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Knyteguy posted:- Credit Karma has had me low for a long time for some reason (669/669). Why do you think this was low for you?
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Aug 22, 2019 22:49
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Nocheez posted:Why do you think this was low for you? Low compared to my actual Fico scores is what I mean. A lot of people have problems with their CK/VantageScore being a lot higher than their actual score, but mine is usually 20-30 points lower.
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Aug 22, 2019 23:02
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Knyteguy posted:- Sell my laptop. I'm no longer using it for work. Spectre x360 https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=spectre+x360&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&rt=nc&LH_ItemCondition=3000 $300-$500 ?? Deciding to sell all this stuff is a really great step forward. Don't stress too much about the price, just get some good pics and throw it up, and you can always gradually bring the price down over time if you don't get many inquiries at first. I think you said you've still got loads more stuff in storage? If so, keep chipping away at it. Stuff lying around in a storage cage is basically dead money that keeps losing value the longer it stays in storage. Liquidate what you can and throw it all against the debt. Chances are if it's been in storage for this long, you don't really need it.
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Aug 23, 2019 08:30
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KG we can figure out if a refi is worth it by doing some math. Your interest rate on your RV is 17.75% Your current balance is $17,789 Your anticipated paydown is done in July 2020 You are going to pay down $1617.18/mo plus interest. You need to pay down 1,763.92/mo amortized over the next 11 months (inclusive of interest). You will pay a total of 1,617.12 in interest over the next 11 months if you stay at or ahead $1763.92/mo. With a loan fee of $1190 in finance related charges, any further financing costs in excess of $427.12 will be a net loss to staying with your current loan. To only incur $427.12 in interest on this same loan you would need an interest rate of 4.77% or better.
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Aug 26, 2019 03:22
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:KG we can figure out if a refi is worth it by doing some math. Thanks - that’s disappointing. I don’t believe 4.77% would be achievable as far as I can tell. Even if we have the credit for a prime rate, the best loan rate I can find is https://www.goodsamrvloans.com which doesn’t reach that rate until $50k plus loans. I think we’ll be ahead of schedule on that also.
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Aug 27, 2019 00:39
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Couple things - 1) Upping grocery, fuel, pets, and discretionary next month. - Grocery: $500 -> $650 - Pets: $120 -> $150 - Discretionary: $300 -> $330 - Fuel: $250 -> $300 Grocery: I want some room to buy deals in bulk, and we went over this month, this week (we're rolling over the overage). Pets: Add a little more breathing room for vet appointments and buying bigger bags of food/litter. We went over by $10 (came out of discretionary), but we also likely don't need pet food next month. Discretionary: I need some room to pick up vaping bullshit. Didn't go over, but didn't save like I wanted to. Fuel: Went over. This was likely due to the back and forth from moving and then the back and forth from selling the dirt bike. We'll roll over -$31 which was the overage. My plan here is to raise these categories to meet high usage months, but stay well under most months. 2) I picked up a credit card in July with a $600 sign up bonus. I met the sign up bonus and will be getting paid in September. This will go towards debt. This card has a $95 annual fee that came in whole out of discretionary this month. I will be switching this card to a general cash back card the next time the annual fee comes up (July or August 2020). 3) I'll post September's budget in full when my wife gets paid again this week.
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Aug 27, 2019 15:51
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Hmm, not sure I like this particular update. I'm seeing a lot of the old "spending money to save money" mentality, specifically the bulk buys and credit card. I dunno about Nevada, but here I have noticed that the bulk buys at sam's or whatever don't have a lower unit cost than getting the same thing at walmart. Also credit cards with fees? In the year 2019? C'mon dude.
