F is for Freedom?

Wow, hi there.

Life has been pretty crazy around here.

For a while now, things have not been going well at my job.  This is the job I was not looking for.  This is the job that was supposed to be such a great opportunity for me.  This is the job that was going to allow me to pay off my credit cards - FAST!

I have not been enjoying this job and I definitely feel this is not the place for me.  I have felt trapped because I am not in the position to quit due to our finances. 

Today I have a paid day off as yesterday I was "let go". 


It's a weird situation though.  Essentially my company is allowing me to choose my end date.  They asked if I would like to work for a few more weeks while I look for a new job and would accommodate any interviews I get lined up. 

I'll take it.

So today I spent lounging around at home doing whatever I pleased.  I made bruchetta for brunch and got caught up on blog reading while lounging in my new jersey dress from Old Navy that arrived yesterday in the mail.  I may even have a glass of white wine that arrived in the mail today from my wine club.

I did look for a new job too.....

So now what?  I can't say I didn't think this possibility wouldn't happen.  I was preparing for it and socking away money in savings - when I could have been paying off my credit cards.  The end date I am choosing will allow me to get paid two more times not counting the paycheck this Friday. That will allow me to put an additional $2000 in savings.  I will be able to collect unemployment if I can't find something new by then.

I'm actually pretty optimistic.  I have other things to keep me busy right now.  I'm taking this great class on reorienting my career (don't laugh) and I couldn't be taking it at a better time.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that I started a production company with two friends I met on the set of the award winning indie film I worked on?  We held our first auditions last Monday and the second auditions will be Saturday July 2.  We have a Kickstarter video planned to raise the money we need to shoot our project which is scheduled for a weekend in August. 

So not entirely freaking out here and am wondering what the universe has in store for me.  I'm thinking positive and have great references lined up.  It's summer and I plan to enjoy it as much as possible.

We got our car back last night too - it had issues for the second time and the dealership covered it all - huge sigh of relief there.

So universe - throw me a bone will ya?

May Ramblings

Hello blogger peeps!
I really feel bad for not posting a lot lately.  I just havn't had much going on.  My couch slipcover is in stall mode until I can have a weekend free of plans to tackle sewing the slipcover which I spent three hours pinning as well as the back and seat cushions.

I'm excited about a few things though.  I was a little premature but updated my sidebar for some of our debt.  It's not official or anything but this month we will have not one but two cars paid off.  The ironic thing about this is neither of them are driveable.  How crazy is that?  We are using our tax return to pay off our old daily driver my 1999 Subaru Forester which just went through engine number two and is sitting waiting for the title so we can sell it to someone who wants it for parts (car universe, please grant my wish).  That will be paid this Friday.  Our last payment to my dad for our 1987 Porsche will be a week later.  Problem is it needs a little bit of work to make it driveable. 

We got our new to us Saab back last Friday after it needing a new engine (what is it with us and engines?).  The dealership paid to have a used one with less miles put in.  We had only owned it less than 48 hours when that debacle happened.  I'm really liking the Saab.  It's super comfortable with leather seats, dual climate control (front and back), heated seats all around (the SK's are loving that!), a sun roof (oh how I missed that), a killer stereo system, hand controls on the steering wheel for the stereo and more.  This is more C's car than mine so I will bide my time and save my pennies until I can get this...

I'm not gonna lie.  I kinda dig the racing stripes.  Never thought I would say that.  I DON'T dig the four fog lights on the front of this one and I would certianly love a sunroof too.  This car is so me.  Grey is my go to color in so many ways lately.  We painted the living, dining and hallway of our condo in grey.  Our Saab is silver with grey interior and I want me a grey mini cooper!

By the end of the month I will have put $950 on CC # 4 which is scheduled to be paid off in July.  In fact, all of our credit cards should be paid off by year end.  Yee Haw!  Once that happens I can relax and plan a real vacation.  A vacation to somewhere like Hawaii or Mexico.  Pretty much anyplace full of sun where I can stick my toes in the sand, drink fruity drinks with little umbrellas and relax.

I am starting a career development class in 13 days (yes I am counting) that I am super excited about.  I have a big birthday coming up at the end of July.  I am contemplating going here for the Saturday before my birthday.  Wine and Yurts, what more could a girl ask for?  They have a spa too!

