Birthday week!

After a tough week, I was relieved to have my birthday around the corner. Birthdays are always a time to spend with family and friends, have fun, eat and feel pampered. My Birthday was this last Tuesday and it marked the beginning of a great week.

On Tuesday, I began with a paid breakfast as a birthday gift. I was also invited for dinner to a local restaurant that serves puertorrican food. Dinner was great, my daughter had the kids' special which included the best chicken nuggets she has ever been served -  homemade cooking kicks butt. As an appetizer, we had some plantain chips with guacamole, pico de gallo, and chicken cooked in a creole sauce. Main course was a chicken breast covered in bacon, you can never go wrong with bacon, sided with mashed potatoes. Sorry if I am making you hungry. Halfway through my course I stopped eating and saved the rest of the food for another's day meal. I received a body wash and some amazing hand washes- good thing because I was about  to spend some money on those.

On Wednesday, I had both lunch and dinner for free. At my workplace, it was engineering week and they sponsored lunch for all engineers. I had some delicious arroz con gandules (rice and pigeon peas) with chicken and a ceasar salad (with no ceaser dressing). For dinner, I was taken out to eat as a birthday present, as well. I ate a stuffed mashed plantain dish with chicken (only ate half, of course). My daughter had a mini pizza, which she devoured completely. I took half of my main course home and my sister's half eaten mofongo, my mom's carne frita and a piece of my dad's pork-shop-- everyone supported the cause. No food was worth wasting. I received a soap bar, new shorts (so pretty), a pair of pajamas, a beautiful dress and an external battery charger (pink with leds indicating charge quantity, score!). Who doesn't love birthdays?

My daughter's school this week decided to host a local Frappe shoppe at their facilities. Every kid who wanted a Frappe had to send in $3 and choose the drink of their choice. Of course, I gave the $3. I was not going to let her be the kid at school without a drink staring at other treats. This was karma for the piña colada. She had a yummy Oreo Frappe. Yep, this entry has been all about yumminess, hope you have a full stomach when reading this. No splurging allowed.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday consisted of eating left overs. I just made some chicken-like stew to accompany the left over mofongo (mashed plantain). I visited my grandmother on Saturday, which resulted in delicious pasteles (puertorrican food--look it up!) and potato salad. 

On Friday, I had so much fun getting my food paid that I forgot my lunch at home. I was so lucky! A friend gave me a coupon he did not need to get lunch and not spend a dime. And then, I got luckier, another friend gave me her lunch because she was attending a pizza party and was not going to eat what she had brought. It was, so, my birthday week at its maximum expression!

On Sunday, I attended a free conference about real estate. Sounded like the best conference you could attend to, but my mother had already warned me that they would try to sell me everything they possibly could. She was not wrong- the conference was free but if you wanted to have any real questions answered, you needed to enroll in their three day course which was just a mere $2K. Yeah, we all got that kind of money to invest in a course, of course. Obviously, I did not enroll, but I did take some valuable information and tips, in case I decide to engage in real estate some day. Breakfast and lunch was, also, paid for me that day--late birthday presents. Gotta love your birthday! <3

I did spend $11 that I shouldn't have, this week. I bought myself a pair of new jeans that were 50% off. I hadn't bought myself jeans since December 2014... yep, that long. So, I maybe splurged a little too much, but I blame my birthday.

Expenses for this month (that ends today):

Expense on February	Cost (monthly)
Internet Bill	$37.20
Daughter's school	$200.00
Cellphone Bill	$27.88
Electricity Bill
Water Bill	$23.71
Rent	$300.00
Gas	$71.00
Food	$130.20
School miscellaneous	$5.00
Entertainment	$39.55
Church	$2.00
Emergency
Other	$158.75
Actual Total	$995.29
Actual Money Saved	$108.84
Suggested Money to Save	$107.13

I ended this month with $1.71 left from the money I had budgeted to spend. I got paid $535.63 last Friday, but all I can use from that quantity is $35.63, since the other amount is used for rent and school tuition, due the first week before my next payday. My cellphone bill is also due on the 5th and I need to visit the supermarket- and let's not forget my $50 electricity bill which I have not yet paid. So, all I have is: $37.34 in my checking account and $108.84 on my savings account. I am pretty sure that I will have to use my savings to get food on the table before my next paycheck and pay those bills that are due. I am writing this while I begin to freak out. Last week was amazing, mainly because it was a week of celebration. This week is going to be tough, and it'll continue like this until I get paid on Friday, March 12th... PURE HELL!

