One Year Rent-Free

There goes my plan for my emergency fund this month...

2009-05-27T04:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I was petting my cat when I noticed that one of her eyes was tearing a yellowish green liquid. Ugh. After a quick Google search, I decided to take her to the vet that day to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong. The closest vet (and the one where I've taken her a few times for serious issues) is extremely expensive. Last year, instead of taking her there, I brought her to a local walk-in vet service to get her vaccine updates because it was over $100 cheaper. However, when an issue like this pops up, I don't have many options.

The vet saw her that morning, and as I suspected, there wasn't anything majorly wrong. It turns out she has allergies (???) and a slight eye infection stemming from them, so she's now on antihistamines and eye ointment twice a day (today is the last day of that, thank god!). She seems to be doing much better, and now I have the necessary pills and ointment to use if this problem should pop up again.

All told, the vet visit set me back ~$150, between the cost of visiting the vet, the cab ride to the vet, and the eye ointment I had to buy at CVS. Because I hadn't yet made my mid-month emergency fund deposit (due to my company taking their sweet time reimbursing me for a flight to a conference next month, bah), I had the cash in my checking account and I was able to pay with my debit card instead of putting the cost on my credit card. Now, though, I have to wait until later this week when I get paid to make my emergency fund deposit. I think I'll still be able to max it out by the end of August (my goal), and things like this are what it's for, but it's still a frustrating setback. Thankfully we're all OK, and now I can cancel my annual July vet visit, so I guess that's a silver lining at least.

Making My Own Natural (and cheap!) Cleaning Supplies

2009-05-18T03:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning my apartment on a Saturday afternoon (as per usual) and the smell of the cleaning supplies started to overwhelm me to the point where I had to leave the apartment for a couple of hours just to let it air out. I was running out of Lysol all-purpose cleaner, and I decided to buy a new bottle, but to instead try making my own cleaning supplies. I figured it would be cheaper than buying another bottle of chemical cleaner, and a lot healthier for my (and my cat's) lungs. I went out and bought a cloth mop and a bucket, threw out my disgusting old Swiffer WetJet, and got to work.

I did some research online and discovered I could make a basic floor cleaner using ingredients I already had in my cupboard. It took a few weeks of experimenting with different ingredients and mixtures to get it right. The first week, I mixed a cup of white vinegar and a half cup of baking soda, along with 2 liters of water. That mixture turned out to be too watery, and the baking soda left a film on my wood floors. The following week, I tried a different approach, mixing a half cup of vegetable oil with a cup of white vinegar and a cup of water. That one turned out to be way too oily, and halfway through the week my floors started to feel sticky. Eugh. Finally, this week, I got it right: 1 quart of water, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. My floors shined, weren't sticky, and there was no flim left behind. If I change anything next time, I might bump up the vinegar a bit (perhaps go with a tablespoon of vinegar instead of a teaspoon), but that's it.

Making my own cleaning supplies has been great. My apartment no longer reeks of chemicals each week, and I feel good about not harming the environment with chemical cleaners. Plus, I'm saving loads of money on cleaning supplies, since they're not cheap. Environmentally-friendly cleaners are even more expensive than chemical cleaners, and you can easily spend upwards of $30 stocking up every few months.

I'm still using Clorox GreenWorks spray cleaner for now, but once I run out of that I'll be making my own spray cleaner, too. Perhaps I'll even follow Trent's lead and make my own laundry detergent once I run out of Purex.

Here are some links I found useful, in case anyone else is interested:

eartheasy's guide to non-toxic home care
how to make your own non-toxic cleaning kit
25 safe non-toxic homemade cleaning supplies

Happy cleaning!

Sidebar updated, change in savings plan

2009-05-01T04:03:00.000-07:00

I updated my sidebars yesterday. Man, did my budgets get creamed during April. I overspent on groceries (by $25) and my dining out budget (by $12). I also had to withdraw $1950 from my downpayment fund in order to pay for the last month's rent on my apartment for September and my half of the realtor's fee. Now I'm back down to 53% of my goal on my downpayment savings. Ouch.

On the plus side, I received my tax refunds (~$500) and a $500 bonus at work (which ended up being about $300 after taxes). I was able to contribute an $300 to my emergency fund, and an extra $250 to my downpayment fund. I also maxed out my fun fund.

Since I'm going to be back to paying rent as of September, I'm changing the way I save for the next four months. Instead of dividing my savings among my emergency, downpayment, and Roth 2010 funds, I'm going to put it all into my emergency fund until it's maxed out. If I do this, I'll have that maxed sometime in July. I think this is the best move, and will make me feel a lot more secure in September when my monthly expenses skyrocket with the additions of rent and utilities, and I'm not able to save as much money each month.

Opening a Joint Checking Account

2009-04-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

When we decided to move in together, I proposed that we open a joint checking account from which we'd pay our rent and utilities, and in which we could deposit the income we make from renting out our parking spot. The way C reacted, you'd think I'd just proposed we join the quiverfull movement and get populating or something. It was just too big of a step for him. But when we went in to sign our lease, there was a clause specificallly stating that we need to pay our rent with one check, and he started to rethink things.

I really think joint checking is the way to go here. We won't be combining our assets or anything crazy like that (even if we ever got married I wouldn't want to combine our money entirely.) We'll just be depositing the money for our rent and utilities each month so that when our bills become due, we can issue an electronic check (from both of us) from that account. Most importantly, it eliminates the need for us to write each other checks to cover paying from our own accounts, which is something I hate doing. In college, I was always the designated bill-payer and it really sucked. Having to ask people to pay you, constantly reminding everyone about bills, etc. is annoying. Having a joint checking account will make that role obsolete.

I've heard good things about ING's Electric Orange account. It's an interest-bearing checking account that has all of the features of your typical brick & mortar checking account; I already have a savings account with ING, and it couldn't have been easier to set up. We probably won't be using most of the features (like the MasterCard debit card, which I think we should just cut up), and we won't really benefit much from the interest-bearing aspect, since we'll only be depositing money for a brief period each month (the account pays 0.25% APY if you have a balance under $50k), but I think it'll take less time to set up. Plus, I've had nothing but good experience with my ING Savings account, so I wouldn't expect things to run any less smoothly here.

Got an Apartment

2009-04-22T04:09:00.000-07:00

Well, that was quick. Or at least it probably seems that way, since I just blogged about this last week, but after a lot of searching, C and I have found a place we both liked and we're going to sign a lease this week. We'll be renting a 1-bedroom apartment about a mile down the road from where I am now. It's right on the subway, around the block from a large grocery store, and has a park nearby, too. Our rent will be $1550/month, plus electric and possibly gas (I can't remember if there's a gas stove or not), and cable/internet if we go for that. We're also going to be renting a parking spot that comes with the apartment, which neither of us needs, in order to make an extra $25-50 a month by renting it out at a slight markup to another tenant. Many of the tenants apparently need more than one parking space, so this is common practice in the building. And since parking on the street overnight is illegal here (seriously!), it shouldn't be hard to find someone to take the spot off our hands and knock $25-50 off our rent per month.

We had hoped to find a place with a bit more space (ideally, a 2-bedroom), but after looking at many, many apartments we realized that we probably weren't going to get a (clean) 2-bedroom in our price range/rent cycle, so we settled on a larger 1-bedroom. The apartment has a ton of closet space and a much bigger kitchen than I've ever had, so I'm quite excited about that. :)

When we go in to sign our lease, I plan to ask about subletting. In the off chance that I find a place to purchase before our lease is up next September, I'd like to know what my options are. I had to break my lease to move into this rent-free apartment last year, and I definitely don't want to become a serial lease-breaker. I'll also need to completely re-work my budget, since I won't have as much money to put towards my student loans or save. I need to figure out whether savings or paying down my loans is a priority. It's a tough call. If I keep possible homeownership in mind, it's even tougher; do I want to put a larger downpayment down (of course), or do I want to have less debt to my name when I eventually make that purchase? I'll probably go with savings, and drastically reduce what I pay towards my loans each month. Or, I might alternate and make a large savings deposit one month, and then a large student loan payment the next. Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a lot of thinking about this.

Apartment Search has Begun!

2009-04-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

This week has been exhausting. After much discussion, C and I have decided to move in again in September. We've spent much of the week looking at apartments, unsuccessfully. We're looking for a two bedroom or a large one bedroom apartment under $1550 (that probably sounds insanely expensive to people who don't live in a big city, but alas...). We live in a big college town, which makes things difficult, since neither of us is keen to live in an area/building full of college students. Nothing against them, but we're in our mid-twenties, it's time.

We're having trouble finding an apartment that's 1) large enough for both us AND 2) in a clean building that isn't full of college students AND 3) that is in an area that is an easy commute to downtown, where we both work AND 4) that meets our budget. We're willing to compromise a little on the size if it's in a great area, or pay a little more for a slightly larger apartment (i.e., we'd be willing to pay more for a 2 bedroom if the perfect one came our way). So far, though, we've not really seen anything that meets even two of those specifications. I think our realtor hated us because she thought we were too picky. I don't see how it's picky to know what you want and be annoyed when your realtor is showing you tiny apartments in shitty buildings, though. Bah. Anyway, we have a couple of appointments lined up for the weekend, so we'll see what happens.

I'm still definitely interested in buying something, but I feel too rushed waiting on the apartment search while I seek out a condo/house. Anywhere I can afford is going to be in a less desirable area, so finding that perfect gem is going to take time. Renting for a little while should ease up the pressure a bit and allow me to save more money, while also keeping up the search. I also need to look into what kind of financing I qualify for. I have a good idea of what I want to spend (although every realtor I've spoken with thinks I should be spending $50,000 more than I want to), and I'm just crossing my fingers for a great deal on a bank-owned property or something. We'll see.

Balancing Time & Money

2009-04-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, JD at Get Rich Slowly had a great post about finding the balance between time and money. As someone who’s working incredibly hard to get out of debt, I know that struggle too well. Last Saturday, I went to my hometown to visit with my parents and attend a family party. Everyone was talking about what they were doing for Easter. My grandmother asked me if I’d be coming to Easter dinner, and I sadly had to say no, I couldn’t come because I had to work.

I miss a lot of family parties. My Sunday shifts at the inn mean that I can’t attend birthday parties, or christenings, or anniversaries. I can’t go to Easter dinner. Missing these times with my family is hard. My grandparents aren’t going to be around forever, really no one will be, and it hurts to think that I’m missing spending valuable time with them now. At the same time, I don’t really have much of a choice if I want to get out of student loan debt before I’m 35. And I really, really want to get out of student loan debt by the time I’m 35.

I wish I had the financial stability to have only one job so that I could see my family whenever I wanted to. Having more than one day off per week would be nice, too. I’m still young, but all this working is starting to get to me. Not only do I work a full time job plus Sundays at the inn, but I also often pick up cover shifts for my co-workers at the inn during the week from 5-10 after I’ve already worked a full day at my other job. Not to mention the emergency phone, which starts to get busy this time of year with heating/cooling complaints; I had my first one at 12:30am this morning. It would be great to have just the full-time job, but I don’t think I can afford to do this for a few more years.

I hope I’m making the right decision, and that I haven’t died of exhaustion by that point.

Pinecone Research - Open Registration

2009-04-06T04:23:00.000-07:00

I know some people think paid surveys are a waste of time, but I thought I'd pass this link along anyway. I've been doing paid surveys since high school, and Pinecone Research is one of the best companies I've worked for. They send a couple of paid surveys every month, and they tend to be pretty interesting. If you're interested in registering with them, you can do so by clicking here.

