Vacation is a week away. This week my friends have all invited me somewhere. I am going to breakfast on Wednesday, pedicure on Thursday and I still need to ready the car and start packing.
All of these outings are great but cost money. Thankfully we have a few extra bucks from the garage sale or I would feel really guilty about going. I hope that we don't go crazy on spending this vacation. I hope that the autopay system is helpful and not hurtful.
In the hopes of finding something outside of selling all my stuff I found a website that I am trying to join to write prayers. I thought my first prayers were great and I hope that they enjoy them. I enjoy writing. I never thought of doing it for money. I think that is one of the great things that the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich is doing for me. I feel like it is pushing me to do more than I thought possible, to expand myself in ways I never thought I could. If I get the assignment, great, if not, I enjoyed the writing and will keep looking for places to do it.
Nice huh?
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Monday, July 12, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
I like the way you work it!
Back to reading and applying all the wonderful information from IWTYTBR
. According to RAMIT your categories of spending should go something like this: Fixed costs (utilities, debt., ect. = 50-60% of your pay.
Investments (401K, Roth IRA = 10%.
Savings (gifts, unexpected expenses, vacation) = 5-10%
Guilt Free Spending (ining Out, movies, clothes etc.) = 20-35%
I have not applied these numbers to my life just yet. I am off to vacation and just put some money into my car (to get to the vacation) and I am not there yet. It sound good though.
Investments scare me. I can't wait to do it but it scares me.
I am waiting for my autopayments to come out today too and that scares me.
I am a big FINANCIAL CHICKEN!
On my money making quest front I have sent out more books and am expecting more money soon. One place I sent books to is seding me a check for $1.00. How funny is that? I also am going to host a garage sale next Saturday. Pray that I price well and that people buy!
Personal note: I am going out to eat tonight. We decided to either take my daughter to dinner tonight or go to the amusement park in the neighboring town. I decided that dinner would be much cheaper and besides we are going to a BIG amusement park on our vacation. That is amusement enough!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Insanity of it all!
I have all my bills set up for auto payment (well except for two.) I am nervous about it but it is going. I think it will be great when we are on vacation and the bills are just paid without us having to worry about it at all. I also want to make sure that we plan a certain amount to spend on vacation so that we don't accidentally overdraw our account.
I was going through our bills today since our autopay starts up on Friday and we should really be doing so much better than we do each month. We were amazing in June and we really stayed within our means. We did not go crazy buying things we don't need and it felt good. I don't think we lacked for anything and we actually had money left over at the end of the month.
We are debating renting a car or putting the money toward tuning up my car for the road trip instead. My husband's car needs the air conditioning fixed and so that is going to be really expensive so not an option right now. I think after this vacation it will be easier because we can start putting the extra money toward savings instead of toward the vacation.
On the other hand it is going to be really difficult because I am going to have to go back to school and won't have as much time (or patience) to be so indepth with our finances. Some days it feels like a full time job.
Today was Ramit Sethi's birthday (I am not a stalker - he sent everyone on his mailing list an email.) He asked us to list the things we have used and been successful with from his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I actually had a lot of things listed that I have done and been successful with. I am so proud.
I still have not implemented everything but I am getting there!
I was going through our bills today since our autopay starts up on Friday and we should really be doing so much better than we do each month. We were amazing in June and we really stayed within our means. We did not go crazy buying things we don't need and it felt good. I don't think we lacked for anything and we actually had money left over at the end of the month.
We are debating renting a car or putting the money toward tuning up my car for the road trip instead. My husband's car needs the air conditioning fixed and so that is going to be really expensive so not an option right now. I think after this vacation it will be easier because we can start putting the extra money toward savings instead of toward the vacation.
On the other hand it is going to be really difficult because I am going to have to go back to school and won't have as much time (or patience) to be so indepth with our finances. Some days it feels like a full time job.
Today was Ramit Sethi's birthday (I am not a stalker - he sent everyone on his mailing list an email.) He asked us to list the things we have used and been successful with from his book I Will Teach You To Be Rich
. I actually had a lot of things listed that I have done and been successful with. I am so proud.I still have not implemented everything but I am getting there!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Bills Bills Bills
Trying to be organized and ensure that we pay off our monthly bills on time is such a pain. We accrued a bit of debt when I stopped working to stay home with my daughter. We are trying to get back on track and into smart spending and saving. It just seems that as soon as you finish with the bills more bills come in! What an exhausting process. Yet another reason my dream job is to be either an heiress or a princess is that I would have an accountant!
In our organizational process we are making sure that our bills are on time. We finished automating our bills. First of all yes, I did skip a chapter of Ramit's I Will Teach You To Be Rich because it was on investing. We are heading out of town next month to visit family and we are not saving money to invest right now it is all going toward getting the car up to par and the trip. I will have to go back to that chapter upon our return.
We sat down with all our bills and decided which bills needed to be paid at the beginning of the month and which needed payment at the end. We went on our banks website and signed up for auto-payment. It was unbelievably easy and I can't believe that I did not do this earlier. Mind you I am a bit nervous that something horrible will happen like our checks won't get deposited or something and then we will drown in it all but in reality I think it will turn out great. I think it will be REALLY helpful while we are out of town.
You know, if you are reading this (which I know not a soul is because I have one of those trackers on my blog) and you are in college or fresh out of college you really should buy this book. I wish I knew more about finances when I left college. I would have been so much better off now than I am. 'nuff of that - like I said, I am not going to lament my past but ensure my future!
On a personal note, I am thinking of re-reading my books by my favorite author, Maeve Binchy. My husband bought me one of her books called Echoes, but as it turns out I already owned it and read it. I might read it again what the heck. She is an amazing storyteller if you ever feel up to looking into her books.
In our organizational process we are making sure that our bills are on time. We finished automating our bills. First of all yes, I did skip a chapter of Ramit's I Will Teach You To Be Rich
because it was on investing. We are heading out of town next month to visit family and we are not saving money to invest right now it is all going toward getting the car up to par and the trip. I will have to go back to that chapter upon our return. We sat down with all our bills and decided which bills needed to be paid at the beginning of the month and which needed payment at the end. We went on our banks website and signed up for auto-payment. It was unbelievably easy and I can't believe that I did not do this earlier. Mind you I am a bit nervous that something horrible will happen like our checks won't get deposited or something and then we will drown in it all but in reality I think it will turn out great. I think it will be REALLY helpful while we are out of town.
You know, if you are reading this (which I know not a soul is because I have one of those trackers on my blog) and you are in college or fresh out of college you really should buy this book. I wish I knew more about finances when I left college. I would have been so much better off now than I am. 'nuff of that - like I said, I am not going to lament my past but ensure my future!
On a personal note, I am thinking of re-reading my books by my favorite author, Maeve Binchy. My husband bought me one of her books called Echoes, but as it turns out I already owned it and read it. I might read it again what the heck. She is an amazing storyteller if you ever feel up to looking into her books.
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