December 14, 2015
As we bleed money this year-end, I want to put up Christmas lights. To remind myself not all is lost? Irrational? Maybe. It’s not like we’re going broke. It’s just a remarkably expensive close to an otherwise pretty good year. And it was a good year. (I jumped the gun on the yearly recap but being grateful for what you have and accomplished isn’t the worst perspective to wear before writing a wish list.)
Except for this disgusting viral thing that was so bad it knocked us all down for more than a week, badly enough we would have headed to the ER for the fevers if we couldn’t get them down. Losing that week was bad enough but the lingering aftereffects just rub salt in the wounds. Oh, right, salt and wounds, the bleeding money thing. This is what our Fall has looked like.
Annual expenses
Car registrations: $450
Life insurance: $900
Property taxes: At least $5000
Christmas presents: $260
Museum memberships: $350
My IRA contributions: $5500
*Increase in childcare expenses: $1500 (per month for now. Expect this to go up. Of course.)
One-time expenses
Estate planning, retainer: $4000
Miscalculated tax, $700
Stock purchase for Christmas, $10,500
Mortgage prepayment, $XX,000 (not prepared to put that in print yet!)
All this wouldn’t seem that bad, even, if it hadn’t been preceded by a few months of higher expenses (hello, Summer).
Still, it has sucked up every penny of our cash reserves, our incoming paychecks for a few more weeks at least, and even touched our savings. That was the last straw.
Looking at the due dates for the stuff I can’t change, you’d think I would have been smarter than to take on the voluntary stuff (life insurance, memberships, the lawyer) at the end of the year but noooo. Of course not.
Is it just me or does the end of the year bring you the gift of annual expenses?
January 15, 2013
Our food spending this year was astronomical.
That is, in some ways, surprising.
I eat a lot less than before. No stress eating either. You’d think that’d reduce food costs somewhat but it really didn’t matter: PiC more than makes up for my here again, gone again appetite. While I skip meals when flying solo, being with him means at least one meal will happen a day. And if I’m Chef, even if I’m not hungry, I’m still compelled to make a real meal. Maybe to avoid the judgment when it’s looking like the five KitKats and a mini Snickers bar style dinner but also because cooking’s therapeutic. Besides, for someone that loves every single thing I try my hand at, even the things I think suck? Who would mind?
Anyway, the point is: this year’s food budget? Mostly for two people? Was, in a word: dammmnnn.
We spent nearly the exact same amount on Groceries as on Eating Out. Groceries included frozen meals, convenience foods, snack foods, fresh food, canned food.
With so many 12-14 hour days, there was just no time or energy to do fancy or creative meals on the weekdays. Instead, we’d make up big meals on weekends, freeze portions for later, experimented with new “quick” recipes. Not all of the experiments were successful, not in my opinion, but I evidently married a man who’d eat anything I make. Super helpful when you have a complex about food waste!
The ugliest pot pie ever. But it sure was tasty…
When I cook, I do a fair amount from scratch. Lots revolves around chicken, the affordable protein we love. I make stew, pot pies, roast our own chickens, and once every several months, put up chicken broth. We try different grains in bulk, and avoid red meat*. All of this nets pretty minor savings, but I enjoy the cooking and we both like simple healthy meals at home. Bonus: It keeps my roasting skills polished. No horrific dried out turkey for Thanksgiving for us, my favorite meal of the year. Can you imagine ruining 20 lbs of turkey?
*I love steak but have an irrational fear of ruining it so I refuse to cook it. PiC does not love it like I do.
Double roasting. The honey cooks faster and make it look like it’s burnt but it’s just extra delicious, extra crispy skin. I’m loving the new roasting pan.
We had convenience and frozen foods as patches for no-cooking days, and traveling weekends when no cooking would happen. Pretty sure we also paid for groceries for other people on occasion. That’d be included in here. Couponing is an as-and-when activity instead of a weekly past-time.
Eating Out included: fine dining, treating friends to meals or snacks or anything food, special occasion meals, casual dining, fast food, drinks.
For day to day life, where we used to have a cap on the number of times we’d eat out or order in, this year has been rough enough that I finally just stopped fussing about sticking to an artificial number. Yes, it’s more expensive, yes, it’s not always the healthy choice and no, I’m not going to sweat it. Bottom line, we needed to eat, our working weekdays were far too long some days to do anything but come home and forage, and we could afford it.
