Monthly Bills (splitting from efeezy's thread)

How much are your monthly bills (personal only)?

  • $0-$500

    Votes: 32 16.2%

  • $501-$1,000

    Votes: 22 11.2%

  • $1,001-$1,500

    Votes: 24 12.2%

  • $1,501-$2,500

    Votes: 32 16.2%

  • $2,500+

    Votes: 87 44.2%
  • Total voters
    197
$2500/mo?

Damn, it wasn't that long ago that wouldn't have covered my monthly stripper/alcohol expenses.
 


somehow i spend 10k a month on stupid shit i need to get my act together and shed some of these expenses
 
subigo said:
So I took a few thousand dollars and we went shopping. We looked at clothes, electronics, camping gear, etc... After about 8 hours of shopping I came back home empty-handed.
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You're afraid to spend money. Money doesnt burn a hole in your rocket, rather, your nervous system goes into the sweats when you have to reach down there and pull out a C note to pay for something.

There is nothing wrong with this, BTW. It's called prudence, and you were probably never as a child given gifts or had your imagination inspired to want things by never receiving toys or that GI Joe doll with the Kung Fu grip as Eddie Murphy would say.

If you were not able to find one thing to spend the $1000 on, it simply means you are either (1) petrified to spend any money on anything non SURVIVAL oriented, or (2) so dull and boring as a person you just have no interest in anything and would prefer to sit on your second hand couch for the rest of your life and pay your condo fees and let your maintenance team worry about mowing the grass.

I'm sure it's not #2, after all, if you were really that boring you wouldnt be here right? So get yourself some hobbies, coin collecting, stamps, join a gym, take up a good vice like gambling, smoking, whoring, etc. and learn to spend your hard earned money.

P.S. Least you could have done was buy your girlfriend something to show her you care.
 
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subigo said:
I just think there's two kinds of people... The first type is able to create happiness with money/stuff. The second type can't.

I fall into the second type. I just don't have the desire to obtain a lot of stuff, travel to far off places, or eat gourmet food every night. Sure, there are things I want, but spending money is more of a hassle to me than anything else.

For example, I was talking with my girlfriend last fall about how I never buy anything. She wanted to know what the point of having money was if I didn't spend it... It had been at least a year since I bought anything for myself to just buy something. So I took a few thousand dollars and we went shopping. We looked at clothes, electronics, camping gear, etc... After about 8 hours of shopping I came back home empty-handed.

Basically I'm a happy hermit and don't care about what goes on outside of my condo.
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In spite of my earlier comments on cheap being good, I'm actually the opposite. I love and do travel to faraway places - in Feb. I went to Hawaii and in Nov. I'm going to Germany, but I won these trips in sweepstakes so they cost me practically nothing. I travel coast to coast fairly regularly, and have passed through 40 of the 50 states.

Once I had an expensive fine jewelry habit that had to be broken, and now I have a knack for finding real gold stuff for pennies at yard sales, et al. Even when I was buying it years ago expensively, I'd go to the diamond district for casings, stones and have it made up at wholesale prices. I have several large sacks of solid gold jewelry now.

I just bought myself a new Macintosh, and sold off older electronics to cover the price.

When I make some good kaching I'm going to do some work on the house - cosmetic and structural enhancements.

I have no fear of spending ca$h. I love to spend it on living better, being good to friends, but not wasting it. I could call this creative extravagance. Money to me means freedom from worry, freedom to do and go as I please, and I have more by using it wisely.
 
Roundabout said:
There is nothing wrong with this, BTW. It's called prudence, and you were probably never as a child given gifts or had your imagination inspired to want things by never receiving toys or that GI Joe doll with the Kung Fu grip as Eddie Murphy would say.
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i disagree w/ that statement. it's usually the opposite. often those who start to get some money in their bank and throw it all away are the ones who didn't have anything when they grew up and somehow wasting it on stupid stuff makes up for it in their heads.
 
jenzkc said:
i disagree w/ that statement. it's usually the opposite. often those who start to get some money in their bank and throw it all away are the ones who didn't have anything when they grew up and somehow wasting it on stupid stuff makes up for it in their heads.
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It can go either way, depending on the person. My father grew up in poverty during the depression and became a spendthrift who bought himself four yachts, so I have first hand experience with loved ones in credit card debt.

His brother and his wife were tightwads who traveled nowhere and sat in the dark and turned down the heat while eating leftovers. My personal approach to money takes from both.
 
