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.

Portland Rocks, Final Edition

On Sunday we hopped on the Max to pick up our rental car. That morning, I learned true meaning of the old adage "you get what you pay for." Way back in January when I booked the reservations for our trip, I was so excited to get a sweet deal on our car -- only $25 a day. When we got to the airport, we waited and waited for the shuttle to take us to the car lot. After a series of annoyed calls, I found out that the rental car company shares a shuttle with the Holiday Inn. It was clear that hotel passengers were a priority. After waiting 45 minutes for our pickup, we were dropped off in a back parking lot behind the hotel. The rental car "office" was a folding table situated next to the hotel pool with a fax machine and paper shredder. The woman at the card table was nice enough, but as Graham would say, our cheap car rental was definitely not a good value.

On the bright side, our rocky start mean that the day had nowhere to go but up! We drove down to Hawthorne Street, which was a lot more like our neighborhood in Adams Morgan than anyplace we had seen so far in Portland. By the time we got there I was starving. We stopped in at the Cup and Saucer Cafe (recommended by Eric) and had a delicious meal of eggs, bacon, and LOTS of coffee. With a nice coffee buzz and a full stomach, we set off to explore the neighborhoods. We walked, and walked, and walked, zig zagging up and down streets to scope out places that would be fun to live. Along the way we picked up flyers at houses up for sale to figure out if Portland is was place that we could afford to buy. And it is! I think I found at least a dozen houses in our price range that were cute as a button.

Once our legs felt like they might fall off, we hopped back in the $25-a-day car, and drove around some more. We finally landed at our hotel around 4pm, the Kennedy School. The hotel was converted from an old elementary school and still retains all of its charm. Needless to say, one night was not enough, but we'll back!

We had a drink and a snack at the Detention Bar and then Brian and Anna picked us up for a late dinner. We drove over to their neighborhood and had an awesome meal at Doug Fir's. After dinner they gave us an evening tour of the area and showed us a couple of houses that they have been thinking about buying. While driving around we discussed life in Portland, as Brian and Anna both made very good sales pitches as to why we should hurry up and move already. By the end of the night we had worked out a timeline for luring all of our friends to Oregon.

On Monday we did a bit more driving, but were mostly in a daze from Saturday and Sunday's epic amounts of walking. All we wanted to do was relax on a couch with a good book and read. Besides, by that point, my mind was set. Portland is the place, now all we have to do is find a job or two!