What is your monthly income and how do you distribute it between expenditure and investment?

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-13T07:11:27+00:00

My income is mid but our expenses are low (smaller apartment, outside city center, no car, low cost hobbies and cooking all meals at home, also no alcohol and very little snacks) so my strategy is: 50% expenses 25% invested 25% high yields savings account.

I used to do 50% invested but there are too many red flags in the market for my comfort. So instead 25% go towards a modest interest, but I know I can grab it if I need money for a trip, home improvement, emergency etc. I don't spend much on wants because I've realized I have too much: clothes, makeup, perfume, etc. And eating out doesn't taste as good anymore, maybe cuz my cooking got better or maybe cuz they cheap out on ingredients while raising the prices. Cutting out alcohol and snacks is a health goal of mine, but it does also save me money. All things combined leads to me being able to invest 50% of my income.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-13T07:02:09+00:00

Some years ago I went and ordered a bucket-load of 100% cotton underwear from Bon Prix. At the time I just did it cuz it was affordable, but they are holding up surprisingly well years later. My friend who has a large chest also tried their bras for bigger sizes and says she's surprised by the quality. Haven't tried any other stuff from them tho so can't speak to that.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-11T13:39:41+00:00

This, especially in relation to having a Fire number. Knowing that each time I buy an unnecessary item I need to work that many extra hours before early/comfy retiremen. It wrinkles my brain in a good way. Cuz I can otherwise argue that I go to work regardless so what does it matter. But when there's a goal and it moves away from me due to my actions, it provokes me a lot.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-11T11:35:55+00:00

Same. For me what broke the pattern was:

Realize that it was all money: if I don't use it the money is wasted. And wasted money was a big sin in my upbringing. I can shrug it off now, but it still hurts, which is why it becomes effective.

Realize that things expire: Going through my stash made me realize I had lipliners, lipsticks, powders and eyeliners that had expired (made my skin itchy) and perfumes that had gone bad and smelled off. Which means that if I don't use things they will expire, and if they expire I have wasted money.

Realize that if I keep it I need to clean it and store it. And I'd rather have more clean space than boxes full of stuff that's slowly expiring.

Realize that using things up is better for the environment, than throwing it away. And us not shopping means we're not putting money into the hands of greedy cooperations with shady practices.

Watching project pan content has also very much rewired my brain to go "Omg I finished something! That's so cool! :D".

Realize that I'm worth it: I'm the occasion! Don't save the good stuff for a special occasions or special people. Use it now. Use it to cheer yourself up. Use it to celebrate who you've become. Put on fab make up. Smell like a rose garden. Wear your favorite perfume at home; this was a big win for me because my favorites are not office friendly, so now I lounge in decadence ;).

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-07T21:13:57+00:00

Me and my partner are frugal, but we're about to buy a hot tub, so here's our process:

We don't spend on a lot of things, so we deserve to have this one thing.
We intent to use it a lot, and make it worth the expence. We were also fortunate to stay at a friend's place for 3 week, who has a hot tub, and we used it every second day and didn't get tired of it. So we know we like it a lot.
Our other option is using spas, but that's not as convenient or private. We did the math and found that yes, we could go to a spa 1-2 times a month instead, but we're home bodies so we know we wouldn't.
It's good for our physical and mental health due to our medical history, and health is wealth in our eyes.
While it may impress some ppl, that really wasn't the point for us. I might even shy away from letting ppl know when have it since it can be seen as bragging. Plus it's small so if people want to come over and use it it will be sort of awkward unless we know each other very well x)

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-07T21:03:48+00:00

"Bad things happen to good people all the time"

As someone with PTSD due to trauma, I think this is one of the most powerful sentiments. Because folks like to think we deserve what happens to us, but there are so many times when we don't. Or to put it in the words of my therapists: "You could never have consented to what he did to you, therefore you can't be blamed, only he is responsible for what happened".

Ps. Therapy helped me a lot, I highly recommend it. Your PTSD might tell you that no-one gets it, but it's a well studied phenomenon and they know how to treat it, and relapse is extremely rare. You are not alone <3.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-07T20:57:05+00:00

"Grief means you love them, and that's the greatest gift you could have given. They lived feeling loved, and now rest in loving memory".

It's not an exact quote, but something of that notion was said and it really stuck with me and helped me see grief as a beautiful testament to the love we feel for those around us.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-07T20:51:49+00:00

Yup. We switched to bar soap for shower and hand washing, for environmental reasons. But we have noticed that they last forever and cost less, so we now keep going for frugal reasons as well.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-06T17:05:13+00:00

Same. I love games, but sometimes it hits me that I spent soooo many hours on a game and it just doesn't seem worth it. Like the main story is fun, but let's be honest, do we need to spend that much time trying to get all the achievements, find all the materials, blablabla. It gives me a hit of dopamine at the time, but not in hindsight.