I've been a member for about a year, and I've made around $75. When you're doing everything you can to make and save money, every little bit helps.

Yearly Goals - Quarterly Update

2009-03-31T03:59:00.001-07:00

I have been saving money like crazy this month. With my bonus, federal tax return, and raise all coming within a two week period, I'm putting away something like $5k this month (!!). I decided this would be a good time to check in and see how I'm doing on my financial goals for 2009:

1. I started repaying my student loans in November, 2006. Since then, I've paid off $12,000 of the combined $77,000 principal, reducing my total debt by over 15%. My goal is match this 15% reduction in 2009, so that my total debt at the end of the year is $55k or less.

I have increased my monthly payment on my federal student loan debt (its interest rate is the highest right now at 6.625%) from $850 to $900, which means I'm now paying about $800 of the principal off each month. Currently, my total debt is $62,367, which means I've paid off almost $3k since the year began. Continuing to pay my loans at this rate through the rest of the year will mean that I'll have another $8,500 of principal paid off in December, surpassing my debt reduction goal by $1,000, with my debts at the end of the year totaling $54k.

2. Get a promotion at work, and at least a 5% raise.

I was recommended for a promotion by both of my bosses, but we're still waiting for someone to sign off on it. I did get a 5% raise, regardless, and I plan to campaign for another raise if I get my promotion.

3. Fully fund Roth IRA for 2009.

I invested in a new fund, so I had to put a lump sum of $3,000 in at once. For the rest of the year, I'm making weekly automatic contributions every Friday to try to offset some of the market craziness with dollar cost averaging.

4. Fully fund Roth 2010 fund by the end of the year.

I'm almost there, since I put almost my entire bonus in this fund a couple of weeks ago. I'll have this maxed out within the next couple of months.

5. With the economy the way it is, and my job in an unstable industry (publishing), I'm increasing my emergency fund to $11,000. I will fully fund this by the end of the year.

As long as I continue putting at least $400 into this fund every month, I will have this maxed out before the year ends. My new goal is do this before I move out of my rent-free apartment in September, and I think I can do it or at least come very close.

6. I will fully fund my fun fund by the end of the year.

Will be done within the next two weeks. Yay! I may expand it if/when I decide that a trip to Costa Rica is affordable, but as of right now I'm keeping at $1,000.

7. I'll contribute another $5,000 to my downpayment fund. At this rate, I should be close to $19,000 at the end of the year.

I'm on track with this, and will be upping my monthly contributions once my fun fund and Roth 2010 fund are maxed out in a couple of months.

8. Begin seriously looking at condos/extremely cheap houses. The market's only going to go down for so long, and I'd like to buy while things are still within my (extremely low) price range.

I haven't actually set foot inside a condo yet, but I'm planning to do that soon, within the next few weeks.

9. Continue to pull in an extra $7 - $10k from part time jobs.

So far I've pulled in about $2,500 from part time jobs, so I'm on my way to doing this once again.

*******

It's really great to look back and see how far I've come in my savings goals even over the last three months. I think I can accomplish every single goal I laid out for myself, and I'll be doing this kind of quarterly report on my progress every three months. Wish me luck!

Beginning to Plan a Vacation

2009-03-26T04:14:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I met up with a former co-worker for after work drinks. I hadn't seen her much since I left the company where she still works two years ago, and we've been keeping in touch mostly over email and Facebook. It was nice to catch up, and interesting because we're both sort of looking for a place to buy. Actually, we spent a lot of time talking about saving money which is kind of funny. :)

She's gotten to do some travel for work, and she was telling me about a recent trip to Costa Rica, which (along with an article in the New York Times earlier this week) got me thinking. I have always wanted to go to Costa Rica to see the amazing Cloud rainforest and go zip-lining. It seems like there's a lot to do there, and my friend said it isn't really that expensive. The roundtrip flight is only about $100 more than I paid to go to Ft Myers, actually. I worked it out, and I think that at most it would cost about $1,000 to go for 6-7 days, and that's including everything. I have this money now, but I haven't really done any research yet.

C is interested in Costa Rica, but hoping we can get the cost down (which I'm fairly confident we can, though I haven't looked into this at all yet). He's never traveled outside of the US, though, and he'd rather go to Europe. I've been to Europe a couple of times (and I lived in France for six months during college during a study abroad jaunt), and I love it, but I'd rather go somewhere new that isn't crazy expensive.

My plan is to start looking into Costa Rica to figure out some logistics; what's the best time to go? Where can you stay both cheaply and comfortably? How far away are the different things I'd want to do while I'm there? What's the best way to get around? What kinds of budget recommendations are there for places to stay/things to do/things to see? Over the next couple of months, I'm hoping to get answers to all of these questions and start planning the trip.

Walking home from work

2009-03-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to today all week. Not because it means the work week is half over (though that's clearly a given), but because I had read earlier this week that it was going to be in the mid-high 50s today. To me, that means one thing: walking home from work instead of taking the subway. My apartment is approximately three miles from my office, and in the spring, summer, and fall I stop buying subway passes and walk to and from work nearly every day. It only takes an extra 15 minutes per trip, and it's great exercise. Plus, I just love being outside in the open air rather than squished against angry people on the subway; that's just a horrible way to begin and end a day. Walking is a million times better, PLUS I spend the time enriching my mind with awesome podcasts like This American Life, Real Time with Bill Maher, Planet Money, and my all time favourite, Fresh Air.

This afternoon, I was seriously jumping out of my seat at my 3pm meeting - I couldn't wait to get outside into the perfectly cool early-spring breeze, catch up on last week's Real Time, and break in my new sneakers. This is the first time I've walked home from work since October, but I made it in record time: 40 minutes! It's supposed to rain tomorrow and cool off for the rest of the week, but I can't wait until i can do this everyday.

Walking to and from work is not only good for me, but also great for my wallet. Instead of spending $60 on a monthly subway pass, I load (from a pre-tax deduction from my paycheck) a flat amount of about $60 to start. At the end of the month, I decide whether I need to load any additional money or not. Historically, I spend about $25/month on the subway when I don't have a pass, which means I'm saving an extra $35 each month for 8-9 months of the year, an annual savings of about $300.

What I did with my bonus this year

2009-03-17T04:06:00.000-07:00

On Friday I received an annual performance-based bonus in the amount of $6,000. Well, let me rephrase that: On Friday I received roughly $3,500 of my annual performance-based bonus, with a little over $2,000 going to taxes (*tears*), and the rest going to my 401k (gotta love those automatic pre-tax deductions).

I was originally planning to put the entire bonus towards my Roth 2010 fund, which would have nearly maxed it out, leaving me with less than $200 to deposit for the rest of the year. When I thought it through, though, it thought it would be nice to also put some money into my other savings accounts, combining this with my usual mid-month savings deposits. Here's how I broke it down:

$3,000 into Roth 2010 fund. This leaves me with a little over $600 left to deposit this year in order to max out this fund.
$300 into Downpayment fund. I'm still about two years away from maxing out this fund, but once the Fun Fund and Roth 2010 fund have been maxed out, I can throw more money in here each month
$300 into Emergency fund. My emergency fund will be maxed out before the year is over; I'm going to make it my goal to do this before I move out of this rent-free apartment
$100 into Fund Fund. I should get this maxed out next month - woo hoo!

I love saving, but I will do at least one fun thing with some of this bonus money. C recently started a new job at his company, and I'd like to take him out to a nice dinner to celebrate. I also need to add some new clothes to my wardrobe - I can't even close my dresser drawer anymore, it's so full of old clothes that I don't even wear anymore. I haven't really made any major clothing purchases since last February in Fort Myers, so I'm due. I need some nice casual skirts that aren't from college (no joke) and another solid pair of jeans that look and fit great. I'm planning to keep my eyes open for sales to see if I can pick some of these items up at a greatly reduced price.

In other news, I also got a 5% raise last week. This breaks down to roughly $40 per paycheck, after taxes. I haven't figured out what I'll do with the extra ~$100 per month. I thought I'd put it into savings, but now I'm thinking of paying an extra $50 towards my highest interest loan each month, and putting the other $50 into one of my savings funds. I also have close to $500 coming my way in the form of a tax return, which I'm thinking of throwing entirely at my Roth 2010 fund. Decisions decisions...

Weekend To Do List

2009-03-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

C is visiting his family and friends in our hometown this weekend, so I'll be on my own. I really enjoy these quiet weekends to myself every so often.

I have a lot of things I need to do this weekend, so I'm making this list to help guide me:

- Finish federal and state tax returns and mail them out - I actually took care of this one last night, but I still need to make copies of my returns and put them in the mail.
- Clean the apartment thoroughly - it's just gross right now
- Finish fact-checking assignment - it's due on Monday, and I'm almost done. There are just a couple of loose ends to tie up, I should be able to wrap it up in an hour or so.
- Start working on my baby booties knitting project again. I put it down when I got sick last month, and I haven't returned to it since. This baby will be born in a few weeks, so I need to get cracking. My goal is to finish the practice bootie this weekend.
-Work out a new savings plan - I got a raise this week (I'll write about this later) and I need to adjust my monthly savings plan to account for that. I'll also write about what I did with my bonus - don't worry, it was very responsible of me. ;)

Errands
- Stop by the Gap - seems like a weird goal for a pf blogger, I know, but I really need to update my wardrobe and I have a 30% off coupon. If there are any good sales, I could come home with some great deals. We'll see.
- Make a quick trip to Trader Joe's - 'cos you know that milk I left out for five hours the other day can't be in good shape, although I did try to re-refrigerate it.
- Go to the library to pick up items on hold

I should be able to get most of this done today, and the rest will have to come tomorrow before work.

Red Box & Spoiled Milk

2009-03-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

I don't have a NetFlix membership because I don't watch enough movies to make even the cheapest plan worth it. Not when there's a redbox nearby, anyway. In case you're not familiar with it, redbox is basically a vending machine for movies, usually found in supermarkets and other such places. You pay $1 per night, and you can rent the newest movies, along with a few classics. This is perfect for me, since I probably rent an average of 3 movies per month. To make the deal even sweater, there are often promo codes for free rentals. In fact, for the entire month of March, there is a free rental every Wednesday night (which you may remember, is my date night with C).

"Awesome!" I thought, "Milk comes out on March 10th; C and I can rent it and make delicious turkey burgers."

C called me from the redbox machine; they didn't have Milk. Damnit. We'd both wanted to see the movie for a long time, but hadn't gotten around to seeing it in the theatre. I guess if you're renting on a free rental night, your options are pretty limited, but they didn't really have any of the new releases left at that point. I rattled off a list of acceptable replacements, and we ended up with The Changeling, which was pretty good although really depressing.

One of the great things about redbox is that you can return the movie at any location. So, yesterday after work, I went to the Shaw's downtown. This wasn't where C rented the movie, but it was more convenient than going to the location closer to my apartment. I went up to the machine and pressed the 'return a dvd' button, only to get a message that said "Sorry, this machine is full. Please come back later or go to another location." I was annoyed, but thought I could wait a few minutes until someone rented a movie and then return mine. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be interested in renting a movie -- sure, a few people scrolled through the choices as I eagerly waited nearby to jump in line behind them, but no one rented anything except for the girl who approached the machine when I was in line buying a granola bar, and another dude jumped on the chance to return his movie. I was in the store for over a half hour at that point, when another frustrated customer trying to return a movie started hanging around as well, and I decided to get out of there and go to the location in the town where I live.

