Things that are blowing your budget

[countrygirl2]

We buy for grandson, but he needs nothing, his dad earns a good enough salary mom doesn't have to work.  She worries about having no education here.  But she needs to work on her English and reading skills.  Her friends do and have, she keeps blaming any class not good enough, after this many, she should face up to where the problem is.  She would have SS for grandson and what son has invested.  But unless she learns spending restraint it wouldn't last long and I doubt we could tell her anything.  I tried to explain about property taxes, insurance, etc, she isn't interested.


I worry, son got a call yesterday, he is being deployed for sure.  I know when but do not know where. 50 years old and not even in the military and getting deployed, damn. And with all this sh** trump is doing, he is going to put much of our military in harms way.  Never seen anything like this, wish he was out.

[nidena]

Ice cream and magazines.  When I'm bored.

I plan to have less free time from now on, especially once my classes start up again.

[nikiz628]

Jan 4, 2019 18:37:18 GMT -5 @aj said:

Maybe not applicable to this thread but Casey’s has the best gas station pizza ever, I mean it’s awesome.

Accurate. 

They get a lot of our money that isn't budgeted for them. 

[Deleted]

Jan 4, 2019 20:32:58 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

In my head, buying decor accents for my house. I don't know why I lost my mind on that this past year. That total was $4,100. 
According to YNAB, we spent $6,000 last year on car, trailer, and umbrella insurance last year. 
We spent $6,700 on restaurants last year. 

I cannot reduce the insurance payments, but I need to reduce the other two for this year. 

I was like "Damn" on that insurance bill, but then I looked and I spent $4300 on insurance too.  That's a little sickening.  I hate spending on insurance.  I did only spend $334 on eating out though.  

[oped]

I can't even with insurances. One teenager and one 20 year old driving. If i add personal and business insurances together it would be nauseating so i pretend i don't. 

[jeffreymo]

I’m still waiting on our year end statement but I think we spent at least $6k in the restaurant category. We’re trying to cut that in half.

[imanangel]

Jan 4, 2019 22:03:34 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

Jan 4, 2019 21:02:47 GMT -5 imanangel said:

OH MY GOSH, YES.  He is completely beautiful, and perfect. I may have also went a little crazy buying him stuff. But he is growing so fast, and his momma and daddy are very low income....and Gap was having a sale, and Amazon, and Target.....

[img class="smile" alt="" src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/embarrassed.png"] Ok, he is definitely a budget breaker. BUT, I would give up my weekend brunches to splurge on him.

What?! How old? Whose baby? Huge congratulations!

My oldest son, who is 22. He married his high school sweetheart that was stationed in Italy with us. They got married May of 2017. My little guy is 3 months old. I was so blessed to be able to see him born. I got the call at like 3:30 am. It was my son saying she was in labor and taking her to the hospital. I live 2.5 hours away, but I already had my Nonna bag packed so I just threw on some clothes, grabbed my Nonna bag and headed out. Her mom lives in Georgia and called me while I was in the car. We both cried as I drove up. 
I got there and they had her walking around. Finally, they put her in a room. My son wasn't doing well dealing with her labor. When her water broke, he started crying and telling her he was SO sorry for doing this to her. I was in the waiting room because she really wanted it to be just them. Then, my son started texting me to please come back, that he couldn't do this. I told him to man up and do it. I wasn't coming back unless SHE wanted me back there. Then he came out into the waiting room to get me and said "She says to come back, that I am worthless." So, I went back. Her labor was 17 hours, and 2 of those hours was pushing. She is a very, very tiny little thing and it was hard for her to push him out. I held her leg and rubbed her back while my son sat in a chair with his head between his legs trying not to pass out. Seeing my grandson born was the most magical thing I have ever seen. 

Ok, I know you didn't ask for a book. I am just so proud of my little man and love him so much. 

[cktc]

Jan 4, 2019 20:45:00 GMT -5 muttleynfelix said:

Jan 4, 2019 19:17:18 GMT -5 @bamafan1954 said:

I watch people spend $10+ at the convenience store all the time.

