Starfishy's Money Blog

I started with the easiest assignment from yesterday's financial consultant meeting. I created my SS account, downloaded my most recent statement and uploaded it to my retirement plan website so that the advisor can review it. I do qualify for SS benefits and Medicare, so that's a plus!

According to the summary, at my current SS earnings rate, if I continue working until...
my full retirement age (67), my payment would be about $1,928 a month OR
age 70, my payment would be about $2,475 a month OR
age 62 (early retirement), my payment would be about $1,248 a month

I do still look at this as a bonus to whatever I save on my own for retirement, because part of my future fantasy is to work part-time as I approach 60, so I don't foresee making my current salary all the way until I'm 67 to 70. In that case, the payment would be much lower - maybe $1000 a month?

Also, this sentence appears on the statement: Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2034, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 79 percent of scheduled benefits.

Yesterday was a low-spend day, only $24.77 to fill my gas tank. I paid cash and saved 5 cents a gallon, which was a bonus because I rarely carry cash! I need to remember to use cash for gas rather than my rewards credit card with 1% cash back. The total cost was $25.34, so I saved 57 cents by paying cash. If I had charged it, I would have earned 25 cents cash back. My impulse is to go for the cash back (free money!), but in this case paying in cash is a better deal. I should probably investigate cards with higher cash back bonuses - do these exist?

I'm working at home this morning and then have an afternoon dentist appointment, which is about an hour away. I started seeing this dentist many years ago because he incorporates holistic elements into his practice. I really like going there, but it's so far! I had my last cleaning scheduled for January, but had to cancel due to busyness. I forgot to reschedule for months and by the time I remembered, they were booked until late August. The visit will cost $25 to cover my dental deductible. I hope he doesn't discover any cavities or other problems, but he probably will. My teeth are very susceptible to cavities.

I live in a very rural area, and the dental office is just outside of the "big city', so I hope I have enough energy to try on some hiking boots while I'm up there. I'm taking a walking tour in Portugal this October and need to buy boots ASAP so that I can break them in before the trip. I also need to purchase my plane ticket.

I met today with a financial advisor who was assigned to me from my work's retirement plan company now that my account has reached a certain value. Wow, I am feeling overwhelmed. It was a good meeting, but very thorough. I was asked lots of questions designed to get me thinking about my future goals so that he can figure out what I might realistically have money-wise to support myself and my desires. I find thinking about the future to be very difficult because, of course, it involves aging and/or death, things that I just don't want to face, but know that they are an inevitable part of life. I also found that I was anxious because at this point I'm not clear (even remotely) how I want my future to look and I felt like I should know and only share a concrete plan. So, the meeting was beneficial because it did force me to start entertaining ideas and think about my desires.

One of the questions he asked was what I wasn't doing now that I would do if I had more disposable income. I felt embarrassed that I couldn't really come up with anything! I deal with depression and a lot of my needs and wants have been internally squelched and I'm not readily in touch with them. I would like to travel more and probably spruce up my house a bit. I'll have to think more about that.

Based on this initial conversation, the advisor will start to run my numbers through his models and come up with various scenarios. I have no idea what to expect.

I have been assigned some tasks which include:

Create a will and assign beneficiaries to my retirement accounts! I realized that the reason I'm procrastinating on this is that I don't know who to assign as executor and I'm not really sure who I want my assets to go to. I'm single with no children, so I don't have the obvious choice of leaving it to my immediate family. I will most likely name my three nephews and my niece as heirs. I might also add a few of my friends' children who I am close to (one is almost 30, one is 20 and the other is still a child, all from different families). And maybe some to a charity - I have to think about that. I don't have a huge sum of money, but I definitely have assets that I would like someone I know to use if I can't.

Increase my insurance coverage. I was surprised by this one. His reasoning was that as a single person with fairly low insurance coverage and some non-retirement assets and a house, that I could be sued and lose a lot if I have an auto accident. He also felt that I could get better rates by getting some quotes and that, in the end, I might not pay much more for increased coverage, but would have better protection. He also suggested increasing my homeowners insurance coverage and adding a line for identity theft coverage (I guess this is somewhat new) and an earthquake rider which would cover any foundation problems like cracks caused by earth shifts, not just actual earthquakes. Insurance is a tough one for me because I feel angry to pay for something "just in case", but it doesn't make sense to have inadequate coverage, so I guess I will look into it!

Register on the social security website and start to get an idea of what my future benefit might be. I've never really considered SS as part of my retirement plan because my first 10 or so years out of college consisted of odd jobs while I skied and bicycle toured and worked on an organic farm (before it was all the rage!). I didn't have any school loans, so I decided to do some active adventures while I was young and healthy and debt-free. So, I doubt that I have paid all that much into the system, but I guess I'll find out. Plus, who knows if SS will exist when I reach my mid 60s?

I should mention that the financial planning advisor is a free benefit and that he is salaried, so is not focused on trying to sell financial products. It was very helpful, but now I need to take some action and make some decisions and that's when I usually start to hide my head in the sand and procrastinate.

Phew, that's enough financial thoughts for now - my office is getting really warm and my head is spinning! Maybe I'll go for a walk and get some fresh air.

EDIT: Just realized that the sidebar description says 40-something for my age. I thought that I updated this, but I guess not. I just corrected it - I am now 51, soon to be 52.

Summer is flying by! I haven't checked my retirement account balance in a while and it finally hit the $600K mark! As of Friday, the total is $611,412.18. That includes my work 403B plus a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA. I have a free meeting this Wednesday with an investment advisor from my retirement plan's firm. I need to collect some paperwork and information before then, but I'm procrastinating.

I've been enjoying watching the Olympics. I don't have a television and I don't have a cable subscription to be able to stream the games online. But I did some research and for $8 I bought a month of a VPN. I choose Canada as my country when signing in and this allows me full access to CBC's coverage. It’s been great except that I miss the N B C Olympic anthem. I used my mom's cable subscription info to watch the last Olympics, but I couldn't find the credentials and she was away when they started, so I splurged and spent the $8. It's been worth it.

I haven't been paying any attention to my finances and have been carelessly spending money this summer. Not anything too extravagant, but spending a little here and a little there is probably adding up. I never made the decision to sign up for the new web-based YNAB and I haven't been using my older version for budgeting or tracking spending. I still feel annoyed that it switched over to a yearly subscription and I can't seem to decide whether or not to make the switch.

I'm treating myself to a walking tour in Portugal this fall. It's definitely a splurge, but I have had quite a few friends and acquaintances die over the past few years and have decided that I want to start making sure I live even while I save for the future because you just don't know how long or short the future may be. I'm embarrassed to say, though, that I haven't bought my plane ticket yet and now I'm terrified to look at the prices. Doh. I've been struggling with massive depression this summer and one of the consequences for me is procrastinating on decisions. I hope to figure it out this weekend and I'm going to have to accept whatever price I end up paying. Life will go on.

I'm off to have an exciting Saturday night of cleaning and watching the Olympics.

I'm home lying in bed typing this entry on my laptop. I made myself some yummy nachos for dinner and ate them in this same position while watching the latest episode of Nashville for free on Hulu! I don't typically like country music, but I love that show! A quick calculation shows that my plate of nachos cost about $4.75 to make. It's taking all of my willpower not to go into the kitchen and make another batch! I'm now lying here trying to muster up some motivation to clean my messy kitchen. It is an unbelievable disaster area at the moment. I don't have a dishwasher and have PILES of dishes lying around everywhere. To top it off, the dirty dishes are not limited to the kitchen. Oh my, it's embarrassing to admit this all out loud. I'm going to have to set my timer and tackle the mess a few dishes at a time. I've been trying to get it cleaned up for weeks and it's just not happening. I won't even get into describing the current state of my fridge - I'll save that for another post!

Today was a no-spend day. I exercised at home before going to work - a mix of light jogging on a mini trampoline, dancing, yoga and arm reps with light weights. Meals consisted of half of a free hummus and veggie sandwich and a glass of apple cider for breakfast (both leftover items from a Wednesday work event); a free lunch during a work event today (half a tuna sammie and half an egg salad sammie); a free small bag of potato chips as a snack and the nachos for dinner (I already had all of the ingredients on hand). I may chop up half of an apple and top it with freshly ground peanut butter for dessert. I got a massage, which was covered by my insurance, this afternoon (I am very grateful for this benefit).

I hope to tackle a little bit of the kitchen tonight and then attempt to go to sleep fairly early. I'll be out most of the day tomorrow, so won't have much time to clean. I should probably invite someone over to dinner very soon - that will force me to get an organizing grip. It would have to someone I don't very well though because most of my close friends have experienced my disarray at some point, so I wouldn't be as determined to solve the problem.

Oh no, my sweet cat has just curled up under my neck and is making it very difficult to get up! I am feeling very warm, comfy and sleepy...

Happy Friday everyone

I'm having a hard time getting back to my finances after ignoring them for many months. Thankfully, most of my bills are on autopay, so I haven't missed anything so far (I think!). I guess I'll start here with yesterday's spending:

Hair coloring at salon: $90 + $20 tip = $110 total. My hairdresser gives me an amazing head massage while washing my hair and I really enjoy my time at her salon, so I always tip her well.

