hurley1980
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I am all that is wrong with the world....don't get too close, I'm contagious.
Joined: Dec 23, 2010 17:35:06 GMT -5
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Post by hurley1980 on May 19, 2021 18:46:32 GMT -5
I'm a single no kids person (2 dogs), living in a pretty HCOLA, but I have a very low mortgage. Not including medical insurance and 401k, which is taken out of my paychecks, I spend less than $2k most months. My biggest expense is beer and take out these days! Thanks quarantine!
Some of these people have some pretty outrageous things they are spending large amounts of money on every month. I can't imagine giving $1200 a month to a church. I have been pretty generous with my donations since the pandemic, but I'd rather give to food banks, meals on wheels, and other organizations that are really helping people right now. I'm sure churches are helping too, but I have a bad taste in my mouth about tithing to churches since I've seen some of those mega churches with pastors that drive Lambos and whatnot! Also, I haven't been to church since I was a child...it scared me!
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nidena
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Post by nidena on May 19, 2021 19:12:44 GMT -5
I don't get spending $2400/mo of groceries AND restaurants when you're carrying a balance on numerous credit cards. And they all seem to be store cards except the Capital One. (Didn't know Fingerhut still existed...used to love browsing through my mom's catalog)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2021 20:31:50 GMT -5
I'm a single no kids person (2 dogs), living in a pretty HCOLA, but I have a very low mortgage. Not including medical insurance and 401k, which is taken out of my paychecks, I spend less than $2k most months. My biggest expense is beer and take out these days! Thanks quarantine! Some of these people have some pretty outrageous things they are spending large amounts of money on every month. I can't imagine giving $1200 a month to a church. I have been pretty generous with my donations since the pandemic, but I'd rather give to food banks, meals on wheels, and other organizations that are really helping people right now. I'm sure churches are helping too, but I have a bad taste in my mouth about tithing to churches since I've seen some of those mega churches with pastors that drive Lambos and whatnot! Also, I haven't been to church since I was a child...it scared me! I don’t tithe, but it’s always rumbling around in the back of my head that I should, because I was raised in the church. I don’t even really have a good excuse not to, because I’m confident that whatever I give my church “home” will be used either directly for the ministry or for the surrounding community. Now I have to reassess.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on May 19, 2021 20:45:49 GMT -5
I'm a single no kids person (2 dogs), living in a pretty HCOLA, but I have a very low mortgage. Not including medical insurance and 401k, which is taken out of my paychecks, I spend less than $2k most months. My biggest expense is beer and take out these days! Thanks quarantine! Some of these people have some pretty outrageous things they are spending large amounts of money on every month. I can't imagine giving $1200 a month to a church. I have been pretty generous with my donations since the pandemic, but I'd rather give to food banks, meals on wheels, and other organizations that are really helping people right now. I'm sure churches are helping too, but I have a bad taste in my mouth about tithing to churches since I've seen some of those mega churches with pastors that drive Lambos and whatnot! Also, I haven't been to church since I was a child...it scared me! I'm right there with the tithing thing. I'm looking to donate to non-profits like The Innocence Project or The Bail Project or RIP Medical Debt.
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 19, 2021 21:38:46 GMT -5
None of those families' finances look like ours. Though if you picked the right random month our expenses would look ugly - October: $1900 school taxes + $3k heating oil prebuy + other usual expenses, and maybe a car repair? But we average $2k/month in expenses over the year, so Had to laugh about the chicken feed - a 50 lb bag of chicken feed is $10, lasts a while. What is she feeding those chickens in addition to the iceberg lettuce she mentioned?
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justme
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Post by justme on May 19, 2021 22:51:04 GMT -5
These articles always drive me nuts. You're struggling but spend $2400/month on food and $380/month on cell phones?
I can't find any that really compare to me at all...maybe the Chavez family...but it's confusing. Some have 401K and investments and others don't. It seems like some are going off gross and others net?
