Finances

[ravencallscrows]

Damnit, I'm sick of continually living from payday to payday, and never having any money . If it's not one thing it's another. It's not as if we're wasting an inordinate amount of funds on trivial stuff- it's a rare thing when we treat ourselves even as little as going to a movie. People our age and younger are thinking about buying homes, and have things like car payments. We're nowhere able being able to do either, and don't have anything to show for it, either. If we'd just been irresponsible fiscally, I could understand it- like the people we know who spend $2000 on winter holidays (we spent less than 10% of that!) in spite of being two months in arrears on their rent and having a car with no brakes- *and* they're talking about buying a house (fat chance, that).
I don't expect regular windfalls, but just once, it'd be nice to get the odd break in our favour. As it is, it's almost like trying to climb out of a well- if we ever managed to break even, things would take care of themselves. I'm sick of treading water.

Comments

[gwynn-aaron.livejournal.com]

I'll check out the newsgroup, thank you. Now I just have to find something to use to do so.

Concerning the issue of your car, is it an old car? What kind is it? Did you buy it new or used? When I first got my job with SSI I was considering buying just any used car I could get my hands on, but then I realized that I didn't know how long I'd have this car for and I didn't know what kind of use I would put it through. For these reasons and a few others I decided to stretch my finances to the breaking point in order to buy a new car. The payments are rough, but having a vehicle in good condition which is also still under warrantee has been more than worth it. If there is any way that you can possibly get yourself a new car then you should. Something small, reliable, and fuel efficient would be perfect, I suspect. Lauren has had very good results from the Saturn she got used from her Dad, and she's put a hell of a lot of miles on it.

As for the guy you know who has so much trouble being financially responsible, that sounds a lot like the Scott that Jeff and I know.

[aylara.livejournal.com]

Sexy pic, Gwynn. ;)

About this issue...I don't know your financial situation, but I have to agree with Gwynn...having an old car just isn't worth it. We had TWO very elderly automobiles in a row, and we were paying quite a bit to keep them going. In fact over six months we spent nearly $1000--close to our current car payment of $220 a month, when you think about it, and we put no money down--just traded in our current vehicle.

Jeffrey and I are actually taking our first real vacation since our honeymoon in a month or so. My mom is an expert budget person and showed us how to find our two "extra" paychecks each year. If you get paid every two weeks, you get the two extra checks, since there's 52 weeks in a year and you get paid 26 times. Since most bills are figured on a monthly basis, there are two times each year where you get three checks in a month. We can tell when this is because we always pay our rent on alternating checks, and there were two entire checks between rent payments in January.

So anyway, I don't know if this helps or makes you feel worse. If it makes you feel better, we're WAY in credit card debt from a rough spot we had a year or so back, but we are paying them off and we decided to take a vacation in order to not be totally miserable for years and years. We're sure we won't get another chance for a few years. Now we're saving for a house, too, but we know we only have to save about 3% for closing costs, because first time home buyers are usually not required to put down any down payment at all. So this year or next, we're hoping to get a house. We have a $700 rent payment, so a house payment can't be much worse for a semi-decent place to live.