Movin' and Groovin'

The biggest adjustment to our stretched finances occurred this past week -- Alix and I moved! To a place with lower rent, that is. Instead of our cushy studio in midtown, we now live in a cozy one-bedroom on the Upper West Side whose rent is $600 less than the old apartment. It's true that paying a lower rent comes with side effects: our super speaks almost no English, cannot comprehend why two women live together in a one-bedroom (awkward looks abound whenever he sees us), and is convinced that hot water dripping steadily from our ceiling is a problem that does not require attention until three days later. We also are now the proud owners of a fridge that doesn't open all the way (because it runs into the counter), two closets that are finicky about opening and closing, and a bathroom door that won't shut because it's been painted over too many times. Thank goodness Alix and I are way past the point of needing toilet privacy. If you come to visit us, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to deal with a cracked door. We'll talk louder while you're in there, don't worry. Despite all of it, we're so much happier here, it's only sad that we didn't move sooner. We love our huge windows, high ceilings, view of the church, the fact that we have a BEDROOM (!!!), that there is room for the boys to run, our counter space...the list goes on and on. Between the lower rent and my two jobs (hooray for working 70 hours a week...literally), we're definitely going to make it. That is, if we can find someone to assume the old lease at the midtown apartment...
But it's more fun to look at pictures than think about scary things like paying two leases, right? So here you go:
First, the old apartment (whose pictures are decidedly better, as they were taken during daylight hours)

The terrace where I grew my herbs and tomatoes

Living room area

Kitchen area

Tiny kitchen

Next, the process of moving:

Eating Indian takeout on a Zappos box because we no longer had a table.

Boxes galore

And finally, the new place:

The foyer

The main room

Dining area

Kitchen area...please excuse the mess (those dishes are actually clean, just haven't been put away yet).

And just for fun - the apple pie I made today. Jealous? You should be.

The Working Life

Since I'm the only one in our household of four that is currently working,* and this blog is partially about finances, I figure writing about my job is fair game. My job, as I've mentioned before, is to take care of a darling 6-month-old boy while his parents work ridiculous hours finishing their medical school residencies. This, in turn, means that I also work some pretty ridiculous hours that require me to start work at 6 AM most days and work 50 hours a week, plus overtime if I wish. In addition, my hours change weekly and a typical day could be anywhere from 6-4, 6-8 (yes, that's 14 hours), or noon-8. Knowing full well that hours like this were part of the job means I don't technically get to complain about them, but seriously, it's hard sometimes. I long for the monotony of a 9-5 workday that includes both a reliable, unchanging wake-up time and the ability to come home for dinner. Hours aside, I truly love my job. Taking care of my little dude is second nature now. I know his every expression, need, and babble. I make him laugh, I rock him to sleep, I have entire conversations with him, responding to a typical string of constant-vowel combination with things like, "Well, yes, Monkey, that's true, but I also think that the nutritional value of green beans makes them an important part of your diet."
"Gaaaahhh, bsssh, guaah. Bah."
"Mmm-hm, yes, I agree, this breast milk is top-notch. Do you want to play in your bouncy seat?"
"Gaaaahhhhhhh!!!"
"Alright dude, bouncy seat it is."
And so on. My job doesn't feel like work, it feels like being a mom, something I've been dying to do for, oh, about ten years now. I don't have to dress up (in fact, it is undeniably better if I don't), and I don't have to answer to a horrendous boss. Monkey's mom and I are far more like friends than we are a typical employer-employee pair. I know that sounds idyllic coming from a nanny, but it's honestly true. I've worked for other families before that I would not hesitate to compare to the parents in The Nanny Diaries, and the family I work for now is the furthest thing from it. Does it suck waking up at 4:30 AM every day especially when I have insomnia that keeps me from sleeping for more than three hours at a time? And coming home so late at night that all I can do is eat and collapse into bed, barely having a conversation with Alix? Yes, yes it does. But my buddy's smile when he sees me bright and early and the way he burrows joyfully into my shoulder as soon as I pick him up definitely make it worth it.

* * *

It would be nice if this cute little blog post could end there, but sadly, it can't. Despite my working such long hours, our sky-high rent and my medical costs are putting too much of a strain on our budget. So, I did like all poor twenty-something's do, and I got a second job. I start work tomorrow at a famous little bakery on the UWS that makes cookies so good they make you want to take your clothes off. It scares me that I'll be working upwards of 65 hours a week now, but I can't ignore the fact that going into debt was not a part of the post-college life plan. Still, I'm pumped about half-price cookies, working with people my age, and hopefully staying financially afloat.