Yeah the $1250 to the church "but we're struggling" on the part of the Tran family blew me away. I'd have quite a fat savings account if I had that much money just to give to the church on a monthly basis. If you're struggling maybe donate less? What kind of God lets you burn for all eternity because you don't give 10% of your income to a church? The god where the priests drive Mercedes?
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justme
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Post by justme on May 19, 2021 22:54:03 GMT -5
I don’t get these $300+ cell phone bills. There are cheaper ways to have a cell phone. Our Ting bill is $40/mo for 2 phones, we also have Ooma as a landline to call outside the US. That costs $100/year. Our expenses are nothing like any of these, not even close. Hell, our pet bill for 2019 kenneling (where we were on 4 x 3-5 week trips) didn’t come close to the nearly $10k/year they paid for their dogs! It has to include payments for the newest phones. We have 5 phones and an Apple watch plus two phones being financed and our monthly bill is under $300. Granted we get a discount because of where my brother works, but it's not crazy. Take out the phone payments and my monthly portion is under $30 for unlimited everything.
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justme
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Post by justme on May 19, 2021 22:59:35 GMT -5
I moved my DH over to my account from his parents recently. I had to switch my plan to do it and lost my discount. Until the end of the year, it's going to be $200+. There's a $42/month payment for DH's phone and it will be paid off at year end. I know Verizon is not cheap at all but the service is rock solid in all the places I need it. Sprint has just never been all that reliable in WV. I'm there at least monthly and I would like to have service in the rural stretches since I'm traveling alone 9/10 times. I could get an extra $20 off with auto bill but I'm not a fan of that. Are his parents Verizon? It's so much cheaper to pool! We've got 5 phones, an apple watch, and two phone payments for a bit under $300. Though we do get a slight discount. The phone only portion is around $25/phone. If I get in a relationship I'm pretty positive he'll be added to the group unless he works for Verizon - and then we'll all probably be added to his!
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on May 20, 2021 6:49:10 GMT -5
His parents want people off the plan not having a group. They'd have to change their plan and I'm not sure it would be cheaper for them. Plus they still have a house phone on the bill.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on May 20, 2021 7:23:42 GMT -5
I didn't read the article because I figure it won't apply to me. Thanks to YM I have our budget down, and we're saving a significant amount.
FWIW, I tithe. Lutherans don't get too hung up on the 10%, but I do believe that I'm just a steward of God's blessings.
As my salary has increased significantly, I haven't been great about increasing my monthly church offering, but I'm getting there. We currently give $300/month and paid our last $6000 pledge for the new school building this year. We will likely donate a couple more grand towards the loan next year from my bonus.
We sponsor two children our kids ages through compassion international which is roughly $1000/yr. I'm feeling led to give a bit more to their two families this year bc Mexico has been hit hard by covid as well. Letters have stopped going back and forth, so I'm worried about them as I know the schools and compassion centers are closed. Compassion has been emailing me country updates with links to donate to my specific families. $100/each could go a long way.
We also give another $1000/yr or so in anonymous gifts for specific people where we see it can do some good to people out of work, struggling to get by, those with medical bills, etc.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 8:56:13 GMT -5
Yeah the $1250 to the church "but we're struggling" on the part of the Tran family blew me away. I'd have quite a fat savings account if I had that much money just to give to the church on a monthly basis. If you're struggling maybe donate less? What kind of God lets you burn for all eternity because you don't give 10% of your income to a church? The god where the priests drive Mercedes? My priest drives a VW Beetle. I know MANY priests in my denomination (Episcopalian). Most are bi-vocational (in other words, they're PT priests but typically do more pastoral work than they bargained for) and have another job to bring in more $$ or are retired from something. I met one pastor who held down 3 pastoral jobs and said she "lives in her car"- not literally, I'm sure, but driving from place to place all day taking care of her responsibilities and probably living on "meals" from the fast food drive-through lines. She was obese but who has time to cook healthy meals and go to the gym when you have 3 jobs? Azucena, I like the way you think. Having over-saved because I never wanted to end up old and poor, I can withdraw an amount of $$ from my savings that's so low that the bottom line has been increasing at over 4% per year AFTER withdrawals since my retirement. How can I post pictures on FB from the Business Class section of the plane to Hawaii and then not help where there's a need? It's a joy for me to be able to read about a need or a charity that helps in an area important to me and be able to make a contribution.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on May 20, 2021 9:46:47 GMT -5
This story wasn't really representative of anyone but these particular families. I don't know why they were chosen, as it wasn't even very interesting. Maybe if they put all the data on a grid so they could be easily compared, it would be more interesting.
