Did I miss anything?

[roadrunnertwice]

I wasn't reading LJ for about a month, but I'm back now. How's tricks?

• Photos of my new digs. Hi, Mom!

• Man, SO many Portlanders have no clue how to use a 4-way stop sign. In the interest of public education, I'd like to re-iterate that in the event of a simultaneous roll-up, the furthest-counterclockwise person has right of way—if the other guy is to your left, you go; if they're to your right, you wait. Easy and fun!

  On the other hand, being forced so frequently to play traffic cop and traffic at the same time seems to have granted me the Pointer Finger of Authority and the ability to make recalcitrant drivers shift immediately. So that's pretty cool.

• I am seriously considering learning Cocoa in order to cobble together a functional Dreamwidth client for Mac. I am obviously insane and should be stopped, and this is blatant displacement activity, but it would be reeeallly nice to have one. And since there's already a promising LGPLed Cocoa framework that talks to a Livejournal server, it may not even be as hard as all that.

  My immediate problem is that Cocoa still generally means Objective C—yes, there are Ruby and Python bridges, but you're still calling functions from a bunch of other folks' ObjC code and have got to be able to understand it. And ObjC, of course, requires knowing some C. So I'm boning up with one of Schwern's O'Reilly books whenever I need to take a break from writing. We'll see where this goes.

• Finally had enough pay+expenses data to run a hard budget (i.e. "stay under this limit or you will bleed savings") instead of a calibration budget (i.e. "what does my lifestyle cost?"), and surprise, I'm not loaded. Say what you will about the middle class, but boy, it'd be nice to feel financially safe for a while.

  I mean, it looks like I'll be self-sufficient, barring catastrophe, and my ass is insured, which counts for a lot, even if American health insurance companies are criminal rackets run by vile subhuman pieces of shit. And I should even be able to sock a little money away. But when I say "a little," I'm talking like $30-50/mo. Not satisfactory, especially since I'll be needing to pay for some routine maintenance on Leslie sometime soon.

  I looked at food stamps, but after playing with that estimator over a wide variation of likely pay, I can't get it to say I'll get more than $10/mo, which really doesn't seem worth the hassle. If anyone here has been on Oregon food stamps within the last few years, I'd LOVE to hear your take on it.

  So barring some windfall, my options are to keep squeaking by in a state of mild worry, while working hard and hoping the shop does well enough in the coming year to give me the raises I need to live in comfort; get really creative with my scrimping; and/or drum up some source of supplementary income. I don't have any good answer for this yet. It is, however, making me think some very interesting thoughts.

• Was dogpaddling and playing it safe for a while with my breadmaking, but a visit to the market struck me with a sudden desire to start pushing things forward again. So I made my first truly ridiculous bread tonight, a slightly deformed version of those Tim Decker via Pete Reinhart tater/cheddar/chive bâtards. I don't even wanna get into all the unexpected shit that went wrong here, but the loaves are cooling right now and they look and smell fantastic. Will update with taste report. (Edit: It is bloody delicious. Photos one and two.

Comments

[jonsonite.livejournal.com]

What I did when I didn't have enough money was to patent my own Austerity Plan (the capital letters are important). In the most recent plan, Austerity mk III, I didn't spend money except on bills and at the grocery store.

If you aren't there yet, maybe that'll help you get your costs lower. If that still doesn't get you where you want to be, try dumpstering staples like bread, fruit and vegetables. You generally want to dumpster things that go bad in an obvious way so that you know you're getting something edible. We eat a lot of dumpstered food from fruit stands and the Essential Bakery.

Once you're only buying food, and maybe dumpstering some of that, if you still don't have enough money to survive, you need to cut your bills, and that's no fun at all. But if you've got more bills than rent and loans, the rest are all discretionary and can be cut, ne? One reason Austerity worked so well for me was because I have no bills but rent and student loans.

If you're doing all that and still not making it, you can turn to the government for help OR you could get a second job. When you're living on the cheap, even 1 shift a week at minimum wage can make a big difference. I'm not sure what minimum wage is where you are, but 8 hours at 7 bucks an hour is $56. On your W-2 tell them you don't want any money withheld so you can take it all home with you. One shift would double your savings rate. Even in this economy, there's plenty of crappy retail jobs available.

Good luck!

[roadrunnertwice]

Thanks. Y'know, I'd forgotten entirely about dumpstering—not sure I want to re-learn it yet, but it's an idea. I'm currently budgeting about $4.30/day for groceries, and getting back below $120/mo. would be a neat trick. Though I might be able to achieve that just by keeping the grain-and-bean pots simmering.

That (sufficiency+$30–50) figure actually does include a little bit budgeted for fun, so I can impinge on that if I need to for some more breathing room, and I'm already doing some creative things with my phone bill and such. All told, I'm doing okay—it's just that it wouldn't take much of a push for me to be suddenly doing NOT okay, and I don't like that. Maybe that's just Recession Life. :/

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

• Well done on those not-white walls.

• I have no idea if you have the space or time to do this, or even what the growing season is like in the Pacific northwest, but you could economize on food with a mini victory garden, possibly? As simple as beans in pots on a windowsill/back porch/&c (we've just about reached the second planting with our beans here). Legumes go a long way, as I'm sure you're aware, and are dead easy to grow.

• If it wasn't threatening to be stupid hot here, I would totally be making some of that bread because it looks NOM.

On the plus side, those not-white walls've been making me super happy.

[roadrunnertwice]

Nnnngggg. I really want to grow things, and if it doesn't happen this season, I'll find some way to force the issue next year... but it's going to take some not-insignificant engineering work. :/ No yard to speak of (it is literally a four-foot border around the base of the building), nor any balcony; I'll have to find an out-of-the-way place to stash a tiny raised bed and learn how to safely attach windowboxes. Grumph.

Or, alternately, just work out a labor-for-spoils thing with someone nearby who has a real house and yard.

[chronographia.livejournal.com]

Community garden plot?

You were looking also for local pick-your-own-produce farms: I've heard good things about Sauvie Island Farms (http://www.sauvieislandfarms.com/) and Kruger's Farm Market (http://www.krugersfarmmarket.com/) from other Portland bloggers (and they are effusive in their squee).

[benefitz.livejournal.com]

Hey! Are you living with xwrn? That looks like his place. And also kind of looked like him in that one pic.

[roadrunnertwice]

Yes I am!

[benefitz.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Double incentive to come visit you guys.