Totally enamored of Poorcraft.* I'm about ten pages in and I love it. It's about living frugally but AWESOMELY. Hello, everything I'm all about. There's one issue for frugal living and one for frugal traveling!
I've tootled You Need a Budget's horn before (I know it's supposed to be tooted, but tootled was a much more fun typo), but wow. Daily, that application helps us out. Day. Lee. ($6 off that link there, if you wanna try it, because that's how we roll, yo.)
From YNAB, I've learned things I didn't want to know, but that we needed to know. The next panel after the one above points out that you can't do anything to help yourself until you figure out exactly what you're buying, and how much each of those categories costs a month. If you'd asked me–before we started using YNAB–how much we spent on the animals a month, I would have guessed about $150. If you'd told me it was almost $500 a MONTH (including food, flea treatment, and vet visits), I would have smacked you across the mouth for lying (no, I wouldn't have. But I might have tootled you smartly).
We're spending almost a hundred bucks an animal, per month. Holy crap. To be totally honest, that helps with the essentialist kick I'm on right now. Recently, a sweet little kitten ran in front of my car, held up his teeny little paws and said, "STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE." There's no way I normally would have been able to relinquish rights on a baby kitteh. But thinking to myself, "If this guy lives for sixteen years, that's a twenty-grand investment…" Well, I figured two cats were enough. (For now. No guarantees for the future, mind. You never know when an asshole like my Digit might show up again.) But now the kitten we saved is named Crowley and lives with my darling friend M and plays video games all day!
Crowley's face is all business.
We know how much we spend a month for all the categories, even the rather silly categories, like What Rachael Spends at the Cafe While Writing and What Lala Buys for Lunch. And that makes all the difference. When the electricity bill goes up, I start snapping off lights. When we spend too much in groceries one month, I make sure we cook more at home the next month. I know how much we need to live, and I know what our discretionary spending goes to, because it's all in the plan, man.
It helps me sleep at night.
(I can't repeat this too much: If you're broke, that doesn't make you a bad person. If you're spiraling downward in debt and feel shame about it, talk to someone. Email someone. Say the truth out loud: "I don't know how much I owe, or how much I need to live, or even how much I make, and I'm too scared to find out." Say it. Then say it again to someone who can help. The only way to climb out of the shame pit is to speak the thing you're scared of. Speaking cures shame. And then you'll be able to take the steps (and there are steps!) to pull yourself out. Email me if you need to practice on someone. Even better, leave a comment here so people can read it and support you, cheer you on. You might not hear it, but I bet you'll feel it.)
Hey, did you get my letter? I've been sending out TinyLetters, and they're kind of a new way for me to blog, flying right into your email inbox. You can view the letter archive and/or subscribe here. I'm loving this way of communicating.
* Affiliate link 'cuz I grab my money where I can
Thank you for this post. We are starting a year of living on one paycheck while I go back to school and this post is definitely helping me get in the right mindset to meet that year head on.
I know how much I make, and I can easily figure out how much I owe, but I don’t know how much we need to live or how we can change our habits to do it realistically. We’re making baby steps. Still scary. Still keep reminding myself that no matter the setbacks (hello, car accident deductible), we’re alive and we have each other. Managing our money better is just a way for us to, well, live better.
The kitty with the glowing groin makes me smile, A LOT!
Ok, I have 2 cats and a rabbit. (and if I discount the rabbit cages, because frankly, a rabbit shouldn’t be able to undo parrot proof locks and destroy cages like she does), I spend maybe $100/month on animal stuff. You’re making me feel like bad pet-staff.
And that picture of Crowley should be a meme by now!
It is scary what you don’t know about what you’re spending. I admit, I’m not totally on top of our budget, but that’s because my husband is really, really on top of it, and I know he will tell me if we need to adjust. I do touch base with him regularly, and I know how to get to all his info if I need to.
Mint.com is an excellent online tool for tracking budgets, once you get it set up. It lets you see everything instantly, and you can fiddle with the info in lots of different ways.
The big thing is that budgets need to be realistic. I was talking with someone about this, and he was flummoxed at how much his food budget was for the month. He tried to make the budget say he would only spend half that, but it just doesn’t work that way! (Too bad, actually.)
We have three cats, all on prescription food. Owie! It’s expensive, but it’s less expensive than the new sofa that is needed if the one cat eats regular food and …
Yesterday at the grocery store, my husband mentioned to me that we hadn’t bought chocolate soymilk for a long time. My response was “Yes. I’ve saved you about 250 calories a day, and our budget about twenty dollars a month since we stopped.” He’s not a great money guy or budgeter but he understands that we have our current standard of living because I think about this stuff. I hauled myself out of debt, and helped him haul himself out of debt — it took a long time but we did it and now can do pretty much whatever we like, within reason, without worry. Luckily, we like to do modest things. That said, I spent a thousand bucks on a couch and ottoman two weeks ago and still feel a little dizzy! I keep telling myself “you only buy those once every twenty years” but still. Hooo.
My husband and I have been struggling with money for a long time. We’ve both gone back to school to change careers and have two kids – one who is still in preschool. We’re trying to dig ourselves out of credit card debt but we seem only to be able to make ends meet or not even that most of the time. I’m looking forward to checking out YNAB so that maybe we can finally make some progress.
Are you done with minimizing all the things? have you arrived? I have not. I am making some progress, but….I definitely think letting go is a skill….that I’m learning. I am trying to make my peace with getting rid of things that do not spark joy makes room for things that do…but it’s a journey. 🙂
This pic of Crowley is awesome! 🙂