I have a lot on my mind right now since I got back from NYC. Three restaurant reviews, some travel tips and ideas. Some DIY projects. Just lots and lots of stuff on the brain.

Plus I seem to have alienated some commenters by being defensive about my house purchase, but I have some ideas about what to say on that account as well. You cannot please everyone all the time, but there’s no reason to say none of what I do matters if my parents helped me buy my apartment. I think it’s useless to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but to each their own. I do what works for me, a la JD at Get Rich Slowly. More later anyway.

Have a beautiful day! It’s sunny here in DC and surprisingly, less humid than NYC.

1) Dining out is cheaper than I thought. I had some banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) for lunch with bubble tea. It was $15 for two. Flipside is that I ate a really expensive sushi dinner last night, but it was pretty good. (Will do a restaurant review later.) NYC is a mix of expensive and inexpensive. It’s all about the choices you make.

2) There is a lot of non-air conditioning around town. Sure, lots of places have it, but there are many places that just don’t bother. (Ok, perhaps that is a Chinatown-centric comment.)

3) I love walking everywhere, no matter how much my legs ache.

4) My friends rock. I am having the best time doing nothing but walk around, shop and eat. I have failed to go to any museums, but I’ll be headed to the MOMA today.

Will have to make a tally later on when I get back. Today is just another relaxing day…

I’m going to NYC tonight. The ticket was $134.00 via Amtrak. I am bummed that I missed the coupon code from We’re In Debt. I saw it just a few days too late to get a discount.

It’s cheaper than flying since it’s a $25 cab ride into town from LGA, and I would have to deal with security lines. The train is most convenient and cheaper in that respect. The ticket prices are about the same.

I have pulled out $300 cash for the weekend, some of which has already been used up running errands, so I go off with about $260. The plan is to hit a few museums, go to yoga with a friend and just hangout, reading and knitting. Nothing crazy. No shows, no concerts, just some quality time with my girlfriends. It’s a little unplanned because my friend told me I should come up before she ends her lease soon and moves in with her boyfriend, which will make overnight stays more crowded. I realize there is no reason why I can’t spend more time with her. We always let too much time pass before we see one another.

I’ll be back on Tuesday. If I get near a PC, I’ll try to blog on Monday, but honestly, this trip is to get away and relax.

This is something old I wrote which I serve up to you since I have nothing else today. Posting will be slow for the rest of the summer. I am sure I will have a lot to say about finances when my annual camping trip is done.

EDIT: I have added my own post by request. Click on ‘disaster survival kit’ below.

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I think Miserly Bastard and I have better disaster survival kit lists than the ones suggested by WiseBread, but ours are a bit more personalized too. Plus we discussed our reasoning for our items and our commenters left really good suggestions. It’s food for thought if you want to make your own kits. Truthfully, I don’t like calling them ‘disaster survival kits’. I pop into my gear when the power goes out during a storm. That hardly qualifies as a disaster, but preparedness in an emergency.

In light of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita and meeting some more Homeland Security types here in DC, the one thing I would have to edit is the length of time for which you should be prepared without assistance from your government. Realistically, now you should expect to shelter-in-place for 2 weeks and have enough supplies for that duration.

For me, I’m running out to Luray Caverns to a girlfriend’s country house. I know where she keeps the key. Or else that goshforsaken place my friends have moved to (requiring 4WD). Turns out I know at least 3 houses on the mountain. Someone should be willing to take me in!

I am kidding, but it’s true. My list was based on the assumption of 3-days in place, or else fleeing the city as fast as I can in case of attack. I just found out that the nearest metro to my house is not Ballston, as I thought, but possibly the Pentagon City station. (Not the actual Pentagon station, but the next one over.) This matters because of the DC Metroblogger map. Just kidding. That’s peripheral to my risk assessment of another Pentagon attack. Like how good is targeting on a bomb or missile? Within 1 or 2 miles? I’m sure it’s better than that, but say if it wasn’t? I could be toast. (Whoa! I was going to add the link, but Maureen is no longer keeping it. That’s ok, Buckethead doesn’t live on the Yellow Line anymore anyway.)

I was talking to a friend’s husband recently. It seems that perhaps I’ve not covered the scenario where I would have to walk out of a disaster area. Will have to rethink my exercise and backpacking capabilities. It’s a bit extreme, but food for thought.

Ms. MiniDucky called me out in her post about loaning her parents some money for a new business venture. This took some time and soul searching for me. I don’t usually respond to direct solicitations for advice. I’m not an expert on financial matters. I’m not professionally trained, but I think she’s asking me because this is about family relationships and the link between love and money. This scenario takes filial piety to a whole different level. I keep editing out stuff about me and my parents, telling all, and then scrubbing it. It’s so damned PERSONAL.

