Starfishy's Money Blog

I went back to work today - boo! I got up fairly early, gathered up my pre-made lunch and workout clothes and headed into the gym at work. I arrived later than planned and considered skipping the workout and just taking a shower, which I desperately needed! (My bathroom renovation project is still in progress, so I am without a tub/shower. I showered at a friend's house every few days over my break, but her husband had an accident this weekend and I didn't want to bust in on their lives yesterday.) Then I realized there was no way I was going to convince myself to exercise this evening after work, so I decided to do the workout and just arrive later at work than I wanted to.

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill - 10 minutes warm up walking, 15 jogging with some fast sprints thrown in at the end, 5 minutes cool down walking, followed by 10 minute of yoga stretching. One of my main goals when I exercise is to remain injury free, so I always ease in, cool down and stretch (although sometimes I get lazy and don't do much stretching). Yay - I then showered and felt great afterward. So glad I "just did it"! My weight was 141 this morning, so possibly a pound or two lighter.

I spent some time yesterday preparing food for the week with items I had that needed to be used up. I made three salads for M, T, W lunches and an egg bake with eggs, milk, local kale, scallions, goat cheese, salt, pepper, thyme and oregano that I will slice and eat for breakfasts. Here's what I ate around 10:00a today:


The egg bake was tasty and the pear was perfect and delicious. Salad and clementine for lunch, although the fruit was not tasty, so I ended up composting half of it. Dinner was pasta with broccoli, carrots, kale, scallions, tuna, kidney beans topped with olive oil, salt & pepper. I'll have the same for dinner on Tuesday. I started "no sugar" today and will have freshly ground peanut butter with raisins if I get a craving this evening.

I'm determined to have a very small food budget this month by using up what I already have. I should only need to buy fresh veggies and fruit for at least the first two weeks.

Lunch for three days


I've already checked off some of my weekly financial to dos!

Called my doctor's office for a massage referral and I already received it electronically! I usually forget to do this at the beginning of each year and it takes me forever to contact the doctor, which delays the massage therapist's billing, because the insurance company needs the referral form to pay out. She will be very excited when I see her on Wednesday with form in hand!

I printed out the bathroom contractor's bill and gave him a check this evening when I got home since he was still there working.

Before I left work, I scanned the healthcare account paperwork and emailed it to the processing office. I think the $1400 reimbursement will be mailed in check form. I should probably figure out how to have it direct deposited for next year, but at the moment I just want it done and on its way.

I'm going to attempt to go to the gym before work again tomorrow. Same workout as today. It's hard to cut back to 30 minutes after having so much time during break to exercise, but I know that 30 minutes done consistently is better than longer sessions done sporadically. I sometimes get caught in a trap of thinking I need to do long workouts and then I avoid them because I don't have time or energy. So shorter and sweet should do the trick this week.

I have been staycationing since Friday, December 19, and return to work tomorrow. My workplace closed from Dec 20 through January 1 and I took off Dec 19 and Jan 2 to make my vacation a full 17 days. The entire block of time only cost me two vacation days because we automatically get paid during the break without having to use our time.

I finally feel rested and rejuvenated and have my energy back and now it's time to return to work. I really don't want to go! I know, poor me.

Yesterday was productive!

I finished filling out my healthcare account paperwork! I will scan the many sheets at work tomorrow and email them to the provider for reimbursement of $1400. I met my daily swagbucks goal while I was working on it. I did finally reach 2500 swagbucks the other night, so submitted a request for $25 cash.

Disposed of my trash and recycling at the drop-off spot my town provides every Saturday morning. A private company has to be hired if you want weekly curbside pickup, but I'm too cheap for that because i just don't generate all that much trash. Recycling is free and trash is $2.50/small bag and $5.00/large bag. I usually have a small bag of trash and sometimes the guy doesn't charge me! I forgot to bring money this week, so will need to take an extra $2.50 next week.

Walked with a friend for 75 minutes. A wintry mix storm was brewing which made the air damply cold and much more chilling than the few days before even though the temperature was warmer. The pace was slower than my normal, but it was wonderful to socialize - I was starting to get bored on my solo treks. No exercise today most likely due to forecasted weather, although another friend just texted me to see if I want to walk during a child-free window she has around noon. It looks pretty sloppy outside and I have a lot I want to accomplish today, so not sure if I will go.

I made myself post-walk blueberry pancakes. I am working on cleaning out my food supply and used up some pancake mix. Added local blueberries that I picked and froze last summer and some maple syrup from my neighbor's sugar house. Yum!

Financial goals for the week:

Final steps for processing the healthcare paperwork.

My health insurance is crazy good and massages, acupuncture, chiropractic care, etc., are all covered. I've been getting 90 minute massages once a week for years, which keep me sane and healthy. I need to contact my doctor to get my yearly massage referral. I have chronic neck tightness which is managed with the massages.

Pull credit reports from annualcreditreport.com (thanks lil' miss splendid!). I didn't realize that the credit reports don't contain a score. I get a number each month on my discover card, so I guess I can assume that it's accurate unless I find mistakes on my credit report? Where do I get my official credit score if not on the credit reports?

Keep pursuing the expired reward points problem with my credit union.

A have a small bag of pennies and a few other coins that I found at my mom's house over Thanksgiving that she didn't want. So, I will take them to the sorter at my bank and deposit the small amount into one of my accounts.

Find the latest invoice from my bathroom contractor and pay it - I haven't looked at the total yet.

That looks like enough to keep me busy since work is starting and I will have much less free time.

Oh, and my weigh in today was 142. I am so excited by the amount of walking/running I did this past week. I do hope to lose a few pounds on this challenge, but mainly I want to maintain the weight that I lost last year. I'm tired of yo-yo-ing!

Thanks to Patient Saver, I can now post photos again!

What I cleaned out of my office this week!


blueberry pancakes

Current net worth:
Retirement accounts 506,047.55
Brokerage 58,701.49
Cash 72,449.17
House 200,000
Total 837,198.21

I just discovered that I tallied my net worth on this blog in early January 2014. This is exciting because I am terrible at tracking my money and now I can see the difference between then and now - yay! I wish I could display my 2014 spending like others are doing, but I didn't keep track and it would take a long time to go back over credit cards statements, bank accounts, etc. Maybe 2015 is the year I tackle expense tracking.

The 2015 net worth total isn't quite accurate because I have some credit card charges and a bathroom contractor invoice that I will pay soon. I also still owe some money on my auto loan. But, it's more fun to look at the larger numbers. I always hesitate to put my house value in my net worth because it's such a non-liquid asset.

One goal for 2015 is to set aside some of the cash for an emergency fund, put some towards house projects, and start investing some, probably in index funds. It's just kind of sitting there now.

