Tag: spending
There are 16 entries that are tagged spending. Now displaying reults 1 - 16.
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Holy Wedding Spending
Posted on September 09, 2008 by Him
Our wedding is coming up soon. You know what that means?
VENDOR PAYMENTS. WOO.
If there's a silver lining to this dark cloud, it is that we're actually going to have money left in our bank accounts. No debt for us, no sir!
It's open bar, people. Drink up and get our money's worth.
Going Out to Eat: How Much Should We Spend?
Posted on September 22, 2008 by Him
Hannah blogs about money and marriage at Monogamoney.com. Topics include saving, budgeting, investing, travel, and The Dark Knight.
Jon and I recently let a relative stay in our apartment for a week, while we were away on vacation. As a thank-you gift, she gave us a $150 gift certificate to a nice restaurant. And this presents us with a problem.
Jon and I have very different styles when we eat out. He'd rather go out less often, and spend more each time. He thinks that when we go to a nice restaurant, we shouldn't scrimp. We should each get an appetizer if we want one, we should get a bottle of wine, we should get dessert, because there's no point doing it if you don't have the full experience. I'd rather spend less, and go more often. I get more enjoyment going twice and getting only an entree each time, as opposed to going once and getting the works.
A few months ago, this perpetual disagreement led to the biggest fight we've had since we got married. We had a $400 gift certificate to a nice restaurant, which we received for our wedding. So we decided to invite two of our friends out for dinner. I wanted to strategize beforehand, so we could make sure we kept our tab under $400, hopefully even having enough to pay for the tip. Jon felt like I was spoiling the fun. He won; the bill came to $700. (In defense of my husband, he eats out like this only once or twice a year. And it was his birthday.)
The next day, after a little yelling and maybe a tiny bit of door slamming, we decided that before we go out for a nice meal, we'll label it a "Hannah" night or a "Jon" night. If it's my night, I get to control our spending, and Jon can't complain. If it's a Jon night, he'll order whatever he wants and I can't complain.
What do you think? Have you had any similar fights with your girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse? How did you resolve them?
In Which We Flush $2,000 Down The Toilet
Posted on September 15, 2008 by Him
Hannah blogs about money and marriage at Monogamoney.com. Topics include saving, budgeting, investing, travel, and The Dark Knight.
I was inpsired by Make Love Not Debt to start my own personal finance blog, Monogamoney. So I was honored when Him & Her asked me to guest post during their wedding and honeymoon. Since my blog focuses as much on personal finance failures, as on our rare successes, I decided that in my first guest post, I should discuss the worst money mistake that I have ever made.
Shopping for a mattress when you've been sleeping poorly is like riding your bike to a car dealership. Shopping for a mattress when you've recently gotten a raise ... is just plain dangerous.
And that is how my husband and I ended up with a $4,000 mattress. More precisely, we ended up with a $2,000 mattress, for which we paid $4,000.
It started on the day I accepted a new job with a nice salary increase. We'd both been sleeping badly, and both of us had back pain. "Let's go bed shopping now," my husband said. "Maybe we can be sleeping on a new bed tonight." It was 7 p.m. By 7:25 p.m., we had a new $3,000 bed. With taxes and delivery fees, the cost came to almost $3,500.
The next day, I bragged about our purchase to one of my friends, who was shocked that we'd paid so much. I paid her little heed; you spend a third of your life in bed, right? Then Jon told his friend Dave about it. Dave always gets the best of everything. Dave is willing to pay for quality. And even Dave thought $3,000 was too much to pay for a bed. That's when I got that sinking feeling--the one that says, "I just made a huge mistake I can't undo."
But wait—it gets worse.
I didn't like the bed. I felt terrible that I'd made such a hasty purchase, and was sure that I had made the wrong decision. Luckily, Sleepy's allows you to exchange your new bed, one time, as long as it's within three weeks of the original purchase. So I went back. I lay on several different beds. I brought friends and solicited their opinions. I took my time to decide. Finally, I decided on one that cost $2,000.
