A Fiscal Engagement

she said yes!

view from Old Rag in Shenandoah National Park

So it's been a while, but we had a good reason.  We were busy.  

As you all know, I decided to get down on one knee and, most likely, commence to do one of the craziest things I've ever done.  At least of things that fall into the category of one knee-d things.  Now that Meg said yes (equally as crazy response), we have moved onto the preliminary planning stages.

However, this planning phase runs right up against our goal to pay off our debts.  For instance, we went on a two day excursion to look at venues.  Take into account gas, some road food, and random expenses along the way and you begin to add up.  Hopefully, this expense will stop after we find a place.

At the same time, other items that need to be paid for have been cropping up.  There's a few weddings and family affairs down the line that items need to be purchased for, an occasional odd purchase in April, and finding a doctor for Meg.  For those of you unfamiliar with DC doctor offices, then allow me to explain.  First, Meg's doctor simply ceased to exist and didn't bother to inform her patients.  Second, doctors in DC are perpetually swamped, as all doctors are in this time period, yet here in the city you have to hunt for not only a doctor, but a friendly, helpful staff.  In other words, it's nice to have a few nurses that answer the phone when you call and return messages.  Needless to say, this process combined in co-pays has been a bit of an adventure.  Hence, the added expense this month.

What threw us for more of a loop was the ability to calculate a fiscal calendar: what is the end of the month?  Does that extra two days (which contains a Friday payday) part of the previous month?  We discovered that we had been accidentally using those "bonus" days in the previous months.  Therefore, to account for that we added in a few days in May, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd as money from April.

Added to this was the fact that Meg was paying for more things than I was, which is the reason she didn't pay off as much debt this month as I did.  And previously, she was paying off double what I was.  For us, the last two months have been real eye opener in terms of budgeting and how we spend our money.   We do know that neither of us would make good accountants, but hey, life's a learning process.  We are becoming happier, wiser, and less in debt slowly, but surely.  This is hard.  We've had arguments over small purchases.  And large purchases.  Things a year ago we wouldn't have given a second thought to, but this is different.  These are choices, not imprudence.

Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

Let's do the numbers:

Greg paid off $750
Meg paid off $214

An April total of $964

Total paid $7,216.  Leaving us with $33,783 to go.

And yes we promise to start posting more.   As we've said we've been busy.

Flowers bloom already!

Hello from Apartment 409!  Home of thrifters and penny pinchers.  Well, sorta.   As a well read frequenter of this blog, you know we graciously gave ourselves a $50 allowance to blow off a bit of steam.  An anxiety driven pressure valve meant to keep us on the straight and narrow.   A reasonable proposition on the face of it, but in reality it scratched away at the edges of our resolve.

Our spending got a bit out of hand.  When I say a bit, I really mean a bit, sarcasm not included.  We spent a bit more on groceries, pushed our allowances over a bit, did a bit of routine purchasing of bike parts (for safety, not vanity), and had a bit of clothes dry cleaned (ridiculous fibers).  At the end of the month, those bits added up to a chunk.  That chunk was fully realized when I added up all the loan payments and saw how much we spent.

In the end, however, we overcame and came through we think.  Having learned an important lesson on managing a bit of spending cash without letting the demon fully out of the cookie jar.  I know I'm mixing metaphors.  I like doing that, it's my thing.  Moving on, we are happily moving forward into April and the warm weather.

Now, time for the round-up!

Meg paid off in March: $1,064
Greg paid off in March: $472
For a March total of $1,536

Meaning, that we have paid off a total of $6,252.  Leaving us with $34,747. 

Allowances well spent

on the rink! g pooped out by this point...i can skate circles around him!

For a preview of our March round up, here's the list of how we spent our wonderful and stupendous March allowance.

• Meg went out for drinks: $6 (see last post)
• Thai take out with friends in their empty apartment as we helped them move out, sorta: $22
• Ice skating at the NGA Sculpture Garden on it's last weekend for the season, see pic: $20.50 (Though, in my opinion, skating while surrounded by awesome art is priceless.  Sadly, neither Greg nor our bank account agree.)
• Greg went out for drinks: $12.50
• Sandwiches from Taylor Gourmet, a six pack of beer and a bag of chips for lunch after moving furniture: $33.10

TOTAL: $94.10 out of our $100!

