Money question - I had to pay deposits/installation fees for water ($125), power/gas ($150), and cable ($150). It makes sense to split those costs with my roommate, right? There's no reason for me to pay all of it by myself, is there?

Well, if it's a deposit and you get the money back, no, it doesn't make sense to split them. Too confusing. (You could split them as Amy said, one of you do one, one do the other...but if you've already paid them might be hard). For installation fees, sure, maybe.

I rent out a room in my house and was splitting all the bills with my roomie the first year, but it was such a hassle to not only pay them (er, I'm bad at that) but also manage to figure out how much he owed each time? Yikes. So for the new roomie I figured out how much it averages and just told her a total including utilities/cable/etc.

Or maybe you pay one deposit, she pays another, to make it easier to get them back later?

You can spin it that it's always good to have at least one utility in your name for proof of address, etc.

Twinkie Tiramisu

Someone here has made that in the past. Plei? No, that was the vegan one. Maybe bon?

I made the recipe for it. It may be in the cookbook.

I had a thing for tiramisu and too much free time.

I did try cooking it, so you're actually not far off.

Today's Google doodle is a virtual Alexander Calder mobile you can spin. [link]

I never understood how a mobile was such high art. It's pretty and all, but it's a mobile. Then again, my appreciation of most modern art is lacking.

Megan,

Not using credit cards is a very effective budgeting tool.

I have been using credit cards my entire adult life and I have found it to be a really important budgeting tool. Years ago, I would pay everything by credit cards if I could because I had a reward card that gave me realy good cash back. I need that $50 every other month (or whatever) and in the rare instance I had disputes with vendors, my credit card company would have my back.

I now pay all but one of my utility bills via credit card.

I used to put a line in my checking account register for every credit card charge I had so I could pay my credit card off every month. I had budget categories and I would watch my credit card and cash expenditures to keep things in categories.

xkcd: [link] I feel catered to.

I think using credit cards like a debit card can be fine, if you have good impulse control. I could easily do that, myself - I have that kind of spreadsheet mind. But for most people, they don't have that degree of impulse control, or even just plain forget they are on a budget, or can't remember mentally how much they have left to spend in a category and overspend, so carrying only the cash you have to spend can be really helpful. My husband is very much this way.

mr.flea will be unemployed in 4 weeks, so we need to re-do our budget and enforce it hard core. The hardest thing for me I think is going to be stuff for the kids. We have savings for the purpose - this is a planned layoff - but we don't know how soon he'll get a job and we can;t run through all of our savings because it's very likely we'll need to move when he does get a job. I don't think we'll be able to do dance class for Casper; it's $60 a month, plus she'd need new shoes and stuff. We don't actually have a whole lot of discretionary spending to cut, unfortunately. The bulk of our expenses are fixed.

I was freaking out about money because I thought this week wasn't payday, but it is! Phew. And I'm going to get some freelance money shortly, and there's more where that came from, so now I can relax again. But maybe I will still do my own nails today, which was my plan when I thought I was broke for a week....

I was going to say I was happy to no longer be so restrictive about my budget, and then I realized that I made vegetable broth today to use up my veggies before vacation and am eating the strained veggies for dinner, because, hey, why order food when you don't have to?

Dude, you're living the dream! Cheap habits when you don't need them lead to more money for fun things you want!

Noah would be jealous if he could conceptualize having a job and working on a LucasFilm thing.

Hee, Noah! And Yay for megan's job. So cool.