Young Gay Marriage, and Finances

A few Sundays ago, there was an article in the New York Times magazine about young gay male couples who are getting married in Massachusetts. Of course I honed in on this quote:

It was a blustery weekday morning in February when I tagged along with Marc and Vassili to pick up their marriage license at City Hall. Marc pulled the couple’s Honda Accord to a stop at a red light in the city’s South End neighborhood. Vassili sat in the passenger seat, sipping an ice coffee.
“We really wanted a BMW,” Marc explained, but they settled on the Honda as an exercise in premarriage fiscal responsibility. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
“We did a budget the other day,” Vassili said. “That was really scary.”
“We definitely need to reel in our spending,” Marc told me. “We need to stop going out so often. I mean, we’re getting married today! We can’t be acting like little kids, running around and spending money everywhere.”

Regardless of the genders of the people involved, and regardless of the age at which you choose to tie the knot, finances always seem to be a big part of this important life event! But I found it interesting, in this case, that the couple saw their marriage as the reason to change their spending habits. They weren't planning any kind of expensive ceremony, but they had both been living with their parents and needed money to rent their own apartment. I guess a milestone like marriage is a reason to stop and think about these things, but there's no reason not to do it while you're still single! And not to sound all judgmental here, but I'd personally think it would make for a stronger marriage to have both parties begin it from a more financially stable position in life. True love waits!

On Keeping a Lot of Notebooks

With apologies to Joan Didion...

Many readers will know that I am a die-hard user of Palm OS PDAs. I've probably spent between $5,000-6,000 on assorted devices, software and accessories over the past 10 years or so, (some of which was later recouped by selling old Palms on ebay) and I feel like most if not all of that money was pretty much worthwhile. I love to carry around lots of information, and I am now so addicted to electronic reminders that I find it impossible to remember tasks and meetings without little beepers going off.

But despite my adoration of electronic gadgetry, I am also a notebook person. My infatuation with notebooks started when I was a child: a family member would give me the little pocket sized diaries that she received each year as a member of the Harvard Coop. They were great little notebooks, with a week at a view, and lots of extra pages with space for addresses, measurement conversions, lists of holidays, etc. I would carry one of these with me everywhere, writing down whatever little things I could think of to write. (Since I was, after all, a kid, I was often frustrated at my lack of important things to write down-- I didn't go to any meetings, I didn't have many expenses to track, and spying on the neighbors didn't really result in clues to any mysteries that I might be required to solve.)

Beyond those little diaries, I've probably spent thousands of dollars on hundreds of notebooks over the years, from little wire-bound notebooks to clothbound sketchbooks to expensive leather Filofaxes. When I moved almost two years ago, I packed at least 3 or 4 shoeboxes full of small notebooks in varying degrees of jotted-ness. I just loved notebooks so much I would often want a new one just for the feel of it, whether or not I really needed any more space to write things down. I was always looking for one that would be a little closer to being THE PERFECT NOTEBOOK, my definition of which shifted over time. When I got into the Filofax stage of the addiction, it got much more expensive, and I bought a few things I really shouldn't have spent so much money on. I was seriously addicted.

When my obsession with information-carrying 3" x 5" objects morphed from paper to electronics, I kind of took a break from buying notebooks. But I still liked to keep a journal, and that is something I can't do in a PDA. For at least the last 5 years or so, the only notebooks I've used for this purpose are Moleskines. The pocket sketchbook became my notebook of choice-- it's got nice heavy unlined paper, good for writing and drawing, but also even for the occasional watercolor painting. I have about 12 of these notebooks, full of all sorts of things: memories, musings, lists, numbers, sketches of Venice and floorplans of apartments. I also have 3 of these notebooks that are brand new and still in the wrapper: spares, since I don't like the idea of running out.


I had to go to a stationery store a couple of weeks ago to find a gift for someone, and for some reason, I found my old notebook lust re-awakening. I bought a Moleskine-ish sketchbook that I thought would be good for drawings-- the paper is rougher than the Moleskine, and I liked the thicker, bulkier feel. But of course I still gazed at the Moleskine display too, and discovered a new kind of Moleskine that I'd never seen before: the soft cover Moleskine, with graph paper inside. It looked nice, it felt nice, it smelled nice: I had to have it. And the minute I took it home and started writing in it, I wanted another one with plain unlined paper too.

The store I'd been to didn't have any soft cover ones with unlined paper. I went into a few more stationery stores who didn't have that kind either. In the process I noticed that different stores charge very different prices for Moleskines. The $12 I just paid for a pocket size Moleskine seems to be about the minimum retail price, but places like Kate's Paperie on 57th street charge up to $15.
Then I looked on Amazon, where the prices vary quite a bit-- sometimes they are the standard $12 retail, some models are discounted 20% or so, and of course you get the other "Used & New" sellers sometimes offering prices as low as $3 or 4 plus shipping. I also found a site called Moleskines.com which offers lower prices and discounts for buying in bulk. The thought of having a dozen pristine Moleskines delivered to my doorstep is disturbingly pleasant.

