QuarterLife Finances

I feel a little sad saying goodbye to June. It went by so fast. Plus, it marks the halfway point of the year. That means half of 2009 is over. That might be a good thing though. Let’s hope the second half is brighter.

June Goals

1. Read one business related book. I wanted to read Craft, Inc., but my library just received it. That was the status at the beginning of the month, and its still the case at the end. I guess it takes a while to bring a book into the system? [shrugs] My business involves baking, so I guess it counts that I read the Panera bread cookbook….kinda. Hehe. I read the main chapter. The rest was recipes. I also started reading a book about business plans, but reading that just made me realize….I don’t want a business, I want a hobby that’ll pay me money. lol. Not sure where that leaves me, but I plan to keep reading next month. I’m going to call this a FAIL.

2. House shopping. To be more quantitative my goal is to see at least one house/apartment a week. During the first week I saw nothing, week 2 I saw 1, and week 3 I saw 6 and week 4 I saw 2. Not completely consistent, but I’ve been doing my homework….I’ll consider this SUCCESS! (Not entirely. I still haven’t found a place, but I’m gaining perspective and I’m getting a better idea of what I’m looking for.)

3. Buy a pizza peel and zester using ONLY Fun Money. My pizza peel and zester arrived last week! I’m very excited to start using them. This is obviously a SUCCESS!

4. Take 1 sewing lesson. Gosh, maybe I’m not meant to learn to sew? Its partly my fault. As soon as my mom whipped out the sewing machine I found tons of things for her to fix….pant hems, taking in pants that were too big, shortening skirts, minor fixes on my costumes. That left no time to actually teach anything. I’m not giving up….but for now its a FAIL.

2 out of 4. Hmm…I suppose I’ve done worse?

That leaves us in July. This is always a strange month. It starts off celebratory with the 4th of July, the following weekend includes my birthday, and then the rest of the month is up for grabs. It’ll be a busy month, but I have a feeling it will be a memorable one. Here are my goals….

July Goals

1. Finish “The Little Prince” once and for all, and start another book. I’m still chugging away at it, just not nearly as fast as I need to. Making it an official goal will give it a bit of priority in my eyes. As for my second book….I’m not sure if I’ll pick up another book from my collection, or try to get my hands on something silly….like….maybe….Twilight? [geez, I can't believe I put that out on the internet for all to see....]

2. Find a new place to live. I have a feeling this is the month! Moving would be a bonus, but one thing at a time.

3. Get back to exercising. I’ve been focusing on dancing and diet. While I plan on continuing with the dancing, and avoiding really crappy food, I feel I’ve neglected some very important running. I want to get back into the swing of things. Oh, and I plan on signing up for the Thanksgiving 5k.

4. Read for work one evening a week. That’s not nearly enough, but I haven’t been dedicated any “extracurricular” hours to my career since I started at this new department. Once a week is a good starting point, and I plan on expanding on this in the future. It could really help me “advance” (knowledge and understanding, not so much in position right now), and it’ll make me feel like I’m doing more as opposed to just letting things happen.

5. My goals couldn’t be completely without at least ONE money related goal. And yet….I can’t think of any, other than the same old boring “save X amount from fun money” [yawn] Any suggestions? I’m sure I’ll have dozens of ideas once I have a better idea what I’m doing with my living situation, but since I have no clue, for now I’ll leave it open to your ideas….

I hope everyone is looking forward to July! I always think of it as a kick-start for the second half of the year.

I’d been doing so well until today! Let me back up first…I didn’t go over my budget this week! Hoorah! In spite of having gone out for lunch on Father’s day, doing a little grocery shopping, and taking the BF out for burgers (at Five Guys….yum, I want more…) I managed not to go over! I ate leftovers for lunch, did pretty well with sticking to minimal carbs (well, Five Guys doesn’t count)… all until today.

