Tightwad Gazelle

Buttons and a Lesson Learned

2006-04-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was on a mission this morning. I have a shirt in my closet that has a cracked button. I couldn't bear to throw it away becuase it's one of my better shirts--all wool, deep forest green with black buttons. It can dress up under a blazer or it looks pretty good with jeans, too. I've had it about three years and I paid $75 for it. Well anyway, I decided instead of not ever wearing it again--the cracked button is pretty obvious when it's buttoned up--I went to Long's Drug Store to find some buttons. I was going to take them all off and sew on some new ones. I found eight basic black buttons for about $3. OK so I thought. I'll spend about thrity minutes sewing them on, and I'll have a good-as-new shirt.

When I went to the closet, I found an old linen shirt--I was really nice at the time-- that I bought at a garage sale for $2.50. I liked the shirt so much, I practically wore it out, and it now has all kinds of holes in it from wear and tear. I should've thrown it out a long time ago, but it's been in the back of the closet.

When I went to get the cracked button shirt, I saw the linen shirt and had a moment of Eureka! Instead of buying the new buttons, I could've have easily taken the ones off the linen shirt and recycled those onto my wool shirt. Dang! Not only did I waste $3 on something I really didn't need, I missed an opporntunity to wring some more life out of that shirt. I guess now I can wash it once more and use it as a dust rag, but honestly, I don't need anymore dust rags. Lesson learned!!

I also bought some seeds for planting about a dozen batches of Swiss Chard. My snow peas are coming up nicely--I have about five stalks of those going. When I was at the farmer's market last year, the growers were charging $5 dollars a bag, which was worth about two servings. ( I can make a whole summer meal of slightly cooked peas with butter and parmesean cheese, some French bread, and a glass of white wine) As much as I like supporting the local farmers, my budget takes priority. But, I'm trying some patio gardening. If this works out, I've figured out a way to eeke out about 25 sq feet of planting space, as long as I use contatiners. We'll see, though. While it's satisfying to grow your own food, it can get expensive, especially if you have to buy soil, compost, seedlings, etc. The initial outlay might me expensive, but perhaps it would pay for itself over time. I live in an urban area, on the third floor, so I don't have access to a yard.

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Money Musings and a few new Goals

2006-04-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

I keep a budget, but I could do better. I usually allocate money to different accounts, but the amounts sometimes vary. For example, I budget about $75 for dog care, but sometimes I spend more than this. It cost $30 per month to groom the little guy; the other $45 goes for food/treats/toys. Someitmes I'm overbudget about $25. I try to whittle down something else to compensate, but I'm not always successful. This month, I'm going to get very strict with myself and allocate every penny, spreading out the money down to the penny. And then, I'm going to try and beat the numbers on areas where I can. Any excess money, or money that I save due to tight budgeting, I'm going to send over to the online savings account. Since I know how much I'll bring in during the month, it will be easy to sit down and slice the financial pie.

I'm also going to try out an experiment. According to the USDA, I should be spending about $30 per week on groceries--that's on the frugal plan. For the month, that's $120. Usually I budget about $175 per month, and in some cases I do better than this, depending on sale items and items I can buy in bulk. Sometimes I spend as much as $250. I need to be more disciplined with this. So, this week, I'm going to try and spend no more than $29.70 for groceries--that's for breakfast lunch and dinner for seven days. So far this week, I've only spent $14.65. I two bags of frozen cherries and marionberries on sale, some yogurt, some raw veggies, and a very unfrugal bag of shelled almonds for $7! I justified the almonds and frozen fruit, as they're a healthy snack that are packed with dense nutrients. I'll start keeping a spreasheet on what I buy and how much I paid for it, and then post the results here.

I don't make alot of money, but I'm now saving about 25 percent of my monthly income since I've eliminated consumer debt. $375 goes to online savings, $375 goes to online Roth, and another $428 goes to 401K. Paying off my consumer debt has been a huge relief --it's the first time in my life when I haven't had some kind of consumer debt. My only debt now is my mortgage.

One of my biggest expenses that I wish I didn't have is a $500 dollar check that I send to my mother each month, who lives with my sister and ekes by only on Social Security and the money I send her. I have five siblings, but as far as I know, I'm the only one who consistenly sends money each month--my other brothers and sisters complain that they never have enough to send to Mom. Though I love Mom dearly, I'm seeing the results of my parent's non-financial planning through her. Don't get me wrong: I'm glad I can help her out, but there's a part of me that wishes I had this money to save or invest for my own financial future. I'm not married and don't have kids, so I'm all I got. I'm not going to bitch about it, as I know that when she's gone, I'm going to look back on this and see that I did the right thing--in the end, having some integrity about it is more important than the money.

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Money Shocker

2006-03-29T21:15:00.000-08:00

My tax accountant called me yesterday with some distressing news. Apparently, my tax bill is much higher than I anticipated. Instead of getting a refund like I was expecting, she informed me that my federal tax liability was $1700. Not sure what the state tax bill will be. Hopefully, she made a mistake. I did some rough calculations and thought I was getting back close to $3000, which I was going to use to add to my emergency fund. The deadline for filing taxes is getting close, and I really did want this over with by now.

I'm experimenting with a new blogging tool called Qumana. Here's a picture of an orchid. Qumana is a Web 2.0 utility I found over on the PC Mag site. I may be behind the curve with other bloggers, but it seems to work so far.

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2006-03-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

Finding New Ways to Trim My Budget

To keep track of my finances, I use an Excel spreadsheet. I tried the trial version of Money 2006, but didn't really like it. I also used to use Quicken, but I found it to be tedious. As long as I'm diligent about posting what I spend my money on, the better I'm able to come up with ways trim the excess fat. To borrow a cliche: Knowledge is power.
Here are some things that I'm considering hacking from my list of monthly spending.

