Baseline family budget - recommend books/software

[sabad66]

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But you also incur a 1.75% fee to pay ENMAX via credit card...

Edit: hol' up I'm thinking Epcor. Does Enmax actually not charge a credit card fee? $8K/month during the summer to run pivots on the farm, that cash back would be nice.

It’s not through enmax. It’s a feature of the triangle WE MasterCard where you can do “bill payments” (like from your bank account) and earn rewards thorough it. Only 1% back in CT money but it’s better than nothing. Can also do property tax from it. Possibly even tuition.

Edit: if you have gas/electric with enmax it’s through them. But if you just have water/sewer/waste they don’t let you pay with a CC. This is where you would do the Triangle MC workaround.

[Gainsbarre]

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Giving a person with a clear spending problem a credit card is like giving crack to a crackhead and expecting them to stay sober.

You might be able to control your spending, most cannot.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/deb...scan-1.5837463

True, I am known to be rather frugal. Obviously all credit cards must be paid off in full every month (imo never carrying a balance on your credit card is in the top 3 rules of personal finance, along with budgeting and not using payday loan stores). I used those examples of using a credit card to pay off "fixed" costs such as utility bills and property taxes - bills that must be paid, so might as well collect that additional 1 or 1.5%.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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Is 1.5% reward supposed to be a flex?

It appears so! LoL!!

As for Gainsbarre...
Gail Vaz-Oxlade has books. It's not just her silly TV show.
And as-fucking-if credit spending on regular consumer items isn't radically higher than handing the cash to the merchant. RoFL at terrible Enmax example.

[AndyL]

Ok, not homeowner... No credit cards. No car atm.

One of the biggest questions in my head is putting a % on net income to food, discretionary etc. Plan was to live like I had been and clear the debts in near term put a bit away for a beater echo or RAV4 again. It's easy when you're already used to living on nothing to continue that...

My only bad spending habit is tool related and usually write-off able Started reconsidering the 3d printing side hustle since I got a flurry of emails again this week - enough work to re-equip the resin printing stuff I was doing. Alberta works penalized me heavy for self employment income - now it could be beneficial to get back into it.

[ExtraSlow]

Andy, if you are used to living on a low budget, staying with that lifestyle for a while while you get ahead of a few things is a very smart thing to do. Not forever, not until you are debt free even probably, but until you feel like you have made good progress and you can be proud of the path you are on. Once paying bills becomes a source of pride and a positive experience, instead of a source of shame, you'll be in a place to move forward with phase 2, 3 etc.

So much of money management is psychological when you are in debt.

[ThePenIsMightier]

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Ok, not homeowner... No credit cards. No car atm.

One of the biggest questions in my head is putting a % on net income to food, discretionary etc....

That's Gail. From Google, I found what could be her chart for precisely this:

[killramos]

Which is the one from TLC where they make you put all your cash in jars?

[ExtraSlow]

Nanny 911 I think.

[AndyL]

No jars! bad enough the apprentice raids my change jar for vbucks

[suntan]

I'd say start an OnlyFans but they're banning porn.

[Xtrema]

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I'd say start an OnlyFans but they're banning porn.

They still allow nudes. May be he can combine with 3D printing to create a new genre that bypass censors.

[suntan]

Some nudity. You know, shit like breast feeding. Spreading your ass cheeks won't be allowed.

[ExtraSlow]

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Some nudity. You know, shit like breast feeding. Spreading your ass cheeks won't be allowed.

I feel attacked.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Are they following the PhotoBucket profitability targets of "we fucking hate money!!"?

[msommers]

I like Mint, it helps me keep an eye on things generally. I also have built a budget in Excel that projects things over the year.

A credit counselor is free and worth your time.

Congrats on deciding to look at your finances more closely! I feel a lot more in control than ever before. CC bill surprises were never fun despite never having issues paying it, but now that I follow things every few days it's great

[suntan]

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I'm not a fan of the AA approach to credit cards. They absolutely can be used responsibly and I vehemently disagree with Ramsey's no-credit-cards-ever-even-if-you-pay-off-the-balance-in-full-every-month mentality. You'll spend more because you're using a credit card instead of cash? Rubbish when you can do price comparisons/the math when making purchases. Credit cards also have certain forms of insurance/fraud protection that you won't get with cash/debit. IMO Gail Vaz-Oxlade is way better in this area as she does coach those with debt problems to stop using credit cards and track their spending, but she isn't of the view that credit cards shouldn't be used ever by anybody. 1.5% cashback is what you can get on all items now with the Rogers WE Mastercard - I believe 1.5% is the highest current cashback rate on "all items" for a no-fee credit card.

Bleh. The benefits are vastly overstated. If anything they're a pain because CC fraud is so fucking rampant now. I've had my last 3 CC #s stolen.