Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I'm back from San Fran!

My first trip to the city was amazing. We didn't really plan things out and did stuff as they came to us since I went with friends who had been to the city multiple times. We saw the bridge, the Fort below the bridge, Pier 39, fishermans warf, the crookedest road in the world, road on a cable car, and a whole lot of stuff.

Were going to go back up there are really do a planned trip with alcatraz, and a few tours... plus i want to go back when i planned for more spending money. We went to guiradelli square, and i want to be able to buy more chocolate next time... plus boudins bread is always worth it.

But all and all, it was a nice break. We even hit up an outlet mall on the way home and i got 5 bottles of my favorite bath wash from bath and body works for $15! and $5.00 for some lotion that's normally 17.50 a bottle!

but a lovely trip one way or another. =)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Kiva Update... and 2 new loans!!!!

Two of my loans on KIVA were repaid this month so I re-lent the money and sponsored 2 more people!

My two new loans:

Zenaida Daing
Farming, Philippines


Zenaida Daing is 51-year old farmer and mother of six children. She grows rice and is currently needing additional capital to run her business. Her farm is mainly the source of their livelihood. With her farm, she is able to buy food and send all her children to school.

The 1-hectare farm that she tills needs 1 unit sprayer, and 2 bags of certified seeds. Now, she is asking a loan of Php 15,000 from CEVI to be able to sustain and improve the rate of her harvest.

With God's blessings, she still able to support the growing needs of her family. Now, what she is doing is just maintaining the farm because CEVI is always giving her loan assistance, trainings and insurance coverage services.

Name: Zenaida Daing
Location: Sta. Josefa, Agusan del Sur, Philippines
Primary Activity: Farming
Loan Use: To purchase 1 unit sprayer, and 2 bags of certified seeds
Repayment Term:
7 months -


Elizabeth Aidoo
Food Market, Ghana


Elizabeth Aidoo is forty-five years old and married with six children, three sons and three daughters. All are currently in school - senior high, junior high and primary school. She lives with her husband and children in a rented apartment in a commercial town called Dwenase in the Western Region. Dwenase is a suburb of Sefwi-Wiawso, the district capital. Her husband is a farmer and Elizabeth trades in food stuffs – cassava, plantain and yams. She sells from a table top at the market square and also supplies other retailers and food vendors. She needs a loan to buy yams in bulk. Elizabeth has been in business for ten years. She wants to expand her business and to give her children a good education.

Name: Elizabeth Aidoo
Location: Wiawso, Ghana
Primary Activity: Food Market
Loan Use: To buy yams in bulk
Repayment Term:
8 months -


My other loans

Mobateli Plus Group
Manufacturing, The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Paying Back
19% repaid

Paz y Amor Group
Fruits & Vegetables, Dominican Republic
Paid Back
100% repaid


Dustmatov Eralboy
Livestock, Tajikistan
Paying Back
75% repaid

Seccelambras Group
Food Production/Sales, Peru
Paid Back
100% repaid


Rashidat Mumuni
Fish Selling, Nigeria
Paying Back
87% repaid

Karla Vanessa Montiel Barahona
Housing, Nicaragua
Paid Back
100% repaid


Eal Nub
Fish Selling, Cambodia
Paying Back
63% repaid

Atim Irene's Group
Medical Clinic, Uganda
Paid Back
100% repaid

Saturday, June 20, 2009

boyfriend has Hours!

He's been told by his current gig that they will give him 18 hours a week... still contractor.

He's still looking, but this is a huge sigh of relief for now. He'll be able to pay his bills now.

and hopfully those back taxes... maybe eliminate that one smaller credit card or not owe anything for next years taxes...

=)

a bit of everything

Sorry I haven’t posted much. I’ve been handed more and more projects at work and I find my free time certainly disappearing, much to my pleasure. I like being busy at work.

Therefore, I find myself curling up with some books instead of typing away at a post because that requires too much energy looking for my laptop.

It’s summer at work now… I already have raccoon eyes from my sunglasses… and it’s only June.

Next weekend I’m off to San Fran for the first time ever… and Monday becomes my year and a half anniversary with Boyfriend! So the tail end of the month should be awesome.

I got paid my $95.00 for working the polling place. I’m trying to decide if I want to upgrade my phone… its 35 bucks online… and I noticed my old discount I got on there got reduced so my bill went up a few bucks…They have a promotion going on right now for my plan so I could get my 39.99 bill down to 33.99 plus the $20 for text messaging… So I think I might call once I decide what phone I want and see if they will let me do the new thing and get the free phone… I really need to give boyfriend back his old phone.

The house hunt still goes on… saw a few other places… places one offer that’s sitting with the bank and the property realtor said she would not submit any more offers until the bank agrees if it likes mine.

My car needs a tune up, doing that on Monday with a fun $10 off coupon. =) yeah!

I’m officially on a diet. I normally don’t use the word diet, but alas, I started jogging 2.2 miles once a week and was feeling pain in my knee… so I got it looked at and my doctor told me no more jogging until I loose at least 5 lbs and build muscles up in my thighs so I’m walking and biking now… and dieting… well see.

and i don't have to call baby IT and THING anymore... she knows its a boy now... so she's going to name IT/THING soon so i'll have something else to call it. (this should make some of you all very happy, j/k.... i'm just teasing!)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hello surrounding communities

The search area of my future home has now been expanded to include a few more cities.
no bites yet... but Monday will be another round of hunting and more hunting. At least next month I'll be adding some more cash to the illusive house downpayment fund... I just got to figure out how to live cheaply without a lease if i don't find something before my lease is up...

renting a room is looking better all the time when i think about the "not wanting a lease" thing. but i'll hate not feeling like the place is mine.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Church plant, condo search, & why I call it THING

I’m starting a church plant with friends. Were filing paper work with the government and looking for a building. I’m uber excited to finally cut all ties with my former church!

