Chris, if there’s anything you can do to increase the money you’re bringing in (whether that’s from selling stuff on Craigslist, having a yard sale, doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, or whatever), that might help with your budget. I know that’s easier said than done, so know that I’m sympathetic to your situation. But if you have any means of making a little more, it’ll help you allocate your money without feeling like you don’t have room to breathe.

Good luck with it!

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES get one from Unum/Provident. They have lost class action suits for fraudulent denials. If your company insures through them, you don’t actually have disability coverage.

If your girlfriend is insisting on contributing more, how about dedicating some of her income to savings or special purchases?

Here’s one way that is simultaneously easy and hard: easy, because all you need to do is (say) add $20 twice monthly for a dinner and movie (or whatever helps destress you) to your monthly budget; hard, because you still have to discipline yourself to free up that much money.

As Trent noted, many budgetary decisions can be automated; your bank will be happy (for example) to transfer (say) $100 per month to your long-term savings account, and you can set up your recurring bills (e.g., utilities, cable) to withdraw money directly from your bank account. I do this for most bills and other recurring expenses such as contributions to my kids’s university funds, but also use my simple calendar program (Apple’s iCal) to remind me every month to deduct this amount from my checkbook. No stress because I don’t have to remember anything: the calendar does all the hard work.

Anna notes: ” I try to pursue scholarships, but since I can’t demonstrate “financial need,” I often do not get them.”

There’s an amazing array of scholarships out there, and most don’t have any financial need criteria. The trick is to find time to hunt down the ones you qualify for. Because this research isn’t trivial, I’ve seen statistics suggesting that something like 50% of scholarships are never given to anyone because nobody learns of their existence and applies. A really good university will have someone who can help you figure out which ones you qualify for and thereby reduce your research time, but even a bad university should at least have a long list of these things available in the guidance office. Invest a day looking through the list to see if you qualify; there are often scholarships for things you’d never expect, such as “blond/brunette/whatever girls named Anna who are left-handed” — all being legacies of someone who succeeded and who wants to help someone similar to them succeed.

Because the manufacturer cannot control these and other variables that ultimately control a battery’s usuable lifespan, most will exempt batteries from any warranty. Sometimes a battery will last 2 or 3 years, sometimes it starts to fail in as little as 3 to 4 months. While it is possible a battery is failing early due to manufacturing defects (faulty control electronics or bad components,) many of the early failures are simply due to these variables that the manufacturer cannot control, and most users are blissfully unaware of. It has been my experience that very few users actually read the various booklets that come with their computer and follow the instructions for use and care.

As for the other components of a computer (such as the hard drive, CPU, video card, RAM, etc.) the most common time for a part to fail is either in the first 6 months, if you have a defective component, or starting around 3 years. Over time the parts of a computer wear down. While it seems obvious with moving parts like a hard drive’s spindle or a fan, even parts that would appear impervious to wear and tear (such as the capacitors on the motherboard) actually do wear out due to heat expansion and contraction and other effects.

Kam, something to consider. Perhaps her “fair share” is the cost above what it would cost you to live on your own? Did you guys get a two bedroom since you moved in together? You could take the cost of the two bedroom, subtract the cost of the one bedroom you would have paid for alone, and have her pay the “extra” money it costs to live together. Also, for utilities, etc. most charge a flat fee, and then charge an amount based on usage. You could subtract out the flat fee (that you’d have to pay by yourself anyways) and have her just split the usage 50/50. Basically, you’re paying what it costs to live alone, and she pays you the balance in cost.

I’ve recently watched via streaming: Fargo, Mulholland Drive, Moon, The September Issue, Up, and This Emotional Life. Once you’ve watched a lot Netfilx gets eerily good at recommending stuff to watch.

First, the email from Charity that she put $150k down on a $258k house, bringing the mortgage to initially around $108k. Assuming that she took out a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 6.5% (these are just assumptions remember), the payments on the mortgage are probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $840/month. If she rents the place net of management fees for $750/month, the loss after deducting the $400/month in “other expenses, is around $490/month.

Rent the place offered by your new employer for $700/month and that brings you to a total of around $1200 for housing expenses.

You still build equity by paying down the mortgage on the house you own. You have the distinct possibility that the housing market where you own your home rebounds. Even a 25% rebound in housing prices would net you almost a $30,000 gain.

The real kicker here is that you have $50,000 in cash. Sock that into a savings account and use it to pay any expenses that may arise.

If you believe (like I do) that the housing prices have the possibility of rebounding, keep the house.

You have the cushion – hold off for 3 – 5 years and reassess. Losing $490 per month for 3 years is a lot better than $150,000 right now.

Thanks,

You can see our current budget on my blog, but we need to update it now that we’ve paid off the car. If you don’t make sure to give yourself a small bit for fun, you probably will burn out and give up. That’s what was happening to us before we started our fun money accounts at the beginning of this year.

Abby, it sounds to me like you’re well-enough insured for now. My husband and I both work and have no kids, so we’ve insured ourselves for $100,000 so that if one of us dies, the other will receive enough to finish paying off the house and have enough leftover for about a year of living expenses. This is on top of the 6 month emergency fund we are building up again.

Kam, when my husband-to-be and I cohabitated, he was making more than me. I didn’t care and wanted to pay 50%. I figured that when we got married, it wouldn’t matter anyway or if we broke up, it could be a clean financial break at least. We’ve been happily married for 5 years, so I guess we went with option 1, lol.

Kevin, we just started streaming Netflix through our Wii and I’m loving the X-Files right now. I’m in Season 3 right now and love finding the time to sneak more in.