Holy Crap!
My latest net worth is -$2,925.35!!!
So next month it's actually very, very possible that my net worth will pop above Zero!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A Supplemental Story
Once upon, Darling's sister's husband's sister's husband was selling nutritional supplements that could save all of our lives. The entire family indulged and endorsed these nutritional powerhouses, from my buoyant little nephew to my elderly mother-in-law.
Darling and I took one look at the ingredient label and laughed. These pills supposedly contained concentrated goodness from kale, cauliflower, carrots, and darn near everything else that our refrigerator was stuffed with (strangely enough, these supplements don't advertise "essence of beef"). Thanks, but no thanks, we demurred. We'd get our vitamins in our meals.
Fast forward seven years. I no longer work in a farm, or even a restaurant that specializes in seasonal organic local food. I no longer have the wherewithal to bake every single day, or even cook every meal. I desperately utilize the veggies in our garden, but between work and commuting and class and this big ol' river I'm crying, my veggie consumption has dipped dramatically.
So when my doctor suggested supplements (featuring labels about identical to those we saw so many years ago), I decided to go for it. I've been taking them for a week and a half now. And maybe it's the placebo effect, maybe it's the fact that I guiltily renewed my efforts at cooking vegetables (carrot and beet muffins, anyone?), but I've been feeling FABULOUS. So good that in the morning I'm like, coffee? who needs coffee? Heck, maybe it's the acupuncture. I dunno. I DO know that I can stop taking them for days at a time and still feel fine, which causes me to believe they are not habit-forming or containing some version of speed, which is a serious concern of mine.
Obviously I would be better off eating more kale and blueberries. Don't think that I'm not weighing the consequences of not having time to meet my nutritional needs at the dinner table against the benefits of working the way I am right now. Don't think that this isn't of the many, many moral dilemmas that haunt me right now. Buuut, in the meantime, it's nice to actually feel GOOD.
Darling and I took one look at the ingredient label and laughed. These pills supposedly contained concentrated goodness from kale, cauliflower, carrots, and darn near everything else that our refrigerator was stuffed with (strangely enough, these supplements don't advertise "essence of beef"). Thanks, but no thanks, we demurred. We'd get our vitamins in our meals.
Fast forward seven years. I no longer work in a farm, or even a restaurant that specializes in seasonal organic local food. I no longer have the wherewithal to bake every single day, or even cook every meal. I desperately utilize the veggies in our garden, but between work and commuting and class and this big ol' river I'm crying, my veggie consumption has dipped dramatically.
So when my doctor suggested supplements (featuring labels about identical to those we saw so many years ago), I decided to go for it. I've been taking them for a week and a half now. And maybe it's the placebo effect, maybe it's the fact that I guiltily renewed my efforts at cooking vegetables (carrot and beet muffins, anyone?), but I've been feeling FABULOUS. So good that in the morning I'm like, coffee? who needs coffee? Heck, maybe it's the acupuncture. I dunno. I DO know that I can stop taking them for days at a time and still feel fine, which causes me to believe they are not habit-forming or containing some version of speed, which is a serious concern of mine.
Obviously I would be better off eating more kale and blueberries. Don't think that I'm not weighing the consequences of not having time to meet my nutritional needs at the dinner table against the benefits of working the way I am right now. Don't think that this isn't of the many, many moral dilemmas that haunt me right now. Buuut, in the meantime, it's nice to actually feel GOOD.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
My Spending Choices
The lovely Lost Goat recently commented on the fact that we spent more than we earned in the past few weekly reviews (and wouldn't you know it - I'm behind again!).
It's all swings and roundabouts, as my British husband would say. Some months we earn significantly more than other months. Our spending remains consistently very high, because anything "extra" goes to debt. We're basically spending every penny we earn (with 50% going to debt), though not necessarily on the same week we earn it - if that makes any sense. Don't worry, we're not fostering any secret lines of credit or over-drafting with the bank.
Right now I'm looking at my spending with a very sharp, and extremely forgiving, eye. Chalk it up to raking in more cash than ever before, and working more hours than I ever imagined, but I'm being lenient with myself. Not negligent, but definitely lenient.
This is how I dole out my cash every week. I'm not saying it's the right way, or even a very good way, but it's just where I'm at right now:
Darling and I both get paid on Friday. He receives sporadic per diem checks, I get the occasional bonus for dog-sitting or such, we both make over-time sometimes, and we both miss a day of work here and there.
I reserve some cash to buy a couple of sandwiches with on Monday; when our commute crashes into an evening meeting that leaves us delirious with exhaustion and potentially grumpy with hunger, for Darling's $5 daily carpool contribution, and for extra lunch supplies and snacks. We started buying extra groceries specifically for lunchboxes because making a meal at 4:30 in the morning that will sustain us for twelve hours has been a challenge. I also fill the truck with gas.
I mentally add up the cost of those purchases (roughly $150, most of which is gas), include some sort of cushion (probably another hundred dollars), and transfer the rest to debt. The first or last week of every month, of course, I allow for the rent payment as well.
Like I said, the system is lenient. That weekly cushion covers everything from phone bills to doctor appointments, from sodas at work to a day at the strawberry farm. The only rule I try and abide by is that 50% of our total spending is on debt.
The biggest (only?) problem I have with this slipshod system is my recent graduation to Step Six of Your Money or Your Life, which can roughly be described as Spend Less Money. The book has over a hundred suggestions on this matter, but no real specific way of knowing whether or not I've completed the task.
Naturally, the task isn't meant to be accomplished and forgotten, but to introduce a new style of living...but I like goals, start points, and end points (says the person who took fourteen months to make a simple line-graph). Also, it would just be too easy to say, "eh, I'm frugal. Next?"
So I'm contemplating a mini-challenge, maybe a year-long endeavor to correlate with Year Six of the blog, in which I would set various saving goals. The intention would not be to stash away a certain amount of cash, which would not be an accurate measurement of cost-cutting as my income fluctuates so much. The intention would be to develop and practice certain skills, habits, and patterns that would reduce my consumption regardless of income.