*as a side note: we also spent $40 to rent a U-Haul van.  The same friends moving out of their apartment were super awesome and passed on a few key pieces of furniture for FREE!  So, while we spent $40, we got a new bed frame, two bedside tables, a coffee table and a super comfy futon chair.  Money well spent? We think so.

**Oh yeah, and I spent $90 on a pair of shoes for a wedding I am in later on this year.  Now, $90 isn't exactly the cheapest I could have found, but when it comes to shoes, I need comfort more than I need an extra $30 in my bank account.  I took the cash out of my savings, so as not to interrupt the flow of my pay-back plans.  Plus, they are adorable and the bride approves of them!!!

$6 for a beer and a good CAUSE

So last night was my first night out on the town with my monthly allowance.  I have been fretting over the allowance since we brought it up last month.  I was scared of a slippery slope, start spending and lose perspective of what the goal really is.  I can go to happy hour and not buy a drink, but, I must admit, I feel a loss of comradery going to a bar and sipping water.  Silly, but that's just how I feel. 

Which brings me to last night. My book club is awesome.  We are a diverse group who meet once a month to chat about a book, eat snacks and exchange snark.  We decided a few months ago that once a month banter specifically geared towards books was just simply not enough.  So we instituted Book Club Happy Hour and last night the group met at CAUSE-The PhilanthroPub.  A funky bar located on 9th St. NW, just south of U St., that offers 100% of it's profits to local and international  charities (after paying their bills, of course).  I loved the idea.  If I'm going to spend money, why not give back while enjoying my beer?  Now, how much of my $6 actually made it to a charity, I don't know, but I do fully endorse the idea and business model. 

And we had a great time.  We discussed the geographic, social and economic changes in Africa thanks to a well decorated bar table with a 1950s map of the continent.  A few even sampled the food-I got one bite of a delish marinated olive, but the smoky lentils smelled out of this world. 

I spent $6 on a beer.  A friend bought me a cocktail and I handed him a fiver (good drink specials during happy hour!).  But when explaining why I was leaving early (no, guys, really, I can't buy dinner, no matter how good it looks!), the friend insisted that I take the $5 back and repay him with dinner or after all the debt has been repaid.  He said it was a worthy cause he could support. 

God love taxes

I don't normally feel such love for taxes.  But this year, wooo-freakin'-hooo! 

With help from some sizeable tax refunds we did this in February:

GO GREG GO!
$1,180 off credit card debt
$100 to parents for personal debt
for a total of $1,280

GO MEG GO!
$1,914 off student loans

TOTAL paid off for Febraury: $3,194!! 

Which brings us to $36,285 remaining in our total debt.   GO US GO!

All diets suck.

Let me say that again.  All diets suck.

Anyone, and I think I mean everyone, understands that sentiment.  Diets seem like such a great idea. Cut out what you don't need and life will get better.  But the thing is, diets don't work.  You get too caught up in rules and forget to live life.  Three months in and you loose momentum because your goal is so far away and this is just too hard. 

Along the way I've learned that diets are not sustainable (or much fun).  To make real and permanent change in your life you have to change your actions and perspective.  Not easy.  Harder than a diet even, but it lasts longer (a lifetime if you keep at it), feels better and achieves the goals you set out to set.

I learned this same lesson two years ago.  I had done my fair share of attempting to diet, hoping to loose weight.  It never worked, I lost interest months, days, weeks in and I got nowhere.   I was left feeling disheartened and angry with myself.  I quit that viscious cycle in January of 2011 when I started the Weight Watchers Points Plus programs.  Every food is worth a certain number of points.  Fruits and veggies- 0 points.  A piece of bread-2 points.  A glass of red wine-4 points.  These points add up, quickly.  Each day you get an alotment of use 'em or loose 'em points.  Your saving grace in Weight Watchers are your weekly points, bonus points that a good for one whole week.  The beauty of the weekly points (which is ultimately my point here, I swear) is that you can use them throughout the week, to add cushion to each day (one extra glass of wine) OR! you can use them all up at once (big, lavish dinner out with friends).

