Still alive

That had to be the longest I've gone without posting, but I think the un-budget March has me in shames. I really just needed some room to let everything break and go its own way.

Yes, little monkey. Time is slipping!

With my vacation to NY only a mere 48hrs away (yikes!) and little planned on it, I really can't say I am stressed. With my other vacation to Chicago, I am truly stressed out and it's 9 days away.

Haven't really had time to blog or read up because of, um, stuff at work. My work partner and manager have been going at it, my partner is looking to leave (and I'm sort of cheering for her to get a better job), so it's just been uncomfortable and busy. Busier.

Bye bye budget! See you in April.

Budget wise, as I mentioned, March will be a surprise even for me, after it has passed. Another round of unexpected events (thanks parents... you're like the gift that keeps on giving [problems]!) came my way depleting my EF and part of my vacation fund. Discouragement hit my books like a brick wall, and I honestly have not kept up with my expenses (as far as recording-- but worry not! As I teased Andrea from So Over Debt on the coupon post on her blog, I managed to snatch 2 Welch's Essential juices (the big sizes), 2 bags of mixed veggies, a bag of croutons and a bag of salad, I only paid $2.70. See? Frugality carries on much after your budget goes out the window.

My taxes are due in the song of $2000. I am not worried about paying the taxes, as they will (somehow) be paid over the stretch of 6 months. This is good and bad; good because I don't have to pay it all at once and only suffer some interest backlash (interest on interest... don't get me started), bad because I wont be able to do any snowballs for 6 full months as the $333/mo is a lot higher than I can afford. I am yet to see what this will do to my plans... bad because I have to fix my W4 and will be getting less Net pay every paycheck, but good because that fix in the W4 should spare me from this next year and good that I have a good $600 coming from that credit card I opened, reaching payout on my CC1 and ING Checking bonus, meaning that will have to suffice as snowball. I refuse to let that money get stolen by this new debt. $600 is actually 4 months worth of snowballs, so I may not be falling so far behind after all! Could've been very ahead... but at least I can still meet my mark.

Plans for vacation 3 fell through, and even though I am really bummed about it and wont get to meet a long time online friend and his wife, I'm sort of glad I wont have to work with that new expense at the end of July. I may still go and meet some other friends, but the expenses will be considerably lower, and I'm quite happy about it.

Overall, I'm still alive. (any Portal fans?)

March is almost over, folks! Week and a half and we're into April. Oh, and happy spring! I am not loving the rain, but oh, the flowers! View-tiful all over. Have a nice humph day!

Oh oh / What's luck got to do, got to do with it?

Yeah, I'm a shameless Tina Turner fan. Who isn't? (actually, please don't reply to that). Also, Mark inspired me to think of songs as titles. Well, I sort of had that song stuck in my head, but I thought I'd make a post Mark-style: with an awesome song.

I got to thinking this morning on my way to work... October was a month to be someone you arent and dress up for Halloween and get your candy fix. November was a month to be thankful. December was a family-time, get-together, warmth-inducing month. Then we get January and get slammed with resolutions, and February with all the lovey-dovey, friendship and SAD stuff. What's March? Well, LUCK of course!

Do I consider myself lucky? Do you consider yourself lucky? Of course you do. Think about it. How often do you go out and think outside of the power struggle between you and debt? We're too often just focused in debt, and it becomes walls arounds us. All of our debts are written in these walls. We read our past mistakes over and over and over. They stare down at us and we pledge revenge. We regret doing some things and wish we had been smarter. Debt is always on our mind and it reflects in our actions.

But if you care to look outside your debt cubicle, per se, you would see that you actually have a lot to go for. For one, you're alive. Congrats! Yes, I know most of you think that is a given and don't think about it, or think it's the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel blessing. But it isn't. Have you seen the statistics these days? I won't make any numbers up, but there are a lot of people dead or dying. And not just in third-world countries, but people wearing similar shoes as you. People with careers, jobs, families, mortgage, car payments, goals and so on. Health is right up there too.

But outside those over-the-top blessings; think about your situation. Sure, there's debt. There are mistakes. There are regrets. There's Murphy. There's that vehicle/appliance/house part that needs fixing. And that cousin/parent/sibling/child/friend who is just not very nice to deal with until after they've had their 10th cup of coffee. There's also family, and that's hopefully a thing you're lucky to have. I'm lucky to have mine. Otherwise I really wouldn't be who I am today and probably wouldn't exist. I'm lucky for having a job or two. It's sounding like dejavu as I constantly am reminded I am thankful and lucky to have the things I have, regardless what challenges tag along.

I am actually really, really fortunate and very lucky. I don't mean LUCKY in the sense that this isn't something I've worked for. Some people take offense when the word "lucky" comes to play because they think the speaker is literally saying "you don't deserve this. It came to you by pure chance". Nope, not what I mean. I mean that with every breath you take, you're taking chances. And you're continuing to beat some chances, and not all of them are something you can control. A lot of them are completely outside of your control. And yet you continue to push on and move forward. I consider that lucky.

If you put everything (and I mean everything, good or bad!) on a scale, you are still coming ahead. Is that lucky? Considering all of the odds you've beat thus far, including being where you are in your debt journey, your health, your family and friends, things you've done and/or seen and/or experienced, I think you're lucky. I know I am.

How about you? Do you consider yourself lucky thus far, in the light of all of your challenges, misfortunes, miscues and mistakes?

Ok, done hiding.

I know people get sick. I know people get sick a lot more often than I'll ever be in my lifetime. I am really thankful for my health. I have a rather strong immune system that goes unnoticed by all. But once it does get hit, it crumbles. Hard and fast. So I've been getting my rear end handed to me these past two weeks courtesy of a common cold that has behaved a hair short of pneumonia+bronchitis. In my defense, last time I had a cold, I did end with bronchitis. So I've been playing safe. It is finally leaving, though not fully gone.

I've also been hiding from the world with little to no success. After my big failure called Feb 2012, I am STILL waiting for the smoke to clear in order to assess all the damages. I've been trying to hide from this blog not to fess up to my mess. The lack of control and getting sick kind of did me in, so I'm ignoring it until I have to do another recap later in March.

If there was one thing I learned in college was that changing too many variables at once was a bad idea. In math, science, philosophy, heck, even in English. If you were doing something, don't change all of the variables at once. It's just a bad idea.

Well, I had no control over much during the second half of February, so I thought, if it's gonna be bad, let me go ALL out and make it terrible. So I did open a credit card solely for the rewards. I did borrow from my EF, and I got sick. I juggled money from one account to the next, and although I think I did everything correctly, it's almost untraceable and hard to pinpoint.

On the good side, I got my individual cellphone line. It will add $70/mo to my expenses. I would LOVE to upgrade my phone, but I am rather sure I've talked myself out of it... at least until I'm done with this mess. I have not moved my car insurance, and apparently, I am locked in for another 6 months. Yay?

It is driving me nuts not being able to see the clear picture I learned to love and care for, that was my budget. So simple, so clear cut. Everything coming out of a same place, and into another place. It was the perfect black and white photo. This new chaos has me spazzed and I am overly anxious to see it settle down, hopefully by tomorrow.

So budget-wise, for March, I am looking to refilling my EF with that extra paycheck next week, figuring out what the heck happened, and enjoying my vacations. I've only spent about $9 OTC medication since March started. I guess we can consider that a good sign.