Budgeting question

[Katied75]

Hello all,

I am new here and would love an opinion.

I'm currently finishing up a graduate degree and considering what to do regarding my career and school at this point.

My husband and I have two young children (ages 5 and 3). My husband teaches. With my graduate degree, I am considering working part time because full time would be difficult in my career field if I want to be around for my children.

Working part time, our take home income will be around $6600.00 per month.

We have a mortgage of $2100.00 per month.

We have a car payment of $250.00 per month.

We will have student loans to pay off totaling $350.00 per month.

That is the total of our debt. We have no credit card debt.

We spend about $700 per month on groceries, $450 on gas heat and electric, and another $1000 on other fixed expenses (cell phones, clothing costs, life insurance, car insurance, phone, cable, internet, etc. etc.).

Oh, and we automatically fund my husbands pension to the full amount... so I don't need to include that in my $6500 take home number. However, I do want to develop a savings cushion.

What I would like to know is this: Do you think that my numbers look okay on a $6500 take home income? My other option is to continue my graduate schooling for a year to receive additional credits and be able to work full time in a career that is acceptable to me while being a mom. However, if I can make part time work for a few years it would be great for my kids.

Honest opinions? Thank you!

[Radiance]

Hi there.

This is my take:

I am a single mom of a 18 months old and I am currently working full time.
I am having a very hard time with leaving my son on preschool from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm each day.
He will only be a kid once and I want to be around and mother him. I feel I am just the "evening setter":give baths, feed, put to sleep.

When I started on this forums I was spending over $800 a month in groceries plus eating out. I have been able to take that down to $400 and I am going for $300 next month. That is always an area of improvement.

Now, what I am doing is that I reduced my budget in every area I could, cut cable, elliminated eating out, reduced by cell plan, stopped useing paper towels etc etc. Baby steps.
With the moneys saved I am paying off my debt. I estimate I should be out in 12-14 months. Amen...
At that point I plan to continue living with my reduced budget but start working less hours.

My little one takes a 12:30 to 2:30 nap, so I could work from 8-2. He will be 2 and a half then. That is the plan.

Hope that helps.

[disneysteve]

Welcome. I'd be curious to see the full budget, not just the "fixed" expenses. What you listed leaves a monthly surplus of about $2,000. Is that accurate or is there a bunch of spending and expenses that you haven't included?

Other than your husband's pension, what saving and investing are you guys doing? Do you have an emergency fund? Are you contributing to Roths? Any college savings for the kids?

Regarding the expenses you listed, the reason I put fixed in quotes is because several of the things you listed aren't really fixed. They are variable luxury expenses that could be more or less depending on what you choose to do. Things like cell phones, home phone, internet, cable, clothing and insurance are all adjustable if needed.

In general, it sounds like you are in good shape as long as there aren't a lot of expenses you haven't listed.