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Originally Posted by eribrav
It sounds like a lot of his spending is on gasoline.
Is that for commuting to work?
If it is then whether he charges it or pays up front you're still in the same hole.
There's only a few truly "discretionary" items you have listed.
So, what are the cigarettes worth to you?  |
Most of the gas is for commuting-about 35 miles a day. But he's also a Target and Home Depot devotee, goes 4-5 times a week. He also takes our daughter to dance classes 3 nights a week, for which I told him use my car when I'm home. I don't use it much-$20 in gas lasts me 2 weeks most times. But so far, he hasn't taken it.
The cigs are $70 a week from a reservation for the two of us, about 1/3 of what it'd cost from local stores. I want to quit, have to quit, but haven't made the effort and this stress ain't helping! SInce his are always cheaper, I take some of those to make mine last longer.
Groceries run about $100 for two weeks; we haven't eaten steak in two years. Household stuff maybe $40 a week-detergent, toilet paper, etc. I used to get those things at Sam's club about once every 6 weeks-I'm thinking about doing that again. I'm an avid coupon user but he doesn't look for what he needs before getting it-I have to catch him and tell him to get coupons.
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Originally Posted by Martian
It may help if you swap that cc balance to another card as well. If he exceeded the credit limit then you've probably lost any intro APR (assuming you had one) and may want to look into switching to a card with a 0% teaser rate. A little birdie told me that BofA has a few cards that might be able to fit the bill for you, particularly the Worldpoints mastercard; but then, if you have a preferred bank you want to go with, use them instead. Just remember that most banks won't let you transfer from one of their own cards and lopk out for the bt and disloyalty fees that you may get smacked with.
I encounter folks quite regularly who do this constantly to help get rid of their balances. When one intro rate expires they roll the balance to a new card with a new intro rate and close the old account. It's a bit of extra work, but depending on what APR you're paying you could easily save thousands in the end. |
The card we have is a AAA Visa at 10.9% that we've had for 20 years. I tried doing transfers with offered cards, but had gotten into a hole(didn't cut them up) so that makes me leery now. When we refinanced everything-2 mortgages, my student loans and this credit card-I then used its checks to pay off 2 other cards and a Target card-about $3k total. I also used it to get the camera and lens I needed, about $950. As I did, I would pay about $60 or more each week toward the balance.
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Originally Posted by Martian
Also, if the spouse is spending so much money on gas, you may want to look into getting a card specifically for that purpose. The problem here of course is that the gas is really necessary spending (unless your spouse is prone to doing a lot of driving with no destination,) so there's not really much you can do about it. I know there's a card you can get through AAA that offers a rebate on gas purchases, something like that may be a good idea.
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This card gives 2c back on the dollar-he had started using it for gas last summer when prices spiked. When they went back down, he went between cash and the card, but the past few months it's been just the card again and it's about $70 a week from what I've seen-more than I'm able to pay out.
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Originally Posted by Martian
Aside from that, I'd say it's time to sit down and take a look at your bills. Break your expenses down and figure out exactly what is necessary and what isn't. If you have any extra channels in your satellite/cable package, any extras on the phone you can do without, things like that can add up to a significant portion of your monthly expenses. We usually fall into the salesman's trap of 'it's ONLY $9.95/month' (being a salesman myself, I know how well this one works), but then we have $9.95 here and $9.95 there and before we know it we're in debt up to our eyeballs.
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Yea, our very basic phone bill of $8.95 is really almost $20. We just this week switched to DSL from cable which will save about $25 a month and when the kids start summer break, $30 a week won't be spent on lunch.
Beginning last November, I'd been banking anything over $120 of my paycheck and in less than 5 months had saved over $1400-that included monies made from sales of my poster. Tax refunds of over $2000 also went in. Now the account is back down to about $500, I have shows coming up for which I need supplies and fees, so it'll be going down even more....*sigh*
Last month, his insurance deduction climbed $40 a week and his boss gave him a raise for half that. I also told him he needs to reduce his 401k contribution by half, but we don't know the date he can do that yet-that'd add about $20 a week as well and bring his take-home back to where it was before the insurance increase.
Would it be wise to start a weekly cash allowance? Before debit cards were around, we did this.
Willravel-personally I like the idea of separate accounts, but everything is in both our names. How is it decided who is responsible for what? Our mortgage alone is $1800, his take home is $2800, mine is varied, but about $150 a week on average. Should I have a 'house account' that covers groceries, etc., perhaps? Or just stick mine in a separate checking and try to rebuild the savings? He doesn't touch the savings, although his name is on it-he leaves the 'money stuff' to me and just debits to his heart's content, even though he sees the checkbook.