The past week has been a week long reason to drink. Perhaps thanks in part to it being a five payday month I have kept my word of a previous post and have not felt guilty about the amount of money that I've spent over the long weekend. My monthly total is now approaching October's current high, but with good reason after all the fun I had these past several days.
That said, it was also a sort of farewell celebration of sorts to that free spending out at the bars as well as in my daily habits in general. With my plans to quit my job impending, I am going to have to watch my spending a bit more scrupulously once again. $3 dollar beers and shots have once again increasingly grown annoying and I'm going to be looking to instead go out to bars with some sort of bargain (ie, Essex St. Pub). As well, I haven't been as focused on posting here and have even grown sloppy in some of my daily habits--sleeping (too much), reading (too little), cleanliness in my apartment--that could use a second wind as far as attention paid goes.
It's nice to think that the cold weather alone would keep me in more on the weekends and cut back on the spending, but a colder house is also hard to stay in. Either way, beginning today I've begun to take the necessary steps to be a bit more prepared to be focused once again.
Then again, it is only one day and the bars are open everyday.
Showing posts with label Monthly Totals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monthly Totals. Show all posts
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
$1,000 in October
Last Month marked the first month that I cracked the “allotted” $1,000 spending mark in one month. I did have to pay a little more money in bills, but mostly I just spent a little more on dining and going out.
And after every weekend that I went out and spent that money, I spent my entire Monday putting myself through a gut-wrenching guilt trip for spending too much money, money, I argued, that could have been used down the line paying for essentials rather than entertainment.
But—and I’m hoping this isn’t yet another one of my white lies that I tell to myself in hopes of justifying a compromise I will once again regret later—I’ve finally come to the realization that allowing my moods to be negatively affected by spending money is as equally absurd as the notion that money can buy you happiness: in both cases emotions are reliant upon money.
My whole life I’ve always been happier the less I’ve spent and more unhappier the more I’ve spent. I’ve counted and calculated my spending to the point that it becomes a pressure I put upon myself not to spend so much, yet I naturally respond to pressure by overdoing the very thing I am pressuring myself not to do.
But if I instead eliminate my emotions, both positive and negative, from the equation, spending simply becomes another event free of pressure, a pressure I will no longer respond to by overspending. If I am going to count every penny on Monday mornings I will simply do it as a math equation. If I want to quantify the rest of my weekend I will do so separately and remember the number of times I thought during my nights out with my friends “these are good times” and stop feeling guilty for having had to spend a few dollars to have them. I understand that I could have the same times for free, but if my friends want to go out, they’ll go out. And in wanting to have those same good times as my friends I’m willing to make that compromise and go out with them.
Only now today, I no longer feel so guilty about that as I have in the past.
And after every weekend that I went out and spent that money, I spent my entire Monday putting myself through a gut-wrenching guilt trip for spending too much money, money, I argued, that could have been used down the line paying for essentials rather than entertainment.
But—and I’m hoping this isn’t yet another one of my white lies that I tell to myself in hopes of justifying a compromise I will once again regret later—I’ve finally come to the realization that allowing my moods to be negatively affected by spending money is as equally absurd as the notion that money can buy you happiness: in both cases emotions are reliant upon money.
My whole life I’ve always been happier the less I’ve spent and more unhappier the more I’ve spent. I’ve counted and calculated my spending to the point that it becomes a pressure I put upon myself not to spend so much, yet I naturally respond to pressure by overdoing the very thing I am pressuring myself not to do.
But if I instead eliminate my emotions, both positive and negative, from the equation, spending simply becomes another event free of pressure, a pressure I will no longer respond to by overspending. If I am going to count every penny on Monday mornings I will simply do it as a math equation. If I want to quantify the rest of my weekend I will do so separately and remember the number of times I thought during my nights out with my friends “these are good times” and stop feeling guilty for having had to spend a few dollars to have them. I understand that I could have the same times for free, but if my friends want to go out, they’ll go out. And in wanting to have those same good times as my friends I’m willing to make that compromise and go out with them.
Only now today, I no longer feel so guilty about that as I have in the past.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Monthly Totals
Unless I decide to spend an unforeseen amount of money tomorrow, or if I decide to go out tonight--which is sitting at a comfortable 50% chance right now--it would look like my monthly spending has come to its total and it once again is slightly over $900.
And again that still feels like way too much for me to be spending, especially considering that I've managed to remain without a car, which alone saves me almost $300 a month. Picturing myself spending almost $1200 a month with those car expenditures seems even more lavish, if not almost too expensive even.
But once I remind myself--and my don't I need to constantly do that for myself?--that while my goal here is to generally do as much nothing as possible, it's specifically to spend under an average of $1000 a month for an entire year. And not only am I successfully carrying out that goal at the moment, an average of $900 a month calculates out to a mere $10,800 over the course of the year.