The Yurts featuer King sized beds, sky dome in the center of the roof, private bath, refrigerator, iPod docking station, sitting area, patio deck, wifi and vineyard or river gorge view.

Meanwhile, I am totally addicted to this design blog House Tweaking.  Dana and her husband just bought a new (to them) house.  They have decided to downsize so she can stop working and take care of their two boys full time.  The new house is lovingly named The Underdog.  It's a mess they are remodleing while still living in their old house that is for sale.  I am really intrigued by this because my husband and I are looking at three years until his youngest graduates from high school.  One of our ideas is to buy or build a small open floor plan house. 

Another is to sell our condo and live in an Airstream trailer like this guy (Apartment Therapy is so cool!). 

Buying a rambler we could make our own is certainly something we consider.  We are thinking of moving to a warmer climate so the house buying may possibly be put on hold for a few years.  When I look at photos online of houses for sale in my area I really try to look past the old cruddy kitchen cabinets and hideous flooring to see the potential for the four walls I am considering.  Watching Dana and her husband as they turn their Underdog in to the home of their dreams will be certain inspiration and a great guide.

Speaking of addictions, I am currently adddicted to the TV show Supernatural.  We borrowed season one from our neighbor.  Right now we are on season two which we have to get from Netflix via DVD (how old school) since it's not streaming.

Today was a nice sunny day here in the greater Seattle area.  It got to 60 at least.  I am so ready for the grey gloomy days of winter (and even spring) to be gone.  One thing about our area is even when it's warm during the day it cools off at night unless you are in eastern Washington or it's August.

Well, I have rambled enough.  Hope you all are well and more more consistent posting coming soon.  Like the reveal of my slipcovered couch!

Practise the Art of Simplicity

A post on Unclutterer today caught my eye. The idea that you can practise something as opposed to being 100% good at something all the time.

That is something that I am trying to be better about. I am almost decluttering my house but if I don't keep up the practise of taking care of the ways that clutter can slip in yo my life I will be back at where I started.

I am practising things like folding my clothing and putting it right away or in the laundry instead of tossing it over something. Admittedly I no longer have anything piled up in my bedroom that I can toss things on. C has a valet that I think invites clutter.

I need to be better about practising (even remembering) eating leftovers in the fridge before they go bad. I have decided that a certain shelf should hold the leftovers and once its full its time to eat that stuff rather than make more stuff.

I am practising cleaning up after meals or projects or just upkeep on chores so I don't have to dedicate my entire weekend to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and doing laundry. I would much rather spend a weeknight on something like that and enjoy my weekends.

I am practising keeping a to do list and actually crossing items off. Once projects are done not going back and messing it up again. Getting things clean and keeping them organized are way easier than fighting piles every day. I feel much saner for it.

I am practising putting small amounts of money away every month and extra amounts on credit card balances. This builds up our savings and pays down our debt faster. Soon we will have no credit card debt and a lovely amount in our savings account.

I look around my house and its so nice to see how its coming along and how close we are to being done and just enjoying things.

Temporarily Stopping 401(k)?

I have been reading online the many ways people try to save money. I am trying to get some stuff paid down really quickly and looking at alternative ways to get that accomplished.

I have seen mentioned several times online is temporarily stopping 401(k) contributions and using that money to speed up paying off items.

I am seriously thinking about it. Have any of you out there done this?

Life Plans

Sometimes I am so focused on getting out from under the debt I don't see the bigger picture. What happens in life after debt?

For me, it means having an emergency fund, being able to travel and enjoying life knowing I am prepared if something does happen. It also means being my own boss and being in charge of my time. Getting paid what I am worth and spending that money wisely.

I found a great blog post today creating a life that needs no escape (thanks to Little Miss Moneybags) and it really got me thinking. I can create a life I love and don't have to live up to others expectations. I have been doing that my entire life and its time to live up to MY expectations!

Another blog post found from the above article is about living a minimalist life. His main points are go carless, give up your storage, give up entertainment and give up the idea of trading time for money.

Now, I don't know that I could give up my car right now but moving to a new city with better transportation and easier ways to get around on a bike could be in the future. Healthier and better for the environment and my wallet. Ultimately I don't know if I could ever give up not having a car but I could at least have a paid off car.

