I’m a pretty organized person – which I suppose is obvious given the fact that I’m documenting every penny I spend – and am struggling the with imperfectness of my accounting system. When do I consider money spent? The day it leaves my bank account? The day I commit to the spend? What do I do with billing cycles where things are pre-paid?
Unless I determine that the following doesn’t work, here’s what I’m thinking: money is spent once the check is written or the money leaves my bank account, as in the case of e-bills. I’ll ignore the fact that my bill may be for a service provided in the previous or following month.
Today’s spend was not insignificant, but it was worthwhile.
PG&E (electricity and gas in my apartment) – $18.95
Shrink – $120
If you’re jealous of my small PG&E bill, know that my heat and hot water (both happily abundant) are included in my $2,450 rent and that PG&E only covers electricity (appliances, outlets) and gas for my stove. The amount is pretty low, or so I’m told. It may be that I’m there less than half the hours of the day, and that I don’t have a lot of excess appliances plugged in. I’m even pretty vigilant about not leaving chargers plugged in if they’re not being used. I’m cheap that way, and that’s okay with me.
As for the shrink….it’s worth it. I’m a huge proponent of “mental health services” and hate my insurance company for not reimbursing them more generously. I really believe that if more people talked through things, the world would be a better place. (BTW, I’m one of the most uncommunicative people ever, particularly with people who are close to me. They would be shocked to read that I think people should “talk through things”.) I don’t have a lot of excess cash to spend on my shrink (btw, I don’t call her that to her face) and so have tried to manage that expense by speaking with her less frequently, rather than eliminating the expense altogether.
Cumulative February Spend: $2,738.54
I’ll have my cake and eat it too.
Yesterday my sister called and suggested we get together for a simple dessert to celebrate our mother’s birthday. An official celebration is planned for this weekend, but my sister insisted that our mom secretly wanted us to recognize it on the day of. The plan was to meet at our parent’s house around 9 pm.
Around 8 pm, she called back and told me to pick up a cake. Rude, no? I was pretty irritated about this change in events – perhaps made more so by the fact that I’m counting pennies – but that didn’t stop me from doing the right thing.
I have to acknowledge, however, that one good deed doesn’t right a wrong and that I have some spending confessions to admit:
The day before yesterday – which, by the way, can be described with the word nudiustertian [n(y)oo-dee-uh-stur-shun], from a Latin phrase meaning ‘three days earlier’ – I wrote my post in the afternoon thinking I had finished spending money for the day. That would have been the case had I been willing to eat an unexciting meal conjured from the remnants of my cupboards, which it turns out, I wasn’t.
Earlier that day, a friend of mine gave me an electronic copy of Slumdog Millionaire, which not only saved me the $10-$15 I would have to spend on a ticket and treats at the theater, but also the trouble of finding one of the three people on earth who had yet to see the film. I decided this called for a celebration of sorts. On my way home I stopped by my neighborhood grocery store, Whole Foods – lovingly and commonly referred to as “Whole Paycheck” – for dinner. I had every intention of buying raw produce and making a meal of it. (I’m craving a lot of cauliflower these days.) However, I made the knowlingly foolish decision to pass by the prepared foods section to see what was available. The hot line for the day, it turned out, was Indian food! Clearly, it was an omen. Slumdog Millionaire and a little curried cauliflower and chicken tikka was in my cards. I threw in a grapefruit at an attempt to carry-out my plan of buying produce, and having lost all control by the time I hit the check-out stand, added the latest Vanity Fair to the pile. It’s a great magazine, which I have yet to crack open. I’m such a sucker.
So here’s the damage from the last couple days:
February 4:
Prepared Food – 10.4
Grapefruit -1.34
Magazine -$4.88
February 5:
Birthday Cake – $9.99
Parking Meters* (from errands run earlier in the day) – $1.15
Cumulative February Spend: $2,766.74
*Please join me in my outrage at that fact that parking meters in my city can cost up to $2.50 per hour.