What is your budgeting "Achilles heel"?

[barkley]

When you are gone they will try to go to someone else. A financial advisor would tell you that you need to look after yourself first (not taking out extra money so it puts you into the next level for medicare premiums).

SO IMPORTANT. i'm looking at far too many peers in their 60's and beyond whose well meaning, well intended generosity with family is not only going to negatively financially impact them but likely THEIR children and grandchildren. their wonderful intentions of helping their children out by ensuring they graduated college absent student loans, helping out with down payments on first homes, in some cases funding in large part the grandkid's extracurriculars/private schooling all had an impact on their financial situation looking at/into retirement. folks are finding that what they estimated their later in life costs to be are not in line with inflation, finding that the nest egg they saw their home to be anticipating to downsize are finding downsizing is'nt nesc. an option. they don't resent what they spent but they are resentful of (and in some cases keeping highly hidden) how close they are to needing to ask others for financial help. I've seen it-adults whose kids have left home and they feel like they are at that sweet spot where they can really be putting away money into retirement (prime earning years for many to stock away into retirement) when they are blindsided to learn mom and dad's mortgage is in default (never knew how many times they did a re-fi) or mom or dad needs to go into elder care (and there's barely enough to keep the one remaining in the home afloat). these adult children of my peers are now going to have THEIR retirement impacted which, in my mind-means those grandkids will ultimately pay the price.

look out for yourself first-if not for yourself but those who will feel obligated to provide and care for you.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Eating out. We spend an embarrassing amount of money eating out.

 

[Mouseforward]

I found its small recurring items, like streaming services, memberships ( time to cut off the alumni associations)

I keep looking for stuff that is not making my life better that I can cut.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

We cut cable earlier this year after the football season ended and went with just internet. When we had cable, our internet was running $65. Whenever we cut the cable, it shot up to $90 by itself. We have to have it though as we have a Roku stick thingy. And we only pay for Disney+ and Amazon Prime on a monthly basis. We will probably get the cable back later this month once the college football season rolls back around, but we will see.

But I'm with you as far as eating out. We spend between $800-$900 eating out in a typical month. But it's so much easier than buying groceries then throwing out leftovers. I didn't say cheaper, but we always split meals and have enough for DW to take for lunch the next day. Like last night after bible study and choir, we went to Chickfila because it was the last night for our mentee to work before leaving for college early next week. We split a 12 count nugget meal then ordered a sandwich for DW to take for lunch today. So $16 bought 3 meals worth of food. So we tend to split and try to order enough for leftovers whenever we go out.

I found its small recurring items, like streaming services, memberships ( time to cut off the alumni associations)

I keep looking for stuff that is not making my life better that I can cut.

 

[Mouseforward]

We cut cable earlier this year after the football season ended and went with just internet. When we had cable, our internet was running $65. Whenever we cut the cable, it shot up to $90 by itself. We have to have it though as we have a Roku stick thingy. And we only pay for Disney+ and Amazon Prime on a monthly basis. We will probably get the cable back later this month once the college football season rolls back around, but we will see.

But I'm with you as far as eating out. We spend between $800-$900 eating out in a typical month. But it's so much easier than buying groceries then throwing out leftovers. I didn't say cheaper, but we always split meals and have enough for DW to take for lunch the next day. Like last night after bible study and choir, we went to Chickfila because it was the last night for our mentee to work before leaving for college early next week. We split a 12 count nugget meal then ordered a sandwich for DW to take for lunch today. So $16 bought 3 meals worth of food. So we tend to split and try to order enough for leftovers whenever we go out.

I had this argument with my sister, she wanted to know why I don’t just make myself a salad instead of going and grabbing one at a restaurant. Going to our farmstand and making a salad for one person is about the same as having an actual meal at our local restaurant. There is an economic penalty to being single when it comes to food.

I agree with you when it comes to cutting the cord. By cutting subscriptions and memberships and little things I can cover my dues for my DVC.

 

[OhDannyBoy]

I had this argument with my sister, she wanted to know why I don’t just make myself a salad instead of going and grabbing one at a restaurant. Going to our farmstand and making a salad for one person is about the same as having an actual meal at our local restaurant. There is an economic penalty to being single when it comes to food.

Have you looked into the meal prep plans?

Some of them aren't bad price wise and you don't end up with a ton of waste. I used to do this when my kids were real little and not eating much grown up food and my wife was on one of her crazy diets. i was cooking for myself most nights.

 

[Mouseforward]

Have you looked into the meal prep plans?

Some of them aren't bad price wise and you don't end up with a ton of waste. I used to do this when my kids were real little and not eating much grown up food and my wife was on one of her crazy diets. i was cooking for myself most nights.

I used factor for about 80 weeks when I was dieting. I had to stop because now I can’t eat their food. Just like when you go to the same restaurant over and over again eventually you kind of turn on the restaurant.

 

[barkley]

I had this argument with my sister, she wanted to know why I don’t just make myself a salad instead of going and grabbing one at a restaurant. Going to our farmstand and making a salad for one person is about the same as having an actual meal at our local restaurant. There is an economic penalty to being single when it comes to food.

there are certain things that are def. less costly to buy prepared vs. making from scratch at home and a well rounded tossed salad is one of those. for dh and I one of the best values salad wise we've found is at mod pizza-they claim their 'mega' feeds 2 but when we get it to go and pair it with a cup of soup, sandwich or something else we've got at home we get at least 3 servings each. a single person could get 3 good sized only lunches. can't beat the price-with 40 toppings you get unlimited choices from (we always do double servings on the grilled chicken and salami), 8 salad dressings to choose from (and they give you extra for free) It can't be beat at $12.99. the other item I get prepare (well, frozen so I have to bake it) is lasagna. I've priced it out and there's no way I can get the pasta, sauce, ricotta, meat and cheese for as little as a party size that will provide us multiple meals sells for.

