Cooking good food on a budget gives you the freedom to spend your money on other things. There are many good food subreddit already but I have not seen one that is dedicated to a specific dollar amount per meal. So I created r/OneDollarOrLessMeal/ and made a post.

I plan to add recipes any time I make one that is $1 (USD) or less per serving.

Please feel free to share.

I know not everyone lives in the US. But for those that do, are you interested in a weekly thread on "Best Ibotta Deal"? This way we can post deals that we thought was good.

When I started this subreddit over a year ago, I share a budgeting spreadsheet similiar to something I use myself, and still do.

But since I also share my preference bugeting split, which I call 40-20-20-20 (you can find the post [here] (https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfReliantFinance/comments/buihs4/40202020_budgeting_rule/)), I thought it would be nice to have a budgeting spreadsheet corresponding to that.

So I spend some time yesterday evening making it. I hope you all find it useful. If you need help using it or like some additional feature(s), let me know and I will see if I can incorporate it. [Link to 40-20-20-20 Budgeting Spreadsheet] (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fCzwds9ljvERXxbOWC2czUhdq7ywBPH8Jr_XYl4r_Ho/edit?usp=sharing)

On the surface, it sounds great!!

Subscribe to MyPanera+ Coffee by July 4th and pay nothing 'til September!

But is it really though? Let's analyze!

Normal cost is $8.99/month. Taking that cost at face value and the longest month. That works out to $0.29/day which is about equivalent to the cost of making your own at home with really high quality beans, much higher than those used at Panera.

You then argue, but it is unlimited though!!! You can have unlimited refills while you are at the cafe but there must be at least 2 hrs gap between each new order. This leads to a few questions:

1 Are you actually going to sit in the cafe drinking your coffee? If so, for how long? If not, then the unlimited refills is irrelevant.

2. Are you going to visit Panera for coffee more than once a day? If not, then unlimited is again irrelevant.

Now that we have that out of the way. Let's talk about you actually visiting Panera for that free cup of coffee everyday during the Summer.

1. Are you going to be discpline enough to just have that coffee and not have breakfast there? Because if you are not, and say you have a bagel with your coffee, that's $1.39/day, $9.73/week. (tax not included) And if you want cream cheese with that. that's another $1.40/day, $9.80/week. So that's a total of $19.53/week. (tax not included) You can almost feed yourself the entire week for that amount of money. Even if you really like their bagels, you should be buying the baker's dozen on Tuesday. Costing you $6.99 for 13 bagels or just under $0.54/bagel.

2. Travel Time & Gas Cost

Say you are back to work on site, is there actually a Panera that is on your route? If not, how far away is it? You need to decide whether it is worth spending extra time and gas to get your 'free' cup of coffee. It is even worse if you are still working from home. Really? You are going to make a special trip every day to Panera for your free cup of coffee?

So my conclusion. It may be worth it IF

1. You are discipline enough to just go get the free coffee and

2. There is a Panera on your way to work. and

3. You remember to cancel before September.

This is obviously a great deal for the homeless because they get free coffee, free wi-fi and a place to cool down from the Summer elements but somehow I don't think that's what Panera had in mind when they roll this deal out.

Hope everyone is doing well during quarantine. Now that hot weather is upon us I thought I will give you some tips (and please feel free to reply with your own tips as well) on keeping your home cool without blasting your AC 24/7 while working at home.

1. If you haven't already, invest on some blackout curtains. Price range varies. Keep all or most curtains closed. (I personally keep them all closed)

2. Turn off all lights except the room you are in. Use energy saving light bulb.

3. Keep thermostat temperature at 78-82F (25.5-27.8C) to limit use of AC.

4. Keep a fan in your home office (tower, pedestal, box .. whatever kind you have), use it if necessary to keep home office a little cooler.

5. Have water and tea in the fridge at all times! And keep hydrated.

6. Wear light lose clothing at home.

As many of us are self quarantining and social distancing, it is important that we keep ourselves nourish. That means we need perishable items: Meat (if not vegetarian), fruits, vegetables, bread and milk.