After a half hour ride on the subway and another ten minute walk to the grocery store, I finally (and easily) returned the movie there without a problem, picked up a half gallon of milk, and headed home. I was rather irritated, and couldn't stop thinking about how time I had wasted and how stupid it was that the machine could reject my dvd return. Come on! That's crazy. I got home, immediately took out my smelly trash, and did some exercise to calm down.

I was in bed around 11:30 reading my book before I realized that the milk I'd bought earlier had been sitting in my grocery bag on the kitchen table for the last five hours.

Working for the Weekend

2009-03-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend was rough. I had to go into work at the full-time job all day on Saturday to attend a conference we were holding at the office. It was especially painful because it was a gorgeous day and I had to spend it indoors listening to people talk about math - ugh! Then, yesterday, I wound up having to work the morning shift because my co-worker got the schedule messed up and thought she was working at night instead of the morning. Since I live the closest (you know, through a door in the office...) and I was working at night anyway, they asked me to come in for an abbreviated morning shift. It was nice to get out early, since it was a really nice day once again, but working in the morning (which I haven't done in over a year) combined with daylight savings really threw me. And it means, once again, that I didn't get a weekend. I'll get a comp day from the full-time job to make up for coming in all day Saturday, but I think I'm going to hang onto it until next month, since I just got back from vacation. I thought about taking today off, but then my boss gave me her broken laptop to have fixed today, so I have to go into work. Oh well.

Back from Vacation & Savings

2009-03-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

Despite getting terribly sick right before my vacation (I ended up taking off Tuesday and Wednesday as sick days), I had a great time in Ft. Myers. I only made it to one Red Sox game, but I spent ample time relaxing and on the beach so I feel the trip was a success. And, I spent way less than what I had budgeted for outlet shopping. I had planned to replenish my wardrobe in a major way, but I bought four shirts for a total of less than $50 at the J. Crew outlet and that was it. Crazy.

I updated my savings sidebars just now, and it's exciting to see that I'm back on track with my savings. I should have my fun fund maxed out by the end of April, or mid-May at the latest. I'm also going to start making weekly deposits into my 2009 Roth so that I can max it out by the end of the year. I think weekly is the way to go, since the market is so insane right now. May as well try to capitalize on some good old dollar cost averaging, rather than dumping the money in only to see the value plummet the next day, which is exactly what happened to me when I invested in a new mutual fund for the first $3,000 of my 2009 Roth. BAH.

Sick - again!

2009-02-23T17:51:00.001-08:00

This is absurd. I rarely get sick. I took one pre-emptive sick day last year because I felt a cold coming on and wanted to rest up and avoid it. That was it. The last time I was sick before that was December of 2007.

Now, in the span of a few weeks, I get struck with a terrible cold twice. UGH! This is so frustrating. I'm going on vacation later this week to beautiful sunny Fort Myers, Florida - I don't want to spend my vacation blowing my nose and coughing like a maniac on the beach. Not to mention on the flight - I don't want to be that guy.

I worked a full day today, but let my bosses know that I'm taking tomorrow off as a sick day. Even if I'm feeling somewhat better, I think just getting a good night's sleep and some relaxation will help. I'm pretty sure that I caught this cold from some of my fellow office-mates and innkeepers, as both sets of co-workers have been passing a cold around lately. I guess that's the downside to having two jobs: double the cold and flu exposure. I also worked over thirty hours at the inn last week (not counting the late night shenanigans getting the hot water pump fixed last Tuesday night after pulling a double office/inn shift). Actually, between both jobs, as of this evening, I've put in73 hours of work since last Sunday without a day off. This isn't something I normally do - I was covering shifts for another innkeeper who was on vacation, hence all the extra shifts, but I really didn't expect it to hit me like this. I guess this is my body's way of telling me I need to slow down and get some rest. But I was planning to do with my week's vacation, damnit - why couldn't my body just hold up for another two days?? :\

Spending on Hobbies

2009-02-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

Without question, my number one hobby is reading. I learned to read at age four, and I've loved it ever since. One of my goals for 2009 was to read 40 books. I'm well on my way to achieving this goal; as of this week, I've read eight books, and I'm hoping to finish the book I'm currently reading, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, sometime early next week so I can start a new book for my vacation.

I don't spend much money on books. Most of what I read is borrowed from the library, or purchased used (usually from the $1 rack) at my favourite local used book store, or at yard sales. I've thought of joining PaperBack Swap, but I'm not so sure. I really don't have that many books in my apartment, since I mostly borrow from the library, so I'm not sure how worthwhile this would be for me. I guess I could stock up on a few $1 books that I think people would want so that I can swap, but for now I think I'll continue on with my library loans and cheap used books (and reading the dozen or so books I own but haven't read yet).

Around Christmas I began a new hobby: knitting. Another one of my goals for this year was to complete at least three knitting projects, and so far I've finished one project and begun my second: a pair of baby booties for my cousin's baby, due at the end of March. I went to a small knitting shop earlier this week to pick up the supplies I'd need for this project, and was shocked to hear the total: $36 for a set of double-pointed needles and two skeins of yarn! I felt OK about it, because I was purchasing from a small business that's probably struggling to pay their rent in a really high-end part of town, and because I knew I would probably never go back there again, and will make all knitting purchases at large craft stores or online, where things are much more affordable.

I hadn't previously purchased any knitting supplies (C had bought the needles and yarn I used for the scarf as a Christmas present for me), so the prices really shocked me. The last thing I want is an expensive hobby that's going to siphon money away from my savings and debt reduction goals, but at the same time I really enjoy knitting and have no plans to give it up. As I said, I can definitely get knitting supplies for cheaper by shopping at large craft stores or ordering online. I'm also going to keep my eye out on craigslist (and maybe eBay), and look around at yard sales throughout the summer. Using these tactics, I think I'll definitely be able to keep my spending low.

Sidebar updated + taxes

2009-02-17T04:17:00.000-08:00

Sarah let me know that the Roth IRA contribution limit increases to $5,500 in 2010, so I've updated my sidebar accordingly. While I was in there, I also updated my savings information to reflect my mid-month deposit, and entered my initial Roth 2009 deposit, which I made last week. I bought a new index fund, so I had to make the $3,000 contribution in one lump sum; I'm planning to make small monthly deposits for the remaining $2,000 beginning in March.

I finished doing my federal taxes and started working on my state returns on Friday night (a riveting Friday night, to be sure). It looks like I'm going to get back a little over $500 between the two returns, which will be a nice bump. Last year I only got about $325 back. As I said in an earlier post, I prefer to get less taken out of my checks so that I can save the money myself throughout the year. As long as I don't wind up owing any money at the end of the year, this works best for me.

Low Key Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

Because Valentine's day was on a Saturday, we opted out and celebrated during the instead. C treated me to a nice dinner, and we went to a book reading/signing of an author we both really like (free!).

Since we'd celebrated earlier in the week, Valentine's day itself was a pretty quiet and relaxing affair. I spent the morning cleaning my apartment, which took forever since I was away last weekend and the place was just gross, but it felt so good to be in a clean space again when I was done. C came over in the afternoon, and we went out to lunch at one of our favourite local places (yum, Pho!). I paid, since C had paid for our dinner earlier in the week. We exchanged gifts which was fun, since we both bought each other inexpensive used books: I bought him T.C. Boyle's Greasy Lake, and he bought me Haruki Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes. We rented Tropic Thunder from RedBox and made a cheap dinner at home. Tropic Thunder was truly terrible and unfunny, which was disappointing. Even so, it was a nice day.

Knitting Project One: Completed!

2009-02-12T19:16:00.001-08:00

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time in the car driving back and forth from New York. I decided to devote a good chunk of that time to working on my first knitting project, a simple scarf made with the two skeins of yarn and knitting needles C bought for me for Christmas. I had pretty much finished it, but still had to bind off the last row (for non-knitters, this is the little move you have to do so that the seam at the end of the scarf is as smooth in appearance as the beginning). After consulting with my knitting bible (Vogue Knitting), I figured this out and finally wrapped it up tonight.

You can definitely tell it was made by a beginner, but I'm still totally excited that I actually knitted something! I can't wait to start my next project. I think I'm going to make baby booties for my cousin's baby with NY Mets colors (she and her husband love the Mets). I gave them a gift at the shower last weekend, but I'd like to send something additional once the baby is born, and I think hand-knitted baby booties would be a nice, inexpensive gift that they'll appreciate. She's due at the end of March, so I should have plenty of time to finish these and send them off once the baby is born. I'll head to the yarn store this weekend to get the necessary supplies (blue and orange yarn, a set of double-pointed needles). Now I just need to find a pattern.

This Weekend: Baby Shower & a Busted Shoe

2009-02-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to my parents' house on Friday night after work, then to New York for my cousin's baby shower on Saturday; it's amazing to think that the next time I see her, she'll have a sweet little baby boy in tow. I can't wait! I did spend a little more on the gift than I'd budgeted (about $15 more), but that's okay. C and I don't really exchange Valentine's Day gifts, so I'm not anticipating taking any more money out of my fun fund this month.

The shower was nice, and it was fun to spend time with the extended family. The day was pretty exhausting, though, since my mom and I left her house pretty early in the morning to drive there, and I didn't get to sleep until almost 1. Staying up late is a challenge for me even on a Saturday night, but it was definitely worth it to stay up talking to my cousin and her husband, and watching several episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, one of quite a few shows they've gotten me into over the years.

On the way home today, mom and I stopped at the outlets. Knowing that we'll be doing quite a bit of outlet shopping in Florida later this month, we had no plans to even enter any of the stores we walked by in our search for the bathroom. However, as I exited the restroom, I noticed that my shoe's heel was loose.

Uh oh.

My shoe collection is pretty basic, when it comes to work-appropriate footwear: one pair of black pointed-toe heels, one pair of brown heels, and a few cheap pairs of ballet flats. That's it. I don't really do the whole shoe-crazy girl thing. I bought this particular pair of black shoes by Nine West at Marshall's in the spring of 2007, and they have served me well, but I think it might be time to replace them. Mom & I stopped in the Kenneth Cole Reaction store briefly on our way out, since I've always had good luck with their shoes, but the prices were insane. A pair of shoes I'd almost purchased in Florida last February (they didn't have my size or I would've bought them) was double the price they'd been a year ago. What on earth kind of business model is that - wait until there's a recession, then double your prices? Because we all have so much disposable income right now?? They had my size, too, but there was no way I was shelling out $80 for these shoes. Maybe I can pick them up in Florida for the "old" price. Weird.

No Grad School for Me

2009-02-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

A while ago, I wrote about my fear of being laid off. I've talked to a few people at work about this, and they all think I'm insane. Regardless, I still have the fear in the back of my mind, and (goal alert!) I plan to overhaul my resume by the end of the month just in case.

Because I'm a chronic worrier, I've spent a significant amount of time thinking about what I'd do if If I did lose my job. Like many people in this situation, I briefly thought about going to graduate school. However, I refuse to take any more standardized tests because I strongly believe the assessment industry is a total racket that doesn't prove anything about a person's intelligence and ability, so I can't apply to any program that requires a GRE score. Besides that, I have no idea what I would want to do with my life (other than travel around the world learning different languages and seeing new places, which I'm pretty sure isn't a job so much as a hobby for the independently wealthy). And I definitely do NOT want to take on anymore student loan debt, so grad school is out. After reading this list of reasons why you shouldn't try to dodge a recession with grad school, I feel validated in my decision. I'm not saying that grad school isn't a good choice for people with a definite career in mind that requires an advanced degree, but it definitely isn't for me at the moment.

