Best advice for first month on one income only

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Hello,
I just recently lost my job and I am waiting to be approved for STD and I have also applied for SSDI. In other words, even if approved, it could take years (for SSDI). I am at a point where I cannot work at all.
I am now a stay at home mom again! Wow, it's been a while. My girls are in high school. DD16 has a car, and lucky for us, in june will be our first car insurance premium with her on it. So, having teens and being out of work, is going to be very difficult.
I called my cable company and dropped about $30 of service a month.
We have no land line.
We are on the best wireless plan for the 4 of us.
I'm stuck...what else can I do? I plan on us eating out only once a month. I will be saving gas from not having a commute of 60 miles a day, no spending money on breakfast and lunch at work. No clothing for work.
Anything you can pass along, will help!
Thanks!
Heather

 

[bettymae1121]

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, if your daughter doesn't have a job and you don't need her to drive anywhere, can you put off having her put on your insurance and just not have her drive at all? If she does really need to be able to drive, IMO she should help pay for her insurance by getting a job (if she doesn't have one already).

Other than that, I think the usual budget tricks apply. Cut cupons, only buy things on sale, go around the house and find things to sell, if you need something look on craigslist and ebay first to see if you can score a deal. Cut utility costs by turning off lights, running the AC less (or not at all), washing only full loads, line dry the laundry. In short spend not a single cent more than absolutely nessesary for the first month or two, and see how you do. You can always add a few things back in if it looks like you have a bit extra each month.

Good luck!

 

[mrsklamc]

Call your accountant and see if your DH's with holding needs to be adjusted.

Is it really called STD in your state? What an unfortunate name.

 

[crisi]

Go through each of your expenses and trim them. Lower your heat, turn down the air conditioning, turn down the water heater. Make sure to turn off lights and turn off your computer.

Trim your grocery budget. Coupon, shop generic, shop sales, shop cheap. Go for cheap healthy staples - get rid of the luxuries (like soda and ice cream). Bake from scratch - especially bread. Reduce meat consumption.

Plant a garden - winter squash, tomatos - things you can can at harvest time.

 

[mom2faith]

Plan ahead as much as you can. I plan bills out 3 to 6 months ahead, it helps us remember that what we spend today can hurt us in June - KWIM??

Meal Plan too - that way you do not over spend in the grocery store.

Here is a great article that may help. I took a lot of information rom it and adapted it to our life: http://www.budget101.com/ebooklet/ebooklet_fam4.pdf

Oh and ITA that DD should pay for her share of the premiums.

Good Luck!!

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, if your daughter doesn't have a job and you don't need her to drive anywhere, can you put off having her put on your insurance and just not have her drive at all? If she does really need to be able to drive, IMO she should help pay for her insurance by getting a job (if she doesn't have one already).

Other than that, I think the usual budget tricks apply. Cut cupons, only buy things on sale, go around the house and find things to sell, if you need something look on craigslist and ebay first to see if you can score a deal. Cut utility costs by turning off lights, running the AC less (or not at all), washing only full loads, line dry the laundry. In short spend not a single cent more than absolutely nessesary for the first month or two, and see how you do. You can always add a few things back in if it looks like you have a bit extra each month.

Good luck!

My daughter just started driving a couple of months ago. She has been looking for a job....but i may push her to look a little harder. A little money towards insurance each month would certainly help. Plus, we won't have to give her gas money. But she has been on the fence about whether to cheer or not, and she just decided tonight NOT to cheer next year.
I need to get a line for our laundry line, thanks! I wouldn't have thought about this, I haven't dried laundry on the line in forever.

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Call your accountant and see if your DH's with holding needs to be adjusted.

Is it really called STD in your state? What an unfortunate name.

Both he and I have always claimed "0" in order to get a refund from the IRS. If things are too tight, I can call and have them adjust it to 2 and see if that helps. Thanks!

It' Short Term Disability and yea,it's kinda hard to not think of the other STD. LOL. Even if I am approved for it, it's only 12 weeks of my salary. But better than nothing.

 

[Pastamom]

Having been through this recently....

We cut out every expense that we didn't need ie. church, donations, etc. I don't even look at sale ads except for food. Not buying is better than a sale. We also cut out all gifts that we could justify (adults) Buy food in bulk, according to sales and coupons. Of course, don't eat out or take out if you do - have a coupon.

If daughter wants to drive have her pay the increase in insurance. Once you explain to her what you are cutting back she should understand.

