Brooklyn Girl's Personal Finance Blog

Yes, 8 cents. Such thing does exist.

My family even has it from time to time.

It is steel cut oats. Bought from the grain bin, by the lb. They are exactly the same quality as the ones in the McCain tin, they are unprocessed, have both soluble and unsoluble fiber and are good for you.

Of course, if you add things to it, like fruit or nuts and coffee, it will bring the cost up. But, they can be small things like a spoon of peanut butter, or a piece of chocolate melted in while it is hot.


The only issue is that it takes time to make on stove top. (Luckily I have a Zojirushi, so I can just set it the night before and it cooks itself.)

So many people are interested in saving money on food, and I can't think of a cheaper meal than this.

Another post made me think of how I look at hotels.

I love them. Nice ones, that is. They are exciting, new, they are a base for an adventure, but they are part of an adventure. A little piece of another world. A wonderful world where you are pampered and people make your bed and clean up after you. A maintenance free, worry free, work free life.

And if I am going, I want it to be nice. After all, I'm not only spending money, I'm also spending my time, my vacation days, and those are limited, and have value that should also be maximized.

I look for value. Value does not mean cheapest hotel room. Value means getting a lot for what I am paying. I look for the few nicest options and than try to figure out which one I can get for less money.

In the last post I listed the costing of my hotel and flight reservations, but just to communicate why I think that I maximized value, in this posting I'm including photos of some of the hotels we'll be staying in.
Chengdu:



That's just a basic room. 50% of the time we get upgraded to a suite.

Shanghai:


Singapore:


Now, there are even nicer hotel rooms out there, which I did not get due to price, but considering what I'm paying for the 35 days, I think I am getting a great value for my trip.

Place you are staying and service you are getting does impact the overall feeling of vacation.

35 days in 5 star hotels across China and Singapore. Being pampered, seeing new places, eating lots of awesome food.

This year I think I have outdone myself in planning. Booking so many awards, and all of them has to be timed perfectly, this task was nearly impossible. And I found below market prices for things I had to pay for.

Another challenge was that in one of the cities, where I was going to be spending almost 3 weeks (sans weekends), there were no hotels where I had any status or miles. But by checking prices over the span of month, I jumped on a phenomenal price for that property.

Here is my breakdown:



The "cost" column is determined by going online and making cheapest reservation for that particular flight or that exact hotel on that same date.

The value will end up even higher, since I anticipate few hotel upgrades due to status.

Less than 10c on the dollar, this is what I call value. And I worked and planned hard to make it all happen.

And everything listed has already been paid for! (last $1,700 will be on this month's statement)
There are only visas left (oh, don't get me started on yesterday's trip to the Chinese consulate).

Of course, there will be massive costs while there, like shopping, food, drinks, activities, local trains, etc. But, I've done my best to maximize experience while minimizing cost. (and I'm not counting flights and hotels I booked below average market price, since it was possible to book them at that price, even for a moment in time, I'm putting that price at "cost")

Sorry, it got too crazy busy to post pictures lately.


Between taking care of DS, taking him out few times a day to playgrounds, working, taking care of errands and cooking, and building my trip details, no time to post.

But, I managed to book another pair of award tickets, with my MILs expiring Asia Miles. She wanted us to use them before they expire to get something, and there were so few miles - just 11K and 15K, but I knew that a top-up was possible, and I managed to get through the award ticket on the last day. So we are paying only $90usd each for our Nanjing to Chengdu flights. (and that includes fuel surcharges and taxes). So, another awesome booking.

Plus, that 5 star hotel that I booked for 3 weeks when it showed up on expedia at 62$ (72 with taxes) is making me proud. I think it was a pricing mistake, because that price was there for a brief moment and than never seen again. I've been checking since. )))

And, I got in touch with the manager, and due to my long stay he upgraded me to a lake view room.

Just toyed with idea for a moment. It is possible for DH to get a job there, they are looking for people, however would involve a paycut, because it is for some reason considered a less expensive location than NYC.

I could be a stay at home mother, tending vegetable garden and economizing on food, taking kids to the beach...

But, living on 90K a year in Hawaii... we would be treading water at best. Oh well, it was fun to daydream for a moment.

