by Forest on February 16, 2010
As you all know Bird and I moved across town and into the townhouse last weekend. Let’s take a look at what the actual move cost us:
Truck Rental: $90 ($29.95 + .99 a mile) – saved $15 by opting out of the SafeMove insurance thingy
Bagels for the am moving crew (friends): $18
Pizza for the pm moving crew (different friends): $36
Gas for the truck: $25
Total Cost: $169
I learned a few things on this move. First of all, it’s nice to have a lot of friends. Also, it was nice to get a truck. It was my first move with a truck and it was very convenient to have just make one trip. Previous moves were conducted with multiple minivan trips. It was worth it to pay my friends with food. They would have done it for free because that’s what friends are for, but it’s tradition to pay in food for moving help. A mere fraction of the cost of a real moving crew and without them the move would have taken MUCH longer. Plus, they didn’t break anything or scuff any walls or anything.
Moving Tip: Here’s a sneaky trick for you that I discovered on Saturday. When you arrive at your new place…unload the truck into the garage and then tell your friends that you have to return the truck immediately. By the time you get back, all your stuff has been moved from the garage and up two flights of stairs and you’ve gotten out of all the heavy lifting. I swear I didn’t do this on purpose (the truck did need to go back) but it worked out great. My friends are the best.
Now let’s cover the mental cost of moving the couch that the tenant left in the living room only to find a used condom underneath it. SO. GROSS. I’m still calculating that cost.
by Forest on February 12, 2010
Tomorrow morning at 8 am I pick up the U-Haul and Bird and I move to our new place. I’m so, so, so excited.
That being said, I’ll be without internet for a while as we get settled in, etc. Not that you’d ever know it with my sparse posting as of late.
Wish us luck that it doesn’t snow on our moving day!
by Forest on February 12, 2010
Yesterday I had my annual review (I met expectations) and I was pleasantly surprised to find out I got a bonus. $700 big ones which will show up on next weeks paycheck and be quite a bit less after taxes.
Honestly, I was surprised, but mostly because I was expecting a raise. I’m kind of bummed that for the second year in a row they haven’t given out raises (at least to me). I know they had a very limited amount to work with this year and the raises went to people that we making much less than me. I also know that I’m an idiot for whining about getting a bonus. I must remind myself to be appreciative of having a job at all. And I just found out today that some people didn’t get raises OR bonuses…so I’m doubly appreciative.
by Forest on February 8, 2010
We’re going through some changes:
In early January, my position at work kind of transformed into a new role. It’s not a new position and it didn’t get me a raise or anything, they just switched up the team and I got a new role. At first I thought I was going to love it, but now, as our busy season begins to pick up, I realize there is going to be a learning curve and that it might not be all rainbows and butterflies. Last week was particularly bad and Bird and I even started brainstorming about what I might like to do for a different job. I’d mostly just like to figure out what I’d like to do career-wise.
Another change, that we’re excited is that we are moving. Come Saturday, we’ll be moving back to the suburbs. Our tenant has moved out of the townhouse I own with a friend, so Bird and I will be moving in! I’m so, so, so excited about this. Besides the worse commute, it’s all upside. Can’t wait to actually have more space! Well, it’s not all upside, our rent/mortgage payment is going way up. I don’t even want to tell you about that.
Probably the best news of all is that Bird got a new job. In fact, her last day at her old company was Friday and she has this week off to do nothing (pack for the move). She’s actually going back to the company where she used to work but in a completely unrelated position. It will be much closer to our new house. Her commute is going to be awesome. Unfortunately, she is taking a paycut, but it will be more than made up for by the fact that her stress levels are going to go WAY down. She was almost a completely different person when she came home on Friday!
Another reason she is so happy is because she is loving Grad school after week one. She started last week (she only has one class on Wednesday nights) and without the stress from her job, she can really focus on learning. I’m so happy for and proud of her for doing this though I miss her on Wednesday nights now!
