I have no budget... My sword is my budget.

The Blade is Dulled, but the Battle is not Over! Fight, Ronin, Fight!

2008-04-30T09:27:00.004-05:00

Why we didn't win.

First off, I will casually confess I'm somewhat of a defeatist. I typically look on the worst side of things and my outlook is more than occasionally grim. This is regularly vexing to my better half, the Budget Naginata.

When I get overwhelmed by something, I typically quit. No, it's not very sportsmanlike of me and no, it doesn't really solve anything. I admit all of these things. This is also the undergirding reason why I haven't been posting since the beginning of the year. Things have not been well and I didn't really want to just sit here and write one depressing post after another.

"Yes we spent money. Yes we ate out crappy food. Yes we bought nonsensical goods that don't better us as a financially independent entity."

I wasn't in the mood to do that, so I avoided it.

... so here we are. One year later. (Truth be told, it's one year and four days later, but we set May 1st to be the cutoff date, so there we go).

In the broadest sense of the contest, we totally lost. We have spent money on things that were unessential to us and we have plans to expand that in the coming months. I'm not going to break it down to you in dollars and cents, but it's enough.

So normally here is where I would shut down, lower my head and kick at the dirt a bit.

As I geared myself up to write this, however, that not everything is completely horrible. We did accomplish some pretty decent stuff over the past 12 months:

We finished paying off our Budget-Mobile, which makes it completely ours and saves us a bundle each month on payments.
We finished our credit card repayment program. This saves us even more than the car and frees up even more money.
We reconditioned an outstanding school loan and put us in good standing with the institution. Yes, we still owe a boatload on that, but we now can forebear during lean months, whereas before we didn't have that option.
Now that we have some money freed up, I started auto-drafting some money into a savings account. It's not much, but it's a good start.
We have used our tax refund this year to make some vital improvements/repairs to our house. We are close to a position to sell our "starter home" and possibly move into a better place closer to where both Budget Naginata and I work. It may mean a bigger house payment, but what we would save in time and gasoline should more than offset that. Should this occur, we'll also most likely eliminate a small equity loan that we had to take out to make some repairs after the first year we lived in the house.
The upcoming stimulus package will fix some broken things on the Budget-Mobile. We're very excited about having it in great working order.

These are some pretty significant things to happen that impact our financial standing. These are things I should not discount when I think of all the other things that have happened to us. The Budget-Clan is still dealing with a family medical issue that requires us to buy several extra tanks of gas over the course of a month and we all know that's not getting any cheaper. We are also still trying to make some final upgrades to the house to get in selling order and that requires more money. The Budget-Truck has remained unmoved for months due to a faulty starter (we think) and we have not had the money or opportunity to get that fixed.

Seriously, I could go on. Things are better in many ways, but we have a whole array of new problems. This, as I understand it, is what life is like.

I was going to ramble more... but I think I will save that until May-Day.

hmmmm.....Just to clarify....

2008-01-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

"I'm sure that Budget-Edamame would chime in her praise if she knew that her new rations of marshmallows and noodles will soon be purchased from the salary of said job."

Thank you for the kudos on the job, I would like to point out however that Budget Edemame does not just eat noodles and marshmallows.

That does it for this edition of "The who in the what now?"

Back and Budget-ier than ever!

2008-01-24T11:39:00.000-05:00

So...

I guess I'm a bit late and all. Nevertheless, the budgeting goes on! I think there is a certain amount of shame involved in the upcoming post, because I know I've been bad. I blame the holidays. I was looking to spend nothing, like the months leading up to December, but Naginata and I agreed that we needed to spend somthing on Budget Edamame since she is totally worth it.

The holiday rush also had us buying some meals and cutting some corners on other things as well, with one specific result. The Budget-Mobile remained our burden. We didn't get the chance to finish our payments as I had hoped. That being said, we actually rallied this month to send out that final payment. Currently we are waiting for it to clear so we can put that behind us.

So now we can start looking forward to clearing some of our debt. A school loan, an equity loan on the Budget-Stronghold we had to take out shortly after purchasing it many years ago and a small in-collections loan for our replacement AC. I'll cover these more as we get to them, but I think the AC loan should take little time and the house loan might be able to be eliminated inside of two years.
Getting back on track is the biggest thing. The holidays threw us all for a loop. Driving to relatives house cost tons in gas and sanity. Quick meals and a couple of big feasts cost more money at the grocery store than we expected and despite Budget-Naginata's amazingly wonderful crafted gifts and my banana bread, we still had to spend some money on gifts. Mind you, we tried to do it as economically as we saw fit, but out of budget spending is still out of budget spending.

