This account is being kept for the posterity, but it won’t see further activity past February.

If you want to contact me, I’m at /u/lvxferre@mander.xyz

  • 4 Posts
  • 273 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: April 9th, 2021

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  • If you want, you could use GMail filters to delete those emails automatically. Here’s how:

    1. click the engine button (settings), then “see all settings”, then “filters and blocked addresses”.
    2. click “create a new filter”. Add “top of Google search” to the field “has the words”, leave other fields blank.
    3. click “create filter”, then check the “delete it” box, then “create filter” again.
    4. repeat steps 2-3 for other shit that SEO spam is likely to mention.

    Important: never use as a filter anything that legitimate users might reasonably say. Only things that you’re fairly certain to come from a spammer.

    EDIT: I repeated two steps without noticing it. My bad.


  • Apparently my method is a mix of those listed in the text.

    I’m in a similar situation as OP, some of my income is irregular. So my monthly budget isn’t directly based on the last month income, I use the average of the last six months, relying on a checking account for that. (I keep it with enough money to last me one or two months.)

    Then I split that budget into four categories:

    • savings - I aim for 25%. Into the saving account it goes.
    • monthly fixed expenses - periodic, somewhat predictable, monthly. For example bills, cornmeal and rice, cat food, etc.
    • variable expenses - they’re necessities like the above, but there’s some wiggling room. Like, if necessary I don’t mind eating eggs four lunches a week and walking instead of taking a bus, but I’d rather not to. Usually split into four weeks, so I expend it gradually.
    • “fluff”*¹ - avoidable expenses that I still want for some reason like “it improves my mood”. Things for my hobbies, going to a restaurant, buying nicer clothes or hardware, etc. Unused fluff gets transferred to my savings account in the following month.

    Then here’s how I address some complexities:

    • periodic expenses for things that I buy every few months (e.g. gas canisters) - I include a fraction of them into the monthly fixed expenses, and only remove the money from the checking account when buying it
    • erratic but large expenses (e.g. house repairs) - I usually “borrow” this money from the savings, then “repay” it in the following months, as a fixed expense*².
    • high income multiple months in a row - I cap the budget and send the overflow to the savings.
    • low income multiple months in a row - cut down fluff, then reduce variable expenses, then reduce monthly fixed expenses, then reduce savings, in this order.
    • really low income multiple months in a row - if really necessary I borrow from the savings, keeping in mind that I’ll need to repay myself.

    Notes:

    1. The actual name that I give to this category is “imposto das lombrigas”, or roughly “roundworm tax”. That’s from from my family jokingly referring to cravings as "to have roundworms for [something].
    2. Some people might use a credit card instead for that, to build credit; that also works, but it depends a lot on the government that you pay taxes to. I do have a credit card but I tend to avoid it, as often there are discounts for paying things in cash.