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Nam Taf posted:You Are Broke You Can Not Have Nice Things (TM). Consider writing this in dry erase on your mirror and saying it aloud every morning until the lesson sticks or your earnings improve.
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Nov 20, 2011 19:33
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The hydroponics are cool but not necessary. I have a wide selection of chillies growing on my window ledge in pots of soil that cost like a buck each. Just remember to feed them every month or so and you can grow them in reasonably small pots. I even use the seeds out of dried/fresh chillies I have bought before so I don't have to pay for seeds. If you do it on the cheap; homegrown veg and stuff should be significantly cheaper and tastier than from the supermarket. You do have to wait for it though.
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Nov 21, 2011 17:51
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I can't believe you're complaining about frozen vegetables and an omelette flipped with a wooden spoon and how it -looks- in the same breath that you're complaining about hundreds in car care. Take care of your car. Get a new spatula (a cheap one. >$3). Get some coffee filters, or try drinking tea in the morning instead. gently caress the hydroponic stuff. I agree with the other folks. The last thing you need is more water stuff when you're already drowning.
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Nov 25, 2011 22:02
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Yeah, it sounds like you're trying to save on the small stuff (Spatulas, coffee filter, wtf?) while spending on bigger items... Probably getting into the same fallacy I used to develop, where big purchases are OK because they're one-time things, while the smaller stuff is more commonly repeated so must be avoided. You can probably fit the spatula and filter in the grocery line or something like that. And you need an emergency fund to cover poo poo like inevitable car repair (Yeah, I know everyone's harping on the emergency fund. But hey, it's really useful.)
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Nov 25, 2011 22:51
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It was mostly that I was having an amazingly bad week, I got some coffee filters and a spatula (1.25) since I was getting tired of having scrambled eggs. My pay is sorted out for the 31st. 1950 and next month I should get some more field pay as well. And I'm going to the field on Monday again so that will help too. The quitting smoking is turning out to be difficult and I think I'm going to overdraft about 35 bucks it the tax cheque I wrote gets cashed before the 31st. Good thing I didn't cancel overdraft protection yet. I'll post an update at the end of next week. Christmas is going to gently caress me up, though I'm hoping to spend only 40 bucks.
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Nov 25, 2011 23:15
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tuyop posted:Christmas is going to gently caress me up, though I'm hoping to spend only 40 bucks. ...becasue someone's got a gun in your mouth and is forcing you to spend excessive amounts of unbudgeted money? You still don't get it.
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Nov 25, 2011 23:39
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tuyop posted:It was mostly that I was having an amazingly bad week, I got some coffee filters and a spatula (1.25) since I was getting tired of having scrambled eggs. Go visit the DIY forum in Creative Convention and MAKE your giftees some stuff. You'll probably get out under $40. I'm not going to bitch at you about spending $40 on christmas stuff. But you're overdrafting that amount this month. You are overdrafting, Tuyop. Because your bank does not have any actual money in it. The only financial support you have is your plastic. If they fail you, you will starve and you will not be able to touch your cigarettes. Haha, I have overdraft protection is not how you look at an overdraft. This is getting worse instead of better. Go back and read your OP. Read through your own thread man. You're sinking fast. I'd encourage you to go on a run when you're stressed out instead of buying poo poo, but I don't think you can do that in your current state, right? Can you make it to a library? Go there and rent books. Read until your eyes water. Anything to get you to stop frivilous buying.
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Nov 26, 2011 00:04
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Go visit the DIY forum in Creative Convention and MAKE your giftees some stuff. You'll probably get out under $40. I'm not going to bitch at you about spending $40 on christmas stuff. But you're overdrafting that amount this month. That's how I get away with only spending forty bucks. I usually give people prints of photos and cheap frames. Yeah I'm overdrafting. I guess that's what happens when I get double charged for food and rent and have a significant car repair in the same month with no emergency fund. I know what I have to do to keep it from happening again and I'll do that. How should I divide up the 1950 for pay in terms of mastercard and emergency fund?
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Nov 26, 2011 15:06
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How much is your mastercard debt because a part of me says "all of it"
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Nov 26, 2011 17:25
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tuyop posted:That's how I get away with only spending forty bucks. I usually give people prints of photos and cheap frames.
