What Would You Have in Your Airship?

Restoration Hardware is one of my favorite sights to browse and get ideas.

A friend sent me a link to this chair. It's called The Aviator and I love it.

I can totally picture this in a cool bar or lounge. At $1195 on sale (regularily $1495) I don't imagine two of these coming home with me any time soon.

C and I are contemplating trying to make something ourselves.

Wellies - The New Galoshes

I don't know about you but around Seattle we get quite a bit of rain. Last night it snowed but it all melted this morning and there was water EVERYWHERE! I have been wanting a pair of Wellies for a while and thought I would Google to see what is out there.

First up, Ralph Lauren Chocolate Wellies on sale!

Or classic Burberry plaid (sadly not on sale).

Or your classic Wellington boot.

Hands down my favorite are the chocolate brown by Ralph!

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.

Finally Success!

We are finally able to stream from Netflix. After ordering our Roku, having it get lost in the mail, buying a router, buying an external network card and having Comunistcast ping our modem - we are live and streaming!

I imagine I will be spending quite a bit of time glued to my TV!

Here is a photo of one of my bigger goals I am saving for. A Mini Cooper S hard top in Hot Chocolate.

Can you just picture the license plate holder with "Take life with a grain of chocolate"? Now THAT'S eye candy!

August Wrap Up & September Goals

Here is where the money fell this month.

Income - $4154.56 (paychecks) $226 (craigslist and yard sale) = $4380.56
Coffee - $100.69 (down $43.92)
Eating Out - $150.51 (up $49.86)
Groceries - $406.72 ( down $117.85)
Gas - $213.09 (up $2.16)
I started contributing to my 401(k) again as well

We put $600 in savings and then transferred it out again plus the $225 we made to buy our new flat screen TV. This was a planned expense and we have been enjoying it immensely. No CC used! Now the focus is to save.

The goals we had for August were...

• Pay off personal loan - check
• Pay off six credit cards - paid off four and then used two (explanation below)
  
• Save $525 - check (see TV above)
• Birthday gifts for niece, nephew & mom - check
• Concert tickets to Diana Krall at the winery - check (did use CC's for this purchase)
• Get hubs BMW diagnosed - check (it only cost $48 to fix)
• Track in food journal - check (did pretty well for the first time and lost 4.5 pounds in the first three weeks)

I am glad to have the major credit cards paid off but available when I need them. Even though I used two of them the balances are low and will be paid off this month. When shopping online I prefer to use credit cards as opposed to my debit card to protect my hard earned wages. Now that they are paid off, any time I use them I immediately put that amount in the budget to pay back to the card. This both avoids interest and doesn't get us in the kind of trouble we have been in before. So, items purchased on CC's.

• Diana Krall tickets
• Groceries (I forgot how much teenagers eat when they are at your house for two weeks)
• Weight Watchers sign up (will transfer to debit card and lost 4.5 pounds - yay!)
• Pre Paid Legal sign up fee (issue of the ex wife kind which has now been resolved without legal action - well, at least without expensive legal action)
• Two crackberrys (see below for explanation)

So, I have been wanting a Crack (I mean) Blackberry for at least a year. Every once in a while I get online and price them. I did that on Sunday and lo and behold they were having a buy one get one free sale (the hubs wanted one too). I thought the one I wanted would cost me $49.99. When I went in the Verizon store (cause I have to touch and play with stuff and ask load of questions) I ended up with a different one due to the 8 gig memory feature. That one was (after rebate) free! So, aside from a few accessories I spent $100 on my blackberry which will be $0 when I get the rebate of $100 in the mail. We used a credit card to pay for it cause I'm not really in the position to not have $100 while I wait for it to be returned to me.

I got the Blackberry Storm Touch Screen Smartphone. So far I like it but am frustrated with a few things. Apparently I can download my own music and use them as ringtones - having issues with that. I purchased one ringtone and it was sent to me as a text message but I have yet to be able to activate it as a ringtone. Ug!

It's great for Facebook because there is an app that's really crackberry friendly. Hard to read blogs though. GREAT for checking and answering my personal email. Of course the kids asked if they could have our old phones.