How to do a month or more shopping trip? We have to be mindful on what to purchase and how to store them.

First off, I am going to assume you have some freezer space because otherwise this is going to be impossible unless you adopt a vegetarian diet.

1. Forget cereals for breakfast! Cereal needs milk. If you have cereal at home, use it (dry cereal) as snacks. Instead go with oatmeal. Old fashioned or steel cut oats will be the best. You just need to cook it in a little bit of water. You can add things yourself after. It is way healthier than the prepackaged stuff (too much sugar) not to mention more expensive.

2. Make your own bread! A 5lb bag of all purpose flour and a packet of yeast will cost you $2-$3. You will have more than enough yeast to make 6 large round loaves of bread. You won't have to worry about it going stale! If you normally don't make your own bread, do a google search on no knead bread. If you do sourdough bread, even better, no need to buy yeast. But you are baking bread already anyway.

3. Try to limit milk usage. Drink black coffee. Buy the ultra pasteurized milk. They will last a lot longer. Yes they are more expensive but I think it is worth it. Not to mention they taste better. (I like Aldi's Simply Nature organic milk. IMO, it taste better than Horizon and Fairlife and it is also slightly cheaper.)

4. For fruits, limit the amount of fresh berries. They are yummy but they just don't stay fresh long enough in the fridge. If they are on great sale, by all means, buy them and freeze them and use it in smoothies, yogurt and oatmeal. But in general stick with apples, pear, melons, grapefruit etc and keep them in the basement or garage assuming you still have cold weather. You can buy bananas but again won't stay nice for long.

5. Stock up on potatoes, whole carrots, onion and keep them in basement or garage if you still have cold weather.

6. Meat ... still buy what is a good deal and then supplement with chicken thighs (if those are not the ones on sale). My Kroger actually always have ground pork at $0.99/lb so that's a great deal. You really only need a lb of meat per person each week. Portion things out and throw all meats that won' be used in 3 days in the freezer.

7. Grab some dry beans! All varieties. Pinto beans, lentils, chickpeas etc.

8. Grab more flours or grab a bunch of flour tortilla. Grab a big bag of rice if you can find it. I am talking 10 or 20lb bag. Rice is really on low supplies where I am at. Lucky I have tons at home already.

9. For veggies, go with ones you know keeps longer. So some cabbages and winter squash. They can be stored in basement or garage just like potatoes, whole carrots and onions. Hearty leafy greens like kale, collard greens, turnip green, swiss chard are also good choices. Once you get them home, wrap them in paper towels. It will help absorb the moisture and keep them fresh longer. Supplement with some frozen veggies staples like peas and broccoli. Buy canned corns instead of frozen ones to help save freezer space. Also grab some canned mushrooms.

10. if you want cheese, I will go for block ones because that gives you more versatility.

11. If needed, pick up a few boxes of crackers if that's your thing or whatever treats you want.

Things to cook: So much possibility but you basically want to cook things that are not too meat heavy. For example, stew is great because while there are meats in there, you will be also adding potatoes, onion, carrots and some other veggies. Not to mention, one pot, easy to do. The [Cook According To Sale] posts also have additional ideas. With tortilla, you can many different type of meals. Any kind of stir fry will do.

Share your ideas!

Please post here if you have or need an Ibotta or other apps referral code.

If you have a referral code you can choose to just include your code or ask others to DM you. Once you no longer can have more, delete your referral code if you have posted it or simply indicate you don't have anymore so others won't DM you.

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UPDATE NOTE Since this post has been archived. If you are seeking or have referral code for ibotta or other apps that you like to share. Just submit a new text post.

A thread to complement [[MEGA-THREAD] Buy In Price for Common Household Items] (https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfReliantFinance/comments/ffb2hn/megathread_buy_in_price_for_common_household_items/)

Please feel free to post what you consider buy in price for food items. If applicable, please include brand. If there are items you wondering what would be a good buy in price please feel free to do so as well.

A small list to start ...