Starting next month, I'll be devoting more money to savings. I'd like to have a nice pad of savings to back us up so we are less crippled by life events such as holidays or emergencies. The first of the month will still have our mortgage, which is still like 60-70% of that paycheck, so there will not be a lot of breathing room there, but with the repayment of our credit cards and our car loan, we gain so much the second half of the month. Everything I've read tells me to auto-draft savings so that I'm not even thinking about it. I'm going to set that up today to distribute a healthy amount back to us. The rest I'll use to start targeting our remaining debts.

Side-note: A great article here on automating your finances. I'll definitely be "borrowing" some of these going forward: http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/01/13/how-to-automate-your-personal-finances/

Along with the other grand news of debt reduction, I can proudly announce that Budget-Naginata has a new job! I'm very proud of her and everything she's done to help all three of us out. I'm sure that Budget-Edamame would chime in her praise if she knew that her new rations of marshmallows and noodles will soon be purchased from the salary of said job.

So with new income on the way and old debt left back in '07, it looks as if 2008 has the potential to be a good fiscal year for the Budget-Clan. I promise you'll hear more from me, good or bad, to keep you all up to date.

At this point, less than 100 days left in the Mayday challenge. Even though we've fallen off the wagon, I'm going to rededicate myself on spending as little as possible between now and May 1st! Wish me luck!

Not Dead!

2007-12-03T13:34:00.000-05:00

... just tired because of the holidays. More posts to come, honest.

WBRFS #7

2007-11-16T16:15:00.000-05:00

SHOWDOWN!
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.

2007-11-13T10:10:00.001-05:00

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.

WBRFS #6

2007-10-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

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.

WBRFS # 5

2007-10-19T10:54:00.000-05:00

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.

WBRFS #4

2007-10-15T15:25:00.000-05:00

[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...

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.]

Mistakes were made...

2007-10-02T15:48:00.000-05:00

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.

Willfully Breaking the Rules.

2007-09-26T13:28:00.000-05:00

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.

New! With reconstituted ideas!

2007-09-24T15:37:00.000-05:00

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.

WBRFS #3

2007-09-24T15:31:00.000-05:00

The third installment is late, for reasons explained below.

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.

WBRFS #2

2007-09-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

Here is the second installment of my would-be ongoing series. My Weekly Budget Ronin Financial Showdown.

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.

No catchy story

2007-09-10T13:45:00.000-05:00

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.

And your name is? And we know you from...?

2007-09-07T22:14:00.000-05:00

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! ;)

WBRFS! #1

2007-09-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

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!

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!

2007-09-07T11:14:00.000-05:00

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.

Two days shy...

2007-08-20T14:06:00.000-05:00

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.

"Are you adequately prepared to rock?"

2007-08-08T09:53:00.000-05:00

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.

Batchelor Dinner Craptasti-ganza!

2007-08-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

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.

Days of Shoppings Past

2007-08-07T09:32:00.000-05:00

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.

A Penny for Your Downfall!

2007-08-03T14:26:00.000-05:00

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.

Broken-down , Waterlogged and Forgotten.

2007-08-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

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."

Ten Times Less Controversial

2007-07-31T13:58:00.000-05:00

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.

There and Back Again: A Ronin's Tale.

2007-07-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

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.

On Transformers and Transforming

2007-07-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

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.

Your old titles mean nothing here, Captain...

2007-06-28T16:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Ronin Holiday*

2007-06-28T14:17:00.000-05:00

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.

Visiting Margaritaville

2007-06-12T10:11:00.000-05:00

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.

Six-week-a-versary

2007-06-05T11:37:00.000-05:00

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.

Short post, long weekend.

2007-05-29T05:27:00.000-05:00

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.

Fuel.

2007-05-24T11:01:00.001-05:00

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).

A Google Spreadsheet!

2007-05-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

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. :)

the daily spend 5 -18 to 5 - 21

2007-05-21T12:25:00.000-05:00

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.

