So much for staying absolutely on budget this month -- I bought a new phone ($180) which is going to have to be amortized over several months (the much cheaper phone plan I'll be on will help.)
But I did have some good minor wins this week in my nemesis category, "food." First of all, I raided my spare change jar to help pay for a dry cleaning pickup, so I have $31 to spend this weekend on groceries instead of the $27 I thought I did :) Second, even though I had a friend come unexpectedly for dinner last night, I did not freak out and spend lots on groceries. Luckily, I had a lot in my pantry that I could use to assemble a very cheap, but pretty elegant dinner.
I already had:
--good quality cornmeal
--eggs
--feta cheese
--garlic
--balsamic vinegar
--salt
--butter
--half a bottle of white wine that we opened the other night and was still good
So I bought mushrooms ($1 for 8 oz, on sale, woo) and a shallot ($.50). I fried those up, then made polenta from the cornmeal, salt, and butter, then assembled the dish: polenta, drizzle of balsamic, mushrooms and shallot, a bit of feta crumbled on, then a fried egg on top of the whole thing for each of us. And a glass of wine. Then we went over to someone else's house for dessert. And while I was at the grocery store getting the mushrooms and shallot, I did NOT give into the urge to buy ice cream, which is a win on many levels.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
9 percent of six months of...wait, what?
Looking at mint.com this morning because I was transferring money around between accounts, I was thinking that maybe my finances have gotten a little...baroque. It's not like I'm Goldman Sachs before the crash, moving money around like one of those guys on the street with the three cups and the shell, but still. At the moment I have:
*3 checking accounts. One is my "main" one, one is the Santander one I'm using for direct deposit so I can make $20 a month from them (!still not over that), and one is the capitalone360 account that I used to use as my "ATM" account and now basically use as a container to hold money once a month. Why, you ask? Because in order to remain no-fee, I still need to have $500 direct-deposited into my main account. But my paychecks are now going to the $20-a-month one. The hack for this -- I know, I know -- is to transfer my first paycheck to capitalone, then "push" the money to my main checking account, where it apparently looks to them as if it were a direct deposit. This is eye-rollingly complicated, but it's working, and, again, it's making me $20 a month at the cost of about 5 minutes of pressing buttons, so I'm going to keep on with it.
*Then I also have a Santander savings account and three capitalone360 savings accounts: emergency fund, travel fund, and the account where I hold onto the extra money I'm accumulating for my Roth IRA. Every time that one reaches $250 I buy more Roth shares, and in the meantime it earns a tiny bit of interest.
So that would be seven bank accounts. Nutty. And most transactions take time to clear, so on any given day, I feel like what's showing up in mint.com is inaccurate; it's always missing pending charges on a credit card, or temporarily "losing" money while it's between banks, or whatever. Because it's just me handling all this, I'm usually aware of what's "wrong" with the dashboard display, but wow.
Anyway, my first "September" paycheck just cleared its way through the system, so I moved September's e-fund contribution into that account right away because it might as well start earning interest now instead of sitting in checking until September 1. This puts me at 9% of my $6000 goal. Why $6000, you ask? Because that represents about six months of real emergency, bare-bones expenses. That's a job-loss scenario in which I move in with my parents and pay no rent, but do continue to pay for my car costs, food, health insurance of some kind I guess, and other incidentals. So $6000 might actually get me through more than six months, but it seems like a reasonable start. Somewhat ironically, the most likely time for me to be out of work is actually next summer, by which time I won't have that amount saved up; if I make it through next summer employed, I'm likely past the danger point, career-wise. But whatever, I can only do what I can do.
Do your e-funds assume "bare bones" or "normal" expenses?
*3 checking accounts. One is my "main" one, one is the Santander one I'm using for direct deposit so I can make $20 a month from them (!still not over that), and one is the capitalone360 account that I used to use as my "ATM" account and now basically use as a container to hold money once a month. Why, you ask? Because in order to remain no-fee, I still need to have $500 direct-deposited into my main account. But my paychecks are now going to the $20-a-month one. The hack for this -- I know, I know -- is to transfer my first paycheck to capitalone, then "push" the money to my main checking account, where it apparently looks to them as if it were a direct deposit. This is eye-rollingly complicated, but it's working, and, again, it's making me $20 a month at the cost of about 5 minutes of pressing buttons, so I'm going to keep on with it.
