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I've been reading zaurg's thread in earnest now, and it's got me worried about my lack of a budget. I went through a meticulous categorization and analysis stage and used envelopes for awhile, but now we seem to be doing well by simply not buying poo poo without thinking about it first. This nets us enough in the positive that we cover the ups and downs of each month without really thinking about it. The only difference is sometimes (for instance) 1500 goes on debt and sometimes it's 2000 or whatever. I assume with more careful planning and budgeting I could automate and regulate this amount over 12 months, which would be desirable, but I have never been able to keep up a solid savings amount for "predictable rainy days" like car insurance and registration and stuff. The problem is that I can't find an automatic way to keep track of the balances. I decide I need to save 175 a month for something, and 225 for something, and dump everything into my e fund account, then three months later I have like 4500 in there and I just dump it on debt because I feel like its not "working" in that account. What are some better ways to do this? Is it even better to do it a different way? The zaurg thread has also pointed out how wasteful and entitled I am about poo poo like my cell phone and dumb food purchases and stuff. There's still quite a bit of waste in my expenses that could be pared away.
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Jan 17, 2013 19:12
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| # ? Jun 3, 2024 12:52 |
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Just wanted to say that while I don't envy your position, I have enjoyed reading your story and your efforts to change your lifestyle and reduce your debts. The progress you've made in the past year or so has been pretty impressive, all told. $17k of debt paid off is nothing to sneeze at.
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Jan 17, 2013 22:25
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tuyop posted:The zaurg thread has also pointed out how wasteful and entitled I am about poo poo like my cell phone and dumb food purchases and stuff. There's still quite a bit of waste in my expenses that could be pared away. Well bugger me with a rattlegun! How far are you through it? Can we expect more revelations? PS: At least you don't need a divorce  edit: \/\/\/ haha I missed that, 
Nam Taf fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jan 18, 2013 |
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Jan 18, 2013 13:57
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tuyop posted:...but now we seem to be doing well by simply not buying poo poo without thinking about it first Are you seriously saying that you planned to buy all those extras at Ikea?
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Jan 18, 2013 14:00
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Eden posted:....what? No, but by "pretty well", I mean that we still get compulsive and waste money, but it seems to be a relatively small amount of money. So, how should I move forward with a budget and savings thing? We're putting away 375/pay each for the wedding, and since 6k is the absolute max, we'll be fine. And 50/pay for a used tv (I have a kijiji alert), which might be a thing that a roommate insists on. We've had a few probes into the room but the people seem to be universally unreliable. Also, since I have an extra two weeks of leave, I have an interview with a security company next week and I'll be using one of those weeks for the Ontario security license course in February. I don't know how my hours will be, but I can put in 20 hours or more on weekends no problem, and probably two 5 hour shifts on weeknights if possible.
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Jan 18, 2013 14:13
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tuyop posted:No, but by "pretty well", I mean that we still get compulsive and waste money, but it seems to be a relatively small amount of money. If a roommate insists on a tv, then they can buy it.
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Jan 18, 2013 14:28
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cstine posted:If a roommate insists on a tv, then they can buy it. They'll probably own one anyway.
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Jan 18, 2013 14:45
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Yeah good point. A really big problem that we have is keeping sight of the fact that our (read: my) debt is a full blown, real emergency and that we should be paying it down like it's our job. The security job has the possibility of helping to the tune of $900 net per month, and a roommate would net another $300. These are way bigger deals than a desk or frames or macronutrient distribution. I'm torn about nutrition though. My back has been very bad for the past couple of weeks and I can't help but think that it might be related to diet.
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Jan 18, 2013 14:49
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Also, for kicks I made some pie charts based on advice from zaurg's thread: I used mint to take an average of each value from the past 28 months to try to avoid wishful thinking, with new values where the averages weren't accurate, such as rent and income.  Here is the distribution of the necessities that we need to go to work and live. This doesn't include financial obligations other than car loan. "free" is money that can be spent on debt, savings, and discretionary in some combination.  This is the same exercise done from mint, except inserting discretionary spending and financial obligations. Free is money that was almost entirely earmarked for debt, plus the difference in historical earning and current earning. Clearly we could be doing much better.  And this is my current distribution of debt as of December 2012. This is exciting because that car loan has the potential to be paid off in four months by inheritance.
