nitza's pizza

Looking back (and forward) (are you getting dizzy?)

2012-01-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

Well, this fall I've managed to hold onto a 4.0, keep saving enough money to pay cash for my grad school classes, not go crazy at my job, spend time with friends and not lose my mind[1]. What I have not managed to do, as you have noticed, is update The Internetz. I also haven't had time to do a lot of surveys lately, so that extra income bit trailed off for awhile (as did my no-spending-excellence, toward the holidays, yeow!). But it's a new year now, and that always makes me excited. I find once more that I have to wait a little bit[2] to figure out a few financial goals, since I need to figure out what our New! Married! MAGI will be before I know if we can contribute to 2011 Roths, which I'd really like to do. And honestly between my variable paychecks, Airbear changing jobs, employee stock stuff, and, well, Married Filing Jointly, I have NO idea what that's all going to shake out to be. If he screws up my student loan interest deduction, though, I'm going to poke him right in the eye :P

Anyway, MAN was 2011 a hell of a year. Student taught in Special Ed, went on a workout spree, got married (twice? ha ha), traveled to South America, wore a Carnaval costume made out of wires and sequins and feathers (and not much else), paid for a lavish[3] wedding IN CASH, paid for grad school classes IN CASH, actually got dedicated to eating better and lost 15 pounds, had a ridiculously fun and silly summer, made a new nemesis, worked as a financial advisor, found really thoughtful Christmas presents for Airbear, maintained a 4.0 GPA, got two endorsements added onto my teaching certificate, and was able to save up enough to take my brother, my best friend, and my 87-year-old grandmother with me to Rio. Shit, now that I've typed it all out I need to go take a nap!

But first I'm going to FINALLY post the last two reduxes (reduxen?) of the year, as well as the totals for 2011. Not *quite* as good as 2010's, as I let myself relax a little after the wedding was paid for, but all in all a year I'm pretty proud of!

November:
No-Spend Days: 19
No Eating Out Days: 21
Extra Income: $142.29 ($108.75 from surveys, and $33.54 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: Don’t know, never got around to the mid-month update! Ack!
Retirement Savings: $24.66
Work-Out Days: 2

No-Carb Days: 9
Books Finished: 1 (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – tough to read)

December:
No-Spend Days: 17
No Eating Out Days: 25
Extra Income: $76.29 ($19.38 amazon credit from my chase card, $3 from surveys (Uh… I kind of took the fall off—oops), and $53.91 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 74.40%
Retirement Savings: $213.56
Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 14
Books Finished: 6 (!!!)

And the grand total (!):

TOTAL for 2011:
No-Spend Days: 223
No Eating Out Days: 283
Extra Income: $2090.59 ($1202.20 from surveys, $369.38 cash back from credit cards (AND NO INTEREST PAID, TAKE THAT! Ahem.), $178.71 from selling books back on amazon (actually, I think there was more than this but they were small books and I forgot to watch out for them when doing my tallies), and $340.30 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 74.40%
Retirement Savings: $2753.94
Work-Out Days: 51

No-Carb Days: 68 (So a total of 119 "healthy days" compared to last year's 50-something - WAY better!)
Books Finished: 25 (A lot better than last year!)

And no, I don't know why it won't do the spaces normally. But whatever. Good job, self, now let's get started on conquering 2012!

You know, right after that nap ;)

[1] Well, you know. Further.

[2] HATE!

[3] If you ask me![4]

[4] Or even if you don't![5]

[5] But obviously, why wouldn't you, since you're here :)

October Redux

2011-11-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

October:
No-Spend Days: 19
No Eating Out Days: 25
Extra Income: $232.80 ($149 from surveys, $50 statement credit from my credit card, and $33.80 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 54.57%
Retirement Savings: $243.66
Work-Out Days: 5 – AND 21 No-Carb Days! I am on a roll! Well, over the long Halloween weekend I totally fell OFF the roll but I’m working on getting it back :)
Books Finished: 1

Look at all that healthy-type stuff! :O

I am really, really proud of something in this post - see if you can find it!

2011-10-04T22:41:00.000-07:00

September:
No-Spend Days: 19
No Eating Out Days: 28
Extra Income: $249.04 ($91.91 from selling books on amazon, $105.75 from surveys, and $51.38 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 42.85%
Retirement Savings: $316.32
Work-Out Days: 0 – BUT as of today I have made it four weeks without carbs :) Going to start adding working out into the mix in October, too, but I think the diet thing is a good trade-off for this month!
Books Finished: 2

Eventually there will be a post that isn't a fly-by

2011-09-02T18:13:00.001-07:00

...but this isn't it. As we ramp up for the "start of the school year" (we're open all year long but we get a big influx around this time of year) I am working on not losing my mind. Oh, and I just got laser eye surgery yesterday! Ha! Big things going on over here. Anyway, I'm rushing off to put in my ten thousandth set of eye-drops and maybe break for some food, but in the meantime:

August:
No-Spend Days: 16
No Eating Out Days: 26 (Really surprised this isn’t higher)
Extra Income: $110.81 ($81.65 from surveys – see what happens when you stop doing them – and $29.16 in interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 44.56%
Retirement Savings: $171.74
Work-Out Days: 5 (better!)
Books Finished: 0 – yep, that’s right, a big fat zero. Honestly, after summer quarter, I’m surprised I even remember *how* to read!

Fly-by

2011-08-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

July:

No-Spend Days: 16 (I think)
No Eating Out Days: 22 (I think)
Extra Income: $198.40 ($71 from surveys, $100 statement credit from my credit card, and $27.40 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 40.38%
Retirement Savings: $201.18 (including $2 I found in the road – ha ha)
Work-Out Days: 1 (I know this one is correct – and yikes!)
Books Finished: 3 (but two of them were technical manuals – does that count for, like, 7?)

On the fly

2011-07-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

Can't talk, gotta do more HW, but real quick:

June:
No-Spend Days: 21
No Eating Out Days: 22
Extra Income: $224.50 ($99.25 from surveys, $86.90 from selling books, and $38.35 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 43.81% (and this even includes increasing my total goal amount, so that’s exciting!)
Retirement Savings: $217.24
Work-Out Days: 4 (real workouts – an improvement!)
Books Finished: 2 (but this will lag for awhile – tons of homework this summer!)

Life is Glorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrious!

2011-06-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

The sun is finally out in Seattle! It's been a really rainy spring/early summer, and I have had EEEEnough, I tell you what. But it's 63 today and supposed to be 80 tomorrow and I feel like dancing in the streets. Say what you will about the rain[1], but after a drizzly stretch sun isn't just sun - it's euphoria. PLUS I'm not at work, and how can you beat that!

Anyway, before I go off to frolic in the fields or something[2], here's the update for May. Need to get better about the working out, for sure, and reduce the eating out (even if Airbear pays, lol), but these last few weeks have been wiping me out. We'll have the summer schedule set at work soon, though, and things will settle a bit.

Anyway, here goes!

May:

No-Spend Days: 19 ***OMG WHY does it make an extra space after this?!?!***

No Eating Out Days: 23

Extra Income: $231.98 ($174.45 from surveys (!!), $50 cash back from my chase card, and $7.53 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 31.36%
Retirement Savings: $220.04
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 3 (2 dancing, 1 actual workout)
Books Finished: 5 – nice!

[1] It doesn't actually rain every day in Seattle. But don't tell California.

[2] Take a shower, hippie! [3]

[3] I don't stink!! I TAKED A SHOWER!! [4]

[4] Whatever. My Mom thinks I'm funny :)

My memory is not so good

2011-05-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

... since it's mid-May, but hey, I've been later :) Anyway, April's redux:

April:

No-Spend Days: 19

No Eating Out Days: 22

Extra Income: $197.08 ($50 cash back from discover, $140.35 from surveys (including 2 movie tickets), and $6.73 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 25.94%

Retirement Savings: $307.20

Working Out Days: 2 (both dancing – but serious, sore-next-day dancing!)

Books Finished: 3 (way better!)

Now if I could just get motivated to do something about that workout goal ;)

What can I say, I like having goals

2011-04-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

I read a post that one of the Ladeez on The Board had joined this "Million Dollar Club" on her blog, and because I can't resist a good challenge (unless it involves, like, running or something) I had to check it out. Not only did I find a new awesome blog to follow - seriously, what a name!! - but I spent some time reading the pledges of the people who were signing up for the challenge, and things like that always put me in a happy money-saving mood. It's nice to see (or read) like-minded individuals, you know? (Also, man is "individuals" hard to type.)

Anyway, the idea is to not just daydream about someday becoming a millionaire, but to lay out specific steps to get there, and to make a pledge to do it. Since I had already told Airbear I was going to make us millionaires someday (well, obviously), I thought this would be a fun way to make that goal real. (Plus you get a fancy little image - what are they called? Buttons? Banners? I don't know - to put on your site once you're in the club. No, I don't know how that works. You'll see it, if I manage to get it figured out.) I know what you're thinking - I am a teacher, I make $12 per year, how delusional am I being right now? But bear with me. It's not as insane of an idea as it sounds at first. To whit:

In order to make us[1] millionaires, I, Nitza Pizza (ha ha) pledge to do at LEAST[2] the following each year:

Contribute 3% to my SIMPLE IRA every year in order to qualify for the full (3%) match from my employer. Total annual contribution = $2,500 (Actually, it varies, because my paychecks vary with bonuses and stuff, but it will always be at least this much, and likely a lot more as the economy and my salary improve. But we'll go with this number for ease of calculation.)
Make Airbear contribute 6% to his 401k every year in order to qualify for the full (6% - lucky!!) match from his employer. Total annual contribution = $13,300 (Again, will be at least this amount. Also, maybe I should go work at his company.)
Max out my Roth IRA every year. (Already done for 2010 - first time ever - woot!) Total annual contribution = $5,000.
Continue to find ways to accumulate "extra income" - cash back on my rewards card, surveys, interest, etc. Total annual contribution = $1,000. It was actually more than double this last year, but I want to set an achievable goal that leaves me room to actually spend money, too.
Contribute to non-retirement long term savings (so that not ALL of the money is locked away for 35 years). Total annual contribution = $2,000. Again, between the two of us we typically save a lot more than this each year (we certainly did the last two years!), but some of that savings is actually for SPENDING on things. Like fabulous vacations. And books.

Now, I also want to start a Roth for Airbear, and maybe even max it out, since at this point he's so used to saving money (HA! I DID THAT!!!) that he might not even notice ;) But for right now I'm going to leave that off the list because I haven't done it yet and I'm only making a list of steps I can commit to.

But here comes the really fun part. On his post for this challenge, J. Money (ha ha, YES, again with the names! Brilliant!) also includes a link to this millionaire calculator, and I used that to figure out when we will theoretically reach our goal, according to the plan laid out above. Taking into account our current retirement balances, inflation, and some estimated rates of return, Airbear & I should be millionaires in:

(drumroll)

18 years and 5 months!

Yes, that's a long time[3], BUT(t) it's not infinity. So this means that I was right (of course) when I told Airbear I'd do it. More importantly, while that sounds like a long-ass time from now (and it is), it will happen when I am 49 years old. 49! Suddenly that sounds a lot sooner, doesn't it? And that's just doing things we're already easily doing - no insane frugality, no 'going without,' no eating Alpo in order to hoard all the money, etc. We will still be able to save for things like down payments and vacations and college tuition and all that crap - this is mostly automatic deductions (and, shit, $7900/yr of it is free money in retirement matching). If we are able to easily fit in a Roth for Aaron, then that's great - it shortens the time horizon to 16 years and 7 months (47!!!), but even if we don't - even if we take that $5k a year and blow it on hookers (kidding! obviously I meant books) - even without that, being a millionaire at age 49 still sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me. Of course inflation being what it is, being a millionaire won't be like yacht-sailing-champagne-bathing money, but - and more importantly for me personally - it does feel like a reassuring place to be in when I turn 50 and retirement is on the horizon. Don't you think?

[1] Because Airbear is now My! New! Husband!, I am making this goal a collective one. And yes, I do have THE POWER (muahahah) to make pledges about what he will contribute to his retirement. Because I am The Boss.

[2] Gotta give myself room to overachieve!

[3] I ran the calculator with just myself, no Airbear, and it took me 35 years and 4 months. Ha ha ha. More disgusting than funny, really, but what can ya do but laugh![4]

[4] Besides kill your employers, I mean.[5]

[5] That is a joke. [6]

[6] It really is a joke, but aside from that, I looked back at that year number and realized, you know what? In 35 years and 4 months, I would still only be 66. Look at that!

Ta da!

2011-04-08T13:48:00.001-07:00

Check it out:

I borrowed some from Airbear to get it in before the 15th (since my paycheck doesn't land until midnight on the 14th and it takes 48 hours to transfer from the bank to the Roth), so it feels a little like cheating. But hey! Maxed out Roth! First time!!

Surprise!

2011-04-01T14:53:00.001-07:00

I'm back again already, and March JUST ended!

March:No-Spend Days: 16
No Eating Out Days: 17 (9 vacation days = EO!)
Extra Income: $165.90 ($83.62 from surveys, $50 cash back from my chase card, and $32.28 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 23.69%
Retirement Savings: $3195.50 (yes, really!)
Working Out Days: 0 (Gave myself the month off as a wedding present, lol)
Books Finished: 0! Again! Man! BUT I am finally getting close to the end of this reaaaally slow classic I’ve been slogging through, so hopefully I’ll have enough non-homework time to make this number pick up in April.

Other Achievements: Finally wrote my 2011 goals.. but already realized there are more things I want to add to the list! Agh, I want to accomplish them all, but I need to be realistic so I don’t get discouraged. Hmm, choices, choices. I *did* finally get some into my 2010 Roth (and started my Total Bond Market Index Fund, finally), so that felt awesome. I’d like to be able to max it out by April 15 but I just don’t know if that is in the cards. Well, in the wallet, you know. Ha. Anyway, I want to beef up the EF, start the laser eye surgery fund finally, and pay for this math endorsement internship so I can finally get that old goal off my to-do list (uh, from 2009, heh). Of course I’d ALSO like to: max out my 2011 Roth, start a Roth for my NEW! HUSBAND! And max that out, and start (and fill) funds for the remaining classes I’ll need for my Ed.S degree after my work stops paying tuition for me (only one more class to pay). So we’ll see, the goals may get adjusted a bit. But the great thing is they’re all positive goals – education, job security & marketability, retirement, vision (!), security… It makes me smile, actually. Pretty proud of all that :)

OH and I got to make a brand new net worth chart in Excel, too. I made one for me and one for me & Airbear combined. Both are POSITIVE (!) and, between you and me, they are both just some damn fine lookin’ charts. There are colored header bars and everything. Man I make beautiful spreadsheets. Just look:

Now tell me you're not just DYING to evaluate some assets!!!

Two in a row - zing!

2011-03-19T00:13:00.002-07:00

Of course it's only because I'm catching up on stuff that is old, but whatever ;) It's a growing trend!

Reduxen:

February:
No-Spend Days: 16 (not bad for including 5 vacation days, all spends)
No Eating Out Days: 23 (also includes 5 vacation days, all eating out)
Extra Income: $60.79 ($42 from surveys - just couldn't fit the time in for more - and $18.79 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: (skip - as planned, writing 2011 goals after wedding) %
Retirement Savings: $223.86
Working Out Days: 10
Books Finished: 0 (Yikes!)

