April Update

I'll be posting a monthly update of my progress toward each of my goals. Here goes nothing..

Budget/Debt

I did not do terribly well with my budget last month. In an effort to go out to dinner less, I overspent at the grocery store. I'm still trying to find that balance. I could spend a lot less money if I weren't trying to eat healthier although I think spending a little extra is worth it. I do need to work on my meal planning which will cut my spending down as well. This month will call for some extra expenses, unfortunately. I will need to do some service on my car, buy a new battery for my laptop, and buy a new TV. Hopefully it won't affect my budget too much but we'll have to just wait and see. I'm still contemplating the cable canceling idea. It seems simple and logical yet I can't make myself do it just yet. This month's donation went to the Autism Research Institute, partially because it's Autism Awareness Month but mostly because someone very dear to me is autistic.

I'm still not where I want to be (debt-free) but I'm getting there! Here are my current balances:

Chase - 578 *

BofA - 992

Citi - 480

Car - 3400

* I was saving part of my tax return ($1000) to pay for my flight to Europe but as I said before, I'm a sucker for getting points on my Disney Chase card. Instead of paying for the ticket with cash, I put that $1000 towards my balance on my Chase card and will be putting my plane ticket on it. Yay, points! It ends up being the same balance on my card as I had before the large payment so it works out just fine. 

Eating Healthier

I'm happy to say I have been doing really well with this one! I have been eating lots of lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables, and whole grains. Here's an example of a day with well-planned meals (1500 calories total):

Breakfast: 1 slice whole wheat toast, 1 egg, 1 slice canadian bacon
Snack: Banana
Lunch: Chicken Fajita wrap (black beans, fat free refried beans, grilled chicken, peppers and onions, roasted corn, mexican cheese, taco sauce, whole wheat wrap)
Snack: 1.5c Blueberries/raspberries
Dinner: Spaghetti w/ homemade marinara, green salad (romaine lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, red wine vinegar), Crystal Geyser Juice Squeeze


Exercise


Other than walking the dog, I crashed and burned in this department. I need to make this a bigger priority (easier said than done).


Making Memories


Although I'm a bit burnt out, I can say I have definitely succeeded in this department. I purchased an annual pass to Disneyland (the down payment was made with Disney Points!) so a lot of memories will be made that way. I have been spending as much time as possible with family and friends and loved every second of it. I also had the pleasure of having family friends in town for a week followed by family visiting from the east coast. Stories about that to follow.

I'm on the right track but still haven't found the balance that I'm seeking. I need to spend less, exercise more, spend more time training my dog, and find time to relax. At least my little herb garden hasn't died yet.

Make a Budget Already!

Making a budget for myself really was one of the best things I have done as an adult (a growned-up, as I would say). You've never tried making one? You made one a couple years ago but forgot about it after a month? You have one that you don't stick to? Unacceptable! There's a saying that has to do with trying to fit several large rocks and several small rocks into one jar. If you put the small rocks first and then the large rocks, it won't fit; if you put the large rocks first, the small rocks will simply fall into place. Making a budget is similar to that, but a little more frustrating.

The first thing you need to do is prioritize: figure out which expenses are the most important each month. Usually this is rent/mortgage, car payments, loan payments, insurance, utilities and the like. Once you have your big rocks in place, figure out where your small rocks fit in. How much are you willing to cut back on your daily Starbucks or your twice-a-week Subway habit? Not at all? That's okay, but it means you'll have to cut back even more in other places. Don't forget to account for things like groceries, household expenses, and car maintenance.

Did you fit all your rocks in the jar? If yes, awesome, and try to keep at it! If not, you might need to cut down some of your big rocks. This might mean some major changes such as moving somewhere with lower rent, trading in your car to get a lower payment, lowering your insurance coverage, or downsizing your cable package. I am currently considering getting rid of my cable altogether and using websites like Netflix or Hulu through my TV to save about $70 every month. This could be quite a big change for me but I'm fairly certain I'll be able to adjust to it in no time.

Now try it and let me know how it comes out! Seriously. Do it.