*Then I also have a Santander savings account and three capitalone360 savings accounts: emergency fund, travel fund, and the account where I hold onto the extra money I'm accumulating for my Roth IRA. Every time that one reaches $250 I buy more Roth shares, and in the meantime it earns a tiny bit of interest.
So that would be seven bank accounts. Nutty. And most transactions take time to clear, so on any given day, I feel like what's showing up in mint.com is inaccurate; it's always missing pending charges on a credit card, or temporarily "losing" money while it's between banks, or whatever. Because it's just me handling all this, I'm usually aware of what's "wrong" with the dashboard display, but wow.
Anyway, my first "September" paycheck just cleared its way through the system, so I moved September's e-fund contribution into that account right away because it might as well start earning interest now instead of sitting in checking until September 1. This puts me at 9% of my $6000 goal. Why $6000, you ask? Because that represents about six months of real emergency, bare-bones expenses. That's a job-loss scenario in which I move in with my parents and pay no rent, but do continue to pay for my car costs, food, health insurance of some kind I guess, and other incidentals. So $6000 might actually get me through more than six months, but it seems like a reasonable start. Somewhat ironically, the most likely time for me to be out of work is actually next summer, by which time I won't have that amount saved up; if I make it through next summer employed, I'm likely past the danger point, career-wise. But whatever, I can only do what I can do.
Do your e-funds assume "bare bones" or "normal" expenses?
Sunday, August 17, 2014
kryptonite
It's been a busy week, hence the blog silence. I did get paid (woo! favorite two days of the month) but I've also determined that my two big downfalls are travel and food. NEWS FLASH. Everyone's two big downfalls are travel and food!
Anyway, right now I am, just barely, on track to make my budget for August, but I just had an expensive out of town weekend and making my goal is going to require several things going really right in the next two weeks.
1) I need to not buy gas. (Tight, but probably doable; I have an almost full tank now and I think I can make it last.)
2) Getting my car registered and my new driver's license needs to be cheap. (I am having trouble reading the website, so I'm not really sure how much it will cost.)
3) I need to have a very cheap grocery run next weekend.
4) I need to not get the bills for my recent dentist and therapist visits until September (I bet this will work out, since insurance seems to take forever to process this stuff.)
So, there's some "wing and a prayer" stuff in there, but hopefully....
What did I do that was so expensive in Chicago? Well, it wasn't really that expensive. I spent $30 on transit to/from the city (train) and $15 on a transit card that I'll still have the next time I go (I only needed two rides on the El.) Then $25 on dinner (Ethiopian and delicious) and $30 on two picnic lunches and one picnic dinner. And $70 on a year-long membership to the Art Institute. I realized that if I even went three times during the year, the math would work out (a one-day pass is $23!!!!) and in fact, over the weekend I went twice, so now I only have to go one more time in the next year. I think I can manage that. So, none of this was uber-extravagant. But it added up. Then I came home and went grocery shopping and bought...cheese. Oh, cheese. If someone could show me how to abstain from cheese forever.... I was out of honey, too, so I had to buy a whole thing of that and it's expensive. Anyway, I had a $42 grocery bill (this should get me through the whole week, and in the case of the honey through at least three months) which I paid in cash. But I now have $27 in cash which is supposed to get me through another week's grocery trip plus any small random stuff (postage, coffee) that comes up. Plus I have $74 in "slush" to use on the car stuff. Ooof, it feels tight for two more weeks of August!
I guess on the plus side, I really have been ratcheting back the grocery shopping, overall. There have been a number of occasions in the last month where I've not bought something that, if I weren't watching my money, I definitely would have. Last week's groceries were under $30! Doing this is genuinely cutting down on the number of random extras I throw in the cart. Today I only bought one thing (that cheese) that wasn't on the list; I wish I knew for sure, but I'd bet that I usually average more like 5 unplanned purchases.
Anyway, right now I am, just barely, on track to make my budget for August, but I just had an expensive out of town weekend and making my goal is going to require several things going really right in the next two weeks.
1) I need to not buy gas. (Tight, but probably doable; I have an almost full tank now and I think I can make it last.)
2) Getting my car registered and my new driver's license needs to be cheap. (I am having trouble reading the website, so I'm not really sure how much it will cost.)
3) I need to have a very cheap grocery run next weekend.
4) I need to not get the bills for my recent dentist and therapist visits until September (I bet this will work out, since insurance seems to take forever to process this stuff.)
So, there's some "wing and a prayer" stuff in there, but hopefully....
