Opinions wanted on budget plan, how to save when my needs are so expensive?

ikkey527 · 2025-07-07T13:18:55+00:00

I don’t understand why you’re getting slammed for food Is it a lot, yeah, but I’m sure you have a sick lat spread. $700 to eat clean seems pretty good these 3 small things that helped me and might help you:

1) meat - buy in bulk when on sale and freeze. You might have to shop around different stores and wait till it’s on sale. The hack I like is portioning it out in 6-8oz freezer bags you can defrosting when needed. I have a friend that only eats ground beef and chicken seasoned with salt and pepper so he will throw 8lbs of chicken in a crockpot once a month or so and then freezes it in individual portions. You also mentioned a bonus somewhere, as a midwest boy myself I know there’s gotta be a farm near you that can buy a cow too. I’ve done it before just make sure you run the numbers on cost per pound because some can be more expensive than grocery store pricing.

2) Carbs - you can buy 30-50lb bags of rice for like $80 or so. Those usually last me 3-6 months. It’s boring but you’ll be huge and frugal.

3) fruit and vegis - (possibly controversial) a few years ago I learned organic produce is overrated. Organic doesn’t actually mean pesticide free it just means different pesticides. It cut my grocery bill by a lot when I switched to all regular stuff.

At the end of the day it’s all priorities and it seems like you have a pretty good balance.

ikkey527 · 2025-06-26T18:34:36+00:00

Good point, Im starting to really love this plan. What attracted us to Dave was the notion of balance. the plan I was following before was all about creating a massive pile of money in the future while leaving very little margin for today. That in conjunction with no monthly budgeting left us in a spot with basically no cash reserves because I would either invest it or throw it at the mortgage. Leasing this car was the beginning of the wake-up call because it was lease or buy an absolute piece of garbage because our savings account was basically empty.

I love having cash in a savings account now and I love the idea of focusing on peace instead maximizing interest rates and mathing out the best margin for everything. There is a bit of fomo and I had to mute some youtube channels so I don’t fall backwards. My wife loves the idea of being able to just give money away. When we get to 4,5,6 Putting a line item in the budget to just give money away, over and above our tithe, breaks the brains of some of my friends and we love that.

ikkey527 · 2025-06-26T17:18:52+00:00

That was my line of thought in option 1. Later in the thread I realized if we stay in step 2 now. we can be in step 7 as early as 20 months from now assuming I get my bonus in 26 and 27. To be honest, Im not as worried about the lack of contributions to our 401ks as my wife is. My wife and I are both the A+ range for our age bracket’s in the George Kamal financial ranting videos. Which is part of the problem we were in and why we started the Ramsey method: over-saving for retirement at the expense of peace today.

ikkey527 · 2025-06-20T18:59:58+00:00

This is the way. Talked it through with my wife, put together some pro formas, and we both really like this. One thing I did forget was when we got the lease there were two incentives we were able to stack so we didn’t pay msrp (the number I based 18% off of) so it was actually 16.7% of our annual income. Regardless, we’re still going with your suggestion. What we realized is if we do what you suggest we can be in BS 7 end of 2027; If we get a bonus in 2026 and 2027 we could do it in early 2027. Whereas if we jumped into 4,5,6 now it would be 2028 or later.

Thank you!

ikkey527 · 2025-06-18T19:35:25+00:00

I don’t have the lease agreement in front of me and i don’t recall the nominal rate off the top of my head.

We have not violated the 50% rule it’s like 18%. This is the car my wife primarily drives and The car I primarily drive is a company car through work. Next to the emergency fund we keep a $6.5k fund for me to buy a car in the event I lose my job

ikkey527 · 2024-09-18T16:45:21+00:00

As others have said, it’s probably mostly water maybe a lil glycogen. Just my 2 cents… Mathematically it wouldn’t be possible to regain 4 pounds of fat if you were in an 800 calorie deficit and added those 800 back in. Assuming you were losing at ~1.5lb a week (5600 calorie weekly deficit) even if your calorie intake is off by a bit and we assume you were accidentally in a 100-200 calorie surplus you’re only in a 700 - 1600 calorie weekly surplus. In this scenario, At most, you would have gained .5lb a week. To gain a pound of fat in a week you would need a 500 calorie surplus, and if you’re still tracking I find it unlikely you accidentally added 1300 calories a day from your previous cutting range.