Tired, but Enlightened

2007-05-20T18:51:00.000-05:00

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.

the daily spend 5-16 & 5-17

2007-05-18T08:30:00.000-05:00

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

been a long time gone! the daily spend 5-10 - 5-15 edition

2007-05-15T18:58:00.000-05:00

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. ;)

Cheating Inside the Rules

2007-05-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

Last night I, the Budget Ronin, required comfort food. Twenty odd days ago (wow... I almost can't believe it's been 20 days) I would have given in and would have had take-out or pizza delivered. Naginata, who is always very supportive, would have been right there with me and we would have enjoyed it until we suffered some sort of gastral distress.

Instead of that, I stopped on the way home from work at the local grocery store to find something for a fraction of the price. So here's the tale of the tape:

$7 for Sodas
$8 for Beer
$10 for Wine (you know, because I'll run out of Beer at some point)
$12 for Deli stuff (sandwich makings for the next couple of weeks)
$5 for icecream sandwiches
$6 for frozen pizza (this was the original target)
$5 for Chicken Broth
$3 for potatoes.

$57.52 for the total. Most of it was "decadent" and I didn't have coupons and bought name brand things. But all in all, we could have easily dropped this if we went out for a single night's dinner for the three of us, so I feel better knowing I ate my comfort food, have one backup pizza for later, and have lunch for the next week or so, depending on how high I pile my sandwich each morning.

That's all for now.

The Weekend Update

2007-05-14T10:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a long weekend. Here's a short weekend roundup: On Friday, I donated $5 to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Foundation. It was an office fund raiser and a very worthy cause. I should have dontated more, but the standard donation was $5, so I chipped in my Lincoln. It wasn't altogether altruistic. The $5 also bought us the privilege of wearing jeans to work. There was some personal comfort involved, but the result was charitable, so I excused myself.

Saturday found us at a Birthday party for one of Budget Edamame's friends. The talented Budget Naginata crafted presents for the kids celebrating. Sure, it's cheaper, you say, but she's extremely good and it's the kind of cool you just can't buy (in my opinion).

The party was held at a local fire station, which was a real treat for the kids. It was also a good learning experience for the adults. I don't know how it is in your town, but around here, the fire stations are not given a budget for furniture or entertainment, they have to fund it all themselves. So if you have something you were planning to throw out that still has a few miles on it, please think of our valliant civil servants and call your local firestation to see if they could use that slightly used item. We immediately earmarked some stuff to donate that we had picked up over the weekend that was just going to sit in our storage area back at the house. Ok, this ends your public service announcement segment of today's post.

On Sunday, I filled up the Budget-mobile with $32 of gas. I think Naginata spent less than a dollar on a drink. She was thirsty and we'd just dealt with two sets of mothers, so I am not going to give her any grief about that, and I suggest none of you follow suite.

I hope that everyone had a happy Mother's Day. We tried to make it non-commercial by having family over and enjoying each other's company. Most of that worked out pretty well.

the daily spend 5-9-07

2007-05-09T20:56:00.000-05:00

Today was grocery day here at the Budget household. I have forgotten to get orange juice for the last 2 trips to the store and Edemame was insistent that we HAVE TO HAVE SOME. So off to the store we went. Obviously I needed other things but it's nice that Edemame got to think it was all HER idea. :)
Items marked (nol) are "Not On List". I always make a list before I go to the store to minimize problems with "Now what did I need?" type mistakes. My list always includes estimated prices (and frankly, I'm pretty spot on since I do the majority of the grocery shopping) and my total before I went to the store was $56. Tonight I neglected to put food for our cookout dinner on the list but I went ahead and bought it anyway and I was STILL under budget. 'Cause that's how I roll y'all.

ETA: In the sense of all fairness I have to say that I put the big thing of cat food on my list: $14 and I actually bought the smaller one: $8 so much of my under budgetness was because of that.

Publix:
Potato Chips: $2 (nol)
Hamburger Buns: $2 (nol)
Hot Dog Buns: $2 (nol)
Turkey Franks: $2 (nol)
(I feel like that kid in Better Off Dead, "TWO DOLLARS!")
Ground Beef: $4
Ground Chicken: $3
(4)Diced Tomatoes: $$2
Orange Juice: $4
Colby Jack Cheese: $2 (nol)
(2)Butter: $5
(2) Milk: $5
Oil: $3
Cat Food: $8
Cat Litter: $9
Total = $53.82

the daily spend 5-8-07

2007-05-08T19:03:00.000-05:00

I'm running out of cutesy things to call the daily spend...oooh that's what I'll call it! Ok! Only one tiny item today and some might say it was unnecessary but I say, YOU take a toddler to a coffee shop so you can talk to your good friend who just graduated from law school so you haven't seen her in 6 months and try to tell the toddler that she can't have any "coffee" and see how well THAT goes over. whew. It was a nice treat for her since we have cut the weekly coffee binges down to never. All that to say:

Caribou Coffee:
$2.21

How was YOUR day?

