r/budget

I need someone to help me with budgeting and paying off my debt and saving some money at the same time. I can send my totals if someone wants to help me. Just send me a dm

Hello guys, I recently went to the dental office and was informed that I would need a root canal and four crowns. The crowns cost 1420 and the root canal cost around 800. I am a broke a*s student with a part time job with no good pay. I am very unfamiliar with how dental work process is and how I can get discounts. There is no dental schools near me that would do the work that I need except hygiene schools. The only options I think I have is Carecredit or Dental Plans. I was looking at Cigna, and honestly about 27% off is not that bad per crown, but it is still ALOT. I am thinking about financing with CareCredit with the deferred interest option, but I am a bit fyy about it. I ask the dental office if they would give discounts with I pay with cash (I borrow from family members), but they said they don't give discounts (which is very weird). So what do you guys recommend? Should I do Cigna, or Carecredit? Do you guys have any other options that helped?

I'll start:

# Days until payday: 5

# Money left: $81.36

What's your strategy to make it until payday without overspending?

I created a budget spreadsheet in Google Sheets that includes separate sheets for each month as well as sheets for projected annual income/expenses and actual annual income/expenses.

There are several expense categories on the annual sheet I don't expect to recur every month e.g. car repairs, concerts etc. I can think of two options to project these:

1. Randomly insert numbers in a few of the months based on how many times I imagine that expense occurring e.g. If I expect to spend $1200/yr. in car repairs and expect my car to be repaired twice, choosing $600 for June and December.

2. Averaging out what I expect to spend over all months e.g. $1200/yr. in car repairs is entered as $100/mo.

The problem I see with option 1 is that it throws off projected vs actual comparisons on a month to month basis. If I expect a $600 car repair in June, but it actually happens in July, it looks like I saved money in June and overspent in July.

The problem I see with option 2 is my projected budget will always be higher than the actual budget in all of the months I don't have a car repair.

Is there a common method for handling this, or a method you prefer? Thanks for everyone's help, and sorry if this is an obvious question - I'm terrible and budgeting and spreadsheets!

Okay so I've been sitting on a weird mix of guilt and mild relief for about a week now and I need to get it out somewhere. My sister's birthday came up and I did the thing I always swear I won't do, which is wait until basically the last minute and then just... spend more than I planned because I panicked. Not a huge amount but enough that when the card statement hit I had that familiar sinking feeling. You know the one. Where you open your banking app and just stare at it for a second like maybe the number will change. The part that's been messing with me isn't even the money itself. It's that I knew it was coming. I watched myself do it. She lives in another city and I wanted to send something that felt thoughtful instead of just a gift card, which is totally on me, but the shipping alone was embarrassing. I could have planned literally two weeks ahead and done the same thing for a fraction of the cost. I just didn't. What's been helping me feel slightly less like an idiot is that I've been playing around in Coverd and apparently I can actually win that charge back, which I honestly did not expect to have access to. It doesn't undo the poor planning but it's a weird little motivator to not just close the app and ignore the damage like I usually would. The thing I keep circling back to is whether impulse generosity is even worth trying to budget for or if I should just accept that certain people in my life will always make me spend stupid. Like I don't regret the gift at all. I regret the timeline. Does anyone actually budget for irregular stuff like this or do you just eat the occasional hit and move on?

I'm so used to living on a tight budget first by force and now because it is just smart that I got shocked when my friend went in debt to buy a watch and eat out every day.

I honestly think that I live quite a good luxurious with my 650$ a month budget. Sure I don't have a car, I don't travel or eat out or eat fancy food but I make it due. I would never imagine buying a smart watch or a small luxury of life just to go in debt. And not be worried about it

I've been thinking about this lately... Before I got married, money felt pretty straightforward. I worked, paid bills, saved a bit, and if I wanted to treat myself here and there, it wasn’t a big internal debate. Life wasn’t perfect, but it felt manageable and simple.

Honestly... things are still good, just different in a way I didn’t expect. He has a stable job, steady income. I work too, but my income is more independent and can vary. Between both of us, everything keeps running normal. There’s a lot I'm actually proud of in that, building something as a team, making sure our kid is good, having a sense of stability. But one thing that surprised me is how much my mindset has shifted. I've become a lot more conscious of money, which is a good thing. I naturally think more about the bigger picture now, the apartment, the family, future plans. And I don’t mind stepping up more when. needed. In fact , there’s something fulfilling about being dependable.

At the same time, I've noticed that when it comes to spending a little on myself, even something small, I pause more than I used to. Not necessarily out of stress, but more out of this sense of responsibility, like "let me make sure everything is taken care first."

I don’t see that as entirely negative. It feels like growth in a way. But I also don’t want to lose balance or turn into unnecessary pressure over time. So now I’m trying to figure out what the healthy version of it looks like.

For those in a similar stage: Did you create a system as a couple (like personal spending budgets, percentages, etc.) or did things naturally find their balance over time?

On an average income, is it better to have a clear plan... or just stay flexible and adjust as life happens? I'm not overwhelmed or struggling, just trying to learn how to do this well and keep things positive for the long run.

