Mamasita's Quest for Financial

I've definetly caught some sort of bug. After a sleepless night I finally got out of bed at 3:30 am to do something about my congestion. I used the neti pot, which did help to clear my sinuses temporarily, and took some pseudophed. But now I'm awake for the day! Fortunately,I don't have any activities planned after work this evening so I can go home and rest.

I checked on my budget since I'm up anyway. It looks like everything is right on target, whew. I'm eager to reach my 10K goal. I've got to save on average $1666 per month. Only at $1006 right now, but the month isn't over yet

I may look into the possiblity of summer employment. Teaching summer school would be ideal, good hours. I just think that besides the extra money, a little structure would do me some good. As much as I hate to admit it, I like to stay a "little" busy! I didn't work last summer because we went on vacation for a week and then another long weekend. This year we are not planning a vacation because we are doing the cruise in October. So work is something to consider.

Board meeting is tonight, so we can get some feedback on what to do with the house when we relocate.

We have a staff day Friday, so no students. I actually like going to work those days because it gives me a chance to catch up on all of the paperwork that is required. It's hard to plan and teach when you have a deskful of other things that need your immediate attention,too. I'm catching a cold and feeling pretty lousy, so if I can just stay healthy this week and make it to Friday I will be ok!

I'm feeling better about the house situation, too. We are being proactive and have lots of time to make decisions. We will get a better idea of our options after the next board meeting.

I spent the weekend with family. We had DDs friends come over for dinner Sat night, one had a sleepover, and went out to lunch with my brother on Sunday. We spent the rest of Sunday at home relaxing with the kids. Well, I was doing homework, but it always feels good to knock those assignments out of the way. I'm also learning a lot that can help me right now, so I'm looking forward to going to work and putting some strategies into practice.

Thanks for some feedback on rewards, SA! I think I will continue to let the rewards grow for now, and then dump them in the EF when it gets big enough. I will track it, though, so I know what I've earned for the year. I'll add that to my blog side bar, and update periodically throughout the year.

I added another $5 rebate check to the family cruise fund, making $482. I started this account in 2011, so those rebates add up over time. When we first started the account with rebate checks, I remember when it was like $40, and we would say things like, ok, we can buy lunch at Disney World now. When it got to $100, we could cover one night in a hotel, that sort of thing. Now that the cruise is booked, it is very exciting to see my rebates going towards a big cruise ship!

My rental place is operating smoothly, and our finances our on track for now. Our biggest concern is the house when SO gets new military orders next year. It is still over a year away, but she wants to get the house in order. The HOA is very strict on rentals, and they may not grant her permission to rent it out if the quota of rentals has been met. Then she will be forced to sell, but there have been some short sales lately which have just dragged the prices down in the neighborhood. There is no way could we sell at that price, SO would have to join the ranks of short sales/foreclosures. And some of these short sales have been sitting empty in the neighborhood for over a year. It's scary, and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. But that is why we are starting to communicate with the HOA now, a year and a half prior.

I've taken advantage of some credit card Rewards bonuses lately. In the past I would just cash it out, but then the checks never really "did" anything. It would come in handy for a car repair, or a night out. I would have "found" money in my budget for those things even without the rewards cash, though.

I want the rewards money to go towards something, I think it would be more motivating for me. I debating should my rewards cash go towards our vacation in the fall or Christmas. If it goes to the vacation, well, that's great, it will really boost the fund, but when that is paid in full in August I'll have to start from scratch for Christmas. That doesn't give me much time to save.

I don't have to do anything with them right now, they will just continue to grow online. It is for my own piece of mind, to know where my money will be going!

How does everyone here organize their Rewards loot?

I received a $6 rebate in the mail today. New cruise savings balance: $477.

$10,000 savings update: $1,006. A little slower than I had planned, but of course things crop up: the extra amount due on my state taxes from last year, dental copays for the kids, all that good stuff.

My online course has started, and it is going to be very time consuming. The upside is that I know it is going to be very useful in my classroom.

My online class started today, so I spent the morning going through orientation, watching videos, and printing out documents. I still have more to get done today.
I took a break to take DDs to the craft store to spend their Christmas money. They were happy with their purchases, and I feel we got some good deals. The three of us also got our hair cut before lunch, always traumatic because my girls hate to get hair cut! They want long hair, but never want to brush it, go figure!
I received $17 in rebate checks yesterday in the mail, so cruise fund is up to $471.
Ok, off to spend some money on textbooks online and get some more classwork done. I want to knock out the first week now so I don't have to spend so much time on the class later in the week. I will see how this class goes. My work is paying for this one, so this class is like the "tester". I really need to think long and hard about what these classes will bring to my life.