 

[Threehearts]

In our earlier years, we spent a lot of money going to Disney and on other expensive family vacations. We have a much more settled special needs DD now, but for her first 20 years, that was not the case. WDW was the only place where she stayed calm and happy. Her brother was left to himself to a certain extent because I or a teacher had to be with DD, 24/7. My son grew up to be a very quiet, sweet and endlessly accommodating young man but his young life was chaotic. He also loved WDW also so we convinced ourselves that going twice a year and spending way too much money was a great idea.

We were doing well financially but not saving a lot. Completely unexpectedly, my husband lost his job and we did not have much saved to cover us for very long. I grew up in a strict home where working was a noble thing regardless of what your position was. I worked several jobs from high school through college My husband was the opposite. So he got depressed and stayed home. I sold my car, bought a bicycle to ride to work and got a job slicing meats and making prepared foods in the deli department of a local supermarket. Yes, I saw my old neighbors every day and cut their luncheon meats but I didn't care. I had a job! I sold the house in a weekend. We had no business living in a place that we couldn't afford. My job gave us family health insurance right away which is why I chose the supermarket. We moved to a rental. My husband spent several years "working on a start-up" that never started up. We had no income besides mine.

I have never been so scared in my life as when they shut off our utilities. I had 2 little kids and was flushing the toilet with buckets of water. I vowed to never get into the situation that we were in again and I haven't. Along with the supermarket job, I applied for a scholarship to culinary school. After a year of that, I opened a catering company and begged every friend I had to hire me. The business took off.

Now, I have a savings strategy that involves CD ladders, smart investments and a frugal but not unpleasant lifestyle. I no longer have that "you only live once" or "make your happy memories now" attitude. My Achilles heel has been buying expensive food. I love to cook and get carried away. I am also wasteful purchasing produce I can't use or special ingredients. I'm better now but need to reign it in still.

The biggest lesson that I have learned is that savings gives you security and options if things go south. Recently, I was diagnosed with a third different kind of cancer. This one would require a clinical study that was having great results but DOGE cancelled that so that's out. I am going to pay for a new treatment that holds the most promise. If I had lived for today and had no savings...well, you can imagine what the outcome could be. If you say, "spend all your money now because you could be dead tomorrow" that might be true. On the other hand, if you have saved your money, you may well be able to pay for critical medical treatments and then you would not be dead tomorrow.

 

[bigpinkdaisy]

I think I would say that our Achilles heel budget wise is/was impulse purchases with groceries. I grew up with major food insecurity (my father had to medically retire due to heart disease at 42, when I was 5(early '80's), and he stayed at his retirement rate of pay with no raises for inflation over the years..add in a gambling addiction, well, you get the picture). As a result, I keep a very well stocked pantry with all of the basics and snacks and fun ingredients. Going to the grocery store would result in a lot of impulse purchases and wasted fresh produce because it looked good. I will say that I have always made almost everything from scratch - cooking and baking relax me and I enjoy it tremendously. I also menu plan a week in advance so that helps as well. Switching to having DH do the grocery shopping has made a huge difference - he sticks to the list! I also have free delivery from Target(Circle 360) as a result of some deal I qualified for last year, so I can put in my weekly list of items that we purchase from Target(mainly personal care items, some basic groceries - we don't have SuperTargets here) and whatever else I need....someone else shops for it and delivers it to my house while I am at school...no random impulse purchases, but more importantly, they don't put an increase on items like Instacart does.

 

[barkley]

I think I would say that our Achilles heel budget wise is/was impulse purchases with groceries. I grew up with major food insecurity (my father had to medically retire due to heart disease at 42, when I was 5(early '80's), and he stayed at his retirement rate of pay with no raises for inflation over the years..add in a gambling addiction, well, you get the picture). As a result, I keep a very well stocked pantry with all of the basics and snacks and fun ingredients. Going to the grocery store would result in a lot of impulse purchases and wasted fresh produce because it looked good. I will say that I have always made almost everything from scratch - cooking and baking relax me and I enjoy it tremendously. I also menu plan a week in advance so that helps as well. Switching to having DH do the grocery shopping has made a huge difference - he sticks to the list! I also have free delivery from Target(Circle 360) as a result of some deal I qualified for last year, so I can put in my weekly list of items that we purchase from Target(mainly personal care items, some basic groceries - we don't have SuperTargets here) and whatever else I need....someone else shops for it and delivers it to my house while I am at school...no random impulse purchases, but more importantly, they don't put an increase on items like Instacart does.

I get what you are saying on grocery shopping-i would go with a list but come home with all kinds of extras. the pandemic was hurtful and helpful in this respect for me-b/c some things were in short or no supply (not so much paper products but moreso some individual food products I use in regular rotation) I found myself stocking up more so we spent more, but on the helpful side I finally gave grocery online ordering with curbside pickup a try. it has been transformative for me. I basically only do 1 shopping trip per month only venturing inside the store for produce, dairy and the rare frozen item I don't have on-line ordering grab for me (meat I watch sales for and then-ideally -limit myself to just buying that wherever it's on sale).