Yup, no spending, except for...

By PayDaze
Why, hello there. This post I'm writing about all the money I've been spending lately. No, it's not what you think. Quit looking at me like that. It's spending for travel stuff, which is outside the perimeter of the No-Buy Showdown (right, Billz?) because seeing more of the U.S. is one of my goals for this year.

I'm going to Boston soon with my good friend from highschool who's married and now lives in New York. I'm taking a day off work, the Monday, so we'll be there for two nights, three days.

I booked my plane ticket last week. The experience made me want to throw my laptop against a brick wall because somehow, after one sleep, the price for a direct, round-trip flight from Chicago to Boston on both American Airlines and Delta had increased by $200. Yeah, $200! The night before I booked it, literally 12 hours earlier, the price was circa $250. I remember thinking, "Oh, that's reasonable!" but for $450? It's totally insane. And trust me, I'm not that insane.

So instead, I'm leaving earlier in the morning on Saturday and coming back later on the Monday night so I don't lose time in Boston since my travel time has essentially doubled. The two one-way tickets I booked (through JetBlue and US Airways) add up to $260, so the price is alright, but the thought of it still makes me so cranky. I really hate how online travel sites are automated and use logarithms or whatever to determine supply and demand and jack up the prices by hundreds of dollars.

But there are two really good bits of news about this trip:

1) It's Boston Restaurant Week while we're there! This means we can try a nice restaurant for lunch and another one for dinner for a lot less than usual. I've made some tentative bookings through OpenTable, so we can always cancel if we don't feel like going.

2) I found a great deal on TravelZoo last night for The Liberty Hotel, which is a 4-star hotel that used to be a jail. How cool is that? It's $169/night with a free room upgrade through TravelZoo, and the cheapest rate on Hotels.com was still $225. So I booked it. Yay! It's across the street from a "T" station, so it'll be easy for us to catch the train around town.

But wait. I actually spent more. To be even more productive, I also booked two Southwest tickets to Washington D.C. for my guy and me for April. We've been talking about going to visit his friends and me having the full Lisa Simpson Goes To Washington experience, but we hadn't made a concrete plan yet. I didn't let that stop me though!

After my Chicago-Boston flight fiasco, I wasn't in the mood to be ripped off by stupid robot travel agents again. So I booked those suckers for mid-April (for a weekend we'd already penciled in) at $65 one way, and $79 for the other. Those prices are the cheapest we'll get for the times we want to fly, and Southwest tickets are free to exchange or return for Southwest credit, so it's all safey wafey. Oh, oh! This just in. My Southwest tickets have gone up in price. Both one-way flights are now $87! Guess what that makes me. That's right. Sooooo rich!

Total damage on my debit card this past week? (Look away, Billz!)

- $260: Chicago - Boston round-trip
- $400 or so: Liberty Hotel in Boston ($200 of which I'll get back)
- $330: Chicago - Washington D.C. round-trip x 2 ($165 of which I'll get back)

The best part is I'll have Boston and D.C. ticked off before the summer. So, anyone got any travel tips?

PayDaze vs. Dollah-Billz: The Ultimate American No-Buy Showdown 2008

By Dollah-Billz

I don't believe it has been mentioned on this blog before, but PayDaze and I are currently in the middle of a no-shop showdown.

We returned to work this January after having two weeks off for Christmas and were feeling a bit broker, lazier, and in my case at least, chubbier than when we left on December 21st.

I visited my Dad in Minneapolis and my Mom in Montreal, while Daze took a trip across the sea to Taipei. I can't speak for Daze, but I ate and drank and shopped myself into a coma. It was wonderful and restful, but after returning to real life, we both needed to snap back into shape.

While discussing our holiday purchases and watching dollar signs flash before our eyes then fly away forever into oblivion, we decided it would be the perfect time to challenge each other to not buying anything but food and necessities until March 1st, 2008. I didn't think this would make too much of a difference in my money life (or that I would notice anyway) but it really has.

