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Stepping back from whatever craziness that happened in August. So IMHO there are two basic elements to budgeting and being smart financially. #1 You make a budget and you stick to it, no shell games. #2 A Penny saved is a penny earned. Just because you've got money in your discretionary or in your baby budget or you've planned ahead doesn't mean you have to spend the drat money. I think this sort of spending seems to be really common with folks that grew up poor. Because there wasn't money around all of the time, when there is, there is this really strong need to spend it when you have some. You could set aside money from your budget to pay for a set of weights, or a gym membership. You could do this at the same time you are meeting your debt payment goals and staying within budget. Just because you can afford something AND you've budgeted for something doesn't immediately make it a good way to spend money. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/02/09/brave-new-life/ Take, for example, buying your kid a coat. The utility of your kid having a coat is pretty drat high, especially for the kid. You have room in your budget for the month that have enough cash flow to pay for it. Just because both of these things are true, you shouldn't be buying your kid brand new $40 jackets when perfectly reasonable 2nd hand jackets are available for about $10-$20. Just remember that there is a big difference between cash flow and the concept of actually being able to afford something. You have negative net worth, you have no retirement savings, no house, very little emergency fund, and no college fund for your child. From a very macro level, you really can't 'afford' anything. There is a 100% justifiable reason to have a coat for your kid, but you are not in the financial position to do anything but be a cheap rear end about it. The best utility for your money is to spend as little of it as possible while still maintaining your happiness. Find a cheap jacket and a safe but cheaper or slightly used car seat. All that money you save, toss it at your debt, or use it to build your emergency fund. Stop just dreaming up ways to blow the rest of your month's budget just because you have underspent it once.
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Oct 13, 2015 23:20
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BarbarianElephant posted:These are not mutually exclusive. You are approaching austerity like a bad dieter; you eat nothing but boiled beans for a month and drive yourself mad, then you binge on cake and steak until all your weight that you lost came back. You need to have "nice things" as a carrot, but not just to indulge in them all the time. Sensible dieters have "cheat days" when they can go out and eat steak in cream sauce, but that doesn't mean that every day is a cheat day. Right. I get the analogy. Instead of going for something like 1,500 calories a day to burn off a ton of weight, ultimately leading to something that I find unsustainable, I'm going for what I think is the ole 2,000 calories a day (not my actual calorie goal). Weights are something I think we want, but if we don't want them that badly, then I expect we'll fail counting calories and exercising. We stipulated this one very purposefully. I don't want to spent $400-$600 and have them sit either, and frankly the reason I don't have a gym membership myself right now is because I need to show myself that I can stick with a regimen first. I've gotten this close | | to getting one in the past two years. I can't make it a rule that if we spend too much, then we pull it from vacation. Those savings goals need to be off limit permanently. Emergency fund, the Christmas fund, all of them. They're all very specific, and have a very specific purpose. I guess if that happens then we'll need to pull it from the following month's categories, and nothing else. However the true focus here needs to be sticking to those categories no matter what. There's never really a good excuse to spend too much in discretionary. Old Fart posted:Hey KG, post the August numbers. If you honestly can't figure out where this $2500 went, then either (a) you've got a serious problem that you need to face head-on, and you can't do that until you reveal what it is, or (b) you have $2500 credit coming to you, which would be awesome. I was actually just going to answer you in PMs (well inform you that you if you bought plat to get PMs we could work through it), but the post you made just above n8r's changed my mind. That's 100% the truth. I feel like you're being a dick about it, and that's not going to make me change my mind. dreesemonkey posted:Just wanted to say that I agree with this. Yeah I've mentioned it before, but we used to do daily walks for even up to 5 miles. I'd like to see us do that again. And yes good call on the budget planning. I think we're in a pretty good spot right now. Christmas will be $600/yr moving forward, so that will be beyond plenty. It's not like my son is asking for the newest Nintendo yet or something. Bugamol posted:If you can just stick to a budget for 12 months without any games I think you'll be surprised where you end up. Definitely my goal as well. I want to get this right for once, and the past 18 months or whatever have shown me that how I've done it historically is not the correct way. I want this budget to work, and I don't think austerity is the correct way to go here. I also don't think that just giving ourselves $400 a month in discretionary to blow is a good idea either. I'm trying to separate the wheat from the chaff regarding our actual wants, and then execute to get them while remaining fiscally responsible elsewhere. Work with me guys. It's clear that many of you find weights to be a bad purchase, but even if they are, and if we waste our money on them after budgeting for them successfully and hitting our stipulations, but then that wasted money allows us to hit the bigger more important goals, then I think that's a win. Plus my wife wants the gym membership, you guys always seem to take her side. I'm just trying to lay down a foundation that will help us achieve that for her. She also switched it to weight set, too. I'm all for it. Also this is way less about the actual weight set for me, and more about the give and take of the budget. Frankly I'm more hyped for the calorie counting and financial mental work to come. Post incoming n8r. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Oct 13, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 23:26
