October

I have been meaning to post for almost a week now, but I just haven't gotten a chance. I am trying really hard not to watch too much about the economy or worry about my retirement money. The biggest reason I worry is because I want to be paying extra on my car to get it paid off, but I am not sure if that's a great idea right now. I feel like I should be putting all of my extra money into savings for the time being. I am planning to put it all in savings and make larger extra payments every few months. I think I will have enough set aside to pay around $1,500 extra in December.

I am not sure how I will do at meeting my net worth goals over the next few months. I hope things will turn around so that I can meet, or exceed, them.

For October my goals are simple . . . Study, Save, and Sleep! I have been exhausted lately, so more sleep is in my plans. I need to really work on my food budget. I can't afford to go over this month with the holidays coming up. I am hoping to go under if anything since I am hosting Thanksgiving next month, so I will need some extra for that. Due to my family traveling 250 miles, they are somewhat limited as to what they can bring. They will be supplying some things which helps.

I also need to work on my budget this month. I need to find somewhere to move money from to put towards extra doctor bills. I am not sure where this is going to come from yet.

When I had my performance review at work back in June, I was told that I would probably be getting an equity adjustment at the very end of October when I hit my one year mark in my current position. I feel this is warranted since I am making less than the other people in the same position as me in my department. With things going the way they are in the economy though, I am not sure if I will be getting this. Is it right to ask about this? Or should I wait until they bring it up? I would love to hear what you think!!

September Goal Review

My September goals . . .

1.) Increase net worth by $500. I believe I met this goal. My rough calculations show that I did. I will know for sure tomorrow though.

2.) Limit fun/extra/personal spending to $50. This includes any clothes. I did not succeed at this goal. I went over due to buying a pair of jeans and some dress pants. They were a great deal though. I went over by $14.

3.) Save $250 towards house down payment. This will be my first month of trying to set aside month specifically for a house down payment, so we will see how it goes. I did save $250. However, I think my savings strategy has to change. A house is just not in the plans right now. I am still going to save this amount each month, but for other purposes.

4.) Buy no personal hygiene or apartment related items. I have so much shampoo, toilet paper, dish soap, etc that I should not be buying anything like this! I did great on this one. I did not buy anything in this category.

5.) Study for career related exam at least 4 times each week. I have been putting this off. It's something that I really want to do, but take a lot of times and dedication which I have not been very good at lately. I was not successful at this one. I studied, but not as much as I would have liked. I hope that I can do better in October.

6.) Exercise at least 4 times per week. My definition of exercise currently is anything that gets me up and moving. I can't wait for my new yoga DVD to get here to try that. I also go for walks which I count. The weather is going to cool down at the end of the week and I can't wait. I love fall. I didn't manage the 4 times per week, but I did get in 3. So, not great, but better than nothing!!

Overall, I think that I did okay. I am hoping to post my October goals tomorrow. I need to revise my budget due to a few changes. My doctor appointment line item needs to be increased. This will result in taking some funds from elsewhere.

I hope the economy stabilizes soon. I hate hearing about how the markets do from day to day. It's a good thing I have a long time until retirement.

Lunch with an Old Friend

I went out to lunch today with a good friend from college. He was in town visiting a cousin. We went to PF Chang's and he treated me to lunch. How very nice of him!! It was a great lunch. It's one of the few places where I can eat with food allergies and not worry too much. They have a specific gluten free menu as well as knowledgeable staff.

As long as we were at the mall, I looked for a new scarf. No luck though. All of the ones I liked were way out of my budget. Not too surprising. My friend was looking for some jeans. He ended up finding some at a store where I had a coupon. He saved about $23, so that was good.

I took him to Trader Joe's while I did my monthly shopping there. He has never been there since there isn't one where he lives. I talk about it all of time though, so he wanted to check it out. I bought him some salsa from there since he brought some for me from a place I loved in college that I can't get where I currently live. I spent $29.99 including what I purchased for him. I have $40 budgeted for food for this weekend since I was making my monthly TJ trip. I did not get any fruit at TJ, so I will go to the store near my apartment tomorrow to get some for the week. I have $10 left for this, so I could be able to stay within budget.

