Money gifts: what now?

Thanks to the long weekend (and because I’m a very good procrastinator), my Week 7 Review post is kind of being shoved into this post. Whoops!

What I’d Struggled With

Well, first off, I spent a lot of money very quickly early on in the week. By Tuesday, I only had shy of $17 remaining of my $60 weekly budget. After that, however, I didn’t really spend much for the rest of the week.

Where My Money Went

As mentioned in my last post, I spent the big chunk of money on things with which to make a yummy dinner. I had a knitting meet-up during the week, too, and spent $10 on a drink and the tip. I also spent a couple of buck on milk, candy, and chips on Friday for my parents visit. (Empty fridge isn’t exactly a good way to welcome guests to your home!)

Where My Money Didn’t Go

I had to pay for parking for the aforementioned knitting shin-dig.

Total Spent: $53.34
Added to Money Jar: $6.66 (eep!!)
Total in Money Jar: $86.49

So, what’s with the title of this post, eh? Well, here’s the deal.

I have a pretty awesome family. They’re legitimately insane sometime, but I continue to enjoy my life and it’s pretty much their fault. 🙂 That being said, my sister gave me a handful of money when we saw her on Sunday as a belated congratulations on my engagement. My mother gave me an “I love this much!” wad of dough, as she usually does. I was happy! I am happy! But… I had to ask myself: What does this do to my budget???

The old me would be like, “YES! SPEND IT! LET’S GOOOO!”

The new me had to weigh the pros and cons of two options:

1. Use this money for my budget until it runs out, as opposed to going to the ATM.
2. Put it all in my jar and pretend that it doesn’t exist.

I wish I could just deposit it into my savings account and ignore it, but as I’ve mentioned before, I am a member of an online bank and can’t deposit cash. I’m leaning more towards the 2nd option… but, we’ll see…

Anyway, currently…

Week 8 Allowance Status: $60.00 / $60.00

Saving money as it disappears!

A trust night conference call getting canceled immediately makes me want to do creative things with dinner. I ended up going to the supermarket to pick up a few things to use to make a good pasta dinner. I ended up spending a hair over $10 on shallots, canned tomatoes (on sale for $1 each!), pasta (on sale, too!), spinach, and seltzer. Sadly, this means…

Weekly Allowance Status: $16.93 / $60.00

The bread I’d baked last week went stale so as I type this, another loaf is on the oven. (Money-saving pro tip: bake your own bread!) With a quarter of the old loaf gone stale, and not wanting to waste it, I decided to make bread crumbs!

Simply cut your stale bread into cubes, put in a blender or food processor (I used my Ninja Ultima blender) and pulse until fine. I put it in a mason jar and into the freezer. Done!

Because, who can really eat an entire loaf of bread before it begins to go stale?

Week 6 in review.

A day later than usual for my weekly update, but here we go!

What I’d Struggled With

The only real tricky part of this week was that I went through more of my allowance sooner than I’d done before. On Saturday when I wanted to buy some stuff at CVS for a party on Sunday, I had to make myself wait because I knew it’d be more than the $16 and change that I had on me. Same on Friday when I had to figure out if I wanted to spend money on something to bring to another party, or just use the stuff I had at home already.

Where My Money Went

Mainly, I spent the $40-something on snacks and a small grocery shopping trip.

Where My Money Didn’t Go

For the aforementioned party I went to on Friday, I ended up baking brownies with a raspberry-strawberry sauce on the side. (Frustratingly enough, nobody touched them at the party. Sigh…) I spent non-allowance money on a cab fare and on reloading my subway card on Saturday. I spent some of my Starbucks gold card money, too, but luckily there was a buy-one-get-one deal going on. Still, though, I only have $4.25 left on my gold card and the $15 gift card left. And it’s only February. Ugh. Old habits, right?

So, remembering that I had to spend some money from the jar on my fiance’s birthday dinner, my jar is still a bit under $100.

Total Spent: $43.15
Added to Money Jar: $16.85
Total in Money Jar: $79.83

On Sunday, I had to go to the grocery store to buy some things for making a dessert for yet another party I was attending. (Since when have I gotten popular enough to be invited out three times in a week? Eep!) I spent $21.43 on generic Chex-like cereal, powdered sugar, generic “funfetti”-like cake mix, generic white chocolate chips, generic sprinkles, granulated sugar, and cilantro. All but the last two were used to make some delicious funfetti-flavored “puppy chow”. As delicious as it was, I’m not so sure it was worth the money I’d spent on the ingredients.

So, starting off this week, I’m already down a bit…

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $38.57

J

Birthday success (and how it impacted my money jar)!