Gas: $32.70

Kind of a spendy day, but nothing unplanned. Today should be a no-spender. I will eat my packed lunch and then take a walk during my break with a work colleague who is retiring soon. I will go straight home after work and eat leftovers for dinner. No packed lunch needed tomorrow since I'm hosting an event that will provide a vegan lunch. I hope there is enough for everyone - I got more RSVPs than I expected.

This weekend I hired an arborist to remove an apple in my yard tree that fell over last fall. He'll hopefully do the work sometime this week once the rainy weather stops. I'm so sad, I love that tree and it's still alive, but it can't be propped back up. One half is still standing, so he's going to do a quick prune of that one. It has a lot of deadwood, so he's not going to spend more than an hour because it may eventually blow over in the wind since the other half of the tree will be gone. The total cost will be $175. He'll remove and chip the fallen tree, prune the remaining half, and do a few tiny prunes to an ornamental tree in my front yard. He'll even chip my crispy Christmas tree that has been blowing around my back yard since late January! I also have a sugar maple near my house that's on its last root. The estimate to remove that tree is $225, so I'm going to wait until fall or next year to deal with it. I have so few trees in my small yard and I'm not ready to lose two at once!

The reason it has taken me so long to deal with the fallen apple tree is that part of me feels like I should deal with it myself - pay my elderly neighbor to cut it up with his chain saw or put an ad in a local craigs-like-list or something offering the free apple wood to anyone who wants to come cut up the tree and haul it away. I guess I could have had my neighbor cut it up and then put the wood pile by the street with a "free apple wood" sign. Oh, well, too late. I feel most comfortable paying a fully insured, knowledgable professional to take care of it at this point, especially since part of the tree is still standing. I also didn't bother getting more than one estimate. The arborist is a work colleague's husband and he was quick to return my call, visit the house, etc., so I just went for it rather than delay further. We also have friends in common who recommended him, so I like giving the money to someone I have connections with. We'll see how it goes! Honestly, if the fallen tree wasn't visible from the road or so close to my neighbor’s yard, I would probably leave it there and let it take root and continue growing! But, it's an eyesore, so best to get rid of it. I tend to procrastinate on dealing with problems like this, so I am kind of glad that I took action and it will soon be solved even though I don't want to say goodbye to the tree or spend money to deal with it!

OK, kind of a boring update, but it's a start! Hope everyone's week is going well so far.

Wow, as usual time has flown by since my last post! I started to catch up on blogs this weekend and there is a lot going on in everyone's lives!

Today is gray and very rainy and I'm totally unmotivated at work.

I've completely lost track of my finances and using YNAB. This first happened when I visited my mom in December to help out with her breast cancer surgery and recovery and I haven't yet signed in to YNAB to begin again. Maybe this week? I also haven't even remotely started my taxes. I keep forgetting! Update - I just this moment logged into TurboTax through the Fidelity website and started my 2015 return! I don't have any of my tax forms with me at work, but I reviewed and updated my personal info that imported from last year's return. I have now started my taxes! Sometimes that first step is the hardest - remembering my username and password, signing in and starting. (I somehow did remember my login information and I just recorded it in Evernote for next year.) Overall, the taxes shouldn't take very long to do, I just get stuck on the decision of whether or not to contribute to an IRA and, if so, should it be my Roth or traditional? First world problems.

I did recently notice that YNAB has changed to a web-based system that has a subscription fee. Has anyone made the switch? I'm curious if it's worth the investment.

Now I have to decide if I'm going to wipe the slate clean on YNAB and start over or attempt to fill in the past few months? I think that they recommend starting over (it would definitely be easier), but I hate to lose the data that I already have recorded in there. I wonder if there is a way to save it?

In other financial news, I was able to develop a grip on the morning of March 14 and pull together the paperwork for my 2015 flex spending account. I emailed it to my insurance company later that afternoon. The submission deadline was March 15 and I had $1500 in my account! I checked my P.O. box this weekend and the $1500 check was there - yahoo! I think I've already hit my deductible and OOP costs for 2016, so I should probably look into submitting paperwork and get the 2016 money now. The likely scenario will be that I get around to doing it on March 14, 2017. Doh.

I just did some research and discovered that my flex spending contribution for 2016 is $1500 again. Ugh. I must have chosen that amount when I thought that I would be getting new glasses during 2016. I ended up deciding to get new glasses in December 2015 because my vision plan allows for new glasses every two calendar years. (The plan contributes to the cost of frames and lenses, but doesn't cover them completely.) Getting them in December 2015 rather than early 2016 means that I can upgrade my prescription sunglasses in 2017 rather than having to wait until 2018. My total deductible/OOP is $1100, so I will have to figure out how to spend the other $400. We thankfully have a new policy that allows up to $500 of unused flex spending money to roll over into the next calendar year, so I can do that if I don't have any other coverable expenses in 2016. Phew. I just have to remember to check if I have excess 2016 funds before choosing my 2017 flex spending amount in November, so that I don't end up with too much money in my account.

BTW, my mom is doing really well. In December, she had surgery to remove a tumor in her breast. She took a few weeks to recover and then decided, with her surgeon, to go to her place in Florida for the winter and do her radiation treatments down there. That was a good call since she has so much more energy and motivation (and fun!) in sunny Florida then in wintery NJ, although it was a mild winter in the east. She has finished her treatments and feels good. She will have to take medication for the rest of her life and have regular follow up mammograms because the cancer will most likely return at some point, but for right now she is healthy and enjoying life at 81 (82 in April). I'm so glad that she decided to get an iPhone about two years ago because we text quite frequently, which is easier than talking on the phone. We can keep in more regular touch this way and then talk on the phone once in a while. Plus it's fun to send photos back and forth and she's just getting into using emojis, which is very cute. I was supposed to visit her during late March, but decided to go in mid-April instead. I need to get a plane ticket! I'm scared to look at the current prices since I've delayed for so long. Ugh - I need to do that today.

Happy Monday everyone!

Phew, I think I'm starting to come back to life. My work was closed December 23 - January 3 and I worked from home on Monday. I spent much of my break lounging around in new comfy fleece pajamas binge watching movies and TV series with my cat. I was hoping to get a lot done while off from work, but I guess I needed to decompress.

I was back in the office yesterday and somehow managed to drag myself to the gym around 2:00 p.m. for an hour walk with some light jogging on the treadmill and 15 minutes of yoga stretching. I'm in a bit of a slump and exercise is going to be essential to help me get back on track. I also somehow woke up early this morning and went to the gym for the same hour treadmill/15-minute yoga routine before work.

Looking back in time, I had a whirlwind visit from my mom, brother, sister-in-law and nephew for Thanksgiving. They arrived at my house on Wednesday at 6:00p (somehow avoiding holiday traffic!) and left at 6:00a on Saturday morning. Whew! We had a good time. My mom and their dog stayed with me and my brother and his family stayed at a local inn. The weather was unseasonably warm, so everyone but my mom went for a hike on Thanksgiving and then we all had dinner at a restaurant that provides a fabulous spread with no work involved!

My mom was supposed to stay with me for a few extra days and then I was going to drive her home and stay for a bit for her breast cancer surgery and recovery. She changed her mind and decided to return with my brother because she was feeling anxious about the surgery. So, I drove alone to her home (my hometown) on December 3rd, her surgery was December 4th and I returned home on December 12th. Surgery went well and she recovered beautifully, but it took FOREVER to get the pathology reports. This was nerve wracking because cancer was found in her first lymph node, so they had to remove other nodes for testing. Thankfully no cancer was found in her other lymph nodes! So, my mom has now gone to Florida for the rest of the winter and will have radiation treatment and take an inhibitor drug indefinitely. Whew. We were all very relieved that the cancer was treatable, at least for now. If it had spread, she would most likely be too old to endure chemo, so we were very lucky. My mom is amazingly healthy for 81 and I’m glad that she can continue chugging along for now. I'm trying to appreciate any time that we have left together. I'm so grateful that she got an iPhone about a year ago because it's been a lot of fun to keep in regular touch via texting.

I'm completely out of touch with my finances, but I think my spending has been fairly under control except for a few recent binges at TJMaxx. I hate to try things on while shopping, so have developed the bad habit of buying a bunch of items, spending hundreds of dollars, and then trying them on at home. Inevitably, I end up returning many things. I basically just avoid most stores, but then when I do visit, I go crazy!

I have enough food on hand to get through the week, so will probably do some light shopping on Friday. I also need to get cat litter that day.

Today's meals:
Breakfast - hard boiled egg; steamed broccoli, brussel sprouts and carrots; parsley, olive oil, salt. homemade applesauce
Lunch - leftover fish taco, mushroom barley soup, pear
Dinner - whole wheat pasta w/steamed broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, carrots and tuna, scallions, olive oil, salt & pepper.
Applesauce for any sweet cravings!

For my own memory, I weighed myself on Monday: 146

Happy 2016 to my fellow SA bloggers!

Once again, two months have flown by without a blog entry from me. So popping in for a quick hello to begin again. I completely lost touch with YNAB and my finances, so will need to refocus my efforts.

My holidays were quiet, which I needed, and I am now back to work after a two-week break. I could use another month or so!

I'm very happy that the photo problem is fixed! So, I'm including a snap of my tender girl - Jubilee.

If anyone is considering purchasing YNAB, feel free to use my referral code link to get $6 off! http://ynab.refr.cc/X4CF4XD (copy and paste into browser)

I've officially been using YNAB for three months now and I love it! Dare I say that it has been life-changing for me? I have been wanting/trying to track my spending, create a budget, determine how much I earn a month, where it goes, where I would prefer it to go, and is it enough for me to realistically live on for many years. YNAB has made that all possible!

