Anyone reviewing their household budget for the new year??

[kkmcan]

We were hit with a few large expenses this year that caused us to start thinking about cutting back on spending/bills. We called and renegotiated our cable bill, refinanced our new car to a lower rate, and didn't renew our cell phone contract when we paid off our phones (savings of $50 per month). We also opened up a Roth IRA and now contribute to that every month.

We are going to do a full review of our budget for next year including.

-shopping for new car and home insurance
-look to refinance our new home loan with a 20 year instead of 30 year length
-Give ourselves an allowance each month in cash so we can't overspend on extras
-Budget for eating out (never stuck to a budget for this)
-Cut back on Costco visits (we have no control in there
-Look to possibly buy new unlocked phones so we don't have to get into another contract
-Put away $100 month into vacation fund
-Any extra $$$ per month will go to our debt snowball which isn't much but the car payments have us drowning. Dh's car died this year and my car got hit and was considered a total loss. So we have 2 new car payments. We chose to buy new because we have been suffering from expensive car repairs for the last 2 years and was funneling money into cars that weren't worth it because of their ages. Didn't want to get into any sort of used cars lemons.

Anyone else thinking about new budgets for next year?? Would love to hear your ideas!

 

[.landry]

we do it every year. we adjust for different kinds of expenses and see where we need more and less money allocated. It gives us a really solid place to deal with money from.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yes, we have to account for continually-increasing taxes imposed from all levels of government. Accordingly, prices on all consumer services and goods goes up each time there is a tax increase. So we always have to have an idea of how much worse things could get, hahahaha...

 

[DisneyEater]

We were hit with a few large expenses this year that caused us to start thinking about cutting back on spending/bills. We called and renegotiated our cable bill, refinanced our new car to a lower rate, and didn't renew our cell phone contract when we paid off our phones (savings of $50 per month). We also opened up a Roth IRA and now contribute to that every month.

We are going to do a full review of our budget for next year including.

-shopping for new car and home insurance
-look to refinance our new home loan with a 20 year instead of 30 year length
-Give ourselves an allowance each month in cash so we can't overspend on extras
-Budget for eating out (never stuck to a budget for this)
-Cut back on Costco visits (we have no control in there
-Look to possibly buy new unlocked phones so we don't have to get into another contract
-Put away $100 month into vacation fund
-Any extra $$$ per month will go to our debt snowball which isn't much but the car payments have us drowning. Dh's car died this year and my car got hit and was considered a total loss. So we have 2 new car payments. We chose to buy new because we have been suffering from expensive car repairs for the last 2 years and was funneling money into cars that weren't worth it because of their ages. Didn't want to get into any sort of used cars lemons.

Anyone else thinking about new budgets for next year?? Would love to hear your ideas!

Congrats on tackling this. I have been untangling my own financial wastefulness over the last year.

I'd make a couple of suggestions based on my experience:

-shopping for new car and home insurance
I did this and found comparable insurance that saved my 1/3 of what I was paying. Called my current company to say that is why I was leaving and they cut it 2/3 with no changes to coverage. Make sure you go back to your current company with the amount you are about to switch for and see if they can do anything.

-Look to possibly buy new unlocked phones so we don't have to get into another contract
I would switch to a non-contract provider as they are generally cheaper. We have a t-mobile family plan which costs us around $30 per phone a month. I think anything over $40 is crazy with all of the options out there. Also, if you actually do NEED new phones, I would look at the lower end Android phones. They work just as well as the higher end ones for the most part. The only thing you need to watch is the amount of memory. T-Mobile has their own branded version of one of these phones I just got for $180 and it comes with 32GB and I can still unlock it with my face...though I don't want to.

I want to comment on your 2 new cars but I will resist...

 

[tvguy]

I just need to remember to put transfer some money out of the checking account into savings every month for my big bills that are due in December. Any surplus left in checking manages to disappear. Between property taxes and long term care insurance, I have $7,000 in once a year bills in December, oh yeah, and Christmas!. Wish I could pay that long term care insurance monthly, but they will only take one payment a year, and no electronic payment option either, Has to be a check.