Before leaving for dinner, I grabbed $80 from the money jar. Dinner ended up totaling $83.89 after tax, before tip – two drinks, one appetizer, two entrees, and four mini-dessert “shots”. Not too shabby! I used the $25 pre-paid credit card I got for the holidays from my boss and used cash for the rest, including tip. In the end, I spent the gift card and $80, putting the remaining $5 in my money jar. It definitely could’ve been worse, and here’s how:

• I could’ve gotten a second drink, but didn’t.
• I could’ve done valet parking, but didn’t.
• I could’ve gotten a cappucino, but instead I made coffee when we returned home.

I was definitely pleasantly surprised at my self-control, and – bonus! – we had a damn good time. So, because I didn’t touch my weekly money (just the jar)…

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $55.84

But…

Previous Total in Money Jar: $142.08
Spent from Money Jar: $80.00
Total in Money Jar: $62.08

An old habit.

I’ve already talked about my stupidly cliche love for Starbucks a few times. Despite wishing I could stop going so often, I can’t. You’d think that being on a tight budget would cut my trips down significantly, and in a way they have. I used to go at least twice per week (sometimes as much as 5 or 6) and spend at least $4 per trip. In 2013, I spent $540.19 at Starbucks.

But, this year I have improved… just not by much. I mentioned how I already re-loaded my Starbucks gold card before the New Year, so I had $40-something that I was just going to treat like a gift card, spending it throughout the year so I could have my fix but in moderation. Well, January isn’t even over and I have $19.01 left. 😦 Quasi-fail.

Given that I’ve been able to stay well under my weekly budget so far, I definitely have extra cash in my money jar to spend as I please, and it could be at Starbucks if I want it to be! But, my lack of self-control is ever more apparent now that I’ve seen how quickly I’m going through the money on my gold card.

In other news, my fiance’s birthday is today and we’re going out to dinner. I’ve decided that even though I have spent my actual money on his present (non-allowance money, that is), I will take the cash out of my jar and use it towards his dinner tonight. It took a lot of thought, but my reason for doing this is simple: this is a dinner out. Any other dinner out I would have to budget for accordingly. Just because it is his birthday doesn’t mean this one dining out experience has to be a free-for-all! So, I’ll be using one of my gift cards, along with some of the cash in my wallet and from my money jar tonight. Hopefully it won’t be too bad!

Wish me luck!

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $55.84

Tipping on a budget.

For one summer in high school, I worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts / Baskin Robbins (affectionately referred to as “Dunkin’ Robbins” by anyone who has ever worked at such a place). It may not be as long as some folks have worked in food, but I still learned something that summer: tips are amazing, and those who don’t give them are assholes. I also learned that if your Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t have a bakery in it, you’re probably getting day-old (at least!) donuts and bagels. Oh! And, never ever have them spread the cream cheese on your bagel for you – do it yourself. Trust me.

Uh… anyway… back to tipping!

A friend and I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts on my way home from our knitting meetup last night because I was really hungry and cold. One latte order later, and I was rang up: $3 and change. I’d ordered the latte becauase it was on sale for 99 cents if you order one after 2pm. I corrected her, she apologized, and I got it for 99 cents… plus 7 cents tax. Being on a budget, I wanted all of my coins – all 94 cents of it – in my own pocket. I need it! I only have so much! But, realizing it’s after 10pm on a federal holiday and this woman is working alone in a Dunkin Donuts made me stop and think.

Summer of 2003, there was a huge freaking black-out in the northeastern United States, including my hometown. I was working at “Dunkin’ Robbins” that day and the witch-like wife of my boss was supervising us. The power went out, yet she still forced us to work. There was a carnival across the street at the time, and once the power ran out and the generators ran out of gas, everyone from the carnival bombarded us with demands of iced coffee and ice cream. (Mind you, this was way before Dunkin’ Donuts got fancy. It was simple: coffee, bagels, donuts, breakfast sandwiches. On my last day of work, actually, they were installing our first latte machine. I sure got out just in time!)

A line of pissed off, heat exhausted families with equally pissed off, heat-exhausted kids took over our dark store. Our witch of a supervisor was yelling at us, “DON’T YOU DARE OPEN A REFRIGERATOR OR FREEZER OR THE ICE CREAM WILL MELT! TURN EVERYONE AROUND WHO NEEDS ICE CREAM! JUST SERVE COFFEE!” The biggest problem, however, wasn’t that the ice for the iced coffee was melting, or that the coffee itself was disappearing with every purchase – it was that our registers ran on electricity and couldn’t be opened with the power being out. We had to use our tips to make change for people. After we ran out of coffee, we sent everyone away and put a “Sorry, we’re closed” sign on our door. Instead of sending us home (since my shift was over in an hour and a half anyway) she made us clean on our hands and knees in the dark – the floor, the counters, the sinks, the bathroom, the back room – everything.

