Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I suspect this year my Month-Over-Month net worth growth will wind up being negative in December. There’s just too much going on for me right now with my medical expenses and overspending. I have had one too many splurges over the holidays.

I had a nice comment the other day asking me to update the NetWorth IQ graph, which I have done. I haven’t been home a lot, and that means I have been spending money out the wazoo. Because I waited so long to do it, November represents a very accurate picture of my finances. Usually I do not wait for my HELOC statement to come in before doing the update. I often just estimate it because it arrives so late.

I ended 2006 with a net worth of $34K, even. This year, I will end up around $48-49K, $50K if the market does better. Like most people, I took a serious hit this November as the S&P stagnated. However, I did use this as an opportunity to buy up a little Citigroup stock as a long-term hold generating dividends. It does not appear that they will cut their dividends any time soon, so I am relying on the depressed price to bring me good yields over the next decade. Yes, I hope to have it that long.

Examples of my holiday splurges:
1. Theater tickets
2. Super nice Christmas presents for my co-workers. Over $20 each.
3. Shopping with my friends and realizing, “Hey, I need that too.”
4. Baby shower gifts

The theater tickets were worth it since it was a play highly recommended to me by my boss. The super nice presents are for my team, because they’re great people and I spaced out and didn’t really get anything for them last year. (Remember we’re old friends from another company and we’re all going to the wedding of one of them next year. We’re those kinds of friends. Of course I wouldn’t normally spend money like that on co-workers, but they are good friends.)

Shopping with friends, well, that’s the kicker. What have I been buying? Lightbulbs, a toilet seat, thermal underwear, kitchen tongs, and winter dress gloves. We were at Home Depot, Target, and a discount store. Nothing crazy. The only thing that I think I would have bought anyway are the lightbulbs and the dress gloves. I ran out of the bulbs at the house and I have decided that my ski gauntlets are a little too utilitarian for wearing off the slopes. Yes, I need a new toilet seat. All my guy friends complain that the seat does not stay up so finally one of them said to me in Home Depot, “Why don’t we get one here and I will install it for you?” It’s kind of hard to argue with that, and I can’t believe that we spent about 15 minutes trying to pick one out. (White painted wood with plastic hinges for $13 bucks.)

Two of my knitter friends are pregnant. I feel very odd in terms of equity about what I spend on their presents. I am much closer to one than the other. Because we are doing an informal shower at our knitting group, I feel the need to have the exact same present for both of them, and therefore have not bought anything from their registries. I just got two of everything. It’s very dull, but I’m working on a special gift for each one of them that has personal value so I really dislike spending any more on top of the time spent on the special gifts.

Ok, that’s enough of my boring spending report from this weekend. But it’s pretty obvious to me that I don’t buy much stuff because I simply stay out of stores in my free time. I guess I spend all my money dining out and buying books.