Wall Street Journal $19.55: This is actually a pretty good deal, but I rarely have the time or inclination to sit down and read an entire day's edition. Sometimes on the weekend, I'll get thorough one or two, but during the week, I rarely read it, except if there's a really interesting article. Mostly, I use the paper as padding for the puppy to use as his peeing pad, but at $20 a month, I would probably do better buying some of those puppy training pads. I don't usually buy a Sunday paper--I cancelled my Sunday NY Times. But I have thought of buying the local Sunday paper, and use the coupon section to find deals that would amount to the cost of the paper--$1.50. If I really need the paper for padding and didn't want to spend the money on a Sunday paper, I could go down to the building's recycling bin on Monday mornings, and pull out everyone elses.

My Cell Phone: This bill is usually about $47.50 per month. I don't use the cell phone much--I've carried it along in case of a freeway emergency, to sync up with friends. I signed a two-year contract to get the phone for free. Sometimes I even lose it or leave it at work, and I generally consider it both a curse and a blessing. The contract expires next June, (cancellation fee is $200) so I'll probably keep this until then. Then, I'll start looking around for another plan.

Credit Score Monitoring: $7.95 per month. My score hasn't really changed in the six months I've tried this service. At the time, it seemed like a neat thing to do. The highest the score went was 805. I suspect it might slightly increase since I've now paid off the car and won't have any revolving or installment credit, except for my mortgage. I'll wait one more month or two to see what effect paying off the car loan has on my credit score, and then I'll put it to rest. I mean with no debt, and with no intention of applying for or using credit cards, why even bother? This one is a no-brainer.

DSL: $39.95. I've had DSL since oh about 2000 and for the most part, I can't imagine living without it. But from what I've read, dial-up technology has gotten better, with web caching technologies. One never knows until one tries it for himself. Before I moved into the place I'm in now, I was close to a switching station, and I had awesome download speeds. Now, I'm doing good if I can transfer data at 37kps--that's worse than dial-up, right? I've complained to DSL company several times, but they've never answered my e-mails. Based on my experience, their customer service sucks.

The downside: I pretty much live and breath on my computer, it's on several hours during the day, and it's booted up almost all day on the weekend. Of all the expenses I should probably cut back, this one would take the worst hit. I've signed up for a pre-trial version of PeoplePC, but so far, I haven't been impressed. At $10.95 per month, the price is right, but what you get is pretty restrictive. Final analysis: I guess I'll keep the DSL--at least for now. What I'd really like to do is get rid of the land-line and just use my cell phone. But I haven't quite figured out how to do this. I mean I would neeed a phone line for DSL, so I would have to pay for it anyway. I can't get Cable Internet in my building--too long of a story, but it's not an option.

Netflix: $13.04. I go in spurts. Some months I watch alot of movies, other months I barely turn on the TV. Generally speaking, I like going to the movies to watch movies--they lose some of their escapist allure on a TV screen. The last few years, I've gotten very selective about what I'll go see, and I always hit the bargain matinee. I haven't been to a movie during the evening in several years.

The Netflix plan allows me to check out four movies a month--that's about all I can handle. This past month, I had two movies I rented, but they sat on my nightstand for the entire month. A few months ago, the same thing happened. I checked them out, and never even watched them. I did watch one of them on Saturday night, but I ended up falling asleep about half-way through it.

My local video store charges $4 to rent a DVD, but honestly, I'd have to drive down there and go through the hassle of finding parking, spending time in the store, and the selection isn't all that great. Surfing and clicking is pretty easy--and I can do it in pajamas. On the upside, I really like Netflix service--I mean they couldn't make it any easier.

As for actually going to the movies, I'll usually meet a friend for a weekend matinee two or three times a month. These days, the matinee price is $8. I usually forego the expensive popcorn. After the movie, it's usually lunch to chat and discuss the movie, or to catch up. About once a month, I'll treat, so the day's outing ends up being $50 bucks or so. Usually it's dutch, or the other person foots the bill. I'm make a point of keeping better track of this expense.

Car Wash. $15.95 per month. Is this excessive? I don't know. My friend in LA gets her car washed every week. Truth be known, she's a financial disaster, so this could one of the reasons why. Sometimes, I'll get the car washed twice a month, if it needs it, but I wonder if I kept track, and washed it only every six weeks, if I would really notice any difference. That's about 9 washes per year compared to 12-15 washes. So, is $48-$78 savings a year worth it?

Dog Grooming $30 per month. I take my Yorshire terrier, who has long hair, to the groomers once a month. I've tried bathing him at home, in the bathtub, but it always ends up being a big mess. And, I'm not that good at it. I'm soaked, there's water everywhere, and I usually end up drying him off with flannel sheets, which means they have to be washed afterwards. If I happen to take him on a beach walk, I have to take him to the groomers the next day--he gets muddy and matted up running around in the water and sand. Ideally, he should be bathed every other week. Right now, he gets bathed once a month. I should really be more disciplined and bath him myself.

AAA--$49.95 per year. Okay, I've had this for a few years, but I've never really used it. I got it for emergency puposes, similar to the cell phone. If I break the cost down, that's about $4.16 per month--not a bad deal for the "safety" factor of knowing towing help is nearby. If the car happens to break down at night, I would definitely want the cell phone and AAA. But in the many years driving it's never happened. Adding in the cell phone, this "safety" feature is about $52 per month. Should I tempt the Fates? That's probably not a good idea--you always end up loosing. I'll consider this a bit more.

Typing this out, It's pretty apparent to me that when all is said and done, I don't need the WSJ, NetFlix, and the credit monitoring score. That's a total of $40.54 per month that doesn't give me very much in returns. Since it's the beginning of the month, I'll keep these services for the remainder of the month, and then cancel them. That's $486 per year.

Also, if you haven't experienced the new PF blog aggregator, bookmark it. This is a TERRIFIC addition to the PF blogging community and really useful. Before, I had about a dozen or so PF blogs individually bookmarked. But this useful aggregator is a definite time-saver. Plus, it puts me just a click away from PF blogs I may have never read. Since coming across it through another blog, I've been using it everyday to hunt down PF posts. You can find it here:

http://pfblogs.org/pf/

2006-03-06T03:17:00.000-08:00

Woo Hoo!---I'm Debt Free

I knew I'd eventually see this date, but Saturday was the day. No more consumer debt. Hallejuiah! I still have my mortgage payment, but it sure feels good not to have anymore "bad" debt. On Saturday, I sent an online payment for $1775.74 to pay off my car--a 2000 Jetta, which I plan to drive until the struts fall off. I've been whittling down the car loan over the course of a year, adding 50% of the payment. I did this for about six months, and then increased that another 50%, so toward the end I was making double payments. It seemed like I would never pay it off. I also made double, sometimes triple payments on the school loan--that was a huge relief when I finally got that one done, and it had been hanging around forever.

