After just finding only coins on the ground, I found my first dollar bill.

It was in the park that I took a picture of, which after a day of rain has shed its snow and is now back to its old green and brown self.

I picked up the bill, still soggy, and thought of sister's partner who found a $50 on the ground in October.

http://baselle.savingadvice.com/2007/10/03/outclassed_30795/

I still think she mugged someone for it ... she has hidden depths, if you know what I mean.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch

Had lunch with a friend today at my hideout. Something about ginger and lemon grass that makes me glow.

Looked my mutual funds and equities today. Not as bad as I feared, but taking a rest this week from looking nearly every night was a genuine rest.

Figured that I'll be unpatriotic, and not spend my share of the stimulus package. Instead I'll save it, use it to cancel out my tax bite, or if I'm feeling particularly punk, I'll put it in a drip stock. Ah, middle age - I'm too d%^& cynical to enjoy having my fiscal package stimulated. The way the dollar is going, $600 will maybe buy a bag of groceries anyway.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $5 lunch

Nope, I'm not going to look at my stocks, 401k or any equities this week. I'm heavy in cash, haven't moved anything yet so that's not the issue. I'm going to keep my emotion out of this, good or bad.

This is the time when 12 month CDs come into their own.

Time to give it all a rest.

Friday
Saving log - $3 tip box + $600 Drip stock contributions
Spending log - $1.19 coffee +$8 lunch

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $28 (brunch for 2) + $30 groceries

I read this article in the New York Times this morning...

http://tinyurl.com/239gvm

I don't really haggle. I've never thought about it much. In Mexico we haggled a little bit, but if you are the least self conscious, boy that hinders you. I have it in me, I guess, what with writing, speaking and faxing the innocent letter, but those are more pointing out what should have happened in the interest of fairness rather than "can you give me a break".

I'm nice enough so that I engender a little sympathy, and I am now a bit older and less self conscious, but still I usually don't. I think its because I don't buy too many expensive things and it just doesn't seem to be worth it buying just food and staples.

So I don't. But do you?

Saving log - $1 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $13 lunch

I woke up at 7:45 am for an 8:10 am bus. It went downhill from there. I got in and was bombarded by needy co workers, my temp guy looking for projects, and strange snafus. I solved them, but it wasn't until mid morning when I could work on what I needed to work on ... for me.

Then came lunch. My first choice had a line out the door - no good - so I went to my hideout - nearby. Got in at 12:30, and while it wasn't nearly as busy I mentally went over my schedule today. Wasn't I supposed to have a meeting at 1? I got served at 12:45, huffed it down, caught a bus and got back at 1:10 pm, heart racing thinking "I'm late!".

Meeting was at 1:30. Whew, wasn't late after all.

My boss and I waited for the elevator to make the 1:30 pm meeting when we heard voices in the shaft. Elevator was stuck on a floor - we got a co worker to call facilities and rescue the voice, making us both late ... by 10 minutes.

The day took its own today.

Yesterday I made an appointment with the financial planner for Monday. I was satisfied that he wasn't going to use me as a boat payment, and the last thing he said to me was that I should sleep on any advice and not be to rash.

Finally, the CD shop near my house put up a sign that he was going out of business. I passed by a couple of times since then, bummed and little bit embarrassed. The owner was a friend and, well, what is the etiquette here? Go in like nothing happened and pick over the stock? Walk by and leave it alone?

I went in tonight, gave my condolences, and found a couple of CDs. Turns out that he's moving a lot of stock this week. I laughed and said that the persian carpet sellers in Pioneer Square had the right idea. Keep advertising a going-out-of-business sale, lay low for a couple of weeks, then start back up again. Another customer told him exactly the same thing.

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $7 lunch

Lunch. Yes I know, eating lunch out is not frugal, and probably not great for the health either, but it is one of my few vices and if you work in a basement, you'd pay good money to see sunshine...making the food a bonus. Not only do I keep track of how much I spend on the meal, I keep a food diary of what and how much I eat. So I've noticed a sign-of-the-times thing with a Korean lunch today.

