conversation: User (Gunnzer): "I am asking this question on behalf of someone as they do not use the internet or Reddit frequently. I have been trying to help figure out a way to reduce their expense to help save and pay off debts but I can't seem to work out the numbers myself. Here's what I have so far. \n\n&amp;nbsp;\n\n\nMonthly Income\n$2800\n\n&amp;nbsp;\n\n\nMonthly Expense\n$2545\n\n&amp;nbsp;\n\n\nPhone $40 \n\nInternet $40 \n\nGas $100 \n\nGrocery $400\n\nMortgage#1 $250\n\nMotgage#2 $435\n\nMaitnance Fee $680\n\nCar insurance $165\n\nCondo insurance $35\n\nMortgage insurance $60\n\nProperty Tax $175\n\nOverdraft $5\n\nSavings $160\n\n\nMy only input was to lower groceries and gas. Any ideas or suggestions help. Thanks in advance. \n\nIf any other information is needed feel free to ask. This person lives with another person who does not have income for groceries or rent.\n\nEdit: I fixed the formating sorry for earlier \n\nEdit 2: They also have a line of credit not listed here with a high balance "
  Self: "Their housing costs (mortgages, maintenance fees, insurance, property taxes) are almost 60% of their income. That's a little under double what it should be. Basically, they are house-rich, cash-poor.\n\nIf they have no options for bringing more income, the truly best option would be to sell the condo.  Otherwise, the amount of money being used to pay for housing is eating up so much of the budget, that there's very little room for transportation, life, savings or debt repayment.\n\nThat said... mortgage insurance can probably go. If you look into it, mortgage insurance is usually subject to something called 'post-claim underwriting' which means you pay for insurance but whether or not you are eligible to *receive* insurance is determined later.... so you can pay out a lot of money with no benefit.  If insurance is still needed, (probably) a term life policy would probably be a better bet."
  User (Gunnzer): "First of all thank you for the in depth reply. \n\nI'm going to bring up these options and see what we can figure out. I didn't actually know about the mortgage insurance so I'll bring that up. If they can cut choosy of grocery, gas, and the mortgage insurance maybe it can work out. If not they will have to consider the option of selling sadly. \n\nI'll update with what decision is made thanks again. \n\nBTW they also have a high balance line of credit and they don't work summer so that's why they were saving so they have some income for summer. They do get 60% of their income during the summer if they don't work by I suggested they get another job during the summer although if they do they lose the 60%.\n"
  