Wallet Woes

Given the title of this blog, you’d think I’d write more often about my actual wallet. I’ve been using the same one for most if not all of the time I’ve been writing this blog. In this post from almost 10 years ago, I talked about my wallet and what was in it. The contents today would be almost identical, except for the Blockbuster video card!

For those who don’t click through the link, my daily carry wallet is a small nylon zippered card size pouch that I bought at Muji many years ago. It has a flap pocket on the outside secured with a Velcro tab— I keep my Metrocard in there as it’s easy to slide it out when I ride the subway. The zippered part has a little mesh divider to keep my coins separate from my cards and cash. I always have 2-3 credit cards, drivers license, gym card and a few other cards in there, as well as cash. The cash has to be folded in half, which isn’t ideal but I usually don't mind. I also stuff receipts in there, so the wallet can get a bit crowded sometimes and I regularly clean it out and reorganize it.

This wallet system has really worked for me— it’s lightweight, very pocketable, and unobtrusive. I’ve gotten so used to it, I rarely have trouble digging around to find anything even though it is small and a bit cramped. And the wallet has been surprisingly durable given that I am using it so much.
But nothing lasts forever— the velcro tab on the outside hasn’t really worked for a while, but now, more importantly, the zipper is tearing. In anticipation of this day, I”ve been checking Muji on a regular basis to see if they sell anything like this anymore but they don’t. And now that I’ve been more desperately looking for a replacement, I’m discovering that one one else really has anything like it either! Everything I've seen is too big, too small, lacks pockets, has too many pockets, etc. So I’ve been trying to open up my mind to the idea of using a different kind of wallet.

I’m trying to remember the other wallets I used earlier in my life. The earliest one I remember is one of those Velcro-closure wallets with contrasting trim, made out of the same sort of woven synthetic fabric as many backpacks. That would have been what I used in junior high, and maybe into high school. Sometime in high school I was given a full size women’s wallet, in a faux leather grey and black pattern, made by Liz Claiborne. I think I used that into my college years.
After college, I had a period where I used a pocket size Filofax to carry my cards and bills, and just put coins in my pocket, which was one of the reasons I always hated shopping for clothes, as many women’s pants don’t have pockets!
At some point, I started preferring a small pouch style wallet, starting with a little card size one made of some kind of Guatemalan or Mexican textile, which I probably received as a gift. It was cute and colorful, and I still have it somewhere. Because that wallet was so small, I supplemented it with a leather card holder from Coach to store things like insurance cards, business cards, and backup credit cards that I don’t use as often. The Mexican textile pouch was replaced with the Muji pouch.

I’ve experimented a little with other wallets. When one of my grandfathers died, I was given a wallet he’d owned— a pretty typical fold-over men’s wallet. I tried using that briefly but never really liked it that much. I also tried to used a different style of Filofax that had a full zipper around it and more pockets, as the idea of combining a notebook and wallet into one always seemed appealing, but in practice I found it too bulky.
The other wallet I currently own and use on occasion is a Bellroy passport wallet. Bellroy advertises a lot online, and I was sucked in enough by it to purchase their Travel Wallet. It’s actually a brilliant wallet— I love how it can hold boarding passes, all sorts of currencies, a passport, an extra SIM card (even though I haven’t had a use for that in years), and even comes with a mini pen. But I only use this wallet for international travel— if I'm not bringing my passport with me, the wallet just seems too big to carry all the time. Despite the size, I did try to carry it as an everyday wallet for a few days, mainly because I just loved it so much I wanted to touch it more often! The leather is really nice, and I wanted to break it in more. But the problem was that it had no space for coins. Most of my pants do have pockets at the moment, but I really don’t want to walk around with change jingling in them. And I don’t want to have to use a separate change purse. I use my coins as much as possible each day and don’t accumulate them but I still need someplace to put them.

In searching around online for a new wallet, of course those Bellroy ads starting popping up again so I took a peek at their website… and lo and behold they have a new wallet that is designed to hold coins: the appropriately named Coin Fold. After much deliberation, I ended up ordering one. It holds flat bills, cards, a SIM card should I ever have a spare again, and there’s a clever little coin pocket. I’ve been mentally enacting how I would use this wallet in my day to day habits. I think it will hold what I need it to hold, but will it be awkward to use? Will there be enough space for the coins? Will I be able to pluck them out efficiently when I’m trying to pay with exact change and there are 10 grumpy people in line behind me at the deli where I get lunch? As of this writing, that remains to be seen…  and I know I’ll have to adjust to one feature this wallet is missing, which is that there is no separate external pocket where I can stash my Metrocard. Will I be able to whip out my Metrocard fast enough without fumbling in front of the turnstile?

It’s funny how nothing is ever perfect in life. If you say you want A, B, C, and D, you’ll only find things that have A, B, and C, or A, B, and D, or B, C, and D… plus E, which you never cared about before, but now you are swimming in doubt because maybe E is better than A anyway, or is it??? I have probably looked at a hundred wallets, and all I really want is the one I have, even though I’m lusting over this new thing because it’s made of pretty leather.

Don't think it hasn’t occurred to me that I could repair the zipper on the Muji wallet… but it pains me to think how much a tailor would probably charge me to replace that 3 inch zipper— less than a new wallet for $100, probably, but I’m sure the price vs. value would still annoy me, and I’d be hearing my mother’s voice in my ear, saying “see, I told you you should have learned more about sewing!” Though if I presented her with my Muji wallet and a 3-inch replacement zipper and asked her to fix it, she’d probably be totally annoyed, as she often was when I was a kid and would ask her to sew together fantasy wallets and notebook covers of my own design. Some things just aren’t fun to sew, even if you love sewing.