I assume that I could have used one of many available budgeting programs and also gotten positive results. I just happened to choose this one, based on the experience of some fellow SA bloggers, and it really works for me, so I'm sticking with it. I think having the YNAB online support system (free classes, message boards and their philosophy) helped me to learn how to quickly and fully utilize the program and kept me interested and focused in the beginning.

When I started using the YNAB 31-day trial, I didn't match my YNAB checking account total with the actual amount in my real checking account. I started in August, so I just entered the amount of my two July paychecks into YNAB and budgeted from there just to try it out and get things going. I had some cash on hand from an early August vacation, so I used that for some of my spending, but recorded it as money that was withdrawn from checking because I wanted to get an exact accounting of what I spent during the month. I used the program like this for a while and, oh my, it took me a long time to figure out exactly how much I should have in checking to match my YNAB balances. I FINALLY figured it out last week, shifted money around and now my real accounts match my YNAB accounts. Yay! It should be quite easy to maintain the system from here.

I love being able to see how much I have available to budget, how much I've spent, how I've spent it and how much I haven't spent or budgeted. It's providing me with the tools to plan my budget rather than just randomly spend. It's so easy to move money around as the month unfolds and my priorities and reality change. Since I'm not sharing a budget with anyone else, I haven't utilized the phone app although I did download it. I have a wifi data plan, so it's not always readily usable. I just update YNAB at least every few days with new purchases. And since tracking has caused me to spend less, I sometimes don't have that much to update throughout the week!

The benefit I am enjoying the most by finally managing my money is the peace of mind that I've gained. Financially, I'm doing fine at this point - in fact, I am doing quite well. But, I wasn't taking the time to get to know my own financial situation and really manage it carefully on my own behalf. Using YNAB is helping me to do that. I honestly don't always like what I see, but living in reality feels more calming than ignoring it and unconsciously moving through life. Although I have to admit that knowing exactly what I have and what I can and can't do with it feels a little boring - I think I sometimes like the excitement of the unknown even though it doesn't serve me.

I really hope that I can keep focused on using YNAB - I have a tendency to get excited and immersed in something and then suddenly lose interest and forget about it. My blog archives illustrate a good example of this.

In other news, I had a day with no unplanned spending, ate mostly healthy food except for some free candy from a co-worker (argh), and I walked for an hour after work and then did some yoga stretching when I got home.

Today's menu:
Breakfast - apple (free from neighbor and super tasty!) and fresh ground organic peanut butter, a few almonds
Lunch - rolled oats w/steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots (free from neighbor), hard boiled egg, olive oil, salt
Snack - homemade applesauce
Dinner - Boca burger (from freezer) and steamed beets (free from neighbor)
Junky snack - 2 free bags of butterfnger peanut butter cups, which should be labeled as crack - so addictive. Did I really need to eat both bags today?

Tomorrow's menu:
Breakfast - apple & peanut butter, hard boiled egg with salt
Lunch - free at event I'm attending - I hope it's tasty
Dinner - Boca burger (from freezer) and steamed beets (free from neighbor)

Now that I've recovered from my big work events and I'm not quite as worried about my mom's health, I have been a bit more productive. I was supposed to attend a conference in Minneapolis in late October, but I told my boss that I couldn't swing it energetically. I felt bad because she really wanted me to go and I felt disappointed because I don't travel much for work and it would have been a good experience. But, in the end, I am really glad that I opted out and gave myself the chance to regain my energy.

I've been able to get my house back into reasonable shape. The main rooms are neat and functional and I've cleaned out most of the old food from my fridge. I had serious food overload due to lots of free garden goodies and work event leftovers. I hated to waste some of it, but I just couldn't find the time to use it all when I was so busy.

Overall I've kept unnecessary spending to a minimum, was able to cash flow my property taxes and am now putting any excess new money in a winter heating bill account (since I did not prebuy oil this year) and a roof repair account. I FINALLY mailed back a roof repair proposal given to me by an extremely busy roofer who specializes in slate and I hope that he can fit me into his winter schedule. I have sat on this for four years now and while I'd like to spend a lot of time regretting that choice (it's what I do best!), I'm going to celebrate that I finally moved ahead. If I don't hear from him within a week, I'll call to check in.

I started exercising again - walking for at least an hour six times during the past ten days, plus I walked a lot last night while trick or treating with my friend M, her daughter J and some of their friends. I was feeling very lazy today and had a headache after one glass of wine last evening at a Halloween party (I'm a lightweight!), but somehow motivated to take a walk just after 4:00p. I had planned to go for 30 minutes just to get some air, but then encouraged myself to keep going and walked for an hour. Yay! I then did 20 minutes of yoga when I got home. I haven't been taking the time to stretch and can feel my muscles getting tight. I love weekends, especially those that contain an extra hour! It's supposed to be fairly warm tomorrow, so I will plan to walk for at least 30 minutes in the late afternoon or right after work. I hope I can stick to the goal in the face of early darkness.

October snowflakes included a $6 referral rebate (thanks CCF for using my referral code!) from YNAB, $125 from Sw@gbucks and $5.38 cash back rewards from a Chase card. I also found .36 over the past few weeks!

I'd like to keep my eating very simple this week - no or low spend by using up food that I already have. Today, I made some hardboiled eggs (.21 each) and I'll have one each day with rolled oats, steamed broccoli, olive oil, salt & pepper for breakfast. I also made some sauce from some apples I picked from my tree that have been sitting in a back room for quite a while. I thought they would have rotted by now, but most of them were still good, past the eating stage, but fine for sauce. I hope to scrape together bits of stuff to make a salad for lunch tomorrow and I will get a free lunch at an event I'm attending on Tuesday. I need to figure out what to have for the other three lunches this week. I found three Boca burgers in the freezer, so I think I'll have one of those with steamed beets and carrots for three dinners.

I have a bag of free tomatillos that I need to process ASAP. I'll have to buy onions, canola oil, garlic and cilantro to make salsa this week. I'd really prefer to stay out of the store - that's the best way for me to curb my spending! I guess I could chop and puree the tomatillos and then buy the salsa ingredients later this week. Maybe even freeze the puree, but I'm not good about using freezer items. I love tomatillo salsa and want to enjoy it!

Back to work tomorrow. I'd love to have one more day of weekend time.

Happy Halloween!

I just remembered that we have an extra hour tonight with the time change!

First of all, an update on my mom's health. She was diagnosed with early stage 2 breast cancer and had an appointment with a surgeon last week to learn about treatment options. Thankfully my sister-in-law was available to go with her to really listen, take notes and advocate on her behalf. My mom tends to be anxious and only hears negative things. From what I can gather, this is not uncommon for someone of my mom's age (81) and sounds very treatable with a lumpectomy and radiation. It remains to be seen how the radiation will affect her. She's very strong and still fully living life, so hopefully her body will be able to handle the treatments. My SIL is taking her for a second opinion this week and then she'll choose a doctor, set a surgery date and begin the process. I feel sad that my mom is facing this, but I feel relieved that it sounds like a fairly positive prognosis. When my dad was diagnosed with ALS 16 years ago in his mid-60s, the doctor told him that there was nothing they could do and advised him to get his affairs in order. It was brutal.

We haven't decided on Thanksgiving plans yet. I've gone to visit my mom in my hometown the past few years and for two years before that, she and my brother and his family made the trek to visit me. I'm torn on which I'd prefer this year. My mom is talking about visiting me, but she may be recovering from surgery and unable to travel. I'm flexible, so we'll have to see how it all plays out.

Spending was a little higher in October than in the past two months since I started keeping track of my finances in YNAB. I had money from three pay periods available to spend in October - two from September and one from early October. October was a three-paycheck month, so the funds from the two later checks will be used for my November budget.

October breakdown

regular monthly expenses
landline/DSL/wireless 87.97
cell phone 11.53
skype 2.99
electricity 51.15
insurance - car & home 115.37
hair appt 105.00

everyday expenses
healthy food 76.68
junk food 25.32
gas 94.29
medical 120
entertainment 12.40
eating out 54.25
toiletries 11.22
trash 5.00
clothing 24.30
laundry 10.75
cat 24.46
household goods 1.05

miscellaneous
driver's license renewal (four years) 48.00
online dating* 101.94
stamps 1.47
small architecture book 7.40

property taxes 549.73 (added to cash left from Aug & Sept for a total of $1895.25 paid on Oct 1)

debt
bathroom renovation 500.00 (1684.48 balance remaining which i plan to pay off by January 1)

TOTAL $$ AVAILABLE FOR OCT: 3051.29
TOTAL SPENT: 2034.87
TOTAL REMAINING: 1016.42

*This charge was for my profile on a dating site. i forgot to go thru the cancellation process to get a steep discount and my credit card was automatically charged. I didn't have the energy to call and cancel, so I just accepted it. Maybe I'll be motivated to actually interact on the site and go on some dates! I reactivated a year ago and have basically ignored it.

So, essentially, I have the extra October paycheck amount leftover - yay! I plan to roll that into the following savings accounts:
heating oil account $100
2016 property taxes $167
Roof repair account $749.42

This is all based on my net monthly income. Contributions to my 403B retirement plan get withdrawn automatically each pay period. I'm trying to determine if my take home pay is adequate to cover my actual living expenses or if I should decrease the amount I contribute to retirement in order to live more realistically today.

