Brooklyn Girl's Personal Finance Blog

I just had a birthday, and I thought I would go easy on DH by just telling him what I would like (He loves for me to tell him because I can be a picky nightmare to shop for).

Since my old "point and shoot" little camera I had in my purse broke, I mentioned I wanted another one. So after some research he got be a Canon S95.
I thought this was my gift.

It is a nice gift.

But it was a decoy gift!

What he really got me was a brand new solid-state drive MacBook Pro!!!!!!!!!

He put it in my drawer, where I usually keep my old Macbook for me to be surprised when I reach for it.
He pulled it off too -- I had no idea that he bought it. He received it when I wasn't home, he temporarily disabled mint access to his credit card, etc...
Of course I wanted one, but I was going to wait until my old one becomes very frustrating to use.

The new one is beautiful, fast, all things Apple. (Man, we are a household of Apple junkies.)

I'm very touched by the amount of effort and thought he put into my gift. See, sometimes men can read your mind.

Lets face it, we want money in order to improve all aspects of our quality of life. Financial security is only one part of it, other parts are just as important.

No reason to give up little pleasures, sometimes saving money and enjoying something of higher quality goes hand in hand.

Share your random small ideas for accomplishing both. Something creative and unexpected (not along the lines of "use a coupon on an already on sale can of soup").

I'll start with my latest little discovery:

I like Tea's Tea Lemongrass Green tea. I don't drink anything with sugar or sugar substitutes, so there are very few options besides water for a decent tasting non-alcoholic drink.

That tea is $1.75 a bottle in a grocery store and $1.99 in a convenience store.

So I looked up some videos on youtube.... and went shopping in Fairway.

Fresh lemongrass -- 1.99 a bunch
Fresh ginger root -- 50cents, even for organic
I already had some lovely organic green tea.

Making it was almost as easy as regular tea. (And I made one batch with ginger and one without -- not everyone loves ginger).
Just take out leaves of the lemongrass out, cut it up, bring it to a boil, than strain and make green tea with that water.

For ginger version I added some finely mint ginger for 2 minutes after it boiled, than strained.

For caffeine-free version, one can have just lemongrass/giner tea, without the green tea base. Not as good tasting, in my opinion, but very good if you have a cold, and is supposed to be calming.

And freshly made, it is a more potent and pleasant tea. Lemongrass has a lot of health benefits (and you know what is in your tea - real thing, not flavoring).

So while everyone says "make your own coffee", no one mentioned that great herbal teas can be made better and cheaper at home.

I discovered what is going on with my "missing" paycheck -- I missed the announcement that they are discontinuing the salary advance, and we will now be paid once a month only.
Math-wise it is not a big deal, I will just miss the excitement and a fuzzy feeling of a payday.

I wonder, how often do most people get paid? I will probably be in a minority getting paid once a month.

That has never happened before. Ever. They ALWAYS pay on time, often a day early.
This puzzles me.

No theories other than the glitch of some sort (which has never happened before).

I wanted to see what my new paycheck will be, since now my whole family will be covered under my health insurance plan. So I've been checking few times a day.

I was downloading images from my camera and decided to make an album of how seasons change as seen from my window:

I haven't been a Brooklyn girl for a year and a half now, but I haven't changed my name.

Hmm, what should it be? *thinking*

When I hang out with neighbours, I sometimes think -- where else will millionaires live in the same building with school teachers?
Our co-op building has rich people, middle class people, and older fixed income people who bought their apartment decades ago.
There is a world-class photographer, few lawyers, super's assistant, few government employees, doctors, successful model, UN staff, Wall street finance guys... all sorts of people from different walks of life and very different income levels.

Anywhere else, if you have few million dollars you would not live in an apartment, you would live in a house in an isolated community and have very limited contact with people outside of it.

There is much less segregation by income in this city than anywhere else. People of very different incomes and backgrounds living in the same buildings, in the same community, going to the same pool, riding the same train. (Yes, they mostly take the train when going to Manhattan).

There is no set way you are supposed to look, brands you are "supposed to" wear or places you are supposed to belong to in order to be included. It is a more interesting way to live and in some way creates less pressure.
It also fosters an attitude of greater inclusiveness.