Item: Cereal (regular size box)

Brand: All major brand

Buy In Price Per box: $0.99 or less

Item: Dry Pasta (regular size box and not lasagna or ditalini)

Brand: All major brand

Buy In Price Per box: $0.30 or less. If you are low on supply $0.50 is also acceptable.

Item: Canned Tomatoes

Brand: All major brands

Buy In Price: $0.50 or less for 14.5oz can and $0.99 or less for 28oz can

Item: Canned Soup Concentrate

Brand: Campbell

Buy In Price Per 10.5oz can: $0.50 or less

Item: Shredded or Block cheese (8 oz variety)

Brand: Store Brand

Buy In Price: $0.99

Item: Cheese Slices (8 oz variety)

Brand: Sargento

Buy In Price: $1.49 or less

I am just going to talk about ones that I use here.

First, I just want to say couponing is not as lucrative as it use to be (5+ years ago). First, double couponing (as far as I know) no longer exists and stores have limit the usage of like printable coupons (i.e. those that you print yourself at home from coupons.com) to 5,4, 2 4 and some even none!

There are also limits on paper coupons (i.e. those you found in Sunday's newspaper or from a product you bought). I don't know those limits off hand.

Most stores also have a limit on the total number of coupons you can use per transaction. Although that number is usually plenty so it shouldn't be a problem.

OK now that we have gotten that out of the way I am going to describe how I do couponing and rewards weekly. Please note that this is US base.

The sites and apps that I use are

• coupons.com

• in house store digital coupons

• Ibotta

• Checkout 51

• Fetch Rewards

I don't use Checkout 51 very often because their offering is not that great and they don't allow you to double dip. (i.e. if you get the rebate from them you can't get it from elsewhere)

Fetch Rewards, you just take pics of receipt.

1. Check Ibotta daily on your favorite stores because sometimes new deals appear and some deals you have already claimed get refresh. If there is any FREE item (or moneymaker), go get it right away if the store is on your normal route or a short detour. You want to do this because sometimes the coupon refresh which means you can get it again.

Side note: For free items, even if I have no use of it I will get it if it is from Walmart because it is always on the way to and from work. Those free items, you can give it to someone or donate it. Also each offer redeem counts towards some general goal such as weekend warrior, mid week money maker, monthly level bonus. (Those are all free money!)

Caution: Don't redeem an offer just to get closer to the general goal unless the offer gives you free item or unless you are so close to the goal and that goal gives you a BIG bonus like $10. Judge accordingly.

Bonus tip: Search for the store you like then you can favorite it.

2. You can also search items on Ibotta. I like to search for yogurt and milk since I need those items every week. But I am picky on yogurt brand.

3. Look up sneak peek of your store weekly ad (it is available the day before it goes into effect) and plan you meals according to sale. Also watch out for sale on household items.

In the sneak peek/preview, figure out what you are interested in and add them to your shopping list. Next search in store digital coupon, coupons.com, Ibotta and Checkout 51 to see if there are coupons that can give you additional savings. if so, clip and/or print them.

As an example, back in early January Kroger has Special K cereal on special sale for Friday and Saturday only. There were also coupons at coupons.com and Ibotta for Special K. So you end up being able to get 4 boxes (the 16.9oz type) for $0.49 each.

4. On the morning of the day that you are going to go shopping, check online at all the stores you plan to go to against Ibotta and Checkout 51 items you are interested in and see which store has the best price and decide whether the final price is a good price. This will also tells you whether the item is available at your store so you don't waste time looking for it at the store.

5. Once at the store, double check to make sure those coupons from Ibotta and Checkout 51 is still available. Once in a blue moon, the Ibotta one might be gone. Checkout 51 have much less so chances of them being all gone is higher.

That's it!

So let's do an example, this is my actual rundown for today because today is Tuesday and Kroger's new ad comes into effect on Wednesday. I won't be shopping until Friday though.

• Check Ibotta and notice Target has a Free After Offer for Forto Energy Coffee (11oz). I have gotten free Forto plenty of times, either the 2oz one or 11oz one. I don't drink them while at home but I do like to have them when traveling. Beats paying for Starbucks! Fortunately for me, Target is a short detour from work, so I will go pick it up this morning.

