Feb Four Hundo?

Wow! It can't believe it's the end of the month already! It seems to have flown by. 

Luckily not a leap year.

So how did I do in the Feb Four Hundo challenge? And what--if anything--did I learn? 

Let's start with the results first. 

Take it away, Freddie!

That's right through a combination of eating a lot of Carl Weathers inspired stews, cutting back on alcohol consumption, and using a combination of public transit, car2go, a rental car, and my still unrepaired but functional and beloved scooter, I've been able to keep my discretionary expenses this month to $386.80. Throw in $450 for rent, $300 for student loans, and $150 for health insurance, and you're looking at a grand total of about $1300 for one truncated month of good clean Texas livin'! 

Take that, poverty line! 

But, dear readers, I must admit to one, shady, off-the-books, Texas-sized fraud, which may cause some--if not all--of you to question this whole endeavor I've undertaken here. 

That's right, I was the master mind of the Enron scandal! But, to make amends,  I will be evenly dividing the remaining $13.20 from the Feb Four Hundo challenge and distributing it to all those who still have pending litigation against Enron working its way through the courts. 

JK! LOL! While  I was not involved in cooking the books at Enron, I did splurge on a wristband for this year's South by Southwest Music Festival. This little indulgence ran me about $180, and definitely put me over the $400 target. I justified it based on the fact I won't actually consume my purchase until March and on the basis of awesomeness. Plus, JT might be there! 

Wearing my tattered Suit & Tie to SXSW

So what have I learned for this little experiment? 1) Brining adds nice flavor to a roast chicken and keeps it from drying out. 2) I really enjoy blogging. 3) $400 can go a long way. 

Thanks for following along with me and Seb through this adventure. See you next year? 

Booze on a Budget

In the life of many American twenty-somethings, alcohol is one of the costliest, least necessary expenses.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2009, the average American family spent $435 on alcohol. I spent $241 on alcohol last month alone, and I'm only drinking for one! Do I need an intervention?

So no intervention at a bar? 

Actually, I consider myself a moderate drinker and suspect my drinking habits are average or below average for single twenty-somethings who make $30,000-$60,000 a year. 

Still, as part of my Feb Four Hundo challenge, I knew booze was one of the places I could cut back a lot.  

And I have! 

How? 

Step 1: BYO!

Go with the good stuff

Step 2: Drink less!

"I'll have a vodka soda with lime, hold the vodka"

Now, I have to confess, I've been filling my flask with alcohol I already have, so my total costs aren't reflected on my spending sheet. Still between BYOing (which I do minimally and with discretion) and generally limiting my consumption, I've brought my spending on alcohol down from $241 in January to $40 so far this month. I think this calls for a celebration!

I pop bathtubs of champagne

FFH Anonymous

FFH Anonymous

My name is Sebastian and I have a spending problem. This past weekend I blew my $21 surplus for last week along with nearly all of my $100 budget for the following week in three days. I wish I had listened to Al Gore and put some of that money in a lockbox, but instead I followed the profligate ways of the Greek economy so, now I am at negative $40 to get me through until tomorrow.

Many people have asked me why I decided to undertake this fairly random challenge. To be honest I did not give a great deal of consideration to this question before starting because, well, Matt and I rarely give much consideration to these kinds of things. There was the time in high school when we thought we could just show up at the airport at 6am and get on a flight somewhere for 50 bucks. We left dejected when the ticket agent informed us that airlines stopped the practice of selling off cheap last minutes flights 20 years earlier, but if we wanted she could get us on a last minute flight to Orlando for $400 each. We went to Denny's instead. 

This is just one of several such stories and adventures that I have gone through with Matt, and I am certain it won't be the last. This brings me to the point of this blog post. I am thankful for Matt and other friends who are constantly up for new adventures because without these experiences you may have a friendship with a strong foundation but you must constantly rely on "remember whens," and as Tony Soprano famously quipped: "remember when is lowest form of conversation."  

