Your situation sounds just like mine. We can still afford our payment although I probably have to put 300-500 dollars on credit cards each month. I have 5 kids which I already had before we became upside down in this house. My expenses are going up and I see no way out of this. The question I keep asking myself is WHY? Why keep paying on this house which I dont think we will ever break even on. Its going to need household repairs soon that I cant pay for. The banks wont do anything because we havent missed payments and dont have a hardship other than general life is getting more expensive! (food, electric, water. Everything has gone up the last 2 yrs)
My husband and I have a lot of blame in our mess. We bought our home before the peak but took out a home equity line for home improvements and to invest some of it for the future. The investment tanked and our home improvements ended up being things like new ac units and fixing a leaking roof. Certainly not the remodeled bathrooms I was hoping for. Fast forward 5 years. We are upside down more than 100k our costs are all going up from food, to electric bills to a new 16yr old driver. Even with a 5% pay raise we are not able to pay all our bills each month. Although we can still "afford" our payment so we are stuck with a house that needs 30k in repairs soon (still not the bathrooms, etc) and no way to get out of it. We have excellent credit, and have never missed a mortgage payment but my credit card balances just keep getting bigger. Does anyone have any recommendations. We dont want to move but I dont see our financial situation getting any better in the next 5 yrs. In fact it will get worse as my kids get older.
We try to have brunch with my mom at least once a month. She lives 20 miles away on the other side of the Coastal Mountains. A family dinner out is probably once every three months, although if neither I nor my wife feel like cooking on any single night, we may make a run to someplace like Panda Express for take out. That may happen once a month. So the total is roughly twice a month.
Once a month for a date night. We are very happy using coupons and sharing entrees, often getting an appetizer and an entree and sharing both. We still tip at 20%.
Maybe once every couple of months. I have celiac disease and live Paleo, so it can be difficult to find a restaurant that is safe to eat at. Not only that, but I almost always end up eating a salad because it's the only thing on the menu I can have, and I refuse to pay $12-$15 for some nutritionally void iceberg lettuce and a couple pieces of grilled chicken on top doused in dressing that no doubt has HFCS in it. I'd rather stay home and cook a delicious, healthy dinner for less!
We dine out roughly once a week. It doesn't have to be anything special. Just something to break up the routine of eating at home and give us an excuse to get out of the house.
I used to be terrible about this, because I hate/am not good at cooking. But I've improved in the past year or two. So, unless I'm on vacation, I only dine out 1-2 times a month.
My partner and I eat out probably 1-4 times a month.
We use groupons/ living social coupons, local coupon book coupons, and gift cards bought during the holidays, when the restaurants we like had special deals (like by $100 in gift cards, get $20 free) to make things less pricey on our end. We also try to frequent local places where we love the food and feel good about using our money.
Before I started minding my budget, my family ate out at least once per week (not including buying lunches every day from sandwich shops near work). Since we began our cost-savings projects, we eat out no more than twice a month (and bring our lunch to work almost every day).
I hear you! I agree that not having good ways to earn a decent interest rate is a disincentive toward saving while low interest rates favor borrowing. I am invested in the stock market and have cash but would like better alternatives for at least part of my money.
Unfortunately, I dine out almost every day for lunch, and try to cook dinners most nights. To save on costs, I usually skip getting a drink and stick with water. Also, if you can use a credit card which rewards you extra points for dining out, even better!
A bad savings rate is a tricky concept. I don't know anyone who wants to save more money in today's catch-22 of uncertain future and zero or negative interest rates. There's little incentive considering the government pushing us towards an inflated securities market.
I keep looking for that perfect semi-solution: semi-safe, semi-liquid, semi-productive. Haven't found it yet.
