Sumofabitch. This can be depressing. i asked Mustard if he was willing to give up eating if I gave up groceries. He buried his head in his food dish.
My parents won't let me starve, but they will make me stray from weight loss. So buying groceries is still a necessity.
I got the Quicken breakdown onto three versions of the 2008 monthly budget breakdown--trying to snag where the money goes. The macro breakdown is now at 10% retirement, 5% emergency, 5% fun, and 80% everything else. Then I ranked my categories into monthly expenses I have to pay, what I should pay, debt, and stuff I can pay cash for (i.e. the stuff I can control spending on but usually don't).
Spreadsheet #1 Breakdown with current bills: I run out of money at line 22 the car note.
Spreadsheet #2 Breakdown with house refinanced: The refinance deal I was given to think about means I would have to add home insurance out of pocket instead of lumped into the mortgage note. While trying to find a quote for premiums, I realized I'm probably underinsured and wouldn't be able to rebuild in worst case scenario. My numbers on the spreadsheet are woefully inadequate according to the quotes I got later and I still run out of money at line 22 which is now the mortgage.
Spreadsheet #3 Breakdown with no debt: Just for anyone who claims the problem is what I owe. i still have a ridiculous estimate for home insurance premiums and run out of money at line 37--entertainment. And I cut back on all the what I can control spending categories already.
So while owing money for the house, car, personal loans, borrowed from parents, and medical bills my insurance didn't cover is not great and not helping the financial picture, I can't blame the non-balancing numbers on it alone. And yes, I have deliberately left off school loans because I figure at best I have another year and a half before having to start dealing with them.
Going back to Spreadsheet #1. What are the biggest monthly payouts? Fuel, mortgage, car note, federal taxes, car insurance, household = all over $200.00.
Nope, not going that route. I have 22 months of Quicken number crunching to back me on these amounts. I need to look at it a different way.
Read Free!
The BookWorm
There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/
2 comments:
I didn't say debt was your problem. I said you should be paying it off before anything else. Otherwise you end up paying more over time.
This series of blog posts never ends well, continuation wise. I meant to have 104 up by tonight but it's not done yet. :p
The problem is with financial problems is there is so much harping on the debt aspect that people assume that's the cause of all the problems. I had to run the numbers to see for myself that this is the highest wage per hour I've ever been paid and still can't afford my life.
Post a Comment