Basic outline, if you don’t want to click through (but you should to get more info), is that she’s considering loaning her father some money for a new business venture supplying other service companies vs direct to consumers. Complicating it are some past intrafamily loans she’s made and her feelings about those loans, as well as her feelings about her own financial stability as well as that of her family. I wrote a good chunk of this post directed at ‘you’ but I actually mean ‘her’, Ms. MiniDucky.

(more…)

Seperating emotion from money is difficult. The trick for me was to get my emotions to work for my money. Saving money feels good. Getting a bargain feels better. Wasting money or silly impulse purchases feel bad.

Ain’t that the truth! She posted it in reply to a commenter on her Marketplace.org interview posting. FYI - Last I checked, it requires Real Player. I listened to it on the original broadcast. (I hate push media, so I refuse to use Real.)

Last Friday night, I went for a 10-mile bike ride with my laddie. He’s into keeping fit so he finally motivated me to pull out my bicycle and get moving. While I spent $40 on some new gear, I got it all on sale. Performance Bike Shop is near my office and a quick trip in there for gloves and shorts ended up with some very good discount shopping. I picked up a pair of Pearl Izumi gloves for $10 (normally $35), and a pair of in-house brand Century Shorts for $28 (normally $45). I also got a little GU since I wasn’t going to be able to eat before we left on our ride. Unfortunately the big sale was over yesterday, but keep your eyes out for an end of summer clearance sale. I am sure it’s just around the corner.

While we were riding, I got some great ideas for inexpensive dates around DC. Granted, we like to walk and ride and DC is wonderful for the amount of hiking trails and things to see. As much as I loathe tourists, I love living in destination cities like, Philly, San Francisco, and DC. Some of these ideas translate to other cities, just get a map and get to know where you live.

So here we go:

1) Grab a pizza to go and some drinks and do some plane spotting at Gravelly Point. You can see the planes fly in and out of Reagan National. (DCA) I am sure there is a spot where you can do that for Dulles, but I don’t know that area well.

2) Grab your bikes or sneakers and hit the Mt. Vernon Trail. Because it winds through Old Town Alexandria, get a sandwich or some picnic food at any of the stores there. There are plenty of clearings and picnic spots along the trail.

3) Head down to Old Town with a picnic, and watch the boats on the water. People watch the tourists and grab an ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s. There’s always buskers playing music, but beware the young guy playing the blues. He needs to smoke a few more packs of cigarettes before you can trust his wailing.

4) Rock Creek Park has some fantastic picnic spots with places for volleyball, horseshoes, sunbathing etc.

5) Walk from Lady Bird Johnson Park (RIP Mrs. Johnson) to the Tidal Basin and back. It’s a long hike, but then you can hit Five Guys for cheap eats afterwards and not feel guilty.

6) Watch second-run films at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse! (They already have Shrek 3, 300, and Spiderman 3) Take a pass on dinner or get something small, and order drinks and enjoy the show. (Disclosure, I used to work there and I still know some staff.) Get on their mailing list and watch for free passes and previews. (We saw Hot Fuzz that way. I nearly swooned over Simon Pegg, in the flesh!)

7) Catch some pomp and circumstance! The Twilight Tattoo or the Friday night parade. The Tattoo is at the Ellipse and the Friday night parade is at the Marine Barracks in Capitol Hill. Tickets are seasonal and mostly gone right now, but call your congressman. They may be able to expedite your ticket request. This may be the most expensive ticket since your taxes pay for this, but I believe it’s free to get the tickets if you make the effort. More information on military concerts is here.

Catch a high school musical. A lot of my fellow knitters are older than me with kids in high school. Every once in a while, one of them is in a show and I like to support their efforts. It’s usually around the end of the semester and tickets are generally under $20.

9) From reader MVP: I recommend whipping up dessert together at home as a great couple/date activity. My husband and I recently made strawberry shortcake that beat the pants off any dessert you’d pay $6 or more for at a restaurant. One Valentine’s Day, we made chocolate truffles, and last year, we made Christmas cookies.

What about you? What do you like to do that’s fun but cheap?

Highly focused on work lately so I don’t have much to say at the moment.

Two things though:
I am teaching my boyfriend to skip dessert. It’s lighter on the wallet and on the waistline. But the flan last night was tempting. La Lomita on Pennsylvania Ave near RFK, gets a big thumbs up for Mexican food.

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Thanks and welcome!

Sistah Ant asked me this and the short answer is, I probably don’t do anything since I don’t think I live very frugally at all. I think I deny myself very little in life that I really want.