I was driving back to work after a meeting, and for some reason I had imagined I would be driving back just a little before lunch time. I wanted McDonalds. BUT at 9:45am McDonalds only serves breakfast (go figure, on the weekends I barely ever make it out in time for breakfast!). So, disappointed that I couldn’t have a Big Mac, or even a wrap, I stopped by the neighboring CVS for a snack. Bad idea. I only had $4 cash, and I wanted a Symphony bar. “That’s not a proper lunch!”, I reasoned with myself….and grabbed an additional bag of Cheetos puffs. I don’t know what came over me. An hour later I had eaten ALL of it. King sized Symphony bar and all. [sigh] I feel like an addict. So ashamed.

Sure, I could’ve waited a couple hours and driven or even walked to get a better lunch for $4, but I didn’t want to drive since I’d lose whatever parking spot I got and have to park on the 15th floor or something, and I didn’t want to walk because my feet were already hurting a little at 10am…plus there was the threat of rain. So I somehow figured it was “now or never”. Like I said, there’s no reasoning with an addict.

Back to the point of this post….my spending.

6/19 Deposit $63.00
6/19 Five Guys $19.32 ($43.68 left)
6/20 Grocery $13.89 ($29.79 left)
6/21 Father’s Day lunch $22.02 ($7.77 left) (Total bill was split between myself, mom, and sister)
6/22 Taco Bell $4.47 ($3.30 left)

Ok, so I barely made it. But still, I did! Right, and I forgot about that Taco Bell….guess I wasn’t as good as I remembered (the Crunchwrap was delicious though). Although in my defense that was another day that I was driving from meeting to meeting all morning, so taking a non-refrigerated lunch would’ve been difficult. Although I guess I could’ve had something slightly healthier than a Crunchwrap. =[   I'll remember to do better next time!

I feel like a flip-flopper because of how fast I change my mini-savings goals, but I thought I'd give an update on that. Now that I bought my peel and zester (got the zester in the mail on Wednesday!) I was going to start putting money aside for a stand mixer. But then I remembered I also want to join a running club in the fall. So since I can't make up my mind what will come first, I'm going to let the money sit (on a line in one of my spreadsheets) until I figure it out. It will probably be one of those two, unless something else comes up. =]

I’m also adding a new guideline for myself….if an item I want to buy is less than $50 I won’t add it to my “savings goals”. It’ll just have to come out of weekly spending. You see, what keeps happening is that I come up with something else (“Oh, I need shoes” or “I need a $20 [insert item name]“) and that just takes away from my focus. By putting my attention towards bigger items I think its more motivating. Or maybe its just me? Either way, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending another Whole Foods cooking class….with the same chef as before! I hadn’t read the description of what he’d be cooking for us ahead of time, so I was a little worried he’d be cooking something I don’t like….like artichokes, or uncooked tomatoes. I was hungry!

So, when he said he was making a watermelon salad with feta….well, I was a little skeptical. Let me rephrase that: VERY skeptical. I decided to give it a try anyway. (I told you, I was hungry!) I’ll give you the recipe, and I’ll let you know what I thought about it in the end….

Watermelon Salad
(Ingredients are approximations. Keep in mind he cooked for about 30 people)

Vinaigrette:
Pomegranate vinegar
Avocado oil (3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar)
Extras (you can add a white wine, or any extra flavoring….if using white wine, use a dessert wine)

Salt
Creole Seasoning
Cilantro
Watermelon (seedless, cut into 1″ or larger cubes)
Red onion, chopped
Feta cheese, crumbled

Pour oil and vinegar (plus wine, optional) into a large bowl. Whisk to completely mix and “emulsify” (I think that’s the word). Add salt, seasoning, and cilantro right into the bowl and mix in. Add watermelon cubes, red onion, and feta cheese. Mix in and make sure vinaigrette is well distributed. Let it sit a few minutes.

Serve on a plate. (After sitting the watermelon will release additional juices. If you leave it in a bowl the juices will just sit on the bottom.) Pour excess juices over the top of the salad.

So, based on that….what do you think? Would you eat it? Sound any good?

I must admit I was nervous. I was sitting in the front row and didn’t want to involuntarily make a weird face when trying the salad and risk offending the chef. I mean, come on….watermelon with onions?!! What was he thinking?!