Some financial tidbits:

I started on my 2014 healthcare account paperwork today - it's so very tedious. I will continue working on it, submit it and deposit the $1400 in my kitchen account for now, although I may reallocate it later.

I had many late credit card payments this year because I would just forget to pay the ones that weren't automatic. So, today I set up auto pay online for my Chase card.

I called Banana Republic to pay a $25 balance that was a late charge that a customer service rep wouldn't remove last month (because it wasn't my first one on that card - doh) and this time I got a rep who did remove it, plus a 1.26 finance charge. Sweet!

A few more year-end snowflakes that I have added to my kitchen account: 17.83 (Dec interest from my checking account) plus 33.80 (mileage reimbursement from a Dec offsite meeting). I also added a very generous Christmas check from my mom.

I'm so frustrated with my local credit union VISA rewards program. I had just about reached the number of points needed for a $200 statement credit, so I charged an item in November to make up the difference. Then I noticed on my statement that my reward point total actually went down with no explanation. I finally had a chance to call customer service on Wednesday and found out that the points expire after 36 months. That is not explained on the statement as the reason why the total went down. I'm so annoyed because I can't tell when the next glob of points is going to expire! So I called the credit card coordinator at my bank today and she's supposedly "looking into it" for me. It sounds like they won't refund the points. I can redeem points for a $100 credit right now, but that costs 10,495, whereas the $200 statement credit is 20,495, so not only am I losing points to expiration, I'm also spending more on a reward. Compare this to Chase, which gave me the $200 bonus when I complained that the bonus was only $100 when I signed up for my card, and Banana Republic, which just today reissued a $20 reward coupon that expired on December 31. On a lark, I called BR on Wednesday to see if there were any options for an expiring reward coupon that I wasn't going to be able to use in time. The guy said to call back after the 31st and ask for it to be reissued. OK, I can get on board with that! I know that these are huge companies compared to my lil' credit union, but I am quite aggravated.

I was hoping to reach 2500 swagbucks today, but the offers have been virtually non-existent. I have managed to rack up 200 points so far, but I'm still 25 short. If the options remain slim, then I will need to abandon swagbucks.

Weight this morning was 143. I took a 75 minute walk/run outside in the very blustery cold, followed by about 20 minutes of yoga stretching. I am taking full advantage of my free time to exercise because once I return to work on Monday my motivation will fly out the window. I was exercising regularly this fall, so I have a good base already established and am bouncing back pretty quickly from the holiday season. I did cross country ski three times, went to the gym once and walked a few times during mid-December, so I wasn't completely sedentary. I hope to walk tomorrow morning before the weather is supposed to turn nasty and then probably take a rest day on Sunday. Then I'd like to go to the gym at work on Monday, but we'll see!

Whew, perhaps a 2015 goal should be to master the art of writing shorter blog posts...

Happy new year to all!

OK, how do I add a photo, did the process change?

I stayed home last night, but between Facebook, texting and the phone, I was socializing all night without having to leave the comfort of my couch.

Checking in for the weight loss challenge started by Patient Saver. I am currently at 143 with a goal of 135. Most importantly, I want to exercise fairly regularly and eat well for better energy and health and if the weight comes off, great. I already lost some in the fall (from about 150 to 140), then gained a few back over the holidays, which is fine. I'm going to cut out processed sugar completely starting on January 5 (it will be easier to do once I return to work). I did this a few times last year and I love how I feel after a few weeks – more energy, waking up earlier, less depressed.

I took long combo walks/runs (over an hour) during 5 of the past 6 days, so I'm off to a good start with the exercise portion of the program. It's been very chilly where I live (teens and low 20s), but I love to walk in the brisk air, so I bundle up and am fine. I usually walk on my road, which is long and rural with no side streets, so I either go north or south. I was starting to feel bored, so today I mixed it up and drove to a wooded wilderness area a few miles from my house to take my walk. I don't really like to be in the woods alone, but went for it. Normally the ground would be covered with snow and ice at this time of year, but we had an early thaw so I'm taking full advantage of being able to exercise outside. If there was good snow, I would be cross country skiing instead. I hope we get some soon! I want to walk at least two more times before I start work again on Monday. Then it will be harder to motivate. It will be dark in the mornings and evenings before and after work, so I will most likely go to the gym at my workplace a few times. I should create a schedule.

After walking, I stopped at a neighbor's house for a New Year's brunch and ate lots of yummy food. That will probably be my only meal of the day - I’m still full! I'll have a clementine and some walnuts later if I get hungry.

Like others, I've been tackling some organizing and decluttering and want to continue during the next three days. I also want to complete the paperwork for my 2014 healthcare account (I set aside $1400!). That money will go into my kitchen fund. Although maybe I should pay off my car loan. I'll have to think about that.

I need to cancel some of my credit cards. Can someone remind me how to pull a credit report? I'm not sure what accounts I even have open at this point!

Happy New Year and may 2015 be lush! I'm binge-watching Gavin & Stacey this week and am now all about the Welsh lingo, I am.

new year's day walk through the woods

Happy New Year's Eve! I have some snowflakes to tally in these last few hours of 2014. Obviously, I am staying home tonight.

Discover cash back 254.44
Chase Freedom cash back 219.80
Swagbucks $$ balance in Paypal 517.11 (will soon be 542.11)
Found money while walking in NJ during Thanksgiving .55
"Local" money 140.00
Bottle/can returns 7.65
Amazon gift cards (swagbucks) 80.00

The rewards cash, Amazon gift cards and Swagbucks cash are all courtesy of fellow SA bloggers! I would never have thought to use credit card reward/bonuses without reading about them here. And, when I signed up for the Chase Freedom card, the bonus reward was $100. I then found out through a blog that it had increased to $200. An SAer suggest that I message Chase to see if I could get the additional $100 bonus. I ended calling Chase with a website question and when I asked about the extra bonus, the customer service rep said he couldn't do anything about it. So, I did decide to try messaging Chase and got a positive response that the extra bonus points were added to my rewards account – yippee! I also learned about Swagbucks from this site, too, and have become fairly efficient at gathering the points.

The "local" money was given to me as a Christmas present from co-workers a few years ago. It could only be spent in local stores and I could never decide what to buy with it. I recently realized that it was going to expire in December and after discovering that it was issued by a bank, I called and learned that I could get real cash as change when I used it. I had two $20s and two $50s, so I bought four small things around town and banked the change!

The bottles and cans that I returned were almost all either left at my house when people visited for dinner, etc., or found at work. I randomly found change in three different places during a Thanksgiving walk in my hometown and it added up to 55 cents.