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Nov 26, 2011 17:50
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tuyop posted:I guess that's what happens when I get double charged for food and rent and have a significant car repair in the same month with no emergency fund. I know what I have to do to keep it from happening again and I'll do that. I didn't see you mention this in your previous posts. What happened here? Just the military took out too much or what? How will you make sure it doesn't happen again? Will you be reimbursed or not have to pay for rent next month?
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Nov 26, 2011 18:00
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tuyop posted:Yeah I'm overdrafting. I guess that's what happens when I get double charged for food and rent and have a significant car repair in the same month with no emergency fund. I know what I have to do to keep it from happening again and I'll do that. The problem is, that isn't that significant a car repair, man. It's more along the lines of maintenance than say, your radiator blowing on you. I worry that you're still shrugging at it and going "oh well, can't change it!". Though that you know what you have to do to keep it from happening again is uplifting.  How did you get charged double for food? That one confuses me. And I do agree that gift giving is not mandatory. If it's between you eating that $40 or charging $40 in groceries so you can give presents, I hope you'll eat it.
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Nov 26, 2011 23:31
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Shipon posted:People will understand if you can't buy them a gift for Christmas. Gift-giving is not mandatory. This. If you absolutely, positively feel the need to give gifts, write some personal letters to everyone you'd normally give a gift to and express how happy you are to have them in your life. Should cost you a max of $5 in postage and supplies.
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Nov 27, 2011 09:42
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Shooting Blanks posted:This. If you absolutely, positively feel the need to give gifts, write some personal letters to everyone you'd normally give a gift to and express how happy you are to have them in your life. Should cost you a max of $5 in postage and supplies. I've been asking for hand-written letters from friends and family for years. A letter is a precious, memorable gift. Not many things give as much joy two decades later as they did the first day they were received. Any fool can give a gift. It takes real balls and thought to write a personal letter. Nether Postlude fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Nov 27, 2011 |
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Nov 27, 2011 16:54
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Nether Postlude posted:I've been asking for hand-written letters from friends and family for years. A letter is a precious, memorable gift. Not many things give as much joy two decades later as they did the first day they were received. This is so true. When I was in grade school, we had some sort of assignment that actually required our parents to write us a thoughtful letter. I don't remember exactly what it said or where the letter is now, but just the though of the letter is very touching. My sister also hand-wrote me a letter when I was struggling in high school. It's a wonderful idea.
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Nov 28, 2011 01:01
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:The problem is, that isn't that significant a car repair, man. It's more along the lines of maintenance than say, your radiator blowing on you. Well, the pay screwup was that I was paying for quarters when I wasn't supposed to. So that was 100 less a pay that I get back next week. Paying double for food is because I got charged for rations for this month, so I essentially paid for a month's worth of food on base. Then I was taken off rations so I couldn't actually eat there, so I bought my own groceries. I'm sure I'll get that money back too, prorated for a couple of weeks, but we'll see. There is no way to really prevent this kind of thing, because it's just some clerk somewhere forgetting to file a piece of paperwork properly and I don't find out until the value in my paycheque is wrong, then it takes months to fix. It's an emergency fund/living well within my means kind of thing for sure. The car repairs were mostly upsetting because I was just having a really bad week, and I've been having a really bad.. year too I guess so it just kind of really sucked. I also didn't budget properly for maintenance. I've never had to have my brakes replaced on a car even though I've owned five now. That gives you an idea of how crappy my old cars were I guess. Instead of 45 a month for just oil changes as "maintenance", I should be budgeting 70 for oil changes and the occasional wheel balancing/brake job/new wipers or whatever. My winter tires are going to have to be replaced next season as well, so next October I'm going to need 600 bucks, just to be safe. So now I'm going to start putting away 125 a month to pay for that (and routine maintenance) too. That's how I'm going to deal with this in the future. It's a 35-dollar-overdraft lesson. And that's not the only money that I have in the world. I've got 150 in my savings account in case things get really bad (lol) and 450 in my TFSA as a sort of backup emergency fund and long term savings thing. I imagine the TFSA will turn into a mutual fund next year as a sort of retirement or condo savings account. In a few years, when I'm out of debt, I have to start an RRSP as well unless you guys think it would be beneficial to start one now with some kind of pittance just to have SOMETHING there. From a quick calculator check it looks like just 25 a pay would turn into 800 000 in a high risk RRSP if I start now. Something to think about. I'll start writing letters, that's a great idea. I'm still going to give pictures though, my mom wants some flower macro shots for the walls of some room. I don't know why you'd think I was stress shopping. The biggest ticket things I've bought this month were a costco membership and a pair of overboots because the buckle on mine broke, and I got those 50 dollars off. The problem was just that for the past two months I've made 800 less than I'm used to and things didn't go according to plan at all.
