DH Got a New Job!

I'm so proud of my own prince today. After months of waiting today I am happy to announce DH accepted an offer for a new and exciting job!

His salary will increase by over 20%! And they're giving him $8,000 in company stock, three weeks of vacation a year and a guaranteed annual bonus worth 12% of his salary. They also match 7.5% of his 401k contributions. It's almost too good to be true!

He starts in two weeks!!

Also I'll just throw this in here as well. We recently combined finances. It was long overdue to be honest and it makes things a lot simpler. Hopefully I can post our new budget soon. I'm going to have to get used to budgeting monthly. Luckily just as we started doing this our budget suddenly got bigger thanks to the new job. We're motivated to working together as a couple to pay off debt and save for our future.

Net Worth March 2011

March is gone and I'm $1100 richer (less poor?). My current networth is -$106,073.

Here's the breakdown:

Cash: I'm keeping this the same because all of the cash I have right now is earmarked for debt payoff.

Retirement: My 457 account balance stands at $9,551. I have approximately $5459 in my pension (refundable until vested). And finally I have contributed $1000 in my Roth I.R.A. and for some reason that makes sense when my financial advisor explains it, it's only in a Money Market account now. This makes for a grand total of $16,010 saved for retirement.

Student Loans: These are at the LOWEST THEY'VE EVER BEEN at a whopping $120,793!

Credit Card: Not much progress yet as we're scrambling to pay off joint debts first.

My husband and I talked about our debt payoff progress some this week and we've decided to join accounts. I know this is definitely the right move but I'm still a little nervous to see how it's going to work out. We're a team now so we should act as one financially. I will probably continue to post "my" networth on the blog though just because I like to track it.

Where it Went 2/03 - 2/16

Payday! My two (and sometimes three!) favorite days of the month.

I may have some exciting news soon -or rather I do have news but I don't know how exciting it is yet - about bringing in some extra money next month. Stay tuned!

And now, where my money has gone for the past two weeks. A bit of a mea culpa here is that not buying groceries during this entire budgeting period - working late, snow, etc., has left both my fiance and I spending too much money on lunch at work.

Bad bad! I thought I had learned my lesson to brown bag it. Must try harder.

So here's how I did:

Budgeted/Actual

Wedding Savings - 500/500

Credit Card - 125/125

Sallie Mae - 407/407

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Nice Collection Agency - 125/125

Groceries - 75/0

Sprint - 78/0*

Health - 60/40

Misc. - 110/220

*I just paid this today so I will include this amount in the next budgeting period.

So yes my spending wasn't awesome but because of my federal tax refund I was able to give a nice boost to the wedding savings account. Just as a preview, my fiance and I have decided that after the wedding I will continue to save money in this account as general savings for us - to help grow our emergency fund, save for our next car, house, etc.

Moving!

It seems like only yesterday that we moved my fiance into his (our) condo but actually it has been 10 whole months. Now it is finally my turn to move in officially. While his move involved trucks and moving men and backbreaking work, mine has been relatively low key so far. That doesn't mean we're not exhausted beyond belief after sorting through five years of stuff, most of it so important I haven't felt the need to move it over with me during the last ten months.

We made two trips to Goodwill to donate lots of unneccesary clothing and household items. Unfortunately they do not accept furniture so I've been struggling to get rid of the last of mine. We kept a few pieces, gave away a few, and turned in a t.v. and computer monitor to Best Buy where I had to pay $10 (for the computer monitor) but got a $10 gift certificate in return.

The journey is finally almost over. Just have to get rid of a few more things and have one final meeting with my landlord (cross you fingers for me). Then we can begin the new journey of finally living together (for real!) as an engaged couple. I'm excited to start the next chapter of our lives and also excited to no longer be paying rent!

Where it Went 5/27 - 6/9

Here I am! Work isn't SO sucky today but it's busy. So here's a quick little report on where my money went the past two weeks compared to the budget I laid out for it:

Budgeted/Actual
Rent - 725/725
Perkins Loan - 93/93
School Loan - 54/54
Utilities - 45.90/45.90
Sprint - 100/100
Capital One - 210/211
Laptop - 70/75
Groceries - 100/?
Misc. - 75/140
Fiance - 432/400

Big news is of course, I paid off my "Boyfriend Debt!!!" Now I finally don't owe my fiance any more money and all of our shared money will be going towards the wedding account. More on that to come!

