My wife and I are broke. We live Paycheck to Paycheck. We always have no money, are 30 years old and know we can be further along in life than we are right now. Here is as detailed of a breakdown that I can give right now.
Income:
Me= Work in a call centre for a large bank. Base 40k a year, up to 6k a year bonus. Net pay is 1122 B/W
Her=Nurse. Works Base .75 (aka 75% of full time, or 60 hours B/W). She often picks up shifts to supplement when possible. Makes ~40 an hour and her take home after deductions is usually about 1600 B/W on the low end of things, about 1.9 to 2k on the higher end depending on her hours. For Budgeting purposes, I want to use 1600 B/W
Monthly Expenses:
Rent=1253. Includes parking spot.
Car=127 B/W. Almost exactly 2 years left (~6k owing with about 7.5% interest rate). Work is needed to be done soon as it is getting up there. 2010 Hyundai Elantra with 173k Km's on it. Spend about 50 a week on Gas. Wife either buses to work (about 20 bucks a month total) or I drop her off and pick her up. Total about 474 On Transportation
Car Insurance= 140 a month
My Student Loans= 265 a Month with about 24k owing. Government financed @ 5.2%
Her Student Loans= 406 a Month. Student RCL through Bank. Rate is Prime+3.5%, which right now is a total of 6.2%. On top of this, she has ~8k in government Student loans (3k provincal (in manitoba so interest free) and 5k in Federal at 5.2%. The payments are 108 a month for those loans. Combined total of 514 a month.
Hydro=50 a month Equal Payment Plan (good price for this, covers electric heat and power up here in Winnipeg for pretty cheap)
Internet, TV and 2 Cell phones bundled together are $350 a month. Don't have exact break down but Its about 180 for the phones, 100 for TV and 70 for internet.
Pet Costs= about 250 a month (Sigh......) for Doggy Daycare. Puppy can't be left alone for as long as he can be about 2 or 3 times a week, which is when we daycare him. Once he is older (or I get a better work shift) this will go down to 0. Dog food is about 60 a month right now. Cat food is about 15 a week (Needs wet food and vet dry food due to age and health problems). Total is about 370 a month (I die a little inside reading this)
My Credit Card= 5.5k owing ~19.99% interest. Min Payment is 131, pay 150 a month right now. At it's limit right now Her CC=13.5k, 19.99% Interest, paying 350 a month on it right now. At it's limit right now Food=We would like 200 a week, but right now it is probably closer to 300 a week due to restaurants/fast food
Absolutely 0 Savings right now
This should leave us with some money left but we routinely have nothing left. The Biggest culprit is eating out. Right now we eat fast food or go to sit down restaurants nearly every day, and this is killing us (literally, I am obese (315lbs)) and the extra portion of whatever is left. That and Dog toys (my pupper is spoiled rotten) One thing I feel that hurts us a lot besides money is that we have 2 separate accounts, one for me and one for her that are owned just by each of us so I can't see her income and she can't see mine. I have 100% trust in her and she does in me but I think going joint might help us stay on a better path. I also pay the rent, car, and car insurance and she pays hydro and internet/Cable/Phones. We just use whomever has extra cash left after bills (usually her since Rent eats up more than 1 of my cheques) for things like food, etc. We use our debit cards for almost 100% of our spending.
Sidebar: My work offer 2 employee match contributions that I am not taking advantage of yet and it kills me inside. The first is a Savings plan that matches the first 6% of Gross pay I want to save. I can withdraw this money at any time, without penalty, once it has been vested for 6 months. The second is a top up on my pension. I get 3% of my yearly wage extra and it gets saved as a pension. My Plan lets me top up (after 2 years, which will be this year) to an extra 5% of my Gross pay that can be matched as well. Wifes work Deducts a % of her cheque to go directly to pension.
My biggest questions:
0) What more information can I provide to help clarify the situation?
1) Should we combine everything and let 1 person do the work when it comes to this stuff? Switch to a cash diet? Stay as is?
2) Besides Doggy Daycare, where should we look to trim the fat?
3) If we somehow manage to get this spending habit under control, what debt should we tackle first? CC debt? Car? Should we focus on savings?
4) What are some good plans for food to eat cheap and somewhat healthy? Any good cost savings tips? My Wife and I both suck ass as cooking and when we do, it's usually something easy like spaghetti, or a slow cooker recipe.
I will obviously have more questions but we want to implement these changes in March to turn our selves around and have money for once. I am hoping for an update post in 3 to 6 months time with some good news!
Submitted February 03, 2017 at 09:42PM by Pugnatwo http://ift.tt/2l7bVet
