Researching Decisions

I have always been a pretty careful shopper for most kinds of purchases. I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to the occasional impulse buy of clothing or a book or music, but when it comes to major purchases, I usually slow way down and do a lot of research before I commit myself to anything. I look at Consumer Reports, I check web forums, I ask friends, I delay gratification while deciding whether I really want what I think I want. At least I try to!

So when Sweetie's DVD player broke, I was the one who said "whoa, let's check things out here and not be hasty." First I went to Consumer Reports. I saw that Blu-Ray DVD players now seem to be pretty much the norm, and I was attracted by the fact that they all seem to allow streaming video from Netflix. I'm not a big movie or TV watcher, so I'd been on the 2-DVD-a-month plan from Netflix and was perfectly happy with that, but being able to stream an occasional movie or old TV show appealed to me. So I found a Blu-ray player that had the features I wanted and good ratings and found it at an online retailer for a good price.
A few days later, it arrived, we set it up, and everything was good. We had a little trouble getting the streaming to work at first, but it turned out that all I needed to do was switch my Netflix plan to one that allowed unlimited streaming (duh). We watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey and were happy as clams.

We were so happy, in fact, that we almost immediately decided to get another player for the bedroom when we came across almost the same model for a really good price at Costco. We didn't think too much about it-- after all, we'd already done all that research. But in retrospect, I wish I'd thought things through a bit more! After finishing season 1 of Downton Abbey, I wanted to start watching season 2, but it's not available on Netflix yet, or any of the other services we can access on the Blu-Ray player. But I could buy access to watch the whole season 2, both the episodes already available and the new ones as they come out, via iTunes for $19.99. If I had bought an Apple TV instead of a second Blu-Ray player, we could watch them on the TV. The other cheaper option would be to buy a composite AV or HDMI cable adapter so I could plug my phone or laptop into the TV. Of course, the show is still airing on PBS so we could just try to watch the new episodes the good old-fashioned way, but we've already missed a bunch, and we don't have any way to record future ones if we're not home.

In the scope of life's worries, having to wait a few months to watch more episodes of a guilty pleasure soap opera disguised as high-brow drama is really not a big deal. Speaking as someone who has lived without a TV for most of my life and would usually rather read a book, I can't believe I'm even posting about this issue! But it does go to show that you should explore all options before acting too fast on any purchase. And please let me know if there are any other options I should be exploring to watch this show!!

Single Ma Wants Me to Write About Booze.

It's actually not a bad topic for a post this week...

The other night, I went to see a play at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn (The New Electric Ballroom, well worth seeing. You can get discounted tickets using a code from Broadway Box). Before the show, we went to the nearby Water Street Restaurant. It's a convenient place for a pre-show meal, and they have really good burgers, but we were incredibly disgruntled by the wine!

First of all, the wine list is very limited, especially if you just want a glass-- they have a much better selection of beers. But I knew if I drank beer, I'd be wanting to go to the bathroom during the no-intermission play! So I had one glass of wine-- $8 for a fairly mediocre glass of Argentine Chardonnay. There was no Pinot Grigio or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc by the glass, which would have been safer. And the $8 Coppola Chardonnay was terrible, and the $7 American Sauvignon Blanc was almost undrinkable.

Even worse, these glasses of wine were small! Some restaurants at least give you a generous glass of perhaps 8 or 10 ounces, but these were probably 6 ounce glasses, and not especially full.
We got into a discussion of what the going rate is for glasses of wine-- $6 is probably a standard amount in New York, for something cheap but acceptable. Sometimes you'll see a $5 house wine, maybe even $4, but it's usually pretty bad. And of course if you go to a place that fancies itself more of a wine bar, you can often choose from a selection of glasses from $7 -10, and even higher. This may seem pricey, but sometimes I think it's nice to be able to sample interesting wines-- I'd rather pay a little more occasionally just to taste something a little unusual.

In many cases, it's better just to opt for a bottle of wine. The price of a bottle will tend to be about four times the price of a glass, though the volume of wine is usually closer to 5 glasses, unless you're in one of these places that pours very big glasses. If you don't want to consume an entire bottle, don't forget that at least in some states, most restaurants are now happy to let you take a partial bottle home with you-- they are required to re-cork it and seal it in a plastic bag along with the receipt, usually-- I think the law varies by state. But boy, were we glad we hadn't bought a whole bottle the other night! (For what it's worth, the Water Street waitress told us they just hired a new manager who was planning to vastly improve their wine list in the near future.)

