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shifting gears
Dec. 3rd, 2002 03:56 pmi've been pretty bad with money the last couple of months, eating out too much and buying unnecessary stuff. so i've made a deal with myself: no more unnecessary purchases. no eating out except under certain circumstances. and i'm going to start paying attention to sales at the grocery store and not just buying whatever pleases me whenever it pleases me. having been extremely broke in the past, i'm really good at economizing.
so. no wines over $5/bottle. no ribeye steaks. no boneless skinless chicken breasts. no fresh exotic mushrooms. etc. today i bought a smoked ham hock, 1 pound at 99 cents a pound; a pound of dried split peas for 49 cents; bulk carrots at .39/lb. (came out to 24 cents), and a bunch of celery at .89. already have onions, which were .39/lb., and chicken boullion cubes. add a little salt, pepper, parsley (.49/bunch), and marjoram, and i estimate the split pea soup will cost me less than $2 for four servings. i'll use my cute little bread machine to make fresh bread to go with it.
ah yes. i remember how to do this. i figure i can probably reduce my grocery spending by 50% without even breaking a sweat, and if i stop eating out so much, i can probably save a couple hundred bucks a month easy. not that a couple hundred bucks a month is going to help if i can't find work.
i sat down yesterday and did some math. now, keep in mind that i'm a hedonist at heart. there are plenty of things i could give up and lower my cost of living even further, but with the assumptions below, i can bring my cost of living down to something that falls within the range of contract rates i'm currently seeing for tech writing. (although if the Silicon Genetics thing comes through, it will pay somewhat more than that, i'm still going to try to stick to these rules for a few months to get my bank balance back to something less scary.)
assumptions: my apartment and my car are not expendable, i will pay no more or less than $100/month on any of my credit cards, a glass of wine with dinner is necessary for my sense of well-being but cheap chilean table wine will do just fine, and i get to eat out twice a week, keeping the total under $20 each time. no more CDs or DVDs while i'm not working, no more new books, no new clothes, no more pedicures, and assorted other minor stuff that isn't very interesting to read about.
factoring in taxes, i've worked out that i can just manage on $32/hour with my current expenses, and i can get that down to $25/hour if i quit therapy and cancel maid service -- neither of which i will give up unless i really have to. i may be able to save more money if i can find cheaper insurance, since my COBRA payments are outrageous, but that depends on whether anyone will actually sell me insurance. i'm going to look into it, anyway.
all this made me feel so motivated that i cleaned out and reorganized my kitchen cabinets and got some dry goods out of ziploc bags and into jars. now my fingers smell like cardamom, dried coconut, and chilies. yum.
so. no wines over $5/bottle. no ribeye steaks. no boneless skinless chicken breasts. no fresh exotic mushrooms. etc. today i bought a smoked ham hock, 1 pound at 99 cents a pound; a pound of dried split peas for 49 cents; bulk carrots at .39/lb. (came out to 24 cents), and a bunch of celery at .89. already have onions, which were .39/lb., and chicken boullion cubes. add a little salt, pepper, parsley (.49/bunch), and marjoram, and i estimate the split pea soup will cost me less than $2 for four servings. i'll use my cute little bread machine to make fresh bread to go with it.
ah yes. i remember how to do this. i figure i can probably reduce my grocery spending by 50% without even breaking a sweat, and if i stop eating out so much, i can probably save a couple hundred bucks a month easy. not that a couple hundred bucks a month is going to help if i can't find work.
i sat down yesterday and did some math. now, keep in mind that i'm a hedonist at heart. there are plenty of things i could give up and lower my cost of living even further, but with the assumptions below, i can bring my cost of living down to something that falls within the range of contract rates i'm currently seeing for tech writing. (although if the Silicon Genetics thing comes through, it will pay somewhat more than that, i'm still going to try to stick to these rules for a few months to get my bank balance back to something less scary.)
assumptions: my apartment and my car are not expendable, i will pay no more or less than $100/month on any of my credit cards, a glass of wine with dinner is necessary for my sense of well-being but cheap chilean table wine will do just fine, and i get to eat out twice a week, keeping the total under $20 each time. no more CDs or DVDs while i'm not working, no more new books, no new clothes, no more pedicures, and assorted other minor stuff that isn't very interesting to read about.
factoring in taxes, i've worked out that i can just manage on $32/hour with my current expenses, and i can get that down to $25/hour if i quit therapy and cancel maid service -- neither of which i will give up unless i really have to. i may be able to save more money if i can find cheaper insurance, since my COBRA payments are outrageous, but that depends on whether anyone will actually sell me insurance. i'm going to look into it, anyway.
all this made me feel so motivated that i cleaned out and reorganized my kitchen cabinets and got some dry goods out of ziploc bags and into jars. now my fingers smell like cardamom, dried coconut, and chilies. yum.
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