4 months post debt update + i hate listening to people who have more money than me bitch about their financial problems

so i paid off my last credit card payment on september 15, 2011.  then on september 17, 2011, i fell and broke my leg and had to take a bunch of time off work and racked up some medical bills.  go me.

regardless, my financial situation is still better than it was during my credit card debt days.  one thing i realized that i truly learned to do was to live within my means, something i had maybe never known how to do prior to making a budget.  during the last year or so of paying off debt, i really didn't even have to consult my budget because i had just changed my lifestyle and purchasing habits so completely that i knew instinctively how to stay within it. now that i no longer have to pay off debt, i find that i have extra money at the end of each month, and i have also started saving a significant chunk of my monthly pay for retirement which is kind of mind boggling to even think about.

here is what i am doing with my money (all amounts are per month):

income:

• $3001.36 net salary
• $1500 LRAP (approx)

expenses (most of these are approximate):

• $1500 student loans
• $550 rent
• $467 roth 401k
• $320 medical/health/physical therapy/medication related expenses
• $200 new laptop (i put it on a 0% credit card and will have it paid off before the interest kicks in which will be november)
• $150 utilities
• $100 vacation aka "so i don't kill myself because my life is so depressing" fund
• $85 cell phone
• $75 parking (i hate this expense because if it were not for my damn broken leg i would be walking to work)
• $61 auto insurance
• $55 cable
• $30 hair
• $22 renter's insurance
• $900ish: groceries/eating out/entertainment/car issues/personal care items/clothing/shoes/gifts/savings/donations/random emergencies/whatever

i should probably be more exact with tracking this stuff just so i know but for some reason about 6 months ago, mint no longer works with my credit union and i am too lazy to sit and type everything into the spreadsheet anymore.

i would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone with large hospital or medical bills to 1) pay attention to what you are being charged and 2) negotiate with them on your bills.  i got an $800 bill from the city of cincinnati for my ambulance ride.  at the time of my accident, ambulance rides were covered 100% by my insurance provider.  yet they billed me anyway.  if i were not so poor, i would have probably just paid it and not even thought about it.  but it turned out they were billing me illegally, even though they had already been paid by my insurance.  pay attention to your bills and compare them to your insurance benefits!

then, when i got my bill from the hospital, i did not want to just pay it in a lump sum.  i tried to get them to lower it but they would not.  however, they agreed to put me on a $30 monthly payment plan with no interest.  i might have been able to get the bill down if i had really argued a lot, or waited until it went into collections, but honestly my deductible turned out to be so much lower than i thought it would be ($1000!!!) that it wasn't worth my time and energy at that point.

and finally i would like to conclude with a rant.  i am fucking sick of people complaining to me about their money problems.  and by "people" i mean "people who earn and/or own so much more than i do."  my W-2 says that i made $44,468.80 last year, which is about $2000 less than i was supposed to because of the time i missed work due to my broken leg.  after taxes i brought home $33,837.01 in 2011.  i do not own a house or any property.  i live with a roommate in a neighborhood that scares a lot of people (dumb people, but still).  my car is a 2003 hyundai accent that is scratched up and has transmission issues.  i walk to work (usually).

i have not been outside of the united states since august 2008, when i went to mexico on a free frequent flyer miles ticket and stayed in a hotel room paid for by my friend myra's job.  as for non-international vacations, the only trips i have been on in years have either been paid for by my job and/or with free or reduced cost flights and/or with friends who have generously contributed to my lodging or meal costs.  i recently went through pictures from my law school graduation (may 2006) and realized that i am still mostly wearing the same clothes i was wearing 6 years ago.  my hobbies are meditation (free), running (free other than races/clothes, and totally free when you have a broken leg), and cooking (occasionally expensive but usually cheap).

until i started saving this month, i did not have any money being saved for retirement, and my non-retirement savings in total is less than $3000.  i do not own a flat screen tv or a stereo system or a bike or a dslr camera or a vespa or a video game system or a musical instrument or a wine/beer/liquor collection or a bunch of expensive shoes/purses/jewelry/watches or any of the other fun, costly entertainment items that it seems that everyone else i know owns.  i make coffee at home.  i don't get my hair dyed or my nails done or my body massaged.  my outdated, discount priced "smart"phone only works about 60% of the time.  i've never eaten in a four star restaurant.

i am not saying any of this to get sympathy or congratulations or whatever.  i realize that i am doing a lot better in terms of my lifestyle and finances than a vast majority of people in the world.  i am just saying it to describe my situation and to say that i am goddamn sick of hearing people who have way more than i do bitch about how they do not have enough.  i was just talking to a friend (a single mother of two who makes only a little bit more than i do) about this and it is on my mind.

if you just came back from a fabulous vacation or you just bought an awesome new car or you just spent too much money at the mall but it's really not that bad because everything was on sale or you own a wonderful house in a great neighborhood that you just love but you can't believe the property taxes or you make more money than i do but of course it's really still not enough, please do not complain to me about your financial problems.  it just makes me hate you (although the degree of hate does depend on how annoying you are in other respects).  that is all.