And, at the end of all of this, I didn’t get a single tip.

So, last night I gave the girl a 17% tip – 19 cents. In hindsight, I should’ve given more. But, at least I did it. I could’ve been pissy about her not giving me my discount until I had to ask her. I could’ve been upset that it took her 3 minutes to make a tiny espresso beverage. I could’ve been like all the unnecessarily angry people who get their triple-grande-soy-caramel-macchiato and barely give a smile, surely not a tip.

Regardless of your budget, tip your server after your meal, your barista when you get your espresso, your bartender when you get your whiskey, and your cashier when they spread your cream cheese on your bagel for you. If not, be prepared for your next bagel to have expired cream cheese spread all over it… not that I’ve ever done such a thing…

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $50.34

J

My first “moneyjar” shopping trip.

I finally did it: I spent cash from my weekly allowance.

After I scheduled Friday morning’s post on Thursday evening, I went to the supermarket and bought items with which to make quiche for my dinner guests Friday night. Honestly, as ridiculous as this may sound, it was a huge struggle and an even bigger wake-up call.

The things I had to buy were:

• 1/2 dozen eggs
• cream
• milk
• onion
• Gruyere cheese
• pie crust (or butter and flour to make it myself)
• balsamic vinegar

The milk, onion, eggs, and cream were easy to buy because they’re inexpensive as is, and come in small sizes (I only need 1/2 cup of cream for the recipe, so the tiny carton of cream I bought was only $1.39). The difficult stuff was the cheese, pie crust, and vinegar.

Pretty much every time I do a random trip to the supermarket on my way home from work, I stop in the fancy cheese section. You know… not where they keep Kraft or “Helluva Good” brands! Pshaw! I don’t need that crap, right? I must have some raw, organic, local cheese! Plus, my quiche recipe calls for Gruyere! Well, I stopped in my fancy cheese section and grabbed some Gruyere (imported from France, nonetheless!), tossing it in my cart. As I walked away I realized, “Crap. I didn’t look at the price!” When I did, I saw… staring back at me… $7.99… for barely a quarter pound chunk!

I truly still wanted that cheese, but I knew I couldn’t and shouldn’t spend so much. Are my guests really going to know the difference between this and the stuff from the regular refrigerator section of the supermarket? Doubtful. So, I walked over to the other side of the store, where the word “artisanal” doesn’t exist, and bought the store brand’s “all natural” mild white cheddar which was on sale for 2-for-$5 (though I only bought one). I wasn’t happy about it. I wanted that imported French stuff. Damn.

Speaking of imported stuff, as I had turned away from the fancy cheese, I saw a display of bottles of balsamic vinegar. Perfect! How convenient this store is! I grabbed the bottle and walked to my cart, glancing at the price tag: $19.99! For a tiny bottle! “But it’s from Italy,” my internal voice screamed at me. “You need this.”

Luckily I put it down and walked to the aisle that had the oil and vinegar in it – you know… Heinz, etc. But, what surprised me was this: one lonely bottle of imported Italian balsamic vinegar, all by itself, on sale for less than $3. The bottle is at least twice as big as the $20 one I’d found before, so I quickly snatched it up. I was so noticeably excited about this that it scared me.

Then, the pie crust. While in the inexpensive cheese section, I saw the pie crusts and had a decision: spend $3 on pre-made pie crust, or spend $2 on butter and at least another $2 on flour. I would have future use of the leftover butter and flour if I went with the second option, but I don’t use butter or flour very often, so would I truly need them? I ended up going with the pre-made crusts, also because it’d be much easier for me after work on Friday to make the quiche if one thing was already done for me. (I’m notoriously bad at making pie crust anyway, so I’m glad to have Pillsbury do this!)

I know some folks upon reading this are probably thinking, “Oh, woe is me! You silly little yuppie with ‘only child syndrome’ who was probably raised in an upper-middle-class household! You have to budget when grocery shopping? Suck it up and join the masses!” The point of this whole thing is to change my previous, impulsive, financially damaging ways. The point is for me to grow the hell up. I’m fully aware that people live paycheck to paycheck and always have to buy generics to get by. And, no, I never have had to do that. But now I am. Yes, it’s by choice, but that doesn’t make it less difficult.

