It's been a while ...

It's been a while since I last posted, over a month. Sorry.

But things are going well for the most part.

The weather is finally warming up and all of our flowers are blooming, trees are sprouting leaves and we're already mowing the lawn. I love it!

My sports team wrapped up its last week of practice yesterday. Our last game is tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the break. We have a last team meeting next Tuesday to discuss our summer and next fall's plans, then I'll also be helping coach one of our men's teams as they continue training for their games. But my own team is done for a while and that is a weight off of my sometimes overly-burdened shoulders. I do it to myself, I know. But looking forward to some downtime.

More exciting, my boyfriend offered to take me on vacation for my birthday last fall. So I'm cashing in that trip next week to go to Austin, Texas. He's already bought us tickets. Best of all, his sports team qualified for the national sweet 16s of our sport for his team's division down there. So I get a vacation and get to be a fan to boot! So excited! And I've only got to pay for food and fun. :)

It's been in the 90s down in Austin this past week. Yeah!

On the career front, that job I'd heard about from my old boss opened up and I applied for it. Without going into more detail, it's a much bigger job that I initially expected, but I'm definitely capable of handling it and am now waiting - trying to be patient - for the calls to interview. A good friend also applied for it, so he would be competition, but I know that my old boss never meshed personality-wise with my friend (who also worked there), so that gives me an advantage I believe. Although I'm staying away from any pettiness and we both just wished each other the best of luck and have been checking in with updates when we've heard them.

I've heard my old boss has been busy and is hiring his interns first before he starts the hiring process for the full-time position. It's hard to wait though. I have to think I'll get in for an interview. I've got the experience, more than most for education and I'm ready to hit the ground running, in addition to great references including the blessing of my current boss.

In addition, a well-to-do alumni of my boyfriend's sports team also put in a good word for me with one of his professional contacts at my old company, with directions for his contact to pass along a great recommendation to my old boss on my behalf. I'm hoping it lights a fire and keeps me in the front of the line for my old boss as he sorts through the applicants.

Keep your fingers crossed.

On the debt front, I'm still plugging away. Although I will confess to slacking off and spending too much money lately on lunches at work and some shopping, going out. Ugh. I know. I just updated a big chunk of my balances on the sidebar and as soon as some pending payments post this weekend, I'll update it again.

Okay, it's nearly 6 on a Friday and it's time to go home and relax.

Have a great weekend!

Tulips and Crocuses

There is still some leftover snow piled up in our yard, but I saw our tulips and the new crocuses I planted last spring starting to sprout up.

Yeah for Spring! It inspires me to keep growing too.

April 1st!

Happy April Fool's Day!

I only tried one joke today and it backfired. I e-mailed my boyfriend to tell him I thought I was pregnant. I then e-mailed him a second time and said "April Fools!". But rats, he got the second one first!

Oh well.

I'm waiting for my auto loan auto payment to go through tonight before I update my sidebar again. I did add the $2.55 in interest I earned to my emergency fund though. I'm just letting it sit there and be happy.

My sports team starts outdoor practices tonight. And it's cold and soggy. And I'm not doing well at my running goals, still feeling quite tired from the flu and what not. We have our first games this weekend, but I'm not too worried.

On the career front, no word yet on the new position at my old employer. But I think I did a good job at the volunteer work this weekend, so I feel positive about that and interacting with my old boss in a positive and hard-working situation.

I'm struggling at the current job because I'm daydreaming about the new job. Besides setting myself up if I'm not hired (sad!), I'm procrastinating on my current work load. It's just so boring. But I'll buckle down and get stuff taken care of here. New job or not, I'll be in a better place if I've got less hanging over my head.

30.5

I didn't even think about it on the 25th, but I'm now 30.5 years old. My half birthday was Tuesday.

Two and one-half years to pay down all my bad debt!!

I'm ready. :)

Keep Your Fingers Crossed - Career Update

Good news on the career front.

The job that I hoped would be approved at my old employer has been approved. My old boss just let me know it will be posted in the "next week or so".

I like my current job. Been here 3.5 years, but I feel a bit stagnant and I don't see a place to grow here. I would just remain in the same position, getting salary bumps and wouldn't be able to grow into any higher position without going back to school for a further advance degree in either business or science. My boss is only 10 years older than me, so that's not an option either.

