In an attempt to determine whether or not purchasing a ZipCar membership would be worthwhile, Sunday I experimented with doing the house shopping via taxi. In order to shop affordable and organically for our nine person vegetarian household, we depend very heavily on the bulk section for rice, beans, grains, flours, spices, cereals, sugar, salt, nuts, and dried fruit. This generally means a car full of empty containers and bags. Which, by the way, makes it really hard for me to relate to folks who claim they can't remember to bring their own bags to go shopping, but whatever.
Anyway, since I couldn't take many containers on the first leg of my journey, to be taken by bus, I dug up and labeled twenty or so ziplock bags (all having been used, washed, and dried many times) and tucked them into the three large green crates we carry home our shopping in. This took about fifteen minutes and the bus ride went smoothly.
Shopping with pre-labelled plastic bags was much easier than I'm used to. When shopping with the large glass jars in the past, I would have to weight the jar, label it fill it with product, and find space for it in a cart of twenty or so other jars. With the bags I didn't even have to take time to check the list and they stacked nicely into a single crate.
As usual the Wheatsville folks were very awesome in helping me bag and box up my groceries and giving me a couple of bucks off for bringing my own containers. Then they let me call a taxi with their complementary phone.
Waiting for a cab was a definite drag. I was becoming seriously concerned about the milk, cheese, and frozen juice concentrate by the time a driver finally pulled up. But he happily loaded my groceries into the trunk and once in the vehicle, I was really pleased with my decision. He dealt with traffic as only a paid proffessional could, running lights, drifting between lanes, and cutting other drivers off with nary a sigh nor gasp. I got to sit back and listen to a Prairie Home Companion.
Back at the house he unloaded the groceries at my front door and I paid him twenty dollars, which included a decent trip.
So, while twenty dollars is a lot of money, I totally plan to do this in the future. A similar trip in a zipcar would have cost me at least $24, which would not have included the $50 yearly fee for the privelage (sure, that's only $4 a month, but it's over twice that per shopping trip). Plus, in order to get to the zipcar I'd have to get downtown, and then return it directly after the shopping trip, adding a good hour to the chore. The ease and convenience of getting a cab home made the experience really enjoyable.
On a similar vein, I ended up taking a cab home on Sunday night. That was a far less pleasant experience. The cabbie got lost on the way, for exactly the reason I asked the dispatcher to warn him about, so I ended up waiting about forty-five minutes. Then I had to give directions, and then, on the highway, the cabbie mentioned his credit card machine was broken (an old scam warned about on the cab company's website). I didn't have enough cash to cover the $30 fare, so that was an issue. All in all? The night bus was only slightly worse. I'm going out right now to see if I can get Agni's bike rolling.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
My First Commute
I could blog at least once a week about how awesome my readers are and still not do you justice. It's hard to believe that anyone is interested in my life at all, especially when my day-to-day business is boring even to me. But hardly a post goes by that doesn't garner some encouragement or advice :)
In an appreciative attempt at not boring you to death, I try to avoid posting about the same subject four or five times in a row. But, since an anonymous friend asked how my new job is going...
It's pretty awesome. I'm still hitting the learning curve, which is frustrating after being in this industry for ten thousand years. And I haven't 100% come to terms with a slight hipsterific vibe the place exudes. But I feel pretty confident that I'll fit in fine with time and it will be really fun to spend a few years growing up with the company.
My only real complaint is the commute. Having never accepted a job more than a half hour walk from my house, traipsing across town six days a week drives me crazy. I'm only scheduled for five shifts a week, but I attend a weekly employee meeting on one of my days off.
So far this means an hour-long bus ride both ways. Fortunately, it's a really convenient trip with no transfers, and I'm dropped off within a couple of blocks from my house and workplace even when I don't get off work until one in the morning. Less fortunately, this costs me $2 on bus fare on top of the 2 hours spent catching up on my reading.
At first the commute was even worse because I neurotically added a half hour on my way to work by going to the bus stop that much earlier than necessary. Then, in the evenings, I somehow developed a pattern of barely missing the bus and having to wait another 45 minutes for the next one (they run less frequently at night). I'm training myself to be better on both counts.
On top of spending $12 and 12 hours a week just getting to and from work, my eating schedule has gotten completely out of whack and I've spent an absurd amount of money on food. Not only have my previous jobs been a fifteen minute walk away from my kitchen, but shifts were an average of five hours long and included a free shift meal. The pub does not offer free food to employees, although we do get a hefty discount that knocks most menu items down to about $4. I still haven't come to terms with the fact that when I hurry out to catch the bus (or sit at the stop for sixteen minutes), I'm not going to be home for another ten hours. Which means I need to eat more than a bowl of cereal beforehand and brown-bag a dinner.
So, for those of you keeping score at home, my commute costs $12 a week in terms of bus fare, $20 a week for food, and 12 hours a week traveling. If I was earning $12 an hour after taxes, working 40 hours a week, these expenses knock my Real Hourly Wage down to $8.62. And that's not even considering how much wind down time I need, not after work, but after the awful experience of riding the bus through downtown at two in the morning.
Happily enough, these expenses are easily prevented. Manning up and packing food is the most obvious solution, Darling's actually done this for me a few times already. I just need to develop a routine of not leaving the house without a meal.