Anyway… damage done at the supermarket for my caramelized onion and Gruyere cheddar quiche: $17.90

After I went home and put the groceries away, I went to trivia at a bar with some coworkers. I had an amazing time! Seriously! We came in third place and, thanks to me being the only one suggesting team names, we won the “Best Team Name”! (We were Kim Jung Rodman. Get it? Good. 🙂 )

I was nervous because we went to one of my favorite burger joints in the Boston area. Luckily a friend/coworker of mine wanted to split a burger with me so in the end, my half burger and beer cost just over $5. Fun times + good food + good company + not a lot spent = an amazing night.

On Saturday evening, after my shift at the museum, my fiance and I are going to Costco to get some necessities like meat (now that my meat CSA is done with), canned goods, toilet paper, cereal, etc. that we’re low on and usually buy in bulk. Luckily, my guy buys the groceries when we go on our big trips, so this shouldn’t affect me at all. We’ll also be staying in to watch the Patriots game instead of going out (note: I am not a Patriots fan, but he is!) so that’ll save us some dough. Maybe we’ll buy a ready-to-bake pizza from Costsco for our gameday food! As long as I’m not paying… 😉

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $36.65

J

My beloved gold card.

No, I’m not talking about a credit card. I’m talking about my Starbucks Gold Card. I’ve been a member since it first became available in early 2009. It’s used like a hybrid between a gift card and a debit card – you add money from a bank account or credit card to the Starbucks card and use it to make purchases. You get a discount on all purchases and random free stuff, like a free birthday drink and other things.

Well, late in 2013, my auto-reload went into effect, so now I have $40 on my Starbucks Gold Card. It may sound like I’m cheating, but I’m going to treat this like a gift card. The money was taken out of my account in December, so it isn’t like I can get it back – it’s stuck on my card until I use it. So, I’m using it eventually. Sorry, folks, if you’re disappointed. 😦

Also, when I posted earlier about unsubscribing to all of the e-mail spam I get from stores, I didn’t exclude my Starbucks Gold Card emails. The reason? The freebies. I got an e-mail today about a limited-time, one-day offer for a free latte. So, I redeemed it on my way to work this morning. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am!

As of writing this post, I haven’t gone out to Trivia with coworkers yet, nor have I gone shopping for dinner-making items for my girly coworker get-together yet. So, for now…

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $60.00

J

Our first date of 2014.

Thanks to these wonderful AMC “Gold Tickets” that my fiancé received for Christmas, we got to do one of our favorite activities for free on Sunday: go to the movies. (And we have a few AMC gift cards to spend, too, in due time!)

In 2013, we went to the movies 18 times together – and I went twice without him. Yeah… we love the movies more than most people I know. This will be a struggle for me this year, as a lot of great films will be released and with limited gift cards, we’ll have to be careful!

As mentioned, the movie was free… but dinner was a bit tricky. Usually we’d go get burgers down the street from the theatre, but I guess we both knew we had food at home just begging to be consumed. We ended up heading home and eating leftovers and some salad.

So, our first movie and dinner date didn’t impact my budget! But, once the work week starts, that’s when the real challenge will begin. Until then…

Weekly Allowance: $60.00
Weekly Allowance Remaining: $60.00

J

Hercules.

Winter Storm “Hercules” is making this first (albeit short) week an easy one for the budget. (See how Boston is surrounded by dark purple? That’d be a foot or more of snow!) Although I worked a half day on 2 January, I didn’t have a reason or the means to do the impulsive, thoughtless stuff I’d usually do. With snow on the roads and carpooling with a coworker, I couldn’t go to Starbucks. Having left at noon, I was able to eat lunch at home.

Speaking of carpooling, I had to do so in order to ensure I’d get street parking spot for my and my fiance’s cars. With the city of Boston under a snow emergency, our street is one of the few in our neighborhood that doesn’t have a parking ban in effect on it! These spots are a premium, so I carpooled with a friend/coworker and left my car in the street to claim my spot.

Then I thought, “I’ll give him a few bucks for gas for his generosity!” Then I realized, “Oh… crap. I can’t. I need that money!” So, I baked him some chocolate-chocolate chip biscotti based off of a recipe he’s complimented me on before. Paying back a friend: $0.

I plan on working from home on 3 January as well, and since we’ll be buried in snow, I won’t have any reason to spend cash. It’ll be a soup-eating, tea-sipping, snuggling-up-to-my-hot-water-bottle kind of day… and it’s cost-free! Bonus: shoveling snow is free exercise.

Stay warm, folks.

Weekly Allowance: $34.00

Weekly Allowance Remaining: $34.00

J