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Home Sweet New Home: Willkommen in Deutschland!

We did it! We moved to Germany! We arrived about 2.5 weeks ago and with the exception of not having found an apartment yet, we’re pretty settled in.

Here are some of the highlights of the move and the last few weeks:

A week and a half of not working was NOT enough to prepare for the actual move itself. Even though we’ve known for months that we’d be moving, we were frantically packing until the last minute and that still was not enough time. We definitely have a pile of unorganized things at Richard’s parents house that will have to wait until we visit them later this year.

Zeke “helping” us pack

Saying goodbye to Stella was the hardest part of the move. She started having seizures in December and we later found out that she had a brain tumor, so unfortunately we had to say our final goodbye to her a few days before we left. We wish we didn’t have to say goodbye, but she lived a good long doggy life and we got to spoil her with people food, walks, cuddles and love until the very end.

Good Girl of the Year goes to Stella!

All of the complicated logistics happened before we got on the plane. The last week and a half included selling things, packing our bags, setting things aside for storage, moving the furniture we want to keep to Richard’s parents, and selling my car and Richard’s motorcycle. We also had to pick up random documents and paperwork. Things felt pretty easy once we got on that plane.

After a hectic 48 hours, we finally made it to the plane!

Zeke was a champ on the plane (for the most part). He cried a bit and only made one serious escape attempt, but otherwise his trip was pretty uneventful. He was really good going through both security checkpoints, too. I’ll be writing a more in-depth post about the experience of bringing him across the pond.

This cat travels!

Hamburg is wonderful, but it’s not that easy to find an apartment. So far, we’re loving Hamburg! Things are definitely different here, but they really aren’t all that different. We’re still looking for an apartment, so we’ll be in an Airbnb for a bit (and schlepping our luggage back and forth). We’re hoping to move to our new (to be determined) apartment sometime next month.

We brought 8 bags with us and are having 3 boxes shipped – that’s all!

Richard has started work already and it’s going well for him. I’m taking a much-welcomed break before I start working again in June. I’ve officially been off the clock for a month now and it’s been glorious! I start on June 1, so I only have 2.5 more weeks of freedom. In typical Nicole fashion, I’ve come up with some goals for my month to keep me accountable:

  • Brush up on German: I signed up for four weeks of an intensive language course. This has been taking up the majority of my time. I spend about 4 hours in class and then about 2 hours additionally studying at home. It’s been exhausting, to say the least.
  • Train for half marathon: I finally started to run again after taking a pretty lengthy break after the Richmond Half Marathon last November. I’ve signed up for the Hamburg Halbmarathon which will be at the end of June, so I have a lot of training to do between now and then.
  • Finish wedding thank you notes: Unfortunately, a casualty in our moving commotion was the thank you cards that I ordered a long time ago. They didn’t make it into any of our bags or boxes, so I needed to order new ones. Once they arrive I’ll be able to finally cross that item off of my to do list.
  • Reorganize digital files: Some of my digital files have becomes very disorganized. I need to go through them and get them organized for my own sanity.
  • Find apartment: We need a permanent place to live in Hamburg! We’ve narrowed down our search pretty well. We know what neighborhoods we want to live in, how much we can spend, and so forth. Now we just need to wait for a property to pop up that works (and chooses us!). I was hoping “move and furnish apartment” would be on my list of things to do before starting work, but it appears that it’s going to have to happen after I start.
  • Take care of visa and moving logistics: This item has been pretty slow going, but we need to register our address, apply for visas, open German bank accounts, and other random logistical items. These should be wrapped up before I start work, but they are still ongoing.
  • Plan our travel schedule: One of the most exciting things about living in Germany is that we’re going to be able to travel to so many places! We need to sit down and figure out where we want to go and when we want to go. We’ll wait until after we get settled into our new apartment, but we’d love to aim to go somewhere new about once per month while we’re here.

Hamburg’s Lake Alster on a beautiful day

So that’s that! It still feels surreal that we actually moved to a new country. I’m so excited about the experiences that await us and looking forward to doing something completely new.

May 14, 2017 by
money
Budgeting, Life, Money

Married Life: Rethinking Your Budget After Combining Finances

As I mentioned in my last post, I got married a couple of months ago! What a whirlwind that was! I’ll be posting about our budget and spending for the wedding in a little bit, but I wanted to talk a little bit about how our finances (and financial tracking) have changed since we tied the knot and decided to jump into combining finances with each other.

