About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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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.
February 29, 2008
Received:
1. Chase Rewards Check: $50
2. Reimbursement from Coworker: $64
I’ll make a long overdue stop at the bank, write a check and pay some bills this weekend. It looks like I have to take a substantial chunk out of my e-fund to get through the past two and next
two weeks after all. š
Little Boss has been out all week (in HAWAII, the lucky so-and-so) +
Admin Asst has been either late or not showing up at all during the week + Coworker 1 was out sick three days =
Ms. Miniducky wearing everyone’s hats! We made a contraction of all our four names to represent my roles. š I think I did a relatively decent job of making sure that all Big Boss’s needs were served, that all the projects were prioritized sensibly every morning, that Coworker 1’s work was either redirected or maintained in her absence, and that the interns were productive. Little Boss may find plenty of things wrong with how I did things in his absence, but I think I did very well considering the circumstances.
Grief is a very weird animal…. several times this week, I’ve been struck, literally stopped in my tracks, by intense memories of BoyDucky’s ordeal and their family’s grief, and my own sense of loss and incomprehensible pain of the past six months. It comes and goes in waves, and all I can do is blink through the tears and try to breathe. Inconveniently, it happens most often at work. I guess the bright side of that is that once I breathe through the pain, I’m not alone, and can shuffle through some work or talk to coworkers to distract myself.
February 27, 2008
I’m expecting a $75 statement credit in the next 8-10 weeks on my Citi PremierPass card. I have a few options, listed in order of practicality, for what to do with that money.
*edit: Since I composed this, the statement credit has already hit my account!*
***I would not use it for gas, groceries or drugstore purchases because I get 5 points per dollar spent on those categories from another card.***
***I would not use it for cell phone bills either, my AmEx gives 5 points per dollar for those as well***
1. Request a refund check.
2. Try to spend exactly $75 on the card on upcoming utility bills. It’d be pretty close, or a little over, depending on what I’m paying. Either way, I’ll get another 150ish Thank You points from the transaction because I have a ton of Flight Points that can’t be freed without Purchase Points.
3. Buy a $75 Target gift card so that I can use it for other miscellaneous necessities that I hate spending “real” money on. Would have to be careful not to go on a mini spending spree because you know how dangerous shopping at Target can be!
4. Spoil myself: Buy a $75 gift card to Macy’s, Nordstrom or Theory (for use in their outlet, someday).
Since #4 falls under the category of instant gratification, and I’m all about delayed gratification to get the most bang for my shopping buck, it’s the least likely.
What would you vote for?
February 26, 2008
I just remembered that I needed to add my new AT&T Wireless account to Yodlee, after I’ve received and paid one paper bill.
All my other accounts on Yodlee are your basic credit card, checking or rewards accounts. Where applicable, they offer a New Bill Notification, a 7-days until due date Notification, and a High Spending Notification. For cell phones, they offer a “within 60 minutes of your minutes allotment” Notification!
How nice! While I already neurotically check my minute usage every couple of days, this extra notification will give me a nudge if ever I’m too busy and don’t remember to check.
February 25, 2008
In an attempt to divert my attention from the budget that’s bleeding red, I went through my wallet and pared out items that didn’t have to be in there anymore.
I also made a list of the gift cards I have, and the amounts left on them, so I’d have a better idea of what cards I should redeem rewards points for and where I’ll be allowed to spend money. As a bonus, cataloging the money I DO have helps make me feel less financially restricted.
Ann Taylor (Loft)
Banana Republic
Borders
Linens ‘n’ Things — hoarding for my new vacuum, or magazine racks
Macy’s
Starbucks
Victoria’s Secret
It might be a tad bit neurotic, but I feel the need to carry all the cards with me, all the time, because I might happen upon a good sale at a store on my Yes, You May Shop Here list. Since I didn’t carry my wallet during the Vegas trip, I passed up visits to Ann Taylor, Victoria’s Secret and Banana Republic.
My hot gift card management tip of the day:
If you’re not going to use up an entire gift card right away, or hoard them as I do, stick a post-it on the back of it to keep track of the dates and amounts left so that you don’t have to keep the receipts with the card. Voila! Less paper in your wallet! I keep the receipt if there’s a survey attached that gives me a discount.
