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!

my car is paid off! (and a budget update)

as of today, my car is fully paid off! i am so excited. it is only $200 a month but i am really excited to have that extra money. i have already planned future months' budgets to allocate that money to debt so it's not like i'll see anything extra, but it is nice to know that one more debt is paid off.

speaking of the budget, it's in the toilet this month. i don't know what happened (well yeah i do) but i totally overspent. i am over on like everything. it sucks.

i think part of my problem is that my budget was just a guess and now i am finding that it is not accurate in terms of what i spent. for example, today i got my hair cut. there goes $50 right there. and of course haircuts are not in the budget. i do have $50/month allocated to clothes and shoes. however, this month i already had to buy two pairs of shoes, one for work and one for christine's wedding.

i also had to buy a bag. the only large bags i owned were like these cloth bags from guatemala or else tote bags and it was ridiculous that i would drag those around to nice restaurants, court, etc. between the bag, the shoes, and the haircut alone, i have spent $235.

household items were also a big expense this month. i ran out of citronella candles which are a summer necessity for me in order to enjoy my backyard. i probably spent about $40 on that. then i decided i wanted to plant some herbs. there goes another $20 for plants and dirt.

my sister came to visit me at the beginning of the month. note to self: no more visitors at the beginning of the month. dinner out was $47. a trip to the aquarium was $18. beer and wine for her visit was probably another $25. i either need to stop having visitors or make them buy me things. or else we sit home and watch cable.

don't even get me started on entertainment costs. first there was all the money i spent during my sister's visit. then there was the cincinnati imports westside bar crawl (i spent $53 that night alone). i am taking a golf class and, while my aunt very awesomely gave me her old set of golf clubs, i needed a putter and a glove... that was $40. i was over my entertainment budget on like may 20. how could i get through over a third of a month, including a holiday weekend, and not spend anything on fun? i couldn't. (i didn't go to chicago by the way for anyone who was wondering.)

i am depressed over my spending this month, but the thought of having paid off my car is nice. i just need to do better next month. i really feel like some of my spending is related to the weather. it's nice out so i want to go out and do things and spend money rather than sit at home and be a hermit. the weather is only going to get nicer so i am going to have to figure out some way to deal with this.

budget woes

so for the first few months sticking to the budget was easy because it was winter and there wasn't a whole lot going on. now it is warm out and almost every day it seems like is an invitation to dinner out or a happy hour or a party or something. i try to keep costs down by ordering cheap beer and eating at home as much as possible but my budget is hurting.

it's only may 18 and i am already slightly over my entertainment budget. the good thing is that i am way under my grocery budget so i have some flexibility. i figure with entertainment + groceries + eating out, as long as it all comes out under then i am ok even if i overspend in one of the areas.

another problem i have been having is things breaking or needing new things. like for example my car repairs last month. but also stuff like this month my belt broke so i need a new belt. i also had two pairs of pajama bottoms fall apart and had to get new ones. i needed new black shoes for work and i used up all my citronella candles so i had to restock. my budgets for these types of things (clothes, household items, etc.) are pretty low so i am constantly going over. it's ok so far because i really did not spend on any of these things in the first couple months of the year, but it's annoying. there's no way i can get through two more years like this so i'm probably going to have to adjust my budget... which means paying off my credit cards will take longer. blah.

i really really want to go to chicago this weekend for memorial day, but according to my budget i totally shouldn't. i have no entertainment money left and only a little eating out money. i did just get a $120 check for transportation reimbursement from work, so that is available, but what i should do is put it in the bank for my friends' wedding that i am saving for at the end of june. and anyway i know there is no way i am going to go to chicago for 4 days and only spend $120.

on the other hand, i am damn sick of being stuck in cincinnati. the only time i have gotten out of here recently was for the final four in detroit, and it's not like that was much of a vacation because while it was fun, i'm from detroit so it wasn't that exciting to hang out there. however i am going to chicago at the end of june anyway for the wedding, and i have no money, and the final four was amazing and i did just go to new york for new year's.

