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Home > It's not easy to squeeze a budget,and I guess large minimum payments are good.

It's not easy to squeeze a budget,and I guess large minimum payments are good.

January 15th, 2008 at 02:55 am

After budgeting for the essentials, there just isn't much room for cutting in my budget. It seems like all I've got are the perennial targets, food and household items. Severely reducing eating out costs is the easiest score, but my wife's fast food habit will be tough to break. And she always gets the expensive combos, where I always get the $2-3 worth of items from the value menu with water to drink in the rare case when I am stuck eating fast food.

A big part of my budget is CC payments now that most credit card companies have raised the minimum payments to something like 2% of the total, and the last CC balance transfer I had to take for college might be 3%!! My CU still has the ridiculously low minimum payments though, and that really can lead to trouble. Before I always had the attitude "Later", but now I realize that I can't do that, "later" has to be NOW!!

7 Responses to “It's not easy to squeeze a budget,and I guess large minimum payments are good.”

  1. boomeyers Says:
    1200368986

    I kind of like the higher payments, although it is tough to choke them out!! It makes me feel like the faster I pay them off, the more I can "stick it to the man" and not be a slave to others!

  2. denisentexas Says:
    1200372808

    A budget isn't easy to squeeze because it's so slippery! That doesn't help you but I wanted to comment on your entry. Wink

  3. merch Says:
    1200405497

    Make sure that you and your wife are oon the same page first. Then see if she can cut down on the fast food. Instead of every day, start with every other day.

    In Decemeber, I was drinking 2 $4 coffees everyday. When I was budgeting, I knew I had to cut this. So the next week I got 2 $2 coffees, then 1 $2 coffee, then $2 coffee every other day... Now I only buy $2 coffee on the weekends.

    I think going cold turkey is hard because you crave it. Just a thought.

  4. Nic Says:
    1200408261

    I learned a long time ago that "later" moves faster than light and sound. Perhaps if your wife realized how much she spends on fast food,she'll get on board w/you. Show her how much she can save by brown bagging.

  5. Broken Arrow Says:
    1200424816

    Perhaps it would help if she saw "Supersize Me" as well.

  6. monkeymama Says:
    1200431278

    BA has a point. I have a healthy distate for fast food after watching supersize me. It also got me to thinking why I felt compelled to order combo meals when I didn't really want THAT MUCH fries and soda. I was just kind of a mindless sheep who didn't like to waste food. So now I just keep soda at my work and order $1 menu items. Same thing; much cheaper. (If I eat in, water is good too).

    & they always sound incredulous I don't want to buy their overpriced sodas. Am I the only one who figured this out? Wink IF I could go through the drive through once without hearing, "You don't want something to drink?!?"

  7. Caoineag Says:
    1200431898

    Wish supersize me was enough to cure my addiction to really bad food. I had to wean myself down and call it good. Course I am addicted to food in general (I keep telling my husband that there is a 300 lb woman inside of me just dying to get out, fortunately, I am so active that I don't gain the weight).

    Try weaning down. Take it from someone whose been there, you could tell me all about the money I would save and I wouldn't care if I had to go cold turkey or shoot for an impossible standard.

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