As far as expenses go, our house payment is just under $900, and we are in the last years of our mortgage. We have tracfones that use Verizon towers, that are very cheap. I'm not sure exactly what our internet is currently. I think is was about $30/month, but intro period is expired, so maybe $50 now. I'm not sure what food is costing us these days. I know it's not cheap, and I know we could do better, but we're doing fine. We are on track to save about $35k in retirement on income total of around $115k this year. Maybe actually little less. It's a little hard to say exactly offhand, as some of it is simply taking from one savings vehicle and shifting it over into another, and that shouldn't count. Anyway, we're still saving a lot.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on May 20, 2021 9:52:31 GMT -5
We line up with some of the lower income folks. Our AGI was 81K last year. I'm not sure what our gross was. What stands out for us is that we spend less on housing, electronics, and food, and generally, we have more mouths to feed (except the family of 6).
Our mortgage is 900/month, equally split between the mortgage and the taxes. We pay for 5 cellphone lines, and it's under $100 month.
We spend about $800 or so on groceries a month.
Also state job with state benefits. My health insurance runs us 260 a month, including an extra dental rider that covers root canals, implants, wisdom teeth removal and gives us 3K towards braces for each kid. Also a pension. In hindsight, one of the best financial decisions I've ever made. Especially since I landed in a flexible work place, as that helps minimize our childcare bills.
However we get special snowflake money for our IRAs and we pay for private school for the kids.
I'm also not feeling particularly empathetic about those who have to work multiple jobs or don't get to vacation a ton. You do what you need to do, and sometimes, it's the shits. But. welcome to life. Yearly Disney vacations are not mandatory for the middle class. I think we've forgotten that.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on May 20, 2021 10:39:59 GMT -5
This story wasn't really representative of anyone but these particular families. I don't know why they were chosen, as it wasn't even very interesting. Maybe if they put all the data on a grid so they could be easily compared, it would be more interesting. It's not even representative of typical spending for those families. A snapshot month is useless. If you just looked at my April report from YNAB it has $3975 for Housing, but I paid my annual property taxes and an extra $900 on the mortgage. Kids expenses were really high in April too. Made the camp downpayments and paid for 3 months of piano lessons as well as a couple other things. It doesn't mean I spend $450/month on them every month.
eta: I decided to do just my April to see how weird it looked compared to my budget. Paycheck Deductions (3 paycheck month so everything is 33% higher than normal)
$2700 - 401K
$714 - HSA
$174 - Med/Dental/Vision Net
$2600 - Property taxes
$1300 - Mortgage ($912 additional principle) $462 - Kids activities (piano lessons, camp deposit, swim suit, trombone lesson book)
$387 - Food $300 - Memberships (Sam's Club and Prime due the same month, plus $95 to Chase for the Sapphire card for the sign on bonus) $221 -gas $220 - Medical (could be reimbursed from HSA) $158 - Electricity $100 - 529
$73 - Animals
$66 - Internet
$65 - Cell phones (3) Definitely not what I normally spend in a few of those categories, and a bunch of budget categories are not represented in this snapshot. Not a very good representation of whether it's a working budget or not.
