Life vs. Literature

I worked 4 long years to earn a Bachelor's Degree in English.

I've read authors from Homer to Virgil, Jane Austen to Mark Twain, Christina Rosetti to Bram Stoker, John Milton to Shakespeare and countless others in between. I've met reckless heroes I've fallen in love with, headstrong heroines I've learned valuable lessons from, kindhearted secondary characters I've found remarkably relatable, and foul villains I secretly hope find the good in themselves.

I've bled into dozens of papers, 1000 words to 15 pages long, analyzing 4 tiny stanzas through a single theme spanning 5 books. In all of my readings, I've been trained to pull out and qualify character motives, logical theme progressions, heavy symbolism, location relevance, and repetition. I can slash chapters down to a single sentence of summary and write paragraphs about the particular usage of a four-word phrase.

You can't point out an object, place, name, action, dream, color, time period, buffer scene, rhyme, alliteration, or exclamation point that I can't find meaning in.

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I think that to a certain extent, my analytical nature can be helpful for self-evaluation, determining why my feelings may be hurt, or why I might be acting irrationally, even how events of my past have helped me to grow into a functioning adult.

But too often, I find myself analyzing my life, the people in it, and every major event like I would one of my stories. What could he gain from saying this?  What about her character would motivate her to act that way? Why are you wearing that color to this event? Why choose this particular phrasing to make your point?

Books are written with a purpose - to entertain, to feel, to inspire, to teach, giving us role models perhaps absent in the real world, or allowing us to travel without being able to afford a plane ticket.

But people are not characters. Life is not a novel. There is no careful revision process involved in everyday circumstances where only the details that matter make the cut.

Real people are not eloquent, many (like myself) unable to muster the command of the spoken word at a moment's notice. Actually, most of the people I know don't even have a brain-to-mouth filter. So I can't analyze their words, actions, or choices with as much relentless fervor as I would Jane Eyre's.

I need to take a moment's thoughtfulness (no matter how small), a kind word (no matter how simple), or an act of decency (no matter how standard) at a higher value in real life than I would an act of the same magnitude which might take pages to express in the confines of  a novel.    It is much simpler for an author to create that which is admirable in a character than for a person of good character to express himself as a best-selling author.

Real. Life. Is. Not. A. Book. 

The Money Blues

I've been having a weird week. To sum up:

      - Bought my first-ever smartphone.  Had to get a new number, losing the one I've had for 8 years. Not to mention all of the strife that comes with any contact with a telecom company.
     - Earned my first-ever promotion at work [in title and workload]. Have to wait on that most important aspect of promotion... The $. 
     - Got my first-ever ear infection. Had to go to Urgent Care and get 2 shots (thanks for making me go, B). Oh the pain. And the co-pay.

     - Watched a friend leave my company. Had to say goodbye.
     - B got some wisdom teeth out. Had to worry from work all day about him. Oh, and our super awesome dental insurance might only cover the first 4 wisdom teeth - not the 2 extras....

Not to mention that it's been Passover, so there was a big feast to prepare 8 days ago, and since then, there have been a lot less food and snacks around the house. For those who don't know, a Karissa without snacks is usually pretty grumpy.

And you know, it's emotionally trying to constantly be thinking about money. But, how do you keep on track with your budget if you're not constantly thinking about money? Mostly all of the above events that make up my weird week all come back to the almighty dollar.

- Get the best deal on the phone we want. Don't pay too much. How much is too much. What's the best course of action to get the deal we need?
- Promoted, but no upfront increase in salary until I prove my value. How do you deal with having all the same responsibility without the benefit of a raise?
- Get sick?  Pay your co-pay, plus buy prescriptions, plus feel cruddy until the meds kick in.
- Figure out how to pull your budget together for a necessary dental visit on top of the pain of having 3 teeth pulled.
- And Passover. Passover is an 8 day fast of all things yeasty, vinegary, live culture-y, and fermenty. You start the week by cleaning out everything from your pantry with any of these types of ingredients, and then you hold a meal called a Sedar on the first night to commemorate Passover. It takes money to prepare a Passover Sedar, and it takes money to replenish all of the food you got rid of that had those ingredients. Talk about having to stretch your grocery budget.

So what's my point?  My point is that having to deal with so many shifts in my schedule, things not going the way I want, and worrying about money has really put a damper on my week. But worrying about money is a necessity as an adult. Which is all the more reason that we have made a budget, and have to stick to it. So, I probably won't be able to fully replenish my well-stocked pantry with what remains of my budget for this month. We added an expense in phone contracts that we were expecting to coincide with a raise, which is still a way off, but have enough extra at the moment to cover it. And we had to absorb the cost of an extra trip to the doctor from our annual budget, as well as extra pulled teeth from what's looking like our tax return.

But we have the budget in place so that when I did have to go to the doctor, we weren't worrying about where that money is going to come from in that moment. So yeah. I've had to "worry" about money. But since B and I are on the same page with our budgeting system and have worked most of the kinks out, that's a little less to worry about.

New Phone, New [money-saving] Technology!

