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Ashcans posted:A grocery budget is going to be pretty regional, in some places food is simply more expensive and there isn't a lot you can do about it. It's also going to be very dependent on your diet, in terms of meat, dry goods, fresh produce, etc. Does your 'grocery' budget also include household goods like cleaners and so on? A lot of those are things that make sense to try and buy in either bulk or try and work on getting at sale/couponed. You can buy a whole bunch of toilet paper at Costco and then forget about it for six months, for instance. I'm located in Minnesota in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. So location wise I don't think it's an extremely pricey area. That budget does not include household goods. I do buy tp, paper towels, etc at Costco about twice a year and like you said forget about it the rest of the time. I've actually found the farmers market to be extremely cheap if you do it right. You want to avoid any stands that are ran by hippies. In my neighborhood the Hmong merchants sell produce the cheapest and you can get great deals. It's so cheap I wonder how they make any money doing it. I'll have to create a price book and do some comparison shopping on my next trip. I know generally what items to get at what stores but maybe the prices have drastically changed from one location to the other. totalnewbie posted:Depends on where you live but that's not very high at all. For 30 days and 2.5 meals/day, it comes out to $3 a meal, which is pretty good. That's a good point. I was breaking it down daily and thinking it seemed high but for some reason in my mind that price per meal doesnt seem to bad. I do try to eat healthy as well which bumps up the price. Carbs are so cheap and plentiful, if I wanted to I could probably eat a poo poo ton of ramen noodles and cheap cereal and pasta and save some bucks but it just doesnt seem worth it.
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Oct 14, 2015 17:52
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Which brings up the point about balancing thrift with quality of life. It doesn't SOUND like you're in dire financial straits (though you might be if you're worried about a $220/mo grocery bill?) but if you aren't then don't stress out about it. You might be able to save 10 bucks a month buying things that are cheaper one place than another, but if it adds inconvenience to your life, or makes you take extra trips or detours to different stores, etc. then it's not really worth the effort, because your time (not to mention just gas money) is worth something as well. Now, if you ARE in financial trouble then it absolutely does make sense for you to try to plan your shopping to get the best deals possible. But then, you may also want to be looking at other places to cut instead. The short of it is that, after years of living in figurative poverty (i.e. like a college student), people keep that mentality after they get real jobs, and it's simply not necessary. Of course, it doesn't apply to every person, etc.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:09
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Moneyball posted:I try to stick to around $200 a month if I'm just shopping at grocery stores. Then I get lazy and balloon my spending with fast food. 
SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 18:17
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I was thinking the other day that it's insane that in 2015 payment processors don't have the option for just emailing your full itemized receipt, as opposed to just having the full amount show up on your credit report (e.g.: Costco - $224.84). Why would a payment processor have a store receipt? Visa doesn't care what you bought at Walmart and doesn't need that info.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:24
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Ruggan posted:
Ruggan posted:
To close the loop on this, Ally got the fraudulent stuff taken care of in pretty short order after it posted, much shorter than the turnaround time I was quoted. I had originally been quoted 10 business days for the money to get credited back. I did call and complain about that timeframe - told them that if it wasn't resolved by the end of this week (going on an international trip) that we would be very disappointed and look for another bank. The rep noted that on my account and escalated, which got it all resolved in short order. Just glad it got worked out quickly. Definitely satisfied with the turnaround time, just not with the time I had to spend in getting it escalated. Also concerning to me that 9 identical $50 charges went through within the same minute at an out of state ATM followed by 10 $5 purchases at a walgreens a half hour later, and they didn't auto-freeze the account or deny any of them. I'd expect that sort of activity to throw a fraud flag pretty quickly?