The only storage I have comes with my condo. I don't pay extra for it. My condo is 900 square feet and houses four people and two animals. Two of these people are not there all the time. Storage is limited but I am tackling that bit by bit. I am getting rid of hobbies that take up space and cost a lot of money like scrapbooking in favor of knitting which takes up hardly any space. I still sew but again, the largest thing I own for that is my machine.

Giving up TV is a hard one. But probably not as hard as I think. We gave up extended basic cable lsat summer and although I miss a few shows my life is not ruled by the 50" TV so much anymore. The hubs and I are movie watchers so I don't imagine we will ever give up our Netflix subscription. It's a work in progress.

I like his fourth point and am working towards that. I have followed Tim Ferris and love his ideas. I just need to focus more of my energy on turning his ideas in to reality.

There are things I can do now to make my life the way I want it. I have been planning on going back to school but I want to keep this idea in the forfront as I search for what I would like to get my degree in and how that will affect work life after I am done. I know my husband and I are going to move on to a house after the kids are gone (four short years away).

I can see my days filled with work I enjoy and after work activities that get me out of doors and interacting with people.

March Goals

Trying to keep balance in mind. I am going to revamp a little since things like our income and regular debt payments stay pretty much the same. I will report numbers at the end of the month. Here we go...

Finances - mantain minimum payments and place all but $500 of our tax return on to credit card debt. The $500 will go to savings. Possibility of joining a gym this month as well. Try to limit the amount of times I go to Starbucks and bring creamer to work to drink the Starbucks coffee there (free except for creamer cost).

Health - Continue with my free five day membership this week and possibly look in to joining said gym. If I do join I will probably go at least four to five times per week meeting my gym buddy there. Work on eating lots of veggies and fruit, drinking lots of water and smaller portions on higher fat or starchy foods. I am going to forgo Weight Watchers for now and just go with this plan. Since I will be working out so much more than current I think I will see a difference in the scale and my clothing.

House - Paint the bathroom and finish up the baseboard molding in the living room. Work on a plan for the hearth and mantle. Continue to declutter and donate. We painted our living room over the weekend (finally) and moved everything out of it but the couch and TV + stand. My husband verbalized what I was thinking by stating, "let's just bring stuff back in that we really use and need". That meant posting a chair for sale in Craigslist and donating a backseat full of items (including the clothing from my closet purge).

Here is to a less stressful new month!

February Wrap Up

February was interesting. Still a hard thing for me to get motivated to work out other than my Sunday walks with my friend. The hubs car is leaking something again so we have to take it back in to the shop. They are shocked and we are hoping its a warranty item. At least the hubs can carpool with his step dad. That will give us the opportunity to save the money to get it fixed rather than rack up more credit card debt.


Financial (Budget vs Actual)


Income $4135 - $4115.54

Bills $2044.06 - 2041.78

Loan Payments $735.43 - $736

Credit Card Payments - $572.42 - $223

Groceries $200 - $226.48

Gas $280 - $246.25

Mad Money $254 ($56 for coffee) - Coffee $115.13, Steamy Wear $80.63, Home Improvement $37.57


Health

Walk 4 times - 2 walks and 1 gym workout

Wii Fit 8 times - epic failure

30 Day Shred 8 times - epic failure

Track food & water intake through WW site - going to cancel




Personal

Declutter bags in bedroom - started today

Go through my side of closet - done

Make/buy one Steampunk item - made "explorer" skirt and petticoat & purchased pith helmet, double loupe and new goggles

Complete one condo project - painted living room

I think what I am finding is the key for getting things done for me is balance. I need to work on all things as they are equal and not obsess too much about one particular thing. We will get there as long as we have the goal infront of us and we are moving towards it.

The hubs has started a series of movie reviews on his blog with me guest posting. Check it out.

February Goals

Onward to February where we have a few plans already. A Steampunk tea and dinner with the hubs at the Melting Pot both for Valentine's day.

Finances

• Income $4135
• Loan Payments $735.43
• CC Payments $572.42 (pay off card number two)
• Bills $2044.06
• Groveries $200
• Gas $280
• Mad Money $254 ($56 for coffee)

Health

• Walk 4 times
• Wii Fit 8 times
• 30 Day Shred 8 times
• Track food and water intake throuh WW site

Personal

• Declutter bags in bedroom
• Go through my side of closet
• Make/buy one Steampunk item
• Complete one condo project

And that's all folks!

