Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Yes, being away from Quicken for the last 60 days has been a very serious problem.

I just found out that I am eligible to participate in the company’s stock purchasing program. This means I can buy company stock for a fixed discount and pay little to no fees for the privilege. I thought I wouldn’t be able to sign up till July 1st, because I wasn’t employed by the company on January 2nd during the last sign up period in 2007. (I didn’t start till a few days later.)

Quick like a bunny, I signed up electronically so I wouldn’t forget. Unfortunately, I signed up for 10% of my gross paycheck in my excitement to sign up without going home and carefully budgeting what I could afford to save. (One of the minor reasons I took this job was because of this juicy opportunity to purchase stock at a discount.) Later on, I realized this means I am now saving 10+% of my pre-tax salary and 10+% of my post-tax salary. AND to top it off, my next paycheck will have an extra $200 taken out for Myanmar and China aid charities. EEK. My take-home pay for my next paycheck will be uncomfortably low.

*GASP* I might not be able to make a ginormous credit card payment of $1000. Boo-effing-hoo, right?

I know. There’s a lot of folks out there sweating bullets over finding a job after graduation, or feeding their kids, or buying gasoline and I’m crying because I won’t be able to pay down my credit card faster.

What I’m really trying to say is that I miss my financial planning software and if I didn’t have some sort of idea of what my monthly expenses were, I’d have NO CLUE that I was saving overzealously and would need to figure something out for short term cash flow issues later this month. (Geez. Is there such a thing as an “impulse saver”? If not, can I take credit for coining the term?)

I think I’ll end up ok since I have a CD expiring soon and I still have some stimulus package money left over, but I’m going to be hoarding cash till after 4th of July when I’ll be able to get a good understanding of what’s happened the last 2 months away from Quicken and a few paycheck cycles buying in on company stock.

N.B. I forgot to post this last Friday.

I’ve successfully been able to budget all monthly fixed expenses into one semi-monthly paycheck. That includes more-than-minimum payments on two credit cards.

Because of my stimulus package payment and some squirreled away savings, I’m able to take almost one entire paycheck and put it towards credit card repayment.

I still can’t nudge the Debt-O-Meter, but at least I’m moving forward on the credit card debt after the set back of a $5K BT for the bathroom remodel/ceiling replacement.

The bathroom is looking pretty sharp though. Almost done. Almost.

Here’s a few more thoughts on the matter.

#1: HC made a great point about waiting for your first paycheck to arrive. Sometimes, you get caught short for a month when you start work because you’re waiting for direct deposit to kick in, etc. I’m rethinking how I budget stuff due to changed pay cycles. I used to get paid every two weeks, which meant I got the fictitious ‘bonus’ check twice a year because you end up with three paychecks a month in two different months. (My stance is that it’s not a bonus. You worked 80 hours for it. It’s yours.) With my new job, I get paid twice a month. It’s taking me a while to get used to it since it’s a radical departure in how I manage my finances. I used to give myself an allowance on paycheck Fridays, but now that payday is a floating day, I have to pay closer attention to my cash flow, lest I run out of money in my checking account. (I generally keep very little in my day to day checking account.)

#2: Remapping the lunch plan. I work in a place with a plethora of food options. However, I have noticed the pricing on lunch is MUCH MORE expensive than before. Because I had access to in-building cafeterias at my old job, the pricing was rather low. Because they were self-serve buffets, I also could control my spending and my calories by dishing out exactly what I planned to eat with no waste. The new dining options pose a HUGE problem for me since I can no longer exercise stringent portion control. This doesn’t seem like a huge issue, but it is. Before I could eat a complete and balanced meal for $4. Now I usually spend about $7 and it’s too much food or else not very healthy. The guys at the office are conditioned to get $2.50 sandwich specials from the local supermarket, but I hate sandwiches and have a preference for hot food. Long term, this will be an issue. I will eat more and spend more. (And no, I will not be packing my lunch. My evening plans are often so variable that I cannot count on cooking anything to take to work the next day.)

