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COOL CORN posted:...why did you need to buy a new computer? This is important because of your gaming and gaming hardware spending.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 03:34 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 23:32 |
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It really doesn't matter because no matter what my answer is you'll say it's not justified. So just assume it's not justified. Anyways after this post if you bring up poo poo from before August 1st just know it isn't relevant at this point, or at least I'm not going to treat it as relevant. Everyone looking at this thread knows I made it because of bad spending habits. The May/June or whatever spending record is from well before I decided to look at my spending critically, and there's absolutely nothing I can do to change the past. Don't ask me to justify the past when I've already acknowledged that it's unjustifiable.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 04:41 |
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We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:33 |
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a worthy uhh posted:We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us. I had written a post but deleted it. Then "a worth uhh" came and said it better than I could, and more succinctly. You can't just handwave off the past and say "yeah, yeah, I'll be better from now on." Nobody ever starts with a blank slate except for the day you're born. You need to be upfront and frank about the past, and keep revisiting it, because it happened for a reason and there are always going to be lessons to learn from it. If things get brought up from before August 1st, and you have a set plan in place that you're sticking to to mitigate the issue in the future, address it and move on with the confidence that it's fixed. Sometimes anger comes from an insecure feeling that you haven't actually fixed the problem.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 15:51 |
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology)
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:00 |
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And you just came into an IRC channel to tell me "ffs coolcorn shut the gently caress up" so... nevermind! Can't help those that aren't willing I guess.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:05 |
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*Slowly walks into thread* *Sniffs air* *Squats down and lets dirt run through his fingers.* *Stands up and brushes hands off* There's autism here. I can feel it.
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:19 |
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It is really hard to just say "hey, I made bad decisions in the past, and I recognize that they were bad, therefore I will not make them in the future" which is why people like have mad long threads in BFC and what not. edit: but I am eagerly awaiting the next couple of months of spending reports
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:27 |
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Hell yeah it's August spending recap and September budget day woooo
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 16:27 |
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Congratulations on your first full month of living on a budget! Please do not look at all the excess amounts in YNAB and then book one gigantic multi-split entry to zero them all out on one Amazon.com purchase of a plastic Collector's Edition Supplies Are Running Out Rank-4 Upgraded X-TIE Ugly Superfighter just before midnight rolls around. Seriously though, I'm looking forward to seeing how you did
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# ? Aug 31, 2015 23:00 |
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Coulda done better, I managed to impulse buy a couple things. This isn't so much a budget for August as it is a spending report. So now comes phase 2: actually setting the amount I expect to spend. I already went and made some entries for expected amounts. We're trying to keep a steady amount of money in our bank account just in case. My wife made "at least the minimum" payments on our credit cards the other night but they haven't shown up in our statement. We're not facing any late charges but we'll be taking excess and throwing it at the credit cards. Notes- Travel:Services was a catch-all for poo poo like hotel, parking, and taxi while on site. Savings:General is a smartypig account. The +1.98 on T-Games is a result of refunds and selling some poo poo I didn't need, but as a Bad Spender I took some of that money and put it right back into my addiction. Net positive but it's not sustainable and I recognize that. Much less money spent on games and hobbies this month than usual, but still room to improve. Entertainment:Restaurants was used as catch-all for any lunch-like expense that could've been covered by cooking for ourselves. It's kind of an eye opener. Final note: A month is a long loving boring time when you're used to having a new shiny thing basically every day
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 00:52 |
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What did you do to your house? Out of curiosity.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:33 |
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How did you spend $175 on hair? Are your travel costs being reimbursed? Did you really only spend $85 in an entire month on groceries?
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:37 |
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spwrozek posted:What did you do to your house? Out of curiosity. Ran ethernet to every room, including inside some exterior walls, along with adding or moving power outlets. Replaced necessary outlets with ground fault outlets for the circuit. Installed a gable fan. Installed a new garage door opener. Added lights to rooms that didn't have any. Installed a new above-island range vent hood. Re-framed a doorway and installed a sliding door. Installed new locks on every door. Labeled all circuits on the breaker and added a new sub-panel to handle additional circuits. Installed a new door for the crawlspace and sealed it. Changed the baffles in the overhead lighting to ones that fit BR30, and replaced the bulbs because they were all mismatched. I can't recall the rest off the top of my head but it was a lot of poo poo. Fortunately the house is structurally sound and has new or close to new AC, roof, all that important poo poo, but a lot of the cosmetics were loving stupid. For example, the house used to have folding closet doors but the last owner used them to make a box for a planter garden.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:41 |
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Leperflesh posted:How did you spend $175 on hair? I have no idea / Ask my wife Yes Yes
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:41 |
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Agreeing that you need to have a conversation about hair. There was almost as much spending on hair as there was on every non-restaurant "entertainment" purchase you made throughout the month ($176.55). Please don't take all your space marine minis out to the barbershop to get highlights. They look fine just the way they are.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:50 |
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That's a lot of money spent eating out. Forgive me if this has been addressed, but do you guys drink booze when you go out for food?
