November Redux!

I didn't forget this time, it's just been a spend-o-riffic/travel-packed/crazy couple weekends. You'll get an idea below. My savings chart changed around all over the place and it took awhile to figure out... but the good news is, things are still moving in the right direction!

November:

No-Spend Days: 15

No Eating Out Days: 21

Extra Income: $59.32 ($45.10 from surveys, $14.22 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 82.34% (It looks like this didn’t go up very much, but I decided to take the amounts Airbear had given me toward the wedding fund OUT of my calculations… so the fact that it still went up at all is pretty frickin’ awesome!)

Retirement Savings: $190.20

“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 4 (haha, oops)

Books Finished: 5

Times Flossed: 3 (I think there might have been more? lol)

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 4

Progress on 2009 Goals:

• have kept my amazon.com card paid off each month – monthly goal MET!
• kept my credit union savings/checking account balances above $750 in each account to take advantage of the special rate – monthly goal MET!
• met all of the monthly requirements for my Checking ++ account – monthly goal MET!
• continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching) – monthly goal MET!
• transferred my SIMPLE IRA from an overpriced broker to Vanguard where I will get to pick the funds it goes into AND pay a lot less in fees, too! Also filled out the paperwork to roll over what I have at the broker to the Vanguard account. Some paperwork, some phone calls, but I’m really proud of myself for being proactive and taking care of it. Bonus goal MET!
• have continued to contribute little amounts to my vacations/gifts funds, and have not spent money on those two things without saving it first – monthly goal MET!
• kept my “Little EF” above $1,000
• continued contributing to my “Big EF” – although I then wiped it out, along with a big payment from Airbear, to prepay a bunch of wedding expenses. D’oh! It’s a little freaky not having “very much” in savings right now, but then I’m also realizing that the “not very much” amount is still more than I started the year with. Amazing what you get used to!
• Speaking of, I did get my “Special Occasion Fund” (as it was originally called, lol) up past its goal amount for the year. As I didn’t expect to get engaged when I started the year, it was a pretty small goal, all things considered, so I’ll have to keep working on that one next year. But we’ve paid several big expenses already. It’s kind of hard to estimate, though. Like – what’s the average price of a dinner reception in Brazil? Anybody know? (Anyway, original goal MET!)
• I had put off the laptop/car replacement/house funds for the moment, because I wanted to focus on the more immediate ones (and when I excitedly discovered the wedding fund was going to have to actually get funded, ha ha), so most of them are going to have to get carried over to next year, along with that laser eye fund. BUT now I’m not going to need the laptop fund after all, because I got a SWEET, SWEET deal on Cyber Monday this year – a better laptop than I had been wanting to buy for – get this – HALF of what I was preparing to spend! Of course I was not planning on buying it now, BUT I did pay cash and I am proud of that. I am also super excited to get a working laptop, partially because there are now 43 vertical lines on my current monitor (*sobs*), and partially because of the job-related update you’ll see below. (Keep reading, it’s a good one!)
• continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread
• am currently only about $1500 from an overall positive net work – even WITH the school loans! Omg! Sooooooooo cloooooooose!
• continued dancing, although our current waltzing class finished up before Thanksgiving and we’re going to take a break until after the holidays. I’m really going to have to start Wii Fit-ing again now!
• I got a PROMOTION! Part of the time I’ll be doing what I currently do (which is good, as I really enjoy that), and part of the time I’ll be taking on higher responsibilities. I get a shiny new title and – joy of joys – more pay! Do you hear the heavenly choir singing?! Because I do!
• did a TON of surveys this month. Really want to do a bunch more now, to get that EF filled back up!
• did pretty well being patient, even though it has been a pretty hectic month!
• did well keeping in touch this month – want to make a point of trying to talk to grandma a few extra times in December, although she’s one busy lady so that may be tough!