Buying vs. cooking

One of the items we received in our CSA Box this week was basil. So it was mandatory that we make pesto. We already had olive oil and basil and some garlic, so I went to the store for some pinenuts and parmesan cheese. While I was there, I got some more garlic, too, just in case.

At the store, I noticed them selling already-made pesto. For about $6. "I bet it doesn't have pinenuts in it, though,"was my justification. It did. But we already had the basil, plus I'm trying not to have so much processed food (and there were definitely additives in the store-bought pesto). So I bought pinenutes. For about $6. And parmesan cheese. For $6. Now I didn't use them all, so I have some still for another recipe, but it made me think about the whole situation. I enjoyed making the pesto, and the extra few bucks won't break us, but I guess this is why planning menus in advance to really use everything you buy is a good idea.

Work

I had a job interview this week. It wasn't actually a job I had been seeking, because I've been pretty happy with the jobs I have. But I was so surprised to get the call that I said I would go interview and then it seemed like it wouldn't hurt.

I'm still up in the air about how I feel about it. My husband has been very supportive of me sticking with my part-time jobs, even now that full-time jobs are opening up, because I really like where I work now. But he was really excited about the possibility of me having a full-time position. It got me thinking about the difference between having jobs for money and having them because you love what you do.

I've been really lucky to always have positions where I do love what I do, even though lately it's been difficult to make ends meet. I know a lot of people who work for the money and tolerate their job, but it's important to me that I'm doing something that is really satisfying to me. So, even though it would be nice having a full-time position again, I might just stick with positions that are actually satisfying.

Gift cards

When we got married, my husband and I received tons of giftcards, especially to Target. Now, we use them to cheat sometimes on our budget. When my husband started really worrying about money at the beginning of this month, but our freezer supply of meat was all used up, I took a gift card someone gave us to a grocery store and stocked up. And we've been using Target gift cards on all sorts of stuff (one night I thought we needed a treat, so I bought frozen pizza). I know in the long term, we'll run out of gift cards, and will have to come to terms with a new budget, but for now it feels a little better to use gift cards when things feel bleak. Does anyone else ever do this?

Food!!!

It often feels like food is the biggest variable in the quest to be smart with my money. It's so easy to eat out all the time and spend mounds of money. It's also easy to go to the store and buy steak and shrimp and chips and pre-made stuff...and that costs a lot, too. This week I've been doing a lot of cooking and "making it work" with the ingredients we have at home. Usually it's kind of a treat for me to walk to the grocery store for just a few ingredients, but I've been holding off.

It's been difficult, but I've enjoyed making dinner from what I can find. The only problem is that I've been using up our stores of food--our freezer is looking a lot more roomy and there are almost no cans in our pantry anymore. Does anyone out there in internet land have any healthy, easy, yummy dinner recipes?

Perception

My husband seems to have suddenly gotten the point that we need to be careful with our money. Which is good, except that it sent him spiraling for a while worrying about "being poor".

We do need to be careful and very deliberate about how we spend our money, but I think it's important for us to remember how lucky we are, too. I love our home, for one. It's a big part of the reason why we have to be so careful with our money, but we're really lucky that there was a point when it did make sense for me to buy it. Plus, even when we're being careful, we always have something to eat. Sometimes we get sick of pasta or beans, or not having steak every night, but that's better for us anyway. And it's nice to discover all the free things there are to do for recreation. We went on a little hike the other day. So I know it's easy to complain, but it's also important to be thankful.

CSA

I've been reading about CSAs for a while now, and thinking about how nice it would be to be to take part, once we had some money to spare.

My husband has coworkers who share a CSA box each week. We decided to try going in on it with them now. That means $10 per week for our share of the box. This week he brought home two yellow squashes, a cucumber, four oranges, a tomato, two little eggplants, and fresh rosemary. I'm excited about all the fresh, local produce, but still trying to figure out if it's a good deal for us. Has anyone else ever taken part? Any thoughts?

Being taken advantage of?

So one of the jobs I'm supposed to be working in the fall finally got their paperwork together for me to fill out. They decided, however, that I'll be working as an independent contractor, rather than as an employee. My first reaction was that it was fine. But then I got home and researched what that meant. It looks like it means that all the stuff like taxes that they would normally help with is on my head. And my job does NOT fit the criteria for being an independent contractor. Plus, why would a school want to have their students alone with someone they aren't responsible for?

It's really discouraging for them to treat me like this, and I'm not sure what to do. I could really use this job. I emailed them asking why they thought my job fell under being and independent contractor, but I haven't gotten an answer yet. This is soo frustrating. I really want to take the job--it's exactly what I've been training to do, and it would be a really exciting challenge. But I would like to be treated fairly. I really wish I knew more about employment law, and what to do here.

Thank goodness I'm married

While my husband and I were still dating (but starting to talk/think about marriage) I came home with the news that I was definitely being laid off. His first reaction was to ask if I needed him to get a second job. That's when I knew I could always trust him to do everything he could to take care of our family.

