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Sunday, March 02, 2008

March 2008 Budget

It's a few days late, but here is a look at my March 2008 budget plan. I am still hopeful of getting my another debt knocked out this month, but as I write my plan and figure in the setbacks (that I failed to plan for), it doesn't look realistic.

I really need to start budgeting for the insurance, taxes and clothing that I know I will have to incur at some point every year. But the budget as it is currently planned is already $88 over budget. Perhaps I will squeak out a little overtime to make up the difference, between my take home pay and my expenses.

It is really beginning to look like a wise idea to get a $15,000 Prosper.com loan, to pay these debts off. My payments would be less then the current $400 car loan. However, I could still pay $400/month on it and not have to pay out the other $90 in debt payments, that I am currently paying. Thus improving my financial situation immensely. What do you all think?



ItemBudgetedActualOwed
GIVING

Tithe/Charity$??
$???
subtotal
$??

HOUSING


Mortgage$80
$891.88
Insurance
$0

Maintenance$0

Taxes
$0





subtotal
$80

$891.88
UTILITIES

Electric
$80

Gas
$80

Water
$30

Internet
$35
Phone
$0

Cell phone
$50

Trash
$15.50




subtotal
$290.50

FOOD

Grocery$50




subtotal
$50

Transportation


Auto Gas$70

Insurance
$0
Maintenance
$0
Tags & Taxes
$0

Car Payment
$400

$9,861.05
subtotal$470

$9,861.05
CLOTHING

Sunday Best
$0
Work
$0
Everyday
$0
subtotal
$0

MEDICAL/HEALTH


Prescriptions
$0
Deductibles
$0
Eye Doctor
$0
Insurance
$0
subtotal
$0

RECREATION/Memberships

Entertainment
$0
Dating
$0
Optimist Membership$40

Farm Bureau Membership
$0

Subtotal$40

DEBTS


Providian Credit Card
$0

$0
Fingerhut
$10

$1,000
Black Gold Insulation
$0

$0
IRS
$0

$3,795.52
Subtotal$10

$4,795.52
TOTAL$940

$15,548.45



---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






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Posted by Kevin Surbaugh at 3/02/2008 11:59:00 AM
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18 comments:

  1. I don't really understand your budget. Also you have to add insurance, how are you paying car & other insurances? I pray you could increase your income. You are not able to get a second job? Even being a waiter 1 night a week? I do my in home daycare Mon. -Fri. from 7:00am-6:00pm. This covers my tithe and basic bills. And Sat. nights I babysit at someone's house so we have food and a little spending money. I wish I could have Sat. off, but am so grateful God's gives me another way to make money.You also need an emergency fund, but I know this is impossible without actually covering all your monthly bills. And where is you IRS debt in here?
    I do not like the idea of taking a loan, but it may be your best option. Will the IRS debt be paid off with loan as well? YIKES! You are in my prayers. -Becky
    ReplyDelete
  2. $940 to live a month - dirt cheap. There is no visable waist here. The only big red flag is that $400 car payment - We have more income then you - and I could never pay this.

    Isn't the online income helping? What about delivering pizza's 1 night a week for some extra cash. Is that feasible in your area?

    You need to do something to be free and extra cash is the only way.

    Are you saying you only bring home $940 a month? $235 a week?? That is a net of $5.87 per hour I'm guessing $7.50 per hour earned. Deliver 3 pizza's an hour and you could make this in tips.

    How about bartend? Waiter? Deliver newspapers prior to your regular work? Office cleaning?

    Plain and simple - you need to buckle down for short term and work a 2nd job.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Becky R -

    That's just it, I need to add the insurance in but don't know where. I am taking from someone else, like last month to pay for the insurance, Being in retail and a supervisor, I never know from week to week, what day's I will have of, or even what days, if any I will be working early or late.


    Especially as management, I have to be available all 7 days, and the store is open 7am-10pm. Since I am not sure, what days or what hours I am going to work, doing something on the side is tough. I have missed many of a meeting, because of work schedule. Every time, I think I have a set schedule finally, and can plan something, it changes.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Dedicated -
    you are right. If I could pay off that car and consolidate it with the smaller debts for a lower payment, then I could finally do the Dave Ramsey thing and strongly consider selling the car, and getting something cheaper.
    ReplyDelete
  5. dedicated -
    no I only bring home $213 a week generally. $940 is the budget, about $88 over budget.
    ReplyDelete
  6. I think you are way underpaid as management/supervisor. Unless your area just pays really really low in general- which I suppose could be the case.

    I worked in retail as well as restaurants for many years and always brought home more than that. And this was YEARS ago ( worked those types of jobs 1993-2003 or so) and I was never anything other than a sales rep/merch associate and line cook. never a manager or supervisor of any type.

    At one point I worked 2 jobs and made about $600 a week after taxes.

    My friend who just became a low level supervisor at a store where I used to work makes $400something a week. I consider that low considering how long he's worked there. As a regular associate ( think being like a cashier basically)he was only making about 20 cents an hour less. When I worked there 6-7 years ago i always made at least $300 a week and I had no experience in the job and left after 1 year.

    I am not saying this to be critical. more or less I think you are underpaid and possibly you dont value yourself enough. I would be pretty upset to be paid barely above minimum wage at a job I had been at for years and considered in management. in most places McDonalds pays more than that to the floor moppers.
    ReplyDelete
  7. As far as Prosper- it's not going to happen. You may have gotten it 2 years ago but things are terrible there now.

    I am both a borrower and lender there. I got my loan there almost 2 years ago with a B grade an a much lower mount. I dont think I would have managed 15 grand.

    The problem now is most lenders have stopped lending or are much more rigid in their criteria. There have been a lot of low credit score people who never paid their loans and in a social lending that hurts anyone who follows.

