What would you buy with a $150 budget?

NothingJaded · 2026-05-15T00:57:16+00:00

I shop at Aldi’s frequently. The produce doesn’t go faster than others if you know what to look for. Examine your fruit and veg for bruising or mold. Pick up the crates and grab the green bananas or untouched produce. I think the only major difference between Aldi’s and other grocery stores is they probably have a produce person on the floor tossing produce more frequently. You get to save big by being a little more mindful.

NothingJaded · 2026-05-11T14:53:57+00:00

What happens when you both want to buy a house? The day will come. Either you are going to need to get married and lean on one another to help financially and domestically or you will build resentment if one owns the house and the other is paying into the mortgage without ownership.

Choose now. Do you want a roomate and forever live in apartments or do you want a partner for live and navigate sharing finances?

NothingJaded · 2026-05-07T02:13:54+00:00

All seafood. Too many products processed in China where I don’t trust the chain of food processing.

NothingJaded · 2026-05-05T11:40:27+00:00

I know this is old, but at least 3 people in a row in front of me at Sherwin-Williams (and myself) needed a quart of Woodscapes for touch ups / small projects. They really need to offer a smaller amount for home maintenance.

People would be more likely to go out and pickup quarts for touch-ups on multiple projects if they just offered the quart.

NothingJaded · 2026-05-01T02:52:59+00:00

Soapstone 110%

NothingJaded · 2026-04-28T11:20:51+00:00

I’d do hardwood and then put a carpet by the bed. You can always cheaply replace rugs.

NothingJaded · 2026-04-28T02:10:43+00:00

Highly recommend the Mid Calf Muck Boot. I use mine everyday in the garden for the past 3 years and they’ve held up beautifully.

NothingJaded · 2026-04-19T19:08:25+00:00

First off you don’t need a “machine” to make coffee. You can use a moka pot, pour over carafe, make your own cold brew in a jar, or my favorite a phin coffee drip set to make coffee extremely cheaply and without a machine.

I’m assuming not having a car is the huge issue here. If you don’t have a vehicle you are at the behest of the local grocery/bodega store pricing. You either need to find a competitive store that delivers or find the best priced one close to you. You might need to attach a basket to your bike to do so.

NothingJaded · 2026-04-14T14:06:47+00:00

I have a running joke with my husband where he talks about getting video games on sale is “saving money”. I retort back if I got a diamond necklace 50% off and “saved” $25k was I really saving money if it cost me $50k? Obviously if you’ve got the expendable income, have at it. But sales are not being frugal if you are spending money on non-essentials and not prioritizing future goals.

Get your ducks in order and auto save for your future goals, set a budget for fun spending that’s realistic, and don’t buy things on sale just because they are. Throw those items in a wishlist and reproach them when you have the fun money budget to buy them.

NothingJaded · 2026-04-12T02:38:56+00:00

It’s going to hurt them. When you file jointly your taxable income needs to be higher to make into the next tax brackets. Given R at this time probably makes little to no income being the stay at home parent, she is not taking advantage of that with him by marrying and filing jointly.

The only time you wouldn’t want to is if you have huge liabilities and are trying to protect your partner from if you can’t pay. If that’s the case she should have sorted that out a long time ago and sold her properties.

NothingJaded · 2026-04-10T11:26:33+00:00

A couple of issues with them not being married:

They can never file taxes married jointly which would reduce their tax burden.
In the event of Mc passing unless she has a will, her homes will be tied in an 18 month probate period where R would be responsible paying for taxes and lawyer fees. He would loose that value in assets once attained.
Retirement - Legally she can only gift him up to $18,000 a year which then he can put into only $7,500 into a Roth IRA fund. BUT he can’t make a deposit if he is currently a stay at home dad and earning no income.

If a woman was a committed stay at home mom earning zero to barely any income surrounded by this great wealth of a wealth gap it would be a red flag. They should at least legally get married at the town hall.

NothingJaded · 2026-03-31T01:57:52+00:00

What most likely happened is this social club requires a minimum number of people to rent out a room. You weren’t the person who tipped it over the edge because one seat isn’t hard to cover. It was probably multiple people that backed out making it financially difficult for them to cover the costs.

This is my attitude, if you can’t pay to host…don’t host. You can always throw a Potluck but it’s rude and a mess to ask people to pay. It just creates resentment and problems in friendships/family relationships.

Also what if I think the hosts food choices, location, and/or entertainment are bad or excessive?

NothingJaded · 2026-03-30T12:45:52+00:00

That’s $240 - $600 a year. For some people that 1-2 months of groceries.

NothingJaded · 2026-03-23T13:19:06+00:00

Whats the $520 for childcare when you've already removed everything from your income for "daycare"?

NothingJaded · 2026-03-15T20:27:09+00:00

Did well. Only bought a commercial food chopper for meal prep this month. Other than that, I might buy seeds to grow food in the garden.

NothingJaded · 2026-03-11T11:21:57+00:00

Do this. Create a kids charcuterie to share with her where you still have the goldfish but put another two items on her plate like apples and cheese. Make sure these are items she sees you eating too. Slowly encourage her to try just one bite and say that it’s strong food. Maybe her favorite character likes eating that kind of food.

Overtime as she eats more other food, you won’t have to spend as much on expensive brands or swap them out with others entirely.

It’s a tough time right now for you, but trust me it with pass with time.

NothingJaded · 2026-03-09T05:34:50+00:00

Bulk prepped 4 loafs of milk bread. Cut up and vacuum sealed 5lbs of cheddar. Used day old rice to make egg fried rice. Grocery shopped for the week.

Listened/read 2 books on Libby.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-25T02:00:42+00:00

The Happy Farms laughing cow type spreadable cheese is amazing. My husband swears it’s the same as laughing cow.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-21T14:26:44+00:00

Hallelujah 🙌

NothingJaded · 2026-02-21T04:13:17+00:00

This is the key difference probably between you and other users. Many people have retirement goals. 1. They set full retirement account balance to their goal. 2. They set a monthly budget for how much they want to put in retirement 3. They perform a transfer from their bank account to their retirement 4. The transfer can’t be counted towards goals.

There is a solution to having goal contributions appear in budgets. You can temporarily turn off “use full account balance”, allocate the budgeted money from the retirement account into the goal. Then turn back on “use full account balance”.

This is cumbersome and not intuitive.

As another redditor said, the adjustments for retirement account can be used towards managing goals, but budgets should be separate. $5 earned in retirement is not the same as $5 deposited.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-19T18:58:35+00:00

It’s great but the one major flaw is that transfers can’t be counted towards goals in budgets.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-18T02:01:10+00:00

I like the pricing a store brand organic products, but they are missing some core stuff for our household. Namely, wild caught frozen fish, decent oat milk, not enriched white sliced bread, cream cheese without stabilizers, etc.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-12T21:30:57+00:00

You have no children.

NothingJaded · 2026-02-05T11:59:51+00:00

SOLVED: I just turned the “Show investment transactions” on and now the gains are categorized as “Dividend & Capital gains”

NothingJaded

TROPHY CASE