Updates: Little Babies and Small Blessings

I’m back! It’s been a very busy last few weeks. I took two midterm exams within a few weeks of each other (accounting and econ! eek!). But I’ve had a number of big events and a lot going on in this crazy life of mine.

First off, if you follow me on Twitter, you already know that my new niece arrived last week. She came naturally with very few complications, which is almost a miracle, and she’s a very pretty, normal baby girl. Considering the number of babies that, under normal circumstances (and not being born to a complete mess like my sister) have major issues and have to stay in the hospital for months, that is just amazing. My sister is doing fine too, but now that she’s back on some of her stronger thyroid medication, it’s taking a lot out of her. Once I got word that the little one had arrived, I made plans to go down to the old home stead and spent the weekend there with my parents and to see the baby. Didn’t hurt that it was also Mother’s Day weekend, and we all had a nice dinner together on Sunday before I headed back home.

I definitely went shopping for baby and sister gifts. My older niece, who is just now a big sister at 10, needed some love and support, too, so I had stopped to get her some of her favorite treats so she wouldn’t feel left out with all the excitement going on around her. I hadn’t exactly planned to spend all weekend out and about, and spending money and time on my family, but that’s ok. To be honest, I don’t really care that my budget is a little awry because of this past weekend. I bought lunch for my mom and sister on Saturday, which put me over my fast food budget already. But I don’t regret that. The baby onesies and dress I got along with some body butter for my sister from Bath and Body Works? Also not regretted. I felt the need to be there but also to get useful things for my family. I can find room in my budget for that, and I feel like I should.

In other news, no, I did not get the job I interviewed for several weeks back. It took them over 4 weeks to tell me, which was a bit ridiculous. I actually took it very well, considering. Work is always stressful, but I’m handling it much better than I used to. And, I got great feedback from my interview. They would have taken me because of my skills and initiative, but they also found someone with several years’ experience. I don’t fault them one bit for that.

I’m ok with trying to be better at my job for now, and working my way up to the next opportunity that comes along. I’m even bringing in treats for my coworkers still. Not because I particularly love them dearly as people (because, let’s face it, in a stressful job not everyone gets along) but because it’s something small I can do to make things a bit better and cheerier. I’m ok with buying $5 in candy every few weeks or bringing in a batch of cookies, since it seems to make people laugh and smile when they should be yelling and crying.

And, ok, I’ll admit that I kind of love some of my coworkers. We’re all in it together, and without some of them to support me through the past year, I wouldn’t have made it as far as I have.

Despite all the stress and what should have been a big disappointment, I’m very content. BF thought something was wrong with me for a bit. I was feeling incredibly low while waiting to hear about the job, as well as worrying about my sister’s condition. It’s like I was holding my breath for a long, long time, and then I got to take a deep, cool breath. The relief I feel is amazing I feel like I can get back to normal. Or at least a little more zen for now, which is awesome for me.

 

The 2013 Goals Update: Mayday Edition

I’ll confess, readers – I’ve not done very well on my goals lately. In fact, I’m feeling pretty terrible about how little I’ve accomplished, and it’s almost half-way through the year.

1. Save more money. Pass. BF and I have enough saved for the house we want. Now it’s a matter of finding the right house at the right time. Our lease isn’t up until the end of September, which makes this sitting around on that money kind of irritating. But BF has got this down – he will not be pulling any money out of savings anytime soon.  I, on the other hand, have got to cut some spending and try to save more. And I want to pad my emergency fund a bit more before we get pre-qualified for a loan so they know I’ll have plenty in reserve.

   However, we have the little problem of several upcoming expenses (see my budget – car insurance and cell phone plan beginning soon) and the fact that I really needed to relax my spending restrictions. I’ve set a much more reasonable budget, but it is going to hit my bottom line for savings. On the other hand, I still have a few other things I can do to save up some dough:
   - On the selling stuff and decluttering thing, I really FAIL. The only thing I’ve managed to do was get the house cleaned, the recycling taken out, and several things rearranged in the condo so we had room for our little guinea pig. On the flip side, I got some of those vacuum bags to put extra blankets and sweaters in, and now they all fit nicely under the bed and futon instead of crowding my closet. I made a big pile of stuff to take to Goodwill, but I didn’t take it yet. And did I mention BF bought an espresso machine? I can do much better than this. My goal is to sell at least $50 in extra stuff from the house this month. Including the old guinea pig cage, should I find someone willing to take it, since it’s so old and small.

