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Who has two thumbs and isn't paying any credit card interest this month? This guy! My issues aren't completely solved since the tax bill is going to make riding this streak into May a real tough ask, but I think I can do it if I stick to my budget and keep earning extra where I can. I'm up to $600 in the emergency fund, which I want to be at $2k before I start looking at Vegas. I realized I can cut a lot of costs with the trip, now that it's a real thing I might do without wanting to cripple my budget. There's a spot in an airb&b waiting for me if i make a decision by June 5 or so, which will drop the hotel bill to ~$150. I don't need to actually buy the deck I'm playing, I can rent it and enter the event for about $100. Still budgeting $100 for gas and $100 for food, I'm looking at $450 for the trip instead of $1000. I'll budget another $100 to throw at gambling because i'm realistic and know i'll want to play a little but I don't anticipate actually spending much time in the casino. I do have $300ish due in June as well (annual payments), so I need to be $2850 in the black by June 5 to feel comfortable about going. I think I'm more likely than not to stay home at this point, but if I get enough overtime at work and get lucky in trivia it's definitely a real possibility. Veskit posted:I mean, can you explain how you'd budget in your gambling winnings ahead of time? Like from a practical standpoint. Not sure exactly what you mean -- My goals right now (as in, where income will be going in the near future) are: Pay off credit card -- Almost there! Emergency fund/short-term savings to $20,000 -- I don't have high hopes about advancing much further in my current job and I'll probably be looking for a new one in the next 2-3 years. The last time I was actively job hunting was right out of college in 2009 so I have no idea what sort of time frame it'll take to get me a new one a decade later. I'd like to have that money to fall back on in the event that it takes longer than expected (though obviously i'd like to find a new one while i'm still employed). Increase 401k contribution -- I'm maxing out the employer match already but I'd like to keep pumping this up while I still have ~30 years for it to compound before retirement. ??? other things? -- having money is a mystery to me I'll have an April post-mortem on may 1 if i don't post again before then (spoilers: real good, so far! except the tax thing. So, actually, real bad!)
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Apr 20, 2018 18:01
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hey good job on quitting DFS that poo poo is designed to be addictive
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Apr 23, 2018 16:45
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Spokes posted:Who has two thumbs and isn't paying any credit card interest this month? This guy! You said you still have to pay down your balance but aren't paying interest. Does this mean you only have the statement balance outstanding? Do you plan to pay that off by the due date?
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Apr 23, 2018 22:21
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I think he probably got a balance transfer at 0%.
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Apr 23, 2018 22:33
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Raldikuk posted:You said you still have to pay down your balance but aren't paying interest. Does this mean you only have the statement balance outstanding? Do you plan to pay that off by the due date? Yeah, my statement ended on 4/5 (or so) with a due date of 5/2. I paid on 4/20 everything i owed when that statement closed, meaning my entire credit card balance as of 4/5. My purchases between april 5 and now, as well as the money i owe for taxes filed in that window, are on the statement that closes on 5/5, with a due date of 6/2. I am optimistic that I'll be able to pay my *entire*, current, balance on or before 6/2. It is entirely possible that i'm misunderstanding this because i haven't paid a balance completely off in years, but i'm pretty sure i'm avoiding interest this month. Please tell me if i'm doing something wrong because it is very, very possible.
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Apr 23, 2018 23:11
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Spokes posted:Yeah, my statement ended on 4/5 (or so) with a due date of 5/2. I paid on 4/20 everything i owed when that statement closed, meaning my entire credit card balance as of 4/5. My purchases between april 5 and now, as well as the money i owe for taxes filed in that window, are on the statement that closes on 5/5, with a due date of 6/2. I am optimistic that I'll be able to pay my *entire*, current, balance on or before 6/2. You have to get back into the grace period for that to occur. So you probably will have some interest calculated for the next statement; assuming that you didn't pay the statement balance in full on 4/2; if you did then this should be the first interest free cycle. In either case that's great work!
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Apr 24, 2018 00:25
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Raldikuk posted:You have to get back into the grace period for that to occur. So you probably will have some interest calculated for the next statement; assuming that you didn't pay the statement balance in full on 4/2; if you did then this should be the first interest free cycle. In either case that's great work! Ah, that makes sense. Thank you! I’ll leave an interest payment in my May budget then and if it turns out I use it elsewhere I will
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Apr 24, 2018 07:34
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If you budget tightly, and track your spending somewhere other than your CC company website, you can do what I do and just hit "pay that statement, pay statement in full" button whenever you feel like it and it doesn't. even. matter. I have autopay set up, but I also just compulsively "pay statement" and it's suuuuuper satisfying to know that all the magic just happens behind the scenes with purchase reconciliation and budget categories instead of at the level of "do I have enough money to pay this bill?" loving magic.
