I Make It By Saving!

Every night, when I go to write my blog, I try writing about something that happened on that day. Something that pertains to Boston and my life as a Bostonian transplant. Many days I fail and just end up summarizing my day. While I could go on and tell you how we had snow today and I was like a kid hoping we would get a snow day, but didn't and how I fell and bruised my knee as I slipped and skidded in front of the Brigham & Women's hospital on my way to work and how during my lunch break I walked down to Cold Stone in the snow to get my free Cold Stone ice cream... I'm not :) I'm going to write about how I spend (or save) my money. See, last night I was asked how I can afford to live in my $1600 a month apartment. Simple answer: I penny pinch and do what I have to do. Let me attempt to shed some light on how I am able to live and still afford this apartment (which, is totally worth what I give up).


Internet: I borrow from an open network at home or use my smart phone. I'm online all day long at work, so I don't really need Internet. Savings a month: $30 + taxes, fees and modem rental. That's over $200 I've saved since my roommate left in August (or $360 a year I'm saving).

TV: I have no cable bill. All the shows I watch are network shows that can be watched online. I'm not usually in when they air live anyway. However, I did spend $15 for an antenna (one time purchase) and now I can watch real TV on my nice big screen for free. I get the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW) and some other stations. Which is fine with me. Can catch the news, football games and the shows I love if I'm home. Savings a month: $14.20 a month for basic cable (which is what I get for free w/ antenna just not all the channels come in clear but I'm happy with what I get) + $8 a month for HD (antenna shows channels in HD which is clearer than cable HD- I don't know why, but it is) + taxes, fees and box rental to watch shows in HD. A little over $30 a month in savings.

Internet/Cable savings a month: a little more than $60 = $720 a year

Coupons/Clubs/Discounts
Movie Rentals: $1-$5. As a Red Box fan, I get one free movie rental a month. As a member of My Coke Rewards, I enter Coke cap numbers and earn free Blockbuster rentals. So, I never pay to rent a movie. Savings: ($1.07- $5.35 a month)

Movie tickets: $8.25-$14. I love movies. I belong to AMC and Regal movie watcher clubs. Earning free movies and snacks. I buy super saver tickets at Costco or work so I never ever pay full price for movie theater tickets. I also haven't paid to see a new movie in months by becoming part in a couple movie watcher groups where I get to see advance screenings of movies for free. All I have to do is stand in line- usually 2 hours early, but I get to see the movie for free and chat with other people or my guest. These are cool, I participated in a special screening of Scream 4 where they confiscated our cell phones and the director was with us in the theater. Why not, if it's free? Last month I saw 2 movies for free. Savings of $16-$28.

Dining Out: I often buy the 50% off coupons from Groupon, Social Living, BuyWithMe, etc. I take a friend out or go by myself to restaurants I would have gone out to anyway. I figure I'm saving at least $100 dollars a year, but this only works as a savings if you don't just buy them b/c of the deal. I don't think it's a savings if you buy one to some place you never would have gone to in the first place. I also try to turn my meal into 2 meals by only eating half and taking the rest home with me.

Spending Time With Friends
Parties: I host a lot of parties/get togethers. A glass of wine at a bar runs you $6+, while you can buy a bottle for that and share with friends. Potluck style dinners and parties save big instead of going out to a restaurant for dinner or a bar for happy hour. I know since I've started hosting, I've cut my monthly going out with friends budget in half. It's cheap and fun.

Bowling: I bought my own shoes which have paid for themselves by now. Saving me $3.50 every time I bowl. Joining the league for $58 to play 6 days also saves me $12 than if I were to bowl 2 games for 6 days (on top of the $21 it would cost me if I didn't have my own shoes). Also, doesn't hurt that we win Red Pin parties (which were won at other free Red Pin parties or off a game using a Groupon.

Other Stuff
Groceries:
I only buy what's on sale and try to use as many coupons as I can. I also bring my own bags which save me 5 cents each. I buy store brand items a lot and always check to see if they are cheaper compared to the name brand item I have a coupon for. I take advantage of Haymarket for cheaper produce, and buy larger items at Costco where it's cheaper. I am not afraid to shop around either.