January Wrap Up

I posted at the beginning of the month my goals for January which would set the tone for 2010. The first two weeks went fine. Then my office move happend and in the past two weeks I have worked about 100 hours. Moving on.


Financial (Budget vs Actual)

• Income $4160.90 - $4121.11


• Bills $2092.20 - $2075.12


• Loan Payments $835.43 - $735.94 (no Porsche payment)


• Credit Card Payments $600.08 - $285.24 (two emergencies but did pay off one card)


• Groceries $250 - $362.17


• Gas $280 - $264.50 (pretty good for not carpooling and me having to fill up more often due to more miles driven to and from work)


• Mad Money $813 ($63 coffee) - $1221.93 (coffee $71.82) (due to emergency vet visit and new laptop purchase)


• Savings $300 - ($429) (yes that is a negative number due to vet visit and new laptop purchase)

Health Budget vs Actual

• Walk 5 times - 3 (illness and conflicting schedule which I rarely let happen)


• Wii fit 8 times - 1


• 30 Day Shred 4 times - 1


• Water 8 glasses a day - did not track


• Fruits & Veggies 5 servings a day - did not track

Personal Budget vs Actual

• Go through closet - nope


• Go through bags lined up in bedroom - nope


• Plan DVD storage - nope


• Plan mantle & hearth - nope


• Baseboard molding in living room - nope


• Make one item for Steampunk wardrobe - yep

So clearly I have not met a lot of my other goals this month. Wow, can't believe how quickly the days go by! I am going to actually write my goals down on my calendar in the kitchen so I can be accountable.

We did have some "emergencies" this month that were unexpected and we did not have the savings to cover all of. The vet visit for the dog we took out of savings. The laptop purchase went on a credit card and we are paying that off with our tax return.

February goals to come tomorrow!

One Credit Card Down

Just a quick post - paid off credit card number one today. I will update my budget and monthly spending this weekend.

New Laptop

Our new laptop arrived today. Three days early I might add. I takes a little getting used to typing on a smaller keyboard as well as Windows 7. Right now I have it sitting on our comuter shelf and keep pulling out the keyboard to our PC expecting that to work on the laptop. HeHe

I'm glad my husband ordered one with a ten key. Working in accounting I would be lost without that. A couple weeks ago I had a work laptop to use while I worked from home for two days and it did not have a ten key - AGONY!

So, I am back online at home and will be back to normal posting soon. I have some sewing to accomplish by the end of Saturday for a photo shoot Sunday.

We accidentally ordered the incorrect router so we are hooked up via an ethernet cable at the moment. I can't wait to be wireless and have my dining room back! It will take a while because we have to get our PC fixed so the kids can use it to get online. They will not be allowed to use our laptop because one of them surfed where they were not supposed to and adquired a worm.

We Interrupt This Blog....

Just a quick note to let you know my computer crashed and I am without internet for some reason until I can get that corrected.

We have ordered a new computer which was budgeted for this month and will receive it in the next couple of weeks. Until then blogging will be limited.

Mid Month Update

Today was my last day in our Seattle office. For the next two days I will be working remotely as we have our office moved to Redmond.

This means that the hubs and I can't carpool any more. I have budgeted in an extra $35 for the last two weeks of the month for gas for the hubs. I have not budgeted extra for myself even though the drive is an additional 11 miles each way. The hubs car get's really good gas mileage so we "think" he will not have to fuel up every week and it will even out. We will see how it plays out.

Tomorrow I plan to get up at my regular time and work out to Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. A 20 minute killer workout. Friday morning it will be The Firm. Since I don't have to commute those two days I plan to be on my work laptop by seven after a shower and walking the dog of course. This is all in preparation for next week when I hope to get up by 5:30 and do Jillian Michaels or 20 minutes of Wii Fit before a shower and heading off to work.

So far this month I am pretty on track for my budget. The numbers below represent what I have budgeted up to this point, not the entire month. I have paid all bills that were due by now and as far as coffee and groceries go...

Coffee - Budgeted $28 - Actual $26.02 ($1.98 under budget)
Groceries - Budgeted $100 - Actual $108.98 ($8.98 over budget)

We have had a few surprises this month. The hubs needed to take his car back in to get more service work done - $3400 which we had to use a credit card for. Not happy about that.

The dog had weepy eyes last weekend so I took him in to the vet and this is day five of his eye medication. That was an unexpected $111.41.