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Aug 27, 2019 16:22
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Knyteguy posted:Couple things - That's not how budgeting works. If your categories aren't correct, by all means adjust them. Buying in bulk is not really an argument; logically buying in bulk must be cheaper, otherwise just buy smaller amounts. If it's cheaper, buying in bulk should lead to lowering your categories: things are cheaper, ergo you need to spend less. If you want to spend more at one time, you save up for it, you don't just increase categories in some zaurg-like reconciliation. Don't make your categories too large, that's just an invitation to overspend. Make them reflect the truth and what you want to spend on the category; if you need more at a point – e.g., to purchase in bulk – you save for it.
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Aug 27, 2019 16:37
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Knyteguy, are you upping these categories next month, and then returning them to where they are now? Or are you upping these categories next month, and leaving them at the upped values?
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Aug 27, 2019 16:43
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I'll answer questions, but I want to answer this one real quick, with the note that we don't have a club membership (the thread advised me against it). I shopped price/oz at Walmart for these things, and pet food for example was drastically cheaper.Dwight Eisenhower posted:Knyteguy, are you upping these categories next month, and then returning them to where they are now? Or are you upping these categories next month, and leaving them at the upped values? My plan was to keep them permanent as a category adjustment. From October onward these numbers keep us above our $3,000/mo total debt contribution plan. I'm trying to find something sustainable here. But with that said I'm open to input.
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Aug 27, 2019 16:48
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Knyteguy posted:I'll answer questions, but I want to answer this one real quick, with the note that we don't have a club membership (the thread advised me against it). I shopped price/oz at Walmart for these things, and pet food for example was drastically cheaper. If pet food is cheaper to buy in bulk, you will spend more dollars when you spend, but the pets are eating the same amount of food per day, so you will be spending less money month to month because the bulk pet food is cheaper, right?
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Aug 27, 2019 16:53
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:If pet food is cheaper to buy in bulk, you will spend more dollars when you spend, but the pets are eating the same amount of food per day, so you will be spending less money month to month because the bulk pet food is cheaper, right? Right - I just don't want to go over on the category again. That's basically my thought process with all of these changes. New pet expenses also include a $90 blood draw every 6 months for my dog and ~$50 in medication over that same time period as well. That's about $20/mo extra.
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Aug 27, 2019 17:02
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Okay, you want a plan with enough slack in it that you'll succeed. I think that's prudent. There's a legitimate concern that increasing the budget amounts means you'll also increase your spending commensurately, because it's budgeted. Based on what you've said you will save money on food but will increase spending on veterinary care. How much are you saving per bag of food? How many bags of food have you gone through a month pre-bulk? How much bigger is a new bag of food compare with an old one? The answers to these questions inform how much money you expect to save a month buying bulk. That coupled with incurring (justifiable) increased veterinary costs gives an expected change in Pets spend, which is where the budget number should be within a month or two. I'm just picking on Pets because it's a place where you're trying to make a change to economize by buying in bulk, and want that decision thought through past "bulk is lower price per pound".
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Aug 27, 2019 17:17
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Dwight Eisenhower posted:Okay, you want a plan with enough slack in it that you'll succeed. I think that's prudent. Dogs: We were buying this: https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Purina-ONE-Natural-Dry-Dog-Food-SmartBlend-Chicken-Rice-Formula-8-lb-Bag/10849576 We switched to this: https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Purina-ONE-Natural-Dry-Dog-Food-SmartBlend-Chicken--Rice-Formula---40-lb.-Bag/256808147?selected=true 5x 12.36 = $61.80 vs 1x 43.98 = $43.98 -$17.80 difference. I can't speak on how many bags we were using/mo, since my wife feeds the dogs. I think 2-3 a month. Cats: We were buying this: https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Purina-One-Tender-Selects-Blend-with-Real-Chicken-Natural-Dry-Cat-Food-7-lb/10448983?selected=true We switched to this: https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Purina-One-Tender-Selects-Blend-with-Real-Chicken-Natural-Dry-Cat-Food-22-lb/26973745?selected=true 3.14x 12.28 (on sale so it might have been $13.74) = $38.55 1x 22 = $29.98 -$8.57 difference Same thing on the bags. I think 1-2 bags a month. Litter: We were buying this: I have no idea it was switched pretty often, usually a 10-14lb thing of it. We switched to this: https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Arm-Hammer-Double-Duty-Clumping-Cat-Litter-40-lb/43462127 Probably $2-$5 difference depending on the month. ~$20-$25/mo cut buying in bulk. So it sounds like pets should stay about the same? ($120 -> $150 was the adjustment). For September though we'll need that medication and that will cost that about $50. We haven't had a 3 month pet average like this for like 2 years. It's driving me crazy.
