The Hustle of Sistah Ant

Got paid Thursday.  I took one of my favorite planning tools, the back of a paystub envelope, and worked out a plan for the entire check.  At the top of the envelope I wrote the balance in my account, and then I added it to my direct deposit amount.

This time I was committed to leaving myself enough money to get through the week to my next paycheck.  So I brainstormed to think of every thing I should expect to have to spend money on in that amount of time.

The obvious expenditures were my mobile phone bill, the balances on my credit cards, and a retirement contribution.  I knew that I wanted to stash money into the My Own Home account, but instead of making the same mistake I made before, I didn’t want to save so much that I’d be handicapped on spending for the rest of the week.  I thought about $100 for groceries and other incidentals (which I usually leave in the account as a buffer).  And then I thought really hard to see if there was anything else I might spend money on.  Then I remembered the roadtrip I’ve planned to go see my parents over this weekend.  It usually takes the majority of one tank of gas to get there and another to get back.  For me, that’s $35 per tank, or $70, which I added to my list of expected expenditures.

Then I subtracted each of the expenditures, including the $170 for groceries, incidentals, and gas, from the new balance.  This left me with $474.09, which I promptly deposited into my My Own Home account.  It felt good.  Saving as you go is the good life.

If I hadn’t left an allowance for the roadtrip, I probably would have put the gas on my credit card, for fear of cutting too much into my groceries/incidentals allowance or raiding my savings.  Then I would have had to pay the cards off on my next paycheck.  I understand that that’s not the worst thing in the world, since at least I would pay the balance off of the credit card as soon as I receive my next paycheck, thereby avoiding having to pay interest on the balance.  However, why pay later when you can pay now?  At this point the financial rewards my credit cards offer really aren’t that compelling - I’d rather have the peace of mind of knowing that I don’t owe anyone anything.  I don’t really like creating a tab - even if it’s a payable tab.  When I go on my roadtrip, I can pay for the gas, subtract the amount from my checking account, and not give it a second thought.  Paying as you go is the good life. 

Most of the time when you think about travel research, you may think about travel and lodging packages, finding interesting places to go when away from home, getting primed on a foreign language, or maybe checking out currency exchange rates.

I’m just trying to fill my tank up before driving out of state for the weekend.

According to GasBuddy.com, the cheapest gas near me is $3.63.  If I drive over to New Jersey on the way down south, the cheapest gas would be $3.57. 

Guess I’m heading across the bridge before I set out for my folks’ house.

Single Ma posted about folks’ recession obsession and wondered whether or not we would do anything differently.

My answer is, of course, "Nope."  What can I do differently?  I’m working, I’m saving for the house, I’m paying bills, and I’m being frugal.

Besides, my concern isn’t about a recession, it’s about unemployment.  I’m working on a project-by-project basis until I get a gig of my own, and my current project is, by my estimation, about to end - likely by the end of this month.  If anything’s going to make me do things differently, it will be unemployment.  I am networking.  I am also looking for job listings and sending my resume out.  If I don’t have a place to land when this project is over, I’ll go back on unemployment, and I’ll use my savings if/when necessary.  I’ll be more conscientious about eating out and burning gas.  I’ll stop buying clothes and shoes for work, and other discretionary purchases (which I’ve only just recently felt free enough to buy without sacrificing savings or debt repayment.)  But other than that, I generally have already put as big a buffer between what I make and what I spend as I possibly can.

I’m good to go, now.  Bills are paid.  I have enough groceries.  I have enough tokens to get back and forth to work on the days I don’t feel like walking.  Now, here’s the game: stay still for the rest of the week.  There is absolutely no reason (as I type this, anyway) to spend any money between now and Thursday.  The less I spend, the more I get to save at the end of the week, and I’m looking forward to it.  Let’s see how successful I am at this…

I don’t have much to say today.  I am still cleaning up the mess I made when I didn’t properly account for anticipated expenses.  I paid the bills which are due, I plan to pay off my share of the balance of my New Orleans trip, and what’s left should get me groceries and expenditures for the week.  I didn’t spend any money over the weekend.  I didn’t add to the My Own Home account.  I didn’t contribute to the IRA.  I just did what I needed to do to make sure things are paid for.  Good news is that my next paycheck will include some overtime hours that I worked on Saturday.  With my bills paid, I should be able to meet some of my savings goals, and I’ll have more money with which to do so. 

I’m actually pretty bored with my financial situation.  It’s the same thing with every week’s paycheck.  Pay bills, save for retirement, save for the house, and leave money for groceries and incidentals.  The only thing that makes making money any fun is the ability to put money in the My Own Home account and watch it grow.  Since I didn’t do that after this past Thursday’s direct deposit, this week felt uneventful and stagnant.  Could it be that I am addicted to perceived progress?  That’s a little scary, because I don’t expect the project I’m working on to last past the end of this month.  Surely I won’t make much progress when I’m unemployed.  I hope I don’t get too discouraged and bored. (Then again, if anything, I won’t be bored because of the tightrope walk it will take to keep up with my expenses.)  Guess we’ll see. 