I JUST MADE MY LAST CREDIT CARD PAYMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLY FUCKING JESUS CHRIST I HAVE NO MORE CREDIT CARD DEBT!!!!!!!!!!!

i just got an email from my credit card... my statement is ready and i owe $718.90. i looked in my bank account and i had $2,823.46, plus i have $1,000 more in my emergency fund. i have no big purchases coming up and nothing pending to pay. i got a bunch of travel reimbursement from work recently and i cut back on a couple expenses. and i was like FUCK ME I THINK I CAN PAY THIS OFF RIGHT NOW. and then I DID!!!!!!!!!

so right now i have about $3000 cash and my only debt is my student loans, which are at about $117,341. i have to go celebrate. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011 goals and progress to date

so i kind of got off track in terms of keeping track of my finances but now that my bank is on mint it is going to be much easier for me. the good news is that i am still more or less on track with my budget even though i didn't keep track of it for a number of months which i think is really exciting and means that i have actually truly changed my spending habits.

my current debt:

• student loans: $133,409.61
• credit cards: $4027.57

so here are my goals and resolutions for 2011, both financial and otherwise:

• run at least one full marathon. i ran 2 half marathons last year and have started training for the flying pig here in cincinnati in may.
• learn about at least one new band per month and go to at least one live show per month. i am a joke among my friends due to how little i know about music and i think it is time i started to fix this. plus this is a fun goal and i like those.
• go to china in the fall (and maybe also korea and/or japan). i have $1000 saved right now and will need to save $122/month through october to make this happen. also a fun goal.
• pay off all of my credit card debt by december 31, 2011. at a scheduled rate of payment of $355.00/month, this should be achievable!!! i am about to crap myself with excitement just thinking about this so i will move on.
• continue to pay off my student loans with my loan repayment money (currently i am scheduled to get $29,850 this year). corollary goal: don't get fired (my job has been sending out lots of scary "please take the buyout" emails and i think layoffs are coming soon). subcorollary goal: if i do get fired, get another job in nonprofit/government so i can keep getting lrap and not get fucked in the ass by having to pay the loans off myself.

2010 was overall a really good year for me both financially and personally and i am really excited for 2011!

your questions here

please leave your questions in the comments. thanks.

do your taxes online for free

if you earned less than $58,000 in 2009, you are eligible to file both your state and federal taxes online for free with h&r block via the beehive. i have used the beehive for 3 years now and it is totally legit. this was originally a service only for former americorps members but now anyone can use it as long as you meet the income eligibility cutoff. make sure you click on the beehive link above to get to the right place so they don't try to charge you at the end.

new year = time to refocus on my debt

blogging about debt got kind of boring for me (obviously). i can't promise that i'm going to be writing much on here now but since it is a new year, i have been taking some time over the past few weeks to refocus on my financial goals and to track my progress.

since i started this project one year ago, i have paid off a lot of debt:

• student loans: $177,741 in december 2008 to $156,466 in december 2009 = $21,275 = 12% of my student loan debt paid off
• credit cards: $15,737 in december 2008 to $11,670 in decemer 2009 = $4067 = 26% of my credit card debt paid off
• auto loan: $1,167 in december 2008 to $0 in december 2009 = $1,167 = 100% of my auto loan paid off

overall, that means that i paid off $26,509 or 14% of my total debt in 2009. i am excited!

over the year i learned to live within my means (mostly). i no longer have to run home after every trip to the bar or to dinner to put my receipts into my budget immediately so that i know how much i have left to spend. i have learned what it feels like to not overspend and i continue to do that. i drink cheap beer (and actually i drink less overall which is good for my health too). i eat smaller meals and take advantage of specials. i sometimes choose eating out over grocery shopping, but i'm allowed to do that so i don't feel bad.

over the holidays i went clothes shopping for really the first time in the past year. i have picked up a few things here and there (a bathing suit when i was going to new orleans, new black shoes when i wore out my old ones, etc.) but had not done a full shopping trip. things were getting bleak and i was wearing sweaters with holes in them to work. i waited so long because i was scared that i would go into a store and overspend and freak out. but it turns out i was just fine. i was shopping after christmas so there were tons of sales.

i went in knowing what i needed to buy and did not buy anything that was too expensive (i really wanted some awesome, fit me perfectly $99 seven jeans from nordstrom rack but resisted) or that was not something i loved (i said no to some cute super cheap $12 sneakers because i wasn't crazy about the color) or that did not fit me exactly right (i walked away from an adorable, originally $200+ marked down to $40 ann taylor gray and white houndstooth jacket because it was a little too big). none of this would have happened before. i was very proud of myself and i did not feel sick afterwards which is a good sign.

my financial goals this year are to continue paying off my debt and to continue to refine my budget. i have learned that i have to be realistic about certain things... while i wish i lived in a world where i was only going to spend $50 per month on household items/toiletries/etc., or that i never had to pay for big car repairs, or that i never had to go to the doctor, but i do not live in that world and i need money allotted for those un-fun things.

i have also decided that i am going to set aside $100/month for a vacation. i have not had a real vacation since i went to mexico in august 2008 and while i was going to try to wait until the end of this whole credit card paying off ordeal to do it, i have realized it is going to take me longer than i expected and if i don't have any fun in there anywhere, i'm not going to make it. where will i go? i'm hoping for hawaii in december 2010 and china/japan in august 2011. plans are in the works and i just have to get my finances in order. i am still aiming to pay off $5000 of credit card debt this year so budgeting is key.

happy new year to any readers out there. how did 2009 go for you? and what are your financial goals this year?

eating cheap

if you read my other blog, you know that i love food. cooking and eating out. ever since i started my budget in january, i have been learning new ways to eat out cheap (but still eat well). here are some tips i have learned. i hope they are helpful.

