Money problems =(?

Question

I don't have the best money management system. It seems like every month, no -- every check runs out quickly. I have so many bills and such, but I know I should have more than I do.

I'd like some advice on how to keep myself on track and ways I can stop my excessive spending. I don't splurge on large, expensive things, I just seem to spend my money on little things like food or little knick knacks, a $10 item here and there, etc. I spend it when I don't even have it! Help me!

What are some of your management systems? Do any of you use spreadsheets or programs, or do you have a written system or SOME TYPE OF WAY to remind yourself how important it is to SAVE?

I know some of you might think I'm crazy, but I am very aware of my financial situation. At the same time, I'm ignorant and often times I'm in denial. It's very hard to snap out of it. Any words of encouragement? Thanks.

You guys have been so helpful thus far... Basically I need to put myself on CHECK. I'm 23, I make good money, my rent is not that expensive and I have a loving partner who helps me through everything. At the end of the day, when I blow the money away, it's his money too. He deserves so much better. I guess he is my encouragement. I just need to kick myself in the butt and discipline myself. Thanks, everyone! Keep it coming!

Answer 1

I am on a small budget to! What I do is every month before i get my bills I write down each bill and what needs to be paid out of each check subtract your total from your income, thats what you have to spend then subtract a certain percent to save remember to always count your gas and groceries as a bill. This way your bills are always paid first and you save. Some people wait to pay there bills when they come and they have already spent all there money. its ok to spend money on yourself you just have to remember bills first. Have a plan each month, use a calender to organize your bills ahead of time.

Answer 2

Whenever you see that little knick-knack that you might want, ask yourself: Do I REALLY need this? Is this thing going to be sitting on the floor somewhere when I've moved on to something else?

As far as food, I save a ton of money bringing my lunch to work. Lunch meat, bread and maybe cheese and you're good for a couple of weeks. Yeah it sucks to eat the same thing every day but compare this. If you ate out for lunch and it costs you $5/day (and that's CHEAP, mostly lunches will cost you $7-10), you'll run through $20 in Four days! Now if you just went to the grocery store with taht $20, you couuld eat for 2 weeks! Quite a difference.

Answer 3

you need to go to an envelope system. Simply put you place money in envelopes every pay check to cover everything including your blow money or entertainment. You must cover everything important first. Shelter, Food, utilities etc. the last is blow money and way up the line is savings. If you put the cash in the bank you will think twice before making a withdrawal for that $10 thing here and there.

Answer 4

We use Quicken. Before that, we just used Excel.

You need to figure out exactly what your non-discretionary expenses are (rent, loans, insurance, gas, food, basic clothing, taxes, etc). Once you've figured out exactly what you HAVE to spend each month, you'll know what is left to spend on discretionary items such as eating out, entertainment, trinkets, gifts, etc.

Try to build a "savings" amount into your budget so that you can save for unexpected items, and for the odd treat for yourself.

Answer 5

Pay all your bills with money ordres or cash to be sure you cant overspend/overdraft.

Take the remaining cash and divide it according to how long your paydays are-- every two weeks means divide them into two envelopes. Mark the second one "WEEK 2" and dont open until 7 days after payday. Or consider dividing them into four-- weekends and week days, since weekends are particularly easy to overspend!! Then only have the amount of cash that corresponds with that time period. That way its like you're getting a frequent allowance.

Answer 6

Keep the recites from buying things. Get a program for the next month, cutting down the expenses by 25%. If you can cut down things even more. Say, "I am not gonna by this things at all next month". That is it!

Answer 7

Three years ago, my now-husband and I were $27k in cc debt (not including student loans) with little savings. I was a freelancer and he worked, essentially, part time. We decided we needed to get our lives in check if we were going to get married, start a family, and buy a house. First, we moved in with my mother-in-law for 9 months and threw everything we made at the cc debt. It took us 1.5 years to completely eradicate the debt. Now, we both work full time with decent wages, save about 25% of our take-home pay so that we now have a 6-month emergency cash fund, contribute to investment accounts like Roth IRAs, 401k, 403b, etc., bought a house, and paid off our car. We still have student loan debt but anticipate being done with that in a couple years. We are also 33 yrs. old.

The point is that we couldn't have done any of that if we didn't, first, decide that was what we needed to do if we wanted to have a financial future. It meant: 1) Creating and maintaining a monthly budget; 2) Making saving a priority; 3) Educating ourselves on investing; 4) Learning how to save for what we really wanted to buy - no immediate gratification.

I created an excel spreadsheet demarcated into each day of the month and a line item expense (ie., food, laundry, entertainment, etc). We logged everything into the spreadsheet every day, each month. It really doesn't take that much time if you just save your receipts. My husband was the worst and it took him a while to get the hang of just piling receipts on my desk for me to log. At the end of the month, you compare what you spent to what you estimated your monthly to be (ie. did you overspend on food for the month?) It's a way for you to measure where your cash goes and what you can cut out. If we came in either over or under budget for the month, that would roll-over into the next month's monthly income for budget analysis.

The spreadsheet also became a tool to plan for the future by creating projections of where we wanted to be in three years financially and a means to determine how we could reach our "spending" goals - in terms of wanting to do upgrades to the house, buy big-ticket items, go on vacations, etc.

You have to want to change otherwise you never will. What good is denial when this is your life? Who cares except for you? No one will save you when you're in dire need. You're still very young and have time to save, invest, and, yet, still have fun with your money.

One other story for you is that I have a girlfriend, who is 35, recently married with baby, but who has spent her entire life living in this type of financial denial. What does she have to show for it? Zero savings, living from paycheck to paycheck, a rental house full of knicknacks, defaulted student loans, cc debt, and complaints about how "poor" she is even though her and her husband make combined over $75k/year. Her financial planning only consists of buying lotto tickets every week with dreams of grandeur.

Don't make this your life. You have it within yourself to take control and manage your money. First, just stop buying stuff. Ask yourself if you really do need it or is it that you just want it? Stick to the basics. Dedicate yourself to save at least 10 percent of your take home pay a month. You don't have to be as meticulous as we have been in tracking our spending - we just found a system that we could work with and that we found actually worked and kept us in check. If two spend-a-holics like us found a way to turn our bad habits around, then I believe anyone can do it.

You won't know until you start saving and see how quickly it builds up. Trust me when I say that financial security is worth more than knicknacks and lattes. You may have a good job now but that's not guaranteed for the rest of your life. Make it so that you'll always have something to fall back on.

Sorry so long-winded - good luck!

Answer 8

Get easy loan.Bad credit? no problem..I think the below website helps you.