*This is not to say that I pay for everything. Alix and I split costs exactly down the middle, it's just that she pays with the earnings from her year of working as a paralegal before she started law school. Tucker and Rupert, on the other hand, cost a lot and contribute nothing other than mad cuteness.

Unsolicited Advice

First of all, apologies for the hiatus from posting. We've been dealing with a lot these last couple of weeks, but everything seems to be working out for the best. Since the topics of our blog (saving money, eating healthy, etc) have taken a hit as we've been consumed with the other challenges facing us, the topic of today's post is something different that's been irking both of us more and more: unsolicited advice. I have to believe that everyone is subject to this most unwelcome commentary to their life at some point, but for reasons I still can't quite discern, as young women we seem to receive more advice than most. People particularly love to give us advice about raising "my" child (the baby I nanny for), raising our dog, and maintaining our relationship. Two of our favorite conversations regarding the first two topics are paraphrased below for your amusement:

The background to this scenario is that for the first half of the summer, while Alix and I were both working, I would often have to come home with the baby in his carrier in order to walk the dog around lunchtime. I would take the dog out for five minutes, and attempt to gracefully pick up poop while keeping a fussy, sweaty baby away from the rambunctious dog and said poop. One day while I was doing all of this, a man felt the need to stop me mid-poop pickup and tell me:
"You should really put a hat on that baby!"
"Mm-hmm, thank you for your concern."
A. It was a cloudy day. B. We were in the shade of our 12-story building. C. We were outside for two minutes. D. The baby was pouring sweat in the 90 degree heat and would enter full-blown meltdown mode if I insisted he continue to wear his sun hat, which, thank you very much, I do put on his downy head when there is the slightest chance that sunlight will make contact with his skin.
The man walked off, disgusted by my poor parenting skills, while the dog continued jumping, and I continued scooping, before herding us all inside so the baby could nap. Truly, thank you for your concern.

Alix's experience occurred while she was walking Rupert home from our vet's office, a place that Rupert inexplicably loves. He loves it so much, in fact, that he will often put up a huge fuss on the walk home as he strains to walk backwards to his beloved vet, Dr. Walsh. At a particularly trying moment, Alix stood patiently clutching the end of the leash while Rupert defiantly flopped on the sidewalk (this happens more often than you might expect). While waiting for him to move, a large, obnoxious woman came lumbering up to Alix and insisted that "she wasn't handling the situation correctly" and that she "needed to bring a toy along" to entice the dog to walk with her. She then proceeded to attempt to lure our timid puppy towards her, a maneuver that is destined to fail, since Rupert is terrified of anyone obnoxious enough to get in his face. After failing to entice our dog, she took another crack at offering Alix a solution.
"Are you married?" she asks.
"No..." responded Alix, not really seeing where this was going.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" was the immediate response. Without waiting for a reply, she followed with, "The dog must have a stronger bond with your boyfriend, which is why he doesn't listen to you."
Ah yes. Thank you, kind stranger, for your concern, not only with our dog's discipline but with Alix's sexual orientation and relationship status. In a feat of irony, Rupert immediately got up and trotted home with Alix, despite his apparently stronger bond with her boyfriend.

Maybe you should let your boyfriend walk the dog...

Since these two incidences, we've received more advice than we even want to remember. The concerns regarding our relationship probably annoy us the most, since we are happier than literally anyone else we know. We acknowledge this without a sense of superiority, only with frustration at the apparent inability of people to believe that a 22-year-old and 24-year-old can manage a relationship of a maturity and commitment that few other people our age do. Whatever. Maybe thirty years from now, people will stop giving us advice on everything we do. Actually, you know what, they probably won't. Guess we better get used to doling out a steely smile and the stock reply "thank you for your concern."

Brief Thoughts on...Yogurt

We are big fans of yogurt. I hated yogurt as a kid. Hated it so much it made me gag and I would refuse to eat it if at all possible. But then, I got older and discovered a beautiful thing: full-fat, creamy, thick, delicious yogurt. It deserves a choir. It is to be exalted. I no longer gag when I eat yogurt, I do happy dances at the counter with spoon in hand. The important thing about all this is that I am more health-conscious than most people I know. I know a great deal about nutrition and find it incredibly interesting. But I will hold true to this perhaps improbable tenet of what I consider healthy eating: eat the fat. Eating the full-fat or reduced-fat versions of many foods (as opposed to their fat-free counterparts) has a number of benefits. Foods taste infinitely better so you are satisfied with the correct serving size. They have lower levels of weird emulsifiers and artificial flavoring and sweeteners whose names I can only pronounce because I took two years of college chemistry. They make recipes taste complex and delicious while still only using small amounts. We buy our yogurt from local dairies whose products are sold at Whole Foods and get flavors like Wild Blueberry and Lemon Cream. Running at 150-200 calories for 8 oz, they are a delightful indulgence that satisfies like ice cream while still providing the nutritional benefits of live active cultures and calcium-rich dairy. I have to admit though, this last week I got a particular brand of yogurt that was on sale and at 250 calories (!!) a serving, I can't eat it all in one sitting because it's just too rich. I've been working on the same French Vanilla all day and it's still not gone. From now on, I'll stick to the slightly less rich while still incredibly delicious brands we're used to. I can also attest to the fact that it's still possible to drop weight without trying while eating 3-4 of these indulgent yogurts per week. So ladies, raise your spoons to something other than that Yoplait shit.