So, I will proceed to submit this entry and allow myself to finish in a happy cloud. I'll let my next entry on Monday express the wrath.  I decided Mondays were a better day to post, for I can include everything I have gone through the week, including Sundays, at an easier pace.

Take care,

Mushu <3

Rough Week

This week has been a rough one. From two unplanned meals out, to lady pain, to electricity bill, to almost buying a dryer and savoring debt,...

I began my week slow. Refueled my car and did some grocery shopping on Tuesday. Lists work wonders, you get exactly what you were looking for and buy nothing else, so you stay on budget. Who knew? I used to make lists all the time, I just did not stick to them. Another lesson well learned.

On Wednesday, I was invited to a good friend's birthday gathering, so I couldn't say no. This involved going out with my two honey boos and a group of friends to eat a local hamburger restaurant. The ambiance was good and the food was great. Prices were not bad, but I couldn't go crazy. I ordered the day's special: nachos, ate half there and saved half for lunch the next day. My daughter had some chicken tenders with fries. My partner offered to pay our bill, but I just couldn't let him. He ended up paying for my daughter's meal (after much insistence on his part). I paid $8.91, tip included. I had a lot of fun with some good people, so I believe it was well worth the almost $9.

My electricity bill came really high this month $50, instead of the $30 I had approximates for. I had connected an inline water heater that I used to not use. So my electricity bill was really low. But these past months have been really cold and I was tired of heating water in the microwave. Yet the bill came too high due to the water heater's inefficient system; I am buying a timer to control when the water is heated.

Sunday came and I had programmed to visit my cousin who recently had a baby. She lives far away and was visiting her mom's, so it was a perfect setting. But then the trouble began, one of my other cousins knew the other one was in town and decided we should finally go out, an outing we were postponing since December. Oh, boy, did my wallet hurt, already. We were a little group of 8.We went to a local restaurant, which has a really good and cheap menu variety for kids and average prices for adults. This time, I just could not afford getting a decent plate for $10-$14, plus paying a $5 kid's plate, taxes and tips; it would result in approximately $20 or more. So I decided, to get my daughter a plate; kids should never be accountable for a parent's bad decision. If I decided to accept the invitation, go out and take her along, then she should be treated as is, not mattering my financial situation. Everything went well, food came and we were all talking and having a good time. But then it happened, from a corner as I saw 5 piña coladas approaching our table. My daughter and I had arrived later than everyone else to the get-together, so they had ordered beforehand. Now, my frustration comes because my daughter loves smoothies, frappes, piña coladas and the like, so imagine how my breathing got heavy and my heart sank. I did not look at her; I just could not bare to see her little face as she watched everyone get the refreshing drink.
I knew, just there in that unbearable moment, how every parent who is in a budget feels when they cannot give their children something they know they love. I couldn't get it, that drink alone would be $5 or more, and we couldn't afford it. We kept on eating, and since I had told her before we were only getting food and no drinks (just tap water), she did not ask. What little blessings we have, and sometimes take for granted. Thankfully, one of my cousins decided she no longer wanted more of her drink and offered it to my daughter. I think I love her more now since that moment, and I don't think I thought that I could love her more. Friends and family are great, they understand. We should be grateful, I know I am. It's in moments like these where we have accountability of those who care for us the most.

Below my expenses up to this week:

Expense on February	Cost (monthly)
Internet Bill	$37.20
Daughter's school	$200.00
Cellphone Bill	$27.88
Electricity Bill
Water Bill	$23.71
Rent	$300.00
Gas	$53.00
Food	$122.41
School miscellaneous	$2.00
Entertainment	$39.55
Church	$2.00
Emergency
Other	$112.99
Actual Total	$920.74

Still have $76.26 left before my next payday. This week is my birthday, meaning I will have many free meals. Yay, free things!

See you next week,

Mushu

Trip Ahoy

How can you get paid today and be almost out of cash? Oh, do I know the answer to that question. I work to live and live to pay. Bills and planned expenses dry up all your revenue. On Friday, I got paid $535.63 and all I have left to spend between bills, groceries and gas is $136.96, before my next payday in two weeks.

On this entry, I am going to focus on one main event that happened this week: an already planned and paid for trip. This event can drive you nuts and can make you waste more money than you should.

