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Monthly Net Income: 3500 Monthly Expenses: mortgage 750 condo maintenance 285 electric 120 internet 40 cell phones 130 tv 75 health ins 320 dental ins 50 life ins 40 gas and auto maint 215 (two cars, 93 Saturn, 2001 Civic) Other Non-Monthly Expenses Auto ins 700 paid every 6 months Home owners ins about 500/year Education 1000 paid in 2009 for stuff the loans didn't cover Debt: Mortgage 97k @ 5.75% Student Loans 50k stafford loans, haven't had to start paying back yet. CC 9.2k @ 13% CC 3.2k @ 12% CC 2.5k @ 11% Savings: 14.2k Retirement: IRA with about 18k. Haven't contributed to this in a year. That summary doesn't make much sense right? 2025/mo expenses, 3500/mo income, we should be knocking that cc debt down quick. Here's the problem: I've kept track of every penny spent from Jan 2008. The plan was to do that for 2008, then make changes in 2009. I ran some excel formulas on the expense categories last night and we haven't changed a drat thing in 2009. Our spending habits are ridiculous. I have known this but haven't been able to change our spending habits yet. Excel tells me this for 2009 monthly spending: Grocery stores 477 Restaurant 372 Entertainment 357 Misc 669 Gifts 132 Medical 226 CC Interest 206 What should we do with that savings? Wife wants to buy or lease a new car and I'm thinking that is crazy right now. What steps would you take to control spending? Keeping track in Excel of every penny spent hasn't done much. **************************************** Edited: 7/17/2010. Making progress. zaurg's Student Loan Debt Tracker 1/1/2010 - $50,218 6/1/2010 - $50,927 7/1/2010 - $47,895 7/17/2010 - $45,962 zaurg's Credit Card Debt Tracker 02/01/2009 - CCDebt $19,073 07/23/2009 - CCDebt $14,900 10/14/2009 - CCDebt $12,519 12/01/2009 - CCDebt $10,234 01/21/2010 - CCDebt $8,348 01/31/2010 - CCDebt $8,021 02/07/2010 - CCDebt $6,821 02/13/2010 - CCDebt $3,050 02/17/2010 - CCDebt $2,050 02/19/2010 - CCDebt $1,050 02/26/2010 - CCDebt $0 zaurg fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Jul 18, 2010 |
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Jul 23, 2009 21:45
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What is in "Misc 669"? You have so many different things itemized I'm having a hard time figuring out what else you could be spending almost as much as your mortgage payment on.
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Jul 23, 2009 21:52
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$132 a month on gifts? what the gently caress why would keeping track of where you spend money help if you didn't actually spend less money? did you think it would cause money to magically appear in your bank account? do not buy or lease a new car.
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Jul 23, 2009 22:03
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zaurg posted:. Our spending habits are ridiculous. I have known this but haven't been able to change our spending habits yet. Why? Why can't you just eat at home? I mean that as a serious question; what are you telling yourself when you walk into a restaurant several times a week that convinces you that it's okay to keep spending $360/mo eating out? edit: And why don't you remember to wash your hands with soap while you're there? I thought I spent a lot on health care...