I don't know the precise numbers, but I've paid off about $20K in debt over the course of two years--that includes credit cards, car, and student loan. About 10K of this was wiped out during the last six or seven months when I finally got serious about not carrying debt. It doesn't seem like alot compared to others, but hey everything's relative. I got mad as hell at my debt and wanted to get rid of it--it felt like such a burden. I firmly believe that if you're serious about getting rid of debt, you can. Once I had the credit cards paid off, I cut back my use of them, but paid the balances off each month and started tackling the two biggies--car and student loan. I never had alot of credit card debt to begin with, but I did carry balances on three cards. I always paid more than the minimum, and if I charged 1K, I'd pay it off in three or four months.

Other good news: A freelance editing gig that was supposed to end in March has now been extended until the end of May, so I'll be able to add about $2500 to investments. I'm also anticipating a $3K refund--which I'll put in my online savings account to pay property taxes in November. Plus, there's an extra paycheck in the month of June, any my anticipated raise should kick in then.

If you're working on getting rid of your debt...trust me, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Doing something--even if it's a little at a time--is better than doing nothing at all.
Keep at it, and don't give up.

2006-02-27T03:16:00.000-08:00

Sunday Shopping as Insanity

I had a very interesting experience yesterday during my visit to the big Target store. I had initially gone in there because I needed a new pair of blue jeans and a new printer cartridge. When I discovered that Target didn’t carry either, I started looking around, and during the course of wandering through the aisles, I entered a kind of consumerist daze. Even we diehard tightwads have to be ever vigilant in the fight not to buy unnecessary stuff. We aren’t always successful, but we can put up a good fight, as the following blow-by-blow account attests. And though we may lose a battle or two, that doesn’t mean we’ve lost the war.

Here’s a highlight of things I saw that I seriously considered buying, but managed to forego.

Two Bamboo Pillows…Hmmm..That's interesting. Bamboo Pillows? Never heard of those. Let's see....$9.99 each. I have four pillows on my bed. That’s enough for me and the Yorkie, but to be honest, they’re a bit worn out. I could use some new pillows, but I need to buy four. That's $40, plus tax. The copy on the packing appealed to my “environmental” side, promising an e-co friendly sleeping experience. I fluffed them, imagined resting my head on them. I could finally get a peaceful night of sleep, comforted by the fact that I was protecting the environment while I slept. I did pass on them when I reprimanded myself. “Do you really ‘need’ these?” No. Can we say "Marketing Gimmick?"

An iPod! ….Apple’s products definitely have the cool factor, for which the reason escapes me, but I stay away from Apple because I don’t like Steve Jobs. I think he’s smug, just a little too self-important, and his products are overpriced. I can't believe I was there, acutally thinking of buying one.

I swear to God had there been a red-vested salesperson milling about instead of hurriedly ringing up other customers, I think I would have bought one. Target had them on sale--$299, marked down from $399—black only and no video, so that appealed to my “cost-saving” nature, even though I reasoned, if I was going to buy technology, I should go for what’s currently the “in” thing. As soon as they start marking down “hot” tech products, the market is beginning to get saturated, and they’re no longer “cool,” so then what IS the point of buying it?

When I looked all the pretty iPods in a row, I thought of all the ways I could use it—after all, I have iTunes on my PC, and I periodically buy a tune or two. At least Jobs got smart and made a PC version. But I don’t have an MP3 player. I have almost all of my favorite CDs on my computer, which amounts to about 500 tunes.

With my iPod, I imagined myself having a nonstop soundtrack to my very un-hip life. I could take it on plane trips, I could use it in the car, I could take it just about anywhere. I could block out the word with my iPod barrier of tunes. I could use it in the living room while reading. I circled the aisles about three or four times, came back and looked at them over and over. I even went over the cashier station to see if someone was available so I could feel how sleek it was in my hand, try out the jog dial. (Note to Dear Reader: Do you get a sense of how insane shopping can be?) But anyway, I digress. They were all busy ringing up digital cameras, cell phones, and other electronic stuff. “Should I buy it?” “I haven’t bought anything fun, why not? “Everyone has one.” “Gee, these look really cool.” Finally, my miserly side finally got the best of me, and I told myself “Are you an idiot?—You hate Apple. Just walk away. You’ve gone this long without an iPod, so why don’t you wait a week and see if you want it then.” I did, and I was ever so thankful! Whew, talk about a close call!

A Paper Shredder---$15, now that’s a deal! Of course, when I picked up the box and so how lightweight it was and that it was made in Tawain, I knew it probably would break after shredding my first credit card offer from American Express, so I began to suspect its durability. I have been considering buying one, instead of shredding the paper myself, which usually consists of ripping them into little pieces. I mean—that’s how stuff got shredded 5 years ago. Naturally, the ad copy on the box was spot on as it promised me protection from identity theft—that assumes a thief would actually like to steal my identity, and if they knew me and how I carried on about my life, being frugal and all, they probably wouldn’t like it very much. I did pass on it, because most of my stuff is electronic these days, most things are delivered online.

Stereo headphones—These ranged in price from $9.99 to $59.99. The ones I have are a bit uncomfortable, and the foam on the right hand speaker is a bit ratty. These were free, and I’ve used them for at least three or four years. I finally decided to pass because I wasn’t completely sure the headphones I was considering (Sony-$29.99) would work with my computer, and I asked myself…”Why are there so many of these, and none of the Philips’ ones?” The reason, I concluded, was that like most Sony products, these headphones were probably not worth the money and wouldn’t work without jumping through a bunch of technological hoops. If you’ve ever tried their music software, you know what I mean.

