Where does all our money go?

[lize566]

I say that, but in reality I guess it goes to us eating out. We just do it way too much, which is going to have to stop. We have to start cutting back on things, which sucks, but I was just looking at our money and seems that every month things just seem to get tighter. I don't think I can go without somethings, like my cell phone (but we don't have a house phone, so that really isn't possible I don't think). I'm just worried about it all, plus I've been planning on going back to school, but that's going to make our money situation even worse, but it's want I really want to do. Then when I finish school we want to start talking about kids, but will we be able to afford them and not have to live in debt? I will be making a decent salary, but it's still not much, and I want to be able to afford to take my kids on vacations, and to be able to put money away for school for them. I'm so worried about money and everything right now, and I can't talk to Stephen about it b/c he freaks out and then we argue and it's just not good. He knows we have to watch our money and not spend anything we don't have to, but other then that it's just best he doesn't know that I am worried. We could both get second jobs I guess, it's just we hate to give up seeing each other, ya know. But with school starting, hopefully this summer, it's not going to be very easy for me to work full time much less 2 jobs, so maybe I will talk to him about possibly working somewhere else at night. This fall I will be coaching, which is about $2500 extra, and then hopefully with our stimulus check we will be able to get our c.c paid off and then maybe things will be a little less tight. It just sucks, and I needed to vent.

Thanks for reading!

[WebLady]

I ask myself the same question all the time; even though I really know the answer :p No matter how much money we make there is always something else to spend it on ;)

[lize566]

No matter how much money we make there is always something else to spend it on ;)

I know, and I tell myself that all time, especially as I listen to my mom have the same problems when they make almost 2 as much as we do. Granted they have many many many more expenses, but still, there is no such thing as enough money.

[SerendipityCrafts]

Our money goes mainly to bills, kids & savings. Every now and again we splurge on little treats (a weekend away, a concert, some meals out) so that we don't go nuts. We just keep plugging away telling ourselves that we are working towards our retirement ...........

[WBandMe]

I was throwing a big fit about money the other night, telling FH we were going to live in a box until we starved to death. Truthfully, we're going to be fine and somewhere in my mind I know it. But I start thinking about bills, student loans, cars, gas, food, rent/mortgage, insurance, retirement savings, college funds for our kids, etc. and I just get hysterical. With the wedding planning in progress now we've decided to stop eating out so much because we both know that is where a LOT of our money goes--when he spends the weekend with me we eat out fri night, twice saturday and twice sunday, and I'm not talking mcdonalds. Then it's like, hey, how did my CC get so high this month?! Lonestar, Outback, Olive Garden, Chili's... oh, ooh look, there it is. It will be easier when we're married and can grocery shop together, but for now I can certainly tell you that FOOD is where all our money goes!

[RosieAngel]

I had a late start at getting an education, so I'm freaking out about this stuff too. :( FH and I own a condo, but the mortgage and association fees are insane.

But I am really good at living on a tight budget! I moved out when I was 18, and I learned to live off next to nothing! I just don't buy anything that isn't necessary. If you buy clothes in solid colors, they won't get dated like prints. I own some outfits that are 10 years old because of this! The same goes for brown and black purses and shoes. I can't remember the last time I bought shoes.

I'm a really good cook and I know tons of vegetarian recipes, so I don't spend needless money on going out to eat or expensive meats unless there's a special occasion meriting them. I learned a long time ago that it's the spices that make food delicious, not the ingredients themselves, so I simply doll up beans/lentils/nuts and rice/barley/pasta in a few interesting ways with tons of cheap fresh veggies and local cheeses. You feel just as satisfied as you are eating meat, promise!

Uhm... what other tips? We do fun, cheap things together, like have baking nights, make our own homemade ice-cream, watch anime and movies we got on sale years ago/netflixed on our TV... go out hiking with food and water from home as snacks...