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Aug 27, 2019 17:36
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Knyteguy posted:So it sounds like pets should stay about the same? ($120 -> $150 was the adjustment). For September though we'll need that medication and that will cost that about $50. We haven't had a 3 month pet average like this for like 2 years. It's driving me crazy. I agree, based on your estimates, the net budget should be the same per month because the bulk purchasing will offset the increased veterinary costs. You have to frontload those bulk purchase costs at some point, so that means you do some month where the total Pets spend exceeds your average in order to bring down the average after that month. Your budget has some flex room in it so increasing categories to frontload costs to get savings is reasonable. If you put money in Savings then pulled it from Savings and put it in Pets there's no magic number of spreading the cost over N months is good and <N months is bad. If you can still meet your targets then increasing this category for September and then dropping it when your frontloaded costs start saving is reasonable. That said, you're ballparking info that I think if you spent time tonight on you could get crisp about. You use YNAB so I think you probably have the spending for Pets categorized in it? This is discretionary but it can validate your estimate of where you should be. If your spending is violating your expectations for several months at a time that's worth paying extra attention to. Why is the spending not consistent with your plan? What behavior modifications can you make to realign it (in addition to changing up and buying in bulk)? Can you amortize these costs so that when these intermittent costs hit they're coming out of surplus that has been going into Pets continually to meet these excesses?
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Aug 27, 2019 18:01
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Hmm, not sure I like this particular update. I'm seeing a lot of the old "spending money to save money" mentality, specifically the bulk buys and credit card. Re: the card I'm really just trying to get this RV loan down to help cut down the monthly interest. I tried for two high straight cash back cards (no fee) and was denied, so I went with the bonus instead. The fee came out of our discretionary, so it's like a $95 fun money contribution to the debt pay down is how I'm thinking of it. With that said I won't be doing that again, it made discretionary too tight. No club membership - I took the thread's advice. klafbang posted:That's not how budgeting works. If your categories aren't correct, by all means adjust them. My wife and I feel our categories are incorrect yes. We have spending data, but it's tempting to just throw it away and start over since most of that is from traveling the country where the cost of living was generally lower. I'm not confident at all in our grocery budget, more than anywhere else. With that said I've been making a September meal plan and shopping the ingredients we'd need while doing the meal plan to keep costs in mind. I'll post it when it's finished as input would be nice. Dwight Eisenhower posted:I agree, based on your estimates, the net budget should be the same per month because the bulk purchasing will offset the increased veterinary costs. Ok thanks, this helps. I'll up pets for September and go back down in October. Our average spend is according to YNAB about $90/mo, but for the most part that wasn't back home where cost of living is higher. I don't know how this affects the pet category yet. I am kind of ballparking you're right. I'll see if I can come up with more solid numbers after work (if I don't work late, which I may). Tomorrow evening if not tonight.
