Depending on how crazy our months were, we shaved anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 dollars off our credit card bill this month. Pretty fantastic. Our goal is to spend about 1,500 total on everything per month, so our 2,100 wasn't too bad.
It's almost embarrassing to even talk about, but we're big time overspenders. Wait, correct that. It's not "almost" embarrassing, it's straight up "wearing nothing but underwear in high school biology class dream" level of embarrassment going on here. At our worst, we were eating out almost every meal. And it's not like we were eating cheaply either. We didn't really go into the red (see what I did there with the color switch?) too much, so it was more of a paycheck to paycheck thing.
Turns out there's no big trick to saving money. You find your biggest monthly culprit and figure out how to either cut it or do it cheaper. Our biggest expense (by far) is on food, lunch especially, so I now take soup and self-packed chips, fruits, and veggies to work to eat. Dinner is more tricky, but Anya has developed all kinds of cost effective cooking techniques that stretch our food purchases out over the longest period of time. Maybe she can elaborate on it a little more in the comments.
So yeah. We'll see how far down we can get this sucker...
Friday, July 1, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
The F Word
Parker: Is "dudes" a bad word?
Anya: No, "dudes" is fine.
Parker: What about "fuck?"
Anya: Yes... Yes that is...
Turns out people were right and kids actually do soak up bad words like a fucking sponge.
I've always had a really conflicted attitude about cussing. Anytime there's an issue in which the value of something is based on society's judgment of said issue, I get a little angsty. Yes, I know all the arguments about cussing. "Cussing is what a lazy person does when they can't think of... ummm... recall(?) vocabulary words to use instead." It's kind a punk rock, rebellious detour your brain takes. Yeah you could say "What you did displeases me," or you could drop a "Fuck you, asshole" and get to the heart of the matter. Why be precise when you've got verbal napalm at your disposal?
Anya and I joke often about people who say "fuckin'" in place of "ummm" (or just plain old dead silence--how novel) when they're thinking of what else to say. So instead of "Let's...uhhh... go to the ... uhhh...(as their brain processes what they were going to say before they got distracted by SQUIRREL!!!!) store," it's "Let's...fuckinnnnn'.... go to the ... fuckinnnnn' store." It's as if the last syllable "n" is the new "uhhhh." This is the opposite of above. This isn't your brain's mini-rebellion taking over. In this instance, the "F" word has lost nearly all punch and is a bit of a flat tire. Whereas the example in the paragraph above is Iggy Pop on stage cutting himself up, this is more like hearing Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" used to sell Carnival cruises. Completely meaningless and devoid of gut punching qualities.
My dad used to really get on me for cussing when I was a kid. I remember one time a friend called me up and I didn't get to the phone in time. It went straight to our answering machine (remember those things? -- they had actual tape in them --file this in the "things our kids will never even know existed" bin). I picked up the phone not knowing that it had gone to voicemail and proceeded to fill up an entire tape's worth of me discussing this or that, probably about my brother, using every kind of cuss word known to man.
My dad was rightly pissed off when he got home and he really let me have it. But the thing that always bugged me about that whole situation was that I learned most of the "bad" language I heard from him. It's just something that he did. During a Cowboys game... During an Astros game... while driving. He didn't curse a lot, but he was like a great artist when he would. When he'd get pissed at something, it was like watching a Mamet play. You could even prepare yourself for it. The second you saw his teeth clench you knew it was time to get the popcorn. "This is going to be goooooood."
When he finally got to it, my dad made a good point which has stuck with me ever since; first off, to never, ever do it in certain social settings like church, business meetings, classroom settings, etc. And secondly, that you probably shouldn't do it at all, but that if you do, be aware that people around you will view you in a certain light because of it. All good points, yes. But I don't know that I ever looked down on my dad for anything that he's said or done during those moments. It just became something he did.