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Jul 23, 2009 22:09
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Michaelos posted:What is in "Misc 669"? You have so many different things itemized I'm having a hard time figuring out what else you could be spending almost as much as your mortgage payment on. Anything I just slap in the Misc category. I couldn't tell you how the hell it has averaged $669/month so I looked at this month, which is up to $539. So much of this stuff we rationalize as "needs". She needed some new clothes because she's pregnant and grew out of other stuff. I needed some stupid bookends at office depot. I needed hardware parts to install a radio. It goes on and on and I'm doing this so I can see and hear from you guys the ridculousness of it before I sit down and talk with the wife 7/2/09 Misc victoria secret $21.20 7/2/09 Misc newspaper $0.75 7/9/09 Misc victoria secret $51.94 7/10/09 Misc belzers hardware $3.93 7/11/09 Misc beauticontrol $171.61 7/11/09 Misc abc distrib $21.07 7/12/09 Misc home depot $36.14 7/14/09 Misc vacuum part $11.95 7/14/09 Misc cpr class $30.00 7/15/09 Misc ticketalbums.com $13.45 7/16/09 Misc home depot $3.67 7/17/09 Misc legacy.com $36.75 7/17/09 Misc legacy.com $2.95 7/19/09 Misc gum $1.50 7/20/09 Misc juice plus $92.00 7/22/09 Misc postal sweets $10.64 7/22/09 Misc office depot $9.57 7/22/09 Misc post office $20.70 total 539.82
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Jul 23, 2009 22:21
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This really depends a lot on what that misc is, since it's the second highest figure in your spending behind your mortgage. Sit down with your wife and hammer out a plan for controlling spending now that you have all that information on where your money's going. The Stafford repayment will be another >$400/month expense, if you're on a reasonable timeline for payoff. If you make the misc disappear, bring the food budget down to $400/month including both groceries and eating out (it is very doable, but it does take some self-control), drop the entertainment to $50/month (netflix and an occasional movie or night out), and cut gifts to the bare minimum you'll start to make some headway. But you'll never do it alone. Edit: oh poo poo, she's pregnant? That explains the medical expenses, and you'll have a fair bit more after she gives birth. A lot of your misc would be properly filed under groceries, household, home repair, clothing, etc. Some of this stuff you need to cut out because they are luxuries that, right now, you can't afford. That beauticontrol thing, for one. Spending on baby stuff can also very easily spiral out of control, so start planning ahead and thinking about what's important to buy new, and what you can get secondhand. Engineer Lenk fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jul 23, 2009 |
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Jul 23, 2009 22:25
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It may not feel like it, but you're overspending by $1,000 a month. Growing your credit card debt $12,000 per year. That's nearly 33% of your income. And you will incur significant new expenses (student loan payments, baby stuff) soon that you have no capacity to pay right now. A new car is absolutely out of the question. Are you both employed now? Will the wife stay home with the baby?
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Jul 23, 2009 23:24
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what the heck is $92.00 on 'juice plus?' That'd be a lot of juice.
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Jul 23, 2009 23:36
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Zhentar posted:Why? Why can't you just eat at home? I mean that as a serious question; what are you telling yourself when you walk into a restaurant several times a week that convinces you that it's okay to keep spending $360/mo eating out? Need to break the eating out habit. She buys lunch 4 times a week and we go out to restaurants too often. We're actually not sickly people. I guess our health insurance (BlueCross BlueShield) is expensive. She gets it from her employer and added me on, and the rates just went up, so it is $320/month. I need to shop around on that, because we'll be adding a 3rd person (baby) very soon. As for the $226/month medical expenses, I will look closer at that. I think I categorized a lot of her pregnant-related bills as Medical which would explain that amount. SlapActionJackson posted:Are you both employed now? Will the wife stay home with the baby? Both employed but my work is part-time at nights. So she will stay home for 8 weeks (4 of that are paid, 4 weeks we have saved for). After she goes back to work I will care for baby in morning and work at night. That's the plan. CornHolio posted:what the heck is $92.00 on 'juice plus?' That'd be a lot of juice. It's a vitamin. 1 month supply for an adult is $46. Crazy MLM vitamin company stuff, I haven't won that argument with her. zaurg fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 00:33
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zaurg fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 00:35
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Jul 24, 2009 00:38
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zaurg posted:It's a vitamin. 1 month supply for an adult is $46. Crazy MLM vitamin company stuff, I haven't won that argument with her. You're spending over $1000 per year on a gimmick. How much would it be worth to you if I could lower that to under $15? http://www.amazon.com/Centrum-423926-250-Count-Bottle/dp/B0000VLXQO This thread is going to be great.
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Jul 24, 2009 01:24
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zaurg posted:Both employed but my work is part-time at nights. So she will stay home for 8 weeks (4 of that are paid, 4 weeks we have saved for). After she goes back to work I will care for baby in morning and work at night. That's the plan. Saved for as in she has accumulated vacation time so that you will continue to receive her paycheck throughout the entire 8 weeks, or saved for as in you plan to replace her income with a drawdown of your $14.2k savings for the 2nd 4 weeks? If the latter, what is her portion of the household income? I agree with Lenk. You have got to get a handle on your expenses and that means getting you and your wife on the same page about how utterly unsustainable your current situation is. For a point of reference, you're in worse shape than CornHolio was when he started his trainwreck of a thread in terms of both accumulated debt and hemorrhaging cash flow.
