Keeping Food Expenses Down

While I haven't gone so far as to start with the Ramen Noodles, I did see one of their PR people interviewed on tv a few weeks ago; Ramen is cheap, easy and sometimes those are the only priorities.

I've mentioned before that a church near my house has a free food day and those going for food drive better cars than I do; they're the ones who are overextended and in big houses they can't afford. I also learned that someone at work, who is in a financial management program, has been criticized by others for accepting food that someone else gets from a food shelf. Someone's father gets the food and is given too much so it would otherwise go to waste so why not give part of it to someone who's happy to have it?

My point of view may be colored by my childhood; my grandma lived in a senior citizen's high rise and because of her low income, qualified for USDA programs. She kept the honey, milk and butter but took the cheese and passed it on to us. Her reasoning is that she qualified for it, so she took it.

Some people swear by a combination of shopping at Wal-Mart for non-perishable foods and Aldi for perishables. Aldi isn't that convenient to access where I live so I don't think about it and don't go that often.

There are a couple of other programs that provide lower-cost foods. Angel Food is a national program so may be available in your area. I haven't tried either the local program or national one; I do pretty well with sales, coupons and coupons for buy-one-get-one-free offers at my grocery store.

I'm looking forward to Farmers market season so I can have fresh local food.

Your Resume will be Kept on File

We've all been told that our resumes would be kept on file. Most of the time it seems like a throwaway line, so you don't feel bad about not getting the job, or decide to hate the company. While it likely is at times, I have had calls back from companies who kept my resume.

In fact, one time I ended up getting the job. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I took the job. I ended up working there for a short period of time as it wasn't a good fit for me on many levels. I had been working as an editor, dealing with content and went to a job with the same title, at another fairly small, very dysfunctional company, but with work that was far less interesting. It was really a project manager position rather than editorial, but of course there was no way for me to discern that before starting the job.

I haven't actually had anyone tell me they'd keep my resume on file lately, though the associates at my last contract attorney position told me to keep in touch and let them know if I become available again. They still have one of my colleagues doing contract work; they talk about hiring her in a staff attorney position but have not done so as of yet. I don't think the firm has had layoffs, though it can't be her work that stops them from making her permanent. They really like her and are happy to have her.

Tax Refunds

Because I procrastinate too much, I spent Wednesday evening doing taxes. It should've been fine but it wasn't; I used the same super-easy service that I used last year but with glitches this time.

In the end, my taxes got done and I've had confirmation, both from the IRS and from the state, that they went through. I'm getting a refund from both sources, thanks to a required contribution to a pension fund, which lowers my income, a deferred compensation fund that is optional and to which I divert almost more than I can afford; at the same time, not getting any younger, I can't afford not to beef up my pension fund. The other big thing was claiming interest on student loan payments. Capturing the full amount of the credit only makes me wish it was larger. My interest payments exceeded by far the allotted amount. With the massive student loan debt that's out there in this economy, why is it so small. It isn't just lawyers who went to private schools these days who have massive debt and are underemployed!

I guessed what my refund would be, without even looking at my tax information before doing so. My guess was a bit high, but only by $200. The resulting amount is sufficient to pay off miscellaneous bills I want to get rid of, including a medical bill, and to have a fairly significant amount to add to my savings. That's going to be important.

Are you worried about Layoffs?

It seems that most people think layoffs are more likely to affect others with whom they work; while the last layoff I experienced was from contract work, I wasn't terribly surprised. It wasn't very busy, there were three of us, there was a new manager who didn't know us very well and my strongest advocate was out on sick leave, so it wasn't a shock to me.

I don't know if I'm just more cynical, realistic, or what; in the end, I'm in a stronger position right now. The work I'm doing needs to be done and there isn't someone else on hand with the skills and the time to do it. So I'm fine for now. I'm also working somewhere that doesn't expect to have layoffs, but will have some summer positions that go unfilled and has other positions that have gone unfilled.

Branding Yourself

These days, everything is branded, so no big surprise that people are told to market themselves in job searches as Brand You! Because there isn't enough pressure just from having the job search, and there isn't enough pressure from knowing there's a ton of competition, and there isn't enough pressure from knowing that the economy sucks and the likelihood that you're going to be chosen for an interview isn't increasing with the distance from receipt of your diploma.

I don't have my name out there on too many webpages; it's still on a few job sites and on LinkedIn. I'm not on Facebook, though just today someone expressed surprise about that; apparently it isn't possible to like the internet without embracing Facebook. I'm on a couple of sites, including LinkedIn and I find it difficult to manage without having a plan.

In my area, there are actually people who run classes for use of social media, which is great for those who have money to pay for that sort of thing and have a need to fill. I'm thinking of anyone who has a small business and gets contacts through word-of-mouth. Especially for those who provide services. I even saw a CLE that addressed social media.

