Monday, December 3, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
WBRFS #7
SHOWDOWN!
Budget Ronin vs. the Fist of the Open Future!
"Goodbye Old Friend! Greetings to our Newest Adversary!"
Budget Ronin vs. the Fist of the Open Future!
"Goodbye Old Friend! Greetings to our Newest Adversary!"
That's right. I didn't even start with an apologetic intro. I'm on time today! I have, however, spent a good deal of the day kicking around what I wanted to write about. I mean, here I am on time, but lacking something to complain about.
Thank goodness for the Internet and it's infinite array of diversions. You may be surprised to find that many of the places you go to find out fun and interesting facts are littered with material designed to activate your consumer bloodlust. Yes. I was shocked, too.
I'm usually fairly immune to advertising, but occasionally there will be some sort of product that will be lurking in a clever flash sidebar that will grab my attention enough to make me go and look at some flashy thing that I totally don't even begin to "need" in the way that I need food or clothes or beer. After I see it, however, my brain will get all obsessive and suddenly I'll recognize that this is exactly what the advertisers want.
Sure, sure, you know all of this already. So what does this mean to you, the readers of Budget Ronin?
Um? Give me money so I can buy things? I totally want to consume!!!!
The halfway point in the challenge is now much, much harder, I came to realize today. Couple that with the fact that we are almost done paying off the Budget-Mobile (the penultimate payment clears this afternoon). The Mayday Challenge after the first of the year will actually be not to break the challenge and buy things that we'll actually be able to afford for a change.
I think that it really just "feels" like we'll have more money than we actually will. I've been focusing heavily on the last couple of days to itemize and estimate things on The List. The List is now the new name for all the previous lists. I've even come up with clever acronyms for things. So far we have:
1. WLI: Wish List Items - Things that are "pie in the sky" things that we'd like to have the money to do once in our lifetime, like taking an exotic cruise around the world or hiking the Cotswold Trail.
2. LTI: Long Term Items - Things that will most likely require financing. Not that we're planning to get one, but a new car would be a prime example.
3. STI: Short Term Items - These are things that are outside the scope of impulse buying but don't require financing. These are things that we might have charged to a credit card at one point, but we'd do better at saving cash a month or so in advance to purchase without creating more debt. Fixing the struts in the Budget-Mobile is a fine example of this.
4. OPI: Outstanding Payment Items - The few random collection agency things or doctor's bills that are not much, but we need to catch up on to resolve them on our credit history. These are tricky, because most of them are just annoying, not expensive, so we fall into the trap of letting them ride for another month because we need to buy tortilla shells instead.
So I've got a spreadsheet with all the WLI, LTI, STI, and OPIs I can come up with. Frankly, even if you drop off the Wish List Items, it's a hefty bottom line. It's made me realize that despite the challenges that we have recently beaten, there are always new financial challenges out there. Has anything really changed? Will I fall back into old habits? Will the sudden rush of money cause me to fall back into bad habits?
It's a tough call. I'll confess that despite the excitement or enthusiasm expressed here in my interweb-log, I don't really relish saving reciepts, crunching numbers or making lists. I look for excuses to do it and it doesn't take much to derail me if I let it. I guess that's why I try to be as honest as possible here, because I think a lot of being a fiscally responsible person is being honest and transparent. No, I'm not going to give you all access to my online banking to watch me, but I will try to report not only my successes, but my failures right here.
For example, since our payoff discovery, Budget Naginata and I have already made a new exception to the rule that allows us to order takeout once a month. We started it last month to justify our celebratory dinner and we've let it ride so far because we've both had a bit of extra income from side projects. I'm trying hard to keep this to once a month.
So when I re-read my entries to see how amazing I am, instead of convincing myself that it's a good reward to get something new and shiny, I'll be humbled, if just a little, to remember how this all happened and why I got started on the Challenge in the first place.
Whew. That was a lot.
Better head out now before a cause a market panic in my IP. (Look, real market-type talk!)
B.R.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Holy Carp!
I just fished myself out of the gutter. I've been under a rock trying to get a side-project done, not even realizing that it put me 2 weeks behind for the Showdown. I'm a very bad Ronin. No wonder the feudal lords never made a Samurai of me.
Ok. So... We're past the halfway mark! Woo!!!! A week or so past, you know, when I should have been keeping up with the Showdown, I could have actually posted this little fact when it was timely. Regardless, it's still relevant.
So how are we doing on the downhill slide? Things are not too bad at the Budget-Compound.
Both Budget Naginata and I have some extra money coming in from side projects. Our Budget-Mobile is still on track for being paid off at the beginning of the year. Our credit card debt is now a thing for the history books, at least for the time being and Naginata and I are trying to get things organized for what's coming up next year.
Already we are looking at funding one big home improvement project that will greatly help the resell of the ole' Compound, as well as making the place a bit more energy efficient and comfortable to dwell in. It will cost some money, however, so we're trying to approach it with the mindset of getting as much of the cost front-loaded as possible and have a timely schedule for paying it off.
We also have repairs on the Budget-Mobile to slot and we're looking forward to and actual perhaps vacation this coming summer.
Other updates: The hot-tub still languishes unsold, unused, unwanted in the back. The Budget-Truck could use some nuts and/or bolts to get it back up to 100% and we still have some miscellaneous unpaid debts that would be great to get rid of.
It looks like we've settled on the following percentages for our Budget Buckets right now: 70% household maintenance, 10% Long Term: Savings, 10% Short Term: Projects, 10% Fun (after the Challenge is over, for now, we'll be putting that extra 10% into Long Term). Ultimately I'd like to get our debt for our household expenditures down to 50% and put more in Long Term Savings and add some to a Charity Bucket. There is at least three more persistent things we pay for, two of which we might be able to resolve inside of a year or two. This is pretty critical, especially if we want to take on the extra cost of the home fixup.
I think I'll save more about what we plan to do to the Compound on a later post (perhaps this week's Showdown).
That's all I've got for this quick update.
I just fished myself out of the gutter. I've been under a rock trying to get a side-project done, not even realizing that it put me 2 weeks behind for the Showdown. I'm a very bad Ronin. No wonder the feudal lords never made a Samurai of me.
Ok. So... We're past the halfway mark! Woo!!!! A week or so past, you know, when I should have been keeping up with the Showdown, I could have actually posted this little fact when it was timely. Regardless, it's still relevant.
So how are we doing on the downhill slide? Things are not too bad at the Budget-Compound.
Both Budget Naginata and I have some extra money coming in from side projects. Our Budget-Mobile is still on track for being paid off at the beginning of the year. Our credit card debt is now a thing for the history books, at least for the time being and Naginata and I are trying to get things organized for what's coming up next year.
Already we are looking at funding one big home improvement project that will greatly help the resell of the ole' Compound, as well as making the place a bit more energy efficient and comfortable to dwell in. It will cost some money, however, so we're trying to approach it with the mindset of getting as much of the cost front-loaded as possible and have a timely schedule for paying it off.
We also have repairs on the Budget-Mobile to slot and we're looking forward to and actual perhaps vacation this coming summer.
Other updates: The hot-tub still languishes unsold, unused, unwanted in the back. The Budget-Truck could use some nuts and/or bolts to get it back up to 100% and we still have some miscellaneous unpaid debts that would be great to get rid of.
It looks like we've settled on the following percentages for our Budget Buckets right now: 70% household maintenance, 10% Long Term: Savings, 10% Short Term: Projects, 10% Fun (after the Challenge is over, for now, we'll be putting that extra 10% into Long Term). Ultimately I'd like to get our debt for our household expenditures down to 50% and put more in Long Term Savings and add some to a Charity Bucket. There is at least three more persistent things we pay for, two of which we might be able to resolve inside of a year or two. This is pretty critical, especially if we want to take on the extra cost of the home fixup.
I think I'll save more about what we plan to do to the Compound on a later post (perhaps this week's Showdown).
That's all I've got for this quick update.
Monday, October 29, 2007
WBRFS #6
Well... one week on time is a good start. Last week Budget Naginata was away from the Budget-Compound, so Budget Edamame and I held down the fort by ourselves. I took a couple of days off of work to be with her, including Friday. Pardon my truancy.
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Perplexing Percentages of Peril!
"The alchemy of finance! Don't let your world explode!"
Things I meant to do this weekend:
1. Clean out my inbox.
2. Work up a budget spreadsheet.
3. Talk with Naginata about said spreadsheet.
4. Bake some muffins.
Things I accomplished:
1. Delicious muffins.
I just wanted to post that to demystify the oft-glamorized world of the Budget Ronin. An unproductive weekend, aside, I've been looking at some numbers here at work on my coffee break and think I'm looking at some reasonable percentages. Mind you, I am expecting some fluctuation as we continue to pay off some long term debt, but right now I think we' can say that 70% of the income can cover our obligations and expenses, which leaves us with 10% for short term projects, 10% for long-term investing and 10% for fun. That is the standard we'd like to shoot for. I think starting there and then reducing our obligations by 10% so that we can put that over to charity or redistribute to savings.
I haven't given it a lot of consideration because it looks like we're overspending on our obligations just over 5% or so. Which means we could trim off that amount from fun and still meet our budget. I have identified close to another 20% of our obligations that is long-term debt. I'm not sure we can escalate the payment of this in any easy way and still save a good chunk of money, but I intend to bring it up to Naginata so we can make an informed decision about it together. If we can move it over, we can easily get to 60% income only to obligatory cost and leave 40% open for savings/investment/recreation.
Having 40% of the Clan's income going to exactly where we want it to go makes me very happy. Assuming the car payments go according to schedule, we should be on track for being close to 30% at the top of the year.
I'm trying to think of a good way to organize receipts and expenditures. Maybe buckets or folders that get emptied out once a month. Hmmm. I know there are several online services and several computer programs that would let me track expendatures, but I would really like to make things less complicated, not more. Streamlining is what I'm aiming for.
If we are hitting our percentages, especially our obligatory expenditures and our LT/ST savings, then I'm not so inclined to be nitpicky over the remaining % points. Again, less worried that spent $5 over on any one thing, more worried if we come in 5% over budget per month.
I'm going to try and hammer out something solid with Naginata this week so that this Friday's Showdown isn't another repeat episode.
Enough rambling for now. Let me go look at buckets, baskets or bundles for our new receipt accounting.
This post came in under budget, but over time.
B.R.
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Perplexing Percentages of Peril!
"The alchemy of finance! Don't let your world explode!"
Things I meant to do this weekend:
1. Clean out my inbox.
2. Work up a budget spreadsheet.
3. Talk with Naginata about said spreadsheet.
4. Bake some muffins.
Things I accomplished:
1. Delicious muffins.
I just wanted to post that to demystify the oft-glamorized world of the Budget Ronin. An unproductive weekend, aside, I've been looking at some numbers here at work on my coffee break and think I'm looking at some reasonable percentages. Mind you, I am expecting some fluctuation as we continue to pay off some long term debt, but right now I think we' can say that 70% of the income can cover our obligations and expenses, which leaves us with 10% for short term projects, 10% for long-term investing and 10% for fun. That is the standard we'd like to shoot for. I think starting there and then reducing our obligations by 10% so that we can put that over to charity or redistribute to savings.
I haven't given it a lot of consideration because it looks like we're overspending on our obligations just over 5% or so. Which means we could trim off that amount from fun and still meet our budget. I have identified close to another 20% of our obligations that is long-term debt. I'm not sure we can escalate the payment of this in any easy way and still save a good chunk of money, but I intend to bring it up to Naginata so we can make an informed decision about it together. If we can move it over, we can easily get to 60% income only to obligatory cost and leave 40% open for savings/investment/recreation.
Having 40% of the Clan's income going to exactly where we want it to go makes me very happy. Assuming the car payments go according to schedule, we should be on track for being close to 30% at the top of the year.
I'm trying to think of a good way to organize receipts and expenditures. Maybe buckets or folders that get emptied out once a month. Hmmm. I know there are several online services and several computer programs that would let me track expendatures, but I would really like to make things less complicated, not more. Streamlining is what I'm aiming for.
If we are hitting our percentages, especially our obligatory expenditures and our LT/ST savings, then I'm not so inclined to be nitpicky over the remaining % points. Again, less worried that spent $5 over on any one thing, more worried if we come in 5% over budget per month.
I'm going to try and hammer out something solid with Naginata this week so that this Friday's Showdown isn't another repeat episode.
Enough rambling for now. Let me go look at buckets, baskets or bundles for our new receipt accounting.
This post came in under budget, but over time.
B.R.
Friday, October 19, 2007
WBRFS # 5
Bang! Right to the Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown!
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Crushing Fear of Unseen Expenses!
"From out of the Darkness, razor-sharp receipts! Beware the papercuts, Ronin!"
This is still a tough time for us. Despite the deluge of great news about our debt and car loan, we still don't have money. Just resolving the debt wasn't like winning the lottery as far as our bank account was concerned. So we've still had to be very careful, even though I can tell the mood between Naginata and I regarding our finances is markedly different. We're very excited at the prospect of making progress instead of just filling holes that seemed relatively bottomless.
As part of the changes going on around our house and blog, I'm going to stop blogging my receipts. Taking my last Showdown to heart, I'm going to start planning for a monthly budget report instead. I've done a good job at curbing impulse shopping (all shopping really) and I think the previous half-year (177 days to be precise, but still, pretty darn close) has strengthened my resolve quite a bit. I think at this point, reading that I spent $2 on bananas or 10 quatloos on tribble food. Yeah. You thought my quatloo jokes were done, didn't you?
Anyway, obscure fictional science-fiction currency aside, I am going to start working on a monthly analysis that tells us more of an over/under of where we are hitting on our percentages for the month and year. I kind of screwed the pooch on some receipts for the last few weeks, so I won't be doing October, but November and December still give me ample time to ramp up for our first new year of non-car/non-credit card budgeting. I'll probably try some formats and names out just to see what looks good visually.
So sometime in the next couple of weeks between now and All Hallows Eve, I'm going to try and do some number crunching with Budget Naginata and see where we want to put down our numbers. It's like projecting for the next fiscal year, which is all business-like and far too grown up for my own tastes. Regardless, it's a positive first step and while I don't really want to run our household like a business, projecting a profit for the Budget Clan's 2008 fiscal year is an altogether new and giddy experience that I want to be a part of. I think I might have t-shirts made or something. Let's see the Gamemasters of Triskelion beat that!
Further updates from the Budget Clan?
We still have not sold/unloaded the hot-tub. We're thinking about just giving it away at a loss. Now that the extra couple of hundred does not seem an insurmountable loss, I'm inclined just to reclaim the deck space and my sanity.
Our first credit-card refund has arrive and been deposited. Our second is en route. Our last credit-card disbursement has been paid. I have to verify with the creditor it has bee received, but I'm pretty sure this clears us on all the cards.
Our Budget-Mobile is still slated to be paid off by the end of the year. Yay!
Budget Naginata and I are looking to move banks from Spank of America to something else. Recommendations and/or advice are welcome. Something online would be fine, but we would like someplace we can physically make deposits instead of having to mail anything in.
Well, that's it. Showdown is on time and I am off to work on pie charts... or maybe just some pie.
