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n8r posted:So I guess the problem I have is that the budget where you've broken everything down to a ton of categories is great to look at how you are spending money, but looking forward it's a terrible way to *save* money. I think for people that have spending issues doing a bunch of categories just gives them the opportunity to waste money on a wide range of things they don't really need. Here is my perspective on a more rational budget. Using made up numbers because it's a PITA to look at yours specifically. Fixed necessities (rent & bills) Variable necessities (groceries, drug store, gas, pets) Variable optional (everything else) Figure out what your variable necessities are in a typical month and add a bit of padding. Subtract out those two numbers from the total and that gives you your variable optional. That one number is what you keep an eye on throughout the month. And it gets reduced when variable necessities are unusually high: if the cat has to go to the vet, you have to eat out less and put off buying a Kindle until next month. At any point in the month, you should know where you are with how much money you have left for anything that might come up. I think it's infinitely easier to stay in budget when you aren't juggling categories all over the place. It also removes some of the value judgments / "I deserve" thinking: the number is the number. When poo poo happens, you have to have a lean month (or months) as a result. Ideally, you'll routinely have a bit of carryover from one month to the next -- start using that to save up for things like the football pass or anniversary weekend or whatever ahead of time. If you never have carryover, reduce your savings: better to learn to live within a realistic budget than to blow out your spartan budget half the time.
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# ? Aug 16, 2014 19:21 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 11:26 |
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What is your side business? I may have missed it, but I'm extra curious now that you said someone tried to sue you over it. I assumed it was something innocuous based on the relatively low amounts involved.
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# ? Aug 16, 2014 19:28 |
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Giraffe posted:... OK I'd be willing to give something like this a shot in September just to see how it works. I don't want to destroy our budget file though, so I'll have to figure out how to do this without doing that. Droo posted:What is your side business? I may have missed it, but I'm extra curious now that you said someone tried to sue you over it. I assumed it was something innocuous based on the relatively low amounts involved. My side business truly varies from day to day and year to year. I currently sell microscopes, make websites (for myself and also clients), I run a web host company, I'm probably going to be able to deploy my first mobile app today (very small and probably won't make much if anything). Sometimes I will also do a little Elance or Odesk contracting if I'm bored or feel like making more money. When I was nearly sued however I was just contracting for local clients pretty much. Really it should have been innocuous, but something goofy happened as explained that that link I posted. Edit: clarity. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Aug 16, 2014 |
# ? Aug 16, 2014 19:58 |
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Knyteguy posted:OK I'd be willing to give something like this a shot in September just to see how it works. I don't want to destroy our budget file though, so I'll have to figure out how to do this without doing that.
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# ? Aug 16, 2014 20:51 |
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Knyte: I think I have a digital converter box and rabbit ears lying around. If it'll help you save some money, I'll ship them to you, free.
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# ? Aug 16, 2014 21:10 |
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Maybe this is just my personality talking, (and if it were me I'd have to really worry about how much my bar tab was...) but wouldn't you rather go to the local bar and watch? Obviously one that has the package, but getting to hang out and bullshit with other ADULTS (especially when the baby comes) and maybe make some new friends sounds a million times better to me than sitting at home in front of a laptop. Drink ~3 bud lites or 2 IPAs and chat. Tip your bartender. Most places have free food. It's a good time. Give your wife her 3 hours off without the baby too. E: i partially agree with both sides... Yes you need to buckle down and not make excuses but also that's a minor expense in the scheme of your budget. It's fine of it's really what you spend to avoid spending more on buying the package and it fulfills a big part of your blow money. If it's one in a long continuing line of excuses to keep spending money, it's all bad. Make us and yourself proud. MAKE NO BABBYS fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Aug 16, 2014 |
# ? Aug 16, 2014 23:26 |
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Knyteguy posted:
That's awesome. I've made a ton of money in the last decade with no business checking account or LLC (although I have had a couple of LLCs over the years as well.) If your town requires a license then it is a good idea to comply, but make absolutely sure they do - that is actually a fairly rare thing and aimed more at people who are operating customer oriented businesses out of their house, which is what a lot of residential areas want to avoid. Online work where you never have customers in your house is different, so just make sure you know what is going on there as far as requirements. That being said, the biggest thing is getting customers. I know so many people who get really excited about business checking, logos, and business cards and never get a customer.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 00:39 |
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Nocheez posted:Knyte: I think I have a digital converter box and rabbit ears lying around. If it'll help you save some money, I'll ship them to you, free. Nocheez that would be really, really great if you don't think you'll have a use for them again. I'd only do it if you let me pay for shipping at least. If you think you'll have a use I'd rather wait and pick up a set. MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Maybe this is just my personality talking, (and if it were me I'd have to really worry about how much my bar tab was...) but wouldn't you rather go to the local bar and watch? Obviously one that has the package, but getting to hang out and bullshit with other ADULTS (especially when the baby comes) and maybe make some new friends sounds a million times better to me than sitting at home in front of a laptop. Drink ~3 bud lites or 2 IPAs and chat. Tip your bartender. Most places have free food. It's a good time. Give your wife her 3 hours off without the baby too. imabanana posted:That's awesome. I've made a ton of money in the last decade with no business checking account or LLC (although I have had a couple of LLCs over the years as well.) If your town requires a license then it is a good idea to comply, but make absolutely sure they do - that is actually a fairly rare thing and aimed more at people who are operating customer oriented businesses out of their house, which is what a lot of residential areas want to avoid. Online work where you never have customers in your house is different, so just make sure you know what is going on there as far as requirements. I'll need to look up the business license requirements again here to see if it is necessary or not. Speaking of which I'm getting pretty close to finishing up the mobile app. Going to put my attention back on it.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 04:02 |
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Knyteguy posted:Nocheez that would be really, really great if you don't think you'll have a use for them again. I'd only do it if you let me pay for shipping at least. If you think you'll have a use I'd rather wait and pick up a set. I have no use for it, but I have to find it. I'll be back in town in 2 weeks and will look for it then.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 04:41 |
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Nocheez posted:I have no use for it, but I have to find it. I'll be back in town in 2 weeks and will look for it then. Ok man I would really appreciate that.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 13:29 |
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Really the biggest change from anything is L4, which we decided to pay off since it was 6.5% interest and it's one less thing to worry about now.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 23:21 |
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Am I reading this right that you don't have any money left for food this month? And that you only get $121 for the two you a month?
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 23:46 |
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spwrozek posted:Am I reading this right that you don't have any money left for food this month? And that you only get $121 for the two you a month? No - we ran out of groceries like 2 days before the 1st of July so we bought most of them in June. Our food budget was really $400.00 this month. I expect we'll go about $10.00 over the allotted amount to get some milk two times or so by September. We're pretty well set on meals.
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# ? Aug 17, 2014 23:47 |
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I'm been a spectator to this so far, here are a couple of my thoughts (as if anyone cared) 1. I'm not going to harp on you about the football thing, however it's a treat you want, and it should come from your blow money, which you should save up. How else are you ever going to learn financial discipline? You get $100 a month (BTW my wife and I allot ourselves $40/mo each and it's just fine), that means you just needed 2 months to be able to afford it. You can't go 1 full calendar month without buying something? This sums up your spending issues quite succinctly don't you think? You knew it was coming up, why didn't you save for it? 2. My wife and I ditched cable a while ago and I honestly don't miss football. Granted, I was never a super fan or anything, but I did like to watch games. It's actually fairly liberating because it's one less thing I need to keep up with and stress out over if my team isn't doing well. I miss just being connected with the world of sports in general (aka ESPN), but if I cared enough I could keep in touch just on the web. As a parent and a homeowner, I have things I could be doing otherwise than wasting my saturday/sunday in front of the tv. I am a little weird in that I like getting things done more than watching sports. 3. Definitely no crazy business decisions until after the baby comes. You have no idea what your free time is going to be like, or whether or not you are even going to want to do more work, especially when your kid is 3+ months old and they start to be more interesting as little people. 