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Apr 24, 2018 19:11
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Where/how do you do freelance writing? How much do you make from it? Also do you know other people who make money from trivia/trivia apps? For some reason I never thought people could make money from trivia apps. Also you seem to have pretty decent self control so kudos for that
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Apr 25, 2018 20:55
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Edgar Allan Pwned posted:Where/how do you do freelance writing? How much do you make from it? Also do you know other people who make money from trivia/trivia apps? For some reason I never thought people could make money from trivia apps. For freelance writing I've just been writing for BlogMutt recently. They pay $10 or so for 500 words if the client accepts it and i'm managing about a 70% acceptance rate, so it's a decent way to get paid without having to take up too much time. Re: trivia apps, for sure. HQTrivia has given away ~$1.3 million since October, and nobody's won more than $25k, so there's a looooot of people making a decent amount of extra cash from it. and it's free! Also there's lots of imitator apps that drive the total winnings available for "phone trivia" up as well. (Cash Show gives out ~$10k a day, Swagbucks has their own trivia game for a couple thousand a day, etc. There's probably 10-15 active apps with daily games total. some are focused specifically on things like sports). quote:Also you seem to have pretty decent self control so kudos for that *i think as i get older i'll realize that extremely early retirement in my case is probably a silly fantasy and i don't know what i'd do all day without work, but having financial flexibility will be nice.
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Apr 25, 2018 22:17
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Fate conspires against me again to prevent a 100% successful budget month—but I mean, there’s always going to be something and I’m controlling my fun spending. This month it’s the dog needing oral surgery or some such poo poo. Out of pocket $400 but we’ll get $300 back from insurance and that’ll meet doggo’s deductible for the year. Aside from that and the taxes, everything has gone well for April. I’ll do a full breakdown on May 1 since doing it before month end in March led to me fudging a little bit before I started tracking April. Pets! BWM, but much easier than getting another human to love you!
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Apr 29, 2018 01:35
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Well, gently caress. Here's my lovely graph, first.  I thought April was going well. I went over in a few categories but my discretionary was under 500 total and my total spending EVERYWHERE was under 2000. I make $2800 in take-home salary and ended up with $523 extra on top of that from overtime and trivia. Paying 2017's taxes (and the dog thing, but i should get $300 back on that next month) just wrecked me. I've adjusted my withholding at work to cover my trivia winnings so far this year, i'll bump it up further if i continue to run hot. I definitely don't want to repeat this experience next year. Credit Card Debt: ~$2300 Savings Accounts: ~$1000 Checking Account: ~$250 Net Worth: $-1058.23 Here's May's budget (c/p'd from ynab, sorry if it's a mess): May 2018 Credit Card $880.00 May 2018 Interest & Fees $40.00 May 2018 Emergency Fund Xfer $200.00 May 2018 Rent/Mortgage $950.00 May 2018 Groceries $200.00 May 2018 Transportation $40.00 May 2018 Auto-Transfer $30.00 May 2018 Crunch Fitness $9.95 May 2018 Wrestling $0.00 May 2018 Patreon $5.00 May 2018 Spotify $0.00 May 2018 Hulu $43.99 May 2018 Netflix $7.99 May 2018 gifts/charity $25.00 May 2018 Escape Room $70.00 May 2018 Impulse Food $200.00 May 2018 Gaming/DFS/Trivia $100.00 Overall, I can still see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was a question away from winning ~$6250 on HQ sunday night, so there's always the trivia deus ex machina out there to get me to vegas but I'm not counting on it. punch in, punch out, don't eat out, stay away from gambling, see everybody next month. If all goes as planned I'll spend $1080 less than i earn and be all of $22 in the black. So I just need to earn... $2828 extra between now ($2528 if the dog insurance comes through) and June 5 to go to vegas. Unlikely! Best to just focus on continuing good habits. Happy May Day, everybody.
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May 1, 2018 06:24
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How do you spend $43.99 on Hulu? Mine's $12.84 and the only option I have turned on is no commercials.
