What the Recession means to me...

My bosses all called a manditory staff meeting the other day...

Apparently i will be getting a merit increase next month for my work over the past year... but pay increases are frozen for the next two fiscal years... and the COLA is postponed until then as well.

But i'm promised that I won't be laid off... So essentially i'm taking a huge pay cut to keep my job and At this point, the job security is worth it since my pension will be unchanged and still funded.

Hourly, I make 16.79

If i assume a 6% raise for this May, I'll make $17.79 an hour. Over two years of raises would bump me up to 19.98 an hour

19.78 is the cap on my current position. So over the course of 2 years i'm giving up 1.99 an hour.

After I cap out of my salary range, it's at this point that i plan to try and get promoted to a high position... I'll begin taking classes again for a masters, or a fitness degree or something like that.

Hopefully with the hiring freeze in effect now and lots of people waiting to retire and retireing, i might be able to score something awesome in the next 5 years.

I went birthday shopping

I stole money from all over my budget this month... I went clothes shopping in honor of my birthday next month. My sister was going to take me shopping but i couldn't take not having any shorts and capris that fit anymore (since i wore everything in my closet i'm allowed to shop again.)

So i robbed peter to pay paul. Everythings balanced so it's all acounted for, I just chose not to save my extra's this month and instead went with the treat myself approach.

For those of you who don't know. I'm 5 feet 1 inches tall and i discovered the Petite section of the store... I love ROSS.

I bought more then i normally would... but only spent a hair over $100.00. I bought three pairs of shorts and capris, and six new tops!!! When i got home, i tossed two shirts since i was able to replace them with new digs.

I'm thrilled. Now i need to think of something else my sister can get me for my birthday. hmmmmm....

New budget tactics

My auto insurance went down! Instead of paying $495.76, I only owe: 429.30 for 6 months!

So I can plan on spending 72 a month on car insurance! Woot woot.

In case i never posted my annual goals, here they are:


DMV Car Tags (FEB 2010) $300.00
AAA Card (Due: April 2010) $47.00
Costco Membership $50.00
Renters Ins (12 months Due: Nov '09) $127.00
Car Ins (6 months Due: May '09) $429.30
Car Ins (6 months Due: Nov '09) $429.30
Christmas presents $300.00
Roth IRA 2009 $5,000.00
Invisiline Retainers $800.00
Car Emergency Fund (1/2 deductible) $250.00
My Future Wedding, etc $1,000.00
House Down Payment $21,000.00

Since there are so many, i'm going to start to take some of the money i would have sent to the house fund (since i have enough right now for an FHA) and start applying it to these goals to help knock a few out before I hit escrow.

So, a new budget (1295.85 A CHECK)

Laundry $20.00
Food & Basics $100.00
Gas and Car $100.00
Car insurance $71.67
Renters ins $10.58
Water & Gas & Electric 70.00
Cell Phone $55.00
Offering $23.60
Fun $50.00
Rent 795.00
_______________________________________
Down Payment 695.00
Other Saving Goals 534.45
Xmas & B-day $50.00
Offering 16.40

I'm officially living on one paycheck and saving my other one... this blows my mind.

Here is my game plan for April: I have around $500.00 that would have normally gone to savings and the house to fiddle with:

I'm going to take that money and save it for the following:
car tags 300
The remainer of my roth IRA (minus the extra check) 86.49
AAA Card 47
costco membership card 50
wedding fund 16.99

any extra in the budget i may put in the wedding fund, or i may start working on some of May's goals: (May and June may get switched around depending on when i get the ticket bill in the mail)

May
1/2 invisiline 400
birthday party 134.45

June
Speeding Ticket
Car fund

July
1/2 invisiline
wedding

August
wedding

This of course assumes i'm not in escrow. If i am, this all gets thrown out the window.

The April mission to spend money on me

So i had $50.00 of fun money that had to be spent entirely on me...

about half went to eating out, and half to gardening so i'm a content woman right now. I went $5.00 over, but I have extra money in my utilities budget since my electric bill was 7.49 this month.

A bit late, but Monday's Grocery shopping

It was mexican night at my sisters so we made enchaladas from scratch.

Sour cream 2.00
Heavy whipping cream 2.00
Lipton rice (2 boxes) 2.50
Whole Wheat Pasta 4.49--- this was supposed to be 3.00… didn’t notice till now…
Juice 3.50
Refried beans 1.50
Diced tomatoes and green chilies (3 cans) 2.97
Carrots 1.04
Cilantro .99
Celery .79


Total: 21.78

I ate leftovers for a couple of days so i was thrilled. Next week its grilled chicken so i'll need to pick up 2 more chicken breasts cause i have two in the freezer from last month still. (we trade off on who brings sides and who provides the main meal, but Boyfriend and I do the cooking so it tastes good.)

