August Spending Analysis

First, a quick administrative note: they have blocked blogger functions at work, and so my blogging will now occur a little bit less frequently. I'm hoping to find the energy to continue blogging after work, maybe by emailing myself some posts. Also, while I can still read all of your posts, I am unfortunately no longer able to comment, so I'll try to remember to do that from home, too.

On to business!

August spending was a under a little bit more control compared to July's total of $4,203, which included a reunion trip to Vegas.

MONEY EARNED: $5574 (after FSA, health insurance, gym membership, taxes, etc. This is what is direct-deposited into my savings account each month)

Note: This is about $1400 more than what I earned in July for three reasons:
1) My promotion raise became effective Aug 1!
2) I maxed out my 401k at the end of July, thus no more 401k deductions
3) I maxed out my Social Security at the end of July, thus no more SS deductions

MONEY SPENT: $3,065

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BREAKDOWN: (Last month's total in parenthesis)

Beauty: $86 ($124)- A mani/pedi combo, another manicure, and a bottle of a new perfume

Cash: $300- ATM withdrawals for items not listed below and to pay for lunches

Cashback Bonuses: $30- 5% back from Discover Card on gas and hotel spending, and a $10 Discover giftcard for spending $100 at a participating mall

Charity: $50- Colleague's Multiple Sclerosis bike event

Clothing: $197- Mini shopping spree at Banana Republic less the money I was refunded for my price adjustment, some new flip-flops, and a belt.

Dining out: $238 ($165)- Includes a promotion-celebration at Bertucci's, the bachelorette party meal, and the dinner out I bought for B's family to thank them for having me at their lake house ($130 for five people at a nice Italian restaurant- I thought that the bill would be twice as much, and was prepared to pay for it). The rest of my restaurant dinners were company/client-expensed.

Drugstore/household: $15 ($120)

Entertainment: $38 ($84)- BOGO Discover promotion for Wall-E tickets, and a magazine subscription renewal

Furniture: $0 ($420)

Gas: $58- To help B pay for gas on our road trips

Gifts: $53 ($141)- Gift for the wedding I will attend in San Francisco later this month

Groceries: $171 ($61)- Mostly comprised of my trip to COSTCO! This food will last me months (although I will have to restock the diet cokes soon!)

Poker/Gambling: $20- Includes a $100 poker game with my colleagues, a $5 game I lost to B's mom (was worth the $5 to not suffer the consequences of beating her, haha), and a $26 game for B's cousin's 26th birthday. I love that his family likes to play poker, but I wish I had a better poker face. Offsetting these losses is the $111 I won at the Saratoga Race Track on a $2 trifecta bet!

Rent + Utilities: $1513 ($1507)- $1375 rent, half of $165 for cable and $112 for electricity ($13 more than last month's electric bill)

Taxis: $137 Includes the $5-$6 taxi to get to work in the morning. This is discretionary, but I choose to save 30 precious sleeping minutes by spending $5-6/day to get to work by 6:30 a.m. (not to mention that it's too dark to walk safely in the winter). The additional taxis are used to get to/from B's place when I'm in a hurry- to get there by subway requires a transfer and takes at least 35 minutes, a taxi costs $12 and takes less than 10 minutes. It's always a tough call, especially if I'm carrying heavy bags or if it's late at night and I'm tired.

Travel/Lodging: $188 ($1025)- Includes $175 for flights to Richmond for the wedding I'm in this October, although $70 of it was credit from a flight refund. Also includes a shared hotel expense for my friend's bachelorette party in D.C. My train tickets were purchased via rewards from my Amtrak Mastercard.

Wedding related: $29 ($108)- Shared cost of the bridal shower gift for the bride who's wedding I'm in. This category is exclusively for costs related to that wedding (except for travel), which is why the gift I purchased for the other wedding is not in this category.


All of the money left over is now earning some fatty interest in my new HSBC account along with the bonus I just deposited. September will be a bit expensive with the hotel and rental car for my trip to San Francisco, but maybe I can reign in some of the other cost categories (or maybe play less poker! :P ).

Inexpensive weekend ahead

*Hopefully* an inexpensive weekend ahead. I'm going up to B's lake house in the Adirondacks, and to save money by avoiding having to stop for dinner, I made a pasta and veggie mix to take on the road with us, along with a fruit salad. Ok, I bought the fruit salad, but it was only $3 and is a delicious combo of mango, melon, grapes, strawberries, and pineapple.

B and I usually take turns paying for gas when he drives us upstate, since it's at least a tank to get up there and back (yeah, I'm looking at a 4-5 hour drive tonight). Through September, Discover Card is offering 5% back on all gas and hotel purchases if you sign up for their free "Get More" program, so that will help with the gas. I am bringing two bottles of wine as a contribution and gift for B's aunt who owns the lake house, and I expect food costs to be minimal, as we cook most of our own meals and the "adults" usually pick up the grocery tab.

Unless it's raining and we hit up a shopping mall or bowling alley, I expect this weekend to be pretty low-cost. No expensive NYC bars to entertain me, just nature :)

Price Adjustments

I got a $95 price adjustment today on the dresses I bought at Banana Republic two weeks ago!! A price adjustment allows you to adjust what you pay for an item if the price is reduced within 14 days of purchase. (The number of days may vary by retailer)

Note this fine print on the back of most major retailers' receipts:

"A one-time price adjustment is available when receipt is presented within 14 days of purchase"

In my situation, I went shopping two weeks ago and bought a few fall dresses on sale at Banana Republic. Today, I stopped by my local BR and noticed that two of the dresses I bought had been reduced in price yet again. I took my receipt to the register, where an associate scanned it and informed me that the total price of the items was now $95 less than what I paid for them two weeks ago, and she credited that amount back to my BR card. The whole transaction took less then three minutes.

I love price adjustments because I don't have to worry about something going on sale right after I buy it- if it goes on sale within two weeks, I can get the benefit of the sale price anyway. The key is to remember to take your receipt back to the store within the designated time frame. Because most major retailers (Gap, Ann Taylor, BR, among many others) have price adjustment policies, it's relatively easy for me to visit the stores frequently enough to remember to check for price adjustments on items I've recently bought. These stores also tend to slash prices frequently in order to make room for changing inventory, so chances are within two weeks, your seasonal item will be on sale and you will be eligible for some kind of refund. You don't have to take the actual items with you, just the receipts.

Happy shopping! (And price adjusting!)

Weekend Spending

Despite shopping being the main act of the weekend, I managed to reel in the spending.

Friday: $48

Date night! I hadn't seen the BF in a few days because of our mutually busy schedules, so Friday night was eagerly anticipated. I even went to the gym in the morning so that I would be freed up after work! The market was so slow that I got to leave around 4:45, a beautiful exception from the usual 5-6pm exit.

We had salivated over the thought of Italian food all week (and as a reward for my stellar gym performance- the weight loss tally has reached 5 pounds!) and had our eye on a particular place famous for its lasagna. As a last minute money-saving decision, we decided that rather than pay $40+ for a bottle of marked-up wine at the restaurant, why not pick up a bottle from the liquor store down the street and just order the food as take-out? We do enjoy the ambiance and experience of eating out, but for our lazy Friday night, this fit the bill perfectly. We ordered a caprese salad, the famous lasagna (worth the hype!), and some gnocchi for $40 total including a small tip to the hostess. We saved about $8 by not having to tip a waitress, and the wine we purchased was a delicious malbec for only $8, so all in it was a relatively thrifty way of having a delicious meal. And the leftovers tasted great on Saturday night!

As for the rest of our date night, we watched some Office re-runs, played Scrabble, and went to bed early so that B could leave at 8am for a bachelor party in Philly. I know, we're so exciting.

Saturday: $24

Since B was in Philly, I took the opportunity to have half-priced Indian food with a friend from college, as B hates Indian. When a restaurant offers the menu at half-price for lunch every day, what is the incentive of ever going there for dinner? Total cost for 2: $19.20 for an appetizer, two entrees, rice, and naan!

After lunch I strolled up 5th avenue to do some shopping but luckily I didn't find anything that I loved, or what I loved wasn't available in my size (online shopping, anyone?). After my strike-out shopping experience, I went to the gym and then got some Pinkberry frozen yogurt-ish stuff on the way home as a reward ($5). I also rented two movies, but I pre-paid for a bunch of them earlier this year so that I could rent them at a discount, so I essentially rented the two movies for the price of one. Lastly, I purchased some english muffins and a yogurt to eat for breakfast, as my apartment is devoid of all breakfast foods, and that drives me NUTS when I wake up starving.

Dinner was comprised of leftovers from Friday, along with some fresh pasta I bought in Seattle a few months ago (sweet potato papardelle!), including an attempt at making the suggested sauce (a garlic, walnut, cream cheese mixture that ended up as a big blob). Since B was out of town, and I have been out of town almost every weekend this summer, I relished the opportunity to turn down all invitations to go out and just lie in bed watching movies.

Sunday: $61

First purchase of the day, a $4 sausage from a street-vendor to fuel up before another shopping trip with a friend from work. I was a little surprised at how 'expensive' it was, ha. I met my friend at a salon to have our nails done first: manicure was $8, and then I decided to splurge on a back rub for $10 because my shoulders and upper back have been super tense, and I can't even pay my BF to rub my shoulders for me :( So I will pay someone else to do it!! I love how the ladies at the nail salons give the perfect back rub, but if you go to a massage parlor, they try to get deep into the tissue and it ends up hurting, not what I like at all.

I purchased two shirts on sale at Club Monaco for $42, one for me and one for the BF since he has given me a little bit of leeway in overhauling his wardrobe. He's supposed to pay me weekly installments of $30 so that I can be his personal shopper, but I haven't received any cash in a few months... hmm....

