LRJohnson Saves

I saw an ad on television that I hated with the white hot passion of a thousand suns. The commercial was for Home Depot; we see a woman putting her glass into a fridge door and commenting to her husband that the water dispenser is broken, and that the ice cube maker is broken too. The angle changes and then we see that it is a regular refrigerator with no dispensers….she’s hinting to her husband that they need a new fridge.

Why do they need a new fridge when the old isn’t broken? What is acceptable about rude sarcasm to hint to your spouse to buy something? Do they have all financial business taken care of, such as all debt paid and retirement planning, that they can make this a financial priority? Is using the tap and making ice cubes so very time consuming that an absolute luxury is perceived as a need? If people in other countries could see what we Americans have as priorities, as evidenced by this commercial, they’d rightly think we were nutty.

I have a scheduled day off work, and if I do what I plan I’ll get a lot done. A trip to take books to the bookstore for exchange value, a grocery run, a bread thrift store run, some recycling, preparing frozen whole plums for making jam, laundry, housecleaning. I love days that feel productive like that.

I’m really cleaning out the cupboards. Last month I spent $77 on grocery, not much.* This month, so far only $32! That wasn’t the original plan, but I got into a “clean out the cupboards” mode. Some combinations have been good….much used oatmeal cooked with sitting on the shelf cream of wheat. That had an unused can of apricots blended and stirred into it, for a batch of “instant” breakfasts. A can of beets and a can of corn with dressing: it made me wonder why they had been siting on the shelf! I love beets! Stockpiles of shelf stable tofu and sugar free gelatin back in rotation and being put to good use. The cupboards and fridge are empty in a good way…I feel like I really have a handle on what I have, what I need, and how creativity can turn “there’s nothing in the house to eat” into three weeks plus of meals. We’ll do a big run in the next few days, but we don’t have unused dusty food now.

*I didn’t spend a low amount due to the trip; I used $45, half my “normal” grocery money, towards meals on my trip.

The more I think about that $8.75 banana split I saw the other day, the more amazed I am. I suffer from sticker shock continually-a benefit of being an infrequent shopper who does frequent garage sales and thrift stores- but my goodness. I would have guessed maybe $4.95 for a banana split tops. Perhaps $6 or $7 in NYC or a fancy restaurant. I’d have to work an hour and a half at minimum wage for the banana split. That seems wrong. It seems like a once or twice a year banana split should be a reasonable treat in the scheme of things. Sometimes I am surprised by how many people are in debt or not managing money too well. Well, part of it is that we aren’t all equally skilled; I’m sure slimmer folks sometimes marvel at how chubbier folk can not eat right and exercise. But beyond the “why don’t we all have common sense” argument, so much out there to buy is so unnecessary or overpriced, and it surrounds folks. Made from scratch that banana split would be maybe seventy five cents. I’m almost curious to ask them how many they sell a year. It’s not a particularly fancy place; just a local ice cream shop.

Y'all can be thankful I'm back to yacking about frugality. However, on the rumination side of things, tonight tv has crud so I actually didn't watch the crud, and I listened to some music. So simple, but habits habits habits.....

Admission: I spent $2 on a coffee last week; $2.25 including tip. Nothing really fancy, just a medium sized coffee with cream. It’s coming off my entertainment budget, and isn’t too much, but somehow not “admitting” the purchase has been weighing on me. How weird is that?

On my ruminations: I thank you all for your encouragement, both to be kind to myself and to not let up up my goals (if reasonable). I took concrete steps today; that always makes me feel better. I can’t say that I did Day One of Twenty One days to build a habit; tomorrow I leave the house at 4:30 in the morning to fly to Sacramento and arrive back at 10:30 at night. That’s definitely not a normal day for me.

I feel good about growing older in general. I was very glad to leave my twenties. The way I look at it, the older one is the less they freak out.

That’s what made me bummed that this was not my favorite Birthday. Now, I almost didn’t want to mention it because it seemed like a pretty cheap way to get people to give me birthday greetings. Hence the lack of posts.

Most folks probably have a general idea of what they are doing in their lives that works for them, and a general idea of what’s not working for them. If they don’t, well, I think these things are worth articulating for ourselves. One of my biggest pet peeves is people complaining about the same thing year after year without doing something to change it. It is just a sad thing…if someone keeps complaining about the same job every time you see them, it’s just funky. They either need to change their head or work environment so that work is better, or leave the job. It may not be a quick thing to fix, but after realizing they feel the way they do, they should start taking concrete steps to change. If the job is fine and they need to just stop complaining so much, that’s a step taken as well.

I have three things that I have been complaining about for a couple years now, and I haven’t managed to change my life in these areas. The particular topics aren’t important, especially in that they are not money or Challenge related. I’m just really disappointed in myself that in these areas I haven’t either made peace or changed things or a combination.

Birthdays are a time of taking stock and right now I’m not so thrilled with what I see. Some things I do in my life I’m proud of. But most of these things are things that have been around a while, such as frugality or sobriety. I’d like to have something newer to be proud of myself for and I’d like to not be having the same baggage I had before; I want new baggage.

(A plain banana split at an ice cream place in town was $8.75. Isn’t that crazy? No, I didn’t have it.)