I did something which is very unfrugal. I decided to forego 3 weeks of free accommodations and pay for a hotel room. Why?

This free room has giant roaches that have no fear. They are so big they look like they have armour on. It freaks me out. The shower also has some mold, and connecting air vents let the smoke travel from other rooms where people are smoking inside. I had a stressful time staying there previously, and decided that I won't go through this next time around.

So instead of staying the the building where classes are and commuting 1 minute in the elevator, I've decided to add daily commute (1 subway stop and a 10-15 min walk) and pay for a western hotel.

I've been looking at prices, earing IHG points, and planning to stay in Intercontinental, but last night I checked again, and saw the rate of $62 per night for a Westin. So I jumped on it and booked 3 weeks (I will take trips on weekend so I will stay other places on Fridays and Saturdays).
It is a great rate, but it is a lot of money.

What would you do? Before you answer, picture this - you are about to go to sleep, and you see giant roaches run behind your headboard. You are about to turn on light in the bathroom and you are afraid. How much would you pay not to experience that for 3 weeks?

We usually have one expensive(over $100) brunch once in 2-3 month. This time we tried Boulud Sud.
I've been to other Boulud's, and this one has a pre fix menu for $32 pp for an appetizer, an entree and a dessert, which makes it an ok value. The reason it the bill went to $140 (with tax and tip) is because we ordered a bottle of wine. In places like that courses come slowly, and you need the wine to make the wait more fun.

Appetizers:




Mains:


Black ink squid pasta was quite good.





Desserts:





The food was reasonably solid, but not anything I'll dream about. So I won't go back any time soon, but overall it was as expected - good, just the value not quite there for me. But... you won't know until you try. The search for perfect brunch place continues.

Afterwords, DH went to an Apple store to fix his screen, it took over an hour ($160) and I was drunk, so I went for some coffee to Beard Papa and ended up with another pastry - green tea custard cream filled Paris Breast.



Picked up some arctic char in Citarella ($26) for fish tacos tomorrow, and we headed home to spend more time lounging by the pool before the weekend was over.

In the morning DH went to work and got home around 2 pm.

By that time I already made and ate some nice ricotta cheese pancakes and a whole pot of coffee.
After another snack of avocado smash on a tortilla and plantains, we went down to lounge for few hours at the pool.





It was very relaxing, I should really do it more often.
But, around 5pm had to go up, to make sure we run before twilight, or the forest would get buggy. We ran together on one of my regular routes, where I see how this sweet goose family is growing up in a little pond. Every time I ran, little goslings are getting slightly bigger.



We ran only 5.6 miles, a bit less than my usual 10K. I had a Hagen Daaz right before my run (bad me), and after I was still hungry and made a quick salad and we enjoyed it on the terrace while watching the sun set, before we went out for beers and movie.



We ended up at Buffalo wild wings, just because it is in the same complex as the movie theater. And there we did a lot of caloric damage:

with 3 beers and tip it came to $57

We went to see a 10pm showing of "The edge of tomorrow" in imax. $39
It was a good movie, and very nice to see in IMAX.

The unfortunate part of the evening - DH's phone was dropped onto the concrete and the screen broke. These things just happen sometimes.

It was fun to see, as AAPL split was being adjusted.

our 50+ shares suddenly increased 7 times, and for few hours they are still showing the old stock price and shares were showing to be worth about 240K. I knew what was happening, but it was fun to see.

Well, back to reality.

Amazingly, an opportunity for some overtime came up at DHs job. And since my mom took our son this weekend, we decided he should take it. It won't be full day, he will be home by around 2, and we can go for a run, than go have some beers and see a movie. I think we will go see "The edge of tomorrow".

The thing is, DH's job normally has no chance for overtime. To get overtime exception requires something major, and there has been any opportunity for years, but this year there has been some in winter, and this week again. Since this option is so rare, we find it hard to pass up.

So this month we will have a little bit of extra income after all.
It is pretty amazing how this opportunity came up right after the other opportunity (university) ended, and opportunity for travel is not there this month because my MIL is away for the entire month and there is no childcare backup for days when DS can't go to pre-school.

The timing of it is awesome.
Btw, by overtime I just mean extra hours. DH is just getting his regular rate.

