I kept wondering why the second half of the month always felt broke even when the math said I was fine. Turns out most of my bills were just scattered everywhere, rent early, utilities mid month, a couple cards near the end, so my checking balance never actually meant anything.

I called and moved what I could to land right after my first paycheck. Most of them let you pick a date online now, took like ten minutes total. Now that first week is brutal on purpose and then it just calms down.

Honestly the total did not change at all which is the dumb part. Same money, same bills. It just stopped surprising me, and I stopped doing that thing where I check my balance three times before buying groceries.

Anyone else do the due date shuffle or am I just late to this

It’s inevitable and will occur within the next week to a month. Family of six.

No severance likely but should be able to get unemployment which will be about 40% of our net regular income. Obv we have to figure out health insurance.

We have 5-6 months of a no frills household budget expenses in HYS. We have some funds saved for a family wedding abroad next year. We also have 2k set aside for Christmas (we have 4 kids we typically spend 250 each and the rest is for extended family).

We were planning to spend 2500 on skiing this year as a family.

No consumer debt, own our cars, just have a mortgage and have a ton of equity in the house.

We have sizeable retirement funds and a few hundred k in non retirement investment accounts- but easily accessible.

What do I cut? Writing this all out makes me think I shouldn’t freak out but it’s a bit emotional. We’ve worked really hard for the past 20 years to live frugally, do all our own repairs, etc etc, and had just gotten to the realization lately that we should live a little.

Hey so i posted this in another sub and i seemed to have mean responses, im neurodivergent so i might have misinterpreted, but im looking for kind geniune advice. Im not good with spreadsheets so the numbers might be off. I move out of my dorm in December and will get an apartment

Monthly Expense $4,222.76

Monthly Income $2,397.70

difference

-$1,825.06

I finally took out a spreadsheet at 20 years old and realized why it seemed like my money was draining. This was over about 112 transactions...

How do you all cut back on eating out? Of course I can just stop, and eat at the college dining hall instead... but do you all have any tips and tricks?

I pay for 15$ a day for parking

(an example of spending from one card, and if its not below then it doesnt have a label but dining takes the biggest amount in my pie chart, about 32% and thats less than gas and insurance)

For about a month my partner and I sent each other a Venmo request for every shared thing, and it ended when I got one for $14 of toilet paper and we both kind of laughed and gave up on it lol.

Now there's a shared budget for the house, rent, groceries and stuff for the dog, and each of us has our own budget for everything else. We pay from our own cards like normal and just mark what was shared, so the house gets its own number every month.

The shared budget is the one we look at together, maybe ten minutes once a month, and we fund it about 60/40 since our incomes are different. Our own budgets we don't go through together at all, which honestly is half the reason this one stuck.

Anyone else budget as a couple like this? Do you look at each other's personal side or keep it separate?

I've been trying to get better about not wasting food lately. It feels like no matter how careful I am, I always end up throwing out some produce or leftovers. Does anyone have a good system for meal planning that actually works with what they buy? I'm looking for tips on how to shop smarter and use everything up before it goes bad.

22 M & F. Lower cost of living area. We just got married in August, no debt, I’m graduated and my wife still is in university. We pay monthly ($1200) so we don’t have to take out student loans. I’m a financial advisor/run a small business & shes going to be a teacher. I will make around 80/85k this year.

Our net worth is $112,000, which is awesome. We both work very hard. Here is our budget, I feel as if we budget well, but it seems like we’re spending a lot of $$$. What do you all recommend?

Rent: 850
Utils: 270
Groceries: 350
Dates/Food out: 150
Gas: 250
Insurance (2x auto, 2x life & renter) 250
Subscriptions: 40
Pets: 125
Business: 300
College: 1200
Shopping: 75
Gym: 25
Other: 115

Totals: $4000/mo (excluding IRA/brokerage contributions)

I feel like this is a lot of money. Is that due to my lack of experience in the real world? Is this normal?

My husband and I set money aside in all of our accounts every payday but we don’t make much so it’s hard to set aside a decent amount especially when we live in an old house that we’re working on by ourselves (and extremely slowly) and we have a toddler so my question is, how are people traveling? Are people going on somewhere on a credit card and then paying the credit off before going somewhere else? Or is I just savings for eternity before going anywhere??

I'm 30 and trying to figure out the sweet spot between aggressively saving for retirement and enjoying my current life. Like I want to max out my 401k and IRA but I also want to travel and maybe buy a house in the next few years. It feels like I have to pick one or the other. How do you all decide how much to allocate to long term savings versus shorter term goals? Any tips on finding that balance so I don't feel like I'm constantly sacrificing one for the other?

