Lunch at the Salad Bar

I rarely get my lunch out of the salad bar. There are a few reasons for this, such as that I prefer to get salads from the places that toss them with the dressing for you, and that I like to eat sandwiches and pizza for lunch rather than Chinese food and other typical hot/cold salad bar options. Then, to get to the financial point of the matter, there is the issue of figuring out how much your lunch is going to cost. I kind of like knowing this in advance, rather than having to eyeball a plethora of options, estimate how heavy they might be, and balance a plastic container in my hand trying to figure out if it weighs more than a pound yet. Sometimes it's so easy to go nuts at a salad bar, and when you get to the register you suddenly discover that you have 2 pounds of food and it's going to cost you $16!
Today I did pretty well-- I judiciously sampled 3 items and my total was $6.04 (@$7.95 per pound). On the other hand, I was disappointed when I got back to my desk and discovered that the sauce I had smothered my poached salmon in was wasabi, not creamy dill, and that my cherry tomato and mozzarella salad had bits of hot pepper in it. Luckily my pasta with broccoli was delicious and mild enough to cool the rest of the meal off!
I have to tell another story about today's trip to the salad bar, because it was just so weird: there was a man next to me who was piling a small container very high, cramming in an awful lot of food. He was doing this while holding his briefcase between his knees and a cellphone to his ear. The phone conversation went something like this:

Hey, yeah, I was just wondering, do you get a discount on Rolex watches? You do? I want to get a Rolex, the really basic classic one. Yeah, stainless steel, all stainless, no bezel, no date or anything. Oh, great. I was just at the Tourneau in Westchester and saw one for about $4,000... yeah, great, great. I want you to send me a real, dated photograph of it. No, it's not urgent or anything...

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation, but I left wondering why, if it wasn't urgent, was he buying a watch while standing at a salad bar!

My Sew-Called Life

Dawn has a guest blogger stepping in on Frugal for Life, with a nice article about sewing. The other day, I was thinking about the colors I'd like to have in my bedroom. I haven't had a bedroom in almost 7 years, so this is a pretty big deal! I was thinking it would be neat to make a duvet cover out of two different fabrics, and that it would be a pretty easy thing to make. Actually it's probably a very large and unwieldy thing to make, where you'd have to be really sure you could sew in a straight line, but I've been watching DVDs of Project Runway lately, where they make sewing almost anything look like a piece of cake.
It was kind of strange to find myself thinking in these DIY terms about anything fabric-based. I've always hated to sew, hated it with a vengeance. I also hate going into fabric stores, after a childhood spent tagging along after my mother on her interminable shopping trips for her projects. My mom is a brilliant seamstress, so my approach has always been to draw things on little bits of paper and then fling them at her, saying "can you make this for me?"
But my mom is getting a little too old now to really do much sewing, so I don't think I'll ask her to make me a duvet cover. Besides, I might break out in hives while actually shopping for the fabric. It's too bad-- a duvet cover is probably the exact kind of thing where you could save a lot of money by making it yourself. As Dawn's guest poster BizzeeMom points out, you have to do a cost/benefit analysis if you're considering sewing-- if you're going to make something complicated, it might actually be cheaper to buy it in a store. And I'd add that that is especially the case if you're not very experienced with sewing-- you don't want to make a mistake in some over ambitious garment and then have to trash the whole thing! (See Rule 9, DIY vs. PAY.)
I wonder if I could advertise on craigslist and find someone to do the sewing for me... perhaps some fashion student who wants to make a few bucks. I've had a few other ideas for things I could make, or have made for my home-- the neat thing is that I live close enough to a semi-industrial area that I'm often stumbling across places that will do things like custom wrought iron work, or custom glass work. For me, maybe DIY should stand for "Design It Yourself." I suspect that once you get into having someone else do the labor, you are starting to look at costs higher than buying an equivalent item in a store... but we'll see. And the key thing is that by having something made to your own design, you are getting what you want, rather than having to compromise and settle for what is available. Do you think it's worth it?

Long-term Planning

I hate it when people ask me where I want to be in 5 years-- I just never know how to answer the question. But financially, I'm starting to have a better idea.
I've been playing around with a spreadsheet to try to project my net worth over the next 10 years. I'm predicting slight increases in salary, slight increases in expenses, the shift in housing expense from rent to interest+principal, and a decrease in my investment income, since a big chunk of what is now cash is transferred into home equity. Then I'm projecting out what my mortgage balance will be, and putting in different scenarios for what the value of the home will be-- very conservatively!
The other tricky thing is trying to predict investment gains. I think I need to re-estimate that part of the spreadsheet. Right now I just have in some rough numbers based on last year's totals. But of course this year the stock market has been down, so the results will be much lower. And then going into the future, I need to add some calculation that just estimates an average return, I think, based on a portion of my net worth.
Here are the numbers based on my current scenario:

Year	Year-end Net Worth	Var %
2005	$256,348
2006	$279,648	9%
2007	$323,931	16%
2008	$374,396	16%
2009	$447,673	20%
2010	$521,963	17%
2011	$598,569	15%
2012	$681,443	14%
2013	$760,250	12%
2014	$847,451	11%
2015	$939,210	11%
2016	$1,029,849	10%
2017	$1,125,051	9%

I think my numbers are conservative enough that I can safely say I'll be a millionaire in 10 years, unless something disastrous occurs (knock on wood). Given that I increased my net worth by about 25% last year, I think these overall increases seem reasonable. And since my percentage change in the later years is tapering off, I probably need to more accurately reflect the larger gains I'll get from non-real estate investments as my net worth grows. My budget for next year, even given increased housing expenses, is to save 13% of my gross income (*not counting maxing out my 401k, which would bring it closer to 29%), and I think my income should grow faster than my expenses.
And as for the included housing value, who knows. This scenario has it at 0% change for the first few years, and then increases of 3% per year later on. I'd like to think this is conservative, but who knows! However, even if I assume decreasing home value for the next few years and then have it increasing again slowly to the point where it's about what it was when I bought, I should still be a millionaire by 2017. Just not as much of a millionaire.
It's an interesting exercise-- one of these days, I'll get the spreadsheet into a pretty enough form to post it here-- I'd like to be able to just enter different variables and have it spit out the results for each year based on each scenario. Geeky Excel fun, my favorite!

