Not an Emergency

Last week, CodeMonkey called me in a panic, "I HAVE AN EMERGENCY!!!!" He's naturally high strung, but I'm prone to panicking, so I immediately started imagining him across town, hemorrhaging after being hit by a bus. Once I choked down my terror, I asked him what had happened.

Further investigation revealed that a lens had fallen from his glasses, leaving him temporarily blinded. I calmed him down on the phone, he found an optician, they fixed him up, and when he got home, we had a talk about things that do and do not constitute emergencies.

This weekend, CodeMonkey called me from his gig Upstate. "I know you told me not to call frivolous things emergencies but..." His trousers had split down the rear seam, leaving him stranded with half a day of teaching left to go. We decided to tie his sweater around his waist and sort out the pants situation when he got home.

Then we had another talk about what constitutes an emergency. Progress is slow, but we're getting there.

How to Save Money at Target...and Everywhere Else

I manage to find myself in Target multiple times a week, picking up shampoo, printer paper, or Western groceries. Given my husband's recent career transition, we have been trying to cut back, and I'm happy to have found another way to stretch our budget without affecting our quality of life.

For any chain stores we patronize regularly, I try to buy gift cards at a discount on the secondary market. Cardpool and Plastic Jungle both sell below value gift cards.* The balance on the gift cardsis verified by the seller, and they ship out quickly via USPS.  I have used both sites extensively without a problem (and they aren't paying me to write this.) I usually check both sites, and purchase from the one that offers the high discount on a particular vendor's card. Currently, I buy Target gift cards at 6% off face value to stret our grocery budget. Since CodeMonkey frequently uses Starbucks to work or meet clients, I buy their gift cards at 15% off and transfer the balance to his Starbucks account. If we were in the position of needing to buy either of us a large work wardrobe again, I'd definitely look to these sites first, as certain clothing store gift cards seem to go for 20% off face value. When you combine that with sales and discount codes, the savings can be substantial.

*If you have unwanted gift cards lying around the house, they'll buy those too, at a percentage below face value.

Easter, etc.

I went to Easter vigil last night. I'm not good st juggling a missal and a lit candle, and now I have wax on a dry clean only skirt. It's in the freezer awaiting treatment at the moment. But the vigil was moving the sermon was good, and Easter is wonderful.

I took my worn out leather gloves to the a Coach store where I bought them. The store's manager was very surprised by the damage and arranged to send a new pair to me. So score one for excellent customer service, and I hope my gloves were simply an outlier.

The other day, the last bit of my commute was in an empty subway car. I think this is the first time that's happened since I moved to New York.

Changes, New Year's Resolutions Checkup

Yesterday was CodeMonkey's last day at Big Bank. He left to pursue a career as a musician and freelancer. I'm happy for him and excited and nervous all at once. This means some changes to our lifestyle: for one thing, we're probably downsizing to a much smaller apartment when our lease ends this summer. I've gone through the budget and slashed it as many ways as I can. This is going to be a challenge, but it's a manageable one.

2013 Goals

1. Meet financial goal. In the interests of privacy, I'll keep the amount to myself, but we are looking to increase our net worth by a certain amount.

Thanks to CodeMonkey's bonus, freelance income, and an unanticipated federal tax refund, we met 57.5% of our annual goal during the first quarter of the year. Given that we will be staying in our more expensive apartment until the end of June and that we will have the expenses of moving during June, I think we will have to work hard to reach 65% of our annual net worth goal by the end of Q2. The second half of the year, with lower expenses and more income streams established, should be easier. I'm pleased to see this goal is still attainable, even with CodeMonkey's career transition, because it was designed to be a stretch, even on his finance income.

We have benefitted from the run up in the stock market of late. As our retirement investments constitute and increasing portion of our net worth, I may have to look at other ways of tracking our financial progress. The markets will fluctuate, but the daily, monthly and yearly ripples are irrelevant over the long haul. I track our net worth to ensure we are meeting our savings goals, and I want to measure that, regardless of what the Dow does. 

2. Go cold sheep. Like cold turkey, only for yarn.

I made one order of yarn this year, when Knitpicks released the new colors of their limited edition sock yarn. That's always a weakness, but thankfully, that's a once a year event.

3. Buy no more than one article of clothing per paycheck.

So far this year I've bought: 1 J Crew wool coat, 1 red cashmere cardigan, 1 red wrap dress, 1 black wrap dress, 1 blue floral wrap dress, 1 fair isle cashmere cardigan, 1 pair white sandals, 1 red sundress. That puts me at eight pieces for the year, more than the six I should have by this point.

Coach Makes Crappy Gloves

On Black Friday 2012, I got tired of freezing cold fingers and bought a pair of Coach black leather gloves. The leather was buttery, the cashmere lining was soft, and we were good to go. My mother always had leather gloves, and I felt Terribly Grown Up with my own pair.