Quicken Deluxe 2006--$59.99. I’ve read the reviews, but passed on it eventually. I mean until there’s a better product out there, $60 bucks is a lot of money. I tried the trial version of Money 2006, but hey come on….I don’t want to see all those ads!

I don't know about you, but it seems whatever private space we inhabit—even something as private as our computer desktop—some corporation tries to elbow in to sell us something. Enough already!! I use an Excel spreadsheet, and I have pretty good handle of inflow and outgo. My finances aren’t THAT complicated—at least not yet.

In my spendthrift days, I probably would have bought every one of these items, and then shrugged it off, telling myself I’d pay it off in three or four months—no big deal. Three or four months later, I would’ve asked myself—as I often did: Why did you buy all this stuff. You don’t even like Apple, and you don’t even use the Quicken software. And I could’ve been staring at a $500 credit card bill the following month.

So, what did I buy?—Good question. Here’s the list, paid with cash.

An cantaloupe colored cap--$4.99. I really did need a cap of some sort, as the one I bought when I went to Palm Springs is pretty ratted out.

A package of Brita water filters—I forgot I needed these. They were on sale for $16.99, so I bought them.

A package of Trail Mix—I was starving, so I figured I could eat these on the way to meeting my friend at the movies. ($3.49—but as you might expect there’s far more raisons than nuts.) Duped again.

Visine Tired Eyes formula: This one is a mystery to me. I’m not sure why I bought it, ($1.99 for like .0025 ounce) but it was an impulse item (OK—shoot me!). At the time, I think I was thinking that my eyes felt a bit dry, and I had my contacts in, so I thought I might need it before the movies. As it happened, I didn’t need it at all. My eyes were fine.

2006-02-26T07:56:00.000-08:00

My Yorskshire Terrier

Most of my weekend was spent hanging out with my dog, a very fiesty, somewhat overweight Yorkshire Terrier. Sometimes I think the breed was coined from the word "terror," as that fits him perfectly. I know he's a little overweight because the last time I took him to the vet a year ago, he weighed 8.10 lbs--the average weight for the non-toy breed. Yesterday, when I took him for his annual check-up and vaccinations, he clocked in at 13.6 lbs!...I don't know how he gained so much weight in a year, but when I saw the scale numbers climbing, I suddenly felt ashamed, like a negligent parent with an obese child, as if I had fed him on a diet of chicken McNuggets and popcorn, shinily slathered in butter and salt. Not true, as he's one of the most finicky eaters of any pet I've had; he barely eats anything at all.

Since Casey just turned two years old, I asked the vet about teeth cleaning. The doctor looked at his teeth, and gave the little guy a clean bill of health! No tartar--which he thought was kind of surprising. A proud moment --no cavities, no plaque. Casey loves those little organic green chewies, so he's intutively practcing good oral hygiene.

But because this is a PF blog, I must also mention the price of keeping this dog healthy and presumably happy. He is expensive! First was the cost to acquire him--$800--actually a "discounted" because, although he's pure bred, his ears didn't jut up like Yorkies do. I thought it made him cuter, a little genetic mishap made him unique. I belong to a Yorkie group, and one of the members recently put two newborns up for sale at $2,000!

Then there was the nuetering part--another $475, a traumatic two-week ordeal for the both of us. The poor little guy had to wear one of those cone collars for two weeks straight, and he was always bumping into to things becuase he didn't have complete peripheral vision.

Then there's the grooming, a monthly scrubbing and trim ($30), plus another $50 in dog food items, then another $40 or so for his special treats--these include a whole basketful of things to chew on, such as liver treats, salmon treats, natural organic chicken strips, Pupperonis, Lean Treats, etc. Then there are the toys--he loves the small furry things that squeak when you chew on them. Not counting vet visits, I probably spend about $150 a month, all in all. Cheaper than a shrink for sure, but much more high maintenance than the disdainful cat I had for about 8 years. Yikes!

I didn't expect him to cost this much, but in the final analysis, you really can't put a price tag on a pet, becuase they give you so many intangible things. And they can teach you about acceptance, tolerance, patience, determination, loyalty and a host of other things that fall into the "integrity" category.

2006-02-25T11:19:00.000-08:00

Somtimes I don't know what this blog should be about. Ofther PF blogs do much better than I do. I'm just one more tightwad whose story is just like everybody else. I can't do all those fancy tricks like post indexes, add images. When I look at my blog, it seems a bit plain, and it's mainly focused on my financial life. Miss Manners would not approve.

When I was reading one of the Carnivals last week, I stumbled on a link to another blog, www.crazyauntpurl.com. To my mind, this is the perfect blog, and of all the blogs I read, this one is my favorite. It's a very "human" blog, with a real person living her life "out loud," grappling sometimes quite successfully in the aftermath of a husband who left her to "find his creativity." A displaced southerner living in Los Angeles, she finds solace in knitting, her four cats, and one too many glasses of red wine. I became immediately charmed by her writing, and I do believe she will be getting some kind of book contract. Her writing is that honest, that insightful, that smart. If you haven't read it, go check it out.

Aunt Purl's blog reminds me of another popular blog three or four years ago called The Julia/Julie Project, a blog about a New York 30-something married woman who blogged her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She had a huge following, and I followed that blog all the way through every one of the recipes--laughing all the way. If someone did a Top 10 list of great blogs, The Julia/Julie Project would be near the top.

So, I'm going to spend the weekend reflecting on my own blog. I'm not going to cook my way through a cookbook, but I can think about how to make my blog more interesting and more human.

2006-02-22T06:06:00.000-08:00

I had one of those office moments last week that probably rings true with many a tightwad, cheapskate, and anyone else who is scrupulous about not spending money unecessarily. I was teased and cajoled for my frugal ways. I didn't really mind. I was glad that my tales of bargain hunting amused them--the biggest guffaw came when I told a few of coworkers that I calculate cost per serving on food items, comb through thrift stores and garage sales, use coupons. They thought it was hilarious that I knew the price of my customary bowl of morning oatmeal with cinammon and walnuts, assuming everything's on sale and in bulk--$.05

I told them that I found a nearly full, 32-oz. bottle of fancy shampoo on the street in a pile, apparently forgotten items that someone left when they moved. I picked it up and used it. I guess that's dumpster diving, but without the dumpster. Why pay $7.95, when it's free?