I'm mostly satisfied with my October spending except for the $25.32 for junk food and $54.25 for eating out which includes $19.65 total spent on three take out lunches. When I get stressed I tend to comfort myself with eating. Overall, I'm pretty impressed that the amount wasn't much higher given the combination of intense work stress in early October and finding out that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's actually quite an improvement over past compulsive spending on junk food. But, I would like to learn to take that money and spend it on other things that could provide comfort and joy in my life. I tend to be miserly with myself and for some reason, food is the one category where I seem to be able to spend freely. It's a comfort zone for me and I'd like to stretch into new zones.

Well, I'm off to meet my friend M and her daughter J for some trick or treating! Boo!

I'm starting to emerge from my stupor. Last evening, I stopped by a casual friend's house on my way home from work to drop off $10 that I owed her for a group gift. She was just about to sit down with her husband to eat chicken stew and broccoli and they invited me to stay. We had a great time - delicious food and fun conversation and I didn't have to worry about feeding myself when I got home. Good timing on my part!

The interaction and free food gave me some energy, so I set my timer for five-minute increments throughout the evening and was able to tackle part of the mountain of dirty dishes (I don't have a dishwasher), piles of dirty clothes and clean laundry that I had hung up all over the house to dry over a week ago! I was still very tired, so took a lot of breaks to numb out with streaming TV shows on my laptop. I had to do a quick work project early this morning before a dermatologist appointment (my skin scan was clear - yay!), so I didn't have time to continue Operation Clean House. I won't have time this evening, either, because I'm meeting my friends E and J for a light dinner and musical performance in the "big city" which is about 45 minutes from my house. J will pick me up and drive, so I'll offer her some gas money. We bought the tickets (about $30?) earlier this summer and I hope that dinner will be about $15. It should be a fun evening with friends and they have been very supportive about my mom's diagnosis.

I decided in late September to forgo buying mums and pumpkins this fall because I knew I would be super busy and wouldn't really be around to enjoy them. Plus, I wanted to use the money in other ways. It turns out to have been a good decision to make! My friend M and her daughter gave me a large pumpkin from their garden for my birthday two weeks ago. Then I ended up purchasing a bunch of mums and pumpkins for my work events last week which I then distributed amongst myself and colleagues to enjoy after the events were finished. So, I now have four pots of beautiful mums of various colors and sizes and three orange pumpkins adorning my front steps. All for free!

I will have a few snowflakes coming in. I'm waiting for $25 from recently redeemed Sw@gbucks through P@ypal, for which I received an additional 55 SBs for my birthday. I currently have enough SBs for another $50, but will wait until after October 19 to redeem in order to get any possible "swagups" from recent challenges. I just remembered that I did a personal computer task for my boss' side business, so I need to charge her. I think it will be $25. I should think about what to do with these various snowflakes so that I can utilize rather than squander them.

I want to gather and process receipts and paperwork for my 2015 medical reimbursement account in the near future. I just looked up my account and didn't realize that I had chosen to set aside $1500 this year. I will need to figure out where to put that money once I claim it.

Somehow this weekend, I MUST find the paperwork for the roof repair and maintenance estimate that I got years ago and then had updated a few months ago. The roofer is a super busy slate specialist and I have to get on his winter list of projects in order to get the needed work done.

I am so happy that tomorrow is Friday!

My intense work craziness is over and I am so relieved. I organized and executed four large events last Thursday and Friday, all of which were successful and well attended. Yay me! Definitely a few glitches here and there, but for the most part, things ran smoothly and the powers that be seemed satisfied.

I was exhausted all weekend and pretty much laid around sleeping and binge watching TV shows on a laptop. I did get outside for long fall foliage walks on Saturday and Sunday with my neighbor/friend A and attended part of an outdoor concert on Saturday evening with my friend M. The music was festive and fun and I jumped around and danced for an hour. A great stress reliever!

I then found out on Monday that my mom does indeed have cancer and is looking for an oncologist and surgeon as the first step. I believe she has an appointment with a doctor on Monday, so that's a start. I'm very sad and upset by the news, and I will be there to support her no matter what the outcome. Now that my big events are over, my work schedule will be much more flexible and I may even be able to visit my mom and work remotely. Thankfully, my boss is a breast cancer survivor and is very understanding.

I thought I would have more energy this weekend to get back to my neglected life, but I was just too wiped out from work and my mom's news and I still am. My house is a disaster and I hope to straighten up and clean in increments this week because I don't have the energy to tackle it all at once. I haven't made much headway the past two days, though. I slept in today and didn't get to work until 11:00a.

Thankfully I didn't resort to mindless spending during my busy time. I bought one take out lunch last week ($6.55 for Chinese food - totally worth it!) and on Sunday I succumbed to a craving for Cape Cod potato chips and a half gallon of local chocolate milk ($5.98 total). I bought healthy food at the market on Sunday ($31.29, including $10 olive oil), but haven't gotten it together to make lunches for this week yet. My boss treated me to lunch at an Indian restaurant on Monday and I had a tiny leftover wonton soup in the work fridge that I ate yesterday. I then had a hair appointment at 4:00 and my stylist, who is a generous and nurturing woman, made me two bags of microwaved popcorn because I was hungry and gave me an extra-long head massage because I was stressed! Hair coloring total was $105 ($85 + 20 tip). I just had Chinese takeout today for lunch ($6.55). Not ideal, but it is what it is, as they say. Maybe I'll get a grip this evening and make salads for Thursday and Friday lunches.

I weighed myself on Monday and seem to have maintained my recent weight loss, but I will need to get back on course soon or the downward spiral will begin again and I will gain it all back.

I haven't kept up with YNAB, but will hopefully get reacquainted this weekend.

Guess I should motivate and get some work done today! The fall colors are spectacular in my area, so I'm trying to enjoy those as much as possible.

Thank you for all of the supportive comments on my last post - I really appreciate the many kind thoughts and words.

My mom had her biopsy yesterday and for some reason the doctor said that he thought it was probably stage 1, slow growing because of her age, and treatable. This was based on his experience, but seemed kind of odd that he would predict. Anyway, she won't get the results for about 5 or so days, so I'm just going to wait to for those and see what's next. Hopefully it's something that can be dealt with. My mom is 81, but still pretty strong and healthy.

I am in the heart of my work storm - these next three days are the culmination of all my recent busy-ness. I can not wait until Friday at 6:00p when it's all finished and I'm free from this particular project. Lots of work will follow as always, but not quite so intense (I hope) for awhile.

I'm holding together pretty well. Definitely no time to spend money! Keeping YNAB updated, but will look more closely at it next week to see how I want to budget the rest of October's funds.

Thanks again to the SA community.

So far, so good for October spending. I filled my car with gas and had to purchase some needed household supplies yesterday. Electricity and phone bills will hit soon and I will have to pay a monthly medical statement as well as my lawn mowing guy.

I think that October will be more spendy than the last two months, but I hope to have some leftover money that I can put towards paying off my bathroom renovation. I still owe almost $2700 to the guy who did it and have been paying $500 a month since June. The project went way over budget and he was willing to accept monthly payments, but I feel bad about it and should just bite the bullet and pay it off ASAP. My goal is to be finished by the end of the year. I've never actually sat down and added up the total renovation cost - it just seems too overwhelming, but maybe someday.

The $1,895.25 check for my property taxes cleared, so now my checking account balance is a true reflection of available funds for October. My next two October paychecks will then be applied towards November expenses.

October non-bill spending so far:
Gas $33.79
Birthday lunch with friends $12.10 (I just noticed this charge on my card which was supposed to be $14.60 including tip. I was really stressed from work that day and must have written the tip and total only on my copy of the receipt. Ugh - I don't like to stiff waiters! I may try to get to the restaurant this week and drop off $3 for the guy.)
Kitty litter $12.70 (2 20lb jugs on sale) - this should last for a while, although I may get some more before the sale ends. But, do I want to have money tied up in stockpiled kitty litter? It does go on sale fairly regularly.
Dish sponge $1.05

The rest of this week should be low spend. I will be working a lot towards two days of big work events on Thursday and Friday. I have plenty of food on hand that needs to be consumed. I should go to TJ M@xx for a new outfit to wear for at least one of the event days, but am hoping I can pull something appropriate from my closet. I'm not in the mood to shop.

My mom called yesterday to let me know that a mass was found in her breast during a recent mammogram. She is having a biopsy on Tuesday and the results will take a week. I feel so sad and upset. She's 81 and I know that every day is a gift at this point, but I wasn't expecting breast cancer to appear at this late stage of life. I don't know if someone her age can even go through cancer treatments. Losing my mom will be devastating for me. I'm single with no children and she is the person that I'm closest to, even though we only see each other two to three times a year.

Since turning 50 in 2014 and losing a few friends to accidents and diseases this year, I have been grappling with my own aging and mortality, the unpredictability and fragility of life, not to mention having serious regrets about past decision and many roads not taken. I have struggled with depression for my entire life and spent many years quite frozen and just let time pass by without taking action on my own behalf. Now I feel very alone in the world and have no direction or goals, I'm basically just living day to day. And something like my mom's health news has the potential to shut me down again.

