Can anyone explain this to me please?

Maybe that's what I need is a budget.
Also everything from Belmont is figured with gross pay so it seems as if I have more money.

I don't mean to be hostile.

I just don't know how people do it. Especially single people. And now, with diet restrictions, it's even harder. And as I said, food pantries near me don't offer fresh foods.

My hope is that I get well enough, mentally, to work full time.

"I understand you may need a car for your job, but insurance, gasoline, and payments can be very expensive relative to your income."

This makes the most sense as to where my money is going.

Apologies. I just don't understand all the math. And I don't know what to do.

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Maybe your worker can give you some budgeting help. I tried to list out some possible expenses in my posts, but you did not really respond to them, except for vaguely agreeing with the car stuff.

Do you use cash or a debit/credit card or checks? The last two give you a record of where your money went. For cash, some people find it helpful to keep a little notebook and write down everything they spend. You can try to figure out where you spent money in the last week or month, or just keep track going forward.

I do appreciate the help
I see that they are looking at my gross income, so that's partly where the money goes.

Phone - $100
Electric -$50
Car insurance -$179
Rent - $504
Internet - $60
Gas (car)- $85
Food -$400
Renters insurance -$13
‐-----------------------------$1391

My net pay is $1400/mo
So on paper, it looks like I'm left with $9 after all expenses.
But it never works out that way.

I don't go out to eat. Or to the movies. I pay with my debit card.

Another issue is that after playing catch up from the month before, when the first comes. I need to have $504 rent & $179 car insurance, and I only bring home $350/week.

Oh yea, I didn't even budget laundry. Because I can't afford it unless I pay less on something else.

Still haven't paid my phone bill this month either



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Do you usually get a big tax refund? Because yeah the difference between your gross and net is pretty high. You shouldnt really be paying much in taxes, if at all, except for FICA (social security). You can check how many deductions you are taking with payroll. Its like youre missing 400 a month?

If you want to pm me to discuss food.

Also, theres a MSF kind of one time community chest grant of i think $500 that you can apply for here to help get you over the hump

I really appreciate you taking the time to I work 24 hours a week at
$17/hr
Gross $408 Net $350
There are some weeks that I get more hours when someone goes on vacation.

This is a new job to me so I haven't collected a tax return.I was told you can't claim 1 or 0 only single or married.They change the w4


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So 4 times a year you should get paid for 5 weeks, not 4, so that should help a little.

I'm really hoping to get well enough to work full time.
I also found a food pantry that has frozen meat, fish and paper products.

I appreciate all your help. Truly

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Dee, thats fantastic!

I always see these youtube pantry hauls where the people get these like 2 pound bags of walnuts and im like, thats gold right there!

Thank you!
They also had some clothes for me and toiletries!!

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My daughter helped start a new kind of pantry. They have fresh fruit and veggies. People can take as much as they want of that but there’s a limit on the meat. They are open once a week. And go though so many pounds of food. But that’s only in one town. I don’t even know if there a food panty here. There is something called Ruby’s pantry that’s once a month. You pay $25 and get a ton of healthy food. I did it twice but mom and I couldn’t eat all the food before it went bad. Three bunches of romaine, frozen vegetables fresh veggies, fish, soo much food. Definitely worth the $25. But too much for 2 older women who don’t eat much. I remember we got three gallons of chocolate milk. I gave that to my grandkids. There was processed food too. Now I’m alone and don’t eat much. I haven’t looked to see what there might be. But when I lived in Austin, tx they had many pantry’s many that gave out fresh vegetables and frozen meat. Eggs too. I think it depends on where you’re located though.

That's really amazing!
And if you've ever seen what grocery stores throw away its so wasteful.

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I read this last night and have been thinking about it on and off today.

First, I wonder if your bank is charging fees. I once misplaced my checkbook when it was time to pay the student loan, so I used the bank's electronic Bill Pay feature. The next time I looked at my list of transactions, I noticed that the bank charged a 13% fee for that payment!

All your monthly expenses are much lower than mine except for gas and car insurance. Is carpooling an option at all? Can you start driving right after starting the engine (as opposed to using a remote start to get the cabin to a moderate temperature)? Can you try "hypermiling" where you change your driving habits to increase gas mileage?

Car insurance may be out of your control. Rates vary depending on the type of car and where it's "garaged." But I wanted to mention that you pay more than I pay for two cars (although I bundle it with home insurance, and I live in a very low-crime area.)

Anyway, housing makes me mad. The root of this situation is greed. There are investors who pay into REIT (Real Estate Investment Trusts) to profit from housing. It's true that money to build new housing needs to come from somewhere. But in some cases, housing construction (or renovation) is funded by government programs, yet it's the investors who benefit from it.

Thank you for responding!

My banks do not charge fees. I made sure to select that option.

My car insurance is so high because I was without a car/insurance for over 6 months so now I'm in the risk pool.

Then I bought a 2010 hyundai sonata without realizing those were the ones people are stealing!! So I struggled to even find insurance.

No remote start. No car pool. I work part-time also in a weird neighborhood. I could take a bus but there's a 20 min walk to the bus stop and the road to get there has no sidewalk. Plus I have arthritis. And it's probably just as much as I spend in gas anyway.

My thinking is that my housing assistance calculations are wonky. They use gross not net so it looks like I make more than I actually take home.

This week I'm going to ask our new boss ( our credit union just merged) if I can work full time now. If not, then I need to get a part time job.

I've also thought about donating plasma for $

That was kind of you to reply

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I wish you the best of luck!