Debt-free By 33's Personal Finance Blog

Note to self - write longer entries in Notepad and then copy into the blog...

Prior to laying these out, let me preface with a confession. I've been hoarding some secret mistakes as I didn't want to admit setbacks, but it's time to turn all that around. Below are my 2015 goals.

Financial
- Build emergency fund back to $1000 (This was depleted after funding two unexpected trips for my mom to see my grandmother before she passed. I also need to be better about replenishing this right after I use it...)
- Reduce credit cards (I had my credit cards in a pay-in-full cycle, but I've since run a few up with balances when I tried {and failed} the whole creidt card churn thing. While none of them have interest accruing, I'd like to have all but 1 paid off this year. I also plan to close 3 this year and 1 more next year leaving me with Target for the 5% cash back, BOA which is my oldest, and Chase Freedom for the rewards.)
- Add savings categories (I found a need for two additional savings accounts. One will be semi-annual expenses such as my car taxes and insurance. The other will be for SO and I's one-year anniversary trip to Niagara Falls.)
- Increase retirement savings to 10% (This will be done automatically at the same time as my raise.)
- Build checking account buffers (I'd like a $200 buffer in my own account and a $1500 buffer in our joint account. I had some close call overages on my own account and our joint one accrues dividends when we maintain at least $1500 in it.)

Personal
- Lose 10% of my weight (This is about 15 lbs. on my 5'1, 140 lb. frame. To help, I enrolled in a 6 month dietbet, but since I don't want to gain it back, I made it a full year's goal.)
- Win at least 4 months of my dietbet (Obviously the goal is to win all 6 months, but months 2 and 6 seem particularly difficult. Month 2 is 4 lbs. in addition to the 4 lbs. from month 1. Month 6 is maintaining the 10%.)
- Adopt a puppy with SO (Self-explanatory)
- Get dogs outside for more than an hour 4 times a week (They'll clearly be walked several times daily, but it's my goal to get them to the dog park, hiking, or simply much longer walks quite often.)
- Cook more from scratch (I'm already doing pretty well with cooking at home, but it's mostly processed stuff. I'd like to improve to cooking from scratch and start meal planning.)

Blogging
- Blog at least twice per week
- Post monthly budget and month in review entries
- Participate in one 'challenge' quarterly (This is contingent on people actually posting challenges, but I want to particpate more as I feel this provides great insight into other ways of doing things that I might not have been exposed to otherwise.)

I plan to post the shortened version of these in my sidebar to keep them fresh. Bring it on 2015!

Lots running through my head...

Christmas was phenomenal. Got some stuff we needed (more hangers, a portable phone charging device, flexible cutting mats) and some stuff we wanted (a waffle maker, a deep fryer, and a Keurig). While it was a very long day, it was great getting to spend time with both families and each other.

We visited the puppy we were considering adopting on Friday. She was very cute, but the reality of how much training she'd need (she was pretty nippy) set in, and we decided to hold off until after cheer and babysitting are over so I'd have more time to devote to training (Feb-Mar timeframe). I will continue checking the site as they list the puppies at as young as a week old, so if we see one we're interested in, we'll have to apply to reserve our place in the adoption line when they reach adoptable age.

We've been doing great on the not eating out. Between holidays and the food we had around, we should be set through most of this week as well. (Tonight may be an exception as SO forgot to pack me dinner, but I may try to just hold off through babysitting...)

I've tentatively set some 2015 goals. I need to think a little more through what's really achievable, but I want to get back on track. I'll outline those in its own post.

And lastly, SO and I talked about a very basic 5-year plan (it came up during a How I Met Your Mother episode). It's nice that we're both on the same page.

Have you ever had one of those days that was so emotionally wonderful that you wake up feeling completely drained the next day? I'm definitely feeling drained after SO's birthday surprise yesterday. I have a feeling Christmas will also be one of those days. Our schedule begins Xmas Eve. SO has a tradition where he plays Christmas carols in his neighborhood, so I will be attending his mini-concert and spending some time with his family before driving home to my mom's. We will spend the mornings with our respective families to do gifts, then SO will come down and have lunch/spend some time with us. Afterwards, we'll both drive up (separately) to have dinner/family time with his family. At the end of it all, we'll do our own gift exchange at home.

