your questions here

please leave your questions in the comments. thanks.

do your taxes online for free

if you earned less than $58,000 in 2009, you are eligible to file both your state and federal taxes online for free with h&r block via the beehive. i have used the beehive for 3 years now and it is totally legit. this was originally a service only for former americorps members but now anyone can use it as long as you meet the income eligibility cutoff. make sure you click on the beehive link above to get to the right place so they don't try to charge you at the end.

new year = time to refocus on my debt

blogging about debt got kind of boring for me (obviously). i can't promise that i'm going to be writing much on here now but since it is a new year, i have been taking some time over the past few weeks to refocus on my financial goals and to track my progress.

since i started this project one year ago, i have paid off a lot of debt:

• student loans: $177,741 in december 2008 to $156,466 in december 2009 = $21,275 = 12% of my student loan debt paid off
• credit cards: $15,737 in december 2008 to $11,670 in decemer 2009 = $4067 = 26% of my credit card debt paid off
• auto loan: $1,167 in december 2008 to $0 in december 2009 = $1,167 = 100% of my auto loan paid off

overall, that means that i paid off $26,509 or 14% of my total debt in 2009. i am excited!

over the year i learned to live within my means (mostly). i no longer have to run home after every trip to the bar or to dinner to put my receipts into my budget immediately so that i know how much i have left to spend. i have learned what it feels like to not overspend and i continue to do that. i drink cheap beer (and actually i drink less overall which is good for my health too). i eat smaller meals and take advantage of specials. i sometimes choose eating out over grocery shopping, but i'm allowed to do that so i don't feel bad.

over the holidays i went clothes shopping for really the first time in the past year. i have picked up a few things here and there (a bathing suit when i was going to new orleans, new black shoes when i wore out my old ones, etc.) but had not done a full shopping trip. things were getting bleak and i was wearing sweaters with holes in them to work. i waited so long because i was scared that i would go into a store and overspend and freak out. but it turns out i was just fine. i was shopping after christmas so there were tons of sales.

i went in knowing what i needed to buy and did not buy anything that was too expensive (i really wanted some awesome, fit me perfectly $99 seven jeans from nordstrom rack but resisted) or that was not something i loved (i said no to some cute super cheap $12 sneakers because i wasn't crazy about the color) or that did not fit me exactly right (i walked away from an adorable, originally $200+ marked down to $40 ann taylor gray and white houndstooth jacket because it was a little too big). none of this would have happened before. i was very proud of myself and i did not feel sick afterwards which is a good sign.

my financial goals this year are to continue paying off my debt and to continue to refine my budget. i have learned that i have to be realistic about certain things... while i wish i lived in a world where i was only going to spend $50 per month on household items/toiletries/etc., or that i never had to pay for big car repairs, or that i never had to go to the doctor, but i do not live in that world and i need money allotted for those un-fun things.

i have also decided that i am going to set aside $100/month for a vacation. i have not had a real vacation since i went to mexico in august 2008 and while i was going to try to wait until the end of this whole credit card paying off ordeal to do it, i have realized it is going to take me longer than i expected and if i don't have any fun in there anywhere, i'm not going to make it. where will i go? i'm hoping for hawaii in december 2010 and china/japan in august 2011. plans are in the works and i just have to get my finances in order. i am still aiming to pay off $5000 of credit card debt this year so budgeting is key.

happy new year to any readers out there. how did 2009 go for you? and what are your financial goals this year?

eating cheap

if you read my other blog, you know that i love food. cooking and eating out. ever since i started my budget in january, i have been learning new ways to eat out cheap (but still eat well). here are some tips i have learned. i hope they are helpful.

1. eat dinner at home before going out with friends and then just get an appetizer

if you are going somewhere to eat out that you don't really care that much about, just eat something at home and then get something small. then you can still have the social aspect of going out to eat but will not spend a ton of money on a meal you don't really care about. also, by getting something cheap you will not make people uncomfortable by just sitting there sipping water with lemon while they all feast on steaks or whatever. it's better to be eating something i think in order to fully participate in what is going on.