I like the people I work with here, they are all very nice people and overall, it's a good place to work. Just not for me anymore. I miss my old job and the idea of being there full-time would be a dream. I was previously a full-time intern for two years after being a part-time student worker in grad school for one year, three years total. I'm also sure I'd be picking up similar and much-loved work as I had when I finished there. Which would be awesome!

So I'll be applying for that as soon as it opens. My competition could be fierce, but I know I have a great shot. And I'm ready to negotiate a better salary as well.

It won't be very fun to tell my boss here that I'm considering leaving, but I know she'll understand.

And good timing, but I'll be doing some fun volunteer work with my old boss and coworkers this weekend so I can remind everyone about how hard I work, good attitude, and gain some crucial place in their minds when it comes to hiring time.

So keep your fingers crossed!

Another month gone, another step forward

It's hard to believe it's nearly April.

And supposedly it's also spring, but we've still got weather forecasts for snow. A surprise six inches fell late last week, but it's nearly gone again. We broke a record for snowfall this season in our city. Over 100 inches. We can see the lawn now, but the leftover snowbanks where we had to dig out could be there until May.

I'm eagerly awaiting the grass greening up and our spring flowers starting to poke their little heads out of the ground. I hope the crocuses I planted last fall made it.

I updated my sidebar today, except for my car (because that payment doesn't drop until the first of each month) and I'll wait until the first also for to update my networth.

I stretched my tax refund quite a bit. As I already mentioned, I paid off my Credit Card B and have moved Card D into my sights (Pow! Pow!). I jumped on my payments the other day when I got paid, using my snowball plan with minimums on all of my cards and then hitting Card D with my remaining debt payoff. I have yet to call Card B and threaten to close it (so they give me a non-business version and a really good rate for later transfer-game options), so I checked it just to verify it's paid off in my head. And what did I find? They knocked me for $8.61 as a finance charge, calculated off my past balance from last month. I was pissed, but hey, $8.61 I can handle. I'm calling them this weekend though. Grrr.

Confession time. For Easter, I had a breakdown at Target and spent some unnecessary money on unneccessary stuff. I got to the checkout, realized my idiocy and that my balance on my debit card wouldn't cover the total. So, I had to use my "emergency" card out of my wallet. And I immediately had buyer's remorse and beat myself up emotionally. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Now I didn't purchase anything rediculous or anything that I can't use or won't use, but I did buy myself some treats that I don't really need. But I went home and as soon as I had a chance, I paid off that charge on my card from my last stash of my tax refund. That money should've been used to pay off in my snowball. So I tripped. I'm back up again and I'm back on track.

Overall, I did knock all of my cards down a bit!

In other good news, my boyfriend and I signed up for our CSA subscription! We each paid $157 towards an every-other week produce delivery for June through October. I'm really excited to see all the organic and farm-raised yummy goodness we'll have. Plus we each get $75 of that back from reimbursements from our health insurance companies!! And I know we'll save more than $75 in not having to purchase produce at the grocery store (less healthy and delicious) and the farmer's market (more expensive). I'm really excited about this.

Also, we picked up a few inexpensive seed starter kits. We've got baby tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, petunias and coleus plants sprouting for our little vegetable garden and flower gardens. This will save us money since we won't need to purchase potted plants.

This week I also received my new "designer envelope system" that I ordered from the Dave Ramsey store. I listen to his show often at work. It's funny, but the stories inspire me, sometimes they break my heart. Anyway, this month I was trying to work on truly implementing my budget, zeroing out and keeping my cash-spending for food, etc., down and kept track of well.

My struggles with this are that I have a hard time (read here: too busy and somewhat lazy) to get to the bank to get real cash out. I'm a paperless girl! Everything I do financially is online, outside from writing a check each month to my boyfriend for rent (and if I could do this electronically, I totally would!). So I was trying to use my debit card. I even have a sticker on it with my two-week totals for what I should be spending (I get paid bimonthly).