Today will be the last lunch of leftovers so i think that tonight or tomorrow i might hard boil some eggs, use so of the veggies I have, and some leftover bacon and have a nice salad for dinner tonight (before we go set up for the rummage sale.)

This is kind of a stupid ephiphany... but oh well. If you put food in the crispers and use the correct settings--- it lasts longer. My leftover lettuce hasn't wilted from BLT week. I used to just leave my produce on the shelves in the fridge so i'd see it and remember to eat it, but man, i'm glad i discovered the temperature changer on the bin!

Crazy one, two, and three

CRAZY part Un

Got my first speeding ticket on Monday on accident… I put my car in neutral going down hill on accident and he clocked me as I was trying to slow down. I’m a bit bummed because it was a stupid ticket and I’ve never been pulled over in my life, but I think it’s also a bit of karma for my wilder college years where I should have gotten a ticket but no cops were around to see me sprint from my college via the freeway going around 100 mph because I was late for work a few cities away…

I’ll pay the fine, go to traffic school, and never get another ticket again.

The irony is that I’m the kind of person who puts the car on cruse control at 5:00am to the speed limit in the morning so I don’t get a lead foot when there is no one else on the road to pace myself with. I also refuse to go more then the speed limit and I’m constantly getting passed on the road every day. Before Monday I used to worry a copy would pull me over for driving too slow.

CRAZY part Deux

I put in 2 more offers yesterday….

A 2 bedroom, 2 bath, with attached garage 165,000.00 (it’s a fixer upper) This already has 4 other offers on it that are higher then mine (the highest is 195,000.00)… so if all four of those fall out I might have a chance. I wanted to put a higher offer in, but I wasn’t going to over extend myself and I refuse to let a year go buy where I don’t max out my Roth IRA. If I was married, it might be different with another income coming in, but alas, I’m not so I won’t be offering more then 165,000.00 unless I have the dollars to increase it (and therefore increase my down payment or buy down massive points to make it more affordable.)

What I’m really excited about, is the one bedroom, 1 bath plus small den with detached garage in an area with low HOA and no mello-roos. They were asking 190,000… but 3 days ago… it was dropped to 150,000 so I put in 155,000 (leave a little bargaining room). This is affordable, in a nice area, not to far from work and the grocery store and the like. The master is larger then the older place I put an offer on last month, so the den is smaller then the loft… but I want it to be my home. It also has no competing offers in on the property!

Thankfully, If either closes tomorrow, I’ll have the money to cover all my down payment and closing costs, and still be able to make my monthly mortgage, HOA, taxes, ect AND pay my rent at my current apartment since I can’t bail out on my lease with my roommate. Each month that goes by that I’m not in escrow is 795 in my pocket—plus whatever I put in my house down payment fund—that’s how I’m looking at things from now on because I will own something by the end of 2009!!!! And get 8,000 from Uncle Sam as a F.T.H.B.

CRAZY part Trois

So where does that leave me now?
I’m going to pull some money that would normally go into the House DP fund to finish off my Roth if I can’t do it by watching what I spend in the normal budget categories.

This month I’m also going to put aside $300 for my DMV fees for Next year. This is what my car tax will be for next year on a high end since they totally raised the prices insanely. My 2010 budget actually has a line item for this amount, but the bill is due earlier in the year and I don’t want to be scrambling next year since I know when the bill will be coming. So I’ll pay for the 2010 bill with 2009 money and be able to save in 2010 for 2011 and so on…

Next month--
I’m going to start setting aside the money for my Invisiline retainers ($800.00 total) because I may only have a few months left to go with my treatment… or it could get extended through the end of the year—but next month I’m going to put half the money aside. Basically, I’m worried about the “sudden storm syndrome.”

If you remember a bit back, I sent over to CALPERS a request to buy back my old retirement years from when I was 16. They received my packet of information March 20th and it takes 60 days to process. So this will hit in May and if I accept, they begin making deductions from my paychecks to pay for the retirement (I have $1,000 saved up for this and I’ll replenish whatever is missing (net after taxes) from my paychecks with this cash)—but it’s just another thing I have to remember about especially if I close in the month of may.

May is also my birthday and I’m throwing myself a killer party at my sisters place so I’ll be spending some money on that too.

Dinner...

