Big Financial Blunders

When I think back on what I would consider my big financial blunders since graduating from college, they don’t seem so bad. When I tried to think about them, I actually only came up with two:

+ Last minute flight a few years ago to DC to visit a friend on a whim $550
+ Falling prey to the super-expensive “spa-like” dentist and having two fillings there $800


In the long run, lessons learned, and not that big of a deal. Both are somewhat justifiable in the name of friendship and health, despite the upcharge.

Which reminds me that it’s often the smaller things – not the big things, that really tend to get you off kilter financially – just eating out too much, shopping too much, little by little. Like this month… having already gotten through 80% of my discretionary spending in 50% of the days. Sigh. What are your past financial blunders, recalled?

Mini-Rant on Megaplex Movie Theaters

So much for saving money being back home for the holidays. Out of our enforced boredom, the Guy and I decided to crown our monotony with a visit the local megaplex to see a few holiday flicks.

> Night 1: Marley & Me – really cute, more-than-I’d-hoped-for fun, until the fire alarm went off at 10:45, 30 minutes into our movie
> Night 2: Used our readmission passes to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Profound, moving, get-you-excited-for-Oscar-buzz-already, until the fire alarm again went off at exactly the same time, with only 10 minutes to go in our movie.

More worthless readmission passes later, we still wasted $36 seeing not one full movie over the holiday break. Geez… Makes me glad for my AFI Movie Challenge – in December, I checked five off the list already! $50 to the Dog fund!

Recap on my Argentina Vacation

Amazing, amazing, amazing. And might I say, it ended up being a very well-designed and reasonable trip. Nothing is reasonable when you’re doing the vacation lifestyle for 10 whole days. But we had a great exchange rate for the majority of our trip (3.3 pesos to the dollar) and we made some modest choices to balance out our splurges!

The Itinerary:

Buenos Aires: Stayed in the trendy Palermo Soho neighborhood in a tiny boutique hotel and did tons of sight-seeing (Recoleta Cemetery with all of the Evita memorabilia, Puerto Madero and San Telmo antique markets, shopping in Palermo). Great food and fun nightlife, but this was in essence, sort of like being in New York, in South America. It was just a really cool big city with all of the cool big city perks and oddities you’d expect. All of the European influences are right on, and I could understand all of the BA nicknames
Highlight: a Boca Juniors futbol match – sitting on the first row, absolutely free. Courtesy of a hook-up from a friend’s company.

Mendoza: Stayed in the Park Hyatt for one night – WOW – this was our little splurge. For the remainder of the time, stayed in a little stone lodge in the middle of the countryside, cheap and absolutely charming. Visited wineries all day for two days, and then hiking and rappelling near the base of the Andes. This was our absolute favorite part of the trip. Mendoza’s little plazas and quaint streets and restaurants seemed somehow more authentically Argentinian. We got a real sense of the place and the people as we visited the wineries, talking to their owners or our taxi drivers. The famous “pride” of Argentinians didn’t seem like bravado as much as it did in BA, just a contented “of course” kind of sensibility about their lifestyle. Hiking was rather strenuous (glad we added some weight training into our workout routine beforehand) but full of incredible views. Our guides with the Argentina Rafting Company were excellent, and I enjoyed hearing about their travels and lifestyle about as much as anything.
Highlight: a dinner we had in an old winery in the suburbs of Mendoza – a restaurant called “1884” – this was the best meal of our lives, and the character of this place, so romantic and as old world as you get, will be a memory for a long, long time.

Iguazu: Right on the border between Brazil and Argentina are the most breathtaking falls and the only subtropical rainforest I’ve ever frequented. The wildlife and the falls were absolutely beautiful but the port of Iguazu itself was pretty much a deserted tourist town so we only stayed one night and booked it back to Buenos Aires before we left.
Highlight: Seeing a wild toucan fly up to us on the path headed to the falls.

Taxis and food (despite being cheap) added up and were what most of our money went to on the trip… I bought very few souvenirs (mostly wine), but all in all was still over budget by $237. Oops. Still, for the value we got out of the trip, I was VERY happy!

Tricky Tactics

You know how it goes when you have one of those blow out weekends? You know, an unexpected expense comes up on a day you had already planned a big dinner, or a purchase you had planned ends up being double, and then next thing you know you’re uttering those deadly “what the hell, I’ve already blown it” words in your head and you find yourself at Macy’s or at the premium gourmet grocery store throwing things into your cart with abandon. Yeah, the worst. You feel defeated, so you assume the “why not” mentality. So I’ve been trying to think of a good tactic for when I get into those temporary spending ruts. I think the main thing is to get back in the right frame of mind. If you can do one small belt-tightening thing after a blow-out day or weekend, it might help swing the scale and remind you of the journey you’re on, and why you’re doing it. Like, maybe skip the wine at the big dinner or order a less expensive entrée. Or transfer more money into your savings.

On another note, the Guy invited me to a wedding in Chicago about a month from now, which is kind of a big deal. This is the first time I’ll be meeting all of his real friends, and I want to make a really good impression. His last girlfriend was really beautiful, and in contrast, I am… really smart. I’ve heard that his friends and family still refer to me only as the name of the Ivy league college I attended. As in, “So you’re still with Ivy girl, huh?” When you hear “IVY” you do not think beautiful. So I know I will want to go shopping and get a new dress (new shoes, jewelry, etc.) for the weekend. So I’ll try to tighten my belt even more between now and then to save up. Eating out is an easy one, so that’s probably where I’ll focus. Although it will be hard since I’m going to San Francisco this weekend to visit my best friend.

But the way I see it, this whole personal finance road to wealth is a lifelong marathon, not a sprint through your twenties. It’s all about getting smart and forming the right habits, not about one weekend where you mess up or even one event where you really need to splurge.

Blow-out Weekend

Tough weekend. Financially that is. Otherwise, it was great. The Guy's birthday was a lot of fun! Birthday dinner, double massages with a chocolate scrub, a night out after a Pats victory. A very sweet breakfast at the same place we had one of our first dates. But, I totalled up all of the gifts and expenses and I figured that everything came to over $800 (framing art for him, several dinners, a concert, a wine tasting, covering the bill for all those birthday shots at the bar, those massages). Gifts, especially for a significant other, have always been my weakness. I just want to give him something that he'll love and something that will convey his level of importance in my life. But I really can't afford what he can (he makes twice what I do). It's hard because I don't think all of the little things like buying less expensive groceries and taking my lunch to work are going to "make up" for $800. I hate having to think about money this much, and big blow-out weekends like this one make me do it. I'm going to try not to be a Scrooge for V-day, but I'll just have to set a b-u-d-g-e-t this time. Ick.