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Good job forgetting the thread and running off to make more lovely financial decisions.
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May 29, 2014 05:37
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For as broke rear end as you are the amount your are spending on a car is an absolute killer. You should figure out how you can pay CASH for a car as soon as possible and get something that is cheap to insure.
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Jun 12, 2014 14:20
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How is your car payment $800/month? You better be driving a 911.
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Jun 22, 2014 15:06
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You should sell the new car before you cover it in baby poo poo/piss. Nearly new cars sell for nearly new prices these days. You can afford to drive about a $2500 beater. Go pick up a well used minivan.
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Jul 18, 2014 21:06
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The cost of insurance on a new car is a hidden (not so hidden) cost where you are literally lighting money on fire. Put the car up for sale asking $500 more than what you owe for it now and keep lowering the price as you pay it down. This is easily the largest expense you can easily change.
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Jul 18, 2014 22:43
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Are you sure you have collision? That screenshot you posted doesn't indicate you have it. That'd be very bad in an at fault accident.
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Jul 20, 2014 05:05
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This sounds simple and easy to understand, carry on.
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Jul 30, 2014 20:34
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Knyteguy posted:Internet there is actually a router I wanted to pick up (will pay for itself in a about 10 months). The new bill should be I think $27.99 but I don't have our first bill yet. How does a router pay for itself?
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Aug 3, 2014 04:58
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Spending money to save money is not exactly a great strategy. Find a place with cheaper laundry and go out there and do a bunch all at once if you want to save money.
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Aug 11, 2014 20:18
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It still seems like your mindset is to buy/spend your way to financial health. I don't think that's a good way to look at it. Aside from the budget part of things which is critical you need to start working on your perspective. I think at least until the baby has come, and probably for a good while after it you shouldn't be buying/blowing money on anything. Instead of coming up with crazy assed justifications for why you need a Kindle, go to the drat library and check out a book. I get the feeling that you have all sorts of stuff just laying around not being used. Try re-discovering the stuff you already have or own for entertainment. Take up free activities like walking or hiking (don't go buy $125 hiking boots dummy). It seems like a lot of your perspective in this thread involve what is the next thing you can spend your money on. You need to shift your focus to what is the next thing you can NOT spend money on. Try spending at least a month not acquiring any new stuff. You need to start looking at your life being totally filled with stuff and there isn't room for one more possession. If you want different stuff, sell some of the stuff you aren't using and use ONLY that money to buy some different stuff. If you and your wife can save the $150/month in blow you'll have ~$1200 extra to spend when you actually need it. Is it really necessary to have $75/month in lovely poo poo you don't need?
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Aug 14, 2014 18:01
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Can't you just pirate an NFL stream like a normal computer nerd? Edit: Sell some poo poo, buy your wife some new poo poo with $$ you made from selling things.
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Aug 14, 2014 19:17
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So I've gone back and looked at the budget and I have a few questions. What on earth is $350/month on pets going to? There is $150 on 'household goods' what is that? There is $100 entertainment and $75/person on 'blow' money. I'm guessing the pets don't normally cost $350/month - is that correct? This is $750 in 'costs' that you could be cutting back on.
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Aug 15, 2014 14:25
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So I guess the problem I have is that the budget where you've broken everything down to a ton of categories is great to look at how you are spending money, but looking forward it's a terrible way to *save* money. I think for people that have spending issues doing a bunch of categories just gives them the opportunity to waste money on a wide range of things they don't really need. Here is my perspective on a more rational budget. Using made up numbers because it's a PITA to look at yours specifically. Income: $4k/month Rent: $1000 - no choice you gotta live somewhere Food / Household Goods: $400 Insurance / Phone / Internet: $300 Debt: $300 Ok so that's $2000 in fixed costs you have to pay every month to exist. Now, what is your savings goal? $1000/month? Ok that comes out next. This leaves you with $1000 to do whatever with. In your situation ideally you're saving that as well. With this perspective there is no question whether or not you make whatever your savings goal is. Fixed costs, then savings, then everything else. I think this forum can be great for figuring out what your fixed expenses should be and what your savings/debt payoff strategies should be. It's terrible when it comes to purchases that are not fixed costs and not savings. I think it's ironic that in the Cornholio thread he fought and fought to keep the drat car, and you've barely fought at all yet nobody seems to mind a $26,000 loan at 10% interest. Come up with a way to own a $5000 car with no debt and you'll have lifted a huge burden off yourself financially. Your business for the next few months should be: how do I sell this car and get a $5,000 car.