For my purposes, my name isn't online for too many reasons and I'm fine with that. If I had a less unique name, I would be more likely to be on more sites; since employers now routinely google people, it seems that discretion is the better part of valor and stupid pictures of ones youth are better off in boxes.

Blood Diamonds and other Conflict Minerals

I know women who don't want diamonds as they sometimes fund war; whoever controls the diamond mines in some African countries use the profits from the sales thereof to buy guns and ammo.

The new thing to avoid are conflict minerals from the Congo. Congress is working on legislation. Personally, I don't have much to worry about; I'm not in a position to be buying diamonds or other gemstones at this time. If I was? I'd be more likely to buy vintage jewelry, the original funding for which would likely have benefited the British Empire, back in the days during which the sun always shone upon it.

I'm interested to learn more about the legislation.

Privacy

Do we still have an expectation of privacy? When I was in Law School, I wrote a paper that included a section on privacy. I believe the question was whether an employee with an office had the expectation of privacy for a phone conversation when the office door was shut. At that time, pre-Facebook, in some jurisdictions, the employee did have the expectation of privacy.

In my workplace, I have a door on my office, but have been advised that the walls are thin as it's new construction and there is a phone room in a hallway with no offices, that's next to the elevator, in the atrium. That should provide privacy as there's no reason anyone would be standing there longer than it takes for the elevator to arrive in a four story building.

Technology is having a huge impact on the reasonableness and will likely result in a change in the law; is the reasonableness test reasonable in these days of Google cars putting your neighborhood online.

Challenge

Challenge: Use up two books of postage stamps before postage rates go up again.

Why? Because they're Christmas stamps.

Method: Pay bills by check. Mail them in.

Requirements: Planning ahead. Money

Difficulties: Did I mention planning ahead? Or money?

Extreme tactic: Writing letters. Sending Easter Cards.

Other options: Going to the Post Office. Buying one or two cent stamps, using them in conjunction with the old stamps.

While I agree that saving money is a good thing, online payments aren't always the best. Why? If you're anything like me, the only thing stopping that check from bouncing is the fact that you can fudge it a bit by mailing it in on the due date so it arrives at the same time your bank account gets replenished.

Gardening

While I don't garden myself, simply because I'm likely to commit herbicide by providing a draught or a flood, it's gardening season and people are getting their seeds and seedlings together so they can have fabulous, fresh fruit and vegetables again.

I ended up not going with the farm share this year because I couldn't rationalize the up-front cost with not cleaning up my small bills. That's more important to me right now than random produce later. I also live and work near farmers markets so I know that fresh food will be available in convenient locations.

What Charities aren't intended to do

I recently read an article in the BBC about a British charity, the head of which is implicated in procuring a weapons cache found at a Madrassa in Bangladesh. What has this to do with the law, CLE's or the US?

I once met a group of foreign gentlemen who were setting up a non-profit; based on what they had to say about it, it seemed that their objective was to overthrow the current government from their country of origin. You know, usual banana-republic type story with despotic regime overthrown and new regime as despotic or more so than the last.

Because the country in question is poor and the infrastructure isn't as sophisticated as that of the US in the 19th century, combined with the government experience of these gents, they had a far-reaching agenda. Did I mention that in large part these were former government employees? So, rather than starting small with their non-profit, they had a lot of big ideas. Great ideas but no funding for them and because they had been government employees, no understanding that they weren't going to be as big as say, the Red Cross immediately; the more I talked to them, the more it seemed like their true objective was to overthrow the current government of their former country. I'm not aware of immediate plans that they had, it was just the impression I got, based on the breadth of their plans for the country.

It was interesting to me to see a parallel in the story about the UK charity and its jihadist Madrassa. I guess it isn't unreasonable to get the idea that a charity would be used for improper purposes.

Treating Each Employee like a Records Manager

Recently, Gabe talked about treating each employee like a records manager. That's what I'm working on. Policies are being created, records retention schedules updated and hopefully position descriptions and annual reviews will have a percentage of time to be devoted to records management. My workplace, like many other offices, doesn't have support staff to deal with records management, yet people don't understand its relation to themselves.

People keep too many documents; case in point, a review I was on in which, after the review a bunch of boxes were located somewhere crazy, like the CEO's basement or storage area at work. Because the documents weren't scanned in as they hadn't been captured in any of the previous go-rounds, an agency was contacted from which 50 or so attorneys were procured for supposedly a couple of weeks. Nor were we told it was paper. Imagine the frustration and annoyance we felt upon learning a) it was paper and b) the review would last a day or so, maybe. Depending on whether you obtained one of the last boxes.