But then again, part of this is just a maturity issue. Despite it all, cussing is easy. It's by far the easiest road to take sometimes. But just because it's the easy road doesn't mean it's the right road to take. Everything I said above remains valid and sometimes it's good to let the verbal knife come out and get to it, but I think it's the unnecessary cussing that's the worst kind to do. Like did I really need to curse because I stepped on one of Parker's Lego blocks? Sometimes pain is pain and you gotta do what you gotta do, but sometimes you just gotta take a step back and evaluate whether what you're saying is really what you want to be saying. Is letting a "dammit" slip really going to get my dollar unstuck from the Coke machine?
Perhaps my dad's somewhere laughing at me now because this shit's come full circle. I try to carry myself a certain way and although cursing is not a big deal to me, I don't want someone to think negatively of me because they see me doing so, so when I'm not being a jackass in posts like this, I try to avoid doing it. But I hate that Parker's heard me saying stuff like that and that we're now having to do the curse word detox. I guess there's always time to set things right. I'll add it to the list...
Anya: No, "dudes" is fine.
Parker: What about "fuck?"
Anya: Yes... Yes that is...
Turns out people were right and kids actually do soak up bad words like a fucking sponge.
I've always had a really conflicted attitude about cussing. Anytime there's an issue in which the value of something is based on society's judgment of said issue, I get a little angsty. Yes, I know all the arguments about cussing. "Cussing is what a lazy person does when they can't think of... ummm... recall(?) vocabulary words to use instead." It's kind a punk rock, rebellious detour your brain takes. Yeah you could say "What you did displeases me," or you could drop a "Fuck you, asshole" and get to the heart of the matter. Why be precise when you've got verbal napalm at your disposal?
Anya and I joke often about people who say "fuckin'" in place of "ummm" (or just plain old dead silence--how novel) when they're thinking of what else to say. So instead of "Let's...uhhh... go to the ... uhhh...(as their brain processes what they were going to say before they got distracted by SQUIRREL!!!!) store," it's "Let's...fuckinnnnn'.... go to the ... fuckinnnnn' store." It's as if the last syllable "n" is the new "uhhhh." This is the opposite of above. This isn't your brain's mini-rebellion taking over. In this instance, the "F" word has lost nearly all punch and is a bit of a flat tire. Whereas the example in the paragraph above is Iggy Pop on stage cutting himself up, this is more like hearing Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" used to sell Carnival cruises. Completely meaningless and devoid of gut punching qualities.
My dad used to really get on me for cussing when I was a kid. I remember one time a friend called me up and I didn't get to the phone in time. It went straight to our answering machine (remember those things? -- they had actual tape in them --file this in the "things our kids will never even know existed" bin). I picked up the phone not knowing that it had gone to voicemail and proceeded to fill up an entire tape's worth of me discussing this or that, probably about my brother, using every kind of cuss word known to man.
My dad was rightly pissed off when he got home and he really let me have it. But the thing that always bugged me about that whole situation was that I learned most of the "bad" language I heard from him. It's just something that he did. During a Cowboys game... During an Astros game... while driving. He didn't curse a lot, but he was like a great artist when he would. When he'd get pissed at something, it was like watching a Mamet play. You could even prepare yourself for it. The second you saw his teeth clench you knew it was time to get the popcorn. "This is going to be goooooood."
When he finally got to it, my dad made a good point which has stuck with me ever since; first off, to never, ever do it in certain social settings like church, business meetings, classroom settings, etc. And secondly, that you probably shouldn't do it at all, but that if you do, be aware that people around you will view you in a certain light because of it. All good points, yes. But I don't know that I ever looked down on my dad for anything that he's said or done during those moments. It just became something he did.
But then again, part of this is just a maturity issue. Despite it all, cussing is easy. It's by far the easiest road to take sometimes. But just because it's the easy road doesn't mean it's the right road to take. Everything I said above remains valid and sometimes it's good to let the verbal knife come out and get to it, but I think it's the unnecessary cussing that's the worst kind to do. Like did I really need to curse because I stepped on one of Parker's Lego blocks? Sometimes pain is pain and you gotta do what you gotta do, but sometimes you just gotta take a step back and evaluate whether what you're saying is really what you want to be saying. Is letting a "dammit" slip really going to get my dollar unstuck from the Coke machine?