So lets begin in chronological order. On Tuesday, I got on a plane and returned on Wednesday. This trip involved airplane tickets, hotel room, car rental, food expenses, and game tickets. Most of these had already been paid for in advanced. When I began this experiment, I knew I had this trip, but if I kept postponing the challenge, I was sure to never accomplish what I wanted. Life does not stop for us and I saw this as an advantage.
What if I lose my job after having planned and paid for a vacation? What if things get shaky at the company and there is unpaid time off and I already had a vacation planned? What ifs... in this economy, these are really probable what ifs. What is someone to do... oh, chucks! I had planned this trip and paid almost everything, but now I can't go; not only because I can't spend a lot of money, but, also, because people of my financial state are not "supposed" to be making these trips. I'll just cancel it, even though I will not get all my money back. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? That's exactly how I felt this week. People near me, who knew of my experiment, made similar remarks to the ones mentioned above; they expressed it as cheating. It was then that I knew just how important it was that this trip took place. People with a minimum wage salary should be able to plan a trip, pay for it and have fun. People who are now making less than they were (because of any situation) and already had plans, should be able to keep them and not feel judged because of their decision of sticking with them.
I am glad I made this trip. I was not alone, so some of the expenses were shared as I will detail below. There were some expenses I did not want to take part on, since they were more of a luxury than a necessity. I did not pay for those, you will understand below.

Expense	Expected	Extra
Airport Parking	$44.75
Car Rental	$7.13	$70.77
Food at Airport	$0.00	$4.46+$3.00/ $9.00
Lunch/Dinner	$8.47
Goodies/ Souvenirs	$8.72
Game Parking	$0.00	$40.00
Food at Game	$0.00	$14.00
Breakfast	$0.00

Okay, so here's the breakdown: in the above table we have the expenses that had not been covered beforehand and needed to get paid. The Expected column is how much we spent without any upgrades or added commodities; the Extra column refers to the money we spent or could have spent because of upgrades or luxuries.

First, the airport parking cost was divided into 2 people, so I ended up paying $22.37. For the car rental, it had been decided last year that my partner would take care of this since he had a free day with the Rental Car company. He would have only paid $7.13 of taxes, but he decided to upgrade to a cooler car and ended up paying $70.77. I did not think this upgrade was necessary so the payment was up to him. I did love the cooler car and had a lot of fun in it, don't get me wrong, but it was an expense I would have not made. Because of our choice of car, we needed a safe place to park the car when assisting the basketball game that we had planned the trip around. Go Spurs! So, my partner ended paying $40 worth of parking. There were parking spots that were cheaper and others free of charge, but those were considerably farther and solitary; hence, unsafer for us to leave the car in and walk to the stadium. 

Next, the food... my favorite topic. I made breakfast Monday night and packed lots of snacks to make sure we didn't go hungry and had to spend money on things we could get at a lower cost. Yet we cannot go past the TSA with liquids, so Mr. Complicated needed something to drink. He offered me a drink on him, so I gave in; that's where the first $4.46 on extra food expenses come in. When lunch time was approaching we decided to go to Chili's, and Chili's had an awesome lunch special that included a starter and an entree. I chose a delicious chicken enchilada soup and for the entree a chicken Mexican bowl, pure deliciousness. Since I had a starter, I did not finish my entree and asked for the remaining of the meal to go; there I was able to score dinner: WIN! I snacked before the game to make sure I did not need to buy anything at the game, food there is really expensive. I was not hungry, but we all know who was; $14 was spent on this (on him, of course... I just had a small bite). The hotel included breakfast, so we were good on breakfast again. On our return flight, he bought a bottle of water, I did not fuzzed because the airline we were flying in this time offered no drinks unless they were paid for; so the $3 spent here were understandable. Now, the last $9 we did not actually spend but we did consume so I am including them here. The person who sat next to us in the flight was a really jolly spirit, he befriended us and wouldn't stop talking, telling us about his family, life, and so on. When the lady passed with the refreshments advertising, he offered to buy Mr. Complicated a beer and a bottle of water for me. He would not take no for an answer, so we accepted. Another WIN!

Lastly, my goodies/souvenirs expense. I wanted to get something for my daughter, so we went to Target and I got her a small Dr. Seuss book that was on sale and some candy; give me a break, it was St. Valentine's week! My sisters were taking care of my daughter these two days, so I bought them chocolate. I spent a total of $8.72. I spent a total of $39.56 on this trip counting as entertainment.