That, and a review for which some of the employees whose documents had been collected, literally had everything since they had started. 16 or so years previously. Now, dealing with IP may be different than some other areas, as after 16 years a patent would still be enforced; however, many companies have an electronic records person who strictly deals with ensuring that copies of all relevant documents for a given project are in the project file. Once the project is over and docs have been turned in, the theory is that this is the official record of the project and anyone who worked on any aspect of it is able to delete their copies of the final and any previous renditions of the project.

As a practical matter, this would streamline both the production time for discovery as there would be fewer documents to collect and would have a huge impact on the actual review as some reviews eliminate duplicates but so often a duplicate isn't an exact duplicate so would still be there. But never just one copy because there seems to be a minimum requirement to keep five copies of any electronic document. Mind you, that's each person's quota, so if 10 people touch the document, there are a minimum of 50 copies of it saved electronically. If people would buy into the fact that records are kept centrally and there's no need to keep that paper copy or the series of renditions leading up to the final one, it would help the bottom line greatly.

People being how they are, it's likely that multiple copies of documents won't go away so there will be tons of work for document review attorneys once the lawsuits get rolling. Every big player in the financial sector is up for at least one lawsuit, right?

The Legal Profession

I keep reading about the legal profession and changes it needs to make. Recent ideas have included changes to billing, concept and pay structure. Which is great, but what about those of us with crazy huge student loans and no visible means of support therefor?

I can see why each of the above makes sense; the cloud-computing model of law firms can charge less because it has less infrastructure, but for large firms and work in complicated business models such as corporate work, it makes far less sense. While I realize that companies are becoming frugal and wanting to pay less, they also need to pay for the expertise that they want to use.

It would also be great if law school tuition went down to affordable rates, but higher education, like everything else, has a certain financial structure. In this economy, it's more likely that donations will go down and tuition will go up, especially at private schools.

It's all well and good to say things need to change, but my guess is that law firms never had crazy bonuses like Wallstreet did and it feels like people are lumping attorneys in with the financial players who looted their companies.

Groceries, Coupons and Fanaticism

I'm not a coupon-clipping fanatic, though I know people save a lot by using coupons; I do but don't obsess over it. Most of the coupon savings are direct from my grocery store. I buy things I know I'll use and will stockpile a bit but at some point you need to use it all. I try not to buy extra, unnecessary things, which can vary with the day. I waffle about some things that I like but don't truly need. Sometimes I'll buy, other times I won't.

I don't think complete deprivation is the answer; if I did, I'd be buying Ramen noodles, hummus and peanut butter. And nothing else. Instead, I buy fruit that I like, but hold out for sales for pineapple. I need fruit but it doesn't have to be pineapple. A couple weeks ago I bought pineapple 2 for $5 for the first time since Christmas. I just don't need it for $5 apiece.

I'm also trying to use what I have; you'd be amazed at all the duplication in my pantry. I have multiples of the same herbs and spices, and tons of condiments to use up. I don't need to buy salad dressing for a long time since I have a stockpile of it. While it isn't that expensive, I just need to use what I have and not keep so many varieties around. I'm trying to pay more attention to whether I already have one and wait until I'm out or nearly so to buy another. It doesn't sound like a big savings because eventually I spend the money, but I defer that expenditure until I really need it, so instead of having money tied up in canned goods and condiments, I wait until I'm actually going to use the item. Unless it's on sale and I buy ahead because I know I'll need it soon or know I'll use the item frequently by the time it goes on sale again.

Finances and Conventional Wisdom

Conventional wisdom used to indicate that the way to reduce debt and plan to be more secure in the future was to pay off any serial debt such as credit cards by first paying off the smallest balance or the highest interest. You would at least pay minimum + monthly interest so the balance would actually decrease. The smallest balance is easiest to pay off, so you feel a sense of accomplishment. Then, you were supposed to add the amount you paid on that bill to the next smallest/highest and so on, until you had eliminated your serial debt. That's the method I used a few years ago when I had way too much debt. It took awhile, but was effective.

Today's conventional wisdom is different. Because the world's economy has imploded and even in the world of document review there isn't too much work lately, the new plan is to pay minimum balances on everything and stash a little more into savings. Or stash something into savings. While I'm paying extra on two of my student loans, I don't have too much extra being paid out so I don't know how much sense that makes for me; it's about $80/mo so not a whole lot.

One of my colleagues plans to make minimum payments because we work for the state and it's a contract negotiation year so who knows what's going to happen. She plans to change her habits for the next 2-3 months, but has more room for changes than I do. She has a bill with Dell and a credit card balance, in addition to having wireless internet for which she pays $60/mo but doesn't use even monthly. She likes the convenience of it. Me? I'd like the convenience of having $60 more to pay to Dell or to pay on my credit card! She also pays $90/mo for a cellphone package, which includes a family plan for a husband who uses 3-min/mo. That would be an incentive to me to change my package; I did at one point pay for extra cellphone services and not use them much so got rid of that option.