Worth noting - people kept commenting on my sticker. The bartender at my team's club bar/restaurant where we have our socials and meetings commented how smart I was. :) A barista at Starbucks (I have a weakness for White Chocolate Mochas ... only 1-2 times a month!) said it was the first time she'd seen that broken down into two weeks. :)

Anyway, I decided it was worth the $20 cost ($10 S&H sadly) to purchase the envelope system. I'm going to likely try to use my debit card, but keep track on the handy log sheets. If that doesn't work, I'll make the switch to just cash. I do like the "system" though. It's actually a nice red wallet. There's room for my checkbook and register, card slots for my debit card, etc., a zippered coin pocket and the envelopes with logs on each to write down your balances. I had a nice red wallet and a little coin purse before, so I've combined and pared down everything into my new wallet. I like it so far. I'll admit that I hide the imprinted side where it says "Financial Peace University" though. I don't want to explain this to my boyfriend ... yet, anyway.

Our team season is starting, so I'm getting busy busy. And I really need to get my butt moving and running. I am so out of shape and I'm still fighting the remnants of my flu.

All in all, I'm pretty good though.

Kinda of neat

I have a facebook account which I use to keep in touch with a lot of my old friends and teammates. My boyfriend and I also have a running scrabble game on it.

But this week, I found Dave Ramsey on it and there is even a Dave Ramsey "Baby Steps"Application. Kind of fun. In my own geeked out paying down my debt way.

How Having the Flu Saved Me Money

Last Wednesday, I got to work and felt fine. Then within a few hours, knew I was coming down with something because I got very tired, achey and developed a sore throat. By Wednesday night, I was nearly out for the count.

I got up Thursday morning so I wouldn't miss this important four-hour work meeting, then went home for the rest of the day and from then until Tuesday, I was basically in a flu-induced stupor quasi-coma. Five total days of out and out and influenza. ugh.

I'm not a napper, but I was putting in a full nine hours of sleep per night (my usual's 7ish) and two naps during the daytimes.

My sports team traveled to Chicago for a tournament, so I was too sick to play and didn't even bother to try to be there on the sidelines, since I could barely get out of my pyjamas.

Now that I'm feeling a bit better, just congested and fighting a cough, I realized how much money the flu saved me. I didn't have to spend any money on gas, tournament costs, socializing with my team or the hotel in Chicago, and since I also was too sick to leave my house and my very awesome boyfriend stayed home to take care of me, we just stayed in and watched movies all weekend, so no additionally weekend expenditures.

Thankfully, my team had enough players to handle the tournament without me, and although I missed some fun, I can't even imagine the nightmare it would've been trying to battle through it with the flu. Not happening.

And now I have some extra money to put towards the next card in my debt snowball sights. Pow! Cough! Cough!

$0.00

Card B is paid off!

It didn't have much left on it, only $432, but it's at $0.00 this morning.

TAKE THAT CARD B!

A "Yippee!" and a big "Sigh"

Been busy, busy, busy, but staying on the plan. Actually, getting more on the plan than ever before I think.

My sidebar is majorly updated with achievements.

Most importantly, the initial $1000.00 Emergency Fund is all set. With a bit of extra at 1026.34 and growing in my new ING account. It's over there and I won't touch except for real emergencies.

My taxes are all done and I got a nice refund of $1200, so that finished up the emergency fund, took care of a few extra bills (sports team dues of $75) and I've paid off my first credit card. It hasn't hit yet on my checking account, so I haven't crossed it off the sidebar, but very soon.

Then I'm going to call that particular company and find out what better card I can get if they want to keep me as a customer. For some reason, I'm on a "business" card despite not being a business in any capacity. I want to get back to a basic card with good rates and then when I need to use it for any zero transfers, it'll be ready to help me rock out this debt. Using the tools available to me.

I also updated my financials and sat down and figured out my full budget for the month, which would be the first time I've ever done this. I think I'm in a pretty good place to start though. I have also established how my debt snowball will work and in what current order. My only debate is if I should go after my car loan in the mix of my credit cards or if I should go after first my cards, then my car. But it's smaller than some and it's still debt, so there you go. It's all in together.

I also got paid for two of my extra jobs, one for that part-time job I found for $60 and then some work for my brother. So I'm working it.