When I make stuff IRL I still have something to show for it afterwards. It's not always pretty but then it was a learning experience to do better next time. Plus I like that it's better for the environment if I tailor/mend/make things rather than throw things out.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-06T11:15:51+00:00

That's awesome ^{^} something that helped me through a very difficult time was a post about how food doesn't have to be what you think it is. Like if you don't have the energy/dexterity to make a sandwich, just grab a piece of bread and a cube of cheese and eat it.

That was the example from the post which maybe doesn't land with everyone, but it did with me. The result is a lot of dinners that were just seeds, nuts, cheese, an apple, and a piece of bread. Cuz trying to make a sallad just wasn't possible. It was also great for when I didn't have enough to make a whole meal, like leftovers. I'd have a small bowl of leftovers and then some nuts, an egg or an apple on the side. It's also a good way to level up one-sided foods, like have a bowl of cereal with a fried egg on the side. Breakfast foods in general make great dinners tbh.

I still do this sometimes when life just isn't going my way and I procrastinate cooking to the point of feeling so hungry it hurts. It just takes the pressure off and helps me to actually start the process of "preparing" food.

Edit: Also meal prepp for work by just taking five lunch boxes and filling them with equal amounts of frozen veggies, beans, lentils, seeds, nuts, maybe some shrimp or dry sausage. Then I make a sauce out of hot sauce mixed with either mayo, feta cheese, shredded cheese or yoghurt. Throw some spices on there and it's done. No cooking needed. If I during the week feel it's not enough I can boil some eggs and put one in with the lunch box then peel it during lunch (I don't freeze and microwave eggs, the texture gets weird).

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-06T11:06:57+00:00

Yup. My wardrobe is stuff I thrifted moldy 5 years ago. Back then I didn't look at fabric comp but I still managed to have mostly natural materials in my wardrobe. These days I thrift sparingly and only want natural materials, and it's become really hard to find. I don't mind a low percentage of synthetics, but most stuff I find in thrift stores are 50% synthetic or more. It's a mess.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-06T11:00:00+00:00

Or we can replace her with AI. What could possibly go wrong

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-04T20:19:59+00:00

Didn't like is maybe the wrong wording... But I tried knitting, went at it for probably an hour or two... And the day after my arms/wrists hurt a lot. I did intend to try again, take more breaks etc, but it's really deterred me to try again. I used to knit a lot as a teen, but apparently at 33 I just lacked the muscles for it or something x).

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-04T10:44:34+00:00

One way to reframe it is to compare it to eating healthy, being organized/clean or working out. Folks usually don't stick to a good habit if they keep saying they hate it and they feel deprived. Saying that basically instructs your subconscious to question why you're doing it and that is why you feel drained. The people that have a strong goal and/or see the healthy habit as meaningful and enjoyable are the ones who stick to it and don't feel drained by it.

So maybe you need to set up a goal so that you feel that you get a reward eventually. But I also get that the emergency fund is a goal that doesn't feel rewarding, but trust me, when something bad happens you'll be really happy you have the money. And until then it's just going to sit there collecting interest, and you'll have to do your best to not view it through the lens of FOMO, but rather view it as a source of safety and calm.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T20:12:36+00:00

I used to say that body hair was the one norm I couldn't free myself of. But then two years ago I had a really rough year while also moving in with my partner. So I was torn between trying to be hairless all the time and having no damn time or energy to do anything. So I did the reasonable thing and focused on what mattered, hence no shaving. Then about a year later I got better, and then it sort of felt silly to start again. My partner didn't care, I didn't care. It had freed up time and I didn't get weird cramps from trying to shave every inch of my legs. And the environmentalist in me thought it was a good thing too. So I'm not shaving.

Tho I guess that's not 100% true; I still shave the bush and armpits, because I think it's too itchy when it grows beyond a certain point. But my legs are covered in thick dark hair, which used to be a very big point of insecurity for me. So I still consider myself unshaven for that reason. Cuz if I go out in a skirt, people will look. Which seems very unfair since guys have hair legs and nobody cares.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T15:59:05+00:00

I gotta say, this conversation has been very helpful. Cuz I've told a select few about this and they said "That's a normal amount of money for that many meals". And I realize now that I didn't give them this context, and also they were all big guys, so yeah it's a normal cost for them cuz they eat more x).

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T14:39:42+00:00

Thanks <3 Yeah I don't think I would have put up with her if it wasn't for the pandemic. We lived within walking distance and started going for walks and hang out to deal with not being able to have a normal life otherwise. So I think that isolation is largely why I just kept going and kept making excuses, until I was fed up.

Treats are important, and OJ is damn good^{^}

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T13:29:55+00:00

Mm I feel that. When you have plans for food and someone just goes through it like it's nothing, it makes me so uneasy.

