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madeyed · 3 years

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( * 💀 / aria shahghasemi, cis man, he / him ) — is that alastor moody i just saw rushing down the corridor ? i hear they’re a twenty-one year old hufflepuff, returning for their seventh school year, but their friends would tell you that they are protective & astute as well as paranoid & disagreeable. if you want to know more about them, i guess i could tell you that they’re pureblood, and from what i hear, they’re currently allying with the order. when our divination professor looks into their crystal ball, they see: a well-worn journal, locked & spelled shut; empty firewhisky bottles lined up along the windowsill; dark circles beneath suspicious eyes; the fading shadow of youthful bravado; a supple leather coat that still smells like home. — ( kit, she / they, 23, cet. )

tw — parental death ( murder ), assault & violence, mourning, alcohol mentions, allusions to mental health issues & addiction, hospital mentions.

basics ,

full name. alastor jawed moody. known as. alastor, moody, al only to select friends. age / date of birth. twenty-one / september 19th, 1958. year. seventh year. blood status. pureblood. house. hufflepuff. alliance. the order. gender / pronouns. cis man, he / him. orientation. bisexual. extracurriculars. beater for the hufflepuff quidditch team; member of the charms and toothill duelling clubs. additional stats. click here. pinterest. click here.

early life ,

alastor moody is born at home, in a small brick house by the seaside that has been in the family for generations; the yard is quaint, if somewhat overgrown, the wooden window frames spiderwebbed and peeling white paint, the chimney billowing smoke in the winters. although he often longs for a sibling, he remains an only child all his life. at the time of his birth, his parents are early in their careers as aurors, and thoughful, foresightful people above all; with their demanding schedules they think no more than one child is best. it’s not a terrible decision, by any means, and there is enough love in the household to go around.

he is raised with strong values, and a strong sense of duty, family, and respect; he is made aware of the weight of the world at a young age. or, his parents try to impress this upon him, making the world appear darker and heavier than it seems to the young boy. he loves and respects his parents, but he tends to disregard their warnings, to play more recklessly than they might like.

although his parents always make time for the shabbat, for birthdays and holidays, their job is by necessity demanding, and alastor learns independence at a young age. an only child, he longs for meaningful friendships, but struggles to make friends with muggle children in the village; instead, though he does his best, he spends much of his time alone or with children of his parents’ friends.

he thinks almost all his life that he is ready for death. it was a simple and honest truth in the moody household that their work, though important and necessary, was dangerous. he sees narrow brushes with danger all his young life, accompanying his parents to too many funerals to count; he learns protection charms before he learns to tie his shoes. and so he thinks of death as a family friend, a familiar acquaintance, and foolishly pats himself on the back for being so well-adjusted, for accepting reality instead of fearing it.

hogwarts ,

when he first arrives at hogwarts, he is calm, unassuming; he doesn’t arrive, like so many purebloods do, with the weight of countless expectations upon his shoulders. nor does he feel like he is escaping some restriction, and finally free; if anything, he is less independent here, under the watchful eyes of prefects and professors, and he grates a little against rules he thinks are foolish or unnecessary.

when it’s his turn to be sorted, the sorting hat only hesitates for a moment between gryffindor and hufflepuff; he is brave, yes, fearless to the point of recklessness, but when the hat poses the question, all alastor can do is shrug. his mother was a slytherin, his father a hufflepuff, and so he doesn’t really mind either way; he knows who he is, regardless of what house colors he wears, and that is enough for the sorting hat to know where he belongs.

he fits in well in hufflepuff, but doesn’t restrict himself to just that; he’s never felt particularly inclined to draw harsh lines in the sand, and makes friends across houses and even years. it helps that his name commands some respect — not from some purebloods, who sneer and consider him and his family all blood traitors, but from the rest, who read the headlines about aurors apprehending dark wizards and are pleased.

in his second year, though, the headlines change. he is called out of history of magic class — something he had almost enjoyed, at the time, and still hates himself for — and brought to the headmaster’s office, where he’s made to wait until his mother arrives. he’s sixteen when he hears of his father’s death, and it feels like the unshakeable world comes crashing in. he thinks he can prepare for death, steel himself against the pain and struggle through mourning with a straight spine and dry eyes, but he’s a fool, and just a boy at that.

he’s outgrown his childhood funeral suit, so he wears his father’s mourning robes to the funeral; they’re well-worn, mended at the hems, and alastor finds two knuts and a sickle in the pockets. he leans on his mother, and she leans on him, and she seems both stronger and more vulnerable than he’s ever seen her. they sit shiva together, the two of them in their little seaside home. alastor’s always felt distant from the muggle locals and neighbors, friendly but unable to connect, but they show up all the same. in twos and threes they arrive with their food, condolences, well-wishes, their offers to weed the yard or pick up groceries for the mourning family; it’s their good will that helps the moodys through their grief, more than the ministry’s stiff condolences and posthumous honours.

he returns to hogwarts changed; more anxious, more wary. his heart leaps in his throat every time he receives a letter, fearful it will be news of his mother’s death. he grows harder, less tolerant of snide anti-muggle comments even when they’re almost innocuous. he’s always been a relatively serious boy, but now he hardly laughs at all, and when he does, there’s a bite to it. he excels in school, working doubly hard, already certain he must become an auror and insistent upon achieving it, but there’s no pride in it, no competition; he just knows what needs to be done.

but as months turn to years the passing time lulls him into a false sense of security; at some point, the pain of loss turns from a sharp agony to an ever-present but dull ache. alastor joins the quidditch team, the duelling club ( where he quickly gains a formidable reputation ), has his first of many hogsmeades dates, and feels, foolishly, that life might simply carry on, without too much effort on his behalf. even as war brews on the horizon he assures himself it will be an easy victory, that strength and righteousness will always win out. he prepares, but with a youthful foolishness; he thinks this might be the chance to avenge his father, to protect the weak, to prove himself a warrior.

the summer between his sixth and seventh year, his mother is so busy she’s barely in the house; when she is, it’s never long before she’s called to yet another meeting, yet another raid. he visits her office often, tea and sandwiches in tow, memorizing the names and faces that are pinned up around the auror office, the most wanted, the suspected conspirators, the known associates. the writing is on the wall: danger approaches. the house is reinforced, protection charms everywhere, locks re-spelled, alarms at all entrances, but at the same time, life goes on.

it’s a rare evening when the two of them are home together, barbecuing kebab in the yard in the late summer sun, a moment of peace among all the concern. they share a bottle of firewhiskey, reminiscing, and laughing together, and making plans to weed the front yard, paint the window frames, and mend the fence — helpful little things alastor can do over the summer while his mother is so very busy at work.

he crawls into bed drunk and at peace, thinking about paint swatches, warm breeze through the open window, the cat curled up at the foot of his bed — and startles awake hours later, still half-drunk to the sound of crashing, glass shattering, the very foundations of the house trembling. the smell of something burning rises from the stairs, and despite his fear he jumps up instantly. there are death eaters in the house ( alastor counts four but thinks there may have been more ), in their black robes and silver masks, and by the time he’s halfway down the stairs his mother is already dead. he fights back as well as he can, but he’s alone, unprepared, and is hit with a curse before he can do much of anything.