 

[heather913]

I just need to remember to put transfer some money out of the checking account into savings every month for my big bills that are due in December. Any surplus left in checking manages to disappear. Between property taxes and long term care insurance, I have $7,000 in once a year bills in December, oh yeah, and Christmas!. Wish I could pay that long term care insurance monthly, but they will only take one payment a year, and no electronic payment option either, Has to be a check.

Set up an automatic transfer. I put money away each month for Christmas that automatically transfers to a separate account. It makes December much less stressful.

 

[DawnM]

Yes. We have to revamp a bit. I will have two kids in college in the Fall. Since we don't really watch our Cable TV anymore, I am going to get rid of it, and just keep our internet service.

Not sure about cutting the cell phone anymore. We have gone down to what I feel is reasonable already.

We can cut eating out more, take a smaller vacation this year, and cut out some of our food budget (choose different foods.)

 

[tvguy]

Set up an automatic transfer. I put money away each month for Christmas that automatically transfers to a separate account. It makes December much less stressful.

That's the last thing I need, another automatic transfer. My life insurance does that and I never remember it.

 

[Hikergirl]

I recently went through my home owners insurance and changed some things for a couple hundred in savings, I'm in the process of switching my auto insurance company since I have to add my ds. I will end up paying what I am now, but at least it won't be more.
I am also looking into my options for cable, I still have 10 months on my contract and renegotiating isn't going as well as I hoped. I'm calling back after Christmas to try again.
I will have 2 in college in the fall so I need to save where I can.

 

[pigletto]

We were just talking about this. Dh just changed positions where he works and got a 5% increase. He will also get another 3% in the Spring. We are going to act like it doesn’t exist while throwing it all at debt (still have a student loan and 3 years of car payments, as well as one credit card we will pay off.)

Contracts just ended on everyone’s phones this month. I needed a new phone and did subsidize again but with the $200 Costco card it still beat buying a low end phone outright and paying as we went, Dh dropped his plan way down, with a different carrier. We pay for ds 13 but it’s only $25 a month and he uses an old phone my brother gave him for free. We had dd20 take over her own plan now that she’s out on her own. She was able to drop it from the $75 a month we were paying for her to $40 now that she is off contract ... keep in mind these are Canadian phone plans and we have the most expensive cell service in the industrialized world. We’ve gone from paying about $250 a month to $140 .

It will definitely be time to look for new car insurance soon too.

 

[Southernmiss]

We adjusted last year to save for ds's wedding and 2 in college. The 2 in college have scholarships for their first 4 years, but not for the last 3 expensive years of their program.

Dh and I got on a mission to pay off our mortgage early. And doubled our princial payment. We've now decided to set a goal to have it paid off by November 2018 when we both turn 50. We'll continue the double payment each month and build our savings to make a final lump payment.

Fingers crossed we can do it!

 

[kkmcan]

Congrats on tackling this. I have been untangling my own financial wastefulness over the last year.

I want to comment on your 2 new cars but I will resist...

Ya, I know. We always buy new and drive them until they no longer are worth the upkeep. Dh's old car was 15 years old, mine was 9. We also never have 2 car payments at the same time but Murphy happens and then my car got hit. We had just spent 2+ years with one or the other car always in the shop. Thousands of dollars, literally $5000+, over those 2 years could have been put into a new car that would last. We were so tired of always being down one car in the family for days. Always trying to figure how to get dh to work and back, me to work and appointments and ds17 to school and his job. The amount of stress of not knowing day-to-day if you will have a car is crazy. Plus we were draining our savings every month in car repairs. We couldn't afford to pay for a used car and hope that we wouldn't have car repairs. We don't trust used cars from people we don't know. We've been down that road once and it was a nightmare as well. So anyways, we have no credit card debt. Just trying to snowball our car payments and get them wiped out as fast as we can. Also trying to find places in the monthly budget to cut back. Cable, phones, groceries, etc.

 

[kkmcan]

We adjusted last year to save for ds's wedding and 2 in college. The 2 in college have scholarships for their first 4 years, but not for the last 3 expensive years of their program.

