His Hers Money

Last night, Hers and I took in a baseball game at the new home of the Washington Nationals, appropriately named Nationals Park. Luckily she gets free tickets as her place of employment has 8 seats reserved for employees throughout the season. This is good because the seats themselves (in the club level) would end up being pretty darned pricey judging from the carpeted interior where the food vendors and beer is located.

It’s never cheap when you go to a professional sporting event these days. Quite frankly they end up being about as bad as the movie theater, holding their guests captive. Just like any good consumers, we bought a program, a foam finger, and had dinner at the park. The damage just for my dinner alone was $20 for one beer (domestic), a chili-cheese hotdog, and chili-cheese fries. Now I’ll grant you that the food was GREAT, but it was from Ben’s Chili Bowl which is a D.C. institution and I could have gotten the same food I’m betting for half that price at another location.

So here are some tips for your next trip to the ballpark:

• Eat BEFORE you head to the game. Enjoy just a snack at the game
• Take public transportation to the game. This of course is so that you can also drink cheaply before the game if you must have a few brewskis.
• If you want to support your team, fine. Just purchase team apparel AWAY from the ballpark
• If there is a ‘cool’ hangout at the game where you don’t need special tickets to get to, purchase the cheapest tickets available and go there! At Nationals Park, it’s got to be the Red Loft bar in center field. It’s a great view, they’ve got other sports on TV while the game is on, and it’s just a great atmosphere.

Hey who doesn’t love free money? For a limited time, Revolution Money Exchange is offering a free $25 to anybody who signs up for a free account before April 15th. Their website seems pretty straight-forward. It’s basically paypal with a web 2.0 front-end. I just signed up using a link from Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity and they’ve already credited my account. Now I just have to wait for the bank account verification process. If you’re looking to get some $$$ and help a new blogger out, sign up using the link below to send some referral greenbacks my way.

Everyone knows that the costs of everyday items has gone up. Filling up the car is beyond discussion, it has gone up so far that it’s not even worth talking about any more. Luckily I don’t drive too far so I just try to minimize my driving and deal with it.

Groceries have increased but it’s harder to put your finger on the exact cost increase. I don’t buy the exact same thing every week, sometimes things are on sale and other times they’re not and I don’t compare my receipts to check the exact price change. Today we were doing a little grocery shopping after work, “just a few items”. Of course there is no such thing as just a few items, especially if HE is with me. Seriously, he’s like a kid in a candy store grabbing things off the shelf and tossing them in the cart. So, the total bill was about $73 which seems to be about normal for us right now.

So that was stop number one. Our next stop was at the Class Six. If you are familiar with military bases the Class Six is basically the liquour store and has pretty good prices. This is were I definitely saw the effect of rising costs. Occasionally I will treat myself to a bottle of Grey Goose Poire (Pear). I really like it but it’s pricey so it’s not an every day occurrence. Today I wasn’t planning on purchasing any but as I walked down the isle I noticed that the price has gone form $23.99 to $30.00 and that’s just in the last six months! What’s a girl to do?????

We obviously aren’t working with a grocery budget. But right now it seems to be ok. If we spend a little too much we just have to cut out eating out that week. A small price to pay and either way we are eating well.

I came across an excellent article by Paul Michael at Wisebread this morning. It asks the question “What will you do when gas hits $4 a gallon?” and responds with “I’ll pay it just like everyone else.”

And you know what? He’s exactly right. For probably 90% of this country, we’ll just suck it up, drink a latte or two less a week, and live our lives as we had been. Let’s face it, most people are not willing to fundamentally change their lives unless gas say doubles or triples from even where it’s at right now. People these days can’t live without gas, electricity, and the internet. They are staples of our everyday life.

Paul also linked a YouTube video that I found fascinating and left me wondering how long if ever that we’ll see something good come from this man’s invention?

We’ve now made it almost one full month in our new joint blogging endeavor. So far I’m very proud of the time that Hers has put into this as it really is her first blogging experience other than a few guest posts on my personal blog. I would like to start doing monthly updates of our financial progress and also the progress of this blog. I figure that with 3 1/2 weeks under our belts I would go ahead and do one now and then start trying to be on time at the beginning of each month.

We’ve been able to get one of my credit cards paid off, the engagement ring paid in full, and more than the minimum payment for the highest balance of my cards. Unfortunately, I had to pull $2,000 out to pay a retainer fee for a lawyer instead of paying down debt further. So overall, good progress and it will seemingly get better.

The site itself is receiving steady increases in traffic each week according to our install of Mint:

I’m hoping that means that we’re doing something right and that people can appreciate what we’re trying to do and our writing style. I’ve almost become obsessed with reading all of the other PF blogs out there in my newsreader each day and trying to participate as much as possible.

There should also be some semi-regular columns starting soon. I have what I feel are a few good ideas for series that will prove invaluable to us in tracking our progress and education in all matters personal finance related.

Everyone knows that automating your savings is definitely the way to go. Right now I feel like I have my savings so disjointed because I have accounts all over the place. I took advantage of the Suze - TD Ameritrade offer where you deposit at least $50 a month for 12 months into a savings type account and they will deposit an extra $100 in at the end of the 12 months. I don’t remember what the rate is but it’s better than I’m getting at ING right now. The promotion code was 701 so you might try it and see if it still works.

I also have an ING account that I send $200 a month to and a savings account with my credit union that gets another $200 a month. So that’s $450 a month in savings. My goal is to have $15,000 in emergency funds . I was aiming towards $10,000 but my financial advisor bumped that up to $15,000 during my yearly financial check up.

I also have some retirement based investments. I fund my Roth IRA in full every year ($5000 for 2008) and my 401k in full every year ($15,500). This all adds up to a whopping $25,500 in deposits in a single year!