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Oh boy. I haven't done this (budget anything) for a long time, which might be part of the problem. I logged in to my bank account today and discovered that I have $9 until next week Friday. I took a new job so that I wouldn't have to worry about this kinda poo poo and here I am again  Anyways: Age: 31 Total post-tax income per month: $3,454 (pluserminus $100) Monthly bills Mortgage: $678.94 Car: $121.94 TV: $92.24 (under contract for two years) Internet: $80.48 (under contract for two years) Car and home insurance: $84.84 (weird) Bus fare: $85 Cell phone: $75 Music space rent: $40 Utilities (gas/electric/water/trash): $220 Car gas: $50 (don't drive much) Food: whatever isn't used for spending anything else PNGs of sad numbers The discover card absorbed ~$1,100 from the US Bank card and I'm doing my best to pay that off before the intro 0% APR on balance transfers deal is up. The Cap1 minimum payment per month is $127.## and US Bank's is something around $250 but I've been throwing any left-over cash at it, so like an extra $100 here and there.  NALP used to be Iowa Student Loan. This was from my first attempt at college. Stupid me!  Mortgage info.  Navient is this. gently caress these guys. I called them and tried to get my payments lowered from $252 to something else but they're not hearing it. They already lowered the federal payments to like $15/month.  This is Sallie Mae, and that's my monthly auto-deduction.  I'm trying to find the thread where it tells me what to tell you guys. Just ask and I'll tell; I'm not trying to hold any secrets here I just wanna not be in debt until I'm dead.
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Dec 18, 2015 02:13
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 14:20 |
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Evil Robot posted:So in your post you say mortgage $678.94 but your screenshot says $1357.89. What's up? Devian666 posted:Your mortgage payment in your expenses is half what is listed as your monthly payment. Is someone else paying half? Devian666 posted:If the 0% card penalises you at the end for not repaying in full then it's not one of the good 0% cards. Usually we recommend getting a 0% card than only charges regular interest a full year after the balance transfer. Then focus on paying off the high interest cards and transfer the 0% balance to another card before the interest free period ends.  I never paid down the initial transfer from the Capital One cards. SiGmA_X posted:So you have what, a grand left over for food and such? I didn't add it up very accurately. What's your problem? Just with these posts I might be narrowing in on my problem: I might be irresponsible with money 
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Dec 18, 2015 03:19
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I'm definitely gonna spend some time this evening going through the last two months and see where my money's being spent. My debit card is the only thing I'm using for spending, that and checks (for car payments). What's YNAB?
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Dec 18, 2015 22:48
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Augh, sorry thread. I was reminded that I needed to do this thing and update stuff by BraveUlysses. The holidays were upon us and I went through a really sadbrains couple of weeks so I had very little motivation to do anything positive. I DID go through all my transactions between July 15th (as far back as the online records will allow for US Bank) through 1/1/2016 and arrived at the following numbers:
Mint.com was giving me the berries when it came to what account was being used where and it was pissing me off so I've just now signed back up for it and punched in all the numbers, etc. The ads are annoying as gently caress so I'll be looking into YNAB once I'm done with dinner. Just wanna let you know that I was little afraid and sad and busy over the last few weeks. edit: Signed up for the 34-day trial of YNAB and it's so much better than mint. No ads for services that are essentially predatory and real financial advice. I'm reading through the "Learn to Prioritize" article and I'm learning a lot. Does it take a little bit for the transactions history to show up in your budget in YNAB or do I have to manually enter the stuff? Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Is the tv contract the same company as the internet one? If so, you can maybe reduce it to just internet and get netflix or amazon prime or something instead. We definitely need to see the breakdown of that entertainment/food category, therein is the real problem. scuz fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Jan 7, 2016 |
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Jan 7, 2016 01:05
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 There is one minor correction: the mortgage should be halved (my girlfriend and I split the payment). -Restaurants are now once-a-month and nothing fancy -Packing lunch for work, baking own bread -Holy poo poo -Jesus. Christ. I'm lucky that I can get my bus fare reimbursed through work and can do all car repairs myself but knowing that I'm that close to breaking even is a bit alarming. The overdrafts HAVE stopped! It's been 4 whole paychecks since my last overdraft (probably coincides with the new job). Thank you so much for taking the time to math stuff for me. I'll look into the taxes on payday this Friday.
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Jan 7, 2016 06:24
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bolind posted:Not quite a minor correction as it'll put you from $175 in the red to $500 in the black, but still dude... get your debts paid down and stop blowing $5k a year on restaurants and booze. No idea whether we can roll the consumer debt into the house, but I really doubt it. These people have me by the short hairs, no reason for them to let go.
