Budget 11/24 - 12/07

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, my job. I was just thinking back over the past two plus years since I started this blog and all the things that have happened.

Right around this time two years ago I was losing my job. And remember that time I wrote about my "rich" parents' Thanksgiving traditions and everyone yelled at me? (Good times)

But then I got a new job with a better salary, soon to be followed by a cost of living increase.

In the midst of all this, I got engaged, moved six months later, and married my excellent husband. We also saved a bunch of money for said wedding and honeymoon.

I paid off an old collections account that had haunted me for years....and I paid off one of my student loans!

Just two weeks ago my sister had a baby, the grandchild for my parents, and I became a proud aunt.

I have a lot to be thankful for, including this paycheck I will now spend:

Starting Balance - $1271

Roth I.R.A. - 500

Perkins Loan - 200

Credit Card - 200

Groceries - 75

Health - 45*

Gift - 100**

Misc. - 151

*This may be higher. I really won't know for a few more days but luckily there's my good old friend the miscellaneous category.

**We have a gift account with enough to buy presents for family but this money is allocated to buy my sweet hubby a present.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

Going private?

So I'm posting this in the hopes that one of my favorite Personal Finance bloggers sees it. She has commented a few times on my blog so I hope she subscribes. I've been reading her blog for years and it looks like she went to invitation only recently.

Anyway, if you think you are this person, please (pretty please!) send me an invite to your blog at salliesniece (at) gmail (dot) com.

And if you're not sure if you're that person or just a person who wants me to read your blog - feel free to send me an invite as well.

My Resolutions For 2009!

I spent a long time yesterday reading the resolutions from many of my blogging compadres and it made mine feel a tad inadequate. Beachgirl, for example, posted 109 resolutions for 2009. Wow. I'm not too keen on the word "resolution" and as I've explained, it's sort of hard to post financial resolutions/goals when so much could happen in the next several weeks that would impact these goals. But I decided to buck up and post some goals to keep my honest. Here they are:

Financial:

1. Save up a $2000 Emergency Fund
2. Eliminate Law School Loan (Current Balance = $1932)
   
3. Save up a Christmas Fund of $300.
4. Save $1000 for Special Event* in 2010.
5. Continue to save 10% of my salary for retirement.**
6. Pay off all short term debt - don't acquire new debt.
   

Last year started out disastrously (payday loans, overdraft fees, etc.). Then I started the blog, started budgeting, started paying Aunt Sallie and it's been pretty much just keeping my head above water since then. In 2009 I need to step it up and achieve some fiscal responsibility. The Emergency Fund is of course the most important and I don't care if I fail at everything else if I can get this one goal accomplished. Ideally, I should be saving $167 each month in order to reach this goal. This probably won't happen until at least February so don't hold your breath.

Second, my law school in an act of extreme benevolence decided to give me a $2000 loan in my third year of school. For this they are charging me a whopping 8% interest. If I stick to their payment plan of $40 a month, I will only reduce this debt by $72. Yes, you read that right friends. This loan has got to go bye bye. Starting immediately I will increase my payment to $54 a month, which would put me on track to pay the entire balance in 3 years and 5 months (instead of 8 years) and will throw any additional money (I'm looking at you, Extra Paycheck) in order to achieve this goal.

Christmas didn't bankrupt me this year, yay! But it still wasn't planned for in advance and I incurred even more debt ($60) to Boyfriend for our joint gifts. Next year I will be prepared by saving a mere $25 a month.

Special Event* to be named later though you may be able to guess the nature of this event. Sigh. Why did I have to fall in love? Not gonna start this goal until after the move. If I move in May as planned, I would need to save $142 a month.

There's an asterisk next to my goal of saving 10% for retirement since I am currently only voluntarily saving 7% of my salary and the other 3% is saved for me by my pension. If I lose my job, I will roll over this money to a Roth IRA. If I stay a public employee it will stay as is. If I join the private sector I may decide something else entirely.

And lastly, I will pay off all my Short Term Debt (why, oh why did I choose that name for this category?) in 2009. This includes Boyfriend (who has to give me a full accurate accounting please), overdue water ($300), overdue utilities ($125), Friend C ($60), and Capital One ($400). Getting rid of these debts will let me breathe a little easier ($105 in regular payments gone) and focus on the rest of my goals. Also Nice Collection Agency will be paid in full early into 2010 (currently paying $125).

