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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October 24, 2007
I’m not feeling so hot tonight, which might be due to the terrible air quality, so I’m going to:
1. Not think about BroDucky. Fussing about him last night gave me nightmares, literally, about fighting with him. Nope. Not gonna think about it.
2. Not worry about scheduling doctor’s appointments.
3. Or dentist appointments.
4. Not think about the wedding.
5. Not worry about BoyDucky’s dad, and how MaDucky seriously needs better health insurance.
6. Not worry about how I’m going to come up with 40K for my half of the house investing venture in the next 8 months. I can crunch numbers on the train tomorrow.
7. Take a shower, get into bed by 8 pm. Read a book, if I feel like it, or just go to sleep if my head still hurts.
That’s it.
1. Living la college lifestyle: I spent from 8am Friday until 4 pm Monday en route or in lovely New York. I came in UNDER budget!!
2. We stayed at a friend’s apartment. He has a little tiny loft which never sees the light of day furnished with a lamp, a fan, a little nightstand looking thing, and a full size mattress. Lodgings: free. Exercise up and down 4 flights of stairs to the apt: free. Exercise up and down the loft’s ladder-stairs: free. Finding out that my big manly friend is scared of mice, seeing him run around in high-tops to avoid stepping on an inch-long mouse: absolutely priceless. You just can’t get that entertainment in any high-class hotel.
3. Dogs. There were dogs everywhere. I have a particular fondness for this fella ….
4. Moma. Target sponsors free admission from 4pm-8pm on Friday nights. Definitely a plus.
5. Central Park. Outdoor ice skating rink, piles of boulders to climb, long meandering paths bordered by green lawns and trees; I just can’t get over the feeling of actually being in nature right in the middle of the city.
6. Food. Lunch at Moonstruck Cafe…..
7. Food. New York Pizza ….
8. Food. Cheese balls and arepas ….
9. Food. Rice to Riches rice pudding ….
10. Food. Grilled corn from Cafe Habana ….
11. Food. Green Bo Restaurant in Chinatown ….
Yep. ALL about the food. Oh, of course, there’s a dessert shop within five minutes’ walking distance, open until midnight and a comic shop open until 1 am every night five minutes in the other direction. Bonus!
The trip was FANtastic. We ate, walked, ate, walked, and ate. Rinse and repeat. We discovered the 3:40 am last call, and the fun of walking past a gazillion bars until we found one our motley crew was happy with.
Sunday was a dedicated (Eating and) Shopping Day. Best friend shopped out of Friend E’s closet and netted about 20 items including a pair of shoes and a really cute bag for FREE. It didn’t make a visible dent in E’s closet, either. And then they took me shopping which was much less fun, but ultimately successful. I’ll save that for tomorrow’s post, though.
*sigh* I love New York.
October 23, 2007
My file maintenance leaves much to be desired. There are no regularly scheduled purges or reviews, I don’t have an actual plan for when papers are to be destroyed. I just go by the “I can’t fit any more in this old desk drawer” method.
I’ve been thinking that for the past several months as I winced pulling out the hefty 4 inch files, and again when I crammed them back in, hoping that the drawer rollers wouldn’t fail me each time. Finally the thought occurred to me that I still need to order my annual credit reports and that when I received them, it’d be a good time to go through the drawers and make some decisions about which credit cards to consolidate and kill. Also, which records to pull and shred.
That highly logical thought was followed by an OCD-like reaction: no, let’s just go through it now. Just a file or two. Just the ones you have to pull out anyway. An hour later, surrounded by piles of papers to shred, cards to shred, paper clips to reuse, and a few more files to go, I’m struck by reminiscences of my first forays into finance.
They’re all right here.
“DO NOT USE UNTIL PAID OFF.” Printed in large block letters on the paper that new credit cards come in, my first balance transfer was in 2004. I used a Citi Dividend Select Platinum card to pay off two Capital One balances for my mom. Back then, I only had a $5000 credit limit on that card, and it was only the first $5000 of many thousands of dollars worth of debt that I would ultimately pay off for them. I remember being nervous and excited, chock full of my discoveries on Fatwallet Finance, and so full of optimism and youth. Maybe I couldn’t save the world, but I was going to rescue my parents, dangit.