And if you do happen to go to St. Ann's Warehouse, don't feel you have to get all your drinking done in the nearby restaurants-- they actually have quite a nice little bar area right in the lobby by the box office. And we were quite chagrined to see that they serve Root 1 wine there, which happens to be one of our favorites. And they only charge $6 a glass.

Now Single Ma, you just let me know if you have any other requests! xoxo

Rich Kids on TV: NYC Prep

Yesterday, I was reading about a new TV show called NYC Prep. It's supposed to be a sort of real world Gossip Girl, looking behind the scenes at the lives of wealthy New York teenagers:

These six swaggering rich kids — four girls and two boys — dutifully spend and text their way around the Upper East Side like their fictional counterparts on “Gossip Girl,” only they do it haltingly. Like real-life adolescents, their arrogance is dotted with hesitation, nervous laughter and assertions put in question form.

“Everything in New York City is about pulling connections,” PC, an 18-year-old who is cast as the spoiled, manipulative Chuck Bass figure, explains. “It’s who you know, and how much money you have. And it’s really sad? And I’m not saying I’m like that? But that’s what New York is: money is power.”

All the money in the world cannot change the sexual politics of high school or the pull of the herd. The show doesn’t name the schools, but Web sites found out fast. Taylor, 15, who goes to the highly selective Stuyvesant, a public high school, worries that wealthier students from places like Nightingale-Bamford and Dwight could look down on her. To improve her status, she decides to throw a party at a chic Japanese restaurant downtown....

As I always do when reading about reality TV shows, I found myself wondering why anyone would agree to participate in something that is designed to make them look ridiculous. Even if the kids didn't realize how obnoxious they'd appear, you'd think the parents would. Robert Frank at The Wealth Report apparently wondered the same thing, and unlike me, he could just call up the producer of the show and ask him!

RF: What did you say to get the parents to agree?
[Lenid Rolov, executive producer]: We used an honest approach. We had two producers who came from this world and we said we wanted to present these kids as they really are. These kids are dealing with the same issues that other kids are dealing with, but maybe they’re growing up a little faster. These kids don’t flaunt their wealth and they want to be seen as everyone else. The parents want to have their kids work for their money and have the same opportunities as everyone else.

I guess this tells me two things: that people in the upper echelons of wealth really have no idea how the rest of the world live, and that parents are easily blinded by the idea of anyone paying attention to their very special, very wonderful children.

Has anyone actually watched the show? What did you think of it?

Voluntary Pricing at Museums

After my post the other day about flexible pricing for hair cuts, I was thinking about other situations where how much one pays may be somewhat self-determined. Museums are a prime example. I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art not long ago, on a Sunday when they offer "pay as you wish" entry pricing. The normal price is $14, so I just paid $14. The Metropolitan Museum in New York offers "suggested" rates all the time. It's $20, which starts to feel a little steep, but even $20, to me, doesn't feel like something I should be trying to skimp out on. I've spent $20 on far stupider things than a great art museum. I can afford $20, and I'm happy to support the museum being able to offer discounted rates to other people for whom $20 would be prohibitive. But if the entry fee was $50, or $100, I'm sure I'd be more likely to opt out of paying full price!

How do you decide whether you can pay full price when it's optional? If a museum offers flexible pricing, should you pay less just because it's the frugal thing to do?

Rule #20: Don't Be Dumb

How's this for a nice simple rule?

• Don't Do Stupid Things

How much money do you spend because of plain old dumbness? Here are two small examples from my own recent life:

At my gym, there are half lockers, one above the other. I always use the top locker. When I go swimming, I usually take off my earrings and bracelets and leave them in the locker. A couple of weeks ago, when I was getting dressed after my shower, I went to pull something out of the locker and heard a little "plunk." It was one of my earrings, falling through a crack into the locker below mine-- which was locked. I peered through the crack and could see my earring, sitting right there, amidst some dust bunnies. I told the attendant it looked like the locker was abandoned, and in any case wasn't one allowed for overnight storage anyway, but she couldn't open it with a master key and she said she'd have to get permission to cut it off. I didn't have time to deal with that, so I just left-- the earring I'd lost was a favorite, but not at all valuable, so I figured I would just come back and try again to get into that locker after speaking to a manager.
But in the meantime, I felt naked! (Almost as bad as that day I forgot my underwear!) And I had a big meeting that day that I was dressed up for-- I felt like I couldn't go without earrings. So I stopped in a little store at lunch and bought the cheapest earrings I could tolerate, which were only $10.
The next day at the gym, I was still wearing those earrings, and took them off as usual when I went swimming. And later, when I was getting dressed, guess what? "Plunk." I did the same exact thing, dropping one of the new earrings in a different locked locker! Afterwards, I went to buy a pair of earrings again, this time super cheapo ones from Duane Reade for only $5-- but unfortunately they hurt my ears, so I only wore them once.
Bottom line, I always knew it was dumb to leave the earrings on the bottom of the locker where they could easily fall in that crack, but I did it anyway, even after losing them the first time. Ever since then, I've put my jewelry inside a shoe or even poked them through a sock to make sure they'd stay put! Fortunately, I only had to spend $15 on earrings as a result of this dumbness-- no great loss, and a reminder that it is probably a good thing that I don't own any expensive jewelry in the first place.