And onto personal goals, which I'm fairly excited to write about:

1. Read 109 books
2. Get wisdom teeth extracted
3. Simplify my life
4. Move!
5. Be a better friend
6. Learn how to use eye liner

You read that right, I've resolved to read 109 books in 2009. In fact, I am happy to announce that I have created a new blog solely devoted to books. Check it out! I will be posting under my alter ego, Reading Diva. The blog will have a frugal theme as well - I will not spend money acquiring new books. This is actually a resolution I made several years ago when I realized how much money I was spending on books. I'm excited to have a new topic to write about since I don't always have something personal finance related to say and entries saying "hi, I'm still broke" may get a little boring.

And sadly, yes, I will enter my 29th year of life without being able to use eye liner. I'm not a big makeup person to begin with but this is something I need to learn!

I'll have to write separate posts on "simplifying my life" and moving but here they are, my ambitious and maybe slightly crazy 2009 goals. Wish me luck! Now I've got a lot of reading to do.

Happy New Year!

I didn't even realize that I had tomorrow off from work (gotta love the Government) so my New Year's has been very happy thus far. Boyfriend and I hosted an awesome party last night featuring the world's biggest Turkey:

Look at that beauty. We will have leftovers well into 2009 - and that's after feeding 8 people. A great night was had...with lots of Rock Band, Dick Clark and overall fun.

I spent a lot of time today thinking of resolutions and will be posting a big announcement tomorrow during my day off. The rest of tonight will be devoted to Boyfriend and Bowl games (lovely).

In blogging news, I have just been featured on FiLife, which is pretty rad. One of my resolutions this year should be reaching a larger audience though my group of 54 subscribers and an average daily readership of 100+ has been great company thus far. I'm a glass-half-full kind gal and although I'm a little worried about how some career changes will play out in the next several months, I'm confident that 2009 will be a good year. Or it could be a complete train wreck, who knows, keep reading!

In the meantime, yummy leftovers...

Help Forest on Finance Propose!

Hey everyone, I'm back from Thanksgiving! Hope you all had excellent holidays and get ready for a whopper of a post detailing mine.

But in the meantime, help fellow PF blogger Forest on Finance propose to his girlfriend, Bird.

I'm new to his blog so I don't know how he managed to have a personal finance blog without his girlfriend knowing about it (yikes!) but he has put up some questions to his readers about ring shopping.

He's not really sure what she likes but doesn't want to spoil the surprise by taking her ring shopping. Head on over to this post and tell him your suggestions!

And to avoid this same problem happening to Boyfriend, here's a huge hint about what kind of ring I like (haha).

Six Months of Blogging!

Hey guess what? It's been six months since I started this blog!! Well the official half birthday was yesterday but I reserve Sunday for football, cooking and hanging out with my Boyfriend. But I will now take this time to reflect on the past six months.

On May 16, I revealed that I was lousy with money, needed to do something about it and own up to the $167,000,000 in student loans I had. Did you catch that decimal error? I didn't at first but luckily one of you did. Sometimes it feels like I have millions of dollars in student loans but in reality it's only about $136,000.

I set out some goals for myself that day and here they are:

1. Survive the next 8 days on $157.

Ha! I regularly budget myself way less than that much pocket money to last an entire 14 day period.

2. Pay off "short-term" debt - two payday loans totaling about $400; loans from friends and family totaling $460 ; pay overdue bills - utilities around $400, cable around $200.

On June 30, I finally paid off the last of my payday loans - yikes. Not something I ever ever want to have to turn to again. I also paid back Friend A, to whom I owed $200. I've paid back Boyfriend most of the money I borrowed from him and am working on paying the rest back. I worked out a Payment Agreement with my utility company. As for cable, I'm not sure if I owe them anything but it's not a bad idea to find out.

3. Develop a working budget.

I make a budget for every payday. Technically it's more of a Spending Plan then a Budget but I call it a Budget and it's working for me so far.

4. Start paying as much of my student loans as possible.

I'm working on it. I currently pay $666 in student loans a month. Yes you read that right. It's going to go up to $706 soon. My Dad pays $305 on my behalf. That's about all I can bear right now. I wasn't paying them at all prior to starting this blog so that's been a huge change.

5. Save up an Emergency Fund of $1000.

I'm working on it. Saving money is kinda hard when you are on a tight budget. I created an Emergency Fund but I linked it to my Checking Account because the emergency I'm most hoping to avoid is getting hit with overdraft fees, something that I know all too well about.

6. Contribute to my Roth IRA.

Fail. Well I changed my mind on this one and decided to contribute instead to my 457 Retirement Plan. I'm putting 7% of my pre-tax income in there (so far I've contributed about $1000) and currently have about $769 remaining. It's not much compared to the amount the average 28 year old has saved for retirement but you gotta start somewhere.

