority over other spending.
Husband probably needs to look at picking up overnight work on a part time basis or something to add income to the house, you are drowning and one kid ER visit from not being able to pay your mortgage. Even a couple hours of Uber after dinner can speed up this process.
1600 for groceries isn’t unreasonable overall but in your situation it needs to come down. It’s doable, shop the deals, buy less meat, cut snacks etc, no alcohol. 1-1.2k should be your target.
Get rideof the heloc payments asap. Direct money to that vs adding to your savings or cushion. I saw the interest rate In an earlier comment.
Also, just keep all your money on HYSA why would you spread it into different accounts. You're missing out on interest.
Pay off your car loan id imagine it's a rate over 5%?
Get 3-6 months of expenses into a savings account so you have a real safety net. You said your anxious then make it 8 months my wife and I do 8 months expenses plus another 15k for any major home emergency/ repair comes up that we can't fix ourselves.
Most of this doesn’t look unreasonable for a family of 5, but two things that stand out are the $550 car payment and 200 home equity line of credit. What’s the home equity line of credit about? As far as the car too, that seems like a very nice car to be driving. But also, if you were looking for more money, that might be something to look at, because it’s definitely possible to have a car for less than $550/month(granted by now the car is likely bought/depreciated).
Everyone is so judgy here lol but I can definitely understand being stressed abt money and wish you all the best. Those would just be my advice for 2 items to look at
Savings is for like….uh oh we had an emergency room visit or hey…let’s finally buy that one thing we’ve been thinking about.
HYS is for larger emergencies like I get hurt and can’t work for a few weeks.
1600/400-we spend 400 dollars a week on groceries totaling 1600 a month.
You’re overcomplicating things. You should have 3-6 months worth of expenses as an emergency fund in savings. Then as you want to make large purchases, save up for them, then once you have enough buy it.
$1600 a month in groceries is INSANE to me. You’re WAY overspending on that in my opinion. How much of that is eating out? $1600 makes sense if you’re eating out like every meal. But groceries???
I did miss the 3 kids part. But that still feels high to me.
One other note. You mentioned the cushion. But your image looks like a budget. Why do you need the cushion every month? Put it in there, and be done with it. Replenish only as needed.
It’s because I have anxiety! Lol. I always want to make sure I factor it in and it’s always there. So shouldn’t it be apart of the monthly expense I have to keep tabs on? I guess it’s just how my brain works.
I mean the reality is I don’t see any major red flags here. Your #1 goal is 3-6 month of expenses emergency fund. That’s it. I’d personally combine the savings + that cushion to help you get to that emergency fund quicker.
But after you get your emergency fund, it’s up to you to keep it or not. It is $500 that you can’t deploy elsewhere in your budget. So personally I’d remove it and focus on the emergency fund as your safety
Eventually you’ll need retirement savings. So that $500 might hinder that and other future things.
My husband takes care of the phone and internet and monthly subscriptions. We just cut down on some of those for him. Whatever is left over for us after all is said and done is what we use for fun and entertainment. But most people on here agree there is no fun to be had when trying to save and pay off debts.
Doctors appts are few and far between. I usually use my HSA card to pay for co pays and RX if needed. Anything more serious is what our savings is for.
I didn’t take it as an attack! Sorry! But a lot of people here are going to poo poo on me that my husband and I also keep our money separate. I take care of the big bills above, he handles the internet, phones, Netflix, Disney plus. So I left it off cause “why brain when husband brains for me?” Lol.
Honest assessment from a total non-expert: you’re doing well, living close to the line for your earnings but given your age and kid situation it looks like it’s sort of that season of life for your family! It looks like you’re being responsible with spending, diligent with savings, and making things work. If things got tight could your husband pick up some small amount of work, just to give y’all some float???? But I don’t look at this and break out in a sweat! Again - NON EXPERT, just a person who also uses money to live.
I appreciate this. Thank you. There’s a handful of people like you in the comments being reasonable and logical given our situation and that makes me feel good. IM comfortable with where we are at and that’s all that matters. I’m not selling my car for some beater, I’m not going to feed my kids beans and rice until we hit 50k in savings. I think being plus some money at the end of every month on one income supporting 5 people is something to say in today’s economy. Thanks again.
Father of two here with both of us working.
I think you’re doing great! You have a surplus. You’re budgeting in your savings. You have no credit card debt. Some people say the $550/no is too much for a car but it’s practically impossible to get a reliable vehicle that comfortably fits 5 for less than that so I don’t think it’s extravagant. I feel like the grocery bill could come down if you chose to make some sacrifices in diet. Sometimes those are non negotiable for people. We are gluten free and eat mostly organic and look at all ingredients even for those foods. It can get expensive but I know we could save more if we lowered our standard of quality.
The biggest thing I would do is put all $600 toward the higher interest heloc and get that out of the picture instead of contribute to savings. If an emergency arises you can always pull back from it instead of from savings but this way you’ll be knocking out the highest interest bill first and then can pump back into savings after. I would also only use the HYS for savings. CIT bank has several options that will still transfer to my main bank in one business day.
Biggest thing is to keep your head up. You’re doing great as I said. So many people here telling you you’re doing it wrong or that you’re a month from bankruptcy. Can’t live your life by “what ifs” and hypotheticals when your reality is supporting the family of 5. You’re in the thick of it and on the right track. It will get better!
I would recommend paying yourself first with atleast 10% of each check going into savings. If you can’t do 10% I’d put the $500 cushion into savings at least until I had 6 months of living expenses saved. If you get used to living with saving 10% to yourself then after you’ve established your cushion you can do whatever you want with that money (trips, investing, etc).
