To make a person go on an alcoholic bender!

I was waffling about stepping out tonight. An acquaintance of mine tends bar in Silver Spring, which is very far from my office. But since I have to work an emergency patch upgrade tomorrow night, I feel that it will be best to do it with a hangover tomorrow.

Tonight, I am committed. Hopefully the drinks will be heavy pours and I keep it down to a minimum. I’ll have to tip the bartender nicely though. She and her pals usually throw in a few free drinks as well. I plan on taking the metro as the DC cabbies are on a half-hearted strike tonight because of Mayor Fenty’s decision to move into the 21st century and finally get some effing meters into the cabs here. Whatever, you jerks! I’m taking my chances with the Metro for 4 bucks!

I spent all day in crisis management. I ate breakfast at home because I was logged in early to watch some stuff. Then I had a ham sandwich at my desk in little bites all afternoon with a SODA. Great horror of Halloween horrors! I spent $1.25 because I really needed caffeine and an ice cold Coke to cope today.

I will make myself another peanut butter sandwich before I leave the office, shoving a Rice Krispie treat into my pocket to nosh on later. Maybe I’ll have some bar food, but really, it was so bad today, I’m feeling like a liquid diet is best.

Addendum:

You know it’s going to be a crappy day when you roll into work late and see someone walking the parking lot who never takes a walk. She looked like she was going to cry or kill someone. It was hard to tell which.

There was one good spot today, in the form of a phone call this morning from someone who has been blowing me off all week. A small victory.

This is an advisory. It’s going to be ugly.

I added my dental bill to September’s net worth, which is why it’s down. However, this month, I had a major maintenance bill for my car, so even though I paid $800 down on the dental bill, I didn’t have enough in reserve to cover the car repairs. Onto the credit card it went.

*sigh*

I almost don’t want to look.

But I’ll let you know in a few days what the finally tally is after the month fully closes.

I went grocery shopping this week to cut down on the dining expense. Hopefully that will help. But I also know that I went to Target this weekend and stocked up a lot on stuff like laundry detergents because of a special coupon I got in the mail.

As we head into the holiday season and enjoy today’s holiday of gluttony, I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on the abundance in my life.

During my regular knitting gathering this week, we were talking about S.A.B.L.E., Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy. For those of you who don’t knit, ’stash’ is your yarn stash from which you can pull to make projects. It’s your warehouse of yarn. For many women, building stash is a comfort. It’s saving yarn for use in the future, like a quick knit baby sweater when you don’t have time that week to run to the store to buy a baby shower gift or pick up a specific baby yarn. For other women, it’s just plain old hoarding out the wazoo.

In 2007, I’ve purchased very little in the way of new craft items. I think I’ve spent less than $150, whereas I might spend $400 in a typical year. Last year I realized that I needed to stop buying yarns and fiber because I spend a lot of time blogging and no longer craft like I did before starting MFC. My stash is overtaking my small apartment.

One of the knitters, Lanea, is on a book buying moratorium this year because she realized that she and her husband have way too many unread books in the house. I know that I could read every book I have in the house and not buy a new one for at least 2 or 3 years, if not more. And that doesn’t include what’s still at my mom and dad’s house. That’s probably another 2 years’ worth of books.

A friend called me one night recently and I started to futz around and clean up my closet. Ostensibly, I was looking for my sweaters since we had our first hard frost of the season on Monday night. But really I was culling my clothing. A storage box of sweaters turns into a box of t-shirts and shorts for the winter and that means a quick inspection of my drawers and closet racks for things that can be donated to Goodwill. I realize that I have lots of spiffy clothes for work, but I was choosing not to wear the silk shirts and sweaters because I didn’t want to spend the money to dry clean them. And yet, I am loathe to get rid of them. Finding them was finding a new wardrobe for work. What is the cost of cleaning them when it saves me money on buying new clothes?