Your situation sounds just like mine. We can still afford our payment although I probably have to put 300-500 dollars on credit cards each month. I have 5 kids which I already had before we became upside down in this house. My expenses are going up and I see no way out of this. The question I keep asking myself is WHY? Why keep paying on this house which I dont think we will ever break even on. Its going to need household repairs soon that I cant pay for. The banks wont do anything because we havent missed payments and dont have a hardship other than general life is getting more expensive! (food, electric, water. Everything has gone up the last 2 yrs)
My husband and I have a lot of blame in our mess. We bought our home before the peak but took out a home equity line for home improvements and to invest some of it for the future. The investment tanked and our home improvements ended up being things like new ac units and fixing a leaking roof. Certainly not the remodeled bathrooms I was hoping for. Fast forward 5 years. We are upside down more than 100k our costs are all going up from food, to electric bills to a new 16yr old driver. Even with a 5% pay raise we are not able to pay all our bills each month. Although we can still "afford" our payment so we are stuck with a house that needs 30k in repairs soon (still not the bathrooms, etc) and no way to get out of it. We have excellent credit, and have never missed a mortgage payment but my credit card balances just keep getting bigger. Does anyone have any recommendations. We dont want to move but I dont see our financial situation getting any better in the next 5 yrs. In fact it will get worse as my kids get older.
Hmm...I cant think of the last time I ate out! I do get takeout, but as for sitting down in a restaurant...been years!
Love dining out, but I try not to do it as much to save money!
about 4 times a week.
Once a week
We try to have brunch with my mom at least once a month. She lives 20 miles away on the other side of the Coastal Mountains. A family dinner out is probably once every three months, although if neither I nor my wife feel like cooking on any single night, we may make a run to someplace like Panda Express for take out. That may happen once a month. So the total is roughly twice a month.
I dine out once or twice a week.
Two to three times a week, including take out.
We eat out once or twice a month unless we are on vacation. I am sad to say we did not go on a vacation this year.
Once a month for a date night. We are very happy using coupons and sharing entrees, often getting an appetizer and an entree and sharing both. We still tip at 20%.
Maybe once every couple of months. I have celiac disease and live Paleo, so it can be difficult to find a restaurant that is safe to eat at. Not only that, but I almost always end up eating a salad because it's the only thing on the menu I can have, and I refuse to pay $12-$15 for some nutritionally void iceberg lettuce and a couple pieces of grilled chicken on top doused in dressing that no doubt has HFCS in it. I'd rather stay home and cook a delicious, healthy dinner for less!
We dine out roughly once a week. It doesn't have to be anything special. Just something to break up the routine of eating at home and give us an excuse to get out of the house.
Twice a month. I wish I could afford to go out more.
I used to be terrible about this, because I hate/am not good at cooking. But I've improved in the past year or two. So, unless I'm on vacation, I only dine out 1-2 times a month.
Actually I like to eat home cooked food, so once a while we eat outside.
My partner and I eat out probably 1-4 times a month.
We use groupons/ living social coupons, local coupon book coupons, and gift cards bought during the holidays, when the restaurants we like had special deals (like by $100 in gift cards, get $20 free) to make things less pricey on our end. We also try to frequent local places where we love the food and feel good about using our money.
We dine out once a week
We plan to eat out twice, but it can be once a week if we have not planned well.
Before I started minding my budget, my family ate out at least once per week (not including buying lunches every day from sandwich shops near work). Since we began our cost-savings projects, we eat out no more than twice a month (and bring our lunch to work almost every day).
When our family visits, we eat out almost every day, but when it's just my husband and me, we eat out maybe once a week.
I hear you! I agree that not having good ways to earn a decent interest rate is a disincentive toward saving while low interest rates favor borrowing. I am invested in the stock market and have cash but would like better alternatives for at least part of my money.
At least once a week, sometimes more when I am attending an event and eat out before or afterwards.
Unfortunately, I dine out almost every day for lunch, and try to cook dinners most nights. To save on costs, I usually skip getting a drink and stick with water. Also, if you can use a credit card which rewards you extra points for dining out, even better!
A bad savings rate is a tricky concept. I don't know anyone who wants to save more money in today's catch-22 of uncertain future and zero or negative interest rates. There's little incentive considering the government pushing us towards an inflated securities market.
I keep looking for that perfect semi-solution: semi-safe, semi-liquid, semi-productive. Haven't found it yet.