Question for Middle Class folks.

[florige]

My problem is the little small crap. I am good at researching and being cheap towards my large purchases. The thing that kills me is the $20 a night I average between lunches and snacks (please hold the doughnut jokes. lol) That averages out to over $500 a month in wasteful spending. After all my bills are paid I roughly average out around $1000 a month surplus. But that is before gas, food and misc... But the last few months unforseen stuff has been coming up like repairs to my car, property taxes, that keeps me from saving anything.

[Soul_Patch]

My problem is the little small crap. I am good at researching and being cheap towards my large purchases. The thing that kills me is the $20 a night I average between lunches and snacks (please hold the doughnut jokes. lol) That averages out to over $500 a month in wasteful spending. After all my bills are paid I roughly average out around $1000 a month surplus. But that is before gas, food and misc... But the last few months unforseen stuff has been coming up like repairs to my car, property taxes, that keeps me from saving anything.

While we are still prone to splurge and go off our plan, i have found that writing things down and keeping track really help to alleviate this.

I know what you mean though. End of the week, or month, or whatever you look at where the money went, its sick to see how much just gets pissed away.

We are saving for a vacation in October with some friends to the Caribbean...When we and say we dont have enough money to add to the trip fund, i can just look and see how much was spent on a coffee here, or a snack there...and that just about adds up to another day/night in paradise....

[Mel_13]

My problem is the little small crap. I am good at researching and being cheap towards my large purchases. The thing that kills me is the $20 a night I average between lunches and snacks (please hold the doughnut jokes. lol) That averages out to over $500 a month in wasteful spending. After all my bills are paid I roughly average out around $1000 a month surplus. But that is before gas, food and misc... But the last few months unforseen stuff has been coming up like repairs to my car, property taxes, that keeps me from saving anything.

Those that have suggested a percentage have it right. It is a matter of changing your mindset. You must save and then live on the rest (assuming you have a surplus after required spending, which you say you do) rather than save whatever is left after you spend.

Calculate 15-20% of your after tax income and set up automatic transfers in that amount from checking to savings. That way you treat savings as a bill on the level with rent, utilities, insurance, etc. It does not compete with lunches, snacks, and misc.

Don't adjust your savings to your discretionary spending, adjust your discretionary spending to your savings.

[Drachen]

My problem is the little small crap. I am good at researching and being cheap towards my large purchases. The thing that kills me is the $20 a night I average between lunches and snacks (please hold the doughnut jokes. lol) That averages out to over $500 a month in wasteful spending. After all my bills are paid I roughly average out around $1000 a month surplus. But that is before gas, food and misc... But the last few months unforseen stuff has been coming up like repairs to my car, property taxes, that keeps me from saving anything.

Ok, for gas, every paycheck I go and put $85 on a walmart gift card and use that to get gas (it is usually less, but once the "extra amount" reaches $85 then I can put an extra 85 into savings). As far as groceries, I allot $300 a month for that (family of 4). If I want to eat out, it comes out of my allowance so I don't do that very much. I have a loaf of bread at work, along with mus lunch meat and cheese and that is what I eat every day (outside of the fruit I bring). Saves a ton of money, and it has helped with me losing weight.

[101A]

How much $ a month would you find acceptable as a surplus for savings after all of your MAJOR bills have been paid for? ie:Car,Rent,Mortgage, Utilities, cell phone, etc... And what is the minimum you would want to have left? Not to count out the richers here, but the numbers you guys will prob come up with would probably out match my paychecks for the month. lol

Works for all income classes:

Put 15% from each paycheck into retirement/kids education savings.

Have 10 years salary (minimum) in life insurance if you have dependents.

Keep 3 months complete living expenses in liquid reserve.

Spend the rest.

[Soul_Patch]

Those that have suggested a percentage have it right. It is a matter of changing your mindset. You must save and then live on the rest (assuming you have a surplus after required spending, which you say you do) rather than save whatever is left after you spend.

Calculate 15-20% of your after tax income and set up automatic transfers in that amount from checking to savings. That way you treat savings as a bill on the level with rent, utilities, insurance, etc. It does not compete with lunches, snacks, and misc.

Don't adjust your savings to your discretionary spending, adjust your discretionary spending to your savings.

Yeesh...wish i could save 15% or more...some day, but right now its more like 5% (not counting 401k and sons college plan).

[florige]

While we are still prone to splurge and go off our plan, i have found that writing things down and keeping track really help to alleviate this.

I know what you mean though. End of the week, or month, or whatever you look at where the money went, its sick to see how much just gets pissed away.

We are saving for a vacation in October with some friends to the Caribbean...When we and say we dont have enough money to add to the trip fund, i can just look and see how much was spent on a coffee here, or a snack there...and that just about adds up to another day/night in paradise....

Exactly. That little unnecessary crap adds up quick when you aren't paying attention and like you said at months end you are thinking to yourself wtf?! I am going to try that writing down my purchases method.

