Frugal Zeitgeist

Look what came flying over the fence the other day

2009-07-15T08:00:00.003-05:00

An anonymous commenter asked, Do you ever want a life that doesnt involve your job - or are you happy to keep doing what you are doing until an undetermined point?

I ask because your wholeself appears to defined by your job, e.g. where you live and your stories about glory at work.

Anon, thanks for the question. Heck yeah, I want a life that doesn't involve my job. The main reason I work as hard as I do is so that one day, I won't have to. In the meantime, however, I'm a one woman show: If I blow it, the cavalry isn't coming. That alone gives me a pretty good incentive to make work work for me.

Just the other night a friend told me that he thinks my work-life balance is out of whack, and he's probably right. Having said that, I do take satisfaction in my job: I'm pretty good at what I do, and doing my job well is deeply fulfilling. Tough periods where I'm not doing well or things aren't going right are deeply painful, so much so that I don't generally blog about them. Having people want to join my team or ask me to mentor them makes me ridiculously happy: There is no higher compliment in my worldview than having someone offer his or her trust because what I do and how I do it is in some way meaningful and relevant to them. I have never had better professional validation than that.

As you can see, work definitely occupies a lot of my brain space, especially lately.

That doesn't mean it defines me.

I feel weird writing about the relationships I have with people in real life, so I don't do a lot of that. Nevertheless, I'm still a friend, a sister, a daughter, and the partner of a really great guy.

I'm an active member of a community, but I don't write about that at all: I hate the thought of someone finding my blog and recognizing me or themselves, because my blog isn't something I share with people in real life.

As you noted, I do write about my home. I love my under 600 square foot palace that faces a brick wall. I worked so hard to pay the mortgage off early, and I'm proud of the fact that I'm slowly learning how to do (and in some cases, how absolutely not to do) basic and long-overdue maintenance and upgrades myself instead of paying someone else to do them.

But that doesn't define me either.

This blog contains fragments of my life as they relate to personal finance, seen through my eyes (and thanks to feedback from commenters like you, occasionally through others' eyes). I think if you try to roll those fragments up to make up a complete picture of a person, you're going to miss a lot. . . and that's just the way of the internets.

Breakup song

2009-07-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

(This post is for you, Penny. Hugs.)

You said you wanted to have some space,
Slow it down some and take a break
Well, fuck you, too!
Give me my money back, Give me my money back, you bitch
I want my money back
And don't forget to give me back my black T-shirt!

--Ben Folds Five, "Song of the Dumped"

You know how the story goes. Two people meet and fall in love. Maybe they get married; maybe they don't. Either way, they build a life together, and they live happily ever after.

Until they don't anymore.

Then what?

Breaking up often means losing a part of oneself. If that wasn't bad enough, it can also be financially devastating. The worst part is when the couple hasn't been playing in the same financial ballpark: What's fair and right? If the major breadwinner is a frugal person, is it right for that person to hand over an enormous share of assets and future earnings to a spendthrift former partner? If the major breadwinner is a spendthrift and the former partner plays great financial defense, does it make it any more fair?

I don't know the answers. There aren't any easy ones. I thought I was doing the right thing by setting up a prenuptial agreement when I got married, but the joke was on me when my spendthrift husband's salary doubled in two years. After four years of my scrimping along to pay half our expenses on what ended up being half my husband's salary, he headed for greener fields and I had to raid my investment accounts to cover the rent. I left the smoking wreckage with nothing but my own savings, and $10,000 of that went to my lawyer.

Maybe that's fair. It sure didn't feel fair at the time, though.

Last week, Forbes published an article for unmarried couples about not getting stuck paying for a partner's financial problems. The worst-case scenario for unmarried couples is that when the couple has a major disparity in personal financial responsibility and the better-off party co-signins or guarantees loans or credit cards, the better-off party can end up fighting claims against his or her assets following a breakup - just like in a divorce.

The Forbes article suggested five tips to prevent couples from risking their assets if a relationship goes south. They are:

1. Maintain independent financial identities
In other words, don't merge everything: Leave at least one major bank account and credit card in each of your own names.

2. Consider the emotional impact of financial decisions
Does buying a house together mean that you're going to get married? Chances are, your answer and your significant other's might not be the same. If you understand the emotions behind each of your decisions, the financial aftermath of a breakup might not be quite as messy.

3. Avoid joint big-ticket buys with a financially strapped partner
In other words, generosity can backfire big-time, especially if it leads to claims against your assets. Forbes suggests starting small and measuring progress over time before jumping into major joint financing endeavors.

4. Review all joint bills
If your name is on the account, you're on the hook. It's in your interest to know when money is being spent and how. Even more importantly, you don't want to let a joint credit card loose with your ex in the aftermath of a hostile breakup.

5. When in doubt, get legal guidance
Laws vary by state in the US, and possibly by state or province in many other countries. It's important to understand the impact of your financial decisions in advance, because it's a whole lot cheaper than finding out after you've been held responsibile.

This is a decent list, but I think it's missing one important component: Regardless of the health of the relationship, no one gets to fly blind when it comes to money. At best, it shows an unwillingness to be an equal partner in an important aspect of the relationship. At worst, if things go south, it's stupidly dangerous.

What were your best and worst experiences with money in a breakup?

Countdown

2009-07-11T08:30:00.000-05:00

Last night, I was delighted to meet the lovely Revanche from A Gai Shan Life. We went for coffee at Cafe Lalo, and it was so nice to get to know a fellow PF blogger in person - especially one as open, friendly, and easy to talk to as Revanche. I hope she enjoys the rest of her stay and keeps in touch after her departure.

I've got a handful of Euros in my pocket and I'm shoving off for the airport shortly. I've set a bunch of posts to publish automatically while I'm gone, so check back during the course of the week if you want to stay up to date.

See you on the flip side.

Where did all the money go?

2009-07-10T12:21:00.008-05:00

As I wrote in my quarterly review, I'm nominally on track with my savings for the quarter, but the reality is that I spent like a drunken sailor in the past three months. I used up my $3600 cushion that came back from Uncle Sam, and then some. Here's a breakdown of the bizarro world of spending I entered in Q2:

I got a little stressed out just looking at that. Seeing the numbers doesn't do much good without understanding more about why they're there, though, so here's a drilldown into some of those expenses:

Suits and shorts: What can I say, I'm a full two sizes smaller than I was in February. I looked ridiculous swishing around in clothes that were falling off, and safety pins are not my friends. I could have gone thrift store hunting for replacements, but I didn't.

Family visit: I bought lots of extra food to cook at home and also took my family out while they were staying with me, and that added up quickly.