This will be especially beneficial for Year Six because it will be the first one not affected by my debt - my spending will actually drop, because "savings" won't immediately be transferred to debt servicing. It will also force me to consciously deal with having so much extra money surging into my bank account.
Potential goals to meet this end might include learning repairs, finding ways to lower the co-op's overall budget (and therefore my rent), and learning to balance full-time work with sustainable choices without giving up union carpentry - which will come in handy for Step Seven: Maximizing Income.
It's all swings and roundabouts, as my British husband would say. Some months we earn significantly more than other months. Our spending remains consistently very high, because anything "extra" goes to debt. We're basically spending every penny we earn (with 50% going to debt), though not necessarily on the same week we earn it - if that makes any sense. Don't worry, we're not fostering any secret lines of credit or over-drafting with the bank.
Right now I'm looking at my spending with a very sharp, and extremely forgiving, eye. Chalk it up to raking in more cash than ever before, and working more hours than I ever imagined, but I'm being lenient with myself. Not negligent, but definitely lenient.
This is how I dole out my cash every week. I'm not saying it's the right way, or even a very good way, but it's just where I'm at right now:
Darling and I both get paid on Friday. He receives sporadic per diem checks, I get the occasional bonus for dog-sitting or such, we both make over-time sometimes, and we both miss a day of work here and there.
I reserve some cash to buy a couple of sandwiches with on Monday; when our commute crashes into an evening meeting that leaves us delirious with exhaustion and potentially grumpy with hunger, for Darling's $5 daily carpool contribution, and for extra lunch supplies and snacks. We started buying extra groceries specifically for lunchboxes because making a meal at 4:30 in the morning that will sustain us for twelve hours has been a challenge. I also fill the truck with gas.
I mentally add up the cost of those purchases (roughly $150, most of which is gas), include some sort of cushion (probably another hundred dollars), and transfer the rest to debt. The first or last week of every month, of course, I allow for the rent payment as well.
Like I said, the system is lenient. That weekly cushion covers everything from phone bills to doctor appointments, from sodas at work to a day at the strawberry farm. The only rule I try and abide by is that 50% of our total spending is on debt.
The biggest (only?) problem I have with this slipshod system is my recent graduation to Step Six of Your Money or Your Life, which can roughly be described as Spend Less Money. The book has over a hundred suggestions on this matter, but no real specific way of knowing whether or not I've completed the task.
Naturally, the task isn't meant to be accomplished and forgotten, but to introduce a new style of living...but I like goals, start points, and end points (says the person who took fourteen months to make a simple line-graph). Also, it would just be too easy to say, "eh, I'm frugal. Next?"
So I'm contemplating a mini-challenge, maybe a year-long endeavor to correlate with Year Six of the blog, in which I would set various saving goals. The intention would not be to stash away a certain amount of cash, which would not be an accurate measurement of cost-cutting as my income fluctuates so much. The intention would be to develop and practice certain skills, habits, and patterns that would reduce my consumption regardless of income.
This will be especially beneficial for Year Six because it will be the first one not affected by my debt - my spending will actually drop, because "savings" won't immediately be transferred to debt servicing. It will also force me to consciously deal with having so much extra money surging into my bank account.
Potential goals to meet this end might include learning repairs, finding ways to lower the co-op's overall budget (and therefore my rent), and learning to balance full-time work with sustainable choices without giving up union carpentry - which will come in handy for Step Seven: Maximizing Income.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Unclaimed Windfall
On my sixteenth birthday I got my first tax-paying job. Even though I left on good terms three months later, I was too embarrassed to pick up my last paycheck.
A friend recently mentioned the Texas Unclaimed Property Website, and I popped on out of curiosity. Imagine my surprise to see that paycheck waiting for me ten years later! And I got it within a week of filling out the online form!
It feels almost as if the universe is conspiring in favor of my goal of debt freedom by May. For the second month in a row I've managed to pay over $2,000 off debt. This time last year I could barely pay rent.
...only five weeks to go, and less than $5,000 to pay!
A friend recently mentioned the Texas Unclaimed Property Website, and I popped on out of curiosity. Imagine my surprise to see that paycheck waiting for me ten years later! And I got it within a week of filling out the online form!
It feels almost as if the universe is conspiring in favor of my goal of debt freedom by May. For the second month in a row I've managed to pay over $2,000 off debt. This time last year I could barely pay rent.
...only five weeks to go, and less than $5,000 to pay!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Spending Reports: Week 9-11
Week 9
Work Expenses: 161.59
Debt:150
Stuff For Truck: 3.25 rope (I've found that if you need a truck, you need a rope...and other people will need that rope, so your rope will disappear)
Entertainment: 17.14 beer and snacks with friends
Health: 28.99 supplements
Rent: 950 Rent
Total Spent: $1,310.97
Total Earned: $1,216.23
Week 10
Work Expenses: 228.37
Debt: 1,180
Entertainment: 59.64
Gifts: 10.94
Total Spent: 1,478.95
Total Earned: 1,331.95
Week 11
Work Expenses: 93.17
Misc. Groceries: 13.09
Debt: 188
Entertainment: 40
Health: 176.23
Hygiene: 15.14
Fees: 1.75
Total Spent: $527.38
Total Earned: $633
Work Expenses: 161.59
Debt:150
Stuff For Truck: 3.25 rope (I've found that if you need a truck, you need a rope...and other people will need that rope, so your rope will disappear)
Entertainment: 17.14 beer and snacks with friends
Health: 28.99 supplements
Rent: 950 Rent
Total Spent: $1,310.97
Total Earned: $1,216.23
Week 10
Work Expenses: 228.37
Debt: 1,180
Entertainment: 59.64
Gifts: 10.94
Total Spent: 1,478.95
Total Earned: 1,331.95
Week 11
Work Expenses: 93.17
Misc. Groceries: 13.09
Debt: 188
Entertainment: 40
Health: 176.23
Hygiene: 15.14
Fees: 1.75
Total Spent: $527.38
Total Earned: $633
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Strawberry Sunday
Sunday Darling and I drove out to Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls. We picked a little over ten pounds of strawberries ($2.75/lb.), then took some time to play with the goats and enjoy the spring weather.
