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!!

I've actually been back from the Vegas trip for a few days, but it's been a struggle adjusting back. I'll have to do a formal numbers update this weekend once all the smoke clears, but for the sheer amount of stuff we did, I think we came out pretty well. One of my favorite things was the $10 credit we got each day at the Planet Hollywood restaurant from the Power Passes (bought with my mom's credit card points). Combining all 3 got us $30 to spend there each day (2 t-shirts, 2 tall beer glasses, 4 shot glasses = all sounvenirs).

In other news, I was able to clear the credit card my mom ran up (and I took it away). I worked out a payment plan with her, so everything she gives back goes into the moving fund. I also just made another car payment. I think (fingers crossed!) that I may actually be able to pay it off this month!! October was my original goal before Vegas happened, so that would be really amazing to be able to stick to it.

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!!

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

My car is all better. I did a show last weekend which ended up paying double since it was further away and 2 hours. I just used that as the deductible so I wouldn't have to do any more shifting. Other than the deductible, yesterday and today were NSDs (and actually even before that). I now have Snafu's words in my head whenever I'm tempted to spend unnecessarily. Tomorrow we either have a game or practice and then an evening with SO doing who knows what. Hopefully it doesn't involve spending money and I can keep this streak going through the weekend. Sunday is the zoo (free!) and maybe bowling (I'm going to try and convince him of something less spendy like walking around Georgetown and some fro-yo!).

In my last post, I alluded to the two most recent events I've thankfully been in a position to cover without additional debt. Here's the nitty-gritty.

While I was away at camp, my mom called. Apparently, my grandmother's doctors told my aunts to start calling in the family if anyone wanted to say goodbye. My mom and aunt that live here wanted to fly out and see her. Since most of you know by now that my mom is terrible with money, she of course asked me if I could help. Once again, it means shifting things around, but I'm fortunate to be able to give her the chance to say goodbye to her mom.

The night I got back from camp, my wonderful boyfriend made me dinner. When he walked me out to my car afterwards, I noticed debris on the ground. When I got to my car, I noticed said debris was my driver's side mirror. It was turned in and the mirror was completely shattered. SO's dad was outside at the time, but he didn't hear anything since he was vacuuming. He did notice that one of the neighborhood boys was riding his motorcycle up and down the street. We tracked the kid down, but he never got back to us, and it's likely he'd just deny it anyway. The cops said if he didn't admit to it, there was nothing they could do, as there were no witnesses. My deductible is only $200, so I will be picking up my car today.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 'bad things happen in 3s' rule skips me this time...

I just reran the numbers. It looks like I'm going to be lucky just to get my car paid off this year. While I've made a lot of progress over the past year, I feel like I got sidetracked a couple of times and now I'm paying for it. If I hustle and am very discerning, I should have the car paid by December. My moving fund will only be the equivalent of one month's rent, so I will have to wait a month or two longer to build that to two months rent.

One thing I am thankful for is the ability to cash flow many unexpected things without contributing more to my debt pile. I'm so glad that I'm going to be able to treat my family to a great vacation for so little out of pocket. I was able to do necessary car maintenance without putting it on credit. And most recently...

I was able to pay for my mom's flight to see her mom one last time before she passes AND cover the deductible for fixing my car after some punk demolished the driver's side mirror and didn't bother to leave a note. (Both stories to be explained in an upcoming post.)

It's been awhile. Cheer camp was crazy and then spent a wonderful weekend with SO. I've got lots of debt-related stuff to share (some good, most not so much), but I'll start with pre-camp and camp spending.

Before camp, I got my car serviced. I was expecting it to be around $250, but it came in just about $200. While I should have put the overage right back towards something productive, I ended up treating SO to some yummy (expensive) Mexican. He'd been away at camp and hadn't had a really good meal in days. I very rarely splurge on good meals out these days, so I feel comfortable with the decision. (Bonus - he made me chicken parm the day I got home from my camp...delish!)

I bought $30 worth of snacks/food for the trip. I came home with a good amount left, so I'm set on work snacks for awhile. I bought $100 to camp with me. I did splurge on one meal, but I came home with over $50, so I didn't do too bad considering I had to cover all my breakfasts and lunch the first and last days.

