How many MFP'ers are struggling with money?

gostumpy

I have recently become a reformed debt-a-holic, where I was spending money I didn't have with barely any consequence, never even realizing how much it was costing me...

The last time my Dad (I'm 27, lol, embarassing) bailed me out with a loan to pay off my CC's, he asked me for a written budget before he'd give me the money... Well he ended up giving me the money anyway, and low and behold I went and racked up another $7.5k in debt within a year.

Something was wrong.

Eventually I was watching Gail Vaz-Oxlade's TV show "Til Debt do us Part" and a couple on there reminded me of us... that's when it hit me. I still don't know how much I'm spending on things, apart from rent/utilities....

How much do I spend on groceries?
How much do I spend on fuel?
How much do I spend on repairs?
Home Maintenance?
Eating out?
Booze?
Pets?
Medical bills?
Entertainment?

I realized I needed to do a budget... so I grabbed my last 3 months of bank statements, and started categorizing.

Oh my word... no wonder I was in debt!!!!!!!!!!

Fast forward, after searching online for budgeting tools, I found YNAB: www.youneedynab.com

A lot like MFP, you enter in what you spend, and tracking is half the battle. Once you know where you are, you can work on getting to where you're going...




So the big question is...

How many of us are struggling with finance?

(this is not an advertizement for YNAB, I just really like it, I just want to talk about the taboo subject of personal finance, since like food, keeping problems a secret only hurts the situation!

brevislux

Definitely. BUT I'm proud to say I'm debt-less, even after 3 years of university, and now attending grad-school. It required giving up on many comforts: sharing a room with someone for example, going out rarely. For a year all I ate was lentils and rice because it's what I could afford. But I don't regret it, because I have far less to worry about... No debt, and, I know I can live with much, much less than I have. It doesn't stress me out.

_DaniD_

odusgolp

Dani *LMAO*

May I also suggest Mint.com? Great App.

I have zero debt.

******* Insert self-high-five here. Too lazy to grab a gif. *******

XtyAnn17

I have school loans out and that is all. I do have a spending problem, so i tend to rack up the credit card. But not anything i cant pay off within a years time. I have recently been making moves to become as much of a minimalist as possible, not buying anything that wont be used all the time or that will have a purpose and place in this house. Husband and i are also spring cleaning and getting rid of half or more of our belongings. I mean, who really needs 3 sets of silver wear and 16 cups for a family of 4?

Its hard to change habits, but luckily im only 26 so i havnt had these havits very long.

mariapuhl

Dani *LMAO*

May I also suggest Mint.com? Great App.

I have zero debt.

******* Insert self-high-five here. Too lazy to grab a gif. *******

I was going to come in and suggest mint.com as well - it is SUPER helpful.

I have a little bit of "debt" right now.... student loans, the subsidized stafford, that don't accrue any interest until I graduate (starting a phd program in the fall, so not for another three years). I have the money that I could use to pay off that loan just sitting in an investment fund growing So basically, no debt, haha.

princessnik7

bump for later

_Witsy_

Dani *LMAO*

May I also suggest Mint.com? Great App.

I have zero debt.

******* Insert self-high-five here. Too lazy to grab a gif. *******

I second Mint.com as well...I wanna check out the one in OP as well.

And that is the best gif. Ever.

the_journeyman

Mint is good as well. Both a website and app form.

We only owe for a house & car, the rest is paid off monthly. We do use a credit card for most monthly expenses like groceries, gas and household stuff because we earn points we can redeem for RCI cruises and onboard credits and such.

JM

K_Serz

I realized I needed to do a budget... so I grabbed my last 3 months of bank statements, and started categorizing.

Oh my word... no wonder I was in debt!!!!!!!!!!

Just curious which category you were spending way too much on when you realized you should cut that back and get out of debt. Thank you for this post. Thats what I like about MFP. I think many people on here love to eat, but dont really add up how much we are consuming day to day and the calories just add up daily, weekly, monthly. Just like the spending!! Sure a starbucks here and there isnt that bad, but next thing you know you spent $300 at starbucks in just a few months. ACK!

Ill have to check out that app. Thanks again.

Linli_Anne

While I am good with money, my husband is not always, and we are experiencing our highest debt-load and most expensive years of our lives right now. BUT, we have a plan.