For dinner I had a bowl of soup, compliments of the supply I purchased at Costco a few weeks ago. Healthy and free.

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Overdraft Fees SUCK! (but USAA rocks!!)

As I'm sure most of you PF fanatics are diligent about account bookkeeping, I, too, consider myself to be organized when it comes to my accounts. I make sure that I have sufficient funds when writing checks (especially that hefty rent check at the end of each month), transfer money if necessary before paying credit card bills, etc. My checking account is linked to my smaller savings account for overdraft protection, but what happens when you overdraft your savings account? By accident, of course!

I recently opened an HSBC account to get a higher savings rate for my anticipated bonus, and I decided to make a "small" transfer of $750 to make sure that everything worked correctly and that I had it linked to the right USAA account. I intended to make the small deduction from my checking account, since that's where my bonus would be directly deposited. This morning, I got an email notice that "the transfer failed due to insufficient funds..." HUH? Impossible! Investigation ensued.

As background info, my relevant accounts at USAA are arranged as such:
Checking: $2k
Savings 1: $500 (for overdraft from checking, has low interest rate)
Savings 2: $20k (a higher interest rate because of the higher balance)

"Savings 1" only exists as an overdraft account, which is why I keep the balance so low. I checked all debits and transfers to this account after receiving the rejected transfer email, and sure enough, they had tried to transfer the $750 from this account, hence the rejection. Also in this account was a big red $29 overdraft fee >:( I quickly transferred another $500 into this account for when they re-attempt the transfer.

So how did this happen? Well, it's my fault, of course. Computers don't make mistakes, right? When I set up my external transfer account, I copied and pasted the account and routing numbers directly from my checking account info page. However, the way the page is set up is that it lists the checking account number, followed by the overdraft account number linked to the account. In my haste, I accidentally copied the overdraft account number!! Sigh.

What makes me mad is that this is exactly what I was trying to avoid! I set up the smaller transfer so that when I made the big one, I would be sure that it was coming from the right account and not overdraw my smaller ones by accident. What I should have done was select a test amount that was smaller than the lowest balance of any of my accounts. I just didn't think that transferring from my smallest savings account was even an option, since the only two accounts I thought I had set up for transferring were my checking and larger savings accounts.

Fellow blogger J Money recently had a situation in which he was able to kiss enough USAA butt for them reverse his overdraft fee- I have every intention of calling them when their offices open this morning and pleading my case, I hope I have the same luck. Will keep you updated!


Update: Whoo hoo! I called USAA and they refunded me the overdraft fee as a one-time courtesy, since I do in fact have enough funds in my other accounts to cover the transfer. As it was my own dumb mistake, I was prepared to just take the hit, but it's nice when your bank is actually serviced by human beings (unlike Jet Blue... GRRR! Still mad at you, Jet Blue! Take some customer service notes from USAA!)

$100 poorer

I participated in a poker game with a group of colleagues last night and lost $100 :( I'm a little bit torn about whether I "just" lost $100, or if I should have put another $100 on the line to buy more chips, thus enabling me to potentially win the whole tournament.

I love to play poker, so I eagerly jumped into this game; plus, as the only girl on my team at work, I think it's important to participate in "guy's night" when possible (i.e. I can play poker with them, but I probably wouldn't enjoy going to football games with them). Silly office politics, but anyway... I lobbied for a $50 buy-in, but then the last person to arrive to the game bullied everyone into putting down $100, with an opportunity to buy back in at 9pm for another $100 and a fresh stack of chips.

When 9pm rolled around I had a pretty healthy stack, having won a few decent pots, so I decided to minimize my potential loss by not buying back in. The problem is that everyone else at the table bought in again, so then they had even bigger stacks of chips than I did, which put me at a disadvantage. A few hands later and I was out all together :( I wonder, if I had put the other $100 on the line, could I have taken them down? I find solace in the fact that the player who argued for $100 buy-ins did not even place, so he would have been better off keeping his mouth shut!

I wonder if I can write this off as a networking event/ business expense... :P Just kidding!

But my wallet is sadly $100 lighter :(

Fatter Paycheck, Part 1!

My August 15 paycheck was the first to reflect my new salary, whoo hoo! I definitely appreciated its fatness, although it still has some room to go once my bonus hits next week, after which I will no longer be paying Social Security tax or making 401k contributions. The remainder of my 401k will be paid for out of my bonus in a lump-sum.

Having been promoted from 3rd Year Analyst to Associate, I recently got a handsome 20% raise! For those of you following along, that takes my salary from $80k to $100k. To any potential haters out there with income envy, let me clarify that my compensation is commensurate with my hours and the stressful daily demands of my career. I like the mental challenge of what I do, but the people are difficult, and there is a LOT of pressure to perform. I easily work a minimum of 12 hours a day, and often longer if you include the hours I spend at client dinners. So be sure to ask yourself, do you want a six-figure salary at the expense of working longer hours? Or would you rather work fewer hours and make less money? It's a critical question.

On days that I don't have a client dinner or event, I usually hit the gym, eat a small dinner, and go straight to bed. I don't have much time for myself, but I am lucky in that I don't have to work weekends, which is common for young professionals in the finance industry. As such, I enjoy my weekends to the max, and I have a lot of friends in the city, so I am ok with my salary vs. work hours trade-off. I will probably re-evaluate in a few years, but for now I am tempted to stay in the industry, because the pay-off for all of the torture I endured my first three years (and continue to endure) is right around the corner. As you can see from my 20% raise, the salary (and bonus) curve is VERY steep, and I'm just at the bottom of the ascent, so if I were to drop out now and work somewhere less demanding, I would be forfeiting some major dough. That's what gets me through the very tough days- a big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and it keeps getting closer.


That said, let's take a close look at my paycheck:

Biweekly pay before taxes: $4,167

Less:
Federal Income Tax: $722
Social Security Tax: $246
Medicare Tax: $58
NY State Income Tax: $227
New York City Income Tax: $133
Fitness Exchange: $19 (corporate-sponsored fitness program, deducted from my paycheck)

Less, pre-tax:
FSA Contributions: $37
Medical/Dental Plan: $38
Vision: $4
401k: $125

I did some rounding here, so after all deductions, my bi-weekly paycheck ends up being about $2550. At the end of this month, I expect it to be around $325 greater without SS and 401k deductions (not exactly sure how much, since the 401k is deducted pre-tax and so my taxable income will go up a little bit). My previous post-deduction income was just around $4k/month, and while I sometimes spend about that much after everything is said and done (see last month's breakdown here) hopefully the extra money coming in will be able to go straight to savings. July was an exceptionally expensive month for a few reasons, so check back in a week and a half for August's analysis.

Taking the hit

I just got an email receipt from the limo company for the bachelorette party I threw this weekend, and they are charging me an extra 1/2 hr for being 15 minutes late in getting back to our hotel (they charge to the next highest 1/2 hr).

Mind you, I was in the limo at 1:40am trying to corral everyone back in before it turned into a pumpkin at 2am, but four of the girls were lost in some bar trying to convince some guys to give them their boxers (part of the bachelorette scavenger hunt, but gross, yes). I didn't want to ruin their fun so I didn't grab them by their arms and pull them out, but I hope that extra 15 minutes for them was worth the $54 to me.

The limo company did not warn me of this policy, and driver did not tell me that we would be charged. I just re-read all of my email confirmations, and this policy is not listed anywhere. It does seem appropriate that they should be allowed to charge for time over the contracted length of service, but some transparency only seems fair here.

The bride's college-age sisters are so cash-strapped to begin with that it's a miracle they were willing to pay up for the hotel suite and limo in the first place, so I don't feel good about emailing the whole crew and asking for another $8/piece. I guess I'll just be sucking this one up.

:/

No, let's not split the billll!!!

UGH! (Frustrated sigh, everyone!) Splitting checks at restaurants is a popular post on the PF circuit, and I'm happy to say that I politely averted a potentially costly situation on Saturday night.

I was down in D.C. this weekend for the bachelorette party I planned for my best friend who's getting married. Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions for going out! We started off with a two-room suite at the Embassy Suites where we hosted a lingerie shower and shared funny stories, much to the embarrassment of the groom's younger sister who was in attendance, as I'm sure she did not care to know about the bride's escapades as a single woman. Three bottles of champagne and a few tumblers of Fuzzy Navels later, we went to Al Tiramisu for dinner, which I highly recommend. The gnocchi appetizer and duck entree were delicious! We had a white stretch limousine pick us up from dinner and take us to Ibiza where we skipped the line and didn't have to pay cover, thanks to the limo company's VIP agreement with the club. After an hour of embarrassing bachelorette scavenger-hunt activities, we headed over to the Adam's Morgan area and enjoyed the rowdy crowds outside the bars.

Late Friday afternoon, I emailed the attendees with the final schedule and recommended that everyone bring cash to make it easier to pay for dinner/drinks/etc., not looking forward to the evil credit-card split at the end of dinner. As I expected, the college-age attendees ordered inexpensive appetizers as entrees, while us older (and employed) attendees shared appetizers with regular entrees. Luckily, the two bottles of wine were the same price and split equally among the eight of us.

When the bill came, I grabbed it to do a quick tally of what we would each need to contribute for the bride-to-be, and one of the girls asked, "So, why don't we each put in a credit card and split it seven ways?" (I guess she didn't get my memo to bring cash, if possible.)

Having anticipated this, I said "Well, I can pay with cash, and so-and-so and so-and-so only ordered appetizers, so why don't we each just put in what we owe, plus $20 to cover the wine and the bachelorette's dinner, including tax and tip."