All pumped up.

2007-05-08T14:21:00.000-05:00

The saga of the Hot Tub continues. We will not be making a princely sum off of it, as we hoped, but we will be making something. The repairman told us the pump is shot, meaning we would have to drop a good 60% of our asking price for the whole set to get it repaired. Meaning, we won't repair it. The only good to come of this is that we have a sympathetic buyer. A relative of this blog's own Budget Naginata wants to not only buy the tub, but buy the broken motor unit. We've left it up to him whether or not he'll repair the unit or get a new one, but we can get maybe 30% of our asking price on the tub from him for just the tub alone, which is money we previously didn't have. So a bit of cash and a big unused eyesore out of our back yard equals happier Budget Clan. Again, I was hoping to get more and do something more along the lines of a treat for us, but I'll take what I can get and look forward to getting some needed home repairs done.

We are reviewing some ideas, some plans to get keep us on track. At this point we have 358 days left and it's already not easy, but talking about it and being vigilant has keep us motivated and strong.

I'm probably going to post some urls that have given me pause to think about better ways to do and try things. I'm hoping that we can beg, borrow and/or modify some of these to our own challenge in a way that proves beneficial to the whole Clan.

5-7-07 bought

2007-05-07T08:49:00.000-05:00

I know it's early in the day to have bought something but there it is. :)

Gas : $20
Butter : $4.27 (Yes I know I paid $1 more than I could have if I had gone to Publix but I bought it at the Farmers Market around the block.)

I have been cleaning out our house with the help of Ronin. It's been a dusty mess of a clean out but I am feeling good about it. I think once we get a little further in we'll see some progress on the decorating front. Instead of the cleaning out from under front. Yay! Part of this whole process for me is pulling out what I don't use and making sure I have enough of what I do use. This can be tough when you save every damn thing. My pack rat tendencies are getting better but they are still there. Sometimes it takes two or three purges for me to get rid of something but I usually do it. And if it stays then I obviously really wanted it.

Off to bake cookies! Yum!

5-04-07 more boughten things...

2007-05-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

It's interesting now writing down spending. I feel like we are buying things all the time. They are all needed, groceries, health items, shoes for Budget Edemame, but still it feels like I'm in the store all the time. Poor Edemame doesn't understand the new emphasis on things we already have. I have noticed that we, ok I, am bad about buying her a "little thing" whenever we are in a store somewhere. In the drugstore on Friday she wanted a little brush and it was only a $1 but I just said "We already have one at home" (which we do of course due to me buying one in a similar situation before) and I think she was really confused by the attitude switch. Which just points out to me that we have already started letting her know that shopping is fun and I'm glad that we are doing this experiment so that maybe we can break some of that attitude now. It's much harder when you are 36. (I just looked back over this post and dang, run on sentences much??? Sorry guys!)

Sprong (www.sprongshoes.com)
Budget Edemame has outgrown all her shoes. :(
1 pair of Keen shoes, size 10 (40% off!!!!!) $50
total = $32.40

I know some of you might think that is way too much for kids shoes and truthfully I don't usually pay that much but my daughter has feet much like mine (no arch, insanely wide, narrow heel) and it's hard to find shoes that fit her at all much less ones that are made well enough that they won't fall apart after she uses them once. Not to mention ones that are comfortable enough that she actually wants to wear them which I have always had a problem with as well. So it's an expense that we budget for.

Walgreens
Suave Shampoo $2.50
Medicated Shampoo $9.00 (So freaking expensive. But we have to have it. *sigh)
total = $12.17

Not doing too bad so far. I am working on putting together projects that have long been neglected. I'm also trying to teach myself some new skills. Anyone got any embroidery tips?? I tried some the other night and I agreed with Budget Ronin that "deranged monkeys" is not good for a kids pillow. "Can't sleep monkeys will eat me!"
Back to the grindstone!

A lot of hot water...

