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tuyop posted:And I can add two more items to the budget. My internet is $10 a month. I wanted to increase the speed but I can't because this place loving sucks, so I'm stuck with it. My power is about $20 a month and will probably go up as it gets colder. And the xbox live membership had better be coming out the the entertainment budget you already have, because as moana said, you can't just go "oops forgot to save for this, guess I'll just add $60 to the budget this month." If you can't manage that just by cutting this month's entertainment expenses, then you can wait another month or three to have xbox live back.
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# ¿ Aug 15, 2011 23:10 |
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# ¿ Mar 19, 2024 12:55 |
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tuyop posted:Does anyone actually give a gently caress if I smoke or not and why? Because I'll respond to all of this if it's a big issue other than for the fact that I spend some of my cash on it regularly. Some people drink and eat poo poo all the time. I rarely drink and smoke a little bit and diet and exercise very strictly. I think I'll be ok if I quit in the near term. And if you really need a stimulant to stay awake: It's called caffeine. Lots of things have it. I don't know entirely how the military works, but surely it's not that hard to grab a cup of coffee/red bull/whatever once in a while?
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2011 03:36 |
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tuyop posted:Speaking of fitness and stuff, how do you guys feel about sort of borrowing against my September grocery budget?
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# ¿ Aug 24, 2011 19:53 |
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quote:1. I'll spend my goddamn money however I goddamn want. Think of "smoking" as "prostitutes", "marijuana", "gambling", whatever makes you less irrationally upset. I'm an adult, I like smoking, it is a small vice that has little impact on my health over the short term and large social and psychological benefits. It also fits into my budget without a problem. And it does in fact repel mosquitoes. Try it sometime. tuyop posted:2. I would like to see the evidence that frozen/canned/dried vegetables are as good as fresh, local, organic vegetables in areas other than cost. Because even cooking most vegetables dramatically reduces their nutritional value. quote:3. I'm buying this underwear to replace underwear that I bought more than three years ago. I set up savings to pay for intermittent clothing expenditures. That account now has 200 earmarked for that, among other things. I am going to spend around 100 of it depending on how good of a deal I can find. I will build it back up this month. Since I have no other clothes to buy for the next 8 months, and the only other thing coming out of that account is an oil change in 3000 kilometers, I'm going to buy the underwear that I want and need. quote:4. My socks are 20-35 a pair, they last forever and I have three pairs still on the go from January. Two of the pairs are showing a bit of wear and will probably need to be replaced by February 2012. I'll do that the same way I'm doing the underwear. quote:8. 26 a month. I spent 13 in August because of the timing of my field time (field is a haircut free zone). I'm probably getting another haircut next Wednesday. It's 26 dollars. I spend more on hummus and broccoli.
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# ¿ Sep 1, 2011 23:27 |
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Cicero posted:Run a mile < 6 minutes while smoking. Did I miss any of his favorite things there?
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# ¿ Sep 14, 2011 21:39 |
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tuyop posted:Do you like having feces in your pants or something? Do women and/or men ever perform oral sex on you? I mean seriously, do you honestly think that most people can't get themselves clean without using wet wipes? That's just as all hell. (doubly so coming from the guy who doesn't wear underwear 90% of the time, and who rewears the same pairs of jeans that have been in direct contact with his rear end & junk. Even if you wipe like a mentally competent adult, that stuff's still gonna get nasty after a day or two.)
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# ¿ Sep 16, 2011 23:42 |
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tuyop posted:In the vein of canned and frozen food I'm about to eat a bowl of canned chili. It looks like cat food. Will post trip report. Giant Isopod posted:Something I didn't see brought up re: emergency fund.
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# ¿ Sep 22, 2011 00:00 |
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:I can't even fathom paying $2100 for a vacation. I grew up not getting vacations even remotely like the ones Tuyop got himself into debt taking. When it was time for a family vacation, we'd take a day or two and go to some place instate, or head an hour and a half south to go to Chicago. Even now that I'm a bit older, the biggest vacation I've ever taken was a two week roadtrip through the western US. Which was very cool, but it's also something hard to arrange the time and money for, and I'm thankful that I got the chance to do that once. Most people don't get to jetset around the world checking out exotic cities for their vacations, and are grateful enough to get a couple days off to go to a different city - something that's along the lines of what Tuyop's vacations are like now. Tuyop, read what I posted and what KarmaCandy's been posting. Your idea of what a "vacation" is isn't in line with what most people consider to be a typical vacation. The sooner you realize this, the better off you'll be.
