One Size Fits All

“No Sex Please, We’re Organizing” (sources)

I’m almost done reading Linda McQuaig’s ‘It’s The Crude, Dude‘ (which by the way is an awful name. What demographic were the publishers trying to reach? Also labelling McQuaig as “Canada’s Michael Moore” in an insult). Its a facinating book that closed many knowledge gaps I had. Worth reading to get a quick perspective on oil.

But I’ve been spending alot of time thinking about how exactly will the world change when non-renewable energy sources get diminished? Exactly how big will the wealth gap be? The answers will be hard to predict, but Jim Kunstler has a well written article (as always) addressing some of my thoughts.

15 hour day today. And yesterday and for the rest of the week. Blogging will be sporadic.

I am now a student member of PICPA (Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants). The membership was $10/year. So I think it was a good value even though I am not sure on whether I plan on staying in PA after I graduate.

I hope they have activities on the weekends. Because between school and work, I won’t have time to do anything during the week.

I am taking two courses this summer session, one of which is “International Monetary Economics”. While I was excited on the first day of class, this course, like other economics courses is a huge *yawn*.

The course is actually quite interesting. Topics include, how foreign exchange rates are determined, and the factors that influence it such as the money supply and demand. I’ve learned fun facts such as: the U.S.A became a debtor nation in 1987 (think Reagan), and that the deficit is 6.5% of the nation’s GDP . Argentina’s was 3.5% before investors pulled out. So scary, scary, scary. Its also fascinating to see how much the dollar is used in exchanges throughout the world as a vehicle currency (to transfer dinar to rupee, you would exchange dinar for dollars and then rupees for dollar as transaction fees are a lot lower than if you had to transfer dinars for rupees). I also like the equations: Deficit = Taxes - Expenses where Taxes are lower than Expenses.

Then there are also the other random things I’ve heard at various places that makes me wonder if (and how) they tie into the U.S Budget. Such as, is it really true that the US tax revenue only manages to pay the interest on the deficit? Who sets the deficit interest rate? Does the U.S. get a lowered rate, if they make timely, 36 consecutive payments? Does the U.S. have an emergency fund? What will happen if the oil is not traded on the dollar anymore. Does the budget number I got from the White house include the deficit (haven’t had time to read the document). Does thebudgetgraph.com include the deficit - doesn’t look like it…

I only wish the Econ textbook didn’t put me to sleep. If texts were designed like Personal Finance books, I think I would spend more time reading them and less time falling asleep on them.

Home made pizza with home made sauce (store bought cheese) and home made sangria.

Our debts:

Hubby’s student loan (consolidated at 4.125%): $41,456.78

My Visa: $110.00
My Mastercard (0% APR) : $1,390.92
My Line of Credit (LOC at13.99%): $1,121.46
Student Loans Subsidized (due in June 2008): 2750.00
Student Loans Subsidized/Unsubsidized (not yet disbursed due in June 2008): 2500.00+ 2750.00+320.00 = $5,570

Goal is to be debt free in 5 years. If we can pull this off it will be very significant, because neither of us will make a combined income of more than $70,000.

I just learned about walk score:

What is Walk Score?

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.

My current walk score was 86/100 which means:

70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It’s possible to get by without owning a car.

However they didn’t pick up the large Acme grocery store or the various asian markets near by.
There are also many restaurants in my neighborhood: Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai, Italian, American, etc. that were not picked up. It picked up one of the Ritz movie theatres, but not the Whole Foods which is closer.It did pick up all the library branches. And since its a mod on google maps, I am assuming the reason many of these places were not mentioned was because google didn’t pick it up.

My previous apartment scored 96/100. And it was indeed the most convenient place I’ve ever lived in.

via Cycling Sasquatch

Summer school has started again and I am taking two hard classes. So I will be spending the next 5 weeks moping around, cursing my classes and studying. If I do procrastinate, I plan on blogging. But I really need to get my act together and study diligently if I need a nice starting salary.

Toodles for now.

