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My wife made a great cabbage and beef soup last night with a tomato base. Neither of us felt like making the stir fry. It might seem odd, but it's got a flavor profile kind of similar to borscht but tomato instead of beet. We're putting it in rotation now. Tomorrow we're (she's) doing slow cooker pot roast and I'll make mashed potatoes. I'll try to make enough potatoes that I can bring some to work for lunch too. The recipe is pretty huge so it lasts most of, if not a whole, week. Next I'm thinking of getting some stew meat and making a traditional beef, potato, carrot, and maybe celery stew. Stew meat comes from Costco in like 5 pound packages, so we would have enough for that and then another batch of the cabbage and beef soup. Ideally I'd like to get 4-5 easy recipes we can make that will last at least a couple days so we don't get bored. I've got something odd going on with Mint. I've got a category that says I've spent $70, but when I look to see what the expenses were it says it can't find anything. I also just went through all of the transactions listed so far in December and can't find anything. Has anyone seen that yet?   We're doing pretty well on groceries so far, just over half the budget halfway through the month, and that's after buying the giant pot roast. We're already almost at budget for slush thanks to my not keeping up on categorizing transactions and thinking we had spent less than we had.  Oh well, no use crying over spilled milk. We'll just have to be better in the last half of the month. I feel like I have to have missed a gas transaction somewhere, I'm lower than I should be at this point in the month.
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Dec 14, 2017 04:25
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I've got something odd going on with Mint. I've got a category that says I've spent $70, but when I look to see what the expenses were it says it can't find anything. I also just went through all of the transactions listed so far in December and can't find anything. Has anyone seen that yet? It looks like you have that budget set up to roll over and the $70 is the overage from last month ($120/$50).
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Dec 14, 2017 10:31
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Yep, looks like that must be it. Thanks.
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Dec 14, 2017 14:49
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Well, gently caress. Slid out and hit a curb this morning. I need a new wheel, probably a new tie rod, but everything else seems intact. I’ll get some quotes today, and if they’re more than I want I’ll see if my friend will accept my quote for labor of $50, a bottle of whiskey, and a 6 pack of IPAs to share. E: in good news my manager told me that unless I make a massive gently caress-up by the end of the year I’m here next year. He’s also got me starting work on a new project, which backs that up. There’s also the fact that I’ve never known him to lie and is vocal about how much he hates lying. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 17:53
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Bad news: car is probably totaled. Waiting to hear back and probably appeal the settlement offer since Subarus are really expensive in CO. Might be getting a cheap Prius or something, probably do some test driving tomorrow.
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Dec 16, 2017 00:13
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Holy loving poo poo. My father in law heard that my car was totaled and he decided to give us $3,000 to help out. I’m lost for words. I’m inclined to still take out a loan (~5.5%) and put that $3,000 towards the credit card, does that seem like a bad idea? Or maybe that would be lovely of me. My father in law is kind of weird. Sometimes he’s extremely grumpy, but when he’s proud of us or we’re doing well as far as keeping our lives on track but have an emergency he just throws money at us. We had to borrow money for rent one time when I was laid off without warning and when we went to pay him back he refused the money. He’s retiring next year, though, so I never want to have to count on him. It’s not fair to expect support from a 66 year old retired man as a 26 year old yuppie. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Dec 18, 2017 |
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Dec 18, 2017 21:13
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I just found out that sometime in the first four paychecks of 2018 I will be getting a bonus of ~$3800, so $2300 post tax if I’m doing the math right. That also means that between that and the car incentive I’ll have about $3500 withheld for taxes before anything even gets taken out of my paychecks. As soon as the IRS calculator gets updated for the new tax code next year I’ll see how I can take advantage of that and adjust my allowances to minimize my refund. Now I just have to find out how much my car settlement is (and how high my insurance is going  )
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Dec 21, 2017 19:26
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I haven’t abandoned the thread, I’ll write up a post about last month. It wasn’t good. I also need to update my budget due to my paycheck changing pretty significantly this year. I’ll have to wait until this weekend for that, though. That way I find out exactly how much each paycheck will be. E: still not good, but not as bad as I thought. I thought we had lost $1,000 from savings, but forgot it had actually been transferred to another savings account. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jan 3, 2018 |
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Jan 3, 2018 18:29
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Just got a settlement offer on my 19 year old, 207500 mile Subaru. After deductible, $3498. If I bought it back, towed it home, and parted it out, $3035 before anything I would get for parting it out. Trying to decide, asked for advice in the Subaru thread on what’s even worth anything on a car that old. I’m guessing probably body panels. E: actually, after looking at other part-outs, probably not worth it. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Jan 4, 2018 |
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Jan 4, 2018 18:55
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don't forget the amount of effort to part out a car!