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May 1, 2018 13:06
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BloodBag posted:How do you spend $43.99 on Hulu? Mine's $12.84 and the only option I have turned on is no commercials. I would assume he’s paying for their version of Sling. https://www.hulu.com/live-tv
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May 1, 2018 13:18
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Maybe I missed it being listed somewhere, but do you have a budget line for your pet insurance and other monthly fees related to your dog?
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May 1, 2018 21:21
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Duckman2008 posted:I would assume he’s paying for their version of Sling. Bingo -- we canceled cable and are just using Hulu now.
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May 1, 2018 21:34
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Skutter posted:Maybe I missed it being listed somewhere, but do you have a budget line for your pet insurance and other monthly fees related to your dog? I budget a flat amount for my (VERY inexpensive, thankfully!) lab, which came in handy when he had some teeth pulled last week. That little episode was roughly 3x the most expensive procedure he's had in the last 6yrs I've had him (including annual vet visits), but it was covered by what I put away for him. SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 03:03 on May 2, 2018 |
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May 2, 2018 02:58
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I suspect a chunk of Spokes’ issues is identifying categories he needs to budget for. Had he identified these categories, he’d have a stockpile and exceeding wouldn’t be an issue. Basically, he’s budgeting against only part of his expenses and that throws all of his estimates out. Spokes, as a thought exercise, what other things in your life generate random, infrequent expenses? I mean some of this thing’s are absorbed by an emergency fund, but a pet needing medical care is not an ‘emergency’ because it happens eventually. Additionally, breaking out ‘pet food’ from ‘groceries’ helps understand whether it’s you or your 17 cats that are eating all the food. Have a go at identifying these things and then intelligently going through them and letting us know where you plan to categorise them.
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May 2, 2018 04:14
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Think through some likely rare expenses and maybe Google what other people commonly have. But I think you will usually miss out a few here and there. So, probably just set aside a small catchall fund for these. $50 a month? I don't know.
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May 2, 2018 06:10
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Nam Taf posted:Have a go at identifying these things and then intelligently going through them and letting us know where you plan to categorise them. Good points. I’m so focused on getting my credit cards paid off that I’m not looking at the bigger pictures re: expenses. I had pet expenses (inc. insurance) in “groceries” because... I’m not sure. Because I buy dog food at the grocery store? Regardless, I’ll break that out. I was surprised by taxes but even if I had under-withheld, I could have checked in January instead of mid-April which would have pushed me into a panic earlier. If I hadn’t started working on this back in February, I’d probably be pushing the limit of my CC instead of being down to 2k, but I’ve definitely gotten lucky with circumstances I can’t expect to continue. I feel dumb because my necessary expenses are so low that I shouldn’t have gotten stuck here in the first place. I’ll draft up a new version of May’s budget tomorrow with irregular expenses factored in best I can and post it here for critique. I’m expecting it to be eye-opening. Thanks for the advice, all.
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May 2, 2018 06:46
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Spokes posted:Good points. I’m so focused on getting my credit cards paid off that I’m not looking at the bigger pictures re: expenses. I had pet expenses (inc. insurance) in “groceries” because... I’m not sure. Because I buy dog food at the grocery store? Regardless, I’ll break that out. I was surprised by taxes but even if I had under-withheld, I could have checked in January instead of mid-April which would have pushed me into a panic earlier. If I hadn’t started working on this back in February, I’d probably be pushing the limit of my CC instead of being down to 2k, but I’ve definitely gotten lucky with circumstances I can’t expect to continue.  Speaking of dogs - what type of dog do you have? I hope s/he is doing well after surgery. My pup is back to eating everything placed in front of him (ok, that only took 0 hours, but he whined while eating because it hurt) and his breath smells like nothing vs horrid!
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May 2, 2018 06:56
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Thing is, if you get all those irregular expenses covered and balance an emergency fund sufficiently, getting out of debt is literally just waiting on it to happen. It may not happen as fast as you hope, but it wouldn’t happen that fast anyway when you have to take on unexpected expenses and end up throwing them on your CC. If you get them all right, you know more accurately where you can cut out any extra fat to move the dial towards getting out of debt faster. If you need help, lay out a description of each expense (don’t bother with expenses if you worry about being judged - we can handle budget limits later) that you’ve recorded since you’ve tracked them, and we can help identify which categories should be appropriate.