What can I say... for people like me, Moleskines seem to be one of those things where any sense of financial reason just flies out the window. And I'm not alone-- throughout this post, the word Moleskine links to different sites where these notebooks are artfully used and appreciated, but I particularly enjoyed this writer's summation, at the Cranking Widgets blog:

So, since we’re neat, organized people - here’s a list of what Moleskine’s really are:

1. Paper Notebooks - This is first and foremost. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, these things are just pads of paper. You write things in them just like you would a $.59 spiral-bound notebook from the drugstore or on the back of a cocktail napkin.
2. Expensive - A single large (5.5″ x 8.5″) Moleskine notebook will set you back anywhere from $15-$20, depending on where you buy it. If you were to tell me 5 years ago that one day I would drop that kind of cheddar on a book of blank pages, I would’ve laughed in your face. But, i did it...

I should also point out here, and I feel like a commenter may have mentioned it in the past, that Moleskines can help with expense tracking if you want to do it manually. The pocket on the inside back cover is a great place to store receipts!

Do we have any other Moleskine fans in the peanut gallery?

How Do I Track My Spending?

A commenter on my April recap wonders how I track my expenses, so I thought I'd answer that in a separate post, since I may not have talked about it in too much detail recently.

First of all, I use Quicken on my Mac at home. I have all my bank accounts and investment accounts set up, as well as an account covering my cash on hand, and even minor things like laundry quarters and miscellaneous foreign currency. In Quicken, I have various expense categories set up, and a budget covering all expense and income categories.

Using Quicken, I can download all my credit card transactions-- I usually do this at least 2 or 3 times a month, and since I try to charge most of my expenses, it covers a lot. I also used to be able to download the transactions from my 401k account, though unfortunately my 401k provider no longer supports the Quicken format that is compatible with my version, so I have to enter those manually. I also enter my bank account transactions manually-- I think I could download them but I've just gotten used to doing it by hand and there aren't so many that it bothers me.

I also use Pocket Quicken on my Treo. This program synchronizes with the desktop version, which is a lifesaver for me. I can enter ATM withdrawals and cash transactions easily as they happen, without having to wait until I get home. Frequently entered transactions pop up with their categories automatically, so entering things is a piece of cake. And I can see all my account balances and even look at expenses vs. budget, all right in the palm of my hand.
Using a PDA was what really got me started in carefully tracking my finances-- I started off using other financial programs on earlier Palm devices and the "neat-o!" factor was what helped keep me on track with actually entering all my expenses.

My methods might not work for everyone, but for me, this system works much better than my old spreadsheets and attempts to jot expenses in a notebook. But let's open the question up to other readers: do you track your expenses? How do you do it?

Prize on the Eyes

My friend Mortimer has been doing a lot better lately-- he's gotten past his apartment crises, hasn't had any major health crises, and has been steadily employed. He's managed to pay off his credit card bill, and is now feeling more comfortable spending money on a few things he's wanted for a while.
One of these things, which I think actually qualifies as a need, not just a want, is a new pair of eyeglasses. Mortimer hadn't been to an eye doctor in several years, but he finally went, and then asked me to come and help him pick out new glasses.

I was expecting the search to be painful, but we actually found Mortimer a very nice pair without too much trouble. Of course they turned out to be Paul Smith frames that cost $365. But if you think that's bad, wait til you hear what the total cost was: since Mortimer needs bifocals, now known as progressive lenses, and also wanted the lenses that turn dark in bright sun, the final bill came to $1,200!
I was a little shocked when I heard the number, but when you figure that he saved himself having to buy a second pair of prescription sunglasses, it doesn't seem that bad. And since he'll probably wear these glasses for several years, the cost could work out to less than a dollar a day-- not much to pay for looking good and seeing well.

Wine & Money

An article in today's Dining section of the Times talks about whether enjoyment of wine is affected by outside factors such as the circumstances in which you drink it, or knowing how much it cost.

The researchers scanned the brains of 21 volunteer wine novices as they administered tiny tastes of wine, measuring sensations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain where flavor responses apparently register. The subjects were told only the price of the wines. Without their knowledge, they tasted one wine twice, and were given two different prices for that wine. Invariably they preferred the one they thought was more expensive.

“Forget those blurbs about bouquets, body and berries,” one newspaper account crowed. “A meticulous new study found that the more people think a wine cost, the more they like it. And the less they think it cost, the less they like it.”

Big surprise. Sommeliers all over know that the hardest wine to sell in a restaurant is the cheapest bottle on the list. “Yeah, clients don’t want to be embarrassed in front of a date, so they don’t order the cheapest wines,” said Fred Dexheimer, the wine director of the BLT restaurant group. The fact is, the correlation between price and quality is so powerful that it affects not just our perception of wine but of all consumer goods.

Studies like this seem to come up every so often, so this is no big surprise. But what these studies have never taken into account, as far as I know, is the subjects' attitudes towards money. I think that a frugal-minded personal finance blogger might be more likely to enjoy a cheap wine just because it's cheap. I know I can be this way-- sometimes I probably like things just because I am so happy I got a bargain when buying them. Someone who really values saving money might not enjoy an expensive wine just because they want to believe that a cheap one is just as good.
On the other hand, someone who is very focused on attaining wealth and luxury goods and projecting a certain image of their financial status might be more likely to enjoy an expensive wine, because they believe expensive things should be better, and because they want to feel like their hard-earned money is buying them the kind of rewards they deserve. After all, if expensive things aren't better, there's no value to being rich, right?