And then I tried it.

I found it to be delicious! The sweetness of the watermelon, with the subtle vinaigrette flavor, plus the strong flavor of the feta and the tart onion….man, it was good! I highly recommend you try this. The only downer: the vinegar and oil each cost $14 at Whole Foods, and they’re pretty much what makes the dish. Even when making the salad to feed 30 people though, he didn’t use the whole bottle, slightly more than half. So it may not come out too expensive per serving. I’ll have to get back with you about that part….

Has anyone tried something like this before? I hadn’t, and it was definitely a pleasant surprise!

I’ve noticed that lately I’ve been getting greedy. I usually follow strict “rules”, but I’ve been wanting to break them….and for what? To buy more stuff.

I’m not talking about the cyclical “let’s go shopping! Screw the budget!” where I spend $100 or so on clothes or something equally unnecessary at the moment (and then regret it, and scrimp and save until I pay it back). I’m talking about days when I start thinking “do I really need to save 10% for retirement? No one around here is doing it” (totally not taking you bloggers into account…). Or “I know I normally transfer my savings interest to my E-fund, but maybe I can use it towards something else?”

In the big scheme of things, I’m sure $40 from interest isn’t going to make a HUGE deal in my Emergency fund, nor will spending my extra fun money from last week change my life forever, but I’m more concerned about the trend. Afterall, I start bending my rules for one thing, and retirement could be next!! That’s usually the big one on my mind. After 3 years of not really caring that I’m putting my money aside into my 401k, I’m finally starting to get antsy about it. It worries me that I want to stop with my few healthy habits, I should be happy to save!

Well, I guess that shows I’m not immune to the temptations I see others fall into. It was only a matter of time….now that I won’t be able to save up 50% of my income, I’m starting to see the impact that every extra dollar can make. And at the age of 24, I’d much rather be spending that money on fun stuff like traveling (or stand mixers) than on retirement. I mean, its over 40 years from now?!! I’ve got plenty of time, RIGHT?!

I know, I know….I should know better than that, and I do. But every once in a while I doubt myself and wonder if anyone will really notice if I start changing my ways. The reality is no one will….except me. And that’s who I’m putting my money aside for afterall.

Ugh, being responsible is such a bummer sometimes!

SWEET!

I just logged onto my library account (you know, to make sure my books are all in good standing) and I found out that they’ve just added a new feature….VIDEOS ON DEMAND! I’m really excited about this, since I cancelled Netflix almost 6 months ago (oh, how I miss it at times…) and I’m too lazy/cheap to ever rent movies. I’m pretty sure their selection isn’t going to be spectacular, but at least they’ve got Rick Steves on there!! (Call me a dork, but I love travelling with Rick Steves! heehee)

So I’m now looking forward to sitting with my computer tonight and browsing my free movie selection.

This almost  makes up for the fact that I owe my library $15!

Excellent news….my student loan payments DID go down! Starting in July they’ll be $167.25, that means I have an extra $13.74 each month.

I was this closeto making the decision to spend it on dance related stuff, but my boyfriend has convinced me to use it towards paying my car loan early. Yeah, not a life-changing amount, but every bit counts, right?! Now I’ll be paying an extra $43.74 to the car each month.

Note: I wrote this post a couple of months ago and never posted….more of my venting about the house search. I have since un-officially switched to the rental market, although that is almost as emotionally draining as looking for a house to buy. I’m sure there are others that can relate to this….

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I feel like I’ve been house hunting FOREVER. This is probably because I’ve been browsing real estate sites for over a year now, looking for the perfect and miraculously affordable (and undiscovered) downtown loft (in very the beginning), or looking for the adorably cute undervalued house at a riduculous house. Well, it hasn’t happened. And when you stop to consider that I’ve only seen 5 listings in person, well I haven’t done much searching at all!