Time share: After my dad died, my mom wanted to sell her entire time share. My sibling and I insisted on buying a small piece of it with the idea that we'd continue to take my mom on trips, just without her being stuck with the financial responsibility. Once a year, we each have to pay $242 in maintenance fees.

Home improvement: I went above budget on the paint for my home improvement project because the final cost per gallon was almost twice what I anticipated. I recouped a little on the painting supplies because I was able to return a couple of Dremel bits that I didn't end up using on the grouting project, which helped somewhat.

Fun: Did I really need a new duvet cover and pillow shams? No. I bought them anyway because I loved the pattern and caught a 50% off closeout sale. The New Yorker and the trip to San Francisco were already planned in advance, as were the other flights I'm taking to see my family.

Gifts: $81 is a lot for champagne, right? Right. It was actually two bottles: an $11 bottle of prosecco, and a $65 bottle of champagne. I normally bring a cheap bottle to drink together whenever I give an expensive bottle so that the hosts don't feel pressured to open the expensive bottle while I'm there. The background on this is that the recipients are near to being family. They've been incredibly generous to me over the past two years (dinners, shows, holiday gifts, and in this case an invitation to their new weekend house) and they've never let me reciprocate properly before now. I was glad to do it and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

This is why it's important to always, always, always have a cash reserve. As you can see, the final total goes way beyond my $3600 cushion that I had built up, and there's more to come: I owe another $1500 on the cabinetry when it's finished, and $825 of the costs you see above are on my credit card for payment in full in August. On top of that, I'm leaving for a week in Europe tomorrow.

I'm expecting to be about $3000 in the hole relative to my savings goal by the time the Q3 summary rolls around (spank away in the comments if you must), but my new challenge is going to be to see how much of that I can recoup before year end.

I love challenges. Wish me luck!

The good, the bad, and the truly fugly

2009-07-09T09:10:00.005-05:00

Q2 of calendar year 2009 has come and gone, and that means it's time to check my progress against this year's goals.

Financial
Max out Roth 401(k)
I'll do this through ongoing payroll deductions into diversified investments throughout the year, and I'll try not to throw up when I look at the volatility in the short term.

Q1 result: On track.
Q2 result: On track.

Max out IRA
I'll do this through one to four investments totalling $5000 before the end of December. Ditto the throwing up part.

Q1 result: Complete. I caught the second half of the recent rally and dumped the entire $5000 into my IRA at once. Tsk, tsk, tsk on me for attempting to time the market.
Q2 result: Complete.

Save $65,000
Between my 401(k), IRA, and after-tax savings, I plan to sock away this amount in total over the course of the year. I'll do that by maxing out my 401(k) and IRA, and by dropping a predefined amount every month into a money market fund. I haven't decided when or how much of those after-tax savings I'll invest, but I'll assess my options, outlook, and investment priorities on a monthly basis.

Q1 result: On track. Total long-term savings in 2009 so far = $16,000.
Q2 result: On track, but on the verge of slipping behind. So far, I'm at $32,000 in total, which is on track with where I expected to be since I normally pick up a little extra savings towards the end of the calendar year. Unfortunately, that figure doesn't reflect the fact that I was ahead of the game by $3600 after my tax refund came through. I've blown through that extra cushion in this quarter, and next quarter I guarantee that I'll be behind on this goal. I'll tell how you I did that in my next post.

Commit to keeping my monthly spending under $1500
$1500 is enough to accomodate regular spending on everything in my budget (including apartment maintenance fees and property tax), with a little extra for entertainment and gifts. I also left some wiggle room between my budget total and my savings goals to cover five or six flights to the West Coast to see my family.

Q1 result: Not succeeding. I'm consistently running about $100 to $150 or more above goal. I'll track this one for another three months and possibly revise at mid-year.
Q2 result: Blew this one completely out of the water. Check out my next post to see how, why, and what I'm doing about it.

Maintain elite status on my preferred airline
I'll do this by taking either four trips to the West Coast to see my family and one elsewhere, or five trips West.

Q1 result: On track. One trip down, one coming up, and one more booked for San Francisco in the fall.
Q2 result: On track. I've booked all planned flights for the rest of the year, and I should just squeak by with 25,000 accrued air miles in 2009.

Fitness
Run at least three half marathons
I'm already registered for two, and I should be able to pick up the third with no problem before the end of the year. I haven't had a concrete fitness target to work towards in a while, so let's see what this does for my motivation.

Q1 result: On track. I missed the second half that I was registered for thanks to the flu, but I ran a decent first half marathon. I'm scheduled to run one in San Francisco in the fall, and I'll probably pick up another one locally before then.
Q2 result: On track. I did a second half that became a fun run because of unseasonably hot weather, but it still counts. I also signed up for a full marathon in the fall.

Increase my flexibility
I'll do this by taking a yoga class once a week throughout the year no matter what, and twice a week whenever possible.

Q1 result: Mostly on track: The flu flattened me for two weeks and I didn't do squat for yoga while I was out of town in February, but I've been consistent otherwise. Improvement in flexibility is only incremental (and the increments are small), so I might need to squeeze out more time for another couple of classes or home practice every week.
Q2 result: Mostly on track. I was getting to yoga consistently three to four times per week until I started the heavy lifting with the mini-home renovation a few weeks ago. I'm going to two classes this week, will miss a week over vacation, and then it's back to the regular schedule until the end of August.

Bring my cholesterol below 200
To my chagrin, I cracked 200 for the first time this year. I'm achieving this goal by reducing consumption of saturated fats (goodbye eggs and ice cream), exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and hopefully shedding a few extra pounds in the process. This is an ongoing goal, but I'll check in on a quarterly basis to measure my progress.

Q1 result: On track. The unofficial, non-fasting results from an on-site health fair at work pegged my blood pressure at 100/70 and my cholesterol at 144.
Q2 result: Probably on track: I'm due for a checkup this summer and will confirm at that time. Unofficially, my self-measured resting pulse is 42 beats per minute.

****I decided to break out the goal above into three additional goals, since this one covers a lot of ground in just one sentence.***

NEW GOAL: Get off of refined sugar
On January 09, after a massive chocolate binge that followed a layoff at work, I gave up sugar in the form of sweets and as an additive in more than trace amounts. (Naturally occuring sugar - like fruit - and alcohol are still on the menu. Honey, agave, and artificial sweeteners are not.)

Q1 result: On track. If I make it through today, that totals 81 days sugar-free to date.
Q2 result: On track. As of today, I've been sugar free for exactly six months. The periods between sugar cravings are getting longer, but the sugar cravings themselves are still awful, awful, awful.