Lunches are staying the same price, but they are getting decidedly smaller. The styrofoam takeout container of bi bim bap (Korean BBQ with vegetables) is filled similarily, but the next size smaller. Call it the candy bar effect. Anybody else notice this with their lunch?

The frugal side of me felt a pang, but the diet side of me said yippee.

Speaking of lunch, I rarely eat here. He's very close to work, and I'm decisive orderer, but I got into a fight with him once about Fresca. Why order a side of bile?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/346742_needle10.html

Not much else financial happened. It was a day of missing making contacts. Telephone tag with the friend who is a financial planner. (His voice mail said he was a vice-president - yipes!). Email tag with the Ameriprise guy (grandma's trust dollars are in Ameriprise).

Caught up with most of what I was behind on, but I spent a great deal of time answering not-so bright emails.

Didn't even find any pennies to pick up on the sidewalk.

told her boss how much she inherited from dad and grandma, then promptly picked up a penny from the sidewalk. It was a shiny penny, after all...

Saving log - $5 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee, milk + $8 lunch

The first thing out of my mouth (me, Packer fan) at the chiropractor (he, Seahawks fan), was:

"We are going to kill you!"

He was about to tell me the same thing, hah hah, I got it out first. Of course doing an adjustment on my mid back he said the same thing and then pop and CLICK.

So we made it interesting - we bet a sandwich on the game. A no-spend day next week depends on which Brett Favre shows up: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.

Lawyer friend suggested a mutual friend (who used to work with us) who is now working as a financial planner. I've wanted to catch up with him anyway so its time to contact him.

I have three goals for any financial planner because I'm a DIY at heart:

1. Entry point for services: CPA for taxes, lawyer for estate planning.

2. Coalescing of accounts and making sure that the allocations are diversified.

3. Knowledge - I know what I know, I'm trying to learn what I know I don't know. What don't I know to even learn about?

I get the feeling that I will be buying this lunch, so life's a wash.

DH picked this beauty up from his change today. "Want to hear about red quarters?"

Do I!


According to DH, they're red because someone coated them with red nail polish. That someone was the jukebox owner. Often if a jukebox was quiet, it stayed quiet, and if the jukebox was played, then other people would put quarters in and play what they wanted.

So a bartender would "prime" the jukebox and play it using a red quarter. When the jukebox owner pulled in the take for that week, he'd give the bar back the red quarters to use for more priming. They weren't supposed to leave the bar...this one was an escapee.

Anybody else have change tales?

A funny from The Onion that might encourage a few of our newer bloggers. If you are reading this on a laptop, swallow what you are drinking before clicking:

http://tinyurl.com/2kq9z2

Thursday
Saving log - $9 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Friday
Saving log - $300 ING
Spending log - $1.50 bagel (free coffee!) + $230 spending

Since I worked on Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day, I took today off, and I plan to take a few more days off in January. Boy I needed it - I was losing my nouns when I talked to people and I felt like I was ready to kill someone, two signs that I was burning out. Oh yes, and the faint smell of burning toast ...

After a little bagel breakfast, free coffee from the punch card, and a nice, easy forty five minutes with the paper at the neighborhood coffee shop, I was ready for the day of clothes shopping, lunch, CD and more clothes shopping. I did pretty well, buying things I would use and use often: 1 pair cords, 1 pair jeans, 3 tops, 1 track jacket, 6 pairs of underwear, 3 CDs, a digital TV antenna (for the new Christmas TV), and a conveyor belt sushi lunch.

It was fun, in the budget, restful, and guilt free all around. I could see how someone would feel very good about buying stuff. Its too bad that the pleasures of saving money are far more cerebral - seeing higher numbers in various accounts from one day to the next is just not as brightly sensual.