1. eat dinner at home before going out with friends and then just get an appetizer

if you are going somewhere to eat out that you don't really care that much about, just eat something at home and then get something small. then you can still have the social aspect of going out to eat but will not spend a ton of money on a meal you don't really care about. also, by getting something cheap you will not make people uncomfortable by just sitting there sipping water with lemon while they all feast on steaks or whatever. it's better to be eating something i think in order to fully participate in what is going on.

2. take advantage of weekly specials and happy hours

in the past few weeks i have had half off fish and chips at rookwood pub, a $2.95 burger and fries at mccormick and schmick's, half price sushi at dancing wasabi, $10 all you can eat pizza at pizza night at take the cake, $7 burger madness at arthur's, and a $35 three course restaurant week meal at nicola's. there are tons of other specials out there too, in fact here in cincinnati pretty much every restaurant except the really expensive places have some kind of weekly special. and the places that don't are almost guaranteed to at least participate in the occasional restaurant weeks that come around.

3. become a secret shopper

a friend of mine tipped me off on this when she took me out to a $250 meal at jeff ruby's waterfront... for free. what you do is sign up on the website, do a few reviews of crappy places (she had to do smoothie king a few times), and then you get the hookup to good places. i have not done this yet but i am planning to soon. seriously, this is an awesome way to get some seriously good meals for free. the only catch is that she says the reviews take a couple hours to write, but still, it's totally worth it if you are willing to take the time to do that.

4. order off of the extra value menu at fast food places

i don't eat fast food much but recently i took a trip to chicago on the megabus so we stopped at wendy's on the way there and mcdonald's on the way back. at wendy's i got some buffalo chicken tenders for $4.35. this seemed expensive to me since i didn't even get a drink or fries. at mcdonald's, i checked out the extra value menu. i got a chicken sandwich and a medium fries for $2.80. even if i had added a drink this would have been like $4. much cheaper than getting the combo thing which was like $6. it is possible that this chicken sandwich was smaller than the regular one but i don't think so... i think the only difference was that there was no tomato on it. and who wants one of those gross anemic fast food tomato slices anyway... so not worth $2.

5. drink water

do you know how much money i save simply because i do not drink soda? i mean i even drink beer and wine and coffee and all that, just not soda. any time i am eating lunch out i just get water. it is free and saves me probably $1.50 to $2 at every single meal. i have never been a soda drinker so this is not a sacrifice for me at all, but if you are and you can stop drinking it i promise you will notice a difference in your budget.

long time no write

if you can't tell from my total neglect of this blog, my budget and finances have not been at the top on my mind lately. saving money and sticking to the budget is sooo much harder in the summer it turns out... there is just so much more that i want to go out and do. on top of that there are trips (i went to chicago in june, michigan in july, and new orleans in august) and visitors. all of this costs money. plus i am busier so it is harder to do things like update my budget every day and write on this blog.

i need to get back to it though because while i am definitely not abandoning my budget by any means, i am still not exactly sticking to it either. last month i had a lot of issues. first of all, i totally overspent on all of the following things:

• trip to new orleans: i had budgeted for it but still spent too much
• car repair: my damn car's check engine light keeps coming on
• entertainment: my friend had a going away party which involved going to dayton, staying in a hotel, going to a club, etc. it was a cheap trip compared to other trips and while it was a ton of fun, financially i probably should not have gone
• clothes: my shoe situation was getting desperate so i got two new pairs. i also got some cheap, crappy clothes for new orleans (i was down there to volunteer with habitat for humanity), a bathing suit, and some new work clothes (which honestly i probably really did not need but they were on super sale)

on top of all that, i switched insurance companies and learned that the new company charges you $5 per payment! i have auto and renter's insurance through them so that would be an extra $10 per month. that pissed me off so i just made one payment for 6 months. that is fine except that i had not saved up for that so i ended up having to go into the emergency fund for it. but i guess that is what the emergency fund is for?

so i came back from new orleans all ready to get back on track but almost immediately i was back in bad budget land... my friends lina and alex came to visit at the beginning of the month and we went to the state fair, ate out a lot, and i had a bbq and bought a bunch of food and beer and stuff for that. then i decided i absolutely needed a new blow dryer and straightener (i mean the old ones were really terrible but still) and of course had to buy expensive ones. and then last night i decided spur of the moment to go out for a $60 dinner. i am not doing a very good job here.

i talked to bryan, aka my financial guru, about all of this and he does not think it is as bad as i do. his thing is, as long as i make active decisions about things and do not put things on the credit cards, it is ok to spend more and save less on a month by month basis. i have put a lot of thought into it and i realized that i am not willing to sacrifice my social life for my budget so that means that i am going to continue to go out and meet people (which is a big goal of mine right now) and that means spending at least some money. what i can do is drink cheap beer, eat at home and just have an appetizer, etc. but i am not willing to give up socializing, or honestly even cut back on it at all, because it is really important to me to be meeting new people and expanding my social circle, and that doesn't happen if you stay at home.

