End of September Update

Another month gone! Progress, progress, progress (mostly.)

It was a reasonably successful month; I'm ending it about where I'd hoped I would be in terms of spending, but I didn't get there quite in the way I expected to. Also, the markets took a tumble towards the end of the month, which is kind of depressing in terms of my net worth numbers, but I don't have any control over that, so not much to do but shrug and keep on keepin' on.

Here's my expected/actual budget numbers for the month:

Some notes:
1. The food budget there is ridiculous. What happened: my roommate and I bought a share in a meat CSA, for $140 each. We get five months' worth of local, ethically raised meat (chicken, beef, and pork.) It's a little expensive, but she wanted to do it and I thought I could afford it. So there was that. But then I also went overboard on buying coffees and snacks this month; in October, one of my goals is to meal-plan better so that I have afternoon snacks to bring with me to work rather than caving and buying stuff at work.

2. But that was mitigated by the fact that two major expenses I was expecting to materialize, didn't. I'd been saving up for a big utility bill (I need to pay the entire summer's electric bill) and it turns out I didn't need to -- I had $200 budgeted for it and only needed $80. Then, I had $90 in the budget because I was expecting to need to pay a final phone bill on my old plan, and maybe also pay for the first month on my new plan. But it turned out that I was paying ahead on my phone plan (who knew?), and I won't have to pay for the new one til next month. So, great.

3. I moved most of the savings from #2 into "slush" where it ended up covering even more food (see above), entertainment, and charity expenses.

4. Medical: That's the dentist's bill for a cavity I had filled, plus a couple of co-pays for doctor's visits and prescriptions.

5. Travel: I took a weekend trip to Chicago at the end of the month. I was able to cover some expenses out of slush, but didn't have quite enough, so I'm withdrawing a little from my travel account to cover the rest.

6. I also almost had to blow both my travel and e-funds right at the end of the month even though I've only just gotten them started! My closest friend had a family emergency that I nearly flew out for, but that ended up not happening. And I dropped my ipad and cracked the glass, making it unusable. However, I have a small freelance check coming in early next month that will cover the ipad repair, so even though I'd rather be putting that money in my IRA, I guess it's good that I don't have slow down my credit card repayment.

Like I said, the markets dropped a bunch -- I lost pretty close to $200 in my retirement accounts, which kept me much further from my net worth target than I wanted to be. But c'est la vie. I still made decent progress, and barring a total October-1929-style event, I should be on track to hit $10K in net worth in November, and to pay off the last of my credit card debt in December.

How'd y'all do in September?

Blogiversary

I'm at six months today!

Here is my first post, and here is my second, which I'm still pretty pleased with. The metaphor seems apt.

A couple of weeks after I started, I made a guest post on Girl Meets Debt, one of the first PF blogs I found. That was when the first people who weren't me read the blog :) Maybe I'll celebrate six months by finally getting a twitter account and trying to raise my profile slightly? But I really am grateful for everyone who has been reading and keeping me on track. It is way more fun to think about this out loud with an audience!

I've made a lot of financial progress since I started the blog. My retirement account has grown and my debt has dropped. I've gone from negative net worth to a number that is steadily climbing towards 5 digits, even with my various small missteps (still too many coffee purchases) and murphy-ish events (I need a new car battery.) But more than just the progress by the numbers, I feel like I've gotten a much greater sense of control and planning out of this, and that's been really important to me.

So, thanks again, everyone who is reading this, and also thanks to everyone who blogs themselves -- you all make me feel like I've got companions on the journey.

FFFFollowup #3

This is going to be kind of a weird week/end of the month -- I'm doing a little traveling, and a bunch of transactions are processing their way through the system so my end of the month update will probably be a bit late as I wait for everything to go through so I can get a more realistic picture. However! For now:

A couple more FFF questions:

The Intentional Penny wanted to know "how did it feel to knock out that student loan debt?"

