September 30, 2008
It’s not like this is a new phenomonen, but I’m sad that I have only a few dollars left in my wallet after the weekend.
BF actually looked at me like I’d sprouted a new head when he realized I’d paid:
$4, movies on Saturday – they requested CC use only for transactions over $5 and since they’re an independent and I want them to thrive …..
$5, tip/part of the bill for lunch on Sunday
$15, dinner at a cash-only on Sunday
all in CASH. And now I’m back to a few dollars and jingling coins.
August 27, 2008
*looking around*
Is it really Wednesday? The last Wednesday of the month? Already?
Geez.
I feel like it’s been ages since I last blogged, and it’s probably due to the action-packed-ness of life. Let’s see. When we last met … oh, that was yesterday? Good grief!
Well, since yesterday I’ve:
~ discovered that I would need to make 81% more money than I do now to be “equally comfortable” in New York.
~ forced myself to go to a networking event in the downtown area (I hate driving in downtown, especially during high traffic), exchanged business cards with two people, and got out of the scary dark neighborhood safely.
~ met with NY friends who were in town for a couple days, and recommended that they try public transportation to get back to the airport. Happy to report that went smooth as silk, and they enjoyed not sitting in traffic greatly.
Spending since Friday?
~ we had a mandatory work event on Saturday so I combined a help-a-coworker-out situation with the work event so we could carpool part of the way: + saved on a little gas.
~ went to tea with a coupla the gals: – $14
~ visited a comic shop: priceless (and I didn’t spend anything): $0
~ bought ten pounds of pork shoulder ribs (that’ll last our family a good while, we cook it various ways and I like pork): – $10
~ did my “home”work at Borders: free air conditioning! and made money, of course.
~ brother actually paid a bit of money towards household bills: + $100
~ missed a friend’s 21st birthday party because my train was late: $0
~ went to the networking event at a bar: $0
~ went to another bar afterwards to meet up with my friends: $4 for a burger I bought before getting TO the bar. Tacky? Only if the staff were around. We hung out on the patio after 10 when drinks were no longer allowed outside so there were no witnesses, and their kitchen was closed by the time I got there anyway.
My car is being a brat and celebrating our fifth year together by falling apart in tiny ways:
1. The auto lock on the driver’s side doesn’t work.
2. The window on the passenger’s side doesn’t work.
3. The “cabin” light switch needs strange toggling to work.
4. The heater went out this morning.
June 19, 2008
Walking out the door, I caught myself glancing at my closet and assessing what kind of day it would be, and what outfits I could put together for the rest of the week. It seems my lunch organization is bleeding into other areas of my life.
It also seems like after being on a spending and splurging cycle for the last three weeks where I couldn’t stop the budget bleeding out on little things I’d normally control very carefully, I’m back to being content with what I’ve got, and even in the mood to go through and clear things out. Thank goodness!! I’m not into self-flagellation over this stuff, but it’s such a relief to be back in the right mindset that doesn’t undermine my efforts to keep it together.
While my personal damages weren’t on a large scale, it definitely turned into a hefty bill when combined with the insane gas prices. I think the gas expenditures have gone up to about $300+/month! I’ve been diligently trying to reduce other fixed costs to compensate, but I’ve been spending like I have money: going out, the trench coat ($23), going out to lunch last weekend ($10), new shoes ($11), buying a graduation gift for a work friend ($24), and having to give my cousin a fat $50 check for graduation. In short, enjoying life a liiiiitle more than I can afford.
Ok, that last one was not negotiable, I’m the only cousin who came to the graduation and it’s only fair that I give him what I gave his sister. It’s a family tradition that at least one older cousin will gift the younger cousins a check for their graduations.
It might not seem like much, but when the budget’s stretched tight, it makes a difference. The end of the splurge cycle comes none too soon, because I hate the feeling of treading to keep my head above water.
I had to wonder, why is it so hard for someone who is normally so at peace with being frugal to break out of a spending/splurging mentality? Sure, I figured it was temporary, but heck, I felt like I was in the grips of a six armed bear for a while! I knew I needed to NOT spend money, but there was always a reason that overrode my “Uh, well, you don’t have the budget for that …” hesitation.
And if it’s this hard for me? When I’m accustomed to self denial and maximizing returns and stretching every resource to cover the necessities? Heck, I spent half an hour deciding whether or not to get a haircut this week. Then I realized that after spending over a hundred dollars I shouldn’t have, I should pass on my $14 cut. *sigh* How incredibly hard must it be for people who haven’t had to practice this?
