Adding Expenses When I Should Be Eliminating Them
It looks like I’ll be adding some more regular expenses to my budget within the next week or two.
First, I have decided to bite the bullet and join my martial arts gym for a full year after my current 10-week team program wraps up. That will add a $70 monthly bill to my life - not exactly the cheapest form of exercise, but the only one that has gotten to work out consistently.
Second, you may have noticed that my posting frequency has tapered off a bit. It’s not because I don’t want to publish to the blog - it’s that my “free” wireless connection has been disabled (I was using the signal from a neighboring coffee shop and a few weeks ago it just stopped showing up as available). I always felt bad about “stealing” wi-fi and I knew that I’d have to pay up for online acesss sometime in the near future, but I was hoping to hold out until after our wedding. Between teaching and the blog, I really need to have an Internet connection at home, so it’s time to go legit and call Qwest. Ugh.
That’s $1200 in annual expense that I hadn’t budgeted for at the beginning of this year, and it will have to come from what I was using to seed our infrequent bills account. Hopefully, my tax return (which I still haven’t filed thanks to the no Internet situation) will be enough to offset the additional expense and max out our wedding fund.
Sigh. These are legitimate expenses, but I just feel like I’m going the wrong way.
Stumble it!
February 11th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
For the gym—getting it done is very important if losing weight is one of your priorities. The internet is also pretty important for a lot of things you’re doing.
Can you find something else to cut out?
February 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
I would rather call the gym fee an investment. If you go it well pay great dividends, if not you will lose money
On the internet deal, it was very frugal…until now. It is about priorities. You may have to make an unfun decision!
February 12th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I wouldn’t worry too much about “stealing” from free internet hubs — it’s not like ketchup packets or napkins, where the establishment has to pay for each one a customer uses. Usually the establishment will pay for a subscription fee at a bandwidth, and it doesn’t matter whether the line is busy all the time or if nobody uses it at all. Also, the internet hub usually stays on even when the business is closed, at no expense to the owner. I would be courteous about not “hogging the bandwidth”, i.e. not downloading files off the connection, but other than that I think it’s ok.
That being said, I was in a situation for a few months where I couldn’t get internet service (despite the fact that the landlord said I would be able to). A friend told me about making something called a “Woktenna” (or “WiFry”), which is basically some sort of convex cooking pot/utensil (I used a mesh strainer) with an external wireless card in the center, all of which is connected to a long USB cable that plugs into my computer. It worked better than I expected, and as long as I live in a relatively urban area, I don’t think I’ll ever pay for internet again.
You can get directions here: http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/
February 13th, 2008 at 8:36 am
That’s tough. Those are two expenses that I also consider important enough to not cut from my budget.
If you currently get a big tax refund every year (it sounds like you’re expecting one), maybe you could change your withholding allowances? That would give you a little more room in your budget. Just remember that you wouldn’t get a big refund next year
February 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Hey Bankergirl. First off love the blog. I am a big fan of your style. We have a lot in common. I started a blog yesterday discussing all things tax, financial and blackberry (i’m addicted). I am watching my expenses something fierce because I, too, am getting married this year. Weddings are not cheap and I am cutting back on all things I want because of it. So, I added you too my feed and I would love to get your feedback on my blog as well. I am an accountant who is flooded with taxes right now and I also write about some crazy stuff i see on a day to day basis. Lord! Anyway, keep up the good work and you will be hearing from me again. I will have tons of wedding questions for you like why are flowers so expensive? Can’t i just have weeds?