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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June 1, 2008
My lovely friends, the original two wheels to my third, stole me away for a beach trip yesterday.
The male half was meant to have brunch with me in the late morning, but stood me up to play tennis for two hours. To make up for it, we semi-planned to have coffee but that fell through as well. He rang me up about an hour later to invite me to join them at the beach instead. Uh …. uh …. ok!
I just don’t do spontaneous, so I was at a loss for how to prepare for a beach trip with only 30 minutes to get myself together. It’s not that I get ready at a snail’s pace, I’m just an inveterate planner, and things like that throw me for a loop. Anyway, I dug out my bathing suit and a couple beach towels, a book and my phone, and was set. Well, I was set only because my friend had already gone on a Summer Shopping Spree and picked up a new cooler, beach umbrella, snacks and drinks. He would have gotten us magazines too, but his girlfriend wasn’t with him and he refused to buy Cosmo without her. Just as well, I was already set with my reading material.
We got there late in the afternoon, and paid for a couple hours of parking ($3). The breeze was awfully chilly but the skies were clear for miles, and the sun was still going strong. I pried myself off the blanket where, huddled, I was not getting any warmer and took myself for a long run/walk/sprint session all the way down the shoreline and back. By the time I returned, I was sweating and ready to jump in the ocean. They were playing chess on a 10 game set they’d found for $9.97; justifiably proud of their dollar/game bargain.
Despite my hesitance to abuse my hands, we threw a football and Frisbee around in a game that quickly devolved into throwing as best we could, or throwing as best we could to get it around, past, or over the head of the catcher. I lost count of the number of tosses that went WAY over my head that I still went for and I’ll still be tweezing sand out of my scraped knees tomorrow!
Another hour ($1.50) was spent winding down and half-napping until it was just too cold to lay out any longer, and we went off to the Cheesecake Factory. To be honest, I developed an aversion to CF a long time ago, but was apparently too tired to put up any resistance, so iPhone Googlemapped some restaurants for us, and we found ourselves waiting outside the restaurant with our little pager within the hour.
My garlic spaghettini with chicken was delicious, as was the slice of original cheesecake we shared three ways. Friend only let me get the tip ($5). If he hadn’t just run short of cash, he wouldn’t have even let me get that much, halfsies was out of the question.
Home at nine, glad that the money spent came out of the reimbursement cash for the collect calls because I wouldn’t have even had any cash on me at all, and happy to have spent such a nice day with friends. My calves are less thrilled, though. Beach running is rough on the feet.
May 31, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,415
Roth IRA: $3,603
401(a): $4,120
403(b): $16,973
Total: $26,111 |
| Emergency Savings |
Catastrophe: 15,004
Problem Cushion: $1,382 |
| Short Term Goal Savings |
Car Maintenance: $1,316
Car Insurance: $1,375
Travel/Con: $700
Total: $3,391 |
| Long Term Goal Savings |
House Downpayment: $33 |
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Savings Bond: $357 (current accrued value)
Total: $17,987
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $26,111
Semi-Liquid: $17,987
Liquid: $16,386
Expense Acct: $256
Goals Savings: $3,424
Total: $64,164 |
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $5,450
Citi: $56
Chase: $371
Insurance: $775
Rent: $1,360
Total: $8,012 |
| Net Worth |
$56,152 |
While I liked Moom’s suggestion of breaking out the short term and long term savings goals for a more accurate feel, I’m still hesitant to include it in my net worth specifically because it’s meant to be spent someday. For now, I’m leaving it in there, and still leaving the automobiles out of the accounting. Given the current economy and the amount of time it’s taking to sell the truck, I don’t have a lot of faith that I could easily sell the cars for a current valuation.
I’ve actually regressed a little since last month’s snapshot: $56,454. In part, a lot of hefty bills came to roost, like the insurance deductibles. Bill creep accounted for some small part of it, which is why I started on the crusade to bring down the cable and internet bills. The new additions to the expense/savings do balance each other out, though, like for the auto insurance item. Redistributing that “windfall” and having it go into spending categories reduced the overall amount. Primarily, though? I think I’m almost certain that gas prices have been eating up my budget. In the last month, I’ve spent $250 on gas, compared to $250 in the two months prior. I’ve literally doubled the amount spent on gas.
I’m still seeing some growth in the long term savings, and I just need to produce more growth in the non-spending areas.
I’d like to see better numbers, but I’m not terribly surprised that this month wasn’t so good. Assuming work doesn’t have any really unpleasant surprises, I hope to see some improvement in a few months. I won’t see it in the investment section, though, as I’ve severely reduced my contributions.