May 6, 2008
Since LnT has officially declared bankruptcy, and I’ve been dragging my feet about spending my $50 gift card from American Express, I’m making a list of things I could get tonight. I definitely want a vegetable peeler. Call me insufferably Asian, but in our household, not only do we not use the dishwasher to wash dishes, we use knives to peel our vegetables. Well, guess what. My arthritic hands have had enough of that. I’m splurging on a veggie peeler.
But what else? I know I’m going to need household items when I move out, but I don’t want to buy a bunch of stuff now when I don’t know when and where I’m moving. After all, I’m also smack dab in the middle of decluttering.
I could get a duck down comforter for $50, with a 20% off coupon.
I could get a Brita water jug and additional filters for $32 (or $22 for the Atlantis version) plus the cost of filters.
I could get a 17 piece cooking set for $50, including:
- 2 Quart Covered Saucepan
- 3 Quart Covered Casserole
- 6 Quart Covered Dutch Oven
- 8″ Saute Pan
- 10″ Deep Fryer with Assist Handle
- Ceramic crock with 7 nylon tools
- Dishwasher safe
I could get a whole lot of towels or a sheet set. The towels make more sense because they’re not size dependent, and there’s a part of me that thinks I might finally upgrade from my twin size bed someday.
Oh, and the reason I’m not using this for a vacuum like I’d planned? Visiting BF meant that they had the opportunity to give me their extra vacuum! Yay! Free vacuum!
So far, towels, and the Brita water filtration system seem the most sensible. Or … the comforter….I’ve never had a nice down comforter before. But what’s up with the duck thing? Is that normal?
What would you suggest?
April 21, 2008
Oh no, not me, and not today. My coworker! For the past few days in a row, C2’s been wearing some really cute sweaters, and I finally caught on that I don’t ever remember seeing them before. When I asked if she went shopping, she stopped dead with the guiltiest look I’ve ever seen: “Yee…eeess….. I couldn’t resist! All my clothes were in boxes and I couldn’t find anything! …. I shopped online ….. and I like everything I got!”
I swear, that girl is the funniest thing. She acted SO guilty! I’m not the budget police! Oh wait, I kind of am. But I don’t care if she goes shopping, that’s just more clothes I can borrow later š
So another dangerous way to fall prey to the shopping bug, and spend too much money, is to pack away your clothes in boxes for a few days. Who knew?
March 22, 2008
so late into the night…”
At least not this month, anyway.
Going out to bars, or dancing, or staying up all night is, quite often, the perennial tale of foolish youth gone by, the “good old days” for many of my cohort. Perhaps not for my immediate friends, but for friends of friends, or coworkers, or even the slightly older friends in their 40s or 50s. Most everyone has fond anecdotes of their days in college or after high school when they’d stay out all night, drag in the early morning exhausted, only to shower and head out to face a day of work. Heck, that still describes the habits of many of my industry colleagues during our week-long conferences! I don’t know how they’re still up and about after all that, but I’ve never been able to hang with the cool crowd because I definitely need sleep. Blame it on the arthritis. Then, too, I never really wanted to because I was on the wrong side of the dichotomy: there were the hard-partiers who could be up past 4 am drinking, or my own, must be responsible, type. As a card-carrying member of the second group, I always felt awkward committing to drinks with the partiers, and having to duck out early every time.
Without the pressure to stay out all hours, though, going out sounded like a lot of fun. And with a 26th birthday looming this year, it’s time to shake things up before I completely fossilize. Since my friends who have embraced the social scene are in New York, and those who continue to avoid a social life are in Southern California, I floated the idea to the gals at work. We’ve all been working really hard, so they were game. We planned a night on the town after work last Friday. [This is a great group, not only do we get along well enough to work and play together, we wear about the same sizes and can exchange clothes. Win-win!]
We had it all figured out. Coworker’s friend, our DD, made up our fourth, and arranged for free passes to a Hollywood club. We figured out a relay driving system to share gas and parking costs. It was going to be some good, cheap, fun! Well, it was definitely fun, but the cheap part went awry.
Foolishly, I’d thought getting to work an hour earlier on Friday meant we could leave earlier, get some rest, food, and prettied up for our night out on the town. Stupid deadlines. We couldn’t leave until 7:30! By that time, we starvelings were also punch drunk from sleep deprivation, which boded well for the rest of the night. Also, we found out that our free club was hosting an all-Asian night Friday, and that was much less appealing. Yes, I realize that sounds mean and I’m also Asian, but that doesn’t mean I really want to be in a club full of them. It’s a different crowd and music and energy than what we had in mind. So, change of plans. We decided to start elsewhere, where we could get some proper ’80s music, and that cost us.
