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So I was thinking...

December 30th, 2006 at 04:03 am

I read the replies to my "No resolutions allowed" entry and the one about accountability really struck home with me. I need to be accountable. Oh, I know I'm accountable to YHWH in regard to my stewardship of what He's given me and I even have a group of women online that I report to in some things. But apparently that's just not enough for me.

Now, I'm a pretty frugal person, believe it or not. I feed a family of 4 adults and 2 part time teens on less than $250 most months. We have no car payments and very little credit card debt. We manage to pay our bills for the most part but the mortgage payment, as small as it is, has just been an issue lately. We're self employed so we don't have a stable income and that's part of the problem. I won't go into all that here and now but suffice to say it's an issue and one I'm not sure I can resolve quickly. I'm going to pray and think on all of this.

In the meantime, I need more accountability so this blog will be my spending log. I'll post entries detailing our anticipated monthly expenditures, what we've actually spent and where, when, and for what, etc. Maybe that will help me.

I'm still reading the blogs of others and I'm still impressed. I'm also learning quite a bit but if any of you have suggestions for me, I'd love to know them.

4 Responses to “So I was thinking...”

  1. baselle Says:
    1167452201

    Feeding a family - especially with teens - on 250$/ month? It sounds like you could be teaching us a thing or two. Smile

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1167456157

    Do the other two adults (I'm assuming your grown children?) contribute to the household expenses? If not, they should start. After all, if you lose the house they won't have a place to live either. Also have you or your husband or both of you considered taking on a job outside your self-employment? 40 hours a week at a fast food or pizza place should net you between $600 and $800 a month net depending on your state's minimum wage. If you each worked 20 hours a week you'd have that. More if you worked more than that. Obviously that is not a permanent solution but to get you back on your feet again, you have to do what you can.

  3. DeniseNTexas Says:
    1167488458

    The other two adults are my son, age 23 and my stepson, age 22. The 22 year old is between jobs right now and the 23 year old works but it's a cash job and he gets less than minimum wage. That may very well change soon but that's how it's been the last few months. Neither of them contribute anything regularly though they do occasionally buy groceries and help with other things. I think I'm going to tell them they need to pay X dollars a week/month to live here but I'm not sure what the amount should be.

    I worked at a local retail place but quit because my other half said he needed me to handle the phone calls and paperwork of the business while he's out making sales calls and such. This is a bad time of year financially and people aren't buying many ads right now. I'm considering going back to work, at least part time, but don't have a vehicle and there is no public transportation where we are. In the meantime, though, I'm going to talk to DH about this and get his thoughts on it. If I work, he will need to rearrange his schedule to get me to work and back but he's done that before so it isn't like he doesn't know how!

    Thanks for your suggestions. I'm going to post an entry here later today probably with our expenses. I really appreciate the ideas!

  4. LuxLiving Says:
    1167558505

    If it helps to know --- my 20 year old pays $200 a month for Room & Board - and some of his meals come from his burgercentral job but there is always food here prepared for him if he decides to eat at home instead of at work. Anything not eaten for supper gets recycled into lunch leftovers anyway.

    The 18 year old son budgets and pays for his own lunch stuff now as he packs it off to his employment. He also pays for all of his other needs as well, clothes, medical insurance, car insurance, etc. When he turns 20 if he's still at home he'll come off the Mom & Dad dole for a roof, utilities & meals and go to paying R&B as well. It's certainly cheaper than if they were renting some place on their own.

    On the varying amounts of income -- you might try and visit Jesse's You Need A Budget site (youneedabudget.com) and on there it helps you think about budgeting on just such a system. Say perhaps that you average 1300 a month in income w/some months at 1600 and some at 900 but fixed expenses are 1000.00 - figure out how to keep hold of the money on the high months and boost the low months from those savings and take a draw of 1000.00 a month for your monthly self SALARY...his budget program would help - but you can also do it w/plain old pencil and paper....I did for years.

    Good luck to you - this place is full of all kinds of good help! Keep reading and posting!





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