I also need to change my transport habits. The downtown train station is less than a ten minute bike ride from my house, which will reduce my commute to work by half on the weekdays. In the evenings I will have no problem coasting home: the downhill route is paved with bike paths and will probably get me home at least fifteen minutes earlier than the bus. On Saturday and Sunday I'll be stuck with the bus on my way to work, but I can still bike home. By only taking the metro one way, I'll save a dollar per trip. By making these changes, I should only pay $6 a week in fares and spend no more than 9.5 hours commuting. At the same time, cycling home will replace my most-hated experience of dealing with drunk people on the bus with my absolute favorite indulgence: riding my bike at night.
If you're wondering why I haven't been doing this already (the bike thing, not the food thing, there's no excuse for that), the answer is that I've been too busy working. Happy as Mimi is to share her bike with me, she wants us both to give it a break until we get it to the shop for a much needed tune-up. Neither of us have had time to run this errand. Ages ago I decided to start using Agni's street bike, but it also desperately needs some TLC. Also, if I'm going to be riding across town every night, the time has come to invest in a helmet and more lights. And the time for investing comes when I get my first paycheck in June.
In an appreciative attempt at not boring you to death, I try to avoid posting about the same subject four or five times in a row. But, since an anonymous friend asked how my new job is going...
It's pretty awesome. I'm still hitting the learning curve, which is frustrating after being in this industry for ten thousand years. And I haven't 100% come to terms with a slight hipsterific vibe the place exudes. But I feel pretty confident that I'll fit in fine with time and it will be really fun to spend a few years growing up with the company.
My only real complaint is the commute. Having never accepted a job more than a half hour walk from my house, traipsing across town six days a week drives me crazy. I'm only scheduled for five shifts a week, but I attend a weekly employee meeting on one of my days off.
So far this means an hour-long bus ride both ways. Fortunately, it's a really convenient trip with no transfers, and I'm dropped off within a couple of blocks from my house and workplace even when I don't get off work until one in the morning. Less fortunately, this costs me $2 on bus fare on top of the 2 hours spent catching up on my reading.
At first the commute was even worse because I neurotically added a half hour on my way to work by going to the bus stop that much earlier than necessary. Then, in the evenings, I somehow developed a pattern of barely missing the bus and having to wait another 45 minutes for the next one (they run less frequently at night). I'm training myself to be better on both counts.
On top of spending $12 and 12 hours a week just getting to and from work, my eating schedule has gotten completely out of whack and I've spent an absurd amount of money on food. Not only have my previous jobs been a fifteen minute walk away from my kitchen, but shifts were an average of five hours long and included a free shift meal. The pub does not offer free food to employees, although we do get a hefty discount that knocks most menu items down to about $4. I still haven't come to terms with the fact that when I hurry out to catch the bus (or sit at the stop for sixteen minutes), I'm not going to be home for another ten hours. Which means I need to eat more than a bowl of cereal beforehand and brown-bag a dinner.
So, for those of you keeping score at home, my commute costs $12 a week in terms of bus fare, $20 a week for food, and 12 hours a week traveling. If I was earning $12 an hour after taxes, working 40 hours a week, these expenses knock my Real Hourly Wage down to $8.62. And that's not even considering how much wind down time I need, not after work, but after the awful experience of riding the bus through downtown at two in the morning.
Happily enough, these expenses are easily prevented. Manning up and packing food is the most obvious solution, Darling's actually done this for me a few times already. I just need to develop a routine of not leaving the house without a meal.
I also need to change my transport habits. The downtown train station is less than a ten minute bike ride from my house, which will reduce my commute to work by half on the weekdays. In the evenings I will have no problem coasting home: the downhill route is paved with bike paths and will probably get me home at least fifteen minutes earlier than the bus. On Saturday and Sunday I'll be stuck with the bus on my way to work, but I can still bike home. By only taking the metro one way, I'll save a dollar per trip. By making these changes, I should only pay $6 a week in fares and spend no more than 9.5 hours commuting. At the same time, cycling home will replace my most-hated experience of dealing with drunk people on the bus with my absolute favorite indulgence: riding my bike at night.
If you're wondering why I haven't been doing this already (the bike thing, not the food thing, there's no excuse for that), the answer is that I've been too busy working. Happy as Mimi is to share her bike with me, she wants us both to give it a break until we get it to the shop for a much needed tune-up. Neither of us have had time to run this errand. Ages ago I decided to start using Agni's street bike, but it also desperately needs some TLC. Also, if I'm going to be riding across town every night, the time has come to invest in a helmet and more lights. And the time for investing comes when I get my first paycheck in June.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Truck Update
I wasn't planning about following up on The Truck issue today, but considering even lovely Beany took the time, it might be appropriate.
I'm not going to accept the truck. I think that Aldra is very correct about the benefits of allowing others to be generous, and 99.9% of the time this is the right thing to do. At the same time, sometimes gifts have to be turned down. Not just for the sake of principles and beliefs (though those are good reasons), but for the good of social relations, if that makes any sense. My Mom and I are still sore - Lizzie is right about how royally screwed I got last Summer - and trying to buy each other off with ridiculous gifts is not a good way for us to heal. I need to make an effort to bond with my Mom outside the realm of material goods. Especially goods that would complicate my life tremendously.