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Nov 28, 2011 03:24
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How much did the overboots cost (new boots y'all) and how much would it have cost to replace the buckle?
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Nov 28, 2011 04:40
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tuyop posted:because I was just having a really bad week, and I've been having a really bad.. year too I guess so it just kind of really sucked. I sympathize but at the same time, you can't continue to beat yourself up. What happened has happened and now you have to move forward after learning from the poo poo that went down. We're rooting for you, but you will get a beating from this forum and from life as a result of your decisions in the past.
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Nov 28, 2011 05:32
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tuyop posted:That's how I'm going to deal with this in the future. It's a 35-dollar-overdraft lesson. Why didn't you move the money from your savings account to avoid the overdraft? 
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Nov 28, 2011 05:38
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gently caress around in UFile (They don't charge until/if you send in your declaration) to see if it would be profitable for you to stick some money in an RSRP. It can make an appreciable difference on your tax return. I know one year I got like 2000$ back extra just by moving five grands from an unregistered CD to an RSRP saving account or something like that.
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Nov 28, 2011 05:49
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mastershakeman posted:How much did the overboots cost (new boots y'all) and how much would it have cost to replace the buckle? 75. The buckle couldn't be replaced because it tore the waterproof material. I just moved the money over. So no more OD!
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Nov 28, 2011 11:33
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Foma posted:Why didn't you move the money from your savings account to avoid the overdraft? I suspect it's one of those accounts that you have to have x amount in the account so it stays open. But I'm glad for that other post, tuyop. Hopefully your tires last through this season no problem.
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Nov 28, 2011 21:18
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You appear to be missing the best thing about this. Once the debt is gone, in 2-4 years, the following will be true. 1) You wont have any debt. 2) All that money you were spending on debt is now your money. 3) You are used to living cheap. 4) You can literally save a massive amount every month and live like a (comparative) millionaire. Look at how much your dream vacation will cost you. Look at how much you spend on debt now, including car payments etc. Assume you stash half that away to build up a nest egg over time. How many months between dream vacations? How about just cool vacations? Once you're debt free, there is no reason at all why you can't afford to take a cool vacation every drat holiday you have and still save like a monster and live a nice life. You can replace vacation for whatever the hell you actually really want to do with your life. You'll be 25 or so by the time you're free, that's still young as gently caress. If that doesn't motivate you nothing will. With that wage, being single(ish), you can literally live like a king, you just have a couple of careful years then the world is your oyster and you can feel good about it, knowing your financially secure at the same time. Just look at your debt spend, imagine what you could do with that money instead of debt spending? Look back two years? Not long ago was it? 25 is closer than you think. [edit] As for practical advice, lock those cards down, do not spend any electronic money at all, day one of pay period or budget period withdraw budgeted amounts for spending thats not a direct debit (like rent or bills might be), jar\ envelope it and lock that card away, you do not touch that card. You run out of money? Tough poo poo, go beg or something (not literally, well maybe not who know, but you need to find a way to make do). It works if you stick with it, you won't overspend because you cannot overspend, millions before you and millions after you will do the same thing. You're in the armed forces...surely you know how to just deal with it (whatever problem it is) and find a way to get on with things? Cast_No_Shadow fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Nov 29, 2011 |
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Nov 29, 2011 00:29
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:You appear to be missing the best thing about this. This is worth quoting. It was realising this that made me decide to get to grips with my debt and start a more aggressive repayment plan. Now I just have a few more months to go and I'll be debt-free and have loads of spare cash to do whatever the hell I want with, while still putting a good amount into savings each month. Just remember, once you get rid of your debt, you should theoretically never have to worry about this kind of thing again.