4. You asked on the last page about what you should do with the big car loan looming over your head, dave ramsey, etc. His logic doesn't apply here, you have two huge lifechanging/costly events coming up (wife not working / baby coming). You need to pile up every last cent you have for the what ifs. If the baby is delivered and it's not as expensive as you thought and your wife not working is going well financially, then hey congrats you have a bunch of money to throw at debt. Until that time, you save your pennies. Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough, is you need to slow down 3000%. Becoming good with money is not a sprint, there are no quick fixes. You don't become automatically good with money by selling your PS4 and having a few thousand dollars in the bank. Historical, repeated success is what you need to strive for. I don't mean to be rude, but all of your posts reek of this. "This is conservatively how much we'll have saved by [MONTH], we'll at least save $XXXXXXXX this month" - NO. You do not count your chickens before they're hatched. It does look like you guys will save a decent amount this month, but you don't pat yourself on the back until you've done a good job. Your posting in the hypotheticals and don't have enough of a track record for us to trust you. And when you are saving a decent amount the real temptation comes in, you want to reward yourself for doing good. That is not how this works. "BUT WE HAVE $5k IN SAVINGS WE DESERVE CUSTOM MAHOGONY UKULELES YOU MONSTERS WE NEED TO LIVE" "I was reading this book and I'm not convinced that I need to expand my business and make all the money ever" - You're again looking for a quick way to make money. NO. Right now you need to be in "Holy poo poo I need to save all my money" mode. You have a large chunk of debt, you have a child on the way and your wife may not return to work. This is absolutely not the time to be thinking about big, life changing events. If you ran with this business you'd convince yourself you need a new computer and business license and then you need to spend all this time doing work which you're not going to have soon with an infant. Make the best of what you have now, i.e. eliminate wasteful spending. Reading up on financial stuff is all well and good, but you're making like 20 posts a day in your thread. Slow your role, guy. People are freaking out because you're doing back of the napkin math and then already planning your future "treats" that you haven't earned yet. It's they same thing that freaked us out with the Tuyop thread, and he even had steady financial progress while talking about buying a Yurt and making GBS threads in a bucket and a new macbook air. SLOW DOWN.
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# ? Aug 18, 2014 14:40 |
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Dave Ramsey would say pay mins on debt and pile as much cash as possible. Make the decision to throw a huge chunk at the car and sell it 3-6mo after the baby is born and healthy.
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# ? Aug 18, 2014 16:04 |
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I have to second the "no time after baby" thing, my second son was born a few months ago and my wife and I both work. The idea of running a business on top of a full time job and kids would be laughable for me. I'm barely able to put in the extra hours on a very occasional weekend to keep up with my day job. Kids generate non-stop chores. My evenings and weekends are almost entirely consumed by kid related activities. Maybe in 10 years it will be easier but realize that kids suck up money and time, and even after you've given everything you will still feel guilty that you can't bring yourself to play race around the house with firetrucks one more time.
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# ? Aug 18, 2014 17:18 |
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Knyteguy posted:
So what this shows me is that you are not planning on spending any money for the next 14 days of the month on food or entertainment?
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# ? Aug 18, 2014 17:35 |
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Disagree strongly that now is a bad time to start a business/earning side money. Having a baby is one of the biggest motivators in life. I may be overestimating your ability to start a side business while working full time, but I don't think I am. The goal is to eventually transition to where you are setting your own schedule and working for yourself, and it's worth it to work yourself to the bone to get to that point.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 06:01 |
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Edit: nevermind got it figured out. I'm going to be taking a break from the thread until September 1st I think. Feel free to pm me if you want to talk but I wouldn't expect a reply here. It's nothing personal to anyone who has posted, but discussion is running in circles quite a bit and the thread needs a soft reboot. Would like to reiterate thanks to everyone so far for the help, even if I disagree with you *cough* Kindle *cough*. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Aug 20, 2014 |
# ? Aug 20, 2014 17:18 |
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Knyteguy posted:Edit: nevermind got it figured out. I saw this post before you edited it and I think it would have sparked some good discussion about how this baby having hospital thing works. I thought they were good questions - mind sharing what you figured out?