So we’ll see if this creature of habit can form a new habit with a new wallet… which will still be an open wallet, of course!

Smartphone Plans and Paying Full Price for an Unlocked iPhone 6S

For a long time, my cell phone bill hasn't been a major part of my personal finance decision making. I've had an iPhone 4S for almost 4 years, on the minimum AT&T phone/data plan, with my contract long over. I was paying something like $0.10 per text message, because I texted so rarely that it seemed like a better deal than the $4.99 a month it would have cost me for unlimited messages. So I thought I was doing the right thing, financially speaking. 

The problem is that the world of smartphone billing plans has totally changed in the last year or two. Suddenly everyone is acknowledging the true costs behind those contract plans, and there are new options that un-hide the hidden costs that were formerly buried. Because my 2-year contract was long over but I was still paying the same price, I was actually over-paying for my phone. 

Several months ago, I dug into the AT&T website and discovered that I was able to easily switch my plan to one where I got more data, and unlimited text messages, and my monthly bill decreased by about $30! I felt very foolish for not having discovered this sooner, but I then continued on my merry way with my little iPhone 4S.

As you might have heard some whispered rumors about, if you talk to an exclusive set of people who are super-in-the-know, Apple just released the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. (I know, you are totally shocked because you hadn't heard this news ANYWHERE!) I was disappointed when the iPhone 5 and 5S came out, and even more disappointed when the iPhone 6 came out because I don't like their more elongated/larger shapes. I've always liked small phones. But I am finding that small screens are a little harder on my eyes, and my iPhone 4S is starting to feel quite sluggish and losing its battery life, so I decided that the release of the 6S was my time to buy a new phone.

At first, I still had financial virtue as my main goal, and I figured I would just buy an iPhone 6 after its price dropped. But the more I thought about the 6S, the more I leaned towards getting the most current model, for some of its new features. But I'm really not sure how I'll cope with that larger size. There have been some rumors saying that the iPhone 7 release in 2016 might go back to offering a smaller size, so I decided to look at ways of buying a new phone that would allow me to upgrade a year from now. It's not a smart financial choice to buy a new expensive phone every year, but I use my phone a lot, so there is value in having one I enjoy using.

I'm happy with AT&T, so I looked at their plans first. The AT&T Next plans allow you to spread the cost of the phone over different time periods, with trade-in and upgrade allowed partway through. If I wanted a new phone in a year, I'd choose the AT&T Next 20 plan. What surprised me is that all of AT&T's Next plans work out to be cheaper than signing up for a 2 year contract-- not because of the phone pricing itself, but because they give you a "discount" on your phone service if you're on the Next plan-- aka they charge you more for phone service if you are on a contract. It's weird-- I would think they would want to lock people in and get that $300 upfront payment for the device instead of spreading it all out. 

Then I looked at Apple's newly announced Upgrade Program-- it's actually a hair cheaper than AT&T's comparable plan, you get to trade in for a new phone after a year, and they throw in Apple Care so you have some extra coverage if you damage your phone. I take good care of my phone and have never had a cracked or broken screen, but I did worry a bit that I might be fumbling with the larger 6S size, so perhaps there would be more value than usual to an insurance plan. BUT... it actually doesn't save you that much money on a cracked screen. You still have to pay $99-- without Apple Care it's $149.

I also started thinking about how all these new variations of phone purchase plans serve another psychological purpose-- they just want you to get used to the idea that paying $750 for an iPhone is normal and necessary, and that you WILL pay that much, one way or another. That is almost as much as Apple's entry-level laptop computers cost! Back when I bought my first cellphone around 1999-2000, I would never have dreamed of paying the full $600 or $700 my (admittedly high-end) phone would have cost. When that phone was stolen, I bought another unlocked used one on eBay rather than cough up for a new one while I was still under contract. Back then, there was no option to pay less in service charges of course... and the idea of an additional data plan was nowhere on my radar either. It's just a different world now, and we are all so used to doing so much with our phones, it's become a whole different calculation of cost vs. value.

So I looked into paying full price for an unlocked iPhone, and sure enough, it works out to be the cheapest option. Obviously, I am very lucky to be in the position to be able to afford to pay the full cost up front without having to spread it out or pay interest on a credit card balance-- that's not an option for everyone. Here's why it works-- all the other upgrade plans are based on you trading in your old phone, which has value. If you get to keep your old phone, and can pass it on to another family member or friend, or sell it, it significantly changes the net cost of ownership. The remaining cost of the phone that AT&T absorbs after you trade it in is most likely a lot less than you'd get if you sold it, and far less that your friend or family member would pay for a new phone.

I made a spreadsheet for myself to figure all this out:

And after seeing the numbers on my spreadsheet, I ran down to the Apple store! I am now the mostly happy owner of a shiny new iPhone 6S, paid for in full. It's a pleasure to use and I do like the larger screen, but it still feels awkwardly large and slippery and one-handed use is nowhere near as easy as with a smaller phone. We'll see if I want to keep it or move on to whatever the next thing is a year from now!

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!!

Spending for Love

Does love make you spend money? I was thinking about this today as I returned from lunch with a bag full of largely unnecessary items. My Sweetie broke a glass measuring cup the other day, so I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to purchase a new one. While I was there, I remembered that Sweetie also wanted something for spraying on olive oil (theoretically, you end up using less than if you brush or pour it on, so it's supposed to be healthier). So I bought one of these, or something like it, for about $10. While I was at the register, I saw they had some little padlocks and since Sweetie just joined a gym and needs one, I bought one. I also managed to grab some of those little single-use packs of KrazyGlue, but that's for fixing my own broken watchband, not for Sweetie.