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Oct 14, 2015 18:26
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Ally Bank & Fraudulent Transactions
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FCKGW posted:Why would a payment processor have a store receipt? Visa doesn't care what you bought at Walmart and doesn't need that info. It seems like they would be the ones to whom implementing the feature would be easier (since otherwise each vendor has to do it individually with their own solution), and I presume "get itemized receipts straight to your email" would be a good marketing point for Visa or whatever. I don't care how it gets done, as long as someone does it 
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Oct 14, 2015 18:37
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:It seems like they would be the ones to whom implementing the feature would be easier (since otherwise each vendor has to do it individually with their own solution), and I presume "get itemized receipts straight to your email" would be a good marketing point for Visa or whatever. The grocery store that I shop at has just introduced a new rewards card system that has itemized receipts tied in. It seems like they outsourced it to some program called Appcard. I get a text message after I shop there with a link to my receipt. I haven't really tested to see if it's a format that plays nicely with Quicken, Mint, YNAB etc though.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:50
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poo poo, me and my fiancee spend like $500/month on groceries for two people, and that's in Memphis
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Oct 15, 2015 01:38
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Single Guy averaging $176/mo on groceries, $58/mo in alcohol, $26/mo personal supplies, ??/mo eating out since it was lumped with my blow money but I broke it out a few months back. Last 3.5 months though $201/mo, girlfriend is not cheap at times but it is worth it. That number is probably 3 lunches a month and a couple dinners out with her.Ur Getting Fatter posted:It seems like they would be the ones to whom implementing the feature would be easier (since otherwise each vendor has to do it individually with their own solution), and I presume "get itemized receipts straight to your email" would be a good marketing point for Visa or whatever. A lot of stores are starting to give you the option to email a receipt now, so there is that I guess.
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Oct 15, 2015 04:41
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Omne posted:poo poo, me and my fiancee spend like $500/month on groceries for two people, and that's in Memphis If it matters to you, you can definitely cut that way down without sacrificing much. My wife and I do $300/mo eating meat every day, if we wanted to just stay alive and healthy it would be more like $100/mo. Make a meal plan based on the weekly ad of whatever store and general knowledge of what good prices are. Also, show up early on a weekday sometime and you may find special half-off prices on meat that's about to expire. Pick up a ton of it and freeze it.
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Oct 15, 2015 15:19
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baquerd posted:If it matters to you, you can definitely cut that way down without sacrificing much. My wife and I do $300/mo eating meat every day, if we wanted to just stay alive and healthy it would be more like $100/mo. Make a meal plan based on the weekly ad of whatever store and general knowledge of what good prices are. Also, show up early on a weekday sometime and you may find special half-off prices on meat that's about to expire. Pick up a ton of it and freeze it. I'd be interested in hearing a bit more about what your day to day meals look like. I mostly shop at Aldi and they dont seem to really do specials apart from a rotating section of seasonal or non grocery items. I'm not hurting for money by any means but I just think I ought to be able to cut down to a cheaper level without sacrificing much.
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Oct 15, 2015 15:27
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I just eat dirt, it's dirt cheap
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Oct 15, 2015 19:46
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Is there any good way to deal with pending transactions in Mint? The normal case: I go to a restaurant and get charged $20. I tip up to $24. Immediately the $20 shows up in mint as a pending charge. A few days later the $24 shows up as a completed one. The problem is that the first $20 pending charge won't go away for several weeks, messing up my budgets the whole time. Is there anyway I can manually delete/ignore the pending ones, or even just ALL pending ones?
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Oct 15, 2015 19:58
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Are you playing with the categories of pending charges? In my experience, that's a surefire way to make them stick around longer than they really should in Mint. Just leaving them alone and fixing categories after they clear is my solution.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:05
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If you click "Edit details" on the pending transaction, there's a delete option in the bottom left. Didn't know that about editing categories, though. I'll have to quit doing that.
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Oct 15, 2015 20:37
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Phi Fi Fo Fum posted:If you click "Edit details" on the pending transaction, there's a delete option in the bottom left. Didn't know that about editing categories, though. I'll have to quit doing that. I am blind apparently. Thanks. Also yeah, I would often change the category of the pending so that might have made it stick around longer.
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Oct 15, 2015 21:45
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Xenoborg posted:I am blind apparently. Thanks. Also yeah, I would often change the category of the pending so that might have made it stick around longer. With mint it depends on how long your cc holds onto the pending base charge. With the card I used previously base charges like sit down restaurants and gas pumps would release the pending charge after 2 or 3 days even after the full amount posted the day after. But now I mostly use the citi 2% card and they hold the base charge for a week or so even after the full amount posted and gas usually takes 2 weeks to a month to clear the $1 hold. Playing with the categories in mint won't speed up or hinder those charges being deleted. It's all dependant on your cc transaction log from their website. I asked the same thing to mint support and that's what they told me. And it seems to match up since I double check when I make payments and they match up 99% or the time.
