Are there lessons only learnt the hard way?

It's not always that I am downright stubborn, spiteful, and refuse to yield to advice. Sometimes, I just think people exaggerate a bit, or that I may be a bit more flexible than they are, a bit more tolerant or willing to trade inconvenience for other benefits. I have different views about things compared to other people. Don't we all?

My dilemma comes in the form of airfare this time. We (Maryland/DC area) are graced with 3 different airports: BWI, DCA and IAD. I've never flown out of DCA/IAD, but the main one I use, BWI, is the best of the three. And according to people, it is the best of the three by more than 50 miles' worth of praise. Even when BWI is over $150 more expensive than the alternatives, people have told me to stick with it because the headache isn't worth it.

I am not looking to discredit people or to let my naivety show by saying that it can't be THAT bad. I could bite my tongue for a few hours, if that puts $150 back into my pocket. I'm still playing with this vacation idea, but I get the feeling that going against popular advice may make me regret things later. Or not. It could go without issues and be pleasant AND cheap.

I was wondering, are there things you do that make sense to you, against all outside voices of reason? Are there lessons you've been told about, but you just had to find the hard way?

I know I did. EFs sounded like a bright and fluffy idea, but after having my EF complete, it's like a weight off my shoulders that I didn't even know was there. I have no idea why I didn't listen to it earlier! Likewise, I've gone against popular opinion in some of my debt-paying endeavors, and had a much better result than if I had just listened. Guess it's a split when it comes to new things.

More moving for me this weekend, but hopefully by Saturday night I'll be somewhere with internet! SO excited. Have a good one, all!

Where do you find money for new expenses?

Rent is going up by $50/mo starting Jul 1, and my gas expenses are also going up by roughly $60/2wk period. The $50 for rent will come out of my charity fund, at least until I can get a better grasp and understanding of the changes. The $60/2wks for gas is a bit more complicated...

As of right now, I have $160 for 2wks for all non-bill, non-debt. $60 of that is gas money, and $100 go for food and anything else I'd have to buy (including clothes, personal items, etc). I could try to wiggle out the $60 out of there, but $40 to spend in food for 2 weeks just doesn't sound right. I'm paying down debt, not being a miser!

All things remaining the same, that leaves my snowball money to be dealt with. It's $535 the first check, $130 the second check, for a total of $665 a month in snowball payments. I've made a point never to touch that money and continue to pay as agreed. My plan and move depend on it. But something has to give!

I could make a case to use my PT job's earnings to cover for the gas expense, but as I've said, this money is not year round, and not stable at all. Most times it happens, but some times it doesn't. It will definitely not happen when I'm on vacation and have to miss work! Then after October, I can pretty much kiss it goodbye until the spring. I can't even think about relying on something variable. That's how things start going wrong.

Begrudgingly, I've agreed to the following terms: $20/2wk from my personal allowance (leaving me with $80), $40/2k from snowballs. Instead of $665 extra payments, I'll only be making $585. I'm disappointed on this, and I'll try to use most of my PT job's money to even this out for as much as I can, for as long as I can, but no guarantees. This can set me back as much as $1k/yr!

How do you accommodate new changes? I don't have utilities to cut back on (other than my phone... which is my ONLY utility and right now, only source of entertainment/communication), so my options are truly limited. Thank goodness the cut is in areas of excess, since I don't HAVE to pay extra on debt. It still upsets me, but I can live with it. Could be much, much worse.

My Part-Time Job

I almost did not even want to mention the possibility of quitting my PT job in a previous post, though it makes sensible economic sense. I love it there, though it is not glamorous, easy or stress-free. It's actually quite tough. I work at a hotel as a server.

If I were to quit by Nov, I'd be 9 years into it. It'd be a shame to quit without getting to 10! I may be vain, but I think working anywhere for 10 years should look really good on a resume, which I'll need to land an out-of-state job when I start the moving process in 2 years.

I got this job shortly after we moved to the US, as a "for the summer" job (or for 9 summers thus far). It is a nice hotel. I love my managers and I get along great, especially with those that have been there as long or longer.