January:
No-Spend Days: 26
No Eating Out Days: 29
Extra Income: $200.81 ($143.38 from surveys, including a little food processor thingie and a 16-pc Ginsu knife set, $50 cash back from my chase card, and $7.43 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: (skip - as planned, writing 2011goals after wedding) %
Retirement Savings: $203.98
Working Out Days: 19
Books Finished: 2

Payoff

2011-03-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

SO it has been a very busy 2.5 months so far! Since the beginning of the year I have been eating healthy, working out, learning Portuguese, doing a special education internship, saving all the dollarz I could get my hands on, doing homework, finishing up wedding and travel plans, and working long hours at school. Actually, being that busy really helped in the saving dollarz department - the real motivation exercise was refraining from eating out every day and so that I could use the saved time to sleep. But I did pretty well. I haven't been posting on the money message boards (partly because they moved off of MSN to a new format I didn't have time to learn, but also because I didn't really have time to read or write, either), but I have been continuing to track my no-spend and no-eating-out days. Of course the busy schedule did not do much for my posting frequency over here, as you've noticed (which was funny to me when this blog was actually mentioned by our officiant in the wedding speech), but I figured the keeping-on-track was paramount to the talking about it, at least for the immediate present.

It did get a little tiring, that first quarter of the year, and with so much on my figurative plate the Shoulder Angel of Self-Indulgence (TM) really did start to whine loudly in my ear. And honestly, if I hadn't had a really big, short-term financial goal to push me (the wedding/trip), maybe I'd have listened. I mean, really, sometimes something has to give. And if your schedule is going to go insane and your time is going to get devoured, even *I* am not against making choices to balance things out a bit and save some of your sanity. But I DID have a really big, short-term financial goal, and it was motivating enough to help me ride out a short period of probably having a little too much on said proverbial plate.

And because I DID work really hard to ride it out, I get to say this:

The fancy-pants wedding? With the two fabulous venues, and transportation, and bodyguards [1], and samba dancers, and gourmet food and drinks? And the trip to Brazil? And the Carnaval costumes, and the parade, and the hang-gliding, and the 13 days of dancing and celebrating and eating out and shopping and doing what-the-hell-ever we wanted?

That was paid for in cash. Credit card balance: $0.

[1] Yes, really! They were hysterical!!

I'm surprised this site hasn't shut down by now

2011-01-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

Seriously, fell off the face of the Earth there, didn't I? Things got kind of crazy busy for me, and while I kept tracking everything and saving, obviously the reporting kind of fell by the wayside. I know you've been shivering with antici-(SAY IT!)-pation [1] without my monthly reduxes (reduxen?), though, so I totaled up everything and am presenting ......drumroll....... 2010 in Review!

TOTAL for 2010:

No-Spend Days: 249
No Eating Out Days: 300
Extra Income: $2150.38 (Holy crap!)($1464.30 from surveys, $200 cash back from my chase card, $118.98 from selling back books, $3 from a rebate, and $364.10 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 143.75%
Retirement Savings: $3,012.56
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 54.5 or so (lost count the last four months)
Books Finished: 17 (that does not seem like very many, considering the amount of time I spent reading this year!)
Times Flossed: lost count
Letters/Cards/Contacts: lost count of exact number, but completed goal – see below

Progress on 2010 Goals:

Always paid off my full credit card balance each month (just used it for the rewards) and did not pay a cent of interest – GOAL MET!
Paid cash for all wedding expenses to debt and have stayed debt free – GOAL MET!
Aside from about two weeks (waiting on transfers back and forth), kept my Teacher Bank savings & checking balances above $750 to earn the special interest rate – I’m going to go ahead and count this one as GOAL MET!
Met the requirements for my rewards checking account every month to earn their special interest rate – GOAL MET!
I never did start an ING account for that $25 referral bonus – I just never got around to it. Actually I’m not sure if they have the program still. If I get my balance above $10k in my rewards checking account (ha ha), which is the limit for the special rate, maybe I’ll look into additional accounts. For now, I think I’m doing pretty well.
I utterly failed on the Roth goal for 2010, but that was by choice. I decided to just save everything I could so that I can make sure to have enough to pay the wedding expenses in cash, and while I know retirement is important (trust me, it’s my first financial goal after the wedding!), I really want to stay out of debt, too.
Contributed at least $2500 to my SIMPLE IRA w/matching – GOAL MET!
Kept a “gifts fund” and a “vacations fund” and did not go into debt for either of these two former danger zones – despite an unexpected, short-notice trip to Paris! I call that a major life success, right there! GOAL MET!
Contributed $100 to my niece & nephews’ tuition accounts (and did it early, before the price went up in March) – GOAL MET!
Kept “Little Emergency Fund” above $1000 (actually above $1500 – I keep this in my Teacher Bank account) – GOAL MET!
Did not get the “Big Emergency Fund” to $5000 this year – same reason as the Roth goal, really. It’s grown, it’s shrunk, but it’s didn’t make it that high. I’m okay with it, though – I handled every emergency life through my way this year without freaking out too excessively (fewer F-bombs, Mom!!) because I had a financial buffer to cover things. So I didn’t meet the specific goal but I am still feeling pretty happy about it.
Had a goal to “focus on the Wedding Fund” – certainly did that! (I’m not going to tell you how much, because you’d throw up, or I’d throw up, or maybe both, but in any case at least it’s all paid for!) We’re going to have an amazing wedding and a fabulous trip with 25 of our nearest and dearest, and I didn’t have to take out a loan or stack up credit card debt. I’m pretty proud of all this. GOAL MET!
Started an Eye Care Fund, a “Fixing Stuff” Fund, and a “Car Maintenance Fund” and prepared myself ahead of time for these big (and infuriating) expenses. It was all a little too much work, though – I think in the future I’ll just have one “Big Emergency Fund” (i.e., money set aside for if Airbear were to lose his job or the house burned down) and a regular bank balance that can handle new contacts or replacement tires. It’s funny, me, going in the direction of fewer things to track instead of more – not what you expected, I know – but between wedding planning, working, going to school, doing homework, working out, and learning Portuguese, it turns out that I do eventually run out of time for even my beloved Excel spreadsheets. Who knew! Anyway, the original point was GOAL MET!
Continued posting on the Controlled/No-Spend Thread (and managed quite a few no-spends, as you can see above… Much more than last year’s 222 & 290, respectively. Exciting!). GOAL MET! I kind of ran out of steam with the posting toward the end of the year, but I kept tracking. The boards have all been discontinued at MSN’s site (boo!) and have moved over to a newer site, but I haven’t really had time to figure out how to use it yet. So we’ll see if that ends up being something I continue, maybe after the wedding/school program when I have some time and/or brain cells to spare. Either way I met some great friends there that I am still in contact with and certainly developed some great financial habits. I will always be grateful that I found that place when I did.
As far as whether I got to a positive net worth (including the student loan debt), unfortunately I have to say I have no idea. Ha ha ha. That’s terrible. But honestly I haven’t updated that spreadsheet since like January – just haven’t had time – and with money transferring here, there, and everywhere it’s just not something I can stop and figure out right now. Obviously the net worth is solidly in the positive when the school loan isn’t figured in, and so I’m fine with being happy about that and figuring out the rest in a few months. When I write my goals for 2011 (which will be after the wedding & trip are over) and I have fewer, simpler savings goals, everything will be streamlined and this will be easier to calculate.
Working out came and went in phases, as I’m sure it does for most people – some months I did absolutely zero, some I did four times a week. I’ve been on a good run lately so I’m pretty excited about that.
I still have trouble being “patient and positive” in the mornings (Sorry, Mom) – I have a really short fuse in the a.m. and it’s something I want to try to improve.
I found out all the remaining requirements for adding the middle school math endorsement to my teaching certificate, and have everything lined up for a program to do my “internship” (a few BS assignments and an observation or two). What’s more, I finally got a middle school math student! (That’s what’s been holding this process up.) In fact, I could be doing the MS Math internship program right now – but for once in my life I decided not to play on All The Way Hard and am only doing ONE internship in addition to my full time job, instead of two. Aren’t you proud? Anyway, this will be any easy one to finish up post-wedding/post-current-internship.
Continued my special ed endorsement classes without going into any additional student loan debt, and so far have maintained a 4.0! That’s TWO GOALS MET!
Ha ha – I had a goal in this list (I’m looking at it now) that said, “Research additional mutual funds and continue to diversify my investments” – Uh, nope, didn’t do that! I have learned more along the way (and balanced both mine and Airbear’s retirement portfolios for a second year of larger-than-average returns!). It turns out I make very good investment decisions. So many things I would never have expected. ;)
Saved my whole tax return – GOAL MET!
Checked my credit reports – GOAL MET!
Used each of my 3 backup credit cards every 3 months and paid them off immediately to keep them active – GOAL MET!
Did more surveys – a TON more, actually – and found ways to make $2150.38 of extra money this year. That’s like half my annual salary! GOAL SOUNDLY MET!
And finally I followed through with my goal of sending both of my grandmothers at least one card every month and keeping in touch better. I’m not sure if it makes a difference, but it feels good to me to do it, and I hope it makes them smile.

All in all a very productive, very busy, and (if I do say so myself) (and I do) financially successful year! That sounds like bragging, but when “financial success” means a lot of hard work, planning, self-denial, and energy (and not, say, just winning the lotto), it is important to stop and say, if only to yourself and your mother (Hi, Mom!), I did a good job. There is still room to grow – isn’t there always – but I worked really hard and I did a good job and I am going to take some time to celebrate that and be proud of myself.

Happy end of 2010!

[1] Lol nevermind, it's a lame reference ;)

Wedding Shoes!

2010-06-10T14:52:00.001-07:00

Just imagine the red of a red, red rose :)

March Redux (Finally...)

2010-04-23T16:43:00.001-07:00

Oh my gosh, seriously it's almost April! *Embarrassed*

Here we go!

March:

No-Spend Days: 25
No Eating Out Days: 26
Extra Income: $205.47 ($107.30 from surveys, $50 from my chase card, and $48.17 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 25.43%
Retirement Savings: $207.74
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 17.5 (WAY better!)
Books Finished: 0 (Although I did read all but 2 chapters of a couple of school books; I just don’t want to finish them because they were terrible, so I can’t count them!)
Times Flossed: 6
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 6

Progress on 2009 Goals:

Still paying off that rewards card every month
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!
Filled the tuition fund for my nieces and nephews, and contributed more to the gift fund in advance of Gift Month (i.e., late April/early May) – goal MET!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching) – monthly goal MET!
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000 – monthly goal MET!
continued contributing to my “Big EF”
continued contributing to the Wedding Fund
used my (previously-filled) eye-care fund, and it was even less than I expected. Bonus! Also decided I don’t need the professional development fund, since I figure the special ed classes are enough professional development for one year ;)
continued posting on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread
kicked butt on the working out goal! Even made up for a little of the slacking off the past two months :)
my performance evaluation at work was excellent ;)
checked my credit report – no inaccuracies, and looking great! Annual goal MET!
did very well staying positive and energized (and busy!) at work. It was still a little slower, so hopefully it will pick up. But we were in the black, so hooray for that!
ended up getting a 4.0 in my first special ed class – yay!
continued doing a ton of surveys and earned enough in amazon cards to get a new workout program :)
I again followed through on my “send at least one card to each of my grandmothers” goal, and in fact I sent April’s cards at the end of March too, to get there before Easter. Monthly goal MET!

February Redux

2010-03-06T23:23:00.000-08:00

The funniest thing about this is that the reason it took me a week to post the month-end update is because I had to get my planner from work to see how many times I flossed my teeth. Ha ha ha. What an annoying goal to track. But it does actually make me do it, I guess. Anyway, on to the good stuff!

February:

No-Spend Days: 18

No Eating Out Days: 24

Extra Income: $138.08 ($122.70 from surveys (yes, really! Included the price of 2 movie tickets), $3 from a rebate, and $12.38 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 18.40%

Retirement Savings: $713.00

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

Books Finished: 4

Times Flossed: 6

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 6

Progress on 2009 Goals:

Still paying off that rewards card every month
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!
put my entire tax return into savings (my 2009 Roth, actually) – annual goal MET!
added an extra lump sum along with the tax return to put $500 into the 2009 Roth. A good start to this year’s portion of my 2009 contributions, but still a long ways to go before April 15!
started my gifts fund and the tuition fund for my nieces and nephews
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching) – monthly goal MET!
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000 – monthly goal MET!
continued contributing to my “Big EF”
continued contributing to the Wedding Fund
continued posting on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread
FAIL on the “try to fit in at least two workouts per week” goal again – only once per week (yikes), but so far I’m off to a much better start at this in March – just wait and see!
did very well staying positive and energized (and busy!) at work. It was a little slower, so hopefully it will pick up.
still doing well in my first special ed class (100% on all assignments so far), but we’ll see how I make it through this (*coughstupidcough*) group project to finish out the semester
used all three of my “backup” credit cards for something small, since I forgot to take care of this goal in January. Paid off two of them immediately, but had to wait to get bank info set up on the third (annoying!). Anyway, should be taken care of shortly, so I’ll count this as a goal met!continued doing a ton of surveys and, as you can see, got to cash out quite a few this month. That definitely helps with the motivation!
I again followed through on my “send at least one card to each of my grandmothers” goal, with a few more to boot. Monthly goal MET!

January Redux

2010-02-06T12:02:00.001-08:00

Ha ha, I totally forgot that January had ended. Duh! Anyway, here goes with the first month-end recap of 2010!

January:
No-Spend Days: 25 (!)
No Eating Out Days: 27
Extra Income: $99.62 ($91.84 from surveys and $7.78 interest**)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 9.67%*
Retirement Savings: $183.56
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 3 (lol)
Books Finished: 2 (and started four others)
Times Flossed: 5
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 10

*This is a little misleading – I am only updating my savings tracking after the 15^th of each month, since that’s when I pay my rewards cc and have my monthly expenses all taken care of. So this number is only indicative of what I saved from Jan. 1 – Jan. 15. Still not bad, though!

**Damn, my interest rate is down to 3.77%. That has got to start coming back up!

Progress on 2009 Goals:

Still paying off that rewards card every month
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!
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000 – monthly goal MET!

continued contributing to my “Big EF”
continued contributing to the Wedding Fund
funded eye care and car maintenance accounts before going to the eye doctor and car repair shop. I even had to have one unexpected car repair done, and the money was already sitting in the account, so I didn’t even have to stress about it. Amazing! Me, not stress!
continued posting on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, and was really hardcore about it this month. In fact, I made it until the last weekend of January with only three spend days (but then had some unavoidable travel expenses come up at the last minute). Still, I barely spent much of anything and I know that’s going to help the saving in February when I don’t have much to pay off on the rewards card.
FAIL on the “try to fit in at least two workouts per week” goal. Oops!
did very well staying positive and energized (and busy!) at work. January was a great month at the school, so hopefully that will continue!
took (and passed, yay!) the middle school math endorsement test – annual goal MET! (First one, too!) Now I just need to wait until I’m actually teaching a middle school math class and set up the observation part to get my endorsement.
began taking classes toward my special ed endorsement, without taking on any school loan debt!
I haven’t finished any classes yet, so technically I don’t have a GPA per se, but both of my papers so far have been 4.0s and my teacher called me a “gifted writer,” so I’m going to go ahead and count that as a monthly goal MET!
completed my tax return and sent it off, and when it comes I am going to SAVE IT so I can meet this annual goal!
Oops, forgot to use my “backup” credit cards for something small this month. I’ll try to remember to do it in February, so they don’t get closed for inactivity.
did a metric butt-load of surveys this month, and am indeed finding (as a friend told me) that the longer I belong to the different survey places, the higher-paying surveys they send me. It’s nice to see the payouts come faster! I know when you divide it up it’s still not an hourly wage that’s comparable to doing freelance work or taking on a second job, but it’s easy to do when DF and I are sitting on the couch with our laptops, and let’s face it, at the end of a day at school I do not have enough brain left in my head to do a second job ;)
It was a rough month for me, personally, but I’m doing better now and I tried not to be a heinous bitch in the meantime. Luckily I have a very understanding support group :) And we’re working on the ‘save the dates’!
I am proud to say that I did follow through on my “send at least one card to each of my grandmothers” goal. In fact, I sent two, but I figured the Christmas thank you cards shouldn’t count as the monthly card ;) I did count all of the thank you cards toward my total contacts for the month, though, because… well, obviously, it makes the total look more awesome! :) Monthly goal MET!

