So, my first batch of yogurt is yogurting as we speak. As I type. I've been talking about doing this for about....3 months now? Well, here we are...it's 9 pm...and I have to wait 4 hours for it to finish. I'm an idiot. I suppose I could go to sleep and set an alarm...but that's probably not going to happen. I'm a little too excited about it, honestly. I have two dead bananas to blend up with some honey to finish it off, it's gonna be awesome. I haven't crunched the numbers to see if this is actually cheaper than buying, but I suspect it is. Especially since I can just use half of the half-gallon milk I usually get for my cereal. I need to check the price of the yogurt I buy just to make sure, though.
I also went to the grocery tonight and stocked up. Not sure how it's going to go, but I'm going to try to do a meal plan for my dinners from thursday to next tuesday. I think you're supposed to do that before you go shopping, but I'll just do it the other way around this time. I picked up a bunch of dry legumes (lentils, yellow peas, green beas, and lima beans), some rice, some veggies, and breakfast/lunch supplies. There should be enough to get through a week (and more).
As far as more hard money matters go, I started looking into retirement accounts on a whim today, and discovered there might be one that I can open up and start funding really soon. I'm really surprised and excited by the prospect. From what I've heard from both Suze and some blogs, it's a good idea to start with one of the bigger investment houses, because they do a lot of the work for you. I've looked at Ameritrade before (I'm a sucker for sam waterston), and today I checked out T. Rowe Price. I'm glad I did, it seems I was harboring some false assumptions about how much money you have to have to start your retirement savings.
As it turns out, that number is $0.00! I think I'm going to be able to open up my Roth IRA at T. Rowe Price next month! With their Automatic Asset Builder Service there's no minimum balance to open if you sign up for automatic debits of at least $50 a month. And there aren't any management fees. I really can't believe I can start investing with so little. Now that my emergency fund is a little settled, I feel really comfortable getting started with this. I'll start putting $50 a month into that fund, and about $70 a month to my short term savings.
Really, I couldn't imagine when I started this thing I'd be contributing to my retirement within a year. I guess I'm not such a screw up, after all.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
toddling along and bitching about food
I've been on auto-pilot a little bit the last week. I don't think I'm overspending, but honestly I sort of stopped paying attention. I'm back on the "next week I'll figure it out" cycle, and I need to kick it. I have to get back on a good schedule of grocery shopping and cooking. If there's one thing that kills my budget every damn week it's eating out.
I read recently on get rich slowly about the lost art of meal planning. It makes so much sense to prepare ahead of time and have things on hand when you want to cook them, but it really seems like a joke even thinking about it. A generation ago I would have probably been married and bought a house by now, and even if I had a job I definitely would be home every night cooking and getting the laundry done. It's no wonder meal planning is a lost art; I don't even know where I'm going to be every night until I'm there. And cooking for 1 is such an enemy of frugality. Buying in bulk saves money, but I ate lentil soup for 5 straight meals last week (excluding breakfast) and wanted to throw the rest all over the windows. And if anybody out there wants me to make a few things and freeze them, listen up: I have 4 roommates. I can barely get an ice tray in there. I'm similarly limited in refrigerator space. Produce goes bad because I'm the only one eating it (this has been a problem for 9 years now), which makes keeping meat out of my cooking that much harder. This is all in addition to the fact that I'm not a very good cook and I don't even enjoy doing it by myself.
I don't think there's an easy answer to this, or I wouldn't still be struggling after all these months and years. But I'm going to try not to get discouraged. No matter how silly it seems, I think I'll at least research making meal plans. Maybe there's a good way to adapt it to my unpredictable lifestyle. I've never actually stocked a pantry with staples, so that might be in order, as well.
In other news, I'm posting from my computer at home! So that's an improvement.
I read recently on get rich slowly about the lost art of meal planning. It makes so much sense to prepare ahead of time and have things on hand when you want to cook them, but it really seems like a joke even thinking about it. A generation ago I would have probably been married and bought a house by now, and even if I had a job I definitely would be home every night cooking and getting the laundry done. It's no wonder meal planning is a lost art; I don't even know where I'm going to be every night until I'm there. And cooking for 1 is such an enemy of frugality. Buying in bulk saves money, but I ate lentil soup for 5 straight meals last week (excluding breakfast) and wanted to throw the rest all over the windows. And if anybody out there wants me to make a few things and freeze them, listen up: I have 4 roommates. I can barely get an ice tray in there. I'm similarly limited in refrigerator space. Produce goes bad because I'm the only one eating it (this has been a problem for 9 years now), which makes keeping meat out of my cooking that much harder. This is all in addition to the fact that I'm not a very good cook and I don't even enjoy doing it by myself.
I don't think there's an easy answer to this, or I wouldn't still be struggling after all these months and years. But I'm going to try not to get discouraged. No matter how silly it seems, I think I'll at least research making meal plans. Maybe there's a good way to adapt it to my unpredictable lifestyle. I've never actually stocked a pantry with staples, so that might be in order, as well.
In other news, I'm posting from my computer at home! So that's an improvement.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Phail
Yeah....I suck at challenges, apparently. Having nice italian dinners (two nights in a row!) just turned out to be more important to me. So I went over by $40 (which went promptly onto the discover card).
