October 12, 2008
My darling friend is curled up asleep as I scan my next to last batch of files. I’m calling it quits here because I feel bad that she’s been hosting me for the last 3.5 hours on Leg Two of the Scan-a-thon. Planning on treating her to dinner, if she’ll let me. In the meantime, a seven-day spending report:
Monday: $6 lunch, necessary but unsatisfying. A shame, but I hadn’t any time to grocery shop over the weekend. C’est la vie.
Tuesday: Managed some leftovers, and received both the latter half of the $400 I loaned my dad, and another $130 in reimbursements for some of their spending. Notice that he’s been a lot more on the ball with that sort of thing.
Wednesday: $3.79 sandwich, quite satisfying. There’s a place we can get enormous burritos and sandwiches which are totally worth the price [the sandwiches even come with sprouts as part of their extensive veggie selection] but if I eat there too often, my stomach gets accustomed to their serving sizes.
Thursday: office lunch to belatedly celebrate my birthday. That evening, shopping [$17.68, two white tank tops] and a dinner to see an out of town friend cost and $11 after tax and tip. I had a coconut veggie curry at PF Cheng’s and was pleasantly surprised. Was also quite pleased that my friend “stole” my order option of the Szechwan tofu and broccoli because it was hothothot. Received another lovely purse, this time a green and olive tote by NineWest that I cannot locate a picture of to share. Nonetheless, it’s lovely and holds everything I need in a day, and is smaller and lighter than the red leather behemoth I’ve been toting. Note on the tank tops: I probably could have gotten them at Old Navy for cheaper but I already knew that these tops fit perfectly. Coupled with the need to find skirts for friend before dinner, we didn’t have time to waste. Y’all should be impressed: we checked three stores, bought two items each, and were on our way to dinner within 20 minutes.
Friday: Leftovers for lunch, went straight home after work and stayed there: no spending!
Saturday: Lots of spending – $11, eyebrows: they look smashing now. Previously: awful.
$13, hair cut: not so smashing. She cut it too short and didn’t manage the bangs well. Am glad I have nearly two weeks before anything important.
$9, soups and pasta at the grocery store. These will make for some very cheap lunches this week. The Progresso veggie soups will be bases, combined with penne pasta, either in the soup or separately, and chicken. We’ve been getting whole chickens for about 79 cents a pound, so for a dollar/can of soup, and < $1 per serving of chicken, the lunches will be something like $3 per. I might get some broccoli to throw in the pasta or soup midweek as well.
Sunday: No spending of money, spent time working on work-stuff, helping a friend with homework, and scanning. I’ve a pile a foot high ready for shredding. Sweet!
All in all, about $71 in personal spending all week. And the eyebrows were totally worth it. The hair? Not so much.
October 10, 2008
The washing machine’s done gone and done it again.
This time, it’s not just dyed the straps of my tank top pink, despite the fact that nothing else in the same load has colorfastness issues, white or light. This time, it chewed up the straps of the tank top and ripped one of them apart.
I can’t tell if I should be grateful that white tank tops are cheap or cranky that, because they’re cheaply made, I have to spend money on more tank tops. I think it’s the latter, and then it’ll be the former once I get into the stores. I’m not even sure if they really are all that cheap anymore, it’s been a while since I’ve been in the market for tank tops.
The last time I bought some were from Forever 21, and they were really nice and soft, and only about $8? $6? Or I can get two for $15 from Aeropostale. I think I still have a free shipping code somewhere around here ….
Updated: I just stopped in at Aeropostale and bought two white tanks for $16.50 last night. We were shopping for a newly (ish) pregnant friend and we managed to get in and out of two stores, with everything we wanted in under 15 minutes. Ninja shoppers!
October 9, 2008
It’s kind of a grown up sort of clutch, that is. It’s the softest leather I have ever felt! Standing tall at 5 inches high, 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, I feel like I can go to night functions like an adult with a real purse now.
Savvy at $ out of 15 cents posed an interesting question: Could you survive on half your pay?
I’m almost always up for a challenge, but that one gave me pause, and made me sit back a little.
Do you think you could do it? What would you have to do to make that happen? Have you already done it (like FB)?
