Posted 06/24/10
from → Finance
Posted 06/12/10
from → Finance
Posted 04/13/10
from → Finance
January 14, 2010 HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX Merchandise $52.34 January 14, 2010 PAYMENT PROTECTION 1-888-527-6904 Other $39.33 January 11, 2010 SAVERS 1094 AUSTIN TX Merchandise $14.83 January 11, 2010 BREAD BASKET Q80 AUSTIN TX Merchandise $34.61 January 11, 2010 SUGAR MAMA'S BAKESHOP AUSTIN TX Merchandise $36.00 January 11, 2010 HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX Merchandise $19.75 January 09, 2010 HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX Merchandise $5.89 January 09, 2010 THE BRIXTON AUSTIN TX Dining $20.50
| 01/15/2010 | Debit Card Transaction | BREAD BASKET Q80 A 01/14BREAD BAS | $34.61 | $745.57 | |
| 01/14/2010 | ACH Debit | DLSS EDA PAD STUDNTLOAN PPD ID: 9102000601 | $147.03 | $780.18 | |
| 01/14/2010 | Account Transfer | Online Transfer to MMA XXXXXX6466 transaction#: 305517566 | $160.00 | $927.21 | |
| 01/12/2010 | ATM Transaction | ATM CHECK DEPOSIT | $857.50 | $1,087.21 |
Posted 01/16/10
from → Finance
revisiting the presentation of our underwater content for the nth time, i no longer expect this time to be the change that makes the conversions flow.
presently, a page containing links to stills and paypal buttons to purchase underwater videos lives here: http://thepopularpodcast.com/?p=2227
its not been touched since we adopted our current theme. we both forgot about it.
until one lovely patron purchased two videos while we were parked in a gas station parking lot, on our way to FL. that was enough motivation to give it another shot. we know the videos can sell, we just haven't presented them in a way that has successfully converted over and over.
notable changes:
- will be hosted on own domain. not on TPP where it doesn't belong, and not on a non-sensical domain like putamadres.com. it makes it nearly impossible for anyone searching to find the content.
- large video previews
- single page site, no CMS. single page sites are the new black.
Posted 01/16/10
from → Finance
Capital One
| January 07, 2010 | HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $13.91 |
| January 07, 2010 | WHOLEFDS LMR 10145 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $25.65 |
| January 06, 2010 | JCPENNEY STORE 2040 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $21.64 |
| January 05, 2010 | WAL-MART #1253 AUSTIN(S) TX | Merchandise | $81.09 |
| January 04, 2010 | SHELL OIL 575295376QPS QUINCY FL | Gas/Automotive | $24.98 |
| January 04, 2010 | SHELL OIL 57543843700 GRAND BAY AL | Gas/Automotive | $6.20 |
| January 04, 2010 | SHELL OIL 57543701908 OCOEE FL | Gas/Automotive | $26.98 |
| January 04, 2010 | E-Z MART Q39 OCALA FL | Gas/Automotive | $15.11 |
| January 04, 2010 | KANGAROO EXPRESS 13Q90 GAINESVILLE FL | Gas/Automotive | $2.12 |
| January 02, 2010 | WINN-DIXIE #2333 QPS PALM BAY FL | Merchandise | $68.01 |
| January 02, 2010 | BEST WESTERN PANHANDLE MIDWAY FL | Lodging | $76.64 |
| January 02, 2010 | COCOA BEACH PIER COCOA BEACH FL | Dining | $49.52 |
| January 02, 2010 | WINN-DIXIE-LIQUOR #235 PALM BAY FL | Merchandise | $12.71 |
| January 02, 2010 | PILOT 00004QPS MIDWAY FL | Gas/Automotive | $2.00 |
| January 02, 2010 | PILOT 00004259 MIDWAY FL | Gas/Automotive | $14.02 |
| January 02, 2010 | SHELL OIL 575288302QPS COCOA FL | Gas/Automotive | $21.18 |
| December 31, 2009 | SHELL OIL 575423107QPS ELLINGER TX | Gas/Automotive | $3.38 |
| December 31, 2009 | TEXACO 0309192 BATON ROUGE LA | Gas/Automotive | $17.67 |
| December 31, 2009 | TEXACO 0309192 Q61 BATON ROUGE LA | Gas/Automotive | $1.95 |
| December 31, 2009 | EXXONMOBIL 97418859 LAKE PANASOFF FL | Gas/Automotive | $17.84 |
| December 31, 2009 | WM SUPERCENTER PALM BAY FL | Merchandise | $38.29 |
| December 31, 2009 | STORE #1070 QPS MILTON FL | Gas/Automotive | $18.74 |
| December 30, 2009 | EXXONMOBIL 47616313 AUSTIN TX | Gas/Automotive | $22.62 |
| December 30, 2009 | EXXONMOBIL 47792379 CHANNELVIEW TX | Gas/Automotive | $12.29 |
I put the entire trip to FL on this card, looks like it only ended up costing me around $350. I'm rounding up to account for some groceries and a meal that i didn't split with jess, in addition to a couple gas tabs she paid. That is pretty cheap for an awesome trip! B00t!