Percentages

2010-01-31T18:30:00.000-08:00

I finally got my W2, and besides being able to do my taxes (yay!) and see how little I made last year (boo!), I was able to go through and figure out what percent of my annual income went to my different goals. I think this will be exciting:

Contributions to retirement: 19.15% (Woah!!)

Wedding fund savings: 14.38%

Emergency fund: 9.83%

Debt repayment: 12.86% (Paying off the Bank of Mom and student loan payments)

Payments to credit card companies: 0.00% (Take that!)

All in all, I saved 52.68% of my income last year, and lived on less than 35% of it.

Nice!

I'm stunned!

2010-01-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

It took awhile to add all this up, but once I did I was pretty surprised. I've felt pretty positive about the things I've been working on in 2009, and it's cool to see the numbers behind that feeling. Ready?

2009 Year in Review:

No-Spend Days: 222 (!!!)
No Eating Out Days: 290 (!!!)
Extra Income: $1,123.99 ($244.51 from surveys, $250 cash back from Chase, $210 from bank offers, $30.21 in rebates, $50 from being right, $160 from transferring prescriptions, and $179.27 interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 94.31%
Retirement Savings: $7507.54 (really!)
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 86.5 (ha ha)
Books Finished: 28
Times Flossed: at least 48 (somehow I missed October?)
Letters/Cards/Contacts: at least 43 (October again – what was up with me that month?)

Progress on 2009 Goals:

All in all, I met 27 of my 35 goals. Wowza!
8 goals did not get fully met during this calendar year:

“Save $250 and start an ING account to get the referral bonus” – I kept finding other bank offers that were paying more than this one, and so I never got around to it! I will put it on the list for 2010 and see if the offer is still available. There’s another one from Wells Fargo on the coffee table as I type this.. so we’ll see! Banks just can’t get enough of me ;)
“Max out my 2009 Roth by April 15, 2010” – and actually, I’ve got 4 more months to keep working on this one. But technically it didn’t get done in 2009 so I wanted to be honest!
“Big Emergency Fund to $5000” – it got pretty high but then I spent it on wedding deposits. This will be an ongoing goal, and it won’t break my heart if it doesn’t happen within a year. It’s just what I’d like to see the EF at.
“Laser Eye Surgery Fund – get $2000 into the fund before the surgery, and then do the 18-month interest free financing while the money’s in a high yield savings account” – haven’t even started this yet, lol. May have to wait til after the wedding!
"Start ~~laptop~~/car replacement funds and a dream house fund, when possible (goal amounts $5000, $10000)" – same here!
“Get to a positive net worth – including student loan debt” – not there yet, but getting closer!
“Take the middle school math praxis” – scheduled for January 9, 2010
“Take care of other requirements to add middle school math to teaching certificate” – for obvious reasons, will have to wait until after January 9, 2010 ;)

Now I am going to go do THE DANCE OF JOY!

Join me, won't you? ;)

December Redux

2010-01-01T22:45:00.001-08:00

Wrapping up the month (and year) here. This one's pretty cool, but the next one's even better! Check it out:

December:
No-Spend Days: 18
No Eating Out Days: 24
Extra Income: $120.35 ($30.30 from surveys, $50 cash back from Chase, and $40.05 from interest)
Progress Toward Savings Goal: 94.31%
Retirement Savings: $202.18
“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): Gave myself the month off ;)
Books Finished: 2
Times Flossed: 3
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 5

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! In fact, I contributed a little over $2,500 over the course of this year. Nice!
I did not max out my 2009 Roth, but I got halfway there, and added the second half to my goals for 2010. All in all I did contribute $5k to my Roth account this year, though, so that proves that I can do it within one year!
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 (although just barely – December was a stretch!) – goal MET!
began the process of rebuilding my “big EF” ;)
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread – annual goal MET!
not quite there yet on the positive net worth (including school loan debt) goal, since I wiped out savings with the wedding deposits. But still pretty close, considering the size of that school loan debt! Will have to keep working on this in 2010.
spent December being fat and lazy. Will worry about getting off my butt in January ;) All in all I think I was in better shape for most of 2009, and that was the point of this goal, so I’m feeling good about it. Feeling fat, at the moment, but good. ;) So I’m going to go ahead and say annual goal MET!
definitely stayed positive at work this month – between the two roles, things have been busy and exciting, and I am looking forward to January! Annual goal MET!
Am scheduled to take the middle school math endorsement assessment in just one week. Obviously won’t be able to finish the other requirements to fully get the endorsement, because the test got pushed back so far, but I’m halfway there, and will also be starting classes for my special ed endorsement on Monday, too. Bigger achievements than expected!
continued doing lots of surveys while I can (I am predicting that I will not have as much time for these once class starts… but I do want to try to keep doing them and making some extra money). Overall, I made $244.51 from surveys this year. Not bad! Annual goal MET!
tried to be patient and encouraging throughout the holiday madness :)
kept in better touch with my grandmothers (both of them) and have already filled out all of my Christmas thank you cards. (My mom is proud of me, I know!). I think I did well with this goal this year, and plan to continue. Annual goal MET!

November Redux!

2009-12-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

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!

What two (years) can do

2009-11-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not remember, I started my Debt Destruction Resolution (TM!) in November 2007. As I've just hit the two-year anniversary of that decision this week, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on where two years has brought me. No, scratch that. That is way too passive of a sentence. Rather I'm going to reflect on what I HAVE DONE in two years!

paid off my car
paid off all my credit cards
become completely consumer debt free
started multiple savings accounts
created multiple (albeit small) income streams
taken advantage of special rate offers from multiple banks to maximize return
started a Roth IRA
worked up to the point where I am able to fully fund a Roth within one calendar year
contributed enough to my regular retirement to get the full company match
established annual savings goals and am on my way to reaching them
started planning ahead so my expenses are easy to cover without using credit
have reduced my monthly expenses by more than half
have saved over four months' worth of expenses in an Emergency Fund
have kept more than $2,000 of "short term emergency" money in the bank for over a year
have paid off a combined total of $29,638.63 worth of debt (including the car, cards, loan, and payments toward the school loan)
put 63% of my income for year one toward getting debt free
have so far this year saved over 50% of my income (yes, really!)

And here's a real big kicker:

I am only $1,581.07 away from having a positive net worth - INCLUDING the student loan.

I think that's pretty amazing. That means I have increased my overall net worth by $46,667.22 in the last two years. Not bad on a $36k/yr salary, I think. :)

This calls for a HAPPY DANCE!

Okay, peeps, show me your happy dance ;)

Seriously, this is just embarrassing

2009-11-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

October Redux:

No-Spend Days: 24

No Eating Out Days: 29 (!)

Extra Income: $ ($18.40 from surveys & $11.68 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 81.01%

Retirement Savings: $193.80

“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 5

Books Finished: 3

Times Flossed:

Letters/Cards/Contacts:

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!
took the tuition money I had saved and deposited it in my nephews’/niece’s tuition accounts – 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”
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread
continued dancing, although dance classes are down to once a week because of a late schedule at work. The projector is fixed now, though, so hopefully I can get myself motivated to start Wii Fit-ing again!
am doing very well with surveys – got some more recommendations from a No-spend friend and have been really trying to get them done before they expire (which is pretty quickly). The fun side of this is that now I am more frequently getting little prize checks in the mail - $3 here, $6.10 there, but a lot more fun to get little checks in the mail than it used to be to get BILLS in the mail!
did pretty well being patient, even though I am feeling pretty impatient with work being so slow!
did well keeping in touch this month – many birthdays and events in October!

Airbear Dinner Night, #2

2009-10-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

When I got home late last Wednesday, Airbear jumped up from the couch and yelled, "My hoooooonnnnnneeeeyyyyy!" and threw his arms wide open for a big hug. (Believe it or not, this was not just because he wanted dinner and I was finally he home, he does this every day.)

But then he said, "I've been slaving all afternoon to make your Wednesday Night Dinner. It's in the oven right now. DO YOU WANT TO SEE IT?!?!"

Yes, he sometimes talks in capitals.

Of course I was starving at this point, so we ran into the kitchen and he threw open the oven door and held out his hands proudly. "Ta Da!!!!!!":

Ha ha ha ha. Oh, Airbear.

Yes, that is a delivery pizza. And it was amazing.

Oops, I did it again..

2009-10-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

I just got that song stuck in your head, didn't I? ;)

But anyway, that wasn't what I meant (although it is funny), I meant taking forever to get something done, namely my.........September Redux!

September:

No-Spend Days: 19

No Eating Out Days: 23

Extra Income: $85.89 ($13 from surveys, $25 from rx transfer, $10 from bank offer & $37.89 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 74.59%

Retirement Savings: $195.60

“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 11 (!)

Books Finished: 2

Times Flossed: 6

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 6

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!
I got the $10 from one of my “bonus banks” for making 3 debit card transactions. $10 free, yay!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching) – monthly 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”
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread
realized I really am going to have to start on that laptop fund soon.. now the battery’s fried, and the screen keeps getting more vertical lines from where it’s dying (I’m up to 26 vertical lines at last count), but I can put up with both for awhile longer. It’s almost always plugged in anyway. Maybe Santa *cough*Airbear*cough* will help me in the laptop parts department this year. It just seems silly to buy a new laptop when this one is still really good, but laptops are getting so cheap now that they’re less expensive than replacing the parts!
more dancing! I did only end up dancing two nights a week, because a lot of work commitments and other things kept popping up on Thursday nights, but still up from previous months! And Airbear seems to have really enjoyed the waltzing lessons so we’ll be signing up for Waltz 2 :)
things were quiet at work but managed to stay positive and work on a lot of side projects
screwed up on the exam for adding a middle school math endorsement to my teaching certificate – was supposed to take the test, but in the middle of helping Levi move out of her slug-infested (I am not making that up) slum apartment I totally forgot about the test on the day I was supposed to go take it. What an idiot! That was a boneheaded move. But I have re-registered – unfortunately the next test I can take isn’t until January. Gah! Won’t be able to finish that goal this year. Darn it!
did better with surveys this month, and even got to refer some people! Yay!
did pretty well being patient this month ;)
did better with staying connected, too – sent a card to grandma for no reason, as well as some well wishes for friends going through difficulties. (And I’m off to a great start with this one for October, too!)

And just think, now you only have to wait a couple weeks for the next redux! Ha ha!

Thanks for last night, hot stuff!

2009-09-09T22:42:00.001-07:00

Not THAT. Maybe even better than that, actually. Look what I came home to:

THERE ARE EVEN VEGETABLES! ZOMG!

August Redux

2009-09-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm teaching this Personal Finance class (I know, right? Isn't my life the best?) and one of the little sidebar suggestions to the student today was to tell others about your plan so they can ask about it and help keep you accountable, or to post it somewhere you can see it. I told the kid, "...or you can post it on a blog or something and do both." "Smart!" he says. Of course I am, kid, of course I am ;)

Anyway, here goes:

August:

No-Spend Days: 19

No Eating Out Days: 22

Extra Income: $ 195.73 ($45 from surveys, $50 from amazon card, $40 for rx transfer, $50 from being right, & $10.73 interest)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 64.24%

Retirement Savings: $1196.20

“Healthy” Days (eating well or working out): 6.5

Books Finished: 2 (including that long boring one, finally!)

Times Flossed: 7

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 2

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!
I got an offer in the mail from one of my “bonus banks” that if I made 3 debit card transactions they’d give me another $10 bonus. I did the transactions this month and should get the bonus mid-September. Sweet!
I put my first $1000 toward my 2009 Roth contributions!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching) – monthly 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”
have put a few extra dollars into my “Laser Eye Surgery Fund”… it’s not much, but at least it’s started!
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread – did much, much better than July. I can safely say I’m back on the wagon!
more dancing! Plus I worked out a fall schedule that will include dancing three (!) times a week!
did better staying positive at work – ended up being a busy month for enrollments and had a good time “racing” with those. Am hoping to keep it up in September!
registered for the exam (WEST-E, now, no longer Praxis, although that hardly matters) that I need to pass for adding a middle school math endorsement to my teaching certificate – taking the test mid-September.
did better with surveys this month, and got a nice handful of rewards from several of the companies. That’s some nice motivation!
did pretty well being patient this month!
not as good on the “staying connected” goal this month – will get better throughout the fall as there are lots of cards to send, and when I’m sending birthday cards to others I can remind myself to reach out to my little grandma, too :)
Bonus goal – I even identified some 2010 financial goals already! Go me!

July Redux

2009-08-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

July:

No-Spend Days: 10

No Eating Out Days: 15

Extra Income: $18.21 ($7.81 interest, $10.40 check from surveys)

Progress Toward Savings Goal: 55.20%

Retirement Savings: $193.80

Workout Days: 6

Books Finished: 1 (but also some more of the boring book and a *bit* of Portuguese)

Times Flossed: 2 (ha ha, oops!)

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 8

Progress on 2009 Goals:

Completely PAID OFF the Bank of Mom loan and became consumer debt free!!!!! (Sorry for the excessive use of exclamation points, but this was a HUGE accomplishment for me and it is hard to contain my excitement! (!!!) Ha ha ha.) MAJOR DEBT GOAL MET!
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! (The rate is down to 4.02%, though, boo!)
I received my $100 bonus from US Bank! Goal MET! (And then they sent me another offer in the mail to get $150 for starting an account. Jerks!)
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching). I have contributed over $1400 this year, well past my initial estimated goal of $1000. 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!
put away $100 for my nephews’/niece’s tuition accounts (which I will be able to actually fund once the enrollment period is open in September). Goal MET!
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000
continued contributing to my “Big EF”
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread. I knew July would be hard, with a slew of birthdays, a wedding, a couple trips back home, and some gifts, but then we also had a spectacular heat wave that made cooking at home unbearable! I feel like I spent more this month than I have since the beginning of my debt destruction race. Part of it was also just enjoying a bit of coasting now that the debt was finally paid off. Don’t get me wrong, I am DEFINITELY not going to make this a habit (I want to meet those savings goals!), but after a year and a half of pinching every penny until it cried, I took a well-deserved (I think) break. I didn’t have to break into savings or anything drastic like that but I certainly won’t be contributing much. So I’m actually looking forward to getting back on the wagon in August. It’s funny, but these things do become habits over time!
I worked out 6 times … but all 6 were dancing, so I’m going to try to continue that, since it’s a work out regimen I might actually stick with! (Plus I got the girls to go salsa dancing for my birthday, and several said they wanted to go again.. bonus!)
staying positive at work was hard. I want some more excitement around there, the quiet is driving me crazy! Will keep trying to plug along. I should be having my performance evaluation next month, so I am trying to make myself be proactive and energetic so that I can have a million awesome things to say about myself (instead of just the 999,999 I already have, lol)
I got information about the math assessment I will need to take as part of the requirements for adding a middle school math endorsement to my teaching certificate (although I can't take it until September, boo!)
slacked off a bit in the survey department this month, too – between melting in the heat and being busy, I just didn’t get around to many surveys. But I did get another reward check in the mail and now that it seems to be cooling off my brain might function a little better and enable me to do things that involve reading. Ha ha.
did pretty well being patient this month!
much better on the “staying connected” goal this month – did a lot of this!

