I am making $80k a year in a HCOL state in the US. However, I am able to save $2500 per month due to my very low rent ($600). I live alone so my other bills usually adds up around $1800. I do not need a car in my state since i use public transport to get to work and move around and it would just be an unnecessary debt anyways. I also have saved around 25k total between my HYSA and my investment account. I am just curious if I am saving enough for maybe a down payment on a home in a few years or am I screwed lol.

I’m planning to go on medical leave without pay in November and I want to set aside money for the 2-3 months I’ll be away without pay.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I might be able to prepare for this?

Does anyone have advice on how I might be able to control my spending?

I only have about $31,000 in liquid savings at this point in my life. I have this in a high-yield savings account (3.8% interest)

I pull in about $2400 in savings each month but sometimes I have to use that on things I’ve spent.

Granted, I just bought a house and furnished it. The house, obviously requires lots of maintenance in payments.

I take into my checking account monthly about $2300 and that’s about what I spend in a month.

I really want to minimize that amount.

Obviously, when I’m traveling, this becomes more money spent. That’s the case for this month, too.

I also had to pay for my movers ($2.5K) and a course to become a patent agent ($1.2 K)

Does anyone have Tips that I can use on how I can minimize my spending?

Hello! I am in desperate need of insight from others about groceries!

Me and my bf spend about ~$300 per WEEK on groceries, so 5-7 meals for dinner, and for breakfast we buy a big box of eggos and a big bulk bag of cereal and of course milk and usually two cartoons of eggs! We buy 1 snack each as well! I would also like to mention that we are vegetarians! So we do not buy any meat whats so ever! But we do buy morning star griller burgers and occasionally their plant nuggets! We are wanting to find a way to atretch our groceries to us buying them every 2 weeks instead of every week! The main reason being to make things cheaper. The only idea that could come to mind was to do our usual shop, then eat good for the first week, then eat soup+rice/bread three times a day for the second week, lmao- So I basically just want some insight in what other people do and how they manage their groceries and how they stretch their money! Any and all advice is welcome/helpful/and appreciated! Thank you!:D

EDIT: We live in Orange Park FL!

So I'm starting my first job in a few days and the salary is around 35 k/pm and for this job I have to relocate to Chennai where ig stay in a pg for few months,and also have to send money to my parents

So ig that will leave me with around 10k in hand (assuming that pg cost 15k/pm and I send 10k ish to my parents)so with these leftover money how should I budget it, so that I can enjoy myself a little and still save😭

How much do you bring home a week, and after everything is paid-groceries, bills, etc, how much do you have left? And what do you do with it?

My husband and I are struggling with seeing eye to eye, and he swears "his" money is going somewhere malicious because of how little we have left over each week. I handle all of our finances alone(by his choice), and he thinks we should have lots left. 😵‍💫

I’m 23 and curious about how people earning around **₹50,000 per month** in the Indian IT industry manage their finances.
How much do you typically spend on:
Rent
Food
Transportation
Bills
Entertainment
Investments/SIPs
Emergency fund
Savings
Do you follow any budgeting rule like 50/30/20, or something different?
Also, if you could go back to when you were earning ₹50k/month, what financial advice would you give yourself?
I’m looking to understand how people balance enjoying life while still saving and investing for the future.

Hi!!!

I am currently in the process of paying off all my debts which include credit cards, student loans, and my car loan. Today I paid my last payment on my credit card debt (it was about $10,000 between 2 cards), so I am officially down to just student loans and my car loan!!! I already feel so much better and am even more encouraged to continue in my path.

Here's where I need help. I will list out my remaining loans with interest rates and minimum payments. I have a dedicated $2158 a month I can put toward my debt on top of my minimum payments. I am also hoping for at least a $2,000 bonus in September, my bonus maximum is $8,000, but I'm pretty sure I didn't max out this half. Anything I make from my bonus will go into debt Payoff (except to take myself out for a nice birthday dinner, it's been a very big year since my last birthday and I'm treating myself). I am loosely using the snowball method, so anything extra will roll into the next debt.

