Spending over $1000/month on entertainment...help

[emanon1501]

If student loan is the only debt, pay it off. You will feel good.

If you were to spend it on something else, you will still have that SL payment that has been bothering you. I did that before, and I felt great even though I prefer to spend it on a car.

[asdf]

I second the calls for a more detailed list of expenses. I'd also be curious to know what the interest rate and the minimum monthly payment is on the student loan.

[Katsumi_Toda]

Thank you for all the advice. Yes, smoking is horrid. I actually quit in 2002 but started up again in 2011 after my divorce. Its not so much dying early, its the way you will die. I see it every day at work. Cold turkey is the only way, and, yes, its completely psychological for me.

All my money goes on alcohol, cigarettes, take away, food out, movies, books. Of course tberes been the cost of fixing my bike, cab rides.

My motorcycle died on me on the way home from work this morning. It eventualy started up again. I have no idea what's wrong with it. Seems like a fuel issue. I paid around $1k recently to have the carbs cleaned, valves adjusted, tank de-rusted and lined. It died on me once on the highway. It could be life of death if it died on the freeway and I'm in the center lane, you know.

I'm looking at another $1k to get everything done it needs, plus however many trips back to the mechanic for this dying issue. I kinda wish I still had my car -brand new, reliable, warranty....I just don't miss the $600/month payment, the $175/month insurance, or the gas (V6).

Not sure of school loan interest, but min payment is $106/month.

[asmom]

Stop saving= get bike and pay off student loans in 10 months. No change in lifestyle, savings unharmed.

Stop saving + cut cigarette usage and entertainment by half= get bike and pay off student loans in 6 months. Lifestyle basically unchanged, savings unharmed.

Stop saving + cut cigarette usage and entertainment by 2/3= get bike and pay off student loans in 4 months. Somewhat painful but it is for a very short period of time. And by Christmas you can resume smoking like a chimney and eating out every other meal.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[JoeP]

Sounds to me like you need to get stabilized first.
1. Take a temporary vacation from your entertainment spending. Take 3 months off and save the cash. This will give you fewer withdrawal symptoms when you go back to school.
2. Get a reliable used car for $3k. Use it until you have enough money to get the bike fixed for real. Then keep it for a backup and for rain/snow.
3. Seriously consider identifying yourself as a non-smoker and quitting cigs. You'll live longer, have more money, and your insurance will probably be lower. This should be a slam-dunk to someone in the health care field.

Not judging here, but you might want to consider entertainment options that are less expensive and less impactful to your health: booze, cigs, eating out, takeaway...those are massive drains on your budget and possibly your health.

[Katsumi_Toda]

I have considered the cheap car, but I don't want the insurance and maintenance costs. It may breakdown a lot, have some serious issues that I don't want to pay to fix. I can basically cycle everwhere (even in the rain). I want the bike so I can ride, get out of town on days of for sanity...you know. I'm single, don't do much else,so this is like a hobby as well as transport.

I only use my debit card, so I was able to itemize my spending for August. Here are some of the highlights.

Beer/cigarettes -$519.32
Bars/restaurants/takeaway -$615.56


Keep in mind that I do not eat at home, cook ever.


I'm thinking about buying the bike and making a deal with myself to quit smoking if I do, cutting down on beer, and just completely cutting out eating out...maybe $100/month for takeaway or something. Then I will save and pay into the school loan until its gone.

[bjl584]

Do you have any interest in cooking? It's not that hard. You can find pretty much anything that you could ever dream of making with step by step instructions for free on the internet. I find cooking to be rather enjoyable. And, it's so much cheaper than eating out.

Your bar tab is insane. You definitely need to put the brakes on that. I enjoy drinking socially, but I usually do it at friend's and family's houses. Way cheaper and more enjoyable for me.

[FrugalDad123]

Prior to itemizing the 1100 on entertainment and 850 of expenses I tried to visualize your budget.

Thinking... It looks like this if the entertainment is spread out as 254 weekly.

When I first read the title it sounded to me like you felt like 1100 per month on entertainment is an issue. You must be partyin good, man. You wrote "help" in the title. Wish I could help by partying with you and help you spend that! lol. just kidding.

