Yankee 2.0

I've been in my house for eight years. I bought it as a fixer-upper and my hope was to get everything renovated in ten years. So far, so good. When I first moved in, I did a major renovation of the ground floor, which included installing a kitchen (there was none, believe it or not), and most of the other things have been more cosmetic than structural (though there have been some of those, too).

 I've known from the start that I would need to do a major renovation on the bathroom, and had always planned to install another (guest) bathroom on the top floor. I've been planning for this "plumb-a-thon" and thinking about how to achieve it. I figure the cost at about $20,000 because it involves running a whole new set of pipes down four storeys and into the basement. 

I have a weird, "new economy" work life that consists of a variety of part-time jobs. In October of 2009, I started looking for a regular-old full time job. So far, no luck. But as I imagined myself earning three (or more) times what I earn now, I imagined getting a home equity loan to pay for plumb-a-thon and paying it back in around five years. But then I thought, well, what if I lose that real job and have to come up with an additional $600 per month for loan payments. A shower is going to be cold comfort under those circumstances.

So I have lowered, or at least changed my expectations. I'm going to re-do the one and only bathroom; I'm going to do it in a way I like; and I'm going to do it as inexpensively as possible, and pay cash. My budget for the project is $4,000, and I hope to complete it by the end of the summer. I'm slowly acquiring the components needed (floor tiles, wallpaper, radiant floor heating system, light fixtures), and getting some quotes from folks to do some of the work. I'll do as much as I can myself, and I will love it, and I will own it.

It was nice to have the fantasy of doing everything up all fancy-like, but I'd rather save up and do what I can afford.  I really like the day to day lifestyle of my nomadic work life, but the stability of a regular paycheck is awfully appealing, too. I'm not sure where the future will lead, but I want to stick to my debt-free guns.

I have had a no-stress Christmas so far. I visit thrift stores, flea markets and tag sales year round, and pick up little things that I know people will like as gifts (a few dollars here and there is so easy spread out year round). I have a gift shelf in my attic, and it keeps me prepared for birthdays, Christmas, and hostess gifts. I also re-cycle impersonal things (candles, hand lotion, etc.) that are given to me, but I've had to start labeling who they came from so I don't re-gift to the giver.... I hate running around looking for something "just to give a gift" and much prefer having something meaningful on hand.

So this year all my gifts have been either (a) purchased at an earlier point, and something I know the recipient wants or loves (easy for the collectors on the list), (b) food that I have made, (c) food that I have bought, or (c) something I own that I know the recipient would value. 

I don't have any kids in my circle -- everyone I have a gift for is middle-aged and comfortable and in no need of anything (as am I). So I've also limited myself to one gift per person -- not because I'm stingy (I really love giving gifts!), but because I don't want to over-do it. I'm trying to de-commercialize Christmas with my little gestures of heartfelt, home-made, and edible gifts given with love. 

I didn't even buy any wrapping paper or ribbons this year, because I have enough old stuff to last for about a decade. So all told, I've spent probably $50.00 on Christmas gifts in 2009, and have gifts for 17 people and 8 animals (and the humans who I mailed some home-made chocolates to have already told me they loved them).

I will also host a party on the morning after Christmas with baked goods and coffee and egg nog -- I'd much rather spend time enjoying the season with my friends than shopping shopping shopping. And all the leftovers from the party will go to my church which is having a coffee hour the following day -- I hope this will start another new tradition of sharing with my church family.

So, all in all -- a very merry Christmas. I've been able to give with love, with compassion for myself, with joy in not going into debt, and with the happiness of being able to give anonymously to members of my parish. 

I've been reading blogs and interviews and things about how different people stay warm and keep costs down in the winter. My heating system normally runs from November 1 -- March 31 (if it dips below 35 outside, I'll turn the system on sooner in October), and I keep my heat set at 62 when I'm home and 55 when I'm not. I wear a scarf in the house, but am pretty comfy (heavy drapes hang from all the doors and windows). How about you? How low do you go?

Brrr!!! It's really cold here in the Northeast. There were flurries in CT during the day, and snow expected over night in MA. They've probably got inches in Maine. And it's October 15th!!! This augers for a long cold winter.

