Need help for my lazy self.

[Gardening Grandma]

You've already made two positive steps.
1) You've confronted the debt (and had the courage to own it publicly; karma for that when I recharge)
2) You took your lunch today (and owned what you've spent in the past)

Question: What percentage of his income does the $200 represent? IMO, unless his income is very low (or he has some really onerous financial obligations) he should be paying you at least 10% of his take home pay (20% would be better).

Comment: If you'll post a starter budget, you'll get some great ideas (and some tough love). You know the drill

[Empire the P.A.]

Here is the breakdown:
CC #1   $15,486.96 - 12.9%
CC #2  $9,202.92 - 21.99%
CC #3  $6,379.20 - 11.24%
CC #4  $2,146.08 - 24.99%
CC #5  $1,530.18 - 18.74%
CC #6  $236.79 - 22.9%
CC #7  $219.74 - 22.99%

Total $35,201.87

I will pay off the smaller amounts ASAP and just do the minimums on the bigger cards for now.

[phil5185]

The $15/day for breakfast & lunch costs about $3750. So that in not your $36,000 problem. But the interest on your loans costs about $7000, that is part of the problem.

List your main expenses, a $36,000 problem doesn't get fixed by packing lunch or reusing baggies, you have a bigger problem somewhere.

[Empire the P.A.]

Mar 12, 2012 20:01:27 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

The $15/day for breakfast & lunch costs about $3750. So that in not your $36,000 problem. But the interest on your loans costs about $7000, that is part of the problem.

List your main expenses, a $36,000 problem doesn't get fixed by packing lunch or reusing baggies, you have a bigger problem somewhere.

I know . That's where the ot comes in hopefully.

Monthly:
Mortgage $1661.46
Loan $359
Car insurance $176.63
Cable $150
Cell $197
Gas $180
Groceries $500

I don't know what else. Boy is this hard putting it all together.

[midjd]

Empire, here are a couple of budget spreadsheets to help you get started - I know the annual budget was a HUGE help to me as far as separating the big expenses from the smaller ones.
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlYhATC8vzWkdGFKN1lMTTRzb05ld2lmN1hxc0R3NUE&pli=1#gid=0

This is a cash flow budget to track expenses on a monthly basis (I added columns for actual vs. budgeted spending to see where the leaks were):
docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlYhATC8vzWkdGg3dzBPY2VpSEVwTVRuMU9nYk5wcWc#gid=0

Just ignore my numbers in there HTH!

[Empire the P.A.]

Thanks Mid and Iggy! I was avoiding looking at the whole mess for the longest time. I used my cards to plug any deficiencies and just made it worse.

[phil5185]

It appears that your take-home pay is about $6500/m. The stuff that you listed is only $3250/m - ie, about half. It doesn't look like you have an income problem - it appears that a bunch of money is slipping thru the cracks every month. OT and more income won't help - first you have to plug the leaks.

[Empire the P.A.]

Phil, I spend money and don't track where it all goes. I don't take home $6500 a month. Approximately $1500 is taken out to cover my pension loan. I didn't account for it because I only look at the amount that's actually deposited into my checking account. so I guess I have to figure out where the $1750 disappears to. I have to be missing something else. I will print out my paycheck stub tomorrow and see what I'm missing.

Thanks for your help. My head hurts now, I feel like a total ditz for letting this get out of control.

[midjd]

You're not a ditz! It's great that you're taking control. It's easy to let things slip up on you - we've all had "I'm spending HOW much?! And on WHAT?!" moments, I know I have.

[Deleted]

Good progress on starting to document your expenses. If the spreadsheets are too daunting for now, just keep posting expenses as you figure them out & then someone will summarize all for you in one post ;D

Phil is right that you have to figure out where the leaks are. You not only need to deal with the CC debt, but getting your total expenses in line with your retirement goal timeline.

Baby steps! Kudos for taking your lunch in. I do that almost every day now & I am a lot healthier for it, as well as saving about $10/day.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Moving this thread to WIR Racers at request of OP

SL ~ Mod

[Empire the P.A.]

Thanks, SL!

It took me four years of quietly reading to finally just get the nerve to put my numbers out. I originally started reading MSN Money through an article about WIR. So now I'm going to try tracking my progress here in WIR. So thank you all for helping me, even though it took me a long time to finally try this.

[Empire the P.A.]

Hopefully I will be successful. Doing this and trying to lose weight.

[GirlGreen]

Good luck in finding that $1750! You could have your debt paid off in ~2 years.

[seriousthistime]

Any updates?