Centering

I woke up at 2 a.m. to go to work, got home about half an hour ago, and now I feel strangely paralyzed by my to-do list. Made myself a cup of coffee to relax with while I put my thoughts in order.

Today I need to:

- Order new contacts, as my current disposables are old and hurting
- Go to the bank and deposit three paychecks (and possibly a missing fourth)
- Cook dinner for the house as per my weekly chore
- Invite my sister-in-law over for tea so I can slip her a debt payment (which must be tallied)
- Buy at least one Christmas present, preferably three
- Take a nap

Today I'd like to:

- Bake a tart, or some other dessert to use up leftover cranberry sauce
- Work on a writing project
- Work on the baby quilt
- Practice Guitar
- Figure out how to knit toes on a sock

While working on this list, I checked over our accounts and determined that we can afford to repay $200 of what we owe my brother and sister-in-law. Which will either clear our debt completely or leave us owing them $50. I'll check while working out our net worth tomorrow morning. I arranged to meet her for tea tomorrow. I have the money for my niece's Christmas present set aside, so getting that won't be a problem. Unfortunately, that pretty much does it for the bank account until Friday, so contact lenses will have to wait.

Wow, just writing out the list knocked it from 6 to-dos to 4.

Guess I'll run to the bank, come back, take a nap, and tackle dinner. Sometime this evening I'll shop around for niece's pressie with Darling. And knit, sew, play the guitar, and maybe even get some extra shuteye.

Car

Darling's new boss, P, has a 1972 Lincoln Mercury he doesn't want anymore. He also wants Darling to be able to get to work without depending on the 1 1/2 hour commute by bus. So he's trying to arrange for Darling to own that car.

Darling and I don't want a car. And although there is a very soft spot in my heart for large, ancient vehicles, we certainly don't want a gas guzzler. It says so right up there in our mission statement. But Darling does want the job and the increased responsibility.

I'm thinking that either the boss registers the vehicle as a company car on loan to Darling (and continues to cover the cost of insurance), or we have the right to convert the engine to run on biofuel. Or both. Either way, I'm not too happy about the situation.

Bandaging and Canning

Darling and I had a pretty pleasant Thanksgiving, bar the bloodletting that occurred when one of my housemates, Mimi, chopped the tip of her finger off! I inexpertly bandaged her up and someone else drove her to the nearest emergency clinic. The clinic was closed for the holiday, but by the time they got back the bleeding had slowed. So we drenched it in peroxide while Mimi howled like a banshee, wrapped it tight, and tried to be thankful that at least she wouldn't receive an $800 medical bill for Christmas.

The next day my mom, a nursing school drop-out, advised us on the cleaning and re-bandaging of the wound. Then Mom and I went on a bit of a shopping spree. Not Black Friday shopping, mind you. We hit Half-Price Books, as is our custom, and bought a couple of baby books for the now and future nieces. Then we went to Wheatsville and bought ten pounds of pears. My Mom has been going on for years about once canning pears with red hot candies to create festive and lovely Christmas presents. So I brought out my huge pot, bought a dozen pint jars, and whipped up a light syrup for the fruit. We now have nine lovely jars lined up on the kitchen table. Like quilting and knitting, this is not a frugal hobby. But it was certainly a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Learning To Quilt

I asked one of my housemates, Bo, to teach me to hand quilt. Being a self-taught quilter herself, she simply turned me lose on her large basket of supplies and loaned me a book of quilting designs. Not an instruction book, mind you, just basic patterns with a brief introduction to "lap quilting."

Having done absolutely no research on the topic, I looked at what Bo seemed to be doing and got started on a small blanket for Baby-O, my niece due in a couple of months. So far, so good, although I wouldn't know if I'm doing anything wrong.

I chose the softest flannels for the baby quilt and am hoping that any imperfection will be missed by an infant.

It wasn't too long ago that another buddy taught me to knit in much the same way: she was happy to show me the basics, but seemed even happier to have someone with whom to share her overwhelming yarn collection.

Yesterday I baked a vegan butternut squash pie and made a "clean-out-the-fridge" stew in the crockpot for my housemates. Today I need to warm up the kitchen enough to bake a loaf of sourdough. I'm looking forward to a day in the kitchen and clearing up our room, and this evening my Mom comes to visit :)

The Importance of Routine

I've really enjoyed my morning ritual this week. Every day before work I've managed to wake up without hitting snooze (...well, not more than once), make a good breakfast and a mug of tea, prepare my lunch for the afternoon, and blog.