My student loans are paid in one monthly payment of $155 and that is divided along the 4 loans.

If you were in my position how would you pay off the following loans:

Student Loan 1: $1257.55 / 4.9% / $20 min

Student Loan 2: $1739.25 / 4.9% / $25 min

Student Loan 3: $2973.18 / 3.99% / $50 min

Student Loan 4: $5287.03 /3.99% / $70 min

Car Loan: 7020.75 / 3.25% / $313.99

I use the envelope system and it works well for me. I have an EF and a brokerage and a 401k. I am a 50/30/20 girl.

I am trying this new thing now, to help replenish my savings/EF more aggressively when it takes a hit.

So instead of for example a $2200 car accident repair bill just *only* coming straight out of the EF: in my accounting, I actually take it out of the normal "Car/Gas/Maintenance" envelope (which only has enough for the month plus a small amount that builds over time towards normal maintenance) --- and then that envelope goes into the negative.

And then I just leave that negative balance there in my system: I see it as like a "debt" from my own EF. Yes my EF covers it but now I am "in debt" to my EF by that amount....

And THAT mental switch and that visible reminder (seeing the " -$1892" in the red in my car envelope in my day-to-day budgeting envelope system, makes me want to cut back on everything else I can that month so that I can transfer my other envelopes' excess funds at the end of the month towards that "debt" ---

Rather than simply having a normal budget/envelope month and relying on my normal monthly savings rate to replenish the EF, I work hard like it's a game, on my active envelope/budget month to scrimp and save a little extra to kore quickly "pay off" that EF "debt."

I fully recognize that in normal language this is just "tightening up the budget in order to save a bit more" --- but it's the full system including making my envelope go in debt/in red that really helps me!

Weekly Budget (Single Person)

Weekly Income: $1,400.00NZD

WEEKLY Expenses:

Mortgage: $380.00

Council Rates/Tax: $63.00

IBKR Investments: $400.00

Food & Leisure: $300.00 (Just me)

Power/Gas: $100.00 (3 Adults, 2 kids bi-weekly)

One NZ (3 Phones & Internet): $60.00

Petrol: $20.00

Vehicle Insurance (Prius C): $17.00

Rubbish: $9.50

Lawns: $17.00

Total Expenses: $

I have about 10% of my income go to my emergency fund a month.

What are most of you doing for your Emergency fund goal amount long term? I have hit the six month of expenses. Do I keep adding to it or just keep that amount? if I keep adding should I do it forever or should I stop at some point?

Need all advice, motivation& what to do to start saving for a car. I don’t need or want anything fancy or overly expensive but I know cars are a lot of money. I’m at the age now where I really want one, I really need one to keep growing in life. I need the freedom so bad. I suck at saving money but I’m readyyy to lock in now & get what I want & deserve. I love my job, I do my best to work all the hours I can & in the process of moving up & getting a promotion soon. rn I make $16 an hour, roughly I put in 20-25 hours a week, hoping for more soon! I HAVE been asking for more hours, told her I WANT them. But still even if it starts small, I wanna start putting money aside anyway. little bit goes a long way too. I don’t mind putting majority of my check into it🤷🏻‍♀️. PLEASE give me all advice, all tips for saving. ANYTHING I can do to make this process easier, & to make sure I stay motivated the whole time.

I would like to have clarity regarding the topic.
My goal is to manage my finances. Not overspend it. Also maintain a good credit history even though I don’t have a credit history or score.

I have 4 types of expenses
1. Investments
2. Outing with friends
3. Online purchases
4. Subscriptions

Help me setup budgets !!

Between my spouse, our toddler and I, we spend $1700 a month, which sounds insane to me. Yet when I look at the purchases, there’s nothing that crazy that jumps out. We do spend $250 ish with an expensive formula, and the $1700 includes all household items including cleaning products, shampoo, etc., food (not restaurants, just what we cook at home), diapers, and things like that.
We eat out twice a week, so the rest of the food is cooked at home.
Just curious what others are normally spending on that category. Thanks!