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Aug 16, 2014 14:33
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Knyteguy posted:If you think a summary like that would make it easier to see what is going on then I can do that in the thread. Would have to add pets in there though, since I consider them a cost that can't be avoided. I think it will help you budget in a much more reasonable fashion because it will prioritize your budget items. Making sure you have enough money for rent and food is far more important than having money for your $100 entertainment budget. The way you are budgeting now has very little in the way of prioritization. I think if you want to include dog food in your fixed costs line that'd be fine. You should have enough left over to cover most dog related expenses out of your left over non-saved non-budgeted items. The way for this to really work is that you try like hell to underspend your non-fixed/non-saved money. This should help you prioritize what is important to spend money on in a per month basis. Let's just say you've got $1000 of left over money, you will still want to budget and prioritize that money. If you go spending $900 of it the first day this methodology will do you no good. I think you should look into refinancing your car loan with a local credit union. You should also look into refinancing your credit card debt as well.
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Aug 16, 2014 17:02
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You made it all of one month without spending money like a total dope. Have you thought about doing the cash in envelopes thing? You clearly need to come up with some way of 'hiding' money you've saved because your habits seem to have reverted quite a bit since managing to control yourself for all of 30 days.
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Sep 8, 2014 22:47
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I think it's because the spending is a bit of an addiction for a lot of the folks that post these threads.
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Sep 8, 2014 23:28
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So I guess all these tricks/ideas people are posting in here are things to help you stick to your budget. Knyteguy: in the long term how will you be able to stick to a budget? What's your plan?
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Sep 9, 2014 18:23
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dreesemonkey posted:I'm coming around a little bit to the other thinking of things. Instead of micromanaging your purchases, I think the recommendation of setting your savings goals first and then you're free to spend whatever else beyond that is worth a shot. That's pretty much how I learned financial discipline - working towards my goals FIRST, then whatever "left over" is discretionary. You're making pretty decent money, and if you want to buy a wireless HDMI thing that's fine. I suggested something like this earlier. In addition treating savings like a bill is probably one of the most basic financial responsibility things espoused by lots of 'experts'. Take out savings, fixed monthly expenses, and payments on debt - then fart around and spend the rest on whatever.
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Sep 10, 2014 21:29
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Horking Delight posted:Your checking account balance is not how much money you have available to spend. Your budget is. This is what Knyteguy is having trouble with, and why lots of posters have advocated for different methods of 'hiding' money from himself. https://www.gecapitalbank.com/savings-products/online-savings.html?cmpid=ag-GECB-3969448 These guys would be a good way to go (lots of other options out there) to hide money from himself. I agree w/ what other folks have said with regard to the slightly higher rate that the checking account is paying. We're talking the difference of like $10-$100 a year or so at this point. Another option might be to open a brokerage account with whomever is handling his retirement. I have accounts with Fidelity that work great for this sort of thing and it's combined with my work IRA.
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Sep 17, 2014 16:09
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Old Fart posted:The reason people are giving you flak is because there's no planning here. Is this "taking away vacation" thing with your wife a surprise? Because this is the first we've heard of it. Where was the $100/mo you've been putting away for it? You've been wanting a PS4 since forever, so where's that $100/month that you've been putting away for it? Didn't you already buy and return one? Why do you need both a trip and a toy the same month? Hell, why not at least wait for Black Friday sales, and SAVE for it? You still have a functioning PS3. Use that. My console is an XBOX 360 that a coworker gave away for free. Works fine. This has got to be quite a bit of the frustration that some posters are having currently. The poster who said that Knyteguy is practicing reconciliation not budgeting is darn accurate. The posts really feel like a broken record as well where people keep saying the same thing over and over, but Knyteguy is coming up with new and creative ways to spend money he knows he really shouldn't be. If Kynteguy had said OK I'm buying a PS4 in a few months, we're cutting our dinner budget for 3 months nobody in here would give you poo poo for it. Or, if you had not spent all of your discretionary budget for a few months to 'save up' nobody here gives you poo poo for it. Now I'm sure I'm sounding like a broken record as well. Why does the "budget" have to be this randomly shifting thing every month to suit your spending whims? Like the other poster said, this isn't a budget this is reconciliation. I really do think that this is as much an addiction as it is anything else.