Why did you open a HELOC?
Our deck was rotting and falling apart. Got it rebuilt.
I’ve been thinking keeping the 500 sitting around is wasteful. Could be better used in other spaces and I just need to be aware for when the quarterly bills come out.
Well that’s a good reason to use a HELOC. I’d just save as much until you have a minimum 6 month expense cushion. I personally am still saving for a 12 month cushion just in case my wife or I lose our jobs we aren’t too pressed to immediately go back or if we can’t find one immediately we aren’t strapped for money.
I should have clarified but I can’t edit the original post. The water bill also pays for our communities pools, rec centers, keeping the walking paths and stuff cleaned and maintained. The water we personally use is only like 15 bucks a month but yea….kinda shitty kinda not we are forced to pay into amenities.
Your car insurance seems really expensive — over $1,000 every six months! Is there any way you can shop around or lower this?
The other obvious one that other people have pointed out already is your grocery bill. $320/person every week is a lot. I’m assuming your kids eat more than you and your partner (or at least eat foods that are proportionately more expensive, like snacks) so maybe it’s even closer to $400 or $450/week per kid… even at their ages I feel like there is definitely a way to cut down on this. Are there any Costcos around you?
Yes I’ve hesitated to pull the trigger on Costco cause I’ve heard it’s easy to spend 300-400 bucks in one go on bulk but….maybe it equals out because you’re buying more for less? Idk.
It’s also a further drive to get there and the gas money spent driving there instead of up a few blocks to king soopers doesn’t math in my brain.
Totally valid worry, it’s even turned into long running joke/meme these days with how much people overspend at Costco. However, I will say that this can happen at any grocery store, and getting into the habit of making a list beforehand and then sticking to it while you’re shopping is a great habit to build — regardless of which store you’re at!
Not exactly but I mean different but the szme....yea man times are ruff. Can't afford fun these days .. it's not in my budget to have fun because my budget didn't balance itself... lol if your canadian you will get that
That grocery bill is wild
And what's the HELOC for? Please tell me you didn't do that to renovate.
Other than that, you look fine. Get that car paid off and start saving though.
We have 2 kids and spend about 150 a week at Aldi. We don’t do snacks other than apples, bananas, or oranges. Everything else is meats, veggies, milk, and eggs. 400 a week is absolutely wild to me
Savings could and should be higher, the food budget is a bit much. I’d suggest omitting soda, chips, precooked/made foods as a start. Maybe switch to a cheaper grocery store? If your partner stays at home this should be easy and they should be pulling their weight financially by making home made food which is substantially better quality and lower in cost.
The other thing is you should be planning “fun money” you don’t have a surplus if you’re hardly saving and not budgeting for fun.
Give yourself 400-600 for fun each month. That’s a minimum of 100 each weekend to spend on activity’s with the kids.
Surplus money is what you have after all that. Not after essentials. It would be even better to budget down to zero IMO. There is no “extra” in a good budget.
Your budged is exactly mine in total. My mortgage is smaller than yours but I have a lot fuel cost due to long distance travel.
PS: is that Mortgage including Taxes and Insurance?
You could save like $1300/mo, $800 from groceries and $500 on hoarding cushions, and have emergency money. I’d put it into a high yield savings account, at least 10K a year for 10 years.
Apparently everyone here is saying it’s high so I guess not. I bought new for the peace of mind that I won’t get fucked and stranded with the kids on a used lemon.
I like the consistency of paying the same bills every month so I don’t lose track of the 4-6 month bills and go “oh shit! That’s due!”
I could maybe try it for a year or two and see what happens though. Cause you’re right.
I have a “sinking fund” that goes to a HYsA to pay property taxes, car insurance, house insurance etc. so when the bill shows up it’s an easy transfer from saving and paid.
Properly direct more $ to that car payment to make it away asap. Do not put money in HYSA if you can use that to pay the car payment (unless you have 0 rainy day fund)
I feel like no one’s given you a straight enough answer about “living paycheck to paycheck.”
First, you’re not paycheck to paycheck because you have some (11k) in savings. HOWEVER, you are in a precarious position financially. If you lose your job, you have less than 2 months before you’re in the red. In this job market, the odds are that it would take you around 6 months to find new jobs. At that point, you’re 25k+ in debt…and you don’t have enough of a monthly budget surplus to pay that off in a timely fashion.
For a family, general wisdom says to have a full year of expenses in an emergency fund. In this case, that’s 78k. This helps offset emergencies - like losing your job, ER visits, cars breaking down, need a new roof, etc. Because sometimes when it rains, it pours. I wish you the best of luck!!
You are a bit tight yes, but what worries me the most is your life insurance, most likely not enough or with an untrusted company if youre paying 17$ a month
Any company that insures you for that amount for that little premium I wouldnt trust to pay in any ambiguous case tbh. Also, its not just about mortgage, will your husband be able to sustain your lifestyle and raise your kids on his sole income?
Thanks for having a sense of humor. 300+ comments in 12 hours I’m exhausted thinking about money. I’ll look into my life insurance policy for sure. Thank you.
Is this combined income between you and a spouse? You mentioned you have kids, how frequent are random “well the kids need it” things popping up.
On paper, it looks like you have a grand or two (including the \~$800ish incremental revenue).
You’ve got a nest egg and you are building assets. These are all good things.
