Catching up with goals: Books!

I know it's a bit late in the year, but somethings are better later rather than never, no? What I am talking about is one of my goals I set last January, the one about reading at least 12 books. After 6 different failed attempts to read a book (mix between fiction, juvenile fiction and nonfiction), I sort of gave up on reading.

Then recently I bought a career type book, and I read it so fast. I was actually putting it down so it would last me, since the book was 'expensive' (-cough-$12.99-cough-) and I didn't have it in my budget to buy another book for a while. But I finished it and it had me thinking and excited about reading again. A-ha! So that was the key. Finding a topic that interested me, and for me, that happens to be career-type books. (By the way, I am in the Human Resources field, which opens up to most Business/Management books).

I've been looking closely at my budget, and was rather sad that this last paycheck I wasn't able to save up to buy a book. Groceries are expensive! What's up with that? And then gas keeps going up... luckily it's slowly creeping down again.

I've looked for the books I'm interested in on all reasonable sources; offline and online (Amazon, B&N, Ebay, just entering the name in Google, Craigslist), and I didn't get much of a price break... I guess that's what I get for looking at business books.

Two things came out from this;
- I would love to get a (very basic!) kindle or other e-reader. The oldest model, B&W reader. Kindle/e-reader editions of the books I would like to get are between 20-60% cheaper on their e-version than the physical books, and friendlier on the environment... not to mention portable. But I don't think I want to spend $60-$120 in a Kindle... just yet.
- Not being able to get a $15 book sucks.

So while I won't be able to catch up to the 12 books I wanted to have read this year, at least I have read something meaningful and that I enjoyed. And I am looking to buy another book this Friday...

Are you doing any last-year's-goal catch-up effort? How's it going?

The Good, The Bad, The Others

Alright, following on Mysti's GBU posts, here's mine:

The Good:
- I got a raise!
- 3 more weeks before I can pay the car off. I am so counting down to it.
- I am still very slowly but surely losing some weight. I am sure that Breyers ice cream I got for $0.34 (great sale + coupon match!) is not doing me any favors.
- Finances are still pretty tight, but in good shape.

The Bad:
- The internet at where I rent out of has been TERRIBLE, at best. I've spoken with the landlords so many times and offered to pay for upgrades, but they just say they look into it. They have their TV as entertainment, and I've tried to make them understand that the internet is my entertainment... kind of driving me nuts right now. Wish the internet was directly related to their cable; then I'd see them jump into action ASAP! Can't miss all those trashy reality shows!
- My younger brother used my car to pick up my dad from the airport, since it's the only one that does not have any sort of brake, acceleration or motor problems. So, I'm out of a tank of gas.
- And my parents got a $75 fine for not paying a speed-camera fine. So I am definitely not getting the gas money back!

The Other:
- Working at my part time job on Fri night and Sat. I'll be tired, but it's some extra money. It should help me put together the car payoff overage.
- As per responses to this post, I wont be looking for a part time job... for now. I know you guys wont steer me wrong!

Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend and have a good start to your upcoming week!

Performance Evaluations

I had my performance evaluation today. It's hard to believe I've been at the same place for 4 years now. Well, I've been at my part time job for close to 9, but that's still a lot of time. The review itself went well, nothing extraordinary good or bad, which I guess is a good thing. I'm really thankful to have a workplace I enjoy.

I also got a 3% raise! 

I am very, very thankful about that as well, since I know raises are not something that is guaranteed. Heck, work is not even guaranteed these days, so to get a raise is wonderful and I'm very happy! All of my calculations from now until 2015 are based on the same base pay, so every little bit changes things, hopefully for the better (watch taxes make me think about it twice!).

Now onto business... It's a flat 3%. I could put some more into my retirement account (to which I'm currently contributing 6%). I've heard that when you get a raise, it would be worthwhile to put some of the percentages into your retirement, since you were already doing without the increase and it wouldn't greatly impact your day to day operations. Or I could just keep the change. It isn't a huge amount (comes out to $27 more per check), so I don't think I'd miss it if it went into my retirement fund.

What do you guys think? Should I put...
A) Put all into my retirement fund?
B) Put some of it into retirement (if so, how much) and keep the rest?
C) 'Keep' all of it?

The race is on!

The race is on to get rid of the car loan by October 12th! This is EIGHT months earlier than my original plan. The amount of support I am getting on this from my family is unbelievable... In a very underwhelming way! Had to repeatedly ask both my father and my brother to investigate the proper payoff procedure, since the reps wont talk to me because I'm not on the car loan.

Now for part B of this race... I updated my side bar, showing that I have approximately $2600 to pay off, after additional payoff interest. The problem? I will be completing my $2000 fund with the Sept 28th paycheck... and going over by $20 (go me!). Add $410 to that (which is a regular car payment) and it puts me at $2410. That leaves me about $190 short (plus or minus $20 for interest).