Economic Outlook

The last few days have been another one of those periods when all the news seems dire... housing market about to crash, recession on the way... here is a front page article from today's NY Times that sums some of it up:

Real Wages Fail to Match a Rise in Productivity

Average family income, adjusted for inflation, has continued to advance at a good clip, a fact Mr. Bush has cited when speaking about the economy. But these gains are a result mainly of increases at the top of the income spectrum that pull up the overall numbers. Even for workers at the 90th percentile of earners — making about $80,000 a year — inflation has outpaced their pay increases over the last three years, according to the Labor Department.

“There are two economies out there,” Mr. Cook, the political analyst, said. “One has been just white hot, going great guns. Those are the people who have benefited from globalization, technology, greater productivity and higher corporate earnings.

“And then there’s the working stiffs,’’ he added, “who just don’t feel like they’re getting ahead despite the fact that they’re working very hard. And there are a lot more people in that group than the other group.”

In 2004, the top 1 percent of earners — a group that includes many chief executives — received 11.2 percent of all wage income, up from 8.7 percent a decade earlier and less than 6 percent three decades ago, according to Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, economists who analyzed the tax data.

One quote from the article that I found funny:

...wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

Until the last year, stagnating wages were somewhat offset by the rising value of benefits, especially health insurance, which caused overall compensation for most Americans to continue increasing. Since last summer, however, the value of workers’ benefits has also failed to keep pace with inflation, according to government data.

I was struck by the word "value" in relation to "health insurance." I'm sure no one would argue that health insurance is getting more expensive, but does that mean it is increasing in value? Leaving aside the purposes of calculating government stats, I think I'd find my health insurance a lot more valuable if I didn't have to jump through hoops of seeing primary care doctors and getting pre-approvals for certain things, and if the doctors I saw felt like they could take more than 5 seconds of their time to see me before rushing off to the rest of their huge patient load...
I feel sorry for doctors nowadays-- it seems like most of them are good, smart people who just want to do their job without insurance companies making it more difficult for them.

Are You a "Weird" Spender?

The food spending comments got me thinking... what is considered a "normal," "average" amount of money to spend on various things? (Either by a gut feeling or by actual statistics.) And is there any spending area where you think you differ from what is "normal" and "average?"
For instance, I think my spending on entertainment is probably well below average. I don't have a TV so I have no cable bills. I don't spend much on books because I can sometimes get them for free. And for movies, I spent a total of $129 last year, including DVD rentals and movies seen in theaters. That is probably way less than what many people spend on Netflix alone.
What else? As one of those commenters pointed out, I have no car, which is considered pretty normal in New York City, but kind of weird everywhere else in America. That is a big expense that I don't have to worry about.
I found an article saying the average American planned to spend $2,962 on vacation travel in 2004-- I always thought my travel spending was probably higher than average, but I guess not: last year I spent $2,977-- but that was for ALL travel, including commuting, the occasional taxi, and short family visits. The vacation part of it was only about $700, not counting meals while on vacation. (In other years, I've taken more expensive vacations, but I don't think I've had a year where the total travel spending exceeded $5,000.)
Here's a few other statistics plucked out of a Google search to get you thinking (I make no claims as to their accuracy):

• The average American spends $8,410 per year (roughly $700 per month) to own a vehicle. (source)
• The average American spends $6,000 on healthcare premiums (source)
• The average American spends about 5% of their income on eating out (source)
• Americans give 15 cents per day per person in official development assistance to poor countries. The average American spends four times that on soft drinks daily. (source)
• The average American spends $75 for each person on his or her Christmas list (source)
• The amount of money US parents spend on Barbie dolls each year: $5.6 billion (source). If you figure there are about 20 million American girls under the age of 10 (source: US Census Data), that is an average of $280 per girl.

So chip in about what you think is a normal or average amount to spend, and tell us your strange spending habits!

A Girl's Gotta Eat

Yesterday, a commenter on my "Sticking to a Budget" post suggested that $650 a month is a lot for a single person to spend on food, even in NYC. This is probably true, depending on how you look at it. Some months I spend quite a bit more than that, some months I spend less. My actual average for last year seems to have been about $610 per month. I'm sure there are plenty of single people in NYC who spend way more than that.
I know I could cut back from this level of food spending. For breakfast, I could eat cereal and make coffee at home instead of buying coffee and a bagel at a deli near work. For lunch, I could be much better about bringing food from home, instead of buying salads, pizza and sandwiches, as I do quite often. And for dinner, though I do buy groceries and cook my own meals at home a lot, I also go out to eat a lot, by which I mean once or twice a week. I could just eat at home even more often, and be really careful about buying the cheapest groceries and taking advantage of sales.
I'm sure I could easily halve my food spending by changing these habits. But I don't really want to. This is one of those quality of life issues. I do think it will change a little once I'm in my new home, but for the last few years, having a dinner party and cooking a meal for a group of friends just hasn't been an option. And frankly, I'm not that fancy a cook anyway. I like going to restaurants, to socialize with friends, but also just to try new kinds of food-- it's about having an enjoyable experience, not just the ingestion of sufficient calories to sustain life.
My breakfast and lunch choices can't be justified this way, and those are the areas where I'd like to change my habits a bit. But still, I'm not going to beat myself up about going for convenience over cost sometimes. Convenience is something that costs money, and I'm willing to account for that in my budget. This is rationalization, of course, and if you tally up the compound interest on the money I could be saving, I'm probably cheating myself out of retiring with a live-aboard yacht. (Well, maybe just a smaller yacht-- I calculate that $300 a month earning 4.5% makes you about $227,000 in 30 years.) But we all have to make these choices about a million things every day. If we lived in cardboard shacks, ate nothing but hot dogs and wore nothing but burlap, we could all probably retire with 10 live-aboard yachts, but would it be worth it?
You just have to limit how much you use this argument. If you come up with ways to justify all your current spending habits as reasonable and necessary, then you'll be in trouble, unless you find a good enough job to pay for them.
And as of last night, I am officially over my month's budget on my food spending... but a lobster roll at the Pearl Oyster Bar was a great way to do it!