So, until recently I've had a dumb phone. And I've been perfectly happy. But, B proved to me using math that if I wanted a smartphone, it was only going to be about $8 more per month. And we got a great deal on the phones themselves... like they were both free. So I said sure, I guess I have to get with the times at some point right?

Since then, I've been experimenting with money-saving apps I've heard so much about. So far, my favorite is Ibotta.

The way it works is you download the app onto your device and sign up. From there, you're able to pick your favorite stores, browse what deals are available, and do short activities to unlock savings on the items you're planning to buy anyway.

Once you're at the grocery store, or at home after you've made your purchases, all you have to do is let Ibotta take a bar code snapshot of the item you've unlocked and take a picture of your receipt. They do the rest!


Other highlights that make me a big fan of the rebate app:

- They have savings categories for grocery, health & beauty, apparel, electronics, pets, babies/kids, movie tickets and restaurants!

- When I signed up, I earned $2 for doing a rebate within a week, plus I got a $.50 rebate on milk. Usually, in order to find savings on milk, you have to make a huge cereal purchase, or something of the sort. So the fact that this is on any brand and any type of regular milk makes me happy.

- They also offer several ways for you to cash out, in terms of gift cards (a relatively short selection at the moment), PayPal or Venmo. Right now they have a deal where if you sign up for Venmo and cash out the first time using it, they'll give you an extra $5!

- At Publix, you can still use a Publix store coupon, a manufacturer's coupon, AND an Ibotta rebate on a single item.  Since the Ibotta rebate is done after you've already checked out, it's not considered coupon savings, so you can save even more!

- For every friend who signs up through your referral link and does at least one rebate, Ibotta gives you $5! (Wanna help a sister out? http://ibotta.com/r/BLRuvg)

Are there any other money-saving Apps a newbie to smartphones should definitely have?

PINCHme - I'm dreaming!

I've discovered a new site that I can't decide if I love or am just obsessed with. It's called PINCHme.

How it works:

1. Create an account and sign up for samples when they are "released" (usually about every 2 weeks).  I've found you have to order your sample within about an hour of release, or the samples will be GONE.

2. Wait patiently for your sample to arrive, and try it out as soon as your bright teal box arrives. (Or whenever...)

3. Visit the website again and take a short questionnaire about your free sample. PINCHme will keep track of the samples it's sent you AND let you know when you have a review available. This is how you earn points.

4. "Get Rewarded."  I haven't gotten to this stage yet, but to my understanding, once you reach a certain amount of points (3000), they start putting your name in monthly drawings to win gift cards!

Some of their past products have included brand name samples of shampoo, laundry detergent, protein bars, lotions, coffees, teas, chocolate bars, perfumes, and more!

I've now signed up for their past 2 samples. The first was the new Gevalia 2-Step Specialty Coffees. PINCHme let you pick if you wanted the mocha flavor or the caramel macchiato. I got the latter, and it was delicious. The second sample I've ordered is Sinful Colors Nail Polish. I'm not big into nail polish, but hey. Free is free right?

Happy Pinching!

It's MATH Time!

This is a post about Kroger. Shocking, isn't it?

While in recent days I have noticed several things about Kroger I do like (for instance, the price of milk, their free Friday download, other digital coupons for necessities you don't see often), I'm a Publix fanatic through and through.

And when I tell people this, along with my reasons for Publix-shopping, I most often hear "Well I shop at Kroger for the fuel points."   I usually just stare at them, and here's why:

Kroger fuel points is a scam. 


Ta-da!  That's it. They market the discount in the same way that gas prices fluctuate so it seems like a good deal. I.E., if Gas Station A is 10 cents more per gallon than Gas Station B, obviously you're going to go to Gas Station B to fill up. But, if you think about fuel points in terms of a flat-rate coupon, it does not make sense. And I can prove it to you using math, which is my favorite.

Say you spend $100 at Kroger to get your 10 cents off per gallon. Then say you buy 15 gallons of gas. (This is more than my car can hold. But say 15 gallons.) Using your Kroger fuel points, you save $1.50 on gas.

I don't shop at Kroger much, so generally we end a month with about 20 fuel points. But since we still have the Kroger card, we get a 3 cent discount every time we buy gas. So buying the same 15 gallons, I save 45 cents.

You've spent $100 at Kroger, and saved $1.05 more than I did on the same amount of gas.

My grocery budget is $250 per month. Last month, I was about $2 under budget (and spent about $48 at the Farmer's Market).  I also did the math on how much I saved versus how much I spent at Publix. I spent about 49% of what the groceries were worth. That's another way of saying that I got over $400 in groceries and only paid $200.

So, back to the point at hand, fuel points.  If I spent the same $200 at Kroger, I would save $2.10 on gas per month (assuming I bought 15 full gallons each time), but save less on groceries than I do at Publix with BOGO sales, doubling coupons, and using 2 coupons for 1 item where I can.

I still only go to Kroger for gas - it's usually cheaper than anywhere else, and I get the 3-cents-off-per-gallon deal.  I just don't buy into the 10-cents-off-per-gallon fuel point gimmick.

Annual Expenses and Ideas on Budgeting for them

Ah the budget. It all comes back to it, in the end. We're still tweaking ours, as new expenses arise and old expenses increase, or, less often, decrease. But all-in-all, we're making improvements.