I've only had to make dinner for myself once this week.

Sunday was boyfriend's sisters birthday dinner... monday night i spent with my sister... tuesday we have the college church get to gether... wednesday we had dinner with boyfriends family... thursday i just threw something together (it was gross and i'll never do it again) becuase it was just me. Tonight i'm hanging with friends so who knows... but sunday night i'm making chicken for boyfriend and me.

Apparently my co-workers think of me when they choose not to spend money…

My co-worker informed me that for the past couple of days she has been meaning to stop by the store and get some flowers for her Easter dinner table… but she decided to think of me and instead pick flowers and roses form the bushes around our work.

I mean my co-workers know I’m saving money for a condo because we have had conversations about it because my boss is also looking to buy now… and they know I bring my lunch to work and cook often—in fact I’ve brought my lunch everyday to work since I started here when I was 16. They know I cook all the time and bring leftovers because they always comment on how good the food I bring in is (you know, wow—that looks really good… did you make that?)… and a few co-workers have asked me to explain some investment options and run the numbers on what their retirement accounts would look like if they retired next year… but those things are just because I’m better with computers and money formulas….
…
…

But I kind of took her comments as an insult because she was saying thinks like, “I kept thinking that you would never spend 15 dollars on a thing of flowers, you’d probably pick your own.”

This isn’t true as I do occasionally buy fresh flowers. I’m starting to wonder what kind of image I’m portraying at work. Does it bother me that people think I’m cheap or imply it?

I guess this is what happens when you keep business strictly business and not allow it to interfere with your social life outside the office.

But it does bring up the question… Do I care what people think of me? Normally i'd jump and say no without thinking... but for some reason that comment reallty bugged me.

food round two

As a follow up to my “food post” (which I didn’t get time to take pictures of before hand… sorry)

I did some bigger shopping for me so next week I’ll only have to buy fruit and veggies (like I did last week)

At Henrys:
Tomatoes (3) $0.93
Oranges (2) $0.89
Carrots (2) $0.41
Cooked Bacon $2.99 (it’s BLTA week)
Avocados (3) $1.50
Watermelon $1.14
Apples (2) $0.51

Target:
Parmesan cheese $2.69
Alfredo Sauce $1.79

Ralphs:
Crackers $2.49--- to go with next weeks lunch
Whole wheat spaghetti $1.29
Ranch Salad dressing $2.00
Pillsbury rolls $1.25
Mustard $0.99
Tuna (5 cans) $4.00 – Next week’s main lunch course
Bread $2.50
Instant Mash Potatoes $2.00 (for dinner with my sister)
Margarine $1.49
Water $2.09 + $0.10 CRV
Pudding mix $0.69

Okay... The really long post about food... By request

A really long post about food… (Written Wed afternoon)


Today was scavenger day at my apartment... and i'm going to post about food... just cause

I had oats, milk, and brown sugar for breakfast. I didn’t have any fruit so I ate an early lunch… and it wasn’t that thrilling. I ate a whole grain tortilla with ground beef, refried beans, and parmesan cheese (because it needed something). It was a bland day because I couldn’t go shopping this morning because I had work at 5:15 am so I had to just eat what was in the house. I came home and ate a couple of hot dogs (no bun.. just ate the dog with some ketchup) cause I was hungry again… (I’ve been exercising and even jogging now so I tend to eat a bit more some days.. but today I didn’t run or jog, but still wanted a snack and since I didn’t go grocery shopping till after my snack, the hot dogs won.) I think I’m having dinner at boyfriend’s house tonight so who knows what I’ll eat there.

(He just texted… grilled Salmon, mac and cheese, and peas…)

Anyways,
--- I took pictures of my empty pantry and freezer because I was bored---


With all the unexpected hosting that came in March, I’m really proud I stayed under budget… and that only happened because I had a good stock of food in my apartment… but now it’s pretty scarce, hence the very bland lunch today.


My freezer (I put my stuff in the freezer door for the picture so it doesn’t look like there is more in there cause then you would only be looking at my roommates bag of ice and half a box of taquitos)
I have 4 frozen chicken breasts, an almost empty bag of frozen black berries (back from when I used to make smoothies—don’t anymore but I should figure a way to use these or toss them), one hot dog bun, one wheat hamburger bun, and a bag of instant frozen brown rice. That’s it.

