Drastic measures when expenses > income
Somehow in the past few months, I've started racking up more expenses than I have income for.
1. I switched out my 1998 Saturn for a 2014 Prius V. The down payment came out of savings, so no big hit there, but now I have a monthly car payment that I didn't have before. Insurance and taxes are also higher for the new car, and the biannual hit for that is hitting right now.
In the long run, I'm hoping reduced gas will balance this out, but it's not so fun in the short term.
2. I'm suddenly paying the family phone bill every month. That's phones for three people. This is fair and just because I hadn't been paying it for the previous three years, so it's definitely my turn.
3. Because the apartment complex where I live now has decided to crank up my rent by a lot more than I want to pay, I'm moving to a new place next month. This has cost an app fee and a deposit so far, and in another month will cost moving expenses.
In the long run, the reduced rent will hopefully balance this out, even with the increased gas because it's farther from work.
4. I started some retirement accounts earlier this year. It's taken down my takehome pay by a bit, which by itself wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the previous three things.
5. Apparently I'm going to visit my sister in California over Christmas break. This is going to cost airfare and presents. I'm kind of hoping to be able to cover it with my Amazon rewards money, which I've been accumulating for years without spending all that much.
I also just had to buy a dorm fridge for my office, since someone at work likes to mooch my food from the communal fridge and I'm tired of feeding them. I'd bought a microwave a few months before that.
So what's all that mean?
Well, I've decided that I'm effectively grounded from restaurants until January. I eat out way too much and need to stop that. The only time I'll be eating out is if the local roleplay group wants to do a board game night, which usually includes dinner somewhere nice, or possibly token food at Nanowrimo meets.
I also need to cut the grocery bill as much as possible. No more junk food of any kind for a while. No more supermarket sushi either. I need to get in the habit of making huge batches of things that I can eat all week long.
I'm going to stop doing studio yoga for a few months. I usually buy 10-class passes. I've definitely used up 10 classes at one place, and 99% certain to have used up 10 classes at the other, so now I'm going to get into the habit of doing yoga at home every day instead.
That's pretty much it for what I can really cut, alas. The next in line would be my monthly massage subscription. But if I did that, I'd have to pay a higher rate for signing up again since the current rate is grandfathered in from before a price increase. And also I consider these massages to be part of health expenses.
Reading over all this, I suspect I lead a fairly luxurious life, all things considered, especially since I've been doing what I'm doing without paying much attention to budgeting for years now. I don't make much, but I'm generally not ridiculous about what I spend on, so I can afford everything. Usually. Hopefully will again next year.
1. I switched out my 1998 Saturn for a 2014 Prius V. The down payment came out of savings, so no big hit there, but now I have a monthly car payment that I didn't have before. Insurance and taxes are also higher for the new car, and the biannual hit for that is hitting right now.
In the long run, I'm hoping reduced gas will balance this out, but it's not so fun in the short term.
2. I'm suddenly paying the family phone bill every month. That's phones for three people. This is fair and just because I hadn't been paying it for the previous three years, so it's definitely my turn.
3. Because the apartment complex where I live now has decided to crank up my rent by a lot more than I want to pay, I'm moving to a new place next month. This has cost an app fee and a deposit so far, and in another month will cost moving expenses.
In the long run, the reduced rent will hopefully balance this out, even with the increased gas because it's farther from work.
4. I started some retirement accounts earlier this year. It's taken down my takehome pay by a bit, which by itself wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the previous three things.
5. Apparently I'm going to visit my sister in California over Christmas break. This is going to cost airfare and presents. I'm kind of hoping to be able to cover it with my Amazon rewards money, which I've been accumulating for years without spending all that much.
I also just had to buy a dorm fridge for my office, since someone at work likes to mooch my food from the communal fridge and I'm tired of feeding them. I'd bought a microwave a few months before that.
So what's all that mean?
Well, I've decided that I'm effectively grounded from restaurants until January. I eat out way too much and need to stop that. The only time I'll be eating out is if the local roleplay group wants to do a board game night, which usually includes dinner somewhere nice, or possibly token food at Nanowrimo meets.
I also need to cut the grocery bill as much as possible. No more junk food of any kind for a while. No more supermarket sushi either. I need to get in the habit of making huge batches of things that I can eat all week long.
I'm going to stop doing studio yoga for a few months. I usually buy 10-class passes. I've definitely used up 10 classes at one place, and 99% certain to have used up 10 classes at the other, so now I'm going to get into the habit of doing yoga at home every day instead.
That's pretty much it for what I can really cut, alas. The next in line would be my monthly massage subscription. But if I did that, I'd have to pay a higher rate for signing up again since the current rate is grandfathered in from before a price increase. And also I consider these massages to be part of health expenses.
Reading over all this, I suspect I lead a fairly luxurious life, all things considered, especially since I've been doing what I'm doing without paying much attention to budgeting for years now. I don't make much, but I'm generally not ridiculous about what I spend on, so I can afford everything. Usually. Hopefully will again next year.