by Hope
If you are new to BAD, this is an update I post every Friday. On the Monday after the week is over, I post my actual numbers. This helps me stay accountable and get the best guidance from the BAD community.
These are my anticipated income and spending numbers for this coming week:
Anticipated Spending - Week of 9/7
| Description | Anticipated | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Income *after taxes | $620 | |
| Sea Cadet - Car Insurance | $100 | |
| Car/Renters Insurance | ($134) | |
| Gas | ($40) | |
| Volleyball - entrance fees | ($10) | |
| Homecoming | ?? | |
| Total | $536 | |
I don’t think much of this needs explanation but maybe a few do:
- The income is monies due this week from various client. I can’t predict when clients pay, but this is anticipated receipt days. This number is after taxes.
- Sea Cadet’s insurance has doubled since getting his new car. We are currently carrying full coverage and will leave it like that for a while before re-evaluating. I am inclined to drop to liability only as the car is not worth very much. Definitely going to ask for feedback on this decision in the not so distant future.
In exciting news, my parents will arrive next weekend for a visit. Their visit will coincide with a family wedding so it should be a good time.
My mom and sister will fly in and my dad will drive up a week or so later to take my mom home. (My sister will travel on to another city to visit friends after getting my mom here and see us a couple of days.) We didn’t anticipate my mom still being able to travel, but are excited for their visit.
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
What about food? There was none in last week’s spending, and there isn’t any here either. How are you eating?
My guess would be the last of her food stamps.
We are still receiving food stamps, this is our last month. But we are WELL STOCKED as far as groceries go, and our balance should care us through October with only perishables needing to be replaced.
I follow your blog and don’t comment much but I was concerned because I don’t see anything put aside for savings, even if it is 10 dollars a week. Emergencies happen when we least expect it and can cause undue stress and financial difficulties if there is nothing aside for them.
She has said she has $1100 and is buffered by a month. That being said I suspect she may blow through that cushion if she can’t learn to say no. Her fall budget had $250 for kids activities and I suspect that may be blown already and now there is a homecoming line item. I hope I’m wrong and next month that Amazon card with a 17% interest rate is down to $2000 but I have a feeling that kids activities are being given a priority over high interest debt. It’s not a choice I would make, not with a variable income th at in a few months is going to have to cover student loan payments. From where I am sitting that Amazon card should be a priority while she still receives food assistance and is on loan forbearance that way the money going towards Amazon can be redirected to food and the student loan when her grace period ends. Right now she is getting help with making ends meet however that help will not be indefinite. She should already be considering how a student loan and covering food costs are going to look.
Amazon card at $2,000? My max on my Amazon card was $500 and it has been paid off for almost a year. Maybe you are getting me confused with someone?
My EF is fully in tact and not touched. And the kids sports both end this month…so the $250-$100 per month for gymnastics will accumulate. The homecoming line item was for clothing, the kids are buying their own tickets, etc. More on that later.
If it isn’t an Amazon card then it is a credit card and at your last debt update in July it was listed at $3782 with a 17% interest rate and a $36 dollar minimum payment. I don’t know what the balance is because you did not do an August debt update and we have not seen you post any payments to debt in your anticipated spending. As far as your emergency fund goes I’m pretty sure I said you had $1100 as well as have stated you are mostly operating on a month ahead budget per previous posts. However, from your previous experience you know how quickly $1100 will fly (it’s not even a month’s income you went through a fund ten times this size last year maintaining things after dealing with an unhappy employment situation and with you being self employed you will not have unemployment this time around if and when these contracts end) I am going to say this again you need to save and pay down debt. You will be in deep doo doo if you put all your money toward debt and work dries up. If you aren’t exceeding $250 for kids activities kudos, however these last few weeks have essentially been kids spending blog posts filed with princess needs $80 for lunches, gymnast wants to increase gym costs to $160, princess wants to attend camp and I will cover it if she does not have enough at $178 . While the money may indeed accumulate I have to wonder how when your outlays for things like volleyball exceeded your actual monthly budget to begin with(and I actually supported spending the $300 knowing in the long term you could essentially spread it out to $25 a month in a budget towards next year’s cost but didn’t expect to see it followed by agreeing we also compromised with $80 in school lunch money each month and oh she also may need help paying for camp. Just like I support gymnast getting $100 to go to the gym if that is what he wants bu t don’t think if he wants more gym time that there should not be a cap on cost there.
You are right, my credit card debt dropped from $5,000 to $3,700 with my last debt update.
There is no cost for Princess school volleyball or travel team due to fundraising and family contributions so that is not a factor (and I have already bartered for her spring travel season.) The only cost is my attending games at $5 per game.
We have not exceeded the Kid’s Activity budget at all and it is already growing.
But thank you for keeping me accountable.
I received my payout from my year long forced savings with Self Lender a month or so ago. It was just over $1,110 and that is all securely in a EF that I do not touch for anything.
Otherwise, my only regular savings right now is that I am not spending $5 bills, those are kept in with my change jar. Right now I am focusing on paying off debt over savings.
If you are on foodstamps, sign princess up for free meals at school. It is a federal program and it helps the school. More foodstamp equal’s more federal funding.
I believe this is the last month that we will be eligible for food stamps, but I will check into it. Thusfar, the school has provided all lunches for free so I haven’t had to spend any money. Something about the first month of school. (The middle school always has free breakfast and lunch because it’s such an impoverished area.)
From my understanding, if you are on foodstamps when you apply, you receive free lunches for the entire school year, no matter your future foodstamp status is during the school year. Make this a priority for the coming week and you should be set for the year.