I'm still trying to figure out what the heck is going on with my apartment lease but at the very very worst I only have one more rent payment to make.

Stay tuned in a few for the new budget!

Budget 5/27 - 6/9

Time for a budget. Some bad news, some good news and some great news!

First the great news, I got my vacation compensation finally! Only 9 weeks after I stopped working at my last job they decided to finally give me my unspent vacation money back! Before taxes it totalled $1,342!!! But after taxes I got a little less than $700 back. Screw you tax man! Also I contributed more than usual this pay period to my 357 retirement plan (good news I suppose).

Other good news, my utility bill stands at a measly $45, the lowest I ever remember seeing it and a far cry from my sad sad days of my payment agreement. It may be one of the last payments I ever make on my own to the utility company as I have finally told my landlord I am moving out! There's still a little bit of uncertainty as to whether I have to pay for July's rent but I am hoping the answer is no and this budget will also see my last rent payment ever!

Now the bad news. First we got stuck in traffic on Mother's Day and I decided to use the web on my old cell phone. Bad idea! Despite the pains I endured to make sure I was on the best cell phone plan for me, I had failed to realize that unlimited texting did not unclude any web access. So I racked up $35 in charges in one day. But the worse news is that I apparently have managed to let my credit card escape the deep dark confines of my wallet and get used for non-emergencies such as sneakers and wine. The damage: $210! So soon after I got my balance down to zero!

Anyway so here's the new budget in which I will account for the above and allocate my vacation earnings accordingly:

Starting Balance = $1904

Rent (last one?) - 725

Perkins Loan - 93

School Loan - 54

Utilities - 45.90

Sprint - 100

Capital One - 210

Laptop - 70

Groceries - 100

Misc. - 75

Fiance* - 432

I currently owe my fiance $288 in old debt plus $205 for a festival ticket. With the money I give him I will almost erase these debts AND he will filter some of the money into the wedding account! Once I move out officially I will be able to pool all my additional money into this account! I seriously can't wait for this day!

My New Salary is....

$47,500, an increase of $3900 per year over my current salary!!! Hey it's not much considering I have to work longer hours and some weekends now, but I'll take it gladly thankyouverymuch.

According to the handy paycheck calculator I used online, I will be netting $128 more a paycheck, for a total of $256 a month (more in the glorious three paycheck months like this coming April). That takes into account my pension (3% of my salary) and my continued participation in my 457 retirement plan (7% of my salary).

The fiance and I were talking last night trying to figure out the strategy for my newfound wealth. There's the wedding to think about. The student loans. Retirement. Emergency fund. Cash savings. New professional clothes. Yikes, so many things are happening at once!

We need to save about $5000 by this summer in order to pay some deposits. Photographer. Band. I think that's about it for now. My folks will pay the reception venue deposit. We opened an account in his name (that I'll have access to) in order to merge these savings.

Oh and did I mention I still have to move? Finding a new tenant for my apartment is currently the biggest wrench in our savings plan but hopefully that will happen soon. Worst case scenario I continue to pay rent for the remaining 4 months of my lease.

I'm also going to be getting a check in about a month or two cashing out my unused vacation time (now at about 54 hours = $800). I think I am going to lump that all into our Wedding Savings.

Stay tuned for more progress bars - though I am so enjoying seeing them mostly completed for the time being.

Where it Went 02/18 - 03/03

Another payday and I'm more than a little worried that there won't be many more. It's less than a month to the end of my contract. My contacts in the know tell me not to worry..but how can you not?

With that in mind I have been working hard to pay off all my short term debt so I could move out of my apartment and greatly reduce my monthly expenses.

Here's how the budget went for the last two weeks compared to the budget I set. I got a tax refund of $141 so I had a little more money to work with than I expected.

Budgeted/Actual

Rent - 725/725
Sprint - 60/59
Utilities - 150/133
School Loan - 54/54
Groceries - 50/0?
Clothes - 50/40
Overdue Water - 0/100
Misc. - 51/90

My spending was a little sketchy since we were out of town for a weeklong mini-crisis. I spent a bunch on take out and lunches while my fiance was out of town as well. No biggie but I gotta remember to get a bunch of groceries before he goes away next time since shopping can be a pain without a car.

