The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Financial overhaul, baby on the way!
Pregnant
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi,
December 16th my wife and I found out that she is pregnant. I am 24 and she is 25. We find out on February 7th exactly how pregnant she is so we'll know how much longer we have until the little guy/girl pops out.
I am very excited for this. We knew we wanted kids, however we didn't plan on doing this for another 3-5 years. Which is why I am incredibly stressed and panicked right now.
Because this was something that hadn't planned on for so many years, we haven't been living as frugal as we should have been. Hind sight is 20/20 right?
Currently she works for $10 an hour as an assistant manager at a La Petite Academy daycare and is a full time student online at WGU, and I'm the general manager at an eBay musical instrument business about 45 minutes South of where we live. We just bought a house in June 2011 and about 4 days before we found out she was pregnant, we replaced my soon to die vehicle that I was paying $335.00 a month on with a new 2011 Lancer at 4.58%. We currently have $4500.00 in CC debt which I am hoping to wipe out by selling my guitar equipment, iMac and with our tax return. Currently a friend is renting a room from us for $300.00 a month since he goes to college in the city and found a job working at the community center right across the street from us.
This is what our monthly budget looks like currently:
MORTGAGE $845.00
UTILITIES $300.00
2010 MAZDA3 $377.00
2011 LANCER $333.00
AUTO INS $250.00
CELL PHONES $150.00
HEALTH INS $264.00
LIFE INSURANCE $25.00
GAS $400.00
GROCERIES $100.00
PETS $100.00
TV/INTERNET $55.00
$3,199.00
MY TAKE HOME $2,640.00
HER TAKE HOME $1,300.00
ROOMMATE $ 300.00
$4,240.00
On cars:
Right now looking at market values we can sell her car and either break even or have to pay $500 to get out from under the loan which is 0% interest, but then we would have to find alternative transportation (i.e. another car/car loan) for her which she works about 30 minutes North from where we are living.
The other option is to ultimately make her a stay at home mom and eliminate the car altogether. This gets rid of property tax, would decrease our insurance to about $120.00 a month, and would cut down our monthly gas bill by about $100.00 a month as well, not to mention no car payment. Looking at a savings of about $600.00 a month. Ultimately would look at savings of about $600.00 a month by getting rid of her car.
On health/life insurance:
Currently we're paying $180.00 for maternity coverage which we were VERY lucky to get on with almost no notice. So that will change back down to about $60.00 a month once she has the baby. We both have a 100k term life insurance policy which I'll have to bump mine up when we have a child in the house.
On TV/Internet
We're cutting our basic cable which will be $20.00 off of that monthly bill. Unfortunately she needs internet for her education.
On Cell Phones
I re-signed my 2 year contract with ATT September last year, and hers expires May of this year.
On Pets
We have a 6 month old husky and a 2 year old husky. They go through about $50.00 a month in dog food and our 2 cats go through about $50.00 a month in cat food/kitty litter.
I am also looking for a second job which is proving difficult. As not many places are wanting to hire someone from 7PM to 11PM.
I'll be adding what I can to this thread when I think of it.
Ultimately I feel incredibly foolish and reckless for having stretched us this thin and not planning for the unexpected. What I am looking for is any money saving advice, and similar "we did it! so can you!" stories.
December 16th my wife and I found out that she is pregnant. I am 24 and she is 25. We find out on February 7th exactly how pregnant she is so we'll know how much longer we have until the little guy/girl pops out.
I am very excited for this. We knew we wanted kids, however we didn't plan on doing this for another 3-5 years. Which is why I am incredibly stressed and panicked right now.
Because this was something that hadn't planned on for so many years, we haven't been living as frugal as we should have been. Hind sight is 20/20 right?
Currently she works for $10 an hour as an assistant manager at a La Petite Academy daycare and is a full time student online at WGU, and I'm the general manager at an eBay musical instrument business about 45 minutes South of where we live. We just bought a house in June 2011 and about 4 days before we found out she was pregnant, we replaced my soon to die vehicle that I was paying $335.00 a month on with a new 2011 Lancer at 4.58%. We currently have $4500.00 in CC debt which I am hoping to wipe out by selling my guitar equipment, iMac and with our tax return. Currently a friend is renting a room from us for $300.00 a month since he goes to college in the city and found a job working at the community center right across the street from us.
This is what our monthly budget looks like currently:
MORTGAGE $845.00
UTILITIES $300.00
2010 MAZDA3 $377.00
2011 LANCER $333.00
AUTO INS $250.00
CELL PHONES $150.00
HEALTH INS $264.00
LIFE INSURANCE $25.00
GAS $400.00
GROCERIES $100.00
PETS $100.00
TV/INTERNET $55.00
$3,199.00
MY TAKE HOME $2,640.00
HER TAKE HOME $1,300.00
ROOMMATE $ 300.00
$4,240.00
On cars:
Right now looking at market values we can sell her car and either break even or have to pay $500 to get out from under the loan which is 0% interest, but then we would have to find alternative transportation (i.e. another car/car loan) for her which she works about 30 minutes North from where we are living.
