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On Monday Check-In
Okay, I said in my estimate that I was going to count the $20 I had already spent on dinner. Also on Friday: $24 for a new bottle of allergy meds, because the economy size bottle from last year was expiring, and $36 on groceries. Saturday: $24 on a baseball ticket, and because my friend paid me back for her ticket in part by paying for food and drink at the ballpark, nothing more! And the Nationals won on Saturday, so I'm glad we went Saturday instead of Friday or Sunday. Ugh. $16 on delivery for dinner that night. Sunday: $30 on brunch & drinks at a new restaurant/bar in my neighborhood while watching the baseball game. I made friends with the manager and got my third drink for free, which was sweet, and clearly I'll be going there again. $11 on more groceries, purchased while slightly drunk and sad after losing the baseball game. Estimate: $130. Actual: $161. Not terrible, but not good. But I forgot about the need for allergy meds in my estimate, which is what threw me off more than anything.
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On Friday Estimate
I'm about to go to the grocery store for a few things, but hopefully under $30? I'm going to a catered Shabbat dinner after services at the synagogue, $20 (already paid but really weekend spending). Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to Citi Field to watch my Nationals against the Mets, ticket was $23.45, and I'll spend another $10-15 on snacks/drinks/whatever. I will end up staying in tomorrow night because of the game in the afternoon. And Sunday I might treat myself to a trip to a bar to watch that baseball game, since I'll be blacked out for MLB.TV, so maybe $20 on drinks/snacks then? And I might need other groceries on Sunday to cook things for the week. Let's say $120-130 for the weekend.
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On The Y Generation's "Culture of Transparency"
Generally related thing: people working on pay equity all agree that being allowed to share salary information is key to ending the wage gap. After all, Lilly Ledbetter did not know she was facing pay discrimination until she had been on the job for nearly 20 years! If you live in NY, one of the points of the governor's women's equality agenda is pay equity, and it includes a provision that would make it illegal for a company to ban the sharing of salary information. Big step for pay equity, big step for things like the above, big step for all of us. Call your assembly member and state senator!
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On I Don't Feel Entitled, I Feel Guilty
YES. They did so much for me and so far I haven't been able to afford to even attempt to grab the check when I go out to dinner with them- instead, I'm emailing them to ask them to pay for a dentist appointment next week because I can't afford it.
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On Middle Class in Israel
@stuffisthings Things to keep in mind re: that stat- the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community & Israeli Arabs have much much higher birthrates than the secular Jewish community, and are also much poorer than the rest of the country. I'm not surprised by that at all.
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On Middle Class in Israel
It’s interesting that there’s a “traveling out of the country” bit in there though- because if you live in Israel, that’s basically the equivalent of traveling in the US. We wouldn’t think of it as weird to suggest that a middle-class American goes on a trip to another state for fun every two years, right? And the flight from Tel Aviv to any European capitol is going to be like, four hours max.
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On 'What's outrageous? Fast food wages!'
@Markham I don't think the math works that way in terms of the price increases. Just as an example: in NY state, we're raising the minimum wage from $7.25 (current federal) to $9 over the next couple of years. That means that your minimum wage workers will earn an extra $1.75/hr. Let's say everyone in a given store has their wage increase the same amount. And let's say the store is open 6am to 12pm, which is pretty typical for NYC. I'm going to roughly estimate that over the course of the day, we have 20 people working 8 hour shifts, which puts payroll at 160 hours, and our increased wages will mean an additional $280 in payroll costs. That $280 dollars gets spread over every single item sold- any there are a lot more items sold than payroll hours, right? I mean, they probably sell 1000s of items in a day. I think my initial estimate on the math (5-10¢ per item) is much more likely.
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On 'What's outrageous? Fast food wages!'
@Markham But how much would prices have to go up to maintain that 5.7% net profit margin AND raise wages by 20%? I bet it would come out to cents per item. Yes, the margins are slim, but it's not like the prices are locked in. Different stores have different prices. An NYC McDonald's has higher prices than a McDonald's in rural parts of New York, but they pay the same minimum wage. If raising the prices of all items that aren't on the dollar menu by 5-10¢ would make those raises possible, then what's the problem?
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On Betting on Love, Leveling Up and Leaving Atlanta (Part VIII)
@Amanda T I think your best bet might be to move into a sublet to start? It will be easier to find, no broker fee to worry about, usually less deposit because you're dealing with a person, and gives you time to start a job and get to know the city before you tie yourself to a lease. When I first moved to NYC, I moved into an open bedroom in a 4-bedroom apartment that I found on Criagslist. The roommates weren't great, but the rent was pretty cheap and I stayed there for six months, at which point I signed a two-year lease because I know I'm happy with the neighborhood and have a better sense of what is and isn't good in an NYC apartment. You guys would probably have to find a one-bedroom to sublet, but it's totally doable.
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On Springtime and the Theatre
Cheap Broadway tickets! Mike, this is what you need: http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/article/82428-Broadway-Rush-Lottery-and-Standing-Room-Only-Policies Playbill updates this list all the time. It's great. I'm also a TDF member- $25 for the year gets me discounted tickets to all kinds of things, generally $45 or less.