Today for lunch at work we ordered out Indian.

I ate 2 giant garlic naans, plus the whole lamb/rice dish and had taken even more home for dinner. With 2 doughnuts in the morning, and a piece of birthday cake, a couple of coffees, samosas, and margaritas with new cheese I'm about to have after I'm done with this post... I estimate it adds up to over 4,000 calories. This is a weight gain day. I should not eat like this, but if I do, it should be my favorite foods, not some short cake and mid-range Indian food(but margaritas with cheese, are on my "preferred" list).

I've been doing good avoiding big grocery shopping, but today was the day. After dinner, even though it was already 9:30 pm, I decided to get that chore out of the way so that we don't have to worry about doing it on a weekend.

So first we hit the liquor store. It has been a while since we could make it there, and we ran out of everything except the things I really don't like (Remy Martin, Gin and bourbon).

So in the liquor store:

For my premium margaritas:
Don Julio Reposado 750ml 48.99
Cointreau 750ml 33.99

Grey Goose 1L 37.99
Malbec 19.99
buzz lotta colata (tiny 1 portion thing, have no idea what it is, impulse purchase) 3.5
Dry Vermouth 5.99
Svedka colada 1L 17.99
tax 12.42
Total: 180.86

DH worked today, even though it was supposed to be his day off. And he enjoys a nice margarita and a good lychee martini just as much as I do. His overtime today should cover the liquor and give us plenty of nice hours.

The food shopping was $176.46

Some organic fruit/veggies were expensive - like avocados $3 each. Others were cheap - like a carton of strawberries for 2.99.
But I feel fruits and veggies are a must.
There were a couple of indulgences, like smoked wild salmon at $17.75 for 1/3lb. We have that once a week on a weekend brunch. Maybe I will skip it next time. And this time I bought some pecans and hazelnuts (raw, I will roast them myself, they are much fresher and tastier that way) for 18.69. Organic chicken breast was 13.43 (easy protein). And fresh fava beans were also expensive.

Everything else was just a lot of smaller, less expensive items.

This week DH made a big pot of green sauce, so I've been using it to toss various veggies together.







I got together odds and ends of veggies in the fridge (a pack of swiss chard, a little brussel sprouts, a bell pepper, some onion, some azuki beans left over from the night before...) I sauteed the veggies, than mixed them into a pot with sauce and tofu. Than topped a bowl of them with 3 slices of rare fresh roast beef and a helping of fresh hummus with spicy s'hug sauce. End result:



It was quite tasty for a dinner made of odds and ends.
I am most proud that my 3 year old is eating ate brussel sprouts and swiss chard perfectly fine. Those are new veggies for him, so I was not sure how they will go over. He is such a good boy.

I packed the rest for DH to take as lunch. He was working overtime today (but he does not get paid time and a half, just his regular rate), so by taking his own lunch he didn't just save the cost of the lunch, he was able to work one more hour, and that will pay for a number of future lunches.

Today was less successful - between breakfast and lunch $28. (Co-worker had a birthday, so we all chipped in for a group lunch and a cake).

Today I got my coconut cream obsession for breakfast ($3.25), made my own coffee.

For lunch I went to Roti and got a free lunch through their rewards system.

I got a rice plate - very little rice, but lots of veggies, chicken kebab, hummus and a piece of pita bread. It is all made fresh (they make their own hummus too and bake their pita, it is a really good pita). So I am stuffed and did not add to my total. I utilize reward systems in most places I frequent. I just wish Pret and few others would get one too.

I also picked up some hummus to take home and free pita chips they give with the purchase of hummus. $4.30

Than stopped by a grocery store and got some odds and ends for dinner and snack for DS. (fruit, peas, tofu and some really nice rare roast beef).

I am surely cleaning out my fridge of veggies, but have to buy some fruit and protein to supplement our meals.

The dealership has come up with an extensive list of things that need to be addressed with the car, to the tune of $1,900. Which is obviously bull and they try to pull this every time. It is a 3 year old 30K car, and it runs perfectly fine.