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Jan 18, 2013 15:20
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If I was going to go with a prepaid phone provider ( ), who should it be? Telus looks kind of expensive for what you get. Speak out 7 eleven looks awesome though. Just wondering. Edit: checking the Canadian cellular thread now.
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Jan 18, 2013 17:30
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There's a prepaid thread in IYG, but it's US-centric. Do the major carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile) also operate in Canada?
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Jan 18, 2013 17:35
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tuyop posted:And this is my current distribution of debt as of December 2012. This is exciting because that car loan has the potential to be paid off in four months by inheritance. Every time you post automotive expenses, my head hurts in an incredible way. You're spending like 20% of your income on your car. That's both crazy incredible, and crazy crazy. I mean, I don't think you should walk everywhere or anything, but what is the breakdown of that 20%? Seeing that your car costs more than your housing and food combined just boggles me. Edit: For refrence, my 'housing' expenses (mortgatge, utilities) is about 25% of the monthly take home. My car expenses (payment, insurance, gas) is about 7% of my take home. Which is why that number makes my head hurt. Edit Edit: Meant to mention we're talking about $6k a month as takehome. cstine fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Jan 18, 2013 |
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Jan 18, 2013 18:00
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cstine posted:Every time you post automotive expenses, my head hurts in an incredible way. You're spending like 20% of your income on your car. That's both crazy incredible, and crazy crazy. We net 5928 together with some small variations. So you can imagine, I guess.  That's the car pie chart. Edit: keep in mind that that's averaged over 28 months
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Jan 18, 2013 18:20
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tuyop posted:We net 5928 together with some small variations. So you can imagine, I guess. If you're spending $222 a month on car insurance, that would probably be the big difference, there.
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Jan 18, 2013 19:59
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I think we've discussed the insurance before, and he wasn't really able to get a better deal. I'm also impressed that you're averaging $150 on maintenance on what is a relatively new car. Maybe Canadian pricing accounts for some of that difference, but I keep my 2010 car well-maintained and don't spend anywhere near that amount.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:23
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Ninja Bob posted:I think we've discussed the insurance before, and he wasn't really able to get a better deal. I'm also impressed that you're averaging $150 on maintenance on what is a relatively new car. Maybe Canadian pricing accounts for some of that difference, but I keep my 2010 car well-maintained and don't spend anywhere near that amount. "maintenance" includes everything from tires and suspension work to windshield washer fluid. All the car consumables that aren't gasoline. But yes. It's been expensive.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:30
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It's a car that's driven in winter conditions in Canada, so there's the need for winter tires. I think in the last year he had some other repairs and necessary maintenance stuff come up for the first time, too. And his car may be fairly new, but it's been driven a loooooot of kilometers and I'm sure that's telling in various ways.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:33
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So I spent the day looking into YNAB and just set it up tonight. We decided to go this way because toeshoes was saying that she hated feeling guilty about buying a bagel. So having a guilt-free allowance should help with that. And I get to go to lunch with friends once a month or so! The application is really kind of great, and ideally solves all of my problems with saving for occasional but expected events. After spending a couple of hours setting it up, it's 100% obvious that the 1-3k that flows through our accounts is actually significantly reserved for semi-annual expenses. The way that we were functioning just didn't show it. Phone Frugality News (Phrugality?) Also, I researched some phone plans and I'm pretty sure that koodo is best. A summary of our needs: <50 local anytime minutes each 500-1000 texts each per month, picture and text. 60 mins of long distance between us Some moderate data usage. The plan is to dump the iPhones for awhile until we sort out the finances and my ambiguous employment situation. That may net us around 600-700 dollars in phones alone, then we'll just roll with dumb phones ($49 from Koodo) and like day planners or something. The other option is to go with WIND mobile which is just straight up unlimited EVERYTHING as long as you're in their service area. Outside of it is 20c per minute voice and similar. The deciding factor was the fact that koodo's $25 plan has no special long distance fee, so since you have unlimited evenings and weekends you can call anywhere for any amount of time during those times. It'll be kind of exciting to get rid of one of the more distracting (yet useful) things that goes everywhere I go. Opinions?