Half the Distance to the Goal/Getting Around on a Budget

Whoaaaaaaa, we're halfway there! Seb and I have both spent right around $200 this month, so we're on track! 

Happy Valentines Day to all the lovers out there  ; )

So far my biggest challenges in curbing my spending have been transportation, alcohol consumption in social settings, and my occasional sweet tooth. It's been easier to cut out my purchases on clothes, fragrances, massages, mimosas, and fine leather goods, for example. 

Treat Yo Self, Feb Four Hundo? 

In this post, I'll discuss what I've been doing to keep my transportation costs down. 

Normally, I cruise the streets of Austin on this hog:

   (Mom) I usually wear close-toed shoes, in-case you were worried.

At 80 mpg, gas runs me about $6 a week between work and personal commuting. When I need a little more "towing capacity" I switch over to one of these guys: 

This is a car2go

Car2go is a point-to-point car sharing service, meaning I can pick up an available car2go anywhere on the map below (using my smart phone to make a reservation) and drop it off anywhere within the blue-shaded area. This usually runs me $30-$50 a month including gas and insurance, which are built into the price. 

All mine!

However, this month, I find myself simultaneously in both an unlucky and lucky transportation situation. First, the unlucky: recently someone backed into my scooter while it was parked outside The Violet Crown Social Club (without leaving a note). My insurance is paying for most of the damage, but my scooter has been in the shop since February 2nd. In the meantime, I have had to use my Geico provided Fiat 500 with much higher gas costs and no insurance for some of my transportation needs. 

No insurance, but Geico did throw her in 

To avoid having to drive the uninsured "gas guzzler" to work and pay for parking in addition, I have been taking the bus to work. Between gas for the Fiat and bus passes, I have spent $26 this month, what I normally pay for an entire month of insured transport on my scooter. 

However, every cloud has a silver lining. Last month, I entered and won a tweet contest sponsored by car2go about my fears of going car free. (You can find my winning tweet on January 18th). As a result, I got a free ticket to the recent TEDxAustin, a sweet car2go fleece, and 160 free car2go minutes. 

At TEDx, with the fleece, and the other tweet contest winner @BikeyMeLikey

So far this month, I've used 110 of those minutes (times when I am not using the Fiat, of course) which has saved me about $42. Between my remaning car2go minutes and the money I will spend on gas and bus passes, I may just end up spending what I spend in a normal month. 

I would have liked to have cut my normal transportation spending for the month, but I'll take not having it go up!

Eating on a Budget

One of the biggest challenges for me during Feb Four Hundo is finding ways to economize on food. Last month I spent  $432 on groceries and $218 on restaurants. Or $650 total on food!

Over the 31 days of January, this works out to about $21 a day or $147 a week. This is above the $14.30/day budget I have set for myself for all non-mandatory expenses for February and well above the $9.70 a day (or $68.00 a week) that--according to the USDA--an average man in the 19-50 age range can feed himself on. No doubt, to get closer to the USDA target and my budget, I am going to have to get creative.

Good eatin' advice from Carl Weathers. 

Here's a little bit of what I've been doing do far to economize:

This is a whole chicken that I bought at a total cost of $2.96

I brined it, then I roasted it.

Then I put it on a plate with some cabbage and collard greens that cost about $1.50

After a few days of systematically devouring the chicken, this is what I am left with. 

If you have the keen eye of a Carl Weathers, you may have noticed that there's plenty of meat on those bones. So yesterday, I threw them in a pot with water to make a broth. Then I added some onions, carrots, and curry powder (at a coast of $2.00), which I pureed. And, baby, I got a stew going!

Dr. Phil, the Drunk Girl, and Skee Ball

As I sat down to begin this blog post on Saturday, I felt confident with all 5 not so crisp twenties still in my wallet. The night before my friend Sam cooked dinner for his roommate Travis, me, and our mutual friend Ben. In the spirit of FFH, Sam cooked an entire delicious meal for 4 (with dessert) for under $5 per person. Great food + mediocre red wine amounted to a great evening of conversation. Thanks Ben for playing Dr. Phil for Sam and me.