That evening I simmered crushed strawberries with lemon peel and sugar to make strawberry marmalade, and it is so good! I put a pint straight into the refrigerator and canned a dozen four ounce jars. I used some extra crushed strawberries and the lemon juice to make the most phenomenal strawberry lemonade while I waited for water to boil. We still have plenty to eat and maybe make a second batch of jam.
It wasn't a frugal venture. $2.75 is a great price for fresh, organic berries (at least here in Austin), but we definitely spent at least fifteen dollars in gas. I also paid $6 for sugar at the convenience store because I we didn't have enough at the house (normally purchased at 99 cents a pound in bulk), paid $7+ for the four-ounce jars. So, generously rounding the price we paid for the jam strawberries down to $15, we paid roughly $3.58/jar...which isn't that bad, considering the price of organic local condiments. Had we driven a smaller car, thereby cutting the price of gas in half, and used our normal sugar, each jar would have cost a dollar less each. Had we recycled jars, the we would have paid less than $2/4 oz.
Anyway, it was an absolutely fantastic - and nearly priceless - way to spend my day :)
That evening I simmered crushed strawberries with lemon peel and sugar to make strawberry marmalade, and it is so good! I put a pint straight into the refrigerator and canned a dozen four ounce jars. I used some extra crushed strawberries and the lemon juice to make the most phenomenal strawberry lemonade while I waited for water to boil. We still have plenty to eat and maybe make a second batch of jam.
It wasn't a frugal venture. $2.75 is a great price for fresh, organic berries (at least here in Austin), but we definitely spent at least fifteen dollars in gas. I also paid $6 for sugar at the convenience store because I we didn't have enough at the house (normally purchased at 99 cents a pound in bulk), paid $7+ for the four-ounce jars. So, generously rounding the price we paid for the jam strawberries down to $15, we paid roughly $3.58/jar...which isn't that bad, considering the price of organic local condiments. Had we driven a smaller car, thereby cutting the price of gas in half, and used our normal sugar, each jar would have cost a dollar less each. Had we recycled jars, the we would have paid less than $2/4 oz.
Anyway, it was an absolutely fantastic - and nearly priceless - way to spend my day :)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Money As Energy
My doctor has been recommending acupuncture for several months now, so I finally made my way south to Peaceful Village. It was a pretty interesting experience, and I did feel much more grounded afterward. I'll attend a few more sessions and see what develops.
Acupuncture is about adjusting the flow of Chi, and my practitioner basically said that didn't seem to be a problem for me. She suspects my issues stem from a lack of energy rather than actual blockage. She advised me to focus on eating nutritionally dense foods and maybe doing some yoga that would work on my "core."
After the session I decided to treat myself to an eye exam and maybe a haircut. I ended up getting neither, as I was waylaid by a sign at the Herb Bar advertising half-hour chair massages for $30. I couldn't resist, and bought my first professional massage. It was amazing!
I spent the rest of the day feeling great and cooking delicious beets, carrots, peas, and chard from our garden. I felt so good, but couldn't help but wonder about the diagnosis of low energy. To be honest, I am tired a lot of the time, so much so that I have fallen into a bad habit of taking deep fifteen minute naps in my truck before and after work, drinking sodas to help me through the day, and resenting any family or friends that want my weekend time. I force myself to cook, most nights, but barely have the strength to eat. In fact, I literally fell asleep trying to eat dinner one evening. But my blood sugar is fine, my blood pressure is healthy (if a little low), and my work isn't as strenuous as waiting tables...
One of the firs things I noticed this morning was my money tracking graph. The most recent entry is the most disturbing: the income line climbs to an absolutely unprecedented peak, yet the expense line towers above it. I earned more than ever, and spent significantly more than that. While I don't feel guilty because that towering peak represents thousands of dollars of debt payment, I suddenly recalled the YMOYL definition of money as life energy. The more I end, the more I spend, without reservation.
Is there a correlation between how I spend my money and how I dole out my time and physical resources? Do I habitually give more than I actually have, month after month, year after year? Physically, I should be in peak condition, and Darling and I should be financially comfortable. Yet my body symptomatically suggests otherwise, even as I milk our bank account dry to service debt.
I'm not a metaphysical person, but I can't help but ponder the implications. After all, the debt is coming to an end. Three months from now that expense line is going to plummet while that income line (hopefully) finds a healthy balance. Might my energy levels find a similar balance, where I work only enough to support myself, have time leftover for social obligations, and have plenty of leisure time to spare? Is that what yesterday's pampering session was, a sudden shift towards self-care to match the upcoming shift in finances?
That paper we trade for goods, after all, is symbolic. What we do with it can be an unconscious illustration of how we allow energy of all sorts to flow through our lives. Right now almost all of my energy, financial and otherwise, flows away from me, because of my intensity in paying debt. Are people in the downward debt cycle more likely to supplement all their energy needs - depending on caffeine rather than sleep, diet pills instead of exercise, digital entertainment rather than friendships? And are people who earn more money than they need to meet their realistic needs, people who over-earn, more likely to over-sleep, over-eat, and otherwise over-indulge?
Could Enough be a holistic state? If I earn exactly as much money necessary to meet my needs, will the rest of my life magically fall into balance?
Acupuncture is about adjusting the flow of Chi, and my practitioner basically said that didn't seem to be a problem for me. She suspects my issues stem from a lack of energy rather than actual blockage. She advised me to focus on eating nutritionally dense foods and maybe doing some yoga that would work on my "core."
After the session I decided to treat myself to an eye exam and maybe a haircut. I ended up getting neither, as I was waylaid by a sign at the Herb Bar advertising half-hour chair massages for $30. I couldn't resist, and bought my first professional massage. It was amazing!