Obviously, the answer is for some researchers to set up a study comparing the wine tastes of personal finance bloggers to those of the rest of the population at large. I hereby volunteer to be your first guinea pig!

Good, Clean, Money-Saving Fun

I had dinner the other night at Joya, a Thai restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. I've written before about its sister restaurant in Park Slope, called Song. Both places seem to have found a recipe for success in offering a hip atmosphere and really low prices-- they always seem to be jam-packed with a diverse crowd, people of every age, race, class, and orientation all chowing down on generously sized $7-8 entrees.

After enjoying some veggie dumplings, chicken masaman curry and a shrimp/portobello mushroom special, with a couple of drinks, all coming to about $50 for two people, I decided to stop in the bathroom on the way out. While I was, ahem, seated, I looked down and noticed a shiny quarter on the floor! As longtime readers will know, I love finding money and will stop and pick up a coin of almost any amount. A quarter is especially exciting, as it can be used for laundry.

But this quarter was on the floor in a bathroom. The bathrooms at Joya seem quite clean as New York restaurant bathrooms go, but the quarter was on the bathroom floor in a slightly puddly looking area, which was kind of sort of really near the toilet. This gave me pause. I stood there for a minute and thought, "should I just give up on this quarter? Is that too gross?" It also occurred to me that this might be one of those jokes where the quarter is super-glued to the floor and if I try to get it I'll end up on Candid Camera or YouTube as the crazy girl who's willing to scrape a quarter off a dirty bathroom floor.

But the intrepid penny pinching Madame X came through and I told myself, "@#(*&$ it, I want that quarter!" I turned on the water in the sink. I put some soap on my hands. I bent down to grab the quarter. This attempt at germ-busting then resulted in some comical slippery fumbling with the quarter (which perhaps you've already seen on YouTube, but god I hope not...). But I eventually got the quarter to the sink where I washed it and my hands thoroughly with more soap. I then dried off my prize and took it home in my coat pocket.

Yes, it's possible that this quarter might still have been crawling with nasty bacteria but I didn't hang onto it for long-- the next morning I ended up giving it to a friend to use in a parking meter.

And yes, this is how far I'll go for 25 cents. I think it's a good exercise, actually, in adjusting one's financial attitude. Picking up a coin reminds me that the little things matter, and that I don't take financial issues lightly. It reminds me that money is money, and no honest way of acquiring it should be considered beneath one's dignity. But really, if you see me on YouTube, please don't forward it to all your friends.

Today in the News

Oooh, it's a good day for finance related news today:
People are cutting back their spending, even in Europe.
Meanwhile, politicians are using taxpayer money to guzzle gas.
Despite inflation, there are still stores where every item of clothing costs less than $10.
Fewer immigrants are sending money back home.
And there's an editorial on why a temporary gas tax cut is a bad idea.

But enough about the world, what about ME!?!?!
My last 5 financial transactions were:
$3.35 on breakfast (cash)
$4.42 on lunch yesterday (cash)
$3.35 on breakfast yesterday (cash)
$23.18 on Chinese takeout for dinner the last two nights (credit card)
$31.19 to ConEd (e-payment from checking account)

Okay, maybe the world is more interesting.

"Don't Hate Me Because I'm Solvent"

I haven't even had time to read this NY Times article yet, but the title caught my interest: "Don't Hate Me Because I'm Solvent." (From my quick glance, it seems to be about a guy who bought a run-down house for $65,000, renovated it himself, and has no mortgage or debt.)

But what about this hating... do you think people are resentful or jealous towards people who have no debt? We're not talking towards "rich people" or billionaires or whatever, just their own peers in some presumed middle-class-ish income bracket.

I wouldn't say I've ever experienced this kind of situation myself, but I do feel there can sometimes be a sort of insidious, "oh just get over it and spend the money" kind of prodding from others when they see you trying to be frugal. Have you ever experienced this? I think it can be another one of those areas where food and money have parallels-- if you're with a friend who doesn't want to be disciplined about their health, they'll try to get you to eat the heavy dessert too. Or if you're out shopping and they buy something they can't afford, they want you to blow your budget too.

What do you think? Does this happen?

Customized, at a Cost

Ok, yesterday's post was indeed an April Fool's joke: much as I'd like my blog to make more money, I don't plan on getting into the merchandise business. But to those of you who are disappointed by that, I'll just point out that the 3 items I mentioned are all things that can really be bought online!

You can go to the Converse website and create your own customized shoes, with a variety of materials and colors. You select your options, they're displayed on screen, and then 2-4 weeks after you order, your unique Chucks arrive! I am seriously tempted to get a pair of suede ones, though perhaps not quite in the colors I displayed below. Actually, what's dangerous is that when you play around on the website, you have too much choice! I came up with about a dozen color combinations I could imagine wearing! But $75 is kind of a lot of money for such simple shoes. (The regular canvas ones tend to retail for $42 or less. Even that seems like a lot when I remember buying my first pair at an Army/Navy store for about $16, back when I was in high school and they were considered kind of punk!) It's still cheap compared to many other sneakers, though, and I do like the idea of having a pair that looks exactly the way I want them to. Do you think it's worth the money?