Here's the problem. Sleepy's allows you to exchange your bed for one of equal or greater value. They won't give you a refund if you decide on a cheaper bed. So we had to exchange our $3,000 mattress for a new, $2,000 mattress--and $1,000 worth of Tempur-Pedic pillows. Including the delivery fees and the exchange fee, our total bill came to over $4,000. We hereby apologize to all our recently-married friends who received pillows as wedding presents.
So what lessons did I learn?
1. Whenever you get a raise, put a moratorium on spending. Don't allow yourself to make any purchases, at least until you get your first paycheck. Then you'll realize how much of your raise went to the U.S. government, and you won't feel nearly as euphoric about it. We spent the first four months of my new job paying off our credit card bill.
2. Implement a mandatory waiting period for any purchases over a certain amount of money. The Ultimate Cheapskate, the guy who inspired us to budget [LINK: http://monogamoney.wordpress.com/about/], makes this suggestion as well.
3. Do your research. In the end, this terrible purchase was our own fault, but I could write a whole separate blog entry on the half-truths we heard from the Sleepy's salesman. The bottom line: The Internet is a fabulous research tool. Use it before you make a purchase, not after.
4. Finally, as the Ultimate Cheapskate says, "Pinch the dollars and the pennies will pinch themselves." Jon and I have been known to go to three different grocery stores in order to save 89 cents on cheese. If we had skipped all that, and simply not bought the bed, we still would have come out ahead.
Have you ever made a money mistake as bad as this one? Okay, probably not. Have you ever made a money mistake HALF as bad as this one? No? One-quarter, maybe? Surely, some of you have made mistakes one-quarter as bad as this ...
Happy 2nd Birthday, Make Love, Not Debt (With Roundup Included!)
Posted on January 03, 2008 by Him
photo: LensENVY
On January 1, Make Love, Not Debt had its 2nd blogoversary! I really can't believe that this project took off the way that it did. I couldn't have done it without all of you, the readers and pfblogosphere!
Here are some posts that are pretty interesting:
2 Million is finding out the difficulties of managing cash flow as a newlywed. Her and I have had our finances intertwined for almost 3 years and we're still figuring it out.
Lazy Man has posted his alternative monthly income status report. He raked in an incredible $2,200+, mostly from his blog income!
Money and Values asks if you go the long way to avoid tolls. We dont - in Chicago tolls aren't too expensive and we hardly drive. Plus, with the addition of open road tolling we just bite the bullet and go the toll routes.
eFipo tells how he splurges on the big nights, with a good story from his New Year's celebrations. We tend to do a lot of small things since we've found many cheap forms of entertainment.
Five Cent Nickel answers a reader question on Roth IRA limits being reached after marriage. This is of particular interest since Her and I will be tying the knot this year, and pay raises may put us close to the income limit.
We're in Debt muses: when can you have too much credit? Interesting that they ask, since we're still wondering what to do with all of our credit cards with no balances.
Black Friday Shopping: Frugal And Charitable
Posted on November 26, 2007 by Him
photo: LarimdaME
Yes, this past Black Friday we added to the masses of people who got up before the sun and trekked to our neighborhood department store for consumer goods. We weren't as hardcore as Boston Gal, but we didn't go for any of the super-duper sale items like she did.
What did we get up at 4:30AM to buy?
For starters, we went to Kohl's to pick up a Foodsaver
Across the way from Kohl's was a Best Buy. I did scan the circular for deals and saw that they had some RAM for a good price. We walked over to Best Buy and first saw the absolute mess that the people in line left outside the front door. Then we did a lap around the store; the lines were pretty ridiculous and they were out of stock of all of the good stuff. When we left, I was really glad that I didn't want any electronics this year.
