Frugal Challenge: No Spend August

I'm setting a goal for myself this month. I cannot spend any money on food that I did not make myself that did not come from a grocery store. I've tried this once before, in February, and it didn't end too well. Well, I'm not so good reaching goals when I have no prize on the other side. This time, however, there is a prize. It is not something I want to talk about, but there is a very real possibility of a relocation in my future. So, I need to see how much money I can save in the meantime.

Since we are only at day 2 in August, I'll recap yesterdays food purchasing and consumption.
I spent 6.00 on a club sandwich and chips and a soda at the cafe in the building. 5.00 of it was given to me by a coworker since I wrote her a check for her lunch last week (the cafe only takes cash or checks, making it almost impossible for us non-cash users to eat there). Payback meant free lunch. So, despite actually EATING food I didn't make, I didn't really spend any of my own money on it. I know, I know. I should have saved the 5.00 and put it in my piggy bank for a rainy day, but I was hungry dammit and sometimes I just don't have leftovers to bring in. I'm going to start working on that. Making a legit dinner every night again will be good for me. Something I can eat multiple times.

Today I have four cheese rice with chicken for lunch. I hope it reheats okay.

My Student Loans, A Neverending Story.

This is another one of those things that I really just need to "man-up" and deal with. My student loans.

I am one of the far-too-many Americans who are currently underemployed. I make a pithy amount of money. Terribly small considering the degree and amount of education I have. I hold two Bachelor's of Arts degrees in English and Anthropology and started my Master's of Arts degree in English a few years ago. Yes, I did drop out of the MA program, but it was simply to spare myself the oncoming mental breakdown that I saw myself crashing into. It was for the greater good of everyone in my life, really. And at that point, I had eradicated so many people that I probably should have just stuck it out and been friendless and alone with an MA.

As good as that sounds now, considering I am friendless and alone WITHOUT an MA, I think the impending mental breakdown would have been too much for me. But, the reality is this, I am edumacated. I have gottens my schooling. And for what, really?

I work as a receptionist at a national brokerage. This in no way fits my highly liberal arts education of English and Anthropology. I make way less money than the average college/university graduate does. The qualifications for my job only require that you be a high school graduate with reception experience. I could have gotten this job at 19. And yet, here I sit, at 27 with 2 college degrees. This seems wrong. And probably is. Thanks American recession!

The real point of this post, and I'm posting a lot today, is that my student loans are due. They actually WERE due 3 months ago. I had them in forbearance last year since I didn't make any money the year before. I didn't make 10,000 total in 2010. It was much less than that. Last year, my finances were only double what I made the year before, and the total was still less than 20,000 gross.

Well apparently, I am 1000 past due to one of my student loan lenders. At this point, I have 3. I know, it is my job to keep up with exactly when my student loans are due and take care of them accordingly, but dammit, I am a normal American. I forget things like this when I haven't paid them for over a year. And yes, I should have been paying at least something towards them, to knock the interest down a bit, but I have not had the extra money. And maybe I have. I don't know. I'm terrible with finances. That is one of my goals this year. To get a better handle on these little fiscal responsibilities.

I scheduled a payment of 100.00 to go through on the 18th, which serves to eradicate the 1000 I'm overdue and put my account into forbearance, once again, until March 2013. I need to start auto-paying 50.00 a month to this lender at least. It'll help get the principal down while the government (wonderful entity that they are) is paying my interest.

And I need to stop spending so much money on useless trinkets and booze. I feel like this has become my life. And books. I also like books.

The 401K and I: A Love/Hate Story

I currently invest in a 401K account with a complete 3% match by my employer, followed by a 50% match of the next 2%. This is not a great matching plan, but it's better than no match, or not being offered a retirement plan at all. This I like.

What I don't like is when I somehow manage to blow an extra $200 *cough*last month*cough*. Now I have to transfer what little money I put into my savings account back into my checking account. Just $100. Not nearly the $150 I was striving for originally, but now I guess I'm glad. Sort of.

Anyways, my new plan acts as sort of a punishment and a reward for myself, if that can make any sense whatsoever. Anytime I spend all of my extra money unnecessarily, I am going to up my 401K contribution by 1%. This is something like 7.00 each pay period. I figure if I can afford to spend $200 on god-knows-what, then I can afford to save an extra 7 dollars for my retirement. 15 dollars extra each month, or thereabout. It fluctuates depending on how many hours I work and how much overtime is on my check, but the average is the same.

Right now I have $490 in my retirement fund with Vanguard. I've only been funding it since January and no, I do not make a ton of money. But I live within my means, most of the time. I survive on what little I have and generally don't go waste a bunch of money on useless trinkets. We all have our bad days occasionally though. I just need to learn to keep them in check.

So, for now, Mr. 401K sits at a whopping 7% pre-tax contribution. Up from the 6% it's been at since February. He and I are going to be friends for a long time, I hope.

