HisHersMoney

So a little over a week ago was that most American of holidays, Valentines’ Day. The hype machine of America is in full force telling our lovely ladies that they MUST have fancy dinners, chocolate, flowers, and who know what else bought for them. Now don’t get me wrong. I fully go along with this just like most every other male that’s involved in a relationship. And I have to admit it’s kind of nice to have a day set aside every year to be romantic. Sometimes we men forget about that sort of thing. So in the spirit of the occasion I made reservations for Hers and I at CityZen, one of the more well-respected eating establishments here in the DC Metro area.

Chef Eric Ziebold is relatively young for the industry but has already made a name for himself as a master of food. Hers had been wanting to go there ever since we started dating. I am not what I would consider a ‘foodie’ but Hers and I go out to a nice meal probably at least every two to three months so I appreciate the additional service and treats that are part of the fine-dining experience. The entrance to the restaurant is mostly hidden inside the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental hotel in downtown DC. There is no street or public parking available so it’s either hob a cab ride or use the valet, which is $7 if you are eating dinner. So still cheaper than the probably $18 or so cab ride from our apartment.

Once inside, you walk past a little seating nook that is part of the bar and are met at the end of the bar by a host, asking if you have reservations or are going to sit at the bar. Note that this is no ordinary bar, the menu is a prix-fixe three course meal that is still more expensive that the majority of restaurants out there and there is still a dress code as well. We had reservations and were escorted back to the private dining area that I assume is normally for larger parties or for a chefs’ table when Mr. Ziebold is doing that.

Originally I had wanted to do the six-course meal along with wine pairings. However the extreme price ($125 a head just for the food portion) along with the fact that Hers didn’t find some of the options appetizing made us choose the $75 a head, three course option. We were started off with a wonderful little amuse bouche and a few options of different kinds of bread and butter, all of which was delicious. I forget exactly what either of us had ordered as appetizers but I had Emerald Farms Rabbit Loin
Braised Swiss Chard, Anson Mills White Grits and Hers had Paupiette of Stoltzfus Ranch Nature Fed Veal, Russet Potato Gnocchi Gratin, Arrowleaf Spinach and Périgord Truffles for the main entrees. Dessert was whipped brie and black truffle for myself and a chocolate-filled soufflé for Hers.

Overall the food was well prepared and the service was excellent also. For those kind of prices I hope you get well taken care of. However we both thought that the food acould have been seasoned a little more and been a bit more adventurous. I want to taste things unusual and exciting when I have a meal like this. The rabbit I thought was by far the best part of the meal as it was just so tender and flavorful. In the end we were both overly stuffed and satisfied, but left wanting more out of it. So we probably won’t be back anytime soon. There are some other restaurants locally where you get almost the quality of food at about 1/6th of the price. It wasn’t a bad experience, just not good value.

I got a new Blackberry! Yay! Best thing about it: it didn’t cost me a penny. This one was compliments of my company and resides on their monthly bill. The first thing I did was go online to my cell phone bill and delete the Blackberry option off of my personal phone which will save me about $30/month.

There are pros and cons to this deal that everyone can point out:

Pros: Save $30/month, new sleek phone, easier access to company email

Con: easier access to company email 24×7

I don’t think this is really going to make a difference in my company email responsibilities, I really don’t get very much email outside of business hours and I’m really not expected to respond to any outside of business hours so for me I think the whole situation is really just a good thing.

I have had my personal phone number for about ten years so I don’t plan on getting rid of my phone completely but plan on just using it for texting and talking with friends.

We got a few emails after our last post regarding savings asking us if that was all we were putting away each month. The answer is No. If you included our 401k contributions and all retirement savings the actual amount is about $5400 a month.

What goes into this total:

Full Roth IRA savings for two, Savings ING, & Full 401k contributions for two

That is a total of over $64,000 a year!

We are currently trying a cash only system in order to help save us money. Whether it works or not we’ll see over the next two months. Our plan is to take a certain amount of money out in cash every two weeks and then have to live on it.

We started out with $200 last Sunday and currently have $35 left. I don’t have the exact amounts of what everything cost but here’s pretty decent estimates of where it went so far:

Rx and vitamins $16

Sunday morning breakfast $15

Tip for valet $5

groceries $50

eyebrow wax $12

Dry cleaning (we had a lot this week) $35

Sushi take out $32

So far I think we are doing ok but I’m not sure how the $35 is going to last us all week but I’m sure we’ll survive. I think our long term plan will be to go with $150 a week which needs to include food, misc expenses and entertainment but this week we had an expensive meal out for Valentines day which we used the debit card for so we left more in the account.

I will leave HIS to post about the valentines dinner and other valentines related info.

Right now in our joint savings we only have $2119! That is embarrassing! We have the following accounts set up with ING: House Down Payment, Car Repairs/Down Payment, Joint Emergency Savings, Investment Savings & Vacation Savings.

It is reasonable to assume that the Vacation Account would occasionally be pretty empty as it is now because we just came back from a couple vacations. But the others really need some work! I just really combed through the budget and set up recurring deposits to the accounts in order to expedite our savings growth.

I have set it up to put $1,500 a month into our ING. We had set a goal of $22,800 for the year. Obviously we are not off to a great start! We also have a few other small savings vehicles, TD Ameritrade through the Suze Orman deal plus I”m currently putting a couple hundred a month back into my (Her’s) savings account to reimburse myself for the $7k I put down on the car. Obviously it will take 35 months to actually reimburse the amount, but every little bit helps

Her entered the marriage with about $19k total in savings. $7k of that Her put as a down payment on her BMW but there is currently about $12k in savings which Her regularly contributes to by putting any left over amount from her “allowance”.

Can we still make our goal of $22,800? I’m not sure but there is no reason why we can’t try!

This guy says what plenty of us are thinking. It’s about time our politicians expressed some outrage on our behalf.

So you want to get in shape but also don’t want to kill your budget? Well you have options. There are many different gyms out there, with some much more affordable than others. You also have home gym equipment, your standard plyometrics and running, and home workout videos. What works best for you may not work best for someone else either. It all depends on how you can best stay motivated.

I’ve had gym memberships in the past and never fully utilized them. I hated having to drive to the gym and I never took advantage of the classes offered. So for me it was not worth it. However, if you need that motivation of getting out of the house and being around others while working out, then go for it!

Home gym equipment comes in all shapes and sizes from your boxflexes and treadmills at the high end (ie. expensive) to your pushup bars and workout bands (ie. inexpensive). Again, it depends on your level of motivation and what types of exercises work best for you. If cold/wet weather doesn’t bother you, then why would you spend money on a treadmill when you can run outside for free?

A good compromise can be found by combining some of the cheaper/simpler home gym equipment with a few workout videos. I’ve found that they at least motivate me enough that once I start the workout I tend to complete it. I don’t have to travel to the gym. And it’s reasonably priced compared to a lot of the other options. You can get an entire library of videos and equipment for the same amount of money for a single year membership in most gyms. This is the path that we’re currently taking. I’ve just started the P90X program and HERS is doing the BodyJam program. We’ll let you know the results.