As at least one reader pointed out, even if the financial burden of the truck were removed, I would have to deal with the constant temptation to drive it. Some people are not lazy enough to fall for that temptation. I have only met a few people who owned a vehicle and a bike and took the bike everywhere. I am not as awesome as them.
After giving immediately into temptation, and having to deal with the associated guilt and justification, I would find myself in the most frustrating of human inventions: traffic. Oh, how I hate traffic. I hate how it makes everyone late and grumpy and makes the entire city hot and smelly. No wonder people yammer on their cell phones and stuff drive through food down their throats to get through it, no matter people have the time to develop absurd right leaning opinions as they sit stewing in a hell of their own making.
And then I would get fat. I seriously gain weight every time I see a truck. I could eat all the croissants in the world if four-wheel drive did not exist. This is partially genetics, my family tree looks more like a potato patch. But why give genetics a helping hand?
All that said, remove the frustration of (hypothetically) owning a truck and the frustration of not owning a truck remains. Graham pointed out the possibility of getting a Zipcar account. That would cost me $75 the first year, and a $50 yearly renewal fee. Then $8-$9 an hour to drive or a $66+ daily fee. That includes gas, mileage, and insurance (which might not be great).
Aldra points out that this is more expensive than renting a car. I wouldn't know, as my every attempt at renting a car has failed as a result of not having a credit card. Except the moving truck a couple of years ago, which I would have been willing to pay twice the cost of if it hadn't been such a hassle. I'm not saying Zipcar is the best company ever, and I'm not signing up today, but I am going to do more research. Zipcar looks like the best option on the table.
...And this time? As opposed to all the others? I mean it about research. I've seriously been studying lately. More on that later.
I'm not going to accept the truck. I think that Aldra is very correct about the benefits of allowing others to be generous, and 99.9% of the time this is the right thing to do. At the same time, sometimes gifts have to be turned down. Not just for the sake of principles and beliefs (though those are good reasons), but for the good of social relations, if that makes any sense. My Mom and I are still sore - Lizzie is right about how royally screwed I got last Summer - and trying to buy each other off with ridiculous gifts is not a good way for us to heal. I need to make an effort to bond with my Mom outside the realm of material goods. Especially goods that would complicate my life tremendously.
As at least one reader pointed out, even if the financial burden of the truck were removed, I would have to deal with the constant temptation to drive it. Some people are not lazy enough to fall for that temptation. I have only met a few people who owned a vehicle and a bike and took the bike everywhere. I am not as awesome as them.
After giving immediately into temptation, and having to deal with the associated guilt and justification, I would find myself in the most frustrating of human inventions: traffic. Oh, how I hate traffic. I hate how it makes everyone late and grumpy and makes the entire city hot and smelly. No wonder people yammer on their cell phones and stuff drive through food down their throats to get through it, no matter people have the time to develop absurd right leaning opinions as they sit stewing in a hell of their own making.
And then I would get fat. I seriously gain weight every time I see a truck. I could eat all the croissants in the world if four-wheel drive did not exist. This is partially genetics, my family tree looks more like a potato patch. But why give genetics a helping hand?
All that said, remove the frustration of (hypothetically) owning a truck and the frustration of not owning a truck remains. Graham pointed out the possibility of getting a Zipcar account. That would cost me $75 the first year, and a $50 yearly renewal fee. Then $8-$9 an hour to drive or a $66+ daily fee. That includes gas, mileage, and insurance (which might not be great).
Aldra points out that this is more expensive than renting a car. I wouldn't know, as my every attempt at renting a car has failed as a result of not having a credit card. Except the moving truck a couple of years ago, which I would have been willing to pay twice the cost of if it hadn't been such a hassle. I'm not saying Zipcar is the best company ever, and I'm not signing up today, but I am going to do more research. Zipcar looks like the best option on the table.
...And this time? As opposed to all the others? I mean it about research. I've seriously been studying lately. More on that later.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Big Bertha
So, I never told you guys about The Truck.
At the start of last Summer my mom was convinced we needed a truck for our building project. Darling and I vehemently disagreed. One day my husband and I went to the grocery store, came back, and there was a huge truck in the driveway. She had gone to a car lot (no shopping around for that hurried lady), purchased the biggest thing she could find (Toyota Tundra), and the salesman drive it home for her since she could just barely climb into the cab and see over the steering wheel herself. The entire purchase went from the "I want a truck" to the "I have a truck" stage in less than five hours.
My mom, like myself, considers herself frugal, by the by. At least she paid cash.
I'd be lying a lot to say the truck didn't come in handy. We hauled several tons of stone and made half a dozen trips to and from various hardware stores. In fact, I kind of grew to really like the massive oil guzzler, whom Darling and I named Bertha. She was a fun drive.
Fast forward to today, and Mom wants us to take Bertha. Just to have her. What's more: Mom wants to continue paying Bertha's insurance and all that jazz. For weeks I've been very firm about saying "No." But I'm beginning to waver...
If we had the truck, we could have helped Raja and Xy move today. I could also do the house shopping without having to borrow someone else's vehicle. It could be an invaluable tool with the capoeira group's community garden project, not to mention the house's various ongoing landscaping projects. With personal transport, we could visit my Mom more often. And, if we had the truck, we wouldn't have to worry about my Mom trying to drive the truck.