Well, my point is this: our diet isn't (quite) working.  We're saving money quite well, but we're not having much fun. Granted, we knew we would need to say no more and do way more with lots less.  But saying no to every happy hour, dinner or outing for fear of spending money is depressing.   While hosting dinner parties is lovely and finding free stuff around the city to do an adventurous way to rediscover DC (more on that later...) it still doesn't beat a drink with friends after a long day's work or dancing the night away at a concert.

So, we'll issuing ourselves a monthly allotment of points.  Fifty bucks each.  For whatever we want.  Yarn for a new project, a book that G just absolutely needs, drinks or even one fancy-pants dinner out, just the two of us. We still will have to say no, but we also get to say yes, in moderation. 

Diets don't work.  Life style changes do.  So here's to starting a whole new life!

The take out dilemma

No spending, no take out, right?

First, let's discuss why take out is awesome.  It does not require me to turn on the stove or oven, meaning more time sitting on the couch watching a movie.  You call, you pay and you wait for 40 minutes and at the end-you've got super tasty food in front of you.  AND the food! Thai and Indian are my two favorite take out cuisines.  Why? Well, they're delicious, spicy and two cuisines I have yet to master. 

Take out did not make the cut of necessary spending, however.  Does that mean no Thai or Indian for a whole year? Heck no! It just means that I have to add a few new recipes to my repertoire.  So we started with a well loved basic- Pad Thai.  And?  Tangy, spicy and just peanut-y enough, all the qualities I look for in a good Pad Thai.  The key ingredient? Tamarand paste.  Super stinky on its own, but clutch in making truly delicious Pad Thai.  We're still perfecting the ratios of tamarnd, soy, fish sauce, brown sugar and peanut butter.  Goals are good, right?

And so, while it does require me to turn on the stove, get off the couch and actually cook, it tasted all the better for it.  It took less time than waiting 40 minutes for take out, cost half the price of a noodle dish from our favorite Thai restaurant and forced my hand at trying something new. 

a damn good cup of joe

Sunday morning and all you want is a good cup of coffee and a tasty baked good. At the local coffee shop around the corner two double cappuccini and a couple of pastries will cost $15.  At home, we've got everything we need for the same Sunday morning pick-me-up for less.

What do you  need for a good at home cappuccino?  G and I are quite fond of the Bialetti Moka Express.  So fond, in fact, we've got two.  A small one for just one double and a slightly larger one for two doubles (G's Christmas present from yours truly).  Fine, freshly ground beans turn into the perfect, deep espresso in just minutes with the moka maker.  And the frothy milk?  When we got back from Italy last April we were so desperate for good cappuccini that we invested in the Bodum milk frother.  Perfect frothy milk every time.  We haven't gone out for coffee in months, thanks to these two awesome kitchen tools.

And the pastry?  Well, we've been on a serious pancake binge recently but were in the mood for something different this morning.  So we pulled out a trusty coffee cake recipe from G's mom.  I got inspired by the huge pile of oranges I bought yesterday,  so I threw a little fresh OJ and orange zest in.  DELICIOUS!

So, instead of venturing into the cold and spending $15 on a simple Sunday breakfast, we are cozy in our PJs and enjoying our homemade treats.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

The January Summation

So first, all of you fans out there.

Your continued want to read about our trials and travails during this process, in addition to your ability to talk to us everyday, is simply outstanding and much appreciated.  For that, we both want to thank you.  Greg personally can't believe you all want to read this much about our lives.  But you want more than I assume, you want the updates on how we're doing.

So far we have paid off  $1,521.  That leaves us with ($39,479) left to pay off.  Not a bad start to a completely new way of living.  As always though, there's room for a bit of improvement.

For starters, sickness is not a way to live cheaply.  You stay home from work, take medicine, and use public transportation because peddling your bike makes you feel woozy and cough.  Also, the random trip to the grocery begins to enlarge your grocery budget.  An avocado on the way home from work that you forgot to buy at the grocery when you planned tortilla soup, a six pack of beer to celebrate being off antibiotics, etc.  All legitimate purchases in our eyes, but they begin to add up.  Add maintenance on your primary mode of transportation and you begin to understand that living frugally isn't so much a random act of savings, but a planned, concerted effort.

So where to start?  Well, easily number one is: don't get sick.  Ahhh, but the randomness of the universe simply doesn't let you off on this one.  Unless you go around kissing flu patients.  Then well.....