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Jan 5, 2018 15:50
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Yeah, definitely. I was thinking body panels would be worth more than they are. Please don’t lynch me, thread, but I’m going to try to fix it myself. I’ve done a decent amount of work on the car before, I just had to stop when it became my only way to get to work. I’m going to take a look to make sure the impact didn’t break open the slow leaking water pump, but if that’s good I should be able to get it up and running again for a tiny fraction of the cost the shop quoted. While I’m under there I should be able to replace the oil pan too, which means I can start doing my own oil changes again. I need to find a different shop. When I was last under the car I saw the way that they had fixed an exhaust rattle. Three screws shoved in the gap between the two pieces to stop it moving around. Not screwed through, just shimming it. E: before you asked, I priced out the parts. Assuming I don’t get any junkyard parts and everything on that side is broken, it’s under $500 for everything including the tools I don’t have (like a jack and jack stands). In all likelihood, some parts are still fine, and Harbor Freight cut $30 or so off the tools I need. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 17:19
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Post a bunch of accident pictures for me to decide!!! (I have a background in collision repair so I can tell you if you're loving insane or not) (you're probably insane)
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Jan 5, 2018 21:05
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I can post them today, I guess. I want to take a final look at it before I decide. It popped a curb sliding on black ice. Control arm bent, sway bar end link snapped, tie rod possibly bent, but it didn’t look like it. Possibly CV axle bent, but again, didn’t look like it. Need to check the strut. Wheel needs to be replaced, but I got a full set of 4 for $100 years ago, much different than the shop’s quote of $400. Tire surprisingly didn’t seem bubbled, although I might have missed it on the inside. I didn’t hear a wheel bearing noise, but I could have missed it. I was probably going 10-15mph, I had just pulled into my parking lot’s driveway and was slowing down. The shop said all of that stuff I was skeptical of was broken, but they also quoted fixing a bunch of crap that clearly wasn’t from the same incident. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they were inflating it a bit. Not sure why they would do that if it was going to be a total, though. Maybe they get paid for the estimate and inspection? E: Imgur refuses to copy the link to the album on my phone. I’ll post when I get home. Too late to talk me out of buying it back, already told State Farm I was doing it. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 21:21
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Too late to talk me out of buying it back, already told State Farm I was doing it. Did you check to make sure the car is even insurable now?
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Jan 6, 2018 15:40
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Yes. State Farm won’t insure it, but that’s because they have a policy of only insuring salvage titles that don’t belong to cars that they issued the total loss for in the first place. I can get it insured just fine elsewhere.
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Jan 6, 2018 16:49
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that amount of suspension damage can give you some minor damage in the unibody and subframe. did they put it on a bench? i would not have bought the vehicle back unless i had a bench readout that said there was no damage to the unibody.
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Jan 7, 2018 18:10
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No, I actually didn’t. Hopefully that doesn’t end up biting me in the rear end. Good news: I’m off my performance improvement program, and I still have my job.
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Jan 9, 2018 15:00
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Just got a settlement offer on my 19 year old, 207500 mile Subaru. After deductible, $3498. If I bought it back, towed it home, and parted it out, $3035 before anything I would get for parting it out. Trying to decide, asked for advice in the Subaru thread on what’s even worth anything on a car that old. I’m guessing probably body panels. Did you search for comparable cars for sale? $3500 sounds pretty good for a car of that age and mileage. I’d take the check and buy a Toyota Corolla or something similar. Parting out will be a massive pain in the rear end. I can only imagine how flakey the people wanting to buy Subaru parts off Craigslist would be. Do you have some sort of accident forgiveness with your policy? If you switch insurance and have to disclose the accident you might see higher rates. If you can negotiate a larger payout by finding more expensive comparables go for it. Otherwise take the money and move on.
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Jan 9, 2018 20:27
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22 Eargesplitten posted:
This is really big, good job. If you can get your car fixed cheaply (and it's safe to drive) then by all means, get it back on the road and save yourself a bunch of money. Insure it for liability only, take the remainder and start a SmartyPig or something like that. Set a monthly goal and hopefully when your car calls it quits you can have a nice little nest egg to either buy another used car or put a down payment on a newer used car.