When asked how much I spent on clothes last year, I told them "zero." I didn't buy any new clothes last year. The last time I bought any item of clothing was August of 2004 when I spent about $871 for business casual attire--which I paid cash for. One shirt I bought cost $2--better than a garage sale. It had been marked down three times from an original price of $32, just waiting for me to snatch it up. Everytime I wear it, people say how much they like it. Why pay $32 when you can get the same shirt for $2? Makes perfect sense to me!

In terms of clothes, I don't buy anything unless it's practical, it's on a big sale, and it goes with everything else I have. I wear the same pair of basic black shoes and the same belt everyday. I darn my own socks--which got another laugh. I sew new buttons to old shirts that still have some life in them. I don't buy clothes that have to be dry cleaned. I have one utilitarian black suit (OK that has to be dry cleaned) that I can wear just about anywhere "fancy."

I know I must seem like this weird miser who hoards his money like Scrooge, but I'm really not. I'm just very careful not to waste money on things that don't really matter.

I'm glad though that there's a community of folks like me, blogging on the topic of personal finance. These days, my Monday morning ritual is to get up early, make some very strong black coffee and read the Carnivals. They keep me motivated and focused on my long terms financial goals.

2006-02-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

HR Matter Resolved

The meeting with HR was interesting to say the least. After a thirty-minute discussion about the nuances of the bonus clause, we decided that the matter would be turned over to the legal department for review and recommendation, as the language was exceedingly vague. To me, it promised a bonus. To HR, there wasn't a guarantee, only a hint of things that might or might not come. Don't you just LOVE corporate America? Don't get me wrong: I like my job, and I like the company I work for.

The HR guy didn't want to commit one way or another--he would neither say the clause promised a bonus, nor would he say that it didn't At any rate, since I have a high regard for our legal department and its fairness in all matters, I said that I would agree to whatever the legal department came up with. To me, this was taking the high road. After eighteen months, I just wanted the matter resolved.

After about a week, I received an e-mail from the SVP requesting a meeting with HR, my manager, and me. The subject line in the e-mail ominously said "Discussion," and it was marked "Confidential," so I really didn't know what to expect. It didn't look promising, though.

I could go on and on, but the bottom line was this: All interested parties agreed to hand over the bonus--6% of my last year's salary. However, they also told me that the bonus clause was a mistake, and shouldn't have been there. Of the 18 people hired in a six-month period when I came on board, my offer letter was the only one that contained a non-specific, non-VP bonus clause, a holdover from the older days before the new EVP took the reigns. Of course, being a hew-hire, I had no way of knowing of any such policy, the history or it, or anything else. Apparently it's the policy of the company to not share offer letters with the folks who are actually responsible for your performance, so both my manager and her manager were unaware of the bonus offer. So, that money, which I didn't expect to receive, goes into savings.

Giving E-trade the Heave-Ho

I'm really ticked off at E-trade. I've come to the conclusion that they have the worst customer service, high fees, and after having an account with the company for about two years, I couldn't recommend them when someone at work was asking about them.

I'm a planner at heart, so I was looking to have my taxes filed before now. I have a traditional IRA with them. I also have another account with them that I used to buy and sell stocks. There wasn't alot of activity in those accounts this past year, but getting the year-end statements has been a nightmare. After three weeks of e-mails and phone calls, I've yet to receive my E-trade statements. The reply to the first e-mail was supposedly a fix for the "browser incompatibilites" that was causing me to not be able to access my 2005 PDF statements. For some reason, it only showed statements for 2002. The e-mail was ridicuously long with instructions for clicking this, optioning for this Command, going into Tools for this and that, and on and on. I don't have an open-source browser--I use IE 6--so what is the big deal here? This means that millions of others who use IE6 and E-trade are having the same problem? I'll just say I'm thankful I don't work in their IT department, and I don't feel like I should have to jump through all these hoops just to print out a document.

I then called the "customer care" line. What a crock! When I dialed the number and sieved through the voice mail system (I hate those things), I was then told the wait could be as long as thirty minutes--not a good sign at all. I stayed on hold for about 15 minutes, listening to how they valued my business. I surfed around, waited some more, got more angry, and then hung up. I then sent another e-mail requesting a paper statement be sent. I've yet to hear from them, and that's been three days ago. I also received a customer satisfaction survey from them, but I gave them mostly negative ratings. In the comment section, I put another request for my statements. There should be a law that says that if you don't get your statements after due diligence, then the brokerage house should be responsible for any tax liabilities.

Too much work and time for what should be a very simple resolution to a request. After I finish my taxes, I'll be closing this account and moving the money elsewhere.

2006-02-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

Dealing with HR

I have a big meeting with the HR department of the place where I work. When I accepted my position, there was a clause in my offer letter that indicated a 5.5-6% management bonus. This bonus never materialized. The language is purposely vague, based on meeting "company goals." I was never informed about any such goal to meet, and my manager indicated that the company didn't quite meet its goals. But in company presentations, the CEO has always presented a rather rosy picture of the company's finances. There's a disconnect somewhere.

I later found out that a few select others in my department received bonuses; however, I didn't. I hate to say this, but I'm a "team player," too, and I pulled my own weight by working evenings, and at home, pitching in during crunch times, and on weekends--all good naturedly, like a good little employee. I also consider it an act of sainthood that I have to deal with some of the most draconian policies. If someone has to draw blood to receive a bonus, I wasn't informed of it.

Still, it appears that HR didn't inform the VPs or the payroll department of the bonus clause--neither my boss nor the VP of my department saw the offer letter, which I thought was rather distrubing. Moreover, the person who drafted the offer letter, on which I accepted the terms of employment, is no longer at the company. Word has it that she became so frustrated working in that department, she went nearly crazy. To save her sanity, her only option was to quit.