#3: 401k plan. Because much of my company’s HR is self-serve, I’m having a devil of a time signing up for the 401k plan. I’m going to have to spend some time making phone calls to get that figured out. Annoying. This also means that instead of the 6% I initially planned to contribute, I have to bump it up so that I can average out 6% over the course of the year since there will be at least two checks with no contribution at all. Frustrating, but not insurmountable. I only mention it because it does represent a kink in my SMART goals.

#4: Public transportation is not reimbursable. I was hoping for this. Most Federal contractors in DC will provide Metrochecks so you can get Metrocards (farecards) as a tax-sheltered benefit. Apparently, that is variable at my company depending on the contract terms with the client. So at this time, I’m spending the equivalent of gas money in Metrocards at the increased fares that began in January 2008. Because of this, I’m thinking I might keep on driving to work as the parking garage fee is only $100 a month and that’s equivalent to Metro. I’ll have to crunch the numbers, but sadly, reducing my carbon footprint might still be a pipedream. (I don’t plan on taking my motorcycle to work in pantyhose. Are you nuts? My co-worker and I were talking about taking our bikes to work, but seriously, it’s a bad idea for me.)

#5: Medical FSA contribution problem. This year you can contribute $5100 a year. Going back to point #1 and the shift to semi-monthly paychecks from bi-weekly, I will now be contributing a lot more to FSA per paycheck. Instead of $192 a bi-weekly check, it’s more like $250+ semi-monthly. I get paid more overall, but since I only have 20 more paychecks left in 2008, I am going to have less cash per check than I initially budgeted.

#6 Medical FSA reimbursement problem. I already had my big surgery this year before my benefits card arrived. Now I have to send in forms. It’s going to be a while for a check to get sent to me. It’s annoying, but at least I am not suffering for the money right now. I could have delayed surgery further, but the timing was good to get it done early during my job transition while my project ramp up was delayed.

So that is all for right now. Sorry for the randomness of this entry, but I’ve been dwelling on these issues in the back of my mind the last few days without much chance to write them down. It’s half a post for you and half a TO DO List for me.

But if you need a quick budget worksheet, Michelle Singletary has one at the Washington Post. You don’t need to log in. The link is direct to a PDF file, which you can read for free with Adobe Reader.

It’s fairly comprehensive. I admit, I hate budgets and I usually use the budgeting tools in Quicken to help me, but I am starting some financial counseling volunteer work and so I’m reposting this primarily as a quick link for future reference. I will make a permalink for it on the sidebar one day.

I’m still crazy busy with training, but in a good way. I’m surviving with the help of a lot of caffeine.

Max out the 401k or pay down debt? (It’s Dilemma #1 in that story)

For me, that’s been my struggle in deciding what to do about this dilemma in 2008. Because clearly, I put a lot of money into my 401k plan in 2007 and hardly paid down debt though I did a good job tackling the dental bills which my insurance declined to cover instead of creating more credit card debt.

So dear readers, I understand that I should both save and pay down debt because I can. Now my problem is that I want to know if I should max out the 401k or not. Matching is all well and good. Basically with matching, I can save 12% of my salary with the minimum contribution to get it. That’s easy. My problem is that to get a grip on all that credit card debt and still live without racking up more debt, should I max out at 20% at the beginning of the year and ease off to have lots of cash to pay off debts in the second half of the year? Hm. That’s a new strategy I hadn’t considered yet. *ponders*

Goal Plan A:
1. I could max out my 401k contribution at X%.
2. I could halve my credit card debt in 2008 with ~$750-800 a month in payments.

Goal Plan B:
1. I could put in the minimum to get corporate matching which would still save me about 12% of my salary annually.
2. I could put $1200 a month towards credit cards.
3. Build back my Emergency Fund to $4k.

