how can I be so poor?

jwbot

I dont get it. Well I do. But..

I am doing our budget (my S/O and I put our finances together) and well, we make about $3K a month. Which for just 2 people living in a cheap (but nice!) apartment, that is really great.

Our bills only total about $1200 yet we never have money. You know why? WE EAT OUT ALL THE FRICKEN TIME! And other things I am not sure...Well we just moved into a place and that was expensive.

So we have vowed to only eat out 2 times a month and same with going to the movies. And after our debt is payed off in a couple of months...we will save for a house and get our credit on track.

Yep, aside from the stress of current debt and expenses...we are doing good and we have NO excuse to be poor. I do not get it sometimes...

frenchbabyface

Well ... nice Plans JWBOT ... (don't forget to have fun anyway cause life is short)

desib77

WE EAT OUT ALL THE FRICKEN TIME!

Big problem for my husband and I, too. I can't cook worth a flip so we take the tastier alternative and waste money eating out.....

Going to try to cut down on that, though...

franklin J

JWBOT,

I hear you, we all go through this at one time or another....bad thing is that you HAVE to deal with it...good thing is that it will get better.

What worked for my wife and I when we first started out...

1) I got a second job waiting on tables at nite and on weekends to save money for our wedding and after that to buy a house. The money accrued; trouble was, we had NO social life and I was always EXHAUSTED.

2) As we both worked and were too tired to cook and clean up when we got home; we cooked enough food on weekends to last the week. Every little bit helped.

In hindsite, ( this was 18 years ago) it all worked out to our advantage.

good luck, Frank

Yerusalyim

I understand. My wife and I make over 50K a year right now...and have debt to show for it.

Here's what's funny, back in 1995 I was making a little less than $10.00 and hour and usually worked 48 hours a week. I was newly married, had 5 kids was buying a house and a car, and still had money left at the end of the week to save. In fact, I put $30.00 a week into the church collection and $30.00 a week into savings. Here's the deal though...my needs were simpler. My clothes came from the thrift shop...our favorite meal was whatever was on sale at the grocery, cable was less than $30 a month...no computer...life was much easier. I still save a lot...in fact I'm putting back about 700 to 900 a month in both long term and short term savings. Maybe I just need to quit bitching....never mind.

jwbot

Yes, this makes me realize it has nothing to do with how much you make but how you spend it... We are living outside our means and that is our problem.

Our credit is really bad too.

BUT we are being really strict with ourselves and the eating out will stop. We think that if we go food shopping every week instead of biweekly, we can get fresher foods (I can cook well actually, its just we were lazy) which we hope will entice us to cook a good meal and be wanting to eat at home rather than out.

And an almost total ban on fast food would be a good idea for our health too...yikes!

We have a plan to buy a 2+ unit home in the area so we can rent out the other places to pay for the mortgage. And eventually save up to build our dream house...because buying is really expensive where I am and since land is cheap....

drwtsn32

We spend a ton eating out, too... sometimes as much as $800 per month. Doh!

Elsewhere

Our bills only total about $1200 yet we never have money. You know why? WE EAT OUT ALL THE FRICKEN TIME! And other things I am not sure...Well we just moved into a place and that was expensive.

Yup... I found myself in the same situation about a year and a half ago. I was making good money but I never seemed to have any left at the end of the month.

I pulled out my bank statements and there it was: $20 here, $20 there... a few $10 and $12 payments a day, every day... over the course of 30 days in a month, that added up to $$$$$$. I call it "20 Dollaring myself to death".

I had to learn to stop buying crap every single day... now I challenge myself to see how many days I can go without a single item appearing on my bank statement. (I make 99% of my purchases with my debit card).

Now I'm able to save plenty of money at the end of the month, so long as there are not any unexpected expenses such as auto repairs and things like that.

DireStraitJacket

our family does ok, as in we pay the bills every month and aren't in debt, thats on around $1.5k pm, and I can say easily that we're a LOT more well off than the average family in this country. I know cost of living is cheaper here, but there are plenty of families that have no employed people and survive off one persons pension, I'm talking 4-5 kids 2-3 adults living of $80-$90 per month. With unemployment here at around 35% its not easy for people to dig themselves out..
Maybe you people should reconsider your financial situations a little bit and realise that you are actually doing ok

StinkyPantz

Our bills only total about $1200 yet we never have money. You know why? WE EAT OUT ALL THE FRICKEN TIME! And other things I am not sure...

You sound just like me and Jon!

how can I be so poor?

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