The other dumb thing happened last night. I went to see the Billie Jean King Cup at Madison Square Garden. I love watching tennis, especially the Williams sisters, so I was happy to go, even though $60 for a ticket to a sporting event is not usually my preferred way of spending money. It was actually Mortimer's idea, and he'd gotten a group together a while ago. Though Mortimer is a rabid sports fan, now that he's lost his job, I'm sure he'd rather have kept the cash too.

Before I got to my seat, I bought a beer-- this in itself is pretty dumb, when you consider that a beer costs $8.75 at MSG. One of my other friends bought a bottle of water and they don't let you keep the cap on the bottle-- apparently they're afraid you'll throw the cap at someone. Despite this, they put a lid on my cup of beer. We were talking about the likelihood of spillage and my friend was envying that I had a lid and asked if I wanted a straw, which I scornfully declined-- it just seems wrong to drink beer through a straw.
Back at my seat, I removed the lid and took a few sips of the beer. Then... I managed to spill it, partially on my bag but mostly on the back of a young man sitting in front of me. Of course I was mortified and apologizing profusely and trying to help him clean his jacket off with napkins. And he was a good sport about it, shaking it off and saying it was supposed to be waterproof anyway. But the woman sitting next to him, who I'd at first assumed must be his girlfriend, turned out to be his mother. She turned around and rather imperiously announced "He's going to have to have that dry-cleaned now!" So I said "ok, I'll give you something," and once there was a break between games, I apologized again and gave the guy ten dollars, which he thanked me for and then handed to his mother.
The rest of the evening was without any disasters, but the tennis dragged on a bit and I ended up leaving at about 11:15, in the middle of the 2nd set. (Serena went on to win, though I'd been rooting for Venus.)
So $60 for a ticket, $8.75 for a beer, and $10 for someone else's dry cleaning. It ended up feeling like kind of a dumb evening all around.

Of course, this is just one kind of dumb spending among many. We spend money on things we don't need, things that don't work, unresearched purchases that could have been gotten more cheaply. And then look at all this dumbness of people lending money they knew couldn't be paid back, and people plowing money into investments they should have known were too good to be true. Dumb, dumb, and dumber.

But does dumbness, on some level, actually drive our economy? I mean, if everyone only did the most smart, sensible thing, a whole lot of consumer products would never be purchased. And in every transaction, there is a buyer and a seller-- what benefits one doesn't usually benefit the other too, so somebody's got to be a little dumb or it would all grind to a halt.

But don't let that stop you from trying to be smarter!

Trying to Be Middle-Class on $500k

Okay, yesterday I couldn't face commenting on recent news stories, but I have to tackle this one:
You Try to Live on 500K in This Town

Like most readers, I can't dredge up much sympathy for anyone who thinks it's tough to get by on $500k a year, even here in NYC. But hidden within the "oh it's so hard to be rich" crap like how to budget for summers in the Hamptons and a full-time nanny lies this valid point:

[In NYC, it] takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston...

Let's say you have a family of 4, and you want a 3-bedroom home, and one car. You want to send your kids to a school of decent quality. And maybe you'd like the kids to play a sport after school, and you want to take the whole family to the movies once in a while. For now, just forget all the extras like vacations and keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to designer clothes and spa treatments. If you want to live in Manhattan, or even many parts of the outer boroughs and New Jersey, you absolutely need a six-figure income to afford these things-- things which people in other areas might consider the bare minimum of a middle-class life.

I did a quick search for 3-bedroom apartments for rent in Manhattan, with 2 bathrooms and 1500-2000 square feet. Those currently listed on the NY Times website range from $3,000-$20,000 a month, with most probably falling in the $8-10k range. You'd have to pay around that much in monthly costs to buy a place too. If you want to keep housing at 30% of your income, you'd have to be making over $300k a year. (Even in Manhattan, the median income is only around $64k, and the average is about $121k.)

