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.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
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.
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