• Checkout 51 has $1 off 2 mule team borax (max of 5). That item seldomly go on sale. Upon checking Walmart has the best price. So will pick up 3.

• $0.50 back for Two Good Greek yogurt on Ibotta. Only allow one though. Still knock the price down to $0.74

• Ibotta has $1.50 off Organic Valley Ultra Milk but unfortunately not available at my Walmart.

Preview check on Kroger's weekly ad to see what I am interested in:

• Fresh ground beef sold as 3lb roll for $1.99/lb. Good deal, I bought one last time this deal came around. I know there won't be additional coupon to lower that cost.

• Grapes is $0.97/lb

• Kroger cheese is $1.29 each (6-8z), 3 day sale and max of 5.

Pretty good deal, the best I have seen and bought is $0.99. Still running low, so definitely will buy.

• General Mills (select varieties) on sale for $1.79 (max of 5) but upon checking coupons.com, Ibotta and Checkout. No additional savings available. So not buying. (My buy in price for any regular box size cereal is max $0.99.)

• kroger frozen peas, corn etc on sale for $1 each. This happens quite often. Will check stock at home. May pick up a couple of bags of peas.

So base of the sale, meat for the week will be ground beef (I will make egg noodle lasagna) and pork (from other store).

If there is something particular that you would like to see, please feel free to make suggestion here.

Some things you just shouldn't buy at regular price. Watching sales and keeping a stockpile ensures you will not run out of those items at home and end up paying way more than you should on them.

This will serve as a mega thread on what you consider buy in price for common household items. Please include price and brand.

I will start.

Item: Toilet Paper

Brand: Charmin Ultra Soft or Quilted Northern Ultra Plush

Buy In Price Per Regular Roll: $0.15 or less

Item: Paper Towel

Brand: Bounty (not essential) or Viva Signature

Buy In Price Per Regular Roll: #0.38 or less

Edit:

1. If there are household items you are wondering what would be a good buy in price, please feel free to comment in this thread as well.

2. The companion thread for food items can be found [here] (https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfReliantFinance/comments/figau0/megathread_buy_in_price_for_food_items/)

So, you did your taxes are you found out you're getting a tax refund! Don't be so happy yet. You're getting a tax refund because of one of the following:

Case 1: You pay too much tax during fiscal year (under your situation) and now the gov't is giving you some of it back.

Case 2: Your tax refund is actually larger than the tax you pay during fiscal year, thus what you are really receiving is a form of welfare.

So let's talk about each case and what you should do.

Case 1:

Do you have revolving debt? Do you have emergency fund?

if you have revolving debt and at least 3 months worth of emergency fund, then put the tax refund on your revolving debt. Whatever is left you can put in your emergency fund, assuming you don't already have at least 1 year's worth.

If you don't have at least 3 month's worth of emergency fund, then use your tax refund to up your emergency fund to 3 months then put everything into revolving debt. If there are leftovers, then put into emergency fund.

Next, look at your withholding. You want to adjust it so that in the future you don't get any tax refund. It is even OK that you have to pay a little comes tax season because that means you are not leading money to Uncle Sam interest free. One thing to look at is your Roth IRA contribution. Are you maximizing the amount you can put in? Also, what about 401k? Does your employer offer X% match? If so, you absolutely want to make at least that much contribution.

Thereafter follow, if you aren't already, at the very least the 40-20-20-20 rule that I posted awhile back

Case 2:

Are you living paycheck to paycheck or worse, living above your means (meaning the amount you WORK for is greater your expense)? If so, you need to have a good hard look at your budget. Usually the culprit is housing cost. Here, I am going to assume you are renting. If your rent+utilities+rental insurance is greater than 40% of your net income then you need to start looking for alternatives. Be it having roommates (or more roommates) or moving to an area that is less desirable. Your tax refund can help you with moving cost, security deposit etc. Your goal is to work towards the 40-20-20-20 rule that I posted awhile back

Emergency fund is so important. So let's talk about taking baby steps in accumulating one.