How about the car? Forget the cost of buying it and insurance and maintenance. Let's just focus on one thing: where are you going to put it? If you want your own driveway, expect to pay more than the housing costs above. That leaves the street or a garage. If you want to drive around in circles and have to move your car twice a week even if you don't need to use it, and risk damage and break-ins, go ahead and park for free on the street. A garage can easily cost $300 a month and up.

School: New York does have some good public schools, but you can't take it for granted that you'll be able to send your kids to one of them, so many middle-class families who want their kids to get into selective colleges opt for private schools. Some Catholic schools may only charge a few thousand a year, but some charge as much as $25,000 a year, and other private schools can be over $30,000 a year. See here for an evaluation of NYC's public schools-- only about a third get an "A" for the percentage of students passing state tests. I don't have any stats for what these schools offer in terms of sports and activities, but I'm sure budgets will be cut in the coming years given our economic situation.

As for the movies, adult tickets are $12.50 and children are $9.00 these days (over 30% more than ticket prices I found for Houston). Add some popcorn and soda and you're easily looking at $75 for a night out.

Many people will read this and say "well, it's crazy for a family of 4 to try to live in NYC," and however sad that might be, they are probably right. But some people need to work in NYC-- my career options would be severely limited in other cities, because most of the publishing industry is based here. If I had kids, I'd definitely have to move further out of the city, but then I'd incur costs of $200-300 a month for a commuter train pass.

But it wasn't always so-- New York was never cheap, but it didn't used to be this out of whack in relation to middle-class incomes. Those sky-high Wall Street bonuses have been part of the reason-- the tax windfall may have helped fill the city's coffers, but I think NYC is a perfect example of why rising income inequality is a bad thing. I'm not sure salary caps are the best way to fix it, but it will be interesting to see how this might change over the next few years.

It's Not All That Wonderful A Life

If you have a Grinchy little streak of cynicism, read this article from today's New York Times:

Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life

“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife. It is also a nightmare account of an endless home renovation.

It's also about a banking crisis prompted by seeming fraud, and very real negligence:

And what about that banking issue? When he returns to the “real” Bedford Falls, George is saved by his friends, who open their wallets to cover an $8,000 shortfall at his savings and loan brought about when the evil Mr. Potter snatched a deposit mislaid by George’s idiot uncle, Billy (Thomas Mitchell).

But isn’t George still liable for the missing funds, even if he has made restitution? I mean, if someone robs a bank, and then gives the money back, that person still robbed the bank, right?

I checked my theory with Frank J. Clark, the district attorney for Erie County upstate, where, as far as I can tell, the fictional Bedford Falls is set. He thought it over, and then agreed: George would still face prosecution and possible prison time.

“In terms of the theft, sure, you take the money and put it back, you still committed the larceny,” he said. “By giving the money back, you have mitigated in large measure what the sentence might be, but you are still technically guilty of the offense.”

The movie's two scenarios of life in Bedford Falls are meant to show that it's a much better place to live due to George's presence there. But maybe that wouldn't be the case long term. The supposedly nightmarish George-was-never-born Pottersville can be seen as a vibrant, active town with bright lights and lots of people driving an entertainment-based economy:

Not only is Pottersville cooler and more fun than Bedford Falls, it also would have had a much, much stronger future. Think about it: In one scene George helps bring manufacturing to Bedford Falls. But since the era of “It’s a Wonderful Life” manufacturing in upstate New York has suffered terribly.

On the other hand, Pottersville, with its nightclubs and gambling halls, would almost certainly be in much better financial shape today. It might well be thriving.

Wow, pretty harsh. I'm sure most people would still prefer to focus on the movie's warm-hearted message about valuing family and friendship!

Guest Post: Cash Strapped Yet Seen

This is a guest post from my pal Kimber at No Limits Ladies:

"I can't go out," a buddy tells me, "I'm trying to save money."

Huh? What does going out have to do with spending money? Especially in a big city such as New York?

Sure, if your view of entertainment is very narrow, (i.e. you MUST see The Dark Knight on opening weekend, or you HAVE to be seen at Plumm on a Friday night), then it will expensive, but if you are flexible and open to new experiences, you can go out every night of the week for little to zero cash.

What to do?

Every single week during the summer, there is a festival in NYC (http://www.nycstreetfairs.com/sched.html ). There is always some sort of free entertainment at these festivals. There are certainly plenty of interesting people to meet and talk to. Since I often get the munchies and am trying to stay away from fried stuff, I bring my own snacks from home.

