Payday check in

Today was payday - yay! So check in on how I did: 


Overall, I'd say not bad. Recovered from the holidays, and was 197 under my proposed budget! (well, technically only 47 under, since my Roth transfers don't start till this week). And this saving was after putting 300 away for savings. So not too bad, but I think I can do better!


This pay period is going to be a challenge. This is the first week with the new revamped budget - no clothes, and reduced grocery and eating out budget. But, that is more to savings, and more to the loans yay! And...drum roll please, I broke the 3000.00 savings barrier! 


I had been wavering around the 3000 mark - sometimes over, sometimes under, but I was afraid that I would never hurdle it. Well hurdle I did! With the savings from this month already put in, and the extra from last week I am about 54 dollars short of the 4,000.00 mark. I want to just go ahead and put the money in now, but I feel like I should do it the "honest" way and not spend as much during this pay period. 


Which may be challenging! A girlfriend is coming down to visit for the long weekend  (which means drinking, eating out and shopping) and then the last weekend of the month is the big pirate parade, and another friend is coming down, meaning the same thing. Plus I wanted to start riding lessons again. 


Yikes, its going to be tough. So frugal plan? Limit drinks (3 a night), eat before going out to eat, and I really need to make a menu and stick to it for the next 2 weeks for work nights. 


I can do it, I can!


On the man front, we are at the 2 week mark. Whoo hoo! It has been pretty easy so far. It's so strange talking to him on the phone - it really does not seem like he is in Afghanistan and I'm here. Well another post on that later - this was to celebrate *almost* hitting the 4k mark!

Am I a bad investment?

Today has been a typical lazy Sunday - sleep in, coffee while reading the news and blogs and then "woman work" aka house cleaning. Now usually woman work goes by pretty quickly because BF and I do it together, but this was my first solo effort. JEEZ it takes a long time. And we have a relatively small place! But, it gave me some good time to think. 

With all the number crunching yesterday, I was (continuing) to think a lot about my debt and how it effects my choices and people in my life. I hope to join my wagon with the BFs here sometime in the semi near future, but I had to think - am I a bad investment? 

Let's look at the facts here: BF is a home owner with zero debt besides the mortgage. He owns his car outright, has been maxing out his 401k since he was 22, and has pretty much continued career stability and growth till he retires. 

My stats aren't quite as rosy. I have about 100k in debt, give or take. I own my car semi outright (its wrapped into a long term interest free loan, but I have the papers. Thanks Mom and Dad!) but lets be honest. The market for used honda civics isn't exactly booming. I currently have a great job and good earning/promotion potential, but the long term outlook is not so strong. (Maybe 10 years). 

I would consider this all to be very straight forward - if we get married, why not just keep completely separate finances? Leave my debt mine, and for the mortgage I would continue to contribute, since I live here too. (unfortunately, student loans are not a tangible item!) But since BF is in the military, we would be moving every 3 years. Luckily, my job is in military support, but not every base is guaranteed to have positions open. 

I generally subscribe to the idea that in a marriage, financial issues all become shared. But in my case, is it really fair to do that? 

My ultimate goal for 2011 is to pay off 10,000 dollars in debt. That is two separate loans with fairly low interest rates (about 7% each), but would bring down my yearly "expenses" to 18,840 a year, which I could easily cover even working at a Starbucks. 

But is that even the point? Is it still a bad idea to link up with someone in such rough financial shape as myself?

How much do finances influence love? 

Financial recap

I have a newfound obsession with personal finance blogs. They are inspiring, informative and help keep me motivated. So, with 2011 starting out, free of credit card debt (GO ME!) and absence of the BF being around, this is a great time to really look at my finances. 


My goal was to be able to live on 45k a year. That way, in my mind no matter where my job took me, what happened, I would be okay. Now, I make close to double that, (we will say minus taxes about 60k) but I hate to be so dependent on a salary this size when I'm not confident on how long it will last. I have been keeping a budget for the past year, and have been (generally) pretty much on target with what I planned for. But now, I think I need to re-assess my planning. 


