Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

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.

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.

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!