There are also free classifieds in student or street papers with listings of events (like book signings or mini-concerts). This search is even easier online. Because I'm into the artsy scene, my source for happenings is craigslist.

The problem with these options is that I discard some free experiences because I might not like it (I don't know but I MIGHT not). To keep myself truly spontaneous, I prefer contests. It takes the choice out of my hands.

I'm a contest hound. I enter every contest going, regardless of what it is for. Then if fate decides I should go by letting me win, I go. Warning: This could lead to interesting entertainment combinations like a Thursday at the Opera and a Friday front row at a competitive eating contest.

My aspiring screenwriter brother takes his freebie entertainment experience one step further. He enters so many advanced movie screening (see it first, see it free) contests that he sees at least one free movie a week. THEN he gets paid to write reviews on those free movies.

Are you thinking he's taking advantage of the system? Have you ever been to one of these free screenings? Because the movie is "free," most people don't value the ticket and don't bother showing up. Half the seats to even the most popular screenings are empty. It is sad really.

So if you want to stay home, fine, I understand. Sometimes I feel lazy too. Stay home but don't blame it on not having money.

Kimber Chin ( http://businessromance.com/ ) writes romance novels based in the business world. She also blogs at http://www.nolimitsladies.com/ . She blames not going out on having to write her next novel.

Wimbledon Prize Money

I spent a good portion of the July 4th weekend watching tennis, since the weather wasn't all that nice where I was. While watching the championship matches, all I could think about was how amazingly these people play. The Williams sisters were great, and then the Nadal/Federer match had me gasping repeatedly when seemingly ungettable shots would not only be returned, but then those returns would actually be perfectly placed winning shots. I had to leave to go back to NYC after the fourth set, so I was left wondering what happened and didn't get to see the final LONG set in which Nadal won. Wow.
But now that I'm back to my weekday blogging life, here's what I'm thinking about: how much money did they win!? Here's the dirt from the Wimbledon website:

	2007	2008	Increase
Total Prize Money	£11,282,710	£11,812,000	4.7%
Gentlemen's Singles Winner	£700,000	£750,000	7.1%
Gentlemen's Singles Runner-up	£350,000	£375,000	7.1%
Ladies' Singles Winner	£700,000	£750,000	7.1%
Ladies' Singles Runner-up	£350,000	£375,000	7.1%
Gentlemen's Doubles Winners	£229,000	£230,000	3.2%
Gentleman's Doubles Runners-up	£111,440	£115,000	3.2%
Ladies' Doubles Winners	£222,900	£230,000	3.2%
Ladies' Doubles Runners-up	£111,440	£115,000	3.2%
Mixed Doubles Winners	£90,000	£92,000	2.2%
Mixed Doubles Runners-up	£45,000	£46,000	2.2%

(£1 is currently about $1.98)

It's interesting to note that the prize money is increasing more or less in line with estimated inflation rates. But the prizes for the top singles players have increased far more than inflation, and the lesser prizes seem to be not quite keeping up with inflation. I guess in tennis, as in the rest of life, income inequality is increasing!

Fiercely Frugal: Tyra Banks

Who knew? I've never actually seen Tyra's show, but here's my favorite part of the cover story about her in the New York Times Magazine:

She has no interest in owning the latest designer this or that — her wardrobe, which features form-hugging, low-cut dresses on air and jeans for the office, is mostly within the budget and desires of her audience. At the end of each taping, a photo of Banks, head to toe, is posted on the show’s Web site with links to information on where to purchase whatever she had on.

“I’m frugal,” she said. “I’ve always been this way. When I was young, my mom would give me my allowance, and I’d peel off a little each week and have some to spare.” She looked around the room, which had cream industrial carpeting and walls painted in a shade somewhere between cantaloupe and terra cotta. “When we moved into these offices, I didn’t like the carpet,” she continued. “But do you know what carpeting costs? It’s really expensive. So, I picked out a color palette that would go with this carpet, and I painted the walls instead. Painting is much less expensive than carpet.” She considered this decision for a moment. “One of the first things I ask when I hire someone who deals with the financials of the company is about their spending habits. How you spend money reveals a lot about you.”

Banks does not flaunt her income like some superstars. “As Chris Rock says,” Veronica Webb, who modeled with Banks, told me, “ ‘Tyra’s not drinking Puffy juice and taking Kanye injections.’ She hasn’t become obnoxious because she’s successful. She’s always been a businesswoman and a sweet girl.”

From her two shows, Banks makes an estimated $18 million a year, and her net worth is around $75 million.

Now that's my idea of model behavior!