*******

I simply hate budgeting. I only hate it because I can’t keep track of what I actually spend. Even if I pay for it all by credit card and download into Quicken, I still seem to lose track of stuff. I am trying as best I can to move simply to paying for stuff with cash or by debit card only. Budgeting, as a discipline doesn’t actually bother me. I think I make enough and realize how I frivolously spend money to know I can stop buying stuff and not feel deprived. Heck, I checked Quicken and in the last 3 months, I haven’t bought any yarn for me. I didn’t even notice it. (2007 Rhinebeck spending was either ‘Gifts Given’ or ‘Vacation’ budget line items in Quicken, and not ‘Crafting’. The handmade soaps I bought there went over well with my knitting group last night.)

Now, I have to wait till my 2008 paychecks start rolling in, but I think I can get all my monthly fixed expenditures down to one single paycheck. (I usually get two per month.) That means, I can divide the second check in two parts. About $600-700 more to credit cards, and the rest into my pocket to spend on everything else, the variable monthly expenses, savings, etc. so I don’t rack up more credit card debt. Is this a better budgeting path for me?

I dreamed that scenario up because I wanted to see how I could make Plan B work. I am having the absolute worst time figuring out what to do.

The only good thing is that all of this includes doing laser eye surgery as built-in cost for the year with Medical FSA funds. Without question, I have the money for it. My last dental crown will be about $1000, but I’ve decided to wait a tad longer so I can get my teeth whitened first.

I spent nothing on Thursday. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Nothing!

In the morning, I had enough gas to make it to work and back. I pushed off tanking up till just before I leave on my road trip on Friday.

I brought soups from home for breakfast. They were BOGO Progresso soups from the supermarket the night before. Lentil. Yummy.

I ate a Lean Cuisine frozen dinner for lunch with a slice of bread. Steak Tips Portobello with broccoli. One of my favorites.

I had a can of Pepsi I brought from home.

I had some leftover SPAM fried rice for a snack before going to a volunteering gig.

I walked to the volunteering gig.

I came home and made more fried rice to use up the leftover half of the SPAM. That makes dinner and breakfast on Friday!

WHOOPEE! Finally, a complete No Spend Day.

This is great as I have budgeted $100 for my share of the hotel this weekend, $100 for gas (to be split with my friend), $30 for tolls, $100 for food and admission for the NY Sheep and Wool Festival. I think I could come under $330 as I am also planning on taking snacks to the hotel. We have a fridge available so there’s no need for spending a lot on food. We’re taking ourselves out for a fine meal on Friday night, but the rest of the weekend will be fast food, fair food, and whatever we bring with us. I’m taking some Pepsi, Soup to go cups (if I can find a microwave) and snackies.

I’ve been really good this week and yet, really bad. Thursday was another Almost No Spend Day. I forgot to mention that I do spend money daily on tolls to and from work. But that doesn’t really register since it’s automatic. An overview of teh week.

The Bad:

I bought an “In Your Face Dave Ramsey” $4 Pumpkin Spice coffee at Starbucks yesterday.

I also bought a $2 tea at Starbucks while I was knitting.

I had to buy gas ~$25, but I chose not to fill up at the super expensive station near work.

I ate at the new cafeteria at work since we relocated and wanted to check out our dining options. $15.33 for two meals with extras like snacks to take back to my desk.

The Good:

I went to a concert and dinner for free, courtesy of my laddie.

By not filling up my gas tank completely, I waited to fill the rest of the way at the really cheapo gas station near my house. I see they dropped their price by $.02 a gallon this morning, beating the station near work by $.07. (On a full tank, that’s nearly a dollar. So mental note, the best buy really is near home.)

By bringing sandwich fixings and drinks to work, I could choose to eat in the cafeteria, but lightly. I also fixed myself something to eat so I wouldn’t buy dinner at Starbucks or the expensive but delicious Italian restaurant next door.