Compounding intrest daily,
B.R.
Monday, October 15, 2007
WBRFS #4
[Note: I started this on time on Friday, the 12th, which is why I'm so happy.]
Back on track, today, after several personal delays, we are back to the Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. Setting the calendar reminder was a big help, too. Today's episode is...
I put the last sum of credit card money into the debt repayment system today. I authorized CCCS to make the final disbursement on my behalf and I just need to follow up to make sure the credit card company gets it in a few days. I can't even begin to tell you what a relief that is. But with the big refunds in the mail, I do feel like we can breathe a bit easier. It doesn't feel so bad.
There, my friends, is the challenge. It does not _FEEL_ bad, but it is not necessarily good. It is not as if Budget Naginata and I have a great deal of money saved. Should we run into an unexpected car expense, we still do not have the means to fix it yet. While planning to pay off the car and starting some significant savings sounds like a great idea, I think the sudden rush of money feels very intoxicating. I'm looking at things and thinking to myself: "Wow. In a couple of months I could buy that no problem."
It occurred to me today that this is exactly the kind of thinking that got us in trouble in the first place. I don't think we'll rush into getting credit cards so quickly this time, we have plenty of credit building power from our house, a large school loan and paying off some miscellaneous collections. I may consider getting a single gas credit card to put our gas expenditures on that we can pay off in full each month, but right now I'm more concerned with paying off the car and fixing up our broken things.
But no single monthly paycheck is going to cover all of this, so we need to look at our newfound income and split it up into discrete sums that we can use to further our goals. I've done some reading online (original authors forgive me, I've forgotten exactly where), but most budget blogs/financial specialists I've studied break it up into percentages of your total income. Here's a couple I remember:
Plan A: 60% living expenses, 20% investing, 20% savings.
Plan B: 60% living expenses, 10% investing, 10% long term savings, 10% short-term/fun money. (I know I'm missing 10% here, but that's what I honestly recall).
I think you get my intentions here. I'm looking at what we spend against what we should save for (retirement and investments) and would still like to factor in some fun. So the question I ask you faithful readers is this... what percentages would/do you chose for your budget? I've got some ideas, but I need to talk it over with Naginata.
Ideally, I'd love to get our living expenses down to 50% of my income, but I'm assuming 60% is more realistic. With the remaining 40%, I wonder what I would feel comfortable allocating to Savings, Investment, Charity, and Fun? Do I make it an even split? Do I weight one over the other?
This is my big conundrum for the day.
[Note: Now it's Monday, the 15th.]
Still my conundrum, a few days later. Dang, I almost had it all done on time, too. I probably just should have posted as is/was. I have more to talk about, but I'm totally not with it right now. Sorry for the late Showdown posting.
More debt-free than ever before!
B.R.
[10.16.07 edit: There's a line above that got spell-checked into nonsense, so I substituted something that sort of made sense to me now.]
Back on track, today, after several personal delays, we are back to the Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. Setting the calendar reminder was a big help, too. Today's episode is...
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Spectre of Spending!
"Don't be distracted, Ronin! Let your aim be true!"
I put the last sum of credit card money into the debt repayment system today. I authorized CCCS to make the final disbursement on my behalf and I just need to follow up to make sure the credit card company gets it in a few days. I can't even begin to tell you what a relief that is. But with the big refunds in the mail, I do feel like we can breathe a bit easier. It doesn't feel so bad.
There, my friends, is the challenge. It does not _FEEL_ bad, but it is not necessarily good. It is not as if Budget Naginata and I have a great deal of money saved. Should we run into an unexpected car expense, we still do not have the means to fix it yet. While planning to pay off the car and starting some significant savings sounds like a great idea, I think the sudden rush of money feels very intoxicating. I'm looking at things and thinking to myself: "Wow. In a couple of months I could buy that no problem."
It occurred to me today that this is exactly the kind of thinking that got us in trouble in the first place. I don't think we'll rush into getting credit cards so quickly this time, we have plenty of credit building power from our house, a large school loan and paying off some miscellaneous collections. I may consider getting a single gas credit card to put our gas expenditures on that we can pay off in full each month, but right now I'm more concerned with paying off the car and fixing up our broken things.
But no single monthly paycheck is going to cover all of this, so we need to look at our newfound income and split it up into discrete sums that we can use to further our goals. I've done some reading online (original authors forgive me, I've forgotten exactly where), but most budget blogs/financial specialists I've studied break it up into percentages of your total income. Here's a couple I remember:
Plan A: 60% living expenses, 20% investing, 20% savings.
Plan B: 60% living expenses, 10% investing, 10% long term savings, 10% short-term/fun money. (I know I'm missing 10% here, but that's what I honestly recall).
I think you get my intentions here. I'm looking at what we spend against what we should save for (retirement and investments) and would still like to factor in some fun. So the question I ask you faithful readers is this... what percentages would/do you chose for your budget? I've got some ideas, but I need to talk it over with Naginata.
Ideally, I'd love to get our living expenses down to 50% of my income, but I'm assuming 60% is more realistic. With the remaining 40%, I wonder what I would feel comfortable allocating to Savings, Investment, Charity, and Fun? Do I make it an even split? Do I weight one over the other?
This is my big conundrum for the day.
[Note: Now it's Monday, the 15th.]
Still my conundrum, a few days later. Dang, I almost had it all done on time, too. I probably just should have posted as is/was. I have more to talk about, but I'm totally not with it right now. Sorry for the late Showdown posting.
More debt-free than ever before!
B.R.
[10.16.07 edit: There's a line above that got spell-checked into nonsense, so I substituted something that sort of made sense to me now.]
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Mistakes were made...
I know I skipped my weekly Budget Ronin Fianancial Showdown last week. I think I was turned around from having to make up for one from the week before. But rather than try to make up and miss another, I 'll just plan to start up again on time. There is, however, a hitch. I'm on the road again for business, so I don't have all my receipts to catch up on. Nor do I have all my Budget Ronin tools and implements of destruction.
So I'll probably do the next WBRFS next friday. Right now this is me setting myself a calandar reminder
OK. Reminder is now set.
So... what's been happening since the big reveal last post? More typically good things. We recieved a notice back from two of our creditors that we had not only finished our debt repayment, but that we had actually paid over by a significant amount. After a quick call or so, we now have two refund checks in the mail. Sweet Victory is even sweeter!
We're going to sink that money into eliminating Budget Naginata's overdraft debt that I highlighted a few weeks ago here in the 2nd Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. That will put us more square with our finances and take one more card off the table. We are then looking at a better place to start a new account that we will both use.. Advantage: Budget-Clan.
Naginata has gotten some great freelance work, and we're on track for everything. For a change, I have nothing but good fiancial news to report.
I'm on my expense account, so I will be eating craptacularly well today, enjoying every meal. I will probably do another update before the week is out.
I have something else on my mind, but I'm not sure I have the time and/or focus to go into it now.
So I'll probably do the next WBRFS next friday. Right now this is me setting myself a calandar reminder
OK. Reminder is now set.
So... what's been happening since the big reveal last post? More typically good things. We recieved a notice back from two of our creditors that we had not only finished our debt repayment, but that we had actually paid over by a significant amount. After a quick call or so, we now have two refund checks in the mail. Sweet Victory is even sweeter!
We're going to sink that money into eliminating Budget Naginata's overdraft debt that I highlighted a few weeks ago here in the 2nd Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown. That will put us more square with our finances and take one more card off the table. We are then looking at a better place to start a new account that we will both use.. Advantage: Budget-Clan.
Naginata has gotten some great freelance work, and we're on track for everything. For a change, I have nothing but good fiancial news to report.
I'm on my expense account, so I will be eating craptacularly well today, enjoying every meal. I will probably do another update before the week is out.
I have something else on my mind, but I'm not sure I have the time and/or focus to go into it now.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Willfully Breaking the Rules.
So last night I spent $5.07 on two ice cream treats for Budget Naginata and myself. I know that you ask yourself why the Budget Ronin would both break the rules and how he could get away with it after the last Showdown confession that the Budget Clan was deep in the hole?
I robbed a bank.
Ok. I didn't really rob a bank.
To pick up where we left off in the last post, I did contact some family and they were able to give me the money we needed to put us square with the bank. I picked up a check yesterday and put it in the night deposit last night.
I made the decision to get treats for Naginata and I prior to even this? Why? Why would I break my own challenge rules? Well, honestly, because some things deserve a big, damn celebration. And in lieu of fireworks and streamers, we got ice cream.
At the end of next month, October of 2007, Naginata and I will have no more credit card debt.
It started with a couple of letters from two creditors telling me that we had finished our debt repayment program with them. I called the agency that had been facilitating this for us, the fabulous Consumer Credit Counseling Service. (I'd provide a link, but it varies from town to town. Google "CCCS" and your town and you should be golden.) They confirmed we had indeed finished those two and had a zero balance with one of the remaining two and a small balance with the last creditor. They encouraged me to confirm this yesterday, so I did.
Well, here's my warning to anyone in a debt repayment program. Don't be afraid to knock on some doors. CCCS was mostly correct. We actually had a $9 charge left with one creditor, and the balance on the remaining one was about $10 off. Neither of these is a huge deal and I paid off the $9 charge this afternoon, so we have one last payment to our final creditor scheduled for next month.
This brings up our level of workable return income drastically. So much so that we will be able to escalate our last few remaining car payments and be done with paying off the Budget-Mobile by the end of the year. Wow. By the start of 2008, we'll have a paid-off car and no credit card debt.
This returns roughly 20% of my take-home income back to me. Considering right now we have about 0% discretionary income, that's quite a big leap.
I was so excited, I broke the rules.
Now back to the nitty-gritty. We still have a challenge to win, a car to pay off and some savings to accrue. I also have one more personal debt I have to pay off. But all this is on the heels of some really great news that has put some spring back into my Budget Ronin Geta.
This was not the result of luck or good fortune. We started this repayment program over five years ago and did not miss a single payment. It's the seed of the plant we are now tending every day, and I can say with certainty that it is because we thought ahead back then that we reap the rewards of that forethought now. I'm taking that very much to heart right now.
Wow. By the time the challenge is over, I might actually have my stuff together.
I robbed a bank.
Ok. I didn't really rob a bank.
To pick up where we left off in the last post, I did contact some family and they were able to give me the money we needed to put us square with the bank. I picked up a check yesterday and put it in the night deposit last night.
I made the decision to get treats for Naginata and I prior to even this? Why? Why would I break my own challenge rules? Well, honestly, because some things deserve a big, damn celebration. And in lieu of fireworks and streamers, we got ice cream.
At the end of next month, October of 2007, Naginata and I will have no more credit card debt.
It started with a couple of letters from two creditors telling me that we had finished our debt repayment program with them. I called the agency that had been facilitating this for us, the fabulous Consumer Credit Counseling Service. (I'd provide a link, but it varies from town to town. Google "CCCS" and your town and you should be golden.) They confirmed we had indeed finished those two and had a zero balance with one of the remaining two and a small balance with the last creditor. They encouraged me to confirm this yesterday, so I did.
Well, here's my warning to anyone in a debt repayment program. Don't be afraid to knock on some doors. CCCS was mostly correct. We actually had a $9 charge left with one creditor, and the balance on the remaining one was about $10 off. Neither of these is a huge deal and I paid off the $9 charge this afternoon, so we have one last payment to our final creditor scheduled for next month.
This brings up our level of workable return income drastically. So much so that we will be able to escalate our last few remaining car payments and be done with paying off the Budget-Mobile by the end of the year. Wow. By the start of 2008, we'll have a paid-off car and no credit card debt.
This returns roughly 20% of my take-home income back to me. Considering right now we have about 0% discretionary income, that's quite a big leap.
I was so excited, I broke the rules.
Now back to the nitty-gritty. We still have a challenge to win, a car to pay off and some savings to accrue. I also have one more personal debt I have to pay off. But all this is on the heels of some really great news that has put some spring back into my Budget Ronin Geta.
This was not the result of luck or good fortune. We started this repayment program over five years ago and did not miss a single payment. It's the seed of the plant we are now tending every day, and I can say with certainty that it is because we thought ahead back then that we reap the rewards of that forethought now. I'm taking that very much to heart right now.
Wow. By the time the challenge is over, I might actually have my stuff together.
Monday, September 24, 2007
New! With reconstituted ideas!
We bought food... you know, so we could eat it.
On Sept. 8th, before our trip out of town, we bought:
Eggs $1.5
Milk $1.5
=total $3
Upon our return, Sept. 23rd, we bought:
Apples $3
Bananas $1
Yogurt $2.5
Grits $1
Bacon $2.5
Powdered Milk $8
Jelly $2
=total $20
We switched to powdered milk after we did a test run a couple of weeks ago after reading this article:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/09/08/how-to-feed-yourself-for-15-a-week/
So far the powdered milk is a good option for us. It's cheaper, it doesn't go bad as quickly and seems a bit... um... cleaner? It works well for cereal, recipies and I've even used our Budget Cappucino machine to make pasable lattes (our tip on cheap mixed coffee drinks? cheap espresso tastes just as good when you plan to add a heavy flavor like chocolate to your mix). I'll let you know if we plan to change, but so far, it's really nice just being able to make a quart or two of milk rather than having to run to the store for a "fresh" gallon.
So far, no plans to swap out to powdered eggs or freeze-dried beer.
On Sept. 8th, before our trip out of town, we bought:
Eggs $1.5
Milk $1.5
=total $3
Upon our return, Sept. 23rd, we bought:
Apples $3
Bananas $1
Yogurt $2.5
Grits $1
Bacon $2.5
Powdered Milk $8
Jelly $2
=total $20
We switched to powdered milk after we did a test run a couple of weeks ago after reading this article:
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/09/08/how-to-feed-yourself-for-15-a-week/
So far the powdered milk is a good option for us. It's cheaper, it doesn't go bad as quickly and seems a bit... um... cleaner? It works well for cereal, recipies and I've even used our Budget Cappucino machine to make pasable lattes (our tip on cheap mixed coffee drinks? cheap espresso tastes just as good when you plan to add a heavy flavor like chocolate to your mix). I'll let you know if we plan to change, but so far, it's really nice just being able to make a quart or two of milk rather than having to run to the store for a "fresh" gallon.
So far, no plans to swap out to powdered eggs or freeze-dried beer.
WBRFS #3
The third installment is late, for reasons explained below.
Showdown!
Last week we spent time out of the house. Although my employer regards it a "vacation," Budget Naginata, Edamame and I were out of town for anything but a relaxing time. I won't go into great details, because this is blog for financial analysis, but Naginata has a sibling in the hospital in a scary and uncertain condition. We have our best thoughts out for their recovery and, if you are so inclined, we wouldn't mind a few positive thoughts sent our way.
As we spent all of last week at their house, trying to help out the family, I ruminated on the cost of the treatments and considered us and them lucky to have a good insurance program to fall back on. I know it is a situation that many people are not fortunate enough for, but all things considered, should Naginata or Edamame have something wrong with them, it is not a concern of ours to whisk them away to the hospital and apply whatever knowledge Western medicine can give us to help allievate their problems.