The two younger girls looked quite relieved, and everybody happily paid in cash. I realize that it's rare for everyone to have cash (and I'm sure the waiter was a bit surprised to find $338 in bills!), but I'm glad that I asked everyone in advance to bring cash, because charging seven credit cards with different amounts would have been a task in itself. Often times the work of figuring out what each person owes for a CC is a deterrent and the reason why you end up splitting it evenly in the first place! I can honestly say that everybody paid a fair amount, probably for the first time in my history of group dining. Success!!

Having been the organizer of the dinner, I was in a position to be able to suggest the way we split the bill without looking pushy, but oftentimes I feel helpless when the bill comes and it's in someone else's control.

Oh, and the girl who suggested we split the bill evenly? Her entree was $30, more than $10 higher than the next most expensive entree ordered. That's why bill-splitting is EVIL.

On a less happy note, Champagne + Vodka + Wine = NASTY hangover.

Lowered my cable bill

I was inspired by a few posts I came across about getting discounts from cable providers just by asking, so I went ahead and managed a little deal of my own with Time Warner.

My cable bill for two people, with one regular cable box and two HD-DVR boxes and an HBO package, is $165/mo. I just cancelled HBO since I can't remember the last time I watched it, which will knock our bill down to about $150/mo, but that's still a lot. I do watch a fair amount of TV, and by "watch," I mean record it on my DVR and then watch it after work or on lazy Saturday mornings. Because I barely watch any TV real-time, my DVR is a very worthwhile expense, an extra $9.95/mo or so.

I called up Time Warner to see if there was anything they could do, any kind of deal I could take advantage of or something. The lady seemed to be very understanding, with a "yes, yes, let me take a look and see what I can do to lower your bill." My basic cable + internet service is $102.50/mo, and she offered to lock me into a $94.50 monthly rate for two years.

I asked a few questions: Will my service be exactly the same? Yes. If I'm locked in, do I pay some kind of penalty if I have to cancel service? Yes.

Well there you go- the catch! If I hadn't asked, I wonder if it would have been explained to me voluntarily. She said that the penalty fee of $150 is amortized over the two years, so if I cancel after just one year, then I only pay $75. I explained to her that I would likely be moving and cancelling service after the next year, and so to save $8/mo for a year and then pay a $75 penalty would only effectively save me $25 for the whole year, so thanks, but no thanks.

She then asked if she could put me on hold (sure), and came back after a few minutes with another proposal. She offered me $93/mo for one year, not locked in. Umm, better than the locked-in rate, with no cancellation penalty? Ok! Sign me up! After a year, my rates will go back to market rate, but I'm sure I can renegotiate at that point.

So there's another $9-10 off the bill, which will put us down to ~$140/mo. Still a lot, but that's $120 saved for EACH of us over the year.

Which I will be promptly spending this weekend at my friend's bachelorette party! Limo, hotel, dinner, drinks, lingerie gift... ugh.

My Lovely Manhattan Apartment (and related expenses)

Since most of my paycheck goes towards my rent, why not blog about my little lovely Manhattan apartment?


I moved to this apartment in the fall of 2006 with one of my college sorority sisters to be closer to work. To turn it into a 2BR, we put up a "flex wall" in the living room to create an 11x12 bedroom, leaving 15x12 for the living room. The flex wall is somehow pressure-fit between our existing walls so that it can be removed when we move out without leaving any damage (vital to getting your security deposit back!) It looks and feels like a real wall, and if you don't point out the seams in the wall panels, you'd never know!

The flex wall cuts off the living room from the windows, so to prevent the apartment from looking like a dungeon when the door is closed, we put in a frosted glass door and some windows along the top to let the light through. It cost a lot more for these 'designer' options, but I highly recommend them if you have to put up a wall that will block all sunlight out of the living room.

The total cost of our 3-year wall lease was $1700, which is about $280/year for each of us. The price is the same whether you keep it for one year or for three years, so I'm getting the most bang for my buck by living here for all three years (no small feat in a city where people move every year like it's a game of musical-apartments). I'm pretty sure I could have built a wall myself for less than $200..... but then I might not have gotten my security deposit back, haha. Oh well :/ The apartment as a 1BR on my own would have been completely unaffordable.

I am lucky to have the real bedroom (even though the "flex" room is quite nice and has a bigger window), which is HUGE. Almost 11"x19"!! I'm the type who fills whatever space is available to me, so since moving into my huge bedroom, I've bought a couple of bookshelves, a desk, and stuffed my old papasan chair into there as well, which is great for tossing clothes onto after a long day of work. I don't think I've ever sat in it.

The rent-share with my old roommate was split $1465 for me, $1235 for her. When she decided to move out to a different part of the city, I advertised the room at $1325 (still well below market rate down here for the size) since I had to buy my old roommate out of her share of furniture, and the new roommate would basically be moving into a furnished apartment except for the bedroom. Because of the ridiculously (ha!) low rent for downtown Manhattan, someone responded to my ad on the company bulletin board within 30 minutes and later that afternoon she was at my apartment, begging to move in. The apt is actually pretty big for most flex-bedroom apartments, because usually when you put up a wall to make the second bedroom, there is no living room left. My living room also has a little dining nook (see above) and comfortably fits a lot of furniture. Currently, the dining table is just used for tossing mail onto, but at least we have one.

I realize that I could have rented out the room for a lot more than $1325, but then my roommate would be paying more than me while living in the smaller room, which I would feel badly about. I already feel badly that I'm only paying $5o more than her for so much more personal space, saving me $90/month compared to what I paid with my old roommate.

Part of the reason my apartment is so "cheap" (compared to market-rates of $3300-$4000/mo for 1BR apts in my neighborhood) is because it's pretty old. I don't have appliances that look like they came from outer-space, and the countertops are (purposely) yellow, but luckily the older buildings have much bigger floorplans, so it's an easy trade for me. The stove works, even if it's from the year I was born and makes funny noises, haha.

My rent is going up 4% when I renew it this October, to $2808/month. Bummer, but last year they didn't raise my rent at all, and I still feel like I'm getting a relative bargain, even if my rent is the same as a suburban mortgage. The new share will be $1430 for me, $1378 for the roommate.

One of the perks about moving here is that I was able to walk into the leasing office myself and apply for an apartment without a broker, which means that I saved a ridiculous amount of money on a broker's fee. Brokers used to charge one month's rent, but now it's common for them to charge 12-15% of the ENTIRE YEAR'S RENT! I have to shout that, because it's so ridiculous to me. 12*$2700*0.15 = $4860 that I would have had to pay upfront to a person just for spending half an hour to show me the apartment. If there are any brokers out there reading this blog, I know that you have to make a living, too, but I don't know how you can justify charging 15%. For anyone moving to Manhattan, I urge you to explore on your own, as many large apartment buildings do not lease exclusively through brokers. On the flip side, many smaller, older buildings only lease through brokers unless you know a person moving out or can contact the manager. Don't get trapped paying a broker's fee if you don't have to! Spend the time to do your own research and leg-work and you can save THOUSANDS of dollars.

As far as utilities go, my building has a VERY annoying policy of buying electricity from the power company and then reselling it to us at what I'm pretty sure is well above market rate, although I haven't been able to find price per KWH for my local power company on the internet, so I'm really not sure. On top of that, they tack on an obnoxious $12.50 service charge each month just for reselling it to us. My power bills range from $70-$150/mo throughout the year for our ~700 sq ft apartment. Crazy.

Cable is another story. We have three cable boxes for two people- one DVR in each bedroom and a regular box in the living room. Did I mention that the new roommate bought a 42" plasma TV for the living room when she moved in? Upgrade! Our cable +internet bill was $165/mo, but I just cancelled our HBO package, which should bring it down to about $150/mo.

In total, my rent after I renew my lease, plus cable and utilities, will run me about $1550/month. Us Manhattanites are willing to sacrifice our paychecks for the luxury of living on a crowded island, but I think it's totally worth it, for now. Oh, did I mention that I can see the Statue of Liberty from my bedroom? If you turn your head to the right and peer all the way out the side of the window...

401k rollover forms are in the mail

I received my direct distribution rollover check for the 401k I started at my former employer and mailed it in to my current employer yesterday. So easy!!!

For those of you with 401k scraps at a former employer, rolling it over is easy. I called the generic phone number at the bottom of my Vanguard statement, and they were able to give me the contact number for the person at my former employer who could help me. She mailed me the appropriate termination forms for the 401k account, and once those were returned I received the direct distribution check. FYI, in order to rollover the money without paying taxes, the money must be distributed to another 401k-type account within 60 days.

Now all of my retirement money is one place (except for my IRA, which is still at Vanguard), which gives me some peace of mind.

Shout-out to the Vanguard reps who answered all of my questions- they were so friendly and helpful, and I didn't have to go through an automated phone maze to get to a real person!

Weekend Trip

A couple weeks ago I mentioned that B has next week off, and I was able to get Monday and Tuesday off, so we're headed out of the city for the weekend.

I wanted to do something fun with our first four-day weekend together that we couldn't normally do on a regular two-day weekend, but I didn't know what, exactly, and B had a rule that he didn't want to bother with flying anywhere this weekend. I initially protested, but now I'm kind of glad because there are storms rolling in and I'm sure we'd have a fun night in the airport or sitting on the tarmac for hours.

