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tuyop posted:Can you give us an example? Bluetooth speaker is/was one of my favorite buys ever. But I did it in true frugal fashion by using gift money  Tomorrow we'll find out just how endless my stupidity is. Long story short, decided to get some car maintenance done by an acquaintance since he's trying to do some work on the side. Well, he does the work and then I get the car and it runs absolutely awful (multiple cylinder misfire, running ultra rich, way down on power). So I'm taking it to my mechanic and writing the $450 (acquaintance labor) off as stupid tax. Of course the acquaintance wants to "make it right". No thanks.
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Mar 18, 2014 12:59
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 11:40 |
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I did not eat out today and I even went for a 2 mile walk afterwards.
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Mar 18, 2014 18:24
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tuyop posted:Seneca says that your enjoyment of life ought not depend on nights out and lunches. I've got this one and I'm very happy with it. http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-984-...ogitech+boombox I didn't pack my lunch today. There is a "support our staff" luncheon benefiting a lady who is currently off work, $10 for lunch (wife and I)? My lawd I'll never be able to retire at this rate 
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Mar 19, 2014 15:31
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I also got paid today and I've been under my calorie limit each day this week and lost 2.6lbs since Monday  I've always said that budgeting and dieting basically the same thing, I'm good at being stingy spending money but not stingy with the food rammed down my gullet.
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Mar 21, 2014 18:24
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tuyop posted:Would there be an audience for personal finance/frugality challenge threads? Like, "Commute by bike for April" or "Buy nothing new May"? I like the idea but as a boring old married guy who already carpools to work with his wife, I don't know that there are going to be many challenges I won't fail miserably at. Eating oatmeal at my desk this morning, sandwich packed from home for lunch. 5 lbs lost in my first week of counting calories
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Mar 24, 2014 13:11
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Yea I think some of that was water weight this morning, I was a little dehydrated so it's probably closer to 3-4 lbs for the week. I don't want to derail too much, but I'm eating around 1600 calories a day. I'm not claiming counting calories is that great dietary wise, but it's simple and effective for me. It's pretty much a food-budget just making myself control my portions, not unlike spending money. And yea, I have a bunch of beer Nail Rat and I've only allowed myself a few over the last week. I'm eating so few calories because I'm an office drone and hardly get any exercise, seriously I sit at my freaking desk all day (I've been doing 2 mile walks a few times a week just to get out of the office). I know it's not much food but I do feel better and more energetic during the day. I've been trying to ride my bike on my trainer some evenings but I just got a flat on the bike so I need to repair that before I can continue (tire lever recommendations?). To continue the excuse train I have a toddler and home renovation projects going on so free time is pretty limited as well. For reference I'm 5'8" and started at 175.8 lbs last monday (171.6 today), so I'm not horribly overweight. I'd like to get down to around 160-165. Ideally when the weather changes and I'm done with my home renovations we're planning on walking more often at home, I want to get out on my bike, and I might start P90X3 or something for some semblance of strength training. Sorry for the derail, I don't feel that I'm wasting away yous guys and I certainly feel better than cramming my face with food all the time. It's just hard to find time to exercise proper
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Mar 24, 2014 15:18
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Losing any more than 1-2 pounds a week, after accounting for like, daily fluctuations because you eat and drink poo poo, is unsustainable. Well yea. I didn't claim it to be sustainable, it was literally "On monday morning I started counting calories and doing my best not to exceed 1600 unless I did significant exercise" vs eating whatever whenever. It was the very first week, I think typically people respond very quickly to a big change like that then it slows down. I can probably expect about 1 lb/week if I keep up with it (I've dug myself this hole before)  I didn't track but would be interested to see how much I was eating before, probably 2500-3000 calories on "normal" days.tuyop posted:Just grab the cheapest levers at your local bike shop. They're not really a tool that you need to min/max. I have some yellow plastic ones that have cool spoke clips in the handles, I think they were $3. Thanks, probably have to order from amazon, my LBS is 20 miles out of the way.
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Mar 24, 2014 19:28
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Cicero posted:If you have a mortgage, does paying extra each month to bring down the principal faster lower your 'minimum' monthly payment? Nope, you will just end up making less payments overall.