Usually, I don't have too many bad spending habits when it comes to "stuff". I hate shopping (esp. in the winter) usually only buy clothes once or twice a season, or will occasionally visit the thrift store and get lots of goodies for $20. One huge difference though, that I have never really considered, is I haven't had that "burning a hole in my pocket" feeling right after payday since our showdown began.

I'm talking about that cravey, psychological hole that occasionally needs to be filled, and sometimes spending money seems like it will do the trick.

It's not even spending on say, clothes or cute shoes, it can be throwing down a hundred bucks at Target. When you get home you realize and all you actually bought is Method cleaning products and maybe a candle. Where did the money go?

With the showdown, this isn't even an option, so I don't even consider it. I pay my bills, put money in savings, and budget the rest. I don't crave to spend because, well, I can't. I have someone holding me to my word.

We've had our moments of weakness, emailing Built by Wendy shirts of our dreams to each other, and day dreaming about cute things we'll buy on March 1st. Overall though, it's been super easy, and has helped me get much further much faster in my get-out-of-debt goal. Come March 1st, I might buy one new piece of spring clothing, but the momentum to not spend is pretty hard to stop right now.

Daze, are you up for a March 15 - May 15th Showdown? Lets do it!

News from the other side

By PayDaze

"A 2007 survey by Ameriprise Financial found about 9 out of 10 parents give money to their grown kids for major expenses: credit-card balances, car insurance, student loans, you name it. Have baby boomers raised a generation of whiners who can't live within their means?"

I read this article -- What You Owe Your Kids -- in CNN's Money Magazine under the Boomers' Guide to Financial Freedom section and immediately two questions went through my mind:

1) Am I one of these whiners?
2) How expensive will it be for our generation to have kids?

Upon first reading it, I thought, "Gees, those kids are so spoilt!" but then I realized I was one of those kids too. My 5-year public university education was paid for by Mum and Dad (including living expenses for study abroad year in France). I lived at home during that period too, which is very common in Sydney. And any money I made through part-time jobs during highschool and university was mine to save, spend or travel with. (I'd estimate I probably made around $25K over those 3-4 years.) Then after graduating, I lived at home the year I worked my first job.

Only since moving to Chicago have I been completely financially independent. I pay for everything myself -- from the rent and utility bills, to my phone bill and groceries. The first 6 months or so there was a bit of cash-flow awkwardness -- especially when I moved apartments -- but now I'm on top of it. I only wish I was smarter with all the money I made back in school because it's all vanished into thin air. I spent who-know-how-much on magazines, books, clothes and shoes that I've all thrown out by now. And I spent a great chunk of my savings while I was in France. Carpe diem must have been my slogan for that year.

Today, I'm more or less starting from scratch. I can't blame my parents for sheltering me from financial responsibility because they felt it was their role as parents to set me up. I can only try to catch up on my savings and change my money habits so one day, I'm in the position to offer the same to my kids.

Um, whenever that happens...

Dollah-Billz hearts cookies and Kuma's

By Dollah-Billz

In P-Daze's last post, she was asking M-Bags and I to write about what we did for Valentine's day. (Separately, with our respective men). And you know what they say, what Daze wants, Daze gets.

I kind of figured my main squeeze wouldn't be getting me much for Valentine's Day. He just started going to school after being in the workforce for 8 years or so, and now has 2 part time jobs, so we've adjusted our lifestyle quite a bit to make this work for him. I'm enjoying the change though, we are living much more frugally, and life is much simpler without a bunch of "stuff".

Also, we both aren't into the whole forced sentimentality of the whole thing. But this isn't a social observation blog, it's a blog about how rich I am, so let's get to it.

First, I made vegan sugar cookies, that turned out pretty well. Mostly, they were made of sugar, egg-replacer, soy milk, sugar, flour and sugar, so the cost was pretty low -- I think it was about $12-15 for at least 40 cookies. There are still about 32 left if you want to come over and have some with tea. This added a nice festive touch without overdoing it, see for yourself:


Awwwww.... so cute.