Has anyone noticed their summer turning into a "spendapalooza," or is it just me?

IXXX

2009-07-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

Is that 29? I'm too hot to process Roman Numerals.

Well, folks, it's my last day before turning the big 3-0. I think I am supposed to be feeling all freaked out about that, but honestly I love birthdays. I feel like it's a special license to boss everyone around (and we all know how much I love doing that), and since it's a milestone birthday, I seem to have decided that said license got bigger, shinier, and more powerful.

Resistence is futile!

So I'm going to go get a delicious burrito for lunch, with refried (I can't believe blogger spell check can't spell "refried") beans AND chips (because everything is calorie-free on your birthday), drink three thousand Pepsi Ones, leave work early, and then make a bunch of my female friends go salsa dancing. It will be fabulous, and *I* will be fabulous, and even if I fuck up teh dancings fourteen million times it won't matter. Because I will be awesome and fiery and sexy (in my own head) and brilliant. I will also be getting drunk, but that part happens after the dancing, so that I don't fall on my rear and flash my lady-bits all over the place. After all, did I tell you, I will be wearing A DRESS. Yes, Mom, a real one. That actually makes three times this year already, and it's not even August yet! I'm poised to set a record.

Anyway, 29 was a really great year. I have a kickass job (forget about the last post for a moment; when you get down to it, I do love what I do), my employees think I'm an awesome boss, I got a fiancee (surprise!), my BFF Levi finally moved here after 12 years of my harassing her to do so, and I paid off all my consumer debt. Not bad at all!

So far I haven't had a problem getting older, because each year (heck, each day, most of the time) has just kept getting better. And how could ya feel bad about that?

Just a bit of a break from the norm...

2009-07-26T18:02:00.001-07:00

...of all that hard-core dance that has gotten to be a little bit out of control, it's cool to dance, but what about a groove that--

Oh, oops, sorry. This post isn't about the Fresh Prince (although wouldn't that be awesome), it's about one of your favorite words and mine, Reflection (TM). Not one of your favorite words, you say? That's incredible! You must be one of those poor, unfortunate soooooouls who never had the pleasure of going to Teacher School, then, because boy oh boy do we love to reflect. We love to do it, we love to talk about it, and we really love writing two-page papers about it. [1]

Anyway, I actually found myself going through the reflective process earlier this afternoon (read: thinking to myself) about my job as a principal [2] and my upcoming professional evaluation. My thoughts about this exciting event are many-fold (manifold, ha ha), but I'm not sure that any of them are actually constructive thoughts. To whit:

1. The last time we did evaluations of our staff, I printed up a little form that I would put on the inside of each of their admin folders which I would use to track in-house trainings they attended, as well as any on-their-own-time professional development they were doing: if they were taking classes, going to seminars, even just reading books to try and improve their skills. I told my supervisor I was doing this (because I'm supposed to keep him In The Loop), and he thought it was such a brilliant idea (it is) that he made a fancier version of the form, with our letterhead on it, and sent it around to all the other managers telling them to do what I was doing.[3] So we as managers also have one of these forms in our own folders, and I've been writing down all the trainings I attended, all the books (yes, plural) I've been reading, and when I go take the exam to get a math endorsement added onto my certificate, that will go on the list. Normally there would also be credit classes I've been taking on that list, because I really do work my butt off to always be learning and getting better at helping Teh Kidz. But this particular chart only goes back over the last six months and I've been paying off debt and it's too expensive to take classes at the same time so it's actually a pretty light P.D. half-year for me, compared to most of my half-years. Even so, it will be cool to have a written record of the hours I spend improving my work performance, because we have never had that before as an organization.

2. I am 100% convinced that no single other manager will have anything written on that sheet.

3. I am equally convinced that there will be no repercussions for this.

That sounds pessimistic, but consider this: we have bi-monthly Friday meetings that are "mandatory." However, one manager has missed at least half of them. Sure, she will always have called and given a reason, and usually good ones - out of town, sick, iced in during a rough winter week, etc. - but you know what? We know the meeting schedule a year in advance, and if I can schedule my out-of-town trips for non-meeting weeks, then so should she. I've also come when I'm feeling under the weather, and I've gotten a ride in if my car was having issues. At any given Friday meeting, at least 2 (of five!) managers will be absent. I have missed one Friday meeting in four years of working there, and that was because they moved the meeting from a scheduled Friday (a year in advance, remember) to a Friday we were supposed to have free, at the last minute. Because I am a responsible employee, I had scheduled my going-out-of-town for the non-meeting weekend, and they moved the meeting into it, a week before. Even so that was one Friday meeting out of 116 Friday meetings. These other people have all been managers less time than I have and have missed way more meetings. That's dumb. If the meetings are supposed to be mandatory, they should have consequences for missing them. If they're not really mandatory, please let me know so I can start sleeping the hell in on Fridays. Jerks. Anyway you can tell I have recently been feeling frustrated that I take this job seriously and work hard at it and other people don't, and yet there are no consequences for them. (I should also mention there are no perks for me: my salary is a bit higher than theirs, but only because I've been doing it for more years and so have been around for a few more annual salary adjustments.)

4. It feels like now that I have written proof of my hard work, excellent reviews from everybody (students, employees, parents, and every single person in the administration), I should be able to go in for a confident re-examination of my salary. Not only do managers at our competitor school start at twenty thousand dollars more per year (how I wish I could say I was guessing at that, or making it up), but I demonstrably work harder than any other manager in our organization. I also have more experience (at our school OR overall), more certification (not required to work in our public school but it makes our school look good that I have it), better teacher retention (and better teacher involvement in school-wide projects, as well as better teacher attendance at "mandatory" trainings), better parent reviews, and better graduation rates. I also am so full of good ideas that the supervisor takes everything I do and starts making it policy, and when he suggests things to do (like ways to drum up business), he discovers that I have already thought of them and been doing them for months. For instance, I had instituted a system for follow-ups with exited students before he called a meeting to "try and brainstorm" ways to do this, and I had been doing it for two years. This is why I had better re-enroll percentages than any other manager, but nobody had bothered to ask why (if they noticed). He even has me train new managers how to do this job. "Send them to the expert!" he laughingly says. Everybody at admin says things like that.

Now I know by this point the egotism is getting vomit-inducing, but I beg you to bear with me. I am not normally an over-confident person, by any means. I own not one but two T-shirts making fun of my own shyness, I will readily admit that I have the world's shittiest memory, I can't learn languages for crap, I suck at every conceivable sport [4], and I use parentheses to an absolutely ludicrous extent. I don't think I am the best boss ever - in fact I have had no training in it at all and am just floundering my way through, trying to get lucky - but I do try, and I get as much feedback from my teachers as possible in order to try to Be a Better Boss. I don't think my ideas are the best ever - that's why I share them with other people, to improve them. I honestly do not send them to my supervisor so that he can tell everybody else to be more like me. I am really not that stuck-up. Really!

But I do work my BUTT off for this job. I read four different books (three of which were useless) about defiant teenagers, because they baffle me and I really do want to learn WTF I am supposed to do with them. I am trying to find some books about educational leadership that are not just filled with BS (although I have failed utterly on this so far). I spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours going through the Professional Certification process in order to renew my teaching certificate, something that would automatically net me more money in other schools, and I didn't even have to do it, either. I've taken classes on all of the major learning disorders we run into at my school, so that I can know better how to develop appropriate programs, how to reach the kids, and how to talk to their parents (and their psychs), not to mention making our school look good when people talk to me and assume that everyone in the organization is as educated and stays up on the current research about all this. I work a lot of hours at the school, but even when I'm not at the school I spend a lot of time trying to be better at what I will do when I am back at the school :P Not because I think it will advance my career or increase my salary (ha ha ha ha) but because I am fanatically devoted to what I do. I know I am fantastic at it, and I work hard, on a consistent basis, to be even better.

BUT (there's always a but, isn't there), The Economy Is Bad. Enrollments have been down at the school for about a year and a half now, and our revenues aren't what they were. They'll eventually go back up, but it's been rough. I've been working hard to keep expenses down and enrollments up (my enrolled hours were over FIVE TIMES that of any other manager last month), but overall the company is struggling.

Not a good time to ask for a raise. Sigh.

5. In real evaluations, you should identify things that you have improved during this period, and also come up with some things you want to work on for later. This is real, honest reflection. What would I truly like to be better at? Well, I'd like to be better at dealing with crazy parents--how to soothe them, and where to draw the line. I wish I had a mentor manager who had been doing this longer than me who I could talk to and learn from her experiences. I used to have one (which is why I wrote "her") but she quit. And now I'm the most experienced manager in the organization. With only four years under my belt. And yes, that is even more than my supervisor. And no, I don't want him to be my mentor manager because a) while I do like him, he's a bit of a pompous, out-of-touch-with-real-people windbag and b) I actually have more experience, in my absurdly limited tenure, than he does. That is just stupid. [5] So if I were to tell him that is my goal, he would wax pedantic about listening and validating feelings and other meaningless drivel. Not only would that not be practically useful, it would make me want to bop him on the head with an inflatable baseball bat even more than I already do, and trust me, that is a lot. I could say I want to get better at marketing, and getting people into the school, because I want more people in the school, but honestly I do NOT want to get better at that. I want to have a marketing director who does that so that I can do my actual job, overseeing student programs and managing the campus. I hate marketing and sales :P I am having a hard time identifying things I could tell him I want to try and improve because honestly as far as he's concerned he needs to recognize first the things that I am fan-fricking-tastic at, and because he'd think that means I am not awesome if I am admitting imperfections. Plus he'd think that means he's supposed to teach me whatever it is I said I wanted to work on. Oh, buddy, let's not go there.

6. All of this means, though, that I am not being very good at reflection. Because in reflection, you're supposed to take all the problems that you are assume are other people's problems, and discover that they're actually your problems and you can fix them. But my supervisor really IS a tool :P And I really AM awesome at my job. Is there ever a point where you are allowed to say, I am currently pretty proud of my performance, actually, and I think I'm doing a great job? Yes, of course there is more I can learn (for instance I still have not found a helpful book on how to deal with oppositional-defiant teenagers, and they still completely flummox me), but that for right now, just for this one little moment, can I feel like I am "exceeds expectations" and not "needs improvement"? We all, always, need some kind of improvement, right, but can I just this once have my frickin' gold star?

And maybe another twenty thousand dollars? :P

[1] Any of you veteran teachers out there - did they make you go on and on about reflection when you went to Teacher School? Or is this a new breed of bullcrap, and they had different bullcrap in your programs?

[2] or as close as we have to a principal in our AlternaEd situation, anyway

[3] This happens all the time. Seriously. It kind of gives me a complex, like the other managers are going to hate me for being "that sister" who your parents are always telling you to live up to. I just want to do my job and be great at it. But I sometimes think supervisor puts me in an odd position. Anyway.

[4] except for, it turns out, kickball played with a tennis racked, but who could have conceived of that!?

[5] He does have more experience going to meetings, knowing everyone in the world, and schmoozing people, which is why he is the head and I am not, and trust me, that is exactly how it should be - I wouldn't want that job in a million years - but he is not that helpful to me as a supervisor.

Milestones

2009-07-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

This was a big weekend for me.

I drove home for the bachelorette party of my BFF's little sister, Bug [1]. Now that's weird enough in and of itself, because Bug is like 12 years old. Okay, not really, but at 22 she's a lot younger than me & Levi (BFF) and most of the ladieeez who were at the party. But I'll get into all that in a minute. Suffice it to say, it was weird, because I remember her bugging the crap out of us when we were trying to have sleepovers and here people are buying her lingerie. I mean, what the hell.

Anyway, so I'm driving along, thinking (it's a long drive) about how I'm going to be sort of a older, older sister at this shindig so that I'm prepared when a bunch of brain-bustingly aggravating 21-year-olds show up in prom dresses [2] and start making turkey noises at each other [3]. So I was thinking about how I'm going to be turning 30, and how satisfied I am with my life--great job, awesome fiancee, hysterical friends, hidden talents, a house full of books, and a drastically improving personal financial picture (no matter what the rest of the economy has to say about it). I mean after all, we're halfway through the year and I've achieved half of my savings goals (pretty good, considering it's the first time I've ever even had any savings goals), I'm solidifying my job skills and resume (just in case), I'm plumping up my Emergency Fund, I'm saving ahead of time and paying cash for things, and I'm feeling in a much, much more secure & powerful position than I've ever been in my life. And that's due to my own hard work and saving, not due to having a rich boyfriend or winning the lottery or getting some kind of bull$hit bailout.

But there was still one thing holding me back. And I decided I wanted to get rid of it.

I paid off my final consumer debt, to the Bank of Mom.

I handed her a big fat check when I got home on Friday afternoon. It was strange - when I paid off my last credit card bill, I did a lot more jumping around and freaking out, but then there was also a whole "eff you, Evil Credit Card Company!!!" element to it. It wasn't as painful paying my Mom each month - I mean, honestly, her minimum payments were quite reasonable, and who can beat those interest rates, right? ;)

But even though it came in a prettier package, debt is still debt, and that last little bit was still a remnant of my past less-than-wise decisions (personal AND financial) and now I can say I have conquered those mistakes. And now I am free.

When I first started this race, I was spending nearly all of every one of my paychecks. Big payments went to seven different credit cards, a school loan, and a car payment. Even though I didn't have a latte habit, or splurge on clothes, or buy expensive purses, I never could get my debt to go down. Sure, I played the 0% balance transfer game for awhile and kept it from going up, even on a lower-than-public-school private teacher's salary, but it didn't go down either. The total I had accumulated from one huge error in personal judgment[4], one year of full-time grad school and night classes with no time to work a paying job, six months of unemployment without access to Unemployment $$ (including two moves and a totaled car) and another three months of joblessness with unemployment checks (but with stupidly trying to "keep up with" some new friends who were significantly less jobless than I): all of it sat around, and sat around, and sat around. Under control, it seemed to me, because my credit scores were great, my balances were much lower than my limits, my rates were surprisingly awesome, and I could handle any "emergency" or actual emergency that popped up.

Until I added up my net worth one day [5].

It was -$55,343.29.

Make sure you notice that little "-" sign at the beginning there. Oh, nice, Blogger will let me put the number in red. Isn't that handy!