Before I continue, I do want to note that every situation is different. What works for us might not work for you and vice versa. Finances, especially when it comes to couples combining finances, are very personal and should be tailored to fit your individual needs.

Before combining finances: Separate accounts and separate budgets

Before we got married, our finances looked a bit like this:

  • Separate Accounts – We maintained completely separate bank accounts. We discussed how much we each had, but we never comingled funds.
  • Shared Expenses Split 50/50 – Anything that was a shared expense was split 50/50. There are a bunch of ways you can slice and dice money when you live with a significant other. We don’t have similar incomes, but we also don’t have similar debt levels. Richard earns less but has zero debt. I earn more, but still have my student loans. It worked out pretty well for us to split our shared expenses mostly 50/50 and the “extra” money I earned (when compared to Richard’s income) went to my student loans.
  • Separate Tracking – We both maintained separate Mint accounts. I would go back every month and make sure that my spending categories were displaying correctly. Since Richard would pay for some things and I would pay for some things, this was a way for me to accurately show how my spending was happening across categories.
  • Separate Goals – As I’ve talked about at length on this blog, I’ve had a goal to pay off my student loans by the time I turn 30. Achieving that goal probably isn’t going to happen, considering I have only 2 months left and $27,000 to go. In addition to that goal, I’ve also set savings percentage goals for myself as well as goals around my emergency fund. Before we married, Richard’s goals were less rigorous and defined.

After combining finances: Still mostly separate accounts, but combined budget

We could have made some changes to our personal budgets and accounts prior to getting married. We know plenty of people choose to combine their finances are different points in their relationship – when they move in, when they get engaged, when they get married or never!

We kept things separate until we got married for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I’ve been working towards my big bag student loan goal for a while. Secondly, lack of need. Honestly, we didn’t really see any reason to do it. We decided to combine our finances when we got married because we knew we would be receiving monetary gifts from people and wanted to put those deposits in a shared account and because it would hopefully make things easier from a moving perspective. We’re still not sure what my job situation will be when we move, so we wanted to prepare ourselves to be a one income household.

Here’s how we have things set up now:

  • Mostly separate accounts with a few joint accounts – We opened two joint accounts – savings and checking. We are still working to figure out how we’ll use the joint accounts, since we aren’t planning to get rid of our separate accounts, but for now we’re able to put joint money into them.
  • Shared tracking – I track all of my spending in Mint. I’ve imported all of Richard’s accounts into Mint so I can get a complete sense of our spending as a unit.
  • Shared expenses – Related to the shared tracking, we no longer do our 50/50 split expenses because everything is showing up in Mint. This has been nice, because doing the calculations for our split expenses and then adjusting the categories in Mint did take a bit of time each month.
  • Shared goals – We still need to formalize this one a bit more, but now that we’re treating everything as ours, we have shared financial goals. Priority number one for both of us is still to pay off my loans. The rest is a little up in the air depending on how much job situation turns out and how quickly I can start working when we arrive in Hamburg.

A shift in mindset

For me, the biggest thing about combining finances has been trying to shift my thinking around the cost of things. When we were doing split expenses, I was definitely thinking in terms of what I had to pay for a certain thing. So if a piece of furniture was $100, I would mentally calculate the cost at $50, since that’s ultimately what was coming out of my pocket.

Now, it’s a little different. The $100 is coming out of our pocket, which probably doesn’t sound all that different, but it feels different to me. It’s almost like the cost of everything has doubled overnight! It hasn’t though, so I’m hoping that viewing things from the lens of their entire price will help curb some of our random spending on things.

A liminal state

One of the things that is weird about our first few months of marriage is that we’re actually preparing for a huge move to another country. We’re also dealing with a terminally ill pet. And we’re also trying to take care of some of our own health items before we leave. This means that our spending is not at what I would consider normal levels.

We’ve been spending a ton on pets and healthcare, and will be spending a ton on moving items in the next month or two. We’re also facing the possibility of me being without a job for a month or two. I’ll probably provide an update on this after we get to Germany, because we’ll undoubtedly have some changes as a result of switching currencies and moving to a more cash-based country.

What do you and your significant other do?

March 27, 2017 by
Cost Estimates & Breakdowns, Moving

Should I ship or sell all of my stuff when moving abroad?