Eartha Kitt

I keep seeing mentions of Eartha Kitt lately, in the NY Times Arts section and various other places. She is 80 years old and still going strong, with a series of performances at the Cafe Carlyle here in New York this fall. You may remember her more for her role as Catwoman in the old Batman TV show, but I always associate her with her wacky foray into disco with a song called Where Is My Man, which I remember hearing on the radio when I was a kid:

Where Is My Man?

I don’t wanna be alone where is my man?
I don’t wanna be alone where is my man?
I spend hours by the phone where is my baby?
I chew my fingers to the bone where is my man?

My list of needs is really quite brief, I need a man who can bring my relief,
From all the stress and strains of the day with just a tiny stroll thru Cartier
I need a man who can take me then taunt me and make me
Buy the things I so richly deserve, a man who knows what I require
Is the thing that I desire, is there anyone out there who has the nerve?

Where is my baby? He can’t be far, look for an ascot, a big cigar, tell him to find me, just send his car to this address I have to stress, I need him now
Where is my baby when will he start? To use his Visa right to my heart
I’ll give him Carte Blanche baby be smart, baby, drop your amount in my account
But do it now.

The kind of man that I adore is the kind of man that gives me more of all the better things in life that aren't free.
Such as summer by the sea, The Hamptons, Malibu, Capri
The kind of man who comes alive when he comes near Rodeo Drive
Is the kind of man who wins my heart with style and class
You know I've tried some other men, the kind with zeros less than ten.
But every time I grab the ring it's always brass

Now there's another musical classic for a personal finance playlist! I wasn't familiar enough with Eartha Kitt's entire repertoire to have realized it, but apparently songs about money are her stock in trade! From the NY Times review:

During a show that found her prowling the stage in a dark red velvet dress, she was unable to contain her amusement at her gold-digger routine. Or as she said, widening her cat’s eyes into a ravenous stare and scouring a room filled with well-heeled patrons before breaking into a grin, “Je cherche un billionaire.”

I'm not a big fan of cabaret shows-- it's not usually my kind of music, and it's expensive! At the Carlyle, general seating is $95 per person on a Friday or Saturday night, and you have to buy dinner on top of that. But having the chance to hear Eartha Kitt growl "I want a man with a big, big, big... yacht" might be worth it!

What Price is Right for Drew Carey?

$100 and up if you're talking about his tip on a meal at Denny's or Cracker Barrel.

It was recently announced that Drew Carey would take over Bob Barker's role telling people to "come on down" on The Price is Right, a favorite game show of my youth. The New York times article about it wonders:

Was Mr. Carey that desperate for work?
"Well, I don't need the money," said Mr. Carey, 49, whose network series "The Drew Carey Show" and "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" live on in lucrative reruns after ending within the last few years. And yet, while he would not disclose his new salary, he acknowledged, "I like the fact that I'm getting paid."

Carey won't be giving away his own money on the show, but he says he likes the idea of giving away prizes to people who probably really need them. As far as his own money goes, he likes giving out those big tips. The article didn't say anything about whether or not he donates to charities, but maybe he just enjoys the immediate feel-good aspect of sharing money with individual people like restaurant waitstaff and game show contestants.

"I just want to share the wealth," he said. "And by doing 'Price is Right,' that's what I'll be doing every day."

The Bachelorette Party

As I wrote several weeks ago, my friend Fifi is getting married. I decided not to go to her expensive island wedding and feel that in doing so I have already given her a valuable present: she was talking about how the cake costs $120 for just the bride and groom, plus $15 for every additional person who has a slice. I can only imagine what everything else must cost!

But of course skipping the wedding didn't mean skipping all the rest of the fun: last night was the bachelorette party. I have to say that I approached this with some degree of trepidation. Fifi is an old family friend that I have known forever, and though we get along well and I adore her, we are very different in a lot of ways. She is a couple of years older than me, and as an adolescent I was always a bit awed by her seemingly effortless ability to wear makeup & dress fashionably. She always has expensive shoes, bags and jewelry (to the detriment of her finances, of course.) And I knew that all her other friends seemed to fit this mold as well, though I'd rarely met any of them. So when she invited me to the bachelorette party, saying we'd be going out to dinner and then to a club afterwards to go dancing, I inwardly groaned a bit, envisioning myself amidst this crowd of exceedingly worked-out, well-groomed, dressed- and accessorized-to-the-nines females. It's not as though I am some obese troll who wears nothing but sweatpants and Birkenstocks, but knowing you are going to be hanging out with a crowd whose appearance values are on a different scale than yours can still bring out a lot of insecurity!

