7Wannabe5 Journal Take 2

[7Wannabe5]

I am going to roughly follow the 21 Day Challenge from the blog in starting this journal.

Day 1: Housing-Goal $200-$300

Accomplished! The rent on the two bedroom apartment I am sharing with my sister and her 3 dogs is $500/month plus utilities. Since I do not have 3 dogs, my share is $300/month fixed including utilities/internet. My urban address gets an 85 for Walkability with the major exception that I had to figure out a safe biking route to the nearest zipcar which I will occasionally need for the purpose of hauling home boxes full of books from distant sales that I attend in order to make money as a rare/used book dealer. The apartment is the bottom half of a house built to be a rental duplex in the 1930s. The bathroom fixtures are pretty decrepit but it has nice high ceilings and a yard big enough for a small garden and I already ground-scored some pears from the tree next door. The lease gives us the responsibility for lawn maintenance so I bought a used Sears Craftsman reel mower from somebody off of Craigslist for $40 (not the greatest deal but the grass was already too long so I didn't have time to wait.)

So, I'm doing well enough in this category from an objective viewpoint but from a subjective perspective I could do better because the rents in this neighborhood are very high compared to the purchase price of housing units. So, my medium-term plan is to buy a duplex in this neighborhood and rent out the top half and the second bedroom in the bottom half and reserve the yard for my own gardening purposes. I might even buy an extra vacant lot to garden. I think I can get my housing expenses down to zero with this plan and not have to deal with too much landlord hassle since owner-occupied (decent likelihood I could rent to friend-of-younger-brother-of-one-of-my-kids or something like that.) I will likely buy with cash at an auction. I used to own a house which was 130 years old and almost 2800 square ft. so I know how to save money by choosing not to fix things (flashback to me clinging to spongey roof with bucket of black goop and blue tarp) and I'm not overly afraid of electricity or minor gas leaks, etc. My recent EX and the BF I had before him were both landlords and I helped a lot so I am fairly knowledgeable in that realm.

[1taskaday]

Loving the new journal already!

Best of luck and I will be following and cheering all the way.

[fips]

Nice idea - keep up the good work!

[7Wannabe5]

Day 2- De-cluttering

I already own a bike which was rescued from the scrap heap at a recycling center. I already belong to free-cycle. Everything I currently own fits neatly into a 10' X 12' room plus 2 shelves in kitchen and one shelf in bathroom plus my bike and recently acquired reel mower which are on the porch. This includes everything I need for business purposes except for the approximately 4000 rare/used books I have stored in Amazon warehouses.

I regularly de-clutter as part of my monthly routine but I will never get down to a lower level than "Haven't Used in a Year" because I will keep my snow boots and my Ugly Santa candy dish. I will also keep my beaded evening bag even though I haven't used that in more than a year.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 3- Grocery Shopping

I am an omnivorous sensualist ("foodie") but I am also a very good thrifty pick-up cook because I have been cooking for myself and others on a regular basis since childhood (almost 40 years) under a wide variety of circumstances. I have no interest in anything resembling a soylent meal plan. My challenge will be creating a varied delicious, nutritious menu for around $2 day/averaged (not including coffee which I consider more drug than food.)

Unfortunately, due to recent break-up/move, I lost access to my garden and stock of grocery staples. So, yesterday I went to the farmer's market and bought :

1) 1.5 lbs. fresh trout @ $1.99/lb
2) 2 lbs. chicken wings @ $1.99/lb
3) 4 ears corn for $1
4) fresh dill and pickling spices/seeds $3
5) 6 large tomatoes $1.50
6) 4 large sweet, 4 small hot peppers $1

The carbohydrate staples I already had on hand were:

1) large loaf of good rye bread from Polish bakery $3 ($.10 per slice)
2) corn tortillas- 20 for $1.99
3) brown rice- $.06 for half cup prepared
4) box of grape-nuts and box of crackers- free to me because discarded by sisters

Perishables I already had on hand (mostly purchased at large neighborhood ethnic market)were:

1) cucumbers- $.39/lb
2) plums-$.99/lb
3) strawberries-$.89/lb
4) eggplant-$.99/lb
5) plain whole milk yogurt-$1.25/lb
6) Monterey jack cheese-$3.99/lb
7) cilantro-$.79/large bunch
8) free pears from tree next door
9) medium eggs-$1.79/dozen
10) fresh feta cheese-$3.99/lb
11) lime-$.20

Non-exhaustive list of other staple not-too-perishables on hand: canned tuna, onions, vinegars, frozen peas, dried lentils, cashews etc.