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Sep 22, 2014 16:23
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Just because some posters in here (and myself I imagine) have hassled you doesn't mean you get to just toss money down a hole whenever you want. It really feels like you're just using whatever justifications possible to make the purchasing decisions you want. I think it's good that you have gotten your head around the idea of savings being a bill and paying that first before you spend money on anything else. The next step is to not just go raiding that savings whenever you want to. A budget is not meant to be something that changes month to month in total spending. What I mean here is that if on one month you save $1000, you spend $1000 on fixed bills, and you have $1000 for food/blow/etc you stick with those amounts. The next month you budget the same $3000 and you save the $1000 first and you spend $1000 on the fixed bills and maybe this time you only spend $800 on the variable costs. You 'save' the $200 so if you want to spend $1200 on the variable costs next month you're free to do so. You're not supposed to just decide the next month you want to spend $3500 and come up with justifications for it like 'I deserve it' or 'I've thought about this for a while'. I would challenge you to work on a budget where the total $ amount doesn't change and try to stick with that. If you want to purchase things that exceed your budget for the month you should save up previous months to pay for it. This is exclusive of the savings that you're doing to rebuild your financial stability. I think it's fine to not fund a college education but you aren't even funding retirements at this point so you've got a ways to go.
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Sep 22, 2014 21:28
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Funding a child's education is a wonderful gift that fewer and fewer parents are able to afford. Low interest easily available loans are very easy for students to obtain for college. Low interest easily obtainable loans do not exist for your retirement. If you don't want to be a burden on your children and live in near poverty, you want to save for retirement first. College education saving should be pretty far down the list. Knyteguy is nowhere in any position to start doing that.
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Sep 22, 2014 23:45
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This is a great learning opportunity to see how budgets really work. If you were truly budgeting properly and you had to spend $100 more on the dog or $150 or clothes - both of which I could see happening. What you do is you figure out some way to cut costs from other line items to make up for it. You don't go out to eat as much or you cut your 'blow' budget or whatever. You do whatever it takes to make the numbers come out right at the end of the month. What would impress me or the other posters in here is if you decide to double your clothing spending or whatever you go into the other categories and cut by equal amounts. This comes back to why I think you need to set a budget where your total expenditures after taking out for savings and fixed costs doesn't change. This will actually force you to think about what you want and prioritize over the course of the month. You're still practicing reconciliation not budgeting. I feel like a bit of a broken record at this point. Edit: If you don't want a hyper dog walk it daily. n8r fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 23, 2014 07:03
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Knyteguy posted:Here you big jerks I was having trouble sleeping with this in the air, so budget draft #2. I think this budget looks fine with a few conditions. Can you stick to this budget month after month? At least until the kid is born? I think if you can stick to this budget you'll be setting yourself up for success. If you want something like a PS4 under-spend your discretionary budget for a few months until you've saved up enough to pay for it. I'd encourage you consider setting up a 'discretionary savings' line item (and probably even a real savings account). Treat it just like another savings account that comes out at the beginning of the month. Instead of having $450 budgeted for discretionary you toss $100 in your 'discretionary savings' and you only spend $350. After four months or whatever you've now got $400 built up to spend on fuckall if you feel like it. Oh, but if you bust your discretionary budget, you have to pull money from that discretionary savings first. April: You've got a lot of thoughts going on in that most recent post. I don't think it's really fair to toss out that many thoughts all at once without much given to the priorities that Knyte should be focusing on. The last question I have on this is why is your wife only making $400 a month? If this was explained it was a long time ago. Why is it that she can't contribute more at least until she's very pregnant. Even if she just doubled her income every little bit would help.
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Sep 23, 2014 15:09
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I already asked but didn't see why is Mrs. Knyte only making $400/moth?
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Sep 23, 2014 20:35
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Have you been able to forecast how much you will blow your savings / budget changes by moving and increasing your rent?
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Sep 24, 2014 07:39
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Knyte: Would it be possible for you to put out a 'baseline' budget that doesn't include any of the one time expenses like dog training or vacations? Perhaps it would be best if you can refocus on setting a budget that you can keep at least for a few months. If you settle on a baseline budget you can then work on tweaking things from there. The problem is you're doing all these fantasy budgets that just aren't realistic at this point. I think you need to figure out how to operate on a status quo budget without throwing in complications like moving or buying PS4s or whatever.
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Sep 24, 2014 23:32
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If you want to get grumpy, get grumpy over two people spending $500/month on groceries and $500 on 'discretionary' spending. This is while they are in debt rather significantly and expecting a child.
