Help! I think we're living above our means. I want to fix it

amother

Sat, Feb 18 2012, 3:54 pm

Tablepoetry wrote:

It doesn't sound like you can cut that much out of your budget, if anything. Sometimes the solution is not cutting down but finding ways to earn more. I think you probably should concentrate on increasing earning power, since things like food and clothing budget will only grow as your children grow.

True, True.
That has been very hard. My husband makes a certain salary. Its not bad but not great either. I have to study something to be able to earn more than I do now (very little on a small side job).
I actually posted about this in the Israel section.
It so tough.

Tamiri

Sat, Feb 18 2012, 3:59 pm

We rented a car last week, for a day. It came to about 130 nis, not including gas (5 seater). If we only needed a car once a week, then owning would not be wise as renting is far less expensive. You can try and figure it out for yourselves as well: take into account insurances, registration, maintenance etc. vs. how much you really use the car and figure out if there is somewhere to save.

StrongIma

Sat, Feb 18 2012, 5:15 pm

first off, maybe you could find a cheaper source of protein - it sounds to me that you are eating a lot of fish and chicken instead of beans and chickpeas - much cheaper and healthier. you can also save a bundle by not buying any processed food at all. that sounds like a hefty food bill to me.

also, when you compared the cost of keeping a car against taxis, did you also compute the cost of insurance and the annual test and maintenance as well? we discovered that no way is the car cheaper, unless it's paid for at least partly by your employer.

black sheep

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 12:37 am

2500 shekels a month on food doesn't sound like a lot at all, but if you still want to cut it down, it really helps to make a list of all the meals you plan on cooking that week, and then a shopping list, and then do the shopping. if you do this, and keep the shopping down to once a week (except to pick up fresh milk) then it will minimize waste. whenever I plan meals and shop accordingly, my overall monthly grocery bill can be up to 200 dollars (dollars!) cheaper than when I don't.

also, I agree with tablepoetry, it is a good idea to focus on increasing earnings because expenses will continue to grow as the family grows older and bigger. cutting expenses, while necessary, only gets you so far....

RachelEve14

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 12:48 am

amother wrote:

See? I really have no idea how or why we are sort of living above our means. Maybe I have to figure out the shopping, but even that, we spend about 2500 a month (we are a small family still) on food, so I dont think that that is so much.

I am just majorly confused and I really dont know what to fix.

ding ding ding.

sounds a lot for food for a "small" family (how many exactly is small).

We are 4 kids (4 - 8), 2 adults, and a mishpachton (2 eating regularly, 3 on baby food I make), and I spend under 2000 / month. I try to keep it at 1000 - 1500, but I say under 2000 because we absolutely don't spend more than that (it's usually around 1500).

curlgirl

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 1:55 am

RachelEve14 wrote:

ding ding ding.

sounds a lot for food for a "small" family (how many exactly is small).

I agree.

DH and I were discussing this, after hearing from people that they spend 800-1000 shekels a WEEK on food. We were wondering what on earth they are buying :-)

(All were youngish couples with 2-4 young children)

We spend 1200 shekels a month, with everyone eating the main meal out during the week (with 2 small children BH).

m in Israel

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:38 am

Everyone can give their opinions on what to cut, but without knowing your personal priorities is would be hard to help you. If you are really serious about cutting expenses, the first step is to know exactly where your money is going. For a month keep track of every single shekel you spend --- in as much detail as possible. So instead of just saying 2500 on groceries, keep every receipt from your shopping. Make sure to keep track of anything that is on horaat kevah as well (utility bills, etc.), or expenses that you pay every other month. Once you have that, you are in a much better position to actually figure out where you might be able to save.

As far as the car issue goes, we are currently in the market to buy a car, so we've been crunching numbers a lot. Currently we either walk or take taxis for local travelling, and rent a car whenever we need to travel farther. We end up renting a car about once a week, and it costs about 115 shekel per day (not including gas). So between the rentals and the taxis we are definitely NOT so frugal with our transportation costs, and even so just the insurance and maintenance fees on owning a car would come out to more. We are still considering it for the convenience factor, but if you really need to cut your expenses, it might be something to look at again. (If you regularly need to travel with a bunch of kids and you own a mpv or mini van it is a different story, as renting something like the Mazda 5 is significantly more. But if it just your husband traveling for business, renting a car once a week is probably significantly cheaper.)

ewa-jo

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:52 am

Tablepoetry wrote:

This.

