I don’t work a minimum wage job, far from it, but despite this, I have been finding it increasingly hard to make ends meet. Between my full-time income, and my wife’s part-time income, our net income is around $3,600-3,700 per month, yet we have gone overdrawn every two weeks for the past two months.
Today, I went grocery shopping, as we had next to no food, and I had to walk around the store with a calculator to make sure I did not go over what I had available to spend, which is just enough food to get us through to next payday, which is two days away. I had to factor in that I knew that my wife would need gas in her car to get to work, meaning I could only spend 50% of what we had in our checking account.
Gas prices have gone insane in the past 3 months, I understand that I have it easy compared to some, especially those back home in Europe, but currently, to fill my 16-gallon fuel tank will cost almost $75, six months ago, that was $35-40 per fill-up. The price of car insurance has increased too, our premium is up by $43 per month, then we get to grocery costs. Our monthly shop at Samsclub used to come to $600-650 per month about 18 months ago, now it’s closer to $800-850, which we cannot afford, so we buy less food, which is why I am writing this blog, finding myself penny-pinching to afford basic groceries.
The cost of renting a home has also gone insane, homes that used to rent for $800 one year ago, are fetching $1,000-1,100, and they still rent because people need a roof over their head, so like we have had to do, have to make cuts elsewhere in the budget to keep that roof over their heads. I know this to be true, I work in real estate marketing, so I see the trends, initially, I thought owners were price gouging, but it’s the current trend, and once prices go up, they never go down again, so this increase is permanent. Our own rental rate jumped $60 per month, putting an even bigger squeeze on our finances.
Our biggest problem is our debts, I have a personal loan with a payment of $557 per month, plus credit cards, which don’t have silly large balances, but I still have to make the minimum payments, which come to around $100 per month, then we come to my wife’s cards, two of which are maxed out, and unfortunately, one is a shared credit card, these minimum payments cost an additional $250+ per month. In total, the debt payments alone account for nearly $1,000, about 27% of our net income.
My current personal loan is to consolidate previous credit card balances and to roll in a previous personal loan with a terrible interest rate, which was to consolidate older credit card balances. A lot of this debt is medical, from before we had decent medical insurance for my wife and kids, my medical insurance is not so great, so I avoid doctors like the plague. Every time, I get a personal loan, I have a plan, but something always happens, such as my wife will be laid off, or there’s an unexpected cost, such as a car repair, or there is an increase in the cost of living, which is the current financial crisis for so many people.
To juggle our finances to cover this increased cost of living, I have had to push bills back to their due date, sometimes a day or two beyond, incurring late fees, compounding our financial woes. Whereas I used to pay within a day or two of receiving the bill, 2 to 3 weeks before the due date. This was great, as it allowed me to sometimes defer paying to cover another expense and be back on track the next month. But, that is a thing of the past, there has been a 15-20% cost of living increase, and my last pay rise was 4%, and the next potential pay raise isn’t coming until September, and I doubt it will be 15%.
Literally, I do mean literally, that’s not an exaggeration, the only thing keeping us afloat is the $1,066 child support payment from my son’s absent biological father, but my son turns 18 on August 6, 2022, so that will stop. As the present father, I still have to feed, clothe and keep the roof over his head. I could be a dick and throw him out unless he gets a job and contributes financially to the household, but I am not a dick, he has been my son for the past 15 years, and that doesn’t stop at 18 years of age.
I am so close to just saying FUCK IT, I’m done, move from this house into something much cheaper, at least $250 less per month, and hope that they don’t find out we skipped, and give the middle finger to all the debtees, declaring bankruptcy and taking the devastating credit hit. I feel so damn hopeless, I never thought that I would be earning $3,500+ per month and be struggling to make ends meet.