Is getting rid of clutter wasteful?

Like many women, I have a LOT of clothes.  While watching an episode of Big Love tonight, I noticed that again the character of Barb was wearing a shirt I own.  This is the third episode this season that she has worn the same shirt as me.  I've only worn that shirt twice.  I like it and it fits, but it sits pretty idle in my closet.  Unlike Barb, I actually bought that shirt - and paid full price.  I doubt Barb would do that.

My roundabout point here is that I need to evaluate what I own and why to better inform the way I live and the way I think about acquiring new things.  I want to clean up, live on less, and enjoy what I own more.  Part of this is motivated by my desire to consume less, and I think if I keep owning so much, I will try to maintain that standard.  Like so many others, I have found as I can have more, I want it, and get it.  Time to nip this lifestyle inflation in the bud.

I cleaned out hanging clothes and sweaters tonight, trying to hold myself better to the maxim "if you don't wear it, it goes."  I find it very hard to get rid of a sweater that fits, is in good shape, and in style just because I don't use it.  Is it right to put that in the out-the-door pile?  I do save a few key things that are particularly costly or fill a critical need (interviews, special occasion pieces, etc).  In the past when I have cleaned house and prepared piles to give to charity organizations, it has been mostly things that I've outgrown or that aren't in great shape anymore.  For the first time my stack of clothing is almost entirely things that I could wear tomorrow with no problem.  Getting rid of those things feels wasteful and a bit counter to my trying to appreciate what I have.

Is this a necessary step to adjust my expectations?  That the closet doesn't have to be overcrowded to make me happy?  If I don't clear out now, how can I ever halt or reverse my lifestyle?

The Breakfast Trifecta

I've found a breakfast solution that works for my weekday meals and provides the trifecta for me:  budget-friendly, healthy, and enviro-happy.  In the 18 months I've been at my job, my biggest food weakness has been for the lox sandwich at the cafe on the next block.  With a fresh bagel, generous cream cheese, and a pile of smoked salmon what's not to love?   How about:

• The $5.50 price tag.  And that's before tacking on a coffee to wash it all down! 
• The salmon.  I chose to believe it wasn't farmed, when it reality it probably was.  This was the main reason I wanted to eliminate this sandwich from my life.  My morning happiness should not involve environmental degradation and scary color additives.  To make matters worse, the cafe puts on way too much salmon and 1/3 to 1/2 of it usually ended up wasted.  Even if it goes to the compost bin, that's not wise use of food.  
• The calories and size.  As I just said, they give too much food on this sandwich.  I always ended up eating too fast and too much.

The alternative fixes all of these problems.  I've bought mini whole wheat bagels at the grocery store (100 calories each).  Using fat free cream cheese -- I know some people think it is gross and nothing like the real stuff, but it works for me.  Wild Alaskan, Marine Stewardship Council certified smoked salmon from Trader Joe's.  I know that this salmon comes from wild stocks that are certified to be sustainable harvested. I'm keeping all of these ingredients in the office fridge, and I can make a much more reasonable, affordable salmon sandwich.  Yes, those mini bagels are a bit tiny, but I'm surviving.  All this week I've made the bagel up at about 9:30am and made it to lunch time without being totally ravenous.

I have to figure out if this is something I want to stick to all the time, because I am trying to cut out seafood - particularly from higher trophic levels - so eating salmon daily isn't the best.  However, it took me a week to go through one package of just 4oz.  That's less than I'd eat in one salmon-focused dinner portion.  So maybe it isn't so bad?

Compensation Plus - Beyond Salary

Are women naturally less likely to negotiate on salary, ask for raises, and demand what they are worth?  A lot of chatter in the PF blogosphere would have you think so.  I can only speak for myself, but so far I have found that I fit the stereotype and generalizations.  I want to avoid conflict and feel lucky to have an offer.  The biggest mistake I've made since graduating from college:  taking too low a starting salary when I started out.  Fortunately, in less than two years I've had two salary bumps, one with a promotion last summer.