I guess I'd compare the maintenance costs of your beater bike to the interest of the student loan and attack the more expensive one.

Best Regards,
furgaldad123

[Katsumi_Toda]

Do you have any interest in cooking? It's not that hard. You can find pretty much anything that you could ever dream of making with step by step instructions for free on the internet. I find cooking to be rather enjoyable. And, it's so much cheaper than eating out.

Your bar tab is insane. You definitely need to put the brakes on that. I enjoy drinking socially, but I usually do it at friend's and family's houses. Way cheaper and more enjoyable for me.

Its restaurants and bars, but yeah, its ridiculous. Not sensible.

I can cook and used to. I was actually working out and eating pretty much perfectly with one cheat meal per week. I kinda slacked off at the beginning of the year, and since I'm not working out, I haven't had the need to eat right. I've lost about 20 lbs since slacking off. Its kinda depressing. I'll get back to it though. I've just let this lazy, greedy lifestyle go on a bit too long.

[Katsumi_Toda]

Prior to itemizing the 1100 on entertainment and 850 of expenses I tried to visualize your budget.

Thinking... 2BeViewed=Saving+Advice+--+Kastumi_Toda"]like this[/URL] if the entertainment is spread out as 254 weekly.

When I first read the title it sounded to me like you felt like 1100 per month on entertainment is an issue. You must be partyin good, man. You wrote "help" in the title. Wish I could help by partying with you and help you spend that! lol. just kidding.

I guess I'd compare the maintenance costs of your beater bike to the interest of the student loan and attack the more expensive one.

Best Regards,
furgaldad123

Ha. I'm really not a party kinda person. Just a few pints somewhere nice. Its mostly eating out with drinks with a female friend of mine.

I was at the dealership today. They were out of the bike I wanted. Probably woulda left with one if they'd have been in.

But yeah, I'll buy you a pint.

[asmom]

I have considered the cheap car, but I don't want the insurance and maintenance costs. It may breakdown a lot, have some serious issues that I don't want to pay to fix. I can basically cycle everwhere (even in the rain). I want the bike so I can ride, get out of town on days of for sanity...you know. I'm single, don't do much else,so this is like a hobby as well as transport.

I only use my debit card, so I was able to itemize my spending for August. Here are some of the highlights.

Beer/cigarettes -$519.32
Bars/restaurants/takeaway -$615.56


Keep in mind that I do not eat at home, cook ever.


I'm thinking about buying the bike and making a deal with myself to quit smoking if I do, cutting down on beer, and just completely cutting out eating out...maybe $100/month for takeaway or something. Then I will save and pay into the school loan until its gone.

More than $6000 a year on beer and cigarettes. Holy smokes! In just 5 years, that's over $30,000 on

Beer


Cigarettes


$30,000.

Let's think about that.

[disneysteve]

Keep in mind that I do not eat at home, cook ever.

I honestly can't even comprehend living like that. I hate when we are on vacation and eat out for every meal. It's kind of a treat the first couple of days but by day 3 or 4, I'm so sick and tired of restaurant food that I'm usually heading for a local supermarket to buy something simple that we can eat in our room.

I was actually working out and eating pretty much perfectly with one cheat meal per week. I kinda slacked off at the beginning of the year, and since I'm not working out, I haven't had the need to eat right. I've lost about 20 lbs since slacking off.

Congrats on the weight loss, but I certainly disagree that the only time you need to eat right is when you're working out. Nutrition is critically important to your health whether you're hitting the gym every day or not. In fact, eating a healthy diet is even more important if you aren't exercising regularly.

So not only are you blowing tens of thousands of dollars each year, you're also damaging your body and your health. There's no price to be put on that.

[Katsumi_Toda]

Congrats on the weight loss.

Nah, I mean I was in really good shape. Since NOT working out I've lost 20 lbs of muscle mass (a bad thing).

I know nutrition inside out, so I can eat ****. I just keep my caloric intake under control to avoid gaining fat. When I was working out I was eating nearly 200 grams of protein a day. Since not working out, it hasn't been necessary for me to stick to a strict diet. All that protein would be wasted. Of course what I'm doing now is unhealthy and way beyond just not sticking to a strict diet. I have a freezer full of chicken breasts, lean hamburger meat, ground turkey, steak. I just don't cook it.