Assumption is that you are currently living paycheck to paycheck. Your goal is to eventually put 20% of your net income into emergency fund.

Trying to live on 80% of your net income cold turkey can be daunting. So you are going to train yourself to do so slowly while making budget adjustment as you move forward.

Jan: Put 5% of your net income into your savings account. Live off the remaining 95%.

Feb: Put 5% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 93% of your net income.

Mar: Put 5% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 90% of your net income.

Apr: Put 10% of your net income into your savings account. Live off the remaining 90%.

May: Put 10% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 87% of your net income.

June: Put 10% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 85% of your net income.

July: Put 15% of your net income into your savings account. Live off the remaining 85%.

Aug: Put 15% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 82% of your net income.

Sept: Put 15% of your net income into your savings account. Aim to live off 80% of your net income.

Oct: Put 17% of your net income into your savings account. Live off 80% of your net income.

Nov: Put 19% of your net income into your savings account. Live off 80% of your net income.

Dec: Put 20% of your net income into your savings account. Live off 80% of your net income.

So how to cut expenses?? Some examples ...

1. Meal Prep and cook according to sale.

2. Lower the heat to 60-65F and wear layers inside.

3. Drive at more constant lower speed.

4. Optimize route when you need to run errands.

This is one of my go to dish. Drop dead simple to make (basically saute the onion then brown the chicken slightly then dump everything else in, bring it to a boil and simmer for about 30min) and super yummy. Ingredients below will make 8 meals.

4 lbs of Chicken Thighs: $3.52 (on sale at $0.88/lb, ok price but not the best price I see for it.)

1/3 bag of a 5lb bag yellow potatoes: $1 (it was on sale for $2.99 a bag)

1 can of Thai light coconut milk: $1.74 (regular price)

20 oz of jasmine rice - $1

Equal amount of milk: about $0.20

3 bunches of seasonal veggies: $3

two heaping tbsp of your favorite curry powder and a couple of onions plus salt, pepper, oil : say $1.54 so cost round up nice

Dinner: Steamed rice, curry chicken and seasonal veggies.

Total cost: $12. So that works out to $1.5 per meal.

So I just went grocery shopping yesterday and thought this might be useful for some and maybe we can gather ideas for simple but delicious meal.

One of the meals I will be making is the following.

The amount stated below makes exactly 6 servings.

1/2 lb of ground pork - $0.50 (on sale at $0.99/lb!!!)

1 large eggplant - $1.69 (this was not on sale)

2 large bunch of fresh turnip greens - $1.98 ($0.99 a bunch)

15 oz of jasmine rice - $0.75 (I buy the good kind that comes in 20lb bags for about $16)

To round things up nicely I just pretend I use $1.08 of seasonings. (It is less than it really.)

Dinner: Steamed rice, Szechuan Eggplant with pork and saute turnip greens.

Collard greens and kale was also at the same price this week but turnip greens are my favorite out of the 3. So that comes out to $6 for 6 meals.

Let me know if this is interesting. If so I will continue doing so weekly (hopefully).

Christmas season is coming soon and with that, for some, comes the desire to get gifts for their loved ones.

First off, I want to say there is nothing wrong with displaying love for your loved ones through gifts. HOWEVER, it is NOT the only way nor is it a necessity. You show you loved them all the time, not just at Christmas or Birthdays etc. And gifts do not have to be expensive either nor do you need to get your child 10 gifts!

You should be doing it in a way that you can carry it out comfortably financially. Don't do layaway in stores, because if you have to that means you can't afford it to begin with. There will always be a new "It" toy, electronics etc etc just around the corner.

What you should do instead is at the beginning of the year, determine how much you want to spend in total on your child's christmas, bday and whatever other holidays. Once you have that set amount, add on the resulting tax. (Yes, some items may not have taxes but it is better to save a little more than not enough.) So say your plan is $200 in total and tax is 5%. That means you need to save $210 in 12 months. Hence you put away $17.50 per month for that child. If upon arriving at the number you think to yourself, I can't do it. Then you need to either reduce the amount you plan to spend, adjust your budget or increase your income.