What did I do that was so expensive in Chicago? Well, it wasn't really that expensive. I spent $30 on transit to/from the city (train) and $15 on a transit card that I'll still have the next time I go (I only needed two rides on the El.) Then $25 on dinner (Ethiopian and delicious) and $30 on two picnic lunches and one picnic dinner. And $70 on a year-long membership to the Art Institute. I realized that if I even went three times during the year, the math would work out (a one-day pass is $23!!!!) and in fact, over the weekend I went twice, so now I only have to go one more time in the next year. I think I can manage that. So, none of this was uber-extravagant. But it added up. Then I came home and went grocery shopping and bought...cheese. Oh, cheese. If someone could show me how to abstain from cheese forever.... I was out of honey, too, so I had to buy a whole thing of that and it's expensive. Anyway, I had a $42 grocery bill (this should get me through the whole week, and in the case of the honey through at least three months) which I paid in cash. But I now have $27 in cash which is supposed to get me through another week's grocery trip plus any small random stuff (postage, coffee) that comes up. Plus I have $74 in "slush" to use on the car stuff. Ooof, it feels tight for two more weeks of August!
I guess on the plus side, I really have been ratcheting back the grocery shopping, overall. There have been a number of occasions in the last month where I've not bought something that, if I weren't watching my money, I definitely would have. Last week's groceries were under $30! Doing this is genuinely cutting down on the number of random extras I throw in the cart. Today I only bought one thing (that cheese) that wasn't on the list; I wish I knew for sure, but I'd bet that I usually average more like 5 unplanned purchases.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Generic budgeting
I'm not really sure how much good this will do me, as every month is different, but now that I finally know how much income I'll have every month, I figured it was worth doing some generalized thinking about how I should be dealing with it.
After taxes, health insurance, and $1000 a month deducted directly into my 401(k), my take-home pay per month will be (drum roll) $2147 and change.
Fixed Costs -- the things that aren't really adjustable.
$300--rent and most utilities (I know! living with a friend in a very cheap city is certainly a worthwhile financial decision)
$50--electric bill sinking fund (this is the only utility that's variable, because there's electric heat in the winter, so I'm setting aside $50 a month in the hope that I can draw on the excess during the winter)
$55--cell phone (at least for now; I am hoping to get onto a friend's family plan and reduce this greatly)
$55--car insurance
Total: $460
Semi-fixed costs -- the things that I could theoretically adjust a little, but these are fairly bare-bones numbers already so it would be hard to go lower
$50--gas and tolls
$250--food
Total: $300
Everything Else--that leaves $1387 to allocate.
$250--emergency fund (until I get it up to $6000, which at this rate will be years)
$450--credit card debt (until it's gone)
$50--cash for random spending (dry cleaning, postage, coffee, whatever)
$150--personal care/medical
$200--travel fund
$287--"slush"
This budget assumes I'm saving 31% of my gross pay (I'm only counting the retirement and e-fund there) which isn't an awesome rate, but also isn't as bad as it could be. Once I'm out of debt, I'll have another $450 a month to play with, and while I could theoretically save the whole thing, what I'll probably actually do is put half of that, $225, into a housing/car fund, and put the other half into slush. Slush is covering a lot here -- gifts, clothing, minor car repairs, professional fees I can't get reimbursed for, whatever. I'd like to feel less pinched in what I spend on things like that, even if it means I take longer to meet other goals.
What do y'all think?
After taxes, health insurance, and $1000 a month deducted directly into my 401(k), my take-home pay per month will be (drum roll) $2147 and change.
Fixed Costs -- the things that aren't really adjustable.
$300--rent and most utilities (I know! living with a friend in a very cheap city is certainly a worthwhile financial decision)
$50--electric bill sinking fund (this is the only utility that's variable, because there's electric heat in the winter, so I'm setting aside $50 a month in the hope that I can draw on the excess during the winter)
$55--cell phone (at least for now; I am hoping to get onto a friend's family plan and reduce this greatly)
$55--car insurance
Total: $460
Semi-fixed costs -- the things that I could theoretically adjust a little, but these are fairly bare-bones numbers already so it would be hard to go lower
$50--gas and tolls
$250--food
Total: $300
Everything Else--that leaves $1387 to allocate.