they leave him there, unconscious in the slow-smoking ruins of the sitting room. something about not unnecessarily spilling pure blood, and he’s only a boy, and clearly no threat. he is awakened as other aurors arrive, his parents’ colleagues and friends, and he’s so out of sorts he must be petrified and sedated before he can be taken to st. mungos. this time, he is drunk at the funeral, hiding red eyes behind sunglasses, and he sits his shiva alone, permitting no visitors. he takes what he needs from home: clothes, books, heirlooms, the sneakoscope and foe glass and his father’s old coat, and leaves, renting a room at the leaky cauldron for the rest of the summer.

he returns to hogwarts changed once more; furious, pained, burning the candle at both ends trying to find a way to win a war that hasn’t even truly started yet.

personality , hcs , etc. ,

alastor has always been confident, wavering between self-assured and simply cocky, depending on who you ask. he was raised to respect and value everyone, and that includes himself, but he has always also thought of himself as a little more clued in, a little more worldly, than most others. this is in part because his parents confronted him with the reality of the world at quite a young age, and in part because of the horrors he has himself witnessed. although he isn’t usually a dick about it, he does tend to think he’s the most aware, clued in person in the room, or the only one who really knows how the world works.

he’s also quite concerned with projecting the image of strength, not because he’s really that concerned with what other people think, but more because he believes pretty strongly in the whole ‘fake it till ya make it’ idea, and feels like showing weakness means you are weak. plus it makes you a target.

has a fat orange cat named fried egg, or just fry for short; she’s four years old, and the grandchild of the same cat his father had when he was at hogwarts. she’s a hellish little demon cat who does her best to catch rats, frogs, small owls, bowtruckles, bag charms, and pretty much anything else she can get her little paws on. can and will claim a whole couch in the common room by stretching out right in the middle. if there’s a small dead creature in the hufflepuff common room or dorms you know who to blame.

alastor enjoys quidditch, but isn’t particularly competitive; he likes playing beater as it’s a pretty good release for aggression. he plays an aggressive match especially against slytherins, and will more use quidditch as an outlet for his personal vendettas, rather than that it informs them. absolutely fearless on the pitch, and has broken multiple bones, including his nose. don’t play chicken with him, he can and will run straight into you just to prove a point.

although he’s something of a duelling prodigy ( or rather, he’s been well trained since a young age ) and excels at defense against the dark arts and transfiguration, alastor’s top favorite class is care of magical creatures. he just thinks they’re neat. is he a bit of a dragon fanboy ? maybe so.

deeply paranoid, suspicious, and untrusting, especially now. he keeps a notebook of notes, newspaper clippings, observations and overheard conversations, helpful spells and countercurses, and a running list of which classmates and families he suspects of being death eaters, and of which students he fears might become targets. it’s well-spelled to keep out prying eyes, but you can often find him scribbling in it when he should be taking notes in class.

more to be added !

plots ,

just wanted to say first of all that i love plotting, hc’ing, brainstorming, etc. so please hit me up ! if nothing here works i’m super happy to think of something else. also, every single one of these is open to all genders unless specified ! i also especially love plotting based on other connections ( i.e. muse a and muse b are friends, muse b and muse c are exes, therefore muse a and muse c do not get along, or smth ) idk i just have a lot of ideas !

best friends. any house, but preferably for seventh years ? should be either order aligned or neutral but sympathetic to the order. these would be the very few people in the world alastor is still somewhat vulnerable around, and the few who can still get him to smile these days. also the only people he will take any shit from. the people he considers family, now that he has none of his own left.

other order members. the options here are so many ! people who fully share his convictions and with whom he can share his theories, who problem-solve and discuss together. people ( particularly muggleborns or younger students ) whom alastor feels very protective of and worried about. can be annoying and overbearing or he’s just keeping an eye on them from a distance, or maybe helping them train. or people who are in the order but whom alastor doesn’t trust; pretty much any pureblood / slytherin / anyone with death eater family would fall under this. lots of options !

family friends. alastor’s parents were very well-respected in the wizarding community, upstanding citizens, well-known and talented aurors, and all around good people; they could have gone to hogwarts with your muse’s parents or otherwise gotten to know them from work or through pretty much any other avenue ! this could go a few different ways, either they can be good long-term childhood friends, or perhaps they never got along but had to suck it up because their parents were friends, etc.

enemies. listen, i’m sure alastor has a ton of these ! gimme all the baby death eaters, slytherins, and pureblood supremacists. or even just characters who are just neutral but tangentially related to anyone who might be a death eater. alastor doesn’t discriminate between hatefulness and cowardice, it’s all the same to him: two sides of the same self-serving coin that gets other people killed. he can and will cause problems for them on purpose. absolutely will not hesitate to cause physical injury, or curse someone if they are out of line; you use the word mudblood in his presence and he can and will hex your tongue in a knot or, idk, turn you into a ferret.

people involved in his family’s deaths. ok this would definitely be quite a heavy plot and would need to be discussed quite a bit, but i think it could be neat ? alastor��s father died in the line of duty and may or may not have been targeted, but his mother was explicitly killed by death eaters because of the threat she posed. that could have been your muse’s death eater parents, or the hit could have been part of your character’s death eater initiation ( and maybe even the reason why al was allowed to live ? idk man just gimme the drama ) but either way ! alastor is investigating, angry, suspicious, and there will be hell to pay if he figures it out. think it could b a cute terrible dramatic plot.

exes. gimme a handful of these, with a bit of variety, please, i love them. something short-lived and intense over the course of one semester, that ends when one or both of them gets a little too far into their feelings ! something sweet and quaint in their early years, with first little hogsmeade dates and hand-holding ! a former fwb thing with bad communication that falls apart and leaves them both with some hard feelings ! good friends that think they have feelings for each other, date for two weeks, and then give it up and go back to just being pals ! honestly especially when he was slightly younger and less paranoid, depressed, etc. alastor was definitely weak as fuck for a pretty face.

the one bad ex-ish. listen i just very specifically love the idea of alastor having some insanely intense chemistry with a death eater aligned character, that enemies to lovers ( who are still definitely enemies ) vibe. every time they hook up they both regret it intensely, and are to embarrassed to ever tell their friends. they both kinda think they hate the other person, and know they’re on different sides of a brewing war, but also. brain empty very sexy.

crushes / unrequited / un-acted-upon feelings. ok listen, correct me if i’m wrong, call me out, etc. but alastor’s a whole 6′2″ of broad shoulders, gorgeous hair, green eyes, he’s all tall dark and handsome and also tortured, also a quidditch player, intimidating, etc. and i love the idea of people having crushes on him bc he’d be either annoyed or oblivious and that amuses me greatly. what a man tbh. also love the idea of him having feelings for someone, perhaps even over a longer period of time, but absolutely not wanting to tell them bc he has a bit of a martyr complex, is afraid of losing the people he loves, and also thinks he’s no good and gonna get them killed ! also could just be someone he had a crush on earlier and no longer does, but still thinks they’re just incredibly cool and admires them. could go lots of ways tbh.

study buddy. so, honestly, alastor’s not concerned that much with school beyond needing the qualifications to become an auror. this would probably be someone with similar aspirations/goals; someone who wants to get the grade but spends more time researching obscure defensive spells and countercurses and hex reversals which will never be on the test, because those are ultimately more important. they both just help support each other academically to make sure they get where they need to be, and practice and work on more advanced combat magic together as well.

neighbors. kind of, not really ? after his mother’s death alastor’s been living in a rented room in diagon alley, avoiding his family home at all costs. this could be someone who either lives there or in london more generally who he keeps running into over that summer. he’s probably deeply unpleasant particularly at that time so forgive him in advance pls.

drinking buddies. does alastor have a drinking problem ? maybe. but he also has much, much bigger problems he has to solve first, hence the drinking. he’ll manage just fine on his own too, but that doesn’t mean it’s not nice to sit in relative silence next to someone. he prefers the quiet and general Bad Vibes at the hog’s head over the three broomsticks, but isn’t that picky.

duelling rival. a member of the duelling club who alastor absolutely hates, and who hates him. they absolutely drive each other to perform better and push each other hard, but that’s not because they’re trying to help the other improve; it’s because when they duel they are actually straight up trying to kill each other, while making it seem like an accident.