Talk to your husband.  You can't do anything about the cigarettes until he decides to quit smoking so take that off the table.  But the junk food?  Can he take it to work with him?  Is there a communal refrigerator to stash a 25 cent coke?  Make sure that he knows that is the cost when you buy a 12-pack for $3.  Make sure that he knows a candy bar is 6 for $3.50 or whatever.  Once he realizes the markup, maybe he can come up with strategies to cut it back.  

It isn't that he can't have whatever junk food he wants.  Make sure you frame it that way.  It's just the convenience store markup is horrendous.

The really funny thing is that he is a stay at home parent (even though both kids are now in school, see the kids thread for more on that). So he has access to everything in the house and there is a grocery store across the street from the gas station (technically it is a Hy-Vee Drugstore, but they have the same supermarket prices as the full stores in town, just a smaller store - I'm being very Iowa with my talk of Casey's and Hy-vee.)

Yeah, I just need to talk to him about how much he is actually spending and he probably needs to go back to an all cash diet. I'll see if he will leave the CC at home for a while. For years we did all cash for everything but gas and Lowes. Maybe we need to go back to that?

If he's anything like my DH the high markup compensates for his lack of self control. I've offered to make Costco runs for energy drinks or soda or whatever, bought him a soda stream, but he will just burn through it. So spending the same, consuming more junk. 

[laterbloomer]

So here's how my budget gets busted...We are sending flowers to GW2's mom's funeral, I go for the $100 arrangement instead of the $50 even though they are just going to get tossed in 2 days. (There won't be many arrangements from GW2's "side" so it means a lot to her) AND I want to get that Ancestry kit for $139. Now I have a miscellaneous line on my budget that allows for $500 worth of this kind of thing a month but it's only the 5th of the month and that's half the allowance. Who knows what other stuff like that will come up this month. I need to be a good girl and wait on the Ancestry kit.

[countrygirl2]

That is where I bust the budget, impulse buys and just stuff.  I don't need it, part of it is boredom I think.  I get to looking in amazon, ebay and things like that.  I say oh its only $20, $50, $200, etc.  Just to easy to buy stuff.  We have become a country of consumers.  I'm just as guilty.  I will tighten up spending for awhile but like now, I'm thinking if a dresser comes in I want to get it, likely $600 to $800 so there I go again.  I don't care what income level you are you can overspend if not careful. Probably someone on the multi million dollar level says oh that $2M ring I just have to have and on and on.  

[busymom]

Medical stuff.  Insurance through DH's company is expensive, and it's amazing what it DOESN'T cover.  For example, I had a crown (dental) last year.  Then, a second tooth decided it needed a crown, too.  That crown, it turns out wasn't enough, & I need a root canal.  The dental insurance was "maxxed out", so in order to save money, I'm not getting the root canal done until this month (new fiscal year).  But, it turns out I'm going to need a 3rd crown, so I'm doing the root canal first, then I'll find out how much is available to get that 3rd crown done.  (That tooth doesn't bother me at all, so if the insurance won't cover it, and the dentist lets me wait, I might put it off until 2020.)  I will still have SOME out-of-pocket expense, but it won't be as bad as paying the entire bill.  Unexpected medical bills s@ck!

[TheHaitian]

My daughter and eating out!

[giramomma]

Jan 5, 2019 16:01:12 GMT -5 busymom said:

Medical stuff.  Insurance through DH's company is expensive, and it's amazing what it DOESN'T cover.  For example, I had a crown (dental) last year.  Then, a second tooth decided it needed a crown, too.  That crown, it turns out wasn't enough, & I need a root canal.  The dental insurance was "maxxed out", so in order to save money, I'm not getting the root canal done until this month (new fiscal year).  But, it turns out I'm going to need a 3rd crown, so I'm doing the root canal first, then I'll find out how much is available to get that 3rd crown done.  (That tooth doesn't bother me at all, so if the insurance won't cover it, and the dentist lets me wait, I might put it off until 2020.)  I will still have SOME out-of-pocket expense, but it won't be as bad as paying the entire bill.  Unexpected medical bills s@ck!

I learned the hard way that we need to buy supplemental dental...paid full price for a root canal and two crowns.