[coyotes_geek]

My problem is the little small crap. I am good at researching and being cheap towards my large purchases. The thing that kills me is the $20 a night I average between lunches and snacks (please hold the doughnut jokes. lol) That averages out to over $500 a month in wasteful spending. After all my bills are paid I roughly average out around $1000 a month surplus. But that is before gas, food and misc... But the last few months unforseen stuff has been coming up like repairs to my car, property taxes, that keeps me from saving anything.

The small stuff is definitely the hardest to get control of. , just getting rid of Starbucks and only ordering water at restaurants has put well over $100 a month back in my wallet. My wife and I will also come up with incentives for things. Like if I bring my lunch to work 4 days in a week we'll go out to eat at a nicer restaurant on the weekend. I've found that it's easier to sacrifice the little things that add up if you give yourself some kind of a tangible reward for doing so.

[Mel_13]

Yeesh...wish i could save 15% or more...some day, but right now its more like 5% (not counting 401k and sons college plan).

I would count retirement and education savings. If you're doing that plus saving some more besides, you're definitely on the right track.

[florige]

Ok, for gas, every paycheck I go and put $85 on a walmart gift card and use that to get gas (it is usually less, but once the "extra amount" reaches $85 then I can put an extra 85 into savings). As far as groceries, I allot $300 a month for that (family of 4). If I want to eat out, it comes out of my allowance so I don't do that very much. I have a loaf of bread at work, along with mus lunch meat and cheese and that is what I eat every day (outside of the fruit I bring). Saves a ton of money, and it has helped with me losing weight.

See here is a prime example right here. $300 for a family of four! $500 for one who can't control his spending. Freakin ridiculous. I used to have a pretty good method. Well you guys may think it was ludacris, but I used to save alot more money. I had NO debit card. I used to just transfer $ from my bank to a credit card on Sunday so by Tuesday my normal day off I would have some $ to spend. If I ever blew through it by Friday I would just be screwed because you couldn;t do tranfers on the weekend. The only thing on my bank statements were checks and montly stuff. Whole thing was probably around 1 page long if... I got the debit card, about 7 pages worth of bs. I don't use my credit cards for anything now, but that method worked for me because every week I would put a certain amount on there and just turn around and pay it right back off the following week. I don't have any dependents or anything so there is no excuse why I shouldn't be able to save.

[florige]

Works for all income classes:

Put 15% from each paycheck into retirement/kids education savings.

Have 10 years salary (minimum) in life insurance if you have dependents.

Keep 3 months complete living expenses in liquid reserve.

Spend the rest.

Oh yeah I def know it works for everyone. I just wanted to get a round about $ amount from people in the "middle class" tax bracket verses someone who is considered "upper class" due to their earnings whereas they might have a number somewhere alot higher on what they expect to have going into savings each, week, month, year, etc.. . The responses I got here are pretty close to what I was thinking.

[jman3000]

1 check to rent (leftovers go to spending money). 1 check to gas/groceries/utilities/other bills. 1 check entirely to savings. 1 check I split and put half in savings and the other half to spending money. In the months where there are 5 pay days (April ) , that extra check goes directly into my IRA.

Every month my savings amount must be at least 500 dollars more than the previous month and I can't withdraw/transfer money from my savings if it goes below a continuously rising minimum.

have no car payment, have no kids, and I'm a cheapo, so I've been able to save up quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time.

[DarkReign]

I map out all expenditures (not just the "big ones"), this includes gas, groceries, cell phones, even spending money (I pay myself a $75 allowance twice a month). After all of that I try to get about 300-400 in the savings account every month. I will do this until I have 6 months worth of bills saved, then will probably increase my allowance and decrease the amount going into savings (probably 125 per paycheck allowance for myself, and my wife, and about 100-200 into savings).

Ask, florige, and ye shall receive.

You need to speak in percentages. Add up all your monthly expenses (food, gas, bills, cigarettes, booze, hookers, etc), multiply by 12, then divide by 52.

Bam. Weekly budget...in the bag. Whatever is "leftover" is what you can save or spend, or some combination of both.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

We're putting quite a bit into savings right now because we have two cars paid off, no kids yet, and we're spending about the same amount of money we spent five years ago when we were making half what we make now.

Once we have kids, new cars and our next home, I would still want to be putting at least $600 a month (not counting 401K's) into savings, hopefully more.

$600-$800 a month in cash on top of retirement is my 2010 goal as well. My 401k has been so crappy that I still contribute about 5% of my income to it, but I don't even open the statements lately because it's just too depressing.

[ashbeeigh]

When I was working I'd throw $120 in savings, end up using about $400 on bills and essentials and the rest was used for other stuff. So, for my $886 paycheck I had....about $366 left over. I wouldn't always spend it all but it was there and it seriously helped me throughout this period...not spending it all.

[ploto]

I have always tried to live on 70% of my take-home income; with 20% going to savings and 10% to church and charity.

[TDMVPDPOY]

my mom was a low income earner....15k-20k per annum as childcare worker

everything went to bills, rent, food...

watever is left over or she would try and set aside 600 to put in 4childrens managed funds locked up to matured date of 18yrs old...all 4 accounts already matured

that extra money you have left aside, make it earn money instead of leaving it doing jack ...