Yes, we are in the same sort of situation, living 'paycheck to paycheck', not in any debt with loans/mortgage, not 'getting ahead' but not falling behind. I don't see us getting out of it until the kids go to school and I start working again, unless I start working from home before then. But yes you aren't the only one.
My poor DH actually commented the other day about how we are sooooooo much better off finacially now than we have ever been in our entire relationship, yet we still don't seem to have any savings. The reasons behind ours though is that everytime we start getting ahead, something comes up, like the fact that DH's car got side swiped, it has taken ages for the insurance company to pay up for the repairs... he finally got it in there, and whilst it was in being repaired, the fuel pump died on it... $280 later we got it back today and it is due for rego tomorrow Argh!!!
So you're definitely not alone sweetie!
Lisa: the same here....we saved $400 into a seperate 'baby savings' account and then a month ago my starter motor on my car died....exactly 400 to get fixed...so nothing left in it now. we have enough to get by and never behind on bills i.e. whenever we get a bill i can pay it that week, but no 'savings' as such which worries me cause DPs job is only casual
Although we have a mortgage and student loans, aside from those "expected" debts we are debt free (student loan only comes out of our paychecks, so I'm not paying atm, and mortgage is the same as renting price-wise). As for savings... we do have some. I put money into the savings every paycheck - even just a hundred quid a month. It makes a difference. OK so we do spend it: car insurance, getting new carpets for the house this summer... but it's there and we always have something for a rainy day.
If you can save just ten dollars a week, it may mean buying cheaper meat or not getting that CD you wanted, it suddenly doesn't seem a hardship and you must not spend this money because it doesn't exist. I actually save in two accounts, both joint, but DH doesn't know I'm squirrelling away cash into one of them. So we have a "spend and save" account (ie for rainy days and home improvements) and "secret squirrel" for saving up for moving. There's more in the account I can access easily because we do need that money at times, but the other one is growing slowly. I may try to do fifty quid a month starting in September (when I get paid a bit more!).
We're in the same position, we have no debt or credit cards and all the bills are paid yet we don't have any extra money to put aside each week. It sucks but at the same time I'm happy that we are in this position atm. I've jsut started working so hopefully things start looking better in the bank acc department soon.
Mate, there are not enough Australians who have no debt, so good on you.
I work with this idiot who refinanced the house to go on a 3 month trip to Europe. Comes home, house needs re-stumping. So she takes out a loan to do this, but then puts half the loan in savings in case her daughter gets married. Which she is. So she's got $200k debt, but that's OK, because she's got $5k in savings. Doesn't seem to see that she's paying interest out on the money in savings while it sits there, not bringing very much in.
And every time we go out, she gets on the ****tails. And I'm like "I thought you were broke?" but she needs them lol.
So don't worry. OK, so you're not "getting ahead" but at least you're completely conscious of your situation, and you've got a plan. You'll be right.
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Argh!!!
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