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Oct 16, 2015 00:11
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I read somewhere that using a service like Mint can invalidate any user protections you have with accessing your data/funds because if Mint gets hacked then effectively so is all your information. I'm assuming that's old data because 1) Mint is still around and 2) I would imagine banks would update their API/ToS for services like this I'm with one of a top 20 national chain Bank right now so I can't imagine they don't have that straightened out by now. I'm thinking since they're owned by Intuit, if your bank has a Quicken API then Mint just uses that.
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Oct 16, 2015 03:35
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Hadlock posted:I read somewhere that using a service like Mint can invalidate any user protections you have with accessing your data/funds because if Mint gets hacked then effectively so is all your information. I'm assuming that's old data because 1) Mint is still around and 2) I would imagine banks would update their API/ToS for services like this
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Oct 16, 2015 04:30
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What's the general rule of thumb for how much car a person can afford? My car is currently perfectly fine (11MY Golf 2.5L gasoline) but some new cars, like the new Golf R and the BMW M2 make me drool. On the other hand, the Golf R is probably 40k new after bells and whistles and M2 is probably 55k, so neither are smart financial decisions obviously simply because I don't need a car, don't need a new car, and don't need ones that nice, but I have no sense for where the real limit is. I mean, the numbers say I can afford the M2 but I'm trying to get a reality check. I have 1300/mo left over for everything I need to live, including food. This means after 401k is maxed, after Roth IRA is maxed, after rent/utlities, and after gas. My emergency fund is at over 12mo of income (after 401k) so I feel comfortable drawing on that to put a down payment on a car, but obviously I'd be dipping into my savings for a car. Look, I know this is all stupid to consider buying a new Golf R, not to mention an M2, on my income but someone tell me how stupid.
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Oct 16, 2015 15:39
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I'll never recommend someone buy a brand new car (even though I bought one this year...) but in your case, if you make enough after maxing out retirement accounts and taking care of you bills, you're doing okay. Depends on what makes you happy in life, so if your vice is a nice car, who are we to stop you?
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Oct 16, 2015 16:44
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What other things are you trying to achieve with your cash money?
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Oct 16, 2015 18:14
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Moneyball posted:if you make enough after maxing out retirement accounts and taking care of you bills, you're doing okay. Depends on what makes you happy in life, so if your vice is a nice car, who are we to stop you? This is, I think, the metric for when you get to do "bad with money" stuff like buying fancy new cars, or whatever else your expensive hobby/interests are without catching too much flak. If you're maxing out all your retirement accounts, are carrying no debt, have the cash flow to pay all your bills with ease, and still have money left over then you're in better shape than 90% of Americans. If you're past this point you've pretty much graduated from the Newbie Personal Finance thread, and how you spend your "excess" cash is dependent on your wants and goals. Yeah, buying a brand new M2 can basically never be construed as "good with money", but if you're a car geek it's a pretty awesome machine and if your financial house is in order then go hog wild and post lots of pictures in AI. Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 18:40
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I guess I feel that, even though all my finances are in order, that doing something like buying a new fancy car is a quick way to get my finances out of order.KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:What other things are you trying to achieve with your cash money? This is a good question for me to ask myself, thanks. As it were, if I bought the M2 for example, I would basically not be able to save up for other big fun stuff, and definitely not save up for a house or something (even though I don't have plans to buy one right now), so maybe that's the kick in the butt I need to get this idea out of my head. Hrm.
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Oct 16, 2015 20:55
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Wife and I make $180k a year before tax with 0 debt and great credit. We are buying a $240k house and putting $48k down. I'm leaning towards doing a 7/1 ARM. Interest rate would be 3.125%. Interest for a 30 year fixed loan is 3.875%. I expect us to put an extra couple hundred a month into the mortgage, but we probably won't be trying to pay it off Mr Money Mustache style. I would be rather surprised if we stay in the house more than 7 years, but I guess you never know. Is it stupid to go for the ARM?
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Oct 16, 2015 20:55
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totalnewbie posted:What's the general rule of thumb for how much car a person can afford? My car is currently perfectly fine (11MY Golf 2.5L gasoline) but some new cars, like the new Golf R and the BMW M2 make me drool. On the other hand, the Golf R is probably 40k new after bells and whistles and M2 is probably 55k, so neither are smart financial decisions obviously simply because I don't need a car, don't need a new car, and don't need ones that nice, but I have no sense for where the real limit is. I mean, the numbers say I can afford the M2 but I'm trying to get a reality check. It's a pretty simple math question, so don't stress about it. What is your target retirement age? How much money will you need annually to have the lifestyle you want in retirement? Is your current savings enough to meet the retirement age and lifestyle goal? If you answered yes to the last question, GO HOG WILD, get whatever car you want.