Doing My Own Taxes This Year

2009-02-05T19:51:00.001-08:00

My dad has always done my taxes for me. In fact, he does taxes for pretty much everyone in our extended family, and has for as long as I can remember. He doesn't have any special training or anything (though he did get some type of certification after completing an H&R Block tax prep course about ten years ago), yet at least a dozen people trust this man to do their taxes for them every year. You know it's tax time because my parents' kitchen table is covered with stacks of paper and pencils, and my dad digs my old electric pencil sharpener out from the basement. :)

Since I moved out of state for college, my taxes have become a special kind of hell. For six calendar years, I was a part-time resident of both my home state and new state, and I had all sorts of weird freelance income to pay taxes on (but not enough to file quarterly). It drove my dad CRAZY. For the last two years, though, I've been a full-time resident of new state and my income was more regular and less confusing. I decided I wanted to learn to do my own taxes, and last year I sat down with my dad for about an hour and went over everything I'd need to know. We worked through both tax forms together, and I have to say that the federal filing was shockingly painless (state was another story...).

I'm confident that I can work out my own federal taxes this year, and probably my state, too, as long as I set aside a block of time to do this. I plan to work out both filings myself, though I may still show them to my dad to make sure I've done it correctly. I'm not expecting to get much back; I prefer to have less taken out of each paycheck, rather than get a big chunk of money once a year. I think my total refund last year was less than $500 for both state and federal combined. As long as I don't owe the government any money, I'll be happy.

Quiet Weekend

2009-02-02T04:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend was pretty relaxing. Actually, I think I slept for most of it.

Friday night, C and I went out to eat at a really delicious (and thifty) Italian restaurant. We came home and watched an episode of Mad Men, but after polishing off our complimentary bottle of wine from dinner, I'm pretty sure we were asleep by 11.

Saturday I spent a long time cleaning my apartment. I do this every Saturday afternoon, but since I went to visit my parents last weekend, it had been two weeks since the place had been cleaned. Gross. We stayed in pretty much all day/night, and finished watching season 1 of Mad Men, which is definitely my favourite show right now. I can't wait for season 2 to come out on dvd! I think Pete Campbell is my favourite character. His smarminess just makes me laugh.

Yesterday I went grocery shopping and spent only $17 for a week's worth of groceries, plus snacks for my desk at work. Woo hoo! I had to work at the inn, so I missed the super bowl, not that I cared.

Recession Dining Deals: In Praise of OpenTable.com

2009-02-01T09:02:00.000-08:00

This is not a sponsored post, but after the awesome deal we got on our dinner Friday night, C begged me to blog about it, and even volunteered to write it himself. After some badgering, I told him to just go ahead and write it -- his post is below. :)

Restaurant deals are springing up everywhere, but most prix fixe menus just won't do. With limited selections, it's often hard to find three courses we'd actually enjoy, and even then the cost is usually out of our price range. Dinner-for-two deals are more affordable, and don't require us to eat an appetizer each plus dessert, which we rarely have room for.

Friday I discovered a great deal at an Italian restaurant I found through OpenTable.com--dinner for two with a bottle of wine for $30. The selection wasn't from the full menu, but there were more options than one usually finds at a three-course prix fixe offering. After a quick browse of Yelp reviews and with OYRF's thumb's up, I booked a table for after work. I had the chicken parm with ziti, which was listed at $19 on the regular menu, and OYRF upgraded to a shrimp fra diavolo for $5 more. Those dishes alone would have cost us $45, so we saved ten bucks and got a full bottle of a nice pinot grigio to boot! Admittedly, the portions might have been a little smaller for the reduced price, but it was still a good deal.

The real kicker here is OpenTable.com's dining rewards system. Anytime you book a reservation through the site you get 100 dining points. But if you're willing to eat a little early (or late), some restaurants offer 1,000 points for eating during non-peak hours. When you reach 2,000 points you can trade them in for $20 check toward dinner at any affiliated restaurant. After one meal, we're halfway there!

Now our plan is to book another 1,000-point dinner, cash in the points, and use our $20 for another 1,000-point dinner. Then we'll be one meal away from another $20 discount. We'll save big every other meal, and get to try new restaurants around the city. Luckily, OYRF and I live in a great area for restaurants, so there is no shortage of choices.

The Grey Area of Being Financially Independent from Family

2009-01-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite pf bloggers, Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks, recently wrote a post responding to a comment she received about whether or not she's truly financially independent because she does things like letting her parents for dinners out and the like.

I think the commenter made a valid point about many people in our age range (post-college, mid- to late-twenties) accepting money from their parents. I've been working since I was 13 (I was a busgirl every other Saturday at a restaurant where my mom worked), and I do get annoyed by people my age who are constantly asking for or getting money from their parents to pay for things like groceries, gas, etc. That said, I hardly think that allowing your parents to pay for dinner when you go out to eat together is something for which you should be ridiculed. My parents often take me out to dinner when I visit them, and they get annoyed when I try to pay -- taking me out to dinner is something they enjoy doing, probably because they know it's a treat for me and that I appreciate it. I don't think this negates my financial independence in any way. I paid (and will be paying for the next five years, at least) my own way through college. That doesn't mean my parents haven't helped me along the way; in college, they would buy my groceries every once in a while when they visited, despite my protests. When I had to start paying down my student loans and didn't have a part-time job yet, my dad gave me $100-$200 each month for a few months to help me out. He helped my brother in the same way. I'm sure that my parents feel guilty that they weren't able to contribute to my education, and that was their way of helping out for a while until I got on my feet. I appreciated their help and accepted it as a gift, not something I felt entitled to as their daughter.

I'll admit that I go on vacation with my parents about once a year. My parents rent a house in Florida for a week or two in late February/early March most years, and I usually go to visit them for some of the time. Next month, actually, C and I are going to spend a few days with them in Florida at the house they're renting with my aunt and uncle for two weeks. We're paying for our own plane tickets, and we'll be treating everyone to dinner one of the nights we're there (and probably making dinner at least one night, too). My brother is also coming down for a few days, and so are some of my cousins. My family invited us to visit them, and we're paying our own way down there. Maybe I am spoiled, but I love spending time with my family (especially when the extended family is involved, since I so rarely see them), and I look forward to these trips. I appreciate the chance to see everyone in one place and relax without the pressures of the holidays, which are the times we're usually all together. I don't feel entitled, but grateful. My family knows this, and that's what matters.

Budgeting Savings with an Irregular Part-time Schedule

2009-01-30T04:15:00.000-08:00

February is right around the corner, and I'm trying to figure out how much money I can save next month. Each month, I aspire to put $400 into both my downpayment fund and emergency fund, and $200 into my fun fund. However, February is a bit irregular. I normally work 4 shifts at the inn per month (one each Sunday), making about $350 gross, before bonuses. We haven't received bonuses for the past couple of months; because of the economic crisis, our business has been slower than usual so we're not meeting our sales/occupancy goals. When we do get bonuses, I usually gross about $450 - $500 per month at the inn.

In February, I'm taking two weekends off from the inn: next weekend, I'm going to a baby shower in NY (and I still need to get a gift, ugh!); the last weekend of the month, I'll be in Florida. But, I'm going to be covering at least 2 shifts, so I'll actually be working 4.5 shifts. In March, I'm currently scheduled for 3 shifts, but it's quite likely I'll pick up at least one during that month.

Not knowing for sure how much I'm pulling in from my part-time job makes it hard to figure out whether I can meet my savings goals. Sometimes I'm plesantly surprised, like this month. I grossed $1,025 at my part-time job in January, and that was without bonuses...! Obviously I'm not going to do that every month. For one thing, it's exhausting -- several of those shifts were "after work" shifts where I come in from 5-10 after working all day at my full-time job. Also, January was one of the two months of the year where I receive three paychecks from the inn (the next one is July).

In January, I netted over $2,700 between both jobs. Despite my super income this month, I wasn't able to meet my savings goals; I had to pay C back for our plane tickets to Florida, and pay off my credit card for the Christmas/birthday gifts I bought last month. I saved $300 for my downpayment and emergency funds, and $175 in my fun fund; I also put an extra $50 towards my federal student loan, and will be doing that next month as well. I'm hoping to make up the extra savings money next month, and to keep my clothing spending at $0, with the exception of any outlet shopping trips in Florida. I just have to stop going into clothing stores, and delete all of these amazing sale emails I receive every day and I'll be fine. ;P

Decision-Making is Hard

2009-01-29T04:17:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, Trent at The Simple Dollar wrote a post about the difficulty he has making financial decisions, such as starting a Roth IRA. Although I do take the time to think through before making financial and personal decisions, I usually choose one course of action quickly and work through the details as I go along. Many of those close to me, C in particular, are more like Trent.

C took well over a year to open an ING savings account; he asked me to send him an account invite several times before actually signing up. He also put off opening any CDs with ING while the rates were still high (in the 4-5% range, those were the days...), because he hadn't had the time to fully work through the best option of where to keep his money and for how long. Contrastly, I opened my ING savings account in the summer of 2007 after reading testimonials on several personal finance blogs. Of course, I took the time to read through the account literature on ING's site, made sure my deposits were FDIC insured, and did a bit of rate comparison on bankrate.com, but I gave myself a date by which I would open my account and did it. I did the same thing when I opened my CDs at ING, several at interest rates much higher than ING is currently offering; I did some reading to find out what the liklihood of a Fed interest cut would be, and I made sure I opened CDs a few days before any potential rate cuts, while rates were still high. This paid off majorly -- according to my ING tax statement for 2008, I made $889 in interest last year.

Another example is my downpayment fund. Some people would say that I should just put that money toward my loans, and I can't say I think that's a bad idea. But, right now I'm not sure what the best option is for me. My loan interest rates are all low at the moment (only the private loan has a variable rate, and it dropped from 8.25% to 3.25% over the past three years), so I'm planning to continue snowballing them for now. At this rate, I'll have the federal loan paid off by the end of next year, and the Perkins loan paid off shortly after that. Although I may decide to move some of this money toward paying off my loans even earlier, for now I'm going to continue saving for a downpayment, Even if this is the "wrong" decision, I'm putting money away every month, and I can always change my course of action. The important part is choosing to take action and following through.

What Should I Do with Birthday Money?

2009-01-26T03:44:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, I turned 26. This weekend, I received some belated birthday gifts from my godfather and my grandparents: my grandparents gave me $50, and my godfather gave me a check for $100. My godfather and aunt also gave me a $100 giftcard to Lord & Taylor.

Normally, I'd throw the money into my savings. However, January is one of the two months this year in which I receive an "extra" paycheck from the inn (my full-time job pays semi-monthly. bah). So, I'm already over-contributing to my savings this month.

I could use it to further pay down my student loan debt -- in fact, that's what I did with some of my "extra paycheck" money earlier this month. This is still a possibility.

I could use the money to buy something for myself, but there really isn't anything I need right now. And, I have the Lord & Taylor giftcard to spend as well, so I'd rather not spend all of money on STUFF.

I think I'll put an extra $50 towards my federal loan next month. I'll also put $25 extra into my downpayment fund and emergency fund, and put the other $50 into my fun fund. I'm going on vacation at the end of Februrary (more about that later), so I can use that money for any outings or the many outlet shopping trips I'm panning.

Finally feeling well again

2009-01-19T19:17:00.000-08:00

I wasn't planning on the long hiatus, but that cold really clobbered me. Today's the first day (two weeks later!) that I actually feel normal again, and didn't have to blow my nose every five minutes.

