[me in socal]

This is exactly what I wanted, fresh sets of savings-inspired eyes to view my budget and critique it. Thank you so much!

Boosami - target/costco are usually household items: TP, paper towels, cat litter, kid vitamins, fruits/veggies, etc. Usu I stay under these on a monthly basis sometimes they are more. Isn't that a good way to buy those things? Does anyone buy paper goods at the grocery store? Seems so expensive.

Noppenbd - I dunno why he pays that much, eats out most every day is all. We still have the kid attending pre-school 2 days per week. Kindergarten starts in Sep, I consider Pre-K an investment in her future, maybe I'm wrong? Car insurance, we have 4 cars and a motorcycle. All paid for in full. We are trying to get rid of 2 cars and it's just a tough market as no one is buying. Not sure what he puts on his cc each month, maybe he can answer. ;-)

Lindahfx - see above for costco/target and car. DH works 50 miles away and we are in the burbs. I cannot NOT have a car. They are all paid for at this point. I drive as little as I can and combine trips too. I think downgrading our AAA would be good. We need a min amt of protection in case of breakdown.

swaymonae - my cards' limits seem to evaporate as soon as I pay down debt. Mind you, this summer when we bought our house my FICO was at 715. Now I wonder if it's 615. I can try to apply for 0% but I am going to have a tough time. One was 0% and just reverted to 9. I take most of my showers at the gym now. We have replaced all bulbs with CFLs when we moved in. Gas bill is the last few months when we've been running the heater. It's much lower in the summer, but then electric goes up for AC. Cell is verizon, phone(basic svc)/dsl are ATT so I can't combine them. AAA is $150/year but I budget $14 month so I'm saving that for the annual bill. We can bump down to a lower svc level. I do shop at TJs and Target for groceries. Only a few items come from Ralph's ($10-20/wk.) Gifts are budgeted for all the kids parties we get invited to, often there are months with none, then all of a sudden 3 in 1. I used to budget $20 for a gift now I'm down to $10. I have stuff I sell on amazon but nothing is going now. I'm afraid to post on ebay bc the last few things were going for pennies. I have some nice clothes to post but haven't had any luck lately.

swaymonae (2) - deductible = $500 cars 1-2, cars 3-4 don't hv collision. DH will hv to speak to his work dining out and we need to cut back on our family dining out. gas- he drives 100 miles to work every day. he gets 28MPG which isn't so bad for his car. I do not have my own EF but I think DH has one stashed away. I need to work on my debt before my EF, no?

mommyof4 - I am loathe to put SL on deferment. Reason being is that I stupidly 'consolidated' in 2001 not understanding what the terms were. I just don't want to stop paying on them because they gave me a 20 yr term. I need them to be gone. If worst comes to worst, I will defer.

Does anyone else think I should defer? I am scared of extending that payment further into the future.

So I think these are some concrete steps to take with your suggestions: -Reduce AAA memb to basic level (now or at renewal in Oct)
-Reduce family dining out
-Try to sell more stuff on ebay/amazon, put reserve if necessary
-Look into 0% bal xfers on CCs

More questions:
-If i reduce my car maint fund, how do I pay for oil chg/repairs, etc?
-The credit card/student loan debt is mine to pay off, so how do we go about doing the rest of the budget as a 'family' since we've always had separate accounts?
-Aren't budgets the max you expect to spend in a given month? If that is the case, isn't my Gas-home correct at $45 since some months it will be $14 and others $55?
-Regarding some budget line items like 'costco'. If I don't spend that in a given month, do I carry over the amount to spend later or do I commit it to savings or cc pymt? In other words, what do you do with budget underages (in the hopeful case they occur...)?

Thanks again everyone!!!!