Falling Off the Wagon

Hello, my name is Kali and I’ve fallen off of the wagon.

This is where you’re supposed to say “Hi Kali”.

As a result of circumstances beyond my control (i.e. excessive spending by my spouse, vacation issues, etc.), I am seriously in debt. I do not want to dwell upon how I got into this hole; instead I’m going to do whatever I can to dig myself out. I am going to be positive and put my best self forward.

There is really no way for me to earn more money at my job so I will instead focus on shaving money off of our daily living expenses. Please do not suggest I get a second job. I physically cannot take on any additional work. I have fibromyagia and working one job is difficult enough. My husband, however, is willing and able to take on additional duties. He is trying to get a bit of overtime from his job in the next few weeks. We also are promoting his side business in the hopes of obtaining a few night or weekend jobs.

The main area where we can save money is on food and spending. We have a habit of going out to eat WAY too much. This costs quite a bit of money ($30 at a sit down restaurant) and also allows the food at home to spoil. In order to cut down on this, I will be taking a more active role in planning and cooking our meals.

Our weekly food budget is $60 for food, beer, and soda. Hubby drinks soda and the occasional beer so I add that into our budget. However, if I will stay on top of things and make tea and lemonade, he will drink at least 1/3 less of soda. He does drink generic soda ($0.58 per 2 liter) so I cannot complain too much. We also allocate $50 per month to purchase Angel Food packages.

I would like to get this down to $30 per week by supplementing with our Angel Food products. This is going to be a challenge for me. The Aldi Queen had an Iron Chef Moms Challenge last week that inspired me. I want to calculate the cost of our meals for the week. It would be nice to see just where our food dollars are going. By lowering the food bill by $20 per week, I will have nearly $100 per month that can go toward paying down our horrible debts.

I would also like to get our spending down. This is yard sale season so I will be going out shopping. However, I will buy only gift items and clothing to replace items currently worn out. There is no need to get more clutter for my house. Yard Sale season does lower our bills at the store. I often find household repair items there for cheap.

Our household money is a modest $50 per month. This can EASILY be shaved to $25 per month with some minor tweaking. We do need specialized toilet paper, OTC sinus meds, ibuprofen, and personal hygiene items monthly. Other than that, we just buy things that are not really needed.

There is little wiggle room in our budget. We save a mere $200 per month and pay out $400 toward our credit card debt. Basically we’ve screwed up royally and now we have to pay the piper, so to speak.

I refuse to be negative. I will be positive about this and learn from my mistakes.