Finances family of 5 kids 2 adults

amother

Burlywood ↓

Today at 7:22 am

amother Arcticblue wrote:

I'm less concerned about the $500 then I am about the fact that he unilaterally decided what your getting and you have no say in the finances.

Though I don’t blame him… it seems like OP spent way more than 500 every week - that’s a hard ”salary” to support…

Unless you have medication you’re paying for out of pocket…

OP, do you go out to eat every day? Do you buy new hosiery daily?? And if he just cut down, why didn’t you buy shoes and new clothing till now?

You said money doesn’t include groceries… do groceries include fish and meat? Otherwise, I’m lost where this is little…

amother

↑ Burlywood

Today at 7:38 am

amother Royalblue wrote:

My husband and I both work . I also have 5 kids same as your age range .500 is luxury considerer lots of money that we can’t afford. say thank you and appreciate the Brachah Hashem gave you that many don’t have.

I think ppl that work spend less because they don’t have time to just splurge….

The only thing I spend on monthly is cleaning help and that’s max 300 a month..

amother

Skyblue

Today at 7:42 am

We have the same size family. Live in Lakewood.

Our weekly budget for food and household expenses (clothing, gass, cleaners, cleaning supplies) is 750$. We try to keep everything --- shoes, over the counter meds, laundry detergent -in this budget.

I find it very doable. Food costs around 500$ a week, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. That leaves 250 most weeks to work with for everything else. I usually budget myself for every two weeks. Here's what it might look like, with a 500$ budget:

A new sweater or a new pair of cozy slippers might cost 50$ on Amazon or at Marshalls. No problem. Chanukah gifts I capped at 25$ a kid, so that was about 150$ over the 2 weeks of Chanukah. That same week I ordered a special cleaning supply for a home improvement project I'm in middle of-- 60$. I need to fill the car with gas every 2 weeks, 50$. Took the kids out for pizza/sushi one night of Chanukah - 50$. Had a huge load for the dry cleaners- 75$. Those are the big expenses I can remember from the past 2 weeks, totaling 435$. I'm not sure we're the remaining 65$ went, but I know I ended my 2 week stretch with about 5$, so I must have used it on something I'm not remembering. My husband gives me the money in cash, because I find watching it physically disappear helps me budget better.

Why don't you start by writing things down, OP? It might be interesting to see where all that money is going. Living on a budget is an adjustment if you've never done it before, but it is very doable and even fun if you've got the right mindset. We don't buy 200$ shoes or 300$ dresses. Those things might have to be a thing of the past for you if your family can no longer afford them. Though I suppose if that was very important to you, you could budget for it.

amother

↑ OP

Today at 4:26 pm

amother Hosta wrote:

I find things for the kids come up fairly often. Like say, pizza lunch in school, after school clubs, motzai shabbos activities that our shul runs,
Vacation time - spending on some outings or buying a **** ticket to Florida for my teenager. Etc... so much of it I spending the kids.

Sameeew

↑ finprof

Today at 4:57 pm

amother Hosta wrote:

In my community, these are not weekly but rather monthly or semi-annually and most can be purchased "in bulk" for a discount. Pizza lunch is purchased twice a year for a $20 savings each time versus buying weekly, MS programs can be "prepaid" for a discount.

There is absolutely no way one of my children would ask for a ticket to Florida and expect me to fund it. If they want something like that, they need to earn the money themselves from babysitting, gardening, shoveling etc.