Transferred $300 from checking into ING savings.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee

With the potluck, a nearly no spend day. Back to the cheaper, not-too-bad, needs-a- bit-of-milk coffee. DJ friend told me that within a year that the place I buy the coffee at and all the other businesses around are going away - the building is going to be renovated into a hotel with a large swanky expensive restaurant. Progress marches on, but I'm getting to be the age where its not as much fun.

Another item that's not as much fun is the weather - Seattle has turned into Venus again, all murky and cloudy and dank. Last year it rained mostly in November, but this year all the bad weather's hitting during the shortest days of the year. Seattle really wants to clean house, I guess... to get rid of the poseurs who showed up in the summer. Suspecting that, though, doesn't help me expel myself from a nice warm bed and into a cold, dank, dark world this week.

Put this month's $46 from the tip box into savings. Since September 2004, I've put $1775 into savings through my tip box. Life in the slow satisfying saver lane.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $3 coffee + $5 lunch

I know, I know...the three dollar coffee looks weird, like I went off the frugal wagon. Co worker told me about this place where they brew the coffee in this special way through this special machine. So it was a 3$ cup of "drip" coffee. Should I even admit that I bought it here?

The coffee was very, very good. I don't know if its worth it for everyday drinking, but for a treat and just to experience a real good coffee it was worth it today. It had a strong, nice smell and a smooth complex taste, yet very drinkable even black without cream or milk; it even had sweetness at the end. Cold detracted only a little bit. And at no time did it or the shop or the beans smell like cigarette butts ala most Starbucks. IMO, a frappacino is a malted, not a coffee.

But I tightened up a bit on lunch today, while lunch tomorrow is a potluck. The three dollar coffee averages out.

Friday
Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $8 lunch

Saturday
Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $13 brunch + $60 groceries

About three weeks ago, sister sent me an IM invite from yahoo.com. It meant that I had to get a yahoo.com email, but free is free, so I got one. I only hope sister doesn't think I will ever use it...I've forgotten my username on it already. Maybe I'll stick my spam offers there or something.

I did set up instant messaging at start up for the faint possibility that sister will be awake at the same time I am. Sister lives 2 hrs ahead of me and has early hours, so possibility was faint.

Yesterday sister was up in the middle of the night and took a chance. We IMed for about 2 hours. Wow, its way cheaper than a phone call and we got caught up. So I learned:

--Sister hasn't sent in her forms yet to the trustee. (I thought I was the slacker)
--Wisconsin got about 8 inches of snow.
--Sister has to figure out who she can get to shovel out the farmette driveway today.
--Both sister and her partner are working hurt. Sister with the knee and partner with the lower back.
--We both got caught short on Thanksgiving and had to buy the 20 lb turkey because that was the smallest available.
--We both handle about 2 or 3 threads at once. Neither one of us wait for question response, question response. We both question question question, response, response, response. I wonder if this is normal for IM?

I wonder if she has a blog and doesn't tell me because she said things about me behind my back. I haven't told my sister about this blog. I don't think its a bad, but I figure it would be very inhibitory.

Saving log - $2 tip box
Spending log - $1.19 coffee + $15 chirashi lunch

I'm on disc 2 of an F/X series called 30 Days. 30 Days is made by Morgan Sperlock, who famously tried to live on McDonalds for 30 days in Super Size Me. Different people lived a different lifestyle for 30 days. For the purposes of this journal, the two interesting 30 day experiments were of 1) Sperlock and his fiancee trying to live on minimum wage for 30 days in Columbus OH and 2) a couple trying to live "off the grid" for 30 days. Both couples managed it, with some insights, but 30 days is not that long a time. They are both punks compared to lrjohnson, living for ONE YEAR on CA minimum wage. I miss her...is she coming back?

Managed to lose 1% of body fat last week. How did that happen?