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Knyteguy posted:I can't make it a rule that if we spend too much, then we pull it from vacation. Those savings goals need to be off limit permanently. Emergency fund, the Christmas fund, all of them. They're all very specific, and have a very specific purpose. I guess if that happens then we'll need to pull it from the following month's categories, and nothing else. However the true focus here needs to be sticking to those categories no matter what. There's never really a good excuse to spend too much in discretionary. quote:There's never really a good excuse to spend too much in discretionary. That's the whole point. If those goals are so important to you then don't overspend your discretionary. If they're so important then make it a rule that you can repay them from your discretionary too the next month. So you blow discretionary by $50 in a month you take it out of your vacation fund. If you want it back you spend $50 less in discretionary the next month and add it back. Make the consequences real to you rather than constantly saying you'll make it up the next month and failing to do so over and over. Just stick to a budget no matter what it takes you to do it.
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Oct 13, 2015 23:55
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n8r posted:Stepping back from whatever craziness that happened in August. I'm current contemplating this, and I still need to read the article. I think this is what QF was saying earlier. Instead of spending nothing, spend $1 instead of $2. So perhaps I should present it this way: My wife and I want to start doing weighted exercises in 4-6 months. How can we do this as cheaply as possible, or free? Maybe it will just take getting creative. I know first hand the value of weights, and there's even financial justification: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/17/get-rich-with-olympic-barbells/ but perhaps there are alternatives. Can we build our own set somehow? Dumbbells would be a great place to start, but those aren't cheap either. http://www.amazon.com/CAP-Barbell-D...words=dumbbells I'm not writing off the weight set, because I need to talk with my wife about it, but I'm open to alternatives that we can discuss together. No body weight only stuff, and my knees aren't good enough for plyometrics right now. Also I feel like if we get talked out of this completely, then this will turn into option 3, which is buying them or getting an expensive gym membership out of budget.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:06
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Knyteguy posted:I was actually just going to answer you in PMs (well inform you that you if you bought plat to get PMs we could work through it), but the post you made just above n8r's changed my mind. That's 100% the truth. I feel like you're being a dick about it, and that's not going to make me change my mind.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:11
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Knyteguy posted:
Jesus loving Christ. "If I don't get to buy what I want, I'll just buy something more expensive." Here's a really revolutionary idea. Why don't you say "I'm going to put X towards some fitness stuff in a few months, and to do that, I'm going to save Y per month till I reach that amount." Then (and this is where it gets REALLY crazy!) you actually loving save the money before you decide how you're going to blow it. This is why you can't stay on budget. Stop obsessing about what you're going to buy and start working on actually doing it responsibly. As soon as the thought of a new purchase comes up, you immediately light up and start focusing on the purchase to the exclusion of everything else. Also, I'm betting the overage was weed.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:14
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Knyteguy posted:So perhaps I should present it this way: My wife and I want to start doing weighted exercises in 4-6 months. How can we do this as cheaply as possible, or free? Maybe it will just take getting creative. I know first hand the value of weights, and there's even financial justification: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/17/get-rich-with-olympic-barbells/ but perhaps there are alternatives. Can we build our own set somehow? Dumbbells would be a great place to start, but those aren't cheap either. You should be able to find a cheap gym membership for $10-$20 per person per month. Don't sign a contract.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:15
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April posted:Jesus loving Christ. "If I don't get to buy what I want, I'll just buy something more expensive." Here's a really revolutionary idea. Why don't you say "I'm going to put X towards some fitness stuff in a few months, and to do that, I'm going to save Y per month till I reach that amount." Then (and this is where it gets REALLY crazy!) you actually loving save the money before you decide how you're going to blow it. This is why you can't stay on budget. Stop obsessing about what you're going to buy and start working on actually doing it responsibly. As soon as the thought of a new purchase comes up, you immediately light up and start focusing on the purchase to the exclusion of everything else. That's exactly what I said when I brought up the weight set, and I feel like it's actually everyone else making it the focal point to the exclusion of everything else. I'm not saying I will do that, I'm saying that that's what I think will happen in a moment of weakness. Droo posted:You should be able to find a cheap gym membership for $10-$20 per person per month. Don't sign a contract. Yeah we've been shafted on one before. They wanted us to write them a letter in the mail at the end of the contract period to actually cancel. It wasn't some small gym either it was Gold's gym. I won't do gym membership contracts anymore.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:20
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Knyteguy, if these are all things you need then put them in the budget. It's your life. Just stick to whatever budget you make. If you do go over discretionary, where is that money going to come from? You've been over almost every month so please don't tell me that you really definitely aren't going to go over from now on. If you do, where is the money going to come from?