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Lizard Queen
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103/2024
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Post by Lizard Queen on May 20, 2021 10:55:25 GMT -5
This story wasn't really representative of anyone but these particular families. I don't know why they were chosen, as it wasn't even very interesting. Maybe if they put all the data on a grid so they could be easily compared, it would be more interesting. It's not even representative of typical spending for those families. A snapshot month is useless. If you just looked at my April report from YNAB it has $3975 for Housing, but I paid my annual property taxes and an extra $900 on the mortgage. Kids expenses were really high in April too. Made the camp downpayments and paid for 3 months of piano lessons as well as a couple other things. It doesn't mean I spend $450/month on them every month.
True, and I should have added that i don't think I am a good representative sample myself. Since my income jumped so suddenly, its easier to set the extra aside. Speaking of grabbing a particular month, I don't think they're paying for tax prep and home appraisals all the time: RENT $1,240 UTILITIES $227 INVESTMENTS/SAVINGS $3067 CELLPHONE $233 AMAZON KIDS $5 LIFE INSURANCE $37 CAR INSURANCE $88 CAR REPAIRS/GAS $214 GROCERIES $1,124 RESTAURANTS $425 CLOTHING $220 GIFTS $539 CHURCH OFFERING $300 VACATION $810 HOME-APPRAISAL FEE $450 TAX PREP $380 ALLOWANCE/BABYSITTING $296 TIPS $110 That food spend, tho...
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hurley1980
Well-Known Member
I am all that is wrong with the world....don't get too close, I'm contagious.
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Post by hurley1980 on May 20, 2021 11:15:48 GMT -5
I didn't read the article because I figure it won't apply to me. Thanks to YM I have our budget down, and we're saving a significant amount. FWIW, I tithe. Lutherans don't get too hung up on the 10%, but I do believe that I'm just a steward of God's blessings. As my salary has increased significantly, I haven't been great about increasing my monthly church offering, but I'm getting there. We currently give $300/month and paid our last $6000 pledge for the new school building this year. We will likely donate a couple more grand towards the loan next year from my bonus. We sponsor two children our kids ages through compassion international which is roughly $1000/yr. I'm feeling led to give a bit more to their two families this year bc Mexico has been hit hard by covid as well. Letters have stopped going back and forth, so I'm worried about them as I know the schools and compassion centers are closed. Compassion has been emailing me country updates with links to donate to my specific families. $100/each could go a long way. We also give another $1000/yr or so in anonymous gifts for specific people where we see it can do some good to people out of work, struggling to get by, those with medical bills, etc. I just started sponsoring a 7 year old girl in Mexico through compassion international. Its amazing how far our money goes down there in some of the poorest parts of the country. I send more each month than her family makes! I also donate extra here and there for the general donation fund. There are so many children in the world that need food! It makes me so sad, but also makes me glad I am in a place to help.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on May 20, 2021 12:22:35 GMT -5
I didn't read the article because I figure it won't apply to me. Thanks to YM I have our budget down, and we're saving a significant amount. FWIW, I tithe. Lutherans don't get too hung up on the 10%, but I do believe that I'm just a steward of God's blessings. As my salary has increased significantly, I haven't been great about increasing my monthly church offering, but I'm getting there. We currently give $300/month and paid our last $6000 pledge for the new school building this year. We will likely donate a couple more grand towards the loan next year from my bonus. We sponsor two children our kids ages through compassion international which is roughly $1000/yr. I'm feeling led to give a bit more to their two families this year bc Mexico has been hit hard by covid as well. Letters have stopped going back and forth, so I'm worried about them as I know the schools and compassion centers are closed. Compassion has been emailing me country updates with links to donate to my specific families. $100/each could go a long way. We also give another $1000/yr or so in anonymous gifts for specific people where we see it can do some good to people out of work, struggling to get by, those with medical bills, etc. I just started sponsoring a 7 year old girl in Mexico through compassion international. Its amazing how far our money goes down there in some of the poorest parts of the country. I send more each month than her family makes! I also donate extra here and there for the general donation fund. There are so many children in the world that need food! It makes me so sad, but also makes me glad I am in a place to help. We sponsor a 12 yo and an 8 yo both in Mexico within a couple hours of each other. My long term dream is to sponsor them thru high school and then take my girls to meet them in person as we/they graduate. We'll see if I can make that happen. If you just started since 2020, you might not have received any letters. They are my favorite part! We are 4 yrs in with the first girl and watching her grow thru letters has been so rewarding. My girls have learned about poverty thru some of the info that Compassion sends. Plus they were floored to read the thank you note about new shoes and underwear that our bday money bought. Compassion has a traveling exhibit that shows how their centers work and what some of the homes look like. I've taken my girls twice and it really impacted their worldview. And yes, $38/month is nothing in our budget but truly life changing for them. Plus my company will match my donations.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 20, 2021 13:04:15 GMT -5
Son is going from no mortgage to about $2200 a month but that also included taxes and insurance. He is stressing, he said he likely will go on some TDY treks and if so will put that money against the mortgage. I bet he manages to get it paid off quick as he can.
