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Archive for September, 2014

The babysitting parents and I had the talk

September 24th, 2014 at 09:39 pm

Even though it's not for awhile, I spoke with the babysitting parents about moving out. Lately, I've felt more and more stifled and with missing my dog and SO and I getting closer, it just feels like it's time. I went with a Jan-Mar time frame which she seemed supportive of. She did ask that I make it after January (the dad will be in India). I agreed since I plan to start looking then. She also asked if I would be open to reverting back to our original arrangement of $10/hr for 3 evenings a week. While I was looking forward to gaining back my free time, this schedule wasn't terrible (especially when cheer isn't in season) and it will subsidize my rent allowing me to continue paying a fair amount to debt, so I believe that I will be open to it.

This will be my first time living completely alone (although I suspect SO will spend a great amount of time there too), so any advice on any aspect from apartment hunting to furnishing a place would be greatly appreciated!!

It's nice I'm not alone

September 23rd, 2014 at 07:44 pm

Thank you all for the comments on my last post. It's good to know I'm not the only one who deals with this on a regular basis. I will take the card away, but I also monitor it very closely, and it was food, dentist bills, and insurance.

I'm a lot more upset that she made me feel like crap for being mad at her. I just wish there was a way to make her clean up her act because I know all of her burdens will one day fall on me regardless. She always says 'Parents take care of their kids when they're young and kids take care of their parents when they're old.' I think there's a reasonable amount of truth to this which is why I try to help out when I can so she doesn't resort to even more ridiculous measures which will effect me later on (like pawning the family jewelry...).

I'm still pretty upset about the whole thing to the point where I'm not even really looking forward to Vegas. But I have a pretty full (and cheap!) itinerary and it's mostly with my brothers, so I know it'll be fun.

So upset right now

September 19th, 2014 at 05:08 pm

I can't even comprehend this. My mom has disappointed me before, but this time, I'm pretty sure it's irreparable (only in the financial sense, she's still my mom after all). She was borrowing money from her sister and asked if she could use the credit card I gave her for emergencies only to pay what she needed because my aunt's loan was being finalized. Although very reluctant, I agreed under the explicit understanding that she would pay the credit card off in full prior to the next cycle. Since I had not heard anything about it in a week or so, and she was still charging to it, I asked the other night. She said my aunt got less than anticipated and therefore, she could only pay about half of it back. EXCUSE ME?!?!?! I worked so hard for 6 months to get myself out of credit card debt and have not carried a balance since December of last year. I was really upset and tried explaining that as rationally as I could. Her response, 'well I'm sorry.' While I understand that, I knew I shouldn't have trusted her and she once again let me down. I made it very clear that this would never happen again. And as she hung up, she said 'I just won't rely on you anymore' in a sad, guilt-inducing voice. It only makes me madder that she's trying to make me feel bad for being angry at her!

I'm determined to never pay credit card interest again and since she messed up, rather than touch my emergency fund, I've decided that the remaining payment is coming out of the Vegas trip, specifically the money I budgeted for her to gamble with. This trip is for my mom and I want her to have a good time, but right now, I don't even want to be around her.

I really need to get back on track

September 15th, 2014 at 09:56 pm

September is a crazy month. With my 5 year reunion, my Vegas trip, a huge work audit, and a cheer competition to prepare for, things are just slipping all over the place. I'm trying my best to minimize the damage and will start fresh in October. I did groceries the other day and should have more than enough to get me through these next few weeks.

This week is the audit and since I'm on the appraisal team, paid lunches every day!

I haven't really been spending carelessly, but I did sort of blow it this past weekend on dinner and bowling. (I hadn't been out in awhile...)

I wasn't planning on going to my 5 year reunion, but couldn't come up with a better plan for my dog while in Vegas, so I'm taking him to Boston to spend a couple of weeks with his brother. My good college friend who gave him to me has agreed to take care of him. The only spendy event I signed up for at reunion was my class party since I'm on the committee. $80 for SO and I which I took out of one of my show paychecks. There are a couple of other complimentary food events, so I'm hoping to keep out of pocket spending to less than $100 not counting gas money.

On the plus side, my brother was able to get the points he needed for his own Jabbawockeez ticket, so I'll only be paying for one and my mom earned a 4th reward through her playing, so she's using that for a free play credit. They also added some more partners, so I got us 4 buffets for the day we travel outside the strip. I originally had a groupon for lunch, but we're going to do early breakfast buffet and then use the groupon for late lunch, so I won't have to really spend on dinner later.

Sorry for all the discombobulated thoughts...my brain's in a million places right now!!

Small Progress on the Financial Front

September 9th, 2014 at 03:01 pm

Still improving. Starting to get back to my normal things including this blog and getting my financial house in order. I did notice that within the past two weeks, my car went under the 5k mark and my largest loan went under the 10k mark. It's not much, but it is nice to be seeing some progress. According to my most recent budget review and projection through the end of the year, I'm still on track to have the car paid and my moving fund complete.

It's been awhile

September 2nd, 2014 at 07:19 pm

I have quite a lot of finance-related stuff to talk about, but I just wanted to pop in quickly and say I'm still around.

I went into the ER a couple of weeks back for severe abdominal pains and have been recovering ever since. Will try to start getting in some legitimate updates now that I'm finally on the mend.