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Jul 24, 2009 01:29
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quote:7/11/09 Misc beauticontrol $171.61 Beauticontrol looks like some sort of marketing scheme with beauty products. You realize that between this and the vitamins that you guys are spending more each month on MLM crap than your credit card interest, right?
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Jul 24, 2009 01:39
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For two people, you're spending over $800 a month on food. How do you spend almost $400 a month on restaurants and almost $500 a month on groceries? That is insanity. You should think about paying down your credit cards with the savings, there's no way you're earning 10%+ interest on those savings, but you're paying 10%+ on the cards (pay down the one with highest interest first). Of course, once you have them down to more manageable levels, take your interest savings and build up your savings account again. But really you just need to get your spending under control. You spend way too much, on what looks to be impulse buys and useless crap. The food...I can't wrap my head around that. That is more than my food budget for a family of 5.
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Jul 24, 2009 02:04
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Don Wrigley posted:You should think about paying down your credit cards with the savings, there's no way you're earning 10%+ interest on those savings, but you're paying 10%+ on the cards (pay down the one with highest interest first). Yeah, but he's about to have a kid. There's something to be said for having an intact emergency fund, since you can't pay rent on credit cards.
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Jul 24, 2009 02:13
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I'm sorry you married someone who falls for MLM poo poo. I guess you had to know this going into the marriage, right? God, I hope the kid gets more of your genetics than your wife's. You absolutely, positively must cut it out. Immediately. Every month that you spend money on it shows that you're not serious about getting your finances in order. Then you can tell her to not eat out so much. A child is not something you add into your life and go along. It's a gigantic expense. It's like you went into a showroom and someone showed you a beach house and a baby. You had to choose. Just for budget purposes, you really need to look at that kid as a giant liability. Your family will have to accept that you will have to change the way you live. Once you get your "misc" spending in order, you should allot a certain amount per month in your budget. Anything you don't spend can go into those CCs. She also needs to curb her spending into "necessities" and "things I wanted until I found out I had a baby to provide for." Don't forget to include yourself in there as well. Also, wtf is legacy.com? Fake edit: LOL at cornholio circa opening post at being the barometer of how hosed someone's finances are real edit: spelling/grammar Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 02:28
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You're spending around $28 a day in food wtf? I hope you get a steak every dinner...
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Jul 24, 2009 03:46
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You need to cut your entertainment and eating out by a ton. You guys spend more then double what my wife and I spend a month. How you guys spend that much eating out and still drop 450 bucks at the grocery store stuns me. You need to knock that poo poo out NOW!!! Ditch the gimick vitamins and juices and get ones that will cost our 1/10 the price, our very own Watch and Weight forum is amazing for stuff like that. That 14.5k you have saved right now is awesome but that is gonna disaper ral fast once the kid gets here. You both need to sit down and get on the same page that if you keep going like this you could lose everything. Do you realize that with your current CC debt it would take your 3 months of paying NOTHING else, no food, gas, house,cars, to make that go away. let that sink in for a min then go cut those mother fuckers up. You are no where near as bad as cornholio was at teh start, but if you dont make big time changes now you will end up in the same place or worse. random question, how far along is she? edit: lol at cornholio jumping in here Backno fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 03:58
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Backno posted:How you guys spend that much eating out and still drop 450 bucks at the grocery store stuns me.
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Jul 24, 2009 04:05
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So many of these financial threads make me scared to ever get married. At least my impulse buys are totally awesome, some of the wives in these threads sound like total loving retards. Multivitamins, beauticontrol? Victoria Secret? These purchases do not sound like a couple who is serious about adding a child to their family. And for gods sake, pay off your loving credit cards! Are you and your wife both extremely overweight? Im 250 pounds and even I only spend 250 a month on food and that includes eating out lunch every single day. murderknobs fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 05:07
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murderknobs posted:Im 250 pounds and even I only spend 250 a month on food and that includes eating out lunch every single day. Food that's lovely for you is usually cheaper than food that is good for you, especially in urban areas.
