Cash Confessional: A week of spending in Charlotte on a combined $103,475 salary

To see the other installments of Cash Confessional, click here. This series is completely volunteer-based; if you’re interested in keeping track of your own spending and having it featured, email Kylie at [email protected]. This week, I spoke with a 38- and 42-year-old couple who makes a combined $103,475 a year. Here’s how they spend their money. -Kylie

The basics:

A note from the participants:

She purchased a home in Illinois in 2007, in a small suburb of Chicago that was hit hard by the mortgage crises starting in 2008. The house, which had been valued at $140,000 when she purchased it, was valued at $26,000 in 2012, when she moved for a new job in another state. After a year of being unable to sell or rent the house and exhausted by constant negotiations with the mortgage holder, under the advice of her attorney, she elected to pursue a chapter 13 bankruptcy plan with a 100% payment plan, with the Illinois house being surrendered in lieu of the entire debt. Six months into her bankruptcy, her entire department was eliminated in a budget restructuring and she was laid off with one month’s severance pay. Five months after that she moved to Charlotte for her current job, and he followed a few months later after the semester was over. They are not legally married, but have been together for almost 10 years.

A note from Kylie: 

Chapter 13 bankruptcy, also known as a wage earner’s plan, allows citizens that earn a regular income to develop a payment plan to cover their debts and pay them off over a period of three to five years. Learn more about it here.

Industry: Higher Education
Position:

Him – Graduate Assistant/Doctoral Student
Her – Director

Yearly salary:

Him – $10,000
Her – $93,475

Extra income:

Him – About $5,000 from teaching swim lessons and being a summer camp counselor
Her – $14,000 in consulting fees

Who you bank with and why:

Him – BB&T because it’s convenient in both North and South Carolina (where I go to school).
Her – SECU. I’m a state employee, which makes it convenient. I also travel a lot for work, and it’s nice that I can use any credit union ATM for free.

Savings:

Him – $7,250 in a savings account (this gets drawn down to cover school expenses each semester); $15,000 in a 401(k).
Her – $6,000 in a savings account; $80,000 in my 401(k), to which I make a monthly, required $500 contribution.

Ages:

Him – 38
Her – 42

Monthly expenses:

Rent: $1,600 a month
Number of roommates: Two Boxer mixes and three cats. All are older and were adopted prior to her bankruptcy. We would not consider rehoming them, except for maybe that one cat who is a jerk (no, we wouldn’t – he’s our jerk and we love him).
Neighborhood: University City
Utilities:

Electricity – $120; we do the budget plan payment
Gas – $45
Water – $25
Renter’s Insurance – $11
Television – $145
Internet – $100. This recently doubled in cost for no apparent reason…
Student loans – Both of our loans are currently in deferment; his, because he’s a full-time student and hers, because they’re in bankruptcy deferment.

Credit card debt:

Him – I pay $200 a month, which is more than the minimum so that I can get it paid off.
Her – $0. Bankruptcy prevents me from having a credit card right now.

Card payments:

Him – $355
Her – $0. My car loan was rolled into my bankruptcy.

Car insurance: 

Him – $45
Her – $295. My insurance company was not a good neighbor after I was hit by a ride share driver, but I don’t want to change until I know what is happening with our living situation.

Insurance: 

Him – $1,200 (each semester)
Her – $143. This includes health, vision and dental, as well as a payment for a flex spending account.

Transportation:

Him – $100 per year for a parking sticker, but I can’t always find a parking spot, so I also pay the meter quite frequently. I spent about $200 a month for gas.
Her – $50 per month for my work parking permit. I might spend $20 a week on gas.

Any extra costs not previously mentioned:

Doody bill: $70. Okay, poop-scooping is a first-world problem, but having this service dramatically improves our quality of life.
Medical bill: $250, as part of a payment plan to cover the costs of an emergency surgery and post-surgical infection for her.
Bankruptcy Trustee: $652.50. This includes her monthly $650 payment to her trustee, who then disperses money to her creditors (and pays himself for doing so), and a $2.50 processing fee for making the payment online.

Three financial goals

To purchase a home with a small amount of land. The ultimate plan is to find a place that will allow her mother to move in with us. We want a bit of land so that we can have a nice garden and raise some chickens and maybe rabbits, allowing us to be more self-sufficient in the long run. It will also help financially in the long-run, because her mother can live with us instead of moving into assisted living.

To build up enough savings so that she can manage a long-term, life-threatening illness without wondering if she will die because she cannot afford the treatments or she gets laid off again. Even with insurance, her share of the treatments is very high, and she tries to stretch out the length of time between them to keep the costs down.

