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tuyop posted:Getting takeout is such an easy habit to get into. You smell the food walking by, or you're a regular, or someone talks about it at work. I wouldn't take it to heart, this woman is a creature of weak habits. It gets hard when it's only one or two people. Hmm, I can spend 8-12$ to cook a meal, do dishes and clean up, or I can spend $10 and get a pizza from Papa Johns.
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Dec 16, 2013 17:42
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tuyop posted:Getting takeout is such an easy habit to get into. You smell the food walking by, or you're a regular, or someone talks about it at work. I wouldn't take it to heart, this woman is a creature of weak habits. Oh don't worry I don't take it to heart at all. I'm not cooking for my roommate, I'm cooking for myself, something I'd do either way. The only difference is she pays for half the groceries I buy and I have to throw two chicken breasts on the skillet instead of just one, so it's not like it's extra work for me. But since this is the "tell us stories about people bad with money" thread I thought I'd post about it because she came up with the grocery/cooking thing as a way to save herself money since she was eating out almost every day, and now she buys groceries and still eats out almost every day.
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Dec 16, 2013 17:55
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Haifisch posted:http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/1syosc/should_i_invest_in_a_condo_in_ann_arbor_while_i/ I've heard quite a few people argue that buying your kid a house to live in while they go to college (Or buying yourself a house / condo near your college) is a great investment. Because you can rent it out once they move out, or just sell it back I guess. 
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Dec 16, 2013 18:36
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FrozenVent posted:I've heard quite a few people argue that buying your kid a house to live in while they go to college (Or buying yourself a house / condo near your college) is a great investment. Because you can rent it out once they move out, or just sell it back I guess. I had a friend do that. Her dad bought a 3 bedroom in an okay neighborhood when she got into medical school. She used the basement as a 4th bedroom and 3 of her med-school friends rented it from him. He fixed it up and sold it after they moved out. I'm thinking it was much cheaper for her and her dad than if they rented an apartment somewhere on campus. I think it can make sense if you have reliable tenants lined up for the long term (med school students are pretty good, I would imagine), you have some cash up front, and you're a little handy so you can take care of maintenance.
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Dec 16, 2013 18:42
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Anecdotal, but I've noticed my medical/dental/law school friends tend to take on HUGE amounts of debt while in school. Pre-rewarding themselves for all their future hard work and even more future high income?
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Dec 16, 2013 18:50
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Anecdotal, but I've noticed my medical/dental/law school friends tend to take on HUGE amounts of debt while in school. Pre-rewarding themselves for all their future hard work and even more future high income? Probably because once you have over $100,000 in student loans, an extra thousand for some trips to Europe or something doesn't seem like much of anything.
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Dec 16, 2013 19:03
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And I thought I was bad with money.reddit posted:But I can't get over the idea that it's stupid to buy a place when my only income will be student loans 
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Dec 16, 2013 19:08
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Man, I just finished exams and it's totally clear to me how I used to spend so much on travel and booze. Anything to get over this feeling of exhaustion and impending doom of doing it all over again in four more months.
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Dec 16, 2013 19:39
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LorneReams posted:It gets hard when it's only one or two people. Hmm, I can spend 8-12$ to cook a meal, do dishes and clean up, or I can spend $10 and get a pizza from Papa Johns. My wife and I have been pretty bad with this in the past. We did the math on it and figured it was about the same price, but we started edging towards higher end places and better, slightly healthier I guess food. Relax, order a couple of drinks, leave a decent tip and it ended up that that $10 meal became $50 or more for the two of us. It took some time for us to realize that we were spending around 1500 / month on food on average, and some months much more. When I think back to how much we spent and what we got for it (about 30 lbs for me personally..) in retrospect it makes me feel pretty dumb and bad with money. Now when we eat out its socializing with friends or occasional date night type deals. Its no longer an almost nightly 'where do you want to eat?' situation.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:14
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tuyop posted:Man, I just finished exams and it's totally clear to me how I used to spend so much on travel and booze. Anything to get over this feeling of exhaustion and impending doom of doing it all over again in four more months.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:21
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canyoneer posted:Want to talk depressing poverty? Watch "A Place At The Table" on Netflix, about hunger in America. It is heartbreaking to see those kids who don't have enough to eat, and the parents working two minimum wage jobs that can't provide enough for them.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:21
