I finally got to see the net effect of my raise, which ended up being about and extra $160 a month -- not bad. We also decided to cut back on our lunch/weekend budget substantially which added another $120.
The main thing that is killing us is child care. Before, it was around $172 a Week, but we managed to get it down to $129 a week by having family watch the kids two days a week (1 - 3 days cost the same).
The net effect of all this shuffling is an increase of $480 a month in the budget. Some of this has been eaten up by car insurance because I can't afford to pay the lump sum this time around. If we can stick to this new budget, we should be able to make some headway. Really, if we can just suffer through this for about six months, we should start to open up some cash flow again.
Things are going to be tight this month though. I've had to pick up some side work just to make it through a couple unexpected (and forgotten about) bills. Our electric bill this time around was double what I was expecting ($370), and I had COMPLETELY forgotten about license plates -- another $250 or so. My goal is to start fresh in February and STICK TO THE BUDGET. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure there will be extra medical expenses of some sort creep up -- they always seem to :).
No comments:
Post a Comment