Personal Finance in the Singular Form

All y’all who are happily partnered can just go ahead and sit this post out. Go make a phone call or send a gushy email to your lovemuffin, okay?

I need to talk to the single folks out there.

Yeah, hi, how you doin’? I bet you’re noticing what I’ve noticed in the PF world– it’s wedded (ha! pun.) to the idea that all people needs must be hooked up in pairs to get your debt reducing/retirement saving going.

I am happily, obsessively single. I like my personal space, I like my personal time, I like not having to clean up after anyone who’s not me and I like being able to pick the movie and not have to worry about whether or not the person in the chair next to me thinks it sucks.

PF World is really, really into this whole life partner deal, nu? Pretty much every single beginner’s article I read, and most of the intermediate and advanced ones, assume you will need to discuss financial decisions with your partner.

Well, in this dance, much like Billy Idol, I am Dancing With Myself.

[Pause so all our inner 12 year olds can stop giggling.]

It gives me a lot more freedom, and it also comes with some restrictions. I was able to take a second job without contemplating the impact on my romantical relationship, on the account I didn’t have a romantical relationship. It also means that I will probably have to put off some big things, like purchasing my own home for longer as I’m going to have to come up with the down payment all by my lonesome, which will impact my retirement, et cetera, freakoutium.

Being single also means that any misteak in my monies is all my own fault, and there’s nowhere else to spread the blame. That can be really big and scary when you start to think about it.

So, here’s what I’ve learned about dealing with personal finances while being single, which I am passing on to you:

• Do not use another person’s timeline - If you start thinking, “Oh, look, Blogger X paid off eleventy-gabillion-gajillion dollars of debt and bought a new house with cash and built a two-year emergency fund in just six months, when in that same amount of time I only paid off $1500,” you will be full of FAIL. We do not want you full of FAIL. We want you full of WIN. And flavor. Build your own timeline with realistic goals and benchmarks based on your own personal situation, and focus on your own successes.
• Stick-to-it-ness is dependent on the individual - You could have fifteen life partners* all nagging you on to save money, and that would mean bupkiss when faced with cash in your pocket and Something Shiny in front of you. It’s your money, step up and take ownership of it. You need cheerleaders? Get a blog, we’ll all root you on.
• Learn, Let Go, and Move On - You are going to screw something up royally at some point. Do not beat yourself up over it, and most importantly DO NOT GIVE UP. Learn from your mistake, let go of the money that’s been lost, and move on. You’ll do better next time.
• Take Care of Yourself - Physically, mentally, and spiritually, folks! It’s just a fact, if you’re single and you are down for the count, there is no one to pick up for you. So get yourself checked out by a doctor regularly, reduce stress in your favorite way (I like blowing up little Lego Jedi with my Nintendo DS), and try some meditation stuff from whatever spiritual path you’re comfy with.

And, if for some reason you decide to leave the blissfully single state** for a fantastic new adventure in partnered life, well, I hear tell a fiscally competent and confident person is considered dead sexy.  So work it, darlings!

 

*But I think that’s illegal in most places.
** I hear it happens sometimes. Not sure why you’d want to, but it’s a strange world we live in.

Payday! Woo hoo!

As of today, I have:

• 46.67 in my car fund
• 203.71 in my travel fund
• 97.51 in the Sonic Screwdriver fund
• 53.86 in the clothes fund
• 696.58 in my Emergency Fund
• $0 credit card balance

This is pretty confounded momentous, folks, because just six months ago I was at $0 in any of those funds and about $3,000 in credit card debt despite working two jobs and having no fun, ’cause I had no time for fun.

My mother, during our last weekly check-in call, actually was worried that I seemed to be spending so much money. It feels a little like that to me, too, sometimes. I figured out why last night when I was hanging out with some coworkers— in the past, all my spending would be splurged within a day or two of getting a check, given to restaurants and grocery stores and comic stores and little trinkets of uselessness. Then, for the next week or two, I would be living like a college student on beans, rice, and ramen, just waiting for that check to roll in to repeat the cycle.

Now that I have more concious control of my spending, I’ve stopped the boom and bust cycle. I have goals and benchmarks and contingency plans.

This is pretty freakin’ AWESOME, yo.

Partying Like a Fangirl

This weekend was chock-full of Fangirl Fun. The kind where I have three different inkstamps on my hand (what the hell is up with the ink pads at McMenamins? Seriously, I showered twice and washed my hands dozens of times, and there’s still a rubber ducky there!)

Friday night was the Jonathan Coulton show. Mind you, the last time I went to a concert was in 2002 and it was Neil Diamond. JoCo closed with Sweet Caroline, so it was kind of similar. AND his first song was about IKEA.

Why the delay between concerts? Because I don’t like spending 27.50 (plus 4.15 for a pint) for a few hours unless I know I’m going to be entertained. And JoCo did that. I mean, when you introduce songs like, “This is a song about a giant squid that hates itself”, you’re kind of in for humor. Paul and Storm, who I had never heard of before, also brought the entertainment. HOWEVER Paul and Storm gave out a snack cake to people who could produce a d20, and I’d left my bag at home. So no laptop to keep me entertained during the loooong wait for the show to start, no iPod for the same distraction… AND NO DICE!