Even looking at that number now I feel like I'm being smothered to death. I knew a large part of it was my school loans, and honestly I don't feel too bad about those. The interest rate I pay on them a) is tax-deductible and b) is lower than what I get in my bank account, so it would actually be stupid to pay them early. Plus they're for a degree that I actually use in my job and I am very proud of it. So I added a row to my spreadsheet that says "Net Worth less School Loans" and got -$24,106.23.

Still red. Still BIG and red. Still not okay.

I hadn't used the cards in a long time and I'd always paid on time and more than the minimums. I was also paying ahead on my car loan, and really I felt like I was doing pretty well, all things considered. But I was never going to get out of it at that rate. I had already started to focus and become more aggressive about paying things off when I had my Great Financial Frustration Meltdown of 2007 and made an absolute resolution to myself to get out of the mess I was in so that I would never feel powerless about money again.

I made a spreadsheet that laid out each debt and what it was at that month, down to the penny. Then each month I added a new column for the new month and I started watching the numbers go down, and I wasn't going to let anything stop me. I scrimped and saved and pinched pennies; I started cooking at home whenever possible and letting Airbear have some "buddy time" with Eagle (i.e., letting the boys go out to eat without having to go along); I struggled for frugal Christmases & birthdays - that one was really hard for me [6]; I tried to rack up "$0 days" (first on this blog, later with support on the WIR boards) by spending absolutely nothing for as many days as possible; I started direct deposit savings and built a little--but at least in existence--emergency fund; and I took every cent I could possibly make, save, or find, and I threw it ALL at the debt.

I was lucky enough to have patient & understanding people on my side - in my real life and online - who would cheer me on and look at the numbers I'd post in my update and not just see how badly I'd screwed up but how hard I was working to fix it. I am so grateful for all of that support and encouragement. It gets really hard to always be the person who doesn't want to eat out, or go to the movies, or do other expensive stuff when everyone around you is doing it. But sometimes you've got to put your financial future first, and for me, that meant nuking that debt - and fast - before I could lose motivation ;)

Twenty months later, I can say I am free... I would have thought I'd have wanted to shout from the rooftops, you know? But really I'm just sitting here on the couch with a quiet little smile, feeling safe and secure and strong. Not just because the debt's not there to burden me anymore (although that's a part of it); and not just because my paycheck is going to all go to savings and things that I want to do now (although that's there too!); but also because I can look back at this race and think to myself, look what I did. Look what I CAN do.

I saved 62% of my net income in one year, and applied it ALL to debt reduction.

I own a car outright. And it is not even a crappy car!

I don't owe anybody anything [7]. No credit card company can raise my rates, or lower my limits (well they can, but I don't care), or increase my minimum payments. They can't make a decision that would totally screw up my life. I have the absolute power to tell them to suck it if they don't do what I like. I actually have one credit card now, which I pay in full every single month, that so far has paid me $200 in cash this year to use it. Take that, Big Mr. Credit Card Company Whose Name Rhymes With (the end of) Assface.

And altogether I paid off $28,942.01. In that time, I also built an emergency fund that would cover four months of my (now reduced) expenses if I were to get laid off. And built several retirement accounts. And learned what to put in them. And saved for a lavish Las Vegas vacation. And a wedding planner in Rio. And got two different banks to pay me more than $100 each to start accounts with them. And am making consistent interest, every month. And we're talking dollars of interest here, not the 59 cents every three months I used to get from my ancient Kids' Club savings account either.

I have knowledge, I have fellow Racers, I have spreadsheets, and I have a list of financial goals longer than your forearm - and that's just for 2009. And now that I don't have that debt? You just watch what I can do now ;)

Stay tuned!

[1] This is not really that creative of a nickname, everybody called her this as a kid. Beats me!

[2] Thankfully there were only two of them. But yes, there were two of them. In prom dresses. One of whom, I am not fucking kidding you, started the "I sometimes forget to eat" monologue.

[3] Ask Gramt.

[4] Dick.

[5] After reading an article by MP Dunleavy, which wasn't really about paying off debt but which listed out your debts, your savings, your retirement, & your assets and came up with a net worth. Interesting, I thought. Until I saw the number. Then I thought a different word, which is shorter than "interesting" and starts with an "F."

[6] With the unfailing support of my family members, who were completely generous and supportive!

[7] Except the school loans. But again, whatever :P

June Redux

2009-07-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

June:
No-Spend Days: 20 (didn’t set a goal, just tried to get as many as possible)
No Eating Out Days: 28 (!)
Extra Income: $158.77 ($101 bonus from Sterling Savings Bank, $20 amazon from surveys, $37.77 interest)
Money Into Savings: $ Oh, I transferred it back and forth so many times I have no idea now. So I’m just going to start listing my percentage for my total savings goals: 51.79%!
Retirement Savings: $195.60
Workout Days: 7 (not terrible!)
Books Finished: 3
Times Flossed: 8
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 0 – fail! Need to improve :(
Progress on 2009 Goals:

paid extra on my Bank of Mom debt – 2 additional payments!
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!
I received my $101 bonus from the Sterling Savings Bank promotion. Yay! (I then immediately transferred the money to a different bank that pays more interest, and no I do not feel bad one bit!) Goal MET!
Did one month of auto-deposits into the new US Bank account – need to do this for 60 days before I get my bonus from them, too. Halfway there!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000
continued contributing to my “Big EF” (if only a little this month, as I needed to get some into the Wedding Fund so we could pay the Wedding Planner.. exciting!)
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, but this time I didn’t set a goal, just wanted to see how many I would accrue. I still did very well, and I think I like this way better – that way all of the no-spend days feel like victories instead of just stressing about the ones I “missed.”
I worked out only 7 times … but more of those were dancing, so I’m going to try to continue that, since it’s a work out regimen I might actually stick with!
staying positive at work was a little harder, as it’s slowing down for the summer. Stressful!
stayed caught up on all my surveys and am trying to check into that email account frequently so I can do them before they expire.
did pretty well being patient this month!
utter failure on the “staying in contact” goal… definitely need to turn this one around in July!

Also...

2009-06-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

Why is my font bigger? I clicked "small" just like always.

Well I'm too tired to figure it out, so I guess you dear readers will just get a break for your eyes this month. Plus, two posts in one month, amazing!

On time, two months in a row!

2009-06-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

May:

No-Spend Days: 18/21

No Eating Out Days: 26/24

Extra Income: $7.98 (interest - not too shabby for one month!)

Money Into Savings: $1452.52

Retirement Savings: $243.32

Workout Days: 8

Books Finished: 1 (and some more of that mammoth boring book & some Portuguese studying)

Times Flossed: OMG, only 2!

Letters/Cards/Contacts: 4

Progress on 2009 Goals:

continued to reduce my Bank of Mom debt (turtling for now to rebuild savings/EF)
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!
New Goal – I got an offer to start a US Bank Checking account with a $100 bonus. I have to have direct deposit into it for 2 months, but then I get my prize (no debit card transactions or bill pay or anything else, just the direct deposit). Already filled out the paperwork to set it up through work, too, so I should get that bonus mid-July! (I should also be getting my $101 bonus from that Sterling Savings account I set up in about 2 weeks. Yay!) Goal MET!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
kept my “Little EF” above $1,000
continued contributing to my “Big EF”
contributed more to my “vacation fund” so that the trip will have been fully saved for ahead of time (but used my rewards cc to get the cashback bonus). Will pay off the final vacation bill mid June with the set-aside money. That feels great! Goal MET!
put a little more money in the Wedding Fund – yay!
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, but missed my no spending days (although I got the eating out goal, when you don’t count Vegas … and I didn’t, since I saved ahead and paid in cash!). I did feel like I was spending a lot toward the end of the month, though, or at least spending frequently, even if it wasn’t necessarily a lot of money.
I worked out only 8 times … definitely fell off the wagon, compared to April’s numbers! It was hard to get back to it after Vegas, now that I didn’t have the “bikini motivation.” But compared to my prior months, really, 8 isn’t bad. Just need to do better!
staying positive at work was pretty easy this month, between the vacation and the busy-ness. Parents are being whack-o, though, so I’ll be glad when finals are over and they can calm down!
stayed caught up on all my surveys and am trying to check into that email account frequently so I can do them before they expire.
did pretty well being patient this month!
sent birthday cards, Mother’s Day cards (including one to my grandma, which I hope she got!) and a birthday card to my friend in Japan.

I've got a new goal for June/July but I'm going to keep it a "secret" until I accomplish it. So stay tuned for some exciting developments this summer... and wish me luck for a better June. I'm gonna need it!

Oh, and don't worry, Heather (my dental hygienist) - I already am 1/1 for flossing for June!

And it isn't even late yet!

2009-05-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

April Redux:
No-Spend Days: 16/27 (and 5 more "controlled spending" days)
No Eating Out Days: 24/26
Extra Income: $107.22 ($27.31 from InboxDollars, $25 gc from MyPoints, $50 cash back bonus from cc, $4.91 interest)
Money Into Savings: $1183.95
Retirement Savings: $612.40
Workout Days: 22!!
Books Finished: OMG, none – but I am reading a really long boring one, it just won’t end
Times Flossed: 5
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 3

Progress on 2009 Goals:

continued to reduce my Bank of Mom debt (turtling for now to rebuild savings/EF)
have kept my amazon.com card paid off each month – AND I got another $50 cash back reward from them this month!
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!
have not started working on my 2009 Roth yet, because I’ve got a few vacations/birthdays coming up immediately and I want to make sure to save for those first before they happen!
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
kept my "Little EF" above $1,000
continued contributing to my "Big EF"
contributed more to my "vacation fund" so that I will not have to use a credit card to go on the trip! (Well, you know what I mean, I’ll still use the card for the awesome reward points, but be able to pay it off the same month.) I also figured out a way to account for ‘spent savings’ in my spreadsheets. It took awhile, but it’s all in there now.
put a little money in the Wedding Fund – yay!
continued to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, but missed my no spending days AND no eating out days goals this month.. probably set them a little high, knowing there would be a weekend trip in there. Shucks!
I worked out 22 times this month!! Goal very emphatically met!! I also had 20 days of eating healthy. I am down about 8 pounds from when I got my Wii Fit, and most of that happened in April.
staying positive at work was a lot easier this month, because it got insanely busy all of a sudden! I don’t think it was the marketing I was doing, I think it’s just luck. But hey, I’ll take it. Woo hoo!
I cleaned out the storage space! Airbear and I got that bookshelf bed, and so we were able to store a lot of stuff under there. The remaining junk is in the living room at the moment (ha ha, good thing I don’t have a "house cleaning goal" on my list), but today I got to pay only five dollars for one pro-rated day of storage (since I worked 12 hours the last few days of April, I couldn’t quite get it cleaned out until today, May 1). That’s instead of the $85 a month I was paying. And I was thinking this would be something I’d have to spend a bunch of Fridays over the summer doing… but it’s already done! Super excited that I will be getting to hang onto that $85 each month now. Goal met!
caught up on all my surveys and am trying to check into that email account frequently so I can do them before they expire.
did pretty well being patient this month!
sent my Grandma an Easter card, which she gushed about, so that’s good!
and, last but certainly not least, I did very well with some presents this month! Presents are always a weakness for me—it’s a big challenge to reign in my spending. But I set a budget for Airbear’s birthday gifts and stuck to it and set a budget for a birthday gift for my Mom and stuck to that too! I did blow it a little on Airbear’s birthday dinner, but that was bad planning on my part. Mom & Airbear are the hardest to not buy a jillion presents for, and their birthdays are right next to each other! But I think I did pretty well. Happy Birthday, you two!

March Redux... finally!

2009-04-13T22:20:00.001-07:00

So I took a couple categories off the posting format, because they kind of overlapped and weren't that useful. But here's the good stuff:

March:
No-Spend Days: 20/20
No Eating Out Days: 25/25
Extra Income: $222.09 ($30.21 rebate from Walgreens, $60 gc for rx transfer, $100 cash back bonus from cc, $31.88 interest)
Money Into Savings: $1605.87
Retirement Savings: $1100
Workout Days: 8
Books Finished: 3
Times Flossed: 6 (still going up!)
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 4
Progress on 2009 Goals:

continuing to reduce my Bank of Mom debt (turtling for now to rebuild savings/EF)
have kept my amazon.com card paid off each month – AND I got a $100 cash back reward from them this month for points I’ve accrued so far…without ever having paid them a cent in interest. TAKE THAT, CREDIT CARD COMPANIES!!
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 (although the reward rate was lower this month, 4.52% APY, boo! Still better than I can find most anywhere else, though! – monthly goal MET!
The 2008 Roth: I wanted to max this out as much as possible by April 15 (with the ultimate max being $5k), but that upper limit was starting to make me consider doing crazy things, like emptying my EF in order to reach a goal just because I wanted to reach it, and not because it would be the financially wisest thing to do. So I decided I would try for $2500 – half of the maximum allowed, and really a pretty awesome amount to have contributed since January of this year. And I did it! Goal met! (and that makes me feel really positive about my ability to get to a point where I can max out 2009’s, too!). Very excited about this one.
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
kept my "Little EF" above $1,000
continued contributing to my "Big EF"
decided to go to Vegas with Mom & Dad, Airbear, and some other friends, so I have been putting more into my "vacation fund" so that I will not have to use a credit card to go on the trip! (Well, you know what I mean, I’ll still use the card for the awesome reward points, but be able to pay it off the same month.)
Renamed "Special Occasion Fund" as "Wedding Fund," because now it’s official… we got engaged on March 20! Now I’ll just have to start working on filling it… but the vacations are coming up in a month so I have to tend to those first.
continuing to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, and got 20/20 no spending days and 25/25 no eating out days – goal (just barely) met!
I worked out 8 times this month, but they were very spaced out. I’m going to use the upcoming Vegas trip (swimsuit needed!) to motivate myself to do a lot better in April, including eating healthy. [FWIW I’m off to a great start on this already – 3/5 days worked out so far and 5/5 eating healthy!]
Worked hard to stay positive at work this month, and it was a challenge, I’ll say! Some distressing issues, and it’s wearing me down. I’m trying to do a lot of marketing, so I really do hope I will see some results from that in April. Crossing my fingers!
Checked my credit report, had a couple of address inaccuracies (really just typos, but you can’t be too careful) fixed, and got my credit score for the first time in my life. It was above 800!! I was so floored, and proud! I am certain it would not have been nearly that good a year ago, and it’s getting even better (since I had just applied for the amazon card not too long ago and had a couple cards closed at my request, which dings the score a bit). Exciting! Goal met!
Took a few more surveys.. definitely kept current on the MyPoints ones.. but I’ve been slacking off a bit with the others and missed several because I let them sit too long in my junk email inbox. Of course I might not have qualified for them anyway but I still should be trying. Every little bit helps!
Was better about being patient this month. I think :)
Sent my Grandma a St. Patrick’s Day card, and called her (and a dear but recently out-of-touch friend) to celebrate the engagement! Also emailed a friend in Japan I haven’t talked to in awhile. The "keeping in contact" goal was one I’ve had on my list of New Year’s Resolutions several times now and I definitely think I’m doing better at it this year. Accountability helps!

This is the best thing ever

2009-04-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know it's Easter, but get ready for one of the deadly sins - envy - because you are really gonna feel it. Look what got delivered on Friday:

Yes, it's really tall. Look just how tall:

We're going to be ordering one of those rolling library ladders for the side of it to help short little me get into it. The kitties don't have a problem with it, although now they can't divebomb us as hard from the kitty tree - unintended bonus.