Last night we went out to dinner with another couple to a restaurant where we recieved a Groupon certificate for Christmas. I knew that our meals had to be from a selected menu, that was fine. When the waiter got around to place our orders and discovered that we were the couple with the groupon certificate, they shoved a stained photocopy of the selected menu in front of us. Our friends received their meal like 30 minutes before we received ours, so we all had to wait around for each other to eat. It was obvious to everyone that the restaurant wasn't trying too hard with our meals, since they were already paid for. But you would think that part of the benefit of Groupon is the possibility of returning customers. I would never return to that restaurant. And I'm glad I wasn't the one paying for the meal!

The wind woke me up early this morning. I guess the cold ront has made its way to us. Yesterday it was sunny and warm, I didn't even wear my jacket after work. Today it has dropped about 20 degrees and the wind is Howling. Still not going to complain. We have been blessed with a mild winter so far. I take every day I am given!

My paycheck came in last night due to the holiday weekend. My bills are still scheduled to leave the account next week. I'm pleased that everything will be paid and savings is according to schedule.

A few one-timer expenses are getting paid this pay period. I'm renewing my passport, total will be about $122. I guess spanning the 10 years or so before I need another one, not such a huge expense. DDs are having sealants done for dentist. I am very surprised the insurance doesn't cover this 100%. Between the two girls this may be close to $100.

One DD also has a referral to see an orthodontist, ugh. I have a feeling that "orthodontist" will be a regular expense in the near future...

Last night I had a planned shopping stop right after picking up DDS after school. DD has been searching for a DVD set that she wanted to spend Christmas money on, so we went to a Target out of the way that had it last time we checked. I had planned on taking the girls out to eat on the way back home, but it was rainy, getting dark, and I think all of us just wanted to get back to the house. We had a relaxed, free meal of quesadillas and fruit. Even planned eating out is losing it's appeal to me. But it saves me money, yay! I have my 2012 goals to reach, that is more important than a so-so meal somewhere.

In the last two days I have received rebate checks for a total of $23, bringing the cruise fund up to $454.

Work is as challenging as ever, I will leave it at that. I continue to find the good in all situations. (Positive affirmation, you know!)

My online class starts next week, I'm anxious to get it started. I don't know why I decided to take classes again, except that this will be a good step for my career and my students should benefit.

I decided to take the $10,000 I saved last year and stick it in a taxable Sharebuilder account. I can transfer it back to my ING account should something come up which requires that money. There is the risk that I may "lose" the money in the game, but mostly I have lots of years to average out losses and gains, and eventually come out ahead.

The weather warmed up again yesterday so we were able to grill outside for dinner. Wayyy better than any meal we could have gotten at a restaurant. The smell of food on the grill, the bustle on our small patio, it always brings fond memories of summer meals! We haven't eaten out this week, which is an accomplishment for us. This is mostly thanks to my SO, she is much more disciplined as far as cooking at home.

Luckily it has been a short week, but it is still very hard to get up in the mornings. Once we are in the car I do ok, because then I think of what I can get done during the work day, but, boy, is it hard getting everyone dressed and out the door!

I updated the cruise savings to reflect the additional rebate checks deposit. We are trying to pay for the cruise with rebate checks as much as possible, we earned over $350 last year just through rebates.

On the work front, I'm a little upset, the additional help I got this year is being pulled to be used elsewhere. Chaos resumes again in the classroom. I know I can finish out the year, but I am seriously reconsidering my future options.

It was so hard to get up this morning, especially since the temperature dropped into the low 40s today. I haven't complained about the weather much, though, because we have enjoyed pretty mild weather up until now.

Work was not bad, about half of the students were still out, I think that a lot of the families were finishing up vacations. I got a lot of planning done, and a lot of one-on-one time with the students, which is always such a help.

I received 2 rebate checks in the mail that totaled $12. I will add this to our account earmarked for the family cruise.