We wouldn't own the beast, just holding it for a friend, as the televised teenagers say. We could live without it, but wouldn't have to.
I wish Mom would let us sell the truck and use it to pay off my student loans. There would probably even be enough money left over to buy a more reasonable used vehicle. But that deal isn't on the table. Maybe if she got used to not having it around...
At the start of last Summer my mom was convinced we needed a truck for our building project. Darling and I vehemently disagreed. One day my husband and I went to the grocery store, came back, and there was a huge truck in the driveway. She had gone to a car lot (no shopping around for that hurried lady), purchased the biggest thing she could find (Toyota Tundra), and the salesman drive it home for her since she could just barely climb into the cab and see over the steering wheel herself. The entire purchase went from the "I want a truck" to the "I have a truck" stage in less than five hours.
My mom, like myself, considers herself frugal, by the by. At least she paid cash.
I'd be lying a lot to say the truck didn't come in handy. We hauled several tons of stone and made half a dozen trips to and from various hardware stores. In fact, I kind of grew to really like the massive oil guzzler, whom Darling and I named Bertha. She was a fun drive.
Fast forward to today, and Mom wants us to take Bertha. Just to have her. What's more: Mom wants to continue paying Bertha's insurance and all that jazz. For weeks I've been very firm about saying "No." But I'm beginning to waver...
If we had the truck, we could have helped Raja and Xy move today. I could also do the house shopping without having to borrow someone else's vehicle. It could be an invaluable tool with the capoeira group's community garden project, not to mention the house's various ongoing landscaping projects. With personal transport, we could visit my Mom more often. And, if we had the truck, we wouldn't have to worry about my Mom trying to drive the truck.
We wouldn't own the beast, just holding it for a friend, as the televised teenagers say. We could live without it, but wouldn't have to.
I wish Mom would let us sell the truck and use it to pay off my student loans. There would probably even be enough money left over to buy a more reasonable used vehicle. But that deal isn't on the table. Maybe if she got used to not having it around...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Egalitarian Employment and Tips
Okay, one more post about the new job, to answer a question from the lovely Lost Goat: Since you're getting a salary, do you have to turn in all tips, or are tips not accepted, or what?
It's a deceptively simple question, with a short answer and a long answer.
Short answer first: We technically don't accept tips. This freaks a lot of customers out, and many throw money at us and run away, or at least leave a little something on the table. We won't chase people out of the building, but we also gently discourage the practice. Money that does get left behind goes into a sort of petty cash fund to be reinvested into the co-op.
The long answer: the co-op is built on a totally different premise than most businesses which eliminates the need, benefit, and spirit of tipping. Most bars and pubs are owned by someone who shoulders most of the responsibilities while reaping most of the benefits. Those pubs are operated by a staff that earns only as much as the owner has to pay them, which is typically not a lot (minimum server wage in Texas is $2.12/hr). This is considered appropriate because the low wage creates an incentive to the employees to provide the best service possible to customers. Customers therefore pay for both drinks and service separately.
Which you knew, obviously, but I break it down like that to contrast it with our co-op's model (which is fairly unique). To start, the pub is not owned by an individual but by anyone who wishes to purchase a share in the co-op. Any profit produced by the company is distributed to members on a per share basis. No owner depends on the pub, and the pub depends on no single individual to survive.
What the owners and pub do depend on is the staff. The staff does all of the footwork, from balancing the budget, setting our own pay, approving our own hiring, ordering new ingredients and stock, arranging events, setting hours, applying for permits, and of course the day-to-day work of running a business. The staff is democratically run on an egalitarian basis; no one is tasked with managing anyone else. And there is no benefit to anyone getting paid more than anyone else, because we should all be putting in the same amount of effort.
Our incentive to provide service is not to earn tips, but to make our business profitable. If the business becomes a raging success, we'll reap the benefits in the form of dividends. We'll also be able to hire more people, expand, take exciting risks, and so on. If the business fails, we have only ourselves to blame and will be unemployed. So, rather than have someone give a good tip, which unbalances the egalitarian nature of the co-op and produces a bookkeeping chore, we'd like customers to buy product or membership shares. By doing that, customers support not only the staff but the entire community of owners.
It's a deceptively simple question, with a short answer and a long answer.
Short answer first: We technically don't accept tips. This freaks a lot of customers out, and many throw money at us and run away, or at least leave a little something on the table. We won't chase people out of the building, but we also gently discourage the practice. Money that does get left behind goes into a sort of petty cash fund to be reinvested into the co-op.
The long answer: the co-op is built on a totally different premise than most businesses which eliminates the need, benefit, and spirit of tipping. Most bars and pubs are owned by someone who shoulders most of the responsibilities while reaping most of the benefits. Those pubs are operated by a staff that earns only as much as the owner has to pay them, which is typically not a lot (minimum server wage in Texas is $2.12/hr). This is considered appropriate because the low wage creates an incentive to the employees to provide the best service possible to customers. Customers therefore pay for both drinks and service separately.
Which you knew, obviously, but I break it down like that to contrast it with our co-op's model (which is fairly unique). To start, the pub is not owned by an individual but by anyone who wishes to purchase a share in the co-op. Any profit produced by the company is distributed to members on a per share basis. No owner depends on the pub, and the pub depends on no single individual to survive.