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# ¿ Feb 29, 2012 23:32 |
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tuyop posted:I guess the problem is that there's really no point in applying for other jobs. I want something that will enable me to pay off my debt very quickly and save up enough for me to do a BEd. Working two years in the arctic would do that and then some. quote:You can go work for SOC-SMG or one of the other tier III security companies doing static security for like $60k overseas. It will suck, but it will get you out of your debt because you have zero expenses while deployed. Sometimes you have to make the hard choice and just stick it out (I would not have gotten out if I were you). When I got out of the military, I had no debt and a steady job lined up. That's what you need to do as well.
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# ¿ May 2, 2012 12:34 |
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Just think, if you remain perfectly still, you'll need less food(so you'll spend less on groceries), go on no vacations/other trips(so less money spent on that), and will stop breaking things(even more savings!). Sounds like a solid plan to me.
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2012 03:39 |
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FrozenVent posted:I hope to god you got insurance info and a police report. Seriously Tuyop, situations like this are exactly what your insurance company is there for. Using them isn't being a dick. If the other guy's rates go up or whatever it is you're worried about, it's his own damned fault for backing into a parked car.
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# ¿ Aug 21, 2012 19:25 |
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Tuyop, have you considered remaining completely stationary? It's become clear to me that the universe simply does not intend for you to transport yourself anywhere.
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# ¿ Sep 17, 2012 14:16 |
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-Troika- posted:Why isn't this thread in E/N or some poo poo? This is literally the only thread in BFC that is about one guy.
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# ¿ Sep 19, 2012 09:06 |
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canyoneer posted:Be super careful of what you take home. If you get bedbugs, you will want to blow your brains out. Also seconding the "get stuff for free" approach. A big giant tv is a pain to move, but you don't really need to be dropping several hundred bucks on a nice flatscreen. You could also get a smaller(non-flat screen) TV that's easier to move around. Neither of these is a nice as a flat-screen, but you can't afford nice right now. (I'd advise cutting cable entirely since you clearly already have internet and can watch a lot of TV on it, but if you two insist on having cable, you can at least save on the TV.) There are other pieces of furniture you can get free as well, if you're patient enough & willing to inspect everything to make sure there's nothing hiding in it. Just looking at my area's craigslist now, I could get 6 free bookshelves, 2 entire beds complete with boxspring and frame(although I'd be leery of these because of the aforementioned bedbugs), 5 couches, 3 entertainment centers, several dressers, 2 recliners, several tables, 2 desks, a nightstand, a chair...I could go on and on.
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# ¿ Oct 1, 2012 05:39 |
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tuyop posted:So it's cold as gently caress here. Our apartment is already dropping to 16C before the central heating kicks in.
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# ¿ Oct 8, 2012 15:35 |
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tuyop posted:Yeah, exactly! With BASIL Leperflesh posted:At least think about it (without spending anything) for at least a week or two. You seem like you're in a manic cycle and that's when you tend to make bad decisions. The basil-growing supplies will still be available in a couple weeks, but you'll have had a chance to get some perspective and maybe also not be on one of your "WHEE lets do a THING right NOW" binges. All of this because you happened to help a friend set up his own aquaponics, which he totally swears is going to bring in "$515/m2 per year"(of course, you don't know that he'll get that much money because you're only relying on his own word for it), and then watched a youtube video that supported what you'd already decided you wanted to do. Tuyop, if you want to stop digging yourself deeper into the money hole, you and Toeshoes have to agree to take a step back and wait at least a week(preferably more) before spending more than, say, $50 on something, or jumping into any harebrained schemes(yes, even ones that look like they'll TOTALLY bring in lots of money). The cooldown period will hopefully make the two of you realize that you don't really need whatever it was you were going to buy, or that the moneymaking opportunity isn't actually as great as it seemed at first(as an example: If growing BASIL with aquaponics was such a good moneymaking opportunity, wouldn't a lot more people be doing it? And no, your one aquaponics friend does not count as "a lot more people"). Post what you're considering spending money on here, and goons will be happy to ream you for it if it's actually a dumb idea or something that you don't really need. Spend that week reading a lot more of Mr. Money Moustache, since you seemed to respect his blog a lot over in the Taco Box thread & he seems to have some pretty solid advice. Haifisch fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Nov 4, 2012 |
# ¿ Nov 4, 2012 06:32 |
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tuyop posted:We don't! But you should totally do the countertop herbs/veggies thing with Toeshoes. Not as expensive, not as much to go wrong, and it'll give you something to do in between writing gay werewolf broke back mountin' fiction and getting worked up over aquaponics.
