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I thought I'd start a thread about personal finances thread where we can discuss things and give each other advice/opinions.
Tell me, are you good with money, do you have a budget, what do you spend your money on, what are some of the things you do to save money? etc etc etc.
I'm trying to work out my best friend moving in with my husband and me to help with our mortgage. She works 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and we both work from 9/10 a.m. to 6/7 p.m., so we would never see each other that much and wouldn't get in each other's way. Hopefully it works out because we could use financial help right now.
I like to think that I'm good with money, but I can be a little bit of an impulse shopper sometimes. But even when I was working part time minimum wage I would still take out $50-100 and save it every month. It wasn't a "savings" account, it was just a little extra saved up in case something came up, which, of course, it always did. I only have two credit cards (I used to have more, but I cracked them because they were too tempting) and they both have a limit that I could easily pay off in 6 months even if they were maxed out. I won't extend the credit line. But since I stopped working a few weeks ago and preparing to move 200 miles away, money has gotten a little away from me. I have a little over $1500 to last me until I get my first real paycheck in July. I've already budgeted for gas, food and the two bills that I'm going to get before then. Thankfully my job is only 4 miles from my apartment, so I won't have to worry too much about gas..except for the $200 that it's going to cost me to get there tomorrow. But once I start working I can start saving up again. I already opened a new checking account and a savings account and I have $150 a month automatically being transferred into my savings. I know loosely how much I'm going to be spending on gas and food and bills, and I have a decent idea of how much money I'll have to spend at the end of each month. A lot of people think I'm crazy for keeping track of this all (I have several excel spreadsheets with all of this laid out) but I'd go crazy if I didn't have it. I can't play the whole "if I have it I have it, if I don't I don't" game that my friends play. I have to know my finances.
I get around £435+ (about $650) a month from work which I think is pretty good considering I'm still a student. £200 of that I put into a savings account so that I can fund my university studies abroad. I still live with my parents and they still pay for the basics like the actual house, food, water, electricity, etc, so I don't have to worry about all of that. I'm usually quite stingy with my money but I like spending it on vintage clothing and other random bits. It's still gonna be about 3 years before I move abroad so for the first 2 years (while I'm still studying) I'm saving £200 a month, and then for the last year I'm going to just concentrate on working, hopefully full time so I can save a little more money up.
I'm pretty good with money. I always make sure bills are paid before buying other things and make sure to save some each month. Best thing I do to save money is not eat out too much. I pack my lunch for work each day so that helps a lot. When I spend money it's normally on clothes. Normally I buy a few things each season and that's it, nothing crazy. I also am good about never buying anything full price. I always wait for sales and/or coupons.