The other option is to ultimately make her a stay at home mom and eliminate the car altogether. This gets rid of property tax, would decrease our insurance to about $120.00 a month, and would cut down our monthly gas bill by about $100.00 a month as well, not to mention no car payment. Looking at a savings of about $600.00 a month. Ultimately would look at savings of about $600.00 a month by getting rid of her car.
On health/life insurance:
Currently we're paying $180.00 for maternity coverage which we were VERY lucky to get on with almost no notice. So that will change back down to about $60.00 a month once she has the baby. We both have a 100k term life insurance policy which I'll have to bump mine up when we have a child in the house.
On TV/Internet
We're cutting our basic cable which will be $20.00 off of that monthly bill. Unfortunately she needs internet for her education.
On Cell Phones
I re-signed my 2 year contract with ATT September last year, and hers expires May of this year.
On Pets
We have a 6 month old husky and a 2 year old husky. They go through about $50.00 a month in dog food and our 2 cats go through about $50.00 a month in cat food/kitty litter.
I am also looking for a second job which is proving difficult. As not many places are wanting to hire someone from 7PM to 11PM.
I'll be adding what I can to this thread when I think of it.
Ultimately I feel incredibly foolish and reckless for having stretched us this thin and not planning for the unexpected. What I am looking for is any money saving advice, and similar "we did it! so can you!" stories.
Pregnant on
0
Posts
And you wouldn't just be saving on the car; you'd also be saving a huge amount on day care when the baby's born. Not to mention she'll likely start (if she hasn't already begun) to feel so tired and probably won't wish to work, anyway.
I don't see a way to cut groceries, pets, and your health insurance is very much needed, so apart from the cars/gas there's not much else you can cut.
Is that take home number net or gross pay (straight per hour or after income tax/other shit is taken out)?
What do you want to do?
Get out from debt before the baby is born? [<------ THAT]
Save for an emergency?
Reduce monthly expenditures?
QUADRUPLE EDIT : That's our take home.
I guess I'm stuck at the point where I don't know what else I can cut, and I really don't know what I should be doing/what kind of money I should have available after bills to take care of a baby.
Ultimately I'm looking to remove the CC debt and reduce monthly bills. We're also working on an emergency fund before the birth.
After evaluating everything I've figured the best option is to have her quit her job and sell the Mazda 3. We'll knock out a lot of monthly bills, not have to pay for daycare, and I'll be able to claim two dependents on my W4, increasing my take home net. Also I'll be getting a $2000.00 raise in June.
Triple EDIT.
How does that follow?
You are factoring in that you'll lose her $1300/mo income right?
You can beat down that mobile bill a bit. Baby maintenance expense isn't too costly if you don't need childcare. Needing formula will dial it up, but your main expense is going to be diapers. You won't need baby food for awhile, but if you don't want to pay much for the convenience of pre-packaged food it's real easy to make. Then there are medical bills for the baby, who will have to visit the doctor more often than an adult needs to (checkup and vaccinations). The expense is largely front-loaded non-recurring expenses (delivery/pre-natal care, crib, car seat, etc., etc.).
You can save money on your cellphones if you are willing to be thrifty and have less nice cellphones - a basic pay-as-you-go handset can cost as little as $20 a month if you don't do anything more fancy than make calls and send texts. I use Net10. Use Skype for long chats with friends from home.
Would you say your net pay is about $3150 a month then? Do you have any savings whatsoever? If you've got like $4k stashed away in the bank (you just bought a house so I'm assuming you've got something) let me know, this is important, I just need rough numbers, don't need to get down to the penny.
I replied too hastily, that is our net take home, not our gross.
We have about $1000.00 in savings available (a la Dave Ramsey method).
I'm thinking since her income would be eaten up by daycare expenses, wouldn't it be best to sell the car, and once the baby's born beef up my pay by claiming two dependents (in addition to the $2000.00 raise in June)?
It may also be worth your while to ask for a raise a little further down the line in light of your impending fatherhood.
Don't sell the car though, and don't have her quit her job. She works at a daycare so she should be able to get a discount right?
I also don't see a cc payment included in your bill allotment.
Our balances are:
$500.00 Citi Card 1 19.9% $20.00 minimum payment
$2000.00 Citi Card 2 19.9% $70.00 minimum payment
$500.00 Chase Card 19.9% $25.00 minimum payment
$1500.00 Nebraska Furniture Mart Card - $1000.00 18mos no interest, $500.00 32 mos no interest. The minimum payment is $100.00 a month to have it paid off without incurring interest.