We also went on a spicy date to Kuma's Korner -- an amazing metal-themed burger restaurant in Chicago. This might seem confusing to you, a vegan in a burger joint, but the food I can eat there is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The atmosphere is so fun, and there are a billion delicious beers. We decided to split the tab, which we don't do very often (we usually just take turns), but this way it felt more like a gift to each other. The tab was about 30 duckets each, and for dinner plus four beers (total, for both of us) thats not too bad.

Also, the Main Squeeze bought me two CD's, which was a really nice surprise -- Cat Power and Yeasayer. I didn't buy him a gift, but I did write him a really sweet note, which you can't read, fool!

So, total V-Day cost:

- $ 15: Homemade cookies
- $ 30: Dinner
- $ 3 : Rediculous card with a sweet note in it.

Total: $48

Not terrible, not great though...

Love, D-Billz

A late Valentine's Day post

By PayDaze

I'm volunteering a breakdown of my V-Day weekend to prove that in the early stages of a new relationship, certain expenses can be offset by romance. It sounds bogus, but it's true! (Or maybe I'm just trying to rationalize the expensive weekend my guy and I just had. Shrug.)

Before I get into the numbers though, I'd like to point out that on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, we are a very low maintenance couple. How so? For starters, my guy also sleeps on the floor. Yes, we both do. And he's in social work, and works shifts until 10pm or 11pm five nights out of seven, so we don't keep regular, money-sucking hours like other couples. We've been together for almost four months now, and we don't do a lot of fancy, extravagant things. Sure, we eat out once or twice on the weekends, but it's usually BYO or something easy and cheap.

Okay, now that I've made that clear, here's what we did this weekend. Brace yourself, cause it adds up to quite a bit at the end. On Friday night, we stayed at the Affinia hotel downtown. I saw a special rate on TravelZoo earlier in the week for $99 (+$16 tax) and figured it would be a great opportunity to sleep in a real bed together. (Their average year-round rate is $287, according to TripAdvisor.) The other girls at the office agreed it was an awesome deal, so I went ahead and booked it. For dinner, we didn't have any reservations, so we just headed out and walked into some restaurants. We ended up at Devon Seafood Grill.

My guy is pretty cute. (I like him the same amount as I like Chicago: a nine out of ten.) He hadn't tried some of the stuff on the menu, and we figured we don't eat out at nice places very often, so we ordered two appetizers (shrimp cocktail and beef carpaccio) and then two entrees (lobster ravioli and the scallops). The appetizers were especially good; he liked beef carpaccio a lot. Four cocktail specials and a creme brulee later, the final bill with tip came to about $128. Woah!

In retrospect, we both agreed that we should've just ordered three or four appetizers because we loved the shrimp and beef carpaccio, but the entrees were just okay. For the price, they could've been better. We had a really fun time at the restaurant, but for next time we'll know to stick with the appetizers if we want to try several things from the menu.

After dinner was when the evening totally fell apart. We went to a club for my guy's friend's birthday and somehow ended up spending $90 in an hour. That must have been a record of some sort. It was $20 for the cab there and back. Then $30 for cover ($10 for me, $20 for him) and he bought a round of drinks for the group that ended up costing $40 and tasted terrible. If we'd known stopping by to say happy birthday would cost $90, we would've just sent him a text message! That would've been 10 cents! So another lesson learned.

The next morning, we checked out of the hotel and went to Macy's to see if the V-Day Frango mint chocolates were on sale. They were, at 50% off. So I bought us two heart-shaped boxes for $7.50 each and we called it a day. Those Frangos should last us a while. At least for the next month or so when we'll be spending every weekend at home, on the floor, watching downloaded movies...while still having a great time. (Puke.)

Final calculation just added since DB put one in her post:

- Hotel cost: $116
- Cab rides: $19

Total: $135

N.B. My guy paid for dinner since I paid for the hotel room, and he paid for the non-cab expenses, ($70) from the club.

