My financial train just derailed
I was *so* close to paying off my last credit card and tackling my final big SBA loan. Argh! And my truck has turned into a serious money sink this month. It was overdue for an oil change. Got it done and it turned into fixing a bunch of oil and fluid leaks. They didn’t tell me about it, so I got $50 in labor for free and just paid for the material/fluids. $52. Then they told me it was more than overdue for some things. It’s been months since the last big overhaul, so I made plans for it to go in for a tune-up and engine cleaning (to find out where leaks are occurring). Total: $532. However, during this time, they found out that that the clutch was slipping (badly) and it needed new a new clutch, and all the bells and whistles that go with it (resurfacing the fly wheel, yada yada). ARGH! $1200 extra. And it still needs new front tires, but I’m going to have to wait on the $200-$300 on that. I guess that’s what I get for having an older used vehicle. It’s at 170,000 miles now. It better not having anything go wrong for at least 6 months or I will cry.
This has turned into a very expensive month. I have cleaned out my emergency fund, my vehicle fund, my xmas fund (obviously since I spent everything this month!), and pretty much everything except for the kitten fund (which I am not going to touch, as that is for a true emergency with my 2 cats).
So I’ve cleaned out all my savings, and still will have $1,600 to pay on my credit card, which puts me back 2 months on my informal payment schedule. J still owes me rent and his half of some big home purchases this month, so I should be getting about $600 soon. That will help quite a bit, once he actually gives me the money.
The new year starts tomorrow and I’ll be starting it from a very low financial position. I think I’m going to start really tightening the belt. Seriously curtailing the eating out, buying more cheaply at the store, significantly reducing the amount of alcohol I purchase (no more bottles of wine). At least for January. I need to get back on firm financial footings.
We’ll see if my salary changes (negatively) on Jan. 20 – the company I work for has been losing money, so I expect if no raise, then a possible salary cut, or reduced hours.
I will make this vow. If they choose to cut my hours I will get a part time job.
Here’s to wishing you all health, wealth, and financial stability in this coming year!
Best,
debtmaven
Different spending priorities
My bf and I are pretty sympatico with our socializing tastes. However, there is one main area in which we digress. He loves to throw dinner parties for people. Big meals that cost money to make. He has a very close friend that he wanted to have Thanksgiving with. Due to her having to work *on* Thanksgiving, he wanted to have it earlier, the Tuesday before, but due to the big snow we had, no one dared travel anywhere in Seattle and we cancelled it.
He still wants to have it and is planning on this Tuesday. Pumpkin chocolate caramel torte, Chicken roll with pancetta and mushrooms (he doesn’t like turkey), dressing, cranberry compote, vegetable of some kind, crostini with roasted garlic and carmelized onions, probably something else. Wine of course. At least 5 people are coming over.
This time around he is going to prep, buy and cook everything during the day, as he doesn’t have work this day. I’ll be working late since I have to close, so I should be home about the time people start coming over. This time around he is going to buy most of the items on his own, without me, so I won’t be responsible for paying for it. Is it crass to be happy that I am not stuck with the bill? It wasn’t my idea, and he wants to do it.
He is a middle-aged grandmother when it comes to holidays. He loves them. He loves buying the decor, putting up lights, buying ornaments and wreaths. Me, I like it too, but for holidays that are a single day, like Halloween, I don’t feel the need to go knee-deep (or chest-deep in his case) into celebrating. For non-xmas holidays, it’s pretty easy – if he wants to buy something, he does and I don’t pay for it. Just like he doesn’t buy home stuff when it is something I want to get.
Christmas turns into a different situation. There’s a tree, and lights, all of which I enjoy. He wants to get a big, real, extravagant tree. I want a tree, but maybe a little more modest (say $30 cheaper). I absolutely cannot bring myself to say I will only pay half of a modest sized tree and you get the rest (ie, pay for the upgrade to the large tree). So I pay half on the xmas tree (and only grumble a little in my head). After all, I will love it as much as him.
Due to us having 2 very young and very large cats, one of which is a feline version of an olympic athlete, we decided we would not have any dangerous ornaments on our tree. No glass, no ceramics, nothing that could fall/break and be a danger to eat or to lacerate paws. Last year his huge stash of red bulb ornaments was out so we had to get new ornaments and we discovered the woodland themed brush ornamnents (animals made out of natural materials). Non-breakable and oh so adorable! J bought a lot. I bought some. Same thing this year, he bought a bunch, but I didn’t buy any (I’m waiting until after xmas). We started to put up our outside lights yesterday, but he couldn’t find some of the lights we had bought last year. He bought an extra $35 in lights instead.
I consider a lot of his purchases extremely frivolous, though I would never say so to him. I also buy things I shouldn’t, if I am really going to concentrate on getting out of debt. But they are not things I want to give up (primarily art), so I haven’t. I’m paying off debt slowly and steadily, but my way. I’m not sacrificing every single thing for that extra $175 per month that all the Dave Ramsey families seem to do. I don’t have a second job, since I don’t think I could handle it. I like a mocha when I go sit at the bookstore to read a book (instead of buying it). I like getting a chunk of expensive cheese when shopping at the market. But I don’t want to buy someone else’s splurges, and sometimes I am able to avoid paying for them, but sometimes I can’t avoid it. This is the season that this is going to happen most. I think my gift/xmas fund is going to be more than I truly need for gifts, so I guess I’ll dip into it for the tree, dinners, etc. Wish I didn’t have to though, but I guess that’s part of being in a relationship/partnership with someone – compromise.