I ended up binge watching tv shows and movies on my laptop while eating comfort foods all day and late into the night yesterday, which I haven't done in a long time. I hope I can find the strength to help myself stay focused on reality and maintaining healthy habits and avoid getting lost once again.

Finances are related to all of this because since I don't have specific goals that I'm working towards, I fritter away money rather than use it to make things happen in my life. I've always had a vague notion of retiring early, so I generally "saved" money, but didn't really believe that I could ever pull it off, so didn't create a plan and fully commit.

Signing up for YNAB and really looking at my financial situation has been a step toward figuring out how to decide what's next. For as long as I'm alive, I'm going to continue to grow older and will have to make decisions with that reality in mind. Where do I want to live? What do I want to do with my time? How long will I need to work? How do I live in a way that's satisfying to me now and not only plan for the future? These are all questions that I don't have answers to and I'm not really sure how to think about them and make decisions. And I will most likely be doing all of this thinking and deciding alone.

I fear that I sound whiny so early on a Sunday morning, but these topics have been weighing heavily on my mind and I've been thinking about detailing them in my blog as a way to get thoughts out of my mind and down on "paper" to sort through. My mom's news has spurred me to start writing about it now, rather than wait.

Yesterday (September 30th) was my birthday. I am definitely no longer 40-something, so I should probably update my sidebar. I am swamped at work these days, and I expected my Wednesday birthday to be quite uneventful, but it wasn't! Various friends and colleagues stopped by my office with cupcakes, cookies and cards. A young colleague cut out paper letters spelling "Yay Birthday" and taped them on yarn across my door (so sweet!). I got phone calls and texts and lots of FB greetings. My mom sent a card with a $300 check (thanks Mom!). And, a friend and her 7-year-old daughter stopped by after work with a homemade card, a big pumpkin from their garden, and some chili, so with my work cupcakes, we had an impromptu birthday party. I had hosted my knitting group the night before and some wine and bread was left behind, so we added those items to the mix. I met two friends today for lunch, so the celebration continued.

My birthday is always bittersweet because I shared it with my dad who has now been gone for 15 years. Yikes. I also shared the day with an aunt (my dad's sister-in-law) and she passed away last September. Strangely enough they both died of the same disease.

I'm planning some very big work events that will happen on October 8 & 9 and then things should slow down at least a bit. I can't wait until October 10 - it truly can't arrive soon enough. So many details and problems and politics - I am maxed out.

One positive of working so much is that I had another low-spend month. I am still using YNAB and am grateful for the peace of mind that it is providing for me. I'm still in the very beginning stages of learning how to manage my money, but I like knowing what I have and where it's going. My goal is to be more proactive in my spending choices, making decisions that enhance my life rather than unconsciously frittering away money.

Below is my spending for September. I'm so excited that this is my second month of tracking. That is a big deal for me! I hope I can remain focused during future months; I tend to lose interest in things pretty quickly or just plain forget about them!

I had $731.50 left over in September and $614.02 left from August. I took that combined $1345.52 and put it towards my property taxes ($1895.25), which were due today. The remaining $549.73 will come from my October 2 paycheck, which will hit my bank account momentarily. So, because I have an extra pay period in October, I was able to cash flow my property taxes! I was originally going to use a refund check that's been floating around my desk to cover the missing $549.73, but now I will put that check (1072.95) towards my roof repair instead, which desperately needs to be done. Just looked at my bank account and $1015.95 will be deposited tomorrow, so $466.22 will remain after the property tax check clears. Since it's an extra pay check, I'm going to put that money in the roof fund, too. My other two October paychecks will be used for my November budget according to the YNAB philosophy.

September spending

monthly expenses
landline/DSL/wireless 87.97
cell phone 11.57
skype 2.99
electricity 39.80
insurance - car & home 115.77
hair appt 150

everyday expenses
healthy food 79.59
junk food 4.02
gas 66.09
medical 60
entertainment 33
eating out 0.00
toiletries 0.00
trash 2.50
clothing 0.00
laundry 5.75
cat 0.00
lawn care 20
gifts 10
vacation/travel 54.90
misc 60 (purchased YNAB!)

debt
bathroom reno debt 500

TOTAL SPENT $1303.95
September $$ available 2035.45
September $$ left 731.50 (put towards property taxes)

I doubt that future months will be as low spend as August and September were, but we'll see.

In other big news, I found a dime on the street today! Can't help but think of fellow SA bloggers, especially CB, when I find money.

Ugh, another mass shooting followed by the same tired arguments about how guns don't kill, people do. Seems like people with guns kill people, especially a lot at once. Horrifying.

I took the plunge last night and purchased YNAB before my trial period ran out. I think that it will be a good investment for me. I'm already much more aware of how much money is flowing into my life, how much I need for monthly bills and basic necessities, and I am starting to think about what I'd like to do with the extra, if any, rather than piddling it away with unfocused and unsatisfying spending. So, we'll see how it goes.

I took one last YNAB live on-line course in a desperate attempt to win a free copy - they give one away at the end of each session. That strategy failed so I bought the program and then received a referral link that will get a new YNAB buyer $6 off the $60 price and I will get $6 through Payp@l. A win-win!!

My referral link is below. Please consider using it if you decide to purchase YNAB! Copy and paste the link into your browser to get to the YNAB webpage and you will see a note at the top that your discount has been applied. Then click "Purchase". You will automatically get offered the sale price ($54) and you can buy it.

http://ynab.refr.cc/X4CF4XD

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

After a busy few weeks, I am so happy to have no plans for this weekend. Today is flying by, but I'm getting a lot done. I washed all of the dishes, straightened up the house, picked up and put away clothes from the past week, sorted laundry which I will do later this week, cleaned old food out of fridge, picked up mail from my PO Box which I haven't visited in a few weeks, and lots more!

Then I sat down at my computer to play with YNAB and ended up taking all afternoon to reconcile it. Ugh. I started YNAB a month ago in a very sloppy manner just to try it out. Now that I'm going to buy and use the program, I wanted to have the balances actually my match my checking account and credit card. This took forever! But now it's done and balanced and I can move forward from here with accurate data.

My property taxes of $1895.25 are due on October 1. I thought I owed about $2100, but just looked at the bill and the lower figure was a nice surprise! According to YNAB, I have $614.02 unspent funds from August, so I'm rolling that amount over to use toward the taxes. I have a sort of snowflake of $1072.95 (is a refund of money already spent a true snowflake?) that I will also use. I bought a bunch of stuff from Z@ppos in May 2014 and ended up not wanting to keep most of it. But I forgot about it and then finally returned it all just before the year deadline passed. Actually, I called just before the deadline and they authorized the return, but I didn't package and mail the items until mid-June. Thankfully, they still provided a refund check, which has been floating around on my desk since late July. I also have a tiny snowflake check of .92, a credit from when I closed my Discover account in June, so I'll add that in. That means I'll need $207.36 from September's budget in order to cash flow the taxes, which should be no problem.

I may pay the tax bill this week. I usually wait until October 1, but I'm not going to generate more than a few cents, if any, interest on the portion that's currently in my checking account, so I might as well bite the bullet and get it over with. I tend to hang on to money that's technically spent as a kind of mind game - imagining that I don't really have to fork it over. It doesn't work, I still have to fork it over! I often end up paying bills late and incurring interest charges and then have to spend either time talking my way out of the charges or money to cover them. It's just so much easier to accept the inevitable and pay up on time or even early!

I went a little crazy and have racked up over 400 SBs so far today. I now have more than 2200 and could get a $25 Amzon gift card rather than my usual 2500 SBs for $25 cash through Payp@l. I have a $60 Amzon gift card balance, so that would bring me up to $85. I'd like to purchase a backpack for lugging my computer, notes and other stuff to and from work. I'll have to look to see what's available on Amzon.

I'm still debating whether or not to prebuy my fuel oil for the winter. I struggle with this decision every winter! I've prebought for the last few years, but I haven't gone back to see if it was worth it in terms of actual price fluctuations. This is reminding me that I need to schedule a heater cleaning. That will be another $400 at least!

I've mostly continued my light eating this week except for splurging at a work reception (worth it and I made it into dinner) on Thursday and enjoying a giant soft serve cone yesterday afternoon. I treated a young colleague who lent me a sleeping pad and a blow up mattress for a camping overnight last weekend. My friend and I ended up using the mattress and it was wonderful not to sleep on the ground. The two cones cost $6.50 total and were worth it!

I avoided the food market last week and have been consuming what I already have on hand. Today's menu so far: scrambled eggs with scallions and lettuce wrapped in a whole wheat flour tortilla (with a little ketchup!), a small bowl of my neighbor's fresh picked raspberries (yum!) and an apple from my tree. I'm going to have another tortilla or two with refried beans, scallions, lettuce and cherry tomatoes for dinner and probably more fruit for a snack.

I will shop mid-week and that should take care of the rest of September. I hope to stay within an $80 grocery budget for this month, but I'm hosting my knitting group on September 28 and need to make a main dish, so that goal may not be possible, which is fine. The budget is so low because I have gotten lots of free food from various sources over the past month. That will soon change as friends' gardens stop producing.

My current salary is $68,312. I'm not completely happy with that, but that's a story for another post. Obviously, I'm grateful to have a well-paying job and my benefits are excellent, but I would like to be making more money overall, especially for the amount of time I have spent at the workforce and at my current place of employment. I failed to plan, though, so here I am!

