Jana Says

Keys, money and a challenge

November 23, 2011 by Jana 6 Comments

Last week, during one of our daily conversations that tend to get sucked into a vortex of crazy, Andrea at So Over Debt and I were discussing quotes. She found this quote and issued a challenge. Here are both:

“I hate women because they always know where things are” James Thurber. Relate to finance…GO!

Andrea, challenge accepted.

My husband has a problem with his keys. The main problem is that he usually can’t find them. In college, he and one of his fraternity brothers decided that the only way to find lost keys is to take another set of keys and shake that set until the lost keys magically appear. They believed it was some sort of mating call that only keys responded to. Sadly, it worked more often than not and sadly, I believe that they were sober when they came up with this theory.

Although my husband will swear up and down about the 100% success rate of this method, there was one time where I distinctly remember this theory/method not working. I was at his house and we were getting ready to walk to class together. Except we were held up because—wait for it—he couldn’t find his keys. He looked everywhere, tried shaking another housemate’s keys—nothing worked. So I, being of sound mind and body, walked upstairs and retrieved his keys from the coffee table in the upstairs living room. I brought them down to him, tossed them on his bed. He looked genuinely surprised that I had found them. His comment? “Oh, yeah. We were drinking last night and I must have left them upstairs. Guess I forgot.”

This is just one example in a thousand of me finding my husband’s keys. I will say, though, that since we put a basket on our foyer table, the amount of times he loses his keys has decreased exponentially (although the amount of times he’s washed his wallet has increased exponentially. I think I’m going to commission a scientific study for this one). And it always makes him angry that I can find them, thus proving the quote above. But I still haven’t proven how this relates to finance. I promise I’m getting there.

Another thing you need to know, and I believe I’ve expressed before, is that I am primarily responsible for paying all of our bills and keeping track of our daily finances. Although we’ve developed our budget together, I’m the enforcer. I’m the one responsible for making sure that we stay on track, our checkbook is balanced and that we don’t have to borrow from one category to pay for another. We also have an all cash budget. To monitor this, I bought one of those multi-pocket folders that most people use for coupons and this is where we keep our cash. Each section is clearly marked with its category and the money for each category goes behind the appropriate label. Sounds easy, right? Not for my husband.

When he needs money for something, he consistently pulls money out of the wrong section. For instance, I’ll go to pull our grocery money and $50 will be missing. Why? Because the husband keeps taking gas money out of the grocery section. Then he gets mildly angry with me because I again have to walk him through the intricacies of labels and pockets. This is a man with a Master’s degree yet he can’t figure out something as simple as pockets? It’s frustrating and amusing at the same time. Yet he gets upset because I know where things go. It’s annoying to me to keep explaining something so simple that my 5 year old can understand it (I guess Denzel Washington was right. Talking to people like a 5 year old is effective). But as the responsible one, and the organized one, it’s my job to know where everything is. Even if it makes him angry.

To his credit, he at least remembers where the money is kept (which is more than I can say for the checkbook. He can’t keep track of that thing. So I’ve accosted it, along with my budget notebook. He is free to look at them whenever he wants but I can’t stand not being able to find them so I keep them in my desk). I try to enable his good habit by not moving the money to anywhere that is not on top of the microwave. I am a bit concerned for when our countertop microwave gets replaced with an over the stove microwave, and my husband’s ability to get used to a new location for our money.

Oh, well. I guess he can always shake a few quarters at the folder. That should work, right?

Money Tune Tuesday: Money Song

November 22, 2011 by Jana 4 Comments

I don’t know that I’ve adequately expressed just how excited I am that The Muppets are going to be back in movie theaters tomorrow. I have been a huge fan of The Muppets for pretty much my entire life and when I found out, almost 3 years ago, that there was going to be a new Muppets movie, I almost threw up with excitement. I actually published an article about my excitement on my essentially defunct Examiner parenting column (publish date: January 27, 2009). I wish my vocabulary was expansive enough to express how excited I am for tomorrow.

I have actually taken the day off of work tomorrow not to prepare for Thanksgiving but to take my daughter to see The Muppets (OK, fine. She’s taking me). I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care how long of a line I need to wait in (make no mistake, there will be no line. I will get there 4 hours early if I have to. Which I’m hoping I won’t because most normal people will still be at work and/or school). I have been antsy with anticipation since the first trailer aired a couple of months ago. Yeah, it’s that bad.

For today’s money tune, I wanted to feature The Muppets. With so many good videos and songs, it was so hard to pick. But then, as if Jim Henson himself intervened, I found a song, sung by Dr. Teeth (the leader of Electric Mayhem. You know, the Muppets house band…the band Animal is the drummer in), entitled “Money Song”. Could this have worked out any better?