What I’ve found, is that its really emotionally draining for me. I’m an optimist in denial. Against my better judgement I usually run across a listing that looks halfway decent. I notify my agent to try and set up an appointment. In the meantime I look at the pictures, and slowly (without realizing it) I fill in the blanks myself. I start imagining myself in the actual place, what I’d do with the space. By the time I see the listing I’ve already got a mental image of it. However, some of the times I never get to see the listing, or when I get there its completely different from what I imagined it.

For example, the two houses I went to see yesterday:

The first one was in a nicer area than I had imagined. A plus, right off the bat! It looked decent outside. As I sat in my car waiting for my agent I started imagining what it would look inside. Wow, for $179k I could do a lot with this place! And then….we went inside. Oh, did I fail to mention this place was built in 1947? Yeah, I like to ignore important facts like those, lol. Well, it had wood floors (old ones), a fireplace (that is unheard of in these parts….that means its definitely old), the rooms were tiny and the whole place was filthy (as in “eaten up” base boards, tons of dead roaches, A/C was torn out). Anyway, my brief little dream was ruined. A house like that would take a lot of time, energy, and money before it was liveable.

Next house I had actually seen pictures of before going. It looked ok. The backyard was big. However it wasn’t in the same area I thought it would be, this one was….less desireable. It just felt old, and was pretty depressing.

Let’s take another example….a $156,000 house I had seen a listing for. I checked out the area, it was in a good area around my old high school. Score! I want to check this one out! Well, turns out my agent had seen the listing before….it was a cash only offer. We’re not sure why, but we’re assuming its either torn up inside, or it has an illegal addition that won’t allow anyone to get financing.

I’m just getting drained and trying to find a single family house. I don’t want to be financially stretching myself too much, so I’m keeping the range under $200k. (Would I even get approved for more? I haven’t tried. This is the thousandth time I say that, but maybe its time I should check….) Anyway, at that price the pickings are slim.

 Is anyone else shocked that we’re more than halfway through June? I am. I’m not ready for July….Lots of things should be happening in July. Lots of things I’m not ready for. Like turning 25!

6/12 Deposit $63.00
6/15 Grocery & Cash $24.79 ($38.21 left)
6/18 Amazon $8.87 ($29.34 left)

The $8.87 was actually from the purchase of my Pizza peel and zester!! I got ahead of myself, reasoning that I’d be able to save the rest of the money I needed anyway. Waiting would be kinda silly (it was late. I wanted the damn peel. I would’ve come up with any excuse, lol) The total was $44.90, and since I had $36.03 saved up, $8.87 was the difference. I came in under the $50 I had made my savings goal, but I really knew I’d be closer to $40. I actually ended up getting a slightly more expensive “Epicurean surface” peel because the one I originally wanted to buy (Mario Batali metal peel) was out of stock. I didn’t want to wait 4-6 weeks. Plus, I can cut stuff on this one without worrying about the surface or warping from wood. Its also the one they sell at William-Sonoma, and for some reason I trust that they sell quality stuff in their stores. Anyway, I’m happy about my purchase….lets see how I feel when I get them in the mail! I can’t wait to have pizza! (And use my pizza stone for the first time since I got it a year ago, lol).

So this week I’ve been good and eating at home. I still managed to have a crunch wrap during the weekend, but its been a big improvement over last month. Like I always say, baby steps. Overall things are looking pretty good (money-wise). I now have $29.34 that I can choose to add to any of my many funds….there is my stand mixer fund, lasik fund, haircut fund, dance class fund (for extra classes beyond once a week), and the general extra money fund (where I can just let things sit until I get an urge to use the money in a particular way). Now that I think of it, it will probably go towards father’s day expenses this weekend. We usually go out to a restaurant with my dad, but we’ve yet to decide where. $30 should be a good portion of it if I split the costs with my sister. As long as it doesn’t go over $90 for my half I should be good. =]

I also wanted to go out for our “faux-nniversary” this weekend. 6 years! Except I think its going to rain, so my plans wouldn’t really work out. Hopefully it either won’t rain, or we’ll come up with another plan. Or we can just pick another weekend….the date is kind of arbitrarily picked anyway. Another weekend would be fine with me, actually, since that would mean I could concentrate on just paying for Father’s day this weekend. hehe.