Now, for Saint Valentines day: I cannot speak a lot about expenses made on this day. All I spent was $6 on chocolate covered strawberries. I always buy my daughter's valentine cards on the day-after-Valentines-day sale. Something that will probably not happen this year. Also, I had purchased my partner's gift  last year during Amazon's Thanksgiving lightning deals. I enjoy taking advantages of deals. Something I have to be very careful nowadays. We went out to eat but my partner took care of the bill; we spent $24 between the three. 

Below I present the expenses up to this week and the money I have left to survive before payday.

Expense on February	Cost (monthly)
Internet Bill	$37.20
Daughter's school	$200.00
Cellphone Bill	$27.88
Electricity Bill
Water Bill	$23.71
Rent	$300.00
Gas	$35.00
Food	$79.71
School miscellaneous	$2.00
Entertainment	$39.55
Church	$2.00
Emergency
Other	$112.99
Actual Total	$860.04
Actual Money Saved	$244.09 ($107.13 is the goal)

Things that still need to be taken care for: gas for the remaining weeks of February, electricity bill (which I think will come pricey, will expand on the topic when it comes at the end of the month), and groceries (mainly breakfast and snacks). As you can see, I am a bit tight; I'm hoping no emergencies arise. But that's why they're called emergencies... we'll see. Hope you didn't die of boredom. If you have any suggestions or comments please let me know below.

See you next week. By the way, sorry for the one-day-late entry, but, again, it was Valentine's day, gimme a break. :)

-Michelle <3

First week

You know you spend more than you should, when you stop at the gas station and walk straight to the fridge to get a soft drink. Oh, how that diet Coco Rico called my name. I don't buy soft drinks at the supermarket, so I usually splurge myself with this treat when stopping for gas. Yet, you do not usually take notice of spending like this, unless you need to save every little penny. So, I went back to the front of the cashier and paid my $17 to fill my tank, marking the beginning of my first week as a minimum wage earner.

I packed lunch everyday for work this week. Made dinner for my daughter and I when I got home, sometimes resulting in what I took for lunch the next day. I'm thinking of including a "Weekly lunch/dinner menu on a budget" or "Healthy snacks for kids on a budget" blog entries, recipes and pics included, but that involves more work; probably will be posted in a different setting than the Sunday venue. Anyhow, I have been cooking lunch to take to work for a while now; yet some days, before this minimum wage project, procrastination won and I ended up buying lunch... this time there was no I'll buy food tomorrow. I hope to continue with this success rate for the upcoming weeks.

Okay, so I know there are a lot of coupons out there that are centered on helping you save some bucks and buying what you need at the same time. I'm no coupon lady; I use the ones I might get at the movies theaters or maybe the ones I get from Walgreen's at my email. So, no, I still am no coupon master and I am not expecting to become one anytime sooner. But, I am taking advantage of offers I receive through text and email to places I can easily access.
So, this time around the attention comes to Kmart. Being a Shop Your Way member has its benefits: you receive surprise points, receive special offers and get extra points when you spend x and y amounts. I received a special offer from Kmart this week: I would get $5 off on any $5 online purchase. Sounds amazing! It is. I bought antibacterial soap and it only cost me 54 cents. Bad news? My offer was canceled due to product being out of stock and I lost my coupon ...So why is she sharing this with us again? you may ask. Because I have had really good experiences with Kmart's online shopping in the past. I got my three iron cast skillets at $0 at Kmart using my rewards points; this time around I just had poorer luck. Next time I'll call to see if they sell the item.
However, I do have a success story with Kmart this week, I was able to save $5 on a $35 purchase. I downloaded the app on my phone and immediately received this offer. I knew they had Capri-sun on sale so I bought a few boxes for my daughter's snacks; I, also, bought water bottles, toilet paper, and milk. Things I was getting from the market anyway, but spent $5 less purchasing them at Kmart. So if you are going to Kmart or you need groceries aiming around $35 you should download their app and login with your Shop Your Way profile to receive this offer. Please be aware that many other $5 off surprise points you receive from Kmart do not include purchasing groceries (usually spend $15, get $5 off offers).

