Monthly budget

SnowyMountaineer said:
I think it depends a lot on what you want out of it. Some things are relatively replaceable or easily replicated, some are not.
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maybe i should take to to PMs but i'm legitimately curious what people would suggest (enough suggestions came in and brought me back on track since i started this).

thus far i suck at elk hunting. i've started honing in on elk in colorado. my wife suggests that if i do wyo general then i'm only allowed to do that tag and one other because she continues to watch me draw too many tags and spend too little time hunting each one and therefore come away with less success than i could have.

wyo general allows me a full month of september, and nearly a month and 10 days of rifle, half of which is cow only essentially. and to me, partially for nostalgia, family ties, the beauty and quality of the land, nothing can ever replicate hunting in wyoming. objectively, i can pick up many tags in colorado that afford me a high quality opportunity to shoot an elk.

my wife said you get wyo general and one colorado tag and you hunt that elk tag till it's filled, no dicking about with other tags that may take time away. she's smart.

Freak Freak said:
Go to Wyoming and just explain college degrees are over rated when they hit 18. Seriously go as soon as possible the tag is cheaper now than it will be in the future and your points will never be a valuable as now if the quota cut happens it'll seriously devalue your points. Might be one of those instances where by trying to save money your actually costing yourself more in the long run.
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agreed. i've told my wife about the issues facing wyoming. she's down for the costs, i haven't even told her i'm second guessin the finances of it yet.

mulecreek said:
Stick with original plan. The answer to your cost equation isn't going to improve anytime soon. And the time and cost commitment of a child will only increase as the years go on.
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this is the huge one that i almost just forgot about. thanks.

2023 will really the be the last year for me to hunt with any degree of "freedom" for some time as we intend to be pregnant again the following year.



how silly of me to even consider pulling the plug when the wife was on board already. this is what HT is for.
 
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neffa3 said:
I know less many on here, but I question anyone's push to create and maintain a spreadsheet, nothing will make you give up a good habit quicker than making it a PITA. There are lots of free apps that'll do it for you.

My "secret" is to save me from me, but having most of our money DD to accounts I don't look at. We don't maintain of ton of liquid cash because it'll just get spent. We put out money to work for us as quickly as possible. Max out 401ks and HSAs, excess goes into a brokerage account, I deliberately have the govt withhold a bit more money, because it's always nice to get a little extra back than have to pay up (even though I know I could make a little more in the long run).

I also question the whole "no cc" policy. We've paid for two vacations by simply saving the cash back from our CC. It still get's paid off every month, and except for gas (non costco at least) and cars, buying with cash doesn't save you money.

The two things that can push us over the edge quick on any given month is subscriptions (all those small little $10-30/mon add up), and clothing/shoes/boots. For whatever reason my wife and I are both susceptible to the a good sale on gear, saving our way to the poor house.
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I was singing Hallelujah as I was reading, except for the overwithholding ;)
 
TOGIE said:
maybe i should take to to PMs but i'm legitimately curious what people would suggest (enough suggestions came in and brought me back on track since i started this).

thus far i suck at elk hunting. i've started honing in on elk in colorado. my wife suggests that if i do wyo general then i'm only allowed to do that tag and one other because she continues to watch me draw too many tags and spend too little time hunting each one and therefore come away with less success than i could have.

wyo general allows me a full month of september, and nearly a month and 10 days of rifle, half of which is cow only essentially. and to me, partially for nostalgia, family ties, the beauty and quality of the land, nothing can ever replicate hunting in wyoming. objectively, i can pick up many tags in colorado that afford me a high quality opportunity to shoot an elk.

my wife said you get wyo general and one colorado tag and you hunt that elk tag till it's filled, no dicking about with other tags that may take time away. she's smart.



agreed. i've told my wife about the issues facing wyoming. she's down for the costs, i haven't even told her i'm second guessin the finances of it yet.



this is the huge one that i almost just forgot about. thanks.

next year will really the be the last year for me to hunt with any degree of "freedom" as we intend to be pregnant again the next year.



how silly of me to even consider pulling the plug when the wife was on board already. this is what HT is for.
Click to expand...
WY it is!
 
rke said:
I use my cc for everything so that I gain as much cash back as I can. I also check the app everyday and make payments to it daily so that I never carry a balance. It's a little work, but no more than using a debit card would be.
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No credit card I have ever seen has instant interest. In most cases just pay before next billing cycle. Or weekly if you are really concerned. There - HT just saved you a daily chore ;)
 
TOGIE said:
after finalizing this years preliminary budget two days ago i'm considering yanking, yet again, my plan to do wyo general elk all because of the new baby.

no time like the present though. hunt while you can. burn those points. I know, i know.

but also, i can do multiple elk hunts in colorado for literally probably 1/6 the total cost.

what would Hunt Talk do?
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Do it, those kids aren't gonna get any cheaper or easier. Not that kids are a bad thing or it'd there fault. I haven't been west on a trip since my oldest was just born (he's 4 now) sitting here trying to justify wy Gen elk as well and it ain't looking good.
 