Upon deeper reflection, I suppose these are the main things I do that save money or rather, I spend a lot less on these things than most other people:

1) I don’t own a TV. That means I don’t own cable. I don’t own a Wii, Gamecube, or Xbox. I don’t keep a collection of DVD’s. I even cancelled Netflix (Because I watched them on my snappy 19″ LCD flat monitor, which I bought with rebate.)

2) I have a reverse commute and keep slightly later hours. I meet my knitting group in the suburbs near work, so often my evening commute is in the pitch dark with no one around. I can drive whatever speed I want, which is usually about 65mph on cruise control on I-66. This gives me slightly better gas mileage than driving in rush hour and idling a lot.

3) I keep snacks at my desk. I actually don’t care for sweets, so I don’t buy a lot of candy from the vending machines at work. I keep Rice Krispie Treats and granola bars because normally I’d keep potato chips and Cheetos and get fat. I also like the treats and bars because they are individually wrapped with a long shelf life. I am mystified by the loaf of wheat bread at my desk that has not yet gone moldy but is slightly stale. It’s for PBJ. Either way though, I think this stuff is making me fat, but that’s something else entirely.

4) I drink soda, but I try to bring 12oz cans to work or else keep juice from the supermarket at my desk. This goes with #3, but you’d be surprised at how much cheaper and less fattening it is to do this. (I don’t drink diet drinks because they taste funny.) I also like to drink plain hot water instead of tea or coffee and I like plain tap water with ice. Water is good stuff.

5) I drink the crappy coffee at work. Well, I used to till I realized I can have posh Starbucks for $8/lb and make my own slightly-less-crappy-paid-for coffee. (Why does Starbucks taste so burnt all the time? Even the medium roasts do.) It’s also a lot cheaper than buying it from the cafeteria. It’s taken me over a month to drink this bag and I still have 25% left.

6) I go to the library. Not lately, instead I’ve been borrowing books from everyone I know. I just finished a vintage 1960’s edition of Goldfinger by Ian Fleming. It belonged to my friend’s dad. She let me borrow it if I took care of it. And I return the books in a sort of timely way, or try to. So far no one has told me that they won’t loan me a book again because I suck.

7) I am not a fashion plate. Not at all. I am Frumperella. When I dress nice, everyone notices. (Especially the really good-looking sales guy at work. I almost died in the elevator when he told me he liked my outfit one day.) It cuts down on the dry cleaning bills if everything you own is water washable. I make a point of water washing my silk knit t-shirts and take them to the cleaners only after 2 or 3 water washes. Along with this is that I air dry a lot of stuff, but not nearly as much as I could. The bedding and towels, they must be soft, fluffy and scented by Bounce. I try to wear things twice before washing.

I try to be mindful of what I buy. I saw a really beautiful pearl necklace the other weekend at a festival. I really wanted to buy it. But I didn’t. I got their card and I thought about it some more. I asked my mom what she thought since I really actually wanted to buy it for her as a present for Christmas. So it’s only ok now to get it after I decided I really had to have it and could not live without it. (It’s been on my mind for the last 5 weeks since I saw it.) Being mindful like this really cuts down on the impulse purchases.

9) I keep my hair in a very simple hairstyle. It’s long. It’s straight. I never blow dry it and it doesn’t need styling product. I cut it once a year or maybe once every two. I even tried cutting it myself to save money. (And made Single Ma faint.) I don’t stuff it with gewgaws, though I do own a couple of crystal hair ornaments for when I am feeling fancy. Otherwise, I think that stuff is designed to be lost and replaced. (Seriously, I don’t have any of the scrunchies I had in high school and maybe one or two from college. Where does all that crap go?)

10) I do my own manicures and I get at most 3 pedicures a year. I don’t go to spas and I am fortunate to have many friends who like giving back and neck massages and are trained massage professionals.

11) I buy stuff in bulk and re-package. I freeze stuff. I fill the pantry with non-perishables. This is kind of nutty for me as a single person, so I try to pay attention to unit pricing and what am I really going to eat. I try not to buy stuff that will ultimately get thrown away because I still firmly believe that wasting food is a sin. I don’t buy groceries often, but in the past year, since starting this blog, I have noticed that I throw out fewer groceries. (This may also be because I don’t have to go home every week anymore to take care of an ill relative. One of my rituals is to toss out everything in the fridge before I leave so it doesn’t stink up the place when I get back home.)

12) I don’t get home furnishing catalogs. I have everything I need and it’s reasonably attractive together. I have artwork on the walls which I have created, received as gifts, or bought cheaply. The most expensive piece I own is an original photograph by Leau Lau of Silent Light Photography for which I paid $300.00. I bought it during her annual Christmas sale and because she is an old friend, I cherish it whenever I see it.