We then made our way over to Babies R Us for a gift for my brother's soon-to-arrive new baby, and something for Toys for Tots. To no surprise, Babies R Us did not have a frenzied mob of people rushing into the doors to score deals. Shopping there was actually quite pleasant, as at that early in the morning my mental function was pretty much the equivalent of a newborn. We bought some stuff for my brother's baby off of the baby registry, of which some of it was discounted. We also got a good deal on a baby walker
For us, Black Friday wasn't about just buying stuff for the sake of buying stuff at super crowded department stores. It made the whole experience almost enjoyable.
Allowances; Morale Raised
Posted on April 10, 2007 by Her
We got allowance raises this month! Our original allowance amount was $75 each, twice a month. We have received this amount for the last two years. We talked it over and decided to raise this to $100 each in response to some recent financial discussions we had. We use our allowances to pay for everything we buy for ourselves, including clothes, meals, beer, gadgets, etc. We were both feeling that we couldn't buy the things we really wanted with this amount of allowance. As a result, I had been making personal purchases with money from the joint account, while Him quietly simmered. We have both recently gotten raises at work, and we felt that the small increase in our allowances would help us to feel freer in making personal purchases and get us back on track with our spending.
I'm Not Buying It This Week - Day 1
Posted on January 07, 2007 by Her
This week, "I'm not buying it." This means I will not buy anything for a week. I started today and already it is a change. We went to Border's today and I just enjoyed looking at different books and not buying anything. We passed the annual sale at Victoria's Secret and I was temped to run in and stock up. For lunch, I thought several times about where I would like to buy lunch - until I remembered that I am Not Buying It. It is so easy to spend money recklessly!
Why am I Not Buying It? Ever since Christmas, I've been feeling a little consumerism bloat. Then this weekend we watched An Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore movie about global warming. It got me thinking about reducing my impact on the environment. We also went grocery shopping and it was just all so exhausting - the shopping, the hauling stuff in, the moving stuff around to make room for new stuff. So I'm going to try something different this week and not buy anything.
Non-Corporate Christmas
Posted on December 01, 2006 by Him
Last year I set out do do what I thought was impossible: buy all of my Christmas presents at locally owned businesses in Chicago.
Fortunately, local culture blog Gaper's Block showed me the way: they published a 2005 holiday shopping guide. It featured 12 different independently owned stores in Chicago. While I didn't totally succeed in my holiday mission, I did by a good portion of gifts from thse vendors.
Fortunately, this year will also be a great year for buying locally-made goods. Gaper's Block and Time Out Chicago have tons of listings of stuff that's going on.There are a plethora of crafty type shows, happenings, and bazaars going on this weekend in Chicago.
Why local businesses? I like putting money into the hands of people in our neighborhood. I appreciate the personal "thank you" I get from owners and craft-makers. I like getting unique gifts for people that aren't from nationwide department stores. I like that I'm even helping the environment a little by buying locally so that goods don't have to be transported over long distances.
To me, putting smiles on peoples' faces and helping out is what the holidays are about.
Spontaneity, Surprises and the Joint Account
Posted on November 30, 2006 by Him
Yes, the holidays have descended upon us, meaning the purchasing of gifts. This is probably the one time of the year that Her and I like to get something expensive special for each other.
But when you share an account, how do you keep purchases secret? Both Her and I check our checking account on a daily basis, so any unexpected purchases need to be thoughtfully explained. It's not really a secret if the online ledger says VICTORIA'S SECRET BATH AND BODY WORKS. How do I explain that?
"Uh, my skin is really dry. And I really need to exfoliate. A lot."
"This lingerie is for...my boss?"
This doesn't just apply to holidays, though. Birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
If you share a joint account with your partner, how do you remain spontaneous? How do you surprise your significant other with a gift without raising red flags?
Yes, We're Alive
Posted on August 08, 2006 by Him
We are still recovering from a pretty rockin' Lollapalooza weekend. Three days of music is pretty much all we could have handled. Yes, it was a pretty expensive weekend. Beers at $5 each, along with some expensive festival food made the wallet feel much lighter at the end of the weekend.
Until we're fully recovered, here's some fun stuff to keep you busy:
We'll return with our usual you did what with your money?!?!? programming shortly.