Since we started putting money away at every paycheque to save up for our wedding I have had an excel spreadsheet budget. It would list everything that would go in, and come out. It started just being a bi-weekly thing that we kept on our fridge in our apartment. We even budgeted in an allowance for each of us.

It has since grown and we now do up a budget/plan for 1 year at a time. We don't keep it on our fridge anymore, but it has everything you could think about in it. Seasonal clothing purchases for the kids, we set money aside bi-weekly into a separate account for bigger things that we pay each year like our car insurance. We also set aside money bi-weekly to accrue for things like home maintenance and repairs, extra cost of groceries and fuel when we go camping in the summer months. We budget our spending money, our groceries, our fuel, all the utilities etc. We also worked out how much we can comfortably put towards our line of credit on top of the monthly payment. It works out that we should have only our mortgage left as debt in about 5 or 6 years.

SheilaN1976

I checked this out and what you failed to mention is its free trial............unless its totally free it does me no good, I mean seriously if people are already having financial issues they shouldn't be adding on another expense for this. at least that's how I see it anyway.

oldmanrivererik

Im completely debt free. I use mint.com. Ive used it for 3-4 years and its completely free. I cant recommend it enough.

CherryOnionKiss

60$ for this thing! jesus. not really helping.

allisona28

BUMP

phillrachel

I'm happy to say I'm not struggling. We are debt free except the darn mortgage that will never go away! Actually in will in 12 years since we refinanced to a 15 year loan. That meant $150 more in payment a month but it is worth it to chop the mortgage time in half. We had to sacrifice, but it was actually pretty easy. Even with 2 kids in full time daycare and the normal expenses of a family and household. We just gave up some dinner outs. Oh and I don't go with the whole new car thing. I'm 31 and have had 2 cars my whole life. I'm on Car #2 and plan to keep for another 2 to 3 years so almost a decade. Car payments are super high and not worth it in my opinion.

Can I suggest the 52 week money challenge to you. You can start saving this week with just $1. Then add $1 a week up to $52. After 52 weeks you will have almost $1400 saved up. Really you are giving up a coffee one week, lunch one week later on and then maybe dinner out or a new pair of jeans one week.

You can do this. You are taking the right steps by running a budget and seeing where your money is really going. Just keep at it like you have with your weight loss journey.

kayla7jackson

I am currently only in debt becuase of student loans, I am working towards paying them off. I do indeed struggle with money though due to the fact that where I work we only get paid once a month. It makes it easier on getting all my bills paid at once and on time but it is hard to spread what you have over a months time.

tinak33

In debt here.
I was really bad in my early 20s... I had some weird mentality that store cards were "free money". hahaha :noway:

So after racking up about 13K in debt, I had my dad cosign a debt consolitation loan and a personal loan to cover the debt that wasn't "credit card" debt.
I moved to a tiny studio apartment and basically lived off of ramen, eggs, tuna, bread, pb&j. That was pretty much it. haha

Happy to say that all of those are gone.
And while I still have some debt, I'm not in a financial hole like I was before.

I started using mint.com, but I actually have a spreadsheet that works better for me.
I keept track of every penny that I spend. And I check it every day with my bank account so I always know where I'm at financially.

__RANDY__

Im completely debt free. I use mint.com. Ive used it for 3-4 years and its completely free. I cant recommend it enough.

Awesome, I use mint too.
I have a few loose ends here and there but i'm damn close to being debt free.

sarahertzberger

yup we have land, a van payment, and our house, but with the help of the wonderful dave ramsey we were able to pay off a truck we had, payed off medical bills and my van will be payed off in two weeks then to knock out the land and my goal is to have our house payed off in 5 years along with starting a life insurance plan and savings for our children's collage
(my husband and I are 23 with 3 kids)

aaronlawrenc

terrappyn

Financial mess here!! You're not alone!

JasonAxelrod

I'll be honest. I'm in a lot of trouble and aside from going back to a ****-paying wage in retail or food service (I'm a freelance voiceover artist but the living is incredibly meager because of little opportunity in my area as well as a lack of professional experience and connections), I'm not really sure how I'm going to get out of it.