Our computer is not doing well so we have budgeted to get a laptop this month and place less on our credits cards. We will still have one card paid off as planned.

Jake is Feeling Better

So, first official day of the new year for me. Back on the weight loss bandwagon and back on the "follow my budget" bandwagon.

Already there is news of the not so good nature. We found out today the little leak we had in the hubs new (to him) car is going to cost another $3400. We have not even paid my dad for the car yet (hoping he reduces the purchase price do to the extensive repairs we have made thus far).

We have christened the car Jake from the movie Sixteen Candles. If you remember, Jake was the name of the guy Molly Ringwald's character was in love with (BTW - photo above is not our actual car but the same make, model and color). Our savings will not cover this repair so we will have to utilize our credit card. Not too happy about that!

On a good note, so far this week the coffee budget was $14 and I have spent $5.05. Whoohoo! I returned a couple small items at the fabric store which I was able to use for most of my coffee purchase after my Sunday walk and for our coffee tonight we had a free one coming to us on the punch card. I just wish I had been told there was a .50 charge for debit transactions under $5. If I had known I would have waited to use my freebie when I had cash.

I also still have $5.84 left in my grocery budget and $1 left in my gas budget for the week - but its only Monday.

Exciting news in the world of condo decorating. We will be purchasing baseboard molding to finish up the living room and have figured out a plan to move forward on the hearth and mantle redo. Photos and update to come soon!

January 2010 Goals

Yesterday I posted about my year 2010 goals. In order to make them I need to break them down in to much smaller monthly bites.

Financial

Starting Balance = $762.27
Income = $4106.90
Bills = $2092.20
Loan Payments = $835.43
Credit Card Payments = $600.08 (one credit card paid off)
Grocery Budget = $250
Gas Budget = $280
Mad Money = $813 ($63 for coffee)
Save = $300 (laptop fund)

Health

Walk - 5 times
Wii Fit - 8 times
Jillian Michaels - 4 times
Water - 8 glasses a day
Fruits & Veggies - 5 servings a day

Personal

Go through closet
Go through bags lined up in bedroom
Plan DVD storage
Plan mantle & hearth
Baseboard molding in living room
Make one item for Steampunk wardrobe

The hubs and I had a good talk about our budget and what Dave Ramsey would call being "Gazelle Intense" when it comes to paying down debt. Basically, being Gazelle Intense means getting $1000 in savings and then putting ALL extra money towards your debt. We have tried that, more or less, for the past two years and have fell short every month. We are just not ready to give up some of the things that mean being Gazelle Intense.

We are still committed to being debt free, our path is just going to be a little longer due to budgeting some fun in our lives. The difference is we will be conscious of how we are spending our money and when we need to use a credit card. With the pressure off a bit I think we can succeed.

Living an Authentic Life

Authenticity refers to the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity, devotion, and intentions. 2010 is all about living my authentic life.

In December I worked too much and hemorrhaged money in order to fulfill the commercialism of the holiday and am really ready to move on to a New Year. I am giving serious thought to taking a vacation over the holidays next year to somewhere nice and warm.

I have not been the best about keeping my goals in front of me and I resolve to do much better in the coming year. The course of my life is screaming for a change and the only way that will happen is by changing the way I do things.

So without further ado here are the year end numbers...

Savings - $568.48
Cash on Hand - $762.27
Retirement - $18,841.51 (combined yikes)
Home Value - $175,000.00
Mortgage Debt - $149,103.27
Loan Debt - $34,121.25
Credit Card Debt - $4,633.40

Total Net Worth $7,314.34

Goals for the coming year.....

Financial

• Savings - $3000.00
• Retirement - $22,500.00 (combined yikes)
• Home Value - $185,000.00 (unless we buy a new house)
• Mortgage Debt - $148,000.00
• Loan Debt - $24,600.00
• Credit Card Debt - $0

Total Net Worth - $37,900.00 (not including cash on hand)

Personal

• Take a real vacation (fly to somewhere warm)
• Revamp blog
• Learn Italian (CD's in the car while commuting)
• Get down to goal weight
• Finish all condo projects
• Buy a house (this is tentative)
• Create a Steampunk wardrobe
• Work on career change
• Declutter
  

So far today I have gotten all of the Christmas decorations down and they are all sitting on my dining room table. I want to get that put away by the weekend. I have already made minimum payments on four of my five credit cards and balanced the checkbook. To meet my health goal for the year I want to sit down and make out a grocery list so I can shop for healthy food for the week.