I don't really ever look at my pay stub, so I'm going to do that now and see what's what.

I get paid every two weeks.

Gross pay: 2627.38
Deductions: 1608.24
Retirement plan (mandatory 6%) 157.64
Retirement plan (voluntary) 1,024.68
Medical Insurance 22.89
Dental Insurance 1.05
Vision Insurance .52
Flex Spending Account 57.70
Fed tax, SS, medicare & state tax 343.76
Net pay: 1019.14

Every other pay period, my paycheck is $1015.94, with an additional $3.20 deducted for a life insurance policy, which I believe is mandatory.

Interesting to know that if I ceased all voluntary retirement and flex spending contributions, my pay would be more like $2101.52 every two weeks. That's not entirely accurate, though, since those are pre-tax deductions, so I'm assuming my taxes would be a bit higher? In that case, I'd be living on $54,639.52 a year. Wow, that would be great! Of course, I would have no retirement savings.

I am started to wonder if I should put less towards retirement and more towards living today. It's a balancing act and I may be focusing too much on the future at the expense of the present. I want to keep thinking about that. Of course, I'm afraid to save a little less for retirement (what if I become a bag lady?!!), but life is here and now and in some ways, I'm missing out and denying myself, which may not be necessary.

So happy that it's Friday!!!

Another busy week is thankfully coming to a close soon! I'm still at work waiting for a slight buzz to wear off before driving home. I attended a reception that featured delicious appetizers (free dinner!) and an open bar, so I treated myself to a very small glass of chardonnay. I rarely drink and am apparently quite a lightweight! I made a big political mistake at work today and my boss was pissed. It was a relief to get out of the office and enjoy mingling with some friendlier colleagues.

I've fallen off the exercise wagon due to busyness, but will resume this weekend. I've continued to eat mostly healthy and light with a few slips last weekend, but that was due to a lethal combo of free food and hormonal cravings. I did enjoy every morsel!

I haven't had any time to look at YNAB, but I do need to buy the program in the next three days or I will lose my current info. I have managed to continue minimal non-essential spending. I will pay my property taxes at the end of September and I need to pre-buy my heating oil for the winter, although oil prices are so low at the moment that I don't know if it's worth it this time around. Anyone else reconsidering prebuying fuel oil this winter?

The free food barrage continues. A friend is away and her garden is producing tons of cherry tomatoes and delicious raspberries which she begged me to pick and eat. Ok! I have a million small apples from my backyard tree and I have received some garden goodies from another friend.

I tried something new yesterday. I do most of my food shopping at a local co-op store which was offering 20% off produce from one of my favorite organic farms, a sale that ended yesterday. I made the decision not to visit the store after work to take advantage of the sale because I most likely would have 1) bought more produce than I could actually use (but it's on sale!) 2) started to load other items that I don't really need into my cart (but I want and can use it!). I had plenty of food at home and there will be other future sales that I can take advantage of. This really was a big decision for me and I now realize that it was o.k. not to go. I sometimes become so anxious when faced with a decision like this that I give in to soothe the anxiety. I now realize that while it was tough in the moment to choose not to go (I'm missing the bargains!), the entire episode passed rather quickly and I really haven't thought of it since until I started to write this. I would like to remember and use this knowledge in the future to help curb unnecessary spending generated from "getting a good price". I like sales, but it's not necessary for me to take advantage of each one. Sounds a little corny, but it was a big deal!

So, no need to prepare dinner tonight and I've already made most of my lunch to take with me to work tomorrow. Yay. Tomorrow is pay day, and the $1,019.14 will technically go towards my October budget if I follow YNAB's philosophy. I get paid 26 times a year, so that means that I am living on approximately $26,500 a year. Wow, I don't know if that's possible, which is why I signed up for YNAB. I want to get a realistic picture of what it costs to live my life and whether or not I'm making enough to support it.

Time to go home!

My work is kicking into high gear and will remain busy until November and beyond. Boo hoo. Definite first-world problem.

Still plugging along with YNAB. Haven't had much time to interact with it recently, but it has kept me from engaging in unwanted spending so far, so that's a plus! And, I have remembered to enter my scant spending, so yay! My trial runs out in 8 days, so I need to commit and pay next week if I want to continue. I've taken a few of the live online classes to try to win the free version, but I haven't been chosen yet!

I'm going camping on Saturday with friend M and her 7-year-old daughter. Should be fun, although it might rain - ugh. We are doing an 18-mile charity bike ride on Sunday morning, mostly on dirt roads. I haven't ridden a bike in many years, so this should be interesting. It's supposed to rain that day, too. Double ugh. I'm tempted to break my no-spend spree with a trip to TJMaxx this evening. Apparently they have some sport rain gear in stock. I don't have anything waterproof to ride in, but I will most likely just tough it out as usual. I just don't feel like shopping and I'm still at work!

I just hit another 2500 sw@gbucks, but will wait to cash out for a $25 paypal card until 9/14, when a sw@gup rebate will be available, according to FrugalTexan's blog! This will be my fourth $25 in a month. It's getting easier to rack up the bucks, which is great.

I few items I need to take care of:

Figure out how much I need to pull from savings to cover my property taxes, due October 1. I want to cash flow as much as possible, but won't have enough new money to pay the entire bill.

Return a contract to a local roofer who gave me an estimate FOUR years ago which I never followed up on. He returned in late July to have another look and updated the estimate and I still haven't followed up. My roof is LEAKING and needs many repairs. Why won't I follow through?? Major homeowner fail.

Continue eating well and exercising regularly. I have lost weight, fit into more of my clothes and have much more energy! Another bonus is that I'm waking up early. I must learn to tolerate stress better and deal with it in healthier ways than overeating. But, goodness, I love to eat.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

I just realized again that today is 9/11. Such a sad moment in history.

The total of my two August paychecks was $2035.09, so that's how much I have to budget for September if I follow the YNAB way. I've already received my landline/DSL bill (87.97, a little more than last month) and my electric bill (39.80, much less than last month because I was away for a bit). Those will get automatically paid at some point early in the month. I have estimates for my other monthly bills and have assigned budget amounts to variable categories (food, gas, entertainment, etc.).

I'm not contributing to any "savings" accounts this month because I want to cash flow (I think I finally understand this term that many SA bloggers use!) my property taxes and my pre-buy heating oil as much as possible, although I will most likely need to pull some funds out of savings to cover those costs completely. After this month, I will budget a certain amount a month for the next year for both of those categories. I also budgeted $500 in September towards my bathroom renovation debt.

Entertainment will be higher this month than last. I'm thinking about attending a local barn concert ($20) on Labor Day and a charity bike ride with some friends the following weekend ($25 to participate plus possible camping/lodging expenses if we stay overnight). Both excursions would be fun and worth the money.

A work colleague of mine is transitioning from retirement from her current job to becoming a life coach. During her training she offered discounted coaching sessions, so I decided to try it out. We worked together for a few months, mostly by phone. One of the terms she used was "sparkly moments" and I've been keeping that in mind recently as I decide how to use my time and money. I can get caught in major ruts of sleeping late, going to work, overworking, going home, watching tv shows on my computer while eating crappy food, falling asleep sitting up, then wash, rinse, and repeat the next day. Yikes, I'm almost embarrassed to type that. So, I'm attempting to think about and plan "sparkly moments" here and there because time is flying by and this is my life! The barn concert and the bike ride excursion will be two such moments if I decide to commit to them.

I've been part of a knitting group for about 15 years, although I don't knit! We take turns hosting once a month, share potluck food, socialize, and knit or do other needlework, if desired. We don't usually meet in the summer, but I suggested that we get together in late August at a local lakeside state park. Seven of us were available last evening, so we had a potluck picnic, swam and chatted for a few hours after work. I got there early and took a walk to squeeze in some exercise. It was a great time! My potluck creation was a mixture of white basmati rice and tricolor quinoa (both from my pantry) with steamed zucchini and kale (both free), chopped scallions (already in my fridge) with a shiitake/ginger bottled dressing that I had on hand. Cheap and yummy! I also took some apples from my tree. We're having a heat wave, so an evening at the lake with friends was perfect and definitely a sparkly moment.

One topic of conversation was upcoming travel and I found out that almost everyone has an interesting trip planned in the near future. Cuba, Italy, Costa Rica, and New Zealand were some of the destinations. I realized that I want to travel, but always put it off - nobody to go with, too expensive (but not bothering to budget and save for it), etc. I did start to look at active group trips recently, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that option. I used to be a bike tour leader in my 20s and have never seen myself as a "group tour person". I'll have to think about and explore that option some more because I really do want to experience more of the world.

On another topic, I got more free food this week!
From a work colleague:
Cherry tomatoes

From another work colleague:
Plums

Leftovers from a work event in my building:
3 sesame bagels, cream cheese
Watermelon and cantaloupe slices
A bit of grilled chicken

From a neighbor:
Bunch of kale
6 small pears
Cherry tomatoes
A few tomatoes

And I have a tree full of many, many small apples (I think they are McIntosh), so I've been enjoying those as snacks and I want to make some apple sauce.

I technically could get by with no food shopping this week, but I'm going to stop at my local food co-op after work to get some organic green grapes and whole wheat wraps on sale. I hope I can stick to my tiny list! :/

My light healthy eating and regular exercising continues! I did indulge a bit at last night's picnic, but am right back on track today. I'd like to be able to enjoy special events knowing that I can return quickly to light eating rather than making indulging the norm, as it often is, or completely forgoing all treats, which is no fun.