How about the Kleenex? Again, you really can buy these at the Kleenex website. I know some people can't stand to have their decor thrown off by a clashing Kleenex box. When my mother was visiting last year and wanted to help me decorate, a tissue box cover was one of the first things she wanted to buy for me. My own opinion was that it was the last thing I needed! It's not like looks don't matter to me-- they do. But I'm just not extreme enough about it to want to spend $15 or more on a tissue box cover, and I really don't see why anyone would want to pay $5 for a customized Kleenex box that is totally disposable. Sure it makes a fun wedding favor, but for everyday use, I would never spend the money. Even the regular oval boxes they have in the store come at a big markup compared to the usual ugly square and rectangular boxes, so I won't buy them, despite their cooler looks.

In any case, it's fascinating that we now have the technology to produce such things cheaply enough for them to be a mass-market item. It used to be that customization was only for things like tailor-made suits and shirts that were going to be really expensive anyway. And to me, something like a suit or shoes being custom-made is more worthwhile anyway-- if I made a bit more money, I would much rather spend the big bucks on a few perfect-fitting items of clothing than on off-the-rack stuff.

What's your opinion? Do you think customized items like this are worth the money? Have you ever purchased this type of item?

An Eyebrow Raiser

The Scene: a very elegant pre-war apartment in Manhattan. Art adorns every wall, rugs and decorative objects perfectly accent the beautiful furniture. In short, the decor is impeccable, like something out of a magazine. In fact, it has been in a magazine.

The Characters: Jimmy and Steve, the owners of the apartment, and their three guests, all with glasses of white wine in hand.

It's a little pre-dinner cocktail party, and one of the guests has never seen the apartment before. Favorite art works are pointed out, and duly admired. Steve talks about how he loves buying beautiful things, admitting that he has never been much of a saver. The topic shifts, more wine is poured, the evening progresses.

Then the phone rings and Jimmy goes into the other room to answer it. When he returns, Steve asks who it was. In a cheerfully lilting tone that nonetheless implies an edgy "we'll talk about this later" vibe, Jimmy replies, "Card member services!"

Jimmy pats Steve on the head, they exchange a wry smile for a moment, and then Steve turns to the guests. "So, how about Indian food for dinner!" They go out to a restaurant, and when the dinner bill arrives, it's split 5 ways, paid in cash by all.

Big Money Weekend

I am writing my first blog post on my new computer! Yes, I went for it, and I'm thrilled. I decided to get a MacBook-- the 2.4ghz, 250GB hard drive model, upgraded to 4GB of RAM. I was tempted by the pretty MacBookPro, but since I don't really need a 15" screen or super duper video graphics capabilities, I thought the regular MacBook would do the job, for a lot less money. Upgrading the RAM seemed like a good investment, since I plan to use this computer for as many years as I possibly can, and who knows how much memory future operating systems and programs might need.
While writing this post, I discovered one complication with my new set-up-- in addition to my new laptop, I got an AirPort base station so I could go wireless. (The $99 AirPort is now connected to my stereo so I can play music from my computer through the speakers, so it's already paid for itself by making a new CD player totally unnecessary. My old CD player broke during my move.) But the problem is that I have one of those power strips where the main outlet controls several other outlets-- I can save a few bucks by making sure my modem doesn't draw power while my computer is turned off. But that means that if I unplug my laptop to take it into the other room, as I just did, the main outlet powers off and so do the modem and the AirPort, since I can't fit them both into the outlets that are independent of the main outlet-- so suddenly, no more internet! Guess I'll have to rejigger that setup and figure out some other way to conserve electricity while still having wireless internet when I want it! (The answer turned out to be some little extender cables I'd bought at Radio Shack ages ago and never actually used-- they're about 6 inches long and are perfect for when you need to plug bulky AC adapters in right next to each other. I'll just move them into the non-switched outlets whenever I want to be online while not sitting at my desk.)

More details on my computer shopping experience: I planned my purchase around a weekend visit to a friend in Connecticut-- their sales tax is only 6% compared to NY's 8.25%. I also got a lucky break on the cost of the extra RAM-- normally Apple charges $400 for this upgrade, but for some reason, the Apple store I went to did it for only $300! All in, my new computer set-up cost me just over $2,000. When I think that I paid about that much for my first computer, a Macintosh PowerBook 165c with 4MB of RAM (yes MB not GB), it's just mind boggling. I also have to say that I was absolutely amazed at how easy it was to switch from my old iBook to this computer: I connected them with a Firewire cable, clicked "OK" a couple times, and several minutes later, all my documents and programs were on the new computer, all set up exactly as they were on the old one. Everything just instantly worked! I'm sorry if I'm sounding like a Mac commercial, but they really do know how to make things fabulously easy.