Have You Lowered Your Net Worth to Reflect a Lower Home Value?

Here's a great question, posed by Kansas Simplicity: how have you changed the value of your home in calculating your net worth? What tools are you using to determine the value? How much did you increase the value during the real estate boom? In recent months as the air has come out of the bubble, have you decreased it?

Expensive Things: Outdoor Furniture

As I've mentioned, I've been idly fantasizing about decorating the new home I will have one of these days once all the *^@#!& closing happens... in hopes that I'll be moving in before the weather gets cold, I've been shopping around a bit for outdoor furniture. If I'm lucky, I might catch some end-of-season sales. But I'm having a hard time finding the sort of thing I have in mind. I just want two folding chairs and a small table, and a small lounge chair. I want something simple and clean and modern-looking-- but not the kind of modern that is self-consciously "design-y."
Here's a chair that I thought was quite attractive:


I like how the wood is subtly shaped so it will actually be comfortable to sit on, and it's teak, which should hold up well to outdoor use. But check out the price tag: $478.40! Yes, each!

I also thought this was kind of cool:


It's leather, so it's not really for outdoors, but I got a kick out of the concept, and if I had $2,500 to burn, I just might want one!

As for lounges, the closest thing I've seen to what I want so far was at Bed Bath & Beyond for only about $30, but I can't find a picture. But as for what else is out there on the high end, I came across this:

That is exactly what I meant when I said I didn't want anything "self-consciously design-y." And it might clash with my Hooters outfit! No thank you, even if gets marked down from $545!

So my search continues... does anyone have any recommendations for where I might find what I'm looking for, at prices in the two digits?!?

Sticking to a Budget

There was an interesting post over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, about ways to make yourself stick to your budget. Some of these are things I should try, some are things I sort of already do. But when I say I follow a budget, it's kind of a lie.
I do track my spending very carefully. I have budget lines for a wide variety of items, and not that much falls into the "Miscellaneous" catch-all. For 2005, my year-end difference between budgeted and actual expenses was only $13! Does being $13 under budget for a year mean that I am a super-thrifty disciplined saver? Sort of... but what I think it really means is that I am a creature of habit! As I wrote about in my Rule #10, the thing that really keeps me in okay financial shape is that I have gotten to a point in my life where my income is more than enough to pay for my habits, and my habits don't include wildly expensive activities.
What I would like to be better at is actually setting goals to save more, and really trying to reach them. A couple of days ago, for instance, I noticed that I had only about $100 left in my monthly food budget. My budget for the month is $650, which works out to around $21 a day. With 10 days left in the month, I'd have to spend only $10 a day to make my budgeted goal. So did I plan out a menu and go to the grocery store for 10 days worth of inexpensive breakfasts, lunches and dinners? No. I had worked late, and gone to the gym late, and was tired and didn't want to deal with anything, so I went to a Japanese restaurant and blew $44 on sushi.
Does that mean I will now try to make up for it by living off only $6 per day worth of food for the rest of the month? Nope. But it does mean I will try to do better next month. I'll be living in yet another different temporary space, in which I hope I'll be more comfortable cooking. We'll see.
What do you do when you see a shortfall in your budget? Do you buckle down and close the gap? Or do you just let it go and try to make up for it the next month?

Carnival of Personal Finance

We've had some very clever carnivals lately! This week's is at the Money Blog Network, written fully in verse by Dr. Zeuss!

Rule #14: Buy Good Things

• Spend the extra money to buy something that lasts.

Of course I have to illustrate this rule with an example close to every woman's heart: shoes. This week, I have a brand new pair-- beautiful soft Italian leather (like buddah!), great style and fit, and they were only $25! Ok, the truth is that they are not technically new. I bought these shoes on sale about 2 or 3 years ago, marked down to $79 from about $300. But even if I had paid full price, I think I'd have gotten my money's worth. I wear them to work quite frequently, and though I shine them every once in a while, they were starting to get scuffed and the heel was wearing down. But for $25 my local shoe guy put on a new heel and sole protector, and made them look brand new. I'll be wearing these shoes for many more years.
Shoes are an area where I don't like to cut corners. Good quality shoes are worth it-- they break in better, they last longer and they are easier for a cobbler to repair. With a little maintenance, a decent pair of shoes will last for decades.
Of course, there is the issue of fashion-- some styles might not last for decades. So if you're going for quality and paying a little extra for it, you should probably look for a more classic style rather than a trendy item. And if you want to jazz up your wardrobe a little with something trendy, that's the time to look for a lower price and not worry as much about quality. The other day I was wearing a pair of pink sandals that I bought last summer. All my other shoes are pretty much black or brown so buying a pink pair of shoes seemed like quite a wacky indulgence. But they were cheap, so I figured what the hell. I can only wear them with one or two outfits in my closet, but they look great with those outfits. The only problem is that they hurt! Any time I have skimped on quality with shoes, they have turned out to be shoes I can't walk far in without getting blisters. And it seems a bit silly to buy fun shoes that you can only wear while sitting at your desk, where no one can even see them!