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Mar 24, 2014 20:05
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I'd also not get a new phone, another device to carry around and give people your number, not to mention something else to pay for. Maybe there is a app for your phone that could put certain numbers straight to voice-mail or something.
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Mar 24, 2014 22:58
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Disco Salmon posted:So far so good...in a month I have already shaved $200 off our grocery bill, and our eating out/work lunches has dropped as well. I just got tired of seeing all that stuff in the freezer/pantry and realizing that we are just not utilizing it. We're terrible with this. We have so much crap in our pantry I don't even know where to start. If it wasn't such a hassle of tracking the stuff in there I'd build a database or something to keep track of what we have. But scanning everything that goes in/out doesn't seem like a great time to me
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Mar 25, 2014 16:42
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Cicero posted:Every day I give thanks to Lord Internet for making Google so profitable that it can be absurdly generous with meals for its employees. This place is a food wonderland and I love it so so much. Now I can be lazy for lunch AND frugal at the same time! Does google still allow employees their 10-15% side project time? If they do, can some of those smart guys please please please get going on a mint.com competitor? Intuit owns both Quicken and mint, and they seem to deliberately not improve mint for fear of cannibalizing their quicken sales. And quicken is by far worst coded software I use on a regular basis. Ideally, what I'd like is quicken in the cloud, except not coded by a bunch of loving idiots. I'm really surprised that there is no major cloud-based personal finance "books" tool that I can think of. Mint is fairly close, but not quite. YNAB isn't cloud based and still requires manual entry. I miss microsoft money. That was simple and reliable.
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Mar 26, 2014 13:17
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Nocheez posted:I will not be eating out today. Turkey and provolone sandwich with carrots and hummus, oh yeah Spinach salad and half a ham salad sandwich. Yum!
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Mar 26, 2014 14:24
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No Wave posted:You'd give up $120 a year instead of just keeping an eye on your budget? And are you just buying extra groceries that you don't actually need? I can't imagine why I'd want to be stopped at the grocery store. At a bar, maybe, but by then it's too late. I can only see this being useful when buying luxury goods, but even then, better to budget in advance. Play the long game. The mint app could send you an alert when it detects your near your grocery store with your available grocery balance.... Somehow.
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Mar 26, 2014 14:42
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Cicero posted:It's funny, both at Amazon and Google people were like, "oh man, you must work, like, so many hours" when actually I and most of the other devs were at work like 8 hours a day including lunch. Occasionally there's crunch but overall these jobs seem pretty cushy, although I'm sure there are other positions in these companies that are harder. Well I am crushed, but a man can still dream. I am also eating in today because our budget is shot to hell and back this month. Still hoping to have a net positive, but some unexpected expenses really added up. Let me whine about them. We drained our car maintenance fund by spending $450 on labor for an acquaintance to ultimately make the car worse, then $700 for our garage to fix it. Another $200 on parts, $380 on tires for our other car and a $75 battery for my motorcycle. I also had an unexpected $200 to the vet to put one of our cats down The only bright side is that I bought a bunch of lowes giftcards last month so my home improvement spending has "only" been around $400 this month.
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Mar 27, 2014 14:37
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Sundae posted:I just authorized my final student loan payment. I am officially This is the best. Congratulations!
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Mar 29, 2014 00:18
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debt-free!
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I feel like I need a financial cleansing. I was at Sam's Club yesterday with the family and a couch that we've been eyeing up was $200 off because they only had one left. Now, a few months ago my wife REALLY wanted this couch, we did some measurements and stuff and it wouldn't fit that great in our living room so we talked ourselves out of it. Which we then promptly ignored yesterday and bought the thing anyway. I was tentatively excited to have a net positive despite some other costly stuff this month, but it wasn't meant to be. Post your budget-bustinest pictures 
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Mar 31, 2014 13:16
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Doesn't look too bad, most of that will probably buff out. You have some pretty terrible luck with cars, though. You'll be happy to hear I changed my first bike innertube over the weekend and didn't seem to screw it up.
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Mar 31, 2014 14:02
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I just ate some jellybeans  I too am hungry for lunch which is packed, and at least a bit healthier (salad and ham/salami sammich).
