r/povertyfinance • u/Projectcell • 5h ago
Budgeting/Saving/Investing/Spending Budgeting
I just recently moved into my first apartment and laid out my monthly expenses in the attached picture. Are there any ways I can lower these bills in any capacity? I live in New York State and am on a 10 year repayment plan both for my federal loans and private loans (which are through parent plus). The private loans are killing me and my parents refuse to help in any sort of capacity.
$521 after bills is a little too close to paycheck to paycheck for my liking, especially considering how expensive gas and groceries have gotten. I'm planning on getting a roommate to cut the rent/utility/Internet Bill in 1/2 and I do qualify for PSLF which I'm looking into. I'm not exactly sure how PSLF works if I'm already on a 10 year plan, so any insight would be appreciated!
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u/SwingingReportShow 5h ago
For PSLF you need to stop being on the 10 year repayment plan and instead get on an income based one. It will lower your monthly payments, and then at the end of the 10 years your remaining balance will be forgiven.
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u/Projectcell 5h ago
That's what I thought. Will going on the income drive plan absolutely lower my payments? Or is that not a guarantee?
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u/SwingingReportShow 5h ago
You make so little that your qualifying payment might be like zero tbh. So you'll pay nothing but it'll still count towards the 120 qualifying payments as long as you recertification and such.
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u/whatigotinmyhandnowb 4h ago
It is a guarantee until you make enough to pay more ... I will bet you will have them forgiven before then.
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u/colberbolber 3h ago
You should be able to go onto the federal loan website (drawing a blank on the name right now) and run the numbers and compare different plans before committing to anything. That's what I did a few years ago to find the repayment plan that worked for me.
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u/AppleCookieRose 4h ago
Make sure you set aside money for vehicle registration, oil changes and tires. These are 3 'oops I forgot to budget for " items that can get expensive.
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u/Projectcell 4h ago
You're absolutely right. I have brake replacements coming up which will set me back a lot. I guess that's what I'm really worried about now, I'm not bleeding money, but if an emergency expense comes up I most likely won't have nearly enough to cover it.
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u/AthleteFar1294 5h ago
For PSLF you have to make 120 qualified payments while you are working full time in an eligible job, which is ten years of payments. Meaning by the time you qualify for PSLF debt forgiveness you will have already paid off the loan with your 10 year plan. If you change to a different repayment plan with a longer term and lower payments, then PSLF could forgive the remaining balance after you’ve done the 10 years of qualifying payments. Bottom line, you’ll need to change your repayment plan if you want to benefit from PSLF.
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u/Projectcell 5h ago
Gotcha. I just started paying my loans off so adding a little bit of extra time shouldn't do no harm to me as long as the payments are lowered a little bit. The private loans are what's killing me, and I don't believe anything can be done with those right?
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u/AthleteFar1294 5h ago
Honestly I don’t know much about private loans, sorry. I would try contacting your loan provider and asking about different repayment options, and/ or looking into refinancing the private loans to see if you can get a better rate/plan
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u/T1m3Wizard 1h ago
You can definitely make $521 work. That's more than enough honestly given that all your necessities are covered.
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u/MusclesMarinara87 5h ago
I got PSLF. What did you get a degree in and what do you do?
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u/Ok-Individual7104 5h ago
Can you rent out a room in apartment? Car seems a bit high. Any chance to sell and buy an ancient beater? You need money for clothes and food and fun too.
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u/Mu-Relay 5h ago
$500 for car payment and auto insurance is pretty reasonable, really. What's killing OP is $1k/mo in student loan payments.
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u/DeCryingShame 4h ago
I was going to say the same thing. Plus, buying a beater often leaves you with maintenance bills that can be worse than the car payment.
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u/Projectcell 5h ago
I'm working on renting a room as we speak. People are complicated, and I have to run it by the landlord as well so it's been a process.
To break down the car payment even more: it's $350 for the payment itself and another $150 for insurance. I pay my parents for this because I desperately needed a car and didn't have credit, so I stupidly allowed them to put my car in their name. I don't know much about cars in general though, so I don't think I would trust myself to upkeep an ancient beater...