But a promotion shouldn't just mean a new job title and more take home pay.  I knew that different positions in the company were entitled to differing levels of annual bonus. For example Position X typically has a target bonus of 15% of their annual salary.  Because I received the promotion at a time when the company financials were stretched and there were a lot of questions marks around, I did not ask about the bonus.  In fact, I was so shocked to be promoted in "lean" times it didn't even occur to me for a week or two.  Even then, I never brought up the change.  I finally did that today when I saw an opportunity!  I shouldn't have had to wait for an opportunity -- my supervisor is very open and available to me.  At least I got it done finally.  My boss is going to suggest something to the finance director and get back to me on what is decided.  I am hoping they will increase my target bonus by 5% of my gross pay.  Should I have told her that outright?  I also learned I will be eligible for company options the next time they come around.  I'll save that mind-bender for another night.

Lenten Ambitions

Despite a very meek, mild Fat Tuesday I am launching into Lent as if I'd spent the last week in New Orleans, racking up sins and gluttonous acts for which to atone.  I come from a Catholic family but can hardly be called a practicing Catholic these days, and Lent was never much of a big deal growing up.  We'd go to fish fries on Fridays sometimes, but mostly because Dad likes them.  Now as an adult I embrace Lent as an opportunity to practice self discipline, challenge temptation, and support things I should be doing anyway.

The chosen sacrifice for 2010's 40 days is no more buying lunch out.  I had recently re-discovered my love for a particularly delicious salad at a local chain that rings up to $9 without a drink.  Even at just one a week, that's over $35 a month for salad.  And there's still a lot of days to account for.  So yes, this "bring my lunch to work" vow is strongly motivated by my desire to save money.  I also think it will help me keep tabs on nutrition.  To make the mission easier, I've already started stocking the office fridge with some useful items:  mini whole wheat bagels, cream cheese, hummus, tomato soup, shredded cheese, pita, and yogurt.  This is good for snacks and backups in case I forget on any given day.  I will use leftovers and take sandwiches most of the rest of the time.  A good excuse to eat more of my favorite roasted red pepper and mozzarella sandwiches.

The other Lent commitment is a loosely defined exercise initiative.  I know, I know, I should put some structure around this one, perhaps use baby steps to help me make sure it works.  Instead of sitting down and designing a plan myself or measuring out achievable personal goals, I am just going to borrow someone else's planning and structure.  I'm giving Couch to 5k a chance.  I'm out of excuses not to!  Simply "I don't like to run" isn't good enough right now.  If I give it a shot, and I still don't like it then at least I will have tried.  For those not familiar with the program, the gist is that it takes even a couch potato from zero running fitness to running a 5k (3 miles) in two months.  They say the key is in easing into it.  I first heard about Couch to 5k a few years ago from a friend who gave it a shot and has since then run the Nike Women's Marathon here in San Francisco, a handful of half marathons, and numerous 5ks and 10ks.  Maybe if my attempt works, I can start hitting her up for donations to my charity runs!

Taxes Done, Damage Tallied

I took President's Day for an opportunity to catch up on some chores -- and taxes counts as a chore for this girl -- before enjoying the beautiful almost spring-like Bay Area weather.  Finishing taxes and then heading out to the dog park on a nearly 70 degree day?  You'd think it was April.  Nope, I sat down with TurboTax to finish up both federal and state taxes a full two months before the oft-dreaded 4/15.

I've been anticipating owing, and am fairly comfortable with that concept.  PF bloggers can go on and on about why it's better to end up writing that check (literally or by direct debit, etc.) to the IRS than to overpay during the year.   But really, does anyone LIKE handing over even more of their hard-earned dough?  I certainly don't, but I can be happy I am not giving up more.  It could be worse.  Although I know I'm not the only one who likes tax refunds, I am okay with paying up come tax season.  In fact, the past two years -- my only tax periods as a full-time employed adult in the real world -- I've gone on knowing I would probably have to pay despite having my withholdings theoretically optimized for my job.