Habits are very hard for me to change. I have a lot of good habits. I have some habits that I’m not so fond of. Changing habits is almost more difficult that what the new task is….and that’s frustrating. Persistence is the key…but if persistence was freakin’ easy, I’d have new habits already. So is it patience that’s the key?

Okay, things in general I want to tighten up and/or focus on:

Use the excercise bike and walk to work. This saves money and also helps with my health; I could stand to use 30 pounds (I lost 20 then gained four on vacation so I’m at 180). Concrete steps to do this: Offer use of my car to My Guy-he benefits, and I am forced to walk. Also, if I want to play a computer game, “earn” it by using the exercise bike.

Continue to eat breakfast everyday and pack a good lunch and snacks. I’m mostly doing this; I could just get back in the pre-vacation habit of preparing more stuff, like hard boiling eggs or making more muffins and such.

Continue to de-clutter and organize. I’ve need the furniture I already mentioned, eventually. We’ve got the pantry under control and are using some stuff up. I need to take a bag of books to the bookstore for exchange credit, and just start some boxes for the thrift store.

I used to have a routine that worked for me kinda; I got home around 4:15, and between 4:15 and 5 I’d putter, and from 5-6 I’d watch Oprah and do the exercise bike and putter, then I’d be “off the clock” at 6, still plenty early to enjoy the evening. Not only did going on vacation and then getting sick blow my developed habit, but they moved Oprah to a different time. It’s on two times a day instead of one…but they are the wrong times! Believe me, I can see how sad it is to have a routine built around the Oprah show; I don’t defend it and am not proud. However it was a routine that was productive for me. It’s a matter of developing a new one.

Today I went to a couple of garage sales. A couple meaning two. Ended up spending $1.25; a quarter on a nice Rubbermaid pitcher, for chilled water or iced tea or whatnot; a gift for fifty cents; and, a tortilla press for My Guy to try tortillas again (hopefully successfully this time).

What I was really looking for was furniture; we have a couple needs in the house. They are actual needs instead of wants, but nothing critical that has to be bought right away. I’d like a chest/shelves/armoire type thing to hold our gifts for others - right now they are in two boxes behind the couch; disorganized, overflowing, hard to get into. I have one bookcase about to die (it was a cheap pine thing when I bought it 20 years ago and it’s listing to the side) as well as other bookcases that are overflowing. In our computer room, some shelving/coffee table/sideboard type thing might help with the piles of crud on the floor.

I’ve been postponing some of this, thinking that instead of getting stuff to put things on and in, I should just get rid of the stuff. I’m at the point that even with all the clutter control I do I have to admit I can’t toss everything. Having the box of gifts is such a tension tamer; I have a lot of gifts bought for people specifically, as well as nice general gifts, and this prevents last minute worry and shopping and spending. No need to ruin a good thing by using an unworkable system for it, right?

It’ll take a while to get the right thing. With things like this I can be pretty patient.

I feel the need to re-energize myself and get cracking on being better with my body and taking on tasks, and also have more fun. I’ve been inspired by another blogger who did away with his computer games; I have one I play pretty often, and I’m making it a earned treat-doing the exercise bike earns me a game. Only for that day, though; I can’t bank the games I earn. I’ll likely modify the rules, to make it work for me. Tomorrow I’m going to spell out for myself some specifics on how I’d like to re-focus.

I have concocted again.

A can of condensed cream of chicken soup, a couple pounds of chicken thighs, a half jar of tandoori paste, and a couple cups of pureed canned peaches. All in the crock pot. And it was really good. Not just edible, not “okay”, but great - second helpings great! And you can’t make out any cream base soup or fruit at all….it tastes a little Indian, with the curry tandoori going on.

Now what was I thinking?? Well, it’s hard to say sometimes. Not much could top my Freak Soup. I don’t worry too much, because no one else has to eat what I concoct-but I usually like it so I forge ahead. So let’s try to decipher the code.

“Okay, I have lots of jars of marinades and pastes and sauces, so I’ll use some up. Less clutter, less spending, all that good stuff. What can I put sauce on? I’ll try the chicken thighs I bought, because they are a lot cheaper, and I’ll see if I can get over my fear of cooking meat. Okay, chicken thighs and ...what jar do I use? How about this tandoori thing, it’s in front. There we go; thighs and paste in a pot. Looks dry…some water, good. Now it’s too thin and runny looking, how to handle this….. What cans need to be used up? Beets? No, not beets….cream of chicken sounds better. It’ll add creaminess, smoothness. Good. Anything else? Well, chutney is sometimes used with curry…should I stick some fruit in here? Banana? No, not banana. I know, I’ll puree some canned peaches and dump that in. And the rest of the peaches I’ll throw in cream of wheat. Okay, lid is on, and I’m crossing my fingers.”

Now, with my oddball meals, what I do is, if all the ingredients separately are ones My Guy will eat, I make the concoction, taste it, if it tastes good ask him to taste it, and then if he likes it admit the ingredients. Last night he said, “Smells like barbecue.” I said, “Oh, no, not even close. After you taste it tomorrow I’ll tell ya.” Today he pulled the meat off the bone and made rice. Then he tasted, liked, learned the ingredients, shrugged, and ate up. And had seconds. And said it was really good.