We're headed upstate to the Adirondacks where his aunts both have lake houses, but it turns out that he wants to stay with some friends tonight and tomorrow and then head up to Lake Placid on Sunday and stay somewhere, but he's not sure where. Ugh. I just want to park at a lake and read books and watch TV for four days, which is what I initially thought we were doing. Now I have to pack and unpack multiple times, stay with his friends that I don't know, and deal with finding lodging at Lake Placid when we get there. NOT my idea of a relaxing weekend. I'm admittedly a little cranky about Jet Blue pretending to be a service organization while not actually caring, but really I'm just stressed about work and was looking forward to four days away from the desk.

Since this is supposed to be a PF blog and not a PR blog (Personal Rant), I'll just say that aside from gas, hopefully minor food expenses, and maybe lodging on Sunday, this will probably be one of my less expensive travel weekends of the year since I'm not flying anywhere.

Wish me luck.

Update: Still Blue Over Jet Blue

I lamented yesterday about how Jet Blue recently made a bazillion seats available for reward travel that were not available last month when I booked a flight with my True Blue reward pass. I think it is unfair that Jet Blue is charging me $100 to switch to a newly available reward seat (on a more conveinent flight then the one I was forced to take because it was the only one with a reward seat available at the time), so I wrote them a letter via their online "concern" form (note they do not call it a "complaint" form....) Mind you, I am not trying to make this change because I missed an opportunity to get a particular flight, the opportunity was simply not available when I originally booked my ticket!

Following are some highlights of the response, and of the response to my response:

"As you know, the airline industry is in a very tough position these days, and Crewmembers are held accountable any time they go against company guidelines to make exceptions like those you requested."

and

"Although we strive for the highest level of customer service, that does not always constitute a refund, compensation, or fare adjustment. Because JetBlue is a nonrefundable airline, we must respectfully deny your request to waive our change fees."

along with a bunch of BS about how they value my customer service and pride themselves on being a service-oriented airline.

Seriously, it costs them nothing to let me transfer my REWARD flight pass from one flight to another. I'm being penalized for booking my flight too early, and they tell you to book early to get an award seat! Stupid stupid stupid, and yes, I am letting this put me in a bad mood. This is another reason why I refuse to sign up for an airlines-reward credit card, because it's so difficult to use the darn rewards!

Jet Blue, I am not happy with you.

If you live in DC, please help!

I know there are lot of PF bloggers in the DC area- I need your help if you are stumbling upon my blog!

I'm throwing a bachelorette party in DC next weekend (August 16) and my brother told me that it would be fun to check out some of the bars in the Adams Morgan area, but he couldn't give me any specifics. Rather than lead a group of 9 girls aimlessly through the streets, I'm looking for a little bit of direction. We might be hitting up some clubbier places later in the evening, but to start the night we're looking for a bar with fun music and not-so-expensive drinks (we have a lot of college girls in the party) to get the party started from 10-12 or so.

Suggestions, please!!

Thanks,
CB

C's Oven Chicken

I'm still a little bit bruised from being crushed by Jet Blue, and need to distract myself while I wait for a response from customer service, which will surely be disappointing. Thus, I'm happy to report that I made some progress in getting through my Costco purchases last night!

I made one of my favorite, easy stand-bys, which I will share with you. My best friend calls this "C's Oven Chicken" because in the recipe I sent her, I said to "pre-heat the oven at whatever temperature you cook chicken," and she derived the name of my dish from that comment. (And it turns out I was cooking my chicken at 350, when it should be more like 400, oops! No wonder it took so long!)

Ingredients:
2 Skinless chicken breasts (I used frozen ones from Trader Joe's, ~$1 each, comes in a bag of 8)
1 Can of stewed tomatoes (I had these from my Costco trip at $0.62/can)
1 yellow squash and 1 green squash/zucchini* (Usually costs me about $1 for both)
Wheat pasta* (Also acquired at Costco, $1/box, I used about 1/3 box)

Directions:
*Pre-heat the oven at whatever temperature you cook chicken (Trader Joe's suggests 400 degrees)
*Slice squash, arrange them with thawed chicken breasts in a casserole dish
*Pour stewed tomatoes and juice over the chicken and squash
*Cook until chicken is no longer pink, consuming undercooked poultry can cause foodborne illnesses, blah blah
*Prepare wheat pasta on stovetop while chicken is cooking

Ta da! Serves 2. Put the chicken + veggies + tomatoes over the pasta, or next to it, or under it. The juices from the tomato (use all the juice in the can) make the squash tender and flavorful. Plus, you can get stewed tomato varieties with garlic and onion in them if you like those flavors.

This is so easy, I came home from the gym, whipped it up in under 5 minutes, and let it cook while I showered. A tip for defrosting frozen chicken fast: fill a pot with VERY hot water and submerge the frozen items- as the water cools, refill with hot water, but before you know it, your frozen food will be thawed. Thicker items take longer.

Total cost of meal for two: $3.95, $4.22 if you count the diet coke I drank while cooking :)

*Variations on a theme:
Other veggies that work well include green beans or broccoli, but it's probably better to steam those than to put in the oven with the chicken for so long, as the tomato juice will make them soggy. Time saver for steaming veggies if you have a steamer pot that fits on top of a regular pot: steam the veggies on top of your pasta water! Just be careful that not too many broccoli bits fall into the pasta water, ha.

Additionally, instead of whole wheat pasta (my healthy preference), I sometimes use brown rice or even orzo.


Now, only 7 cans of stewed tomatoes and 7.66 boxes of pasta to go (in additon to all the other food I haven't eaten yet).

Jet Blue, you win :(

I give up!!!! Argh, you simply cannot win with the airlines these days. In no other industry that I've experienced, do prices fluctuate as wildly as they do in the airline industry. This leaves me feeling so frustrated because I try to plan ahead and time things well, but the inevitably the prices go down in my mush after I've bought a ticket! And if I wait too long to buy a ticket I'm eyeing, the price goes UP in my mush! I really just can't win.

Last month I posted about a ticket I bought to go to a wedding in San Francisco this fall using my Jet Blue "True Blue" award. It was extremely difficult to use this award, as a limited number of award seats are available on each flight, so I got a ticket for the only flight to any of the airports in the SF area for which I could use my award, even though it ended up being an inconvenient arrival time at an incovenient airport for my friend who will be picking me up. There were no award flights available leaving any SF area airports that Sunday, so I had to buy one on Virgin America, which promptly went on sale for $70 lower a couple weeks later. SO frustrating, since I had watched that ticket price go up, Up, UP! And now there are all kinds of award seats available for Jet Blue flights leaving the SF area that weekend. GRR!

So I lost, and then lost again. If only I had waited, I could have used reward travel both ways, and gotten decent departure/arrival times. I called Jet Blue and it will cost me $100 to change my award ticket, and VA charges $75, so I will leave my reservations as-is and just try to standby onto an earlier JBlu flight going out there, and stick with VA on the way home.

I love finding flight bargains, and I feel CRUSHED when I don't get a good deal.

:(

Well, on a positive note, I doubt that I will find a better deal than the $59 flight I got for my friend's wedding to Richmond. But flights to Richmond only fluctuate by $40-$60, compared to the $100's extra I paid to SF.



Update: I have submitted a letter via Jet Blue's online comment submission form asking them if they would kindly waive a change fee, since the flight I want to take was simply not available when I booked the award ticket. I am hoping that they will help me out, since I've been a dedicated True Blue member for years and have spent a lot of money to accrue points. However, airlines are so tight for cash right now that they probably feel no obligation to do this for me, whatsoever. Oh well, can't hurt to try. Am anxiously waiting for a reply.

Pretty Pedicure!

I've gone all season without sprucing up my nails, so I decided last night that it was time to have them professionally done. No matter how much I buff or how many coats I apply, I just can't achieve the long-lasting sheen that I get from a salon. I premeditated my mani/pedi, because I had to go to the gym in the morning if I wanted to spend all evening after work at the nail salon.

Most salons in NYC offer mani/pedi packages Mon-Wed, I guess those tend to be slower days, so I got both for $20!! YEAH!! Regular price is $8 mani, $17 pedi. I swear that nail services/waxing is the only thing that I can get for less money in the city than at home.

How much do these cost in your city, either alone or in a package?

Cancelling HBO

My roommate and I decided that neither of us really watch HBO, so we might as well discontinue our subscription, currently $15+/month, which means that I will spend $90 less in a year. Also, my boyfriend noticed that most of my HBO channels are defaulted to the Spanish language for some reason, which is a clue that I don't watch it, at all.

No one told me that I was missing out on any awesome HBO-only programming, so I don't expect to regret the decision.

Fraud?

I decided to go ahead and open up an HSBC Direct online savings account to put my Countrywide CD that matures at the end of this month and my bonus that will be paid to me later this month. HSBC is currently offering 3.5% for accounts opened before September 15. I'm not a rate chaser, but HSBC has been consistently higher than other high-yield savings accounts, including ING with whom they seem to be in a rate war. So, even though the 3.5% won't last forever, I feel like I can trust their rates to be consistently high, whatever they are.

The account opening process was easy, but I got tripped up by something that hopefully means nothing. I'm used to being asked all kinds of identity verification questions when opening up new accounts, such as "what county do you live in?," "what is your most recent address?," etc. But today I was asked: "You recently opened up a mortgage with which lender? What is the amount?" and "You recently initiated a car loan with which lender? What is the amount?"... I answered "none of the above" to all of the options to these questions, as I have neither a mortgage or a car loan... but when I submitted my answers, I was told that my identity could not be verified and that they would be contacting me for more information!!! Does this mean that there is a mortgage or loan out there in my name??