In any case, I had resigned myself to all that, and prepared for the party as best I could. I had an outfit in mind, and I spent about $35 on assorted gifts of edible undergarments, edible handcuffs, and an edible, um, circular male accoutrement. Then Fifi called to make arrangements to pick me up, and mentioned the name of the club we'd be going to afterwards, where one of her other friends had gotten us on the VIP list.

I quickly googled the club, which I'd never heard of. On Citysearch, I discovered that it's considered a "crowded," "trendy," "see and be seen" type of club, and that bottle service starts at over $1,000! (For those who aren't familiar with the concept, bottle service basically entitles you to sit down in a banquette and be attended to by a waitress. You buy an extremely marked-up bottle of liquor, which will come with some ice and mixers. There's usually a maximum number of drinkers per bottle, lest you'd think you could make it worthwhile by having a lot of people share. I'd heard of places charging a couple hundred dollars for a bottle, but never over $1,000.)
The comments that people have left about the club involve a disturbing level of debate as to the racial criteria of the doormen, and whether or not there are "a lot of guidos." It's obvious that some of the comments have been made by the club promoters themselves-- it's actually kind of fascinating to see what they say. For this kind of club, no one will want to go if they think it's not exclusive. But if they think it's truly impossible to get in, they won't bother to try. Women won't want to go to the club if there aren't enough guys. And guys won't want to go if there aren't enough women. (There's no pretense that this is a "mixed," i.e. gay/straight, crowd.) So you have to strike this careful balance of saying "the door is really tight, so a lot of people won't get in, but you probably might get in if you try, and there's lots of hot guys, and lots of hot girls, so many that the gender ratio will be in your favor no matter what you are! And the venue is big, but it's actually quite small, and it's also really expensive, but totally worth it if you're lucky enough to get in, and did we mention that only really cool people could possibly get in? But you should try anyway..."

In case you haven't guessed this already, it didn't sound like my kind of scene. But I decided to gamely soldier on in the name of friendship.

The evening arrives. Of course my friend takes way too long to get dressed, so by the time I get picked up, it's 5 minutes before our dinner reservation time, and we still have to get from Brooklyn to the West Village. We call the restaurant, call one of the other party guests to try to get her to show up and keep us from losing our table, and then miraculously make it there by only about 20 minutes after our reservation. By a half-hour after the reservation, all but 2 of our party are there, and we are seated. The restaurant, of course, is a very "in" place that one of the girls, "Adriana," recommended. They are already antsy about us being so late because they have another group coming in later and they need to turn the table. We tell them the other 2 girls are "on their way" even though we've discovered that they have only just left the suburbs. We have drinks, we have appetizers, we have entrees and are looking at the dessert menu, 2 hours after our original reservation time, when the missing duo arrive. One asks, "Did you guys order yet?"

My fears of being under-dressed, under-jeweled, and under-made-up were somewhat justified, as was my informal hypothesis that high-maintenance women have a harder time finding love. A lot of the conversation involved clothes and dating. One woman was carrying an $1,800 Jimmy Choo bag that her ex-boyfriend had given her. She and her friends had gone back and forth as to whether the bag was gorgeous or tacky, decided it was tacky, and tried to exchange it, but Jimmy Choo won't let you return things after a week so she ended up having to keep the bag, which in my opinion really was tacky. Someone else told a tale of woe about her Jimmy Choo boots, and said she has now shifted her allegiance to Christian Louboutin (easily $600 for a pair of pumps). As for the dating stories, yikes. One girl went on a first date with a guy who asked if her breasts were real, and actually reached across the restaurant table to test them for himself! Another got a call from a man who turned out to be a neighbor who had been told that a cute single girl had just moved in and that he should try to meet her. She asked who had given him her phone number, and he told her that he'd paid a private investigator $175 to figure it out for him!
Someone else told a story about a girl they'd been trying to set up on dates. She's in her late 20s and really wants to be married, but manages to find fault with every guy she meets, sometimes even before she meets him: wrong job, bad dancer, funny ears, etc.
It was a bit sad, really-- there are a lot of wackos out there, and those who aren't actually crazy often just have such high standards it's no surprise they're single!

