**Long Post Warning**
As I have written in previous posts, publishing is not exactly a lucrative career. We make a decent income. It's not always a great, high income, but it's also not a low income. Still, money is tight for many of us who work in this industry. We're watching our pennies and dollars just like everyone else in this country. And things are getting worse and more volatile in our office. People are getting more angry and frustrated about contributing money to department or office events. These days a $3 or $5 contribution is cause for a riot. Things are so bad that there is a good chance that our department will stop celebrating our co-workers' birthdays because people are getting tired of contributing money to bring in food or treats. I think this is really sad, because getting together and celebrating birthdays is one of the ways that we try to take a break from work and try to boost morale. However, how can you boost morale when half the people are angry and resentful about their $5 donation? And maybe this will be a good thing for me, considering I'm often the one who contributes more to cover any shortfall. While others might complain about donating $5, I'm usually the one contributing $10 or $15. Why should I keep doing that?
These birthdays happen maybe once a month. We've even tried to combine an entire month's birthdays on one day so that it is less of an inconvenience. So it's basically a $5 donation once a month. But still this is a problem. Like everyone else, I'm trying to be careful with my money, but I have my own tricks and tips that help me save money. Here are a few ideas that might help frugal and fiscally conscious readers.
1. Don't buy coffee from a coffee shop every day. There is a wonderful ritual about going to coffee shops. There is the smell, there are the nice and/or cute baristas, there is the tasty, freshly ground coffee. It's wonderful, and I used to go to coffee shops all the time when I was in school. But the money you spend on coffee adds up. $3-4 a day equals $15-20 a week. If you still want to go to a coffee shop, try going every other day. Or if you have enough will power, save it for Friday and consider it an end-of-the-week reward/treat. Or, better yet, brew your own coffee at home and bring it to work in a thermos.
2. Don't eat out every day for lunch and/or dinner. Some people, many of my co-workers included, just don't like to cook. And I can understand that. There are days when I don't feel like cooking after work. But eating out every single day really adds up. $7-8 a day for lunch equals $35-40 a week. A $10-20 dinner every night can mean $50-100 a week. All of that money can be spent on groceries and you'll get a lot more bang for your buck. Take a little time to make your lunch or cook your dinners. I might get teased at work for loving peanut butter sandwiches, but when you add it all up, that sandwich probably costs about $0.50. I'm one of those types of people who like to cook, and when I cook, I tend to make a lot of food. Even when I try to cut recipes in half, I always seem to have enough food for 6 or 10 people. I eat leftovers at work for lunch, or I freeze the leftovers and save it for one of those days when I don't feel like cooking. One meal could possibly be stretched for a week or more.
3. When you go to happy hour, drink maybe 2 or 3 drinks instead of 6 or 8. I love alcohol as much as anyone and I love getting together for happy hours, but I also know that it can get expensive. Binge drinking in a bar is not cheap. So be careful with how much you spend in the bars. This is good for your wallet and for your safety! If you want to binge and drink a lot on one night, buy your booze form a liquor store and celebrate at a friend's house where you can spend the night. It will probably be cheaper in the long run and it will be safer too!
4. Cut unnecessary expenses. If there is something that you absolutely don't need, consider consider getting rid of it or putting it on hold. I've canceled a lot of magazine subscriptions. I don't have much time to keep up with these magazines, and when many of them are online for free, why spend $50 dollars a year for a subscription. I also canceled my Netflix subscription. I might sign up again when we get out of this furlough period, but saving even $14 a month on this helps out.
5. Clip coupons. For whatever reason people laugh at me when they hear that I clip coupons. I think they think that coupon clipping is something that only old ladies do. But, hey, pennies saved are pennies saved. Who cares when a fistful of coupons can save you $5 at Target or $10 at the grocery store. Do you know what $15 equals? Lunch at Wahoo's: 2 tacos, rice, black beans, chips, salsa, guacamole, and a beer! And you'd probably have money to spare. $15 can also equal a very good bottle of wine.
These are only 5 examples of how to save money, but I'm sure there are dozens more. The basic rule is just be sensible and know what is worth the money and what is not. Save where you can, but splurge and treat yourself (and others!) every now and then. These treats and rewards will be good for your mind and soul. And most of all, stop whining. That's bad for both your soul and the souls of others!
I'm at home today and we're coming to the end of a four-day weekend. Friday was considered a holiday because it came before the Fourth of July. We are off today because this is the week when we start our summer furlough period. Everyone at work is excited to have an extra long weekend right now. I'm somewhat excited to have the time off because I work myself to near death on most days. I like having the extra day to sleep in, to be lazy, and to get some chores done or errands run. However, this isn't exactly a vacation and it isn't a holiday. It's a mandatory day off and we're not getting paid for it. I suppose this day off is a double-edged sword, or it is bittersweet, or it is whatever cliche you might want to use right now. I am grateful for the day off and for a chance to rest, but I would really like the money more. However, I suppose that I need to look on the brighter side. I need to endure the negatives and appreciate the positives. My salary might be reduced for the next three months, but I'm fortunate to still have a job. There are a lot of people out there in the world who are in worse shape than me right now. And, I'm not only fortunate just to have a job, but I'm fortunate to have a cool job. I help to make books, books that are sold in bookstores and books that people actually read. How cool is that? I might not be making $50,000 or $60,000 a year (or more), but I genuinely enjoy what I'm doing. Money can make things easier and it can buy a lot of things, but, as the old saying goes, it can't buy happiness. And, in spite of somewhat rough times right now, I still have a wonderfully supportive family and a few thoughtful friends. In the end, that is all that matters to me.
