Dentists, Allergies and clothes

Seems like everyone is going to their dentist... except for me. The last time I went to a dentist was over 8-9 years ago when I broke a tooth. I know many will be appalled I haven't gone to a dentist in over 8 years, but I do have a very happy, mostly healthy smile. The not so good: what I don't know (such as cavities) and that I have all 4 of my wisdom teeth pushing at the rest of my teeth at random times. I suffer from a small jawline, so my teeth have always been crowded. The problem as is has sort of taken care of itself (minus one teeth in the lower jaw, one indented on the upper), so there's no immediate need to do anything. But I know I should go to a dentist. I don't have dental insurance, but I know I could afford to go to the dentist if I needed to. I just wouldn't be able to afford the more expensive procedures. I'll make that a goal for this year... hope to achieve it, even if it's just one visit. No idea on the costs associated, but will look into it.

Onto allergies... I'm just prepping before the season starts. For the past 2 years and out of nowhere, I've suffered from spring-related seasonal allergies. They are normally gone by June or earlier, and I am thankful they are not just year-round. I do hate paying over $0.45 per pill for Zyrtec, which seems to be the only one that works for me. This year, I found that Kirkland has their generics on sale for $0.04 a pill. I've never tried generics, but I'm willing to give them a go. You can find their Zyrtec generic, Allegra generic and Claritin generic by following those links (sale through 3/31). Have you tried generics? Any good or bad reviews?

Last, spring has finally decided to show up, so I'll be flipping wardrobes next week. With that, I'll be donating a lot of stuff, so lots of washing, mending and folding. I try to prune my wardrobe two fold with every season change: get rid of the clothes that I didn't like/didn't fit me for the current season, as well as getting rid of the clothes for the next season that I didn't wear last time and can't see myself wearing again. It's more like I'm adding two pieces of clothing and getting rid of 5, and that's ok with me! Have you started your wardrobe switch?

Phone research

On Sunday, I had tried to make a deposit through the Bank of America's ATM. Funnily enough, it was a BOA check, from their overdraft settlement. The check got stuck, and the machine ended up swallowing it whole before it went out of service! How frustrating. It had just started to snow (DID I MENTION WE GOT SNOW?! IT WAS AWESOME!), so I headed home and decided to call BOA in the morning.

Monday mornings are not for resolving things, as I was swamped with work and didn't get to it until my lunch break. On my third transfer to the appropriate department, my phone died. Dead dead. Battery was properly charged, it was just working one second, dead the other. Nothing I did for an hour seemed to help. Which got me thinking... what if it stays dead? I'd need to contact people and let them know, then try to scarcely remember what other things I had there, such as phone numbers, addresses and dates.

BB's Z10 and Q10

Worst of all, the new Blackberry phone doesn't come out until the end of this month, and that's the full-touchscreen one. The one I'd prefer, half physical keyboard, doesn't come out until June! So I'd either need to borrow one or make a forced upgrade (lose my grandfathered in data plan) or buy something at full/ebay prices to get me through. None of those were good options. So eventually, I went back to work, and within another hour, the phone started to work and all was good in the world.

To be honest, as much as I'd want a new phone, the new BB's have me a little underwhelmed for their price. I do want a better camera phone, and my phone has overall been dying (I can barely use the browser on it!), so I know an upgrade is due. I don't know what I want, so I guess time to start researching.

I know many aren't fans of smartphones, but if you are, got any favorites? I won't go into iPhones, but I will consider Androids or Samsung phones.

(Oh, if you're wondering about the check, apparently, they don't really care to retrieve the check to confirm. I had to guess on the amount [under-guessed by about 14 cents], and they just credited it to my account. No questions asked. How strange is that?)

Redefining my tracking of expenses

One of my goals for the year was to track my spending. Then I realized I've been tracking the wrong thing. Sure, it's nice to know that I'm spending approximately what I arbitrarily said I'd be spending in food, personal and gas, it's still not telling me the story I wanted to hear.

I wanted to track what happened to the money that didn't make it to one of those categories, or to already-assigned savings/debt repayment goals. This means mostly my PT job's earnings.

So far, I've gotten about $355 extra money since March started, and I've spent $230 at my parents'. Good news is, not all was lost. I also sent $100 to my IRA (go me!), and managed to salvage around about $65 to a random savings fund I'd like to become my car fund, which I still have not even started. If you followed my math there, I spent $40 over my allowance. That money probably came from my own grocery budgets. All in all, I think I'll be changing how I look at my spending.

Though my extra money hasn't done the impact I'd like it to see, I've still been making all of my pre-arranged payments (including sending $565 to SL1). I think I'm doing pretty good, but still could do better. Budgets are great in that you can always tweak them and use them different, even if they are set on paper.