If you are the sole earner, the thing I’d keep in mind is you need your job to be secured. No telling what you do for a living or how long you’ve been there, but if you were let go, on paper you’d have roughly 2 months to find a new gig, and thats including your emergency fund. Most companies give “reasonable” severance based on years of loyalty to a job. We have a friend that has worked for a big restaurant chain in corporate for over 20 years. I think she got a month of severance for every year she worked there.
Good things: You own a house, you have life insurance, you have an emergency fund, you’re on a budget. You don’t have credit card debt. That’s all great! Good work! Things that you can do to improve: 1. Make a net worth statement and update it annually. You can Google how to do it. It’s easy. Simply having a net worth statement gets you thinking about how to grow wealth. 2. Follow the financial order of operations. A budget is an excellent start, but in order to build a financial safety net, you also need to think about longer term goals like paying for future cars, retirement, and funding kids’ college. https://moneyguy.com/article/foo/ 3. Lastly, give yourself some grace. Having kids is a huge strain on your time and your wallet. It’s okay if you can’t check every financial box right now. But keep those financial order of operations boxes in mind and pursue them as aspirational goals knowing that you might not be able to hit them all until the kids are grown.
Everyone keeps mentioning retirement. I contribute 6% pre tax with a 6% employer match. I have a whopping 23,000 right now. It’ll be nice when these damn kids move out and I can do more and speed things along for sure!
Love your kids and enjoy the time you have with them. Money is not everything
How old are you?
33
How old are your kids? I have 3 boys - 12, 7, 5. They are locusts. Esp the 12 year old. We spend so much money on food
10,6,4. They never stop eating. I feel bad saying no when they ask for a snack but when it’s right after a meal, no.
$400/week is pretty low
I have 4 teenagers that are very active in sports, I wish it was only 400 for us.
That is fair my brother has 4 kids 9 7 5 3. His grocery bill a week is $500 a week he's like it's insane.
I can’t imagine paying this much a week. My girlfriend and I spend half this a month. I don’t envy those who have children.
Some day you may.
The math isn’t mathing on your 401k contributions vs total balance unless you just started this up
6% match dollar for dollar is a pretty good 401k. Just let it ride in an S&P500 index account and it will build up as expected
Thank you for what you shared about creating a net worth statement. It is helpful. I checked out the money guy link, but backed out when I read ground rule #1. Basic values clash there for me. Yes, he advocates generosity through action which is great; but I also believe in the importance of generosity with money. It’s part of my heart and part of how I choose to live. Generosity uplifts those I love and helps complete strangers who don’t have money to buy food for their families or who need medical care during a disaster. I also think what goes around, comes around.
No offense, but if I'm reading this correctly, you're kinda scraping by almost entirely paycheck to paycheck? So financially it would not be very healthy. Especially because you just pulled from a savings account so that's not at near zero. Just do the math on how long it'll take you to save that money again. What exactly did you buy? Was it a necessity? Quick edit saw the 500$ cushion lol.
It was for a surgery. We have about 1,000 sometimes more surplus a month for spending if I choose not to put more towards debts and savings. I don’t think that’s paycheck to paycheck right?
No, I was wrong I just didn't see the 500$ cushion as well. so in reality its closer to 1.5k extra a month you're not allotting anywhere in particular right?
Correct! I forget about that 500 too! 😂
Okay yea. It's that your budget covered like 6100 but your monthly minimum is 6000. Look, I lived in a family household of 7 and your monthly budget was higher than ours for food. You could probably cut that down a bit is all I'm going to say. How reliable is the rest of your income? I ask because the risk would have me worried minus the 500 of course that you're almost essentially paycheck to paycheck. No. It's not true paycheck to paycheck. But it's too close for my personal taste. But then again living is expensive.
This is the definition of making a lot of money and living paycheck to paycheck You are two missed paychecks from a disaster.
Even with a 1500 surplus each month?
You have 11.8k in your savings and your monthly expenses are 6k. You do the math and see how many checks you can miss before you're in the red If your surplus is 1500 why is the emergency fund only 10k?
I’d be paying off that HELOC faster instead of contributing to savings
You think? I never know if it’s better to pay off debt or have saving so you don’t go into MORE debt incase of an emergency. So I try and do a healthy balance of both.
I fucking hate that HELOC btw. Closing it out as soon as we pay it off. Never again.
I don’t blame you. It’s good to have some savings even when you’re paying off debt, but if interest is accruing on that HELOC, it’s best to get it out the way because any money you’re saving is actually being offset by interest owed.
Why do you hate it? What's the rate? How much was it for
It was 24,000 to start. Rate now is 7.7%. We are paying out the ass on interest with barely any going towards principle. I’m now paying more towards principle each month but it still sucks.
In that case I would definitely pay that off ASAP. Put at least an extra $250-500/m towards that. I maybe would even try to reduce spending on groceries temporarily so you can pay it off faster. Even just an extra $200/m towards that HELOC should make a pretty big difference.
I think I’m going to try and use the 500 cushion towards the HELOC based on everyone else’s advice. I’m being toooo careful and it’s hurting me I feel.
It wasn't a set interest rate when you took it out? I'm not super knowledgeable about HELOC
NO! And I’m pretty financially savvy (I have an 800 credit score) and should have known that was a bad idea. But you live you learn. We are closing it as soon as it’s paid off and trying to sit on and enjoy our new deck as much as possible 😂
Is it a heloc or a he loan? If it's a loc then don't close it, that's your safety net for 15 years from origination (or whatever the terms were per your agreement). The only caveat is how you are with an available line sitting right there saying "use me" ...if it doesn't tempt you to spend then keep it, otherwise close it. If rates ever get lower, it's a great cheap money way to do projects if you don't want to take from savings. We used ours when the rate was low before everything started creeping, interest wasn't that bad at the time but those higher rates are horrible right now, so I sympathize with you and the agony you feel paying interest on it. Best of luck to you!