Second: maintain your transportation.  We can't believe how many rusty bike chains, wobbly wheels, and bikes in disrepair we see everyday.  No wonder BikeShare does so well.  A simple check on your ride would save a bunch of headache and dollars from your pocket. 

We haven't found a third yet, but we're looking into the problem.  We will keep you informed of our discoveries.  For now, onwards to February!

Pneumonia and Chicken Soup

So sorry for the radio silence.  I am still getting use to the idea that I have a blog...that maybe someone reads...that I should consider updating. Anyway,  most of what has been pulling me away from the keyboard has been Greg's nasty case of pneumonia.  Technically, only "walking" pneumonia, but it has been a fun round of antibiotics, tea and chicken soup.  He's definitely out of the weeds, now, which is great, but it's slow going.  Being sick poses a few challenges when you're trying to live on a short budget.  Doctors visits and medicines are nastily expensive, but ABSOLUTELY necessary.  Tea, cough drops and Kleenex are also necessary, but man oh man, has our CVS bill been through the roof this month. All money well spent if it means getting healthier faster, but it really does start to add up.

I have been furiously cooking any all warming foods I could thing of.  We've had at least 5 types of soup in the past week, aided by homemade chicken stock.  At $1.89 a pound, I bought a 3 pound chicken at Eastern Market last weekend.  We roasted it with potatoes, carrots and turnips, covered it it lemon, oil and salt and had a grand old feast.  With the left over meat I made chicken tacos the next night (which also got us lunch the following day).  With the picked over chicken carcass, we made about 12 cups of beautiful, flavorful chicken stock.  I have a couple jars in the fridge and the rest in the freezer to be pulled out when needed.  So, for under $6 we had protein for 3 meals and enough stock for at least 2 big batches of soup. Brilliant! 

mmm! chicken tacos taste even better after days of soup!

This post is low on the details of how the plan is going,  more about getting into the swing of posting.  As the end of January roles around, we'll give a good summary of who, what, when, why, how, etc.

Weekly Round up

Sorry for the delayed weekly round up.  For those of you who haven't already heard, we had a little medical emergency on Thursday evening when my mom drove herself to the ER.  I have been a bundle of nerves since then.  But she started to improve, a lot and quite quickly, and even though the docs couldn't seem to figure out what was wrong they sent her home on Friday night. 

We took her home and made green chile cheese burgers, which made everyone feel better.  Greg also woke up sick on Saturday.  So, the whole house has been hanging out, convalescing.  You know what they say, a family that convalesces together, stays together...

Needless to say, it's been an interesting weekend.  Many thanks to all the family and friends who lent support, love and words of comfort.  Now that everyone is on the mend, let's talk money.

Accomplishments over the past week:

Mini-dinner party with the mom before all hell broke loose.  
Greg made a first payment on the debt to his parents.
I made my standard payment on school loans (I have big plans to pay of a large amount at the beginning of February, more on the thought process behind this later...).

I also paid off my credit card today, but this is a standard monthly practice for me.  I got my first credit card about a year and a half ago, knowing full well that my younger self would not have managed my money well and that I would have even more debt than I now.   When I first got my credit card I had at $500 limit.  I used it for bills, going out to dinner, and then I would pay off the whole thing each month.  Before a big European adventure last year, I asked the bank to up my limit.  They bumped me up to $1,500.  I still use it sparingly enough that I can pay it off totally (or almost) each month.  It allows me for a little extra wiggle room with my finance but I never let myself get out of control. 

A Dinner of French Onion Soup

Tonight marked our first dinner party on the Fast.  To be fair, it was just us and my mom, but that doesn't make it any less of a party.  We toasted the Fast and the wonderful opportunity of week-day dinners together.

It all started because of one of Greg's wild cravings.  Anyone who doesn't know this about Greg, well, I guess it's public knowledge now-they come and can't be ignored until satisfied.  A few months ago Wendy's was all Greg wanted.  The craving didn't die until he brought home a junior bacon cheese burger, a spicy chicken sandwich, fries and a frosty. 

This week, the craving was set on french onion soup.  I whole heartily believe this is a better craving than Wendy's (though, I must admit, I do love french fries dunked in an ice cold frosty).  So, I indulged him, figuring a big vat of onion soup had to be fairly cost effective. 

