The thing I'm currently making is less a budget per se, and more a "well, based on past experience, how much do I spend per month", with occasional instances of ridiculous (I do not go to a ball every week) to give me a little bit of extra money as padding.
The idea of making that sort of elaborate spreadsheet is appealing. I should look into playing with something similar sometime. And yes, I recognize the idea of using laziness to prevent frivolous purchases, though in all honesty, every week or two I'd probably be putting an item in my spreadsheet that was just "20$ cash from the ATM to spend on an pan and toy dinosaurs"
Household expenses is one I didn't think of, especially in terms of cleaning supplies and things like toiletries and paper products and stuff. Some of that will have to involve roomie negotiation, and it occurs to me that there will probably be other things in the "group expenses" pile, like getting a house Netflix account or whatever
I completely forgot about taxes when I wrote fn2. I suppose it would be more accurate to say "I need to be making at least 24k/year post-taxes". Luckily the numbers for being a first year teacher (again, assuming I actually get a job doing so) look to be in the 37-45k range, depending on which part of Boston/Cambridge/Brookline/Watertown/etc I get a job in. So I should be okay, once I have a job.
Yeah, I have not been thinking about the apartment thing. Part of it is that mum has said I can reclaim my childhood furniture if I want, though that leads to moving hassles. I think I plan on buying as good a bed as I can afford (because the Sims influences my life) and Craigslisting like crazy until I get a dresser and desk/4x8 with filing cabinets. Oh, and _shelves_. Shelves are crucial to my continued happiness, even if I have to make them out of cinderblock and scrap wood.
(I also need to talk to ThirdBase and see if she still has spare kitchen supplies, and if so, see if I can steal them.)
I do my best to ask for advice when dealing with stuff I don't have a great handle on. I know damn well that I don't have a great handle on money --I think I'm clever enough and organized enough not to find myself in debt, or having to make stupid sacrifices (like, do I get clean clothes or food this week) but I grew up in a relatively well-off household, and I know my brain carries over impulse patterns from shopping with mom that I can't afford to regularly use when shopping on my own.
(This is not to say my mother is bad with money, she's absolutely not. But we could afford to indulge in eye-level impulse buys (especially at the supermarket), and so that's sometimes a thing I am used to.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2011-03-22 03:15 pm (UTC)The idea of making that sort of elaborate spreadsheet is appealing. I should look into playing with something similar sometime. And yes, I recognize the idea of using laziness to prevent frivolous purchases, though in all honesty, every week or two I'd probably be putting an item in my spreadsheet that was just "20$ cash from the ATM to spend on an pan and toy dinosaurs"
Household expenses is one I didn't think of, especially in terms of cleaning supplies and things like toiletries and paper products and stuff. Some of that will have to involve roomie negotiation, and it occurs to me that there will probably be other things in the "group expenses" pile, like getting a house Netflix account or whatever
I completely forgot about taxes when I wrote fn2. I suppose it would be more accurate to say "I need to be making at least 24k/year post-taxes". Luckily the numbers for being a first year teacher (again, assuming I actually get a job doing so) look to be in the 37-45k range, depending on which part of Boston/Cambridge/Brookline/Watertown/etc I get a job in. So I should be okay, once I have a job.
Yeah, I have not been thinking about the apartment thing. Part of it is that mum has said I can reclaim my childhood furniture if I want, though that leads to moving hassles. I think I plan on buying as good a bed as I can afford (because the Sims influences my life) and Craigslisting like crazy until I get a dresser and desk/4x8 with filing cabinets. Oh, and _shelves_. Shelves are crucial to my continued happiness, even if I have to make them out of cinderblock and scrap wood.
(I also need to talk to ThirdBase and see if she still has spare kitchen supplies, and if so, see if I can steal them.)
I do my best to ask for advice when dealing with stuff I don't have a great handle on. I know damn well that I don't have a great handle on money --I think I'm clever enough and organized enough not to find myself in debt, or having to make stupid sacrifices (like, do I get clean clothes or food this week) but I grew up in a relatively well-off household, and I know my brain carries over impulse patterns from shopping with mom that I can't afford to regularly use when shopping on my own.
(This is not to say my mother is bad with money, she's absolutely not. But we could afford to indulge in eye-level impulse buys (especially at the supermarket), and so that's sometimes a thing I am used to.)
~Sor