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Budget Meeting

November 18th, 2011 at 05:44 am

As scheduled, DH and I sat down and had a budget meeting tonight. He's a bit prickly about it and has never been much interested in our finances. I think the poor thing is just emotionally exhausted and a bit disheartened by the whole thing.

We found that if we dramatically slash our retirement contributions, we could indeed live on my regular university salary. It won't be pretty, but it can be done. So that's the plan. We bank his unemployment, look for a new job with lots of energy and also bank my night class money to build our cash reserves further.

I have to say, it really hurt me to log in to the retirement accounts and curtail them to that extent. Although I know it's right, it just feels so wrong.

We're doing the opposite of freezer cooking; we're doing freezer eating. I found two of last summer's lingering bratwurst (Milwaukee life) and a frozen carton of chicken broth in the freezer. It turned into an amazingly good soup from a blog called "Eatin on the Cheap." I tweaked the recipe a bit, but who knew two brats, three potatoes, an onion, two carrots and some chicken broth could be as good as it was. I wish I had more!

4 Responses to “Budget Meeting”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1321620650

    I stopped our Roth contributions. And yes, it was upsetting. We are still contributing to my husband's TSP. I'm also hoping we can still make a lump sum contribution before April 15. So far it looks promising. But I really needed the cash flow to be less tight while we pay for two households.

    Take care!

  2. laura Says:
    1321624157


    Love the attitude to embrace the challenge! I am glad that your salary can cover the basic living expenses for the time-being. Hope your freezer contains more good surprise eats!

  3. baselle Says:
    1321678195

    That's how I make minestrone - I slice Italian sausage links into discs and saute them ... they turn into little meatballs and I can begin adding the other veg, stock/broth, tomatoes, herbs.

  4. littlegopher Says:
    1321711691

    I'm glad it's working out on your salary - may something come along soon for your husband!

    I also checked out the website you mentioned - the soups look wonderful! Good thing it's soup eating weather!!

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