Now the above is just an example for one child. Of course, in reality you may want to get gifts for multiple people. So you will be totaling them up. IMO, the money you layaway for gifts should be no more than 2.5% of your net income. So if your monthly net income is $2000. That means you should be spending no more than $600 on gifts (for everyone) for the ENTIRE year.

The good thing about having your layaway is that when it is time for you to buy gifts. You already have the money in place. There is no stress on how am I going to pay for it?

Since reddit post gets archived after 6 months, the original Discussion post has now been archived.

So I will be making a new Discussion post every 3 months. What general advice post would you like to see?

Healthy eating doesn't have to be expensive. The key is to cook according to sale, eat what is in season and stock basic pantry items when it is on sale. Learn the sale cycle, then you will be able to have enough of basic pantry items at home before it goes on sale again.

Ideally you do some comparison shopping.

Assumption:

1. You have a working kitchen and basics like salt and pepper.

2. You have nothing else in pantry.

Groceries For 2 For A Week

EXAMPLE: All purchases from Walmart

Condiment:

• 20 oz Great Value Yellow Mustard, $0.58

• 15 oz Great Value Mayo, $1.28

• 16 oz Great Value Salad Dressing, $0.92

Meats:

• 1 lb, 80% lean/20% fat ground beef, $3.48

• 10 lb Gold Leaf Fresh Chicken Leg Quarters, $5.98

Vegetables:

• 10 lb Russet Potatoes, $4.44

• 10 oz Marketside Fresh Spinach, $1.54

• 3 pack tomatoes, $1.50

• 2x Red Leaf Lettuce, $2.96

• 2x Kale Greens, $1,96

• 1 lb Bolthouse Farms Peeled Baby Cut Carrots, $0.98

• 16oz Marketside Organic carrots, $0.96

• 3lb bag Gala Apples, $3.67

• 14 bananas, approx 5 lbs, $2.95

• 1 garlic bulb, $0.45

Others:

• 42oz Great Value Old Fashioned Oats. $2.46

• 1 dozen Great Value Eggs, $0.98

• 32oz Great Value Long Grain Enriched Rice, $1.26

• 2lb Great Value Pinto Beans, $1.48

Grand Total: $39.83

So breakfast will be oatmeal with a banana

Lunch will be chili with green salads

Snack is baby carrot and apples

Dinner is rice with chicken with either kale or spinach

Extra meal is potato salad.

Assumption:

1. You have a working kitchen and basics like salt and pepper.

2. You have nothing else in pantry.

NOTE: This should not be done long term because for a healthy diet, the amount of fruits and veggies should at least triple the amount listed below. But if you are tight on funds and just need to survive for a week or 2, it is fine.

Cost is based on what I see in grocery stores this week and regular Walmart prices.

32 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables, $1.94, Walmart: 550 cal, 121g carbs. 22g protein

32 oz bag of long grain enriched rice, $1.26, Walmart: : 3200 cal, 720g carbs, 60g protein

18oz Old Fashioned Oats, $1.56, Walmart: 1950 cal, 351g carbs, 65g protein

1 dozen large eggs, $0.69, Aldi: 840 cal, 0g carbs, 72g protein

18oz jar Peanut butter, $1.18, Walmart: 2880 cal,  96g carbs, 112g protein

3.5 lb of chicken legs or thighs, $2.80, local grocery store: 2100 cal, 0 carbs, 294g protein

1 lb of bananas, $0.57

Total cost: $10

You will be getting around 1600-1650 cal a day and way more protein than necessary. The reason for the high protein is because of the entire jar of peanut butter. It is a good cheap source of calories and protein.

So you will be eating the same thing every day which means you can cook everything except breakfast at one go. Saves time and electricity.

Breakfast: Oatmeal+peanut butter

Snack: Banana

Lunch & Dinner: Fried rice with chicken and veggies.