I walked for an hour with my friend A this morning and have a massage this afternoon. Back to work!

August was my first month using YNAB. So far, so good. By paying more attention to my money and thinking about how I needed to and wanted to use it, I definitely was inspired to avoid unnecessary spending. It was an easy month to low spend, but it will be difficult to maintain this for the rest of the year.

As expected, I am starting to feel anxiety and regret at not paying more attention to the inflow and outflow of my money for the past 25 years. I could be retiring early if I had! Apparently, the old adage "don't cry over spilled milk" never sunk in. I am definitely crying over spilled milk!

Ok moving on.

I've lived in my house for 11 years and I have never figured out what my monthly expenses are. Honestly, I put so much of my income towards retirement, I'm not really sure that I can successfully live on what's left. I'm using YNAB to reluctantly start to examine if that's true.

August spending

monthly expenses
landline/DSL/wireless 84.35
cell phone 11.57
skype 2.99
electricity 59.59
insurance - car & home 115.77
hair appt 115
everyday expenses
food 64.56
gas 63.65
medical 80
entertainment 20
eating out 35.34
toiletries 7.98
trash 7.5
clothing 44.5
laundry 5.25
cat 27.29
lawn care 160
coaching 75
vacation 4.85
TOTAL EXPENSES 985.19
August $$ available 2082.64
$$ left 1097.45
debt
bathroom reno debt 500
savings accounts
friend's engagement gift 20
prepay heating oil 577.45

At YNAB's suggestion, I used my July income for my August budget, so I had 2082.64 to work with. I spent 985.19 during the month, leaving me with 1097.45. I owe money to the guy who did my recent bathroom renovation (he went over budget and I'm paying him in installments), so I'm using $500 for that. A friend is having an engagement party in October, so I'm putting aside $20/month for August, September and October for a gift. Not sure if they are expecting presents (she's 63!), but I want to be prepared. That leaves $577.45 which I will put towards prebuying fuel oil for the winter.

I'm estimating my prepay fuel bill to be around $1200, due in mid-September. My property taxes are due by October 1st, so I'll have to pull most of that out of savings. And I still owe $2685 for the bathroom renovation. Technically I have all of September's budget already in my account from August's paychecks, so I could use that for the heating oil and/or taxes and then use September's checks for September's budget. I'll decide at some point what to do.

First spending in September was today - $33.16 for gas. I'll be interested to see how my September budgeting plan and actual spending goes!

Wow, just got 51 sw@gbucks for a search to find this site to post this entry. Yay! i got 32 in an earlier search today.

Must go to sleep! It's almost 1:00a and I'm meeting a friend at 7:00a for a walk.

Just realized that I never posted this entry - this is actually last weekend, Aug 22 - 24.

My long weekend started out on Friday after work with an exciting evening of doing laundry ($5.25) and taking a long walk (free) in between cycles. Then I spent Saturday at home with no plans (NSD) since I needed some quiet time after a busy week at work. I both relaxed and puttered around the house getting things done - washed dishes, cleaned old food from the fridge, took trash ($2.50) and recycling to my local drop off, played the piano, vacuumed the house and snuggled with my cat. My good friend D came over on Sunday and we hung out and chatted on my porch all day. We eventually went into town to get her some takeout for an early dinner (she has low blood sugar and has to eat at certain times). She bought a frozen flatbread pizza to cook at my house. I am eating lightly, so planned on having a small dinner after she left, but ended up eating the leftover pizza, which was delish, easy and free!

On Monday, I took a road trip with my friend A to an art museum. It was a good day! The weather was clear and warm, the ride was uneventful, and the exhibits and grounds of the museum were fantastic. I love museums, especially art museums. I paid for gas ($17) and individual admission was $20 (high, but was worth it).

The one snafu was that I made the mistake of not discussing food/meals with A ahead of time. I had planned to bring snacks for lunch in order to continue my current light and frugal eating plan. I mentioned this in a morning text to A and she responded that part of the fun for her would be eating together at the museum cafe. I actually expected this, so wasn't surprised. She added that she was planning to treat me since I was driving. I agreed although I would rather have brought my own food because when faced with a menu of tempting food choices, all of my resolve to "eat lightly" flies out the window. It turned out that the museum cafe we chose had a very limited menu, so we ordered two sandwich meals to share (1 turkey/cheese and 1 ham/cheese) and each came with a bag of chips and a cookie. Honestly, the food was marginal, not all that tasty even though they used interesting local ingredients. I make a much better sandwich! We ended up eating outside on the lawn under a big tree and I could have easily eaten my own snacks while my friend ate her bought lunch, but we didn't realize the set up until it was time to eat. Plus, between the sandwich and the chips, I was quite full and a bit uncomfortable. I saved the cookie until later, but would never have eaten it otherwise!

If I had gone with my original plan, I would have brought my own healthy, light and cheap food and we could have split the $17 gas. A ended up paying much more for those two lunches then she would have for gas, but she's not as frugal as I am! She also treated us to soft serve on the way home. I would have not stopped and eaten it on my own. I need to learn to refuse free food...this is definitely a weakness.

A reminder to myself to discuss plans like this ahead of time and to stick more to what I want when possible, without being super rigid. Eating out is not all that interesting to me and is not how I want to spend much of my limited income. Now, if we had understood that there was another cafe in a remote location of the museum that we visited later, the meal would have been much better and it wouldn't have been a problem.

I'm happy to say that I was able to jump right back into mostly light and frugal eating habits since then. I'm exercising a lot (taking advantage of the warm weather before the snow flies!) and losing some weight. I have access to most of my wardrobe again. I was down to 3 pairs of pants that fit - one was a very old pair of hiking pants and the other two were pretty snug. Whew, I'm glad to have more choices again.

I continue to tinker with YNAB and I really like it! I got paid on Friday, August 21, so I entered both of my August paychecks (I get paid every two weeks) as income for September. I've been entering my September budget - how I'm going to spend the money that I earned during August (one of the goals of the YNAB program is to live off of last's months income. They also refer to "giving every dollar a job". Gotta love the lingo.). I will get paid again this Friday, September 4, so will enter that as October income.

Just after I started to use YNAB, I made a quick trip to my local food co-op to grab two items that I knew were on last day of sale. I ended up spending $50! I thought my new found budgeting with YNAB would prevent such impulsive spending. Ok, guess I can't really blame a program for my own poor habits.

Actually, I have been enjoying tinkering with YNAB, figuring out how it works and whether or not I will take the plunge and purchase it for $60 (I most likely will). It's fun!

Shout outs to Buendia and BudgetBrillance - thank you for taking time to share your YNAB experiences on my last post - very helpful. I have taken two of the live classes and continue to play with it. I still don't fully understand the entire process, but I assume that mastery will come soon enough. I know I will have to face some feelings of disappointment and anger when I realize how I have NOT been utilizing my money in satisfying ways or, in other words, have been wasting a lot of it. But I guess there's no time like the present to march forth and try again.
One thing that I have noticed is that when I track my spending, I tend to spend less! I've been a tracking machine this August, but consequently, I don't really have much to track.

My biggest challenge now is that I am moving into a very busy and stressful time at work that will last through early December. This is when I start to lose my grip and then it's hello stress eating. I spend too much money on takeout food (mostly lunch), junk food (why yes, I would love to veg out on the couch with a pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream after a long day at work...thank you for suggesting it evil subconscious) and buying healthy food that I never get around to preparing and end up wasting. I will also forget about YNAB and then my newfound budgeting skills will languish. My health, waistline and finances will suffer. Sounds very dramatic, but I know myself and my patterns very well. I will have to think about ways to help myself through this time so that I don't completely fall apart.

I've managed to shed a little weight in the last few weeks and would like to keep it off. I know that self care is all about daily routines and habits, but I'm not a "routine" person. I will just need to take it one day at time.

Ok, so now I will focus on today in a positive way. It's gorgeous outside. I'm having a productive day at work. I want to walk after work and then spend a quiet evening at home. I'll spend Saturday at home puttering and relaxing. My friend D is visiting on Sunday. I'm taking Monday off for a road trip to see an art exhibit with my friend A, which should be a fun and not too expensive day ($20 admission, maybe $10 gas and I am planning on taking food with me although my friend will probably want to eat out).

I've received more free food - a handful of small tomatoes from a neighbor's garden, a pint of cherry tomatoes from a work colleague, and two peaches from another colleague's tree. I also scored some leftover crackers, cheese and grapes from a work reception last week.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

After reading about YNAB in various SA blogs, I decided to sign up for the free 33-day trial period to see if I would want to purchase the program for $60 and continue using it. I am terrible at creating a budget, tracking expenses, assigning incoming money to specific goals, etc. So far, it seems like it might work as a way for me to better utilize my money, although it's only been about two days! It is fun to play with the categories and switch things around.

I'm curious how people keep track of or "store" money that's set aside for certain goals...for instance, a car replacement fund. If you have a fund that you put money into each month, does the money actually exist in a separate account, or is all non-spent money lumped together in one account, but differentiated on a spreadsheet? As in, say I have $12,000 in checking or savings and I know that $5000 is an emergency fund and $7000 is a car replacement fund. Or would the $5000 be in one actual account alone and the $7000 in another separate account, both of those being different than a checking account? I'm assuming that it could be done either way, but I'm curious how various people set up their accounts.