Dh and I got on a mission to pay off our mortgage early. And doubled our princial payment. We've now decided to set a goal to have it paid off by November 2018 when we both turn 50. We'll continue the double payment each month and build our savings to make a final lump payment.

Fingers crossed we can do it!

That's awesome! We are hitting the mortgage with extra principal payments as soon as we get our cars paid off. You can do it!

 

[jen7233]

I'm not planning a yearly budget. I do set a monthly budget though.

 

[mommy2mrb]

I always make a yearly budget to keep track of bills, savings, trips etc. Helps keep me accountable.

2018 will be split in half as we are moving in June from WA to MA so we have different utilities and living expenses as my DD will be at college.

 

[StephMK]

Yes, I'll be looking at our budget over my winter break. DD#1's wedding was in September and that was a huge expense this past year.

We also need to shop auto/home. Thanks for the suggestion to try our current carrier for a discount before leaving. I like them but prices have gone up significantly. Plus we will be adding a male teen driver next summer!

Other plans
-shop cable
-shop cell-contract was up in Oct.
-plan for college visit trips
-make plans for funds that will be freed up when carpet paid off in Feb.
-grad party for DD#2
-plan for DD#2 to enter college in August

Lots of fun planned but we need to control the eating out and Costco trips too.

We have a pick up service at our grocery store and I've been doing 2 big trips a month this way. I feel like it helps because I can look at our shelves when I'm creating the cart.

Look forward to reading about everyone's plans.

 

[lvillotta1]

I make very little so I know where every dollar is spent. For those with new cars if u can afford to pay cash then u can have it. If not save and buy used. Honda and Toyota are the only way to go. Great resale value. I am driving 2007 Honda crv with 125,000 miles. It runs great and I owe nothing. I am also debt free.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I try to stay pretty much on top of small things like making sure we have the best cell phone package and lowest cable rates. The main thing I am going to investigate to save money is with our car insurance. DH is a Sheriff Deputy and has a take home car, but he still have his personal truck too (a 2006 GMC Sierra that is still valued at just under $10,000). We hardly ever drive the truck and it stays in our garage most all the time. We are still carrying full coverage insurance on it. I want to drop to liability, but DH doesn't want to. We have a great insurance rate, but are still paying $600/year to insure a vehicle that gets driven maybe once a month.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I am looking at payment arrangements to see if we can generate rewards/points on everyday expenses. We already pay the cable and cel phones via credit card(and payoff immediately).

We also have to make adjustments due to our (small)tax increase thanks to the Feds.
With the deduction changes, we will offset the increase by a corresponding cut in charity, plus we will give more to individuals in need vs organizations in need.

We have 3 cars, a 2008 and 2-2010. One of the 2010's will be replaced with a new(er) Rav 4. A new one is running 25K, I'm finding year old used ones with the options we want for 8-9K less. We should be able to pay cash for a 16-17 instead of financing an 18.

Not much else we can do here. We changed car insurance companies and renegotiated the cable bill in 2017.
We had saved for 4 years of college for our son, he decided on a 2 year program with a community college and he's on a scholarship paying for about half of it. He's looking around at friends and family, along with the available careers in our area, and said a 4 year degree was a waste of time and $$. I can't disagree. My wife has no degree and makes 50% more than me and I have a bachelor's. When we worked for the same company with the same job title, she still outearned me substantially. I'm not disappointed.

 

[Debbie Torres]

I try to stay pretty much on top of small things like making sure we have the best cell phone package and lowest cable rates. The main thing I am going to investigate to save money is with our car insurance. DH is a Sheriff Deputy and has a take home car, but he still have his personal truck too (a 2006 GMC Sierra that is still valued at just under $10,000). We hardly ever drive the truck and it stays in our garage most all the time. We are still carrying full coverage insurance on it. I want to drop to liability, but DH doesn't want to. We have a great insurance rate, but are still paying $600/year to insure a vehicle that gets driven maybe once a month.

I don’t know what state your in but my hubby drives a company car and jm his personal car never leaves the drive way . Call your insurance company and explain the situation . My hubby’s car is in “storage” in our driveway . We only pay insurance if we take it out of storage . It saVed us 100 dollars a month