Next week is cheer camp. 14-16 hour days of non-stop cheering. Since I'm coaching, there will be much less energy used, but I'm still going to need to be prepared. We'll need to provide 7 of our own meals that week (4 of which are breakfasts, lunch the first/last day, and dinner the last day). I'm not a big breakfast eater to begin with, so it shouldn't be too bad. Right now, my plan is granola/cereal bars for breakfast and a pb&b sandwich for lunch the first day. The team is eating out lunch/dinner the last day, so I'm budgeting myself 10 for each meal. There is a sale on pretzels and Triscuits, so I plan on a box each with two ziploc baggies, so I can proportion out sizes for the day. I'm also going to get two boxes of fruit snacks since those are already packaged out. I'm going to bring $80 cash - $40 for meals/incidentals and $40 for spending money at the camp store. My goal is to come in under this, but I don't want to feel deprived if there is something that I want to get. I've noticed that if I give myself a spending allowance, I'm much less likely to spend because I end up deciding I can live without it whereas if I know I can't walk out with anything, then I really want everything (and usually end up caving)! Twisted logic, but whatever works...

My show Saturday is a solid 3 hours away, so I'm thinking that if SO is up for an adventure, we make a day of it by visiting something new in that area. My car, however, is overdue for an oil change. Since I'd like to get that done before, I talked to my dealership this morning. They can't fit me in today or tomorrow, so I'll have to do the oil change elsewhere, but I'm also due for my 7500 mile maintenance which was quoted at about $240. I can definitely cash flow this, but once again, it means that less is going to debt than I hoped for.

I'd started a Car Fund (Capital One Savings sub-account), but it only has about $40 bucks in it which would cover the oil change that I have to get done today. Should I use this money or just cash flow the oil change too in order to let the car fund continue building up?

Just thought I'd give an update on where I'm at with vacation savings. I'm on track for a lovely (hopefully no additional debt added) vacation. I have to give a huge shoutout to the blogger who suggested MyVegas rewards. That and the Social Rewards are going to be a big help. Here's what I have planned:

MyVegas Rewards (An online slots games that lets you accrue loyalty points to redeem for real rewards at MLife properties): My mom and I are both playing, so we'll have 3 each to redeem. My mom did two nights at Monte Carlo and I linked one night to that, so 3 of our nights there will be comped! I'm still debating the other 3 rewards, but I'm leaning towards 1 ticket each to KA (a Cirque show) and then 2 buffet passes for my last reward. I'm trying to convince my brother to play enough for a BOGO ticket to KA, so I can get all 4 of our seats at once without too much hassle. 4 Cirque tickets for about 80 bucks? I'll take that

Social Rewards (An online rewards program where you tweet, share, and instagram photos that earns you money to spend at Caesar's properties): This program is a little more tedious as it takes a long time to build up the money. I have $40 from this program alone, plus $100 from the Total Rewards Visa I got. That money will all go towards meals. I've found a couple of good, low-cost restaurants that come highly recommended.

I bought one Groupon for $32 worth of burgers for $16 which will be our lunch on the one day we travel outside the strip. I've reserved a car for $40 which we'll use to see Red Rock Canyon and downtown for the Fremont St. Experience.

My mom also offered up her credit card rewards. With these, I got 3 5-day power passes (admission to several attractions and events which can be visited multiple times throughout the trip) and our round-trip shuttle from the airport. I'm also hoping to swing two GA tickets to a comedy magic show downtown, so I only have to pay for two (which I've read can easily be found discounted or as a bogo).

Other things I've already paid for include the Tournaments of Kings show and our last two nights at Luxor. For those nights, we'll be in separate rooms at a discounted rate where my mom and brother will each get a free dinner, free drink, and free dessert in honor of their birthdays.

The last big item to cross off is tickets to Jabbawockeez. MyVegas offers these, so I may get the brother to play a little more and earn his ticket and use my last reward on one, so I'd only have to pay for one of those.

I have about $800 of the $1500 cash I'd like to have saved. From my calculations, I'll end up just shy of $2000 cash for the trip. I've also accounted for the checked bag fees, incidentals, hotel holds, and daily gambling. Anything else I may be missing?

