March Goals... Yeah, about those...

Only a 50% Success Rate this month. And I was supposed to be all ambitious with the Guy living remotely for a work project this month. Turns out, I'm NOT more disciplined on my own. In fact, when he's gone, I'm so bewildered that I end up doing strange things (strange for me) like staying up late and watching very bad TV. Did you know Bret Michaels has ANOTHER reality show, and it's on a BUS?? So I won't blame the Guy anymore when I miss my gym workouts or eat out too much. Looks like I'm part of the problem too.

>Absorb $500 of my $1,000 business school tuition deposit in March expenses
FAIL. I only reduced my expenses by $200 this month.

>Finish all content for my brother's advice-journal gift
CHECK

>Do 30 min of Wii Fit 5 days/wk and Do 1 hr of Wii 2 days/wk
FAIL. I am lazy??

>Write 2 more pages of my story.
CHECK

Studying up on my Student Loan Options

One of my 2009 annual goals – given the fact that I’m going back to school this Fall was to become an expert on student loans and secure a really great package. Based on my financial aid package, I will have to secure between $12,000 and $30,000 in additional private loans in addition to the federal loan package I already received from Stanford. While the approval process will generally be short for private loans (between 48 hours and a week), the becoming-an-expert process will take a lot longer. I will probably wait a little later in the summer to understand if Stanford has preferred lenders set up and if I will want to simply pursue additional funding from the same institution that my GradPlus Loans will be coming from, but in the meantime, I have narrowed down a list of 14 other private options to explore (with the help of finaid.org) – whew. I have a heard the most about CitiAssist and US Bank’s No Fee Loan, but I want to do lots more research to understand which might have the best terms and most competitive rate. And in the meantime I got to refresh myself on what the LIBOR acronym stands for. Good fun for a Monday afternoon!

March Networth Update

This was a rough month with $1,000 tuition deposit and $650 housing deposit due for Stanford in the same month. Oh, and a huge dip in our company stock… still, less than a 1% net worth dip isn’t so bad. I’ll take it!

And updated my sidebars... sigh. Don't you wish you could hit fast-forward sometimes?

Expanding the Scope and Range of this Blog...

Ever since I got into school I’ve been thinking a bit more about expanding the scope of what I write about here on Bookish Budget. When I first started blogging, the spirit of undertaking it was all about learning – learning how to be more responsible and principled about my finances, yes, but also learning how to be more worldly and thoughtful about everything that I do. I

I will always be Bookish, looks like for sure I’ll always be On a Budget (of some kind), but there are other areas and places where I would also like to expand myself – especially as I’m now planning on going back to business school!

Some avenues I’m interested in exploring initially:
Learning about potential career paths
Clean tech / green energy / etc.
How to be more ecologically savvy?
Entrepreneurship

And I'm sure many other bits of trivia will find it's way in, as usual... but from now on, I'm hoping to expand this into almost a personal research tool. And then, when I actually get closer to school, I may either alter the content or hit the delete and begin again at another site. Somehow I'm guessing my student debt may not be as interesting to talk about on a weekly basis, so we'll see. :)

Itemizing the Wedding Budget

I’ve decided to update my sidebar to include a specific target for my wedding fund. I assigned a pretty arbitrary number as my goal… and my total wedding costs will far exceed $9,385, but it helps me to break down my goals a bit, and I decided I could itemize that amount, so it will motivate me to contribute more money. I researched on theknot.com and several other non-pf-friendly websites to get these estimates, so I may be able to do better than this on all of these, but I figure I will keep them aggressive for now, until I actually get further down the road, and actually start talking marriage with the Guy, let alone laying out our budget.

The Itemized Wedding Specific Goals:
Personal Training for one year: $1,000 budget (certainly not a wedding essential, but this has always been a dream of mine to do, and wedding's probably as acceptable an excuse as I'll ever get!)
Dress incl. alteration costs: $4,500
Save the Date Cards: $400
Wedding Invitations: $1,625 (based on 6.50 per card for 250 people)
Postage: $310 (based on save-date, invites & reply cards for 250)
Wedding Cake: $2,000 (based on $8 per slice for 250)
SO FAR: $9,835

In the future, I will take on thinking about costs for: Photographer, Flowers, Wedding Party Gifts, Favors, Venue, bridal accessories, hotel rooms for wedding prep, wedding food & Open Bar, band cost… so much more to think about…and such a ways to go with the savings! Good thing we're a long ways off!