My friend on the phone asked me how many pairs of shoes I had. I thought this was a trap because he’s a guy and I’ve been accused of being Imelda Marcos. But I felt better when I guessed 30-40 and he said he had the same. (I am now going to have to inventory them for my own satisfaction.) As I told him my guess, I was staring at a pair of boots, thinking of the Baby Phat pair that Single Ma wants. My boots are old and out of style, but they’re still in reasonable condition. They will last me another year. Frumperella isn’t going to mind since these boots won’t turn into shoeboxes at midnight.

If you look around your life will you find what you need within the possessions you have? Think about that because at its core is an assumption that you can discern your needs and wants and separate them like sheep from goats. Do you have unacknowledged abundance in your life? Will finding it help you re-prioritize your spending in the next month?

During the winter season there’s all kinds of propaganda about peace on earth and goodwill towards man. There’s pap about transcending material things and putting other people first. It’s all b.s. since everyone goes into a gift buying frenzy. Everything seems like such a damned good deal so it’s ok to spend on yourself a little while you spend on everyone else. But that’s a false correlation. It’s not ok to spend on yourself if it’s going to break your shopping budget.

If you think before you shop about what you really have in your life, you will see that you probably have plenty. I write about material things, but I know the same principle of hidden abundance counts for immaterial things as well. I have my life, my family, my supportive friends. For the first time in many years, I can say have good oral health. My cup runneth over and I didn’t even know it till I stopped to think about it.

I would like to thank all the readers who commented on Megan’s quandry.

Yes, she really does need $15K worth of work. Her dental work is very similar to mine and the price itself is not very negotiable, but many of you advocated a second opinion and finding a dentist to do the work paying as she goes. I totally agree. I didn’t shop around, but like many of you, I had a dentist that charged me as I went along, instead of a fat deposit up front. I am glad someone had something good to say about Capital One financing for dental work. I simply have no experience with it since I tried very hard to save for the work once I started my lucrative current job. I ran out of excuses, got over my fears, and still put money into retirement! (YESSSS!)

More than anything, I am glad you guys are supportive of Megan and her motivation to take care of business and balance that with managing her money properly. She’ll have a nice smile after the work is done, but not much to smile about if she’s suffering under debt from her dental bills.

Mine are killing me, but I’m down to less than $1600.00. Two more $800 payments to go, and I’ll be able to contribute to my 401k again! WOO HOO!

NPR had a charming story of a couple who got to stay at the Palmer House for the price it cost back in 1947! They were married 60 years ago and celebrated their honeymoon there. For their anniversary, they paid ten dollars verifiable with a receipt Mariam Orenstein had saved in a scrapbook!

Many years ago, a friend and I took a road trip across the US. The one receipt I regret not saving was for this killer chocolate cake. It was a huge piece of yummy cake and it cost a ridiculous 85 cents a slice. It would have easily been $6.95 at any cafe in DC. I think it was in South Dakota, but I can’t remember now, SINCE I DIDN’T KEEP THE RECEIPT.

At the very least, they make nice decorations for scrapbooking. I used some of the receipts on the trip because the address was printed on them or the date and it helped to cement the memory.

Of course, other forces intervened to destroy the scrapbook, but c’est la vie. I still remember that cake.

One of my readers (Megan, not her real name, but one she chose) is having major work done on her teeth. She is asking your advice.

It’s going to cost an estimated $15K total because she, like me, is having dental implants done. Now her dentist seemed like a swell guy, until it was time to sign off on the treatment plan and pony up $6.5K for the work. Then he kind of had a fit about putting down the deposit before any work could begin. Now readers, do you think paying for half the work before it starts is normal or sketchy? Should my reader find a new dentist or not?

Her financing options are “Care Credit or Capital One Financing”. Neither one of those things mean anything to me because my dentists charged me for each piece of work as it was done. Therefore my “extended payment plan” was based on when I chose to have work done. Because I am choosing to spread out my work over three years, I saved with medical FSA in three tax years and then paid out with a combination of FSA, insurance, and out of pocket.