I also need to get gas tomorrow. It's been three weeks since I got gas!!

As for the week ahead . . . I have to pay rent this week. That's never fun. I am seeing a new doctor this week. I am not sure how much this will end up costing me. She is in-network, but I don't know if it will be a copay or my deductible ($300) and then 20%. I sure hope it's a copay!!

My Weekend

I did pretty good with my spending this weekend. I only spent money on groceries (about $24). However, I am not sure that I have enough to get me through the week. I am hoping that I am wrong about this. We will see as the week goes on. I went to Super Target for my grocery shopping this weekend. They tend to have better prices on most things where I live. The only problem is that the product is hit and miss. This weekend it was pretty good, but there wasn't a lot of it left on the shelves.

Next weekend will be my monthly trip to Trader Joe's. This will increase my food spending for next weekend to around $40. I am hoping their prices haven't gone up too much in the past month.

One exciting thing this weekend was that I got a library card!! I have lived in this area for a little over three years now. I have only been to the library once so far until this weekend. I finally went and got a library card while I was there. I checked out two books about the GMAT. Even though they are available through the library I think I will end up purchasing one so that I can make notes in it and use the online features that I number of them offer. I thought this would be a good way to see which one I liked best.

The rest of my weekend wasn't too eventful. I cleaned, cooked, and studied for my professional certification exam. I need to get back into the habit of studying a lot more than I currently am. The library was a great place to study this weekend. I am hoping to go there most weekends to study. It's also a nice change of scenery.

I am not planning on spending any money until next weekend. I am really trying not to spend any during the week. Next weekend will be Trader Joe's, regular grocery store or Super Target, and gas. I haven't gotten gas for a few weeks now, so that's great. I have a friend coming into town, so we are meeting up for lunch one day this weekend. That shouldn't cost me more than $8. I never go out to eat anymore, so I don't feel too guilty about this. I also have the cash to cover this, so I am okay with it.

Have a great week!!

Food Budget

I think I may need to increase my food budget. I have a restricted diet due to food allergies. This causes me to eat mainly non-processed foods. A lot of the foods I eat have been increasing in price. In order to offset this, I have been eating the same 10 food items each week. It's not very exciting and it's getting old. I think I need to increase my budget in order to due a larger variety of foods as well as eat a littler healthier. I have also been buying less fruits than I should be. We will see how much more I spend this weekend when i try to buy a larger variety of food!

Have a great Friday tomorrow!!

Shopping & Future Plans

Well, I went shopping this morning. This means that I will not meet one of my goals. My goal was to limit my spending to under $50 for September for things like extras and clothes. I spent $59.25 today. I am okay with not meeting this goal. I got a great deal on the clothes I bought. I bought a pair of black dress pants and some nice jeans which I can wear on casual days at work. The store had a buy one get one half off deal. Plus I had a coupon for $30 off a purchase over $75. The original total was $119, but with all of my coupons, I only spent $59.25. I needed new pants due to losing some weight over the last six months. I only have two pairs of dress pants which fit. I am hoping to not spend any money on clothes for a month or two now.

Other spending this month . . . I haven't spent any money this month until today on anything other than my normal bills, groceries, and my professional association dues.

My future . . . I just found out that a state university is going to begin offering their MBA program at an off-campus location close to where I live. The school campus is about 1.5 hours from me, but the off-campus location is within 15 minutes!! I am seriously considering starting to study for the GMAT and taking it to see how well I do. If I decide to do this, I would apply to start school next fall. My work reimburses up to $5,000 per calendar year for tuition and books. Based on my calculations I would end up spending about $6,000-6,500 out of my pocket on tuition and books. I need to calculate the total cost including the GMAT and other things which will come up like application costs. This would require me to completely rework my financial plans for the next few years. I would also have to put off buying a house longer than I would like.

Survey Money

I have been doing online surveys since the end of April through two different companies. I have earned about $60 from one company so far. I have no earned enough points to cash out anything from the other company. I feel like a number of bloggers lately have been cashing out a lot of survey money!! Why am I not getting surveys worth high points/dollars and/or that may surveys!?!?

If anyone would like a referral link to one of the companies I use, just let me know!