So, when bonus time came around last year, I asked my manager about the bonus. Mind you, I had been working at said company for several months, so the bonus clause was never an issue. I didn't know it at the time, but the company is somewhat stingy when it comes to pay raises. Mine was 2.5% with no bonus (Ha!--I viewed it as an insult to my experience and professionalism), and my manager said, "this increase is acutally good." Still, I was a little miffed because most places where I've worked, pay raises have been in the 6-7% area with yearly bonuses somewhere near the 8-10% number. This is usually on top of a $1K bonus at Christmas time. Apparently, not at this company.

Confused, I produced the signed HR offer letter with the bonus clause, and my manager seemed rather confused and surprised herself. She followed up with HR, but they didn't follow up with me or her, despite me calling the HR person. A few months passed, and the HR director quit, so the matter was never attended to. Now, several months later, eval time is on the horizon, so I decided to be proactive about it--thus the flurry of e-mails and meetings with HR folks.

To my mind, this has been a small fiasco. Whoever said that HR departments are mostly useless and ineffective has it right. I don't think the staffing person who drafted my offer letter purposely misrepresented the company and its compensation package, but considering what's happended, and how it's been swept under the rug and ignored to the point of being sloppy, it's logical to draw an unpretty conclusion. I digress.

To keep things on the up and up, I sent another e-mail to HR seeking "clarity and guidance on the matter," and now I have what I believe will be the "resolution of the matter" meeting today with the SVP of HR. My manager will be attending, too. I have no idea how the meeting will pan out, but my manager has been extremely friendly these last few days, so it should be interesting. The meeting is scheduled to last an hour, but I believe we'll be out of there in 20 minutes.

If this bonus was a mistake, then that's fine. People make mistakes. However, I accepted the offer of employment based on the total compensation package, including the management bonus. I thought offer letters were legally binding agreements. At the time, I was negotiating an offer from another company, but I chose this one because the department VP was touting all the good things happening with this "growing company."

Still, it's my feeling that had the bonus clause not been in the offer letter and combined with my knowing now that yearly pay raises are somewhat on the miserly side, I would have negotitated for better (meaning higher) pay compensation--6% more than the offered base pay, and closer to what the other company was offering. When I applied for the job, one of the directors, told me "you were the cream of the applicant crop," so I feel confident that the company is getting a top applicant. Becuase I was also considering another offer from another company, it's also quite feasible that I would have woken up the next morning and opted for the offer from the other Fortune 500 company rather than this one.

This could go several ways: They could give me last year's bonus--somewhere in the 5-6% range, and redo the offer letter, eliminating the bonus clause and upping my salary to compensate for the mistake.

Or, they could own up to the bonus clause and outline exactly what's required to receive the bonus, and promise to do better this year, since everything is rather vague anyway. This scenario would be the worst, as it doesn't really change anything, and I'm out money that I somehow feel is owed to me.

Another option: HR could try and weasel out of it, and say, "It's a mistake. We're so sorry, but the HR person didn't know what she was doing when she drafted the offer letter. We hope you understand, and we've drafted another letter for you to sign." If that's the case, then I'll promptly say, "Thanks very much, but before I sign it, I'd like to consult an objective third party before signing, as it's a legally binding agreement. I'll get back with you."

What would you do?

2006-01-30T06:04:00.000-08:00

I put Adsense on my blog at the beginning of January, more as an experiment than anything else. Even though I worked in the technology field, I'm kind of a dimwit when it comes to computers, so I don't know how to do all that fancy stuff that savvier folks place on their blogs these days. I decided I'll just keep mine like my lifestyle, "No-Frills." I was also curious to see how many people had clicked. I was surprised to see the stats for month--608 clickers, and $1.89 passive income. Most of the readers were came in because I contributed a post that concerned my financial duty to parents and siblings. I was heartened by the readers and encouraged by the pennies that passed through. As Lady Martha says, "It's a good thing."

Not so good is the current conflict that my frugal ways have wrought. I met someone recently that I've been out with a few times, but I'm now finding out is a financial landmine. In terms of money compatibility, it seems we are complete opposites. I didn't ask point-blank questions about money; information was volunteered during casual conversation. Still, I drew some scary conclusions from the information, as in "Run Away." I won't go into too many of the grissly details, but make no mistake, I'd be an idiot to pursue things much further beyond a casual friendship. In my younger days, I would've taken a more cavalier attitude, but not now. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to the topic of money these days.

Here's a list of the information that was volunteered in casual conversation that sent off the red flags and alarm bells:

--"I quit my job last year, and have been living on savings. Work was too stressful, and the owner of the company really had it in for me, so I quit."
--"I really spent alot of money on Christmas presents this year--especially for my Mother. I couldn't really afford it, but I did it anyway because I knew she'd like it." "I paid my son's rent for December and Feburary."
--"I sometimes think I have too much time on my hands."
--"Oh, geeze! I forgot my wallet. Wait a minute. Let me see how much money I have."
--We could get together this week. I'll bring over a couple of burritos and a Queen Latifah DVD. You have a nicer place than I do."

To be continured.......

2006-01-17T04:18:00.000-08:00

Tax Time Cometh!

My tax documents are slowly trickling in, and based on some preliminary numbers, it looks as if I'll be getting back a nice refund. I got a tiny refund ($31 from the Feds; $803 from the state) last year, but it was the first time in many years. Prior to buying the place I live in now, I didn't have enough deductions to itemize, so I always ended up paying extra to the government. I don't mind paying taxes, but I sure do wish the $87 billion (and probably much, much more) that's apparently being wasted in Iraq could go to establishing something that everyone could benefit from: a national health care plan. Besides: When did conservatives become so fiscally irresponsible?

What's different for me this year, now that I'm a tightwad gazelle? I made some financial moves that will reduce the amount I owe! I picked up these tips from reading the end-of-year finance columns, which I found to be helpful. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the numbers pan out. Any refund money goes directly to investments. (Last year, I used to money to pay down credit card debt.) Careful spending during the past year allowed me to have the excess cash to pony up on a few tax-deductible items.