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Aug 27, 2019 19:23
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Knyteguy posted:With that said I've been making a September meal plan and shopping the ingredients we'd need while doing the meal plan to keep costs in mind. I'll post it when it's finished as input would be nice. Not sure if it's been covered for you yet or not, but one way to keep meal costs down is to utilize ethnic grocery stores for certain foods. Depending on the ethnicity the store caters to you can find certain items at even greater discounts than Costco or Sam's Club. My experience is in the Bay Area, but I found Indian markets typically have spices in bags of 3-4 times the amount you'll get from a Safeway, for the same price. Milk was also much cheaper there, veggies too, and a 5kg bag of Basmati rice that would last months was super cheap. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai markets all had other types of rice for incredibly cheap, as well as very cheap fruit and dry goods like beans. The only things I ended up getting at Safeway while I lived there were typical "American" things, like oatmeal. I was able to live comfortably on ~$350 a month in the Bay Area shopping like this, and I wasn't even doing anything other than basic cost per ounce comparisons between stores.
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Aug 27, 2019 20:39
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gmc9987 posted:Not sure if it's been covered for you yet or not, but one way to keep meal costs down is to utilize ethnic grocery stores for certain foods. Depending on the ethnicity the store caters to you can find certain items at even greater discounts than Costco or Sam's Club. My experience is in the Bay Area, but I found Indian markets typically have spices in bags of 3-4 times the amount you'll get from a Safeway, for the same price. Milk was also much cheaper there, veggies too, and a 5kg bag of Basmati rice that would last months was super cheap. Chinese, Japanese, and Thai markets all had other types of rice for incredibly cheap, as well as very cheap fruit and dry goods like beans. The only things I ended up getting at Safeway while I lived there were typical "American" things, like oatmeal. I was able to live comfortably on ~$350 a month in the Bay Area shopping like this, and I wasn't even doing anything other than basic cost per ounce comparisons between stores. I've actually been thinking of getting a big bag of rice from there, but I'm not sure if I want brown rice or white rice... we do need some seasonings as well. Thanks I'll keep that in mind.
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Aug 27, 2019 22:44
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Edit: possibly not in good taste so I’m deleting it.
Duckman2008 fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 04:52
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Duckman2008 posted:Edit: possibly not in good taste so I’m deleting it. Honestly I just kind of want to finish up the thread ASAP, in response to what your post said. So I'm still working on a meal plan, but planning a month of meals is pretty tough. What do you guys think of this one? -snip- We have 7lbs of frozen chicken breast and around 1lb of frozen shrimp going into the month so we could work with that as well. e: nevermind they want a paid subscription for the useful stuff like grocery shopping, so -snip-. I really dislike meal planning. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 15:07
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e: nevermind, I need to figure this out.
Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 15:20
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Knyteguy posted:Better question: how can I be successful with groceries and meals with normal more-healthy-than-not food but isn't like completely fat free, that isn't extreme like rice and beans (my wife got very not happy with me when we did this exclusively for a couple of weeks), that isn't a gigantic pain in the rear end to prep since we're a working family, that understands there's a need for snacks and poo poo like chicken nuggets for my son, and that is somewhat budget conscious? I had a big effort post typed up here and my browser ate it. I'll retype it later, but it's coming. There used to be a budget cooking thread in Goons with Spoons that had some really good advice/recipes in it, that's what got me much better at shopping and cooking. e: saw you deleted that, shoot me an email at [username]@gmail if you want some advice on shopping/cooking within a budget while still having tasty food. I've got a bit of experience living in expensive areas and feeding a family on a budget.
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Aug 28, 2019 16:16
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Also, arrowroot starch is not in any way exotic. It's a basic staple if you make soups or sauces. Too thin? Put in some arrowroot.
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Aug 28, 2019 16:20
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If it's only for thickening, you can even substitute corn starch and be just fine. Part of cooking on a budget is learning how to google "[recipe name] substitutions" and learning what can and can't be swapped out in any given recipe.
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Aug 28, 2019 16:21
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gmc9987 posted:If it's only for thickening, you can even substitute corn starch and be just fine. Part of cooking on a budget is learning how to google "[recipe name] substitutions" and learning what can and can't be swapped out in any given recipe. Ehhh....you can, just like you can substitute flour. But KG is talking about not only cooking on a budget but also easily/in a time budget. Arrowroot is the only thickener I know of that you can just toss in at the end and barely keep cooking and have it not throw off the flavor.