Over the past six months of budgeting and blogging I've learned a lot about personal finance and also my relationship with money. I've also reached some personal milestones in large part due to this new knowledge:

• I quit smoking!!! You need a heck of a lot less pocket money when you are not spending $7 a day on something that will kill you. I am unbelievably proud of this accomplishment as are all my friends and family (and many readers too!).


• I quit the gym. Okay so I know this isn't something I should be proud of since I think working out is really important but it just represents the fact that you should stop paying for things you don't need, aka if you never go to the gym, stop paying $46 a month for it!


• I reduced my cell phone bill by about $30!


• I settled an old debt with a collection agency. Another 15 months of paying $125 a month and I will finally have that friggen old credit card out of my life forever!


• I stopped taking regular handouts from my parents! This is a huge step on my road to independence.

So it's taken a while and I admit I'm still behind the curve of most fiscally fit 28 year olds but no one ever said it would be easy paying for all my money mistakes. Hopefully the next six months will produce some results as well, most notably keeping my job and building up an Emergency Fund.

As far as the blog goes, it's no masterpiece and there are lots of design bugs I haven't taken the time to fix. I need to update my blogroll and find new ways to attract revenue but I have made $60 in ads which is pretty cool. I have 54 subscribers (thanks!) and average about 100 readers per day (wow!). I know I should be participating in more carnivals but alas I never remember to sign up. I have lots of ideas for future content (recipes and book reviews to name a few) so if you've enjoyed the past six months then stay tuned.

Happy Carnival Day!

Today is a Munday. Compounded by the fact that I'm stressed about my Sister's wedding on Saturday, yikes! But I can direct you to some other interesting reads today:

First, Everyday Finance hosted the Carnival on Personal Finance and included my post, "Do I Need to Get Married to Get a Food Mixer?" I also was happy to read another article included in the carnival by Not The Jetset - how they were able to buy an HDTV by selling unwanted items in their house.

Also out there today is an article about a married couple younger than me who are on their way to being "Millionaires in the Making." La de da, good for them - they seem really boring and financially foolish if you ask me (but who am I to judge?).

And finally, another look at an elusive kitchen stand mixer I will never own as a single female:

Sigh.

Thanks for Stopping By - Check Out My Friends!

While I was away yesterday at a fun and free outing arranged by Boyfriend's company, 100 readers visited my humble blog. Yay! It makes me happy to know that others are joining me on this mission to beat back the Student Loan giants and live on a budget as a single woman. One reader even quit smoking after reading my posts about the process, double yay! In the last couple of months I've become very interested in reading other personal finance blogs and since I just started using a Google Reader I can keep up to date on all my virtual "friends" out there.

A lot of other bloggers acknowledge their top referrers every month and I haven't done that yet because I'm not so sure how to but I was nominated for an award by Beach Girl so I decided it was a good time to nominate other bloggers for an award based on my very biased method of seeing who links to my site! So, according to Google Analytics, here are my top referrers of all time (and a short review of their blog):

1. Chicky Finance - Chicky's blog is great. She only learned English 6 years ago (wow) and now she's learning about paying off credit card debt and living on a budget in ritzy Orange County, CA.

2. My Debt Blog - Jim and his wife have just as much student loan debt on top of a mortgage and credit card debt, yikes! He's smart and motivated about dealing with their mountain of debt and offers some advice to others.

3. Beach Girl's Budget Blog - Beach Girl realized a few months ago she wants to go to law school and (unlike me) she's saving up for it! Check out her blog and be jealous at all of her wisdom like I am. (She also nominated me so I guess technically I can't nominate her again. I'm not sure of the rules).

4. Always the Planner - a single NYC gal with lots of student loan debt like me who loves to travel.

5. Savings Not Shoes - an American girl in London - lucky - she's figuring out how to live abroad on a budget, travel and pay back student loans.

6. Sick of Being Poor - another single gal, Sick of Being Poor wants to pay off her debt and have a secure financial future as a Special Education teacher.

7. Escape Brooklyn - Escape Brooklyn is a tale of a 30 something married gal who wants to get out of Brooklyn and live someplace cooler (and more affordable). Don't tell Mayor Bloomberg but she may inspire a mass exodus!

8. Shtinkykat's PF Blog - I just found her today but I love the cute kitty in her header, check her out!

9. Athena Loves Fashion - she just caught on to personal finance after reading some blogs and realizing she was wasting her money, welcome!

