Living on Less Than $25,000 Per Year - Is it possible? Advice? - Page 7

The title of this should probably be changed to "Living on the GOVERNMENT and on Less Than $25,000 Per Year - Is it possible? Advice?"

How unfortunate it is that we live in a society that encourages living off of others hard work.  I have 3 jobs to provide for my family.  I understand that many people cannot support themselves for a short period of time, but long term assistance should be considered abuse of the system.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by deklansmommy 


We have an 19month old son and are expecting number 2 at the end of February. Here are our expenses not including paying off on credit card debt.
House (includes taxes & insurance) : $509
Car loan (only owe on one other vehicle is paid off): $360
Car insurance (we pay every 6mons but this is what it would be a month for 2 vehicles): $78
Maintenance on vehicles: $25-30mo usually less
Gas for vehicles: $300 (my husband has a paper route every Sunday morning so we have to fill up this vehicle once a week, my truck we only fill up once maybe twice a month as I work just outside of town. My husband walks to his daily job. Our sitter lives in the country and our hours overlap so we are unable to get rid of the second vehicle at this time)
Electric/water/garbage: $120 (these are city owned and they just raised rates so this is our bill even without ac or much running)
Gas: $80 (on budget billing)
Cell: $120 (2 phones 1 with data, 1 with just call & text)
Internet: $42 (cheapest plan in our area)
Netflix: $18 (haven't had cable in 3 years)
Babysitter: $125-$150 (cheapest daycare provider in our area and works 24/7 so on nights my husband has to be out of town for his work he has a place to go.)
I'm sure there are more little things than these but these are basics. My husband is still paying student loans off and I am working to pay off my credit card debt so won't have that burden when/if I can be sahm. If I can do the sahm thing we will sell the 2nd vehicle that is paid off and use that to have some set aside or pay down some on the vehicle we are still paying on. If I do quit my job I will also have to finish paying off a loan on my 401k that currently is taken directly out of my paycheck of $124/bi weekly so that would be an extra $248. I'm trying to get things paid down so we can try and live on one income for awhile and save mine but things pop up like the washer breaking down, car needing brakes and alignment, all that fun stuff.

I see that with this budget, you only have 277 per month left for groceries, student loan, and credit card payments.  You're doing a great job finding good deals on a sitter and being able to cut out the extras.  Apparently, I just don't have that kind of willpower.  Plus, our utility bills are higher, insurance is higher, and we have farther to drive, so we spend lots more in gas than you do. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrugalMom2000 

The title of this should probably be changed to "Living on the GOVERNMENT and on Less Than $25,000 Per Year - Is it possible? Advice?"

How unfortunate it is that we live in a society that encourages living off of others hard work.  I have 3 jobs to provide for my family.  I understand that many people cannot support themselves for a short period of time, but long term assistance should be considered abuse of the system.   

I understand what you are saying.  I took this to mean 25,000 gross pay, plus no help from anyone.  If you are getting assistance, that should be counted as part of the income and therefore putting you over the 25,000 budget.

Possible, yes.. until you ad children and the cost of daycare into the equation. My son goes to a daycare that is $25 a day which is cheap in our area, the cheapest Ive found, but it ads up to $500 a month/6,000 a yr. We are expecting another child in May and the cost will more than double (infants are more expensive). We make more than $25,000 a year, and I am stressed out about I will finish my last year of my degree. 

My husband makes about $1880 a month and we have a 2 month old baby girl

Rent $695

Car $330

Food $200

Insurance $170

Gas $140

Cell $125

Utilities $100

Internet $30

Union dues $20

Netflix $8

A total of $1818 so we make it work and we are pretty happy with our lives. In order to have extra money to save I will be going back to work the beginning of the year part time.

We have lived with less, when my husband was laid off for 9 months (from more than 1 job) during the recession a few years ago. Also, we live on 1 income, I stay home and homeschool. We don't have cable, but we do have internet and netflix and watch free hulu. We try to get a lot of our homeschool books used from ebay, used book stores, and homeschool used book sale. We trade books on bookmooch site and at used book stores. We buy and sell on ebay; when my little one outgrows clothes, they go on ebay and I buy more with the reserve money I earned from the sale. I also do this with other household items. Due to severe allergies, a lot of our budget goes to allergy-free organic natural foods and products but we make cut backs in other places. I make everything from scratch, which is cheaper than eating out. My hubby takes leftovers to work instead of buying his lunch. During the winter, we open the drapes so natural sunlight can help heat the house; we also open oven, toaster oven etc. after cooking so that extra heat can help heat the house. In the summer: we use blackout blinds and curtains to keep the sun out so the AC won't have to run as hard, we use things that would use heat like dryer, dishwasher, etc..at night when it's cooler and we cook mostly with the nuwave and crock pot because they don't use as much heat as the oven. I clip coupons and no I'm not an extreme couponer, my house isn't big enough to store extra stuff. We only have 1 vehicle that we share. We don't drink or smoke (habits are very expensive) or buy a lot of unnecessary things like soda, chips, etc... I purchase things at the end of seasons when they are changing their stock out so it is cheaper. I also shop at outlet stores, thrift stores, yard sales, and ebay. We do travel quite a bit since our family is all over the map so we always keep extra for the gas money. We also have very large medical expenses, but we have insurance through hubby's work and we do an fsa plan where it comes out of each of his paychecks pre-tax dollars so that helps too. I love sites that have freebies, I have gotten free samples of bath products, etc...If you want more ways to save, feel free to pm me with questions. I am the queen of frugal.

Oh and I forgot to add: we own our van so no payments. Our cellphones are prepaid, 2 phones for only $60/month together for both. Oh, and because we purchase everything used or cheap, we don't do any of those things like rent a center or what not (those places will charge you double and make it look like a good deal b/c you can pay monthly). It isn't a good deal; either save up for it by socking money away each paycheck or find it used on craigslist, ebay, yard sale, thrift store, trading places or sites.

I'd like to add that we use rechargeable batteries, we have saved so much over the years. The initial cost isn't cheap but so worth it in the long run. Sorry I keep thinking of ideas after the first reply. Lol