$250--emergency fund (until I get it up to $6000, which at this rate will be years)
$450--credit card debt (until it's gone)
$50--cash for random spending (dry cleaning, postage, coffee, whatever)
$150--personal care/medical
$200--travel fund
$287--"slush"
This budget assumes I'm saving 31% of my gross pay (I'm only counting the retirement and e-fund there) which isn't an awesome rate, but also isn't as bad as it could be. Once I'm out of debt, I'll have another $450 a month to play with, and while I could theoretically save the whole thing, what I'll probably actually do is put half of that, $225, into a housing/car fund, and put the other half into slush. Slush is covering a lot here -- gifts, clothing, minor car repairs, professional fees I can't get reimbursed for, whatever. I'd like to feel less pinched in what I spend on things like that, even if it means I take longer to meet other goals.
What do y'all think?
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
ups and downs -- mostly downs; also thinking about resource allocation
Not, more or less, my mood, but definitely my IRA. It's done nothing but slide for a week, wiping out many of the gains it had made.
And I feel...ok about it! I mean, not as great as I've felt when it's gone up $30 in a day (remember, my account is really small) but ok. I have reasonable confidence that over the course of the next 30 years, things will sort themselves out and I won't end up actually losing money, even if I don't make 25% back or whatever.
This seems like a good thing. No panic!
*
In other news, I'm kicking around August goals. August is a short month for me because I'm taking several weekend trips; I'm setting a goal of $350 in side hustle income (last month I did $485, just $15 shy of my $500 goal) of which I've already made $70, as of twenty minutes ago. Hopefully it turns out to be doable even with the travel. It would sure help if I sold one or two of the books I have listed on amazon right now....
Anyway, I'm wondering if I should apply that side hustle money to my credit card debt instead of my IRA. I think I shouldn't -- I think I should stick to the plan of putting the side hustle money where I can't randomly spend it -- but it's tempting. I'd be out of debt a month or two earlier than I otherwise would be and it would free up so much cash flow from my real-job income.
I'm reminding myself, though, that I shouldn't steal from the future just to fund my somewhat irresponsible recent past :) Also, that last $2100 of CC debt is on a 0% card, so it's not costing me anything in interest to go the slow and steady route. I feel itchy about it though!
And I feel...ok about it! I mean, not as great as I've felt when it's gone up $30 in a day (remember, my account is really small) but ok. I have reasonable confidence that over the course of the next 30 years, things will sort themselves out and I won't end up actually losing money, even if I don't make 25% back or whatever.
This seems like a good thing. No panic!
*
In other news, I'm kicking around August goals. August is a short month for me because I'm taking several weekend trips; I'm setting a goal of $350 in side hustle income (last month I did $485, just $15 shy of my $500 goal) of which I've already made $70, as of twenty minutes ago. Hopefully it turns out to be doable even with the travel. It would sure help if I sold one or two of the books I have listed on amazon right now....
Anyway, I'm wondering if I should apply that side hustle money to my credit card debt instead of my IRA. I think I shouldn't -- I think I should stick to the plan of putting the side hustle money where I can't randomly spend it -- but it's tempting. I'd be out of debt a month or two earlier than I otherwise would be and it would free up so much cash flow from my real-job income.
I'm reminding myself, though, that I shouldn't steal from the future just to fund my somewhat irresponsible recent past :) Also, that last $2100 of CC debt is on a 0% card, so it's not costing me anything in interest to go the slow and steady route. I feel itchy about it though!
Monday, August 4, 2014
End of July update
I'm not quite back from my trip yet, but I have an unexpected free hour plus internet connection tonight, so blog update time it is. I'm looking forward to my monthly trip around the internet to see everyone else's end of the month summaries too :)
July was an ok month, neither awesome nor terrible. It started with having to throw out several days' worth of food after a power outage and ended with an out of town trip (always expensive) and a big dinner party. It also included some paycheck weirdness as I waited for paperwork to go through at my new employer. But through most of the month I tried fairly hard to stick to the plan, and the end results aren't too awful, although they also aren't as good as they could have been with the usual "just a LITTLE more discipline."
Food: I totally blew my food budget, coming in at $400 for the month when I'd budgeted $250. I reallocated $50 to cover the emergency at the beginning of the month, and then the extra $100 went on that dinner party plus some food bought while traveling. Sigh.
Rent and utilities and whatnot: $555
Gas, tolls, car insurance: $134
Travel: $458 (plane ticket for my brother's wedding. Not really optional travel.)
Gifts, charity, and entertainment: $105
As the regular reader will recall, I decided not to put anything towards debt or savings in July (except for retirement contributions) so I could start 'living on last month's income' in August. So, my credit card debt is actually going *up* (because I couldn't pay for the entire plane ticket out of this month's travel budget, especially given how badly I did on the food front) and my EF number isn't budging either. Another thing that makes July more of a holding pattern month than anything else.