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May 2, 2018 11:15
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How's something like this look? May Budget: Income: $2700 (down this month since I increased withholding to avoid another tax debacle next year) $650.00 Credit Card $50.00 Dog insurance/food/toys $40.00 Interest & Fees $200.00 Emergency Fund Xfer $950.00 Rent/Mortgage $175.00 Groceries $40.00 Transportation $30.00 Auto-Transfer $9.95 Crunch Fitness $0.00 Wrestling $5.00 Patreon $43.99 Hulu $7.99 Netflix $10.00 gifts/charity $40.00 Date Night $200.00 Impulse Food $100.00 Gaming $10.00 Amazon Prime (120/yr) $3.00 Spotify (30/yr) $15.00 Car Registration + Smog (180/yr) $15.00 Christmas Gifts (180/yr) $25.00 New Clothes (300/yr) $10.00 Dog Medical Deductible (120/yr) $70.00 Car insurance (800/yr) I'm certain that I'm forgetting things, but that's where I am currently. Thoughts? quote:Speaking of dogs - what type of dog do you have? I hope s/he is doing well after surgery. My pup is back to eating everything placed in front of him (ok, that only took 0 hours, but he whined while eating because it hurt) and his breath smells like nothing vs horrid! An itty-bitty miniature pinscher -- just under 4 pounds, fully grown. She's doing well, a little groggy yesterday but fully alert and demanding that i play with her instead of working today, as usual. Spokes fucked around with this message at 22:08 on May 2, 2018 |
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May 2, 2018 22:00
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Just to be sure but let me remind myself - you're not carrying this credit card debt on interest-bearing CCs, right? Because with a 4 month timeline to payoff, you'd probably benefit from consolidating it even with a 2.5% transfer fee onto a zero interest card.
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May 3, 2018 14:01
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Just to be sure but let me remind myself - you're not carrying this credit card debt on interest-bearing CCs, right? I'm paying off the full balance that's due every month, yeah. So no interest. Just stuck with paying off each month's expenses in the next. On that note, I picked up ~1400 from trivia today. Time to bump up withholding again, but i could actually be debt free this month. Just need to stay the course and not buy stupid bullshit. Was wracking (racking?) my brain today to try to remember what other stupid sites i've blown money on and realized I had $65 or so on PredictIt. The poo poo I used to gamble on... Anyhow, cashed that out too, check's in the mail. Light at the end of the tunnel, gotta keep not loving up.
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May 4, 2018 03:22
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Spokes posted:I'm paying off the full balance that's due every month, yeah. So no interest. Just stuck with paying off each month's expenses in the next. Congratulations on your windfall! Although you're paying the "full amount due," the balance carried on the card might be bearing interest - if you read your statement really closely it will tell you the APR on the carried balance. That's why credit card debt is so toxic. Anyway, you're goddamn close to getting it paid off, and once you do you'll never want to get back to where you were again.
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May 4, 2018 14:40
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Good morning, BFC Figured I'd update the thread while I had some downtime at work (because i'm working, on a Saturday, because i was irresponsible with credit cards. ) Anyhow, here's where I stand currently:  Things... aren't dire? I'll be able to pay off my entire CC balance at the end of this month and then start socking away the $600-800+ per month i'm underspending vs my salary. I could cry. I can't believe what a lovely situation I got myself into and how fortunate I was to turn it around (which I'm still in the process of; i'm certainly not jumping to the conclusion that I'm completely fine right now). I've read enough Zaurg threads to know that there's always the risk of running straight back into the red, especially for people who are historically lovely with money. I'll continue to post updates, especially when i need advice or need to be talked out of a dipshit decision, but things are a hell of a lot better than they were in february. spending less money (and especially, not gambling) hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I can't thank you all enough.
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May 12, 2018 17:21
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Spokes posted:Good morning, BFC Nice! Keep it up!
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May 12, 2018 18:06
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Spokes posted:spending less money (and especially, not gambling) hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
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May 13, 2018 03:18
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Once you're cashflowing for a couple of months, you'll get this temptation at some point to escalate your appetites. Lifestyle creep is a real thing. Don't be a sucker. You should NEVER return to that level of consumption you were having before, because 1) you know you're happy here and it's just your primate brain going "oo shiny new stuff" and 2) you were overspending your means. Try to keep as much of your savings as possible out of sight, out of mind.