Not sure yet what I'm going to with the total sum of the snowflakes. For now, the cash portion will go into my kitchen renovation fund. I'm toying with the idea of having that done later in 2015. I'm going to at least start to seriously think about it and plan.

Just realized that I never calculated the snowflake total - $1219.55!

wow - my retirement accounts total currently reads 502,139.65! this includes work 403b, traditional ira and roth ira. yeehaw - glad i can share it here, not something i'll go around announcing in my daily life. in fact, i'm not sure if i will share this news with anyone. i'm curious - who do you talk about finances with? family, friends, nobody?

bathroom deconstruction continues. my house is old, so there are a few layers of floor to remove, there is plaster and lathe behind where the shower/tub used to be and an odd square hole in the subfloor.

can't believe there's a chase freedom card offer with $200 cash back bonus for spending $500. i just got the same card last month with a $100 cash back bonus offer. i'm so annoyed!

i guess i should update my sidebar since i am no longer "40-something"!

The total sum of all my retirement account balances is currently $498,581.39. So very close to $500K! I really hope it hits $500K soon before the market inevitably dips again. I want to see the milestone amount on my computer screen in all of its glory.

I just realized that I contributed way more than planned this year to my work 403B account. I turned 50 in September which means that I automatically qualify for the $23K voluntary contribution "catch up" limit rather than the standard $17.5K. I set the percentage of my salary going to voluntary retirement very high years ago and didn't notice this year that my paychecks didn't increase significantly during the year like in previous years once the $17.5 limit was hit. I checked with HR and I will reach the $23K limit during the next pay period. Woops - I didn't realize that this would automatically happen. That plus the mandatory 6% that my employer requires to be contributed means that a high percentage of my salary went towards retirement this year. On top of all of that, my employer contributes 15% of my salary amount to my retirement account each year. I'm thinking about not contributing to my Roth or traditional IRA for 2014.

Demolition of my old bathroom began today! I will have a new bathroom in a few weeks. I'm both terrified and excited. But mostly I'm proud of myself for pulling the trigger on a house project. FINALLY!

Well, I turned the big 5-0 on September 30. Facing 50 was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. Not having children intensified it as the door really is shut and locked at this point. It's been a hard thing to grieve and accept. I've also been spending copious amounts of money this year and feel anxious about that.

My mom visited the week before and we had a lovely time doing fall activities - apple picking, enjoying the incredible colors, eating good food, buying mums and pumpkins, etc. I hosted a knitting group the night of my birthday - a potluck that included a cake and singing. Then a friend threw a small party for me the following weekend. It was beautiful - she had it catered and did an amazing job decorating her place. I wanted to pay for it, but she said no. So, last weekend I treated her to brunch and bowling as a thank you.

My main bathroom will be renovated starting November 18. I'm both excited and terrified. The estimate was just shy of $10K, but that was with low-end everything. I've chosen nicer fixtures and hired a designer to help me pull together my ideas. The final price tag could be $14-15K when all is said and done. And it's a small bathroom! Part of me wants to halt the project, get a cheapo toilet and sink at a big box store, fix a wall in the shower/tub that's been open for years and be done with it. But, the room needs to be redone, so I'm doing it for myself to enjoy now and to start preparing to possibly sell my house in the near future. I have the money set aside, I just really hate letting go of it! I'll be interested to see how I feel when it's finished. Will the pleasure of having a beautiful, functional bathroom outweigh the difficulty of spending the money? It's kind of an experiment that I hope will help me to make some other decisions that I've been putting off. I tend to think of all money transactions as "spending" and never as "investing". Investing in my daily experience of life, investing in the house, and investing in my skill set. The project has been a good learning experience so far and I imagine that will continue until it's done in December.

I was hoping that my retirement accounts would hit $500K by my birthday, but the market dipped around that time. I was pleasantly surprised to see them at 496,563.64 yesterday. So very close! I can't wait until the total reads $500K even if it's only for a day! The sum includes a 403B work retirement account (426,235.32), a traditional IRA (59,299.20) and a Roth IRA (11,029.12). I recently transferred my IRAs to the company that manages my work account after wanting to for many years and it's so much easier to keep track of and manage the accounts. Plus my IRAs are finally invested and will grow faster than if I had left them where they were.

It is rainy and cold today - I will soon enjoy the warm soup that I brought for lunch! So happy it's Friday!

Once again, time has FLOWN by and I have ignored my poor blog. I just embarked on a massive clean out of my house in preparation for some much-needed renovations. I'm also deciding if I want to stay in the house or sell it. Yikes.

I've been giving old stuff to Goodwill after finally convincing myself that having a garage sale was not worth the time. It was a hard decision to make, but it does feel good to lighten the load.

I have a bunch of books that I no longer want and I'm wondering if it's worth trying to sell some of them online or if I should just give them to a local library book sale. Does anyone have experience or advice? I've looked at Half.com for listing books and DealOz for places that buy books. Any other suggestions?

Gorgeous first summer weekend in the northeast. Happy Solstice!

Ugh - back to work today, which was fine, but difficult after two weeks off! I am very grateful to have a good job, though, so I'll stop complaining. The weather is horrible - this morning it was over 50 degrees and pouring rain on top of old layers of ice and snow. Now the temperature is rapidly dropping and everything is freezing solid. Lovely. Thankfully, most of the snow/ice on my front lawn melted, so I was able to get to my house from my car after work without too much danger. The driveway is a mess, so I need to be careful tomorrow morning. I live in a traditionally cold area, but somehow we are not experiencing quite the arctic blast that others are. It's only going down to 8 degrees tonight, which sounds pretty warm in comparison to what I've been hearing.

My paypal account verification is now complete, so I applied for my first $100 paypal swagbucks reward. For some reason, the process would not accept my cellphone number, so I need to wait for a verification code to arrive via postcard THROUGH THE MAIL in order to complete the reward application. Totally stone age!! After that process is finished, I will then apply for another $100 and then a $50 cash out. I officially hit 25,000 bucks late last night when the December bonuses were added to my account. I didn't earn the full monthly bonus amount, but I did get some. It will be fun to get my new Moto X phone for almost "free", but it did take a lot of time and effort to earn those 25,000 bucks, so not sure how much of a bargain it really is. Mr. money mustache had a discount code for republic wrless, but I didn't realize that it expired January 1, so I missed out. Darn, that would have been $19 off for the first month of the plan.