As it turns out, Hollywood is quite the expensive town for spur-of-the-moment plans. I’d budgeted $20 total, but only brought $14 in cash because I didn’t have time to run to the bank. Also, credit cards are normally my go-to form of payment anyway.
For dinner, we shared a fine repast of Vietnamese food: $7 each, tip included. Since we had a DD, we gals each had a cocktail while getting dressed at Coworker’s place, but our overall tardiness meant that we had less than ten minutes to get ready if we wanted to make it to the first club in time to use our coupons. We’d managed to scare up $5 off coupons, which would have been perfect had we arrived by 10:30. Alas, leaving work late meant we had dinner late, got ready late, and had to pay in full. Booo. Our DD had to pony up the extra money for us girls who didn’t bring enough cash. What’s with clubs charging $15 cover, and not taking credit cards? Preposterous!
Then it turned out that both clubs required a $20 minimum to use credit cards. I was to drive C2 back to her apartment at the end of the night, so I’d stopped drinking, but the others were, and that means I couldn’t pay back either DD or C1 for paying for dinner or cover by buying their drinks. Also, they paid for our water because they’d opened tabs or had cash. Gr, I hate owing people money!
Don’t worry, though, I didn’t spend the whole night fretting over money. The first club was well worth the cover because they played ’80s favorites nearly the whole time: Prince, Depeche Mode, Billy Joel, Toni Basil, Michael Jackson, and of course, Madonna. There was a blonde guy up front on stage the entire night and he was an absolute SCREAM. I have never seen a man, gay or straight, so seriously rocking out and playing air guitar in my LIFE. They had a huge multi-step stage on which anyone could dance, and of course, C2 insisted on going up there. While I really haven’t got rhythm, I didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious up there because the crowd was so fun! The energy of a crowd out to dance is palpable, and intoxicating.
We crossed the Walk of Fame and passed the historic El Capitan Theater on the way to our free club, nicknamed “Asia.” I’ve never done this before. Never enjoyed the sights in Los Angeles, never been out there just to have fun. The night was blustery and nearly frigid, our feet rudely reminded us that we’re not 19 anymore. It was, as C1 said, almost like we were in an actual city, where you could walk wherever you wanted to go. It faintly reminded me of New York. Asia wasn’t 100% Asian as we’d feared so it was a good time there too, but we were pretty wiped out by then and people were much too fond of using their elbows to get through the crowd. There was a flying cocktail glass, at some point, and ice on the dance floor. We finally called it a night at 2 am, and hobbled through the cold night to our car, exhausted and happy. Most of all, happy to be sitting down.
Now I’m both out of cash, and owe C1 ($6) and DD ($10). Total spent: $30. Oh. Hm, doing the math just now, I thought I’d gone over quite a bit more than that. Both my wallet and feet need a little R&R. š
March 1, 2008
I meant to go entirely with Option 2 because the water bill was a whopping $84 this month. Unfortunately, I had to run some errands today, and ended up compromising with mostly #2, with a smidgen of #3.
I’ve been long overdue in replacing my car’s windshield wiper inserts, and with iffy weather headed our way yet again, I simply had to prioritize them today. The terms on my Citi Driver’s Edge Options card states that the rebates are good for “repairs, service, and maintenance” but I wasn’t sure if replacement windshield wiper inserts qualified. Since I wanted to be sure NOT to pay anything out of pocket, they went on the Premier Pass. Luckily, the dealership had them for a good price: $7.71 for both driver and passenger sides! And, the Parts guy was nice enough to offer to replace them for me on the spot. I planned to do it myself, but I’m not turning down free service. I’m wondering if I should get another set to have on hand when these need to be replaced: the price is good now and I know that when I need new wipers again, I’m going to wait way too long to purchase a new set.
Next, I got sucked into the quicksand of Target exchanging a couple items, and found a purple tank top on sale for $7.99 to replace the one I haven’t let go of, but doesn’t fit well and can’t be worn to work. Total: $8.64.
That left 63.65 for a utility bill, which I’ve paid in full. I’ll concede that the tank top wasn’t critical, and I might be convinced to return it since I did just buy a new dress for myself almost two weeks ago.
It’s amazing how quickly $100 runs through my fingers. *tsk* I’d better stay inside the rest of the week, unless I take myself to see a movie with my prepaid movie tickets.