So, everything was on track until my budget slightly derailed on the half finished trolley tracks of H Street.

My friends Rich and Brian came over for a few drinks and episodes of BBQ wars on Saturday night. I thought I had come up with a brilliant plan: by drinking before I went to the bar,  I could completely sidestep purchasing drinks at the bar (I am sure no one ever thought of that before). Too bad there is a direct correlation between alcohol consumption and money disappearing from my wallet.

I ended up spending $20 total for the whole night, helped in part because of the generosity of some friends and in part because I caught a ride there and bike shared home.

Here is a short description of the events as they transpired:

I meet up with friends at Queen Vic and am offered a drink from a buddy who is following the blog. This is followed by a complimentary drink from the bartender and finally another drink from another friend. By this point those twenties are on fire in my pocket. I was already salivating at the thought of enjoying a Pattison Avenue on my Uber ride home.

The rest of the group bailed so I went over to Rock n Roll hotel with a buddy. I made my first purchase of the evening--a PBR tall boy for 4 dollars (I was wearing plaid and on H Street so I figured I might as well drink the part). My buddy Brian ordered a couple of bourbons to go along with our beers and we headed back over to a table. As we were reminiscing about how great of an RA I was, a young, inebriated woman approached our table.

Drunk Girl: "Did you guys, like, take a shot of Jameson that was, like, on the bar over there."
Me: "It's good to meet you too. My name is Sebastian. This is my friend Brian. We did not take your shot of Jameson but we do sympathize with your loss. Maybe you want to ask the homeless man sitting next to you at the bar. Or perhaps you drank it."
Drunk Girl: "[hair flip] returns to her male companion at the bar.

After a short confrontation with her male companion, we decided to go to our next stop: H Street Country Club.

From Urban Dictionary:

1.	Make it Hail
	A cheaper version of "Make it Rain". Usually done with quarters, although any change will do. By throwing coins up in the air for others to chase at your pleasure is "making it hail". This form is not limited to a strip club.

At H Street Country Club quarters are the currency of choice. Instead of offering to buy a girl a drink you can challenge her to a game of Skee Ball, thereby getting the same effect of a conversation starter at a fraction of the cost of buying a beverage. Which works great until you are on your 10th game of one on one Skee Ball. Anyways, I got a number out of the deal, settled up my tab of $8 and biked home.

Not a bad night for 20 bucks.

Day 1

In preparation for the the challenge, I went ahead and paid off all of my credit cards to a $0 balance so I could better keep track of my spending. Without Ms. Jones' economics and personal finance course, I don't know how I would have made it all these years. (I have a little secret: I never turned in my stock portfolio which was apparently 30% of our grade and I still made a B+ [btw Matt See Beyond Tech ended up being bought by Sun Systems for $4.50/share).

After paying off all of my balances, I promptly went out and spent $58 on dinner and drinks and spent $17 on an Über home. I am already starting to get the shakes from Über withdrawal.

This morning I stopped at the bank and took out my weekly allowance. I suppose we can make it a Friday tradition for the next four weeks.

Time to make it rain!

So with my new budget I figure I will have to put more thought into planning, which as many of you know is not my strong suit. Here are my preliminary plans for this weekend: 

Friday night: 

Dinner with my friends Ben and Sam on H Street then back to one of our places for great conversation and some root beers. (budget: $15)

Saturday: 

Noon: Bike brewery tour with my friend Lia and some DC Bike Party folks (budget $15)

If you like cool people and biking check out their FB page 

DC Bike Party

Evening: Either a house party or movie night at mine (budget: $0)

Sunday: 

Super Bowl: Not sure where yet but will aim for a house party instead of a bar

-Seb