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# ¿ Nov 4, 2012 21:04 |
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The only good thing about Tuyop's latest money furnace idea is that it's far enough in the future that he'll probably forget about it after a few more manic "spend all my money on this GREAT IDEA!"/depressive "I'm a failure. I will eat nothing but rice and beans, and live in a sleeping bag in a park." swings. Although considering his life so far, maybe a house with a built-in ambulance bay would actually be a good investment. Then again, knowing his luck, he'd have an emergency and the ambulance would crash trying to get out of his non-standard bay! So here's an updated design, taking the trends of Tuyop's life into account: Okay, it's not the prettiest floorplan in the world, but I don't have DIY house building experience. Maybe I'll come back after spending $500,000 on building a microhouse for my basil aquaponics & make an even better plan. But for now, look at all that counter space!
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# ¿ Nov 21, 2012 06:55 |
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tuyop posted:Is that what you're talking about? What does a normal, healthy person do in my position? They don't buy shady chinese stimulants, for one(what the hell do you even need the stimulants for? I get that you're used to having a shitton of caffeine in your system, but you should focus on being able to have energy & focus without pumping chemicals into yourself, not replacing one stimulant with another). Making do with the perfectly usable kitchen stuff they have instead of buying shiny kitchen gadgets they can't afford is another(and you're doing this, which is good!). They also don't even semi-seriously entertain thoughts like BASIL and building a tiny house they don't have the skills for. They also don't go on shitloads of vacations they can't afford. Many of these things are in the past, but you're going to keep repeating similar mistakes if you don't correct the line of thinking that led you that way in the first place.
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# ¿ Dec 8, 2012 13:59 |
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tuyop posted:And the powderz are an attempt to replace something more expensive in my diet (meat, for instance), with something cheap (dubious powders from the darkest Orient) in order to achieve the same, or greater, performance in a hobby that I like. quote:Supplements As for the stimulant/neurotransmitter/other extra-dubious powders: you don't need any of that poo poo in the first place, and it's definitely not worth the $45 you threw at it. Half that poo poo doesn't do anything(at best; at worst it's poisoning you), and the other half isn't worth the money you're wasting on it. If, for some reason, you can't get the gains you want without eating dubious chinese powders(or if it'd require something even more expensive), you're going to have to accept slower gains in exchange for saving money(and not eating lead). Also, maybe I missed this in the stream of "you're seriously going to put money in an education savings account for someone else's kid "(good on you for not doing this, by the way), but what's the word on that expensive breast pump you were being pressured to chip in for? Part of staying frugal is being able to say "no" when people ask you to do things you can't afford, even if they're family members. It's as simple as going "I don't have the money to spend on this, sorry" if people come to you with a "chip in on this expensive gift" request. You can do the "I don't have the money for presents this year, sorry." thing too, or stick to cheap homemade gifts - not only will making stuff yourself save money, but it's more likely to be appreciated and remembered/used than some random $40+ geegaw from the mall.
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# ¿ Dec 12, 2012 13:51 |
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Dr. Video Games 0050 posted:Reversing was the loving worst thing ever. It would take me so long considering I didn't know how the gently caress a car worked (but Jesus do you learn) and was constantly being laughed at by my friends while doing the whole dance. Then again, I guess you don't have that car anymore for a reason.
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# ¿ Jan 12, 2013 05:10 |
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Nam Taf posted:Tuyop you're loving retarded. I hope you shower before putting on that tux and wear deoderant at the altar. Even if by some miracle you don't smell, everyone around you must be noticing how greasy you've become. Greasy people are not good-looking people. Buy cheap soap. Buy a cheap stick of deodorant. Use both of them. When people talk about saving money in little ways, they mean poo poo like making their own coffee instead of going to Starbucks, not skimping out on basic hygene.
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# ¿ Jan 23, 2013 13:25 |
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tuyop posted:Are they foisted upon your children on death or something so that you have a dynasty of poor English majors?
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# ¿ Feb 4, 2013 12:23 |
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tuyop posted:Regardless, we have to learn to live within our means and stuff. Obviously working on that. tuyop posted:Yeah I'm not staying in the army. I'm going to school in September whether they give me a medical release by that point or not. Hopefully I get it by then, but even if I don't, it's not the end of the world.
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# ¿ Feb 9, 2013 01:05 |
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tuyop posted:Also, I'm not going to get rich from recycling my own poop, it's just a way to live more sustainably. And it's an 11 dollar book. Really not going to break the bank here by spending 11 dollars in gift money on a book. 1)Treating windfalls as fun money, instead of treating it the same as the rest of your money. Getting a store-branded gift card limits your purchases a bit, but Amazon has a ton of stuff on it that you could get more use from than an $11 book about something you probably only think is a good idea because you're in a manic phase. You can buy food on amazon, for starters. $50 of grocery money(or garbage bag money, or soap money, or condom money, or whatever other necessities you can think of) is more useful than $50 of books on composting your own poo poo & whatever other useless/barely useful toys you want to buy. 2)Going "oh, it's not that much money, so it's not going to kill me to buy it" in regards to small purchases. Sure, an $11 book isn't that much money, but it adds up with all the other small purchases you make. Of course you're going to have to make some small purchases, but you still should take a moment to go "do I really need this?". Then you wait a week or two and see if you still think you need it(or even want it; this is extra important for you, given your manic phases). You may surprise yourself in how rarely you still want stuff if you give yourself time to get past the initial "so cool! I want it!" phase. If you talk yourself out of ten $11 poo poo-composting books this way, you just saved $110. Doesn't seem like such a small amount of money, now does it?
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# ¿ Feb 28, 2013 14:53 |
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Main Paineframe posted:This is the reason why many diseases that are so rare in the developed world are so common in undeveloped countries. There are a lot of diseases and parasites that spread almost exclusively through human poo poo, and crap-as-fertilizer contaminates the food supply with those organisms. There's a reason people have tried to avoid using their own poop as fertilizer once they figured out what fertilizer was. And before you go "I don't have any intestinal diseases, so my poo poo is safe!", bear in mind that it's entirely possible to be carrying certain bacteria and parasites without showing symptoms.
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# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 18:41 |
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FrozenVent posted:Also t-shirts make for great rags, don't throw them out.
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# ¿ Mar 21, 2013 07:59 |
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tuyop posted:I generally eat 1800 calories a day, give or take 150 calories depending on if I lift that day or not. I weigh 179 pounds. loving hell, I'm 5'3" woman and that's roughly how much I'd have to eat to lose weight at a healthy rate. You're a dude(and presumably taller than me, on top of being heavier than me and possessing health issues you don't need to exacerbate), so you're going to have to eat more than that.
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# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 15:33 |
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quaint bucket posted:Can't be a body builder and a hippie at the same time. Leperflesh posted:But it's worth remembering that "protein" is a generic word and actually means a whole basket of amino acids. You need several specific amino acids, so if you only eat one type of protein source, you may be technically getting all the protein you need (in terms of grams per day) but severely starving your body of one or more essential amino acids. A varied and mixed diet is therefore the most effective way to give your body all the protein it needs. See: Essential amino acids. Animal proteins(including eggs and dairy) come complete without you having to combine them with anything, although they are more expensive than plant proteins(especially if you get them from organic/local/happy sources). On the other hand, they won't give you bean farts.
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# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 06:46 |
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tuyop posted:Ok that laptop is just hideous. quote:So, since I can't move my desktop I have to go 10k to the library rather than 3k to the coffee shop if I want to do anything on the internet outside of work hours.. *I'm talking "several years old" used, not "exactly one gen old as of the new gen being announced" used.
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 20:11 |
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mobby_6kl posted:tuyop, have you considered just hiring a chauffeur any time you need to travel somewhere? You just might be the only person in existence for whom this could make sense, financially. I'd say walking would be a better option, but then tuyop's legs would break going down the stairs or something.
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# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 20:02 |
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tuyop posted:I read novels and nonfiction all day and I'm relatively content with that. It's just infuriating whenever I have to write a memo or email, find out where a building is, get a phone number or hours for a government office, or want to watch a movie or do pretty much anything that isn't read a book or exercise (like sort out my wedding in August ). I get it done, sure, it's just really not ideal or so much work that it's not worth it.
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# ¿ Jul 5, 2013 20:16 |
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Tuyop, do you have any volunteer opportunities locally? It'd give you something to do and it'd be free if you rode your bike there. There are also a ton of other things to do if you're just willing to take a minute and look into some free community resources(your local visitor center would have pamphlets for these, and the library might have them too): -Go admire some outdoor art installations. Even a small town will have a sculpture or two hanging around many of their parks. -Attend a free outdoor concert. It might not be your favorite genre, and it almost certainly won't involve a band you've heard of, but it'll expand your horizons and give you a chance to meet some new people. -Help out a community garden. I know you're limited by your back, but surely there's some low-intensity stuff you could do. -Attend free days at local museums & other attractions, if they have them. -Check out free(or cheap, since we'd rather see you spend $20 on a cooking class than $500 on a laptop you don't need) classes for skills you're interested in. -Attend free events you see on your local community calendar. It's summer, so there's bound to be several.