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Jul 24, 2009 05:37
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My grocery budget for 2 is rarely under $450/mo, and occasionally breaks $600. It's not hard, especially if you have a tendency to buy more fresh fruit than you can eat before it goes bad.murderknobs posted:Victoria Secret? I'm betting she only buys their generic cotton panties that you could buy anywhere else for a quarter of the price too. Edit: and because it can't possibly be said enough times, $15k of credit card debt is not an indication you should buy a new car. Zhentar fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 05:45
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zaurg posted:We're actually not sickly people. I guess our health insurance (BlueCross BlueShield) is expensive. She gets it from her employer and added me on, and the rates just went up, so it is $320/month. I need to shop around on that, because we'll be adding a 3rd person (baby) very soon. As for the $226/month medical expenses, I will look closer at that. I think I categorized a lot of her pregnant-related bills as Medical which would explain that amount. $320/mo for two people probably isn't very bad. I doubt you could beat it without an employer subsidy. I was more commenting on the $226, which doesn't sound that bad for someone who's pregnant.
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Jul 24, 2009 05:51
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geetee posted:You're spending over $1000 per year on a gimmick. How much would it be worth to you if I could lower that to under $15? http://www.amazon.com/Centrum-423926-250-Count-Bottle/dp/B0000VLXQO Actually it's $552/year (she takes them, I don't), which is still insane. I buy multivitamin and fish oil from bodybuilding.com so I spend about $7/month on my vitamins. SlapActionJackson posted:Saved for as in she has accumulated vacation time so that you will continue to receive her paycheck throughout the entire 8 weeks, or saved for as in you plan to replace her income with a drawdown of your $14.2k savings for the 2nd 4 weeks? If the latter, what is her portion of the household income? 4 weeks of her timeoff will not be paid. Normally she would have brought home about $2500 over that time. So by saved for, I meant we would use money already in savings to survive during that time. GamingHyena posted:Beauticontrol looks like some sort of marketing scheme with beauty products. You realize that between this and the vitamins that you guys are spending more each month on MLM crap than your credit card interest, right? Yup. She did sell some of that for $130, so she actually spent $41.61 on herself, which isn't a monthly thing, but is still an unneeded expense. Blinkman987 posted:I'm sorry you married someone who falls for MLM poo poo. I guess you had to know this going into the marriage, right? Yup, I knew it, which makes me just as crazy. The Misc thing is definitely one of the biggest wtf's and we both need to bite the curb. Legacy.com is a site that hosts all obituaries and let's you setup a memorial site. I found someone had made a memorial site for a dead family member and signed up on an impulse. Waste of money. Backno posted:You need to cut your entertainment and eating out by a ton. You guys spend more then double what my wife and I spend a month. How you guys spend that much eating out and still drop 450 bucks at the grocery store stuns me. This is good info. See my wife thinks what we spend is normal and what most people do. Entertainment and food and misc are ridiculous I know. She is 36 weeks. We just packed up our bag of stuff to take to the hospital once she goes into labor. Since quite a few of you asked how we spend that much on food, next I will post June's food purchases log. Stay tuned for the madness.