For this week, I bought some running pants at JCPenney, but i'm counting my xmas gift money as paying for that :)
We ate at WF, which was 9.00, so that's 4.50 in incidental. The rest of WF was food and HEB was carpet cleaner and a can of garbanzo beans. I guess I could count $6 toward incidental for that.
That's 10.50 / 40 so far this week. Gonna spend some $ today on cupcakes and drinks for a little get-together we're having. I better not spend more than $25....
Chase
| 01/06/2010 | ACH Debit | TIME WARNER CABL CABLE BILL PPD ID: 9126650001 | $56.37 | $229.71 | |
| 01/05/2010 | Debit Card Transaction | GRC CINCINNATI OH 01/04GRC CINCI | $88.30 | $286.08 | |
| 12/31/2009 | ACH Debit | HSBC RS Online Pmt 000000519921132 WEB ID: 1000000077 | $25.00 | $374.38 | |
| 12/28/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | ATTM *232013597061 08003 12/24ATTM *232 | $85.12 | $399.38 |
Bills, bills, bills. the only thing i've been paying with cash lately. work is picking up, though, so hopefully i'll be able to start using real money again. :/ My goal for this week is to not use my credit card and get back to being diligent about consuming in moderation. the holidays really have a way of throwing one off track.
oh yeah, and make more money.
Posted 01/09/10
from → Finance
my, how over 2 weeks can slip by.
and how much money can be spent in that time. i bought so much shit recently, its sick. thanks capital one for increasing my limit, you got what you wanted. i bought a bunch of shit because i could and ran up my limit. that limit increase really came at a perfect time because i'm pretty much broke right now. i'm definitely putting this road trip on the card. then my goal is to get my shit together when we get back from florida. because i'm going to have to, because that card will be close to full again.
i disgust myself. i have dreaded writing this post for that very reason. i started thinking about irresponsible spending as a parallel to overeating. my goal in 2010 is to conquer my finances in the same way i feel like we are conquering food. i need to take control and exercise moderation.
i also need to make more money. maybe i'll have some ideas for that in my next update. ok here we go...
Chase
| 12/22/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | AGI*RENTER INS EXCEE 800 12/21AGI*RENTE | $21.20 | $484.50 | |
| 12/21/2009 | ACH Debit | BLUE CROSS BLUE INS. PREM PPD ID: 1361236610 | $43.00 | $505.70 | |
| 12/18/2009 | ACH Debit | CAPITAL ONE ONLINE PMT 935139910081057 WEB ID: 9279744991 | $50.00 | $548.70 | |
| 12/16/2009 | Account Transfer | Online Transfer to MMA XXXXXX6466 transaction#: 292989755 | $60.00 | $598.70 | |
| 12/15/2009 | ATM Transaction | ATM CHECK DEPOSIT | $595.00 | $658.70 | |
| 12/14/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | STARBUCKS USA 00086QPS A 12/11STARBUCKS | $4.22 | $63.70 | |
| 12/14/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | SHERLOCK'S AUSTIN, AUSTI 12/12SHERLOCK' | $10.00 | $67.92 | |
| 12/14/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | J AND J LIQUOR AUSTIN TX 12/12J AND J L | $17.45 | $77.92 | |
| 12/14/2009 | ACH Debit | DLSS EDA PAD STUDNTLOAN PPD ID: 9102000601 | $147.03 | $95.37 |
i decided to leave the amounts on there. what the hell does it matter anyway? the worst that could happen is someone will see how poor i am and feel sorry for me and send me money. right? maybe it will keep me more accountable and motivate me to make more money.