I had the day off for MLK day, so C and I continued our second annual MLK movie day. Last year we went to see There Will Be Blood (which wound up being my favourite movie of the year); this year, we saw Slumdog Milionaire. I really enjoyed the movie, although I thought it was pretty shallow overall -- great acting and an interesting story-telling device, but nothing too deep. Worth seeing, though. I rarely go to see movies in the theatre because it's so frickin' expensive. We went to a matinee, so that helped. I paid for the tickets (even for a matinee, it was $15.50 for the two of us, ugh!) and C paid for the snacks we bought at a nearby CVS before the movie. Another good reason to go to the movies -- Reeses Pieces! :)

Working from Home

2009-01-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

My cold has only gotten worse, but since I've been out for two weeks I really can't afford to miss a day of work. So, I asked my boss if I could work from home today. He gave me the OK, so here I am on my lunch break in my pajamas on my couch, but I get the feeling that people assume "working from home" means slacking off and not actually doing work. In reality, both times I've asked to work from home, it's been because I was extremely backlogged on the kind of work that's really hard to get done in an office setting, such as reading stacks of development and market reviews, or hand-proofing a manuscript. Neither of these activities requires me (or anyone else) to be physically located in an office. In fact, being in an office makes it a lot harder to devote the kind of concentration these tasks require for a long period of time; sitting in a thin-walled cubicle in a high-traffic part of the office with constant interruption by co-workers makes it hard to pay attention to anything longer than an email. Here at home, it's quiet (comparably), and I can read through a stack of reviews in a couple of hours. I can also listen to music as I work without having to worry about annoying the person on the other side of the cube, or having to wear headphones all day. Although I'm not important enough for a company laptop, I can check my email from my home computer, and work on creating or editing documents (which I send a lot of time doing in the office).

I have my annual evaluation coming up, and I'd like to ask my boss for permission to have the option of working from home once a month so that I can stay on top of this kind of work. I'm not sure how to broach the subject, though; I don't want him to think I'm try to get a free day off every month.

I'm kind of surprised my company doesn't already offer some kind of alternative work week, like a 4-day work week, or giving employees the option to work from home one day per week. I think it would save a lot of money and raise morale, which has been pretty low lately.

It's about time, Mint!

2009-01-06T15:59:00.001-08:00

When I heard about Mint late in 2007, I eagerly signed up right away. I'd been using Quicken on my old laptop, but when my laptop abruptly stopped working, I was looking for a new way to manage my budget and spending. Mint sounded ideal because it links to your accounts and automatically tracks your spending without you having to go in and manually enter all of your transactions.

I successfully added my accounts to Mint, with one exception: Citizens Bank. Though I've moved to ING for my savings accounts and CDs, I still use Citizens for my checking and do most of my spending with my debit card. Without support for Citizens, Mint was pretty useless to me. I signed in every couple of months, hoping Citizens would work, but it never did. I logged into Mint a couple of days ago to check things out, and I was thrilled to see that Citizens Bank is now functional...finally! I excitedly spent the better part of an hour going through my spending for the past couple of months, tagging and untagging transactions (yes, I am a total nerd.) I still haven't figured out the best way to log deposits into my ING savings accounts (both Citizens and ING log these, and it doesn't end up making sense), but I'll get it eventually.

Mint is almost perfect now, except for the Investments tool -- it's still way off in tracking your totals for investments and gains/losses, even when you add price paid per transaction for individual mutual funds/stocks. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I have full confidence that one day (even if it's not until next January) I'll log in and everything will work as it should.

Back to Work Blues

2009-01-05T16:18:00.001-08:00

After two lovely weeks off from the full-time job, I returned to the office today feeling kind of sad. I'm grateful that I have a job right now, in this economic climate, but it was really great to enjoy some time off to relax. I had resolved to return to work with a positive attitude, but certain circumstances made that difficult.

In preparation for the week ahead, last night I had brewed a pot of coffee to put in the fridge for the week (I strongly prefer iced coffee to hot, so I make a batch each week and store it in the fridge - I save over $10 a week doing this instead of hitting Dunkin Donuts every morning). Or should I say, I attempted to brew a pot of coffee after my innkeeping shift...however, I forgot to put the filter piece back into the coffee maker, so what actually happened was that the coffee maker spit hot water and coffee everywhere, and I had to clean all of the disgusting hot coffee grounds out of the machine at 11PM. I couldn't fall asleep until 1 or 1:30, so I only got about five and half hours of sleep. Then, as I was leaving my apartment this morning, I took two very hard spills onto the ridiculously icy sidewalk. It really hurt, but I guess I'm lucky I landed on the most well-cushioned part of the human body. Unfortunately, I landed on the same spot both times, and I can't sit down without experiencing severe pain.

After two weeks off, my body is now used to getting 10-12 hours of sleep per night, so the limited sleep I got last night did not cut it. In fact, I think it may have killed my immune system -- by the end of the day, I had come down with a pretty bad cold. I haven't had a cold in almost two years! I'm planning to go to bed nice and early tonight and hope that I feel better in the morning. Hopefully the rest of the week goes more smoothly than today did.

Goals for 2009

2009-01-02T11:50:00.001-08:00

Earlier today, I wrote about some of my accomplishments from 2008. Here are my goals for 2009.

Financial

~I started repaying my student loans in November, 2006. Since then, I've paid off $12,000 of the combined $77,000 principal, reducing my total debt by over 15%. My goal is match this 15% reduction in 2009, so that my total debt at the end of the year is $55k or less. That's still an outrageous amount of debt, to be sure, but if I can do it (and I know I can), I'll have paid off 30% of my total debt (about $22,000) in just three years.

This will mean that I'll have just 45% of my federal student loan debt left to pay at the end of the year. I'll still have about 87% of my private student loan debt, and about 58% of my Perkins loan remaining at the end of 2009. Currently, those loans have much lower rates (3.5% for my private loan, and 5% for the Perkins loan), vs. a 6.6% rate for my federal loan, so this makes the most sense right now. However, my federal loan rate will drop to 5.6% next December, and the adjustable rate on my private loan is sure to go up this year, so this may change slightly. However the rates adjust, I'll be throwing the same amount at my loans each month, so I should be able to meet my goal.

~Get a promotion at work, and at least a 5% raise. I'd really love to get a 7% raise, and I think I deserve it, but the economic crisis is the perfect excuse for companies to screw their employees out of raises, and I'm sure mine will be no exception. I'm going to work on my self-evaluation today and try to make the case for the promotion/raise, based on all of the extra work and responsibility I've had this year. Cross your fingers for me.

~Fully fund Roth IRA for 2009. I've got the full amount in CDs right now, and I'll start contributing to my Roth in February or March.

~Fully fund Roth 2010 fund by the end of the year. My parents gave me $1,000 at Christmas for my Roth, which was wonderful. I'm now well on my way toward getting this funded for the year. The rest of the money (a little over $3,000) will come from small amounts each month and/or my annual bonus, depending on how that plays out.

~With the economy the way it is, and my job in an unstable industry (publishing), I'm increasing my emergency fund to $11,000. I will fully fund this by the end of the year.

~I will fully fund my fun fund by the end of the year. The money in there now will remain in there until the next gift-buying occasion pops up. I've already bought my brother's birthday gift and allotted money for my dad's birthday gift (both birthdays are this month), and C and I typically exchange small inexpensive gifts for Valentine's day, so I think I can do this pretty easily within a few months. After this is funded, I'll throw the extra money each month at my 2010 Roth fund.

~I'll contribute another $5,000 to my downpayment fund. At this rate, I should be close to $19,000 at the end of the year.

~Begin seriously looking at condos/extremely cheap houses. The market's only going to go down for so long, and I'd like to buy while things are still within my (extremely low) price range. I can afford to buy now, but only in less than desirable areas. Even so, I'd like to go see some of these places in person to get an idea of what my tiny fistful of dollars can buy.

~Continue to pull in an extra $7 - $10k from part time jobs. This year I made about $9k from my part time jobs, before taxes. I'd love to keep this going, as it provides a great cushion for my savings as I use my primary job to pay down my student loan debt.

Non-financial

~My number one goal is to be more comfortable with my myself, in general. I often feel uneasy in my own skin, which makes me want to hide from the world. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll suddenly, out of nowhere, feel so uncomfortable and gross that I'm forced to go home. I have no idea where this comes from, but it needs to stop because it's ruined too many days for me. This might the hardest of my goals, but I think it's probably the most important to my happiness and well-being.

~Continue to be physically active and stay in shape. I'm currently at my ideal weight, and I would love to maintain it by continuing to do all of my spring/summer/fall commuting by foot and eating healthfully. It's tough to get exercise in during the winter, since I don't belong to a gym, but I know I'll be right back on track by March (I hope it's warm enough to walk to/from work by then!).

~Finish at least one song. C and I have been doing some Sunday afternoon songwriting, which is a lot of fun. I'm not particularly musically inclined, but it's still a lot of fun to write lyrics/melodies/sing/etc. Most of what we've written so far are short snippets of incomplete songs – I'd love to get a few completed works under our belts!

~Successfully learn to knit, and complete at least three projects. It would be great to be able to give some of these as gifts next year and save some money on Christmas.

~Read 40 books. I think I can do this, provided I don't get stuck on the same book for weeks like I did a few times this year (I'm looking at you, Tom Friedman...).

~Go to more concerts of bands I like while they're still playing small clubs. I always talk myself out of doing this for one reason or another (no one to go with, don't want to spend the money, too tired in the middle of the week, etc.), but it seriously sucks to miss out an opportunity to see a band you like in a small venue, only to have them return a few months later playing a giant show that you can't afford. This is not happening to me anymore!

I think I can achieve all of these goals, with a lot of hard work and energy. Wish me luck!

Financial Achievements for 2008

2009-01-02T06:37:00.000-08:00

Though I've always cared about saving, 2008 was the first year I truly dedicated myself to personal finance.

In 2008, I:

~Landed into this amazing rent-free opportunity!

~ Began using the debt snowball method to eliminate my student loan debt as quickly as possible. You can find a great debt snowball spreadsheet here; I've come across many of these types of spreadsheets, and this was the most useful one I've encountered.

~ Split my savings account into separate accounts to reflect my savings goals, almost meeting my $7k emergency fund goal, and reaching the halfway points of my down payment and fun funds.

~ Fully funded my Roth IRA for 2008, and saved up the full amount for my 2009 contribution, with a little leftover to go towards the beginning my of my 2010 fund.

~ Continued to put 6% of each paycheck toward my 401k. My company matches 100% of the first 3%, and 50% of the next 3%. Since I'm still relatively broke, and investing in a Roth IRA each year in addition to my 401k, this is as much as I'm willing to put into it at this point.

~ Began investing monthly in company stock and individual stocks of well-established companies that pay dividends in order to capitalize on low stock prices during a down market, and to continue diversifying my overall investment portfolio.

~ Finished the year reducing my federal student loan debt at a rate of 3% per month, and my private student loan debt at a rate of 0.3% per month. If I continue at this rate, loans will be completely paid off by the end of 2014. This sounds like a very long time from now, but I will be extremely impressed with myself if I can manage to pay off $77k, plus interest, in less than 10 years.

In non-financial 2008 accomplishments, I also:

~Got a promotion and 5% raise at my full-time job, and a dollar-per-hour raise at my part time job (I guess this one is finance-related, too :)) This was almost a year ago, and I'm hoping to add this to my 2009 accomplishments soon.

~Hung out more with co-workers (from both jobs) and attended more social gatherings. Sounds boring, but I'm a pretty shy person who feels most comfortable alone or one-on-one, so this was a pretty big deal for me. Hopefully I can continue on this path in 2009.