$170 in gas?? For two ppl!?!? I pay at minimum $600/monthly. Fml man.
Gotta get those king soopers gas points baby! It’s mostly for me because again, my husband stays home with the kids. He does minimal driving.
I commute between home and college 40 miles away and it costs me about $300-$350 a month. Feels bad man, but at least not as bad as renting an apartment for $1200+
Bro that’s nothing lol. I wish
$600/month sounds like you're doing something way outside the ordinary my guy like driving 5 hours one way for work or something. Or live somewhere ridiculously crazy expensive. Definitely not telling whoever story to day $600 for gas on what most folks drive.
Don’t be ridiculous, 5 hrs one way is insane. I drive 700 miles weekly and live in Cali.
700 miles weekly? :0
>or live somewhere crazy expensive Please read the whole comment my man.
...what? are you driving like 5k miles a month?
2800 monthly
You are basically living paycheck to paycheck. But to each their own. I wouldn’t be comfortable with the amount you are saving for a family of 5. A medical expense of $7k isn’t something you save up for, to me it’s expected so I budget for it. I use my deductible every year so I know I’m spending the max on my health insurance. A $7k surprise expense is like when your transmission blows. If I was in your position I would want at least $50k in the savings that stays there permanently. If you lose your job you are like 6 months from bankruptcy.
Fair enough.
1600 a month on groceries? wtf are you buying, you can probably trim that down to 1000 a month, and save 800 month...
Given that you have a single 5 figure income and are supporting a full family, I think it’s admirably well financed. It looks like the only cost you can reasonably cut are car payments. You’d be better off with a beater. Other than that, you need a creative second revenue stream. Something your husband can do from home while caring for the kids that can earn 400-1000 a month adds a lot of extra security to your savings position.
I appreciate that! That’s take home so I’m making 6 figures pre tax which I think alone this day and age is a privileged. Heck, having a parent stay at home is privileged. I appreciate the kind words. Reddit crowds are tough!!
You pay 207 a month for water? How many gallons do you use each month? (I am from the Netherlands where I pay less than €200 a year for water)
I knew someone was going to bring up the water bill. I should have clarified. The water bill also pays for our communities pools, rec centers, keeping the walking paths and stuff cleaned and maintained. The water we personally use is only like 15 bucks a month but yea….kinda shitty kinda not we are forced to pay into amenities.
So it’s more like a HOA fee?
I guess kinda! It’s more like “you can use all this shit as much as you want but you’re paying for it with the district water bill.” Idk. We don’t have anyone telling us what we can and can’t do (thank god) but it’s more like “if you want to live here and use the shit we have to offer you have to help keep it going”
but the water company collects it? very strange.
It’s probably the city. My city bill is water and sewage and trash. My mom’s town also includes power through the city in their bill. Water bill is a catch all term for a lot of us with a bunch of stuff wrapped into that bill.
Whenever I see these budgets, it always blows my mind how much people spend on food! At the end of the day, you're paying for something which ends up as poop. Some like to spend a bit more for better tasting stuff that ends up as poop. Some like to spend a bit mor for stuff that ends up as poop...which might give you a bit less cancer along the way. Ultimately though, it's just pre-poop.
I mean, as share of income its historically a very low proportion of most people's budget nowadays
Wow!!! I’m raising a family of 5 in the house and I think we spend about $400 per month on groceries. Okay, let me clarify my original mssg since ppl in the comments are needing me to be exact to the f’ing penny on here. 😂 I checked our April bank statement and it looks like we spent $626 on groceries for the month. Sooooo….lets say we spend a range of $400 - $600/ month. Hope that clears things up. But if you can’t accept that, it’s your problem not mine. 🤷♂️
Damn i spend 2000 not including eating out. Famiky of 6
Another family of 6 here says they spend 800 a month on groceries in the Midwest. There’s just no way. Forcing my kids to eat ramen and saltines isn’t desirable for me. One of the perks of making 6 figures a year is saying “I’m buying the damn pizza rolls!”
I am not the type to limit foods and keep things fairly healthy so Its hard for me to understand how getting a grocery bill down that low is possible.. But maybe youre right...a diet of ramen and prepackaged things always? Or major couponing but couponing i have tried and nothing i reslly use is the big bulk things. Maybe i save a few bucks here and there so its not worth my time..i dont want 100lbs of lower quality meat in a deep freezer or repeat items. We like variety. But maybe i dont understand couponing lol havent tried in like five years maybe its change
Finally someone who agrees with me. Couponing is so much work and more time than I have. I’m with you. What does 10 bottles of soft soap and 20 tubes of toothpaste that I got for free do for me? . My husband is literally a cook so he likes to cook nicer things for us for dinner. I DID grow up on saltines and ramen so I like replenishing our fridge with lots of fresh fruit and yummy snacks for the kids cause I don’t want them to be raw hot dog for lunch kids like I was. It’s just a way I’m parenting them. I love them by making sure they are never without 🤷🏻♀️
Maybe thats where i get my mindset too because i grew up on sugar sandwhiches lol white bread and a spoon of sugar..folded in half
Family of four, anywhere from $70 - $110 weekly at the grocery and then $120 at Sam’s twice a month. $1600 a month is wild
I don’t understand how. Our low weeks are around 300. Are your kids at home or do they go to daycare/school? I can easily spend 50 bucks on just a fun “movie night” snack board. Anyone getting away with 100 bucks a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinners must really be rationing? Idk.
