I got back from my (windy, short) ride on the Fuji yesterday, ate dinner, showered, etc, when I looked at the bike and noticed that the pedals weren’t settling properly. They’re LOOK-style clipless pedals and normally they hang with the front part up so that it’s easy to hook the cleat on and clip in. The left pedal was not doing this, and was sitting at some weird angle.

I went over and looked at it, and much to my dismay I saw opaque gray goo (grease) around the bearing. Furthermore, the bearing is kind of stiff and doesn’t turn near as easily as it should, hence the screwy resting position. I read my bike repair book, determined that these are probably sealed bearings, and that I screwed mine up. I looked at the bottom of the pedal, and the paint was scraped up a bit, so I must have banged it falling over when I didn’t clip my left foot in quickly enough.

Bah. I went ebay and found another set. I found that I had overpaid by nearly $30 on the original set ( and this is with MSRP ). Anyway, found another set on ebay, presently waiting to see how the auction goes. If all goes well I’ll still have saved a bit of $$ with labor and parts compared to going to my LBS, where I purchased the bike.

In that vein, I just ordered a repair manual for my ’95 Saturn from Amazon. I have an engineering degree, for chrissake. I should be fixing this stuff myself as much as possible.

Just in case you’re interested, here’s how I came up with my weekly budget system. It’s been working pretty well so far in terms of keeping me from overspending, and even helping me save.

I started with my monthly income, then subtracted rent and utilities, plus a few other monthly expenses. Then, I figured out approximately how much I needed to spend on food every week, plus a little money for going out to eat/drink. This requires experience with one’s lifestyle, but anyway I was able to estimate mine. Multiply by four, subtract from monthly pay. What’s left of the monthly pay is immediately subtracted by my savings bank when I get paid.

Now, for the actual week-to-week stuff, it goes like this. Every friday I take out my weekly allotment in cash. If I end up needing to purchase something online, using credit, I set an equivalent portion of cash aside for the next week. Additionally, if I go over my limit and have to take out more cash, I write down an IOU on a note in my wallet. Come the next friday, the amount I take out in cash is the weekly allowance minus whatever I owe and minus whatever cash I’ve set aside for credit purchases. I then put the cash I had set aside for credit into my wallet for the next week.

I think an example is needed here. These are not my real numbers, FYI.

Say I make $1200 / month (after tax!). If my rent is $450 and utilities are $50, then I have to pay out $500 a month. $1200 – $500 = $700. Now, let’s say I’m a pretty cheap guy, I never go out to a bar, and I eat ramen every day. My food expenses come to $35 / week. I throw in $10 a week for coffee from PJ’s. Then, my weekly expense for ‘living’ is $45. Multiply by ~4 weeks / month and I have $180. Subtract from my remaining $700 and that’s $520 I can save every month!

Now, say I can’t stand the ramen any more, and I buy a nice, juicy $8 steak, putting me over by $8. I had to take out some cash to do this, $20 minimum from the ATM, so I put an IOU note for $20 in my wallet. Plus, I buy a neat t-shirt online somewhere for $6 (credit). I take $6 cash from my wallet and clip it, setting it aside somewhere. Now, when I reach the end of the week, I started with $45, took out $20 more, spent $53 (don’t forget the coffee), and set aside $6. That leaves me with $6 cash. When I go to take out money on Friday, I can only take out $45 – $20 – $6 = $19. I usually just round up, so I only get to take out $20 that week. I also still have $6 in cash, plus $6 from what I set aside for credit. Total, $32, compared with the normal $45. As you can see, this encourages me not to do stupid things like buy steak I can’t afford.

I do screw up, more frequently than I’d like, and other times there’s stuff that I need that doesn’t fall into the weekly budget. These mistakes and items are eventually covered from the (substantial) saving that’s going on, but it makes me think about it before I pull the money out, especially since there’s a lag taking money out of savings into checking with my banks.

If you weren’t already aware, superglue is excellent for fixing all manners of cracked skin. It was, after all, designed for sealing incisions on the scalp in place of stitches. Why do you think it ‘bonds skin in seconds’?

Lately, while planning for the near future, I have been assuming that the future me will be:

• Lazy
• Stupid
• Forgetful

and adjusting said planning accordingly. It works out pretty well. This is also a useful tactic for dealing with other people when I want something from them. I assume that they will be those three things, do everything I can so that the absolute minimum is required of them, make it easy, and give them simple (not too frequent) reminders.

It really can work wonders.

Me with my poster at the GRC in Santa Barbara: