Archived How do you guys get by??

[Times Up]

Why does it have to be a guy? In this day and age there are plenty of women out there with educations and making good money. We have a few male TMs at work whose wife is the one who brings home the bread.

Definitely! That was my marriage at the beginning. Next door neighbor and I used to joke that our hubbies we're 'supplemental' income. Essentially banked all of my husband's paycheck. Then came along kids and I wasn't interested in working full-time. I haven't since. I still do my career on a very part-time basis (don't enjoy it anymore) and work at Spot some because I've got a good bit of time before I can retire.

 

[Leo47]

Is that car payment including insurance? That's relatively expensive; is the car fairly new?

Yeah it’s pretty new, tbh I don’t know much about the details because my mom “gave” the car to me aka I just took over the payments and that’s how much she tells me they are.

 

[soyaxo]

Yeah it’s pretty new, tbh I don’t know much about the details because my mom “gave” the car to me aka I just took over the payments and that’s how much she tells me they are.

Yoooo, same. “Mine”’s a 2014 and she has me do $400 a month. She got upside down on the loan and I needed a car that wasn’t a POS like my 1996er, so I took over the payments on her car since she has two other cars and never drove it. Plus I don’t live with her anymore so I really needed a good car.

 

[MajorChomp]

I’m only a Hardline’s TL with a family of four children and my paycheck pays for literally everything. My fiancé stays home with the kids, We live paycheck to paycheck primarily but that’s because I’m very strict with expense savings that I don’t touch and having money aside in my 401k.

It does help that my rent isn’t as high as it should be because Florida prices are way high so I’m aware that helps out majorly. If I was paying the real price of rent I couldn’t afford to provide for my family on just Target. But as is my current situation right now yea target pays the bills. Insurance, utilities, car payment, food, clothing, birthdays.

I’m extremely good about budgeting

 

[Flow Warrior]

Just wondering how many of you all only work at spot and manage to get the bills paid? (as a TM or TL of course) What does your budget look like? Does anyone live on their own or have roomates.. can you comfortably save every pay or is it a check to check situation? What about when fourth quarter ends and hours are cut?

I live in Houston (in Houston, not a surrounding city or suburb), don't own a car and room with two others.

 

[Flow Warrior]

As a TL I make about $1600ish a paycheck.

I also am dating someone who makes well over six figures so I am comfortable but still in debt.

Curious, what industry?

 

[Flow Warrior]

I treat deposits into my savings like they were a bill. Like I make it a "mandatory" expense. So my first check of the month, I'll pay a few small bills (credit card, phone, insurance, ect), and then deposit about ~$300 into savings, and leave myself about $100 for miscellaneous stuff. Usually food, lol. More than enough for me though with other work. So by the time my second paycheck comes in with any pay from my other job, I just have to worry about rent and my car. If there's anything left over, it's money for me to spend, but there isn't always money left over. :/

This thread is teaching me I need to get married. *cringe*

No, its suggesting that you get married. You could live with decent others that you can trust and wont sell you out 30 yrs from now, too .

 

[Flow Warrior]

$780 won't get you a shitbox studio apartment in my neck of the woods.. Anywhere in my neck of the woods, ghetto rent is $800 or better to start.

Bosch you need to leave Cali.

You want good weather all the time? South Texas. There is nothing you can get in Cali you can't find in Texas. Skiing, North of Amarillo. You a democrat? Austin is for you. Not one? Rural texas is for you. Like LA? Come to Houston.

 

[NPC]

Bosch you need to leave Cali.

You want good weather all the time? South Texas. There is nothing you can get in Cali you can't find in Texas. Skiing, North of Amarillo. You a democrat? Austin is for you. Not one? Rural texas is for you. Like LA? Come to Houston.

What if he wants dry weather and no tornados?

 

[Anelmi]

But Texas has humidity so I’ll take a hard pass. I lived there 4 years and couldn’t wait to leave.

 

[Bosch]

Bosch you need to leave Cali.

You want good weather all the time? South Texas. There is nothing you can get in Cali you can't find in Texas. Skiing, North of Amarillo. You a democrat? Austin is for you. Not one? Rural texas is for you. Like LA? Come to Houston.

Texas, a place my grandmother said was great, if you don't have to live there.. And I am in PNW.. And would go back to LA in a fucking heartbeat.. I have been through there , Dallas, Austin, and down to the gulf a bunch of times and wouldn't waste my time or money on that place.. I have heavy connections to Texas and know what I speak.. Fucking pass.

Even in LA, sure it was expensive, I always paid more in rent cause I never wanted to have a longer commute, I always had friends who paid way less in rent but it was made up in the cost of fuel, insurance and child care they needed more house, I wanted other things.

And this is where hubby wants to be, I can land anywhere and be good, growing up in the heat of CA, AZ and TX the PNW cold is really nice change.

 

[EndymeChaser]

Even though it gets stressful at times, I rely entirely on my target paycheck. I live alone in a one-bedroom apartment, and I have no savings, but I make it through each month and am slowly chipping away at my student loans. So it's not easy, but it is doable (at least in the area where I live).

This is me, except for the student loans. Before I got my apartment, it didn’t seem possible on a Target paycheck to live by myself. But eventually I was “forced” to find an apartment and it’s actually worked out pretty well. I work 35+ hours a week and make a decent amount an hour for a TM.

There have been some points where I’ve felt the pinch of low hours or a bunch of bills all coming due at once. For the most part though, it’s been slightly easier than I expected. I never take it for granted though and make sure I always have a few hundred stashed away for an emergency. And I also don’t call off unless it’s absolutely necessary.

 

[WalksforMiles]

With bouts of depression, anxiety and loneliness.

 

[Times Up]

This is me, except for the student loans. Before I got my apartment, it didn’t seem possible on a Target paycheck to live by myself. But eventually I was “forced” to find an apartment and it’s actually worked out pretty well. I work 35+ hours a week and make a decent amount an hour for a TM.

There have been some points where I’ve felt the pinch of low hours or a bunch of bills all coming due at once. For the most part though, it’s been slightly easier than I expected. I never take it for granted though and make sure I always have a few hundred stashed away for an emergency. And I also don’t call off unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Don't forget to save for retirement. The more you can save when you're younger, the more it will multiple as you get older.

 

[Bosch]

Don't forget to save for retirement. The more you can save when you're younger, the more it will multiple as you get older.

This, that match to the first 5% is free fucking money.. You are dumbass if you don't take it.. I have tried to save then life has gotten in the way, but when I got to a point we could, I took mine and just started at the %5 percent then have upped it a couple points every year to almost the max. I forget its there and just let it build.

 

[can't touch this]

The main issue I've always had is finding a trustworthy roommate who won't bail on me and/or do something massively stupid like get fired from their job, arrested, etc.

It's funny how you think you know someone so well until you live with them. A few years ago I had a roomie who was pretty bad about saving money, but he still managed to make rent at first so I didn't pay much attention. Then he bought a car that was entirely unsuitable for his income, and the monthly payment quickly cleaned out his savings. Then I found out he was hitting the casinos with the little money he had left. Amazingly enough, he took $50 to the casino one night and walked out with $7,500 in cash, and just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief at this insane luck, he blew every dollar of his winnings on a new gaming PC (with a pair of graphics cards that cost $900 each) and the rest to his car loan, which still wasn't paid off. Then as a final act of stupidity, he quit his $14 an hour job just because he hated it, and moved out on me with less than a week's warning. I haven't spoken to him in a while but last I heard he moved in with his grandma, supposedly to "take care of her" but really just to mooch.

Roommates are both a blessing and a curse. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em (unless you make $20+ an hour full time).

 

[pellinore]

I think that for those TMs who have consistent hours most of the year it is possible to be able make it on your own. Up until we got the STL (who now is gone) I could count on 30 hours a week. Since the changes in the cashier shifts I have gone down considerably and if my parents weren't my landlords I'd have been out on the street a long time ago.
Of course, the "go to" answer for getting more hours is to look at the swap shift sheet.....however, there are very few shifts that appear there....and oftentimes the posted shift covers part of your own shift so you can't pick up the shift.....or it is in Starbucks.

I'm really hoping that whoever our new STL is will go back to giving us (cashiers) longer shifts. For the short term we're going to have our old STL come to our store two days a week to do the STL stuff that only an STL can do and then work on the store's schedule. I would really love it if our old STL could return. Hopefully in the time he's at our store doing STL things he's able to begin to get the store's morale up....at the moment the morale is down in the basement and the people who cared about their work and the store now only put their time in and go.

Maybe the interim STL will be able to help us figure out how to get our truck process to work better.