s/o saving, how MM are you?

[bunnymendelbaum]

The saving thread got me thinking, how MM are you?

Are you a saver/spender? Always been that way?

What is your current situation like? Happy? What can you improve on?

[bunnymendelbaum]

Right now, I'm not very MM.

I have never been a good saver, but when I lived in NYC and worked 2 jobs I saved a bunch of money and it was the BEST feeling in the world!

I want that feeling back! Right now, I guess we are house-poor. No other debts (SLs gone, no car payments, etc.) just mortgage and a little credit card debt recently getting house ready to sell. We have investments, but do not have a great cash savings cushion though which stressed me the F out!

I can't wait to sell this house and have NO debts! I want a good saving cushion and start feeling less stressed about $! Can't wait!

[ssmjlm]

1. Pretty MM, I've cut way back on the frivolous spending

2. Saver

3. Awesome at the moment, then I started pricing daycare this morning and started freaking. (Not that I didn't already know the cost it was just weird to see it written down.)

[mrs.jacinthe]

1. Relatively MM, although our housing situation leaves a LOT to be desired.

2. I'm a spender. Always have been. However, my parents raised me that I could spend it after I saved it and it's (mostly) stuck. So I'd call myself a combo. I love to spend money, but I always try to save to a goal, then spend it all at once.

3. Current situation: Way too much in housing cost (we pay $1600 a month for a 900 sq ft rental, which is ridiculous, even in our COL), currently paying down some debt (accrued during a long period of serious underemployment), also saving for taxes and a home downpayment. I'm happy with this, but I'd love to be able to put a lot more toward the downpayment and a lot less toward debt payoff.

[Deleted]

I'm a spender, but I also kno wmy limits and what I can and can't have. I love to shop but I won't do it at the risk of our savings either. It's the little treats with the occassional bigger splurge that get me through life.
H on the other hand is super saver. He'll bank money for years and then spend it all on something super great and expensive.

We've both always pretty much been this way. Works for us because we do it within our limits.

Our financial situation is solid. Could be better, could be a lot worse. The good thing is we have very little debt and we don't stress about the little day to day costs so much (ordering pizza, fun stuff at Target) The bad thing is dairy farming is a volatile market so the paychecks are up and down. It takes a lot of money to run a farm. We just always have to plan ahead, because we never know where we may be at. It also inhibits some of our more long range, more expensive goals/wants/needs (adding on to our house, building some new farm buildings). It makes saving for retirment and the like hard. We do a lot of, "What if something happens and we need access to that money to buy feed etc.?

[sailorgray]

My H is a saver and I am HUGE bargain shopper. Very rarely will I go into a place, even Target, and pay full price for something. Together we make a good team.

I probably could do a much better shop in terms of grocery shopping, cleaning supplies, etc. I don't know all of the coupon tricks and should learn them. We are a one income family now and that has been hard to accept. We never really worried about money before, but I do now. It's nice having a cushion and I fear our cushion is slowly going away since I am no longer working.

[sunshineandwine]

I am and have always been MM. I got that from my mom.
I'm a saver. I don't carry any CC debt. Our mortgage is the biggest expense (obviously) and it does stress me out a little bit.
Right now, we are happy, but I feel like there is always room for improvement. We could have twice the amount we have in savings and I would still worry, that's just how I am.

[MrsMB]

DH - Saver/Me - Converted Spender

I'm working in a job that makes me cry because I'm getting good money to pay off debt. As soon as that is paid, I will never have another credit card. (I'm not exaggerating. It is NOT worth it!!!! DH is MUCH better than I am. If we needed something for home repairs, it would be better he had the card. He got us a fence on credit on a 6 month no-interest plan and paid it off before any interest was charged. He's always got a chunk saved back anyway that he builds on.) I've got a car loan I've done a great job with and the home is my name so I don't need those cards.

Like Sailor Gray, I'm really wanting to be coupon savvy to help. If I could get grocery costs down, I could pay this off faster.

Again, I am converted. I'm on a tight personal budget that I'm working hard to stick to so I can get to a better place.

In general, if we had an emergency, DH is prepared. We'd be OK thanks to his saving! Things with me are tight.

