Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I’m sorry I didn’t post earlier today, I’ve been in training camp for work and without email access during the day. I’ll probably be spotty on the posts for the next few days for that reason. I’ll be lucky if I get to post at night.

The upside? I’ll have three No Spend Days. (Well, almost. I did fill up on gas on Monday night, but arguably that is mileage expense reimbursable this week, same for the tolls I spent.) One of the great things about training events are that meals are provided.

The other upside is that I got an iPod shuffle for free. It’s too bad since I hardly ever use the Nano I won as a blog prize a few years ago. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl and see if this suits my lifestyle any better than the Nano. I like that it clips to my clothes while I’m running.

Now, to respond to Deepali’s comment:

My problem is getting to the actual cleaning. I always find something else to do. How do you get ruthless about doing it?

I use a trick I learned from Stephanie Winston’s old book Getting Organized. I’m surprised it’s still in print, but I read it in high school many years ago and I still use this one trick all the time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who needs help getting organized.

She says to set an egg timer for 15 minutes. Clean hard for the full 15. If you want to stop when the timer goes off, then stop. If you want to keep on going, then keep going. I find that I can kick off a good solid 30 minutes of cleaning this way, if not a whole 60 minutes. It works for me because I can do the 15 minutes and stop guilt free, or keep going once I’m started. I used this religiously when I was an admin assistant because I hated filing. I would file in 15 minute increments once or twice a day and usually, that got it done. I even told my boss to try it since I wasn’t going to file his stuff for him. And it worked for him too.

I bought a bottle of yeast, a bottle of shampoo (with a $2 off coupon) and some bar soap. Total bill was $18.02 and the two ladies behind me in line gave me the pennies for the cashier. YAY!

As predicted, I didn’t do a whole lot on the holiday. I baked some whole wheat bread for me and a friend. (Which is why I had to get the yeast. I measured the flour out and discovered I didn’t have any yeast left in the pantry.) I spent the day doing chores, futzing around, knitting. The whole wheat bread takes all day to make. (It rises 4 TIMES!)

Sometime in the afternoon, boyfriend fixes up my bike and we discuss going downtown to the Mall for the fireworks. Let me tell you something, in the 9 summers I’ve lived in the DC Metro area, I’ve never been all the way down to the Mall on 4th of July. I hate crowds. I’m not phobic. I just like dislike people and crowds in general. I’m awful when it comes to leaving a hockey game. I race out of the stadium to the metro gates. I cannot get away from people soon enough.

But I’m game. I’m a little worried that I’m out of shape for this and the roads are slick from a downpour a few hours earlier. It’s still drizzling at 8:30pm and I’m wondering about brakes. I’m riding really slow the whole time to ensure my brakes will actually stop when I need them. The roads are closed everywhere so it’s actually a pretty easy ride to the Mall.

The fireworks are great. I’ve seen other fireworks up close, which I HIGHLY recommend. But these are beautifully done with special colors and super sparkly ones. I almost missed the red star at the beginning, but I caught it just in time. Very pretty.

Riding back, I almost get hit with a Roman Candle. Stupid kid is like 5 years old, shooting things across the street. ARGH. No, I’m not wearing a helmet, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Magnesium balls are white hot and would have melted right through. (Roman candle wars are dangerous stuff!)

I just don’t understand the appeal of spending all that extra money when you can run down to the Mall for free. It’s what we pay taxes for. Don’t get me wrong. I am a pyromaniac and considered get a technician’s license. But there’s a free show on the Mall. FREE. Why pay more and risk your fingers and limbs for some up close fun?

(Now if only I could find that Dutch PSA about fireworks safety. It’s two hands signing out the PSA narrative to be careful, but the hands are maimed. Missing fingers from an explosion. Very compelling.)

Every once in a while I have some money to buy art. Not all art is expensive either.

I don’t care much for knickknacks around the house because my apartment is so small. I have a few stuffed animals that I care about for sentimental reasons and some special figurines, but that’s about it. Most are just toys that could be thrown away if needed.

One of my favorite artists regularly shows her work at Artomatic. Her name is Geneieve Lynn of Jade River Studios. I bought a Chinese brush painting of hers many years ago at Artscape in Baltimore. It was for my mom for Christmas. While I was looking at her latest exhibit, I saw some cute small paintings of Chinese Zodiac animals. There was one of a rabbit that I kind of liked. It was reasonably priced in the frame for $30. It would be a cute picture for Father’s Day since my dad was born in the Year of the Hare/Rabbit.