Well, I wish all the fathers out there a happy day on Sunday! And for the rest of us….have a good weekend!

I keep whining to myself about how I wish I could “afford*” more than $1,200 a month for an apartment. I’d be able to find something much nicer, much faster. However, the more I say this to myself, the closer I am to believing that I deserve a pity party. I mean, there are tons of people my age, with jobs that I’m sure pay less than mine that live in nicer places than the places I’ve been looking at….right?!!

Anyway, I realize there are way many assumptions in my thoughts, but that’s just what happens when you get excited to look at some nice apartments, only to find that they’re all above what you’re willing to pay. I just want to have my cake, and eat it too, and I need to realize its not going to happen unless I compromise on something (or I get lucky).

While I’m still going to cross my fingers and hope I get lucky and find a cheap and decent unit in a nice building, I need to come to terms with reality. If I want to continue saving 10% of my income for retirement AND I want to be able to save additional money for vacations and other non-necessities AND I want to live on my own, I’m going to have to abide by my budget….and my budget will only buy me so much.

So no, I don’t deserve a pity party, and I have to get over myself. Tons of people my age move out on their own (and, um, way younger too), and tons of them DON’T live in luxury high rises. Its not the end of the world if I can’t live in one either.

That being said, I’m still scouring Craigslist and the MLS for my lucky break. =]  Can’t blame me for trying….

*Let me take a minute and comment on the word “afford”. Its so…..relative. Its making me mad. It makes me feel broke, when I’m clearly not. It makes me feel like a kid that needs boundaries (when its not just children that need boundaries….we all do). I don’t know. I need to take a break from that term….

I’ve been tagged! Twice!

The Rules:
1. Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
2. Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

I was tagged by Sunflowers at The Debt Chronicles, as well as by Beachgirl at Beachgirl’s Budget Blog!

Seven Facts
1. At a staggering 5′5″ (you can laugh) I am the tallest woman on my mom’s side of the family. It makes for some funny pictures at parties when I’m wearing 3-4″ heels (I usually have to squat).

2. Of all the people that have a similar position in my company, I am the only woman.

3. I’m very indecisive. Just read any of my “house hunting” posts if you don’t believe me. As soon as I’ve had my mind made up about something, suddenly a new concern comes into play that gets me back to square one.

4. I got stabbed in the leg with a pencil when I was in kindergarten. I still have the lead mark nearly 20 years later. (lol, that sounds so hardcore!)

5. I hate phones. When I first started working here I would feel sick whenever someone asked me to make a phone calls. I’ve gotten better, but I still get nervous on the phone. I’d much rather do email most of the time, or talk in person. (The “funny” thing is I worked part-time during college making phone calls for admissions.)

6. When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher. As I grew up I kinda gave up on the idea, you know because “teachers don’t make a lot of money”. I also doubt my ability to stand other people’s children, lol. But over the years I’ve realized I still kinda like it. I used to be a reading tutor, I was always the friend that people asked for tutoring in math, and I like sitting with my little cousin and teaching her to read. I’ve finally admitted to myself that I would like to become a belly dance instructor someday.

7. I have too much stuff. I’d like to blame it on my room being too small, but let’s face it….I have too much stuff, and I’m having a really hard time getting rid of things. I’d seriously like to hire a professional, (or enlist my mom to help), but I have a feeling I’d get really defensive and kick them out.

So those are 7 facts about me. Kind of all over the place, but I figured you all didn’t want to read “I’m a size 8 shoe, I have black hair, my real name is….” (Haha, I wouldn’t let that out so easily!) Oh, right, the last part….more tagging!

Consider yourself tagged!!

I was going to follow the rules and tag 7 others, but considering many have been tagged (and I can’t keep track) plus I don’t want anyone to feel left out, I’m going to let you all self-tag yourselves! (Besides, Saving Diva did it, so I can do it too….haha) So let post a link to your site if you tag yourself!