Short answer: Really, really, really good. :) Longer answer: It was a big relief. I've been talking all along about my unstable job situation; it's year to year for the moment, and while I'm now pretty confident that I'll be able to keep doing that as long as I need to, it was something that initially really scared me. It took me until right before I graduated to land my first post-grad school job, and for a while there it was looking like I wouldn't get one at all (let alone one that ended up paying me as much as that one did.) So, I was facing unemployment with $19K in loans, which was not a good feeling at all. 

Paying them off fast became a really high priority for me because of that. Now, no matter what happens with my career, at least I'm not going to be also in debt. It makes situations like an extended period of un or under employment more feasible, because I can go to my break-the-glass emergency plan (move in with parents) and just have to deal with a few small immediate expenses, like my car insurance. So mostly what being out of debt provides is a much better sense of security. It rocks.

Debt Debs (orchestrator of the whole thing! Thanks!) wanted to know "Why did you move to the MidWest? What do you like about it there and what do you not like?"

I moved for a job, but I'd spent some time in this particular city before. What I like: it's wayyyyy cheaper than the big coastal cities where I've lived before. It's also quieter. Even Chicago feels much more chill, less crowded, less loud and overwhelming, than New York -- let alone the much smaller city where I actually live. As I get a little older I get more low-key, so that suits me! I also like the strong sense of regional identity and cohesiveness; people here want to support their communities in various ways, buying local food, going to see local artists, etc. What I don't like -- well, the persistent and generally unacknowledged racism bothers me. There's a bit of a superiority complex (but God knows the coastal cities have that too! I guess all places are a little smug about how awesome they are.) THE WINTER WEATHER. And finally, my closest friends and family are all far away, some on the east coast and some on the west. I do have a good support system and group of friends here -- they're just not my absolute closest. So that's something that's bothersome. But basically I do like it here.

Wednesday Food Post + FFFFollowup #2

Conveniently, Huy Tran wanted to know, "Where/how did you learn how to cook? Are your parents good cooks or was it more of something you learned on your own?"

Kind of a combination. My parents are both decent cooks, although I recently realized that my mom doesn't like it or really care that much. She likes to eat, but she'd much rather have someone else cook, whether that's me, my dad, a restaurant, or a frozen dinner. Anyway, they always made dinner from scratch when I was growing up; not many convenience foods, although they mostly did use frozen instead of fresh vegetables.

I still mostly taught myself, though, out of cookbooks. I've picked up a few techniques from my parents, but I don't cook like them at all. They tend to be "meat, vegetable, starch" people, for a variety of reasons, whereas I don't eat much meat and I like one-pot meals that hold up well to multiple meals over the course of a week. So my cooking style has developed and evolved in conversation with cookbooks and blogs more than with my family.

I did a lot better on the shopping front last weekend, which is good because I'm trying to conserve a little cash to get me through the last weekend of the month before my budget resets. Here's what I bought:

Grocery store:
Farro -- $5.09
Marinated artichoke hearts -- $2.09
Chocolate bar -- $2.89
Butternut squash -- $2.18
Garlic -- $.39
Red onion -- $.73
Yellow onions -- $.43
3 lbs apples -- $2.99
Red pepper -- $.34
Milk -- $1.59
Feta cheese -- $1.54

Grocery store total with tax: $20.20

Farmer's market:
Yukon gold potato: $1.50
Plums: $4.00

Total shopping: $25.70

Using these along with pre-existing pantry items (eggs, pumpkin seeds, and stuff like flour and sugar) I made:

--Butternut squash, farro, and feta salad with pepitas to take to work for lunch (4 servings)
--A potato, red pepper, and artichoke tortilla to take to work for breakfast (4 servings)
--and an olive oil plum cake for snacks and desserts.