I spent the rest of the day feeling great and cooking delicious beets, carrots, peas, and chard from our garden. I felt so good, but couldn't help but wonder about the diagnosis of low energy. To be honest, I am tired a lot of the time, so much so that I have fallen into a bad habit of taking deep fifteen minute naps in my truck before and after work, drinking sodas to help me through the day, and resenting any family or friends that want my weekend time. I force myself to cook, most nights, but barely have the strength to eat. In fact, I literally fell asleep trying to eat dinner one evening. But my blood sugar is fine, my blood pressure is healthy (if a little low), and my work isn't as strenuous as waiting tables...
One of the firs things I noticed this morning was my money tracking graph. The most recent entry is the most disturbing: the income line climbs to an absolutely unprecedented peak, yet the expense line towers above it. I earned more than ever, and spent significantly more than that. While I don't feel guilty because that towering peak represents thousands of dollars of debt payment, I suddenly recalled the YMOYL definition of money as life energy. The more I end, the more I spend, without reservation.
Is there a correlation between how I spend my money and how I dole out my time and physical resources? Do I habitually give more than I actually have, month after month, year after year? Physically, I should be in peak condition, and Darling and I should be financially comfortable. Yet my body symptomatically suggests otherwise, even as I milk our bank account dry to service debt.
I'm not a metaphysical person, but I can't help but ponder the implications. After all, the debt is coming to an end. Three months from now that expense line is going to plummet while that income line (hopefully) finds a healthy balance. Might my energy levels find a similar balance, where I work only enough to support myself, have time leftover for social obligations, and have plenty of leisure time to spare? Is that what yesterday's pampering session was, a sudden shift towards self-care to match the upcoming shift in finances?
That paper we trade for goods, after all, is symbolic. What we do with it can be an unconscious illustration of how we allow energy of all sorts to flow through our lives. Right now almost all of my energy, financial and otherwise, flows away from me, because of my intensity in paying debt. Are people in the downward debt cycle more likely to supplement all their energy needs - depending on caffeine rather than sleep, diet pills instead of exercise, digital entertainment rather than friendships? And are people who earn more money than they need to meet their realistic needs, people who over-earn, more likely to over-sleep, over-eat, and otherwise over-indulge?
Could Enough be a holistic state? If I earn exactly as much money necessary to meet my needs, will the rest of my life magically fall into balance?
Friday, March 16, 2012
Step Six of Your Money Or Your Life
One of my New Years Resolutions for 2011 was to pursue the 9-Step Program outlined in Your Money Or Your Life, which I first read around October of 2010. Since then I have tracked all the money earned and spent, tabulated it monthly to discover my Real Hourly Wage and how much time I spend on every category, and asked myself whether each expense was satisfying, in keeping with my values, and if I will have that expense when I no longer work for money.
The next step, which seemed like the simplest so far, was to create a physical (not digital) graph illustrating my income and expenses over a 3-5 year period. It took me fourteen months to get around to this task! Three of those months I was unemployed, so it's not like I was doing something better with my time!
I was torn between making a graph at home and buying graph paper at the store, which is ridiculous. In the end, I finally bought the paper (three large sheets for roughly a buck-fifty, I think), but the lines were so light that I had to basically dot the individual points with a permanent marker, so it looks like a really well-done homemade project.
I'm glad to have had a year's worth of data to record. My income is in red, and my expenses are in black, and both jump up and down like crazy. It looks like one of those lie detector read-outs from the movies. In the book's examples, the incomes show steady inclines, and the expenses show slow downward curves. There is nothing steady or consistent about either of mine, but there is definitely an upward trend. In February 2012 both my income and expenses are more than triple what they were in February of 2011!
The next step is to lower my monthly expenses. When I first read the book, I couldn't believe it took six chapters to bring this up! Now I understand how much more fun it will be to reduce my expenses and display it on my graph. Plus, I have fourteen months worth of data which really reveals where my surplus spending is going.
Another benefit of having officially reached the reduce-spending step is that I am months away from making my final debt payment. Right now I spend everything I earn because every extra penny is going to student loans. When that last payment goes through my expenses will drop like a rock and my chart is going to look really good.
The next step, which seemed like the simplest so far, was to create a physical (not digital) graph illustrating my income and expenses over a 3-5 year period. It took me fourteen months to get around to this task! Three of those months I was unemployed, so it's not like I was doing something better with my time!
I was torn between making a graph at home and buying graph paper at the store, which is ridiculous. In the end, I finally bought the paper (three large sheets for roughly a buck-fifty, I think), but the lines were so light that I had to basically dot the individual points with a permanent marker, so it looks like a really well-done homemade project.
I'm glad to have had a year's worth of data to record. My income is in red, and my expenses are in black, and both jump up and down like crazy. It looks like one of those lie detector read-outs from the movies. In the book's examples, the incomes show steady inclines, and the expenses show slow downward curves. There is nothing steady or consistent about either of mine, but there is definitely an upward trend. In February 2012 both my income and expenses are more than triple what they were in February of 2011!
The next step is to lower my monthly expenses. When I first read the book, I couldn't believe it took six chapters to bring this up! Now I understand how much more fun it will be to reduce my expenses and display it on my graph. Plus, I have fourteen months worth of data which really reveals where my surplus spending is going.
Another benefit of having officially reached the reduce-spending step is that I am months away from making my final debt payment. Right now I spend everything I earn because every extra penny is going to student loans. When that last payment goes through my expenses will drop like a rock and my chart is going to look really good.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Financial Evolution
In the early days of this blog I very much wanted to create a clear and concise plan by which to measure my progress. The problem was that I didn't actually know how to achieve the goals of the challenge. There were the obvious ideas of achieving debt freedom, saving a massive emergency fund, and learning to invest successfully...but those don't fall into as tidy a timeline as one might hope. Also, I would be taking for granted my ability to gauge the correct time, place, and style of those pursuits.
Foresight being 20/20, it's much easier to look back on the first five years or so and see the specific phases of financial awakening that have already taken place. I can't say that anyone else might directly benefit from my own evolution of thought, but maybe some of you can relate?