NEW GOAL: 7 hours of sleep per night during the week
After I had the flu, I started getting more vigilant about getting enough sleep. Lights out is 10:15 during the week.

Q1 result: Mostly on track. I've had a few late nights during the week, but very few relative to the quarter as a whole.
Q2 result: Not on track. I've slipped far, far back into the land of five hours of sleep per night or less. I definitely need to recommit to this one.

NEW GOAL: Achieve and maintain goal weight
Losing weight at my age is suddenly both difficult and agonizingly slow. Despite a great deal of effort, I lost a grand total of two pounds between my last physical in June and January. Intense stress triggered another five-pound drop, and then I lost a whole lot more (too much, in fact) while I had the flu. I regained a few pounds after I recovered, and my weight stabilized at at one pound above goal, possibly the most irritating thing it could do.

Q1 result: Mostly on track. Overall, I'm sixteen pounds lighter than I was last June and it feels really, really good.
Q2 result: Mostly on track. Aside from occasional fluctuations, I'm maintaining a sixteen pound loss. That leaves me one pound that I just haven't been able to shake above goal.

Personal development
Read more news and ideas
I don't always finish the New York Times and the New Yorker, my two favorite subscriptions. I think I can do better in this area by spending less time at home indulging in escapism on the internet and more time facing up to what's in the news on a day to day basis. This is an ongoing goal, but I'll check in on a quarterly basis to measure my progress.

Q1 result: Mixed. I switched to reading the New York Times online during the week because the paper started arriving after I left for work. After six weeks and numerous complaints, I finally cancelled the subscription except for Saturday and Sunday. To my chagrin, I've found that I have less focus when reading the paper online. On a more positive note, I'm reading the New Yorker during my commute, so I'm having much greater success in getting it read consistently.
Q2 result: Mixed. I'm focusing better on what I read, but the lack of breadth bothers me.

Give more
I plan to spend more time helping people I know who need it (like my New York mom), more time volunteering in my community, and more money on donations to charitable causes. This is an ongoing goal, but I'll check in on a quarterly basis to measure my progress.

Q1 result: Mostly on track. I've done several charitable donations this year so far, and I've continued helping my New York mom. I'm short on the volunteering front, though.
Q2 result: Mostly on track. Did one more charitable donation during the quarter, and I've been helping out during my New York mom's most recent hospitalization. (She just got out this week.)

Professional development
Keep my job and continue building my career
I don't want to delve into jobworld too much on this blog, so let's just call this doing my best work every day, with the understanding that I have much more specific and concrete goals in real life.

Q1 result: No details, but this one is on track.
Q2 result: Got an outstanding performance review, plus one of the best compliments ever: Someone in the office approached me a few weeks ago and said "I want to come work for you." That's the third time that's happened over the past nine or ten months, but it never gets old.

Become a better public speaker
Public speaking is fast becoming an integral part of my job. Without going into more detail, let's just say that I've managed to wrangle a few opportunities to get more practice, and I plan to leverage them to the best of my ability.

Q1 result: No details, but this one is on track.
Q2 result: No details, but thanks to a few really good opportunities, this one is still on track.

Relationships
I have some goals here, but nothing I'm inclined to share. ;-)

Q1 result: No details, but mostly on track.
Q2 result: No details, but mostly on track.

Overall, this has been a great quarter professionally and personally, but some of my financial goals went down in flames. This is mostly due to the unplanned mini-renovation that I embarked on after a simple regrouting made me realize just how shabby my home was becoming, but that's not the full story. Check back here in a couple of days and I'll tell you where all the money went. You decide how much of a spanking that's worth.

How are you doing on your 2009 goals?

******Free! Free! Free!******

Fellow Frugal Blog Network member Tight Fisted Miser is giving away a copy of 10,000 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget. The giveaway ends this Friday, so get thyself over there promptly and sign up to win. I just did.

That was awfully short for a long weekend

2009-07-06T19:45:00.003-05:00

Sorry about the radio silence over here for the past few days. I got the rest of my apartment painted. It took two full days for the painting (with a total of six hours sleep in the entire period), plus another full day to completely clean up, especially after I knocked not one, not two, but three trays of paint off the top of the ladder and all over the floor.

Yup, missed the drop cloth. Three times.

It's not a perfect paint job, but I got a LOT better at fixing wall gouges and somewhat better at the actual painting part, so it sure looks a whole lot nicer in here. All in all, I'd call it an A for effort, B- for execution, and two thumbs up for white and lime green.

On Sunday, there was a work eruption that triggered a very long conference call and a fairly controversial judgment that I had to make. It turned out that the decision I made was the right one, so I came out of the situation in very good shape today.

Between these two events, I feel like I got run over by a truck that backed up and ran over me again. Two upcoming topics for later in the week: The Q2 report, also known as where did all the money go?; and money and relationships, by request.

Right now, however, I'm shuffling off to bed. G'night.

Help this reader buy a house

2009-06-30T17:16:00.011-05:00

Meet Lulubelle.

Lulubelle lives in the Pacific Northwest, and she's a thirty-something residential and commercial property manager. Lulubelle got a late start on saving, but one of her personal finance goals is to buy a home of her own. Here's her current net worth:

As you can see, Lulubelle's retirement savings consists of a 401(k) worth $1000, plus a traditional IRA that's currently stored in a certificate of deposit valued at $9200. She also has $8400 in passbook savings and coins. Beyond this $18,000 in savings and investments, Lulubelle's net worth consists of a car and household items.

Now, let's look at Lulubelle's income and budget for July:

Lulubelle's total income for July is $2698, and her annual income is $39,780 per year. (I'm assuming that that's pre-tax.) Her job doesn't provide medical insurance or a 401(k) plan. Lulubelle doesn't have private medical insurance, but she does have a minor chronic medical condition that requires two prescription drugs to manage. She has a roommate to offset half of her rent and utility costs, and she has a cell phone but no land line.

Lulubelle's July savings rate is very high relative to her income, but since her budget for July doesn't cover periodic costs like travel, car and renter's insurance, or household items like detergent, it's probably safe to assume that some months, her savings rate is somewhat lower. Her target savings goal for 2009 is $15,000, which is 37.8% of her gross salary.

This, by the way, is a most impressive percentage, so two thumbs up for Lulubelle!

Lulubelle buys most of her food and household supplies at Costco, but she has two spending priorities: A gym membership and expensive shampoo for her fine, thin hair. Those two items are important in what looks like an otherwise spare budget, so let's consider them non-negotiable.