Screenshot_20230103-144605_Samsung Internet.jpg
Not to derail my own thread but out of curiosity i Google how many people live check to check. Scary stuff. Don't get me wrong I'm not sitting on a basement of gold bars here but we've got what I consider a healthy emergency fund. We're pricing new windows for the house ( they are completely shot) around $25 to 26k for all of them. I think the plan is to do about a third and our tax return should handle most of that and do that for the next three years. My question is what do those folks do when there already maxed and something like this comes up. Puts my anxiety through the roof just thinking about it.
 
SAJ-99 said:
Do you have kids? Nothing blows up a plan like kids.
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Yes, we’ve got a pair. Youngest will be 22 when I hit 55. Part of the reason for having the house paid at 55. I figure if I get them to 22 they’re on their own. To your point, we’ll see how that works out for me in 15 years. If things go well, with the house paid and the last one out of the nest, retirement at 55 might be an option.

My wife is already on notice that if she wants to spend a small fortune (which she will) on our daughter’s wedding that’s fine, but the amount of largesse will be entirely and dollar for dollar based on what she takes home after she turns 60 . . .
 
NEWHunter said:
Yes, we’ve got a pair. Youngest will be 22 when I hit 55. Part of the reason for having the house paid at 55. I figure if I get them to 22 they’re on their own. To your point, we’ll see how that works out for me in 15 years. If things go well, with the house paid and the last one out of the nest, retirement at 55 might be an option.

My wife is already on notice that if she wants to spend a small fortune (which she will) on our daughter’s wedding that’s fine, but the amount of largesse will be entirely and dollar for dollar based on what she takes home after she turns 60 . . .
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We are at a very similar point in life. I’ll be 56 when my kids are 22 and hope to retire as close to that age as possible. I’m a bit behind though in that I just bought a house this year. I don’t think it will be paid off in 16 years, but we’ll see. From my perspective, as long as you’re able to retire before turning age 60, then it doesn’t really matter how you got there or how much money you have when you eventually die. I suppose if I miss that goal then I will regret not having a monthly budget. Time will tell.
 
BisonGuy said:
No credit card I have ever seen has instant interest. In most cases just pay before next billing cycle. Or weekly if you are really concerned. There - HT just saved you a daily chore
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Doing it daily is significantly easier than catching it up at the end of the month. Plus, I always know where I am at with our finances. As a family of 7 with a single income, I need to know all the time where we are actually at.
 
rke said:
Doing it daily is significantly easier than catching it up at the end of the month. Plus, I always know where I am at with our finances. As a family of 7 with a single income, I need to know all the time where we are actually at.
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And I thought a family of five made things tricky ;)
 
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Leinenkugelsfreak said:
View attachment 258996
Not to derail my own thread but out of curiosity i Google how many people live check to check. Scary stuff. Don't get me wrong I'm not sitting on a basement of gold bars here but we've got what I consider a healthy emergency fund. We're pricing new windows for the house ( they are completely shot) around $25 to 26k for all of them. I think the plan is to do about a third and our tax return should handle most of that and do that for the next three years. My question is what do those folks do when there already maxed and something like this comes up. Puts my anxiety through the roof just thinking about it.
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Wuss!
Gotta keep them dreams in check.
 
BucksnDucks said:
For the married folks.
How many of you are 100% honest about cost of gear, trips, and guns?
I'm usually on a don't ask don't tell policy. If directly asked about a specific item, I won't lie but I'm not proudly printing out receipts for draws/tags, firearms or reloading components.
Also if I die and she sells any optics or rifles someone is in for a fantastic deal :oops:
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100% here. I can't remember the last time one of us bought a gun and didn't have the other one there to share the enjoyment. When you're best friends, you have fun sharing special moments. We do Dave Ramsey for the most part, have a monthly budget that is a month ahead (so January's paychecks become February's spending) so we always know what we are going to have coming in, but we also have an 'ammo is always allowed to break the budget' policy because I like to shoot almost as much as he does and when it's in stock, you gotta grab it.
If you look at where we live and the things we enjoy, the math wouldn't add up at first glance, but we have a lot of what we consider unnecessary that we have never gotten into. TV, fancy phone packages, vehicles under 20 years old, Disney anything, wouldn't enrich our lives so we don't spend money on them.
 
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