Home Cookin'

This week our goal was to decrease the amount of money we spend on eating out. This includes not just meals out, but extras like Starbucks, ice cream, etc. To that end, we planned four meals to cook for dinner (we'll eat leftovers the rest of the time) and shopped with restraint yesterday. Our weekly allotment of grocery money is to stay under $100. It's appalling to me that this is how much it costs to eat healthy, local, organic (but still affordable) food in NYC, but that's life. As a kid, I recall my mom spending about $150 a week to feed a family of six but that was ten years ago and in the small town where I grew up, which is about is different from the city as you can get.

Alix and I both have high standards for food. This doesn't mean we spend money stupidly, but it does mean that we buy organic produce from the farmers' market near us instead of the tasteless, albeit cheaper produce from the Morton-Williams grocery store a block from our apartment. The lessons I've learned from books such as Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver make it so that the guilt trip I put on myself for not buying local seasonal foods dictates that our eating and shopping choices be both moral and sustainable. So far, our spending this week has been in line with our goals. We spent about $80 at Whole Foods yesterday, which leaves $20 to spend at the market tomorrow on produce. We will probably get fruit (peaches, Concord grapes, and maybe a watermelon) as well as vegetables (salad greens, radishes, and beets).

Our menu for the week includes the following meals:
1. Sirloin steak with grainy mustard sauce + marinated green beans
2. Tuna noodle casserole + marinated green beans
3. Black bean soup + cornbread + salad
4. Pasta Florentine + peaches

Steak with mustard sauce

The steak and tuna casserole recipes came from a cookbook that Alix got for her birthday: So Easy, by Ellie Krieger. We made the steak last night and it was delicious! I have almost no experience cooking meat so Alix bravely took control of pan-searing the sirloin while I made the mustard sauce (reduced chicken stock with sauteed onions, flour, salt, pepper, and grainy mustard). I had made two pounds of cold marinated green beans the night before so we ate those last night, tonight, and probably tomorrow night too. The marinade is a spicy tangy sauce of onions, garlic, green chilies, oil, and vinegar that is poured over lightly steamed green beans and left to soak in the refrigerator for as long as you want.

Tuna noodle casserole

We made the tuna casserole tonight and were less than impressed. It was more work than we anticipated and the end result was boring and bland. Not so bad that we won't be eating it tomorrow, but not great. We consoled ourselves by getting gelato after dinner. As you can see, we take three steps forward and one step back.

And my last thought for the night on being healthy - we are back to taking our vitamins. My mom had me swallowing handfuls of vitamins for as long as I can remember but I grew lackadaisical about taking them while I was in college. After going to the doctor a couple of weeks ago, I was told that my vitamin D levels were extremely low. This has inspired me to start choking down the dreaded pills again. Since I feel like doing something halfway is worse than not doing it at all, I am not content to take just D. I am back to taking the following: calcium, magnesium D, C, flaxseed oil, and a daily multiple. Alix, bless her, indulges me by taking all of them too. We gag and complain and, in my case, spill my juice glass in protest, but they go down. Here's to growing up (and growing healthy)!

Life Ain't Easy...

Although we are attempting to save money with all the best intentions, life keeps getting in the way. Despite the birthday celebrations coming to an end, it seems as if the bills are piling up with increasing intensity. The harder Cait and I try, the more we need to spend.
Over the last three days we've had a series of setbacks:

#1 I, being the klutz that I am, awoke to find that I had placed my cellphone in a full glass of water during the night. Seemingly impossible... but here we are. Not only did I get my phone wet, I marinated it.

#2 Rupert, our lovable, bumbling puppy, needed to take another unplanned trip to the vet. Over the past few months Rupert has fallen victim to some odd yet oh-so-expensive illnesses. This time, he seems to be losing his precious fur. Lucky for us, we paid a few hundred dollars for the vet to tell us that Rupert needed to take a bath with special shampoo.
A good word of advice -- pets are expensive! If you are considering getting one, the cost far exceeds your expectations. Food is only one of many expenses. Don't forget the toys, the leash, the bowls, the toothbrush, the doggie bags ($12.75 for eight rolls!!!!) ... and the list goes on. That being said, while he may be helping us rack up the bills, Rupert brings so much joy to our lives on a daily basis. We love our pets like they were our children (or maybe because they are our children). No cost could make us think they are not worth it.