And while that may sound like nearly a million dollars to a third world resident--though I do not mean to speak for someone I have never met--in terms relative to my home and its financial standards of living I am far from living a lavish or even, statistically speaking, a comfortable lifestyle.
But yet, that's the very joke of it. For I am living as comfortably as I ever have. I always have enough money to satisfy my occasional consumer impulse and have even continued to save money for yet another possible trip across country or to give up work altogether for a few more months in the near future.
I don't know where this internal pressure I'm always putting on myself comes from, but once I put it into these terms and relate them to my surroundings, they seems all too pointlessly burdensome if not ridiculously unnecessary.
Though so too does the idea of having any more money than I already have.
And again that still feels like way too much for me to be spending, especially considering that I've managed to remain without a car, which alone saves me almost $300 a month. Picturing myself spending almost $1200 a month with those car expenditures seems even more lavish, if not almost too expensive even.
But once I remind myself--and my don't I need to constantly do that for myself?--that while my goal here is to generally do as much nothing as possible, it's specifically to spend under an average of $1000 a month for an entire year. And not only am I successfully carrying out that goal at the moment, an average of $900 a month calculates out to a mere $10,800 over the course of the year.
And while that may sound like nearly a million dollars to a third world resident--though I do not mean to speak for someone I have never met--in terms relative to my home and its financial standards of living I am far from living a lavish or even, statistically speaking, a comfortable lifestyle.
But yet, that's the very joke of it. For I am living as comfortably as I ever have. I always have enough money to satisfy my occasional consumer impulse and have even continued to save money for yet another possible trip across country or to give up work altogether for a few more months in the near future.
I don't know where this internal pressure I'm always putting on myself comes from, but once I put it into these terms and relate them to my surroundings, they seems all too pointlessly burdensome if not ridiculously unnecessary.
Though so too does the idea of having any more money than I already have.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Monthly Totals
In what I hope will be my most frivolous month in terms of spending, my monthly total for August came to exactly $998. Just two dollars under the amount I have allotted on average per month, but still a number far, far higher than I wish—and especially, need—to spend. It goes to show that when I have money I still spend it. And so the less I have the less I spend and the better I feel about it.
But unlike last month when I broke down my spending by category (for the record, my going out and dining out spending was way higher with bills, food and unexpected spending remaining rather constant) I will instead breakdown the nothing that has been occupying me.
Over the last month I have continued to ride my bike for a daily 18 mile round trip commute, hung out constantly on the porch with my housemates, and managed to fit a few books and short stories in as well.
Additionally, my friend Mike and I have begun using all the recording equipment that he owns and have been working on a few musical ideas that we have. I have also began to research, line by line (using wikipedia mostly), what is perhaps my favorite book, Reader’s Block, in hopes of fully understanding its intricate system of cross-reference and literary allusions. Beyond that I have continued working on posting these thoughts, as well as slowly continuing work on some other thoughts that I’ve neglected far too long.
I have been carrying out these last ideas all with no monetary incentive nor even necessarily the completion of them, but rather only for the enjoyment of the acts and the processes themselves. It beats watching TV and demanding to be entertained.
But still, I haven’t begun drawing again.
But unlike last month when I broke down my spending by category (for the record, my going out and dining out spending was way higher with bills, food and unexpected spending remaining rather constant) I will instead breakdown the nothing that has been occupying me.
Over the last month I have continued to ride my bike for a daily 18 mile round trip commute, hung out constantly on the porch with my housemates, and managed to fit a few books and short stories in as well.
Additionally, my friend Mike and I have begun using all the recording equipment that he owns and have been working on a few musical ideas that we have. I have also began to research, line by line (using wikipedia mostly), what is perhaps my favorite book, Reader’s Block, in hopes of fully understanding its intricate system of cross-reference and literary allusions. Beyond that I have continued working on posting these thoughts, as well as slowly continuing work on some other thoughts that I’ve neglected far too long.
I have been carrying out these last ideas all with no monetary incentive nor even necessarily the completion of them, but rather only for the enjoyment of the acts and the processes themselves. It beats watching TV and demanding to be entertained.
But still, I haven’t begun drawing again.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Bills Due, Bills Paid
Even though it’s been nearly two weeks since most of my monthly bills were due, I’ll finally post about them now. I again managed to scrounge up enough money to pay my monthly debts to society—even reluctantly dipped into some of my cash savings that I prefer not to touch—and covered the $448.98 that went towards rent, utilities, my student loan payments, phone and the $20 minimum towards my credit card (which will be paid in full assuming Uncle Sam’s money goons give me my tax return soon).