We're still settling in. We've developed a nice day to day routine, but given that I never get home before 9 pm during the week and SO is sometimes the same way now with his new job, it's been difficult addressing house stuff. There's so much financially to think about, but I haven't really had time to flesh it out. For now, I'm simply attempting to keep my head above the water.

I did finally manage to follow up on payment for the fall season of coaching cheer. Apparently, it was sent 2-3 weeks ago, but I have yet to receive it. It's about 940 which is allocated to new tires and the pet fee. (I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to get my dog back!!)

I'm also still waiting on my refund from my rec cheer party and have a $7 check to cash from overpay on my final car payment.

I've been in the apartment almost a week, and we haven't turned the heat on yet. It's available, but with all the boxes, it was plenty warm. And even now, the space heater works just fine for keeping us warm in the evenings.

SO is making dinner tonight since I won't be home until 830. It's simple - mac and cheese with hot dogs and Red Lobster biscuits, but it'll be delicious

Still working on the apartment, but I wanted to drop in with a quick thing I've been proud of. Considering the craziness of the past few days, we've completely managed to avoid any meals out. This is a huge accomplishment, and I hope we can continue it for the rest of the week and even longer. I've been waking up early with SO to make our lunches and even managed to prep the enchiladas yesterday morning, so all we had to do was bake them last night (a huge help as we didn't get home until after 8). Today, I have my company's holiday party and SO has leftover enchiladas for dinner, so that marks another day of no food spending

We've got everything moved into our place! Now's the tough part - unpacking it all...after two 18 hour days, I'm exhausted. We grocery shopped yesterday with easy foods being our focus as the goal is to just make it through the week. And I've clarified with babysitting parents that we will return to the previous method - $10/hr for M,W,F evenings, so the extra income will be nice. I'm looking forward to settling in.

And SO is pretty much amazing. I had to move the last of my stuff out myself and when I got back yesterday at 10 pm and walked into the apartment, SO had dinner set up on one place setting on our dining room table (currently, in the middle of the living room...). It was just a sandwich, chips, and a Babybel cheese, but he'd taken the time to cut/arrange it nicely, had the fireplace going and music on. It was an incredibly nice thing to come how to

So far.

My boss keeps reigning me in because I feel like I have to do everything. I bought my full bathroom decorations (super expensive, but an investment I was willing to make). I also got SO's housewarming gifts (he got an apron and hot sauce set while I got a bathtub caddy and bath pillow - I've been looking forward to baths so much!). We also went to Michael's to look at framing for the puzzle. A few months back, we bought two puzzles. Our goal was to finish one for framing before we moved in and work on the other in our new place. It's finished (minus one piece we infuriatingly misplaced...), so now we need to frame it. The puzzles are something we want very long-term, so I want it framed right. Custom framing at Michael's was in the $150 range. My boss said 'heck no!' and found me an online website with diy puzzle frames large enough for mine in the $60 range. I'm glad she's here to keep me in check because I was seriously ready to spend the $150 and be done with it (insane, right???)...My goal is no more apartment spending (other than some sort of filtered water source and our startup shopping trip - SO's financial obligation) until the dust settles. If I still want it in the new year, then we'll consider getting it then.

Less than a week to go. The spare room in SO's parents' house is completely full with my stuff and the stuff from Black Friday. We did a pretty good job of sticking to our Black Friday plan. An impulse or two did sneak in, but we were pretty in control and minimized or passed over something else to make up for it. Next up is outlining moving day and finalizing clearing out the basement I'm in. I'm not spending any money on food as my lunch is covered all week for my work team and I have enough leftovers from my mom's for dinner every night. I also did have two Craigslist sales.

lots of things: my job (as crazy as it is), my family, SO, my health, getting into a new place, my dog...and free breakfast (I went to buy a donut from the cafe this morning and he just gave it to me since he's trying to get rid of stuff for the holiday weekend.)

Sometimes, it really is the little things that matter the most!

It's coming up fast. With everything going on, I was out sick yesterday because I'd just completely stressed myself out and ended up ill. Last night and today, I finished off the pasta. I have 6 Ramens that I left out to eat between now and moving day. Tonight's dinner is mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. Got my Black Friday shopping plan down. Eek! Too. much. to. think. about.