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Jan 19, 2013 05:33
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tuyop posted:The plan is to dump the iPhones for awhile until we sort out the finances and my ambiguous employment situation. That may net us around 600-700 dollars in phones alone, then we'll just roll with dumb phones ($49 from Koodo) and like day planners or something. Check used phones that are compatible with the network as well as the Koodo options. I don't know if you can find them as cheap as the US, but I found a 3 year old droid a855 for $35 shipped last month through ebay, compatible with our no-contract provider.
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Jan 19, 2013 08:08
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tuyop posted:I'm torn about nutrition though. My back has been very bad for the past couple of weeks and I can't help but think that it might be related to diet. Probably not. It might be due to your new desk, though (posture changes). Phone plans: You're both still in the army and have no clue where you'll be this summer and what kind of fourth rate network that place will have. Go prepaid.
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Jan 19, 2013 15:59
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We're both in love with YNAB. I feel like I could recreate this with a very complicated spreadsheet (that would stop working all the time), but I'm pretty sure we're going to buy it once the trial is up. It's so stress-free and peaceful to see our budget laid out this way.Adar posted:Probably not. It might be due to your new desk, though (posture changes). The koodo "plans" aren't contract, so if koodo sucks wherever we end up, then we can just cancel with no penalties and migrate our new shiny dumbphones to whatever other provider offers 25 dollar service. We really just want some bar style dumbphones, though. I just don't know how to go about buying one. Like, I just want a list of phones, sorted by bands/radios, and a list of Canadian networks sorted by bands/radios. Then I'll just shop around for the cheapest unlocked dumbphone I can find.
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Jan 20, 2013 16:15
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tuyop posted:We net 5928 together with some small variations. So you can imagine, I guess. I thought this was neat and did it to each of my cars, though only applied over the past six months (one because I'm lazy and that's a lot of data to sort through, and two because our car situation changed dramatically over the past six months).  1. Our Volvo. This is our spare car and gets driven rarely. If we were to stop driving it, the mileage and gas would be amortized into my car. So it costs us about $50/month. I just did some repairs yesterday that cost $8 total, so it should continue to be cheap as hell to own.  2. Our new Ford Fiesta. Being a brand-new car with full coverage, it has high insurance and payments (it's a short-term lease, hence the high payments). While I'd like to think my car could make a thousand-mile journey and need nothing, I know the reality is that it has 160,000 miles and that probably wouldn't be the case. I know the Volvo couldn't make such a journey. So this is our reliable car with a full warranty. I gets nearly 40mpg too, and so far has been great.  3. And lastly, my BMW. This is my daily driver, though I must not be driving as much as I used to. The Volvo is siphoning some mileage off of it though, so that's probably why. Insurance is high (something I disagree with, since my E36 was much cheaper to maintain and this car isn't worth that much, especially since I paid six grand for it, but they must see the V8 and slap a premium on it. Whatever, it's worth it.) but so far repairs have been pretty reasonable. Mostly just fixing stuff that was wrong when I bought the car. I'm sure the repairs will increase over time, but it really needs nothing at the moment and is also known as one of the most reliable luxury cars ever built, so who knows. So that's the cost of ownership for my three cars over the past six months. They're very, very different profiles, but I think having that third car gives me a lot more options should problems arise - I could sell it for some cash, or sell my car for some cash, or just stop driving one if it breaks and is going to be expensive until I save up the money (not likely since I'm pretty well prepared for such a thing). I'd never really compared them against each other before. It's kind of cool to do.
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Jan 20, 2013 18:25
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CornHolio posted:Cars I'd kill for any of those cost profiles, or even the insurance on any of them.  I'm just really excited to try going car free. It would make such a huge difference in our finances.
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Jan 20, 2013 20:56
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tuyop posted:I'd kill for any of those cost profiles, or even the insurance on any of them. Yeah, our three cars cost us less than your one car per month (and two of ours have full coverage!). Though if you can successfully go car free, many many kudos are in order. That'd be pretty awesome finances-wise.
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Jan 20, 2013 22:21
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CornHolio posted:Yeah, our three cars cost us less than your one car per month (and two of ours have full coverage!). Though if you can successfully go car free, many many kudos are in order. That'd be pretty awesome finances-wise. We also just spent 351 dollars on a ticket from last June (remember that?). They were going to add it to our taxes so we just made it work. Just a reminder of how I should just stay away from cars forever.
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Jan 20, 2013 22:58
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Some people should stay away from booze. You should stay away from cars. Have you thought about replacing cars with booze?
