I’ve never made a set amount of money, so I’ve never really budgeted. I know how much I need to survive month to month, I keep a buffer in a checking account, a large bugger in a HYSA, and then I kinda just do. I’ve been 1099 my entire adult life and so I’ve had months where I’m flush and months where I’m scraping by. I’m a little older now so it’s less of her scraping by fortunately.
I have a budget. I regularly ignore it.
I’ve fallen back on putting the bills due for the next week on my calendar every payday. Just to remind myself to do that before I spend the remainder irresponsibly.
Long time ago I had the benefit of spending a couple years in banking. Bankers have a very different attitude about money than most people since for a bank, money is the “product.”
The most valuable thing I learned from that experience was that in order to be in control of my finances, I had to have a clear understanding of what my money is “doing.” Just being able to get that insight has been enough to keep me relatively on top of my book keeping.
sounds like something people with leftover money do
the change is pretty stark, when you go from living paycheck to paycheck to suddenly getting a choice again.
I’m 45 and I’ve spent more time on my diet (in the form of sodium and calorie budget(s)) than any sort of financial budget.
That said, my vices are relatively inexpensive, my jobs have generally paid very well, and I do check my various accounts without being prompted.
I think personal budgets (including my dieting) are best thought of as attempts to solve specific problems, not some sort of mandatory / expected behavior.
If you are getting dinged with overdraft fees or CC interest etc., a budget might get you to a better place than you are on “just vibes”.
What do you mean “budget”?
I squeeze pennies so hard they need therapy and always have. I remember loaning money to my older siblings to buy game systems and fund dates.
Ever since I saw a documentary on the great depression and spoke to my grandmother about what it was like to live through it I started noticing that we as a country we’re not doing so great. I’ve been working and saving most of my money since I was in first grade, but by middle school I just decided to abstain from almost every kind of expense I could.
I’ve never struggled financially but that’s because I learned that you don’t need to buy much stuff if you make your own, can live on less, and have a pervasive crippling anxiety about the collapse of western civilization.
So yeah I’ve been running on the vibe “The Great depression is coming again and there’s no way I can save enough to be prepared”
This has earned me a meager modest lifestyle, but my family eats very well, has a clean home, and has plenty of modern luxuries and toys even if some of them might be a bit worn, rough around the edges, or unfashionable.
I didn’t have to learn to live on lentils but I did have to give up on things my parents found very accessible like restaurants, travel, new things, packaged food, college, free time, bars, weekends, my own room, cars, movie theaters, most museums and non-critical medical care.
So yeah, I guess compared to my peers I’m crushing it because in all of my frugality I managed to avoid racking up six figures of college debt! I’ll never own a house though.
im kinda like this but my retirement looks like its going to be the richest homeless man on the street.
that’s deeply sad :( you’ve denied yourself so much, and you still can’t even afford your own house. at that point why care? why not enjoy things like eating out, travel, or non-critical medical care?
if another great depression comes everyone will be fucked no matter their wealth. but most people will at least get to keep memories of little luxuries, whilst you already live like the world collapsed
You don’t have to spend a lot to live richly. By making all of my own food I eat a wonderful variety of a healthy things everyday. All the food is fresh prepared by me, canned by me, or bespoke junk.
Besides, within walking distance of where I live now there are acres of wild grapes and raspberries and you can eat the fish from the water. The wild turkeys out here are comically inept, I bet I could harvest more than my family would ever need with a couple of rocks a day. They are such funny little creatures and none too bright but I did see one out run/hover a mountain lion.
making all my own food isn’t really feasable for me with my level of executive dysfunction. even one self made meal a day is a win
im like him and im ok with it. Ill take a walk in nature or a little time with my wife or playing with the dog almost over anything more. A few more months of simple living is greater than a lifetime of frivolities to me.
i mean yeah of course, simple life is the best. but that guy sounds like he’s watching every coin go out of his pocket with fear, and so denies himself any and all luxury. even though when a great depression vol 2 hits all his savings will be rendered worthless, so it’d be better to use them now instead of watching them turn into kindling
Yeah I have thresholds. If I have enough coming in we ease the belt a bit but we are ususally looking for things we are trying to do and that helps. We had hoped to do some renovation by now and were saving for it and that is why we are surviving right now.