Another success story this week that involved $0, but a lot of fun for my kiddo: Home Depot's Kids Workshop. Every first Saturday of the month, Home Depot has a DIY workshop for kids where they hand out a DIY kit, a Home Depot apron, a certificate and a pin to the children that participate. The Home Depot I went to, even had snacks for the kiddos that successfully finished their projects. I wanted to have a fun morning with my daughter this weekend, so I registered her online and drove to my nearest Home Depot. She was pretty excited. We got there and it was packed, but it was worth it. She got her apron with her name on it and made a small mailbox where she will be putting all of her valentine's day cards this upcoming Friday in school. I have to say she was pretty good with nailing that box together, I was shocked. Someone's getting a hammer on her next birthday! Anyhow, next month's workshop is building a toy car, so be sure to take your kids if you have any; best of all it's free. Who says you need money to have fun? (Okay, I drove there with gas which cost me some $$$, but you get the idea).

Another great site is Kinja, you can save some serious cash buying things you already had planned for. Kinja agglomerates all deals together in one place and offers links for you to have easy access to the deals. Sweet! One of my best friends birthday is this month, so I visited Kinja and started browsing. I found a really neat present at an affordable price without hitting my budget too hard.

It was a pretty successful week in my opinion. So, below you can see the status of my expenses and the road to achieving a successful month.

Expense on February	Cost
Internet Bill
Daughter's school
Cellphone Bill	$27.88
Electricity Bill
Water Bill
Rent	$300.00
Gas	$35.00
Groceries	$30.80
School miscellaneous
Entertainment
Church	$2.00
Emergency
Other	$7.99
Actual Spent Total Week 1	$403.67

Bi weekly income	$535.63
Income after child support	$675.63

I received child support this week, so I had a total of $675.63 to split among my bills and basic necessities. I will get paid this upcoming Friday, but need to pay my daughter's school tomorrow Monday. So I will only have $71.96 to spend if I need to during this week. I do have various things that need to get paid and $71.96 will not cut it, so I will need to use my credit card to pay this bill. I will pay my balance with my next paycheck before the month ends. That is my compromise. Please note, that I will not use my credit card regularly, only on emergencies, and this is an emergency where I will get the money to pay it off on Friday. 

To check out how I survive next week with $71.96 please come back on Sunday. Hint: There's a planned trip coming up this week where I need to really be careful how I manage this little money I have.

Salary / Expenses Corrections

Hey guys. February has begun. I began my journey and realized I needed a quick intervention. I was compiling feedback from this week and noticed I had made two mistakes that needed correction. These errors were found thanks to the feedback of a dear friend who loves to challenge everything I do; everyone needs one of those. So, he advised me to go into detail as to how I had calculated my bi-weekly salary. 

Below I present a table detailing the calculations; my bi-weekly income is quite less(first mistake), and below is the amount I will transfer every two weeks. As for the child support deposit(second one), I will transfer it to my account when the money is actually received. Yep, its like a "you can count on me, but not too much" kind of thing.

Time frame	Amount
Hourly	$7.25
Daily	$58.00
Weekly	$290.00
Bi-Weekly gross	$580.00
Social Security Deduction Percent	6.2%
Medicaid Deduction Percent	1.45%
Joint Deduction Cash Value	$44.37
Bi-weekly after deductions	$535.63
Child Support	$140
Monthly income	$1,071.26
Monthly Total (with child support)	$1,211.26

Less total money means my previous table of expenses needs to change; those for entertainment and emergency, obviously... bills, never change!, unless it's up.

Expense	Cost (monthly)	Comments
Internet bill	$38.00	27th of every month; quantity is approximate
Daughter's school	$200.00	before the 10th every month
Cellphone bil	$27.88	First week
Electricity bill	$30.00	approximate
Water bill	$30.00	approximate
Rent	$300.00	before the 5th of every month
Gas	$72.00	approximately $18 weekly
Groceries	$300.00	$150 every two weeks (food/ toilet paper/ paper towels / dish-washing soaps/ detergents/ etc)
School miscellaneous	$2.00	casual day biweekly
Entertainment	$30.00	movies, eat out, school, work stuff
Church	$8.00	offering
Emergency	$40.00	Sickness, medicine etc
Other	$26.25	Clothes, shoes, Amazon Prime, school yearly fees, swimming lessons
Total	$1,104.13	Total approximate money spent on expenses
Money to save	$107.13	10% of paycheck

Well, this is what I am living with as of now. I have many things in store and am pretty excited. I'll be sharing with you what I have learned so far and how I have managed to live with less in the next intervention this Sunday. Peace! <3