But wait, there's more! (No, we didn't order 2 for the price of 1). In addition to getting eight more new glorious bookshelves, check out this part:

There's storage! There's even a bookshelf inside the bookshelf bed!! There just are not words to express how awesome this bed is. We get more bookshelves (and really, in a condo this small, there were really not a lot of options for this, and I'm not going to stop getting books), we get bonus storage (in fact we'll get to cancel the storage space after this month if we can figure out what to do with just a few last items!), and we have the most awesome, most unique room ever. It was custom built according to Airbear's "schematic" below [1]:

[1] Gotta love schematics!

You never see it coming...

2009-04-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you're a fan of (the new, but now finished) Battlestar Galactica series, but the main points of the show that are important for understanding this particular story are that 1) the show is awesome, and so a ton of our friends would get together on Friday nights and watch it, and 2) there are robots called Cylons. Some of the Cylons evolved and look like humans now (sneaky!), but the old-style ones have this red light that goes back and forth where the eyes would be on their helmet, bwaaah, bwaaah, bwaah, etc. Kind of like KITT, in Knight Rider, remember? Here's a video.

So we have this friend, UnBob. UnBob got engaged last summer, and as seems to be prevalent amongst married or soon-to-be-married folks, started bugging all his friends in relationships to get married too. Which consisted of just me and Airbear. When properly motivated (e.g., drunk), unBob kept bringing up this idea. A few weeks before this past season of Battlestar resumed--a big deal, since it was going to be the last season of the series--he said, "Oh, he's totally going to propose to you at the Battlestar premier!" and, a few drinks later, "He's going to propose with a Cylon helmet instead of a ring!" Ha. That UnBob sure is funny.

A couple weeks later, premier approaching, UnBob was once again 'in his cups' as they say[1], and absolutely positive (and irritatingly insistent) that his scenario was going to play out. Telling him to stuff it didn't work this time, and he was so convinced that he was willing to bet drinks on it. 1 drink for episode 1, 2 drinks if it did/didn't happen by the second episode, and so on. Note that he didn't have any kind of inside information from Airbear (far from it, in fact Airbear wasn't allowed to know about the bet), he was just drunk and foolhardy. I took the bet, 99% sure that I was going to win anyway (and thus sure of a bunch of free drinks), and 1% concluding that even if the 'worst' were to happen, bet-wise, I'd have to buy UnBob 10 drinks on the last day of the season if Airbear proposed. And shoot, if something like THAT happened, I'd probably be buying everyone ten drinks!

Fast forward to five weeks into the series. As usually happens when drunks make bets, UnBob was losing. In fact, he was losing so badly that he was owing me drinks faster than I (and my friend!!) could drink them. He started getting that weepy puppy dog look they put on the Hallmark "sympathy" cards every Friday night when we'd hit the pub after watching the show. And while I knew Eagle would have said to stick it to him, make him pay, teach him a lesson for making stupid bets - it's the Leo way, after all - I am a nice kid at heart and I was starting to feel guilty about bankrupting poor UnBob. After all, I know Airbear a lot better than he does so I really had inside information, in a way. And I had already gotten five weeks' worth of free drinking on Fridays. But ya know if you gotta listen to someone remind you about the fact that you didn't get proposed to, I guess there should be some kind of payment for that.

I enjoyed the rest of the run of the show. Some fans had some complaints with it - I'm sure that's always the case - and of course the guys wanted to see more spaceship battles and less talking, but I thought it kicked ass. (I'm hoping that when the series comes out on DVD it's in a metal box shaped like a robot head with a red light eye that flashes back and forth.) I also have to say that no series finale is ever going to come close to that one. One big spaceship flew into another big spaceship, lots of flying and shooting, some nukes, they finally killed off the president (OMG I was waiting for that the whole show - hated her!), and they found a nice planet to live on. But the best part happened after the credits.

I had actually gotten up and gone to the kitchen to get this bag of little ceramic ramekins and random ingredients I'd left at Eagle's the time before, and most of our buddies were getting up to go to the pub. But then Airbear said loudly, "I have an announcement to make!" and everybody stopped breathing and didn't move, because Airbear never talks, and especially not loudly. I turned around and stepped back into the living room to see WTF could possibly be going on and he got down on one knee and opened up a black velvet ring box.

And I saw this.

I have to be honest: my immediate thought was that he was just frackin' with UnBob about the bet (because we'd canceled it already and now he wouldn't win).

My second thought was oh, shit, shit, talk Nitza talk you're supposed to say something!

I dropped everything on the floor and made quite a racket (between the keys and the ceramic dishware, which I'm surprised didn't shatter all over the floor) and just sort of dove at Airbear to hug him/bury my face in his shoulder and said of course. Everybody was yelling and clapping and I was crying, obviously, and shaking and just a big huge mess.

And no, UnBob didn't know about it either - it was a total surprise. I did buy that kid a drink, though, and he enthusiastically takes credit for instigating the whole thing. He also says he's going to be a Cylon usher in our wedding. We'll see about that part ;)

[1] He really doesn't drink all the time - just when I see him.

February Redux

2009-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

Month Two of 2009 down, and a ton of progress made - what an exciting month!

February:
No-Spend Days: 18/21
No Eating Out Days: 25/24
Extra Income: $45 ($35 gc for rx transfer, $10 gc from surveys)
Money Into Savings: $1,000.59
Debt Paid Off: $687.04
Retirement Savings: $1,273.45 (really!)
Other Money Spent: $376.74
Workout Days: 9
Books Finished: 3
Times Flossed: 4 (that’s a 100% increase, ha ha!)
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 3

Progress on 2009 Goals:

continuing to reduce my Bank of Mom debt (turtling for now to rebuild savings/EF)
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 - goal MET!
new goal added: saved $100 and started another new account at Sterling Savings Bank (which will get me a $101 bonus in 3 months) – goal MET!
met all of the monthly requirements for my Checking ++ account to earn 5.00% APY – monthly goal MET!
Saved $1,000 and started a Roth at Vanguard. Also rolled my current Roth money out of my broker account. (This was a big goal met for me, although on my actual goal sheet it says to max out as much of it as I can by April 15.. so I guess we have to wait on that part still!)
continued contributing to my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
kept my "Little EF" above $1,000
continued contributing to my "Big EF" (although I probably will be taking some out of it to keep working on that Roth goal)
continuing to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, and got 18/21 no spending days (aw, goal missed) and 25/24 no eating out days – goal met!
Despite my later work schedule, I actually worked out more times this month (9!) although there were big breaks in between those days. It’d be good to be more evenly spaced out with the workouts.. we’ll see.
Worked hard to stay positive at work this month, although it was harder than last month. Did not feel like I had a lot of energy at work. Will try better at this in March.
Updated my resume – goal met!
Got a performance evaluation – it was glowing! Hard to identify areas for improvement, actually. Will need to think about that part some more.
Continued to learn about investing – I feel really solid about what I need to know for now, so I’m going to consider this goal met! (When I get enough put away to branch out into emerging markets and so on, I’ll put the goal back on the list.)
Saved my entire tax return and put it into my new Roth! Goal met!
Took more surveys.. and got to cash out two of them, actually! Got a $10 gift card to amazon, and will be getting a check in the mail for the other program. I’ll count that one when it actually arrives. Monthly goal met!
Was not so patient this month. Will try again in March!
Sent my Grandma and my Dad Valentine’s cards, and sent another card to Grandma. I’d like to add in a phone call to her for March.

Man, what a February. And to think that last February I was $20k in credit card debt. Look at me now :)

Zzzzz.....

2009-02-10T22:31:00.001-08:00

Just a quick p0ast tonight, as I am very sleepy. I've been working some long days, trying to get enrollments up school. I seem to be getting more parents wanting me to "entertain" (?) them, show them lots of snazzy science experiments and dazzle their kids with how FUN learning is. While we do make an effort to make sure that it is, indeed, fun wherever possible--it's educational therapy. These are kids who need to make up credits, who need re-teaching or to work at their own pace. The problem is they have been in "fun" classes where they do a lot of art projects and "discover" concepts (or don't) and, most importantly, work in groups, because that is the solution to all educational problems today, in case you didn't know. Anyway it's made me feel really supremely irritated but I smile and I dazzle them (as best I can) because I want to try and stay optimistic and high-energy at work and get those enrollments. Some days are easier than others. Days that end at 8:30 pm are amongst said "others." But at least I persevered and ate dinner at home... and it's one day closer to payday!

Control

2009-02-03T17:51:00.001-08:00

Today I called up Vanguard and opened a brand spankin' new Roth account. I'm going to roll over the funds in the Roth at my current broker, because their fees are way too high. I did a bunch of research into different mutual fund companies, I read a few investment books, and I looked up all the data on different mutual funds that would match my desired asset allocation. Yes. I made a "desired asset allocation." Of my own. With my actual brain.

I called four different mutual fund companies numerous times to get all of my question answered, and I kept calling back until I really understood what was offered. I chose a company whose customer service had been demonstrated as excellent (repeatedly), which also happened to be the company with the lowest expenses, an easy-to-use online interface, AND longer (wider? bigger?) operating hours in case I actually need to talk to a human being. I even laid out which of their funds I will be investing in (eventually, when I have enough to meet the minimum in multiple funds), but for now I can start with a lower-minimum, pretty conservatively allocated but strongly performing fund.

I went online and made a call, and now the account is open, the check is in the mail, and the rollover is in progress.

When I hung up the phone, I felt a tremendous surge of power--and no, before you ask, I had not spilled my pepsi on the power strip or anything of the sort. I just felt that I am taking financial control of my life. I am smart enough to do this, I am dedicated enough to do this, and I can do it on my own: I don't need a broker to do things for me (and sock me with a bunch of fees on the sly), and I don't need to be scared of the big bad investing world. I am a powerful and intelligent woman, and while I might not have very much money, I am going to do amazing things with that little bit, and make it grow bigger and bigger.

Just you watch!

January Redux

2009-01-31T23:08:00.000-08:00

Oops, it's been awhile (I keep saying that, don't I?). But never fear, dear reader(s?), this post will be a doozy! Hope you enjoy:

January:
No-Spend Days: 25/25
No Eating Out Days: 28/27
Extra Income: $0
Money Saved: $300 (not including short-term savings)
Debt Paid Off: $439.81
Retirement Savings: $286.20
Other Money Spent: $388.09
Workout Days: 7
Books Finished: 3
Times Flossed: 2 (hey, at least I’m honest!)
Letters/Cards/Contacts: 4 (although one just got bounced back in the mail, so I'll have to check on that!)

Progress on 2009 Goals:

continuing to reduce my Bank of Mom debt (turtling for now to rebuild savings/EF)
have kept my amazon.com card paid off each month
got my credit union savings/checking account balances above $750 in each account to take advantage of the special rate - goal MET!
new goal added: saved $100 and started "Checking ++" account at my hometown bank – goal MET!
met all of the monthly requirements for the Checking ++ account to earn 5.00% APY – monthly goal MET!
working on saving up $1,000 to start a Roth at Vanguard and roll my current Roth money out of my semi-shady broker’s account to save money on fees
contributed at least a little toward my SIMPLE IRA (w/matching)
put some money toward a "gifts" fund, and did not spend anything on gifts or vacations yet
technically, I *have* gotten my Little Emergency Fund/STS up to $1000 (which includes the credit union money, which is at a total of $1500). I may have to dip into that somewhat, but I think I should be able to keep it above $1000 so I am going to consider this goal MET!
continuing to post on the No-/Controlled-Spend thread, and got 25 No-Spends and 28 No Eating Out days for January – monthly goal MET!
worked out 7 days in January… that might not seem like a lot, but it is up from zero ;) This will be harder to do in February with my late work schedule, but I’m going to work on it.
have done pretty well staying positive and energetic at work, and had a pretty good month!
have learned a lot about investing this month, and have my plan in place… now I just need to save up the money!
contacted companies and compared investments for my Roth – goal MET!
have continued to do more online surveys, and will probably get at least one check next month
could not do my tax return yet, as I am still waiting on one highly aggravating document to arrive! But I did start it, and it will be easy to complete once I have that form. Then I’m going to save it!
have done better being patient with people – I think :)
talked to my grandma on the phone twice and sent thank you cards

So I think that’s a pretty great start! I definitely have the Roth goals in my sights for the immediate future, as well as getting that tax return and saving it. I am going to try and have the resolve to save the whole thing – I think the most time-sensitive goal is getting money into that 2008 Roth before April… but paying the Bank of Mom, starting an ING (or Sterling Savings!) account for a bonus, or putting more into the Checking ++ account would all be great too!

I am really feeling excited and upbeat about 2009 so far. I think having written goals is having a big impact, and I am working HARD at saving! Now I can’t wait to see what February brings… wish me luck!

Elements of Investing for the Future

2009-01-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

So I've started reading books about investing (well okay, just one book so far but there's several more in The Stack already), and already I'm seeing several positive steps that I am taking. In fact, the first chapter contains a list of things you should do before starting to invest, and I am doing all of them! I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I am better prepared than I thought. I have also learned that there are several things on my side when it comes to investing. my age (relatively low) of course helps, but ironically so does my not-that-high salary: it's low enough that I can contribute to a Roth, which will work out brilliantly for me in terms of taxes and I'm in a relatively low tax bracket now.[1] I am learning about asset allocation and diversification, as well as the difference between kinds of stocks, kinds of bonds, annuities, T-bills, all sorts of stuff. I am even learning about taxes. By the time I am done, I will be so smart that I will be able to wisely invest and grow money. Now, I just need to get some money.[2]

[1] This is, of course, the only time that I have not made just-barely-too-much-for-the-awesome-thing, which is how my salary is actually worded in my contract.
[2] And herein lies the problem with that not-that-high salary. Damn.

TV Revelations

2009-01-09T21:34:00.000-08:00

So I was watching Sex and the City episodes with LaRue today (okay, so it's DVDs and not TV but whatever), and there is this episode where the main character has broken off her engagement. Her fiancee had moved in with her and her apartment had gone from a rental to a co-op, which he had bought so they could live in it. It's complicated, but anyway the point is he owned the apartment, and so after they broke up she had the choice to move (but she'd lived there for ten years and didn't want to move, and couldn't afford any other apartments) or to buy the apartment. So she goes to the bank to get a loan, and has like $700 in the bank. No loan, obviously, and she has a major freak out. It goes something along these lines:

I just broke off my engagement, and in the middle of dealing with that heartbreak (which is bad enough), I have no money, I have no assets, I'm a 35 year old single woman and I have nothing and I can't get a loan and I can't afford to live somewhere else and now I'm going to be forced to live in the streets and I don't know what to dooooooooooooooooooooo! *sob*

I'm sure this is supposed to be a very emotional moment, but instead of sympathy and concern, I felt a rushing surge of defiance, strength, and pride. Why? Because I am not that girl. I may get broken up with (you never know, I suppose), but even if I did, I have an emergency fund big enough to cover first, last and deposit at a new apartment; I have a solid job which is *knock on wood* recession proof and, besides that, a solid resume with very marketable skills; I have a retirement account of my own and a way to fund it; I have my own bank account(s); I have a strong network, both personally and professionally; and besides that, I am only 29. By the time I am 35, I will have enough set aside for a down payment on a house of my own, should I need to buy a house of my own, and I will know that independent of any man I am in control of my financial future.

