trytofindbalance
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Post by trytofindbalance on Apr 29, 2011 15:21:38 GMT -5
Oh, I just read that your daughter is only 10. I would definitely talk to the orthodontist, because I'm not sure that there would be much harm in her waiting a couple of years to get her braces. My DD is 14 and she just got hers this past summer (her teeth were really bad). Remember, they are in business to make money too, so if they may try to make you feel bad for not fixing the kiddo's teeth at the first sign of an issue. I would also as my regular dentist about it and ask if there will be an issues if you wait a little while.
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Apr 29, 2011 15:24:07 GMT -5
You might want to look at Delta Dental. They may operate differently in CA, but I have had good coverage with them for years.
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on Apr 29, 2011 15:26:04 GMT -5
I would cut the cable TV if you can. Get rooftop antenna and you can get stuff for free. Better HD picture too. Keep your Netflix. Not sure if you can get just internet service, but I would call around. I thought at first at my place I couldn't or would have to pay huge amount. I was wrong. I had Uverse and called them and they said I could just have internet. I dropped TV package and now I pay 30 bucks a month for internet only.
Also, that 600 bucks you got "floating" around. You need to assign that to something. Don't just have it sitting there with nothing to do, or you will spend it.
Ughh bike loan. Man, I have no idea why people take them. I had 3 bikes (back in my racing days) and every one of them I paid cash for. Funny, I was in credit card debt, but I managed to spend 8k on a bike cash lol Just shows you how skewed my thinking was. My friend bought a HD recently and he took out 8 year loan! Crazy! and he lives paycheck to paycheck. Good that you have only 2 more payments. What kind of bike is it?
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Apr 29, 2011 15:26:48 GMT -5
I'm just going to assume that you'll have a reason why you can't cut pretty much everything you've listed save the following. I don't say that to be offensive, but in cases like these its always "I need that for work" or "I'm locked into a contract" or "there are no alternatives".
So as usual, the amount of progress you make is directly correlated to how medieval (literally and figuratively) you want to get.
The easiest ones:
- bike payment. Gone soon, as you said. Wait until that is gone, and then make sure you "continue making the payment" but to savings. - Sell the bike after it is paid off. - Groceries. Obviously you need to start couponing and cutting back, but I just fear that as prices increase, you won't actually gain ground.
Are your deductibles already too high for your comfort or can some money be saved by raising deductibles?
If you want to get really hardcore, then yes get the hell rid of that pay TV. It may "only" be $20/month, but that is $20/month more that you will have to work with.
How slow is that phone company internet? Could you tolerate it for a while?
Other than that, best of luck.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 15:29:52 GMT -5
It's a Honda Shadow that I bought barely used. Was the stupidest purchase of my life. It's actually the reason I found the original YM. I had just separated from the military and gotten a "good paying job" so I got it to reward myself. We were living in a total of a townhouse that we shared with my wife's sister at the time, and we had credit card debt.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 15:39:53 GMT -5
Can you get a side contract or two?
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 15:44:48 GMT -5
I need a cell phone for work, which they'll provide if I choose, but it'll be an email enabled Blackberry, and everyone who has one ends up expected to be reachable in the evening. I'd rather pay for my own phone and keep my evenings to myself, I call family out of state quite a bit anyway. I need to drop the data plan though, and go straight voice/text. I'd like the wife to do the same, but she at least uses her data plan. I really don't surf on my phone, use apps, or anything. It's just a basic phone to me 99% of the time. The other 1% isn't worth the cost of the data plan.
We have to find a way to lower the grocery bill. It's getting crazy.
I'd like to drop cable and Tivo. We really don't watch it much anyway. I need a decent internet connection at the house though. Partly for work (I'm required to have internet at home), and partly because we stream movies and stuff (why I'd keep Netflix), the kids play games, and Loop and I both use it quite a bit.
I've been meaning to get the bike running and sell it for months and months. I need to stop putting that off.
Part of me would rather see Loop get a job instead of the volunteer work, if I'm being honest. I'm happy that she's happy, but having a second paycheck would take some stress off me. Not to mention that the student loans are all hers, and she got them after we had kids. It would be nice if she could at least cover those out of her earnings. Her volunteering ends up costing us a little bit anyway, because she volunteers and donates.