Sometimes it's just more fun to buy little everyday, non-occasion gifts for someone you love. If it was me who wanted the olive oil sprayer, I'd probably have thought about it a lot more, and perhaps experimented with some sort of cheapo spray bottle instead of buying this gimmicky one-- but since it was for Sweetie, I wasn't being that picky. Buying things for Sweetie activates my generosity, while in other situations, I feel very stingy. My usual rules of frugal, deliberative comparison shopping fly out the window when I'm shopping for sweetie, but when I'm shopping for myself, I tend to be very disciplined and often find it hard to commit to buying something.

Do you ever find your spending habits change when you're buying for a loved one?

2010 Year End Recap

Well the year came to a close in an interesting and good way.

First of all, let's look at my net worth as of 12/31/10:
Cash and Bank Accounts: $66,039
Retirement (401k and Roth IRA): $320, 626
Other Investments (mutual funds @ E*Trade): $51,294
Bonds $5,197
Home Equity $82,592
Credit Card Balance -$2,615
TOTAL: $523,133

Now you may be thinking, as I did, whoa! Her net worth as of a month before was only $479,273! Did her net worth really increase 9.15% in one month? Well, I did receive $9,000 more of my inheritance from Great Aunt Minnie, and the stock market did ok... but what I also discovered is that I had the wrong symbol in Quicken for one of my mutual funds and therefore the wrong price, so my net worth has been understated by several thousand dollars for I don't know how long. So I not only blew away my original year end goal of $450,000, I sailed past the half-million dollar mark, which was totally unexpected. Pretty cool.

As for my income and expenses, here's a look at the totals for 2010 vs. 2009:

	2009	2010	Var.	% Var.
Income
Bonus	$11,765	$17,288	$5,523	47%
Gift Received	$1,309	$24,200	$22,891	1749%
Interest Inc	$776	$502	-$274	-35%
Other Inc	$6,503	$6,386	-$117	-2%
Salary	$96,206	$99,373	$3,167	3%
Tax Refund	$4,211	$2,873	-$1,338	-32%
Total Income	$120,770	$150,623	$29,853	25%
Expenses
Bank Charge	$160	$97	-$64	-40%
Business expense	$0	-$7	-$7	N/A
Charity	$468	$1,055	$586	125%
Clothing	$1,639	$2,648	$1,009	62%
Dining	$7,895	$8,552	$656	8%
Education	$406	$455	$49	12%
Entertainment	$663	$448	-$214	-32%
Gifts Given	$962	$1,924	$963	100%
Gym & Fitness	$1,317	$1,361	$44	3%
Household	$1,337	$760	-$577	-43%
Home Insurance	$335	$335	$0	0%
Housing	$14,384	$14,171	-$213	-1%
Medical	$1,938	$4,556	$2,619	135%
Misc	$2,215	$3,412	$1,197	54%
Taxes	$30,325	$34,053	$3,728	12%
Subscriptions	$956	$743	-$213	-22%
Travel	$1,712	$4,803	$3,091	180%
Utilities	$1,936	$2,454	$518	27%
Total Expenses	$68,648	$81,819	$13,171	19%
Net Savings	$52,122	$68,804	$16,683	32%
% of Gross Income Saved	43.16%	45.68%

A few notes:

• As noted elsewhere, I received a $24,000 inheritance from a family member.
• Other Income is matching 401k contributions from my employer.
• Interest is down because I shifted quite a bit of money from bank accounts into investment accounts.
• Charity and Gifts Given are up for reasons explained in this post.
• Medical is way up because I had a crown and root canal and exceeded the annual cap on my dental insurance.
• Miscellaneous is up mainly because I bought an iPhone and some apps.
• Travel is up because I didn't do much of a vacation last year, but this year I went to Turkey and splurged a little on hotels even though my air ticket was purchased with frequent flyer miles.
• Utilities is up because of the higher monthly costs of the iPhone.
• Subscriptions is down because I canceled my NY Times delivery at home, since I spend so much time at Sweetie's place. Household is lower for the same reason
• I'm pretty consistent but I let a few categories creep up a bit without any real reason, particularly Dining. I still like eating out and drink too much-- everyone has to have a vice, right?
• Clothing was also higher but I really needed some new work clothes and shoes, so I'm not too concerned about that.

But the bottom line is that I continue to save a lot of my income. If not for the inheritance, I would have saved less than I did last year, but at least some of that was due to more giving, and higher taxes because I earned more. It's not like I went crazy buying tons of stuff, even if I did allow myself a few treats like an iPhone, some clothes and a vacation.

Now I have to look ahead at 2011... what should my next net worth goal be? Should I make any changes to my budget? This could be the year when I rent out my apartment and move in with Sweetie, which could change things a lot. And I need to take a close look at my investment allocations, which I haven't done in a while. So much to think about! And write about here... I'm going to try to post more frequently this year. So happy 2011! As always, onward and upward!

The $7 Greeting Card

Would you believe it's possible? I just had to buy 3 cards for various occasions, and when I paid, the total was over $15. It's rather hot out today, so my brain was only slowly and foggily digesting this as I watched the cashier look closely at my receipt-- obviously even she couldn't believe it! I'm no longer surprised when cards are $3 or $4, but when I looked at the receipt myself, there it was, a $6.99 birthday card.

But I do feel I need to point out that the card involved a vibrating nun on a mechanical bull, so it was worth every penny.

