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Act together...

September 4th, 2006 at 10:42 pm

I am a mom of the children. I am a stay at home mom. My husband is an Union Electrician. We make enough just to get from pay to pay without using a budget. I feel it is time to get into gear and try to invest and save. I will return to work in the next 2 years after our youngest is in school.
We have a past full of 1 Bankruptcy 8 years ago, (our daughter was very ill and we had terrible insurance and got caught up with using credit cards just to pay medical bills and buy food). Since then we have been awesome. We have only 2 credit cards with only $1,500 combined balance. We never miss payments. We have 2 car payments, and we did have a house payment from our bank until my grandfather paid it off and we pay him because he only charges us 5% interest.I guess I am a bit concerned about not have a mortgage reported to the credit bureaus.
I have a major problem with just getting by and not having enough when something happens, or special occasions. I try my best to be frugal. I use coupons, shop at thrift stores( way more than I should but I justify it because it's cheap), I only spend on average about $150/week in groceries for my family of 5. I think that is good?? I just pay the bills first, buy the food, and everytime there is extra it seems that soemthing breaks, or it's someone's birthday, or kids need something. I can never just get OVER the hump and save. I want to feel secure. I need to know I am on my way to being a responsible person. Oh I could type forever on this. I guess I'll stop for now and let you respond and go from there! Thanks a bunch!

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Act together...”

  1. ima saver Says:
    September 4th, 2006 at 10:48 pm 1157410091
    1157410091

    Honey, you have had it rough. One thing you must do, is pay yourself first. Aim for 10% of your take home to put into savings. If that seems impossible, start smaller with maybe only 2% and increase it every 6 months. You will make do with what is left, i promise you! Buy only what you need. Stay out of thrift stores, I know they are great bargains, but you need to build your savings up first. This is a great place to get ideas. I have lived on very little my entire life, but I always saved 10% of what ever I made.

  2. LuxLiving Says:
    September 4th, 2006 at 11:02 pm 1157410974
    1157410974

    Welcome KT!

  3. spendless Says:
    September 4th, 2006 at 11:14 pm 1157411670
    1157411670

    Welcome...I think you will benefit from this group. We've most likely been there, done that...or know someone who has.

    Looking forwardto your blog and personal insights.

  4. Carolina Bound Says:
    September 4th, 2006 at 11:22 pm 1157412132
    1157412132

    Welcome! You've really done well recovering from your troubles in the past. I'm sure you can get over the hump!

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    September 5th, 2006 at 05:56 am 1157435773
    1157435773

    Spend some time reading the blogs here and the financial forums and you will be surprised at how fast your attitude about money changes for the better. I started blogging here in April with just about nothing in the bank and now I've managed to save $800. I didn't think it was possible but somehow I did it. Now I'm managing always $10 a week on automatic transfer, and since we cancelled cable in July we are taking that $65 a month and putting it into savings, then whatever I can scrape up after paying everything else, whatever I earn by doing online surveys, trial offers and paid to read emails, any money from recyling aluminum cans, and keeping all my change in a change jar and rolling it up and depositing it, too when I have enough. These are tiny little amounts but they add up faster than you think.

  6. atatat Says:
    September 5th, 2006 at 10:55 am 1157453735
    1157453735

    Thanks to everyone that has responded. I really enjoyed Ima Saver's idea to pay myself first. The problem with that is we do, my husband takes out $100 of each pay and puts it into our savings..but it never stays there. It's always used for piano lessons, hair cuts, t-ball sign ups, softball sign ups, school photos, sports pictures, extra Rx co-pays on meds., stamps, aol, new tires, broken windows(2 so far in past 4 years..kids....agh), and you know how it goes. Just when we think we are ahead, something is needed and our savings usually lasts only 2-3 months max. There is no money to budget in all the extras. I'm sure there has to be a better way to manage the funds I have coming in every week, just don't see how. But, I'm going to try...that's why I'm here! Thanks again to all~

  7. homebody Says:
    September 6th, 2006 at 02:56 am 1157511400
    1157511400

    Food! You aren't buying individual packs of things for the kids are you?? Buy little zip lock bags and fill your own.

    Move your savings to a different bank so it's not so easy to get to, like an online bank.

    Having raised three girls (MD's fiance just got into the electrical union journeyman program), and there was always something!

    Hang out and hopefully just reading blogs will help keep your mind set.

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