#revelio.intro #⧽ constant vigilance ∖ development .#parental death tw /#death tw /#murder tw /#alcoholism tw /#assault tw /#mourning tw /#wow lots of tags for this one oops #also this is ... not great and def will be edited/added to but i just wanted to get smth out so i can also get started plotting !

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theloobrush · 4 years

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Why do we get out of bed?

Well if we didn’t, apart from other inconveniences we would eventually starve. The bare human necessities are food, clothes and shelter and the means to obtain them. Almost everything else we acquire is ‘ for entertainment purposes’.

So how does one obtain the bare necessities? The answer seems obvious, so let’s try to explain it. There are four very general ways to earn a living, not including predatory crime.

Number 1. The way of subsistence. We can grow our own crops, build a cabin in the woods, and weave clothes from tufts of sheep’s wool accidentally discarded in hedgerows. You also hunt local deer with a flint tipped spear. This is how it worked for most people for most of recorded time (in between starving).

Number 2. The way of the labourer. We sell our labour to others, who make us do what they want for their profit and not other greater motive. Whether we are an office cleaner, software developer or international soccer star, we serve a master in return for wages. First we must prove to potential employers that we are likeable, dependable and have the right skills to do whatever they need done. Our wealth depends one hundred percent on our own ability to work, our attractiveness to employers, and willingness to serve the absolute self interest of the masters, who maybe small entrepreneurs or corporate behemoths. They may also be charities, the ‘third sector’ or other ‘public’ bodies. The moment we cease to be useful or likeable, the master can dispense with us and we are without.

Number 3 The way of the merchant. We can make money by buying and selling goods or personal services directly to make a profit. Most employers started as subsistence producers or merchants who hired labour to expand their activity and almost never for altruistic reasons.

Number 4 The way of the capitalist. A few can make good money from capital investments: from rents on property, from interest and dividends.

Given my particular circumstances, lets look at the above as money making options.

I could grow vegetables and keep chickens, but we couldn't rely on small scale production. There are way too many variables, like slugs and the weather. If I was transported back to medieval times I'd quickly die from my own indolence and clumsiness. I don’t really know how to till soil or herd livestock. Those ancient skills have been lost. More’s the pity. I’m a romantic who sees a nobility in working the land. It is also hard and relentless with no paid holidays.

I could buy and sell. You can trade just about anything legal online, but any selling I’ve done so far has been for pin money. It’s definitely something to consider but unlikely to bring in sufficient regular income.

While I do have some money invested (savings, pensions, life insurance) I don't have sufficient capital to produce a steady income stream. To get a good income you have to take more risk, but investment losses must also be affordable.

So like most people born in a Western Democracy at the beginning of the 21st Century I follow the way of the labourer. Meanwhile I still struggle to get my head around what that means.

Part of me believes I simply ‘deserve' to have a job by virtue of being well educated, and reasonably diligent. The task of selling myself has always been hateful. I rail against blind obedience allowing others to utilise me body, mind and soul for their own ends, unless I share those goals to. To serve only at the whim of others seems like a travesty against my personal autonomy. Regardless of wages received, my labour has to be meaningful to me, and in my case, socially meaningful.

My heart says work should be pure vocation, using my time for the benefit of society as a whole, helping deserving customers or clients in need, not merely serving the employer’s interests. I have gravitated towards occupations involving an element of do goodery. The employer provided a means, and the wages like a social benefit in return. I certainly didn’t see myself embroiled in a reciprocal bargain with my employer, but a covenant with society writ large. I have always behaved as if I’m in some socialist utopia: deep down, I expected my abilities to be instantly recognised and for some automatic process to allot me appropriate tasks that are clearly for the overall good of society. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. That is what I believed, and believe. I can only motivate myself through a public service lens. I didn’t want to be engaged primarily to please my employer, and I want their instructions to be understandable, socially justifiable and ethical. And while I saw it necessary for the institution to break even, I don’t think anyone should be heaping up vast profits except for reinvestment in the public good.

Only now I’m beginning to see this is not how the world works. This is not how most people view their jobs either. Their relationship with their employers is mostly instrumental. I, on the other hand, have somehow imbibed religious and socialist ideals that are drastically at odds with the mechanics of Consumer Capitalism. So i get to middle age and distressingly I discover I am (relatively) poor. And I don’t like it because I’m not a saint, let alone a martyr for a cause. My fault: I had a ‘bad’ attitude to work.

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years

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Dispatches From Food Service Workers Across the U.S.: ‘I’m Trying Not to Panic’

Shutterstock/Kondor83

Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories

Last week, President Trump formed the Economic Revival Industry Group, a collection of 200 experts and industry leaders to inform the (possibly ill-advised) campaign to re-open the economy. The group, focused on restaurants, included numerous chain CEOs and celebrity chef-owners like Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. And though the latter could hardly be expected to advocate for the needs of restaurant owners whose restaurants don’t have Michelin stars, there is another group notably absent from the committee: restaurant workers.

Independent restaurant owners are struggling with the realities and uncertainties of life in a pandemic, whether it’s having to lay off employees or trying to keep people paid as the business pivots to take-out only. But for your average food service worker — servers, bartenders, line cooks, and baristas — there is even less support. Restaurant employees made up 60 percent of the jobs lost in March. Twenty-two million people filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, leaving unemployment websites overwhelmed. The Paycheck Protection Program, which offers federal loans in exchange for keeping employees on payroll, is out of money. All this adds up to millions of food service workers being left without a paycheck.

Despite Trump’s plans, no one knows what the restaurant industry is going to look like on the other side of the pandemic. And so workers wait, hoping their restaurants will reopen, hoping they or their coworkers will be rehired, hoping there will be a workplace to come back to. As chains and fine-dining chefs are the only ones with access to the White House, it’s important to remember their experiences do not represent the restaurant industry as a whole. Whether or not restaurant workers, not merely restaurateurs, feel supported will be the true test of any government program’s success. With that in mind, we spoke to five restaurant workers across the country on what they’re experiencing right now. These are stories in their own words, edited lightly for clarity.

Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky

The chef and I are the only kitchen staff left of four full-time and two part-timers. He takes a salary, I am on reduced hours, which means less money to repair the house and cars, much less save anything. Since this began we have been steadily losing customers. Our food isn’t geared for takeout, though we changed the menu some. Also, we made a lot of our money through drinks. Initially, the state only allowed the sale of closed alcohol containers, and some restaurants started selling flight bottles and half pints with soda or cup mixer on the side. Within a week, open alcohol sales were allowed rather than just packaged liquor, but it was too late for those who followed the rules.

I’m hanging in there, but I’m lucky. Not much has changed for me and my family. My wife is on medical disability with fixed income and doesn’t leave the house much. My teenager already practiced social distancing. My 26-year-old is working 60 hours a week at a local coffee chain. My 25-year-old works for UPS. I’m blessed to have employment. I know three other cooks and two chefs who are unemployed. But I can’t plan anything for anything now. I’m wondering about my concert tickets and my child’s education if my older children will get sick, and what my options are in general. I’m trying to not panic.

Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York

I am 23 years old and have been working in the industry for five years, starting as a dishwasher at the Heights. My start in the industry was mainly out of necessity — dishwashing offered good hours and the possibility of upward mobility in the restaurant. But the work ethic and our local food community was contagious; I wouldn’t want to be in any other industry, even in these times. I rose to sous this past year. In an area where we are financially dependent on Ithaca College and Cornell as our main contributors to economic stimulation, this has train-wrecked the local economy.

At the Heights, all staff with the exception of our chef de cuisine have been temporarily let go. I think the post-pandemic dining landscape is going to be entirely different — staff cuts, wage cuts, and mandatory seating reduction will absolutely affect how we are able to eat. Even the most luxurious restaurants will have to cut back on menus, garnishes, and available reservations. I’m hopeful that diners will come out in droves after restaurants open up, but realistically that’s not likely. The social habits that we develop will linger. I spend a lot of time talking with my close friends and coworkers. Everyone just wants to be back in the kitchen — to be back home. As an individual I’m grateful for private grants such as the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund — programs like that are going to be our saviors. But our primary concern is how long our local independent restaurants, farms, and purveyors will be able to stay open. The debt to equity ratio in our industry is very high, and I expect to see places sink into irreversible debt. I hope customers will be patient as we get back on our feet; without their support, all that will be left is Chili’s and McDonald’s.

Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota

Busy season is the beginning of spring through the end of summer. We are situated on Lake Metigoshe, and when the snow melts people start moving in their boats and readying their docks to enjoy their summer. We were all gearing up for that when the spread of the virus hit hard and hours were cut. Our place was then shut down for dine-in service and we tried to stay positive. I found out the secret was really not to make eye contact, because if I saw one of us start to tear up, it opened the floodgates for me.

I’m behind in rent, my vehicle is in need of a few repairs. I had planned on moving closer to work — I live about 40 miles away — and found a place, but will have to come by money for the utility and house deposits and rent in order to do so. My fiancé and I live together, and he also works at the A-Frame as a dishwasher. He has filed for unemployment but has a limited work history and hasn’t paid in enough in the quarters to draw unemployment. And he won’t get the one-sum stimulus check either, and that’s going to hurt. Living in a rural community, you can’t count on anything for relief. You can’t count on the small town store to get a delivery truck, or go to the store the same day and be able to buy a roll of toilet paper or a dozen eggs. I can’t guarantee that my internet will be functional much less my phone service, and trying to even access the unemployment website can take all day. You go to the gas station for a treat and you never know if they are open because if they haven’t had enough business that day to justify keeping the lights on, or paying an employee to sit there, they close early.

I don’t think the aid the government is giving is enough. Not at all! It’s getting bad everywhere. The people in the foodservice industry are the “blue collar” workers that everyone forgets about. We are not paid as much as the blue collar norm and making ends meet isn’t looking possible for most.

Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis

We closed our dining room around March 16th, but kept our online and takeout phone ordering systems the same. After closing the dining room, it was fairly slow that first week, but we kept advertising the online and pick-up ordering and by the weekend our system just couldn’t keep up. On my weekend shift, we were so overwhelmed with online orders overnight that we actually had to turn the first customers away, because we were still trying to catch up with the online orders. The next day is when the owners decided to temporarily close. Before coronavirus, we had a good sense of how many bagels we needed each day of the week to fill our normal amount of orders. Once we started advertising more about online and phone ordering mid-March, our demand shifted to a point we couldn’t have predicted.

Before I started my job at Rise Bagel, I was a graduate student in the psychology field. I had to take a leave of absence in October due to an inpatient stay for my mental health, and decided to put school on pause and pursue a new career in food sustainability. I thought getting my foot in the door at a local restaurant that focuses on local, organic ingredients and sustainable practices would provide me with some great insight. The job finally gave me a sense of purpose and control when I hadn’t had that in a long time. However, when we suddenly had to close, it was like my sense of purpose also disappeared. My job was the one thing that kept me feeling certain about my future. Uncertainty about my future at Rise has led to an increase in my anxiety around leaving school and my future career. I have many fears of having to start all over again, and it’s hard to stay motivated when I can’t gain restaurant experience from my home.

Here in Minnesota, individual unemployment benefits are only given if you had made $3,000 or more before unemployment. Because I was in graduate school and had only been at my job at Rise for a few months, I did not meet this requirement and will not be receiving any unemployment benefits. For those making minimum wage (aka many of those in the food service industry), prerequisites like this may have some major impacts. I’m incredibly thankful to be living at home during this time with great support, but I couldn’t imagine being in a more dire situation and then denied benefits based on something I may not have had control over. I’m really glad something is being done for small business owners, but what really matters is what happens after this. A restaurant will only survive if better legislation is passed and people continue to visit even after social distancing orders are lifted. The attention and support food service employees and places are getting right now is amazing, but systematic change needs to occur for them to continue to survive.

Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon

We were all in an especially odd situation because we had just all been through training and had opened the restaurant, Bar King, to the public Monday, March 9th. Our restaurant closed down to the public on March 15th and began only providing takeout orders. Luckily, right now it is looking like we’ll be opening back up and all have our jobs back, but when? I don’t think anyone has even a clue. And that is terrifying.

My partner and I moved here in early January of this year. Luckily, he works from home, but I set out to find a job as soon as I got here, and even with my experience and my resume, it took me nearly two months to find something because of how competitive the service industry staffing is in Portland. I exhausted nearly all of my savings and threw all of my faith into the fact that I’d find a job when I got here, and then I worked for literally two weeks and then lost my job. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have two jobs and work anywhere from 40 to 70 hours a week, so having this much free time, and on such an incredibly STRICT budget of one income, has been extremely challenging to fill.

While I think the stimulus money is great, and quite literally a life saver for many — including me — unemployment has been a literal shit show and a nightmare to deal with. I still have yet to see any benefits or correspondence from either Michigan or Oregon to figure out what I need to do in this situation where I lived and worked in Michigan last year and Oregon now. While I do understand that having 2.2 MILLION people sign up for unemployment in the last month is overwhelming, if it weren’t for the stimulus check and my partner, I could very well be on my way back to Michigan right now to live with family. And as a 25-year-old who has never had to consider an option like that because I’ve always had work and savings, that is a horrifying and scary scenario.

If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey.

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Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories

Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky

Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York

Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota

Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis

Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon

If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey.

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ericvick · 4 years

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many in US struggle to pay rent. Their stories.