This rule doesn't just apply to clothes, of course. If you're going to buy something major, check out the ratings at Consumer Reports to see what has the best record for lasting long and not needing repairs. And aside from the issue of function and maintenance, again, make sure you are buying something that you will be happy with for a long time. I remember when I moved into my first apartment of my own-- I bought the cheapest furniture and kitchen supplies I could find. A few years later, most of that stuff was broken, worn out, or just driving me crazy because it worked so poorly. So a lot of it ended up being replaced, whereas if I'd bought better stuff to begin with, I would probably still be using it, and would have spent less money in the long run.

Seven Year Itch?

Do you think the desire to spend money comes in waves? Kind of like the bible story of the Pharaoh's dream, where there are seven fat cows, then seven skinny cows, and the seven good ears of corn and the seven dry ears of corn-- it symbolizes seven years of plenty, and then seven years of famine. If you have seven years of saving, will you then have seven years of spending, or vice versa?
In the past weeks there have been some slight signs of progress with my condo-- still no TCO, but that is the only missing piece at this point, and inspections have been happening. (The DOB website is my new addiction.) I feel like it's getting really close... so the itch I have right now is the itch to spend money decorating and making my new home my own. Yesterday I spent almost $20 on assorted magazines so I could clip out some ideas. I keep making notes about furniture I might like to buy. I need to go back to all my budgeting and reassess how much I can spend on getting the place into shape-- at one point I think I had said I would allow myself $5000. That won't go all that far, but it's not like I really need all that much: just a couch, curtains, bed frame and a few other odds and ends, at a minimum. But I could go far beyond that minimum!
The first time I became a homeowner was actually more than 7 years ago, but I had the same feeling at that time. That home was more of a fixer-upper, and I was really into making drawings and plans and collecting books and magazines with decorating ideas. Some of what I wanted to do became a reality, but a lot of other projects never came to fruition. This time, I am moving into a place that will be brand new-- I won't need to fix anything for a while, but there may be little things that I want to change. While looking through one of the magazines I bought, I was admiring a floor in a darker stain, and started to wonder if I should have my floors refinished before I move in! This just goes to show that magazines are EVIL! They make you want to spend money. Or at least that is the effect they seem to have on me when I am in this nest-building state of mind. But I also think it is because of this long dry spell I've had.
For the past almost 7 years, I have been focused on building up my bank accounts and trying to save money. I allowed myself some luxuries in terms of travel, eating out and fun activities, but I bought hardly anything for my home, knowing that I was sort of in a holding pattern until I had a "real" home. Now that I am about to own that real home, it's like a dam is about to burst! At the closing, I'll let loose one flood of money. Then after I move in, there will be another gushing stream of spending. And then... I'll have to hire a little Dutch boy to keep his finger in, uh, my checkbook!

What is a Yuppie?

Remember when the term "Yuppie" first came along, back in the 80s? Young Urban Professionals, or Young Upwardly-Mobile Professionals, seemed to be defined by things such as their ownership of Cuisinart food processors and cappuccino machines. Nowadays I suppose food processors are considered fairly mainstream, and the cappuccino mockery has morphed into the latte-drinker stereotype referred to by writers such as David Brooks (Bobos in Paradise) and Thomas Frank (What's the Matter With Kansas). The Wikipedia definition of Yuppie refers to traits such as materialism, conspicuous consumption, elitism, ownership of expensive cars, residence in expensive condos in trendy neighborhoods with trendy decor, indulgence in expensive grooming habits and membership in expensive gyms. So being a Yuppie definitely has something to do with money. But what else? Are all young, urban professionals with money yuppies? Are all yuppies actually urban, professional, and earning lots of money?
I was thinking about this recently because a relative of mine mentioned something about what our neighborhood was like "before all the yuppies started moving in." She grew up in and around Park Slope and obviously considers the yuppies to be "them," not "us." But she wears designer clothes, eats at trendy restaurants, gets her decorating ideas from her subscription to Metropolitan Home, and makes a decent income at a job that would definitely be called professional. Does having roots in a now-trendy urban neighborhood somehow exempt you from being a yuppie?
I'm not sure if she considers me a yuppie, but I certainly fit the description in almost every way-- expensive college education, moved to Brooklyn within the last 15 years, occasionally consume over-priced specialty coffee drinks and eat in expensive restaurants, possess Cuisinart combo food-processor/blender, etc. etc. If I try to be frugal and non-materialistic in at least a few ways, am I any less a yuppie? I'm not really trying to dodge the label, as it obviously does apply to me (at least for the next few years until I can stop being considered "young"), but do you have to embrace a certain set of values to be a yuppie? What if you reject those values? What about a young corporate lawyer living in Manhattan who gives all his extra money to charity and spends all his spare time volunteering instead of playing golf-- if such a person exists, is he a yuppie? Are yuppies born or made?
I guess what I am wondering is who ISN'T a yuppie these days? According to many aspects of the definition, most Americans would qualify. Even people who aren't "young," "urban," or "professional" can embody the materialism and conspicuous consumption that are at the root of why "yuppie" is a derogatory term. Do we need a new word for it? There are DINKs and BoBos... How about "CoCO?" (Conspicuously-Consuming Overspender) Or "SnoPoCCCus?" (Snotty Post-Collegiate Credit Card User)

What do you think about the term Yuppie? Are you a Yuppie?

