Please help! Stay or go??

[autoxer]

By trailer, it is not a camper. It is just used to tow occasionally, in the summer. My husband has an expensive hobby of racing shifter carts, basically supped up go-carts. He has cut back on the number of races he has gone to this summer, but I would feel guilty saying he can't do it at all anymore...

I love shifter karts, raced one for a couple years, but it's an expensive hobby. Parts break just about everytime you race, and the consumable expenses like tires and high octane fuel can really add up. My wife would also never tell me that I can't do it anymore, but I wouldn't be spending so much on hobbies if the rest of my financial situation wasn't in order. Does he understand the whole financial situation that your family is in?

Do you have an emergency fund in place?
Do you have any credit card debt? school loans?
Are you saving for retirement?

[KTP]

I think dropping the rate from 7% to 4% and getting rid of one of the cars fixes a lot of stuff.

7% rate is crazy...that is like a payday loan or something. Especially if you have good credit.

If you cut out one car, the lawn care, gym membership, and refinanced, you could have an extra $1000 a month or close to it. After a year you could have a $10,000 EF. In five years you could have $50,000 in Roth IRAs

[dawnwes]

I am not quite understanding how a small home in Michigan carries an $1,800 mortgage on a 30 year loan, even with 7% interest. How much do you still owe?

I guess when I think small home in Michigan I think under 200K, which, even with a 7% interest rate, would be closer to $1,300 on a 30 year.

Dawn

[FrugalDad123]

what's in the 917?

Hi,

I hope all is well. I wonder what else in the "Groceries, gas, everyday living 917" can/should be itemized. Assuming you started today with that budget things look like this which of course is trending up by ~917 per month and looking fine:



The details of the 917 might bring out more good and helpful ideas and discussions.

Best Regards,
FrugalDad123

[AsiaTraveler]

You've gotten a lot of good advice, and I hope that you can follow through on it. Making the changes necessary won't necessarily be easily, but they WILL be worth it.

One thing no one has mentioned: $147 for phones a month? If you're in a 2 year contract, I realize you may be stuck with that for a while, but once you are out, please please please consider if that is a need or a want. What kind of plan do you have? Do you need all the features/gadgets/data/minutes that you're paying for? When we made the decision for my husband to stay home, we scaled back from 2 cell phones (~$100/month) to a land line (~$20/month) and a Virgin Mobile cell phone (~$25/month for 300 minutes + unlimited data & text, although that plan is no longer available), thereby cutting our monthly bill in half. As a SAHM, do you really need a cell phone? Look around at what options are available, including voice over the internet options.

Also, I sincerely hope that your $117 cable bill includes internet (it's still pretty high, but if that is just cable...ack!). We recently switched from cable to Hulu Plus and LOVE IT. There are a few shows we can't get through that, but we still get over the air networks and we also have an old computer tower hooked up so that we can watch streaming shows off of websites. (Other options include Amazon Prime and Netflix...just don't stack too many services together or you'll wind up paying a lot anyway.)

Bottom line on both of these expenses: There is probably some level of 'need' in them, but most of it is 'want', and can be cut way back through creative use of hardware and services.

[snafu]

What role is the combination of paying 7% interest on your mortgage [others pay 3.X%] and your inheritance of $ 40K playing in your dissatisfaction with your current home? You and DH have made spending choices that are different from responders to your initial query. Would you be amenable to making changes to facilitate the things that are truly important to you both?

[moneysma]

I've read through this thread and I think your first step is to actually figure out how much you are spending each month. The budget you posted is a great start, but the $917 for everything else is an issue. What exactly do you buy with that money? Also, is this budget based on what you actually spend? I would suggest you write everything down you spend for month in a journal and then review it find out where you can cut expenses.

You need to trim some of the "fat" out of your spending, find some part time work that you can do to bring in some extra money and use that along with other savings to pay the mortgage down so that you can refi.

Since you stay at home, is there a need for two cars? If so, maybe sell one and buy an older, used car that is cheaper? I realize the car is almost paid off, but you will still be paying insurance on that car and it will continue to be worth less and less each year.