Phase One: Poverty
I believe that the beneficial beginning of this phase was soon after my marriage, just as I left college to work full-time. College offered the benefit of a safety net: there might not have always been money, but there was food and beer.
Darling and I learned what it meant to seriously have no money. I'll never forget the fight that erupted one afternoon as I was counting out pennies in a desperate attempt to make rent appear, and Darling suddenly revealed that he had seventy-five cent stashed away! It was the angriest I've ever been!
Over time, however, we pinched pennies to make ends meet, and it was satisfying. We had rent, electricity, hot water, phone service, and could have friends over (sitting on cushions on the floor of our studio). This is when I started to learn to bake, discovered shopping in bulk, developed a network of friends willing to loan me their cars, and started working on farms for food. We could not pay or debt or buy anything at all. Thrift stores were out of my price range. So I also learned how not to shop, how easy it is not to spend money if you don't go into stores. I also learned that it is okay to let other people take advantage of the beautiful, one-of-a-kind great deals I occasionally ran into.
Phase Two: Scraping By
About a year into our marriage, Darling as able to get a job and we both learned to take on weekend gigs. One Friday I worked a shift at a coffee shop, from which I was picked up to do a couple of hours modeling, and was dropped off at the kitchen of the caterer I worked for. I was literally working from six in the morning one day until five in the morning the next day, and I had to borrow a pair of black shoes for the catering because it never even occurred to me to buy a pair.
This is when we started paying debt and saving. Having pinpointed exactly how much it cost for us to live, we knew that every extra penny could be set aside. Despite having a pitifully small total income, we saved enough money to take a road trip to Texas for my birthday, and ended up deciding to move there ten months later.
We took the frugality with us and arrived at my brother's house in 2007 by train and carrying the bulk of our worldly possessions. We had no doubt that the $2,000 in our pockets would be enough to get us by until we had an apartment and jobs. We purchased several pounds of rice and dry beans to eat for every meal, used the library for job resources, and spent days walking the streets looking for work. We found jobs in the nick of time but maintained our extremely thrifty lifestyle for some time later. That's about the time I started this blog.
Phase Three: Upgrading
After living in Texas for a while, our priorities began to shift. After years of not doing much at all, followed by the unexpected high of being able to move to my favorite city, I began to see our savings account as an opportunity for travel and adventure.
The next several years saw us traveling to and from England and Virginia and one weekend on the beach. The funny thing is, nothing else about our lifestyle really changed. Darling and I rarely ate out or shopped, I was still working like crazy, and our closets and pantry were still consistently bare. The first two phases taught us how not to purchase ANYTHING, and how to earn a good deal of money, but - besides paying debt and savings - we didn't know what to do besides fulfill our love of travel.
The obvious exception, of course, is that Darling started going to Austin Community College. So did I, after a fashion. But this was a choice of luxury that we embraced while still not meeting our actual needs.
Over time, however, I got tired of saving a big pile of money and spending it in a few weeks, coming home to an overdraft bank balance and working another thirty days straight. I also got tired of my hurting teeth, sore feet, dirty clothes, and rough appearance. I was tired of furiously treading water and earning good money at a crappy job.
Moving to the co-op provided desperately needed stability to our lives: there was always food in the kitchen, our monthly living expenses were constant, and we were surrounded by responsible, healthy people. I quit my better paying job and began to experiment with alternative styles of employment at this point: working part-time, low-wage and low-responsibility positions, house-cleaning gigs, and even months of unemployment. My focus turned to not having to work, working in nontraditional positions, and focusing on my life at home.
Phase 4: Catching Up
Frugality is not the be all and end all when you don't have a halfway decent pair of jeans for work, your glasses are six years old, and you are losing teeth for lack of timely care. Working shorter hours gave me time to notice how little we had in terms of security and health. So I dedicated about a year to finding sources of care available to low-income individuals.
I also stumbled upon opportunities for job training that made college look like a total scam. Darling left ACC, where he had been studying for nearly four years, and attended a free accreditation program in the same field. Within months he had his first solar job and has been working ever since.
I've begun to see that we can't truly get ahead until we reach a certain state of preparedness. Until my husband and I are healthy, appropriately dressed, and reasonably capable of confidently dealing with the financial demands of our daily lives, neither frugality nor well-paying jobs are going to provide for an ideal lifestyle.
So right now, we are investing a lot of money in the tools of our trade, quite a bit of time in career training, and as much money towards health as we once dedicated to debt. Travel is something we will do "when we can afford it," whereas an adequate wardrobe is a priority. Of course, paying debt continues to be our most favorite hobby!
Someday I might boil this down to a 10-Steps-To-Financial-Freedom list. But everyone's experience is going to be different. Hardcore poverty for someone else is going to be very different from my studio apartment scenario, and "catching up" is a very personal hiccup. There may even be quite a few people who never see their finances in this light of upgrading values and downshifting lifestyles, some of you might simply find it easier to spend less while earning more.
How does your financial evolution differ? Do any of my phases feel familiar?
Foresight being 20/20, it's much easier to look back on the first five years or so and see the specific phases of financial awakening that have already taken place. I can't say that anyone else might directly benefit from my own evolution of thought, but maybe some of you can relate?
Phase One: Poverty
I believe that the beneficial beginning of this phase was soon after my marriage, just as I left college to work full-time. College offered the benefit of a safety net: there might not have always been money, but there was food and beer.
Darling and I learned what it meant to seriously have no money. I'll never forget the fight that erupted one afternoon as I was counting out pennies in a desperate attempt to make rent appear, and Darling suddenly revealed that he had seventy-five cent stashed away! It was the angriest I've ever been!
Over time, however, we pinched pennies to make ends meet, and it was satisfying. We had rent, electricity, hot water, phone service, and could have friends over (sitting on cushions on the floor of our studio). This is when I started to learn to bake, discovered shopping in bulk, developed a network of friends willing to loan me their cars, and started working on farms for food. We could not pay or debt or buy anything at all. Thrift stores were out of my price range. So I also learned how not to shop, how easy it is not to spend money if you don't go into stores. I also learned that it is okay to let other people take advantage of the beautiful, one-of-a-kind great deals I occasionally ran into.