    I think I would bid a small amount on you if you needed a lower amount and also maybe showed some plans for making more money or income stability but what you are looking for would be impossible unfortunately.
    ReplyDelete
  8. greg C. -

    thanks for your comments. Remember my $213/week is net not gross. and I am taxed at the higher single rate which means I take home less the a married person would. I do believe I am underpaid, but am ting to move on up to a salaried position (Assistant-Manager).

    As for Prosper, a smaller loan would make my budgeting worse. The only thing to improve my budget, is to roll the car, home improvement, fingerhut and most of the IRS into it. Currently, I am in deferment on the IRS, but once the loan is that size $12-15 thousand, my payments would become smaller.

    If I only consolidated my unsecured debt, then my payments would be higher.

    I do appreciate your advice, and as you suggest it may not be worth the effort and maybe even risky on my part.
    ReplyDelete
  9. How can you eat on $50 a month? or what are you eating? I have to feed 2 and we spend well over 300 a month... do you a discount on groceries where you work?
    ReplyDelete
  10. even Larry Wingett would say you are over spending in that category. According to his latest book, that I reviewed a couple months ago, and that you can purchase from the right side bar of this site, you food budget should be $50 a month per person.


    That is not dinning out. That is fixing everything from scratch at home.
    ReplyDelete
  11. I also agree with some of the people here about the income, have you considered other grocery stores etc? My favorite grocery store down here in Houston is always hiring and opening new stores all the time, someone in your position here makes at least 40k per year, they also have great benefits. Here is a link to their careers page, check them out,

    http://heb.com/aboutHEB/careers-storeRetail.jsp

    If anything just apply online, you have nothing to lose. You can live in Houston very cheap, a 1 bedroom apartment is around 500 to 600. Utilies are also cheap. The cost of living is also very low, there is also a lot of opportunity in Houston, and in Texas overall, everywhere I go I see "Now Hiring" signs and CareerBuilder sends me 150+ jobs in Houston every week (I am in IT). I tell every one I know that this is the place to be right now. No wonder we have some many "illegals" coming here... there's a lot of work and not enough people to do it!! so don't miss out on your piece of the pie.

    Good luck either way.

    HS
    ReplyDelete
  12. Kevin: Quit your job at that store, start deliving pizza's and make more than $300 per week net. That would leave you open during the day to hunt for a job that will pay you fairly! Geesh! How long are you going to stay at a job that keeps you living next to poverty before you get a clue that you're never going anywhere with them?? This job you got is paying pitifully.
    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous -

    I am looking, but I also know I can't just quit and not have no money. One offer I had was for part-time, a lower but more stressful position. Oh but I could almost be guaranteed 40-hours, but because they would have me listed as part-time, I wouldn't have any insurance or benefits.

    The $40,000 number I have seen mentioned only is paid to store managers. Most assistants get a salary of of between $30-40 thousand. Since I am still an hourly member of management, I haven't obtained that the level I would call a good level. Of course there are employees of mine that get paid more then me. That's way things go. Still, I expect 2008 to be a year of change. One way or another I expect to start earning more money, but I am not going to talk to much about the job search because my current (or even potential) employers could be reading.
    ReplyDelete
  14. for those that think my salary is closer to minimum wage then it is, I figured minimum wage ($5.85/hour) at 40 hours per week, subtracted the deductions (30%) and the take home of a full-time monthly income would be $655.20 (minimum wage). That is a big difference from my $852 monthly take home.

    No question, the amount I earn is not enough, but it is not really that close to minimum wage.


    I am even happier that I am not a waiter/waitress where the minimum wage in Kansas is below the federal minimum at a rate of $2.65/hour.
    ReplyDelete
  15. Do you really eat on $50 per month? What do you eat? Does that include cleaners and personal care items? Just curious on how that works.

    Have you put together a yearly budget, including the things like insurance, clothes, etc? Sometimes budgeting from month to month can too narrowly focus your attention and it's easy to miss the bigger picture.
    ReplyDelete
  16. kate -
    not per se. I have figured up my annual taxes, tags and insurance payments on an annual basis and know that I should be saving $200/mth ($168 to be exact).

    As for cleaning products, I make my own. I made my own laundry detergent about 6 months ago and will probably have to make more again this summer. I make about 4 gallons at a time.

    my recipes are at:
    http://cleaningrecipes.blogspot.com/

    as for what I eat, right now I am eating a fried bologna sandwich. The oscar meyer product I picked up a few months ago super cheap and threw in the freezer. Last night I ate grain (pop corn) for supper. Some days I have ham & beans. You can get a basic idea at my site:
    http://budgeteating.blogspot.com/
    I don't post much on the later site now, but can give you an idea of what I was eating last year when I was eating on $1/day.

    Larry Wingett in his latest book suggests budgeting $50/person every month. Since I am single, that would only be $50.

    So I guess the answer is no, I don't include cleaning in that budget.

    Yesterday, I ran to family dollar and picked up 2 $1 bottles of dish soap. They will last me at least 2 months/bottle.
    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for posting that link about the $1 day experiment. I had forgotten about that. I'm glad this works for you, but from the standpoint of a nutritionist, you diet is a nightmare! However, given that you're trying to get out of debt, making sacrifices in the cost of food is one of the few places with any wiggle room. I remember the days of living on starches and am really glad I'm no longer there! Hopefully, you'll get out from under soon.
    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks Kate. I never have been much of a meet eater, although I do like some....hamburger, roast beef, ham, bacon, sausage mainly. Not the best cuts in many peoples eyes, but the ones I like. I also love my potatoes. The fried bologna sandwich was something quick and easy as I ran out the door to a board meeting, before heading in to work.
    ReplyDelete

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