For starters, I paid my Jan. mortgage payment in December, which netted an addtional $875 towards the yearly interest. I also prepaid my March property taxes--$1500, which I can also claim. (The good thing is that they're not due again until November!) For the last 1.5 years, I've had a steady freelance gig, so I claim whatever deductions I can on that. Having freelance income is a double-edged sword, because you have to do lots of special things, including paying special taxes. And while you have extra income, you have extra liabilities. It's too complicated for me to grasp, so I just I leave it to my tax accountant to figure out. I keep good records, spreadsheets and receipts, and I usually compile all this for her. But the $300 I pay her (also tax-deductible) is money well-spent as far as I'm concerned.

Still, I haven't decided how to handle voluntary contributions to retirement accounts. I put $1K in a traditional IRA at the beginning of the year, but I'll wait and see what putting the maximum there does to my taxes, since I have some time leeway. If it doesn't do anything, then I'll move the money to my Roth IRA account--at least it'll grow tax-free, so it seems to be the better option when I consider the long term. I set up the Roth IRA at the beginning of the year, the goal being to contribute the maximum through automatic deductions. Or course, I could always add the money to my slowly growing emergency fund.

Other news: I looked at my 401K statement, and during the last year and a half, my company added $4,102 in matching funds. Wow!--You can't beat free money!

2006-01-13T04:24:00.000-08:00

On Financial Resposibility to Siblings and Parents

Yesterday was a pretty upsetting day for me with complex and conflicting emotions about money and financial responsibilities.

My brother (named Roger)--a self-employed roofer--called me with a financial woe story. He was upset, afraid, and didn't know what to do. I could tell that a flood of tears was just underneath the surface of our phone conversation. He must've stopped alongside the street or highway because I could hear cars whizzing past in the background. It sure seemed like a lonely place to be. He apologized for being upset.

Roger is 35, he dropped out of high-school right around the 10th grade. So, he's been a manual laborer most of his working life. He really is a good guy, has a good Christian heart, works hard. He's married with four children, has a wonderful and devoted wife who was unfortunately recently diagnosed with lupus. (More saddening, they can't afford health insurance--$875 per month. Note: Tirade digression: We sure do have a fucked up country when it comes to health care.)

Anyway, he was late on his rent, and his truck--which he needs for work--was being repossesed. After hearing about his troubles, I asked him, "What would you like for me to do?" He didn't come right out and ask for money, but I ended up volunteering that I would help out with $2,000 so that he could pay his rent and get his car payments current. I felt sorry for him and it must have been humiliating for him to have to do that. If truth be told, I was also a little angry, and I felt guilty for being angry. My emotions around money are very very complex.

I was angry because bailing someone out is a reoccuring theme with my family. I sent my sister $3000 the year before last because of financial woes that included $60,000 of credit card debt. Her house was about a week away from being in default. My sister is a cashier--also a high school dropout. She promised to pay the money back, but hasn't. I gave my older brother a few thousand to help his distributor business and to buy a car. My other sister--who has her own troubles--always complains about not having money, but won't do anything to remedy her situation. She asked for money last year, but I didn't send it to her because I knew she would use to it to buy drugs for her boyfriend or drink it up. She has a drinking problem and her boyfriend has a drug problem. As for my mother, I send her $500 every month because, quite frankly, her $778 Social Security check doesn't cover her everyday living expenses. Half of that money is usually spent on medical expenses. My total for the last year and a half has been about $10,000 to family members. You'll understand why I live 3,000 miles away.

Being angry is only one way to respond, of course. All during the day at work, I tried to replace my anger and the feeling of "being burdened" with the feeling that I should be grateful that I was able to help my brother out. It's important to be charitible when someone--especially a family member--calls out for help--I really do believe that. I was his last ditch effort to help resolve his problem. He turned to me in a moment of desperation--to turn my back would've been cruel and uncaring, which incidentally were the same feelings I had in relationship to my Dad, who was the king of cheapskates. He was miserly (except when it came to drinking beer) out of necessity, not choice.

After I got off the phone with the car finance company--doing a bank transfer for the late car payments--I reminded myself I had been blessed so I in turn should be a blessing to others. I also reminded myself that "It's only money, and the money can be replaced."

The other option would have been to say "Sorry, I don't have the money to help," which is something my Dad would've said. "You're a grown man; Take care of your own problems."

Had I done that, I would've been racked with worry and guilt and wondering what would happen to them next. I'd rather feel temporarily annoyed than racked with guilt--the feeling of annoyance is nearly gone, but I do believe the guilt and worry would've remained had I not helped. My helping out served me in some strange way, too.

Roger thanked me for helping him out, and I told him that things would turn around--to just be patient but diligent, and he would be back on his feet in no time.

2006-01-08T06:23:00.000-08:00

As I've stated earlier, 2005 was a pretty good year financially. As of December 31, 2005 my net worth was $185K--not bad considering I pretty much started at zero two years ago, and I went through a rough patch in mid-2004 where I was unemployed for about four months. (I was really glad that I had an emergency fund--because I sure needed it; however, I also depleted the $12K fund, and I'm slowly getting it up to the six-months living expenses figure. Only this time I won't need as much on a monthly basis because almost all my consumer debt is paid off. Only $2500 is left on the car...Yippee!

About 100K of my net worth comes from the appreciation on my condo, but I've been steadily adding other monies to the stash via savings and retirement accounts. I don't expect the condo to appreciate near the amount it has in the past, but I live in an area that's enjoying new commercial activity, so I'm expecting some appreciation. A new 40K square foot Whole Foods Market is opening up about four blocks from me, so this area could be more appealing to an up and coming single person looking for their first home purchase--not that I'm looking to sell my condo anytime soon. I've only shopped at Whole Foods once or twice (A cherry pie and frozen vanilla yogurt cost $13.78!) because it is way too expensive for my tastes, but the two times I went to one of the other local ones, the place was packed with earnest urban types. The next time I have a craving for cherry pie, I'll bake my own.