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Nov 29, 2011 10:27
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:Look how nice your life will be in three years. Yeah it's a very morale boosting thought, the execution is the hard part. Once the payments all go through and everything updates I'll make a post for the month. We're looking at $800 net income dumped pretty much completely onto the Mastercard. I'm hoping that I pay that off by the end of December or mid-January and then I'm going to start the emergency fund in earnest, then the visa once I get 2-3000 in the e-fund I guess.
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Dec 1, 2011 01:08
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Have you been late on your payments yet and have you also tried talking to mastercard and visa to lower your interest rates (it's like what, 20%?). Every little bit helps!
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Dec 1, 2011 01:16
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quaint bucket posted:Have you been late on your payments yet and have you also tried talking to mastercard and visa to lower your interest rates (it's like what, 20%?). Every little bit helps! No and yes. They won't lower my interest rate for some obscure reason. It's ok, my payments are like 32 dollars on that card at this point and I pour over 600/month into it, so
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Dec 1, 2011 01:29
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Just read your thread, sorry to hear about your back. How's the GF doing with her training? Let's say hypothetically that you get a lump sum payment for your back injury. Let's say $30k discussed before for other injuries. What would you do with it? This is where I would start: - $5k for emergencies, never to be touched for a trip to XYZ or for the freshest vegetables money can buy ($25k left) - Pay off your dell and mastercard ($24k left?) - Pay a enough of your car off to not be upside-down and sell it, though don't give it away if you can still "afford it" (~$16k left?) - Buy a $4-5k beater ($10-12k left) and continue your carpooling and whatnot to limit wear & tear on your now cheaper car. This alone would save you $500+/mo - Pay for the education you want to pursue without their 3% loan. Apparently you get this money back at some point, so you'd be temporarily out of the $10-13k or whatever it costs. - Keep living cheap as poo poo, only have your visa and student loans to worry about. - Finish your education and get re-imbursed, if things are going well take a small amount and go on a reasonable vacation.
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Dec 2, 2011 20:12
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dreesemonkey posted:Just read your thread, sorry to hear about your back. How's the GF doing with her training? That sounds like a plan. I was thinking of just annihilating my high interest debt (visa-12.5k, laptop if applicable, mastercard if applicable, emergency fund-3k, and most of my student loan-14k , leaving me with my car loan (1.9%) and a tiny amount in my student loan (4.5%)) It seemed like the most mathematically correct way to do it, and I could put the same amount onto my student loan every month and then car loan to get rid of it in 18 months. The thing to consider is that these things sometimes take nearly three years to pay out, so it's not an immediate concern at all, and to plan for it is kind of premature since chances are I won't get a cent. Oh, and toeshoes is killing basic training. She's like 5'2" and 115 pounds and she's harder than like 55 other recruits. She does look ridiculous in the uniform though. 
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Dec 2, 2011 20:22
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tuyop posted:The thing to consider is that these things sometimes take nearly three years to pay out, so it's not an immediate concern at all, and to plan for it is kind of premature since chances are I won't get a cent. Yea that's pretty much a given. On the up side, if you keep plugging away at your debt you'll be used to living cheap and hopefully making good progress, if/when that money would come in you could very likely eliminate all your debt and have a bunch left over. By that point we'd hope you'd be responsible enough to be able to handle a big sum of money. But again, you can't count on that money either. It's all about staying motivated and consistently making the right decisions. If nothing else, these hard times (and the constant barrage of people berating you on here) show you exactly why us boring spend-thrifts are always talking about emergency funds and minimizing your risk (debt). Important life lessons ITT. Also, to agree with another poster Re: underwear chat, I too wear the champion C9 moisture wicking boxer briefs, I've never worn the under armor ones but my friend has and he's converted over to the champion stuff as well since it's $9/pair vs. $25-$30. Mesh junk bag, too! I couldn't be happier with them.