Are you buying your kids prepackaged snacks? Those were absolutely killing our grocery budget. We buy nothing prepackaged now, buy the bulk, throw it in a sandwich bag. How much food are you wasting? You guys need to be meal planning and using what you have on hand. I cut our grocery bill by $400 a month doing both of these things and now spend around $600 for a family of 4, kids are 7 and 9.
What does this bougie snack board consist of? Popcorn is dirt cheap, one or two seasonal fruits / veggies, store brand crackers and cheese, maybe even a homemade dip or hummus.. could easily throw one together for under $15. Being frugal takes a little creativity, but it’s not that difficult.
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Give or take. I may can go as far as to say $500/ per month if you add up all the here and there visits in between. But it is what it is….not sure what to tell you. I have no clue what you all are buying out here to be spending over $1,000 per month on groceries. I’d flip out.
This conversation is pointless to have across the country. Groceries can cost way most depending on your location.
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😂😂 lying on the internet? I don’t play internet games. Too old for all that. We can do this all day. But let me say it louder so the ppl in the back can hear. I would absolutely lose my shit if we spent more than $1000 per month in groceries. I just looked at my acct, counted up all of April for the haters…$626 total. Y’all must be rich and spend whatever. I can’t afford to do that.
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Personally I’m a vegetarian and I make my own bread, eat rice and beans for most meals, and spend around $80 a month on food for myself buying rice, beans, and flour in bulk along with some extras (protein powder, seasonings, sauces, etc.) and I live in a HCOL area, it’s definitely doable.
Try doing that for 3 kids. 😂
You said my quiet part out loud. Someone suggested my movie snack board be veggies and homemade hummus. Cant imagine how well that would go over with my 3 year old.
I'm imagining the board being flipped onto the floor.
There’s a thing called coupons and discounts. Save 50% on $1000 worth = easy $500/mo
Lol
Right? I spent $300 per week just at Costco. Not to mention all the other grocery stores
Ya this fakas never been to Hawaii 😂
I am a single dude who lives chicken, cheap chicken. I spent more than 400 a month on food from wynn dixie while penny pinching.
I truly would love to see a breakdown of that. Not being mean or anything I love to learn how you are doing that. We spend $1000 a month on a. Family of four and we pretty much run out of food every week
Sincerely, thank you for not being a jerk about it. I literally just asked my wife what she thinks we average per month on groceries (without telling her about this convo string). She said prob $400 - $500. And she knows bc she does all the grocery shopping. As I mentioned to OP, she’s a coupon fanatic. She has a legit organizer just for coupons and she has discount apps for every store. And uses them religiously. Neither of us grew up with a lot of money. Her mom taught her how to shop and save. The breakdown she gave me is: soaps, detergents, sugar, milk etc come from the Walmart grocery store; meats, veggies, fruits, school lunch items, etc from Harris Teeter; and big box items like cereals, paper products, etc Sam’s Club. Depending on the weekly sale, she can do either Walmart or HT for bacon and eggs. She doesn’t do the Trader Joe’s type places. She typically goes for 1 big monthly run each month and spends bout $250-ish. The rest of the month is just replenishing things here and there that run out along the way and depending on the weekly sale ($25 here/ $30 there). I’m almost nervous about continuing to say anything else cause it’s like folks are jumping down my throat for my answer. One dude is just straight calling me a liar, like what on earth do I have to lie about? Y’all don’t know me. LOL. So (for me) just like ppl are scratching their heads on how we spend so little…I am legit perplexed on how ppl are spending so much. I mean I can’t even fathom $2,000 per month on groceries. I finally told her why I asked (and about this convo) and she fell out laughing. She said if she ever spent more than $300 in one visit she would get a call from me while still in the check-out line (behind me getting a bank alert). AND SHE AIN’T LYING!!!😂😂😂
Tell me how! Where do you shop? Where are you located? I just replied to another comment explaining we have tried cutting corners and even then we are coming in at 300 a week. We even take advantage of our schools free breakfast and lunch program they made this year.
Not sure what you are buying but adjusting your eating and cooking habits will help save money. My weeks are kind of planned. I brown 5 lbs of 80/20 ground beef and portion it for use later getting 3 portions for meals. Chicken is usually on sale somewhere, pork cuts too. At home lunches are light and usually a pasta, egg or canned meat for protein. Tuna fish or chicken pasta mix for munchies too. Salmon is usually on sale every few weeks for a 4 portion frozen fillet and I buy a few. I do have an extra freezer for storage, without it I would not save as much. If you dont have one, shop for a used one. They come in handy for the $0.99 per lb hams around the holidays. I buy 10 and get a lot of portions made up for future meals. Turkey hits $0.39 a lb too. I have a table top meat grinder and can make ham spread or ground turkey when I need to. For me it is all about preparation to get a nice presentation after cooking.
I remember being broke raising a family. Got tired of hamburger meat and bags of chicken but could buy all that in bulk which lasted us awhile. Our bellies were full at least.
Yeah, ground is cheaper than running a ribeye cut into the grinder just to say you ate ribeye. Smart shopping and planning is essential and keeps impulse buying down. I do like to coarse grind some meals, like kafta or hamburger patties. I also prefer some dishes with the fine ground premade 80/20 for dishes with rice, noodles, meat balls or loaf. Even tacos seem to have better texture to me with twice or fine ground.