Single Ma’s discussion of unemployment and this question are right up my alley. Just this morning, I was wondering how much unemployment I might draw if politics go badly and our entire office is laid off/closed. This is a possibility and a colleague and I have been preparing for the worst for a few months now. (Hence my major push to beef up the defenses.)
If I were laid off? Apply for unemployment, devote myself to applying for jobs full-time, try taking on freelance work to supplement the emergency fund. I’ve already cut out just about all splurges so that option is constantly exercised.
If nothing else, being aware of the possibility/employment environment is highly critical. I know someone who didn’t read the signs in her place of employ and bought herself a new car when her old one died recently. She’s been struggling with her mortgage, and was suddenly let go last week. Really rough.
October 8, 2008
So if colleagues are wearing something like this (no sparkles, though):
or this:
Is it really so bad that I want to wear this? (It’s a t-shirt.)
I know, I know. One unprofessional outfit should not beget another. But my new shirt is so cute. Can you see the radish that was ninja-starred right in the “head”?
October 7, 2008
I was away all weekend, all exhausting weekend, and came back late Sunday night. It was fun, ish, but physically draining and I was looking forward to clearing up my mail, unpacking, and getting right to bed. Oh yes, and dinner, having something, anything, to eat.
Somewhere in there, my mom decided it would be a good idea to corner me with her idea of what “our problem really is.” Hm?
“The house. This house has brought us nothing but bad luck. We should, as soon as I get a little money together, move to another house that is luckier.”
*frazzle*
1. When you get money together? You can’t work! No one in the family can begin to cover the current household expenses without me, what makes you think you can come up with the money to move without a better plan than just moving? Dad still hasn’t gotten his act together, and only through constant, consistent, reinforcement from me does my brother continue to walk the line.
2. Do you remember how much it costs to move?
3. Are you kidding me?
4. The house is not possessed. It can’t bring us bad luck, and it didn’t have anything to do with the choices we’ve made!
I didn’t say any of that, except for number 4; I normally don’t outwardly react to her ramblings as she’s been very ill, and more than a little mentally unbalanced. I definitely don’t lash out when she’s trying my patience with her latest rants of negativity and blaming everything and everyone for the current situation. She’s ill, in many ways, and needs understanding and care.
But … in just as many ways, she’s caused and created so much home-based stress, stubbornly squandering her energies, time and money on what she thinks is right to reinforce her independence. I know she’s trying to do it because she imagines her decisions will bear fruit, the harvest of which will relieve me of the burden of supporting them. But, for example, insisting on driving herself to work when her physical and mental capacities were in doubt was not helpful, it was downright scary! It took six flat tires, one severely damaged wheel and a minor accident – all in my car – before she would consent to considering restricting her activities outside the house. What if she got into a major accident? What if she was hurt, or killed? What if she hurt or killed someone else?
Anyhow. Many of the choices she made were made with good intent, and there’s nothing we can do to change them now. The thing that does get to me, though, is her insistence on trying to “make things better” while refusing to consider her health. I don’t understand how she still doesn’t understand that no amount of money in the world can buy her health back, as she continues to fight us and our trying to take care of her. So many problems stem from her refusal to take care of herself, back when she was mentally capable, despite my begging her to stop making her health worse by stressing, worrying and fretting, and so many continue because of that stubbornness. I would give it all up if she could be healthy again, but she continually sabotages any progress.
So, on top of the many challenges I’m navigating, she wants me to plan to find a new house, based on the “unluckiness” of this one. Is there a luck-o-meter out there? Seriously, without that, we may be house hopping for the rest of my natural life. Our household is in these difficulties because of the decisions we’ve made, decisions that we’ve all made, and the house we live in has so very little to do with it.
I won’t make another rash mistake by acceding to her wishes because I think it’ll make her happy; someone has to keep the big picture in mind. It’s just that some days, I feel like their admonishment from my childhood: “Just wait until you have kids of your own” has come true. What a nightmare.
Takeaway: Please take care of your health.
October 6, 2008
How very odd. I fetched lunch for the office today, and sent the coworkers an email requesting that they write me a check to pay me back because I knew they didn’t have the cash on hand, and I couldn’t spend the checks. (I have self control, but cash is a special problem.)
Both of them had their checkbooks with them! Who still carries their checkbook? That was a big surprise. And now I have two checks sitting in my wallet to be deposited, and I won’t spend it. Yay!
