Still penny pinching

[Williss2]

I work at a local hospital, med-surg. I work very, very, very hard. When I'm at work, I give my all to my patients. Sometimes I come home dog tired. Too tired to eat. So why do I do all of this, go to school, get my degree, only to be rubbing two pennies together when I get home. I certainly feel as if I don't get paid enough for what I do. But when you think of a Registered Nurse, you don't really associate that with struggling. My family seems to think I'vw got it made. For some reason, I can't get over 300 in my savings account. Too give you a bigger picture of me personally. I do have a 2 income household with 2 kids. Renting, but with only 1 car note. It would seem as if I should be rolling in dough. But far from it. The only guilty pleasure that we can afford is eating out. We do this very often because of how tired I am when working. Don't get me wrong. It pays the bills, but exactly that and not much more. I am not sure if financially, I would even be considered to be in the middle class. How do you all discipline yourself enough to save? Am I the only nurse with lint in my pocket after working so hard everyday? How far can this career take you when it comes to making good, good money instead of chump change?

Thanks for any comments!

[RNnbakes]

What I do is direct deposit 80% of my paycheck. the other 20% is in form of a cheque so i have to go the extra effort to cash it. I then deposit the 20% into my savings account. I cash the cheque only when I am crunched or an extra bill coomes up.

What this technique forces you to do is to live on the 80%, once you have reached the budget cap, that means no eating out, no new clothes, no frills etc until the next paycheck. After a couple of months you'll get used to strecthing the 80% of your paycheck where you previously used 100%

And with this method you have savings in the bank, but this also means eating out less and more grocery shopping.

[lindarn]

The analyst included in their 'eating out' fees all their 'out of home' food purchases - Starbucks, snacks and sodas picked up at the gas station, etc. It's not that hard to rack up huge expenses - I have a friend who has a family of 5 - they eat out for almost every meal. Even to eat at a 'reasonably priced' Mexican restaurant for supper, with drinks and 15% tip, for 5 people, is $60-$75 per night. They swing by drive through or someplace like Panera for every lunch, and sometimes often grab fast food breakfast on the way to school/work. They must be dropping $100-$150 per day all told.....

And they probably complain that they never have any money, can't save, blah, blah. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

[Mr I Care]

The first thing to do is be grateul for what you have because some people have it harder than you. Once you obtain this mind set, then you will be able to look past the financial issues. Secondly, you should make a list of all you bills and other expenses to see what you can eliminate or reduce such as cell plans etc... I hope this helps because this has worked for me and I am currently a nursing student living off my savings , yes my savings. I saved up enough money to pay two years bills while in nursing school (ADN). I budgeted a 1k just for extraneous expenses but so far I have been financially sane.

[Mr I Care]

The first thing to do is be grateul for what you have because some people have it harder than you. Once you obtain this mind set, then you will be able to look past the financial issues. Secondly, you should make a list of all you bills and other expenses to see what you can eliminate or reduce such as cell plans etc... I hope this helps because this has worked for me and I am currently a nursing student living off my savings , yes my savings. I saved up enough money to pay two years bills while in nursing school (ADN). I budgeted an extra 1k just for extraneous expenses but so far I have been financially sane.

[Lovely_RN, MSN]

My family used to eat out 3-4 times per week until I added up the cost. Dh was also buying coffee and his lunch on most days of the week and I was buying coffee and bottled water daily.

No lie it added up to almost $750 per month.

Now we eat dinner out once per week and DH buys lunch once per week. I eat the free lunch or dinner at work and now I also drink the free coffee and sneak down to the office and drink the free water.

Now we spend about $275 a month so we are not perfect but the extra $500 covers a lot of bills.

What does making good good money mean to you? Does it mean not having to worry about budgeting? Does it mean always having extra for shopping, eating out, or vacations?

I've already figured out that the big bucks are not in nursing and I wish that people would stop telling me that I make a lot because I don't. No nurse really does. The absolute most money I have ever heard of a nurse making was $250k for a V.P CNO at one of the largest hospitals in NYC.

I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting to make more money. You are just going to have to figue out how to go about doing it. Will you leave nursing and pursue something more lucrative? Will you go back to school for more degrees so that you can advance in nursing or will you take on more hours/jobs like a lot of nurses I work with?

What I also notice is that the more you earn the more you spend. If you're not good with money then you will always be broke whether you make 30k or 300k. No one can spend w/o thinking about where the money goes and expect to not go broke eventually.

Google up Nicholas Cage

[Aneroo, LPN]

I wanted to add- We started doing a modified Total Money Makeover system (Dave Ramsey). DH and I each get our own stash of money each payday. If I want to buy coffee everyday, it comes from my stash of money, as does clothes and any extras I want. We have a food fund, gas fund, play fund, and soon, a fund for season tickets for football next year. LOL

[cardiacmadeline, RN]

I know that some people, including my mother in law, think that we are loaded. It is kind of annoying actually. Nurses in my area make decent money but we are certainly not millionaires. My husband and I are DINK's, so we don't have kids to spend money on. We do pretty good financially. My advice is (like the other posts) to start cooking your meals at home. I am a coupon clipper and try to grocery shop on double coupon day. I then try to put together a weekly menu based on the groceries that are on sale that week. I have my recipes organized in a binder so it is easy to look up recipes. I know it is hard to cook sometimes, but once you get in the habit it is not so bad. My other piece of advice is to have money automatically taken out of your paycheck and deposited right into a savings/retirement account (if you don't already do so). Start with a small amount and gradually keep increasing it. Also, think about some other things you could do without. We got rid of cable (and don't miss it!) which saves us $100 a month.

