Newbie here..need help with budget!

[jodi]

One more thought - I work in the social services field. Here in NY, the SSI asset limit is $2000. If you are going to start an EF, keep that in mind. If your assets go over that limit, you can lose those SSI benefits until the amount goes below $2000 again. I am constantly having to monitor my clients' funds to make sure they don't accumulate too much money. You can also lose it by earning too much money, as you are already aware of. How backwards is that?

[safari]

Talking prepaid about cell phone plans, I've been very happy with the T-Mobile To-Go plan. Two months ago I bought a $100 refill card at Target, which they had on sale for $88 and they also gave me a free cell phone (worth $50). The cell phone also came with a $10 credit. The $100 refill card gave me instant Gold Reward status, so I am paying only 10 cents a minute on all calls across US. So for a total of $88 dollars I got a free cell phone and 1,100 minutes that don't expire for a year. There are no other charges, like activation fee, roaming, etc. After having this plan for 2 months, I've only used 60 minutes ($6).

[Cheapskate79]

One more thought - I work in the social services field. Here in NY, the SSI asset limit is $2000. If you are going to start an EF, keep that in mind. If your assets go over that limit, you can lose those SSI benefits until the amount goes below $2000 again. I am constantly having to monitor my clients' funds to make sure they don't accumulate too much money. You can also lose it by earning too much money, as you are already aware of. How backwards is that?

Thanks for the input about SSI. I know there is a limit to how much funds we can accumulate but I was not sure how much. If I call Social Security will I be able to find that out? I have to be careful with how much we make so we don't lose the SSI because as long as he recieves benefits he gets the Medicaid insurance that pays for all the medical bills. We cannot afford to lost that! It's almost like we are caught in a catch-22.

As far as my cable/phone/internet...I just switched my phone service because I was paying $45.00 for a basic phone line, with call waiting with my landline company and went with Vonage for $30.00 and we get everything! It's a must for my job to have unlimited long distance so that's not an option that I can get rid of. I called the cable company and spoke with them, I have the basic package that is running $49.99 a month. I asked them about going to the bare minimum that they have and she said its 5.99 a month but not compatible with high speed so I can't trim the cable down either as I have to have high speed for my job also.
I spoke to my husband about the cell phones, and Sprint said I could put one of the phones on vacation hold for up to 6 months and only pay a $6.97 a month service fee and put my husband's phone on a $29.99 plan and we could just share the phone. So we would lower our bill by about $25.00 a month, but then I would end up paying Sprint almost $42.00 just to keep the phone on vacation hold, which seems like a waste of money, so I have not figured out if that is something I should do.

[Cheapskate79]

I forgot to mention, yes the car is our only debt. We owe $7811.00 before it's finally paid off. As I said before, we both went thru a divorce so our credit is horrible. The last time I checked our credit scores were like 489 and 510. We spoke to a bankruptcy attorney last year who told us that it was not a good idea to pay off any of the negative things on our credit report because it would only be about 2 yrs. before it started coming off of our credit report. If we paid it, he said that the statue of limitiations could restart and they would stay on there for another 7 yrs. I also spoke with a mortgage broker who recommended the same thing so we have not paid any of the debt that is on our credit report. They just recommended getting something on our credit that is paid on time, the vehicle that we have financed is on there and it has been paid on time everytime each month. We are considering the idea at the first of the year, to get a secured credit card thru our bank, Bank of America and maybe putting $200 or $300 on it so we can get something else positive on our credit report.

[Aleta]

I also reccommend the TracFone as well. I also buy my contract for a year and I don't have to worry about reloading the card because I don't even use those minutes. It's really a great deal. If you don't buy the year's contract, you have to buy minutes every two months or you lose your phone number. I have to say the the tracfone was one of my best buys for me. It serves the purpose without a contract.

[fairy74]

I second Aleta's recommendation of TracFone, visit their website they have incredible deals. Also regarding groceries, can you make meat a once a week thing? It sounds hard at first, but there are so many good recipes out there that don't use meat (and have high protein) and cutting meat out will drop your grocery bill an immense amount. Try looking at the Hillbilly Houesewife website. As others have mentioned can your husband pick up a second job?

[PharmacistRealtor]

I would put 1/2 of your extra income into savings and 1/2 of it to debt paydown....money is about feelings...the savings will provide you with a better sense of security the debt paydown will provide you with pain relief...I've paid off my credit cards ... no fireworks....car payment...no fanfare....student loans...no applause...it's kind of like scratching an itch when you're paid off...but the 2 years in savings I have, that's like a warm blanket...