I checked salary.com to get an idea of what the normal income curve looks like for property managers in the Pacific Northwest. In a relatively small town that I picked at random, here's what came up:

As you can see, Lulubelle's salary falls in the bottom tenth percentile of the curve, so there appears to be fairly significant growth potential for her income in future. Given the aftermath of the real estate bubble, however, I think short term growth is unlikely.

I reviewed Lulubelle's budget from two perspectives: First, for general feedback; and second, to see what she can do to get her into home ownership. Here's what I came up with:

General feedback

I think that more granular budgeting would give Lulubelle a clearer picture of where her money goes and how to plan ahead for periodic expenses like travel and car insurance. If she has a sense of how often and in what general intervals she needs to have a little extra cash on hand, Lulubelle can set aside money each month so that she doesn't need to tap into savings when one of these expenses comes up.

I don't like to see anyone without health insurance in general, but if Lulubelle gets a serious illness or into a bad accident, she'll be wiped out. For that reason, even if she can't stretch her budget to cover regular medical insurance, I strongly recommend that she at least pick up catastrophic insurance.

If Lulubelle's two medications are available in generic form and she's not already taking generics, it's absolutely worthwhile unless her doctor feels otherwise. Walgreen's, CVS, and several other big-box pharmacies have plans for generic medications that keep drug costs as low as $4 per month or $9.99 for a three-month supply.

Lulubelle's IRA is in a CD, which is as safe as safe can be. With nearly thirty years left until retirement, however, I think Lulubelle can afford to take a little risk. Target retirement IRAs are designed to modify holdings to become more conservative and less risky as investors near retirement, and that's a simple rollover choice if Lulubelle doesn't want to get involved in tracking her investments closely. Alternatively, a total stock market index fund will give her average performance at low cost, although she'll need to remember to adjust to something more conservative as she nears retirement age.

Today, Lulubelle's IRA is a traditional deductible IRA. Rolling it into a Roth may be a good choice, but it may not. The Roth IRA is flexible in that Lulubelle can take out up to $10,000 penalty-free for a down payment as a first-time homebuyer. In addition, the growth on a Roth IRA isn't taxed, so if Lulubelle can afford to pay taxes on that income today, she won't have as much to pay in the future. That's great if she expects to have a higher income in retirement than she has today. If her outlook is more modest and she doesn't intend to pull out any money for a down payment, however, she might do better sticking with the traditional.

Home ownership

Small is beautiful, and that's how I think Lulubelle should start. By that, I mean a condo instead of a private home. In the past couple of years, we've seen what happens when people get overextended on mortgages. The conventional wisdom is that a mortgage should never be more than three times one's gross income. Personally, I think that for most people, two to two and a half times is generally more appropriate. Two and a half times Lulubelle's gross income is just shy of $100,000. I don't know the real estate costs in her specific area, but I think she'd generally find much more selection in the condo market anyway. Since Lulubelle should plan on setting aside about 5% of her home's value every year for regular maintenance and upkeep, without a major change in her income, there's even more incentive to buy a condo instead of a house.

On the whole, I think it's going to be tough for Lulubelle to stretch her income to fund both retirement and down payment savings adequately unless she either spends less or earns more. There isn't much room to cut her budget any further, so I think Lulubelle should consider what she can do to increase her income. As the graph above shows, Lulubelle has potential growth in her salary, so she might consider negotiating for a raise or jumping to a new employer. She should be somewhat cautious, though, given that real estate in general has been hit so hard.

Another alternative Lulubelle can consider is adding on a part time job to bolster her savings. The job market is bleak right now, though, so I think she'll need to think creatively. Hobbies can often be turned into a source of cash; alternatively, if she has flexibility in her schedule and either the patience to tutor or babysit or the ability to help other people look after their property (e.g. mowing lawns, odd jobs, and the like), she could leverage her talents to make a few extra bucks.

As it turns out, Lulubelle has already thought through all of these suggestions on her own and is working on putting some of them into place. She'd like to hear from f.z. readers to see what other ideas are out there, so don't be shy! If you have some additional thoughts, please drop a comment or send me an email and I'll make sure Lulubelle gets it.

Two caveats: First, I warned Lulubelle to consider any suggestions strictly amateur, and mine in particular to be the ravings of a drunken madwoman.

Second, the only rule that applies around here is the usual one: Treat Lulubelle the way you would want to be treated. She was generous enough to share her backstory, so please phrase your feedback in a courteous and constructive manner.

Can't wait to hear your brilliant thoughts. In the meantime, if anyone else wants me to bust his or her budget, feel free to shoot me an email at frugal (dot) zeitgeist (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

I survived

2009-06-28T13:56:00.007-05:00

. . . but barely.

I worked 20 hours straight (I'm being serious, 8 a.m. to 4 a.m.) on the last of the prep, the actual painting, and the cleaning up, but the bedroom is painted. Still have no electricity in there, though. Hopefully that'll get sorted out tomorrow (and that's another Stupid Tax I'm going to have to pay).

The paint store guy talked me into Benjamin Moore Aura for the accent wall on the grounds that it's self-priming and will cover just about anything (even my electric blue) in one coat, so I gave it a try. I HIGHLY recommend it! It's expensive, but it actually worked out to cost less in the long run because I didn't have to buy primer. I don't think I could have handled another coat anyway - I'm physically tapped out.

I made plenty of mistakes, but I know better what to do for the rest of the apartment, and that helps. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. . . and for me, that's good enough.

PS. How do you get paint out of hair?

Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.

2009-06-26T19:25:00.002-05:00

I shorted out an outlet, so there's no electricity in the bedroom (where I'm painting tomorrow).

Fun with electricity:

1. Don't do anything unless the breaker is off!
2. If you're painting, just remove the outlet cover. Leave the innards alone!

Yup, that was stupid. . . but I'm pretty sure I won't do it again.

All the inside dirt you never wanted

2009-06-26T06:35:00.002-05:00

The lovely Serena from neighborbeeblog asked me for an interview the other day, and she's posted the results here. I had fun doing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

The inflow is a trickle, the outflow is a flood

2009-06-25T10:51:00.003-05:00

Between tickets for two trips out West, setting aside travel money for Europe, copays on eight (eight!) prescription renewals, gifts, and home renovations, June has been a rudely expensive month so far. I'll share the dirt on how it's impacted my savings goals for the year when I do the quarterly review next week, but in the meantime this seems like a good time to focus once more on things that are the best price of all: FREE. Here are all the free things I've scored in the past couple of weeks:

--Free Burt's Bees lip balm (hat tip to Abigail for the giveaway info)
--$15 in free merchandise at the drugstore due to a rewards program gone awry
--Another $5 in free merchandise at the same drugstore, thanks to racking up purchase points (partly earned by using up the $15 in rewards!)
--A free apparel item from a company that asked me to do an online review
--$225 net from a miniscule but still appreciated recognition award at work
--Free shipping and no sales tax on my new toilet
--Got a price adjustment of $16 for said toilet since the price online dropped before it was delivered
--A little free blog publicity from a website interview that I'll share with you when published
--A great, restful weekend out of town
--A free plane ticket to Europe on air miles (Okay, this isn't something I received recently, but I'm using it in two weeks. Does that count?)
--$25 from Shadox's giveaway

The inflow is tiny relative to the outflow this month (which is more like a hemhorrage), but free stuff always gives me the jollies. Have you gotten anything for free lately?