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Jul 24, 2009 05:53
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I'm 5'11" 185lbs. She is 5'3" and normally 105 lbs, but is up to 122 lbs now pregnant. This is embarrassing. Here's June which was actually a low month for spending on food. 6/1/09 Grocery publix $18.43 6/3/09 Grocery publix $24.26 6/6/09 Grocery publix $54.99 6/6/09 Grocery costco $130.00 6/13/09 Grocery publix $56.43 6/13/09 Grocery publix $48.19 6/14/09 Grocery publix $6.21 6/15/09 Grocery publix $7.50 6/16/09 Grocery publix $20.08 6/18/09 Grocery publix $15.49 6/24/09 Grocery publix $72.85 6/25/09 Grocery albertsons $14.20 6/27/09 Grocery ice (baby shower party) $14.02 6/27/09 Grocery publix $11.99 --------------------------------------------------------- 6/1/09 Restaurant duffys $18.37 6/2/09 Restaurant slurpee $1.09 6/5/09 Restaurant slurpee $1.09 6/5/09 Restaurant quiznos $12.41 6/6/09 Restaurant costco $4.24 6/8/09 Restaurant lunch $15.00 6/8/09 Restaurant coffee drink $3.04 6/9/09 Restaurant lunch $10.00 6/10/09 Restaurant lunch $13.00 6/11/09 Restaurant lunch $5.50 6/11/09 Restaurant mcdonalds $3.00 6/12/09 Restaurant mcdonalds $5.30 6/13/09 Restaurant tommassoos $14.00 6/13/09 Restaurant gas station drink $3.00 6/14/09 Restaurant slurpee $1.38 6/15/09 Restaurant mcdonalds $2.34 6/15/09 Restaurant pizza $12.00 6/16/09 Restaurant lunch $10.00 6/17/09 Restaurant fratellis $32.00 6/20/09 Restaurant drinks $2.50 6/22/09 Restaurant lunch $6.50 6/22/09 Restaurant ice cream $10.00 6/22/09 Restaurant drinks $6.50 6/23/09 Restaurant lunch $6.00 6/24/09 Restaurant lunch $7.25 6/25/09 Restaurant drinks $1.88 6/26/09 Restaurant drinks $2.12 6/26/09 Restaurant dinner $25.00 6/27/09 Restaurant mcdonalds $6.50 6/28/09 Restaurant drinks $2.87 6/29/09 Restaurant lunch $5.00 6/30/09 Restaurant lunch $9.00 6/30/09 Restaurant duffys $12.00 --------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL grocery store 494.64 TOTAL restaurants 269.88 TOTAL spent on food and household stuff 764.52
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Jul 24, 2009 06:01
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A lot of those "food" products are fast food poo poo. Coffee, MD, drinks, ice cream, etc are not things people should be eating. You must be under 25 because I have no clue how if you are pushing late 20's you are not a land whale on that diet. Shop at Walmart for basic food stuff and go to a higher scale store for your meats and check farmers market for your fruits/vegs. Make a list that will hold you over for two weeks and not allow yourself to go to the grocery store, those 20 dollar visits every couple of days really do add up fast.
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Jul 24, 2009 07:19
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Here are some ways I recommend cutting down your expenses: - Grocery shop twice a month at at least 2 different grocery stores, comparing prices. I go to Wal-Mart and Publix, and generally speaking if it isn't on sale at Publix it is cheaper at Wal-Mart. So pull up the Publix ad online, write down what is on sale there and the price, do your grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, and then buy all the cheaper sale stuff at Publix. - Bring a grocery list and try not to deviate. 33% of grocery purchases are impulse. That means the average person who spends $100 spent $33 on stuff they didn't need when they walked in the door. If you're one of those people, a simple list will cut your bill by 33%. - Keep track of your grocery spending item-by-item at the store. I'm not talking about long-term trending, just "how much is all the crap in this cart going to cost"? Round up. If I was buying milk for $2.29, cheese for $3.89 and meat for $7.29, I take out my iPhone calculator and go "okay, milk is $3, cheese is $4, meat is $8, that means I'll be spending $15". When you get to the checkout and you've over-estimated, you'll always be under-budget just a bit. Might not seem like much, but the most important thing is you'll NEVER be over-budget. - Separate personal entertainment from group entertainment. If you had $500 budgeted for entertainment and $450 went to a PS3, your girlfriend would be pissed that you only have $50 to stretch 30 days for each other. Also, entertainment means anything you're buying you don't really need because you want it, I.E you don't have a budget of $300, spend it all on DVDs, and then spend $300 on a power drill because a drill isn't fun. - Group entertainment means ANYTHING you do together for fun. When you go out to dinner, when you go to the movies with friends, ANYTHING. I cannot stress this enough. What you need to do is force yourself to chose between eating a bunch of crap at a restaurant because you're too lazy to cook or having fun that weekend. If that steak dinner comes at the expense of sitting home on your rear end Saturday night when you could be having fun with friends, then you'll stop having so many steak dinners. - Pay your bills first, save second, and do everything else third. People can live without savings and they shouldn't. People can live without going out to eat, but they don't. That being said, you want to pay for the roof over your head first and save second, so in the case you do need to sacrifice, you're sacrificing bullshit like DVDs instead of savings. - Treat your non-monthly expenses like monthly expenses. If you need to pay $1200 a year for car insurance, that's $100 a month. Just because you don't pay the bill every month doesn't mean it isn't there. I just recently started transferring how much I should be