A deconstructed kebab from Tuba Restaurant. We get to try new fancy-ish stuff in the city when visitors come to town!
Food, all kinds of it, both “high-end” and the remarkably pedestrian stuff we enjoy, was a spending priority for us, a clear trade of money for time or mental health, clocking in at about $6500.
It’ll be interesting to see this coming year’s spending. I have more opportunity to make time to cook on weeknights now, and if we eat out, it’s on weekends instead. Will it balance out or stay the same?
December 9, 2012
All the packages finally arrived this Friday. A neat little row of J.Crew, Banana Republic, and NY&Co.
The Verdicts:
The purple hacking jacket in herringbone from J.Crew, ordered in the last smallest size they had available (2P), was like wearing my mom’s clothes. A bit of a burlap sack in the shape of a tweed blazer. Funny but not flattering, fit-wise. But the color was really pretty, and even PiC liked it, even though as he says: you pick colors I’d NEVER pick.
“Nope, I asked Twitter. I know how to compensate for my weaknesses like color coding or matching.” My sincere thanks to @mello_yello_jen/Jenny for chiming in positively on the color of this blazer and @elleandish/Janelle for the same and helping me with possible outfit colors and ideas!
This was a maybe primarily because of the size, it’ll take a lot of work to make it fit: the color was gorgeous, it can be matched w/my closet of many neutrals: as Janelle suggested, dark trouser jeans and a nice dark blouse, a light blouse, etc. All of which I have. The jacket can be the color focus. I was in love with the many pockets. Three pockets in front, and an inside coat pocket. I always want an inside coat pocket. (Sucker). The lining was luxurious. The cut of the front was curved, not a straight severe cut, definitely in the style of my old hunt coat. Reminiscent.
This was on sale for $120 from $228.
The grey flannel blazer, my mentally dubbed “back-up option”, was a much closer fit but was still too big. No one makes a 00P like it’s supposed to be. (ie: fits me perfectly *cough*) It was lined with a nice stripy fabric, but there was no fascinating inside pocket. The outside pockets weren’t fake though, which is always a concern for me.
Totally forgot that it had elbow patches which are amusing. Slightly off-centered, in my opinion but PiC insists that they’re centered enough. We could have argued the matter for a while longer but we needed to move on.
This was on sale for $90 from $150.
The yellow mustard cowlneck blouse was picked to add a little color to a closet full of blue, black, gray, splotched with occasional concession-to-color reds. It falls around the neck perfectly, the fabric’s soft but there’s just too much of it. You could fit another half of me width-wise in there – add a thicker ribcage or generous bosom or something to make full use of this top. Still the top itself is pretty and very easily altered by taking in the sides. A shame I can’t save that extra material and make something with it. Extra value!
This was on sale for $36 from $60: KEEP, Alter
The black Cafe trousers from J.Crew I couldn’t remember ordering? Yeah, they weren’t a hit. The fit was a little roomy in the derriere area, and the length was generous. The biggest problem was they were mostly made of cotton, which means they were extra creased which doesn’t bode well for business clothes that might have to travel with me. That’s the official reason. The real reason is that while I used to love ironing and used to love the crisp feel of clothes after I was done, I don’t really like doing it anymore. Also, I don’t have an iron anymore soooo…. And under the heading of “learning from past mistakes”: the last pair of mostly cotton pants I had didn’t wash and wear well. The black started to fade around the seams over time and looked pretty crap. So these are definitely going back.
This was on sale for $67 from 89.50: RETURN
The 1035 trousers in Super 120s were a wild guess, I didn’t know what Super 120s meant. I didn’t read the description terribly carefully, these were a bit of a throwaway order for free shipping. Apparently it’s really fine wool, merino wool, and require dry cleaning. /headdesk/ The fit on these were amazing. Perfect, even. The length was too generous but that just needs a hem. Which is scary because these are p-r-i-c-e-y. *sigh* But I’ve gone through any number of cheap, literally and materially, black pants and they definitely show it. (It’s just … dry clean only? Really? I haaate dry clean only clothes, even if I don’t dry clean them, I have to be so careful with them.)