Of course, the trip to the Apple store involved a trip to a mall. And we all know that malls are dangerous, don't we! It took an hour and a half for them to install the RAM on my computer, and during that time, I managed to buy two t-shirts, a short-sleeved blouse, and a pair of hiking shoes, as well as some cute outfits for my niece and nephew. (Macy's, Ann Taylor, The Walking Company, and H&M!) Total additional spending for the day: $187. Oh well-- I can now feel like I've given myself enough of a treat with my bonus, and the rest is staying in the bank where it belongs!

Bonus! And How to Spend It...

I found out this week that I would be getting a nice bonus this year. I'd been hoping it would be at least as big as last year's or perhaps even bigger, but I was trying so hard not to count my chickens before they were hatched that I was actually quite surprised by the final amount, which was slightly over $15,000 gross.

First of all, it's just great to get an amount of money like this in one lump sum-- it makes it so much easier to just stick it in the bank and not spend it. But of course I'd like to spend a little bit of it! Getting a bonus feels like getting a reward, and it makes you want to give yourself a little treat. Given that I'd only budgeted myself to receive $7,000 gross bonus, I started to think maybe I didn't have to postpone the new computer purchase that I'd pushed off to next year, and of course other fun items also came to mind. I'm already giving myself the present of an expensive vacation this year, and this makes me feel a little better about that! But I still couldn't help wanting to spend some money!

So here's what I ended up doing, after work on the day I found out how much my bonus would be: I went to Pier 1 to try to buy a couple of baskets. Whoooo, big spender, right??? And here's what's even more pathetic: they didn't have any nice baskets in the size I wanted, so I walked out empty-handed!

Why did I want baskets? Well, I only have two real wastebaskets in my apartment: one in the bathroom, and one in the kitchen. In both bedrooms, I have small shopping bags from Banana Republic that I've been using as wastebaskets, and in the living room, a crumpling shopping bag from Ann Taylor has been holding all my newspapers until I tie them up for recycling. A friend commented that it was a bit of a mess, and why didn't I just buy some cheap baskets to hold the avalanche of papers and magazines. Yeah, I thought, why don't I?

This is the kind of minor spending that I tend to avoid. When faced with spending $10 or $15 on a basket to keep my recycling tidy, I think "ugh, these little things add up and it's a waste of money. A paper shopping bag does the job pretty well, and maybe one of these days I'll happen to find a cool box or bin of some sort on the street somewhere, so why should I buy anything?" (And in fact I did find a very nice wine crate recently, but that is currently serving as a makeshift nightstand.) But getting a bonus of $15,000 made me think it was ok to allow myself to buy a basket or two, and now, of course, I am so annoyed that I couldn't actually complete the purpose!

I've been fantasizing a bit about what it would be like to spend my bonus. I'd never just spend the whole thing, but what if I just spent the $8,000 that was above my budgeted amount? After taxes and 401K deductions, it would probably end up being about $4,000 net. If I got a really snazzy 17" MacBookPro, that would be about $3,000 right there. This is probably more computer than I really need. I could get a refurbished one for about $2,300 probably, when you factor in tax. But maybe I could just go for a lesser model-- I wanted a 17" one because I don't have a TV and I've always used my computer to watch movies, but now that I'm seeing someone who has a TV, maybe it's not as big an issue! So let's say I just get the cheapest new MacBook at about $1,100.

Then I thought I might get some curtains. I saw some cute ones at Pier 1-- they didn't actually have them on the shelf, so I jotted down the name and thought I'd just try to order them online. Well, turns out Pier 1's website is totally lame. A lot of their products aren't online, and you can't search their online catalog. No wonder the company isn't doing well-- step up to the plate, people, if you want to sell me some curtains! Maybe I'll try Pottery Barn instead. I'll take a wild guess and figure it will cost me $1,000 total for all the windows I want to cover.

Ok, what else. How about a new bike? I've been thinking it would be good to replace my folding bike with a full-size one now that I have more storage space, but given that I hardly ever ride it anyway, maybe that is a dumb idea.

Oh-- a new camera! I just bought one, on sale for about $140, thanks to a tip from The Big Picture. I did this right before bonus time, but I'll count it anyway.

A bookcase: I could use another one to hold my ever-growing collection. I'd like to have one made to match what I already have, which I bought unfinished and then stained myself. Sounds very cheap but the way it actually worked out, the cost of a new bookcase would probably be at least $450.

Umm, umm-- how 'bout some clothes! I still want some Seven jeans, (which could come to as much as $200) even though I just picked up another pair of Lucky jeans on Ebay for less than half price. Unfortunately I have been gaining a little weight lately and if I don't lose 5 pounds, I'm afraid many of my other recent purchases aren't going to fit.

Ah! And that gives me a good solution as to how to spend the rest of my bonus, since I'm having such trouble trying to come up with things! I'll buy some personal training sessions! I think I have $490 left. At my gym, I think you can get a package of 10 training sessions for about $800-- that will put me a little over my bonus amount, unfortunately... and given my atrocious level of exercise discipline lately, I don't know if having some muscle-bound person exhorting me to "push it" or whatever will really get me any closer to losing the 5 pounds!