I immediately froze half the fish and most of the chicken wings for later use. My cooking/eating plan for the week will involve either eating or processing all of the more expensive perishables into a more preserved state while incorporating less expensive staples in the total cost mix. However, last night I lived large and had half the lake trout sauteed with caramelized red onion, black pepper and lime with sliced cucumbers in yogurt with fresh dill. So, that meal alone was a tad over $2 and I also had strawberries, yogurt and grape-nuts ($.47)for another meal and toasted cheese on rye with 2 plums ($.70) for my third meal bringing my total to $3.17 for the day. So, I will have to average less than $1.50/day for the next couple days to get in line with plan.

I tend towards changing my mind or improvising a lot when I cook but my rough plan cooking forward will be something like:

1) Thai-ish eggplant and cashew (light on these) brown rice (heavy on this) curry.
2) Dill pickle soup
3) Pear tart
4) Pickled pears with hot peppers
5) Pickled cucumbers with onion
6) Peas (heavy)and chicken wings(light) done Phillipines style.
7) Feta, tomato, cucumber, dill/cilantro pasta salad
8) Sweet and sour tomato and eggs
9) Black beans, tomato, onion, pepper, cilantro on corn tortillas

The recipes that are inclusive of vinegar/lemon will keep for a good while in the fridge and most of the rest I can freeze any extra portions I prepare. I will need a few more inexpensive ingredients that I don't have currently on hand which I will pick up at my neighborhood market.

[sky]

Do you have any recommendations for neighborhoods to do duplex rental in your town?

[7Wannabe5]

sky said: Do you have any recommendations for neighborhoods to do duplex rental in your town?

It varies a lot from block to block and even house to house but the streets closer to the expressways are generally worse. Everything is so inexpensive it might make more sense to not buy a fixer-upper or anything that has been left vacant because copper wire theft is rampant around here.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 4: Drop the cell phone plan.

I use my cell phone as a bar code scanner for business purposes so it would be unprofitable to drop my plan. What I could do is make my young adult kids pay their share ($50/month) but that is the only thing I still help them out with so it seems like not much compared to the $500/month on average I was spending while they were still in college. Like when you get used to carrying one in a backpack while you push the other in a stroller and then they outgrow that and walking becomes easy again.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 5: Get a Free Hobby: Accomplished!

I already make my living (such as it is) through a hobby (reading) or hobbies (reading and thrifting/scouting/scavenging) that I have monetized. As an ENTP, the story of my life is the attempt to make work more like play and play more like work. I am not a very security oriented person (I sleep well at night as long as I have a plan, even if in retrospect it was not a very good plan, even if the plan is "The sun will come up tomorrow and then I will make a new plan.") However, to the extent that I am security-oriented, I gain more of a sense of security and freedom through diversification. Therefore, my ideal plan would not be to be able to completely retire on my investments in the stock market and thereby allow the rest of my activities to be non-lucrative. My ideal would be to be able to make the roughly $8000/year I need to live my version of the good life doing a number of different things in rather free-form fashion. IOW, my ideal is to cross over the creating value for others/monetizing line in many of my areas of interest.

In my experience, there is sort of a fine or fuzzy line between having hobbies/interests/skills that save you money or make you money. For instance, I enjoy (play-dough!) and I am interested (read books on infant brain development for fun) in interacting with children under the age of 5 and when I was a stay-at-home-Mom it often happened that some other working-Mom would ask me if I would babysit for her for pay and this is a very different kind of "work" than taking a position at a nursery school or as a nanny or even purposefully setting about to run a home daycare. I find that this analogy applies to a lot of things in work and life because there is something about the terms of the contract or the details of how it is proffered that makes a real difference in the level of freedom one experiences while doing any form of work or job. IOW, the ideal situation is one in which another person freely recognizes that you have something of value to offer and expresses a willingness to pay in accordance with recognized value and you are free to say "Yes" or "No" to their offer. Inherent in the freedom to say "Yes" or "No" must be your own recognition of the value of what you have to offer. Otherwise, you are in the position of the Wallflower at the School Dance.