looks like about $16 in incidentals since my last update 12.11. not bad, eh? didn't us this card much. wait till you see this next bullshit.
Capital One
| December 28, 2009 | WAL-MART #1253 AUSTIN(S) TX | Merchandise | $112.20 |
| December 28, 2009 | WHOLEFDS LMR 10145 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $25.69 |
| December 24, 2009 | RAIN ON 4TH AUSTIN TX | Dining | $20.00 |
| December 24, 2009 | ALAMO DRAFTHOU00000869 AUSTIN TX | Dining | $32.00 |
| December 24, 2009 | WAL-MART #1253 AUSTIN(S) TX | Merchandise | $82.53 |
| December 23, 2009 | DISCOUNT ELECTRONICS AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $325.83 |
| December 23, 2009 | J AND J LIQUOR AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $12.99 |
| December 23, 2009 | BREAD BASKET Q80 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $8.65 |
| December 22, 2009 | WISH (GUADALUPE) AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $80.08 |
| December 21, 2009 | HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $59.71 |
| December 21, 2009 | TEXACO 0303741 MARBLE FALLS TX | Gas/Automotive | $25.98 |
| December 21, 2009 | BREAD BASKET Q80 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $11.90 |
| December 21, 2009 | CHINATOWN MIDTOWN CHIN AUSTIN TX | Dining | $17.00 |
| December 21, 2009 | WAL-MART #0781 MARBLE FALLS TX | Merchandise | $61.93 |
| December 19, 2009 | RUNTEX -CENTRAL AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $211.08 |
| December 17, 2009 | CAPITAL ONE ONLINE PYMT AuthDate 16-DEC | Other | ($50.00) |
| December 17, 2009 | HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $47.64 |
| December 14, 2009 | F21 -#790 AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $35.50 |
| December 14, 2009 | PAYMENT PROTECTION 1-888-527-6904 | Other | $20.45 |
| December 12, 2009 | WAL-MART #1253 AUSTIN(S) TX | Merchandise | $202.13 |
most of my expenses since the last update went on this card. what's sad is that most of it i could live without. i'll be paying this shit off for awhile ;_:
i'm super tired, but i'm doing this update before i leave for my trip so i can at least have comfort in knowing that i know the status of my finances, however dire. my spending got out of control recently, and evaluating those purchases is a great way to remind myself to not spend what i dont have.
Posted 12/29/09
from → Finance
Current Incidental Budget: 55.24
Chase
12/09/2009 |
Debit Card Transaction | 6 STREET COOL STORE AUST 12/086 STREET | $4.31 | ||
| 12/07/2009 | ACH Debit | TIME WARNER CABL CABLE BILL PPD ID: 9126650001 | $52.04 | ||
| 12/02/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | J AND J LIQUOR AUSTIN TX 12/01J AND J L | $13.99 | ||
| 12/02/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | GRC CINCINNATI OH 12/01GRC CINCI | $88.30 |
GRC is my uofi bill that i'm finally paying after 2yrs. yes, they had 2 come after me. only 2 more payments of that i think. here's 2 being forced to pay off debt.
J&J is a handle of skol vodka. this is not frivolous because it is a lot cheaper than going out and drinking at bars. so $7/week on booze is a steal. and v. necessary.