This was on sale for $97.50 from $130: KEEP, hem
The 7th Avenue Bootcut City Double Stretch from NY&Co in black and cherry – now these were a surprise. Hat tip to Extra Petite for trying and mentioning these pants and the company’s petites. I wanted to try a different pant in white but they were out of the smallest sizes so I went with these instead. Partly poly, the black didn’t look very good. Black and poly just don’t always work well together I guess. But the cherry looks really nice and fits without needing any alterations at all. It offsets the cost of the black pants
This was on sale for $24 from $50: KEEP ONE, as is; RETURN ONE
The Tailor’s Shop:
When it came down to it, I could make my peace with keeping the crazy-expensive black pants, even having to figure out maintenance. It was a toss-up between the two blazers. Or so I thought.
When it comes to game time decisions, I must say that PiC is a terrible enabler. We went to the tailor, stack of clothes carefully folded and intending to return one jacket.
“Which should I keep?”
“BOTH.”
“…..”
After some consideration: I haven’t bought and fitted a solid piece since last year. This year’s purchases have been a bust or one off pieces, totaling around $50. My black pants are all frayed, pilling, or washed gray. The black jacket has been serving all duties and is starting to pill so I’ve needed a real stand in jacket. As much as it pains me to pay up that much all at once, this should take care of the jacket needs for a good long while. I really wish I’d managed better timing in ordering the purple hacking jacket even one size smaller to reduce the amount of work to go into the alterations, though.
The tailor and I had a lot of: “too much material,” “take this in,” “bring this in,” “and this in, too” to bond over. And he’ll have it done in a week! It’s pricey but if it’s the usual excellent job, then between the fast turnaround time and having everything fit perfectly, I’ll be happy.
July 16, 2012
Glory be – the water company has finally launched a (gasp) website!!
We can view or pay our bills online by check or credit card, in real-time (!) though they may charge a fee for the privilege of paying the bill. They’re seriously considering charging for the privilege of AutoPay!
They’ve taken so long to implement these electronic services that they have managed to get on the carousel right when the rest of the world is starting to take a step backward to a time where using credit cards may cost money.
I was most displeased to read this article in the Wall Street Journal where, as a result of this settlement, merchants are now allowed to charge customers who use credit cards more as an offset to the interchange fees imposed by Visa and Mastercard. (Discover and American Express charge as well but weren’t part of the suit.)
Whether they will actually charge more remains to be seen – smaller merchants represented say they won’t lead the price increases, likely because they don’t want to anger their customers but I know some merchants already do offer tiered pricing with discounts for their cash customers and that’s probably the model that will continue.
That’s a huge pain, I hate carrying cash but if cards will cost more than I’m simply going to change how I pay for things.
In other news, we’ve closed one of PiC’s accounts with a credit union where they were charging him $8 a month for paperless statements. Unbelievable temerity. It saves paper, time and cost, and yet they’re charging serious money per month. Thank you and we’ll be taking our business elsewhere.
October 17, 2011
I’m /headdesking/ so hard right now. I’ve made a huge mistake.
Back in June, we combined cell phone plans and I took over the financial responsibility for all four phones. Our family plan share 1000 minutes and unlimited text messages. It’s been a few months, and between having unlimited mobile to mobile minutes, and not using a ton of daytime minutes, we were fine on that plan. Since 250 daytime minutes isn’t much per person, I normally use Google Voice on my computer during the week for domestic calls to keep my minute use down as well, so that helps.
I let myself get complacent on this last billing cycle and didn’t check in, not even once, on it. And I’m paying dearly for that inattention.
PiC and I went way over our minute allotment. Shockingly over. I can’t even believe how much. On top of that, my mom’s phone listed five charges for Premium Services; those junk charges you get hit with because of any number of spammy services that sink their hooks into you the second you respond to their junk texts or however they do it. Well, they got my mom. Five of them, over two days, at $9.99 per.
For my part, I think my transgressions were the worst during two weeks out of the billing cycle,when I was sick at home, working most of the time. I was taking regular and conference calls on my cell phone instead for no good reason. !!!!
PiC went double on his allotment as well but I don’t even have the patience to see why. I just told him about the bill and left it at that.