I say this because it is a comfort in our small world of financial uncertainty. Things really are a roller coaster at the Budget-Castle. This weekend, we were notified by two of the five credit card companies we are in debt repayment with, that our obligations had been fulfilled. They thanked us for our participation and we are free and clear of those two accounts. That is a great cause for celebration.
The celebration is short lived, however, because due to the expense of tripping out of state, we have bounced several large checks and currently owe our primary bank a significant amount of cash, to the extreme that we cannot recover when my paycheck comes in at the end of the week. This puts us in the horrible position of having to ask for assistance from relatives.
Odds are we will be able to secure the cash. Having to ask for it, however, is not a position I want to be in. I called my stock broker today to see if there was anything left in any account I had with him. I haven't talked to my stock broker in over five years. I almost considered calling my old boy scout troup to see if I could sell tickets to the Jamboree instead of asking to borrow money.
I'm sure many of you reading this know how humbling it must feel to be a parent and have the expectations of an adult resting on your shoulders and immediately feel transformed back to the age of 14 or 16, trying to con your parents for the keys to the family automobile. It's uncomfortable and often belittling and I want to turn tables so that I'm in a better position than to have to ask anyone other than my own savings account for a little extra money to make up a shortfall.
But thinking of Naginata's sibling and that family dealing with a much more serious crisis really humbles your view on some things. I should be thankful for relatives that would be there for me and would loan me this money. I am thankful knowing that were I the one in the hospital, they would be right there for me. Dispite many of my misgivings, I feel like I have done something very much right in my life to have these people around me and work hard to be someone worthy of their trust and friendship. A large part of my quest for financial stability is not for the best wall-mounted plasma television or expensive vacation abroad, but to be in the position for my friends and family to know that they could come to me and be able to count on my support during their times of turmoil.
I hope this was not overly depressing or preachy. I don't confess to having a lot of answers, just the tenacity to try and make a better life for those around me, friends, family and others. As far as Budget Ronin go, I consider myself lucky to have the friends and family that stand by me. I hope that each of you are equally lucky.
My wallet is empty, but my heart is full.
B.R.
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Longest Journey!
"A small victory in the face of overwhelming odds! Ronin refuses to surrender!"
Last week we spent time out of the house. Although my employer regards it a "vacation," Budget Naginata, Edamame and I were out of town for anything but a relaxing time. I won't go into great details, because this is blog for financial analysis, but Naginata has a sibling in the hospital in a scary and uncertain condition. We have our best thoughts out for their recovery and, if you are so inclined, we wouldn't mind a few positive thoughts sent our way.
As we spent all of last week at their house, trying to help out the family, I ruminated on the cost of the treatments and considered us and them lucky to have a good insurance program to fall back on. I know it is a situation that many people are not fortunate enough for, but all things considered, should Naginata or Edamame have something wrong with them, it is not a concern of ours to whisk them away to the hospital and apply whatever knowledge Western medicine can give us to help allievate their problems.
I say this because it is a comfort in our small world of financial uncertainty. Things really are a roller coaster at the Budget-Castle. This weekend, we were notified by two of the five credit card companies we are in debt repayment with, that our obligations had been fulfilled. They thanked us for our participation and we are free and clear of those two accounts. That is a great cause for celebration.
The celebration is short lived, however, because due to the expense of tripping out of state, we have bounced several large checks and currently owe our primary bank a significant amount of cash, to the extreme that we cannot recover when my paycheck comes in at the end of the week. This puts us in the horrible position of having to ask for assistance from relatives.
Odds are we will be able to secure the cash. Having to ask for it, however, is not a position I want to be in. I called my stock broker today to see if there was anything left in any account I had with him. I haven't talked to my stock broker in over five years. I almost considered calling my old boy scout troup to see if I could sell tickets to the Jamboree instead of asking to borrow money.
I'm sure many of you reading this know how humbling it must feel to be a parent and have the expectations of an adult resting on your shoulders and immediately feel transformed back to the age of 14 or 16, trying to con your parents for the keys to the family automobile. It's uncomfortable and often belittling and I want to turn tables so that I'm in a better position than to have to ask anyone other than my own savings account for a little extra money to make up a shortfall.
But thinking of Naginata's sibling and that family dealing with a much more serious crisis really humbles your view on some things. I should be thankful for relatives that would be there for me and would loan me this money. I am thankful knowing that were I the one in the hospital, they would be right there for me. Dispite many of my misgivings, I feel like I have done something very much right in my life to have these people around me and work hard to be someone worthy of their trust and friendship. A large part of my quest for financial stability is not for the best wall-mounted plasma television or expensive vacation abroad, but to be in the position for my friends and family to know that they could come to me and be able to count on my support during their times of turmoil.
I hope this was not overly depressing or preachy. I don't confess to having a lot of answers, just the tenacity to try and make a better life for those around me, friends, family and others. As far as Budget Ronin go, I consider myself lucky to have the friends and family that stand by me. I hope that each of you are equally lucky.
My wallet is empty, but my heart is full.
B.R.
Friday, September 14, 2007
WBRFS #2
Here is the second installment of my would-be ongoing series. My Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.
A week or so past, I answered the house phone and got a fun surprise!* A creditor was kindly calling to remind us of a past due amount on a credit card on my Budget Naginata's account. I had a quick chat with her, because I had hoped it was a mistake. I spoke with Naginata and she informed me this was her overdraft account.
I knew she had an overdraft, but neither of us realized it was that out of sorts. Mind you, I'm not blaming anyone for anything. I have an overdraft on my account as well, and it stays mostly maxed out at this point because we can only barely cover the bills we have, which is kind of the whole point of this blog anyway.
So what next? Well, we scrape together the money to pay off the late fees for the overdraft, but it kind of puts us back where we were in the first place, which is more money out of pocket and more in debt. What's a Budget Ronin to do?
I discussed this at length with Naginata and we came up with a few things:
1. Two overdrafts is easily one overdraft too many. We're getting hers shut off and we're going to pay it off so that it's done, never to be resurrected.
2. We're looking at closing that account of hers. We have two accounts to cover my steady paycheck and normal bills/expenses and hers as a sort of slush fund for other expenses. This is not really working well, since you shouldn't have to pay penalties for your slush fund. It's supposed to be for extra money, not extra money we don't have.
3. We've decided to move the expenses she typically concerns herself with over to cash. Typically Naginata writes the check for groceries, Budget Edamame's schooling and gas for the vehicles. We think that by moving them over to cash we have a better chance at maintaining a tighter budget and more control over recognizing what financial latitude we have at any given point.
Here's how #3 is going to work out. Mind you, I don't consider this revolutionary, we've both read of things like this from other sources, but after some review, we think it might work well for us. Cash in trackable envelopes. We're going to mark envelopes with specific amounts of cash that we know we'll need for each of our expenses: Groceries, Gas, Edamame's school. We'll deposit cash in the envelopes for use for those budgeted expenses and withdraw them to pay for the items. That way we know exactly what we have and don't have available to us. Need gas? No overdrafting, get money from the envelope. Extra money is rolled into the next envelope. Hopefully we'll eventually actually get enough extra money to put into savings or something fantastic like that. And so it goes...
Since we need to know how much to put in, this puts us in the position of budgeting our groceries in a more orderly fashion. Planning for stock items like litter and toilet paper every two months and edibles every other week. This also puts us in the position to splurge less on trips to the store, which has been a vulnerability in our otherwise good plans.
I don't know if any of this will work, but I know that paying service charges on overdraft fees for money we don't have isn't making me sleep any better at night, so we'll try this for now.
And if think that having loose cash on hand puts us at risk, I should warn you that I fill the Budget Clan Compound with deadly spiders. Hundreds of thousands of deadly spiders. It's so dangerous to intruders that we don't even actually live there anymore.
Unrelated, I'll be trying new catchphrases until I get one I like.
Neither Standard nor Poor,
B.R.
*note: Actually, not fun at all.
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Overdraft Overlord!
"Helpless against Service Fee Magic, a new technique revealed!"
A week or so past, I answered the house phone and got a fun surprise!* A creditor was kindly calling to remind us of a past due amount on a credit card on my Budget Naginata's account. I had a quick chat with her, because I had hoped it was a mistake. I spoke with Naginata and she informed me this was her overdraft account.
I knew she had an overdraft, but neither of us realized it was that out of sorts. Mind you, I'm not blaming anyone for anything. I have an overdraft on my account as well, and it stays mostly maxed out at this point because we can only barely cover the bills we have, which is kind of the whole point of this blog anyway.
So what next? Well, we scrape together the money to pay off the late fees for the overdraft, but it kind of puts us back where we were in the first place, which is more money out of pocket and more in debt. What's a Budget Ronin to do?
I discussed this at length with Naginata and we came up with a few things:
1. Two overdrafts is easily one overdraft too many. We're getting hers shut off and we're going to pay it off so that it's done, never to be resurrected.
2. We're looking at closing that account of hers. We have two accounts to cover my steady paycheck and normal bills/expenses and hers as a sort of slush fund for other expenses. This is not really working well, since you shouldn't have to pay penalties for your slush fund. It's supposed to be for extra money, not extra money we don't have.
3. We've decided to move the expenses she typically concerns herself with over to cash. Typically Naginata writes the check for groceries, Budget Edamame's schooling and gas for the vehicles. We think that by moving them over to cash we have a better chance at maintaining a tighter budget and more control over recognizing what financial latitude we have at any given point.
Here's how #3 is going to work out. Mind you, I don't consider this revolutionary, we've both read of things like this from other sources, but after some review, we think it might work well for us. Cash in trackable envelopes. We're going to mark envelopes with specific amounts of cash that we know we'll need for each of our expenses: Groceries, Gas, Edamame's school. We'll deposit cash in the envelopes for use for those budgeted expenses and withdraw them to pay for the items. That way we know exactly what we have and don't have available to us. Need gas? No overdrafting, get money from the envelope. Extra money is rolled into the next envelope. Hopefully we'll eventually actually get enough extra money to put into savings or something fantastic like that. And so it goes...
Since we need to know how much to put in, this puts us in the position of budgeting our groceries in a more orderly fashion. Planning for stock items like litter and toilet paper every two months and edibles every other week. This also puts us in the position to splurge less on trips to the store, which has been a vulnerability in our otherwise good plans.
I don't know if any of this will work, but I know that paying service charges on overdraft fees for money we don't have isn't making me sleep any better at night, so we'll try this for now.
And if think that having loose cash on hand puts us at risk, I should warn you that I fill the Budget Clan Compound with deadly spiders. Hundreds of thousands of deadly spiders. It's so dangerous to intruders that we don't even actually live there anymore.
Unrelated, I'll be trying new catchphrases until I get one I like.
Neither Standard nor Poor,
B.R.
*note: Actually, not fun at all.
Monday, September 10, 2007
No catchy story
No, seriously, I don't have one.
I just have a receipt for groceries. On 9/6, we bought:
Cupcakes $4
Something $2 <- The receipt is slightly damaged
Roast Beef $6
Pork Roast $7
Spaghetti $1.5
Tortillas $2
Ice Cream $4
Pretzels $2
Bagels $2.5
Mushrooms $1.5
Grapes $1.5
Pears $2
Tomatoes $3
Garlic $.25
Sour Cream $1
=total $40.25
Moral of the non-story. The Pork Roast was delicious.
I just have a receipt for groceries. On 9/6, we bought:
Cupcakes $4
Something $2 <- The receipt is slightly damaged
Roast Beef $6
Pork Roast $7
Spaghetti $1.5
Tortillas $2
Ice Cream $4
Pretzels $2
Bagels $2.5
Mushrooms $1.5
Grapes $1.5
Pears $2
Tomatoes $3
Garlic $.25
Sour Cream $1
=total $40.25
Moral of the non-story. The Pork Roast was delicious.
Friday, September 7, 2007
And your name is? And we know you from...?
Hello! Budget Naginata here. Just popping to say that Budget Ronin has not disposed of me in any way and that I suck at posting. But of course you already KNOW that.
I have always been an avid blog reader and I want to post more but it is truly hard for me for some reason. I'm guessing it has to do with a deep seated problem of not wanting to face my fears/stress/life. Or I could just be lazy. A little from column A, a little from column B.
Anyway, I am still in on the experiment and I have to say that I've been really impressed with the ability of Budget Ronin to bounce back from some of the budget traumas of the past 4 months. His normal melancholic nature hampers him but he's really worked hard to focus on the learning experience and I for one am proud of him.
Go team Venture!
Here's to rededicating myself to actually post. Please for the love of God, don't hold your breath! ;)
I have always been an avid blog reader and I want to post more but it is truly hard for me for some reason. I'm guessing it has to do with a deep seated problem of not wanting to face my fears/stress/life. Or I could just be lazy. A little from column A, a little from column B.
Anyway, I am still in on the experiment and I have to say that I've been really impressed with the ability of Budget Ronin to bounce back from some of the budget traumas of the past 4 months. His normal melancholic nature hampers him but he's really worked hard to focus on the learning experience and I for one am proud of him.
Go team Venture!
Here's to rededicating myself to actually post. Please for the love of God, don't hold your breath! ;)
WBRFS! #1
First installment here, so bear with me while I work on some sort of formula to make accessible and fun to read. I really should be doing pictures or something. In the meantime I present:
Showdown!
One of the Budget Clan needs some dental work that we totally can't afford. Steadfastly, they have been holding out so as not to tax our already strained accounts. We went to get an estimate at the dental surgeons and planned to add it to our next year Flexible Spending Account that I get as a benefit of my job. I consider myself lucky to have this benefit and it has already proven itself invaluable. Luckily for us, we can spend any amount of the FSA at the beginning of the year, allowing to schedule as soon as the next calendar year rolls around.
Budget Naginata was called this morning with the estimate on the surgery. It is close to $2000. Perhaps it's my own unfamiliarity with the cost of some things, but it just seems like a lot of money. It seems like a lot of money we already don't have, so I got a bit depressed about it over the phone.
That's pretty much where I am with it. I don't have a good plan other than going ahead to extend our FSA by the requried amount to cover the procedure. It really needs to be done now, but we don't have a lot of choice, barring a lottery win or a surprise inheritance from a long-lost uncle Stan (wherever you are, lost uncle Stan, we really wish you no ill).
I've been trying to think of what can offset the cost. Thinking positively, this should be a one-time occurance, so we'll only need to expand our budget for the upcoming year (2008). The year after (2009), should see a reduction and more money back in the general funds. Also, 2008 should see the end of the normal payments on the Budget-Mobile. Even with the repairs we were going to do, there should be some left over to put into fixing up the Budget Truck and/or socking away into a savings account. I'm giddy at the thought of that. This also doesn't take into account any yearly adjustment my comapany might make on my salary come review time at the end of the year.
Regardless, it boils down to not being ready. I think a lot of what puts people into debt and keeps them there is not being ready.
I'm not really sure if this counts much as a showdown, but it's certainly on my mind. I think by writing it out, and by looking at what we might be able to do would certainly help in the future. I know that the FSA is good, but this year we tapped out too early. It's only fault is that we can't plan for emergencies such as this one. Really we need to make sure that we have some sort of solid savings accrued. Otherwise we just perpetuate the vicious lending cycles that led up to the challenge to begin with.
