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Jan. 31st, 2006 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got some stuff done today, including the six-week post op visit with the Ob/Gyn.
Since it's the offing of a new year and time to look at budgets and so forth, I took a wild stab in the dark at mine. Now, as many of you are probably aware, I balance my checkbook by calling the bank and asking them how much money is in there. I am not exactly financial spreadsheet girl. However, since I've DONE the quit smoking thing (three years and change now) and I've done the teeth thing (regular dentist, periodontist, regular four-month checkups) and I've fixed the endless bleeding problem (hysterectomy! Yay!), there isn't a lot more that I feel like working on in terms of personal health so now it's time to work on finances. Some people have hobbies. I have personal improvement projects. Some are more successful than others.
But... but... you talk about finance all the time! You actually pay attention to fed news! You loan money for fun and profit! How could you possibly need to work on finances?
Well, I don't have a budget. I can't tell you how much of my money goes to pay, for example, the phone bill. Or what I spend on gasoline in a year. Or how much the pony costs. There needs to be a budget and accounting and spreadsheets. There needs to be a Five Year Plan -- or perhaps not. The Five Year Plan didn't work out that well for Mother Russia. Perhaps we can dispense with the five year plan part, but the rest of it is probably a good idea because while I think I'm living below my means, it's better to be sure than to THINK so.
Also, I am making with the trimming of the fat. (While it'd be nice if that fat were on me, it's actually fat in the budget.) Today I got rid of the second phone line to my house, shaving thirty bucks a month off the fucking phone bill. I also switched to the no-monthly-fee long distance because I don't USE long distance anyway. There is no advantage to me being signed up to a five-bucks-a-month rate plan when I never use the rate plan. Thirty five dollars a month is four hundred twenty dollars a year and I don't have to pay taxes on that improvement to my bottom line. Yay!
I've decided to start making work pay for the fuel to put in the truck. It's work's truck, work can pay to feed the truck. (I have a work credit card for to put fuel in the truck. I just haven't been using it because it requires me to shop at nonpreferred fuel locations.) *sigh* While it annoys me, I will make a concerted effort to use the work credit card at work-approved fuel locations to feed the truck. This should save me about a hundred bucks a month, twelve hundred a year, again not taxable.
Lattes are off the approved list. Not only are they bad for me, four bucks is way too fucking much to pay for a cup of coffee. Not doing it anymore. Eight bucks a week is three hundred eighty four dollars a year. No.
Entertainment purchases will be scheduled and there will be a *budget* for entertainment. We are not going off-road with the entertainment purchases any more. No. Bad user, no biscuit.
While I don't *make* huge piles of money, compared to a lot of people my age, I have an obscene amount of discretionary income. However, I think I can do better than I'm currently doing without reducing my life-enjoyment all that much. That's where the budget thing comes in.
Anyway, since you've waded through all the finance whinging (look for more of this in the future as our intrepid hero documents the actual expenditures and such starting in FY 2006, which, in her world, begins in February), here's how the six-week post op visit went.
The doc, who is not actually a bad guy, was doing the bimanual part of the pelvic exam and asked the question. I could not have asked for a better setup. YAY! I was *so* ready.
Doc: So, are you sexually active?
Me: No. (pause) Usually I just lay there.
Doc: (turned head away, bit lip so's to not smile) [This is the best I've done with him yet.]
Me: Hey, come on! That was funny, damn it. *theatrical sigh* Waste of good material, coming here.
I have, for reasons I cannot fathom, a followup visit at the end of May. That's plenty of time to come up with a new, better answer to the question. I'll work on it
Since it's the offing of a new year and time to look at budgets and so forth, I took a wild stab in the dark at mine. Now, as many of you are probably aware, I balance my checkbook by calling the bank and asking them how much money is in there. I am not exactly financial spreadsheet girl. However, since I've DONE the quit smoking thing (three years and change now) and I've done the teeth thing (regular dentist, periodontist, regular four-month checkups) and I've fixed the endless bleeding problem (hysterectomy! Yay!), there isn't a lot more that I feel like working on in terms of personal health so now it's time to work on finances. Some people have hobbies. I have personal improvement projects. Some are more successful than others.
