I’ve Been a Slacker

‘Round these parts I’m a stranger.

Really it’s a combination of many factors – applying for graduate school being number one. My apps are due in about 2 weeks so I have been writing personal statements (which you already know if you follow me on twitter), filling out forms, dressing up my resume, and thinking about who I would want to work for in the next five years of my life. I’m not banking on getting in anywhere, happy to stay where I am for the time being, but because the program is so long I thought I should probably get my butt in gear and apply. I’ll find out if I get an interview in a couple of months.

By the by…do you know how expensive grad school applications are now? Upwards of $70 and since I’ve decided to apply to five schools that is a cool $350. Definitely something to save for next time this happens, if it happens. I’m crossing my fingers I won’t have to go through this again.

Oh, and the GRE? That’s another $150. So I’ve spent $500 already just trying to get in, this doesn’t count the cost of the interview or take into account the lower pay once I’m in grad school. Although, I can’t really complain because I will get paid – that’s one of the benefits of slaving away for 5+ years in a lab.

So because of this I’ve been focusing my energy on applications, not thinking of what to write for this blog. Also – work has been topsy-turvy, someone I worked directly with was let go and the holidays coming up put a kink in what we’re doing.

Another thing that has taken away my time has been a fun little project I started. This past year I’ve been diving more and more into cooking, playing with flavors, and experimenting with new flavors. So I started a cooking blog – No Sugar and Spice. Head on over to check it out and to learn about why we are a no-sugar family. It’s a fledgling blog, but I think it’s gotten a good start.

With all of that being said I think I’ll leave you. I’m sure once I get out of the turkey-induce food coma and manage to get my applications under control I’ll be posting more frequently. In the meantime, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to lately? Any big plans for the holidays? We’re just spending time with our families, both which live 5 minutes away and are looking forward to a low key long weekend.

Happy Turkey Day!

Last Turkey Day

Oh No.

I have a confession to make.

Every year I fail to set a Christmas gift budget. Never have and haven’t ever truly thought about it before this year. Maybe it’s the recession, maybe it’s the fact that my family isn’t exchanging gifts since we’re all going to Hawaii, or maybe it’s all this mumbo-jumbo about budgets on every personal finance blog but this year I’m thinking about it.

This just might be the best time to set one up too, since I can rule out 4 family members and only need to focus on a few select friends, a boss or two, and of course my lovely boyfriend. He’s the most important one, and the one I will end up spending the most on so setting a budget for him will be top priority. The problem is I really don’t have any idea of what I want to get him, how much it will cost, or what I’ve spent in years past.

My plan for friends is to a) give them something I’ve made, like pomegranate jelly or b) spend no more than $20 on each of them. I have about one friend in the whole wide world so my cash will be going nowhere fast.

The bosses get about the same treatment, probably with a little less thought and a little less money. Most likely jam for them too, everyone likes jam. Or cookies. Or something home made.

So that leaves the boyfriend, and although I’m sure we’re going to go on a couple of mini ski vacations, and one bigger one in February I can’t bring myself to not give him something. Even for our birthdays, which was supposed to be the cruise and our gift to each other, I had to get him something. So a trip is out. I’m materialistic, ok?

My thought is that I’ll set an amount, say $100 and then work with that. Try to find or make something that he’ll love and include that in our new tradition of giving each other ornaments every year. Although, I am a sucker for all things revolving around the boyfriend and have a feeling setting a finite amount will take a lot of control.

What are your thoughts and experiences with budgeting for the holidays? Do you normally set a budget, and if I may ask – how do you figure out how much to spend on each person?

Jamming with Tigress

This past summer I was bitten by the canning bug. From pears to jam to pickled green beans, I was hooked when I figured out that I could can local, fresh food and have it year round in our tiny little laundry room ready to be eaten during the cold and dreary winter months.

Thanks to the canvolution and the good people who run it I received a free copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. This book has a plethora of recipes I want to try, including a pomegranate jelly that would be a perfect gift for the holiday season. Having this book on hand will be a great guide for those newcomer-questions I have such as acidity of different foods, how to hot and cold pack foods, and other questions about safety of canning as well as some delicious sounding preserves and pickles.

A community has been formed around canning and while I’m one of the newest members I already feel welcome and accepted by some of the veterans. Tigress from Tigress in a Jam is one of them. Tigress has amazing recipes and anecdotes on her site, and has just started a food blog challenge for anyone who wants to join. She’s launching the first ever Tigress Can Jam challenge, and I am most definitely on board. The challenge starts on January 1st, 2010 and ends on December 29th, 2010 so you will be guaranteed a full year of canning deliciousness. If you’re not a blogger, don’t fret, you can still join and learn about canning and preserving through the magic of the internet.