~Went on my first business trip - alone. I was really nervous about having to talk to people I didn't know for five days, but it went surprisingly well, and I even made a few friends out of it. Of course, my company (like most companies) is cutting its travel budget, so who knows when I'll get to go on another business trip, but it was still a good experience.

~Read over 30 books. I hope to increase that number in 2009. In fact, I should have at least one finished by the end of the day.

~Began to learn how to knit. So much fun! I'll be writing a separate post about this soon.

I'll be posting my 2009 goals this afternoon- stay tuned...

2008: The Year in Savings

2008-12-30T11:23:00.000-08:00

Though I haven't posted much about this, I'm a huge fan of clipping coupons and maximizing savings to get the best prices for items for groceries (at Stop & Shop) and personal items (at CVS). I just returned from my final shopping trip of the year -- let's see how the savings added up for 2008.

Stop & Shop
On average, I shop at Stop & Shop once a week. I buy a majority of my produce here, among other things, and then supplement with items from Trader Joe's. My typical grocery bill is between $20-$25 per week, so I probably spent around $1100 on groceries at Stop & Shop in 2008. According to my receipt this afternoon, I've saved $336.57 this year by purchasing sale items and clipping coupons -- an annual savings of about 30%!

CVS
I love shopping at CVS because I can pick up all of the tolietries and personal items I need for basically nothing. I often leave the store with $20 worth of merchandise for well under $5. If you're interested in learning the extremely valuable practice of shopping at CVS, I'd check out Money Saving Mom's post on CVS 101 here.

According to an email I received from CVS earlier this month, from October 2007 - October 2008, I saved $642.78 from a combination CVS coupons, sales, and Extra Bucks. This doesn't even take into account all of the manufacturer's coupons I used throughout the year. I don't have a record of what I spent out of pocket during that time out, but I know it was nowhere near what I saved. Estimating conservatively from CVS receipts, I usually spend about $50 out of pocket per season, so I'm guessing my spending was a maximum of about $200 per year, when manufacturer's coupons are taken into account -- that means I've saved over 300% in the past year!

Here's hoping for even greater savings in 2009!

I'm so glad it's Christmas vacation!

2008-12-22T14:02:00.001-08:00

Due to the fact that my company doesn't allow us to roll over unused personal/vacation time, I usually wind up taking off time at the end of the year. This year, because of Christmas and New Year's falling mid-week, I only have to use six days to get the last two weeks of the year off, so here I am with two weeks off. :)

I spent my first day off (today) finishing up some last minute shopping. The sales at the Gap were insane! I can only imagine that their post-Christmas sale will be even better. I wanted to buy everything in sight (for me and for C), but I resisted and just bought a couple of small gifts.

The rest of the day was spent wrapping C's gifts, and baking peppermint bark chocolate chip cookies. I've never actually baked anything from scratch before, but it was amazingly simple. I baked one sheet of cookies to make sure they came out well, and froze the rest of the dough. I'm going to bake the rest next weekend and give them as stocking stuffers for my fellow innkeepers at our holiday party next Sunday.

C is coming over tonight for dinner and to eat some of my test cookies, and we're going to enjoy some wine and watch Christmas Vacation. We're treating ourselves to pizza, too. We haven't gone out to eat in weeks and neither of us feels particularly like cooking tonight, especially me since I've been baking all day and have a sink full of dishes to wash before C gets here.

The cost of social outings

2008-12-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my office holiday party. Yes, we have our holiday party mid-week in the afternoon; it was pretty boring, but the half day was nice. :)

After the party, a bunch of us went to a couple of bars in the area. I didn't really want to spend money, but I went along anyway. I did end up buying one beer, but after I realized that a draft beer was $7, I decided to wait until the next bar to get a second drink. Hard to believe, but when we arrived at the second bar, it was even more expensive than the first! Martinis and the like were around $15, and beer was $9. I quickly decided to just go home, because there is no way I can justify spending like that.

In the large group of co-workers I was with, I know that only a couple make slightly more than I do, and the rest make about the same as me or less. Yet, they all felt it was perfectly normal to go out and spend this kind of money on drinks. In fact, I know some of them do it regularly. They've invited me to go out with them after work several times, but I always turn down the invitations. I like my co-workers, but I just can't understand their mindset at all. These are the same women who are constantly sporting stylish new clothes, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it troubles me that most of the people I know in my age range spend money like this as a matter of course.

Eww, cap sleeves

2008-12-09T04:19:00.000-08:00

I purchased this dress from the Gap's new "European Collection" on sale. I tried it on and it fit like a glove, which is pretty much unheard of for me. Even the length was perfect (I'm 5'2" -- length is never perfect). But when I looked in the mirror...cap sleeves. I can't see what the point of cap sleeves is, unless you are blessed with perfectly toned (but not muscular) arms. Alas, I am not. Nor is the model in the picture, actually, but her airbrushed toothpick arms hide the fact that the sleeves are capped. I think I'm going to have to return the dress, which is a shame since it fits so well.

Do cap sleeves look good on anyone???

Freelancing again

2008-12-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

In the past couple of months, I had come to conclusion that my freelance fact-checking gig, which I've had since the summer of 2005, had come to an end. It's been a few months since I've gotten any assignments, and I'd heard word that the magazine was cutting back, with fact-checkers among the first to go (they were still fact-checking their articles, of course, but they were getting in-house editors to do it instead of outsourcing to freelancers). I was saddened to hear this, since I enjoy the work as well as the money -- the magazine is bi-monthly, and I usually make around $200 per issue (which I immediately deposit into my savings, of course).

I've looked around for other freelance opportunities with no luck, which is to be expected in the economic situation we're in here. But, today I received an email from my contact at the magazine asking me to check a short piece by Friday. It'll probably only take a couple of hours, but I'm hoping things are picking up and she'll continue to send me stories over the next few months. It would be nice to have the extra money coming in, especially at this time of year when budgeting seems futile.

Job Security: Unknown

2008-12-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, we received an email from corporate letting us know that due to the global economic crisis, the company would be taking some drastic measures. They're freezing hiring through at least the first half of 2009, and only the lowliest underpaid staff will be given a raise this year (this includes me, of course). Although they claim layoffs aren't imminent, I can't help but be worried that I'm going to lose my job. There have been massive layoffs at other publishing companies all week, and those laid off usually fall under the editorial umbrella (like my job). This seems ridiculous to me, since editorial is essential in getting books made. I don't know how the company can operate with fewer people and still make quality products. We're already getting by with fewer people than we probably need.

My division of the company is very profitable, even now, so I probably shouldn't be as worried as I am. But I can't help it; I'm a worrier by nature, and I have no idea what I would do if I did get laid off. Publishing as an industry is shrinking, and with a degree in communications media, my opportunities for employment are rapidly disappearing. What do you do when your degree becomes obsolete?

Revisiting November Goals

2008-12-05T11:47:00.001-08:00

I wasn't able to save as much money in November as I would have liked. I had to shell out $265 for new glasses (which I deducted from my emergency fund contributions), and I began Christmas shopping, so contributions to the fun fund have also been cut back. On the plus side, I calculated that I'm paying off my Federal Loan at a rate of 3% per month right now; if I keep this up, I can have this loan paid off completely in little more than two years, possibly less since my interest rate will be cut by a point next December due to my consistent payment.

Other goals:
*Open a ShareBuilder account. I signed up for a ShareBuilder account and got the $50 bonus from ING this week. I will be contributing $30/month to purchasing individual stocks that pay dividends and make sense to buy and hold. I'm certainly not going to be doing any selling any time soon. I think this will be fun, since the money I'm investing is pretty minimal.

*Enroll in company stock purchase plan. I enrolled last week. Beginning in January, I'll be contributing $20/month to company stock.

*Start buying Christmas gifts early. So far, I have finished shopping for my brother, both parents, and most of C's gift. I started on my godmother's gift, and I think the rest should be relatively painless.

*Top Chef night! Ongoing. This week I made a butternut squash and sweet potato soup that turned out AMAZING, but took almost three hours to make (that includes the time I spent dealing with the finger I almost chopped off and mopping up the soup that spilled when my blender decided to fall apart midway through the pureeing process). If you want to try it, you can get the recipe here.

*Keep up the workout routine. I did it! I've worked really hard to stay in shape this year, and it's paid off. At a doctor's visit last month, I learned that I lost seven pounds in the past year...! I wasn't trying to lose weight (and I really can't afford to lose anymore), just to get in better shape, and I really think I have. As long as I can keep this up all winter, I will be ready for beaching it up in Fort Myers in March. :)

Men at Work

2008-11-24T10:01:00.001-08:00

I discovered, upon arriving at the subway stop I get off to go to work, that the power is out for a few city blocks surrounding my office. My office building was completely shut down due to the outage, so we were all sent home. It's nice to have a day off, but irritating that I couldn't have been notified prior to trekking out to the office.

It's not a good day for an impromptu day off because the inn's owner and his brother were supposed to be working on my heat today. They're going to install a thermostat so that I can control the temperature for my apartment and the guest room above my apartment (which also suffers from lack of heat). Unfortunately, the owner's brother is not very professional when he does work in my apartment. I once came home to find my apartment completely trashed because he had been working on replacing my heating pipes; like, he had actually spilled my cat's litterbox all over the floor. Gross. I really appreciate his willingness to work on the apartment and get this done, but it's frustrating to have to clean up for hours after he leaves. Hopefully, with the owner here, he'll be more cautious. I put some dropcloths down in hopes that it will minimize the damage.

I've just been informed that they're now going to come over after 5, which is really annoying and inconvenient. Since I'm home it's not so bad, but I would've been really pissed to show up at my apartment after work, ready to make dinner, only to find these two clowns working in my apartment. I know it probably sounds like I'm a whining, ungrateful brat, since I don't even pay rent. I definitely am grateful. I'm also a highly routine-oriented person, and having people working my apartment seriously disturbs my routine and throws me completely off kilter. Here's hoping they get this done quickly, with minimal mess.

Edit: They never showed up, so I put off exercising/showering/eating dinner for nothing. Bah.

Blowing Through My Budget

2008-11-21T04:33:00.001-08:00

I'm totally failing to follow my budget this month. I've already gone over on my dining ($50) and entertainment (drinking at bars, movie rentals, etc. -- $30) budgets. Even my grocery budget ($150) seems impossible this month. And these are *budgeted* items; I made an $84 purchase online the other day at the Gap and Old Navy; yesterday I went to the eye doctor for the first time since college, and wound up paying $250 for the exam and new glasses/lenses.

My spending isn't out of control, but I'm having a hard time sticking to the limits I set for myself, which is frustrating. I usually go out to eat once a week with C, and we either split it or take turns paying. This usually winds up being $50 or less per month, but we've been to a few places that are a bit more pricey this month. And we're planning to go to a tapas restaurant this weekend! It won't break the bank (we have a $10 gift card, so it will come to less than $25 total, tip included), and C may pay anyway, but still, this needs to stop. After this weekend I'm telling C we have to limit our dining out majorly in December. We have Christmas gifts to buy, after all.

Wanted: Heat!

2008-11-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

My heat sort of worked for a few days, then it was unseasonably warm for a couple of weeks, and now it's November for real and my heat isn't working at all. The inn's owner says he's coming to work on it with his brother -- next Monday. WTF. It's between 30 and 42 degrees here for the rest of the week! Why couldn't they get on this LAST WEEK like they told me they would?! Nights are OK, because I have an electric blanket to heat my bed and keep me warm. Mornings, on the other hand, are terrible. It's freezing, and getting out of bed (not to mention getting dressed) is extremely difficult and painful.