Saturday I was supposed to head out to Forest Grove to the Ren Faire, but Killer Migrane o’ DOOM decided I had to crawl into the living room (which has better light-blocking curtains than my room) and wear my sunglasses inside. Which meant I missed the Alexander James performance. Which makes me MAD. The migrane went away in the early afternoon, and I ran out to Target to pick up a game for my DS using a gifty card my mother sent me last month. I got stalked by store security, which is a rant for a whole ‘nother blog. HOWEVER! Cute interlude: The young man who sold me my DS game (Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, bringing me up to owning a total of 3 DS games, THANKS MA!) also went to the JoCo show. And it was his girlfriend who had the d20 in her bag. He’d given it to her 3 years ago as a good luck charm. Everyone say it with me: Awwwwww!

After Target, I went to the Kennedy School and saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets. $3 for the film and $3 for the pint ’cause it was happy hour. Not as good as the first, but it was kind of fun. Although I was playing Super Mario Bros. while I was waiting and had just cussed my way through the tilty mushroom section… if you’ve seen the film, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t seen it… MOVING ON!

Sunday! Ah, Sunday. Sunday was the Stumptown Comics Festival. I had a budget of $40 for this shindig, which included the $6 entrance fee, and I managed to stay well within budget using my Super-Sekrit Fangirl Comic Convention Budget Strategy.

My Super-Sekrit Fangirl Comic Convention Budget Strategy is this: Only give money to vendors who treat me as an intelligent consumer, instead of Obviously Someone’s Girlfriend, Because No One With The Boobies Likes The Comics.

I traded shiny rocks for comics from:
+ John Aegard for his Greeter series and some of the Comfort Guides. The Greeter comics are HYSTERICAL. Especially, you know, if you’ve recently been w2rking at a Big Box Store.
+ Paul Guinan for Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate. This also caused me a bit of Fangirl Brain Freeze, as I was totally jabbering along with the guy behind the table, and then I glanced at his name badge and realised I was jabbering nonsensically to PAUL GUINAN OMG!
+ Nolan C. Kidwell who has no website that I can find was super-awesome to talk to AND his comic comes complete with recipies! YAY!
+ I did not give the Ommatidia folks shiny rocks, but they gave me a free comic that is AWESOME. So I am filled with shame I did not trade shiny rocks for more of their work. I AM SHAMED! But I see that Brendan Adkins is now a resident of the Rose City, ergo at some point I will see him and give him shiny rocks and possibly cookies.
+ Random plug for my folks at Bridge City Comics, who were there but I trade them shiny rocks all the time, not just during the fest.

And that, my lovelies, is how you party like a fiscally sound fangirl. \o/

Radio Silence

Imagine, if you will, working in the materials management department of a big ol’ hospital.

Now, imagine that a widget used on every single patient in the big ol’ hospital goes on national backorder. There is none available, anywhere in the United States or Mexico.

Wasn’t that a fun imagining?

Oh, wait, you mean that’s not an imaginary situation?

Gotta get back to work.

The Face Bank

The fine folks over at Mental Floss ask whether or not the Face Bank, with sensor-eyes that start the mouth moving when they see a coin, is creepy or cute.

…

I’mna gonna have to go with CREEPY.

You decide for yourself.

When Sonic Screwdriver Funds Attack!

I’ve moved from a monthly-based budgeting system to a paycheck-based budgeting system, since (knock wood and the crick don’t rise) I’ll be on a predictable dollar amount biweekly paycheck system through  July 1.  Worst case scenario is July 10th I’m back on a catch-as-catch-can fluctuating weekly paycheck system.

Which would suck, and suck hard, but I’ve done it before.

One other thing I did was rename my nine different INGDirect savings accounts to include the dollar amount I need to sock in there per paycheck. It should save me a lot of time and math and guesswork, get me back on track for steady savings for specific goals, and be another check on my indiscriminate dipping into the Sonic Screwdriver Fund because I’ll know that my tab on my last comic store spree will take three paychecks to work off.

Yes, comics are budgeted under ‘essentials’, but finishing up my collection of all the Spider Jerusalem TPs? Not.

But it did fill me with great joy and the desire to start jumping on cars.

I did dip into it yesterday, though. Because I logged into the Kingdom of Loathing chat channel /radio and one of the local folks asked, “Are you going to JoCo at the Mission on Friday?”

I stared at the screen and couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. Then it clicked. Jonathan Coulton. Mission Theater and Pub. Friday.

Tickets… $20. Plus Ticketmaster’s blood money.

Then I thought to myself, I thought, “WANNA SEE JOCO! And Sonic Screwdriver Fund is not for sitting and looking pretty. That’s what savings is for. Sonic Screwdriver Fund is to go do shiny things with shiny people!”

Hanyoldways, I has ticket to JoCo on Friday and yooooou (probably) don’t! Neener.

