This is a post about money. I've been inspired to think about such things by other grad students such as the Insomniac Lab Rat, who is working on paying off school loans and trying to be as frugal as possible while making her way through grad school (although I did see a post about getting a puppy recently... hmm...). Although this is framed in terms of the running (since it's on my mind after this weekend's Illinois Marathon races) it could equally apply to a number of different things - taking vacations, buying technologies like computers, smart phones, etc. - that I have to think about from a financial perspective.
As you may know, graduate students aren't paid incredibly well. We do get a very reasonable living wage (especially for Ur-Paign... bringing it back...) that is able to cover the basic living expenses - rent, food, transportation, University fees, etc. I have many friends who are also able to purchase luxury items for themselves - smart phones, MP3 players, even make monthly car payments - without having to dip too far into savings accounts for payment. Although there are the occasional gripes about having to "live paycheck to paycheck", for the most part it's fine. One important aspect to this is the idea of sacrificing some thing to purchase another. Many of my friends who have these luxury items don't have or do other things - maybe they don't have television (hey, everything's on internet anyway), they shop frugally for groceries, they don't go out all the time, etc. It's about trading off what you don't need for something that you would really like.
My status differs some in that my wife is not a grad student, but rather a registered nurse. Because of this, we (overall) have much more money to play around with. Early on, this was a boon for us, because we really hadn't been in that position before and, therefore, felt it perfect reasonable to continue adding different things to our home without fear of living outside of our means. As we've gone through this process, we've established a certain standard that requires a lot of bills - mortgage, car payment, internet and cable TV, etc. - and those bills need to be paid with the same amount of money that we started with.
When you've gotten to the point that you can pay the bills but not have a lot of extra spending cash, it starts to become a balancing act between haves and have-nots. In the last few years I've have to rethink a number of "essentials" in order to determine what we can and cannot have. Without sacrificing the big things, there are only a small number of luxuries that we can live without. I decided to sell my Blackberry a few years ago, for example, because I didn't feel I could justify paying the extra $30 a month on a data package. While it may have made more sense to get rid of something bigger (i.e. try to live without cable TV for a while), this was one small sacrifice that we could make that would give us a small (if not substantial) piece of the pie back.
What this builds to is that list of essentials and things we can sacrifice. As I've said, cable and internet is probably not something we'll get rid of too quickly, nor is the car or the house. Those things have expenses tied to them that we can't really afford to not pay (i.e. I like having hot water and electricity... not giving those up any time soon... :-] ), which then leaves that short list. New clothes, camping gear, new electronics, and so forth. For example, my computer is almost 3 years old and Windows Vista wasn't really behaving... but instead of trying to buy a new computer, I got a grad student copy of Windows 7 for $5. We're keeping the TV my family bought in the mid 90's (it still works!). I'm wearing a jacket I've had since high school, and probably fixing the zipper on my favorite jacket instead of getting a new one.
The biggest activity that I've had to think about sacrificing is running. Now, I don't anticipate quitting running anytime soon (injuries aside), but there are expenses associated with running that I have to think about avoiding in order to maintain what financial resources I have. I've been hesitant to even consider doing races because of expenses - even the local 5K can get upwards of $25-$30, depending on how early you register. Running marathons, especially the big city races, has become more prohibitively expensive, with races such as Chicago and New York getting into the hundreds of dollars and even smaller races like the Illinois Marathon getting nearer to the $100 mark every year. I've been fortunate to find a handful of races that are closer to $50, but I have a feeling as time goes on those races will continue to become more expensive.
Costs of running shoes and gear aside, I'm finding it more difficult to justify paying the additional money just to do what I would do normally. As I don't have marathoning (or beyond) as a "bucket list", once-in-a-lifetime opportunity anymore (it's more of an activity I enjoy now), I don't really want to spend the extra money associated with running a race. It's really unfortunate, because I really do like the race atmosphere, but hey - I need that money to pay the bills!
So, getting to the point - is racing too expensive? In some ways, it is - the costs associated with getting into the race, getting yourself to the race, and putting in all of the time and money towards training, makes it a very expensive venture. Until I can reconfigure my finances in such a way that makes it more feasible, I don't anticipate doing any additional races anytime soon, which stinks.
I put it to you, readers - what kinds of things have you done to save money as a runner? Finding races that are cheaper? Doing the "Fat Ass" races that don't require fees? Purchasing clothes, gear, food, etc. online?
Think about it.
I know, I know the puppy thing doesn't really jive with the rest of our frugal life..but it's a puppy! haha
ReplyDeleteBut, part of the reason we try to live so frugally (aside from paying off student loans) is to save for things like when my husband's computer died...and fun things like a puppy.
I think it comes down to priorities and balance. I don't think you can cut out everything fun, but for those of us with limited income, we can't just go off spending as much as we want (without going into debt, I guess), so you have to choose what you want to spend on, and what you can cut out. And of course, as you said, there are "essentials" (we're not about to get rid of our car either, though we could probably make due with public transportation).
If you haven't already, I would highly recommend writing down (on paper or electronically) everything you spend in a month. It might help identify any area where you're spending more than you realize, which might be easier to cut back on.
I hope you can find a way to run at least the occasional races! Good luck :)
I am so lucky to be able to afford races and do destination running even. I still feel as though I shell out more and more for race fees though. I get the costs associated with a race - timing chips, traffic control, water, etc. But some of these runs are so pricey, they better be ready to wipe my sweaty head at the end and give me an awesome shirt and medal. awesome, not cheap. My husband and I just signed up for the Nike Womens marathon in October. We will drop a shit ton of money to go out to San Fran to run. Again, I am so lucky I can do it. But I definitely pass up all the small weekend races because the fees are getting higher and they add up. Too expensive? Not yet for me. But getting there
ReplyDelete@Insomniac - Thanks for the input. I've written down these things a number of times (including when I decided to get rid of the Blackberry), but it may be worthwhile to have another look and see where my money is disappearing.
ReplyDelete@Auntie P - Glad to hear you're still able to get to the races! Hopefully these costs will start leveling off a little bit soon, so we can all continue to participate!