2007-05-04T10:23:00.000-05:00

So, in the spirit of keeping with the Naginata, I'm listing $26.37 for gas for my truck and about $15 for fuses for our fusebox. Yes, our house is old enough to have a fusebox. I blew them after hooking back up our hot tub in order to test it before selling it. Here's the story on that...

Naginata and I have been working on cleaning, streamlining and fixing up the house. It's a good pursuit, and there is plenty to keep us busy since we've decided to curtail extraneous consumption. It's a nice change of focus to make us thankful for what we already have and to give us the chance to get it in better shape. I have complained for some time that it feels like we "don't have anything," when in fact we're quite blessed to have a lot. It's time to take stock of it and leverage things we don't need/use in productive ways.

Out hot tub came with the house. We've used it only a handful of times. In fact, it has been drained empty for the better part of two years, now, and it occurred to me that we could sell it for some extra income and to help us in the clean up of our house. But before we can sell it, I wanted to make sure it worked, so I filled it back up and ran the system overnight. I figured if it was in good condition, we could make a fair amount off of the sale.

Well, we had arranged some of our appliances differently since we last ran the tub, so the resulting addition of 30+ amps to that circuit blew out the fuse. I went through two before I realized what was going on. I unplugged some things and got it back on, but we had to get some new fuses to replace those lost in the line of duty. The next morning, even though the system looks to be running, we still don't have warm water. We look at the options of either repairing the motor and sell the full working system (which we think will still net us a better price, even though we would have to invest something up front) or we sell it as is and expect to recoup less. We decide that the small hassle is better for more money. We also discuss putting a ceiling on how much we think its worth to repair vs. how much we think it's worth to junk and just sell the tub. It's not worth our time to repair the motor for 50-60% of our total asking price when the remaining 40% is what we'd sell the broken tub for anyway. But a repair that's 10-20% would give us a better price and overall improve our cash return.

The repairman now has our motor and is supposed to return an estimate soon. I'm planning on calling him in a bit to see if it is worth our money. Naginata and I talked about what this means and ways that we should look at income like this. We don't have a stack of hot tubs to sell, so we shouldn't expect this as steady income. In the past we would have split it up and had fun with it. We probably would have eaten a lot of take out or go to a few good restaurants. Under our new, self-imposed restrictions, those options are off the table, making us really examine how money like this should be best applied.

We came up with home repair. There are a couple of things that we need fixed around the house that require the touch of a professional. Assuming we can come close to what we're looking to list the tub for, it would give us more than enough to get that fixed up. This is the kind of thing we should have been doing all along. If we had figured out a better savings schema, we wouldn't have had to sell our hot tub just to get these things fixed. Mind you, we don't need the tub. We're selling it because we don't need it. The cash is an exceptionally nice fringe benefit that lets us do things we should have been responsible enough to tackle anyways.

I may sound like a broken record, but I say these things because I need to reinforce in my own mind that it shouldn't take selling off my possessions at a fraction of cost to supplement my income. We have the resources already, we just manage them badly. Inasmuch as I'd like to save as much money as possible between now and next Mayday, I'm taking this time to rewire my brain into handling this money better when it is given to me the first time around. I'm going to go back to the food analogy I started way back when. I read something this week that talked about not using exercise as either a punishment or reward for food you had eaten recently. I'd like to draw the parallel back to finance. I don't think the budget or the budgetary restriction should be viewed like a punishment. When you do that, you tend to see temporary cash gains as a means to grant yourself with a reward. But once you've sold the hot tub and spent the cash on comic books and penny whistles, what have you gained? I'm thinking on that quite a bit while I wait for the call of the repairman.

05-02-2007 Groceries

2007-05-03T10:16:00.000-05:00

Well I went to 2 different stores, Whole Foods & Publix. It's interesting to me that there is a financial component to eating well. Or at least eating organically. I had to choose today between 2 gallons of milk or 1 gallon of organic milk for the same price. Sadly I went financial and bought the 2 gallons which of course were not organic.

I did buy a muffin at Whole Foods which technically I probably shouldn't have bought. I excuse myself by saying that I bought it for Budget Edemame (who did eat most of it) but really I should not be buying expensive ($1.69) muffins when I could just as easily make them at home for a fraction of the price and then she gets to make them WITH me. So.

I'm not sure what my "punishment" is for stuff like that, other than to tell you guys so that if I continue at least I have the open shame of admitting it to others. Let's go to the lists!