Going through receipts, I realized that I never submitted the phone surveys at the end of a couple of Victoria’s Secret receipts so I dug through my receipt envelope to find and give them a go. Not only were the surveys still valid, the coupon is good for three months from the date of the survey submission, not from the date of purchase. Now I have two $10 off $50 purchase coupons, valid until 5/24/08.
If it’s not blindingly obvious, I’m still addicted to my cash-maximization habits left over from my college days. If there are any stores that I like for personal shopping, I look for gift cards, coupons/discounts to combine with sales. I’ll do whatever advance planning it takes to avoid using my own money out of pocket:) This is a great way to avoid crippling the budget and saves my cash for non-gift-cardable expenses like the rent.
Now, if I could redeem for gas gift cards, I’d be in great shape. This past month, Ma/PaDucky spent over $300 on gas because she’s been seeing a new medical practitioner out in the boonies. *sigh*
February 22, 2008
Ladies, gentlemen, have you ever been into a store where a salesperson took a look at you, sized you up, and starting excitedly pulling various articles of clothing from racks and the back room for your perusal? And then have him or her create completely unexpected outfits from a variety of shapes and colors to make you look more professional, chic, and I’m-not-really-trying than you’ve ever looked in your life?
Neither had I.
Yesterday, I wandered into a Theory shop just to look at the mannequin outfits more closely and meant to walk right back out. Instead, Bosses both followed me in, chatting about business, and started looking at things too. The salesman must have thought “Score! She’s got two sugar daddies!” and jumped right into chatting us up about sizes. It was the total opposite of a Pretty Woman-esque scene, except more humiliating because that place is v-e-r-y expensive and I had no intention of buying.
Instead of making my escape, I experienced the slightly mortifying transformation from my “twenty something in jeans, nice-ish $25 top, nice-ish on sale for $35 blazer, trying to look pulled together for actual professional job” outfit to a “chic, sophisticated, costs more than I make in two weeks but it’s so sharp!” ensemble. That’s right. We moved right out of the realm of outfits thrown together by a less than discerning eye into ensembles.
I know it’s his job, and all he had to choose from were high-end, high priced pieces to create the ensembles so the odds were stacked in his favor, but it was still disconcerting how quickly he managed to fill a sizable dressing room with pieces that individually cost more than the entire contents of my duffel bag for this trip.
I tried on this lovely beige jumper type dress with a series of buttons down the front and cute little kangaroo pouch pocket. He accessorized it with a pair of flats and a few belts, teaching me the four-square knot because “since Casablanca, no one actually buckles their belts anymore.” I’ve already forgotten how to tie the knot. *sheepish*
Then, there was this knock-’em-over-you’re-so-swank get-up. The trench coat alone cost $495. The tank top underneath that button down shirt cost $90. I can only speculate that the other pieces, the shirt, the pants, and the shoes, in between those two layers were also priced in between their prices because I didn’t dare look. Lightheadedness might have been induced by wearing my net worth in clothes š
While I was thoroughly impressed at the salesman’s ability to actually make me look put together, I was equally embarrassed that he was going to all that trouble when I couldn’t afford a single thing I was wearing. Oy! Admittedly, I wouldn’t go broke buying the tank top, or even an entire outfit, but there is no way on this green earth I was going to trash my budget to assuage window shopper’s guilt. I definitely felt bad for wasting his time, but I was still not forking over my rent.
I didn’t take pictures of the other dresses I tried on, but they were gorgeous and $300 each. $300!! Oh, a couple were $265. Little Boss had the audacity to say, “ohhh that’s not bad for a dress! If it were $400, that’d be too much.” As if that man doesn’t sign my paychecks! And Big Boss gave me a lecture on how $365 was a steal for the stunning, single-button, white suit jacket I’d found. A lecture! I wanted to shake them both. There I was, feeling rightfully guilty over a nearly $40 dress, and they were lecturing me on how this or that piece is an investment. Obviously I’d wear that trench coat for 20 years, I’d have to! But I can’t amortize the BILL over 20 years as well. Ok, I’m ranting.
Anyway. I swooned over a few of the pieces I tried, but it’s definitely tempered by the embarrassment of having to walk out because that’s just way too far above my pay grade. I could honestly say that I couldn’t decide what I wanted more because it was overwhelming, but it’s just not reasonable to spend that much in the name of looking professional. Not on this salary and with these troubles at home.