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Sep 26, 2014 07:27
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Is bankruptcy an option for Knyteguy? It sure seems like given this 'new' medical bill hanging over his head that possibly changes things. Given that he could walk away from the car debt and the medical debt I have to think this is an option. Don't know much about it but perhaps it's time to talk to a lawyer about this.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:43
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Given that your car may only be 3-5k underwater bankruptcy may not make that much of a difference, especially since the clock has already been ticking on the medical debt. I've said it in the past and I'll say it again, you need to do something about that drat car one of these days. Get Grandma to loan you 10k and use 5k to pay off the loan differential when you sell the car, and use the other 5k to buy a decent older used car. Pay Grandma back $250/month until it's paid off or whatever. I'm surprised nobody has done the math on this silly car you bought but I'd guess you're on track to spending 40k for that car loan over 5 years.
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Oct 13, 2014 05:24
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I think it's a fine idea to move, but you should figure out a way to carve out $300 from your budget and live like you are still paying $800/month and treat the $300 a month as an additional income source. That way if costs come up related to your mom you'll have a $300/month buffer to help pay for those things. Time to cut that fun budget down and start eating beans!
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Oct 14, 2014 05:24
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This thread really provides an ongoing string of comedy that I can't believe Knyteguy sees. You 'get' budgeting for all of maybe a month or two a best? You drop a 20k medical bill bomb on the thread with no clear plan on how to handle it. You have no real post birth plan for how you will either pay for childcare, or how you will handle your finances if your wife doesn't return to work. Have you run the numbers of covering your wife/baby on your healthcare plan? You're really reducing your options by upping your fixed costs every month by increasing your rent. I think the point where you 'get' budgeting is where you've got a pretty clear plan on how you are going to handle your debts (all of them) and how you are going to handle your upcoming costs for a relatively short period of time. If you think you can run a business that should/will require projecting a budget for a year+ in advance why can't you do this for your personal life?
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Oct 19, 2014 23:15
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What are the odds these changes have totally blown any progress made in the last 6 months?
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Nov 20, 2014 20:24
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So how many months were you able to keep to a budget? 2?
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Nov 21, 2014 05:00
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I don't think these one time expenses and deposits are the problem. You mention that you've been spending more money in areas like eating out, which indicates to me that you are not budgeting or at least not sticking to your budget. Just because moving is expensive - which frankly you should have been able to pretty accurately estimate - doesn't mean you should just let discipline go in other areas. I don't know when this new dog came into the picture, but I think taking on any animal in your situation is especially foolish. The breeds that you have require tons of attention, and your ability to devote that attention in is going to be significantly reduced when the kid shows up. Animals can be huge money hand grenades if they have health issues as well. Even very fixable health issues for a dog or a cat can skyrocket into the thousands of dollars very quickly. I still think your perspective on money or perhaps your perspective on life is still being driven by an unwillingness to plan ahead and an unwillingness to sacrifice. It's one thing to live like this when it's just you and your wife, you are only really responsible for yourselves. Now, when the kid comes into the world it's going to be 100% dependent on you and your wife. I'm not saying you can't raise kids on limited incomes as well as someone who has all the money in the world. You need to be able to provide a stable life for your kid first and foremost. A huge part of a stable life is stable finances, I can guarantee that kids raised in households where people are living within their means do much better than families that are living paycheck to paycheck. I think there is a very good chance when the kid shows up that your eyes will be opened up and you will get your priorities right.
