If you like to talk about money

I like money. Most people do. I really like to keep track of how I spend it, and I like to save it even more. This from the person who does not write down her expenses in a checkbook registry.

I'm really excited because since 2010 is over, I get to run my first year end budget report. I know, right? I started tracking everything on an Excel spreadsheet in spring of 2009, but this is the first year that I can make a complete and accurate year end report. I was really good about keeping track of everything in 2010.

What I'm most interested in is finding out my 12 month average for all my spending categories, and how much I spent during the whole year on one category. Also, I get to see how much money I spent during all of 2010, which is a big slap of reality across the cheek. I also discovered how much money I saved throughout the year.

Abe is thuggin' in an origami hat.

 I don't use any sort of fancy program to keep track of everything. Like I said, I made a spreadsheet on Excel that is tailored to my personal budget. I have a spreadsheet for each month of the year (made into tabs) and about once every two weeks I go through my online banking registry and write everything down. I rarely use cash, because having cash is like free money to me, since I can't see it show up later on my online banking. All I know is I took forty bucks out of the ATM on whatever date. Who knows what I spent it on. So I usually pay for everything on my debit card, because it leaves an electronic paper trail.

In case you are interested in learning about my budget categories, I'll tell you. If you're not interested in reading about other people's budgets, you should probably just X off of this post right now and go watch a YouTube video. I'm kind of nosy, so if you posted about this, I'd be interested in reading it. But I understand not everyone is interested in the same things.

Anyway, so my budget categories:

Mortgage. Yes! The joys of pretending to be an adult.

Garbage. I get billed ever other month. This also covers recycling, which I take full advantage of, thank you very much. Plus they pick up my yard debris, which I don't have a lot of, on account of how my yard is about as wide as a bowling lane.

Gas. This isn't gas for my car. It's natural gas that heats my water tank and house. Higher in the winter months, or course.

Electric. Thanks, PGE. Lights. Computer. Hair dryer. TV. Blender. All those things suck up energy.

Water/Sewer. Because even though I live in Oregon where the rain hitting my driveway exceeds my daily water usage, I still have to pay.

Internet. Could we live without it?

Phone. I have a cell phone that I never access internet on. And I'm on the family plan. My mother bills me about every two months.

Insurance. Home owners and car. My health insurance comes straight out of my paycheck, so I ignore that.

Household. This covers things like toilet paper, soap, light bulbs, or more popularly, home decor. Like pillows and bookshelves and beautiful things.

Gym. Got to work on my fitness.

Auto/Gas. Flat tires, dead batteries, hit and runs, fuel, headlights, doorhandles-- everything that can go wrong usually does. Actually, my car is pretty faithful. I like it.

Groceries. Winco, baby. Can't afford to shop at Roth's or Safeway or FredMeyer. Take my own bags to help Mother Earth.

Eating out. I rarely do this because I feel like it's a giant waste of money. I mean, four bucks for a baked potato when they're worth like, twelve cents? I mostly have to keep in mind that I am paying for the atmosphere and company. Otherwise it's totally not worth it.

Personal. This is kind of a broad category, and it covers not only things like haircuts, massages, toothpaste, doctor and dentist visits, oral surgery, cough syrup, and prescriptions, but also apparently Blockbuster movie rentals, according to March 2010.

Clothes. Because nakedness is only attractive on some people.

Retail. Basically this should be renamed the Target category, because that's where most of the money goes. I could divide the receipt up into all the other categories, but I usually don't and it gets lumped into this. Like, if I go to Target and buy toilet paper, a toothbrush, a t-shirt, and something for my classroom, I don't separate it all out. I probably should. Maybe that will be a 2011 goal.

School. This isn't college tuition anymore, it's the money I spend on my classroom. I mostly buy books for my students to read, or other various teaching equipment, like cast iron rulers.

Tithe. God has blessed me immensely. And my church is awesome.

Other. Sometimes things just don't fit anywhere else you know?

Okay, so I was fully planning on telling you some money tips and more about how I track things on my budget, because I really do consider myself fiscally responsible, but this post is getting kind of long and your attention span is getting kind of short. So we'll finish tomorrow. Finance nerds tune in, or you know, if you're an identity thief and you want to get a hold of my credit card number.

I Need It Fast

Or, The Cost of Convenience, Part Two
It kills me when I have to spend a dumb amount of money because I need something fast. But it saves me time.

Case in point #1
I need these color copies so that I can make a book for my upcoming GLAD science unit. It's about animals and their habitats. I don't have color ink at home, and our school building does not have a single color copier either. So good luck with that. The GLAD lab (where you can go to make your GLAD units for free) is open four days a week, but in order to use it I have to leave my school early and drive across town to get there before it closes. I don't have that kind of time. So I ordered 21 pages of color copies off of Digital Store Front, which is what teachers use to order all the print they need. It cost me $10.29! That's like 49 cents a copy. Robbery! It costs 3 cents for a black and white copy, BTW. But like I said, I don't have the time to go to the GLAD lab before I need the print.

In case you are not a teacher and are wondering what GLAD is, it is not a happy way to teach science. It stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design, and it is primarily aimed at children whose native language is not English, AKA 65% of my class.

Case in point #2
I try to save money on paying bills by doing it online. Unfortunately, the old-school-ness of two of my utility suppliers do not have online bill paying functions. Thus, I have to mail them a check. One of the aforementioned supplier living in the stone age is located only eight minutes from my house, but it is inconvenient for me to stop there to drop off the payment. Thus, I have to spend 44 cents in stampage. Grrr.

For an even worse waste of money, read The Cost of Convenience.

The cost of convenience

The ATM stole my money. Or rather, it asked permission first and I said yes too fast before I realized what was happening, like how what's-her-face got impregnated at camp on The Secret Life of an American Teenager. I was depositing some checks and I realized I needed stamps so I could mail some of my bills (you know, the old school ones that don't have an option to pay on-line, like to the garbage service, which has a really sketch barn type building out in the middle of a bunch of fields).

Going to the post office was out of the way and a pain, so I punched the button that yes, I would like to buy stamps. The screen came up and I selected 18 stamps, mostly because they didn't have an option for seven. Then I quickly clicked yes again on the next screen, because I was super hungry and wanted to go home and eat. It was after I punched the yes that I briefly scanned the small print telling me that the stamps were valued at $7.92, though I was paying $9.54 for them. Crap. Too late to go back. The machine spit out my stamps and I went out to my car to do the math.

Each stamp had a service charge of nine cents. That was ridiculous. That was twenty-percent of the cost of a stamp. I was being charged 120%. I was rather outraged for a while, but the closer and sooner I got to my house, I realized it was sort of worth $1.62 to not go to the post office. I mean, I'd have to spend my time driving there and waiting in line, and I would have to burn gas to get there as well. Nevertheless, I am hoping these 18 stamps last me a long time.

P.S. Can we talk about how I didn't go to work today because I was sick, and even though I had 8 extra hours to get grading and planning done, I still did not finish my PDP and yearly goals, even though they were due to my principal two weeks ago? Though really, why should I work on my sick day? But I fully graded 23 writing samples, did GLAD unit planning, and filled out weekly progress reports for my kiddos. All while in bed, sneezing out yellow snot and drinking OJ. Do you like how I make myself feel guilty, and then try to justify my actions to you? I am pretty sure there is a psychology term for this.