It’s customer service like that that makes it hard to resist the pull of lifestyle inflation and remember how much I love to think to myself “it only cost $not much.00” if someone compliments what I’m wearing. Someday, perhaps, I’ll have collected enough Macy’s gift cards to visit the San Francisco Macy’s and buy an “investment” piece made by Theory, but until then, it’s back to the more pedestrian shops (or no shopping at all!) for simple me.
February 21, 2008
Ahhh, finally home again. We drove, the five of us from the office, from the LA area to Vegas on Sunday for our semi-annual power retreat, and are finally back five days later, spent.
It was one heck of an intense trip. For the first time ever, our office was running the agenda and giving the presentations, and I tell you what, that was nerve-wracking. Lots of pros and cons.
Having to go at all was a con because as you know, I’ve been sick for three weeks now. The two weeks prior were NOT spent in bed recuperating, they were spent in the office preparing my presentation, managing the office’s workflow to get as many projects up to speed right up ’til we left and preparing the work assignments for those staying behind so we didn’t lose a week of productivity. That insanity was even MORE stressful than the usual work weeks. Definitely did not help the cough, sleep, or energy levels.
The schedule was incredibly packed. We were to meet between 7:30 to 8:30 if we wanted to eat, and be ready to begin the meeting at 8:30 sharp. Meetings ran until after noon, we had 20-30 minutes to walk to our rooms and drop our stuff, and turn right back around to meet downstairs for a working lunch from 1-3. Sometimes until 3:30. Or 4. The kicker was that we stayed in the Venetian (more about that later), which meant that it usually took at least 15 minutes just to get to your room! That place is massive.
Regardless of when lunch ended, or when we got back to our rooms, we met again at 6:30 for cocktails before dinner. And then it was a semi-social, semi-working dinner from 7:30 until 10:30 or 11:30. We frequently didn’t get back to our rooms until after midnight. My bosses are crazy, because I think they usually spent half the time available before dinner, or more, walking around the casino or shops talking business.
The meetings were draining as well. One person would present and 11 other people would randomly interrupt as questions and ideas occurred to them. We needed half the group to be taking notes throughout to make sure we actually remembered what was said at the end of the day.
On the upside, our standard rooms at the Venetian were opulent. I practically lived in my bathroom. The floor space in there was bigger than my room at home, before taking into account the bathtub, glassed shower, and separate toilet room. Oh, and the vanity, in case the wall length mirror over the double sinks was insufficient. *swoon* I loved that bathroom. Loved it. The one thing that made the insane days and nights worth it was the fact that I managed to take a hot hot hot bath every single afternoon before dinner. It could be a ten or fifteen minute bath, I didn’t care. Getting to soak my poor abused feet was absolute heaven, and made it possible to get up and go for another 6 six hours again.
Oh, I also had a bed. A lovely king-sized bed with four pillows. More heavenly! If my cough settled for the night, I was set up for a grand night’s sleep.
Our meals were excellent as well. We were treated to lunches at the Mesa Grill, Olives, and Mario Batali’s Enoteca and dinners at Bradley Ogden, and Le Cirque. I have never (and probably will never again) eaten so well or so lavishly in my entire life. *ahem* I’ve also never drunk so much in such a short period of time. It’s very likely that I had more to drink during this meeting than I had during my entire college career. Does that say something sad about my social life in college or something disturbing about my job? š
And of course, we can’t not talk about the gambling and shopping!
Coworker 1 had never gambled before in her entire life, so we snagged a few ones from the boss and colleagues, and set her up with a few penny slot machines. Yeah, we’re high rollers.
Another colleague handed me a twenty to share with the gals, so we used $6 the next day and while they lost it all, I managed to win $9.60 on my second dollar. I’m no fool, I cashed that out right quick š So I came home up $24 in cash.
As for shopping …..
You already know about my American Apparel splurge. The gals went to Express and Guess, and picked up some more work clothes on sale. I abstained from that trip because I just couldn’t see spending any more money. The bosses bought us bathrobes as our souvenirs.
And while walking with the bosses, we discovered the women’s clothing store, Theory. That’s a story for another day, though.