We were able to cut our credit card bill by about $1000 - it amazed us how much we didn't need...

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Having been through this recently....

We cut out every expense that we didn't need ie. church, donations, etc. I don't even look at sale ads except for food. Not buying is better than a sale. We also cut out all gifts that we could justify (adults) Buy food in bulk, according to sales and coupons. Of course, don't eat out or take out if you do - have a coupon.

If daughter wants to drive have her pay the increase in insurance. Once you explain to her what you are cutting back she should understand.

We were able to cut our credit card bill by about $1000 - it amazed us how much we didn't need...

The good thing about this is that it is forcing me to be accountable for every single dollar spent. I like the idea over detash thread, about having $0 days. I'm going to try and impelement this. Also, since I won't be working, I can shop around town, and go to the bread thrift store, and local meat market, who has the best prices on chicken anywhere. Our Goodwill store is reopening as a brand new Goodwill...hopefully they will have some good summer clothes for cheer practice for DD15 and Zumba classes etc
And our insurance has gone up from 896 a year to over 2500. That's not a difference I expect her to make up, but $50 a month and covering her own extras would help. She may have problems finding a job though...even adults are having issues getting a PT job at Burger King. It's a bad time for everyone.

 

[pintamino]

I've only been driving for about 3 years, but I was always expected to pay my own insurance (~$70 a month) plus gas (I worked 20 minutes away and drove a silverado... it was tough when gas was $4 a gallon!), or not drive -- and to me taking the bus wasn't an option! I also had to pay for upkeep on my car -- it was kind of nice being away at school and not worrying about it to be honest.

Does your daughter make good grades/has she taken drivers ed? We got insurance discounts for both of those

 

[tinachris]

And our insurance has gone up from 896 a year to over 2500. That's not a difference I expect her to make up, but $50 a month and covering her own extras would help. She may have problems finding a job though...even adults are having issues getting a PT job at Burger King. It's a bad time for everyone.

Have you looked at shopping around for your insurance....if you only added her, this seems a little high...

 

[bumbershoot]

Is it really called STD in your state? What an unfortunate name.

What else would Short Term Disability be called?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, if your daughter doesn't have a job and you don't need her to drive anywhere, can you put off having her put on your insurance and just not have her drive at all? If she does really need to be able to drive, IMO she should help pay for her insurance by getting a job (if she doesn't have one already).

I'm not even sure you can *do* that if you have a licensed teen driver in the house. Can you?

Both he and I have always claimed "0" in order to get a refund from the IRS. If things are too tight, I can call and have them adjust it to 2 and see if that helps. Thanks!

Well, it might be better for you guys to get all the money in your monthly paychecks as you can, instead of as a refund a year later. It's just the three of us here, but DH claims 6, and this year we STILL got a refund. We're shooting for zero, or even paying a couple hundred, and we just can't get our number high enough yet.

Anyway, money in the paycheck might be better than money in a refund...



Try budgeting groceries in cash, so there are no accidental overspends at the grocery store.


Good luck!

 

[tinker&belle]

With the deductions, we used to claim 0, but when I became a SAHM we went to claiming more and now we are up to 9 and still got a refund (we do pay taxes, not EIC or anything) It makes a big difference if you have children for the child credit. You might try the calculator on the IRS website.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Angel Food Ministries.

I know my sister does this -- I'm not exactly sure how it works but she LOVES it.

Can someone explain it?

edited to add : https://www.angelfoodministries.com/about/how_it_works.asp here's how it works. My sister loves it and you may be interested.

 

[Ava]

Well, it might be better for you guys to get all the money in your monthly paychecks as you can, instead of as a refund a year later. It's just the three of us here, but DH claims 6, and this year we STILL got a refund. We're shooting for zero, or even paying a couple hundred, and we just can't get our number high enough yet.

Anyway, money in the paycheck might be better than money in a refund...

I was going to say this. I didn't change my withholdings after DD was born last year and ended up getting a pretty large refund. I decided it would be better to have that money in my check each week than to essentially give the IRS a free loan. After changing my withholdings, I'm getting about $60 more a week in my checks. Not a huge amount, but it helps. Just something to think about.

 

[LadySiren]

I haven't used them myself, mostly because I think we do better with me coupon shopping. We have a family of seven and we'd have to buy two boxes before it became an effective grocery source for us. That being said, a mom's group I belonged to for awhile had a number of people who used Angel Food Ministries and they loved it.