I've been getting my wardrobe ready for winter -- spending a little to save a lot. Here's what I've done so far:

• Darned holes in a scarf. I have a lovely cashmere scarf that had a couple of moth or nail holes. I got 5cents worth of cashmere yarn at a wool store and sewed those babies right up. Looks good as new.
• Waterproofing boots. I don't skimp on boots. I have a great pair and just finished applying a coat of waterproofing to them to get them ready for the Nor'Easter that's coming this weekend. The stuff cost $12.50 and it has enough for several applications.
• Re-soling boots. Okay, so I have two pairs of boots. One pair is 10+ years old and needs new soles. I brought them into a cobbler today and will soon know how much it will cost to re-sole them.
• Darning gloves? My favorite pair of gloves is three years old and there are holes in the fingers. The outer covering is black and the inner thinsulate stuff is beige. They look pretty sad, but I love 'em. However, they're not keeping my fingers as warm as possible, due to the holes. I am going to try to darn them, but may have to replace them with a new pair.
• Dry cleaning. Brought a couple of things to the dry cleaners and they look nice and new. Dry cleaning extends the life of the clothes, too, by killing any biological stains that might be eating a hole in the clothes.
• Closet clean out and switch over. Moved summer stuff into the cedar closet and took winter stuff out of the cedar closet. 
• General hole sewing. I sometimes get underarm holes along the seams of sweaters. I made a little stack of the sweaters with these holes and have been darning/sewing them up.
• Sock and thermies check up. Make sure I have enough warm socks and long johns to get me through the season. If not, get 'em now.

Those are my winter clothing tips. Does anyone else have some ideas to share?

I love my car. It's a 2002 Hyundai Accent Hatchback that I bought in 2004 with 4,000 miles on it. I did have to take out a loan to pay for it, but I paid the loan off in 2 years, and it's been all mine since 2006. My little car was very inexpensive (around $7500). It gets great gas mileage -- about 30 in town and close to 40 on the highway. And I can fit just about anything in the hatchback -- I've moved a desk, a couple of couches, and boxes galore. The excise tax is $25.00 per year, and my car insurance is also very low. I can park anywhere -- I've taken my little car to Montreal and NYC a couple of times and drive to Boston regularly, and I can fit in tiny little city parking spaces. 

My check engine light came on recently -- right before I needed to get my annual inspection. So I brought it to the dealer. They fixed the problem (some sort of exhaust pipe) for $500, and gave me a long list of other stuff they suggested I fix. The repairs totalled around $1500 (on top of the $500). I have just passed 80,000 miles on the car, and I was hoping to get 150,000 out of it -- or about five more years of driving (so I could save up for a new one in that time). 

I decided to take it to an independent shop for a second opinion. The guy at the independent shop told me which things on the list were important (timing belt) and which I could ignore (struts and steering bushing), but he said around 100,000 miles, it would get too expensive to keep fixing and I should think about a new car. So I brought it back to the dealer for the timing belt ($300), and I asked someone at the dealership how many miles I could expect out of the car. She said she's got a customer with an older version of my car with 400,000 miles, and I should get at least 200,000 out of it. 

I figured that both shops had a vested interest in my keeping the car (the more repairs I need, the more potential new business they get), but that the dealer also had an interest in getting me into a new car. If the dealer says I can shoot for 200,000 without a lot of problems, that's news I can use!  I may have an emotional attachment to my ca, but I also don't see any reason to get a new car when I can fix mine up here and there and keep it running. I guess I have to decide how much per year I'm willing to pay in repairs, and whether putting that money towards a new vehicle makes more sense. 

I had three big fixes this year -- brakes (needed on any car), the timing belt (suggested every 60,000 miles -- I hadn't done it before), and that exhaust pipe (an old age repair). These totalled around $1,000, and I'm hoping I won't need anything big anytime soon. I think if I start paying more than $1500 per year in repairs, it's time to get a new one, but then I think "well, I won't need a new one of those (whatever I got fixed) anytime soon, so I should keep it."

Does anyone have a system that they use to evaluate when keeping an old car is no longer an economical choice?

 ...but am climbing back on. Well, I've been trying to accomplish a couple of goals in these last few months -- one was not to incur any more consumer debt, and the other was to get some stuff fixed around my house. It turns out that I over did it on the latter, leading me to fail at the former. 

 I had a flurry of stuff fixed at my house: new storm windows, patching holes in my soffit, sealed some flaking stone on my stoop, got a new garbage disposal, and some burnt out outlets rewired. Nothing especially glamorous, but things that have improved my quality of life. I knew how much money I had, but I kept thinking I'd get a little extra somewhere.... turns out that was not a good way to think. Not only did I not get a little "extra" I also am earning about $20,000 less this semester than I thought I would. 

So I took out a cash advance on my credit card for living expenses, since I blew through savings for all that house stuff. Then I had to get my car fixed for $500, and I charged it. So I'm really not in the place financially that I expected to be right now, but I'm very grateful that I have enough money to live FRUGALLY through the end of the year. I'm going to use my unexpected free time to work on a writing project (that I hope to sell one day), and to try to drum up more business for the new year. 

It's disappointing, because that other money would have really put me in a great place financially, but I'm really really grateful that I have enough to get by for a while. I learned a good lesson about not counting my chickens before they're hatched...