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Oct 16, 2015 21:05
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Hashtag Banterzone posted:I'm leaning towards doing a 7/1 ARM. Why not pay it off early? I did the 7/1 and paid it off in less than 10. Plus, as added bonus, trying to pay it off early is a good psychological motivator to lower your other expenses. I never felt richer than I did when my house was paid off (but then I sold it and moved to an apartment because the commute was taking its toll on me).
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Oct 16, 2015 21:28
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BaseballPCHiker posted:I'd be interested in hearing a bit more about what your day to day meals look like. I mostly shop at Aldi and they dont seem to really do specials apart from a rotating section of seasonal or non grocery items. I'm not hurting for money by any means but I just think I ought to be able to cut down to a cheaper level without sacrificing much. I buy almost all my groceries at a local Jewel-Osco because that's pretty much what I got in my area, though I'll do farmer's market. Here was this last week for us: Grilled salmon and spinach: salmon fillet, $9.99/lb. pan fried skin-on, spinach is wilted and tossed in lemon butter. Top with a little fried onion strings. Priciest meal of the week, around $12 for the two of us. Ribs and corn - Ribs purchased buy 1, get 2 free and frozen a while back, so actual cost was roughly $6 a rack. Corn was $0.50. Sauce was pricy, about $2.50 worth of sauce because I don't make my own. Hamburger Casserole - Ground beef, peas, onions, potatoes, carrots, and celery in tomato soup. Beef was $1.99/lb for 85% lean as one of those half-off about to expire deals, rest of the veggies were perhaps $3.00 worth, so $5, and this makes enough to take for lunch too. Crock-pot so fire and forget. Chicken sandwiches and grilled asparagus - these sandwiches: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/04/best-grilled-chicken-sandwich-ever.html Chicken is $1.49/lb family pack of boneless untrimmed chicken. Buns and other trimmings might be $3. Asparagus kinda pricy, $4. Pulled pork sandwiches - I soud vided an 8lb pork butt that cost $8 and froze a bunch of pulled pork that should be good enough for roughly 5 meals for 2 people (it's not all meat, bunch of bone and fat that isn't in the pulled pork). Sauer kraut is $1.99/lb, used like $0.25 on each sandwich and then buns Chicken Stroganoff - back to the chicken, get some egg noodles, light sour cream, mushrooms, cream of chicken soup, all told around $8 for stuff that will keep us in business for a couple of lunches. Pork tenderloin - Cover this in thin layer of homemade onion and cinnamon mayo and bake it, serve with braised apples and cinnamon and corn on the side around $9 total. So all told, dinners were around $54 this week, and covered for 3 lunches as well with leftovers. Lunch stuff I don't really plan, can be cold cuts or snacking, but our usual weekly grocery bill is around $75. We eat out for lunch occasionally, with a budget of $60 a month for that. We'll have a nice dinner or a couple of mid-range dinners out a month, with a budget of $150 for that. Before I make each weeks menus, I check my frozen section and cabinets to see if I've got things that need to be used, then check the weekly coupons and go from there.
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Oct 18, 2015 00:10
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Thanks for this. I actually have a similar procedure of meal planning as well. It seems like you do really well getting meat on sale, much better than I do. After reviewing my receipts for the past week it seems like the bulk of my "extra" grocery money is getting spent at Costco on specialty items and items that enable me to be lazy. For example they have the organic range free frozen chicken patties that you can microwave but cost around $14 for a big box. That doesnt seem to bad but when you add that to the huge bag of frozen berries and the bulk granola bars it can add up to that $50 a month that I want to save. I think to cut my tab down even more I'd have to really start scouring the weekly flyers like you and basically start eating whatever is on sale week in week out instead of what I might prefer instead.
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Oct 19, 2015 15:25
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What exactly does quicken do that say mint or ynab can't?