(By the way, I'm now moderating comments instead of making people enter the verification code... I'll try to approve comments as quickly as possible but there will be delays in the evenings.)

I Could Move to Central Park West

Thanks to Urban Digs, I spotted this sweet deal: a studio on Central Park West at 82nd St., in a doorman building with a roofdeck, for only $249,000! Too good to be true? A little... the co-op requires a down payment of at least 35%. There is also the maintenance of $488 a month. But I might have been able to swing it if I wasn't already buying another condo. I estimate the down payment and closing costs would leave me with savings of only about 4 months living expenses on hand in cash and CDs. But maybe the board would go for it based on my good credit rating and the additional retirement savings I could draw on in an emergency. (Not to mention my charisma and good looks.)
Oh well. I don't really like the Upper West Side that much anyway. And I'm tired of living in small studios. I think I stick with Plan A!

What's Up with E*Trade?

They still haven't posted my July statements yet! Ok, it's not like this makes a huge impact on my life, or even on my net worth, but I just want to click "done" on that Palm Pilot reminder saying "print out investment statements!"
Of my various accounts, E*Trade is always the least reliable about statements. Sometimes they just skip a month without saying why. Doesn't that seem really weird?

How to Save $100,000

According to AOL, you don't need to pay for an expensive college: you can just learn how to "act Ivy." This is a little silly, I think! The tips aren't bad advice, but you could just as easily label them "how to act professional." The only tip that specifically relates to getting Ivy League cred is the advice to take online courses. All learning is good, but if you are in a situation where an Ivy League vs. non-Ivy League pedigree matters to someone, an online course or the Harvard Extension School probably won't make a difference. (I'm not saying that it shouldn't make a difference-- just acknowledging the reality that there are a few arenas where people are going to be snobby about these things, and if a non-Ivy university degree doesn't cut it, an Ivy-affiliated online degree probably won't help.)

AOL also has a run-down on the financial personalities of the different signs of the zodiac... do you think these profiles hold true? Can you guess what sign I am?

You can also test your personal finance IQ... AOL is on a money roll lately! But I have to say, the way some of these questions are written is a bit misleading-- try it and see what you think!

When you get tired of all the financial tidbits on AOL, you can get back to their usual home page fare: a juicy tidbit about how Tom Cruise used to stalk Joe DiMaggio!

Cash on Hand

Currently, $440.14!!
I never carry this much cash around. In fact, I'm not carrying it around-- I stashed $300 at home because I was nervous about it! I went out with a group of friends, and took $200 out of an ATM beforehand, figuring it would be a long evening full of expensive debauchery. And it kind of was, but somehow I ended up being the one who settled the bill on my credit card, so everyone else gave me cash! It was such a big wad, it barely fit in my wallet.
Anyway, that should save me from having to go to an ATM for a while.
And here's a handy dandy trick-- did you know that some cell phones now come with built in tip calculators? One of my friends had one... nice, I guess, even though I was able to do the math in my head in less time than it took her to figure out how to tap in all the numbers!

Expenses of Temporary Housing: Computer

Here's one more thing that is bugging me about my limbo locations: it's making me really want to buy a new computer!
Neither of the places I've stayed has had a land line. No big deal for actual telephone use, but it means I have no way to connect my laptop to the internet. My laptop is an iBook, over 5 years old. It does not have a wireless card, though I could get one installed. My sublet does have free WiFi included, but is it worth it to buy an Airport card for my laptop? Considering how old it is, and that the hard drive is almost totally full, it would probably make more sense to just buy a new computer. But otherwise, my existing one works fine, and I really don't want to blow a couple thousand dollars on a computer right now, given the uncertainty of my living situation, and the certainty of having to buy furniture, curtains, etc. once I do settle down!
I decided to compromise-- since my Palm is WiFi enabled, I bought a piece of software that will let me check my AOL mail. (I can do web browsing already, but it can't handle AOL's webmail interface.) So that was $20. Unfortunately, so far I can't get it to work for my main AOL email address! I can check my alternate screen names (you know, the secret identities I use for all my online dating) but all the mail I get on those is spam. So that's frustrating. I haven't even tried to call their help number yet-- I can only imagine what kind of torture that will be. (Update: I did call the help number, which does nothing but refer you to the website and give you an email address. The email address just has a bot responding, with the most inanely irrelevant non-help I've ever gotten.)
Anyway, I don't think I'll be buying a new computer but my blogging might be a little behind schedule due to my technical limitations at home!

Oh (&#$%!

Ok, I am really picky about certain things. I like to use a certain kind of pen. At work, they don't have my favorite kind of pen in the supply room any more. I decided to just give up and buy a box of pens for myself. Now don't lecture me about stealing office supplies and how I should be buying them for myself anyway-- I am not even talking about personal use of these pens, these are for use at my job! And no, I am not enough of a mucky-muck to warrant a special order on pens, I guess. So I'm totally annoyed about having to spend my own money on pens. (Reminder to self: make sure to deduct pens on taxes.) But I go online trying to research the cheapest place to buy the ones I want, which turns out to be Shoplet.com. It says they have free shipping. So I decide to just suck it up, since it will cost me less than 50 cents per pen. But somehow, at the last minute, right as I click the "order now" button, I see that there is a shipping charge that is more than the cost of the pens, and now I'm paying about $1.10 per pen! Turns out there was a minimum order level that I didn't meet to get the free shipping.
So the moral of that story is twofold: A) always read the fine print on the free shipping policy. And B) just get over it and use whatever pens your office provides for free!