Time Warner cable bill
6 st. is incense. not necessary. deduct 2.16
55.24 - 2.16 = 53.08
Capital One
| December 09, 2009 | ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEM AUSTIN TX | Entertainment | $15.50 |
| December 09, 2009 | UNIVERSITY CYCLERY AUSTIN TX | Merchandise | $8.24 |
| December 08, 2009 | ALAMO SOUTH LA00000851 AUSTIN TX | Dining | $69.43 |
| December 08, 2009 | SUNSTONE YOGA AUSTIN TX | Other | $10.00 |
| December 05, 2009 | MURPHY7209ATWALMRT AUSTIN TX | Gas/Automotive | $21.44 |
| December 05, 2009 | WAL-MART #1253 AUSTIN(S) TX | Merchandise | $90.11 |
| December 03, 2009 | JIMMYJANE, INC. 04158643474 CA | Merchandise | $160.00 |
rut roh.
i told u this larger balance on this credit card was going 2 get out of control. here we go...
jimmy jane is two new vibrators- jessica's and my xmas gifts to each other. they are nice. its nice to mix things up. probably wouldn't have purchased if it weren't for the credit though. part of it is that i owe jessica money and am trying to pay her back by paying for shit on my credit card. it sucks.
wal mart groceries. 90 is not bad. we went again today and spent 200. hopefully that will last us awhile. i think i want to do something with grocery budget for my next financial goal.
murphy gas
sunstone they were supposed to charge me twice but it seems like they only charged me once. weird. should subtract this.
53.08 - 10.00 = 43.08
alamo yikes, one of our addictions! this was to celebrate jessica being done slash avoiding stress that she still had a paper to finish. this is the only time we ate out in over a week, so i am going to allow some for that. however, it is an extravagant expense, and i said i would wait until my month was over to go to the drafthouse. i blatantly ignored that pledge. the total was about 86, so i think fifty is fair for a nice dinner and drinks. that is only $25/person for a nice date once a week. that is not frivolous. that leaves 36 left over in extra spending, or $18.
43.08 - 18.00 = 25.08
university cylclery is bike repairs. i paid for jessica since i owe her
Wells Fargo
| 12/01/09 | BILL PAY SERVICE FEE ON 12-01 | $6.95 |
This is from our joint checking acct. $7 for a bill that was only $24????????? we need to do something about this!
Cash
We spent $30 at the strip club on lap dances.
25.08 - 15.00 = 10.08
Conclusions
So, after giving myself a little wiggle room, i came out with $10 to spare. I keep feeling like i rationalized too many expenses, but looking back, most of them seem to make sense.
I had only had one occasion of eating out in each week(in the case of this week, almost two). We bought wine, but i charged myself for some, and the other was for a special occasion. like i said before, we drink the cheapest shit possible, so i am not going to feel guilty about that. i would rather be poor than sober every single day.
i feel guilty about the jimmyjane purchase, but 'tis the season.
i think i may have spent a little too much on replacing my fan, but i am glad to have the money to do it right and hopefully not have to replace it again.
the sao paulo and alamo expenses were extreme, but not considering it was our one night out a week. i even charged my budget for the amounts i felt were 'over the top'.
What's Next
moving forward, i think it will be more helpful for me to figure out what i actually spend on entertainment, or items that are not absolute necessities like food, etc. eating out is not absolutely necessary, but i see it as an important part of my life, so i need to budget for it.
all of my expenses from the last month that are not necessary for survival: $159.92
that is not including the newegg and jimmyjane. new egg would go into 'unexpected' and jimmyjane would go into...'xmas'? however, $40/week is what i was estimating after evaluating everything! i think i am making progress in figuring out how i spend my money!
i'm going to mull this over over the weekend and try to come up with a new financial lifestream goal. i think it should be something with extending my budget to other aspects (namely, groceries), and evaluating my expenses vs. income. i would also like to stick to the $40/week for entertainment / incidental expenses.
Posted 12/11/09
from → Finance
Thoughts from last week's post
I originally planned to give myself back some money in my budget for the east side pies we had last weekend. then i read through last weeks post and saw that i had written unnecessary in all caps. why did i feel so strongly about it then? was it because i was still food-hungover or because i regretted the expense? as i thought about it this week (trying to make my $100 budget work), i realized that was the only time we had eaten out that week. it was one meal that we didn't cook for an entire week. that is not frivolous. that's actually pretty impressive. so i am going to give myself back $12.