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:51 |
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What? $175 is like, one trim and highlight at the cheap place at the strip mall. Where the gently caress do you guys get your hair did?
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:52 |
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il serpente cosmico posted:That's a lot of money spent eating out. Forgive me if this has been addressed, but do you guys drink booze when you go out for food? That's mostly lunches and no
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:56 |
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il serpente cosmico posted:That's a lot of money spent eating out. Forgive me if this has been addressed, but do you guys drink booze when you go out for food? Have a tip on saving money here? I do sometimes. slap me silly posted:What? $175 is like, one trim and highlight at the cheap place at the strip mall. Where the gently caress do you guys get your hair did? Look they can only shop at Sephora ok
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 01:58 |
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WobblySausage posted:Have a tip on saving money here? I do sometimes. No real hot tip other than, "try not to do it too much." Alcohol at bars and restaurants is sold at an insane markup, and if you want to drink socially you're much better off doing it at BBQs, get-togethers at friends' places, parties, etc. It's pretty easy to drop hundreds of dollars a month on booze if you're impulsive and careless. signalnoise posted:That's mostly lunches and no Time to start making lunches. I bet you and your wife could make lunches for under $30/week combined.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:10 |
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Even though YNAB allows you to post inflows against expense accounts such as the T-Hobbies one, never do this. Never, ever loving slush your expense accounts. The only justifiable instance in which you might do this is if you have a specific account for reimbursable employer expenses that always, always zeroes after all money has come in and out. All you're doing by running a bunch of money in and out of your pony toy hobby expense account is hiding the real extent of your spending from yourself. Follow the YNAB rule. If you sell some toys and get some money for them, post that inflow as income for next month. See how you feel about spending the money after it's been sitting in Money Jail for a few weeks, then budget it accordingly. Spending is addictive as hell; you mentioned already that you're in withdrawal after having to endure a month of not getting your Amazon fix every single drat day. Good on you for that, by the way. Keep it up. But I'm going to go ahead and ask what exactly what went in and out of T-hobbies. If you posted any other inflows -- even refunds and deposit recoveries or whatever you might have -- against other expenses as well, I'm going to ask for those too. Don't ever post incomes against expense accounts to hide the true extent of your expenses. Pittsburgh Lambic fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Sep 1, 2015 |
# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:14 |
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:But I'm going to go ahead and ask what exactly what went in and out of T-hobbies. Got a 75 and 58 dollar refund (roughly) for some poo poo I wasn't getting in a timely fashion that was games/hobbies related Expenses for T-Games: Assassin's Creed China 10$ Invisible, Inc 12$ Game of Thrones LCG 2nd Edition 29$ Some Professor Layton game 12$ A heroes of the storm character 10$ (I only feel bad about this one) Expenses for T-Hobbies: A thing for mixing spraypaint 30$ A bunch of spraypaint 90$ il serpente cosmico posted:Time to start making lunches. I bet you and your wife could make lunches for under $30/week combined. Oh definitely, that is the plan signalnoise fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Sep 1, 2015 |
# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:19 |
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What spending are you looking at reducing this month?
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:33 |
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Cut hobbies/games at least in half, aiming for 0 but I'm a realist and I'd rather be disappointed with myself than break my goal and say gently caress it Bring lunch to work at least 3/5 days a week
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:36 |
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signalnoise posted:Cut hobbies/games at least in half, aiming for 0 but I'm a realist and I'd rather be disappointed with myself than break my goal and say gently caress it Some good goals. New habits might help out with reducing spending. Playing through steam games you've never played and working on miniatures you already have can be good distractions from spending.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 02:57 |
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Play that Professor Layton game whose name you already forgot too while you're at it. Bonus points if it's Professor Layton and the Plastic Thieves, in which our hero and his boy wonder assistant must solve the mystery of why some disgusting neckbeard's money keeps disappearing whenever he opens a gaming catalog.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 03:08 |
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signalnoise posted:Bring lunch to work at least 3/5 days a week I'm going to ask on Friday how you two did with this one. Good goal and realistic, too.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 03:14 |
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slap me silly posted:What? $175 is like, one trim and highlight at the cheap place at the strip mall. Where the gently caress do you guys get your hair did? Seriously, my guys hair cut is $40 after tip. Ladies cut and color can run $200 easy.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 03:40 |
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I remember when a haircut cost me $8 plus $2 tip. I am so old
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 04:08 |
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Male Privilege is being completely oblivious to the cost of women's hair care. On the subject of dining out: I'm just surprised OP didn't notice sooner how expensive that gets, given that he travels a lot and has to regularly total up all the restaurant bills on his expense reimbursements. Admittedly I can sympathize somewhat though, given that when I first started budgeting I too was surprised to see how quickly a $100/month restaurant allowance could dwindle away under my dining habits. Restaurant spending can and will gently caress your budget. I'll be looking forward to how your first week of bringing lunch to work plays out, too. Just don't be like the morbidly obese guy at my last job who took over all the breakroom microwaves every day to heat up 3 or 4 of those $3.50 apiece Atkins Low-Carb Diet frozen meals and shove them all into his mouth one after another. They weren't helping, even though he dumped a bag of pre-shredded cheese all over them every now and again.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 04:11 |