Recently I won a giveaway from Tigress and was beyond excited to receive her straight up greenage jam.

This stuff is Ah-mazing and I have been eating it straight out of the jar. A little taste here, a little taste there, maybe smeared on some toast or plopped in the oatmeal bowl. I want to savor it as long as possible because it is so good. Much better than my plum jam (which turned out to be a little sour) and reminiscent of summer during the cold and rainy morning we are now welcoming to Seattle.

If you’ve never canned before and are thinking to yourself “well, now that summer’s over there’s not much to can” or “I don’t have the supplies so I’ll just wait until next year” you should stop all that mumbo-jumbo and hop on the canning train! I don’t have the fancy equipment, just some jars, a large pot, a funnel, and a jar-clasper that I bought at my local grocer. There are plenty of fruits and veggies to turn into jams or pickles such as persimmons, pumpkins, and pomegranates (all p’s?). Canning brings me back to a simpler time where everyone knew what was in their food and where it came from, which is much of the draw and why the work is worth it. It’s also relatively cheap to make your own preserves, especially from food that is fresh and in season. Making gifts for loved ones, especially with the holidays coming up is incredibly rewarding and I know I love to tell people that I canned it all by myself. It’s like magic.

So what are you waiting for? You can can (can can?) in half a day, it’s cheap and fun, and a great tradition to add to your household or carry on from each generation.

To Retire or Not to Retire?

Those are your options.

I think everyone would choose retiring instead of working to your bones and finally expiring at the ripe old age of 85 while at your desk because you didn’t have the means or the brains to plan ahead. Last week I had a conversation with a coworker of mine who is neither dumb nor hindsight-ed and is going off to medical school at the ripe old age of 25. In short, she is no dumb cookie and gorgeous to boot. What struck me as odd though was when I was talking about what to do with my 3% salary increase ($100 woo!) and mentioned my retirement fund she replied with the fact that she hasn’t even opened hers nor plans to because “when X and I get married he’ll take care of all of that stuff.”

Um…..WHAT!?!?!?!

Of course I was completely flabbergasted but tried to play it off like I didn’t just die a little bit inside when I heard that. I tried to point out the fact that her boy might not be around forever, or he could get into an accident, or run away and take all of their money out in one fell swoop then spend it all in Jamaica. There is also the great possibility that she was never taught about retirement or saving while you’re young for the long-term. Many families have these same issues and pass them on to their children or it is just not spoken about within the household. I let it drop but the conversation really got me thinking.

What if she starts putting money away right now? I’m only putting away $200 per month, without any matching  by my company (1 year and then they’ll automatically add in 7% of my income) so how’s that going to pan out for me? I know putting away money while you’re young makes for a bigger bounty when you’re old but wanted to tinker around with some exact figures and thus came across some handy-dandy calculators. I used MSN’s Retirement Planner and then took some screen shots to show you the differences*.

This graph shows what age I am now, what I’m currently contributing to my account and what I think I’ll keep contributing for another 40 years, as well as how much I have saved. It’s amazing to me that I can put in about $350 each month and still have a bunch of money in the rare case that I live until I’m 93.

I kept all factors the same for each graph, such as return on investments and average age of retirement even though I know that returns are going down and I may be working for a shorter or longer time. It’s just easier that way and in truth our economy will go through more ups and downs which makes me confident that at some point I’ll get a good return out of my investments. Another thing to note is that what I need annually may also change. $40,000 isn’t that much money, but it is enough to live on especially if I play my cards right and have other savings as well as long-term care insurance and have a house to live in that isn’t sucking me dry. It’s all about the planning.

Now let’s say that I don’t add as much to my account and only put in about 5% annually. Maybe I had some down years, maybe I was unemployed, whatever. I still have money until I’m 76 years old, which is a pretty good deal. That’s only adding $290 per month for about 40 years. However, I’ll be leaving debt behind to my heirs if I continue to live and so it’s much better to be adding in 10% of my income. Remember that with most companies your retirement fund is taken out pre-tax, so you will hardly notice it and it won’t be taxed if you stick to the rules. A lot of companies also contribute to a retirement fund, so that $290 could be doubled or increased by a good amount. More on all that at a later date.

Okay, so what about my friend? Let’s say she wisens up and decides to start investing 10 years from now. Maybe she’s out of medical school, has a couple of rugrats running around, and realizes she needs to add some money for retirement. Most likely she’ll be making a heck of a lot more than $35,000 but for simplicity’s sake I’m keeping that the same.

