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!

Got My State Tax Refund!

I'm back from a week-long mini crisis with my husband-to-be's family and $141 richer due to the great State of New York depositing my tax refund. I had a very stressful week and I'm very glad to be back home and getting things back to normal.

Stress has followed me home, however, in the realm of still waiting on news about my employment, not having the time and motivation to move out of my apartment that I'm still paying an arm and a leg for, and wanting to plan just one tiny thing for the wedding without people telling me that I am "jumping the gun."

From what I have seen so far, long engagements are awesome finance-wise but they also suck!

I will post news of what I will be doing with my extra tax money as soon as I figure it out myself.

Budget 02/18 - 03/04

I'm having some trouble logging into my utility account and there may be some unexpected expenses while I'm away but here's a rough budget for the next two weeks. I'm still waiting on a few debits to hit my account in the next few days so I'll just assume they have hit.

Starting balance = $1140

Rent - 725
Sprint - 60
Utilities - 150? (including $40 towards Payment Agreement)
School Loan - 54
Groceries - 50
Clothes - 50
Misc. - 51

Hopefully my husband-to-be can kick in a few more bucks towards my water debt so I can be one step closer to ditching my apartment.

Where it Went 2/04-2/17

Had to check out of town for a mini-crisis with my future in-laws but wanted to throw a quick update in to keep track of my budget. So here's how I did the past two weeks compared to the budget I set out.

Budgeted/Actual

Credit Card - 100/300

Aunt Sallie Mae - 406/406.96

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/0 (hasn't posted)

Nice Collection Agency - 125/0 (hasn't posted)

Train ticket - 80/0

Groceries - 50/0

Beauty - 30/0

Valentine's Day - 20/5
Transfer to Savings - 0/50
Entertainment - 0/90

Misc. - 67/272

I got my tax refund so I spent a bunch of money on miscellaneous stuff (booze, lunches out). I did, however, send $300 to my credit card this month, knocking the balance down to about $135.

I didn't end up going to see my friend so I didn't need the train ticket or the manicure.

I put some money in savings and also paid towards a concert ticket for another music festival I'm attending this summer.

Woohoo, got my tax refund!

Thank you, Uncle Sam! My tax refund came yesterday, a full three days before it was scheduled to arrive in my bank account via direct deposit.

I decided that my highest priority right now is to knock out the last of my credit card debt so I sent $200 towards the balance, for a grand total of $300 I paid this month. I now have a very small balance remaining on the card and hope to knock the rest out this month.

Look for an update on my sidebars finally to acknowledge this goal as well as kicking out the rest of my Short Term Debt (Water, Friend C, Utilities).

In the meantime, Happy Tax Refunds to all you people lucky enough to get them this year!

Well at least I didn't use my student loans to care for my 14 kids...

because apparently that's what the infamous Octuplet Mom, Nadya Suleman, plans to do according to her interview with The Today Show. Just an FYI, if you are a full time graduate student as this woman is, you are eligible to take out loans in excess of the full tuition to pay for living expenses.

Usually these are private loans, which are evil. Thankfully I only did that one time during my education or else I'd have even more debt.

Seriously, good luck to her in finding a lender.

This whole story has made me so sick. Did you see the pictures of her house? Disgusting.

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!

Budget 2/04 - 2/17

This budget may need tweaking in a few days as I'm going to see a friend for the weekend and expecting my tax refund soon but in the meantime I should post it to keep myself honest. I'm also budgeting for a manicure since it's high time I got one (and to show off my ring!).

Starting Balance = $1138

Credit Card - 100

Aunt Sallie Mae - 406

Defaulted Student Loan - 260

Nice Collection Agency - 125

Train ticket - 80

Groceries - 50

Beauty - 30

Valentine's Day - 20

Misc. - 67

I'm throwing $100 at my credit card and will hopefully get rid of the rest of it this month with the help of my anticipated federal tax refund of $316. New York is also giving me over $100 back but they are not half as quick as the feds.

I don't anticipate spending too much money when I visit my friend as she's sort of a homebody but I could be wrong. I'm looking forward to seeing her and catching up on some girl time before I'm an old married hag.

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.

My Ring

I've got a lot more posts to write but work has been kicking my butt since we got back. They can't fire me now - who else would do this crap? But anyway, I figured my female readers would love to see my engagement ring. So here it is:






The picture doesn't do it justice, it's amazing! Heirloom diamond that has been in his family for a long time plus six little diamonds in the setting. I originally thought I wanted a solitaire setting but I'm glad he decided on this one instead - gives the ring a little extra sparkle. I still feel a little odd wearing it - like I am playing dress up - but I hope I'll get used to it.

We're going to get it sized today since it's too big. I thought I was a size 7!

Still can't believe we're engaged!!!

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!

