Feeling a tad fed up, disappointed and sad... I'm 36 with four beautiful kids and an amazing husband. I realise that in itself is a lot to be grateful for but we are always flat broke and it brings me so down. It's not how I envisioned my life at this age. I was once in a stable successful career, then I had three kids under 3! Daycare alone would cost the earth and not worth me returning to work, at least until two of them go to school. I have an online kids store but it's going no where...
My husband insisted my Centrelink goes to his ACC, which is $1060 per fortnight as he wanted the transactions to be transparent. He earns $980 pw, I receive $150 maintenance for our eldest and our rent is $520 pw. That leaves us with $1140 a week, we have the general bills everyone else has, food, electricity, fuel, credit card bill, etc... I don't understand why we are in such financial hardship!!! This week he spent $400 on food shopping and left us with $50 for 5 days. Life was better when I controlled the finances but he wants to take control of it now. He refuses financial expert planning... It is normal for us to get paid Thursday's and be flat broke by Sunday!! I am resenting him for wanting full control as I hate our financial situation!!! Please help!!
Financial Help Please
Financial Help Please
Posted in:
Money
10 Replies
What you are left with for the week ($1140) is less then what my family of 5 survive off a week that includes our mortage, school/kindy fees, out of school sports x 6 and general bills. Definitely think you guys have the potential to save and really need to reevaluate. We get all of our bills direct debited a week so we are never hit with big bills. Groceries are around the $150 mark. What about try transferring $200 a week into an offset account? That 200 could come off your grocery bill as 400 is over the top. Eat more budget friendly. Maybe once hubby sees the account build up he'll get excited and be motivated to save. Save for something like a holiday or new piece of furniture.
you said Less did you mean More??
Less :) We bring in $1100 per week.
Can you do the money together? Sit down and write a budget. Write down how much you plan to spend on food etc.
The money is going somewhere and you should be able to live off what comes in. Can you see his bank account? I think if you are jointly paying everything there needs to be joint bank accounts that you both have access to.
that is astronomical, its time to plan it together write down where what is going in a spread sheet and start tracking it......
we use splitwise to help us split the expenses around here due to being separated but I think even if we reconcile I will continue using it his money management leaves alot to be desired and it includes reminders etc and can tell you where it is all going.
get it on paper so you can see where it is all going. if you ask to see the records and notes and he has none to show you he isn't managing it he is controlling it, you need to pin down what is going on because as those kids get older you will have some serious expenses coming in.....sad to say this is the easy stage and you need to get a handle on your finances sooner rather than later.
seriously I live on $800 a week and that pays mortgage rates car fuel smokes groceries pet insurance life insurance house and car insurance home help endless subscription fee's for various services and I still have more than that left over a week.
oh and BTW get your payments going back into your own account. he can start splitting the expenses and accept a NO if he wants to spend more than is bugetted for. you have the right to say no this isn't right this isn't working.
You get $1060 a fortnight from centrelink? What the hell. Thats more then what I earn..
My husband brings in $10k a month and we're still struggling - it's all relative to where you live and the cost of living there. But rest assured we're generally all in the same boat - paid one day broke the next :-(
10k a month and you are in a similar situation?? HOW??
Of course location can be a big factor but seriously, cannot see how $2500/wk can just disappear!!
Well, not that it's any of your business. but our mortgage is $3k a month for a basic 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house (not fancy or large), I am a mother of 4 and am raising my 3 nephews because their parents are drug addicts who would happily pimp out their kids for a hit. We also completely support my husband's parents who can't live with us due to being cramped already so we cover all expenses to do with them living autonomously and although their house is paid off do you know how much in-house nursing costs? A friggin bomb!!!!!! So like I said it's all relative to where you live and what expenses you have, but we're all in the same boat - just doing our best to keep our heads above water.
You seriously need to sit down together and go through the transactions on the account for a start.
Next, if you are handy with excel spreadsheets then make up your own budget/income/expenses spreadsheet.
If not, I'm sure there are plenty of free, downloadable ones in Google land.
The best thing you can do is have it all there in front of you to show you where your money is disappearing to.
After you have worked all of the above out, you need to meal plan right down to the snacks The kids have if you need to.
If your husband is buying lunches and coffees etc at work, this is another huge and unnecessary expense. Take leftovers or whatever from home.
Bake batches of muffins, biscuits etc and freeze in portions. Saves so much money and time in the long run!
One more thing to add. Change the payments back to your own account. It's not a good idea to have money going into a single person's account. It should be a joint account if at all.
I could add more but I know the Facebook post has lots of other great advice.