Two years ago, I took out a lease to own contract with Dell computers for a laptop, software, and digital video camera for my training company. I needed the equipment, didn't have the money to buy it outright, and didn't want to use a credit card to pay for it. I didn't splurge by getting the top of the line models, but I didn't get the cheapest ones either (which I might have done had I been paying cash). The equipment has been quite reliable, and when I've had (two) problems with it, they sent someone to my office to fix it. I also have an additional year's worth of that "we'll fix anything" service plan (I'm notorious for dropping or spilling things on laptops, so this is one time extended warranty was totally worth the peace of mind). 

Last week, I made my final lease payment. So now I own this equipment! I'm sure for some people, a two-year old laptop would seem outdated, but for my business, it works just great (although I'm hoping the new Windows OS is better than Vista, which it now has -- I'm really a Mac user, but thought (correctly) the PC laptop would be good for integrating into workplace systems where I was using it.  

Anyway, this is a long rambling post -- just wanted to share my success about leasing office equipment. It's really nice not to have that bill anymore, and it's nice to have good equipment for my business. For me, lease to own was a good decision. 

This is a virtually free tip that will extend the life of your paper shredder and can even bring it back from the dead: Vegetable Oil. Pour some vegetable oil (corn, canola, what have you -- probably not expensive olive oil) down where the paper goes every now and then (say, mabye once a month) and it will keep that baby shredding away.

I recently did a (typically harebrained) experiment of putting a small metal plate down the shredder. I wanted to see if it would shred. It did, and it killed the shredder. I was devestated. I love that shredder (and I got it for free from a neighbor who got it as a gift for opening a new bank account somewhere). Anyway, I decided not to just give up, and I looked online for solutions. They suggested putting shredder oil (purchased at a store) down the chute to clear the system. I figured corn oil was just as good, so I got some out and poured it liberally (about a cup or so) down the feeder and waited about 15 minutes (that was the hardest part for your impulsive and impatient blogger), then turned it on.....

It worked!! Now I put about a quarter cup into the feeder every few weeks -- whenever the shredding gears sound sort of clunky -- wait a bit, then turn it on. It really revives the shredding mechanism.

It looks like half of my income/career is about to disappear. For the past few years, half of my income has come from the corporate training business that I own, and half has come from teaching at the local community college. The community college gig has been my rock, with the training business fluctuating in terms of income and busy-ness. Well, it looks like the teaching thing might not happen this semester -- which means half of my income will be gone, and I'll need to make up for it somehow. I will know definitely on Wednesday, but the enrollment is really really low, and the Dean has been leading me to believe that the classes won't run.  

At first, I figured it would all work out (meaning enrollment would increase, and things would just keep trucking along), but now that I'm really faced with the prospect of that part of my professional life ending, I'm starting to panic a bit. I hope to get to the point of explaining "why I like failure" like Gary says he does in his post. I know things will work out one way or another, but right now it's slightly nerve-wracking to think that I need to change all my plans and figure out a way (in the middle of this big recession) to make up that income.... I don't like failure yet.

This year, I have gotten rid of a lot of junk. I look around my house now, and I see fewer things, but the things I see, I enjoy and value. I'm trying these days not to let anymore junk into my life. 

What's some of the junk that has left my life in 2009? Damp, empty boxes that had sat in my basement for years "for when I sell things on ebay." Old paperwork that I no longer needed to keep. Clothes that didn't fit or had just worn out. Stuff I had duplicates of in the kitchen. Presents given to me that I never liked but was holding onto out of a sense of obligation to the giver. Lots and lots of junk left my life this year. And lots of stuff that wasn't junk at the level of an empty, damp cardboard box, but that I no longer had need of. I sold a bunch of stuff on CL, ebay, and at a tag sale -- made about $1,000 from selling things (!). I donated lots of things to thrift stores (the point of entry into my life of much of it to begin with). I gave things away on Freecycle. 

I've bought some new things over the past few months, but they've been things I needed, and they haven't been junk. My preferred shopping places are still flea markets, tag sales, and thrift shops. But when in the past I would greedily load up my car with lots and lots of stuff, now I carefully consider any potential purchase. I've put lots of things down that I would have brought home before. Buying nothing, or buying one thing for $5.00 that is really precious, useful, and beautiful is much better than spending $20.00 on stuff just to have lots of stuff around. There is a much greater sense of peace in my house now. I've always hated clutter, and having all that junk (even if it was tastefully arranged, or hidden out of view in the basement) was definitely a form of clutter.

I know that this new relationship to the things in my life is related to the new relationship that I've developed with money over the past few years. I never used to think I would get to this place. I feel mature! I feel like I'm in control of my material life -- money, clothing, things -- all the "stuff" is under my control, instead of me being unable to control spending, collecting things, having debt, and bill paying. I like it a lot better this way. 

I still feel a sense of excitement when I see a tag sale sign or pull up to the flea market. But I can take a step back and examine what I really need or want, and it's much more easy to walk away.