Careful records of credit card statements, with every single associated receipt clipped to each statement. Color coordinated highlighting to distinguish between household charges and personal charges.
An application to enroll in the Citi Driver’s Edge Drive Rebates program. One of my many failures to take advantage of a program that could have netted me a LOT of rebate cash. *sigh* I still feel stupid about letting that slide, month after month. It looks like I still have $78.94 worth of Driver’s Edge rebates to use. That’s good to know.
IngDirect, 2004. My first online savings account. Oh, how I loved it. The stack of orange statements eventually become intermingled with the white statements of Emigrant Direct, slowly, gradually. Now it’s mostly Emigrant Direct, even though I don’t think I’ve gotten a paper statement from them since 06/30/07. I can see when I started getting careless, too. May 31, 2006 was when I stopped hole punching and filing the pages. Just slipping them in atop the previous statements was good enough for this gov’ment’s work.
A Notice of Action or Payment from the dentist. ARGH! I still haven’t gone to the dentist this year! *ashamed* I have dental insurance, I’m payin’ for it, and haven’t used it once this year. Shame on me!
Cell Phone: I’ve had my 1000 minutes/month plan for at least 2.5 years. I’m spoiled, even though I haven’t paid more than $50/month at any point.
There’s also a page ripped out from an Entertainment Weekly 2000 Year-End Special featuring a 21-year-old Kate Hudson on one side, and 32-year-old Hugh Jackman as Wolverine on the other side. I love them both, so that’s staying in the drawer. ’til we meet again!
Trends: Credits to my accounts. I’ve flipped through about 4 files containing at least 8 credit cards’ worth of statements. Sure as the sky’s full of ash tonight, I’ve made some dumb mistakes but it appears that I’ve not really hesitated to ask for a credit on my account, deserved or not. The credit card companies, Citi, Chase, American Express, have all obliged.
I’m really selectively organized. I’ll update all these files from years and years ago without missing a single one, but keep small piles of things to file on my desktop for weeks. It annoys me, but there they stay, gathering dust, until I’m good and ready to put them away. And then there are times like now, when I can’t find my darned paperclip box to put away the pile of reclaimed paperclips.
It’s hard to believe that I started this crusade 3 years ago and many a harsh and bitter lesson has been learned. Some of the lessons are quantifiable: I’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars in rent. I’ve paid for just as much debt, not my own, but still, debt. I’ve finally learned to pull back and stop throwing money at the problems, especially since I never made that much, and started throwing it at my savings. At investing, and at the future. That’s resulted in a healthy sum of retirement funds, and a humble pile of emergency savings. That’s progress. Other lessons aren’t so measurable: don’t trust BroDucky farther than you can throw him. Don’t don’t don’t! lend money you can’t afford to lose. Stop blindly trusting your parents, when they’re out to protect you and you just need the truth: you will clash.
I’ve been scaling this edifice of familial duty for 7 years, and I still haven’t learned that I can’t save my family. To be honest, I have to laugh at myself for thinking that I could. How naive! Things have changed, yes, but more for the worse than the better. But, maybe it’s not a lesson I’m meant to learn. After all, families are messy. They’re demanding, they’re character building. Most compelling of all, they’ve been my motivation. Without them, I bet I wouldn’t have felt the call to explore financing, to cut bills down to the bone, to really bear up under all the needs of a family and find a way through. These are all skills that have contributed to my growing up. Like Reba McEntire said, “How was I to know I’d be ok?”
It’s been 3 years. I’m still doing alright. I’ll be ok. I think I have what it takes.
Oh, but I still haven’t ordered the dang credit reports. I’ll get right on that.
That has to be my favorite function to use on Yodlee.
MaDucky made the mistake of paying the city utility bill behind me last month, assuming that since I’d not taken the bill to my lair, I didn’t have the means to pay it. I didn’t catch her mistake until the check was gone, and so, we double paid last month’s bill.
This month’s bill just came in the mail, and it reads: Credit balance — do not pay.
Great! I get an $85 reprieve this month. So, Mark as Paid, Yodlee, Mark as Paid.
October 18, 2007
Poor hostess that I am, it just occurred to me that I should treat for the steakhouse dinner for BoyDucky’s birthday. His bro/sis-in-law are flying up and bought everyone tickets to the football game which I KNOW cost a bundle even if she won’t admit it.
