Monday, June 1, 2009

Also...

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!

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!