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Apr 10, 2014 16:41
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I have a nice aluminum canoe at my parent's house that they gave to me, I just haven't figured how to get it back up to my house yet. I was just looking this morning on amazon for roof racks and whatnot for my truck but everything is "too loving expensive". This has not been a good week for eating in at work. Tuesday was my wife's b-day so we went to lunch, yesterday there was a charity luncheon at work that we donated money towards, and tonight I'm taking my best friend out for dinner for his upcoming birthday. I've also been thinking about buy a brand new car in the next few months. WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MEEEEEEE?
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Apr 24, 2014 14:11
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FrozenVent posted:http://www.mec.ca/product/5010-236/sherpak-deluxe-universal-canoe-kit/ I think I could get something rigged up, my main concern is that it's an hour or so away from me and it's basically all highway speeds back to my place. Just makes me a little weary. I was behind a van once on the highway that had a canoe slide off the side of it, at highway speeds and dragged next to the van. At least they pulled over right away. Nail Rat posted:No get a year old one at least what are you doing I know We're considering a hyundai sonata strictly because of the 10yr/100k powertrain warranty. There is a high volume dealer a few hours away that none of the local dealers can touch in terms of cost $18k + tax/tags, so ~$19,400 OTD for the no frills model. About $1k more for one with the "popular equipment package", which I would probably get. We could technically pay cash, but I would finance about half at 1.49%/36 months. It's less than $200 in interest if we waited that long to pay it off. If we went with a nice used accord or something, we'd be paying around $15-17k (plus tax/tags), and have pretty much no warranty left. We kinda "need" a bigger car because my we're expecting child #2, and the only way our first kid's infant seat fit in our civic was in the middle seat in the back. That won't work with my son's carseat next to it. Infant seats are loving huge. We have a '99 toyota avalon as well, but it has 160k on it and I don't know that I want to rely on that for our daily driver. For the few thousand more buying new over used, I think it's worth the peace of mind since we're planning on having no more kids and keeping the car at least until the warranty period runs out. Selling our civic and saving money/paying down the car loan, we should be able to pay off the car before the end of the yearish.
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Apr 24, 2014 14:37
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Nocheez posted:
Nope, literally tired you big jerk!
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Apr 24, 2014 15:12
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"Wary" is the word you are looking for.
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Is something like airbnb.com an option? Would be more infrequent guests for more money, possibly?
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Apr 24, 2014 16:51
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spwrozek posted:Welp, just bought a new car... What did you end up getting?
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Apr 25, 2014 12:53
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Sometimes I can't help but think "If everyone was like me or your typical BFC goon with money would the economy collapse?" and the answer I always arrive to is "yes.". I can drive down the street right now and point to a lot of companies that would go out of business overnight. Then several that would probably collapse because I don't use them very often. Don't worry, even if there were classes and people had to pass it, many don't have the willpower to delay gratification or think that saving for the future is a priority. There might be a slight shift to more responsible money handling, but probably not a huge amount. I do think a lot of industry would have a major shakeup though if finances were handled differently. I have a friend who lost both his parents before he was 16. His dad's family was fairly old money and he has a trust fund, nothing earth shattering but he could live a frugal life off it if he wanted to. He's on his literal 15th new car in 10 years, carries debt on CCs, etc. If I were in the same position I'd probably have a few paid for rentals by now. I can almost kind of see his side, though. Being burdened with losing both of his parents at an early age I can see why he'd rather spend his money now vs. thinking about tomorrow. He has said to me in the past "If I can afford the monthly payments, I can afford it". spwrozek posted:Subaru Impreza sport premium. Msrp was $24k, paid $20.5k. So not too bad. Nice, Subarus hold their value really well so you did well I think.
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Apr 25, 2014 15:03
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:I think Sardines are now my go to food. High protein, lots of nutrients and their low on the food chain so they're less likely to have high levels of mercury. Not to mention they're cheap. I've never tried sardines but I'm curious. Not eating out for lunch today despite really wanting to. The leftovers I have packed are wearing on me.
