NO, Miss Julie you absolutely cannot have that coat. Put that credit card away right this instant young lady!

I miss shopping. 

This coat is calling me.  In fact, I’m fairly certain that Mr. Kenneth Cole himself must have researched me, specifically, when designing this coat as it fits like a glove.  I could probably rationalize the need for it – I mean, winter is just around the corner and I do need to stay warm.  It is currently 50% off. 

That’s also how I rationalized those boots a few months back and a recent decision to go on a ski trip, 2 ski trips, actually.  The rationalization must stop somewhere.  It ends here.  I will stand firm and NOT purchase this coat.  I can do it.  I know I can. 

We’ll see…

Hey, It worked for Cinderella

I received this comment to my recent DSW post:

Julie,

Thanks for the wonderful blog about us.

Bummer about being jobless, however we can cheer you up.

Email me at {sic} and I’ll send you a coupon for your next…perfect pair.

Don’t forget – Cinderella is proof a shoe can change your life!

Kelly
Marketing VP and Shoe Lover, DSW

Too true, Kelly, too true – next time I’m perusing the aisles of a shoe store, I’m definitely gonna remember Cinderella…  you just provided me the best.excuse. ever.created for irresponsible shoe shopping.  Yikes!

Editor’s Note: The comment actually was legit.  I e-mailed Kelly and she did, in fact, send me a coupon.  I told you they knew about me and my coupon weakness…

Annoying Amy or Fiscal Francis (you choose)

Sneaky little bill 'fillers'

In keeping with the Money Watch theme here at Jobless Julie last week, I’ve noticed lately that I have become quite the penny pencher.  Ok, so there was that little slip up with DSW, but I’m talking more along the lines of every day purchases and bills.  For example, I just reviewed my DirecTV bill with the finest of fine tooth combs and guess what I did?  Saved $12.44.  You know how I did it?  I called them on crap they were charging me which was incorrect.  See, now that I’m losing my job and frankly not really working that hard, I have a lot more time on my hands.  In my glory days of work when I was in D.C., I would have never wasted 10 minutes on the phone to save a few bucks - but now, well I have that kinda time and a few bucks here and a few bucks there quickly turns into a water bill payment.  Plus, let’s be honest – its kinda fun.

Here’s what they were charging me, so you too can be aware:

When I signed up for the service, I was told that I got 3 free months of Starz & Showtime for FREE – absolutely FREE.  That always raises a red flag with me, but sure, why not. 

So.Not.Worth.It

On my bill I have a charge for Showtime/Starz: $24

I also have a credit for Showtime: $12.99

No credit for Starz.                Tsk Tsk DirecTV.  That wasn’t cool. [Me wagging my little index finger in disgust]

Then, mysteriously, my sales tax is: $5.76.  The sales tax rate in WV is 6%.  My total bill (including erroneous Starz charge) is: $62.76.  Basic math shows you that the sales tax isn’t correct.

Guess what?  There’s a tax on Showtime & Starz of $1.44 – not so FREE now is it?  This isn’t itemized within the bill, so unless you’re extrodinarily crazy (like me) and calculated what the sales tax should be and noticed it was wrong and then took the time to make a call to the customer service lady at the 1-800 number with extrodinarily bad English how would you ever know?

So, after 2 phone calls and approximately 25 minutes of my time, I was credited the $11.01 for Starz & the $1.44 in tax for the ‘free’ service.  I also took a couple of extra minutes to make sure that my account was clearly noted of the issues and to also make sure she wrote down in her little computer screen somewhere that if I have to call back again because they are trying to play me I will go from Annoying Amy to Angry Angela.

Busted!

So, my friend walks into my house the other day and sees this box sitting on the coffee table:

She glances at the box, sees that the sender is DSW and says “I thought you said on your blog you weren’t shopping”

Stupid blog.

Technically, and in my defense, I didn’t say I wasn’t shopping I said I was trying to be fiscally responsible and these retailers who keep bombarding me with coupons are not making it any easier.  But I did not outright say that I wasn’t making any purchases. 

Ok, so maybe I did imply to some extent that I wasn’t, but whatever, details.

The fact of the matter is, these shoes were too cute and the price (combined with aforementioned coupons) was just too good to pass up.  So, in 1.5 weeks when I’m sitting on my couch in my PJ’s scouring the internet for jobs, I’m gonna put these puppies on (PJ’s and all), prop my feet up on the coffee table and be giddy at the sight of them.  If I have to kick the thermostat down a few degrees as a result, so be it.

