1st to go is spending money, then extra money into debt. Our savings and retirement are pulled out of our paycheck so if we were to the point that we are about to not make bills, I would first use up to a certain point of emergency fund before taking out retirement.
It has meant different things to me at different points in my life.
At some points, it has meant that we were going to be lucky to make all our bills and still have money for beans and rice, but thankfully now it mostly means that our contributions to savings are smaller.
Post by oregonpachey on May 16, 2012 16:41:12 GMT -5
Money is always tight for us and that means that we don't have a lot of extra spending money after bills, savings, retirement, etc. I don't take a lot of "fun" money per month. DH does but I prefer to send my portion to retirement or other needs.
Post by statlerwaldorf on May 16, 2012 16:52:02 GMT -5
To me it means we don't have a lot of extra spending money. In a place where normally I would just buy stuff that we need without thinking too much about it, but now we have to be more careful.
For us now it means cutting out the extras like clothing shopping or eating out. If it means putting less in the bank for saving, I make sure to make up for that the following month and spend less on the extras. This month things got tight because of an unexpected dental bill for DH, and we decided to purchase a Dyson vacuum. We can afford both, but decided we would sacrifice take out food and dining out this month.
Post by spiderspray on May 16, 2012 19:58:03 GMT -5
It would mean we're paying our bills and maybe have a teensy bit left over for fun, but not much.
No vacations, little to no money going into savings, no big purchases (like furniture or large amounts of clothing even) and no life changes (don't go buy a car, TTC not an option, etc.)
Post by InvaderGIR on May 16, 2012 20:05:40 GMT -5
it means I have to think about money, ever. When we were poor and responsible, it was because that's all the money we HAD. We're still poor, just less responsible, and haven't though twice about purchasing anything. You see where that got us. Now we're back to thinking about our spending on a daily/purchase by purchase basis.
When I say "money is tight" for us, I mean that we have very little savings cushion at the moment but are still contributing to retirement and paying all of our bills ok. For others, I'd think "money is tight" means living truly paycheck to paycheck.
Post by brittmk0922 on May 16, 2012 20:30:38 GMT -5
Tight for us means we're still covering all payments, still putting some money into savings, but we're finding we have very little extra spending money, if any.
For me, this means I need to avoid spending too much on yarn.
DH and I are both DINKs with no debt and stable employment. Money issues are not a big concern for us, at present.
Now, if we ever have kids, and one of us has to cut back on work, or shift to a different job because of child/work compatibility issues, then we might have to consider a real budget... We realize we're in a fortunate position right now, and save money for when kids may eventually happen, primarily because we know we're doing fairly well financially at this point in time.
I'm pretty much in this camp. But if money is really tight, no fun purchases, no eating out, and I'll really watch what I spend my money on. Thankfully we haven't been that tight since we paid off the rest of our non-mortgage debt!
Post by bettybunker08 on May 17, 2012 7:01:37 GMT -5
To us it means all our bills are covered, but we have less to put into saving and less fun money. I am in a constant state of thinking "money is tight" even though most of the time it really isn't.
To me, it means we have to watch what we are spending on fun stuff. I wouldn't say cut it out completely, but cut down and don't make any big purchases.