How do you handle your finances/budgeting/savings?

amother

Tue, Jul 30 2013, 11:20 pm

This is the story.
My DH had a very difficult and challenging childhood and also suffers from a mental illness.
I only discovered this after my wedding......
Twelve years down the line and half a dozen children later I'm financially strapped.
HOWEVER
I finally got husband to realize that only I can manage our finances as we are totally messed up.
BUT
I alone am clueless how to go about this
We have credit card debt on a few cards....[thanks to DH]
We have personal debt
We have steady monthly income but very meager amount for our size family and there is always more month left at the end of the money. This includes foodstamps [bh]
Can someone point me in a direction how to regulate our finances as is done in a 'normal' home?
How to budget
How to save
What to think about for our future in terms of retirement
Or perhaps can someone recommend a book or site they find useful?
thanks

TwinsMommy

Wed, Jul 31 2013, 2:03 am

Two things to look at---- where can you cut back on expenses, and how can you produce more income. In our case, we cut out a few extras, never vacation, but mostly just produced more side income. Neither alone would work but both together are producing results.

we have well over $100,000 in debt due to some past dumb choices (student loans for a degree I'm not using and a degree that doesn't earn my husband enough $, medical stuff, etc etc).

We use debit cards. If we're going to use a credit card for anything we really think about it first--- do we really need to use it or can we wait a week or two and save up for the purchase.

Hubby's job pays a whopping $20,000 a year so I work from home after my kids go to bed. We absolutely depend on my income. If we have a week in which more than a thousand in bills are due, I simply kick in into higher gear to produce more money. I plan in advance when bills are due and how much $ needs to come in when and make a plan for it. Since we depend on my income and we no longer have health insurance since hubby lost his job years ago and has had a fraction of the income since (the job hunt has been ridiculous)--- we're done having kids.

We rent. We're 39 years old and are still renting. Everytime we think about buying something comes up. we JUST leased a new car because both of our cars were 12-14 years old and one was about to explode. Smile

With that ding on our credit we're waiting another year or so and then planning on purchasing the house we're currently renting. That will probably save us $300 + per month. Our rent plus water and sewer is about $1400 a month and mortage and taxes etc will be $1100 or so we hope.

we don't qualify for government assistance so we do without health insurance. I don't recommend it but that's what we do. We bought it for years but at over $1200 a month we can't do it anymore.

Before saving for retirement, you need an emergency fund. Before that, you need to get out of debt. It's a multi step process. Dave Ramsey is a great author on the subject.

Hope some of this is helpful. Good luck!@