Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Friday night:
Tickets for 2 to the Making Time show in Philly: $36 (bought on debit earlier)
Drinks for 2 (two cocktails, two beers, water, juice) and tips: $30ish
Tolls: $15ish

Boyfriend paid for my dinner and my share of gas and SUV rental. There were 5 of us and I weaseled out of driving duty, thus forcing us into a rental car, which was $30 per person.

Saturday:
Lunch: Leftovers of Chinese food
Sushi dinner: $33 (on credit because I left my debit card in my other clothes)

Sunday:
Wendy’s: $10.08, lunch for two
Dinner: boyfriend cooked for me

It was a lot more than I expected to spend on Friday night. I really hoped I’d have more money leftover, but that’s what I get for not driving my own car and collecting gas money. le sigh. I have a sedan that will fit 5 people, but for some reason I waffled on driving so it forced us into a situation where we had to rent a car. (Epileptic friend has sold his car, another person is too young to rent, third person is an incompetent driver, leaving only my boyfriend who has a two-seater. Thus, we rented.)

On Sunday we aborted a kayak ride out on the Potomac because it was an hour wait for a double kayak. But that would have been $10 an hour for the double.

I’m left with $57 for the week in cash. That should hold me over till Friday since I have no special plans this week which will cost a lot, but I’m not sure. We are taking someone out for lunch on Wednesday before he leaves for India to get married. I think I can if I really try. I plan on buying gas with debit card, since that is what I usually do. And I also need to buy some buttons for yet another baby sweater.

Went to the drive-in again on Friday night. I bought the tolls and tickets into the show. ($4+$16=$20) Boyfriend bought us a whole 16″ pizza pie, popcorn and drinks. ($25ish) I also bought a drink for the road trip back. ($2) FWIW, lunch on Friday at work was free because of a group presentation.

Saturday I picked up my sewing machine refurb and it was $96. Spendy, but worth it. You can buy a whole new machine for $150, but it will be cheap and yucky. This one is a test refurb on a used machine I bought from a friend for $20 when she moved to Oregon. If I think the work was good, I will take them my precious vintage Singer.

Later there was a trip to the flea market and a $4 ironing board (No rust!) but nothing good to eat for lunch, so I snacked before going to a barbecue. I went to a barbecue for my old boss and bought some birthday cards ($6) and a gift card ($25). I also bought boyfriend take out dinner for $10. (Oh those annoying neighbors had a party with full on amplifiers so he had to bring the dog over and stay overnight. The yummy place we like to eat was closing and he didn’t go to the barbecue with me.) Boyfriend mailed a package for me for ($8).

On Sunday we ate brunch at Bistrot Du Coin which boyfriend picked up. ($30, because I am a pig who had salad and pate de campagne. Boyfriend had an omelette only. No drinks.) There was cool drive in the evening to Crystal City for a Chipotle dinner for $16. Boyfriend bought tasty Coldstone ice cream for $10 while we sat under a nice wisteria arbor and watched a pretty fountain. (It’s a really romantic spot. I highly recommend it for a date. The same neighborhood has Jaleo and Legal Sea Food and some other fancy and not so fancy spots for a variety of budgets.) I also picked up some dog food during the day for his dog for $21. (IAMS fancy stuff.)

There was spending every day and a lot of stress of running around etc. The drive-in showed Wall-E and Batman: The Dark Knight. Both worth seeing. We got a lot done, but maybe not enough.

This weekend was boyfriend’s birthday, but there wasn’t really time to go someplace nice for dinner. We also couldn’t decide what to have, so we’re going to put that off till he comes back from his trip for work.

I pulled out a huge allowance on Saturday morning. More than usual, but I have a few social events coming up. First, I got two rolls of quarters for laundry and dropped off my dry cleaning and got a 20% discount. Then I drove to two different shops to get one of my out of commission sewing machines back into shape. (Not that many places fix them anymore.)

I got gas for 13 cents cheaper per gallon while I was on my errands. I bought lunch for boyfriend and me on Saturday, along with a bottle of wine. ($33. Boyfriend bought a spendy dinner the night before.) After lunch, I hit Target and stocked up on laundry detergent since it was 10 cents an ounce. (But WHY doesn’t Target post unit pricing?! I had to whip out my calculator on my cellphone.) I also bought a few new bathroom items to match the new decor, including a bathmat, squeegee and toilet brush. I put this stuff on my Target card (and I’ve scheduled the outgoing payment already).

I found about $20 dollars in cash in my pockets while I was doing laundry on Saturday afternoon.

We skipped out on a house party on Saturday night, saving ourselves time in the car and gas money. (Plus we heard the next day that the plumbing backed up and people were going outside. Glad we didn’t go!)

Sunday we hit the market. First was lunch for about $25 (split between me and boyfriend). We got a crabcake sandwich and a fresh haddock sandwich with sides and drinks at Eastern Market from the lunch counter. The haddock was expensive, but I have wanted to try it for a while. It’s a $10 sandwich, but it’s an entire deep fried filet. It was moist and juicy inside, and crispy tasty outside with lots of hot sauce in unmarked bottles. I’m glad I got it, but I’m not sure I’ll get it again since it was so expensive. I also bought a little loose sausage meat for 75 cents for a lentil stew later this week, and a brownie ($1.50). Outside, we purchased some corn ($2) and fruit ($4) and headed over to the DC Waterfront for shrimp and clams ($20 total).