This is where my catchy catchphrase would go.
B.R.
Showdown!
Budget Ronin vs. the Dental Dragon!
"In the mouth of danger, floss, Ronin, floss!"
One of the Budget Clan needs some dental work that we totally can't afford. Steadfastly, they have been holding out so as not to tax our already strained accounts. We went to get an estimate at the dental surgeons and planned to add it to our next year Flexible Spending Account that I get as a benefit of my job. I consider myself lucky to have this benefit and it has already proven itself invaluable. Luckily for us, we can spend any amount of the FSA at the beginning of the year, allowing to schedule as soon as the next calendar year rolls around.
Budget Naginata was called this morning with the estimate on the surgery. It is close to $2000. Perhaps it's my own unfamiliarity with the cost of some things, but it just seems like a lot of money. It seems like a lot of money we already don't have, so I got a bit depressed about it over the phone.
That's pretty much where I am with it. I don't have a good plan other than going ahead to extend our FSA by the requried amount to cover the procedure. It really needs to be done now, but we don't have a lot of choice, barring a lottery win or a surprise inheritance from a long-lost uncle Stan (wherever you are, lost uncle Stan, we really wish you no ill).
I've been trying to think of what can offset the cost. Thinking positively, this should be a one-time occurance, so we'll only need to expand our budget for the upcoming year (2008). The year after (2009), should see a reduction and more money back in the general funds. Also, 2008 should see the end of the normal payments on the Budget-Mobile. Even with the repairs we were going to do, there should be some left over to put into fixing up the Budget Truck and/or socking away into a savings account. I'm giddy at the thought of that. This also doesn't take into account any yearly adjustment my comapany might make on my salary come review time at the end of the year.
Regardless, it boils down to not being ready. I think a lot of what puts people into debt and keeps them there is not being ready.
I'm not really sure if this counts much as a showdown, but it's certainly on my mind. I think by writing it out, and by looking at what we might be able to do would certainly help in the future. I know that the FSA is good, but this year we tapped out too early. It's only fault is that we can't plan for emergencies such as this one. Really we need to make sure that we have some sort of solid savings accrued. Otherwise we just perpetuate the vicious lending cycles that led up to the challenge to begin with.
This is where my catchy catchphrase would go.
B.R.
Big News and New Feature!
Wow. I need to be flogged with some sort of flogging device. I've missed an important milestone and have not posted about it.
The Budget Clan is 1/3rd of the way done with our challenge!
I'm very excited by this. 1/3rd is a pretty hefty chunk of a year. Four months down and eight to go. I think that in this spirit of revelry that I should rededicate myself to keeping current on all things by starting a weekly feature:
The Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.
The Showdown will be where I stand and face my current worst financial anxiety with you, my audience and try to make some sense of it. I'll also be recapping any things I might have missed during the week, but I'll try to keep the Showdown about tough decisions and what the Clan and I are doing about them.
I'll be posting by the end of Friday, so hopefully that should add some consistency to the blog as well (warm, thick, sugary frosting like consistency - yum!).
Let me knock out some old expenses here. It seems on 8/4 I missed $29.03 worth of gas for something. Shopping on 8/25 netted me the following:
Bananas $1
Tortillas $2
Cheese $3
Eggs $2
Salsa $2
Chicken $2
Beans $4
Tomatoes $1
?? $2 <- I can't read the receipt on this. Serves me right for not entering it promptly.
=total $19
The great thing about this trip is that I took the tortillas, cheese, beans and salsa, mixed it with some rice and ground beef we had at home and cooked up a weeks worth of burritos for lunch. I froze a good chunk of them and doled them for maintained deliciousness. So for like $10, I got a weeks worth of lunch. Not too shabby and something I'd like to do more of.
Shopping on the 29th sent me scrambling for gas first ($38.00 worth). At the normal grocery and bulk warehouse store(s), respectively, I stocked up on the following:
Cat food $11
Apples $3
Cat litter $4
Snack crackers $5 <-For work. !Yay snacks!
Goldfish $2
Yogurt smoothie (for the Budget Edamame to snack on) $1
=total $26
Bulk toilet paper $16
Bread $5
Peppers $6
OJ $10
Butter $7
Milk $7
Potatoes $9
Cheese $6
Ground Turkey $12
Chicken $15
Cereal $8
Bisquick $4
Fruit $14
Sugar $4
=total $132
Ok... almost there. On 8/30 we made one more run to the store:
Peas $2
Carrots $2
Lettuce $1
Ketchup $3
Syrup $2
Napkins $2
Mac & Cheese $1
Grits $2
Pasta $2
Cat Litter $4 <-The last time out, I got small sizes of both, so I got more.
Cat Food $7
=total $29
Whew! Ok. So now that I've gotten all those receipts filed, I can tell you about the resurrection of the Budget Truck. We sprung $40 for a battery and replaced it. We deemed it a necessary evil for occasionally making our schedule work now that we have our wonderful Budget Edamame attending tiny-person pre-school during the week. During the swap, I, your normally quick fingered Ronin, dropped and lost a nut for one of the retaining bolts. I had to buy a pack at the local autostore for $2. But it works and I've driven it and for the short while, it is of no further problem.
Hottub update: None. No more answers from the online ad either. I'm trying to restrategize this. Please let me know if you have any ideas.
I'm actually going to try start off on a good foot and pen a quick Financial Showdown here in a few minutes, so you may get two posts today.
The Budget Clan is 1/3rd of the way done with our challenge!
I'm very excited by this. 1/3rd is a pretty hefty chunk of a year. Four months down and eight to go. I think that in this spirit of revelry that I should rededicate myself to keeping current on all things by starting a weekly feature:
The Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.
The Showdown will be where I stand and face my current worst financial anxiety with you, my audience and try to make some sense of it. I'll also be recapping any things I might have missed during the week, but I'll try to keep the Showdown about tough decisions and what the Clan and I are doing about them.
I'll be posting by the end of Friday, so hopefully that should add some consistency to the blog as well (warm, thick, sugary frosting like consistency - yum!).
Let me knock out some old expenses here. It seems on 8/4 I missed $29.03 worth of gas for something. Shopping on 8/25 netted me the following:
Bananas $1
Tortillas $2
Cheese $3
Eggs $2
Salsa $2
Chicken $2
Beans $4
Tomatoes $1
?? $2 <- I can't read the receipt on this. Serves me right for not entering it promptly.
=total $19
The great thing about this trip is that I took the tortillas, cheese, beans and salsa, mixed it with some rice and ground beef we had at home and cooked up a weeks worth of burritos for lunch. I froze a good chunk of them and doled them for maintained deliciousness. So for like $10, I got a weeks worth of lunch. Not too shabby and something I'd like to do more of.
Shopping on the 29th sent me scrambling for gas first ($38.00 worth). At the normal grocery and bulk warehouse store(s), respectively, I stocked up on the following:
Cat food $11
Apples $3
Cat litter $4
Snack crackers $5 <-For work. !Yay snacks!
Goldfish $2
Yogurt smoothie (for the Budget Edamame to snack on) $1
=total $26
Bulk toilet paper $16
Bread $5
Peppers $6
OJ $10
Butter $7
Milk $7
Potatoes $9
Cheese $6
Ground Turkey $12
Chicken $15
Cereal $8
Bisquick $4
Fruit $14
Sugar $4
=total $132
Ok... almost there. On 8/30 we made one more run to the store:
Peas $2
Carrots $2
Lettuce $1
Ketchup $3
Syrup $2
Napkins $2
Mac & Cheese $1
Grits $2
Pasta $2
Cat Litter $4 <-The last time out, I got small sizes of both, so I got more.
Cat Food $7
=total $29
Whew! Ok. So now that I've gotten all those receipts filed, I can tell you about the resurrection of the Budget Truck. We sprung $40 for a battery and replaced it. We deemed it a necessary evil for occasionally making our schedule work now that we have our wonderful Budget Edamame attending tiny-person pre-school during the week. During the swap, I, your normally quick fingered Ronin, dropped and lost a nut for one of the retaining bolts. I had to buy a pack at the local autostore for $2. But it works and I've driven it and for the short while, it is of no further problem.
Hottub update: None. No more answers from the online ad either. I'm trying to restrategize this. Please let me know if you have any ideas.
I'm actually going to try start off on a good foot and pen a quick Financial Showdown here in a few minutes, so you may get two posts today.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Two days shy...
Hmm... 12 days since last post, 2 days shy of a fortnight. I'm sure I could have come up with a clever fortnight title if I waited (e.g. A Budget Ronin's Fortnight Lament), but I feel guilty for waiting this long already. Fortnight just sounds so classy.
Speaking of classy... the Craptastiganza has long since been over. I would have posted about the glorious finish, but I don't really have one. I ate all my neo-batchelor food and enjoyed it. Surprisingly, I didn't get sick or anything, but considering I've done that like once in for-never, I'm really not that surprised. I should do some more laps around the track though. I'm thinking about adding one, which would bring me up to a total of one.
I recovered my lovely Budgets Naginata and Edamame on Saturday and we returned reunited as a full Clan. I think there was some lawnmowing in there somewhere, too.
I do need to catch up on a couple of receipts. On 8/10, I was all about the buying gas ($31.51) and drinks:
Beer/Wine $13
Coke $6
=total $19
On the 18th (8/18), we made a strip to the store for necessary supplies for cooking out all weekend:
Coke $7
Buns $1
Cheese $2
Chips $4
Water $3
Tortillas $2
Fruit $2
Lunch Salad $2
Yogurt $1
Eggs $1
Ground Beef $10
Spare Ribs $20
=total: $55
And you can't go a couple of weeks without more gas, so $33.14 on 8/19.
Whew! Obviously I've been carrying a couple of those receipts around in my pocket for a while. I should really put them down more often. Even if it's just a quick gas reciept. But enough about that, let's do some updates:
Hot Tub: No buyer. The most interested prospective shopper sent me many emails, promising to be out this past week. Then nothing. No show, no follow up mails, no nothing. I have no new plan of attack for this one. I might try to just sell the lid, which is in great shape and retails new for like $400 dollars. Maybe give anyone buying it the option of a free hot tub to go with it. Hmmm.
Truck: Still without battery power. Currently sitting in the garage.
Computer: The motherboard I bought was defective, so I'm having to return it. I am now waiting for a new one. This sucks, but not so badly as not having a machine at all, so I'll count my small blessings.
Speaking of classy... the Craptastiganza has long since been over. I would have posted about the glorious finish, but I don't really have one. I ate all my neo-batchelor food and enjoyed it. Surprisingly, I didn't get sick or anything, but considering I've done that like once in for-never, I'm really not that surprised. I should do some more laps around the track though. I'm thinking about adding one, which would bring me up to a total of one.
I recovered my lovely Budgets Naginata and Edamame on Saturday and we returned reunited as a full Clan. I think there was some lawnmowing in there somewhere, too.
I do need to catch up on a couple of receipts. On 8/10, I was all about the buying gas ($31.51) and drinks:
Beer/Wine $13
Coke $6
=total $19
On the 18th (8/18), we made a strip to the store for necessary supplies for cooking out all weekend:
Coke $7
Buns $1
Cheese $2
Chips $4
Water $3
Tortillas $2
Fruit $2
Lunch Salad $2
Yogurt $1
Eggs $1
Ground Beef $10
Spare Ribs $20
=total: $55
And you can't go a couple of weeks without more gas, so $33.14 on 8/19.
Whew! Obviously I've been carrying a couple of those receipts around in my pocket for a while. I should really put them down more often. Even if it's just a quick gas reciept. But enough about that, let's do some updates:
Hot Tub: No buyer. The most interested prospective shopper sent me many emails, promising to be out this past week. Then nothing. No show, no follow up mails, no nothing. I have no new plan of attack for this one. I might try to just sell the lid, which is in great shape and retails new for like $400 dollars. Maybe give anyone buying it the option of a free hot tub to go with it. Hmmm.
Truck: Still without battery power. Currently sitting in the garage.
Computer: The motherboard I bought was defective, so I'm having to return it. I am now waiting for a new one. This sucks, but not so badly as not having a machine at all, so I'll count my small blessings.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
"Are you adequately prepared to rock?"
The Craptasti-ganza continues! Last night a friend came over to keep me company during the vacation absense of Budget Naginata and Budget Edamame. He ended up buying me dinner at a local sandwichery (I don't know if that is really a word, but I'm keeping it). He was also there to witness the spending of the last of my birthday loot.
Yes. Guitar Hero II is currently installed in the Playstation Deuce and I've even decorated my guitar with my kickass Limozeen sticker from my copy of Strong Bad Sings. I am now adequately prepared to rock. It was the last of my birthday cash, and I had to turn in some old games to help make up the difference, but it was totally worth it. We had several rounds of fret-blasting mayhem.
On the way back from the game store, we stopped to pick up some vital supplies:
Milk $2
Kraft Mac & Chee $2
Beer $9
=total $13
The beer was the most important element. It added to the rock-star mystique. Had there been chicken wire around the TV pit in the Budget-Castle, I'd probably have felt the need to hurl my empties. As it stands, we had a couple of sandwiches, a couple of beers and a lot of fun.
Yes, my fingers hurt. Yes, I will be practicing again tonight.
Yes. Guitar Hero II is currently installed in the Playstation Deuce and I've even decorated my guitar with my kickass Limozeen sticker from my copy of Strong Bad Sings. I am now adequately prepared to rock. It was the last of my birthday cash, and I had to turn in some old games to help make up the difference, but it was totally worth it. We had several rounds of fret-blasting mayhem.
On the way back from the game store, we stopped to pick up some vital supplies:
Milk $2
Kraft Mac & Chee $2
Beer $9
=total $13
The beer was the most important element. It added to the rock-star mystique. Had there been chicken wire around the TV pit in the Budget-Castle, I'd probably have felt the need to hurl my empties. As it stands, we had a couple of sandwiches, a couple of beers and a lot of fun.
Yes, my fingers hurt. Yes, I will be practicing again tonight.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Batchelor Dinner Craptasti-ganza!
Anyone who reads the blog knows my unfettered love for the Budget Naginata and our darling Budget Edamame. They are great and wonderful and currently far, far away from me enjoying a holiday at the beach. Travelling with a friend and her daughter, my wife and child have abandoned me to my own devices for a week.
This makes me sad, because I will miss them, but this also gives me a great opportunity to enjoy wonderfully craptastic batchelor food. Yes, that's correct, when the Naginata is away, the Ronin will eat things that give him heartburn and stomachaches! The Craptasti-ganza has begun!
Last night, I picked up the following things at the grocery to enable my bad eating habits:
Tater Tots $1.5 (mmm... these would go great with)...
Fish Sticks $4 (now we're talkin'!)
Pizza Rolls $3 (that's right, they're like pizzas, in bite sized rolls!)
