June 15, 2009
Overspending at the pump: $50. Oww-www!! Gas was $2.95-2.97 this weekend, up about 20-25 cents from 10 days ago. True to form, I didn’t need my car, or to fill up, until after it made the stag-like leap to nearly-unaffordable heights. C’mon folks, about to be unemployed here, can the rising prices be abated even just a little??
I did bring it upon myself, though, making myself available to chaffeur out of towner friends and then visiting Housebound Friend on Crutches 50 miles away all in the same weekend. And there was the bach’ette party that I completely skipped since it both required much more spending on the drinks and clubs, and was located in the desert, 60 miles in the opposite direction. Honestly, I was so tired by Sunday night that I couldn’t remember what day it was, never mind when and where the party was!
Saving at the (Red)box: In an almost laughable attempt to save money, we skipped renting from Blockbuster and the local shop, opting for the Redbox at the grocery store and a free rental coupon emailed to my phone. Savings? $1.08.
Microscopic savings led to more spending: Tricksy! Those Redboxes are inside grocery stores! And they had those Walker shortbread cookies I so love on sale for less than $4 a box. Mmhmm, ten dollars of groceries later, the brilliance of grocery store + Redbox’s marketing plan was another little thorn in my side. Grawr!
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In other news, this LA Times “
Girls’ Guide to Comic Con 2009” is simultaneously patronizing and frou-frou Entertainment Weekly Lite. Wait, those are the same.
I’m not a rabid fan, but I am a fan and reader enough of comics to see that the reviews of possible reasons for “female fandemonium” are based on Hollywoodisms. For example, why girls might swoon over the upcoming Whiteout?
Alex O’Loughlin for ‘Whiteout’
What more do you need than the hunkiest Aussie to ever play the undead … alive and in the flesh? And as long as he uses his real accent, he can talk all about this murder mystery set in Antarctica. Male lead Gabriel Macht isn’t too shabby either.
Really? Aussie Alex and Gorgeous Gabe?? That’s why gals should be intrigued by Whiteout?
Lemme tell you a little something about Whiteout, the comic. It’s a great cop story written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Steve Lieber, about a woman named Carrie Stetko. She’s the protagonist of the tale, a U.S. Marshal deeply troubled by her past, who has been exiled to Antarctica and become a rare female year-round resident. The story opens as the peace of her retreat is shattered by murders, and a deeper mystery, which she has to investigate amidst suspicions that there is far more to these murders than simple homicide.
Can’t speak for the movie, or the acting, but I can say that the original story is an excellent read, and, if they actually write the script well, a strong, intelligent, complex female lead would be a great reason to be excited about seeing the promotion for this at Con.
NOT because of two possibly passibly pretty faces.
And, how webcomics facilitate learning. Or making of connections: Today’s Questionable Content is both funny, and led me to research the Bechdel Test. Which led me to this post about women in film that totally reflects the attitude I ranted about above.
April 27, 2009
’tis back to the grindstone, m’hearties!
Glad to be bringing home a paycheck for another few (9) weeks, but not so much to have to actually do it. Here. With these people. You understand.
Had a wonderfully *waiting* weekend with the BFF et al. We’re anxiously awaiting her new bundle of joy and have bets going on how much he’ll weigh. Your positive thoughts are much appreciated, I’m worried that he’s been so quiet.
We had other good news to celebrate: her sibling is engaged and will likely be having an Aussie wedding. I promptly texted my congratulations and asked if I was invited to the shindig. 🙂 [Yes, I am.]
I figured that I should invite myself early on to guarantee that I can find a decent flight. I’ll be doing my travel research soon, it’d be so cool if I were, ah, still unemployed and able to do a NZ and Australia jaunt in the fall. [Cool minus the part where I’d still be jobless ….. priorities, priorities…!!]
Oh, and I just realized that this will be the first wedding that I’ve attended in years where I won’t be part of the ceremony. Oh, to simply be a guest and not a working participant! Fun!
Spent $6 on admission to the Fair on Saturday, another $9 on funnel cake (with powdered sugar) and roasted corn on the cob. Friends treated us to our demolition derby tickets ($8/each).
Overspending goes hand in hand with unhealthy fair food. Refrained from buying apple butter, peach butter, cinnamon apple butter, and apricot butter. Luckily, I really only had $20 in cash, so I put a couple things on my card, and stuck to cash only the rest of the time. Total spending was about $32.50.
I wanted to treat them to lunch on Sunday for putting us up and all, but didn’t get the chance to. I did run their dishwasher for them, though. Imagine that, an Asian using the dishwasher to wash dishes! Such a novelty.