The only challenge that's been disconcerting is that I blanked out on the fact that even though I'm paying debt off, that debt is still accruing interest, so it's two steps forward and one step back.

I also will admit that in the end of January, I also add some new credit card charges because I needed to purchase something for $150 but didn't have the cash. And last week, I put $17 on one card I left on my wallet because I wasn't sure I had enough in my account. This last one stemmed from me running out of space in my checkbook register, not having a new one then not getting organized. But I'm back on track and I've removed the credit cards from my wallet. I'd still like to freeze them in the freezer, so I won't be tempted.

So, yeah. Forward!

This Week

A kind of slow week this week and so much snow!

We're less than two inches from our snowiest season ever on record for my city. And that's a lot of snow here in my area of the country. But hey, it's kind of like a personal best for Old Man Winter, you know. And all that moisture is good for the earth and our plants when spring finally rolls around.

And even though I don't like Winter (outside of the holidays), I don't mind it as much when it's all white and pretty, versus gray and depressing.

So the snow is cool for me.

What else?

I transferred an additional $75 to my ING Emergency Fund and it was taken out of my normal account's E-Fund today. Again, I figure it's a touch bit harder to mess with (but not completely out of reach), I'm better off. So, I'm up to $600 over there.

I finally sat down and filled out my budget book last Saturday night. I'm going to update it for this week, then I'll attempt to actually "budget" myself for my next two paychecks. Good stuff.

My brother and I also told my mom about our ideas for our personal finance and our Dad. She's in agreeance and we're moving forward with this. I also gave her my Dave Ramsey book. I do like that book, even though I'm not completely drinking the koolaid with him. Well, I am for Steps 1-3. But when ever I reach step 4, I'm pretty sure I'll be so happy and excited, I'll be fine with figuring out the next best steps.

I do thoroughly enjoy his radio show though. I listen to it every day, in addition to reading all of my favorite blogs on here.

On the workout front, we're not doing our second round of our workouts and we're all increasing the weights we're using and dropping the time it takes. So, stronger and faster. Awesome.

This weekend, a garden show in Madison to think about spring. But not buy anything!

Have a good weekend!

Yeah for Me!!

I got paid today and it's my extra check in the pay cycle, so it gives me some extra money to kick towards my emergency fund!!

I took care of all of my necessities, so all of my bills are paid, I have a fresh rent check for February ready for the boyfriend (he's my "landlord") and the last half of my gym class payment all set.

I also set aside $25 in my regular expenses savings account (basically where I transfer money that I know is going out soon, so it's not just sitting in my checking account). This is 1/3 of my spring fee for my sport, so I'm ahead of the ball there and won't get hit by some big $75 ping in two months.

But more awesomely, I took $500 and using a referral from Paid Twice (who I read all the time and totally dig snowflaking!), I opened my first ING savings account for my emergency fund. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Plus, I got a $25 bonus for opening it due to the referral and because I opened it with over $250. So I made an extra $25 today on top of everything! So excited. Plus Paid Twice then gets $10 from her referral for her son's college fund. Quadruple yeah!

My plan is to fully fund my emergency fund at ING and let that money do it's thing and build interest, then move on to my debt snowball and hit my debts hard. Plus, it takes a few days to transfer any money from ING to my checking, so I'm less inclined to dip into my emergency fund for non-emergencies, but it's still there and liquid for emergencies.

I updated my savings and my net worth on the sidebar. My networth increased a positive 1.2% today to 3.2% ...

So, today is a good day. Sweet. Quadruple sweet.

Itchin' to Do Something ...

The downside to having your paychecks every two weeks and wanting to get rollin' on your personal finance plan is that it's a lot of hurry up and wait sometimes.

Some good things for this week ... I think I'll be getting an extra paycheck working into my finances. Which will help my Emergency Fund a lot.

I'm planning on protecting my Emergency Fund from myself by putting a big chunk of into a new ING account, so I can earn some interest on it too. I can start a new one for $250 and use somebody's referral that I've seen out there in PF land.

I've not got a new habit of listening to Dave Ramsey's day-old online show while I work. I like to hear the stories - good and bad - and it kind of keeps me motivated to keep working even when my usual tendencies of procrastination and surfing try to kick in.