IMO, the problem with cutting down and cutting down and living on the cheap is that your budget can be blown if the price of rice skyrockets or the washing machine breaks down.

Can you find a way to make money part-time or from home?

Or do a course to learn a skill that translates into income? (graphics, programming, tech writing)

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:53 am

m in Israel wrote:

This is the OP. We use our car for shopping. I can not get to the store otherwise. I live in the boondocks and there is no other way to get to the store from my home. We also use it to take children to school when the weather is bad (on a nice day it is a 10 - 15 minute walk, but in the rain, it is not a good idea)
And no, we do not have a mini van. We have a small car.

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:55 am

ewa-jo wrote:

Tablepoetry wrote:

So, I was the OP of the thread in the Israel forum about learning something in a year. But many courses also cost a lot of money and that we do not have.
Does anyone know of somerthing I could study that would not cost an arm and a leg?

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:56 am

curlgirl wrote:

RachelEve14 wrote:

ding ding ding.

sounds a lot for food for a "small" family (how many exactly is small).

We also all eat the main meal out of the house (or if not, its a small sandwich at home) but how do you spend 1200 a month? Do you buy no basari at all? That is our main staple for super.

ora_43

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:58 am

Renting a car is a good idea, but might not be practical if OP and her dh are living somewhere remote. Like, if they're on a yishuv and he needs to get to somewhere near Jerusalem, he'd probably need to find a way to get all the way to Jerusalem just to get to a car rental place.

2,500 does sound a little high for food, depending of course how many young kids there are and how OP is defining "young." If there are kids ages, say, 9, 6, and 4 and all meals are from home I think it sounds reasonable.

But that said, OP, what's reasonable for your community might not be good for you. The community is too expensive for you, so it's likely that the "normal" food bill is a bit high for you. Also, being a mostly non-working mom often means cutting food (and other) bills in beyond-normal ways, like fixing (or making) your own clothing, baking your own bread, etc. So I'd say don't look to your neighbors to see what normal is unless they're in your circumstances.

Other than that, I agree with m in Israel, it's hard to give advice without knowing what your bills are. There are ways to save on electric for example, but who knows if they're even relevant? Why go into how you can bake things together to save a few shekels, or reduce dryer use, if you might never bake and not own a dryer?

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 2:58 am

black sheep wrote:

I do only do shopping once a week, never more. And I buy only what we need.
But I guess I can make an actual shopping list and stick to it completely.

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 3:00 am

StrongIma wrote:

OK, we dont really eat fish all that much, but my husband will not eat beans and chickpeas (I dont like them too much either), he just wont, so those are not options for us.
We buy almost no processed food at all (maybe one package of frozen pizza every three months or so)

And as I mentioned, the car is really not a negotiable thing to get rid of. We need it where we live.

amother

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 3:03 am

ora_43 wrote:

What you wrote about renting a car is exactly it. For us to get to a place to rent a car we would first need to take two buses to get to a claose rental place.

OK, in terms of 2500 shekels being a lot, I am going to start a thread in the Israel section about that to see how people can help me lower that.
Or just a thread of ways to lower monthly bills.

But could you just mention here, you said about ways to lower electricity, can you name some that you were referring to?
What do you mean by bake things together?

ora_43

Sun, Feb 19 2012, 3:03 am

amother wrote:

Are you an olah? If so, you probably are eligible for a subsidy, unless you used your education/training benefits already.

I did a training course a few years back. I wasn't eligible for a subsidy (used it for university) but the people who were paid 2,000 instead of 7,000.

There are also sometimes ways to learn things cheaper. For instance, I learned basic programming in a certain language in exchange for agreeing to help with programming grunt work. If you know someone in your area who has a skill you'd like to have, maybe you could work something out with them.