One of the big questions for moving abroad that has been plaguing me for a couple months now is: What should we do with all of our stuff? Should we sell it all and start fresh in Germany? Or should we try to ship it over?

I’ve been trying to make this decision from a couple of lenses:

  • Cost
  • Effort
  • Logistics

There are different levels of options: we can sell most things, we can bring most things, or we could find some happy medium. First, let’s start with what amount of stuff we’re even talking about.

What We’d Bring (or Sell)

We currently live in a 750 sq ft 1 bedroom apartment. We have a small storage unit down the hall from our apartment and also keep a number of items stored at Richard’s parents’ house. I like to think that we don’t have too much stuff, but things can really add up when you start to investigate what is in all of your drawers and nooks and crannies. A few months back, I did a sweep of our stuff after reading the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. We got rid of a lot of things, but there are still many items that probably could go.

What we won’t bring

There are a number of items that we know right off the bat that we will not bring with us when moving abroad, due to various reasons:

  • Electronics with plugs – Germany and the U.S. have electrical systems that run on different voltages. That’s why you need converters and adapters when you go over to Europe on vacation. Our TV (which is super old anyways), kitchen electronics, scanner, hair dryer, straightener, air purifiers, printer and lamps will not be coming with us. We will sell most, but store a couple of items like our KitchenAid mixer, CrockPot, and wine fridge.
  • Cars & motorcycle – Each of us had one car plus Richard has a motorcycle. We won’t be bringing any of these. We’ve already sold one car and plan to sell the other two vehicles before we leave. We figure that it is not worth the hassle or cost to bring them over. Plus, we are moving to a city that has excellent public transportation. We’ll be living the car free life for a while.
  • Couch – We have a fairly compact couch that we purchased from IKEA when we moved to Virginia a few years ago. We like it, but we have no idea what our new apartment is going to look like. We don’t want to risk moving a fairly inexpensive couch that we might not be able to fit into our new place.
  • Childhood mementos and most photo albums – I’ve been lugging a few boxes around with me that include childhood momentos. Richard is working on whiddling his down to a couple boxes as well. These will be safe and sound at Richard’s parents house while we are exploring Europe.
  • Plants, flammables, and other restricted items – There are a number of things that you aren’t allowed to bring with you to a new country. Plants and flammables are the most relevant to us. Firearms and porn are also on the list of prohibited items, but those don’t really apply to our situation.
  • Consumables, personal care items and cleaning supplies – We don’t need to bring toilet paper, cleaning supplies or things like shampoo with us.

What we will definitely bring

  • Original university degrees, transcripts, birth certificates, marriage certificates and other documents – Germans are big on actually seeing your flesh and blood documents. We’ll bring these with us.
  • Pet – Zeke will be coming with us to Germany! Unfortunately, Stella has a terminal illness, so she won’t be making the trek with us. Now let me go cry a million tears…
  • Plates, flatware, and glasses – We just received some new kitchenware as wedding gifts and we have quite a collection of wine glasses. We’re planning to bring these along with us since they are rather compact and mean a lot to us.
  • Clothes – We’ll probably trim down to the necessities, but we have no plans to trash what we’ve got and start over. We’ll slowly assimilate to dressing like Germans as we buy new items there.
  • Computers and small battery- or USB-based electronics – We’ll be able to bring our computers and a number of small electronics like our cell phones, electric toothbrushes, and a few other items.

What we’re still deciding on

So we have a number of things that will come and a number that won’t, but we also have a number of things that we’re not sure about yet. We couuuuuld bring them, but we could not bring them.

  • Dressers and other small furniture
  • Picture frames and other decor
  • Bookshelves
  • Office chair and desks
  • Bicycles
  • Extra mattress and bedframe
  • Books, DVDs, and other media
  • Wine
  • Mattress, bedframe and bed linens
  • Dining table

Our Moving Options

So that’s all of the stuff we’re talking about. We basically have a few options for moving things:

  • Move stuff by sea in a 20 ft container
  • Move stuff by sea in a small cube (200-300 cu sq ft)
  • Pack everything in suitcases and bring as excess baggage on the plane
  • Ship items in one off boxes through USPS, FedEx or UPS

These options vary in terms of their cost, ease of coordinating here vs. there, and timing that we would receive our options. Let’s take a closer look at each option.