With the path that I have laid out, I will have saved/invested/donated 14,400 dollars this year. NICE! But if i'm aiming to live on 45k, where is the rest of my salary going? 


I calculated my fixed expenses for the year (student loan payments, car, insurance, rent, phone) and I need 28,880 a year to cover fixed expenses. Sooo...


     14,400 savings
    -28,800 fixed
     43,280 total 


     60,000
    -43,280
    16,720 yearly unaccounted for - or biweekly - 696 dollars. 


So that means, in an average year, I will spend quite a bit on food, eating out, shopping and other needs. WHAT THE HELL??? Where is that money going? Seriously, straight into my stomach, it looks like. That is horrific. And one would think I was about 400lbs with this kind of eating budget. 


No more. I need to get a handle on this. Lets review my "categories" of splurge. 


clothes: 
Okay, yes. I am a girl. I enjoy clothes. And shoes. And underware. And getting my hair done. I love a sale and can't say no to a good shopping trip. I have gotten substantially better since moving in with BF, but still. Not good enough! I just read Dave Bruno's 100 Thing Challenge, and it was really interesting. I don't pretend to want to do that, but I could apply a TON of his principals to my own life.  


grocery shopping:
Now, BF and I split the grocery bill, but right now my personal half is 180 every two weeks. INSANE I tell you. I would think I would be having caviar every night. But the source of the drain is really simple: booze. I love good wine and good cheese. Neither of those are cheap, nor really good for me. I would be doing much better not to be buying that stuff all the time, health and budget wise. Another source of splurging..distracted shopping. The "oh that looks good" while on the phone and doing other things I'm SURE adds up. 


dining out:
BF and I love to go out to eat. Sushi, especially or really good deli stuff. Again, not easy on the budget. 


other:
What IS this category with no consequences? From now on, I'm tracking everything that I put into the "other" and maybe need a justification. I think I have been abusing this quite a bit. 


With the BF gone, this is my chance to really regain some self control over my spending. (He is actually a really good spending influence, but I think my big short fall areas are ones that I create on my own). I think I can probably take some very simple steps to regain my control of my spending, all of things which I would tell anyone else who I was talking to about budgeting. They are:

1. Delete my clothes budget. I have a ton of clothes and shoes - updating is not really anything I need to be doing right now. Move that money into my savings, and then if I REALLY feel the need to shop, I can move the money around. 
2. Meal plan. One big shopping trip each week to determine what I need and want, and then MAKE it, which will keep the last minute substitutions to a minimum. 
3. Purchase one big bottle of wine for the week. Including weekend. More water, tea, less wine. (This will be the toughest)

So, with the new numbers moved around in my budget to reflect these plans, my new savings is right under 20k, and my biweekly mess around money is 514 dollars. 

That, my friends, is a MUCH better number. New goals in place!

Well...

Although just yesterday I stated the need to be busy, for SOME reason I seemed to forget that today.

Great day at work - lots of good meetings, good work, and god bless my co-workers. They have been really awesome - even calling after hours for random reasons. How lucky am I that they kind of "get it"? Even if the reason calling is because I joked about my fat stinging while I run? LOL they really do rock. Does it get much better?

But really. I thought that if I went home, talked to a few friends, I would be okay. I would do my yoga, relax, etc. etc. Yeah. right. Dreaming.

Came home, had a glass of wine - pretty standard, actually, and then "the call". It was SOOO freaking good to hear his voice! Yes, he sounded tired and basically exhausted, but he called!! Good god being home really SUCKS without him. And now, here I am, quite a few drinks in and no work out. Feeling the flab and not much I can do for it now.

Sigh. I miss him. So I'm giving myself a week of crying, of sappy emails, or drinking myself to sleep, and then THAT IS IT. Next week will be a whole new story. Would he want anything else? I think not.