If we cut everything I want to cut it still doesn't leave us with all that much wiggle room though. Loop working could potentially, but summer is coming and the kids aren't old enough at 9 and 10 to be home alone while Loop works. I'm not sure she'd make much of anything once taxes and daycare came out.
I feel like an asshole for being this stressed at my salary. It doesn't seem like it should be this tight. At the same time, it doesn't seem like we're living a super extravagant lifestyle.
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upstatemom
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Post by upstatemom on Apr 29, 2011 15:54:41 GMT -5
Hello, did you get quotes from different Dr's for the braces. I got two quoted for my kids and the difference was $900 per kid. The doctors who charged more, run all kinds of contests for the kids and have video games in the waiting area. I went with the one who just has a waiting room, I already pay enough for kids entertainment ;D.
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Bluerobin
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Post by Bluerobin on Apr 29, 2011 15:57:03 GMT -5
Dark, here is a novel idea. Try saving up for the work - at least for yours. If you can put off your work, you won't so hard pressed. Another option is cut down your retirement contributions, if money gets too tight. You can also cut down entertainment and cable.
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Apr 29, 2011 15:57:38 GMT -5
I am reminded of a fellow I know through work, something like 8 kids or more. Last one adopted when he was around 52. His wife home schools the kids and they are on a strict budget, she doesn't work. She fell out of the loft in the garage while storing stuff up there one afternoon. She was stunned but all right...except for a tooth that was badly chipped. She went out that afternoon and got a part-time job at Wal*Mart. He didn't even know a thing about this until he got home and heard about her fall, her tooth, and her new job to pay for the dental expenses. She had it all covered. He told me this and I thought "WOW! what a lady!"
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Apr 29, 2011 15:58:47 GMT -5
I feel like an asshole for being this stressed at my salary. It doesn't seem like it should be this tight. At the same time, it doesn't seem like we're living a super extravagant lifestyle. Dark, I think DH and I bring in similar pay to yours in a MCOL and I have similar feelings. Stop procrastinating and deal with the bike. Are you paying car insurance on it? And before you feel really guilty about your daughter's teeth, TALK to her about braces. My parents could only afford to put braces on my top 6 front teeth (I had a tooth come in sideways) and couldn't afford to deal with my crossbite. They were paying for full braces on my older brother and sister. I was delighted to not have full braces. Admittedly this was 30 years ago when I was 10, but she's old enough to have her own thoughts and feelings on this. Find out what they are. If she's embarrassed or ashamed of her teeth as they are, then yes, deal with them. But if she's good with doing yours first, then do it and don't feel guilty.
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trytofindbalance
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Post by trytofindbalance on Apr 29, 2011 16:00:41 GMT -5
"I feel like an asshole for being this stressed at my salary. It doesn't seem like it should be this tight. At the same time, it doesn't seem like we're living a super extravagant lifestyle"
I know exactly how you feel. I know you read my thread about getting my DH onboard. I make a little more than you, yet, we too are stretched right now. We also don't live an extravagant lifestyle, but we both seem to live in HCOL areas (my mortgage/taxes is $2993 per month in a 3 bed/2 bath 1900 sq foot house built in 1973). DH also contributes to our income and there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because he should be earning substantially more in the next few months.