Being part time, I am mostly there during busy season: Fridays and Saturdays, Apr through Oct. I can reasonably expect to get between 6 and 25 hours every 2 weeks, 8-15hrs being a fair average.

Anyway, this job has some obvious pluses and minuses.

Positives:
- Extra money, about $150-$350/mo
- 401k Matching contributions (small amounts because I work few hours, but free is free)
- Different line of work vs sitting in a desk at FT
- Get to hang out with my dad for a bit on the weekend
- I enjoy working with the people there; they're like family
- Possible future referral**
The hotel I work with is part of a nationwide chain, which means if I were to remain active, I could just request a transfer. No guarantees, but better than nothing!)

Negatives:
- It's far. 60mi each way from FT job. Broken down, it's about $9 in gas each way
- Having to go to my parents' house for a day or two = big upsets and money sinks
- Definitely not the best "bang for my buck". I could be working somewhere closer
- Tiring as heck, and though I'm only 26, my body is quite showing signs of it
- Socialization? Time off? What's that?!

As much as I love toying with the idea of quitting and the endless free weekends I'd get, I just can't bring myself to it. I like my weekend mental-health break which this hotel provides. The money ain't half bad either, but not that much when you add in commute and parent related expenses. What would you do? Ever had a job that you felt like you should quit, but didn't?

Happy Friday! Time for a quick reset

My PT job and I have a love/hate/love relationship. Right now, we're in the "love" stage. My brain is rapidly fraying, and the only thing that I can look forward is working there on the weekend! It's always been a bit of a mind-reset, mental-health-break of its own. A reset in the manner that it burns you out so hard that the only alternative is to reset, and that's fine with me. I need that.

Apparently, the place I was scheduled to rent 7/1 all of a sudden became unfurnished. The landlord's ex is taking the furniture tomorrow, and the room that I was renting was agreed on because it was furnished. Now it's not. So we're in a bit of a back and forth over the "who pays for the bed/mattress" deal. She said she'd pay up to $50 and I pay the rest. I don't even care for a dresser, and I have my own desk. I just need a bed, and used ones can get sketchy, if not downright expensive. Not a great way to start a relationship, eh?

Things at the current place, let's just say I will be moving by the end of the month whether I have a place or not. I'm a hard head like that and sometimes, the only way to learn things is the hard way.

Other than that, all is good! Making June a cash month was one of my best decisions this spring. Besides getting the haircut. But I managed to scrape by with $5 leftover as of today. Go me! Gas expenses have really shot up, but I think I'll manage. I'll post an update of this month next Saturday once I re-balance my Quicken and Paypal. It will be a VERY interesting balancing act. I expect to see lots of things in the red.

But no sense worrying about things yet to come. I've still paid everything as agreed, didn't skimp one dollar on my snowball payments, debt payments, I did not create any more debt (thank you, PT job's income). It was just higher and less controlled than I'd like it to be.

Happy SUMMER-TIME!

Reading what I want

I have a small secret that's really no secret at all because I'm sure I've mentioned it: as far as books are concerned, I love indulging in a good, almost tacky fantasy book. Dragons, elves, magic, swords, kingdoms and wars. I love all of that. I've never been a fan of "classics" or "must read" books, but smaller "juvenile fiction" books hold a special place in my heart.

Thing is, most people I know seem to disagree that I should even be spending (translation: wasting) time reading these kinds of books. The high and mighty books I should be reading are biographies of presidents past and present, books of wars that happened, lives of people who were once verifiable alive... etc.

Try as I may, I just can't sit through most books of that sort. I am sure they have their merits, and probably a good reason to being a "high and mighty" book, but they're just not for me. I'm rather content in my small, unrealistic and unlikely fantasy land. I can read the other books, but I draw little enjoyment from most. Why am I so worried about what other people think, anyway?