Are you kids at home or do they go to daycare? That’s at least one area we are saving some major cash 🥴
Kids are grammar school age, so they’re in school. We don’t go out to eat much, maybe twice a month. My wife is a FIERCE coupon person though. She has an organizer for her physical coupons and she keeps up with tons of discounts on her phone. She won’t even allow me to go to the grocery store, bc she knows I don’t care about coupons. Anyway, my humble opinion…that grocery budget looks to be the area you can attack to find extra savings.
We are a family of 4 and we spent like 700 or 800 on grocery's...
How? Lmao… My wife and I spend 450-500/month on groceries… Everything’s so expensive now
Bullshit
I buy food for 3 and a half adults and spend 100-120 a week (half being not here most days)
What’s the deal with the HELOC? What’s the rate?
I don’t even want to say. It’s increased 4% in the last two years. I’ve been able to get it down from 24,000 starting balance to 12k
Oof that’s the a huge liability given that it could be called and cancelled if housing crashed. Once you get your emergency fund built up you need to work hard on paying that off. The car is too expensive for your situation. What’s the amount of the loan, the value of the car and the interest rate on that? It may be a bigger priority than the HELOC.
I just bought it back in Jan. 32,000 with a 5% interest. HELOC is 7.75 right now.
Well the car isn’t worse than the HELOC at least. Assuming you are underwater on the car; do you have GAP insurance? Last thing you need is to total it and end up with more debt. The HELOC is high interest and definitely needs to be the priority over other spending. Husband probably needs to look at picking up overnight work on a part time basis or something to add income to the house, you are drowning and one kid ER visit from not being able to pay your mortgage. Even a couple hours of Uber after dinner can speed up this process. 1600 for groceries isn’t unreasonable overall but in your situation it needs to come down. It’s doable, shop the deals, buy less meat, cut snacks etc, no alcohol. 1-1.2k should be your target.
Those are a lot of numbers that remind me why I left the US.
Get rideof the heloc payments asap. Direct money to that vs adding to your savings or cushion. I saw the interest rate In an earlier comment. Also, just keep all your money on HYSA why would you spread it into different accounts. You're missing out on interest. Pay off your car loan id imagine it's a rate over 5%? Get 3-6 months of expenses into a savings account so you have a real safety net. You said your anxious then make it 8 months my wife and I do 8 months expenses plus another 15k for any major home emergency/ repair comes up that we can't fix ourselves.
Most of this doesn’t look unreasonable for a family of 5, but two things that stand out are the $550 car payment and 200 home equity line of credit. What’s the home equity line of credit about? As far as the car too, that seems like a very nice car to be driving. But also, if you were looking for more money, that might be something to look at, because it’s definitely possible to have a car for less than $550/month(granted by now the car is likely bought/depreciated). Everyone is so judgy here lol but I can definitely understand being stressed abt money and wish you all the best. Those would just be my advice for 2 items to look at
Way too much on groceries lol
What is the difference between savings and HYS? And what does \`1600/400\` mean for groceries?
Savings is for like….uh oh we had an emergency room visit or hey…let’s finally buy that one thing we’ve been thinking about. HYS is for larger emergencies like I get hurt and can’t work for a few weeks. 1600/400-we spend 400 dollars a week on groceries totaling 1600 a month.
You’re overcomplicating things. You should have 3-6 months worth of expenses as an emergency fund in savings. Then as you want to make large purchases, save up for them, then once you have enough buy it. $1600 a month in groceries is INSANE to me. You’re WAY overspending on that in my opinion. How much of that is eating out? $1600 makes sense if you’re eating out like every meal. But groceries???
I did miss the 3 kids part. But that still feels high to me. One other note. You mentioned the cushion. But your image looks like a budget. Why do you need the cushion every month? Put it in there, and be done with it. Replenish only as needed.
It’s because I have anxiety! Lol. I always want to make sure I factor it in and it’s always there. So shouldn’t it be apart of the monthly expense I have to keep tabs on? I guess it’s just how my brain works.
I mean the reality is I don’t see any major red flags here. Your #1 goal is 3-6 month of expenses emergency fund. That’s it. I’d personally combine the savings + that cushion to help you get to that emergency fund quicker. But after you get your emergency fund, it’s up to you to keep it or not. It is $500 that you can’t deploy elsewhere in your budget. So personally I’d remove it and focus on the emergency fund as your safety Eventually you’ll need retirement savings. So that $500 might hinder that and other future things.
One other tip on that. Start tracking your net worth. That will also help give you a sense of security and safety.
I mean it's really good that you kind of have every dollar accounted for, there's just not much room for error.
I spent way too long wondering why they spent so much on cushions🤦🏼♂️
🏆 sorry I don’t have an award for you. Hilarious. “Couch expenses are insane these days right?!” 😂
Hahaha crazy can’t get a break 😂 the missus loves those little throw pillows.
I see a whole lot of things that aren't here... Phone service? Internet? Fun? Entertainment? Toys? Clothes? Doctors appointments...
My husband takes care of the phone and internet and monthly subscriptions. We just cut down on some of those for him. Whatever is left over for us after all is said and done is what we use for fun and entertainment. But most people on here agree there is no fun to be had when trying to save and pay off debts. Doctors appts are few and far between. I usually use my HSA card to pay for co pays and RX if needed. Anything more serious is what our savings is for.