paying monthly on car insurance (I pay every 6 months) into savings. - Try to live under your budget. Just because you have $200 budgeted for personal entertainment doesn't mean you need to spend that much. If on July 29th you have a $200 budget but only spent $150, that doesn't mean you run to Best Buy to spend $50. Pat yourself on the back for keeping yourself in control. Buy what you really want/need and that's it. - You should have a catch-all budget that gets minor overages in other categories if they happen, unexpected expenses (my dog got sick or had some fleas so I needed flea control, etc), and so forth. You're abusing this tremendously. - Visualize your expenses. Mint.com does this beautifully. Money matters so much more when it isn't just numbers on a pad. Zombie Dictator fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 14:22
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zaurg posted:It goes on and on and I'm doing this so I can see and hear from you guys the ridculousness of it before I sit down and talk with the wife there is no part of my brain that could figure out why...with child on the way and questions of where your money is going that you could possibly need anything in the above categories. --you do not need a newspaper. you have internet access. --your girlfriend does not need to buy lingerie from victoria secret. tell her to start going to target. --beauticontrol? wtf is this. Your girlfriend does not need expensive makeup. tell her to start going to target. --unless the cpr class was needed for work this was a waste of money. --legacy.com? why would you need to know about obituaries? --postal sweets? you dont need candy --juice plus? Is this a drink? you're blowing $94 a month on some kind of beverage that doesn't get you drunk? congratulations you just found $418 Had you tried to write all this out before you posted the message? If you're not saving money on a month to month basis then yes, you need to cut all frivolous expenses. Apparently you're young and so I know this may be difficult to understand, but just because you want something doesn't actually mean that you should try to get it. Also, just because you see someone your own age with something...this also means that you don't actually have to have it. In addition, if you see something advertised on tv that you want, this too doesn't mean that you should actually get it. I think that you have a problem. Ive seen this behavior in some people, but basically when you have any extra money, it sets off a psychological urge to buy things that you want even when its totally stupid. Impulse-spending or something. For the same reason that people who are depressed tend to gain weight. Eating sugar is their high. in your case, its the act of spending money. There are two options here. 1) you can try to fight your urges (and those of your wife who probably has the same issue) and save as much $$ as possible. or 2) find a way to greatly increase your income so that you're incapable of destroying yourself financially. The good news is that you appear to be seeing the problem before its too late. At least you have a boatload of bad spending habits you could potentially cut out. Also, I would pick 1 credit card that has the best rate and destroy the others. If you cant bring yourself to destroy it (like if you need it for some reason) take a plastic baggie, fill it with water, put your credit card in it and freeze it in the freezer. This tactic will prevent you from using it on a whim. good luck.
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Jul 24, 2009 19:52
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You know, if your wife is on prenatal vitamins and drinking that juice, she could be killing her or the baby's liver. Prenatal vitamins are already pretty potent. If she's not on them, she probably should be. Set up your bank account to automatically transfer 10% of your income to a savings account that you don't have immediate access to every payday. That money is there if you need it, but it takes a couple of days. Then put a $1000 buffer in your regular account and pretend it isn't there. That's ONLY for immediate dire disasters. Then put all your extra into your debt. Between the baby and the student loans, you're about to experience a real eye-opener. Stop fiddling around with how much you ARE spending every month. It's obviously not doing any good. Start working on how much you should be spending, and stick to it. Then get a full-time job. I'm assuming you're still a student since you haven't had to start paying the loans back? How much longer do you have to go? I don't think I could spend $850 a month on food. Living poor, you should be able to get by quite fine on $200 for two, so you really ought to be able to get the bill down to at least $350. The guy who said eating out is entertainment is right. It's something you do once in a while. If you're only working part time, there's no reason you can't be the one to learn to cook. Go check out the slow cooker thread. That stuff is an easy place to start. Make a deal with the wife: quit the MLM stuff and eating out all the time, and you can get a new used car after you've saved up a decent down payment. Don't go over 8 or 9 thousand. That's plenty. You really can't afford that much, but with a new baby, it might not be that bad an idea if you go for something safe. A 93 Saturn is pretty old. Don't replace the Civic, if that's what she's got in mind. Don't buy zero down, and don't lease. Don't carry credit cards, and if you're still having spending problems in a couple of months, don't carry a debit card, either.