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Jan 9, 2018 20:32
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n8r posted:Did you search for comparable cars for sale? $3500 sounds pretty good for a car of that age and mileage. I’d take the check and buy a Toyota Corolla or something similar. Parting out will be a massive pain in the rear end. I can only imagine how flakey the people wanting to buy Subaru parts off Craigslist would be. I already bought a Camry Hybrid. My work paid me $3,000 for buying it, so the $6500 car is now $3500. I could pay the rest off, but since it’s at 5.64% I would rather keep the cash liquid for now and prioritize paying off my credit card. Speaking of paying off the credit card: the payment came in (EFT) today, and my wife threw a fit when I said I wanted to pay most of it to the credit card. We’ve still got $6700 in savings even after that. She said that we could build a good life around our debt (whatever that means) but that I want to waste a bunch of money on debt. “Waste money on debt” was the exact term she used. I can’t just call her financially stupid to her face, and I know I’m bad with money, but at least I know what I should do. She thinks paying debt is a waste of money. I’m trying to convince her to let us ask her(financially successful) dad for advice. I’ll make sure to mention the debt is at 20%. When I was talking to her about buying a car, I mentioned how much the car payment would be, and later referred to a loan. She was upset by the idea of having both a car payment and a loan. E: I guess she just has more attachment to number landmarks than achievement landmarks. She doesn’t want to do anything until we hit $10,000 in savings. Since we’re only a few hundred dollars off, I think I can make that work for now. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 9, 2018 21:20
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Congrats on getting off the PIP. This car is going to cost much more than ~$500 when you consider the repairs, the higher cost of insurance, and the lack of resale value in the future. Would you buy a 19 year old 200k mile Subaru with a salvage title either to part out or fix and drive? Is there a better car that you could get for your wife for under $3500? Do you really need to replace this car at all? For explaining the debt to your wife, you can either pay the debt now, or pay the debt plus interest some time in the future. Short of dying or declaring bankruptcy you will pay less by paying the debt now and avoiding the interest. It is fine to get an emergency fund first before paying down debt but your emergency fund should be based on your expenses and your job stability.
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Jan 11, 2018 01:27
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Not sure what you mean by “replace this car.” I have another already. The body shop screwed up the inspection form so it didn’t actually get submitted, I ended up buying a new car before that. My hope is to get this car back for the ~$475, get the tools and parts for at most $500 (assuming I didn’t miss a bubble on the tire), and get the car back on the road for about $1,000 plus the cost of inspection, titling, and registration. No, I can’t buy any Subaru in running condition for that much. That way I get experience and confidence fixing cars, have a third car so my wife isn’t stuck at home whenever a car is in the shop, and more importantly have a third car so I have time to do my own repairs like I used to, saving a significant chunk of money. Like the repairs at 240k that I said would be the death knell for the car earlier in this thread. If I have the time and knowledge, I can do the timing belt and water pump for the cost of parts off of RockAuto rather than $1,500 at the mechanic. gently caress ever touching the high voltage battery on the hybrid, though. Hopefully the vast majority of the $3,000 after buying as salvage and towing can go towards my credit card. Also, I know it’s irrational and irrational is BWM, but I have a really strong emotional attachment to this car. This is the first car I ever owned. I’ve had it for 8 years. I learned to drive stick on it, I put 87000 miles on it. I know exactly how it handles, I can drive it with confidence in the worst conditions. The only reason I wrecked it was that the roads were already dry but there was still ice in the shade of one of the other buildings. When I’m driving it, it feels like an extension of me. It would mean a lot to me to be able to bring it back to life.
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Jan 11, 2018 01:51
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You will be in a better place financially if you took all that time you’d waste getting a second job delivering pizza. You’ll be in a better place personally if you take all that time and spend it doing something you enjoy. What you are describing is a pretty BWM move.
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Jan 11, 2018 08:53
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n8r posted:You will be in a better place financially if you took all that time you’d waste getting a second job delivering pizza. You’ll be in a better place personally if you take all that time and spend it doing something you enjoy. Find me a job that lets me work on my own schedule (that's not basically depreciating my car for money). And this is something that I would enjoy, and find actual achievement in unlike the video games I play all the time. Although getting a gym membership and getting back in shape would probably be better for me personally, I suppose. My mind's made up on this. I know I won't be able to convince you that it's a good idea, but I'm going to do it anyway. What's a BFC thread without at least one goon in a wheel well moment? This is especially dumb, but I’m hoping to get some quality time with a friend I don’t see enough of anymore. We used to work on our cars and computers and play video games all the time as teenagers. We could work on the car and drink some beer and bullshit afterwards. We haven’t had time with just the two of us and not our wives in like 6 years. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Jan 11, 2018 |
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Jan 11, 2018 15:18
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the car thing is a loving asinine idea you and your buddy could drink beer and bullshit literally anywhere else and it would be way better with money
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Jan 12, 2018 17:52
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I love the ability to see a horrible idea happening and say gently caress it I'm doing it anyway.