My goal for 2006 is to increase my net worth to over 200K. To reach that figure, I'll have to save a bit more than I did this past year. This means I'll have to look at my expenses again and see where I can whittle down unecessary items. I would love to be able to save 50% of my take-home income. Right now, it's about 30%. But, I'll be able to add $500 because the car will be paid off soon.

One area where I might be able to cut costs is with my household budget. Currently I alot $150 per week for food, gas, pet care, miscellaneous household items, the rare lunch out at work, entertainment, clothes etc. So I'll take a very close look this month and see what I can do. One area I can't cut out is the $500 dollars per month that I send my mother. Aside from the money I send her, her only source of retirement income is Social Security, and it's only $778 per month. I can't imagine living on that small amount, but at least the $500 I send her helps.

2006-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

I learned about cost per serving from Amy Dacyzn in her Tightwad Gazette. Calculating cost per serving, for me, has been a useful tool for saving money on groceries. It's not for the weak or the faint of heart, but if you're a zealot like I am and like a challenge, you'll get a charge out of it.

For example, when I buy something, my first criteria is that it must be an item on sale. Then I consider if the item is healthy or nutritous, which I evaluate by looking at the labels. Too much sugar, fat, or salt, and it goes back on the self.

If a food item meets my two basic criteria, I'll calculate how many servings I'll get, and then decide if it's a good deal. The less money per serving, the better. Here are a couple of examples. Six months ago, I bought some containers of sale-item oatmeal. The cost per serving was .03. If you buy the name-brand oatmeal at regular non-sale prices, it's far more expensive. I usually add raisins and walnuts, both of which were bought on sale and in bulk, and which adds about .20 to the serving. .25 for a bowl of oatmeal isn't bad for breakfast, and in some cases, I've spent less.

Another example: I bought a package of six chicken legs for $1.38 because the expiration date on the package was one day away. I bought the chicken and put it in the freezer, and the following week, I baked them with lemon juice from lemons someone had given me from their back yard, a nice extra! The cost per leg was .23, and a serving was two chicken legs, or .46. To round out the meal, I also included rice (5lb bag bought on sale; cost .04 per serving), plus 2 sliced and steamed carrots (.06). I can use the leftover chicken for lunch, and then save the bones and use those for the chicken stock. So, dinner costs .56.

I know it sounds unusually obsessive, and people may wonder, "why bother with all this nonsense," but I get a kick out of trying to figure out how to eat on a dollar a day. In many cases, you can quite well and healthly.

It could be that I'm satisfying some evolutionary "hunting and gathering" Neanderthal instinct as I look for deals. Truth be told, I'm not always successful because truly great deals like the oatmeal purchase aren't an everyday occurence. But when I do see good deals, I take advantage of them, so that I can maximize my savings. That also means I have to flexible (to a certain degree) about what I'll eat and when. Still, oatmeal for dinner tastes just as good as oatmeal for breakfast.

Happy saving!

2006-01-03T04:04:00.000-08:00

"Most wealth is inconspicuous. The man down the street driving the nice car and living in the mansion could easily have greater debt and a lower net worth than the stealthy and wealthy plumber who drives a beat-up truck but seems to work only when he doesn't feel like fishing." Loral Langemeier, The Millionare Maker

There's no dearth of comments and suggestions for books to read that focus on becoming a millionaire. It seems like every PF blog has a suggested reading list from the millionaire genre, a phrase used by Nina over at Sitting Pretty.

Although I haven't read any of them, several of them keep showing up on PF blogs on a regular basis, The Millionaire Maker being one of them. One of my New Year's resolutions that relates to my financial life is to start reading a few of them. But because I'm watching where every penny goes, I don't intend to buy these books; I'll check them out of the library instead. This means I'll finially have to get off my duff one Saturday--I mean next Saturday--and head down to the local library to get a card.

Will I ever be a millionaire? I think it's very possible--even at this late stage of the game, and I've been thinking about what this word means to me for a while now. It's not the money per se that I'm after but rather the freedom to do what I wanted on any given day that I think a million dollars would bring. Of course, there's a fallacy in this thinking, too: you don't need something external to solve what is essentially an internal need. My sense of security comes within and there's nothing stopping me--except a life of poverty--that would permit me to have "freedom." So, what I really mean to say is that a million dollars would allow me to have a comfortable life, pursuing whatever interests I had whenever I wanted.

2005-12-31T06:12:00.000-08:00

2005 was a pretty good year! It's nice to reflect back on what you did during the year and see progress, however small. Here are the main accomplishments:

I managed to wipe out my credit card debt ($4500); the balance of a student loan that's been hanging around for about a decade ($2200); made a serious "dent" in reducing my car loan balance by upping my monthly payment by about 45% (from $350 to $500). I figure I'll be debt free (except mortgage) sometime in April. Other highlights: I opened a Roth IRA in December, with the goal of contributing the maximum in 2006. This should be easy, as it's automatically deducted, so I won't even see the money. I also opened an Emigrant Direct account with $1000 as a kind of emergency fund. I also began tracking expenses and planning where my money was heading each month. Yay!

Despite my focus on reducing debt, I did waste some hard earned cash. Here are two that come immediately to mind:

Debt into Wealth Software: $79.95. I didn't think this purchase through, but at the time I impulsively succumbed to the e-mail pitches with testimonials of people who wiped out their debt in record time. I was especially hooked when I read stories of people getting rid of ALL their debt, including mortgage, in about five years. I thought it would be useful motivation. Who wouldn't like to get rid of their mortagage? I wasn't drowning in debt like some people, so I really didn't need it. The e-book that came with the software didn't offer any insights that I hadn't heard before, I thought most of the information was common sense. I can do just as well with an Excel spreadsheet, and since March, I've found plenty of spreadsheet freebies from other personal finance blogs.

Internal Cleansing Program: $79.95. I cringe at this one. It's one of my more embarrassing purchases, but after a co-worker sent me the link to the site, I was morbidly fascinated, so I bought it with her with the goal of doing the "program" together. I tried it for a two or three days and was disgusted with the grainy sludge that you had to down each morning. It is VILE-TASTING. What's left of the program is hidden in the back of the linen closet.