Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

We are taking the off-road vehicle because we’re going to a beach that allows them. WHEE!

It’s not fuel-efficient to take this car, but in the name of fun, we spend extra.

My friends, Mr. and Mrs. Peanut, will be tying the knot on the beach. Very exciting stuff. Mr. Peanut and I met 5 years ago at work. He’s one of my totally awesome co-workers and I wish him all the best. When I first met him, he was kind of a freewheeling kid playing the field. Mrs. Peanut is really nice and I can tell they are going to be mega happy. My old boss will be there too! (He’s still Mr. Peanut’s boss. I left a few months ago.)

I have a super special wedding present for Mr. Peanut. It’s a gag gift, but it’s going to be great and it cost me less than 5 bucks! I’ll tell you what it is when I get back since there might not be internet access this weekend. (Rumor says yes, Gut Feeling says no.)

Have a great Memorial Day holiday!

Get over it. If you don’t like it, don’t drive. I mean it. Gas was 99 cents back in the day. It’s pushing 4 bucks now. Ride public transport. Make different choices on work. I don’t blithely say this either. I mean it because it’s what I’m doing right now.

I was sitting on the bench with an opportunity to work near BWI airport north of DC staring me in the face. That’s a 90-minute drive from the far side of DC where I live. It’s also a crap-load of gas. Unfortunately I’m going to have to decline working this job. It’s a year long commitment and man, is it going to get old after a few months.

I’ll pass.

But these are the choices you make with work. I can’t afford to be too choosy, else I’ll end up flying to Indiana every week instead. But I think I can do better than the airport across town and find something closer. I had my fingers on a gig south of DC. It’s not metro accessible, and I would still be driving to suburban hell, but I suck up the ~$4/gal charge on gas since the job is close to my friend having a baby. I hope we can have lunch together all summer with her new bundle of joy.

The way I figure things, my car has at most a 15-gallon tank.

$3.65 per gallon
15 gallon tank
————-
$54.75 per tank
1 tank weekly for 50 weeks = $2737.50
Divide by 12 = $228.13 per month

That should be my budget for gas for May. Later in the summer, when gas goes up to $3.90, I should budget $243.75. At exactly $4.00 a gallon, I should budget $250.00 even.

In 2006, when my dad was ill and I was going home all the time, I spent $1416.03 on gas. I was able to tank up for free at my parents’ gas station. A year later I spent LESS, $1410.39. That’s about $117.50-118.00 per month for the last two years. During the first 3 months of 2008, I spent $107.00 a month on gas. Not that much less. My alternatives to driving still cost me quite a bit of money. Metrorail in DC cost me about ~$41.00 a month.

It stinks to have to budget an extra $100-135 a month on gas, but realistically, it’s not that much for my fuel-efficient Altima. There’s a reason why those gas guzzling SUV’s are being handed back in. $350/mo for a lease payment, on top of $60-80 bucks per tank of gas, that has got to suck.

I wish I had more to say right now. There seems like there should be a lot but there isn’t.

1. I’ve been sick as a dog and working from home. Sleep is good. It’s put my wedding trip into jeopardy though. I’m afraid I won’t be able to drive to Jersey tonight. That would be traumatic as I have been waiting for this wedding for 11 years.

2. I decided that I really want to be able to go home to my apartment. I had a discussion with my boyfriend and neither one of us is ready to move in with the other permanently. I gave my friend a deadline of May 1st, not to be mean, but to motivate her in finding her own place. I suppose part of the reason was because of #1 above. I was really sick this week and I really wanted to be at my own home. Dorothy was right. There is no place like home.

3. In preparation for the drive to Jersey, I took the car in for an oil change and a brake job. I noticed something funny when I was stepping on the brake, but paid it no mind. Boyfriend likes to tinker around with his car and pointed out same funny sound to me, making me step on the brake in various ways to test it out. I am still waiting to pick up the car from the dealer and find out what the damage is going to cost. There is also a CV joint that is slowly leaking as well. I was told about it before, but held off on it till the calendar year changed. I vow to drive this car till it dies, but will it nickel and dime me to death in repairs first?