The National Multifamily Housing Council found a 12 percentage point decrease in the share of apartment households that paid their rent through April 5.

Last weekend, Apartment List surveyed 4,129 people and asked whether they were able to pay their mortgage or rent on April 1. The result: 1 in 4 renters/homeowners did not pay it in full, and of the those people who were unable to make their payment, 45 percent of renters and 44 percent of homeowners reached an agreement with their landlords or lenders to defer or reduce their payments.

Most state and local governments are putting evictions on pause as states prepare to pay unemployment and the federal government prepares to send stimulus checks. So for most, April’s knock won’t come with a notice to get out.

A roof over the head is one of the most basic needs in life. Without money for rent, how can the other bills get paid? And while many will get a reprieve in April, eventually the rent comes due, whether or not the restaurant, plant, or construction site reopens when the COVID-19 threat lessens.

Here are some of the stories of Americans trying to make the rent, this month and beyond:

At 21 years old, Jade Brooks pulls in her family’s only full-time salary, working at a hospital switchboard.

Brooks’s mother just lost her job at a health insurance company — a casualty of the plummeting economy. She’s found part-time work at the hospital, but between them, they make only $400 weekly after taxes and insurance, Brooks said. Their rent is $1,810.

During sleepless nights, Brooks worries most about her 8-year-old cousin, who lives with them.

“I don’t want her to grow up in a homeless shelter, having to sleep in a bunk bed with other people, asking why we have to stand in a long line to get a room to sleep in, why we have to stand in a long line to get food, why she can’t invite her friends over,’’ Brooks said. “It’s hard to explain that to an 8-year-old.’’

— Michael Casey, Boston

Itza Sanchez knows she can’t make her $400 rent for April. She’s praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe that she doesn’t get kicked out of her Richmond, Va., mobile-home park.

Sanchez made her money searching for and recycling scrap metal and selling tamales in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Fear of getting sick has stopped both income streams.

A single mother of two who emigrated from Honduras to the United States 14 years ago, Sanchez’s 7-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son have been eating lunches delivered to the neighborhood by schools and depending on churches for other meals.

“I’m basically penniless,’’ Sanchez, 39, said in Spanish.

She hasn’t heard from the landlord about what will happen if the rent isn’t paid. So she keeps praying.

“May she help us. May the Virgin put her love over us and help us.’’

— Regina Garcia Cano, Washington

Andrea Larson made $70,000 a year curating wine lists and suggesting pairings to customers at 5th & Taylor. But the popular Nashville restaurant closed its dining area, and working as a sommelier isn’t something Larson can do from home.

The first unemployment check was $275 for a week. Larson said she was humiliated but applied for food stamps.

“I’m screwed financially,’’ Larson said. “If I do pay my rent, it’s going to eat into my food money.’’

Larson, 42, moved from a high-rise downtown apartment to a house in east Nashville four months ago. Rent was cheaper. She planned to pay off debt and start saving. Instead, she called credit card companies and said she couldn’t pay the minimum.

Larson’s restaurant offered a few shifts answering phones for takeout, but she figures it’s not worth the risk of getting COVID-19.

“I do wine, and nobody wants to hear about wine right now,’’ she said. ‘‘They just want to chug it.’’

— Travis Loller, Nashville

Roushaunda Williams was able to scrimp and use credit card cash advances to pay the $1,850 rent for April for her two-bedroom Uptown Chicago apartment.

But the rent comes due again in 30 days. Can she afford a smaller apartment in her building if one’s available? Should she move in with friends if they’ll let her?

“April 1 isn’t even here yet, and I’m already working on what I’m going to do for May 1,’’ Williams, 52, said.

Before being laid off, she made drinks and chatted with people from around the world for 20 years as a bartender at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in the heart of Chicago’s downtown Loop.

Her income depended on tips — in the best times, she’d make $70,000 to $100,000 annually. Now, she’s on unemployment for the first time and searching for work.

— Kathleen Foody, Chicago

Tnia Morgan shares her Baltimore County, Md., town house with her 18-year-old pregnant daughter and 18-year-old nephew. And they all spend a lot more time together since Morgan was laid off March 6 from her job serving food at a hotel banquet hall.

Morgan’s landlord told her to take her time with the rent, but it isn’t the only bill piling up. She ticks them off: car payment, car insurance, cellphone, Internet, water, gas, and electricity. And she always has to buy food, so tough choices are ahead, especially until unemployment benefits kick in.

Morgan, 39, has checked on getting food stamps and looked for work at stores and warehouses with no luck.

She appreciates her landlord’s kindness this month, but she knows he needs her rent money to pay his bills.

“If I don’t pay the rent, it falls on him,’’ Morgan said. “We can’t be evicted right now, but eventually they’re going to want their money.’’

— Michael Kunzelman, Silver Spring, Md.

Bartender Luke Blaine was laid off when the downtown Phoenix restaurant Fez closed, but he’s not too worried about rent — yet.

He shares his small adobe-style home and backyard garden of tomatoes, beets, squash, radish, lettuce, and eggplants with his boyfriend, Kyle Schomer. Schomer still has his job in technology and works from home.

Blaine, 30, figures unemployment will kick in. His car is paid for, and he owes little beyond a small credit card balance.

Blaine credits his thrifty nature to his family. And that’s whom he worries about most these days. His mother and sister are nurses in Illinois, not far from hard-hit Chicago.

“It definitely is nerve-racking having your family on the front line,’’ Blaine said.

— Anita Snow, Phoenix

Ruqayyah Bailey’s life had balance — so important with her autism — before coronavirus.

She was going to college and was a part-time cafe cashier. She couldn’t wait for the Special Olympics in March, to run and compete in the long jump and shot put.

But the virus closed the cafe, canceled the meet, and ended the community college’s personal instruction.

Bailey, 30, of St. Louis County, was dipping into savings for food and other necessities, so she’s moved back in with her mother. She hopes it’s temporary and she can get back to her apartment, with its $400 monthly rent.

“I had to suspend my Internet and my cable,’’ Bailey said of her apartment. “It’s tough because I’m so used to being there in my own little space.’’

— Jim Salter, St. Louis

Jason W. Still was let go from his job as a cook, and he’s found one small benefit: He hasn’t spent as much money since he’s inside most days.

Still and his wife — who works in packaging for a marijuana dispenser in Spokane, Wash., — should be able to make April’s rent as they wait to see what he’ll get in unemployment and from the federal government.

Still, 30, worked at a high-end restaurant and just finished the last classes for his bachelor’s degree. Now he’s applying for graduate school to study environmental economics and public policy.

In unemployment, he has a lot of time on his hands. “I’ve seen corners of my house that I didn’t know existed.’’

— Anita Snow, Phoenix

It’s a lousy choice, but an easy one for personal trainer and apparel designer Sakai Harrison — food in the refrigerator over April rent for his Brooklyn apartment.

Harrison, 27, moved from Atlanta to see whether he could succeed in the toughest place in the world. And he was on his way, with 20 clients training one on one.

Then his gym shut down with the rest of the city. And the $1,595 rent is due.

“The way I see it, the whole world is on pause,’’ Harrison said. “I’d rather allocate my money towards my actual survival, which would be food.’’

An acquaintance is letting Harrison use a basement as a makeshift gym. It has dumbbells, a bench, and a punching bag left by a previous tenant. Harrison wears disposable gloves and keeps his distance. A few clients keep coming, but not as many as before.