So not only did we have a great meal out of the pantry from odds and ends, we made progress on the fear of meat front. After the meat cooked, My Guy easily pulled the meat of the bones and stuck the meat back into he-knew-not-what; we hadn’t been sure how that would work. Now I can stop using chicken breast and use thighs for any crockpot dish from now on. The meat was more flavorful, the fat was easy to skim, and thighs are so much cheaper than breasts.

Whoo hoo!

I love being an adult; one of the very best things is being able to eat a bowl of cream of wheat for dinner because that’s what you want. We’re cleaning out the pantry and tackling those little used items. I’ve got a mighty concoction going on in the crock pot; enough said until I determine it’s edible. I made cream of wheat with canned peaches for future frozen breakfasts [edited to clarify: I make a big batch, freeze in cottage cheese tubs, and microwave for future instant breakfasts], and some sugar-free gelatin for snacks and lunches. The crock pot Unchained Medley will go on either cous cous or rice, both needing to re-enter the food rotation.

My spending is low key. My only expenditures other than recurring monthly bills (utilities, rent, etc.) this month have been $4.82 on dining out from entertainment budget and $20.43 from the grocery budget. Really; $25.25, I’m pretty much not a spender. Some of the reason I don’t give mid month updates is because I forget, but other times it’s because there’s not much to update.

I do have a wedding Saturday, the very first I’ve seen as a guest in my life. I was a flower girl once around ten years old at a sorta different wedding (bride in low cut red satin, bridesmaids in black). A couple years ago I performed a ceremony; despite me as clergy, all the other parts were quite traditional (and I’m proud of the ceremony). But this is the first I’ll actually watch. I’m 35. Weird, huh? I ordered personalized labels for the bride’s favorite hooch, so I’ll be buying the hooch; other than that, I do have nice stuff in my gift boxes.

Man, I love cream of wheat. It’s just such comfort food. I am aware it’s a pretty processed grain; that’s why I’ve been more of an oatmeal gal lately, but I just love the stuff. It used to be a “special” food I got to eat only at Grandma’s, so I always thought of it as a treat. And oatmeal has always been groovy too. I’ve never understood the whole anti-hot-cereal vibe. Really, people, add brown sugar or fruit if you need to, but don’t pass up that hot cheap good comfort.

I got the funniest reaction to My Challenge today. When I said it would end at the end of February, he said, “You’re only doing it for a year?”

Wow. He’s a man who can put some perspective on things, huh? When I’m done with the year, it will be 365 days. Perhaps one percent of my life if I’m lucky.

Stopped me cold, it did.

Being gone for a couple weeks shed some light on some differences between me and My Guy.

When I came home, the pre-compost-tub held exactly what I had last tossed in it, and no more. The tin can recycling bag held one lone bottle.

Well, huh. Clearly my habits had not rubbed off on him…..in eight years.

And then I was told by this guy, My Guy, that he had thought my Challenge did have an impact on him, because perhaps he didn’t go out enough.

Huh.

Sometimes we might think that we are on the same wavelength, and surprise, surprise, we aren’t. But here’s how I’m looking at it. There is nothing he does that prevents me from composting or recycling. Normally when I’m around he’ll put recycling by the sink, and I rinse or swish or sort. Not a biggie. He sometimes composts when I’m around; sometimes I pull the coffee filter or some egg shells off the garbage, which is literally right next to the pre-compost tub. Again, no biggie.

On to going out. This means going out to eat; we don’t go dancing or to clubs or movies or whatever; maybe a street fair now and then. Now, we are independent folk. I say: Go Out, young man. I do not have any problem with My Guy spending his money on whatever. It’s a benefit of having separate money. Sometimes this benefits him; when he took off work a few months, I was absolutely fine with it; it didn’t affect my savings, and him living off his savings as an extended vacation by choice was absolutely what he wanted to do.

So I’ll encourage him to Go Out more, with friends, his sister, whatever. I still hold that many of the dinners we ate out were more out of laziness than a desire to eat Out. And I’ll look out for ways to make at home dinner feel more Out. (His hints about our “peasant food” should have been more of an inspiration to cook it up.)

I don’t really prevent him from Going Out, even though I affect it some. He doesn’t help compost and recycle, but he doesn’t make it difficult for me to do so. We could spend a lot of time trying to convert each other, but heck, I’m not interested. If I can go out to eat twice a month while on My Challenge, I’ll go ahead and pull egg shells out of the garbage.

(He didn’t hang laundry on the line once. I haven’t gotten the electric bill, so I’m still calm about that.)

You don’t have to convert someone to do what you need to do. Nice.

I spent $1592 a month last year. My savings are the difference, $1592-$1026= $566 times 7 months, $3962. Add to that my $150 in “savings” and my whopping $9.51 in my emergency fund, I’ve saved $4121.51. If I take out what I spend on my vacation in Croatia and Bosnia, which is not part of my Challenge but is certainly spent money, it’s $4121.51 less $1,809.64 for a total of $2,311.87. Saving an additional twenty-three hundred dollars in seven months while also taking a two week trip to Europe is pretty exciting.

* My income is calculated as follows: CA minimum wage of $6.75 for 40 hours a week, at 4.33 weeks in a month, $1178 total. I’ve taken FICA and SDI (CA State Disability Insurance) out for a total of $1073. This month I had two survey checks, one for $ and one for $10 (!!) and I also did 97 cents worth of recycling. $1073+$11+.97=1084.97.