#3 A smooth transition from one Rupert-related cost to another: less than 3 weeks after purchasing a charger for my computer, Rupert chewed straight through it in one bite. Alas, one more unforeseeable cost.

What do you mean I look guilty? My face always looks like this.

The moral of the story: we cannot plan for every expense because life is highly unpredictable. I guess we will just have to keep trying.

Slow Start

Alix and I, while both highly motivated, are also expert procrastinators. It should surprise no one that knows us that this ambitious plan of ours is starting rather slowly. Or not yet. At all. See, the problem is that Alix just had a birthday. And I, well I'm a sucker for birthdays. We spent her actual birthday at my parents' house upstate where I made her a blueberry pie. Once we were back home though, I wanted to make more of a day of it. I didn't have to work on Monday so we slept in, took the puppy to his favorite dog park, and then went to see the Bodies exhibit at the South Street Seaport. Right before we were about to enter the exhibit, Alix stopped dead in the street, pointing wildly to a spot about twenty feet in front of us and started yelling, "Look! It's here! It's here!" She was referring to the famous Wafels and Dinges cart which has been eluding our grasp since I saw it featured on the Food Network. Our plans to spend no money that day went out the window as we decided to sample the famous chewy warm waffles covered with toppings of your choice (Nutella and strawberries for me, just Nutella for Alix). It was worth every penny spent, and every gooey bite before we entered the shadowy halls to contemplate the waffles' journey through the epic disassembly line that is the human digestive system.

Later, I made the dinner that Alix had chosen: chicken served on a bed of wild mushrooms (from The Silver Palate Cookbook, by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin), steamed artichokes with Hollandaise sauce (from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck) and chocolate chunk cookies for dessert. Nothing about this dinner was cheap or particularly healthy - Hollandaise sauce is butter with egg and a side of butter and, oh yeah, butter - but it was special and delicious. I've been told before that one of my greatest attributes as a cook is that I am utterly fearless. While I have a hard time believing most of the compliments I receive, this one I acknowledge as true. I taught myself how to make bread, pie, and almost everything else I can do in the kitchen by assuming that if one follows a recipe, has good intuition, and isn't afraid of messing up, anything can turn out delicious. This was true of the birthday dinner since everything I made was new to me (except the cookies, those are old stand-by's in our home).

The birthday feast

Next on our mission: order our DVD workout plan with its accompanying diet guide, figure out shopping lists based on said diet plan, and stick to the following budget guidelines:
Rent: 40%
Groceries: 10%
Utilities/Phone/Transportation: 6%
Pets: 4%
Miscellaneous (healthcare, car insurance, extra unexpected costs): 11%
Debt: 15%
Savings: 14%

I realize that's pretty convoluted, but this is a work in progress. Things they do not teach you in a liberal arts education...

The Beginning

Hi everyone and welcome to our blog!

Here we will be writing about our adventures in New York and our quest to live healthier, happier lives on a budget. While New Yorkers are famous for continuously complaining about how expensive everything is (the rent! the parking! the food!), the truth is that Alix and I (Cait) are living off of one income and a rapidly depleting savings account, paying a rent we can't afford (go figure) and supporting a sulky cat and a dopey dog. This all sounds so much more tragic than the laughter-filled and love-blessed life that we are lucky to have but since we both want to remain healthy and financially viable into our next seven decades, the time has come for us to tighten our belts a little and make some changes.

The last three months since I moved into Alix's studio apartment in Hell's Kitchen, we've been a bit, shall we say, loose with our money. We appreciated the constant availability of take-out and became all too familiar with www.seamlessweb.com. We also spent a large chunk of money transforming the apartment from the haphazard bachelor pad Alix was inhabiting into the cozy and furnished home we now share. Finally, we paid precious little attention to our spending habits at places like Whole Foods, Screme (the most delicious and over-priced gelato joint on the West side), and Unleashed (the boys' favorite holistic pet supply store). Now that we're settling into our respective routines - I work about fifty hours a week as a nanny, while Alix will soon be starting her second year of law school - we've decided to address our growing waistlines and shrinking accounts by changing our spending, eating, and exercise habits. We've designed a budget, sworn off eating out, and are starting a crazy workout plan (more on that later). We'll be doing our best to document our adventures here, in an effort to keep us honest and keep you amused. We invite you to read along and share it with us.