I got a call this weekend from a friend of mine who wanted to share some good news. On Friday, she was called in for an unexpected interview and then offered a new position- one making more money than she’s ever made before. This friend has been underemployed for quite some time. She’s been working as a manager at a comic and games shop (funny, when we were teens, that seemed like a dream job), butread more…
I’ve written before about Managing Someone Else’s Money, namely, my mother-in-law’s. Her financial story is a key component to our financial story. She moved in with us in late 2008 because she could no longer afford to pay her bills, her late fees and overdraft charges, and still eat. Without the late fees and overdraft charges, she had enough money for her bills, but she was no longer capable of handling her money. We took over.read more…
2011 Budget 2011 Actual 2012 Budget Student Loans $ 685.00 $ 1,087.00 $ 685.00 School $ 850.00 $ 781.00 $ 850.00 Bills $ 2,135.00 $ 2,183.00 $ 2,190.00 Car $ 190.00 $ 638.00 $ 350.00 Groceries $ 450.00 $ 401.00 $ 350.00 Medical $ – $ 25.00 $ 25.00 Eating Out $ 150.00 $ 159.00 $ 150.00 Allowance $ 200.00 $ 250.00 $ 200.00 Pets $ – $ 181.00 $ 150.00 House $ – $ read more…
This post is about how I determined what to budget for each category last year and how I’m planning to change that, if at all. Here are our budget categories, the average we have spent each month (Jan-Oct) and the budgeted amount (at the beginning of the year- some values have changed) Student Loans: 1,087/685 School expenses: 781/850 Bills: 2,183/2,135 Car: 638/190 Credit Cards: 26/15 Groceries: 401/450 Medical: 25/0 Eating Out: 159/150 Allowance – me: 162/125read more…
As I mentioned in my previous post, it’s getting to be the time of year where I need to review this year’s budget and start getting ready for next year’s. I personally believe that budgets should be fluid things. Each year, my goal is to take the things that worked and continue them while getting rid of the things that didn’t work. One of the main places I make changes is in my budget categories, orread more…
Exhausted today and just not feeling inspired about anything. I have a post I want to write about how the mortgage world has changed in the last 40 years, and how the rules of the 1970s really can’t apply to today’s mortgages because of the inflation of property values, but it needs a little more research so I know I’m using accurate numbers first. I turned to the blogs I read for inspiration, but while Iread more…
Each month, my husband and I get an allowance. I don’t pull it out in cash, it just gets calculated on a spread sheet, but its there. One of the hard things for people- especially couples – who use an allowance system is determining what comes out of the allowance and what doesn’t. Like any of the decisions people make about their personal finances, I’m not certain that there is a right or wrong answer. Thereread more…
Back in 2010, when my brother took his job in Australia, hubby and I made a plan to go visit him in March 2012. We figured it would take us that long to save for the plane tickets- flying to Australia is ridiculously expensive. When my brother first hinted that he wasn’t happy in Australia and might be looking to come back stateside before March 2012, we said not to worry. We’d just use the moneyread more…
I originally thought of this post in regard to being in a romantic/life partner type of relationship, and some parts of it will still be geared at least a little toward that. But it occurred to me, that regardless of whether or not you share financial responsibility with someone, its important to “know your role”, to understand your relationship to money, regardless of any other relationships out there. Let’s start with me. Like sand through theread more…
Quick Yakezie Challenge Update: My Alexa ranking is below 1 million. Yay! The guest post I wrote for Daily Money Shot was about making choices, about understanding the trade-offs between what you want, whant you can afford, and what you’re willing to give up. For a very long time, we have had HD cable with an HD DVR. Even when the husband was laid off and we were in our crash budget phase, we kept theread more…