[MrsDM]

FH and I bought a condo over a year ago and between the mortgage, insurance, food, association fees, electric, water, car payments, etc. etc. I look at what we bring in..and what goes out and I am just in shock! Especially now saving for a wedding and FH needs a new truck, we're saving for land and we just bought me a brand new car, its just crazy. Our friends who still live at home have such a twisted view of what it takes to live on you own. They come over and "oh your house is so cute, I can't wait to move out" I'm thinking to myself, you have noooo idea! Don't get me wrong, we love living with each other, but gosh. Everything is so expensive!

[lize566]

Our friends who still live at home have such a twisted view of what it takes to live on you own. They come over and "oh your house is so cute, I can't wait to move out" I'm thinking to myself, you have noooo idea! Don't get me wrong, we love living with each other, but gosh. Everything is so expensive!

I hear this all the time! A girl I work with is only 19 and she has dropped out of college and is now talking about trying to get a house with her best friend and I just want to like shake her and be like "FINISH SCHOOL. GET A DEGREE. DONT RUSH IT!!!!" Like she just doesn't get how hard it is. Yeah it's nice, but still, enjoy being young and not having all those responsiblities, ya know?

[Jacklynn]

We go out to eat WAY too much. And we buy too many electronics. We are getting ready to buy a new car though! Either over the weekend of Monday. So after that our money will be going to that.

[MrsDM]

I hear this all the time! A girl I work with is only 19 and she has dropped out of college and is now talking about trying to get a house with her best friend and I just want to like shake her and be like "FINISH SCHOOL. GET A DEGREE. DONT RUSH IT!!!!" Like she just doesn't get how hard it is. Yeah it's nice, but still, enjoy being young and not having all those responsiblities, ya know?

I totally agree! You have to be ready to move out not only financially, but emotially and mature enough as well.

[KMS]

We're going through the same thing. We're cutting it close each month, but we've been doing fine. We don't go out to eat all that much. However, we love to cook and buy expensive groceries! We have a really cheap list of basic foods like grains, beans, and veggies but then I want to use roasted red peppers, aged balsamic, pine nuts, etc. A simple vegetarian diet is super cheap until you get all fancy with it! We have to work on just using the basics again. I actually just started clipping coupons again so that should help.

My dad actually just got laid off and he was paying for my car until we got on our feet. Well, since he got laid off we have to take over the payments. That's over $400 extra a month and we have maybe $200 left over each month. How is that going to work out? :purplex: I'm hoping that we don't have to sell my car and get me a junker. I'll be sad. It's already halfway payed off. Maybe we can refinance and get the payments lower? Ugh, I don't even really know how that works though! Booo.

Money is such a common problem. It's a shame!

[KMS]

I just went through and calculated the money we spent this month on entertainment, eating out, extras, etc....$300. D'oh. :bbmad::bblol:

[Jacobs_Girl]

Well We have a pretty cushy savings right now that if one of us couldnt work and we don't have that many expenses, all of our credit cards are mostly paid off and our wedding is mostly being paid in cash.

I would say most of my money goes to shopping :happy: I know its a bad habit but I am at the mall at least once a week or some shop, or Micheal's picking up arts and craft supplies. My parents are paying for most of the wedding I just have to take care of the wedding details :D

[Brianne1114]

-eating out
-my high end cosmetics habit
-his video game/book habit

[Nekochanpurr]

Bills
The wedding
Video games
Manga
But mostly..
MAGIC THE GATHERING. You girls do not understand the hate i have for this game. :D

[Whitewater]

Where does our money go? Bills. Pure and simple. He's got $700 worth of credit cards a month and when you add my almost $200/month car insurance (I know, right???? It's cause the car's not paid off so I have to have the full monty, plus there's still two tickets on there . . . bad me . . . but 2008 is the beginning of Year Three of no moving violations at all, so with luck it will all go down soon), and so on, it's just crazy.