You'd think I can somehow coax that measly amount of money from either my father or my brother, since the car is in both of their names. But the prospects of that happening are dim, if at all there. My dad assures me he can get me the money (yet could barely pay for gas...) and my brother actually asked me for money. Around the tune of $3500. They're closing in on their new house after selling their old one for a profit. Not my business to judge, but yeah. I don't have that sort of money to lend.

I am expecting some money from my part time job, but I hate using it for bills. And that's exactly where it has been going since February! Just another push... just another push.

Starting the search for another PT job

Sometimes things get a bit quieter on my end and I forget to post how things are going. They are going alright! I've been extremely sore and tired since Sunday, but other than that, I'm in good shape.

My finances are also doing well. My financial ego is between ticked off and laughing. Family... what can I say?


I've had the idea of getting another part time job looming over my head for quite some time now, especially  more ever since I decided to confess to it in a previous post. But I started to take action last week while looking at the local newspaper. I ripped the Help Wanted section, highlighted a few things and took the page home. I must be crazy.

I have a lot of reservations and fears about getting another part time job. Just as reminder, I already have an 8-5 M-F desk job, then I work at a hotel Saturdays 3-12 midnight (or more) most weekends. I know it doesn't sound like a lot and I wont try to justify it as such. But I sort of like having some free time. Most of my friends are in different time zones as well, so adding another evening job would mean I wouldn't see some of them (especially those in Asia). With as few good friends as I have, it concerns me that cutting the free time further would hurt our relationship, which would kind of suck. Not to mention the additional mental and physical stress. I'm still wondering if the money would be worth all the negatives.

Then this past Saturday came where I had to take my parents to the airport at 4am. Fun and entertaining 2hr trip each way. I'll skip the details, but after netting 2 hours of sleep and having to go to my part time job, I got slightly sick from being too tired on Sunday. So I've put the job hunting on hold. But I would still like to explore those possibilities for the future. All I'd really be interested in would be 2-4 weeknights of work... how hard could it be?

Other than that, looking forward to some grocery shopping today. I have about $55 left in my budget for that, so let's see what I can walk away with! Hope everyone has been having a good week so far.

A $4.95 mistake

Yup, that would be a fee. Or as other people call it: stupidity tax. I was lazy and didn't yield on the side of caution or reason when transferring funds around.

My father asked me to help him transfer some money to his Paypal account. I normally do that by having him deposit money to my bank account, which in turn I'll transfer to his Paypal, after the money is posted. But he needed the money right away to cover for an already-scheduled transaction, instead of having it hit their bank (which is empty) and incur a fee. He said he would deposit the money that day, but I know better than that, meaning at the earliest, it'd be the following day.

Now, as much as I'd like to think I have how long it takes for one transaction to post, I was not in any mood to play with being put to overdraft by depositing money to Paypal that I don't have. But I caught out of the corner of my eye that you could have a credit card as funding source. But only if you were paying for goods. Now, all of my Paypal payments in the pass to my father have been as gifts. I did some quick reading and saw that as a buyer, there wouldn't be any fees. I completed the transaction in the nick of time, and... yes. He only received part of the money, minus his fee. I did have $5 floating around in my bank account, so I completed the transfer with that and gave him his full amount, absorbing the stupidity tax for myself.

Just when I think I am smart enough, life has its ways to plant my feet on the ground. Lesson learned! What is the last stupidity tax you've paid? Other such taxes (though not my own) that I can think of is parking meter tickets. Working close to a courthouse, we have TONS of those parking meters, and I always see at least 3 cars with tickets on their windshields per week.

Well, lookie here...

Before I head out to work today, I wanted to share something that came up last week...

Remember that time I was lusting over a car I had seen around town? This pretty piece?:

Well, I was looking around at how much I'd need to come up with to replace my car, since Murphy seems to be messing with too many people's vehicles... and lo and behold, I find this:

A beautiful 2007 Hyundai Elantra SE Hatchback with less than 50k miles for the low price of $8000. I so, so wish I was in position to get this. It is a very, very basic model, but has all the add-ons I'd need, safety and comfort wise. It's the only one in 200 miles that came so close to something I'd get. 

Oh well! Hopefully I can find something similar in another 2 years. I won't even do the math or consider making it work with my budget. I know exactly how my budget stands, and that's the beauty of it; I now the limits and I am not tempted to bust them. It is actually quite liberating. I know for a fact now it's not the time for it. 

But boy, do I wish I was. 

Have a great weekend, everybody! 