** I originally assumed no federal or state tax liability; I’d actually owe $47 a month, so I have to budget $95 a month to catch up. So my actual spendable income averaged over each month is my original calculation of $1073 less $47 for $1026.

***484.59 is the sum of the positive numbers; that’s the amount I have banked and unspent for non-monthly expenses. It is obviously not what was budgeted less what was spent. Each month I budget for non-monthly purchases; for example, I budget $13 for AAA and car registration every month, but have yet to spend it because it has yet to be due. That’s why the balance is up to $91.

**** I have $9.51 set aside in by Emergency/Big Purchase Fund, and $150.00 set aside in “Savings.”

I did re-arrange a few categories this month. I had $40 in my work out budget “envelope”' I pulled some out and put back into the mix. I pulled some from almost every category to add to the gift category for this month; I certainly do not budget $75 a month for gifts, I just happened to find a lot of great ones in Croatia and Bosnia.

Note to anyone new: yes, a person on minimum wage generally couldn’t travel to Europe for two weeks. One thing I said at the very beginning of my Challenge is that the one thing I would not give up is an opportunity to travel. So before I even planned this trip it was a “cheat” I allowed myself. And I have to remember sometimes, that as much as I want to hold myself strictly to the rules, the reality is that I’m the one writing the rules for this Challenge!

I got home on Sunday, felt great Sunday and Monday, and then woke up Tuesday with a bad cold. It makes me mad. I had that good coming back from vacation feeling…feeling like my life was good, feeling encouraged to do fun things at home, feeling wanted at work. I went to the doctor Thursday…I don’t have strep, which is why I went, just the usual cold.

Today I’m feeling a bit better, so I’m actually hanging laundry and trying to get through all the dishes in the house. I used the dryer more than I should, so I tried to get excited about my new Bosnian clothes pins. Well, I was already excited about the clothes pins, I just wasn’t excited about the cloudy weather, but it’s bright (and cold) today.

I guess I am just blue that I was so “go get ’em” when I came back and now feel so blech, plus I missed four days at work after being gone 2-1/2 weeks, so of course I feel very guilty, almost shameful, about that. I get every cold there is, it’s pretty ridiculous. I don’t drink or smoke, I eat pretty nutritious food, and I’m overweight but not that overweight, and I get every sneeze, sniffle, and cough. Yes, I take multi vitamins. No., I don’t exercise enough. Grrrr.

It’s a nice switch not spending; on vacation I handled so much cash, which is unusual for me, and spent so often, also unusual. It’s nice to be back in the land of perhaps one or two online transactions a week, for bills, and one or two in person, shopping. I haven’t shopped for groceries yet, but we are due for a big re-stock.

Financially I still need to close the September books, but I know I dodged a bullet. I spent over a hundred dollars on gifts while travelling, and I am very lucky that my expenses in outer categories were low so I could “steal” from my virtual envelopes to cover the gifts. I plan to really tighten the belt this and next month in most categories; after vacation, with all the included eating out, I feel like a little Spartan living will do my head and waist some good. Most of my Christmas shopping is done, actually, and that’s pretty cool.

When I travel, it seems likes it’s the little differences that stick with me the most. The very first time I traveled, I felt almost dizzy with the little differences, now, a couple countries later, I can enjoy them.

Grocery shopping is a fun way of seeing a culture. From where the stores are and how many staff there are and what the hours are, to what is on the shelves. In Croatia and Bosnia, I only saw one store I’d consider a large grocery store. Part of that is I’m sure due to being in the quaint old town areas, as opposed to the suburban areas that likely do have large stores.

Bread is usually better, and often is behind a counter. Surprisingly, Croatian bread seemed pretty mediocre, but the Bosnian stuff was good. The bread being behind the counter can be intimidating. The fruit, too, is intimidating: you have to use a little machine to weigh it and print a label. Ands you don’t just put in the price per kilogram….it spits out labels with the name of the fruit. I managed a couple times by saying "Please” in Bosna/Croat and holding the bag out to another customer. Once there seemed to be a staffer at the scale. It does make me realize how scary it must be to not know the language where you live. Imagine passing up fruit every day because you didn’t know how to get it correctly.

I got plenty of yogurt that was plain, which is not so usual for the States. It seemed most was unflavored, while in the U.S. most is flavored. I’m not sure what the fat content was, or whether there were live cultures. Some was really runny and some was thick. It was all pretty good.

You can buy little pats of butter; that seemed odd to me. Perhaps one or two tablespoons worth. Many things seemed to be in smaller containers. I think that perhaps there is more of a culture of shopping daily or weekly, and not so much on stocking up. I never saw a laundry detergent that was anywhere near the size I usually grab.

Peanut butter is expensive….Nutella is cheap. What a world. Fruit syrup is by the fruit juice. This is think stuff that I would mix with club soda. I’m not sure whether it is intended to be mixed with tap water or not. The price is very low, especially compared to prices for fancy Torani syrups and the like. I missed out buying one because I was worried about the weight of my bag, what a shame.