i am still paying off $800 per month to my credit cards (well not this month since $200 has to go to the emergency fund) so i feel like i am doing a good job and am allowed to make choices like this. also, i found a couple friends who want to move in with me so hopefully in october or november we will be moving to a new place which will cost me less money (both rent and utilities/cable/etc.). so that is another thing i am doing for my budget.

cheap groceries at aldi

(note: i totally cut and pasted this post from my other blog. yes, i'm that lazy.)

last month, jenny over at recycled bin wrote a post extolling the virtues of aldi, which i have been hearing about a lot lately. i was curious but had heard all these rumors of how it was so tricky to shop at aldi... you have to pay for your own cart, you don't bag your groceries at the checkout, they don't take credit cards, etc. i was fascinated but scared.

enter here... if you dare

lucky for me, i met jenny recently and she offered to take me on a tour. (totally unrelated, jenny has an awesome blog which just today was announced as the cincinnati women bloggers blog of the week so you should totally check her blog out.) anyway i obviously was happy to take her up on the offer.

in case you have never heard of aldi, or don't know much about it, here is some info from wikipedia:

ALDI, short for "ALbrecht DIscount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...The Albrecht brothers also rigorously removed merchandise that did not sell from their shelves, and cut costs by not advertising, not selling fresh produce, and keeping the size of their retail outlets as small as possible... Aldi until recently accepted only cash... Debit cards are also accepted in the USA...

Aldi specializes in staple items such as food, beverages, toilet roll, sanitary articles and other inexpensive household items. Many of its products are own-brand labeled, with the number of outside brands being very limited, usually no more than two different brands for one kind of product and often only one. This increases the numbers of sales for each article and also allows Aldi stores to be smaller than supermarkets which cover the same range of products but with more diversity... Although not always available, but regularly put up for sale are clothing, toys, flowers, gifts. Specials are only available in strictly limited quantities and for a limited time frame (one week)...

Aldi's "strictly no frills" approach is evident for instance in that Aldi stores do not decorate aisles — or even fill shelves for that matter: pallets of the products on offer are parked alongside the aisles, and customers picking up products will gradually empty them...

These and other cost-cutting strategies save Aldi money and the general price level in Aldi stores shows that most of these savings are passed directly on to consumers. Aldi has carved its own niche with this approach; while some shoppers may not like shopping in a bland or industrial-looking (and possibly congested) store, such lack of frills has become part of the accepted norm with Aldi...

Once products have been scanned, they are put directly in the shopping cart, which has a special dock on the counter for this purpose...the customer is expected to bag groceries away from the cash-desk... In many countries, including most of Europe, the US, and Australia, Aldi does not provide free plastic shopping bags. Instead the customer can purchase various types of plastic/reusable bags at the checkout to cart the goods out of the store. Aldi encourages customers to bring their own bags.

i hope you read carefully because there will be a quiz later.

anyway, cheap + delicious? i was in. saturday was the big day and we met at the store in pleasant ridge. first things first, we went to the carts. what you do is take a quarter, stick it into the cart lock, and your cart pops out. then when you return your cart you get your quarter back. it's free in the end and there are no carts anywhere in the parking lot. brilliant!

the grocery cart locking contraption

we got inside and started looking around. jenny recommended certain items including the wine, aldi's own winking owl brand ($3.39 a bottle, jenny recommends the chardonnay and merlot) and the fit and active brand dried snacks (also aldi's own brand, $1.39 for a package). ghirardelli brownie mix was on special for like $2/box or something. jenny found toblerones for $1.49.

starting the tour

i would like to note that nothing was wrong with any of these products. they were not expired or broken or stale. there were some cans which had small dents in them so if you are worried about whatever that illness is that you can get from dented cans, then i guess don't buy those. but everything else seemed to be in perfect condition.

3 buck... cluck?

there were all kinds of interesting finds. frozen bison burgers (4 for $6 i think), yogurt, patio furniture, lots of different frozen fish varieties, and some pretty damn good looking produce (we are guessing that they get their produce shipment in on friday or saturday). we each got a quart of strawberries... they were $1 each and i am still eating them and they are sweet and delicious. i found a 16 oz. bottle of extra virgin olive oil for $4.99.

nellie's dryer balls: $18 at park + vine, $6.99 at aldi

this place is a deal. that's all there is to it. yes, you may have to be adventurous and try brands you have never heard of. but you will be rewarded. there is no way you can leave this store without finding something good. and you can feel free to experiment and try things since everything is so damn cheap.

time for checkout. what you do is go up to the register. they ring you up and place everything back in your cart. you must pay with either cash or debit card (but only if it has a pin). then you take your cart over to the counter and bag your groceries yourself. we brought our own bags, but they will sell you bags if you don't have any.

check. it. out.

i have heard mixed reviews about aldi stores (they're dirty, they have terrible selection, everything is rotten) but that is not the case at least with the pleasant ridge location. i had a great time and my total damage was $23. i got:

• a quart of strawberries
• a bottle of wine
• a box of ghirardelli brownie mix
• a yellow pepper
• a red pepper
• a 75 foot roll of aluminum foil
• a big bottle of extra virgin olive oil
• a box of spaghetti
• a tub of roasted red pepper hummus
  
• probably one or two other things i am forgetting

that is a bargain. i highly recommend you get your ass to aldi as soon as possible. you won't find everything you need but you can spend the cash you save on some extra goodies at the more expensive stores.

i'm thinking about moving

since i paid off my car last month, and once i finish replenishing my emergency fund this month, i will be putting $795.86 per month toward my credit cards. if i continue at this rate, my credit cards will be paid off in march 2011 (please note that is one year and three months ahead of my original goal, which was june 2012).