55.74+12 = 67.74
Unfortunate Events
Before i began this financial documentation, jessica and i purchased a new power adapter for her old powerbook and a new apple airport as ours was malfunctioning. the total of my half of these costs was $75 :/ we have since found out the powerbook needs a new logic drive and the airport was not working properly so we are using our old one again and it works fine. we are not sure about returning the power cord (to macworks) and we missed the return date for the airport. so thats $75 for nothing. not sure what else to say about it except that is aggravating. what lessons do we stand to learn from this? i'm wondering if there is still something we can do about the airport (sell it on ebay? use it as a repeater?). maybe dudes at macworks will still let us return the power cord.
So now we have to decide what to do about a new computer. Jessica feels very strongly that we need a backup computer. I think i agree. i'm not totally convinced, but we both use our computers for work, and it would cause serious problems if either of us were ever without a machine for an extended period of time. especially when both of our machines have been on the fritz lately. i think we've settled on buying a cheap pc that we can possibly also use as a media server and editing machine. the cost to fix the powerbook is $400 so we're looking to spend about that on a new machine. i see that as a totally justifiable expense, especially if it could help the TPP workflow.
Good Decisions
We've decided to take up running. A huge motivator for that, outside of being able to eat more, is the self-tracking. We went from never running in our lives, to deciding to take it up, to being convinced that we needed to purchase some sort of 'device' to self track in all of, oh, 45mins. We wanted to buy they fitbits on black friday! we thought on it though, and realized we don't need it. we are using an iPhone ap that does basically all the same things and it is free!
Capital One Card| November 28, 2009 | WWW.NEWEGG.COM 800-390-1119 CA | Merchandise | $119.99 |
| November 27, 2009 | WAL-MART #0781 MARBLE FALLS TX | Merchandise | $114.36 |
| November 27, 2009 | PAYMENT PROTECTION BENEFIT PAYMENT | Other | ($34.67) |
I forgot to tell you last week that my limit on my credit card was increased. i have two CCs, one is a best buy card that i used to buy my computer two years ago and the other is a capital one card that i got before i moved to texas in case of emergency. The best buy card is almost all the way paid off (i would have paid it off, but i used it to purchase my iPhone a couple months ago). The capital one card was sitting pretty close to its limit for awhile, but i had been paying over the minimum payment and incrementally working it down. When I logged in a couple weeks ago, I saw they had increased the limit. This is cool, but it also sucks. Its nice to have that padding in case i really need it, but all it does is burn a hole in my pocket! i feel i am going to have to work hard to not blow the 'money'.
As you can see, I have already charged over $300 on the card since finding this out. Work is slow, so i was thankful to be able to charge the groceries (wal-mart). The new egg purchase is for a new power source for my PC. I went with the most expensive one because i wanted to make sure it lasts. i probably would not have done this if i didn't have the extra credit, but it will probably save me money (and stress/time) in the future to not have to deal with it again.
Obviously neither of those charges is frivolous ;)
I did save myself $26 by calling capital one to request my payment assistance service be stopped. they charge you a percentage of your balance each month for a service that takes over your payments for you if you can't make them. i figured it was time to let this go since they were charging me $12/mo for it. when i called to cancel, customer service mentioned that part of the service was that they could make your minimum payment for you once per year. so instead of cancelling the service, i had them pay my bill. so i really only saved $14. the lady also told me that i can call next month and have them pay january's bill as well since it will be a new year. so i will save another $14 and then cancel the service. that's pretty good, i guess.