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:14 |
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Knyteguy posted:Edit: nevermind got it figured out. I'm sorry, but this is exactly what got you into a messier mess last time (altough the break was longer). Keep posting your expenses weekly and keep it accountable. Even if you have to suck it up and deal with a bit of trolling (or violent disagreement) isn't it worth keeping your finances at an even keel? It is very disheartening to see you say this.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:21 |
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Knyteguy posted:I'm going to be taking a break from the thread until September 1st I think. Feel free to pm me if you want to talk but I wouldn't expect a reply here. It's nothing personal to anyone who has posted, but discussion is running in circles quite a bit and the thread needs a soft reboot.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:27 |
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Rurutia posted:I'm sorry, but this is exactly what got you into a messier mess last time (altough the break was longer). Keep posting your expenses weekly and keep it accountable. Even if you have to suck it up and deal with a bit of trolling (or violent disagreement) isn't it worth keeping your finances at an even keel? It is very disheartening to see you say this. He hasn't changed his spending habit at all, and people are surprised about this?
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:28 |
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Knyteguy posted:I'm not exactly a shining example of implementation here and I'm still learning a lot of this stuff myself, but consider this: I can put aside $400.00 right now to buy a new Playstation 4 next week. There now I've planned for it, I can take take the hit and still make my bills, but does that mean I should? Would you advise me to pick up a PS4? How much interest would you save putting that towards one of your loans, or alternatively how much interest could you turn that money into if you saved it for 1 year? How about 10 years? You said this well in another thread, but still have trouble applying it to your own life. Replace PS4 if your above post with Kindle. At the end of the day you're the one who has to make yourself successful. If you can buy a kindle and still meet your budgets and savings goals then it's not that big of deal. Good luck. I hope you return to the thread and post your spending for August in September. If you met all of your budgets and spending goals for the month any other discussion doesn't really matter.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:30 |
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Uncle Jam posted:He hasn't changed his spending habit at all, and people are surprised about this? Don't know what you're getting salty at me for. I'm not surprised, but that doesn't change how I feel. I also think his spending habits while not posting are way worse than anything he's posted, so in that way it is essential.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:31 |
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Rurutia posted:I'm sorry, but this is exactly what got you into a messier mess last time (altough the break was longer). Keep posting your expenses weekly and keep it accountable. Even if you have to suck it up and deal with a bit of trolling (or violent disagreement) isn't it worth keeping your finances at an even keel? It is very disheartening to see you say this. Don't worry, he will get a newer car for $40k but only at a 6% rate! I agree that leaving the thread is a bad idea. Accountability is keeping you on the right track.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:34 |
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Rurutia posted:I'm sorry, but this is exactly what got you into a messier mess last time (altough the break was longer). Keep posting your expenses weekly and keep it accountable. Even if you have to suck it up and deal with a bit of trolling (or violent disagreement) isn't it worth keeping your finances at an even keel? It is very disheartening to see you say this. Well I'll post my expense post come Sunday then and just not post anything else beyond that until September (minus the baby post Count asked for, that could help other people too). I am just tired of having to explain that I don't have motivations or goals that people keep thinking I do. I think that it's probably my fault for not being more clear. That's why I think a 2 week break from me posting would be a good choice. Bugamol posted:You said this well in another thread, but still have trouble applying it to your own life. Replace PS4 if your above post with Kindle. At the end of the day you're the one who has to make yourself successful. If you can buy a kindle and still meet your budgets and savings goals then it's not that big of deal. Thanks. I'll be coming back for sure. It's just a small break so we can start to talk about actual results and stuff instead of all of these maybes and ifs. I want to focus on the positive things that have happened, and the negative things that have happened, and not the things that may happen either way.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:44 |