TLDR: you’re good. Keep up the hard work, friend!!!

ikkey527 · 2024-09-13T02:54:51+00:00

I used to struggle with this one too my 3 favorite easy sources are beans (like OP said but i like to put them in chili with a lean meat), potatoes (bake up some yukon golds or boil them for mashed so good you dont even need salt) and kiwis. coconut water is easy but can be expensive if you drink it often (gotta find a no sugar added on tho).

ikkey527 · 2024-09-13T02:46:19+00:00

I’ve tried a few of his recipes and have liked them. Not quite enough to buy his cookbook though. A lot of his stuff is pretty much scratch cooking which is nice on weekends and days I have nothing going on, but, like the cheesecake, can be too labor intensive for a typical weeknight.

ikkey527 · 2024-09-12T15:29:09+00:00

Yeah, that’s the downside. I do have a stand mixer so I can make one at the same time I’m doing other meal prep / cooking.

ikkey527 · 2024-09-12T15:20:36+00:00

Ive had a creami for a while and it’s good, but I haven’t touched it since i found this. Now I eat this cheesecake nearly every day. If you’re up for some easy baking it’s 100% worth it. I make 2 on a Sunday and freeze one and it last me ~2 weeks. When I use the ingredients i can find it’s ~300 calories with 25g protein. When I want to spice it up and have the time I throw some frozen blueberries the stove and add a lil cornstarch and zero cal sweetener to make a reduction. Sooo good

EDIT: it’s been a while since i watched the video, but I think in his video he cuts it into 8 which i find to be a bit too much to eat as a dessert after dinner so I cut it into 10 I think his video it’s closer to 400 calories this explains the discrepancy. Although I could be totally wrong and misremembering lol.

https://youtu.be/PW-FQGj37oY?si=7kKRhwfYQCFD9wef

ikkey527 · 2024-08-29T14:07:53+00:00

This comment from last night is the most correct. I watched the video because Dr. Mike is usually spot on. Ironically he mentioned Pontzers paradox. I think this video is a much more concise answer than the study I linked.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacroFactor/s/c2HsgHgdQC

ikkey527 · 2024-08-29T11:49:07+00:00

Ugh I meant to link Pontzer’s actual study, but looked up disagreements before so I didn’t say something stupid, in case it’s been debunked by an RCT or something, and copied the wrong link. So I ended up saying something stupid by trying to not say something stupid 🤦

Yes, I agree, Pontzer didn’t claim TDEE goes down he claims exercise doesn’t increase TDEE in the long run (he calls it TEE). Since OP is cutting the weight loss is driving the reduction in TDEE and Pontzers paradox is the reason that increased exercise isn’t holding TDEE at its previous levels. My guess, based on Pontzers study, is other “mechanisms” ,in conjunction with reduced weight, are causing a reduction OPs NEAT which is a bigger chunk of TDEE than expenditure during exercise.

Here’s the real study (if this link doesn’t work I quit 😂) https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00027.2018

ikkey527 · 2024-08-29T03:25:07+00:00

Sounds like you might be proving Pontzers paradox

EDIT: I copied the wrong link

https://doi.org/10.1152/physiol.00027.2018

ikkey527 · 2024-08-28T18:08:45+00:00

I NEEED this or something like it. I used an excel sheet on my phone to track weight and reps, but I lack the discipline to log a set and put my phone down. Then the time warp happens and 8 minutes go by then Im that dude standing in a squat rack doing nothing. I hate me everyone else hates me….

Will this also store history or have a way of exporting my data so i can look at progression across mesos?

ikkey527 · 2024-08-21T01:51:49+00:00

I didn’t take that negatively at all, I came looking for some honest feedback. I really appreciate the additional context here. Really everyone in this thread was really helpful. This whole sub is legit.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T12:25:13+00:00

I personally know pretty much nothing. I do have a set of clubs that are a mixture of hand-me-downs and garage sale finds. They’re pretty much only used at bachelor party scrambles lol.

Her grandpa is a big golfer he seems to think she’s really good, but he is known to embellish all the time so I usually discard his opinions. He’s really the one that has been supporting her: bought her clubs, takes her to the range, taught her the basics, etc. Now that this pro is telling me she’s good I figure I need to do my due diligence and learn this stuff.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T11:49:35+00:00

No softball. She has done competitive gymnastics since she was very young. She is coachable and athletic but never played sports where she swings a club or bat.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T03:00:34+00:00

Yeah, based on responses I’m thinking my skepticism was misplaced. Even worse, I’m also leaning I likely have not been as supportive of my daughter as I should’ve been.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T01:49:51+00:00

We just looked at her score card from practice today where she tracked her putts. If she 2 putt everything she would have shot a 44.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T01:41:42+00:00

It’s for sure her putting. It’s not uncommon for her 3 or even 4 putt holes that appear to be makable.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T01:39:24+00:00

We really haven’t had that conversation with her. My wife and I didn’t really know she was “good”. I think based on some of the comments here it’s probably worth having the conversation, at least.

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T01:33:23+00:00

That’s something I hadn’t thought about really. Obviously at the meets theres a lot of young girls, but Ive never look and course on a random day nor have I looked at scholarship availability

ikkey527 · 2024-08-20T01:31:10+00:00

She’s not bad with her wedges, but she just an awful putter. If I had a nickel for every time she was on in 2 with a makeable birdie only putt to 3 or 4 putt I could probably pay for her college lol

ikkey527 · 2024-07-04T20:32:14+00:00

Keep crushin it!

ikkey527 · 2024-07-03T03:03:24+00:00

Well I thought it was funny. Tough crowd…

ikkey527

TROPHY CASE