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tiananman posted:I had a friend do that. Her dad bought a 3 bedroom in an okay neighborhood when she got into medical school. She used the basement as a 4th bedroom and 3 of her med-school friends rented it from him. He fixed it up and sold it after they moved out. I'm thinking it was much cheaper for her and her dad than if they rented an apartment somewhere on campus. I got in on a situation like this. My good friends' parents bought her a 2-bedroom house to live in while she did her undergrad. I ended up moving there after she graduated and I started grad school. It was pretty sweet for me (I got cheap rent and great landlords) but there's no way they made money. If they're lucky they broke even. The very first day I moved in, there was some plumbing issues and I saw the bill and it was over $600. They also replaced half of the windows in the house and actually tore down the entire front of the house and replaced it with brick because the windows were so bad that water got in and basically rotted the front of the house away from the inside. They also tried to remodel the bathroom but are old retired people with zero skills so after half a year, they gave up and hired a professional who did it in 3 days. But my rent was about $150/month cheaper than all my friends, in a great location too. They ended up selling the house after I moved out this spring. It sold within 3 days so who knows, maybe they did come out ahead. Their daughter, though, it definitely bad with money. She was always broke when we were undergrads even though she wasn't paying rent and had a job. She works on fishing boats now and has bought 2 new cars since she started there. Her job offers her about 3 months of the year to actually use her vehicle because, you know, she lives ON A BOAT. She bought one SUV and then sold it because she never used it because she lived on a boat. Then she bought another one that she still can't use because she still lives on a boat. It sits at her parents house 2,000 miles from where she works.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:24
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No Wave posted:And you'll have to deal with exams twice a year again, repeatedly, forever, as a teacher... but I guess you're giving? Yeah if I have to give exams. It's hardly the same thing though. But it's never too late to go be an electrician or personal trainer or something!
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Dec 16, 2013 20:29
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Actually another good documentary about the poors is "The House I Live In". It's ostensibly about the war on drugs but ends up being about class and control. Excellent movie.
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Dec 16, 2013 20:40
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LorneReams posted:It gets hard when it's only one or two people. Hmm, I can spend 8-12$ to cook a meal, do dishes and clean up, or I can spend $10 and get a pizza from Papa Johns. See, that's a problem. Unless you have special dietary restrictions, it doesn't cost $8 to $12 to cook a meal yourself unless you're cooking steak. And then it shouldn't be bad steak. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2013/CostofFoodJun2013.pdf * *Remember, the USDA is a subsidy organization. They're the ones that tried to make dairy into a food group. If you can't beat their estimates, then you're probably not trying. If you're cooking for yourself with the goal of saving money, you really shouldn't be spending more than $2 per person per meal. If you want to call yourself frugal, it probably shouldn't be more than $1 per person per meal most of the time, with a once weekly splurge. I'm assuming a meal is about 700 calories. The closer you get to the $2 per meal thing, the more protein you get.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:21
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Are you assuming the labor of buying gorceries, cleaning up during and afterwards, and then the act of cooking is free? I can see that if you have more time then money, but otherwise, there is a point where it becomes almost a wash.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:25
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Folly posted:If you're cooking for yourself with the goal of saving money, you really shouldn't be spending more than $2 per person per meal. If you want to call yourself frugal, it probably shouldn't be more than $1 per person per meal most of the time, with a once weekly splurge. This is also pretty dependent on where you live.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:34
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LorneReams posted:Are you assuming the labor of buying gorceries, cleaning up during and afterwards, and then the act of cooking is free? I can see that if you have more time then money, but otherwise, there is a point where it becomes almost a wash. I disagree to a point. I mean sure if one is getting paid professionally to do this stuff then maybe, but it's not like most people would be getting paid to do other things instead of cooking at that moment. And going out takes time, too. Edit and for another example of someone bad with money: My cousin's ex-wife. When I used to roommate with them in my late teens, my cousin and I would come home from work (we worked for the same person) and she would pretty much every time be walking around in her bra in the middle of an 80ºF day with the heater set to 90ºF. Constantly. For 6 hours. She said it felt comfortable. Holy gently caress has she never heard of a blanket? And who needs such heat in the summer? Anyway they're divorced now, but my cousin is just as bad. I'll have to post in here about him later (lots of blown windfall money, when he'll probably never be able to work in his career again in his life). Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Dec 16, 2013 |
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Dec 16, 2013 21:48
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LorneReams posted:It gets hard when it's only one or two people.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:12
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Huttan posted:I find it gets easier with 2 people. I stupidly let my sister move in with me. She won't eat what I cook, and I won't eat what she cooks (very unhealthy stuff). So to avoid dealing with the complaints, I eat out pretty much all week and eat spaghetti on the weekend (and I get spicy sauce so she won't touch it). If I bring anything home (takeouts or left overs), I have to buy extra because she eats it. So how is this making it easier exactly?