“My clients are like my family, for the most part, especially in New York, because I’m here alone,’’ he said.

— Aaron Morrison, New York

Tinisha Dixon was homeless before she moved into her current apartment and is now struggling to make the rent.

She said she was about to start a new job at the State Road and Tollway Authority. But the job was put on hold, thanks to the virus.

The rent bill of $1,115 is due whether she’s working or not. It covers the apartment near downtown Atlanta she shares with her partner and their five kids. Dixon, 26, said she’s trying to braid hair, and her partner has sought work as a security guard.

Dixon’s landlord had gone to court to evict the family before the coronavirus. Now she worries not making April’s payment will strengthen that case.

“Are we going to be out on the street when this is over?’’ she said. ‘‘Because this is what we’ve been fighting for this whole time, not being back out on the street.’’

— Sudhin Thanawala, Atlanta

With help from friends and a nonprofit, Jas Wheeler can pay April’s rent. But Wheeler and their partner just bought a house down the road in Vergennes, Vt., and the first mortgage payment is due in May.

“I am just really just trying to pray,’’ said Wheeler, who hopes to see unemployment checks soon but worries the system is overwhelmed with so many people out of work.

Wheeler was laid off from a bakery. The 30-year-old thought about a grocery store job, but they don’t want to risk exposure to the coronavirus. So for now, they’ll wait to see whether the bakery reopens.

“I would rather just get an unemployment check and ride it out … I’m really thinking at the end of all this whenever that is, I’ll be happy to get any job that I can get.’’

— Michael Casey, Boston

Neal Miller is refusing to pay April’s rent, to make a point.

Miller’s last stable job was as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Chicago. He recently was working temporary jobs, until that dried up, thanks to the virus.

Miller, 38, shares a house on the west side of Chicago with four others and pays $400 of the $1,500 monthly rent.

Miller and his roommates decided to join leaders of Chicago activist groups calling for a rent strike amid the virus outbreak.

“We wrote a letter, sort of stated our situation,’’ Miller said. “We’re still waiting to hear back. We’re not sure if that’s a good sign or if that lack of response means we’ll be hearing from a lawyer.’’

– Kathleen Foody, Chicago

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thorinss · 7 years

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NEED MONEY. SIGNAL BOOST.

okay so i definitely feel like a piece of shit doing this because my situation is nowhere near as dire as other people on this site who need money. and by all means please donate to those who are in desperate need of extra funds because while i am struggling here, i can probably get by.

here’s a quick rundown of my situation:

(Skip down to the TL;DR section if you want the gist of everything)

I’m a 24 year old Digital Media Production college senior, which is fancy words for film student. I have a full 16 credit course load this semester.

Basically I work three jobs but only one of them is a paying position. The other two are technically internships and I need them for experience and resume building purposes. My classes and the third job are cutting drastically into the hours for my paying job this semester, which means I am getting shitty paychecks until May when the semester ends. I haven’t even received a paycheck since December 22 due to an illness that knocked me on my ass and put me out of work for two weeks.

My next paycheck should be on February 3rd but until then I only have $12.81 in my bank account to live off of until then.

I have a $95 phone bill due in three days that I cannot pay.

I make $9 an hour, 13 hours per week, with two other unpaid jobs in between, and 6 classes. There’s no way I can possibly afford any of this with my time schedule, which at no point is going to slow down.

TL;DR I am very poor and will continue to be very poor until May. I have a $95 phone bill due in three days and $12 in my bank account currently.

Right now all that I ask is you donate whatever you can but I need at least $100 asap. There is now a paypal donate button in my sidebar. I know my situation is not dire and there are far worse things happening to people on this site that your money can be better suited for. But I really do need help and if you can spare some cash, I would really appreciate it.

I do not have much that I can give in return but if you donate any amount of money, no matter how small, I will do something for you if you wish. I am on a horrible time crunch with my schedule but I will make you something. I am not the best in any of these departments but it’s all I can offer.

Gifs/Graphics/picspams/edits - just sift through that page and take a look at my stuff. It’s been a minute since I’ve made a proper graphic but I will 100% do anything you want. Just as long as it’s a fandom I am familiar with.

Videos - I can edit raw footage or make a fanvid for a couple/show/character. In the case of a fanvid, please make sure it’s a fandom I am familiar with - otherwise it will be too difficult for me to work with UNLESS you are willing to provide the footage, which is doable but can be a pain in the ass. Here are a few links to my better videos to show you what I am capable of: one, two, three, four, five. In the case of raw footage, you would have to contact me so we can thoroughly discuss what you are looking for.

Writing fic - I am definitely not the best writer and it does take me a while to complete something because I hate everything I write lmao but I will write you some fic if you’d like! I would feel most comfortable writing Shevine, Clark/Lex, White Collar, Star Wars, LotR, or anything else that I am super familiar with. Just talk to me about it and we’ll figure something out.

If you donate and are interested in me creating something for you in return, please contact me via here on Tumblr or by email ([email protected]). We can exchange numbers, email, kik names, or whatever is easiest for us to communicate.

If you are thinking about donating and would like further details about where I am financially or need me to clear up anything, please don’t hesitate to ask! I only included the bare minimum info so I don’t overwhelm everyone.

ADDITIONAL SIDE NOTE (NOT NECESSARILY RELEVANT AT THIS TIME):

My school highly recommends that I eventually purchase a lot of high end industry-standard equipment, which is super fucking pricey. This ensures that I have what I need in order to be successful during the rest of my time in college as well as beyond into the workforce.

I need about $200 worth of school supplies for this semester.

At some point in my future I also have to build a $800 - $1000 computer capable of video editing. A lot of my school projects, as well as my future career, depends on me being able to work and edit from home. I also cannot do freelance video editing work without a computer.

I am also being implored by the school faculty to purchase a nice camera which can range in the $1000 price easily.

This equipment will be used for my school work up until graduation and will still be used after graduation as well, as I intend to be a video editor.

These are not my main concern for the moment but I am including them because there is no way I will be able to afford all of this, even when I am working full hours at my paying job.

SECOND ADDITIONAL SIDE NOTE (ALSO NOT CURRENTLY RELEVANT):

I live, rent free, with my older brother, his wife, and their two kids. I am doing relatively okay in this living situation but unfortunately my brother does have certain characteristics similar to those of our abusive father, whom I used to live with prior to Fall 2015. I love my brother and he is a giant goofball, but with my severe social anxiety and depression, living with him can be stressful. In many instances, he’s the one who unintentionally causes a lot of my anxiety or depressive episodes. He often makes me feel useless or worthless, like a waste of space. He constantly ~jokes~ about how he can’t wait for me to move out and pressures to me to save as much money as I possibly can which, as you can tell, is very difficult right now. He ~jokes~ that if I don’t make good grades and save a lot of money, he’ll kick me out of the house. I understand he wants what’s best for me and I do love him and appreciate him for letting me live with him. But he constantly (and unintentionally - I gotta stress that because he’s not a bad person, he’s just a bit of a hardass workaholic who makes 100k a year and never has to think of money as an issue) makes me feel stressed and invalidates any good work I actually do. If I have $700 saved, he tells me I should have $800. If I get an A- on an exam, he tells me it should have been an A.