My water debt is at a big fat zero now, yay!

Paid off my water debt!

As I mentioned before, my fiance agreed to give me some money towards the overdue water money that I owed my landlord. We talked about it and decided it was best to just nip it in the bud ASAP so I can finally ditch my apartment and move in to his place officially.

He kicked in $100 and I paid the remaining $100 so I am now water debt free!

I'm happy to be one step closer to getting rid of my apartment. My parents - who orginally weren't too crazy about premartial cohabitation - even told me to hurry up and get outta my expensive lease.

My overdue utilities are so close to being paid off as well - only $80 left on the payment agreement! In fact, now is a good time to review all of my "short term debt" that I've been working on since establishing the blog in May '08.

Friend A - $200 - paid in full on May 12, 2008

"Boyfriend" - I still owe him (now my fiance) about $300 and he's been lenient on repayment terms but still wants his money back eventually. He says paying him back will keep me honest. Do you agree readers?

Friend C - $60 - I finally got her address and will be sending her the money I owe her in the next pay period. I know this debt bothers a lot of my readers - and me too.

Overdue Utilities - according to my payment agreement I only have about $80 left. Will knock this out in the next pay period and perhaps with my fiance's assistance.

Mom Debt - $100 paid off in August.

So that's all for now. I wish I had more news on my job situation but everything is still up in the air. Stay tuned for wedding planning news!

When are you moving to the suburbs?

My ex-boyfriend stopped by my office yesterday. That may sound odd but we are friendly and work in the same industry so I see him from time to time. I enjoyed talking to him - I'm way too old to hold romantic grudges - but it seems despite former intimacies he clearly has no idea about my life goals. Srlsy? I may have to devote a couple of posts to the things he got wrong, but here's the first one.

In talking about real estate I mentioned to him (let's call him X) that if my husband-to-be and I ever decide to move, the houses in one of our potential neighborhoods, X's current neighborhood, all seem to have only 1.5 bathrooms at the most. Those in our hypothetical price range, that is.

X was confused. He said "well you guys shouldn't move there, you're going to move to the suburbs, right?" Hello? Have you met me? I loathe the suburbs!

This isn't the first time people have made this assumption. People think that just because my fiancee bought a condo downtown that this purchase was cheaper than a house or just a "temporary" home. They think our priorities will change once we are married and god forbid start reproducing. Wrong. We LOVE the condo life, we love the downtown, having a sustainable walkable lifestyle, and hope to stay in this immediate area for the foreseeable future.

And, just to clear things up. Fiancee's condo cost just a little over $150k, an amount that would pay for a modest home in the suburbs. He didn't buy such a house because that's not the life we want. Mowing the lawn? Commuting to work? Driving everywhere? Nope, not for us.

As for children, I would love to raise kids in a diverse urban area where we can go to museums, the library, the park, without having to get in the car. Every time I go for a walk in our city I'll run into friends, co-workers, neighbors. I am friendly with shopkeepers and all the people with cute dogs. I don't want my kids to be sheltered!

Besides, why spend money "upgrading" to the suburbs when the money we would pay in increased mortgage costs, increased taxes, increased commuting costs, house upkeep, etc. could go towards our other goals: early retirement, world travel, college savings for the little ones?

Everyone says my priorities will change. But you've heard it here first, we're staying put as long as we can!

Lake Tahoe On A Budget

Haha, you can't go to Lake Tahoe on a budget. Well we budgeted for it in advance by way of the Vacation Fund. And we were extremely lucky to have most of our expenses paid for my my husband-to-be's travel rewards, but still Tahoe stole our money. Here's how:

Flight - paid with points

Airport lunch - $48*

Two sodas at transfer airport - $6!

Car rental - ? I think it was $140

Hotel - paid with points

Dinner at the bar of the hotel - $40

Heavenly lift ticket (me) - $82

Ski rental (me) - $36

Heavenly lift ticket/ski rental and all-day lesson (him) - $160

Drinks and lunch on the mountain (me) - $44!

Fancy dinner where we got engaged - $200+ (I had elk. He had buffalo. It was amazing!)