Expenses of Temporary Housing: Cooking

So, in addition to the cleaning supplies I wrote about in this post, I'm finding that this sublet makes me want to spend money in one other major area: kitchen stuff. The first place I stayed in for a few days was with a relative who doesn't cook much. There were some nice pots and pans, and beautiful plates and glasses, but the fridge was empty and there was no salt or pepper in the house. (There was also no microwave, which made it a shame that I had given my old one away before I moved.) So I bought some salt and pepper as a donation to the household, which cost me about $5. (They were the little jars that have a built-in grinder.)
As for this sublet I'm in now, at first glance, it seemed like there were plenty of kitchen supplies. After all, I've always been accustomed to having a fairly minimal kitchen, and it was only within the last couple of years that I went from having only 2 mis-matched drinking glasses (what remained after breaking the rest of the sets) to adding 2 new matching glasses to my collection.
But as I soon discovered, a lot of essential cooking tools are missing from this kitchen. And the ones that aren't missing are filthy. It appears that their owner believes that one must only rinse a pan after, say, frying bacon, rather than washing it with soap and a sponge. Yuck.
So far I have bought:
1 small plastic drinking glass (I couldn't go so far as to drink wine out of my coffee mug)
1 plastic slotted spoon
1 foil cookie sheet
Pepper (this place at least had salt!)
1 metal mixing bowl (mainly for salad. This is something I needed anyway, since I only had one bowl in my last place and I would occasionally have moments where I realized I couldn't make salad because I was mixing something else in that bowl.)
These probably total around $20. There are several other things I have wanted to buy, but I don't want to go crazy duplicating all this kitchen stuff I already own. If I ever find myself having to live with all my belongings in storage again (but let's hope I don't!), I think I would keep a special suitcase with a basic kitchen set-up in it. Here's the stuff I use almost every day:

1 large frying pan, preferably with lid
1 small-to-medium sauce pan with lid
1 steamer basket insert for sauce pan
1 sharp knife, medium size (not a tiny paring knife but not a huge one either)
1 mixing bowl (about 12" diameter)
1 slotted spoon
1 unslotted spoon
1 pair metal tongs
1 plastic cutting board
1 small glass jar (for making salad dressing)
potholders
can opener
corkscrew
coffee mug & plastic holder for individual coffee filter
1 each water glass, wine glass, plate, fork, knife, spoon

That is really basic, and I might be forgetting some things that I'd really want, but with that kit, plus a roll of tinfoil, I can probably make most of the things I tend to cook on a regular basis. If I wanted to take it up a notch, I'd throw in a kettle so I wouldn't have to boil water in the saucepan, and a microwaveable dish with a lid. And I could probably buy it all for under $100 if I wanted to, though I might have to spend more than that if I bought good quality pans and a decent knife.

What do you consider kitchen essentials? How much would you have to spend on them?

Oh, and here's what passes for fine dining chez moi these days:

From Other Blogs...

Some posts worth reading from other PF bloggers this week:

Miserly Bastard on Dental Insurance: unless your company pays for dental coverage, you might be better off without it.

Mapgirl on Savings Satisfaction: it's a great feeling when you realize you've gotten to a point where you have a little cushion of cash to give you some security.

Sitting Pretty on Expensive Baby-making: forget the college tuition, sometimes the most expensive thing about having a kid is getting pregnant in the first place!

Flexo's Tips for Saving on Gas: living in NYC, I rarely drive a car, but having recently spent more money on gas than the car rental itself cost, I'll be keeping these tips in mind for my next road trip.

I've also been enjoying JLP's Question of the Day Marathon, where many of my favorite bloggers are generating some great discussions.

Expenses of Temporary Housing: Cleaning Supplies

I'm still adjusting to life in limbo and staying in a sublet for August. The good news is that it's not that much more than the rent on my old place. The bad news is that of course, I'm finding that I could use a few things I have in storage and I'm going to have to spend money on things I'd rather not, as predicted in my post about STUFF.
Right off the bat, the major expenses have been in relation to cleanliness. Over the years, I've realized that I have my standards are rather high in this area, perhaps due to having a mother who was totally OCD about hygiene and would throw things out rather than try to wash them if she thought they were somehow hopelessly besmirched. (Example: brand new first day of school outfit in which wearer (ok, it was me) fell in dog poop. Entire outfit immediately thrown away, possibly burned...)
So anyway, I move into this apartment and right away have to sweep the entire place-- not that it's so horribly dusty but I just want to freshen it up. Then I realize the kitchen floor is greasy, and there is no mop. I never had a mop in my old apartment because A) I had no place to put it, and B) the kitchen floor was about 4 square feet and it wasn't that bad to just get down on my knees and do the whole thing with a scrub brush. But in this place, the kitchen is big enough to need a mop. I also realize the bathroom needs some serious scrubbing. Kitchen grease, bathroom mildew-- these are a few of my least favorite things. So I'm dying to attack them, but here's the kicker-- the person I'm subletting from asked me to use only her organic cleaning products because she is sensitive to chemicals.
Now I definitely have my tree-hugging, save the earth moments, but when it comes to cleaning the house, I believe that God allowed us to invent toxic chemicals for a reason. The organic cleaning supplies have a milder smell and are easier on your skin if you don't wear gloves, but they just don't work as well. Also, they are really expensive!
I have been using the organic version of SoftScrub and the organic dishwashing liquid, and even purchased my own almost $5 bottle of organic pseudo-Windex. But I am dying to douse the shower curtain with some good old-fashioned bleach.
I also bought a Swiffer. This, like the mop, is something I always wanted but never had a place for. I'll keep it for my new apartment, but in the meantime, the rug-less wood floors here were the perfect excuse for buying one.
So though I kept my leftover cleaning supplies from my old apartment, they have yet to save me any money. (They are stored with a relative until I need them.) Here's what I have spent so far to clean an apartment I'll only be living in for a month:
Swiffer: $12.39
Dishcloth: $2.99
Latex gloves: $1.29
Sink drain strainer: $2.69 (not exactly a cleaning tool)
EcoVer brand glass cleaner: $4.59
Sponges: $2.19 + $1.99
Mop: $12.99
Scented candle: $3.99 (again, not exactly for cleaning but helps apartment not have that weird "someone else's home" smell.)