Credit Cards

I want to get rid of my credit card debt!! Don't get me wrong: I do not, by any means, think credit cards are evil. However, I do think people are misinformed about how to use them correctly. Here are a few tips I have learned to use credit to your advantage:

• If you can pay your cards off completely every month, do it!
• If you need to carry a balance, it should be less than 20% of your available credit.
• Paying off your balances and letting your cards sit unused does not work to your advantage; using them and paying them off every month does. Otherwise, how will people checking your credit know that you're responsible and trustworthy? (On paper, anyway)
• Having too few or too many cards can hurt your credit score. Try this: use one card for groceries, another for gas (does not necessarily have to be a 'gas' card), another for miscellaneous spending, and keep one for emergencies (if you don't have an emergency fund yet).
• Ask these guys: National Foundation for Credit Counseling 

I can't wait to follow my own advice, but first I need to finish digging myself out of the credit hole I'm in. I'm getting pretty close! The following is my proposed payment plan for my credit card debt.


Example: 
Date
Card Name  -  Payment (Balance)

3/23/11
Chase  -  325 (1825)
BofA   -  50 (1042)
Citi      -  450 (492) *

4/20/11
Chase  -  1150 (675)
BofA   -  50 (992)
Citi      -  30 (462)

5/18/11
Chase  -  675 (0)  !!
BofA   -  150 (792)
Citi      -  462 (0) !!

6/15/11
BofA   -  800 (0) !!

And I'm free of credit card debt! This is a very optimistic outline but it is possible. After the credit cards are paid off, I can focus on paying off my car loan and saving money for both an emergency fund and a fun fund. I will keep all of my credit cards open and use them for different things as mentioned above. Chase will be for miscellaneous spending, BofA for gas and Citi for groceries.


*The purpose of this larger payment is to bring my debt:available credit ratio down in order to help raise my credit score (this card has a rather low credit limit).

Giving Back

I have always given my unwanted clothes/shoes/furniture to the Salvation Army but I recently decided that I need to work charitable contributions into my budget. This means, of course, that I set out to search around the internet for reliable information on donating to charities. I found that "they" say that one should donate 3% of their net income. I'll start with $50 a month for now, until I can reach my other financial goals. Of course there's no way I can pick just one charity to donate to every month, so I used a great website called Charity Navigator that will tell you everything you need to know about each charity and chose a few:

- National Search Dog Foundation
- Shelter Partnership
- ALS Association
- United Through Reading
- Pet Adoption Fund

Once I have my financial goals in place I will probably double my monthly contribution. The local charities will provide a great sense of pride in my community and the larger organizations will help me feel involved in and also force me to keep up with global matters. I can't lie, the tax deduction will be nice but the real point is that at the end of the day, the amount of money in my bank account is not what is going to make me happy.

"Never see a hearse with a luggage rack - All your money, your hard earned pay - It don't mean sh*t at the end of the day - Can't take it with you" - Mike Ness, Social Distortion

Is the budget really worth it?

I put an example of my time and money budgets up in my last post. I have been using a budget for my money for a long time but the time budget is new to me. I can be a bit obsessive when I find something new to try and in this case it may have hindered my efforts. If something happened last week to throw my schedule off like waking up late, having to help a friend out, or unexpected weather I became extremely disappointed in myself and almost gave up the time budget altogether. I may have to reduce it to a "to-do list" or "daily/weekly goals" to keep my sanity and that's okay. The point of the time budget was to make sure I got things done that I wanted to while making sure that the necessary things were accomplished and I think my other options will cover that.

I may not have stuck to my schedule perfectly, but it did at least help me be a more effective grocery shopper. I bought enough (healthy) food to keep me going until my next trip to the market and ended up not wasting anything! Having a good supply of simple, fresh foods makes eating healthy and staying away from junk food much easier.

As far as my money budget for this pay period (3/9/11-3/22/11), it had good parts and bad parts. As previously mentioned, I spent a lot of money on dining out in the last two weeks and very little at the grocery store (anyone else see the correlation?) which in part had to do with a couple of friends' birthdays. I also went over budget on miscellaneous spending, gas, and cash from the ATM but I was on or under budget on entertainment, groceries and pet supplies as well as the static expenses (cable, car insurance, etc.). I'm fairly used to not sticking to my budget verbatim but it still causes a bit of stress because I REALLY want to be done with this debt.

In an effort to help eliminate my debt and get the rest of my life on track, I have been using a very helpful resource called The Yakezie Network which is a group of blogs about personal finance and lifestyle. My favorite individual blog I have found so far is the Sustainable Life Blog, probably because his goals closely match mine.

All in all, the budgets are definitely worth it. I may never stick to them exactly and they may drive me insane sometimes, but they make for good guidelines and really keep me on track.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -Thomas Edison

Budget Examples

The following is an example of my time budget for the day. I do not plan on doing this forever, probably just for a month until I have some good routines in place.

