|
Hi, I'm a 26 year old recovering drug addict with autism who lives with his mother. I receive Persons with Disability income from the province of British Columbia of $1183 monthly. I'm currently employed as a dishwasher at a pub. It's super part time, I only grossed about 7 grand from it last year, but they're starting to train me on line so I'm hopefully going to get closer to the 12 grand yearly max I can earn before I get cut off PWD. Number of hours per week is very inconsistent, I net like $150-$400 biweekly this time of year. In the summer we get a lot busier. I've been abusing credit cards pretty hard since I stopped updating the last thread. 6 grand across 3 cards (2.5k x 2 + 1k). I'm hoping that now I'm off drugs I can get out from under those this year. I still have no idea how to budget. Here's a back of the envelope estimate of my monthly expenses: Rent and utilities: $725 Groceries: $250 Phone: $90 That leaves me around $100 from my PWD or ~10%. I'm thinking I take 10% of my employment income as well and that'll be my discretionary spending. It's not a budget, but it's somewhere to start. I'm behind on some bills this month, so I'll probably only let myself have my tips. My one remaining vice is vaping and I'm almost out of juice, probably going to need to reup on that around the start of next month. PWD comes in this Wednesday, next pay cheque is the 28th. Get your rocket blowing up on the launchpad gifs ready. Edit: Previous thread: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3846191 Papa Was A Video Toaster fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Feb 18, 2020 |
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 07:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:30 |
|
|
I'll take a swing. First, I have no idea what your previous thread was but I'm going to assume you have some kind of good faith and won't make a complete hash of it like a Zaurg. I know you posted in that thread and know how bad it gets, do not let his shame taint you, you can do better. That said if you've had threads here before sounds like something didn't work out. First, go back and get real numbers, not just back of envelope stuff, for your regular (bill type) expenses. Second: Take your income. Subtract all your regular expenses. Third: Given your debt and income situation, figure out the most minimal amounts you can spend on discretionary things and not give up on life, and figure out how to reasonably minimize how much you spend on food. Eating out goes into discretionary budget, not food budget. Rough numbers given your situation: Take the $118 left over from your PwD and let that be discretionary. (Though honestly if you can reduce that you should, I'm just trying to make this a simple first pass that is hard to screw up.) Everything you make from work goes into paying off credit cards. Done! Someone else should definitely chime in here because what I say feels wrong, but given your situation I almost feel like paying off the debt is better than accumulating savings. My reasoning is such: firstly, your debt is pretty massive relative to your income. Second, and here's where I'm wavering and not sure if it makes sense or not: you are already on welfare. Most of the time people save so that way in case they lose their job or have some kind of life crisis, they can live off of the savings. Since you are already in the position where your income does NOT primarily come from a job, that 6k in debt is costing you more money every month and is more likely to spiral out of control then the normal emergency that we would plan our savings around. Still, suggesting saving NOTHING feels really wrong to me, but the amount of interest you have to be racking up on those credit cards, just by my gut feel, seems more dangerous than lack of savings. That said , my alternative and more conventional suggestion would be to take the above, and out of your work income save 100 a month and put the rest towards paying off credit cards. I really would like someone more familiar with the issues of being on welfare/not working/working with disability supplement and the interplay of prioritizing savings vs paying off debt equal to close to 50% of your yearly income. I think with full numbers including interest there is an actual mathematical answer to where the money should go but there's not enough information here and I'm really hesitant to fully suggest something that may be detrimental to you in case some kind of emergency came up. If that's the case at all then for sure also contribute something reasonable to savings and put the rest towards your card. Now the (super basic) budgeting part: Say we go with the full $118 discretionary. Take that out in cash, keep it on you. Your food bill ($250) mentioned above is now only for groceries. Eating out counts as discretionary. Wherever you go, if you pay money for ANYTHING it comes out of that 118 cash. When it is out you are done spending extra money for the month. When you go grocery shopping, that bill comes out of the 250 you have set for the month. On your last trips when it's getting close to the limit, if you have to just bring up your cell phone calculator and do the math on things you put into your shopping cart, once you hit 250 that trip is done. If you want to make it easier on yourself do that for EVERY trip, and assuming you go once a week you can spend up to 62.50 per trip (assuming a 4 week month). All this probably seems simplistic and not like a full budget, because it isn't. I haven't accounted for medical expenses, transportation, clothing, toiletries(though in our household that is covered by groceries), etc. But hopefully you can look through and see the basics of a stranger taking a quick look and separating your money out in a way that makes it hard for you to spend what you don't have. Providing fuller numbers of both what you normally spend and what we should budget for you to spend in the future would make a more rounded and realistic budget. And once you have those debts tackled I feel like your options for saving, budgeting, and spending really open up. Those amounts just really frighten me right now given your debt/income ratio. Also 90 dollars for a phone plan seems high. Also also, I'd lay money I'm not saying anything people didn't tell you in the last thread. So before a bunch of people throw good advice at you it's also probably helpful to stop and try to figure out why things didn't work out last time and figure out how you personally are going to get around those roadblocks. People can help with that, but you have to be realistic and self aware enough to bring those things forwards and know they're a problem. EDIT: I did my due diligence and found the old thread. moana posted:Cut up your loving credit cards, boom, no more magic free money for you to spend. There are people who can use credit responsibly, and then there is you. Do this, only spend what you need in cash, if you screw up then suck it up the rest of the month. All of your bad decisions were either impulsive or online (often both). Until you fix that no amount of budgeting will save you because for a budget to work a person has to actually follow it. double edit: SiGmA_X posted:Remove your credit card from Amazon or Pay-Pal or whatever you're using to buy poo poo you don't need, and shred your credit card. Haifisch posted:
KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:you are a strong candidate for debit card in the freezer MC Hawking posted:. You're going to need to go pretty much go zero credit line and figure out a maximum spending budget per day for real essentials. Turns out as I guessed above, everything I've told you was already said more eloquently and by better people. Not just the credit card stuff, but I'm reposting that specifically it in case you decide to let any of it through to you while reading. Your first thread was in 2018 and you had cc debt getting up to 1k, which was a big deal (and you knew it). In a little over a year you are 600% more in debt, and there seems to be one very common denominator. Until you figure that out I'm not sure anyone can say anything that will really help you. And I dont meant that in a mocking way, I mean that you already have the knowledge and tools to make that happen. Whether it does it up to you. threelemmings fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Feb 18, 2020 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2020 21:18
|
|
|
First of all thank you for taking the time to effort post at me and read the trainwreck that was my last thread. Second of all at least one thing has changed internally since last thread: TVsVeryOwn posted:recovering drug addict
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2020 00:45
|
|
|
So I talked to my mom and apparently I'm way lowballing my grocery number compared to what we actually spend. She said closer to $100 a week for each of us, which is not great. I want to drop that to at most $300 for the month, plus food for the dog ($50). I just pulled that $250 number out of my rear end. Cheque came in this morning. Paid the rent ($725), got my delinquent bills paid (phone $90, CC $87) and paid $100 on the card whose bill is due the 25th. $204 in chequing at this moment. I want to report my cards lost and never open the new ones when they arrive, but I'll probably have to to update where the payments go. I left out that I'm still paying Adobe like thirty-something a month for CC, but I was gonna cancel so they threw me a free 60 days. I'll probably have to pay a penalty to get out of my contract with them, IIRC. Not sure yet if I'm gonna do that. Also I forgot I need to set something aside to donate to the AA meetings. Maybe like $20 a month. Lets me give a dollar every time I go and I can roll it over if I don't go that much and maybe give more at the end of the year. Also also I have a dentist appointment in March I'm pretty sure, those usually cost me like $150. I got another closing shift at work tonight, so I should be getting a halfway decent pay cheque. What should my repayment strategy be as far as which card to kill first? Ordered by date acquired: CC #1: ~$2500 at 19.99% CC #2: ~$2500 at 19.97% CC #3: ~$900 at 19.99% I'm leaning towards doing the little one first so I can get that sense of accomplishment sooner, but I'm also very dumb.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2020 01:31
|
|
|
Pure math says knock out highest interest first. That said, a suboptimal plan you'll stick with is better than an optimal plan you'll abandon, so going after small balances for a morale boost is legit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2020 02:01
|
|
|
Additionally the sooner he wipes a card the sooner he can cancel it and never use it again. I'd definitely hit the soft targets first. As to your groceries, it sounds like you need to sit down and actually write out what you spend. That's first step of constructing a real budget going forwards.
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2020 02:20
|
|
|
Haifisch posted:Pure math says knock out highest interest first. .02% is such a tiny difference that the morale boost of such a tangible accomplishment is more than worth it.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2020 01:38
|
|
|
Am I just reading it wrong or something, because it looks like his smallest balance (~$900) is also his highest interest rate (tied at 19.99%), so avalanche or snowball should be targeting that same credit card.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2020 14:53
|
|
|
Ancillary Character posted:Am I just reading it wrong or something, because it looks like his smallest balance (~$900) is also his highest interest rate (tied at 19.99%), so avalanche or snowball should be targeting that same credit card. this is also what I see and im similarly confused
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2020 15:32
|
|
|
I'm looking at consolidating my credit cards so I can't slip up and start using them again, but it's all sounding a little too good to be true. I haven't signed anything yet. I talked to Consolidated Credit Canada. Someone tell me why this is a dumb and bad idea.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2020 21:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 16:30 |
|
|
I know nothing of the company, but the debt consolidation industry is full of scams. Don't trust internet reviews; companies pay for them. Depending on the rate and reputability, a loan may be worth the hassle, but you can always just close your current accounts and continue paying off the debt as well. Also if you don't trust yourself not to slip up, a consolidation loan changes nothing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2020 00:19
|
|