[RNperdiem, RN]

I went through the penny pinching when I had children and switched to a per diem schedule. I was not able to work as many hours as a thought I would and our income dropped.

We gave ourselves a weekly allowance to spend on "wants". When you have $30/week, you prioritize your wants. Free spending on whatever catches your eye is a thing of the past.

I discovered that my kids only need a weeks worth of clothes, so a half-dozen shirts and pants and a couple of sweaters and a pair of shoes is all they really need.

I dropped cable TV. I had always grumbled about how much they charge for the few channels watched. It felt good to cancel.

[resus]

I get gas station coffee instead of starbucks. 88 cents instead of 4 dollars. Daily's has great coffee wirth flavored creamers. As mentioned before the crock pot should be your best friend. I am a fast food hound but it costs entirely too much. I also used to wonder why some other nurses seemed to go on all these vacations and have these huge diamond rings, then I talked to a few and found that they have huge credit card debt. I may not have the fanciest clothes or jewels or go on cruises every 6 months but I have zero credit card debt. Learning to live within my means is still hard but worth it.

[linzz]

I agree 100% with all the previous posts. You really have to not eat out. My family was eating out all the time and it was really killing our budget. It seems that after taxes, mortgage, children's needs etc, there isn't a lot left. We found that by eating out once a week only and maybe buying lunch once a week, it really helped our budget. If you eat at a fast food restaurant twice a week, and spend $30. to feed your family, that is $240. per month.

I do sympathize with being too tired to cook, but there really is just no other way to make ends meet.

Up here in Canada, the more you earn, the more the government removes from your pay. You are still getting ahead, but not as much as you would think.

[frnzy]

I'm not a nurse (just a student right now), but I have lots of experience with techniques to save money and yet still not feel like you're depriving yourself.

If eating out is truly your only indulgence, I think that if people tell you to straight up stop doing it, then you will be scared off of what else everyone says. I suggest tracking what you spend on eating out. And then looking at the rest of your life and deciding how much you actually WANT to spend on eating out. Let's say you track it and determine you spend $800/month eating out.

Because I love to travel, I always put spending in terms of how many trips to Paris per year I'm spending on something. That's what helps me put things in perspective. For instance, my family cell plan ($70/month) is equivalent to one trip to Paris per year*. Which is worth more to me? a week's vacation to Paris? or having a cell phone every day. I've decided that the convenience of having a cell phone is worth the money. But something I DID give up was my extended cable package. Cutting just that one thing allows me the equivilant of 1/2 trip to Paris per year. I've decided that I'd rather go on vacation once every two years in exchange for not having extended cable. But that's just what ~I~ think is a worthy trade.

*A couple years ago, I went to Paris for 8 days with a partner. For the two of us, hotel and airfare was $1,600. My share was $800. The next year I went on a cruise for the same price. This past February I flew to Florida for about $500.

If you found that you spend $800/month on eating out, that's $9,600 per year. That's 12 trips to Paris, using my "Paris" exchange system of determining worth. Let's say you stop ordering drinks when you eat out and this saves you 5% off your bill. That's 1/2 of a trip to Paris. Right there. Now let's say instead of eating out 6 days per week, you only eat out 5 nights. That saves you another ~$120 per month for a total of ~$160/month or more than two trips to Paris per year. And all you did to earn your two trips to Paris? Eat out one less day per week and stop ordering drinks when you do go out.

Good luck. To me, it isn't about what you take in. It's about what you choose to spend on.

[deleern]

2003 we decided to get rid of all debt. Debt is expensive as well. We sat down, gathered all our Bills. if it was a monthly bill utilities, phone, heat, cable, that went into one pile, Car payments credit cards house payment. went into the other pile. we eat out only occasionally. that was not an issue.

then we went thru the check book and looked at where all the other money went. we kept the cable as that is our main entertainment, we cut down on the cell phone service.

1st I like bottled water. I didn't give it up I now buy it by the case. $4. avg for 24 btls rather than $1 plus each. same with pop. for my husband. groc. we buy our meat by the quarter you get all cuts for $1.99 per pound for all cuts. (or less) many more things came up. just a few examples.

Credit cards: we took the smallest one and focused on paying it off when that was paid off we took the money that we were spending on that one and added to the next biggest. in 18 months we had all credit cards paid off. now I am using that amount and putting it on our house payment. that will be paid off in 3 years. 10 years early.

I also took full coverage off the Cars except the nicest one. I drive an old Buick to work that has 270,000 miles on it. it gets 30 miles to the gallon I call it the war wagon, (it lookes like has been in a war) it costs me $5 a day to run it. We also Paid off the Car payment. I still use one credit card. but I pay it off in full.

I use it only for gas. right now I have a credit balance and will send more and will use it for my Christmas shopping.

when we took our vacation I did that as well I sent Money ahead of time and used my credit card. when my credit card statement came it had a $18 credit. that is nice not to have to pay interest on our vacation.

I am Putting mega bucks into Savings and retirement.