The real plan is to trade them manual labor (babysitting, cooking and cleaning) later this summer when I have time on my hands. We’ve been such close childhood friends that we’ve never practiced such etiquettely habits as host gifts and bringing wine to gatherings before, I guess there’s no reason to start formality with practically-family.
January 7, 2009
There have been more careless spending times in my life, but the last few weeks have to be right up there with the best (worst?) of them. It looks like I’ve just been wildly swiping my credit card, always picking the one with the best rewards as applicable, of course, so I was a little spazzed about reviewing the totals. Looks like it wasn’t too bad, though, and most of the spending was really goal-oriented: work or health.
Many of the expenses were intended to draw down the remainder of my 2008 FSA account:
4 doctor’s appointments: $60
Prescriptions, new or refills: $19.90
Massage therapy for my medical condition: $55, I hate that stress costs me real money, but it sure teaches me to take better care of myself. And it was budgeted.
Actually, I managed to max out the 08 FSA before I was through. That bumped my eyeglasses replacement order to January.
2009 FSA:
New eyeglasses: $39, after my health care plan’s credit was deducted. Since I’m a novice eyeglasses wearer, and was too harried to properly measure my face, it was worth the time and money to go through my medical plan.
The optician spent a lot of time discussing the options: explaining that the polycarbonate plastic lenses are guaranteed never to break, that silicon nose pads were recommended and swapped them out for me, trimmed the length of the arms and fit them to my face. These were all services that a mail order store couldn’t have performed to my satisfaction. Heck, I didn’t even know to ask about adjusting the length of the arms in the first place! It seemed like a stupid question at the time, but it was even stupider not asking when the glasses were first scripted out.
Nyquil/Dayquil:
$12. Some virus is going around and the orange and green pills are keeping me functional.
Other OTC drugs:
$? Still need to stock up on pain relievers and probably some more cold/flu medication.
Clothing/shoes:
Suit: $11, best deal ever!
Shoes: $30, um, not the best deal ever. But it’s for a good purpose! Matching is a good purpose.
Tailoring: $?, will know the estimate once the jacket and two shirts are dropped off for nips and tucks.
Eating out:
Again, it felt like we ate out a lot. We did more frequently than I’m accustomed to, but it was a combination of eating away from home and eating out. The former was just eating meals at friends’s homes while visiting, while the latter probably consisted of 4 meals for a total of $25.
Just got another email asking if we’re up for dinner, drinks or pool tonight before the last friend straggles back home to NorCal, though.
Happily, lots of the fun stuff was free: hanging out with friends at their houses, watching shows and movies they already had, opening presents that we’d already spent on, etc.
Regardless of the intent, I don’t want to get in the habit of mindlessly spending. It’s way too easy to stop thinking about whether or not I need that item, and just buy ’cause I want it.
December 16, 2008
after tax and shipping.
I just bought this lovely thing which should be delivered in about a week:
A few specs:
15.4 inch screen
3 GB with capacity to upgrade to 4 GB
250 GB hard drive
4 USB ports
If I’d been willing to spend twice as much, I could have gotten a smaller screen size – 14.1 inches was my ideal, and a much lighter machine, but now’s not the time to be splurging that much.
I was swooning over the Lenovo U series — starting at 2.47 pounds? Yes, gorgeous, come along with me …… But I don’t have two thousand to spend on it.
Budgetary Note: That’s pretty much cleared out almost my entire gift/travel fund.
December 12, 2008
The feeling of material satiety has worn off with a vengeance. This feels a bit like a rebound from my “Simplify, simplify” mode and I’m not fighting it as hard as I should. The e-fund is still fine, but I hit a plateau when I got sick for two weeks. That meant no overtime. In fact, I had to burn some sick time. That’s what it’s for and I’m grateful to have it, but with the ability to overearn has gone my spending/acquisitive restraint and determination to build up the money reserves while I still can.
1. The dental visit made me feel like I should check with my dentist friend about whether or not he’d recommend getting a new electric toothbrush. I don’t want a single additional cavity, and since the current dental care regimen is evidently not doing the job, something needs to change. New electric toothbrush: ~$100?
2. Flat iron for self, friend (X-mas gift): $150?
3. Laptop: $650?
4. Boots: My older pair are too worn and, most importantly, hurt my feet. Winter weather always makes me long for comfortable boots to keep me warm, and browsing online hasn’t helped the neediness: $50? $70? Meh.