To get him finished with school and into a full-time job where he can contribute more to the household. He has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education and nine years of experience, but when we moved here, he found it almost impossible to find work; he was “overqualified” for the positions available. He had been working full-time and taking doctoral classes in our previous home, so we made the choice that she would cover the basic living expenses for no more than five years, while he pursued his doctorate and contributed when he could.

Money Diary: How we spent our money last week

Day one: Saturday

Her –

I spent $8.45 at Starbucks, $50.09 at Compare Foods and $36.66 at Publix before hitting Trader Joe’s. I only come shopping here every few months, because it’s too easy for me to go overboard; today, I stocked up on nuts and coffee for the office. $56.09

At the pharmacy, I picked up three prescriptions. There was some sort of an insurance mix-up with the fourth and the charge was $97 for a generic brand, so I elected to wait to get it. I also need to have a treatment for my long-term illness, which involves eight hours of IV infusion. My doctor would like me to be on an every-other-month regiment, but my share of the costs for each treatment is $900, so I haven’t had one since October. $20.39

Him –

I just grabbed snacks at the vending machine ($1.25) and QT ($3.79). I got lucky because we did a potluck for class.

Total spent: $176.72

Day two: Sunday

Today was a big fat zero for the both of us. Go team!

Day three: Monday

Her –

Rent was due today, so I cut a check for $1,600. It sometimes takes a while before our check gets cashed, though.

I also paid a $250 medical bill and the monthly $652.50 to my bankruptcy trustee. I’ve actually paid off all of my creditors who elected to confirm claims, but I have to keep paying my trustee until I get a wage order cancellation, which could take several months. I’ll get a refund for the overpayment, but not until at least 30 days after I get the cancellation.

Finally, I’m off the wait list for the community garden! The first payment is to the garden for basic maintenance and is $15.

Him –

I spent $15.58 on gas, parked for $4.10 and grabbed a snack at QT for $3.77. Zaxby’s was for dinner – $10.44.

Total spent: $2,551.39

Day four: Tuesday

Her –

I had to take some stuff to Geek Squad to get fixed for $17.10 and then paid the bill for the poop scooping service we use. $69.34

Him –

Today was a zero day for me.

Total spent: $86.44

Day five: Wednesday

Her –

Normally, our food planner is like the Bible, but I’ve come down with that horrible flu/cold hybrid and stopped to pick up the makings for chicken soup, some juice and other comfort items at Harris Teeter. $18.53

Him –

Another zero day.

Total spent: $18.53

Day six: Thursday

Her –

I paid Duke Energy ($119) and the fourth prescription, the one that I bypassed because of the insurance mess-up, was finally authorized by insurance. But because of Murphy’s Law, I had a tussle with the pharmacy aid to actually get the medicine, because “they can cause birth defects.” Got them anyway. $2.74

Him –

Topped off the car for $14.80, found parking for $1.66 and snagged some Chick-Fil-A for lunch for $9.78.

Total spent: $147.98

Day seven: Friday

The only thing either of us spent money on today was grabbing some various types of seeds to add to the community garden for $75. We’re finally ready!

Total spent: $75

Total spent: $3,056.06
The breakdown:

Bills – $2,690.84
Medication – $23.13
Food and drink – $198.85
Transportation – $36.14
Miscellaneous – $107.10

What we learned:

Stable and affordable housing is really a major area of concern for us. When we first moved here, we moved into the only rental that would take us, and we ended up living next to neighbors who had a garbage pit in their backyard and regular visits from law enforcement for drugs and domestic violence. We are currently living in a house owned by a work colleague, but she wants to sell it. Finding a reasonably-priced rental during an active bankruptcy, even with a high income, is very challenging, and it leaves us in an expensive and less than ideal situation. Moving again, now, into another rental would be a huge blow to our financial goals, but as renters, we are at the mercy of the market.

We spend a lot buying groceries AND eating out. This seems a little counterproductive, but it is a challenge to balance the need to cook at home and dealing with the days when he is out of the house 12 hours during classes. It can be a pain to pack both lunch and dinner for those days. She also has special dietary needs that increase the grocery bill, but maybe we start looking at shopping at Aldi. We also notice that we had some food waste, as leftovers do not always get eaten. We plan, but can work on planning better. The garden will also help with costs in the upcoming months.

Our financial situation is very stressful for her. Because of her bankruptcy, she has no safety net to fall back on, but is the financial safety net of the entire family right now. Getting housing stabilized would be helpful, as would reducing the amount of some of our bills.

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