Personally, I think it’s weird that he’s asking for money upfront when work has not commenced. I can understand the dentist wanting to get paid for his work, but I think she should see another dentist who charges patients as they go rather than ask for a whole honking chunk of money upfront. Seems to me he cares more about his pocket that about the patient’s oral care, but that’s just me and my totally awesome two dentists.

FWIW, the reader also told me her crowns were going to cost $2K each, whereas mine cost between $900 and $1000 each. (Fluctuating by year likely due to the rising price of gold, which is what permanent crowns are made of, even under the porcelain.)

Thanks in advance!

Alrighty. I am dragging this post out of my draft archives. I wrote it a really long time ago. But since Plonkee tagged me to write about if I was debt free.

You have to understand though that this is just some homesickness on my part more than it is about debt.

If you asked me what my financial life would be like, this would be easier on me emotionally.

1) I’d max out my 401k Contributions again.
2) I’d save for a Roth IRA.
3) I’d bulk up my emergency/get out of DC fund.
4) I’d get laser surgery on my vision. (Which still might happen! I’m going to refurb this body before I turn 40 dammit.)

But here’s the original post I had written. Reading it serves nothing but to make me sad, which I suppose is why I hadn’t posted it last spring when I wrote it.

(more…)

Nick of Punny Money was our fabulous host (boys can be fabulous too!) on the Red Line Metro. Cleverdude was also in attendence as well as Mrs. Micah and one of my friends who had a question to ask, but never got around to it. He was too busy telling me dead baby jokes of appalling humor. I suffered through it because he was giving me an old set of speakers for my new laptop. YAY!

Anyhow, I was really glad to see some familiar faces and to meet Mrs. Micah for the first time in person. I have to say I really liked her Sausage Lentil Soup recipe. It inspired me to make my own version this weekend in my crockpot. YUM!

I will post my variant this week. Hooray for Mrs. Micah for helping me cook more often at home. I really it need it this month.

Ah. Fine Media Temple. It’s lovely. Sort of. The Grid Server hosting my database for WP was down. Not sure why, but after 36 hours or so of downness, it is upness again.

I am not sure how I feel about MT. The reviews about GS are a mixed bag on the internet. So if you are a blogger considering switching, do keep that in mind. Uptime really matters. I still got 6000 unique hits this month though, and that’s a good thing. It’s always nice to have a goal.

Sorry I am posting this a day late. I got sucked into work and forgot.

My company default enrolls new employees into the 401k plan. They sign them up to 2% so they get 1% matched, however, with the new year, the default enrollment will be 3% with a 1.5% match.

The main reason for doing this is to get greater plan participation across all levels. Apparently there is a 401k compliance test that’s done to ensure that the 401k plan is utilized by the entire company instead of just the highest income levels.

I had no idea there was a test till my boss and I got a mysterious email about the test, followed by a friendly email from our delightful CEO. How I do love calling him that!

Anyway some other really cool stuff:

1. I can now defer up to 50% of my salary, which means I can front load all my contributions for the year. “Invest early and often” as the mantra goes. That means I can taper off my contributions at the end of the year. Beyond 20% plan limits for the tax benefit, any further income deferred into the plan is still taxed, so most places don’t recommend actually exceeding 20%/$15,500 for the year. But it’s nice to stuff all the money in early.

2. For people who are automatically enrolled at the default rate, they will slowly increase your contribution rate by 1% annually till you hit 5%, and max out the corporate matching contribution. This is kind of cool, but I’d hate it if I were really young and needed the cash just to pay my student loans at 7-8% interest. Reitrement is great and all, but I kind of resented Safe Harbor clauses in the first 403b I had in my first job. They took 7% when I could scarcely afford it! And they wonder why I left that job early. Harumph.

By the way, if a company chooses Safe Harbor, they no longer have to do a compliance test.

Anyhow, this is just another alert to be on the lookout for changes in your plan and to make sure you know what’s out there in terms of plan options and features about which you may want to inquire.