I know a lot of people who make much less than us, and a lot of people who make and have way way more than we could ever hope to. So I feel grateful on one end and it keeps me from getting too full of myself on the other.

Also, unlike in usual communities that tend to attract people of the same income, it is impossible to keep up with the Joneses here(so why try?).

Perhaps NYC's famous liberal attitudes are fostered by this lack of an isolated social bubble kind of living, where people are with "their own kind" financially (and often racially, religiously, etc..)

When that happens, people tend to think that society as a whole is mostly like them (or at least the "worthy" part of society) because this is all they see on a daily basis and so only their problems should be addressed, their class benefited, and everyone else is kind of hypothetical.

Ok, so that is my ramble for today.

A penny for your thoughts.

I should do these weekly instead of monthly. Because it is oh so easy to give up on a month and decide you are going to start fresh next month and really do it right. Well no more of this kind of thinking. I will do it every week.

Mortgage and maintenance $2,920

No fuel assessment this month! Yey to the lower bill


Transportation $675:

car payment $250
mass transit $178.00
street parking $33.00
building parking $92
ezpass $65.00
gasoline $57.00
Nothing can be done about these expences.

baby fall weather stuff $116.72
warmer clothing, sleeping sacks, hat, new crib sheet)
I am already over the budget for baby clothing for the month.

formula $6.00

Way under budget for baby food (we cook him fresh organic food every day using baby cook, so it is under our grocery category)
I'm just not going to bother separating the cost of his portion of groceries.

groceries $155.90
on track, doing well so far

Food at work $15.28

I did a great job here! Only 1 sandwich and 1 bagel. It is partly because I did not work for 4.5 out of 7 days, but still... good job is a good job.

eating out $183.40

Even though we were treated to 3 pricey meals. So in one week we spend almost half of what I allocated for a month and potentially more (because we'll treat next time). But long weekends are killers that way. When my mom comes to watch baby we feel we should not waste this opportunity and go out. And if it is cold and raining, where do you go? To a restaurant.

laundry $20.00
household $22.97 (on track here)

my clothing $61.96
This is very reasonable. And I should really not go over my low number of $100 considering how much I spent in August.

$10.88 Netflix

Overall, we are doing better than average this month.

My baby is such a pleasant, sunny, happy, playful baby in his cute exploring stage. He is smiling and making happy laughing sounds all day long. He just started to cruise and is delighted with everything.

He loves playing, horsing around... very curious and affectionate. And I feel bad about his happy, relaxed staying at home with parent time coming to an end. He is only 10 month old... so small for big world and long commute...

These are the train wreck fries from Virgils that I looove! Especially with Magic Hat #9 on draft... mmm. Their memphis pork ribs or wings are unbeat as well.

Anyhow, this was the last hurray. DH's LDL is 177, so from now on Virgils will be once in a couple of months occasion. It would save money too, which we will need to pay for childcare. *sigh*

So today's farewell in Virgils was $88.8.
Besides that, we just had moderate expenses:

1 toothpaste and a pack of floss $11 (cause it was in a pharmacy time square, but we seriously could not sqeeze even a milligram out of our old toothpaste anymore, we've been using it for 3 days since we ran out, and we had no time to go some place cheaper that's out of the way.

Zulily labor day sale: 1 pair of socks, fall hat, short cute rain boots(I don't have any) for me $35

pants for baby to crawl around the house and an organic crib sheet $32

I take care of the little one on weekends. So, of course, had to get up at 7:30 again (not enough sleep as always).

But at 3 p.m, DH's mom decided to come over after work. So we got to spend a little time relaxing by the pool. The water was colder, but still it was nice to lay on the lounge and just feel the breeze.

Than we all went out for great Korean BBQ in Korea town (thats where you get the best) and she treated. I am still on track with the budget after day 3!!! yey!

The only expense today was $57 for a fill up.

Tomorrow my mom is coming over, so temptation to go out will be there. I wonder how we'll handle it.

Breakfast: bagel with cream cheese $2.5

Coffee was from pre-loaded starbucks card, so it does not count for this month.

I did not buy lunch, due to early release worked only 4 hours.