Today, I have both a hh and the midnight showing of the new Hunger Games movie. I don't go to the movies often these days, but in the past week, I will have seen two. (HG has been planned for months; Interstellar was a spontaneous date courtesy of SO.) I got a reimbursement from my FSA, so I will be using that $20 as my spending limit for these two events. I will also be getting cash for the other two tickets I bought for friends as well as for the wardrobe which is getting picked up tonight. That gets added to the Black Friday fund. I did my best to streamline that shopping as much as possible and will lay out my plans in a future post.

I've had a couple of responses on some of my items. I did decide to donate my collection of hair accessories (minus the cheer bows) to someone using freecycle. It's really sad as I love accessories, but don't use them nearly enough to justify keeping them anymore. Not too mention,, I've sort of outgrown the headbands/ribbons/clips/barrettes phase. Those are getting picked up tonight. Someone is coming tomorrow to look at the wardrobe. I priced it at $40 as I care more about getting rid of it, then profiting. I've had some questions about the bike and the bed, so hopefully those will sell as well.

We're about 2 and a half weeks out, and each day feels a little more real. I started listing various items for sale through various venues. My bed and wardrobe are on Craigslist, a motorcycle jacket and helmet on Facebook, various hair accessories on freecyle, and a couple of other items on Ebay. I know it seems strange to spread out through so many sites, but the allocation made sense to me. I think the wardrobe may be sold. Fingers crossed she actually picks it up. Everything is going super cheap, so I'm not expecting a big influx of money. Whatever I get will be used to offset the purchase of some Black Friday items that are not necessarily needs (such as a space heater).

What a weekend! SO had a work function and birthday party on Saturday. While he was covering all the costs, it still effects me since we're now an us for certain finances. What I thought was going to be a pretty spend-y Saturday ended up being pretty good. We took chips and dip (12 bucks) to the work function and the birthday party was at a restaurant for dinner. Since SO and I had eaten a lot through the afternoon at the work event, we decided to just split a small pizza and each had one drink. Towards the end of our meal, the waiter was clearing the other side of the table when he accidentally hit the menu knocking it into my glass of champagne which was completely full as I had just topped it off. Fortunately, the majority of it missed me. Unfortunately, the majority hit SO. He ended up speaking to our waitress about getting the champagne removed as I didn't particularly want a second one, but it was still mostly full. To our surprise, the manager then came by and not only offered to take the champagne off, but also to comp SO's meal (our shared pizza). Total cost for dinner? 10 bucks including tip. Poor SO, but that worked out well...

We also signed up for Verizon. What was originally a 134/month estimate is now about 90/month. We decided to go with the basic package, only 1 TV, and no DVR. SO also got us a military discount. We also decided to buy the router outright, so the first 3 months will be an extra 33.33. Plus, a $400 gift card!

Last night, I brought a box of mac and cheese, the last piece of frozen chicken breast, and the opened bag of Rally's fries over to SO's and we made dinner. It would have been really tempting to eat dinner out, especially since we went to the movies, but I pointed out this was cheaper (and turned out delicious with some leftovers). I did get the kids combo at the movies because for whatever reason, my hands can't be idle during a movie. SO got the tickets with a combination of his student discount and military discount, so $15 for the tickets and $6 for my snacks.

The rest of the month should be pretty low-spend (other than Hunger Games next week and Black Friday shopping, both of which are budgeted). Our joint account is just over the dividend minimum with more to be added on our next paychecks. I'm guessing once utilities and move-in costs take out, we'll be back just under the dividend minimum, but we'll continue to build it up until we have that as a base amount and any monthly contributions go on top of that. Thanksgiving week will be pretty busy as that's when we'll look at my aunt's stuff (she's moving and has some stuff she's willing to give/sell to us) and do our Black Friday shopping. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow and we could not be any more excited to start this next chapter together!!

SO and I had an interesting discussion the other day. I brought up the idea of taking full financial responsibility for our future puppy in order to maintain total claim over him should something happen between SO and I. His reaction took me by surprise. He asked me to reconsider that because he feels like if we make all these preparations to fail, it's almost like making it more acceptable to happen which in turn may make it more likely to happen. (He was also a little caught off-guard that I thought he was the kind of person who would take my dog away which I don't, but you never know.) I can definitely see his point...it just caught me off guard since I thought he'd appreciate having fall-back plans in place. It affirmed even more my feelings that this is right and I need to stop worrying so much, but after seeing so many failed relationships, I can't help but plan to protect myself in the event things don't work out. Am I crazy? Should I keep some plans in place, but relax on the puppy?