As you might be able to tell, I use Smitten Kitchen a LOT. I find that her tastes and style vibes with mine pretty well. The squash/farro salad is in the regular rotation for my take-to-work lunches, and I've made the tortilla before too. It's a fair amount of work/dishes the way that I made it (sauteing a red pepper rather than using one from a jar, and having to boil a potato just for this rather than using a leftover) but I'm trying to have breakfasts that have more protein and oomph in them, because I've been getting hungry too early in the day lately.

The plum cake, I can't really recommend. It's edible, but it's just not that great; the plums taste slightly medicinal and the cake itself is a little stiff and dry.

I have several dinners I have to go to for work this week, so I just decided to have cheese sandwiches and apples for dinner the other nights, which since I already had bread and cheese decomplicated that part of the shopping trip.

Frugal Fincon Followup #1

Whew, that turned out to be an unexpectedly crazy weekend (in a good way -- I was just verrrrrrrry busy with my social life.) But I'm looking forward to making a few posts over the next couple of weeks that answer the questions y'all asked!

First off, Femme Frugality wanted to know where I worked as a historian. Which, actually, I can't say :) Not that my cloak of anonymity is that dense or anything, but I want to stay a little less google-able than I would be if I mentioned my employer or exact field within history. Let's just say that I currently work at a large and very recognizable midwestern university. Like a lot of other young academics, I'm currently caught up in the de-permanentization of university teaching jobs; my particular field has been especially hard hit by the financial crisis. (Of the six people I know in my subfield that have left their jobs in the last few years, none have been replaced. It looked like there was going to be an opening this year...and then the dean of that university decided they couldn't justify a new hire after all because of X reasons and.... Well.) So, for the moment, I'm going on one-year contracts. Pretty soon I'll either get a permanent job in my field (not that likely!) or give up and look for something related to do. What might that be? Well, I have some ideas, but I'm not totally sure. :) It's one reason why I want to focus on various kinds of savings right now -- a retirement fund so that it can grow even if I can't contribute for a while, and an emergency fund that I could draw on for some expenses if I need some transitional months.

Oooof, that was a depressing answer. I work...but maybe not for long. However, I'm trying to stay fairly cheerful about it, recognizing that I have strong skills and a decent network of contacts; I'll never be rich, but I think I'll probably manage all right no matter what.

Following up on that question, Brooke & Genevieve from PFTwins wanted to know why I wanted to get a PhD and whether I thought it was worth it. The first part of that is relatively easy to answer -- I knew I was really good at scholarship, better than I was at anything else. And I thought I'd be good at teaching. I chose my particular field because of personal interest, but the general idea of going into academia came first. Whether it was worth it...no, probably not. Don't get me wrong, I really like what I do, and I am indeed good at it. But 7-8 years for a combined master's and PhD is just too much time to spend being miserably underpaid and with so much uncertainty at the end of it. That was hard for me to recognize in my early 20s when I decided to go; I was interested in serving humanity, you know? And I still am. But I also feel that 25-year-olds are ill-equipped to understand what it will really mean, to try to change fields in their mid-30s. When I was 25, I'd already had jobs in about four separate professional fields (this isn't counting stuff like babysitting and retail.) Switching often seemed normal. It gets a lot harder to do that later on, and I really just don't think someone in their early-mid 20s can understand that in their bones. So: I'm really proud of the dissertation I wrote (that hopefully will be a book in the next couple of years) and of the classes I've taught, the students I've helped, and I guess it was worth it in that sense, but in the sense of being a stepping stone to an actual career, nah. Should've opened a fancy coffeeshop and served homemade pastries instead :)

Frugal Fincon Fiesta: Ask Me Anything! + Versatile Blogger Award

...ok, wait a minute, let's have a little more fun with this...

That's better :) I am a last-minute participant in Debt Debs' blog-hop (why last minute? Because I do everything last-minute, including starting to work on financial health. I guess that is one fact about me) for people not going to FinCon.

It sounded like fun! And also a good chance to respond to Alicia's gracious nomination of me for a Versatile Blogger Award, which requires me to tell y'all 7 totally random things about myself. So let's celebrate good times, and here we go.