In measuring and deciding what to do about all these things, I am holding on still to a lot of cash for now. Cash hoarding seems like the best thing for the next 3 months as I have to attend 3 weddings.

Stop for a moment. Think about your life without ice cubes. Without cold beer. Without convenient frozen dinners. I perish at the thought!

A few weeks ago while I was home with my mom and dad, we were talking about breakfast. My mom has this prune and honey spread she and my dad like to eat on toast. I don’t quite know how to describe it. It’s basically some fresh onion pureed with some dried prunes. Then you mix in some honey and let it ferment for about a month. When you taste it, it’s sweet and slightly savory without the harsh bite of raw onion. Fascinating, but I also instantly got an allergic reaction to the fruit in it. My mom likes it because she can make it in small batches and put in an old jam jar and it keeps without refrigeration.

My folks grew up without refrigeration in pre-war Korea. Visiting the old farmstead where my father lived, it’s not hard to see that there wasn’t electricity running to the house. Visiting Korean Folk Village (kind of the Colonial Williamsburg of Korea with re-enactors, etc.), my mom clapped her hands with joy over an old provincial farmhouse which she said was just like where she grew up. I was agog at the huge ceramic amphorae buried underground for long-term kimchee storage. (Amphora is probably a bad term for them since they technically aren’t Greek and don’t store wine, but I digress.)

Years ago while on a work project, my sibling was working on a home in West Virgina for an old lady who had no refrigeration in the house. The resident still kept her perishable items in the cold mountain stream out back of the house. This was in the late 1980’s. I don’t know if that lady ever got refrigeration, but it surprises me that she lived that way. I cannot tell if it was poverty or a choice. Given the work project criteria for selecting homes to fix, probably the latter compounded by the former.

Conceptually, I think it’s hard for people to grasp what it’s like to live without refrigeration. I know there is a simple pleasure to popping open a can of chilled mandarin oranges on a hot summer day. (One of the few fruits I can eat.) I have been contemplating my mom’s onion, prune and honey spread for a few days and I can only think that the natural anti-microbial properties of onion and honey must do some sort of natural preservation.

Sometimes I like to think about how people lived without the modern conveniences of the 20th and 21st centuries. I try to appreciate what it is that I have and remember what is non-essential about life and living. Counting our blessings in a way, I suppose. Next time I look at a super charged Audi A3 fully loaded at nearly $35K, I will have to remember that I really don’t need a car like that. My Altima still gets me from Point A to Point B reliably.

That sounds like a harbinger post of something really fabulous that’s going to happen to me in 2008. But quite literally, I got some new turn signals for my car this year.

Either they’d stay on without blinking, or blink a few times and turn off, or not turn on at all. I tried to get through this for a few days till the weekend when a friend could fix it for me, when finally, it got to be too unsafe and too scary. I took it to the local dealer whom I dislike because of their class-action discrimination lawsuit for charging non-white customers higher interest on car loans. (I only heard about it as a potential person in the class, not because it happened to me. I bought my car in Maryland, not Virginia, but it doesn’t make me look favorably on that business.) I have avoided them for the last 4 years because of this but my own safety is paramount and usurps any other greater principle I might have. (Hence also my comment around MLK Day about there still being a lot of fixing to be done. There are still bad things that happen to us because we aren’t white, male, perfect English speakers, etc.)

In my desperation, I went to this shop anyway and they were able to fix my car as a walk-in at 4pm. I was able to pick up my car by 7pm, but I paid quite a lot for the work.

It was about $70 for the new assembly pieces for the signals themselves. Then it was another $150 for the labor, and an additional charge for the new Virginia state auto repair labor tax. Yep. Because my genius of a governor, for whom I voted, cannot get a steady stream of revenue for the state, he got creative and there was the stupid penalty tax on driving unsafely and some other new taxes like the auto repair labor tax.