In 2006 I did many significant actions that benefited my wallet: switched to cloth napkins (gladrags), tossed out the microwave (to prevent myself from buying and eating instant and packaged food, quitting my FT job when my expenses had been whittled down (the two of us can live on less than $1500 per month and not feel deprived) so I could focus on my college degree and graduate sooner rather than later, moved into a less expensive house, quit using the landline in favor of a pay as you go phone, learning to cook more from scratch, brown bagging breakfast, lunch and snacks etc. etc.

This year saving money has come in other forms. I became educated on food. I learned about the Food Bill, about organic food, about veganism and raw foodism, and tracked my money diligently enough to realize that I spend most of my money on 3 things: rent, food and debt.

I am looking forward to getting rid of my somewhat small debt so I can focus on saving more than I do now.

I purchased a clothing item from LL Bean this morning. Before I thought to check to see where the clothing item was manufactured. I had ordered a Polo shirt. I then contacted LL Bean asking:

Additionally, I would like to know which items that you sell are made/produced/handled outside the United States (excluding the U.S. islands). How will I be able to tell that by viewing your website?

They responded:

The Double L Polo is manufactured in Thailand and the fabric is from China. Unfortunately, you are not able to find the country of origin on our website at this time. You are however, welcome to call customer service at 800 -341 -4341 and we will be happy provide that information for you.

Flakey sounding post follows…

I spent this past weekend in Manhattan. It was nice. I visited the Financial District for the very first time. And I love it! I thought it would be crappy, but because the area is so old, its almost cute.

Now that I can tell the difference between a bull market and a bear market, I took a picture of the bull. I wonder why there is no bear statue….superstition?

I am also easily amused:

Finally I saw this:

The website is feedthepig.org

I was pleased to note that Accountants were behind this. From the website:

Money shouldn’t drive your future. But neither should debt. It’s time for you to take control. Get what you deserve. Not just today. Your whole life. Just remember: small changes add up. Take steps to start saving today and you’ll build a solid financial future tomorrow.

I am in my late 20s. Husband is in his early 30s. We plan on purchasing a house/permanent living space when I am in my mid to late 30s. Between now and then we plan on eliminating our debts (student loans) traveling and possibly living abroad and growing our savings and retirement accounts which at the moment is almost non-existent.

For the most part we have decided to live in NYC once we decide to settle down. We’re both fond of Queens, NY but we may find ourselves in Manhattan should we be able to afford to live and purchase property there.

As a future bean counter I have some unconventional ideas on investing, saving, and living. One of my plans prior to purchasing a house will be to become a building inspector so that I can do an initial inspection prior to purchasing our place. I also would like to know what I am paying for when I hire a building inspector.

But the main point of the post is not about my unconventional ideas. Its about FEMA maps.

At a previous job in another lifetime (prior to Hurricane Katrina), I became very familiar with FEMA flood maps. These maps depict areas that are prone to flooding. Since I dislike all natural disasters (as everyone should but I probably spend more time obsessing over them than anyone else), I am always thinking about them when thinking about living situations. For example, I will probably never (I say that because I’m always told to never say never, even though secretly I do because I know myself better than anyone else), move to the West Coast. Reason: the giant fault line. I am not crazy about earthquakes.

So in an attempt to educate myself further, I have been looking over New York’s flood maps at FEMA’s website. FEMA ID for NYC: 360497. You can zoom into the maps and see potential flooding areas and plan (like me) to avoid purchasing property in that area. So the non flooding areas will eventually play a role in the purchase of a house.

For me there is an even greater incentive to avoid living in a flooding zone: I can’t swim.

1. Gasoline. Average American usage is 500 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons PER PERSON, PER YEAR.
* No reduction in emissions for ethanol or biodiesel.
* Public transportation and Waste Veggie Oil Fuel are deemed to get 100 mpg, and should be calculated accordingly.

By the above calculation, I estimate I use 50.35 gallons per year using public transit + bus. This is based on working 5 days/week every single week of the year. Which I don’t do. I also don’t own a car, and walk or ride my bicycle everywhere.