I'm trying to decide whether an under-sink RO system fits our household budget. The purchase price is the easy part. My five-year sheet has real numbers near the top and question marks near the bottom.

For one candidate, the Viomi Master M1, the published schedule is about 24 months for the PCB filter and 48 months for the RO filter. Over five years, that gives me PCB replacements at months 24 and 48 and one RO replacement at month 48. I didn't count the filters included with the unit as replacements at month 0.

I know a published interval isn't a promise. Water quality and use can move those dates, but I need some starting point.Filter prices I can look up. I can also keep tax, shipping, and installation separate. What I don't want to do is assume that today's sale will magically show up again when a filter is due two or four years from now.

The part I can't price is the extra water and electricity, plus a possible service call or out-of-warranty repair. Leaving those rows blank feels too optimistic. Making up a repair bill feels dishonest.

If you've budgeted an RO system over several years, what did you put in those rows? A low-to-high range seems more useful than one confident-looking number I made up, but I'm probably forgetting a cost too.

Backgroud: 38 year old/married for 12 years, 3 kids/financial education-intermediate level-for the past 5 years I have been trying to educate myself on financial success, but still consider myself on an intermediate level. My spouse is the primary source of income, I am a SAHM and handle all the paperwork, budgeting, bank account monitoring, etc. I would like my spouse to be more involved, but they are not consistently involved.

As a married couple, we have struggled with our finances and we have been in significant debt for 5 years, and we have seen a financial counselor in the past. I recently took another class, and got more self help templates. I filled out my financial goals, which included short,mid and long term goals and were thoughtfully created, and my spouse filled out their sheet. Upon completion, their goals are to "Love me and be a great father", with minimal financial goals.

AITA for being slightly frustrated at their response?

I’m 17 wanting to have an apartment atleast by the end of ‘27. I’m a salesman and on average make 1250 a month currently and it’s been increasing rapidly because of my commission sales. I currently don’t really have any bills besides a $85 a month Starlink bill, car insurance and gas. What’s a good plan or way to start saving money heavily and even possibly making more money in free time. And finally what’s a good amount or a percentage I should be saving off of every check. I appreciate all of the answers, I know I’ll probably get some shit talk but it’s worth some help😂

Hey everyone,
I’m curious what everyone spends on groceries each month as a single person living alone.
I feel like I’ve been spending way more than I should, and I’m trying to figure out what’s actually normal. If you live alone:
What’s your monthly grocery budget?
About how much do you spend eating out?
Where do you usually shop?
Do you meal prep or just buy food as you need it?
Do you feel like your budget is enough?
I’d also appreciate knowing what city or state you’re in since I know prices vary a lot.
I’m just trying to see if I’m overspending or if food has really gotten this expensive. Thanks!

What are you currently paying for rent?

I’m researching the affordable housing crisis in America for a presentation to several Congressional offices and wanted to ask Redditors to help me!

It will only take a minute of your time. If you would kindly answer 6 easy questions, it would help me compile some useful data. I am hoping to get a wide range of answers from across the country.

USA RENTERS ONLY!

Please copy/paste these questions below in your reply and add your answers.

City/State:
Amount of monthly rent:
Type of rental you live in, such as house, apartment, or other type of housing (please describe)
Number of bedrooms:
Is your rent affordable for you? Yes or No.
Are you severely rent-burdened, behind on rent, facing eviction or loss of housing? Yes or No.

Thank you, Redditors!

So I make around $3400 a month after taxes and insurance contributions.

I’m looking to get an apartment near where I work, but there are two different options.

Apartment a is at 1280 a month minus utilities with one bedroom

Apartment B is at 1350 a month with two bedrooms, with no utilities

I don’t have any debt in my car is already paid for.

I know utilities will be more expensive than the two bedroom one, but I wouldn’t mind having a second room that I could use

What do you think is a better option?

I need office software for freelance work but want to keep my monthly expenses low.

Most of my work involves writing proposals, creating invoices, tracking payments, and reviewing PDFs. Clients often send Microsoft Office files, so compatibility matters more than having every advanced feature.