I happen to agree that you're wife's happiness is very important; however, your children are 9 and 10 and in school full time. Maybe she needs to consider getting a job in September when the kids are back in school. We would all like to pursue our interests volunteering for causes that are close to our hearts, but our families must come first. I think it might help to take some pressure off of you. My SIL has 4 very young children. She has been a SAHM the last 10 years. Her DH is stressed to the hilt (he makes a little less then you). She finally made the decision to go back to work part time. Her new job is very flexible, so she can work around her kid's schedules. It's not great pay, but it's something to help alleviate some of the stress and pay for some of the groceries...it's a start.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 16:05:58 GMT -5
Has Loop looked for work? Or considered watching a child or two over the summer?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 16:14:36 GMT -5
I feel like an asshole for being this stressed at my salary. It doesn't seem like it should be this tight. At the same time, it doesn't seem like we're living a super extravagant lifestyle. Dark, I think DH and I bring in similar pay to yours in a MCOL and I have similar feelings. Stop procrastinating and deal with the bike. Are you paying car insurance on it? And before you feel really guilty about your daughter's teeth, TALK to her about braces. My parents could only afford to put braces on my top 6 front teeth (I had a tooth come in sideways) and couldn't afford to deal with my crossbite. They were paying for full braces on my older brother and sister. I was delighted to not have full braces. Admittedly this was 30 years ago when I was 10, but she's old enough to have her own thoughts and feelings on this. Find out what they are. If she's embarrassed or ashamed of her teeth as they are, then yes, deal with them. But if she's good with doing yours first, then do it and don't feel guilty. Sorry, but there's no way I would let my 10 year old decide whether or not they wanted braces. They have no idea of the future impact of poor looking teeth (if it's purely cosmetic) or the possible jaw/bite problems they could encounter. Orthodontia starts earlier these days because if the mouth is too small they can do palate expanders, which work better before the bones are fully fused, instead of pulling teeth (it's always best to keep your teeth). All my kids started their ortho at 9/10 years old. I would start with whichever one of you is more urgent (with the 24 month no-interest payments) and then in 6 months (after you've had some time to save up for a larger down payment) do the other one, again with the 24 months no-interest plan.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 16:19:08 GMT -5
I feel like an asshole for being this stressed at my salary. It doesn't seem like it should be this tight. At the same time, it doesn't seem like we're living a super extravagant lifestyle. No need to feel like an asshole. You really don't have an extravagant budget. I know you are thinking I make about 100K, but it looks like you are only netting about 66K of it. Insurance, taxes, and retirement are eating up a big chunk. Utilities look high too, but I figured that was a function of CA, $200 for a water bill wow.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 16:39:21 GMT -5
Has Loop looked for work? Or considered watching a child or two over the summer? Not really. We were waiting until my daughter had her appointment with the orthodontist to see how much we're looking at total. That appointment was on Tuesday. We talked about it a bit on Tuesday/Wednesday, and I looked at our budget for the first time in probably 8 or 9 months. Then she left first thing Thursday morning for a state democratic party convention. She holds a non paying seat on the county party committee. I spent all day yesterday stressing out, but I didn't have the numbers with me at work, so I didn't post until this morning. We still need to schedule consults with the other orthodontist in town to get a second opinion on pricing.
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constanz22
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Post by constanz22 on Apr 29, 2011 16:39:23 GMT -5
Are "Food $800" and "Groceries $800" two separate items?? Like food is eating out and groceries are groceries?! If so, HOLY CRAP! That's $1600, more than half of MY monthly take home income, spent on FOOD...yikes...I don't know how many are in your family, but, that's just insane! Someone needs to learn to menu plan, shop the sales, and/or coupon. If coupons are not your thing, that's cool, but you could cut that in HALF just by shopping the sales and menu planning. Wow...I'm in shock...
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 16:43:47 GMT -5
Utilities look high too, but I figured that was a function of CA, $200 for a water bill wow. I think that's due to the water treatment fiasco. The town we bought in grew faster than their infrastructure could handle during the boom, which resulted in overflowing at the sewage treatment plant. They had to put in a building moratorium for a few years, they got an assessment added to the property taxes, and I think the utility added a tax to pay for the cost of cleaning up and building out the new plant. The property tax increase only has a couple years left, and I'm hoping the water bill will come down then too. $200 for gas and electric seems pretty good, but $200 for water seems crazy. What can ya do?
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 16:45:57 GMT -5
We aren't that bad, it's just $800 a month on food and it's all groceries. Sorry, my spreadsheet has categories with the spending in each category broken out beneath it, but you can't do much formatting on here. When I wrote it I tabbed over the lines under each category but when I hit post that went bye bye.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Apr 29, 2011 16:48:38 GMT -5
Silly question, but instead of you getting an evening/weekend job, why couldn't Loop get the evening weekend job? There still wouldn't be child care costs; you'd get to see your kids (not your wife, but you wouldn't get to see her if you were working another job, either) and there's the second income.
Otherwise, I second the idea of finding out if there's one of the girls' friends who needs watching over the summer- maybe Loop could do that. Or, if she and another mom in the area both were looking at part time jobs, maybe they would swap childcare?
She should talk to the other Derby folks. If they're anything like the Derby community up here, there should be lot of ideas/options there (possibly even a part time job).