Budget 1/21 - 2/03

Ugh. My utilities are costing me an arm and a leg this month! I can't wait to ditch my apartment. I have my thermostat set at only 60 degrees yet I still have to pay $50 for heat because of the damned cold weather and the high price of gas. I looked back at last year's numbers and it looks like January is always the most expensive month so hopefully things will get better next month.

Anyhow, here's my budget for the next two weeks. I'm going to Lake Tahoe next week! Plane ticket and hotel were free. Lift ticket, meals and miscellaneous are courtesy of Boyfriend's bonus.

Starting Balance = $1139

Dentist - 25 (overdue, will mail today!)

Rent - 725

Water - 50 (still owe $300, ugh)

Sprint - 64

Utilities - 156 (including $40 towards Payment Agreement)

School Loan - 54 (upping payment according to 2009 Resolutions)

Misc. - 65

I'm very excited for our trip! Dog sledding here we come!

Where It Went 1/07-1/20

Happy Birthday to me (again)! Looking back on the past budgeting period, turning 29 made me a Spendy McSpenderson all of a sudden, but things can get back to normal now I promise. A few things happened over the course of the past two weeks that threw a (happy) kink in my financial plans.

First, I got birthday cash and Boyfriend got a bonus that he decided to use on our vacation.

Then, I decided to donate $10 to charity in the memory of a lost friend.

After deciding not to budget $100 for my Tahoe trip, I paid an additional $20 on my credit card and put $50 in my Emergency Fund. (Sorry readers, I said I was going to put the full $100 but I failed. Sigh.)

So here's the numbers, how I did on my Budget laid out two weeks ago:

Boyfriend - 40/40

Emergency Fund - 25/75

Aunt Sallie - 406/406.96

Defaulted Student Loan - 260/260

Nice Collection Agency - 125/125.81

Credit Card - 15/35

Hobby - 70/35*

Groceries - 50/54.41

Tahoe Fund - 100/0

Misc. - 56/128

* - I decided to take a break from my hobby for a while and thus didn't pay the monthly dues. I also treated myself to a movie on MLK day since I had the day off. At the mall I made a small purchase ($15) I will explain in a later post. The rest of miscellaneous was likely spent on lunches out as I had far too many during this budgeting period.

In addition to the above (and because I have two separate accounts), my $100 birthday money was spent in the following way:

New Ski pants - 32

Bodega and booze - 59

So yes, lots of spending occured but I'm happy that I was able to knock off more credit card debt and boost my Emergency Fund a bit during the past two weeks.

5 More Rent Payments!

I've posted before about my plan to live in sin. It's something I think about every time I have to pay my rent, my utilities, etc. I cannot wait until the glorious day that I can bid farewell to my renting days. Right now the plan is to make this move on June 1st. Sometimes it seems like SO far away - and so much money - but I know this isn't a move to be taken lightly.

But since I love thinking about the future and crunching numbers, here they are:

Old/Projected
Rent - 725/400
Utilities - 80/0

Of course by then my overdue utilities (around $180) and my overdue water ($300) will be paid off so I can ditch those additional expenses. At the very least I will have an additional $400 a month towards saving/debt.

If I get laid off, however, this plan will be put into effect in April, cuz losing your job is a really legitimate reason to break your lease. But for reasons that will be discussed later, I am pretty sure I'll be starting a new job within the next month or so.

Where will my extra $400 go? Definitely towards the Emergency Fund at first. I want this sucker to be big enough to pay for a deposit on a new place if I decide I no longer want to live with Boyfriend (not likely, but hey, gotta plan for every contingency). After I reach $2000 in this fund, I will move onto my other goals outlined in my 2009 resolutions.

I'm feeling very optimistic about this change. It helps to be in love so that whenever things get rough you know someone has your back. And Boyfriend and I are very copacetic when it comes to finances. He is a frequent (if silent) reader of the blog and ha himself become pretty obsessed with personal finance, tracking every little thing on Quicken. Hey, who urged him to buy a condo in the first place?

A new expense I will have to budget for is securing a storage facility for my stuff. I have an expensive mattress, a very nice kitchen table, two t.v.s and other stuff that will ultimately be used if Boyfriend and I decide to upgrade to a bigger place in the years to come.

Stay tuned for tales of cohabitation.

Giving Back

When I was 16 I made a really good friend through one of my clubs in high school. She was a freshman and I was a sophomore and though it wasn't exactly cool to befriend younger kids in high school I liked her a lot. She was extremely motivated to become an active member of the club and we worked together a lot. She was literally the nicest girl I had ever met. Even though she had leukemia and had lost all of her hair to chemo she had a wonderful way of looking at life. A lot of guys liked her because she was so spunky.

We hung out occasionally as time went by. She wasn't in my group of friends but I saw her a lot at school and in our club. When she didn't come back to school immediately after Christmas break in my junior year (her sophomore year) I didn't think much of it. A couple of weeks later she died. She didn't even get to turn 16.

