A Game of Inches and Penny Pinches

2011: Honeymoon’s Over, Back to Work

Starting net worth: $0

Income:

Leslie: $27,400 (Our school pays by the number of classes you teach. Our incomes could drop as much as $8,000 in a single year. We also have to be hired back each year. So May is a stressful month at this point in our careers.

Ben: $4,000 (More part-time work, less subbing, I (Ben) got hired as a maternity-leave sub for the 2012 school year). I also worked nights at Kohl’s. And tutored at night as well.

How we saved money:

Trying to build an emergency fund, we save as much as we can, but it all stays in cash. I had taken a few courses that covered the stock market in college. At the time, I felt like I was learning the secrets to the universe. But now, in the real world, I realized I had learned very little practical advice from these classes. It was like understanding the engineering inside a car, but without knowing how to turn the key.

I spent what little free time I had taking online courses in investing with a focus on derivatives trading. As of 2011, though, this is all of little use to me. We just don’t have extra money to spend.

We are saving in the ‘usual’ way. We’ve made detailed budgets. We’re clipping coupons and pinching pennies.

We’ve never felt so poor. We are gnawed at by the extravagant lifestyles of those around us.

We managed to save $6,000 by year’s end. Looking, back, that seems impossible in our circumstances. But every little bit helps (a good deal of that $6,000 was in loose change).

How we spent money:

We are going to the good grocery store now, buying relatively good produce. It’s not great, but at least they have broccoli.

Unfortunately, my car died as well now and we have two car payments.

Everything else (which isn’t much) is going toward building an emergency fund.

We watch our spending like I hawk and manage to pay off our credit cards each month. I think the only non-essential thing we spent money on was our Netflix subscription, and we might have suspended that for a while. Memory fails.

Assets at the end of the year

Cash/Equivalents: $6,000

Ending net worth

$6,000

On to 2012 ($6,000 – $9,000)

Back to Income Reports

Closing Thoughts

Man, I wish I knew then what I know now. Even with $6,000 I could have started changing our lives. I just didn’t know what to do with it.

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