What the owners and pub do depend on is the staff. The staff does all of the footwork, from balancing the budget, setting our own pay, approving our own hiring, ordering new ingredients and stock, arranging events, setting hours, applying for permits, and of course the day-to-day work of running a business. The staff is democratically run on an egalitarian basis; no one is tasked with managing anyone else. And there is no benefit to anyone getting paid more than anyone else, because we should all be putting in the same amount of effort.
Our incentive to provide service is not to earn tips, but to make our business profitable. If the business becomes a raging success, we'll reap the benefits in the form of dividends. We'll also be able to hire more people, expand, take exciting risks, and so on. If the business fails, we have only ourselves to blame and will be unemployed. So, rather than have someone give a good tip, which unbalances the egalitarian nature of the co-op and produces a bookkeeping chore, we'd like customers to buy product or membership shares. By doing that, customers support not only the staff but the entire community of owners.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Benefits of Regular Income
Yesterday was my last day of work at the cafe.
Now I both live and work at two separate co-ops. So I should probably refer to the house as The House from now on, and the job as The Pub. I can't possibly express my excitement about this turn in my life, can't possibly explain how deeply this affects every aspect of my life. Understand, for instance, that at least once a day I think, "that career path could be interesting, I should do that/apply there/study this." I can officially take a break from that line of thought for the foreseeable future. The Pub is it for me right now. I can choose to be content and settle down here until it's time to take the next big step (not having to work at all for a living).
This job, and the resulting income, also allows for the following:
* There will never again be any doubt as to whether or not Darling and I can make rent. A slow weekend or equipment failure won't put us in a financial bind, and, thanks to sick days, I won't have to decide between getting well or getting paid.
* Knowing how much money is coming in every single month will cut the guesswork out of budgeting. That means I can safely arrange automatic payment plans, decide how much "fun money" Darling and I should give ourselves and how to spend it, and allocate money to both savings and debt in a consistent manner.
* Consistency will enable us to set and meet a reasonable debt payment goal. I can use one of the numerous debt payment calculators online to determine exactly how much money we need to pay on a monthly basis to be debt free by, say, April 27, 2012, and act accordingly.
* Earning a salary means that hustling will only get me so far, I'll no longer feel inclined to work myself to exhaustion to get ahead financially. And having a forty-hour work week that takes place across town seriously curtails my job-juggling tendencies. So the incentive to work to death has been removed. Weird.
* My financial strategies will simplify immensely. No more running to the bank two or three times a week, recording the amount earned in how many hours every day in my planner, or spending an hour tallying those amounts at the end of the month.
I can't wait to settle on exact numbers and percentages, but I can only guess at my post tax income until my paycheck in mid-June! Due to some general financial catch-uppery that needs accomplishing with the first couple of paychecks, Darling and I won't launch our shiny new financial/debt servicing strategy until July! So maybe I should add "Developing Patience" to my list :)
Now I both live and work at two separate co-ops. So I should probably refer to the house as The House from now on, and the job as The Pub. I can't possibly express my excitement about this turn in my life, can't possibly explain how deeply this affects every aspect of my life. Understand, for instance, that at least once a day I think, "that career path could be interesting, I should do that/apply there/study this." I can officially take a break from that line of thought for the foreseeable future. The Pub is it for me right now. I can choose to be content and settle down here until it's time to take the next big step (not having to work at all for a living).
This job, and the resulting income, also allows for the following:
* There will never again be any doubt as to whether or not Darling and I can make rent. A slow weekend or equipment failure won't put us in a financial bind, and, thanks to sick days, I won't have to decide between getting well or getting paid.
* Knowing how much money is coming in every single month will cut the guesswork out of budgeting. That means I can safely arrange automatic payment plans, decide how much "fun money" Darling and I should give ourselves and how to spend it, and allocate money to both savings and debt in a consistent manner.
* Consistency will enable us to set and meet a reasonable debt payment goal. I can use one of the numerous debt payment calculators online to determine exactly how much money we need to pay on a monthly basis to be debt free by, say, April 27, 2012, and act accordingly.
* Earning a salary means that hustling will only get me so far, I'll no longer feel inclined to work myself to exhaustion to get ahead financially. And having a forty-hour work week that takes place across town seriously curtails my job-juggling tendencies. So the incentive to work to death has been removed. Weird.
* My financial strategies will simplify immensely. No more running to the bank two or three times a week, recording the amount earned in how many hours every day in my planner, or spending an hour tallying those amounts at the end of the month.
I can't wait to settle on exact numbers and percentages, but I can only guess at my post tax income until my paycheck in mid-June! Due to some general financial catch-uppery that needs accomplishing with the first couple of paychecks, Darling and I won't launch our shiny new financial/debt servicing strategy until July! So maybe I should add "Developing Patience" to my list :)
Friday, May 6, 2011
Zen and Now: From Fast Food To Cooperative Employment
I got my first food service job after school on my sixteenth birthday. My new boss had such a thick Liberian accent that as I accepted my Long John Silver work shirt, I didn't know if I was being offered a job or the consolation price.
Almost exactly ten years later, my food-service resume is pretty impressive. I've put in time at an Einstein Bagels, a coffee shop franchise that eventually sued to break its contract and become independent, a very large and successful alternative restaurant in Austin, a nightclub that offered fine dining, a pool hall, an organic farm, a small gas station, a failing coffee shop, a bakery, and a really great Local With A Capital "L" Cafe.