Eating Down the Fridge

A few days ago, Washington Post food blogger Kim O’Donnel’s publicized what she called the “Eat Down the Fridge” Challenge – i.e., skip grocery shopping and just eat what you already have on hand*. I try to practice that somewhat regularly anyway, and am doubling my efforts while the Guy is out of town (he’s usually my major roadblock on this front). The Double Challenge – I’m also trying to eat *healthy* this week!! So let’s see what I’ve got and what I’m doing with it, hopefully as inspiration for something you have in your fridge/freezer/pantry:

Leftovers:
Party Leftovers: Limes, Salsa, Tortillas & Chips
Perennial Ingredient Leftovers: Craisins, Flax, Tomato Soup, Chicken Broth, Canned Tuna, Pasta, Puff Pastry, Filo Dough
Veggie Leftovers: Corn, Broccoli & Cheese, Peas
Freezer Leftovers: Two Chicken Breasts
Random Pantry Side Leftovers: Potato Pancakes, Spinach CousCous, Sweet Potatoes

Recipes:
Lime Chicken Quesadillas
Chipotle Corn Salsa over Baked Chicken served with Peas and Potato Pancake
Cranberry Flaxseed Muffins
Mini Margherita Pizza with Broccoli and Cheese

YUMMY! After just a little creativity...

*I am actually not counting all of the frozen entrees I have in the freezer right now, because those I can eat anytime, and aren’t as much in the spirit of the challenge!

A Fantastic Discovery

In my city there is a beautiful public library, designed by a famous Argentine architect… I used to live in walking distance and I loved climbing up all of those stairs to browse through the stacks and look out on the city. But after walking over this past weekend and they didn’t have ANY of the books I was looking for… I decided to make a journey to a different library. One of the other suburban libraries on the other side of the city, which is run-down and looks shockingly similar to my elementary school library. And they had ALL of my books, plus some awesome ones I had forgotten were on my to-read list. And I was in, out, and back in my car in 10 minutes. Nice. Not so attractive, and yet efficient. Good moral lesson, I do believe… saving money will never be the intuitive choice, it seems. And fantastic discovery, given books are one of those small purchases that really do add up for me! Totally worth the extra time shlepping it to the suburban library!

The Wedding Fund: Suze vs. Vera

For most of my life, I’ve been convinced that happiness depends upon your own independence. Financial independence, yes. But emotional independence too – the strength to stand alone on something, to not rely on others for your sense of purpose. I’ve always lived that way. I’ve moved to new cities with a pretty slim bank account because I knew it was the right place for me. I’ve struck it out alone, and been proud of it, even when I had zero friends and stayed home reading every Saturday night. But eventually I know I will want to give up a portion of that independence – for a really cute Guy. :)

My ING-Account is still nick-named just “Business School Savings,” but that’s just to preserve the illusion of self-respect. I'm saving for grad school expenses. But I’m really more excited about saving for the frou-frou white dress. I want Vera. I want the sit-down dinner. And naturally, in my independent way, I want to finance it myself. My parents gave me the financial support to graduate from a great undergraduate institution without any student loans. I simply won’t allow them to pay for cake for three hundred of my friends too.

According to the wedding budget calculator, I will need upwards of $10-20K dollars to have the wedding I’m dreaming of. Right now it’s sitting at $0 because it tends to be the last priority. (I mean, I don’t exactly have a ring.) But I need to save anyway if I’m serious about this goal. So, I’m starting small and my new goal, now that the Dog Fund is over, is to filter away at least $100 a month.

R.I.P. Dog Fund

Well, I have officially given up the dream of becoming a dog-owner. Since we don't know for sure where we'll be living in California and where the Guy will be working and how long our commutes will be... it seems like we can't really go for it until we fill in the rest of the picture.

(The dog in the picture, by the way, is Rascal - the cute dauschand I've been eyeing at the Humane Society).

So, I have officially reshuffled my goals and spilled the majority of the money I was saving for a dog over into my emergency fund (80% there!!!) While we may eventually get a dog, we're just going to figure it out when we get there. Most of the money I was saving was going towards dog-walkers, which we wouldn't have in California, since I'd be back in school and could do it myself. So at least that expense is avoided, and I'm going to focus on my other goals in the meantime.

.... But I am sad. :(

a LOT ahead of me.

Since it's officially Stanford, I have a long to-do list ahead of me. Item one: loan research for next year!

GOOD NEWS: Stanford gave me $32,979 in grant/fellowship money!

BAD NEWS: The remainder of the year's estimated cost is $53,120, which I will have to cover in loans. Here's the breakdown:

$3,000 in a Federal Perkins Loan (5%)
$8,500 in a Federal Stafford Loan (subsidized through school)
$12,000 in a Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan (6.8%)
$29,620 in GradPLUS or Private Loans (7.9-8.5% or dependent on my credit rating)

All for one year of my life! Whew. My to-do list: finding out more about Stanford preferred lenders, if there are any, and if not - immersion in GradPLUS.