ok, i think i have maybe talked myself out of it. i guess maybe i really do not need to go out of town right now. dammit. saving money is so boring.

update on the emergency fund

ok so dave ramsey is psychic. just one week ago i got my $1000 emergency fund all saved up. well today my check engine light went on in my car. i was way overdue for an oil change anyway so i just took it in right then. well the mechanic called and told me that my car had all this shit wrong with it. broken oxygen sensor, all the tires were practically worn through, the alignment was fucked up, a bunch of fluids needed to be replaced, etc.

this was not really surprising to me since i have had the car for 3 years and never done anything other than oil changes and once i had to replace the brake pads when they completely wore out. the woman i bought the car from never did shit to it either. so basically this car (a 2003 hyundai accent) has been driving around with no maintenance done to it at all for 6 years other than oil changes. the mechanic has been harassing me about the fluids and the tires for months and i was just ignoring it because i couldn't afford anything other than oil changes.

total cost for all this work? $971. can you believe it? and of course, i did not even break a sweat since i knew i had my emergency fund. plus i have $50/month allocated in my budget for car repairs. so i did not even worry.

i put all this into my budget spreadsheet just now and it is not even going to set me back that much. i will only need 2 months, may and june, to build my emergency fund back up, and then i will be back on track to have all my credit card debt paid off in march 2011. yay!

i was having the day from hell at work. normally, even on a good day, a $1000 car repair estimate would have sent me straight into a state of panic. but this did not even phase me. in fact, i was actually excited that i was going to get to put my emergency fund to use!

let me say this again since i am really in total shock over this. just four months ago, if an unexpected and required $1000 expense had arrived in my life, it literally would have been impossible for me to handle. i had no savings and my credit cards were maxed out. i literally have no idea what i would have done. probably open another credit card, or put it on one that was already at or over the limit. this would have cost me so much money over time. but here i am today just taking this in stride and moving on with my life. it literally was the least stressful thing that happened to me today. i cannot get over this.

what the hell has happened to me? i have no idea but i love dave ramsey. i may change the name of this blog to "i need dave ramsey."

$1000 emergency fund... check!

"wait a minute," you say. "how the hell did that happen? didn't you just decide to save up that $1000 like 2 days ago???" yes, it is true. i have somehow ALREADY saved up my $1000! how? i will explain.

first, starting on january 1, i was putting $50/month towards my emergency fund (with $25 already put in at the end of december when i opened the account). that got me to $200 on april 15. last month, i paid off a credit card. so i put all the money for april that would have gone to credit cards (above minimum balances) to the emergency fund. that was $163 which gets me to $363. then about a week ago, i got a $178 travel reimbursement check which got me up to $541. and then just today, i got both my medical flex spending money ($300) and my tax return ($164). put that in the emergency fund and my ass is at $1000. it is a miracle!

i still do not understand how this could happen so fast. dave ramsey says, "twist and wring out the budget, work extra hours... quickly get your $1000. most of you should hit this step in less than a month." (total money makeover p. 105). i hit this step in TWO DAYS!!! what the fuck! i have no idea, but i will take it.

now that i have my $1000 emergency fund, the $50/month i was putting towards it has been freed up and can go towards my debt. additionally, as of next month my car will be paid off and that gets me another $200/month to pay off my debt.

i just put my credit card debt into this debt calculator at payments of $800/month. it tells me that i will have all my debt paid off in one year and 8 months! that is right, if i continue to stick to my budget i will be done paying it off in january 2011. that is SEVENTEEN MONTHS ahead of schedule!!! oh my god. i don't even know what to do with myself. i am so excited i am seriously about to freak out!

how is this possible, you ask? don't ask me, i am terrible at math and have no fucking clue. i am just happy! someone tell me if i am messing this up somehow. i am going to go run around the block screaming or something.