As soon as I got really serious about paying off our debt I started scouring the internet for other blogs about people doing the same. I've found several and although they help to keep me motivated they also bring me down a little bit. Perhaps I need to go back and dig further because I'm really hoping to find people that are like me - in a situation similar to mine. True, the ones I'm reading are about people getting out of debt and that is like me. The difference though? All these people have the funds to make extra payments and make it happen. I don't. Plain and simple. Not that I don't want to, but that it's not financially possible.
Our monthly bills are higher than our income.
Geesh, it seems so surreal and yet so scary to put that in writing.
As of today here is where we stand:
$1,450 Lease payment (we are doing a lease to own)
$ 50 Water/trash bill
$ 110 Electric bill
$ 50 Gas bill
$ 200 Tax payment (we owed over 2k in taxes last year and had to set-up a payment plan)
$ 308 Title loan
$ 143 Student loan #1
$ 8 Hulu Plus
$ 165 Furniture payment
$ 327 DVC (Disney timeshare)
$ 20 Netflix
$ 220 Cell phone bill (2 personal phones)
$ 20 Work cell phone (Travel Agent, responsible for this expense)
$ 70 Car insurance
$ 165 Student loan #2
$ 47 Home insurance
$ 48 Gymboree (for Son)
$ 70 Internet
$ 25 CC #1
$ 25 CC #2
$ 30 CC #3
$ 43 CC #4
$ 25 CC #5
$ 35 CC #6
$ 20 CC #7
$ 97 DVC Dues
$ 165 Student loan #3
$ 20 Son's savings
$ 700 Groceries/household
$ 300 Gas
Grand Total: $4,956
This is $956 more than our consistent monthly income. I say consistent because I work a part-time, guaranteed hour job, as well as 2 additional jobs from home. The 2 jobs from home I do not factor in because the pay I receive from these is inconsistent.
As I go through this list I feel both overwhelmed and anxious. Sure, I see several areas where we could eliminate or cut back. The issue is in doing so.
The first to come to mind is our DVC. For those not familiar this stands for Disney Vacation Club and it is a timeshare owned by Disney. We purchased this following our Disney honeymoon when we were living in an apartment that cost 1/3 of our lease each month. I'm sure that it seems obvious that at $327 plus an additional $97 a month in dues it should get sold so we don't carry that payment. However, Hubs and I agree that this is something we desperately want to hold on to.
Some of the more entertainment items seem likely as an item to let go of - Hulu, Netflix, Cell phone ... again, it's so much easier said than done. Several months ago we cut our cable. But, we did so with the agreement that we would hold onto Netflix and Hulu so that we could continue to enjoy relaxing evenings in front of the TV. Considering our cable bill was $160 a month, I think holding onto $28 a month for the other two seems fair. The cell phone bill is high because we both have iPhones and more minutes than we need. I actually got online to lower our minute package each month. But, here's the kicker, we actually contracted that so long ago (2003!) that it is far more expensive to transfer to a smaller package. And, with what our jobs entail we truly do need smartphones to be able to connect to email, internet, attachments, documents etc. We did, however, convince our work to pay for a portion of our bill each month. That bill used to be $260!
Internet is a requirement for my Travel Agency job so no possibility of cutting there. We did check to see if we could find a better deal. We didn't.
That leaves us with the last two items gas and groceries. I'm going to work hard tonight evaluating what a realistic budget for these two items should be...
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