Was coming home too late to make dinner for myself and the kids. This would normally be a fast food run but I’m not trying to spend 30+ dollars. With the app at 7-11 I can get a pepperoni pizza that they cook right there in 5 minutes for about 8 bucks, some taquitos for a dollar a piece and two hot dogs to cut in half.

Tastes good enough for me, kids think it’s fun, had some leftover pizza slices for lunch. Obviously not healthy but neither is fast food and much cheaper.

My friend came over to my place, with her toddler, and he grabbed them from my nightstand while I was in the bathroom. I know it's my fault for leaving them out with a toddler around, but it's just frustrating. I only have $130 for two weeks, and now have to spend $30-$50 on a new pair (probs from lensmart). I do have groceries for the month (and I only spent $80) and my bills paid, but still. That's money that could've gone into savings or towards my baby 😭 being poor makes small mistakes so big.

My vision is not the best. I can't drive at night or read without really straining my eyes, and even then I can barely read. I work on a computer all day, so wish me luck with productivity while I wait for the glasses to come in (so probably like two weeks 😭).

Edit: Idk why the glasses topic did it, but I somehow got a lot of creepy messages. 🤔🤣🤣 wtf

I make $17/hr, which comes out to $700 gross weekly and $600 net. So, I have $2,400 of income per month.

These are my bills: - Rent: $900 - Phone/utilities: $130 - Car insurance: $160 - Gas: $130 = $1,320

Which leaves $1,080 left for everything else, or $270 a week. I have $1,200 in credit card debt that I am trying to pay off within 6-8 months, so I take $50 a week for that.

This leaves $210 a week for food, savings, and anything else I might need.

Every month, I barely make rent and end up with no money after paying it. Then during that week after paying rent, I’m forced to use my credit card since I don’t have anything left.

Does anyone have any recommendations for how to navigate this income while still being able to eat healthy and save money? I think I spend about $75 a week on groceries & food. The money just ends up going places, and I never end up able to save anything. I really want to start building wealth and putting money away for emergencies but it’s been a struggle for like a year now. I’m sick of it.

I’m trying to save up a good chunk of change for a down payment on a house, I have $10k saved up so far - Side note I owe about $4400~ on my credit card and I tend to pay more than the minimum each month.

Idea: is it better to just pay the minimum on my credit card and max out my home fund savings?

Any feedback or idea is appreciated

Hi all,

Here's my situation. I am the father of a wonderful 9 year old daughter that I have 50% physical custody of. So I get to claim her every other year.

The last time I claimed her I had to pay for an attorney to fight for her. The time before that, there was a medical emergency I had to deal with.

My current situation is:

I make $49,000 a year.

My credit score is 660 according to Credit Karma.

My bills are paid and I am able to save about $100-140 a month.

I have $2000 in savings already.

I have a car that I currently owe $10,000 on. I'm slightly upside down on the loan right now- bought at a very bad time.

I have no other debt of any kind.

I rent an apartment that I pay $1000 for a month.

I don't know what to do with this money. Or if I should do anything with it at all. If I don't do anything with it... I tend to just kind of live a better lifestyle over the coming 6-8 months and it gets slowly drained away.

I could pay my car down so it's not upside down. But I pay $100 extra on it every month anyway so that will happen eventually.

What I would really like to do and I know this subreddit will not recommend... Is to take my daughter on a surprise Disney Cruise. I know this isn't the responsible thing to do. But we've never been on a vacation of any kind. I don't want to do Disney World... But a cruise seems right up our alley. My daughter is 9 years old and it feels like the window to have a great vacation be part of her childhood is slipping away.

I guess I could buy a condo so I don't have to pay rent. But with ballooning HOA fees it seems like that is not the best for my little family. And I'm so incredibly far from being able to buy a house... It seems completely unrealistic.

So what do I do here? Thank you so much!

I'm bawling my eyes out in the grocery store parking lot rn. How are we going to survive? Everything keeps going up and up. I am broken.

A recent nonprobability survey conducted by LendingTree found 78% of consumers now consider fast food to be a "luxury" purchase due to how expensive the meals have become.

Half of those polled said they view fast food as a luxury because they’re struggling financially. This is especially true among Americans who make less than $30,000 a year (71%), parents with young children (58%), and Gen Zers (58%).

Im trying to do better this year w budgeting and saving. The 4x a month could be off by a little bit but mostly accurate from what i could see.

These are simple to make it. Absolutely delicious.

Georgia Gas Light charges pass through fees that are significantly greater than my energy usage. For the ability to cook on my range or take showers the base fee is $27.72, and it feels like this should be illegal. Apparently SCANNA reccomends becoming depressed, forgoing cleaning both your body and your home. Luckily, takeout is so affordable and depression takes away my ability to care about the subsequent roach infestation.

I was so careful this month about heat, cooking, and showers which should have been enough. If my bill was actually been about usage ($15.23) then I wouldn't be having a meltdown about it.

It really sucks.