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Oct 14, 2015 00:21
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Also another thing I've noticed over the life of this thread is that you let your family/friends push you into financial decisions it seems like you wouldn't otherwise make. You need to learn to say no to your family. My father-in-law has been on my rear end for two years about buying a second car "you guys make >$100k/yr and don't have a lot of debt why wouldn't you buy a second car?!". Because we don't need a second car and it's a waste of money. I just politely tell him no each time. I don't buy a second car just to appease my family. And yes - it is a pain in the rear end a handful of times each year when we need two cars, it's easily solvable by friends/family/rental/uber/taxi/etc. Remember - Misery loves company, so people who make bad financial decisions are going to push you to do the same.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:58
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Knyteguy posted:So perhaps I should present it this way: My wife and I want to start doing weighted exercises in 4-6 months. How can we do this as cheaply as possible, or free? Maybe it will just take getting creative. I know first hand the value of weights, and there's even financial justification: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/17/get-rich-with-olympic-barbells/ but perhaps there are alternatives. Can we build our own set somehow? Dumbbells would be a great place to start, but those aren't cheap either. Let me know if you find somewhere selling a 300 pound set of Olympic plates and bars, including collars, clips, a long bar and a curling bar, a bench and squat rack of 'superb' quality for $200.
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Oct 14, 2015 00:59
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ITM posted:Knyteguy, if these are all things you need then put them in the budget. It's your life. Just stick to whatever budget you make. If you do go over discretionary, where is that money going to come from? You've been over almost every month so please don't tell me that you really definitely aren't going to go over from now on. If you do, where is the money going to come from? This this this this this. This is why people are worried and trying to ruin your enthusiasm for buying things. Because right now you're thinking "$200 in discretionary, we won't blow that because this time we won't, and then we won't touch the savings goals and we can buy this and this and holy poo poo that and" and, okay. You're right, there COULD be nothing wrong there, although it's worrying enough you're getting hyped for future purchases. But in two months when you've blown discretionary twice, what would you do? I honestly don't know which way to advise you. You SHOULD make the vacation and gym/weight set budgets exactly where you get hurt if you blow discretionary, because that would (hopefully) make you think twice before buying the cigarette pack that bursts the budget. It's actually good you wouldn't want to touch them. That's why they should be the punishment for blowing discretionary! But I also agree with your thought, that if you don't budget that money then in three months you'll just buy it anyways because you've been THINKING about it for three months and almost came in under discretionary in November if it weren't for that oil filter replacement after Black Friday shopping!! I don't know what advice would actually work best for you. Or at all. So I guess my only question is why no body weight only exercises? Legitimately. Was going to ask if you had house space to do some body weight poo poo, because I'm currently making the 8x18 feet space between my bed and computer desk in my tiny-rear end cheapo apartment bedroom work for a full workout routine. I can do burpees, planks, object swings (with bulk canola oil jug), all sorts of shits. If your concern isn't space I REALLY want to hear how you've literally exhausted all types of free, completely pre-built workouts online and determined none of them will work but weights exercises will.
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Oct 14, 2015 01:10
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Knyteguy posted:
Yeah, Golds is one of the more expensive ones and they make your sign a contract. Don't do that, go somewhere cheap without a contract. You also don't need to wait six months in order to work out, twenty dollars a month should fit in your discretionary as it is. Same as you don't need to schedule a quit date for smoking or energy drinks. Just start.