Knowingly serving french onion soup and not calling my mother would be, well, a dangerous move. She adores french onion soup, can't resist ordering it if it's on the menu and spent a good portion of her first visit to France in 1971 looking for "french" onion soup.  Needless to say, she didn't find quite what she was looking for...c'est la vie!

Over the weekend I bought beautiful onions at Eastern Market.  While we usually make our own veggie stock, beef stock is not a staple in our freezer, so I bought some while out at the Market, too. Today Greg grabbed fresh herbs, wine and cheese and baked up two beautiful loves of fresh bread. 

Greg's version of the classic came from Best Recipes. Onion-y, not too sweet, lots of fresh herbs and the right balance of fat in the brown broth.  Served in hand made bowls (thanks to yours truly), covered in fresh toast and slightly burnt Swiss cheese, it was decadent.

 All totaled, I think our soup was about $2.50/serving, which sounds steep for a vegetable soup.  Maybe my conversion is off?  Or, maybe it was the wine and cheese. TBD.  Anyway, it supplied a spectacular meal for this evening and lunch for tomorrow. We even sent some leftovers home with my mom- think she'll share?

Action Plan! Away!

Okay, short and sweet.  This is how we do it (queue song).

These are the things we find necessary:

1. Rent
2. DC public transportation
3. Our portable telephones
4. Our interwebs
5. Electricity and gas
6. On-line movies
7. On-line yoga instruction
8. Medication
9. Laundry
10. Food for our faces


Any special occasions will be adjudicated upon and we will do our best.  Otherwise, you're getting a homemade gift.  The thought, as they say, is what counts.  Knit pom-pom hats for everybody!

In future blog posts we'll be giving (hopefully) weekly updates.  Here's our first, though we must admit we got off to a slightly rocky start.

We arrived home late on the 30th and didn't go grocery shopping...both Meg and I spent a little bit on eating out January 1.  Damn. We remedied the situation and are munching on fresh veggies, fruits and the multitude of grains in our larder.

Meg got a new job this month and was lucky enough to get some Christmas clothing.  Needless to say, her new job requires new shoes.  Don't ask me, I don't understand.  However, upon consideration it was deemed worthy if she took the money out of her savings account.  Bending the rules, right?  It slides this time.  I'm sure she'll put pictures of herself in them up somewhere.

My bike didn't want to go down the street and needed a new back wheel.  I spent 70 bucks and an hour watching the guy fix it up.  I know now how to fix a back wheel and feel confident that I will be able to do more and more repairs on our bikes myself.

Beyond that, we are full steam ahead with this.  Or, more accurately, we are sitting in our apartment, sober and writing a blog post on a Friday night.  Ain't responsibility awesome?

A short introduction

This may be a bit late to kick off a year long project, but we were busy so this will just have to do.

All of this started with an idea--to lead a more unencumbered life. In pursuit of that goal, Meg and I have tried to figure out ways to be happier and more content. Forgoing a television, hiking more, recipe hunting. We recognized that this things make us happy, therefore we need to do them.

Yet we were constantly bothered by our monetary debts. We saw ourselves make poor choices, purchasing when we shouldn't have. Perfectly okay when you don't owe money to someone, but in our case we did. This led Meg to discover a blog called And Then We Saved.  Blog founder Anna Newell Jones managed to erase about $23,000 of debt in 15 months with the Spending Fast and Spending Diet.  Visit her site to learn more about the Spending Fast and her experience in living thrifty.

Our goal is a bit different, between the both of us we have $41,000 in combined school loans and credit card debt as of this moment.  Hopefully by the end of this year, that number will be significantly smaller.  We are writing this blog as a way to hold ourselves accountable to ourselves and to also share with everyone we know and love what we are doing.  To that end, we apologize well in advance for missing dinners, drinks, presents, and vacations.  On that note, we know that there are exceptions coming down the pike (we have a plan, we swear).  We are still going be our normal selves, our crazy foolish selves, just on a stricter budget.

So we look forward to everything everyone has to say, comment, rant, agree, disagree, or observe.  We really want ways to entertain ourselves (and you!) on the cheap.  So all you in the DC area, we need some help in that department.  In effort to keep this first post short, we'll leave it there.  More details and exactly how we are going to do this to follow.

Love,

Meg and Greg