Welcome to the inner workings of my wallet. In an effort to make budgeting interesting, I'm posting every cent that goes out of my wallet, the whole whowhatwhenwherewhy thing. Everyone, as of late, seems to self-indulgently blog as if the whole world is listening, why not me? If it motivates me to take a critical look at my spending behavior and work toward paying off some debt, all the better.
To give you the rundown, I'm married with two kids, ages four and one. I'm a (barf) stay at home mom who works two days a week. I say barf because as much as I love my kids and have no problem with stay at home momdom, I, personally, don't enjoy it. I'm sure you will hear more on that later. My husband works long hours that should be reserved for very important and highly paid people, not retail sales guys.
My husband was laid off in 2007 and we drained our savings maintaining our lifestyle while he looked for a job with equivalent pay. Big mistake, that job never materialized and our savings were pretty meager. I looked at going back to work full time, but holy hell, two kids in daycare in my area costs around $1600/mo! And that is just for a three star place, I didn't even look at five star centers. Seeing as how my education and work experience qualifies me for jobs that pay around 20-24K, working could very well cost me money. As it is, I'm fortunate enough to have a sister who can watch my kids one day a week and my husband takes over on the weekend.
So that's the background. Here's where we're at: we have about 112K left on our 123k mortgage, 26K in student loans and about $1500 on a credit card. I'm hoping to have the credit cart paid off by the end of the year, but coming up with an extra $166 per month will be no small feat for us. Godspeed!
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Godspeed indeed! I hope to have some sewing orders for you soon. Just four or five aprons a month will pay off that credit card bill!! Newsflash: you mean our degrees in Creative Writing- not journalism, not English lit mind you, not business writing, but with a concentration in poetry of all things, you mean all THAT, those days of Sharon Olds, and Mary Oliver, and Sandra McPherson, and Michael Ryan, and Louise Gluck whom I wrote my "thesis" on, and mining the minute details of our indulgent lives equates to 24K per year on the job market? granted, i got a job as a reporter then turned to the evil world of selling and with my degree in poetry made six figures during one glorious year that i talk about as if i am Al Bundy, but still i was not aware of the 20-24K thing. wow. though i am tempted to caution liberal arts majors to go to community college, learn to program computers, or work machinery, or do something useful, and to be of us to our society, if asked if i personally would have changed anything about my college experience, or what i studied i would say,"Hell, No." Plus, I wouldn't have met you, either, had a have been an annoying as f*k MarCom major eager to climb the corporate ladder.
ReplyDeleteyikes, please excuse all of the typos! i am off to the gym, then more job-seeking.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, Aly, your job experience puts you on a higher plane;)
ReplyDeleteno, no higher plane. maybe a plane to come and see you. :) is it 24K yearly expected for a creative writing major, or are you referring to something else? oh my gosh, do i sound insensitive and horrible? :(
ReplyDeleteThis is my personal estimation since I would be entry level based on my job history. Wiling away my 20's trying to write while holding meager retail clerk positions wasn't the best idea in the world. I'm a decade behind. That doesn't mean I don't have a future, just that it doesn't seem to be the right time to start a career since I'd be shelling out the majority of my earnings to pay for daycare.
ReplyDeleteExactly... many people with careers and children spend most of their earnings on childcare anyway, which seems kind of like being a hamster caught in a wheel. I always envied your job at the book store, and though the library stuff was cool, too, so do not discount your experiences as meager unless that's how you see it. As for being a decade behind, what does it matter? Here I am going through a regression, wondering if I want to continue pursuing sales as a career, or what it is I actually want to do for work, and whom or what kind of operation I want to work for....
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