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
July 17, 2008
We have got to think before we buy. My parents and I share grocery shopping duties: they buy the Asian groceries and I shop the American sales for staples like bread, milk, juice, eggs, lunch meats, salad, and some fruits. Sometimes veggies. Because I live right across the street from Trader Joe’s, I always stop by there to pick up my eggs for half the price (or less!) of eggs from the other grocery stores. The point is, I’m the egg girl. I always buy the eggs. I thought we had that settled.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when I came home laden with groceries on Sunday including two dozen eggs (I splurged because we run out of one dozen too quickly) to find two 18-count cartons of eggs squatting in the fridge. Yep. Three dozen.
Apparently they’d been to Costco and got three dozen for $4.50, which works out to the same price of my eggs. So we had five dozen eggs in the fridge and I don’t know of any recipe that could possibly induce me to use that many eggs. Maybe a good old fashioned pound cake, but that’d probably call for two pounds of butter.
Boiled eggs for breakfast? Egg salad? Deviled eggs? Cholesterol problems via eggs, anyone?
It just seemed like such a waste of time, energy and gas to go back to the store and return them, if I could, for $3. And a silly story, at that. At the same time, I could not stand the idea of not returning them because three people cannot that many eggs consume. Back to the store, then, where I foolishly explained the dilemma and the store manager looked at me strangely, but refunded my three dollars.
It would have been nice to save two trips to TJs had my parents simply picked up their handy dandy cell phones and asked me before buying. Lesson learned? Tune in next week!
July 16, 2008
*arms raised in victory* I have reached my first milestone: my first hundred dollars earned for my House Down Payment Fund! The money hasn’t quite reached my account yet, so I’m pre-celebrating but I’m really really excited. These haven’t been easy months, and it’s so nice to be able to have reached one goal without sacrificing another one.
It actually feels like I’ve made progress despite all the other obstacles in way, nibbling away bits and edges of my salary, and that’s always good for morale around here.
The next hundred will now be cycled to my Travel Fund, and the next fifty after that will be for the Suit/Clothing Fund. I might add a Laptop Fund, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, and I don’t want to dilute this source too much. Obviously, as Blunt Money just pointed out, saving IS addicting.
I’m on check number 861. That’ll be the rent check, looks like. I had to refresh my checks today, and realized that I still have my very first check register from my very first checking account opened three days after my 18th birthday back in 2000. I’m almost positive that I only waited three days because my birthday was on a Friday and I couldn’t go to the bank until Monday. I was THAT excited to open my very own checking (and savings) accounts.
First transaction: Deposit, $200
First finance-related post it note to self: NO MORE PERSONAL SPENDING! (Even back then ….)
First purchase: Checks, $11.50 (These must have been the bank checks you get when you don’t know better, because on the last page of this register, one year later, I bought checks for $16.50. I’m still using checks from that purchase, 7.5 years later.)
Flipping through that register, I sure did keep meticulous records. They’re even highlighted in some color coding scheme that, I’m sure, meant something very particular back in the day. Have no clue what it means now. I also wrote a whole lot of checks for bills that weren’t my own. Hm.
This is probably going to stay on the protected list when I go through and discard all my old paperwork.
July 15, 2008
Thanks to Karen for this tip:
The Hotels.com “welcomerewards program” is simple. After you use the site to book 10 reservations over the course of a year, you’ll get a free night’s stay at your choice of one of 45,000 hotels. What’s simple is that there are no blackout dates and no restrictions on the type of properties, either for earning a chance at a free night’s stay or for redeeming a reward for a free night’s stay.
Sounds pretty cool! I’ve never used Hotels.com myself, but I may look into this when I need more travel booking options.
Brooke’s post on holding onto old things reminded me that I’d never checked on the pricing of a replacement battery for my old Sony Vaio. (I’d been having new-tech cravings, and had been contemplating getting a new lappie. I was all set to justify it, except that it’s not really justifiable. I want a new laptop that runs perfectly, I don’t need it. Even if I did need it, I don’t have the spare cash for it anyway! So there.) Even though I feel like I can’t trust eBay for something like this, I checked there first, and found nothing.
I Googled it, and found one laptop battery site that lists it for $99. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee, and a 1 year warranty, shipped new.
Other sites don’t even list the battery needed for this model. (It’s times like this I’m glad that I’m so ridiculously Asian that I left the information stickers on my computer. Quick and easy model reference right under my left wrist!)
Sony doesn’t even have the model number in their database anymore, or at least I can’t find it on their site anywhere.
So how much is too much for a replacement battery? In comparison to the original purchase price, it’s no more than ten percent of the cost of the notebook, but I doubt that the computer’s worth half that price now.
At this point, it’s likely to be more a matter of what’s more worth it: paying $100 for a battery or $XXX for a new computer. Drat. I know that Option A is the most frugal because there’s nothing major wrong with the computer … but I still covet a new lappy. 😛
July 14, 2008
The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less.
Accordingly, the total quantity of clothing available in my closet is also a fixed amount. It might not always happen in the same day or even involve the same type of clothing like this instance, but the total will generally stay constant despite my efforts to pare down.
I went home on Friday feeling *quite* guilty about spending thirty dollars on a basic, white, short sleeved button down shirt, and a cap sleeved shirt for work from Martin+Osa (thanks StackingPennies! :P). I justified, and rationalized, all the way up to hitting the “Order” button, and then felt bad for spending money. Later that night, my friends pointed out that my careless laundering had ruined yet another one of my semi-casual work tees.
Perfect.
Two weeks ago, my white kitten heel sandals broke, and I nearly broke my neck slipping on a sidewalk. A month before that, I’d bought those metallic sandals.
Either there’s really something to this theory, or I’m self sabotaging/selecting, and I can’t tell which is better.
After a few unanswered emails inquiring about the local Toastmasters meetings, I was advised to just go.
Ugh. Really? I have a thing about showing up to events uninvited, unexpected, and uncomfortable. It’s part of my whole thing about talking to people I don’t know.
My friend said “grow a spine, and just go.” With that encouraging push, I screwed up the courage, and drove myself over to the restaurant where I was directed to the back room.
Oy. I dragged my feet a bit, and came home feeling emotionally exhausted from the likely misplaced nervosity, but I’m glad I went. If only so I could come back and tell you that I did grow a spine and went!
They threatened to make me participate in the Table Topics, and gently ribbed me when I said that I couldn’t guarantee that I would not pass out if forced to speak at my very first meeting, and generally welcomed me to observe and explained each part of the meeting so I wouldn’t be too lost. Apparently it was a smaller than usual gathering, which was really nice for my first visit. I’m going to visit their meeting again in a few weeks, as well as some Wednesday night meetings to get a feel for the different clubs and find the one that fits me best.
So far, so good.