   - I also FAIL at the part-time job. I got paid for the long training I did for the online test-grading, but I ultimately decided that it wasn’t for me. For one, it took up a lot of my time, and that stressed me out to the point of not being able to cook at night. Also, I am a much tougher grader than they want me to be. If I get this new job, I won’t need side stuff to bring in more bank anyway.

2. Get better at budgeting/controlling my spending. FAIL. 
   - We bought a freezer and worked to get it stocked up, so our grocery budget was all out of control. I also bought a lot of take-out meals on nights I was too tired and stressed to cook.
   - I not only brought a small deep freezer into the house, but also a guinea pig with a cage and all the accessories. I’m getting him a bigger cage soon, too, so that’s a FAIL.
   - I did make  a conscious effort to STOP BUYING STUFF FOR PEOPLE.  This was also a fail. My best friend’s baby shower and my mom’s birthday got a bit out of hand.
3. Get healthy again. Pass. I had noticed a major improvement (as well as a slight weight loss)  with my gluten-free, dairy-free diet. Once I was off it, I started adding things back in slowly. Then I threw myself back into it with reckless abandon. While I kept up with my healthy lunches bit and brought my lunch all but 3 times last month, I ate a lot of crap. Including frozen yogurt. Why did they have to bring 4 new frozen yogurt places into town this year? Anyway, the rest of the details:
   - Work out at home 3 times a week was a FAIL. I haven’t been on my bike in a few weeks. Shameful.
   - Continue to bring healthier lunches AND snacks to work. This was a WIN. I only buy lunch at work every other week and make an effort to just get a salad or something with more veggies and protein rather than starch and dairy.
4. Do better at work and advance. WIN. I had an interview 2.5 weeks ago, but I haven’t heard back yet.
   - Again, it’s a daily struggle to tune out the negative people there and just get my work done the best I can. With all the constant changes, it’s a bit chaotic. Plus 4 of my teammates were reassigned to a sales project, which got me really worried for several days. For one, I had to listen to them go on about how horrible it was to be reassigned without being asked, and all of their files got reassigned to us after they left. And I’m wondering if my supervisor will want to let me go from the department amid all that chaos.
   - I’m still plugging along with my continuing education. I’m not doing so hot in accounting, and I’ll admit I procrastinated on all my homework last week. I made a serious effort this week to get started on it earlier, and I’m turning in all my assignments tonight instead of last minute on Monday.
5. Blog, write, and read. FAIL. I disappeared for a little while, when I was trying to get the test-grading gig going, as well as interview for a job and travel somewhere every weekend. Did I mention I’m taking 2 college-level classes?

   In all seriousness, I want to get reading again. Since the only reading I’ve been doing is “College Accounting” and “Intro to Macroeconomics,” I need to throw something fun into the bunch. I considered re-reading Stephen King’s Carrie  since a remake is coming out soon, but I decided against buying another book. I already have a book called Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son!) on my Kindle. I just have to make time to read it. That kind of time is hard to come by, unless I’m in bed. Then, I should be sleeping.

That’s all for now. I’m not feeling much better, physically or mentally. I had a nasty stomach bug hit me Thursday night, so I not only missed work on Friday, but I’ve felt a little behind and rushed with everything this weekend. Being out of commission for an entire day because you’re too busy running back and forth to the bathroom (sorry – overshare!) will put you behind on a to-do list.