The Silly Bandz Fad

Have you heard about Silly Bandz? If you have a grade school age child, I suppose you must have. The last time I visited my niece and nephew, they were playing with these colorful little rubber bands that vaguely resemble animals and other shapes when they're laid flat. Apparently all the kids at school have gone so bonkers for these things that the teachers have had to send notes home, asking parents not to let kids bring them to school. But of course the kids do anyway, stuffing their collections into little Ziploc bags so they can show them off and trade with their friends. I thought it might just be a local trend, until a friend of mine in a different part of the country posted a plea on Facebook asking if other parents knew where she could buy Silly Bandz, as one of her kids wanted to give them to her sibling as a birthday present.

I was trying to remember if there was any big fad item like this when I was in grade school-- I know there were things when I was a bit older, in junior high school: stickers, barrettes with little strawberries painted on them, a certain kind of lip gloss. But it's not surprising for kids to want status items when they're anxious pre-teens. My niece is only 6, so I was kind of surprised that younger kids like that would be so caught up in a fad. Perhaps it's less about peer pressure and status than just the wantability of the item itself-- but it's not like it's a toy that's fun to play with in and of itself-- it's just a rubber band that you wear as a bracelet, and collect and trade with your friends, which seems to make it more of a social necessity. It's nice to know that kids can still get enthusiastic about simple things that don't need batteries, but it's also a little disturbing to think that kids can start to feel like they need material things for social success at such a young age. For what it's worth, my niece had apparently been given a couple of Silly Bandz by her best friend even though she had none of her own to trade, and as far as I know, she hadn't yet been begging my sister to buy her some. But of course the minute my mother heard about them, even though she knew the teachers were outlawing them, she went out and bought my niece and nephew each a great big bag of them!

At least they're not too expensive... from prices I've seen online, Silly Bandz seem to cost less than 25 cents per band.

Emergency Clothes Shopping

Single Ma's post about wanting "hawt" spring clothes made me laugh... and reminded me that my own spring shopping, so far, hasn't been that pleasurable. I've definitely had the itch to buy some new duds, but I haven't had the time or energy to really focus on it, until I was forced to!

This is one of those nightmare scenarios, but it could have been worse: a couple of weeks ago, I was all dressed up in a suit, for a big off-site meeting where I had to help make an important presentation. We nailed the presentation, and afterwards, I stopped in the ladies' room before getting on the subway back to the office. While I was in the bathroom, I bent over to pick up something I'd dropped, and in doing so managed to slam my butt against the corner of a waste bin. For a few seconds, all I could think was "ouch!" But then my brain suddenly focused on the sound I'd heard as it happened: "rrrrrip!" My hand flew to my backside, and sure enough, I discovered a huge tear in my pants-- through the fabric, through the lining, and indeed through a bit of my own skin too!
I think my jaw literally dropped, thinking "OH SH*T! I'm in a client's office, with a giant hole in the butt of my pants-- what do I do??" Luckily, I remembered then that although my suit jacket would not cover the hole, the raincoat I had on that day would. I was incredibly glad the meeting was over and that all I had to do was put my coat on and get out of there! But I did have to go back to my office for the rest of the day-- and was I really going to be able to sneak around with my back to the wall all afternoon? I didn't think so.
My solution was to head straight for everyone's career-wear standby, good old Ann Taylor. I don't always have good luck with clothes there, but fortunately, I found a decent pair of black pants that fit pretty well and were only a teensy bit too long. Since I was wearing a black top under my suit, the black pants still made a nice outfit even though they didn't match the lighter color or pattern of the suit jacket. I bought them and wore them out of the store.
The pants, of course, weren't on sale-- that would have just been too lucky, wouldn't it? The total including tax came to about $140. Under the circumstances, it seemed a small price to pay for the convenience of immediate full butt-coverage. But I seem to remember having seen these same pants on sale a couple of months ago, in some buy-two, get x% off deal, so it was annoying to have to pay so much for them. But of course if I'd bought them months ago, I'd have had to go home and get them on the day my suit pants ripped! Which would have made the whole experience an even bigger pain in the ass...
So the real moral of this story, I guess, is that if you're an on-the-go career gal (or an on-the-go career klutz) who has to look sharp, you should always buy black tops and pants whenever they're on sale and then stash a few extras in your office! And don't bend over without checking very carefully behind you!

P.S. SingleMa, would wearing a sharp suit with a hole in the butt make me a "hawt mess?"

P.P.S. Yes, everyone, this is a true story, despite today's date!

The iPhone Decision: How to Sync With Outlook and Quicken

How time flies when you suddenly get a bee in your bonnet about something! When I wrote the last post about 3 weeks ago, I was stuck in the position of tracking my finances with a Treo and Pocket Quicken and Quicken 2006 for Mac on my desktop. I was somewhat attracted to the iPhone but was daunted by the fact that there was no comparable program available to sync with Quicken, and I didn't want to pay the higher monthly charges for the required data plan. But I decided to start digging a little deeper into the possibilities of changing my set-up.

As I started my research, I read a comment somewhere in which someone mentioned using a program called Pocket Money on the iPhone, which he sync'ed with Quicken via importing and exporting QIF files. A little bell went DING DING DING in my head, and I was off and running! I suddenly lusted after the iPhone!

I know this sort of "thing lust" feeling is dangerous, and fortunately I don't have it too often. I anguish over spending more money on certain things but sometimes I realize that I can allow myself a little leeway and it won't be the end of the world. Sweetie, who is also quite frugal, was the one who pointed out that I've always been into technology and I really make use of the functions of a handheld device rather than it just being a toy, and I have a very online-intensive life that I have to manage, so why on earth wouldn't I want to upgrade to an iPhone? Of course there are lots of equally valid arguments against doing so, but the bottom line was that I decided I just wanted one! But first, I had to make sure it was really going to work for me.