Pizza $3 (the non-roll variety)
Bread $2.5 (for work sandwiches)
=total $14
I had the pizza rolls last night, and some heartburn to follow it. I learned a very important gastrointestinal fact at that point, when I woke up with a burning windpipe. Ginger. Ginger helps combat heartburn. It's crazy, but it works. After discovering this fact thanks to the world wide Intarwebblogtubes, I borrowed a couple of Budget Naginata's ginger Altoids and felt it subside surprisingly quick. There was also something with Baking Soda that sounded less palatable that I'm glad I didn't have to test out.
I'm planning on having half of my fish sticks and tater tots tonight. I know you're jealous, but it's ok, I'll have a few extra on your behalf.
I may have to go back to the store later this week for some Kraft Mac & Cheese Dinner. I'm already feeling compelled to do so. It's not my fault, really. I blame escalating tension in Iran over their nuclear program.
Hot Tub Update: No one has purchased it yet, but I have an offer from someone for half of what I posted for it. They said they would be able to come get it next week. I told them they could have it, assuming no one bid higher. Right now, I don't see that happening. It's depressing, but it will be out of the way and I'll at least get a bit more back than we paid for the motor repair diagnosis. I find it oddly fitting that I paid extra for our house to keep the hot tub and I spent a fair amount to buy a good cover for it (which it was lacking) and I get next to nothing for it. Consider that when you look at your purchasing habits.
Exceptions to the Rule: So when we began the Challenge, Budget Naginata and I agreed that any money given to us as gifts could be spent however we wanted. A week or so ago, it was the birthday of the ever-lovin' Budget Ronin, so I have a small amount of cash to spend. I dropped about half of it to replace my ailing computer processor and motherboard. It is a slight upgrade for a system that is 5 years old. So... It's now like a 4 year old computer. *sigh*. I need some decent bank to buy a more serious gaming machine, so I'm looking at that for the next year or so, when we've absolved some of our debt concerns. As to the rest of my birthday booty, I will be buying Guitar Hero 2 for our console. I will then proceed to rock my troubles away. If you approach the Budget Castle and hear the rock, it is I. You have been warned.
This makes me sad, because I will miss them, but this also gives me a great opportunity to enjoy wonderfully craptastic batchelor food. Yes, that's correct, when the Naginata is away, the Ronin will eat things that give him heartburn and stomachaches! The Craptasti-ganza has begun!
Last night, I picked up the following things at the grocery to enable my bad eating habits:
Tater Tots $1.5 (mmm... these would go great with)...
Fish Sticks $4 (now we're talkin'!)
Pizza Rolls $3 (that's right, they're like pizzas, in bite sized rolls!)
Pizza $3 (the non-roll variety)
Bread $2.5 (for work sandwiches)
=total $14
I had the pizza rolls last night, and some heartburn to follow it. I learned a very important gastrointestinal fact at that point, when I woke up with a burning windpipe. Ginger. Ginger helps combat heartburn. It's crazy, but it works. After discovering this fact thanks to the world wide Intarwebblogtubes, I borrowed a couple of Budget Naginata's ginger Altoids and felt it subside surprisingly quick. There was also something with Baking Soda that sounded less palatable that I'm glad I didn't have to test out.
I'm planning on having half of my fish sticks and tater tots tonight. I know you're jealous, but it's ok, I'll have a few extra on your behalf.
I may have to go back to the store later this week for some Kraft Mac & Cheese Dinner. I'm already feeling compelled to do so. It's not my fault, really. I blame escalating tension in Iran over their nuclear program.
Hot Tub Update: No one has purchased it yet, but I have an offer from someone for half of what I posted for it. They said they would be able to come get it next week. I told them they could have it, assuming no one bid higher. Right now, I don't see that happening. It's depressing, but it will be out of the way and I'll at least get a bit more back than we paid for the motor repair diagnosis. I find it oddly fitting that I paid extra for our house to keep the hot tub and I spent a fair amount to buy a good cover for it (which it was lacking) and I get next to nothing for it. Consider that when you look at your purchasing habits.
Exceptions to the Rule: So when we began the Challenge, Budget Naginata and I agreed that any money given to us as gifts could be spent however we wanted. A week or so ago, it was the birthday of the ever-lovin' Budget Ronin, so I have a small amount of cash to spend. I dropped about half of it to replace my ailing computer processor and motherboard. It is a slight upgrade for a system that is 5 years old. So... It's now like a 4 year old computer. *sigh*. I need some decent bank to buy a more serious gaming machine, so I'm looking at that for the next year or so, when we've absolved some of our debt concerns. As to the rest of my birthday booty, I will be buying Guitar Hero 2 for our console. I will then proceed to rock my troubles away. If you approach the Budget Castle and hear the rock, it is I. You have been warned.
Days of Shoppings Past
Found these receipts from the other week, July 30, 07. Looks to be two stops on the way home, both groceries:
Granola $1.5
Soup $2.5
Muffin $1
Cheese $6
Strawberries $1
Lunchmeats $12
Eggs $2
Milk $3
=total $30
-> Stop 2:
Cat Litter $6
Chocolate Syrup $3
Espresso $2
Coffee $2
Toilet Paper $4
Bread $2
Cat Food $11
=total $32
It is here that our tale ends.
Granola $1.5
Soup $2.5
Muffin $1
Cheese $6
Strawberries $1
Lunchmeats $12
Eggs $2
Milk $3
=total $30
-> Stop 2:
Cat Litter $6
Chocolate Syrup $3
Espresso $2
Coffee $2
Toilet Paper $4
Bread $2
Cat Food $11
=total $32
It is here that our tale ends.
Friday, August 3, 2007
A Penny for Your Downfall!
Last night it happened. As we sat together in marital harmony, Budget Naginata told me that I should really hear the tune that she had purchased from the iTunes Store that day. It was a catchy thing that had been bouncing around her head all day.
I stared across the ever-widening gap between us. She looked at me, a look of horror spreading across her face.
"Oh my. That's against the rules, isn't it?"
I nodded. Her .99 buy across the internet broke the sacred trust of our agreement not to purchase frivilous things. We agreed it was a vanity purchase and that she was wholly in the wrong. We have not weighted a measurement system for the severity of the punishment she should recieve, but it will be mighty!
O_o
Ok, seriously. She did buy the song and thought nothing of it. She had a revalation the minute she told me about it. We had a pretty good laugh and she said she wouldn't do it again. It is against the rules, but there are no penalties. The penalties are inflicted upon us by our creditors and banks. No need for us to make it worse on ourselves.
"But that's how it happens, you know," she added during the conversation. "You don't even think about it a lot of time, buying things, that is. And then you've spent your money and don't know where it has gone."
She's right. That's the whole point of the challenge. The sharpening of our financial awareness. This year, I grant you, it's about not spending money, but overall the challenge is about spending money better, with analysis and thought, not just haphazzardly. Naginata's iTune song will not bounce any checks, but it serves as a pretty good reminder, this day, our 100th day of the challenge.
Happy 100th day of whatever the heck we're calling this! YAY!!! One hundred days later, we're still kicking! Stronger than ever!
To pile onto the compost pile of better news, the Budget-Truck isn't as bad off as I thought it was. It was just more far gone than the tiny battery of the Budget-Mobile was going to recover. When AAA showed up the other day, they got it started by plugging me up to their mega-jump-battery. I drove it home. The new assessment is: New Battery required. I hope I can get to that within the next week or so. I'll update you as that progresses.
I have recieved a few more inquiries on the hot tub, but I decided to revise the ad and add another picture depicting the "wear and tear" the other interested people had been put off by. I'm hoping this drives more people towards me that will avoid looking down their nose at me.
That's all I have to put on the Ronin-report for now.
I stared across the ever-widening gap between us. She looked at me, a look of horror spreading across her face.
"Oh my. That's against the rules, isn't it?"
I nodded. Her .99 buy across the internet broke the sacred trust of our agreement not to purchase frivilous things. We agreed it was a vanity purchase and that she was wholly in the wrong. We have not weighted a measurement system for the severity of the punishment she should recieve, but it will be mighty!
O_o
Ok, seriously. She did buy the song and thought nothing of it. She had a revalation the minute she told me about it. We had a pretty good laugh and she said she wouldn't do it again. It is against the rules, but there are no penalties. The penalties are inflicted upon us by our creditors and banks. No need for us to make it worse on ourselves.
"But that's how it happens, you know," she added during the conversation. "You don't even think about it a lot of time, buying things, that is. And then you've spent your money and don't know where it has gone."
She's right. That's the whole point of the challenge. The sharpening of our financial awareness. This year, I grant you, it's about not spending money, but overall the challenge is about spending money better, with analysis and thought, not just haphazzardly. Naginata's iTune song will not bounce any checks, but it serves as a pretty good reminder, this day, our 100th day of the challenge.
Happy 100th day of whatever the heck we're calling this! YAY!!! One hundred days later, we're still kicking! Stronger than ever!
To pile onto the compost pile of better news, the Budget-Truck isn't as bad off as I thought it was. It was just more far gone than the tiny battery of the Budget-Mobile was going to recover. When AAA showed up the other day, they got it started by plugging me up to their mega-jump-battery. I drove it home. The new assessment is: New Battery required. I hope I can get to that within the next week or so. I'll update you as that progresses.
I have recieved a few more inquiries on the hot tub, but I decided to revise the ad and add another picture depicting the "wear and tear" the other interested people had been put off by. I'm hoping this drives more people towards me that will avoid looking down their nose at me.
That's all I have to put on the Ronin-report for now.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Broken-down , Waterlogged and Forgotten.
So... the Budget-Truck is busted. Currently it's sitting in a parking lot waiting for me to tow it home. I want to tow it to a repairman to get it fixed, but I don't have the cash to make that happen, so I scraped some cash together and renewed my AAA membership for $60. I plan on getting it dragged back to the house this afternoon. As it stands, Budget Naginata and Edamame take me to the public train every morning. It's probably better for our budget anyway, but I will confess I'm a bit angry at the loss of a working vehicle and an unknown cost ahead of us for repairs.
The much ballyhooed Hot Tub is back up on the market. Last night two different people came to look at it and consider my very cheap price. Both turned me down. I know the tub is in good enough condition, but it looks a bit long in the tooth, so people have given me the stink eye about it. I don't really know what they expected. They are looking on craigslist for a used hot tub. Mine is marked way down and I even have in the description that I'm willing to negotiate (i.e. take LESS money) if they want to bother. It's a bit aggrivating to me. You'd think that if they wanted to knit-pick and complain about its imperfections, they would spend their time and effort to buy a new one.
And finally... This morning I arrived at the train station to discover I left my new monthly pass at home. I had to drop $13 for a day's pass and the new refillable plastic passcard that the system is using. $13 is about a quarter of what I pay for my discounted monthly pass. I feel fairly violated.
Bleh. I suppose this is why it's called "Hump Day."
The much ballyhooed Hot Tub is back up on the market. Last night two different people came to look at it and consider my very cheap price. Both turned me down. I know the tub is in good enough condition, but it looks a bit long in the tooth, so people have given me the stink eye about it. I don't really know what they expected. They are looking on craigslist for a used hot tub. Mine is marked way down and I even have in the description that I'm willing to negotiate (i.e. take LESS money) if they want to bother. It's a bit aggrivating to me. You'd think that if they wanted to knit-pick and complain about its imperfections, they would spend their time and effort to buy a new one.
And finally... This morning I arrived at the train station to discover I left my new monthly pass at home. I had to drop $13 for a day's pass and the new refillable plastic passcard that the system is using. $13 is about a quarter of what I pay for my discounted monthly pass. I feel fairly violated.
Bleh. I suppose this is why it's called "Hump Day."
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Ten Times Less Controversial
We're almost 100 days in. I started this challenge with just over a years' worth of time (371 days). We're counting down to 273 days on August 1st, tomorrow, and it's been a ride so far. Things are more comfortable now, to be sure. Things are more reflexive now than they were at the beginning. Things also don't seem so grim. We've still had our moments, but if this is the comfortable middle, we're doing fairly well.
So... I got a haircut two days ago. I dropped $40 at a place by the office. I did it for convenience more than anything else, but the cut wasn't that bad. I don't get my hair cut often for an office-dweller, so you probably won't see me expense this again for some time. I don't consider this frivilous because the company I work for has some fairly strict standards on appearance. It's not Draconian, by any measure, but I was getting to the point where I was going to have to use some serious hair product to keep my coiffure in place, so I decided this is no different than shaving and I haven't put an embargo on shaving cream and razors (though I wish I could, I feel environmentally bad about throwing away all those razor-bits). Utimately, I still reasoned I was 10x less controversial than the fabled $400 John Edwards haircut of not-so-longago.
Budget Naginata has some other receipts I know she hasn't entered. That's not a condemnation, I just want to assure you people we're not just eating air and good wishes. This comes from a loose receipt she put down near my things the other day, I swiped it to enter here:
Muffins $2
Herbs $4
Zucchini $2
Granola $2
Fruits $10
Salt $4
Potatoes $6
Pasta $2
Onions $1
[ Total of $32 ]
This past Saturday (7.28.07), I made a trip to get some fixin's for the superlarge potatoes Naginata picked up. I also got other things:
Haircolor $9
Sour Cream $2
Sausage $3
Cheese $2
Bacon $4
Sodas $7
[ Total of $27 ]
The Haircolor was for Naginata. She doesn't dye like every week and she actually wasn't going to do it, but she recently got her hair cut, too, so she needed a fresh coat. I did some comparisons and got something affordable that would suit her needs. Some may consider them vanity items, but I don't, any more than any other "hygene" product. You don't technically "need" to shave or groom at all, other than staying clean for health reasons, but we all do it because it makes us feel more complete. That's all I'll say on that.
On Monday (7.30.07), we "splurged" and got sandwiches / sushi at the in-store deli when we picked up a couple of other things. It was a nice treat that is our only built-in cheat other than allowing other people to buy us lunch or dinner on occasion during the length of the contest.
Sandwich $8 (all me, I got a big one)
Cherries $5
Sushi $5
Gummi Worms $.50 (a treat for a well-behaved Budget Edamame who was out later than she should have been)
Cider $8
[ Total $26.50 ]
Well, that's caught us up on some of the spend. I am trying to post more regularly. Sorry I hit a slump a few weeks back. I have other, unrelated news I'll post seperately.
So... I got a haircut two days ago. I dropped $40 at a place by the office. I did it for convenience more than anything else, but the cut wasn't that bad. I don't get my hair cut often for an office-dweller, so you probably won't see me expense this again for some time. I don't consider this frivilous because the company I work for has some fairly strict standards on appearance. It's not Draconian, by any measure, but I was getting to the point where I was going to have to use some serious hair product to keep my coiffure in place, so I decided this is no different than shaving and I haven't put an embargo on shaving cream and razors (though I wish I could, I feel environmentally bad about throwing away all those razor-bits). Utimately, I still reasoned I was 10x less controversial than the fabled $400 John Edwards haircut of not-so-longago.