So this weekend, taking advantage of the rare luxury of internet at my parents' house, I got a few free books from Amazon. Gotta love the Kindle and its large stock of free books! And changes their free content often. Every once in a while you find a few gems at no additional cost. The books I got? All of them fantasy. Sorry to disappoint you, world. Right now I'm reading The Book of Deacon, and I find it hard to put down. It had me at the introduction. It isn't the greatest and most fantastic book by any means, but it's good enough for me.

Talk about cheap entertainment, eh?

Haircut and more commuter's math

 

I crunched the numbers and here's what it was, as far as my commute. I lived 5mi from work commuting 5 days a week, plus one 120mi roundtrip per week, a total of 170mi every week, or 340 every 2 weeks (my budget cycle):
Miles driven in a 2-week period: 340 @ $0.147/mi, or $50

I was spoiled and I know it.

The new data from my prospective place of residence: It's 24mi each way from my FT work. So if I drive it every day, here's what happens:
Miles driven in a 2-week period: 720 @ $0.147/mi, or $105.88.

That's a $55.88 more per month I'd have to come up with. I totally did not foresee it being THIS high.

So in a bit of desperation, I looked around and it seems there is 1 single lone route between FT job and this prospective place of residence. Times are tight, especially in the out time.

I'd board the first bus at 7AM (thankfully, both drop off and boarding places are within a 5min walk of work/house). They'd leave me by work at 7:40, which is perfect. But the return isn't that accommodating. The bus leaves at 5:05pm and I have to call them every day because they don't usually pick up at 5 at that stop. So assuming I am able to make it every day, I could ride the bus 4 times a week (Fridays I leave straight from FT to PT job). It's $3 each way.

Cost per week for bus rides per 2 week period: $92.94 with a monthly pass, or $100.94 without one. This includes the Fri drives.

It's a mere $5-$13 difference than if I was driving. Bummer indeed.

Alternatives to explore? Ahem. Quitting my PT job that I keep saying I will quit every year since year 5 (I'm on year 9 now) or walk away from this rental and wait for something closer. Decisions, decisions...

***************

I thought I was gonna be able to slip by without posting the photos, but I'll stick to my word.

These photos aren't great by any stretch of the imagination. Initially, I just wanted to see how much of a change this was going to be, so here you have me in my PJs before/after photo:

I originally asked for 5 inches off, which turned out to be spot on. The girl was surprised that my definition of an inch was actually pretty darn close to the metric definition of an inch, and it was exactly the amount needed to be cut to get rid of most of the layers, without going above my shoulder (I'm not ready for that kind of commitment!).

 

And a front photo, if it makes a difference. I love the haircut. Makes me wonder why I waited 18mo to get it done?!

 

 

This was only $18+tips. Not bad at all.

Budgets and cuts

The gas section of my budget has always been extremely sensitive. I guess in more honest terms, it's poorly made and tightly adjusted to a best case scenario. $50 every 2 weeks used to get me from my previous place to FT job (about 100mi for 2wks) plus to and from PT job (about 240mi for 2 weekends). So that's all I budgeted for; $50 every 2 weeks.

I have not readjusted once, even when I changed my weekly commute from 50mi/wk to 150mi/wk for June in this temporary housing arrangement. The extra $10 seemed to help, but I still need to crunch the numbers. When I do move, if I do, it would be even further. We're talking from 50mi/wk to 150mi/wk to 300mi/wk, not counting PT job. And $50/mo extra in rent. I just want to be settled. Tired of having all up in the air...

Anyway. I cut my hair! Woo hoo! Only 5 inches, but I have pics!... that I can't share right now because they're in my camera and I have no cable or SD reader with me. I'll bring a camera cable to work tomorrow and maybe I'll be able to get the photos out. But I am very very happy with the cut, and it looks so much better. It's shorter than I've had it before, so it's strange to pull it and it ends so soon (sorry, not sure how to describe that).

Father's day was fantastic. We ended up taking my dad to watch Man of Steel, and he liked it a lot (mostly because of the effects). Story was ok. It was me, dad, older brother plus SIL and two babies, younger brother and younger sister plus boyfriend. Only sibling missing was the other younger brother who decided he'd rather not join. Works for us. Then we went out to dinner (just me, dad, older brother, SIL and babies). We had a great time, mostly entertaining the babies, who did not cry or whine or misbehave.