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Oct 14, 2015 01:34
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Weights are sweet as heck but as someone trapped on a crowded bus for the next half hour to get to my goddamn gym where I'll probably have to wait 5 minutes for a squat rack, loving lol dude sometimes it feels like you just completely crumple in the face of inconvenience. Keep saving for your poo poo. Sure, it's savings, you can repurpose it later if you find a cheaper option -- assuming you don't decide to repurpose it for something else and then binge-spend on it anyways. But please stop stealing money from future you. You've never been able to "make up for" the overages you've had in your discretionary and that's why people get wary when you talk about "I'm going to buy X". I'm in your corner dude and I think weights are sweet but seriously, they're not cheap and you can't afford them yet so while you save for them (or whatever that large purchase will be), what are you going to do in the meantime? Body-weight exercises or a cheap gym membership both sound perfectly viable.
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Oct 14, 2015 01:49
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Knyteguy posted:That's exactly what I said when I brought up the weight set, and I feel like it's actually everyone else making it the focal point to the exclusion of everything else. April said it way better than I, but the reason people in the thread make it a focal point is because it's usually the only way to get it through to you that you DON'T NEED IT. You have a bike. You have a house. You have legs and arms. Use them to work your muscles, because as n8r eloquently stated at the top of this page, you literally can't "afford" anything, but you still don't seem to get it. If you can't do plyometrics, how are you going to be able to be an effective weightlifter? I've seriously never seen someone come up with the number of excuses you have to buy something. At least be honest and just say "i loving want to buy it" because we all can recognize that feeling. You get intensely fixated on items or the next thing to buy as soon as you buy the last one, which I totally get, because I'm the same way. But I can also talk myself out of things most of the time, and if I can't usually my wife can. But, when I don't convince myself otherwise the reason I can buy it is because every month after rent and personal retirement savings, I save basically a full paycheck (I make a little more than half of what you do, I'd kill for your salary right now), and we have zero debt. There's a pattern to your behavior: discover item to buy, waffle back and forth, use a random Mr. Money article to help you justify it because "hey, he's rich and living my dream so I know if I get this things will be fine", get beat up by the thread (current step), go dark for a few days, and come back having purchased it. The second you finish the process, you're on to the next thing, literally a day or two later. It was the car a few months ago, and you bought one. Then it was the Rift, then weed, and now its weights. Remember when it was a bike, a broken lease, and a mower? It's been so many things. Every time you purchase these things and blow your budget, you're basically writing an IOU to your kid, you realize that right? That's why the thread gets so frustrated.
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Oct 14, 2015 01:51
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Basically, you need to get less happiness from consumption. Edit: Still waiting for a squat rack. 
Colin Mockery fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 01:56
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Horking Delight posted:Basically, you need to get less happiness from consumption. This thread has been going since Nov 2013. How many things of value could you have purchased if you'd stuck with your discretionary spend for two years? How much more money would you have saved up if you'd kept to your budget each of the last 24 months?
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Oct 14, 2015 02:07
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Old Greg posted:So I guess my only question is why no body weight only exercises? I'd like this answered, as well.
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Oct 14, 2015 02:45
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I'm just about ready to give up on this thread. After two years you still aren't ready to hold yourself accountable when it comes to your budget. You aren't willing to take out of your weight fund (something that didn't exist a week ago) to make up for your discretionary. You aren't willing to post your August numbers (I've been following your third pretty closely, and I never saw a full reconciliation). All you really want is a way to justify your purchases, and you think that posting rationalizations and excuses the thread will magically see your point of view. The people in this thread only want what's best for you and your family. And that means sacrifice. You literally cannot have it all. So enough talking about all the things you want to buy. If you're truly changing for the better, what are you willing to give up to get where you want to be? If you can't answer that question then everything else is just empty words.
