Back to Normal

It feels good to sleep in my own bed. It also feels good to wake up, walk to the living room, sit in my chair, and check my email and various blogs over a glass of iced coffee. Jesse and I treated yesterday as a holiday, foregoing all of those new years resolutions that we spelled out for each other over the past week: eat healthier, exercise more (or in my case at all), hang pictures and artwork in the apartment, and establish a budget! He went for a run with Brian in the afternoon and then we picked up burritos for dinner. Afterward, we played Trivial Pursuit with Anna and Brian and a bunch of their friends for hours. I found out that Anna loves trivia games just as much as I do, so it was a treat playing on her team (even though we totally sucked for the first half of the game). It was awesome! Oh and we woke up to what looked like a blizzard last night around 1am. I thought it was a dream, but this morning the ground and roads were covered with white -- probably around 2 inches. Luckily, the sun is out and should melt it all away.

After marveling at the white roads and rooftops this morning, I sat in my chair and checked the news, blogs, etc. to the warm glow of my Christmas present from Jesse. When I came up short on ideas for things that I wanted/needed this year, he suggested that we splurge a little on a nice lamp for the living room instead of scouring Craigslist for the next two months. I thought that was an awesome idea and we set out on one of our snow days two weeks ago to browse in some of the really neat shops in the Pearl District. We found the perfect lamp in a furniture store about 8 blocks from our apartment. As an even sweeter deal, the store was having a 50% off sale, so I am now the happy owner of a pair of awesome lamps. The other is on my "desk" in the bedroom.

About halfway through my coffee, I decided to buckle down and start tackling one of the major resolutions -- starting a Portland budget. Fortunately, we planned on having our budget blown to smithereens during the move and saved accordingly. We both have done a pretty good job of being frugal with only a fraction of the monthly income that we had in D.C. However, it's a new year with new rules and if I'm ever going to get that house, yard, and dog, we're going to need to start building our savings again (rather than raiding it slowly each month to meet expenses).

Luckily, I did a lot of the legwork last January when Jesse and I decided to start budgeting for the first time to save for our move. I'm already very familiar with Quicken and I still have all of my budgeting spreadsheet templates with formulas and categories ready to go. Still, we're working with a vastly different income and like a lot of people this year, we are having to trim down a bit to stay within our means. I'm happy to find that based on my calculations for the next three or four months (that's really all I can plan for with my future employment situation still up in the air) we'll be able to meet a reasonable budget with a little left over for savings. However, our dining and discretionary budgets have taken quite the hit, so some days sticking to our limits will not be easy.

With the budget vetted by Jesse and our first cash purchases of the year recorded on our 2009 budget spreadsheet, I feel relieved to know that we are getting back on track after nearly five months of wandering. It took a lot longer than we planned, but that's okay. We're not just settling anymore. Portland really feels like home.

The Furniture Game

Before we left D.C., Jesse and I sold a bunch of our stuff on Craigslist. With the proceeds, we set up a few different ING Direct savings accounts earmarked for purchases we would likely make once in Portland. All book sale proceeds went to the "E and J Savings" account, which was the largest account and pretty much paid for our move and will help pay for living expenses, new bikes, etc. Furniture sales went into the "Furniture Fund" and when Jesse got a performance merit award at work we set up a "Stereo Fund."

Jesse didn't spend the full amount set aside for his receiver, so his funds were redirected to support the purchase of furniture. The rules of the game are pretty straightforward: purchase as much furniture for the house while staying within the $609 budget allotted in the "Furniture Fund." Exempted from the game is anything purchased for Jesse's home office. So far I feel pretty good with how things have developed:

My Chair: Purchased for $89 at a consignment store in Portland. It's a solid chair that rocks and swivels, and is the perfect size for me. Also, it is totally cute. Yes, the fabric makes me sweat in 90 degree weather, but that will be remedied someday. Jesse said with my first paycheck I should treat myself to a new pair of awesome shoes - I think I'd much have a nail gun and air compressor.

Our Bed: Purchased on Craigslist for $125. Reason it is rad? It's solid wood and not Ikea. Other than sustaining irreparable knee, shin, and toe damage from running into the end posts, I have no complaints. (Well, maybe except for the dirty laundry that keeps piling up nearby.)

Kitchen Cart: Purchased for $56 at Ikea. Even though we have tons of built-in cabinets in the kitchen, we seriously have zero prep space. This was one of the first things we purchased after taking an initial scan of the apartment. Now there's room for one person to chop and mix while the other cooks or bakes.

Metal storage rack: Purchased on Craigslist for $25. Again, the kitchen has tons of built-in cabinets, but I was astonished at the amount of kitchen items that we unpacked. I think they may have multiplied in the storage crate. The shelf will provide a little extra storage space for things that won't fit directly in the kitchen.

That leaves me with $314. I'm a little nervous because I still need a couch AND kitchen chairs. The couch will likely eat up most of the remaining budget.

Will I win the game? Or fail miserably? You vote.

My New Love

Surprise! I'm fresh out of things to say about Portland. So, please let me introduce my other new love, Quicken.

When I told J last December that I wanted to start using financial software to track our money, I think he was a bit skeptical. Somehow my conversation about budgeting and tracking expenses translated into deprivation, banishment of beer, and the elimination of CD shopping forever, times infinity. In reality, all I wanted to do was see how we used our money. Neither of us really kept track of finances until a few months ago - there was always enough money in the bank account, so we hardly looked at were it all went.

After agreeing that we'd give budgeting a try, we started talking about finances. Almost immediately it became clear that we each had pretty different philosophies on how to handle money. J often worked in cash, while I hardly ever used the stuff. Personal paper checks blow my mind, and he was perfectly content writing them for bills etc.

Because of the ridiculous system we had established (Jesse writing me a check for his half of the rent every month), I sometimes felt like Faye Dunaway in Mommy Dearest screaming and wringing my hands, "No MORE personal checks! No More Personal Checks!" Now, I don't paint on my eyebrows, and never make him scrub the bathroom floor in his pj's, but it felt that dramatic (to me). In the name of simplifying our lives, we took a few baby-steps to financial sanity:

Step 1: J added Brasilliant to his checking account. He held her hand at the ATM across the street and watched her marvel at the wonders of having cold, hard, cash in her wallet. It was tough, but she's now withdrawing and depositing like a pro.

Step 2: Brasilliant introduced J to online banking/bill pay. She stopped his paper statements and saved some trees. J reduced Brasilliant's emerging grey hair by eliminating last minute, over-the-phone bill payments.

Step 3: They both (but mostly Brasilliant) welcomed wonderful Quicken software into our home.

Our success on paper will be determined in a few weeks after we review our first two months of budgeting and saving. However, I already feel closer to that house, yard, and dog.