Actually, the only things here that overlap with stuff I already own were the dishcloth, sponges and glass cleaner. Everything else I needed anyway, and can keep for when I move. But there are other things that I've had to buy to live in this place... to be continued...

Pathetic attempt at July wrap-up

There's been so much going on I haven't had a chance to look back at July and do the usual monthly net worth summary. My net worth is basically unchanged, hovering somewhere between $284-285,000. My July expenses weren't really anything out of the ordinary, except for $835 worth of moving-related expenses. (That includes the $1 the USPS charges you when you do your address change online.)
Other items:
Food was $905 (over budget by $255)
Clothing was $75
Rent was sort of zero, since my old landlord just let me apply my security deposit to the last month's rent.
Miscellaneous was about $150, mainly just for a bike tune-up and a haircut.
Otherwise a lot of spending categories were under budget: I was so busy packing, I didn't have time to spend money!

What's Up with Bananas?

Acouple of months ago, the fruit vendor I buy my morning banana from raised his price from 25 cents to 35 cents each. I didn't think it was that big a deal and just figured it was probably about time for the price to go up since I'd been paying 25 cents for years. Today, I didn't have exact change to throw in the cup, so I handed the guy 50 cents. Then he didn't give me any change. There was a moment of confusion, and then he gave me a quarter back. It turns out the bananas have gone back down to 25 cents. So now I'm wondering when that happened-- I may have been overpaying for my bananas for weeks!
But I can't help wondering what made bananas more expensive for that brief period of time. Was it something to do with the supply of bananas? Or did the fruit man discover that many customers would not pay 35 cents for a banana? Maybe it wasn't just the amount itself, but the fact that it wasn't an easy one-coin amount... who knows...

I just spent $20...

... on a 16-ounce lavender-scented exfoliating scrub from Bath & Body Works. I tried it at my sister's house, loved it, and had to have it. I don't know what's gotten into me: I also almost spent $60 on a bottle of perfume this weekend. I am normally very basic when it comes to bath products-- cheapo shampoo, cheapo liquid soap, cheapo moisturizer, moderately-priced hair stuff... I am not a "product whore," as one of my friends described herself. Her shower is full of a gazillion different bottles of high-end potions, probably over $200 worth right there. And as for the perfume, I have bought a bottle of perfume-- or technically eau de toilette or whatever-- exactly once before in my life. This was when I was in college and I don't know what I was thinking. I probably only used the perfume once or twice. But it wasn't a total waste of money-- the perfume came with a free gift: 2 lovely wine glasses which I have used VERY frequently ever since! But otherwise, I usually don't like strong scents, so I can't even walk into most bath & body stores and I avoid perfume, which is probably a good thing, since it has one of the highest cost-to-volume ratios of any product you can buy!
Do you spend a lot of money just to smell nice? Do you think expensive hair and bath products and perfumes are worth it?

Amazing Car Rental

I'm back from a long weekend during which I decided to escape from the city. Usually when I go to visit family or friends, I end up taking the train, but this time I was able to share a rental car. The amazing thing was how cheap it was! Enterprise was having some kind of summer weekend special, so the weekend days were only $15, and then my friend's corporate rate for weekdays was only $30. This was for pickup and drop-off in Stamford, CT. From NYC, it's not that inconvenient-- Enterprise doesn't have a location right at the train station like Hertz and Avis do, but they'll pick you up and drop you off there for free, or reimburse you if you had to take a taxi.
My friend definitely "worked it"... we got a 10% discount for having to wait a while to pick up our car. Then when we returned the car, she got them to take off the charges for the extra insurance. Our final total for 4 days was just under $100, which is unheard of, at least in the metro NY area. Of course on top of that we had to pay for round-trip train tickets to Stamford (about $20 each) and gas (about $100 total), but when you split this between two people, it's only about $120 each, which is way better than the almost $200 per person a round-trip on the train would cost, and the car allowed us the flexibility of me going off to see family and her going off to see other friends and then picking me up again for the trip back to NYC.
But if it had just been me, and if the trip had been a longer one, I'm not sure I would have gone for it. $3.37 a gallon for gas! This was my introduction to the $45 fill-up, and I did not like it.

Best News I've Heard All Week

I got a free 30-day extension on my mortgage lock. Rates have gone down a little recently so my anxiety about the lock expiring before my closing is somewhat lessened. I'll be keeping an eye on this and talking to my mortgage broker about whether we should reapply at a different bank depending on how things go over the next few weeks... this may be one of the benefits of working with a mortgage broker. I originally felt it might be a bit lazy not to approach a few banks directly, but since my mortgage broker could take me to a different bank without me having to pay a new application fee, there was some leverage to apply that I might not otherwise have had.
I've always had the impression that people in NYC tend to use mortgage brokers more often than they go directly to banks, one of the reasons being that the brokers know which banks will give loans for certain circumstances: to small co-ops, for instance, or in particular neighborhoods.
Does anyone else have any opinions on using a mortgage broker vs. applying directly to a bank?

Welcome UK AOL users... sort of...

If I was SingleMa, this would make me say "oh lawd!"



I'm going to have to start keeping a list, not just of weird search results, but the ones where I'm #1!
To the person who found the site by this search, I hope you saw my previous post, and this one.

P.F.