Also, one of YNAB's recommendations is to live off of last month's pay. I can do that, but I put most purchases on a credit card that then gets auto paid during the next month. So, money is being spent say in August which would be budgeted against August's available money, but then it's actually being paid in September? How does that work?

I'm not really sure if these questions are making sense. I imagine that once I play with this more I can figure it out, but I'm so curious how others manage money and what seems to work/not work for various people.

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments - I'd love to get some ideas.

I've unexpectedly scored a bunch of free food this week, so I'm glad I chose not to grocery shop immediately after returning from vacation last Friday.

My cat sitter stopped by Saturday for payment and brought a big bag of kale from her garden. Then I walked with my neighbor A and left her house with some yellow zucchini, a few cucumbers, two sungold cherry tomatoes (unfortunately, her tomato crop has blight, so there aren't many tomatoes to share), and a bunch of flat-leaf parsley (my favorite!).

I had a massage on Tuesday and my therapist gave me a big yogurt container full of fusilli pasta and homemade tomato sauce with fresh herbs that she had made for guests and ended up with too much left over for just herself. Yum! She also gave me a big zucchini.

Then I walked with my neighbor A again yesterday after work and picked a small bag of apples from one of her trees. They are sweet, crisp and delicious! I can't remember the name, but they must be an early variety. I have an old tree in my yard that has a bumper crop of small apples on it this year, but they are still very tart, not quite ripe yet. I also got some more flat-leaf parsley.

Sadly, the garden of a friend from whom I usually get a ton of veggies every summer is not producing very well this year, so that won't be a source. My property lacks a good spot for a garden, so I just buy the abundant local produce and enjoy any available free surplus from friends' and coworkers' gardens.

I've been able to feed myself with leftover travel food and items in my cupboard this week and have kept my diet light:

Breakfasts: white peach (delicious!), handful of almonds. Today I had one of the new apples instead of a peach. Same for Fri.

Lunches: salads Mon & Tues, then small salad and small portion of pasta w/tomato sauce with fresh kale added on Wed & Thurs. Rest of pasta with added kale on Fri and some chopped cukes.

Snack: Blueberries picked last weekend

Dinner: whole wheat pasta w/steamed broccoli and cauliflower, a little canned tuna, olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped flat leaf parsley each night. Dinner out with friends on Fri.

Late night snack: salsa & chips Mon & Tues, pint of chocolate milk Wed - leftover from Saturday's farm lunch (all totally unnecessary calories, so hope to ditch that habit next week).

Apparently I don't mind eating the same meals all week! I ordinarily wouldn't eat pasta two times a day, but I haven't taken the time to make a grain for dinner since getting the free pasta. I'll do that for next week's meals.

My only food spending was $1.99 for a can of tuna that I used/will use for four dinners this week and $7.26 for yellow peaches yesterday (last day of a sale, would have waited otherwise). I'll also spend $2.50 tomorrow for a dozen eggs from a co-worker's chickens.

I'll be unexpectedly going out to dinner with two friends on Friday. We were supposed to meet in one friend's newly renovated kitchen, but the other friend is on a staycation and wouldn't be in town for work. So, we're meeting out at a restaurant halfway between our houses. Bummer, I was looking forward to a relaxing evening in a home, not in a noisy restaurant! Plus, I don't want to spend the money for a meal, especially with friends who drink more alcohol than I do (I rarely drink). I'll make sure I take cash and chip in for my portion if they order big meals and drinks. We'll have a nice time together, though.

On Sunday, I'll be traveling about an hour away with some friends to visit another friend at a lake house. We'll do various lakey activities (all free) and share a potluck lunch. I'm going to make a dish using rice that I have and some of the free veggies and will also take some apples and blueberries, so no new spending. I'll drink water. Should be a low-spend (and fun!) day.

Food is by far my biggest discretionary spending category, especially when I get on poor eating kicks. I'd like to change that and start spending money on other things that I need and want.

hi all - has anyone signed up for the SB Visa checkout offer for 500 SBs? You sign up and register a VISA card. But, I'm wondering if you actually need to use the account as part of the deal or can you just sign up? And are there any charges associated with said account? I'm not clear and wondering if anyone has done this and is it worth it. Thanks!

Ugh - I overslept this morning!

This past weekend was mostly about decompressing after my vacation. The weather was amazing - sunny, high 70s, no humidity. The light is definitely starting to look like fall and I'm not ready for that!

On Saturday, I went for a long walk with my neighbor A, started to unpack and regroup at home, and then went for a boat ride on a nearby lake with A and her husband. It was a beautiful evening for an outing. We stopped for local ice cream on the way home, but I didn't have any money with me, so A paid. No money spent that day. On Sunday, I spent time with my friend M and her 7-year-old daughter J. We went blueberry picking ($8.04 for about 3 pounds) at a place with gorgeous views and then attended an event at a local farm, where we met up with my neighbor A and her husband. There was a live folk music band and the farm offered meals (local hamburger, hot dog or sausage or a veggie burger plus two sides and a beverage). I chose a hamburger with mac and cheese and a delicious cabbage salad that was made with the farm's own buttermilk dressing. We all hung out enjoying the food and the music and then A and I took an afternoon three-mile walk near a lake. I scored some free garden veggies when I dropped her off at home - three yellow zucchinis, 2 cukes and a bunch of flat leaf parsley.

The farm meal was $11 and then I bought a $2 giant cookie to split with A. This food spending was totally unnecessary - I should have brought my own snacks, but I didn't take the time to prepare. A goal this week is to spend $0 or very little on food. My fridge is pretty empty since I've been away, but I have the free veggies from A, a bag of free kale from another neighbor, the freshly picked blueberries, and some leftover travel food - two Jersey tomatoes, a few New York white peaches, some salad ingredients, some cheese, salsa and chips. I also have dried grains and other staples that I can prepare. I had planned to prepare some food for the week when I got home yesterday, but ended up falling asleep instead, so this morning I had to scramble to put something together for lunch at work. I made a small salad and packed a peach, blueberries and almonds. I just had the peach and some almonds for breakfast, will eat the salad for lunch around 1:00p and then will have blueberries and more almonds for a snack around 3:30. Hopefully I will refrain from buying a candy bar at that time instead. Not only do I not want to consume the calories and sugar, but a regular size Snickers bar costs $1.06 at the store near my office. Sometimes I get on kicks where I buy one there each afternoon. I think they are probably only 69 cents downtown!

So, looks like my weekend spending was $21.04, all on food. Not bad for all of the enjoyable activities that I did, I felt like I extended my vacation, but I would have preferred to have just spent the $8.04 on the blueberries. I was glad to reconnect with friends since I had been away and to enjoy my beautiful surroundings in these final weeks of summer.

A few things I'd like to do this evening after work:

*Walk for at least 30 minutes (and catch up with a friend via phone while I walk)
*Figure out how much I owe my neighbor who mows my lawn and pay him this week using leftover cash from vacation
*Write check for next payment of bathroom renovation and mail tomorrow
*Eat a light, healthy dinner
*Make lunch for tomorrow

Hope everyone is having a good day!

As usual, I haven't blogged in a long time, but here I am again.

I just returned home Friday from a two-week vacation. It was a fairly frugal venture visiting a college friend in the Finger Lakes and then spending time at the NJ shore with my family in the house we've had since the early 70s. I haven't added up expenses yet, but came home with leftover cash from the $200 I took with me, although I did charge some items to my credit card. The biggest expense was a cat sitter. 16 days at $10/day for a woman who lives around the corner from me. I gave her $190 total - $160 fee plus $30 tip. She watered inside and outside plants and visited my cat twice a day. Plus she keeps an eye on my house. Worth every penny. Knowing my cat is well cared for is the only way I can relax when away. Turns out my sitter didn't let me know that she raised her rates to $12/day, so she didn't really get a tip. I'll have to budget in the new daily rate next time I travel.

I dread returning to work tomorrow (well I guess today since it's after midnight!) after being gone for over two weeks. I am going to be slammed from now until November. Ugh. I hope I can get motivated. I pretty much let all thoughts of work disappear while I was gone. Now it's back to reality!

I am steadily gaining weight now that I've hit 50 and my metabolism seems to have taken a hike. I am spending way too much money on food and consuming too much and would like to address that.

I paid off my car loan as of August 3rd! I'd like to tally up total interest paid over the course of the loan. It was my first car loan since my father generously provided my first three cars. The first was my brother's hand-me-down Chevy Chevette in my late high school, college and post-college years. I'd still be driving that thing, but my dad bought me a new Honda civic (Lucy) in my mid-20s when I decided to move out west to be a ski bum in my mid-20s. I drove that for 10 years and then bought a VW Golf (Pablo). My dad provided the loan instead of a bank and I was paying him back when he died. My mom eventually forgave the loan, so I ended up only paying a portion of it myself. Then I bought my current Subaru Impreza (Sally) about 4 or 5 years ago. I just received the paid off car paperwork in the mail and must take it to the DMV to get my title. I have fairly low mileage on the car and I hope to drive it for a few more years, but I am starting to think about what might be next.

I had my main bathroom (my house has 1.5 baths) renovated last winter. It is a very small room and the project went way over budget and I still owe money on it. More on that later.

Guess I should go to sleep so that I'm not exhausted tomorrow.