Update: I wrote this earlier in the week, and just remembered I also have a $200 gift card for use on the trip. Score!!

Happy Monday everyone!

I had a very slight bobble, but am still doing pretty well. I had to put $15 gas on Saturday for my show. I was hoping to make it to payday (tomorrow), but alas... I took it out of the cash I had on hand, so this morning, I put $260 into my bank. As soon as it hits, it goes to Chase CC. With my paycheck tomorrow, I'll clear the Total Rewards CC (it's already hidden away) and put some to Chase in addition to regular bills.

I feel like I'm getting back on track, although I'm upset with myself for ever getting off in the first place.

We're having a goodbye lunch today for a valued employee, so free pizza Yay!

Doing well so far! I've managed to resist several temptations. I also got reimbursed for a cheer course I had to take for the coaching gig, so I'm I sitting on 165 to put in the bank. I'm waiting because after tomorrow's show, I'll have another $100. That's a $265 snowflake to the credit card I stupidly racked up!

I'm seriously looking forward to the first weekend to myself that I've had in who knows how long. Saturday, I'm thinking my Zumba class, TV catch up, and my dance show. Sunday is lazing around minus the 3 or so hours of babysitting I need to put in organizing the boys' attic.

I remembered my lunch today So I am trying not to spend any money between now and next Tuesday when SO gets back. I do have a doctor's appointment today, but since I use my FSA and it's already deducted, I'm not including that. I think Saturday evening will be the hardest as I will be headed to WV for a show. I will have to remember to pack some snacks to take along. I'll try and just do a quick post each evening with how I did that day.

To start things off, I actually seriously debated picking up rummikub on the way home. I've taught the boys phase 10 and some easy card games (Battle and Speed). They've really taken to it, and I think the older one would be really good at Rummikub. Since I will have them this afternoon and it will probably be too hot to go outside, I immediately started rationalizing getting it to teach them. But I will resist. We'll stick to the card games they know for now.

So my officially official SO is leaving tonight for a week, so I'm hoping to make up for some of the financial damage I've been doing by making this a No Spend Week. I'm not exactly off to the best start. This is pretty much one long story leading to why I have to spend money on lunch today despite buying groceries last night. So if you're short on time, that's the gist of it. If not, read on!

Since SO is leaving today, I wanted to see him last night. My schedule is pretty hectic during the week with babysitting 3 nights and cheer the other 2. I was going to have him over after babysitting, but decided to check with the parents to make sure they were okay with it. While the dad had no opinion, the mother seemed uncomfortable with the idea, so I volunteered to go to his place if they could just be home about 10 so it wouldn't be super late when I got there. Since the MIL is in town, the mom said it'd be fine to leave them once they were in bed. I went through their bedtime routine and packed my work clothes and cheer practice clothes for today and left. About an hour later, I get a panicked call asking where the younger one was because he wasn't in bed. After 15 minutes and a few more panicked phone calls, they found him sleeping on the dining room chairs (there's a tablecloth on the table draping down a bit, so they didn't see him the first time going through the house). It'll be interesting to see how things are handled in the future since this scare. Normally, my hours end somewhere between 9 & 10 depending on bedtime. When I was single, I usually just destressed and went to bed, so it didn't matter if the parents stayed out late because I was home. Now, they will have to decide between their date nights and just allowing him over.

Anyways, back to the lunch thing. In my packing, I completely forgot to account for food for today, so even though I have plenty at home, I will need lunch and dinner. Since I go straight to cheer from work, I'll need something to last me until 9 tonight. While I'm normally the type to eat every 3-4 hours, I'm going to try going for a big, filling lunch and toughing it out until I get home.

This is really hard for me to write, but I'm totally failing at this whole debt payoff thing. I'd been doing so well, but lately I've had my fingers in so many peanut butter jars that it doesn't feel like I'm making progress on any of them.

I tried the credit card rewards thing recently to get some extra cash for Vegas, and I will admit, it's not for me. I'm definitely not ready to be trusted with multiple cards even if they all have relatively low limits. It makes it too easy to justify those new dresses or the $100 PetSmart run (both of which I did over my supposedly 'no-spend' staycation). So those are getting paid off over the next two months and then put away.