You know, it might just be easier to just SAVE all the money after all...

Inflation

How do you feel about the effects of inflation in your own life? Are there things you particularly notice? I know for most Americans, the cost of gas is in the forefront. As a New Yorker, that isn't especially noticeable to me, and doesn't directly affect my life on a regular basis, though it may contribute to a rise in other costs. However, here's a couple other things that struck me this past weekend.

• Bagels: a bagel store I went to had just put up signs about their prices increasing from 80 cents to $1. (also noticed by Hedonic Adjustment)
  
• Wine: one of my favorite wines just went up in price, from $12.99 to $15.99, and in general prices seem to be higher on average.
  

The wine thing was what really hit me. A $12.99 bottle can sort of seem like it's a $12 bottle (you know, if you happen to ignore the last two digits of the price), and that is within the price range I feel okay about these days. I certainly don't spend that much on every bottle I buy, and I used to try never to buy anything over $8 or 9, but I've definitely been drifting upward in that respect, in part due to what I find in the most convenient liquor stores, in part due to an overall increase in prices, and in part due to me just being a lush. But I'm not so much of a lush that I'll spend $15.99 on my everyday plonk! $12.99 was my absolute upper threshold for everyday wine. I'll spend $15 once in a while for some kind of special occasion, or $20 for something that is a gift, but otherwise, I'm a cheap lush.

How about you? Is there anything that is costing you noticeably more lately?

February 08 Recap

My net worth increased a wee bit in February, an almost negligible +0.2%. My federal tax refund was deposited, which was a big plus, but I spent a large amount on some plane tickets, which was a big minus. There were a few other odd one-time things, but otherwise my spending was more or less in line, and the stock market continued to be its ugly self.

Assets:

• Cash and Bank Accounts total $35,689
• Condo Equity $86,707
• Retirement $207,128
• E*Trade $15,771
• Treasury Direct & Bonds $4,583

Liabilities:

• Amex $185
• Visa $6,293

Net worth $343,400


Expenses:

• Housing $1,944 (this is just my maintenance charge and a prepayment of principal made in error so it's really going more towards home equity rather than being a true expense)
  
• Business expense $414 (will be reimbursed)
• Charity $230
• Clothing -$105 (returned some stuff bought last month)
• Dining $923 (bought Rolaids for the first time in my life. But at least they were the cheaper Duane Reade generic version.)
• Entertainment $23
• Gifts Given $57
• Household $113
• Misc $520 (includes tax prep fee)
• Taxes, Self $2,029
• Subscriptions $61
• Travel $3,942 (includes Metrocard, a family visit, and part of vacation cost)
• Gas & Electric $38
• Telephone $78

Total Expenses $10,353

Next month will look weird due to two mortgage payments, and hopefully, another tax refund and a bonus... and let's hope the market does a little better too!

Anxiety About Buying Art

I always have my finger on the pulse, don't I! (At least when I'm not posting links to month-old magazines.) One step ahead of the mass media: after yesterday's post about my shock at someone's large profits from an investment in art, today's New York Times House & Home section has a couple of articles about buying art!

The Terrible Toll of Art Anxiety

“'Mr. No-Name Hedge Fund Manager'”... [is] in his 30s, probably worth 20-some million and feels poor because his personal net worth has gone down from 26 million since last summer,” Mr. Greenspan said. “He buys a Park Avenue apartment for $7 million, spends another $7 million decorating it, and now he quibbles over $15,000 or $18,000 for a painting.”
...
Art paralysis: It is a widespread and often crippling malady, striking everyone from the new college grad in his or her first apartment to the super-rich banker, lasting anywhere from a few months to a lifetime. How many are affected is not known, perhaps because the victims are often too embarrassed to come forth. Who wants to admit that “I’ve had these posters since college, I know that as one of the American Top 10 Orthodontists I should get some real art, but I don’t know what that means”? Or that “It’s not that I’m trying to make a minimalist statement with these empty white walls, I just don’t know what to buy”? Or “I walk into those snooty galleries in Chelsea and feel like I just don’t belong”?

I totally have art paralysis. The most I have ever spent on a piece of art itself is about $50, if you don't include framing. (Framing would bring it up to somewhere under $200.) It's not that I don't like art: I love a wide variety of art, I go to museums and buy lots of postcards, just to keep, and I probably have a couple thousand dollars worth of beautiful art books. But when it comes to buying art, I choke. I value art, but not enough to carve out a big chunk of my budget for it. I also have this weird thing of thinking I should just create my own art. I studied art, I'm at least somewhat good at it, and the one big painting of my own that is hanging in my living room often gets compliments from people who are then shocked to hear that it's my own creation. But it's not like I can just whip up some masterpiece: creativity takes inspiration and time, and often, expensive materials. I should reconsider Rule #9: DIY vs. PAY in relation to art, perhaps!

Back to the NY Times article, they recommend these sources for people who either can't afford expensive art or don't have the emotional energy needed to deal with snooty galleries:

Shop Online

TINYSHOWCASE.COM Offers a quirky selection of small, inexpensive art and letterpress prints.