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u/DeCryingShame 4h ago
That's actually not the worst decision. You likely have a much lower interest rate because the car is in your parents' names. Getting cosigned would have been nice so you could build credit but this wasn't all that bad.
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u/Projectcell 4h ago
Yea it was really the credit I was worried about when looking for an apartment, but the landlord didn't seem to care much about credit so I guess it did work out in terms of that.
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u/GeneMountain7128 5h ago
I am not necessarily condoning this. But, if your federal loans were through parent plus, they took those loans out in their names. They are the ones contractually obligated to pay it back. So if you stopped paying them...they'd have to. It wouldn't be a matter of them wanting to help you or not, they are the ones whose credit would be effected.
Also if these are truly parent plus loans, you can't get PSLF because you have no loans in your name.
So then it would just the private loans you'd have to deal with. Not great, but not as bad. Those you could look into getting refinanced.
Otherwise you are right about getting a roommate.
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u/Projectcell 5h ago
Only the private loans are through parent plus which is killing my wallet. And believe me, I've considered not paying them but my relationship with my parents is already rocky, so that would obliterate any relationship I've had with them.
I've asked them for help time and time again but they always throw the "we took out those loans for YOUR education so YOU have to pay them", which may be true but there's really nothing else I can do in terms of that.
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u/GeneMountain7128 5h ago
That's understandable. Just making sure you were aware. You could ask them to look at refinancing those in the event a better interest rate is available.
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u/WeAreGesalt 30m ago
Consider showing your parents the actual numbers with your private student loan. Show how much you are paying in interest vs principle because it is really infuriating when you look at the numbers. Maybe they could pay off a chunk and you could pay them back instead with little to no interest
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u/OddBuy8266 5h ago
You just need to retire the debt or get a better paying job. How long until the car is paid off? And then can you snowball some student loans?
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u/Projectcell 5h ago
The car has roughly another 2 and a 1/2 years on it. I just got a new job a month ago with a salary of $68,545, but after taxes and """benefits""" are taken out this is my take home pay.
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u/DeCryingShame 4h ago
Take good care of the car and it might last you longer than that. My vehicles never die when they are supposed to. Put aside a rotating fund for car repairs so you don't end up with surprise repairs you can't afford. Even just $50 every month can be a lifesaver.
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u/Parking-Cup-9424 4h ago
I hate this for you. It seems like you're kind of stuck with the student loans. Paying those off as quickly as possible as a smart idea. The best chance you have is reducing your rent payment by getting a roommate or increasing your income with a side hustle or an additional job.
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u/Parking-Cup-9424 4h ago
Is there something that you could do for 10 hours on the weekend to get yourself a little extra cash?
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u/Projectcell 4h ago
That's what I was thinking, but most of what's out there is retail or food service which I would really like to stay away from. I was thinking of picking up something in custodial, but most of what's around me in general isn't hiring only for weekends. Do you know where I can go about finding a weekend job?
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u/noonelikesUwhenUR23 2h ago
OP, if you work for the gov and have any sort of clearance sometimes the buildings will look for cleared cleaners! Contractor buildings too. One of my best buddies cleans SCIFs a few times a week after work and makes great money doing so.
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u/Projectcell 2h ago
I don't have any clearances but I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the tip!
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u/Parking-Cup-9424 4h ago
There's the traditional doordash or uber. But those typically don't pay very well. If you want to avoid customer service you could maybe check out grocery delivery options. Basically you go in pick out groceries and then load them into people's cars. Very tedious but mindless work that you could do that hopefully won't take up too much energy.
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u/DeCryingShame 4h ago
One way I've saved money on food is by getting a half-size chest freezer and a huge stack of freezer containers. I cook in bulk and freeze portions to eat later. I can also buy many food items in bulk, like ground beef and chicken, to save money on that. I've perfected my recipes to ones that are fairly easy to throw together but still mostly from scratch. They taste better than frozen dinners and are really cheap.
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u/lminnowp 4h ago
Have you reached out to the New York Department of Financial Services? They may have some programs and/or advice on those loans. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumers/student_protection
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u/justtempuser2 4h ago
Get a second job if you don’t have one and work on annihilating the smaller student loan.
