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DirecTV said if you choose auto pay, your payment will be cheaper. So I said ok, cheaper is always good!
How would I go about living month to month? By saving? How can I save if my paycheck basically covers my rent, bills, gas and groceries? For the record, I am going to try to get help from a friend who has gone through Dave Ramsey training. He teaches how to budget all your money using envelopes.
The envelope method is much older than Dave Ramsey.
Just echoing that you need to budget, and you need to try to keep a buffer in your checking, if you can, versus emptying it out paycheck-to-paycheck. If you absolutely CANNOT keep a buffer and month-to-month is the only option for you, you probably need to revisit luxuries like DirecTV. Not trying to be as ass or condescending, but DirecTV is not a need, and when you're paycheck-to-paycheck, paring back somewhere needs to happen. You also implied that a lot of your $$ is gong to discretionary items at Target. I'm guessing that the problem is less that it's hard for you to remember when the higher amount is getting deducted from your checking, and the fact that you overextend yourself with extraneous spending.
Again, lots of people buy crap they don't need. But if things are so tight that you're overdrawing your account, you need to not be one of those people buying crap you don't need.
But, for DirecTv, I had to commit to that so that my bill would be cheaper when I signed up.
Well, fast forward 12 months and one of my discounts has expired so my bill went up $30! On top of that, it's automatic and I keep forgetting about the $80 that is coming out and I spend all my money in my checking account and then see that I am overdrawn. Aarghh!!
Any solutions for this problem, other than to mark it on the calendar and just try to remember?!
The problem here has nothing to do with auto withdrawals and everything to do with spending money just because you have it. Let's say that you didn't have the auto withdrawal and you knew the bill was due.
You would have avoided spending the extra $30 on something in order to meet the bill right?
Whatever that thing was that you would have given up so that you had the extra $30... you should have given up anyway. That's how you start to get out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle. Cut the nonessential purchase.
Keep a register. At the beginning of each pay period, record your paycheck, then IMMEDIATELY write down the amounts of every regular bill you have coming due at that time and subtract them from your account. (This should include some savings, by the way.) The number you have left is what you have to spend on everything else for that pay cycle. Now record and subtract every swipe of your debit card or credit card, every ATM withdrawal you make, and every check you write, and keep a running balance. You'll see when you're account is getting low, and you'll avoid overdrafts.
Another suggestion - set up a different bank account. In this account, you keep the money you will need to pay for recurring, predictable bills - rent, phone, utilities. This would be your automatic payments.
From the other account, you pay for food and everything else. This would be your debit card account.
I don't use automatic payments, because I don't like giving anyone but me access to my bank account. Instead I use my bank's automatic bill pay service, which is free. I never worry about whether I have made a payment, and my payments are never late.
One nice side-effect of this is that you will see clearly where your holes are. I agree with others that it sounds like you have a general problem with managing your money.
You might want to get the book Your Money or Your Life from the library.
DirecTV said if you choose auto pay, your payment will be cheaper. So I said ok, cheaper is always good!
How would I go about living month to month? By saving? How can I save if my paycheck basically covers my rent, bills, gas and groceries? For the record, I am going to try to get help from a friend who has gone through Dave Ramsey training. He teaches how to budget all your money using envelopes.
If you are that poor, you perhaps should not be forking on money for Direct TV; how about direct that money into savings?
Most businesses offer a discount for automatic withdrawal because they can raise rates without re-selling the service. Also, people who might otherwise discontinue a service ... generally forget to do so within the specified time window, adding at least one month or more to the service.
For convenience, my wife uses an online bill pay account with the bank. It reminds her when bills are due and even transmits/mails vendor payment at no additional charge. All she must do is okay the payment and amount online.
Frankly, I simply don't like the idea of others 'automatically' withdrawing money from my account/s -- or trust them to do so without without errors (Why is it that vendor errors always seem to be in the vendor's favor?)
Don't knock the "poor" for having cable TV, etc. It might be their only form of entertainment. We all need a release of some kind.
Which they can get from a DVD player and a Netflix subscription, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than cable TV. Hell, add a Roku to the package, and it's STILL cheaper than cable TV!
Don't knock the "poor" for having cable TV, etc. It might be their only form of entertainment. We all need a release of some kind.
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Originally Posted by Aredhel
Which they can get from a DVD player and a Netflix subscription, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than cable TV. Hell, add a Roku to the package, and it's STILL cheaper than cable TV!
Or a DVD player (~$20) and a library card (free), for that matter.
Or they could get a hobby. Maybe even a hobby that allows them to make a little money!
The view that anyone "needs" cable TV to get by is extremely narrow. I cut the cord in 2008 and my only regret is that I didn't do it years earlier.
But, for DirecTv, I had to commit to that so that my bill would be cheaper when I signed up.
Well, fast forward 12 months and one of my discounts has expired so my bill went up $30! On top of that, it's automatic and I keep forgetting about the $80 that is coming out and I spend all my money in my checking account and then see that I am overdrawn. Aarghh!!
Any solutions for this problem, other than to mark it on the calendar and just try to remember?!
I hate it, too, because of what you just stated. It's not safe enough (biggie) and I know when payments are made on my calendar and I follow it religiously. The only time I was messed up was when our credit card was replaced. I missed updating one but the company understood and removed the late fee.
My pop-up calendar with a short and somewhat unrecognized form of the company name allows me to ensure the money was taken out that I expected. I check it all periodically. I'm using a pop-up because a regular calendar, while it works for me, is less effective.
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