After work on each day I've come home to cross at least one chore off The List of Things I've Been Putting Off, had a snack, and hung out with friends for a few hours.

Every evening - and this is the key - I've come home and gone to bed. Usually before ten at night, sometimes before eight. By doing this I'm able to pull in about 7 hours a night. Which is a huge improvement over what I was getting.

What's most interesting to me about this is how each good decision bleeds into the next. By waking up early I can eat a good breakfast and make lunch. By eating a decent lunch in the afternoon (rather than snacking on pastries), I have the strength and resolve to tackle one of my chores before I'm burnt out in the afternoon. Since I had computer time in the morning (with a time limit), I can't justify vegging out over e-mail when I get home from work. Instead, I fulfill my social obligations (working out, gaming, running errands with housemates) earlier so I can hit the hay earlier. And then I wake up early to blog and eat.

A good routine is worth more than all the PDAs in the world. A good routine that includes a decent amount of sleep is worth more than all the coffee in the world. Which, by the way, I'm suddenly much less interested in.

Darling's Jobs

Darling has been working at the local cafe (mostly cleaning, a little food prep) for several months now. Since the job isn't going in any appreciable direction, we agreed that he would leave if it clashed with his Spring semester.

Sure enough we registered for classes that make working the cafe all but impossible. We were preparing to be a single-income household again when a classmate offered Darling a job at his landscaping business.

My husband accepted the offer and started training yesterday. After putting in a full day at his new job he worked the night shift at his old job! I think he plans on keeping this up for the rest of the year, but we'll see how he holds up. It will be great to have the extra income as long as he doesn't work himself into the ground.

What's to Spare?

On my last post I claimed to be "shoveling every last cent" into my 401(k).

Mama Martin asked me if it would it be more effective to pay off the debts to save the interest rather than putting money into a 401(k), and the answer is, in my opinion, a resounding yes.

In fact, I realized how misleading my previous post was. I've put less than $300 into my IRA this year! In the meantime I'm paying creditors over $400 this month!

Yet for some reason I've felt like a lot more time, energy, and cash has been dedicated to this account. Maybe it's because I'm consuming so much media that I'm absorbing the national anxiety.

I still want to rethink my retirement plan and decide how high a priority my long-term savings accounts should be, but I'll try and have a clearer idea of what my actual - rather than perceived - situation is.

Investment Thoughts

The other day I spent a good deal of time separating and cleaning cucumber seeds to save for next year's garden. One plant can produce many, many cucumbers, and every one of these vegetables carries enough seeds to provide for an entire garden. It occurred to me that every seeds contains within it the potential to produce countless cucumbers over untold generations.

Theoretically, I never have to buy another cucumber again. Saving seeds and maintaining a small plot of soil is the best food-related investment I'm likely to encounter.

This makes me wonder about other investments I ought to be making. I've been shoveling every spare cent into my 401(k) in the hopes of preparing for a future which assumes modern banking and financial regulations will remain in my favor for the next forty years...which is a relatively unfounded assumption, based on current events. Even if all goes well with my financial investments, is there a reason to believe that monetary wealth is the most useful asset I could be cultivating? Should my time and energy be spent earning interest for the future, or developing the skills that will keep my family comfortable for as long as I live?

Before the end of the year I'm going to really focus on where Darling and I want to be and what we intend to be doing 30-40 years from now. Maybe I won't cut off the 401(k) completely, but I might be re-evaluating its importance.

A Great Day And Bad Journalism

Three Cheers for a Friday off!

I don't know how I swung it, but I have absolutely no plans or responsibilities for today. I hopped out of bed to make chocolate chip waffles, set some sourdough to rise, put milk in a crockpot for yogurt, started a load of laundry, and picked some cucumbers from the garden. Now I'm going to spend a few hours catching up on the computer, which most days lately I don't even have time to touch. Later I'll probably take my paycheck to the bank and visit the library, and at 5:30 I'll be meeting my sister-in-law for tea. I feel like I've been looking forward to a day like this for months!

During my breaks at work I've been skimming the New York Times, and this front page article made me really angry. It makes it sound like credit card companies - owned by the same corporations who brought us the housing crisis and current world-wide financial quagmire - are pitiful victims of government control and consumer irresponsibility.