But the break pads I admit will need to be replaced soon (not sure about the rotors, most forums say it should not be necessary). So for breaks and rotors they quoted $800, which is obviously a rip-off. We are not going to do the work at the dealership. But a regular mechanic's shop quoted $650. It is not a Mercedes, it is a Toyota Venza!

With these prices how do people who make average salary even own cars? The maintenance, the tire replacement, insurance... Grrr

I can't believe I did it again! This time I took stuff out of the fridge in the morning (an org. yogurt and some cut up fruit and berries on the peak of perfection) and put it in a bag by the entrance, not to forget it. That's where I forgot it.

Yogurt($2) and washed berries($4) will not keep. So it is a waste.
I realized I forgot it 30 seconds after getting downstairs, but I could not go back. If I am even 1 second late for a train, I will be late for work by 35 minutes. I can't do that. So I kept going. And the train was late today by 8 minutes! So I could have gone back, but, of course, I had no way of knowing it.

I was so frustrated by it all that I bought 2!!! doughnuts and ate them for breakfast. ($6.5, not to mention calories).

For lunch, sandwich ($9.50), plus a diet coke for me and snapple for a colleague later ($3.5)

This is not going well at all. I'm frustrated.

So yesterday I spent a ton of time packing food.

We made way more greek salad than we need to, and I packed away some to take to work today.

Than, I got overly ambitious and decided to pack breakfast. It would be replacing my usual Doughnut Plant's coconut cream dounut, so it had to be decent.

So I packed fresh ricotta cheese, strawberries and blueberries in a separate container, fresh figs in a separate container, and shelled and than roasted some pecans (separate container), and even brought in some powdered sugar in a small container to dust my creation after assembly. And I set up the coffee maker and thermos for the morning.

Anyway, in getting together all my tiny containers in the morning, I forgot my big one, with my lunch!!!

Grrr. What am I going to do now. I will go out and buy lunch. But what do I do with that greek salad? I already have plan for dinner (and we should eat it today so it does not spoil). And that salad is expensive - a single organic bell pepper is like $5.

I've tried hard and that is why it is so frustrating.

In May we brought in 18,770 after taxes (record amount of extra income).

We spent 18,438. But that included 1,500 to finish DS's ESA, 5,400 to finish my 2014 Roth and a purchase of a new MacBook Air, and setting aside one bi-weekly mortgage payment for July, because it will be a 3 payment month and a vacation month.

In June we do not anticipate earning any extra income. And there won't be any for foreseeable future. There is a late check from May for about $700 but that's it. So even my "wishful thinking" budget for June does not balance. Plus, we need new breaks/rotors for the car. So this month I really have to put in effort.

I will track, and not only track but itemize. And, it is my first week day and I brought my own lunch today and made my own coffee. I will try to go for a personal record of how many lunches I can bring in a month.

Why? Because the food available is good and very varied. It is not Subway or Cheesecake factory, it is food I like and evidently there are so many people with similar tastes, they are catered to on every corner.

Today was a dental check-up day. So I left work earlier to make it to my appointment. Picked up lunch on the way - 1 taco carnito near Union Square. Ingredients were fresh and good, though I prefer a flour tortilla. $5.



I also treated myself to a smoothie at an all organic eatery "Hu Kitchen" right next to my dentist's office.





There are so many of these fresh smoothies/juice places, you can pass 5 and the 6th one will get you.

I needed a "pick me up" sugar rush before the stress of the dental chair, so I went for "The Green Nebula" - kale, apple, kiwi cashew cream and coconut water and a "crack bar" for later ($13.24). So that, together with one and a half doughnuts this morning and a nougat ice cream bar, brought number of sugar calories to the level of excessive. Got to do better tomorrow! Does the thought of going to the dentist impact all good judgement?

After an uneventful but still impossibly long appointment I somehow wondered into Bebe(don't know why, I never shop there) that was on my way. I tried on a bunch of clothing and ended up buying this dress, on huge sale, for only $41. You can't see it on the picture, but the fabric is nice, and so is the color. Did I need it? No. I went in hoping to find a day dress that could double as a salsa dance dress and a day dress. This was not it. But I liked it, the price was right, and I will enjoy wearing it to a date night this summer.