On a positive note, its been an extremely healthy eating day, besides all the wine! And I finished the book the "100 things challenge" which really made me think about my consuming habits. I know my weaknesses are shoes and clothes, but this really made me think about my purchases and my intentions of shopping. Lets hope I don't spend these few months shopping away my sadness!

And here we go...day zero

I admit, I used to think only weirdos who were into video games or funky sex games (not that there is anything wrong with either of those) blogged. But now that I find myself sitting here in Florida on the first day of the BF's deployment, I thought maybe it was time I started. I recently starting reading blogs, mostly personal finance with a few MilSpouse blogs thrown in, and it seemed like a great place to vent, encourage, whine or share ideas. 

Plus, I like my friends too much to vent to them all the time! 

So here I go. I don't know how to do any fancy HTML, or even to tell if people are reading this, but then again this is for my own therapy rather than readership. So, in that case, guess I should get venting. 

I actually tried to start this blog last night, but when I was signing in from my regular account I came across a post from about 3 years ago when I guess I attempted blogging before (obviously worked out so well...). But it was from the first night that I met BF, and it made me happy. So low and behold:

:From here is where things get interesting. I was supposed to meet up with the metro boys, and they were in Georgetown. Now, one would assume that since I had been there only hours before, it would be simple enough to find my way back. Ohh no, that was a challenge. I ended up wandering around the area for a while, looking for Mr. Smiths. Finding Georgetown was hard enough, but finding the one freaking bar in the middle of about 90000 in there? Practically impossible.

So as Im wandering, I catch sight of the classic DLI shirts "We learn languages so you dont have to" and I cant help but ask if he is from Monterey. He is a short, islander kinda guy, and I was honestly so excited to talk to someone from "home" that I did not notice his friend. How this happened, I have NO clue. He is WAAAY too good looking to miss. Long story short, I ended up hangng out with them for about an hour before I realize that I have completly forgotten about the metro boys.

Little side note on Metro boys; I have semi blown them off all week and HAD to go meet them. I was actualy starting to feel bad about being such a flake. So I say goodbye to the DLI guys and try to find the metro ones. I hope the DLI guy calls."

DLI guy = BF now. 3 years later, and now living together in Florida. Crazy how time flies and this all works out! Especially since I thought long distance relationships were stupid, military guys were lame, and that all I wanted was to have a fling. A fling lasts 3 years, right?

BF's Mom just called to see how his flight went and if he left. They are really great, and I hope I can keep in touch with them more often. Basically, this deployment is 4-5 months long (its the military, can they EVER tell you anything for sure?) and I want to make a disclaimer before I even start really blogging (whatever that is)

"I, K, realize that I have an AWESOME situation. I have a fantastic amazing boyfriend who got an opportunity to go with a really great unit which will be so beneficial to his career. It is only four months, which is really not a long time at all, and I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to keep up to date with his work. We don't have kids and are not really missing any holidays. I understand I am very lucky."

However...IT SUCKS! I want to hang out with him! And after 2 years of long distance, is it so much to ask that he stays in one spot? Apparently so, so I'm plotting and planning on how to make this the easiest four months I can imagine. Here is what I have so far:

• Stay busy!
• I have shifted my hours at work so there is less "alone in the house time"
• I'm signing up to volunteer with several humane society type organizations in town
• Once again I'm going to the cardio boxing - at least 2x a week I hope (plus being in better shape when he gets back will be a bonus)
• Try to keep the sappy emails at a minimum. 
• He knows I miss him, that I love him...I need to try not to be a downer. The job is super stressful with long hours - last thing I want to do is be another burden
• I think the blog will help, right? I can vent and mope here, and then send a better email when need be
• NO ARGUMENTS WHILE HE IS DEPLOYED
• Not that we really argue much when he is here (usually about working out or happy hour...really rough, I know) but who knows how crazy the stress of it all will make me?

Okay, so my plans are limited, but its a start! I can modify as I go along. 

Alright so this is getting long enough for a first post. Lets do a check in:

Mood: positive

Sanity: Intact

Workout: Completed