Referring back to my last post: Several commenters mentioned that they don't really get the attraction of second homes. For me, the desire for eventually having a second home is about having a permanent foothold in more than one place I love. That could be one of several places, with the strongest candidate currently being the Pacific Northwest.

That's the theory, anyway; I haven't owned a second home to date, so I can't speak from practical experience. Do any second-home owners want to weigh in on this one?

And finally. . . I've been spackling and sanding and taping and caulking, and the great frugal DIY painting adventure begins this weekend. I'm doing one room on Saturday; I'll post this weekend and let you know how it went.

Where the wealthy go to play

2009-06-23T20:31:00.006-05:00

First of all, thanks and appreciation to Shadox for putting on a very cool contest. The contest was simply a solicitation for good career advice in ten words or less, and the winner of a random drawing ended up with a cool $25 in cash. As it turned out, my number came up in the drawing. Imagine my delight when I came back from a weekend of hanging out in the Hamptons to find out that I was $25 richer myself. Thank you, Shadox!

About the Hamptons. You've seen it on TV: The massive, twenty-bedroom beachfront mansions that take a staff and a half to run, not to mention plenty of security from the paparazzi and fame-stalkers alike. You know what I'm talking about, right?

Well, I didn't stay there.

The house I stayed at wasn't a mansion, but rather your ordinary run-of-the-mill weekend house for a couple who are on the top of their game at their careers and with money to burn. I guessed the cost of the house at purchase at about a million flat. When I looked it up on zillow.com (because that's the kind of bad house guest I am), I was pleased to see that my guess was off by only 2%.

In that part of the Hamptons, a millionish will get you a large, rambling establishment in the woods on a relatively small lot with an in-ground pool. My hosts sold a smaller house that they owned free and clear nearby to buy this one, so although they took out a mortgage, it's not a big one relative to their income. They are also very close to owning their primary residence in the city free and clear.

I wondered if the house creates more stress than the relaxation it's supposed to bring simply because maintenance takes work. As it turned out, I learned over the course of the weekend that the owners simply outsource everything: pool maintenance, yard maintenance (except for hobby planting), cleaning, painting, the works. As a result, the owners can spend their time doing the things they like best: cooking, shopping, watching TV, and just relaxing. They also own the absolute best of everything. Kitchen appliances, pots and pans, furniture, wineglasses, decorations (restrained but elegant), and everything else are all top of the line.

My hosts are gracious, gentle, generous people. It's a nice life they have on the weekends, and I can see the attraction. The built-in costs of having a weekend life like that are daunting, though. First of all, Manhattan residents who own a Hamptons house of necessity own a car. I hate driving in the first place, but between gas, parking, and insurance, the costs of car ownership in Manhattan are very high. That in itself is a barrier to having a second home.

Second, there's a premium to spending time in an area where everyone's expected to have money: when we were out to lunch in one of the local towns on Saturday, I visibly blanched upon finding out that a plain, ordinary sandwich cost $15. My host simply laughed and said You're in the Hamptons now! That's one of the other hidden costs of owning a home out there, and it's one that adds up over time.

Finally, outsourcing chores is wonderful, but it gets expensive. If I'm spending my weekends at a house where I'm already paying to outsource maintenance, nobody's staying back home to iron my shirts unless I outsource that too. Outsourcing then becomes a double whammy. All in all, if I had a second home out there myself at this stage in my life, I wouldn't be living true to my principles on money or even acting my wage.

The barriers to entry haven't stopped me from looking at house porn ever since I've been back, though. One day, I do want to own a second property - but I'm not there yet. In the meantime, here's hoping that working hard to be a good guest (not to mention the $80 bottle of champagne I gave as a housewarming gift) will score me another invitation or ten.

What's your experience with second homes, either your own or someone else's?

PS: While I was gone, my new toilet was installed. Since returning, I've been able to, um, test it thoroughly, and I must say: this one is a winner. Two thumbs up for the Toto Drake.

I'll trade you a baby grand for a dental implant

2009-06-21T07:31:00.003-05:00

I read an interesting story on CNN the other day about how bartering is becoming increasingly popular, even extending into the realm of medical and dental costs. According to the article, as the number of employers able to offer health care benefits has decreased, some private medical providers have stepped up to engage in trading care for goods and services.

That's an innovative way of dealing with health costs when no other way is available, but I can't see it really going mainstream. For one thing, it may be possible to put a fair market value on some trades (cleaning services for dental cleaning, for example), but how do you make change when payment comes in the form of a baby grand piano?

On top of the impracticalities built into bartering, bartering doesn't address the larger problem of health care affordability. While I admire the innovative spirit of both health care recipients and providers who manage to make bartering work, I think there's an element of shame in the fact that the largest industrialized nation in the world and the only remaining world superpower still hasn't managed to pull it together enough to prevent people from resorting to desperate, niche measures to obtain basic health care.

Have you made bartering work for you economically? If so, how?

Ms. Popularity no more

2009-06-19T07:39:00.004-05:00

Thanks to a generous invitation, I'm off to the Hamptons this weekend to see how the rich people spend their weekends. I'll be back next week with a full report.

I have one post scheduled to publish while I'm gone. In the meantime, last week the New York times published an article about Ruth Madoff. Ruth Madoff has become persona non grata among family, friends, and especially among the people who provide goods and services to the rich and famous. The article noted that while Ruth Madoff isn't currently under indictment and claims not to have had any knowledge off or complicity in Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, she also hasn't done much to rehabilitate her image or gain public support.

Do you feel any sympathy for Ruth Madoff? Why or why not?

The project that ate my life

2009-06-17T20:34:00.005-05:00

The good part of regrouting is that the bathroom grout now looks really nice.

The bad part of regrouting is that I really, really, really see the other things that need touch-up. I haven't done diddly to upgrade my apartment in the nearly eight years I've lived here, and suddenly it looks like it needs it.

