Pay day … not the good kind

The 16 has become the day of the month I dread the most: the day my credit card bill is due.

I’ve never had a credit card before. This whole “buy now, pay later” idea is completely knew to me.

And now I’m trying to buy a computer?

I know there’s a way to finance something, but I have no idea what that actually means.

At least I’m managing my credit well, I haven’t missed a payment yet. And since that’s all I’ve been using as opposed to cash and my debit card, it’s a good way to look back at where my money went.

I actually haven’t gone too far over my budget this week.

Yeah, TOO far over is a good way to put it …

Does the budget even exist?

Like a tree falling in the woods … if no one is around, does it make a sound? Kind of the same scenario with my budget. If the budget is never met, does it even exist?

Seriously, what’s the point of a budget if I don’t actively practice to limit my spending?

I mean I’ve tried a few things to combat the areas where my money is wasted most: carrying my own coffee to school, cutting back on trips to the bar (luckily house parties filled that void well), living without air conditioning (I’ve cut my bill to 1/3 of the cost, yay!)and making more of my meals at home, saving leftovers for lunch. I even endured a week of eating every last remaining perishable item in my home before I could buy fresh groceries.

(Actually, this last bit was sort of fun, and quite innovative. On the last day of my waste-not week, I was faced with chicken, oatmeal, a few softened mini peppers, a mandarin orange, and one expired egg. However, probably one of the better meals I’ve concocted. I’ll link the recipe and give Taylor Made Meals a run for its money.)

But my efforts only made room for “rewarded” spending. I’d pick up a latte during breaks between class or grab a snack from the convenience store near school.

Plus, Halloween was just the other weekend and I HAD to accessorize accordingly to complete my Snooki outfit. Twenty bucks well spent, I say.

Regardless, the budget has become more of a joke than a priority. Maybe it was too extreme of a change. Maybe I was just too spoiled and don’t have the self-discipline necessary ti curb my habits. Or maybe I’m just a busy, struggling graduate student.

Yeah, I’m gunna go with the last one.

Eh, I guess that’s all art of the battle.

Ugh, OK, I guess I’ll give the budget another shot.

Thanks, Dad.

Budget = Shambles.

Yes, shambles. While I believe I am making progress overall, based on the limitations I have set for myself and that I am continuing stretching my finances beyond their means, my budget is in shambles.

So the day after my last blog post, I spent the remaining $7. As I look back through my credit card activity, Community Foods Connection claimed $6.34 of my money on Oct. 20.  Over the course of the following three days, I continued to overspend by upwards of $35.

(Yet AGAIN!)

That wouldn’t be too horrible if I didn’t take into account the – eek! – $85 I spent via debit card throughout the week. (To be honest, I stopped counting when I reached that point…)

So where does that put me? I don’t really even know because math was never my forte. But I know that means I have A LOT of making up to do this week. I’ve pretty much already dipped into my next week’s budget.

Luckily for me though, I received a care package from my parents just before the weekend. I had asked my mother to send me some books and a few other items I had left back at home. (This is the fourth time I have called her to ship items to me, and I’m sure it ain’t cheap since most of the packages are weighted with books. But, she never complains, just always asks if there is anything else she can throw in there while she’s at it)

However, this time around, I got a little more than I asked for. Inside the package was a small box of money that my father had added when my mother had given him the package to mail out at the office.

Looking back at my childhood, this is usually expected of my father. Thank yous became superficial over time. I vividly remember the sight of  $20 dollar bills floating from the balcony where my father stood down to the base of the stairs where my brother and I playfully pushed each other to claim them.

While it didn’t rain currency everyday, episodes like this were not infrequent.

In the past, it always seemed as though these moments were altruistic. Which yes, in some way they were. It would later surface as though it were a bribe, or a threat, so that I felt compelled to ask “How high?” whenever my father said to jump.

But after a few months of counting pennies – well, trying to at least – and tracking my spending habits, I became chocked up at the sight of father’s generosity I held in my hand.