But... but... you talk about finance all the time! You actually pay attention to fed news! You loan money for fun and profit! How could you possibly need to work on finances?
Well, I don't have a budget. I can't tell you how much of my money goes to pay, for example, the phone bill. Or what I spend on gasoline in a year. Or how much the pony costs. There needs to be a budget and accounting and spreadsheets. There needs to be a Five Year Plan -- or perhaps not. The Five Year Plan didn't work out that well for Mother Russia. Perhaps we can dispense with the five year plan part, but the rest of it is probably a good idea because while I think I'm living below my means, it's better to be sure than to THINK so.
Also, I am making with the trimming of the fat. (While it'd be nice if that fat were on me, it's actually fat in the budget.) Today I got rid of the second phone line to my house, shaving thirty bucks a month off the fucking phone bill. I also switched to the no-monthly-fee long distance because I don't USE long distance anyway. There is no advantage to me being signed up to a five-bucks-a-month rate plan when I never use the rate plan. Thirty five dollars a month is four hundred twenty dollars a year and I don't have to pay taxes on that improvement to my bottom line. Yay!
I've decided to start making work pay for the fuel to put in the truck. It's work's truck, work can pay to feed the truck. (I have a work credit card for to put fuel in the truck. I just haven't been using it because it requires me to shop at nonpreferred fuel locations.) *sigh* While it annoys me, I will make a concerted effort to use the work credit card at work-approved fuel locations to feed the truck. This should save me about a hundred bucks a month, twelve hundred a year, again not taxable.
Lattes are off the approved list. Not only are they bad for me, four bucks is way too fucking much to pay for a cup of coffee. Not doing it anymore. Eight bucks a week is three hundred eighty four dollars a year. No.
Entertainment purchases will be scheduled and there will be a *budget* for entertainment. We are not going off-road with the entertainment purchases any more. No. Bad user, no biscuit.
While I don't *make* huge piles of money, compared to a lot of people my age, I have an obscene amount of discretionary income. However, I think I can do better than I'm currently doing without reducing my life-enjoyment all that much. That's where the budget thing comes in.
Anyway, since you've waded through all the finance whinging (look for more of this in the future as our intrepid hero documents the actual expenditures and such starting in FY 2006, which, in her world, begins in February), here's how the six-week post op visit went.
The doc, who is not actually a bad guy, was doing the bimanual part of the pelvic exam and asked the question. I could not have asked for a better setup. YAY! I was *so* ready.
Doc: So, are you sexually active?
Me: No. (pause) Usually I just lay there.
Doc: (turned head away, bit lip so's to not smile) [This is the best I've done with him yet.]
Me: Hey, come on! That was funny, damn it. *theatrical sigh* Waste of good material, coming here.
I have, for reasons I cannot fathom, a followup visit at the end of May. That's plenty of time to come up with a new, better answer to the question. I'll work on it
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 12:37 am (UTC)I'll have to find my spreedsheet. It's set up for everything, pets, fuel, house and I don't use it at all. I'll send it to you by the end of the week.
As for your material, it's funny, I wish you the best thinking of a good zinger.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 02:05 am (UTC)Why do you have a spreadsheet if you don't use it? You all financially organized, then?
no subject
Date: 2006-02-01 04:25 pm (UTC)I save 10% to 20% of my payroll check each pay. I pay all bills before I go play. I invest as much as I can in 401k.
Budgeting on the fly. :)
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Date: 2006-02-01 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 05:25 am (UTC)Whatever happened to that?
no subject
Date: 2006-02-03 11:30 am (UTC)If you try this at home, it helps a lot if you like to cook, don't buy pre-packaged food (tv dinners, near-ready meals, that sort of thing), and don't eat a hell of a lot of meat.
This recent bout of budgetary interest is geared at improving the bottom line rather than at making fun of govenment standards for poverty-level budgets. As a result, I'll be looking pretty closely at areas where I could do better with my spending habits. Don't expect a huge amount of focus on groceries -- I don't really want to live a life without, for example, out-of-season asparagus or $1.50 per each avocados and the amount of money I spend on such things is pretty damn minimal anyway.