Work is crazy, of course, but now a tad strange. One of the higher ups (defined as anyone higher up than me) is having issues that I find hard to describe. The closest I can come up with is mental confusion. Not emotional issues, and not dangerous, but ...odd.

Saving log - $11 tip box
Spending log - $13 groceries (end of day)

Lots of good, frugal stuff happened to me today. I took my batch of turkey salad to work, along with an apple and a 6 pack of english muffins. I hope to eat "in" for most of the week. Today I did.

Got busy right away at work, so I drank the work coffee, instead of going out for it.

At the chiropractor, I found that I had quite a bit of credit - so no copays for awhile. "Your money's no good!" the receptionist said.

I put a lot of the savings today out in the tip box.

Black Friday was gym Friday for me. The trainer went to her parent's home for the holidays. I was supposed to go to the gym three times last week; I only made it twice - Friday and Sunday. Does the fact I made it on Friday count twice?

Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.30 coffee + $7 lunch

We've been told that Seattle is a bright spot in national real estate, immune to the credit meltdown. 2 short stories in the last couple of weeks tells me it ain't so.

1. Talked with a local bank about grandma's inheritance. I let slip by saying, "I just didn't want to do something stupid with my money."

"Like buy real estate?" the banker said.

2. Part of my job at the non-profit I work at means I handle corporate matches. One of the accounts was a mortgage lender, and they wanted to alter this year's corporate match. They let slip that they are stopping their 401Ks for a few months, and they wanted to halt their corporate match for those same few months.

Spending log (Saturday) - $13 brunch
Spending log (Sunday) - $3 coffee, bagel + $19 groceries

A routine weekend - DH and I walked to the library to read magazines and browse. Up until a free years ago, I used to have a serious magazine addiction at the news stand - I'd pick up at least 2-3 wk every week - easily $500/year! At least I read them! I think its because I enjoyed the experience of reading in coffeeshops: coffee, sweet dessert, and something to read while I ate it. It was a poor trifecta - read the magazine in 45 minutes as I was doing something sedentary while inhaling about 500 calories, probably blowing about $15 (1990 dollars, even) for the privilege, and then I had to think about keeping the mag for awhile, then tossing.

I still enjoy browsing but I pick up only one particular magazine/ month to keep (Saveur). The rest - read at the library which I walk to. Supposedly you can bring coffee into the library, but I haven't seen it recently and as long as you are breaking one habit, you might just as well break the rest too. So now the experience has changed, stripped down: a free walk, free reads, no calories consumed, no paper waste. Probably not as much total fun, but cheaper and more sustainable.

Sunday was a cardio day at the gym. My trainer was there in her civilian clothes - she and her DH were repotting some of the interior landscaping. Nice - not only did I show up, I was seen - after cardio, all red and sweaty - showing up.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $10 lunch + $7 ham

Lost 2 pounds at gym today, getting back to the stage where I was 2 weeks ago. I've substituted apples for a second energy bar to keep myself from sticking my head in the refrigerator in these darkening days.

Heard about the possibility that I can learn French. (MIL in Paris said - the family likes you, it'll be great if you learn French). One of the temp staff taught English in France, and a couple of co workers have a lunch where they speak only French.

Got a compliment on the email that I sent to sister's lawyer from my lawyer friend. The tone was good, and I was complete and told him what sister and I wanted out of the whole thing.

Got over 200$ in interest this month, so far (doesn't include the CDs).

Had a philosophical thought. If Daylight Saving is from April 1 to Nov 4 (7 months) and Standard Time is now from Nov 4 to April 6 (5 months), why is it still called Standard Time? Doesn't Standard Time imply that you are in it longer than Daylight Saving?

So I saw this in the Seattle Times Real Estate section:

http://tinyurl.com/yw3zlu
about how my neighborhood is "warm" in terms of real estate. I have only three things to say -

1. Please let the Seattle real estate market dive. I mean it. It'll happen, it just has to hurry up, chop chop!

2. Shut up. If you figure out that Greenwood's a great place by yourself, fine. If you have to be told by the Seattle Times (or hell, by me!) that its a great place, we don't want ya!

