Living Paycheck to Paycheck

I’ve been pretty good about not buying random extra things for myself for several months.  My mom bought me a bunch of clothes (with Dad’s money) back at the beginning of May, so I haven’t felt the need to spend.

Until the last couple of weeks.  I finally got my free new phone from Verizon, an LG Black Cherry, but they know what they’re doing with the extras.  I bought three new ringtones (my last phone had one that I purchased), signed up for the monthly insurance (even though I’ve had a cell phone in one form or another for over five years and never needed a replacement, something niggled at me that I should be safer than sorrier), and…alas…signed up for the VZ Navigator for $9.99/mo.

I love it.  Love, love, love it.  I’ve been wanting a gps for a long time because I am AWFUL when it comes to following directions.  I get lost constantly; I have zero sense of direction.  I don’t have the money to spend on a normal gps system at all, even though I wouldn’t have the monthly payments, and I decided that I NEEDED this service immediately over the weekend when B and I were stuck in traffic in Connecticut on our way back from spending time with his family.  It was fine except that B hated the gps voice and made me turn it off after yelling at me (which he NEVER does) when I didn’t want to.  We took the route he wanted and he groaned when we saw more traffic.  I decided not to say, “Oh, if only we had a device that would have warned us about the traffic and taken us another way,” but I wanted to.  Shortly after B apologized nicely for yelling and I told him what I’d wanted to say–he said that it was a good thing that I didn’t then, but it was funny now.

Anyway.  I’m spending a lot on those unnecessary things and now I have a new expense.  The girls are dressing up for the bachelorette party on Saturday night and I had no idea what to wear!  I gchatted my pal, L, a party gal and asked her what I should wear.  She instructed me to go to Forever 21 and get a summer dress for $20, or to go to her closet because she has 80 of them (probably not a huge exaggeration).  She and I are not the same size, or even close enough to it for me to borrow her stuff, so I’m going to go to Forever 21 after work and see if I can find anything that works with what dressy shoes I have currently.

So, another expense.  I saw some dresses that I liked on the website, and I hope that they’re in the store in my size when I go there…the most expensive was less than $25, so I don’t mind too much the spending.  I have two weddings to go to in August and I bet I can wear the dress to the one not associated with this bachelorette party, as well as to Mass throughout the summer, and to the beach in July/August.

*Crossing fingers that I find something I like!*

When shopping for gifts, I go overboard.  I always start out with a budget in mind, like, say, $25.00.  Then I’ll find something for less than that and I’m thrilled…yet, I continue looking for add-ons to the gift since I don’t want to appear cheap or like I don’t value the person who will receive it.

My father’s birthday was at the end of February; I went to Target and browsed through the available CDs, finding a perfect one for (guessing here) maybe $12 or $13.  Then I looked through the DVDs and found an old western that I knew he’d also like.  I could have stopped right there; I mean, $22, $23 was right within my budget.  I saw another DVD, though, and thought that my gift NOW seemed complete.  A CD and a couple DVDs?  Nothing to complain about there.

Then I went to the card section and picked one out and then to the gift wrap section.  Since B and I were together and driving straight to my parents’ house, I bought a bag and tissue paper to wrap everything up quickly in the car.  The final price was probably around $40 instead of $25.  B paid for half so the gift was from us both, but it was unnecessary to spend so much!

So I was happy this time around, for Father’s Day.  I called Dad and asked if there was anything he wanted in particular.  He wanted time to think and said he’d call back in a couple days.  Instead I received a call a few hours later; he knew just the thing.  He grills a LOT during the summer (and spring and fall…heck, he’s been known to fire up the grill with snow on the ground all around him) and a year and a half ago he broke the dual thermometer (measures meat temp and heat temp) that came with the gas grill, so he wanted a new one.  While we spoke, I went to weber.com, got information I needed from him and proceeded to order a new thermometer.  My final cost for it, the tax, and the shipping, was $19.99.  Sweet.