They seemed the sort of thing a sophisticated, together adult lady would have. I am never sophisticated, only rarely together, and curse too much to be a lady, but it's nice to pretend. I have been wearing my grown up gloves walking to and from the subway. It sure beat those $1 one-size-fits-all mismatched acrylic gloves I had been sporting before.

It's now March and several of the fingertip linings on my gloves have worn through completely. This is maddening. It appears that Coach offers a repair service for the "natural life" of some of their items, provided I'm willing to pay $20 for shipping. I'm considering simply knitting my own linings because I don't want to pay for this repair annually. On closer inspection, the cashmere is too fine and too loosely knit to hold up to even the slightest friction.

I have no problem buying expensive things, if they are high quality. If they are high quality. It is outrageous that a $100 pair of gloves which are under three months old are wearing out. I'm annoyed with myself for not inspecting the linings better. I'm annoyed that when buying a high end brand I need to inspect the details. Is it me, or is the quality of everything in mainstream retailers plummeting?

How I Manage Our Finances

I am a little obsessed with budgeting. I visit Mint.com multiple times a week. I was the only 21 year old I knew with a retirement account (and it was hard to find a Target Retirement Date 2055 mutual fund to invest in). I have net worth projections calculated 15 years out.

I'm also deeply lazy. Here, in no particular order, is what works for us.

-As many bills as possible are auto-drafted so I don't need to remember to pay them.

-I have one financial goal at a time. I keep a list or priorities, and when one is accomplished I move on to the next one. Current priorities look like this.

1. Pay off the credit card balance.
2. Keep the emergency fund at 3 month's of living expenses.
3. Fully fund my IRA.
4. Fully fund my husband's IRA.
5. Pay off my student loans in order of interest and then size.
6. Save up a down payment on a house.

Any income, from any source save my husband's freelance income goes toward these goals, whether it's credit card rewards, tax refunds, overtime, bonuses, or normal paychecks. It helps to focus on one thing at a time. We've never carried a balance on a credit card, so whenever money comes in, I just pay off the balance and then move on. It's been at least 6 months since we've had to touch the emergency fund. My IRA is funded before my husband's because he has access to other retirement vehicles. For a variety of reasons, I try to keep the marital assets divided evenly between us, though it's hard. I kick in extra toward the student loans when we've finished funding one year's IRAs but aren't eligible to fund the next year's. We've managed to fully fund my IRA since 2009 and CodeMonkey's since he was eligible in 2010. My student loan balance is around $8,500, down from $12,000 when I graduated in 2009, which isn't great, but we'll get there. We've never gotten around to saving up to buy a home, but that's just not a priority at the moment anyway.

CodeMonkey's business income is handled separately. I run our budget on the assumption that it doesn't exist, because I prefer not to count on it. Going forward, any money he makes there after expenses and self-employment taxes will be going into a Self-Employment 401k. This will, with any luck, leave his business making no taxable income at all in 2013.

-I track our net worth at the end of every month and have net worth goals I try to reach on an annual basis. Monthly tracking keeps me in line.

-We both have IRAs from previous jobs that I need to roll over into Vanguard IRAs. That's a project for the second quarter of 2013.

-At the moment, all our retirement assets held by Vanguard are in age-appropriate target date retirement funds. Down the road I would like to get more involved in actively managing our investments, but that's not a priority right now and these funds do well enough.

-The whole system probably takes less than an hour a week to manage, so it's very easy.

Weekly Goals 3/16/13

Blogger was being a jerk yesterday and wouldn't let me in, so this is a day late.

Last week's goals:

1. Get rid of 50 things. I think we're moving to a studio in June when our lease is up, so it's time to pare down our possessions. Got rid of 49, with one more being given away when I see my knitting group next.

2. Return things to Brora, WideShoes.com, and Lands End. One downside of online shopping is having to mail in returns. Managed Brora, but not the others. Fail.

3. Pack lunch three days this week. Baby steps. Managed once. Fail.

4. Finish Federal tax returns. 98% done; I have one error to be resolved with TurboTax. And we're getting a large refund. Yay!

5. Enter CodeMonkey's business financial information for March into Quickbooks. Not done. Not even started.

6. Make one thing in the Crock Pot for the freezer. Done! I made filling for frozen burritos. Need to assemble them tonight and freeze them for lunches.

This week's goals:

1. Get rid of another 50 things.

2. Read 2 books.

3. Finish one Swedish Fish Mitt, because my mother needs a birthday gift.

4. File Federal and State tax returns.

5. Enter CodeMonkey's March financial information into Quickbooks.

6. Make one thing in the Crock Pot for the freezer.

7. Pack lunch three days this week.

8. Return things to Land's End and WideShoes.com.

9. Submit receipts for medical reimbursement.