[thewop]

1. Pretty good.
2. I'm a spender, but I give myself limits. I give myself $30 a week to spend on whatever I want, or save up for something bigger. The rest of my paychedk is put in savings/joint account for bills. I've always been a spender. I grew up in a lower class household, and my parents never had the cash to spend, so I kind of live it up now that I have my own money and can afford it.
3. Ugh. With having to put in a new furnace/central air this past summer, I don't feel great about it, but we have plenty of money in the bank and liquid assets if we had an emergency. I stress about money a lot, but it's there, so I don't know why I stress. I can improve by not buying so much beer and wine :-p $5 here, and $10 tere adds up! Haha. Other than the mortgage and my car, we don't have any debt. No SL's, no CC debt.

[peach]

I am a saver overall. Yeah I splurge sometimes or make dumb purchases but I am thrifty. I buy all of DDs clothes at the thrift store, I sell things we no longer use for extra cash. I always shop deals and sales, I have like 8 pairs of shoes...not a big wardrobe.

DH is more of a spender. Sigh..

We don't have a lot of savings. We contribute a good amount toward retirement and DH is part of his pension plan at work. But our actual "Savings" is not that much. Every time it gets up there we have to use it for some big emergency. We have maybe a month worth of our wages saved right now...it irritates me but I"d rather dip into savings than use a credit card when my car breaks down or our house floods.

[Susie]

lol, MM is my home board. So I'd say I'm pretty MM. Always have been.

I'm a saver. Or, more accurately, I guess I'm a debt-payer. I'm ok with what we have in savings, and all the extra goes to aggressively paying down our law school student loans. We've paid off about $60k in the last couple years, but we have >$200k to go. Two law degrees didn't come cheap. We've been in our house for 4 years, and only this year did the balance on our SLs drop below our mortgage balance!

That's the single biggest reason why I have ugly carpet, hand-me-down furniture, and a host of other D&R no-no's. SLs are the financial priority. But we get by, and live reasonably comfortably. We just can't afford to have kids (or a daycare budget item) yet.

[kaylie]

This week I feel like I'm really not MM. I thought our credit card balance was like, $250 and it's actually $1,000. WTF?

I'm naturally a spender but I'm trying to reprogram myself into a saver. My parents never saved a dime, so it's an uphill battle.

I don't feel comfortable with what are savings are right now and I need to stop being a punk and saying "oh, it's just a small expenditure". My small expenditures add up! I think I'm going to have a savings oriented resolution this year.

[Deleted]

I am a saver mostly. I am very deliberate when I spend money. I will spend it but I will spend weeks or months researching something (camera, car, computer, neighborhoods, etc.) before I will spend money on an item.
This is a product of my upbringing. My mother has the worst money management skills I have ever seen and it was just she and I growing up. I remember being 8 or 9 years old and writing out the checks for my mom so I could make sure the bills got paid and the utilities wouldn't be turned off again. I started working when I was 14 so that I could ensure that I had clothes for school/lunch/going out with friends because my mom never had money. I think I subconsciously rebel against returning to that lifestyle.
Our current situation is okay. I have all the money set aside for our down payment and the neccessities of the new house, which is good. The bad part is that our savings will be down to 2-2.5 month expenses and I much prefer to have at least 3 months. I will keep working to get there and I am happy that I can pay my bills and still save a little.

[simpsongal]

Not very MM lately, but DH and I are pretty smart/conservative with our money. Ditto Susie - MM was my home board on TN. I haven't been there as much lately.

[pitterwoo]

MM was always my home board on TN too. I'm mostly a saver, but I like to splurge when I can afford it.

Our situation would be great if we could boost the income. Er, deadend job, stagnant wages, no other opportunities in sight and want to start a family but health insurance doesn't cover maternity. This keeps me up at night.

[ktzmoh]

I'm not a spender per se... In as much as I don't love clothes or handbags. But until recently, I wasn't really a saver either. Mainly because when we were both in grad school, we were raising a family on student stipends, so there just wasn't anything left to save .

Now that we are both in career track jobs, we are saving at a reasonable rate- we've managed to rebuild our emergency cushion to about 3 months expenses over the past 6 months. So we are halfway to our savings goal.

But in the last year, we moved cross country, bought a house, bought a car, started repaying student loans and started both kids in full time preschool. So our expenses have gone up quite a bit and we aren't able to save as much as we will be able to when the kids are in regular school, the car is paid off, and our mortgage payments go down.