What's my tax culprit?  The 1099-MISC.  I won't blame the 1099-MISC though, because it really just means I got some extra income!  I got a few thousand last year as a small fellowship/contract, which was money in the bank without having taxes taken out by an employer.  Knowing I had received that cash bump last summer, it's been almost 8 months that I knew I was going to have to pay up.  I'd been hoping that it would be cancelled out by the deduction for my student loan interest paid.  The year before I had several 1099-MISCs arrive in the mail for contract gigs before my full-time employment began and a side job or two. That added up to a higher total amount for self-employment taxes.

I also had to navigate trying to deduct business expenses on TurboTax without paying up for the version that's more accommodating to small businesses.  Because really, when you just have one 1099 to deal with should you need to pay another $40 to figure out the tricks?  To get around it, I did a healthy amount of googling and skimming IRS publications for guidance.  That helped me understand the questions and spaces in TurboTax better and make sure I did everything correctly.  (Hello, I do not want an audit coming my way or having to explain my confusion later.)  This complicated by the fact that I did not have a great receipt system for my two week trip related to this 1099-related "work" last year.  I had to be in another state for two weeks, but had housing provided.  To meet my tax prep needs, I took advantage of my bank's handy online statements and was able to accurately look up the biggest expenses and get an account of my meals during the travel.  Thanks to the tax software and publication guidance, I felt confident that I got my final deductions right:  the full cost of my airfare and taxis and 50% of the daily meal allowance rate (from gsa.gov).  Together, this reduced my income from the 1099 or my "small business profit" by about $900.

THE FINAL TALLY: All said and done, I'm paying about another $150 to the feds and about $100 to the fine, broke state of California.  My effective tax rate (ETR) comes out to 12.0% at the federal level.  My state ETR works out 8.3%.

Saving for a Sunny Day?

I wondered today whether this new, building interest in personal finance really has to do with short-term, long-term, or a mixture of goals.  I think it's the latter - I have goals over the next few years and I don't want achieving them to compromise long-term goals.  My thinking on this is similar to the whole "freedom" fund vs. "emergency" fund nomenclature.  Or even the FU fund.  It goes to the heart of how and why you manage your money.  I want to be smart and save for the rainy days.  But I sure as heck want to have the moolah to have some fun in the sun, too!

So what are some of these goals?

• $10k Emergency Fund - This is the number I think will provide a strong, reasonable cushion should anything go too wrong -- loss of job, health problem, etc.
• Travel - I have been firmly bitten by the travel bug.  International species.  I want to keep experiencing, but not sacrifice the budget too much!
• Retirement - I don't have a quantitative goal for this, but am sure to continue to my company's 401k (matched 1:1 up to 3%) and am considering a Roth IRA for 2010.
• Life milestones -- eep, it's hard to put specific words on these, but there are things that will require savings and strong finances.  These are definitely not things in my short-term plans, but will require chunks of cash in the 5-15 year range:  wedding, down payment, kids.

That's just a taste of the plans and goals.  I am sure to get into these in greater depth and uncover others in future posts.  Not seeing what's a rainy day vs a sunny day financial need yet?  Maybe the sunny day items aren't needs at all, but they are important.  I want to feel confident in buying a new pair of jeans or booking a plane ticket that I am making a sound, responsible decision.  So, to that I end I am here to budget, exercise frugality when I can, and work my way to wiser and more savvy spending, saving, and living.

Boy oh boy - that sounds cheesy.

To blog or not to blog?

Orignally posted November 25, 2009:


The short answer is that this is something I've considered for more than a few weeks now.  I figured I should give myself a shot at blogging, now that I'm well past the old Xanga/Livejournal days of my late teens.  I've recently started reading more blogs lately, largely because of strengthening interests in personal finance and ethical food sourcing/healthy and mindful eating.  I came to realize that many of the bloggers out there weren't just using blogs as an outlet but as a tool to accomplish goals.  So, I think I come here - to my newly christened space on the internet - to give myself a place for accountability and exploration of a number of things I've been working on...or that I've atleast had my mind on, including:  keeping my finances in order to meet short and long-term goals; practicing mindful eating that helps my body and the planet; and enjoying the process of getting into better shape.