Dinner at home. My mom came over to stay with the baby for few hours. She bought us wild salmon and cooked it.
I ate when I got home and than DH and I went out for drinks.

We just went to UNOs and set at the bar. 2 large beers, 3 snack hour appetizers, and he had $10 coupon!
So $12 with tip came out to about $17

Buy buy baby was right next us us, so I bought 3 tiny things for baby and used 2 coupons.
I got "to go" packets of Enfamil. 10.99 and I used $5 off retailer cheque.

6 pairs of soft socks for baby (now that he constantly crawls his tiny feet get cold) and a thermal onsie (used $5 off $15 coupon). So total was 23.04, the least I've ever spent in that place.

When we got home we went to a pool party organized by a nice neighbor and had a great time. Some drinks, some cupcakes... free Had to cut it short by 10 because my mom needed to go home, but it was all and all a great day! We had fun, went out, socialized, worked only few hours, and spend much much less than on my usual Friday. I am on track!

So in total:
breakfast $2.5
UNOs $17
buybuy baby $23.04

Did some investing today too.
Shares of Mattel - about $700
investment into baby's ESA $250 (I try to fund my these things on the day when stock market is down).

oh, and some online shopping: a top for baby (I don't count the money, because I called and got an price adjustment for something I bought a week ago that should more than cover it) and a comfy hoody for myself to wear around the house in the fall - $26 on zulily. This one:


So that is all.

I'm trying to choose a gift from a wedding registry and my judgemental B is acting up today.

I can't help it, there must me something wrong with me. I keep thinking things like:

Do you really need a deep fryer if you are more than 100lb overweight?

Or a coctail/barware to the tune of $500 if your future husband had 3 DUIs and is waiting to finally get your drivers lisence back after several years?

And the rest of it looks like it has been put together without much thought. Incredible amount of stuff, most of it from the useless knick knacks category and china(about $3,400 worth) that will be used incredibly rarely. And this is not a high-income household.

I am having trouble finding something that would be used frequently and is reasonable. (set of cooking pans is usefull, but $400 is more than I am prepared to spend on this).

This is a wedding registry of an aquaitance (not really a friend) to whose wedding I will not go.

She wanted me to be the maid of honor, I was stalling and finally backed out -- it would involve travel, use of days off, arrangements to leave the baby and huge expences).

And she was not a close friend.
We mosly just spoke on the phone once every few months and saw each other the total of like 6 times in our lifetime. I still would have gone, but when she began acting as a bridezilla, I finally got the courage to back out.

Nonetheless, I feel guilty and wanted to get her something nice and really have trouble choosing.
Also, what do you think would be an appropriate amount to spend in this situation?

Running the numbers got thinking that just cutting out all the "extras" in an emergency may not be possible, and one should try to be as realistic as possible.

For example:

Eating out
if you are spending hours in a hospital every day with a loved one, your will eat out. You'll be exhausted, sleep deprived and worried and planning meals may be the last thing on your mind.
Having lunch with a group of friends who can be a job lead is another example.
so setting this expense to $0 may not be realistic

Grooming
If you are job hunting, getting haircuts is still necessary.
a freshly dry-cleaned suit as well.

Cable, data plan...
You know yourself, will you really cancel cable on day one in an event of an emergency? If not, it needs to be in there.

Well, sure, there is a quality, craftsmanship and beauty of the item. But there are also other reasons why high-end items appeal to us.

Maybe understanding these reasons will help us avoid temptation in cases where it makes little rational sense, or to get those emotional payoffs that we seek from expensive items in a more direct and fulfilling way.

1)Hard to get.
Sense of accomplishment. You think about it, wait for it, maybe have to save for it. It is anticipation and excitement you don't get picking up something cheap without giving it much thought.
You appreciate it.

It is not a matter of "status symbol" for me personally.
Well, maybe kind of unspoken one that only others with same "status" can recognize. But if you see rich stylish people, never will you see a name brand or a logo splashed across their handbag or sweater, they avoid those like a plague. So while you will recognize some designer you've been enamoured with on someone else, it will be only due to your knowledge, not due to branding all over the thing.