I've thought about this friend a lot over the years. What college would she have gone to? Would she have become a doctor like she dreamed? Would she end up with that cute junior who had a crush on her. I know it's cliche but she was such a wonderful person and it's a real shame her life had to end so soon.

A friend on facebook announced today that she was running a half marathon in my late friend's honor. I immediately decided to donate $10 to the cause of finding a cure for Childhood Leukemia. I wish I could give more to charity but I'm glad I am able to do a small part to honor this amazing person I was lucky to know.

Welcome to Freshman Year (Of My Student Loans)!

Been meaning to look into this for a while...especially since reading Shtinky's post on finally being above water on her student loans. I actually figured out how much money I borrowed for college and when it will be paid back. (I know how much I borrowed for law school since I had to fill out that paperwork myself).

I went to a fairly prestigous liberal arts college which in my humble opinion was worth every dime. I feel fortunate every day for my wonderful four years of education. I knew back when I was applying to colleges that this particular college was very expensive but my parents wanted me to get a great education (having both gone to commuter colleges themselves). And off I went.

I signed some financial aid papers I think but hey it was over ten years ago so my memory is a little fuzzy. Now ten years later I find out what I was on the hook for!

In 1998, my freshman year, the tution, room and board and fees at my college cost $29,450. That seems like a bargain now considering the tuition, room and board now cost over $45k! And according to Aunt Sallie, I only took out $2,625 in student loans to pay for this year. Wow. Remind me to be nicer to my parents!

So you'd think I would be done paying back Freshman Year by now, right? Wrong. Since I ran and hid from Aunt Sallie for 272 days I accrued $4,330.46 in capitalized interest. Meaning my original balance of $$72,735.68 has increased to a current payoff of $76,243.81 (including monthly interest). Thus, in order to pay off freshman year I need to bring my principal loan balance down to $70,110.

Ah Freshman year. Dining hall food, dormcest, R.A.s, everything was new. Hopefully I'll pay you off before I turn 30!

Didn't Get the Job

I finally found out that I didn't get the State job I interviewed for. Fail. Eh, it's okay. Although it would have been a lot more money potentially, the work wasn't as tailored to my experience as I originally thought it was. It sucks that budget cuts means waiting longer on the eligible list but I'm confident something else will come up eventually.

In the meantime I am supposed to be interviewing soon for a potentially sexy job which is a lot more in line with my experience. It's taking lots of finesse and maneuvering to be considered so I am crossing my fingers (yet again) that I will be successful.

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!

Where My Money Went in 2008 (Since March)

I already did my 2008 Year In Review and I'm looking forward to a much much better 2009 financially (even despite current job insecurity) but I thought it would be a great time to review where exactly my money has gone since I signed up for online banking. Figures are only available from March 19th on.

Between March 19th and December 31, 2008 I earned $23,459.64. Plus $600 in President Bush Money, for a grand total of $24,059.64 after taxes. Not bad.

I spent $6,884.50 in rent. Can't wait until I move in with Boyfriend officially and get to ditch my landlord!

Student loans took $4,935.68 of my money, which is kinda crazy considering I didn't start paying them until May. This includes the money I am paying towards Defaulted Student Loan.

I took out $3,601.50 in cash, which seems like a lot, but I use cash for everything.

I repaid $2,775.00 in loans, a vast majority of them being Payday Loans. Yikes, what a friggen nightmare that was!

I paid $1,836.20 towards credit card debt, most of it going to my long delinquent credit card account, aka Nice Collection Agency.

I paid $1,244.11 in Utilities for this time period, including money towards paying off Overdue Utilities (almost done with!).

Between the Evil Overdraft Monster, returned check fees and "regional ATM withdrawal fees" I managed to hand my bank $1,029.45 during this same time period. Yup. Gulp. Never ever again!

I spent $1,066.00 on travel, most of it to attend an out-of-town wedding. I have no regrets - I love to travel!

I spent $825.53 on my cell phone, which seems like an awful lot, but this number includes money I owed Sprint prior to March 19th (because I used to pay my bill late all the time). Now I am paying Sprint only around $60 a month after I changed my plan.

I bought $458.50 in gifts (at least!) owing to the fact that I had two weddings to attend this year.

I spent $285.91 on groceries (maybe a little more out of cash too) but don't worry, I didn't starve. Need to chip in more towards our joint grocery budget.

I transferred $204 to savings but then I transferred most of it back. Savings fail. Must do better.

I spent at least $131.78 on health care including doctor copays and prescriptions. Probably more but I didn't keep good records this year. Wanted to start a FSA but now it's too late (unless I get a new job!). Oh well.

I bought $41.08 in clothes. I bet it was more than that but that's the money I know was spent on clothes because that's what I labeled it in my online banking. The rest came out of cash.

All told, between March 19, 2008 and December 31, 2008 I spent $938.69 more than I earned. Total Fail. Will definitely do better in 2009 as there's no way I can be that irresponsible again!