Feel like I'm throwing it all away

Going to my parents' for fun vs just crashing in for work is really, really killing me. And my budget. Most if not all of my shortages started just about the time my mother went back to our country, so it was just my dad and I at home.

Normally (read: when my mother's there), I'd go to their house after working my part time job and stay the night. Friday night or Saturday night. If I was particularly unlucky, I'd go there Friday night and have to spend Sat morning at their place. But then I'd leave Sunday before noon and move along.

Now with my mother not there, I go Friday after work, cook dinner and hang out until Sunday night, even if I'm only working Sat night. But because they really don't keep a lot of edible foods besides canned soup, spaghetti and rice and eggs, I end up buying food. And buying food for a family with the budget of half a single person sucks.

Spending time with my dad is something that is very important to me. It's become such a rare occurrence, and bound to become more and more rare. I'm still paying for the whole thing myself, without borrowing money from other funds (or getting in debt, which is NOT an option), so it's not like I'm being irresponsible. It's just not following my paper plans.

Sad to say, I'm kind of glad she's coming back at some mysterious point in April. For once, my budget will be happy to see her.

First day of Spring came and went with the coldest temperatures since early January. What a great start! At least the sun is shining.

Have a great weekend!

Gone shopping

An online store was hosting some great sales on winter outerwear, so I thought I'd break down and buy a parka coat I've been wanting. Originally $160, it ended up being $15. I was SO happy with it when I received it, I wanted to take a photo of it. But that ghost still has not returned my camera battery, so no photo for you. Sorry. The coat, however, fits like a glove, and I'm actually a bit excited for next winter. As I've said before, best time to buy seasonal stuff is right at the end of the season.

I also ordered 3 other tops... one size smaller than what I normally wear (I wear a large). I ordered mediums, and the things are HUGE! I think they're big enough to be Large or XL. I'm sure their sizing is off, because though I'd lost about 23lbs total, I don't think I've gone from a large to a small. Each top only cost $4, so no biggy. I could try to alter them, but seeing as how that'd cost money and I could (possibly will) mess them up, I'll return them instead and get a credit. One big caveat of losing weight is that your clothes stop fitting you... and if you're like me with a tiny wardrobe, it really stinks.

When you set a weight goal for the year, do you try to just reach it and consider it done, or try to be that weight by the end of the year, or just for most of the year? My goal was to lose an additional 13lbs in 2013 (to 137), and the closest I've gotten to was 142. I'm about 5lbs away! It still made me wonder if the goal was to maintain the weight or attain it. (Not that it matters one way or another; healthy is healthy which is better).

Besides that, my weeks have just been constant work and little hassle. Other than spending too much at my parents' during the weekend, it's all good on the financial world.

Update: I broke down and bought a camera battery for $6. Might as well. So I may tease with a photo or two once I get it...

Thursday Budge Recap 3/14/13

No surprises, but I did manage to go over in literally every single category. 

 

About the extra money: $700 from March being a 3-paycheck month (I love these extra paycheck months!), $55 from part time job after paying for my taxes, and $40 from a tax mistake that did not withhold enough from my check. That's been fixed for this coming week's check.

The whole $700 was quickly shuffled to a vacation fund and went to sit tight in my Ally savings account. I still don't even have vacation plans yet. The extra $55 from my part time job was moved to a random savings account. I am trying to build up a Murphy fund, but so far, it's a shaky process. After all this movement of moneys, I was left with a little over $40, which was not enough to cover the $70 or so I spent at my parents for food and misc things they needed, like dog food and paper products.

I have found, much to my dislike, that I do treat savings as I would a bill. The moment any amount of money is labeled "savings", it is cemented as such and I'm not really allowed to short it. I don't feel it's right anymore to use that money. I guess that's a good thing, but it's quite restrictive.

I made it through these 2 weeks with only $10 under, but $755 more in savings. I'd consider that a win.

On that note, I'm ready for the weekend, even if I am working! The weather is nice, and guess who has 4 working automatic car windows?! I do! It's all about the small things.

Oops. Overdraft #1

I guess I have to own up to it, but this past paycheck was once again poorly managed. I'm doing my best to zero out my Checking account until it's time to pay my card at the end of the month, and so far it's been a challenge. I've used 4 of my 6 allowable transfers out of savings for March and it's not even the 15th!

Then I had to buy more salad stuffs for lunch and my credit card wouldn't work. It's had problems with the magnetic strip for quite a few months but I never requested a new card. So while paying for the groceries, it didn't work.