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Male Privilege is being completely oblivious to the cost of women's hair care. Any woman who is Financially Serious will obviously shave it off
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 04:26 |
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Pittsburgh Lambic posted:Play that Professor Layton game whose name you already forgot too while you're at it. Bonus points if it's Professor Layton and the Plastic Thieves, in which our hero and his boy wonder assistant must solve the mystery of why some disgusting neckbeard's money keeps disappearing whenever he opens a gaming catalog. The Layton game was my wife's, I play with plastic dolls like a real man I suppose I should've put it on her account but I don't suppose it matters
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 04:45 |
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I have never paid more than $30 for a hair cut even though I am a woman. Your wife is clearly not just a woman but a ~*~LADY~*~ who knows how to pamper herself. Cutting the restaurant budget is a great idea and should be easy. Even buying pre-made microwave meals to bring for lunches you should save money but homemade is ideal both for health and savings. If you need cheap homemade lunch ideas hit up the "Help! I'm poor and want to make good food" thread or just ask people here; my husband and I prefer to do up big amounts of soups, rice+protein, pasta+veg, etc for dinners and bring the leftovers out for lunch the next day. If he makes soup there's usually enough for a week's worth of my lunches or we freeze it and when I'm in a hurry I can it throw it in my lunchbox and it's thawed by lunch. If you love charts and planning there are a million blogs out there with meal planning charts and lists and shopping helpers... if not just buy a lot of staple foods in bulk, add seasonal produce weekly, and wing it. Making your own food is sooooo rewarding.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 12:52 |
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Your food budget isn't too bad overall, but given the amount of food you're eating out, you must be eating a lot of fast food to feed yourselves for a month, is that correct? Something to think about in the long term is the quality / healthiness of the food you're eating. Cooking food for a week is a good way to get yourself eating home cooked food without the time involved in cooking everyday. Lots of google options to help you shop and cook for a week / month at a time. I'd encourage you to be more specific about how you will succeed with your goals of bringing lunch three times a week, and how you will control your hobby spending. Are you going to pre-make lunches once a week? Are you going to buy frozen dinners? Are you going to make a set amount of money you will spend on your hobbies? Will you stop reading certain blogs, remove yourself from email marketing lists, etc? You really need to get going on completing your budget. I would encourage you to come up with a set amount to pay on your credit cards. Paying extra on the cards with the 'leftover' money gives you a lot of room to spend on less important items. This will help force you to stick to a budget because you won't have as much money left over at the end of the month. One last thought is that both you and your wife should continue to pursue higher paying jobs, especially your wife. Any increases to income make a huge difference for your ability to pay debt (duh).
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 14:55 |
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spwrozek posted:Seriously, my guys hair cut is $40 after tip. Where? If I'm paying $200 I'd better be getting keratin or full highlights
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 15:22 |
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1- Yeah we're eating either fast food or ~10$ restaurants for lunch most of the time. We definitely intend to cook all the drat time when we finish moving into the new house. My schedule has made it ridiculous moving in. I basically get a weekend to do whatever I can and then back to another week of drudge. I have an hour commute each way and by the time I get off the last thing on my mind is painting walls or assembling furniture or putting up blinds or whatever. But yeah, cooking is a must. We have everything we need to do it, too. 2- Well, today I didn't bring anything in, so I'm gonna have to hit up Target for lunch and see what they have. I'm thinking 1 microwave frozen vegetable and something else relatively small, total under 5 dollars. That'll get me started on the habit of not going to a restaurant even though for the time being that's not really that much cheaper than going to mcdonald's. In time, I'll be making stews and such that can be cooked in large quantities and packaged for the week. I make really good chicken and dumplings that I love and haven't had in at least a year. Gonna get on that. As for hobbies, I don't read blogs or go to marketing lists or anything, it's just a matter of catching myself shopping and not doing that. Once I get my hobby desk set back up it should be easy to simply occupy myself with the stuff I already have. 3- Completing the budget is rough but I get ya 4- I've tried to get my wife to pursue higher paying jobs, but she seems uhhhh stuck? She's in grad school right now though, so that's something. I just got my current job this year and it was a 50% increase from my last one, so I'm just gonna be plugging away for a while.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 15:30 |
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Series DD Funding posted:Where? If I'm paying $200 I'd better be getting keratin or full highlights Any real salon, in any city. $60 for a cut, $90+ for color, plus tip. My sister charges $160 for a cut and color in Toledo Ohio (not exactly New York). Add in a $30 tip... I am not saying you have to pay it, just that it is realistic for most places to charge a pretty high amount. Really though this isn't the problem with their budget.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 16:04 |
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slap me silly posted:Any woman who is Financially Serious will obviously shave it off But seriously, when you're in grad school you don't get to do highlights every 6 weeks, that's an awfully expensive habit.
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 16:37 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 23:32 |
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Why on earth did you buy a house an hour away from your job?
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# ? Sep 1, 2015 18:38 |