Tonight, I'll go work for my brother and we'll get started on our plan.

Good stuff ...

Fitty

In my office on a Saturday, taking care of some paperwork before I go work that freelance job for $60.

Look at my checking account, realized I'm in good shape for less than the next week until I get paid again, so I transferred another $50 to my emergency fund.

Little by little ...

Good Karma?

A lot of people say that if you start moving forward in a positive manner and moving towards positive health, good things will happen to you more often.

They say that if you start paying off your debt, more money will its way to you too.

So it's pretty cool that just as I was updating all of my bills and feeling calm that I had paid off my bills for this month and tucked away some money to my emergency fund, I just got an e-mail giving me some part-time hours doing something fun AND it'll pay me $60 for just a few hours of work.

Sweet!

11%

So, part of updating my debt payoff totals for this month was figuring out the percentages of my payoffs. I have - in just two payments - paid off 11% of my remaining car loan.

That's much more motivating than 2% or less on the others. But even with 2%, I think "Wow, only 50 more updates to go at that rate!".

Kind of cool.

Part of my discussion with my brother was telling him how I'm educating myself by reading different books, writers and PF blogs, specifically Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey. As it turns out, one of his close friends also mentioned Dave Ramsey. So I explained Dave's methods with the baby steps, snowball method and that I've been listening to Dave's shows online at work while I work on projects. Much like it did for me, what I talked about struck a chord with my brother too. So he's going to listen to some of Dave's shows too and I'm going to bring him my copy of The Total Money Makeover.

It's nice and reassuring to have someone close and important to me walking alongside me in this journey.

So, right now I'm listening to Dave's show from yesterday. I have to admit that a small part of me gains solace from hearing some of the callers call in with much worse situations than I have. And I really enjoy Dave giving them No Bullshit answers.

Brother

I'm going to make a commitment to go work for my brother at least one night a week - Wednesdays. Hopefully twice a week, maybe on Sundays or Mondays?

But last night, I went over there and while he didn't have any work for me, we did start talking about money, our finances, how we're trying to fix our personal finances and then our family situation.

After some real heartfelt conversation for a few hours, we decided that we can work together and use each other as sounding boards for improving our financial health (which will improve our mental, emotional and physical health too!).

We're also going to sit down with a plan and talk with my mom about our lives and then about how she is doing. We want her to know that she doesn't have to be there for us, but that we can be there for her too.

After this, we plan to bring our younger sister into the planning. And then we're going to tackle our dad.

My father has been an alcoholic as far back as I can remember. Until just a few years ago, the four of us had moved away and left him because he would not stop drinking and all of the negative behavior that went with his drinking.

Three years ago, he finally decided to become sober. He moved here and we took him back into the family and he's been sober ever since then. He's found a full-time job and is - in some aspects - a much healthier person.

But my brother and I both agreed last night that while some aspects are okay, our father hasn't changed his mentality and respect level for the people in his lives. It's often like dealing with a beligerent 16-year-old asshole instead of the 60-year-old television Dad we wish we had (Bill Cosby would be my choice!).

He lives with my mom (who divorced him before he got sober) and pays her rent. But he's taken over her house with his hobbies and has created a pretty negative and depressing environment for our mom. We think it's reaching a peak for her mental health in dealing with this everyday. She basically hides up in her room - of her own house - with our family's dogs, rather than dealing with him every day.

So, that is our next step in the planning. My brother and I are going to sit down with our dad and explain that if he wants to stay part of this family, he's got to not only be sober, but he's got to treat people better and be an adult.

The good thing we kept saying to each other, my brother and I, is that overall - big picture - we're doing pretty well. We have good lives, even with all of our debt. And we have our family. And we have lots of blessings. And that this stuff we're dealing with now is going to be much easier than a lot of the crap we've dealt with before (brother also staying sober, his girlfriend getting sober, our parents divorcing, our family falling apart, bad relationships, etc.).

So, in that way, I'm feeling pretty positive about all of this.

I think also that once we get farther along in our sharing process, I will share this blog with my brother and possibly my mom. They know I have debt, but sharing the totals with them would be coming completely clean and help me accomplish part of my goal for 2008 of being honest with myself and others.