Take that, Carrie Bradshaw!

[Obviously Airbear is going to marry me by then and hang on to me forever, since I am such an incredible catch and have the financial habits to make us millionaires, which he certainly needs the help with. But you know. I'm just sayin'. I'm covered.]

Successes

2009-01-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

So I made it to seven consecutive no-spending days (7 days of absolutely $0, people!). It feels like a huge accomplishment to me. I don't know if people who aren't in the same money-geek thread I am think much of it. But let me just tell you it feels pretty awesome and I am enjoying it. So yay for good feelings :)

And speaking of good feelings, this past week was craaazy busy at work. Which is a great thing! I have been tired of it being so boring around there, and I have some strong potentials for new clients. That means more hours for my teachers, assessments for me to do (which I really do like doing), more kids we get to help, and a bit more $$ in the bank for Nitza. I think that people are feeling optimistic right now (new year, new president, snow melting away) and I hope it's a trend that continues. It does seem to help business, and besides, I like it when people are happy.

I'm also pulling some electronic strings and getting a new checking account set up that will give me a great rate - better than any savings account I've been able to find so far, ironically - so when that gets taken care of in another few days I will feel like I've made some real savings progress for 2009. Woo hoo!

And now I'm off to take a nap with the kitties. ;)

And off she goes...

2009-01-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Four days into January, and four $0-spending days! Off to a pretty good start, I'd say :)

Manners

2009-01-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

I am going to take a break from the financial side of life to talk to you about something very important: drugs.

Just kidding, not drugs. Manners.

I am sure if you are x number of years old (where x is equal to or greater than, say... 40[1]), you have contemplated the fact that manners seem to be on the decline. Of course kids these days do not have them, because kids these days are, in most cases, tremendous a-holes. I know this because I work with them all the time. Then again, kids (and I am referring to the somewhere-around-teenage kind, not the diaper kind) are probably always tremendous a-holes during a certain portion of their life. You know, like between the ages of 10 and 24.

Anyway, the problem is that it seems that even people outside the teenage-ish a-hole range are still forgetting their manners, or perhaps they never learned any. For instance, how many times has someone invited themselves to an event you are holding? Or RSVP'ed for themselves and brought another guest (or several other guests) without telling you? Or not RSVP'ed?[2] Of course there are much, much worse social blunders, some downright terrible[3]. But even these little ones are still rude.

But the bad thing about manners is that if you have them, they may get you into an undesirable situation in which you "lose" to a person who does not have them. To whit:

Suppose you have a friend.[4] Let's say this friend's name is Sam.[5] Sam starts dating someone terrible, as friends often do, and because you are older than 13 you know that this is bound to happen. You will doubtlessly see them out and about, and you'll be polite and friendly, because that is what adults do. You might know that the new person is not so good for Sam (because you are clearly much, much smarter than Sam) but Sam is a grown-up and must make independent decisions. As time goes by, this new person inevitably does some obnoxious things, like throws a hissy fit at a restaurant, or starts a bunch of drama at your pub (or perhaps everywhere else), or gets really drunk and breaks things, or sleeps around, or whatever. Sam is still hanging in there, though, because as we've already examined, Sam is kinda dumb. Sam knows you are not fond of this new person, but that you still care about Sam and will let Sam make Sam's own choices.[6]

But then one day you decide to have a couple friends over for dinner. Nothing fancy, maybe you wanna play Scrabble or something. You invite a couple of close friends, and decide to call Sam and extend an invite (after all, Sam has to pick up something from your house anyway). Sam says, well, that sounds great but I was planning on seeing New Person tonight if NP is free. Do you have room for me + 1?

Oof.

Now Sam has made a social blunder - perhaps without realizing it, but a blunder all the same. It is rude to invite other people to a function. Maybe not as rude as pooping on someone's living room carpet, but still rude. Especially when the "other people" you are inviting are a-holes who cause drama, piss people off, break things, and act obnoxiously. You love Sam, but you have already expressed that you do not love NP, and so it was rude of Sam (not to mention stupid) to invite them to your house and not leave you a delicate way out of it. Sam could have said "Well I was planning on seeing NP tonight if NP is free" and left it at that - then if you wanted to extend the invitation to include a +1, you could, but you could also just say "Oh, well then, have a great time and I'll see you later!" Instead, because Sam temporarily[7] forgot to have manners, you are stuck.

You can either a) say, "Oh, sure, there's lots of room!" and make the people whom you've already invited (and who have already accepted) miserable, not to mention making yourself miserable both during the party and afterward when you are bleaching your entire house and/or cleaning broken glass out of the carpet; or 2) be a giant manner-less bitch and say no. There is no middle ground. There is no polite way to say "Look, you stupid ass, I already told you that you can date whom you like but I don't want to hang out with NP" or "You can come, but don't bring that psychopath with you" or "Sorry, I like my evenings drama-free." It's really too bad, because I probably could have used a polite version of all of the above.

In any case, the end result is Sam w/o manners? Win. You, w/manners? Stuck cooking dinner for an a-hole.

Actually, maybe this is why people have given up manners.

[1] I would have said 30, which is almost how old I am, but I have a friend who is 38 who is constantly proving me wrong about older people having better manners.
[2] My *expletiveexpletive* friends do this one all the time.
[3] Like getting mad if people buy you gifts which are not on your list of demands, or dissing the food you just served them, or not liking your clearly awesome ladybug boots.
[4] I am sure that you have lots of friends, if you are witty and charming enough to read my blog. But let's just focus, hypothetically, on this one friend for a moment.
[5] See how clever I am? Sam could be a boy or a girl. I am being very anonymous and respectful here.
[6] This gender-ambiguous thing is getting a little more cumbersome.
[7] Or, in this case, permanently

Auld Lang Syne ... again!

2008-12-31T18:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe 2008 is coming to a close. What a huge year this has been. I finished my procert, I started my 4th year at fartless school (and the first time I stayed more than one year at a campus), my BFF moved here after 11 years of my trying to get her to, the economy went down the shitter (while my personal 'economy,' oddly, improved tremendously), Airbear & I celebrated 4 years (and got matching BFF rings), and my crazy old Boss Lady made it through another year. I made some new friends and lost some old relatives, some people had some drama but I avoided it pretty well, and I even started singing at Rock Band. Oh and of course the happiest election day of my life[1]. All in all I am feeling very strong. And hopeful! That's a change. I'm pleased with how 2008 has gone, and certain that 2009 is going to be even better. I'm going to become a saver this year, I'm going to get off my butt, and I'm going to do amazing things. I'm going to turn 30 too, but let's not talk about that one for right now ;)

So now because it's New Year's Eve:

Top 5 Things To Do In 2009
5. Send more letters (real life letters) to some of my "chronologically gifted" relatives (This was a goal last year too and I didn't do so hot at it.. going to get better this year - have even bought some birthday cards ahead of time and am prepared!)
4. Get off my butt. Seriously. Since I will be becoming debt free in 2009, I will have some leftover willpower for other things, like walking my ass around the block a few times. Or getting a Wii Fit!
3. Try to be more patient with the people I love
2. Become a saver and start making my money do positive things (this actually comes after goal #1 chronologically, but I think #1 is most important so I saved it for the end of the countdown)
1. Pay off the Bank of Mom and become finally debt free!

Top 5 Things To Avoid In 2008
5. Being bored (and grouchy) at work. It may be boring at the moment, but I need to try and stay positive, make lots of calls, and keep busy!
4. Getting worked up over stupid people (or determinedly irritating students) (again, also a 2008 goal, but this one will probably stay a goal for the rest of my life!)
3. Careless spending!
2. Clutter - The condo is looking pretty good, but I'd like to keep it that way, as well as cleaning out some of the junk in the storage space at some point in 2009!
1. My Crazy Boss Lady. Ha ha, couldn't resist keeping this one.

I spent a bunch of time today getting groceries, running errands, cleaning up the house etc. so that I can start 2009 on a really solid footing. I love New Year's... I'm feeling really positive as I look back on 2008 (even with all its hiccups) and I am so excited and optimistic about 2009. I'm ready to celebrate! :D

[1] except for those a-holes in California. But time shall ultimately tell.

Snowpocalypse 2008

2008-12-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

Most places, when it snows you wait for the plow, or put on your snow tires, you scrape the snow & ice off your car and you get on with your life. In Seattle, you don't have snow tires (or plows). You might not even have an ice scraper. So what you do is just leave your car parked wherever it was parked 4 days ago, your work gets canceled, and you walk around everywhere. If you live on one of the city's big hills like I do, the roads all get shut down and you buy out all of the food at your neighboring grocery store and hope you survive.

But the best part about living on the one of Seattle's big hills that is filled with young people is that the hill gets shut down and what most people would consider an inconvenience turns into play. We walked down to the pub (in a snowstorm, ha ha), fell down on the ice a few thousand times, and then when we got down to the busiest intersection on the hill we found... a neighborhood sledding party! People in condos neighboring the main arterial had their windows open and fun music playing as about fifty people gathered in the street to sled down the main street. I saw a few snowboards (they usually stuck to the sidewalks), some skateboards with the gear removed, a surfboard (yes!), flattened cardboard boxes, tarps, trash can lids, and even a few sleds. Apparently someone even rode down on an ironing board.

It didn't match the thousands of people that poured into all the roads on the hills when Obama won the election (and there wasn't anybody playing a tuba this time), but the sense of community joy was the same. Say what you will about Seattle-ites being incompetent drivers in the snow (and they are... this is as much snow as they usually see in 8 years put together and no one is prepared), but I don't think there are many places where six inches of snow creates an impromptu midnight party with you and several dozen of your neighbors. :)

Wings

2008-12-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

So a lady in my book club just ended up ... sort of emergency adopting her six nieces/nephews, all at once, into her tiny little house. The kids need clothes, food, everything, four of them have lice, etc. It's a huge mess. The woman that runs the book club sent around an email, and people are giving clothes or toys if they had kids that age, or money for gift cards if they have it. However, my BFF just lost her job (that she moved to my city for, about 3 months ago) and so I am trying to hold onto my poor little pennies in case she needs help. She doesn't have credit cards to fall back on, which is brilliant of her in the long run (although she probably doesn't feel like that right now) but it is more stressful and she's in a panic and feels like a failure etc. So I am going to be her Emergency Fund. I know, I know, I can hear the groans and foreheads being slapped all the way from here. This is not a fiscally wise thing to do. But she's family, and she needs me, and I had to have Chase/Citi/whoever pay *my* rent for a few months once upon a time, and if it comes down to it I'd like to be able to buy her a little time. I know she won't rest until she finds a job, because it makes her insane to not have one.

In any case, I am kind of holding my breath at the moment because of that, and trying not to spend just in case it is needed. Of course this will work out beautifully if she gets a job fast and doesn't need a dime - great saving motivation! But then it means I'm already stretched, and I had to tell the book club leader that. Of course I don't like admitting that either. I also just don't like saying no when someone needs help. Or, well, ever. But I said I'd ask my mom, who might have the right size diapers or something, extra stuff from daycare kids.

Mom got on the horn through the Mom Network, and apparently is collecting a whole slew of coats, clothes, and stuff to be mailed over for kids of all ages (since the emergency adoptees run from 7 weeks to junior high age). She's also giving a $100 (!!) gift card. I wanted to make sure I hadn't guilted her into it or anything, and of course that was not the case. She said that she feels lucky to be able to help. Once when I was a kid, a friend of hers and her son were down on their luck, and Mom took them grocery shopping. The friend never forgot it, and neither did Mom. I think if she had millions of dollars, she'd just make a job out of going around and doing things like that.

The best part of the story, though, was when Mom told me to send an email to the book club friend and tell her what a wonderful thing she was doing by taking in all those kids. "She's earning her wings!" Mom said.

My Mom must have so many wings :)

Christmas Spirit

2008-12-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

I called around to local businesses to say that I was a campus manager for a small private school and I was putting together gift packs for my teachers for the holidays, and were they offering any deals/discounts/etc.? (at the suggestion of one of the WIR ladies). Most said no, but one local coffee shop owner gave me six $15 gift cards for only $10 each! I thanked her profusely, and she said they loved to help out teachers, because we "fight the good fight." Thanks for noticin'! And for saving me some $$ :) That'll pay for the supplies for making them friendship bread. Yay!

Holly, Jolly

2008-12-08T18:53:00.000-08:00

So I have a hard time with spending this time of year.

Like, spending a lot.

It's even worse this year because I don't have huge extravagant ideas. Last year, I bought a Wii for Mom & Dad, which is expensive, but once I bought that I knew for sure I was done shopping. When I get important people little presents, I keep buying more and more and more little presents. And I can't seem to stop.

I did something good today, though. I had ordered something for Airbear, but when it came I didn't like it so I returned it to the store. I really wanted to buy him something else to replace the gift, but I didn't. And then when I got home and looked at the list of things I am still getting him, I know that I made the right choice.

So why is my amazon.com trigger finger twitching?!

Nodding off

2008-11-30T19:20:00.001-08:00

Payday did arrive, which is always nice, but so did a lot of other exhausting things. I'll update later (although maybe not until the next payday when I can make a substantial debt payment). Just too tired right now. Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, and were able to spend some time appreciating the people that love & take care of you. *Hugs&Smoochies*

Impatient!

2008-11-20T18:02:00.001-08:00

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG Seriously this pay period is lasting forrreeevvvveeerrrr. I was really excited to make a much-bigger-than-normal payment to The Bank of Mom, but now that I have I am so absolutely impatient for the next payday to get here. I've been looking at my 2009 savings goals (woo hoo, so excited!), and reading forum posts over at the Savers thread to get inspired. Well, and really just to have something to do so that I'm not actually counting minutes or something like that. But it's getting out of hand. I can refrain from spending, but I can't make time pass any faster and gosh darnit I want to! I am getting so close now, and there's only one little row left in the spreadsheet with a debt number in it.

GAAAHHHH!!!

Time is the justice that examines all offenders...

2008-11-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

You know how it sometimes seem that a-holes can just keep on being a-holes and they never get what's coming to them, and some people that are good people and try hard and do what's right just get screwed? And then everybody starts to get real cynical, and ya think that there's no force in the universe that's going to do anything about it--that "the right thing" only happens in cheesy summer blockbusters, or that bad guys only get their just deserts in cartoons?

Well this time is not that time, ladies and gentlemen!

And there was much rejoicing.. (*yay*)

P.S.

2008-11-14T18:56:00.001-08:00

I also thought I would note that the number below represents 58.1% of my annual income from last year. That seems like a lot!

For Auld Lang Syne

2008-11-14T18:35:00.000-08:00

I know, New Years is still quite a ways off. But this is even more exciting than New Years, and without the champagne headache to boot. Today[1] marks the one-year anniversary of my Debt Resolution! It's hard to believe, but one year ago I sat down, wrote out all my debts, had a major freak out, and then started making serious strides toward financial security.

I've worked really hard during the last twelve months, and have pinched every penny and watched every dime. I was never really a big shopper, but I stopped doing all the little self-indulgent things like going out for Mexican food when I was having a bad day at work, or frittering money away at the pub when I didn't really need to drink. I even tried to be rational about presents, which is really hard for me, and for which I got a lot of support from my loved ones. Most importantly, I started blogging it where I knew a couple people (hi Mom!) would read it. I need to have accountability[2].