Seven Random Things About Me

1) I was the best double-dutch jumper in my entire preschool, but then we didn't play in kindergarten or first grade, and by the time girls got back into it in second grade, I'd totally lost the knack. My rhythm is better now than it was when I was a kid and I sometimes wonder if I could do it again now.

2) I took an LSAT practice test my junior year of college for fun, because it was offered free by the school. I got a nearly perfect score, but I wasn't interested in practicing law then so I didn't take it seriously. Now, though, if it didn't mean another 4-year delay on starting a career plus $$ for tuition, I'd probably jump at going to law school, because as a historian I've grown fascinated by the impact the legal system has on our everyday lives.

3) I have a younger brother who I adore. We spend a lot of time talking about Marx and racism and also cooking elaborate and delicious meals. At least we used to cook together before we both moved out of NY. He's the main thing I miss about living there.

4) I have a really clear visual memory of the passbook for my first savings account, which my parents helped me open at the local bank when I was in elementary school. It was super hard to take money out of it because you had to walk to the bank and get a parent's approval to do anything, so I did build up a little bit there, a few hundred dollars, I guess, over time. At some point in high school I got a checking account with the same bank, though, and that made it much easier to access my money (and spend it alllllllll, which I did.)

5) I can parallel-park a 14-foot truck.

6) I own 5 sizes of tart pans (those flat, fluted pans with the removable bottoms.)

7) I don't wear makeup. I've always thought it made me look really fake -- possibly because I've never learned how to apply it properly -- plus I'd rather spend the money on expensive food, so there's that :-) I used to sometimes wear mascara and eyeliner, but I even quit that by my mid-20s.

Want to know anything else about me? Please ask! And visit all the other blogs participating:

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday food post

I didn't do as well last weekend on the food-spending front. It was shaping up to be another tight month as I recovered from the two big expenses (books and new phone) that blew up August's budget, but then I realized that I had $90 set aside for an expense that was not going to materialize after all and transferred $80 of that into my cash budget...and relaxed a little too much, really. For some reason I was just starving all week; I ended up spending too much on going out for coffee/treats in the middle of the afternoon because of it. I don't know what was up with that, but hopefully this week will go better. [I scheduled this post for Weds but am writing it on Sunday.]

Groceries for this week:

Farmer's market:
$3.00 -- pretzel (put this down under "could not eat enough all week, I don't know")
$1.50 -- donuts (gift for my roommate)
$4.00 -- nectarines
$2.00 -- brussel sprouts
$3.00 -- spices (whole coriander and cumin seeds; ground pepper)
$2.50 -- jar of tomato sauce

Total: $16

Grocery store:
$2.69 tater tots -- see, I told you I was weirdly hungry all week. I ended up buying these to have for dinner on Friday night (I know.)
$2.39 milk
$1.55 rice
$6.23 sweet potatoes
$3.42 broccoli
$3.50 ice cream -- another "I caved to a weeklong craving" item
$0.33 ginger
$6.99 olive oil
$3.19 1 lb butter

Total grocery store (with tax) $30.29

Total food shopping: $46.29 (or about $6 over budget, with the extra coming from my "general spending money")

This isn't really good. I impulse-bought about $10 of treats, which if I'd stuck to just eating what I had at home, would have meant I was $4 or $5 under budget. Annoying. And none of this even counts the coffee and muffins and whatever that I paid for out of my general spending money this week either.

Food plan for the week:
--I made a tomato sauce with ground beef from the meat CSA my roommate and I joined, the jar of tomato sauce I bought, and carrots I had left over from last week. I'll eat that with pasta for lunch all week.
--For dinner, I'm going to have Miso sweet potato broccoli rice bowls
--I also made a nectarine coffee cake for breakfast/dessert. Next week I'll have to pick up some steel-cut oats since the weather here seems to have turned and it's about time to start making oatmeal for breakfast again.