So by the time we paid the check at the restaurant ($85 per person not including the bride-to-be), it was almost midnight. Originally I'd thought we'd leave the restaurant much earlier and be arriving at an empty club that had just opened, which to me was kind of appealing given the sound of the place. Now I figured we'd be hitting the start of the crowds, but at least I knew we shouldn't have to wait in line. "How'd we get on the VIP list," I asked. It turned out that Adriana had a friend whose son was a promoter for this club. You know, it's great to have connections who can get you on a VIP list, but for NYC clubbing I think it's probably a good rule of thumb that you should at least be of the same generation as the promoter who's getting you in! Our group was mostly late 30s-early 40s, with a core group of high school friends who'd been talking their way into Manhattan hotspots since they were about 14, but even the 20-somethings felt old when we got to this club-- we may have been the only people who didn't need to use fake IDs. Sure enough, Adriana's connection did get us breezed past most of the people who were waiting, but once we were inside, it turned out that we were going to be expected to pay the $20 cover charge, while quite a few scantily clad babelets seemed to be getting in for free. I was sort of surprised that the $20 cover made a difference at that point, but it was decided that we would leave. We went back to our cars and drove to a different place further uptown where there was supposedly a nice rooftop lounge, but the line there was a mile long. At this point, we were all starting to yawn and two of the women had to go home, so the party broke up-- so much for a wild and crazy night out on the town! Despite my desire to report back to you all on drink prices at trendy New York night spots, I was kind of glad to get home and go to bed!

Money Music

The financially fabulous SingleMom wants to know what I'm bumpin'!

I had actually been planning a post about this anyway, so it's perfect timing. Here's my ever-evolving personal finance iPod playlist-- these songs are not all explicitly about money but they all have lyrics that have something to do with money, consumerism, greed, aspirations, and dreams of the good life, or at least sound like they do when taken out of context! (I know I'm missing some obvious candidates, but these are my personal favorites-- it's not intended to be an all-encompassing list of songs about money.)

There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street, I went in to see her as a kind of joke, And she lit a candle for my love life, and eighteen bucks went up in smoke.
Song for Sharon-- Joni Mitchell

You ain't got no money, you just ain't no good.
Hit the Road Jack-- performed by Shirley Horn

In a college town, away from home a new identity I found, said I was born elite with maids and servants at my feet. I must have been insane.
I'm Livin' in Shame-- The Supremes

Give me my money back, give me my money back, you bitch! I want my money back, and don't forget... and don't forget to give me back my black T-shirt!
Song for the Dumped-- Ben Folds Five

Once I lived the life of a millionaire, spending my money and I didn't care, takin' my friends out having a good time, buying bootleg liquor, champagne and wine. Ah, but when my money began to fall so low, didn't have a friend and I couldn't go. If I ever get my hands on a dollar again, I'm gonna squeeze it and squeeze it, until that eagle grins, 'cause noboby knows you when you're down and out. In your pocket, not one penny, and friends, you haven't any.
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out--Alberta Hunter

All the money in the world won't buy you peace of mind, you can have it all but you still won't be satisfied.
Money Can't Buy It-- Annie Lennox

Don't even like it, but you've just gotta try it, you don't even want it, but you're gonna buy, gonna-gonna-gonna buy it.
Swine Fever-- The The

You just haven't earned it yet baby, you must suffer and cry for a longer time.
You Just Haven't Earned it Yet Baby--The Smiths (also as performed by Kirstie MacColl)

Speak to me of universal laws, The whores hustle and the hustlers whore, All around me people bleed, Speak to me your song of greed.
The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore-- PJ Harvey

I am a man of means, of slender means.
Nowhere Fast-- The Smiths

Don't be mad 'cause I got it made, diva-hatin' waitin' snake in the grass, look me up and down when I pass, vibin' with your girlfriends, jealous of my dividends and my Benz...
RU Ready-- Salt-N-Pepa

I'm not the type to look for a man with cash...
Nature of a Sista-- Queen Latifah

Oh if you work hard you can be the boss, But if you don't work at all then that's nobody's loss, There's room on top - if you dig in low, And the idea is what they reap you sow.
The Lodgers-- The Style Council

We know where our hearts are--right behind our wallets, yes, and that's where they're staying.
Sugar and Stress-- The English Beat

Junk bond trader trying to sell a sucker a style, rich man in a poor man's clothes...
Junk Bond Trader--Elliott Smith

After man makes everything, everything he can, you know that man makes money to buy from other man.
It's a Man's, Man's Man's World-- James Brown

If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat, if you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Taxman-- The Beatles

I'm about to give you all my money and all I'm asking in return honey is to give me my propers when you get home.
Respect-- Aretha Franklin

We want the best, we won't settle for less. Don't be a drag, participate-- clams on the half shell and roller-skates!
Good Times-- Chic

Move on up and keep on wishin', remember your dream is your only scheme, so keep on pushin'.
Move on Up-- Curtis Mayfield