The 50-30-20 rule is a very common in the budgeting world. I recommend the 40-20-20-20 rule as your starting base. I will explain what it is and why below.

1. At most 40% of your net income should go towards rent/mortgage+ utilities+ rent/home insurance.

2. At most 20% of your net income should go towards transportation: = car payments + car insurance + gas or public transportation

3. At least 20% of your net income should go towards retirement fund (such as Roth IRA) and emergency fund. If there is no emergency fund, then put all into emergency fund, once you have build up 1 year's worth you can split into (at least) 10% each.

4. At least 20% of your net income should go towards other needs and want. (phone bills, food, internet, debts, hobbies etc)

So 1 & 2 are at most and 3 & 4 are at least. The less % you use on 1 & 2 the more disposable income you have on 3 & 4. How you distribute the extras on 3 & 4 will depends on your goal. It will likely change over time.

First it is important that the rule is apply to net income. Money you will actually get your hands on. You can't make a budget base on money you don't get. So for example, if you have to pay child support, that must first be deducted.

Now let's talk #1. Why at most 40%?

• Housing and utilities are very important. Without it, it will have a ripple effect of everything else. (No housing makes it hard to find work or additional work. No electricity means you can't cook your own food which thus increase the cost, not to mention nutrition, of your food.)

At most 40% spending on #1 gives you cushion in the event your hours are cut short. You can trim elsewhere (eat food in storage, go to food bank, cook cheaper meals etc) and still be able to make rent and cover utilities. It also makes it faster to save enough to cover it. Say you don't have any emergency fund, then (at least) 20% of your net income should go towards it. Meaning, you will have saved enough for 1 month's worth of rent+utilities in (at most) 2 months.

For transportation, the less you can spend on it, the more you have or other categories. If you can walk or bike, do so. It is cheap and healthy.

The at least 20% on retirement and emergency fund not only give yourself protection in the future but also ensures you are not living paycheck to paycheck, which is a recipe for disaster.

IMO, you must follow #1. (Too many people don't.) So for example if you net monthly income is $1200 then you cannot spend more than $480 on #1. That is your maximum, you will have to do what is necessary (roommates, not as good a location etc) to meet it. If you can't, then your only options are to get better paying job, get additional side jobs and/or move to a less expensive city/state.

Preface: This is US base. If you are from another country, try to find something similar in your country.

One element that affects your credit score is account history, so the earlier you start building a good credit the better.

Teens (14-17)

Start with a teen credit card. The credit limit on teen credit card is low. It will require a co-signer but you can get that remove usually after you are 18 (provided you have verified income).

Some teen credit cards

https://www.everence.com/banking/credit-and-debit-cards/credit-cards-for-teens

https://www.dfcufinancial.com/personal/cards/credit-cards/teen-and-student-visa

College Students

I will suggest one of the student Discover It card. (So either Student Cashback or Student Chrome.) Both gives you extra money if you do relatively well in school (GPA of 3.0 or higher)

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/

Of course, when using the credit card, you should still follow the proper usage of credit card posted here

Preface: It is assumed you already have at least one credit card. I will talk about which credit card to get in a future post.

Credit card is a very good thing to have provided you know how to use it correctly. Using it correctly will help you establish/improve your credit score and thus will give you a much better interest rate if in the future you need to take out a loan.

Your credit score is dependent on a number of factors.

1. Length of oldest account

2. Payment History

3. Utilization

4. Credit Mix

5. Hard Inquiries

So let's look at each of them.

Length of oldest account

There is really nothing you can do here to change it. That's why it is important to start you credit history early on.

Hard Inquiries

You don't want to apply for loans and/or credit card too often. Stick with 1 per year at the beginning.

Credit Mix

If you start young, then you won't have to worry about this at the moment. They actually prefer you to have diversity. Meaning they want to see you having a loan (car loan, mortgage, student loan) and credit card.

Payment History

This is the most important factor. It makes up 35% of your credit score. YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON TIME. For credit cards it doesn't matter if it is in full or partial as long as you make at least minimum payment. (However, you really should pay in full. More about this later.)