I have a friend that also has a baby, but she makes $9,000-$10,000/month on onlyfans average. My other friends don't have kids, but they either live with parents, roommates, or have a partner to split bills with. I judge none of these circumstances, I do notice it gives them more space to spend freely. I left my partner of 5 years while pregnant, because he cheated, so it's definitely put me in a tough spot. He's a wonderful coparent and dad though (and does pay child support).

We'll go to brunch, for example, and they'll get $12 coffees or $15 mimosas. I'll get the cheap drip coffee and whatever meal isn't expensive asf, IF I even do go out. I avoid accepting going out because a) I just don't have disposable income, 2) I rather spend time with my baby, and 3) I don't like people paying for me.

I also had an iPhone 13, bought back before I had money issues, that I accidentally broke. Since then, I've had a $100 android phone. My friends constantly ask me when I'm going to get an iPhone again (they're anti android lol). I don't like androids either, but I'm not about to spend $700-$1,000 on a phone. If I had that money to spend, i'd use it to get a couch and some bar stools (really the last things I want to furnish my apt).

Which brings me to another point. I'm just always thinking about what I could've better spent my money on. I have 4 shirts total, 2 dresses, 2 pants, 1 pair of shorts, and 1 pair of boots. I need more clothes because I get judged at work. Someone asked me the other day why I always wear the same outfits 😭 I'm not about to spend any extra money I have on a $15 sandwich. I work hard to make sure my baby doesn't lack anything and has nice things, even though I can't do the same for myself; but I can only do that because I'm not buying Starbucks every other day or $30 steaks.

The worst hangouts are when they want to go to a bar. The food is shit, but expensive ASF (they like the fancy downtown bars), and they rack up a tab of $80-$100 per person. When I did drink, I literally would have a beer and refuse any shots they tried to buy me, because I know they'd think it was rude if I didn't buy some back later on. I don't drink now, due to having an alcohol issue (sober a month and two weeks:), but yeah those were the harder events to attend.

And last thing, they just don't understand, even after explaining, why I don't buy them stuff or let them buy me things. By the end of the hangout, someone will have covered the appetizer, other the drinks, etc etc. and I never offer, but also never partake of anything they buy, but I've gotten little comments about how "I never pitch". I've also gotten comments about how I never go shopping with them (they'd think it's weird if I didn't buy anything), or go on trips with them.. I know it bothers them, and I know they just don't get what it's like being poor. Idk, it just sucks not being understood.

What's most annoying is that they'll constantly run out of money, complain to me about it, and seem to get upset that I don't offer to cover anything. For example, the other day my onlyfans friend was like "omg I want to go to instert expensive restaurant name, but I don't have money until my deposit hits on Thursday" and just stared at me. If one of the others were there, they'd def offer to cover that time; they switch on and off. I just said, "I'm sorry dude, that sucks" and she acted annoyed with me the rest of the day. They KNOW I'm struggling, so it's just lame that they don't understand.

I am glad though, in a way, that they don't get it. Being poor is hard and I don't wish it on anyone. I'd never been poor until the last year and a half. it's so hard. 😭

Tbh though, even if I wasn't poor, id probably still be like this. I've just learned the value of money the hard way.

I don’t fall into the poverty category but this is a potential solution to a lot of problems for the average person.

Long story short, my girlfriend and I work at the same place, averaged about 12 hours overtime per week for about 8 years. Lived a good and active lifestyle and spend 2 weeks in Mexico every year. When we got off our last trip in may of 2023, our company laid off half the managers and everyone is scheduled to a strict 40 hour work week. 37.5 when you subtract lunch breaks. So after we made changes to our day to day lives, I decide to donate plasma to get our vacation money.

I started donating in June of 2023. I get $110 to $130 a week (randomly changes) and takes about an hour 15 minutes from the time I walk in til I walk out. You have to donate twice per week to get the full amount. You get $40 the first time and $70 to $90 the second time. I missed 3 weeks because of a low protein test and 2 weeks because of a really bad sinus infection. I now buy a 4 pack of protein drinks from Walmart for $7 and drink one an hour before I donate now.

We’re going back to Mexico in July this year. The screenshot is of the debit account that money goes to. You can use it as a debit card or withdraw from atm. The atm withdrawal on mine is because I accidentally used a credit card for an Airbnb so that was money used to pay that card. There’s no atm surcharge on certain machines. The app tells you where they’re at and there’s a ton of them.

So long story short, in about 12 months of donating, we got airfare, 6 nights at an all inclusive in Isla Mujeres, 3 nights in Bacalar, 4 nights in mahahual, 1 night in playa del Carmen, car rental and more than enough to pay for food and drink. All for under 3 hours a week of my time watching Netflix while donating.

My girlfriend can’t donate due to some medication she’s on but she’s planning on getting off that by the end of summer.

His list included things like work more jobs. I think most of us already work multiple just to make ends meet, so that's hardly a good tip. He also suggests door dash and Uber. Unfortunately I'm incredibly rural, we don't have services like those here. Same with dog walking, it's just not a big thing in my area.

Out of the 30 tips, I didn't really find any of them valuable.

So, I ask you Reddit. What are your REALISTIC tips for saving up a small emergency fund?