Hello, I sorry I hardly ever post here. But I do need some help. My girls are now 16 months and we are still living with my parents. There is getting to be less and less room and more and more tension between everyone who lives here. We want to move out but we have no idea how we can afford it. How do you do it? I am a college student and the girls dad brings home about $2,000 a month. We have a Jeep payment and three credit cards, and we have cell phones, a bed, and a computer that we all owe on. How could we possible move out and still be able to eat? I am so lost and overwhelmed with trying to buy a house or rent a place. No matter what we do, it doesn't seem like we can afford it. What are you recomendations? We really want to get out on our own. What kind of help is out there for us? Please help me? Let me know of anything I can do to make this easier. Thanks fo much.
assuming you live in the u.s..........wic, food stamps, section 8, welfare, medicaid!!!!! go apply!!!!!! how about food shelves? make use of thrift stores. trade in your jeep for a non-suv so you aren't paying so much for gas. sedans (family cars) generally have lower insurance rates as well.
as a college student, you should be able to take out enough in loans (or get enough in grants, anyway) to pay for some living expenses, which is what i do. it covers enough rent for me and the kiddo.
good luck, mama.
i would try to consolidate your debt (not including the car) so that you can work that down quickly. the worst part about moving out is all those bills.
I would also recomend to make a budget of how much money goes where with the bills you already have and then see how much is left and where it would need to go. Look into WIC and everything else you can, it is there for a reason. Good luck!
Thanks everyone. Its so overwhelming. I do already get WIC and medicaid for my girls. I am still on my mothers insurance, so that is nice. My parents still pay my car insurance, well on the Jeep, but we pay the cheaper insurance on our old sunbird. (Impossible to drive with twins-both in carseats) I have tried to apply for foodstamps and cash assistance and that was before we had a weekly income and I was denied. They told me since I still live with my parents I don't qualify-which makes sense. But I don't want to move and apply again to only be denied again. I guess its a situation where ya live and ya learn. My parents are stressing the point that they don't think we are ready to move out yet. Grrr....But we need to. We are a family of our own. I'm sure many of you can relate. Thank you so much for the advice. I am going to go search the web for a place to live now. Wish me luck!
Start paying off your bills.
Take every penny you can and pay off your credit cards.
Unless it is absolutely necessary DO NOT USE CREDIT TO BUY ANYTHING.
Spend as little as possible - go resale, buy generic, anything.
Trade the jeep in. Not only are SUV's more expensive to insure and use more gas, but they are the most expensive cars to maintain as well.
Once you have paid off your credit cards, start taking the money you were putting their and put it into a money market. I'm not sure where you live, but some banks will let you open a money market with as little as $100. The caveat is that you can only take out a certain amount of the money market each month unless you close it, but you get nearly double the interest of a savings account without the risk of other investments, and you can get to at least some of the money, unlike bonds or CDs.
Try to get at least a thousand dollars saved. Then start researching. Find out what rents on a 2 bedroom apt are, and the home prices of a house you could stand to live in are. Sometimes it is cheaper to rent if house prices are particularly inflated, but sometimes it is the opposite. With a thousand dollars in the bank and no credit debt, you should be able to get an FHA home loan as a first-time buyer. Sometimes, you may even be able to grant money to help you with a down payment.
The thousand dollars will also give you a security deposit on an apartment.
I know you probably want to get out now, but it really isn't worth it. Taking a year or two to be financially set will really improve the stress of moving out, b/c you will be in a better position to live where YOU want, as opposed to living wherever they would take you.
A good way to figure out what you can afford for rent is 1/3 of income. So, if your partner makes $2,000 a month, look for a place that costs $666 a month.
if you really want to move out, as said, it will take time to be ready.
you will probably have to get ride of the cell phones.
how long is left for your jeep payments?
around here we have apartments that base rent on income, taking into consideration money spent on things like car payments and whatnot.
you CAN do it, but you need to save save save first.
i agree, dont use that credit card unless you MUST!
for some people must is "we really want/need to go to this concert and the only way to get tickets is with my credit card"
and for others it is "I have bills due and no money at the moment so i must use my credit card"
you have to become the latter.
my hubby brings in about 2 grand (usualy a little less) in a month.
and we get by fine. we just dont buy things we dont need. and we eat really cheaply (lots of cheap lunch meat)
we have a calendar marking what bills need payed each week so we know how much we will have left after those bills and we can grocery shop/walmart shop/etc. accordingly.