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Jul 24, 2009 20:32
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Froshaka posted:stop being retarded with money - newspaper - you're right - victoria secret - she was buying new clothes because she grew out of old clothes since she's 8 months pregnant. I agree Target would probably be cheaper. - cpr class - we thought it would be a good idea to learn cpr (infant/child/adult) before having a kid. Now that I think about it would could have learned the same thing for free online. - legacy.com, juiceplus, and beauticontrol I already answered above. Wastes of money. Yes this is the type of crap we need to stop. Not sure if we're young as you were thinking... I'm 31, she's 32. You would think we would have all the latest and greatest new toys with this kind of spending, but really we don't. Some stuff I'd love to upgrade but have said for years we can't afford it: cheap point&shoot camera 6 year old 36" Tube TV 3-year old self-built cheapo computer Old IBM laptop purchased used years ago 1993 Saturn 2001 Civic (paid off years ago) Hand-me-down queen size mattress We just buy a lot of little poo poo (daily) which adds up quickly. I like your credit card idea... we basically put them all away in a drawer a while ago but they crept back out again when we "needed" things. We have brought down the CC debt from 23k to 14.9k so we have been working at it but it's going too slowly. I like your idea. I think a lot of this has to do with my wife and I not being on the same page and not having the same goals (or lack of goals) for way too long. Going to use a lot of this thread's info when we sit down and talk this weekend.
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Jul 24, 2009 20:40
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zaurg posted:- newspaper - you're right Don't itemize everything you've spent. The past is the past. Come up with a budget and live inside it. If you want to piss away your $300 group entertainment budget on a $150 a plate dinner with your girlfriend, by all means. Just be aware that you aren't doing anything else that month. quote:You would think we would have all the latest and greatest new toys with this kind of spending, but really we don't. Some stuff I'd love to upgrade but have said for years we can't afford it: Don't do this either. My sister used to do it. I call it "the Maury Effect". She'd say "well, at least I graduated high school, didn't get pregnant and didn't smoke crack like other people". Congratulations. When you set the bar on the ground it is very easy to achieve success. Same thing here, but I'll call it "The Ramsey Effect". Just because you didn't piss away money on a BMW like your neighbor doesn't mean you aren't pissing away entirely too much money. quote:I like your credit card idea... we basically put them all away in a drawer a while ago but they crept back out again when we "needed" things. We have brought down the CC debt from 23k to 14.9k so we have been working at it but it's going too slowly. I like your idea. I think the idea of shredding/freezing cards is cute, but all it does is replace a mental problem with a physical one. The problem is your desire to piss away money, not the method you use to piss away money. You'd still be in a lovely situation if you used every penny you had in your account using your debit card instead. The only good thing would be that you couldn't spend more than you actually have.
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Jul 24, 2009 20:51
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Expense and income categories from 2008. Last item I'm posting regarding the past. Only saved 3.9% into retirement and only 1.9% in cash savings! How we spent almost 6k on "Entertainment" last year and I didn't get a new LCD TV blows my mind. There are other people out there this retarded with their money right? I want to hear someone who was close to this madness and changed their ways 2008 Category Total Avg Housing $12,576 $1,048 Auto $3,271 $273 Utilities $4,047 $337 Insurance $2,790 $233 Education $5,671 $473 Grocery $6,690 $558 Restaurant $3,693 $308 Entertainment $5,982 $498 Misc $4,942 $412 Gifts $4,208 $351 Medical $2,035 $170 Vacation $1,913 $159 CCInterest $2,054 $171 Total Expenses $59,953 $4,996 Total Income $63,693 $5,308 Balance $3,740 Total Investments $2,520 $210 Cash left $1,220 Wife gets 100% of the blame for the stupid Gifts category. She has improved with that but still needs work. btw, this is a pretty cool Excel formula if you have multiple worksheets: =SUMPRODUCT(SUMIF(INDIRECT("'08"&ROW(INDIRECT("1:12"))&"'!M2:M50"),A3,INDIRECT("'08"&ROW(INDIRECT("1:12"))&"'!N2:N50")))
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Jul 24, 2009 21:05
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zaurg posted:I want to hear someone who was close to this madness and changed their ways Hi, my name's CornHolio, pleased to meet you!