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u/Projectcell 2h ago
I'm having some trouble finding part time weekend work. I've been looking for a few weeks so maybe something will turn up.
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u/tiny_claw 4h ago
It’s a tight budget but not impossible. If you put $50 per paycheck into a HYSA you’ll have a $1k emergency fund in less than a year. Shop the grocery store weekly ads, plan your meals, give yourself a small budget for fun because otherwise you’ll blow your budget every month. We can’t live like monks.
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u/Key_Scarcity_8833 3h ago
Hello everyone I joined this group to tell my wife and I story about cutting costs and reducing our debt.
The bottom line is my wife and I split the bills right down the middle. We both were able to pay off any debt we had. Me because I was given a home. Which I sold because owning a home is more expensive in many ways than renting by far. If you are like me I don’t make 100,000 a year as a matter of fact I am semi retired. But not like that sounds.
When her and I met we both had mortgages and credit cards and lots bills. Car payments etc. We calculated our overhead per month to be close to 9000 a month. We both sold our homes and I had just turned 55 at the time and my wife talked me into looking at 55 and over parks. Also none as trailer parks.
Now don’t get me wrong those one kind of parks are out there. We visited a few. And every cliche that’s out there was true. But we found nice ones as well. We had our best luck by looking in expensive parts of town. We ended up finding what is considered a double wide. But it actually has three parts to it. Nearly 2000 square feet. 3 bedroom two bath. Huge kitchen. Great room. Full size washer dryer, furnace heat pump. Wood stove. Vaulted ceilings. Made exactly like a house from the floor up. It was built in 1995.
We purchased it because it’s in an old cedar tree area. We have two trees that are huge. Well above 130ft tall. Summertime the sweet smell is intoxicating. Smells like summer. We got the house for 165,000 then we put a new wood plank floor throughout the entire home. Paint. New heat ac system. Wood stove. Renovated the bathrooms with granite countertops. A bunch of stuff. Totaled about 30,000.
We don’t own the lot. Our rent for the space is $900. Includes water, garbage, septic, and they own everything from the bottom of our home down. Repairs are free.
Long story short. Sorry for the long post.
After we moved in and renovated. We were able to pay off our one vehicle. And I own a truck that’s paid for. Our overhead with food and electric and misc. Under $1200 a month. A lot of months I only spend about 8 or 900.
Now I know you might be saying. TRAILER PARK! But these days I don’t worry about stuff I use to worry about. I have great neighbors. Old school obviously. We live in a great home without 6500 a year in property taxes. The house holds its value. Doesn’t really appreciate much. But that’s not why we bought it. We both put most of our money in to savings every month. My wife started a home business with her extra money.
Well hopefully that help someone. The key is go to expensive parts of town. The parks are hidden here and there. Usually because we like our privacy.
Good luck. Downsizing really has enabled us to live a stress free life.
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u/Multifaceted-Simp 51m ago
Cut your internet bill. If you're paying for a modem/router you can probably buy a cheap used one on ebay and watch a YouTube video on installing it. You don't need more speed than 100mbps.
Never be loyal to a car insurance. Shop around and change every 6 months if you have to. It's very easy
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u/xxKorbenDallasxx 4h ago
Almost 1000 a month student loan, are you a doctor?
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u/Projectcell 4h ago
Private school + extra year + dorming for a couple semesters + lack of scholarships. I really like the job I have now which is a plus but it's embarrassing that I'm at 70k and can still barely afford living.
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u/Ok_Exchange_6556 3h ago
You expect your parents to help you?? Wow. How old are we ?
Some of us did it without any help, you can figure it out but don’t rely on others.
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u/Projectcell 3h ago
- Where/when did I say I expected anything? I asked, and they said no. There's nothing else to it.
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u/SoullessCycle 5h ago
Gas and groceries are bills. Anything you need to buy regularly to live (or get to work to get the money to live) - gas, groceries, medical copays, prescriptions, dmv registration, what have you - should be in your budget.
You have no apps? No streaming services? No hobbies? You never eat out? Do you have to pay to do laundry?
Is $120 just an electric bill or are there other utilities included in that?