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Dec 16, 2013 22:21
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FrozenVent posted:I've heard quite a few people argue that buying your kid a house to live in while they go to college (Or buying yourself a house / condo near your college) is a great investment. Because you can rent it out once they move out, or just sell it back I guess. I had some people I know do this, but they had 4 kids (+ non-blood family + boyfriends/girlfriends) going to the same university over the course of 7-8 years and came out waaaay ahead. Totally not a one-size fits all solution though, that's for sure. GoGoGadgetChris posted:Anecdotal, but I've noticed my medical/dental/law school friends tend to take on HUGE amounts of debt while in school. Pre-rewarding themselves for all their future hard work and even more future high income? Why do morbidly obese people eat 15,000 calories a day? It's self-harm 
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Dec 16, 2013 22:33
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I dunno, do you count the money and time it takes to drive to a restaurant, the cost of tipping a delivery driver, or the cleanup of eating take out? My weekly grocery trip isn't much more than an hour, including the drive. Breakfast takes 5-10 minutes for hot food, usually eggs and toast. Lunch takes <5 minutes. Sandwich and this week's soup. Dinner takes 30 to 45 minutes of my effort time. Total: About an hour a day. Cleanup usually occurs during the cooking. It seriously takes almost no time unless you've made something that you have to scrub out of a pot. And it shouldn't depend much on where you live. Flour, rice, and dried beans are cheap almost everywhere. Milk is cheap everywhere in the continental US and I'm pretty sure most of Canada. Chicken is cheap in the US, and I hear that's rare. But as far as I know, it's cheap everywhere in the continental US. I figure that a lot of people start the switch to cooking for themselves and with the goal of "I can make food at home that tastes just as good as the stuff I buy." They get into fancy recipes and they take a lot of fulfillment from it so they add unnecessary effort or expensive ingredients to increase that sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. And they talk about the quality of the food. Then they look at what that costs and say "F- this, I can just buy it." Instead, set your goal to be as fast, nutritious, and inexpensive as you can manage. Cook the same meals over and over again. Get to know them and know their prices. Establish routines. Build a menu out of your routines. Just let it kind grow naturally instead of planning it. Then, track the costs and start cutting. Eventually, all of those attendant costs suddenly shrink away to mild annoyances. Also, at the risk of a derail, a McDouble costs $1 and it is a 400 calorie serviceable imbalance of protein, fat, and carbs. Have one with a big glass of milk from your jug at home and you've got meal for under $2 with the cost of the 2-3 mile drive to McD's included. Edit: Underestimated the driving cost. And sorry for the derail. I don't have any stories other than the usual "my friend bought a BMW as soon as he got a raise." Not really bad enough to be entertaining. Folly fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Dec 16, 2013 |
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Dec 16, 2013 22:48
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Knyteguy posted:And going out takes time, too. And it might just be the things I cook, but most of the time you don't have to be constantly hovering over whatever you're cooking, meaning you can do other things while waiting for your meal. Certain meals are also really easy to scale upward, so you get a lot more servings(aka leftovers) out of your time investment. Cleanup isn't that bad if you clean things off ASAP, before food has time to dry onto your dishes. It also doesn't cost anywhere near $10 a serving to do this - if you really think it costs $8-10 to cook a meal, then you're not probably splitting the cost per serving correctly(it might cost me $8 to make a batch of chili, but then I'll have 5+ servings of chili to eat!). Check out Budget Bytes if you're not convinced how inexpensive cooking can be - they have many cheap, relatively simple recipes, and they actually break down the cost per serving. They also have tips on how to stock a kitchen & how to keep food costs under control.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:10
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Haifisch posted:On this note, I think a lot of people drastically underestimate how much time they're wasting when they go out to eat. Even grabbing fast food involves driving to the fast food joint, waiting in the drive-thru, waiting for your food to come out, and driving home. Proper restaurants take even longer. At best, it's a wash; at worst, you're spending more time than you would if you just cooked something yourself. This is assuming people are following your scenario, and not grabbing something directly on the way home, either walking or in their car. In that situation it can in fact be saving a lot of time and hassle. Of course it's still a waste of money generally.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:22
