One of my paychecks is going to rent, cell phone, and car insurance, which leaves barely anything left to divy up between credit cards, medical, and food, not to mention gas.
The other paycheck is my car payment, it leaves a little bit more to take care of food.
I make too much, but not enough, which is pretty much the story of my life. I had become very comfortable with not paying rent, and had a significant chunk of leftover income to spend on whatever I want. Which is why I bought my car.
It makes me nervous that I can be broke 3 or 4 days after my pay check deposits in my account.
I've joined on mint.com with all of my money related accounts. It's nice to be able to see it all there in front of you. Charts, graphs, budgets...all of that. It certainly does help me confront my lack of funds, instead of me naively neglecting the fact that I am absolutely spent. I have maxed out everything I can, I barely pay my minimum payments....i am just too far gone after I meet my large obligations.
I'm just too used to always having cash. I need to start thinking frugally, as much as I hate that. It's a mindset I've personally never had to get into, but my mom was a pretty good example. Somehow she pulled herself out of bankrupcy and purchased her own house, after only 3 or 4 years of bankrupcy. If she can do it. I can do it.
I am thinking it would be best for me to actually pull out the remainder of my cash after a check into cash and then only allot myself so much for the week. This actually sounds like a good idea. I might just do that. Hmmm!
For my team so while you sleep ima scheme
We see through, thats why nobody never gon believe you
You should do what we do, stack chips like *hebrews*
Dont let the melody intrigue youCause I leave you, Im only here
For that green paper which the eagle
We see through, thats why nobody never gon believe you
You should do what we do, stack chips like *hebrews*
Dont let the melody intrigue youCause I leave you, Im only here
For that green paper which the eagle
solid post. save more than you spend. at the very least, 15% of our income should go into savings (or in your case to pay off your debt) and the best way to do that is to know where every single cent is going. then to create that budget. it seems like you are doing just that. i'm proud. keep up the good work :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm actually excited about this, I think i'm going to pull out most of my remaining cash after the major obligations, and divvy it up, putting a note on each lump of cash with "Gas" "food" "massage"
ReplyDeleteThat way it can't accidentally be spoken for by a whim of consumerism.
Hey Kat, I am in the same position -- I have my credit card debt down to $8k with $6k on a card with a good interest rate, and now I've been setting a budget and deducting how much I spend in each category. It somehow makes it a lot easier to NOT buy things. For too long I have also made "not quite enough" money and it is easy for things to add up...for the past four years I've been accumulating just a little bit of debt each year and it adds up without you even realizing it. Good luck!! I am just making payments on my cards for now but am hoping to pay off some significant amounts after I start getting paid next year.
ReplyDeletelove,
Molly