For example, tonight I ate burger king. A whopper, a chicken sandwich, large fries. I drank two beers. I am 6'1" 175 lbs. I maintain that as described above.

My problem is a lifestyle one. I've slipped into this seriously unhealthy way of existing. I'm also wasting money that should be improving my situation. I work so hard. I just end up getting off work exhausted mentally and physically and my mentality is, **** it; I deserve this. I used to get off work in the same state and go to the gym. When you are working out, its hard to get out of the habbit. You feel one day off will ruin all your gains. However, once out of the routine, its very hard to get back into it.

I do appreciate the input. Seriously. It helps to kinda have some feedback, you know. A few opinions saying, what the hell are you doing? really does help.

Its been tough for me. I'm not from this country and was very isolated in my marriage. When I left my wife, I moved to the city by myself not knowing a soul. I'm not a social butterfly and find it hard to make friends. In the last two years I've gone from air mattress on someone's floor to renting a room from a crazy chick to having my own apartment. I've gone from just handing my pay check over to my wife, to having 2 bank accounts...one of which now has $9k in it. I sold a vehicle that I loved but was costing me $750/month in payments and insurance. Last year I landed a damn good job in an excellent hospital increasing my previous income. Last year I ran a 13 mile mud/obstacle course run with some people from work. When I started training, I couldn't run 1 mile.

I think I've just slipped since January. I haven't been paying attention to my finances, apart from "i can afford this." Talking about here has helped, and posting here, reading your responses had me itemizing my spending last month and taking a good hard look at what I'm doing.

Thank you to everyone

[Gailete]

Goodness! As a nurse you are very aware of what you are doing to your body with the drinking and smoking and eating out all the time (Burger King is not healthy eating at its best). As to the smoking I would like to offer another reason for kicking it. With that much smoking you, all your clothes, everything you own is reeking of the smoke which is not nice to them or to those around you. Worst of all, every time you help a patient you and your smoky self are telling that patient you don't care about them, as let me tell you as an RN and also someone that has been a patient far too many times, having a nurse that smokes helping me especially post-op or when I have a nauseated stomach just makes the nausea worse. So if you can't do it for yourself, do it for your patients and those around you who have to smell you. If you are trying to hide the smell by dousing yourself with cologne you are just making the situation worse as perfumes can equally cause more nausea in an already nauseated patient. One of our first lessons in nursing school was to be odor neutral when at the hospital or wherever we were at with a patient.

It sounds to me like currently you are rudderless and have no direction you are heading in. You need to sit down and have a serious talk with yourself as to where you want to head in life and then make some goals to get there. If you truly want to get that RN, and I highly recommend it, then make that a priority. Then set goals and how to accomplish it deciding when you want to start back to school, what bills need paid off first, how much needs saved, is there a way to do this without incurring more student loans. Then think on other life goals, do you want a house of your own? A top of the line bike? To get married again? etc.

I think that if you could decide where you want to go in life and start heading in that direction the rest will fall into place. You will start cooking/eating at home so you will have more money towards school, you will slow down the fancy dates that blow $300, because your income can't support those kind of dates in the long term. If you are dating a woman don't get her expectations up of how much money you have and can spend. Ten dates like that a year is 10% of your income! Basically less than one date a month. Think of where that money could be going while also going on cheaper dates.

Best wishes

[snafu]

I wish I knew the words that would convince you that you're a terrific guy with huge potential. You need to get out of your self destructive lifestyle and feel empowered to enjoy each day. This is way beyond spending on cigarettes, booze and restaurants. What would it take to get back to the gym? There are lots of 2-3 y/o vehicles that operate without grief. You've bought a lemon...or being royally ripped by your repair shop. Time to learn about operation and maintenance if bike is your preferred mode of transportation.

What is your 5 year goal? Will you upgrade your education to double your income? How is that best accomplished? How many adjustable hours can your work to support class time? If you find it hard to make friends in a new city, it's best to volunteer in an area of interest and help people who appreciate what you offer. The other volunteers will have the same interests and potential to be excellent friends. If you've quit smoking in the past, you know the benefits of the patch or what works best for you. If you've cooked your own food you can get off the chemically sodden restaurant heat 'n' eat.