Midwest by Southwest

Yesterday was the day for found money!  I found $7 in singles in a jacket pocket and, just when Sweet Man and I are anticipating another $300+ for flights to visit his parents (Sweet Man’s mother is very sick with cancer right now), a $150 Southwest airlines voucher arrived in yesterday’s mail.  The voucher accompanied one of the nicest letters I’ve ever received, apologizing for 2.5 hours spent on the runway after landing in Detroit, waiting for a gate.

This was absolutely not Southwest’s fault.  There was nothing they could have done to prevent it.  Our flight left on time and arrived early.  It just so happened that, while we were in the air, three nearby airports closed completely because of snowstorms.  Any flight scheduled to land at those airports was diverted to Detroit, the nearest airport that was still accepting flights for landing.  The Detroit airport was not prepared for the extra two airports’ worth of holiday traffic.  

It seemed that most of the people understood the situation and made the best of it.  One man had a guitar and had everyone on the plane singing Christmas carols to remember the spirit of the season (and avoid mutiny).  If anyone should get the voucher, it’s him.  I don’t his name, but I did take a photo with my iPhone.  I’m not sure anyone would have believed the part about singing carols while waiting on a runway otherwise.

$150 may not seem like much to you, but it’s a huge gesture for something Southwest could not control.  $150 is extremely helpful to us right now, when we may have to travel more frequently to see a sick family member.  

So – I’ll just add this post to my already long list of accolades for Southwest.  When I moved to San Francisco, for instance, one of my four bags was delayed.  Southwest knew where it was; it was on the next flight to San Francisco.  Southwest found me in the baggage claim area (they were holding my name on a piece of paper, like a driving service would) and TOLD ME it was late, which prevented frustration at my not seeing it.  For a delayed bag – not a LOST bag, mind you, just a delayed one – they offered me a $250 voucher.  

I also use the Southwest Visa which, due to the $14,000+ I put on credit cards last year, results in my getting a free Southwest roundtrip anywhere in the U.S. once each year, purely from credit card points.  This kind of reward is definitely part of why I put so much on that credit card: The points incentive is working!  But – it only works because I genuinely enjoy flying with Southwest, and all the nice folks I meet on their planes have the same kind of praise I do.

Bridal Breakdown Day

I had a real, albeit brief, nervous breakdown today.  Yes, I broke down on the bar at Tra Vigne and in bed for about an hour after we got home.

Today, we visited a party rental establishment to take a gander at plates, napkins and other requisite wedding nonsense.  I don’t mean to offend, but it is nonsense for Sweet Man and I.  I’m just not one of the women who has “dreamed of this day forever.”  

Anyway.  Sweet Man and I almost always selected the absolutely rock-bottom, least expensive items.  And yet… And yet.

$1,200

That was the quote we got today for the rental of wedding detritus, specifically (this detailed itemization is for those of you who, like me, ask “How exactly do wedding expenses these days come to be what they are?”):

• 50 chairs for the ceremony at my future in-laws’ home: $125
• 50 dinner plates: $25
• 50 dessert plates: $25
• Coffee cups: $17.50
• Saucers: $17.50
• 50 each of forks, knives, salad/dessert forks and teaspoons: $92.50
• 50 each of red wine, white wine, water and champagne glasses: $242.50
• Tablecloths and napkins: $172.50
• Basic delivery: $65
• Delivery and pick-up during specific delivery windows (i.e. when we actually need things to be delivered and picked up vs. whenever the rental place deigns to do so): an additional $125/each way for $250 total
• An additional 50 white chairs for the community center, should we decide we don’t want to use the metal folding chairs there: $190

While the saleswoman spoke too rapidly for me to follow, picking up tablecloths on hangers and saying things like $37 per” and “$18 per,” I honestly thought I would faint.  I started to feel lightheaded and warm and out of my league.  You see, in my geek parlance: There’s a chick bit in me that isn’t flipped.  I was not, like so many of the female persuasion seem to be, born with a princess dream or a vision in my mind’s eye of The Perfect Table Setting.  When I am exposed to women whose chick bits appear to be 100% flipped, I don’t know what to do.  They look at me as if I’m inadequate and require instruction.  Today, for instance, I was nastily reminded that “You may not care, but people DO respond to beauty.”  Thanks, chick bits.  At least Sweet Man was there to assure me that I didn’t imagine the implied inadequacy.  