I am finally working on a financial to-do that has been on my list for many years. I have an older traditional IRA and a new Roth IRA at my credit union, both of which have never been invested except in a few CDs here and there. Quite sad, but I didn't take the time and effort to do anything with them. With the help of an advisor from the investment firm that my workplace uses for retirement accounts, the IRAs are now in the process of being transferred over to that company and I can begin slowly investing the money. Bummer that I'm doing this when the market is at a peak, but I'm going to only invest a bit each month for a while to take advantage of dollar cost averaging. I cringe when I think of how much larger the amounts in these accounts would be if I had invested them years ago, but at this point I can only accept reality and start now. I got a call from the investment firm and apparently I forgot to date one of the many places I signed on the paperwork, so now they are mailing me something so that I can correct the error. Ugh. Once the transfer is made, I will be able to look at all of my retirement funds from one website. I'm looking forward to that!

Today was a no-spend day and I should able to keep the spending down for the rest of the week as long as I stay away from any stores.

Hope everyone in the cold belt is staying warm tonight.

I started the verification process for my paypal account. That will allow me to cash in my soon-to-be 25,000 sw@agbucks for cash through paypal. A few days ago, I received 900 bucks for a Nordstrom purchase I made in December. I have decided that I need to return the item (winter boots that aren't going to be warm enough for my area, but they are darn cute!) and I guess that means I will get a 900 bucks deduction. I don't know how that works.

I also need to return a pair of fashion boots to zappos. They are so cute and fun, but the zipper on one of them broke! I called zappos last night to start the return process. They don't have any more of the boots in stock, so will refund my credit card. The customer service woman decided to send me a $50 coupon to use towards a zappos purchase in the next 90 days to make up for any inconvenience. Sweet! Now I have to remember to order something. I'm going to lose some of my Discover card cash back bonus with the return.

I already did my 15 minutes of piano playing today (more like 30 or so) and have been cooking food to eat for the week. I made a thai coconut milk curry vegetable concoction and brown rice for dinners. I hard boiled some eggs and now need to make a big salad to use for lunches. I'm thinking about making smoothies for breakfasts - I have organic blueberries and strawberries that I picked and froze this summer, almond milk and I just bought a lot of spinach and kale. I need to remember to defrost some berries - I don't like frozen smoothies in frigid January! I have to remember that I'm refraining from processed sugar this week. I have some clementines that I will pack in my lunch each day to help stave of sugar cravings (I hope that works!).

Life is so easy when I'm not working. The minute I start back at my job tomorrow (poor me having two weeks off ), I will become overloaded and overwhelmed and I lot of my good intentions will go out the window.

Wow, 2014 already - how did that happen? I hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. I have been off from work since December 21 and loving every single minute of it! My workplace closed from 12/21 through 1/1 and we get paid without having to take vacation time. It is a very nice perk. I took off Thursday and Friday to make it a full two weeks. But, now it's back to reality on Monday. Ugh - I am starting to feel a cold coming on today, I hope that I'm not ill on Monday, because I really can't miss work and I hate going in sick.

I have many goals this year, but like another blogger (nika maybe?), I'm setting very small, doable tasks that I am in control of so that I can get some things accomplished this year. So, for this week, my small goals are:

Refrain from eating processed sugar (larger goal: eat healthy food most of the time)
Pack my lunch each day (larger goal: pack my lunch regularly for health and budgetary reasons)
Create ball of yarn from one skein (larger goal: knit a scarf)
Exercise three times (larger goal: move regularly)
Play piano 15 minutes a day (larger goal: play the piano regularly)
Verify P@ypal account so that I can cash in sw@gbucks

I'm still figuring out my financial goals. I want to track my spending and better plan where my money is going rather than wing it like I have been doing. My finances are fine, but I could be doing a lot better job of utilizing and enjoying my money.

I turn the big 5-0 in 2014, so I hope to make it a memorable year!

I'm going to take the big plunge and get myself a smartphone after many years of using a $16 average intelligence pay-as-you-go phone. I've accumulated almost 25,000 sw@gbucks, so I will cash those in for $250 and use it towards a $299 republic wrless phone. I will probably use the $25/month plan and hope to use sw@gbucks to pay for it. I would have more bucks accumulated, but I couldn't keep up with the daily goals during mid-december and had to let it go for a bit, so I'll miss out on the bonuses.

Well, I hope 2014 treats you all very well - cheers!

Net Worth on January 1:
403B retirement 370,254
IRAs 61,419
Cash 76,675
Brokerage 52,290
House 200,000

Total Assets 760,638
Auto loan (4,552)

Net worth $756,086

...lucky robin, creditcardfree, patientsaver and many other awesome SA bloggers.

I'm having mucho trouble tracking my spending. I know it takes just recording expenditures each day or once a week or whatever, but I'm just not doing it. I'm totally frozen. To do SOMETHING financially related, I decided to figure out my net worth again since it's been a month - so here are the figures since mid-September.

Assets
Cash 68,889
Brokerage 48,200.14
403B Retirement 345,766.85
Traditional IRA 56,401.10
Roth IRA 5,002.30
House 200,000.00

Total Assets 724,259.39

Liabilities
Auto loan (2.9%) -5,210.09

Current net worth 719,049.30

Once again, not bad for a net worth, but I have a lot of work to do on my house so a lot of the cash will go towards that. But, I'm just not tackling the house projects. When faced with big projects and decisions, I get very stuck and numb internally and have difficulty taking any action. My mind whirls. Where do I start? I'm afraid to spend money on big projects! What if I end up a bag lady? What if I need the money for something else? I want to retire early and won't be able to if I spend my money on these big projects. It goes on and on…

I'm great at stuffing away cash and I'm comfortable making many small purchases, but I'm not actively MANAGING the in- and out-flow of money in my life or PLANNING exactly what I want to do with it. Seriously, if I had the managing/planning drive of the amazing bloggers mentioned in the title of this entry, I would be ready to retire pretty darn soon. I know I need to develop the skillz, but I'm not making it happen.

Baby steps don't even seem to be working, so I'm going to try micro-steps! For September, some of my recurring monthly expense amounts were:

Phone (landline & DSL): 83.40
Electricity: 36.71 (this was unusually low because I was out of town for some of the billing period in August)
Insurance (auto & homeowner): 116.73
Auto loan payment: 231.46

Those charges should be similar in October, except for the electric bill, which will be higher.

Onward…

I'm so annoyed - I recently started getting these random text messages about movies on my average intelligence phone that I rarely use. Each incoming text costs me 15 cents. I googled the strange five-digit number and discovered that it was some sort of scam that not only sends texts, but charges your phone account $3.99 for the "service". WTF? So, I looked at my on-line prepaid phone account and noticed that I did indeed have $3.99 deducted from my balance. So, I called and talked my provider into refunding the $3.99 and blocking the number (I can't block from my phone). I hope it works. I'm so annoyed because, of course, I did not sign up for this service. Why would I want to receive random texts about movies? The fact that some people will concoct illegal schemes to earn money is remarkable to me.