Current mood: resting and rejuvenating
Current music: Heather Small "Proud" (QAF mix)
Current drink: coffee
I knew that sooner or later the state of the economy would eventually catch up to me and my company. Like almost every business out there, we are feeling the pinch of the bad economy. Publishing is one of those industries that generally does not do that well in a recession. Books are a luxury expense for most people, and when money is tight people don't buy books. They go to the library, which is great for the libraries, but not good for publishers. For the past few months our company has been doing a wonderful job to "tighten its belt"—to use a cliched phrase—and they have been doing everything possible to try to minimize the direct impact on the employees. I laud them for that. But I suppose this is something that you can do for only so long. The company has started to cut deeper. Yesterday morning we received a message from the director of operations of our office and she called an unannounced, all-hands, mandatory staff meeting. An office-wide staff meeting rarely happens spontaneously, so we all got the feeling that something serious was wrong. It turned out that the company has started to lay off employees and has instituted a summer furlough program. Employees were laid off throughout the company, but in our office we are losing only two people. It is possible that we would have lost more, but we recently have had people resign so most of these positions simply will not be replaced.
The summer furlough will last for the next three months. Everyone will be required to take six days of unpaid time off. Fortunately—I suppose—I was already planning on taking time off in late July, so I can use these furlough days to cover that time. I suppose the bright side is that I won't have to lose any vacation or personal days during that time, and I can save these days for my vacations at the end of the year. (And hopefully I still have a job at the end of the year!) But, these furlough days are still unpaid, and that is what really hurts. For the next three months, 9-10% will be deducted from every paycheck. For me that amounts to about $300-400 a month. That might not sound like a lot to some people, but when you already don't make a lot of money and when you are supporting yourself, that amount is still pretty big and I'll be feeling it. Unlike some of my friends, I don't have a spouse or significant other who is willing to pay my rent and all of my bills and tell me that I don't have to have a job if I don't want one and that I can just sit around looking beautiful. I'm not that lucky. Everyone I'm close to is poor, like me!
So this weekend, I definitely have to go through my "budget" to see what unnecessary expenses I can cut and figure out what I can do to save what little money I'm going to be making over the next few months. I am looking on the bright side, however, and trying to count the blessings that I still have. I feel bad for the people who were laid off, but I consider myself very fortunate to still have my job right now.
Current mood: frightened and stressed
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Goo Goo Dolls "Let Love In"
Current drink: water. I can't exactly afford Cognac right now!
Having had a very good friend who was recently laid off from her job, things in life have definitely been put into perspective. As an aside, after seeing what my friend went through, I have somewhat of a hatred and resentment for the corporate world that can lay off people without any warning or any notice. All it takes is a simple "pack up your things, you're all out of here." I suppose gone are the days when companies would give people two-weeks notice or more to find new jobs. The corporate world is cut-throat and money, certainly not people, is all that matters.
Seeing and hearing what other people are going through right now makes me appreciate what I still have. As often as I complain about having too much work and working too many hours, I'm fortunate just to have work to do and hours to fill. However the news of people around me getting laid off terrifies me. The thought is definitely in my mind that the same thing could very well happen to me at any time. I'm hoping that my company (and my job) is still secure, but then again my friend thought the same thing about hers.
This whole fear about the potential of being out of work at any moment has reignited a determination in me to be a little more careful with my money. I'll admit that I like to splurge on certain things, but now the realization has hit me that I need to be more frugal and save more money. There are a lot of things that I want right now—an external hard drive for my computer, DVDs, CDs, books, etc.—but these are not things that I absolutely need right now. In the past (like, before this week) I probably would have bought all these things, but now I realize that I need to spend my money on the important and necessary things. And I realize that I also need to save for the unexpected expenses—another friend's unexpected $2,000 car repair expense also scared me into saving more money.
So now I think I'm going to retrain myself to live like I lived when I was a student and before I had a job and a disposable income. So it is back to clipping coupons, cooking more and going out less, buying only what I need and not what I want, and using what I have until it can't be used anymore. In fact I just spent the past 20 minutes pounding the last few drops out of a lotion bottle. When your lotion comes in a bottle with a pump, you're never going to get the lotion that is at the bottom of the bottle because the pump never reaches far enough. So you basically have to unscrew the pump and pound out the lotion that's at the bottom of the bottle. I think I was able to squeeze out two more weeks of lotion out of that bottle!
Current mood: scared of the economy, but grateful for what I have
Current music: iTunes on shuffle—Keith Urban "Who Wouldn't Want to Be Me"
