Emergency Savings: Do you have a cash reserve?

Seriously wenders, there has to be something you can cut out of your budget to help save money.

 

Wenders,

I cut out renting ladyboys from Laos for the weekends. I'm saving at least $1500 a week these days.

 

What's a ladyboy?

 

They have both kinds: country and western.

 

Been a long time since your first job, guys?

rent + food + gas + other day-to-day essentials on a first job salary = lucky if you have anything left over.

I made $7.69 an hour in my first job. If I wasn't living at home, I would have been on food stamps. Or selling my body for food. Or both.

 

I made $8.50 an hour for my first job and rented an apartment and still was able to put money away.

A big part of saving money is: A. not going to bars; B. Not smoking as much as I do; C. Not buying every little thing you want, just because you want it; and D. The most important: Cooking food and not eating out. I can't fathom how much money I use to spend eating out every day. You can make a meal and use the leftovers for the next 2 to 3 days and spend about $15 to do so. Eating out for $15? Shit, that's three meals tops.

I'm not trying to rip anyone, just saying if you don't make much, you better be really good at managing your spending.

 

This is absolutely the best advice anyone can give.

Cooking for yourself will save you a lot of money. You have no idea how far it will go, if you're smart about it.

That said, I do think a lot of people are forgetting just how hard it is to get ahead, even for two weeks, when you've got $50 left over from your paycheck.

 

OK, I can agree with that.

Plus, it is hard when you do save up some money to not spend it. Sometimes you want to eat out and you want to go to the bar or buy yourself some new outfit or some movie or some cd or whatever it is. I guess that is why budgeting is so important.

 

My wife and I both work. We live paycheck-to-paycheck.

If I get laid off on Dec. 10 (and let's face it, nobody's safe at this point in the Evil G), we're in serious trouble. We depend on both of our incomes to survive.

Every time we get a little money saved up in a reserve account, we have something happen, like helping out relatives during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or my son breaking his arm, or every appliance in our house breaking at the same damn time.

 

Cee...dee?

I see what Angola is saying, but how many 22-year-olds (I think that's wenders' age range, forgive me if I'm wrong) are going home right after work and socking away every single spare cent? Only humorless back-in-my day idiots can expect that out of someone so young.

 

Well, that's why I said it's important to save money in the ways you can, but still have fun. Mainly cooking for yourself and if you are going to have drinks with friends, do it at someone's house some of the time.

 

the consumerist.com always has posts about how to save and spend less. this is an example of one of theier links:

http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2006/11/301_saving_mone.html