Hence my breakdown. 

I am beginning to understand how certain wedding decisions are made.  I am beginning to understand, for example, how couples just give up and book a $5,000+ venue simply because everything is included – everything from linens to basic flowers to napkins and glasses.  I understand the desire for an all-inclusive venue because we tried so hard to save money by selecting an inexpensive reception venue.  The community center in our particular Napa Valley town cost us $9/hour, or $135 total for 15 hours (plus a $350 fully refundable cleaning deposit).

You get what you pay for.  $135 means nothing is included.  The community center has folding chairs and tables.  That’s it.  Plates and glasses have to come from somewhere, and someone has to bring them from somewhere else – for a fee.  Always for a fee.  I’ve learned that anyone will do just about anything you ask them to do – for a fee.

After receiving this quote of almost $1,200, Sweet Man and I scoured restaurant supply places online to see if we couldn’t buy everything we needed for less or the same price as the rental quote.  We couldn’t.  Even if we could have, where would we have put 50 of everything?  We have a tiny apartment and no storage space – and no one we know in their California priced housing has storage space, either.  

There is also the reality of the logistics: Even if we had been able to purchase dishes, etc. for less than the cost of rental, we (well, someone) would have had to spend the entire day after the wedding running dishes through a dishwasher – and have someone make sure the dishes first made it back to the house at some point after the reception.  Do we want one of our guests or family members to be loading up dirty dishes at the community center and running it back to the house?  No.  They should be enjoying themselves, not doing chores.  

Could we just chuck all of the dishes we bought into a recycling bin and call it a day?  It was tempting for a few minutes, but it’s a Marie Antoinette tendency that we don’t need to indulge.

So.  This is how it happens.  This is how you end up paying for wedding things that you need but don’t want to pay for. 

People keep telling us we’re “getting away with not spending much” (as if it’s luck vs. planning) but $1,200 for renting wedding items feels absolutely criminal.  I hate to use the typical bleeding heart statement, but i’m sure we could feed a few villages in Iraq for about $1,200, or help my unfortunate cousin with trashy, useless parents through college.  

Or do anything else besides pay for dishes.

The idea of compostable, disposable bamboo plates is not dead yet…

Knitting on a Budget

If I’d been on my best behavior with Mint.com tags, “Malabrigo” would have been one of them… and we would have found that I spent about $300 on Malabrigo yarn alone in 2008 (to say nothing of all the lovely yarn out there, like Rowan).  In 2008, $80 was the least I spent in a single trip to Imagiknit, my local knitting shop.

I am a strong believer in spending my money locally.  I want to live in a neighborhood with thriving merchants and a yarn store I can walk to.  I will not stop shopping at Imagiknit anytime soon.  I spent nearly $1,000 at Imagiknit in 2008.  Knitting is an expensive hobby.  

I am, however, trying to be a bit more budget conscious when it comes to yarn shopping in 2009.  Today, I spent less than $60 at KnitPicks on enough yarn for two sweaters (24 balls), leg warmers, and fingerless gloves (4 more balls).  Shipping is free on KnitPicks orders of $50 or more, though $50 is tough to hit due to their low prices.  KnitPicks is a fantastic resource if you’re knitting on a budget, or have projects that you don’t need especially delicious yarn for.  

Case in point: I’m about to attempt knitting my first sweater.  Since this will be my first sweater, there’s a high likelihood that I’ll need to rip it apart at least twice and will end up in tears at least once each weekend.  Do I need to do that with $24/skein yarn?  No.  If I fail miserably, I’ll fail with yarn that was $1.99/ball instead.

 If two sweaters, leg warmers, and fingerless gloves end up costing me $58 (and time), I can confidently say that I couldn’t have gotten the same items for less from China.  Yarn is one of my few exceptions to signing the Compact, so if I want some new sweaters, I have to buy them used or make them.  I’m going to try to make them.

2009 Financial Resolutions

Another day, another year of financial goals to write down.  Here goes!

* 2009 Resolution #1: Beginning in February, I will put $2,000/month into accessible cash/emergency/non-retirement savings.
The $2,000/month target comes from the usual $500/month I put into my emergency fund + the $1500/month rent check from my tenant.  I need the January rent check to pay for my Invisaligns or credit card debt (one of the two), but if I’m careful with my money elsewhere I should be able to use February’s rent check for savings only.