That said, I have been going out a little more lately and have spent almost as much so far this month as I did all of last month. Though, looking at the stats more money has been spent on random items such as gas (I’ve been cheating and borrowing my cousin’s car lately) and a few more meals have been dined out upon (like how I avoided saying “eaten out” there?). Still, more than likely, even this month I will stay below the $1000 average and will avoid completely depleting those cash savings any time soon.
That said, I have been going out a little more lately and have spent almost as much so far this month as I did all of last month. Though, looking at the stats more money has been spent on random items such as gas (I’ve been cheating and borrowing my cousin’s car lately) and a few more meals have been dined out upon (like how I avoided saying “eaten out” there?). Still, more than likely, even this month I will stay below the $1000 average and will avoid completely depleting those cash savings any time soon.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
July: Monthly Totals
I just got my last purchase of the month in—a $2.31 Magnum 40 to help kill this caffeine buzz (don’t read as: pain) that I suddenly have—at 11:33pm, 07/31/2007, and here’s how the monthly totals for July look:
Bills: $422.00
As stated at the beginning of the month, this included rent, utilities, phone, student loans and a minimum payment on my credit card. This probably won’t fluctuate all that much, at least not until winter when we have to actually use heat, though for the next three months we have to pay a portion of our last month rent that I guess we didn’t pay before. But even that divided by four is only $60 or so more.
Alcohol: $139.90
This includes two shows at the Mohawk Place, one free show at Thursday at the Square, at least one night out per weekend and a surprisingly low one trip to La Luna for its open bar on Wednesday. Averaged out this amounts to about $35 a week, which sounds pretty standard to me even though this total also includes a bachelor’s party and a graduation party that I don’t envision being in my regular monthly expenditures. However, I’m bound to take up a couple more Thursday at the Squares than I did last month and spend another night or two out on the weekends to keep this in about the same range.
Sub-total, Free Beers: 47
Like I said, you can’t put a price on good friends. Or free beers for that matter either.
Food: $107.97
As outlined in an earlier post, my diet consisted of nothing different should I have been spending five times more money: there’s only so much I know how to make and, of that, so much that I want to eat. Between the staples of my diet I managed to mix and combine them enough to last an entire month without getting sick of any of them. Nope, not even the 5am goulash that I made last Saturday night.
Dine-in/Take-out: $32.59
Separate from the food bill because of its unnecessary (except late at night) nature, almost guilty pleasure status and its, well as the kids would call it, “being a treat,” this mostly includes small trips to McDonald’s, though it also includes two great breakfasts—one at Nick’s Place and one at its cousin restaurant, Sophia’s—and, when including my credit purchases, two trips to SteakOut. Generally, I’m surprised I behaved myself so well in limiting myself to only this many meals out of the house, especially considering the regularity of being out late. Maybe I do, deep down, possess some form of temperance after all, though hopefully not so much. Like grace, you don’t want too much temperance or else you won’t be able to stand.
Miscellaneous Expenses: $34.62
This includes laundry and cover charges for the shows I went to over the month, though I also charged some purchases on a wrist brace ($18?) and $21 on gas ($21 more dollars on gas than I thought I’d spend). Thought I realize this is the category that can make or break my goal—no health insurance and a propensity to go out and ride my bike home, not to mention my already possibly broken or severely sprained wrist—I don’t see this being all that much higher: by getting rid of my car I had hoped to eliminate such expenses as much as possible. Though I know how, like nature abhorring a vacuum, life has a way of despising idealistic ventures, so I can’t say I would be surprised if I am wrong about this hunch.
Purchases on Credit: $123.17
To prevent double counting these purchases in a later month’s bill payments, I will keep this as a separate category though not figuring it into the monthly total. In all criticism of myself, I certainly do not intend to ever again crack the $100 credit mark and hope to eliminate the use of credit—surely I am un-American to say such a thing!—completely if at all possible.
TOTAL: $737.08
Total with Credit purchases (minus the payment made for previous credit purchases): $840.25
General outlook: the month wasn’t much different than what I envisioned, even if I have been slightly more of a hermit than I had hoped to be. Hopefully that will change in the next month. Still, I managed to go to two shows at the Mohawk, one at the Square, ate breakfast out twice, made a couple SteakOut visits, and, on the free side, constantly hang out with my friends (even had a great two hours of laughing and sitting on the porch with two of my roommates tonight), play Bid Pitch on a bi-weekly schedule, took multiple bike rides, enjoyed the garage sales resulting from the Garden Walk this past weekend, read under a tree at Bidwell Park and even found the time to finish reading (only) a couple of books.
Even if counting the credit purchases, which will obviously catch up with me and be accounted for (if I was to only pay the minimum over the course of the year and finish the year with credit card debt, I would then (obviously, I hope) include those purchases in my final yearly expenditure total), this would put me on pace to spend $10,083 over the course of the year.