2. Electricity. Average US usage is 11,000 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR, or about 900 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH. A 90% reduction would mean using 1,100 PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR or 90 kwh PER HOUSEHOLD PER MONTH

For the past two months I’ve had a roommate. Total in household: 3. Average of past two months = 231.5 kwH

3. Heating and Cooking Energy - this is divided into 3 categories, gas, wood and oil. Your household probably uses one of these, and they are not interchangeable. If you use an electric stove or electric heat, this goes under electric usage.

* Natural Gas (this is used by the vast majority of US households as heating and cooking fuel). For this purpose, Propane will be calculated as the same as natural gas. Calculations in therms should be available from your gas provider.
* US Average Natural Gas usage is 1000 therms PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR. A 90% reduction would mean a reduction to 100 therms PER HOUSEHOLD PER YEAR

Average from a previous apartment was about 4 therms/month which is 48/year. Not sure what it will be at our current place: a house. Also we use the oven more often than in the previous place because we got rid of our small toaster oven.

4. Garbage - the average American generates about 4.5 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean .45 lbs of garbage PER PERSON, PER DAY.

So this is nearly 1 lb for both me and my husband per day. That is about 7 lbs per week. I think our garbage really varies. Most of our garbage is packaging (I am not the best recycler in the world) and paper and prior to composting: food scraps which was the bulk of the weight. I would guess it was 7 lbs per week. I know they weighed less than our weights.

5. Water. The Average American uses 100 Gallons of water PER PERSON, PER DAY. A 90% reduction would mean 10 gallons PER PERSON, PER DAY.

This would be really goofy. Most places we’ve lived at had water included in the rent. I don’t know how people use 100 gallons per person per day, but I think we barely touch 5 gallons. I suppose I can ask my landlord for the bill on this.

6. Consumer Goods. The best metric I could find for this is using money. A Professor at Syracuse University calculates that as an average, every consumer dollar we spend puts .5 lbs of carbon into the atmosphere. This isn’t perfect, of course, but it averages out pretty well.

The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer goods, not including things like mortgage, health care, debt service, car payments, etc… Obviously, we recommend you minimize those things to the extent you can, but what we’re mostly talking about is things like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics, toiletries, paper goods, etc… A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR

We’ve never spent more than $500 on consumer goods per year. The most was in 2005 where I bought a bicycle for $800+, a computer I put together for about $1,000. Remaining years we average about $500. But I’ll shoot for $500.

7. Food. This was by far the hardest thing to come up with a simple metric for. Using food miles, or price gives what I believe is a radically inaccurate way of thinking about this. So here’s the best I can do. Food is divided into 3 categories.

Thus, if you purchase 20 food items in a week, you’d use 14 home or locally produced items, 5 bulk dry items, and only 1 processed or out of season thing.

I am now mostly vegan (occasionally eat cheese), and husband has cut down on the occasional meat as well. This has been good on our colons. We recently stopped buying juices. So our wet goods come in the form of soy milk/creamer. We eat alot of beans and drink alot of coffee. Have to figure out the numbers. I have never calculated that. I am not sure what to do about food when Farmer’s Market season if over…but this is something I need to get numbers on.

I’ve been reading a book entitled “The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an extrovert world” by Marti Olsen Laney. Its been almost life changing because I became aware of what it actually means to be an introvert. Why I am exhausted on Friday nights to go anywhere, why being around people exhausts me, etc.

But one thing that I read earlier today has stuck with me. I am a hard person to please. To elaborate further, I find it hard to motivate myself because I want very little. I am somewhat stingy with money on myself, so its hard to motivate myself with presents if it means spending money or getting stuff. I have been trying to figure out how to motivate myself to get things done and look forward to the reward. So far I have books from the library and the amount of time I will give myself to reward me for getting something done.

I had something significant and profound to write, but I can’t remember what that was. And I am not especially profound anyway…