While I'm on the subject of cellphones, I'm considering upgrading my phone. I currently have a very prepaid basic phone that I use for infrequent calls and texts, mostly when I'm meeting someone or traveling. I'd like to get a basic smartphone so that I'd have more options to use, like GPS, and be able to text more easily, since many people seem to like to communicate via texting these days. I've been researching airvoice, ting and republic. I am most interested in republic because of their mission to use more available wireless in their cell service, but the reviews are very mixed. Some people have had minimal problems with the service and are happy and others have a zillion complaints. The original phone they offer has now been reduced to $99 and a $19/month unlimited voice/text/data no contract plan. They are releasing a new phone in November which will cost $299 and have a variety of plans available. I love the cheap phone price, but will the technology be annoyingly outdated? Or will anything be better than what I currently have?

Has anyone bought a used unlocked iPhone or other smartphone on-line? The other option is to find a used phone and sign up for ting or airvoice. My brother had an old iPhone 3 that he was going to give me, but it didn't seem to be working when he finally located it in his house and checked it out. Bummer.

I've been reading cheap cellphone threads on MMMustache and other forums, but haven't yet reached a conclusion. If anyone has any suggestions/advice/thoughts, feel free to comment!

Yikes - I opened about three months worth of mail last week and I have a lot of catching up to do. Thankfully, most of my bills are on autopay, so nothing is overdue. Apparently, I never renewed my car registration when it expired in April. Woops - I thought I did that months ago! I will renew that online today.

I found a notice that my town reappraised all properties this year and mine went up quite a bit. Ugh - I've missed the appeal date, so I will have to pay the assigned yearly property taxes that are due on October 1. I'll check to see if I can still appeal the appraisal for future years. My house has many problems and I know of others in town who were able to get their property value decreased.

Money spent this weekend: On Saturday, I dropped off my trash ($2.50) and recycling (free), and I paid my neighbor $180 for the last nine weeks of lawn mowing. There should be 4 or 5 more weeks, at $20/week, of mowing before it gets too cold, so I'll owe him another $100 next month and then will be done until next April. But I will have to figure driveway plowing charges into the budget if we have a snowy winter.

Yesterday I went to an event with a friend and spent $6.75 on a sandwich because I didn't have time to eat before we left. My friend drove, so no gas costs for me. I am running out of food, but I found some potstickers and peas in the freezer, so heated those up for a simple dinner. I've been eating a lot of apples from my backyard tree for free and tasty snacks.

Oh, I also bought tickets ($30 Canadian each, not sure yet what that will be in US$) to see one of my favorite bands in Montreal next Saturday! I'll be going with a friend and we'll need to stay overnight because the show doesn't start until 9:30p. He's financially strapped, so I'll probably pay for the hotel room. I'm fine with that, because I was happy to find someone who was willing to go with me! I'm searching for a cheap one, but it looks like a lot of frugal people visit Montreal, because the cheapest places with passable reviews on various travel sites are all booked for Saturday night.

Today's meals will be scavenged from what's currently left in my fridge/freezer. Breakfast is rolled oats, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, kidney beans, olive oil and salt. Lunch will be a "healthy" ramen noodle soup package with added frozen peas. Dinner will probably be quinoa, steamed veggies, olive oil, salt & pepper.

I am so not ready for fall! This summer went by waaaay too fast.

I spent one week in the finger lakes on vacation at the house of a friend in June and three weeks with my mom in late July/early August helping her to recover from a hip replacement. She is almost 80 and is doing great! I am lucky that I have a lot of vacation time at my job and I was actually able to use accrued sick time for the three weeks with my mom since it was medically related. I also worked while I was visiting her, so I did not have to claim all of the time that I was away from the office.

It is 60 degrees out today, so I guess I better start facing the reality that summer is indeed over.

My job just started back in full swing this week and I am ready to revisit my finances.

Current net worth: September 13, 2013

Assets

Cash 66,911.10
Brokerage 47,836.41
403B Retirement 338,415.87
Traditional IRA 56,396.46
Roth IRA 5,001.89
House 200,000.00

Total Assets 714,561.73

Liabilities

Auto loan (2.9%) -5,427.75
Property Taxes (10/1) -1,003.82

Total Liabilities -6431.57

Current net worth 708,130.16

Not bad for a net worth. It is a little deceiving though because I need to do A LOT of work on my house. Like possibly $75,000 worth of work. Bummer. So, the next stage is to start using incoming money to save for the house projects. I already have $11,000 set aside for a bathroom renovation. I hope it won’t be that expensive. It is a small bathroom and I have fairly simple taste. But, I am counting on water damage and other hidden expenses to be found, so I padded the account so that I am ready.

Today was spendy. I prepaid for my heating oil ($1596.62) and filled up with gas ($51.10). I need to get a few items (toilet paper, olive oil, sponges) on my way home, so that will probably be about $25.

I am going to work out after work, stop to purchase my needed items, and then head home for a quiet evening.

(I just edited this post to remove apostrophes - why do they not work?)

Once again, it has been a long time since I have posted. I admire the regulars!

I am so excited because I recently saved myself about $60 now and more $$ in the future by purchasing an auger (drain snake) and unclogging my tub drain. It clogs at least once a year with my hair and I hire a plumber to fix for at least $75. So, I watched a few videos on Youtube, talked to a very knowledgeable salesman at Loews, and bought a bottom-of-the-line auger. I went home and fixed the clog myself, yay! And, now I have the tool on hand for inevitable future clogs. My sink also clogs with my hair, so I am hoping that I can use the auger for that, too.

I am also excited because this afternoon I emailed all of my medical flexible spending account paperwork to the insurance company. I have already spent the $1200 (and then some) that I allotted this year, so I am collecting it now and will use it towards my property taxes, which are due on October 1. I owe $2203.82, so I will pull $1003.82 out of savings to make up the difference. I usually stress myself out and send in the medical paperwork the day before it is due in March, so this is big news!

As of September 13, my Discover credit card balance will be paid off (0% interest special expires after this month, so I wanted to finish it off). I was paying $677 (!) a month, which I think I will now direct towards my Roth IRA. Wish I could remember what that card balance represented, I have no idea what I bought!

I will hit the voluntary limit of $17,500 to my 403B work retirement account with my next paycheck and will now have much fatter checks for the rest of the year. I need to really think about how to allocate the money. Last year I just wasted it away and I want to avoid that strategy this year.

I am not a planner by nature and that is definitely a liability. If there is no plan for existing and incoming money, it just gets frittered away. If there is no plan for time, it also gets frittered away. I did not plan a career and here I am at age 49 (well, in three weeks) in a job I do not really enjoy and I have no idea what to do next.

I do feel lucky to be alive, though, especially on 9/11, so I will see if I can start learning to plan and use my resources and whatever time I have left in ways that are satisfying to me. Good night all!