I tried to get more information, but the Equifax number they gave me won't let you speak to a person, it just tells you to mail your request to some address in Georgia. Only paying Equifax members have access to personal customer support. I called the bank back a few times and they said that it's probably nothing, those are standard questions, but still, it got me worried, because they shouldn't ask me those particular questions unless they have reason to. They will be able to tell me in 24-48 hours if there is something wrong with my answers to those questions. Still, I'm unsettled, and I've already gotten free credit reports from all three agencies this year, so I can't get another free one (unless they make an exception for fraud concerns).

Confrontation

I confronted my fear.... Hard not to on a day like today when the DOW is up 332 points. Sure enough, the total value of the stocks in my account was just a little bit more than what I suspected, although I set my expectations very low, so maybe this is a bad thing? Total portfolio was up 3.6% today, so please let's keep this up....

Disaster averted

Another almost-rant as far as wedding costs go... one of our bachelorette party attendees has suddenly dropped out, but thankfully she said I could keep her deposit for the limo, as I had just drafted an email to all the other girls about how they would now have to pay more to cover the cost of the girl who dropped out. That would have been a real nightmare, because a lot of the girls are on a VERY tight budget and would be sure to groan, and I had also already collected all of the money, so doing another cash collection would be a real pain. I was afraid that if the girls had to pay more, some of them would recommend scrapping the limo, which is not possible because I paid a 25% nonrefundable deposit!!

Thank goodness she said we can keep the deposit. Phew! That was very generous of her.

Total cost for each participant (myself included): $42 for hotel share (might go up if we split into two groups), $60 for limo, $30-$60 for dinner

Wedding Flights

Well, I spoke too soon about not buying any airline tickets for this credit card statement cycle....

I am the MOH in my friend's wedding this fall, which is in Lynchburg VA, and to get there I will have to fly to Richmond, rent a car, and drive the 2.5hrs to Lynchburg. There are closer airports (a small one in Lynchburg, a moderate one in Roanoke), but flights there are from NYC are pretty expensive and usually involve layovers in out-of-the-way cities like Atlanta or Detroit. Given the recent sale at Jet Blue, which flies frequently from NYC to Richmond, I wanted to get some tickets on the cheap!

I purchased my flight to Richmond with JBlu on a Thursday morning for $59 before taxes, I haven't seen fares like that since early 2007! The BF is flying down Friday night for $105 including tax, and we will both have to purchase $105 flights to return on Sunday. Delta has the most flexible flight times for our return, so even though I hate flying small regional jets (motion sickness is a weakness of mine), I'm going to have to deal.

I am thinking about buying the BF's return ticket as a gesture, because he's going out of his way to attend MY friend's wedding, and while they've met several times and like eachother a lot, it's a very long-distance friendship for them. (And they don't email each other every day like she and I do, ha ) I'm happy that he wants to come, but as MOH, I don't even think I will be able to spend that much time with him at the wedding. I think he's coming to make sure I don't spend too much time with the groomsmen at the afterparty...hmmm maybe I shouldn't pay for his ticket after all, ha...

COSTCO! Savings analysis

Last night I had a few minutes to wander around my little local Gristedes and take note of the ridiculously high prices I have to pay for simple things, so now I am armed with the info that will tell me how much I saved at Costco on Sunday!

16 cans of 19 oz Progresso soups:
Gristedes: $3.49/can My cost: $1.36/can My savings: $34.08!!

32 cans of Caffeine-free Diet Coke:
Gristedes: $3.50/6pack= $0.58/can My cost: $0.27/can My Savings: $10.03!!

14 bars of Dove Soap:
Gristedes: $9.60/8 bars = $1.20/bar My cost: $0.86/bar My Savings: $4.76!!

6 cans of black beans:
Gristedes: $1.20/can My cost: $0.75/can My savings: $2.70!!

12 cans of green beans:
Gristedes: $1.80/can My cost: $0.58/can My savings: $14.64!!

8 cans of stewed tomatoes:
Gristedes: $1.80/can My cost: $0.62/can My savings: $9.44!!

8 boxes of whole grain pasta:
Gristedes: $1.99/box My cost: $0.98/box My savings: $8.08!!

48 Trailmix Bars:
Gristedes: $3.50/6 bars = $0.58/bar My cost: $0.25/bar My savings: $15.84!!

10 Chapsticks:
Gristedes: $1.99/tubes My cost: $0.90/tube My savings: $10.90!!

3Q bottle of Tilex:
Gristedes: $5.75/quart My cost: $2.56/quart My savings: $9.57!!

48 Swiffer wet pads:
Gristedes: $10.19/24 pads = $0.42/pad My cost: $0.27/pad My savings: $7.20!!

Concentrated Tide w/ Downy:
Gristedes: $13.99/32 loads = $0.44/load My cost: $0.25/load My savings: $15.39!!


I saved a grand total of $142.63!!!

And that is why my heart hearts COSTCO!!

I heart COSTCO!!! (and Weekend Potpourri)

I love Costco. I just love, love, love it. My boyfriend will argue that no person needs two gallons of mayonnaise, 36 rolls of toilet paper, or 40 AA batteries. I politely disagree (well, I agree with him on the mayo- yuck!). Especially in NYC when 4 rolls of toilet paper at the neighborhood drugstore go for $5+, my heart hearts Costco!

We were supposed to go to the beach yesterday, but woke up too late after seeing Wall-E (thanks to everyone who posted about the BOGO Discover Card offer at Fandango- NYC movie tix are $12 each!! I wouldn't have otherwise gone.) Instead of the beach, it was BF's idea to go to Costco, as he needed some new undershirts and dress socks, and since he's not picky, Costco would do. (Turns out, he is picky- they only had crew cut, and he likes V-neck t-shirts... oh well)

I spent $134, broken down:

16 cans of Progresso soups: $21.78 $1.36/can
32 cans of Caffeine-free Diet Coke: $8.49 $0.27/can
14 bars of Dove Soap (I hope I like them!): $11.90 $0.86/bar
6 cans of black beans: $4.45 $0.75/can
12 cans of green beans: $6.99 $0.58/can
Concentrated Tide w/ Downy: $19.99 81 loads= $0.25/load
10 Chapsticks: $8.99 $0.90/chapstick
8 cans of stewed tomatoes: $4.99 $0.62/can
3Q bottle of Tilex: $7.69 $2.56/quart
48 Swiffer wet pads: $12.79 $0.27/pad
8 boxes of whole grain pasta: $7.85 $0.98/box
48 Trailmix Bars: $11.99 $0.25/bar

I'll check on the math later, ha.

As part of my diet, I've been eating a lot of soup, veggies, and beans for dinner, and I've learned to like them, too! Finding them in bulk made me very happy. A woman in my building elevator asked me what I was going to do with so many green beans, and I happily said, "eat them!!" :-D

I'll try to give you a cost-savings analysis tonight/tomorrow...for example, I know that I pay $1-3/can of soup at my grocery store depending on size and type, but I think the cans I bought at Costco were smaller. If I have time on the way home, I might walk into my Gristedes tonight and take notes on how much my bulk items cost when I buy them individually at the store. This should take care of my groceries for a LONG while... the only other things I will need to buy on a regular basis are fresh lettuce and toppings for my salads and maybe some brown rice. You should have seen the huge bags of rice they have at Costco... no way am I tackling those! Of course, I don't have room to store 24 cans of soup in my tiny NYC kitchen, so one corner of my bedroom looks like a soup kitchen right now (no pun intended!) with stacks of canned goods.


Other weekend expenses:
*Bertucci's on Friday night+ RT on the Path: $51 total... my treat, to celebrate my bonus!
*Breakfast and coffee for two at Dunkin' Donuts on the way to BF's parents' house upstate Saturday morning: $9
*Lunch/dinner: provided by BF's fam + Bertucci's leftovers
*Entertainment: $14.50 BOGO Fandango tickets to see Wall-E Saturday night
*Lunch for two at a diner on Sunday morning: $18.50 It's been so long since I've been in town on the weekends that I forgot to make sure I had breakfast food in the apt! I actually ate a piece of cold pizza before both BF and I gave into hunger pangs and decided to get lunch.
*Dinner at noodle shop in West Village: $34

Most of my expenses this weekend were food related, but I acknowledge that this is a weekend luxury, and I don't eat out too much mid-week. These are also moderate eating-out expenses for NYC... dinner for two can easily run $100+ . During the week I eat a lot of soup/veggies/salad at home, or I go to client dinners that are paid for by the firm. I try to minimize the number of client dinners, though, because they are the primary attacker of my waistline :/

On another note, I got my lease renewal form on Friday. I have lived in this apartment since October, 2006, which has to be a record of some kind... I moved twice in my first 16 months in the city alone! Last year we escaped a rent-raise, but this year we were not as lucky. Our $2700/mo rent is going up 4% to $2808, which is not terrible as far as raises go, but it's more than what most people's income goes up by each year. And this is 'rent-controlled!' Further, our unit is not renovated, and as most of the units have been renovated since I moved in, I think the market rate for a new lease in my building is in the $3200-$3400/mo range. Insanity, just to have faux-marble countertops and a nicer stove. Hey, my stove may be older than I am, but it works and I'm not paying an extra $600/mo for it!

I have to find out if they will write a new lease for my unrenovated unit at the same $2808 rate, because my old roommate moved out this summer and my new roommate cannot put her name on the lease unless we open a new one. If it's going to be much more expensive (market rate versus our rent-controlled rate), then I will just keep her on as a subleasee.

Some finance ramblings for Friday afternoon

Ahhh, it's a slow Friday in the city, can't wait to get out of the office, hit the gym (I've lost three pounds in two weeks- yeah!) and then enjoy a lazy Friday night, free of airports and train stations and packing suitcases.

