Budget Woes

Just as I begin to get a leg up, it never fails that the other leg is knocked out from under me.

I've settled into a very nice job with health insurance, sick pay, etc., and I had just about caught up on my bills when I stopped receiving child support from Aly's father.

Every other Tuesday, like clockwork, $213.70 would be deposited into my bank account (this is a great service from the Department of Child Support Services - I highly recommend it!).

But that stopped this month and due to confidentiality, while DCSS confirmed with his employer that he was no longer working there, they couldn't tell me if he was fired, laid off, or he just quit.

He's had this job for over a year and it's the only one we got support as a result of. It's hard to have high hopes that he'll just get another "over the table" job and we'll be back on track soon.

So I'm back to staring at my budget spreadsheet wondering how to squeeze $425 from it each month. Aly asks me why I do this almost daily right now, and I tell her I'm waiting for divine intervention.

I get paid about $1340 net per month from my job, and I get about $660 from Aly's father (at least my interests are... diversified right?!). So I have $2000 to work with at the moment.

Well, rent is $600 (thanks to low-income housing).

Utilities are an additional $100 - if you're low-income in California, make sure your utilizing the Lifeline program for telephone service and the CARE program for PG&E, both of which qualify you for discounted service. My water and garbage is included in my rent, which is good because water rates keep climbing too.

Food should be about $400 a month, but every time I walk in the freakin' store the prices have gone up again. Do you know how expensive it is to make sure a family of three gets their recommended daily amount of fruits and veggies?!

Tack on another $100 for diapers, wipes, toilet paper, sanitary supplies (hey, when there are two ovulating women, it doubles!), etc.

My portion of my subsidized (again, thank god) child care is about $100.

Gas... oh my, I have a mini heart attack every time I think about it... is now $300 a month and rising. And I'm just driving to work and those freakin' supermarkets. Car insurance and minor stuff like oil changes is an additional $100.

Our family entertainment budget is $100, and trust me, $25 a week doesn't get you what it used to - especially if you have to drive somewhere!

Unfortunately, I also have some credit card debt. When you're living like what I am describing here, a car repair, unexpected medical bill (like when Aly lost her health insurance), or any number of other unforeseen circumstances usually get put on credit. There's little room for those things in a budget like mine. And my JCPenney card balance is pretty high right now because, as you've seen, clothes are not noted in this budget either.

So I have $150 in credit card payments too.

And the final $50 heads to Aly for an allowance - roughly $10 a week, which I think is fair and which heads off requests for money when she wants to catch a movie with her friends or get a bite to eat at the snackbar after she volunteers at our local park.

And that's it. No money for saving. No money for more than the minimum payments on the cards, so I'm not paying down the balances, just paying the interest.

I actually had a car payment until a couple weeks ago. It was secured with a CD my father left me when he died, and I did that to help build my credit so I could get a real car loan someday. But after losing the child support, I just could not afford that $200 a month anymore. So now I don't have a car payment but I don't have six grand in the bank in case of a major emergency either.

I've also foregone some little things which made life a little more bearable when I was stressed - like my monthly pedicure (nothing better than a good foot rub when you've been on your feet all... year). So any ideas on free ways to spoil yourself would be welcome!

The only comfort is knowing that in today's economy, most families are strapped for cash and watching the cost of living skyrocket, so I know I'm not the only one waiting for that divine intervention.

"God, please smack those stupid politicians upside their heads and knock some sense into them... soon, and before it gets worse..."