August 8, 2007
After I found out about my raise, I let myself daydream about all the “stuff” that money could buy. Just to psych myself out, mostly, and let myself enjoy a good laugh before I committed everything to savings. At least this way I’d get the impulse buys out of the way mentally, right?
Maybe, eventually, a Bluetooth headset to replace my existing hands-free set. I hate the hands-free I have now, because it’s all tangly and gets caught on doorknobs, trips me running from bus to train, and gets pulled out of my ear constantly, but can’t use the phone without it either. Still, it works so there’s no sense in getting a new thing to throw an old, functioning thing out. Maybe when it breaks. Not on purpose! But when it dies a natural death, I’m allowed one Bluetooth headset.
Other than that, no particular treat is wanted. BoyDucky’s birthday gift is already together, mostly, so I might want to work on our three-year anniversary gift. I owe Friend S a few gifts for Christmas, and the best friends might get something as well. Other than that? I’m good. All monies can go to rebuild that emergency cushion I’ll lose in January.
Enter: friends with weddings.
Suddenly we’re shopping shopping shopping. And lunching. And dinnering. I’ve bought more lunches and dinners these past few days than … well, let’s just say, it’s been a lot. It’s not a whole lot, but $15 here, and $20 there, eventually it all adds up.
She put down a $200 deposit on her $750 wedding dress (on sale), we’re talking about bridesmaid dresses between $150-$170 before alterations, we’re talking bachelorette party with going out and dressing up, and we’re talking multiple bridal showers. We’re talking MONEY. Holy cow.
None of the bridesmaid dresses she’s liking thus far come in junior bridesmaid sizes so we’ll have to cut down an adult dress for me. This has happened before. It’s not easy and most especially it’s not cheap. Yesterday, I wanted to contribute to her wedding dress as her wedding gift because I knew she had only wanted to spend $300 on it. Today, I can’t even afford my own dress! I know when I’m out-walleted: her parents can chip in on the rest of that dress if they’d like.
We still have our New York trip unplanned which, by the way, hasn’t been financed yet.
I don’t begrudge the time, effort and some money — this is my best friend from about the 5th grade. It’s just a little stunning how quickly the obligations and spending pitfalls open up. And how often we have to eat during these long brainstorming sessions. We’re going to be really creative and careful about a lot of things here on out, but the main things like dresses that require alterations will be costly. Any seamstresses or seamstressy advice out there?
[I can’t believe she’s really getting married and moving away really soon. Yikes!]
June 27, 2007
As I get closer and closer to the date of my own little Mecca, you’d think I would be gleefully planning each day, girding to do battle with the masses of people who’ll be attending Comic Con this year. Most especially, you’d think I would be hoarding my pennies more fiercely than ever to maybe add a little somethin’ to the miniscule budget ($200: food, parking, gifts for 4.5 days). Heck, I’m not even sure that I should be spending THAT much in the wake of some recent revelations!
You’d think. How I wish you were right! Because you’d be wrong. Oh, so wrong. The programming for Comic Con is still not available, and so I’ve not got a program to obsess over.
In its place, my obsessiveness has grabbed hold of my acquisitiveness left over from that weekend jaunt to Macy’s and now I’m restraining myself from yearning after adorable summer clothing the likes of which I can only imagine would be wonderful for our lunch reception aboard the USS Midway, or for the lectures of Salmon Rushdie and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Surely, surely you say, such intellectuals wouldn’t be interested in my attire if they even gazed in my direction. True, but I can’t help but want to make a good showing anyway. It’s not for them, it’s for me. Hah! That makes it even harder to stand firm. And NOT BUY. Lord, give me strength to resist!
“Anything I spend now only takes away from Con.” (Repeat 10, no, 100! times.) Where’s someone to browbeat me into obedience when I need him/her??
I know, this is not the most dire situation. But, still.
June 18, 2007
My friend, she of the recent elopement, has also bitten a bullet recently. Since her wedding, she’s begun to seriously listen to finance advice and become involved in the mystical world of personal finance.
Until now, she’s had the good fortune to be parentally-funded for some portions of school, and living expenses, and self-funded for the rest of her wants and needs (ie: travel, internships, living on her own, etc.) She’s not, now, financially up a creek, but she and her hubby are integrating finances and live on a real live budget which is completely foreign to her. If anything, she used The Force. She could afford to as a young single professional woman. There wasn’t any real need to deny herself, and the alternative was always the terrible example I’d set of working too much, and denying yourself. Yes, you turn into ME. 😉
Thankfully, her hubby has been budgeting for himself as a member of the military for a good number of years, and has a good savings plan set up so now it’s really a matter of “training” one another. Ok, it’s a matter of training her, but she’s up for the challenge and I introduced her to my pets this weekend: Yodlee and PearBudget. Thanks to GoogleDocs, she’ll be able to share the budgeting tools with her hubby (still currently long distance). My friends are growing up and I’m so proud of them!
May 14, 2007
I’m a points rewards packrat. I maximize points earnings, and then I hoard them, planning and obsessing about the various rewards or gift cards that I can redeem them for. Like frequent flier miles, the consensus is that you should not do this. You earn ’em, and burn ’em because you don’t know when the program’s going to change and the earned points/miles aren’t worth anything to you until you redeem. Duh.
I never listen, of course. It always seems like a good idea to hold out for a higher redemption level, because what if I want to redeem for something like airline tickets instead of gift cards, and what if I want to buy from another store? Except 1) I’m already well over the threshold for the best redemption value you can get: there isn’t a better discount for, say, a $200 gift card instead of $100. The difference between $10, $25, $50 and $100 gift cards can be substantial, but $100 for 10k points is the best deal you’re going to get.
2) The only airline tickets I’m going to need for the forseeable future are to go see BoyDucky which costs between $110-$150, which is not worth the equivalent $250 in gift cards. If I were to be flying cross-country, the 25k points for a ticket would be a far greater value but I have no vacation plans of any sort for at least through the end of this year.
And 3) Well, it’s not like there aren’t a limited number of stores to redeem cards for anyway! I may as well start somewhere and redeem some money for each store I’m likely to frequent.
Much like when I discovered that I’d been uselessly hoarding my Discover rewards for more Double Cash Rewards because the $40 for $20 Borders GCs were now $25 Gift Cards for $20 of rewards, I lost out on the premium Citi Redemption because of my nearly pathological need to hoard points. *Tsk* It was to my intense chagrin that I found that the $100 gift cards I’ve been saving Thank You points for were no longer available at the 10k point redemption level. Instead, they’re only available at $50 for 6k points. But of course. I paid 5k more Thank You points than I expected, to get only $250 worth of gift cards, instead of $300.
In the spirit of reformation, I went ahead and ordered the $100 gift card for BoyDucky’s birthday even though that’s not for another 6 months, and I’m going to figure out what to redeem the last 20k points for, before the $100 for 10k goes away entirely. And I’ll redeem my MyPoints for a gift card as well, since I’m well over the minimum needed for a $25 gift card. Target gift card, anyone?