Whole Foods:
2 Greek Yogurts $4
Muffin $2
Grapefruit (3) $2.25
2 Dr. Bronner's Soap $16
total = $25
I only went to Whole Foods to get the soap. The yogurt was not on my list though the grapefruit was on my Publix list. So $6 is a bit wayward. I need to get in and get out. If it's not on the list DO NOT BUY IT.

Publix:
Laughing Cow cheese $3
Chedder cheese $3
mushrooms $2
roast beef $5.50
zucchini $1.50
carrots $1.50
eggs $2
romaine lettuce $3
(2) milk $5
sugar $2.50
celery $1.50
drinks $10 (We went back on the soda. As a friend says, "hey at least it's not crack")
grapes $8 (DAMN!!! I didn't even look at this one until I was typing this. That is hella costly. Smaller bag of grapes next time. 2.34lbs @ 2.99 per, sheesh.)
snow peas $2.50
(2) juice $4
cauliflower $1.50
(3) jello $2.50
(2 pkgs) chicken $5.50
total = $66.01
Everything I bought was on my list except for the drinks. I got the juice because I like it when they do the Adam & Eve or Northlands 100% cranberry juices 2 for 1. Then I stock up. The Ronin can attest that we never run out of "red juice" as Edemame likes to call it. The grapes were a shock but not until I got home. I need to be careful of grabbing things and NOT WEIGHING them before I decide which bag I'm getting. That may very well be a good price for grapes but I don't want to spend my frugal grocery money on grapes when I could get 2 things for $4 with that money. I could have gotten lemons or oranges or tomatoes, (none of these things looked good today at the store but the point remains) or just spent 4 less dollars. So lesson for next time. :)

5-01-07 boughten things...

2007-05-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

Gas $31.06 (OMG. That's only 3/4 of a tank.)
$1 - juice box for my kid (the adorable Budget Edemame) at a (shudder) McDonald's so that she had a drink and we could use the bathroom without me feeling guilty. Damn if they haven't jacked all the prices up in there. A bottle of water was $1.35???? jeez.

So far so good. Any advice on avoiding the juice buying in the future? I am going to stock a small cooler in the car with stuff and I always appreciate tips. Goldfish and water are obvious. Anything you love that's shelf stable and not full of disgusting chemicals?

My Enemy is Circumstance... Its knives are sharp.

2007-04-30T10:43:00.000-05:00

As Naginata stated below, misfortune struck on Friday. I want to elaborate a bit, because I want to use the incident as a way to remind myself why I started my manifesto last week to begin with.

On my way home Friday, I walk into the parking deck where my truck has been resting for the day. It is the truck my father handed down to me, the truck that bought by his father and owned until my grandfather passed. It has been getting me back and forth the small commute to work. It is not terribly fuel efficient (other than it has a small engine) nor environmentally friendly (it is close to 35 years old). But I don't drive it much, and we can't afford better right now, so we have counted ourselves fortunate to have it.

So, yeah, my tire was flat. I cursed my luck, but figured I could get a spare on it and get it home. If it had to sit for a while, at least it would be sitting at home. Fortunately for me, Friday was a "casual day" at the office, so I had on jeans and a fairly comfortable linen shirt. Over the course of the next hour, I did what I could to prevent them from becoming as filthy as I was quickly becoming. It seemed that thirty odd years of dirt and rust had come back for revenge on me. After consulting the owners manual and my father by phone, I finally figured out the mechanism that kept the tire chained to the underbelly. It was like that old game, Mousetrap. I swear all that was missing was a washbasin and a net to fall down on me.

With the old tire removed and the spare tire in place, I let the jack down to discover that my spare is also flat (I confirm with my father later that he had never used it either). I curse my luck again, more frustrated and filthy. I call Naginata to come and pick me up. The truck will have to wait for now.

Later that night we consider our options. This paycheck we are stretched to the limit, but I am determined to call and get a quote on a single tire to replace the flat. If we can get one cheaply, we might have enough pride to eat to ask for a favor from a friend. We table the issue for then and decide to relax by catching up on some TV.

No sooner than we've finished watching one program and are starting another, the TV catches fire from the inside. I can see the illumination of the flames on the wall behind the set and I scramble to get it unplugged, hoping that will be enough. It is, but it feels appropriate, as aggravating as it is. It's all circumstance and I acknowledge that this is what we've been fighting all along. When we come down to it, a small string of events is enough to kick our teeth in. We have good income, but we make poor decisions with it, limiting our financial resilience.