$2,000/month from February through August (the last month my tenant will pay rent according to his lease) = $14,000.  Assuming the worst, that I have no rental income through the end of 2009 (and consequently that I could only put in $500/month from September through December) and that gives me an additional $2,000 ($14,000 + $2,000 = $16,000).

Hence…

* 2009 Resolution #2: I will add at least $16,000 to the existing balance of my emergency savings this year.  
If I do, my emergency fund balance will be about $26,000, which is exactly what I want.  With $26,000 and unemployment, I could live for at least six months and not lose my house in a worst case scenario (which is losing my job and not finding one for a long time).

* 2009 Resolution #3: I will sign the Compact for six months (January 1 – June 30).
Lord, this one is going to be hard.  I don’t really want to do it, but I need to do it.  I just don’t think I’ll stop shopping and using that credit card for non-essential expenses.  Besides: I don’t need anything.  How fortunate am I to be one of the few people on Earth who can say that?

My Compact exceptions (many people have them) are:

• Yarn.  I’m not even apologetic about this one.  I knit.  I rarely find used yarn and I don’t have the time to go hardcore, buy used sweaters, unravel them, and dye the yarn.  I work full time and am finishing my Ph.D.  I can have new yarn.
• Underwear.
• Gifts for others.
• Stuff for our wedding.  I was able to buy all of our linens used, at estate sales and thrift stores, but am not sure I’ll be able to do this with everything.  I’ll try, but I’m hedging.

2008 Financial Year in Review

Oh heaven help me!  Do you KNOW how much I charged on my credit cards in 2009?  This is surely the single most horrifying thing about my financial review of 2008.

$14,600.55

Now.  That is not my balance: I paid my cards off, in full, every month (save one).  

Still.  That is NOT OK!  Just because I can pay my balances does NOT mean I SHOULD spend that much.

Some of that $14,600.55 was business expenses.  Some of it was property maintenance for my new renter.  But most of it?  Oh you KNOW most of it was crap I didn’t need.  There’s one thing to fix in 2009.  Lord in HEAVEN.  I will NOT spend that kind of money in 2009.

Moving to a calmer state now…

How did I do on my 2008 financial resolutions?  Pretty well, to my own surprise.

2008 Resolution #1: STAY out of debt.
SUCCESS.  But, as we’ve already seen, I still spent too much.  Sometimes it was difficult to pay off my monthly balance – and that’s almost as bad as carrying a balance, in my book.

I currently have a $1,500 balance due by January 18.  I’m going to pay it in full, but I FEEL bad just having it there, in existence at all.  I am going to use my credit cards a lot less in 2009, for nothing except major stuff like travel, property maintenance, and business expenses.

2008 Resolution #2: Save 20% of my income ($22,000, or $1,800/month) between emergency and retirement savings (probably $12,000 to 401(k) retirement, which puts me below the $101,000 ROTH income limit so I can put… $4,000 into a ROTH, plus $6,000 to emergency savings). 
I only put $8,700 into my 401k this year – well under the $12,000 mark.  Gee, you think a few thousand dollars of what went on my credit cards could have instead gone to retirement?  You know it could have – clearly, the money was there for shopping, so it was there for retirement.  In 2009 I want to hit my $15,000 limit, but I’m not sure I will.  That’s nearly double what I put in this year, and I’m still focusing on having accessible, substantial emergency cash for something like a long period of unemployment.

2008 Resolution #3: Have at least $10,000 in emergency savings by the end of the year. This should not be difficult since I’m approaching $4,000 right now, so $10,000 is the bare minimum.
SUCCESS!  There is just over $11,000 in there as of today.  Again: A few thousand of what I spent on crap could have gone into emergency savings instead.

2008 Resolution #4: Pay $100 extra to principle on my second mortgage every month.
SUCCESS!  I’m still on auto-pay for $100 extra per month and will continue in 2009.

2008 Resolution #5: Continue to use Mint.com to track spending (which shows I’m spending more than I think and estimate in my head).
SUCCESS.  And, as you can see and much to my chagrin, Mint.com is showing me exactly where my money is going.

2008 Resolution #6: Do not buy a car for another year.
SUCCESS!  Thank goodness I didn’t need to get a new job that required a driving commute or something awful.  This one also carries over to 2009.