Did I take my other zero'ed out CC1 card? No. Did I take my Paypal card which holds a secret stash of about $100, give or take? No. I didn't have enough cash on hand, so I paid with my debit card. I overdrafted by $1.75. I forgot I paid for a prescription on Friday. Thankfully, this was through CapOne 360, so I should only get charged $0.20. I quickly withdrew some money, and zero'ed the account.

This is after I paid $2 at a non-qualifying ATM. At least I avoided paying a fee for keeping my library books too long and renewed them over the phone!

On the flipside, it was up to 60 degrees today. Although we got some torrential rain and winds, it was nice to see spring starting a little early.

A little wisdom about car repairs...

I know I've whined a lot about my car which had only 1 working window. They're all electric, and only front-driver side worked. I had made it a goal to fix the windows before the heat comes in late Spring and Summer. So, when I got my bonus for work, I got to work. Rather, I had my dad do the dirty work. (For those of you curious, he's doing great and isn't in pain anymore. Thanks!)

Anyway, we needed to buy the motor and the kit for the windows. Most stores carried the piece... at the cost of $110~$150 PER WINDOW (as seen here). Since I didn't have $600 just laying around, my dad went to Ebay and got all 4 new motor kits for $150 with free shipping from Ebay (as seen here). The only reason I'm linking these up is because it sounds rather unreal overall, and one of my co-workers I shared this with wouldn't believe me. But that's the gospel truth, as they say.

So my advice to anyone with car problems: ask for which part needs to be replaced, and ask how much it is for the piece only without the labor. A lot of my car repairs, even when they need to be done by a mechanic (like the ignition mechanism), we bought the parts for much, much less, and just had it installed.

If you're not 100% comfortable with buying parts, don't be afraid to contact the sellers. Most of them will be more than happy to help you match the right parts to your vehicle, and even match brand-store pieces to their inventory.

Needless to say, since I had budgeted $250 for this whole process of fixing my car windows, we could say that my dad got a $100 labor tip. I did help install one of the window, but only after following up after him while he installed the first three. Things like these can make car maintenance a little easier on the budget.

Hard worker

Very short post because I've been having anxiety wake me up multiple times during the night these past few days due to work, and it's finally caught up with me. I'm more tired than I should be, even if I did work until 11pm last night. But that was not the end of my day. I had to take my dad to the ER room for severe, sharp pain. He's been having issues, and his diagnosis is kidney stones. I am thankful it is something that treatable, albeit painful, and not something more serious.

One thing I will always admire of my dad is his work ethic. Last night while waiting in the ER room, all that was bothering him (besides the pain) was that he had promised a co-worker he would help him install some tiles at his house. We finally got to bed at around 5am this morning.

I woke up at about 8am and checked up on him and he was doing great. No pain at all. Phew, that was a relief to hear. I know most people are used to their elder parents getting sick, but to me, it's still much of a shock.

Then I went back to bed and woke up again at 10am to find him gone. Called him a couple times before he answered, fearing he had gone to the ER without me, but he was working. He said he felt a lot better, and that work also keeps him moving and keeps the pain at bay. I know probably his work ethic is a bit shadowed by his lack of common sense... but it's still admirable.

I'm off to catch a few more spare hours of sleep before working today. Hope you all are having a great weekend! It looks sunny and just warm enough for early spring.

New car

Don't worry, I haven't gone car shopping. I haven't even gone online car-stalking. But the "new (to me) car" issue has been on my mind long before I set the goals for 2013 back in November. Truth is, I can't afford a new car. It's more of a fact than a truth. Even if I meet my 2013 goal (and manage to get a total of $4,000 as the car fund), goal which is looking grimmer by the moment, I may still be short another $3-4k before I can buy something I'll agree with.

The whole reason for me wanting a "new" car at some point in the next 24 months is that I really, really do not want to take my current car with me when I move. It's a '99 with close to 200k miles which is too big, too wide and too long. It will have all 4 windows working after this weekend, as I paid my dad $250 to order the windows online and keep the rest of the money. He found them for $160, all 4 of them, and he will change them himself, which saves a ton. The stores wanted $130... for ONE window motor. Can you believe that?! It'd be about $520 not counting the labor! But I digress.

This car isn't really mine. It's my dad's. He just unofficially gave it to me after my old one, which wasn't really mine either, died in Oct 2011. I want something that's mine, and something I can rely on. Something with air conditioning would be awesome too! I've never had a car with air conditioning.

Imagine me laughing at myself at thinking that getting a mere $8,000 is a daunting task! Just wait until I need a mortgage...

As much as I hate the idea of payments, it may be my only solution in a way that collaborates with all other goals. Yet, as much as I can tweak my budget, I cannot accommodate a standard car payment (about $350/mo). So for the time being, this topic gets shoved to the back burner after reaching the too-familiar impasse.