I'm in a little under $7K in debt. I'm about to finally get my Associate's in Arts degree, and plan to pursue my BA or BS, at least, in the future. However, there's absolutely no way I can even apply for student loans with this kind of debt—which, aside from the fact that I struggle to pay my bills every month is the biggest concern. It built since I was 16 (I'm 24 now), and while I have absolutely never missed a [minimum] payment, I have four credit cards that are next to maxed out that I've used time and again to buy my groceries, necessities, holiday and occasional gifts, among other things.

I have since become much more frugal, as I have to be in order to even survive this, but asking my family for the money to pay this off is not an option I'm willing to consider not only because I truly want to fix my situation on my own, independantly, but also because of the dynamic in my family that has always surrounded money and finance and I absolutely refuse to create an entirely new situation in which the stress and judgment will be fostered as it has in the past. I've considered selling everything I own, including my car and just picking up a bicycle or some kind of motorbike. I've considered destroying my credit for the next half a decade or longer and filing for bankruptcy. I've also considered just, as I said, going back into a **** industry if I can find a job in it and work for a year or longer to get it all paid off. There are physical reasons why I am doing my best to avoid that kind of work, though, and in all honesty, at 24 years-old, I'm honestly just incredibly disgusted with myself and my situation of living at home and barely scraping by with no apparent uphill progress and just not living my life in general. Realizing that I could be a third (or more) into my lifespan and having spent six years immobile is really hard to face, some times.

A big portion of my debt was brought upon by a gambling problem when I first turned 21. I've since kicked that. About $3K of it was a series of incredibly stupid financial mistakes in trying to salvage my last relationship (we were in an LDR for four years). And the rest was scattered purchases.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do, and I have to decide within the month.

So, yeah, I'm definitely struggling with my situation that I've stupidly created for myself over a long period of time.

lauren3101

How can a website designed to help you with money, have the audacity to charge $60 for it's services? It's not even like it's a small fee. Mint.com also doesn't seem to be available for us UK'ers. :grumble:

ScatteredThoughts

I don't understand the complaints about the price of the YNAB software. $60, spread over the course of a year, is not much money. I would call that a smart investment, if it can get you ahead of the curve. Many of us waste more than that within a month.

Disclaimer: I do not use YNAB. I never heard of it before today. I did look at some reviews for it. It seems to be a decent and helpful product for many.


I will say that the book "Making the Most of Your Money" helped me many years ago, when it came to getting my finances in order. It covers budgeting, and much more.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Most-Your-Money-Now/dp/0743269969/

Check your local library, and see if they have a copy.


***Edited for typos***

concordancia

Another mint.com user here!

Using budgeting software like mint.com is just like using logging software like MFP for your diet. You become more aware of where your money is going so that you are able to set concrete goals.

Just like my diet, I haven't been perfect, but I was able to pay off my car early, save up an emergency fund and, as of my next paycheck, pay off my only private student loan. All that and we bought a sailboat last year!

SteveJWatson

How can a website designed to help you with money, have the audacity to charge $60 for it's services? It's not even like it's a small fee. Mint.com also doesn't seem to be available for us UK'ers. :grumble:

You can probably do the same thing in excel - I download all my business account statements into excel when I do my accounts. I don't know if you can do his with personal accounts though - not sure why you couldn't though.

I dont have any debt, but neither do we earn much money - you get used to budgeting, but then, I met my wife when we were students and neither of us had any money then either, so budgeting has ben a way of life.

magisy

I'll have to take a look at the sites mentioned.

I've completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University twice and am ALMOST debt free, except my mortage (come on April!!!) With his program, I've been doing a monthly budget now for 19 months, but I'm always looking for something that might make it better/easier since I'm currently using a spreadsheet that I email to myself so it's accessable wherever I am.

stephc0711

Currently, things are looking a little better than they were. My husband and I were living in a house we were renting and still paying a mortgage on a house we were trying to sell, and paying utilities for both. We did that for a year and a half, until it just got to be too much for us to handle. I think we wasted about $7,000 in rent, and I don't even know how much in utilities. We moved back to the small house, and we're trying really hard to get caught up, it's not easy. I think I'm going to look into this Mint.com everyone is talking about!!

NVREST

$$ it is my best friend and my worst enemy!

the_journeyman

You can probably do the same thing in excel

You can. I wrote us a great budget in Excel. It lets us track EVERY purchase into groceries, household, personal, eating out, gas, vehicle maintenance, emergency etc. It also allows us to split our expenses and track who spends what and where. A little fancy formula work made for some great results.

JM