The financial apps weren't the only issue-- when I started researching the iPhone I realized that a lot of things weren't going to be quite as simple as they were with the many Palm OS devices I've had over the years. I'm pretty locked in to Outlook at work for my calendar, contacts, tasks and notes, business and personal stuff combined, all of which sync'ed to my Treo at the click of a button. But iPhones and iTunes aren't supported at work, and the iPhone doesn't even have a built-in Task app, so I'd have to find a work-around that still allowed me to manage everything from within Outlook. Here's what I came up with:

• Outlook Calendar syncs with Google Calendar (via Google Calendar Sync, free), which syncs with iPhone
  
• Outlook Contacts sync with GMail contacts (via gSyncIt, $14.99), which sync to iPhone
• Outlook Tasks sync to Toodledo website (free) (via Toodledo Sync, free but donation appreciated), which syncs to iPhone Toodledo app ($1.99)
  
• Outlook Notes sync to Toodledo website (via Toodledo Sync), which syncs to iPhone Appigo Notebook app ($4.99). I'm also sync'ing the Outlook Notes to Google Docs via gSyncIt, and Google Docs can be viewed (but not edited) via the Safari browser in iPhone.

For email, I realized I needed to streamline a bunch of accounts I've been using-- an AOL address I've had forever, a GMail address, a Yahoo address, a custom domain address-- The iPhone can easily get mail from all these services, but I funneled everything into GMail, where I can answer them from the original address if I want to. By having my calendar and notes on Google too, I've managed to centralize and cloud-ize a lot of stuff, which is so much more efficient. I do have some worries about giving Google so much of my info, but I'm not sure it's any worse than having so much personal stuff residing on my work computer! (And it's worth noting that I don't store any sensitive info such as passwords in these places.)

Back to financial apps: I set myself up on Mint.com, which has an iPhone app (both are free). Mint makes it very easy to add all your accounts and see your net worth. You can't track cash or add transactions manually, and you can't see pending transactions, but you can categorize transactions on the website. It will be a nuisance to recategorize transactions on Mint, but once I do, it will do an okay job of giving me a snapshot of my finances.

I also tried to set up an account with Wesabe (free), which I'd heard allows you to track cash spending and also offers an iPhone app, but Wesabe's way of pulling in your bank account data is a drag-- it made me download a Firefox extension with which I'd then have to record a macro for downloading a statement from each of my accounts, i.e. once for E*Trade Savings, then again for E*Trade Money Market, then again for E*Trade Checking, etc.. This was so cumbersome right off the bat that I just gave up. Other sites have managed to make this process so much easier for years now, I don't see why Wesabe can't get to that standard.

As for the Pocket Money app mentioned above, it's an iPhone standalone that costs $9.99. It does pretty much everything Pocket Quicken does, and more, including some cool animated pie charts. The only thing that doesn't work as well is the syncing: instead of an automatic 2-way sync built into Palm's Hotsync feature, here's how it works: from Quicken, you export all your data as a QIF file. Then using a program called SyncDocs (free), you import that into Pocket Money via WiFi. It will bring in all your accounts, categories, transactions and budgets, but investment accounts seem to show up with zero balance and no transactions. You can then add new transactions in Pocket Money, and export them as a QIF, filtering for recent changes. You then use SyncDocs again to get that to your desktop, and import that QIF from within Quicken. Some account types don't support QIF imports, but for me, I mainly want to import cash and savings/checking transactions, so it works. After the desktop version is updated, you export from the desktop again and import it back to the iPhone, telling it to "restore from desktop" so everything is overwritten. It's not the most streamlined solution compared to Pocket Quicken, but for now it seems to be the best option for my needs.

The only other thing I really had to have was a French dictionary, and there were a few iPhone apps to choose from, so that was painless.

With all of that resolved, I bought the iPhone and said goodbye to PalmOS after about 12 happy years (and $5,000+ spent!) (As an aside here, I have to say it's amazing to me how much Palm as a company has totally BOOTED IT-- they had a really great product that still does a lot of things better than anyone else does, but they just let Blackberry and Apple kill them when it came to the email and phone and multimedia functions that users really wanted. It's a really sad case study in corporate failure.)

I went with the 32GB iPhone 3Gs for $299, plus a case for about $30. I got the cheapest AT&T plan, which will cost me about $70 a month before taxes. I'm on a 2-year contract, after not having been on any cellphone contract since 2001. This was definitely not my most frugal moment, and I suppose in a few months the price will drop when they come out with a new, fabulous iPhone 4 and I'll be really annoyed.

But I LOVE my iPhone. It's fun and it makes a lot of things so easy, and I haven't had any of the problems with AT&T that some people complain about. I love it that there are so many apps available, and many of them are free or very inexpensive. The only one I've spent real money on was the $24.99 Collins French dictionary, which is totally worth it. The second most expensive app I bought was Pocket Money. My main issue with the iPhone is that I had a much better calendar on my Treo using DateBk6, and in general the iPhone OS requires more tapping around than PalmOS did. But despite a few minor gripes, I think it's a great product and I've already had many "WOW!" moments where it helped me easily answer a question or communicate more efficiently. In terms of value, it's a win.

I'll continue to look into financial apps for the iPhone and report back on them here, but would love to hear suggestions from others on how the iPhone can help you reach your financial goals.

My Money Weekend

I was out and about in Brooklyn this weekend, and that always provides fodder for thoughts about money.

On Sunday, I went out for brunch with Sweetie and Mortimer. Brunch is something I always have problems with-- I think it's a nice time to have a social meal with friends, and I always enjoy the food, but it pisses me off that it's so expensive! Brunch has to be the restaurant meal with the least value for the customer and the most profit for the restaurant.
We went to Sidecar, a great restaurant in Park Slope, where I paid $11 for "migas," which is scrambled eggs with guacamole, chilis, cheddar cheese, tomatoes and tortillas. It was absolutely delicious, but spending $11 for gussied up scrambled eggs just seems crazy!

