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| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | |
| Posted By: bluerunner | Date: 3/6/12 11:06 a.m. |
In Response To: Re: An open discussion about petetheduck (pete_the_duck) Prepare for long-winded bluerunner story: I feel your pain on the childcare. Around here it's more than my mortgage. Right now my wife works nights while I work days so that we can avoid the cost. It's not easy, but it's not forever. My wife and I were both out of work at one point, and we were young and stupid and hadn't prepared for it, and we had a baby. We struggled, put ourselves in debt, and made a bunch of stupid decisions. I also tried going into business for myself, but making $500 in a month wasn't going to cut it. I was a bad time, but looking back we learned a lot, and that's the good thing about struggling. Since you asked for some advice, here are the biggest things I wish I had done from the start when I found myself in your situation: 1. Have a written budget. Sit down together with a piece of paper. Write how much money you have coming in per week or month. Actually seeing it on paper did a lot for us psychologically. It really helped us focus, and it helped us realize when we were wasting money without thinking. List everything you spend money on; bills, food, gas, clothes, ect, and how much you spend. Prioritize all of them, uiltiies and food at the top, everything else under those. If there's more expenses than incoming money, drop the stuff at the bottom. The biggest thing is that you both agree on the budget and stick to it. It really helped us when we started using multiple checking accounts for different expenses. I know a lot of older folks who use envelopes, but I don't like carrying cash around on me. Being able to see the money going into separate compartments for its intended purpose really helped us keep to our budget. 2. Have an emergency fund. Nothing makes things more miserable than something breaking on your car or your kid needing some $100 medicine. It can destroy a tight budget for months. Try to save up $1000 or so, stick it somewhere safe, and don't touch it except in an emergency. I know from experience that it's a life saver. 3. Stay out of debt. This is where we were stupid. We initially burned through our savings (which wasn't much) because we didn't budget well, and then we started putting stuff on credit cards. We did it with good intentions; once we got back on our feet we though we would pay it right off. The problem was that it took longer than we thought to get back on our feet, and in the mean time we were not living frugally enough. When we both got back in stable jobs, we had this mountain of debt that we had to drag with us. We weren't able to enjoy the money coming in because we were pumping it right back out to pay off our stupidity. You're a very smart, talented, and sociable guy. I have no doubt you'll find work soon. Take it from somebody who has been down that dark tunnel you're going into; there's light at the other end, and everything is much brighter when you reach it.
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| Replies: |
| An open discussion about petetheduck | pete_the_duck | 3/6/12 7:14 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | sharpsniper99 | 3/6/12 7:24 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | sharpsniper99 | 3/6/12 7:33 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | ElzarTheBam | 3/6/12 7:56 a.m. |
| disruption bomb, incoming! | Revenant1988 | 3/6/12 8:22 a.m. |
| One single answer | Louis Wu | 3/6/12 9:27 a.m. |
| Agreement. | Bones153 | 3/6/12 10:08 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | pete_the_duck | 3/6/12 10:17 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | kanbo | 3/6/12 10:26 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | RC Master | 3/6/12 10:54 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | kanbo | 3/6/12 11:04 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | RC Master | 3/6/12 11:26 a.m. |
| Re: Agreement. | kanbo | 3/6/12 11:41 p.m. |
| Well said, Revenant... | SEspider | 3/6/12 2:05 p.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | pete_the_duck | 3/6/12 9:04 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | DEEP NNN | 3/6/12 9:23 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | bluerunner | 3/6/12 11:06 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | The Woaf | 3/6/12 9:52 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | Schooly D | 3/6/12 10:34 a.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | Pkmnrulz240 | 3/6/12 11:27 a.m. |
| Re: petetheduck hears the people | pete_the_duck | 3/6/12 12:00 p.m. |
| Re: petetheduck hears the people | Beckx | 3/6/12 12:10 p.m. |
| I second this. ^ *NM* | Kermit | 3/6/12 10:09 p.m. |
| Re: An open discussion about petetheduck | Leviathan | 3/6/12 5:38 p.m. |
| Shut up and retroactively take my money! *NM* | Bryan Newman | 3/6/12 5:52 p.m. |
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