I've just been haphazardly throwing money at Citi Card 1 to get it out of there first while making minimum payments on the other cards. Then moving onto the next lowest balance etc.
Unfortunately she does not get a discount for infants at her job. And La Petite is pretty expensive @ $80.00 a day.
She might be able to move to another daycare when the baby is born which does offer discounts. Or, I have heard that some mothers take in other women's children as a sort of mini-daycare at home. That might bring in a little cash.
Can you carpool to work so that you have a way to get in on one car if she needs it to take the baby somewhere?
The business I manage has 10 employees. All of which who are located in the town the business is in (45 minutes South of where I live).
The mini at home daycare is an option that I'd like both of us to look into.
As I said in the original post I'm also looking for a 2nd job just to build up cash reserves.
I would consider having a car still. Maybe pick up something cheaper than she has but smaller. If she stays home she'll want to get out, run errands, visit others, etc and will want a car to do that. I'm guessing by the sounds of her job it's not something where she's on a definite path to some end goal/high paying position and quitting isn't a major career killer?
Keep in mind though - if she stays at home it will up your electric/heating bill a bit just because someone will be home all day. Also, maybe keep the basic cable for her, that cost may be worth it. My wife is a teacher and stays home all summer with our son and frankly you can go a bit stir crazy and need stuff like a car and tv to avoid burnout.
So drop that on the card 2. Keep your grand in the bank, houses are expensive and you'll want to have something for down payment or a deductible for insurance purposes. Pay that $1700 on card 2 instantly, as soon as it's in the bank and deposited.
Card 1 and Card 2 can be paid off within 3 months or so, pay them off at your leisure. I'd say the first month pay off the rest of card 1 (saving $200 into your savings) and the next month pay off the Chase card (again saving the other $200) -- in this case that $200 in extra savings is going towards your oustanding card payment bills so make the minimum payments on them. After all 3 cards are paid off, take the next 4 months to pay off the nebraska one. I understand it's 0% interest buy any debt is bad debt at the drop of a hat.
It's easy to rationalize "hey my baby needs diapers so it's okay not to pay that off in full this month" and then 4 years later you're getting hit with overage and all this sort of shit.
With luck you'll be at month 7 of the pregnancy and have 0 card debt. Which is good because she'll probably get onto unpaid maternity leave. At this point you might consider having her quit the job to take care of the child for the next 4-5 years until school starts.
There's some social costs to your wife as well as monetary costs. Assuming child care of $1000 a month ($50 a day/5 days a week/4 weeks a month), you could cut costs on the car and insurance. But remember you have multiple policies so you probably lose a bit of savings all around by getting rid of them. Can she handle being a homemaker for that period of time? Will she be able to go back to work?
That extra $400 a month you get from the roommate should go towards whatever debt you can, and thus alters my timeline just a bit, you can probably cut that timeline in half and start saving even more money. Though I would necessarily save his and just start making extra payments on your car loans if at all possible, assuming no penalties. You'll want to do it on the one you're planning on getting rid because of liens on the title and such, it makes sense if you're considering it in the future.
The rest is on you guys. You'll be negative by her having a job with a childcare cost of $1000, because of her car payment. You could look into trading it in for a lower cost car too. There are a ton of options here.
You should look into other child care options, find out how much it will actually cost you, so you can make a more informed decision.
Also, I'm not sure that having a stay-at-home mom with no car is a great idea. How would she make emergency doctor trips? I mean, if you're 45 minutes away and your peanut starts running a high fever, how would she get them to the doctor? How would she do shopping trips? Taking an infant on the bus and then carrying them and the shopping would be a pain in the butt. It's all well and good to say you'd plan all that in advance so she can use your car when you're home, but things come up that you don't expect. Baby has the runs and she's out of diapers and can't get the store? She trips and spills the last can of formula and the peanut needs to eat?
By all means, try to get a less expensive payment, but I don't think no car for her is worth the monetary savings.
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391
Depends on locale too, but absolutely.
Though I've had good success.
My wife and I pay at least three times that each month. And due to our schedules (and partly laziness sometimes) we don't always eat three meals a day.
Edit: I mean, you're spending the same amount on food for your pets.
As well as the obvious saving on childcare, there's food - simply you don't spend as much on home cooked food as you do on ready made, and its often better quality.
Clothing for your wife - I had to wear suits, tights and stupid shoes. At home I could wear jeans, t-shirts, trainers.
Breastfeeding for longer is also much more viable if you stay at home; its better for both mum and baby and way cheaper than formula stuff.
Baby food once your baby starts on mush/solids - simply liquidise what you're eating (no salt, though)
Diapers - use real ones, not disposable, as someone is at home to wash them regularly - you need 2 dozen.