Phase Two: Scraping By
About a year into our marriage, Darling as able to get a job and we both learned to take on weekend gigs. One Friday I worked a shift at a coffee shop, from which I was picked up to do a couple of hours modeling, and was dropped off at the kitchen of the caterer I worked for. I was literally working from six in the morning one day until five in the morning the next day, and I had to borrow a pair of black shoes for the catering because it never even occurred to me to buy a pair.
This is when we started paying debt and saving. Having pinpointed exactly how much it cost for us to live, we knew that every extra penny could be set aside. Despite having a pitifully small total income, we saved enough money to take a road trip to Texas for my birthday, and ended up deciding to move there ten months later.
We took the frugality with us and arrived at my brother's house in 2007 by train and carrying the bulk of our worldly possessions. We had no doubt that the $2,000 in our pockets would be enough to get us by until we had an apartment and jobs. We purchased several pounds of rice and dry beans to eat for every meal, used the library for job resources, and spent days walking the streets looking for work. We found jobs in the nick of time but maintained our extremely thrifty lifestyle for some time later. That's about the time I started this blog.
Phase Three: Upgrading
After living in Texas for a while, our priorities began to shift. After years of not doing much at all, followed by the unexpected high of being able to move to my favorite city, I began to see our savings account as an opportunity for travel and adventure.
The next several years saw us traveling to and from England and Virginia and one weekend on the beach. The funny thing is, nothing else about our lifestyle really changed. Darling and I rarely ate out or shopped, I was still working like crazy, and our closets and pantry were still consistently bare. The first two phases taught us how not to purchase ANYTHING, and how to earn a good deal of money, but - besides paying debt and savings - we didn't know what to do besides fulfill our love of travel.
The obvious exception, of course, is that Darling started going to Austin Community College. So did I, after a fashion. But this was a choice of luxury that we embraced while still not meeting our actual needs.
Over time, however, I got tired of saving a big pile of money and spending it in a few weeks, coming home to an overdraft bank balance and working another thirty days straight. I also got tired of my hurting teeth, sore feet, dirty clothes, and rough appearance. I was tired of furiously treading water and earning good money at a crappy job.
Moving to the co-op provided desperately needed stability to our lives: there was always food in the kitchen, our monthly living expenses were constant, and we were surrounded by responsible, healthy people. I quit my better paying job and began to experiment with alternative styles of employment at this point: working part-time, low-wage and low-responsibility positions, house-cleaning gigs, and even months of unemployment. My focus turned to not having to work, working in nontraditional positions, and focusing on my life at home.
Phase 4: Catching Up
Frugality is not the be all and end all when you don't have a halfway decent pair of jeans for work, your glasses are six years old, and you are losing teeth for lack of timely care. Working shorter hours gave me time to notice how little we had in terms of security and health. So I dedicated about a year to finding sources of care available to low-income individuals.
I also stumbled upon opportunities for job training that made college look like a total scam. Darling left ACC, where he had been studying for nearly four years, and attended a free accreditation program in the same field. Within months he had his first solar job and has been working ever since.
I've begun to see that we can't truly get ahead until we reach a certain state of preparedness. Until my husband and I are healthy, appropriately dressed, and reasonably capable of confidently dealing with the financial demands of our daily lives, neither frugality nor well-paying jobs are going to provide for an ideal lifestyle.
So right now, we are investing a lot of money in the tools of our trade, quite a bit of time in career training, and as much money towards health as we once dedicated to debt. Travel is something we will do "when we can afford it," whereas an adequate wardrobe is a priority. Of course, paying debt continues to be our most favorite hobby!
Someday I might boil this down to a 10-Steps-To-Financial-Freedom list. But everyone's experience is going to be different. Hardcore poverty for someone else is going to be very different from my studio apartment scenario, and "catching up" is a very personal hiccup. There may even be quite a few people who never see their finances in this light of upgrading values and downshifting lifestyles, some of you might simply find it easier to spend less while earning more.
How does your financial evolution differ? Do any of my phases feel familiar?
Monday, March 12, 2012
I'm A Rambling woMan
I am so, so late on my monthly tabulations! I can't seem to get all my records together at one place at one time long enough to get it done! Rest assured I've thought about it every day :) Which counts for something, right?
A couple of days ago I handed my Mom a check for $1,000, which is what she loaned me a couple of months ago to help pay for my root canal. And today I went in for my crown and it's very happy making. Of course I STILL have dental work to do: several cavities to fill and at least one more crown. My next appointment is in April.
For the past week or so I've been feeling very down on myself about work and money and principles. The union carpenter thing is a very sticky subject for me. It's actually kind of funny, reflecting on my history of intentions with this blog. Because four years ago I was definitely thinking, "crap! I can't just write about baking bread and hanging clothes on the line! What good is that to the average wage-slave?" And now I'm thinking, "crap! All I do is work and pay to work and throw my money at debt and wrap my life around career training. How is that sustainable!"
Really, the brotherhood is good for me because it has taken me way out of my comfort levels and slammed me down into the world of big trucks, Wal-Mart, and fast food. All this stuff that I don't read about online or absorb from television...heck, I honestly pretty much assumed most people don't watch television anymore. And every day I hear the same heart-breaking litany of hopelessness. When we get checks, it's common to either describe exactly where the check is going (tires, speeding ticket, rent) or simply shrug and say, "I spent this already." The guys count down the hours before lunch, the days before the weekend, the weeks before the next predicted lay-off.
Not that they don't like their work, necessarily. Most are skilled carpenters, more than one has built his own home from scratch. It's more about this really unhealthy relationship with money that the entire crew - heck, the entire culture - seems to have cultivated. They act like they're all married to a woman they absolutely, totally detest to the point that it stains every experience they might ever have, and...there is no and. There is no but. The unhappiness is just permanent, expected, accepted.