I have supplemental on the whole family....as basic dental no longer covers wisdom teeth extraction.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2019 17:52:37 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Jan 5, 2019 16:01:12 GMT -5 busymom said:

Medical stuff.  Insurance through DH's company is expensive, and it's amazing what it DOESN'T cover.  For example, I had a crown (dental) last year.  Then, a second tooth decided it needed a crown, too.  That crown, it turns out wasn't enough, & I need a root canal.  The dental insurance was "maxxed out", so in order to save money, I'm not getting the root canal done until this month (new fiscal year).  But, it turns out I'm going to need a 3rd crown, so I'm doing the root canal first, then I'll find out how much is available to get that 3rd crown done.  (That tooth doesn't bother me at all, so if the insurance won't cover it, and the dentist lets me wait, I might put it off until 2020.)  I will still have SOME out-of-pocket expense, but it won't be as bad as paying the entire bill.  Unexpected medical bills s@ck!

I learned the hard way that we need to buy supplemental dental...paid full price for a root canal and two crowns.

I have supplemental on the whole family....as basic dental no longer covers wisdom teeth extraction.

Doesn't medical still?  That's what paid for mine.  I just had to opt to have them done in the hospital not the dentist's office, which I wanted anyhow.  Give me ALL THE DRUGS.

[giramomma]

Jan 5, 2019 17:57:22 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 5, 2019 17:52:37 GMT -5 giramomma said:

I learned the hard way that we need to buy supplemental dental...paid full price for a root canal and two crowns.

I have supplemental on the whole family....as basic dental no longer covers wisdom teeth extraction.

Doesn't medical still?  That's what paid for mine.  I just had to opt to have them done in the hospital not the dentist's office, which I wanted anyhow.  Give me ALL THE DRUGS.

Nope. Medical doesn't cover teeth extraction. Found that out when my tooth broke off and had to have what was left extracted. I was awake for that ...but, it wasn't awful at all, and I was even pregnant.

DS had a wisdom tooth extracted before he moved on to phase two of braces...This was about 3ish years ago. That extraction was covered.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2019 18:18:50 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Jan 5, 2019 17:57:22 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Doesn't medical still?  That's what paid for mine.  I just had to opt to have them done in the hospital not the dentist's office, which I wanted anyhow.  Give me ALL THE DRUGS.

Nope. Medical doesn't cover teeth extraction. Found that out when my tooth broke off and had to have what was left extracted. I was awake for that ...but, it wasn't awful at all, and I was even pregnant.

DS had a wisdom tooth extracted before he moved on to phase two of braces...This was about 3ish years ago. That extraction was covered.

Mine were deeply impacted and it was covered under oral surgery.  Our plan book is very difficult to understand, but it sounds like it still covers that.   I also have all my eye exams covered under medical, because there is a "spot" that shows up on the retinal screen that could be a sign of glaucoma.  

[cktc]

My big budget buster is food, both eating out and grocery shopping. I will agonize over finding a coupon code or waiting for something to go on sale for almost everything else, but then I'll just go spend $45 at a restaurant and not even flinch. DH shares the food one and also has a hobby x-wing game that probably eats up a hundred or two a month. I quit keeping track because it irritates me. We could likely save $10k a year if we got those two things under control.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

UGH!  For us this year it is going to be dental work.  TD had a tooth break off under a crown and the adjacent teeth are also crowned.  2 of them are non viable, so he is going to need a bridge, which is going to kill the better part of this year’s dental max.  Then a week before we left on vacation, another tooth broke off and he will need another one.

In the meantime, I’ve got a cracked tooth that I needed a root canal on (which killed m6 dental max last year).  That cracked tooth should be crowned, before the crack breaks the tooth, so will be scheduling this next week.  I should be good then.

I guess our vacation ran a bit over budget, but as our earlier trip was way under budget I think we are good.  Next vacation is about half paid for.....this one should be under budget, but TD wants to go on another cruise after that next fall and this one is going to be a whopper.

I haven’t been brave enough to determine exactly what I’ve spent on Kindle books, but know it has been about $30/mo.

[Happy prose]

Mine is so stupid- nicotine lozenges. I quit smoking 14 years ago, but I never got off the lozenges. Such a waste of money.