Dog sledding! - $95 each

Cable car ride up the mountain at Squaw Valley - $9 each!**

*Though I decided not to save up any of my "own" money for the trip, my parents gave me $100. And I spent $88 on vacation (and $9 filing my taxes.) The items I paid for were our lunch at the airport and my lunch on the mountain.

**We got lucky at Squaw Valley. The cable car ride was supposed to cost $22 each but we bought a dinner package and got most of our money back when it turned out the restaurant wasn't open. So we spent several hours hanging out on top of the mountain for pretty cheap.

We ate all the rest of our meals in the hotel honors lounge where they give the VIPs free food. It felt good to hang with the VIPs and enjoy free eats and amazing views.

All and all it was an amazing place and I of course will always remember the trip for the moment in which a certain someone asked me to marry him.

BTW, if you ever have a chance to go dog sledding, do it! So much fun!

Where It Went 1/21 - 2/03

Payday, marvelous payday. I still have a job. I have a husband-to-be. Life is good. Here's where my money went over the past two weeks, compared to the budget I laid out for it.

[Note that this doesn't inclue ANY vacation spending in Lake Tahoe, even though I, in fact, spent $88 while I was away. But this spending was induced by the fact that my parents sent me $100 for the trip. I don't feel guilty about this - they wanted me to drink those expensive apre ski beers, correct? More about my trip to come soon hopefully!]

Budgeted/Actual

Dentist - 25/25
Rent - 725/725
Water - 50/100*
Sprint - 64/64.15
Utilities - 156/151.63
School Loan - 54/54
Groceries - 0/20*
Misc. - 65/48*

*These numbers are a little confusing to calculate. I did pay $100 towards my water debt instead of just $50. That was due to the fact that my husband-to-be gave me $50 towards the shared goal of getting me out of my apartment. I then took the $50 he gave me and used $20 of it on groceries and the other $30 on miscellaneous things which skews the numbers a bit.

Thinking About The Wedding...

I have been engaged for less than a week and already I am intimidated with wedding planning. It's funny because Boyfriend and I already planned our entire hypothetical wedding months ago (before the engagement) and now I am nervous about putting that plan into action....for fear that the offbeat venue won't be available or that our families wouldn't want to travel to our city.

So far our families have been very excited about anything wedding-related. I still feel like it's a little premature to plan something that won't take place for over a year and a half - even though just about everyone else in the wedding industry thinks differently. I guess I'm also still feeling insecure about my job and that's making it hard to think about bouquets and the color of table linens.

I have been doing a lot of research into wedding planning and have decided to prioritize what's important to us for The Big Day since that will guide how we structure our budget. Here's my preliminary list in order of importance:

1. Boyfriend is there
2. Good food
3. Live band
4. Great photographer
   
5. Outdoor cocktail hour

And somewhere at the bottom of the list is "inviting everyone and their mom" as well as things like cake, limousines, bridesmaid dresses, and favors. I would say honeymoon would be at the top of the list but hopefully we can swing that on travel rewards.

If we follow the business model laid out by my parents for my sister's wedding, then Boyfriend and I are on the hook for the band, invitations, flowers, my dress and photography. My estimated budget for these items are as follows:

Band - $1200
Invites - $200
Flowers - $800
My dress - no more than $500
Photography - $2500

Thus, we only need to save up about $5k in the next 1.5 years to have the wedding of our dreams, assuming Mom and Dad pay for the caterer and the church. If not, we're gonna invite everyone to a pig roast in someone's backyard and that will be that.

At the end of the day, while I suspect I will enjoy many aspects of wedding planning, I'm just excited to be spending the rest of my life with Boyfriend!

We Got Engaged!!!!

I'm back from a wonderful, magical, romantic trip to Lake Tahoe and have some excellent news to report:

Boyfriend asked me to marry him and I said yes!

Even though I was fairly certain this moment was coming soon as we had talked and talked about marriage and the future, it was still such an overwhelming feeling to have him ask me to marry him. I'm not usually into traditional gender roles so much but having him get down on one knee...aww gosh.

I called my parents right away (1:30 a.m. their time!) and they were very excited! Now friends of theirs are already chomping at the bit to hear wedding plans. Sigh. Can't we just enjoy this time for a while? Freeze this period so the actual hard part of wedding planning doesn't have to happen right-this-minute?