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Apr 29, 2014 16:51
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I just asked my wife and I'm not allowed to write smut books That's some amazing payoff Moana, I'd love to read a thread on your situation if you decide to do one. My sister published a smut ebook but has not had the break-away success, unfortunately. I told her she was going to buy me a pool when she got rich. Shameless Plug My monthly wrapup was actually pretty good as well, we were good on our budget in all categories this month other than dining out, which we doubled. I took a friend out for his birthday, my wife for her b-day, and some other occasions. My wife is pregnant too so there is some increased comfort food spending. We also had $350 in health-related expenses (ultrasound, blood tests, eye exam and contacts) so overall we did pretty good with our spending. We were still +$1100 for the month, so I consider that successful though it does remind me that I haven't been doing jack poo poo with our home renovations. I need to do some more
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May 1, 2014 13:53
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I complained my way into a smartphone through my employer a few years ago and it's sweet. Our contract with verizon allows unlimited data and renewals every 12 months. It's nice being able to save that ~$50/mo.
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May 1, 2014 18:27
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If you're meeting your obligations and otherwise happy with your savings schedule, spend your money if there is something you want to do. Bonus points for spending time with family and surprising your dad. It's a win all around
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May 2, 2014 13:01
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Nocheez posted:Haha, I'm in a similar situation. I'm debt free except for my mortgage, which I could pay off in about 2 years. I sold my car since I got a company car, and I was thinking of buying a roadster with some of the money from that. I'm still looking at the costs associated with keeping an extra car around, but I think the pleasure of an open top fun car will be worth it. If not, I could always sell it and recoup some money. I could probably argue that a motorcycle might be a good option assuming this is strictly for pleasure (and you're not adverse to motorcycling) + Motorcycle insurance is dirt cheap + Motorcycles hold their value very well if you buy used + Performance per dollar can't be beat + Storage/parking much easier + Cool motorcycle guy wave + Having owned both motorcycles and a miata, the motorcycle is a better pleasure vehicle in my opinion. - Upfront cost of gear - Consumables (tires especially) are proportionally more than a car. But if you're only riding a few thousand miles a year this is negligeable
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May 2, 2014 14:59
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Do not buy a smart car, they are pretty crappy. A Toyota yaris, your civic, Honda fit, mazda 2 or ford Fiesta would be better cars than a smart unless your #1 priority is size/parking. They are a novelty at best
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May 4, 2014 21:08
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Eh it really irks me when a business and some individuals cheat on their taxes so I really don't see a problem with it. It's not like taxes are difficult to pay. Most people I've met that cheat on their taxes or owe a lot to the government typically have a bad case of entitlement or they're just really bad with money. Inlaw family tax drama: My wife was just telling me over the weekend that her uncle has recently come under scrutiny from the IRS, they ended up going back 15 or so years and now he owes them a large sum of money, likely in the multiple tens of thousands of dollars. He's been on disability for a while, but his wife had worked, so I'm not sure exactly how he was cheating or what he owes but looks like he got caught. I would go with the entitlement theory for this one. Inlaw family regular money drama: My wife's grandparents, parents of the aforementioned uncle, give my wife's cousin (daughter of uncle) money all the time and it's always been a sore spot for the people in the family. Those married into it don't give a poo poo either way, it's not like it's tens of thousands of dollars or anything, but it's hundreds of dollars a month "just because". Over easter it kind of boiled over when the grandparents handed their grand-daughter an envelope containing $400 in front of the family members that get ticked about that. There was some passive-aggressive flipping out that happened, people trying to deny it, etc. Basically this girl gets thousands of dollars a year from the grandparents for some unknown reason, and they basically ignore everyone else. I don't think people want the money, they just don't understand why this one grandchild is specifically singled out. Two months back each grandchild and great grandchild received $100 from them on a whim (never happened before - before the easter fiasco). Nice little surprise. My brother in law, a tattoo artist who does very well for himself never called to thank the grandparents. Sounds kinda dickish but when his grandma tried to guilt trip him into not calling he asked instead "Should I send you a $100 check so you will call me?".
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May 7, 2014 17:02
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I am also eating out today. I blame the wife tempting me with the promise of delicious buffalo chicken cheesesteak.
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May 16, 2014 13:05
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Our finances are all co-mingled and I sometimes I wonder what it would be like if my wife and I separated our finances more. On the surface it sounds tempting, we could tally all the bills up and split them 60/40 or whatever since I make more than she does, then everything after that is "spend how you want it". I have a feeling it would require a lot of work to account for all the things we spend money on, like home rennovations, or furniture or whatever the next expensive purchase we have planned, etc. The way we do it works fine and I don't really buy all that much stuff, so it's no biggy.