[countrygirl2]

I have a front top tooth that could go this year.  It's been bothering me off and on for a year.  Dentist said for me to see a specialist, he thinks its the nerve.  It's been repaired so many times don't know what they will do.  So far I use Sensydyne for awhile and it stops.  I know an implant is about $3k without complications.  I don't know what they do on uppers, the specialist I went to in Bloomington said that upper teeth are problematic as they are close to the sinuses.  Last time my bones were still very strong, guess I will find out when something needs done.

We have no dental insurance.  What hubs had wasn't the greatest and none will pay for implants as they are considered cosmetic.  Regular insurance has paid for extractions though.  We had ours all fixed before hubs retired. I had 3 implants done was close to $10k for them.  Had a bridge taken out that had been fixed so many times couldn't be done again.  These are soooo much better then the awful bridge. Time for dental cleanings again, they run about $250 for each of us.


If I can save enough would like for DD and I to go somewhere this year or next, will see how it goes. Need to quit wasting money so we can.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2019 23:23:41 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

I have a front top tooth that could go this year.  It's been bothering me off and on for a year.  Dentist said for me to see a specialist, he thinks its the nerve.  It's been repaired so many times don't know what they will do.  So far I use Sensydyne for awhile and it stops.  I know an implant is about $3k without complications.  I don't know what they do on uppers, the specialist I went to in Bloomington said that upper teeth are problematic as they are close to the sinuses.  Last time my bones were still very strong, guess I will find out when something needs done.

We have no dental insurance.  <snip>    

I don't, either and I think I'm coming out ahead.  In a typical year I need very little work except for 4 checkups/cleaning  (due to my implants) and maybe a filling, and the insurance covers only 2 checkups/cleanings and every plan typically has a max so stingy that you end up paying for most of the major work anyway.

On the issue of implants in the upper jaw:  they should be able to do a scan and see where your sinuses start.  I know it can be a problem if they pierce the sinus cavity during the implant surgery.  I just had an upper one done and after viewing the scan he said my sinuses were "sky-high" meaning, I guess, that he had plenty of room to work. No complications at all. 

[imanangel]

Jan 4, 2019 23:26:55 GMT -5 oped said:

I can't even with insurances. One teenager and one 20 year old driving. If i add personal and business insurances together it would be nauseating so i pretend i don't. 

Insurance kills us. We have 2 teenagers on our policy, and UGH. We started making my 18 year old son pay for his own insurance. It is still on our policy because him getting his own policy will make it skyrocket even more. 

[countrygirl2]

Yes if we could keep our insurance and property tax premiums, we could buy a house here every couple of years.  Absolutely obscene.

[Deleted]

I'm still a bit in "insurance shock" from adding two vehicles and a teen driver.   I ran the report for 2018 and the totals were:

Auto insurance - $2179
Homeowners - $1521
Umbrella - $92
Life (2 people) - $556

Umbrella I was warned would increase with the teen driver, but it must be taking them a long time to add up the increase because I normally get billed within a day or two of Christmas.  I think I really need to get rid of one vans and I could probably get rid of life insurance on myself at this point too.  

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jan 6, 2019 10:24:53 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jan 5, 2019 23:23:41 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

I have a front top tooth that could go this year.  It's been bothering me off and on for a year.  Dentist said for me to see a specialist, he thinks its the nerve.  It's been repaired so many times don't know what they will do.  So far I use Sensydyne for awhile and it stops.  I know an implant is about $3k without complications.  I don't know what they do on uppers, the specialist I went to in Bloomington said that upper teeth are problematic as they are close to the sinuses.  Last time my bones were still very strong, guess I will find out when something needs done.

We have no dental insurance.  <snip>    

I don't, either and I think I'm coming out ahead.  In a typical year I need very little work except for 4 checkups/cleaning  (due to my implants) and maybe a filling, and the insurance covers only 2 checkups/cleanings and every plan typically has a max so stingy that you end up paying for most of the major work anyway.

On the issue of implants in the upper jaw:  they should be able to do a scan and see where your sinuses start.  I know it can be a problem if they pierce the sinus cavity during the implant surgery.  I just had an upper one done and after viewing the scan he said my sinuses were "sky-high" meaning, I guess, that he had plenty of room to work. No complications at all. 