Living with him makes me anxious and stressed. While it is nowhere near as bad as living with my dad, it’s enough anxiety and stress to the point where I never feel comfortable in the house.

So, as a second side note, I am trying my best to save up for an apartment so I can live with my boyfriend - who is the sweetest person on the planet and I always feel deliriously happy and safe when I am with him. That is the type of living situation I need to be in for the sake of my mental health and the success of my future. I cannot function properly in a home where I am constantly anxious about not living up to my brother’s insane expectations. I need my own space, with someone I love, where I can take care of myself.

The whole point of this is that any leftover money (if I even get any. I don’t know how any of this works or if I will find any success at all lmao I’ll probably make $4 total and finally be able to afford that cup of grapes in the dining hall) will be set aside for apartment purposes.

Again, if you are thinking of donating, thank you, and please don’t hesitate to voice any concerns or ask any questions. I will be 100% open and honest about anything in relation to this post.

If you cannot afford to donate, please just share this post so others can see.

Thank you!!!!!!

UPDATE 1/27: you guys are the sweetest and the best and donated around $150 which is more than enough to pay my $95 phone bill this month and have around $50ish leftover for any food or gas money needs. i can’t thank you guys enough.

i will still be accepting donations for the school supplies mentioned above and apartment savings but none of that is a 100% necessity right now. my priority was the phone bill and that has been taken care of thanks to those who donated.

i will possibly make a new post that just focuses on the school/apartment/living costs but like i said, those can just sit on that back burner for a bit. at least until i see how much money i get in this next paycheck, which should be on february 3rd (next friday).

again, thank you guys so much!!!! i hate doing things like this and my boyfriend found out about it last night and it embarrassed the shit out of me lmao but i love you all and appreciate this so much.

the donate button will remain in my sidebar because i am still going to be struggling this semester but the urgent bill paying shit is out of the way for now so i can breathe again.

thank you!!!!

UPDATE 1/27 #2: I have made a separate post talking about the other financial problems I currently am experiencing. please take a look!

#signal boost #money #financial problems #help #im stressin #i hope this was clear enough to follow :(

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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Dispatches From Food Service Workers Across the U.S. ‘I’m Trying Not to Panic’ added to Google Docs

Dispatches From Food Service Workers Across the U.S. ‘I’m Trying Not to Panic’

Shutterstock/Kondor83

Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories

Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky

Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York

Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota

Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis

Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon

If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey .

via Eater - All https://www.eater.com/2020/4/22/21229505/food-service-workers-tell-their-coronavirus-shutdown-experiences

Created April 22, 2020 at 08:39PM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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andrewdburton · 4 years

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Exposed! Mr. Money Mustache’s 2019 Bachelor Spending!

Purchases like this really blow my budget.

These days, I do a fair amount of informal financial coaching for both old friends and newer acquaintances.

It’s a pretty amazing experience, almost as if I were a real doctor – people let down their guard and talk about the details of their financial lives, without the usual hangups and secrecy that tend to plague our society when it comes to the subject of money.

Often, even taking this first step is a huge leap towards creating a more wealthy and prosperous life. Money conversations are not something we should reserve only for our paid professional advisers. We should speak about it openly with our friends and family, and support each other in a lifelong quest to make the most of our lives.

Through these hundreds of little sessions, I have started seeing a pretty consistent pattern:

People who struggle with money see the whole subject as a swirling, confusing mess. Income and spending, debt and retirement accounts are everywhere. They describe the situation in a long, meandering paragraph.

People who are good with money have this stuff more mentally sorted. They can quickly list their income, their assets and debts, and most importantly they know how much money they spend each year.

People who have been good with money for a long time have moved even further. They might not track it very closely, but they still maintain a growing surplus – because living well within their means is just a natural habit, which means there is no conceivable way they can run out of money in their lifetimes. People in this category sometimes need to be coached away from the habit of being too “cheap”, and towards making the most of the opportunity of a lifetime.

As an MMM reader, you are headed straight for Option #3 above.

But you may have to move through #1 and #2 to get there, which means sorting things out and tracking your spending.

Tracking Your Spending is Fun, Useful, and Easy (Yes, really!)

I can already hear your collective groan as I give you this prescription, but adding up your past year’s spending is one of the most useful things you can do with a Saturday morning, and here’s why:

You can see where your money is going to waste and where you can make really easy improvements that completely change the course of your life

You will get the courage to switch jobs, houses, cars, and other life decisions as your fuzzy swirling financial paralysis transforms to a crystal clear understanding of money – one of life’s most useful and fun tools.

You can immediately see how much money you will need to retire. (just take your annual spending and multiply it by 25 as recommended by the 4% rule)

I’ll show you my spending if you show me yours.

Road Trippin’ in a Tesla. I keep this cost low by bartering carpentry or business help with Tesla-owning friends, or renting them on Turo.

Now for the fun part. I like to think that I live in “Category 3” of that list above – most of my major life expenses (housing, cars, health, food, clothing) are lower than average, because I have simple tastes and I love optimizing things.

Meanwhile, I have several sources of income which add up to many times more than my living expenses (stock index funds, real estate investments, this website, and side hustles like carpentry and operating the MMM HQ coworking space.)

So I haven’t been tracking my spending for a while. But a couple of years ago I went through a major life change – the former Mrs. MM and I split up and moved to separate households in the same neighborhood.

With the old routines shaken up, and new things like hosting more parties, outfitting a new home and increased friend/family/long-distance-relationship travel, how has my bachelor spending been transformed?

It’s time to find out.

How Do You Track Your Spending?

My expenses are really easy to track: I funnel all my spending through a rewards credit card, which saves me about $2000 each year. (in 2019 I used the two highest-paying cards from Capital One which you can find here.)

Meanwhile, I hook up a third party financial app to automatically monitor these transactions, alert me to any unusual activity, and – the best part – automatically categorize and add everything up for me. I’ve been using one called Truebill for a couple of years*, and it has the simplest interface of anything I’ve tried – you get results like this:

Recent screenshots from my own Truebill account. (Sorry about all that cash sitting around earning nothing, I will put those little green employees to work ASAP!)

Truebill is great for tracking and improving spending, and you can also track with Personal Capital, which I have used for the last five years or so mostly for keeping tabs on all my net worth (see my 2013 article on that).

BUT you can also all this quite easily with no apps at all, just by downloading the full list of your 2019 transactions from your bank and opening it up as a spreadsheet. In Capital One (which I also use for my checking account), I just clicked on each account and there is a link for “Download Transactions” right at the top of my transactions list.

For me, it was extra easy because I used the same bank for both checking and credit cards, so everything shows up on a single login screen like this – kudos for Capital One for doing this so well since most banks have pretty bad websites:

Lots of useful stuff on my capital one home screen (don’t worry, balances and account numbers, etc. have been modified for public sharing)

So whether you use an app or a conventional spreadsheet, tracking your spending is quite useful, to know where you are now.

But the biggest message to take home from the result this:

These are not your “living expenses.” This is your current level of spending, something that is entirely under your control.

There is always a trick for everything, and you get to decide how many of these tricks to apply.