Budget Naginata has some other receipts I know she hasn't entered. That's not a condemnation, I just want to assure you people we're not just eating air and good wishes. This comes from a loose receipt she put down near my things the other day, I swiped it to enter here:
Muffins $2
Herbs $4
Zucchini $2
Granola $2
Fruits $10
Salt $4
Potatoes $6
Pasta $2
Onions $1
[ Total of $32 ]
This past Saturday (7.28.07), I made a trip to get some fixin's for the superlarge potatoes Naginata picked up. I also got other things:
Haircolor $9
Sour Cream $2
Sausage $3
Cheese $2
Bacon $4
Sodas $7
[ Total of $27 ]
The Haircolor was for Naginata. She doesn't dye like every week and she actually wasn't going to do it, but she recently got her hair cut, too, so she needed a fresh coat. I did some comparisons and got something affordable that would suit her needs. Some may consider them vanity items, but I don't, any more than any other "hygene" product. You don't technically "need" to shave or groom at all, other than staying clean for health reasons, but we all do it because it makes us feel more complete. That's all I'll say on that.
On Monday (7.30.07), we "splurged" and got sandwiches / sushi at the in-store deli when we picked up a couple of other things. It was a nice treat that is our only built-in cheat other than allowing other people to buy us lunch or dinner on occasion during the length of the contest.
Sandwich $8 (all me, I got a big one)
Cherries $5
Sushi $5
Gummi Worms $.50 (a treat for a well-behaved Budget Edamame who was out later than she should have been)
Cider $8
[ Total $26.50 ]
Well, that's caught us up on some of the spend. I am trying to post more regularly. Sorry I hit a slump a few weeks back. I have other, unrelated news I'll post seperately.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
There and Back Again: A Ronin's Tale.
I was out of the office all last week. In fact, I was on the road for a training seminar to help make me better at what it is that I do... for my job, that is. All the snappy one-liners and clever pop references you get in my blog is more of a talent, not really my career (damn my luck). So I got a budget and a cash advance to take care of my foods. I had to account for everything I bought/ate and turned in expenses at the end of the trip. As you might imagine, not so tough given the goals of this challenge. The goal was to spend pretty much everything that I budget and not to go over, because I don't want it to come out of my pocket. How close did I come? Twenty four dollars ($24). I went over budget on the last night out.
To be fair, I submitted my expense report to cover and I will be reimbursed my $24, so it all works out in the end.
I got to eat pretty much wherever I wanted, whatever I wanted and it was paid for. The downside was... uh... I don't make very good decisions on what to eat in situations like that? Yeah, I pretty much planned on heartburn and gas for the entire week. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I thought: no rumbly stomach, no long turns on the loo (that's me being all continental). Budget Naginata feeds me more healthy food than I ever managed on my own (I still contest that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner is a meal unto itself), so I wasn't sure if a week of primal Ronin would do my body good. At the very least, I don't think it's done my body too much wrong.
Inasmuch as I hated being away from Budget Naginata and Budget Edamame all week long, I did enjoy the virtual reward of splurging on my meals during that time out. I don't know why that's really a reward, I mean I had to sit through hours of class for it and travel uncomfortably away from home. The ride up and back was uncomfortable, the hotel room was actually pretty nice. I even had had room service delivered in my underware (to clarify: I was in my underware, not the room service folks), which is how I like it.
Some of the other people I met in the class went out more at night, saw some movies and enjoyed entertainment. I adhered to the challenge, though, and avoided all other spending, which was tough to do with direct peer pressure, but I did manage.
I'm back to the hardcore grind now and missing my discretionary budget, but it's good to be back home and back to the challenge. To celebrate, I bought gas for the Budget-Mobile and the Budget-Truck: $35.04 and $20.01 respectively. I also got to spend all weekend with my family, which turned out to be a lot more fun than buying gas.
Oh... And my truck is broken again. I'll post about that in a bit.
To be fair, I submitted my expense report to cover and I will be reimbursed my $24, so it all works out in the end.
I got to eat pretty much wherever I wanted, whatever I wanted and it was paid for. The downside was... uh... I don't make very good decisions on what to eat in situations like that? Yeah, I pretty much planned on heartburn and gas for the entire week. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I thought: no rumbly stomach, no long turns on the loo (that's me being all continental). Budget Naginata feeds me more healthy food than I ever managed on my own (I still contest that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner is a meal unto itself), so I wasn't sure if a week of primal Ronin would do my body good. At the very least, I don't think it's done my body too much wrong.
Inasmuch as I hated being away from Budget Naginata and Budget Edamame all week long, I did enjoy the virtual reward of splurging on my meals during that time out. I don't know why that's really a reward, I mean I had to sit through hours of class for it and travel uncomfortably away from home. The ride up and back was uncomfortable, the hotel room was actually pretty nice. I even had had room service delivered in my underware (to clarify: I was in my underware, not the room service folks), which is how I like it.
Some of the other people I met in the class went out more at night, saw some movies and enjoyed entertainment. I adhered to the challenge, though, and avoided all other spending, which was tough to do with direct peer pressure, but I did manage.
I'm back to the hardcore grind now and missing my discretionary budget, but it's good to be back home and back to the challenge. To celebrate, I bought gas for the Budget-Mobile and the Budget-Truck: $35.04 and $20.01 respectively. I also got to spend all weekend with my family, which turned out to be a lot more fun than buying gas.
Oh... And my truck is broken again. I'll post about that in a bit.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
On Transformers and Transforming
Ok, so I deserve lashes or beatings or something for not posting in so long, but at least I beat Budget Naginata back to the list, so I'm holding that over her head. Look. There it is. Over her head. It's a petty victory, but I've always been a fan of Tom Petty.
In the interveining tiem since the last time I've posted, Naginata and I have explored one of the large exceptions to the rule of Budget Law. We have seen a movie. When we started the project back before the beginning of May, some 85 days ago (wow! 85!) we made one exception. There were several movies coming up that we knew we could not resist seeing. I suppose if our lives depended on it, or something of the like happened, we could resist it, but we thought that a good, ongoing reward would be the thrill of a summer blockbuster or two. To be truthful, since the project was taking a full year, we planned as far ahead as possible to any holiday movies as well. We tried to be as honest with ourselves as possible and limit it to movies that would have have the same audio/visual impact on DVD as it would in the theatre.
I'm sure I'm revealing a lot of personal information here, but between Naginata and I, we came up with three movies: Spider-Man 3, Transformers, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. After a slew of lackluster reviews, we actually dropped Spider-Man from the list, but as children of the 80s, we were honor-bound to sit through the Michael-Baytastic cinematic onslaught that was the live-action Transformers movie. I'm not reviewing here, but we were pleased enough to part with our $30 for the whole experience. The sum total includes tickets for Budget Naginata and myself, one bag of popcorn and one drink each. Yes, it was too much money, but we really had a great time and were able to go with a friend of ours, increasing the pleasure of the trip by a factor of fun<-not a statistical absolute, it had a small +/- variance of awesome.
So yes, we are breaking the rule for movies. Only three movies, an agreed upon sum by Naginata and I at the outset of this fiscal campaign. I was hoping that the sale of the hot tub would offset those expenses, but that is not really working out to be the case. I'll have to freelance something else to "make up" for it, but I'm not quite sure what that will be at this moment.
Some more "catching up" updates to come. This post is done.
In the interveining tiem since the last time I've posted, Naginata and I have explored one of the large exceptions to the rule of Budget Law. We have seen a movie. When we started the project back before the beginning of May, some 85 days ago (wow! 85!) we made one exception. There were several movies coming up that we knew we could not resist seeing. I suppose if our lives depended on it, or something of the like happened, we could resist it, but we thought that a good, ongoing reward would be the thrill of a summer blockbuster or two. To be truthful, since the project was taking a full year, we planned as far ahead as possible to any holiday movies as well. We tried to be as honest with ourselves as possible and limit it to movies that would have have the same audio/visual impact on DVD as it would in the theatre.
I'm sure I'm revealing a lot of personal information here, but between Naginata and I, we came up with three movies: Spider-Man 3, Transformers, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. After a slew of lackluster reviews, we actually dropped Spider-Man from the list, but as children of the 80s, we were honor-bound to sit through the Michael-Baytastic cinematic onslaught that was the live-action Transformers movie. I'm not reviewing here, but we were pleased enough to part with our $30 for the whole experience. The sum total includes tickets for Budget Naginata and myself, one bag of popcorn and one drink each. Yes, it was too much money, but we really had a great time and were able to go with a friend of ours, increasing the pleasure of the trip by a factor of fun<-not a statistical absolute, it had a small +/- variance of awesome.
So yes, we are breaking the rule for movies. Only three movies, an agreed upon sum by Naginata and I at the outset of this fiscal campaign. I was hoping that the sale of the hot tub would offset those expenses, but that is not really working out to be the case. I'll have to freelance something else to "make up" for it, but I'm not quite sure what that will be at this moment.
Some more "catching up" updates to come. This post is done.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Your old titles mean nothing here, Captain...
Here is the background you need to know in order to enjoy this story: Budget Naginata has a student loan. When we were married, it was in default. We busted our hump to get it out. At the top of the year, it moved out of default into a regular account. We were happy. The loan is for 5,000,000 Quatloos (this is a fictious sum using the method of currency favored by Star Trek's Gamesters of Triskelion - Making bad Star Trek references will be the only real fun I will have during this story).
So here is the horrible followup to this wonderful story of personal financial accomplishment.
This morning, the polite representative from the Politely Invasive Collection Agency (not their real name) calls Naginata at home. They claim that we have defaulted on our loan and we are in collections again. She freaks a bit, gets a number and calls me. I reassure her that we've been paying every month, on time, to keep ourselves in the black. I tell her, correctly so, that I've been making sure they take my hard earned Quatloos by check every month. I get her to give me the collection agency information so that I can call them back and square this all up.
I call back the collections agent and speak with them for a bit. They insist they have heard from the Department of Education (sadly the real agency and not a ficticious one) and that the request is accurate. They give me a number to call and I do. Sure enough, it's the DoE Default Group. I talk to one of their representatives and over the course of the next twenty or so minutes try to understand exactly what she is telling me. I'll see if I can make it more clear than was presented to me. All Stardates and Quatloo amounts are fictional. The pain is real:
SD 4285.6: A new year! We finish our rehabilitation with the PICA. We are told we can be moved into a normal loan repayment account.
SD 4377.2: We file our Federal Tax Return with the IRS. Our expected refund is 25,000 Quatloos.
SD 4412.7: The Federal Government witholds our tax refund, telling us we are in default with our student loan and the refund will be applied to the loan.
SD 4599.3: Unbeknownst to us, the Government gives the PICA our 25,000 Quatloos. Our new balance, before the rollover from our rehab account is now 4,975,000 Quatloos.
SD 4621.6: We file an Injured Spouse claim, saying that the Government is flat out wrong and we do deserve our 25,000 Quatloos.
SD 4745.9: The old defaulted loan with the PICA is closed and a new loan is begun for our remaining 4,975,000 Quatloos with the Happy Friendly School Loan People (HFSLP). We don't immediately notice anything because we have been told some of our "penalty fees" will be forgiven at the end of our rehabilitaion. Since this seems pretty close to what we owe, we are grateful and begin paying on our new plan to the HFSLP
SD 4882.0: The Federal Goverment decides to honor our Injured Spouse claim and give us our 25,000 Quatloos. In fact, what they have actually done is recall the deposit they made on our behalf and then cut us a check. Why is this important? Because this was money owed to the PICA. We have just shafted them 25,000 Quatloos. They reopen our account.
SD 4923.3: We blissfully continue to pay HFSLP our Quatloos for the remainder of the 4,975,000 that we owe, not realizing that we actually still owe another 25,000 to the PICA, because our "refund" has robbed the PICA to pay us. This can't go on our current HFSLP loan because the HFSLP were never short any money. As far as they are concerned, we're all paid up.
SD now-ish: The PICA calls us because we've defaulted on money we legitimately owe them. They claim we have been notified by mail, but neither Naginata or I recall anything from them regarding the outstanding 25,000 Quatloos. It wouldn't have mattered much anyway, because we don't have 25,000 Quatloos just lying around. By Spock! We're not the Providers. We're not made of Quatloos, people!
So now we are in default for 25,000 Quatloos. Had the Injured Spouse paperwork gone through before the transfer from PICA to HFSLP, none of this would have happened. Had we not filed the Injured Spouse report and let the Government keep our money, none of this would have happened. As it stands, we had to start yet another rehab program (Rehab 2: Electric Boogaloo, the Wrath of Loan) with them. This adds yet another monthly payment to our large stack of monthly payments. We are doing all this to be good and pay off our debts and hopefully improve and simplify our lives at the end of it all. Right now it just feels as if we're taking it up the photon torpedo tube. And it hurts.
On the positive side, the representative at PICA was exceptionally nice and allowed us to do this, even though he was under no obligation to do so. He could have just held us up for the full amount. But since we were happily paying off a whole bunch more already and it was obvious that this was all just a matter of bad timing, he gave us a minimum payment amount for the next nine months (I can't easily convert that into starmonths or whatever the hell they use). At that point, it should roll over to join our close to 5 million Quatloo motherload loan. At least, that is the best they can tell us.
Man is that confusing. Honestly, Tribbles make more sense than this crazy mess. I think I'd rather wear be wearing a Collar of Obedience and fighting gladatorial games against the Game Thralls rather than dealing with all of this. I would also be content had I been away filming The Green Berets like George Takei.
Damn Lucky Sulu.
So here is the horrible followup to this wonderful story of personal financial accomplishment.
This morning, the polite representative from the Politely Invasive Collection Agency (not their real name) calls Naginata at home. They claim that we have defaulted on our loan and we are in collections again. She freaks a bit, gets a number and calls me. I reassure her that we've been paying every month, on time, to keep ourselves in the black. I tell her, correctly so, that I've been making sure they take my hard earned Quatloos by check every month. I get her to give me the collection agency information so that I can call them back and square this all up.
I call back the collections agent and speak with them for a bit. They insist they have heard from the Department of Education (sadly the real agency and not a ficticious one) and that the request is accurate. They give me a number to call and I do. Sure enough, it's the DoE Default Group. I talk to one of their representatives and over the course of the next twenty or so minutes try to understand exactly what she is telling me. I'll see if I can make it more clear than was presented to me. All Stardates and Quatloo amounts are fictional. The pain is real:
SD 4285.6: A new year! We finish our rehabilitation with the PICA. We are told we can be moved into a normal loan repayment account.
SD 4377.2: We file our Federal Tax Return with the IRS. Our expected refund is 25,000 Quatloos.
SD 4412.7: The Federal Government witholds our tax refund, telling us we are in default with our student loan and the refund will be applied to the loan.
SD 4599.3: Unbeknownst to us, the Government gives the PICA our 25,000 Quatloos. Our new balance, before the rollover from our rehab account is now 4,975,000 Quatloos.
SD 4621.6: We file an Injured Spouse claim, saying that the Government is flat out wrong and we do deserve our 25,000 Quatloos.
SD 4745.9: The old defaulted loan with the PICA is closed and a new loan is begun for our remaining 4,975,000 Quatloos with the Happy Friendly School Loan People (HFSLP). We don't immediately notice anything because we have been told some of our "penalty fees" will be forgiven at the end of our rehabilitaion. Since this seems pretty close to what we owe, we are grateful and begin paying on our new plan to the HFSLP
SD 4882.0: The Federal Goverment decides to honor our Injured Spouse claim and give us our 25,000 Quatloos. In fact, what they have actually done is recall the deposit they made on our behalf and then cut us a check. Why is this important? Because this was money owed to the PICA. We have just shafted them 25,000 Quatloos. They reopen our account.