Utilization

This is the percentage of your total credits available that you are using. You want to keep it less than 30%.

OK, so now how to accomplish 2 and 3?

What you will need to get started are

A. Your net income and how you getting paid. That is, do you get paid weekly? bi-weekly? bi-monthly or monthly?)

B. Your credit limit of all your credit cards.

C. Your detailed budget.

D. Due date of your rent/mortgage

Say you get paid bi-monthly (15th and end of month), have one credit card and it has a credit limit of $800. Say you rent is due 1st of each month and your food budget and gas (car) budget is $150 and $100 respectively.

• the first thing you want to do is call the credit card company to change the due date of your payment to the 20th

• To be on the safe side, you should keep your utilization to 25%. So $800*0.25=$200. So put all your food budget on the credit card. Then you are actually below 25% utilization. And you don't have to think about it. You just know you use credit card for food. (Now be careful and stick with your budget!)

• Once you have the above done, then on the 15th of every month, you log on to your credit card account and schedule a payment on the due date. If the due date falls on the weekend, schedule it on the Friday before instead. (That's why you want the due date to be 5 days after your bi-monthly paycheck.) Your end of the month paycheck is for rent etc.

That's it! So all you are doing is using your credit card to pay for things you would have normally paid in cash or debit card. Since you pay it off in full on or before due date, there is not interest charged.

A couple of additional comments:

• DO NOT USE your credit card to buy something you cannot afford to pay off in full by due date!

• Don't increase your credit limit just so you can increase the amount of effective utilization. As your credit score increase, credit card companies sometimes increase your limit. That's not a bad thing because this means if you spend the same as before then your utilization percentage will decrease.

• As your credit score gets better, I also would suggest getting additional credit card. Because certain cards are better for some things than others. But that's for a different post.

EDIT: With regards to length of oldest account. Please see my comment here

What general advice post would you like to see? I posted a basic budget spreadsheet earlier this week.

I am thinking of proper credit card usage. Examples of food budget that falls into $100, $120, $150 per month.

Budgeting is very important. Budgeting correctly is even more important.

I am sharing a basic budget spreadsheet which you can download and use.

You can look at the Notes sheet for some explanation. Feel free to comment if you have questions or need specific help.

Link to Basic Budget Spreadsheet

Welcome to Self Reliant Finance. Our mission here is to help and support those who are actively working towards or maintain a financially self-reliant lifestyle (financial independence). We are also here to give advice to those wanting to learn about financial independence. Whether you are still in school and need help navigating the adult financial world or someone struggling to setup and maintain a budget within your means, all our welcome.

#PURPOSE OF THIS SUB

1. A sounding board for budget advising/critiquing base on set goals. (e.g. pay off student loan, get off SNAP, pay off one CC balance, save for a vacation, save for retirement, save for a new fridge)

2. A place for you to post progress report. (e.g. post goal for the month at the beginning of the month and then come back at the end of the month with an update. This will hopefully help you focus on your goal and also hold yourself accountable.)

3. A place for you to share your success story to living a self-reliant life.

4. A place for you to share budgeting tips in working towards (or stay in) a self-reliant lifestyle financially.

#POSTING GUIDELINES

If you are seeking advice on your budget, it is important to give as much detailed information as possible. Please see the following example.

#RULES

Please consult the sidebars for rules. If you are on mobile, you can view the rules in the about tab or click here

Net Income: $1600/month

• Employer provided healthcare, deduction already made before net income.
• No Retirement contribution
• Household size: 2

Monthly Expenses:

• Rent+rental insurance : $650
• Utilities: $120
• Food: $300
• Car payment + insurance: $300
• Gas: $100

Debt:

• Credit Card debt, currently at $6000 at 22% APR

• Have 24 months left to pay off car.

Other Info:

• SO is currently full time student and expected to graduate in 15 months. Will have around $30k in student loan

Seeking Advice:

Barely scraping by. Paying just minimum on CC balance right now. How to move forward and how to attack student loan?