After brunch, we went strolling through Park Slope for a while. At one point, we ducked into Ollie's cafe so I could use the bathroom. We didn't buy anything, but on the way out, I found a $5 bill on the floor. It wasn't obvious who it might belong to and I was tempted to keep it, but instead I stuck it in the tip jar.

Our next stop was the Brooklyn Flea, which has moved indoors for the winter, at the fabulous location of One Hanson Place. This is the old Williamsburg Savings Bank building, a striking landmark when you see it from the exterior, and even more fabulous within. The main lobby of the old bank seems to have been almost completely preserved and the flea market wares are spread out in front of and behind the old teller windows, and on thick glass counters that still have holes for inkwells, where people used to endorse their checks and fill out deposit slips. It's just a gorgeous space, with cathedral-like ceilings and elaborate windows. The rest of the building has been converted into condos, but I'm not sure what they do with the lobby space when the flea market isn't there.

Once you get past the architectural appreciation, the flea market is a blast. There are lots of great vendors with jewelry, vintage clothes, records, books, art, furniture and all sorts of random stuff. And "random stuff" is my favorite! I ended up spending $32 on a variety of old tobacco and medicine tins, which I collect. In a way, this seems just as crazy as spending $11 on scrambled eggs. I mean, what am I going to do with these tins? They'll just sit on my shelf with the rest of my collection, making it even more of a pain in the ass to dust. It's so purely materialistic to buy stuff that has absolutely no purpose... but I just love them. I love looking at them and wondering where they've been and who owned them, and I love the old-fashioned designs. In the larger scheme of things, $32 for a bit of decorative pleasure seems quite reasonable. Which makes $11 for the pleasure of eating a yummy brunch pretty easy to rationalize too!

Speaking of food, that's the other fun thing about the Flea-- there are quite a few food vendors. I don't know how Mortimer managed to be hungry again after his omelette, but he got a plate of pupusas. I found myself wishing I had room for a lobster roll, or some Greek pastry, but only managed to sample a bit of a pickle and some salted caramels, and Sweetie and I each had one mini chocolate-pistachio cupcake, which cost $1 each.

After the Flea, we walked along 4th Avenue to get home. I am always amazed at how much new construction there is along there-- over the last few years, it's changed enormously as they've knocked down some smaller tenement-style apartment buildings and replaced them with these massive high-rises. Every time I go by there, I feel like I notice something new that looks almost ready for people to move in... and I wonder how long it will take for all these buildings to fill up. I have no illusions about selling my apartment easily in the next few years-- hopefully I won't need to. I still think I could rent out my condo for a little more than it costs me each month, but seeing all these big empty buildings reminds me I'll have more and more competition, closer to Manhattan than I am.

The latter part of my Sunday, of course, was spent watching the SuperBowl. And for the first time, I wondered if any of the shots of the crowd would show some friends of mine, Richard and his partner. Are they big Saints or Colts fans? No, quite the opposite. They don't care about football at all, but one of their fabulously wealthy clients invited them to the game and even flew them down to Miami in a private jet. One of our other friends said Richard made over $2 million from his business last year, and I don't doubt it. It's kind of fun to observe the way he lives and the luxuries he enjoys, some paid for out of his own pocket and some by his clients. I'm happy for him, but sometimes it makes me smack myself and wonder why I don't have his life! I realized recently that I'm not jealous of his lifestyle per se-- I'm jealous of the fact that he is so successful precisely because he is doing exactly what he loves and is passionate about. That's what gives him his drive and makes him good at what he does. I think he would do it no matter how much he was paid. I am fairly content with my job, but I don't love it the way he loves his-- I wish I could find that perfect combination of satisfaction and financial success.

Whew-- all that squeezed into one Sunday! Now back to my Monday...

Should You Pay as Much as a Celebrity?

From my new favorite website, Not Always Right... as in "The Customer is Not Always Right." If you've ever worked in retail or food service (as I have), you will especially enjoy it!

Me: “Hey there, can I help you out?”

Customer: “Were these products on Oprah?”

Me: “Yes, they’ve been featured.”

Customer: “Celebrities use them, right? So they must be really expensive…like $500 a pop or something, right?”

Me: “No, not at all. This one here only costs $40 before tax, and none of the products exceed $150.”

Customer: “So, when the celebrities buy them, they only cost $40?”

Me: “Yes.”

Customer: “And when regular people buy them, they only cost $40?”

Me: “Yes.”

(A moment of silence passes as the customer glares at me.)

Customer: “COMMUNIST!”

When To Buy Organic

Here's a helpful tip from the April issue of Cooking Light magazine. As part of an article about organic produce, they tell you which non-organic fruits and vegetables are more likely to contain pesticides so you can buy only the organic options that are worth the extra money:

Best produce to buy organic:
Apples
Potatoes
Lettuce
Cherries
Bell peppers
Celery
Strawberries
Spinach
Carrots
Peaches
Nectarines

Skip organic and save money:
Pineapples
Eggplant
Onions
Broccoli
Asparagus
Bananas
Avocados
Mangoes
Kiwifruit
Cabbage

They also recommend these other ways to save: buying directly from a local farm or farmer's market, or buying private-label organic products at supermarkets like Safeway, Stop & Shop, Kroger, Publix, Wal-Mart, and Whole Foods, all of which offer their own organic food lines.

Buy Indie Day

I didn't have my act together to actually blog about this on the day it happened, but May 1 was "Buy Indie Day." If there is a local independent business that you're fond of, now is an incredibly important time to support them, as this economy makes it harder and harder to survive.