I did overspend. Mostly because I offered to put gas in my dad's car, to the tune of $80 for a 90% full tank. That car is horrible on gas, but it was the only one that would carry all of us. Then I paid for half the dinner bill and me+dad's movie tickets and snacks. All in all, $150 spent. I'm not panicking since I still had $180 leftover from my PT pay that wasn't destined to greater things. It was still expensive. But it was worth it.

This is what nightmares are made of

Just got off work a while ago (midnight or so), and while I settle down enough to sleep, I think, out of bad judgement, that now would be the best time to refresh Quicken and have it balance my accounts.

So what do I see when I click "Update All Accounts"? I see a random high amount in Paypal. Like, 26k too high. The account normally holds less than $100. I freak out and try to track it down in Quicken, then freak out AGAIN when I see it says it is a bank transfer. Transfer from where?! I don't even own that much if I were to sell all of my stuff!

So there was a random transfer of $24k and then a $2k down the line. I checked Paypal and saw no trace of it. No idea where it came from. I had just balanced that Paypal account last weekend. I can make no sense of the numbers, so I'll just assume Quicken was as tired as I am and made up random numbers. No, I didn't have a $241.32 charge either. But as I said, it doesn't exist in my actual Paypal account, nor any of my banks, so I think I'm safe... the account doesn't balance, but it's too late to get into figuring it out. Got work tomorrow again, so I need some sleep.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend. It is SO nice out, that is almost a shame to spend it inside working.

Alternatives to flying

I've randomly selected the days between Aug 2 and Aug 11 to be my vacation days. It falls during my birthday too, but that was unintended. I have 8 "use it or lose it" vacation days that expire at the end of August, so time is ticking.

Price of flights have sure gone up! I normally fly during the summer season and the prices reflect it, but nothing like this go around! I've paid up to $260 for a plane ticket. Now? The same/similar flights cost $387. Ouch! That's not including parking (about $80 for 10 days).

I was told I should check the alternatives. Namely, bus and trains. I've driven to Chicago once at the cool cost of $300 and 30hr roundtrip, but the car died shortly after. My current car wouldn't get me past Ohio, so I wont even go there. Here are my alternatives:

Train
Amtrak Capitol Limited line from DC to Chicago: $210. Not too bad. Except for the 20hr departure and 17hr arrival rides. That's 37hours! Plus, it does not include meal, about $30/trip (or I can pack it, I'm sure). I can also get a sleeper car for only $380 more! What a steal.

Bus
Greyhound from DC to Chicago: $160. That's 17hrs in, 19hrs back (36hrs). About two 1hr layover in PA and OH. No meals included either. And a heck of a lot more stops. And a lot less room.

Plane (for comparison)
Mixed airlines from Baltimore to Chicago: $387 or DC to Chicago: $290, 2.5hrs each way.

Regardless of whether or not I make this trip, I think the winner is easy to see. Laying things down helps make sense of the data. And though I'd love to take a train ride, I don't think it's worth the extra 35hrs. At least I don't think so right away! So I'll keep looking.

Have you taking an alternative to flying before? I've never been on a train and would love to, but I just don't think it makes sense. Even less by myself!

Goals, goals, and more goals

June is almost gone and I thought it'd be a good time to review my 3 sets of goals and how I'm doing:

Monthly:
1) I did make a dentist appointment that wont be until July (no surprise there) Pass
2) I'm getting my haircut on Tuesday. Pass
3) It's been raining cats and dogs here, so a car wash makes no sense. In progress
4) Since I'm moving again, my moving budget is pretty much awash. I didn't go over apparently, and haven't had to mess my other goals, so I'd say I'm good! In progress