I didn't ask him to get that second job, but boy am I thankful for the job that he has. Whenever he apologizes for having to work late (our first Valentine's day as a married couple, I brought food to his work because he had to work on something) I just remember how lucky we are he has a job, and it's hard to be mad after that.

Plus, nothing can replace the comfort of being in it together, and knowing that this isn't just my struggle. There's someone to talk to or be upset with, or pray with about everything.

There's one more important reason I'm glad I'm married through all this: it made it easier to stay where I am and keep working on being independent. Otherwise, I might have felt pressured to move back with my parents and work for my father's business, but I love being more autonomous.

What about you? What are the comforts and frustrations you've found being married and trying to manage your money?

Money and marriage

Being married really complicates money management; at least for me. Before I was married (and when I was working full-time) I didn't use a budget. I just didn't spend very much, and I saved up enough that I was able to put a down-payment on a condo.

Then I lost my full-time job and got married. And now everything is more complicated. If I were totally in charge, we would probably spend much less then we do now. For me, technology will never be an emergency. But when I've indicated that we're in the red for the month, my husband will mention some deal on a cellphone he found on ebay and ask if I want it. Eek! Or, if he wants to buy something, he asks me for permission. I don't want to be his mom, and I don't want to be a bad guy. I just want us to stick to our budget and amass some savings. I'm starting to learn that common sense really means that people think that the way their parents did things is the right way. But in this case I know I am right! But it does hurt to be called a "money-Nazi".

We're working hard on this, and things are getting better, but it's easy to see how money can cause problems in marriage.

P. S.-If you read this post, you have to read tomorrow's, which will say all the nice things about having a husband and worrying about money : )

Mint.com

We've been using Mint.com to keep track of our finances since about December. For the most part, I really like it. It's free, and very conveniently tracks everything by accessing our accounts online. I used to use Quicken, but they stopped updating it for Mac so it wouldn't download all our accounts. This is the first time in my life I've really had a budget and followed it, and actually I think having a budget helps me feel less guilty about spending money on certain things. And I like monitoring things like our spending in certain categories, or our income on the different graphs they have. We also have created goals, like having a certain amount in our emergency fund, and a travel fund.

Here are just a few things to be aware of, when using mint. Number one, they create a budget based on your past activity (how much you have been spending, on average in certain activities). It took me longer than it should have to realize that the budget they suggested for us involved us spending more than we were making. It's easy to adjust, but that's something to look out for.

Another thing is that our retirement goal doesn't predict interest. We have a certain amount we put in to our ROTH, etc. each month and that's accounted for in the goal. But since it doesn't understand interest, it thinks we can't retire until we're in our 90s. I looked at what our interest has averaged around, and adjusted our contribution to add that, but I just basically have to ignore the predicted goal date for our retirement fund.

I also have not been able to find a way to graph expenditures in just one category over a series of months, to find an average. Any suggestions?

Edit: I figured it out: in trends, go to expenses over time and then there's a search bar where you choose a category. At the top, select "all time" and it will show you that. Now if it could calculate the average for me : )

Dave Ramsey

Have you read Dave Ramsey? My sister gave me a book of his and recommended it to me. I read the whole thing, but have to say we're not following his book exactly. His "after" sounds very promising, and his arguments are sound, except for one thing: his idea is that the first few years of following his plan, you're basically doing nothing but working your ass off scrimping and saving until you pay off your debts, with $1,000 in your emergency fund.

Well, when am I going to be 27 again, newly married, with no kids? I have friends moving away to go to graduate school and who knows where they'll find jobs. We are pretty frugal, we never carry debt on our credit cards, but I think we should be having some fun at this part. We have a restaurant budget, the amount of which we're going to decrease while I'm not getting paid, but we do go out sometimes (especially when our friends are available). And I think that's the point of handling our money: being able to go out.

Also, the emergency fund: I would have daily panic attacks if our emergency fund was only $1000. We never would have been able to get our cavities filled! Not to mention that I'm paid hourly as a teacher, so things like spring break and certainly summer could mean us defaulting on the mortgage. So Dave Ramsey might be disappointed in us, but I don't quite think following his plan to a t is the right thing for us.

I will say, though, that his stories of all those people with so much debt made me feel better about my situation : )

Make my money work!

So I think I'm usually pretty good with money...but lately things just don't seem to be working. I've been married for almost a year, lost my full-time teaching job a year ago and have been working part time since. We use mint.com, and have been working hard to follow a budget, but we still have too many months when our balance is in the red. A few years ago that would have seemed like a huge emergency, but now it's happening regularly. Here, I'll try to explore how regular people in our situation can make things come out more even.

I've been reading books and peoples' blogs and finance sites and forums, looking for some insight. So far I've come up with: we need to earn more money. I would prefer to spend less, as well, but boy is that hard sometimes. And my husband and I have been working and compromising to make that more palatable. When we have a "normal" month, it comes out ok. But we've had two months with major dental work, and I don't have my regular teaching jobs over the summer, so here we are. I'll let you know how it goes.