Our only big expenses are health ins, groceries, and electric. We spend more on stuff then we need and I'm trying to reduce that, so we aren't typical I guess.
Ok, back to mopping. I have the laundry and kitchen done and part of the hallway, need to finish.
We have the windows open, finally put the screen in the room with the litter boxes. I don't want it to smell, but even hubs says he doesn't smell anything so we are good. Wish I could leave them open all summer.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 20, 2021 13:30:43 GMT -5
It's not even representative of typical spending for those families. A snapshot month is useless. If you just looked at my April report from YNAB it has $3975 for Housing, but I paid my annual property taxes and an extra $900 on the mortgage. Kids expenses were really high in April too. Made the camp downpayments and paid for 3 months of piano lessons as well as a couple other things. It doesn't mean I spend $450/month on them every month.
True, and I should have added that i don't think I am a good representative sample myself. Since my income jumped so suddenly, its easier to set the extra aside. Speaking of grabbing a particular month, I don't think they're paying for tax prep and home appraisals all the time: RENT $1,240 UTILITIES $227 INVESTMENTS/SAVINGS $3067 CELLPHONE $233 AMAZON KIDS $5 LIFE INSURANCE $37 CAR INSURANCE $88 CAR REPAIRS/GAS $214 GROCERIES $1,124 RESTAURANTS $425 CLOTHING $220 GIFTS $539 CHURCH OFFERING $300 VACATION $810 HOME-APPRAISAL FEE $450 TAX PREP $380 ALLOWANCE/BABYSITTING $296 TIPS $110 That food spend, tho... That's the family of 6. They might actually be spending less than the other smaller families.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on May 20, 2021 14:29:27 GMT -5
Thanks for mentioning Compassion International, just chose 2 little girls from the Philipines, about the same age as my granddaughter . I plan to involve granddaughter to learn about these little girls. Hoping it does really make their lives better.
