Money issues

My mom and I made a budget a month ago. I paid my bills all but 1- Netflix- and checked my balance and had plenty of money to go out to eat so I went to bob evans. I paid but my card was declined- probably because all those otc meds I bought plus the prescription cough pills weren’t covered by insurance but I got a good rx coupon and thought that was good until I found it online for less! Anyway, I was stuck at the restaurant unable to pay as my mom has all my credit cards. The lady behind me hugged me and said “I’ll pay for hers”! Talk about a miracle! I got in the car and checked my balance and it was negative $70! I thought it was positive that much. Then I drove to Starbucks to meet a friend. Called my credit union and the lady took off $60 worth of overdraft fees! But said Netflix was going to go through on the 7th and I’d get another$30 fee! N3 didn’t have any money. In fact, he still owes me for his phone bill for this month. I asked N2 and she said she’d loan me $50 through Venmo but not to make it a habit. Turned I hadn’t deposited her phone bill for $40 through Venmo yet! So yeah there’s no way I was asking my mom to help as her husband had a heart attack on Friday and was waiting to be taken down to OR for a heart cath at the hospital! Ugh. I thought I was doing so well watching my budget but I didn’t take the pharmacy items into account. I wish someone would’ve prescribed me the pill cough medicine first instead of telling me to get mucinex and Flonase - both of which were $30 each!

I notice you go to Starbucks and Panera a lot...might be a habit to cut out there. I only go 1-2 times a month; H makes good money, but things are still tight for us.

That’s the thing- I quit going out a couple months ago - today was a treat. Now when I go to sb I just get water.

Sometimes when you go to the pharmacy, if it's a chain, check what you need to buy first. They may have a coupon you can clip to your rewards card. And if they don't, the pharmacy tends to have generics of pretty much all the OTC meds available, and they tend to be cheaper, so you might try buying the generic. I read a study once that said generic OTC meds are as good as brand name, and it's not worth it to buy brand name (unless you have a coupon making it cheaper than the generic). Of course, it's not easy if you don't feel well, but I have found even in the pharmacy itself, if you ask the worker how to check if they have coupons for X product, they will do the search right there on your phone for you (though maybe that differs by location, my grocery pharmacy is super helpful with everything). Even Walgreens, where the pharmacy itself is not the best, the store workers are more than willing to help you with OTC products and finding store coupons on their app and equivalent generic OTC meds.

I just wish that dr hadn’t even suggested the otc stuff because although the Flonase is helpful, the only thing that’s truely made me feel better is sleep after starting the cough med pills by prescription that the video visit doctor sent in for me. I did use a goodrx coupon for that at least.

It's really hard to live off of $1000 a month. After bills and food I have less than $100 to play with. It doesn't help my minimum cc payment is $300 and I don't know how to get out from under it. Can you cut anything. I just cut my phone bill now I have the government phone. Saves me $15. I have to cut other things. I need to bring our bills down by $400 a month.

I'm sorry you had to go through that. I use chime so it immediately takes it out of my available balance and I get my money early.. so that helps. I'm thinking about taking a big loan to pay everything off then just paying that. I also track my spending on a spreadsheet so I know where the money goes ( mostly food for me) doesn't stop it from happening though. I have to get better at it. I use to be so good with limited funds but I'm not anymore. I don't know what happened. Moving happens actually I have to get better.

I have a budget. It doesn’t account for multiple otc meds though. That’s what got me.

I only have one more payment on my phone. That will save me some money.

I just consolidated my credit cards into a loan from my credit union. Lower interest rate and lower payment. My hypomanic episode for two months straight got me with the hyper spending.

We don't have a credit union but I'll look into it. Dental got me.