Increase in costs:
Heating your house in the winter during the day time unless you live somewhere warm.
Electricity ditto.
I'll add to this if i think of anything else major.
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
You can check out their current non-smartphone plans and minute rates here (note, again, that you can buy yourself more minutes and texts per month without having to sign up for the $20/$30 per month plans), or their smartphone plans here. No contracts on any of this stuff, so you're not locked in at any point... but their cheapest (non-smart) phones can't really be moved between providers since they don't have SIM cards or anything. Depending on your current phones, you might be able to use them on VM's service already though (you can check with them).
It's probably closer to $150.00 a month looking at past spending. We just purchased three months of food for $88.00 yesterday evening. We're working on freezing meals to eat later instead of buying prepared food.
@zilo
If I could get KBB value for the car then it would be a matter of $1000.00-$1500.00 to get out of the loan. I'm looking at cutting down monthly costs which the Lancer gets better mileage and the payment is cheaper by $40.00 a month. However would it be better to look at getting rid of the Lancer and getting a beater car, as opposed to selling the Mazda? We're about $1000.00-$2000.00 ahead on the Mazda.
@LewieP'sMummy
All good points. We could cut a lot of costs by having her at home. And cloth diapers wouldn't be as much of a burden if someone is home to wash them frequently.
As far as getting on Virgin Mobile, I currently have a two year contract with ATT and my wife's runs out in May. Would it be best to eat whatever cancellation charges there are for my phone, sell the phone, and sign up with a minimal plan with Virgin Mobile?
Also, my wife is looking into a company "Convergys" which claims to be one of the legit work at home jobs.
Does anyone have any experience with this company's work at home position?
Other than that she is looking into bartending Friday nights again if she were to stay at home. She used to while we were dating and would bring home $200.00-$300.00 some nights. She also has a makeup business on the side that she's had some success with during wedding season.
My wife is very small and petite so it's never taken much for her to fill up. She's been pescetarian for the last two years, which means the only meat she's been eating is fish (no tuna anymore though since she's pregnant). Red meat still upsets her stomach. She makes a lot of pasta meals for us. And her pregnant craving has been lots of soup. We don't buy name brand and I'm a big fan of Ramen, kippers and sardines. The owner of the business I manage also buys lunch every day at work.
I wouldn't think staying at home until the kid gets old enough for toddler day care would be too bad personally/professionally. It sounds like she's attending classes presumably for a career path beyond $10/hr daycare worker.
Man, there are many legitimately good reasons both for and against being a stay at home mother, but to say it stagnates a person's personal growth is just about the most horrible, most offensive non-reason I can think of! And I say this as someone planning to be a working mother.
@Pregnant's wife's current plans, to look at work-from-home work and to continue her make-up business and/or to do bartending all sound like great plans to me; still brings in extra cash, still gives her employment experience, and eliminates the need for childcare. I'd definitely try and go this route, if only because $10/hour is not worth the cost of childcare.
And I agree with continuing the classes also being important and a good idea!
Even cheaper than buying & washing cloth diapers MIGHT be a diaper service. I say might as this depends on how much doing the laundry ends up costing you, and whether or not there's a diaper service in your area and how much it costs. I'm looking at a diaper service myself that costs $21 a week; for that they provide you with 88 cloth diapers a week, and at the end of the week they take them away and do all of the laundry for you. If it turns out that you don't require 88 diapers a week (average for a new born), it costs even less.
Basically, there are a lot of options out there! Also, be aware that many baby things are sold new or nearly-new on places like craigslist for very cheap, because babies grow out of things so quickly. There are also many, many baby discount sites (i.e. babysteals.com).
As long as your wife (and hopefully you) is eating properly and not skimping on nutrition to save money. Ramen for dinner might have been a good, frugal idea before, but there is nothing in that food for the baby. The same goes for pastas, unless you're loading it with veggies. Can't see that though on $2.50/day per person for food (2 meals).
A while back I wanted to see how much I could save on groceries and was able to cut down to $50/week for two people. That was tough, and it involved hitting up different stores on grocery day to take advantage of sales, planning out meals days in advance, etc. I had a 1 week meal schedule that I used to keep only those ingredients in the home, and it worked out. $50/week right on. I didn't stick with it, because the amount I spent extra on gas combined with all the time/effort required wasn't worth it to me. I just can't even imagine cutting that in half.
I'd also be concerned about taking proper supplements given your wife's diet choices, but I don't really know enough to get into specifics.
And w/r/to cloth diapering this is completely different from this. We signed up for diaper/laundry service and got the former and I changed exactly 1 diaper and cancelled the service and bought the latter; YMMV.
PSN Hypacia
Xbox HypaciaMinnow
Discord Hypacia#0391