Maybe it was because money has never before felt so indispensable to me, but for the first time as far as I can remember, my father had offered financial support without strings attached. And I’m sure, for the first time as far as my father can remember, when I uttered the words “Thank you,” it was honest.

For now, the money sits untouched, unspent, untainted.

I will continue to struggle with my finances on my own. Perhaps it will be in case of an emergency, but I will only choose to spend that money on something that my father would have been proud to contribute to.

Maybe I’ll put it in the bank.

The budget wins again, but not by much …

After somewhat of an abandonment of my budget this past week – I went over around $35 – I decided to go back and take a look at my spending habits prior to my implementation of a spending limit.

Since I arrived in Arizona on August 9 up until I began my budget – well blogging about it at least – on October 4, I have utilized my funds as follows:

ATM Withdrawals: Almost $1000, of which, around 4 percent was spent on withdrawal fees because I did not always choose to withdraw from my bank’s ATM.
Coffee: $40, mostly to Starbucks but I shared some funds with Fair Trade Cafe
Dining out: $400
Groceries: I was spending over $100 to $130 a week on groceries, and some weeks, I visited a second time to spend another almost $50

In the few weeks that I have began my budget, I have spent just under $100 on groceries the entire time I began including supermarket visits in my budget.

Excluding the $280 I have provided as my budget – I can’t make it on $80 a week just yet s I bumped this week’s budget back up to $100 – my debit card purchases added up to around $85.

Eh, not too shabby.

I may not be there yet – because $7 remains from this week’s budget, this might not be the week that I will actually make it – but I’m getting there, slow and steady.

My Andrew Jackson is in a better place

I cheated. I slipped. I cracked.

Whatever you want to call it, I exchanged my $20 bill for some momentary sustenance and now have a few Washingtons to show for it.

I burned the midnight oil the past two nights and had suffered a case of heavy-lid syndrome in my classes. I made every effort to up the caffeine in the morning and even tried to make it home in between classes, but a class ran late, and some last minute edits on my homework inhibited me from making it back for some quick TLC with my coffee maker. So yeah, Starbucks claims almost half the remainder of my budget; Two $4.53 double shot venti iced coffees – go big, or go home, right?

Exactly.

I already broke, so on my way home last night, I stopped for some snacks at the convenience store around the corner.

And since water just wasn’t doing it for mt thirst today, I grabbed a $1.25 diet soda from the vending machine as a reward for my 13-hour school day.

So lesson learned as my actions will not go unpunished: I will cancel my plans to attend a nationally-ranked haunted house this Friday, that would have cost the entire $20. And since my fiscal period doesn’t start until Saturday, I’ll implement some tough love and just suck it up.

My homework would like to thank me in advance.

The lonely $20 bill

It’s Monday night, and the $20 bill remains intact.

Largely due to the fact that I got a chance to return home in between classes and down a few iced coffees so as to curb the effects of caffeine withdrawal.

Leftovers from last night served over brown rice provided for tasty mid-day meal and the snacks I had packed the fridge with helped to combat any quick trips to the vending machine.

This experiment is getting easier, and more rewarding – figuratively speaking – each day; my budget success has inspired some of my friends to hop on the $100 week bandwagon.

So far, it seems they’re failing miserably – Whitney has already dropped a third of her budget, and Lindsay said she’s too scared to assess the damage she’s done in the past two days. They even said they didn’t include the cost of things they purchased early Sunday afternoon.

It’s only Monday, get it together, ladies.

As for me, the spending demon is lying dormant for now, but I do face each day fearing that my inner shopaholic is going to strike at any moment, damn the budget to hell, and indulge in some much desired retail therapy.

However, that day was not today, and with a little determination, I can make sure it’s not tomorrow, either.

Then again, there is that whole renter’s insurance issue… but hey, that’s what credit cards are for, right?

Bills were meant to be paid, who knew?

The accountant at my father’s company often reminds me of something I said when she had held on to some of my mail that had been delivered to the office address.