All but the first two jobs were locally owned and often claimed to be family operated. Other than that, they were all very different. I've had as many as 300 coworkers and as few as five. I've attended massive conventions, developed product lines, soothed egos, and eventually walked away. The older I get, the more often customers raise their eyebrows and ask when I'm opening my own bakery/coffee shop/whathaveyou.
The answer is never.
There are two types of business owner. A student of Zen would say that duality is an offense to reality, and that Zen student would be correct. There are not two types of anything, so don't take this as Management 101, but for the sake of my personal agenda, hear me out.
Okay, so, two types of business owner: Expert and Manager.
The Expert is generally an artist, especially when it comes to food. A master baker who went to the best school, taught for ten years, and is now producing the best croissants in town. He.knows.his.stuff. The expert might also be a chef, brewmaster, or barista. After years of refining his or her craft, he or she scrimped and saved, borrowed money, and opened a business.
Sometimes, but not often, that person was smart enough to work in cafe/bakery/restaurant before writing up a business model. But in ten years I've worked for five business owners who had never handled a cash register before their grand opening. Four of those five were Experts. They had a passion and thought that being their own bosses would enable them to focus all of their energy on that passion. And that would be enough to succeed. They were wrong on both counts.
Experts know their craft. They produce a better product than you will ever find anywhere else. But best product in town does not ensure a healthy business. Not if you don't know how to negotiate the management side of things.
So we have managers. Managers are just as passionate as Experts. But their passion is business. These folks are masters at account development, inventory, human resources, client relations, taxes, city permits, and correspondence. They are happy to handle everything that distracts Experts from their craft, everything that actually makes a business function. The problem? Well, being an unexperienced Manager is just as bad as being an unexperienced Expert. The failing coffee shop I worked at had seven owners in eight years, Managers all. Each loved the business model, each had a vision for a hip neighborhood hideout with a live music venue and focus on the arts. Each read everything available about making such businesses work, researched the competition (easy enough, considering the seven identical companies in a five block radius), memorized wage stats and mark up policies, and learned everything possible about making a cafe succeed. The only thing these nice folks didn't do was learn a single goddamn thing about COFFEE. The last couple of owners didn't even drink the stuff. They'd take over, hold a few staff meetings, rotate the product endlessly in an attempt to find the "right" combination, and eventually sell the place at a loss. Unlike the Experts I've worked for, Managers don't go down with the ship.
There is nothing wrong with being a manager or an Expert. I've witnessed both types of owner succeed marvelously. Both bring vital skills to the table, and most successful business owners have both skill sets. I probably lean towards the manager side, if only because I've never totally dedicated myself to a single art (I can pull a decent shot of espresso, knock out a good cake, and program a POS). But really, what I bring to the table is experience. And I have had enough experience to know that owning the business is too much for one person.
Too much risk, too much standardization, too much debt. I do not see the allure of "being my own boss." When it comes to capitalism, no one is free. Especially considering more and more businesses are actually owned by the bank. I'd rather work for a manager (or expert) who is obligated to give me a paycheck than a bank which won't hesitate to repossess vital equipment if a dry spell strands me in the red. I'd much rather be an employee than an owner.
But wait...the Zen student speaks up again. Duality is still an illusion. Just as there are not two types of business owners, one does not have to choose between being an employee or employer. These are just labels alluding to the uneven distribution of risk and reward of doing business!
Why not bring together the experts (who are also managers) and managers (who are also experts), drop the concept of employers and employees (both of whom equally depend on the business for a living), and let them share the risks and rewards alike? When a group of individuals own a business and distribute the costs and profits among themselves evenly, cooperatively, the risks and costs decrease substantially. The baker can bake all day while the manager (in personality, not in title) handles the paperwork. When the boundaries between owners and employees evaporate, it is in everyone's best interest to improve the bottom line. Take it another step and provide ownership potential to your customer base and a business can exist that rests solely on no one's shoulders, which is beloved by dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of dedicated members.
That's the sort of job I started on Wednesday. Community-owned and worker managed. I have been on cloud nine since I was hired on Tuesday. After my two week notice at the cafe is up, I will have a job but not a boss. I'm pretty sure I will never have a boss again. It is the best feeling I've had since discovering I may never have another landlord. The feeling of such sudden liberation has left me dizzy. Is my obsession with financial freedom - with freedom in general - coloring my perception of a democratically led workforce? Or have my co-workers experienced this and moved on, distracted from the head rush by the knowledge that we have a lot of work to do, a lot to learn, and are being paid well enough to do it? Or perhaps I am the only one of my fairly young team who has already dedicated over a decade of her life to bosses, to experts who couldn't manage and managers who lacked experience?
Whatever it is, I'm going to be kind of vague about my job until I don't mind my coworkers knowing about my blog. They already think I'm a completely mad hippie as it is :) I'm crazy excited about this new twist in my life, it's going to inspire so much momentum. And I'm so happy to have you share it with me!
Almost exactly ten years later, my food-service resume is pretty impressive. I've put in time at an Einstein Bagels, a coffee shop franchise that eventually sued to break its contract and become independent, a very large and successful alternative restaurant in Austin, a nightclub that offered fine dining, a pool hall, an organic farm, a small gas station, a failing coffee shop, a bakery, and a really great Local With A Capital "L" Cafe.