(fyi, i do all my budget calculations with this cnn money budget calculator, which is a handy tool if you do not have one that you already use)

that is very exciting, but recently i have had it in my head that i want to move. if i were to get a place where i had a roommate, it would save me a damn lot of money. also, i really like having roommates (when they are not crazy) and i miss living with other people.

my current monthly living expenses:

• rent: $595.00
• heat/electric: $141.00 fixed
• cable: $42.21

grand total: $778.21

i have been looking at a few places on craigslist and talked to a guy at one potential place and got the breakdown on expenses. i will just use that as a sample since i don't have info on any other places yet. here are the monthly expenses at that place:

• rent: $420.00
• heat/electric: $50-90 depending on the season
• internet: $10.00

grand total: $520.00 (at most)

that is a savings of $258.21 per month! imagine what i could do with that money. yes... pay off my credit cards faster. i went to the budget calculator again and plugged in the numbers if i were paying $1054.00 per month towards credit cards. that would get my credit cards paid off by october 2010!

i will be 30 in september 2010. if i could just squeeze a little extra money out of my budget on top of that, i could give myself the amazing 30th birthday present of paying off my credit cards. this would be so awesome!

speaking of squeezing money out of my budget, i recently cut my auto/rental insurance expenses from $108/month total to $98/month by switching companies. it's not a lot but it's something.

anyway, back to moving + having roommate(s). i'm debating it. i'll do a pros and cons list and you guys can give me advice.

pros:

• saving money
• potentially paying my credit cards off in the next year and three months (assuming i can stick with a cheap roommate situation that long)
  
• having roommates is fun
• i want to try living in a new neighborhood
• meeting new people
  
• i am kind of bored with my life right now and this would shake things up
• probably i would save on other expenses too (food, household items, etc.)
  

cons:

• i have lived alone for the past 2+ years and i don't know if i am no longer able to live with people (a lot of my friends claim this about themselves)
  
• less personal space/privacy
• possibly having to deal with annoying people as roommates
• moving sucks
• i would probably have to get rid of a lot of my stuff
• i could hate it and then i would have to move yet again
• i will not get to be as messy/loud/etc. as i want whenever i want
  

well that is all i can think of. any advice would be much appreciated!

my car is paid off! (and a budget update)

as of today, my car is fully paid off! i am so excited. it is only $200 a month but i am really excited to have that extra money. i have already planned future months' budgets to allocate that money to debt so it's not like i'll see anything extra, but it is nice to know that one more debt is paid off.

speaking of the budget, it's in the toilet this month. i don't know what happened (well yeah i do) but i totally overspent. i am over on like everything. it sucks.

i think part of my problem is that my budget was just a guess and now i am finding that it is not accurate in terms of what i spent. for example, today i got my hair cut. there goes $50 right there. and of course haircuts are not in the budget. i do have $50/month allocated to clothes and shoes. however, this month i already had to buy two pairs of shoes, one for work and one for christine's wedding.

i also had to buy a bag. the only large bags i owned were like these cloth bags from guatemala or else tote bags and it was ridiculous that i would drag those around to nice restaurants, court, etc. between the bag, the shoes, and the haircut alone, i have spent $235.

household items were also a big expense this month. i ran out of citronella candles which are a summer necessity for me in order to enjoy my backyard. i probably spent about $40 on that. then i decided i wanted to plant some herbs. there goes another $20 for plants and dirt.

my sister came to visit me at the beginning of the month. note to self: no more visitors at the beginning of the month. dinner out was $47. a trip to the aquarium was $18. beer and wine for her visit was probably another $25. i either need to stop having visitors or make them buy me things. or else we sit home and watch cable.

don't even get me started on entertainment costs. first there was all the money i spent during my sister's visit. then there was the cincinnati imports westside bar crawl (i spent $53 that night alone). i am taking a golf class and, while my aunt very awesomely gave me her old set of golf clubs, i needed a putter and a glove... that was $40. i was over my entertainment budget on like may 20. how could i get through over a third of a month, including a holiday weekend, and not spend anything on fun? i couldn't. (i didn't go to chicago by the way for anyone who was wondering.)

i am depressed over my spending this month, but the thought of having paid off my car is nice. i just need to do better next month. i really feel like some of my spending is related to the weather. it's nice out so i want to go out and do things and spend money rather than sit at home and be a hermit. the weather is only going to get nicer so i am going to have to figure out some way to deal with this.

budget woes

so for the first few months sticking to the budget was easy because it was winter and there wasn't a whole lot going on. now it is warm out and almost every day it seems like is an invitation to dinner out or a happy hour or a party or something. i try to keep costs down by ordering cheap beer and eating at home as much as possible but my budget is hurting.

it's only may 18 and i am already slightly over my entertainment budget. the good thing is that i am way under my grocery budget so i have some flexibility. i figure with entertainment + groceries + eating out, as long as it all comes out under then i am ok even if i overspend in one of the areas.