Wednesday:
0600                Wake up
0615-0700       Walk Ruairi
0700-0745       Shower, Get ready for work
0750-0800       Go to work
1000-1010       Break (eat breakfast, multigrain cheerios 267cal)
1230-0100       Lunch (Subway 6" ham on wheat 290cal)
1500-1510       Break (cottage cheese 90cal)
1700-1800       Grocery store      
1815                Feed Stella
1820-1840       Walk Ruairi
1840-1900       Dinner (Soup 250cal, sauteed spinach 100cal)
1915-2030       Dog Training Class
2040                Feed Ruairi
2045-2130       Prepare/Package meals
2130-2200       Free time
2200-2230       Walk Ruairi
2230                Sleep

The following is an example of my financial budget for a month and there's a very good chance that it only makes sense in my head. The actual numbers have been changed but the idea is the same. For each paycheck, the left column is what I project to earn/spend and the right column is what I actually earned/spent.

	Paycheck 1			Paycheck 2
In (Work)	1050	1050		1000	950		Regular paycheck + overtime
In (Other)							Bonus, gifts, etc.
In (Rollover)	50	50			50		Leftover money from previous paycheck
Rent	600	600
Car Insurance				75	75
Pet Insurance				45	45
Chase				400	400		Largest payment for largest balance
Bofa				50	50		Slightly above minimum payment
Citi				30	30		Slightly above minimum payment
Car Pmnt	200	200
Water				15	7.44
Gas				15	17.66
Cable				80	74.45
DWP							Paid every other month
Gas/Auto	35	33		35	16.13
Medical
Pets				25	20
Groceries	75	80		60	50
Misc	50	45		30	57
Entertainment	35	35		35	40
Dining	40	40		40	21.44
Cash	40	40		40	40
Save-2
Save-1	25	25		25	25
							Account Balances after month's activities:
Savings 2		412.19			412.19
Savings 1		200			225
Car Pmnt		4200			4200
Chase		1500			1100
Citi		750			720
Bofa		1000			950

I'm taking the approach of paying off my highest balance/ highest interest card first and paying very close to the minimum payments on the other cards. I've formulated a lot of my budget ideas and goals based on CNN's Money 101. CNN Money has tons of good advice and articles.

"Money doesn't talk, it swears." - Bob Dylan

Europe / Progress

Europe
Like most people, I wish I could say that I have traveled more but it never seems like the right time. I realized a while ago that I have to make it the right time and set the plans in motion to take a trip to Europe. I know, that won't help with my financial aspirations, but it will help with the other aspects of my life and after all, this is about balance. I used my tax return to make a large payment on my Chase Disney card and I'll be using that card to buy my plane ticket (hopefully this weekend). I'm a sucker for the Disney points but at least this way I'll technically be paying it in advance and not just getting myself further in debt. By the time the trip comes around in September, I should have about $2000 worth of spending money (rail pass, hostels, food, etc) in Savings 1 which should cover the 12 days I'll be spending in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and England (yay!).

Two Steps Forward
Saturday was a fairly productive day for me. I snuck in four hours of overtime at work for a total of five hours last week which will help make a bigger credit card payment. Hopefully I'll be able to match or exceed that this week to get at least ten hours of OT (my goal per pay period) on this paycheck. I had lunch with my brother which was good for family time but bad on my budget. I fought my inner slacker and decided to go home after lunch and get some chores done. I did a few loads of laundry, vacuumed, planted a small herb garden on my balcony, deep-cleaned and re-assembled my outdoor George Foreman grill (yes, it's as awesome as it sounds) and still had time to go out later. Ruairi will be 'graduating' from obedience school tomorrow so I found time to do some training with her as well, though I'm still not sure it's doing any good.

One Step Back
I was supposed to start my "time budget" yesterday but woke up not feeling well and completely threw it off. At first I thought I should just re-do the time budget to start next week then realized, why not just re-do it for now? If I always say "Oh, I'll start it next week" it will never happen so it is officially reinstated. I also did not stick to my financial budget this last week (my budget is broken down per paycheck) which makes me feel a little guilty. Some of it was frivolous spending (mostly going to restaurants) but a big chunk was buying pet insurance. With the luck I have had in the past with my pets, this was a necessity and something I should have done a long time ago. Having a budget and trying to pay off my debt doesn't mean I can't spend any money, it just means that I have to be smart about what I do spend. Lesson learned: just say no to going out to eat.

Tomorrow I will continue my time budget and hopefully stick to it for a while which means it's time to walk Ruairi and then go to bed.

"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln