Are you good at managing money?

What if in manic episode, money is being spent recklessly?

How do you make ends meet?

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I don’t trust myself with a credit card so only have a debit card. Money burns a hole in pocket at the best of times but trying to keep to a budget and been looking up ways to save and ways to budget recently to try and get ahead.

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Hope you will succeed.

Never had a manic episode. I’ve always managed within my means so I’d like to think that I can manage money but I’m not about to go apply for that job as financial adviser…

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Lowliness of mind is good. :+1:

■■■■ when I didn’t work I had just enough to get by monthly. Now I get a couple hundred dollars more and I buy everything I want. And as you pointed out it’s during a manic episode.
So like when I’m trying not to think of stuff and wondering when the next stop is I’m getting in and out while shopping and eventually ending with whatever.

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Self-control is important to us.

I’ve ran up thousands of dollars in credit card debt three times. I don’t even know how I did it, that’s how tricky credit cards are. But all three times I paid them off. The first time,I owed about $5000.00. But I got a check for $12,000 for retroactive benefits from SSDI and I paid it off. The second time I ran up about $5000.00 AGAIN but my dad had a bunch of extra money so he paid it off for me.That’s not really the whole story or the real story but it has a grain of truth in it. The first two times were about 11 years ago. But about three years ago I had ran it up AGAIN to about $6000.00! And I got ANOTHER retroactive check from SSDI for $11,000. I paid off my credit card and the remaining money I lived off of until about a year ago. Right now, I don’t owe anybody a dime and I have a few hundred dollars in the bank. So I have mismanaged money in the past.

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Almost unbelievable. You must surely have learnt a great lesson in money management. You have an old topic about Money Management and just finished reading the first few paragraphs. Your advice is reasonable.

I barely do, I have my parents help me out a lot, I give them money back when I can but without my parents help I wouldn’t be able to survive each month…not on what the Government thinks I can live off of.

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I manage at the moment but if, as is likely, my income drops dramatically next year it could be a very different story. I think i would struggle to restructure my spending.

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I husband my resources pretty well, though at times I am penny wise and pound foolish.

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I have never been manic. But I have a hard time paying my bills in time. And forget bills. My husband takes care of that now.

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Since I’ve become disabled, my best friend serves as my representative payee and financial power of attorney. He’s paid all of my bills for me for years now.

Until this year, I started managing my own finances in January. So far, I’ve paid every bill on time and even been able to save a little. I’ve also gone and paid off several hospital bills (from inpatient care).

Paying my bills on time, and paying off old debts has increased my credit score so much that I’ve been offered 2 credit cards. I use them every month, and then immediately pay them off.

So now, I’m doing pretty well at managing my money. I’m actually kind of proud of myself!

Blessings,

Anthony

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I rarely spent money recklessly. almost never. I usually buy small items like a piece of clothes or a pack of tea. Besides, I don’t use a credit card. Instead, I use debit card.

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I had no real concept of money or it’s value… I never knew what anything really cost. My parents handled my bills until my sis moved in and little by little took care of all that for me.

But now I’m learning how to manage money and how to pay the bills and get better. I’ve taken some classes and I’ve asked my parents and sis to teach me how to better budget and balance an account.

some attempts are better then others. But all in all… I’m making progress.

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To be honest with myself here…I do manage to live within my meager means BUT I spent my 20’s charging everything to a magical credit card that I neither saw nor heard the bill for…so…yeah.

Yeah, surprised, managing and budgeting money is a skill that can be taught like cooking. There are a few basics and it helps to write things down. Paying monthly bills is easy.(if you have the funds to cover it) But you get the bill, open it and see how much it is, and then mail a check.
For a budget, get a piece of binder paper and itemize ALL your income in the span of a month.
Then on a separate piece of paper make a column of all your bills. Include everywhere you’re spending money on in the span of a month. Gas, food, cable, cell phone, internet, etc.
Once you see everywhere your money goes each month (including miscellaneous and entertainment) then you can plan ahead and budget.You can see if you’re wasting money like spending too much on coffee or whatever. If you write it down in black and white, it really helps. And of course save receipts

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I’ve taken your advice to heart and have been keep track of stuff… writing it down, got a binder set up for keeping track…

It’s just getting in the habit of keeping track of all that paper and the small few bucks here and there.

It’s sort of interesting to see how much gets spent on what.