This is the crappy thing about living rent-free. I can complain every single day, but I have no power in this situation at all. I'm pretty much at their mercy, which sucks. If things get really bad, I can crash in one of the vacant rooms at the inn. This is free, but I do need to leave the housekeepers a tip for cleaning the room, which can get expensive if it's something I have to do constantly. We'll see what Monday brings.

Earning My Keep

2008-11-10T18:48:00.001-08:00

It happened again. In fact, it's been happening so often lately that I slept through it last night. Twice.

Emergency calls had been steadily kicking my ass for much of October, and now they've crossed over into November. A majority of these calls aren't actually emergencies (or for that matter, guests of the inn). I get hookers calling looking for rooms at 2am, taxi drivers trying to find out who called a cab (hint: if it's 5am, I've been asleep all night, not working, so...no idea!), and people who are just generally clueless and need a little extra hand-holding. This type of call is generally ends pretty quickly, and I'm usually able to fall asleep again within 10 minutes or so. However, the calls of people screaming about temperature issues (annoying, but a relatively quick fix), inability to use their room phones/wireless internet (not actually an emergency), or needing an extra bed (ABSOLUTE WORST) take much longer to recover from. Usually it's a half hour or more before I can fall asleep, and when you factor in the time it takes to tend to these matters, I'm losing valuable hours of sleep per week.

I keep telling myself it's worth it to live rent free, and I know logically that it is. But when I fell asleep at 7:30pm last Friday, I realized that my body isn't aware of this arrangement. Poor thing.

November Goals

2008-11-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

My savings, loan payment, and retirement goals are going to be consistent through the end of the year, so I won't update those. Here are some general goals I have for November, financial and otherwise:

*Open a ShareBuilder account. On ING, there's a deal that if you open an account through their link, you'll get a $50 bonus as long as you deposit some money in there by the end of the year. I've been considering this for a while now, and I can't think of a better time buy stocks. I've been contributing $50 a month to a money market fund for the past 11 months, and I'll stop doing that in January, so I'm going to put $25 aside for this, and $25 for company stock purchasing (see below) each month.

*Enroll in company stock purchase plan. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but it's not currently an open enrollment period. I'll just put $25 per month in here.

*Start buying Christmas gifts early. Before I do this, though, I need to compile a list of what I'm planning to buy and figure out what my budget is. My main problem is that I have a handful of difficult people to buy gifts for every year, and I have a really hard time coming up with gift ideas for them. Ugh.

*Top Chef night! My boyfriend (C) and I have a fun Wednesday night wherein we cook a fun semi-elaborate (for us) dinner, and then watch Top Chef. The new season starts next week, so this tradition is coming back. Yay!

*Keep up the workout routine. I did a good job with this last month, but I've been slacking over the past week for various reasons. I need to just do this.

October Goals Revisited

2008-11-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

Let's see how well I met my goals for October...

Savings goals
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000
I met both of these goals, and ended up opening two new CDs for the downpayment fund. I figured ING would cut their CD rates shortly after the Fed cut the interest rate, so I opened a 12-month CD at 4.25% a few days ago, in addition to the six-month CD I opened earlier in the month.

Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan, Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan
I did meet these goals, though I accidentally overpaid my Perkins loan. I thought I'd changed my automatic payment to the minimum (about $65), but it was still set at $75. I changed that, so everything should be good to go from now on.

Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.
I kept up with my contributions, which has worked out pretty well for me since prices keep dropping. I haven't stopped looking at my Google portfolio completely, but I'm definitely not checking it every day. I usually just look at it when the market goes up, now, which is much better.

Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes!
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.
I did well with both of these. I did buy one sweater (for $15 at Old Navy, though), but that was it. Unfortunately, some of the crazy clothes spending from the previous month is showing up on this month's GapCard bill, which is lame since I thought I'd already paid all of that off. Oh well. I've been dining out less, keeping under my $50 budget.

Personal goals
*read at least three books this month.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible.
*start weight training again.
*make one new thing for dinner each week.
I accomplished all of these goals, except for the last one. I am planning to start up on that this month, though! I'm starting with a recipe for cabbage soup I found online. I did try a different version of cabbage soup last year which was pretty good, but this one sounds amazing.

I'll post my goals for November this week. I hope I can keep up with them as well as I did this month!

Haircut update

2008-10-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to getting a haircut yesterday. It wound up costing $53, tip included. I think that's pretty good, considering my last haircut was December '07. It's nice and short and I love it. When I weighed myself post-haircut, i had dropped a whole pound. Imagine how nice it feels to have one pound less dragging your head down every day. ;P

Last week

2008-10-21T04:14:00.001-07:00

Things have been crazy lately. Part of living here rent-free is being on-call, should any guest emergency arise overnight that requires innkeeper intervention. Last week, I had a streak of five or six days straight in which I received emergency calls. I normally get fewer calls than that per month! A couple of them were just people arriving late who didn't know what to do, which didn't require any action on my part, but I also had a lockout or two, plus a couple of temperature complaints (our central heating/cooling system is ridiculous). I feel like I've really earned my rent-free status. ;P

It's been quiet so far this week, and I'm hoping it stays that way. I'm exhausted!

Podcasting the Economic Crisis

2008-10-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Marketplace on NPR every day for the past year. It's a great podcast, but I just can't take the depressing updates on the market every day right now. I've unsubscribed from the podcast for now, and Planet Money has replaced the show in my podcast rotation.

If you've heard one or both of the This American Life shows that dealt with the economic crisis, you'll be familiar with the Planet Money guys (they were behind those programs as well). They bring the same pragmatic clarity to their discussions of the insanity that we're facing right now as they did on TAL. Listening to people explain what the hell is going on in a way I can understand is really reassuring, even though the news is so scary right now.

If you haven't already heard the original TAL programs, you can find them here:

355: The Giant Pool of Money
365: Another Frightening Show about the Economy

Desperately in need of a haircut

2008-10-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

I realized today that the last time I had a professional haircut was early December of last year. For the most part, I cut my own hair.

I do a pretty awesome job, I might add -- I once gave myself an adorable Amelie -esque bob with a pair of manicure scissors; since then, I've acquired professional haircutting scissors, which do the job rather nicely when it comes to trims or cutting my bangs every few weeks.

Cutting my own hair is only very slightly due to economic reasons; mostly, I can't find a hairdresser who isn't scared to cut hair above the shoulders. I've also never found one who actually knows how to cut bangs properly, which is rather disheartening. I guess you get what you pay for, but I live in a big expensive city and quality haircuts don't come cheap. Whenever I see a co-worker with a cute new haircut, I ask (ever so hopefully) where they get their hair cut. Unfortunately, I soon learned that none of these ladies seem to be living within their means, and there's no way I'm shelling out that kind of money for something as stupid as a haircut. On the other hand, I cringe every time I catch a glimpse of my sad, lifeless hair in the mirror. What's a girl to do?

Hard times

2008-10-09T16:06:00.001-07:00

I really need to reiterate how lucky I am to not have to pay rent. I can't even imagine what my mental state would be if I had that extra ~$1,000 a month on top of all of my student loan payments *and* watch my retirement portfolio dwindles down to nothing. It's so depressing and infuriating to be an American right now. I thought learning as much as I could about the financial meltdown would make me feel better, that I could combat my fears with information. But, I have to say, it's only made me more worried. I feel like we're falling into a black hole, screaming and flailing our bodies in vain, with no bottom in sight. :\

October Goals

2008-10-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Savings goals
*Deposit $1,000 from paychecks
- $425 goes to emergency fund
- $425 goes to downpayment fund
- $150 goes to my "fun fund" (a savings account that I use for things like travel, gifts, etc.)
*Open a new CD for the downpayment fund in the amount of $2,000

Loan payment goals
*Pay minimum on Perkins loan (to be added to the sidebar shortly), Sallie Mae Private loan
*Pay $850 on SM Federal Loan

Retirement goals
*contribute $153 per week to Roth 2008 IRA until the end of the year.
*stop looking at google portfolio! it's just depressing, at this point.

Spending goals
*Stop buying clothes! with the exception of a possible outlet shopping trip with mom sometime in the near future, I am not buying any more clothes. I've been doing way too much end-of-season online shopping. Scoring amazing deals, yes, but I really shouldn't be buying clothes. The only other exception is if I find the perfect pair of boots, which I've been waiting over a year to buy, or if there are excellent sales on sweaters, since my winter wardrobe is sorely lacking.
*Keep dining out to a minimum. I've gone over budget on this for the last two months.

Personal goals
*read at least three books this month. i think i only finished one last month, which is quite lame.
*visit boyfriend's new apartment. he moved in over a month ago and I've only been there once. we mostly hang out at my place, since he has three roommates and i have zero, but still.
*continue walking to/from work as much as possible. it will soon be too cold (and god forbid, snowy) to do this, so i need to get my walks in while i still can. I'm really going to miss this in the winter, particularly when my face is pressed against the glass doors on the train every morning.
*start weight training again. i used to do this a couple of times each week, but I've gotten increasingly lazy since i moved.
*make one new thing for dinner each week. i usually succeed at this particular goal, but I've been really tired lately so i haven't been as creative with food as I'd like.

AUGH

2008-09-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Google Portfolio has not yet calculated my losses for the day.

I don't want to look. :\

Strategizing the last $2,000 for my 2008 Roth IRA

2008-09-26T17:22:00.001-07:00

Yikes.

Earlier this year, I put $3,000 into a Vanguard index fund in my Roth IRA, leaving me with $2,000 to invest for 2008. Unfortunately, though Vanguard is otherwise awesome, its $3,000 minimums to invest in new funds conflict with the $5k limit Roths currently have.

Last year was my first year investing in a Roth. The 2007 max was $4,000, so I put $3k into an index fund, and the rest into the truly awful Vanguard STAR fund, which has a $1,000 minimum. I figured that after a year, I could move that money into a new fund with the remainder of my 2008 investment, so that I'd have money in three different index funds. But, since the economy/market decided to tank within weeks of my 2007 investment, I'm well under $1,000 and therefore don't have enough to open a new fund.

Today I decided to stop putting this off and to just suck it up, so through the end of the year I'll be weekly auto-investing the remaining $2,000 into the two funds I'm already in. I'm sure things will get worse, and I'll lose money some (or most) weeks, but it can't hurt to try to balance out my cost basis a bit. I figure that buying in weekly can only help me. And I'm certainly following the conventional wisdom to buy low, that's for sure. ;P

My favourite PF guru

2008-09-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

Right before I graduated from college, I had to attend a mandatory student loan exit interview regarding all of the debt I'd accumulated from the federal government and my soon-to-be close personal friend Sallie Mae. I received a noticed about this in the mail, and assumed that the phrase "exit interview" meant that I'd have the opportunity to sit down and speak with a loan counseler to discuss my repayment options. Instead, I showed up to a room overflowing with students listening to someone in the front of the large room drone on about interest rates and grace periods. I received a packet with all of my loan information, which both confused and terrified me, and we were all quickly ushered out after about 15 minutes so that the next group of students could have their "interviews". The exit interview had consisted of my picking up the packet and giving my home address so that my debtors would be able to easily track me down six months later. I never had the option of speaking to a loan counseler.

I tried to talk to my parents about repaying my loans, but this was new territory; neither of them had graduated from college. I'd never been in debt before, though it wasn't unfamiliar to me. My dad got into major credit card debt when I was a kid, and from the age of 9, I was constantly fielding calls from creditors. I really hated it, but I definitely learned from dad's mistakes and I'm responsible with money. I'd always been adept at saving, and I had a decent amount of money saved when I graduated from college, but I had no idea how I was going to handle student loans on top of paying rent, etc.