If you go to the AFM site, you can find which organizations in your area offer the service. You can then take a look at the menu and order one or more boxes and/or options from the monthly menu. Be aware that the order cut-off date is fairly early in the month, IIRC, so if you're planning on ordering, make sure you do it sooner rather than later.

Other thoughts: does your power company offer budget billing? We're on an electric co-op and they have a budget billing program that equalizes your monthly bills based on your average power usage. In other words, instead of your bill swinging wildly (especially during high-use periods like mid-summer or winter), you pay the same average amount each month. I believe that our co-op refunds any overage at the end of the year. It might be worth looking into.

For clothes shopping, try the Goodwill online site - it's an ebay-style site with all kinds of stuff. You'll often find new with tags or new without tags clothes there, as well as gently used clothes. I'm currently bidding on a pair of men's new Calvin Klein jeans (current price: $5; with shipping, $12). Okay, now that I've said that, PLEASE do not go and buy these out from under me. In the past, I've gotten A&F, Justice, Ed Hardy, and other high-end brands for cheap cheap cheap.

Just watch the shipping rates - the stores each handle shipping separately, so the prices can fluctuate. For some reason, the Ohio stores seem to have the highest shipping rates. Not sure why, but they do. The site is www.shopgoodwill.com. FYI: they had a TON of Disney items when I searched the site tonight.

Speaking of clothes...if you have gently used clothes that your family doesn't use, how about trying local consignment shops? It might be a good way to not only earn extra money, but free up space in your drawers and closets. Or if you don't want to go the consignment route, do a yard sale. A dear friend and I are joining a third friend of ours at the very large community yard sale that her neighborhood does every spring. I'm hoping to make extra Disney $$!

Anyway, good luck to you. We're a one-income family (DH is Mr. Mom) and we do okay, thanks to my salary and our low cost-of-living area...I always knew living out in BFE North Carolina would be a good thing.

Angel Food Ministries.

I know my sister does this -- I'm not exactly sure how it works but she LOVES it.

Can someone explain it?

edited to add : https://www.angelfoodministries.com/about/how_it_works.asp here's how it works. My sister loves it and you may be interested.

 

[2Eskiedogs]

My hubby only gets paid once a month. Coming up with a budget and sticking to it is the only way to go.

I've been selling excess "stuff" on craigslist, also planning a garage sale in a few weeks.

My son has had his license only for 4 months and when I asked our insurance agent about postponing putting him on the insurance since he wasn't going to be driving, I was told "no".

When school is starting I go through the kids clothes and decide what they need, not what they want. I have found brand new old navy polos at Goodwill, as well as new jeans for both my boys. What they "want" comes out of birthday/x-mas money. You will be amazed that what they thought they wanted a polo for $45, all of a sudden they don't want it. When school supplies come home, they get put in the cupboard for the following year. I do stock up when notebooks, pens, pencils and such are on sale. I have found a few things at garage sales for them, but not very often.

I usually plan out my meals for the entire month and make my shopping list from that. We don't have soda in the house, only for parties. I don't buy any convenience prepackaged food, I have found that when I make items from scratch, I can make a double batch and freeze some of it.

I have some vegetable/flower seeds that we started to put in my garden next month. I started some lettuce seeds in the pots in the house in February, and it has been growing very nicely by my patio door.

My DS(16) takes care of the lawn for our neighbor, he rakes, picks up leaves and mows. It isn't much but it does help for all the little extras he wants.

 

[tommya60]

What is in the pantry/freezer/garage that you can use up? We have too much food in the pantry and freezer and too many items (dish soap, shampoo, etc) in the garage. I am determined to shop from the stash--even if it means the less popular dinners are on the table.

Don't go to the store. Really made a huge difference, no running into Target for one item, or the great deal you might find on batteries (unless you NEED batteries). I'm sure it sounds crazy, but just not being in the store so often saves a lot of money. I put magnetic shopping lists on the refridge for Target and grocery store, I only go once a week (unless we run out of milk or oj).

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

Have you looked at shopping around for your insurance....if you only added her, this seems a little high...

Our agent says he can save us around $300 if we can switch our homeowner insurance over to them. Unfortunately, we can't do this until our contract is up for renewal until July. But I just need to get a copy of our current homeowners policy and pass it along to them. This will really help!

 

[fakereadhed]

Track your spending the first month. Save all of your receipts to see where you can cut corners. I know someone who's husband lost his job and said she had cut things back as far as she could. I asked her how much she spent on groceries per week and she said... '"I don't know."