 

Question

Let’s say you were a temp for a v. v. loooong time at a company (a few years, in fact). Let’s say you’ve been passed over for permanent hire into the position you are covering once before. Let’s imagine, if we shall, that you have not even been granted an interview for the exact position you are ‘temporarily’ covering.

What would you do?

• Quit?
• Stick it out to the end of your current assignment and not renew your contract?
• Stick around as long as you can because maybe one day they will hire you?
• Something else I haven’t mentioned?

Finally! PF Written In A Language A Fangirl Can Understand

To wit: Seven Donkey Kong Personal Finance Lessons to Live By. From the Lending Club blog.

Of Stimulus Checks

Last year us Oregonians got kicker checks, wherein the state refunded us a portion of our paid taxes. Part of mine went to the iPod sitting here on my desk (replacement, budgeted for), part went into savings, and the rest went to various charities I always wish I could give more money to.

Well, I owe the Feds a whole bunch of money. And I wrote the check. It’s just waiting here on my desk until April 14th, because compound interest is sexy OMG.

Since I have my taxes here on my desk, though, I thought I’d give those economic stimulus calculators the real numbers instead of the ones I kind of guessed at.

Apparently, I owe Uncle Sam $630 and he’s going to give me back $600. But not until June.

…

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH INTEREST I COULD EARN ON $600 BETWEEN APRIL AND JUNE?!?!

Grrr.

Buying in Bulk: IKEA Jars Review

Disclaimer: I am no longer employed by IKEA as of March 30th. However, as I used my coworker discount to hook me up with some kitchen stuff (as I’m a triple-f threat: Foodie, Frugal, and Fangirl).

Slashfood thinks it’s soooo smart by pointing out most of the damnhippie granola stores will weigh your reusable containers and then let you dump the bulk foods into them. When you get to the cash lane, they’ll subtract the weight of your container and just charge you for the food.

Yeah, hi, I’ve been doing this for a while. When I remember to, uh, you know, take my empty jars to the store. I have been known to remember to wash, dry, and reuse the plastic baggies, though…

HANYOLDWAY, Slashfood recommends the Droppar jars. Pretty? You betcha. Expensive? Hells yes. So much so, I could never justify purchasing them. If you’re going to be keeping your dry goods out on a counter, sure. But I keep most all of mine in the cupboard.

Here’s what my pantry setup contains:

• Four Burken 37 oz jars at $2.99 each. Three hold beans, one holds zippybags of various sugars I require in my cooking. Actually, now that I think of it, one of the bean jars has two zippybags in it, one of dry chickpeas and one of adzukis. Saves space, and keeps them free of the bugs which seem to think our pantry is their buffet.
• Eight Rajtan 5 oz spice jars. Five ounces is a helluva lot of spice storage, so I use these mostly for spices I go through quickly, like cinnamon, sea salt, curry powder, and loose tea. They’re cute enough that if they get left out on the counter during a bout of Full Contact Cookery, it doesn’t look tacky as it used to when it was lots of wee baggies of strange powders.
• The 7X3X12″ IKEA 365+ Plastic jar thingamabobber for brown rice. I like the pour spout, ’cause I cook rice, uh, five-six days a week. Mmm. Rice.
• They’ve discontinued my flour jar. I love it. However, it’s solid glass, It cost me about 9 bucks even with my discount, weighs 8 lbs without anything in it, and then you add a 5 lb bag of flour, and it’s really freakin’ heavy. And I keep it in a cupboard. One day, I will have my own house and it will live on the counter. Oh, yes.
• There are still a few things in my cupboard in various Pruta and the other, cheaper set o’ plastic containers, the name of which I cannot recall but I learned early on that the Cheaper Set melts really easily in the microwave so it’s only good for dry storage.
• Last, but not least, it’s not really storage but I purchased it less than a week ago and it’s revolutionized my cupboard: the Rationell Varieta shelf. I got it home and realised it only leaves about two and a half inches of clearance between the top of the Rationell Varieta shelf and the bottom of my cupboard, but do you know how many teeny tiny half-bags of rice and coffee can fit in that space? I’ve also stuck the little plastic food saver clips I can never ever find up on there, and HEY! I found them when I needed them to close a bag of potato chips.

Now, some of the IKEA jars I did not purchase, most of which are just subjective since I was looking for jars to keep in a cupboard:

• The silly-shaped Sagolit would have taken up too much space in the cupboard, and the cute little stripeys would have picked up and held onto dirt. Forvar is also shaped funny.
• The poorly designed Proper, ’cause the lid would fall off with a gentle nudge.
• Slom. If I had some liquids to store, I might think about purchasing these. Or if I suddenly get into jam-making or salt preserving. But those wee bits of wire? They will rust and/or break over time. Thanks, no.
• IKEA 365+ Spice Jars always wound up in As-Is for some reason. I never looked that closely, but I’m betting the plastic tab on the ’shaker’ portion broke off. I hate shaker tabs, anyway.

And maybe if you’re nice to me, I’ll take pictures when I get home.