In the last 12 months, I have had some "minor" accomplishments:
* contributed just shy of $2500 to retirement funds
* paid my car insurance (twice) and tuition in cash with money I had saved ahead of time
* drastically reduced the number of times per month we go out to eat

...and some major ones:
* paid off ALL OF MY CREDIT CARD DEBT![3]
* canceled all but four credit cards, the best ones
* doubtlessly improved my credit ratio[4]

Unfortunately I did not pay off all of my debt entirely - that would have been a really awesome accomplishment to list. But at this point, I only have my loan from my mom (which is now more than half paid off!) and my school loan, which I am not going to bother racing down. Its interest rate is so low I actually make more money paying the minimum and keeping money in my savings account. Crazy.

Anyway, down to one debt payment a month, which is at 0% and should be pretty easy to snowball from here on out. I'm feeling really excited about the progress I've made, although I am of course anxious to finish paying off mom. Imagine, no debt... all money toward savings... wow! Only $3,200 stands in between me and total debt freedom (except the school loan, see above). Just a little bit further!

Wanna know the total? I know you do! *drumroll*

TOTAL PAID IN YEAR 1 OF DEBT RESOLUTION: $24,405.46

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Well technically that comes in two days. But I got paid today so I did the whole bill paying thing, and I do my updates after the mid-month pay check. It's close enough.
[2] Or more likely I just get a big enough kick out of bragging about my accomplishments that I knew that would drive me to succeed ;)
[3] Sorry about the overly exuberant text emphasis ... I get a little carried away ;)
[4] I'll have to check this one when I get my scores in January. But my debt-to-limit ratio has most certainly improved!

Right

2008-11-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

Ok, now I usually try to avoid politics on this blog because politics piss people off (or pisses people off? Hmm...) but anyway I just have one thing to say.

According to the fundamental principles of my country as I have been taught them, the majority are not supposed to be able to legistlate (i.e., vote on) the rights of the minority.

That is all.

Dilemmas in Paying and Spending (TM)

2008-11-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

So when I set my goals for this month, I included paying goals (snowball the Bank of Mom debt as much as possible - particularly because my debtiversary is in 6 short days) but also spending goals (like get some of the Christmas gifts out of the way). I really like to achieve goals, so I want to do both, but obviously they are contradictory! So I suppose my choices are:

a) pay as much toward the mom debt with this check as possible, since that will make for a bigger one-year total, and wait til the end of November check for presents

2) buy some presents this weekend and a bigger (but not all-the-way big) snowball payment

iii) normal mom payment, finish Christmas shopping, then snowball until the end of the year. After all, end of 2008 is a great goal too, right?

Not like I'm going to be able to pay off all the mom debt by the end of 2008, although that would certainly be nice and give the entire new year a savings feel. But unless I get a big fat holiday present from my Big Bad Boss Lady (in the form of a hefty check), it is unlikely to happen. Boo!

Funny how I'm spending so much time wondering how to spend money I don't have yet. I guess that's not all that uncommon. But at least I'm not picking out shoes or something!

Milestone

2008-10-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the Internet finally learned to cooperate and I got to make sure that yes, my paycheck did indeed get deposited into my bank account. Then I did what people everywhere do in this situation, I began blowing the money immediately. BUT, as people everywhere do NOT do, I specifically and methodically targeted the money hemorrhaging from my only-recently-not-empty account. I paid my 1-15th of the month bills, as usual; I checked my already-paid-off credit cards to make sure they were still at $0, as usual; but then I got to do something absolutely "wicked sick"[1].

I paid off my very last credit card.

In fact, I did it on the phone, so that I could get the complete payoff figure (in case there were any random cents of incremental interest) and so that I could immediately close the card. When I mentioned that infamous "C-word"[2] to the customer service rep, she asked if I had any other high-rate balances I could transfer over to this card, because she would give me a super-sweet deal. And it actually was a super-sweet deal, I'll have to give her that - 2.99% for the life of the balance transfer - but you know what I got to say?

"Actually, no... I don't have any other credit card balances. This was my last one."

She sounded surprised, and genuinely excited for me. "What an accomplishment!" she said. "You must feel very proud of yourself. Well, then I'll close this card right away and send you a confirmation letter [etc., etc.]."

I smiled, thanked her graciously, and hung up. Then I called two other card companies and canceled my cards with them, as well. Those were cards I'd paid off a few months ago, but since I still had balances on other ones I wanted to keep them open so my debt-to-limit ratio was still good. But now, since my debt (well, my cc debt) is zero, that ratio's as good as it can be. I canceled three cards I would never use - highest rates, customer service I don't really like, etc. - and kept four: one Visa (my oldest card), one MC (with rewards), one Amex (because it worked in Japan and nothing else did; besides it's my lowest rate and has a cool blue holographic thingie), and another Visa because... why did I keep that one - oh, right. I can check it with the same log-in as the MC so it's easy to keep an eye on, and it has a good rate. Doesn't hurt to have some available credit options, just in case.

But nobody needs 7 credit cards, so I cleaned house. I'll get confirmation letters in the mail that the accounts are closed, and I'll shred the cards. As for the cards I kept, I put one in my purse for emergencies[3] and filed the rest away. My purse is thinner, my Monthly Payments Checklist has shrunk by like half (and will be a much smaller checklist when I make a new one for 2009), and I am officially NO LONGER PAYING INTEREST TO ANY CREDIT CARD COMPANY WHATSOEVER.

Sorry about the bold caps... I'd say it's because "I'm just so excited" - and I suppose I should be, and probably am - but at the moment it's hard to describe how I feel. I'm looking at this chart and seeing the little checks I made each month: bill paid, bill paid, bill paid... and now it just says zero, zero, zero... zero, zero, ZERO!

And somehow I can't stop crying. Or laughing. Yep, both at the same time. Nope, I don't have a clue.

Total Amount Paid Since November 2007: $23,405.46

I'm not totally out of consumer debt yet - still have a loan from The Bank of Mom for $4,000. But with no credit card payments anymore, I'll be able to pay that down a lot faster. I won't be completely debt free by November 16, 2008 (my one-year anniversary for my Debt Elimination Resolution(TM)), but I will be credit card free by then... and I think that's a pretty good accomplishment for one year.

Now I better go get some Kleenex. And maybe some ice cream ;)

[1] This is a positive term.
[2] I mean "close," you sickos!
[3] And I mean real emergencies, like I get kidnapped and end up in Bozeman, MT and need to get on a plane ASAP. Not like "I'm-currently-out-of-ice-cream-and-there's-14-more-days-til-payday" emergencies. The 0's just feel way too good to ever go back!

Oh, and P.S.

2008-10-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

So remember how I was tracking my "no spend" days over at that Women in Red blog? My goals for October were pretty steep: 24 (out of 31, obviously) no spend days and 28 no eating out (NEO) days. The results?

25 no spend days (that's $0, bitchez!)
29 NEO days

That's RIGHT! I didn't just meet those goalz, I destroyed them! Rawr!

The bonus side effect was even better, though. Keeping that tight of a reign on my spending was pretty tough, but at the end of the month I had a total of 17 transactions out of my bank account in October. That includes all groceries, all gas, all bills (even the auto-pay ones), the one check I wrote, and the credit card payments. 17 transactions in one month! It didn't even fill up one page on the online account register!

It's so amazing to me that I can't stop using exclamation points!

I better go to bed.

!

The tubes are clogged!

2008-10-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm bubbling over with impatience right now.

Bubble, bubble, bubble, pop!

I get paid at midnight (in 3 minutes), and I think I will have enough money to pay off my very last credit card, which has $500 left on it. Even though it seems silly and ridiculous to do so, I wanted to stay up until midnight, make sure the money was in the bank, and log onto the cc website and make that payment the very soonest instant I could. I know, I know, it's not going to post until tomorrow morning anyway, right, so who cares?

I care. Because I'm anal retentive and neurotic and because I am sofreakingclose!!!

Oh, but no. No, that's not going to happen. And you know why?

Because some asshat broke the Internet.

Not the whole Internet, just part of it. My bank's part of it. And it's actually not even broken fer'rill, as the kids would say[1], but "undergoing routine maintenance from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m." Now I think staying up until 2 a.m. to see if the site is back up so that I can satiate my insane impatience level is just a little too much. But that means I have to wait til tomorrow morning after all. !$%@%^@@!!!!

[1] "For real," and no, I don't know how the kids actually spell it. Because, as everybody knows, the kidz kant spL.

Ta da!

2008-10-27T22:15:00.001-07:00

Oh come on now...

2008-10-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

I find myself once again going crazy waiting for payday to come. Not because I'm paranoid and weary of being broke this time - most of my cushion is still intact and I've done fabulously at not spending money this month. But because I am itching to make that last credit card payment.

Come on!!

Surprise!

2008-10-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's been less than a month since my last update! I know you're amazed and excited.

I've actually just been lazy because I had updated my mom in an email and she's usually the only person who reads my blog (although some of my WIR friends might come read it now - hi, friends!). But I suppose I should be thorough. Plus it gives me another excuse to brag and I love doing that.

Payday finally arrived *angelic choir* and I was able to resume breathing. I knew I wasn't spending money and my little meager balance was sitting safely in the bank but ... I don't know, it was still just stressful. I suppose I'm just paranoid that some random charge I forgot about will be pulled out and the little tiny balance won't be able to survive on its own. But ya know just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you.

Anyway, the balance is up in a safer area now, and I was still able to make a nice chunk payment on that last cc (as well as the monthly payment to mom). I've got a bit of a cushion, but I'm going to try and hang onto it and throw whatever's left at the cc when I get paid again at the end of the month. Hopefully that will let me pay off the credit card completely on my very next paycheck, which is in only T-14 days...and counting!

It's hard for me to believe. I don't think I'll be able to pay off ALL my debt (including the Mom account) by November 16, the 1-year anniversary of my Debt Resolution (or maybe it should be reVolution!), but all my consumer debt will be gone, and then I get to start snowballing huge debt payments to my mom. As I've said before the idea of doing that doesn't bother me too much...the interest rate can't be beat, and she's a nice lady, so writing her big fat checks will actually be kind of fun. :)

I can't actually think about it too much (that upcoming(!!) debt-freedom) or I start getting all over-emotional. I can't wait til the day I make my last payment and I can just sit down somewhere quiet and let it hit me that I have finally dug myself out of the hole. I'll probably cry my idiot head off. My monthly obligations will be down to less than one paycheck, which makes things possible that never would have been possible before. I could go down to half time. I could work somewhere for half what I make. I could actually quit entirely and live off Airbear (ha ha). While I don't plan on doing any of those things (although the last one sounds like a winner), it is incredibly empowering to know that my actions and hard work have opened up these doors for me. They're also safeguards, too. If I lost my job, we'd survive. We'd have to eat dinner at home, but that's about the only change we'd need to make. And in uncertain times that's an amazing thing to know.

Instead, my plan is to keep working and apply that entire second paycheck (and whatever's left of the first) to a series of savings funds. I have already spent time thinking about what these goals will be, since I was so broke that I couldn't afford to go out and do anything and had to entertain myself with excel spreadsheets. Ha ha. Anyway, check out the results, because the exercise was super fun. Once I am debt free, (imagine three thousand !'s) my goals are:

Savings Funds:
Little Emergency Fund/Short Term Savings - $1,000
Big Emergency Fund (Job loss, etc.) - $5,000 [1]
Car Replacement Fund (for "eventually") - $5,000
Laptop Replacement Fund (ditto) - $1,500
"Special Occasion" Fund - $3,000[2]
Laser Eye Surgery Fund - $2,000[3]
House Fund - $10,000[4]

Annual Contribution Goals:
Roth Contributions for 2009 - $5,000
Gift Money for 2009 - $800 (*blush* shut up, it's my money!)
Vacation Fund for 2009 - $1,500[5]
Tuition Account Contributions for 3 nephews for 2009- $180 ($5/month/kid)

I've looked ahead to what my budget/bill breakdown will be as well, and while I obviously cannot fund these accounts all immediately at the start of 2009, I could do monthly payments which will meet the tuition, gift, vacation, and Roth goals (yes, completely funding my Roth!) with the money that used to go to credit card debt payments. I will have to pick a few of the savings funds to focus on at a time so that I can snowball them and get them filled up fast and feel rewarded. Plus once they're full they just get to sit around and make interest and make me feel rich. The annual funds I'll have to keep replenishing all the time, because they'll get used, but still... do you know how amazing it is going to feel to be able to be saving ahead for those kinds of things? To know that I have the power to grow money to buy presents? To be able to snowball toward GOOD things instead of toward debt?

I can't imagine how you could feel any richer than that :)

[1] Believe it or not, this is more than six months worth of expenses for me. I'm making Airbear start one too. His should obviously be bigger, since he farts money.
[2] I'm not going to tell you what the occasion is, for jinx purposes. I think you can probably get creative and guess. It might take more than this, if a trip to Rio is involved. But this is a good start.
[3] Actually, (aaaaactually), Airbear can contribute to a pre-tax health account that we can use to spend on my eyeball surgery, once I figure out all the details, and that will help him out on taxes a bit and I can pay him back. Best part is he said he would like to pay for half of it :O :O :O !
[4] This one is kind of weird, I know. But nitza, you say, you already have a house! Well, I don't, Airbear does. And since we are not yet teh married, it's better this way. But I'd like to start tucking some money away for later. This fund takes a backseat to the others, but it's just been at the back of my mind. I might be able to contribute it to a down payment when we buy house #2 together, or something. Anyway, like I said... it's about options, now :)
[5] It probably won't get up that high during 2009, but then we'll just do the standard little vacations to mom's house, etc. one year, and leftovers can roll over each year so that we can do a Big, Fabulous Vacation from time to time. WITHOUT CREDIT CARDS!! (See how serious I was about that?) ;)

nitza's pizza

Looking back (and forward) (are you getting dizzy?)

October Redux

I am really, really proud of something in this post - see if you can find it!

Eventually there will be a post that *isn't* a fly-by

Fly-by

On the fly

Life is Glorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrious!

My memory is not so good

What can I say, I like having goals

Ta da!

Surprise!

Two in a row - zing!

Payoff

I'm surprised this site hasn't shut down by now

Wedding Shoes!

March Redux (Finally...)

February Redux

January Redux

Percentages

I'm stunned!

December Redux

November Redux!

What two (years) can do

Seriously, this is just embarrassing

Airbear Dinner Night, #2

Oops, I did it again..

Thanks for last night, hot stuff!

August Redux

July Redux

IXXX

Just a bit of a break from the norm...

Milestones

June Redux

Also...

On time, two months in a row!

And it isn't even late yet!

March Redux... finally!

This is the best thing ever

You never see it coming...

February Redux

Zzzzz.....

Control

January Redux

Elements of Investing for the Future

TV Revelations

Successes

And off she goes...

Manners

Auld Lang Syne ... again!

Snowpocalypse 2008

Wings

Christmas Spirit

Holly, Jolly

Nodding off

Impatient!

Time is the justice that examines all offenders...

P.S.

For Auld Lang Syne

Right

Dilemmas in Paying and Spending (TM)

Milestone

Oh, and P.S.

The tubes are clogged!

Ta da!

Oh come on now...

Surprise!

Eventually there will be a post that isn't a fly-by