Strange though it may seem, I'm glad to have this experience because it provides a perspective lacking in my hippie-dippie lifestyle. The only problem is that the consequences of this dysfunctional relationship is shared by everyone on the crew. Overtime is the be all and end all of construction work. Part-time, albeit occasionally inevitable, is poisonous. Sure, I might have made rent last week and already put gas in the truck and just want to be at home with my husband for a long weekend, but Heaven forbid I let boss-man hear that. It would be totally unacceptable.
To be a journeyman I have to be an apprentice for three and a half more years. The pay is good and gets much better very quickly, but the hours are incessant. So I really have to wonder about keeping up this pace for another forty-two months. Am I really going to work forty hours a week and drive across town twice a day and try to balance that with whatever Darling has to do in an identical field? I keep telling myself that it's like college - better than college in a lot of ways, as it's free, comes with great pay, and basically guarantees an even better paying job for life. But does that just mean I put everything else on the back-burner until I'm finished, try and compress the rest of my life and family and friends and hobbies to the weekend or sleepy evenings?
I know the answer is yes. I know the answer is "stop whining and apply yourself for once." I'll find ways to sneak subversive sustainability into my daily life. I'll forge ahead with my financial goals. I'll dream about the future. Maybe I'll even blog more than once a week. I just have to apply myself.
Just this once.
A couple of days ago I handed my Mom a check for $1,000, which is what she loaned me a couple of months ago to help pay for my root canal. And today I went in for my crown and it's very happy making. Of course I STILL have dental work to do: several cavities to fill and at least one more crown. My next appointment is in April.
For the past week or so I've been feeling very down on myself about work and money and principles. The union carpenter thing is a very sticky subject for me. It's actually kind of funny, reflecting on my history of intentions with this blog. Because four years ago I was definitely thinking, "crap! I can't just write about baking bread and hanging clothes on the line! What good is that to the average wage-slave?" And now I'm thinking, "crap! All I do is work and pay to work and throw my money at debt and wrap my life around career training. How is that sustainable!"
Really, the brotherhood is good for me because it has taken me way out of my comfort levels and slammed me down into the world of big trucks, Wal-Mart, and fast food. All this stuff that I don't read about online or absorb from television...heck, I honestly pretty much assumed most people don't watch television anymore. And every day I hear the same heart-breaking litany of hopelessness. When we get checks, it's common to either describe exactly where the check is going (tires, speeding ticket, rent) or simply shrug and say, "I spent this already." The guys count down the hours before lunch, the days before the weekend, the weeks before the next predicted lay-off.
Not that they don't like their work, necessarily. Most are skilled carpenters, more than one has built his own home from scratch. It's more about this really unhealthy relationship with money that the entire crew - heck, the entire culture - seems to have cultivated. They act like they're all married to a woman they absolutely, totally detest to the point that it stains every experience they might ever have, and...there is no and. There is no but. The unhappiness is just permanent, expected, accepted.
Strange though it may seem, I'm glad to have this experience because it provides a perspective lacking in my hippie-dippie lifestyle. The only problem is that the consequences of this dysfunctional relationship is shared by everyone on the crew. Overtime is the be all and end all of construction work. Part-time, albeit occasionally inevitable, is poisonous. Sure, I might have made rent last week and already put gas in the truck and just want to be at home with my husband for a long weekend, but Heaven forbid I let boss-man hear that. It would be totally unacceptable.
To be a journeyman I have to be an apprentice for three and a half more years. The pay is good and gets much better very quickly, but the hours are incessant. So I really have to wonder about keeping up this pace for another forty-two months. Am I really going to work forty hours a week and drive across town twice a day and try to balance that with whatever Darling has to do in an identical field? I keep telling myself that it's like college - better than college in a lot of ways, as it's free, comes with great pay, and basically guarantees an even better paying job for life. But does that just mean I put everything else on the back-burner until I'm finished, try and compress the rest of my life and family and friends and hobbies to the weekend or sleepy evenings?
I know the answer is yes. I know the answer is "stop whining and apply yourself for once." I'll find ways to sneak subversive sustainability into my daily life. I'll forge ahead with my financial goals. I'll dream about the future. Maybe I'll even blog more than once a week. I just have to apply myself.
Just this once.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Paying Debt, Garden Veggies, Car-Sharing...the Usual
I now owe less than $6,000 in student debt!
I've been paying debt compulsively for weeks now, and learned three days ago that one can only make eight electronic payments to my creditors in a single month. That is also how I discovered my tendency to make, on average, two payments a week. The reason I only make two payments a week is that they take approximately 72 business days to process, and I don't like having them stack up while waiting for them to hit my bank account.
OTHER stuff is happening in my life, believe it or not. Very mundane, boring sorts of stuff, but I should mention it because my life is slightly more balanced than my blog might lead one to believe. For instance, I'm still cooking, and recently discovered the joy of stir-fry sauces. I now make a killer ginger-orange sauce, green curry coconut sauce, brown sauce, and spicy peanut satay, and therefore have no reason to eat anything else.
The house garden is out of control. We are overwhelmed by beets and beet greens, broccoli, kale, snow peas, and the like. People keep coming to the house and, when gifted with a bag of veggies, make comments like, "y'know, you can eat every part of the broccoli plant." Yessss. You can also eat nothing but broccoli for three meals a day this time of year, but even that gets old. Take this out of my sight!
Darling has started waking up a little earlier than me and making lunch for us in the morning, mostly because I am not a ray of sunshine before dawn. His own work leaves him too tired in the evening to make dinner, which I already mentioned, so I guess we're even. Even though we bought his computer a week ago, he still hasn't had time to put it together! He's hoping to this afternoon.
I'm really desperate to find a solution to this vehicle situation. Today someone said to me, by way of introduction (because, being the only woman amongst six hundred men, it is important for each one to know me on a personal level), "So you like driving trucks." And he said it so knowingly, so confidently. What do you do? How could I turn to him and say that not only do I dislike driving trucks, but I hate driving with a passion, every day I hate it a little more, every hour in traffic is agony, every bleary morning is terrifying, every visit to the gas station another stab in the gut? How could I say that the series of assumptions he might have already made about me, whatever formulaic response his brain makes to compute Pretty Girl + Big Truck, is wrong. That on top of all the other automatic assumptions the men make about me, my life, my marriage, my values, my principles, I have to smile wanly and respond, "yes, I drive a truck."
