Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "spending"
July 2017 Budget Report
Holy smokes, we overspent our budget this month! Luckily, we weren’t scheduled to contribute a whole lot to our targeted savings accounts this month, or the damage would have been a lot worse. 1) Our monthly rent increased by $100 and we also decided to go month-to-month to the tune of an extra $50/month. Kyle’s job is slated to move locations in October-ish because they’ve outgrown their current space, but they don’t know yet where to. … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
I’m Grateful for Automation in Our Finances
I know I’ve been repeating this ad nauseam in the past few weeks, but Kyle and I have been working a lot in the past couple months. I’ve been running into problem after problem with my experiments and am under a deadline to produce. Kyle has been writing his dissertation in typical Kyle-style – to the exclusion of everything else. We barely have time to keep up with our laundry and dishes and I’m falling … Read entire article »
Filed under: spending, targeted savings
October 2013 Month in Review: Money
Our finances are almost settled after our move – we’re just waiting on a refund from TWC (isn’t it always TWC that screws you up?). We spent a loooooot of money though – I’ll post about it once everything gets shaken out – so we’re going to devote our budget leftovers toward repaying ourselves until that’s done. This has been a pretty quiet month for us in the regular budget but a big one in targeted … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
You Should Spend More and Save Less (Especially Grad Students)
The same episode of Freakonomics that I wrote about last week contained another segment that I thought worthy of comment here (and actually there is one more!). Levitt told Dubner some advice that he received from an older faculty member when he was just starting out as a professor of economics: “You should spend more and save less. You’re never going to be poorer than you are today… Your salary would only go up and your … Read entire article »
Filed under: career, grad school, savings, spending
Pulling Back the Veil on Our Daily Money Management
I thought it would be helpful for some to get really into the nitty-gritty of how we manage our money on a daily (or at least monthly) basis. It’s simple to say “we have joint accounts” or “we use Mint” but what does that really mean? (You can reference a copy of our current budget if you like.) Start with a Clean Slate On the first of the month the only money in our checking accounts is … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, found money, side income, spending, targeted savings
November 2012 Month in Review: Money
We did a terrible job staying under budget this month – check the bottom to see if it was a pass or fail (it was close!). Our lack of control in the grocery store was to blame again. Our targeted savings accounts saved our behinds, too, as our car failed its yearly safety inspection and we had to make some unexpected repairs, but our Cars account was up to the task. Kyle is, I swear, … Read entire article »
Filed under: month in review
Average Clothes Spending and Pattern
Two weeks ago Marketplace did a short segment on clothes-buying habits and amounts from Elizabeth Cline’s book, Overdressed. I was surprised by what they reported so I’ll share their numbers and observations here along with how they compare to our buying patterns, as determined from Mint. Average Spending Level Americans spend an average of $1,100 per person on clothes each year. We spent way, way less than that on clothes and shoes in the last year – … Read entire article »
How Does Your Salary Compare to the Living Wage?
In my posts on saving for retirement last week I threw the term “living wage” around a few times. While I encouraged graduate students to save for retirement, I didn’t think that should apply to students being paid below a living wage. But what exactly is a living wage and how to you determine what it is for where you live? from Investopedia: “A theoretical wage level that allows the earner to afford adequate shelter, food and … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting
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