2). (Just recently I recognized that this one was a major point for me)
NOT DISPOSABLE.
In a culture where things come cheap they have little value and take little labour to get are easily disposable.
There is something in me that really does not like that culture of waste, and it is my way of forcing myself not to participate in it.
A $20 scarf will probably end up wrinkled and tossed on top of entry cabinet fairly soon, but a Hermes scarf will be put in a box and put on like a ritual, with thought and care, just because of its cost.
I suppose it is my subconscious way of forcing myself to keep things neat and me liking that ritual.

3) (this one is somewhat close to #2)
Avoiding clutter
I suppose it is one of the ways I try to keep my closet from going out of control is limiting things I can buy. Forcing myself to choose carefully, going on the hunt to a place where I can only choose 1 item and have to think about it.

4) Reinventing your image.
Change of season is really tough. Last week I wanted to have "French elegance" kind of look, and when some cooler air and rain came in, I found myself craving neat, simple, and comfy Scandinavian style in solid natural colours.
I really don't know how to fight this one.
I travelled many places and when either weather or something else reminds me of it, I want to keep part of that experience and "pretend" I am back in some place I loved, living the life some aspects of which I really hoped to take home with me. I know I "can't buy it", but there is some powerful drive regarding this and the mood it creates cannot be easily discounted. This probably sounds all jumbled, not sure if anyone will understand me.

There is of course also just a simple attraction to things of beauty. And there is a trap of steep markdown in a really high end brand. That one I kind of learned to resist, telling myself "Never mind what it was originally priced at, does it worth this current price? Do I love it?" Works most of the time, but not foolproof.

These are just few of my reasons that I now recognize. Do you have any additional ones? Or any advice how to get some of these psychological "rewards" in a more efficient ways?

Suddenly, our EF just sitting there in a savings account doing nothing has started to bother us.

So we've been playing with the ideas of putting some of it in vanguards SP500 fund, a tiny bit in stocks, and a little bit more in mutual funds. Maybe it is the effect of the dip (want to buy some when its low)...

I just feel that considering how hard it is to save, money should be doing something. So I have this "tiered" emergency fund idea: first tier is liquid, immediately accessible, second is almost liquid (like CDs) and a third one is investment. We would not need a third one unless we are in major trouble.

Update: darn it, the market is up today!

We've been switching health insurances since the baby was born to maximize our savings. First, I was on my own at my employer (before we had our baby family plan did not make as much sense).

They paid fully for my very complicated pregnancy and delivery-- providers billed us for almost 90K, and we only had to pay like $200).
After the baby was born, I added him to my plan while I was on my maternity leave.

Than, after I went on leave without pay for 3 months we all went on DHs plan(not to pay cobra), when I went back to work I got my insurance back with coverage for all of us, and we were double covered
for over a month to get baby's orthodic band fully paid for. It was out of network for my insurance.

Now, we will all go to my family plan, and it should save us close to $400 a month as opposed to all of us being on DH's plan.

How can we keep changing health insurance whenever convenient? Simple -- these are all qualifying life-changing events that allow you to do it outside annual enrollment campaign. Birth of the baby, leave without pay, return to work... are all qualifying reasons to change coverage. (You don't need a reason to drop coverage, you only need a qualifying reason to add it.)
I hope people know that, it can save them some money.
(Of course, one always has to confirm with individual employer.)

Overall, Irene was reasonably nice to us.

The only problem is flooded roads and all lines of metronorth are down. I need metronorth to get to work. DH (with baby) may have to drive me, because it does not look like the service will be restored by tomorrow (flooded tracks and downed trees and power lines on my line) and we don't know which roads are open.

But the weekend itself was great. We stayed indoors the entire time (it takes a hurricane to keep us from going to to brunch, ha?). My mom was trapped here with us, so we got a lot of help with the baby and had nice meals the entire weekend!!! (Crapes, meat and potatos dish my my made, buttermilk pancakes and tomato meatballs with mash potatoes... all from scratch and delicious). And NSD.

And, we had a chance to organize and clean. Floors are freshly washed, ton of paper shredded and filed... Everyone got some sleep for a change. Even baby did not wake up until after 8:30.

2011
No plans for vacation (I have to save days and we should save money for nicer vacation in 2012)
Maybe 1 day in Philadelphia or something minor like that (we have a couple of Marriott certificates that expire).