My pantry is mainly seasonings and things to cook things with so they taste better…



Pepper, salt, seasoning salt, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Vegtable oil, random fake sugar packets (blue things on the counter) Brown sugar, oats from the bulk bin that I put in the old store bought oat container, less then half a thing of fake bacon bits, cinnamon, 1 can of corn, one can of pineapple, a box of wheat pasta, three cans of tuna, a box of unopened shredded wheat, a can of mushrooms, an almost empty box (maybe one serving) of instant mash potatoes, flour, Pam, and bread crumbs.

Nice eh? LOL. This is going to be an interesting month. I’d take a picture of the fridge but it’s kind of hard to since there are random bits of stuff in there and not everything is mine and I went produce shopping today so it actually looks like it has food in there.

I love Henry’s and Henry’s is going to help me stay in budget and hopefully allow me to restock the pantry. I’ve been meaning to post of a picture of the stuff so I figure why not today since I’m bored.


It’s amazing what you can buy for $9.17. I generally buy all my produce once a week and I love how I can walk out with two full bags of groceries and pay less then ten bucks.

I bought 5 apples, 3 oranges, 3 tomatoes, 2 avocado’s, 3 carrots, 1 celery stalk, 1 romaine lettuce, ½ gallon of fat free milk, and 1 dozen eggs….

Amazingly, this should be food for a week mixed with some mexican leftovers I have from Monday nights dinner with my sister (and by week I mean to pack lunches and breakfast for work since I never know when I’m cooking dinner and for how many).

I figure I’ll make Mexican salads since I have beans and taco meat (the leftovers), and I can shred some lettuce up and add some avocado slices (I’ll have to go minus cheese, sour cream, and chips cause I don’t have any right now and I only went to one store) but that’s at least leftover Mexican salads for work on Thursday and maybe Friday. I’ll have some fruit and raw veggies in ranch (which is in the fridge already) for a snack and I’ll probably make oatmeal (made with milk not water) with some brown sugar for breakfast (I got the oats for less then a dollar last week from the bulk bin and a small box of brown sugar for 99 cents last month and I still have about half left (next time I’m going for the darker brown sugar because the light one isn’t sweet enough for my liking.))

Then I’ll probably finish off my week by combining the leftover stuff into salads on Saturday and Sunday. I can hard boil the eggs, and use the bacon bits in the cupboard too… mix in the leftover tomatoes, a bit of carrot and that’s a pretty nice salad there. (I’m trying to avoid croutons… I tend to eat them like TV watchers scarf potato chips) I can also grill a chicken breast of two from the freezer and make grilled chicken to add in to the salad… and I can always make deviled eggs since I have Mayo and mustard in the fridge and paprika in the spice rack (which I didn’t take a picture of because it’s not mine, but I’m allowed to use the spices and three pictures is enough for one really long blog post.)

I do want to pick up some cheese… but I’ll see how it plays without it… I mean after all, I’m a mouse… I’m addicted… I’d be ten pounds lighter if I couldn’t eat cheese. And salad’s always taste better with cheese… yummy…

But because the pantry is on the scant side, I’ll probably try and get by without and use that money to buy other stuff with.

All this food talk is making me hungry… I think I might eat an orange now.

got a new realtor.. & i'm happy...& the new Kiva system

I talked with her on the phone, but i already love her more then my old one. This makes me happy.

I wrote a ridiculously long post the other day at my apartment, I even took pictures of my scare pantry... but i don't feel like posting it anymore, so I won't.

Last month I pinced my pennies, stayed on budget, and didn't spend my "extra leftovers." This month, my goal is to find the remaining money to fund my Roth IRA (including the extra check that will come in July)... but this month i'm also going to spend money... on fun.

It's important to ntreat yourself every once in a while... So this month I have to spend all my Fun money on fun things. Whether I buy some books, go out to dinner, ect it must be used for fun, not groceries, or toiletries. Only fun.

I used my CC rebate check to buy some plant seeds, soil, and one of those Topsy turvey plant growers... I'm waiting till boyfriend figures out how to hook it up so I can grow my own tomatoes.
=)

I normally use my CC rebate checks for loans on KIVA.org ... and i know I haven't made a new loan in a while sicne i haven't been spending as much money as i used to, but i'm not sure if every CC rebate check will go to Kiva like it did last year. I still love Kiva, but I also can't ignore that without overtime, I'm going to make less then I did last year and I may have to use them to meet some of my savings goals. I have a lot of cash in my Kiva account that I could just "re-lend out..." but I like to wait until the loans are re-paid in full to do that. So i think i'm going to take the every other one approach. I spend one, or save it, then I donate the next one... but i never take out funds i've already donated... those will always be re-loaned out when a loan comes to maturity.