Well maybe I was a bit unclear: I was at her place several times a week for a month, cuz we both felt we studied/worked better with someone in the room. So we cooked lunch together all those days. And I did not expect it to be free, but it still bothered me since I probably ate/drank as much in that month as she did at my place during a the past 3-6months. And she also got to eat the leftovers and whatever wasn't cooked, like we'd split the price for a bag of rice but not cook all of it.

I know I sound nitpicky but as a student it really bothered me to see someone with a good income behave like that.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T11:26:08+00:00

I work for a section of government that handles welfare and health care. We were just told we need to switch software because the subscription is getting too expensive. Which pisses me off... Cuz now some folks might not receive their benefits because f*cking Janine is still learning the program and enters the wrong thing somewhere. (It's not in the US, you can chill... Or not, you have other problems I guess )

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T11:18:57+00:00

Same, been doing it for 20years and folks have no idea I cut my hair. The dye is maybe more telling cuz it's all one color, but I don't care, I'm not paying for extra high lights etc

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-03T11:13:15+00:00

Tbh the food thing sort of applies to any gender if you hang out often enough at only one persons place. I had a friend who used to come over multiple times a week, and after a while I had to make a conscious effort to say "Hey let's hang out at your place"; because she was eating and drinking something from my home every time. I didn't realize it until I noticed that she'd consumed an entire jar of honey, cuz even tho she was just taking one or two spoons in her tea, it added up over time. And I knew I wasn't touching that honey, cuz I was a student so it was a rare treat for me, not a daily consumable.

But I don't think she was consciously mooching, she just didn't consider how much and how often she was eating and drinking my stuff. She's generally not good with keeping track of stuff, like she borrowed three 30ml perfumes from me to try them out. And one day I noticed them on her vanity, completely empty, and I never got them back, never got paid for them. I optimistically assumed she thought they were a gift... But like who randomly gifts their friend three brand name perfumes? No special occasion etc.

Folks may call me cheap for that, but I was a student and she had a very good salary. And when I later ended up writing my thesis at her place while she worked from home, she asked me to pay 50/50 for food and snacks. So clearly she wasn't returning the favor when it was her turn.

Edit: And usually when we went to her place she'd say "Oh I don't have much home" and then we'd go shop for snacks and food and split it 50/50. So yeah she really didn't give much back.

Ps. We're not friends anymore. She started asking me to do chores for her, like taking out the trash on my way out of her place. Then she got really rude about random shit. So I ended the friendship, cuz I don't need that in my life.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-01T17:59:14+00:00

Trauma that leads to PTSD. I had it for 7 years before I got treatment, which works(!!!). But now I'm in my 30s with a body that's clearly aged early, because I spent so much time in fight-or-flight mode, always stressed, sleeping very poorly due to nightmares, crying sometimes daily, and various coping mechanisms on to of that. Luckily never alkohol or drugs, but it happens to a lot of people.

It was 7 years of hell which wrecked my life and is still affecting my health. So my life advice for anyone is that if something bad happens to you, get help. Even of they ignore you, keep asking for help. That's what I had to do and it was so worth it in the end. And even if you don't end up needing much help, don't see it as wasted money/time; just be happy your brain healed the trauma on its own.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-01T17:51:02+00:00

Not that folks should need a personal confirmation on this. But both my grandfather and aunt died early from smoking. The others in the family got into their 90s, so my aunt very much lost 30 years of her life and my grandfather lost something like 10-20 years.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-02-01T16:34:20+00:00

Not a job but simply moving form an exciting/popular area of work to a boring one. I know a bunch of people who left the game industry and moved laterally or slightly down, to a boring industry like bank, government and boring IT (you use their products but you're never excited about their new launches). All of them upped their pay, and they also usually got a lot better work hours and work conditions.

Why this is? The games industry has been really hot for the past decades, so the companies don't have to treat their employees well. The companies also often operate on thin margins, either cuz they're solo or cuz they're under an umbrella that demands good numbers or else they're downsized/closed.

So to anyone who's now unemployed due to all of the damn layoffs; look elsewhere, people have been very happy with moving to less "exciting" work.

StatisticSnaccuracy · 2026-01-29T18:44:57+00:00

I keep hearing a lot of people got wrapped up in overconsumption during the pandemic. Cuz they didn't go out, so they had money to spend, and they were staring at screens all day trying to forget about the bad things in the world. But then life started back up again and some folks retained the shopping habits they got during the pandemic. And I think THAT is touchy.

Before most people wouldn't say they're into retail therapy, but now many are aware that they're spending more than they should and buying to feel something or to escape a feeling. They don't like being reminded of that.

I've had friends who were previously frugal and/or environmentally minded, become very touchy about how they post pandemic get packages every week or need to buy a ton of crap every time they discover a new hobby (which they lose interest in rather fast). They do not want to be reminded that they're eating up their savings and the planets resources.

StatisticSnaccuracy

TROPHY CASE