*For the record: my parents were at or under their minute allotment of 250 mins/each. Only PiC and I went over ours. And considering we can log in online or check our minute usage via our phones or online??? UGH. Inexcusable carelessness.*
T-Mobile’s complying with my request to remove the Premium Charges and block any incoming charge texts for a month for free via a free trial of the Family Allowance service, but that’s going to take a couple months to remove $50. The remaining $400 is on me because I noticed too late to change the billing plan to a higher rate/minutes package – you have to do that during the billing cycle.
I can’t even tell you how hard I’m kicking myself. I haven’t seen a bill this big since the days of idiot brother yore, before I removed all long distance capability and stopped paying any cell phone bills for him back home.
This drives me crazy, not just because of the enormity of the bill itself. It’s also because of the way we’re currently handling our finances.
I’ve been dancing on a tightrope where PiC and I share but don’t share. We split but don’t split expenses. We’ve been discussing ways and means of combining but since I won’t do that until we get married, I live in financial purgatory where I’m only partly in control of some things, totally of others, and not at all in still others. It’s driving me a little crazy and making me careless. Careless enough for my hands to have slipped off the reins when they shouldn’t have.
There’s a vague sense that I knew this was coming. Not this specific thing but that some sort of financial issue was looming because of our laissez faire compromise style of management. Because I wasn’t controlling every last detail myself. And because of that vague sense that something, somewhere, was going to go wrong sometime, I’ve been trying to force all aspects of my life into financial order, still without imposing myself on everything. Like a bit of a manic fool, I’ve been paranoically looking over all the things I do control and trying to not to miss anything but worrying about all the things I can’t fix. Just like I used to do in the bad old days when I was paying the bills for my family but not actually in charge of them. Awful, in other words.
There’s an actual solution for this, you know. We could actually combine finances. Or set up a real system. This idiot’s excuse for a process was bound to crack, or I was. It was just a matter of time and a fool’s bet which went first.
September 12, 2011
Technically, the term is “petite” but either I take that a bit further than everybody else in some areas or stores are even vanity sizing their Petites selections. (If the latter: Please, please stop it.)
As an ambitious professional, I’ve long accepted that my inner slob, the comfort-driven woman who prefers to lounge in a We Aim to Misbehave t-shirt and jeans or sweatpants, is never allowed to meet the people I work with if I want to be taken seriously. Sleepy-drunk self would be less infantilizing than me Au Natural. I was just mistaken for 17 years of age last weekend. Amid all the “oh you should be flattered”s, it’s a bit exasperating because it means I do have to keep trying.
I’ve improved enough, despite hiccups along the way, that current colleagues don’t make ageist comments as former ones did thanks to a combination of make-up assistance from someone way younger than me than I like to admit 😉 and inspiration from our lovely petite style bloggers.
The biggest key in this struggle of finding clothes that make sense, after conquering the basics of what should go on top, what should go on bottom and what scatters in between, is fit.
It’s not enough that you parse the bits about color, layers, seasons if you have them, the culture, and so on. The most paramount decision of all is whether your wardrobe actually fits your body.
Enter, the Tailor
Finding a good fit is nigh on impossible in today’s sizing environment, and that means spending/budgeting extra for the expertise that makes an off the rack piece actually work. Being a frugal dresser already requires tenacity and creativity – adding the cost of a tailor amplifies the challenge to dress professionally in a reasonable budget by a factor of ten.
The tough thing is that my two sides (Budget vs. Career) are constantly bickering over what’s reasonable. They’re like Spy v Spy, locked in never-ending battle. Starting the search for petite clothing that is already in higher demand and lower supply, then adding this Fit Issue, well, the stakes rise even higher.
While combining sales and coupons is the time-honored frugalite’s weapon, the absolute best way to be frugal when it comes to style and fashion is to be stylishly creative: reusing what’s in the closet with a critical eye in thirty bajillion ways so that people think it’s new.
I’m total crap at that.
And then there’s an accompanying caveat that each purchase must have impact – it must be versatile so I can wear it to work or to after-work functions, it must be classic so that cost per wear becomes negligible, it must be the Holy Grail of Wardrobe Additions. *the pressure* It’s no wonder I hate shopping so much.
A Situation
Since moving up to the Bay Area, I hadn’t ventured forth to a tailor. Since the COL is so much higher here, I was hesitant to discover the cost of alterations. After my, frankly, cheap cost of labor in Southern CA, I just knew that sticker shock was in my future. Even actively avoiding it, I had a sense of the cost and a shudder ran up my spine. (A dry cleaner could charge $20-25 for hemming trousers?? Seriously?? I paid nearly that much for a full suit alteration back home! No, Toto, definitely not in Kansas anymore.)
