Need some advice on budget. Help please!!!

[bugweena]

Great thread, OP. I think the $1600 sounds much more reasonable to work with. Double check your oil change frequency listed for your car(s). The manufacturer doesn't necessarily recommend the same frequency as the oil changing places do! If your DH is handy, it's much cheaper to change oil yourself. I think you could try living this bare bones budget especially since you and your DH are both on board and excited about the challenge. You can always make the bare bones budget your goal but don't beat yourself up if you end up taking a little longer to pay off the debt. I think PP have given you some good advice and creative ways to make your money go further. Good luck.

[anaj06]

$1600 a year left over is only $133 per month. I tend to do everything by month because that is how income comes in and expenses flow out for the most part. Is $133 extra realistic for you? It would not be for my household, but I don't live in yours.

I have an idea though. $18000 for student loan debt is $1500 per month. Why not pay $1000 right of the bat to your student loans in January and see how the month goes. That will leave you $633 extra in January. Then in February pay another $1000 plus whatever was leftover in your checking account from January (from the $633). If you were able to stay to $133 extra, then you will be making a $1500 payment in February as well. Then in March pay $1000 plus whatever was leftover from February. It could be a game of how much can we have leftover in our checking account to pay to student loans.

If you are correct and your family can live on $133 beyond the budgeted items for each month, then you will be paying $17,500 to the student loans for the year. This way also gives you some fluff so you have some funds for things that come up along the way.

We do this with our mortgage. We pay everything we have above $200 in the checking account to our mortgage at the end of the month after all the expenses are in and paid. DH and I see it as a game to see how much we can pay above the mortgage payment each month.

[ham76]

$1600 a year left over is only $133 per month. I tend to do everything by month because that is how income comes in and expenses flow out for the most part. Is $133 extra realistic for you? It would not be for my household, but I don't live in yours.

I have an idea though. $18000 for student loan debt is $1500 per month. Why not pay $1000 right of the bat to your student loans in January and see how the month goes. That will leave you $633 extra in January. Then in February pay another $1000 plus whatever was leftover in your checking account from January (from the $633). If you were able to stay to $133 extra, then you will be making a $1500 payment in February as well. Then in March pay $1000 plus whatever was leftover from February. It could be a game of how much can we have leftover in our checking account to pay to student loans.

If you are correct and your family can live on $133 beyond the budgeted items for each month, then you will be paying $17,500 to the student loans for the year. This way also gives you some fluff so you have some funds for things that come up along the way.

We do this with our mortgage. We pay everything we have above $200 in the checking account to our mortgage at the end of the month after all the expenses are in and paid. DH and I see it as a game to see how much we can pay above the mortgage payment each month.

I really like this idea of paying off the debt. Sounds like a fun game. I will talk to my hubby and see if he agrees.

I want to add that I think I will be able to skip grocery shopping probably 2-3 months this year and that should make it to where I could add another 500-750 for the year to the $1,600.

Also I did not mention tax returns we always get back $500-1000. I did not add that in either.

My kiddos are all pretty young 4,3,1. I am planning on homeschooling so if I worked a part time job it would have to be in the evenings. Which I don't know if my hubby loves the idea of me be gone every night to deal with all 3 by himself. We will see.

We also have memberships for zoos and museums from family for Christmas so we do have things we can take the kids to for entertainment.

We have a bigger emergency fund then what Dave Ramsey suggests because we own our home and we know how home repairs and emergencies come up.

Keep all the suggestions coming you guys are great I am getting alot of ideas as to how to make this work.

[daisydog215]

We have done a combination of the things mentioned - snowballing and the checking account game - and have had tremendous success.

Start in January and pay the minimum on every bill except the student loans. At the end of the month, you pay the minimum on the student loan + every extra dollar you can spare.

In February, pay the January amount on the other bills (the minimum will have gone down, but your now paying that + a little extra) and then throw everything you can at the student loans.

It really is fun to see how much you can come up with extra at the end of the month. It will vary month to month, but you will see the results on each statement.