Question About Finances

I agree with the poster who points out that you are talking about having between $800-$1000 for all the extras. If you can't make that work you are seriously doing something wrong!

Let's put things in perspective: Some people LIVE off that amount!

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Breastfeed saves $1500/year and pump/bottles are a tax deduction. Share clothes/toys with mom friends.

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umm your "extra" is half of our income and we are a family of five...why in the world are you worrying?

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I can't really help much because we are much more worse off than that. I WISH we had $200 extra left over after bills and food and gas. We are currently going through the Dave Ramsey class with our church right now. It is helping and we are also doing some financial counseling and I am very slowly starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. That is really all I can suggest. We are only on week 3 of 10 of his class but so far it has helped.

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I don't honestly think that sounds too bad. When my kids were babies I was lucky to have that much for food and diapers. I breastfed all of my babies so that was free.

That works out to an extra $800 to $1000 a month for the extra's. I'd say you're doing pretty well.

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That is $1,000 a month. If you cannot buy diapers and formula and the
little things that are needed, you are doing something wrong.

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Uh, wow, I would love to have an extra $200/week for things like clothes, wipes and fun! Most paychecks we don't even get our hoped-for $20 allowance and that's what we use to buy personal clothes, grass seed, lunch out and birthday presents for each other/family. We budget for my son's presents (already saving for xmas and his birthday next december) and clothes since he is still growing but also have a ton of hand-me-downs from friends. I'd love to have your dilemma.

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First of all, let me say that I am so sorry that you've received so many condescending responses. While of course it's true that you could have less to work with, I'm sure that does nothing to ease your mind. Knowing a new baby is on the way tends to up the anxiety level.

As far as suggestions, I think you're doing great thinking about your situation this far in advance. Much better to keep an eye on things now rather than be blindsided by something later.

Someone else mentioned Dave Ramsey, and I'd heartily agree. Even if you don't subscribe to all of his principles, his website (www.daveramsey.com) has some great budgeting tools that will give you more confidence in your ability to make do with what you have.

My other suggestion is to make sure that your spouse is very involved in the financial planning. Often, the spouse that pays the bills is the only one doing the budgeting and planning as well, until something goes wrong. Make sure that you and your husband are going over the budget monthly and looking at things together. Feeling like you have a teammate will really help ease your worries.

Congratulations on the new little one!!

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Breastfeed, it's free :)

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Yes, we are in the same situation, except we have a lot less than that each week. I am also pregnant, due in May with our 3rd, and our insurance is barely covering anything, it is actually very scary. I am currently in the process of listing furniture, clothes and such on craigslist and ebay, hoping that helps. And my husband is looking for another job. We also don't have cable, turned off extra things like texting, netflix and such, stopped eating out, eating more wisely, we don't go out much, pretty much everything we buy is used...

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You know, the amount of "extra" money is very relative. The better question to ask: how much can you save per month?

Pick up a Dave Ramsay book and look into saving for retirement and college!

LOTS of people live on lots less than you have for extras each month. You can do it, save AND live well. (i.e. Live on LESS than you make!)

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If you have $200 + per week after all expenses ... You should be saving not spending.

I am not a Dave Ramsey follower but I do know he has good guidelines.

We are very self driven, self disciplined , businness owners and you have to understand and be that responsible to be under control of your finances.

If you are not on a financial plan per your own self discipline or another venue then find a way . $ 200 extra a week adds up fast and can lcontribute to college savings for your children.

Please find a way to budget wisely for your family's financial gain vs waste.

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A.:

Take a deep breath and let it out SLOWLY. Again...deep breath...out slow. Don't panic or freak out.

The first thing I would do is drop the private tuition school.

The next thing I would go through my house and get rid of stuff I haven't touched in six months or more - have a garage sale for instant cash and sell the remaining stuff on craigslist and ebay. Apply that money to debt.

Then I would do is call my electric, gas, water, cable and cell companies to find out if they have a flat rate plan....drop services I don't need or use or bundle what I can to save the most money.

As to clothes? Shop at Goodwill, Thrift stores, etc. you would be surprised at the nice, name brand items you can get there - I got a Coach purse (yes, a REAL Coach purse with dust sleeve and all) for $35 at our local Goodwill.
You do NOT need to buy brand new. You can bring it home and wash it.

Start buying diapers now with coupons when they are on sale. Buy all sizes. Not just infant. I stacked them in the nursery and did NOT open them until I needed to. I didn't have to buy diapers for Greg's first year. No joke. Take back the unopened ones and exchange them for the size you need if you have purchased too much of one size.

Formula is expensive. Breast feeding is free. No cost. Look into it. Look into buying a pump if you are going back to work so you can pump at work.

