[singinjeannie]

My hubby and I have sat down, looked at all the depressing numbers and tried to come up with answers. It's very true, there are no easy answers.

I have written down every expense I can think of, coming up with a $1300 deficit each month, if you count all the stuff we normally spend money on. The killers are the unexpected expenses! Dental bills and car repairs top the list. We have also begun to write down everything we spend.

We've already agreed we won't use credit again. (Easier said that done.) It seems there are always hundreds of dollars worth of unexpected bills. Like, I just had the car inspected today. While I knew it needed front tires, it also needed brakes and shock absorbers. The repair place wanted $171 to do the brakes and $157 to do the shocks. The inspection and just replacing the tires we already owned cost $98.00! Hubby said he'd do them himself to save money, but cars are not his forte, and time is something he doesn't have. (He works 10-12 hours a day and gets called into work pretty much every day once he comes home. [Get's paid lousy for all the work he puts in, I might add.] Outside of this, he coaches his kids baseball teams....and life happens...)

We have come up with lots of ways to cut the current monthly outgo, but they included using the 401K to pay off the van and two credit cards to get the bills managable. Now that we can't use the 401K... Well I have no idea.

Get back to all of you later when I have more time to write this stuff down.

Once again, I really, really appreciate the advice. We need all the help we can get.
-Jean