10. Bright Pennies - Jill is learning to manage her money and pay off her debt.

Okay, so those are the nominees. Here are the rules:

The nine of you (excluding Beachgirl for whom it would be redundant) are supposed to do the following:

1. Put the logo (below) on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.
4. Add links to these blogs on your blog.- Don't forget this step. This is great free advertising!
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

So happy Friday to my winners and everyone else out there who may stop by!

It's Carnival Time!

I am happy to report that my post on Saving Money at the Movies was picked for The Carnival on Personal Finance over at Squawkfox. I guess some people weren't exactly thrilled that I advocated sneaking into a second movie, but hey, it's just an idea. Anyway, check out the carnival and find some cool and helpful articles (not about stealing).

I love Carnivals because it introduces me to new blogs and bloggers. I've recently started using a Google Reader so now I can read posts more efficiently. Today I found a few more blogs to add to my reader! Here are some of my favorite posts from the Carnival:

• The Money Answer Guy is a college student who lives on just $600 a month. I liked this post because he budgets money every month to buy flowers for his financee. Aww.
• If you like controversial topics, then head over to Broke Grad Student who declares he never gives money to homeless people. That's just mean, but let him explain it to you. In my experience, I know what it's like to get jaded by seeing the same beggars time after time but generally if I have a buck to spare I give it away. When I lived in a bigger city I would buy a burger for one homeless man on my street. It is hard when you see so many needy people on a daily basis and know you can't help them all but I don't think I would ever draw a line in the sand like he has.
• Jennifer at Saving Advice writes What Atari Taught Me About Personal Finance. I'm a little too young for Atari but I do remember that our Nintendo NES games growing up were a special treat only to be given on birthdays and holidays and my siblings and I had to share them.

Reading new articles in a perfect way to usher in the work week. Enjoy!

Boyfriend Found My Blog!!!

Okay, well Boyfriend has officially visited the blog. It's not like it was a secret. I even emailed him the URL a while back and he claimed he didn't get it and then we kind of had an unspoken agreement that he was too busy to read it, etc. and besides, he thought he knew everything. So I kept blogging.

But then on Wednesday, this conversation happened:

me: but guess who's blog was featured on msn today?
Boyfriend: who's blog?
me: mine!!!
Boyfriend: no shit
me: yeah i mean not the tv show but a blog they run i got a lot of new readers because of it
Boyfriend: cool nice job!
me: thanks! :) i didn't even know until someone emailed me directly
Boyfriend: where's the article?
me: umm well you may not want to read it as it doesn't exactly depict me in the best of lights
Boyfriend: uhoh
me: unless you want to
i don't know, it's honest, it's just like a summary of my blog thus far
Boyfriend: it's up to you
me: how bout you read it in a few months when i make even more progress? but just know that yours truly was in the news!
Boyfriend: k
me: <3>
Boyfriend:pretty cool
me: yeah i thought so

I was still pretty happy about being featured on MSN's Smart Spending blog and the nice comments I have received as a result (even the not-so-nice ones gave me a sort of push to keep going).

So despite pledging that he would not go look for the blog, curiosity got the better of Boyfriend and he revealed to me that he found it. And he loves it! He read every post and thinks I should definitely keep at it. :-)

I told him I wouldn't censor anything just because he may or may not be reading (see for example, the next post where I reveal that I spent Boyfriend's portion of my reimursement check on my Sprint bill). But I'm happy to have one more reader. Welcome!

Hello New Readers!

Hello, I want to welcome all new readers who may have found my page after I was profiled on MSN's Smart Spending blog (gasp!). I am very flattered to have been mentioned on this blog and hope the new readers can see past the (quite shocking I admit) amount of debt I have accrued and see some positive things about my approach to money, especially in the past couple of months since I have started blogging about my finances. But first a little about me and money:

• I don't have a car and thus no car payments or insurance. I am lucky enough to walk to work.
• I HAVE taken money from my parents, most recently on my Sister's bachelorette trip, but other than that it has been several months since I have received anything. Trust me when I say that this money does not come Guilt-Free.
• I do smoke and I know it's expensive and bad for me. I am trying to quit.
• I do have a plan for the future and have been blogging about it. As the blog notes, I'm a "work in progress" but as soon as I clear the rest of my short term debt (see sidebar) I am going to unveil my Master Budget that will include the creation of an Emergency Fund and spending limits for each category of spending.

Anyway, I appreciate you stopping by and feel free to ask me any questions you like!