Just going over this list of goals made me feel incredibly anxious. I’ve tried to accomplish a lot yesterday and today but feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have to do still. I’m also still worried about my family back home. They’ve had some flooding down there in southern Illinois, and my sister is still not revealing when she’s scheduled to have my new niece. It’ll be a C-section and she’s a very high-risk case due to her thyroid and heart conditions. And she doesn’t want a lot of family there because of it. I get her reasoning (sort of) but I just have a nagging feeling this is not going to be good. With me living 3 hours away, it’s hard to deal with these kinds of things sometimes. You want to be there to help if you can, but it’s not always possible.

Oh, geez. Now that lovely burning feeling is creeping up into my cheeks and into my forehead. Seriously, I need someone to throw me a life preserver. Or at least something to distract me. It is dinner time and I have some strawberries that need to be sugared and eaten, so that’s what I’m going to try to do, and ease off myself for the rest of the night!

Serenity’s Budget for May 2013, part 2: Off to the Races

Not only is there a lovely Kentucky Derby this weekend – one of the sure signs of spring – but it’s here! I finally have a realistic budget, folks!

Here’s the numbers:

I am going to make serious bank in may. This month is one of those magical “3 paycheck” months, with no major deductions (medical, insurance, and the car payment through the credit union) so I will have a nice chunk of change at the very end of the month too. Not only doe that help me meet my realistic budget goals, it also means I can still save up some money.

As you can see, I didn’t go completely hog-wild:

 

I am accounting for a few more purchases in areas where my budget tends to bleed over, like pets, fast food, and health supplies. I have a few periodical expenses, such as my 3-month prescription supply and my car insurance.

Then there’s goals & my student loans payments:

 

Instead of contributing to my fully-funded E-fund, I’m going to start contributing to my own special “travel” fund. BF and I want to take another trip to Florida this upcoming winter again, but I want to have cash in the bank to do it. And Mint is going to help me save up for it – I’ve added it to my “goals” and the tracker tells me I’m on track already to have everything I need by December.

Hopefully I’ll be able to manage this budget. I would at least like to see some more green than red on my Mint budget board come June 1st.

Now, I need to go decide if I’m going to drink some mint juleps or margaritas this weekend. Maybe both.

 

Serenity’s Budget for May 2013, part 1: Wiggle Room and Realism

I like to tell people the story about when I went overseas on my study abroad trip. I took out the very minimum in student loans for my living expenses and what little I had in savings. I also only packed a week’s worth of outfits for the 5-week trip. I ended up buying clothing overseas, as well as extra laundry detergent. And I came back mid-summer completely broke.

Back to the overall theme of the blog – me and my finances. It’s not always impulse control issues, although I still do have to work on those. I just often under-prepare.

I know my last post was very whiny, and to be completely honest, I’m not feeling much better. However, I am putting forth an awful lot of effort to put on a happy face for my friends and family. Yes, work & classes are still stressing me out. No, I haven’t heard back yet on the job I interviewed for 2.5 weeks ago. And no, I haven’t really found anything – other than a few extra hours at work – to make up for the $100 interview outfit and shoes I bought outside my budget.

Seriously – the last thing I need is for my budget shortfalls to eat me alive inside. BF & I had a chat about this the other night. We were talking about how much more we needed to save for the house. Really, we have what we need already, so we shouldn’t try to scrape by the next few months. He doesn’t worry about his spending, well, ever. And he pointed out that I already save a lot of money as it is. There are some people, he said, that don’t bother to save money at all. Comforting.

I’ve been trying to stretch my budget further to save more for our home, and I know I’ve set some of my goals really, really low. Yeah … that hasn’t been working well for me. When I try to bend too much, I tend to break. I get comments from people – my coworkers, my friends, even random people who read my blog that email – wondering how on earth I can survive on $250 a month in groceries $25 on personal care.  Truthfully, I’m not really working well under those constraints. And, to completely oversimplify

Let’s look on some actual numbers here, from the lovely Mint website that’s been yelling at me:

• Groceries:  I averaged $253 a month. Not bad, though there were 2 months where I had tried to get under $200. Since we eat in quite a bit, and we take our lunches to work almost every day, that’s not too shabby. I think with a little more forethought and attention to not wasting food, we’ll be able to make the $250 mark.
• Fast Food/Restaurants: average $117 a month. I usually separate these out in the budget, since me grabbing lunch is completely different than me picking up take-out using the joint account for BF & I to eat at home. It works out to me eating lunch from the cafeteria with my coworkers once a week and getting take-out for a couple’s night in twice. When you think of it that way, it’s not that bad. I was trying to get away with only $50 each month in my budget. I could easily double that.
• Pets: $73 a month. I’ve tried budgeting $25 and $35, depending on the month and what I was trying to accomplish with savings. I keep trying to pare $5 here, $10 there if I’m feeling a bit squeezed. But personally, I’m thinking this is something I cannot cut back too much on. My pets are like my children. I don’t want my cats eating crappy food that makes them unhealthy and fat anymore than I want BF & myself to eat Twinkles and Cheetos everyday. Also, I adopted a new pet – and no, I don’t regret it. The guinea pig deserves attention and needs care as well.

With these revelations in mind, I’m still working on a few things with the budget. This month marks the beginning of a realistic budget for me. I’m not cutting huge corners, and I’ve actually set up some categories for quarterly and yearly costs.

Stay tuned – hopefully I’ll have part 2 done tomorrow!

Updates: Worriness & Tiredness

Hello, blog & blog readers. I didn’t forget you. I just feel like I haven’t gotten a chance to breathe in the past week or so. Work has begun picking up again, and with some of my team members getting reassigned to a marketing project for the next few months, it’s going to take a few late nights to get through all my work and some of theirs. Add a whole bunch of extra (i.e. unbudgeted) shopping and my impulsive decision to adopt a guinea pig, and I’m feeling tapped out both personally and financially.

The good news is that I did meet my savings goals for the month, but I’m glad I was working a few extra hours because my plan to cut my spending went off the rails. I bought a whole new outfit for my job interview on impulse, thinking the clothes would help me feel more confident. Truthfully, they did, but when I saw the receipts afterwords, I felt like crying. I also haven’t heard back from my job interview nearly 2 weeks ago for a higher-up position at the bank. It’s made me feel pretty low, thinking that they may just be trying to interview someone better than me or they’re waiting to give me the bad news. BF tells me not to worry about it, but I have a feeling no matter what he says or I say to myself, not getting this job will really get me down.

On top of that, I don’t feel like I have any free time right now, and not just because I have my BF and 4 little critters in the house to care for now. My accounting class will wrap up in 3 weeks but my econ class’s midterm exam is next week. I didn’t do so well on the accounting midterm so I need to buckle down on econ or I won’t pass.

This month, I feel like I set myself up to fall short. A bare bones budget doesn’t often leave room for any swings, but for me, I decided to walk on my wild side. My pet supplies budget was only $25 this month. With the addition of our little betta fish at the beginning of the month and adopting Ludwig to the family, my spending actually went up to $168. Like I said  -  there are times I just don’t have willpower. I’ll be doing some make-up work on that part of my budget next month, but I have a feeling what will really happen is that I’ll have to scale back my savings plan to make a more reasonable budget for myself.

Did I mention I have traveled every weekend this month? I had another baby shower last weekend, and a family church function was last Friday night. The week after is my sister’s due date, and I was originally planning to take a couple vacation days to spend time with her and meet my new niece. Now, I’m not really sure if I’ll be able to swing it. And, 2 weeks after this is my best friend’s due date, and I had promised to go up to see her for a weekend with a couple other friends. When I’m going to have time – and room in my budget – is beyond me.

To top it off, I’m really sick today. It’s some kind of stomach bug that I must have picked up either from the pizza I ate last night (which I shouldn’t be eating anyway!) or some cookies I ate. When you’re up off and on all night right before a Sunday that you were supposed to use for catching up on everything, you feel like of defeated to be on the couch, sipping tea and Sprite and waiting for my system to calm down. BF isn’t feeling well either, or at least that’s what he’s saying to get out of taking out the recycling.

I think I just need a long nap and some more chamomile tea. Or I need to go get Ludwig out of his cage and play with the cats. It’s one of the few things I always make time for daily that keeps me going.