We had sponsored 2 children from another organization also in Philippines but learned from one of my Philippino colleagues that money didn’t go to these children but to organization in general. So stopped and have concentrated on US charities
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on May 20, 2021 15:57:09 GMT -5
True, and I should have added that i don't think I am a good representative sample myself. Since my income jumped so suddenly, its easier to set the extra aside. Speaking of grabbing a particular month, I don't think they're paying for tax prep and home appraisals all the time: RENT $1,240 UTILITIES $227 INVESTMENTS/SAVINGS $3067 CELLPHONE $233 AMAZON KIDS $5 LIFE INSURANCE $37 CAR INSURANCE $88 CAR REPAIRS/GAS $214 GROCERIES $1,124 RESTAURANTS $425 CLOTHING $220 GIFTS $539 CHURCH OFFERING $300 VACATION $810 HOME-APPRAISAL FEE $450 TAX PREP $380 ALLOWANCE/BABYSITTING $296 TIPS $110 That food spend, tho... That's the family of 6. They might actually be spending less than the other smaller families. On food? I didn't compare all of them. If I recall correctly 2 of the kids were really little, but then there were older kids that could eat a ton. Their spending seemed fine overall, though.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 17:25:12 GMT -5
Thanks for mentioning Compassion International, just chose 2 little girls from the Philipines, about the same age as my granddaughter . I plan to involve granddaughter to learn about these little girls. Hoping it does really make their lives better. We had sponsored 2 children from another organization also in Philippines but learned from one of my Philippino colleagues that money didn’t go to these children but to organization in general. So stopped and have concentrated on US charities I love the idea of sponsoring individual children; some ae vague about that. One organization had kids on its web site and their stories but they were "illustrative" and they noted that some of the donations went to general improvements for the village such as a well. I can see that it might be hard for a village if, say, 1/4 of the kids had sponsors and were getting books, toys, clothes and the rest of the village was just scraping by. Difficult decisions.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 19:27:40 GMT -5
Son is going from no mortgage to about $2200 a month but that also included taxes and insurance. He is stressing, he said he likely will go on some TDY treks and if so will put that money against the mortgage. I bet he manages to get it paid off quick as he can. Our only big expenses are health ins, groceries, and electric. We spend more on stuff then we need and I'm trying to reduce that, so we aren't typical I guess. Ok, back to mopping. I have the laundry and kitchen done and part of the hallway, need to finish. We have the windows open, finally put the screen in the room with the litter boxes. I don't want it to smell, but even hubs says he doesn't smell anything so we are good. Wish I could leave them open all summer. I use to keep my windows open as often as possible during spring and fall at my other house. Even at night, because if I put my 2 large dogs outside, there would be a lot of commotion way before anyone could climb through a window. This is my 2nd spring here and so far I don’t open the windows like I use to. I’m not sure why, because we had all the screens replaced last year that needed it. I’m allergic to pretty much everything outside, but I also like letting fresh air in the house. It’s worth taking my meds and running the air purifiers to me, so I’ll try to remember next time the weather is appropriate. We’re supposed to be in the low 90’s for the next few days, so definitely not on those days.
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 21, 2021 12:35:22 GMT -5
Oh my bought more flowers, was going to get a couple of big pots to use but not for $70 each!! And they were HEAVY. I'm going to see if I can find some of the preformed lighter ones, and cheaper. So hanging clothes out and so need to get at it. And then some planting.
My laptop has decided to die. A short in the unit or the plug in, won't stay charged even plugged in, so using my desktop for now. Won't be on as much till I buy another I guess, it was only about $300. Lasted about 3 years.
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MN-Investor
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Post by MN-Investor on May 31, 2021 2:12:15 GMT -5
So none of the families had income taxes or FICA or Medicare taxes withheld in the month examined?
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 31, 2021 10:53:43 GMT -5
I think I'm like a lot of people - I ignored payroll deductions when I was budgeting... I just used my Net Pay and as my starting point. Back in the day this worked ok. My paychecks were steady and reliable and almost always the same thru out the year. I know I need to get more accurate about how the payroll deduction part of my pay check fits into my "spending plan" (I do kind of - but in a "guestimate-y" way when I'm thinking about my overall income...) I can understand why the spending in the article doesn't include payroll deductions. I know when I first read the article and I was guestimating in my head what kinds of income the families needed to maintain that level of monthly spend - I was thinking "OK, maybe there's some amount that's a one time spend and wow - and there's no payroll deductions" So, I'm atleast aware of them. I just looked at the Excel personal budget template on my computer and it does have a section (with line items) for Taxes and Insurance (as in payroll deductions)... I don't think I've ever seen that on a premade "budget" template. FYI: thank you for making me look! I've been using my super power of "avoidance" to not have to attempt to figure out how to get my payroll deductions into a budget template (I know I attempted to do it back in the early 2000's. And here it is - not so hard!)
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