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CountOfNowhere posted:I saw this post before you edited it and I think it would have sparked some good discussion about how this baby having hospital thing works. I thought they were good questions - mind sharing what you figured out? Sure. If it helps someone else then it's worth the time. Basically the doctor was asking us to sign a contract into their services, and start a payment plan for the next 6-7 months that will cover the delivery fees and pretty much everything we owe them. I was wondering if my wife was unable to deliver the baby for any reason what would happen. I was worried about the deductible resetting, whether the contract was binding, and whether this was normal. I still don't know if it is normal, but: 1) The contract is nonbinding. They'll send a refund check in case something happens or we switch doctors. 2) The deductible won't reset because they won't bill our insurance company until next year along with the hospital. We'll still make payments though. 3) The cost of the delivery is $2,900 from them, and we're on the hook for 30% of the hospital fees up to out of pocket maximum or deductible or something. Still expecting this to cost about $10,000 total but we'll see.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:50 |
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spwrozek posted:Don't worry, he will get a newer car for $40k but only at a 6% rate! Well maybe I will reconsider until Sunday then if everyone thinks it is a bad idea. There have been a few 5-7 days breaks in the thread without any posts though and all was good. Also it won't be a newer car for $40k it will be a newer car for $30k with $10k in negative equity rolled over.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 18:53 |
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I am glad you're reconsidering the posting moratorium but I think it is definitely progress to hear your new attitude towards maybes and ifs. The thread is kind of like an echo chamber for your thoughts, right? And for a while you were definitely into the maybes and ifs and calculating your savings out several months in advance and so on. So your new goal to focus on what has happened and what is happening is encouraging. And I think the chamber might have a few echoes left in it but as long as you stick to your new policy, they'll fade away pretty fast. How's that for a metaphor
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 19:03 |
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Do whatever you think is best. I think you're on the right track and things are looking promising for you. It's not a bad idea to have your thread to fall back on, and a break here and there can be therapeutic. It's stressful thinking about finances all the time, but make sure you have a plan for your days away and you'll be fine.
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# ? Aug 20, 2014 19:15 |
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OK so the moratorium is done, I just needed a couple days break like Nocheez was saying. It can be kind of difficult keeping this thread going. Emotionally it would be a lot easier to just walk away.dreesemonkey posted:"BUT WE HAVE $5k IN SAVINGS WE DESERVE CUSTOM MAHOGONY UKULELES YOU MONSTERS WE NEED TO LIVE" Look I'm willing to compromise here. I never said I wasn't a flexible man. Hand scraped bamboo Ukuleles should suffice. Couple quick things to note: we broke the blow money budget by about $10.00-$15.00 (I haven't entered it yet so I'm not certain). Ok so here is where I finally can start to see some problems with buying the Kindle so early in the month. If we had realized the want and waited until the end of the month, we would have known there wouldn't be enough, but we could have saved a little difference and picked it up next month instead. I decided to break the blow budget because my boss invited me to a fantasy football league (netted $40.00 last year), and I figured the work rapport was enough of a positive to justify going and buying a beer, and meeting some new friends. I'll try to prepare for something like this next month. I think this is the one time expenses that Bugamol keeps trying to drill into my head. Considering we were there for 3 hours though I did pretty good keeping it to one happy hour beer. Fantasy football won't need to be budgeted until the end of the season, so I didn't pay anything up front. I may not be able to get my football subscription in September now. My business client is flaking out, and owes me $180.00 and they're nearly 3 months late on invoices. I thought they were late due to a change in the person who handles them usually. I may still get paid, but they've been silent so I'm guessing not. Could be the death throe for their company as they've been on the edge of failure, and they make a lot of sales on their website. Can't keep subsidizing it though. So basically because of my client flaking, and us putting $200.00 towards debt, and the new payment plan for paying for the baby delivery that they unexpectedly threw at us it's going to be pretty drat close to meeting that $4,500.00 saved. I'll stick by what I said in my and wait until October if necessary; at least we're taking care of business. Edit oh and something cool: my boss forgot to enter payroll on time by about an hour, meaning our paychecks won't deposit until Monday, instead of today. If we didn't have a little bit of money in the bank we probably would have had to scramble, but really it's not even a problem. He offered to help us out privately if necessary, but I didn't even have to consider that. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Aug 22, 2014 |
# ? Aug 22, 2014 20:14 |
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I'm glad things are clicking for your brain Knyteguy. This will hopefully be a valued lesson in the future.