Car Problems... The Broke Person's Nightmare

I drive a 2000 Oldsmobile Alero with approx. 110,000 miles on it. This is fairly average for the typical American driver these days.

What they don't tell you, when you buy a car, is that things will eventually need to be replaced. When I drove from Alabama to Nashville last year with my car completely loaded with all my things, my brakes were squealing and squeaking so badly that I was scared to drive back to Alabama to get the rest of my stuff. I didn't. I left my car at my Mom's house and my uncle actually drove me down in his SUV to pack up the last load of my things because he heard the noises my car was making and was scared for me. I had completely worn the right back brake pad down to the rotor and it needed replacing immediately.

This is where it pays to have a mechanic in the family. He bought me the brake pad and replaced it for me, letting me know that I would DEFINITELY need to replace the right back rotor and the back left brake pad and rotor eventually. I said okay and went on my merry way. This was in August of last year.

Well, my back left brakes are starting to make the same grinding noise, especially when I am reversing out of the parking garage. This noise is echoed in the dense garage and it is embarrassing. My car is not that old nor is it ugly. I don't drive a beater, but good lord, could it make a worse sound that signals "hey. my car is a piece of crap, stare at it."

I think I'm going to have to suck it up and get the rotors and other brake pad replaced this weekend. But, seeing as how I AM a girl, most car repair/mechanics shops want to rip me off. I know this to be a fact. I once went into a Midas to get a $25 oil changed and walked out 1.5 hours later having spent over $80 on stuff they HAD to do that day that I was grossly overcharged for. Example: I had a screw in my tire. The cost: $25 to remove and repair. I also got a rotation with my oil change. They broke one of the lug nuts on my tire. Replacement fee: Another $25 that should have been on them, but somehow wound up on my bill.

I swore never to go back to a repair shop where I didn't personally know the employees after that.

This means that I will have to drive over an hour to go to my hometown where my uncle lives and my mom's friends have a repair/mechanic shop.

Although, if it saves me a few hundred dollars and lets me do laundry for free, I'm all for it.

Weekend Plans!

Today is Friday, thank goodness. Tonight for dinner, I am totally enjoying my FREE Papa John's pizza and 2-liter, thanks to the promo they did for the super bowl.

This weekend my plans include eating more free food and getting my boots fixed. I broke the cap off one of the heels on my black boots. I love these boots, but they are unwearable as is. They have been in the back seat of my car for almost 2 months because I cannot ever remember to take them to a cobbler to get them fixed. Tomorrow I am venturing to a reputable cobbler downtown and actually getting this done. I also need to have a leather purse repaired. I have ripped the lining since I tend to carry too much stuff.

We are also going to enjoy a free Blockbuster movie thanks to an email containing a free rental code.

Saturday, we are going out for dinner with the fam, for free, thanks to various gift cards and awards coupons for the restaurant. AND I think I am getting a new cat on Saturday, too. One of the cat's that lives at my other-mother's house is not getting along with their primary cat. I said I would take Lilly Moscovitz and try her out with Mr. Zap, see if they get along and all that cat jazz. So, she will be coming to live with me on Saturday, if the parentals can stand to get rid of her after all.

Saturday, I will also be installing my internet through AT&T and re-upping my XBox Live Gold subscription, because I ALSO have a free month of that I need to renew. Checking my email periodically often yields awesome things.

This weekend will be good. And filled with awesome stuff that hardly costs anything. Sometimes I enjoy living in a city where I can be frugal and still have fun.

No Food February

I almost forgot to mention the most important thing I have decided to do with my finances (and health) this month.

NO FOOD FEBRUARY!

No. I will not be starving myself this month. I guess I should retitle it. "No FAST Food February." Here's the plan: What I will be doing is buying more groceries and less fast food/delivery food. I spent entirely too much money last month on things like Chinese, pizza, and sandwiches from the cafe at work; that it's nauseating to think about.

[Image from here.]
I haven't decided if I should include alcohol in this spending ban or not. I typically only buy 1 bottle of liquor at a time, a bottle of Jack Daniels. Said bottle usually lasts a month. Sometimes I'll splurge on beer, something along the lines of a 6-pack of nut brown ale from Blackstone Brewery, it's literally across the street from the building I work in. It's a good beer and fairly inexpensive, in my beer snob eyes. Okay, it's 10.00 for a 6-pack, I'll be honest. Not PBR cheap, but I can't do that to myself. I have standards, even if I also have a budget. Plus my beer snobbery keeps me from drinking tons of the cheap stuff and gaining a beer belly. This is how I stay trim. By drinking not-cheap beer. There's logic in there somewhere. I know it.

But, this is my plan. No fast food/delivery food. I just want to see how much money I can save by making my own food and taking it to work as lunches. This is my biggest weakness, eating out every day at work. It's terrible. But if last month's finances are any indication of what I could potentially save by NOT spending excess money on food, I'll have about half my emergency fund saved in a little under 3 months. That's awesome (and sad that I didn't realize that before now.)