Two weeks later

My last post was about all of my beans? That seems a lifetime ago.

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. The weekend before last we took a truly dreadful trip (missed flights, lost luggage, etc. Etc. ETC.) to CA to look for a place to live. The trip was redeemed when we found that we got the cute little rental we wanted. We're not sure when we'll be able to buy. We're going to maintain the mindset that we DO want to buy someday, and save/spend accordingly. We'll see.

Our house will be going on the market next week, so we spent last weekend purging, cleaning, mulching, weeding, planting, watering, packing. I'm exhausted.

I still haven't done my homework for this week.

Blogging will definitely be sporadic in the weeks ahead.

An embarrassment of beans

No, it's not what you're thinking--I took the time to thoroughly soak and rinse all of the beans in order to avoid that. What I mean is that I have beans coming out of my ears. They now take up 1/4th of my basement freezer.

I haven't even started on all of the grains yet. I think I need a break first.

Below is a picture of the beanery:



I picked up the book Easy Beans from the library this evening, for some more ideas.

We're switching coasts

We're moving to California! After 4 months of searching--which really isn't that long, but boy did it feel that way--J was offered a job at a San Francisco-based company. I'm incredibly excited.

J is moving in about 3 weeks, but I'll be here until mid-July to finish up class. Incidentally, I found out last week that someone I met at a Massachusetts detectives luncheon was interested in hiring me! I was sorry to have to pass on it, but it made me feel hopeful for my future prospects. The director of the program knows some SF-based PIs, too.

I sound excited in this post but to be honest I've lately been wound as tight as a drum, as a top, as a trip-wire--pick your cliche. We got the written offer yesterday after days of nail-biting suspense.

The first thing I've done to prepare for a move is start a pantry challenge. I'm cooking and freezing all of the beans in my pantry--thanks to Frugal Upstate, I only recently discovered one can freeze cooked beans. Now, it'll be easier to pull them out in the morning and have them for dinner when I get home. I also plan on cooking and freezing many of the grains I have stocked up.

Tonight I made one of my favorite dishes, Pasta and Beans, with some Great Northern beans. I cooked spiral pasta and made a sauce out of garlic sauteed in olive oil, the beans, their juice, a little chicken soup base (the mushy stuff) to flavor the juice, some kale, and several sliced grape tomatoes. Delicious, healthy and frugal.

Please take a look at my retirement portfolios

...and blow holes in them, if they need it. I'm reading the investment section in Making the Most of Your Money, and I realized something critical was missing from my portfolios: international stock funds! All the times I sat down with planners, they never mentioned them--or emerging market funds, for that matter. I still don't have any emerging market stock funds picked; I'll look into those soon. A reminder: I'm 34, married, no kids, no planned kids. Here's what I have:

Fidelity plan

Stocks:
Large cap 50% (split between Fid Contrafund--a growth fund--and Spartan Total Market Index)
Mid cap 12% (Fid Low Priced Stock--a growth fund)
Small cap 10% (Fid Small Cap Growth--"domestic equity mutual fund")
International 13% (Spartan International Index)

Bonds:
15% (Fid New Markets Income--primarily invests at least 80% of its assets in debt securities of issuers in emerging markets)

Tiaa-Cref plan (I had a lot less to choose from here--it had the effect of making me a bit more aggressive with my allocations)

Stocks:
50% CREF Stock (82% Large Cap, 14% Mid Cap, 4% Small Cap)
30% CREF Global Equities (86% Large Cap, 12% Mid Cap, 2% Small Cap)

Bonds:
10% CREF Bond Market

Other:
TIAA Real Estate 10% (73% directly owned, 20% short-term investments, 5% REITs, 2% other)

Do these allocations make sense? Any comments, suggestions would be MUCH appreciated. Once again, I realize how much I have to learn.

NOTES: I have two separate accounts because my employer would only contribute money on my behalf into the TIAA-CREF account. Upon employment I began the Fidelity account with my own money in case that would prevent my having too many eggs in one basket (I really didn't know what I was doing back then, by the way). Just last month I started contributing to the TIAA-CREF account as well as the Fidelity account because it seemed to be doing a little better. I'm not sure if I'll keep that up.

One thing I still need to make sure of is that I'm not duplicating anything across the two accounts--e.g. I need to look extra closely at the Large Cap funds to make sure I'm not investing in the same companies across two different accounts.

Loyalty is for suckers

I probably research 90% of my purchases. My research can range from a quick search in Froogle or one of the other shopping sites to an entire afternoon devoted to the task. However, last week I fell down on the job and it cost me about $8, maybe more (I don't really want to know).