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Aug 28, 2019 16:27
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gmc9987 posted:I had a big effort post typed up here and my browser ate it. I'll retype it later, but it's coming. There used to be a budget cooking thread in Goons with Spoons that had some really good advice/recipes in it, that's what got me much better at shopping and cooking. I'm definitely open to some input regarding this. I think posting it in the thread would be valuable since I'm thinking that other people would find it useful as well. San Francisco food prices are about 10% more than here (according to a CoL calculator), so tips should translate fairly well too. Motronic posted:Ehhh....you can, just like you can substitute flour. But KG is talking about not only cooking on a budget but also easily/in a time budget. Arrowroot is the only thickener I know of that you can just toss in at the end and barely keep cooking and have it not throw off the flavor. Oh I didn't know that about arrowroot starch - I've always used cornstarch. It sounds like something we should keep in the kitchen. Time is definitely the biggest factor I think. I work 9-10 hours a day, and I'm just mentally spent after work most days. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 17:02
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Good point. I've never actually used arrowroot starch before so wasn't aware that it had that property.
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Aug 28, 2019 17:06
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I live in a high-COL area and, it’s probably different because I don’t have kids, but my meal prepped meal for this week is literally “rice (5lb bag from an Asian grocery), cooked with chicken broth (from paste), with some sausages (from Costco) chopped up into it”. I should have added an onion and I messed up the sausage to rice ratio, but that was what I had in the fridge so that was what I made. Add some sweet (seasonal) fruit for dessert. You don’t have to do hard or expensive recipes if you’re willing to eat a little plainly sometimes, just maybe don’t do the same boring meal for several weeks in a row. There’s a trade-off between cost, effort, and eating nice things, so just try to keep it balanced averaged over the entire month.
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Aug 28, 2019 17:29
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Maybe plan your meals for a week at a time instead of trying to do an entire month?
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Aug 28, 2019 17:42
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Knyteguy posted:I'm definitely open to some input regarding this. I think posting it in the thread would be valuable since I'm thinking that other people would find it useful as well. San Francisco food prices are about 10% more than here (according to a CoL calculator), so tips should translate fairly well too. OK here goes. This all comes from eating cheaply in the Bay Area for several years (tiny income, no wiggle room in the budget at all) and being the primary grocery shopper and chef for my family for the last 5 years (not in the Bay Area, but cooking for myself and my wife on a small income, and for the last two years adding a kid into the mix). Also my wife is vegetarian and has celiac disease, so most of the recipes reflect that but you can go nuts finding meat recipes on your own. meal planning and prep Instead of the whole month, try to just plan out a week at a time. The main thing to take away here is that eating on a budget doesn't mean eating bland food, or the same thing every day. Typically, you'll want a protein, a starch, and a vegetable for your meals - potatoes can be prepared in a variety of different ways that end up tasting very different, same thing with rice. If you cook the rice with broth instead of water, you'll find that just plain rice can stand as a side dish on its own. For veggies, I find that roasting them for 20-30 minutes at 400º with some olive oil, salt and some other seasoning (parmesan, thyme, garlic, use your imagination) makes for another low-effort side dish that has a lot of flavor. utilizing leftovers is important - last night's main dish makes a good lunch. Leftover rice can be combined with whatever vegetables and meat you have lying around to make a big batch of fried rice. You can also find lots of variations on "rubber chicken" out there too - roasting (or buying a roasted) chicken, then using the meat from that to make meals throughout the week. Roasting a whole