I'm missing my dad today - he died 13 years ago.

I joined swag bucks back in February, but haven’t taken the time to participate until Friday night. Oh my, it is quite addictive. I first read creditcardfree’s recent “tutorial” posts and then dove in. I can see that this will be a major time suck if I’m not careful! And, while the rewards are fun, they are not big enough to spend TOO much time pursuing them. Like CCF illustrated, I think a strategy is the way to go.

The videos and tv clips are an easy way to get a few points here and there. I downloaded the tool bar and am using the search feature, which seems to generate points a few times a day. I tried a few of the surveys, but I don’t think I will qualify for many of them since I don’t have a family and I don’t purchase many mainstream products. I’m not sure if it’s worth the time to keep trying. I just did one of the “tasks” – WTF? Very odd search engine comparison exercise. I ended up not finishing because it got too tedious, but I did receive 20 points, which I wasn’t expecting. Still, I don’t think the time investment will be worth doing future tasks.

The first night I became obsessed and ended up accumulating 192 points. But, that was over the course of at least 4 hours! It might be best to shoot for the goal amount each day and stop there.
I’m thinking of using the points for Amazon gift cards to put towards a digital camera that I want to purchase. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold out long enough to get it for free using points since it will cost $600 or more, but I could see earning some money towards it. Every little bit helps! I’m starting with a $10 Amazon gift card that I earned a few months ago by downloading my credit union’s iPad app and trying it out. I currently have 432 sbs, so when I get to 450, I will redeem them for a $5 Amazon gift card. I’m assuming it makes most sense to redeem the points as I accumulate them for the $5 gift cards, since the higher denominations seem to cost 500 points for each $5 rather than 450? Not sure how that makes sense.

I still don’t understand how to get points playing the games. For some of them, you have to sign up for a tournament and use real money? Is there a way to play something during a bit of downtime for some points?

I’m bummed that I didn’t try this right after I sprained my ankle. I had to spend a lot of time lying down with my foot elevated and I could have been racking up points without feeling like I was wasting time!

Update – I decided to try another survey and it worked. I just got 50 points for doing it (I should have timed it – was probably 10 – 15 minutes?) So, now I have 487 points. I guess I will now learn how to redeem points for a gift card!

I’m going away at the end of June for a week and I just hired my neighbor to watch my sweet baby kitty Jubes. I’m so excited that she is available! She and her husband rent one of two apartments in the house next door to me and, while I don’t really know them, they seem mature and responsible. Now I feel like I can really relax when I’m away, knowing that someone will be keeping an eye on my house as well as taking care of the cat.

What is a reasonable daily rate for someone to stop by once a day to replenish food & water, scoop litter box, and make sure that kitty is ok? I was thinking $15 – 18 dollars a day. Is that enough? What do people pay these days? I think I’ll be gone 8 days total.

My quest for healthy eating continues, which is helping both my grocery expenses and my waistline, although not as quickly as I’d like it to!

I just got notification of my company’s raise percentages this year and I’m really disappointed. I will receive a 3.3% raise for high achievement. Ugh – I got a 3.5% raise last year for normal achievement. High achievement was 4.5% last year! I was expecting to get at least 4.0%. I feel like I’m getting ripped off by 1.2%. Arghhh. I’m so annoyed and pissed! So much for incentive for this year. Boo.

Well, off to drop a bunch of money on getting my hair colored. Yeehaw.

(Bizarre that my blog post has the same title as Miss Angel!)

Lots of thunderstorms in my area this past weekend, so I did a lot of relaxing at home. I made it through a crazy March, April and May at work and things will start to slow down now a bit for the summer. Yay. Unfortunately, because of this craziness coupled with depression during the last few months, I spent way too much money on comfort foods and eating way too much of them! Add a sprained ankle into the mix and I now weigh about 155, which is the heaviest I’ve ever been. I think it was PatientSaver who once said that she was flirting with the 150s in weight – I’m sad to say that I seem to be in a full-blown relationship with the 150s!

Thankfully, I reined in my eating habits starting two weeks ago and have been doing a pretty good job buying less food overall, especially junk food, and eating healthier foods in smaller quantities. I had a big score on cauliflower the other day. I mostly shop at a local food co-op, but there’s a small supermarket in the same neighborhood which I also use. They sell organic cauliflower heads for 50 cents less there, so I stopped by on Friday to pick one up. The heads all looked like they were past their prime (although still fine), so I decided to ask for a discount. Rather than paying $4.49 for one head, I was charged $1.25. So, I asked it if could get two! I’m so excited, I love cauliflower. I also bought a large papaya that was on the deep discount rack for $2. I haven’t tried it yet, so don’t know if it will be a bargain or a bust. I recently found a local, free range egg source at work for $2.50/dozen which is cheap for my area!

I’ve just started to incorporate some gentle exercise into my day that hopefully won’t hurt my healing ankle. I bought a bike trainer on sale from Bike Nashb@r, assembled it with my mountain bike last weekend and have started to use it. I’ve also been taking short walks wearing my ankle brace when I have time. I really miss exercising after a very sluggish few months. One financial bonus has been that my gas consumption has gone way down recently. That will climb back up with summer travel.

I haven’t really lost any weight yet, but my first goal was to reorient my taste buds to healthy food and to stop my sugar/fat addiction. Once I get into the habit of eating well, I love to eat tasty, nutritious food. But the minute I start to drift to the dark side of junk food, it can be a slippery slope, and I tend to get into “all or nothing” mode. So, I’ll ride this wave as long as I can…

Today’s meals
Breakfast – rolled oats, steamed broccoli, olive oil & salt (was supposed to include a hard-boiled egg, but I forgot to bring one to work!)
Snack – organic watermelon and a few walnuts
Lunch – small amount of deli chicken, lots of lettuce, red cabbage, grated carrot & daikon radish, and stone-ground mustard wrapped up in a multi-grain tortilla.
Snack – organic cantaloupe slices
Dinner – a Thai coconut curry dish that I made on Sunday with cauliflower, bok choy, carrots, onions, coconut milk, thai curry paste and small shrimp. Served over brown rice. Yum.

I haven’t check my 403B total recently. It’s currently at $317,533.84. I’m hoping that my entire retirement portfolio will hit $400K by the end of this year, but that will all depend on the whims of the market.

