Success!

In my last post I told you my goal was to spend as little money as possible. Well, I think in the past 2  1/2 weeks I’ve done pretty good. I only spent $122.84 on eating out and that includes drinks at The Roxy and a movie at The Landmark Theaters. I had some unexpected expenses, like a couple of co-pays for doctor’s appointments because of my stupid tummy. And my hair dryer exploded this week. Seriously…it made this huge booming sound and sparks shot out of it…twice! I was like, “Is my hair on fire???” Totally freaked me out. Luckily my hair is fine. And I’m out another $40.00 for a new blow dryer.

The rest of September

So, I met all my goals for September except the one about saving money for my girls trip shopping extravaganza. So here’s my plan for that:

Live as cheaply as possible. I’m talking major lock-down mode. No eating out, no spending money on clothes or earrings or anything else. Gas and groceries. That’s it.

My tummy is going to make me broke

UUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH This is how I feel about my entire digestive system. If they did intestine transplants, I would take two.  Here’s a tiny disclaimer. I am super comfortable talking about the #2. So if you aren’t, you might not want to read this one.

Momma said knock you out

So, I joined a gym again. I needed to find an exercise that I actually enjoy doing, because slaving away on the elliptical at my office was not cutting it. And I have become a serious whale. I wouldn’t be surprised if barnacles started attaching themselves to me. It’s ridiculous.

Setbacks?

I have about $200.00 left until I get paid. This is because I have been eating out a ton. My justification is that it’s been too bloody hot to cook. But this heat has cost me a crap ton of money. It’s gotta stop. I did go grocery shopping so I have plenty at home. It’s just that I have to cook it all, and that brings me back to my original point of it being too bloody hot for cooking.

Anyways, if I want to keep the money that I just put in savings, in savings, I have to get my act together!

Also, I think I mentioned a bill for a procedure I had done like 2 years ago, and just got a bill 2 months ago. Well I’ve been fighting stupid UCLA health and I am losing. Those bastards. I should have only been responsible for my co-pay, which I paid at the time of my appointment. They forgot to file a claim to my insurance and since it’s been so long, my insurance is like, no dice. So now UCLA thinks I should pay it! I’m sorry, what? It’s for $450.00. I just think this is incredibly unfair.

So if I end up paying this, it will set me back considerably. I also have to pay my car registration, which is about $200.00.

It’s always so frustrating to me when I feel like something will be easy (ish) and it’s not. Oh well…I’ll get there.

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 🙂

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.