another problem i have been having is things breaking or needing new things. like for example my car repairs last month. but also stuff like this month my belt broke so i need a new belt. i also had two pairs of pajama bottoms fall apart and had to get new ones. i needed new black shoes for work and i used up all my citronella candles so i had to restock. my budgets for these types of things (clothes, household items, etc.) are pretty low so i am constantly going over. it's ok so far because i really did not spend on any of these things in the first couple months of the year, but it's annoying. there's no way i can get through two more years like this so i'm probably going to have to adjust my budget... which means paying off my credit cards will take longer. blah.

i really really want to go to chicago this weekend for memorial day, but according to my budget i totally shouldn't. i have no entertainment money left and only a little eating out money. i did just get a $120 check for transportation reimbursement from work, so that is available, but what i should do is put it in the bank for my friends' wedding that i am saving for at the end of june. and anyway i know there is no way i am going to go to chicago for 4 days and only spend $120.

on the other hand, i am damn sick of being stuck in cincinnati. the only time i have gotten out of here recently was for the final four in detroit, and it's not like that was much of a vacation because while it was fun, i'm from detroit so it wasn't that exciting to hang out there. however i am going to chicago at the end of june anyway for the wedding, and i have no money, and the final four was amazing and i did just go to new york for new year's.

ok, i think i have maybe talked myself out of it. i guess maybe i really do not need to go out of town right now. dammit. saving money is so boring.

update on the emergency fund

ok so dave ramsey is psychic. just one week ago i got my $1000 emergency fund all saved up. well today my check engine light went on in my car. i was way overdue for an oil change anyway so i just took it in right then. well the mechanic called and told me that my car had all this shit wrong with it. broken oxygen sensor, all the tires were practically worn through, the alignment was fucked up, a bunch of fluids needed to be replaced, etc.

this was not really surprising to me since i have had the car for 3 years and never done anything other than oil changes and once i had to replace the brake pads when they completely wore out. the woman i bought the car from never did shit to it either. so basically this car (a 2003 hyundai accent) has been driving around with no maintenance done to it at all for 6 years other than oil changes. the mechanic has been harassing me about the fluids and the tires for months and i was just ignoring it because i couldn't afford anything other than oil changes.

total cost for all this work? $971. can you believe it? and of course, i did not even break a sweat since i knew i had my emergency fund. plus i have $50/month allocated in my budget for car repairs. so i did not even worry.

i put all this into my budget spreadsheet just now and it is not even going to set me back that much. i will only need 2 months, may and june, to build my emergency fund back up, and then i will be back on track to have all my credit card debt paid off in march 2011. yay!

i was having the day from hell at work. normally, even on a good day, a $1000 car repair estimate would have sent me straight into a state of panic. but this did not even phase me. in fact, i was actually excited that i was going to get to put my emergency fund to use!

let me say this again since i am really in total shock over this. just four months ago, if an unexpected and required $1000 expense had arrived in my life, it literally would have been impossible for me to handle. i had no savings and my credit cards were maxed out. i literally have no idea what i would have done. probably open another credit card, or put it on one that was already at or over the limit. this would have cost me so much money over time. but here i am today just taking this in stride and moving on with my life. it literally was the least stressful thing that happened to me today. i cannot get over this.

what the hell has happened to me? i have no idea but i love dave ramsey. i may change the name of this blog to "i need dave ramsey."

$1000 emergency fund... check!

"wait a minute," you say. "how the hell did that happen? didn't you just decide to save up that $1000 like 2 days ago???" yes, it is true. i have somehow ALREADY saved up my $1000! how? i will explain.

first, starting on january 1, i was putting $50/month towards my emergency fund (with $25 already put in at the end of december when i opened the account). that got me to $200 on april 15. last month, i paid off a credit card. so i put all the money for april that would have gone to credit cards (above minimum balances) to the emergency fund. that was $163 which gets me to $363. then about a week ago, i got a $178 travel reimbursement check which got me up to $541. and then just today, i got both my medical flex spending money ($300) and my tax return ($164). put that in the emergency fund and my ass is at $1000. it is a miracle!

i still do not understand how this could happen so fast. dave ramsey says, "twist and wring out the budget, work extra hours... quickly get your $1000. most of you should hit this step in less than a month." (total money makeover p. 105). i hit this step in TWO DAYS!!! what the fuck! i have no idea, but i will take it.

now that i have my $1000 emergency fund, the $50/month i was putting towards it has been freed up and can go towards my debt. additionally, as of next month my car will be paid off and that gets me another $200/month to pay off my debt.

i just put my credit card debt into this debt calculator at payments of $800/month. it tells me that i will have all my debt paid off in one year and 8 months! that is right, if i continue to stick to my budget i will be done paying it off in january 2011. that is SEVENTEEN MONTHS ahead of schedule!!! oh my god. i don't even know what to do with myself. i am so excited i am seriously about to freak out!

how is this possible, you ask? don't ask me, i am terrible at math and have no fucking clue. i am just happy! someone tell me if i am messing this up somehow. i am going to go run around the block screaming or something.

want to view your credit report for free?