I'm really offended by the phase, "Meanwhile, the banks are in the process of shedding customers considered too risky. That means tens of thousands of Americans will no longer be able to splurge on Nike gym shoes or flat-screen televisions unless, of course, they have enough cash to pay for them." Countless of Americans are going through financial hell as a result of layoffs, pay and benefits reduction, prohibitively expensive healthcare and insurance costs, and useless stock portfolios resulting from corporate chicanery. I don't argue that too many Americans are spending too much money on electronics, but I'd like to see the corporate or political figure suggest we stop. And the tens of thouasands of Americans for whom credit is going to be made unattainable? I can't help but guess those are going to be the ones who use their credit out of desperation during these lean times for food, medical care, shelter, and school supplies.

Thankfully, this particular journalist decided to show "both sides of the story," and follows up with input from Martin Eakes, chief executive for the Center for Responsible Lending. Strangely, this so-called advocate paints an even bleaker picture of the American consumer by stating, "You know, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you keep borrowing and borrowing in order to consume now, eventually you crash and burn."

Apparently neither Andrew Martin or Lowell Bergman could be bothered to Google CRL to discover that it's founders, Herb and Marion Sandler, made a fortune on the subprime mortgage market with the invention of the toxic option-ARM. You couldn't find an organization more desperate to make American credit card holders look like selfish morons.

Yuck. I thought NY Times had more class than that.

Ah well, on to my bread. Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday :)

Garden and Shaping Up

The fall season really makes gardening worthwhile in Austin. After a Summer of thirsty spindly tomatoes, dry compost, and blazing heat, it's amazing to see the soil bursting with life in the cooler months.

The canning cucumbers are doing amazing, the leafy greens have become bushes, the peppers are thriving, the beans are climbing high, the radishes are popping out of the ground, tomatoes are volunteering, carrots fill every gap, and the squash are huge. One of my housemates pointed out the many edible native plants I might have mistaken for weeds.

I've mostly been an observer in the garden the past couple of months. Somehow my life has drifted a bit from many of my frugal hobbies. Knitting and practicing the guitar, for instance, have become distant memories. I don't seem to play in the kitchen quite as often, and baking outside of work is becoming a rarity.

I'm guessing this is because of my current social life and fitness routine. A good friend of mine graduated college in the spring and we've been spending a lot of time together exercising. It started with a weekly get-together lifting weights. We decided to add some cardio in the form of a five-mile jog. Then we started rowing classes. Before I knew it, we had a five-day-a-week regime.

It's time consuming, but we're having a great time getting into shape. After four months the difference in our muscle tone is really astounding. And I'm thinking that maybe Darling and I are meeting our goal of improving our health in an unexpectedly thrifty way: we didn't have any cash to throw at health insurance premiums, but we've taken great strides in protecting our well-being by developing muscle, improving bone density, and building stamina. That and eating out of the garden is probably the thriftiest preventative medicine we're likely to find.

November 2009 Net Worth

My moral dilemma for the month was whether or not Darling and I would pay for his classes all at once (fewer classes, longer until he graduates) or using a payment plan (all his classes, sinks us deeper into debt). We went with the payment plan option and only paid $212 this month.

We also spent money maybe a little more freely than we should have this month. I can't really say where all the money went. A good deal went to debt, of course, a total of $152 to student loans. And I pumped our investment account by $124 - which is particularly good since we haven't put any money into our 401(k) since February. I bought a nice gift for my coming niece's baby shower and had an eye exam. We ate out a couple of times, rented some movies, bought some clothes and costume accessories and took a bottle of wine and a six pack to last night's party.

Our spending and saving was the result of some of the extra money I picked up working that convention and the "extra" paycheck that results from having five Fridays in a month, which happens again in January. So we kind of came out ahead with our assets, starting this month with $1,170.71, $187.43 more than last month.

Unfortunately the payment plan increased our debt by $636 to $13,673.15. That's $552.19 more than October.

This leaves us with a net worth of -$12,502.44, which is a $364.76 drop from our record low last month.

I'd like to make up that up this month by repaying much of what I owe to my brother and sister-in-law before Thanksgiving. In the meantime, our weekly student loan payments are increasing from $25 to $30 a month.