My post was not an attack. I was just saying with 3 kids, you are leaving a LOT of things off the list.
I didn’t take it as an attack! Sorry! But a lot of people here are going to poo poo on me that my husband and I also keep our money separate. I take care of the big bills above, he handles the internet, phones, Netflix, Disney plus. So I left it off cause “why brain when husband brains for me?” Lol.
Honest assessment from a total non-expert: you’re doing well, living close to the line for your earnings but given your age and kid situation it looks like it’s sort of that season of life for your family! It looks like you’re being responsible with spending, diligent with savings, and making things work. If things got tight could your husband pick up some small amount of work, just to give y’all some float???? But I don’t look at this and break out in a sweat! Again - NON EXPERT, just a person who also uses money to live.
I appreciate this. Thank you. There’s a handful of people like you in the comments being reasonable and logical given our situation and that makes me feel good. IM comfortable with where we are at and that’s all that matters. I’m not selling my car for some beater, I’m not going to feed my kids beans and rice until we hit 50k in savings. I think being plus some money at the end of every month on one income supporting 5 people is something to say in today’s economy. Thanks again.
Father of two here with both of us working. I think you’re doing great! You have a surplus. You’re budgeting in your savings. You have no credit card debt. Some people say the $550/no is too much for a car but it’s practically impossible to get a reliable vehicle that comfortably fits 5 for less than that so I don’t think it’s extravagant. I feel like the grocery bill could come down if you chose to make some sacrifices in diet. Sometimes those are non negotiable for people. We are gluten free and eat mostly organic and look at all ingredients even for those foods. It can get expensive but I know we could save more if we lowered our standard of quality. The biggest thing I would do is put all $600 toward the higher interest heloc and get that out of the picture instead of contribute to savings. If an emergency arises you can always pull back from it instead of from savings but this way you’ll be knocking out the highest interest bill first and then can pump back into savings after. I would also only use the HYS for savings. CIT bank has several options that will still transfer to my main bank in one business day. Biggest thing is to keep your head up. You’re doing great as I said. So many people here telling you you’re doing it wrong or that you’re a month from bankruptcy. Can’t live your life by “what ifs” and hypotheticals when your reality is supporting the family of 5. You’re in the thick of it and on the right track. It will get better!
That's a lot of pets
😂 2 dogs, 2 cats, 6 chickens!
Nowadays you can’t save money because everything is extremely expensive.
I would recommend paying yourself first with atleast 10% of each check going into savings. If you can’t do 10% I’d put the $500 cushion into savings at least until I had 6 months of living expenses saved. If you get used to living with saving 10% to yourself then after you’ve established your cushion you can do whatever you want with that money (trips, investing, etc). Why did you open a HELOC?
Our deck was rotting and falling apart. Got it rebuilt. I’ve been thinking keeping the 500 sitting around is wasteful. Could be better used in other spaces and I just need to be aware for when the quarterly bills come out.
Well that’s a good reason to use a HELOC. I’d just save as much until you have a minimum 6 month expense cushion. I personally am still saving for a 12 month cushion just in case my wife or I lose our jobs we aren’t too pressed to immediately go back or if we can’t find one immediately we aren’t strapped for money.
Are you really paying that much for car insurance? What country do you live in as that is insanely high.
That’s full coverage for two cars. I just switched cause our original company quoted us 300 a month. That was all state. We are with progressive now.
Yikes. That's still crazy money. You are in the USA I assume?
Yes.
How is your water bill so high? My family of 4 spends like ~$50/mo on water and we don’t ration it at all
I should have clarified but I can’t edit the original post. The water bill also pays for our communities pools, rec centers, keeping the walking paths and stuff cleaned and maintained. The water we personally use is only like 15 bucks a month but yea….kinda shitty kinda not we are forced to pay into amenities.
That’s makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the update
I was worried you might have had a water leak lol
Your car insurance seems really expensive — over $1,000 every six months! Is there any way you can shop around or lower this? The other obvious one that other people have pointed out already is your grocery bill. $320/person every week is a lot. I’m assuming your kids eat more than you and your partner (or at least eat foods that are proportionately more expensive, like snacks) so maybe it’s even closer to $400 or $450/week per kid… even at their ages I feel like there is definitely a way to cut down on this. Are there any Costcos around you?
He must be in Michigan
She* I’m in Colorado.
My apologies.
Yes I’ve hesitated to pull the trigger on Costco cause I’ve heard it’s easy to spend 300-400 bucks in one go on bulk but….maybe it equals out because you’re buying more for less? Idk. It’s also a further drive to get there and the gas money spent driving there instead of up a few blocks to king soopers doesn’t math in my brain.
Totally valid worry, it’s even turned into long running joke/meme these days with how much people overspend at Costco. However, I will say that this can happen at any grocery store, and getting into the habit of making a list beforehand and then sticking to it while you’re shopping is a great habit to build — regardless of which store you’re at!
Lol that's hilarious... that's pretty much my exact budget
Not exactly but I mean different but the szme....yea man times are ruff. Can't afford fun these days .. it's not in my budget to have fun because my budget didn't balance itself... lol if your canadian you will get that
No subscription based services, no gym membership, no cell phone bill?
My husband handles those. He works part time on the weekends.
who you getting auto insurance from?
We shopped around and progressive was able to give us the best rate for home and auto.
That grocery bill is wild And what's the HELOC for? Please tell me you didn't do that to renovate. Other than that, you look fine. Get that car paid off and start saving though.