I’d love to be able to bring a bunch of grocery items home. Some I probably couldn’t due to Customs; mostly it would just be a weight and packing issue. The soda is so much better outside the States, in my opinion. It is less sweet, more adult tasting. Since I don’t drink alcohol, I appreciate beverages that are interesting and not just sugar water. Even the Fanta is different; it may be the same name, but there is more of a tang. Bitter Lemmon was often available; it seemed to be a combo of perhaps a less sweet Collins mix and tonic water. I could see children here spitting it out, but I thought it was fabulous. Something I could sip, like an aperitif.

My vacation cost me $1,809.64. That was for 17 days in Europe; 2 days in London, 4 in Bosnia, and 11 in Croatia, more or less. If I were to save $150 a month, I could have saved enough in a year for his trip. I am not trying to say that this is a super cheap amount; besides not being able to find much to compare it to, I’m aware that I was living pretty luxuriously on some days.

I could not find a good site that actually gives hard figures on how much a European vacation should, or does, cost. In my brief search, I couldn’t find guidelines on what percentage of income could or should be budgeted, or how much any vacation should cost. I did find references to not charging vacations; that makes sense. I do suppose vacations are highly variable; one person may find a week at home perfect, and think air tickets are a waste of money, while another person wants to see every continent.

My total includes all airfare, all travel books, all lodging and food, incidentals. I started counting every expense the day I drove down to San Francisco to catch my flight, and stopped counting when I walked in the front door.

That cost does not include $108.56 in gifts, which will come out of my regular gift budget. (Yes, I spent a lot more on gifts than I anticipated. Yes, I am counting these gifts in my regular Minimum Wage Challenge, and yes, that will hit the budget hard.)

Also not included as vacation costs: I spent $3.43 in grocery money, for some divine smelling olive oil. I spent $33.26 in Household money (pepper grinder, hand hammered copper bowl, lavender oil, clothes pins, a music CD, and a small dish). I spent 98 cents on underwear; I bought underwear my first Europe trip and now it’s just a habit.

The big cost that I didn’t include as a vacation cost, and am not including in my Challenge: $274.26 for jewelry. I don’t really consider it a necessary part of vacation expenses, obviously. On the other hand, it is my favorite form of souvenir. I got fifteen pieces total that I love and will wear often. When I said travel was the one thing I would not give up, in my mind I meant the accompanying parts of travel. As far as breaking rules go, the truth is that I’m the one writing the rules, so I only need to report to my own conscience.

I did absolutely splurge a couple of times on food, once in Hvar Town in Croatia, $50, and once in London, $160 for myself and a friend. I don’t usually try to justify such a transient expense, but I will remember the St. John’s dinner forever. The apple sorbet itself comes to mind a couple times a day. Let’s just say that while I’m not advocating that sort of expenditure for others, I do not regret it for a second.

Travel: $855.75. $450 round trip tickets to London from San Francisco, gas to SF, flight from London to Croatia, flight from Croatia to London, all busses, ferries, trains, taxis. We rented a car one day, a huge luxury, to see the Plitvice Lakes.

Food: $510.47. I used $45 of my September grocery money, so additional costs were really only $465.47. We ate out around once a day, though we did go out to coffee more often. This includes groceries (I had a lot of yogurt for breakfast, and we ate a lot of bread and cheese) as well as dining out. As I said earlier, $200 of this was for two meals (one I treated a friend to). I wasn’t trying to restrain my spending, but I wasn’t trying to splurge either. (I do find it interesting that tap water isn’t really available; you have to pay for still water or “water with gas.”)

Lodging: $285.04 total. I spent an average of $16.76 a day on lodging. Often we found places for 10 Euro, $12.86, a night; it helped that as four women we could get an apartment together. A couple nights we were en route, so the cost of sleep was absorbed by the cost of travel. The night ferry to Hvar was a lot of fun; the Night Bus to Zagreb not so much. (Sounds like a bad seventies movie, huh?) The most expensive lodging was the overnight stays we had in South San Francisco by the airport, due to leaving very early in the morning, and arriving late at night. However $35 a night, including being able to leave the car for 16 days, isn’t such a bad deal. It’s due to my friend's amazing skills that we stayed in London cheaper; a very respectable Travelodge at Marylebone for $25 each!

Miscellaneous: $203.39. This includes entry fees, internet costs, postcards and stamps, toilet, tips, left luggage fees, and the like. It also includes the $43.78 that I either “lost” when exchanging due to fees, couldn’t exchange (coins), or did not write down. That’s not too bad for over two weeks in five currencies.

I could have cut corners, and had a lower number; right off the bat I know I could shave $300 off the total. But my goal was not to have the cheapest vacation, my goal was to take a “normal” vacation, spending as I wished, and show that it doesn’t need to be a huge cost. I myself think that $1,800 for over two weeks in Europe is pretty decent, and I hope others thinking of the trip decide to go for it, knowing that without staying in dorm room hostels and eating bread and cheese for every meal, one can have an excellent vacation that is worth the price paid.

Next time you decide to track all of your vacation expenses, make it for a trip that is one week or less, and that had no more than two currencies. And don’t try to reconcile it when you are ill.

Today was my first day back at work, and it went well. I felt missed, and useful, and that is an awfully nice feeling. I awoke early, due to my time zone zigzagging, and had a good start on the day.