Money for nothing

November 21, 2011 by Jana 14 Comments

Back when we hit our financial low point, our grocery budget was $30 for every two, sometimes 3 weeks, for the two of us. It was during this time that I learned how to cook on a very strict budget and the cookbook Cheap. Fast. Good. was our saving grace. That $30 budget made me really appreciate the day our grocery budget hit $100 per week.

When I first started shopping with $100 each week, I felt rich! The first time I walked into the supermarket with that much money in my wallet, I didn’t know what do to with myself. It was as on odd feeling to be able to walk down the aisles and the perimeter of the store with the ability to buy extras and stop looking wistfully at items like Sabra hummus or Ben and Jerry’s ice cream or pomegranates. Even with that money, I still shopped sales, bought generics as much as possible but it was weird (and almost unsettling) to have that much money to buy food each and every week. I had longed for the day of being able to shop with more than $30 and here it was!

One of the side effects of our increased budget was having more treats in our diets (this happened mostly due to my newfound love of baking pretty much any sweet you can imagine). Another side effect was buying things like cheese and fish (the two reasons I will never be vegan). We were finally able to start building a small stockpile of staples like rice, pasta, canned tomatoes, and beans. More fresh fruits and vegetables found their way into our fridge. I was such a wonderful feeling to expand our menu plans and have a few more choices. We started sailing along on our $100 budget with no problems.

Until recently. I’d been reading a lot in the news lately about the increasing cost of food, the incredible shrinking food packages but it wasn’t something that I had really noticed. I figured the cost increase was mainly on foods that I didn’t eat. But recently, I’ve noticed the huge spike in seasonal produce. I’ve noticed that the jars of peanut butter don’t have the same amount of services or if the servings are the same, the price is much higher. I’ve noticed that the sales aren’t as good as they used to be, or happen as frequently as they used to. Our $100 budget isn’t going nearly as far as it used to. Sometimes, I come home from grocery shopping having spent $80, $90 or even the full $100 and I feel like I’ve spent my money for nothing. Like this weekend’s trip:

It’s frustrating and aggravating to feel like we’ve come so far in our food budget only to feel like we’re taking a step back. So, to combat the increasing prices, and since coupons make me both dizzy and annoyed, I’ve started implementing the following strategies:

Stockpiling on good sales. For instance, our supermarket is having a deal on canned organic beans (I do not like dried beans. I never, ever cook them correctly and they taste atrocious. So I buy canned beans), and they are only one penny more than the store brand. Each week, I’ve been buying a few cans of each kind of beans. This way, when the sales stop and everything is back to their normal price, I don’t need to buy them.
Avoiding prepared foods whenever possible. I try to make as much as I can from scratch but I did have a few cheats–spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, Morningstar Farms soy products. As the price of healthy items has been going up, I’ve cut back on all of these considerably and I even make my own spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and other sauces from scratch. Also, I’ve been paying much greater attention to ingredients and the vegetarian substitutes are pretty much a pricy chemistry experiment.
Having a very strict shopping list. I usually make a detailed menu plan and shop with a specific list but I had become very lax about picking up items that were not on the list because I could afford them. Not so much any more. If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t go in the wagon. When the husband and the daughter come with me, I have to patrol them very carefully–nonapproved items have a tendency to sneak into the wagon when I’m not looking. One caveat: I keep a tally with the calculator on my phone. If I am very under budget and all necessary items have been purchased, I will allow one or two extras.
Comparison shopping. A few weeks ago, in order to get my food shopping done as efficiently as possible, I went to a supermarket that was on the way to my daughter’s school. Historically, this store has been less expensive to the one I normally use and I was looking forward to the savings. I don’t say this often but I was wrong. Something happened and now this store is exponentially more expensive than my regular one. Needless to say, I will not be shopping at this supermarket on a regular basis.

I know that these are common sense strategies, and ones that are advocated by all smart and savvy grocery shoppers. But I’ve had to remind myself that I need to implement these strategies or I need to increase my grocery budget and compromise on other areas. It’s taken too long to actually have a restaurant budget and a “fun” budget; I don’t want to have to sacrifice those in order to afford my weekly groceries.

What changes have you had to make to deal with rising food prices?

Sharing Saturday #1

November 19, 2011 by Jana 7 Comments

I feel like a blog hoarder.

My reader and bookmarks are full of other blogs that I never share. This is wrong of me. There are so many amazing and creative writers out there, and it’s shameful that I don’t give them more props. So I am pledging to resolve this problem. From now on, on as many Saturdays as I remember, I will be sharing with you some of my favorite posts and sites from around the blogosphere. If you know of one that I’m not reading, or you think I should be reading (personal finance is not a requirement), then feel free to send it to me.