3. Thank G&d for the drunks. Saw a serious one this afternoon. Thank you - you scare the tourists and the real estate speculators (kinda). I use The Baronof as a canary. When it goes, Greenwood turns upscale.

Saving log - $4 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Gnawed on the footlong for the second day so I saved money on lunch. DJ friend did tempt me - he was interested in the 2 for 1 deal at the local indian restaurant.

Spent 101$ on a fall coat, a tote, and scarfy-earmuff thingee. Gearing up for fall/winter. Seattle rarely has a midwest style winter, but it does get cold, rainy, and dreary. I'll use what I buy.

Today, though, it was a beautiful day with blue sky, and freakishly warm - in the mid 70s.

Duvall friend is applying for another job - her boss is driving her insane. She fretted a bit about the loss of 6K of income should she get the job...but sanity should be worth more than 6K! I'll find out more about how her interview went this weekend, we might be picking up an actual blueberry bush.

Not much has happened in the last two days. Played poker and lost. The company's fun, but not for every weekend, just once in awhile.

Lawyer friend and I are planning his lunch. I promised him lunch as payment for informal lawyerly help during dad's probate. Now that the second property has been sold, lawyer friend got hungry.

A wind and rainstorm hit, and now only green and brown leaves are left on the trees.

Today I bought a few groceries, keeping an eye on the register. "Wait a minute, I thought that..." I said. It turns out that some linguine I bought had been mistakenly set up as an end cap display, so mistakenly set as 50%. I got the mistaken price, but it gets one to thinking ... what is the most dollar-saving thing you've said?

"Wait a minute, I thought that," politely said, is mine.

Saving log - $0 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $9 lunch

Not much happening here - just waiting for the Monday paycheck. I'll be running on financial fumes - $100 for the weekend. The Duvall friends have got our blueberry bushes. (We decided to get a couple and put them in kind of a secret corner of the back yard.)

Sister's lawyer sent both my sister and I so I asked in an email for a little clarification - did he split the bill in half, or is one just a copy?

Took the bus tunnel for the first time since it opened. Its geometry seems different, but that could be because I hadn't seen it for two years.

A quick entry. Here's the itinerary:

Friday - at work, stitching things up, and getting bereavement time.

Saturday - flying out using Midwest Air. All about the warm cookies, apparently, which I got two of, but the real treat was the ability to fly directly to Milwaukee. First night with sister and sister's partner. A highlight (NOT) - sister put all the farmette financial statements in a paper bag. Sigh.

Sunday - I'm put to work at the now farmette near Oshkosh, taking pictures, hearing plans, and later harvesting squash. It was in the high 70s and I got eaten by flies and mosquitoes on the last day of September. Yes, George, global warming does exist. A pizza dinner at West End Pizza in Oshkosh. Proust had his memories activated by a madeleine dipped in tea; I have mine with West End Pizza cut in squares and a couple of glasses from a pitcher of beer.

Monday - At the farmette again before grandma's funeral and wake to measure curtains. Grandma had an open casket for private viewing - sister, sister's partner, me, cousin, cousin's wife. She was buried in what she wanted - peacefully, in her pajamas and pink bathrobe. The funeral itself was closed casket, with a dinner for the funeral party at her and grandpa's favorite supper club. Had a brandy old fashioned with extra bitters in honor of my grandma.

Tuesday - Flying out again.

More tomorrow.

Saving log - 0$ tip box
(deposited 47$ yesterday from the tip box to the bank)
Spending log - $6 parking

Our little department was involved in a county-wide volunteer "Day of Caring" today, but we needed a ride to the place that we were to volunteer.

