New tip: Save $10 on groceries by…

shopping at the Pathmark grocery store near the Atlantic Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn. Mister Redhead and I went to a barbecue in that area yesterday. Being the good guests that we are, we wanted to pick up some beer to bring to the party. We quickly located the alcohol aisle, chose a good beer, and headed to the check-out. We were met by, honest to God, the longest line I’ve ever seen in a grocery store. Of the 20 or so check-out lanes, only two were open, plus the four self check-out kiosks. This isn’t wise in a normal circumstance, let alone on a Sunday afternoon. There was probably a hundred people in line. We looked at our one measly item, looked at the line, looked at our one measly item, talked about how many hours late we’d be to this party if we waited in line, and finally said, “Screw it.” We couldn’t find any liquor stores nearby, so we showed up to the party empty-handed and volunteered to make a beer run if needed later in the night (which ended up not being necessary).

Now, I know places like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are notorious for long lines that stretch throughout the store. But Pathmark? Really? I’m curious: Has anyone else shopped at this location? Is it always that busy?

Library late fees

I love libraries. I really do. One of my first posts was all about how great they are for saving money on entertainment. But today my library let me down, or maybe I let it down, but whatever the case, there is a strain in our relationship now.

I usually check out items on Saturdays, since it’s rare I’m in the city during the week while the libraries are open. I had last Friday off, though, so I stopped by our branch and picked up a few books and DVDs. This morning, I remembered that the DVDs are due after a week.  I logged onto my NYPL account and renewed everything. But one DVD wouldn’t renew. Furthermore, it wasn’t due today. It was due June 9th, four days ago and just three days after I’d checked it out. So at $1 per day for every day its late, I now owe the New York Public Library four bucks.

Here’s the part that really gets me: This DVD wasn’t some amazing documentary or artistic tale. I owe the library $4 because of Hairspray. No, not the cool-kitschy ’80s one. The one from 2007. The one with Zac Efron and John Travolta. John Travolta, in drag:

So I’ll have to go to the library tomorrow and put on my Minnesota-nice smile and try to work my magic on a good-hearted librarian. If that doesn’t work, I’ll be coughing up a $4 penance for my poor judgment in choosing movies and my lack of attention toward the check-out receipt. Between this and the bus ticket, it’s beginning to feel like NYC as a whole is against me lately.

Quick, somebody write something positive about libraries in the comments. Maybe that positive karma will help me tomorrow as I try to get out of paying my late fee.

New Yorkers: Staying in more

When I moved to New York a couple of years ago, it seemed that no one hung out at other people’s apartments. It was just a NYC thing: Apartments here are not meant to hold more than three people. Everyone wanted to meet for dinner or drinks, or go see a show, or embark on some other NYC adventure.

But during the past few months, in this “great recession,” I’ve hung out in more friends’ apartments on the weekends than I have since I moved here. Bottles of wine, snacks, ten or so people? You’ve got yourself a party. This is a completely anecdotal observation, but I’m sure I’m not the first to write about it. It’s the kind of quaint, novel phenomenon that the New York Times loves writing about: Look! New Yorkers, learning to simplify and save money! Appreciating the sense of kinship in scaling back and slowing down!

Of course this makes sense financially. Anyone can tell you splitting a few bottles of wine is cheaper than ordering one glass in a restaurant. But maybe it’s not only the economy that’s causing this behavior. Maybe it’s simply that my friends and I, being a few years out of college, are upgrading to nicer, more spacious (well, as “spacious” as you can get in this city) apartments. You know, apartments that you aren’t embarrassed by and that you’re okay with inviting people into. We’re taking the time to paint these apartments, get real furniture, spruce up the places a little. We want to show them off to our friends.

I am all for this trend. I had the best times in high school just hanging out at friends’ houses. Granted, those houses also had pools and hot tubs and bonfire pits…but the  important thing was the great conversation. Ditto for college. Attending a school in Des Moines, Iowa, pretty much guaranteed  that I was more likely to hang out in a dorm room on a Friday night than be rocking the club scene (the club scene in Des Moines consisted of Coconut Joe’s, which I think went out of business, and The Garden, a gay club). I’m all too happy that people in New York are turning into little homebodies.

In light of this recent trend, I’ve been pondering throwing a party of my own. (I’m the type who always goes to parties, but never hosts parties–selfish, I know!) So, before the summer is done, I will host some sort of belated housewarming party.

Have you been staying in more? Do you stay in for financial reasons, or are you just over the NYC night scene?

Looking ahead

Day 2 of 2009 is upon us, and I’ve been thinking about what I can do better in terms of finances. I have a million ideas, but I’ll just jot down the biggies that come to mind:

• Get a handle on the restaurant/bar outings. As I said in the last post, I’ve gotten better with this, but there’s still room for improvement. Maybe I need to come up with a set budget for entertainment per month. Or maybe I should set some parameters, like having one date night per month that’s completely planned ahead of time (so we can research restaurant prices beforehand). Enough of just spontaneously dropping in someplace because we’re hungry and home feels so far away! At the very least, I should start packing snacks when I know we’re going to be away from the apartment a lot on the weekends.
• Look into a Roth IRA for Mister Redhead. He’s technically a freelancer, so he’s doesn’t have 401(k) options at his job. I know financial experts stress getting retirement funds going as soon as possible, but I can’t help but wonder: With the markets being so dismal, is it even worth setting something up right now? Or would that be like throwing money to the wind? Maybe that cash would be better put toward paying down student loans. I have the feeling we should get something started no matter what, but this definitely needs more research.
• Be savvier at the grocery store. It’s not like we buy expensive brand names or pricey organic veggies (I don’t think our Spanish Harlem grocery store even carries organic veggies). We buy generics, we take advantage of sales, we make large batches that last us a few days. But there must be more we can do. Clipping coupons, or trying a different store to compare prices (although I really think our icky grocery store has the lowest prices I’ve seen in Manhattan). Yet another point that needs more research.

How about you—any fiscal plans for ’09?