Funding for Fenway

Sometime last year I washed out a pickle jar, put it on my bookshelf, added a handful of loose change, and my “Fenway Fund” was born. When I first started the jar, my dream vacation was still just a fantasy, and I figured I should start saving so the dream could actually become a reality.

So when I realized this week that my dream trip is happening in about 9 weeks, I thought I should probably cash in the jar and see what I had to work with. Obviously I knew that a jar of change wasn’t going to finance my trip, but I figured I should find out sooner rather than later what was in there, so I could start budgeting accordingly. So yesterday I dug through all my purses, coat pockets, drawers, car cup holders, and every other place I could think of finding loose change, loaded up my jar, and headed to the bank. In the process of searching for a few coins I was pleasantly surprised when I found two of my all time favorite pairs of earrings, some purple eye-liner, and my passport tucked away in random pockets. Both the earrings & the eye-liner will for sure come in handy in my wardrobe revamping project, and it’s nice to know where my passport is… (one never knows when a passport will be needed at a moment’s notice… think of all the time I’ve saved now that I don’t have to go looking for it!)

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that over the past few months I have accumulated $94.02 worth of change. Sure I still have a long way to go, but that will at least cover a few ball park hot-dogs and some beer! I’m hoping I can supplement this a little more over the next eight weeks, so I’m saving my change, cashing in bottles, and creatively cutting corners where I can.

I’ve been making an effort to be financially imaginative in the past few weeks, trying to save money while still maintaining a semblance of a life. My new apartment is a little more expensive, and utilities have gone up as well… and though I know in the grand scheme of things an extra $30 or so isn’t that much, but its $30 that doesn’t get put into savings, its $30 less that I have to spend on gas or groceries, and in the life of a twenty-four-year-old $30 a month IS a big deal. I’ve had to re-prioritize a few things, and am making fewer trips to the city to hang out with friends. So I’ve started to apply the same theory that I’m using on my wardrobe to my life, quality is better than quantity. I’d rather have one great weekend with my friends a month, than a few random nights at a crowded bar, I’d rather buy one really good cup of coffee a month and be able to enjoy it in the café atmosphere rather than rushing through the drive-through on my way to work and guzzling away $3.50 worth of espresso before 10AM. I’m learning to choose which books I want to buy vs. which ones I can check out from the Library.

This last one is probably the hardest… I can give up a coffee shop drive-through four times a week, but giving up the written word is a little more emotional. I mean, yes, I love the idea of libraries. So many books, for FREE is a great deal. But I’m the type of reader who reads things with a pen, I am constantly underlining, writing in the margin, circling things, making comments, etc. And sadly, they tend to frown upon this in library books… I so wish that wasn’t the case. I would love opening up a library book and finding someone’s hand scribbled notes in the margin, or a randomly underlined passage. It’s like a very personal insight into someone else’s reading, what did that person like about this passage? Why was this significant? Yes, I realize that my notes and scrawling might not be mind-boggling or insightful to someone else, but I also don’t think they would detract from the over-all reading… I can’t help it, I am a book junkie, but I really am trying to adjust to the library life-style. I’m also being encouraged to read some of the books on my shelves that I’ve been “meaning to get to” so I guess being on a budget is a good motivator.

My French Press is also getting a great work-out these days. Though I’m secretly cursing the fact that I no longer have a garbage disposal, I have made more coffee at home in the past few weeks than I have in the past few years (of course the fact that I no longer live above a coffee shop also cuts down on temptation). Yeah, it’s a little messy, and my garbage can constantly smells like coffee, but there are worse things! Plus I’m actually consuming less coffee (unless I make coffee at work, then all bets are off, cause I have been known to drink the whole damn pot) and saving money!

Though I know I will have to dig into my savings account to finance a good part of this trip, I’m quite happy to supplement my savings with my pickle jar of change.