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.

Travel Win

So I just booked my ticket home for my brother’s wedding. If you recall, this was one of the goals I set for myself for the month of September. Here’s the fail first. I thought I was living frugally, but turns out my money was walking away from me. I thought I was going to have a little over $300 to be able to buy this ticket at the end of this pay cycle. However, I have no idea what happened (I think this could be a theme for my blog, because it isn’t the first time it’s happened). I ended up with only $162.00 at the end of my pay cycle. That will absolutely not buy me a ticket to SoDak. It wouldn’t even pay for half. Guh.

South Dakota Bound!

I’m going to South Dakota tomorrow. Home to my mom and dad, brother, future sister in law, and my dear friend Laura who is getting married! Yay! Here are the things I appreciate about going home that help in my Total Money Makeover:

1. Everything is ridiculously cheap in South Dakota. You can get a martini for $6.00!

2. Taco Johns. OMG I love those Potato Oles. And those are cheap as well 🙂

3. My mom cooks Indian food for me. I don’t care who you are and where you’ve been. My mom is the best cook of Indian cuisine in the world. She makes really good mashed potatoes too. And her food is free 🙂

4. My little cousins provide countless hours of entertainment and they are relatively cheap as well, ha!

5. You want to go see the latest movie? No problem! In South Dakota, a night time show is only $8.50! Holy Crap!!!

6. Cheaper Sales Tax. Actually, I have no idea what it is there, but it’s got to be cheaper than the 9.75% I’m facing here.

Okay that’s all I can think of for now! Wish me safe travels to the land of Great Faces and Great Places. Yee-effing-Haw 🙂

Cash Flowing

I realized something the other day. I always beat myself up if I don’t have a very big credit card payment for the month. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten out so much, or bought new clothes, or gone to the movies or whatever. And, to an extent I think it’s fair of myself to expect to be very disciplined. After all, I’ve set a very lofty goal for myself. But to all things, there’s a balance.

February Finances

Hi Kids,

I woke up this morning to the sound of an electric saw and hammering in my neighborhood. Every day I want to live in a house in a quiet neighborhood more and more. I’m getting too old for this crap. On a side note, my upstairs neighbors are so loud, I physically want to pummel them into submission. A few nights ago, my roommate and I were having friends over for dinner, and they were running some sort of electrical device…for days. So my roommate went upstairs to tell them to be quiet, and they didn’t even answer the door. What curse words. I’m telling you…they better cool it. Hell hath no wrath like a pissed of South Indian woman.

Mile High pressure

Wow, so apparently a lot of you liked my post on Portland. Rightfully so as that city kicks major butt. But, now I feel a ton of pressure to deliver the goods with this next post!

Portlandia

I was able to visit my dear friend in Vancouver, WA this month. She also happens to be the same dear friend that motivated me to begin my Total Money Makeover, so needless to say, we talked a lot about money. However, we also saved a ton of money as well. I have to say, this might be the cheapest vacation I’ve ever had in my life.

Giving Thanks

I spent the last 3 days at home with my family celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. Traveling anywhere can be expensive, especially when flying, but I tried my best to spend as little money as possible. While I was sitting in LAX waiting for my flight to leave, I really wanted a Starbucks. Something about the red Christmas cups really puts me in the holiday spirit. Anyways, I had almost two hours to kill, but I knew that if I left my crowded gate to go hunt for some caffeinated goodness, two things would happen. 1. I would lose my (not) comfy seat at my gate. 2. I would spend over $6.00 on a drink I could get way cheaper not at an airport. So instead, I made a to-do list of things I need to do when I get back to my office on Monday.

Visualizing my money

Okay, remember how in my last post I expressed interest in really digging into my budget and planning more specifically? Well, here’s another point of motivation. When I don’t budget and go on a vacation, I severely drain my credit card payments.  At the end of my last pay cycle, I was able to put $130.00 towards credit card #2. At the end of this most current pay cycle, I had the potential to put a significant amount of money down (I’m talking $400.00!). However, I went to San Diego, and did a piss-poor job of keeping track of what I was spending. Had I been using cash, and had a more accurate budget, I would have been able to visualize my money leaving. (I’m learning I’m a much more visual learner than I thought).