My favorite coffee is available locally, but only in certain grocery stores and coffee shops. A few years ago I found an online seller that sold it at the same price I found locally, with free shipping. I've been ordering from them ever since.

Last week I noticed I was running low, so I went to the site to place an order. I remembered that I'd thought it would be nice to have some flavored syrup at home, to replicate the "gourmet coffee shop experience." I put a bottle of Monin hazelnut syrup in my shopping cart. A list of suggested purchases popped up, including a pump for the syrup bottle. It went into my shopping cart. Poking around further, I noticed they had sugar shakers. I've been using some vanilla sugar from Penzey's, adding it to my coffee with a spoon, but the sugar shaker seemed so much more convenient. The price looked right, so into my cart it went.

This morning, for whatever reason, I decided to find out what other companies were selling syrups for--and found several sites selling them for half the price that I paid. Now, I don't know if those sites included shipping, but chances are I could have found the pump and sugar shaker elsewhere for less as well.

Grrr. Always research your purchases!

Temporary bachelorette

J is away on a business trip. I'm spending my time the way I always do when he's away: watching creepy movies, eating a lot of onions and garlic, and having lengthy one-sided conversations with the dog. Tonight I had one of my favorite meals: I sauteed several thinly-sliced cloves of garlic in olive oil with red pepper flakes and rosemary, drizzled it over polenta, and topped it with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I ate it with a side salad of baby spinach leaves with homemade dressing. The whole meal probably cost less than fifty cents, and that's with a quarter going towards the baby spinach leaves.

And now I reek, appropriately.

I have a favor to ask: I'm running out of ideas for creepy movies. I like supernatural horror films--I don't like slasher movies or realistic horror films like Wolf Creek; they make me anxious. Nothing scares me, though, and I like to be scared, so I would appreciate it if folks would leave me a comment with the titles of the scariest supernatural horror films they've ever seen, even if they think I've seen them. Which I probably have, but then again, maybe I haven't.

Speaking of supernatural horror: Aaawwwww yeah.

(One thing I like about blogging is that you can type things you would otherwise sound ridiculous saying.)

Charities

Besides my donations to Big Brother Big Sister (every time they send out the yellow card I set something out--it's my favorite way to declutter), I have a few charities I give something to every year. Every month a donation to WBUR is charged to my Amex. Breaking a larger amount up over the course of a year really helps. I have to admit that contributing to WBUR probably wouldn't have been my first choice, as I only listen to it in the mornings when I'm getting ready for work--I simply caved in under the fundraising pressure.

Besides that, J and I are Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery. We also donate to Bat World and occasionally to Bat Conservation International. (I like bats.) After Katrina, I sent a donation to one of the Humane Societies in the area that was finding itself inundated with stray animals. Given my choice of charities, one might assume that I hold the lives of animals in higher regard than my fellow humans--that is, unless they're dead. That's not necessarily true; I just figure the "people charities" do much better than the charities for animals, so I feel like my dollars make a little more of a difference when I donate to the animal charities.

I actually don't donate all that much money when our household income is taken into account. I used to feel guilty about it, but I no longer do, since we've not yet met our own not unreasonable financial goals. When I was first reading PF blogs, I came across something about charity donations that has stuck with me. I've forgotten who wrote it--I think it was a woman, though--and it drives me nuts that I can't remember. Anyway, the writer compared charity donations to the emergency instructions one receives on an airplane. Do you know how you're always instructed to put your mask on first, and only then should you attempt to assist others? I often think of that statement when I feel guilty for not giving "enough," especially when I'm asked to donate to charities that I'm either not interested in, or would rather not donate to.

If the author I mention above is reading this, or if anyone else knows who wrote it, please let me know!

New book by Kim Kiyosaki

I don't know if folks are already aware of this, but Kim Kiyosaki has written a book called Rich Woman : A Book on Investing for Women (Because I Hate Being Told What to Do!). I'm finishing up Rich Dad, Poor Dad and plan to post my thought on it soon.

Poor peas! Poor lettuces!

After I posted the picture of my veggie garden, I decided to direct-sow peas and bush beans. Again, following Mel Bartholomew's advice (hmmm, I might need that later edition), I'd stored the seeds in the refrigerator over the winter. Apparently some seeds can remain viable for several years if stored this way.