Perhaps my dad's somewhere laughing at me now because this shit's come full circle. I try to carry myself a certain way and although cursing is not a big deal to me, I don't want someone to think negatively of me because they see me doing so, so when I'm not being a jackass in posts like this, I try to avoid doing it. But I hate that Parker's heard me saying stuff like that and that we're now having to do the curse word detox. I guess there's always time to set things right. I'll add it to the list...
Why I Left the GSC (continued): When Your Job Breaks Up With You
Just wanted to close out my remarks by saying that the whole process had been really stressful on Anya and me.
Being asked to leave a position that you thought you were doing a good job at is very emotionally wrenching. It kind of throws into question just how good a job you were actually doing. For someone susceptible to self-doubt, this was not exactly a welcomed experience.
It certainly made going into work every day a gut punching experience. On the one hand, it was hard going into work knowing that the people I met there and who I saw everyday were going to largely be people that I rarely, if ever, saw again, but it was also hard going in knowing that my work wasn't of a standard that warranted me being asked to continue on there. I don't want to make too much a big deal out of it, but it was a daily exercise in sucking-it-up and getting through.
But on top of it all, it was very stressful knowing that I was on the verge of being unemployed in a market where thousands of Texans were also unemployed and looking for work. Hearing stories of people who are unemployed for numerous months are common. My counselor once talked about employment as one of the big issues with a lot of his clients and how some of his clients are highly qualified yet unemployed people.
Anya getting word from her grad program that they were possibly letting go only made matters worse. Now we not only had the specter of one person being unemployed come September, we had two.
It wasn't until I went out for my first interview that I started to feel confident that I'd find something. I applied for a well paying admin job for another university department. I went in for three total interviews. Although I didn't get the job, I knew I was close. It was then that a lot of my stress was relieved. I thought, okay, well, it would suck not being employed in September, I came very close to getting a good paying job here on campus...let's see how I do with other jobs.
Each interview I went on only boostered my confidence. It wasn't long until the self-doubt and stress of not being employed turn into a kind of sadness that things were actually drawing to a close at the GSC. There were events and programs that I'd go to where I'd think, "well, this is the last time I'll probably do this." Or if I spoke to someone who came in pretty often, I'd think, "I wonder if this is going to be the last time I see this person."
I've jokingly said that leaving the GSC felt a lot like being broken up with. In my eyes, the GSC was a good job and I was doing a good job. Yet there must have been something there that wasn't a good fit. I guess to close out the break up analogy, the GSC kept the kids and I have a new place on the other side of town.
This is probably the last you'll hear from me on the subject. It's time to move on and meet the new neighbors. I'm enjoying my job more and more by the day.
Being asked to leave a position that you thought you were doing a good job at is very emotionally wrenching. It kind of throws into question just how good a job you were actually doing. For someone susceptible to self-doubt, this was not exactly a welcomed experience.
It certainly made going into work every day a gut punching experience. On the one hand, it was hard going into work knowing that the people I met there and who I saw everyday were going to largely be people that I rarely, if ever, saw again, but it was also hard going in knowing that my work wasn't of a standard that warranted me being asked to continue on there. I don't want to make too much a big deal out of it, but it was a daily exercise in sucking-it-up and getting through.
But on top of it all, it was very stressful knowing that I was on the verge of being unemployed in a market where thousands of Texans were also unemployed and looking for work. Hearing stories of people who are unemployed for numerous months are common. My counselor once talked about employment as one of the big issues with a lot of his clients and how some of his clients are highly qualified yet unemployed people.
Anya getting word from her grad program that they were possibly letting go only made matters worse. Now we not only had the specter of one person being unemployed come September, we had two.
It wasn't until I went out for my first interview that I started to feel confident that I'd find something. I applied for a well paying admin job for another university department. I went in for three total interviews. Although I didn't get the job, I knew I was close. It was then that a lot of my stress was relieved. I thought, okay, well, it would suck not being employed in September, I came very close to getting a good paying job here on campus...let's see how I do with other jobs.
