Help How To Manage the Finances

[kimcam]

Hi To ALl,

My husband has got into a couple of internet which has cost a lot of money about $1000. We all over have more bills coming than money from work and FTA & FTB.

For example Mortgage $352.95 pw, petrol $60, Shopping $150 + pw, fares $54 pw (Central Coast to Sydney). Then there is the monthly bills mobile phone $19, Telephone / Internet $106 & Engin (Voip) $30. On top of that we have 1/4 bills electricity, gas and then yearly bills such as Car Rego & NRMA membership which are due end Jan. We also joined a business Melaleauca and every month costs about $100 pm and there are probably a few other bits and pieces. My DH seems to always withdraw $100 cash do not know what he does with it but it goes on something.

At the moment I am in the process of updating a budget tracker and sitting down with DH on the weekend to go through it with him. Every time we have a financial discussion it ends up in an argument and me getting upset. How do I get DH to see some sence and get out of his money making scams. Also we are looking at TTC #2 as DH is getting older. Anyway any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Kim
DH
DD - 18 months

[shanz]

i would start by listing EVERYTHING, any bills etc that i can have set up by direct debit are done this way, as then it is gone before we know about it.
with anything else work out how much you need each week or fortnight(whenever you are paid)and say you need $25 for electricity,$25 for transport, $50 fuel etc etc take that money ONLY out of your bank account. If DH cannot be responsible I would consider having a seperate account that he cant readily access for living expenses, and an account with a little bit of money he can access for him. This might sound really strict but i can assure you it will help.
We did this, and since having DS i have stopped, but now we are starting to do it again. When you work out a budget STICK to it. any leftovers is a bonus!

[TwoSweetPeas]

HI there, would have to agree with shaz.
Even if this means taking matters into your own hands, sounds like your husband is arguing cause he doesnt want to miss out on his little luxuries? Mine was the same, so gave him $50 a week for golf to shut him up!!
What I did with my finances was to list everything that has to be paid, ie phone, mortgage, GE,visa, power, rates, car rego (yes you can bpay this!!) etc and then what was owed or due on a fortnightly basis. For example we had 18 months interest free on GE so divided it by the amount of weeks 78 think, then doubled it for a fortnightly payment. Otherwise I was just putting off paying it and getting late fees!!
I worked this out with everything and now 8 months later cant imagine managing the finances any other way. This means the only CASH money we have available to us is for food and petrol, alittle play money too. (though not much) The mortgage comes out of DP wage and the other stuff out of FTB, comes out the day after it goes in, which leaves the balance of about $4 each fortnight.
We had a power bill come in last month for $487, id over paid by $26 which was a bit of a surprise!! Before i would have panicked as to how were we going to pay this??

Good luck and hope you can get it sorted.

[Nomsie]

Hi there!

This is a government website (http://www.understandingmoney.gov.au/Content/), dedicated to understanding money. I have found it to be very useful in understanding not only where my money went, but I could use the tools provided to plan where it went. It has heaps of tips and links for further help etc.

Hope that helps! :)

[shanz]

I do have to say, since I have taken control of the finances it feels great to not get HUGE bills, or even better to get a credit cos you have paid more than was due. Most places will set up b pay too.
Also one thing that helped us heaps was doing up meal plans and just getting the things to make those meals in the shopping, and shop around. Buy meat etc in bulk. We get a whole rump from our butchers for $6.99/kilo,(sometimes $5.99 on special)and our butchers slice free. He also sells sliced rump for $13/kilo, so that itself is a HUGE saving.
Once you get started you will want to save in every way possible!I am definately not an old bag lady, but because we save and spend our money wisely elsewhere it means we can have our little luxuries too.

[kimcam]

Hi To All,

Thank you for your replies. This will help heaps. One thing I also forgot to mention is that my DH has a credit card which is $976 over the limit about $2976 and mine is almost near the limit as well with about $2800. I would really like to get rid of the credit cards and just have visa debit cards instead.

Any advice would be good.

Regards,
Kim

[Stargazer Lily]

Hi

With the Credit Cards you won't be able to do anything with your husbands till he pays off the over limit part (at least that's my understanding) I would speak to the bank about your options though as each month he stays over limit you will be paying an overlimit fee. Maybe the bank can increase the limit to stop this fee?

Once you've got it back under the limit you could transfer the debt to a bank/credit union offering 6 month interest free on transferred debt eg Virgin and ANZ offer this I think.

This would buy you some time to pay off the debt rather than just paying the interest.

Or you could ask your bank to change your type of card to the lowest possible interest rate to help you pay it off quicker.

and if you really don't want credit cards anymore then cut them up!

or if you can't bring yourself to do that then hide them from yourself (in the freezer or at Mum's etc) so that you cannot "accidently" add to the debt, then as you reduce the debt down you can ask your bank to reduce the credit limit so that you cannot add to the debt anymore.

good luck! it will be such a good feeling to get rid of that debt!