Basically my financial situation is:
Me work. Me get paid. Banana purchase. Repeat.I too am an ape
The worst part is that I love math and numbers…just hate money and having to worry about it.
Who needs budgets when you have terrible anxiety about spending money
the only cure is buying shiny new thing™️
I have a math brain; I do not, however, have a brain that can make plans or follow them consistently
there’s no point to a budget if you minimize all costs anyways, and it means i get a surprise amount left over at the end of every month which i can do whatever i want with.
Which is usually just letting it pile up because i don’t know if my welfare will be denied at some point and having that buffer means i can afford to replace things every now and then.
You have money left over at the end of the month?
yes, through the magic of eliminating every expense i can.
My expenses are: Rent, electricity, internet, phone service, home insurance, bus ticket (in the winter), and food (of which i’ve been steadily finding cheaper and cheaper things to cook, most recently discovering that you can just fry the shit out of mixed frozen vegetables and it tastes amazing).It’s slightly terrifying to see what other people spend money on, like paying 5€ for a SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE… Or, like, owning a car at all. Buddy maybe you could afford to heat your luxurious mansion if you weren’t blowing half your fucking income on a living room with 4 wheels?
An incredible amount of people, probably most people, just seem to be fundamentally incapable of recognizing expenses as being expenses. Their brain just classes that cup of coffee as something required to live and thus the cost doesn’t exist. They’ll buy it every single day, even as it doubles in cost, and i’m not sure if the act of paying even consciously registers.
I dont keep a budget. But my algorithm is basically dont buy anything except food.
I squeeze pennies so hard they need therapy and always have. I remember loaning money to my older siblings to buy game systems and fund dates.
Ever since I saw a documentary on the great depression and spoke to my grandmother about what it was like to live through it I started noticing that we as a country we’re not doing so great. I’ve been working and saving most of my money since I was in first grade, but by middle school I just decided to abstain from almost every kind of expense I could.
I’ve never struggled financially but that’s because I learned that you don’t need to buy much stuff if you make your own, can live on less, and have a pervasive crippling anxiety about the collapse of western civilization.
So yeah I’ve been running on the vibe “The Great depression is coming again and there’s no way I can save enough to be prepared”
This has earned me a meager modest lifestyle, but my family eats very well, has a clean home, and has plenty of modern luxuries and toys even if some of them might be a bit worn, rough around the edges, or unfashionable.
I didn’t have to learn to live on lentils but I did have to give up on things my parents found very accessible like restaurants, travel, new things, packaged food, college, free time, bars, weekends, my own room, cars, movie theaters, most museums and non-critical medical care.
So yeah, I guess compared to my peers I’m crushing it because in all of my frugality I managed to avoid racking up six figures of college debt! I’ll never own a house though.
that’s deeply sad :( you’ve denied yourself so much, and you still can’t even afford your own house. at that point why care? why not enjoy things like eating out, travel, or non-critical medical care?
if another great depression comes everyone will be fucked no matter their wealth. but most people will at least get to keep memories of little luxuries, whilst you already live like the world collapsed
You don’t have to spend a lot to live richly. By making all of my own food I eat a wonderful variety of a healthy things everyday. All the food is fresh prepared by me, canned by me, or bespoke junk.
Besides, within walking distance of where I live now there are acres of wild grapes and raspberries and you can eat the fish from the water. The wild turkeys out here are comically inept, I bet I could harvest more than my family would ever need with a couple of rocks a day. They are such funny little creatures and none too bright but I did see one out run/hover a mountain lion.
making all my own food isn’t really feasable for me with my level of executive dysfunction. even one self made meal a day is a win
I feel like there’s a certain minimum income level/social safety net you need to have to be able to live like this. Like at some point the desire to keep having food/shelter becomes enough of a motivating factor that you have to work out what you need to do.
I spent late 20s and early 30s living on 25k a year. I now make 4x that, I still live like I make 25k. My budget plan is to live like I’m pore
live like I’m pore
soaking in lots of moisturising creams then i assume?
Long time ago I had the benefit of spending a couple years in banking. Bankers have a very different attitude about money than most people since for a bank, money is the “product.”
The most valuable thing I learned from that experience was that in order to be in control of my finances, I had to have a clear understanding of what my money is “doing.” Just being able to get that insight has been enough to keep me relatively on top of my book keeping.
sounds like something people with leftover money do
the change is pretty stark, when you go from living paycheck to paycheck to suddenly getting a choice again.
I don’t have any money but I still do it.
That’s me. It’s simple. You live a cheap life with a good career
I never had an official budget. I knew how much I made and made sure I spent significantly less than that.
Iol, is it supposed to be done in any other way than vibes?
I’m 45 and I’ve spent more time on my diet (in the form of sodium and calorie budget(s)) than any sort of financial budget.
That said, my vices are relatively inexpensive, my jobs have generally paid very well, and I do check my various accounts without being prompted.
I think personal budgets (including my dieting) are best thought of as attempts to solve specific problems, not some sort of mandatory / expected behavior.
If you are getting dinged with overdraft fees or CC interest etc., a budget might get you to a better place than you are on “just vibes”.
I do have a math brain, which is why I can get by on vibes.
That’s a good way of describing my system. I put the bills on auto pay and stop spending when it runs out.
