Financial Freedom

Wow, so it looks like I forgot about my blog for a while. Well, a lot has happened since I got promoted. My paycheck is bigger. That’s nice. Also, I’ve been thinking big picture when it comes to my money, and I have been recently inspired by some of my friends. I think its time I integrate a little Suzie Orman into this Dave Ramsey plan.

So, here’s the good news. My mom is going to buy my sari for my brother’s sangeet. So I don’t have to save the extra $400+ for that. Yay! Also, I bought my plane ticket for my girls trip and found it for under $400, so that’s a bonus too. So now I just have to buy my plane ticket home for the wedding and save up the wedding gift. It should be pretty easy considering I’m like, killing my budget every month. Actually these past few weeks I’ve eaten out more often than I have in the past couple of months. But no more. I have to get it back together if I’m going to meet these goals.

I got paid this past Friday and I was just able to transfer $500 from checking to savings. I’m not really sure where this extra padding came from, but I’m very excited about it.

So here’s my new plan:

1. Save the wedding gift.

2. Buy my plane ticket home.

3. Kill my last credit card (I only have $1800 left).

4. Save my 6 month- 1 year emergency fund. I know Dave would say pay off the rest of my debt. But I think Suzie would say, your debt isn’t costing you that much. The APR on both loans is below 5%. So why  not try to save a little now?

And then…I’m going to try to make double payments on my car, while simultaneously saving up a down payment for some investment property in South Dakota. My little home town is booming, despite a wavering economy. There are multiple colleges there and really advanced hospitals, all with students and doctors looking for places to rent for a few years at a time.  So I’ve done a little looking and I can totally handle buying a house in SoDak. Real Estate is still super affordable there, and I would truly be investing in my future. So..we shall see how things work out. But for now, it’s definitely something at the top of my things to research.

I GOT PROMOTED!

This is me celebrating…

Hallelujah, praise baby Jesus and grown up Jesus too. I am officially a Regional Marketing Manager. I found out that my promotion came through on Friday after I got back from camp. I was so emotionally and physically exhausted, and then to come home to news that I had finally met a goal I set for myself at the beginning of this year was just way too much to process. I couldn’t handle all of it. But I’m slowly starting to come out of my camp haze and the promotion is starting to feel real.

What does this mean financially? Well, I’m definitely still underpaid, ha. But, I’m making more than I was and by the end of the year I will have an extra $400 every month! I feel like that’s pretty huge. And in an economy where people are still unemployed, I am completely embracing the fact that I am getting promoted and getting significant pay increases for a job that I love at a company where I love working!

So, long term, I want to be able to save what I need to save for all of my festivities for the rest of the year, and then kick the crap out of my credit card. I really think I can knock it out this year! The goal  for this pay cycle is to put $400.00 in savings. I think I can do it. That will pay for my plane ticket to San Antonio and part of my sari for my brother’s wedding. Good news is that my mom is paying for the bridesmaids sari, so I only have to worry about the one for the sangeet. Whew. So now it’s basically just plane tickets, clothing and travel money I’m saving for!

My only wrench is that I got a medical bill for around $400 dollars for a procedure I had done 2 years ago. And they are just sending me a bill now. And because the stupid provider waited so long to submit a claim or failed to provide the correct info or something, my insurance isn’t paying. So I might have to pay this, which is a minor set back. But I’m going to put on my boxing gloves. Seriously, the health care industry is the new airline industry. Not a good place to be. Just sayin’.

Anyways, I’m off to bask in my own glory 🙂

My <3 is till at camp

A little disclaimer about this post: It’s not going to be about money.

I got back from being a camp councilor at Royal Family Kids Camp late on Friday night. I am so physically and emotionally exhausted, I spent all day Saturday sprawled out on my couch. The only thing I did was eat a box of Junior Mints. Those things are awesome.

This was my third year volunteering at this summer camp. I learned about it through a church I used to go to. It’s a cause that I really believe in. It truly bothers me that there are children who aren’t safe in their own homes, and have had to be removed by the state. These kids experience more pain and trauma that most adults never have to go through.