I’m 26. Only 11k in savings (HYSA). No CC debt but I do have federal student loans and a car note. I am a federal employee so maybe I can get PSLF in the future I also contribute to my TSP. This is my monthly budget. I don’t think it’s bad, but it could be better. I want a little extra spending for vacations or to buy things I like. Unfortunately, my used car I bought in college decided to no longer work so within the last year I’ve had $700 in car expenses because I stupidly bought a new car and my parents rightfully decided it was time I should pay my own insurance. On top of that l decided to get an unfunded masters degree so now I pay student loans, so within the last year I’ve had $900 of additional monthly expenses. I’m thinking of just getting a second job. But here’s my budget:

Monthly Take Home :$4,173.04

Monthly Expenses: $3,844.33 - $4,074.33

-$1,300 Rent

-$511.82 Car Note

-189.25 Car Insurance

-$212.36 Student Loans

-$75.00 Electric*+/-

-$65.00 Gas* +/-

-$50.00 Water* +/-

-$2.99 ICloud Storage

-$16.50 Hulu

-$15.17 Amazon

-$16.24 Gym

-$180-$240 Gas*

-$350 Groceries (Includes Misc)

-$170-$340 Hair

-$585 Roth IRA

-$105 HYSA

so i decided to see where my money actually goes. just jotted down every coffee, uber, and random amazon impulse buy in a google sheet for a few weeks. no app, no fancy setup, just me and a spreadsheet.

turns out i spend way more on takeout than i thought. like, way more. also didn’t realize how much those $5 charges add up. by the end of the month, i had a pretty clear picture of where i could cut back without feeling like i was missing out.

i did end up trying a couple apps after that, but honestly? the one that stuck was the one that didn’t make me jump through hoops. if you’re thinking about tracking your spending, i’d say start simple. a notebook or a sheet works fine. the habit’s the hard part, not the tool.

I still only spend money in the same places. Nothing has changed. It turns out I'm still unbelievably bored with and not interested in money and have almost no use for the stuff.

Car expenses

Minimal if any food expenses (milk and fruit)

Very little electricity (turn everything but your refrigerator off at the breaker when you aren't home.)

Dog food.

That's about it.

Hi everyone! CPA here, just want to share an idea that’s helped a few people in my life.

I absolutely hate AI slop and I wrote all this genuinely to procrastinate during work.

Money doesn’t give a shit. Why do we treat it like it does?

Here’s a few ways we fail to recognize money for the sociopathic and painfully accurate mechanism of exchange that it is:

We associate our financial behaviors with what type of person we are. Frugality tends to equate to good and modest and trust worthy (even if we haven’t shed a nickel for a friend or charity in the last decade) while low balance holders carry a lot of shame (and cure that shame with a quick weekend getaway they “deserve”).

We think some purchases are morally good, some are morally bad. You think your buddy is an idiot for the tab he racked up at the bar last night. You spent the same exact amount of money on a family trip to Disney Land that you saved diligently for and you all had an awesome time.

We love to recover sunk costs (which by definition is not possible). If you’ve ever punished yourself financially for some stupid purchase you made yesterday, you’re trying to recover your sunk cost. Maybe you had a shit time at Disneyland and now you’re on a “spend freeze” for some un-calculated and unrealistic time frame. Happy to dive into this more if anyone’s interested.

The point is, the balance goes down based on HOW MUCH you spent, not WHAT you spent it on.

Let’s pretend money is nails in a jar. You spent 700 nails this week. I really don’t care what you hammered them into. You need the remaining 400 nails for groceries and car insurance.

The following week, you might go as far as to say okay, I can use 1000 nails in this time frame *cough* budget
*cough*. If my radiator blows up on Monday, I’m all out of fucking nails. Maybe I do deserve Uber Eats and I am a hard working person and the economy is shit and I want my kids to have a good life and I’m having a good day and I should have an even better day, but I just don’t. Have. Any. Nails. Left. Running out of nails is not inherently shameful, it’s just a numerical constraint that needs to be maintained.*

Or maybe nothing unplanned happens and you have 300 nails left at the end of the week. Great! You have extra nails. You’re not a better person for it. You just have more nails.

If anyone’s interested I’d love to dive into how this mindset shift translates to a healthier spending cycle. Thanks for reading!

*of course, you should feed probably pay your mortgage and feed your kids before you splurge on your self-care routine. But that’s prioritization. The point here is that your balance goes up and down by the exact amount you spend, regardless of what it paid for. By refuting the emotional assignment to our balance, we can start to treat money objectively and make better decisions like accounting for cost of living FIRST and save the luxury for the smaller luxury budget.

I just graduated from college and decided to take a gap year between undergrad and grad/law school. I currently have $24,000 in government student loans and plan to aggressively pay them off in 12 months by May 2027 before I have to be unemployed for 2-3 years and take more tuition loans to finish my education.

I got a full-time lab tech job that pays about $3800 monthly post taxes and want to use $2000 of it for student loans payments. My rent is $600, bills $200, groceries $200 and transportation $160. Worth noting, I have an existing $3000 as my emergency fund and savings. After the 12 month period, I have June and July 2027 to save for my 1L rent and bills until I can secure an internship or assistantship in my second year.