Biannual:
30 MONTHS (1/'13 - 6/'13) (wow, it's been 30 months since I started this journey?!)
1. CC1 PAID OFF by 2/'13 Changed to 3/'13 DONE IN JAN! 
2. Maintain EF intact through mid year It remains untouched. What's more, I have a small slush fund!
3. Save/build up $500 for various goals (Christmas or vacation funds) Very over-done. Saved $700 for Christmas, $700 for vacations, $250 for my phone and $230 for certification exam.
4. Create study plan. Start studying no later than June at 4hrs/week. Ahem... No idea what's going on here.
5. Rebuild $2000 car fund by May June Will be done in July, actually. Close enough, no?
6. Fix the car or look into replacing it by summertime (3 windows broken during 100 degree weather and no A/C = NO!) Fixed the windows back in February. Thank goodness, because I LOVE having 4 working windows!

Yearly:
I won't go over each goal as most are on-track. Some aren't. I need to re-start reading. So far I only have free books in my Kindle, but I think I'm up to 8 or 9 books read. My weight has been at the +/-5lbs on and on. My lowest weight was 142, so 8lbs away from my goal. I'm currently at a pretty solid 150, so 15lbs to go.

So far, so good. Time to gear up for the second-half of the year.

I know goals are falling out of style, so I'll ask instead: how are you doing now compared to where you thought you'd be by now? I think that other than the moving, I'm exactly where I wanted to be, if not a bit better off. Hope the second half goes this well!

Pay or save

We read that we shouldn't be saving in low interest accounts when we have high interest debt. Thankfully, none of my debts are higher than 6.55%. But that's still a lot more than the 0.75% and 0.90% I am getting from savings accounts.

In July, I will have $2000 saved up, which was rebuilt as a car down payment. This fund ideally is set aside for whenever I decide to change my vehicle, mid/late next year. I also have $420 which was from one of my yearly goals (car down-payment related), plus the $250 I spoke about from my "phone" fund. That's about $2670 in all. I'd still have my $1k EF, $1600 in misc. saving goals like Christmas and vacations and a $125 "slush" fund.

Now here's the deal:

I honestly don't foresee having to change the car or perform any heavy maintenance on it in the next 9 months. 9 months is the time it will take me to rebuild the fund once again. Of course, I don't know the unexpected, but I'm giving hope a fair chance.

Should I use all of these funds to make lump sum payments into my debt? My debt would be paid off January 18, 2014 instead of April 26, 2014. I'd save on interest too, though I can't calculate exactly how much. I can be sure it'd be over 0.90%. Would you trade off the small security of having money available in exchange of faster debt-freedom?

The good kind of error

It's been well over a month since I last synched my Quicken because I've had no internet, but I finally reconciled my accounts. Took me the better part of 2hrs to finish. (Paypal is such a pain to reconcile!!) Now that it's done, I noticed something was off.

Apparently, I never used the $250 that was in my Ally account, designated for a new phone. I had a matching $250 in my checking account, and when I decided not to go for the newest version, I bought the phone plus a Kindle (love it!) and a camera. That all plus accessories cost $350. I paid for the extra $100 out of pocket apparently, with my PT job's checks. Small oversight with a nice ending! No wonder my notes were not matching up.

In other news, I've been cooking! But that still doesn't mean I'm getting that much better at it. Very rusty. I misread (ok, I didnt misread. I misunderstood) that the recipe asked for 8fl.oz of OJ concentrate, and only added 2oz of concentrate + 6oz of water. The recipe still came out good, and I didn't realize it until the next morning! So here's this recipe for Sticky Orange Glazed Chicken Thighs. And my results:

I also tried a much less creative ground turkey salad/taco. I kind of winged the recipe, but liked the idea of the lettuce bowls:

Hope you all have a good Saturday and a great weekend. I'll be looking at another possible rental place tomorrow, and waiting to hear from others. Would be awesome to find a decent place before the end of the month!

Is $25 always $25?

I got a free copy of "Living Rich by Spending Smart" a while ago from the Amazon store, so I've been reading it to pass time while I have no internet and nothing better to do. It's an ok book so far. While not my favorite, it has a lot of good points. Here's one I wanted to share. Their example went something like this:

If you go to a store looking for a pair of shoes, to find they are $75 on sale, but you overhear another customer that the same shoes cost $50 at a store that is 5 walking blocks away, would you walk the 5 blocks? Most would. I know I would.