Through a volunteer gig I have, I am learning about “Step Down Budgeting”. This means easing into budget changes and building better spending habits. For instance, I really dislike sandwiches for lunch. I prefer hot meals. By trying to bring my lunch to work once or twice a week, I’m not going cold turkey on buying lunch every day, nor am I feeling deprived because I’ve cut myself off the hot-turkey-open-faced sandwich-with-gravy gravy train. Currently with turkey sandwich fixings in the fridge, I can choose to buy lunch or choose to be frugal and fix lunch. When I am motivated to keep practicing frugality, I can pack more lunches and cut back on buying lunch even further. Step Down Budgeting is about making choices and moving towards cutting the budget gradually so you don’t feel the pinch and do a 180 on budgeting. It’s to keep you from setting up for failure because it’s all too easy to say “I hate budgeting because it doesn’t work for me. I can’t keep a budget.”

Oh, so how did I do this week on lunch? Well I got the bread and turkey cold cuts on sale. The Muenster cheese wasn’t on sale though, but my co-worker likes it and sometimes I share my food so it doesn’t go to waste. I ate all the turkey and cheese and have half a loaf left of bread waiting for next week. I plan on having a PBJ today for lunch. I also had about a quart of potato soup from earlier this week. I brought in some Pepsi I bought on sale and a can of tomato soup, which was a very nice add-on to the cold turkey sandwich. (Did I mention I like hot food?)

Food is the bane of my budget. But slowly, with Step Down Budgeting, I’ll get there.

Do you have any examples of stepping down slowly to hit your budget targets?

I love the Washington City Paper. I was at the Yarn Harlot book signing event last night. As I waited for my friends to get their books signed, and deliver her a beer, I flipped through the paper and found a lovely ad on page 49.

Financial and Credit Literacy Day
Hosted by the Washington Area Community Investment Fund

Saturday, September 29th
9am-4pm
Kellogg Conference Hotel
Galludet University
800 Florida Avenue, NE
Washington, DC

RSVP: 202-529-5505

FREE ADMISSION and FREE PARKING!!!

The financial literacy seminar/workshop list looks very good. (link goes direct to an Adobe PDF file) There are seminars on targeted to teens/youth and women. Topics include Small Business Management (including federal contracting), Homeownership, Selecting a Mortgage, Managing Foreclosure, Credit Scores, Budgeting and Consumer Rights.

The ad says, “Bankers and housing counselors available all day.”

I do not know very much about this organization, but they do have an impressive list of sponsors. They were formed out of Arlington with the help of the local Catholic diocese, which if you don’t know, has one of the craziest liberal parishes in the US, St. Charles Borromeo. I actually have worshiped there because one of my closest friends used to attend. If you know their ministry, they’re very into social justice, often to the chagrin of the archbishop. I mention this because St. Charles is very active in low income housing initiatives in Arlington County and I could definitely see them supporting an organization like this.

It’s technically a non-profit loan fund, with 501(c)(3) status. I’m going to look into investing in it.

Read this daily meditation by 3 Things About Money. She writes a pretty good blog and this post caught my eye because I think I’m having a lot of anxiety about money lately. Scratch that. I KNOW I’m having a lot of anxiety about money lately.
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Mapgirl does not cook. She CAN cook, but she does not like to cook for one and so rarely cooks. She uses dining out as an excuse not to hide in her apartment from the rest of the world.

Getting that out of the way, I am actually a very decent cook. There are a few things I do really well, like a full-on Thanksgiving dinner with homemade cornbread dressing. I can do it with my eyes closed at this age. But I leave the candied yam recipe to my mom, she likes the little marshmallows on top.

Korean food is a challenge for me. I can cook it at my mom’s house, but I really am not interested in slaving away in the kitchen to make all the little side dishes, plus the smell of kimchi is not so nice when it pervades the entire apartment. 500 sq feet isn’t hard to air out, but I’d rather not have my bedding smell like food in the first place.

This post was inspired by a dining budget disaster at Make Love Not Debt. I totally feel for you guys. Your post inspired this little rant of mine.

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