We Just Purchased Our Home and Now Can’t Afford Our Bills. – Bailey

“Dear Steve,

I am 22, married and have a 3 1/2 month old child. My husband and I just purchased our home in May 2009. We can pay our bills but we have next to nothing left for gas and groceries and daycare for our son. We have an hour commute to work Monday-Friday. Also the medical bills from having our son are now starting to pile up on top of our regular bills each month.

We don’t qualify for Food Stamps or WIC or anything like that because they say we make too much money to meet the income requirements. Is there anything that we can qualify for to get some help paying our bills? We are desperately searching for some kind of assistance.

Bailey”

The Answer:

 

Dear Bailey,

The part that concerns me the most is when you say new bills are piling up on top of old ones. While you are just making ends meet right now your statement indicates to me you are going further into debt and that’s a big problem.

I totally hear you about the inability to qualify for benefits and it is a widening canyon more are falling in to. There are many people that make too much for help but need it desperately.

What kind of bills do you have and how much do you owe people? Let me know and I can then work on a Plan B for you.

Please update me on your progress by posting updates here in the comments section of your question. I’m very interested in how this works out for you.

Big Hug!

We Just Purchased Our Home and Now Cant Afford Our Bills. Bailey not eligible for benefits cant afford our bills ask the get out of debt expert
@GetOutOfDebtGuy

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  • Bailey

    I have been searching ever since our son was born for a new job closer to home that would pay the same or more than what i make now but with the economy the way it is nobody wants to hire someone who already has a job. They are looking for those that are unemployed that will take anything so they can pay them less money than what I would need. We have no family close enough that’s home to watch our baby so daycare is a necessity for us, there’s no way around it. We have cut our budget several times and while we make it from payday to payday it’s like we just can’t get ahead.

    Financial Samurai – We found out we were pregnant in December 2008 we got married in April 2009 and bought our house in May 2009. We had to find a place to live before we had the baby because our current living conditions at the time were not suitable for a child. We found a home that was in preforeclosure and we walked into that with 10,000 equity already in the house because it was so cheap. We got our down payment money from my husband’s uncle and we raised the rest in yard sales. we knew we could make it financially in this house and we were running out of time. we’re okay but it’s just really tight sometimes and i would really like to have some breathing room in our finances in case of emergencies or layoffs…our company isn’t doing so hot right now.

    And 300/gas is because there are some days that my husband has to drive separate from me and he has a Dodge Ram 4×4 that eats gas. Working in the same place isn’t always a blessing. If he has to stay late we have to drive separate because we have to have our son picked up by 6 and then if he has to come in early we have to drive separate because we can’t drop our son off until 6:30. It’s a crazy life.

  • http://www.financialsamurai.com Financial Samurai

    Bailey – Sorry to hear about your expense issue. Can you share with us what the new curve balls were thrown at you since you purchased your home?

    Since you have a 3.5 month old, you already knew you were pregnant in April/May. Would love to go inside your mind to understand why you bought a house (and how much down payment you put), and what was your thought process for budgeting in the future.

    From there, we can fix all your problems!

    Thanks!
    .-= Financial Samurai´s last blog ..I Saved $2.1 Million On Lunch – A Sit Down With Warren Buffett =-.

  • David

    It sounds like it’s time to search for a new job, perhaps closer, or try to figure out some alternatives for a second job. $50k between you sounds like $35k and $15k ($20k difference, right?), so whoever is making $15k should probably start putting some time and energy into bumping that up – It’s basically minimum wage in most states.

    You should call the hospital and tell them you have limited income and need to go on a payment plan. They will work something out with you that is manageable, even if it’s $50/month.

    I don’t see much you can cut out, although $300/month for gas seems pretty excessive (I have a 45min commute each way to work and I spend $100/mo on gas). I’d be looking for job(s) closer to home and perhaps see if family can watch the baby to reduce daycare expenses during the week.

  • http://www.joetaxpayer.com JoeTaxpayer

    Steve’s idea on the pretax spending is good. Just make sure you choose the right one. There are two accounts, DCA (dependent care account) and FSA (flexible spending account) which have different end expenses, the DCA is for child care, the FSA for medical, a company often has a different name for the account itself, which adds to the confusion. Even if you are only in the 15% bracket, the DCA is also pre-FICA as well, so it will cost you just under $800 to put away $1000.