And another takeout meal for dinner - husband is away on business, my son is at grandma's today, so no cooking for me). I still had noodle/vegetable/tofu leftover dish in the fridge that I could have eaten, but after the massive carbfest earlier I was craving veggies and hummus.

It was fresh and tasty kale salad ($10.89).

When you don't want to cook, you can find tasty options everywhere. When you are tired, and it is right there - you are on foot walking past them, smelling them, it is much more tempting.

I haven't been inside of it, have no idea what the house is like (evidently it is a fixer-upper) or what the floor plan is... or anything else. But it is a HOUSE. And what makes it a dream is the location. It is on my running trail path, between 2 stretches of the park, on the cliff overlooking the river. In the shade of mature trees, on secluded cul de suc... It looks like a house in the forest, not a house in NYC. And it has 3 bedrooms!



It is priced at 920K. It must need a lot of work. And if I could, I would forego many vacations and not shop for clothing for years to get into this house. But even if we were both ready to stretch thin, the problem is we must sell our current place first for the downpayment on this one, which we would never be able to do in time (this place will likely move quickly). So the dream house is out of reach.

Yey!

So on the list of things we can now cross of the goal list for this year:

1) Get back to having 8 month of salary in non-retirement investments (EF)
2) Fund Roth #1
3) Fund ESA

Now one more ROTH to go, also pool fee for the summer is due today, and we want to put an extra 1K on the car. Also need to add to the vacation fund and start a 529 plan in addition to the ESA.

So a lot of things to accomplish, and no more extra income. And July will be not only a vacation month, but a 3 mortgage payment month.

All the stars aligned. It is a 3 paycheck month, and we got some tax refund, and some FSA reimbursements, and some paychecks from DH's side teaching job...

We will be taking in $18,770 after taxes this month! (though not enough is withheld from the teaching job, so we will owe a little more out of that.

That is very high! So we are going to fund most of our Rothes (hopefully we won't have to de-fund them later, we are cutting it close).

And I've been splurging some - my mom's friend works in Bergdorf Goodman, and they had a discount, so I'm getting a pair of Fendi sunglasses and some high-end make-up (Sisley, Amore Pacific, Dior) at 50% off.

And, I've had a wonderful cleaning woman help me for 2 days to really do a thorough spring cleaning, as I've been falling further behind. She worked 10 hour days, so $320 for 2 days.

I've also pre-paid another 2 days at the Ritz Carlton Shanghai for my July trip. I've found a very good price. I'm cash flowing a lot of our vacation before we go, to reduce the bills that we will get upon coming back (which will still be mighty big).

So I will enjoy this month, and will need to make a big adjustment for the next, more normal one.

And we only have one more teaching paycheck for DH. After that, we will again only have our salary to live on. And it has been many months since we lived on our salary alone. There was overtime, teaching job, and few other things. Now, opportunity for all that is no longer there, so we must cut back lifestyle we have already gotten used to.

DH is traveling to North Carolina for business. I was blown away that a car rental for 5 days was $63. The hotel is $69. The flight there is $96!

We went out for noodle lunch today and it was $66 dollars.

We tipped building staff $40 yesterday for replacing air conditioning filters and adjusting faucet.

It is difficult to really comprehend that kind of difference. The taxes on car rental here would probably add up to $63.

To save time/plan meals. Not sure if it will really save any money. Don't quite see how.

FRUIT
papaya
Cantalope or honeydew
pineapple
berries (whatever is good)
mangoes
lemon
fresh coconut
pears
whatever else is good/ripe

VEGGIES and Herbs
cilantro
Mint
baby bok choy
fennel
serranos
onions
baby potatoes (firm)
brussel sprouts
organic sweet peppers
Persian or European cucumbers
Tomatos
Avocados
Garlic
Mushrooms
baby spinach

NON-PERISHABLE
Mayo
Hazelnuts or almonds
granola bars
paprika
lychee canned
condenced milk
coconut milk
Chips for guacamole
Almond milk

Colder section
cream cheese
Smoked salmon
Herring
Feta
Olives
Pickled mushrooms

FREEZER SECTION
chicken
Lamb
butter
eggs
tortillas
Milk
Buttermilk

OTHER
potted strawberry bush if they have
method handsoap
swiffer wet

FISH - from fish specialty store later.