Oh my goodness, I just made an interesting discovery about how much money went toward my retirement savings in 2012. I contributed the maximum to my 403b through payroll and fully funded my new Roth IRA. Since I turned 45, my employer has kicked in a generous 15% (it was 9% up to 45 years old) of my salary (on top of my salary, not from it) each year to my 403b, which apparently I haven’t calculated in a long time, because it is a higher amount than I thought it would be. Then I realized that an additional mandatory 6% of my salary was being pulled out into my work 403b, which I believed was part of the maximum that I was already voluntarily contributing, not in addition to it. So the grand total was:

2012 retirement funding
my contribution to 403b 17,000.00
employer's contribution to 403b 9,312.10
my contribution to new Roth IRA 5,000.00
newly discovered additional mandatory contribution to 403b 3,724.77
grand total 35,036.87

That seems like a lot. My current salary is $63,190, so I contributed about 33% of my pretax salary and then an additional $5000 (no tax break) to the Roth IRA. Actually, my salary for the first half of the year was $61,053, so my contribution was even more than 33% of my salary. It’s awesome that so much money went toward my retirement fund and it’s definitely growing at a nice rate, but I’m starting to worry about having too much money tied up in retirement savings that I can’t access without penalty until I’m 59.5 years old. I’m not sure how to figure that out.

I also recently discovered that if I continue working full time, I meet the qualifications to “retire” from my place of employment at 55 and could start to access my 403b funds then, if needed, without penalty. I will be 49 in September. Who knows if I would have enough money by that time to retire fully, but it would give me the option of “retiring” and then trying something new – maybe even working part-time in a different field.

I love the idea of having a fat retirement pot, but I really need to make sure that I’m enjoying life now because who knows how long I will be around. I don’t have children, so I’m not thinking and saving strategically with the idea of leaving an inheritance to anyone. I will probably name my 1 niece and 3 nephews and maybe some close friends’ children in my will (which I really need to create). Lots to think about.

I just very belatedly had my performance evaluation and I will be recommended to receive a higher percentage raise than the normal increase. Yay! It won’t be huge, but every little bit helps. I just located last year’s increases – 3.6% normal or 4.5% for high performance. If the numbers are similar for this year, I will be excited to break the $65K mark!

Gotta love this hot market! My work 403b is up to $314,819.69 as of today. Add that to $61,377.68 in IRAs and I have a grand total of $376,197.37 in retirement funds. I will enjoy that total while it lasts! The sad part is that the IRA amount should be a lot higher, but the money in my IRAs is not invested. Doh. I have been putting off making the decision of how to invest the money for way too many years. I guess there’s no time like the present, though, and I will have to tackle that task very soon.

I have been pretty much house-bound for the past week after spraining my ankle on a leisurely stroll along my street two Sundays ago. My foot twisted off the raised blacktop of the road (it’s a rural area with no sidewalks) and I went down hard. I sprained my ankle, but thankfully there were no bone fractures or chips and I didn’t suffer any other injuries, except for some sore muscles for a few days after the fall. I didn’t hit my head and didn’t injure my wrists even though I landed on them very hard. My camera was in my hand and got crushed, so time to get a new one. Luckily, I have good insurance through work, so most of the doctor, x-ray and air-splint costs should be covered. I injured my left ankle and have a car with manual transmission, so I wasn’t able to drive for a week. At least I saved on gas money! I got an air-splint yesterday that has allowed me to walk slowly and drive, and I’m now back at work. I got a ride in one day last week and used crutches, but it was such a hassle that I worked at home until I was able to get the splint. It was great being able to hang out with my sweet Jubes (photo below).

The sprained ankle is a major inconvenience, but I’m keeping it in perspective by thinking about the Boston bombing victims who lost limbs. It will take time, but I will fully heal, so I can definitely deal with this injury.

Oh my goodness, I just e-filed using turbot@x and I am DONE with my 2012 taxes. Finally. What IRA decision did I make? I know you are all waiting with bated breath for the answer. Drum roll, please...I decided to open a new Roth IRA and I contributed $5000. The main reason I choose this path was because I am getting more and more resistant to change, so I thought I'd try something new and see what happens. I have mixed feelings about the choice, but it is made and now I can assess and also move on to other matters.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on both of my posts. I appreciated your ideas, suggestions and support. I learned from and was influenced by each comment. Lots to think about. I need to make thinking about retirement and other savings plus current and future planning (financial and otherwise) a priority in my life or I am going to end up in the same boat next April!

Ugh. I just heard the news about the explosions at the Boston Marathon. Definitely puts everything that I'm dealing with into perspective.

This is so embarrassing, but I still haven’t decided which route to take with the IRA contribution – open a new Roth, lose a current tax break, but have some accessible and tax-free money available in retirement (earlier than my traditional IRA), or continue funding the traditional IRA, get the tax benefits now and deal with taxes when I start to withdraw money when I’m older (which I would have to wait until 59.5).

Thanks to everyone who weighed in. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. And extra thanks to MonkeyMama for reading and responding with your expertise during your busiest season!!

I forgot to share the third option, which is to not put any money into an IRA for 2012 (or less than $5000). I already put $17,000 through auto withdraw into my work 403b plan AND my employer added another 15% of my salary on top of that (haven’t figured out the math, but maybe $7 – 9K?) Do I really need to put more money toward retirement for 2012? I worry that I’m over-saving and not doing enough living in the moment.

My indecision is a real problem in my life – but I’ll save that for another post!

I guess I will be choosing soon as time is running out! Need to take Wino’s words to heart – just do one and live with the results.

I STILL haven’t finished my taxes. I’ve done all the info entering into turbo t@x, I just can’t decide if I should contribute to my existing traditional IRA, or open a new Roth IRA. I’ve recently begun thinking about possibly retiring early. I have no idea if I will be able to save enough money to do so or what age I would aim for. But, if I do, most of my money would be in retirement accounts (403b and traditional IRA) which I wouldn’t be able to touch without penalty until I’m 59.5 years old. I’m wondering if I should open a Roth IRA, an account where I could withdraw my contributions (but not earnings) at any time without penalty. I recently learned that I could retire from my current place of employment at 55 (I would meet the requirements if I stay another seven years) and could then draw on my 403b without penalty. If I leave this job before 55, I couldn’t touch the money without penalty until I turned 59.5.

If I open a new Roth IRA now, I would only be able to accumulate 58K plus any earnings over the next ten years. So, if retired early and started to draw on the contributions, that money really wouldn’t grow much. And, there wouldn’t be much in there – probably not even two years of living expenses. But, it would be tax free.

The hardest decision is in the moment because if I contribute $5000 to my traditional IRA for 2012, I would receive about $1218 in refunds. If I open and contribute to a Roth, I would only receive about $290 in refunds, a difference of $928. It’s hard to think of letting that money go now in order to have some tax free money available in the future. I’m thinking that I should have started a Roth IRA YEARS ago, but I really didn’t think it through back then. I’m also not sure if I should convert my traditional IRA to a Roth at some point.

