ugh, money woes.

[blitzen_]

i know there are lots of you on my flist who are seriously fucking GOOD with money - good at saving, good at spending (well, i'm GREAT at that), good at finding deals. i am not one of those people.

i know gemmabowles was having a gripe a while back about ppl who live paycheck to paycheck. unfortunately, i'm pretty much one of THOSE people. as my friend

Comments

[sprinklerized]

I bookmarked this post to come back to it and comment, so here I am, a bit late to the party! I just want to say HOLY CRAP YES, ESSENTIALS ARE EXPENSIVE HERE. I'm used to spending $20 a WEEK on groceries and stuff, but here it's like $20 every 2-3 days. At first I was buying treats, but now I don't because it's just too bloody expensive. Just to get meat, bread, and fruit/veg is a big drain. Having said that, the prices you listed don't seem that off from what I am used to back home, but then maybe I'm just getting used to seeing them in Australia. I've started a cost comparison post in Notepad that I should put up eventually.

Anyway, as for saving money, I'm not much help because as I think I told you, I don't budget... I just don't buy things I don't need (and only once in a blue moon treat myself to something)... but it sounds like that's what you've done this month too, and you're still almost coming up short. I like the other commenters suggestions of putting away a bit with every paycheck, but I saw that you do that too, but end up spending it. Do you spend it on essentials or fun things? If it's the latter, maybe you need an unbreakable piggy bank so you can't spend it... or you could make saving fun with the Gobble Piggybank. lol!

It might be worthwhile to go to someone who specializes in helping people save money, so you can analyze your expenses and see if you can cut back anywhere. The only big thing I can think of is that your truck must be a petrol-monster!