What do you think it should cost?

Booked another ticket for our July Asia trip.

Chengdu - Singapore. They were about $400-$500 for a direct flight... But I scoured hubs, airlines, and ideas and I found... *drum roll* $230 ticket via Hong Kong! On Cathay. I booked the longest connection possible 23hr 55 min. So we arrive at 4 pm and leave at 4 pm next day.

So we get to visit HK again, and for free, it actually reduces our airfare, not adds to it.
We will have the whole evening to go out, than have leisurely awesome DIM SUM IN HK the next morning!

Plus, I'm using a Hyatt certificate to book a hotel room. The annual fee for the card is $75, the hotel costs $300 for the night, so again, I'm getting a great value out of my reward cc yearly certificate.

Pay less - get more, and without sacrificing luxury. That is my kind of value!

So my trip is coming together, flight after flight, hotel room after hotel room. We are cash flowing these things as we are booking them, so most of them will already be paid for before we leave.

Groceries and eating out seem lowest ever - but that's because DH was gone on travel for half the month and his food was covered, and our son was with grandma for those days.

Also, most of our eating out went under "vacation" (one of the previous posts).

But all and all, it was again a high-spending month. Luckily, with massive amount of snowflakes (previous post) we were able to spend a little less than we brought home.

Overtime $583
DH travel income $200
FSA reimbursement $1,526
DH teaching $781
My AAPL options speculation $575 ($886 before taxes, assuming 35% tax rate)
cash gift $100
REI member dividend rebate check (only for spending in REI, like a gift card) $108.44

These are all after tax numbers, with taxes either withheld already or set aside

$3,873

Good snowflake month. We worked a lot to make this happen. It was very intentional, this money did not just fall from the sky.
We had a lot of extra expenses too. I'll post March numbers on Friday.

So I did join my DH in DC for 4.5 days. He was working, I was wandering the city and shopping, like a lady of leisure.











It was nice to have time to myself, just to wander with no purpose, clear my head, stop by cafes for a good number of lattes.


(ah, the latte factor)

I even splurged on some nice "by myself" unhurried lunches during daytime, like a wife of a businessman, lol.





I don't do this often, but on this trip I went all out for that kind of experience.

We also had a chance to have breakfasts together:



(the food in this hotel breakfast was not so good, but ambiance was romantic).


Five evenings together, eating out, having drinks:





and listening to jazz over cocktails



So overall:
milage 308 Amount paid for miles
gas -101.4 spent on gas
per diem 532.5 Per diem amount
parking 0 Parking is all reimbursed
tolls -34.5 Tolls not reimbursed
FOOD and drink -734.66
hotel tips -38
other -39.86
So the total out of pocket for the 5 days (sans shopping) 107.92

I think it is not bad for that kind of trip!

Clothing: $358.84 (plus $100 spend from a gift card that I did not count)
That will go under clothing line, not vacation line.
While it may seem high, it is far lower that what I used to spend on trips like that, and there are a ton of things I was tempted to buy but did not.
(It did not help that 2 of the nights we were staying at the hotel attached to Tyson's Corner Galleria upscale mall, and the other 2 nights near Georgetown.)

I think it is a good value.

Really. 100K AA points.
The requirement is to spend 10K in the first 3 months.

That gets you to 110K.

You can get either one round-trip business class ticket to anywhere in Asia(on a low price award, of course), or 2 one-way ones. That is an awesome value (you can't even get a coach seat for this amount of money).

Planning ahead.

Those who track, how do you count it?

4 nights in the Ritz-Carlton in DC.

Where I get to sleep in, work out, wander the city and shop for things I planned to get anyway, but now will have time to look and try them on without any time constraints.

How is it cheap?

DH is going to DC for work. So his hotel will be paid for. I will take a bus to DC for $15 to $30 to join him. (I don't want to use to many vacation days, so I will only join him for half his trip).

He gets paid daily sum for his food/travel expenses. Sure, we will need to add some money to pay for food, but overall, we will be close to breaking even considering the cost of buying groceries and lunches at home.

That is a very nice arrangement - while he is working during the day, I have time to explore and shop and do things he would not enjoy, and in the evening we get to go out together.

It is almost a stay-cation, but better!