Each interview I went on only boostered my confidence. It wasn't long until the self-doubt and stress of not being employed turn into a kind of sadness that things were actually drawing to a close at the GSC. There were events and programs that I'd go to where I'd think, "well, this is the last time I'll probably do this." Or if I spoke to someone who came in pretty often, I'd think, "I wonder if this is going to be the last time I see this person."
I've jokingly said that leaving the GSC felt a lot like being broken up with. In my eyes, the GSC was a good job and I was doing a good job. Yet there must have been something there that wasn't a good fit. I guess to close out the break up analogy, the GSC kept the kids and I have a new place on the other side of town.
This is probably the last you'll hear from me on the subject. It's time to move on and meet the new neighbors. I'm enjoying my job more and more by the day.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Why I Left the GSC
I've had a lot of people ask why I left my position at the GSC, so I thought I'd take a quick moment to explain what happened.
Last December, my boss Ixchel told me that starting in September 2011, my position would be reorganized into a Program Coordinator position that would be filled sometime in summer '11. While I was bummed that my position was going away, I was grateful that I was given such a huge window of time to find new employment.
I initially saw it as an opportunity to look into teaching, which is my longterm goal. But a few obstacles came into sight. The first being that teachers all over the state are being laid off en masse, so I didn't see this as a great omen for my job prospects. But also, my wife has been having issues with her grad program which made her employment with UT for 11/12 iffy, so I figured I should definitely find a job somewhere on the UT campus so that my daughter could continue in her daycare and my son could join her in August. The last thing I'd want would be for September to roll around and both my wife and I be out of a job and out of daycare.
Sometime in the beginning of the summer, the Multicultural Engagement Center lost their Administrative Associate. Since the MEC and the GSC are both housed in the Student Activity Center and work together fairly often, there was a possibility that I was going to get to lat move to the MEC and be the administrative associate for the GSC and MEC.
So my job search essentially began in late January and continued through the Spring in early Summer. In that time, I was offered a position as the Travel Coordinator with the School of Architecture. While my first choice would have been to continue on as the Administrative Associate with the GSC/MEC, I had to jump at a guarantee. So here I am...
I'm enjoying my position so far in the School of Architecture. The people are all very nice and I look forward to getting to know them more as I become more proficient at my job. I've always hated change, but I feel like I'm adapting pretty well. It's hard going from a place where I was comfortable and knowledgeable about everything that was going on to a place where I hardly know anyone's name and where I've had to kind of start over with what I know, but I feel better by the day.
more later... work time.
Last December, my boss Ixchel told me that starting in September 2011, my position would be reorganized into a Program Coordinator position that would be filled sometime in summer '11. While I was bummed that my position was going away, I was grateful that I was given such a huge window of time to find new employment.
I initially saw it as an opportunity to look into teaching, which is my longterm goal. But a few obstacles came into sight. The first being that teachers all over the state are being laid off en masse, so I didn't see this as a great omen for my job prospects. But also, my wife has been having issues with her grad program which made her employment with UT for 11/12 iffy, so I figured I should definitely find a job somewhere on the UT campus so that my daughter could continue in her daycare and my son could join her in August. The last thing I'd want would be for September to roll around and both my wife and I be out of a job and out of daycare.
Sometime in the beginning of the summer, the Multicultural Engagement Center lost their Administrative Associate. Since the MEC and the GSC are both housed in the Student Activity Center and work together fairly often, there was a possibility that I was going to get to lat move to the MEC and be the administrative associate for the GSC and MEC.
So my job search essentially began in late January and continued through the Spring in early Summer. In that time, I was offered a position as the Travel Coordinator with the School of Architecture. While my first choice would have been to continue on as the Administrative Associate with the GSC/MEC, I had to jump at a guarantee. So here I am...
I'm enjoying my position so far in the School of Architecture. The people are all very nice and I look forward to getting to know them more as I become more proficient at my job. I've always hated change, but I feel like I'm adapting pretty well. It's hard going from a place where I was comfortable and knowledgeable about everything that was going on to a place where I hardly know anyone's name and where I've had to kind of start over with what I know, but I feel better by the day.
more later... work time.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)