Regret Blowing A Large Sum of Money
Posted on July 26, 2006 by Him
A few days ago at lunch, a coworker was telling a story on how his parking space to his newly bought condo was less than ideal. He was pretty upset about it all day, so of course we were giving him a hard time. His response:
"You'd be pissed too if you dropped $10,000 on a shitty parking spot."
On the way back to the office, another coworker asked me what was the most money that I spend on something that I completely regretted. Good question...
$200 on a remote control
$200 on a second subwoofer (but the first one died eventually...)
$200 on a blackjack table one night
$34587345897 on beer
Hmmm...there seems to be a pattern here of $200.
I told my coworker of these things and he was a little surprised that I hadn't blown more money. The explanation was easy - as soon as I got out of grad school, I went into debt reduction mode. Also, I haven't even been out of school long enough to amass a large chunk of change to blow on anything. Maybe in ten years the answer to that question will be more interesting.
What is the largest sum of money you regret spending?
How Much Would You Pay For A Non-Feminine License Plate?
Posted on June 28, 2006 by Him
A few months before we started this blog, I sold my car. The decision was pretty easy and was brought upon by a few factors:
1. Racked up about $200 in parking tickets in about three months. One fine summer day last year I got two tickets at the same time. When I paid them for some reason the city of Chicago website didn't process it, but the money came out of our bank account anyway. That was a real treat, trying to prove that I paid tickets with no documentation other than the charges on my bank statement. They ended up only crediting me for one ticket. Note to all: always print out the payment confirmation!
2. Insurance. When I was younger I got into two minor accidents. Premiums suck.
3. Gas. Expensive. Even more so today.
4. My employer pays for our pubic transportation. I love you, CTA.
5. Driving around and around the block looking for parking spaces. I felt like I had Alzheimer's going around the same damn blocks over and over and over.
When I sold my car, I was pretty content with taking public transportation everywhere, and using Her car whenever I needed it.
Except for her license plate. In the interest of anonymity, let's say it was "FLUFFY 8."
Every time I would drive her car, I felt a little embarrassed. A little emasculated. A little humiliated. Seriously, I couldn't drive a car with such a feminine license plate. Her car might was well could of had a furry pink steering wheel cover. Ick.
After much complaining by me, we made a deal. We could get a new license plate at the time the registration sticker expired. I even offered to pay, from my own money, for all of the expenses of getting a new plate, $26 for a new plate and $78 for registration renewal, a total of $104. When we actually renewed it, for some reason we were only charged $26. Someone along the way screwed up, but we weren't going to correct them.
$26 dollars for a random number plate. I think that's a cheap price for a little dignity.
Vaporize or Spend $312 - We Chose the Latter
Posted on June 06, 2006 by Him
When we signed the lease for our apartment a year and a half ago, we came in knowing that while there was central heating, there was no central air conditioning. We signed the lease in the middle of a harsh Chicago winter, so air conditioning was pretty far from our mind...until the relentless Chicago summer arrived. I'm pretty tolerant to the heat, but there were a few days when it got even too hot for me. Not to mention I tend to sweat profusely (disgusting, I know). When our cats starting panting, I knew it was way too much.
If you don't know, Chicago summers are nothing but hot and muggy. Ninety degree days combined with 95% humidity not only gives people bad hair days, but in the summer of 1995, 739 people died due to the heat. Not a good environment to have less than adequate cooling.
Our only sources of cooling that summer were two undersized air conditioners. One was quite a behemoth, an older hand-me-down from my older brother. It was beige and it meant business, but the truth was that barely kept our dining and living rooms cool. Not only that, it weighed a ton and probably wasn't very energy efficient. The other one was my dinky air conditioner that managed to cool off my room in my fraternity house in college. That went into our bedroom window, and barely manages to keep that cool. That one is still around.