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May 16, 2014 14:19
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Juanito posted:When I worked in an office, people would take turns bringing in donuts. If you didn't want to bring in donuts, you weren't supposed to partake. We had a coffee club at work, which 30 or so employees paid something like $20/mo to cover the cost of coffee and supplies. If you weren't a member, it was supposed to be $.50/cup. There was this one lady at work who was apparently well off (inheritance over $1M, no kids, drives older cars) who would have coffee every day and not pay for it or be a coffee club member. Even when she was called out for it she said "Nope, not paying for coffee". Now there is no more coffee club. /r/frugaljerk founding member, no doubt
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May 16, 2014 18:17
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Well it's my birthday and they're buying me lunch but my boss has to choose where we eat, lol. Kids are expensive, but worth it  We're expecting #2 in November and our daycare will be almost as month as our 15 year mortgage. Yay two mortgage payments.On my diet again previously mentioned in this thread and then promptly abandoned. I have a vacation in a month so it would be nice to drop a few lbs before then, talking with my wife's cousins over the weekend we are trying to band together to keep each other accountable for our dieting. Anyone use myfitnesspal here? My username is the same as here if anyone wants to befriend me to keep me on track. Happy birthday, Sephiroth IRA
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May 21, 2014 15:08
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tuyop posted:Yeah I'm tuyop on mfp. You can see how many bowls of cinnamon toast crunch I eat after forgetting about food for 14 hours. That is a hell of a streak, I was impressed with myself when I hit like 20 days in a row a few months ago.
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May 21, 2014 15:36
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Gawd damnit. Cars are just so expensive. Just look at the numbers, you're spending Thirty Thousand Dollars for something that will be worth about a third of that (if you're lucky) by the time you're done paying for it. And it costs a non-negligeable amount in insurance, gas, tires, brakes, and any other maintenance that comes up. No getting around it, cars are very expensive. If you can cut your tastes back you can get a new car for around $20k with most of the same bells and whistles. Or find an off lease something or other for $15k and hope you don't have any major issues with it. Also use services like truecar.com or something to get a feel for what a reasonable deal is on a car. Go in knowing what you want to pay, not what your monthly payments are. My wife and I are looking to buy our first ever brand new car this year, we're looking at a '14 or '15 hyundai sonata for the warranty and standard features, mostly. There is a semi-local high volume dealer that has no haggle pricing, they probably sell 1000 cars a month. $18k + tax and tags for a bare bones sonata, lowest price we've found by far. The popular equipment package which has a few extra features like seat heaters and rear parking assist is $1k more. Really waiting to see what the 2015 is like, and whether or not that will drop the price of the 2014 even more, or what. dreesemonkey fucked around with this message at 17:03 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 16:58
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TouchyMcFeely posted:True points all around. The intention was to purchase new and drive it into the ground. Unfortunately since we're having to do this earlier than we had hoped we're looking for something that will get us through the next 5 years or so. If we can keep on track we'll be able to walk in and drop enough cash to get the car we want. Hopefully just buy it outright. I'm not trying to talk you out of buying a used car but you should be able to find a new Hyundai Elantra or Kia Forte for under $20k OTD, and they would have 10yr/100k warranties. My sister has a forte and likes it, her boyfriend is 6'5" and fits fine in the car. Right now hyundai has 0% APR or $1500 customer cash, might be worth a look.
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May 22, 2014 18:44
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Tuyop, been meaning to ask how school is coming along for you? In money news, I just blew a huge amount of money on a new grill for my birthday/father's day gift. Should be here Friday. Pretty excited! 
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Jun 2, 2014 15:29
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 11:40 |
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Volleyball is awesome and no joke. I'm good enough to know how bad I am, like I'm better than rec-league but you need to play it all the time to get above the level of mediocre. My wife and most of her friends all played in college (and high school) so it's a constant reminder of how lovely I am comparatively. I stopped playing in a league since I didn't have a lot of free time and I knew I wasn't going to really get any better playing once a week. It also doesn't help that it's that much harder if you're short. That said, sounds like the grading was a bit harsh regardless. Glad classes are going well otherwise
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Jun 2, 2014 16:15
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