I publically drove our little group. It sounds strange, but I commute every day by bus, I don't really own a car (I consider the cushmobile DH's car), I hate driving standard transmissions that DH loves, I bum rides off of co workers, I consider driving the ruin of my finances and the cause of my weight gain. All reasons that for most of my life I drive maybe once a year. In other words, even after 7 years of working, no one at work has ever seen me drive. The cushmobile - a white Buick - is an automatic transmission, seats five very comfortably, so it made sense to carpool and for me to do it.

It was fun. The volunteering project was a landscaping job - good hard work and we had just enough people. Everybody was busy doing something, we got the project done at about 3 pm, and we had a lot to show for it.

Everyone considered me a boring driver - the conversation kept at a steady stream, no "eeek watch it!", no honking, and probably no stories or whispers behind my back.

The only issue was a frugal one - I paid 6$ for parking - my only spending for today. I know that DH would frown deeply. (Spend money on lot parking? Take away my cojones right now. ) I'll save the parking receipt - I might just as well ask if I can get reimbursed for it. And if I get reimbursed for it, maybe I can get my cojones back.

Saving log - $7 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk + $7.60 lunch

Crazy day, with work coming from all sides. Last night I lost 25$ at poker with the lawyer friend hosting, but I forced lawyer friend's partner out of the game, so I won a bounty of $5.

Then this morning I received a lunch invitation from lawyer friend. I know he reads this blog sometimes, but here goes. I had to use one of my other frugal skills - friend avoidance. I dearly love (friend love, get your mind out of the gutter) lawyer friend, but $25 dollars today, $15 dollars tomorrow. Well, I am plenty busy these days....

Saving log - $.50 tip box
Spending log -$1.84 coffee, milk + $4.50 curry

I was going to save the full $5 today, but it turned out, accidentally, that I went nearly fiscal commando again. I had $6 and change in my wallet, starting out. Plan A was to get the coffee and milk with the $1 and the change, put the $5 in the tip box, hit the ATM, pick up a couple of items, then have lunch at my "hideout".

The problem occurred when I hit the ATM - debit card gone. (This evening, I found it yesterday's jacket pocket.) All I had was my credit card, driver's license, and a certain amount of bull-headedness. Since the hideout didn't take plastic, if I really wanted it I would have to go to my bank branch and get a cash advance.

That was just an ugly, sad, weak-willed possibility, and how could I write that I did that here?

It was plan B. Plan B was walk back to the office, fish the $5 back out of the tip box, go to the curry place, and order the special no matter what it was. That's what I did.

Frugality begins with the making and implementation of plan B, even though its not what I wanted that day. Plan A will have to wait.

"Those that understand interest, get it. Those that don't, pay it."

Any other faves out there?

Wednesday
Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk

Got taken out to lunch on Wednesday, so I put what I would have spent in the box.

Today
Saving log - $3 tip box
Spending log - $1.84 coffee, milk +$20 lunch

Spendy, kinda. I was interviewing several folks for temp position beginning at 9 am, which meant that I had to show up by 8:30am. DH offered to drive me, so I let him. Since I rarely do that and its out of his way, I gave him a $20 for coffee, gas, and its insurance that he'll offer again. Just my luck though that the 9 am slot had to reschedule. It always happens that when I rush I needn't have.

And then there was lunch. A new place, tasty enough, but the service was slow, and I paid for the decor. Not going on the short list.

Payday is tomorrow and I'm in very good shape for the end of the paycheck. I'm not depressed, but lately everything's flat, even. Nothing near term to get excited about.

Saving log - $8 tip box
Spending log - $1.15 coffee (no milk) + $9 lunch (bought DJ friend's lunch)

Learned over the weekend that the phrase "two commas" refers to a million dollars: $1,000,000.

Got your two commas yet? Someday.

The first set of shows on DJ friend's internet radio station started up - Global Vortex Radio. Sunday night's show was classic soul - songs that you've heard, but mostly songs just as great that no one heard of. The other innovation is that DJ friend set up a chat room so you can chat with the DJ as the show is going on.