I'm not dead!

I promise! I just got really bad at tracking stuff, and then I got really busy, and then I got hapitrpg.com and stopped tracking anything entirely because now I can just click off things on that and get XP and level up my little pixelated heroine omgwtfbbq!!1! No, but seriously. So damn cute, and like heroin for compulsive to-do list people.

But I told myself I'd post my 2012 cumulative numbers (well, sort of cumulative, as you'll see), so here they are: 

TOTAL for 2012:
No-Spend Days: 118, maybe more? – took some months off tracking
No Eating Out Days: 141, maybe more? – took some months off tracking

Extra Income: $5592.21 ($746.99 from surveys (down—have really let these fall by the wayside this last quarter or so), $269.63 cash back from credit cards, $79.44 from selling books back on amazon (it’ll probably get down close to zero now that I’m not buying textbooks, alas), $2975 in work bonuses, $968.84 from expense reimbursements, $50.97 from my piggy bank, $20 for jury duty, $50.90 in bank bonuses, $9 for making dinner, $20 in an anniversary card, and $401.44 interest) HOLY CRAPBALLS, MAN. I guess the important thing I take away from this is there really are little bits of money coming in from random places—pay attention to them, squirrel them away, and they really do add up!

Retirement Savings: $6002.57 - more than twice as much as last year!
Work-Out Days: 2…? Can it really only be 2? I am laughing my butt off right now. Oh, if only that counted for working out.

No-Carb Days: 137, which is almost exactly twice the number from last year. This explains how I stayed in good shape (cat-suit shape at Halloween, even!) with all that sitting around on my butt.  However, the no-carb days basically ended after cat-suit day, and now it’s more like … well, you know. We have one skinny kitty and one not-so-skinny kitty. It’s like that.
Books Finished: 40 – 15 more than last year! Being finished with school for now definitely helped, as I could read things that were actually enjoyable for the most part.  I did “read” a few audiobooks as part of that 40, although it seemed like that only really worked for memoir-type books, otherwise the audiobook contained like 18 CD’s and was never done before the LYE-berry wanted it back. And I’m not going to BUY an audiobook. As if!

And now I get to go check something off the list and get my little heroine some shiny new armor! BIIIITTTCCHHHIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Austere October

It sounds right when you say it out loud, at least.  And it worked out pretty well, too: 

October:

No-Spend Days: 16

No Eating Out Days: 25 (way better!)

Extra Income: $289.90 ($200 work bonuses, $66 from surveys, and $23.80 interest)

Retirement Savings: $715.88

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 29 (!!)

Books Finished: 6 (!)

Better take all the good feelings I can get from that, because wait until you see how terrible November is ;) But it's not my fault! Well, it IS my fault, but it's (at least partly!!) because of this:

Ack!! Wish me luck!!

So, summer

Yeah.

It turns out, summer and goals do not get along well.  Is it like that for everyone? Does everyone's life turn into this manic, sun-driven, social madness in the summer? Maybe it's a Seattle thing, like we become convinced that we'll never see the sun again and so zomgwtfbbq we better spend every waking second outside with our buddies and go out to eat all the time and go drunk karaoke instead of to bed?  

Anyway, I kept tracking things during July (and just did worse at them) but mid-August realized I hadn't kept track of any of my new charting thingies & couldn't figure out how I'd done so I had to drop them. September got even more out of control because I lost track of no-spend days, no-eating-out days and pretty much everything in the world.  I blame it on back-to-school. 

But here's the redux(en?)es, for what they're worth, and hopefully you'll see another post soon when I figure out a total for that 'extra money to throw at the mortgage now that the refi finally went through and everything is set up' thing.  Plus, so far in October, no carbs, no drinking, no eating out, and very little spending. Woo hoo! (Still no working out yet, though. Ha!)

September:

No-Spend Days: Didn’t track – probably none!

No Eating Out Days: Didn’t track – probably none!

Extra Income: $605.51 ($10 from surveys (yes, really, only $10!), $500 work bonus, $50 cash back from my rewards credit card, and $45.51 interest)

Retirement Savings: $597.40

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: Didn’t track – probably none!

Books Finished: 3

August:

No-Spend Days: 12

No Eating Out Days: 12

Extra Income: $530.02 ($250 work bonuses, $58 work reimbursement, $115.25 from surveys, $24.44 from my piggy bank, $50 cash back from my rewards credit card, and $32.33 interest)

Retirement Savings: $601.50

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 4

Books Finished: 5

July:

No-Spend Days: 6

No Eating Out Days: 6

Extra Income: $712.92 ($36.75 from surveys, $50 cash back from my rewards credit card, $1.82 from selling something back on amazon, $169.29 healthcare reimbursement, $375 work bonuses, $40.24 expense report, and $39.82 interest)

Retirement Savings: $571.53

Work-Out Days: 1

No-Carb Days: 12

Books Finished: 2

Annoying Task at Work: 1/14

Annoying Task at Home: 15/31

15+ Minutes of Surveys: 10/31

Flossing: 7/31

30+ Minutes Reading a Book (not HW): 5/31

Letting My Fingernails Grow Out: 1/31 (haha)

No Soda Days: 6/31

In other good news, I'm getting a 5% raise at work (hooray!) and since we aren't eating out and going out all the time in October we ought to be able to save at LEAST five million dollars.  I'm estimating. 

Happy October!

Man, I totally missed the memo

Did you know it is JULY now?! What the hell!  I think I must have hit my head and missed the first six months of the year. Honestly, what the heck is going on with this calendar.  Anyway, June results:

June:

No-Spend Days: 12

No Eating Out Days: 12 (yikes!!)