Not-So-Frugal Big Apple Giveaway

So for Hanukkah this past year, the Guy and I each gave each other a trip – I gave him a weekend in New York and he gave me a weekend in San Francisco. I’m planning on using miles for the NY flight and my Amex Starwood points for the hotel, so all of the big expenses should be almost-free. Now, I’ll just need to plan a perfect weekend for the two of us – that’s more about us, than spending money on every little thing! But I started brainstorming and it turns out things added up a LOT faster than I'd thought. I still want it to be special, but I don't think I can spend this much on three days!! Here’s what I’ve got so far… any suggestions from the NewYorkers among you:

Friday Night:
- Head down to the West village to check out Charmingwall Gallery free
- Go to the New Museum $24 each
- Dinner at Aurora $150 estimated, footing the Guy
- Attending a friend’s 30th party to close down the night!

Saturday:
- Take a free ferry ride over to Staten island and back
- Browing, Strolling and Shopping in Soho!
- Head to Brooklyn to meet our friends’ new baby daughter
- Ditch the baby and head to a local beer garden in Williamsburg
- Head to see a Broadway Show $175 for the two of us
- Dinner at Peasant $150

Sunday:
- Brunch at Sarabeth’s on the West Side $50
- Rent a boat at the Boathouse Central Park $15
- Walk back through Central park
- Afternoon Treat at The Dessert Truck $20

Damage: $594! Whoa... not what I was thinking, nor what I was budgeting! How does that HAPPEN.

How do you set a budget when you *technically* have no income?

So, I know I need to set a new, realistic budget for when I'm in school. A lot of things will be different. The main one = no income.

So how do you set a budget when you don’t have any money coming in? A lot of financial aid and federal loans will cover a good deal of the straight tuition part of my expenses. But then I expect I will also have one big lump of funds from loans I take out. I will still need a budget so I prevent myself from burning through all of my loan money too quickly, but I know it’s going to look and feel a lot differently than my current financial planning. A couple of the different dynamics to note:

One, I won’t be amassing savings – so I will need to stop all automatic deductions for my current accounts and maintain only my cash-value life insurance and my Roth from my loan money.

Two, very limited capital - there is a limited amount of loans I can take out, as restricted by the “Student Budget” that Stanford has calculated. I won’t be able to take out any more money than they have determined it costs. For me, that total is $53,000 for each year, of which, $28,000 has to be devoted to school costs and $25,000 is for everything else. I literally can’t spend beyond $25,000 each year, or I will have to dip into my paltry savings or incur – gasp – credit card debt.

Three, invisible expenses - there are a lot of “mandatory” items that are not included in that student budget – like, flights for all of the job interviews and all of the special study trips that you HAVE to take advantage of – otherwise, why go to school full-time?

Four, extreme temptation- I think it is going to be hard to stay in the mode of reducing expenses or keeping expenses low, because business school is this very finite period of time when you are going to be surrounded by the most amazing set of people and experiences yet. Who wants to think about keeping to the bare necessities as the backdrop for THAT? Any tips?

Risky Renting in Palo Alto

Pretty much the craziest real estate market in California. It’s even more expensive than living in San Francisco if you have certain base standards of living. One of the options that the Guy* and I originally considering was to rent a BIG 5-6 bedroom house and live with several other people. We heard that it’s fairly common for Stanford students to do that, so it was originally enticing. It’s a matter of trade-offs – a little bit of privacy for having all of the amenities we’re used to and a lot more space! But I think the more we think about it, we’re tossing out that idea… it’s just too risky, and I can see it causing too many potential arguments and frustrations. So, back to the more predictable search for a one or two-bedroom apartment in and around Stanford. So far, the neighborhoods we’ve got our eyes on are Downtown Palo Alto, Downtown Menlo Park and College Terrace (which is essentially right next to Stanford). Rents vary pretty widely but it looks like I can get something in the $2200 range… if Andy and I split, that’s $1100, really only $100 more than what I pay now. So I will try to keep my budget to that, knowing that all of the utilities will likely be more in the end.

In my initial Craigs List searches, it seems like for that budget, we’ll either be able to get a really nice (i.e. what we’re used to) 1BR, or slightly less updated 2BR. Scarily enough, most properties are rented within a month of the move-in date, so I can’t start my serious searches for quite some time. Sigh.


*Footnote: Yes, you deduced correctly… the plan is for the Guy to move out to Cali with me. Yes, that’s right, the plan is actually for him to quit his job and find a new one (he hopes in a different industry) in this market. Right, I know, more evidence of my/our craziness. But he won’t quit his job until he finds another one, and if it doesn’t work out right away… we’ll do distance and be patient!