All but the first two jobs were locally owned and often claimed to be family operated. Other than that, they were all very different. I've had as many as 300 coworkers and as few as five. I've attended massive conventions, developed product lines, soothed egos, and eventually walked away. The older I get, the more often customers raise their eyebrows and ask when I'm opening my own bakery/coffee shop/whathaveyou.
The answer is never.
There are two types of business owner. A student of Zen would say that duality is an offense to reality, and that Zen student would be correct. There are not two types of anything, so don't take this as Management 101, but for the sake of my personal agenda, hear me out.
Okay, so, two types of business owner: Expert and Manager.
The Expert is generally an artist, especially when it comes to food. A master baker who went to the best school, taught for ten years, and is now producing the best croissants in town. He.knows.his.stuff. The expert might also be a chef, brewmaster, or barista. After years of refining his or her craft, he or she scrimped and saved, borrowed money, and opened a business.
Sometimes, but not often, that person was smart enough to work in cafe/bakery/restaurant before writing up a business model. But in ten years I've worked for five business owners who had never handled a cash register before their grand opening. Four of those five were Experts. They had a passion and thought that being their own bosses would enable them to focus all of their energy on that passion. And that would be enough to succeed. They were wrong on both counts.
Experts know their craft. They produce a better product than you will ever find anywhere else. But best product in town does not ensure a healthy business. Not if you don't know how to negotiate the management side of things.
So we have managers. Managers are just as passionate as Experts. But their passion is business. These folks are masters at account development, inventory, human resources, client relations, taxes, city permits, and correspondence. They are happy to handle everything that distracts Experts from their craft, everything that actually makes a business function. The problem? Well, being an unexperienced Manager is just as bad as being an unexperienced Expert. The failing coffee shop I worked at had seven owners in eight years, Managers all. Each loved the business model, each had a vision for a hip neighborhood hideout with a live music venue and focus on the arts. Each read everything available about making such businesses work, researched the competition (easy enough, considering the seven identical companies in a five block radius), memorized wage stats and mark up policies, and learned everything possible about making a cafe succeed. The only thing these nice folks didn't do was learn a single goddamn thing about COFFEE. The last couple of owners didn't even drink the stuff. They'd take over, hold a few staff meetings, rotate the product endlessly in an attempt to find the "right" combination, and eventually sell the place at a loss. Unlike the Experts I've worked for, Managers don't go down with the ship.
There is nothing wrong with being a manager or an Expert. I've witnessed both types of owner succeed marvelously. Both bring vital skills to the table, and most successful business owners have both skill sets. I probably lean towards the manager side, if only because I've never totally dedicated myself to a single art (I can pull a decent shot of espresso, knock out a good cake, and program a POS). But really, what I bring to the table is experience. And I have had enough experience to know that owning the business is too much for one person.
Too much risk, too much standardization, too much debt. I do not see the allure of "being my own boss." When it comes to capitalism, no one is free. Especially considering more and more businesses are actually owned by the bank. I'd rather work for a manager (or expert) who is obligated to give me a paycheck than a bank which won't hesitate to repossess vital equipment if a dry spell strands me in the red. I'd much rather be an employee than an owner.
But wait...the Zen student speaks up again. Duality is still an illusion. Just as there are not two types of business owners, one does not have to choose between being an employee or employer. These are just labels alluding to the uneven distribution of risk and reward of doing business!
Why not bring together the experts (who are also managers) and managers (who are also experts), drop the concept of employers and employees (both of whom equally depend on the business for a living), and let them share the risks and rewards alike? When a group of individuals own a business and distribute the costs and profits among themselves evenly, cooperatively, the risks and costs decrease substantially. The baker can bake all day while the manager (in personality, not in title) handles the paperwork. When the boundaries between owners and employees evaporate, it is in everyone's best interest to improve the bottom line. Take it another step and provide ownership potential to your customer base and a business can exist that rests solely on no one's shoulders, which is beloved by dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of dedicated members.
That's the sort of job I started on Wednesday. Community-owned and worker managed. I have been on cloud nine since I was hired on Tuesday. After my two week notice at the cafe is up, I will have a job but not a boss. I'm pretty sure I will never have a boss again. It is the best feeling I've had since discovering I may never have another landlord. The feeling of such sudden liberation has left me dizzy. Is my obsession with financial freedom - with freedom in general - coloring my perception of a democratically led workforce? Or have my co-workers experienced this and moved on, distracted from the head rush by the knowledge that we have a lot of work to do, a lot to learn, and are being paid well enough to do it? Or perhaps I am the only one of my fairly young team who has already dedicated over a decade of her life to bosses, to experts who couldn't manage and managers who lacked experience?
Whatever it is, I'm going to be kind of vague about my job until I don't mind my coworkers knowing about my blog. They already think I'm a completely mad hippie as it is :) I'm crazy excited about this new twist in my life, it's going to inspire so much momentum. And I'm so happy to have you share it with me!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
I Got The Call, and...
I got the job!
I now earn a salary. No more depending on fluctuating tips!
I will have health benefits!
I will work 40 hours a week!
I will have paid vacation!
And...And...I work for a co-op!