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Nov 22, 2014 20:44
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I believe you have made some sacrifice and some progress - and I think it's great that you care enough to keep trying. I would say far more important than sacrifice is discipline and forethought. You made up your mind that you wanted to move, then you created a whole bunch of reasons (many legitimate) to move in a way that was quite expensive. A person who is disciplined and thinking ahead would have made the sacrifice of staying in the dump apartment until you can get your deposit back, and taking that time to find a nicer place that isn't a significant increase in rent. What is the scenario that seems to happen every time with someone who repeatedly makes poor financial decision? I see a rather impulsive want in their life - all of a sudden you want a new dog - then all of the forethought/planning goes into justifying why you should have this dog. This happened with the car as well - a big bunch of rather lovely reasons were made up that allowed you to make a crappy call about your money. I would say that for every sacrifice you are make, you're sabotaging with an equally lovely large financial decision. The irony of this situation is if you could just resist making these big expensive mistakes, you wouldn't need to do much sacrificing. Real sacrifice at this point in time would be to get rid of that drat huge car payment, get rid of the ticking timebombs of most/all of your pets, and then sticking to a reasonable budget for more than 2 months. I would argue that your pets will be better off re-homed once you have a kid and are unable to devote much time to them. You already had a budget in place that still allowed you to waste a few hundred bucks a month and still do some eating out and all sorts of stuff. You really weren't doing much sacrificing to begin with. I'm going to guess there is a 95% chance that you bought all this yard equipment brand new about 24 hours after you realized you needed them. Why? Who gives a poo poo about brand new mower and you definitely don't need a trimmer. If you still can, return that crap and spend a week trolling craigslist for a $50 mower. IF you did track down used stuff on the cheap - way to go - that's how someone in your financial position continues to make smart choices and dig themselves out of the position they are in. n8r fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Nov 23, 2014 |
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Nov 23, 2014 17:09
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So it seems like you made a rather well researched purchase on the lawn stuff. I still don't understand how you think you're saving $4800 over two years if you admit that your water bill will be at least $75/month. That being said, if you spent the time to research the purchases why didn't you spend the time to budget for it? Do you have a working November budget? Do you have a budget setup for December? I think posters in this thread - myself included get sidetracked by these 'surprise' expenses. People get frustrated that all of a sudden you spend money on something that you say is unplanned, but to everyone else seems like something you could have planned for. This is especially true in this situation where you negotiated to do the lawn care yourself, so you had to know you'd have to have a lawnmower and poo poo. In a world where you are budgeting, this isn't a big deal. You just shift money from other areas that aren't part of your 'fixed' expenses, and you pay for it from that - without your total monthly outflows changing. In a month with a bunch of large one time expenses - like moving - you might have to really cut back to the bone to prevent your total monthly outflow from changing. Even if you don't really have a good idea of the upcoming expense, if you plan ahead by cutting down your blow/restaurant/etc budget that can be cut back, that should give you a pretty good buffer for many things. The way real sacrifice works is that when you have your budget set, you give up other things that month (or for months at a time) so you meet that budget at the end of the month.
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Nov 25, 2014 04:30
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I think you should plan on your wife leaving her job when the kid comes, or when she is too pregnant to work. It doesn't seem like you've got a good plan for the daycare and you're really underestimating the costs. Additionally retail jobs are not terribly difficult to get when compared to other jobs. If you get in a real jam she could try to find a job. If you set yourself up to have her work evenings and you work days and you alternate childcare you will be utterly miserable. I'd use this option only as a last resort. The value that your wife will bring to your family by raising your child when he/she is young is not something that can be measured just in $$. In the next few months you should be trying to stash as much money away as possible. And this is important you must reduce your fixed costs as much as possible for when she stops working. This will set you up for two things. Whatever you have stashed away will function as your safety net. Then, the reduced fixed cost will allow you to live on your single income. I'd encourage the poster to stop looking backward at the mistakes kynte has made and help him gameplan for the future. I'll just highlight a few tough calls that if you can pull them off will significantly improves your odds of success: Figure out the car-even if this involves taking on more debt. Trade the fucker in to a dealer for a 5k car and whatever the upside down amount you are on the car. If you do your research I bet you might find the car is worth a fair bit more than you think. Reduce that huge monthly drain as much as possible. Get rid of fancy cell phone plans and any of those other fixed costs. Get rid of some or all of your animals. One animal getting even getting moderately sick could torpedo your entire safety net. Hit up everyone you know for cash. Have a baby shower where you ask for just cash. Have one of those diaper parties. Put up one of those gofundme things and shill it on facebook and here. This ain't the time to be proud. A young family asking for support is something people love to help with. If you have any religious connections, start attending a church. Many churches have all sorts of support for young families. Look into public / state / ymca sort of programs for families. Your income may disqualify you for many programs but I bet you'd be surprised what is still available to you.
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Dec 14, 2014 16:12
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Buying poo poo - no matter how boring sure gets Kynteguy going. God forbid he spend this time figuring out childcare or whether or not his wife will keep her job. If you end up spending $100/month to insure each other or whatever that's $1200 you could use for something that could actually happen. http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html We've got a social safety net - despite not being a very good one, that if one of you died the other wouldn't starve. I don't think there is any reason to carry life insurance given your other much more pressing concerns.
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Dec 17, 2014 03:55
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 12:16 |
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You guys do realize that people in FAR worse shape recover from KG level financial situations all the time. For families - especially single women with children there are pretty significant safeguards in place. KG's debt situation really isn't that dire either, he just needs to stop wasting so much drat money. Someone in KG's financial situation cannot afford to waste $1200 on such long shots.
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Dec 17, 2014 06:28
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