Upon reviewing our income and spending for 2022 and forecasting for 2023 I am feeling very discouraged. I track everything and so I know the numbers are accurate. With our estimated income I am putting us at $4,800 short in 2023 for our budget NOT including vacation spending, home improvement or IRAs.
Adding those three categories makes our deficit a whopping $17,200! Which is almost half of our total budget.
Well how did we get here? The main thing I can figure is that we have received over $11,000 in tax returns and/or stimulus payments for both of the last two years which has given us a deceptively inflated income. I am estimating our tax return this year to be somewhere between $4-7k. Which will help offset some of the deficit, but we are going to have to make hard choices of where to put that money and where we are going to have to cut and/or scrounge up more income for the rest.
This is estimating very little side income besides husband’s paycheck, so if I can hustle a little, pick up more web design, sell things, etc, then we will be in better shape but it’s still a large mountain to climb. I’m also not sure what the impact of husband’s raise will be over the course of a year because he works so much overtime it’s almost impossible to see the difference in the last couple months. But I’m thinking it should give us $3k+ more to work with than I am budgeting.
Unfortunately there aren’t many areas to cut drastically, but every little bit helps I suppose. I may have to seriously consider going back to the workforce if we can’t hustle and cut enough in the next few months. Such as bummer since I don’t feel like we have added too much extra spending, the price of all the normal things have just increased dramatically.
December 31st, 2022 at 04:41 pm 1672504912
Congratulations to being on top of and understanding your situation while you have time to take action.
I don’t remember if you are working full time, but perhaps more employment for you is the answer? I’m sure you know the low hanging fruit things to do - cancel subscriptions, call for quotes on insurance, give up cable. Meal planning, no food waste, clothes from thrift stores. If you have credit card debt, try to get interest rates lowered.
Best wishes on your journey.
December 31st, 2022 at 05:39 pm 1672508396
December 31st, 2022 at 08:24 pm 1672518285
January 2nd, 2023 at 01:03 am 1672621418
January 2nd, 2023 at 03:06 pm 1672672016
January 2nd, 2023 at 03:53 pm 1672674821
I hope you can make things work; you are smart to figure this out so you know you need to try!
January 8th, 2023 at 11:57 pm 1673222275