5. New towels: I’ll use a gift card.
6. Interview suit: I keep thinking that I can just wear my old one but let’s not kid ourselves — I couldn’t, er, latch the hook in July and I won’t be able to now, either. There’s an odd feeling: $200?
7. New coat: The thought of moving to a place that has Real Winter scares the bejeebers out of me. That’s probably why I can’t stop dreaming of new puffy coats, gloves that actually fit, scarves, hats and vests. 40 degrees is COLD, people! Frigid! Unbearable!
Where do I think this money is coming from?? Nuts. I’ll pass on the boots, coat, and the flat iron for myself. The travel/gift fund can take care of the flat iron gift and part of the laptop, the rest will have to come out of my expenses. Er, the suit? Well, let’s see if I can cobble together a sharp enough outfit from my regular business clothing to get by. Otherwise, I might try the (new! local!) H&M for separates to be tailored. I don’t want to cheap out on an interview outfit but I shouldn’t bust into the savings, either. I need that for rent! (Then again, I need a new job to pay the rent, too.)
Oooh there’s that “I hate spending money” feeling back. Whew, I thought I’d lost my mind there.
Is anyone else self-gifting this season?
December 11, 2008
As it turns out, going to the dentist IS better than going to work. The experience, I mean, not the paying seven hundred dollars instead of getting paid a fraction of that price tag. (Not that I paid $700 — I paid $78, and thank goodness for the dental insurance that picked up the rest! Can you imagine a routine visit costing that much money?? Do they have COBRA for dental? Eeesh.)
What I mean to say is: I spent 2.5 hours at the dentist having 4 almost-cavities drilled and filled, and I was much less stressed than I would have been at a comparable time in the office. It was a very scientific study.
Other things I accomplished in one day:
Dropped off dry cleaning before their one-day cutoff time.
Lovelied up the eyebrows. ($15)
Lunched with newly employed friend and caught her up on sad news. ($7)
Met with two old friends I haven’t seen in months, played with baby.
Picked up dry cleaning. ($10)
Picked up doggy ashes, chatted with old friend.
Dropped off doggy ashes.
Ok, see, my day seemed a heck of a lot fuller than that list shows. Really! I drove all over three towns to accomplish as much as … that. Thank goodness for sick time. I feel like there were a thousand other things I should have gotten done today because I’ll be busy all weekend, but I won’t undo all the good relaxing by stressing about what-should-have-beens. Oh I remember! I wanted to see if I could get my eyes checked today too, but oops! Forgot. Oh well, I have a clean trenchcoat! And isn’t ten dollars ridiculous for dry cleaning a coat? I should have read the tag before buying. Unless it just didn’t matter because I have the hardest time finding clothes that fit.
November 29, 2008
Had a nice long horrors-of-the-economy chat with a good friend, and absentmindedly cleared up a lot of paperwork on my desk. Not that I usually mind tidying, I just never do it when I’m sick, so the distraction made it painless. She was telling me about her latest call from their financial adviser and that they were told to Stop Spending. It wasn’t meant to target them specifically for overspending, it was just a report on the state of their portfolios and their immediate advice to all retirees were to batten down the hatches and preserve principal. That’s probably good advice for any of us. 😛
Have two offers (low, of course) on the table for the truck and will need to work out a plan to get the paperwork done on Monday. Should I go to the dealer in the morning and go to work late? Go to work early and leave early?
I went out for the first time today, and saw the corner gas station listing Unleaded for $1.87!! That is amazing! What has been going on out there this week? However long the lower gas prices last, I’m loving it and the corresponding lightened load on my monthly gas bills.
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Also, I don’t think I’m buying a laptop for nearly $700. Got news of two more friends who were laid off today and tales of misfortune make me more hyper-aware of the need to batten down MY hatches. Which, of course, always puts me in mind of the irony that the economy is suffering in some part because consumers aren’t consuming. Happily, today’s well-timed guest post by Carson Brackney over at Consumerism Commentary discusses this very phenomenon:
We’re actively engaging in the very behavior that encourages a larger financial crisis in order to protect ourselves from that very same financial crisis.
On pulling back spending and the perceived effect on the economy of not spending a short time ago – I still can’t find it in my heart to disagree that while mindful or needful spending is fine, this entire popping bubble situation is born of the mentality that our only weapon, tool or coping mechanism is to spend. It’s going to continue to be a painful time, and I feel for every one of us who will have to weather this storm, but I have hopes that our continued good stewardship of our resources and good money management will bring us through safely in the end. Maybe that’s too PollyAnna for some, but I’m still feeling positive from Deepali’s thankfulness reminder.