Independent bookstores are particularly close to my heart, and wallet, since I make my living in the book business. My current favorite store in New York is one that opened fairly recently, called Idlewild Books. I go there every time I get my hair cut, and I can't seem to walk out without buying at least one book. The neat thing about this store is that it is organized by place. It's not just a travel bookstore, though they have a large selection of travel guides-- each country and US region is represented in novels and non-fiction books that are about or take place in that area.
If you love to travel, you'll find this store irresistible. If you don't travel, this store will make you want to! In addition to books, they stock some nice globes and travel accessories.

Some books I've bought there (and their locations):
The Elegance of the Hedgehog (France)
Mating (Botswana)
Poisonwood Bible (Congo)
Metropolis (New York)
Historic Shops and Restaurants of Boston (Massachusetts)
American Cities: Historic Maps and Views (USA)
Such a Long Journey (India)

In keeping with the theme of this post, I'm not including my usual Amazon affiliate links. Instead, the links to those books will take you to the IndieBound website, where you can find links to the independent bookstores closest to you. If you're a blogger, you might want to consider becoming an IndieBound affiliate-- I only just discovered that they even offered this program, and it's nice to know that there's a way to earn a little blog income while supporting independent stores.

Do you have any favorite independent businesses you support?

Spring Fling... Sensual Spending

There must be something in the air as April comes to a close as the weather starts flirting with summer. On the one hand, I seem to be having some crazy allergy symptoms. And then there's the fact that I flipped out and bought a pink trench coat that came to almost $170 with tax.


I wouldn't have bought pink as my first choice, but otherwise it was exactly what I'd been wanting for a long time. And it didn't come in any other colors. And then I said, what the heck, I probably need a little more pink in my life. (It was from Club Monaco, in case any of you feel a similar fit of madness coming on!)

Thinking about this further, I wonder if the color pink triggers some kind of crazy spending impulse in my brain, as I have also bought pink shoes that were impractical, if not terribly expensive. Though other than that, my spending trigger color has tended to be grey-- if it's charcoal grey and it's a sweater, I have a hard time resisting. And my other sensual spending triggers are more about texture than color-- soft cashmere, buttery leather, the almost silky touch of a certain denim... some things just feel so good, you want to spend money on them!

Have the sensations of spring stimulated your spending?

I'm the Next Contestant on The Price is Right!

Not really, though I'd get a kick out of meeting Drew Carey! But I was thinking about this today: how good a sense do you have of what things cost? And I mean the little things in life, that you might buy occasionally if not every day.

Example: dental floss. I just saw my favorite kind at Duane Reade. (Glide Comfort Plus Mint) They don't always have it in stock, so I grabbed 3 packs. Then I noticed that it was $4.99 each. That seemed weird to me-- I have no idea how much I've paid in the past, but if you'd asked me how much a pack of dental floss cost, I'd have guessed maybe $2.99. I haven't bought it in a few months, but I've bought it many times, and always at Duane Reade, so why was my guess off by 40%???

In trying to think of other things like this, I'm sure there are many household items for which I have no idea how much I'd pay-- cleaning products, sponges, a pound of sugar. And for bigger things like a lawnmower or a car or a set of skis, I'd be totally clueless. If I was a contestant on The Price is Right, I'd probably lose! How would you do?

People Want Cheap Stuff

Boy, have we become a price-conscious country. More people are shopping at Wal-Mart. Inexpensive paperback books are outselling hardcovers by ever wider margins. And L. L. Bean is highlighting a whole range of items that are still the same price they were in 1995:


Enjoy it while it lasts!

Money Neurosis of the Week

Is this weird? When I use cash to buy something in a deli or supermarket and the change is only one or two pennies, I always have this weird moment of self-consciousness if I already have my bag in hand and am just standing there waiting for my one or two cents of change. I wonder if the cashier thinks, "oh please, why are you waiting for this one stupid penny." I mean, a lot of people probably just walk away, right? Sometimes I think the cashier hesitates, because they assume I won't wait for the penny-- that extra delay makes it even more embarrassing to wait! Often there is this consciousness of the likely class/income difference between me and this cashier-- this is probably one-sided most of the time as I don't tend to be walking around in clothing or jewelry that screams "earns $100k" vs "earns $20k," but maybe sometimes they'd look at me and think "this lady probably earns a lot more money than me, why is she wasting her time waiting for a penny? I'd be outta here by now!" But then I tell myself there is no reason to be embarrassed, it's my hard-earned penny and there is no reason to walk away from it. If I want to donate it to someone, it shouldn't be to a for-profit retail business! And if I'm willing to pick coins up on the street, why wouldn't I take one from a relatively clean cash register drawer? And on and on... I can't seem to avoid thinking about it! Sometimes I wish my brain had a mute button...

Price Points

One of the funny things about publishing is that you can sometimes find a roomful of people all spending an awful lot of time discussing something that probably isn't all that important, like "Maybe the piece of cake on the cover should be bigger," or "Should the category be current events slash business? Or business slash current events?" One of these issues can be book prices.

It's not that book prices are never important-- when the big chains suddenly mark books down by 50% or more, their sales do pick up. And if you're trying to launch a new novelist, it can make a difference if the book is a $14 paperback compared to the $25 or $26 a well-known bestselling author can command for a new hardcover. Of course most people who are buying that bestselling author's hardcover are actually buying it at chain stores or warehouse clubs that mark it down anywhere between 20-50% off the cover price.

