Debt and money issues

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Dealing with money is a huge challenge. Do any of you have difficulties managing resources, spending, incurring debt, or just stressing over money?

Do you have any advice about how to deal with these issues?

Thanks.

Hmmm... I'm lucky in that my roommate does all that. He uses a spreadsheet for easy checking and tabulation, so all you have to do is put the numbers in every month.

Otherwise, I just leave a really wide financial berth for myself, just to be safe.

I don't have these issues except for stressing over money but my advice would be, add up how much the bills cost you every month; rent, electric, and other bills you have to pay like if you make payments on your car or you have to pay for your water sewer or trash. Look at how much you pay on food, and gas (if you drive). Then work out how much money is left over after you spend it all on bills. What is left over is your spending money. If there is something you want to buy, save it. Don't spend it on anything if you can't afford it on what is left over from your paycheck after bills, food, and gas.



I do stress over money because it's my obsession and thanks to that, it's what makes me manage it and budget it. It makes me find a way to save money and know how to shop cheap. I don't go for the fancy stuff like having to buy a fancy cell phone or clothes to fit in. I don't go for clubs or anything that will cost me every month. I do not want more bills. My boyfriend has to pay for his internet game every month. I will never do that. But he might have to give it up unfortunately when we have a kid. I am also obsessed with saving I have saved up to $5,000 in my savings. Now if I were supporting myself, I would not be able to save that much. I would have no savings because I would have less than $200 from my paycheck after paying my bills excluding food and gas. But I would have signed up for assistance and live in a cheaper apartment. I am sure my parents would have helped me out too if I needed more money like to have something fixed on my car or for me to come out and see them since I would not be able to afford it if I had no assistance but then again I would have been living in a cheaper place depressed. But it's mostly I would have gotten a room mate which is what I have problems with due to trust but I would chance it to make my living cheaper.

Oh, yeah. Get rid of your car.

If my dad approves of it. He owns the car basically because it is under his name for the insurance but it is my car. Sometimes I do feel like selling it but then how will I get to places like if I need to bring lot of things home when I go shopping for things I need. How will I also get to places when I want to travel locally. Renting a car would be more expensive because I would have to pay for how many days I have it. It even makes it easier for my boyfriend because I can take him grocery shopping and we bring home the groceries in the trunk. carrying them on the bus is hard. I am thinking of getting him those little cart things on four wheels. We don't need to buy much food anyways. I also use it to pick up my pills but I am going to change pharmacies when I renew my prescription so that it will be a lot closer to where I live and I can take the bus there.

Oh yeah I can use bus or train to travel but I rather drive where I have my own routine and can stop in Spokane instead of being forced to ride through there and not being able to do the B&J tour. There might be a lay over there on bus but there won't be enough time to ride buses around Spokane to look at the locations. Oh yeah stay the night there and then travel to Montana the next day but I am sure that gets expensive. Especially doing the same on the way back.

Yes, our family is right now.

No and yes. I have no big bills. Just a cable bill.

I don't drive yet so I am not getting hit by gas expenses.

am have long term debt which was caused by the council and learning disability services for not sorting out a way to pay the residential care bill,they had been expecting staff to take am to drop the thing off at the post office but am sent into meltdown from the sensory overload in post offices,have injured others during this because the cues in the PO have barriers all around the sides,and have refused to go near POs for a long time,but instead of setting up another way of paying,the support staff left it at that and have let the debt build over the years.

am have no sense of money and the council have the official rights over the account,they have written down everything am get that they say is a disability need [they include broadband in this for am,and other things like the car hiring,regular new pairs of ear defenders etc] and they say everything that comes under this part-they cannot use the money for anything else even if its not been paid,they use the rest to go to normal weekly stuff and to pay off the debt.


am not sure who could help self where are,but getting someone who is there to help with that type of problem regulary could stop self from getting worse with it.
try the SS if cant find one.

I am often stressing out about money. I fear inflation (even though the inflation rate in Germany is rather low) which devaluates the money, I saved and I fear accidentally getting into the negative in my checking account (on the other hand, I hate to have much money there due to the fact that there is no interest).

That's shocking...trust the council to ignore a problem like that...Typical. Sorry it happened to you. I agree, post offices can be a bit crazy unless you live out in back of beyond and it's a quiet rural one.. and they're shutting all those down anyway.

The whole 'money' thing is doing my head in just now - I just got a mortgage on a part-ownership flat. What a stupid time to move out... the price of food and fuel is all over the place! Of course, at least I can get the train from here, so even if I was still living with my parents I would be struggling for money. My mum panicks about it more than I do because she always has enough money in savings to pay off anything she owes, and the fact that I don't is really worrying her - even though my (non-mortgage) debt is under £1000. (I also owe them some money for my car, but they are not worried about that at the moment) The thing is, their house is tied to my dad's job, so they have no mortgage or anything like that to deal with. Whatever, it's all just a great big tangle.

I know how it is to stress over money, and dealing with it takes sacrifies, such as only buy what you need like food and gas, and pay only the bills you need, like heat, phone, ect. Don't buy things you don't need, I was in a crunch but now things are looking up, some of the things I cut off I still don't have because I learned to live without it, like TV for example, when I moved into our house I did not bother getting TV service because it would only be one more bill to pay and I have a lot of DVDs anyway, plus there is youtube.

Money is a huge issue for us right now. My family is thousands of dollars in debt and I try to help out as much as I can despite only having a part time job. It was somewhat manageable until the price of everything started going up this past year, especially food and gas. They're really killing our budgets, especially since the raises we get at our jobs don't keep up with the rapid inflation that's happening.

It's also a problem as far as holding me back from further independence. If it wasn't for money issues I could've been working on moving out by now. I can only work certain hours at my job because the only starting and ending times I have must coincide with when someone can pick me up (I don't drive). I would get a car to drive myself once I get my license, but the restricted hours make it impossible to earn enough money to do so, and I can't get a higher paying job to pay for such since they would most likely be flexible hours where I wouldn't be able to get a ride. I could take taxis, but with what they charge for just a one way trip, I may as well just give my entire paycheck to them. And the only bus I can get here also runs on very restricted hours. Quite a vicious circle.

So to answer the OP's question, yes, we do stress over money here.