I've spent the majority of this pregnancy depressed if I'm being totally honest. So when my oldest son picked up a piece of mail, "read" my name on the envelope, and opened it and exclaimed, "Oh no. Another one" that was my breaking point for this week. As much as I try not to let my sadness and stress influence him, I know that it does. He's watching everything I do and listening to everything I say. I know it's not just him, too. Abel knows I'm sad...even Merit probably feels it. That just adds to my guilt.
I don't know if it's the influx of hormones or what, but I have felt mostly unhappy during the past year. We've had a lot thrown our way- many of these happenings are blessings, I know they are, but still it feels incredibly overwhelming at times. Right now, I'm wishing we never bought this house even though I love it. It just feels like a large money pit. There were so many projects we wanted to do to it and I wanted to decorate it, finally, because it was a place we were staying at longer than a year. It was going to be home. But with Abel's recent medical bills and mine with this pregnancy, it doesn't feel like we should be here. The house feels too big. It's a pendulum above my head.
I know that money doesn't matter. It's not ours anyway...it's God's. I get nervous, though and when that bill came today and Kinley pretended to be worried, too that just made me feel about two feet tall. When you're wearing your rose colored glasses and purchasing your first home, you don't think that something might come up that costs a lot of money. You don't think your child might need cochlear implants. You definitely don't consider that your insurance won't pay for it. I've been on the phone off and on all week with doctors and our insurance company, trying to figure out what's going on. It has been a mess. The insurance company is telling me one thing and Vanderbilt another. I'm trusting in God that this is going to work out in some way in His time.
Until then, this family needs a plan.
What are some ways you save money? Cut out cable, cell, etc bills? Clip coupons? Budgeting tricks? What's the single most helpful way you've found to watch your spending?
15 comments:
For me personally I've found doing the envelope budget to be really helpful. I spend less money when I have to physically hand it over versus mindlessly swipe a card.
We cut out things that we didn't need. We cut down our cell phone bills, cable bills and eliminated any unneeded memberships. I also coupon a lot, I take the money I save from that and throw it in savings.
I use YNAB software and have for about 5 years now. It helps to see where your money is going in the way. Cash budgets help, but if we're being honest, we don't do cash budgets because it's sometimes a bit stressful to do things that way. We do with categories we overspend it (pocket money for J, pocket money for me, restaurants), but that's all. I cut coupons, and I also go through ads each Sunday when our newspaper comes to see what's on sale and plan accordingly. I use my Cartwheel app for Target, my Target debit card (5% off), and I use the Ibotta app, which also helps save a few bucks here and there!
I find that the best way is to write down everything I buy. Now, it usually goes that I end up having a million things we actually need (carpet cleaner, vet bills, gas, etc.) the second I decide to do this, but it's a nice way to hold myself accountable.
At times, I do cut the cable down to the bare minimum and/or revisit all unnecessary expenses to see what we can cut.
About a 2-3 years ago, we started using mvelopes.com - it is the envelope budgeting concept, but you don't have to carry cash and you can use your debit card - there is an app to check your envelope before you spend and keep track of what comes in and goes out - and the program imports your bank data automatically for you! We love it and it made a huge difference during residency and fellowship to have such a close eye on our money!
David & I don't have cable, we do have netflix. You can get streaming netflix for like $8 a month. We also have Hulu, another $8 a month, but still cheaper than cable!
We also just managed to save like $100 on our cell phone bill by changing up our plan. I dropped my unlimited internet that I was grandfathered in so that we could share a joint plan for cheaper. Our last phone bill was $90!
Coupons are great but we don't have a printer so the only real coupons we use are in store coupons.
Oh friend, I understand where you are coming from! With baby on the way and we are unsure of the medical bills that will come with delivery and hospital stay, we have been cutting everything possible. We cut down some "extra's" on our cell phones, got rid of my favorite car ever and went with something more practical, cancelled the extra things we dont need, started to clip coupons, and only grocery shop for things we need rather than those extra items we would like to have.
Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace course and his books are a great place to start. I coupon to save money (even though I haven't for a while).
I make our laundry detergent. It cost about $20 to make but it lasts for months. The first time I made it I had enough for all our laundry from about March through November so it's saved a lot of money. Here's the recipe- http://happymoneysaver.com/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-worth-the-cost/
I'm quite certain that insurance should cover Abel's cochlear implants. As long as he shows severe to profound hearing loss, all insurances cover it. Also, look into medicaid. Abel could qualify for that as long as your combined income isn't 300% over the poverty level. Since you are a single income family, you may fall into that bucket. Best of luck.
Hang in there Momma! I do well with the 'envelope' system, especially for food. At the beginning of the month we take out our budget's worth for grocery and eating out (separate envelopes) and once that money is gone, it is gone. So that really forces me to meal plan, eat at home, not impulse buy at the grocery ect. It has helped us save a lot and be better about using what we have!
We follow Dave Ramsey's program and always always recommend it. It has helped us so much!!
Dont' worry Kacy, we've all been there. God will see you through. Here are some ways we budget.
Share meals at restruants. (They split onto to plates before delivering it to the table.)
Basic Cable with internet
Netflix subscription
Crackle (Free subscription with BlueRay)
Coupons, Coupons, and more Coupons I rarely pay full price for anything.
Family and Friends know we would rather have restruant gift cards if they are in to the giving gifts
Love to you all!
We rarely eat out and we have bare bones plans on our cell phones. I've been trying to cook and bake from scratch more and more and it actually saves a decent amount. It's time consuming though. Hope it gets easier!
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