There is good news on the retirement fund front, though. I put another $500 in side hustle income into my Roth IRA, and also had the first $500 deducted from my paycheck into a 403(b). So that feels like a nice solid contribution in that direction. The total of my retirement accounts is over $4000 now; it seems like it ought to be more given how hard I've focused in that direction lately but it's a start!
Totals for July:
Debt:
-$2159.17, a change of -$301 from the end of June
Net worth:
$4261, a change of +$1863 from the end of June
July was an ok month, neither awesome nor terrible. It started with having to throw out several days' worth of food after a power outage and ended with an out of town trip (always expensive) and a big dinner party. It also included some paycheck weirdness as I waited for paperwork to go through at my new employer. But through most of the month I tried fairly hard to stick to the plan, and the end results aren't too awful, although they also aren't as good as they could have been with the usual "just a LITTLE more discipline."
Food: I totally blew my food budget, coming in at $400 for the month when I'd budgeted $250. I reallocated $50 to cover the emergency at the beginning of the month, and then the extra $100 went on that dinner party plus some food bought while traveling. Sigh.
Rent and utilities and whatnot: $555
Gas, tolls, car insurance: $134
Travel: $458 (plane ticket for my brother's wedding. Not really optional travel.)
Gifts, charity, and entertainment: $105
As the regular reader will recall, I decided not to put anything towards debt or savings in July (except for retirement contributions) so I could start 'living on last month's income' in August. So, my credit card debt is actually going *up* (because I couldn't pay for the entire plane ticket out of this month's travel budget, especially given how badly I did on the food front) and my EF number isn't budging either. Another thing that makes July more of a holding pattern month than anything else.
There is good news on the retirement fund front, though. I put another $500 in side hustle income into my Roth IRA, and also had the first $500 deducted from my paycheck into a 403(b). So that feels like a nice solid contribution in that direction. The total of my retirement accounts is over $4000 now; it seems like it ought to be more given how hard I've focused in that direction lately but it's a start!
Totals for July:
Debt:
-$2159.17, a change of -$301 from the end of June
Net worth:
$4261, a change of +$1863 from the end of June
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Career choices and cold hard cash
[This is a scheduled post, since I'm traveling. I'll give an end-of-July update on August 5 or so, when I'm back.]
I've written before about the way in which being single affects my emotional life; I'm more invested in my godchildren than I suspect most people who have their own biological children are, for example. I also take some of that nurturing instinct out on my students. I don't always "click" with my classes -- I've had some real drags -- but I had one last year that was really special. I got an email from one of the students in that class earlier today that made my week; she told me that something from our class had come up in her everyday life and she'd loved thinking about it and had to tell me.
I wish I could get into detail, but it's not really a good idea to talk on the open internet about specific students, even when you're vaguely semi anonymous like me :)
Anyway, I was just thrilled to get this email. I worry about money constantly because my career choice was so fiscally unwise, and I'm afraid that given my one-low-income status I've wrecked my chances at a comfortable retirement. But the occasional thing like this reminds me that there are in fact other things in life; I don't have kids, but there are hundreds of my former students in the world who've engaged with ideas and people they wouldn't have if they hadn't taken my classes. If I stay in teaching, that number will get into the thousands pretty fast. It's not the worst legacy in the world, even if I don't have a dime to leave behind.
I've written before about the way in which being single affects my emotional life; I'm more invested in my godchildren than I suspect most people who have their own biological children are, for example. I also take some of that nurturing instinct out on my students. I don't always "click" with my classes -- I've had some real drags -- but I had one last year that was really special. I got an email from one of the students in that class earlier today that made my week; she told me that something from our class had come up in her everyday life and she'd loved thinking about it and had to tell me.
I wish I could get into detail, but it's not really a good idea to talk on the open internet about specific students, even when you're vaguely semi anonymous like me :)
Anyway, I was just thrilled to get this email. I worry about money constantly because my career choice was so fiscally unwise, and I'm afraid that given my one-low-income status I've wrecked my chances at a comfortable retirement. But the occasional thing like this reminds me that there are in fact other things in life; I don't have kids, but there are hundreds of my former students in the world who've engaged with ideas and people they wouldn't have if they hadn't taken my classes. If I stay in teaching, that number will get into the thousands pretty fast. It's not the worst legacy in the world, even if I don't have a dime to leave behind.
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