I think I will buy myself a notebook to use as a journal for the year. This will be where I can put my lists of things that need to get done etc. Seeing the numbers above makes me realize even more how important it is to get out of debt and increase our retirement savings.

Here is to 2010!

Happy Dance!!!

Today when I got home from work I had a nice fat check waiting for me. I knew I would have a reimbursement check from escrow for prepaid property taxes. I had a number in my head around $300. The check was for $770.13. Woohoo! That brings my E-Fund up to $875.55 and my goal is $1000, only $124.45 short.

Since I had to get work done on my car I did not think I would be able to put money in savings this month and I would never reach my $1000 minimum for my e-fund. I still will not be able to make a larger than normal payment on my car but will start doing that in January.

Someone accepted a position at my company today and starts on the 16th. This will greatly ease the amount of work that I have been doing and relieve some of my stress.

Christmas is coming!

My Car Is Well Again

Originally I was planning on putting what would normally go to my mortgage in to savings since we refinanced and get to "skip" a mortgage payment this month. I had also planned to put an additional $400 on my car payment this month. I took my car in for service today.

• New timing belt
• New water pump
• New pulley's & tensioner's (for timing belt)
• Transmission flush
• New radiator cap & random hoses
• Car rental for the day since we are down to one car
• Brakes were checked but they are good
  

They forgot to do the oil change or forgot to charge us. We will call on that tomorrow. This is all stuff that needs to be done and is the way I am going to be able to keep my car alive until I can pay it off and buy my Mini Cooper S in chocolate brown.


Total damage - $1349.67.
Total budgeted - $1360.00
Total left over - $10.33 boo ya!

Even though we have debt. It's a pretty good feeling to be able to pay for this "emergency" with cash. I say emergency because my dad thinks I could have gone miles on that bad axle. Such is the opinion of a man who for the better part of his life has had to fix something or other on his daily driver (old Studebaker's) . Now he owns a nearly new Porsche and doesn't have to worry - too much. Well, we actually used a credit card since we don't get paid until Friday. But...we will pay $900 the next payday and $400 the following payday to zero out the card.

I could use money we have in savings from the sale of the hubs old car. But, that money is earmarked for some stuff that needs to happen to his new car so I don't want to get us in trouble there.

The reason for this is that he needs his car up and running by mid December. Right now we carpool but in mid December to early January my office is moving and we will no longer be able to carpool. If he can't drive his car - it's the bus.

Don't you think the above is a better alternative (not our actual car but a stock photo)?

Sidebar Updates

First post of the new month and I have updated my sidebars.

Progress Not Perfection

This month for my espresso challenge I will attempt to go 24 days without buying from Starbucks. I am limiting myself to Sundays and Thanksgiving day.

My emergency fund goal for right now is only $1000 until I can get some things paid off. I would prefer my emergency fund to be around $3000 at all times. Because of our refinance we don't have a mortgage payment this month.

The car rehab fund is for the money the hubs made selling his 87 BMW. That $2400 is going towards a few repairs and the purchase of an 89 Porsche the hubs is buying from my dad. This fund should go away by the end of the year.

The travel fund is set for $2000. This is a number I pulled out of my head. The hubs and I are going to Savannah next spring or summer for a long over due honeymoon. We think we can do the trip for around $2000. The money for this fund this year will come from our tax return.

The hubs and I would eventually like to have two laptops and no desktop machine. We are going to start with one laptop and an external hard drive. We have a budget of $600 for the laptop and will be looking to buy around Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving). We are due some money from our old mortgage for prepaid property taxes in escrow. That money, plus any money we make selling things on Craigslist will go here.

Debt Reduction

We have used our credit cards since paying them off in August. Some things were necessary and some were not. I do make more than the minimum payments on them. The ultimate goal is not to use them but they are available now until we can get things paid off and money saved to free up more of our take home pay. We have only used 14% of our available credit.

The personal loan from my parents is something I want to aggressively pay off once I have my car & credit cards paid off and more money in savings.

My car loan is about half paid off and this is what I am focusing on right now. This month I plan to put an additional $400 on my $200 payment.

