Money Is Sooooo Tight!!

I feel with you. Once my twins were born, it became very hard to go to work and manage three kids all under three. For the past two years, it has been strictly my husbands salary and a little here and there from a small at home business I started. We are even talking about selling our home and moving into a town home to cut on some costs. It is very rough around here too. All we can do is keep our heads above water and pray God will one day pull us out and dry us off, with our help of course.

I think most people are in your position...especially with small children!! One thing that popped out at me is your grocery bill. A family of 3 should definitely be able to survive on less than $600 a month for groceries. Taking a little extra time to meal plan and shop using the sales and coupons has helped me cut our grocery spending from around $400 a month to $250! I get cash out each pay period (my husband is paid every 2 weeks) so I have $125 for two weeks of shopping. There's been a few weeks we've been without extra treats...but we've NEVER gone hungry and we always get fresh fruits/veggies and milk! Some weeks if I had to bulk up on a few sale items we've eaten a few less healthy meals or more pasta...but it's made our money situation better and I'll sacrfice a few gourmet meals a month or give up an expensive dessert to know we're paying all our bills and putting a little away for the unexpected!

We love using the cash envelopes for entertainment/clothing/groceries and what not. It helps us have a concrete idea of how much we have to spend each month in our different "budget" categories. I'd be happy to help you more with a budget if you want...my email is ____@____.com....Good Luck!

This is one of my favorite areas of conversation lately. Unfortunately, I have to sit down with my husband in the next week or so and tell him to buckle down. He is ignoring what is going on economically and spending a little too freely for my tastes. I have to start looking at our grocery bill again, looking for cheaper meals and recipes, and do some re-evaluating.

Don't worry, you are not alone.

Well, if you ask me, you are doing just fine! My husband lost his job in November 2006! He has not been able to find work since. I had a "fast food" job, but lost it due to the economy and bad management. I've been applying everywhere and haven't got any leads. We are trying to keep our house and cars, but it is hard when there is no income and the State won't help--you must have a job to receive any financial aid from the state except food stamps.

I think that if you want to save more money, you could trim down your grocery spending. You spend in one month for 3 people what I spend for 5 people. If you sit down and make a monthly calendar of meals and then only buy according to that, you will spend less money.

When my husband was working, money was still tight and I had a monthly food budget of between $50 and $100 dollars for 5 people. I became a really good shopper. I used coupons and matched them up with sales to save lots of money. I followed a strict menu and very little snacks. Wasn't fun, but got the food we needed.

Good luck!

H.

I know what you mean. I am a stay home mom and my husband and I really have to watch our money. I don't want to complain too much, since we are able to manage it with our income (we also don't have any debts besides our mortgage), but we have hardly any money to put aside.
Sarah (my 8 months old daughter) and I enjoy the time together, but I also know, that I won't be able to pay for her college.
I try to stay positiv. My in laws are helping a little bit (my mother in law pays for her diapers) and we are all healthy so we don't have to many medical bills so far.

You are definately not alone and I hope it will be better soon.

I hear you! My husband and I are fortunate enough to have good jobs but we too have been feeling the pinch lately with rising gas and food prices. I've found that (like many other posters), following a strict grocery list helps. I, too, have a family of 3 and have watched my grocery bills fly upwards of $600 a month (which seems outrageous). We were always bad about buying food without a plan but when we plan ahead and try to "use up" the frozen food in our freezer, I've found we spend a good $100-$150 less in food per month without being too strict (I can only imagine what we'll save now that I'm trying even harder to conserve). Another thing I've been looking into is trying to decrease our monthly bills for phone, internet, cell phones, etc. Even if you can reduce one of those bills by $10 per month, that saves $120 a year. It takes a little bit more work but can be worthwhile in the long run.

Best of luck and keep your head up! I keep trying to remind myself (like another poster mentioned) that even in our troubled economy, we still live a better life than the vast majority of the rest of the world...

I hear you!

I wanted to share with you a tool I use: www.savingdinner.com

This woman is a genius (in my book). For a very small cost (9.95 for 3 months) you get recipes for a week with shopping list included. I save $$$. No guessing what is for dinner and she got us to try food I would never imagined, think swiss chard. You can pick lowfat menus, heart healthy menus, etc.

We feel the pain too. I could live without cable, but hubby cannot. That would save us a ton! Heck growing up our tv broke and we never fixed it!

I hear ya Nancy! Most of my life I eaten vegetarian at home because of the $. Were nearly out of cc debt, and are now free of the IRS. So it's getting better. I make almost all our food from scratch, pre packaged is to much. It's been a slow doggy paddle to keep our heads above water. But were going to make it.
A. H

Yes it is! I have a general budget for the year (just to see if we will make enough to pay for everything) and then, every month, I do a detailed budget for the next month. Thankfully we have a chest freezer and so we buy in bulk when things are on sale. We eat mostly chicken and hamburger in our meals and are usually able to make a dinner for three (with one leftovers lunch for the next day) for about $4. We just splurged $300 on clothes as our closets (and underwear drawers) were pretty dire - and the rest of the economic tax 'gift' from Bush will go to paying off some bills. WooHoo! But... we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, food in our bellies, our health and our jobs - that makes us better off than 75% of the rest of the world. I think we can ride out the storm, just stay away from all the marketing ploys that make you feel less of a person for not having more gadgets.