Now that I’ve managed to mess stuff up, I have to clean it up.

This means that when I get my paycheck I have to replenish my New Orleans spending account, replenish my general spending account, and pay off my credit card.  That’s AFTER I pay my bills, contribute to my retirement account, and finish paying for my New Orleans reservations.  That means that I will put less money in the My Own Home account this time around, and I’m not happy about that.  However, arguably, I put too much in last week, so putting in less this week shouldn’t put my progress back any farther than it would have been if I had planned better.  I still wish I had been more conscientious about my planning though.  Oh well.  You live you learn.  One of the good things about having lots of money saved is that if you screw something up, you don’t have to worry as much about how you’re going to fix your mistakes.

I was wrong.  There is such a thing as saving too much.

I should have been more careful about anticipating how much money I would need for the rest of the week.  I spent $9 on a pizza Tuesday.  And today I’m spenDing some more money on my mommy’s Mothers’ Day present.  And, since we’re not going to visit for my parents just yet, I’m paying for the shipping to send my mom’s gift to her.   And I knew that all of this was coming, I just didn’t add it all up.  If I had, I’d have known that I’d need more than $100 to last me from last Friday to this Friday.  I would have put less into my savings account and left more in my spending account.  Then I wouldn’t have to spend some of my New Orleans spending money.  And I wouldn’t be using a credit card (which will now have to be paid back) to pay for my mommy’s present.

You may ask, "Why not just take the money out of the savings account, Sistah Ant?"

My reply?

"That would make too much sense, and besides, once my money goes into the savings account, it is off limits.  Period." 

There isn’t an emergency happening, just a little cash flow problem.  I can fix it when I get my next paycheck in a few days by paying off the cards and planning my spending better, and I will do that.  But I refuse to allow myself to spend any of the money that I’ve put into my savings account.  That is one bright line rule that I’ve broken in the past, and I know now that I don’t need to go down that route again.  Think of this as my personal equivalent of freezing credit cards in a bag of water to prevent taking on debt.  If you know your weaknesses, you’ll do what you have to do to keep from succumbing to them.

I usually pull my hair back into a neat chignon, because I’m generally lazy, but instead yesterday I wanted curls and body. 

So when I went to work yesterday, a co-worker said, "I like your hair, where’d you get it done?"  My reply:

"My house."

We all laughed, but I went on to explain that when you’re a poor college student, you do what you have to do.  Now of course, I’m not a poor college student anymore, but my co-worker knew what I meant.  He said, "Yeah, when I was in college, I had a friend who had some clippers, and that was good enough for me."  We understood each other.

I’ve been doing my own hair since I was twelve years old.  My mom has always done her own hair, and I took my cues from her.  My dad also cuts his own hair.  Matter of fact, I do Mister Ant’s hair.  We’re just not beauty/barbershop-going people.  Not that there’s anything wrong with having professionals do your hair - in fact, I’ve been known to visit the beauty shop here and there because it’s less work for them to trim my hair than it is for me to do it myself.  And I like the way the shampooer scratches my scalp.  But generally, I don’t feel like making appointments, or waiting for my stylist, whether or not there’s an appointment.  I don’t like the heat of the overhead dryer - my home overhead dryer only cost me about $20 and it is much more gentle.  I don’t like giving directions for what I’d like done and worrying about whether or not they’ll be followed.  I don’t like holding up hours out of my day between traveling there, getting my hair done, and traveling back.  And I don’t like the stories I’ve been told by salon-goers about falling in love with a particular stylist only to show up one Saturday and find out they’ve left the shop with no forwarding address.

But most of all, I don’t want to pay someone for something I can do myself.  It doesn’t take me any longer than it does the salon.  Because I’ve got years of practicing under my belt, I know my hair and scalp well, I know what products I like, and I know how to make my mane do what I want it to do - straight, curly, wavy, up, down, casual, formal… I’m every stylist, it’s all in me.  My money and my tip stay right in my own pocket. 

Viva Salon Mi Casa! 

Don’t pay attention to me cryin’ broke.  The only reason I am is because I split all my non-bill-or-expense-paying money between my New Orleans trip and my My Own Home account.  I left myself $100 in my credit union expense account until Friday when I get paid.  Trouble is, immediately after that, I treated my soror/college roommate/homie from way back to lunch at one of those day-of-the-week restaurants (I’m not mentioning their name unless they pay me).  Then I took out $10 to go to the laundromat.  THEN I filled my gas tank.  Then I ate breakfast and lunch out today because Mister Ant and I didn’t make groceries last night.  You see where this is going, right?

I don’t know if I’m going to make it to Friday without dipping into the money that I’m supposed to be reserving for spending in New Orleans in my bank fun money account.  Darn it.  I won’t say I saved too much (it’s against my natural inclination to say that), but if I had thought this thing through, I would have executed the plan better.

I have reservations for my July trip to New Orleans.  Now all I have to do is find a way to enjoy myself down there without breaking the bank.