We've got our utilities (minus internet/cable set up). So far, things are falling into place nicely. I still have some stuff I want to start selling. What's the best way to go about that? Things like a motorcycle jacket and helmet, wardrobe and bed, and potentially a whole handful of DVDs.

I'm still doing pretty good though. The weekend doesn't count because I went home, so all meals were courtesy of Chef Mom. Today was one of those mornings, so I used spare change in my car to treat myself to McDonald's. Tonight will either be Ramen or mac and cheese. I'm leaning towards the mac and cheese so it can be eaten again tomorrow for lunch. Tomorrow's dinner is courtesy of my volunteer cheer program.

I did have some spending over the weekend - 70 out of my 190 gas/grocery fund for gas and pet food while I was home. I've also spent some other cash for diy cheer gifts, but since that is reimbursed, I don't really count it. (Just in case you're wondering, it's a pizza party, so I'm making cheer themed aprons and goody bags.)

Today's lunch is actually going to be out. Since SO and I are moving together, I don't need as much upfront costs as I had thought, plus my coworker just got married, so we're having a girls lunch (my budget is 10, but I'm hoping for 8). And tonight, I go home to see my pup, so no dinner either (maybe some fries to tide me over since I'm not leaving until later).

More importantly, I wanted to give some moving updates. Snafu gave me some great advice, but I wanted to discuss the steps we've taken so far. I have a dedicated moving notebook in which we've already noted the big furniture we're taking with measurements and where I keep an ongoing list of people I'll have to notify of my new address as well as additional moving tasks. I've looked into utilities, but we're not signing up for anything until we can do it together (he's out of town this weekend). Before he left, we did manage to settle renter's insurance (150 for the year paid upfront) and our joint bank account (we went with Flagship Checking at Navy Federal for the dividends). Once he gets back, things will really start rolling. We have to design our apartment, finish the puzzle we're hanging at move-in, and purge/pack, plus utilities and lease signing. All while my work is crazy and his finals are approaching...not to mention, a little thing called the holidays!

First off, I appreciate the people who encouraged me to post whatever I want, whenever! Work has been super stressful, so I've been constantly snacking and not really eating. Yesterday's dinner ended up being chips with melted shredded cheese (my attempt at using leftovers for nachos...). Just now (at 4 pm my time), I had my remaining noodles from Sunday. I probably again won't have dinner unless I'm suddenly starving later. If I do, it'll be mac and cheese, so I have some for tomorrow.

I promise I won't bore everyone every day, but I think if I post it here, I'll be more likely to stick with it, so I want to at least get the ball rolling. Yesterday, my boss treated me to lunch, so the leftover noodles that I had planned to eat are dinner tonight (probably with a couple of eggs to use up those before they go bad). Breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal from my desk stash at work and lunch is the remaining can of baked potato soup with a couple of pieces of Hawaiian sweetbread given to me by the babysitting mom.

With the impending move, I've decided to try and get rid of most of my random food items left on my shelf in the basement. This consists mostly of soups, ramen, and a couple boxes mac and cheese. I also have one pack of chicken in the freezer. First up, loaded potato with bacon and cheese and crackers. It's a little difficult since I go to SO's sometimes (as I will be tonight), so I have to plan ahead and bring it with me.

Well, that was quick! We saw a few more places on Sunday and made a couple of quick, happy decisions. First off, SO will officially be moving in and will be on the lease. Secondly, we chose a place It was the first place we saw on Sunday and as soon as I walked into the last place, I looked over at SO and said, 'The first one it is!' We then went back to the first one to put in the application and put the holding deposit down. We'd encountered a couple of situations during the day where apartments we were interested in had been taken, so we didn't want to risk losing it. Another plus is that the move-in costs are going to be much lower than I had anticipated due to some discounts, so while I will still be strict in November, I may be able to shift some of that budget to Black Friday shopping for stuff we'll need. Exciting times ahead for us and I'm so relieved to have it work out so well, so fast!