I know why they call them crackberries - they are addictive.

So goals for September....

• Pay off major CC's from August usage
  
• Save $200 - I know, small amount but I need to fulfill paying the CC's
• Follow grocery ($200), coffee ($50) and gas ($140) budget
  
• Start working out two more days a week with Wii fit and Jillian Michaels
• Drink at least four glasses of water a day
• Continue on eating at least five servings of fruits/veggies a day
• Start taking a multi vitimin
  
• Finish baseboard molding in main part of house (purchased without using CC's)
• Paint living room
• Install tile on hearth
• Finish SD's Tabi Socks for Christmas
• Complete at least five knitted ornaments
  
• Refinance condo

Created sidebars on my blog as well. Will update as needed. Here's to a great September!

How Much To Save?

So I have this specific amount of money I want to have saved and a bunch of expensive things I want to buy. I'm trying really hard to find a balance between wanting things and sticking to a savings plan. Its hard! If I get those fancy schmancy tickers figured out I will add them to my side bar to track my progress.

Emergency Fund $3000 - I have given myself a deadline of six months to save this. That is a savings goal of $500 per month. Right now I have budgeted $600 per month and that is comfortable so at that rate I will be able to meet my goal at the end of January 2010. A full month ahead of schedule but also some wiggle room for any emergencies.

Travel Fund $2000 - I want to save for my honeymoon vacation next May strictly with money from paychecks along with my emergency fund. However, that would require adding an additional $225 to my monthly savings goals. That could be a bit of a stretch. I can reasonably expect to have around $2000 in a tax return in February 2010. That money will be earmarked for travel when I get it and I should have already saved my emergency fund.

I want to go back to snowflaking as I was pretty successful when I did that in June. I need to weigh the cons of wanting something against the pros of that much more saved because it does add up.

We have a few large expenses coming up in the next six months that I need to plug in to our budget.

• Dog teeth cleaning - $300
• Repair clutch and brakes on hubs new car - ?
• Purchase hubs new car - $2000 (we are buying my dad's old Porsche from him and can make payments if need be). The reason for the new car? The hubs current car is not the most reliable and in January we can no longer commute together.
  

How is it that Trading Spaces can spend $1000 per room and make them look fabulous and I have spent thousands and still do not have one finished room? We are in the home stretch as far as condo projects go and want to have them all completed in the next year. That will leave four years of enjoying a finished space before we move on.

We saved for and purchased our new TV a few weeks ago. The other big budget items we are looking at. We want to buy quality items since we will be living with them for the next several years.

• New couch and chairs for the living room.
  
• Low profile bed frame with storage in the headboard for master bedroom
  
• Bathroom vanity and sink.
• Five more closet shelves in the master bedroom
• New kids beds
  

Things that I would like but don't absolutely need.....

• New cushy dining room chairs
  
• Bar and bookshelves for dining room
• New kitchen counter tops
• Deck in yard
  

By far the most expensive items will be the living room furniture. I absolutely hate what we have now in color and its just not that comfortable. It makes me want to save that for last which is ironic since this is the room we spend the most time in.

Other things we need to do around the place is paint (living, bath & kids room), baseboard moldings (install and paint), replace tile on hearth & beef up the living room mantle. These things are all items we plan to purchase with monthly mad money as they are not large ticket items.

This weekend we plan to head out and pick up some more baseboard molding to finish off the kitchen and dining rooms as well as some paint to start painting all the moldings we have already installed (base and crown). We will price tile for the hearth as well.

Oh yeah, Christmas is coming too! I did get a jump start on that though. We already bought the kids "big" gift of iPods (with cash thank-you-very-much!) and I have 1 1/2 tabi socks kitted for SD. After those are completed I will get SS's fingerless gloves knitted up. I have to start thinking about ideas for other family members too.

I had the thought that if I saved $1000 and then saved for a big ticket item and went back and forth like that I would make both halfs of myself happy. I think its more important to have that emergency fund saved up though. Darn it!