If only my car aficionado friends had free time earlier in the week, I could have picked up the assembly piece and had someone install it for me for free or the price of dinner. I spent about $250-270, but my reasoning in not waiting any longer for someone to be available was that ~$250 is cheaper than $1000 deductible on an actual accident and any other increase to my insurance rates. Your own mileage my vary on this kind of thinking, but there you have it. One repair in 2008 that is still far less than a car payment.

Free Money Finance coincidentally posted an article on shorter commutes by Penelope Trunk, on the same day I said that a shorter commute is one reason why I switched jobs.

So if you have a bad commute, you are probably not very happy. And you should know that a bad commute spills over into all aspects of your life. Raymond Novaco, a psychologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine, found that bad traffic on the way home makes for a bad mood in the evening. This is true regardless of age, gender, income, and job satisfaction.

This was very true for me. I spent the last few months struggling with my office relocation so I could make it to hockey games on time or other events downtown. DC PF Blogger happy hour planning has been a b*tch to say the least. But it’ll be a lot easier with my new gig.

Honestly, I like to be prompt when meeting friends or going to an event. I know most of the times I am late to something it’s because either I didn’t want to go or traffic. It’s rarely anything else. I have the worst road rage feelings in my car on my way in and out of work. It makes me feel ugly and I find it very hard to unwind. I don’t want to talk to anyone for about 15 minutes after arrival. I need to rest alone, or sulk in my beer a few feet away till I’m ready to perk up.

People are very rude non-signalers in the DC area. They also drive faster than I like. Since I like to drive fast, this is really bad. If I’m going 70 mph already, I’m being passed as a slow poke at 80-90 mph. I move out of the fast lane all the time for some yahoo going crazy faster than me.

Truthfully, I think my commute in terms of time will be about the same because of overflowing buses, but I will get enjoyable activities back like walking (in the SNOW. Ok. That’s a yuck, but a winter hike can be fun!), reading, listening to music. Reading is a big thing to me and I am psyched that the bus will drop me off 2 blocks away from the library and I can hoof it home the rest of the way with a New Arrival. I love reading and I am excited to put the library back into my schedule.

Think about the cost of your commute in terms of dollars and psychic dollars. I know I’m saving money on gas, tolls and insurance by switching to the bus (which is potentially reimburseable). I cannot wait to knock down my car insurance to ‘pleasure’ insurance!

To elaborate a little more about my job and what I hope it will be:

1. I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint. I know it sounds cheesy, but I will be able to commute via public transport for my first engagement with this consulting firm. I find that pretty exciting to get a portion of my life back so I can read or knit while commuting. My corporate offices had moved in the last year and the new drive was killing me, especially when it takes two hours to drive past Tyson’s Corner at Christmastime. I wasn’t going to do that again next year. If you want to know more, listen to this Diane Rehm show episode about Happiness. The number one thing that destroys happiness is a long commute to work.

2. I hope that I can stay and grow with this firm for the next 5 to 10 years. I really loved my team at my old company, but to stay there for 5 years would have meant a transfer to the Midwest in a place where I would only have co-workers for friends at the start. (One of the reasons I spent so much on holiday presents for my teammates was because I knew I was leaving and I wanted to give them a token of my appreciation for their friendship over the last 4.5 years through the thick and thin times with our previous totally sh*tty employer to the awesome team we built at the new place.)

3. I am excited that there are great benefits with my new company. My old firm doesn’t even compare. Tuition, training, health insurance, 401k plan, corporate social clubs, everything. Discounts on cars, cell phones, computers, EVERYTHING. I bet I can join a warehouse club at a discount even. Hm. Must look into that.

4. The money is great. It’s a 6% raise over my total compensation from my last firm, but I know that I am more likely to become a 6-figure employee with the new employer. Whereas my old employer wouldn’t give my senior manager a 6-figure salary, though he deserved it, they’d never give me one as a technical minion. It’s actually more like a 16% raise over my base salary, and though I am losing my bonus money for 2007 and a tiny bit of 401k vesting, the present value of money on the checks between January 1 and bonus season payouts have more value. No, really. I can do the math on that since we were notified that we weren’t going to make our targets to get the full 10% bonus. So why should I have waited till bonus season.

