My new, updated monthly budget

[Kaleva]

$1192.00 SSDI
$140.05 Veteran Pension

$1332.05

----------------------------
$10.00 VA Co-pay

$10.00
------------------------
$40.00 Electricity (averaged out over 12 months)
$13.99 Amazon Prime
$11.99 Hulu
$10.00 Great Courses Plus
$25.00 Cell phone with unlimited text and talk
$40.00 Natural gas for heating, hot water and cooking (averaged out over 12 months)
$43.00 water & sewer
$67.00 Land line and internet

$300.43
------------------------
$140.00 Property taxes and homeowners insurance

$140.00
---------------------------
$37.00 Credit card payment
$40.00 Credit card payment
$54.00 Credit card payment

$91.00 (two credit cards should be payed off by mid summer and the third by the end of the year)
---------------------------
$200.00 Food, personal hygiene
$100.00 Miscellaneous, clothing
$25.00 Donation to Kamala Harris campaign

$325.00

$1332.05 - $866.43 = $465.62 available for discretionary spending

[Agschmid]

1. Monthly?

[Kaleva]

2. Yes

[Agschmid]

3. How long were you in the service for?

[Kaleva]

8. 13 years

[Agschmid]

9. Thank you for your service... and god you should get more $$$ for that.

[Kaleva]

10. The VA only gives so much for each extremity and my problem is in my left leg

For sure the pension isn't much but I will always have access to VA healthcare and that has saved me lots of money.

[shanti]

13. You might want to revisit that pension amount

I've heard of several vets with a disability who went for a raise and got it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. No rent or mortgage?

[Kaleva]

6. My home, valued at 24k, was paid for years ago.

[madinmaryland]

5. You have no transportation expenses?

I assume you must live near a grocery store so that you don’t need transportation.

[Kaleva]

7. I shop on line and can either walk or use public transportation to the local stores

[drray23]

11. You served for 13 years and you only get $140.00 for it ?

It's a damm shame. I am really sorry we dont take care of our vets better than that.

[Mosby]

12. me and my wife finally dropped the land line.

Your cell phone plan seems really cheap.

Only $6.60 a day for food is pretty amazing, you must cook a lot.

[Kaleva]

19. I'm on my step-daughters family plan and my food budget could be as low as $130 a month

"I averaged out the 7 dinners, the two breakfasts and added the lunch and mid afternoon veggie snack and multiplied that by 30.

I really tried to make sure there was adequate servings of dairy products, grains, vegetables and fruits each day.


Breakfast
Hot cereal breakfast $.91
Cold cereal breakfast $.99
average $.98

Lunch $1.47

Mid afternoon snack $.51

Dinners
Finnish hot dogs in sauce $1.22
Easy Chicken A La King $1.25
Black bean soup $1.17
Chicken chili $1.56
Chicken Stir Fry $1.47
Rotisserie chicken noodle soup $1.68
Sauerkraut and weenies $1.15
average $1.36

$.98 + $1.47 + $.51 + $1.36 = $4.32 x 30 = $129.60 "

https://www.democraticunderground.com/11283858#post24

Link to the thread:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/11283858

[Karadeniz]

14. Housing? Car? We keep just one credit card and pay it off every month.

[Kaleva]

17. I have three store cards

The house was paid for years ago.

[Karadeniz]

20. Ours, too...that's probably why we can pay off the debt every month. For too many people,

That's an impossible dream. I love Warren for her remedies. Did you listen to the short video of Wolff explaining different economic systems? We need a change or at least start subsidizing people instead of corporations...now, that's a weird use of govt assistance. Just to show that noone is 100% useless, Sarah Palin did popularize the phrase "corporate nanny state."

[customerserviceguy]

15. Looks great!

And if you divert as much as possible of the discretionary spending towards paying off the balances on those credit cards, you will experience a freedom like no other.

[Kaleva]

18. That's what I plan to do with the bulk of the discretionary money

Pay off the balances of the credit cards.

[real Cannabis calm]

16. here's a 5th recommendation for donating!