Beyond No-Buys - Personal Finance

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A no-buy is often part of a bigger goal - saving for a home, wedding, or even just a better grasp of your finances before having it slip away for pretties.

What personal finance bloggers or authors or systems do you guys use and how have they helped you?

(I have my personal favorite, but I'll respond after you guys!)

 
I don't really follow finance bloggers, but I do enjoy minimalism bloggers! I love the minimalist mom, missminimalist, becoming minimalist etc. It is not that I wish to live like them, I prefer my home to be cozy. But it's the philosphy that inspires me, living with less and only owning what you use and love, getting rid of the excess.
 

I will also have to move somewhere this year, and I really don't want my make-up to take up an enitre box, that is just embarrising. I want the move to be quick and easy, so that means that I will have get rid of stuff, and consequently, stop buying more. And having some extra money to spend on going on holiday or motorcycle lessons is also a nice extra.

So for me it is really about the big picture, a change in lifestyle.

To anyone going on a no-buy, look up some minimalist bloggers and google for 'minimalist makeup bag', quite inspiring to me at least, and motivating to not go out and buy more.

 
Quote: Originally Posted by Misame /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  I don't really follow finance bloggers, but I do enjoy minimalism bloggers! I love the minimalist mom, missminimalist, becoming minimalist etc. It is not that I wish to live like them, I prefer my home to be cozy. But it's the philosphy that inspires me, living with less and only owning what you use and love, getting rid of the excess.
 

I will also have to move somewhere this year, and I really don't want my make-up to take up an enitre box, that is just embarrising. I want the move to be quick and easy, so that means that I will have get rid of stuff, and consequently, stop buying more. And having some extra money to spend on going on holiday or motorcycle lessons is also a nice extra.

So for me it is really about the big picture, a change in lifestyle.

To anyone going on a no-buy, look up some minimalist bloggers and google for 'minimalist makeup bag', quite inspiring to me at least, and motivating to not go out and buy more.
Ah, yes, definitely! Minimalist lifestyles greatly appeal to me as well. And in my other thread, Making It Work, we touched upon how using what you have creatively can be even more fun than having so many options. I'd love for my collection to be fine-tuned to my HG's, with a little sampling here and there as necessary.

 
When I got my first full-time job I started really getting on top of my finances, I went to my credit union's annual meeting, I kept every receipt, I checked up on everything.

Then, a few years ago, I got even more into it! I think I had a fear that because I'd always been disorganized in my life, I'd let it hurt my future and my family if I did it with finances, plus, my family is so not good with money.

So, those few years ago I started out with finance books at the library, and moved on to blogs.

Some of the more motivating books I've read:

http://www.amazon.com/Money-Book-Young-Fabulous-Broke/dp/1594482241/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386174927&sr=1-10&keywords=finance+books

http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Peace/dp/B001I8PLYS/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386174989&sr=1-3&keywords=dave+ramsey+financial+peace

An actually helpful book I've read:

http://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Missing-J-D-Roth/dp/0596809409

Blogs I really like:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/

http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/

Tools I use:

Mint.com (to keep track of my finances

annualcreditreport.com (I check only one of the 3 agencies at a time, and do it every few months)

creditkarma.com to keep track of my credit score

Savings platforms:

My company's 401K

Roth IRA through Fidelity.com

U.S. Savings Bonds

My local credit union's kasasa

However, the past two years I've been working on getting my master's degree and I kind of let my finances take a backseat, and haven't kept as tight a grip on them. Also, I kind of found out that I am kind of a .... collector. This doesn't help!  So, anyway, I'm on a no-buy for December, and a low-buy for the year 2014.

I am sorry if my post was kind of boring and to-the-point, I'm at a place where I can't write much right now, but believe you me, I'll be back to this thread. I love this thread. It really helps me to discuss and share all of these types of tips.

I will so be back to explain my books and blogs a bit better!!

Interested to hear what your favorite is @kotoko

 
YOU NEED A BUDGET! Its honestly the best budgeting software I've ever tried. I follow their blog and listen to their podcasts and it has changed my life. youneedabudget.com is their website.