I felt pleased with myself until I told two coworkers about it. "What? You didn't wait until Memorial Day?!?" Um, oops? I've only lived in the northeast for five years, and have been gardening for a little over two. And sure enough, some pretty crappy weather rolled in yesterday and will be hanging around until Thursday. Now I look out the window onto my garden and take pity on my poor little plants.

This is SMB, signing off for the night.

Two PF blogs going away

Money 4 a Mass of 1, a fairly new blog, announced that he will be shutting down. The Useless Tree announced last Friday that he'll be doing the same, albeit for happier reasons than the former. I just found both of them and am sorry to see them go.

I have to say that I've sometimes felt a bit like M4aMo1. I think that's why I don't actively seek more traffic. I believe I've only asked one person to trade links. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely flattered that anyone links to me at all. But, if I were to go out and drum up traffic, the pressure would be on to provide really "useful" content. I don't think I'm being unnecessarily hard on myself when I say my blog isn't particularly useful, but it's been entertaining for me and if people like to read it, that's wonderful.

My response to JLP's Question of the Day (Do you look at other bloggers' stats?) is related to what I've said above. I said I sometimes went a few days without looking at my own stats, much less other bloggers'. What I didn't say on his page was that I sometimes find it embarrassing to look at my own stats. If I've written a blog entry I don't feel particularly proud of (and that happens fairly often), seeing my stats only make it worse because it's proof that people have read it! (I've actually felt my face get hot when looking at my stats!)

Despite what I've said, having my blog has been more fun than anything, and I'm happy to be a part of the PF blog community, however much of a satellite my blog happens to be. If I ever do take it down, I'll stay active in the community by reading other blogs and commenting in them. I hope the owners of the blogs above do the same.

Blech

A number of PF bloggers have already written about this talentless twit and her $150,000 birthday party, so I'll just make the appropriate links and say no more about it.

What I will say is this: even though I know schadenfreude is an ugly emotion, I wouldn't mind it if her parents happened to lose their fortune in the future.

(I'm grumpy today. Must be the weather.)

Businesses for introverts

Madame X wants to learn about economics. I want to learn about starting a business. But only a certain kind of business. I need to explain, and I should warn you that it's going to sound pretty bizarre.

I had a tough day at work today. A person in a managerial position came in, made a mess of something, and then left for the day. This is not the first time this has happened, and it certainly won't be the last, but it really got to me today for some reason. When I got my first "real" job, everyone seemed so smart. I've only been working in the "real world" for 10 years now, but these days I'm much less impressed with the caliber of folks who make it into top positions.

I've never felt the urge to try to make it into an upper position myself, and I always assumed it was because I was naturally unambitious. However, now I realize that I've just never felt truly dedicated to any of the companies I've worked for. In addition, I'm also getting very good at looking after my own interests. If I had my own business, wouldn't I be driven to succeed?

There's a catch, though. I'm introverted. I hate networking, shmoozing, "rubbing elbows." Also, I don't particularly want to sell a product.

Makes things a little difficult, doesn't it? Is there anything out there for a person like me, or should I just give up and become a day trader? (Only kidding.)

Recommendations of books, resources, etc. are welcome and appreciated.

Must hair care be expensive? (another vanity post)

My free samples of Garnier Fructis arrived today, days after my hair stylist convinced me to buy two Nexxus products. I've been going to the same man for three years now, and not once had he recommended any products--until last Friday.

To back up a bit, I've been growing my hair long for the last couple of years. I have layers in the front, but the overall length reaches the middle of my back. Since it's "old hair" I know I need to take care of it, and I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I use a variety of drugstore shampoos and conditioners--Thermasilk, Dove, Infusium 23. I use Neutrogena's anti-residue every 3 washes or so, to get all of the gunk out. For styling I use anti-frizz creams by Garnier Fructis and Dove, and a Dove hairspray. These have all been Paula Begoun-approved.

When I went in on Friday, we were chatting a bit about the length, cut, etc. He was picking up pieces of my hair and inspecting them when I noticed he was frowning. He then asked, "What are you using for products?" I told him, and he bluntly said they weren't working for me. He indicated that the shampoos seemed to be stripping my hair, and that the styling products were weighing it down. (I have a lot of hair, but it's quite fine.) He recommended a couple of products from Nexxus's VitaTress line, which I purchased--for just over $19.

I've used them once now and I have to say I'm pretty happy. My hair actually looks like it has a lot more body and it feels softer. Admittedly, though, I hate the idea of having to spend more money for hair products. I was so sure drugstore products were just fine. I wonder if anyone else has had this same experience? Now I'm wondering, was I just using the wrong drugstore products?