If I decide to give dad a card, I have tons of little blank ones that I can use, and I have a crate full of wrapping paper, tissue paper, bags, boxes, and bows that I save throughout the year, from Christmas and my birthday, so I don’t have to spend more on those extras.  By planning ahead, I would rarely have to buy those things.  For Dad’s birthday, I already had a bag and tissue paper, but I didn’t know what I was getting him and didn’t want to lug my gift wrap crate, so I bought new stuff.  Ridiculous.

Two days ago I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a gallon of milk–only milk.  I was not going to walk down any other aisles.  Giant Foods is pretty smart, though, or at least the one by my apartment is; they have the clearance bins right by the dairy.  I happened to glance down and see the brand of hair dye that I normally use, Clariol Hydrience.

My best friend dyed my hair last week and I had to go with a different, cheaper brand because my brand wasn’t there.  The time she dyed my hair before that, back in February, I think, the dye I got was “discontinued”, but I thought that they meant only that color, since it was the only one marked down.  So when I went last week and didn’t see Hydrience, I figured that they must have discontinued it all.

Apparently they have, but there were still boxes leftover in the clearance bin.  Since college, I have alternated between three shades (all dark brown) mostly to cover gray (yep, 25 years old and already going gray) and to keep my hair shining.  None of those shades were there, but several boxes of a shade just a little bit lighter were, so I picked up three boxes for $2.30/each.  Three boxes will only get me through one hair dyeing experience (my hair is VERY thick and fairly long), but it’s better than spending between $10-$25 every few months.

So I now have the three boxes waiting for later this summer.  I may scope out the local drugstores to see if they have any deals, too.

I switched from Sprint to Verizon in August 2006 and I’m pretty content to stay with Verizon now that it’s coming to the end of my two-year contract in a couple months.  The service is quite reliable (except at my best friend’s house) and nearly everyone on my dad’s side of the family has the same service which gives us all “In” minutes.  I’ve not gone over my talk minutes since before my parents got their cell phones last fall (I do text rarely, which costs .15 or .20 a text.  This is mostly from people texting ME, but I still stay below the $5.00 range to keep my bill under $50.

My brother used to have the same phone as me, but got a new one when his started screwing up.  He gave me his extra battery, extra wall phone charger, and car charger.  I keep the extra wall charger in my duffle bag for when I go away for longer than a night, and the extra battery and car charger in my glove compartment.  I never would have bought those for myself, but I like having them on hand.

With that thought in mind, I began looking for a new phone that could use all those chargers.  I’m up for the “New Every Two Years” plan, so I could get a phone for free if I chose a cheap enough one; but I don’t want to buy extra chargers when I have a ton few that work great.

Upon searching the Verizon Wireless website, I found that none of the advertised phones were compatible with those chargers.  I suppose that I shouldn’t have  been surprised– after all, how else will they make money?–but I was disappointed.

So how anal am I being about saving money?  I could get a used car charger for the LG-VX5400 for less than $2, not including shipping; I saw it on Amazon.com.  I could even get a fairly cheap bluetooth headset (my current phone doesn’t have the capability) used somewhere.  Maybe I should just suck it up, pay the less-than-$10, and just get a new phone and darn the consequences.

Edit: I found out that I can get 50% off a purchase from Verizon Wireless through my company’s employee discount center.  This won’t help me with my free phone, but it might convince me to buy a bluetooth headset from them.  The one I liked was on sale for $29.99, which would make it the same as the cheapest I saw it off the website, $14.99.

Final Tally! 

Income (from beginning of May):

Paychecks: $2409.97
VA State Tax Refund: $165
Revolution Money Exchange Pay-Out: $35
Federal Tax Refund: $1529
Money Paid Back to Me: $100
Federal Rebate: $600

Total: 4838.97

Expenses (for this week):

Gas (three trips): $144.82
Tolls: $35.00
Entertainment: 17.65
Rent/Water/Fees: 1033.66
Groceries: $158.69 (Got a lot of June’s groceries, hair dye, and allergy medicine)
Other:  $9.00 Service Charge on my bank account…I had less than $750 in my checking at one point, I guess.

How does this look for my Bare Bones Budget Categories?