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May 14, 2018 13:47
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Once you're cashflowing for a couple of months, you'll get this temptation at some point to escalate your appetites. Lifestyle creep is a real thing. Don't be a sucker. You should NEVER return to that level of consumption you were having before, because 1) you know you're happy here and it's just your primate brain going "oo shiny new stuff" and 2) you were overspending your means. Try to keep as much of your savings as possible out of sight, out of mind. I literally almost backed a kickstarter (!) yesterday for a reusable straw that cost $20. They had a really compelling video about saving the planet. (i ended up looking at amazon, found some that were a tenth of the price, and set a reminder to look at it in 30 days and see if i still want it. not today, satan) Also, before anyone posts it, yes, i did see the SCOTUS decision on sports gambling. I'll be good, I promise
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May 14, 2018 15:39
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Spokes posted:Also, before anyone posts it, yes, i did see the SCOTUS decision on sports gambling. I'll be good, I promise I came here to post this! I was like, "OH NO! THAT AIN'T NO GOOD FOR SPOKES!" Instead, you should just buy Paddy Power/Betfair or William Hill stock. It popped like 9% on the news.
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May 14, 2018 16:12
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Spokes posted:On that note, I picked up ~1400 from trivia today. Excuse my ignorance, but what dumb promoter is laying down this level of cash and how easy is it to earn? It's just answering questions, or is there more to it? poo poo, if we win at the bar when I usually go, best we get a $25 gift card we all have to split... Seems like for the amount you're bringing in here and there, the market (apps) should be saturated with people trying to scrape that scrilla. Edit: had never heard of HQ Trivia before reading this thread a couple days ago, and just now my friend on Facebook said he just win enough to buy a gallon of gas. And not an Al Gore gallon of gas. A regular one. SpelledBackwards fucked around with this message at 03:51 on May 16, 2018 |
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May 16, 2018 02:56
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SpelledBackwards posted:Excuse my ignorance, but what dumb promoter is laying down this level of cash and how easy is it to earn? It's just answering questions, or is there more to it? poo poo, if we win at the bar when I usually go, best we get a $25 gift card we all have to split... That's a wonderful gag, I forgot how great Futurama was sometimes. Most HQ games during the week do end up awarding between 50 cents and 5 bucks, but the Sunday night games generally have higher prize pools and more questions. The large game I won a couple weeks back was a $25,000 prize that ended up split between 20 winners, so $1250 a head. If you're good at trivia, definitely give it a shot. It is reasonably saturated, between 750k and 2 million players a game, but winning the big prizes takes some combination of lots and lots of hard work studying, dumb luck, or both. On the subject of (possibly) winning big prizes, i guess i can finally mention this now that i have a concrete date and hopefully a pattern of decent behavior to convince everyone i'm not going to blow everything -- i'm going to be appearing on "who wants to be a millionaire" on may 30. Feel free to watch and cheer along knowing that I'm not spending my winnings (if there are any) on stupid bullshit. EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Instead, you should just buy Paddy Power/Betfair or William Hill stock. It popped like 9% on the news. Picking individual stocks is gambling 
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May 16, 2018 16:06
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Spokes posted:
That’s awesome! Will definitely check it out.
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May 16, 2018 16:24
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Spokes posted:
So like, have you already taped it and just can't tell us how you did, it is it like a live recording? If there's a place to watch online, link it when it's up!
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May 16, 2018 21:05
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moana posted:So like, have you already taped it and just can't tell us how you did, it is it like a live recording? If there's a place to watch online, link it when it's up! Yeah, this. That's awesome!
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May 16, 2018 21:42
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Yeah, that's exactly it. It's been under NDA for the last year (I taped in July). That's part of why I fought so hard to get my spending under control; I didn't want whatever was left after taxes (if I won anything) to just go to debt and bullshit, I want this to be the turning point of my financial life and get started toward a healthy retirement fund. I'll post a link when it's available!
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May 16, 2018 21:45
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Spokes posted:Yeah, that's exactly it. It's been under NDA for the last year (I taped in July). That's part of why I fought so hard to get my spending under control; I didn't want whatever was left after taxes (if I won anything) to just go to debt and bullshit, I want this to be the turning point of my financial life and get started toward a healthy retirement fund. I'll post a link when it's available! So hypothetically if you win money, do they not pay you until after the show airs and they make sure you didn't break the NDA? Edit: this might make a good Ask/Tell thread if you hadn't already considered it.
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May 16, 2018 22:08
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Ahhhhh that is so cool! I'm so excited to see it!
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May 17, 2018 00:41
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