I now earn a salary. No more depending on fluctuating tips!
I will have health benefits!
I will work 40 hours a week!
I will have paid vacation!
And...And...I work for a co-op!
Where Did April Go?
What did I spend my time working for in March?
1. Rent, which also covers my basic living expenses, clocked in at 69 hours.
2. I dedicated 33 1/2 hours of my life to paying off debt. The bright side? Interest in April cost me less than half what it did in March.
3. I'm really unhappy to say that the phone bills took an unwelcome 19 hours of my life. Time to go the frugal route and purchase a tracphone.
4. 13 Hours are listed under my entertainment budget because of my birthday. I should confess that I didn't sort the categories properly. Most of that amount is food, and about 40% of it was unnecessary. Live and learn.
5. Speaking of food, even with half of it hidden in the entertainment category we managed to spend another 8 hours paying for the rest.
This is the first month that I've looked at my totals and really regretted an expense. I really want nineteen hours of my life back. Basically, someone misread the fine print on the phone plans and assumed that certain fees were one-time-only. I honestly can't believe anyone could afford a phone for at that price.
I wanted a real plan with a real company, though, and didn't even really take advantage of the research that was offered to me for free in my comments section. Which turns my normal fail into and Epic Fail. Then I had the phone cut off just days before I really needed it, the day my dream employers called me up for an interview. And what did they do? Send me a freaking e-mail.
1. Rent, which also covers my basic living expenses, clocked in at 69 hours.
2. I dedicated 33 1/2 hours of my life to paying off debt. The bright side? Interest in April cost me less than half what it did in March.
3. I'm really unhappy to say that the phone bills took an unwelcome 19 hours of my life. Time to go the frugal route and purchase a tracphone.
4. 13 Hours are listed under my entertainment budget because of my birthday. I should confess that I didn't sort the categories properly. Most of that amount is food, and about 40% of it was unnecessary. Live and learn.
5. Speaking of food, even with half of it hidden in the entertainment category we managed to spend another 8 hours paying for the rest.
This is the first month that I've looked at my totals and really regretted an expense. I really want nineteen hours of my life back. Basically, someone misread the fine print on the phone plans and assumed that certain fees were one-time-only. I honestly can't believe anyone could afford a phone for at that price.
I wanted a real plan with a real company, though, and didn't even really take advantage of the research that was offered to me for free in my comments section. Which turns my normal fail into and Epic Fail. Then I had the phone cut off just days before I really needed it, the day my dream employers called me up for an interview. And what did they do? Send me a freaking e-mail.
Monday, May 2, 2011
May 2011 Net Worth
This was a wild April. I can't believe it was only a few weeks ago that Darling and I went on our longest ride yet (just under thirty miles, across two towns against a wicked head wind), fell absolutely in love with and then canceled our cell phones, quit my second job, celebrated my 26th birthday, our highest net worth ever, and marked the fifth anniversary of this blog. I also interviewed for a great job I'm still expecting to hear back from, caught a vicious cold, and passed that cold onto my beloved. And I went shopping.
No wonder I was totally weak on the blogging front, with only eight posts in April. Finding time online was a serious challenge these past few weeks, friends. Though I can't wish for a gentle May when so many exciting changes are in the air.
Where I was truly unforgivably weak was the financial front. After paying over a thousand dollars off debt in March, it was hard to reign in my enthusiasm once my tax refund had dwindled. Which would have been a good idea, as I spent about $200 on my birthday weekend, not including the actual cabin rental. That also doesn't include the lost income of not working that weekend. Which wouldn't have been a massive deal, except the next weekend the dishwasher at work broke and I suddenly found myself missing another financially necessary shift. Then I got sick on the fourth weekend.
My total assets ring in at $2,525.05, $543.75 less than last month. My debt dropped $443.73 to $9,419.50, which is kind of a beautiful number. The result is a slight drop in my net worth to -$6,894.45.
I'm thinking of taking a total break on debt payment for a few weeks and build up my savings. I get totally hypnotized watching that big number drop, and I need a cushion to fall back on when I get overwhelmed. When working on my monthly tabulations, I'll estimate how long it should take me to get a month's worth of expenses in the bank.
No wonder I was totally weak on the blogging front, with only eight posts in April. Finding time online was a serious challenge these past few weeks, friends. Though I can't wish for a gentle May when so many exciting changes are in the air.
Where I was truly unforgivably weak was the financial front. After paying over a thousand dollars off debt in March, it was hard to reign in my enthusiasm once my tax refund had dwindled. Which would have been a good idea, as I spent about $200 on my birthday weekend, not including the actual cabin rental. That also doesn't include the lost income of not working that weekend. Which wouldn't have been a massive deal, except the next weekend the dishwasher at work broke and I suddenly found myself missing another financially necessary shift. Then I got sick on the fourth weekend.
My total assets ring in at $2,525.05, $543.75 less than last month. My debt dropped $443.73 to $9,419.50, which is kind of a beautiful number. The result is a slight drop in my net worth to -$6,894.45.
I'm thinking of taking a total break on debt payment for a few weeks and build up my savings. I get totally hypnotized watching that big number drop, and I need a cushion to fall back on when I get overwhelmed. When working on my monthly tabulations, I'll estimate how long it should take me to get a month's worth of expenses in the bank.
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