Layout:
Home > Archive: July, 2011

Archive for July, 2011

Not much positive

July 31st, 2011 at 03:15 am

This month started with so much promise and excitement, and has ended in BLEH. Bad month for goals. Bad month for anything planned. It all went wrong on so many levels.

I didn’t succeed at any of my goals for July:

[/] Save $100 of personal – Managed to save $75, forgot I needed a few things, so I didn’t manage to squeak out those last $25, but it might not matter anyways as the trip may be canceled.
[-] Teach puppy 4 tricks – Didn’t happen. It was an odd month. Nothing got done. And surprise! She is still sick. Puppy is back on medicine. I’m beginning to think the Giardia will never go away. :-(
[-] Plot lunches and buy groceries – I seriously only needed this to happen once to consider it a success, so of course it didn’t happen. I did try, though.
[/] Cook one family meal – Well, I didn’t, but my husband did and I kind of helped. Does that count as a partial?
[-] Eat breakfast 20 out of 31 days – Only ate breakfast 5 times. Pathetic.

Now onto August, I don’t have any goals for this month because we’re in the process of making a decision that will affect the next few years of our life and a lot of our money. My husband is optimistic, and frankly excited. I, on the other hand, am not excited, but I don’t see many other options. I’m sorry I’m being vague. I just don’t want to jinx it either way. I’ll go more into it once we finalize.

Car Deal?

July 14th, 2011 at 12:32 am

So, a few days ago I received an email from my car dealership. They would like me to trade in my 2009 Yaris for a 2011 Yaris. Traded in, including all the taxes and registration and fees, they would come back with a monthly payment of $5 less per month.

I haven’t asked for more specific details yet, but is this even something to think about? My current loan is 0% and I think if this new loan has interest, I would balk, but if it’s also 0%... Well hmmm. A car two years newer is always nice, even if I have car payments for a few years more, but at theoretical 0%, it would hard to say no. Right?

What else would I have to ask besides interest rate? The Yaris's (Yari?) are pretty bare/standard, so it’s not like I would be trading down in features… What a sales pitch. I can't think of the downside, and there's got to be one.

What do you think? I’m not sure what I think. My husband isn’t sure what he thinks either.

One of those weeks

July 8th, 2011 at 04:49 pm

It’s been a bad week from the get-go for me. Ran out of stain for doors I wanted to get done before guests came (they didn’t get done – not even close), got a flat tire, bank messed up –three times, clients asking for payment plans on pre-paid discounts, lots of things going wrong… Actually, just about everything I touched this week went wrong.

I’m tired, cranky, and stressed to the max. This weekend the house is full of family guests. I’m really looking forward to visiting with them, but hopefully I can shake this bad mojo so it doesn’t rub off on them.

The only plus is in our finances. I managed to send $20 to my personal savings and an extra $100 to Car Loan 2 this week.

June Wrap Up (long)

July 1st, 2011 at 05:26 pm

It’s been a chaotic past few weeks. Luckily, busy meant keeping me from the stores (mostly, had one oops). The pooch is doing better health-wise. It’s not 100% gone yet, but I think this last round of meds this next week should hopefully knock it out and we can start weaning her off of the expensive special canned food back onto puppy kibble. She’s GROWN so much now, and yesterday she shed the lanky wire-y look and turned into a beautiful elegant puppy. We’re loosening her collar on almost a daily basis it seems.

My husband is back in the months-long interviewing processes again for two places. He’s made it to the top 50 out of 270 applicants in one, and 120 out of 200+ on the other since they both just started. We’re crossing all our fingers, toes, and eyes hoping that one of these will pan out. Otherwise, we’re going to have to start looking at other options which puts the work we’ve done for the past two+ years down the drain.



On the no-spend month wrap up:
I filled up in Week 4 (10.385 gallons at $3.539/gallon for a total of $36.75, 376.2 miles at 36.2mpg) and I filled up yesterday in Week 5 (9.055 gallons at $3.569/gallon for a total of $32.32, 315.50 miles at 34.8mpg).

I did spend in Week 4 at Kohl’s. I had $5 gift money that was expiring, along with a $10 Kohl’s Cash, plus 15% off. I ended up finding two things I wanted, K-cups and a gift so I spent $11.29 on my Kohl’s Card. I debated on not paying it back until next month, but then I’d be carrying a “debt”, so I paid it off right away. One oops out of the month isn’t too bad!

At the end of this week, I have $63.62 left, so I sent $62 to savings in order to surpass my monthly savings goal!

$66.26 – Opening Balance
-$20.00 – Week 1 Savings
-$26.33 – Week 1 Gas
+$65.00 – Week 2 Allowance
-$40.00 – Week 2 Savings
-$31.46 – Week 2 Gas
+$65.00 – Week 3 Allowance
-$30.00 – Week 3 Savings
-$34.49 – Week 3 Gas
+$65.00 – Week 4 Allowance
-$36.75 – Week 4 Gas
-$11.29 – Kohl’s Spending (oops)
+65.00 – Week 5 Allowance
-$32.32 – Week 5 Gas
-$62.00 – Week 5 Savings
=$1.62 – Cushion Left after No-Spend Month!

Total amount saved: $152 - $2 over the $150 goal!

I’m feeling really good about my progress. It was hard not to go buy food for lunch or buy two CDs that just came out that I really want. But I did it!



On June’s Goals:
[/] Do not spend personal money – I think I will leave this as half completed. I did spend, but I also did save my goal
[X] Open a personal savings ($152) – Success!
[-] Start a puppy fund – HA! No go. I can’t wait until she’s healthy.
[/] Teach the puppy 3 tricks – I think I will leave this one as half completed as well. She learned jump and lay down, but not come or stay. Come is still a work in progress. Stay is laughable.
[-] Sign up for puppy class – Can’t until she’s healthy and won’t pass he sickness on to the other pooches.
[-] Finish cross-stitch – Didn’t have the time to sit down and even glance in that direction.
[X] Get motivated at work again - Done
[/] Complete 3 work projects – Partially done. Made a lot of progress, but only one was officially completed. I’m hoping Monday will be very productive since everyone will be out of the office besides my puppy and me.

Only two goals completed, but that’s ok. I made progress, and it is summer. No surprise there.



July’s Goals:

1) Save another $100 of personal spending. This will give me about $50 to be able to get a few things if I want to because I don’t think I will be able to do another completely no spend month. But I really need to save quite a bit more for my trip this fall.
2) Teach puppy 4 new tricks, potentially Come, Heel, Stay, Speak, Roll Over, and/or Shake
3) Plot lunches and buy groceries for both husband and I – If I even do this once, I will consider this a success. We’re horrible at planning lunches in advance.
4) Cook at least one meal for family
5) Eat/drink something for breakfast 20 out of 31 days – another issue of mine because I hate breakfast foods and spending time in the morning eating. This one will be hard for me, but I know breakfast isn’t something I should skip.

Seems I have a lot of food issues to work on this month. Maybe this will help with being healthier and give me more energy.