That's one of the big reason we want a house -- the payments will be LESS than rent, by a considerable amount (over $100), so it makes sense for us to buy instead of rent.

We have learned that coupons really are the way to go. Our most recent grocery bill was $112 and some change, but when we gave the girl our coupons, it went down to $84! The store had a special, if you had the coupon you could buy one thing, and get two more of whatever it was for FREE. We may be living on shrimp and pork chops for a while . . . .but heck, I paid $18 for a 24 oz bag of shrimp and got TWO MORE 24 oz bags FREE. Same with salad and pretzels and lots of other stuff.

We're also seriously considering switching our cell service so that both of us can be on Tmobile's Family My Fave Plan --that plan is $90 a month for -both- of us, and right now between the two of us, on separate plans, we're paying $150. Could we use an extra $40 a month? Yep.

One of the ways we save on gas is that we stock up on errands and only do them when we're going somewhere -- no more one-store trips, and if we're going to meet friends or go out, we *also* plan a trip to the petstore or the grocery store or whatever. It all adds up! Particularly for my car, it means that I am staying home a lot more BUT I only have to spend about $20 in gas every 2 weeks when I stay home and don't do a lot of driving.

Coupons can really save you some dough. I'm considering getting the Sunday paper just so I can get the coupons! My mom saves them for us but it costs more to go over there and get them (and then drive back) than it would to buy the paper. By using coupons I can generally shave 20-30% off of my grocery bill.

And not going out to eat saves us a lot of money too. If we ate out at a decent semi-fast food place or a real sit-down restaurant 4 times a week, it would cost us $120/week! That's $480 a month, which is just about half of our rent. When we sat down and figured that out, we were like, HECK NO we're not going to spend all that money on eating out that often! We eat out once or twice a month and that's plenty. We cook the rest of the time.

You can indeed live well *and* live frugally. You just have to be willing to clip coupons and adjust your lifestyle slightly. We have a cat and a dog and a 1000 square foot two bedroom apartment, two cars, two cell phones, a savings account that has something in it, an account for the wedding savings and Comcast cable -- we're not sitting around living on Ramen noodles and we haven't adjusted our lifestyle all that much, we just don't live a life that spends money like water. We DO keep a very close eye on our expenditures and only use our credit cards if it's a real life-and-death emergency. Well, his cards, I don't have any.

Whitewater

[lize566]

We're also seriously considering switching our cell service so that both of us can be on Tmobile's Family My Fave Plan --that plan is $90 a month for -both- of us, and right now between the two of us, on separate plans, we're paying $150. Could we use an extra $40 a month? Yep.

One of the ways we save on gas is that we stock up on errands and only do them when we're going somewhere -- no more one-store trips, and if we're going to meet friends or go out, we *also* plan a trip to the petstore or the grocery store or whatever. It all adds up! Particularly for my car, it means that I am staying home a lot more BUT I only have to spend about $20 in gas every 2 weeks when I stay home and don't do a lot of driving.

Coupons can really save you some dough. I'm considering getting the Sunday paper just so I can get the coupons! My mom saves them for us but it costs more to go over there and get them (and then drive back) than it would to buy the paper. By using coupons I can generally shave 20-30% off of my grocery bill.
Whitewater

Yes, we definitely clip coupons!! Last time we went we save like $60 from Kroger Plus savings and coupons. We actually do get the sunday paper just for coupons lol. It's like 8 dollars a month and saves us way more then that.

We also have a family plan on cell phones b/c we were also spending close to $200 each, but now we have the lowest plan available, which in $90, but with taxes, etc. we pay abbout $113/mo.

We do need to take my car more b/c it gets better gas mileage and it's drived way less b/c live about a mile from work and Stephen lives like 20 or something. It's just got some much junk in it right now, I need to clean it out!

[Nekochanpurr]

Holy ****.. I work at Kroger, and one lady on a double coupon day started with like almost $300 and ended with under $100!! i had to pick my jaw up off the floor..