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Oct 14, 2015 04:04
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Expenses you SHOULD have been able to control or account for (so trying to not count things like extra debt payments or unexpected medical expenses (ehhhhhhhhh, I'm iffy on this one but we'll not count it for the sake of separating impulse decisions from poor planning) or speeding tickets) Knyteguy posted:Meaningless December Budget Update (budgeted / actual) December 2013: 153.76 + 223 + 7.98 = 384.74 (NOT counting the 390 speeding ticket) Knyteguy posted:OK we'll see if we can make it. Wife's work is also doing a 20% off with an additional 25% off for her employee discount on furniture right now... gonna check that out as well. Gonna set a hard limit at $1,000, but aim for $750 (before discounts). June 2014: 0 overages (we're going to assume the $625 dollars on restaurants was deliberate...) Knyteguy posted:Noted another couple recipes thanks guys/gals. July 2014: 274 + 42 + 28 (counting the fuel, not counting the thousand dollar mortgage difference -- was this when he broke his lease or something???): 344 Knyteguy posted:August didn't change much since the last spending report really. August 2014: 7 + 60 + 10 + 17 (counting electric but not counting medical) = 94 Knyteguy posted:Already did Veskit: Sept 2014: 15 + 16 + 12 + 150 + 7 + 99 (again, not counting medical) = 299 Knyteguy posted:OK short on time so I can't explain a bunch. Oct 2014: 0, I think? if I'm reading this correctly. Knyteguy posted:We spent slightly more than our net paychecks in November, but with a $2,200 deposit, a moving truck, paying a moving helper, and paying rent for 2 places, some yard supplies, etc I think we did pretty well. Could've been better, could've been worse. We also saved up for moving costs, so going negative was a little expected and even OK. Plus again we're selling that television and violin (I know I know I keep saying this, I'll do my best to find time this weekend) and that is supposed to help cover some moving costs. And we still saved an additional $1,000 in HSA and delivery fees which the net worth graph actually reflects as December incorrectly. Nov 2014: Um... \_(ツ)_/¯ Knyteguy posted:We did pretty poorly in December, mostly from getting too much take out. We had some legitimate times where this was necessary (we had an ant problem in our kitchen that took a few days to fix with Borax and honey traps), but also some times where we had no good reason at all. We stashed away about $1,200 net in December, but we broke budget by about $200-$250 on holidays, takeout, and shopping at the nearby grocery store that is way too expensive. Dec 2014: \_(ツ)_/¯ Let's say 250? Knyteguy posted:Jan Budget Update: Jan 2015: 60 + 65 + 43 + 28 + 20 + 31 + 47 = 294 Knyteguy posted:^^ Thanks for the input everyone. I was holding off replying until I had something more to say. I think we'll hold off on the 401k just due to the vesting period for now, since like Sigma said we can get a guaranteed 10.99% return by paying off the car early. Feb 2015: 119 + 40 + 58 + 21 + 66 = 304 Knyteguy posted:March: Mar 2015: 20 + 34 + 63 + 177 + 20 + 20 + 283 = 617 Knyteguy posted:Yea regarding the work I'm slowing everything down quite a bit. April 2015: 110 + 194 = 304 Knyteguy posted:Budget May 2015: Wait am I reading this wrong jesus christ. This does look like 0 so maybe I was reading the previous months wrong what the gently caress???? Knyteguy posted:
June 2015: 10 + 10 + 30 + 163 + 25 + 7 + 120 + 100 = 465 Knyteguy posted:A month or two is going to be a huge hassle, but if a few more posters get on board then I'm game I guess. I'm not looking forward to it by any means. Ummmm okay so July 2015: 15 + 29 + 30 (internet is at -30 account balance, so should I be taking the min of "amount spent this month" and "amount left in account"?) + 48 + 57 + 116 + 144 = 439 Aug 2015: 55 + 48 + 85 + 20 + 25 + 340 + 296 + 42 + 155 + 161 = 1227 (excludes the bicycle thing) Knyteguy posted:
Sept 2015: I am very confused by this post. 299 + 20 + 206 (fuel) + 20 + 180 + 153 + 228 + 250 = 1356 Total (this number is almost definitely wrong because I have no idea what the gently caress and also am bad at YNAB because I don't use YNAB): 385 + 344 + 94 + 299 + 250 + 294 + 304 + 617 + 304 + 465 + 439 + 1227 + 1356 = 6378 This number's definitely off for several reasons: It assumes an omitted month is zero, treats medical overages and "emergency lease breaks" as zero, and also I think I hosed up the math few times because I don't actually use YNAB and have no idea what the gently caress or how to use it but. Yeah, somewhat more than $5000 in overages on small discretionary poo poo since the thread's start, not counting any months with overages that he didn't cover, and not counting large purchases like breaking a lease or buying a car.
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Oct 14, 2015 05:12
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Also sold the weight set at the aforementioned price of $500.00.
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Horking Delight posted:
That's a new car, gym equipment, and $3400 left over for a college fund. I am so done with this thread. e: or you know, more sensibly, $6400 less in debt.