We have tentatively talked about getting hitched in July of 2010. Part of me wanted to just do it in Nevada where all you needed was $50 and photo i.d. but alas Boyfriend nixed that plan. I guess I have to think of a new name for him on the blog, yikes!

Stay tuned for more details of our trip!

Birthday And Boyfriend Bonus

Happy Birthday to me! I'm 29! My parents gave me $100! And the news gets even better because Boyfriend also found out he got a $2000 work bonus. Woo-hoo! It comes out to $1400 after taxes and Boyfriend in his extreme benevolence has decided to use the funds to pay for our upcoming Tahoe vacation! And the money that's left over we would save for our Orlando vacation too - now set for February!

We are very fortunate that Boyfriend has been able to accumulate so many frequent flier points and hotel rewards. And even more fortunate that now we have a giant wad of cash to spend on our trips. Thankfully, despite the fact that most companies are cutting back, Boyfriend's business is booming. All these perks don't come without a price of course. When I first met Boyfriend and he explained that he would be traveling for large extent of time I was a little worried. But we've made it work. So I consider it our reward for toughing it out that we get to take a couple of vacations.

In light of the good news, we've decided I would devote the $100 I had allocated towards our trip to my Emergency Fund. $126 down, $1874 to go!

With the money my parents gave me I'm going to look for a new pair of ski pants (hopefully on sale). I can't wait for my first experience skiing out West!

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).

Budget 10/29 - 11/12

I got my reimbursement back from my work trip! $65 - of which $7 was spent on lunch (don't kill me, we have no food at home and it's cold out). The remaining $58 will be folded into my bi-monthly budgeting as follows:

Starting Balance = 1195 (1134 + 58 + 3)

Savings - 50
Rent - 725
Water - 50
Sprint - 65
Utilities - 85 ($40 towards Payment Agreement)
Capital One - 20
Boyfriend - 50
Hobby - 35
Groceries - 50
Misc. - 65

As I recently learned from Landlord, I owe four years of back water bills to the tune of $400. I wanted to pay $100 a month towards this new annoying debt but alas I can't afford to right now.

Sprint's initial bill of $48 must have been a teaser to entice me to switch plans because now it's up to $65 but it is at least marginally cheaper than before.

Utility debt and Boyfriend debt are tied at $245 a piece. I want to pay off Boyfriend by Christmas and assuage myself of Bad Girlfriend Guilt. I also need to get him a small anniversary gift as we are coming up on our first anniversary, yay!!!

We Need a Grocery Budget!!!

I am taking a break from reporting about the out-of-town wedding I attended to discuss a matter that has become of upmost important to me: food.

I've always loved food, don't get me wrong. And I have already learned my lesson about the perils of buying lunch at work. But ever since I started dating Boyfriend I have become alarmingly domesticated. I've been cooking! And not just pasta or scrambled eggs but actual meals. Truth be told before he came around for dinner I mostly ate:

• Canned soup
• Ramen noodles
• Frozen dinners
• Frozen ravioli
• Chef Boyardee ravioli
• Pasta, lots and lots of pasta
• Mac and cheese out of a box
• Hot dogs
• PB & J

In my defense, my Mother is not a great cook and didn't really teach me anything about cooking. At all. So I went straight from her house to college where I had unlimited access to the dining halls. No kidding. They changed our meal plans to unlimited in my junior year. Eat whenever you want! Oh to be a student again....

After college I lived at home and ate Mom's cooking again before finally heading back to law school where I lived in a dorm that had a kitchen but I didn't have time to cook so I survived on tomato soup and hot dogs. Seriously. That's all I ate for one year. But I aced Contracts!

My second year of law school I moved into my first apartment! Independence! A kitchen of my very own. A whole set of used cookware handed down to me with no instructions. I expanded my horizons to the occasional omlette but mostly I stuck to that list above. I've now lived in that apartment for four years and the most elaborate meal I've made there is chilli.

Then I met Boyfriend! We courted - during which time I discover his culinary habits are even worse than mine. Instead of making it a Mac n Cheese night he orders in. Every night! I reaped the benefits of this habit at first. Don't get me wrong. When you're first dating a great guy and he wants to order you a baked ziti dinner for delivery so you have time to, um, watch a movie, you go for it.