So MoneyBags and Dollah-Billz: How much did V-Day cost you and your guys?

PayDaze vs. Evil

By PayDaze

Last week I was rich-ing it up and I transfered $500 to my shiny new HSBC account. But Chase charged me $3 as an external transfer fee. I got so mad! I shook my fist at Chase! How am I supposed to get rich if my bank is such a jerk? So I wrote Chase a letter and demanded my $3 back. I just got a response:

Dear PayDaze,

Thank you for contacting Chase.

Kindly accept my apologies for any confusion this service
fee has caused.

Because you are a valued customer, I have processed a
one-time courtesy reversal of the service charge on your
account in the amount of $3.00.

In your face, Chase! And I'm STILL moving my banking to WaMu...HA!

I'm ING the money

By MoneyBags

Today I made a small step towards becoming a real moneybags. I just noticed that my savings account had made exactly $0.13 since I opened it in June. That's right, 13 cents. Apparently I was earning a measly .28% interest. I'm never going to be rich at this rate.

So today I called Chase and closed the poor man's savings account and moved all my money to a rich man's ING savings account with 3.4% interest. According to my nemesis, math, if I had $1000 in there for a year, I could make $34, which looks pretty impressive compared to the $2.80 I would make with Chase. There's a lot a girl can do with an extra $31.20 per month. That's like 10 Tasty Bite Indian Food dinners, or a pair of impractical shoes from TJ Maxx, or twice when I can bail on the el when its smelling extra urine-y and take a cab home!

Moving to America: a reflection

By PayDaze

In May of 2007, I packed seven suitcases for my big move to Chicago. I'd sold my parents on the idea by telling them my time away would be like going to graduate school. I would be learning so much, yes, but more importantly to them, I would be coming back. And that meant any living situation would be temporary. One year, two years tops.

Even though I'm not sure myself how long I'll end up living here, knowing that I'll be leaving Chicago one day has framed my living situation in a lot of ways. For example, I refuse to commit to a two-year cell phone plan, and for the first four months here, I used a prepaid T-Mobile account. Obviously, I'm not a renter. Not so obviously, I sleep on the floor. Yes, the floor. And I only have two pieces of furniture: a chair (a gift from a friend) and a desk (an IKEA one from Craigslist).

To be unnecessarily melodramatic about it, every time I buy something for my place it feels like I'm adopting a baby that I'll just have to give up in a few years. Last weekend, I finally bought a Brita water filter system and it was so overwhelming that I had to call my dad to tell him. (He didn't care.) That same day I put up a poster on my wall using butterfly clips hung from little 3M wall hooks because I imagined what a pain it would be to have to ship a framed poster out of Chicago. My world essentially changed with that poster. No lie.

Knowing this is how I live, you'd think my savings would be insane. But no. Until recently, I'd saved hardly any of my salary because I was too busy developing, feeding and then detoxing from a crippling addiction to clothes and shoes. Clothes and shoes were evidently the loophole in my hyper-dramatic "buying things is like adopting a child I'll just one day have to part with" metaphor.

So here's my problem: I know how, where and when to save money, but I can spend it just as easily. If I have it, I'll probably spend it. But if I don't, then I won't. So I've decided that moving the money out of arm's reach is the key. From now on, the money I put into my HSBC Direct Online Savings account is untouchable. Not even for travel. I'll have to set aside other money for that. And I'm going to move all my banking to Washington Mutual soon so I can make free transfers to my bank account in Australia. That way, I can't even feel how rich I am. With a 3-day trip to Boston in the works for March, we'll see how my finances deal with the new rules.

Oh, the places you'll go, the debt you'll wrack up!

By Dollah-Billz

For my very first post, I thought it would be appropriate to introduce myself, and my weird relationship with money.

It is a relationship not unlike one you might have with an uncle you don't know very well: You hug, see each other in pajamas at the holidays, but when everyone else leaves the room, the awkward feeling between the two of you is unbearable.