For my part, I try to use only the tricks that save me money and make my life better in some way. For example, I do my own carpentry and I use my own legs for transportation, because these are a win/win for me. But I do pay an accountant to do my taxes for me. Your own choices may be completely different, but it’s important and empowering to use that word – choices.

Special Notes Before I Share This

Many fun and even “fancy” things in life don’t have to show up as expenses – like parties at the MMM HQ, which is actually a business rather than an expense.

The table below will shock some, offend others, and hopefully inspire you to at least consider a few new things. But because of my unique life situation, I have made a few unusual choices. I’ll explain them in advance so the table will make more sense.

Do I really have zero medical expenses?

Yes, and I have for my whole life – this is a probably combination of dumb luck (genetics) and hopefully-smart luck (I made a guess that 1-8 hours of outdoor physical work, bikes, barbells and salads every day would be good for my health and so far it seems to be working.) But I know this is not a lifelong guarantee, because there are no guarantees.

What about kid related expenses?

My little 13-year-old is pretty low-maintenance these days: he develops stuff on the computer, plays the bass and rides scooters with friends. When we are together, we do these same things along with hikes and bike rides and the odd road trip. Other kids are into more expensive activities and that is wonderful if they enjoy it and you can afford it. This table includes the half of his food and necessities that I pay for, but does not include any money that changes hands between Former Mrs. MM and myself over these final four years of our co-parenting project. However, I am infinitely grateful for how happy and cooperative our arrangement has become, and suffice it to say that nobody needs to feel sorry for either of us in the financial sense either.

How can you even sleep, with no house insurance and no health insurance?

This really depends on your personality type – and mine may be unusual in this regard. I simply don’t worry much about things like theft, accidents, fires, disasters or anything else. I certainly know they are possible, but my mind thinks in statistics and probabilities rather than emotions or fears. In other words, I’m a bit of a robot. And the robot in me says, “On average you will make a profit and you can afford any worst-case consequences, so why buy insurance?”

For people in situations where losing a material possession would be a big deal, insurance may be appropriate. But I also still like the old-school advice of “don’t buy stuff that you can’t afford to lose, and take really good care of the stuff that you do have.”

But this will all be covered in more detail in an upcoming article about health insurance, including an interesting new option I am just about to try this year.

What Else Are You Hiding From Us?

My businesses pay for some stuff (blog-related trips, this computer, tools, etc.) that happens to be fun for me too – this may prevent me from spending personal money on other fun stuff.

Charitable donations, which now total over $300,000 (see previous article), are also not part of what I consider spending. To me, these are a reallocation of a good part of this website’s income to causes that need it more than me. But I probably wouldn’t be brave or badass enough to give away much money, if I were only earning the bare minimum needed to cover my lifestyle spending in the chart below.

And I don’t include income taxes in my spending, because if someone really lived on a level of retirement income to cover even twice this level of spending they would pay no tax. In my situation, I do earn more than I spend, and pay plenty of tax on it. But much like the charitable donations described in the last article, I think of income tax as just another way of contributing a small portion of this super-lucky surplus back to society.

It’s really not a big deal – and I find that statement to be true in all areas of life: as you get older and your material desires drop away, fewer and fewer things seem like a big deal.

Okay, let’s get into it!

MMM’s 2019 Bachelor Life Spending (all figures are for the full year)

CategorySpendingCommentsHousingMortgage + Insurance0Bought the current house ($315k) with cash, and I have been self-insured on houses for the last 5 years or so. Not for everyone but it feels right for me.Property Taxes$1735My current place is a 3Br/2Ba home in an “up and coming” (i.e. working class) central area. Downside: pickup trucks everywhere. Upside: cheap to buy, and located on creek and bike path. Walk/ride everywhere!Maintenance and Renovation$4699Renovated my kitchen (IKEA), plus assorted painting + lightsUtilities – City$1227Electric + Water + Trash service. Average electric = $24/month including electric car charging.Utilities – Heat$353Natural Gas service (incl. hot water)Household Items $294Things like lamps, picture frames, vegetable peelers, wine glasses at places like Target.Total Housing$8308FoodGroceries$4615Mostly fresh, organic higher-end stuff. For one active man and 1/2 time of a growing teen boy. Costco/Sam’s whenever possible, plus Whole Foods for more specialized items, and because it’s within walking distance.Restaurants$910Many more nights out in this new life – expensive but fun.Beer/Wine/etc$203Total “Food“$5728Medical CareHealth Insurance$0I decided to self-insure for 2019 as an experiment (because the US coverage mandate was removed), to see if I found it stressful/scary. Article on this to come!Medical Bills$0Had a truly fortunate year again – capping 45 years with just about zero medical costs so far. Will not take this for granted!Dentist$0Confession: I have only been ONCE in the last 25 years. Complacent because I’ve never had a cavity. Teeth are fine and clean. Am I pushing my luck?AutomotiveGasoline$22.621999 Honda Odyssey – used mainly for construction hauling. I do lend it frequently to friends, but they return it full of gas. But I walk and bike for all of my in-town transportation.Maintenance$0She had a perfect year (although with low mileage, car breakages are rare)Car Registration$545For van, cargo trailer, and Nissan Leaf shared with former Mrs. MMInsurance$397Mainly for the Leaf because it includes comprehensive (long story) – this is my half of the shared policy cost. Still using Geico and it’s great.Automotive Total$965Travel Total$3702Plane tickets, car rentals, airport transport. Interestingly, most accommodation was “free” due to staying with friends, credit card points and AirBnb Referrals.Entertainment$400Plays, Books, Netflix, Google Play movie rentals, even a couple Oculus VR video games.Mobile Phone$300I’m still on Google Fi. It’s $20 per month+data, a solid value for lower data users – I like the free international coverage.Internet$600This is expensive because we buy Longmont’s gigabit fiber internet, but well worth it for a household of blogger/video gamer/youtubers.Total$21,470Hey, not bad! Total “Barebones” $13,068My real (still luxurious) living expenses without the travel and $5000 kitchen renovation. Still includes restaurants, booze, cars, gadgets from Amazon, and living in a 3 bedroom detached house! ……………………….……………

So, What Now?

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. I had felt like I was living a total billionaire’s life in 2019, because it has been so packed with interesting people and places and experiences. I always buy whatever I want – after considering whether it will really make me happier – and this leads to a feeling of almost dizzy abundance. But I guess abundance just isn’t that expensive.

2020 is shaping up to be an even bigger year of personal growth and better friendships and hard work. I’m drawing up the plans for an exorbitant second-story deck off of my bedroom. The Tesla Model Y comes out in just a few months, and I am in love with it.

It could get expensive.

Stay tuned and I will let you know how it goes!

In the Comments: do you track your own annual spending? If so, how did you do last year? If not, what is your reason?

*About Truebill: I heard from Haroon Mokharzada as he was just founding the company, and was impressed with his background of seeming to be on the “good guys” team. So I have been a casual user ever since, just to follow their progress. The Truebill service/app is now good enough that I can see it being useful for many people – not just for tracking spending. And they have a sizable development team and a large and growing base of happy users. Nice job y’all!

Affiliate notice: While I have no financial relationship with Truebill, this blog may get a commission for other recommendations within this page, including Personal Capital, Airbnb and the credit card recommendations. And many thanks if you do use them!

from Finance https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2020/01/27/mmm-2019-spending/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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damonbation · 4 years