Then things really got hot....in the kitchen. It started with football season of course. I made for my new Boyfriend the only thing I'd ever really learned how to make: chilli. It took me all day in the Crock Pot but we loved it. A tradition was formed. We started going to the grocery store together and planning meals. We were a couple who cooked for each other. Life was good.

I started taking pictures of the meals I made to email to my Mom to prove that yes I do know how to make pork chops.

Yum, I made this shrimp stir fry a couple of weeks ago. And while yes it's cheaper than going to a restaurant the items you see above were really damned expensive. The shrimp was reasonably priced but when you add in the baby corn plus the scallions plus the snow peas et. al it was probably about a $30 meal. Obviously we can't afford to eat something like that every night.

Boyfriend and I shop for food for his condo together and I want to start chipping in more as I've been kind of lax with my grocery money contributions the past couple of trips. I've been reading a lot about stockpiling staples when they are on sale and I think it's a great idea. However on my limited budget I can't exactly buy much of anything in bulk. Browsing the weekly grocery store flyer I noticed that bread crumbs are 10 for $10. I think that sounds like a fabulous deal. I ain't so sure where we have the room for 10 boxes of bread crumbs though. Oh wait, how about my Really Expensive Storage Facility around the corner?

I think we need to do a little more meal planning so that we can effectively set our grocery budget. We always buy things on sale except for lunch meat and beer but we need to stock up on more of the basics....especially because, guess what, it's snowing in October!! So stay tuned for more on my culinary adventures.

Boyfriend Got a Raise!

What a happy Friday it is indeed! Boyfriend has been waiting to hear about a raise for a while now from his company and it finally came through! I didn't ask him if I could post it (so I won't) but I will tell you that our combined income is now $135,600! We're rich!!!

Well, no, there is no "we" to our money. Yet. And I'm still quite broke and will be until next Wednesday when the glorious Extra Paycheck comes. And combined we have a gigantic amount of debt (including his recently purchased condo) but I'm so proud of him. He hasn't had a raise in three years whereas I am guaranteed at least a COLA every year - though this year's COLA was 3% and inflation was 5% so I effectively make less money now.

On my own career development front, I didn't get the Bus Job - screw commuting anyway - but I did get another recruitment notice from an interesting prospect (in walking distance of course). Will post more details when they become available.

Have a great weekend. We'll be celebrating and entertaining Boyfriend's Parents who are visiting the condo for the first time!

Budget 10/01 - 10-14

Once upon a time there was a girl whose family was so preoccupied with her older sister's wedding that they completely forgot her sixteenth birthday. Nope, we're not talking about Molly Ringwald here. My Little Sister is turning Sweet Sixteen this weekend and I almost totally forgot about it!

Although it's definitely going to through a small wrench in my Extra Paycheck Debt Payoff Plan I need to travel home this weekend to celebrate this momentous occasion. Little Sister and I are very close - she's an amazing kid and I'm so happy to see her growing up into a admirable young woman. Yet blowing out the candles on special occasion means 1) a present and 2) bus fare - things not originally contemplated by my Extra Paycheck Debt Payoff Plan.

I'm such a moron, really. Why can't I think ahead and plan for things that are going to cost money? Ugh! Must resolve to improve on this front.

So here's my Budget for the next two weeks, which may or may not have to be altered due to a potential Out of Town Work Trip:

Starting Balance = 1135

Rent - 725
Utilities - 92 (including 40 towards the Payment Agreement)
Hobby Fee - 70
Travel - 80
Gift - 40
Boyfriend - 50
Groceries - 40
Misc. - 38

And that's how the cookie crumbles. The gift I have tentatively picked out may not cost $40 but I'm leaving myself a cushion there, albeit a small one. My hobby debt is finally paid off so I can begin participating again today (yay!). Boyfriend has been very patient with me but I want to pay him back ASAP. Utility debt getting smaller - will attack that after I pay off the Credit Card. I can usually count on my Dad to give me enough cash to cover one of my bus fares when I leave home but it's not guaranteed. Can't wait to get rid of all the Short Term Debt (which, looking back, was a really bad name choice) so I can start to focus on other debts.

In the meantime, what do sixteen year old girls like? I have a couple ideas but could use more.