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Oct 14, 2015 05:26
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You know what I got out of that? Knyte has purchased weights for the home before and used them so little that he needed to sell them. Why is this time going to be different? Why do you constantly overspend your discretionary, yet refuse to accept that discretionary pretty much needs to be $400/month? I don't think there's really anything to help with or discuss until you fix your discretionary budget. And by fix, I mean be honest about what you really spend in a month. Saving for future purchases is pretty worthless when you're spending that money through overages in discretionary.
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Oct 14, 2015 05:28
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 Horking - you're doing the Lord's work.So I think the weight purchasing discussion is a great microcosm for at least one of the major issues in this thread. It seems like a number of times throughout the thread, there becomes some new item of focus that you decide you MUST OWN. The suit you purchased is another item that makes me think of this. YOU HAD TO HAVE A SUIT. No some decent pants and a dress shirt would not do, you had to buy a suit, so it just happened. Instead of the mindset of we're going to buy X thing so we can start doing Y thing, why not just start doing Y thing, and then down the road you'll know whether or not you'll need gear to go with it. If you're out of shape, you'll be able to do all sorts of bodyweight exercises that kick your rear end for quite some time. Once you get into a routine you'll be able to figure out what sort of weights you'll need to add. Let's be honest, you're currently a loving smoker, first and foremost you need to just stop smoking. Try pirating P90X or some other workout video, treat it as a free gym membership. If you stick with it, pay for some videos after a month, if you hate it, just move on to something else. The fact that you've focused in on owning a bunch of weights (which sounds like a huge pain in the rear end to store - there is a reason there are so many gyms) is just silly. I would contend that CBT could really help with your impulses to spend money the minute you have some, and when you've focused in on something. You really could help yourself by finding the right therapist that will help you modify your behaviors. Circling back to this utility idea, weights are a perfect example of something most people go their entire lives without owning, you can too! You can take that $100 or whatever it would be and put it toward something that you'll really get something out of, like paying that car off one week earlier or however the math works out. Stop spending money. edit: There was some mystery money that got spent earlier this year that KG refused to disclose and assured us would never happen again. I'm guessing there is something similar that happened again, perhaps a DUI or some other major fuckup. Not to get all diagnosing people over the internet, but the spending issues/substance issues/etc all sound a lot like manic bipolar behavior (ask me how I know  ).
n8r fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 05:58
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Hello, it's me again. I'm just trying to make sense in my mind of everything in here. If we want to save for something, then we should under spend in our discretionary categories & then move the excess into the saving category? Or do we save separately for something but if we do blow the budget, then we have to take from the saved category? Is the idea like, "oh no, we went over on restaurants and now we had to steal from our vacation!" I get the accountability and I like it. I'm just confused because this sound like the "shell game" everyone's always taking about. If we shift money around from our save fund to discretionary (if we went over), is that a shell game or is that accountability? Thanks for help with clarification. Every time tonight that I feel like I really understand, I start talking it out and confuse myself.
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Oct 14, 2015 06:09
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To me, it's fine if you take it from discretionary or that category's savings. What you can't do is say, "well I blew discretionary by $100 and restaurants by $100 so I'll take money from the pet fund / emergency savings / next month's income and put it in the Christmas fund!" Discretionary should be the first thing you raid, not the last. Every other category is meant to accrue over time, so even if you're not buying pet food this month you'll have money to buy 2x the amount next month. But all of this is a moot point. The question isn't how will you save up for the weights when you blow through discretionary; the question is, what are you willing to cut from your budget today to save up for the weights? The budget is a zero-sum game, you can't just keep throwing items in and expecting things to work out.
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Oct 14, 2015 06:25
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Janus, the idea is that if you decide you're going to spend $3000 on stuff this month and save/pay debt with the remaining $2000 you do exactly that. The details don't really matter if you're hitting your monthly goal of only spending X. That being said that if you get to the end of the month and have only spent $2500, you don't get to just spend $500 on stupid poo poo because you managed to not exceed your budget. So really the goal is to spend as little as much as possible, while still having the things that *actually* bring you happiness. Think about that utility of money article thing I linked. Just because you have $100 you could spend on a pile of weights that will collect dust in a few months, will your life be better if you spend that money? edit: Just to add, to really do things right, if you gently caress up and spend $3100 one month, you buckle down and spend $2900 the next month.