don't believe the commercials... freecreditreport.com will NOT get you a free copy of your credit report. they will eventually charge you in the end in order to see the full report. in fact, i am not even giving you guys a link so that you don't accidentally click on it. do not use freecreditreport.com, they will ride you like a pony.

the only website out there where you can get a real, honest, actual free copy of your credit report from all three reporting agencies is annualcreditreport.com. this website is run by the government and allows you one free copy of all three reports every year.

my budget is still on target. i have decided to take my readers' advice and am building up my $1000 baby emergency fund before getting back to paying off my credit cards. i have nothing else to report. sorry this blog is so boring.

i paid off a credit card today!

i am so excited! i paid off one of my chase cards today! in january, when i started my budget, i owed $643.91 on that card. as of today, it is fully paid off! i am so happy!

the current status of my other debts:

• other chase card: $9774.43
• bank of america card: $5043.41
• car loan: $386.59 (this one is so close too, i am so excited)
• student loans: $173,464.66 (these are paid by loan repayment money, not my own money, but i still think it counts)
  

my total current debt: $188,669.09

when i started in january, my total debt was $194,644.97. that means that in only 3 months, i have paid off $5975.88. this is amazing!

on top of that, i am saving money too. i currently have the following saved:

• emergency fund: $175.30
  
• trip to new orleans with give back cincinnati: $200.00 (plus i already paid $150.00 for this trip)
  
• christine and nate's wedding: $260.00

total savings: $635.30

now i need some advice. according to dave ramsey, i should be putting all extra money on top of minimum payments towards an emergency fund until i reach $1000. right now i am only putting $50/month towards my EF. the point of the EF is that if i have a financial emergency, then i have some money saved to deal with it rather than putting it on my credit cards and therefore setting myself back financially.

i guess one way of thinking about it is that i really do have a total of $635.30 in savings and if i had an emergency, i would skip the trip and the wedding. so maybe i really only need a little bit more savings to reach $1000 if i count that money.

so what do you guys think, should i keep paying off my credit cards the way i am, or should i put paying anything above the minimum payments on hold until i get more into my EF? and how much do i really need right now in there?

get cash for bitching

anyone who knows me knows that i love to bitch. i am simply not happy unless i have something to complain about. once that problem gets resolved, i find something else to bitch about.

while this may not be the greatest personality trait in some respects, in terms of getting cash money it really works out well for me. when i lived in new york, i was having a series of problems with a grocery delivery company. they would bring me broken eggs and brown lettuce and then refused to give me my money back. as a law student, of course i had many people around me to advise me on my rights. thus i learned about the better business bureau.

i complained about this particular company to the bbb several times and each time was given a $50 voucher for free future groceries. a couple smashed bananas led to $50 worth of free groceries! i was amazed. how could this wondrous organization get me such great compensation? i had spent hours on the phone bitching to unresponsive customer service reps. but fill out one online complaint form and i got the sun, moon, and stars?

of course i then became obsessed with the better business bureau. i told all my friends about it, and they were skeptical. but to this day, the bbb has never done anything but work miracles for me.

if something goes wrong in your transactional life, all you have to do is go online to the bbb website, file a complaint, and wait for the cash to come rolling in. you do not have to spend hours on the phone. you don't even have to spend one minute on the phone. and you do not have to even try to work it out with the company first! read the bbb policy: "BBB strongly encourages consumers to first attempt to resolve complaints directly with the company, however BBB will not reject a complaint if a consumer has not taken this step."

strongly encourages, but does not require. that means you can just skip all the annoying waiting on hold, talking to people who don't care about you, apologies, refusals to help, eating up your cell phone minutes bullshit that you would normally have to deal with. just click the link above, spend about 5 minutes typing, hit send, and you are well on your way to happy money land.

don't believe me? here is a bbb testimonial from my friend chad: "I once bitched about a terrible meal that we tried to enjoy with [friends] after boozing it up at a wine festival. I was refunded EVERYONE's money ($130+). JACKPOT."

i want to make it clear that i am an ethical bbb complainer. i do not file complaints unless i truly have a complaint. and i do not make up complaints just to get cash over little things. i wait for instances where i feel i have been truly wronged as a consumer. i value the bbb so much that i am not going to make them spend their time and energy on situations that do not require their intervention. i also do not want to dilute the amazing magical power they have by overloading them with bullshit.

however, if you have had a truly awful meal, or received poor service, or got screwed over, or been charged for things you did not agree to, or any other situation where you just feel like you were not treated fairly by a business, i strongly encourage you to use the bbb. they are your friend. they love you. they have your back. and they will get you some much needed cash in your pocket.

saving money = losing friends?

i am really annoying with this budget thing. let me list all the ways i am annoying:

• i regularly tell people i can't do things because they are not in my budget. and yes, i admit it, i have occasionally used this as an excuse to get out of something just because i didn't feel like it. however, i feel that is actually justified since if i really don't want to do it, i shouldn't be spending money on it, even if technically i can afford it.
• i started reading dave ramsey's total money makeover and i am obsessed. i talk about it constantly. my friend eric refers to it as my "cult."
  