A few things I've been thinking about:

1) Should I invest in a Roth rather than Traditional 401k?
I called my parents yesterday to share with them the good news of my awesome summer bonus and my dad made some joke about finding a way to fool the tax-man... my mom, on another phone in the house, promptly told me not to listen to him, since she doesn't want her only daughter to end up in jail... funny, my parents, these days... But then I asked my dad his opinion on Roth vs. Traditional, and he is of the mindset that taxes are likely to go up, as they've not only been much higher in the past, but the nature of the changing demographic will also likely require taxes to be higher, as well (more elderly people to support, no social security, etc.). I read a timely analysis by Dog Ate my Finances on the cost effectiveness of Roth vs. Traditional if taxes stay the same, and so really the only factor I'm gambling on are that tax rates will go up, which I am willing to bet. (Either that, or I am planning to be in a higher income-tax bracket at the time). I was originally contributing to a pre-tax 401k to minimize the impact to my bottom line, since I needed the extra cash. Now that I've gotten a raise, I think I can afford to deduct a bit more from my paychecks next year. I'll keep you updated, but since I've already maxed out my 401k for the year, it will be next year's business.

2) Why was my cash rebate so low on my Discover Card statement last month?
I never blogged about this mystery, but I found out the answer and will share it with you. My Discover Card statement last month was a hefty $660 or so, but my cash back reward was only $1.41 :(.... Turns out that Discover Card has a pro-rated cashback bonus schedule, as follows:

$0 - $1,500: Earns 0.25%
$1,500.01 - $3,000: Earns 0.5%
$3,000.01 +: Earns 1%

I've definitely spent more than $3,000 on my Discover Card this year with all of my traveling, but it turns out that my "anniversary" with the card is June 25, which is why my July purchases only accrued .25% in cashback awards. Oh well, at least that answer makes sense.

3. How do I actually deduct my losses in the stock market from my taxes?
I have no idea. I know I have to sell my stocks at a loss first, but do I have to sell my winners, too, and write off the difference? I'm confused, but since I've lost a lot of money in the stock market this year (although I'm not exactly sure how much), I might as well take advantage of this tax benefit if I can. But part of me wants to hang onto the losers until they become winners again :)

Another trip?

Uh oh, my travel wheels are spinning.... B is switching groups at work and is taking a week off during the transition, but since the timing was very last-minute, I wasn't able to get that week off as well (my vacation schedule has to be coordinated with a few people at work to make sure that the markets are properly covered). As a compromise, I was able to take off Mon and Tues Aug 11-12, which will give us a nice four-day weekend!

Soooo..... travel itch coming on. B is not as spontaneous as I am when it comes to finding great travel deals and just booking them immediately, so even though I found RT, non-stop flights to Puerto Rico for $300/pp and can use my corporate discount at a beachfront hotel there, he said NO :( Grumble grumble... I hate to say it, but my ex would have said "OK!!" and I'd have a Caribbean vacation to look forward to. Yes, I just pulled the "ex would have done it" card because you are my anonymous readers, and I know better than to say that to B's face. I get where he's coming from, because it's very last minute and air travel has not been that smooth this summer, but I'm a little disappointed that he's limiting the destinations for our four-day weekend to places where his car will take us.

Some other ideas I'm tossing around:
*All-inclusive resort in Cancun (haha I know, I'm cheating, no airplanes! But I've still used kayak.com to look up some flight prices for that weekend)
*Newport, Rhode Island to check out some phatty mansions and hang out on the beach. A colleague recently stayed at a B&B there, but it's not cheap.
*Williamsburg, VA- I used to go there as a kid, and it's really a lot of fun (Busch Gardens, too!), but it's a very far drive from NYC, hence the thought to go for the long weekend.
*Adirondacks/Lake Placid- B has some relatives with cabins in the area, so we could likely stay for free, or if we want to go all the way up to Lake Placid, we'd have to find a room. We're planning a trip up there in October for an overnight hike, so maybe we should just wait until then?
*Hang around our apartments in NYC? Make some trips to Costco and Ikea and other fabulously fun places where I will most likely spend money on things I don't need? "Staycations" are very popular these days. My only hesitation is that since it's so hard for us to get the same time off, I don't want to "waste" it doing what we could do on any other weekend.

If you're from the NYC area, or even if you aren't, any suggestions?




Additionally, I just found out that I will be able to take off the week of New Year's, and while B might have to be in that week because of a colleague's paternity leave (yup! paternity, how cool is that?!), he might be able to work something out, and then we'll have to figure out something fabulous to do for New Year's! I want to go to New Zealand!

401k Rollover

Phew! Step 4 of my 401k rollover is complete!

1) Call Vanguard, figure out how to get 401k money from old employer- DONE
2) Call old employer, have them send me the forms- DONE
3) Fill out forms, send back to old employer- DONE
4) Figure out how to distribute money to current employer- DONE
5) Send rollover checks to current employer


And BTW, the reps at Vanguard are super friendly and helpful. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.

I worked at my old employer as an intern for a few summers, and after the first full year (they kept me on the payroll all year long), I was eligible for my very first 401k! I was only 19, but dutifully put away 10% of my money, and my employer even matched some of it! Since I only did that for two summers, and my intern salary was pretty low, the total in my accounts is less than $3,000, but it's MY $3,000!

(More) Reflections on July Spending

Ha, it didn't take me long after posting my July expenses to develop some serious thoughts on the matter.

Having been with my employer for three years, I make a good amount of money. $80,000/yr, my anonymous friends, to be exact. Given the high cost of living here, I'd say my adjusted income is more like $50-$60k. For example, my rent is $1375- and that's only MY share of the apartment! Total rent for the one bedroom apt is $2700, and we had to put up a wall to make a second bedroom! See how crazy it is?

But what's really crazy, is that my nice salary barely supports ME. Just one person- ME. Families of four+ can live off of this salary, but I still manage to spend more than I make (as you can see from this month). I don't have to pay for childcare, extra clothes/food, health care, I don't have car payments (although I do chip in for the BF's gas), and I while my rent would probably cover a decent mortgage, I don't have to pay condo fees/taxes, etc. So where does all of my money go? Well, some months it goes into clothes for my professional work wardrobe (July was an anomoly... hmmm), but mostly it's been going towards travel expenses. Granted, if I had a family to care for, I wouldn't be flying out of town every weekend, so I guess that makes up for part of it. But what this exercise has done is given me a lot of respect for the families out there that have to budget on less money than what I have, and still make sure there is some leftover for the future. Although, without making unfair assumptions, it's possible that a lot of families living beyond their means and are incurring debt to make ends meet. No surprise that money in America is tight.

July Spending

Yikes. For the first time in a while, I'm actually looking at what I'm spending versus what I earn. I usually spend less than I earn, because I have some leftover cash to toss into savings most months, but if I don't have much left over, I don't stress about it because I've got some hefty savings in place already. Now that I'm blogging about how I spend and save money, I would be remiss not to give my expenditures a good, hard look so that someday soon I can properly assess my spending categories and start to... gulp... budget.

I spent the last hour or so scouring my credit card and bank statements to analyze all of the money in and out, and here is what I've come up with:

MONEY EARNED: $4166 (after 401k, FSA, health insurance, gym membership, taxes, etc. This is what is direct-deposited into my savings account each month)

MONEY SPENT: $4,203 Oops.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BREAKDOWN: (In alphabetical order)

Beauty: $124- highlights, including tip. Ouch :( The roots were looking pretty bad, I had no choice. But no mani/pedis this month, even though I really needed one before my trip to Vegas!

Cash: $300- ATM withdrawals for items not listed below, to pay for lunches and all the taxis I paid for with cash in Vegas

Charity: $50- colleague's Swim Across America event

Dining out: $165- includes drinks I bought in Vegas. This is considerably less than what I actually spend eating out in NYC, considering that client entertainment dinners are company-expensed.

Drugstore/household: $120

Entertainment: $84- two D.C. United Tickets

Furniture: $420- to buy my roommate out of her share of the stuff we bought together

Gifts: $141- my two best friends have birthdays in July, don't expect this expense next month

Groceries: $61- I stocked up on canned goods on sale. I love canned green beans! Ha.

Rent + Utilities: $1507- $1375 rent, half of $165 for cable and $99 for electricity

Travel/Lodging: $1025- not surprising. I acknowledged from the beginning that this would be my biggest expense category. Items this month include: various taxis (including the $5 taxi I take to work every day), transportation to/from airports (I always take public transportation, but the trains to the airports are still $15 or so each way), hotel at MGM Grand in Vegas, return flight from San Fran for the wedding this fall, two Virgin America flights to Vegas in December, train ticket from NYC to DC (return ticket was free via Amtrak Guest Reward points)

Wedding related: $108- down payment on limo for bachelorette party, but will be paid back by other attendants for part of the cost



This breakdown doesn't include the things I paid for in advance of this month, such as prepaid reunion costs (flights, show tickets, dinner, etc.). But I also paid for travel this month that I won't be taking until later this year. Since I don't have any new trips on the horizon (yet... those are dangerous words), I might not have any plane tickets to buy next month. Watch me eat these words later. Other one-time costs include the furniture buy-out and the birthday gifts for my two best friends. There are no August birthdays in my family, that I know of...

Next month I expect (money in) - (money out) to be a positive number, not just because I will be conscious of spending less, but my paycheck will get a boost! The 20% raise from my promotion will be effective (YEAH!!!), and I will max out my 401k with my bonus, so no more paycheck deductions. And at the end of August, I will have maxed out my social security tax- another boost to look forward to!