I started out Sunday with about $65 and I came back with $23 and some change. Not too bad for the day.

All in all, a good weekend. I finished a knitted baby blanket, washed some clothes, gathered some stuff for eBay and cleaned my apartment a bit from the mess of construction. I have $100 left for the week.

Today I have $24 in my pocket. I’ve been more parsimonious with my cash lately. I just spend less on lunch. At any rate, I have $24 for the next two days. Since lunch will be provided on Friday by my office, and I’m not planning on having dinner out on tonight (maybe a beverage though after the Frugal Duchess book signing).

$24 is more than plenty till Friday. I started out the week with about $25 in my pocket (meaning last Friday when I usually give myself pocket money). I had a bagel/cream cheese for a snack on Saturday and a really delicious Chinese dinner Saturday night with a friend. I paid by debit card and she gave me cash ($18). I took out another $40 at the grocery store on Sunday and stayed home all day to bake bread for dinner on Tuesday. I bought lunch Monday - Wednesday at work but have managed to eat at home or at a friend’s all week. Most weeks, I would have dined out at least three times, and I have. But two times were at the home of a friend. (Cost, 1 loaf of homemade bread!)

There’s half a tank of gas in the car and I usually pay that by debit anyway. Knowing I have a bunch of social events next week, I will probably take out my usual $140, but I wonder how long I can make that last…

Here’s to a lackluster 4th of July. I have a 3-day weekend and will NOT be taking advantage of it.

Most likely I will be cleaning the dust out of my condo and sleeping in a lot.

There might be a fireworks show if I can find a decent spot for viewing. A bike ride perhaps. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival for a day. Maybe even a minor league baseball game and blogmeet. (/me waves *Hi Ted!*)

If my friend is around, I’ll run over to her house to continue a quilt I’ve been making since March.

I have neither time nor money this year for a summer holiday. I went to a wedding earlier in May so I shall work like The Ant all summer. I ain’t no Grasshopper.

1. My old company’s 401k plan finally rebounded back to $24K this week. It’s bad that I haven’t rolled the funds over, but I like the international funds available to me there. I think I will wait a bit longer to do the rollover though since I’d like the balance to rebound back up to about $27K before rolling over. (I prefer to sell and move the cash. Then I can reallocate.)

2. I think I’m going to donate $100 each to Doctors Without Borders for Myanmar and China as a one-time donation. My company is doing a matching donation, and gratefully, no one in our China division has been directly effected by the earthquake.

3. The awesome Thai restaurant near my house will substitute tofu in my favorite curry. I swear, I opened the box and it looked just like chicken. The texture was different, but I needed the visual illusion last night. I *almost* ordered meat for dinner, but I’m still trying to eat meat only once a day.

4. I had lunch for $1.05 on Monday. That was for a small soda at McDonald’s. For some reason, boyfriend got some free chicken sandwich coupons in the mail. All I had to do was walk into a store with the coupon and redeem. Very easy. I have one coupon left for a breakfast sandwich. I’ve had them before. They’re really greasy so I’m not sure I will get one, but it’s nice to know I have a freebie if I’m hungry. Maybe I’ll give it to the next homeless guy I see.

Usually I give myself a little allowance every week for lunch and general pocket money, about $100-140. I put gas on my debit card to track in Quicken. The allowance covers most of my weekly expenses, including a few dinners or beers. If I know I’m dining out, I’ll budget $140. If not, more like $100.

Now here’s the thing. I’ve had lots of cash leftover the last few weeks. It’s good, but it’s weird to have cash left over.

I’ve been going out a lot less and I guess it shows. Good thing because I need it.

As far as the construction goes, I budgeted about right. I am sure the final bill won’t be a killer. I’m holding about $4K in cash reserves, which is WAY more than I need, but should cover any overruns that might crop up.

The contractor won’t be done till next week when I’m gone for a wedding. So he’s not going to do the walk-through with me till after the holiday. Too bad for him, but good for me since I get to hang on to my cash all the more.

He’s definitely found a good deal on a granite countertop for me and I get to look at fixtures I might want. It’s nice to have a cameraphone and snap photos of what’s appealing. We’ve traded a few emails so I’m not constantly running around to view samples of things. I’m very clear about what I want and we always confirm by photograph. I think that’s very key with being satisfied with a construction job.

So far so good. It’s been about 2 months since I’ve been in my apartment. It’s been about 3 weeks since work started. One more week to go till it’s over, and another half week till I get to sleep in my own freakin’ bed.

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

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Seriously, this isn’t that interesting, but here goes:

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The Almost No Spend Day post got posted 4 times because there were some issues with WordPress and my domain today. I’ve deleted the three extra ones tonight when I realized what happened.

Yes, Single Ma, I find that it’s easy not to spend money when I hide in my apartment. But a girl has gotta get out of the house every once in a while and throw down on the dance floor like nobody’s business. If all goes well with my upgrade, I’ll be grooving out to Carl Cox in a few weeks… Uh, that’s after I go to another yarn show at Rhinebeck. I had a great time last year and I’ll be going with my friend who is showing her goats at the competition. Four to a room and we’re packing food with us. Nobody feels a particular need to blow the budget. We’re planning one fine meal together early on so that my friend can do her livestock association events without us. A little planning goes a long way here.

*yawn* Time for the sleeping now.