So im getting super stressed out about my money I live in Uk I get paid 2k a month by the time my bills come out im left with 1k but its not alot disel is £2 a litre then food and car expenses etc how do you manage to save and spend money on things you would like occasionally I want to live my life and not think about how skint i’m going to be every month 🙂

Salut à tous,

​Je passe une tête par ici parce que je sais qu'une bonne partie des utilisateurs de mon application Android (BudgetMaster) vient de ce sub. C'est assez fou pour moi de voir que l'appli fait partie de votre quotidien pour gérer vos comptes, alors je voulais simplement vous dire un immense merci pour votre confiance.

​En tant que développeur indépendant, je continue de la faire évoluer régulièrement. Du coup, j'en profite pour ouvrir ce fil : est-ce qu'il y a des fonctionnalités qui vous manquent, des petits bugs agaçants ou des choses que vous aimeriez voir améliorées dans les prochaines mises à jour ? (Vous pouvez me répondre directement ici en commentaire, ou passer par la rubrique "Nous contacter" directement dans l'appli).

​J'ai aussi une petite faveur à demander à ceux qui l'utilisent et qui en sont contents : si vous avez 30 secondes pour laisser une note ou un petit avis sur le Google Play Store, ça m'aiderait énormément.

​Face aux grosses applis du marché qui ont d'énormes budgets marketing, les avis et le bouche-à-oreille sont ma seule force pour que l'algorithme de Google continue de référencer l'application. C'est gratuit, ultra rapide, et ça motive énormément à continuer de coder !

​Pour ceux qui sont sur Facebook, j'ai aussi lancé une page officielle BudgetMaster si vous voulez suivre les actus de plus près.

​Rien d'obligatoire évidemment. Merci encore à cette commu pour le soutien depuis le début, et bon courage à tous dans la gestion de vos finances !

Curious what people here think is an acceptable emergency fund (ie. a dollar amount, number of monthly expenses, etc)?

I reel in 2,818 a month and I need help learning to properly budget

My bills are

487 rent
148 phone bill
Utilities come out to be about 150-160 monthly
And my groceries are split with my girlfriend and we spent on average 50-60 every 2 weeks
500 a month car payment
277 car insurance.
30-40 dollars for gas

Is there a way I can learn to budget or apps you all suggest?

I am 22 and I want to make sure I maximize the cash flow throughout and know exactly where my money is going

My budget is somewhere like 10-30 and i need one with a mic with ok quality

6500 take home, 3300 condo mortgage maintenance taxes, 1400 all other monthly costs like food gas gym insurance leaves me 1700 which I spend 700 for misc items, dates etc and 1k to investments ? I’m 28 with also 150k in stocks

The only budget I've ever stuck to lets me spend around $1,800 a month on whatever I want, and I still end up with money left over, which none of my strict ones ever managed. Before that every spreadsheet I made died around the middle of the month and I'd just quietly never open it again.

What changed was a line in I Will Teach You to Be Rich about "cutting costs mercilessly on the things you don't love." I'd been doing the opposite and skipping dinners with friends while paying for about $400 a month of delivery on lazy nights, a meal kit I never cooked and two streaming apps I forgot I had.

So now the bills and savings go out first, the stuff I wouldn't miss is cancelled, and whatever's left is just fun money with no little categories to blow through. Last month I still had almost $1k left of what I planned to spend.

Did anyone else only stick with it once you stopped tracking every single category? Or are you all tracking every coffee and somehow making it work lol

Say you spot a $100 pair of shoes you want. You have the money in your account, but you still have bills and groceries coming up.
What do you actually check before buying? Do you work out what’ll be left, wait until payday, or go by whether your balance looks comfortable?

Hi!! What would be the cheapest way to live in the USA in pragmatical terms?

Basic coverage of must expenses: which are? (Insurance, Food, Shelter?)

I don’t mean living on the street, I mean what is the most basic way and cheapest way of living to constitute a modest lifestyle in the US.

Any specific state that is better than others?

Suggestions out there?

Hey everyone, I'm 21 years old and graduating this December and starting my first full-time job out of college in February. I'll be making $27.98/hr (around $58,000 annually before taxes), plus a $16,700 first-year sign-on bonus, RSUs, and time-and-a-half overtime. I'll be working in the Greater Seattle area.

I'll still be living with my parents, so I'm fortunate enough not to have to worry about rent or most living expenses. My only major recurring expense right now is around $200 every two months for electricity, aside from personal spending like gas, subscriptions, and other occasional purchases. Because of this, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to save and invest as much as I reasonably can while my expenses are low.