B's mom inspired us to make one such improvement in taking our annual budgeting to the next step. Instead of having to pull money from our emergency fund for those once-a-year expenses we always forget about, we're going to have that money built into our monthly budget and set aside in a separate account waiting oh, so patiently to be used. Now, in addition to our checking account, income account, tax account, and emergency fund account, we're going to set up an "annual expenses" account.

This means that I'm going to sit down and come up with a list of annual expenses and the amount associated with each expense, add all of those expenses together, then divide the total number by 12, so we essentially create another "monthly payment" that goes into the annual expense account. So when we need $40 to take Pippin to the vet, it's already sitting in the account.

Here's a list of the annual expenses I've come up with for our home:

- Gas and Power Bill spikes. We noticed a $20 jump in our gas bill for January because of an unexpected polar vortex. I anticipate that we'll see that same spike in the summer months on the power bill. Estimating a similar spike 4 months a year = $80
- Tax Preparation. My parents use Turbotax, which may be more feasible and much less expensive for us next year, but with so many job jumps, combining our households, interest on loan payments, etc., we've opted to visit an actual agent this year = $200
- Visits to the Vet. Plus potential prescriptions or shots. = $38.95 for 1 annual visit (plus tax), plus $150
- Annual doctor's appointments. Co-pays, prescriptions, glasses/contacts, all predictable  medical expenses.
- New clothes/shoes. We don't buy new clothes much, especially when B's work uniforms are all supplied by his employer. I always ask for gift cards for Christmas and holidays so I use that as my annual clothes and shoes budget. But, at some point, we'll need to replace B's work boots = $120 + tax/shipping
- Vacations/getaways. These are so important, but if we don't budget for them, they're not going to happen. I'm not sure if we'll have time to get around to 3 getaways, but for this year, I'd like to budget two weekend getaways at $100 and one anniversary getaway at $300 = $500
- Car repair and maintenance. This category is a bit trickier. A lot can go wrong with your car. We're going to stick to maintenance we know we'll have come up over the course of the year. That includes 4 oil changes per year per car (about $240), plus enough to replace one full set of tires (about $400) = $640.
- Renewing licenses. Okay, so having to renew your driver's license doesn't come up every year, but you have to update it if you move, and pay again so $20 each = $40
- Replace cell phones. I don't upgrade that often... What are phones going for these days? $300?  I think I'll budget $200, for both of us and hope for the best.... = $200
- Gifts. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas/Hanukkah, etc. It's very difficult to plan for this far in advanced when you don't know what anyone will want for Christmas in December and it's MARCH now. But we'll plan a certain amount per gift per person and occasion, so call it $300.

Yeah sure, I wanted to include 2 visits to the vet, just in case, or a trip to the emergency room, that way the money is already there if we need it. But I had to remind myself that I haven't been to the emergency room since I was 7 (knock on wood).  If a situation does arise, THAT is what the emergency fund is for, for unplanned visits that we don't have to budget for. So we'll plan for that 1 annual visit for the cat, since we know we'll need to take him. But that second what-if-something-happens visit? We'll Emergency Fund that, IF it happens. And we can always supplement these figures with blow budget, gift card budget, and unused grocery/gas budget.

A New Grocery Habit

It's been such a long time since I've posted. Between crazy weather, extra evening plans, and more kinds of sickness than I'd like to share, my time for blogging has been pushed aside!


So groceries. The majority of my contributions to keeping our budget on target is mostly in terms of grocery planning. We had been budgeting $300 per month, but I felt confident that once we were a little more established that I could whittle it down. So starting in November, it became my goal to get it down to $250. That number includes all food, of course, but also paper products, personal hygiene, cleaning supplies, kitty care, etc. We've been striving to meet that number, but had been still going over by about $20 each month.

Well,  my total for February 2014 amounted to $249.50!  So I'm definitely getting more comfortable with the lower budget.  But it took a lot more work than I'm use to putting into it. Usually my process is just to buy the things we need and the things that are on sale at the cheapest price possible with as many coupons as I can find.

I found this month that in order to keep it under $250,  I had to REALLY pre-plan based on sale prices and coupons on my final shopping trip of the month. So I made my list in the form of a table including the price per item found in the ad, minus the amount I could find in coupons, and with the total plus tax. It was very intense.  I also was going to 3 different stores, so I had to set a strict budget for each store: $15 for meat and produce to last the week at the farmer's market, $6.50 for 2 gallons of milk at Kroger, and the rest of the budget (about $26) for sale items and items we desperately needed at Publix.

Of course things changed once I got to Publix, so yeah, I walked around the market with my phone out doing calculations. I ended up spending just a little more than I anticipated because one of the items I bought was mispriced in my ad.  But luckily I was able to make up for it because I'd over-estimated for the farmer's market. And by the time I got to Kroger, the milk was on sale for a better price than I'd anticipated and I was even able to get some ice cream for B.

I believe I'm going to have to be this particular and specific on the last shopping trip of each month to stay faithful to the budget. Stay tuned for more info on if this proves to be more tedious than my patience allows for!