The “Netflix Effect”

You would think that since I’ve known since May 27th that I was going to lose my job I might have tackled the ‘reduction of expenses’ exercise awhile ago, but it took knowing beyong a shadow of a doubt that October 15th is my last paycheck for me to actually sit down at my computer and start evaluating the importance and necessity of each of my expenses.

It was during this exercise that I saw what I will call the “Netflix Effect”

$14.83 per month for unlimited movies? Sounds great!

$13.95 per month for the newspaper?  Sign me up!

$16.95 per month for an online Weight Watchers subscription?  Of course!

Considering there is a whole litany of expenses that can’t be changed: rent, water bill, electric bill, etc.  It becomes obvious very quickly the limited avenues one has to really trim down and those avenues tend to be the things that seem so reasonble on a monthly basis, but combined with each other and reviewed on an annual basis quickly become not-so-affordable. 

My goal was a monthly reduction in expenses of $300.  Lofty, I know. 

Here’s what I did and how I fared:

(1) Reduced Netflix to a 1 movie at a time, 2 movie monthly limit account which costs $5.29 per month. 

Monthly Savings: $9.54/Annual Savings: $114.48

(2) Eliminated Weight Watchers.  This was a tough one.  I know I don’t need it the way I needed it 12 months ago.  In fact, I really don’t even use it.  It’s just that, mentally, I’m afraid by cutting the subscription somehow the 25 pounds I so faithfully fought to lose are going to immediately rear their ugly head.

Monthly Savings: $16.95/Annual Savings: $203.40

(3) I met with my insurance agent and reduced my insurance premiums by 30%.  This is frankly, something I should have done long ago.  It took me really needing to cut expenses to really digest the fact that I am paying $1500 a year to insure a car that is worth $4,000.  In anyone’s eyes that’s a collassel waste of money.

Monthly Savings: $40.00/Annual Savings: $480.00

(4) I put my Gas and Electric bills on the budget plan.  This doesn’t actually save me any money, but since things will be tight its really just the comfort of knowing I’m not going to open up a Gas bill that’s $180 and spend the subsequent 30 days with the thermostat set at 52 degrees.

Monthly Savings: N/A

 (5) I quit taking piano lessons.  I can’t justify $60 per month right now to be cultured and to serenade the fam with Jingle Bells and Silent Night come holiday season.

 Monthly Savings: $60.00/Annual Savings: $720.00

 (6) I cut my cell phone bill back to a smaller plan, which resulted in a net monthly savings of $20 per month.  It was during this exercise that I realized I’ve been paying overages for text messages – which is why there is the ‘net’ savings – I had to increase my texting plan.  Which, I will add – totally pains me because if it were up to me I wouldn’t even have text messaging on my phone.  I hate texting, but its an expense of living in 2009, I guess. 

 Monthly Savings: $20.00/Annual Savings: $240.00

Total Monthly Savings: $146.49

Total Annual Savings: $ 1,757.88

A decent chunk of money for sure, but far below my goal of $300 per month.  In an effort to make me feel a little better about my results, I thought I would calculate what that money will be worth in 37 years (retirement age) if invested annually into a Roth IRA:

$385,388.00

Now, that my friends, is a lot of movies

 

Now they’re just being cruel

I received this coupon in the mail from Ann Taylor Loft yesterday.  Between DSW, Patagonia, Backcountryoutlet.com and Ann Taylor Loft – there are some retailers out there that are really missin them some Julie and they’ve found no shortage of coupons to dangle out in front of me.  I have previously discussed my weakness for coupons.  They must know about me – they’ve probably had conference calls where they discuss: hey, that Julie girl, yeah, she never throws a coupon away – send them to her in droves.

Bunch of bullies is what they are.  Don’t they know how incredibly hard I’m trying to be fiscally responsible.

What’s a girl to do?  Its a completely FREE $20.  Of course, I’m still a little angry at ATL and I’m not sure what in their store I even want to buy since I can’t buy suits there anymore.  But… its $20…

You’d think a degree in Finance would have taught me better – I blame it on estrogen.

Be patient, DSW, I’ll be back

This was in an e-mail I received today from DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) – they miss me, obviously.  Heck, I miss them.  Nothing lifts your spirits like opening up a box with a brand new pair of shoes.  And lets be honest, I could use some spirit lifting right now.

That’s the real kicker about losing your job.  All of the things that you used to do to make you feel better: dinner with friends, happy hour, shoe shopping – they’re all very unresponsible things to do when you’ve found yourself without the safety of a regular paycheck. 

I’m gonna have to think outside of the box (the shoe box, that is) and come up with some alternative methods of happiness creation.  A carton of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough Ice Cream is tempting, but I’ve come too far to fall off that wagon.

