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On I Am Fastidiously Frugal And Exorbitantly Flagrant (Because: Balance) (And: Parents)
@limenotapple You are kind of me! Well, OK, I have a smartphone but I don't pay much for the plan, and I do eat out too much, but I spend buckets on having just a couple pairs of quality shoes and bras, and also pay someone to do my yardwork despite being the kind of person who does her own home improvements and makes her own laundry soap. I also don't pay for haircuts, makeup, etc., but that's not really due to frugality so much as lack of desire (I really wish I weren't a girl).
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On Open Thread
@ellabella I'd love to hear how it works out for you! I'd never beard of it before.
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On Don't Buy Expensive Cereal Make Your Own Expensive Cereal
@hellonheels I have a bunch of leftover quinoa... and now I have a Plan.
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On Friday Estimate
Oh man, I have no idea, really! Today I'll have to buy lunch; that's about $10. Tonight I plan to make enchiladas for dinner, and the leftovers should be useful this weekend. Tomorrow I know we're hanging out with Miles's family who are in town, and I don't know what that will involve. Maybe some of Sunday and Monday, too. It's a big blank. Money-spending plans for the weekend include at least one brunch at some point ($35), and maybe snacks for a game night at some other point, along with grocery shopping for general purposes and for a nice holiday meal for me and the dude ($70?). I suspect at some point we'll go to a park and maybe renew the yearly park pass. Or maybe we'll wait until June to renew since May is almost over. (If you get it at the beginning of a month, it's basically good for 13 months. Yes, I'm that cheap that I care about such things.) I'm going to estimate at least $40 for random stuff I haven't predicted yet. I also might order a treadmill over the weekend, but I don't really want to include that in my weekend spending. :)
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On Chatting With My Parents About How (And Why) They Paid For My College Education
My grandmother inherited money my sophomore year and contributed about $10k/year for the last two or three years of college. My grandparents didn't contribute to the other grandkids' education because, of my three first cousins, two were the children of extremely well-paid employees of a drug company (so didn't need help), and one didn't go to college (well, I think he's in community college now, at 23, but has just started, having only finished his high school work a year or so ago). The rest of the time, each of my parents were supposed to contribute $8k/year (though in reality my mom ended up covering my dad's share more than once). They also sent me monthly money for food/rent/basic living expenses, but I worked 20 hours/week after my freshman year and 40 hours/week in the summer so that I could pay for my summer living expenses and anything fun I wanted to do. Basically: my parents are the best and I am the luckiest.
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On Chatting With My Parents About How (And Why) They Paid For My College Education
@aetataureate I had no idea. I never filled out the FAFSA, also based on the little calculator that said I was ineligible for federal loans. That said, loans/grants were hard to come by at my private liberal arts college (and there were absolutely zero merit-based aid programs there), I had a big ($10k/year) scholarship from my parents' workplace, and my parents and grandparents could basically afford the rest, or at least they had me think so.
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On How Much Do You Spend on Groceries Every Week?
I spend about $45 at the grocery store each week (for two adults in a southern college town, one of whom does not get his lunch food from this supply), then the weekly cost of my CSA is $18, and I usually spend about $10 at the farmer's market on top of that. So my total is $73. But we also eat out embarrassingly often.
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On A Conversation With a Kyrgyz Schoolteacher About Wedding Customs (And Costs)
I love, love, love the last line here. (And kind of agree, being in the midst of planning one myself.) Interesting piece!
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On Monday Check-In
My weekend was hard. I did fun stuff, which was great, but also got the bad news that a close family friend - someone who has had a parental-ish role in my life - had died this week, and so I went back and forth between eating all the things/spending all the money/trying to forget and falling over on my bed not wanting to do anything ever again. I'm so not ready for people my parents' age, people who raised me, to be dying, and I'm really going to miss her. (Hi, Billfold comments. You are so much cheaper than therapy.) Friday I spent $3 on breakfast, $12 on lunch (estimated $8), and $6 on snacks (forgot to estimate). Saturday I spent $5 on breakfast (estimated $8), $20 on lunch (estimated $25), $38 on dinner (estimated $35), and $10 on theater snacks (estimated $10). My dude got the Star Trek tickets and I didn't need gas after all, though I will during the week sometime. Sunday I went around returning things at various stores (-$61, but generally I wouldn't count this), spending an unexpected $11 on smoothies, and then $42 at Walmart (I estimated $20, but I hadn't counted the ginormous bag of bird seed we ended up buying). Total: $137, and I estimated $147, but I do still need gas.
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On Amazon Figures Out How to Make Money off of Fan Fiction
Yes. Please.