• due to said dave ramsey obsession, i like telling people what they are doing wrong. to a friend who plays the lottery: "dave ramsey says the lottery is a tax on the stupid." to a friend who bought a new car: "dave ramsey says buying a new car is the same thing as throwing a $100 bill out the window every week." to a friend who is worried about paying for unexpected expenses: "do you have an emergency fund? how much is in it? dave ramsey says you should have 6 months worth of money."
• i actually am really not even sure what dave ramsey says, but any time i come up with what i think is a good money idea i say it is dave ramsey's idea so that people will pay attention to it. this does not work and people just make fun of me and eric tells them i am in a cult.
  
• besides my dave ramsey obsession, i really want to share my new money knowledge with anyone who will listen, and even those who won't. my sister got in a car accident and i wanted to talk about how to save to pay for a new car. then i was like "oh, wait, are you ok?"
• whenever i go out, i keep written track of my spending. some people are ok with this but others get very uncomfortable when they see me writing down notes on how much i spent after a meal or a drink or a movie.
  
• i always ask for deals in restaurants. if i am told there are specials, i have to know what they are and how much. "what's your cheapest beer?" is a common question of mine, followed by, "how much is it?" the other day i was out at a sushi restaurant and the owner came around with a bottle of sake, offering tastes. i would not accept one until i asked, "is this free?" and he assured me it was. some people think this is funny. others really hate it. i say too damn bad, if you don't like it then buy me a drink and then i won't have to worry about the price.
• i no longer offer to pay for things. i used to sometimes pick up the bill on things here and there, but now i am like "you owe $5 for your drink. plus tip." if someone doesn't leave enough money, i bitch until they shell out what they owe.
• other side of the coin: i only put in what i owe on group bills. if there is not enough money on the table, i refuse to put in more if i don't owe it (which i almost never do, because i always carefully calculate my portion plus tax and tip). i am not carrying the tip cheaters any longer. i think this probably makes me seem cheap, but again, too damn bad. i have covered the cheap bastards for long enough in my life.
  

my new thrifty ways are definitely an adjustment for people. in a way it is good in terms of weeding people out. i have felt that some people have been really supportive, whereas some are just uncomfortable or even try to make fun of me. it is very strange and really shows me who is truly my friend. if it makes you that uncomfortable or annoyed to hear me talk about money and watch me managing mine, then you must not really care about me paying off my debt and being financially stable.

credit score magic

i get free credit score tracking with my providian aka wamu aka chase card. aka the one that fucked me over and charged me 31.49% interest. well look what it is showing today:

FICO® Score Tracking

Track your score for each month that you've been a customer, up to one year.

	686		686		686		662		671		678		678		678		678		672		696		771
	Mar 08		Apr 08		May 08		Jun 08		Jul 08		Aug 08		Sep 08		Oct 08		Nov 08		Dec 08		Jan 09		Feb 09

Provided by: TransUnion

ok. i don't really get what is going on. apparently my credit score has jumped 100 points in the past 2 months. and in those 2 months, i only paid off a little bit of my debt and i also closed a couple accounts (which is supposed to hurt your credit score). based on what i think i know about credit scores, mine should not be increasing like this.

i realize this report of my credit score is probably not super reliable since it is just one credit reporting company and it is not official or whatever. but based on what this has reported in the past, when compared to my actual credit report, it has been accurate.

i feel like my credit score is proud of me and rewarding me for my hard work at sticking to my budget, but i realize that is not actually possible or even remotely based in reality. i wonder what the hell is going on.

i am crabby

why, you ask? well for one thing i am crabby because i am over budget by $0.24 for february. this is the result of several expenses this month. first i had to go to dinner at pigall's before it closed. it's the only 4 star restaurant in ohio and it closed yesterday. clearly i had to eat there. i actually budgeted for it... my monthly eating out budget is $190, and i saved up $130 of that for pigall's. but my dinner actually ended up costing $132. boo.

the other reason i am having problems with my budget is that i don't really have any room in it for unexpected expenses. this month i had to buy new trash cans (both of mine broke... they were those stupid foot press kind), a big tablecloth for a new table that i got donated from friends who were upgrading theirs (new tablecloth is much less expensive than a new table), and i decided to stock up on my face lotion which was on sale at target.

my face lotion is a huge pain in my ass. it is this aveeno brand shit that costs like $14. it pisses me off but i have tried all kinds of other cheap face lotions and they either cause a mild allergic reaction or else they are super greasy. it's the only one i like and i just can't do without it. yet every time i have to buy it, it fucks my budget over. i also went to trader joe's and stocked up which was another assault to my budget.

the upside is that i am spending much less overall on entertainment and eating out (in normal months where i don't go to 4 star restaurants) than i planned. so therefore even though i went way over my $50 household goods/toiletries/etc. budget for the second month in a row, i am still only $0.24 over for the month. so i guess it is ok as long as i am making up for it in other areas? and seriously i am not buying anything i don't need.

the other thing that is making me crabby is that just now i was on facebook looking at my friend mary ellen's pictures from her trip to madrid. i love madrid and went twice while i was in college. and i was thinking to myself how i am so sad because there is no way i am going to europe any time soon. absent some kind of miracle, the absolute soonest i could go there would be 4 years from now when i have paid off my credit cards and saved up some cash.

and then i was like "fuck this credit card debt, what did i spend all that money on anyway?" and i realized that one of the things i racked up credit card debt on was... trips to madrid. fuck me! i can't go to madrid now because i am still paying off trips i took to madrid almost ten years ago. bleah... i hate my debt and i am so crabby right now.