Flight deals

I love finding the best travel deals possible (since I travel almost every weekend), and one of the best tools in my box right now is www.kayak.com. Kayak is different from other flight search engines because it helps you find the best airfare available for only the flights you want, and it's so easy and uncluttered. I have pretty strict requirements- I need to leave Friday evenings after work and I usually like to stay at my destnation through Sunday evening, but not arrive in NYC too late, so I just adjust the "depart by" and "arrive by" bars so that I don't get fooled by cheap flights that leave at inconvenient times. You can also select (or de-select) a group of airlines to search from, include a range of nearby airports, and choose from all kinds of other search criteria. Note, I am not sponsored by Kayak to laud them, I just love them so much because they help make my fantasy vacations become reality!

One of the best new features at kayak.com is the "weekend" search function, which will find the best fares to a destination for a variety of weekends over a period of time, perfect for this weekend traveler! Instead of having to separately search for multiple weekends and compare prices, it does all the work for you! That means that I will be more likely to visit my brother in Ft. Lauderdale this fall, and maybe even squeeze in another trip to Vegas, and since my schedule is flexible, I will just go when it is cheapest!

If you're obsessive-compulsive about getting good deals on plane tickets like I am, then you might also like www.yapta.com, which tracks the prices of any flights you are watching or have purchased, and notifies you when the prices go down. You can see at a glance how the prices have changed, and if you've purchased a ticket and the price goes down significantly, Yapta gives you advice on how to get a refund from the airline, if possible. I find that airlines are being stingy about giving refunds these days, though. Virgin America wasn't too sympathetic when my recently purchased ticket went down $70 during their sale, but Jet Blue has awarded me flight credits for lowered fares in the past.

Also, be sure to check out the sale that Jet Blue and Virgin America are having right now.... I really wish I had waited to buy that wedding ticket...

Last of my flight-website shout-outs is www.airfarewatchdog.com. They post amazingly low deals each day found by real people, not computers, and you can stay ahead of the airlines' shenanigans such as checked-baggage fees and discontinued flight routes by reading their blog.

Happy traveling!

Paying for HBO

Last year, after a series of horrible displays of incompetence by my local cable company (Time Warner, I'm talking about YOU!), I wrote a letter to customer service (the phone reps were extremely unhelpful, and even more incompetent, I'm afraid to say) and they offered me three free months of HBO to compensate me for my poor service. Well, my roommate at the time became hooked and suggested that we renew the HBO subscription after the free period ended, so we've been paying ~$15.00/mo now for about a year. At first I found a few things on the channel that I liked to watch, but now that I am home less and less, I realize that I haven't watched anything on it in a few months.

Are any of you addicted to something on HBO that I need to check out? Between my roommate and I, it's only $7.50 each, so I could probably find enough to watch each month that would be worth that much, right? I don't even know if my new roommate watches the darn channel. I'm kind of too lazy to cancel it, in fear that I might be missing out on some awesome programming, so I need to poll you guys and find out if there's anything I need to watch, or if I should scrap the channel all together.

Free shipping at Drugstore.com

I just made an online purchase at drugstore.com (following the link from ShopDiscover to get an extra 10% off using my Discover card!) and I could have sworn the purchase threshold for free shipping was $25. So instead of getting my $15 of goodies, I found some extra stuff that I needed to get to $25. And I'm pretty sure that I saw the shipping fee go from $5.99 to "FREE" in my shopping cart. But then I just looked at the confirmation order sent to me today when it was shipped, and I was charged for shipping! And now, I look and it says that free shipping is for orders of $50+. I wonder if this JUST changed on me, and if I got caught in the transition between when I placed my order and when it shipped/was charged for the items.

Am I crazy? Does anyone remember $25+ free shipping at drugstore.com?


Update: I'm crazy. Aparently the $25 off is for new customers only, and because I put all of the items in my shopping cart before logging in, it assumed I was a new customer. However, I don't remember there being an updated total page after I logged in, although I'm sure there must have been. Customer service has graciously waived the shipping fee as a one-time courtesy because of my mistake. Yeah, drugstore.com! Also, I ordered the products on Monday, and they arrived at my apartment today! Yeah!

Comp Day

Today is the almighty Comp Day, the day when I learn what my bonus will be for the year's worth of toil. I imagine that I will find out sometime later this afternoon between 3 and 5pm, so if you're reading this early in the morning, keep your fingers crossed for me! The bonus I got last year made me very happy, but as the business has not be doing as well this year (although our firm has held in better than our competitors), I don't think there's as much money to go around. Our bonuses are a substantial part of our compensation, because while the salaries are decent, they're not very impressive alone and don't stretch too far in NYC.

Despite the smaller pool of bonus money this year (I assume), I am optimistic b/c my performance review indicated a dramatic improvement from last year, and as such I am ranked in the 1st quartile of analysts at my firm! I am hoping that this translates into $$.

Effective August 1 is my promotion from analyst to associate, which comes with a 20% raise in my salary!!! That's HUGE!!!! Because of all of my before-tax deductions (FSA, gym membership, transit card, etc.) I'm not sure how many extra dollars this will exactly translate into. Also, I will have maxed out my social security tax for the year, so that's an extra kick to my paycheck! I've only invested about $3k in my 401k this year, so I will be maxing out the remaining ~$12 from my bonus. This will dramatically reduce the amount of cash I have leftover from my bonus, but I purposely kept my monthly contributions low in anticipation of this large mid-year contribution. That means I will have a couple hundred extra dollars each month to play with (aka SAVE) that I was previously contributing to my 401k. Additionally, my share of rent is a little bit lower because my new roommate is paying a bit more than my old one, so that's also extra cash I didn't have. Thus, a few new reasons to love my paycheck on August 15!

Anyway, wish me luck on my bonus... I'm trying to go in with low expectations, but even if I'm disappointed, I need to remember all of the blessings that I have that money cannot buy!

While my boyfriend and I have only been together for less than a year (having been friends for a few), I see great potential in our relationship and we have begun fantasizing about the future, and what we want to do/have. This includes a house/apartment (buy a tiny place in the city or get a huge lake house in the Adirondacks? hmmm? :) ), phatty retirement fund, lots of camping gear, dream vacations, etc. If we do decide to be together forever, I assume that we will be pooling our funds to make these things happen. As such, even though our funds are very far from being comingled, I still think of his money as my money and vice versa when it comes to our future spending potential.

That said, I'm unhappy to learn that he lost $200 playing flip cup while I was in Vegas. Ok, so I lost some money, too ($75), and did not discuss with him my $5o0 gambling budget, so I realize that I'm being hypocritical. It's just that when I make the effort to be frugal on other fronts (clipping coupons, taking the subway instead of a cab, making dinner instead of ordering out) and he goes ahead and spends excessive amounts of money in these categories, I feel like our combined net worth is going down because of his spending habits despite my best efforts to preserve it (gambling aside!). OK, I guess flip cup is also gambling. And he's quite the chugger, so I can see why he thought he would win, haha.

Many of you PF bloggers out there are married or are in significant relationships- how do you deal with or compromise with your partner's spending habits, when they are not the same as your own?

I'm Back

I'm back from my reunion in Vegas, and I'm very, VERY tired. I didn't go to bed at all on Saturday night thanks to a rocking afterparty in a penthouse suite, and Sunday I spent all day going back and forth from the airport after a number of cancellations and delays left me and all of my friends stranded in Vegas (not a terrible place to be stranded, I might add). When I was finally confirmed on a flight, I arrived at the airport two hours early to be sure not to miss it and I was so tired from not having gone to bed the night before that I passed out at the gate and didn't wake up until the jetway door had already been shut. The agent had called my name over the loudspeaker five times, and was 10 seconds away from giving my seat to a standby passenger. HUGE PHEW. Spent yesterday recovering from the red-eye.

Financial summary of the weekend: not too bad! I had been OK with taking about $500 to play with (and probably lose), but in reality I was too busy catching up with old classmates to gamble, and my hour and a half at the craps table only cost me $75. Highlights include our reunion dinner at the Venetian, Cirque du Soleil Mystere at Treasure Island, and clubbing at Jet/after party at the Mirage. My only other expenses were taxis ($30-$40 total- those multiple trips to the airport added up! Luckily it's right off the strip and I was able to share rides), breakfast/lunch ($30 or so, because I forgot to eat on Sunday morning) and drinks (holy cow- almost $100 and I only bought one round!!). Drinks were uber expensive, and I'm used to NYC prices! $16 for red bull and vodka, and $6 for just plain soda water in a glass, out of the fountain sprayer! I was alternating alcoholic drinks with plain soda water, both to make it through the night without falling over, and to stick to my less-alcohol diet. I thought that would make my bar tab cheaper, but it was only marginally less.

All in all, I had a very fun time, even though I'm still extremely exhausted.

On another note, I just noticed today that airlines are having some price wars to multiple destinations, and the Virgin America flight I recently bought from San Fran to NYC for a wedding this fall is $70 cheaper :( Jet Blue will sometimes refund you via a flight credit if the price of your flight goes down within a certain period of time, so I called VA this morning and they said that they do not have any price guarantees, and cannot offer me flight credit for the $70. Oh well, I guess I timed that poorly (stupid sales!). I had watched the price go all the way up to $260, so when it came back down to $220, I wanted to act before prices went up again. Now it's offered for $150. BUMMER! Oh well, that's what I get for planning ahead. I just love myself a good flight sale, and it makes me sad when I miss them.

Flights to keep an eye on: NYC to RIC for a wedding in October; some flights currently being sold for $59 right now... if only I knew exactly when I need to be there for MOH duties, otherwise I'll pay even more to change my flight later.

Vivaaaa Las Vegas!