Category 1:  Rent/Utilities/Phone/Internet/Food — $1467.78 / 1,345
Category 2:  Savings — $50 / 250*
Category 3:  Loans — $262.72 / 262.72
Category 4:  Gas/Tolls/Car Insurance/Car Maintenance — $460.26 / 480
Category 5:  Entertainment/Gifts/Clothing/Donations/Miscellaneous — $121.04 / 70

TOTAL: $2361.80 / 2409.97 from the original budget, with $48.17 going into savings (*along with “extra” tax money and things).

This also goes to $2361.80 / 2610.80 (the ACTUAL amount I have per month because of the two extra paychecks per year) for a difference of $249.00.  So this isn’t so bad, especially since my June groceries won’t be so expensive.

My savings will be allotted thusly:

$25 into Gift fund
$25 into Emergency fund
$1500 into Car Lump Sum (due NOV 2008!) account
$83.17 into Revolving Savings — this account is for when I go under or over on a given month and to fund “wants” periodically.

Other ”extra” money will stay in my checking for now.  My car insurance lump sum will be coming up this summer and I can’t even guess how much it will be.

Also:  Anyone closely following the blog might note that I’ve switched things from different categories and removed some expenses (like the Target bill payment).  I switched the Loudoun car tax to Misc., and I removed the bill payment because the point of this was to show what I spent vs. earned in May, not what I’m paying for now because of April or March.

I’m glad that I did this, but in the future I might just put down my Bare Bones Budget categories instead, since this turned into a lot of searching online for my online banking totals and credit card “recent activities”.

Okay, maybe it’s not a windfall…it’s more like I’m an idiot.

When I created my Bare Bones Budget, I settled on $2409.97 as my monthly limit by adding two paychecks together since I’m paid every other week.  I failed to realize that there are 52 weeks in a year, and I’m paid 26 times…which becomes 13 months.

So my REAL monthly budget should be $2608.33.  I just “found” $200 a month…sort of.  I was paid three times in February and will be again in August.  This is pretty great, all in all.  I figure that I’ll still try to keep to the Bare Bones Budget, but I probably won’t cry if I fail or something (I hate failure.  The best way to get me to do ANYTHING is to make it into a competition with someone.  I’ve never lost a staring contest because I will keep my damn eyes open while tears are pouring out from the strain before I’ll let myself lose—this is not terribly good for my eyes or for curing my stubbornness, but it’s awesome for my self-esteem).

Since I already had the one paycheck, I’ll only count the August one in with my budgeting and things.  I figure that a lot of it will go to gas as I travel this summer, and some gifts from July through Christmas.  And I can use this to show my best friend that yes, I can afford to live without a roommate.  YAY!

End of the third week! 

Income (from beginning of May):

Paycheck: $1204.98
VA State Tax Refund: $165
Revolution Money Exchange Pay-Out: $35
Federal Tax Refund: $1529
Money Paid Back to Me: $100

Total: 3033.98

Expenses (for this week):

Gas: (Three trips):  $147.75
Tolls: $35
Groceries: $84.17
Internet: $44.99
Gas Bill: $38.84
Target Bill Payment: $105.47 (Since this was for last month, this includes stuff from my party, my mom’s birthday, a couple general expenses).
Charity Donation: $30

How does this look for my Bare Bones Budget Categories?

Category 1:  Rent/Utilities/Phone/Internet/Food — $275.43 / 1,345
Category 2:  Savings — $1010.61 / 250
Category 3:  Loans — $262.72 / 262.72
Category 4:  Gas/Tolls/Car Insurance/Car Maintenance — $330.89 / 480
Category 5:  Entertainment/Gifts/Clothing/Donations/Miscellaneous — $135.47/ 70

NET EFFECT: $2015.12 / 3033.98 OR $1015.12 / 1204.98 if you look at what I actually earned for the month so far and take away the $1000 I put into my Money Market account from my tax refund.

Coming soon: another paycheck and a big ol’ rent payment.

I totally caved.  Yesterday, I bought groceries for the first time in well over a month.  I really wanted to stick to the Pantry Diet, but, honestly, the only way I had left to do that was to have spaghetti or mashed potatos for every meal–including breakfast.  So, as I sat at my computer yesterday morning, eating leftover mashed potatos before getting ready for Mass, I made up a grocery list and went directly after church.