But same scenario with a living room set. You find the one you want on sale for $2660. Someone comments it's only $2635 at another store 5 walking blocks away. Considering all delivery/payment/reputation are the same, would you walk the 5 blocks to the other store to save $25? The research shows that most would not walk to the other store. Would you? I admit I probably wouldn't. Guilty as charged.

$25 saved is $25 saved regardless, no? Your bank account probably doesn't care where the funds came from, but most of us will discriminate between a 33% savings vs a 1% savings.

Thought I'd share that with you all. It will definitely make me rethink my comparison shopping from now on and to treat money as money and not always a percentage.

4 things for me to accomplish this month

Everything has been pretty much out of control since May, but I'm still on budget (or over if we were to consider the spending of my PT job's earnings). Things are about to take another sharp turn soon as the plot with the whole moving thickens, but your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, there are 4 tasks I keep putting off. So to combat the chaos that this month holds, I'm try to create control and order. These 4 tasks are:
1) Make a dental appointment. Seriously. Even though I don't have any dental insurance, I NEED to get this done. I'm sure I won't be seen this month, but getting the appt is half the battle.
2) Get a haircut. Simple enough. Last time I got one was at least 12-18mo ago, and it shows. That's also an instant mood booster, and I need some of that these days.
3) Get my moving-related expenses tallied, ASAP!
4) Wash my car. Ahem. It has seen better days, and the windshield looks awful in any light.

Small, probably not very driven or ambitious list, but if I can get it done, I'll be a happier person. (Honestly, I forgot what #3 was and substituted it. It will come back to me soon)

One thing I've realized about wealth is that I'd like to be wealthy enough to do major-impact random acts of kindness. There are so many people out there that need a hand, but I feel my own are tied. Not for long. But for now, they are.

Do you strive to be wealthy? What's your reason? Family? Lifestyle? Richness itself?

Not very impressed with the move

I'd love to say that I won the lottery and have been busy moving to a place I really want to move to, like Chicago, but that's not the case.

I did move, and so far... Well. Let's leave it at that. It is safe, for all intent and purposes. My roommate/landlord is ok (if we ignore the lack of any sort of measuring cups, kitchen bowls OR cooking utensils! Seriously. Not 1 cooking spoon). The place? Eh... I could live here if I REALLY had to. Which I kind of did. But I'd really not. For now, I'll suck it up. I moved to the cabin by the sea. Did I mention there's water... EVERYWHERE?!! Doesn't help it has been storming bloody murder for the past 2 days. The sea is really not something I want to cross the wrong way.

For those of you that aren't mortally afraid, I guess you could say it's lovely. The view, anyway. The place is in rather desperate need of upkeeping. And I'm not convinced enough I am staying to start working on that.

A-ny-way. Money wise, it's very scary. Between not being able to cook right before I moved out to the first week I was here, to having to drop my half brother to the airport 3 times (total of over 400miles) in 2 days (first to drop him, second to pick him up because he forgot his passport, third to drop him off again), cleaning up my last place and buying some essentials for the new place... Yeah, I'm barely breaking even. Thankfully, I had an extra $190 from my PT job to bail me out, but even then, I'm still about 30 over. That's not counting the additional gas from the commute.

Ahem. Other than that, all is great! I'm trying hard to focus on the positives. Even though we still have no internet (posting this from my new phone. Woo hoo!), I get free reign in the kitchen and may even re-borrow the sewing machine me and SIL got for Christmas and do some light sewing. Roommate is rarely here, so no noise ordinance for me. I'm such a rebel.

I'm trying to keep costs of moving separate for later. Just to see.

Other things going on with me? Excited for my vacation in July to go to Dave Matthews Band concert, and Sluggy hooking me up with things to do and places to go. I love having an insider!

I'm still reading blogs, just haven't gotten to writing. I'll try harder from here on. Have a good week, all! Happy Monday.