Want opinion on budget spreadsheet

[Anon]

@ohbejoyful Oh, they're coming along alright I guess. I still feel like I'm spinning my wheels and not doing exactly what I want yet, but I'm being patient. My spending is great one week, and then I end up splurging the next. Still learning how to keep up with receipts. The bad weather makes it tough to get a full week's paycheck and to head out, too.

The GOOD news is, I've pretty much got my SUV set up for sleeping in now, so it's not like I really need much else to make the jump. The rest is just deciding when to give my notice and trying not to blow money on things I don't need.

What I've noticed about myself is, unless I time my actions and keep an easy-to-access visual reminder of things, then I pretty much just forget all about them. It's like they don't exist. So either I need to keep a budget spreadsheet in physical copy form and hang it somewhere, or put some sort of visual reminder somewhere.

 

[user 19146]

a long time ago a was driving many miles a year. i was doing 8 to 10 oil changes a year every 5000 miles. yes some times in every 2 weeks may be 3. back then I was planning and using 30 cents a mile for every mile driven. that would pay for any future maintenance on the car i was driving. I think it's now up to 56 cents a mile for our federal tax's. so that would be a good budget amount to save or plan to save for. and it should work for planning a budget. add a little more for the cost of a new vehicle. example the cost is $40,000 divided by number of miles you want to keep it say 150,000 = 26 cents a mile. so 82 cents a mile will pay for any maintenance and a new vehicle when needed.I don't remember if that include's gas or not. but i think it did.

 

[Anon]

a long time ago a was driving many miles a year. i was doing 8 to 10 oil changes a year every 5000 miles. yes some times in every 2 weeks may be 3. back then I was planning and using 30 cents a mile for every mile driven. that would pay for any future maintenance on the car i was driving. I think it's now up to 56 cents a mile for our federal tax's. so that would be a good budget amount to save or plan to save for. and it should work for planning a budget. add a little more for the cost of a new vehicle. example the cost is $40,000 divided by number of miles you want to keep it say 150,000 = 26 cents a mile. so 82 cents a mile will pay for any maintenance and a new vehicle when needed.I don't remember if that include's gas or not. but i think it did.

You're clearly better at the wordy parts of math than me.

If I understood correctly this is what I did:

Cost of vehicle: $24,000
Number of miles I'd like to keep the vehicle (I assumed hypothetically or keep as in own): 500,000
Distance I plan to travel: 1,080

So,

24,000 / 500,000 = 0.048
0.048 * 1,080 = $51.84

I'm pretty sure that's not right because I would think that the higher number of miles that I want to keep the vehicle, the more money I'm going to want to save up per mile.

I'm good at math I swear. Just not when people try to explain it to me in words.

 

[user 19146]

I may have been wrong on the calculation. the current fed write off on a business vehicle is .56 cents per mile. and that it does not pay for interest on a loan or for tax and registration fees. so the .56 cents per mile for a budget will be very close to the real cost for it's use. if it was paid for in cash the .56 cents is correct per mile driven as the budget amount to plan on. that amount would pay for all maintenance plus pay for the cash payment cost over time or pay for the next vehicle. the lowest cost per mile vehicle i have ever owned was my $50.00 car over 11 years the cost was .21 cents per mile driven not counting registation and insurance. just gas $3.50 gal divided by 25 mpg = $.14 per mile, $3.50 gal divided by 19 mpg = $.184 per mile so by the time you add oil changes, tires, repairs the $.56 per mile is close to the actual cost

 

[gizmotron]

the current fed write off on a business vehicle is .56 cents per mile.

I would love to be wrong on this point. The fed gov won't let you write off your travel expenses resulting from your vehicle if you use it to sleep in. Now you can write off business travel expenses if you stay in a hotel, eat your meals at restaurants, and use a company or rented vehicle. You can even expense out business travel in your own car if you are keeping records and staying in hotels. You just can't go to places away from your residence and use an RV to save money, and write that off too. It would be fantastic if you can write it off. Now this is based on self employment and running a business. I love to make money from gambling. I can take my van from casino to casino and stay for a day or two in their guarded parking lots. Even if I can show that it's a business trip I can't write off the trip expenses incurred from my van travel. So I don't have to pay self employment expenses if it's just recreational travel. I don't run it as a business. I don't pay into SSI at nearly 15.3% of earnings if it was a business. So the trick is to earn enough from recreational gambling to pay the travel expenses vs paying the 15.3% if I were allowed to write off business travel in an RV. I still pay both state and federal income taxes. I just add the recreational earnings to my regular incomes taxes. Course this would be a real interesting day for me if I'm wrong about travel expense write-offs for self employed businesses and living in an RV.

 

[user 19146]

I would love to be wrong on this point. The fed gov won't let you write off your travel expenses resulting from your vehicle if you use it to sleep in. Now you can write off business travel expenses if you stay in a hotel, eat your meals at restaurants, and use a company or rented vehicle. You can even expense out business travel in your own car if you are keeping records and staying in hotels. You just can't go to places away from your residence and use an RV to save money, and write that off too. It would be fantastic if you can write it off. Now this is based on self employment and running a business. I love to make money from gambling. I can take my van from casino to casino and stay for a day or two in their guarded parking lots. Even if I can show that it's a business trip I can't write off the trip expenses incurred from my van travel. So I don't have to pay self employment expenses if it's just recreational travel. I don't run it as a business. I don't pay into SSI at nearly 15.3% of earnings if it was a business. So the trick is to earn enough from recreational gambling to pay the travel expenses vs paying the 15.3% if I were allowed to write off business travel in an RV. I still pay both state and federal income taxes. I just add the recreational earnings to my regular incomes taxes. Course this would be a real interesting day for me if I'm wrong about travel expense write-offs for self employed businesses and living in an RV.

I think you are correct. my point is for a budget on the operating cost for any vehicle business or not. all miles cost money plus the up front cost of the vehicle. I do not know of many people that keep a vehicle for more then 5 years. they are kinda of like houses people get tired of them and replace them with something else after 7 years or so.

 

[Calypso]

Regarding food … cheaper is not healthier… healthier usually costs more.
It sucks but that’s our society for you. When you’re on food stamps you quickly realize how much cheaper the bad stuff is and it’ll go much further. Read the back of a top ramen. Cheap, but you’ll pay for it later on with your health.

Fresh produce - yes expensive, yummie but goes bad quickly, means more refrigeration, more frequent trips to store (more gas, more amount of time spent in store where I end up spending extra as I walk by a display or see something on clearance… that gets me).

If you can find farmers markets around you that’s a great way to go, and supports locals.

Making your own dry lentil soup mixes and such, put them in reusable ziploc bags so there’s no glass being used and easier to store, just stack them up (make sure they are sealed well) doesn’t need refrigeration.
Get a bunch of different types of dried beans, lentils, dried onions, ect …Spend a day making a bunch up. Get creative.

If you want, grab some chicken to throw in at the time of cooking. Sometimes I can find clearance on the rotisserie chicken end of day, and I chop it up, make a broth for my dog.

But be prepared… eating cheap is not a way to a healthy weight. Eating intentionally, eating as a source of energy will help. Eating because things taste of feel good. And if you’re stressed or lonely (which might happen) it’s an easy go to deal with things, or at least for me… I just grab prepared food which is more expensive and unhealthy but it’s quick and easy and takes no time to make or clean up … but it costs.

If you have a budget of $25/week … that’s what $3.50 a day. Sure you’ll ,one weight because you’ll be starving yourself or at least just filling up on ramen which is 2 servings per pack… TWO. That’s 35% of your saturated fat and 66% of your sodium. If you eat two packages which usually my son does double that (4 servings).

I am not a health freak… I always have Nutella around and barely get my veggie/fruits in.. but I think it’s important to note, if you give your body cheap crap, it’s going to have an effect, esp if you’re living an unconventional lifestyle.

Also.. go to the farmers market with a friend or find another camp buddy to go halves on produce so it doesn’t end up going bad in your fridge.

 

[Calypso]

I’m sorry… here you are super stoked about using goggle docs and spreadsheets and I’m busting on some arbitrary number you put in. I think it’s great you’re using those programs. There may be some that are preset with the formulas and you just have to modify the categories a bit.
There have been times when I’ve really geeked out on budgets and it really is amazing how much you spend without realizing and how much you can not spend (as it’s not savings… it’s just not spending as much)

Now you make me want to go do a spreadsheet.