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Jan 7, 2016 17:09
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Higgy posted:Don't lose the forest for the trees here. You need to take a hard look at your expenses, your frame of mind that got you into debt, student loans aside, and address the cause and the symptoms.  The only options I see (please let there be more) are get a second job, make a late payment on my CapitalOne card (due on the 15th), or start selling stuff. To the last point, I've put a bunch of stuff on craigslist and facebook over the last couple of weeks at thrift-sale prices and no bites yet. To the first point, even if I got a job today they wouldn't be able to pay me until I was already in the red unless they paid cash, so that means snow removal jobs or other labor-type stuff. I can do labor-type stuff I just don't know where to find those jobs outside of craigslist.I'm reviewing "just how the gently caress" and it looks like the reason my payday is nothing more than plugging 3 holes in a 4 hole boat is because last pay cycle I paid a 3-month late power bill ($310) and a 4 month late cell phone bill ($344). So what should have been ~$190 would up being $654. So 
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Jan 8, 2016 19:32
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Thanatosian posted:Do you have a friend or family member you can borrow from to get you through next month? I may have caught a break with some handyman work over the next couple of weekends, so that should work out. I've asked my friends and family members if they need any work done around the house or PC/IT stuff, too. With the number of times I've had to ask them for money for nothing in return, I feel this is a good alternative.
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Jan 8, 2016 23:58
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Thanks for the encouraging words, you guys. I feel more confident that once I get back on top of my bills and knock off the late payment nonsense that I'll be stable. I haven't bought booze or set foot in a restaurant in two weeks. I'll look into what the cancellation policy would be for Comcast cuz that whole situation is sorta bumming me out. I've avoided having to borrow money because I found some! There was a gift that I hadn't returned ($50), an Amazon gift card that I received for Christmas yesterday that I sold for $10 under the amount ($65 to me), and I'm finally selling a bass cabinet that's been on craigslist for a couple weeks ($150). $10 also showed up in the garage (we host parties there and people chip in). Every time I think "cool,  , I can pop out for a slice of pizza or a sandwich" I stop and remind myself of how that mindset got me into this mess. My lady and I have sat down and discussed everything and we've both agreed we gotta knock it the f off. We've been doing an OK job so far keeping checks on each other in spite of having a really lovely weekend. To point #4 in Dwight's post: this is basically the reason I sold the Amazon gift card for cash. I couldn't justify any purchases on Amazon since none of them are "car payment" or "power bill", nothing on Amazon is necessary for me at the moment, and, like the anecdote earlier, I've been doing a good job of talking myself out of non-essentials.
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Jan 12, 2016 20:45
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Well I made it to payday! All my bills are paid between now and next paycheck and I'm sitting on something around $800 until next paycheck at this very moment. I haven't budgeted for food or anything like that yet, but I've severely reined in my booze spending (tea is a fun alternative, and much cheaper) and haven't spent a dime on restaurant food in 3 weeks. Feels good!Bibendum posted:I probably shouldn't mix your threads, and I don't know if this is your only car This is pretty much exactly the plan for these. I'm not putting any of MY money into the Passat besides the price of insurance each month and the title transfer fee, and the Golf is just getting the oil problem fixed for the foreseeable future cuz  KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Nothing more expensive than a project car. If you ONLY do work to fix the oil consumption problem that could make sense, but don't touch anything else.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:49
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The most difficult part about having left over money after bills are paid is not going directly to a burger joint over lunch cuz "lookit all that left over money!" My discipline isn't where it should be, but it's certainly getting better. The $800 "left overs" wound up being closer to $400 cuz I forgot about my car payment and had some other unexpected expenses, but hey, at least it wasn't a scramble to figure out how to shuffle the credit card payments around  I make significantly more money per year than my girlfriend so that's why I kind of shoulder a few more bills. She's a public school art teacher and I'm an IT computer janitor. She also does a majority of the grocery shopping for us.
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Feb 3, 2016 17:15
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Most of my meals are home-cooked because I enjoy tinkering in the kitchen, so no worries there.  In other news, I might be selling my drum set for cash money. It isn't being used at the moment and was purchased mostly on credit anyway so it may as well go back to helping the cause. If I had $1,200 cash, what would you all recommend I do with it? I'm thinking of putting all/most of it towards my highest-interest, highest-balance credit card, just wanted to make sure that was a good idea first edit: while i'm here, what're y'all's thoughts on automatic deductions from bank accounts? Is it better to take care of them manually or is it personal preference? scuz fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Feb 4, 2016 |
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Feb 4, 2016 21:27
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Devian666 posted:Put it all towards the high interest card. It will save you a lot in interest and significantly reduce the time to pay off all your debts. 10-4, I'll stop treating them like surprise expenses just cuz I forget about them. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You've had a cash flow problem so I might throw a few hundred of it in an efund with the rest going to your high interest credit cards.
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Feb 4, 2016 23:26
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 14:20 |
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SpelledBackwards posted:Any other things sitting around that would be worthwhile to sell, while you're thinking about it?
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Feb 5, 2016 17:08
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