[edited 9/22 to remove specific amounts of debt, at M's request; why he cares if I put it on here I have no idea -- either you're a random stranger and I don't care if you know how much we owe, or you're a good friend or part of our family, and again, I don't care if you know how much we owe. Oooh! Just thought of a third possibility: maybe you're a bored, rich dude with nothing to spend his money on, and you'll send me a check!]
I feel like we are drowning in debt. Adoption debt: $A lot. HELOC balance: $An obscene amount. Credit card: $Bearable, but I'd rather not have it. Student loan: $Small compared to other people's. And M's car is near death and will have to be replaced soon (like next week, it turns out). It makes me crazy. Before we started the adoption, we had no debt (except for the student loan) and $A comfortable amount in savings. Now we have $A substantially less comfortable amount in savings and debt up the wazoo. Considering that childcare + our mortgage together = half our take-home salary, it's hard to imagine when it's going to get paid off. The adoption tax credit will help next year, and believe me, I'll be filing our taxes the very day I've accumlated all the paperwork.
So I'm trying to be a frugal mom. Yesterday, I:
- Peeled, chopped and froze all the tomatoes from the garden that had gotten too soft to eat raw -- our garden is producing tomatoes at a rather alarming rate, and I've vowed that I won't throw a single one away. Look out basil, you're next -- I see batches & batches of pesto in my freezer soon. And parsley, oregano & sage drying in the crawl space.
- Made french toast using the 1/3 can of pumpkin I had leftover from making a cheesecake on Saturday. Why throw it away? Yummy + a little extra kick of vitamin A.
- Tore up all the heels from 2 loaves of bread & stuck it in the freezer in a ziplock bag. Instead of feeding it to the squirrels, I'll have bread crumbs ready next time a recipe calls for it.
- Went through the Costco coupon flyer & circled everything we routinely use. I'm going to go buy it all, whether we need it right now or not. It'll all keep until we do.
Today, I've spent ALL DAY washing, folding, hanging and tagging a bunch of the kids' outgrown clothes. I'm going to sell them and the baby gear we no longer need at a sale that benefits the PTA of a local elementary school. I do this every fall and usually take home about $100-$150 plus a tax deduction for a charitable donation. This year I'm hoping for twice that, thanks to all that baby gear.
I've started sewing & selling my stuff again, mostly baby blankets. I'm thinking of opening an Etsy store. Actually, I already have one, but there's never been anything in it.
I'm going to apply to teach a course at the community college where the kids' preschool is. The paycheck is only about $500/semester/class, but it will cut 2/3 off the cost of their tuition if I'm teaching there.
We moved the kids to a preschool that has part-time tuition, saving us about $75/month. Plus, I can ride the bus to work from there. I have a free bus pass from work, so the savings on gas & car repairs should be more than $150/month. Our auto insurance might even go down a bit.
Last but not least, I'm debating whether I should go back to work full-time. It would bump my salary by nearly $20,000/year. I think they'd let me cram it into four days (35 hours is full-time where I work, so it's not as bad as it sounds). The problem is that I desperately need my Mondays home alone. It's not only when I do stuff like cook and clean, it's when I recharge my batteries. I'm a classic introvert, and I need some time alone in order to cope with living in this zoo. The kids aren't in school on Fridays, so I'd be home with them on my day off work. No housework (although we could afford a cleaning lady with me working full-time), and no recharging. Once I go back to full-time, I don't think they'll ever let me go back to part-time again. A possible compromise would be to wait until next fall, when B starts kindergarten. Then I could send Z to preschool on Fridays and have most of the day to myself. But we need the money now!
What to do? Any advice or suggestions, anyone? What do you do to save money?
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4 comments:
I'm extraordinarily bad at saving money, so I won't give advice there. But I do clip coupons. And when I feel that money is tight, I try to make dinners only using what I have on hand instead of shopping. Going to the grocery store is a huge waste of money usually, unless I 100% stick to my list. I buy in bulk and freeze in batches. I make soups and sauces and freeze them also. I also go through phases where I try not to buy ANYTHING at all. Its difficult, but it does save money. Good luck. $20,000.00 extra per year is not chump change! Kindergarten is right around the corner. Do you have to pay for full days? We do. $250.00/month. I was bummed because I thought daycare expenditure was over! She'll finally be supervised for free NEXT year for the first time ever!
Spread the debt over... five years. When the kids are in school in a few years the opportunity to go back to back full time will be there.This is what I am doing.
I use generic food, buy in bulk, buy clothes second hand, cut the cable, cut the cell phones (except work), simplify meals, cut down on travel, out to eat less, date night is a business function with a baby sitter, adjust contribution to retirement short-term...we even bought a smaller house two years ago...sold stuff on ebay...etc... simplified the holidays...drive an old car (12 years old lotsa miles). Time with the kids when they are little is priceless...just a thought...
I hear you! I am also not good at saving, though I've gotten better. I don't have the credit card debt, but I've got a HUGE car payment (at least in my eyes it's huge) - I try to pay a little over the monthly payment on it so I can pay it off early. It's no fun going from having no car payment to having one. Steuart is driving my old Corolla (with 225K miles on it!) instead of his big gas-guzzling truck. That saves $$ big time. I also have a student loan, but I don't really mind that - I consider it a debt I can deal with because without it, I wouldn't have the awesome job I have now. After the wedding and honeymoon, my savings account got a lot smaller and that bugs me. I get stuff at Sams when I can. We just bought a new wood burning stove. It was expensive to buy, but the one we have isn't big enough to heat the house. The new one will be and hopefully we won't have to use the central heat at all this winter. We'll put the old one down in Julio's house by the barn where it IS big enough to heat the house. That right there will save us about $300 per month in the winter since we pay for his heat. I stay at home and work when I don't teach, saving me 60 miles on my car. I just found out that the University shuttle makes a stop about 8 miles away at a park and ride. I might try taking the shuttle at least once per week. The positive: it's free and parking is free, I'd be saving money on gas, and it drops me off about a block from my office; the downside: I get carsick on buses, and it only has two pickup times so if I miss the bus coming home, I'm screwed. Boxed wine is my friend. I should probably just cut out wine entirely, but it works out to like $4 per bottle to buy it boxed and I limit myself to one glass per day. I did what doug and cheryl did at one point and cut back on my personal contribution to retirement when money was tight. I don't clip coupons because they're always for things I don't eat/use.
Just so you know, adjunct faculty get $1000 per credit hour at the Univ. of MD - $500 is cheeeep, but the savings in tuition for the kids would make it all worth while. I think you should go for it. Do they allow you to teach via computer? Maybe you could do a distance-ed course and not even leave your house. Heck, record the lectures on Mondays when you're home if you can do distance ed.
I don't buy clothes unless they're at places like TJ Maxx or on sale. I can't remember the last time I bought a new pair of shoes. Oh wait, yes I do - wedding shoes - but they don't count because I have no clue when I'll wear them again.
I check out books from the library now instead of buying them.
We hardly ever eat out. I bought one of those Entertainment coupon books for this year, so when we do, we go somewhere that has a coupon.
Erin, you may regard boxed wine as an extravagance, but consider this: Prozac and counseling would be much more expensive.
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