chicken is especially budget and time friendly if you start on a Sunday, because you just leave the chicken in there for a few hours on top of some veggies and the meal's done, and then part of the meals for the rest of the week are already cooked. Keep a few "emergency meals" on hand - stuff for when you seriously don't have time to cook, or need a meal FAST for whatever reason. Anything with a seasoning packet, like hamburger helper, isn't going to save you money if you eat it regularly but if you buy it on sale and hang on to it, you've got a fast meal for days when no one's schedule is lining up. Likewise, keeping some noodles and a few cans of whole roasted tomatoes on hand let's you make a pretty tasty spaghetti sauce on short notice that requires little attention while it's cooking. Find some good emergency meals you like, keep the ingredients on hand, and you'll rarely have to splurge because a meeting ran late or whatever. Also, don't have an ingredient? Or think it's too expensive? Google for substitutions! You'd be surprised. Grocery Shopping I touched on the main shopping strategies above, but generally - buy staples (rice, flour, potatoes, noodles, onions, etc.) in larger quantities, and plan at least a few meals throughout the week with those items in mind. Other things to keep on hand include beans and lentils (dry, and canned). Dry beans sound like they aren't the best if you're pressed for time, but if you know you need them on Tuesday for your meal it's pretty easy to get them soaking or put them in a slow cooker the day before you need them. Lentils are easier - they typically go from dry to ready-to-eat in 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the variety, and there are many, many different ways to flavor them and use them. At Safeway (or whatever equivalent is in your area), the butcher's counter will typically give cuts of meat a good 30%-50% discount when it's a day or two from the expiration date. You can freeze the meat at home, so long as it stays below 32ºF it'll still be good when you take it out to thaw. Likewise, keep an eye out for sales on staples or canned goods or healthy-ish snacks for you and the kid. Also utilize what fruits and veggies are in season - fall's coming up, which means squashes and pumpkins. Roasting some acorn squash halves with some brown sugar and butter makes for a nice, easy addition to dinner. See what's in season and plan your meals and shopping accordingly. Recipes These are all recipes that are in my regular rotation and get made once or twice a month, when the season matches. I have had good luck using smittenkitchen.com for a lot of recipes - there's a lot of fancier/expensive recipes, but there's even more everyday, no-fuss recipes that just work and aren't all that complicated. What your family ends up liking and making will probably be very different, but unfortunately learning to cook at all, even without being on a tight budget, requires you to actually just cook and discover what recipes work, which ones don't, and which ones are favorites. Stewed Lentils Lasagna Soup Shepherd's Pie (you can probably find a better meat-based shepherd's pie recipe out there. Also, don't use sweet potatoes like they say, regular potatoes taste better with the cheddar) Tomato Soup and grilled cheese (you can totally skip the roasting the tomatoes step and it still tastes fine) Spaghetti al Limone Banana Oatmeal Pancakes (easy to make, healthy breakfast that uses up some leftover too-ripe bananas) Baked Chickpeas (feel free to use tortilla chips instead of pita) Smashed Chickpea Salad 3-Bean Chili Loaded Baked Potato Soup Breakfast Burritos Sesame Noodles with Peanut Sauce garden corn chowder banana bread Hope this helps, even a little. Some ingredients may be more or less expensive depending on where you are (I'm actually in Germany these days) so you'll need to do some research on your own but hopefully this gives you a starting point for how to think about shopping and eating, especially since you now have more space to store larger amounts of food. This is also not meant to be any kind of an end-all, be-all list of commands to follow, this is just what I picked up on my own when I had a tight budget and didn't want to eat lovely food anymore. gmc9987 fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 19:15
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Is meal planning that tough? Write a list of *everything* you know how to prepare in 30 min or less. The day before grocery shopping choose 7 meals from your list. Only buy what you need in perishables. What else is there?