Moving Stuff by Sea

The first two options involve putting all of our belongings onto a ship and sending them over to Germany by sea. The initial quotes that I’ve received have been anywhere from $2,000 – $6,000. The final cost depends on how much you send, what services are included, and various port and agent charges. Logistically, there are some important things to consider:

  • Timing – It can take a long time to ship items by sea. We would need to go a period of time before we leave and after we arrive without the items that we ship. This may not be a big deal for some items that we ship that we don’t use everyday. However, for an item like a bed, that would mean we would have to figure out where to sleep for 6 to 8 weeks. The time estimates are also not guaranteed. Your stuff could arrive earlier than expected, but it could also arrive later than expected.
  • Packing – Packing and inventorying of our items is included in the price. If we ship our stuff, we want to leave the packing up to the professionals. There are a lot of rules and regulations of how you need to document your items for customs officials, so it will be infinitely easier and more efficient for someone else to handle that dirty work.
  • Flexibility for Volume – You have a lot of options when it comes to how much you can ship. We can ship a few of our items or we can ship a larger load in our own 20 ft container. This gives us some flexibility around choosing the most cost efficient option for us.
  • Cost – $6,000 is a lot of money! Plus, if you lug it there with you, you will eventually need to bring it back to the U.S. Do we really think the things we’re planning to ship are worth the $12,000 it would cost to bring them there and back? For the most part, we’re still in the IKEA phase of our furniture lives, so this is a very legitimate question. There can also be fees that spring up when the items get to the new country with customs and the port.
  • Finding a Vendor We Can Trust – If you’ve ever googled an international moving company, you’ll understand that these websites are like the wild west. It’s impossible to get a straightforward quote. No one has positive reviews. It’s confusing. I’m really nervous about picking a mover and then having it turn out poorly because I didn’t think to ask the right question or I just got unlucky.

Bringing Excess Baggage by Air

If we want to completely get around finding an international mover and dealing with all of that, we could try to bring our stuff with us on the plane as excess baggage. Like sea, there are important things to consider with this method of moving:

  • Timing – Our stuff would be with us, so we wouldn’t have to worry about not having the items to use while they are in transit.
  • Cost – Excess baggage can be expensive, but depending on how much we bring with us, it could still be less than the cost of shipping things by sea.
  • Lugging our stuff – Our plan is to fly into Frankfurt and take a day to settle down. Then we will take the train from Frankfurt to Hamburg. We are doing this because we will have Zeke with us and we figured that they will want a break from travel before we make it to our final destination. If we bring our items on the plane with us, we will need to lug them on the train with us. This may prove to be rather difficult, because I do not think any of the trains in Germany have baggage cars.
  • Flexibility for Future Trips – We have the option of bringing a few luggage items with us and then having visitors bring additional ones for us at a later time. This will possibly be a good option for the items that we are fine living without for a few months, such as decor items and other nice to haves.
  • Safety of stuff – A major risk with bringing stuff with us on the plane is that baggage handlers aren’t exactly known for their light hand with handling luggage. If we bring fragile items, we are at the mercy of the baggage handlers who may or may not be throwing our luggage around while we’re not looking. Do we want to take the risk of trying to pack our silverware, plates, and wine glasses in our luggage or just trust them on the open sea?

Cost Analysis

I mentioned that we want to make a decision about what to do based on cost, logistics and sustainability. Cost is easily going to be the biggest predictor of what we do. So how do we measure the final cost? Well, that’s what is a little unclear, but I think I can figure it out. First, let’s start with our known and set costs.

Things We Know We’ll Need to Buy

There are things that we won’t bring with us, so there are things we know we’re going to need to purchase when we get to Germany. Here are some high level estimates to get us started. Most of the prices came from IKEA and Amazon.de.