    Another blogger friend of ours compiled a list of ideas to earn some money. http://www.moolanomy.com/462/30-alternative-income-ideas-and-resources/ take a look, there must be something there that can work for you.
    There comes a point where a budget is so tight, there’s no more to be wrung out of it. That’s when you really need to consider the sacrifices short term. I understand your reply above. The delivery job our friend has is only on weekends, no car issue. The money is good enough to make a huge difference in your situation. See the list I linked to, and have a heart to heart with your husband as to what changes you can make in your own lives.
    .-= JoeTaxpayer´s last blog ..Frugal Friday Week 25 =-.

  • Bailey

    the only snag on getting a part time job to supplement our income is that my husband and i carpool together for our hour commute to and from work and we have to have our son picked up by 6:00 at the latest, we do good to get there at 5:30 so if i had another job or he had another job we’d be lucky to work 3 hours at it and then have to get up the next morning and do it all over again…it’s a physical strain on us both especially when you factor in gas prices. On average we spend around $300/month in gas.

  • David

    It would be helpful to have a rough idea of after-tax income… I’m assuming from the initial post it’s a two-income family, but the expenses don’t seem terrible ($2200/mo). So either income is low/part-time and needs a nudge, or something is missing from expenses.

    Is the daycare really $380/month? Is it full-time? That’s insanely cheap, especially for a baby.

  • http://www.joetaxpayer.com JoeTaxpayer

    Bailey – we have a fellow blogger who posts under http://deliverawaydebt.com, referencing the fact that he delivers pizza Friday and Saturday nights making mostly tips. When you are in the kind of situation you find yourself, I understand sometimes the budget can’t be cut further, but between the two of you, there’s money to be made. That’s just one idea. Providing baby sitting service on evenings and/or weekends is another.
    The only limit is what you impose on yourselves. When you are at a minus $100 or $200/mo situation, you’ll find that a few hundred dollars extra per month would make all the difference to you….. I wish you well.
    Joe
    .-= JoeTaxpayer´s last blog ..Frugal Friday Week 25 =-.

  • Bailey

    where can we reduce expenses though? I’ve thought about that exact thing but I don’t know where to cut back. We don’t eat out, we don’t go on vacation…most of our extra money each month goes toward gas and groceries and things for the baby. Are there any ways to reduce the student loan or get help with childcare or the medical bills or do we just make too much money? I think our yearly salary averages out to about $50,000. Most of it is my husband’s salary, he makes about $20,000 more than I do.

    • http://GetOutOfDebt.org Steve Rhode

      Bailey,

      And here I was going to comment that getting out of debt is about reducing expenses or increasing income and there goes Joe Taxpayer with a excellent suggestion about how to increase income. You might also want to look at http://www.snagajob.com/ for some local seasonal retail jobs to help supplement the income.

      This problem is not hopeless, just difficult.

      As far as the student loans go, take a look at the IBR (Income Based Repayment) plan and see if that can give you some relief. As far as childcare goes maybe it is worth looking to see if your jobs offer a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) option that would allow you to have those expenses deducted from your check before taxes. It can be a bit complicated to deal with but every penny counts. Check with your HR department. Tell them you are looking for information on Dependent Day Care FSA.

      Steve

  • Bailey

    No it’s not that the house is too much, we were paying close to $800 before when we rented so this was better for us, it’s just the addition of childcare costs, gas prices, and the accumulation of medical bills that has put a strain on our budget.

    • http://GetOutOfDebt.org Steve Rhode

      Bailey,

      Something is going to have to give here. It’s really not worth going bankrupt just for the medical bills and even without those you are stretched pretty thin. If you can’t increase income you may have to reduce expenses back to a level that was manageable.

      Steve

  • Bailey

    Well we have our regular bills of course, utilities ($350/month), car payment($250), mortgage payment ($750), daycare ($380), student loan payments ($250) for my husband (he still owes close to $60,000), insurance ($226) and then we have the medical bills for when we had our son 3 months ago…those are totalling so far around $1200 and they keep coming in with postnatal appointments for me and regular visits for our son for his immunizations. I recently had to ask my parents for help paying our property taxes which were late and that was a definite punch in the stomach for us. We try so hard to budget our money and make smart choices to save every chance we can but it just doesn’t seem to make a difference. No matter how hard I try to manage our money well it doesn’t work.

    • http://GetOutOfDebt.org Steve Rhode

      Bailey,

      Is it possible the house is just more than you can afford? How much were you paying for housing before?

      Steve

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