What two (years) can do

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

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

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..

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!

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

THERE ARE EVEN VEGETABLES! ZOMG!

August Redux

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

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?