Buy gas cards. Have an envelope for gas money and buy gas cards with it.
Stop using credit cards. If you can't afford it - don't buy it. Start going cash only.

Start controlling your finances instead of them controlling you. Go to the library and borrow books from Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman. Read them thoroughly - take what you need from it...make it work for you and your family. The point is that YOU need to control your finances...many people now live in the "credit card age" or the See It-Want it-Buy It mentality instead of waiting to purchase something for cash - instant gratification. Well the gratification wears off and you are stuck with debt.

Want or need stuff for the baby? Thrift shops. Don't have a crib and don't want to buy used? Okay - go to KMart and put it on layaway. You are paying cash for it over time. Done.

Go through your grocery stores weekly flier - make a menu for the week. Use coupons on the items that are on sale and have one night a week as leftovers. So nothing goes to waste.

Bring lunches to work and school. Stop spending $10 a day on lunch.
Stop buying Starbucks coffee - man my girlfriend spends $40 a WEEK there!!!

There is more - please feel free to PM if you need more input.

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You will definitely be fine!! You may just need to make some lifestyle changes like it sounds like you already have, as far as not eating out. You need to give yourself some credit. Obviously you have a good handle on your money. Honestly, I have no where near that budget of $200-$250 a week for expenses like diapers and formula. I won't go into details as to how far I could make that money go. But if your bills are covered including groceries and gas, then you can most certainly afford a $6 pack of diapers and $20 in formula. You can definitely do this no problem!!

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With $1000 per month, you have lots of options. Does that $1000 include retirement and education savings? I like David Bach's system (he has a bunch of books, one is 'The Automatic Millionaire' - helps you set your financial plan on autopilot, so you are saving, paying bills on time etc, without having to rethink it each month - it's quick, easy and effective). Also, when I was pregnant with my second I had an 'oh no! are we prepared?' moment, too, and took three hours to reset up our filing cabinet as per one of David Bach's books. It's a great system and I love being on top of everything. All of our important documents are neatly organized and I KNOW what our plan is and how we are going to achieve it. It sounds like you like organization, too - why reinvent what someone is spending his life studying and making more efficient? He's a little bit cheesy, but I read his stuff for his reasoned approach, and get a lot out of it.

Good luck with your budget AND the baby!
ps- a good start to the budget is to get his books out of the library! ;D

1 mom found this helpful

You;ll be just fine. It sounds to me like you have a handle on things. You could get some groceries at some of discounted places like Aldis and Save A Lot although i do recommend sampling first. Eating in will save you a lot money. Do family outtings that don't cost a lot of money once in awhile and you could family nights at home on Friday with games or movies.
Take a deep breath, You've got this.

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The only suggestion I have is to write down every penny you spend in a spreadsheet and then see where it goes and make cuts from there. But you definetely need to be saving some of that money, because there always expenses such as car repair, medical bills, car registration. basically you need a savings fund for unexpected expenses. Also, if that is not enough go through your fixed expenses and see where you can cut. cheaper daycare, public school etc. I think in general you will be fine, just pay attention to your expenses, like it seems you have been

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Well depending on if you qualify, you can try WIC

http://health.state.tn.us/wic/

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Your extra sounds pretty nice. I'll bet if you stop eating out, you'll find that you have way more money than you need. You might want to keep separate accounts for the bills and non-essentials. That way, it will be easier to see how much money you have left over for clothes, entertainment, and gifts. Good luck!

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That sounds great to me. Unless you are giving birth to a litter LOL. :) Seriously, just be careful like you are planning.

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Shop thrift stores and yard sales for clothes or find someone you can get gently used clothing from, maybe do a trade of something with a friend that has a child a bit older than yours. Also walmart price matches to you take in ads from other stores and get the item there for the same price as it is at the other store w/o running all over. cvs and other places have a membership card and if you sign up you can get savings through there. Good luck.

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Umm your extra per week is my extra per month for my family of 6 and I use that for clothes, gas etc.. When you live on a fixed income you budget tight. It does sound like you have pricey extras there . Lets put it this way how much do you expect to spend on a new baby & why did you not start saving when you found out you was expecting?

200 is plenty we go some months around 150 its not splendid but it can be done coupons are great. look at your weekly groshry ads and make a shopping list with the things on sale. DO NOT BUY THINGS NOT ON YOUR LIST!!! ive learned leave the kids so i can do this bc they want EVERYHING lol. you can make it work :)

You have 2x as much as I do, so I promise you can do it.
Buy cheap store brand diapers. They're fine. We use Target, Dominick's...anything but name brand. It's 1/2 the price. Same with formula.

Buy clothes on sale whenever you have the chance. I like to buy for the next year when we're finished with a season (ex: I'm buying winter clothes on sale right now for next year).