Please help me! I am a court reporter and am finding it really hard to save. My salary before tax is $71,442.50. Deductions from my salary are listed below:

Family benefit $2,620.31

JCSA (union) $327.54

JCSMT (thrift) $500.00

Health insurance $454.20

Life insurance premiums for me and my son $10,613.63

Credit union $28,300.00

(car payment/loan)

Taxes $16,598.25

This leaves me going home with $12,028.57 for the month.

Thankfully, I receive an upkeep allowance of $35,000 and I have to use this to cover utilities: light $10,000; water, $3,000; cable, $1,800; telephone, $4,000; groceries, $5,000-$7,000 per week and gas for my car, about $3,500 per week.

This causes me to keep borrowing to help with my household expenses.

Can you help me please? I am on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

- SP

PFA: Yours is a common case and the options for making improvements seem so limited.

It is usually so easy to say that problems like yours can be solved by increasing income, reducing expenditure, or a combination of both. But it is not always that easy.

Your monthly employment income after tax is $54,844.25, but that is boosted by your motor-car upkeep of $35,000, giving you $89,844.25 to spend after tax.

From the figures you have provided, your expenses are $89,788.14.

So, you have a balanced budget. Or do you?

I am not sure if you have accounted for all of your expenses. You have made no mention of the cost of accommodation - rent, for example. This could be why a budget that appears balanced could be in deficit.

Nonetheless, you are ahead of many, many persons; you seem to know where a substantial portion of your money goes.

High ratios

Your car accounts for most of the spending, 35 per cent, from your after-tax income and allowances. This is followed by food, 28 per cent; utilities, including cable, 21 per cent; and life-insurance premiums, 12 per cent.

These ratios look high, generally. You, no doubt, feel some sense of justification in owning a car because the upkeep seems to cover the cost of operating it. You have not, however, mentioned the cost of maintaining it.

Although you have made passing mention of your son, you have not said how large your household is, but it seems to me there just might be some room to reduce the cost of electricity with some tight conservation measures.

Consider ways to reduce your food bill. Buy wholesale or pool with others to do bulk purchases. If possible, try to grow some of what you eat. Sit with your family and discuss ways to reduce waste.

Look out for hidden spending. For example, unnecessarily long and frequent telephone calls, unnecessary use of electricity, items purchased but hardly used.

Supplemental income

It is good that you have some insurance coverage, especially so because you have a son. Even if the coverage is not much, it can become quite useful in the event of the demise of either of you.

If you are not able to reduce your spending meaningfully, you need to identify ways to supplement your income. Look at what hobbies or skills you have that can be used to generate income in your spare time, even on a small scale.

These are pretty hard times and jobs are hard to come by, but you might also consider switching to a job that pays you more than what you earn now.

Your main concern seems to be that you are not saving.

It is likely that you are waiting to have extra cash to save. Try putting aside a small portion of your income before you begin to spend.

The best approach is to have it withdrawn from your salary and deposited directly to an account. Are you not already doing something similar to that with some of the payments listed above? That may force you to cut some spending elsewhere. Small amounts add up.

Yours is a challenging case, but hold on. Consult with agencies like the Consumer Affairs Commission for advice on additional steps you could take to get more out of the dollar.

The agency also publishes price lists that can guide, to the best bargains.

For free advice on money management, email: finviser.jm@gmail.com.