On Saturday, I get a quote for a tire. It's going to cost us $42. It's $42 dollars we don't have. I mean, we could probably hock some stuff at a pawn shop to raise the money, but there is no reason that amount of money should grind us to a halt.

I'll skip the boring stuff. Everything does work out in the end. One of Naginata's parents brought over a spare TV they'd been meaning to give us and they were going to help us tow the truck back, but decided it would be better for all involved if they just bought us a new tire. The truck is back at home and we managed to survive.

The experience was disheartening, but it bolstered my resolve in this endeavor. We could look at this as some sort of cosmic joke played on us by the powers that be, but I choose to take it as an affirmation that we have started this journey so that a year from now, we will be in a place to not feel like the world has collapsed, just because one tire has.

If this is our battle, then we should heed the words of Sun Tzu:

"Now the general who wins a battle makes many
calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
The general who loses a battle makes but few
calculations beforehand."

Translated (by G.I. Joe):

"Knowing is half the battle."

Now that we know our enemy, we can begin to plan our strategies. I confess I'm no general, but I did have lots of G.I. Joe action figures as a kid, so I think that makes me partially qualified.

Excessive....

2007-04-27T23:24:00.000-05:00

So a lot of the comments that people give me when I tell them about my part in this project are in the vein of "you are trying to do too much at once" and to an extent I say, "well sort of". I'm one of those people who goes all in or not at all. I mean as long as I'm in a sort of privation mode, how about seeing how much I can eliminate at once? It's not like it's permanent. I can change the rules. Except the big one, no personal spending.

But if I want a diet coke or to stop exercising or to buy a damn pair of pants (second-hand!) that fits my no-ass instead of falling off, literally people...I had an incident in the kitchen Thursday night...it was not my finest hour...then I can do those things. But why not try it? Let's see what happens ... when people stop being polite, and start getting real. Whoops! Sorry the early 90s came back in a flash. But seriously, it can't be any harder than doing things in dribs and drabs, for me at least.

On a weird and oddly related note, the universe seems to have heard our cry of "less stuff" and has interpreted it by flattening one of the Ronin's tires, and the spare (Thanks Universe!) AND having our TV blow a tube and catch on fire. And that's just this evening! ba da bump! How's THAT for turn off your TV week?? Luckily we have plenty of leeway in our transportation and another TV that we have been slacking on picking up (for free!) from a parent. But it did make for a bit of a disheartening day. Let's hope tomorrow is a little more kind to the traveling warriors.

Allowances...

2007-04-27T11:56:00.000-05:00

Gift Cards are fair game when it comes to buying things. Last night, during our "the Budget Ronin presents: the Budget Ronin's Financial Discussion Roundtable, starring the Budget Ronin," the Budget Naginata and I jointly agreed that gifts others may give us (not required!) for birthdays and holidays should be used for fun and frivolity. I have the option to use gift money to pay down some debt, but if I want to get a small something, it should be totally allowed. They are gifts, after all.

As if on cue, Administrative Professionals Week (the week of April 25th) has already contributed to the effort. In my office, it's colloquially coined "Staff Appreciation Week." Administrators, Secretaries, Copy Center Staff and IT Staff (amongst others) are all "appreciated" this week. I haven't been at this particular office long, but I think they have done a good job in thanking all of us. Winning a contest as part of the festivities netted me a $10 gift to a local sandwich shop around the corner. This isn't the first time I've won that particular prize (both were Trivia contests), but instead of spending the gift card the next day, I've decided to pocket it and use it as a reward somewhere down the line. It doesn't expire, so unless the shop closes, I can use it in the next month or so for a nice treat or a fallback in case I forget to pack a lunch one day. I like having the option open.

The Budget Naginata has been talking with others about this experiment and gotten some helpful feedback. First and foremost, I am adding her as a writer to this blog. If it's an inclusive project, then let's include all the results here, we decided. We'll be tagging posts to make things easier to identify.

We've also been heartened by some things we've read online and heard from other people. There may be some modifications to our goals as we progess, but we'll be sharing all of that here. Any ideas we crib, we'll be giving full acknowledgement to, as well.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement they've given us so far. You know who you are... And if you don't, we've kept a list. There may be photos, too. Incriminating photos... So keep that encouragement coming if you ever hope to get your hands on those negatives.

