Being frugal has turned me into a Sports Fan May 8, 2008

No, seriously – it kind of has.

I’ve never been the sporty sort of girl. I was on the swim team in high school, solely for the fact that I could hang out with my friends and still legitimately put a sport on my college applications. Despite living in New England, I’ve never been one to buy into the whole sports mania that consumes everyone here. Its just not my thing – I’m a girly girl. I also don’t have any brothers, or any sort of close male friend of a child, nor is my Father a huge sports fan. It just wasn’t my world.

Since getting serious about cutting down on my spending habits, though, I’m finding that at least a night or two of the week, a perfectly acceptable activity is to hang out with BF at his parents house, watching a Red Sox game. My pseudo-fandom started last fall, when they won the World Series, and we watched every game (mostly from a bar, where huge amounts of money on drinks was spent). Really, though – its not a bad way to spend an evening, and I’m even starting to find it sort of enjoyable.

You are never going to catch me in a pink Red Sox shirt, though – even I have my limits!

Frugal or Tacky? April 28, 2008

So, yes – my posting frequency has fallen off a bit in the past week. I blame it on the fact that my boss threw 2 fairly major projects in my lap early last week, and told me to have them both ready for a meeting on Friday afternoon. This managed to screw with both my free time at work and my ability to actually leave the office at a normal hour – I only made it to the gym with L. on Monday. Also, I ended up having to cancel on the Red Sox game BF and I had tickets for Thursday afternoon – he brought his friend instead, so at least they weren’t a total waste.

In any case – I’ve been musing over something that I had a disagreement with my mother over this weekend. See, I’ve got a fair amount of extended family, and, well – we don’t really get along at all. We suffer each other’s presence a few times a year at family holidays and parties, but it is increasingly unpleasant and ugly. After a rather horrific scene at a graduation party last May, both my sister and I have made the decision to largely opt-out of the family gatherings. There are a few cousins that we don’t have particularly ill feelings towards, but they don’t make up for the general level of vitriol and hatred that goes on at a family gathering.

That being said – one my my cousin’s is getting married next month. She’s actually doing the destination wedding thing, then having a reception back home a few weeks later for everyone else that couldn’t be there. Now, none of the extended family except my grandmother were even given the option of attending the destination, which has already caused a few hurt feelings. This weekend, I found out from my mother that they received the invitation to the reception – it was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. X, and family. Now – I am 30 years old, and my younger sister is 26 years old. My sister does live in my parents house, still, but I haven’t lived there for almost 6 years. I told my mother that I thought it was hopelessly rude and tacky to expect that to suffice as an actual invitation for me, particularly as I am in a serious relationship (and all relatives have met BF), and, in addition to not being invited myself, I’m not allowed to bring a date? Really? My mother thinks I shouldn’t add this to the stack of rude and nasty things my family has done, and just chalk it up to a money saving exercise. Sure, I guess – but I won’t be attending.

Is it possible to be both social and frugal? April 16, 2008

As I’ve mentioned, one of the biggest obstacles to me actually saving money and paying down my debt and getting ahead in the world is my rather active social life. I’ve got a pretty amazing group of friends who like to go out and have a good time – and who often seem to be willing to do it Thursday, Friday and Saturday every week. For a while, BF and I were just going along with the flow of what others wanted to do, and really not helping our own financial situations in the process. But, we’ve put our (collective) feet down, and decided that we just can’t go out as much as we would like to.

That being said, we do have a farily busy social calendar for the next 2 weeks. We’ve got our usual Thursday night karaoke, which is the one social event that we’ve decided is a must go, for us. We’ve got next Tuesday, which is a celebration of a monumental life decision for a very close friend of BF’s. We have tickets to a Red Sox game next Thursday. A friend of mine is having a toy party that Friday. Then, the next week is BF’s friend’s birthday, and we know in advance that he is looking to make a big night of it – dinner someplace nice, then drinking. It looks like a lot, but I think I’ve figured out how to handle it all, and not spend crazy amounts of money. How, you may ask?

1. We’ve decided to limit our collective budget for Thursday nights to $20 each. This is easily 4 beers for BF and 3 Vanilla and Diets for me. Since I like to send him to get the drinks, I will give him $20 at the beginning of the evening. This has the added bonus of ensuring that we don’t overdo the drinking, which is another something we are both trying to watch.

2. Some of these events are parties at people’s houses. The Tuesday celebration, and the toy party are both drinking/hanging out at home situations. We’ve already contributed a fair amount of alcohol to BF’s friend’s collection, so I think we are probably good on that front. And I can probably spend less than $20 to bring something to the party at my friend’s house. Another thing I think we will try to do is eat at home before we go, saving that cost.

3. BF’s friend’s birthday is going to be expensive. This is kind of a given. But I think if we curb our own going out to eat habits for the next 2 weeks, and just consider that our night out, we will be fine.

There is an additional complication, and that is a friend of mine who I don’t get to see very regularly, and who I’ve been putting off, asked us to go out with him and his girlfriend next weekend. I’ve tentatively said yes, and told BF that I would pay for that, because he isn’t too fond of my friend to begin with. I know they are also trying to save, so I think we can suggest someplace fairly cheap for dinner, and they will be ok with that.