So estimating my annual salary of $45,000, my budget would look like the following: $24,000 for student loans, $7200 for rent, $2400 for bills, $2400 for groceries, $2000 for transportation, $500 for miscellaneous stuff (taxes, license renewal and car services), and $1500 for discretionary spending. Any extra money left after this will go into savings.

Since my salary will be several times more in the future than it now, I will not prioritize investments and retirement until after law and grad school in my mid twenties. I plan to go into patent law in the life sciences. Does this budget plan sound feasible?

Hello there!

My name is Eduardo, and I’m an indie developer from Puerto Rico. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working on an app that helps users store receipts, view reports and insights.

It’s a free app with optional subscription tiers. Here’s the disclosure:

Plus: $6.99 monthly
Pro: $9.99 monthly
Unlimited: $59.99 yearly

I’m currently looking for feedback and would really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

Also, if this post breaks any self promotion rules, please feel free to delete it.

https://receiptnow.app

Thanks,
Eduardo

Good morning,

In the comments of this post, you can:

• Ask for suggestions
• Discuss specific personal situations that clash with conventional budgeting platforms
• Make suggestions for platforms (Follow Rule 3)
• General questions about apps

Posts and comments about budget software outside of the weekly discussion posts will be deleted.

Hi y'all!

I want to preface this by saying I am a new grad who has a nice engineering job secured! 😃 I am also a first gen college grad and first in my family to work in corporate, which should help explain why I am a little lost on what is "good" or not.

Provided below is my current budget plan for the apartment that I have picked out. I live in a major city so apartment is kinda high since I want to live in a nice area, but honestly (if advice is given to) I will try to search for something slightly cheaper while still keeping my requirement of living alone in a 1 bed.

No future plans of buying a new car (keeping my toyota til the damn thing dies lol) and my student loans are roughly under 20k BUT i get a 30k sign on bonus with 15k given in my first month so I will be rationing that to pay most of them off immediately then use the other 15k ill receive later in the year to pay the final amounts.

Alot of these areas are rough estimates. For example, my gross pay is 8900 so I am going to guess 6500 as my take home. Auto insurance is also a rough estimate from Geico's online quote. I think my mom is just gonna keep my phone bill with her's since we've shared it for so long so no phone.

IDK, I can't tell if the apartment is too much but i am living in Atlanta and I will not bend on living alone and no studio. I can probably get like $300 less for rent if I switch areas but I really like where I picked out lol but if yall think I should then... Yea, any advice is appreciated, I feel like this is a good amount of spending money leftover but maybe I really am over or under estimating what I should be putting my stuff towards lol

-------------------------------
Planned Monthly Income (after taxes) - 6550

------------

Budget Plan

• Rent = 2180 [33.3% of total income]
• Utilities = 250
  • Includes parking , electric, water, internet
• Car Insurance = 180
• Gas = 200
• Savings = 1600
  • kinda ambiguous, have to figure out WHAT kind of savings, but this will be my designated money to set aside
  • [24.4% of total income]
• Subscriptions
  • Spotify = 13
  • Amazon Prime = 15
• Food = 650
• Leftover = 1462 [22.3% of total income]

My friend and I are friends with a couple with one college aged kid (Family). The parents in the family have a combined income of 80k and support the kid while in college, and live in a large metropolitan area. They are struggling to get by paycheck to paycheck and have no savings. Friend says oh they do not budget well and should be able to do better. He thinks $80k sounds like so much (he's older so $80k back then went farther)

I'm trying to estimate what that budget might be to help him understand. All I know is the rent is ~$1800 and they have a car payment on a Hyundai. I think he shouldn't be so harsh.

So I was trying to figure out what my budget should be a month and im left with $60 at the end of a month as hey you can spend this. I shouldn't have any spending money after the month. I even accounted for putting 150 into savings a month. Here's my budget. I wrote it in my notes app so I couldn't lose it.

Income- 500/wk, 2k/mo.

Bills- 370/mo car payment, 160/mo debts,

100/wk food, 60/mo gas, 200/wk rent

Added up bills

370

160

100x4

60

200x4

1790/mo

Save- 150/mo

1940 total. 60 my money

Owed to friends and family 4k

Anything over 500/wk goes straight to savings

Anything I can do to have no spend money. And in case anyone asks i don't go anywhere but work and home and I live with family so food would just be stuff for my work lunches and possibly at home.

“I’m an impulsive spender. I end up placing 2–3 Blinkit orders a day and ordering from Zomato multiple times a week. Even though my in-hand salary is quite good for the current market, these habits are stopping me from saving properly. I really want to fix this and become more financially disciplined.

I've been looking for a French movie (the Chinese Puzzle) and streaming sites like Prime and youtube charge for this one. I found it free on Kanopy (sign up with your local library card if they have a membership). Also, rather than buying (or even borrowing in person), I found that Libby has the Dungeoncrawler Carl ebook series for free. They have other series' and books by the same author.

Are there any other library related resources for free access to books or movies?