For my father, there’s very little he needs right now since my mom takes care of everything. But I wanted to get him a small treat. In the past, there have been cashmere sweaters, golf accessories, hats, fancy raingear, and ridiculousness. More than anything, a token gift is best now since his stroke. I think a cute bunny picture for an empty spot on the wall is perfect.

Art doesn’t have to be expensive and I’m glad I could pick up an original piece of work so inexpensively. (There are small fees the artist pays at Artomatic, but nothing like a gallery commission.) Sometimes, you’re better off going directly to the artist rather than through a gallery.

ps- If I hadn’t bought the painting, I would have had a No Spend Day yesterday. Hooray for Almost No Spend Days!

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!

Very very mundane. There’s a lot going on at work, plus the holidays this weekend, so there was no post yesterday and probably light post for the rest of the week.

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I had a really fancy dinner on Saturday night, but on Sunday, I holed up in my apartment and ate frozen dinners for lunch and dinner. I just couldn’t get motivated to step out and go skating. I didn’t want to deal with the little kids and the chaos that is ice skating during a weekend public session.

I sold a pair of hockey tickets last week for $30, so I have a little cash in my pocket this week, but I’m going to try and pack my lunch. As the weather gets colder, I think soup and sandwich is best. I realize that last week I hardly ate my sandwich stuff at work because it was cold food and I was stressed out and would leave a half eaten sandwich on my plate for 3 hours. Hopefully it remains safe to eat this week.

I have also gifted out a pair of hockey tickets to a friend and sold yet another pair. I talked to the gentleman with the seats next to me and it looks like I will be able to sell another pair off in December. (Woo!)

I get paid this Friday. I’m doing badly on my paycheck challenge. Very badly. Ugh. Focus right now is to simply get the dental bill paid off and out of my hair. Next, I am thinking of stopping my FSA contribution next year to focus on debt repayment, but that will depend on open enrollment and the insurance plans available. I will put back my 401k contribution as well, but I haven’t yet decided what level.

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.

That was Friday AND Saturday!

On Friday, I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. I ran out of lunch meat. For dinner, my friend took me out because I am letting him crash on my pull out couch for the weekend. Since my friend is unable to work a lot of hours, he’s on a serious budget for this trip. (Death in the family.) We didn’t really plan to do dinner really cheaply, but my friend was looking at the crab cake entree or the down-home fried chicken at Logan Tavern in DC. I noticed the crab cake was also an appetizer and the chicken looked delicious to me as well. Earlier I had made some remarks about getting fatter since college. (We’re really old friends.) So my friend suggests that we get the appetizer to split and then ask to split the entree. It was a really good idea. Since he’s picking up the check, I get a delicious meal guilt free without having too many calories.

Because my friend needed a sweet treat for dessert, I passed on Thomas Sweet ice cream because parking in Georgetown on a Friday night sucks. (Honestly, is it any better than Coldstone’s Cake Batter ice cream with almonds and caramel?) Instead, we stopped at 7-Eleven and got a pint of Breyer’s Butter Pecan ice cream. I feel bad I didn’t have any chocolate syrup at home. That would have been cool. So my spend on Friday was $2.04. That’s $1.99 for ice cream and a nickel for tax.

On Saturday, I was working all day for my friend’s dad and his barbecue catering business. She called me last minute because they were in a huge pinch. I ain’t too proud to wear an apron and get a sunburn on a gorgeous Saturday. My friend drove me back and forth. The only things I bought were some groceries on the way home. I needed some cookies to take to a christening party on Sunday and I found a few dark chocolate bars (70+% cacao) for me and my boss. It was about $15 at Trader Joe’s for everything. I netted out very well since there was a little compensation. More than I expected and I got tasty bratwursts to take home.

Sunday wasn’t a No Spend Day. I had yummy brunch before the christening and I had to buy some bandages for my feet because of the heels I was wearing. My feet were killing me. Brunch for two was $33 and bandages and tape were about $10. Even so, that was pretty good. No groceries for me this week as I am not going to be around much to eat them. I will be living off my pantry this week and paying my oral surgeon a fat chunk of money.