The pastor of my church shared a few statistics on the foster care system in the United States. (I’m not sure where he got them, so forgive me if they are not entirely accurate). There are roughly 500,000 children in the foster care system in the US and 10% of them are in Los Angeles. 70% of the people in prison were at one time in foster care. 60% of girls who emancipate out of the foster care system once they turn 18, are pregnant  within 18 months. A staggeringly high percentage of kids who emancipate out of the system at 18 are immediately homeless. These kids start out in life 20 points behind. And what did they do to be put in the foster system? Nothing.

My heart is broken for these kids. These kids, this camp, this ministry has become a part of who I am. I can’t imagine not going to Royal Family Kids Camp every year.

Overall my camp experience was amazing. The girls in my cabin were hilarious and all struggling with different things ranging from a mother on drugs to the unthinkable. It’s rare that a child will share these experiences with us. We usually just facilitate a good time for them. We give them a week where they don’t  have to worry about being safe. We give them a week to be a kid. But for some reason, this year, our campers felt like they could share their past with us.

Anyways, here are pictures of  our cabin all decorated in our Hollywood Glam theme. It totally made the money I spent on decorations worth it. And not to worry, my next post will have some very exciting news in it. I just can’t get myself to think about anything but this camp right now.

When you come to Royal Family Kids Camp, you’re a star!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made those blankets on the bed for our campers, so they could take them home with them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

frontloading

Okay so I wanted to save $500 dollars. Ha! Not going to happen. I think it’s mostly because most of my expenses are front loaded at the beginning of the month. And this month’s pay cycles happen to be just spread out enough to where I need the extra few hundred so I can eat. The good news is that I will be away at camp for the second week of this pay cycle so my eating, gas and other miscellaneous expenses should be zero.

I had to rethink this

Okay, so as much as I want to save $500.00 this pay cycle, I think I’m going to rethink that decision. If you recall, I needed to buy decorations for the cabin at the camp where I’m volunteering in two weeks. Once I did that, I would only have $60.00 left until I got paid. That’s if I saved $500.00.

Stretching my left-overs

As part of my savings goal, I have decided to eat everything in my freezer and cabinets and only buy what is truly necessary. My amazing roommate started a girls dinner for all of us that live within a 4 block radius of each other. We all live in Brentwood and we are all walking distance from each other. So every week we take turns hosting dinner. Well on my night, I was really craving sloppy joes and tater tots. As a result, I have a lot of left over sloppy joe filling and frozen tater tots. I also have frozen fish and a bag of frozen peas as well as some polenta and some pasta sauce. Guess what I’ll be eating this week?

Money Motivation

So, I am really riding my savings train right now. My goal is to be able to save $500.00 out of this pay cycle. And I think I can do it. There’s only one thing that’s kind of getting in the way. I think I told you that I am volunteering as a camp councilor at a summer camp for kids who are in the foster care system in LA. I have to fundraise $400.00 to go to it and a long with that, we have to decorate the cabin. Those decorations come our of our own money too. Each cabin has a theme, and the campers get super excited about it every year. My first year our cabin’s theme was rainbows. It was kind of a hot mess, but the girls loved it. My second year, we decided to do a butterfly cabin. So we cut out huge butterfly wings out of butcher paper and taped them to the outside of the cabin doors and “tried” to transform our cabin into an enormous butterfly. The girls had a great time with it.

Back to the Kitchen

I took a brief hiatus from my kitchen because I ran out of groceries and was too lazy to go buy any. But, I’m sick of eating at Chipotle. My tummy is craving some home made goodness! And, in the interest of cost savings and expense control (can you tell I work in corporate America?) I’ve decided the most cost effective culinary treats are hot dishes and ramen.

I have a Guilt Monster

So I’ve been noticing that my money anxiety is returning to my life. It went away for a little bit. But now every time I swipe my card, that little Guilt Monster starts jumping up and down in my tummy screaming, “Are you sure? Are you sure?” I want to punch that guy in the face. Even when I know I have the money in my account, or I know I’m well within the confines of my budget, this jerk-face won’t leave me alone!

Debt Tracker

I just updated my debt tracker. My new debt balance is down to just over $70,000. Holy Crap. I wish I could remember where I started. It’s all so confusing, but I’m going to do my best to retrace my steps so I can figure it out.