Damn that 2%! The temporary payroll tax cut happened before I started to budget and go after our debt. It was lowered from 6.2% to 4.2% in 2011. I counted on every penny from our checks for our budget and now I have to completely redo it. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t expect it to be such a huge chunk! I’m out about $100/mo. That stinks, but we can work around it without any major issues.
However, on top of that 2% increase our health insurance rates went up. Oh joy. Rates go up! Coverage goes down. I don’t even have the exact figures on this. The husband is paid bi-weekly, and his first check of 2013 was last Friday. Let me tell you how painful that was. A whole $450 less. That is a lot of money for us!! He’s waiting for HR to get back from vacation to look into it, because $450 less per pay period just isn’t going to cut it for us. He thinks they may have left out holiday pay or something. {He has direct deposit and doesn’t have a paycheck stub to review.} Fingers crossed that’s the problem.
We don’t bring home insane amounts of money. I’d say we’re lower {low} middle class. Of course we’d love to make more, but we’re content and can pay for our not-so-lavish lifestyle at the moment. I’m not sure how we’re going to change the budget, it’s rather bare bones as it is. I’m still wanting to cut out DirecTV, but the contract isn’t over until October. I’m going to call and see how much the prorated cancellation fee would be. From what I’ve read it would be $20/month, so $180 to cancel based on that. Other than that we need to cut back on food, which has always been one of our largest expenses (and biggest struggle to control.) I’m going to call and try to negotiate a few medical bills. I’ll look into our cellphone plan. I also plan to shop around for car and home insurance, since State Farm seems to be increasing my rates every month.
I want to sit down and do the numbers, but I can’t. I don’t have any reliable figures to work off of yet. I hope we can get the payroll situation cleared up soon. Did anyone else notice a difference in their take home pay for 2013?
Budget & the Beach said,
January 17, 2013 @ 11:12 am
That sucks about the pay cut.
Im a freelancer so I haven’t noticed how it’s affected any work coming in yet. I also struggle with food budget though. Why is that one so hard???
Angella said,
January 17, 2013 @ 8:35 pm
I know! Food costs kill us every month. Groceries keep going up, and we’re bad about eating out sometimes. I hope your freelance work keeps picking up!
Nicole said,
January 19, 2013 @ 11:04 am
I’m afraid at what it’ll be like at tax time since Travis is 1099.
Angella said,
January 19, 2013 @ 11:12 pm
Yes, I am worried about this tax season. Update to come. We’re expecting multiple 1099s. :/
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