I’m getting back into my frugal groove, packing lunch and not spending; boy oh boy, it sure is funny how often I spent money on vacation. It wasn’t so much the high amounts, just a bus trip there, a cup of coffee, yogurt and fruit at the grocery store, an apartment, another cup of coffee…..at least six “transactions” a day to record. Also, I dealt in 5 currencies (U.S. dollars, Euros, Kunas, Konvertible Marks, and Pounds), and that’s a whole lotta extra number crunching. Thirdly, with four of us there was a lot of back and forth…I owe you Kuna for the apartment, you owe me KMs for the car…..we couldn’t always break our bills, or sometimes we’d be leaving one country so it wouldn’t make sense for one person to withdraw from the ATM while the other person had too much money and faced exchanging at a cost. Those three factors are part of what makes doing my September reconciliation daunting….it may be next weekend before I crunch the numbers.

I had nine gelatos in my two weeks abroad. I had a pattern at first, two in every town, but in the last place I only had one. Stratiacella (a vanilla with chocolate) and Rum Punch in Crikvenica, northern Croatia. Hazelnut and black currant on the island of Hvar. Kiwi and chocolate in Korcula Town. Punch and cantaloupe in the walled city of Dubrovnik. Red Bull (yup, really) in Sarajevo.

There is a lot of eating for pleasure, eating outdoors, and excellent food in these countries, Bosnia and Croatia, and gelato represents all three. The numerous side walks, on lanes that aren’t even large enough for one carriage, let alone cars, are dotted with cafes and gelato stores. The gelato is very prettily mounded, in waves, and decorated….sliced lemon on top of the lemon, cantaloupe on the melon….beautiful and enticing. I found a picture; unfortunately I won’t be able to get my travelling partners’ pictures for a few days at least.

It was creamy, and delicious, and very satisfying. And what made it even better is that it was usually under a dollar, as low as 32 cents, usually 69 to 86 cents, maximum $1.20 in the very expensive place (Dubrovnik). So this indulgence was not a costly one.

The cantaloupe and rum punch (pretty much like rum raisin without raisins) were my favorite flavors. Red Bull was really not-so-hot. I am told it tastes just like Red Bull, but as I had never had Red Bull, I can’t vouch for that. I had heard Red Bull tasted like cough syrup, and as I love the taste of cough syrup, and can’t have it (the tasty kind has alcohol in it), I went for the Red Bull. Sadly, it was the last flavor I had...but it was the only one I had in Bosnia, so I have decided to only remember Croatian Gelato.

It is hard to beat strolling in a place where every sight is new, every sense is heightened, and you can have a little bit of heaven on a cone, to go. Gelato at sunset, in the warm afternoon, after dinner in the late evening. It was nice.

So much of the food was of such high quality: very honest food, with a minimum of ingredients. Flavors are enhanced by the simplicity. There is no low-fat, low-sugar as such. There is also not a lot of excess. For example, if I wanted lower fat items, I ordered items that were grilled; it’s not a very Molly McButter continent. I enjoyed the single scoops of gelato; that’s what was offered, not sundaes or multi-scoop concoctions. Fresh fill was grilled and presented as is...tasted the fish itself, the very sea. It’s a lovely idea of having reasonable amounts of full flavored, honest food.

Oh, I am getting swoony thinking of the gelato and the other foods I savoured...

It’s absolutely lovely to be back home. It’s nice to know that even after an incredible vacation, my life is one I want to come back to.

Updates on my vacation spending and the September closing of the books will have to wait…I’m more interested in a hot bath and doing laundry than crunching numbers. Overall, I think I did fine with vacation spending. I went on a jewelry binge-a whole different story. I got 16 pieces I am madly in love with. I will post pictures…but I did lose My Guy’s camera, so there’ll be a wait while I reimburse him and he buys a new one. (Yeah, I know, it’s a bum deal, but really, if I had to have something bad happen, I’d rather it be losing a material item, instead of injuries or flight troubles or lost passports. And my friends took many pictures.)

I bought a lot more gifts than I expected, and that does come out of my regular gift budget, so that may be a tough hit. On the plus side, I do have a lot of Christmas shopping done.

I loved both Croatia and Bosnia. Highlights included the Plitvice Lakes, a Biker Convention (really….dancing in the rain to rockabilly in the early morning hours), Mostar in Bosnia, the best squid I ever had, swimming in the Adriatic, dinner at St. John’s in London, bureks (meat and vegetable pastries….fifty cents for greasy love).

I plan to post more on my experiences in two magnificent countries, as well as details of how travel can be affordable. (In many places I paid less than $15 a night for lodging.) This is just a quick “I’m home.” The travel can get tiring…twenty six plane, ferry, bus, taxi, tube, and car rides since I left. I got to fly business class for both return legs (in exchange for being willing to arrive in San Francisco an hour later) and that peek at the luxurious life was both enticing and amusing.

My bath is ready.

After some whirlwind travel, and a half day in London, I made it. The keyboard in this Crikvenica internet cafe is a little tough to navigate. The food is incredible, and the ice cream rivals Italian gelato. Since I have never had italian gelato, it is the best I have ever had.

I am taking pictures, and also logging everything I spend to have a record. I am not trying to pinch every Kuna, but simpler pleasures do thrill me so even without setting a lot of limits my natural pattern is to be low key.