Doesn’t look so great, does it? She will run out of money when she’s 76 and have a total debt (left to her kids) of $513,093. Pretty much the same deal that I got when I invested 5% instead of 10% except she is adding in 10% each month.  Given the fact that she’ll only have $299,000 to work with that’s not surprising. I, on the other hand will leave $106,000 to my heirs or live comfortably until I’m 93. Investing 10 years earlier will leave me with $292,000 more than her with only really putting away an extra $42,000 during that time.

To me that’s a pretty big difference and reason enough to start saving while I’m young.

What about all of you? Do you add to a retirement fund or are you just betting on someone else to provide for you for the rest of your life?

 

 

*Dude I know these screenshots suck and you can barely make out the writing. I am computer-illiterate and don’t know how to fix it or make my pictures not get cut off at the margins of the post. Please deal with it since I can’t fix it!

Reign It In

Now that we have officially reached November and the Christmas and other holiday gear (you know, that teeny tiny little section in the back of the store with stuff that isn’t red or green?) is out in full swing I though I’d do a post about the holidays. More importantly, about saving money around the holidays and maybe a few tidbits about saving your waistline during the holidays.

Okay, so my first tip for all of you is pretty much the most obvious tip ever, but we (myself included) forget it rather often. Especially when heading into the mall just “to look for ideas”. So here it is: don’t buy crap you don’t need to.

Here’s a good example – the “perfect brownie”. For a cool $19.95 plus shipping you can make perfect brownies – every time!

Except, isn’t that what a knife is for? Or maybe if you wanted to get fancy, a knife and a ruler? I know there are many people out there who are hoovering this little infomercial delight up and can’t imagine making brownies any other way, but really? Do you need it? Or is it just a waste of $20 on a present for someone who doesn’t need it?

 You can get back to me on that one.

Next up – curb your grocery spending. I am all for spending money on quality items, buying locally and eating seasonally but am reminded of holiday heyday’s past where 20 pound turkeys were bought in a blink of an eye and Costco became a bi-weekly trip instead of a weekly trip just for the Saturday samples. Fall and Winter are great times to cut back on food because there are so many dishes out there that either cost a couple bucks to make or use ingredients that are in season, healthy, and filling. I personally love to use our crockpot and made a comforting and delicious pumpkin soup in it courtesy of Gluten Free Girl (and the Chef now too). Seriously, I have been waiting for crock pot weather for a long time now and am so relieved it’s here. What’s easier than throwing a bunch of ingredients into a pot for 8 hours and having dinner ready when you get home?

Check out A Year of Slow Cooking for some fabulous ideas, and try to incorporate cheaper stew meat or even hearty root vegetables or squash, such as butternut, into your meals. These babies go for less than $1 per pound and can definitely feed two people off of one good-sized squash.

Another awesome way to save money and become more aware of how little you can get by on is to join a Thanksgiving Challenge. I first heard about the challenge on Kath’s blog, Kath Eats Real Food. She and her husband committed to spending only $126 for the entire month of November, but allowed themselves to eat out once per week without dipping into those funds. Given the fact that the boyfriend and I spend roughly $300 for the two of us on groceries I’m impressed with that kind of dedication. You can also check out Emily over at Eatventures who is participating in the challenge this year.

So now that you know what to do to save your wallet, how about them waistlines? We all know by now that holidays = hibernation & food, thus we must actively do something to counteract our mammalian instincts and instead need to get out there and stay healthy until June when the sun shines it’s sweet light on us again.

Oh, you get sun before June? Silly me, I thought we all lived in darkness for six months out of the year.

So if you are like me or aren’t like me, you might still want to be mindful for those lingering Halloween treats or that up and coming Turkey day, or even the full-fat-high-whip-extra-pumpkin-spice-double-venti-vanilla-latte that we all love and cherish from that one store. I, by no means, am a good example of health, and, ummm…..sleekness? But I do try and focus on eating a little bit better and being more conscious of what I’m doing to exercise my little heart to prevent whipped-cream saddlebags or lollipop lovehandles. Two of my favorite bloggers, Caitlin from The Healthy Tipping Point and Angela from Oh She Glows are kicking off a Back On Track Month and I think it is a mighty fine time to start getting my butt in gear.

These girls can offer you much more consistent, sane advice than I ever could so you should definitely head over to check them out. I plan on keeping up with kickboxing with the hopes of achieving a rippling stomach a la Jillian Michaels, and trying to stay away from candy and desserts that won’t truly make me happy. You know what I’m talking about – you scarf down some random milk chocolate candy and don’t even really enjoy the flavor, or inhale a grocery store cake because it’s there. Save it up for the good stuff people!

Hopefully this helps you (and me) to keep some goals in mind and avoid too much over-spending and over-indulging. What are your plans for the holidays? Do you go all out or are you going to be cutting back a little bit this year?