Anyways, I have a file box filled with folders filled with ideas/resources/notes about potential projects. Allowing myself the freedom to generate lots of ideas for projects which I will never have the time to attempt of complete is important for my mental health as an ENTP since it is an activity that informs my optimism. Choosing to focus on a few of them at a time and actually bring a few of them to completion is also important but much more difficult for me. My circle of interests hasn't really changed much since I was 10 years old. I like books/reading/writing, food/cooking/gardening, playing with babies/pets, making-or-taking-apart/science/nature , arts and crafts, swimming/biking/climbing trees/roller-skating, producing a musical show or starting a business in the garage with my younger sisters, being chased by boys, playing explorer in the great cement caverns under the suburban subdivision, etc. My version of the ideal Renaissance Woman lifestyle would be if I were able to experience the adult version (inclusive of creating value for others, taking on appropriate level of responsibility/authority) of this round of activities in perfect balance.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 6: Clothing

I looked at my spreadsheet and in the last 6 months I spent $105.04 on clothing and grooming (shampoo, mascara, etc.) and I budgeted $120. I agree with most of Jacob's advice given his caveat that generally different for women. For instance, I absolutely disagree with his suggestion to spend more on clothing that shows and patch your underwear if you are female. There is one thing that is good which is known as frugality and there is another thing that is bad which is known as mortification. French women spend an estimated average 20% of their income on lingerie. Given that you have first made the effort to feel as good as possible about how you look naked (nutrition, exercise, therapy, more courteous lover, whatever...) and you already own a decent winter coat and boots, you should either spend half or more of your clothing budget (whatever is is) on under garments or you should choose to not wear under garments. In addition to the usual suspects, anything you might keep on and wouldn't strip off during a hot Bikram yoga class will count as an under garment for the purposes of this rule. (Note: I am reminding myself of this rule too. I did not make it up.) The reason for this rule is that if you feel good about how you look naked and you are wearing decent undergarments then you can just throw on any old thing you bought at a thrift store or found in a free box and it will be okay. Also, remember to always hand wash anything in this category.

The advice I do try to follow is staying the same size and sticking with a personal best neutral. Mine is gray. Another good piece of advice I once read and have benefited from following is that following fashion is expensive but picking a style or a style icon will save you money and effort. Mine is something like Hitchcock Blonde who Borrows from her Boyfriend. Borrowed from your Boyfriend is a good frugal style because clothing made for men is usually more durable and you can actually borrow it from your "boyfriend" (except this generally falls under the bad category of "mooching" rather than frugality and even if he gives them to you it is probably not a good idea to keep wearing his castoff Carhartt's after you break up with him) The trick is to buy it two sizes too big and only wear it on the top or the bottom but not both.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 7: Go car free

Done. Gave it to my D23 several months ago. I do still need to share a zipcar or rent-a-wreck once or twice a week in order to haul boxes full of books over long distances but still will be a significant savings. Urban biking will be a bit of a challenge but I am confident I can deal with it.

[JL13]

Very curious on your way to make a dollar here and there, especially without a car. I feel like being able to jump on an opportunity (say arbitrage find at a local thrift store, or baby-sitting as your example) usually requires a car, and the profit from these little things is eliminated if you zip-car it?

[jennypenny]

I agree with everything you said in that Clothing entry for Day 6. I completely agree with either wearing great undergarments or none (and I'm about 50/50 in that regard). I really think it's better to buy 1-2 nice pieces a year that you'll keep forever instead of stocking up on little things--a great pair of jeans, a great bra, a killer pair of boots, one great coat, real stockings, a flattering pair of yoga pants, a men's white shirt, a versatile cashmere sweater, etc. You don't have to spend a lot. Vintage and consignment shops are great.

I could live in jeans, my cowboy boots, a white shirt, a scarf, and my black trench.

[7Wannabe5]

J_L13 said: Very curious on your way to make a dollar here and there, especially without a car. I feel like being able to jump on an opportunity (say arbitrage find at a local thrift store, or baby-sitting as your example) usually requires a car, and the profit from these little things is eliminated if you zip-car it?