I mentioned before that I'm gearing up to paint my apartment and get my toilet and bathroom cabinetry replaced. In the little downtime I have from jobworld right now, I've been buying and borrowing tools, pulling down shelves, spackling, and caulking gaps in the baseboards. So far, so good: The first room painting kicks off a week from Saturday.

In the meantime, I've also spent some time looking for a contractor to build a custom cabinet in the bathroom. That's been an interesting experience. I've reached out to four people, and here's what transpired:

Contractor 1: Didn't return my call

Contractor 2: Didn't return my call

Contractor 3: Not only returned my call, but also really chased me down until we connected. This guy is a cabinetmaker rather than a generalized contractor, and he had some great suggestions for making better use of my cabinetry space than the unit I have today. He also recommended building in a vanity around the wall-mounted sink for extra storage and brought me a couple of samples of bamboo to look at, since we talked about different kinds of wood on the phone. He's been very forthcoming with photos of previous work and references, and since I've learned from sorry experience that wood countertops and bathrooms without exhaust fans don't go together, he located someone who can build a matching Corian countertop.

The guy is great.

His estimate is also rather high for the scope of work.

Contractor 4: Returned my call and scheduled an appointment promptly. English is not his first language and we stumbled over a few things (I said drawers and he kept hearing doors). This guy is a general contractor, so he can do all of the work I plan to outsource. Unfortunately, he also had some drawbacks:

No recommendations on building materials.

No references or photos, despite a couple of requests.

I had to chase him down to get an estimate.

On the other hand, he's really cheap. His estimate for the cabinetry came in at 20% of Contractor 3's cost.

I thought about this long and hard, and I hired Contractor 3. The estimate for all of the work and materials for a custom bamboo vanity, storage cabinet, and Corian countertop comes to $3225. This sounds expensive to me, but I asked around and on the whole most people I've talked to think it's pretty reasonable for custom woodworking in Manhattan.

I justified the cost to myself in about every way possible: I found a 35% off deal on a top-rated toilet in the budget class (one reviewer claimed that it's probably powerful enough to flush a cat), so I saved money both on the purchase and hopefully on future maintenance. In addition, I've already put a huge amount of sweat equity into the regrouting and I'm doing the same for the upcoming paint job over the next few weeks. Finally, this is the first home repair effort I've done other than getting wall and ceiling reconstruction and a partial paint job in 2002, courtesy of my neighbor's insurance after he flooded me. If you amortize the costs against regular home maintenance that everyone should do over time, it's actually very cheap.

At the end of the day, of course, all of these reasons are nothing but rationalizations: I know what I want to do, and I'm looking for arguments to support it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's important (to me) to recognize the behavior for what it is.

$3225 is pretty costly for the small amount of building that I'm doing, but the true reason I'm moving ahead is that on my personal satisfaction scale, I get the most marginal happiness out of balancing cost against function, quality, and aesthetics. (For a different but also completely valid perspective on function, cost, and aesthetics, see Grace's recent post on the choices she's made for the kitchen of her dreams.)

I only want to do bathroom furniture replacement once and then be able to enjoy the end result for years to come, and I'm willing to cut costs elsewhere by personally doing all of the work I can do on my own. Spending money on the things that align with one's values and saving money on other things is what frugality's all about, so I'm okay with the decisions I've made.

I set my final budget for the entire mini-renovation at $4700, which includes tools, materials, professional labor, and my unpaid labor. Here's what I've spent so far:

$90 - Grouting tools and supplies
$90 - Painting tools and supplies (excluding paint)
$1825 - Deposit for bathroom cabinetry
$200 - Processing fee for getting building permission for the work (blatant ripoff, in my opinion)
$303 - Flush-a-cat toilet
$11 - Corian samples

Total so far: $2514

Here's what I've budgeted for the rest:
$200 - Paint
$350 - Toilet installation (also a blatant ripoff, but it saved me some extra costs in building paperwork to use the guy the building wants me to use)
$1500 - Outstanding cabinetry costs
$100 - Cabinetry hardware (I have no idea what this is really going to cost)

Total outstanding costs: $2150

Total expected costs: $4664

Those are the thought processes I went through and the decisions I made for my first real home repair and renovation effort. How'd I do?

Poor widdle me

2009-06-13T13:41:00.008-05:00

Commenter goldsmith came up with such an interesting question in the comments on my last post that I decided to bump my planned topic and feature it instead. Here's what he asked:

Anyone else here who is as annoyed as I am about the way people in supersafe jobs - such as tenured public sector jobs - have started to play "noveau pauvre", and trying to elicit sympathy for how they have to save all of a sudden?

This has become the habit of bosswoman A and bosswoman B during coffee breaks (one with a 140k annual income, and the other with 200k, and each with a pension and a paid-off house), and it annoys the hell out of me. I mean, there are people in deep trouble all around, whether unwise financial decisions contributed to their woes or not, and I find this so tasteless. Anyone else who observed this?

I haven't seen this in the course of this recession, to be honest, probably because most people I know (including a few in public service!) are genuinely at risk for and worried about the chopping block. It does remind me of sophomore year in college, though: There were a few middle class kids like myself, students at a rich kids' college, so the extortionate tuition was a pretty common topic around the time that payments were due. I never had much to say: my parents covered what scholarships didn't, and I worked on campus to pay for my books and personal expenses. It wasn't a glamorous life, but I wasn't racking up any student debt (and for that, I'll be forever and ever grateful to my parents).

One freshman in the same dorm happened upon one of these conversations one day and loudly echoed the same concerns about how much tuition cost and how worried she was about whether she could afford school.

We all looked at each other. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to say it.

But Christy, I finally said. You don't pay tuition. Your mom works for the school, so your tuition is waived.

I don't remember what happened after that other than Christy sputtering and probably hating me for life. I know it was mean to call her out for being a blowhard and a liar, but the poor-widdle-me attitude annoyed me, probably in a way that's similar to how goldsmith is annoyed by the noveau pauvre blowhards in his office.

Have you seen anything like this in your own life lately?

Windfall!

2009-06-10T19:06:00.005-05:00

To borrow a gardening metaphor, it's all asses and elbows around here at the moment. By that, I mean that I'm working like a madwoman: I just finished up and launched a big project with global impact, and now I'm in all-day meetings with a vendor trying to wrap my head around designing something bigger, with complexity x 10 and even more global impact.

With that as the general context, last night I got home late again, though not as late as tonight. Midway through my commute home, the hunger I'd been carrying around since mid-day marched forth into full-blown nausea and dizziness.