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Jan 15, 2018 22:07
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You know what makes for a good friendship? Your friend takes on an unnecessary financial hardship to obligate your participation in an activity you might or might not enjoy anymore. Maybe I missed it, have you actually asked your friend if he wants to help you rebuild a shitheap?
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Jan 16, 2018 01:20
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Yes, actually. I mentioned the possibility of rebuilding it myself and he volunteered to help. He works on his own cars and motorcycles all the time. I would be doing this either way. It’s fun, it helps me learn skills I’ve wanted to develop for a long time, and it’s therapeutic (aside from the beat up knuckles). Still haven’t posted the pictures I took, still haven’t posted my new budget for the new year. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 04:03 on Jan 17, 2018 |
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Jan 17, 2018 03:28
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Oh my loving god the employment verification system we use requires the requester to pay money to verify employment. I really wish it wasn’t a poor decision to scream at a VP. Nobody is going to pay that when they could just rent out to one of the other half dozen people interested in this market.
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Jan 18, 2018 22:36
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Someone in the Zuarg thread said that he’s at the part of the thread where his manic period is over and he disappears. I’ve kind of disappeared, but I want to check in. My life is going to poo poo, struggling not to just give up completely on finances and spend my way to less sadness (money can’t buy happiness) like I tend to when super depressed. Currently sitting around $9,000 in savings, bonus of around $2,500 after tax coming in either tomorrow or on the 16th. When that happens we’ve agreed I’ll put a ton of money from savings into the credit card. Not all of it, but $3-4,000. I know we need to discuss a specific number but I just don’t want to deal with the conflict right now. Her attitude is that I have the rest of my life to pay off my debts (she actually said this pretty much verbatim) and so I should just feel good about having so much in savings. I’m still feeling really insecure financially, which seems justified given how much of the money in savings was a windfall of sorts. P.S.: I might start a project thread for fixing my car in AI if it seems like it will take more than a couple days. If I do, please keep the ragging on me for it being a bad financial idea in this thread. I want to keep the possible project thread dedicated to actually fixing the car. Thanks. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 17:57
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She wants to just spend all the money on clothes and purses or something, instead of paying off credit card debt? What does she say when you point out that you are wasting $200 per month or whatever on pointless interest? Also yes, your totaled car thing was one of the dumber ideas I've ever seen in BFC and I still can't believe you did that.
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Jan 31, 2018 18:14
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You should plan a vacation. Just having one set in the future with money set aside does wonders for stress and anxiety. Was the hobby budget you set originally unreasonable, or are you both not on the sane page about your savings and goals in general
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Jan 31, 2018 18:30
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Droo posted:She wants to just spend all the money on clothes and purses or something, instead of paying off credit card debt? What does she say when you point out that you are wasting $200 per month or whatever on pointless interest? No, she just wants to sit on a bunch of savings in the bank. I’ve told her that we’re paying a ton of money in interest every month, but it hasn’t swayed her. She’s one of those people who thinks debt is just a fact of life, which is funny since she personally had none until we got the car. Before anyone asks about therapy WRT the life falling apart thing: I’m trying to find a new one, but it’s really hard to find a therapist that specializes in autistic patients who works with adults. It’s like the world thinks you just suddenly stop being autistic when you turn 18. That really sucks since I didn’t even get diagnosed until 25. There’s a center I’m going to call that I really hope can provide some recommendations. I also am trying really hard to find someplace closer to work we can move. I feel like spending 2.5 hours commuting 5 days a week is really decreasing my quality of life. It’s a lot less time I can spend with my wife, and it’s time I can’t spend exercising. Also people on I-25 are maniacs and that drive is pretty stressful, so getting close enough to use the smaller highway would be nice. We’ve got a family reunion this summer we’re saving money and PTO for. Even if we don’t save up enough ahead of time, we’ll dig into pre-existing savings to go. My grandmother is 88, she can’t really travel across the country anymore, so this might be the last time I see her. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 18:59
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I think I might have thought of a way that I can explain how paying off the credit card is a good thing. It’s not losing money, it’s investing it. It’s a liquid investment that can be cashed out at any time (even though it should be the last thing aside from a retirement account you cash out), and it has one of the best rates of return you can get. In a year it would have a 100% return on investment, we would have made as much money off of the investment as we put in. There’s no investment on earth that guarantees that aside from employer matching on an 401(k). Does that seem like it would make sense to a financially illiterate person? E: gently caress, I guess maybe I’m BWMath. It wouldn’t be 100%. It would be 32%. But if I put that money into my 401(k) it would be roughly an 80% ROI at least (not going to type the math out on my phone unless someone asks). 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 19:43
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I think it's reasonable for your wife to want a cash emergency fund of some amount, whether it's $1000 or $3000 or maybe even $5000. Explaining paying off the credit card debt like a savings account that generates 30% interest might work - in reality, if your credit card interest is 30% it's equivalent to like a 40% savings account since you would have to pay income tax on bank interest but you don't get to deduct credit card interest. I would try to come up with a plan with my wife ... figure out why she wants savings, what she's worried about, and how much she's comfortable with. Try to explain credit card debt and how much it costs in completely wasted money. Try to come up with a plan around both points of view... for example, for right now we'll keep $3000 in the bank and throw everything else at the credit cards, and then we'll get the emergency fund up to $10,000 and then go from there with a mix of increased budget / increased retirement saving. Edit: what are your total outstanding debts and bank balances as of today?