This may not sound all that far below my allotted goal, but trying to spend $160 more a month, consistently, would be far more difficult for me than even Brewster (think Richard Pryor, not the Punky kind) would think. I’d have to buy new shoes and shirts to get that lavish.
Though that purchasing instinct of mine has been telling me to buy some new(er) shoes. Still, as the saying goes, I’m not buying. Right now I’m just hoping that medicine I bought tonight will help kill that caffeine buzz so I can sleep in this humid room.
As always, one night at a time.
Bills: $422.00
As stated at the beginning of the month, this included rent, utilities, phone, student loans and a minimum payment on my credit card. This probably won’t fluctuate all that much, at least not until winter when we have to actually use heat, though for the next three months we have to pay a portion of our last month rent that I guess we didn’t pay before. But even that divided by four is only $60 or so more.
Alcohol: $139.90
This includes two shows at the Mohawk Place, one free show at Thursday at the Square, at least one night out per weekend and a surprisingly low one trip to La Luna for its open bar on Wednesday. Averaged out this amounts to about $35 a week, which sounds pretty standard to me even though this total also includes a bachelor’s party and a graduation party that I don’t envision being in my regular monthly expenditures. However, I’m bound to take up a couple more Thursday at the Squares than I did last month and spend another night or two out on the weekends to keep this in about the same range.
Sub-total, Free Beers: 47
Like I said, you can’t put a price on good friends. Or free beers for that matter either.
Food: $107.97
As outlined in an earlier post, my diet consisted of nothing different should I have been spending five times more money: there’s only so much I know how to make and, of that, so much that I want to eat. Between the staples of my diet I managed to mix and combine them enough to last an entire month without getting sick of any of them. Nope, not even the 5am goulash that I made last Saturday night.
Dine-in/Take-out: $32.59
Separate from the food bill because of its unnecessary (except late at night) nature, almost guilty pleasure status and its, well as the kids would call it, “being a treat,” this mostly includes small trips to McDonald’s, though it also includes two great breakfasts—one at Nick’s Place and one at its cousin restaurant, Sophia’s—and, when including my credit purchases, two trips to SteakOut. Generally, I’m surprised I behaved myself so well in limiting myself to only this many meals out of the house, especially considering the regularity of being out late. Maybe I do, deep down, possess some form of temperance after all, though hopefully not so much. Like grace, you don’t want too much temperance or else you won’t be able to stand.
Miscellaneous Expenses: $34.62
This includes laundry and cover charges for the shows I went to over the month, though I also charged some purchases on a wrist brace ($18?) and $21 on gas ($21 more dollars on gas than I thought I’d spend). Thought I realize this is the category that can make or break my goal—no health insurance and a propensity to go out and ride my bike home, not to mention my already possibly broken or severely sprained wrist—I don’t see this being all that much higher: by getting rid of my car I had hoped to eliminate such expenses as much as possible. Though I know how, like nature abhorring a vacuum, life has a way of despising idealistic ventures, so I can’t say I would be surprised if I am wrong about this hunch.
Purchases on Credit: $123.17
To prevent double counting these purchases in a later month’s bill payments, I will keep this as a separate category though not figuring it into the monthly total. In all criticism of myself, I certainly do not intend to ever again crack the $100 credit mark and hope to eliminate the use of credit—surely I am un-American to say such a thing!—completely if at all possible.
TOTAL: $737.08
Total with Credit purchases (minus the payment made for previous credit purchases): $840.25
General outlook: the month wasn’t much different than what I envisioned, even if I have been slightly more of a hermit than I had hoped to be. Hopefully that will change in the next month. Still, I managed to go to two shows at the Mohawk, one at the Square, ate breakfast out twice, made a couple SteakOut visits, and, on the free side, constantly hang out with my friends (even had a great two hours of laughing and sitting on the porch with two of my roommates tonight), play Bid Pitch on a bi-weekly schedule, took multiple bike rides, enjoyed the garage sales resulting from the Garden Walk this past weekend, read under a tree at Bidwell Park and even found the time to finish reading (only) a couple of books.
Even if counting the credit purchases, which will obviously catch up with me and be accounted for (if I was to only pay the minimum over the course of the year and finish the year with credit card debt, I would then (obviously, I hope) include those purchases in my final yearly expenditure total), this would put me on pace to spend $10,083 over the course of the year.
This may not sound all that far below my allotted goal, but trying to spend $160 more a month, consistently, would be far more difficult for me than even Brewster (think Richard Pryor, not the Punky kind) would think. I’d have to buy new shoes and shirts to get that lavish.
Though that purchasing instinct of mine has been telling me to buy some new(er) shoes. Still, as the saying goes, I’m not buying. Right now I’m just hoping that medicine I bought tonight will help kill that caffeine buzz so I can sleep in this humid room.
As always, one night at a time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)