My priorities are somewhat different and I have a greater need to have less debt than to pay for services I don't use. While I would like to put more money in savings, I'm not sure it makes more sense than attempting to reduce my student loans. I really want them to go away though that's going to take some time. My smallest loan used to be the highest rate of interest but has reduced itself over time and is now lowest. Meaning that with previous conventional wisdom, this is not the loan to target. Then again, the lower interest rate means more money goes on principal and I have a better chance of paying if off sooner.

CLE's

Remember to look around your area for free or low-cost CLE's. Sources may vary and I learn about many by word of mouth; many of the free ones are repeated annually so are good to remember. I have found many by just googling around for "free cle" and the name of my city and have learned of others from colleagues on document review projects or from project staff.

I have attended a free CLE at each of two law schools and have learned of others taking place at the two other law schools. My alma mater hosts a CLE in April that's an evening class for one credit, sponsored by a local big law foundation. My friends alma mater is hosting a CLE sponsored by a non-profit; it's half a day and free.

While there are those who prefer all-day CLE's and pay because they want to choose the topic, I firmly believe that free is good. I'm not in a position to have my CLE's paid by my employer, though if I found one that was relevant, it's likely they would do so. One of my friends is licensed in TX, so has to send in course handouts and pay a fee to obtain credits. Unlike my state, she has to come up with 15 credits annually; of course she prefers all-day or at least half-day CLE's to minimize her out-of-pocket expense. One credit wouldn't be cost-effective for her.

In my case, I have attended several morning CLE's at my alma mater and while they all say it's going to be one credit, it was more frequently 1.5 credits. That doesn't sound like much, but if you start when your reporting period begins, rather than a month or two before, it can lead to huge savings. Right now, I have two more sessions of my stats class and at that point, so long as I attend both, I'll need about 8 more credits.

My sources are:

Non-profits
Law firms
Law firms hosting CLE's put on by non-profits
Law Schools, especially my alma mater
Law Schools hosting CLE's put on by non-profits
Law Schools hosting CLE's put on by Big Law
Bar Association which has a free one-hour webcast once in awhile
Bar Committees and Sections which sometimes have a free one-hour CLE, either in the morning or at lunchtime
Government agencies; our Attorney General's office and Revisor of Statutes Office hold free CLE's each year

Talk to people who have been licensed longer than you have. My first reporting period I was unaware of free CLE's so ended up paying a lot of money. A lot of people who know about free CLE's procrastinate and end up paying a lot of money. Would you rather take a day without pay and attend a free CLE or would you rather pay a bunch of money and take the day off? Surprisingly, many choose paying and taking the day off without pay because they wait until the end of their reporting period. Don't make that mistake!

Credit Cards that are Bad Ideas

My first credit cards were two store cards, for which I was solicited at age 20. I had gone to JC Penney, where I hardly ever shopped, and to my favorite local department store, Daytons, which is no longer and wrote checks for whatever it is that I bought. Shortly thereafter, the stores called, offering me credit, which I accepted.

One reason, despite my lack of sophistication about finances, was that my older sister had trouble getting credit. Because in order to get credit, you need to have credit. Many people start with a co-signer on a loan or credit card so they can get the loan or use the card.

Thus I was introduced to the world of revolving credit. What I didn't know then is that store cards have very high interest, though, in those days, interest was higher anyway. I rarely used the Penneys card, but frequently gave my Dayton's card a workout.

I tended to keep a running balance and over time discovered that if I got close to my limit, they raised it. Which is great for them, but not so good for the consumer and not so good for the stores now. As it stands, Target's profits took a dive and they're calculating for higher defaults and Macy's which bought the company that was once Dayton's, has had its stock reduced to junk status.

Convincing people that they needed something new this very minute was a great idea while it lasted. I'm a reformed member of the shop-a-holic generation and rarely go to a department store.

Credit Card Interest Going Up

As usual, credit card interest is going up; it's to be expected. While I'm still using my card for transactions, I'm in a bit of a shaky place and need to put the card down. I don't think I'm in dire straits as my bill is under $200 and won't require payment for nearly six weeks. Nevertheless, when payday rolls around, they get more money.

Someone with far more financial sense than I have once told me that it's okay to carry a balance on your card if it's less than $1,000. I'm not going to do so.

Another cute idea, this one by Chase, was to have a one-time fee of $10 for transferring a balance to their card; but then they decided to make it a monthly fee! Their customer base is likely to have been much smaller if they had disclosed up front that they had an annual fee of $120.

Credit card defaults have also risen to a 20-year high. Also to be expected. Most likely companies have programs that people can go into that will help them, hopefully, to get by their crisis.