Planning a budget for after the D - Feedback appreciated:

sleeze02 · 2019-01-31T04:19:13+00:00

Buy canned beef ravioli and eggs. Eat half a can of canned beef ravioli and 2 hard boiled eggs per meal. Drink cheap well whiskey. Skip breakfast and drink only coffee. Don’t date for at least 5 years. Do your own oil changes for pennies on the dollar. Engage in as many activities with friends. Most of all... keep going to work (and work as many hours as you can) and try to sleep as best and as most as you can.

Good luck.

bobbyb503 · 2019-01-31T08:45:27+00:00

No roommates, especially if you have kids. Not worth the savings. You can get a one bedroom and let them sleep on coach or vice Versa. Start as small as legal. It’s easy to overextend when you are accustomed to dual incomes.

Everything I eat is on sale, work extra to have fun money. Watch the booze. Save whenever possible. Cook from scratch it’s good for you. Have fun whenever possible. Garage sales and thrift stores. Get some hobbies: athletic and intellectual . Stream, pirate tv and movies. Don’t buy shit you don’t need.

STG210 · 2019-01-31T23:19:45+00:00

Here to help.

When I went through my first divorce (it was called off at the 99% stage), I did some stuff to save cash

rented a room in a shit neighborhood for $80/week
lived on McDonalds Big Breakfast, followed by ramen and spam for lunch and dinner. My weekly grocery spend was less than $15
switched from craft beer to cheap swill

I did that for about nine weeks. That gave me time to build up a good savings. I then found a cool duplex in the trendiest part of my city and lived there until my wife and I reconciled.

Now that I’ve filed again, I’m renting a room in a really nice house in the same part of town I lived in before. Once I get my legal costs handled, I’m moving into a luxury apartment and never looking back.

Bozopolarcaliber44 · 2019-01-31T04:44:08+00:00

I am right there with you man. I suggested we go collaborative and she went and hired her own attorney and filed. The numbers are staggering at the moment and we are not rich to begin with, more student loan and credit card debt than anything. 3 kids, 14 years of marriage. I know I will do right by my children and I know that as hard as it might be, I a going to pull myself up off of this pile of shit I currently find myself on and I am going to live a good life and I will be happy and I will be good father. Certain dreams and aspirations are certainly gone if not altered but right now, it's the uncertainty of it all that has me depressed, scared, angry, you name it. I too am now (soon to be) a single dad in his 40's basically starting over. I don't know yet what I am going to owe her attorney, have to pay in child support or maintenance. I know I own my own business and that has debt as well. That was the purpose of using a collaborative law attorney. But she's a stupid see you next Tuesday that believes money grows on trees.

tuzimaster007 · 2019-01-31T03:49:11+00:00

First your need a roof over a head, if cash is tight - roomates. Then food. Then transit.

Figure out the cost of the first two. Then, depending on how much is left over determine if you can afford a car. If you can't, maybe bike? Move closer to work?

JasonToo · 2019-01-31T10:03:32+00:00

Eggs, potatoes, corn and bananas.

Cheap as hell and a million different ways to eat any of them.

Fabianstrategy1 · 2019-01-31T14:52:14+00:00

Oatmeal is dirt cheap and is loaded with nutrients, don't buy the box prepackaged stuff, just get plain old quick oats or steel cut if your feeling fancy. In my early days I survived on Chicken and ground turkey and some frozen vegetables and oatmeal for which amounted to 3.00 a meal said and done. It'll get monotonous but you can throw in some cheaper cuts of beef for not much more when they go on sale if you want too.

Also don't buy anything you can't freeze or doesn't have a long self life.

Neversexsit · 2019-01-31T16:42:58+00:00

I spend about 150 or so on food for me and my children... Bills then money back. I have 2 children with full-time custody. Simple imo

Burninator85 · 2019-02-03T21:12:08+00:00

You can get by way cheaper than that on food and irregular expenses. If you haven't divorced yet, start with the minimum necessities. You'll want to be raising some money for a lawyer, if needed.

If you've never handled personal finances before, try an app like Mint. You can set monthly budgets and expenses and it'll tell you when you're in the red.

As far as expense breakdown:

Housing - Look at apartments in your area and plan to have a bedroom for you and each of the kids still at home. If you end up in the red come back to this and look at less bedrooms. You'll want those bedrooms when it comes time to talk about custody.
Vehicle - If you don't already have a car, buy a cheapo $2-3k car from the early 2000's.
Food/Necessities - I feed my two kids and eat fairly well at $100 a week. You can definitely do less, though. I just find that it's very easy to walk through the supermarket without a plan and usually come within this budget.
Utilities - Electricity, heat, gasoline, phone, internet (optional, but it's by far the cheapest entertainment choice)
Kids' expenses - Do a child support calculator and figure out what that will be. Figure at least $50 for a weekend with your kids so you can take them out for ice cream, etc (Optional, but you want to plan something fun on your weekend)
Insurance - Car/Health/Renter's
Savings - Planning for $500 a month sounds great if possible. A decent lawyer will cost you 3-6k for a simple divorce. The more you argue, the more it will cost. Remember that when you spend 2 hours in mediation over who gets your $500 TV. The cheapest route here is just to hire a joint mediator to write your divorce decree, but that is only possible if you are relatively amicable.
Luxuries - If anything is left. This isn't a time for luxuries but you do need something to stay sane. Like I said, internet is the cheapest option.

That should give you a good start. The first thing you need to do is add up all these costs and see if it's higher than your net income. If you're in the red, start looking at each item and what you can take out. If you can't meet your budget no matter what you take out, you need to look at a second job or moving to a cheaper area.

ThrowawayAccount602 · 2019-02-15T15:28:20+00:00

That breaks down to $70/week for food and misc, which seems like it could work as long as you are willing to eat in all the time and be frugal. But that is lots of eggs and cereal and so you need to be ready for that.

I would suggest that there is likely a ton of economizing that can be done with things like living arrangements (rent, heat, a/c), digital (cell phone, cable, internet) and car (payments, insurance etc). Those are, to me, the biggest juiciest opportunities to save.

Title	Planning a budget for after the D - Feedback appreciated:
Author	everydaygreyman
Upvotes	8
Comments	11
Date	January 31, 2019 3:35 AM UTC (7 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/allavd/planning_a_budget_for_after_the_d_feedback/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/planning-a-budget-for-after-the-d-feedback.1182002 https://theredarchive.com/post/1182002

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