My Monday post for next week will probably NOT include a spending summary of the weekend, as I'm going to Vegas, and the expenditures will be too absurd. I'm not sure where I got my gambling bone, as I don't think it was inherited (neither of my parents gamble, that I know of), but the thrill of risk/reward is just so much fun. Don't worry about this blogger- I don't gamble more than I can afford to lose, and I'm perfectly happy to walk away from the table when I'm done and not feel the urge to go to the ATM. (Walking away while I'm ahead is slightly more difficult!!)

I first learned how to play poker when I was interning in California as an engineer. I was the only female intern staying in a particular apartment complex, so to stay entertained, I had to hang with the guys, and that included Thursday poker night! I had never played, as I was a little bit intimidated by the rules and didn't want to look stupid in front of my new friends, but one patient teacher turned me into a poker machine. That summer also included some trips to Reno, Tahoe, and my first ever trip to Las Vegas, where I learned how to play roulette and craps. I don't play blackjack because I want to play it "right" and I've never taken the time to learn the proper rules, and I don't play roulette anymore b/c I think the odds are just TOO low (yes, I know they're ALWAYS against you, but...). Craps is my favorite casino game because it's very social, and there are some clever ways that you can hedge your bets. There are ways to stack the odds in your favor, but then you become very unpopular at the table because you're betting against everyone else, and that's just not fun. I taught a bunch of my sorority sisters how to play craps at a recent trip to Foxwoods, and now they're hooked ;) (They'll also be with me in Vegas-- so watch out!!)

NYC is about two hours from Atlantic City and about two and a half hours from Foxwoods/Mohegan Sun and now MGM in Connecticut, but there's nothing like Vegas! The reason for the trip is a college reunion (yes, we're so cool we go to VEGAS! hahaha), and so I bought these tickets back in March for $359, and while that's quite a bit, it's been the average as of late for direct flights to LAS from NYC. Airlines have been reducing the number of flights for this itinerary, which has contributed to the price increase. I bought tickets on Jet Blue/Virgin America to go back to Vegas in December and we paid about $350 direct RT, and that was the cheapest weekend this winter. I guess I won't be frequenting sin city as much as I'd like.

My flight is on Continental, which makes me a little bit sad because I don't think I'll be able to sleep on a 3:30pm flight, yet there will be no in-flight entertainment for me to enjoy, a la Jet Blue or Virgin America :( Continental had undercut them both enough to make a difference, thus I'll be visiting the bookstore before my flight.

Some prelim stats for the weekend:
Flight: $359
My share of hotel at MGM Grand: $103 for weekend
Event registration (includes dinner, a show, and who knows what else): $150

Yet to be determined:
Food, drinks (free on the gambling floor :P ), gambling losses

So, this weekend has already cost me $612 and that's only including one meal! Boy I hope breakfast is offered somewhere.

As for gambling, I think I am willing to lose up to $500. My last trip to Vegas cost me only $200 in losses (my tax refund arrived the day I went to Vegas!!! then I promply lost half of it :) ), and I actually won $100 at the craps table in San Juan this June. If I lose $500, oh well... and chances are that I'll probably be too busy at the pool/ in the club to actually gamble, so the actual loss could be a lot less. It is a reunion, after all, and I'd rather catch up with my homies.

I think it's interesting for me to be discussing my gambling habit on a PF blog, because I try to be super savvy when it comes to making the most out of my money, and then I'll go participate in an activity that is almost guaranteed to destroy my entire 'investment.' And speaking of investments, three of my colleagues gave me a little bit of cash for me to throw on the roulette table for them. I did warn them that they are not likely to ever see that money again :)


Wish me luck!!

Hey, Wait a Minute....

When I recently purchased my IndyMac CD online, the yield was quoted as 4.45% APY. The funds were transferred just a few days later from my checking account at USAA, and just yesterday I received the new-account forms in the mail. The form says that my APY will be 4.15%-- Hey, wait a minute!! That's not right...

I called them up and explained the discrepancy, and after being on hold for almost 20 minutes (to some pretty lame muzak, I might add), they came back and said that they will back-date my interest and honor the 4.45% APY rate. I also made sure to request that they send me a new Certificate of Deposit Certificate (redundant!) that states my rate, since the one I received in the mail says 4.15%, and I don't want to have any problems.

Phone call = $117! Which will be a lot less after taxes, but hey... that's my money!

Fears I Won't Confront

Yes folks, I am completely avoiding an aspect of my financial portfolio, because I'm afraid of what I'm going to find. I can deal with the 4% decline in the value of my 401k this year..... not TOO bad, considering what is going on in the market. However, I don't think that I can deal with seeing the amount I've lost in my stock portfolio :(

I can't bring myself to even log in to my brokerage account. The number is going to be so ridiculously low, that I don't even want to know what it is. I'm just considering it to be money that I don't have anymore :(

**DISCLAIMER** Everything mentioned below in regards to investing or to the specific companies in my portfolio is an OPINION, and not an expert one, at that!

It all started last summer after I received a bonus from my employer, and since I already had a lot of money invested in CDs at various banks, I wanted to diversify. Plus they always tell you to invest in stocks when you're young and have a more aggressive investment strategy- 60% stocks, 40% bonds is what they say. So, I set up a brokerage account and wired in some cash. At first it was a lot of fun! Pick companies that I like and BAM! I own part of it! The market was on a steady rise in August, so I felt like a rock star every time I looked at my portfolio and saw all of the green numbers (indicating a positive change). This inspired me to invest even more, until eventually I had invested $27,500. In hindsight, I acknowledge that my purchases were driven emotionally, and not based on sound financial research. I missed a lot of important metrics such as price/earning ratios, expected growth, earnings margins, etc. which is probably why the bulk of my portfolio has declined. I knew that I should study those numbers, I just... didn't.

My holdings, in order of purchase:

*A Gold exchange-traded-fund (ETF) (Ticker: GLD), partly as a hedge, as commodities will rise when the dollar decreases in value, and also just because I believe in the value of semi-rare metals.

*Celanese Corporation (CE), the chemical company that my grandfather worked for, just to be loyal. My grandma owns a lot of it, and so it gives us something extra to chat about :)

*Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), because that place is ALWAYS busy, even at odd times of the day! I have never gone there and not had to wait for a table, so that must mean that they are rolling in the dough, right? Apparently not....

*Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), because the stock looked unstoppable, rising 1-5% a week on occasion! I wanted to get in before I lost my opportunity.

*GOOGLE! (GOOG) One day they will own the world, I am convinced of that fact. Shareholders used to agree with me; now, not so much. Even at $700/share, I thought it was cheap.

*Brazil (EWZ) and India (INP) ETFs also partly as a hedge against US dollar-denominated assets, but also as a view on rising emerging market players. Brazil has become an active player in the global markets, even having developed its own trading exchanges. India is embracing microfinance and I think that it will earn itself a secure place in the global markets, in time.

*Under Armour (UA), my favorite brand of performance wear, and they have recently acquired exclusive contracts with almost every major league sports franchise to supply their uniforms and gear. This has to pay off, right?

*Lastly, but not least.... Citigroup (C) One of my colleagues used to work for Citigroup and thought their stock was really cheap, so he bought a boat-load of it. I and a few of my colleagues who discuss our stock trades decided to go into the trade with him... unfortunately.


SIGH. Big, long, loud SIGH. What went wrong? Well, a few things. August through October, when I bought most of my stock holdings, was a cheery time in the markets. Subprime woes were being mitigated, banks were staying afloat, and everyone was enjoying long weekends at the beach or watching baseball games. Everyone was HAPPY!

Then, gas prices finally began to affect the consumer, and fewer people were driving to go out to eat (Cheesecake Factory or Chipotle, anyone?) or buying retail goods if it wasn't absolutely necessary (Under Armour). Then, banks started writing down their portfolios of mortgages and other stuff no one wanted to buy, and so my Citigroup stock sank like a ship (my colleague still thinks it's cheap and will buy more if it goes below $10/share). My emerging market plays have held in, and Celanese and gold have risen a bit since I bought them, but as they were my first purchases, I bought a lot less of them than of the other stocks I own, since I was just dipping my toes in to start. As I became more confident in my stock trading, the number of shares I purchased increased, as well, and so my later purchases tend to be my biggest ones.

I'm afraid that I've lost more than 1/3 of my investment. I know that I should cut my losses at some point, and I know that somehow they're tax deductible (but not clear exactly on the specifics), but part of me just wants to hold on and wait for the market to correct itself before evaluating the fate of my holdings. In the meantime, as I said, I'm too fearful to log in to my account and face the truth.

Thus, if I ever do a "net worth analysis" on my blog, it will probably not include whatever pennies are left in my brokerage account.

:(

Macy's Credit Card

No surprise by now that I like to shop... I've recently been buying a lot of gifts and even some gifts for myself ;) at Macy's, and I don't have a Macy's card, which means that I'm missing out on a lot of the "extra 20% off" deals for cardholders, which I'm now thinking could really pay off.

What's holding me back:
1) I don't like to nick my credit rating with new inquiries from opening up cards. I've heard that multiple inquiries in a short period of time will only count against you once, and since I recently opened up a new USAA cash rewards card, I might be able to sneak in a Macy's card without affecting my credit score.

2) I think you get a pretty good discount on purchases on the DAY that you open the card, and since I want to maximize that benefit, I'm waiting until I need to make an expensive purchase... I guess the $183 dress I bought last month didn't count ;) But then I just bought a gift at Macy's for $76 and I could have saved $10 or so if I had had a Macy's card... not to mention all of the special cardholder coupons you get in the mail.

Sigh. I can't decide when/if to do this.