Does it stand for Personal Finance? Not in this case: Pee Fee is what I'm thinking, as in having to pay to use a bathroom. I suppose most people have had to do this at some point in their lives. As a kid, I remember department store bathrooms that had locks on the stalls-- you had to put a dime in to open them. More recently, many cities have installed public pay toilets. NYC supposedly has some that were being tested, I think, before a full-scale rollout, though I've never come across one. I've used them in France, though, and they're not that bad, though their futuristic look reminded me of some old episode of Dr. Who where people were put into cryogenic chambers or transmats or something like that...

Where else have I paid to pee? In the amusement park area at Coney Island, they charge 25 cents to use the bathroom (though the toilets on the beach are free). And recently, when I was in a bit of a rush, I dashed into a Chinese restaurant near Bleecker Street in the Village and asked to use their bathroom-- first of all, if you don't know this area, you have to understand that it is often a zone full of partying students, so practically every restaurant has a sign saying the restrooms are for customers only. I have found that if I want to pee in a restaurant, the best approach is not to be sneaky about it: I walk in and ask someone at the front if I can use the bathroom, they see that I am a nice clean young lady who is obviously not a homeless person looking for a place to shoot up, and they say "of course, it's right back there." Actually, the nicer the restaurant, the better this seems to work, especially if I'm in business clothes. But at the Chinese restaurant in the Village, at 10pm on a Saturday night, I did get the "sorry, it's for customers only" reply. Maybe I was so desperate I actually did look like I needed a fix! Given said desperation, I said I'd be happy to buy something and was then waved back to where the bathrooms were. After I'd done my thing, I came back to the front desk and asked the lady how much money she wanted, and she said a dollar. So I gave her a dollar and figured the relief was worth it. Of course, when nature is calling a little less loudly and I have time to walk a few extra blocks, I always opt for the free bathrooms that are now available in most Starbucks, Barnes & Nobles, Borders, fast food restaurants, department stores, etc.

Given the universal nature of this need, I'm surprised that it hasn't generated a bigger money-making industry. Back to the issue of pay toilets in NYC, according to this article:

New York State outlawed pay toilets in 1975 in response to the charge that such facilities discriminated against women. Women always needed a stall, while men could make do without, opponents argued.

I'm not sure if that was someone's idea of a feminist victory-- I hope not! (You can read more about the fascinating legal issues surrounding toilet facilities by visiting the website of the American Restroom Association.) Fortunately,

The city won an exemption to the state law in 1993, a few years after a group of homeless people brought a class-action lawsuit.

And anyway, surely men need stalls sometimes too! And maybe women don't always need them, at least not if you buy this handy device. For about $1 a use, the P-Mate will allow women the disgusting privilege of public urination currently enjoyed only by men.

Well, I'd love to keep writing about this interesting issue, but I, uh, gotta go...

I'm Out.

I have said goodbye to my beloved tiny apartment. The movers I used were great: All-Star Moving and Storage, based in Brooklyn. Under $700 for the move-out and putting the stuff in storage. When I moved in to my studio, I paid about $375, and I had less furniture, and there was not as much wrapping and special packing needed since I was going straight from one apartment to another, so I thought this was a very good price. The total included $120 per hour transportation time and loading time and a couple of extras: paper pads on the furniture and a plastic cover to put my futon in, but that was it-- none of that annoying crap where they ding you for every partially-used roll of tape.
I had a little dilemma over how much to tip the guys-- I bought them lots of drinks and bagels, and ended up giving the head guy $30 and the other two guys $20 each. According to a little googling on "how much to tip movers", which seems to be a popular question, this should have been considered acceptable. But one of my friends thought I should have made it more like $40/30, and the other one thought I should have given them $50 each. If the same guys end up moving me into my new place, I'll give them a little more.
My total for moving supplies was under $100. I bought 3 rolls of bubble wrap, a 4-pack of tape, and then on the very last day, I had to spend about $5 to buy two large boxes. Given that I packed about 51 boxes total, I'm glad I had recycled so many from work-- I saved myself at least $100!
If I ever lose my job, I think I might hire myself out as a packing specialist. I think I'm actually really good at it-- I must have that spatial recognition gene that gives you the power to instantly know whether one thing will fit inside another thing. I used extra towels and winter clothes to pad breakable items so I could use less bubble wrap-- you just have to be careful to pack tightly enough and wrap breakable items in something so if the worst happens, you won't have broken glass embedded in all your sweaters!
I found ways to fit almost all of my stuff in boxes-- movers hate it when you have random loose stuff. The only things that were not boxed were two cassette tape holders (I can't bear to get rid of my old mix tapes!), which I taped together, face to face. Then I had a little bookcase which was the perfect size to hold my speakers. I wrapped them in bubble wrap, put them inside the bookcase, filled the gaps with two pairs of jeans, then put a little bubble wrap around the outside of the bookcase. This didn't quite cover everything, so I ended up wrapping the bookcase in saran wrap so I could safely put a lot of tape around it! I also saran wrapped my laundry hamper, in which I had packed some rugs and lamps. It turned out I could have been less cautious-- the movers ended up sticking these things in one of those big wardrobe boxes anyway.
Here's the stuff I ended up keeping with me:


Some of the boxes hold cleaning supplies and extra stuff I might not need. Those will be stored with family until I need them, along with some clothes for cooler weather from one of the suitcases. I kept feeling like I somehow had too much, but it was a perfect car-load of stuff. It reminded me of when I went off to college. Actually, some of the dorm rooms I lived in were not that much smaller than my studio.
So now I enter some sort of odd nomadic phase of my life, I guess, if you can call bouncing from one end of Park Slope to the other nomadic. I'm staying with family for a few days, then moving into a sublet for a month, and then either back with family or into another sublet until I can get into my damn condo! It will all work out in the end, but I'll miss this little place...