Heel, brain. Good boy.

2007-04-26T08:48:00.000-05:00

Tip 1 for Day 2: Write post in Notepad first so you don't have to rewrite it.

So as I battled the very non-Spring-like blustery winds on the walk up to the office building, I couldn't help but be drawn to the thought of slipping across the street to the neighborhood $tarbuck$. It was easy for me to resist today, because the Ronin's coffers are bare, but it made me think of those days when I have the cash and the $5 doesn't seem like a significant amount. Today it seems a princely sum and it made me consider that my biggest problem is not my day to day expendatures, but my binge purchasing during the time when I have an influx of money.

I was talking about this just last night. It seems that Diet and Finance are beasts of the same family, just with different plumage. A lot of people "Diet" for time to lose X pounds with a strenuous routine. At the end they look and feel better, but they haven't effected a lasting change in their eating habits and eventually regain some or all of the weight. I feel like I do the same with cash. I'm normally fairly frugal, but when I get a bonus or a refund, I tend to binge and reward myself for not buying all those other times. In truth, I don't buy because I run myself out of money and can't. But the extra money doesn't last, so I fall back into the same habits and lose any ground I had gained, like a failed fiscal diet.

They say there is no "magic formula" for real weight management, you simply have to burn more calories than you consume. Turn that on it's ear and you have the same non-secret for finance: Save more money than you spend.

Some people seem to be wired this way by default. It seems I will be spending the next 370 days to try and teach my brain to roll-over.

Groceries 4-25-07

2007-04-25T23:20:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of starting as we mean to go on, here's what I got at the grocery store just now.

Pasta 4 boxes (2 for 1!)
Jello 3 boxes
Bananas 4
1 dozen eggs
1 head of lettuce
1 box Twinings tea
1 bottle of lemon juice
4 bottles of seltzer (we're trying to go off soda as well...ack!)
2 gallons of milk
2 chickens
1 lb. ground turkey
1 March of Dimes shoe
total $33.40

2007-04-25T14:26:00.000-05:00

I have a travelling companion. The ever-sharp Budget Naginata read my manifesto and has decided to wander the path alongside me. I couldn't ask for a more brilliant partner in this exercise. I cannot say that I'm necessarily looking forward to the next 371 days, but I will say I am glad I won't be out there by myself. Now I have even more motivation to stay honest.

Adjust sword. Take one step forward.

There.

Now we've begun.

My Mayday Financial Rebuilding Year

2007-04-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

I can't take it. Just when I feel like I'm getting to my feet, something comes along and reminds me I should be firmly planted on my butt. Worse yet, most days I feel like I'm already on my knees, begging for some sense of fiscal normalcy.

So here were are... at day one. It's the first day of my hair-brained plan. No spending for a year. From now, right now, until May 1st 2008 (hence the catchy Mayday title), I will not spend any money for recreational purposes. No gifts, no luxury items, no eating out, no snacks from the vending machine around the corner at work that has those great little mini donuts stacked six high, nothing. I will use my money only for the allocated family expendatures and non-personal essentials. I'm not refraining from buying my daughter a new pair of shoes if she needs them, but I've got a pair of my own that will last me the rest of the length of the challenge.

Anything that is a current expendature is in bounds, but no new goods or services will be considered, unless they are offset by recouping a previously in play item. For example, we have basic Netflix service. I'm not going to cancel that, but I'm also not going to go and get a subscription to some other service.

I want to write on this daily to reinforce my decision and track some basic numbers to see how much of a difference it makes. I may edit this entry later for more clarification on what is in and out of bounds.

Things that are within bounds:

Buying food items from the grocery store. I won't buy fast food for lunch, but buying a box of popcorn from the store to take in to nosh on is well within bounds.

Things out of bounds:

Any new media item (CD or DVD). Hell, I've got a closet full of stuff I don't listen to now. Getting the latest Venture Bros. DVD set right now isn't going to cause the collapse of my life.

I'm tired of looking forward to my next paycheck, only to find out that I've bounced another check because I bought a $5 cup of coffee two days ago. I'd much rather have a bit more security, even if it takes 371 days.

So there it is. My five minute manifesto. I'm cutting myself free from all my bad purchasing habits and putting them at arm's length for a year. This is where the wandering begins. Reflections and Updates to follow.