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
Read More
September 4, 2010
Our houseguest just got a new job with a hefty salary in a low COL and so when I introduced her to Shabby Apple, she filled their coffers with nearly four hundred dollars in exchange for, among other things, my favorite dress. Finally I can see it on someone in real life! It’s pretty fun to watching people with zero budget problems shop like there’s no tomorrow.
And in the spirit of spending freely, free money for two people!
Out of 51 entries, including comments, tweets, and a hilarious arm-twisting referral, my first winner is entrant #46: Elaine of Clothed Much and my second winner is entrant #25: Kay Lynn of Bucksome Boomer!
Congratulations, ladies!
August 31, 2010
I definitely waited for the last paycheck of the month before putting this month’s snapshot together because I’ve already paid up September’s rent and paid down a 4-digit bill for the start of the Dental Bills (deep breath).
The expense account took a hit for quite a number of reasons and as we gear up for the fall, I’ve got a ton going on, so it’s only going to get worse. The medical bills are going to almost immediately drain the rest of the Parental Medical Fund so the balance will have to come out of the Expense fund. Remember, I use that to pay all bills and try to keep a few months’ worth in there at any given time so I’m not living paycheck to paycheck. I still worry quite easily when that number drops drastically, though.
A really old pension account finally rolled over into my Vanguard account, that huge uptick in retirement accounts has nothing to do with gains in the market.
I’m going to be traveling for a three day weekend in September, and I’ve got a ton of guests in town another weekend of the same month. PiC will be traveling yet another weekend, and then I’ve got to prep for a business trip in October. Before you know it, November and December are lined up right behind that with their thumbs out for a lift of multiple birthdays and holidays. Whoo! This is why planning is so very important.
As for generating extra income, I’ve been rather dismal at that. Any number of excuses really, but regardless, the end result is feeling (quite) a bit pinched after Hometown Expenses are paid, to the tune of 70-80% of my income. This most certainly needs to change!
I have been talking about second jobs (part-time or freelance) but I always get the evil eye from PiC who thinks I already work too hard. That may be, but I’ve still got bills to pay, and savings to pile up! Truthfully, there has to be a way to generate more income without unduly stressing my own health. I ought to have learned that lesson by now.
In the meantime, I’m reverting to an old method of keeping calm: noting everything financial in a notebook. That’ll help me keep track of reimbursements and other “hidden” money moving around in my system.
How goes the month for you, friends?
August 30, 2010
I actually wasn’t interested in participating in Funny About Money‘s Half Off Diet for the purpose of weight loss, but I do want to share how my version of it is a money-saver.
As a kid, the only time we ate out was, ironically enough, at Vietnamese restaurants.
My parents were great cooks but there are a couple things that were always more economical in a time v. money aspect to eat out: beef noodles (pho) and the 7 courses of beef. Go figure, the typically expensive red meat, right?
The interesting thing about Vietnamese food is that it’s really so cheap and easy to prepare most foods that it would seem like you’d always save money by eating in. That hasn’t been the case for many years, though. A bowl of good noodle soup cost less than $5, and it was hard to make the argument that it was worth your time making that broth from scratch and preparing all the side veggies and thinly sliced beef to save, basically, a few cents.
So if you were truly in the mood for pho, it wasn’t that costly a splurge. And honestly, we never ate out so that was definitely a special occasion for us kids.
These days, though, the price of a bowl has me staggering. In the Bay Area, a single regular sized bowl runs you between $6.50 and $7.50. That’s a 50% increase!
I can still afford it as take out, though. Always make sure to ask them not to cook the noodles, and order a single bowl to go: that single bowl can serve both PiC and me two meals – and we are big eaters!
PiC claims it’s because I order in the mother tongue, but I sincerely doubt it. Let me know if you think that’s the case, though, and I’ll be happy to call in your order for you! 😉
August 28, 2010
Test!
August 27, 2010
So “all that cash” I’ve been sitting on? It’s time for what I imagine as a huge origami ship of money to set sail.
Between both my parents and a denture-happy dentist, I’m warming up the credit card for a massive spend in the next few weeks. It’s sooner than I expected, but the fact is, holding off on treatment just to save up isn’t a good enough reason. I can afford to pay off any charges accrued now, and they will benefit by having earlier care.
I’ve asked my dad to schedule my mom’s evaluations and get her treatment started. He nervously asked, “What’s your limit?” As though it might melt the card.
“Trust me, it’ll be fine.” That’s all I’ll say.
It’s weird that I didn’t really want to say “nearly $20 grand” as if that was the equivalent of saying I have that much money. He won’t abuse it. He hates that he has to use my money for basic necessities like food and gas, but oddly enough, even though I know all the money I’ve saved is for their care, for emergencies, and for the family, I’m still loathe to share any details whatsoever.