I took one look at the stack and immediately slipped it into my father’s inbox.

She was confused. She had set the mail aside for a few days now, until she had been able to return it in person.

Anything addressed to me in an envelop with a window on the front looked official, I told her. All my life, envelopes that were addressed to me through a that thin sheet of cellophane were deemed for my father, so I had always added them to his pile of mail – a habit that I have apparently not broken since moving to Arizona.

While daddy is in New York, I still subconsciously set official-looking items of mail in a separate pile, and don’t give it a second thought.

That is, until my lack of attention span got the best of me one day and I inadvertently opened an windowed envelope addressed to me – an act that feels like I was eating the apple from the tree.

So as I waited at my house for my friend Lindsay to finish getting ready so we could head to the grocery store, I entertained myself by opening up some mail that had been sitting on my counter for what could be around two weeks.

It appeared to be from, what I vaguely recall, my insurance company.

As soon as I read the first line, I knew this wasn’t good.

 

Not a good day

 

As I continued reading, I learned that I had neglected to pay my premium, I had ignored the cancellation notice, and now was living sans renter’s insurance.

At first I grew furious, by no means had they contacted me prior to this.  My gaze paced as I thought this over for a minute, and then it caught my eye – the almost foot-tall stack of mail, newspapers, and various documents atop my fridge.

 

Bills, bills, bills

 

Among past Internet bills, bank statements, and a notice from my apartment complex, I came across these notifications my insurance company had spoken of.

As I opened each one, I learned I had received a detailed outline of my policy and a bill for the first month. When that went untouched, they sent me a second notice of my overdue payment. The third notification was to inform me of the potential cancellation of my policy if I did not pay the minimum payment.

That was due September 22. I opened the cancellation notice on October 10. Needless to say, I’m a little late. And since it was Sunday, I wasn’t even able to call the office.

When I waited to call the following morning, I neglected to note the time difference and learned via an automated recording that the offices had closed early because of Columbus Day, or a shareholder’s meeting, I wasn’t too sure – I pretty much stopped listening after I heard “our officers are closed for the day.”

And just as I was starting to get a handle on my spending, an agency wants to be paid for the services they are providing?!

Don’t they know I’m on a budget?

I guess I’ll give them the head’s up tomorrow…

New week, new challenge

So I was able to round out my week with spending only $6.39 on lunch as I only had 30 minutes in between my last class and a mandatory lab observation on Thursday.

Friday, I gave up my weekly alcohol-infused release and stayed in to do some work and cook some dinner. I had some frozen beef chunks and cubed some chicken to simmer in the leftover sauce I had. I added some steamable frozen corn  – quirky, I know, darn good, though. A tomato and avocado salad completed my meal.

Even though I broke a little bit on Thursday, I still considered Saturday the first day I actually had money to use after four days of battling my desires to spend.

Because I went over my budget, I decided to only take out $80 this week, (directly form my bank’s ATM to avoid any extra charges) and see how well I could apply all the tough lessons I learned this week.

So what’s the first thing I did?

I immediately took my four crisp $20 bills across the street and picked up a $3 and change venti iced coffee from Starbucks and $2. 57 whole wheat bagel from Einstein’s.

But because I only need to spend under $11.42 each day to maintain my budget, I took the hit and enjoyed my breakfast.

Saturday night, a friend’s invitation to a political fundraiser fulfilled the void of my much needed break – food and drink were provided with the purchase of a ticket that he so generously paid for in exchange for me to accompany him.

Old fashioned cocktails, blue martinis, and keg beer specifically crafted for the event by a local beverage provider wet the whistle, and homemade vegan-friendly (Yay! Lactose free!) hor d’evours satisfied the appetites of the party go-ers.

A friend picked me up after she got out of work and we briefly met up with some other people from school before stopping at McDonald’s on our way home.  Not having a Big Mac since St. Patrick’s Day (yes, I actually remember the day), I splurged $5 on value meal number 1  and shared a bit with my friend.

I was just under my daily limit with $10. 57.