But the other day, I found myself in a conversation about prices that verged on the absurd. Have you ever noticed how some books' prices end in 95 cents, some in 99 cents, and some are in full dollars? Here are a few comments from that conversation:

I hate .95 and .99 pricing. As a consumer, I feel like they just think I'm stupid, like, duh, I'm really going to think 19.95 is dramatically less than $20.00 and it will affect whether I buy something?

.99 prices seem weird to me. I mean, a penny isn't that big a savings. But .95 seems like you're actually getting something.

I don't know why, but I am totally susceptible to that in stores-- for some reason, $14.95 does kind of seem more attractive than $15.00. But as a publisher, I'd rather keep that extra 5 cents!

To me the whole debate just seems silly. Pennies should be abolished, and nickels don't even seem all that useful either. I'm just glad we sell books and not gas, where you get into that nine tenths of a cent thing... but here's another quote from that conversation:

Why do we have "price points," anyway? Why are books never $15.39? Or $42.95? In the lower range, you get things priced at $20, $21, $21.95, $22.00, $22.50... but after a while, there are some prices you just never use! If you want to price a book at $32.95, someone will say that's a weird price point and why don't we either make it $29.95 or $35.00!

Have you ever noticed that things don't tend to have those weird price points? I actually went to a strange little shop in Park Slope years ago that prided itself on giving things weird prices like $6.74, or $102.66, just for the heck of it. Sometimes they'd even have multiples of the same object with different prices-- one would be $11.33 and another on the shelf would be $13.20. But that was a place run by the McSweeney's people that was deliberately poking fun at the whole concept of stores and trying to be weird...
What do you think about even dollars vs. those .95 or .99 prices? Does the extra penny or nickel really make it seem more expensive?

Weird Weekend Spending: Sponge Animals

Of all the presents I brought back from Botswana (and yes, that is where I went for my expensive vacation and the post is in draft and someday I will finish it and share the story with you all!) the ones that seemed to be the biggest hit were some little sponge animals for my niece and nephew. You've probably seen similar ones: little capsules that you soak in water so they expand into animal shapes. I gave each of the kids their own little box of them, and they were just enthralled watching the tiny sponges pop out into little giraffes and lions and elephants.
They wanted to just keep dumping more and more capsules into the water. We told them not to use them all up at once but of course that didn't work for long! They finished up all their sponge animals, and a couple of weeks later, my mom called me to say that my nephew had liked them so much that he wanted some more and had asked her if "maybe Auntie X can go back to Africa and get us some more of those little animals?"
I had a good laugh at that, but it was so cute that I immediately began to search for closer, less expensive places to buy them. I went into a couple of toy stores-- the first one didn't have the little sponge animals, but they did have some eggs that hatch into large animals after soaking in water for a few days. I thought there might be an attention span issue there, but I bought a couple of them anyway. At another store, I found some more sponge capsule thingies more like what I was looking for-- they expanded into airplanes, not animals, but again, I bought some anyway. Finally, I found a store that sold various animals and dinosaurs in expanding sponge capsule form. They were exactly what I was looking for, so I bought several packages of each kind.
When I got home and totaled up my purchases, I was surprised to find that I'd spent about $32 on expanding animals! It occurred to me that there could be a market for some kind of gag gift involving little sponge dollar bills that expand when you soak them in water-- and then they dissolve into nothing! But anyway, $32 doesn't seem like all that much, really, to make my niece and nephew happy for a few hours... and as you'll see when I finally do that post about my vacation, it's much cheaper than going back to Africa!

Little Things, Little Things...

Let's hope the money I've saved by eating stale crackers for lunch will pay for my latest little splurge: some nice pens. I've spent about $20 in the past month on 4 new pens, all after stumbling on a blog called The Pen Addict. If you have the least inclination to care about what kind of pen you use, DO NOT CLICK ON THAT LINK! You will be sucked in. You will want to buy new pens.

I generally feel like pens are a thing that should not be bought. Lots of free ones are given away, and if you work in an office, so much of your use of pens is probably for work purposes anyway that you'll just use the ones you get there for free. But I hate crappy pens. When my office stopped stocking the kind I like best, I hoarded the ones I had, and at one point I even ordered a way overpriced box of them online because I was afraid they weren't being made any more. I still have a few of those left and continue to use them happily.

But in the meantime, I've been trying to organize my life better by keeping lots of notes and to-do lists in one of my beloved Moleskine notebooks. In the past, I've kept lots of lists in my PDA, and there are advantages to the electronic method, but I also really like the immediacy of writing things in a notebook. I've posted about my notebook obsession before, and since increasing my usage of notebooks lately, I've been searching for cheaper ways to buy them. There are plenty of blogs that discuss Moleskines, and one of the frequent themes is how different pens work on Moleskine paper. My usual pens work okay in Moleskines, but not perfectly. Or at least they seemed much less perfect after reading other people's opinions about what pens are closer to perfect via sites like Pen Addict!

Also, I wanted to try using multiple colors in my notebook to try to differentiate different projects. I thought it would be handy to have one of those multiple 4-in-1 pens like Bic makes, but I only use rollerball pens, not regular ballpoints, and a rollerball multi-pen seemed impossible to find... until I visited JetPens.com, where I bought a nifty rollerball featuring black ink, red ink, and a mechanical pencil all in one. It was $6, which seems like a lot for a fairly basic plastic pen. (Fortunately, though I've used fountain pens in the past, they hold no attraction for me now, as you could easily spend a lot more than $6 on one of those!) The trouble with buying pens online is that you can't be sure they'll feel the way you want them to, and that you're tacking on shipping charges that can seem quite high relative to the price of the item itself. But I was so happy with the pens I ordered that I'll probably end up ordering some more... which may mean I'll have to start eating stale crackers for dinner too!