I've read over 50 books since the start of the year. I only buy a book after I've read it 2-3 times. How? Sign up at your local library! (And keep signing up wherever you can get proof of residence; I've managed to collect 4 library cards.) And then find whatever system they have for borrowing e-books (mine work well with Libby). I've found that I almost never lack for books. A kindle or e-reader could be a good investment to limit screen time; you can download library e books onto them auite often.

Browsing the physical library is more fun than browsing online for books. Just pick the covers you like, check if the summary sounds fun, and give it a shot. Never feel guilty if you don't read a book you checked out or put a hold on. Sometimes it just doesn't sound as good two days later.

This happened in 2023... So a year ago now. This is what happens when California gets a wet year.

"a protest against Dutch subsidies and tax breaks to companies linked to fossil fuel industries"

We can do all the activities you mention with a much lower impact. And fighting climate change allows many farmers in developing countries to actually survive. (Think of the problems with cocoa harvests failing or with Mongolian herders losing herds three years in a row instead of once a decade.)

Yes. It's always a good question to ask yourself:

Would you rather be effective or be right?

Thanks. I've been very angry out of a feeling of complete helplessness. I'm reading a book about data bias in relation to gender (invisible women) and it's hitting a lot of sore points that come up being in an office that's 10% female... There's four of us.

Hehehehehe sounds like satire as you point this out to how often the opposite happens

Hey! I'm part of a trend!

Keeping it under 10-12k total. Biggest splurges so far are 1.5k custom tailored three piece suit and 1.6k for photographer to cover the entire day without hour limits. Food will be about half the total cost.

But grocery store flowers, digital invites, thrifted dress, basic rings, picnic area ceremony and restaurant rehearsal. No DJ. No alcohol. No florist.

Wait really?? That makes so much more sense 🤣

I'm dying now because that's literally what I thought when my extended family says it.

What part of California?

Not quite an idiom but term of endearment: petit chou in French is little cabbage but is often used for young kids...

It was a very structured community with a lot of acronyms and rather intimidating.

Most of this community is going to be focused on credit cards with high rewards which often have high interest rates. (Aka my 28% APR). :(

I'm going to put in a third vote for YNAB.

How do you feel it compares to YNAB?

Heehee yay YNAB!

Does your bank not allow you to download your transaction list as a CSV? I used to do this.

Agreed. I wish it was cheaper. Although now with YNAB Together my partner and I can share an account and my sister also agreed to have her budget. (I can technically peek as account manager but I've promised I won't and we're close enough that it's not an issue.) But now it's $30/each!

My partner and I just combined budgets rather than trying to split everything.

Could you try YNAB together (no extra expense to you and you can offer it free) and use YNAB to split things as mentioned in comment? Or if you don't mind losing some visibility then making a broad "together" expense category to pull from/put into?

Also! Maybe try a different card? Plenty of good cards to try churning! But I agree - it's frustrating when one doesn't pull. My credit unions credit card does that.

Ooh. I might use this. I didn't know it existed. Thank you!

Hmm...

I think I use YNAB to allow myself nice things while knowing I'm saving. I guess it's because I've got a saver mentality instead of a spender mentality. So I don't think the challenge would be useful to me...

YNAB gives me permission to eat out with coworkers when they invite me on Friday... Before YNAB I would feel bad not to eat a packed lunch.

I'm just not someone who buys unnecessary things on a regular basis. (I lean more towards splurging on outdoor gear once or twice a year.)

I like budgeting because it meant I didn't feel guilty buying two board games on FB marketplace this month even if I knew it meant postponing a purchase of an epilator until a future month.

I've tracked all my spending since I first moved out of my parents place for university... I think I would struggle not to. My anxiety loves loves loves worrying about money. Forget the fact that I could have no income for six months and live my usual life...

I've made a "my" view where I split out my long list of categories to feel better on my anxious days. I made my fiance a view to help his ADHD brain. I've used the overfunded view to double check for funky things. And I made a wedding view (mostly just because since it was its own category group anyway).

I did this for my ADHD partner. I absolutely adore having a million categories and I do majority of our budgeting because I legit enjoy categorizing our transactions every morning. But I'm trying to train him out of his poverty mindset so I thought simplifying his view to make it easy for him to check just the categories that are "fun" so that he'll actually spend from them without feeling guilty rather than avoiding any purchase or feeling bad about buying a $10 video game he can enjoy the...

I'm not seeing it yet - but YNAB is my current approach and I adore it.

I used to approach it in a project my income for the month and then assign that money into categories and into a savings pool. It was a good spreadsheet. I liked it.

But I find the envelope system that YNAB uses extremely powerful. You can set your categories (and it encourages you to remember expenses that only come up once in a while and budget for them on a monthly basis) and then you use the money you CURRENTLY have to fund them. You assign every dollar a job. Which means I can totally splurge on a fancy dinner... But it means I might be pulling money I assigned to my ski pass out (I sound ridiculously entitled, sorry... the blog posts they have give better perspectives if you are starting from high debt or low income). And I don't want to pull that money because I've been setting it aside slowly for months... So I don't splurge on drinks and dessert or I suggest street tacos or cooking at home for my friends instead.

I think #2 is unrealistic for a lot of people... The other points aren't bad.

Heehee. At least with money I can know exactly how I'm spending it. I hate the effort it takes to track calories and the level of associated uncertainty.

Not necessarily. You can have a budget at any income level. It just might mean facing the fact that your expenses are higher than your income. No one says a budget can't show you how much your going into debt instead of how much your saving. My partner was there through his college. It's just depressing so you are less likely to do it. I don't know if I would stick to it.

But I think knowing where your money is going and where it is coming from is a key step in motivating yourself to make a change... either to fight for other opportunities or to change spending habits. And it also gives you visibility into what differences it makes on a weekly or monthly or yearly basis.

Envelope style budgeting:)

I'm going to reply to your comment... But check out the philosophy of You Need A Budget. One of their keystones is roll with the punches. If you go on a spending spree, you just acknowledge it, cover those categories with money from somewhere else (or have it be on a credit card where it'll warn you youre going into debt).

Jumpsuits make bathrooming more complicated. I absolutely love dresses for this reason 😁 and you can pair them with just about any style of shoes from sandals to sneakers to boots to strappy heels!

... what were your goals?

My fiance was diagnosed recently but we didn't have insurance to get started with treatment. Just the diagnosis has helped him figure out what parts of him aren't just "not trying hard enough". But to be honest, I'm really heartened when you talk about a clean house because I need that for my own anxiety and it takes him so much effort that it's hard to ask it of him.

Hi fellow discuss.online person!

I'm finding it has zero issues out here in Utah too. Just hoping it grows some additional communities outside of nerf for my local feed 😂

I used Libby. (Just go grab a local library card and see if you can dig up any old library cards from anywhere else you've lived... You can have multiple libraries linked.) Also great for audiobooks.

Thank you fellow human!