Kristen (that’s her in the middle getting ready to slice the cake) got a new job and so our six years of working together came to an end. But not before the staff got together to wish her goodbye. Not only was there good food and cake, but also singing. It was fun to send her off in fine fashion.
Essay: Patricia’s Money Philosophy Series. Part III of IV: Learning & Saving
I believe in paying attention to your money. I think that how you care for it and what you spend it on make a difference—not only for your own piece of mind, but also in the context of the universe and energy and whatnot. Money ignored is money that won’t be around for long. So here’s an incredibly long and detailed four-part series about how I manage my money. To see the entire series look for the tag “Money.”
for my certificate program and other things hadn’t cropped up. With all that saving, I’m probably sitting on a pretty big pile of cash right now, right?
Not so much. Though it’s a bigger pile then I’ve ever had.
Those were the years where I had no debt and my living expenses were quite low. I made the most of my savings, concerned about the many potential expenses that could crop up during the move. So the move took up $2,200.00 of
the savings and the subsequent unemployment while looking for work ate away at some of the rest. I took on temporary work and the company hired me and I had a brief period of saving until I entered graduate school.
things have cropped up. I accept those dips, and set my course to recover the savings as soon as I am able.
Three sentence movie reviews: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
This was much better than I remember it* and fun in an incredibly embryonic Joss Whedon way. First of all, it’s totally the “girl gains her power” story I keep complaining there aren’t any of in the movie world and it also provided me with the bonus that fashion in the movie coincided with my high school fashion years so I know that I wasn’t being weird when I wore a dress with dorky shoes and socks, that was actually a fashion forward move on my part. Also, I have now been reminded what that Luke Perry thing was all about.
Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.
*I can clearly recall that I found it to be “kind of weird.” when I saw it during high school. And maybe Ms. Sterner and I saw this together? Maybe at Overland Park?
“we think you will be too!”
My whole life the newspaper people have been changing around the paper which drives me out of my mind. On top of switching up things that are just fine they way they are is that they always say something to the effect of, “And we think you will love it too!”
Um, no. It makes no sense to me to put the “living” stuff with the “travel” stuff and make the “arts” stuff separate. The former section with the “living” and “arts” together with a separate “travel” section was working just fine for me. But clearly someone needed to justify keeping their job, or needed a promotion or something, so I will roll with it until you change things up again and I get annoyed all over again.
Three sentence movie reviews: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Having never seen this movie on the big screen, I was happy to spend a Sunday afternoon seeing Harrison Ford in the glory days before he developed his wattles. The movie holds up pretty well and it’s an interesting contrast to see Action Adventure before CGI (like in this movie) compared to the previous night’s viewing which was all CGI. Also, Karen Allen is the best Indiana Jones heroine.
Cost: $8.50
Where watched: Regal Lloyd Cinema 10
Three sentence movie reviews: The Avengers
I greatly enjoyed this movie when we saw it in May, but if you had asked me to recount the plot to you, I would have only been able to stammer “Uh, it’s pretty funny. Um, and. Uh.” Watching it this time was an experience of repeatedly thinking “oh yes! I remember this part, this was quite enjoyable.” I think it was the frantic pace that caused the post-viewing amnesia in that I was all in during, but there was so much that happened my brain just got overwhelmed and forgot it all.
Cost: $3.00
Where watched: Portlander Inn Cinema. (at the Jubitz truck stop)
Essay: Patricia’s Money Philosophy Series. Part II of IV: Debt
I believe in paying attention to your money. I think that how you care for it and what you spend it on make a difference—not only for your own piece of mind, but also in the context of the universe and energy and whatnot. Money ignored is money that won’t be around for long. So here’s an incredibly long and detailed four-part series about how I manage my money. To see the entire series look for the tag “Money.”
high-interest card, which was the only kind I could get due to the fact I did
not establish credit while in college. I also had a $2000.00 computer loan and $16,000 in student loan debt. And I had no job.
of it. But I am also happy to accept windfalls in the future too. I am just
putting that out there, universe.
that I read that advice multiple places and yet I’m not sure who is giving it,
or if it is good advice. I’ve been paying those loans for seven years now and have thirteen years left to go and I’ve yet to work a year as teacher. To say these student loans drive me crazy would be an understatement. My monthly payment is one I can easily meet each month. I was faced with bleak employment prospects coming out of graduate school, so I chose the graduated repayment plan over 20 years. Right now I pay $160.00 per month. Would I love to accelerate those payments and get rid of this debt early? You betcha. Would I be willing to work 40 hours per week instead of 32 to do so? Not in my current job, no.
advantages, but I always felt an underlying bit of tension. You never know when the landlord is going to raise the rent, sell the house out from under you, or tear down the beautiful building to build a parking garage. I didn’t like that feeling of insecurity.
Three sentence movie reviews: Take Shelter
This was one of those amazing movie experiences that make all those so-so flicks worth sitting through. I’ve seen Michael Shannon’s fabulous acting on display in two other films* and he carried me away during this one too. This is completely worth your time and money so go and find it today.
Cost: Free from Library
Where watched: at home.