I did start my moving fund. And I've got another show this weekend, so I guess those are good baby steps. I think part of the issue is that I've also recently started dating someone and since neither living situation is conducive to privacy, we usually end up doing stuff out that costs money. Since I never had much of an entertainment budget, this has totally derailed my spending as we alternate who pays. Any ideas on cheap, fun dates?

So last night, my brother went to the emergency room. He's okay. Unfortunately, he has a fairly common medical condition that puts him into a lot of pain. It has occurred 3 times already, and every time has landed him in the emergency room. Of course, my emotions were already running rampant over the U.S. loss to Belgium, so when I got the text message that he was on his way in, I freaked out and drove home. Not a huge deal, but I probably could have waited since I'm going home tomorrow for a 5 day staycation. My goal is to not spend more than $50 on activities and only fill my tank up one and a half times (it'll be empty-ish when I get there, plus since it's cheaper, I like to top it off when I leave). He's feeling much better, although the pain is still pretty intense at times.

Remember

this? Well, she's just done it again. Some sob story about paying the little brother's rent and now being short on both the car and electricity. Yada, yada, yada. I know I shouldn't complain after all she's sacrificed for me growing up, but it's just frustrating that I'm trying so hard to not end up like her, and she keeps bringing me down. Supposedly, her sister is loaning her enough money to take all the stuff out of the pawn shop because 'that's money I could have used for these bills', but she says that and then a month later when she falls short, she throws her stuff right back in. It's a really toxic cycle that I want to avoid at all costs.

In other news, I've been thinking a lot about the moving fund/paying my car off/Vegas savings debate. I think over the next few months, I'm going to drop my car to the minimum per paycheck and make two full minimum payments/month. All else will go to the moving fund minus what I already planned to put away for Vegas. As soon as my moving fund hits 3k (should be right around September), I'll go back to my car.

My new goals for the remainder of 2014 are:
- Replenish 1k Emergency Fund
- Moving Fund - 3k
- Car - Paid off
- No additional accrual of credit card debt

I've been struggling between debt payoff and my first ever family vacation. But something new just crossed my mind. As some of you may remember, I live rent-free with the family I babysit for in exchange for 10-15 hrs/wk babysitting. Last summer, they traveled abroad for a month, so it was nice to be able to enjoy the summer and not have the commitment. They aren't traveling this summer, but since both parents will be home most of the time, I've also been given the option to lighten my babysitting hours and just keep up with the laundry/dishes. While this is wonderful for my social life, it's a little concerning in that they may realize they can get by without me now that both parents are home. It's got me thinking that maybe I should start my move-out fund, so I'm not caught off guard. I really only need about 3k and that's if I want to be really safe (1 month's deposit, a month ahead on rent, and moving expenses). I don't want to end up having to scrap the money last minute (if they only give me 30 days notice), but I also hate the idea of the money just sitting there if they keep me around for the next 6 months or so.

I guess the obvious solution is to feel out the parents to help guide my decision so I'll start there...

I had my second dance show this past weekend. Again, ended up with a solo. The good news is she made this my last 'training' show, so all shows from here will be at the full $100 rate. I still think they prefer to have someone more experienced with Polynesian technique, so my number of shows will be limited, but it's nice little snowflakes when they do happen

Oops!! So this morning, when I logged in to check my accounts, I noticed my debit account is negative. I live pretty much paycheck to paycheck and since I'm throwing most of the money at debt, I have very little savings to fall back on and by the end of the time between pay periods, I usually have $20 or less in my checking account. This time I was actually going to have over $50, so imagine my surpise when I saw I was negative $43 bucks!!

I quickly realized that the automatic Capital One savings plan I'd set to take effect on the 10th for the 15th and 30th of the month had hit twice. I mistakenly thought activating the plan on the 10th meant it would begin taking out on the following 15th as planned...