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Jan 20, 2013 23:01
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Baloogan posted:Some people should stay away from booze. You should stay away from cars. Have you thought about replacing cars with booze? Tried that! And cigarettes... And coffee... And sex... And vacations... Maybe I should just stay away from life?
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Jan 20, 2013 23:02
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You ever tried using an aroma therapy vaporizer and vaporize some sweet sweet fresh organic basil?
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Jan 20, 2013 23:07
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Baloogan posted:You ever tried using an aroma therapy vaporizer and vaporize some sweet sweet fresh organic basil? Please clarify, are you referring to BASIL, or basil?
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Jan 21, 2013 00:17
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Totally legit, fish-grown, handmade BASIL, of course.
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Jan 21, 2013 01:11
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First one, then the other.
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Jan 21, 2013 01:13
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Cornholio is now leasing a new car on a short term? Apparently the fiscal responsibility didn't last long...
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Jan 21, 2013 05:13
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n8r posted:Cornholio is now leasing a new car on a short term? Apparently the fiscal responsibility didn't last long... Sometimes, a lease makes sense based on what somebody's specific wants and needs are. I did a lot of research and calculating before I made my decision. If you want to complain and tell me how stupid I am, take it here.
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Jan 21, 2013 12:24
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Lease makes sense for some. Financing makes sense for some. Besides I remember CH mentioning that he was planning on buying a new car in his old topic so it wasn't unplanned and spontaneous.
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Jan 21, 2013 16:45
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quaint bucket posted:Lease makes sense for some. Financing makes sense for some. And it's not like he leased a 7-series.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:28
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I'm normally completely opposed to leasing but CornHolio did a total cost analysis and determined that it fit his budget and needs. He posted such a thorough, well researched justification for it that even I said "Meh, OK." He did this after he had gotten out of debt and built an emergency fund, so he was in a position to make some extra expenditures for the sake of comfort and convenience.
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Jan 21, 2013 17:47
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CornHolio posted:Sometimes, a lease makes sense based on what somebody's specific wants and needs are. I did a lot of research and calculating before I made my decision. If you want to complain and tell me how stupid I am, take it here. It's odd that you didn't mention you leasing it in the posts - you only mention your brother doing it. Time to open up the ole' biz fin thread again cornholio it sounds like you're back in debt.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:01
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I'm too lazy to dig up the thread, but I definitely remember Cornholio mentioning it in his thread. There was a screwup with the color or something, and delivery was delayed when Cornholio really needed the car, then it came at the last second or something along those lines IIRC. I'm also pretty sure the thread agreed it was fine for CH to have the lease, he could definitely afford it and it was the right choice.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:41
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n8r posted:It's odd that you didn't mention you leasing it in the posts - you only mention your brother doing it. Time to open up the ole' biz fin thread again cornholio it sounds like you're back in debt. You're getting me confused with somebody else, I think. Neither of my brothers has ever leased a car. Actually, neither has even technically bought one... My dad bought them each their cars.
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Jan 21, 2013 18:46
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Is your dad secretly Uncle Pennybags? I have really nothing to add to tuyop's decision and life. I think his spending the money from toeshoe's family on the furnitures at ikea is fine. I'm not ok with overspending by $100 but it's still ok. I'm guessing you checked Craigslist and Kijiji? I can't recall because I glazed over the topic because goons. Your decision with the phone is fine. Koodoo is a good one to go with since no contracts. I don't know how many minutes you average on a month because if it's really low, you're probably better off on a prepaid. This only reminds me of the guy a couple nights ago. I was just getting off work from a sidejob (making fun money) and decided to stop by McDonald for a late dinner. I was just looking at my phone and this old guy came up to me and asked me how much I paid for my plan and I told him it was $65 but mostly reimbursed from work. He got so excited and told me how he paid only $10 for his plan on the iPhone 5 and how he did all that research of taking a large SIM card and cutting it down to fit it in his phone. So now whenever he gets a phone call he lets it go to voicemail and pull over to a place with wifi to call them. He was so excited I thought he was probably going to kill me by accident or something. It was kinda hard not to laugh. Pretty cool though. Tuyop and toeshoe: how's the budget and money affecting your lives? Don't let it interfere with your relationship with each other. I have seen too many people allow that to happen and it's pretty sad. quaint bucket fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Jan 21, 2013 |
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Jan 21, 2013 18:50
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