I've passed out from bad blood sugar drops a few times. I may be a slow learner, but eventually I internalized the fact that when I start feeling sick and dizzy, I need to eat right away. I didn't have anything on me since I'd cleaned out the breakfast and lunch I'd brought to work, so I stopped in the local drugstore for a jar of generic peanuts.

The peanuts were $3.99, which I thought was a gratuitous rip-off for sixteen ounces. With my blood sugar plummeting, though, I wasn't in much of a condition to debate it.

As the transaction rang up, the receipt kept printing for an unusually long time. As it turned out, when it printed my receipt, the cash register also cranked out a free five-dollar coupon for my next purchase.

And another.

And another.

$3.99 for peanuts resulted in $15 in free coupons, a net profit of $11.01. RA!

Have you had any unexpected windfalls lately?

Saving money through gentle subterfuge

2009-06-07T14:20:00.001-05:00

I have a friend (let's call her Germaine) who is close to the same size as me and a total clotheshorse. Clothes in the 4-6 range with occasional forays into 8 normally fit me, and Germaine generally wears a 2-4.

Germaine likes to clear out her closet regularly to make room for new stuff. She gravitates towards low to mid-range prices, but never pays full price for anything. When Germaine is clearing out her closet, she likes to pass her very gently used items off to me.

That's all well and good, but Germaine and I have very different tastes and very different builds. I'm muscular, with a large build and something of an hourglass thing going on. Germaine has a much smaller frame and no really defined waist or backside. Germaine always looks nice, but her clothes aren't usually something I'd pick out for myself. To compound matters, if something of Germaine's fits me, it usually looks just horrible because it emphasizes all of the wrong things and none of the right ones. Nevertheless, Germaine inevitably beams and tells me how nice it looks. Even if I demur, she quickly packs up the unflattering castoffs and sends them home with me.

I'm not sure if she really believes that her things look nice on me, or if she's lying just because she hates taking her castoffs down to the thrift store. I think it's the latter. Whatever is going on in her head, however, most of the time she's sending me home with useless clutter.

If you've been reading for a while, you may have guessed that I despise clutter. At the same time, there's no really polite way to tell Germaine that with a few rare exceptions, her clothes works for her but I find them appalling for me.

Germaine and I have been friends for fifteen years and we do other things to help us both save money, like sharing magazine subscriptions; it's just the damn clothes that are a problem. Over the years, however, I've quietly been making lemons from lemonade: Once Germaine is done clearing out her clothes (usually over the course of a couple of weeks), I thank her for her castoffs, haul them down to the thrift store myself and collect a little tax write-off. No one's the wiser, and everybody wins!

Do you have any cost-sharing habits with friends and family?

Frugal Blog Network roundup: The home improvement edition

2009-06-04T13:09:00.002-05:00

'Tis the season of redesign and reconstruction for me, apparently, and maybe the same is true for a few other people. While I was struggling with grout and the merits of bamboo cabinetry, here's what happened in the Frugal Blog Network in May:

Kelly at Almost Frugal is redesigning her site layout, and I like the fresh, new look. In her spare time, she also wrote an article about how she's not always frugal.

Frugal Babe is involved in her own reconstruction of sorts: she just bought a house.

The Frugal Duchess found that new-to-you can be just about as good as new.

In an unfortunate sign of the times, Not Made of Money offers some coping tips for dealing with sudden job loss.

Tight Fisted Miser took a trip down memory lane as he revisited his goals from ten years ago against where he is today.

That's all for this month's roundup. Check back in early July for more doings from the network, or start following some of these great blogs yourself.

Monster unleashed

2009-06-02T17:49:00.006-05:00

So, grout.

I'm still walking into the bathroom from time to time just to gaze at the walls. I've never done a home renovation project of any significance, especially with my own hands, and it really feels good to see how nicely it came out - all thanks to my SO for guiding me through the how-to and doing plenty of the work.

Seeing how nice the bathroom walls look has made me want to take the home renovation further. I wrote before that I intended to replace the cabinetry and toilet, so I've had a couple of contractors in to take a look and write up some probably horrendous estimates. That's all well and good: I know I'm out of my depth with carpentry and plumbing, so the only way to get those things upgraded is to pay (and pay and pay).

However. . . I could probably paint the place myself, couldn't I?

I found a website called Monkey See, which is a collection of how-to videos on subjects ranging from gardening to pole dancing. (Monkey see, monkey do. Get it?) I've been viewing all the ones about how to paint a room, and it looks pretty doable, except for the ceiling.

It couldn't be that hard.

Could it?

Encourage me or scare me off: you be the judge.

Victory is mine

2009-05-31T18:28:00.003-05:00

I finally nailed getting homemade pizza crust to come out right on a baking stone. RA!

You were looking for something interesting? Move along, nothing to see here. Topic ideas welcome at frugal (dot) zeitgeist (at) gmail (dot) com.

How do you make frugality fun?

2009-05-31T14:37:00.002-05:00

Since we're about to spend a bunch of money traveling to Europe, my SO and I have been making a concerted effort over the last couple of months to have fun without spending a lot. Some of the things we've done include:

--Cutting back eating out in favor of cooking together.
--On the occasions we do eat out, we try to grab happy hour specials. If that doesn't work, we often have a glass of wine at home before going out instead of ordering it with dinner.
--As far as wine goes, I've largely converted him to Three Buck Chuck.
--Exercise dates of walking, hiking, or cycling.
--Borrowing DVDs from friends and watching them at home.
--Helping each other out on our respective home improvement projects. (Disclaimer: I tweaked a weakness in my back while helping to shift 800 pounds of sheetrock a few weeks ago, and it's still acting up.)
--Free concerts and museum nights.

What else can you add to the list, especially for kids?

As you can probably tell, I'm a little shy on topic ideas again. If there's anything you want to discuss in this space, feel free to email me at frugal (dot) zeitgeist (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

But I'm a pretty, pretty princess

2009-05-29T15:59:00.002-05:00

According to an article I read on MSNBC, princess fever is sweeping the little-girl demographic in the US. According to the article, media saturation of princess themes and images in programs and stories aimed at little girls is encouraging narcissistic tendencies at an early age. The article noted that parents can get caught up in the princess mentality, placing their little princesses on little princessy pedestals and bowing to their tender whims - an attitude that is distinctly out of line with the frugality that is becoming the new (I think temporary) prevailing mindset in the US.