2012

Local skiing $750 (funded)
in a CD that matures during the ski season.

Yearly ski week trip $3,600 minimum estimated.
$0 funded
(we won't touch EF for this, and we have no childcare arrangemet yet either (we would only trust our moms to take care of our little one alone for the whole week).
So it may not happen.
I am reluctant to take it off the list though, so we'll wait and see.

4 week trip to Asia in July 2012 (if approved by my employer)

It would be 2 weeks (5 days Singapore or some other city, 2 days Shanghai and 1 week Nanjing) with DH
and other 2 weeks just me in Nanjing (while DH will go back to NYC and take care of the baby).

Rough estimate of cost:

$1800 tickets NYC-Singapore-Shanghai-Nanjing-Shanghai-NYC
$1800 Same for DH
(will be cheaper if we use Delta points, but we can't count on it)
$210 tutor in Nanjing 3 weeks (about 1.5 hours daily)
$500 food in nanjing 3 weeks
$200 transportation (taxis, train)
$150 Other, misc.

Singapore
$0 Luxury hotel
$400 Food and drinks (5 days)
$200 Other (attraction fees, etc)
$340 Shanghai 2 days, if hotel is free
$100 other, misc
$5700 Estimated cost

$4,500 Vacation Fund account currently
$250 amex cheques
-$950 still need to fund

Asia vacation shopping fund

$900 needed
(1 cool piece of art, maybe tailored clothing, something unusual that I can't buy here, some clothing for DH who is very skinny)
-$300 funded
$600 to go


I am plannig early because 1) these are big expences and we need time to plan for them 2) it makes these things seem closer and more real

Wow!

I never felt it before. It was a very gentle rocking that lasted a little while. Than again.

We bought our first stock option ever.

My husband was thinking about if for a while, and with my support he finally decided to give it a try.

It is risky, of course. We could make some money, we could loose the entire amount.

To break even Apple has to go above $403 by third week of January.

My husband is an apple enthusiast and he is constantly reading articles about what is going on with this company, so he has done some research. And I don't want him to feel we can never take a chance with anything -- he is extremely responsible with money and does not do such things likely, so I wanted him to have a chance. Plus, I believe there is a very good chance this can work.

So there, we did it.

Is this keeping up with the Joneses syndrome?

Now that I have a daycare start date set, I went on a mini-shopping spree, buying a bunch of outfits from Cushies and Nany Pickle.
I wanted my baby to be dressed nice and comfy and in daycare and look his cutest in neat new clothing.

At home, as long as it is clean, I don't care if it is mismatched or has a light stain that did not come off in the wash.(but I do like to get him something nice and comfy) But this was almost like "beginning of school year" shopping, even though he will only be 10.5 months!

But I keep picturing him sitting on a daycare floor all lonesome... I want him to be cute and get attention I know, nothing rational about this argument. But it was a strong and sudden shopping impulse. And does he need more outfits? Pbobably, he has grown out of most of his.

Plus, it is hard to be frugal when it come to baby.

Here is online pictures of some of my bounty:
















This one I got in a bigger size, for when he can walk.

My little boy is going out into the world!

A coworker friend is being transferred to Afghanistan for indefinite amount of time (most likely years). He is having farewell drinks tonight at a fancy bar and I am definitley going.

DH is fully supportive and will watch the baby.

Running new numbers that include daycare (even the cheapest one in existence) brings home the reality of how tight our new budget will be come September.

We will have to cut back on a bunch of things to simply stay in the black and not spend more than we make per month. It is pretty close. So we can't have a designated budget line for trips like we used to.

Paychecks are now designated for other things. Vacation savings will have to come from "other" or "challenge" money. If I spend less on something else, cashback, something unexpected, etc...

We have a designated account, and it has some money already(we haven't used it in a while) but it is not enough for our vacation plans in 2012. So now it will be a challenge. I don't want to give it up, it is important to our family.

The financial part is in addition to the challenges of taking a vacation with our little one.

End of this week hopefully we will know if we have a daycare spot for September. We have been on the waiting list for 16 months (our baby is 9 month old) and we don't know if we will make it. 7 people have to decline a spot in order for us to get in. (20 spots total) I hope people had a change of plans, or like their current arrangement.