Updates

I paid all of my bills this week. Yeah!

I updated all of my sidebar totals with these payoffs.

I also went back in and updated my net worth. It was getting confused, since I tried to update a January with new info. So I changed the old one to December 2007 and updated the new one to January 2008. I also changed my asset total for cash in December to zero, so it more accurately reflected my positive cash on hand. Since I'm pretty much working with a zero budget, this made sense. I'm just including the positive balances in my checking account after all of my bills are paid for each month and then my various savings balances.

I'll also update my car value annually, so that number will stay consistent for 2008.

I am still waiting to find out what my retirement assets are within my job's retirement system. I believe we get some report in spring of each year. I couldn't find a way to access this online unfortunately.

I haven't started my 403b yet. I am going to focus on my emergency fund ($1000!) and then my debt payoff first. Depending on what happens with my job, I'll either wait for my next salary increase at my current job or if I do happen to get the new job I'm hoping for later in this year which hopefully gives me a salary increase as well, then I'll get that 403b started.

Day Off

I had a three-day weekend thanks to MLK day yesterday. It was very nice and relaxing, plus I accomplished a few things.

- I took my cat to the vet for the first time in a few years. He's in good health and has his two vaccines which are good for three years.

- I cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed and straighted up the house. Staying on top of the cat hair so the boyfriend's allergies don't kick in.

- I made stuffed shells with yummy (and lower-fat) cheesy and fresh spinach filling (not frozen) with sauce. Enough for us to eat all week. Plus I used up some old bananas and made banana bread, which turned out awesome.

- I worked out at home for the first in a I can't even remember. Boyfriend's basement is half-finished and provides a great workout space. So Mr. Cat and went downstairs to work out and modified some of my gym class workout to fit the basement. Which actually ended up being pretty tough. I did a similar warmup, even running some short down-and-backs (yeah for a long empty basement), jumproped (although I have to be careful to keep it low and not hit the ceiling) and then did four exercises counting down from 10 sets to 1 set of each in a series. Mr. Cat did chase me and swat me a few times, so we took a slight break to go get him a toy to chase around instead.

- I didn't get to my money day, but I'll be working on my finances later today.

- I also shoveled the whole driveway (my second time in a week!) and our sidewalks. We got a lot of snow yesterday, so I helped boyfriend a bit with having less overall snow this morning. I let him shovel our next door lady's house though (we help her out), because I did that the first time earlier this week.

- I keep reading about this tax rebate thing that Bush might give everyone. Mine would fund my emergency fund! I will not spend it, unless it doesn't come through for a few months in which case, I would pay off some credit card bills b/c my emergency fund will be already funded.

- Oh and I'd like to note that I went grocery shopping yesterday for the second time this weekend (which I know is bad and has become my little vice), but I stopped to see what Whole Foods was like because I had never been there. And even though it was gorgeous and healthy and full of samples and so much I would love to buy at it's rediculously overpriced prices, I walked out with absolutely nothing and went to my favorite and least expensive grocery store. A battle at a time, you know?

Late at work

Sitting here late at my office on Friday night because I need to wait 15 minutes before braving the cold for the next bus home.

Am going to a party of an alum from my sport tonight. And also going to see bull riding! My mom won two tickets to a local event on the radio, so free bull riding for me and my boyfriend. Good stuff.

Am very sore from workout last night. Really tough. Walking like a crippled old lady, but not as bad as I thought. Hopefully tomorrow is better and not worse.

Looking forward to this weekend to just sit home and get the new digs organized. I'm still living out of a laundry basket since I haven't made the boyfriend commit to a set-up for our now communcal living arrangements.

Also, I have to trim my cat's claws. They're getting long again and he's misbehaving for attention and going after boyfriend's nice furniture. Will have to set some money aside and look into declawing possibly if this keeps up, but he's really being a bad little guy. Last night I had to lock him in our basement (with all of his necessities) because he was waking us up by chewing on electrical cords and using the nearly new couch as his new personal scratching post. Can't take the chance that his bad behavior makes boyfriend want him out, so looking into options.

So happy it's Friday. Have a good weekend.