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WWYD With An Extra $5000 Each Month?


beaners
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ooooh!  So much fun to dream!

 

Let's just assume that it's $5,000/month after taxes and we only get it for one year... that would WAY more than double our income.

 

Every month: charitable giving to church, ministries, and community organizations. Buy all the groceries I like, not just the cheapest stuff.

 

This month: Pay off all debts: medical bills, orthodontist, leftover credit card balance. Pay ovderdue dance studio bill. New clothes as needed for kids.

November: Pay for dance costumes and new dance bill. Snow tires, van inspection & repairs. Birthday party for BabyBaby, shop for Christmas gifts. Buy new dishes, glasses, silverware, and bath towels. New clothes as needed for me & Mr.

December: New living room furniture, paint walls, refinish floors.

January: Repairs to bathrooms/plumbing

February: re-wire electric in house and other minor rerpairs

March: Replace driveway and steps/patio

April: Pay 3rd dance bill installment, paint & bedroom furniture for girls.

May: New kitchen furniture, a dishwasher, floor, lighting, and cookware.

June: Buy graduation gift for Diamond, balance of $5,000 toward a car for her ('payback" for her college tuition)

July: 5K toward Sweet Child's college or car as-grad-gift fund.

August: Same for BabyBaby

September: Put the money toward an almost-new car for us.

 

Sigh.  Wishes wishes. :closedeyes:

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Pay off the house and save for college. $2500 to each each month. If a disaster hits, we could dip into the college fund. But, I would earmark it for college initially.

 

Actually, I'd do the above for 11 months. For the 12th month, we'd spend the $5000 on educational vacations. Like, if we were studying ancients that year, we'd go to Rome. If we were studying the Mongols, we'd go to China. You know, little trips like that. ;)

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Stay in our house. ***sigh***

 

Get allergy shots for the kids.

Get braces for the kids that need them.

Put the kids back into VT and OT.

Let the kids take the extracurriculars they've been begging to try.

Go on vacation. Life is short....build memories with the kids at home while we can.

Save for college.

Build up the retirement fund.

 

As it is, we are trying to radically downsize so that we can get items 1, 2, and 3 somewhere in our budget.

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My first thought is well, $5000 a month never is really $5,000 by the time taxes are takien out and the amount that my DH's company auto deducts for retirement and then paying tithing at church well the amount would be far less.  Nonetheless with an increase irregardless of the amount, first I would increase my budget for clothes and food.  Current budget is woefully deficient but there simply isn't anymore money that can be cut anywhere.  (current budget for 8 people for all clothing/shoes/winter coats etc is a grand total of $600 a year total for everyone's needs.  We do a LOT of hand- me-downs) and our food budget isn't in much better shape as we spend less than $100 per person per month. After I got those 2 categories up to something more doable than I would start socking away the extra until I had at least 10-15K saved up.  Then I would start vehicle shopping for a 8 passenger vehicle since carting 8 people in the 7 passenger vehicle we currently own is neither comfortable nor safe but it's all we got to work with.  After all that I might be able to think of "luxuries" like bumping up the heat in the winter so we don't have to huddle under blankets.  It's pretty hard to dream beyond the practical when we've been in the barely making it category for so long.

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Medical stuff for Ds including a top specialist for his health condition in another state.

 

Pay off my parents debt and put the rest in savings. In the spring I would take DS to tour the schools of his choice and give serious consideration to him attending the boarding school of his choice. Of course with that much extra a month I would probably get a very small apartment near the school and send him as a day student and save the difference.

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I'm a saver, not a spender, so I would not deliberately increase my spending in any category. But life with children is expensive, and it would be easy for extra money to be funneled toward things for my children -- braces, extracurricular activities (my kids are in expensive ones), college savings, etc. If I had to spend the money and not save it, I would probably use it for travel and upgrading some of my furniture.

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I'd be able to afford the nice acre of land on the other side of town that is all of three blocks to the main street.

 

Since I'm sure it would be sold before I could get it, I'd go visit my great aunt in Poland for as long as I was allowed, which is probably three weeks.

I'd come back and build a house on the back half of this block so my brother could sell it and pay off the mortgage for this place I live in.

I'd save up to buy a different acre and build a little eco-home.

I'd play happily in my garden when not educating my kid, spending a bit on travel and squirrelling the rest away in savings since I have no super.

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For me, a bigger house would be a given, with enough land to do a mini-to-midsized homestead.  Then save for a few months to dump the current house at a big loss and then we'd be close to square with the way real estate is still running here.

 

After that, more freedom with grocery and activities budgets, a newer car, paying down the new mortgage, and savings. Though I'm guessing I'd slip at least one cool vacation a year in there.

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Put a little into savings, immediately, for emergencies and health needs. Then I'd pay off the van that we bought a few months ago, and I'd either buy a new car for DH's commute, or I'd put a little into his current one (it's in decent shape but could use a couple of things). Then I'd buy a quarter cow, or maybe even a half cow, and a pig or two for the freezer. Then I'd decide between college and retirement savings and work on the house, some remodeling/updating and a little furniture. And there would be a family trip/vacation, for sure! It's kind of amazing to think that we could do all that in the first year and still have some money in savings. (DH would do most of the work on the house himself, which cuts our costs for that a lot, and shoot with that much money, we could have him take off work for a few weeks at a time to work on it.)

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Since that be a significant increase in my budget, I could do a lot. 

 

  • pay off my house over 6 months - yes, I could and still have $
  • buy a new Jeep - I've never owned a new car
  • help my parents - 
  • retirement
  • college for both of us
  • make travel plans Colorado next spring, Japan next summer
  • dental visits
  • eye doctor
  • visit IKEA
  • get some good Sushi and visit the Asian market so ds could find some decent food

If I kept my budget low by staying here and not going wild, I'd try to save enough that I could finish my BA, go to grad school (may have to move), possibly get two MAs and then retire. 

 

If the $ was for a very limited time, I'd pay off my house, travel, and put some in retirement. 

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Oh I so rarely think about this, but what the heck?

I would no longer have to worry about which supplements I could afford for the girls that they need.  That would be incredible.

I would get another cat.

I might even buy some new clothes for me!

New socks and underwear for all!

Finally replace the cowboy boots I've had since high school.

and I would absolutely hire someone to be a personal trainer for the girls and I for yoga and conditioning for healing.

and a new used car to replace our very, very, tired 92 Ford Taurus Wagon.

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