  • TV – ~$1,000 depending on what model we want to get
  • TV Stand – $100
  • Couch – $600 gets us a similar IKEA couch to what we have now
  • Toaster Oven – $75
  • Hair Dryer – $35
  • Air Purifier – $400
  • Lamps – $200
  • Consumables & cleaning supplies – $200
  • Bathroom accessories & toiletries – $100
  • Laundry basket & rack – $40
  • Clothes hangers (wood & plastic) – $50
  • Trash cans – $50
  • Wall & alarm clocks – $20
  • Side tables – $60
  • Wardrobe – $600 Apparently a lot of apartments in Germany do not have a closet. We may need to purchase ourselves a wardrobe. Hopefully we won’t need one of these, but it’s on here just in case.
  • Coffee maker & grinder – $100
  • Drinking glasses – $20

Total: ~$4,000 (I rounded up because I tend to underestimate these types of lists)

Things We Might Need to Buy

  • Dressers – $500 will get us a nice set of Hemnes if we decide we don’t want the bottom of the barrel IKEA options.
  • Desk & Chair – $300 will get us a nice desk chair and a simple IKEA desk
  • Litter box unit – $200 to replace the cat litter station I built for Zeke when we moved to Virginia
  • Bookshelf – $100
  • Night stand – $40
  • Dining table – $200
  • Dining chairs – $200
  • Mattress & bedframe – $2000 for a comparable mattress and bedframe if we decided to just start over
  • Bicycles – $300 assuming we can get some decent secondhand bicycles
  • Rug – $50
  • Decor and other items – $200 to get us started
  • Pots & pans – $300
  • Towels & other linens – $200

Total: ~$4,500

So, what’s the best way of estimating this? I’m not actually sure to be honest. It’s not a clear 1-to-1 on what we will bring vs. not bring and what we will need to buy vs. not buy. We have the option to sell some of our items here in the U.S., which will affect our overall net cost. We also are not planning to replace every item that we sell or leave behind in Germany.

Scenario 1: Ship ~200 cu ft of items

Let’s assume we decide to ship the following:

  • Mattress, bedframe, bed linens
  • Dining table
  • Plates & flatware
  • Wine glasses
  • Pots & pans
  • Winter items
  • Extra pet items
  • Some decor
  • Physics books
  • Computer
  • Speakers

Total cost of shipping: $5,000 (excluding insurance)

We would bring the following with us on the plane:

  • Clothing
  • Toiletries
  • Pet items
  • Living essentials

Let’s assume all of these items fit into two large and 1 small checked bag, 1 carry-on, 1 pet carrier, and 2 bookbags.

Total baggage fees: $100 (our first 2 checked bags are free)

With with both scenarios, we know we’ll likely be buying up to $4,000 worth of items, regardless if we ship a lot or a little. Additionally, we would need to purchase dressers, desk, computer chair, litter box unit, bookshelf, night stand, dining chairs, bicycles, rug, and additional decor. This will likely run us another $2,000.

In total, shipping, luggage fees, things we’ll buy regardless, and things we’ll buy because we won’t ship them will be about $11,100.

Scenario 2: Checked luggage and boxes

Let’s assume we aren’t shipping anything by sea. That means we’ll need to bring everything in checked bags. On the way to Germany, let’s assume we bring 1 carry-on, 2 bookbags, 1 pet carrier, and 2 large checked bags, 1 medium checked bag, and 1 small checked bag.

We’d be able to bring the following.

Large checked bag 1

  • Household items

Large checked bag 2

  • Richard clothing
  • Sports stuff
  • Pet food, litter and supplies

Medium checked bag 3

  • Nicole clothing
  • Toiletries
  • Towels

Small checked bag

  • Household items

Carry-on 2

  • Flatware

Bookbags 1 & 2

  • Laptop
  • Chromebook
  • iPad
  • Critical documents
  • Other electronics
  • Travel pillows
  • Kindles

Boxes to Ship

  • Computer
  • Speakers
  • Wine glasses
  • Physics books

To bring four checked bags, we will spend $200. The cheapest shipping seems to be with USPS. We can ship 50lb boxes to Hamburg for $150 each. Let’s assume we need to ship 5 boxes. That’s puts us at $750.

When we arrive in Germany, we would have a lot of things we would need to buy. We’d need to buy all of the things that we know we need to purchase regardless, which will be $4,000. Additionally, we’d need to buy all of the things in the “we might need to get these” category, which is around $4,500. That puts us at $9,450 to bring what we can in checked luggage, ship a couple of boxes and buy the rest when we arrive in Germany.

Next Steps

We’ve decided to move forward with Scenario 2. We’re going to load up as much as we can in our luggage and then ship a couple of boxes with the rest of our stuff. The cost is cheaper and we have more flexibility to keep the price low (and possibly lower than what I estimated above). Logistically, it will also be easier, because we’ll have our stuff with us and we can bring it through customs rather than having to deal with a port and all of the logistics that come with that. From an effort standpoint, we probably have a little more work since we’ll have to back our shipping boxes ourselves and really make sure we are able to sell, store or donate everything that doesn’t fit in our luggage plus a couple of boxes.