2. take advantage of weekly specials and happy hours

in the past few weeks i have had half off fish and chips at rookwood pub, a $2.95 burger and fries at mccormick and schmick's, half price sushi at dancing wasabi, $10 all you can eat pizza at pizza night at take the cake, $7 burger madness at arthur's, and a $35 three course restaurant week meal at nicola's. there are tons of other specials out there too, in fact here in cincinnati pretty much every restaurant except the really expensive places have some kind of weekly special. and the places that don't are almost guaranteed to at least participate in the occasional restaurant weeks that come around.

3. become a secret shopper

a friend of mine tipped me off on this when she took me out to a $250 meal at jeff ruby's waterfront... for free. what you do is sign up on the website, do a few reviews of crappy places (she had to do smoothie king a few times), and then you get the hookup to good places. i have not done this yet but i am planning to soon. seriously, this is an awesome way to get some seriously good meals for free. the only catch is that she says the reviews take a couple hours to write, but still, it's totally worth it if you are willing to take the time to do that.

4. order off of the extra value menu at fast food places

i don't eat fast food much but recently i took a trip to chicago on the megabus so we stopped at wendy's on the way there and mcdonald's on the way back. at wendy's i got some buffalo chicken tenders for $4.35. this seemed expensive to me since i didn't even get a drink or fries. at mcdonald's, i checked out the extra value menu. i got a chicken sandwich and a medium fries for $2.80. even if i had added a drink this would have been like $4. much cheaper than getting the combo thing which was like $6. it is possible that this chicken sandwich was smaller than the regular one but i don't think so... i think the only difference was that there was no tomato on it. and who wants one of those gross anemic fast food tomato slices anyway... so not worth $2.

5. drink water

do you know how much money i save simply because i do not drink soda? i mean i even drink beer and wine and coffee and all that, just not soda. any time i am eating lunch out i just get water. it is free and saves me probably $1.50 to $2 at every single meal. i have never been a soda drinker so this is not a sacrifice for me at all, but if you are and you can stop drinking it i promise you will notice a difference in your budget.

long time no write

if you can't tell from my total neglect of this blog, my budget and finances have not been at the top on my mind lately. saving money and sticking to the budget is sooo much harder in the summer it turns out... there is just so much more that i want to go out and do. on top of that there are trips (i went to chicago in june, michigan in july, and new orleans in august) and visitors. all of this costs money. plus i am busier so it is harder to do things like update my budget every day and write on this blog.

i need to get back to it though because while i am definitely not abandoning my budget by any means, i am still not exactly sticking to it either. last month i had a lot of issues. first of all, i totally overspent on all of the following things:

• trip to new orleans: i had budgeted for it but still spent too much
• car repair: my damn car's check engine light keeps coming on
• entertainment: my friend had a going away party which involved going to dayton, staying in a hotel, going to a club, etc. it was a cheap trip compared to other trips and while it was a ton of fun, financially i probably should not have gone
• clothes: my shoe situation was getting desperate so i got two new pairs. i also got some cheap, crappy clothes for new orleans (i was down there to volunteer with habitat for humanity), a bathing suit, and some new work clothes (which honestly i probably really did not need but they were on super sale)

on top of all that, i switched insurance companies and learned that the new company charges you $5 per payment! i have auto and renter's insurance through them so that would be an extra $10 per month. that pissed me off so i just made one payment for 6 months. that is fine except that i had not saved up for that so i ended up having to go into the emergency fund for it. but i guess that is what the emergency fund is for?

so i came back from new orleans all ready to get back on track but almost immediately i was back in bad budget land... my friends lina and alex came to visit at the beginning of the month and we went to the state fair, ate out a lot, and i had a bbq and bought a bunch of food and beer and stuff for that. then i decided i absolutely needed a new blow dryer and straightener (i mean the old ones were really terrible but still) and of course had to buy expensive ones. and then last night i decided spur of the moment to go out for a $60 dinner. i am not doing a very good job here.