So we got a new job role, new house, new job, new school all in the span of a few weeks here. It’s going to be crazy, but we’re excited about it all (except maybe my new role….still feeling that one out.)
by Forest on February 1, 2010
Here are my book selling stats for the first month of 2010:
Selling Stats
Number of Sales: 137
Sales: $1,232.90
Shipping Credit: $558.66
Inventory Costs: $379.45
Amazon Commission: $365.97
Shipping Costs: $374.17
Scouting Fee: $30 (Recurring monthly fee)
Amazon Marketplace Membership: $39.99 (Recurring monthly fee)
Brother’s Commission: $13
Friend’s Commission: $9
Total Profit: $561.19
Best Sale of the Month was: Gender and Immortality by Deborah Lyons – I paid $1.10 for it back in July and it sold for $145.
I put quite a bit more time and effort into the books this month and it really paid off for me.
by Forest on January 26, 2010
Over the MLK Day weekend, Bird and I traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida for a friend’s wedding. It was a lovely weekend and worth every penny we spent. Although there were definitely a few ways we could have saved. Let’s get to the numbers.
Flights: $415.25 - Flights were actualy $578.42 for the two of us, but I used $163.17 in Credit Card rewards put towards the cost.
Checked bag fee: $40 ($20 each way) - We saved some money by only taking one bag for the both of us, but I still hate baggage fees.
Rental car: $155.68 – I was basically the driver for the group all weekend so we rented a bigger car than we normally would have. I did use a coupon from an Entertainment book to save $36. We were an hour late turning in the car, which cost us about $20 extra, but it was worth it because we got an extra hour at the beach. 
Gas: $50.57 – We did quite a bit of driving and covered a lot of territory.
Lodging: $704.58 – This is where we could have saved the most money. We stayed in a really nice place because that’s where our friends were staying. And while it was nice to stay near friends, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary and we maybe should have stayed somewhere else. Since Bird was in the wedding, she was busy all weekend and we didn’t even get to spend that much time enjoying the place. I hate to admit this, but we went to the breakfast buffet one morning and I should have known better, but when the bill came upon checkout two days later, we found out that we paid $52 ($26 each) for our breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and french toast. That’s the worst I’ve been ripped off in a long time.
Groceries: $7.89 – I bought some treats and some cold medicine because I was feeling a little sicky.
Date night: $48.23 – On Sunday night we went out for dinner and a movie. We had some pizza (and ice cream) and watched Sherlock Holmes. We liked the movie more than the pizza.
Biking: $48 – On MLK day, we left West Palm and headed toward Miami. We went to the Everglades and rented bikes. Entrance fee was $10 and then I paid for 3 of us to rent bikes ($38). It was a very fun outing and fun to get up close to the gators.
Lunch in Miami: $25 – We stopped in a little Cuban restaurant for lunch but we didn’t love the food.
Beach parking: $1.25 – On the way back to the airport we stopped at the beach because it was finally sunny. We spent about an hour walking and getting sunburned just in time to drop off the car and catch our flight home.
Tolls: about $10 – We were on tollways all the time and I think it added up to about ten bucks though we didn’t keep track. It was just a dollar here, a dollar there all weekend long.
Total cost: $1,506.45
Ouch. We did some good things to save money like using a coupon for the car and checking only one bag, but we could have done better. The best cost savings would have been staying at a different place (or at least not eating breakfast there!). We probably could have rented a smaller car for less money and then also saved on gas money. Also, if we could have turned the car in time, that would have been a good savings. The good news is, we had budgeted this trip ahead of time and we had enough money in our travel fund to cover it. Now we’ll start replenishing the travel fund for our March trip to Florida!
by Forest on January 22, 2010
Bird and I spent the past long weekend down in Florida attending a friend’s wedding and then relaxing with some alligators. And Boy oh Boy did we spend some money (I’ll write about it later).
And now, we are going back in March but that trip should be much cheaper as we get to stay with friends! More to come…
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