That is all. Really, are there any other better reasons to change jobs? Someone asked me about changing jobs and the job hunt. Hang on. I’ll get to that later this week.

Please stay in your lanes. I watched an SUV swerve into my lane several times this evening. I suspect, the driver had been to happy hour, or else was totally clueless about the size of his vehicle. If you think I’m slamming SUV’s, guess again. That silver Mitsubishi Eclipse got me on the 495-Port of Wilmington split today. I was passing on the right (I know, that’s bad, but the lane was totally free and clear!!!) between the middle lane and the Jersey wall. For some reason, Mr. Sport Car Idiot swerves into my lane without turning his head to check to see if I am there. I nearly crash into the wall! Thanks bub.

At any rate dear drivers, today was an Almost No Spend Day. I only bought gas this morning and spent money on tolls. Gas at the local independent retailer in VA was $2.98 this week. I got gas on Tuesday morning. I stopped in again today to fill up and it was $3.01. The Citgo was $3.08. The DE rest stop I like was $2.99 STILL!!! However, I’ll fill up on the way back. Mom let me fill up tonight for free, otherwise it costs $3.13 at her station, per the nightly news, that’s about the norm here in PA.

The luggage I bought for Mom went over well. It was a $220 Samsonite 26" spinner bag in light blue. The link is for the “Aspire Lite”, but it was marked “Silhouette 8″ at the store. (It appears I could gave gotten a better deal on Amazon, however, I didn’t know what I wanted till I was at the store getting it. Bummer, but there is time-value to factor in. She needed the bag before our trip to CA for Christmas.)

Mom was very happy with the lighter color. She hates confusing black bags on the luggage belt at the airport, so blue suits her just fine. I think the bag is from a discontinued line from the outlet store. Along with the bag, there was a special deal on a huge sturdy tote bag for one penny so I got one for myself. However, I gave mom the penny tote too since she seemed to like it. I told her the roof was a no-go next year and that it’s very possible I won’t be getting any bonus since I haven’t heard from my director if the numbers look good. I will assume the near worst for now. (Worst being a RIF, but no word on that either and I’d be the last to go. Someone has to shut the servers down.)

Please expect light posting since I’m actually going to have some no spend days or almost no spend days this weekend.

CELEBRATE BUY NOTHING DAY THIS FRIDAY!

And with all that, please have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

How long is your commute?
Do you sit in traffic for long periods of time?
Does it bug you that you’re idling away all that gas and therefore money?

Well if it does, try this trick to save some money.

1. When you’re stopped, wiggle your wallet out of your pocket when it’s safe to do so.
2. Pull out your highest rate credit card and call your credit card company with your hands free cellphone.
3. Ask them to lower your rate!

Commenter Dean did this while driving home yesterday. He talked to one agent and asked about lowering his rate. They transferred him to a second agent who asked him what other card companies were offering him. He told them 2% lower APR. The second agent said they could do better and beat it by another 2% so in about 5 minutes he reduced his APR by 4%!

Give it a try! I might have to do this with my 15% APR card even though I don’t carry a balance on that one. Why not make all my rates as low as I can?

Who else can you call in 5 minutes to TCB? My sibling calls me while driving home all the time. Due to the 3 hour time difference, it works for us because I’m usually safely at home and they’re on Hwy 101 looking at pretty, pretty brake lights.

I love NPR. Today on Car Talk, they had a caller who had a dilemma about the car he drives. (It’s Call 4 on the link provided)

Leland is recently married and his two teen stepdaughters don’t like his dusty old pick up. He’s trying to get a Mazda Miata with a dent on the right door panel and a check engine light that comes on. He’s wondering if it’s worth fixing it up and getting it for himself and the approval of his style-conscious kids.

The priceless thing about the call was his philosophy on acquiring cars. He likes to take a drive in the country, find something by the side of the road, buy it for $500 cash and have it last for 3 years! I love it!

My Altima is going to die in my parking lot. I am not going to get rid of it. I can’t. I’m trying to squeeze out every last dime of value on the thing. My baby turned 7 years old yesterday. She shares a birthday with the US Marine Corps!