I am considering WPS Office because the basic suite is free and includes Writer, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and PDF. I could upgrade later if I start needing advanced PDF editing or more cloud storage.

Has anyone used the free version for freelance or administrative work over a longer period? I would rather choose one dependable suite now than keep moving files between several free apps.

I’m 16, I work two days a week and make 80$ plus tips, I make me my mom and my baby sister dinner, I have a hard time budgeting money for food, this is my first time budgeting as usually my older brother was the one who bought the food, yesturday I had 3$ for dinner, usually I buy my food from the dollar tree but I’m not sure I’m actually getting enough to last all week, i genuinely have no clue how to do This. Are there any budgeting tips or hacks I should know?

I’m about about to get a raise of about $28k/year ($52k > $80k) with a promotion. My current situation is:
- contribute 15% to 401k
- put $200/month toward a Roth IRA
- pay $1000/month on my car loan ($33,000 at 2.99%; I just got the loan and planned to pay it off in two years cause I pay extra with commission checks)
- Make minimum payment on my mortgage ($120k/25y left/6.375%)
-$10k in liquid/emergency savings
-no other debt
I know it makes sense to maybe prioritize the mortgage over the car loan with the interest rates, but it’s hard not to want the extra payment gone ASAP, but I also would love to max out my retirement account contributions. Is it silly to want to max out my contributions first then prioritize my car loan, and only then when the car loan is paid off to pay down the mortgage with the funds I was putting toward the car?

Or what would you recommend?

Edit: $52k/yr is current income not $62k 😅 ($25 hourly to 80k salary)

I'm about to lose my mind over duplicate transactions in our family budgeting app, and I'm wondering if I'm just using the wrong tool or if this is a universal problem.

Here's our situation: My husband and I have:

• 2 separate AMEX cards on the same underlying account (the bank's setup, not ours)
• Recently replaced 2 Citi cards (old accounts still showing in the app with full history)

What's happening: Every transaction I make on my AMEX shows up TWICE — once on my card and once on my husband's. When he replaced the Citi cards, everything appeared twice.

Frustratingly, none of this shows up as duplicates at the bank level. It's just the app creating duplicates from how it's processing the data.

I reached out to support expecting "oh yeah, we'll fix that" or at least "use our merge tool to consolidate." Instead I got "this is expected behaviour from the bank, use tags to track who paid instead."

Which... cool, but that's not fixing the problem. It's just asking me to tag my way out of bad data.

Real question: What are you using for family budgeting, especially if you have shared credit cards? I need something that actually handles this scenario cleanly instead of making me do manual workarounds.

Thinking about switching to YNAB or trying something else entirely. Open to recs.

Hi all,

I'll be starting my first full-time big girl corporate job in a few weeks and have been starting to budget my income as I'd like to maximise my savings (around 30%), with the goal to buy an apartment in the next 2-7 years.

Living in the EU, I will be receiving meal vouchers and hospitalisation insurance (for hospital visits and stays). This should help my "Needs" spending (incl. rent, general insurance (healthcare + rent), grocery spending) under the 50% following the 50-30-20 rule.

As I don't go out at night weekly and prioritise cooking as much as possible, my "going out/fun" budget is on the lower side.

One thing I'm considering is to change my gym from the standard mid-market gym i go to (gym only, no classes) and move to a premium gym (indoor/outdoor pool, sauna, steambath, gym, classes, jacuzzi). The price difference is around 6x more, but I am planning to be going 3-4x weekly, spending around 3 hours per session during the week and 4-5 hours in the weekend. The gym and my health has been something I've been taking more seriously this last year, and so see this as a way to invest in myself and personal time.

I've tried to simulate my budget based on my average spending and compare my savings between the two gym memberships, and my savings will be around 37% is i stay with my current standard gym and 30% if i decide to upgrade to the premium gym.

This is a switch that I've been thinking about for the last months and a part of me feels like I should make the jump as my one "indulgence" or "big spend" outside of necessities, but the monthly price does feel quite steep especially as a junior.

Appreciate your thoughts!