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Making ends meet

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tania:

--- Quote from: The Seldom Killer on 13 Apr 2011, 12:13 ---Speadsheets are a great source of joy and delight when used in your personal life.
--- End quote ---

i use them to keep track of the average amount of sleep i get every week! turns out it's a lot worse than i thought  :|

Edith:
I have two checking accounts and three savings accounts. Every 2 weeks when I get paid, the check direct deposits about half into one checking account, 1/4 into the other checking account, and 1/4 directly to my mom's checking account (I owe her a hefty sum and this way I pay her first and always on time).  The smaller account I have access to is debt/luxuries. I make the same payment every month to my credit card, even though it is now far more than the minimum payment. At this rate, that debt will be gone within 3 years. When I really really really want to order something online, I allow myself to use that account, but I'm only allowed to use up to half of the remainder after payin g that month's credit card bill; the other half goes in savings. If I don't want anything, it all goes in savings. If I want something that costs more than the allotment, I make myself save for it. The other account, the one with 1/2 my paycheck, is for all the necessities - rent, food, car, insurance, etc. If there's any leftover, it gets split in half and goes into two separate savings accounts, one of which I can access online like normal, and the other one which is a "goal-setter" account. To transfer money out of the goal-setter I have to actually go in to the bank. When I get $500 in there, the bank will double the amount of interest I've earned on the account up to that time.

It is kind of a shell game, but hiding money from myself seems to help.

bicostp:
Look at value-for-money when you buy things, not just the bottom line. For example, let's say the dollar store has a 10 ounce bottle of dish soap for $1, but Target has 24 ounces for $1.99. Buying something decent that will last a long time is better than buying something cheap.

Store brands are just as good as name brands 99% of the time, and sometimes they're exactly the same product underneath the shiny packaging.

Depending on how much you use the cars and how old they are, it's a good idea to know how to do basic maintenance yourself because quick-lube garages and the dealers charge a premium for labor. Oil changes are actually pretty simple and inexpensive to perform yourself (especially if you have a neighbor you can borrow a pair of ramps or a jack and jackstands from). Even brakes and rotors are fairly straightforward to do yourself, if you have the right tools. (If not, you can usually borrow tools from Autozone. They charge the price of the tool up front as a deposit, but give you a full refund as long as you return their stuff in the same shape you got it from.

Whereabouts are you? Up here in eastern New England we've got a few local discount chains that have decent stuff. (Market Basket has cheap groceries, and Building #19 has good stuff as long as you're willing to buy slightly imperfect goods.)

edit: VVV On the subject of DIY cleaners, a spray bottle filled with distilled water and a little ammonia works just as well as Windex, since that's all it is anyway.

calenlass:

--- Quote from: Katherine on 13 Apr 2011, 12:49 ---frozen assets lololol

--- End quote ---

Savings versus checking: Most banks let you use online banking now, which means that your savings account is pretty much just as easy to access as your checking account! I do all of my money stuff through the Delta Employees Credit Union, so things are a little different because it is members-owned, but I assume there are equivalents for other banks out there! With DECU, I can set up my check card AND my credit card to also function as an ATM card (so I don't have to buy checks!). My savings account has a $5 minimum, and my checking account has a $0 minimum, and free transfers between accounts, so I keep all my money in my savings account to let as much as possible earn interest for me, and only transfer the grocery money or the dinner check amount to my check card right before I use it, and then transfer the leftover back (even if it's only 50¢). Online bill pay saves me on postage and envelopes. My credit card also earns points that I can use (eventually) at certain restaurants, hotels, or for Sky Miles.


Also: save on fabric softener by not buying it. Fabric softener actually works by weakening the fibers in your clothes. Save money by having your clothes last a little bit longer, too!

Eris:
White vinegar can be used isntead of fabric softener anyway. Chuck it in the wash and it won't smell like vinegar once it is dried (unless you put heaps in, I guess). It also can be used isntead of spray and wipe stuff for your kitchen. My mum uses it and she is a bit of a clean freak, so it definitely works.

I am alright with my money, I guess. I owe my mum $2000 now (down from $5000), so I have my everyday access account where my pay goes into, and an online saver account that makes much more interest than my normal account. When I get paid I straight up send ben two weeks rent money, because I get paid fortnightly,  then  leave maybe $300 in that account, with the rest going over to savings. which ends up being about $400/500. I try and stick to that money for the next two weeks, because I dislike taking money out of my savings and like watching the money build up, but I don't have a budget so sometimes I buy too much rubbish and have to transfer stuff over. My mum and I have an agreement that I won't do regular payments but wait a while and pay her a lump sum (my decision was $500 at a time) at once, so she can use it better than $50 a week or something. I normally wait until I have $1500 saved up then send some over to her, so I still have that buffer in case there is an emergency.

When I had no job and was borrowing money off my mum for a year I basically cut out verything fun. I would go shopping and buy what I needed that was the cheapest, ate basically the same thing all the time, ate leftovers all the time. I basically never went out. My only real luxury spending I made was buying bus tickets to go to Sydney because otherwise I would have lost my mind. I don't really know what to say that people haven't already.

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