Rent: 525.00
Elec: 200.00 (was 650.00 a month almost all summer until I shut down the central AC and installed window units in 2 bedrooms and the living area. It is sweltering hot on the South Texas border, no way to do without AC!)
Water 70.00
Phone 103.00
Auto Ins 180.00 (includes daughter and son's cars, both fairly new drivers and high risk.)
Cable: 105.
These bring the monthly expenses to $1183.00.
I work about 75 hours per week and bring home approx 635.00 a week for a total of $2540.00 per month.
I would like to save two checks per month and live on the other two but this would leave no money for groceries etc. I could sell a few things per month on eBay though and maybe raise food money, something to think on.
Monthly Expenses
January 3rd, 2007 at 01:35 am
January 3rd, 2007 at 07:27 am 1167809239
My family gave up digital cable, well, all of our cable, last July and instead of paying the $65 we were paying for it, we just have a low level netflix plan @ $10 a month, since everything on TV eventually comes out on DVD. We pay $110 every 6 months for dial-up internet, which works out to $18.33 a month. It's slower but its not like we need it to be fast.
Do your children contribute to the cost of the auto insurance? If they are old enough to drive (and drive up your insurance) then they are old enough to work part time and contribute at least 1/3 of the cost.
January 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 am 1167820192
My kids are in college and do work full time, both of them. I pay the insurance and they pay all their other bills, I will do this as long as they both stay in school, they pay their schooling with some financial aid and some of their own money.
My cell bill is high, no landline included. I need to look into reducing that, I think it includes 3000 minutes and unlimited text messaging which my son uses, I do not text message. I also have a cell phone which my work pays for so reducing this is possible.
The cable includes basic cabe and roadrunner internet. I have had dial up and would just prefer to have cable internet which is nearly fifty dollars of the cable bill. It is actually 89.99 for the whole package and with taxes etc come out to about 103.00-105.00. I'm sure there are places I can cut, I've only had cable for a couple of months, we went without it for a year while I paid off some other debt. I used my blackberry to surf the net, actually that's probably something else I could cut off on the cell as I dont really need it now.
Thanks for the suggestions!