I have moved across town and across the country without the use of a car. I have borrowed vehicles for road trips. I have gone grocery shopping on foot, by bus, and by cab. Never before have I found myself unable to find an alternative to car-ownership. And there is an expiration date on borrowing my Mom's truck.
I've mentioned both ZipCar and Car2Go and spent a good deal of time researching both to find the better bargain or alternative. My attempts to find a transportation solution have included researching the price and possibilities of traditional car-pooling, daily cab rides, craigslist carshare, and capmetro's vanpool. I can say with disappointing confidence that there is absolutely NO perfect solution. But my shiny new Car2Go membership might prove to be slightly more perfect than indefinitely using Mom's car. I'm pretty excited to get my card in the next couple of days. If all goes well, the truck (and a $1,000 debt repayment) will go home with Mom next week!
I've been paying debt compulsively for weeks now, and learned three days ago that one can only make eight electronic payments to my creditors in a single month. That is also how I discovered my tendency to make, on average, two payments a week. The reason I only make two payments a week is that they take approximately 72 business days to process, and I don't like having them stack up while waiting for them to hit my bank account.
OTHER stuff is happening in my life, believe it or not. Very mundane, boring sorts of stuff, but I should mention it because my life is slightly more balanced than my blog might lead one to believe. For instance, I'm still cooking, and recently discovered the joy of stir-fry sauces. I now make a killer ginger-orange sauce, green curry coconut sauce, brown sauce, and spicy peanut satay, and therefore have no reason to eat anything else.
The house garden is out of control. We are overwhelmed by beets and beet greens, broccoli, kale, snow peas, and the like. People keep coming to the house and, when gifted with a bag of veggies, make comments like, "y'know, you can eat every part of the broccoli plant." Yessss. You can also eat nothing but broccoli for three meals a day this time of year, but even that gets old. Take this out of my sight!
Darling has started waking up a little earlier than me and making lunch for us in the morning, mostly because I am not a ray of sunshine before dawn. His own work leaves him too tired in the evening to make dinner, which I already mentioned, so I guess we're even. Even though we bought his computer a week ago, he still hasn't had time to put it together! He's hoping to this afternoon.
I'm really desperate to find a solution to this vehicle situation. Today someone said to me, by way of introduction (because, being the only woman amongst six hundred men, it is important for each one to know me on a personal level), "So you like driving trucks." And he said it so knowingly, so confidently. What do you do? How could I turn to him and say that not only do I dislike driving trucks, but I hate driving with a passion, every day I hate it a little more, every hour in traffic is agony, every bleary morning is terrifying, every visit to the gas station another stab in the gut? How could I say that the series of assumptions he might have already made about me, whatever formulaic response his brain makes to compute Pretty Girl + Big Truck, is wrong. That on top of all the other automatic assumptions the men make about me, my life, my marriage, my values, my principles, I have to smile wanly and respond, "yes, I drive a truck."
I have moved across town and across the country without the use of a car. I have borrowed vehicles for road trips. I have gone grocery shopping on foot, by bus, and by cab. Never before have I found myself unable to find an alternative to car-ownership. And there is an expiration date on borrowing my Mom's truck.
I've mentioned both ZipCar and Car2Go and spent a good deal of time researching both to find the better bargain or alternative. My attempts to find a transportation solution have included researching the price and possibilities of traditional car-pooling, daily cab rides, craigslist carshare, and capmetro's vanpool. I can say with disappointing confidence that there is absolutely NO perfect solution. But my shiny new Car2Go membership might prove to be slightly more perfect than indefinitely using Mom's car. I'm pretty excited to get my card in the next couple of days. If all goes well, the truck (and a $1,000 debt repayment) will go home with Mom next week!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Burned Out
My work is really boring right now, which is more frustrating than usual because I am spending quite a bit of time doing this boring work. In the meantime, Darling is quite busy himself. We are sleepy ships passing in the night.
The boredom was bad enough when I spent my days following journeymen around, performing mindless and repetitive tasks or often simply standing at attention, and fantasizing about paying debt. But after I made the thousand dollar payment, something just...clicked. Or un-clicked. Or something. My obsession with debt payment suddenly reversed, leaving me high and dry and without anything to really daydream about. I was only just figuring out what to eat for dinner on my first day of debt freedom (breakfast and lunch are still totally up in the air).
I'm really, really close to a breakthrough. And I don't care anymore. Hopefully this will pass with my next paycheck. Maybe this is a case of the Rent's-Due Blues. But I'm also quite afraid of how much money Darling and I are burning through, how much we're earning and spending and how few pennies I take the time to pinch. I want the union to be an opportunity to do something really meaningful, to further the cause of the working man and expand my personal horizons. But I don't want to need the wages, and I don't want to share my current coworkers' work ethic.
Once debt is paid, will I feel inspired at all to keep this up?
The boredom was bad enough when I spent my days following journeymen around, performing mindless and repetitive tasks or often simply standing at attention, and fantasizing about paying debt. But after I made the thousand dollar payment, something just...clicked. Or un-clicked. Or something. My obsession with debt payment suddenly reversed, leaving me high and dry and without anything to really daydream about. I was only just figuring out what to eat for dinner on my first day of debt freedom (breakfast and lunch are still totally up in the air).
I'm really, really close to a breakthrough. And I don't care anymore. Hopefully this will pass with my next paycheck. Maybe this is a case of the Rent's-Due Blues. But I'm also quite afraid of how much money Darling and I are burning through, how much we're earning and spending and how few pennies I take the time to pinch. I want the union to be an opportunity to do something really meaningful, to further the cause of the working man and expand my personal horizons. But I don't want to need the wages, and I don't want to share my current coworkers' work ethic.
Once debt is paid, will I feel inspired at all to keep this up?
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