The great Seattle snow-in; my grudging use of vacation hours
Last week, the normally temperate Seattle area suffered below-freezing temperatures, snow, and ice, for several days. It caused the public school systems to close down for the 2 days prior to Thanksgiving, and gave the majority of all people travelling in the area commutes of 5 hours on average Monday night. My local micro-news blog for West Seattle, dubbed it “the long walk home” as many people just abandonned their cars on streets and highways in order to get home.
This is the first time in decades anyone can remember snow in Seattle at such an early date. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people discuss how cold and wet this year is going to be. Say it enough times and it becomes fact I guess!
So I stayed home for 2 days, after my 3+ hour commute home (which normally takes 20 minutes), after leaving “early” on Monday. Technically I left at 5, but I close the building and basically shoo’ed every person out of the building once word started trickling in of the horrible road conditions out in the world, so I ended up leaving earlier than I normally would have. I did quite a bit of work from home the next day (Tuesday), rescheduling jobs with clients, cancelling jobs, calling many employees to discuss their start times (and then again the lack there of) the next day. Repeat on Wednesday.
Overall, I had to eat up 9.5 hours of vacation time to make up the difference (again, not counting any missed OT for Tuesday, when I again would have been staying late to close the building). I hate that I had to dip into something I’m hoarding like the family jewels, to save up for a time I really really want to do an amazing trip. Instead, I did it to keep my paycheck at a reasonable level so that I can keep on track with debt payments this month.
What a waste. I miss my 9.5 hours of vacation time.
Bonus? I don’t think so!
We all know the economy has tanked. Well, this year it parked at my company and is filling up half the parking lot. My bf and one other employee were layed off back in March. We lost money in the spring, made a little in the summer (but not enough to rebound), and have continued to lose money since. We did a second set of layoffs, in reality getting rid of 2 employees that were problematic, but not replacing their positions either, so I guess that still counts.
Financially, my company is about $85K in the hole I expect it will increase to $100K-$110K by the end of the year. Between January and April 15 we are traditionally slow, so I doubt things will improve in the near future. All of us, including myself, are running at or past capacity for workload, so it’s not like layoffs or furloughs will help. There’s very little room for give.
We are not having any holiday party, and bonuses? Yeah, right. They’re off vacationing with my cost of living raise, and thinking of visiting my performance raise in Shangri-la.
I’m not a business major, but even I can see that things aren’t looking that bright. What to do? What will happen? I have often said that my position is secure, it would take a lot for me to become let go, and that is absolutely still the case. However, how can a company continue to operate like this? I know that they have been agressively paying off previous debt, and had expected to be out of it by next year. However, this is debt of another kind.
I’m wondering if they are going to cut salaries soon. If I were them, I would. Either way, I’m feeling ok. I can handle a pay cut, I’d just pay *my* debt off less aggressively until things return to normal. I’m still on track, not cinching the belt, and living within my means. I just wish I had pursued a more corporate track so I could have that cushy high five-figure to six-figure salary with 5 percent or higher 401K employer match and amazing benefits so many other people seem to have in the blogsphere. Oh well, I guess I can be glad I don’t have $250K in student loans from a law degree. Instead I have an art degree and am only in $29K of debt (at this point in time). La. Here’s to the the economy getting better.
I heart Macy’s, a positive customer service experience
2010 marked the first time I participated in Black Friday. I had a whole bunch of coupons for Macy’s and some specific quality clothing items I wanted to purchase for my bf plus some bedding we’ve discussed getting for over a year.
I found the perfect duvet cover. It was on sale, check! I had a 15% off coupon for it, check! Out of stock, but they would happily order it for me and ship it at no charge, check! Great, I was on board. I asked the sales clerk to make sure that the sale price was indeed ending the next day, and it would go back to a higher price after black friday. It was, so the time to purchase was right then! (I had a coupon that began the next day for $50 off a $200 purchase, which would be a better rate, but not when it went back to full price.
I went home, happy with my purchase, the cheapest I could finangle and what I thought would be the best price through the end of the year. However, I checked online and their cyber Monday special was even lower, with free shipping. I happened to be shopping the next day downtown Seattle and there was a macy’s there too, that had the duvet cover in stock. Just for a lark, I stopped by to confirm that the price had indeed gone up and that my coupon would not be worthwhile. But the sale price was still in effect! Sales clerk #1 had been wrong. So I could have saved even more money. I called customer service and they were very helpful, but not able to cancel the shipment (it was in process I think). Unfortunately, the online price could not be applied to the store, so it was buy there in the store and get my coupon off and return my shipped item, or just not bother and wait for it to arrive in the mail. I thought about it, and decided I would just use my $50 coupon anyway and return the shipped item when I received it.
When I went to purchase it, the sales clerk (day 2, different store) told me about the friends and family discount of 25%, which ended up being the best option of all. Plus they had it in stock. The only catch, it applied to Dec. 1, and not before. So I purchased it on the spot, they are holding it, and I will collect in person on Thursday. The next day I called customer service (during business hours, and they said it had shipped already but they could have it rerouted to their warehouse. When it arrives, they will credit my account for the purchase so it’ll be like I returned it without any effort on my part. How nice!
Overall, I ended up saving an additional $20 from black friday + coupon, getting the final price of $149.99 instead of $269.99, and dealt with several very nice cordial employees of Macy’s who cared about how I spent my money, both in the store and on the phone. Sometimes it’s better to buy in the store!
I’ve always had a soft spot for Macy’s, maybe it’s all the presents my grandmother used to get me when I was the only grandchild and she worked at Macys and got discounts on stuff.
Merry xmas, happy hanukah, and may you all find yummy, frugal gifts this holiday season.
DebtMaven 