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Folly posted:And it shouldn't depend much on where you live. Flour, rice, and dried beans are cheap almost everywhere. Milk is cheap everywhere in the continental US and I'm pretty sure most of Canada. Chicken is cheap in the US, and I hear that's rare. But as far as I know, it's cheap everywhere in the continental US. Not everybody wants to eat these things, or eat them that often. Vegetables and fruit can be pricey in certain areas. Personally, I'm happy to pay for convenience. The closest supermarket to me is a little marketplace where pasta costs like $3 per box. Luckily Trader Joe's is only 15 minutes away and is more affordable. It's pricier than eating just bulk chicken or soaking my own 1 lb bag of beans and whatever but a lot of their stuff is different, fun, easy to make, perfectly healthy, and I'll pay a little to not have to own a car or bike to get to some of the normal grocery stores or to have to walk all the way across town to get to Chinatown or the Italian Market for cheaper produce. Folly posted:Instead, set your goal to be as fast, nutritious, and inexpensive as you can manage. Why? Maybe I'm missing something but this is a bad with money thread, not a "How Frugal Can you Live Your Life" thread. I mean, I agree that some people take eating out to the extreme or spend way too much on groceries, but not everyone has to eat chicken and rice and spend $1-$2 a day per meal to be good with money.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:25
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There's a whole Goons with Spoons thread about this, "Help! I'm poor and I want to make good food!" http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3442278 The best thing I ever did for my budget was get food stamps and limiting myself to eating what I could purchase with them. I learned how to cook well on $200 a month for myself that way, and it held over when I no longer had food stamps. For a tale of those bad with money, I have classmates in my graduate program who are making my head hurt right now. Our program is based on a contract with the state: Get a stipend equal to tuition while in school, indenture yourself for two years post-grad to the state. Right around now is when we start sending out government applications to compete for the best jobs that fulfill our contracts. Technically, you don't have to start applying til June, but it's likely the competitive well-paying jobs will have been filled before then. However, since I go to a ivy league equivalent public school, my classmates are smarmy fucks who figure "I will jump the head of the applicant queue because I am a special fancy school snowflake, gently caress those state school applicants who started six months ago." They are planning European vacations for the summer anticipating that they will have June/July free because government jobs take a while to come through with offers. So, basically, they are all going to end up making $20k less per year and will have to move farther away than they would have if they applied earlier, and losing the income from two months of the summer, and possibly in breach of their contract if they are out of the country when they are required to interview. Breaching the contract converts the stipend into a lump sum loan due immediately. Goddammit. This is why the people in our field hate us for being cocky fucks. 
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Dec 16, 2013 23:34
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Trilineatus posted:The best thing I ever did for my budget was get food stamps and limiting myself to eating what I could purchase with them. I learned how to cook well on $200 a month for myself that way, and it held over when I no longer had food stamps. I ate SO GOOD when I was on food stamps. I got $167 a month and I think I was spending < $125/month before. Suddenly, I could splurge for a red bell pepper instead of only buying green. I could buy Hamburger Helper instead of Panburger Partner (don't try it, seriously don't ever try it, just spend the extra 50 cents). I remember buying a wedge of parmesan cheese that was like 6 bucks and thinking "there's no way I would have ever bought this before".
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Dec 16, 2013 23:41
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Haifisch posted:Check out Budget Bytes if you're not convinced how inexpensive cooking can be - they have many cheap, relatively simple recipes, and they actually break down the cost per serving. This site kind of annoys me/frustrates me because it'll say something like (for example the first recipe on there) -- Peppermint bark. Ingredients: Peppermint oil -- $0.14 for a few drops. What, no. I have to buy the whole bottle and fit the whole bottle into my grocery budget, not just the 14 cents I use (and then in this case, probably never use again).
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Dec 16, 2013 23:50
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HooKars posted:This site kind of annoys me/frustrates me because it'll say something like (for example the first recipe on there) -- Peppermint bark. Ingredients: Peppermint oil -- $0.14 for a few drops. What, no. I have to buy the whole bottle and fit the whole bottle into my grocery budget, not just the 14 cents I use (and then in this case, probably never use again). Yeah, most tools for budgeting also require the judicious application of common sense. It's the same way that "interest free for six months" sounds like a good idea but requires common sense to apply it, eg "Can I actually afford to pay this off in six months before I get slammed with cumulative interest?"
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Dec 16, 2013 23:52
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The discussion of parents buying a rental house for their kids to live in during college brought back some memories. I briefly dated a girl whose parents had bought a rental for their three kids to live in during college. All three kids went to the same college, so in that case, I can say that it probably made good sense. However, the parent's wisdom was sadly lacking from their daughter. She graduated with a BS and something like $40k in loans, and an unknown amount in credit cards (I'm guessing under $10k). Meanwhile I'd managed to graduate with a BS as well, only $8k in loans and no CC debt. She talked about how her ~future husband~ was going to need to make six figures to fit in with her family and keep up with her ~lifestyle~. Thank loving god it didn't work out with her.