And the Winner (of all my money for the foreseeable future) is...

.... Stanford.

Looks like I’m headed to Palo Alto next year. Who knew a ticket back to the coast would be worth thousands of dollars in loans! (I mean I know it's the right decision for me long term, but you really just have to keep laughing about it…)

So, yes, sorry for the minor blogging hiatus, but have been stressed about making this decision and now that it's finally made I'm looking back over the last week realizing I did some damage on myself. My skin and nails look horrible, haven't worked out and have been eating horribly so my body looks and feels terrible... have gotten minimal sleep. It's time to normalize for a bit... or at least for the weekend. Whew.

Using Creativity to Make some Extra $$$

This is one of those WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS kinds of ideas…

If you have a cool concept or idea that you need to name, you can spend $99 to get tons of top ideas from people willing to brainstorm. The company then uses part of that $99 to pay out the people who submit the top 3 ideas.

NameThis is a cool concept, but also in perusing the results listed on the site, seems to be generating high quality value for the people using it. I’ve always been a bit boggled on how I can bring in any extra income that’s worth my time, but I think this might be it. The site is in beta and has been “making some changes” for awhile, so they be restructuring some aspects of the site. I look forward to checking back in the future…

Really?

Here’s the latest so-depressing-recession-related-factoid for you, which popped up in Ad Age last month:

“Shares in the New York Times Co. slumped to a low of $3.99 on Friday, February 13, 2009, less than the price of the Sunday paper.” (Ad Age 2.13.09)

Bonus De-Anticipation

So much has been made about these crazy bonus payouts for bank execs which have remained unchanged or not significantly deflated in these crazy economic times. The fat wallets are easy targets, sure, and the anger is justified, but it does make you wonder from a human resource management perspective – what is the best way to reward and incentivize people? At my company our bonuses are clearly tied to performance. We set targets for ourselves at the beginning of the year, and if at the end of the year, we don’t hit those goals, we see a big hit in our year-end bonus. Having faced two major crises this year: 1) the impact of the peanut butter recall and 2) consumers having less discretionary income to buy the food we make, our teams are likely NOT going to be making our targets this year, which means, we’ll take a hit as a company (from Wall Street) and I will take a hit in my direct-deposited bonus. I am a lowly peon for said company, so honestly, I feel this is NOT a good incentive. I am doing my part everyday but I feel it is pretty far removed from our overall performance, so I wish I was seeing a more equal paycheck bump as many of my same-company peers who made their targets. However, in terms of sheer corporate “fairness,” our current system makes intuitive sense to by-standers.

I was relying on a bump about the same as last year’s bonus to meet my 2009 Net Worth Goal. But if it doesn’t happen, c’est la vie – I am young, still employed, and happy.

Blog Poll: What is Sicker?

I recently netflix’d Sicko and was highly entertained by Michael Moore’s playful rant. It is amazing that what seems normal to us, is pretty off-kilter by the rest of the world’s standards. And no matter how one-sided people say Moore’s films are – you can’t argue with facts like these: the United States health care system ranks 37th, just ahead of Slovenia and Cuba. Then this weekend, I attended a Financial Aid Information Session at Harvard Business School… once the brief slides were scrolled through and the floor was opened for Q&A, the first three questions were not about financial aid or about the loan terms or interest rates or about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt those of us in the room would be taking on – the first three questions were about health care. It’s clear what makes us most panicked in this country is not debt, but health care.

So yes, what’s sicker… panic among reasonably well-to-do prospective MBA’s over student health care and the exact day it begins and what it includes… or the fact that I will have to take on a minimum of $98,000 in loans to attend school this fall. ARE YOU SERIOUS??? But that’s the base loan package – i.e. what the poorest of candidates would be expected to take on. Insane.

Sidebars Updated! And Reconsidering Goals...

Updated my sidebar goals... networth is actually up (my tax refunds outweighed the significant dips in my retirement accounts), which is pretty darn amazing. Even if I know it will droop back next month after I send in my deposit for b-school tuition, it's nice to have an artificial high for now. Also, *ALMOST* to 75% of my Emergency Fund. So exciting!!

Post-script: after tramping all over Cambridge on housing tours this past weekend for HBS, the Guy and I exchanged more than a few knowing looks when we heard tenant after tenant tell us that pretty much no good housing in the area accepted pets, and that it was pretty near impossible to keep a dog on grad-student schedules. Maybe we can't get our dog after all? It's not certain yet... but maybe we really do have to hold off for now?? Tragic. How do you deal when you've been looking forward to something for SO long, but it's just not meant to be....