14 Comments »

Broke MBA said:

G.E.,
I love the concept of your new site! I voted in your poll and I guess I struggle most with food and entertainment. I find it very easy to get carried away while trying to maintain a social life. I always enjoy new ideas within this category.
- 11 October 2009 at 10:38 pm
allen said:

Food/Entertainment for me, too! It’s so hard to cut back when food prices keep rising…
Also, being single means you go out on dates, which means, inevitably, spending at least SOME money on that, too…
An idea? More on ways to have cheap/free dates w/o appearing that way?
- 12 October 2009 at 1:21 am
allen said:

PS: I also love the idea.
Too many PF blogs act like you can just demand a raise, or just find a new job. :[
- 12 October 2009 at 1:22 am
FruGal said:

Love the new site so far, looks really great! I voted ‘other’ because I’m always looking for tips on how to boost my savings as far as possible.
- 12 October 2009 at 5:28 am
Honey said:

I struggle with food and entertainment because my partner (we’re not married, yet, so our finances are separate) makes SIGNIFICANTLY more money than I do, and it’s very difficult to create a shared budget that is fair to both of us financially, but that doesn’t lead him to feel deprived.
- 12 October 2009 at 4:07 pm
G.E. Miller (author) said:

@ Broke MBA, Allen, Honey – so far food and entertainment is dominating the poll votes. Geez, what have you guys been eating? Which of the two has been a bigger problem area? And why?
@ Frugal – Boosting savings and slicing expenses go hand in hand. What expenses cause you the biggest problems?
- 12 October 2009 at 9:17 pm
Honey said:

G.E. – food is by far the biggest challenge, though I suppose it counts as entertainment also if you are eating out.
My boyfriend typically pays when we eat out, so I actually have no idea how much is spent on that (I know he eats out for lunch on an almost daily basis, while I brown bag it). Our monthly grocery budget for 2 people is $600, and we frequently go over (we have had NUMEROUS fights about his seeming inability to curb this spending). We are vegetarian and so purchase a variety of specialty items, but that still seems high to me…
- 12 October 2009 at 9:51 pm
G.E. Miller (author) said:

@ Honey – Are you shopping at Whole Paycheck, er, I mean Whole Foods? $600 for two people seems like a lot. Does that include non-food items?
- 12 October 2009 at 9:53 pm
Honey said:

No, we boycott Whole Foods because we don’t agree with the CEO’s politics. We do shop at Sunflower, which is almost as bad, but you just can’t buy tempeh, seitan, Quorn products, or some of the other vegan specialty items at the regular store. A typical shopping trip includes Trader Joe’s, Sunflower, and Fry’s. I am a hobby cook and do quite a bit from scratch.
- 12 October 2009 at 10:14 pm
Julie said:

Honey,
You boycott Whole Foods because you don’t agree with the CEO’s politics? That’s cool, I boycott them because I hate the color green.
- 13 October 2009 at 1:43 pm
Broke MBA said:

G.E.,
Food and entertainment are generally the same thing in my household. My wife and I hardly ever eat out alone. We do eat with friends at restaurants a couple times a week or so. So I guess this problem would fall more in the entertainment category…
- 13 October 2009 at 6:31 pm
TJ Jackson said:

On GetRichSlowly, you posted that your local bank currently pays you 3% on your savings – not sure what kind of account you meant, so I use “savings” here in it’s most generic sense, ie your liquid cash.
We’d like to know what bank (name, city, state) is paying this kind of return. If indeed it is liquid, nationally available, and no major strings attached, we’re most certainly interested in it
- 18 October 2009 at 4:48 pm
mewithoutdebt said:

I struggle mostly with small daily expenses. Big expenses are easily controlled or planned but how can you plan not getting an extra drink or upgrading your items on shopping list for just a few dollars?
- 19 October 2009 at 2:19 pm
Sharon H. said:

I feel ready to fling myself off the nearest cliff when I contemplate performing home repairs of even the simplest type. My last attempt to remove old layers of paint from the intricate lines of the soft pine windowframe over my kitchen sink led to serious [hopefully short-term] lung damage and permanent bubbled-up scars on my new corian countertops.
Yet I don’t want to pay someone more than I earn to do something that is supposed to be simple. It’s a conundrum.
Is there hope? Must I hire out everything? Or do I go cliff-hunting.
- 30 October 2009 at 9:39 pm

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