This year, in 2008, I want to change that awkward feeling I have with money into one of love, understanding, and nurturing. No more shame! No more awkward feeling!

But lets back-up for a moment. My first experience with money that I remember well happened around the time I was 12-13. There was a beautiful shiny Trek mountain bike - an "adult" bike- at the bike store that I Had to Have. Had to. I saved my babysitting money for months and months, and finally one day, I opened my little yellow bank safe, took out a wad of $500 in mostly ones and fives, and went and bought myself that bike.

Oh, glorious day. A day that I learned so much: I learned I could tuck away money pretty painlessly and get WHATEVER I wanted. That I had the best bike in the neighborhood because of this. And that I had done it! Me! No parents! I was free!

And then, fast forward to 6 years later: I did it again, but this time, it was $5,000 in computer equipment for school. The best Mac I could get, a shiny new monitor, a printer and scanner, and again, I did it all with cash and it was all mine.

Later that same year, my second year in college, I made a mistake that changed my relationship with money from the cash-saving sprite I once was to a credit card using fool. I signed up for a credit card with the blood sucking leeches the companies send to college campuses. It was so easy! What was the harm? Oh, and a free frisbee? Yes please.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't blame myself too much. I really didn't know the harm this could do; everyone had a credit card, so why not me? And like I said above, they make it so easy, and "normal".

With a few small purchases and a good payment record under my belt, suddenly, my limit had increased. And then again. And again. I could put my school books on there! My class supplies! Two root canals with no dental insurance? No problem, I can "afford" it!

$6,000 and three years later, I was speaking to a co-worker who told me about her $15,000 credit card debt. And I realized how close I was to that. A few more emergencies away... I decided I had had enough, I was paying it off. So I did. It was gone... But I still had the card.

I think you can imagine what happened. I ran it up again. In half a second. It didn't get nearly as bad as the first time... but I could see it would be soon.

But now, I've stopped beating myself up over it. I think for so long I was ashamed that I got into the mess in the first place, that I couldn't admit it to myself. It's ok though, I've learned, and now I know. And it could have been sooo much worse.

One account is closed, and the other is about to be. I'm chucking money at these things so fast I can hardly believe it.

April 1st is my goal date for the first one, with the second to follow soon after. When it's all over, I will strangle them to death, then set them on fire, then hurl them off a building, and finally, cut them to little pieces to be thrown in hot lava.

Stay tuned! I'm almost there! I look forward to posting that they are gone forever... And I might even post a photo or two of the great credit-card massacre of 2008.

Love, Dollah-Billz

Moneybags I-Go Go

By MoneyBags

I finally sold my god-forsaken, money-sucking car.

It is also the snowiest, slushiest, coldest, grayest crappiest winter I can remember, which is making me feel like I am being punished for selling the car. But, in the long run its the right move because that thing leeches (ha ha leeched) money out of me left and right. A city sticker here, an oil change there. All on top of the day to day costs of the insurance and the car payments. Forget it!

So my husband and I joined I-Go. I-Go is a car sharing service. You pay a one time fee of $75 to join. Then when you want to use the car you go online to reserve a time. You go to the car at your time slot and you have this little card that opens the door. You are charged by how long you have the car and how far you drive (I think). Then you return the car when your time slot is up. My favorite thing about it is that if you are late returning the car, and someone has reserved it after you, you have to pay for that person to take a cab to the nearest I-Go. And if the car needs gas, you use the gas card and get gas for the next person. Oh, and a lot of the cars are hybrids, or replicas of my beloved Honda. The whole thing makes me want to listen to a jam band bootleg and spritz on some patchouli.

So not only am I saving a ton of money now that I am no longer spending $450 a month on car payment, insurance, gas and whatnot, I can take cabs whenever I am feeling lazy. Or if its cold, snowing, slushing, breezy, etc. Sweet. And I can feel like a do-gooder, which is new to me.

Here is my car before she went to live with someone who will appreciate her more. Doesn't she look so glamorous all shiny and not covered with tickets?