There is a bit of a trade-off but there are still a lot of opportunities within even the parameters defined by choosing to not own a car. In a gathering or scavenging model you always have to weigh the cost of calories burned and the time spent walking to the place where you might find food vs. the likely quantity and calories of food to be found. Since I have been doing this for 12 years I know when and where the salmon will be running or the morels will be found so I'm not gambling too much when I take on the expense of a zipcar.

I haven't babysat for money (my sister actually used to pay me in meat when I watched my nephew because her husband ran the meat department at a Whole Foods) in years, I was just using that as an analogy, but when I did I never used a car. People brought their babies to my apartment and I loaded them along with my kids into a big red wood-sided wagon to go to the park. However, I did just sign up to substitute teach and I will not take any assignments that are more than 3 miles away.

[7Wannabe5]

jennypenny said: I could live in jeans, my cowboy boots, a white shirt, a scarf, and my black trench.

Exactly what I meant. When you dress like this you very shortly hit "the end of shopping" because you have already found and own 2 perfect gray t-shirts. One further note I would make is that I pretty much detest athletic clothing because of the prevalence of garish colors and logos and find that apparel made for dance or yoga is generally more adaptable and suited to throwing a little dress over etc.

[7Wannabe5]

Day 8: Get engaged.

I think my primary challenge here will be changing my current answer to the question of "What do you do?" since I've lately been tending towards describing myself as a "self-employed slacker."

I should note at this point that my plan is to keep circling round and around this 21 Day Challenge in the learning-like-peeling-an-onion method Jacob described in some other post because I have difficulty with accomplishing anything in a direct, linear fashion, although I usually do get or do what I want eventually.

[jennypenny]

I think my primary challenge here will be changing my current answer to the question of "What do you do?" since I've lately been tending towards describing myself as a "self-employed slacker."

Could you just say "I'm an actuarial by trade" or something like that? If they press, say you don't work in the field much anymore.

If I were you, I'd probably say I was a rare book dealer just for the oohs and ahhs it would invariably elicit.

[7Wannabe5]

I am more concerned that this is what I am saying to myself. It's not a very self-respecting message. I either need to alter my perspective or change my behavior or both.

[jacob]

I think the problem is that out self-identity in terms of what we do often implies "all day long". It's certainly possible to call oneself an "asset manager" or "writer" but it's emotionally hard to do when 95% of the _time_ is spent doing nothing but collecting dividends and royalties. The fundamental problem really is one of escaping the "being=doing" presumption that we [mostly] all have.

Actually, this is a cultural problem. World Cup Soccer enlightened me to the apparent fact that Brazillians are so soccer crazy that the primary "opener" is not "what do you do for a living?" but "what soccer team do you support?"

Maybe we can start a similar meme?

[7Wannabe5]

Jacob said: I think the problem is that out self-identity in terms of what we do often implies "all day long". It's certainly possible to call oneself an "asset manager" or "writer" but it's emotionally hard to do when 95% of the _time_ is spent doing nothing but collecting dividends and royalties. The fundamental problem really is one of escaping the "being=doing" presumption that we [mostly] all have.

True. However, in my case, upon reflection I realize that I only started referring to myself as a "self-employed slacker" as a correction when my much-more-wealthy-recent EX would answer "We are retired." for both of us. Fact is I do have enough skills/discipline/creativity to live well without spending much money and I do make enough money at a hobby I am passionate about to support myself at this level but I do not have enough money/assets to completely retire at even that level and I certainly did not have enough money/assets to afford half the conventional middle-class retirement lifestyle I was sharing with my EX which is why I was also sometimes referring to myself as "a kept woman."

Actually, this is a cultural problem. World Cup Soccer enlightened me to the apparent fact that Brazillians are so soccer crazy that the primary "opener" is not "what do you do for a living?" but "what soccer team do you support?"

Maybe we can start a similar meme?

I do think answering the question with whatever you are currently most passionate about would be a good practice. I am passionate enough about being a "used book scout" or "rare book dealer" that this could be a good-enough answer for me (I can certainly converse on the topic at length with enthusiasm) but I also very much feel compelled to explain or warn people along the lines of "I make/spend very little money." AND "But I do not want/need you to offer me a job!" When I was dating, what I wrote for my online profile was something like "I am self-employed and self-sufficient in the manner of a gypsy woman who has chosen to park her rag-tag caravan in the middle of Thoreau's bean field." I feel centered and cheerful if/when I can stick to a statement like this with integrity but I can't or don't always do that.