I’m just under the $100 limit I set for myself at the beginning of May for the May Grocery Challenge at Give Me Back My Five Bucks, though I’m running low on milk, but I don’t want to go over the $2.04 I have remaining.  On the other hand, I’ve never stayed this close to $100 with groceries and I’m pretty proud of myself.

I wasn’t expecting to have to buy Drain-O for my bathroom sink, but it didn’t cost too much.  I also had to buy things that I was out of (due to the pantry diet) that I like to have on hand: flour, baking powder, pancake mix.  Other non-monthly expenses were toilet paper and toothpaste.  The most “luxurious” item purchased was boxed wine.  My best friend and I (and sometimes her husband, sometimes my boyfriend) get together every Wednesday, usually at my place, for Boxed Wine Wednesdays.  It’s cheap and delicious, if unclassy.  One box will generally last 2 1/2-3 visits depending on how much we drink and how often I imbibe on other days of the week.  I wouldn’t be able to afford BWWs otherwise.  Two weeks ago, for example, my best friend and I killed two bottles of wine between us (I was given a few bottles for my birthday last month and haven’t bought boxed wine in a while), one of which she brought.  If we each bought a bottle of wine each week at $7 apiece, we’d spend approximately $672/year, for a total of $336 each.  Instead, I’m paying under $200 a year on the boxed wine and drinking tons of beer and wine at her house on most weekends, evening it out.

In the future, I think that I’ll try to keep my grocery budget to something slightly easier like $120/month, especially during allergy season when I live off of generic Claritin.

About once a week I’m going to try to post what I’ve spent…for everything.  This is for my second week.  I’m also going to include money I’ve received.

Income:

Paycheck:  $1204.98
Revolution Money Exchange Payout: $35
VA State Tax Refund: $165
TOTAL: $1404.98

Expenses:

Gas: (Two trips):  $102.51
Tolls: I’ll post this when the $35 is automatically taken from my account.

How does this look for my Bare Bones Budget Categories?

Category 1:  Rent/Utilities/Phone/Internet/Food — $107.43 / 1,345
Category 2:  Savings — $10.61 / 250
Category 3:  Loans — $262.72 / 262.72
Category 4:  Gas/Tolls/Car Insurance/Car Maintenance — $148.14 / 480
Category 5:  Entertainment/Gifts/Clothing/Donations/Miscellaneous — $- / 70

NET EFFECT: $528.90 / 1404.98

I was able to avoid shelling out money for Mother’s Day by using a gift card I’d received at Christmas, so I was pretty happy about that.

I realized the other day that I really have to start earmarking money for some upcoming expenses.  I am way past due to have my oil changed, for example.  I’m saving money by not taking it in, but I’m running the risk of much more costly expenses if I don’t, so I’ll use the $5 off coupon to Jiffy Lube from their website (instead of the $4 off coupon I received in the mail) this week or next.  I realize that it’s probably much cheaper to change my oil myself, but I honestly don’t know how to do that, and I like going to Jiffy Lube and knowing that they’re looking at more than just my oil.

Along with cars, I’m going to have to pay for my car insurance in July or so.  I pay the six-month lump sum up front so that I’m not charged an extra $4 a month.  Last time, this total was around $371, but I’m expecting that to go up because of my accident.

I’m also planning some beach trips this summer.  I’ll have one week in North Carolina at the end of July and one week in Ocean City, MD at the end of August.  Both times I will have free lodging because they are family vacations; I’ll only have to pay for gas.  I’d like to do a couple of day-trips, as well, where I’ll once again have to pay for gas, but not much else.  I’d like to buy a couple of beach chairs, an umbrella, and a cooler, but I can borrow all of these from my parents, so I most likely won’t.  Either way, the gas itself will be expensive, despite the 5% back I’ll be getting from it from my credit card.

The other major expense looming on my horizon depends on whether I move or not.  That I won’t know until July, though.

I may start putting aside some money each month into my ING Direct Savings account to earmark all these travel expenses.  The rest of my savings will continue to go in my Vanguard Prime Money Market account.