Sunday morning I woke up quite happy with myself to see the presence of multiple larger bills in my wallet, but not too content that my fridge was basically bare.

So I planned out a weekly meal schedule and made a list of the necessary groceries to make it happen, and headed to the nearest Safeway.

Originally I planned to shoot for keeping the total under $25, but after the frozen vegetables, chicken, and ground turkey tallied almost $2o, I bumped my budget up to accommodate the bare necessities, crossing a few of my favorite but non-instrumental items off my life. The sacrifice was worth it, my total Safeway trip came to $41 and change.

After all was said and done, and I paid back my friend the $9 I owed her, I’m left with one $20 bill to get me through the next 5 days.

This week's budget

The $0 day

(Disclaimer: While I swear that I did not purchase anything today, I did have to pay my internet bill yet, I firmly stand by my creed of a no-spending day because:

1. I paid by credit card.
2. Today was the due date.
3. I am not including necessary survival expenses: utilities, cable, internet, and garbage collection fees (a required monthly charge per my lease) because if I were to calculate the total, that would cut my budget to roughly $45 a week, and let’s just face it, I’m not there yet.
4. These are monthly charges that could be paid at anytime. I simply chose to wait til the last minute, but doesn’t everybody? However, calculating a total for these monthly fees is an organizational necessity I aim to look at in a later blog post.)

That being said, I am 65 minutes from my first zero-spending day!

To be honest, this has not been the toughest thing I’ve had to do. In fact, I had a more difficult time learning the ins and outs of WordPress. What’s even more sad to report – and possibly a revelation of my inability to fashionably commit – I had a harder time deciding what to wear this morning.

Regardless, the mission is complete.

As I returned home from school around 3 PM, I brewed another large pot of coffee to curb my urge to spend. (As I continue to write these blog posts, I notice my attendance at caffeine-aholics anonymous meetings may be in order. Thank goodness they’re free.)

Because I intended to have some friends over for dinner (Yep, I was even able to entertain company on a $0 budget), I skipped lunch and planned an early supper. My frosty coffee beverage was enough to hold me over, and because I utilized products I had reserved for special recipes, I was able to preserve my depleting edible resources in an effort to deter a premature trip to the grocery store. Plus, the saved calories were an added bonus.

Tonight I concocted homemade tomato sauce with spicy turkey Italian sausage and sliced sweet red, yellow and suntan mini peppers. To serve over pasta was optional.

Because the chopped onions and fresh garlic I used in the sauce and the peppers were perishable items on their way out, this evening’s meal prevented food – and my money – from winding up in the garbage.

Luckily the meal was a big hit with my friends, and I even had leftover sauce to make for a tasty meal at a later date.

So despite the internet bill mishap, I’m categorizing this at my first small step to successfully achieving financial independence.

With only two more days to go, the glass is looking on the full side.

A little progress

Wednesday is not starting off too bad.

I’m seven hours into my day and I haven’t spent a cent!

Thanks to the extra sleep my snooze abuse granted me, only the one iced coffee I made this morning seemed sufficient enough to make it through my school day.

But I underestimated my attention span and found myself seeking caffeine immediately following my first class, which let out about 20 minutes early. Utilizing the extra time, I walked the 15 minutes home to grab a snack – oatmeal – and down my second over-sized mug of iced coffee of the day.

The brief refuel of body and mind probably kept me from spending additional $7 or $8 over my budget.

On my way out, I grabbed the leftover Powerade Zero I had bought the night before in hopes this would battle any hunger pangs that occurred before I was able to make lunch.

I returned to school on time – shocking – with enough caffeine and sustenance to last through my class and a few hours beyond to allow for some extra time to spend on homework before returning home, yet again, for lunch.

In the future, I think I’ll look into purchasing a large thermos so I can brew a hefty pot of coffee each morning and stock it in the fridge at school so I can make an iced beverage anytime I feel the urge. That will have to wait for my next fiscal period though, as my depleted funds will not allow such a luxury to be purchased this week.