Rent 700
Phone 30
Cable / Internet 120
Gas / electric 150 average
Insurance 25
food 400
Student Loans 600 (They are only about 300 but I pay double)

So all together around 1900 or so. I'm Moving to Denver Tomorrow So I'm sure this will go up.
 
Rent 1000
phone/net 150
tv 100
utilities 300
ins 120
vehicle pmt. 270
food 700
gas 100

Close to 3k for a family of 4
 
Rent - 1600
Utilities - 160
Internet - 50
Gas - 200
Credit Cards - 250
Food - 800
Car insurance - 160

That is just for me.. Looks like this South Florida living is a little pricey
 
with these poll options I guess I'm one of the few who owns a home in Coastal Southern California, SF Bay Area, NYC, or any other expensive area.

$2500 doesn't come close to my mortgage monthly.
 
Family of two, in a midwestern city:

Mortgage - $2200
Student loans - $1200
Food (groceries & dining out) - $750
Utilities - $400
Cell phones - $230
Cable, Internet, land line - $225
Car Ins (2 vehicles) - $150
Misc (household crap, repairs, other insurance etc) - $800

So around $6000/mo I would consider largely non-discretionary for us (we could skimp some categories but wouldn't go away entirely)
 
And I thought I had something to bitch about with $400 student loan payments (will make the first one this month). Clearly I am on the lower end of that spectrum.....

I remember working retail in college making 1k a month tops. Felt like I always had money....Now I make quite a bit more than that, and it doesn't feel like I have a penny more. I guess the more you make the more you spend, I however blame my wife for this.
 
Wow, the are some LOW poll options.

My rent alone (in the DC area) is $1600 .

$2500 might be enough to live well in the midwest - it is nowhere close to being enough if you live in one of the major cities.
 
DreamMachine said:
So, all jokes aside, what do you value or desire? Time? world of warcraft? watching ufc?
Click to expand...

Solitude. Hanging out with friends/family. Camping. Long distance bike riding. ZenSix. Good movies. Playing music....

Roundabout said:
You're afraid to spend money. Money doesnt burn a hole in your rocket, rather, your nervous system goes into the sweats when you have to reach down there and pull out a C note to pay for something.

There is nothing wrong with this, BTW. It's called prudence, and you were probably never as a child given gifts or had your imagination inspired to want things by never receiving toys or that GI Joe doll with the Kung Fu grip as Eddie Murphy would say.

If you were not able to find one thing to spend the $1000 on, it simply means you are either (1) petrified to spend any money on anything non SURVIVAL oriented, or (2) so dull and boring as a person you just have no interest in anything and would prefer to sit on your second hand couch for the rest of your life and pay your condo fees and let your maintenance team worry about mowing the grass.

I'm sure it's not #2, after all, if you were really that boring you wouldnt be here right? So get yourself some hobbies, coin collecting, stamps, join a gym, take up a good vice like gambling, smoking, whoring, etc. and learn to spend your hard earned money.

P.S. Least you could have done was buy your girlfriend something to show her you care.
Click to expand...

I'm not afraid to spend money, and I don't think I'm too boring. And growing up I definitely wasn't poor. I wasn't rich either, but we had money. I was first kid on the block to get the original nintendo and I had everything that ever came out for it... The power glove, the little robot guy that played against you (forgot what it was called), the power chair (bet you don't remember that), power pad, etc... I had dirt bikes, four-wheelers, bb-guns, etc... Point is, I had stuff and was spoiled.

The reason I don't spend money now is there's just nothing I want. Anything I can think of buying I already have and if I don't have it I can't see a use for it. I have a storage shed full of stuff that I don't use, why add to it?

As for traveling, I've just lost the desire over the past few years. I'll probably get the bug again, but right now I'm happy at home. I've picked up and moved to other states at multiple times in my past with no more than a day of planning it. I moved/lived in Yellowstone National Park for 2001 because I wanted an adventure. I road my bicycle across Colorado and the Rockies in 2006 because it sounded like fun.

Anyway, the point is, there's nothing I want that I don't already have. I'm not into cars, houses, gambling/drinking/smoking, clothes, etc...

Oh, and I've had plenty of hobbies in the past, but I get bored of things fast... as can be verified by the $1,400 radio controlled car in my storage, or the wave runner I've used three times.

And as for spending money on my girlfriend... that happens every single day. hah. I should of added her as a bill.
 
subigo - good for you man- embrace simplicity and really living instead of collecting crap. This has been a big goal of mine which started a few years ago. Are you a Tim Ferris fan by chance? (4 hour work week)
 
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