In 45 minutes I leave for vacation. I will sleep in San Francisco tonight, then board my flight tomorrow, and arrive in London early Friday morning. Friday evening I arrive in Croatia. I’ll start at the top, in Crikvenica, make a day trip inland to the Plitvice Lakes, then move down the coast….perhaps Hvar, perhaps Split….definitely ending in Dubrovnik on the coast, then inland to Mostar in Bosnia, then farther inland and up to Sarajevo, then to Zagreb for a flight back to London. An incredible dinner at St. John’s restaurant, back to San Francisco on Saturday the 30th, then driving back home on Sunday the 1st.

Doesn’t it sound divine? I love travelling, and I could really be happy anywhere, I think. I’ll be with three other women, seasoned travelers, and expect to have a great time. I am planning on tracking all of my expenses, so I can post that a two week trip to Europe does not have to be a bank breaker.

I may peek in to say Hey if I hit an internet café. I may not. Wish me safe travels.

I have a really old debt from the early nineties that I paid off in 1997. I just got a bill from a collection agency for the same bill. I can see from my incomplete notes that in 1999 a new company tried to collect that debt and I had to get proof of wire transfers to get them to stop. This is a new company.

Fellow blogger Princess Perky pointed me to an article by Jeffrey, http://www.pfadvice.com/2006/08/21/zombie-debt/, and I’ll take the correct next steps, which may be no action. It’s not very much, but it is already paid.

What gets me is how absolutely deflated I felt when I got that bill. Here I am, Month 7 of My Challenge, and getting ready to go to Croatia and Bosnia. Bopping around, feeling good. I even decided to finally use a spa gift certificate I got as a gift last October to get a manicure and pedicure, and I scheduled my appointment for Wednesday, the day I depart for vacation. (It will be my first time for both!) Work is in order, the house is in order, I’m feeling pretty good overall. A little worried about too many migraines and headaches, but overall enjoying my life and being productive and all that.

And the ooooomph….like a punch in the stomach, I opened the letter. “We are your new creditor.” I had worked so hard to clean up all the messes I made whenh I was not frugal and not responsible with bills. I already had another old debt glitch that I haven’t tackled yet…I had paid off $4000 in fines, and my credit report says I still owe $4. (Why would I pay almost $4000, and not the $4? Long story...the County admits they picked a new collection agency because the old one had really screwed up records, but can’t fix the $4. I’d even pay the $4; I just don’t want it on my blankety-blank credit record. )

So after diligently paying everyone I ever owed, years and years and years later debts and fines shadow me. My reaction for now is that being good didn’t pay off, which bums me out because in general I believe that what comes around goes around. Maybe it’s because I was bad and then good, if I had been good all along I wouldn’t be in this situation. I thought that realizing I had made a mess then cleaning up my mess would count for something.

I don’t plan on continuing to pout, but I am a little tonight. And I admit I’m gorging on junk food (don’t drink or smoke). I’m drunk on cookies. Tomorrow I’ll realize that my life is good and that I just have these tasks (battles) to face, and that since I’m a grown up that’s part of what I have to do. Tonight I get sugar in my tea instead of Splenda.

We’ve lived in our rental for 4-1/2 years. When we moved it, the only non-fixture items in the house were a roll of TP and a soap bottle by the sink. That same soap bottle is overflowing today!

I put my soap bits in there, instead of piggy backing them. My Guy likes a bar of soap, so he uses that and I use the pump bottle. It mushes well by itself, with some hot water now and then. I did try to nuke it once but it slightly warped the bottle. I will sometimes float it in my super hot baths (an admitted luxury) to soften, and then I shake.

Yesterday I bought a nice soap/lotion pump bottle as a gift for a particular friend; it's perfect for her. I was going to empty out the soap and wash it, so that she could do lotion or soap of her choice. Well, that liquid won’t fit in that 4-1/2 year old bottle.

I wonder how many of the original molecules from the original liquid soap are still bubbling in there?

I went to Target with my $10 worth of gift cards (Harris Poll Online Surveys) and shopped for an hour and a half and spent $9.37. I just don’t have much of a shopping streak. I had originally been worried that I would spend too much splurging for my vacation, but I guess I was wrong.

I am not always sure how to count gift card purchases. I don’t want to count them as income, because obviously I couldn’t put it towards rent or utilities. However it seems as if that way I could “spend” $10 on clothes or something and not have it show against my clothes budget. Then next year, my clothing total would be falsely low by $10. Well, since it’s $10 I’m not gonna worry about it. If it was $25 or $100, I might need to look at a different method (not just for The Challenge, but for me on an ongoing basis. I’m into tracking my expenses).

I did end up getting Nair (will be on the beach), a journal (a must for travel memories), a tiny spray bottle (for Fabreeze) and a pack of disposable razors (vacation and getting pills of my sweaters). This was after looking at many items, and trying on eight bras. I have room left in my toiletries and clothes budgets, so I didn’t need to be so restrained, but nothing seemed right. I almost got two pairs of shoes, but the more I looked at them, the more they seemed cheap. I just don’t want to buy disposable clothing.

