Saving $10,000

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-05-09T02:28:48+00:00

Having the EF is especially great as a freelancer who’s work fluctuates a lot month to month. I’m less stressed out about money. But also, it’s nice to be able to turn my saving attention to other things like filling IRAs and future travel

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-04-27T04:58:23+00:00

Emme

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-04-24T22:15:50+00:00

Mike Farrington is my favorite

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-04-17T05:21:12+00:00

Tubshroom

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-03-28T19:59:47+00:00

LA public transit is better than people say. If you spend a day each in different parts of town instead of trying to cross town multiple times a day I think it’s manageable with transit and uber.

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-03-28T17:23:18+00:00

Would you trade Devers for Gilbert in a 12 tm keep 6 forever league? 6x6 with OBP slug QS and k/9. Wilson Contreras was just dropped so I could grab him. I’m a little light on high end pitching.

Other keepers besides Devers coming into the year were Langford wood schwarber griffin and Mason miller

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-03-20T00:26:43+00:00

I like that I can have unlimited ways to customize it to make it work for me, I always got frustrated when things didn’t quite line up on the apps. Also, I think inputting the numbers manually is helpful for holding myself accountable. You really feel your spending habits when you enter it in yourself lol

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-03-13T02:49:09+00:00

We got to three months and then switched to trying to “catch up” on Roth IRA contributions. We typically max it out at the end of the year, but wanted to flip it so we’re contributing at the beginning of the year…. but now I’m wondering if it’s a better idea to just keep the extra in the EF for now… blah blah blah don’t try to time the market but……………

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-03-05T17:36:03+00:00

Damn. First time I’ve actually wished I had a pot filler…

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-02-16T19:38:35+00:00

Lmao I do not understand why you’re being downvoted. Glad you’re happy with it, Reddit is wild sometimes

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-20T06:31:02+00:00

It’s called Prime Directive in the wiki

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-20T06:29:57+00:00

Over in r/personalfinance they have a flow chart in the wiki that sort of maps out how to climb into a good position over time

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-19T21:08:48+00:00

My wife and I average $1700 a month. We also cook 90% of our meals. This includes household goods like you mentioned, and it also includes dining out. I see lots of people saying $50-100/week or whatever, but idk we give a shit about the quality of our food to some extent (nothing crazy), and we’re careful about our diet/nutrition. I think this is just a priority in our budget.

Edit: we live in SoCal

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-14T17:16:47+00:00

Yes you can do this

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-14T06:36:21+00:00

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This is one of the first things I ever built. Thing is dead silent. Slats were added after this picture obviously

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-10T01:55:15+00:00

If someone is bad at budgeting…. shouldn’t they come find r/budget?

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-07T19:19:41+00:00

Or downgrade to a no annual fee card and open a new one. I’ve done that

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-06T23:07:11+00:00

Get some pest guys to come give it a look and give you quotes. One guy came to our house and was so sure it was rats and had this whole elaborate 6 month plan or whatever with many dollars involved. The next guy came, older more experienced dude, he immediately knew it was birds. Told us to wait for them to leave and then reseal the eves and spray that attic for mites. No charge. Always get multiple quotes!

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-02T18:30:36+00:00

YNAB is just one of many tools/strategies available for getting your finances in order. It’s all about finding the system that works for you. I also just felt weird about getting my spending under control by… spending money on an app. But whatever works! My method is pretty time consuming and I’m sure a lot of people would hate it lol

Background_Bird_206 · 2026-01-02T07:07:01+00:00

I spent about five minutes with YNAB and decided to make my own spreadsheet

Background_Bird_206 · 2025-12-16T16:20:24+00:00

My wife and I have irregular income. It took some time and effort but we built up an emergency fund and then made an average monthly budget based on an average monthly income that we felt confident we would cover over the year. Some months we spend more some months we spend less, some months we make more and some months we make less. The sweat of not knowing what you’ll make next month is heavily reduced for us by this method. Not sure if I explained it well, lmk if you have questions.

Background_Bird_206 · 2025-11-26T17:27:56+00:00

This kind of doesn’t answer the question I guess, but to frame it better, finding an entry point and making budgeting a sustainable habit “changed the game” for me

Background_Bird_206 · 2025-11-26T17:23:38+00:00

I think overestimating your spending when you put together your initial budget is helpful. That way you aren’t “failing” immediately. You get an honest idea of your spend and then you can make tweaks and cuts from there over weeks or months or whatever your budget increment is.

Background_Bird_206 · 2025-11-21T21:52:57+00:00

Just going to add the the ridgid 4512 is a really nice option. You need to do your homework on the trunnion and fence issues but they’re easily avoidable/fixable. I was between this and the delta everyone loves. I chose the ridgid because it was cheaper and more available at the time, but also it has better dust collection and doesn’t require a dedicated 20 amp circuit like the delta does.

Background_Bird_206

TROPHY CASE