I turned to Amazon.com, where I came across Suze Orman's book, The Money Guide for the Young, Broke, and Fabulous. Though Suze's persona can grate at times, her advice is solid. After reading her book, I devised a plan for saving, opened and maxed out my Roth IRA for two years running, and generally got myself in gear. Though her advice is pretty basic, her recent article on the Freakonomics blog brought up an important issue I've been giving some serious consideration lately:
"Here’s what you need to think about as a first-time buyer: What you can afford in rent today is not the size of a mortgage you can afford. So for example, if you pay $1,500 in rent, do not think you can afford a $1,500 mortgage payment.

This is where so many first-timers get into trouble. What they don’t anticipate is that in addition to the basic mortgage, there is home insurance, property tax, and all the joys of home maintenance to pay for when you own a home.

So my basic rule of thumb is to add 30 percent to the basic mortgage amount to get a sense of your true housing costs. For example, if you use a basic mortgage calculator, it will tell you that a $250,000 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.3 percent will run you about $1,550 a month.

But here’s where you should add in the 30 percent. That brings the cost to about $2,015. If you can handle that $2,015 payment, then a $250,000 mortgage is fine. But if you can only afford the $1,550 payment, the better move is to look for a less expensive home that will require a smaller mortgage."

I know a lot of people get on her case about being overly conservative with her financial advice, but this is exactly the type of advice I find most effective. As you can see in my sidebar, I'm trying to save up for a downpayment. I'm hoping to save much more than 25k, but I'm realistic. I know I don't make much, and I have lots of student loan debt to crawl through before my dream of home ownership can become realistic. My plan has been to try to put a sizeable amount down so that my mortgage payments are a couple hundred dollars less per month than my rent is, leaving the extra money to pay for the associated expenses of homeownership. I like that Suze explains this strategy in her straightforward way, making it seem logical. Like most of her advice, it should be.

Big spender

2008-09-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Parting with my money has always been difficult for me. Whenever I make a big purchase (usually when I buy something like plane tickets once or twice a year) it just hurts. I immediately feel guilty, and mentally go over my budget again and again to reassure myself that yes, I can afford it.

Before I moved in, I had planned and budgeted for the purchase of both a bed and a dresser. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been sleeping on a klick-klack sofa since I graduated from college two years ago, mostly to conserve space in the small apartments I've lived in. The dresser I had in my last apartment was purchased from some dude on craigslist for $50 a year and a half prior, and was falling apart. I had about $1,000 budgeted for this; I wanted a nice matress/bed that would last for a long time, and can you blame me after I'd been sleeping on a glorified pull-out-sofa for almost two years?!

Well, when the previous tenant moved out, she left her bed and dresser behind for me. She'd bought the bed last December, so it was less than a year old, and the dresser was a relic from her grandmother's basement that she didn't want back. That means that I had $1,000 left on the table. Normally I'd throw that at my loans, or put some in savings, but there was one thing that I'd been wanting for a long time: a new computer.

My old computer, a Toshiba laptop that I purchased in January 2005, had died around January of this year. Well, it still works, technically, but the screen is too dark to make out much of anything. Sometime soon I'd like to hook it up to an external monitor so I can snag all my photos and stuff off there. Anyway, not only did I want a new computer, but I kind of needed one, too. One of my jobs is being a freelance fact-checker, and I've had to take shorter stories that I could do over my lunch breaks at work, which means that less was money coming in from that channel.

I had my sights set on a MacBook, for various reasons. One being that I knew it wouldn't die of spyware complications within a year, as Windows machines have a tendency to do. After much research, I went with the low end model and upgraded the memory, bringing up to speed with the higher end MacBook for $100 less. I also got a "free" printer (after rebate). The whole thing wound up costing about $1,100. It's a lot of money, and paying the credit card bill was definitely painful. But, it was the only big ticket item I plan to purchase this year. And I could afford it.

The Cost of Moving

2008-09-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Even without having to throw down first/last/security, moving was one of the most stressful and expensive things I've done this year. Let's break it down.

First/last/security: $0
I didn't have to give anything to get into my place, other than my word that I'd stay here until the end of August 2009. Done!

Administrative costs: $150
I had to pay $150 administrative fee to my former landlord in order to get out of my lease. She said this was to cover the legal cost of having to draw up a lease for the new tenant. Kind of annoying, but keep in mind that I was able to get someone to rent my apartment for September 1 within less than a week of breaking my lease, so I wasn't liable for any rent costs while the apartment was vacant.

Cleaning costs: $80 + $20 tip = $100
My landlord requires each apartment to be professionally cleaned between tenants. She couldn't get her usual cleaning crew in there since August is the busiest month for people moving in/out of the building, so it became my responsibility. I asked one of the housekeepers at the inn to clean it, and she agreed to do it for $80.

Broker costs $470
By involving a broker in the renting of my old place, I had to agree to pay half the fee. I could've tried posting the apartment on craigslist and renting it myself, but my landlord was incredibly picky about who lived in the building and wanted to approve whoever I found. Since I didn't have the resources to do a background check and credit check on someone (which she, of course, does), I'd be at her mercy with this, and she was pissed that I was breaking my lease and not inclined to be helpful. I didn't want to hold things up and wind up having to pay rent for September (and possibly beyond) just because I hate to spend money. It hurt to shell out nearly $500 bucks for this, but the peace of mind was definitely worth.

Moving vehicle: $0
I didn't have to rent a moving van -- I was lucky enough to be able to use the inn's "company car" (an old Passat with a huge trunk from the owner's former business that now resides behind one of our inns), and my parents and boyfriend came to help. Between my parents' car and the inn's car, we were able to get everything here (just down the street, remember) in a handful of trips. The only thing that didn't fit in the cars was the klick-klack sofa frame, which my dad and boyfriend carried the three blocks down the street. In order to conserve space in the small apartments I've been living in, I've been sleeping on a klick-klack sofa for the past two and a half years. My back is super excited to finally have a real bed.

Painting costs: $90
Before I moved in, I decided to do something I'd never been able to do do in any apartment I'd ever lived in: paint. The living room was a steely shade of blue and the bathroom was a creamy baby blue; though I didn't love either of these colors, neither particularly offended me. The bedroom, however, was a mustard color that I simply couldn't live with. I decided to paint it taupe and get green apple bedding and accents for the room. The primer, paint, and painting supplies were pretty expensive, which definitely put the kibosh on any further painting endeavors, but I'm glad I did the bedroom, at least.

Decorating costs: $160
I lucked out and inherited an amazing bed, an antique dresser, love seat, and kitchen table and chairs from the girl who previously lived here. I really didn't have to buy any furniture, which was great, because I'd been planning to buy a bed and dresser when I moved in. This left a lot of money on the table, which I wound up using to buy a big ticket item I'd wanted for a long time (more on that in another post).

I did have to buy new bedding, bathmats, and some other little things. I was able to get a good break on the duvet cover from Crate & Barrel by purchasing it during tax-free weekend and using a $25 gift card I got for my birthday last year, bringing the cost from $110 down to $75. I purchased the bath mats at Kohls for $17, and the sheet set from Marshall's for $40. Along with some other little things, it wound up being less than $200. I plan to make a trip to Ikea sometime in the near future to buy some much needed curtains, throw pillows, and another set of sheets. I'm budgeting about $100 for that trip.

Total costs of moving: $970
This is a little more than what one month's rent would have cost at my old place, about the equivalent of having to pay a security deposit. At the end of this month, I'll get my security deposit back from my old landlord, almost breaking even.

How I got here

2008-09-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

When I graduated college in 2006, I took roughly $75,000 in student loans with me. My starting salary at my first job out of college -- just $31,000 -- was less than half that. I lived in a small studio apartment with living expenses around $1,000 per month. Even with my small salary, I felt comfortable about my finances, and I was able to save a decent amount each month. In addition to my full-time job, I had an ongoing freelancing gig I'd been doing for a year or so that brought in a couple of hundred dollars every other month.

In November 2006, things changed: my student loan payments kicked in. The interest rates were all over the place, and my combined monthly payments were over $1,000. In an effort to exert some minor measure of control over the dozen or so bills that were coming in every month at wildly different interest rates, I consolidated most of my loans, bringing my monthly payments down to about $575. I made the payments on time every month and still had a little leftover to put in savings, but I definitely felt squeezed.

A few months passed, and I got a better job in publishing, my field of choice. Had I accepted the $27,000 starting salary offered, I would've taken a $4,000 pay cut, which I just couldn't afford. Despite being told that the starting salary was non-negotiable, I got them to agree to pay me what I had been making at my previous job. Around the same time, I moved into a larger studio that increased my living expenses by about $100 a month. I panicked and started applying for part-time jobs, and wound up landing a job as an innkeeper at a bed & breakfast just down the street from my new apartment. I worked only one shift per week, and after a probationary period, I was making $12 an hour plus monthly bonuses (between $100 - $150) based on sales, bringing in an additional $400 a month, on average.

This February, at my annual review for the full-time job, I was given a promotion and a 5% raise (the company rarely offers more than 3%, pathetically enough). I also received a performance-based bonus of $4,500 a month later. Meanwhile, my innkeeping hourly rate went up to $13 at the time of my one year anniversary. I was still freelancing, too, though not as much since my computer died around Christmas and I couldn't bring myself to buy a new one.

Throughout all of this, I was doing my best to save at least $300 per month, though I frequently put away $500 or $700 when I could, or more, in the case of the aforementioned bonuses. I was aggressively paying down my student loans. I was also investing in a Roth IRA, and putting money into my 401k at work.

Things went on this way for a while. I worked no less than 6 days every week, doing everything I could to pull in extra cash, and saving as much as I could after making my gargantuan student loan payments every month. I worked really hard, and made a dent of about $5,000 on the principle of my student loans within the first year of paying them. I was financially stable, but I didn't *feel* stable at all; I worried about money all the time, and felt guilty any time I went out to eat with my boyfriend, or bought something for myself (which hardly ever happened).

I'm incredibly lucky.

Last month, one of my fellow innkeepers abruptly quit to move out to California, freeing up the one-bedroom apartment attached to the inn. This apartment is given to the innkeeper who agrees to take all the emergency calls that come in after hours. In exchange for being the on-call emergency contact, this person is given the apartment, along with all electricity, gas, cable, and internet costs waived. Though my lease wasn't up until May, I could not pass up this amazing opportunity. I quickly enlisted the help of a broker, rented out my apartment within days, and moved into the inn. I even inherited several pieces of furniture (including a less than one-year old pillowtop mattress) from the girl who lived here before me.

My expenses have decreased dramatically -- I'm now able to save over $1,000 a month in addition to the large payments I apply to my student loans. At this rate, my loans will be paid off within the next 7 years. I'm also putting money away for a downpayment, as I hope to purchase a condo or home within the next couple of years while prices are still low.

Living rent free is great, but it's not without its challenges. With an extra $1,100 in my pocket every month, it's really tempting to spend. People in my life who know about my arrangement pressure me to go out to eat or to go shopping all the time, and frankly, it's hard to say no. When I do make these purchases, I don't feel a lot of the guilt I used to, which scares me. Being able to breathe easier shouldn't mean spending more -- just because I can now afford more doesn't mean I *need* more, afterall. I did just fine for the two and a half years before I moved in here, buying clothes and going out to eat sparingly. I want to hold myself accountable to my goals and financial aspirations while I'm living here. My goal is to live well below my means for the next year and save as much as I can so that I'll never have to pay rent again.