Call it force of habit.
Anyhow, I got the call that a few of Dad’s bridges are in now and rang up at a total cost of $1200. He’s got more coming, but he actually tried to decline treatment on the basis of cost! You know I shut that down immediately. Feels vaguely awkward, but I instructed him, no questions asked, to make his next appointment before he left that office. One would think I’d be used to playing parent by now, but it never really fits properly.
As for Mom, the news is … bad. She’s been hiding her problems so long that it’s now going to cost her 6-8 months of painful treatment, possibly more, to start repairing the worst of the damage. Talking to the dentist about the recommendations was hearing like a dental student’s boot camp final exam:
Multiple extractions with a 2 month healing period after each one,
Bridges to replace each extracted tooth,
Root canals for severe dental decay,
Fillings for all other teeth with moderate or mild dental decay.
At this point, leaving aside our ridiculously good fortune that this dentist is giving us most everything at cost because it turns out that his mom is a very old family friend, I’m just really worried about how rough this will be for her. For them both, really.
Friends, please take good care of your teeth. The pain and discomfort of this whole ordeal, never mind all the time she kept hiding it from us, is almost entirely preventable. In her case, maybe less so because much of it was a side effect of the many medications she’s been on for years, but for the rest of us it’s critical to brush and floss twice a day to ward off this kind of problem.
On the money side, I did look into whether my FSA would accommodate these costs but the Dependent Care Assistance portion of the FSA is only limited to day care and educational costs. Back to out of pocket for me.
August 23, 2010
I wrote about my Blahs recently, and I’m glad to say I’m on my way out. I hate being disorganized and muddled, and even more than feeling behind, I hate the feeling that I’m not doing something. Stagnation bites.
After some reflection, it occurred to me whence this bout of stagnation hailed.
A big part of my sense of home stems from dedicated personal space. Don’t get me wrong, PiC and I have plenty of room, and share well for the most part, but I still need a corner with all the accoutrements of office space: desk space, a printer/scanner, a home for the laptop, somewhere I can put my feet up when I’m writing. I’m a nester, I don’t need a lot of stuff, but I do need a comfortable cubbyhole. Like a pup and its kennel, I’m happiest when I have a writing (bill-paying/internetting) cave.
When I first moved in, I spent several hours fussing with the dang Epson trying to get it to work but failed miserably. Then I was caught up in the whirlwind of a new job.
Days, weeks and months passed. New investments, new mail, new accounts spawned paperwork which just piled up. And piled higher. And higher.
*shudder*
I can’t believe it took me this long but I got back on the horse and did the one thing ostensibly under my control: I wrassled with the printer/scanner for hours until it’s pretty much installed on both laptops wirelessly. “Pretty much” because the scanner’s still not working on my computer but still, it’s two steps ahead of where I was before. With any luck, at least I’ll be able to scan to PiC’s laptop.
Step two will be scanning and shredding or recycling all the documents that are just collecting dust. I have a feeling that I’ll breathe much more easily once that’s been accomplished.
August 22, 2010
There will be no more waste.
Life’s been rather chaotic with the odd unexpected meal out, travel that comes up faster than expected, and a few weeks of poor meal timing led to a day when fridge clear-up was more than throwing out scraps gone off before we could eat them. We’re blessed with good food and the good fortune of never wondering where our next meal is coming from, I can’t stomach the thought of taking that for granted and wasting any more food through carelessness.
We’re now being much more careful about eating up leftovers within a day or two and stretching the ends of each batch of food creatively, not just by starting up a whole new meal.
There’s a chicken roasting in the oven now only because it was defrosted before weekend and before we brought home unexpected bounty from a BBQ on Saturday. The rest of this week, we’ll polish off the fresh roast bird and broccoli slaw mix, a variant on Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.
I’m planning more creative meals as well, to stoke appetites and make eating as fun as it used to be when we experimented more.
On the grocery front, I spent $50 today, stocking up on sale fish, which PiC is this very moment dealing out into smaller portions and freezing for later. I’m dating everything that goes into the freezer so we can easily rotate protein into the meal plans regularly. We also now have what would be a year’s supply of cereal, if he weren’t such a cereal glutton, for PiC, plenty of frozen veggies for the end of the week when we tend to run out of fresh, and a back-up chicken for roasting. We’re set for the next few weeks in a way that won’t have us throwing out heaps of wilted or food gone off.
Well-Heeled asked me a while back how I managed home-cooking so often but it was down to better planning and dedicating most of at least one weekend day to cooking more than any special Suzy Homemaker ability.
I’m also very lucky to have PiC who is generally fully capable and willing to do the Costco and other grocery runs with or without me, sous chefs happily, and puts up with any number of odd kitchen stocking requests. A full partner is invaluable in managing a kitchen and household!
