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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January 7, 2008
Monthly Expenses
(some are close estimates, as the cost may vary slightly)
Fixed
Rent: $1360
Trash/Water: $80
Cable: $26
Landline: $37
Cell phones, Padres: $75
Cell phone, mine: $50 currently, will go up. A lot. Est, $80
Gas, home: $30
Electric: $125
Internet: $18
Gas, auto: $300
Groceries: $200
Truck payment: $400
Auto insurance: $300
Total: $2631
Variable Categories (personal, unbudgeted)
Eating out
Clothing
Travel
For the last section of variable categories, I don’t have a budget other than “as little as possible” because the fixed expenses have crept up to more than I make. It’s usually no more than $200 per month for all of the above, though, which isn’t much because even a cheap flight is about $120.
My plan to bring down the expenses:
1. Truck payment
Goal: Sell that sucker!
Deadline: By the second week of February. [After the wedding!]
Action: I have a figure in mind that I want to sell it for. I’ll get a quote from CarMax to see if they can match that price first. If they can’t, then I’ll take photos, and post it on Craigslist and perhaps AutoTrader.
Associated benefit: the auto insurance should come down quite a bit as well.
Savings: $400 + insurance reduction
2. Cell Phones, Ma/Pa
Goal: Change plan
Deadline: By Feb 22nd, the end of their next billing period
Action: Reduce their family plan to the cheapest one available.
Savings: $10/month.
3. Cell Phone, mine
Goal: Maximize minutes, minimize costs
Deadline: Feb 1st
Action: When I activate the iPhone, I’ll ask for the plan with the MOST minutes (6000) for the first month, then reduce it to the cheapest plan available. Since AT&T/Cingular has rollover minutes, I plan to bank the remaining minutes for use through the rest of the year. I do need to verify that they don’t penalize for changing plans, nor do the minutes expire.
Cost (before tax):
$880/year for 10,950 minutes
vs.
$720/year for 5,400 minutes
The difference is an extra $160 for 5,550 minutes. This is a situation where I’ll have to spend to save more overall. There’s no way I can use only 450 minutes/month when no one other than my officemates are on AT&T, and I am not paying any 40 cents/minute overage!
I’ve finally just completed my list of monthly expenses, and paying this week’s bills. Nothing’s quite like the negative reinforcement of watching all your month go zip! zip! zip! out of the savings account. Actually, I love that half of these payments go on a credit card which is paid in full at the end of the statement period, at least I get something back, but it’s almost worse watching the balance on the credit card creep ever higher. It’s like anticipating the pain, knowing it’s coming … soon … and BAM! All the money’s gone.
Alright alright, I guess it’s not all that dramatic, but it feels like it.
City, trash: $85
Gas company: $30
Credit card (gas, purchases, some of last month’s bills): $220
Cable/tv: $26
Landline: $36
Auto insurance: $824
This week’s total: $1221
January 4, 2008
While formulating my financial plan for 2008, I said that I ran into a series of walls and needed a break. I’d crunched the number every which way to Wednesday, and still couldn’t stretch my income to cover my savings AND expenses. Know why? Because I was turning a blind eye to what I was really doing: ignoring the expensive drain on my cash stash.
The huge barrier to my ability to save and plan a new year is my inaction regarding selling the truck. It was identified as a problem months ago, but the convenience of a third car, especially after Ma bashed in the front of the second car, has been luxurious and I let myself get complacent.
Well, no more o’ that nonsense!! I’m running short a full $400 per month just because of a danged car payment that I didn’t want in the first place, and it’s stupid to let it affect my plans for the year and then get in a funk when the numbers don’t work. Of course they don’t work, dummy, it’s time to get rid of that thing! Hmph!
This year, I’m taking the financial planning back to the basics.
Part 1: Reduce Expenses. Part 2: Increase Savings.
Stay tuned.
Every so often, I ponder removing the ads on this site because at this rate of earning, I’ll probably hit the minimum payout requirement in 13 years. I never do it, though, because I get a kick out of seeing how many pennies or nickels I’ve scored each given month.
Today, I discovered that the Adsense account site shows the earnings history FOR ALL TIME, so I got curious. It turns out that my first four months of Google Ads-ing were the most profitable:
August 2006: $1.35
September 2006: $3.69
October 2006: $8.94
November 2006: $11.05
Earnings dropped off sharply thereafter … reaching an anemic $9.76 for the year of 2007. Again, November was the peak earnings month. I wonder why that is? We love clicking on ads during Thanksgiving? Pre-Black Friday talk? Did I even post about Black Friday?
January bids fair to possibly match last year’s earnings, clocking in thirty cents as of end of business today.
Good thing I wasn’t planning to quit my job, though I think that Flexo could, if he chose, to rake in the online-business income full-time! (Good on you, Flexo!)
January 3, 2008
I’ve been crunching the numbers for my 2008 financial goals all week, and every time I think I’m close to publication, they change. Usually this is a fun exercise that keeps me happily occupied for HOURS, but I’ve hit a series of walls and am frustrated.
RX: Crawl under the covers for a break and try again tomorrow!
January 2, 2008
I had to use 25,000 miles for BD’s short haul flight the weekend of the wedding that would normally only “cost” 15,000 miles, but the trade-off is almost $200 that BD can put towards paying down his debt, so it’s worth it.
Ya hear that, BD? $196 —> debt repayment! 🙂
(Just kidding, he doesn’t actually read this.)
January 1, 2008
Most shops are closed today, New Year’s Day, and I’ve already managed to spend $14 on groceries: cough drops, OJ, milk and eggs.
I was going to review the week’s spending because I’d forgotten that A) it’s Tuesday, and B) it’s already next week. Yeah, I’m totally ready to go back to work tomorrow!!
Last week’s spending, then:
Monday – spent the morning at the cemetery, no spending in the afternoon or evening.
Tuesday – Christmas! Spent the day family-hopping, eating too much good food, and opening way too many presents. Loot: three books, a lovely necklace, two cute bead bracelets (one of which snapped the next day, doh!), a fantastic, made in Florence, journal. From BD: A Maxtor external hard drive, and a Green Lantern ring that’s hugenormous. I love it.
Worked on Wednesday, and forgot to eat breakfast or bring lunch, so I spent $4 on lunch.
Thursday – most of the day was spent at the cemetery visiting A’s grave and eating lunch with the family. No spending.
Friday – used some SW credit to purchase one leg of my flight to see BD for our 3-year anniversary. We then went to Ikea and spent about $220 on office supplies that I’ll be reimbursed for, and $25 on a bathroom rug (for Ma) and ergonomic pillow for me. That was a great $8.65 spent on the pillow, I’ve been getting GREAT sleep. I treated BD to Pho at a restaurant my family frequented when I was a kid: $18, tip included.
Saturday – no spending!