Many parents feel that princess obsession is just a stage that little girls naturally enter when they learn to recognize their individuality and sense of self, eventually growing out of it. Other parents fear that an overindulgence in princessdom will encourage nascent entitlement tendencies that could morph into full-blown adult greed and selfishness, so they cope by either putting time boundaries around playing princess or by stopping princess play when undesirable behavior starts to erupt. Still others have adapted princess-world concepts into their parenting as a way to motivate cooperation or positive attitudes.

I remember having a very active imaginary life when I was little, although I think it relied more heavily on ducks than anything else. (What can I say? I liked ducks.) I don't think playing duck with imaginary duck friends left me with any lasting negative behavior or attitude issues. Of course, I realize that ducks don't have defined ideal qualities like compassion or kindness, and they also don't have any built-in expectations that are reinforced by media imagery, like beauty or wealth. It seems to me, though, that kids' play is simply kids' play, until it's not - and it reaches the point of not being kids' play when parents fall into the extreme of letting kids' play dictate how and with what level of authority they interact with their children. That's where I think the possibility of developing spoiled, entitled children becomes a risk.

What do you think of princess fever? Is it shaping the younger generation's expectations, behavior, and/or view of the world in either a positive or negative way? How?

The secret life of discount programs

2009-05-27T16:57:00.004-05:00

A regular reader from Oz who wrote in with a topic question once before came up with another interesting topic idea, and I wanted to share it with you. Our reader writes:

I have been overwhelmed lately by the proliferation in "customer loyalty" programs here in Australia, and the pressure (blackmail?) retailers put on customers to join. Every time I buy something (clothing, shoes, bedding, a cup of coffee, a cinema ticket ... just about anything) the sales assistant asks if I'm a member of [insert name of retailer's] club or program, then tries to sign me up. I politely refuse, as I hate the idea of all these organizations adding me to their databases, tracking my purchases, and probably spamming me mercilessly. As I see it (and I may sound paranoid, but so be it!) "loyalty" programs are merely data mining exercises, aimed at finding out what makes customers tick so that they can be fleeced with increasing sophistication. Most people I know don't care (or don't know) about the data mining implications of signing up to these programs, and blithely accept every membership card going. Even small and seemingly unconnected businesses are getting in on the act ... the other day I bought some unscented shampoo from a little hippie-style health food shop, and they said "we have 20% off today for members ... want to join"?, and of course, looked quite shocked when I said no.

We don't have coupons (that I am aware of, at least) in Australia, but in some ways I think that the numerous "loyalty" programs are much more insidious, as there is no way of taking advantage of them anonymously. If you want the discounts, you are expected to hand over all sorts of personal data. For my part, I am, so far, accepting that I'll sometimes have to pay higher prices, and that this a choice I make in order to maintain my privacy. Maybe not a frugal choice, but one I am more comfortable with, than sharing my personal details with all and sundry.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what others think of these programs.

We also have these programs in the US, and they skeeze me out a little bit as well. I don't like the idea of offering up my personal data to make marketing more effective, but I do want the discounts. I have one loyalty card at the moment, and here's how I use it:

1.) I signed up using a fake name and fake demographic information. (I actually left most of the questions blank.) The clerk never even looked at my application.

2.) I never buy anything with the card unless it's already on sale. I like to think that that hinders the collection of useful data, but in all honesty I don't know if it does or not.

Do you use store loyalty cards? What do you think of the data mining aspect of these programs?

You said you wanted pictures (updated)

2009-05-25T18:16:00.002-05:00

Before

I know! I know! It's horrible!!! The only before picture I took was the worst corner, which had been badly attacked by mildew. None of the rest looked that great, but it didn't look this bad, either.

After

I'm happy with how it came out.

To answer a prior question: Yes, I had help from someone who knows how to do this. There's no way I could have done it alone. . . but I think I could now if I had to do it again.

~~I'll edit this post with more comments tonight.~~

More comments:
This was HARD and it took about two full days of work, but it was so worth it! Here's how we did it:

Thursday: SO and I spent the evening getting rid of the old stuff. I scraped out all the grout in the entire bathroom manually (and THAT is one mofo of an ugly job), and he dug out years and layer upon layer of caulk. The caulk was only about 30% done by the time the grout was all out, so we added more caulk dissolver and called it a night.

Friday: We went over the grout again for missing bits and scooped out more old caulk. Then, since there was still more old caulk left, we switched to actual grouting. SO did the heavy lifting with the grouting since I was too slow to keep the grout from starting to dry out. I cleaned up the haze instead. Friday night, I had another go at the caulk again. About 75% in total was out by the time I was done, so I put on more caulk dissolver.

Saturday: I got the rest of the caulk out (and cracked a tile doing it, unfortunately). Then I grouted down to the joins between the wall and tub.

Sunday: I sealed the grout with three coats of sealant. I left SO to do the re-caulking while I made dinner.

The entire project cost about $90 in supplies. (I'm not counting making dinner for SO or taking SO out for dinner and a movie in my total project costs.)

The larger bathroom project as a whole consists of three things: regrouting and recaulking (done), replacing the cabinetry, and replacing the toilet. I have a cabinetmaker coming on Friday to give me a first estimate on the cabinetry, and I'm buying a new toilet in the next three to four weeks.

This project is a good example of the Pareto principle in action. The Pareto principle is simple: it posits that for many events, 80% of the impact is triggered by 20% of the cause. In this case, 80% of the problem (bathroom hatred) is caused by 20% of the overall unappealing aesthetic. When I was first considering a gut reno in there, my list of things I want to change about my bathroom looked like this:

--Disgusting mildew problem in the grout and caulk
--Crumbling grout
--Sloppy caulking
--Very old toilet
--Flimsy, water-damaged cabinetry that isn't optimized for space
--No exhaust fan
--Want to switch toilet and sink locations
--Want to replace floor tile
--Want to replace wall tile

As I looked into my building's renovation rules, I learned that I can't put in an exhaust fan or switch the toilet or sink locations. As a result, I had to decide between a small project that would be cheap and solve all of the things I wanted to change except the floor and wall tile replacement, or do a big, honking renovation, take out an extra million dollars in liability insurance (!), and possibly have nowhere to bathe for months. On top of that, the cost of the small project is likely to be around $2000 plus a few days of sweat equity, depending on how much the cabinetry work is.

The cost of the large project? I figured on about $20,000.

I decided that changing the floor and wall tiles wasn't going to give me $18,000 worth of happiness. In addition, once I benchmarked both projects against the Pareto principle (which I use regularly in my job), I realized that addressing 20% of what I hate about my bathroom is going to result in about 80% of what I wanted.

For me, 80% is enough.

When has an 80% solution worked for you? (And how do you like my new grout?)

Now if you'll excuse me. . . I'm off to take a shower.