 
Quote: Originally Posted by Playedinloops /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  YOU NEED A BUDGET! Its honestly the best budgeting software I've ever tried. I follow their blog and listen to their podcasts and it has changed my life. youneedabudget.com is their website.
We use this too. A really great program.

 
I use mint.com to keep track of my accounts, and I know they have a budget system but I have not tried it. this post has inspired me to look into that. 

 
I tried the trial of YNAB earlier this year, but it was hard to keep remembering to make entries. I make a lot of small online purchases, and entering every time I spent $2 got annoying fast. But if I told myself I'd do entries later in the day, I'd forget things like 99 cent apps or other stuff that threw me off. Any tips?  

I really wanted to make it work, because it seems like one of the few plans suitable for a freelancer like me without a predictable income. 

 
Quote: Originally Posted by MoiSurtout /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  I tried the trial of YNAB earlier this year, but it was hard to keep remembering to make entries. I make a lot of small online purchases, and entering every time I spent $2 got annoying fast. But if I told myself I'd do entries later in the day, I'd forget things like 99 cent apps or other stuff that threw me off. Any tips?  

I really wanted to make it work, because it seems like one of the few plans suitable for a freelancer like me without a predictable income. 

I find that I can't keep a online agenda for the same reason. It's a hassle to type a full sentence on a phone, and I forget to put in my appointments when I get home. So I just use a paper agenda and it works a zillion times better.

Maybe you could try to keep a notebook on hand, and whenever you spend money you either write it down or stuff the receipt between the pages, and when you get home you make the entries on a fixed moment like: right before bed, or right after dinner. On my ADHD course I learned that in order to make something a routine, you have to match it with something that is already a routine. So instead of telling yourself you will call your mother ever day at 4 pm, it would be more realistic to tell yourself to call her while you are cooking, it's easier to remember and to do.

 
Thanks for the good advice! I'll be getting a rather nice agenda from one of my subs, so maybe that's what I'll use it for. I also like the idea of linking new habits to regular activities rather than timeslots. I hadn't thought of it before but it seems true.  ('I'll exercise right when I wake up' works better than 'I'll exercise at 6am... oh well, I missed it.') 

 
Wow, I'm so happy to see the response this topic has gotten and hope it keeps going!

I might be an unreliable source at the moment for a favorite personal finance system, because I'm freshly graduated and still looking for a job, BUT I'm working through Ramit Sethi's book I Will Teach You to be Rich and learning his automation system for finances. From reading his blog and e-mails, I've found that his philosophy of automating everything so that you don't even have to think about it appeals to me. He also supports spending on what you really love, but cutting back everywhere else, so it's not like spending money is the biggest sin, just spending money where you really won't see or appreciate the benefit the most.

I also use Mint to track my finances and have recently added BillGuard to watch over weird fees or suspicious credit card charges.

 
I really suck at finances, I usually forget to pay the bills and have no idea how much money is in my account. I am trying to better myself though.

The reason I've always been able to wing it is that I can't go into the red zone, so if my money is gone, it's gone and I can't borrow form the bank. My creditcard has a limit of a €1000,-. Whenever I use it, it takes the money directly from my savings account, so that way I never have to worry about paying interest of going into debt.

It would however be nice to have some clue on what's going on with my money. I'll probably look into the apps and books mention previously.

Recently I have mostly been trying to save money, because I will need a new laptop in the future and want to travel more. I saved a €100,- last month without much effort.

This is what I did:

- I decluttered my house, sold off everything that had any value left and gave every thing left away to friends and goodwill.

- switched to a cheaper health care provider

- put up a budget for my groceries and one for all my other expenses (a pretty strict one)

- started making wishlist, instead of buying. I realised I am not going to die if I don't get my hands on that new 'toy'. And I am leaving something for my family to give to me on my birthday.

- learning to cook properly instead of using jars and mixes, saves me a lot of money and is also a lot better for my health

- re-use materials when appropiate. I build a new stable for my shetland pony with stuff we had lying around, and it looks great, we didn't spend a dime.

- I am planning on moving soon to a cheaper and more comfortable home.

 

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