I assume we’ll split costs on everything else, but one big thing should be matched by another, (yes yes, I’m SO very Asian), and this will be the least burdensome, most equitable event. I’ve already ordered $200 worth of gift cards, but there are 4 of us and they’re … foodies. Very much the appetizer, drinks, salads, entree and dessert types, while BoyDucky and I go straight for splitting a salad and entree with water on the side. We’ll likely go the middle road by sharing an appetizer and both couples will probably share actual entrees, but I’m betting wine will be involved.
That said, I wonder if $200 will be enough. Should I just over-order cards? Either risk coming up short and paying out of pocket, or be left with up to $100 worth of gift card to a restaurant we only frequent rarely. And sort of waste a whole lotta Citi Thank You points. Hmmmmm…..
October 16, 2007
Bridesmaid #3 and I were brainstorming ideas for the bridal shower and I realized that we could take on a couple of really ambitious presents that are frugal and yet, something the bride’d never ever anticipate. She also couldn’t ever put it on a registry, so no one would ever think to do it.
5 years ago, she undertook an enormous quilt-making project for the dozen members of our core group of friends. She had everyone decorate a quilt square for every other member, and she intended to gather all the squares and create friendship quilts. However, thanks to a few procrastinatory members, she never got the rest of the squares, and the project has languished ever since.
It’s just possible that we might be able to locate, smuggle out the various components of the project and do it ourselves. Uh, while I’m also organizing 3 of her parties, BoyDucky’s weekend, helping her plan the entire wedding, counseling and all that jazz, I’m going to organize friends who can sew to try and sew a dozen quilts between now and … January. Uh …. hm. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.
Well anyway, the idea was to have them all made up and ready to go, and give them to her to give out at her own shower, as if she made them!
I just found out that I have to fold 1000 paper cranes for the wedding, too. Or make that happen. I’ve already tapped all my go-to creative people for other things, I feel like I’m overloading them with things to do.
Oh, and for her wedding gift: I wanted to make a “behind-the-scenes” photo album of all the planning and organizing that she’s not participating in. Stuff like our creating her shower invitations, the preparations thereof, the quilt-making party if we do that, the actual showers, etc. It’ll be the companion to her actual wedding album!
What do you think? Too cheesy?
October 15, 2007
I love it when a lunch plan comes together. I confess that I’m terrible at bringing lunch because it involves, oh, thinking ahead, being creative so I don’t have the same things over and over, you know, that kind of thing. Invariably, lunch is just dinner leftovers, which gets really old and boring.
But last week I did really well. Over the weekend, Vons had their salads BOGO ($3.79). That might not be the best price because I couldn’t find a coupon. Regardless, I needed to bring a salad for our grilled steak dinner on Saturday so I went ahead and grabbed two Fresh Express Pacifica Vegetable salads. They’re great! They have the 5 types of salad greens, sugar snap peas, roasted soy nuts, and sunflower seeds. So let’s say that was $2 for the salad. I also bought two mild cheddar blocks on sale for $1.50 each, and picked up another onion. Turns out I already had onions, but that’s ok, I’ll end up using it eventually.
I brought the salad, sliced and diced onion and a tomato, a few eggs, and cheese to work. The eggs, onions, cheese and tomato slices were breakfast for a couple days. This afternoon I put together the salad with the onion and cheese (I’d eaten up all the tomato this morning) and made my own thousand island dressing with the condiments we already had, and voila! Three delicious salads: one for me, the secretary, and Little Boss. And then the secretary toasted up a little chicken pizza and split that with me.
We girls are all feeling under the weather so we did spend $4 each on a big bowl of soup, but we’re going to buy a bunch of canned soups for the winter and leave them here in the office.
Next time, I’ll remember to add my canned corn, bring more tomatoes, and maybe even a cucumber. Buying prepackaged salads has always seemed a bit on the pricey side, especially if I was the only one eating them, but split it two or three ways and it’s still 66% less than buying at $7 salad here!
Salad: $1.75
Cheese: (will last for weeks, I’ll add it to almost everything) $1.50
Onion: (dozens of servings) $1
Corn: (4-6 servings) $0.50/can
Tomato: (if the birds stop eating them, homegrown) $0
Cucumber: $0.80
About $5 for three salads? Mmm…. yummy crunchy salad.