Chase Checking
| Pending | ACH Debit | PAYPAL INST XFER WEB 46R223YAJ9ASA  | $1.00 | ||
| 11/27/2009 | ATM Transaction | NON-CHASE ATM WITHDRAW 004596 11/252701 E 7T | $42.50 | ||
| 11/25/2009 | ACH Debit | HSBC RS Online Pmt 000000509029645 WEB ID: 1000000077 | $50.00 | ||
| 11/25/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | SAO PAULO S AUSTIN TX 11/23SAO PAULO | $72.28 | ||
| 11/25/2009 | Debit Card Transaction | ATTM *232013597061 08003 11/24ATTM *232 | $85.12 | ||
| 11/24/2009 | ACH Debit | CAPITAL ONE ONLINE PMT 932739910266441 WEB ID: 9279744991 | $50.00 | ||
| 11/23/2009 | Account Transfer | Online Transfer to MMA XXXXXX6466 transaction#: 282568773 | $50.00 | ||
| 11/23/2009 | Account Transfer | Online Transfer 282556257 to wells fargo ######2358 transaction #: 282556257 | $150.00 | ||
*blank rows indicate deposits or repeated transactions that were pending last week
transfer to wells fargo is our joint account. we are working on being able to pay all of our bills from this account
other transfer is to savings(!). i have not put anything into savings in ages, so im making a conscious effort to contribute even small amounts from each check. it really adds up quick when i just contribute little by little.
capital one credited my account so it ended up only being the 34.67 from above
ATT is $20 more than verizon bill. i guess its worth it, but still seems steep
Sao Paulo with sharon im having a hard time with this one. paying for sharon's meal was definitely not frivolous because she has been so generous to us in the past. ok so im gonna guess $18 for meal, one drink, and tip. That leaves 54.28 that jessica and i consumed n mostly drinks. i'll subtract $6 for food since all we had was a couple sides. so then we split 48.28 in drinks. my share is 24.14. i can justify dinner and drinks with a friend / colleague, but i think i spent a little too much on drinks (had like 4). i'm going to deduct $10 from my budget for excess drinks and give myself the rest.
67.74 - 10 = 57.74
HSBC is my best buy card
the 11.27 atm withdraw is for cabs to joy's. we had $15 left over so that means the cabs combined were $25. split between jessica and i that's $12.50. i am torn on what to do about this. it is not a typical expense, but it is better than driving and cheaper than a DUI. jessica mentioned i should have a budget for 'emergency expenses' such as this, which i explained is what my 'incidental budget' is supposed to be for. so that would stand to reason that i should subtract it from my budget right? i think what i have to learn from this instance is that even though your budget seems like a lot in the beginning of the month, you never know what is going to pop-up. i realize now i shouldn't have spent the money in the beginning just because i didn't have any incidental charges that week. i should have saved that money for this instance. so i am going to begrudgingly subtract the $12.50 from my budget.
57.74 - 12.5 = 55.24
paypal charge is me testing a button
wells fargo joint checking
| 11/27/09 | CHECK CRD PURCHASE 11/25 HEB GROCERY #465 AUSTIN TX 486830XXXXXX3907 331940000404436 ?MCC=5411 111900659DA90 | $52.76 | |
| 11/25/09 | JPMorgan Chase Ext Trnsfr Nov 25 XXXXX6257 KELLY CREE | $150.00 | |
| 11/24/09 | BILL PAY TEXAS GAS SERVIC ON-LINE xxxxxxxxxxxxxx7309 ON 11-24 | $21.78 | |
| 11/24/09 | PAYPAL TRANSFER 091124 4XHJ23XYRRKUU JESSICA MULLEN DESIGN | $82.43 |
these are a couple shared charges from our wells fargo account. paypal deposit is podcast money, w00t!
gas bill, duh
the HEB charge is for misc. Thanksgiving charges. we bought a pie and whipped cream to bring to joy's. that's justified because they made us dinner. we also bought chocolates to bring to the mullen's on TG. justified. then we bought about $33 worth of wine. is this justified?? i really don't see it as frivolous to drink wine on the holidays with family. how could one do it without wine? plus we drink the cheapest shit possible. i'm going to give myself this one.
Things to deal with
- Verizon - pretty sure those sick fucks are still charging me! need to call them and deal with this
Posted 11/30/09
from → Finance
