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Home > Running Budget Numbers AGAIN! Budget Questions

Running Budget Numbers AGAIN! Budget Questions

April 21st, 2010 at 09:17 pm

Here is my Zero Based Budget:

Expenses: Monthly
Housing:
Mortgage / Rent $1,060.00
MDU $126.50
Water/Waste $56.90
Cell $96.16
Internet $38.11
House Downpayment$0.00
Storage Unit $55.00
Phone $29.17

Medical:
Dental Premium $12.69
Dependent Meds $15.00
Braces Fund $150.00 (Savings)
Dental Work Bills$25.00 (Slush)

Daycare:
Daycare $165.00
Weekend Sitter $100.00
Summer Daycare $175.00 (Slush)

Vehicle:
Lumina Gas $50.00
Insurance $33.16 (Slush)
Tags $17.00 (Slush)
Lumina Repairs/Replace $100.00 (Savings)

Dependent:
School lunch $37.50
School Snack $6.66
Clothes $20.00
Gifts- Xmas/Bday$50.00 (Slush)
College 529 Fund$20.00 (Savings)
Back 2 School Items$45.00 (Slush)
Allowance $8.00

Misc:
Food/Cleaner/Etc $200.00
Gifts- Xmas/Bday/Wedding$10.00 (Slush)
Roth IRA $416.66 (Savings)

Total $3,118.51 SHORT 664.53

Income:
Work $2,453.98
Child Support ???

Saving(FROM ABOVE NUMBERS):
Slush Fund $355.16
Downpayment Fund $0.00
New Car / Car Repairs $100.00
Braces Fund $150.00

I am $664.53 Short to keep up with my finacial goals so changes need to be made. First note I do not know how much I would get for Child Support BUT it will be small as my STBX income is $1195 per month if they do not include the $705 non-taxable income he earns. I want my budget to be based off no child support so if for some reason he cant pay and his amount goes to arrears that I am not in a bad situation.

I am trying to follow a Dave Ramsey type program. I want to create a slush fund for bills that are not monthly such as back to school clothes and supplies, gifts, car insurance and car tags etc.

I would like to save for a downpayment or house purchase in the future and so that is a savings item. I would like to save for College for my Son, I would like to save for Braces for him, I also want to save for retirement.

What do you think?

I know the storage unit HAS to go (And will as soon as the house is SOLD), the grocery/cleaning/etc is a total estimate and I am selling the house and would like to put the difference between my current housing cost and rental cost into savings for a downpayment. I am guessing the difference is going to be $500.

If this was your budget would you?
A. Reduce the savings that is going to the downpayment on a house ($500)
B. Reduce/Stop the saving for Son's College ($20)
C. Reduce Roth IRA savings ($416.66)
D. Combination
E. Other ??

Question 2 I bought my STBX an new phone which I signed a 1 year contract for, I can either
A. Cancel line pay $200 Fine
B. Change plan to a smaller plan and pay extra $10 or $20 (depends on plan) until Dec 2010 and keep the phone plan no cancel fee
*** B is cheaper BUT then I have a second line to deal with. I upgraded both phones at the same time so I cant just take over his number and cancel my number.
WHAT would YOU do?

6 Responses to “Running Budget Numbers AGAIN! Budget Questions”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1271882508

    Yes, I would lower retirement. Start with 10% of your gross. Eventually, you can raise it back up.

    Lower/eliminate saving for braces. My daughter's braces were about half the amount you are saving for. I realize different costs for different needs. Generally, orthodontists will put you on a no interest payment plan.

    Are you really saving $45 per month for school supplies? This seems high, even with clothes included. In other words, shop for deals on clothes and supplies to bring this number down.

    Keep the cell phone on contract. When it expires, you each get your own phone. I don't think it is worth $200 to cancel.

    I would really look at what your goals are: is it house, retirement, son's college or braces. For me I'd rather have a nice retirement, then a house, then braces and then college. You can borrow for all except retirement.

    You may have to save longer to get the house downpayment, which means saving less per month to keep things within your income.

    I might consider the child support money, the cash for braces and college. Try to live your dreams and desires on your income.

  2. MonkeyMama Says:
    1271882821

    "I would like to save for a downpayment or house purchase in the future and so that is a savings item. I would like to save for College for my Son, I would like to save for Braces for him, I also want to save for retirement.
    "

    I would put all of this on hold right now. I'd even hold off on retirement until the house sells. (You have until April to fund this years IRAs. Not that you wouldn't fund retirement, but you can wait and see how things go before you commit to an IRA). I'd look at this as a transition period, and everything can wait. I mean, it depends. I don't think I would consider college, braces or down payment savings a priority at this moment in time. Considering if *I* were getting divorced right now. But I wouldn't save a lot for college, in any case, and you may have other priorities.

    On the phone, it depends. If you are worried about dealing with the second phone (STBX racking up minutes?) or anything like that, just pay the cancel fee. If that's not an issue, I'd go the cheap route. Cancel it when the year is up.

    Good Luck!

  3. LittleMsMom Says:
    1271963158

    Thanks,

    If My STBX hands over the telephone like he says he is going to since he wants to get a Fancy Phone I will just keep the line until December, BUT if he doesn't hand over the phone I will cancel the line so he cant OOOPS cause me a huge phone bill.

    This is a projected budget since I have never actually been on a budget, I just have always paid my savings goals first then was frugle.

    $45 per month for Back2School is a bit much....Last year he needed 10 pair Jeans at $7-$10 each, 2 Pair Sneakers $15-$17 each, and Outerwear. The School Supplies were cheap under $10 and I have a stock pile still (Free CVS days). So I am going to call it $20 per month School Supplies. Up til this point I have not been putting money into a Roth IRA I just want to start. So I will not fund that until the house sells, then once it sells I will put the difference into a Roth Ira with any leftover to save for a house.

    The braces numbers came from family and friend costs in my current area. I would like to presave for that BUT cutting that out would be $150 per month and I could always fund that from Child Support instead of cutting it.

    I also will fund the College from Child Support so that is another $20.

  4. snshijuptr Says:
    1271979327

    I vote to definitely put off saving until the house sells and things settle down. Create 2 savings funds and put all your extra money in one and all your child support in another. Then after it all settles, you can decide where the money should go.

  5. Jerry Says:
    1272053509

    Once the house is selling that will be a big change in the financial outlook, so I agree with the advice above. I did notice that your dental insurance premium is pretty reasonable, does it have decent coverage? Ours was much higher than that, but we were in a state with really high health and dental costs...
    Jerry

  6. LittleMsMom Says:
    1272310987

    @ Jerry

    The Dental premium is really reasonable. It is for one (my son instead of a spouse). I get my premium paid for. I think it is good coverage, it is complicated as to how much it pays per type of procedure so it is hard to say how much bill you are going to be handed since you never know with dental how much work you are going to need. 2 cleanings per year are Free and it has a 1,500 pay out cap per year (so 152.28 in premiums buys you $1,500 in benefits) and a 1,000 lifetime pay out cap for orthodontics.

    I always just paid the bill with a CC and never worried about how much it was (I pay my bill in full 90% of the time). So this year It will be different as I want to track the cost and have a NO CC spending once I am divorced if possible.

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