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Feb 2, 2018 20:23
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Currently: $14,310 in the bank. That was a surprise, my bonus came in after my normal paycheck so I didn’t see it until now. Rent hasn’t been taken out yet, so more like $13,290. $5,500 on my credit card (balance hasn’t updated from today’s payment, maybe 5496? Splitting hairs). $22,579 in Stanford loans, some subsidized some unsubsidized. $3,402 on the new car. $4-500 on my hospital loan (had trouble getting it into Mint) $680 to my mother, who has been very patient and I feel guilty for not paying her back sooner. So that probably comes after the 19.99% card. We have multiple savings accounts (I thin an excessive amount, but it doesn’t really matter). One has one month’s rent, one has $2,000 also for emergency find purposes. That one gets the best interest exactly at $2,000, which is why it’s its own thing. There’s some savings for our family reunion in the summer, and some in one last account that’s going to be used for moving and the credit card. 22 Eargesplitten fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Feb 2, 2018 |
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Feb 2, 2018 20:37
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Currently: So put $3-5,000 in an online savings account at 1.5% to make the wife happy, pay off the credit card, your mom and the hospital loan and maybe throw the extra ~$2k at your 7.x% student loan and use $150 to have a nice night out on Valentine's day. Edit: quote:We have multiple savings accounts (I thin an excessive amount, but it doesn’t really matter). One has one month’s rent, one has $2,000 also for emergency find purposes. That one gets the best interest exactly at $2,000, which is why it’s its own thing. There’s some savings for our family reunion in the summer, and some in one last account that’s going to be used for moving and the credit card. This money is all additional to the $13000 extra you already described?
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Feb 2, 2018 20:51
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No, sorry. That’s how the $13,000 is split up. We do need to save some of it for moving and we have half a month to get through on the paycheck that just came in, so we don’t have nearly as much as it sounds like to spare, but I can at least pay off the credit card, which saves $150 per month. Effectively we have $3,020 as an emergency fund right now. $2,000 is at either 3.25% or 3.5%, I would have to look to remember for sure. Then we have money for the trip, a few thousand for moving, and the rest of savings will go to pay off the CC. Which is then being frozen in a block of ice and shoved in the back of the freezer. And I’m deleting it from my paypal and Amazon accounts.
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Feb 2, 2018 21:01
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Which is then being frozen in a block of ice and shoved in the back of the freezer. And I’m deleting it from my paypal and Amazon accounts. This is a good idea. If you think it would be helpful, you can also explain to your wife that having no balance on your credit card makes that card more useful in an emergency - nearly all financial emergencies that could come up will be easier to pay for with a credit card than with debit, and having no balance on there means you have a larger maximum you could spend in an emergency. Of course, you don't really want her to hear this as "credit cards are my emergency fund, I don't need a balance also" because you do, credit card spending is a loan, but hopefully you see my point.
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Feb 2, 2018 21:31
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22 Eargesplitten posted:No, sorry. That’s how the $13,000 is split up. We do need to save some of it for moving and we have half a month to get through on the paycheck that just came in, so we don’t have nearly as much as it sounds like to spare, but I can at least pay off the credit card, which saves $150 per month. If your wife is happy with the $3000 + earmarked money that seems pretty reasonable and I wouldn't fight with her over it. If she is pushing for even more money in the emergency fund then that seems a bit ... overly cautious considering you have high interest debt to pay off.
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Feb 2, 2018 21:45
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