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Aug 28, 2019 19:50
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gmc9987 posted:-meal planning- Great post, thanks! I'll see what I can take from that and try to implement it into our planning. howdoesishotweb posted:Is meal planning that tough? Write a list of *everything* you know how to prepare in 30 min or less. The day before grocery shopping choose 7 meals from your list. Only buy what you need in perishables. The budget. If I had unlimited money or time I'd have no problem meal planning, but we've got to work with what we've got. I tried much of this in August - planning only a week, all of that stuff, and we went over budget, so I'm trying to adjust. It's not an easy answer like hey stop shopping at Whole Foods. I'm also trying to change nearly all of our restaurant spending into cooking at home, so it's been a bit of work. We've already cut a ton since pre-thread. e: And I'm not saying I can't figure it out, we were pretty solid on this at one point. We just have to adjust to the new life we're living now, so might as well ask for some tips. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Aug 28, 2019 20:25
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Aside from what has been mentioned: 1) cook large meals and 2) cook matching meals. If you make, say, a stew, why not make 2 or 3 times as much as you need and freeze the rest (or eat the same for a couple of days)? Or eat stew with rice one day, and pasta the day after to mix it up. Saves a ton of time. gmc9987 already mentioned using all parts of a chicken and buying seasonally, but you can take that further. If you cook meat, make more and use it in a salad the day after. If you make potaoes, make more and fry them the day after. Don't do as howdoesishotweb suggests and pick 7 random recipes, but pick 7 (or 3) recipes that have an overlap in ingredients. For a bonus: learn to use a slow-cooker.
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Aug 28, 2019 20:43
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Yeah, buying in bulk will save you money, cooking in bulk will possibly save you money but definitely save you time. Making two lasagnas instead of one will only take a few minutes more, but you can freeze an uncooked lasagna for several weeks. Pull it out in the morning, let it thaw during the workday, heat it up that night, enjoy.
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Aug 28, 2019 22:03
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What happened to quitting smoking? I don't think increasing your vaping budget is a step in the right direction.
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Aug 28, 2019 22:43
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Tamba posted:What happened to quitting smoking? I don't think increasing your vaping budget is a step in the right direction. My vaping expenditure has been very low (possibly $0) so far since I already had a bunch of stuff even after the loss/theft. I'm increasing discretionary back to the original budget we made in July which was $330 and included vaping. We trialed $300 in discretionary for August, but it's just a little too tight, especially when trying to save some of it every month. Maybe we'll feel differently again in a month or two. As far as quitting nicotine I'm just not ready yet. I'll get there and come up with a plan again, but it's lower on the priority list now that it isn't costing $175/mo or whatever it was.
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Aug 28, 2019 23:28
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Make vape junk its own dumb category so you can see how much you're wasting on it each month as you start using it more again. Hiding it in discretionary makes it easier to justify.
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Aug 29, 2019 01:36
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Inept posted:Make vape junk its own dumb category so you can see how much you're wasting on it each month as you start using it more again. Hiding it in discretionary makes it easier to justify. I agree with this. I almost never think that advice on categorizing budget is useful, but this piece is, because a budget is a tool you use to plan and to shape your future behavior, and tracking the vaping costs discretely is absolutely worth doing. There's an argument to be made that if you budget for vaping you'll spend on vaping, which I think has merit. So consider budgeting money to discretionary, and then, when you spend it on vaping, categorize the spend as vaping and pull the money from discretionary and put it into vaping. That way vaping is discretionary spend, but it still has its own price tag attached.
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Aug 29, 2019 14:39
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I kinda think it goes the other way. One big discretionary category emphasizes how much is being spent on things that don't improve your financial position. Said differently, having them separate might encourage increasing the discretionary, because now discretionary looks smaller since vaping is separate. It's really a six of one, half dozen of the other kinda thing. The key thing is, do you have a system that works? If so, why mess with what works?
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Aug 29, 2019 15:29
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| # ? May 30, 2024 06:24 |
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Personal opinion: Vaping/smoking is your choice, so it's discretionary. Don't up your discretionary, either quit the vice or lower your personal spending elsewhere to accommodate. That's how a budget is supposed to function, it holds you accountable by limiting how much you spend.
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Aug 29, 2019 15:50
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