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# ? Aug 22, 2014 20:29 |
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Veskit posted:I'm glad things are clicking for your brain Knyteguy. This will hopefully be a valued lesson in the future. Thanks Veskit I hope so too.
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# ? Aug 22, 2014 20:42 |
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Oh, very well played. You're seeing it in action how all those little things you don't expect or don't realize add up to $FATBILLZ after a while. And you're paying attention. Keep at it.
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# ? Aug 22, 2014 20:50 |
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Yeah spending a little money on rapport is definitely worth it imo. Some people use it as a flimsy excuse for indulging themselves ("I need this leased BMW to fit in at work!") but I don't think that'll be a problem for you.
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# ? Aug 22, 2014 21:12 |
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Knyteguy posted:Edit oh and something cool: my boss forgot to enter payroll on time by about an hour, meaning our paychecks won't deposit until Monday, instead of today. If we didn't have a little bit of money in the bank we probably would have had to scramble, but really it's not even a problem. He offered to help us out privately if necessary, but I didn't even have to consider that. When people tell you not to spend money on things, we're not just speaking out of our asses to try and make you suffer by having to wait an extra month for a Kindle or because we don't have faith in you or whatever. Things just happen and those things cost money! And it's best to have the amount available in your budget to do them. I absolutely agree that going in on fantasy football with your boss is a good thing to do and worthwhile use of your time/money, and it makes sense that you broke your budget for it, but it would have been better to save the Kindle purchase for later so that you didn't have to break your budget to do it. (This isn't meant to be critical. It's just really good that you're starting to see the kind of unavoidable/sorta-necessary expenses that randomly come up in the month and how to plan around them even if you don't know what they are yet.) Don't forget to set aside money for the fantasy football expense in the upcoming months, so it doesn't come up as an "unexpected" expense. And didn't it feel good to be like, "Oh, that's fine" instead of scrambling and possibly having to ask your boss to loan you 50 bucks to pay the bills or whatever?
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# ? Aug 22, 2014 22:07 |
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Hey Knyteguy, how're the frozen meals coming? Find any good recipes?
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# ? Aug 23, 2014 00:01 |
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slap me silly posted:Oh, very well played. You're seeing it in action how all those little things you don't expect or don't realize add up to $FATBILLZ after a while. And you're paying attention. Keep at it. Thanks. It definitely puts a perspective on everything I've said in the thread in the past now that everything is starting to click. Cicero posted:Yeah spending a little money on rapport is definitely worth it imo. Some people use it as a flimsy excuse for indulging themselves ("I need this leased BMW to fit in at work!") but I don't think that'll be a problem for you. Yea it was worth it. Met some wacky successful dudes and a little of their families, and it was just all around a good time. Horking Delight posted:When people tell you not to spend money on things, we're not just speaking out of our asses to try and make you suffer by having to wait an extra month for a Kindle or because we don't have faith in you or whatever. Things just happen and those things cost money! And it's best to have the amount available in your budget to do them. I absolutely agree that going in on fantasy football with your boss is a good thing to do and worthwhile use of your time/money, and it makes sense that you broke your budget for it, but it would have been better to save the Kindle purchase for later so that you didn't have to break your budget to do it. Yep I expect payment to be due around January, so I'll try to save a little blow money each month in cash in case I lose. Also yes it definitely feels good to not worry too much about a late check. If the same situations that happened this month were in May or June we would have probably needed to get a payday loan for a few hundred dollars (and then we would have went out to dinner with $50 of it). Having a little safety net is amazing. April posted:Hey Knyteguy, how're the frozen meals coming? Find any good recipes? Going great, thanks a lot for the ideas. I'm actually eating a pork roast with chipotle sauce quesadilla right now (leftovers). Having meals premade rocks. We haven't really looked up anything else yet since the meals are so delicious.
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# ? Aug 23, 2014 01:27 |
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# ? May 13, 2024 11:26 |
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It really sounds like things have clicked for you, awesome.
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# ? Aug 23, 2014 01:36 |