My reluctance to spend $10 on an item probably was enhanced by being at garage sales, where things are such great deals. My haul today totaled $4:

Two gifts - $1

Two wet/dry women’s battery powered razors, with batteries: $1

Necklace, I think it’s a silver plated chain, $1.25

shorts, needed for vacation, seventy-five cents

Brush/mirror travel combo-free

Plastic hanger-free

With the shavers, I’m planning on being decadent and putting one in the bathroom and one in my travel bag. On the chain, it is heavier than non-silver, but isn’t marked 925. I did a Google check and didn’t find any good tip to tell if it’s real silver. That’s okay; I needed a longer chain for pendants and I couldn’t return it anyway. It’s not like $1.25 for a chain is outlandish!

I did get my hair cut, though I didn’t get it washed and wet in freshly showered instead. I brought in pictures of my hair for the hair stylist; dorky but it helped her. It was $18; no Challenge would ever get me to be a bad tipper, and I tipped $6, although $4 of $5 would probably have been just fine.

And the last bit of money news: a whopping ninety seven cents extra income from recycling. (I had a lot of non-money stuff to take in, so it was a full trip, just not the good stuff.)

I’m in countdown mode; 4 more full days before I leave town, on Wednesday the 13th!

I’ve got a fair amount to do to tomorrow, some to get ready. Tomorrow is garage saling, laundry, berry picking, Target, hair cut, recycling. (Why Target? I have not found a tiny spray bottle for Febreeze at garage sales, and have not found a bra at a thrift store, and have 2 $5 certificates from Surveys.) I need to finish any last minute planning on the internet and print out a good little personalized mini-guide.

I looked at my budget to see what is affected by my trip. I think I need to take out $45 from my Grocery budget, and put it towards vacation. Before you think of it as cheating, think of this: I won’t be buying grocery for 2 weeks, and if I only spend $45 this month it will falsely lower my average grocery bill, which is currently an average of $92. See what I mean? So I’ll take half my food money and use it towards food. Otherwise, no other expense should really go up or down, except gas (to drive 6 hours to airport) and I will post that in my Travel Totals.

Shopping ahead for gifts works well. A birthday snuck up on me, but since I had been tucking away items I had two gifts for her; her favorite lotion (unused, from college gals who sold tons of bath goodies) and a NASCAR Jeff Gordon poncho-not my thing, but definitely her thing. When I end my Challenge in February, one thing I really want to continue to do is be vigilant about looking for gifts year round. I think of my circle of family, friends, and co-workers when I’m at garage sales or any store, and as I see something, I grab it, for the next event, birthday or Christmas of “thinking of you” or whatever. I can not only get items at a lower cost, but I can get items very suited to the person, as I have months to get the perfect item, not weeks or one trip to the mall.

Effective, but poor way not to spend: Spend two days in bed with a bad migraine. So frustrating.

I'm able to be out of bed now, meaning I can move without extra pain. I'll have limited time this weekend to plan for Croatia.

It's a good thing my lifestyle is structured to be low maintenance....no "missed" grocery runs, not a lot of missed cleaning, no missed errands.

Mopping is one of my least favorite chores, and I did it today. Our house tends to be very neat but not so clean. The floor looks a whole lot better, and I feel proud. I also otherwise cleaned, and hung a lot of laundry, and put away laundry.

I was sure hoping that there’d be decent TV on tonight, so I could get it bed and watch a little nonsense. However the offerings are not watchable, except maybe Antiques Roadshow. I do have the mighty stack of books.

My Labor Day Weekend was a cheap one; I spent $8.75 at garage sales. Since I do have my vacation coming on the 13th, it’s not like I could really feel good about spending much. I already feel somewhat guilty about going to Croatia in the middle of the Challenge. I knew that I would not give up travel even before I knew Croatia was a possibility. I do know that folks who are struggling don’t get to pop over to Europe for a couple weeks, though.

I have been forced to take drastic measures. The footie jammies are on, the tea is brewing.

(These bad boys cost me a quarter. So much comfort in that quarter.)

I’ve been assuming that on Minimum Wage I’d have no Federal or State Income tax liability. Wrong. I should have verified much earlier; I checked an online calculator and I believe that my Federal income tax liability would be $569 for a year. I think I won’t owe for State, if include the renters credit which I’ve always gotten, but that doesn’t help me much.

At $569 it would be a tad over $47 a month. However, since I delayed verifying this until I was freakin’ halfway into the Challenge, I have to make up that amount in half the time, so to catch up I need to budget $95 a month.

It should not come as surprise that at $1073 a month, that $95 is going to make a big dent. I’m gonna do my best, and go forward. That sad thing is that this may challenge my Challenge, but real folks working full time in California, where the cost of living is high, would get $1026 a month if they never missed a day of work.

(For those that think public assistance would be available to help, I idly checked and the gross income of $1178 would make the single person earner ineligible for food stamps, as it’s over 130% of the Federal Poverty Level for one of $817. Medical benefits would have a $488 share of cost, meaning that all medical expenses up to $488 every month would have to be paid for by the minimum wage earner. Not real helpful with doctors visits and prescriptions.)

But enough on that digression. As I have stated before that this Challenge is not meant to be a political statement about the Minimum Wage, it’s to exercise my thrift skills and become more grateful. My succinctly stated opinion is that people need to be paid a fair wage and have affordable health care, and that people need to make better spending choices.

Boy, that additional $95 a month is going to be tough. And it’s my fault for not checking. Blech.