Eesh.
But every paycheck is a new chance to succeed in my goals, so I'll be thankful for that.
What I did succeed in was my very first personalized financial plan for a friend! Thanks, Buddy! Not that I'm any sort of proper source for actual financial advice, but it was nice to be able to point somebody I care about in the right direction. And really at this stage in our lives, the first few steps are always the same: savings, debt reduction, controlling expenses. Not rocket science, but surprisingly hard to figure out at the beginning. And in the middle.
Eesh.
But every paycheck is a new chance to succeed in my goals, so I'll be thankful for that.
What I did succeed in was my very first personalized financial plan for a friend! Thanks, Buddy! Not that I'm any sort of proper source for actual financial advice, but it was nice to be able to point somebody I care about in the right direction. And really at this stage in our lives, the first few steps are always the same: savings, debt reduction, controlling expenses. Not rocket science, but surprisingly hard to figure out at the beginning. And in the middle.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
A Challenge
2 posts in one day?! wha?!!!
Okay...here's a challenge to myself. It's really gonna test my frugal abilities.
After buying lunch today, I have $99 to get me through next Tuesday (I get paid at midnight). This includes a trip to new york from Saturday morning until Sunday night.
Can I do it? hm...maybe. I'm letting myself cheat for the $30 bus tickets. Those will go on my credit card and paid off with my check next week. Tonight I'll be grocery shopping, and I sense a lot of beans and rice in my future. Funny...that's all I ate for lunch last week, too.
Okay...here's a challenge to myself. It's really gonna test my frugal abilities.
After buying lunch today, I have $99 to get me through next Tuesday (I get paid at midnight). This includes a trip to new york from Saturday morning until Sunday night.
Can I do it? hm...maybe. I'm letting myself cheat for the $30 bus tickets. Those will go on my credit card and paid off with my check next week. Tonight I'll be grocery shopping, and I sense a lot of beans and rice in my future. Funny...that's all I ate for lunch last week, too.
BAM!
Emergency account up to $1000! I've now officially met my first savings goal.
Fixing my laptop tonight...more and better updates to follow!
Fixing my laptop tonight...more and better updates to follow!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
I've neglected my blog!
and, a little bit, my finances. but not completely.
I went a little insane last week. I spent almost my whole weekly allowance (which, if you're curious, is about $115) on one day. Almost immediately after getting paid, actually. My transgressions?
1) There was a sale at the gap. Three shirts for $30! Great deal, right? And not a huge deal as long as I keep things in order the rest of the week.
2) Well I did not keep things in order the rest of the week. Instead, I went to Henrietta's Table on a whim for dinner, and stupidly said "my treat!" The final tab...$60. Well worth every dollar. Probably worth even more dollars. It was the best meal either one of us has ever had (barring something I have forgotten eating in Italy). But would have made sense in a different week. As something planned ahead of time and not just with caution thrown to the wind on a high from payday.
So, Eesh, right? But it's okay. I kept things really tight the rest of the week (with some help from the treat-ee) and only had to break my rules a tiny bit. By that I mean I dipped into my "bills" account for some necessities yesterday and I'm promising all of you I'm going to put it back when I get paid tomorrow.
And the best thing about all of this is that all my careful cushioning is paying off. I fucked up a little bit, but it didn't endanger me at all. I just didn't have anymore mad money for a few days. So what?
Looking to the future: power bills are way low again (but I'm gonna keep putting a larger amount away to prepare for winter), and my cell phone bill will probably go down by about 38% thanks to a brilliant idea on the part of my sister-in-law. Tip: if you aren't on a family plan, get on one. More money for savings.
How are all of your financial lives? Is summer hitting you up for cash? I know my head is chock full of vacation plans that are competing for my every dollar....
I went a little insane last week. I spent almost my whole weekly allowance (which, if you're curious, is about $115) on one day. Almost immediately after getting paid, actually. My transgressions?
1) There was a sale at the gap. Three shirts for $30! Great deal, right? And not a huge deal as long as I keep things in order the rest of the week.
2) Well I did not keep things in order the rest of the week. Instead, I went to Henrietta's Table on a whim for dinner, and stupidly said "my treat!" The final tab...$60. Well worth every dollar. Probably worth even more dollars. It was the best meal either one of us has ever had (barring something I have forgotten eating in Italy). But would have made sense in a different week. As something planned ahead of time and not just with caution thrown to the wind on a high from payday.
So, Eesh, right? But it's okay. I kept things really tight the rest of the week (with some help from the treat-ee) and only had to break my rules a tiny bit. By that I mean I dipped into my "bills" account for some necessities yesterday and I'm promising all of you I'm going to put it back when I get paid tomorrow.
And the best thing about all of this is that all my careful cushioning is paying off. I fucked up a little bit, but it didn't endanger me at all. I just didn't have anymore mad money for a few days. So what?
Looking to the future: power bills are way low again (but I'm gonna keep putting a larger amount away to prepare for winter), and my cell phone bill will probably go down by about 38% thanks to a brilliant idea on the part of my sister-in-law. Tip: if you aren't on a family plan, get on one. More money for savings.
How are all of your financial lives? Is summer hitting you up for cash? I know my head is chock full of vacation plans that are competing for my every dollar....
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