i talked to bryan, aka my financial guru, about all of this and he does not think it is as bad as i do. his thing is, as long as i make active decisions about things and do not put things on the credit cards, it is ok to spend more and save less on a month by month basis. i have put a lot of thought into it and i realized that i am not willing to sacrifice my social life for my budget so that means that i am going to continue to go out and meet people (which is a big goal of mine right now) and that means spending at least some money. what i can do is drink cheap beer, eat at home and just have an appetizer, etc. but i am not willing to give up socializing, or honestly even cut back on it at all, because it is really important to me to be meeting new people and expanding my social circle, and that doesn't happen if you stay at home.

i am still paying off $800 per month to my credit cards (well not this month since $200 has to go to the emergency fund) so i feel like i am doing a good job and am allowed to make choices like this. also, i found a couple friends who want to move in with me so hopefully in october or november we will be moving to a new place which will cost me less money (both rent and utilities/cable/etc.). so that is another thing i am doing for my budget.

cheap groceries at aldi

(note: i totally cut and pasted this post from my other blog. yes, i'm that lazy.)

last month, jenny over at recycled bin wrote a post extolling the virtues of aldi, which i have been hearing about a lot lately. i was curious but had heard all these rumors of how it was so tricky to shop at aldi... you have to pay for your own cart, you don't bag your groceries at the checkout, they don't take credit cards, etc. i was fascinated but scared.

enter here... if you dare

lucky for me, i met jenny recently and she offered to take me on a tour. (totally unrelated, jenny has an awesome blog which just today was announced as the cincinnati women bloggers blog of the week so you should totally check her blog out.) anyway i obviously was happy to take her up on the offer.

in case you have never heard of aldi, or don't know much about it, here is some info from wikipedia:

ALDI, short for "ALbrecht DIscount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...The Albrecht brothers also rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from their shelves, and cut costs by not advertising, not selling fresh produce, and keeping the size of their retail outlets as small as possible... Aldi until recently accepted only cash... Debit cards are also accepted in the USA...

Aldi specializes in staple items such as food, beverages, toilet roll, sanitary articles and other inexpensive household items. Many of its products are own-brand labeled, with the number of outside brands being very limited, usually no more than two different brands for one kind of product and often only one. This increases the numbers of sales for each article and also allows Aldi stores to be smaller than supermarkets which cover the same range of products but with more diversity... Although not always available, but regularly put up for sale are clothing, toys, flowers, gifts. Specials are only available in strictly limited quantities and for a limited time frame (one week)...

Aldi's "strictly no frills" approach is evident for instance in that Aldi stores do not decorate aisles — or even fill shelves for that matter: pallets of the products on offer are parked alongside the aisles, and customers picking up products will gradually empty them...

These and other cost-cutting strategies save Aldi money and the general price level in Aldi stores shows that most of these savings are passed directly on to consumers. Aldi has carved its own niche with this approach; while some shoppers may not like shopping in a bland or industrial-looking (and possibly congested) store, such lack of frills has become part of the accepted norm with Aldi...

Once products have been scanned, they are put directly in the shopping cart, which has a special dock on the counter for this purpose...the customer is expected to bag groceries away from the cash-desk... In many countries, including most of Europe, the US, and Australia, Aldi does not provide free plastic shopping bags. Instead the customer can purchase various types of plastic/reusable bags at the checkout to cart the goods out of the store. Aldi encourages customers to bring their own bags.

i hope you read carefully because there will be a quiz later.

anyway, cheap + delicious? i was in. saturday was the big day and we met at the store in pleasant ridge. first things first, we went to the carts. what you do is take a quarter, stick it into the cart lock, and your cart pops out. then when you return your cart you get your quarter back. it's free in the end and there are no carts anywhere in the parking lot. brilliant!

the grocery cart locking contraption

we got inside and started looking around. jenny recommended certain items including the wine, aldi's own winking owl brand ($3.39 a bottle, jenny recommends the chardonnay and merlot) and the fit and active brand dried snacks (also aldi's own brand, $1.39 for a package). ghirardelli brownie mix was on special for like $2/box or something. jenny found toblerones for $1.49.

starting the tour

i would like to note that nothing was wrong with any of these products. they were not expired or broken or stale. there were some cans which had small dents in them so if you are worried about whatever that illness is that you can get from dented cans, then i guess don't buy those. but everything else seemed to be in perfect condition.