Transportation:
work subsidizes the monthly T pass- so that saves me $29.50 a month ($354 a year). No need for a car that comes with monthly payments, insurance costs, gas, maintenance and parking. I'm saving well over $300 a month by taking public transportation, that's over $3600 a year)

Water: I use a Brita and never buy water bottles. I think I paid $30 for the Brita at Costco with filters and the amount of water I drink, I'm saving a butt load of money (while also saving the planet).

Coffee and Work Lunches:
I maybe eat out once a month for lunch at work. Everyday I bring my own lunch, which easily saves me $5 a day ($95 a month). I only buy Starbucks using a gift card (given to me as a gift or by using rewards points from my credit card to buy gift cards) and always use my own cup (which saves me a few cents) AND get the misto instead of a latte (which tastes just as good to me- and it costs a buck or two less-stretching that gift card for every penny). Otherwise, I buy and brew my own coffee at home and make my own lattes for less than $1 a day. Buying flavored creamer on sale for $2 with a $.50 off coupon (which is doubled by the store so I pay $1) and I get flavored coffee at work for less than $.10 a cup.

Books/Magazines/TV Series:
Instead of buying books and having them waste space sitting and collecting dust, I borrow from the library. I read about a book a week, that's about $7-25 I'm saving per book by borrowing from the library. That's at least $28-$100 a month I'm saving (or $336-$1200 a year). I subscribe to Fitness and Cosmo. I use My Coke Rewards to subscribe, costing me nothing (the coke caps my dad saves for me). Savings a year for the 2 magazines: $24. I also borrow from the library my favorite TV show DVDs by the season (vs. 1 disk via movie rental place). I may have to wait a few months, but I get to watch the entire season for free saving me about $18 in rental costs per TV series. That all adds up!

Homemade Pizza & Games

Tonight was my monthly game night. A bunch of friends, food, drinks and games. One of my friends had suggested making pizzas. Now when you have a vegan, a couple meat eaters, a few vegetarians, some who don't like cheese or mushrooms, etc. it gets hard making a pizza. So we made individual pizzas. I made the dough, and was hoping to have avocados as my topping to contribute but couldn't get one ripe enough for tonight. A friend made homemade sauce and we had everyone else bring toppings. Cheese, mushrooms, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, onions, scallions, potatoes, ham, pineapple, and corn. Now my place smells like a pizzeria. We played Pit (based off the stock market) and The Game of Things. A fun night and we had a newbie tonight who learned quickly and fit right in. I am so glad I decided to try doing monthly game night last year, it's a fun way to get together with fun people on the cheap. Oh, and no broken coasters tonight ;)

Fire Hydrant

In Brookline (and I'm sure other cities where it snows do this to) before the first hint of snowfall, they go around tagging the fire hydrants. It took me forever to figure out why, but I now know it's so when there are snow banks, the firemen can find the hydrant should there be a fire. Living next door to the firehouse is quite nice for a few reasons. If a fire broke out in our building or if I got hurt, I don't think I'd have to wait too long for the firemen or medics to arrive. Right now, the best part about it is they plow the road and the sidewalk in the immediate area around the firehouse. So our sidewalk is cleared pretty quickly after snowfall.

Cotton Balls

It's time I start to really try listening to my gut instinct. I knew the commute to work today would be bad with snow, freezing rain, rain, etc. I checked the bus' location and left the apartment while it was snowing. The bus time kept changing...later, and later and later. I waited 45 minutes for a bus (outside), 35 minutes before one bus drove by but was full so couldn't take us. I really should have taken the T like my gut hinted. So, like others, I rolled into work about an hour late. Slushy mess and slick sidewalks. The snow was pretty around lunch time. It was falling from the sky pretty fast and the snowflakes looked like cotton balls falling from the sky. I should have taken a personal day today. I did go out to take photos of the big flakes, but didn't dare go to the gym in the mess. Last thing I need is to fall again. The commute home was better. The snow had turned to rain which made it somewhat difficult to walk on the walkways where people didn't clear the snow and it was somewhat icy. Snow was melting and became slushy. It was a good day to stay in, and even though I'm calorie counting, I overate today which means tomorrow I am going to have to make it to the gym- no excuse.