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Dec 17, 2013 02:49
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Thank loving god it didn't work out with her. Uuuuuuh, if you'd married her you'd be making six figures, obviously you're the one who's bad with money here.
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Dec 17, 2013 02:52
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I actually did make six figures for about two years I try to save as much as I can, partly due to her ~lifestyle~ making me want to puke
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Dec 17, 2013 03:02
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I sold shares out of the wrong lot, so I have to pay short term gains instead of the long term gains I was planning on paying. Only a $1000 difference or so, but it's obnoxious. Lesson learned: never sell shares with the Etrade app, its too easy to get lost in the Matrix in that loving thing
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Dec 17, 2013 07:44
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Fun fact! It's cheaper to eat out in Singapore than to cook at home. People just don't really cook. Most homes don't have ovens. Vegetables are loving expensive because almost nothing is actually grown here. I saw an organic red pepper once for over $9, shipped in from israel. It makes sense with the philosophy of specialized labor. It's much more efficient to leave dumpling making to the professionals, rather than spend hours doing it myself to have them come out all lovely. Now that I've been here a while, it seems so weird that cooking at home would be cheaper (on the macro scale anyway). I still do cook, but it's for fun or vegetables, not economics- it's like $3.50 for a meal from a food stall. And they never gently caress up their rice.
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Dec 17, 2013 08:18
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The cost of alcohol and lack of seasons makes up the difference.
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Dec 17, 2013 10:03
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Switchback posted:Fun fact! It's cheaper to eat out in Singapore than to cook at home. People just don't really cook. Most homes don't have ovens. Vegetables are loving expensive because almost nothing is actually grown here. I saw an organic red pepper once for over $9, shipped in from israel. Err don't buy organic veg then? Those are always expensive. The vegetables from Malaysia & Indonesia are much cheaper. It is cheaper to eat out at nearby coffee shop/hawker center though if it's just one or two people. But that's just for local food. If you want a steak it's still probably cheaper to cook it at home.
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Dec 17, 2013 11:10
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primitive posted:I sold shares out of the wrong lot, so I have to pay short term gains instead of the long term gains I was planning on paying. You should double check this, but my understanding is that you state whatever lot you are selling from when you file your taxes. Your broker has software to keep track of it for you as a convenience, but that information is not part of what they send to the IRS.
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Dec 17, 2013 14:32
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:I actually did make six figures for about two years I try to save as much as I can, partly due to her ~lifestyle~ making me want to puke This reminds me of my ex-girlfriend. One time we got in an argument, so she impulse shopped for $3,200!!! in clothes at Express (I saw the receipt). Her reasoning was that her father would pay for it. He made pretty good money as a lead air traffic controller but still. She was also 26, living at home, and making minimum wage as a hair stylist! She ended up marrying the son of a walnut farmer, but I'm sure she'll bankrupt the poor guy eventually. I really, -really- dodged a bullet.
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Dec 17, 2013 19:57
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Switchback posted:Fun fact! It's cheaper to eat out in Singapore than to cook at home. People just don't really cook. Most homes don't have ovens. Vegetables are loving expensive because almost nothing is actually grown here. I wonder how the cooks turn a profit. Knyteguy posted:This reminds me of my ex-girlfriend. One time we got in an argument, so she impulse shopped for $3,200!!! in clothes at Express (I saw the receipt). If everyone will excuse me, I have to go apologize to my wife for getting mad about her impulse spending $100 at target every other month or so during our early marriage.
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Dec 17, 2013 20:15
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Knyteguy posted:This reminds me of my ex-girlfriend. One time we got in an argument, so she impulse shopped for $3,200!!! in clothes at Express (I saw the receipt). Her reasoning was that her father would pay for it. He made pretty good money as a lead air traffic controller but still. She was also 26, living at home, and making minimum wage as a hair stylist! She ended up marrying the son of a walnut farmer, but I'm sure she'll bankrupt the poor guy eventually. True thing that was said to me on a date: "Well, this other guy I'm seeing inherited a brewery from his dad, and he's looking at buying some beachfront rental properties - what properties do you own right now?" Apparently, "Well I do own a racehorse," wasn't exciting enough so I never got the second date.
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Dec 17, 2013 20:42
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