3 buck... cluck?

there were all kinds of interesting finds. frozen bison burgers (4 for $6 i think), yogurt, patio furniture, lots of different frozen fish varieties, and some pretty damn good looking produce (we are guessing that they get their produce shipment in on friday or saturday). we each got a quart of strawberries... they were $1 each and i am still eating them and they are sweet and delicious. i found a 16 oz. bottle of extra virgin olive oil for $4.99.

nellie's dryer balls: $18 at park + vine, $6.99 at aldi

this place is a deal. that's all there is to it. yes, you may have to be adventurous and try brands you have never heard of. but you will be rewarded. there is no way you can leave this store without finding something good. and you can feel free to experiment and try things since everything is so damn cheap.

time for checkout. what you do is go up to the register. they ring you up and place everything back in your cart. you must pay with either cash or debit card (but only if it has a pin). then you take your cart over to the counter and bag your groceries yourself. we brought our own bags, but they will sell you bags if you don't have any.

check. it. out.

i have heard mixed reviews about aldi stores (they're dirty, they have terrible selection, everything is rotten) but that is not the case at least with the pleasant ridge location. i had a great time and my total damage was $23. i got:

• a quart of strawberries
• a bottle of wine
• a box of ghirardelli brownie mix
• a yellow pepper
• a red pepper
• a 75 foot roll of aluminum foil
• a big bottle of extra virgin olive oil
• a box of spaghetti
• a tub of roasted red pepper hummus
  
• probably one or two other things i am forgetting

that is a bargain. i highly recommend you get your ass to aldi as soon as possible. you won't find everything you need but you can spend the cash you save on some extra goodies at the more expensive stores.

i'm thinking about moving

since i paid off my car last month, and once i finish replenishing my emergency fund this month, i will be putting $795.86 per month toward my credit cards. if i continue at this rate, my credit cards will be paid off in march 2011 (please note that is one year and three months ahead of my original goal, which was june 2012).

(fyi, i do all my budget calculations with this cnn money budget calculator, which is a handy tool if you do not have one that you already use)

that is very exciting, but recently i have had it in my head that i want to move. if i were to get a place where i had a roommate, it would save me a damn lot of money. also, i really like having roommates (when they are not crazy) and i miss living with other people.

my current monthly living expenses:

• rent: $595.00
• heat/electric: $141.00 fixed
• cable: $42.21

grand total: $778.21

i have been looking at a few places on craigslist and talked to a guy at one potential place and got the breakdown on expenses. i will just use that as a sample since i don't have info on any other places yet. here are the monthly expenses at that place:

• rent: $420.00
• heat/electric: $50-90 depending on the season
• internet: $10.00

grand total: $520.00 (at most)

that is a savings of $258.21 per month! imagine what i could do with that money. yes... pay off my credit cards faster. i went to the budget calculator again and plugged in the numbers if i were paying $1054.00 per month towards credit cards. that would get my credit cards paid off by october 2010!

i will be 30 in september 2010. if i could just squeeze a little extra money out of my budget on top of that, i could give myself the amazing 30th birthday present of paying off my credit cards. this would be so awesome!

speaking of squeezing money out of my budget, i recently cut my auto/rental insurance expenses from $108/month total to $98/month by switching companies. it's not a lot but it's something.

anyway, back to moving + having roommate(s). i'm debating it. i'll do a pros and cons list and you guys can give me advice.

pros:

• saving money
• potentially paying my credit cards off in the next year and three months (assuming i can stick with a cheap roommate situation that long)
  
• having roommates is fun
• i want to try living in a new neighborhood
• meeting new people
  
• i am kind of bored with my life right now and this would shake things up
• probably i would save on other expenses too (food, household items, etc.)
  

cons:

• i have lived alone for the past 2+ years and i don't know if i am no longer able to live with people (a lot of my friends claim this about themselves)
  
• less personal space/privacy
• possibly having to deal with annoying people as roommates
• moving sucks
• i would probably have to get rid of a lot of my stuff
• i could hate it and then i would have to move yet again
• i will not get to be as messy/loud/etc. as i want whenever i want
  

well that is all i can think of. any advice would be much appreciated!