Budget help

[Catrin]

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Electric bill: All my appliances are electric, as is the heating, and there is no insulation. Rates are very high here for no obvious reason, and I have a west-facing apartment with two windows. I've been turning the heat way down during the day when I'm not here, but that doesn't seem to be sufficient.
Help!

Outside of pipes freezing, you will also want to check your apartment lease to see if they have a minimum thermostat setting for the winter. My lease has this requirement. Basically this means that if my pipes freeze because I've had the thermostat too low, I pay for the repairs.

I've also been told that when you turn it way down when you aren't there, then warm things back up when you got home, that this uses more energy this year since it has to work so hard to heat things up. My own experiments over the years appears to prove that out. I seem to have better luck when my settings in the winter stay pretty constant - for me that is 67 to 69 degrees, I am required to at least have it set at 65. Since I lost my weight I get cold much easier than at one time, 65 is just too cold for me if I want to do anything more than sit on the couch wrapped up in a blanket.

Tulip's suggestion about YNAB is a good one, but it costs $60. They do have a trial version you can use for a month to see how it works and you can use that experience to develop your own spreadsheet budget if you don't want to spend that money

Personally I keep a budget spreadsheet that does pretty much everything that YNAB does, with the additional benefit that it goes 8-12 months out for all of my usual expenses. This allows me to see the potential effect of some extra purchase on THIS date might have on THAT pay period down the line. For me this is quite beneficial and has helped me to start digging my way out a bit.

[Melalvai]

+1 on sell the car. If you need a car for the occasional trip out of town, rent one. That is cheaper than car payments, and you can control when it happens. If you don't have the money to make a trip you stay home, whereas a car payment is due whether or not you have the money for it.

Pay food first, then rent and utilities, then the loans & credit cards. Prioritize it so that if money runs out, you have pre-made the decision about who doesn't get money that month or who gets less than a full payment. And call your creditors and explain the situation. You'll end up paying a fee, but you can stave off having collection agencies hounding you.

If you even just send them $10 that's better than missing a payment entirely.

[Catrin]

Hmm. Don't suppose you could post a blank version of that spreadsheet Catrin?

I spend too much

Yes, I can do this tonight and I've started to keep it in Google documents so I can access it whenever I want/need to. For me at least it helps to see the overall big picture. I spend too much as well...so this helps me quite a bit.

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Pay food first, then rent and utilities, then the loans & credit cards. Prioritize it so that if money runs out, you have pre-made the decision about who doesn't get money that month or who gets less than a full payment. And call your creditors and explain the situation. You'll end up paying a fee, but you can stave off having collection agencies hounding you.

If you even just send them $10 that's better than missing a payment entirely.

This is a good approach, when I fell behind for assorted reasons in the late fall/early winter I adopted a similar approach to start digging my way back out. I seem to want to put food last on the list though...and am trying to do better with that. I hate late fees...

For me I prioritize my biggest/most important bills first (rent, car payment, utilities) then I move to the largest credit accounts down to the smallest. While this hasn't helped my credit rating, it does help to talk with my creditors and it stops the calls.

[ehirsch83]

When I went to school in Boulder I didn't have a car and I walked everywhere, rode a hard tail entry level mtb or took the bus(and I waited tables and that was about 2 miles from my house and I walked daily to work, even when I got done late at night or worked a double) . Granted, public transportation in Boulder was a lot better then Dayton. My grandfather lives really close to DU( within walking distance). Dayton is definitely commuter friendly enough that I would also consider selling the car.

Maybe you find some babysitting jobs once or twice a week to bring in some extra cash?($10 an hour is a normal rate and it is cash under the table) you could easily make an extra $50-100 bucks a week and have food money. Most kids go to sleep around 8 or so, so you could study after.

[Irulan]

You can usually put a car on a "not driving" status and pay a minimum amt to park the policy.

[Catrin]

Hmm. Don't suppose you could post a blank version of that spreadsheet Catrin?

I spend too much

Here is the link, it isn't very complicated but it fits my needs. Let me know if there is something that isn't clear.