quote:
saved up money to pay off my 11k car note after getting divorced in roughly a year and save up 5500 for an emergency fund and 1200 into a Roth I started recently, while making ~45k a year. I'm very, very happy with how things have gone over the last 2 years and love how much YNAB has helped me get a grip on my finances. I tell anyone who will listen about it

This is what I'm looking to do (minus the divorce) on roughly the same salary. Any specific advice? I have been very diligently budgeting for 1 month now and already brought my credit card debt from about $5,700 to $3,300.

This post was edited on 1/5/17 at 4:21 pm

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Posted by darnol91

Member since Jun 2015

749 posts

Posted on 1/5/17 at 4:19 pm to tlsu15

quote:
This is what I'm looking to do (minus the divorce) on roughly the same salary. Any specific advice? I have been very diligently budgeting for 1 month now and Already brought my credit card debt from about $5,700 to $3,300.

You're off to a great start! Changing habits is hard, but stick with it. It will be worth it. Once you get your CC debt paid off, get rid of it if you know you cant be responsible with it. Or ask to have a much lower limit, like 500. Also use the envelop method. Or I do something similar because I get paid weekly. Open another checking account. Take all your bills, divide by four. And every pay day take that amount (I add a little extra) and add it to your bill pay account. Works wonders.

Save before spending, dont just spend and save what's left over.

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Posted by Doldil

The Ham

Member since Jan 2010

6214 posts

Posted on 1/5/17 at 9:57 pm to tlsu15

Honestly...I'm kind of a hermit. I go out with my friends when they're doing stuff, but they typically hang out at someone's house instead of actually going out. I don't drink (but I smoked green at that point and budgeted for it) and I typically chilled at home watching TV or playing on my computer (assuming I didn't have a date or something)

I have been lucky in sharing rent for the last 1.5 years with my share never being more than $400. I eat free lunch at work daily, and try to spend $50-$75 a week in groceries and limit my eating out. I also lucked out and dated a rich girl for a bit who was older than me and tended to always pay for dinner

When i moved away from the ex I moved within a few miles of work. My fuel expense went from $150ish/month to $35-40 (one tank per month usually).

I didn't pay for cable, only Hulu and had access to people's Netflix and ESPN logins.

Beyond that...i use ynab religiously. I budget half my bills every pay check and then my other things...clothes (25 per check) video games (25 per) hair cuts, car maintenance etc.

Once I've got through the all of the things I'll need at some point I then would take whatever was left and either throw it at my smallest student loan (I paid those bi-weekly with 1/2 the minimum owed for the month) then would apply all my leftover to a specific loan so the extra wasn't split evenly, or I kept it a "savings" category when I was dealing with the car.

I've been cheap, but I never, ever touched (stole money from) savings categories. If I over spent groceries, I stole from restaurants to cover it. If I spent too much going out...i stole from my video game, clothing fund. I punished myself by taking from things I wanted and tried to do better the next time so that didn't happen.

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