*Revolutionary Road, where he was the key turning point in Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet’s marriage and The Runaways where he played sleazy Kim Fowley. The first role was a quiet crazy building to an explosion, the second an exuberant, bacchanalian picture of rock and roll excess.
Paperwork!!!!
Essay: Patricia’s Money Philosophy Series. Part I of IV: Budget
I believe in paying attention to your money. I think that how you care for it and what you
spend it on make a difference—not only for your own piece of mind, but also in
the context of the universe and energy and whatnot. Money ignored is money that won’t be around
for long. So here’s an incredibly long
and detailed four-part series about how I manage my money. To see the entire series look for the tag
“Money.”
system. I was working at Pizza Hut in
high school and I had three categories.
Savings, spending, and my favorite category: saving up for something good, which I called
SUSG. The percentages are hazy, but I
think half of my pay went to savings, and the other half was split between the
spending/SUSG category. I don’t actually
recall what “good” things I was saving up for, but I think they were items like
clothing that cost more than $50.00 or do-dads I bought from catalogs. Ah, the life of a middle-class teenager, when
everything is covered except for extras.
Still, that savings category meant that I could offer to kick in money
for my college education. My mother
suggested I keep it instead and use it to live off of. This was rather brilliant on her part as I
blew through half of it in a freshman freedom spending orgy. Unlike many
freshmen, nothing was spent on drinking or drugs as I lived on a dry campus,
didn’t drink and wasn’t into drugs. There
was, however, a lot of catalog buying. At the end of the first semester, I
found myself horrified at my spendthrift ways, reigned myself in and from then
on paid for most of my expenses while in college. Granted, my parents were paying my tuition,
room and board, and later rent, but I managed to work enough to procure my own
supplies, clothing and sundries and, when I moved out of the dorms, food. I kept an eye on what I was earning and what
I was spending and I think this was a good stepping stone for supporting myself
in my post-college life.
me.
& Robin. I also use the 50/30/20 principle
first proposed in the book All Your Worth
by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi.
Your Money or Your Life
teaches you to think of your money in an entirely different way and I feel it
is recommended reading, even if you don’t follow the program exactly as
planned. What YMYL does is teach you how
to personalize your budget to your spending patterns. Before this book, I would buy notebooks at
the store with pre-made budgets. I loved
them, because they had a sense of order, but I usually quickly grew
disillusioned as the categories didn’t fit me.
They always included a line for “childcare” that I didn’t need. I crossed it out and wrote in something else,
but the pencil line through the printed text annoyed me.
filled with categories I actually used.
I dropped the entire budget into an Excel spreadsheet and have been
using it ever since. Not the same one,
of course. Any time something changes
financially—every six months or so, but as often as every three or four
months—I revise the budget, changing amounts or sometimes even adding or
subtracting categories. My categories
are pretty detailed and split into several sub categories, see below for a
complete listing. Despite my
thoroughness, I believe you can have a budget with as few as five categories:
Savings, Food, Shelter, Clothing, Misc.
However, those categories are going to become unwieldy, unless you make
very little money.
idea of how I should be spending (and saving) my money. Before I read this book I would always wonder
if the amount I spent on groceries (or whatever) was too much. In this system, Warren and Tyagi propose that
20% of your net pay goes into savings, 30% is spent on wants and 50% is spent
on must-haves. They define must-haves as
the bills you have to pay month after month and wants as some fun money right
now. 20% goes toward saving for the future.
on saving and the firm, and large, percentage, I don’t want you to think that
I’ve got the plan implemented. However,
I just reviewed my budgets since I adopted the program and I can tell you that
since May of 2008, I have only met the percentage goals with two of eleven
budgets made during that time. So it’s
still a stretch goal for me. This may be
because I work a 32-hour week, but am still living as if I work 40.
garden supplies.
because my dining out category has been over spent a lot the last few months
and I think it’s due to the cookie habit I have formed. The food category as a whole has been tough
the last few years. I’m budgeting much
more than I ever have, but still struggling to keep expenses down.
I’ll talk more about how we handle the joint expenses later.
certificate program to add to my degree.
It has not yet gone away, but has been reduced to a minimal amount. The “house holding” category is for
maintenance of my household supplies.
Like a woman with a dowry, I bring all the kitchen stuff to the
relationship. I aim to take all the kitchen stuff with me from the relationship
if it ever comes to that and I don’t muddy the waters by buying anything with
joint funds.
garbage, electricity, water/sewer, yard, internet, saving up for big
appliances, joint savings, joint vacation, dates, household supplies,
furniture/decorating, cleaning.
housework completed.
was in my 20s. Now it’s all just one
thing.
transportation, but I’ve been lucky that my employer has provided a monthly
transit pass for the last six years. I
guess the “car” category from bills should go here, but I haven’t ever moved
it.
toothbrushes, shampoo and tweezers, etc.
things to do
until I spent a year pledging not to take any classes. Now it is only moderately overspent now and
then as I want to see more plays than I budget for. That said, it’s a very minimal amount
budgeted each month. I would love to increase it. “Random fun things to do” is
my general spending money each month. I
found it easier to lump the movies, the occasional book bought or entrance fee
paid in one category than to make separate categories for all of these items.
donation.
budget amount for Christmas.
met my three months of living expenses saving goal. But I like the historic flavor of it.