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Oct 14, 2015 06:45
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in_cahoots posted:To me, it's fine if you take it from discretionary or that category's savings. What you can't do is say, "well I blew discretionary by $100 and restaurants by $100 so I'll take money from the pet fund / emergency savings / next month's income and put it in the Christmas fund!" Yeah, basically, a lot of people think of "discretionary" as one big fund, so shuffling discretionary around doesn't really matter, especially if you're pulling from discretionary to put it into a more important fund because something unexpected came up. The problem is when you take from a savings/necessity fund (like pet, car, health, and even groceries imo) to put into your discretionary, because you're not actually going to be able to spend less on it (what, is your dog gonna need fewer vet checks?), so you're just robbing your future self and setting yourself up for breaking that budget category next month. In general I'd really prefer if you didn't rob from your next month's income or plan or whatever, but you guys obviously have too much trouble staying on budget to make that a reality. :/
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Oct 14, 2015 07:17
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n8r posted:There was some mystery money that got spent earlier this year that KG refused to disclose and assured us would never happen again. Old Fart fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 07:51
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KG I swear you are literally Steve Martin and we are Chris Parnell and this sketch has been going on for almost 2 years now. If it sounds overly simplistic or sarcastic or mean-spirited or condescending, it's because after almost 2 years you are still Steve Martin. Work on your fundamentals, dude.
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Oct 14, 2015 12:51
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Horking Delight, that was a great summary post. Whether it's to-the-penny accurate or not (which I'm sure KG will argue, but whatever), the overall point stands. There's still a spending problem here and it seems that each time KG withdraws from participating in the thread and/or begins to get really defensive about his numbers not adding up, that's when that problem rears its head. KG- you and Janus Owl need to decide once and for all which you value more: your privacy to spend as you wish or the honest feedback the thread gives you. If the privacy is more important, then no problem- just close the thread, because it's just going to cause frustration for everyone. If the feedback is more important- then post the YNAB every month, and don't play shell games with the headers and the categories.
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Oct 14, 2015 15:02
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Janus Owl posted:Hello, it's me again. I'm just trying to make sense in my mind of everything in here. If we want to save for something, then we should under spend in our discretionary categories & then move the excess into the saving category? Or do we save separately for something but if we do blow the budget, then we have to take from the saved category? Is the idea like, "oh no, we went over on restaurants and now we had to steal from our vacation!" I get the accountability and I like it. I'm just confused because this sound like the "shell game" everyone's always taking about. If we shift money around from our save fund to discretionary (if we went over), is that a shell game or is that accountability? Just to briefly summarize what everyone was saying. It's only shell games if you're stealing from your savings. I don't mean discretionary savings such as your vacation or gifts, but savings which are part of your nest egg. Like your emergency fund or month ahead fund or retirement savings. n8r gave a good overview look as well.
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Oct 14, 2015 15:13
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Old Fart posted:Wow, really? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3586966&pagenumber=91&perpage=40#post444150365 $350 on restaurants that month. Janus - I want to clarify that you should not be raiding savings to make up for your spending. If you decide to save $1500 in a month, that money is gone and put away into an account you don't touch or into a debt payment. "If we shift money around from our save fund to discretionary (if we went over), is that a shell game or is that accountability? " -That's exactly what you should not be doing.
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Oct 14, 2015 15:15
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You have savings categories in YNAB and consumptive categories in YNAB. Things in your savings grouped categories and debt grouped categories are places where putting money will increase your net worth and progress your stated long term goals of being debt free and financially independent. Things in your flexible spending and business grouped categories are not going to increase your net worth and are going to satisfy your observed short term goals of eating junk food at minimarts and playing ps4 games. Moving money out of the savings categories into the consumptive categories will hinder your long term goals and provide no meaningful satisfaction. It is because you have financially failed. You got nothing out of that use of money other than scratching an impulsive itch. Moving money out of the consumptive categories into the savings categories will accelerate the progress of your stated long term goals. Frankly this thread is at a bit of a disconnect. Impulsive immature spending is the problem, and no amount of long term planning, which is the advice being given presently, is worth discussing when that plan will be derailed constantly by impulsive purchases. You can lie to this thread and lie to yourself that buying a ps4 or an occulus rift or a camaro are good ideas to spend money on, but at the end of the day you'll still be in debt and wondering why it's taking so long to get out of it.
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Oct 14, 2015 15:27
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:Moving money out of the savings categories into the consumptive categories will hinder your long term goals and provide no meaningful satisfaction. It is because you have financially failed. You got nothing out of that use of money other than scratching an impulsive itch. Moving money out of the consumptive categories into the savings categories will accelerate the progress of your stated long term goals. Great post - this should be at the top of any of BFC finance threads.