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Jul 24, 2009 21:09
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zaurg posted:
I wish you were my friend/family. You are quite generous.
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Jul 24, 2009 21:21
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Don Wrigley posted:I wish you were my friend/family. You are quite generous. I really hope some of that was to charity and not iPods for spoiled brats.
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Jul 24, 2009 21:24
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Zombie Dictator posted:I really hope some of that was to charity and not iPods for spoiled brats. None of that was to charity. I didn't even make a charity category because it would've only been about $100. 75% of it was to spoiled brats. Wife *has* to give a gift to literally everyone. Her friends. Her friend's kids. Her cousin's boyfriend. Everyone who shows up to the 3 or more family Christmas parties we go to and then some. I don't mind giving a gift but if it's to a kid who already has 2 rooms full of toys, you don't need to give 2-3 gifts that are $20 each. This Christmas the plan is to give away poo poo we already have in the house or nothing at all. "Merry Christmas" will be my gift to people, I'm poor and you don't want this stupid little thing that you'll just shove in a closet anyway.
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Jul 24, 2009 21:30
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zaurg posted:- victoria secret - she was buying new clothes because she grew out of old clothes since she's 8 months pregnant. I agree Target would probably be cheaper. I can't wrap my head around someone spending money for a Victoria's Secret wardrobe that will be worthless in roughly a month. However, with a newborn on the way, CPR classes was in no way a waste of money. Take it from someone with 2 children under 2 years old(6 month old & 18 month old), kids are freakin EXPENSIVE. Get your budgeting in check while you still can. The first 3-6 months you'll be living on about 4 hours sleep a night, the last thing you need to be stressing about is money when you're already feel like a zombie every day.
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Jul 24, 2009 21:32
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CornHolio posted:Hi, my name's CornHolio, pleased to meet you! I never really got why you received so much flak for a bad but not horrible budget (although your attitude contributed greatly). This is a horrible budget due to so many expenses that can easily be reduced and they still live like a low income family who won a small lottery. The op last year spend more on groceries and lovely restaurants then a lot of people pay rent. Heck I usually eat lunches for $10-15 and I can't figure out how you spent over $10K on food + groceries. How full is your trash? Do you throw a lot of food away? Grocery $6,690 $558 Restaurant $3,693 $308 Entertainment $5,982 $498 Misc $4,942 $412 Gifts $4,208 $351 Vacation $1,913 $159 ------------- Total $27,428 That's 43% of your total income that can easily be reduced. Heck you could save up, pay off the the credit cards, and have a better and more affordable lifestyle than you do now. edit: $75 for cable? Do you really need all those channels since you already have internet for $40 and pay so much for "entertainment"? I hope it's for hookers and cocaine otherwise, why do you need to spend $6,000 a year on entertainment? quote:6/6/09 Grocery publix $54.99 What is this? Do you still have these receipts? Why did you spend $289 on groceries in the period of a week? quote:6/1/09 Restaurant duffys $18.37 Talk about a sugar high... what is wrong with water? Jolly Green Giant fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Jul 24, 2009 |
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Jul 24, 2009 21:59
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Jolly Green Giant posted:I never really got why you received so much flak for a bad but not horrible budget (although your attitude contributed greatly). This is a horrible budget due to so many expenses that can easily be reduced and they still live like a low income family who won a small lottery. I think if anything I was too laid back. I made some little changes and thought 'eh, good enough for now.' And it really, really wasn't.
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Jul 24, 2009 22:09
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