I also looked at two condo’s yesterday… Sadly, the one I was hoping would be the final end had soaked carpets from a leaky water heater, weird electrical issues, not to mention that the kitchen was gutted… yup, walked away from that. The second one had a lovely view of a cemetery… yup, not joking… scratch that one off my list.

The hunt continues…


oh, and just so i don't get any other comments about calling roommates baby "THING"-- and "IT"--- that's what she keeps calling her baby.... there are magnets on the fridge that surround her ultra sound that say THING- 10 Weeks.... (the doctor was a bit off so today she's around the 11 week marker and should be starting to show... which means she needs to tell her dad sooner rather then later since he doesn't know...) She wants to call it IT and THING because she doesn't know it's gender... its more of a running joke in the apartment that i just didn't cover in the previous post cause it's hard to explain... I'm not some heartless individual. I'm glad she's not aborting the baby, and i'm trying to be a supportive roommate...

but I won't lie and say its easy. I've been through one miscarry with her already, and it's hard to be 100% supportive when she continues to make dumb choices while pregnant... She's just someone who has burned a lot of bridges... and not just with me

Friday, June 5, 2009

a little bit of everything update...

I just almost finished reading this book my Marian Keyes called “Lucy Sullivan is getting married.” If you haven’t read it, it’s chick lit and I won’t ruin the ending… but it took this interesting twist at the end when she has to deal with her father’s “problem” and I found it very empowering especially considering what this past year has had for me in my personal life. It’s given me a lot to think about. Some good some bad

----
I opened two new savings accounts at ING; Car insurance and Vacation Florida funds.
I had $133.78 in holiday pay added onto my paycheck. So I put that towards Florida.

I also have $50 bucks left over from last month that I’m going to carry over to this month’s budget. I also got a $25.00 check from my credit card… and again I’m not sure if I’ll do a new loan on Kiva… my minds a mess so I’ll deposit it and think about it later.

Sorry posts have been few and far between, or all in one day… I’ve written stuff, forgotten to post it, and I’ve been kind of busy. I’ve been looking at more condos, placed a few more offers and have heard nada back. The counter offer hasn’t called us back… it’s just a mess. I’m now looking at one bedroom condo’s wayyyy more seriously then I was before. I’ve always been open to buying places and renting them out. I have a few friends who could walk me through the process if I needed to down the line. It’s the same price as renting and I’d love to never have my rent increase and actually get to write off the interest.

I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of what was left in my pantry at the end of the month, but I’ll try to this month at the end of it… if I’m not too tired from San Fran. I think I should ask my boss for the Tuesday off after (my Monday)… I wasn’t originally since I was going to sell back some vacation hours at the beginning of next year, but I decided not too sell back my vacation. Right now sanity is better then money. I worked out a way to pay for the trip and I may sell it back anyway and start saving for a European vacation if I get my condo.

Work is asking us to pay 1% of our pensions now… and stop our mandatory 1% that went into our 401A so our net paycheck are still the same. Essentially it’s a 1% pay cut.

I want to ask if I can just keep putting the 1% into my 401A since I don’t want to miss out on two years in a down market. I’ll be making that call today. I figure I get a raise this year from 4-6% so that should eat out the difference even when they start taking out money to fund my “buy back” of the time I worked when I was 16. (I’m saving that up so each check they pull the money out I’ll pull out what it is from my savings account so my budget will remain intact.

---

I feel tired and strained so I’m trying to eat better and more simplified foods and drinking more water. It seems to be helping. Ysterday I had oats and brown sugar for breakfast, a banana was a snack, and I forgot the bread to make my blta at home, so when I got home I had some potato salad (not so healthy but I wanted it and I needed it gone before it went bad) and I made an early chicken dinner for boyfriend and me---mash potatoes, green beans, and homemade shake & bake chicken with apple sauce. I made the chicken coating from just shredded wheat cereal, salt, pepper, and some herbs. I think I dipped some of it in BBQ sauce and it was sooooo good. For a late night snack we had apples and peanut butter. So not a bad day… today will be better I hope, but roommate is cooking dinner tonight since it’s her night to cook…

yup, she instituted “you must hang out with me on Friday nights night.” Occasionally these get cancelled when boyfriend and I have things we can’t get out of, but not this week, and this week I’m solo since he has a gig (thank god). So I’ll be subjected to her processed box “cooking” since we trade off each week… and I’ll get to play emotional therapy councilor… oh well.

So tonight i'll be shown the new ultra sound picture… THING is now 9 weeks old… She's had three miscarriages in the past, but it looks like IT might have a shot at keeping its self hanging on for now since she past the 2 month marker… Which as selfish as it sounds… worries me. Her job is already in jeopardy and it may be gone in the fall if she doesn't step up and get the school credits she needs not to mention she gets no paid leave...... plus she doesn’t have “Daddy” to help her out. She's just not planning this whole thing very well.

Now you all know why i'm looking to buy a one bedroom condo. I'm not living with roommate plus one.

Child Share update

$92,503.36

Wahoo. My team is still the same, a bit over $4,000 bucks, but HOLY COW!!!