Even though this daycare is 1 hour 20 minute drive away, it is still our very best option right now.

Childcare situation is really tough.

One of the major arguments for starting to invest early is the power of compounding interest. But we have heard that 1000 times.
There is another point, more simple and more human ones that gets overlooked.

Many working, middle class people tend to think, when faced with such huge undertaking as retirement planning that "right now we don't have that much to spare, and it is tough. So we'll do it after we get a raise, renovate the bathroom, be in a better financial position, etc...

What they miss is that it DOES NOT become easier with age and all the milestones. Even if your salary goes up...

1. When you buy a house, you'll have less money, not more.
2. When a baby is born, you'll have less money to invest, not more.
3. As that baby grows up, you'll need to pay for his education and activities, you'll have less money to play with, not more.

That is why one should start before all these things and take it a year at a time.

We started as soon as we got a job, thinking that once we face these milestones it will be tougher and we may even cut down or stop retirement savings.
But so far we managed to continue. A year at a time.

And if at some point we just have to stop for a while, at least we would have had a good start already. And won't do it thoughtlessly because it is the easiest thing to cut (because the consequences are far delayed but not any less serious).

It was a nice weekend

Saturday:

Lovely brunch in Chelsea with friends (they insisted on treating)

Browsing little shops in the Village (I did not buy anything).

Asian American International Film Festival movie. ($30.5 for 2 tickets)
One of the pluses of living in NYC is being able to do these things.

Visit to a Hermes store (I love my new fragrance!).

Beers and beer cheese at a little place in Harlem.

Than shopping for groceries at Fairway. ($130) not exciting, but necessary.

Sunday we had a 3.5 hour kayaking course scheduled, but it rained hard all day and it was cancelled. So I went to a nice mall and than stopped by with DH for a draft beer.

Also stopped by Buybuy baby and brought in competitor coupon for the baby gates we already purchased (the coupon was valid at the time we purchased it but now now) and they did refund the difference! $42! that was cool.

Oh, and we bought a fancy SimpleHuman stainless steel trash bin for the kitchen. (with 20% off coupon).

That was pretty much it.

Sunday was not too exciting, but still nice.

Now, back to work.

Am I the only one into this new form of savings?

The only problem is that is often makes you get things you probably would not have tried otherwise. But on the other hand, one can find something interesting and save on entertainment.

Today I got a $43 certificate to a restaurant near us for just $10 (I used $10 groupon bucks). It is a place we would have gone to anyway.

I also want to go to a 3.5 hour kayaking course this Sunday that I got on a great discount.

This is large city's version of couponing... on experiences.

Just saw this on Yahoo, featuring 78ft and 90ft New York apartments.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/new-york/explore-78-square-foot-midtown-mansion-152535706.html

Yep, it is all relative.

These are just our basic bills paid in the first week of August. Crazy!

$3031 Mortgage and maintenance for our 950sf apartment in Bronx.
This is with 110K down and 4.75% interest rate.

$860 Yearly life insurance DH. (I pay mine monthly)

$250 car payment (we put over 13K down to keep it low)

$967 6 months car insurance for 1 car (that it the cheapest we ever had in our life time)
Cheapest it has ever been. When DH was a fresh driver it was close to $400 a month for the paid for $5,000 car.

$186 my monthly train pass

$110 tolls for the previous month (low, because DH did not drive to work, he is on leave. When he drives to work this bill can reach $400)

$92 (internet, home phone, cable)

student loan $142

These are just routine basic bills. (yes, one of them is annual and semi-annual, but the rest are monthly)

So we paid out $5,638 in first week and has not included anything but routine, "beginning of the month bills". Now we have to buy food, clothing, entertainment, gas, data plans, baby things and other life items.

The monster bill that is on our doorstep and will add at least 2K to our monthly expenses is DAYCARE!!! (this is a cost of a basic daycare, not a nanny).

That will make it incredibly tough.

We are doing fine without daycare, but man, when that bill comes... We will have to supplement from savings and hope something else changes.

I know people will say "why do you complain, move!". Well, I don't want to move, I guess I just want to complain