SD 4923.3: We blissfully continue to pay HFSLP our Quatloos for the remainder of the 4,975,000 that we owe, not realizing that we actually still owe another 25,000 to the PICA, because our "refund" has robbed the PICA to pay us. This can't go on our current HFSLP loan because the HFSLP were never short any money. As far as they are concerned, we're all paid up.
SD now-ish: The PICA calls us because we've defaulted on money we legitimately owe them. They claim we have been notified by mail, but neither Naginata or I recall anything from them regarding the outstanding 25,000 Quatloos. It wouldn't have mattered much anyway, because we don't have 25,000 Quatloos just lying around. By Spock! We're not the Providers. We're not made of Quatloos, people!
So now we are in default for 25,000 Quatloos. Had the Injured Spouse paperwork gone through before the transfer from PICA to HFSLP, none of this would have happened. Had we not filed the Injured Spouse report and let the Government keep our money, none of this would have happened. As it stands, we had to start yet another rehab program (Rehab 2: Electric Boogaloo, the Wrath of Loan) with them. This adds yet another monthly payment to our large stack of monthly payments. We are doing all this to be good and pay off our debts and hopefully improve and simplify our lives at the end of it all. Right now it just feels as if we're taking it up the photon torpedo tube. And it hurts.
On the positive side, the representative at PICA was exceptionally nice and allowed us to do this, even though he was under no obligation to do so. He could have just held us up for the full amount. But since we were happily paying off a whole bunch more already and it was obvious that this was all just a matter of bad timing, he gave us a minimum payment amount for the next nine months (I can't easily convert that into starmonths or whatever the hell they use). At that point, it should roll over to join our close to 5 million Quatloo motherload loan. At least, that is the best they can tell us.
Man is that confusing. Honestly, Tribbles make more sense than this crazy mess. I think I'd rather wear be wearing a Collar of Obedience and fighting gladatorial games against the Game Thralls rather than dealing with all of this. I would also be content had I been away filming The Green Berets like George Takei.
Damn Lucky Sulu.
Ronin Holiday*
So we left off with me going to give blood. Ok, well that was an interesting little fiasco all on its own, but I was able to drop off a good pint for a good cause, which is the most important thing. That night, I took my coupon for free ice cream to the local grocery store and picked up a pint of chocolate. The cashier was nice enough to donate the .06 cents for sales tax that I naively didn't anticipate. She had good spirits about the exchange, so I thanked her and went home to split my spoils with the lovely Budget Naginata.
A couple of days later, my paycheck clears, so we're off to the grocery store. Naginata is prepping for a crafts class she'll be teaching all week long, so we get good stuff for her lunch and prep for my week managing our Budget Edamame. It will be Father and Daughter against the world, kind of like Lone Wolf and Cub, except with less ninjas (which is a real shame, if you ask me).
$2 Kids Toothpaste
$5 Peppers
$3 Corn
$7 Granola Bars (x4)
$6 French Bread Pizzas (x2)
$3 Instant Grits
$2 Bananas
$2 Crumbles (vegitarian ground meat replacement)
$2 Nectarines
$7 Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Mushrooms
$5 Boca Burgers
$4 Cheese
$3 Sausage
$6 Porkchops
$8 Beer
$2 Watermelon
$8 Milk (x2)
$7 Cat Litter (x2)
$7 Coke (x2)
$1 Charity Donation
Total $90
We also topped off the gas tank to make sure we could get around that week.
$17 gas
So Monday rolls around and due to inclimate weather, we spend time around the house playing and watching movies. It's a lot of fun and fairly relaxing. We decided to grill out that night, but we ran out of propane.
$15 propane
Tuesday finds us at the zoo. Naginata has, much earlier in the year, purchased season passes, so the only outlay on my part is $3 on a joint carousel/train ride that is in the kids' section of the zoo. She loves it and after seeing it, I'm glad it only cost $3, because there is like no way I'm not going to be able to leave with my sanity if she can't have at least one ride. We pick up Naginata from work and start all over again the next day.
Wednesday we had planned to have a "playdate" with some of Edamame's friends, but it did not happen. I ended up having my father, Papa Ronin, come over and help me plan out a small project that would involve me crawling underneath my house a lot. Papa Ronin rolls over in his big truck, talks way too much, and succumbs to the charms of his granddaughter, taking us both to get nuggets of chik, from the local Chik-fil-A. The rest of the afternoon was general playtime. That night, Naginata brought home some fresh herbs that someone had gifted her for her craft class. She made some delicious pesto with it, but we had to pick up some pasta at the store.
$1.5 Eggs
$5.5 Family Sized Tortillini
$1 Garlic
Total $8
The garlic was for the pesto. The eggs were not for the pesto, we were just out of eggs.
Thursday was similar to Wednesday, but we had planned to see Edamame's other grandfather at the beginning of the week, so we killed some time at a park in the morning, ate one more free lunch and had a general good time of it. We picked up Naginata from work and called it a day.
Friday was spent much in the same way as Monday, though not because of the weather. Edamame and I walked around the neighborhood a bit, but generally bummed around and played. Naginata and I spent most of the time prepping ourselves for a long Saturday.
Saturday I spent most of the day with Papa Ronin under my house. We were stringing, restringing and moving cables in order to reorganize our house. The work was successful, but all parts of me were sore, and there was no part left unworked. Naginata spent the day out with Edamame and my mother, Mama Ronin. So over the course of the day, we got a free puppet show for the kid, some free handiwork for me and all for the low, low cost of being reminded that we don't do things like they do and are generally less successful than them in pretty much every aspect. Yes, I have a small "thing" with my parents, but "no" it doesn't really belong here, so I'll drop it.
Sunday was a day of rest, as ordained by me, the spiritual head of the household. I have a certificate to prove it.
Whew. Long vacation recap. I'm posting this now, because my return to work has been crazy busy and other financial news has had us scrambling since then. I'll post about that shortly.
So, to recap: Yay for time off with my wonderful wife and daughter. Boo for still having crazy finances and debt (yes, this wasn't likely to change over the course of a week, I just thought I throw it in there). Ok. That's all I have for now.
*Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were not harmed during the writing of this post.
A couple of days later, my paycheck clears, so we're off to the grocery store. Naginata is prepping for a crafts class she'll be teaching all week long, so we get good stuff for her lunch and prep for my week managing our Budget Edamame. It will be Father and Daughter against the world, kind of like Lone Wolf and Cub, except with less ninjas (which is a real shame, if you ask me).
$2 Kids Toothpaste
$5 Peppers
$3 Corn
$7 Granola Bars (x4)
$6 French Bread Pizzas (x2)
$3 Instant Grits
$2 Bananas
$2 Crumbles (vegitarian ground meat replacement)
$2 Nectarines
$7 Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Mushrooms
$5 Boca Burgers
$4 Cheese
$3 Sausage
$6 Porkchops
$8 Beer
$2 Watermelon
$8 Milk (x2)
$7 Cat Litter (x2)
$7 Coke (x2)
$1 Charity Donation
Total $90
We also topped off the gas tank to make sure we could get around that week.
$17 gas
So Monday rolls around and due to inclimate weather, we spend time around the house playing and watching movies. It's a lot of fun and fairly relaxing. We decided to grill out that night, but we ran out of propane.
$15 propane
Tuesday finds us at the zoo. Naginata has, much earlier in the year, purchased season passes, so the only outlay on my part is $3 on a joint carousel/train ride that is in the kids' section of the zoo. She loves it and after seeing it, I'm glad it only cost $3, because there is like no way I'm not going to be able to leave with my sanity if she can't have at least one ride. We pick up Naginata from work and start all over again the next day.
Wednesday we had planned to have a "playdate" with some of Edamame's friends, but it did not happen. I ended up having my father, Papa Ronin, come over and help me plan out a small project that would involve me crawling underneath my house a lot. Papa Ronin rolls over in his big truck, talks way too much, and succumbs to the charms of his granddaughter, taking us both to get nuggets of chik, from the local Chik-fil-A. The rest of the afternoon was general playtime. That night, Naginata brought home some fresh herbs that someone had gifted her for her craft class. She made some delicious pesto with it, but we had to pick up some pasta at the store.
$1.5 Eggs
$5.5 Family Sized Tortillini
$1 Garlic
Total $8
The garlic was for the pesto. The eggs were not for the pesto, we were just out of eggs.
Thursday was similar to Wednesday, but we had planned to see Edamame's other grandfather at the beginning of the week, so we killed some time at a park in the morning, ate one more free lunch and had a general good time of it. We picked up Naginata from work and called it a day.
Friday was spent much in the same way as Monday, though not because of the weather. Edamame and I walked around the neighborhood a bit, but generally bummed around and played. Naginata and I spent most of the time prepping ourselves for a long Saturday.
Saturday I spent most of the day with Papa Ronin under my house. We were stringing, restringing and moving cables in order to reorganize our house. The work was successful, but all parts of me were sore, and there was no part left unworked. Naginata spent the day out with Edamame and my mother, Mama Ronin. So over the course of the day, we got a free puppet show for the kid, some free handiwork for me and all for the low, low cost of being reminded that we don't do things like they do and are generally less successful than them in pretty much every aspect. Yes, I have a small "thing" with my parents, but "no" it doesn't really belong here, so I'll drop it.
Sunday was a day of rest, as ordained by me, the spiritual head of the household. I have a certificate to prove it.
Whew. Long vacation recap. I'm posting this now, because my return to work has been crazy busy and other financial news has had us scrambling since then. I'll post about that shortly.
So, to recap: Yay for time off with my wonderful wife and daughter. Boo for still having crazy finances and debt (yes, this wasn't likely to change over the course of a week, I just thought I throw it in there). Ok. That's all I have for now.
*Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were not harmed during the writing of this post.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Visiting Margaritaville
I'm the thick of a few projects, which is good, because I like working, but bad, because I also like being lazy.
I bought $20 worth of gas for the Budget-Truck on Saturday because I had to haul a new sofa. New to us only, it was generously donated by a relative who has been redecorating.
From another family member, recently returned from a jaunt to Mexico, we recieved a gift of Tequila, so the Budget Clan decided on making delicious margaritas. A quick trip to the store netted me:
$2 Chips
$7 Margarita mix
$1 Limes
It was like a party in my house for $10. Can't beat that.
Later this week there is a Blood Drive at work. I would have signed up anyway, but the sponsors of the drive are giving away a gift certificate for a pint of Haagen Daaz icecream for a donation. Also, since I'm going at lunch, a local sandwich vendor is giving away free box lunches. Double score! All for doing a good deed. I don't know if that's considered instant Karma, but a penny-pinching ronin is certainly glad for any break he can catch.
I'm putting what's left of the Hot Tub back up for sale. I'm bummed about the blown pump, and the interested buyer who seemed good to take it off of our hands but backed out at the last minute. I've decided to relist it and see what we can get for it, regardless. Any money is better than no money and the reduced clutter would be welcome.
I'm just glad there is tequila and margarita mix to spare.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Six-week-a-versary
Tomorrow, June 6th, marks the close of the 6th real-time week of the Mayday Financial Challenge. Since I actually started a few days over a full year, we still have those few extra days before we can say only 46 weeks left. Even still, this is still just the beginning. It's been rough getting this all started. You can pump up your enthusiasm easily for a week or so, but when you have things like birthdays and graduations get in the way, the temptation to drop some dollars is very tantalizing. At the end of last week, Naginata and I attended a birthday party for a friend of ours. He's into music and computer games, like us, and it would have been easy to give him something from either of those catagories for a gift. But I took a cue from my partner in life and took the extra time out to put together a piece of art for him, instead.
Well, it's not as noble as it originally sounds. I promised him and some of our gaming buddies to do a round of character portraits way back at christmas, so this has been a long time coming. However, I'm looking at it positively, trying to draw inspiration from my efforts. [1] I did finish it on time and gift it. [2] It was well recieved and personal in a way that a CD or game can only hope to be. [3] It was rewarding for me to work on some art and complete a section of my long-overdue xmas* project.
A lot of this challenge already parallels this story. We don't have any extra money, still, so we're going to have to be creative and think outside of our normal methods of solving our problems in order to be satisfied. To be honest, this is the second time (the tail-light being the first) since the challenge started that some effort and creative thinking has given me more satisfaction than simply spending money ever could have.
I put $35.87 worth of gas in the Budget-mobile this morning. I am now taunting Naginata for not posting her expendatures.
*whenever I write christmas as xmas, I always think the x stands for EXTREME! Extrememas just has such a clever ring to it. When I say it out loud it sounds like EXTREME ASS, which makes me laugh with juvenile glee.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Short post, long weekend.
It was a busy holiday weekend. One of Naginata's younger brother's graduated from High School, so we packed up the Budget-mobile and went to celebrate. There was much festivity and we ended up dropping a little bit of cash in related expenses:
$8.99 camera battery
$2.49 card
$2.49 card
$7.99 gift
$23.50 total on what I would consider the first real non-essential items I've bought since the contest started. But graduation only happens once, so I don't feel bad about it at all. We would have easily dropped a larger sum on a gift if we hadn't tapped the bank already. We are waiting for my next check, reminding us once again about spending and saving and why we're on this crazy trip to begin with.
$8.99 camera battery
$2.49 card
$2.49 card
$7.99 gift
$23.50 total on what I would consider the first real non-essential items I've bought since the contest started. But graduation only happens once, so I don't feel bad about it at all. We would have easily dropped a larger sum on a gift if we hadn't tapped the bank already. We are waiting for my next check, reminding us once again about spending and saving and why we're on this crazy trip to begin with.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Fuel.
Some days it's a bit easier than others. I get a free lunch from in my office or donuts down in the breakroom make for a tasty snack. Other days it's a bit harder and I feel my belly grumble or hear people talk about meeting friends out for a nice dinner and I realize I still have many, many more days to go. It's not all about food, but I think we've definately handled our food by convenience and moving away from that model is proving to be aggravating.
I think once we get under 300 days left, I might feel like we've accomplished something bigger. As it stands, I think we've had some good luck and an initial adrenaline rush of starting something new. I fear what may happen around day 200 of the challenge when the thrill has gotten a bit stale. I'd make some comment about my attention span and our modern society, but I fear it lacks any fresh insight.
I am encouraged, however, by our continued string of tiny improvements for little or no money and how our friends seem supportive and understanding. I think maybe even a couple have gotten inspired to examine their own spending habits in light of our initial success. I also find the "thrill" of buying things has diminished somewhat. I'm more looking forward to some personal art projects than I am the next video game or DVD. I also feel like it's a good time to have a better connection with Naginata and Edamame, if for no other reason than to keep communication open on things that are working/not working and what things have made us happy during this time.
I'm sure I'll have something more to share soon. Until then:
$20.01 in gas on the Budget-Truck this past Tuesday (5/22/07).