A little sun, a few fish, a lot of perspective

Just your average Tuesday in they Keys...

I spent the last 7 days in sunny, super hot, extremely humid, unbelievably gorgeous, super awesome Key Largo, Florida.  Aside from a few moments when I pulled out my wallet and thought to myself, oh my god, irresponsibility has achieved a new high, it was a great time.  Not that I was being irresponsible for any normal person, but for someone who has 6 weeks of guaranteed gainful employment left, the fact that I even went on the trip may have left some wondering what kind of idiot I really was.  In my defense, the trip was booked before the ax fell on my job AND I would have left my friend J totally high and dry if I pulled out, literally, high and dry because the purpose of the trip was to go scuba diving, so if we didn’t go… well, she would have been left here in WV at an altitude approximately 3,000 feet higher and most definitely dryer.  And, hey, if nothing else, I’m a good friend right?  Go ahead twist my unemployed arm and force me to go scuba diving for a week in the Florida Keys…. alright, done.

Unemployed? Responsibility? I'm sorry I can't hear you - the lapping of the ocean is louder than you'd think

The week was fabulous beyond belief – we did a total of 12 dives, 1 bar crawl up Duval Street in Key West, spent every night sitting on the porch listening to fish hop around in the water and drank our weight in Corona and ate our weight in seafood. 

I have been at a bit of a crossroads lately, with some opportunities that have arisen and this trip was well timed to give me some time away to figure out which direction my life is going to take.  When you go diving, you have, mostly, a solid hour, underwater swimming with fish to think – ’cause you can’t talk.  And since we were fortunate enough to have guided diving tours, I didn’t even have to think about how to navigate my way back to the boat – all I did was follow the black fins in front of me, look at the fish and think about where my life was going in the next 90 days.

There may be some updates in the coming week so stayed tuned.  I promise, I’m done traveling, so my schedule of daily posting is officially back on track.

Ahh, the Sweet, Sweet Solace of Denial

In a matter of hours, I’m off to Charleston, South Carolina for the July 4th weekend.  Given that I’ve recently returned from a week long furlough in the fine state of South Carolina and will be departing in less than 2 weeks for a week long scuba diving trip to south Florida, this weekend is probably not an exceptionally responsible thing to do for someone who has less than 2 months of employment left.

But here’s another interesting timing factoid:  I have 2 years, 1 month and 6 days until I’m 30.  

I’ll be responsible then.

See ya on Monday!

Shhh! Don’t Tell Anyone How Fun This Is – Then They Would All Want To Be Unemployed

Yesterday marked exactly 30 days since the announcement of the impending ax of my employment.

You want to know what I’ve done a lot of in the past 30 days?  Being Social.  Being Very, Very Social.

No one can hire you if they don’t know you’re looking for a job.  No one can know they want to hire if you if they don’t know how super cool and smart you are.  Hence – go forth, be social.

Now there is a certain contradiction of priorities with this strategy – its a little tough to be fiscally responsible and uber social at the same time.  However, the unexpected bonus, is that when you know the clock is ticking to your final hour at your current job no one, including your boss, cares what time you show up for work, what you wear or how much you accomplish while you’re there.  I know this to be true, I had a conversation with him to this affect.  I don’t take unprecedented advantage of this but if there has been an instance or two of me being a tad tardy and wearing flip flops, at least it was discussed prior to and it was in the name of finding gainful employment.

In keeping with my new social calendar I’m very excited about this weekend as it is the final weekend of Charleston’s FestivAll so there certainly won’t be any lack of fun things to do. 

Here are the ones I’m planning on partaking in so if you see me, feel free to offer me a job – or at least buy me a drink (remember I’m trying to strike a balance between socialized job searching and fiscal responsibility – which leads me to wonder… could these ‘social expenses’ be written off on my taxes as job searching expenses?  Hmm… )

Friday: Blues, Brews & BBQ’s at UC Riverfront

Saturday morning: Music at the Capitol Market.  Seriously?  You get to shop for fresh, locally grown produce to the tune of live bluegrass.  I wish they did that every.single.day!

Saturday afternoon: I’ll be chowin’ down on some food and exploring the beer garden to the sound of live music on Hale Street then prancing over to Capitol Street to peruse the best of West Virginia’s artisans work.    I’ll probably bring good ole’ Tucker too, he’s got a bit of social anxiety and could use some exposure to other human beings besides me.

Saturday evening: Wine & Jazz at University of Charleston Riverfront

Blankets,sunshine,good wine,good music,TONS OF PEOPLE – what a great end to a great week.