With that, I present the first installment of Sharing Saturday:

Personal Finance reads (where I showcase some of my favorite personal finance posts)

Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff thought about getting a puppy. I think she should have done it, but I totally respect her reasons why she didn’t (including not paying for a puppy and rather waiting to rescue one)

Carrie from Careful Cents wants to know if women are more desireable when they’re broke. It’s a great question and it kind of makes me sad that it’s true.

Melissa from Mom’s Plans is having trouble in her current apartment and wants to know if she should move. My answer? Absolutely!

Kay Lynn at Bucksome Boomer not only won the cookbook giveaway but gave some great tips on dealing with holiday travel. My preferred tip for dealing with holiday travel is not to go anywhere (and it looks like this is going to be a lot more common for us in the future!)

Lindy from Minting Nickels talks about the other kind of creep. We all have creeps in our lives. Is this one in yours?

Nonpersonal finance reads (where I showcase some of my favorite nonpersonal finance sites)

The Oatmeal–cartoons, cats, grammar, and lots of other stuff. I wish I could pick a favorite one. But I can’t. So I’m not going to.

Mental Floss–my favorite time wasting site of all time. Fun fact: I scored 100% on the Tom Hanks peeing quiz. I am both happy and sad about this.

Post It Notes from My Idiot Boss–we all have had an idiot for a boss. Some bosses just choose to document their stupidity via post-it notes.

My other writing (where I showcase myself or where you can find my staff writing)

Skills for Online Learning at Broke Professionals

My Dining Out Challenge: First Attempt at Dining Out Challenge

This one? Right here? This is MY dream!

November 18, 2011 by Jana 21 Comments

When I was pledging my sorority, my big sister gave me a poem entitled “Dream Big”. I still keep the poem in my office at work because although I can’t stand my sorority and the frame has our letters, the message of the poem is one that really hits home for me. Every single line in the poem is powerful and meaningful and applies in to so many aspects of my life, especially right now. Because right now? Dreaming big is exactly what I’m doing.

Over the years, I have amassed quite a collection of dreams I’d like to fulfill and goals I’d like to accomplish: publishing a fiction book, traveling to Europe (not France. I went there in high school. France and I are cool) and spending a month in Australia, living at the beach, attending the Emmys (any awards show will do, really), having a professional photo shoot, starting a charity, and being published on the Huffington Post. Some of these dreams and goals are practical and I have the ability to make come true with some ease. Others are a lot more difficult. Like the one I’m currently sitting on. That dream? Interview Jason Segel.

I have been ~~obsessed~~ a fan of Jason Segel ever since I first saw Freaks and Geeks in 1999. First of all, if you haven’t seen the show, rent the whole season (yup, it’s only one season) and watch it. It’s created by Paul Feig and Judd Apatow and also has Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Phillips, Martin Starr and whole host of other amazing actors. His character on the show, Nick Andopolis, is a) someone I absolutely would have been friends with and b) absolutely someone I would have had a crush on. That’s what drew me in at first. Since then, my fandom has grown with everything movie or TV show he’s in, every movie that he’s written, every interview I’ve seen or heard. And now, the chocolate covered cherry on the cake made entirely of buttercream frosting? He wrote the new Muppets movie.

I am equally as obsessed with the Muppets as I am with Jason Segel. So that fact that he wrote the new Muppets movie (and is starring in it as well), has sent me into a slight frenzy. I mean, it’s totally normal for a 34 year old woman to take the day off of work to go see the new Muppets movie on its opening day, right? Anyway, the fact that Jason Segel is a Muppet purist like me has made me want to sit down and talk to him even more than I did before.

Now that I have this dream, I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it happen. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Put it on a vision board, read The Secret and know that the universe will bring it to me. Magic 8 Ball success rating: Highly unlikely.
Try to use the one family connection I have in the entertainment business to see if he has contacts in Jason Segel’s management. Magic 8 Ball success rating: More likely than #1 but still highly unlikely
Contact Jason Segel on Twitter and try to engage with him that way. Hope we become Twitter BFFs and then he’ll be more than happy to hang out with me. Magic 8 Ball success rating: Plausible plan but not grounded in reality. Will not happen.
Move to California, apply for a low paying job on the set of one of his movies or How I Met Your Mother, hope I get the job and then get to know him that way. Magic 8 Ball success rating: The outlook is not good.

So that’s what I’ve got. As you can probably tell, my plans to make my dream come true are not exactly…good. But that’s all I could come up with. So I’m asking you–do you have any suggestions for me? Do you know Jason Segel or even his mother or siblings? Can you help me?