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Dec 2, 2011 20:55
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November update Categories (Spent/budgeted) Auto - 1026 375/375 payment 258/300 gas* 202/202 insurance 173/50 Maintenance 16.25 on misc (public transport, parking) * Including toeshoes' half 503/250 groceries (costco membership? Wtf) 397 entertainment/travel. This was budgeted for. Debt Interest: payment (balance) Mastercard 29.9%: 820.11 (1041) Visa 14.5%: 182.77 (12149) Laptop 21%: 36 (~412) Car 1.9%: 375 (~24425) Student loan 4.5%: 170 (16158) Total debt serviced: 1583.88 Total debt remaining: 54185 Song of the Month about being broke and feeling sorry for myself. On a personal note I'm feeling a little better. I'm now the administrative officer for our training platoon. I've also been developing materials for the training plan happening in the New Year. With any luck I should be writing tactical planning documents that will serve as the solutions for assignments from January to May. I'm also trying very hard to be assigned to teach a class on combat estimates (officer decision tools), comms, and maybe some other stuff that I can prove that I'm good at. This is actually my favorite part of my job, I taught a combat estimate class for two months last fall and 100% of my "students" passed the course - which has a 20-30% pass rate. I think I may be on to something! I'm still trapped with no idea when I may be reassigned to another trade, but Christmas vacation is coming soon so I'm sure I'll hear something in January. If I could be sure that my car payment wouldn't come out until the 15th, I would be able to dump another 600 on the mastercard and bring it down to 400 dollars, but either way it's just a matter of time and the card should be gone within two months. Then the laptop will come out of one pay, then I get to start plugging away at the monster that is my Visa! Edit: Updated the OP with a Table of Contents. tuyop fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Dec 5, 2011 |
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Dec 3, 2011 22:31
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While I don't have any advice to add, as you are already getting good advice, I like the continuing trend of how you are handling your debt. Once you zero the balance on the laptop and the mastercard you will be in an improved position. I found eliminating high interest rate debt to be satisfying as it makes more money available for repayments. Though in saying that getting the visa debt under control is still very important. Congratulations on your work as well.
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Dec 5, 2011 01:05
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Great work all around. Just keep plugging and before you know it you'll be out of debt. I hope everything works out well for you career wise!
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Dec 5, 2011 08:18
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Holy poo poo, at the end of November two people sent me Etsy messages about my photos asking for larger prints! I just renewed the listings and replied to the people. I might actually sell some photos! How exciting. 
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Dec 10, 2011 20:54
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Hey Tuyop, I know this is a wild idea but I also live IN CANADA and my bank approached me about moving half my credit card limit onto a line of credit at a way lower interest rate without me even asking so I guess what I'm saying is try talking to your bank.
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Dec 11, 2011 12:27
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deviating septum posted:Hey Tuyop, I know this is a wild idea but I also live IN CANADA and my bank approached me about moving half my credit card limit onto a line of credit at a way lower interest rate without me even asking so I guess what I'm saying is try talking to your bank. In May I did exactly that, the bank said no. When I pay off the MasterCard, maybe that'll change my situation enough to justify that kind of transfer. I have a meeting with a bank guy in January so I'll talk to him about it then.
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Dec 11, 2011 16:47
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tuyop posted:In May I did exactly that, the bank said no. When I pay off the MasterCard, maybe that'll change my situation enough to justify that kind of transfer. I have a meeting with a bank guy in January so I'll talk to him about it then. I thought this would be the situation. If you can demonstrate your ability to repay debt finance will eventually become an option available to you. Even what you have done in this thread shows a considered approach and your graphs describe your continually improving situation. Repaying and cancelling the mastercard may also help as it reduces your maximum debt limit.
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Dec 15, 2011 01:45
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How has Christmas shopping gone? Hope you didn't break the bank or anything.
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Dec 21, 2011 02:52
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BULLETKISS posted:How has Christmas shopping gone? Hope you didn't break the bank or anything. He doesn't buy Christmas gifts, he makes them.
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Dec 21, 2011 05:20
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Actually I did buy a few things. I've spent about 100 bucks and just have to pay for some printing now and I'm done. It's a good thing all that field pay and stuff came through this month.
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Dec 21, 2011 20:46
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