Some of the changes I'd been dealing with recently are coming to fruition. It looks like I will indeed be moving out in December (my choice due to some personal events). I've only just started the apartment hunt, but as you all know, my moving fund isn't really as established as I'd like. There is 300 in there which should cover the deposit or amenity fee at most places I'm looking at. With the rent and the remaining upfront costs, I am guessing I'm going to need about 2400 by the beginning of December. Looking at the numbers, I can wedge out 1850 from my regular paychecks which leaves me with finding another 250. Hopefully, I can find a place under that amount, but if not, I need to be prepared. I plan to start selling stuff. I also have $195 cash for the month for gas, groceries, and miscellaneous. I'm hoping to keep that as low as possible to be able to use some of that money. (The bonus is eating the pantry stuff I have on hand, so I won't have to move it!!) With such a tight timeline, I most likely won't be able to afford the pet deposit and extra pet rent up front, so I'll have to wait another month or two to bring my dog up to live with me, but I am kind of excited to be starting out on my own.

Sometimes, I get so caught up in the bad stuff, I forget to focus on the things I do right...

This weekend, SO and I are going to a drive-in movie theatre. They have all sorts of fun costume contests for people, pets, and even the cars. I have a Princess Jasmine costume and thought it would be really cute if we were Jasmine and Aladdin with our car-pet. Get it? Rather than buy SO's costume, we were able to finagle everything from stuff already on hand. I have a sword and spare craft containers and red fabric for his hat (imagine a butter tub turned upside down for the fez). He has the vest (not purple, but it'll work) and gray sweatpants which I'll attach a yellow piece of foam to for the patch. My boss even donated an orange tiger and I have a little monkey. I really wanted to spray paint my dog blue and make him the genie to really seal the deal, but he unfortunately doesn't live with me. Oh well...We'll still have an awesome theme going for our drive-in date and we won't have paid for any of the costumes!

She's doing it again. I understand her mom is dying and it's important to her, but if it were really that important, she'd have been saving since last time. I won't go too much into it, but long story short, my mom will be going to say goodbye to her mom one last time. IF, for whatever reason, she decides to hold on again, my mom's on her own.

In other, much happier, news...my car account no longer shows when I log into Wells Fargo! This means, the account's been closed. However, it is a bit concerning that I can't see the final applied payment and how much overage I paid, so I know what to expect back...

So, this morning when I checked my bank account, I saw my paycheck had more than enough to cover the remaining car balance, so I was super excited when I got to the office to make the last payment and be done! Despite clearly stating on the website what my payoff amount was and the wording 'Please make a payment in this amount to pay off the loan,' when I hit submit, I received an error that my payment could not be more than the remaining balance. Thinking the amount was incorrect on the website, I called the company. After 15 minutes of transfers and holds, I got the right person only to hear that they no longer allow payoffs online. Since I didn't want to pay the fees to do it over the phone, I decided to visit a branch as there is one right up the street. My boss knew this was important to me and let me go right then rather than waiting until lunch. So, I drive up the street only to find out...

The branch moved! Once I made it to the new branch, the guy spent 10 minutes on the phone with the same system I'd already been through only to communicate that my payoff was more than it stated online. He explained that he was trying to account for residuals, so I let it slide since that overage money is supposed to come back to me. He then says, 'Are you paying cash?' I said no because I have a debit card. His response is the bank doesn't take debit cards...WHAT?!??! I have never encountered a bank that does not let you make a bill payment using a debit card, regardless of whether it belongs to that particular bank. In the end, the lady that processed the payment did a cash advance against my card (ridiculous given it's a debit card...) and then applied the payment. I'm not sure what, if any, fees are associated with the cash advance from my bank's side, but the phone payment would have been much less hassle.

BUT AT LEAST MY CAR IS PAID!!!!!!

Fingers crossed, they don't try to tack on some other ridiculous non-existent fees.

I can't believe I'm so close to getting my first car paid off (1131 left!!!); I haven't carried a card balance in months; and I was able to fully finance a four-person vacation to Vegas! I've come so far in this past year, it's unbelievable. This only pushes me to continue moving forward. But there's something new, I found out SO and I are on the same page regarding our future even though it's only been 3 months. This will require some thinking through as I want to be best prepared for us moving forward. I don't think it effects anything short-term other than my moving. I'm still planning on my own place, but SO will be a part of the decision making process and location will be a factor as I'm looking to move closer to him. Long-term, it will be a much bigger adjustment and unknown and SO's job will probably require one (or more) moves. I will say that I'm so incredibly happy he's in my life and I'm confident whatever comes, we'll handle it together!

I'm about 2 weeks away from being able to call my car all mine! Just sent in another big payment. With my next paycheck, 2/3 of it are going to the car and that should do it. I can't believe it!!