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Oct 19, 2015 15:50
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nelson posted:Why not pay it off early? I did the 7/1 and paid it off in less than 10. Plus, as added bonus, trying to pay it off early is a good psychological motivator to lower your other expenses. I never felt richer than I did when my house was paid off (but then I sold it and moved to an apartment because the commute was taking its toll on me). We will probably try to pay it off early, but there's also like $20-$30k worth of work we would like to do on the house in the next few years, a trip to Greece, fully maxxing our 401ks, max IRA contributions, maybe a trip to cuba. I just want to make sure I'm being realistic when comparing an ARM vs conventional
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Oct 19, 2015 16:04
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Boris Galerkin posted:What exactly does quicken do that say mint or ynab can't? Vs YNAB, I feel YNAB has better budgeting abilities but the lack of bank connectivity is really annoying. Quicken also has great reporting capabilities. I export text files and parse them with a macro I wrote to bring them into Excel exactly how I want them. Then I budget in Excel.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:12
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I purchased a car on Friday and was in the process of securing financing through Chase at 2.09%. Chase was dragging their feet to I applied at Lightstream, a division of SunTrust, which was recommended at CreditKarma. They approved me for $17,000 at 2% on an unsecured car loan. They are not a lien holder and I will write a check to the dealer for the purchase price and take the title. This sounds nuts to me. Is this normal, to get an unsecured car loan? Or did I stumble upon an incredible deal?
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Oct 20, 2015 04:12
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That's pretty good. Makes me wonder how much lower the rate could be on a secured loan if you shopped around.
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Oct 20, 2015 04:24
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FCKGW posted:I purchased a car on Friday and was in the process of securing financing through Chase at 2.09%. Chase was dragging their feet to I applied at Lightstream, a division of SunTrust, which was recommended at CreditKarma. They approved me for $17,000 at 2% on an unsecured car loan. They are not a lien holder and I will write a check to the dealer for the purchase price and take the title. That's a pretty good rate unsecured. Enjoy the cheap finance.
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Oct 20, 2015 04:33
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FCKGW posted:I purchased a car on Friday and was in the process of securing financing through Chase at 2.09%. Chase was dragging their feet to I applied at Lightstream, a division of SunTrust, which was recommended at CreditKarma. They approved me for $17,000 at 2% on an unsecured car loan. They are not a lien holder and I will write a check to the dealer for the purchase price and take the title. I used LightStream for my car I bought a few months ago, so far so good. After I applied online I got a quick call from one of their representatives to verify a few details, but the money showed up in my account right away and I wrote a check for the whole price of the car. I got the same rate as you and I couldn't find a better deal.
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Oct 20, 2015 14:50
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My fiancee had a car that she doesn't drive often. I end up using it the most as we have the one cat between us and we commute by public transit. Her rate is somewhere around 6%. Would it make sense for me to 'buy it' off her to see if I can get a better interest rate? I have better credit score and no outstanding debt and think I could get a better rate. Is this a terrible idea?
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Oct 20, 2015 15:02
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How can I make big purchases without a credit card? I have zero credit because I don't need it. However, once in a blue moon I might want to spend more than my daily limits on my debit card or my ATM withdrawal limit (which are already at their maximums). For example, maybe one of these years I'll want to buy a watch or some other pointless toy. I just want to swipe a card and go. I asked my bank about this and they wanted to put me on a "secured" credit card of some kind which had all kinds of fees attached, and I'd need to have this for 6 months or so before they could give me a real card. This really sounds like a stupid idea because I don't want credit, I just want to spend the money that is already in my account.
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Oct 20, 2015 15:18
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baby puzzle posted:How can I make big purchases without a credit card? I have zero credit because I don't need it. However, once in a blue moon I might want to spend more than my daily limits on my debit card or my ATM withdrawal limit (which are already at their maximums). For example, maybe one of these years I'll want to buy a watch or some other pointless toy. I just want to swipe a card and go. "Secured" credit cards have always seemed like a hilarious scam designed to prey on those with zero credit history. "You pay us for the privilege of using money backed by your money and MAYBE we'll tell nice things to Experian if you're good  "How big is a "big" purchase? Can you write a check, as archaic as that seems?
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Oct 20, 2015 15:22
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Daily limits aren't there for any nefarious reason but to protect you from someone stealing your debit card and emptying your account. You should be able to call the bank in advance and have them temporarily raise the limit for a specific day. I think you should consider building some credit history though. For secured cards specifically I don't think they are inherently terrible, you get the deposit back when you cancel the card or convert it to a standard credit card. Unfortunately many of these cards are ridden with tons of unnecessary fees. Discover has an excellent one but you can't apply for it directly. Capital One also has a decent one and will usually give you a higher credit limit than your deposit.
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Oct 20, 2015 15:31
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