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comment by blackbootz
blackbootz  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: April 25, 2018

Have huge swings in expenses a few months before summer job income. Not a massive differential, but it involves borrowing some money from dear sis. The stress from meeting my (quite low) expenses prompted me to make a granular monthly budget for the next 14 months, which got me wondering about what it's like to budget when you have a grown-up's income.

What can hubskiers report about maximizing income, minimizing expenses, and saving? Any needless suffering that can be avoided?





kleinbl00  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

“Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.”

- Dorothy Parker

Everyone under the sun can give you advice on budgeting. Everyone has a system, and it will or won't work for you. Budgeting is like dieting, though - it's an exercise of self-denial and when ego depletion hits you'll blow it all.

There's a scene in It Could Happen to You in which Bridget Fonda has lost it all to her scheming ex-husband but what really hurts is the macadamia nuts. An obvious frivolity, a luxury beyond compare, giving up the macadamia nuts is more than the straw that breaks the camel's back, it's the thing that kills her psyche. It's the one last bit of surplus good that gets purged.

Any budgeter worth their salt will tell you to purge your recurrents - the daily espresso, the Netflix, the PSPlus. This is why budgeters are all shitheads. There's a real Lutheran drive amongst money people to crush all the fun so that you can go fuck yeah budgeting and feel more fiscally responsible than the next guy, and that's why they should all be lined up and shot.

Take a long, thoughtful look around your place. Note the stuff that matters to you, and the stuff that doesn't. Go through your day and analyze "this matters to me" and "this doesn't." You may discover that the high point of your morning is artisanal toast with Kerrygold butter. You may discover that you're totally cool walking rather than riding the bus. You might decide your clothes are irrelevant to you but your shoes really matter.

Smells matter to me. I buy a $5 bar of soap every three or four weeks, and my shampoo is Aveda. Even when money was tight, our shampoo was Aveda because, in my wife's words, "from a daily expense standpoint it isn't much and hair matters." We're doing pretty well now and I offered to upgrade her car - and she's 100% cool with an '09 fit with 150k miles on it because she gives no fucks about cars.

Decide what makes you feel like you and defend those things with your life. The things that don't matter, go ahead and neglect them. You can buy new jeans when your phone falls through your back pocket.

Obviously this fucks with the idea of a "granular monthly budget" but I have not had regularly scheduled income for eleven years now and I do fine. Live within your means, save when you're poor, reward yourself when you're not. Anticipation is powerful: you don't need to buy that new computer to enjoy it. You can plan to buy it for months and then when it's time, it's equally satisfying.

The one good financial rule I've never heard from anyone but intermittent income folx is "do not buy depreciating assets on credit." Buy the car you can afford to pay cash for. Do not put clothse on credit. Etc.

Suze Orman can bite my shiny metal ass.

steve  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

budgets are a must in my book. The beauty is - if you always keep your budget (within reason) aligned to your PREVIOUS paycheck amounts, you're in the black. Obviously as life changes, you need to adjust it up (marriage, kids, housing, car, etc) but seriously - being mindful about where you spend your money is a key to financial success. I'm excited for your budget. It will serve you well.

blackbootz  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have tracked nearly every expense since July 2014, and written out a budget for about 6-month periods since around the same time. (Keeping within that budget is another beast--I always seem to underestimate my spending by about 10-20%...) The reason for the short budgetary periods is that between traveling, service work, and atypical job lengths, I didn't have anything even approaching a regular schedule of income and expenses. That's changed somewhat, and the situation promises to be much more regular if I take a corporate job after I graduate.

But yea, knowing what you spend your money on is a huge first step that a lot of people don't even take. I know people who brag about never looking at their checking account.

veen  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Having just made the transition to a new home and a grown-up’s budget...I have barely changed my habits or expenses. Mostly because my budgeting style is effectively what kb is arguing for, although I had never thought of it that way. Once in a blue moon I take a look at the recurring payments and cull whatever doesn’t bring me joy à la Marie Kondo. My approach to buying stuff is one I took from Adam Savage: when you first buy something, buy the cheapest, because you don’t know if you will use it often yet. When that breaks, buy the best there is (or the one that makes you the most happy).

Basically, my approach to budgeting is to make it invisible. The only thing I care about is that I don’t have to worry about money: that I can pay all my expenses and have enough wiggle room to buy things that make me happy. So I make sure that I never have less than one month of expenses in my checkings account, while also moving money to my savings regularly, because if I see a large number on my checkings account I get the irresistible urge to buy shit I don’t need.

OftenBen  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

We use Mint for tracking expenses. This weekend we are opening up a joint checking/savings for Bill pay and the rainy day fund which has been living in my firesafe in the closet for the last few months.

Budgeting is easier when you don't have massive unplanned expenses every few months or a truly unthinkably large expense in the near future. Responsible money management for me at the moment is just not making impulsive purchases.

ThurberMingus  ·  2164 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Any needless suffering that can be avoided?

Once I finished school and got a better job I put everything I could on autopay and kept that checking account about double the typical monthly costs. That way I don't have to worry about being late on anything.

As far as budgeting, we are lazier than we should be. We keep track afterwards, but don't have any pre-allocated budget categories and we don't save specifically for big infrequent costs and just keep a bigger emergency fund.