How did you deal with your first really big purchase? Did you just wait all the way until you could indeed afford it all or did you bite the bullet and jumped before you had all your ducks in a row?

An alternative handling of rainy days

I am normally a very positive person, so in view of challenging situations, it's not a big deal for me to look at the silver lining and shift my focus. Still, bad days creep by and I find them rather hard to deal with.

Today was one of those days where the universe collaborated (and I must say, that was a lot of group effort) to make sure today sucked. Every aspect of it seemed to be for the birds.

I think that sort of day is what "rainy day" savings are for. Today, I wanted nothing more than to just eat and sleep. And by eat, I mean not cook. Last few times I've had days of this caliber, I often ended up ordering takeout and eating away my misery. Today, I was really, really close to that.

But since I didn't really have any funds cash (not that it was a big impediment), I managed to stall the conversation long enough to just get up and cook. No photos sadly, but I made this White Castle Casserole. The top of it looked like a souffle. It was kind of funny to look at, and a bit oily. Other than that, great flavor. I was surprised the topping worked! No photos, sadly... a bit of commotion in the house from where I rent, and I didn't feel like adding to the awkwardness.

Anyway, that aside, we know that getting new clothes, ordering food or buying yourself some contentment to make up for bad days are a sore spot to anyone's limited budget. I think cooking may be my ticket out of it, only if I manage to have all the ingredients of a recipe handy. Maybe I'll keep a bunch of ingredients, assuming they're non perishables, just in case this sort of day strikes again.

How do you deal with your rainy days? Anything to distract you from spending your way to contentment? Sleeping was a close second for me, but if history teaches me anything, is that sleeping before 9:30PM has me up by midnight and again by 2AM. Not much of a restful sleep!

If at first you don't succeed...

... Then perhaps failure is your style.

Nah, kidding. We tried the cornbread again, and this time, we stuck to what we know: Goya cornmeal, instead of instant pre-packaged all-in-one. Yeah, I know. A bit stereotypical. But hey, if there's something you trust to work, why go elsewhere?

We used Goya's yellow cornmeal and (sort of) followed the recipe 444 gave here. I say sort of because my dad was still skeptical and we combined their recipe with the one behind the cornmeal package (all that really changed was that we added more sugar and more baking powder). And added cinnamon. Not sure why no original recipe includes cinnamon! Just a tiny touch. And this was the beautiful result:

           

Not sure why they came out so crumbly, but they were very spongy inside and the top was similar to a coffee cake. Definitely a pass! Sadly, I don't think these will make it to see another day. I did buy 3lbs of cornmeal, so I am sure we'll try later.

Time to go get ready for work! Enjoy your weekend. 

Bonus money!!

We received the remaining of our bonus at work. Not only that, but my manager recommended me for extra money that was available, and I got part of that too! All to the tune of $2430 (after $700 in taxes. What the heck?).

So, what did I do with that money?

Buy things I've always wanted of course! Like the Kindle Fire HD tablet, the new Blackberry Q10 smartphone, decent work clothes, and a professional Nikon camera.

... No, not really. The Blackberry Q10 is not even out. You get brownie points if you caught that. My habits have become me, and even though I won't lie and say that spending it all on fun goodies is not what I'd like to do, it really isn't. I have better ideas.

I've been thinking and thinking of ways to use this so that I get to keep some of it... then I realized this: it is ALWAYS going to benefit me, one way or another. If I use it all to pay down balance on my debt, I am giving myself more money in the future to pay for my move years down the road. If I fund my 2013 goals now, I'm releasing money from this year that I can use it in other things. If I buy things for myself... well, that's an easy one.

That said... my primary choice is to ease my 2013 burden by aiding some of my financial goals for the year, right now. That'd mean $700 would go for my Christmas fund, $230 for my certification exam, $250 towards fixing my car windows, $1,000 to open an IRA. Then as a bit of a 'fun' fund, I'd take $250 to put towards a new phone. That would only cover between half or 1/3 of the cost of the phone, as I am sure it'll cost $500+ out of contract. The rest, I have to find elsewhere.

I opened my IRA this morning (hurray!), filed my federal taxes (yay!), need to send a check out as MD wouldn't let me eFile or send in electronic payments (boo), and moved most of the remaining money to where it needs to be (or so I hope). All before even getting ready for work.

What do you think of that plan? Should I put some extra towards debt, even though I'll be putting approximately $600 every month now that taxes are paid for? As much as I covet a tablet, I'd rather not get one now. I see a new smartphone as a bigger reward. Sometimes I hate being disciplined like this. I am going to my dad's for the weekend, so maybe I'll spoil myself there (not really spoil, but buy food stuff that I dont need to cook).