I think once we get under 300 days left, I might feel like we've accomplished something bigger. As it stands, I think we've had some good luck and an initial adrenaline rush of starting something new. I fear what may happen around day 200 of the challenge when the thrill has gotten a bit stale. I'd make some comment about my attention span and our modern society, but I fear it lacks any fresh insight.
I am encouraged, however, by our continued string of tiny improvements for little or no money and how our friends seem supportive and understanding. I think maybe even a couple have gotten inspired to examine their own spending habits in light of our initial success. I also find the "thrill" of buying things has diminished somewhat. I'm more looking forward to some personal art projects than I am the next video game or DVD. I also feel like it's a good time to have a better connection with Naginata and Edamame, if for no other reason than to keep communication open on things that are working/not working and what things have made us happy during this time.
I'm sure I'll have something more to share soon. Until then:
$20.01 in gas on the Budget-Truck this past Tuesday (5/22/07).
Monday, May 21, 2007
A Google Spreadsheet!
As some of my friends know I am a sucker for any kind of spreadsheet or document program. So here is the Food, Gas, Treats spreadsheet for this experiment!
Click Here!
This should open in a new window. This is so it's easier for me to track the totals for the month of these items. :)
Click Here!
This should open in a new window. This is so it's easier for me to track the totals for the month of these items. :)
the daily spend 5 -18 to 5 - 21
First off I'd like to say there is a whole Lowe's Hardware saga that involves 4 receipts and too many explanations so there will just be a total that comprises all of the receipts. Second yay us for the cool "not losing our heads with the car handling crisis of 2007". Seriously, yay. Onto the spending...
5/18/07
Publix:
Potato chips $2
Hamburger buns $1
(2) OJ $4
Heavy Whipping Cream $3 (we're making some ice cream!!!)
Cheddar cheese $2
Ground beef $4
total = $15.44
Lowe's:
total = $27.67
+ untold amounts of gas for 2 trips + blood, sweat & tears for what eventually amounted to nothing. blegh. At least we have 2 ramps for the pickup truck in case we ever actually need them. *sigh
Chevron:
Gas $20.01
5/19/07
Dairy Queen @ the mall:
Smoothie $4.25
Again for the Edemame but damn. If there is one thing this challenge is doing for me it's making "small" purchases extremely difficult for me. And that's a good thing. This was a purchase that could have been avoided if I had been more diligent about making sure that a grandparent outing did not go too long. Eating lunch at 2:30pm is fine for adults but not so nice for toddlers.
5/20/07
Publix: (is it any surprise that Edemame recognizes this logo??)
(2) Seltzer $1
Peanuts $2
Tomatoes $2
Garlic .30
Cucumbers $1
Milk $3.50
(2) Bread $6.60 (Damnit. This bread was supposed to be 2 for $5 and I missed it at the cash register. This is the kind of thing that pisses me off to no end. And the kind of thing I wouldn't have cared about last year because I wouldn't know due to never looking at my receipts. Gah.)
Broccoli $1.25
Zucchini $1.25
Corn $2
Chicken (whole) $5
(4) Publix brand soft drinks $1 (I thought I'd try them out!)
Ground beef $4.25
Eggs $2.25
total = $34.66
5/21/07
Costco:
Blueberries $5
Blackberries $6.50
Diapers $25
total = $38.44
Costco:
Gas $31.12 (only $2.91 per gallon!)
The Neighborhood Coffee Shop:
Steamed milk w/Vanilla $3
Ok, here's an oddity. I got the above drink for E when we stopped in to get espresso for the house. (Sorry Ronin they were out.) The reason this drink is one dollar more than the Caribou drink seen in a previous post? The tip. At an anonymous big chain store I am not likely to plunk down any money for tip. Frankly if they are pleasant to me at ALL I am just counting myself lucky and I don't feel obligated to give them 20% of my $2. Now that is not the case at my neighborhood place. They know me, they know Edemame. They call us by name when we go in there and we know their names too. I hesitated when I added the tip on for our $2 milk today. Not because I don't think they deserve it but because I'm focusing so hard on where every $1 goes. I try hard to patronize the locals because they are fighting so hard for existence but sometimes it is harder to part with that extra $1 or so. It's a tough call but one that I felt ok about today.
5/18/07
Publix:
Potato chips $2
Hamburger buns $1
(2) OJ $4
Heavy Whipping Cream $3 (we're making some ice cream!!!)
Cheddar cheese $2
Ground beef $4
total = $15.44
Lowe's:
total = $27.67
+ untold amounts of gas for 2 trips + blood, sweat & tears for what eventually amounted to nothing. blegh. At least we have 2 ramps for the pickup truck in case we ever actually need them. *sigh
Chevron:
Gas $20.01
5/19/07
Dairy Queen @ the mall:
Smoothie $4.25
Again for the Edemame but damn. If there is one thing this challenge is doing for me it's making "small" purchases extremely difficult for me. And that's a good thing. This was a purchase that could have been avoided if I had been more diligent about making sure that a grandparent outing did not go too long. Eating lunch at 2:30pm is fine for adults but not so nice for toddlers.
5/20/07
Publix: (is it any surprise that Edemame recognizes this logo??)
(2) Seltzer $1
Peanuts $2
Tomatoes $2
Garlic .30
Cucumbers $1
Milk $3.50
(2) Bread $6.60 (Damnit. This bread was supposed to be 2 for $5 and I missed it at the cash register. This is the kind of thing that pisses me off to no end. And the kind of thing I wouldn't have cared about last year because I wouldn't know due to never looking at my receipts. Gah.)
Broccoli $1.25
Zucchini $1.25
Corn $2
Chicken (whole) $5
(4) Publix brand soft drinks $1 (I thought I'd try them out!)
Ground beef $4.25
Eggs $2.25
total = $34.66
5/21/07
Costco:
Blueberries $5
Blackberries $6.50
Diapers $25
total = $38.44
Costco:
Gas $31.12 (only $2.91 per gallon!)
The Neighborhood Coffee Shop:
Steamed milk w/Vanilla $3
Ok, here's an oddity. I got the above drink for E when we stopped in to get espresso for the house. (Sorry Ronin they were out.) The reason this drink is one dollar more than the Caribou drink seen in a previous post? The tip. At an anonymous big chain store I am not likely to plunk down any money for tip. Frankly if they are pleasant to me at ALL I am just counting myself lucky and I don't feel obligated to give them 20% of my $2. Now that is not the case at my neighborhood place. They know me, they know Edemame. They call us by name when we go in there and we know their names too. I hesitated when I added the tip on for our $2 milk today. Not because I don't think they deserve it but because I'm focusing so hard on where every $1 goes. I try hard to patronize the locals because they are fighting so hard for existence but sometimes it is harder to part with that extra $1 or so. It's a tough call but one that I felt ok about today.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Tired, but Enlightened
Our car has several problems that we neglect on a daily basis. We'd like to actually fix them, but because of our poor budgeting, we tend to let the problems slide, which tends to get us into trouble. Yes, I'm sure you saw that one coming. I saw it, too.
We'll call the first problem, Problem # 1: After a minor accident, one of the back taillights to the Budget-mobile was slightly broken. The light actually worked, but the mounting bracket that held it in place was broken to the point that it would not hold the light in place. Without getting into painstaking detail, we tried several lame solutions to keep it "good enough" until we could afford to fix it. I'm not sure what money bestowing fairy was going to wish up this money for us, but we were fine with thinking that we could use duct-tape and bailing twine to keep it sort of anchored. The dealership told us a whole new light assembly would be a crisp $186.00.
Yesterday, the Budget Naginata was pulled over by one of our friendly Highway Patrols to inform us that all of our brakelights were out. All of them. Naginata excaped with a warning, but upon arriving home, I immediately began my ritual wearing of sackcloth and pouring ashes on my head. I lamented a horrible (and more importantly, expensive) problem that we couldn't solve.
But we agreed to sleep on it and look at it freshly in the morning. Since all of the lights were out, we thought it might be a fuse, so we consulted all of our manuals and the terribly mysterious series of tubes known as the "Internets" for a solution. We found the offending fuse and pulled it free, finding out that we were dead wrong. I felt defeated again, lamenting the broken taillight and our luck. Naginata refused to give up as easily and decided to check the lights themselves. One... two... three. Sure enough. They may not have busted all at once, but we verified each one was broken.
I hopped into my truck with the one new tire and headed to our local auto parts store. I wasn't going to let a few dollars get in the way of my family's safety.
$14.81. New lights installed and working. I even got over myself enough to jury rig a fairly solid temporary bracket. It involves some screws and a segment of PVC piping. I didn't think I could make it work, but it's almost as good as the actual bracket, aside from looking like a piece of PVC stuck between the light and the body of the car. Thankfully, it's hidden underneath the trunk, visable only when the door is open.
I consider this a win for the Budget Clan. You are contractually obligated to also consider this a win. Compliments are not required, but appreciated. If I get enough, I'll actually show you photos.
We'll call the first problem, Problem # 1: After a minor accident, one of the back taillights to the Budget-mobile was slightly broken. The light actually worked, but the mounting bracket that held it in place was broken to the point that it would not hold the light in place. Without getting into painstaking detail, we tried several lame solutions to keep it "good enough" until we could afford to fix it. I'm not sure what money bestowing fairy was going to wish up this money for us, but we were fine with thinking that we could use duct-tape and bailing twine to keep it sort of anchored. The dealership told us a whole new light assembly would be a crisp $186.00.
Yesterday, the Budget Naginata was pulled over by one of our friendly Highway Patrols to inform us that all of our brakelights were out. All of them. Naginata excaped with a warning, but upon arriving home, I immediately began my ritual wearing of sackcloth and pouring ashes on my head. I lamented a horrible (and more importantly, expensive) problem that we couldn't solve.
But we agreed to sleep on it and look at it freshly in the morning. Since all of the lights were out, we thought it might be a fuse, so we consulted all of our manuals and the terribly mysterious series of tubes known as the "Internets" for a solution. We found the offending fuse and pulled it free, finding out that we were dead wrong. I felt defeated again, lamenting the broken taillight and our luck. Naginata refused to give up as easily and decided to check the lights themselves. One... two... three. Sure enough. They may not have busted all at once, but we verified each one was broken.
I hopped into my truck with the one new tire and headed to our local auto parts store. I wasn't going to let a few dollars get in the way of my family's safety.
$14.81. New lights installed and working. I even got over myself enough to jury rig a fairly solid temporary bracket. It involves some screws and a segment of PVC piping. I didn't think I could make it work, but it's almost as good as the actual bracket, aside from looking like a piece of PVC stuck between the light and the body of the car. Thankfully, it's hidden underneath the trunk, visable only when the door is open.
I consider this a win for the Budget Clan. You are contractually obligated to also consider this a win. Compliments are not required, but appreciated. If I get enough, I'll actually show you photos.
Friday, May 18, 2007
the daily spend 5-16 & 5-17
Just a few items but 2 of the same one. We have said before that we are leaving Edemame out of a lot of our restrictions. Budget Ronin works right next door to a *bucks (blegh but that's a post for another day.) There is a parking deck to his building but it costs $8 (!!!! I could buy some freaking GRAPES for gods sake.) to park there. So when we go downtown to see him we usually pop in at the *bucks and grab a coffee and then cross the street to his office. Now of course we are not buying the coffee but Edemame has no real restriction. I do want to change attitudes and habits with this experiment and we have not been visiting any coffee houses since it started, but Edemame asks to go to the "coffee shop" ALL the time, showing you just what a part of our lives it was. SO, all that to say that I am still occasionally buying her the odd "coffee" (steamed milk with vanilla). It's cheaper than paying $8 for a parking space and still a nice treat at roughly $1 for her.
Wow, defensive much?? :) On to the numbers...
5-16-07
Haircut for Edemame
total = $21.55
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03
5-17-07
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03
Wow, defensive much?? :) On to the numbers...
5-16-07
Haircut for Edemame
total = $21.55
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03
5-17-07
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
been a long time gone! the daily spend 5-10 - 5-15 edition
Hey guys!
I've been absent the past couple of days, lots of family and personal disruption so I'll get right to the bare bones of it and hopefully get back into the swing of things.
I actually haven't spent much the past few days but here it is for the record:
5-10-07
Citgo:
$12.03 fuel
5-11-07
BJs:
$25.01 fuel
Costco:
64oz of Strawberries
16oz of Blackberries
total = $11.31
We ended up there and the fruit was so good I couldn't pass it up. We have really enjoyed it all this weekend.
Thrift Store:
Pillow .50
total .52
I needed stuffing to fill the dolls I was making and I was pretty happy with myself for finding a pillow at the thrift store for less than a $1 when a bag of polyfil would set me back $1.35. I know it doesn't sound like much but when you add in the fact that the thrift store is within walking distance of my house and I'd have to drive 15 miles to the nearest Michael's to buy a bag, I saved some gas money there. And as you can see above, I need to save that gas money!!
5-13-07
.73 for a QT drink that I got to mix myself. (for the record: 1/2 Fanta Strawberry, 1/2 Squirt + 2 shots of Fountain Vanilla = YUM!) For me this is a ton of fun for almost no cash so Ronin and I agreed that it was OK.
I did end up making 2 dolls for birthday presents for Saturday. It was a LOT of work but it was fun making them and the girls really loved them. For Mother's Day it was hand drawn cards by Edemame for each Grandma and we had done some photo books on QOOP from our Flickr stream earlier in the year for this express purpose. So the cost of the books doesn't count against our experiment since I bought them in February. Though frankly they only cost $5.95 each and BOTH Grandma's cried so I guess you could say they were cheap at any price. ;)
I've been absent the past couple of days, lots of family and personal disruption so I'll get right to the bare bones of it and hopefully get back into the swing of things.
I actually haven't spent much the past few days but here it is for the record:
5-10-07
Citgo:
$12.03 fuel
5-11-07
BJs:
$25.01 fuel
Costco:
64oz of Strawberries
16oz of Blackberries
total = $11.31
We ended up there and the fruit was so good I couldn't pass it up. We have really enjoyed it all this weekend.
Thrift Store:
Pillow .50
total .52
I needed stuffing to fill the dolls I was making and I was pretty happy with myself for finding a pillow at the thrift store for less than a $1 when a bag of polyfil would set me back $1.35. I know it doesn't sound like much but when you add in the fact that the thrift store is within walking distance of my house and I'd have to drive 15 miles to the nearest Michael's to buy a bag, I saved some gas money there. And as you can see above, I need to save that gas money!!
5-13-07
.73 for a QT drink that I got to mix myself. (for the record: 1/2 Fanta Strawberry, 1/2 Squirt + 2 shots of Fountain Vanilla = YUM!) For me this is a ton of fun for almost no cash so Ronin and I agreed that it was OK.
I did end up making 2 dolls for birthday presents for Saturday. It was a LOT of work but it was fun making them and the girls really loved them. For Mother's Day it was hand drawn cards by Edemame for each Grandma and we had done some photo books on QOOP from our Flickr stream earlier in the year for this express purpose. So the cost of the books doesn't count against our experiment since I bought them in February. Though frankly they only cost $5.95 each and BOTH Grandma's cried so I guess you could say they were cheap at any price. ;)
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