For 35 years, I worked in a dental school and had access to both excellent insurance and treatment.  During that time, I had crowns on my front 2 teeth replaced, and got my teeth cleaned.  That’s it.

When I got sick, my dental insurance was covered for 2 years until Medicare.  The year after it lapsed, the 30 year old front crowns needed replacing as they were cracked, and one tooth needed a root canal.  Then the following year, I needed another root canal and that tooth is also cracked and needs a crown.  The rereplacement crowns and first root canal were done without dental insurance, I have  dental insurance now, so the last root canal and crown should be covered.

[oped]

Jan 5, 2019 10:43:12 GMT -5 cktc said:

Jan 4, 2019 20:45:00 GMT -5 muttleynfelix said:

The really funny thing is that he is a stay at home parent (even though both kids are now in school, see the kids thread for more on that). So he has access to everything in the house and there is a grocery store across the street from the gas station (technically it is a Hy-Vee Drugstore, but they have the same supermarket prices as the full stores in town, just a smaller store - I'm being very Iowa with my talk of Casey's and Hy-vee.)

Yeah, I just need to talk to him about how much he is actually spending and he probably needs to go back to an all cash diet. I'll see if he will leave the CC at home for a while. For years we did all cash for everything but gas and Lowes. Maybe we need to go back to that?

If he's anything like my DH the high markup compensates for his lack of self control. I've offered to make Costco runs for energy drinks or soda or whatever, bought him a soda stream, but he will just burn through it. So spending the same, consuming more junk. 

This is something to consider. If i buy the other three in my family a bottle of coke at the checkout they each drink a coke. If i buy a 6 pack for the same price, they just each drink 2 cokes.

[oped]

Jan 6, 2019 10:26:04 GMT -5 imanangel said:

Jan 4, 2019 23:26:55 GMT -5 oped said:

I can't even with insurances. One teenager and one 20 year old driving. If i add personal and business insurances together it would be nauseating so i pretend i don't. 

Insurance kills us. We have 2 teenagers on our policy, and UGH. We started making my 18 year old son pay for his own insurance. It is still on our policy because him getting his own policy will make it skyrocket even more. 

Yes, that is when it got totally insane for son. There were some trade offs. Our umbrella went down. His sister is slightly less than if they were both on the same policy with number of cars, etc. But his portion practically doubled. It was made worse because i insisted on a newer car though and so i pay 1/2-2/3 of it while he's in school. 

And i LOVED the baby story. I'll listen any time. 

[Rukh O'Rorke]

lunch during work.

Been paying 10-20 a day most days as life/work/everything is so hectic. It's tough to find vegan gluten free so there aren't a lot of options - and none too cheap. At least they are tasty!!! And I am usually quite famished as I ran out the house with no breakfast so by the time I escape the office for lunch I am so hungry/hangry that making economic choices are not the priority. And I get more food than I would if I had had breakfast. Cuz super hungry!!!

Although I don't have a budget to bust at the moment, I've gotten myself into a financial bottleneck with contracting a painter, enthusiastic christmas spending, and unexpected car repairs.  Also - making extra student loan payments a few times without thinking through what the money sitting in my account was for. Emotional debt repayment.

While I've been waiting to see new take home numbers in mid january, I know I'm going to be pinched/in trouble for the first few months of the year - unless I give up on the idea of maxing the 401k evenly across the year. Even if I went back down to 0% - it isn't going to really make a huge difference in terms of #months to dig out of this, so I am just going to stay on course for the 401k and work around the bottleneck. Although will reassess when I do up the budget properly.

[countrygirl2]

I spent to much too, I have the RMD to put toward expenses but going to try to do it without using it.  Want to save back $10k or so for flooring and maybe a trip, will see how the year goes.  Like I said think we will get a fed tax refund, but that too is not definite, at least I don't think I will owe.

[CCL]

Jan 6, 2019 11:20:03 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

Yes if we could keep our insurance and property tax premiums, we could buy a house here every couple of years.  Absolutely obscene.

But isn't most of that for your rental properties? Why don't you just use the rental income to pay those and then not worry about it?