The slope down from the stress hill

I am not sure why I am letting stuff like mortgages bother me, but they do. I know I am getting way ahead of myself in too many ways; obsessing about how to get a down payment when I have a 700-mile move in my future, job change, calculating and estimating the nitty gritty details of ownership, including mortgage payments, maintenance, repairs, furnishing, insurance, taxes… it’s driving me nuts. I’m also way ahead of myself to think I’d want a house within the next 5-7 years. That's not even fitting a new-to-me car in the picture!

This may just be the result of the lack of activity on my part. From now until about mid next year, there won’t be much to occupy my mind, financially or otherwise. It is making me restless. I'm tired of doing the math on how quickly I could get a down payment by 2019 and things just arent matching. I may need a full time job and a part time job after I move, so adieu free time! "But it's for a good cause", I tell myself... "right?"

WAIT.
No. What happened here? It took me a few days to discover what had train-wrecked me. I read a random quote on one of those inspirational calendars and it reminded me of something important... keep your goals in mind. I had totally lost sight of them. I forgot about them. I was more preoccupied with what the after-after-next step was; about how monumental and how illogically urgent it had become. I needed another reminder. After putting my goals front-center again, things calmed down and the stress just dissipated. You know, I don't need a house by 2020. Would be nice, but I wont enslave myself for it, and I certainly don't need to stress now. A house isn't a goal. Yet.

True, my goals are not the most valid ones around, but they're mine and they are something that makes me fight this fight day in, day out. So here's to that!

(I do need to revisit my goals, for myself and my own understanding of them, and to simplify them for you guys... but that'll be later!)

Another trip to the grocery store

It must be just me. Either that, or not a lot of people check their receipts from the grocery store. I'm willing to say that at least 6/10 times I go grocery shopping, my receipt is somehow wrong. Yesterday I went grocery shopping, and the total came to $29. Which sounded a bit high for what I was buying (bunch of produce and meats). Yet I was on my lunch break and couldnt linger to verify. However, when I came home, I discovered I was charged $6.29 for something that read "Perdue PP Ham". Perdue is a major chicken brand down here, but I didn't buy any chicken! This mystery meat was the second most expensive item in my grocery receipt. There were 16 items on my receipt and 15 in my bag. Great.

So what do I do? I went back today. And after standing and waiting for about 45min, they refunded me the money. Strange things: they had no record of that item, what it was, and they have no idea how it got into my receipt. Stranger thing? They couldnt even find my receipt in their file system! The girl looked at my receipt front and back, perhaps if to verify it was a legitimate receipt. What an ordeal... again.

I'm getting kind of used to having my receipts be wrong by now. Instead, I should be paying attention to when they are ringing the items, but I am not that fast of a thinker.

Wish that was the end of it, but not so fast. I had to go to Walgreens to pick up a few toiletries (and very, very cheap hair products!). By now, I should know better that if the cashier looks unhappy, I should probably go to a different one. But again, pressed in time, I stuck with the unhappy looking cashier. After not being acknowledged as being there, she started to check my stuff. The total was a bit over $45. I handed her my coupons, and she looked at me. She sighed and started scanning them. One had dropped to her counter (a small one), and another cashier had to point that out to her. She said two of the coupons werent working (they were Walgreens coupons too), so she didnt process it or tried to pass them through manually. Oh well. I ended up paying $28 for it all, but would've rather paid the $25 it was going to be if she had taken a bit more care.

Still, that leaves me with about $10 until next Friday. Other than eggs and more vegetables, I think I'll make it with no issue.

Yup. Pretty boring on this end!

6 Months of Good Conduct

Driving conduct, that is. After separating my car insurance policy, the insurance carrier has to re-evaluate me as an individual all over again which regretfully means I have to go through their 6-month probation-type period in order to determine if I am eligible for additional discounts. For those of you familiar with Progressive, that's the Snapshot program. I got 18% under my parents’ policy last time, so I’d gladly take something similar this time around.

All I know in regards to what affects your possible discount is whether you’re driving during peak-hours and how many hard stops you make (dropping 7mph in 1 second or less). While I can’t control my driving hours, I can control the hard stops. Problem is, my car is having brake issues where they are extremely noisy when applied, so I tend to brake harder if just to stop the noise. My dad and I can’t figure out what the problem is; we bought the brakes, but when we went to change them, we found out all 4 brakes are still in pretty decent condition, so we didn’t change them. I don’t want to take it to a mechanic who will just tell me to change the brakes, especially after we’ve already gone that route. I really do not trust mechanics. I’ll just have to be more careful.

I won’t bore you with the numbers and calculations. I've bored myself to near-death plenty a times, but I realized (slowly... it's only Wednesday; bear with me) that this is nothing different than all the other self-imposed good conduct or good behavior trials we put ourselves through, it being money-saving challenges, no spend months, in order to reach a goal/reward of sorts. Everything is relative, after all.