I’m not keeping it all in the bank, and I wouldn’t suggest you do either.
Instead I would suggest to invest in things that will become more expensive later. I know that sounds obvious but tools, equipment, canned and pantry good are not exactly flashy investments like stocks and bonds but there are ways to prepare.
…and if you rotate your back stock you’ll always have something to donate to somebody who needs it more than you. If you can maintain a reserve then there’s probably someone who needs it more than you do.
i appreciate the advice but i don’t want to live like tomorrow’s the apocalypse
if some form of collapse does happen i’ll just raw dog it
Iol, is it supposed to be done in any other way than vibes?
I spent late 20s and early 30s living on 25k a year. I now make 4x that, I still live like I make 25k. My budget plan is to live like I’m pore
live like I’m pore
soaking in lots of moisturising creams then i assume?
Yeah I’m at 5x what I started out with and I’m broke as shit, maybe I’m lying a little bit, I have savings now but for the last 2 years it hasn’t grown at all. Although I now have more responsibilities that accounts for some of the increase in spending, I’m fully aware that as I made more, I normalized spending more.
My mother always said if you make a million dollars a day but spend a million and one you are still a pauper
My budget has been “don’t spend too much” for the last 10 years and it’s worked out wonderfully. You don’t need a clever laid out plan, you just need to ask yourself “how can I spend even less ?”
Cancel every subscription immediately unless you actually need it. Pirate everything. Get everything on sale or thrift it. Either buy the cheapest thing you can, or spend enough to buy the indestructible version you’ll keep for 15-20 years. Fix problems immediately for cheap before they get expensive.
As a result I’m still managing to save up money while my income is under 10K a year.
For tools you need it is so important to keep in mind that if:
you definitely need it only once - get the cheap one.
you will use it in the future - get the expensive one that laborers use.
Cheap tools are a money and a time sink
Same. My philosophy has always been to spend as little as possible and got my debts paid as soon as possible so they’re not hanging over my head.
I frequently check my bank account and use vibes to largely take care of my finances. It isn’t completely optimized or strict, but it works since my bills are predictable.
Putting longer term savings into CDs is something I’ve found to be helpful. I can get to the money if an emergency came up, but otherwise I treat that as my untouchable savings, so i get some artificial scarcity in the mix.
there’s no point to a budget if you minimize all costs anyways, and it means i get a surprise amount left over at the end of every month which i can do whatever i want with.
Which is usually just letting it pile up because i don’t know if my welfare will be denied at some point and having that buffer means i can afford to replace things every now and then.
You have money left over at the end of the month?
yes, through the magic of eliminating every expense i can.
My expenses are: Rent, electricity, internet, phone service, home insurance, bus ticket (in the winter), and food (of which i’ve been steadily finding cheaper and cheaper things to cook, most recently discovering that you can just fry the shit out of mixed frozen vegetables and it tastes amazing).It’s slightly terrifying to see what other people spend money on, like paying 5€ for a SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE… Or, like, owning a car at all. Buddy maybe you could afford to heat your luxurious mansion if you weren’t blowing half your fucking income on a living room with 4 wheels?
An incredible amount of people, probably most people, just seem to be fundamentally incapable of recognizing expenses as being expenses. Their brain just classes that cup of coffee as something required to live and thus the cost doesn’t exist. They’ll buy it every single day, even as it doubles in cost, and i’m not sure if the act of paying even consciously registers.
Who needs budgets when you have terrible anxiety about spending money
the only cure is buying shiny new thing™️
You don’t need a budget, just a crippling sense of guilt about spending money on anything other than the absolute essentials…
I pretented I just had less money than i actually had.
Studies and unemployment have coached me to use money minimally in daily life. As a result I can afford some pricy things with still modest means.
I’m frugal by nature. For most of my life I’ve always had enough savings to buy almost anything I want. Whenever I get a “bonus” from somewhere, I’m not even tempted to go on a spending spree - it doesn’t enable me to buy anything I couldn’t have already bought anyway. I’m way more excited about seeing the value of my investments go up than I would be about a new iPhone or whatever.
I live in an old house, wear old clothes, drive an old truck, never travel, never eat out, etc. I guess I just value different things than some other people. I’d rather be financially secure and look poor than the other way around.