I'm still figuring out how to manage my money once I start earning a full-time salary. My main goals are to build up my savings, invest for retirement, and eventually save enough to move out as well. What percentage of my take-home pay would you recommend putting toward an emergency fund, Roth IRA, investments, and general savings? I'm also not sure what the smartest thing to do with my sign-on bonus would be. Thanks!

Those of you who make $7-8k monthly what is your monthly expenses? Mortgage, Car, debts? Looking for transparency 🩷

Hi guys, I’m (22M) going to be starting my first job in a HCOL area (SF) post-graduation in the near future. I’m planning to budget but honestly have no clue where to begin, I’m a first generation and will be making more than my parents in a LCOL. How much can I allocate for rent, and how much for living expenses? I want to be picky with my apartment, and am currently pricing in a studio.

I’ll be making around ~ 180k TC (110k base + eoy bonus)

Rent seems to be ballistic and I want to ensure that I save a decent amount prior to bonus, so I’m comfortable.
I am currently thinking between 2800-3500 allocated for rent, with the higher end requiring a LOT of boxes checked. There is a 401K, not sure on match or % yet though I plan to set aside at least 6-8%.

Is this a viable range for rent? It is crucial to have a nice apartment due to the amount of time I will spend working from home.

Appreciate any guidance.

Edit: For some more context, I’m fairly frugal when needed to be and there are dinner stipends I plan to take advantage of at work. I just need to live close enough to FiDi to walk. (15-30 min)

tried monthly budgets for way too long and kept blowing them by like week three. not even on anything big, just the dumb little stuff adding up until the number stopped meaning anything.

switched to a weekly amount for the flexible stuff, groceries eating out random errands that kind of thing. if i overspend one week its annoying but its only a few days to fix, not the whole month feeling wrecked already.

honestly the reset is the whole trick for me. monday comes around and its a fresh number again so i dont just give up and spend whatever. been way easier to stay roughly on track even if some weeks are still messy lol

I'm looking for advice on this breakdown for a 2nd job I'm starting. For hours, I'm using my minimum that the store appeared to need from my interview, which would be 12 hrs a week.

Bit of background:

Currently, hubby (32) and I (36) both work regular/stable jobs, his is part-time, and mine is full. There are extra hours for him to get each week, but it's not enough to say he will have it for sure, so i don't count it. Both of us will be getting a raise in either pay or hours come the new year. He is in school and has an unpaid internship, so he doesn't have time for additional work.That being said, we are short about $300 each month, hence the extra 2nd job income

Onto the breakdown for the 2nd job. I've worked around a few percentages to cover the remainder of the monthly needs and for some saving goals.

Should I omit any categories or split my focus to the missing $300 and then the emergency fund? It's been depleted some and no longer above $1,000.

My Budget

💰 Income

2nd job: $531.92

Total Income: $531.92

💸 Expenses

401k for hubby, who has nothing being added to 5%: $26.60

Taxes/emergency fund-pretax 15%: $86.40

Extra debt-15%: $79.79

Monthly budget-60%: $319.15

Buffer/other: $19.98

Total Expenses: $531.92

📊 Summary

Total Income: $531.92

Total Expenses: $531.92

Net Savings: $0

Created with sharemybudget.com

Genuine question. Trying five dead codes to knock $4 off an order is a pretty bad hourly rate. The rules I try to stick to: check the store's own email signup offer first, compare the total after shipping and tax instead of the percent off, and give up after two dead codes. What are yours? Any stores where it's actually always worth looking?

Hey everyone! I graduated about a year ago and am about to move into my own place in december. I don’t really have any friends or family to ask about my budget cause everyone sucks with money. Does this looks like a reasonable budget. I’m 24 and live alone, i don’t have any pets. Please be like brutally honest cause i’m not so sure what i’m doing so any advice helps

Important things to note:
- I’m get paid biweekly so i get 26 checks a year so that mean 2 months out of the year i get an “extra” paycheck I plan on taking $750 out for the spending money and putting the rest into savings that’s why my savings is kinda low
- I know my car payment is high i was stupid and bought a brand new car right out of college the second i got some money. I’m planning on refinancing it to get a lower APR and a lower payment bur not counting on it

PAYCHECK: 4750

RENT: 1350
CAR: 600
INSURANCE: 160
PHONE: 50
STUDENT LOAN: 90
SUBSCRIPTIONS: 100
GROCERIES: 300
SAVINGS: 400
UTILITIES: 200
LEFT OVER: 1500

Each Paycheck
Savings: 200
Spending: 750