Oh my God!
This DUmmie calls out the OP, but then gives a little detail that ... wow, just look.
PoindexterOglethorpe (6,399 posts)
11. I keep track, but not as closely as you do.
I don't know where you live, although you are apparently still employed which makes a huge difference in many ways. I'm retired. I live on Social Security, a very small pension, and income from investments. It's significantly less than the national median, and less even than my state's low median.
Here's my financial strategy, without giving specific sums of money.
At the beginning of every week I take out of my checking account a set sum of money which then gets divided thusly: gas, entertainment, health and well being (pays for body lotion, personal hygiene products, toilet paper, tissue, and the like), clothing, miscellaneous, "Christmas Club", and weekly grocery/spending money. The first six amounts go into envelopes. The last into my wallet. I have not updated that amount in about six or seven years, and I'm managing just fine. Gas has been more and it has been less than it currently is where I live ($2.89/gal earlier today). It helps enormously that I only need to get gas about once every three weeks unless I'm on a road trip. I have found that paying for all those things with cash helps me keep my spending under control. For instance, earlier today I got a hair cut at Great Clips because I had enough money in the health and well being envelope.
Since I'm on Medicare, my SS increases have been completely consumed by Medicare increases since I started collecting nearly four years ago. Sigh. But if you're still working you are probably screwed over by health care premium increases. You have my sympathy.
For me, grocery increases have not been that noticeable. I did have to cut out one grocery item, sparkling water, since about five years ago I decided I could no longer afford that luxury. At first I really missed it, but now it would seem like a silly indulgence. It no doubt helps enormously that I live alone, like to cook, and can eat quite frugally if I put my mind to it.
Someone with children is in a totally different place.
Luckily, that weekly sum of money is not all that I have available to me. I have a cushion in my budget, which has allowed me to make improvements in my small home: I've landscaped both front and back yards, and still have more to do in the front. I need a new dishwasher (the old one stopped working years ago) and I'd like to replace my washer and drier. Those are both achievable goals for me. I'll just have to save for a time. Maybe a year or more. But I'm not likely to face a serious crisis, unless either the washer or the drier breaks.
For me it helps that I grew up relatively poor. Went hungry more than I care to discuss. I needed serious dental work as a child/teen, and most of it was done through a charity clinic, to which I gave money for a number of years. When I was a sophomore in high school I had a Saturday babysitting job that paid very little (I'm thinking it was $3.00, but that sounds low even considering this was 1964, although an inflation calculator says that would be a bit more than $24.00 today, which would be reasonable.) and every week I used that money to buy groceries for the family. I was one of five children still at home at the time (oldest brother was away in the army). My mother had moved us away from an abusive alcoholic father, across the country, and although as a nurse she had no trouble finding a job, nurses back then were paid very little. She worked every extra shift she could get, and it still wasn't really enough. Friends saw our need and quietly gave us clothing, and for all I know gave Mom some money.
I think that because I've lived to learn on very little, having spent the first part of my life with almost nothing, I sometimes get impatient with complaints of the middle class. I AM NOT suggesting you are complaining unnecessarily. I am actually in a lot of awe of your detailed spreadsheet. A few years ago I started a similar spread sheet for my bills, but didn't keep it up. I really should restart it.
I will add this. I have been collecting SS as a divorced spouse since I turned 66, getting 50% of what my ex's amount would be at his full retirement age. He's younger than I am and is still not collecting. I am turning 70 next month, and in September will start collecting on my own account, which is several hundred dollars more than what I'd been getting. If I'm lucky (a bit of irony here) my ex will not collect his own SS until he turns 70, then die shortly thereafter, whereupon I'll go back to collecting as his widow, which will be another several hundred dollars more. I know. I'm lucky that I fit this very specific demographic.
Here's another thought. Among the reasons it is so hard for people to live within their means, let alone save anything, is that we're surrounded by messages to buy, buy! BUY!! Especially if you watch commercial TV. It's hard to know which is worse, the ads that promise life will be perfect if only you buy this product, or the unrealism of TV shows in which the characters live in apartments their real counterparts could not possibly afford. It's completely human to compare ourselves to others, and when we see marginally employed people living in totally cool apartments, or a credit card ad that assures us we can definitely afford that impulse trip to a Greek island -- just charge it -- we compare ourselves and we come up short.
At this point in my life, nearly 70, I don't have much desire to own new things. So those purchases are easy to resist. But I recall my younger days, and I KNOW how strong is that desire to acquire things. We used to call it "keeping up with the Joneses." Is that phrase still in use?
Wow, can you say black widow?!
By the way, Poindexter, I love to hear y'all bitch about SS. You all talk about what a wonderful program it is and in the very next breath you bitch because you don't get enough of it. If it was your money, sitting in an account you manage, the things you gripe about wouldn't be an issue. I tried to opt out of SS about 25 years ago. I told them they could have every dime I ever put in if they would just let me out, but they told me 'no.'
Now we find out why Lucky is soooo good at keeping up with his money. He doesn't have any.
LuckyCharms (3,632 posts)
13. Thank you for sharing this!
I've always paid off my credit cards. A few years ago, I made a decision to do a complete remodel on my home. I did most of it myself, but the raw materials were expensive. I figured I better do it now, because my body was not getting any younger, and I was unwilling to see my primary asset get dilapidated. Those costs are now over, and the house is good for another 25 years. The remodel put me in a position that causes me to struggle financially now, but it will resolve itself in about 6 years, hopefully. I too grew up poor, and have never lived above my means. I have everything I want, and nothing I don't need.
Oh, and like all DUmmies, he's a liar.
KC