Extra Income: $551.76 ($88.25 from surveys, $375 from work bonuses, $26.53 from my piggy bank, $38.78 selling books back on amazon, and $23.20 interest)

Retirement Savings: $467.02

Work-Out Days: 0 (heh)

No-Carb Days: 18/30 (including the end of a 35-day streak – new record!)

Books Finished: 5

Annoying Task at Work: 5/16 days (too busy still)

Annoying Task at Home: 19/30

15+ Minutes of Surveys: 12/30

Flossing: 9/30 (kind of fallen off the wagon here)

30+ Minutes Reading a Book (not HW): 17/30

Letting My Fingernails Grow Out: 0 – I let myself have the month off from worrying about this one

No Soda Days: 18/30

Actually, because I didn't realize it was the end of the month I missed getting my 12 debits for my rewards checking account (for the first time EVER! BOO!) and didn't get the special rate. What a giant bummer! Dumb mistake, too, as that is completely within my control. But it's a good reminder for next time.

I also need to do some research into IRAs and see a) if I qualify and b) if it would be better to put my above-employer-match contributions in one of those instead. I never looked into it when I was first learning about investing, because I figured I'd never be able to fill a Roth and, thus, need to worry about it. Now that I can't have a Roth, I need to make sure the work account is still the best place to put that extra.

Speaking of extra I am going to TOTALLY LOSE MY SHIT if our refi doesn't hurry up and go through. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE I WANT TO PAY OFF THIS THING!!! Heh. Sorry about that. Will go do some deep breathing exercises. Or, you know, call up the mortgage company ;) 

May Redux

May:

No-Spend Days: 17

No Eating Out Days: 14

Extra Income: $702.76 ($108.70 from surveys (including 2 movie tickets), $250 in work bonuses, $308.04 from work reimbursements, and $36.02 interest). The rate on my rewards checking is all the way down to 1.75%! Ugh!

Retirement Savings: $419.39 (I increased this, but I need to check into some SIMPLE v. IRA strategizing, now that school’s out and my brain power will hopefully be returning)

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 22 (including an 18-day streak at the end – still going!)

Books Finished: 7!

Annoying Task at Work: 5/19 (but this is actually because work has been slammed – so that’s a good thing!)

Annoying Task at Home: 26/31

15+ Minutes of Surveys: 23/31 (the end of the month went to heck)

Flossing: 23/31 (same)

30+ Minutes Reading a Book (not HW): 26/31 (same)

Letting My Fingernails Grow Out: 9/31 (okay, honestly, I just let this one go for the last few weeks – it really has to be a streak anyway to make a difference)

No Soda Days: 31/31 – yes, really! All month long!

April Redux

April:

No-Spend Days: 12 (Yeesh!)

No Eating Out Days: 17 (I decided to start counting when Airbear pays, too, so I expect this number to be lower from now on; but really, it’s a combined “big picture” now so I should be realistic!*)

Extra Income: $609.71(!!!) ($157.89 from work reimbursements, $225 from work bonuses (!), $160.29 from surveys, $25 from a bank referral, $4 for making dinner, and $37.53 interest)

Retirement Savings: $402.65 (I upped my contribution percentage – good job!)

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 6 (yeah, yikes)

Books Finished: 1

Annoying Task at Work: 6/15

Annoying Task at Home: 22/30

15+ Minutes of Surveys: 19/30

Flossing: 21/30

30+ Minutes Reading a Book (not HW): 18/30

Letting My Fingernails Grow Out: 18/30

*Unless I have food and am ready to cook at home and he forces me to go out :P

I also had 15 no soda days :) Still waiting for the refi to clear, though, so I can start actually *making* my extra payments. Gah, I hate waiting!

March MADNESS!!!!111!1ONE!!!!

Yeah, I'm really excited about March. Check me out:

No-Spend Days:13

No Eating Out Days:19

Extra Income: $581.12 ($0.90 from bank transfer set-ups (haha), $25 for a bank referral, $5 for cooking dinner*, $250 in bonuses from work**, $20 for jury duty**, $143.70 HSA reimbursement**, $20 we got in an anniversary card**, $62 from surveys, and $54.52 interest)

Retirement Savings: $263.32

Work-Out Days: 0

No-Carb Days: 16

Books Finished: 4, including 1 audiobook (I decided that I *am* going to count these, since the point is to get more stuff into my brain and not practice my decoding-via-the-eyeballs skills)

New (!) Goals (!!):

Annoying Task at Work: 9/16 days

Annoying Task at Home: 13/19 days

15+ Minutes of Surveys: 24/31 days (I missed every single Sunday, strangely)

Flossing: 23/24 days****

30+ Minutes Reading a Book (not HW): 18/19 days

Letting My Fingernails Grow Out: 4/4 days (REALLY, MOM!!)

The reason the New (!) Goals (!!) are all out of some-number-of-days is because I started them at different points in March. I started marking off accomplishments on a calendar… and then… well, you know… I made a sheet with some more goals… and… well… Oh, shut up, goals are awesome and checking things off is awesome and you are SO JEALOUS OF MY INCREDIBLE RAINBOW CHART(!):

Hmm, this photo looks much blurrier than I intended. But you get the idea, right? Awesomeness!

All in all, I think I seriously kicked March in the rear end! Now, April, on the other hand… Well, nevermind that for now. There are a lot of days yet to turn things around. ;)

* I told Airbear he had to pay me $1 every time I cooked dinner. And he agreed! Ha!

** Normally I wouldn’t have worried about counting these as “extra money,” but now that I have a specific goal for that extra money I really want to sock away *any*thing that’s “extra”!

**** My dental hygienist is going to flip out at my appointment on Friday!