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HoneyBBQ
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Post by HoneyBBQ on Apr 29, 2011 17:08:27 GMT -5
I'm no dentist, but 10 seems like too young to be vigilant about flossing and brushing. It's SO HARD to floss when you have braces... most 10 year olds aren't up to it IMO. My SD had braces very young and she did not brush her teeth enough. Now they are straight but they look like crap with staining and such. You have to brush soooo carefully and sooo often with braces and kids just forget things so much and don't realize the consequences of their actions.
Seems like if you waited a few years she'd be more mature and you'd have more $. Just my 2 cents.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Apr 29, 2011 17:13:10 GMT -5
Silly question, but instead of you getting an evening/weekend job, why couldn't Loop get the evening weekend job? She could, and that was her first thought. I have a higher earning potential on a part time job if I can find something IT related though. She'll probably end up with something in the $10/hour range, I wouldn't even consider something that wasn't at least double that.
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daylight
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Post by daylight on Apr 29, 2011 17:18:14 GMT -5
I'd suggest that you ditch cable anyway. Definitely look into carpooling, even if you end up with a second job or Loop starts working. Babysitting in the summer is not a bad idea at all.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 17:42:04 GMT -5
Has your wife thought about looking at her local school system for jobs? We have all sorts of aides . . . library aides, special education aides, attendance workers, etc. Their pay is truly miserable (maybe starting at $15,000 and topping out at $24,000 after 10 or 15 years experience.) But . . . they don't worry about childcare, If their kids' school system closes and they work somewhere else, they bring the kid to school for the day. The insurance is fairly cheap, too. I pay $180 a month for family coverage.
Something to think about . . .
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 18:08:24 GMT -5
If it was *me*, I'd drop the cable, Tivo and internet, sell the bike and shave a couple hundred off the grocery budget. I'd tether my computer and get a digital antennae (we got 15 local channels in crystal clear with one). I'd start shopping around for a cheaper phone plan as well. Then I'd have at least $500/month taken off the top of my income every month and put into a savings account...somewhere kind of hard to get at so I wouldn't be tempted, like an ING or Emigrant account.
I'd encourage your wife to get a part-time job as well on evenings or weekends. I realize you could make more, but you don't want to burn out and she would probably enjoy getting out of the house for 10 or 20 hours a week anyhow.
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Post by gsbrq on Apr 29, 2011 18:14:04 GMT -5
Maybe I'm overlooking something...but those two "extra" paychecks you're not counting...wouldn't those cover the entire annual cost?
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Post by gsbrq on Apr 29, 2011 18:15:57 GMT -5
Oh, and I don't think your budget is that bad, except that you're not budgeting any non-retirement savings. I'm sure you could trim the grocery & transportation costs if you put your mind to it, too.
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on Apr 29, 2011 18:20:28 GMT -5
If more Americans looked at the numbers they way I do, and saw how much they pay every month for insurance And the same is true for Fed Income Tax, if we had to save up all yr and pay our entire bill on April 15, two things would happen - (1) people would see how much they pay, and (2) they would be forced to accept the responsibility for their bill. (It was that way until WW2). The $13,800/yr that is added into your 401k account, invested at 11%/yr, will be $3.4M when you are age 60. (And you'll probably increase that over the yrs as salary goes up - ie, you'll have a 'real' $3.4M adjusted for inflation). If you make that a family priority and don't allow that plan to derail, you guys should enjoy spending the rest (but w/o consumer debt). Sell the bike, save up the $600/m for a few months and buy the braces in 2012.
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Post by debtheaven on Apr 29, 2011 18:24:56 GMT -5
I would budget the bike payment, the proceeds from the sale of the bike, and one of the "extra" paychecks. I wouldn't budget both checks because inevitably something will come up.
That would cover at least half the ortho fees, maybe even more depending on how much you can sell the bike for.
That would leave you cash-flowing the other half (or less).
This said, Dark, I have four kids, three have had braces so far, and 10 sounds pretty young to me. 12 or 13 is more common here.
If Loop is open to getting a PT job, why not? But it seems silly to me for her to start now, unless she's open to watching other kids over the summer. Better for her to start when the girls go back to school after the summer IMO (unless you can work out a system where she wouldn't be paying for childcare.)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2011 18:34:22 GMT -5
This said, Dark, I have four kids, three have had braces so far, and 10 sounds pretty young to me. 12 or 13 is more common here. This really depends on what is wrong with the kid's mouth. If it is just cosmetic then it can probably wait. My dd would have never gotten her lateral incisors without either an expander or having teeth pulled.
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