13) Though I love technology, I am not a gadget geek. I have had MP3 players and cellphones, etc. Frankly, I know what my needs are and they aren’t that many. In fact, I really want a Motorola Startac again. I don’t really need the other crap on my telephone like fancy rings and cameras. I just need it to dial have a really good interface. The only reason I was considering an iPhone is because I am considering buying a laptop and hope that the iPhone will meet the need and cost me less. (And no, it sadly does not.)

14) I don’t own a lot of music or movies. I usually listen to public radio. It’s not that I don’t love music. I actually love going dancing, but I just don’t care to spend my money on recorded music if that means I can eat or go to a concert instead. (Lately I’ve been going to more concerts and spending money on music but still not as much as other people I know.) This also means that I don’t have a nice stereo either. But I am contemplating nicer speakers for my computer, which is how I get a lot of my music now. (Free radio on the internet, like somaFM or Theory Radio. ClearChannel sucks. Infinity Radio sucks. Most pop music stations these days are really terrible marketing behemoths that don’t play very good music and they don’t seem to care that people don’t like what they play.)

15) I know how to entertain myself. Amanda once inspired a post about boredom and shopping. I don’t shop. I don’t go near stores unless I need something. If I am bored, I hop on the internet, read, knit, spin yarn, call my friends, take a walk, clean my apartment up. Generally I can find something to do and there is always the default activity of just taking a nap.

16) I do not travel luxuriously. I was rather shocked to stay at the poshest hotel in Vieques, PR last year for my friend’s wedding. The resort she picked is, by far, the nicest hotel at which I have ever stayed and also the most expensive. (Scratch that. I forgot, many years ago I got a freebie at Pebble Beach through work, but that was only one night.) I am a budget traveler and I think I have more fun that way. I have been to Europe 4 times, Asia once, Canada and across the US by car, usually on trips subsidized/paid for in some way by someone else. Now that I think about it, I didn’t pay 100% for any of those trips (I was a student for two trips). The trips I take now are usually camping trips. But I want to visit all seven continents before I die. (Three down, four to go)

17) I have a small home. I live in 500 sq. ft. I have a modest car that is paid off. Both purchases were subsidized by my generous parents. All maintenance and upkeep is mine. Along with this is that I have nice stuff, but neither is it too nice, nor too inexpensive. My stuff is quality and serviceable, but not fancy. My home is not my castle and I don’t feel the need to make it fancy. It’s comfortable and it suits me.

18) I avoid consumables. That probably sounds strange, but I used to work in semiconductor capital equipment exports and that’s what they call it. Consumables are things you know you are going to use up, like filters, gaskets, lubricants, etc. Once I learned how much money goes into the purchase of wafer fabrication machines, the discounting and maintenance contract pricing, I understood how to save money. I try to avoid consumables in my life. For instance, I use scrubbing gloves for mechanical exfoliation instead of a shower gel with abrasives that runs down the drain. I don’t wear a lot of makeup. I don’t wear contact lenses. I buy toilet paper on sale. I try to use kitchen towels instead of paper towels.

19) I love thrift stores. I love garage sales. I love recycling things or re-purposing them. I treasure old things. That means I still have a phone in the house with a brass bell because I love the sound of that ring. I have my old Sony Dreamcube from high school as my alarm clock because it still works. Who cares if the plastic has turned a disgusting yellow? It still keeps time, wakes me up and gets the local NPR station.

20) I ain’t too proud to beg. My friends and family help me out when I ask. They have moved me in and out of residences and sheltered me in a pinch. They have helped me by giving me things they didn’t need anymore knowing I could use them. (Computer monitors/peripherals, dishes, furniture, yarn, etc.) Sounds cheesy, but Lean on Me is one of my favorite songs. My friends and family are amazing people and I have learned a lot of things from them about how to live responsibly, consciously, frugally. What goes around comes around and I try to lend a helping hand when I can.

So is that frugal? I don’t know. I don’t really think it is. Lately I’ve been kind of down in the dumps about debt and how little progress I seem to have made this year. The biggest change for me at the moment has been a concerted effort to keep some lunch stuff around in a secret fridge my team keeps at work. (The main fridge get swept clean once a week and they are ruthless about what gets tossed out.)

What about you? What do you think you do to live frugally? I don’t mean to make this some crazy meme, but I would like to tag a few people to do this since I don’t have all the answers on this one.

Tagging:
Frugal Babe
ISPF at Grad Money Matters
Experiglot at Experiments in Finance