LITTLEPAPERPLANES.COM Limited edition prints of contemporary drawings and paintings starting at $20.

GIANTROBOT.COM Eclectic art and prints from a store that specializes in Asian and Asian-American pop culture, from $5 to $1,000.

CEREALART.COM Multiple-edition sculptural objects by established artists like Kenny Scharf and Takashi Murakami, from $100 to $20,000.

20X200.COM Offers two new high quality prints a week in limited editions.

WHITECUBE.COM Limited editions by well-known figures like Damien Hirst and Sam Taylor-Wood from a major London gallery, starting at around $250.

Buy From Arts Organizations

BLINDSPOT.COM Limited-edition photographic prints, 11 by 14 inches and 16 by 20 inches, starting at $700

APERTURE.ORG Limited-edition photographs from $350 to $25,000 that you can browse by price, category or photographer.

PRINTSHOP.ORG Single pieces and complete installations by emerging artists from the Lower East Side Printshop, from $1,500 to $10,000.

WHITECOLUMNS.ORG Specially commissioned editions by emerging and established artists from $150 to $1,500; work can be viewed online and ordered by phone or e-mail.

Try Fund-Raising Auctions

Fund-raisers at hospitals, private schools and other organizations often auction work by emerging and established artists at cut-rate prices, as do arts organizations like the Kitchen in New York (thekitchen.org).

Attend Art Fairs

Public art fairs — small, neighborhood events and large shows like the Affordable Art Fair in New York (June 12 to 15, aafnyc.com) — allow visitors space and time to figure out what they like and to buy in a shopper-friendly environment.

Attend Thesis Exhibitions

The chance to discover artists before their work hits galleries. In New York, Cooper Union, Columbia, Hunter College, the School of Visual Arts, Parsons and Pratt all have such shows.

I personally would also add the group shows put on by the Brooklyn Working Artists Coalition in Red Hook. Not all the stuff is great, but some is, and everything is usually quite reasonable in price.

Finally, the Times also profiles Jen Bekman, the woman who runs 20x200.com, who has had an amazing roller-coaster of a career: from switchboard operator to dot-commer, to gallery owner to online art dealer!

Few people in that world had heard of Ms. Bekman five years ago, when she used credit cards and the $20,000 in her 401(k) to open Jen Bekman Gallery, on Spring Street near the Bowery.

Yikes! But apparently the business has done well. And here's another thing I liked about the story:

But unlike city dwellers who celebrate their success by moving to a nicer apartment or by upgrading their appliances, Ms. Bekman, now 38, is content to remain in her old space [a small studio in the East Village]. She lives there with her dog, Ollie; a white vintage Chambers stove she bought at a thrift shop for $400 seven years ago; a goofy ceramic bulldog with glass eyes from Woolworth’s; and a few new inexpensive furnishings, like brightly colored striped sheets.

Glad to hear she's keeping her overhead low and can appreciate inexpensive pleasures. Her only problem may be that she'll start running out of wall space for all her art!

Costs of a New Relationship

Well, it's Valentine's Day... My love life has had its ups and downs over the past several months, but I'm happy to report that I have a date for tonight!

After having written posts about the costs of a long distance relationship, and the costs of phone calls to maintain a friendship with a long-distance ex-, I'd been meaning to write a post about the costs of being newly single and trying to date. But Madame X is a very lucky girl... though I'd hate to jinx anything in its early stages, I think it's already time to move on to a more advanced look at the topic!

When you first decide you want to be dating, of course there are the usual things that people spend money on. You might want some new clothes, and you might spend a little more on grooming. You might join a gym or sign up for new activities where you could meet people. Then you spend money to go out on dates-- maybe you pay, maybe the other person pays, maybe you go dutch-- one way or another, it costs some money.
Then when things start to get interesting, there might be even more ways it can get expensive! Maybe you're a bit nervous and you want an extra drink to calm yourself down. Or maybe you find yourself going for another drink or a coffee just to extend the length of the date. And the dates start to become more frequent.
Then maybe after a nice dinner out, you splurge to take a taxi home because it seems faster than the subway and it's a more romantic place to "accidentally" lean against each other or even hold hands. And then, if all goes really well, your dry-cleaning bills might suddenly skyrocket because you're madly and passionately ripping clothes off and throwing them all over the floor!

Perhaps some money needs to be spent on taking cabs or car services home in the wee hours of the morning. And perhaps some money goes towards little gifts, and sending flowers, "just because." Perhaps you get into long, rambling conversations and find yourself paying extra because you've gone over your allotted cell phone minutes. Maybe you start skipping out on going to your expensive gym and activities you wanted to spend time on before. And this mental state of mooning about, happily love-struck: perhaps it has made you a bit absent-minded about things like paying your bills on time, or using food in the fridge before it goes bad. Or worse, what if you become totally unproductive at work and get fired! (Please be assured I'm just thinking hypothetically about some of these things!)

Sigh. It's a good thing over-spending isn't always this fun. But does the start of a new relationship only bring more spending and wasting of money? Might it not SAVE you some money too?