With a pending business trip and a big sale plus a 20% off coupon on a really nice jacket from Ann Taylor, I braved my tailoring demons, and in the doing, found myself with even more questions.
The 00P jacket cost $178 originally. With a sale and a combined 20% coupon, I paid $60 plus tax. Upon arrival, however, the shoulders were a little too wide, the sleeves were a couple inches too long, the back was too wide and the sides needed to be tucked in. Jacket quality was high and this would fill the hole in my closet for a fitted blazer. But I was happy to return it if the tailor felt it needed too much work, or it wasn’t possible, to make it fit me.
After my fitting, in a monumental display of stupidity, I left the jacket with the tailor after having all the requisite pinning done, without getting a quote for the work.
I always get a quote for work beforehand so I can decide whether or not I’m going to even commit to alterations or if the clothes are going straight back. I have no idea why I walked away without one this time. I was even planning to take a different suit with me on this trip, so I wasn’t dependent on that jacket should things not work out.
In any case, when I came back to see the results of this first visit with this tailor, they were spectacular. Like, black eye spectacular. The jacket was really something to behold – it fit so perfectly it looks like a bespoke jacket, but it’ll leave a mark on my pocketbook for a while. The jacket’s tailoring cost more than the jacket: $94.
Total Cost: $156
It was nearly full price for a basically perfect fit. Was it worth it? Would I have paid that much for a jacket that fit exquisitely? I suspect that I still would have tried to wait it out.
Should the question be: “is it acceptable to pay more for tailoring than the cost of the item?” or should it be: “is the total cost of the item that is acceptable?”
For my money, I think the latter is the true question and that has to be part of my whole clothing budget.
::: What’s your experience when it comes to buying off the rack? Can you?
September 14, 2010
Oh so very randomly, except for the bit where he entered on purpose, PiC won a giveaway for a free entry to the Chicago Marathon. I’m told that registration runs a bit over $100, and it’s one of the races he’s always wanted to run, so I was willing to support his desire to go. In spirit. To complicate matters, though, because our friends have moved out of the Chicago area, he wouldn’t have anyone to stay with so he wanted to make a weekend of it with me. Oh, the nerve of him, wanting to spend quality time together! 😉
Financially, I was hesitant. We have very different saving and spending styles, so if the Travel Fund doesn’t support it, I’m usually less in favor of taking a trip. He, on the other hand, regularly saves a big chunk every month sight unseen and says that’s good enough – the rest is for spending.
Leave it to a giveaway prize to reveal our money philosophies, yet again!
My compromise was this: Given the potential cost of a marathon weekend out of town, I’d be willing to consider going if we could keep it under a certain amount. In the meantime, however, I would check hotel points and other airline points/miles/reward options to see if we could creatively fund the trip. Between a Southwest reward flight and Hilton points, I was seeing the budget drop to less than $400 for transportation. Clearly, I was Olly-olly Optimism.
Alas, Southwest’s Standard rewards were already all booked out, leaving me with only the Freedom reward. For those who aren’t familiar, that’d call for using two 1-way tickets to equal an unrestricted free 1-way flight. Not exactly worth it in this situation.
A sale came up and PiC jumped on it during the work day, but I’d rather he didn’t yet tell me how much we blew my second estimate out of the water (I’m guessing airfare was about $900 for both tickets, *cringe*); meanwhile I’ve finally put my hard-earned Hilton points to good use and booked two nights for free at a downtown Hilton hotel. I’ve been using the Hilton Platinum American Express for six years, charging only post office, cell phone and restaurant bills for a 5x point return to earn enough points for two nights in a decent hotel. Call that dedication to the financial cause! 🙂
It’s a bit stressful doing all this last minute planning for a trip in early October, and all the while wondering if he’s going to be physically prepared for the race because I can’t carry a full grown man to the airport on my back if it comes to that.
We set up the reservations so that I could back out up to the week before without any real financial repercussion and he wouldn’t lose the hotel room as it’s booked in both our names. Well worth the 10 minute phone call to the Hilton reservations line!
Speaking of giveaways, here’s hoping my luck is as good as PiC’s but costs us less money in the following!