We decided that the large behemoth needed to go - its archaic dials, heft, poor energy efficiency, and craptacular ability to cool a room helped us come to that conclusion. Not only that, but I stored it in my parents' garage over the winter and didn't want to deal with it anymore. We were in the market for an air conditioner.
Her looked up how much air conditioner we needed, and it turned out to be about 14,000BTU. We also wanted one that was uber energy efficient and had cool doodads such as timers, climate control, and other energy saving perks. She did the legwork, and even got a 10% coupon for Lowe's. Serendipitously, the air conditioner we wanted went on sale this past weekend at Lowe's.
$312, 14,000BTU, and 105 pounds of air conditioner later, we're cool cats (I guess so are our cats, natch). Yes, that money could have grown to be a billion dollars in some investment account, but to be able to go to work not drenched in sweat is priceless.
Boycotting Bankruptcy
Posted on May 25, 2006 by Her
Last night I made the decision to boycott bankruptcy. Specifically, I intend to boycott corporations which have undergone bankruptcy. I watched the PBS Frontline documentary, "Can I Afford to Retire" and learned that many corporations are now choosing bankruptcy not as a last resort, but as part of their overall financial plan. Undergoing bankruptcy allows them to back out of promises made to their employees. Through bankruptcy, they are allowed to slash salaries, cancel pension plans, and bill employees for their own benefit plans. At the same time, the corporation’s management and lawyers fill their pockets with bonuses and fees for their "loyalty" during bankruptcy. This is morally disgusting.
In my opinion, bankruptcy needs to exist as a safety net for people who have made honest mistakes, not as a way for CEO's to get rich while their union employees struggle. Therefore, I am going to show these corporations how I feel the only way I can: with my wallet. I am going to boycott United Airlines and Kmart. Are there any other post-bankruptcy corporations I should be aware of?
Bankruptcy may be an inevitable corporate right in a capitalist country, but so is my right to freedom of expression. I'll be expressing myself with my wallet.
Wanted: Your Favorite Black Shirt
Posted on April 06, 2006 by Her
I want the perfect black shirt for spring. I have terrible luck with black shirts. They fade, shrink, pill and stretch. I’ve owned some that did all four. So this spring I am looking for your little black shirt referral. I live and shop in Chicago, so almost any brand is easily available to me. Here are my requirements:
• It must be long enough in the torso to flatter. I’m tired of pulling down my shirt every time I stand up. It should hit just below the hip, and I have a long torso.
• It should stay true to color. I am willing to dry clean but not hand wash. The sink is full of dishes and the last thing I need is a sweater on top.
• It should be made of a flattering fabric. Nothing slinky or clingy.
• It should have a nice neckline for work. My gazongas should stay neatly tucked away between 9 and 5.
• No shrinking or stretching allowed!
Can you recommend a favorite black shirt? It needs to be this season’s merchandise but one that you’ve already successfully worn, washed, and worn again. I’m looking for an honest recommendation for a product I can purchase this spring.
But It's Only A Buck Per Band!
Posted on March 16, 2006 by Him
Two tickets to the Intonation Music Festival: $64.50
Two tickets to the Pitchfork Music Festival: $70.00
Two tickets to Lollapalooza: $299.50
Total ticket purchases for summer music festivals: $434.00
Three weekends, over 200 bands, diminished hearing, stories and memories of a lifetime: Priceless
Assuming there will be 200 bands total that we're going to see, it comes out to $1.09 per band per person for each festival. Not bad. Not to mention this wasn't put on a credit card. I'd pay way more than that just to see some of these bands by themselves!
I don't have a twinge of regret after buying these tickets. She and I are still talking about last year's Lollapalooza and how fun it was. In 40 years, I'd like to be talking to my grandchildren about how daddy and mommy were Chicago hipsters in our 20's and went to music festivals, not how we stayed home and paid the bills.
We have to remember that personal finance is exactly that - personal. While that money could have been utilized for debt repayment or investing, I'll trade that for the memories, fun with friends, sunburn, and the experience of seeing a lot of bands that I like. That's something you can't put a dollar amount on.
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