For instance, you might start cooking dinner at home together because it seems cozier than going out. If you start spending the night at someone else's place occasionally, you use less electricity and heat in your own home. But on the flip side, you might get to the point where you're there frequently enough that you have to buy a spare set of toiletries and hair products to keep there, so that's an extra cost. And if the other person is also coming over to your place a lot, you might begin to feel bad about things like having only one night table instead of two: yet another thing that brings us back to spending money... as does the concept of buying plane or train tickets or renting a car when it's time to meet the family. But beyond that, as discussed in this article from last weekend's NY Times real estate section, there might come a point when you start to consider saving even more money by moving in together!

I myself am definitely not moving in with anyone anytime soon, if ever... but I am feeling rather wonderfully light-hearted and romantic these days... and yeah, I might just be spending a teensy bit more money because of it! But there's one thing about all this that didn't cost me a cent: despite my previous posts about the costs of online dating, guess where I found my new squeeze? The wonderfully, amazingly FREE Craigslist.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

"Americans Start to Pay as They Go"

Here's a front page story from today's New York Times:

Economy Fitful, Americans Start to Pay as They Go

For more than half a century, Americans have proved staggeringly resourceful at finding new ways to spend money.

In the 1950s and ’60s, as credit cards grew in popularity, many began dining out when the mood struck or buying new television sets on the installment plan rather than waiting for payday. By the 1980s, millions of Americans were entrusting their savings to the booming stock market, using the winnings to spend in excess of their income. Millions more exuberantly borrowed against the value of their homes.

But now the freewheeling days of credit and risk may have run their course — at least for a while and perhaps much longer — as a period of involuntary thrift unfolds in many households. With the number of jobs shrinking, housing prices falling and debt levels swelling, the same nation that pioneered the no-money-down mortgage suddenly confronts an unfamiliar imperative: more Americans must live within their means.

“We don’t use our credit cards anymore,” said Lisa Merhaut, a professional at a telecommunications company who lives in Leesburg, Va., and whose family last year ran up credit card debt it could not handle.

Today, Ms. Merhaut, 44, manages her money the way her father did. Despite a household income reaching six figures, she uses cash for every purchase. “What we have is what we have,” Ms. Merhaut said. “We have to rely on the money that we’re bringing in.”

The shift under way feels to some analysts like a cultural inflection point, one with huge implications for an economy driven overwhelmingly by consumer spending.

I do think sometimes that we've really painted ourselves into a corner. To get our economy back on track, we need people to spend money. But we also need them to save money. What's the answer?

2008 Budget

Here's a detailed look at the budget I've finalized for 2008:

Sub-Category	2007 actual	2008 budget	difference
Div Income	$ 197	$ -	$ (197)
Div Income NT	$ 15,411	$ -	$ (15,411)
Int Income	$ 291	$ -	$ (291)
Int Income NT	$ 0	$ -	$ (0)
Long CapGnDst	$ 1,258	$ -	$ (1,258)
Long CapGnDst NT	$ 1,722	$ -	$ (1,722)
Bonus	$ 10,500	$ 7,000	$ (3,500)
Div Income	$ -	$ -	$ -
Gift Received	$ 1,645	$ 500	$ (1,145)
Interest Inc	$ 1,163	$ 1,200	$ 37
Investment Inc	$ 10	$ -	$ (10)
Other Inc (410k match)	$ 5,481	$ 5,500	$ 19
Salary	$ 91,029	$ 95,000	$ 3,971
Tax Refund	$ 2,844	$ -	$ (2,844)
Inflows - Other	$ 3	$ -	$ (3)
Total Inflows	$ 131,555	$ 109,200	$ (22,355)
Condo insurance	$ 320	$ 348	$ 28
Condo: Mortgage and common charges	$ 20,219	$ 20,100	$ (119)
Property taxes	$ 2,312	$ 600	$ (1,712)
Utilities: Gas & Electric	$ 1,102	$ 1,200	$ 98
Utilities: Telephone	$ 1,342	$ 900	$ (442)
Bank Charge	$ 78	$ -	$ (78)
Charity	$ 343	$ 500	$ 157
Clothing	$ 2,940	$ 2,000	$ (940)
Dining: Breakfast	$ 701	$ 720	$ 19
Dining: Dinner	$ 2,616	$ 2,200	$ (416)
Dining: Groceries	$ 2,406	$ 2,400	$ (6)
Dining: Liquor	$ 965	$ 900	$ (65)
Dining: Lunch	$ 1,295	$ 1,200	$ (95)
Education	$ 421	$ 480	$ 59
Entertainment - Other	$ 95	$ 200	$ 106
Entertainment - Books	$ 69	$ 75	$ 6
Entertainment - CDs	$ 53	$ 60	$ 7
Entertainment - Movies	$ 75	$ 80	$ 5
Gifts Given	$ 2,300	$ 1,000	$ (1,300)
Gym & Fitness	$ 1,199	$ 1,308	$ 109
Home Repair	$ 290	$ 200	$ (90)
Household - Other	$ 1,510	$ 600	$ (910)
Household - Laundry	$ 340	$ 360	$ 20
Household - New Home Decor	$ 6,130