Apparently not, it 'activated' on the 10th taking out 100 and then proceeded to take another 100 on the 15th as normally scheduled. My slush fund (the savings linked to my checking) only had $30 and I had $10 cash. I ended up moving money out of my car savings to my debit account with Capital One. I withdrew that $40 and put it into my checking. On Friday (payday), I will restore all balances to normal.

Phew, that was a close one...maybe I should work on a little buffer in my main account...

I am officially an intermediate analyst!! Woohoo

The unconfirmed part comes in regards to pay. Any potential increases go into effect next Friday (our next payday), so we should find out early next week what, if any, changes in salary we should expect.

...However, a little birdie just told me that she thinks I will be very happy with result.

Since I budget based on my current salary, any increase first goes to maximizing my 401K. I know, I know, who doesn't get their full company match?!?!? Well, me, but mostly because I read it wrong. It's 50% of your contribution up to 4% of your salary. I started myself at 6% thinking it was over 4, but still allowed me to cover my other bills, but then I realized I need to contribute 8% to get the 4% company match. Lesson learned: always read AND UNDERSTAND the fine print...If there's more in my take home pay after the 401K increase, that will be split 50/50 between debt (the car which is on track to be paid off in October) and Vegas (Sept/Oct). All other budget categories will stay the same.

Fingers crossed for some good news that I can deliver with certainty and concrete numbers next week!!

I don't think I've ever posted it here, but I've been trying like crazy to come up with creative ways to make the cost of the Vegas trip sting less. I've been playing MyVegas and Social Rewards to earn rewards. I should be able to redeem three decent rewards through MyVegas and have about $40-$60 in Total Rewards credits.

Additionally, I've added two credit cards: Chase Freedom ($100 reward) and Total Rewards Visa ($100 reward and 2 buffet of buffet passes).

Chase Freedom recently upped their $100 reward to $200, so I emailed and they were nice enough to honor the better offer. The Total Rewards Visa sent me two high roller passes instead of the buffet of buffets, but when I had applied, that was the offer, so I have to email them and ask if they will honor that.

I think all of this will allow me to cover food (and some activities) for the four of us, so that leaves the hotel and shows. My mom recently looked into her credit card rewards (which she's never used). She's accumulated some 60000. There are some hotels available for the week for 35000, but I'm leaning towards shelling out for the hotel and using her points solely for activities.

Any ideas for cheap lodging / activities in Vegas?

So as some of you know, I have four jobs. There have recently been some changes with my main job at a small IT company. We won our re-compete, and there's a definite chance of me getting a slight promotion, and a pretty good chance of me getting a BIG promotion. For the past several years, I've actually done the work of the position I'm being put into, but since this was my first job out of college, I've had to pay my dues and earn my 'years of experience'. So even though I've been doing the work of an intermediate business analyst running two products, my official title has been program support. Not anymore ya'll! At the very least, I'll be a junior analyst, but they're trying to put me in the intermediate position.

Depending on how yearly evaluations shake out, this may entail some budget changes, so I'll keep you posted.

Remember those 'How I spent my summer' presentations we always had to do the first week back at school. This one won't be nearly as interesting. About a month ago, I took my dog to the pet expo like I do every year. They were having a raffle, so I put my name in. Imagine my surprise when I actually 'won'!Turns out, it wasn't a real raffle, but one of those timeshare presentations. So today, I had to sit through 90 minutes of a timeshare sell. I was upfront with them and let them know that I could not afford it and would not be swayed, but that I'd politely listen to their offer and keep it in mind for the day when I am in a financial position to even consider it. For my time, I got $125 gift card, 2 $25 gift cards to Tropical Smoothie, and a voucher for a follow-up stay. Not a terrible deal. From there, I drove my brother down to his girlfriend's place. And then sat in ridiculous traffic on the way home. I finally made it to the last highway stretch when BAM! dead stop. I immediately switched to the parallel road and started flying home....

And then I saw the sirens. I was so tired by that point that I didn't even bother to fight it. I told him to just write the ticket fast, so I could continue on my way. He marked it as speeding rather than reckless, and since I have 5 years of fantastic driving, I'll still be positive in points. The fine sucks, but I took the risk and got caught. Oh well...

On the positive side, my aunt and uncle had a cookout, so I got some delicious chicken and filipino barbecue