Without delving into my little cushion of rollover minutes, I’ve been running really close to empty on minutes this month. I’ve been pretty careful about taking or making calls during peak hours the past two weeks, so figured I’d just be getting in under the wire or using a few of those rollover minutes. That’s no big deal, I banked them just in case there were months where extra chattiness cropped up. It turns out that my fond memory of one of AT&T’s policies, counting holidays as a weekend, is alive and well. Monday’s minutes were free!
May 30, 2008
BB recently received this book about the Nobel Peace prize winner who established a micro-lending bank 23 years ago. Apparently, he secured Yunus as a guest speaker for one of our conferences this year. I’ve been wanting to read this book for some time, and I casually asked him if he was planning to read the book, because I bet he won’t, really. He told me to take it and read up on it because I’ll likely get to meet him later this year. 8) (Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.)
As soon as I compile my notes on my latest reading/study project, I’m diving into this one. Finally, my job provides some reading material that resonates with my personal interest! Or really, my self control’s all concentrated on other stuff, I may just start reading this now.
May 29, 2008
Chicky Finance’s explanation of why she only buys white socks, despite her love of wildly colored socks, tickled me. It reminded me of my breakthrough discovery that almost all women’s socks are too big for my feet, and no matter how much I pulled them up, I was guaranteed to be running around linoleum floors with two inches of sock flopping off my toes within minutes. This was especially tragic when out visiting because I’m a trained Asian, and don’t wear shoes in anyone’s homes, whether or not they’re Asian.
I finally figured out what to do: boys’ socks! I wear about a size 3 or 4 in boys’ shoes, so the day came when I put two and two together, and came up triumphant at Target with a pack of boys’ socks. It took months before I was outed. My buddy and I had our feet up on the coffee table side by side, and his girlfriend pointed out that we were both wearing the exact same sock, with the same gray toebox and red stitched “Hanes” brand under the balls of our feet. Whoops! Hey, kids’ socks are cheaper, too!
[Image Credit: lifestyle.hexus.net]
Had a nice chat with my ISP this morning. They’ve been increasing my bill from the promotional $14.95 to $17.99, and now to $21.99. I politely let the cancellation department know that I’m not happy with the sporadic billing that increases every so often without warning, and I’ve not been particularly satisfied with their service, so I’m considering other service providers. Before I change, though, I’d like to give them a chance to keep my business.
Without skipping a beat, the CSR offered me the cheapest price on the current service I have: $14.95 for a year, with a free month. I can totally live with that. I should be expecting a partial credit on my bill for this month since they bill a month ahead, and a free month next, and $14.95 thereafter.
There were a couple of collect calls on the phone bill, and while I’m not going to get into the details or get upset, I’m putting a stop to that immediately. I’m going to have to get the phone bill transferred to my name first since it’s still in my brother’s name, go figure, the guy who’s not paid a bill ever, and then block all incoming collect calls.
Nice to get all that out of the way.
May 28, 2008
A colleague of mine has been jonesing for a home since her parents started pushing her to become a homeowner. I guess she got used to the idea, and decided to get serious about it. Her new declaration is that eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday will save her $250 a month on lunch.
Call me skeptical, or an insufferably curious pf blogger, but I do wonder if that’s the extent of her plan. It’s simple enough to save money by bringing lunch, but I feel like a few more contingencies should be considered to make sure that she’s really saving money. If I were to consult with her on the overall plan, some major points I’d make would be …..
Tracking expenses: I’d suggest that she check her spending habits as a whole. Is there going to be an area in which she increases spending because she feels deprived or restricted by eating PB&J all year? Is there really going to be an increase in savings from changing her lunch diet? She used to buy lunch half the week, and brought dinner leftovers the other half. Perhaps that was equally cost effective.
Health: Is she compensating for the rather limited nutrition in her lunches by adding fruits and veggies to her other meals? Is she doing this in a cost effective way so as not to negate her savings from lunch?
Appearances: Is she doing the PB&J lunch because it looks and feels like she’s doing something proactive about saving for a house? Are there alternatives that might save more for less effort or for the same amount of effort but be more worthwhile? I love my food, so I’d have to be sure that changing my diet solely to save money was really the best way to go.
Actionable: How is she ensuring that the money she “saves” really goes toward the house and doesn’t melt away into her general spending? Does she have a plan to pay an allowance to her house fund out of her grocery allowance?
Are there other issues you might bring up? Of course, I’m not going to have this talk with her because I don’t want to pry into her finances, we’re not that close, and I don’t want to reveal my preoccupation with PF, and accidentally out myself. 🙂