The hubs student loan is something we are going to continue to put a minimum payment on. It has the lowest interest rate of anything (except the loan to my parents) but because the balance to my parents is so much larger I would prefer to pay that off first.

The mortgage and home equity loan have zero percentage pay down because we just refinanced a couple weeks ago. Our first payments are due in December.

The Christmas knitting projects are pretty self explanatory.

I'm Ba-ack! - October Warp Up & November Goals

Life for the paisley penguin has been pretty hectic and crazy lately. My supervisor was let go about a month ago and I have been an army of one at work. I met the final two candidates today and a decision will be made next week. One of them will be employed by Thanksgiving. I love that I was allowed to meet with them to give my impressions as that will be taken in to consideration for their decision.

This week has been even more hectic. Wednesday was the hubs birthday. The kids, a friend, the hubs and I went to Bucca di Beppo for family style Italian food. There are only two in the state of Washington and both are within easy driving distance of my home.

One of my favorite things about Bucca is their decor. All of the walls are filled with framed photos. The main theme is definately anything Italian. Photos of Sophia Loren are hung right next to random photos of everyday people. If you look long enough you will see other photos tucked in here and there of every shape, size and subject. Just above the table we ate at I saw photos of

• a kitten
• three priests
• an Italian villa
• several people eating spaghetti
• Sophia Loren
• a bunch of men that looked like gangsters
  

One of my favorite photos from Bucca is this woman in a wedding dress kicking a soccer ball.


The walls at Bucca are the inspiration for something I want to do in my dining room. I am in the planning stages of but will reveal soon.

Thursday night the hubs and I were lucky enough to go to the Sounders FC playoff game for free against the Houston Dynamo. It was a draw (in football speak that means tied at zero). The other team was super aggressive. I also thought the officiating was a little one sided and they were not siding with us. We had tons of shots on goal, spent a majority of time on their end of the field and actually got one in but it was denied due to an earlier penalty in the play. Total crap!

The month is almost over and I have not managed to post any photos of my Halloween decorations. I plan to do that tomorrow.

I thought I would do my wrap up for the month finance wise.

• Income - $4,100.49 (paychecks)
  
• Coffee - $68.73 (down $58.94 and $1.73 over budget - budget adjusted to include hubs b-day and day trip coffee spending)
  
• Eating Out - $89.81 (up $53.16)
  
• Groceries - $372.36 (down $25.55 and 172.36 over budget)
  
• Gas - $217.16 (up $64.37 and $77.16 over budget - due to additional extra driving)
  
• Save - $2609.20 (up $2459.20 due to sale of hubs massage table & car and cash back from condo refinance)

Goals for October were...

• Reduce CC balances by $336 - $207.49 less than planned
• Save $150 - oh yeah, and then some
• Follow grocery ($200), coffee ($67) and gas ($140) budgets - good and bad here
• Add one more workout day a week using Wii Fit or Jillian Michaels - NOT (does watching Biggest Loser count?)
• Make better effort on drinking four glasses of water a day - can't really tell you as I need to define this with better metrics
• Limit coffee (Starbucks) purchases to Sunday only - caved but not too badly (adjusted for day off and hubs birthday)
• Continue on eating at least five servings of fruits/veggies a day - did really well bringing a large salad for lunch and pieces of fruit as well as at dinner
• Actually take a multi vitamin - fail
  
• Paint living room - fail
• Install tile on hearth & possible mantle - started working on it
  
• Start SS fingerless gloves - fail
• Complete at least three knitted ornaments - almost done with one more (could finish that tomorrow
• Finish refinancing condo - we closed on the 21st!!!
• Blog at least fifteen times this month - yeehaw this post makes 18
  

I think I need to streamline my goals with better metrics to measure against. I also don't want to have a huge long list to measure against. Since we are headed in to the holiday season I want to keep things pretty focused on a few areas.

So, goals for November.

• 6 days of Starbucks (5 Sundays and Thanksgiving day)
  
• 9 workouts (5 walking Sundays and 4 workout Wednesdays)
• $400 extra payment on car (decided to focus on that to pay it off)
  
• $900 in savings (no mortage this month)
• loose 10 pounds
• knit SS fingerless gloves and three more ornaments (not inclduing the one I started)
• buy Christmas gifts (need to define list)
  
• either paint the living room or tile the hearth
  

There you have it - here's to another great month!