Please help me on my budget.

[jIM_Ohio]

Awesome that you are writing stuff down, you will be amazed at where it went and how 'little' it felt like at the time!

Ditto buy a six-pack and take it or better still pack an insulated cup and fill with free water. Better for the diet you mentioned.

Ditto the cable is ridiculous; reduce it fast, you will hardly notice since you will be busy writing down what you spend and decluttering.

Ditto not to much cash on hand (bout 1 or 2 k for buffer in checking but no more IMO)

Ditto nice cheap rent! I wish I could have that...

Ditto pay off some smaller loans then sort bigger ones…the debate of highest interest vs. lowest amount first will wage eternal. Pick one and try it, if you change your mind later not that big a deal. (Post a poll here if you like and let majority rule… or flip a coin, but don’t fail to pay off while frozen with indecision)

The only thing I do NOT agree with is your gym membership IF you actively go, if you already go, then keep it up, cancel less healthy habits first, then later work on being healthy without it. Just call it your own little splurge and enjoy it as such while you pass that vending machine without paying a cent (again and again and again…)

I'll second keeping the gym. If you go and use the weights, visit with people etc... it is a source of socialization and excercise. You have room to squeeze the budget in other places.

Depending on gym, you may have a contract which can't be broken anyways.

[Ima saver]

Jim has some good ideas, as did the others. You must put your cards away and vow to charge no more. You need to "snowball" your debts and concentrate on paying off all your credit cards. Take every penny you can spare and pay it on your debts. Is there anything you can sell?

[autoxer]

As far as balances go on credit cards. YIKES I am afraid to admit this.....
Capital One $288.00 Balance is $10,000
Bassett 60.00 Balance is $2,500
Wamu 48.00 Balance is $1,000
CitiCard 107.00 Balance is $2,500
Capital One 40.00 Balance is $1,000
Dell 18.00 Balance is $200
Chase 130.00 Balance is $5,000
For a grand total of 22,200. These are estimates. It has been awhile since I looked, my dh used to take care of bills but I am now. I know most of them were maxed out though. I am not sure of the interest rates but I know most of them are at least in the 20% because we have been late a few times.
Would it be worth my time trying a consolidation of some sort? The only thing is we rent so we can not do a mortage loan and we do not have any collateral to just get a loan.

You've taken the first few steps and that is great. Just keep imagining a time when all of your credit card debt is gone & you will have an extra $690 per month to save or invest. You can get there if you want to.

20% is a lot of interest.
If you have a 22,200 balance accruing 20%apy, that costs $370 per month in interest charges. So you pay $690 to the credit cards, but they add $370 back on each month. If you could get that interest rate lowered to 15%apy, then they would only add $278 ... and if it was 10%apy then it would cost $185 per month. So getting the interest rates lowered could save you lots of money. So make a list & tackle them one at a time. Call each credit card & ask them for a lower rate. If they are stubborn, then you might want to consider transferring the balance to a more attractive offer.

The Cable Bill seems high
If you have a movie addiction like I do, then you could drop the cable, but get Netflix for ~$15 a month. Then you can pick the movies & even TV shows to watch on DVD & watch them whenever you want.

Track your debt reduction progress and you are more likely to stay on track.

[disneysteve]

If you have a 22,200 balance accruing 20%apy, that costs $370 per month in interest charges.

Wow! I think this bears repeating. That means that interest charges are the OP's 4th largest monthly bill (after car payments and groceries). After the one lease is over, interest will be the 3rd largest bill. I don't think most people in debt stop to look at that. And the actual interest may be even higher. If the OP was late on some payments, the rates are probably even higher than 20%.

[Aleta]

I also agree that if you have a membership contract that you won't be able to get out of it. I have a neighbor that had a personal trainer for 2 years and went to the gym and was not accomplishing what she had intended which was losing weight. After coming home, she walked with a friend everyday and about 6 months ago had to cut back on the walking because she had lost so much weight. She felt like what she was doing was bulking up in the gym. $20 isn't much if you are using it, but you are going to have to cut your expenses in many areas.

I called my neighbor on Monday and asked if she was using her coupons from the newspaper and she said that she never uses them. Well, there were a few items like cat food that was free and one bag as much as $5. Now, she knows that I use coupons and will probably offer them to me in the future. I find that the coupon thing saves me so much money. After, I come home, I deduct the coupon money from the grocery bill and set it aside.

Somewhere on this forum is a place that has money games. You might want to look at that. I agree with everyone else here that your cable bill is very high. Since I've started going to the library, I have less time for TV.

[LuxLiving]

Dh and I are starting a budget so we can pay off some debt. I know what we have to do and I have actually made a really good broken out budget in excel. Dh gets paid weekly and I get paid bi weekly. I have figured that his paycheck will cover the weekly expenses like daycare, gas, groceries, etc but my question is this.

How do you first start off. I have it (on paper) to where I can say okay, dh's first paycheck of the month will pay bill 1,2,and 3. My first paycheck pays bills 7,8,9 and so on and so on according to their due dates. but as of right now we are never "caught up" we pay as they come and when we can afford to pay them. I know if we stick to our budget and reduce our spending we have the money to pay them, but if it is the middle of the month I cant necissarily say okay I will hold off on paying anything until the beginning of the month to start fresh and say okay paycheck #1 pays this. I guess I just feel like if we could have extra money in the bank with all of our bills being paid then I could start. I have had this budget in mind for months now but feel like I can never start it because as soon as we get a paycheck it is gone trying to catch up on bills that were due a week ago. Am I making any since? I guess I am just confused on how you initially started to budget.

Hi mommyonamission, welcome to the boards.

It looks like you have a great start on getting the budget going! YEAH YOU!!! You've also gotten some great pointers here from folks, most are suggestions you should look at following up on and at least checking out the viability for your family.

I'd suggest you go over to read the information on a guy's website who used to post on here quite regularly, it's Jesse Meacham's You Need A Budget.com

Personal budget software, or Excel template, free personal finance spreadsheets

On there he'll help you get an idea of cash flow which is where it appears you're really stuck at right now. I love his software program which I think sells for about $20. It was well worth the expense to me. BUT, it's nothing you couldn't do on your own w/a pencil and piece of paper (I did for years) or with your own excel spreadsheets. Since I didn't know beans about Excel I just paid the $20.

At anyrate he has a way of helping you get ahead of the bills and then to the point of always being a month ahead. Well worth your time to take a look even if you don't purchase, it will give you an idea of what your cash flow procedure should look like.

Everybody here knows I'm a big fan of this software. Anyway, if you look at it and think it doesn't fit the bill for you then keep tweaking your budget and looking for ways to make your budget work for your family. Other budget software may be available that fits your style better.

Important to remember is that a budget isn't necessarily one of those 'set it and forget it' deals. It should likely be tweaked & tinkered w/on a relatively consistent basis.