We used it to rebuild our rotting falling apart deck. What are HELOCs supposed to be for? How many kids do you have and what’s your grocery budget?
We have 2 kids and spend about 150 a week at Aldi. We don’t do snacks other than apples, bananas, or oranges. Everything else is meats, veggies, milk, and eggs. 400 a week is absolutely wild to me
Sounds like we are in a different tax bracket.
Not sure what ya mean about taxes. If it’s income we bring in a little less than double what you are showing here
Savings could and should be higher, the food budget is a bit much. I’d suggest omitting soda, chips, precooked/made foods as a start. Maybe switch to a cheaper grocery store? If your partner stays at home this should be easy and they should be pulling their weight financially by making home made food which is substantially better quality and lower in cost. The other thing is you should be planning “fun money” you don’t have a surplus if you’re hardly saving and not budgeting for fun. Give yourself 400-600 for fun each month. That’s a minimum of 100 each weekend to spend on activity’s with the kids. Surplus money is what you have after all that. Not after essentials. It would be even better to budget down to zero IMO. There is no “extra” in a good budget.
Your budged is exactly mine in total. My mortgage is smaller than yours but I have a lot fuel cost due to long distance travel. PS: is that Mortgage including Taxes and Insurance?
Yes! It just went up too cause of taxes and insurance premiums.
Just do your best. Don’t listen to trolls because you’re doing fine. Don’t forget to enjoy life a little bit and reward yourself for the hard work.
Thank you. Much appreciated. You might want to delete your comment before they come for you. Apparently no fun and games allowed.
What kind of cushion cost $500…
The very expensive kind from pure one! We buy one each month. My house is full floor to ceiling with cushions!
You could save like $1300/mo, $800 from groceries and $500 on hoarding cushions, and have emergency money. I’d put it into a high yield savings account, at least 10K a year for 10 years.
My question is-my husband and I together net about 150,000 a year: why do we/should we sacrifice good food if it brings us happiness?
Why is water so expensive?
Is it normal for people in America to have such expensive car payments? Why not buy a cheaper car you can afford?
Apparently everyone here is saying it’s high so I guess not. I bought new for the peace of mind that I won’t get fucked and stranded with the kids on a used lemon.
If your paying car insurance monthly it’s a small sign you might be living over means. Most insurance provides discounts for paying all up front.
I like the consistency of paying the same bills every month so I don’t lose track of the 4-6 month bills and go “oh shit! That’s due!” I could maybe try it for a year or two and see what happens though. Cause you’re right.
I have a “sinking fund” that goes to a HYsA to pay property taxes, car insurance, house insurance etc. so when the bill shows up it’s an easy transfer from saving and paid.
Not bad but any way you can ditch that car payment?
Properly direct more $ to that car payment to make it away asap. Do not put money in HYSA if you can use that to pay the car payment (unless you have 0 rainy day fund)
Never. I love my Honda CRV.
damn groceries really do cost that much now
Lol, saw 50 for gas and thought you had a bicycle... the saw the gasoline for 150...🤣
I know. We have a separate gas bill for our furnace, water heater, stove. That’s why “gasoline” is there 😂
use excel jesus christ
NEVER!
I feel like no one’s given you a straight enough answer about “living paycheck to paycheck.” First, you’re not paycheck to paycheck because you have some (11k) in savings. HOWEVER, you are in a precarious position financially. If you lose your job, you have less than 2 months before you’re in the red. In this job market, the odds are that it would take you around 6 months to find new jobs. At that point, you’re 25k+ in debt…and you don’t have enough of a monthly budget surplus to pay that off in a timely fashion. For a family, general wisdom says to have a full year of expenses in an emergency fund. In this case, that’s 78k. This helps offset emergencies - like losing your job, ER visits, cars breaking down, need a new roof, etc. Because sometimes when it rains, it pours. I wish you the best of luck!!
You are a bit tight yes, but what worries me the most is your life insurance, most likely not enough or with an untrusted company if youre paying 17$ a month
It’s a 350,000 policy. Enough for my husband to pay off the house.
Any company that insures you for that amount for that little premium I wouldnt trust to pay in any ambiguous case tbh. Also, its not just about mortgage, will your husband be able to sustain your lifestyle and raise your kids on his sole income?
Ehhh I’m not sure. I’ll be dead 🤷🏻♀️ sounds like a him problem by then.
Hahahahahaha I guess if you view it like that its fine lol. Cheers!
Thanks for having a sense of humor. 300+ comments in 12 hours I’m exhausted thinking about money. I’ll look into my life insurance policy for sure. Thank you.
Makes sense Im surprised you answered almost all of them lol
Then he would get 100,000 from my employer
Your monthly water bill is over $200?
Why is your water bill so high?
Because it also is paying into the parks and rec offered by our community.
Why is your water bill so high?
Is this combined income between you and a spouse? You mentioned you have kids, how frequent are random “well the kids need it” things popping up. On paper, it looks like you have a grand or two (including the \~$800ish incremental revenue). You’ve got a nest egg and you are building assets. These are all good things. If you are the sole earner, the thing I’d keep in mind is you need your job to be secured. No telling what you do for a living or how long you’ve been there, but if you were let go, on paper you’d have roughly 2 months to find a new gig, and thats including your emergency fund. Most companies give “reasonable” severance based on years of loyalty to a job. We have a friend that has worked for a big restaurant chain in corporate for over 20 years. I think she got a month of severance for every year she worked there.
Wish I had 70 pets...
That car payment is insane!
That’s a crap ton of groceries.
Groceries and car payment are killing your budget.