Ugh, I don’t know what to do and I need to decide very soon! I've been swallowed whole by work the last few weeks and I haven't had time to really think it through.

just looked at my 403b retirement account and the $300K has been reached: $300,766.52. Yay - so fun to see that number. Of course, now i want to see the next milestone. $310K? $325K?

now if only i could get motivated to do my taxes. i took a staycation all last week and successfully procrastinated on everything i wanted to get done. crap.

current debt update:
discover card - $3,383.00 (0%) - will be paid off by 9/2013
chase auto - $6,778.08 (2.9%)

good news - when i went to look up the chase auto balance, i discovered that the website has been updated and i will be able to set up auto payments for that loan, which wasn't an option before. now to just actually do it.

I’m supposed to be in Florida visiting my mom and enjoying some warmth right now, but I never got it together to make plane reservations, so I’m making some of this week into a staycation. Ugh, I’ve been so lethargic lately. Combination of long winter, depression, poor eating choices and complete lack of exercise. And there’s probably some menopausal hormonal stuff mixed in there, too. Oh my.

I just called Discover to confirm how to set up an auto payment. The instructions on line didn’t really make sense and I don’t want to be late with a payment, or I will lose my 0% interest rate. The auto withdrawals won’t start until May. The next payment is due April 8, so I paid that tonight so that I won’t forget. After that, $677 will be withdrawn every month until mid-September and that c.c. debt will be paid off in full.

I still haven’t done my taxes (thanks to creditcardfree for the reminder!). I’ve already contributed the limit of $17,000 to my work retirement account for 2012. Now I need to decide if I should put some money into my traditional IRA and get a little tax benefit. Or should I open a ROTH IRA? As I start to think about when I want to retire, I wonder if I should have a tax free ROTH account from which to withdraw money (contributions, not earnings) from before I turn 59, just in case I am able to retire before that (probably not a likely scenario, but a girl can dream!). I really need to figure this out so that I can finish my taxes and move on.

I have an exciting start to my day tomorrow – I’m getting my septic tank pumped at 8:00a! I’ve owned my house for 8 years and this is the first time I’ve had this done. It will cost $255 for the pumping, plus whatever labor cost there is to dig down to the tank. I had a fleeting thought of doing the digging myself, but I really don’t want to, so I’m going to cough up the cash and have the pump guy do it. This is the first in an incredibly long list of house tasks that I need to take tackle.

I’ll say goodnight with a favorite photo of my cat Juby:

I just checked my work retirement account (403B) and the balance is $299,849.31. I still really want to see it hit the $300K mark, if only for a day!

I had a combination ultra-lazy and somewhat productive weekend. I’ve felt very lethargic recently and ended up sleeping through most of Saturday. But, I did also manage to tackle the mess in my house and got a lot cleaned up. No more living in squalor for me, at least for a few days! It was a sad state of affairs.

This morning I paid three medical bills which totaled $355.29.

I owe $635.61 on my VISA due on 3/27, so I will pay that today (DONE) so that it’s over and done with and I don’t have to worry about late fees or finance charges. The total due includes a $6.38 finance charge because I was late paying last month’s bill – grrrr. Thankfully there was no late fee, though!

I FINALLY submitted my medical reimbursement paperwork on Friday (the deadline!). If all of the claims get approved, I will receive a check for $1222.00 in the near future, which will go into my bathroom renovation account. I had a total of $1300 in my medical reimbursement account and only $1222 worth of medical expenses, so I ended up having to forfeit $78.00, which I’m still not over. But, I did find out from Human Resources that all unclaimed med reimbursement money goes into a relief fund that is available for employees to apply to use in times of need. I feel better about that – it’s like charitable giving rather than going into a black hole at an insurance company or something.

This year signed up to contribute only $1200 to my med reimbursement account, so I won’t have a problem getting it all back. Unfortunately, I will most likely have more than $1200 in out-of-pocket expenses since I need to get two fillings and probably a new mouth guard (still cranky about the lost $72! ) My current mouth guard snapped in half the other day. I’m still using it, but I’m wondering if it’s now a choking hazard. I’ll have to look into getting a new one. They are expensive! I seem to remember my insurance covering some of it, but not sure if it’s a once-in-a-lifetime type reimbursement. (Update – I just called my dentist and he suggested that if it still fits snuggly on my teeth, that I should just keep using it. A new one is $625! So, I’ll use the broken one for now and then see if my insurance will help me to buy a new one.)

I did a quick run through of my taxes using TurboTax and will most likely get a refund of between $200 – 900, depending on traditional IRA contribution. I haven’t made a decision about that yet.

This is kind of fun: as of Friday, my work retirement account was up to $299,215.55 due to current strong market – so very close to $300K! I really hope it hits $300K before the market dies down – I would LOVE to witness that number even if only for a day! I see in an old post that the account hit $100K in October 2007. So, it took 5 years and 5 months to get to $300K. I hope the next big landmark comes faster than that. I still haven’t figured out what my goal is for retirement savings.

Ugh – I just spent $7.25 on an unhealthy lunch and $1.42 on two small bags of Cadbury Mini-eggs. I have to pick up something for a potluck this evening (didn’t feel like making anything this weekend). I want to get back into the swing of healthy and inexpensive meal prep – I am way out of whack with that.

Thanks for the support and ideas!

I put my phone/DSL and electric bills on auto-pay a year ago to make life easier, but I didn’t realize I could do that for credit cards. So, I will set up the 0% Discover card to pay about $670/month April – September and then that will be paid off.

*Finally created on-line accounts for my medical reimbursement and health insurance. Now I can make sure that I have all of my claims from 2012 (I want to see if I can get back my full $1300, I only have $1220 worth of expenses, so will lose $80).

*Found an $11 reimbursement check in a pile at work, so will add that to the $160 guitar check for depositing this week.

*Got an email confirmation from Zappos that gave me an $80 store credit for my returned running shoes. I called customer service and was able to get an $80 refund instead since I spoke to someone a few days ago about this under-the-wire return and she made a note that I could get a refund. Yee-haw!

*Accounts update – I’ll do this now while the market is ridin’ high!
Retirement plan through work: $293,631.52
Traditional IRA: $56,368.04 (earning nothing because I haven’t taken the time to invest it – doh)
Brokerage account: $ 42,050.46
Misc money market fund: $6500.00? (not sure – need to find the paperwork)
Emergency Fund: $ 26,043.76
Cash: $42,903

Debt:
Discover c.c.: $4060 (0%) – this will be paid off by September 8 w/no interest charges
Car loan: $ 6,778.08 (2.9%)

I need to add “create a will” to my to-do list. I don’t have a spouse or children, so have to decide who to choose as beneficiaries.

O.k., now back to work – this is a busy week at the office!