Moving abroad is going to be quite the adventure!

 

March 20, 2017 by
Costs of Moving Locally
Cost Estimates & Breakdowns, Life, Money, Moving

The Cost of Moving Locally

I’ve been in Arlington for what seems like not that long, but has actually been a while! It’s almost time to resign my lease, so I figured it would be a good time to see what the cost of moving locally might be. I really don’t want to move, because I like my current apartment a lot, but I could potentially be convinced to move if it worked out well in my favor financially AND my new place has all of the same pros as what I currently have.

Expenses Involved in Moving Locally

First, I want to see what the costs of moving locally will be. Then, I’ll look at how those map up with the pros and cons of my current apartment. Here are the major costs that I foresee coming along with a local move:

  • Move Out & In Fees: Most of the buildings in this area charge a move in/out fee to reserve the elevator and loading dock, which generally is in the $400 to $500 range. That means I’m going to have to pay $1,000 to move somewhere. If I were to move apartments this year, I would need to pay this fee twice: once to move out of my current apartment and once to move into my new apartment.
  • 1 Day of PTO & Time: In addition to paying a fee to move out or in, I would need to take a whole day off of work in order to do so. Many apartment buildings have restrictions on when you can move in. Spoiler alert: it’s usually on a weekday, hence needing to take a day off from work. Packing and unpacking is also a huge time suck. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult this time around, but these things always take so MUCH time!
  • Security Deposit: Knock on wood, I should get all or most of my security deposit back when I move out of my current apartment. However, you don’t generally get your security deposit back until after you move out and you need to provide one for the new apartment before you can move in. That means that I’ll need to front some additional cash until I get back my current security deposit. My next security deposit could be anywhere between $2000 and $3000, depending on the cost of our new apartment.
  • Pet Deposit: In addition to a security deposit, I’ll also need to provide money for a pet deposit and/or fee. Some places have a non-refundable pet fee while others have a refundable pet deposit. Either way, this will be another $300-$500.
  • Movers: I’ll be damned if I have to move myself again, despite it not being the most frugal move one could make. After such a rough move last year, I’ve sworn to myself that I won’t be doing it on my own again. Renting movers for an afternoon would likely cost somewhere around $500-800.
  • Moving Supplies: We don’t have any boxes or moving supplies left after our last move, so we would need to do that whole shebang again. We were able to save money by picking up free boxes from our local liquor store and would try to do that again, but it’s likely we could spend around $100 on other moving supplies. Things we might spend money on are wrappers for the furniture, bubble wrap, and packing tape.

So, when all is said and done, it could cost anywhere between $1,900 and $2,400 to move locally. On top of that, I could need to front $2000 to $3000 for the new deposit depending on how much my new apartment costs.

Weighing the Pros & Cons of Moving Locally

It will be a big chunk of change to move, that’s for sure. However, could it be worth it? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of my current apartment.

Pros

  • Easy Commute for Nicole & Richard: On the best days, I’m only 20 minutes from work. I have the option to take the Metro which is less than 3 blocks away or I can ride my bike to work in about 15 minutes. Richard drives to work, but he’s typically able to do so in about 30-45 minutes, depending on traffic.
  • Pet-friendly: We have two pets and do not pay extra for them on a monthly basis. I did need to pay a pet deposit.
  • Easy Access to I-395/I-95: We are only a couple of minutes’ drive from the highway, which means Richard can easily get to work, we can easily drive to Richard’s parents’ house, we can easily drive to the nearest Wegman’s, and we’re able to easily get to our rock climbing gym.
  • Reserved parking: We have a reserved parking spot that is included in our rent and Richard is able to rent an additional space to park his motorcycle.
  • Building amenities: We have excellent building staff, an ample gym, and a rooftop pool. The gym is a huge benefit, because Richard doesn’t need to have a gym membership anywhere else.
  • In-unit laundry: We have in-unit laundry, which is really convenient.
  • 1st floor unit: It wouldn’t be the end of the world to be on a higher floor, but being on the first floor is really convenient for taking out our dog. It saves a few minutes each day, which is nice.