Ice Skating on Frog Pond

Today was a frigid day. Temperatures were in the low teens with the windchill making it feel as if it were in the single digits, but I still made it out to Frog Pond to do some ice skating. My ears, toes and fingers were hurting from the cold, and we only lasted 25 minutes before calling it quits, but finally I can now cross "ice skate on a pond" off my bucket list.

I also had my second red pin party tonight and had a great turn out. I was asked by a hottie that worked there if it was my party and he said we could have an extra hour and a second round of chips on the house. So, 3 hours of bowling and multiple chances to win more parties, but we walked away like that Pats last night. I was off my game because I didn't bring my shoes so I had to wear the bowling alley shoes which were too slick on the lane. I also didn't have my glasses, which may have been part of the problem. I mean, maybe it had nothing to do with those, and everything to do with bowling 2 hours on Friday and 1.5 hours on Sunday. Though no one walked out with a party, I still have one more to book and Suzanna has 2, so there will be plenty of opportunities to win more. We once again received blue cheese chips on the house and I feel like the staff knows us pretty well now. It was a fun 3-day weekend and wish I didn't have to work tomorrow.

Oh, What A Night!

What can I say? I ditched my team to see a musical about who else... some guys from Jersey. Meanwhile, my football team (who haven't won a playoff game since my first trip to Boston/game @ Foxborough when they beat the Chargers) lost to bunch of boys from Jersey. (Yes- both the NY Giants and the New Jersey Jets (as I call them) share a stadium in Jersey and NOT New York). It was a typical Sunday- bowling, cornhole toss, football. I bought tickets to see Jersey Boys months ago without thinking of football season. So I guess this is what I get- a loss to the freakin' Jets and a stomach ache for going to a show instead of the game. However, back to the four guys from Jersey. Jersey Boys was fantastic. I grew up listening to the the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and knew many of the songs performed during the show. It's the story of the group and I enjoyed how they incorporated the songs into telling their story. I definitely recommend this show and would totally see it again. It's a great story and the songs were fun (the actors were pretty cute too...at least from what I could tell from the balcony level). I want to download a lot of the original songs, but also wouldn't mind downloading the musical's album. I also found it fitting that they closed the performance with "Oh, What A Night" b/c that exactly sums it up... oh what a night it was indeed.

Coffee Break

Today was a lazy day. I had arranged a meet-up at the corner European coffee/bakery place (Athan's) and met 3 new people today. We had great conversations and I now have 2 more guy acquaintances in the area. For 3 hours we sat and chatted about everything from food to sports to Boston, LA, NY and the south. I treated myself for doing such a great job calorie counting this week, ordering a cappuccino, a variety of baklava and some chocolate gelato (I really think baklava is one of my favorite heavenly desserts). It was nice taking a break and meeting people from the neighborhood. I was told that I was quite happy for this time of year (apparently people here suffer from that seasonal depression) so I took that as a compliment (and am glad to know that I am sticking to my "smile more" resolution). I was also told I don't have to apologize for not having a "wonderful" job (as in- I'm just doing whatever to pay the bills so I can live life instead of working on a career). I've adopted the European attitude of work to live (vs. the U.S. live to work attitude) and should be proud of that accomplishment. Meeting these people today helped boost my confidence and I feel really great right now. It's amazing how much happier I am after getting rid of "drama". I've decided to stay in tonight and am working on a fitness routine with my exercise ball, weights and yoga mat. It seems each day I feel better about myself and my happy meter goes up a notch. My health is improving, I'm sticking to my weight loss goal, I'm spending more "real" time with friends and am content with life at the moment. Such an improvement from last year!