Hi, all! I heard this was a friendly, helpful sub and I'm feeling completely lost and miserable.
I work in a hotel, full-time for $9 hr, so I make about $19,000 a year (adjusted to around $16,000 after taxes). My boyfriend is a full-time student (I had to drop out due to money) and works part time for even less - around $10,000. I've thought about switching jobs, but I'm scared to leave my current one due to my supervisor...which is a long story.
We used to live with my father and his girlfriend, but she felt that 21 was too old to still be living at home and gave my dad an ultimatum for us to leave. Similarly, my step-father gave my mother an ultimatum which forced my brother to move out of their house. Because we had no savings due to the amount of money we were giving to my dad's girlfriend, we got some help from my mom, who paid for us to get into an apartment.
Our rent was initially around $915 a month including utilities. It's gone up over $100 when we renewed our lease, and is going to get worse under the new management.
So, here's how we budget currently every month.
Average Each Month: $1,600 at worst (like my boyfriend getting bad hours at work).
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After rent, we have $907 left. (My mom pays $300 a month for rent on my brother's behalf)
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$130 goes to my boyfriend's car insurance, and I put $80 in savings because I pay my insurance every six months, and another $10 for my registration (my boyfriend's family usually helps him with registration). That takes us to $587.
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We put $90 in savings as an emergency fund every month, taking it to $497.
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We spend around $90 in gas per month, $407
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Our dog's food is ~$50 a bag, $357
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I pay my dad $100 a month for my phone, $257
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Internet is $80, leaving us with $177 to live on.
It seems less extreme when I write it all down, but we're finding it difficult to manage. Grocery shopping is hell, because we can barely afford to do it.
Now, our rent is definitely going up again under new management (tenants we have spoken to whose leases have ended have confirmed this), and we can't possibly afford to move out (deposit fees would drain our savings), but we can't afford to stay here. We aren't sure what to do or what our options are, and I'm scared.
Any advice for a dumb 23 year old who needs some financial help would be appreciated. :)
Submitted May 11, 2017 at 03:21AM by orlycake http://ift.tt/2r2RYbu
