Home Economics

After freaking out about the lack of money in my bank account (I think I whined, "but why is it so low?"), my mother gently suggested that I should find out what I'm really spending each month.

I must admit that my previous budget guesses were pretty low, which would only mean that while the bank tellers were sleeping, little Brownie Scout Gnomes were sneaking in and taking their rightful compensation for centuries of helping with the household chores while everyone else was sleeping... just to be helpful. I always thought those gnomes (or were they trolls? fairies?) would one day seek retribution. Does anyone else know that story?

This money conversation with my folks also had elements of me saying, While I want to study and save and be a good little Ben Franklin-esque early to bed and riser,

I ALSO want to go on a climbing trip and spend time with Asheville friends and buy my groceries and clothes from only the freshest places ("fresh" clothes as in "damn, that tee shirt is FRESH, girl." No one says that to me, though) and visit friends and family and go to yoga classes

and... the run-on sentence continued on for a bit. This might have spurred my mother's suggestion to figure out my expenses.

So this morning, I downloaded all of my bank statements and credit card bills from the past four months into an Excel spreadsheet; then I split it by titles like "rent" or "going out to dinner and drinking" or "gas." You know, the essentials.

The spreadsheet looked distressing but not completely dire. Although Heiwa Sushi came up more than once in each month, I figure that I'm investing in my future by eating well now. Anyway, I vowed to watch my spending, work a lot, and view studying as work (which will cut down on the spending time and be more of an investment than Special Spicy Tuna rolls).

Jump forward to the evening after working on some Outward Bound grant research and going for a run. I went to Greenlife Grocery to get some flour, bananas, a birthday present for gg, and other essentials. Two grocery bags and $92.28 later, I was walking out of the store. I actually chuckled at the irony as I was leaving the store. I mean, I passed on the fresh flowers and bars of gold in the aisle. A few eggs, some coffee, a couple of sweet potatoes... chocolate... I got home and examined the list, looking for the double-digit culprits. Okay, so the bottle of wine... but it's a gift! (I actually made a column on my spreadsheet called "gifts and donations") The coffee... makes sense, but I even went for the "mystery coffee," which is discounted because someone ground it and then didn't buy it. I took the chance that this "mystery grinder" could have whooping cough and could have whooped into the coffee, just to save a buck. So I don't feel bad about it.

But then I saw the chocolate covered expresso beans on my receipt. $10.34. Look at the size of this bag of beans:

I don't even know if I like them so much. But now I have to enjoy them, I guess. Maybe I'll just eat ten chocolate covered expresso beans for dinner tonight.

They might cost as much as a sushi roll...

Munchkins

One of our TAASC students named the group of 8-year old boys, "the munchkins." They have a similar size and tone of voice to those of the Wizard of Oz Munchkins, but they are a bit more spastic.

Four of them scrunch into a 2 person tent; three sleep in a row and one sleeps at their feet. Very cute. They are like puppies wrestling when they tackle each other and the older kids. We are training these puppies to sit and listen when necessary, and they are training us to be crazier when running around and playing.

We camped on an island on a fall canoeing trip to Lake James. Here's a photo of the kids waiting for "seconds" of mac n cheese. I pretended they were orphans in Oliver Twist when they lined up for more food, and insisted that they say, "Please sir, may I have some more?" to Greg. I told them, "Look sad and hungry for the picture!" Here's the result:
Sad, but you can do better.

Before dinner, though, the kids ran around the beach, caught guppies, swam, and set up tents. At some point during this fun, a mop-like dog who was camping with his family on the other side of the island came over to visit. The munchkins darted around with this dog and yelled things like, "Hey Johnny! Look at this!" while trying to impress each other with stunts.

At one point, the "Hey Johnny!" turned into, "Hey Katie! Look at this!" As I turned, he added, "Katie, look how this dog LOVES us! It's hugging my leg!" Of course, the "gg" in "hugging" should be replaced with an "m" and a "p." I chased the dog off of the munchkin and said to him, "Hey, don't let that dog hug your leg anymore."

Here are a couple of other pictures from the trip:

Let the Homework Begin

When I got home yesterday (after spending the snowy day with Francis and half-watching this bizarre sci-fi movie called "Sunshine"), I saw a magical little usps envelope on my doorstep. Yes, you guessed it, my textbook: Economics: A Tool for Critically Understanding Society. It doesn't have the nice purple cover like in the picture (and in the bookstore), but it was like Christmas in January to get it.

Yea graphs! Yea supply and demand!

I'd be ecstatic if anyone would want to order it and read along. Econ textbook book club?