Cons

  • No private outdoor space: In a perfect world, I would like to have a balcony attached to our apartment.
  • Not 100% hardwood: With two pets, we’d prefer to rent an apartment with 100% hardwood. Our bedroom is carpeted, which isn’t too bad.
  • No den or second bedroom: We make do with 1 bedroom and only 750 sq ft, but it would be so much better to have just a little bit more room for a den or second bedroom.
  • Only 1 bathroom: In the same vein as above, we are in a tight space, so we only have 1 bathroom. In a perfect world, we would have at least 1.5!

Neutrals

  • Neighborhood: We live in Clarendon, which is a pretty upscale neighborhood in Arlington. We are VERY close to lots of restaurants, bars, and shopping. We even are really close to some of the doctors and dentists that we’ve acquired since moving here. We really enjoy living in Clarendon, but it would be nice to check out other neighborhoods now that we’ve been here for a bit. We could look in Ballston, Virginia Square or Rosslyn if we wanted to stay in VA, but have (potentially) cheaper rent without going too far away from my work or Richard’s work. Alternatively, we could try looking in DC proper as well, but I’m unsure if we would be able to find something in our desired price point that would be as convenient for our commutes.

What would it take for me to move?

Right now, you can see that the pros of my apartment far outweigh the cons. Looking briefly at what’s out there, I’m pretty sure it would be difficult to beat our current situation. We currently pay $2,075 per month in rent and Richard pays an additional $75 for his motorcycle parking. Our rent cost includes a reserved parking spot as well as our 2 pets. There are three situations that I could see us deciding to move:

  • Extreme rent increase: After doing the math, I know that it could cost up to $2,400 to move locally. That means that any rent increase below $200 could end up being the same as it would be to move locally, if we were to find an apartment with the same rent that we pay now. If our landlord increases our rent by MORE than $200 per month, that is when I will likely start looking at other options.
  • Super deal: I have my eye out at some of the apartment listings just to be aware of what’s going on. If I find a super deal that is either $200 less than what we pay per month or $100 less (assuming rent goes up by $100), it might be worth considering to move as well.
  • No choice: Lastly, a reason I might choose to move is if we don’t really have a choice. We rent from a landlord who owns a condo unit. I think it’s unlikely, but she could always choose to stop renting our her unit.

Fingers crossed that none of the three situations above happen! I’m rooting to stay in the same apartment for another year!

Have you moved locally recently? How much did it end up costing? Why did you decide to take the plunge?

August 11, 2015 by
Deconstructing the Grocery Budget
Budgeting, Food, Money

Deconstructing the Grocery Budget

If you’ve paid any attention at all to my monthly budget updates, you’ll know that I plan to spend $350 per month on food costs for me only. Since Richard and I split food costs, this means we are budgeting for $700 in food for both of us per month. Clearly, this isn’t a small sum of money. Lately, I’ve been thinking that there is likely a way for us to work to decrease spending in this category. I’ve also been thinking that the number that I’ve put together is pretty arbitrary.

Grocery Desires

Before I get to the numbers, I wanted to articulate what is important to us when we go to the grocery store. I often see people online claiming they spend like $400 for a family of four per month on groceries. As someone who spends wayyy more than that for a household of 2, that seems pretty extreme. It also makes me question: What are you buying? What kind of food are you even making?

The quality of what we are eating is pretty important to both of us, so if $200 is getting us a lot of processed items per month, I’d rather continue paying the $700. So, what is important to us?

  • Minimally processed foods
  • High protein, low carb diet
  • Minimal added sugars
  • No artificial sweeteners (ever!)
  • High quality coffee
  • Quick and easy recipes that can be cooked in double batches
  • Some organic items, but not really a necessity

It actually seems like a pretty simple list, but I know it’s harder to translate these wants into a lower grocery budget.

Staples

Each week, we purchase a number of staples that aren’t necessarily incorporated into specific recipes. A typical week (and costs) for our staples includes:

  • 3 half gallons of almond milk – $8.97
  • 3 packages of dry Roasted Edamame seeds – $5.37
  • Wheat fajitas – $2.79
  • Peanut butter – $5 (every few weeks)
  • 1 to 2 packages of crunchy snacks (e.g. roasted chickpeas, lentil chips) – up to $10
  • 8 oz of coffee – about $10 per week

So, each week, we are spending about $40 on staples. Assuming 4 weeks are in a month, we spend $160 on staples. We already get the store brand for almond milk and don’t always get crunchy snacks. The one area I know we can cut back on is coffee. The only problem is that we really enjoy good coffee and haven’t quite found a good place to get whole beans at a reasonable price. The one good thing we have to look forward to is the fact that Richard recently started a new job and isn’t drinking as much coffee at home, which will help reduce our coffee drinking.