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# ¿ Jul 6, 2013 17:30 |
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tuyop posted:Speaking of paying off the car: The loan is 1.9%, I can make more than that on conservative investments if I just keep the 17.5k that the loan is worth. If I don't sell the car, doesn't it make sense to not pay off the loan? With consumer goods, the "0% financing for months!" generally skyrockets to a ridiculous interest rate if you miss a payment, or don't pay the entire thing off in time, or mess something else up that's in the fine print. In many(most?) cases, the interest will be retroactive, putting you in even deeper poo poo than you'd have thought. Even if you swear from the bottom of your heart that you'll make the payments on time and pay the whole thing off with your investment before the 12 months are through, it's not worth the risk of absentmindedly doing something that gets you in deep poo poo. Companies don't offer these promotions out of the goodness of their hearts; they know a considerable number of people will gently caress up at some point & be on the hook for it. With the car loan, the problem is it's another payment hanging around your neck every month no matter what your income situation is. The sooner it gets paid off, the more flexibility you'll have in the future. Your life is changing constantly enough that I'd say the flexibility is worth more than a few extra dollars in your investments. I also don't remember if you're still underwater on the car loan; if you are, you at least want to make the loan worth less than the car so you don't run into problems selling it if you need to. I've also seen it phrased like this: Would you take out a $(value) loan at (whatever)% interest to invest? If you wouldn't, why would you do the same thing with a loan you took out for something else?
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# ¿ Jul 18, 2013 17:34 |
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tuyop posted:/\/\ I think we'd just like to live somewhere a little bit nicer. We also REALLY want control over our yard, improvements, plumbing and space to build things. That part is worth a lot of broken water heaters to us quote:I don't even know what you'd call our apartment now. It's a cheap basement apartment in Northwest Edmonton. 825 a month, one bedroom, ~700sq ft. Our stove doesn't work very well and everything is kind of on a 6 degree slant. Power is absurdly cheap (7.007c/kwh) though and we have unlimited fast internet and great water pressure! quote:Yes I know these things. And part of this is weird peer pressure where I'm learning some sort of ascetic financial understanding from the internet, while everyone around me is like, "Dude you make nearly 100k a year and live in a shithole. Why?" Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses.
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# ¿ Aug 1, 2013 17:31 |
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tuyop posted:Which I still think is stupid if I have debt at a higher APR than my savings. It doesn't cost me anything to have literally 60k in credit available from seven Canadian banks including credit cards. It costs me around 150 a month to have 30k in debt and some amount in savings and pay my debt down over a year. Savings doesn't make mathmatical sense compared to just using that money to pay down loans, but it helps you get out of the "can't afford this, so let's just use debt to buy it! " mindset. It also helps train you out of spending every last cent of your paycheck, which is something you'll need to do even once you're out of debt - it's easy to say you'll start saving once your debt is gone, but habits take time to build up.
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# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 03:06 |
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FrozenVent posted:You still don't need a MBA. Tuyop posted:My car is pretty excellent, I've lived in it for weeks at a time. It's even on MMM's non-stupid car list! I won't begrudge you getting a laptop for college, but a Macbook is a needless luxury that you can't afford right now, and you need to get out of the habit of buying needless luxuries you can't afford.
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# ¿ Aug 20, 2013 22:22 |
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tuyop posted:The current plan is to not go home for December. We'll take a vacation to Cuba at some point next year instead. tuyop, in the very first post of the thread posted:I caused the debt by going on many, many vacations. Last year alone I took fourteen vacations. Each cost well over 1000 dollars.
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# ¿ Aug 23, 2013 06:21 |
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MrEnigma posted:Or grab a free transit card/map that has this on it already? Of course, the best idea would have been to scope some of this poo poo out ahead of time(class schedules & locations should have been given at least a week or two before classes started, and even if they weren't, it's not like it hurts to get more familiar with campus before confused freshmen are blocking all the sidewalks), but that's a moot point now.
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# ¿ Sep 11, 2013 02:36 |
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# ¿ Mar 19, 2024 12:55 |
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For what it's worth, 95% of what I used my laptop for in college in 2008-2012 was computer usage in my dorm room(and it was easier to move every year than a desktop). I didn't even haul it to class with me because it was too damned heavy, and I preferred taking notes by hand(lots of chemistry and biology classes that required drawing charts and diagrams and whatnot, which would have been ten times harder on a laptop). Group projects usually only needed one person to bring a laptop along, sometimes two. Realistically speaking, unless your course very specifically requires you to have a laptop in class, you don't really need a laptop. It's nice, especially if you hate taking notes by hand, but it's far from a requirement. Doubly so in Tuyop's case since he already has a computer at home.
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# ¿ Sep 13, 2013 16:12 |