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Oct 14, 2015 15:45
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Horking Delight posted:Yeah, basically, a lot of people think of "discretionary" as one big fund, so shuffling discretionary around doesn't really matter, especially if you're pulling from discretionary to put it into a more important fund because something unexpected came up. The problem is when you take from a savings/necessity fund (like pet, car, health, and even groceries imo) to put into your discretionary, because you're not actually going to be able to spend less on it (what, is your dog gonna need fewer vet checks?), so you're just robbing your future self and setting yourself up for breaking that budget category next month. Breetai posted:KG I swear you are literally Steve Martin and we are Chris Parnell and this sketch has been going on for almost 2 years now.
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Oct 14, 2015 16:25
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Too much to get to right now. I'll probably go dark this weekend, as I'm quitting smoking tomorrow on plan. Maybe my wife will take over posting for a little bit. P.S.: http://smokefree.gov/quit-plan Pick a Quit Date is number 1. It's actually really important to have a plan to quit smoking, if you find yourself in a situation where you're helping someone quit again, speaking from experience. Budget Update:  Changed up the organization of the categories to reflect the present. Edit I'm removing my 3 month budget plan. It needs some more individual category planning before I post it. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 17:01
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A soft goal every month should be to have spent <50% of your "flex" accounts by the middle of the month. Quick glance. October - 45% complete Baby - 68% spent Groceries - 78% spent Pet - 95% spent Total Discretionary - 56% spent etc. Obviously some of this is just purely timing, but I have a feeling you're not going to make it through the end of October without cracking your grocery budget. Otherwise I think you have a good strategy. Are you still on the envelop system at this point or was that abandoned? EDIT: Also can you post your "networth" graph that you used to love to post so much. How are you doing on that thing. Bugamol fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 17:22
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Knyteguy posted:Edit I'm removing my 3 month budget plan. It needs some more individual category planning before I post it. What does this mean, exactly? I feel like you say something similar a lot (having to rework the budget or whatever), and I'm never sure what that means. Like, after all this time do you not know how much you spend on average? Are you messing with budget numbers every month? Are you just wanting to spend more some months? I mean, everything should be fixed except stuff like discretionary/vacation/gift/etc, right? So including this time, can you explain to me what you're doing when you're "reworking" your budget numbers?
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Oct 14, 2015 17:48
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foxatee posted:What does this mean, exactly? I feel like you say something similar a lot (having to rework the budget or whatever), and I'm never sure what that means. Like, after all this time do you not know how much you spend on average? Are you messing with budget numbers every month? Are you just wanting to spend more some months? I mean, everything should be fixed except stuff like discretionary/vacation/gift/etc, right? So including this time, can you explain to me what you're doing when you're "reworking" your budget numbers? Well insurance and 401K is going to start coming out my wife's paychecks in November which will adjust our income pretty drastically, so I'm trying to come up with a workable budget with that in mind. Edit: for example, we're taking my dog to get her teeth cleaned tomorrow which will probably nearly 0 out our vet fund. Since that hasn't been contributed to in awhile I'm trying to figure out where that will come from moving forward. Bugamol posted:A soft goal every month should be to have spent <50% of your "flex" accounts by the middle of the month. Quick glance. Grocery is my one concern. My wife and I have talked about it, and we're going to eat up the surplus that we have. I think we'll be OK with the food we have and the money we have left. Plus we're probably on track to coming under on restaurants, so if worst comes to worst we'll just cannibalize that fund for groceries. I'll post the net worth with the stipulation that I'll do it at the end of the month. I want it to reflect a bounce back from the August and September overspending. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 18:12
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Income change - you're a month ahead so it won't effect your November budget. But it's very smart to phase your spending down ahead of time. Pet teeth cleaning - CALL EVERYWHERE. My folks were quoted between $180 and $760 for cleaning or cleaning and 2 extractions for their dog! Prices vary SO much. I am going to take my fur child in for cleaning soon, I expect it to be around $160 as he shouldn't need any extractions. Make sure you call around vs just go to your vet. Even if your vet is super cheap for most things - that's the case with mine, but he's $300ish for cleaning vs sub-$200. YNAB caps - dude you did it again. Stop hiding headers and poo poo...
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Oct 14, 2015 18:25
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