Meals Needed

We strive to eat most of our meals at home and try to eat out only one night a week (although, depending on what is happening, it sometimes turns into two nights per week). Now that I’m thinking of trying to really tune our budget and make sure our budget is actually grounded in reality, I figured I would start by figuring out how many meals we need to make from our groceries per month.

Okay, so to break it down, this is the number of meals I need to account for each month:

  • Breakfast: 7 days x 2 people x 4 weeks = 56 meals
  • Lunch: 5 days x 2 people x 4 weeks = 40 meals
  • Dinner: 6 days x 2 people x 4 weeks = 48 meals

For lunches, I assumed that we need to account for 5 lunches per week to account for each of us having the option to buy lunch an average of once per week and having a weekend lunch out. If we eat all breakfasts at home and have dinner out once per week, we need a total of 144 meals per month.

Costs Per Meal

Now that we know how many meals we need and what our staple costs are, we can figure out what our cost per meal should be. Once I know what our per meal costs should be, I can start to figure out two things: a) what our budget should be and b) which recipes will help stay within budget.

Even Cost Per Meal

Our currently budget is $700 per month. Our staples cost around $150 per month. If we assume that the rest of the budget is going to meal costs and all of those meals will cost the same, we should aim to make recipes that cost less than $3.81 per serving.

To give an ideal of how the cost per serving might be affected by different budgets:

  • $700 – $160 = $540 or $3.75 per serving
  • $600 – $160 = $440 or $3.05 per serving
  • $500 – $160 = $340 or $2.36 per serving
  • $400 – $160 = $240 or $1.66 per serving

Right now, I’m a little skeptical of the $500 and $400 per month budgets. Trying to stay under $2.50 per serving seems a little unrealistic for all meals considering we do eat meat and value high quality ingredients. But hey, this is still in thought experiment and I might find myself surprised by the number of recipes that I find that meet our grocery needs/desires list.

Breakfasts Cost Less

Another approach we could take is assuming that breakfast costs will be less than lunch and dinner costs. This seems like a reasonable way to plan things, since our breakfasts tend to be hearty but lighter than our lunches and dinners. In general, breakfast ingredients also tend to cost less. Lunch and dinner will always have the same per serving cost, because we do not make special lunches. We simply bring leftovers from dinner for lunch the next day.

If we assume that average breakfast costs will not exceed $2.50 per serving on average, we can figure out what our costs can be for our other meals. If we have 56 breakfasts that cost us $2.49 each on average, that will cost a total of $140 per month. Let’s see how that affects the dinner and lunch per serving costs:

  • $700 = $160 staples +$140 breakfasts (56) + $400 (88 meals); $4.54 per lunch/dinner serving
  • $600 =$160 staples + $140 breakfasts (56) + $300 (88 meals); $3.40 per lunch/dinner serving
  • $500 =$160 staples + $140 breakfasts (56) + $200 (88 meals); $2.27 per lunch/dinner serving
  • $400 =$160 staples + $140 breakfasts (56) + $100 (88 meals); $1.13 per lunch/dinner serving

Comparing the two sets of estimates, if we get breakfast down to $2.50 on average, we are given a little more leeway for lunch and dinner when we spend either $700 or $600 total on groceries. However, if we are spending $500 or $400 on groceries, we would actually be spending less on lunches and dinners than we are on breakfasts per serving.

Redefining the Grocery Budget

Now that I have a better idea of what different budgets can get me, it’s time to go out and find some recipes that will help us actually get us there. The most opportunity that I currently see for reducing our grocery budget is in the lunch/dinner category and potentially the breakfast category. I think regardless of where we end up, figuring out the per serving costs of our recipes will be a good gut check for whether or not we should decide to make it and whether or not it aligns with our goal to try to reduce our grocery spending (or at least make it more predictable).

How much do you spend per month on groceries? What do you do to reign in spending?

July 21, 2015 by