Tomorrow our family is going ice skating, taking advantage of groupon tickets bought last month. We will eat frozen pizza at home before we head out, saving ourselves time and money on another meal. We still have plenty of food at home because we have been finishing leftovers rather than cooking what we originally intended. That means I should see a lower grocery bill next week!

My parents took the kids to a resort for the evening for their own party, so SO and I were able to celebrate the New Year at a local club. I got SO to dance with me, (which is a first!), and just had club soda all night. We had a great time, I haven't celebrated New Years with a large crowd in several years.

I got up this morning feeling good. I went ahead and checked my work email for the first time since holiday break. Nothing too overwhelming, just one issue that my AP had already called and discussed with me over the holiday. I'm ready to go back. I got some much needed rest, and I have lots to look forward to in 2012. Lots of work ahead, with my new course starting up in a few weeks, SO testing in the next month or so, and the kids working as hard as ever at school. But it's all for a good cause. We just have no time for stuff that isn't going towards the greater good. That's the tricky part- really "listening" to what we should be doing, not just what seems fun or easy.

Of course, just days after writing out my lofty 2012 financial goals, I get a suspicious looking envelope in the mail. As soon as I saw the senders address- state department of taxation, I groaned. Sure enough, I got a letter explaining how in 2008 one taxpayer (my spouse) was exempt from state taxes due to military and we filled out Form XYZ. Therefore my exemptions were limited based on the percentage of income I contributed to the household- I claimed too many exemptions for state. Basically I owe about $624.

I could visualize myself getting further away from my 2012 goals. However, I am so thankful I have an emergency fund right now, because we can all expect that these things things happen. Maybe not a tax issue. For someone else (who is smarter with numbers!), it could be a home repair,or an extended, expensive illness. We all just have to do the best we can to prepare ourselves for what will eventually throw our good plans off track.

I will still get to my 2012 goals, I'm just going to be $624 lighter in the beginning of the year.

Now that Christmas has past, it seems as if everyone has relaxed a bit. I've gone to my friends' houses for meals and done my errands in relative peace. I really appreciate the peace, and I think that my kids do, too. They are happily playing with their Christmas toys. I'm catching up on my rest. My SO is getting lots of study time in for an important test. We all needed this break.

We went to Walmart for wrapping paper and found what we needed. I also picked up some green table items to use right now, my dining room table looks a bit bland. I'm very happy that I stopped in today, I picked up some good deals.

Although the weather was around 50 degrees today, it was very sunny. I decided to go for a run outside, just because I could. If it was any colder I wouldn't have done it, I'm very picky about running temperature! I feel so good now, 2 more miles done for the month.

My family had a wonderful Christmas together, we are very blessed. We spent the day in the company of our family, eating a deli lunch and playing with our new toys.

Today we left the house and took the girls bowling. It was fun, something different. We also checked out the after Christmas sales. I picked up nice gift sets to give throughout the year and next Christmas. I plan to go back out tomorrow, I still need to pick up a few rolls of holiday wrapping paper. I don't like to overstock, but I like to have just enough.

Although I love Christmas and had a great time, I have to confess that I took all of my decorations down today! I just like to "move on", no dwelling.

As I'm cleaning up my finacial goals, I'm also looking at my long term goals. I decided to move the action plan of my long term goal into a blog post rather than leave it on my blog setting. This way as I make updates I can log those as well.

I have trouble thinking of 10 years out, but as time goes on I am realizing that 10 years really isn't that far off.
My number one goal: Relocate somewhere tropical. Or someplace very warm that calls my name. Some things, obviously, I can't do right away, like look for a place to live, or job applications. But I want to start working on things that will lead me to my goal.
I have kids, and although they would love to move back as well, I have to be smart about all of this. Their dad lives here and is about to retire from the military. We want the kids to see him as much as possible. My SO is active duty and has at least 7 years left in, so no telling where they will send her during this time. These relationships will always come before tropics!

Action plan:
* need career that can transfer to new location (got it)
* Make myself a true asset in the field, to increase the chances that I could get hired anywhere. Currently I am starting a strenuous certification program that will probably take me 2 years to complete. But with this certification, I should have a lot of options available to me.
* money in the bank to "get by" while getting situated in new home ~ $20,000? I'm halfway there. Then of course I have to keep the money for the next 9 years! I will have to figure out where to store that money for the most bang for my buck.
*stay debt-free so that my financial obligations are minimal
*have some equity in a rental house or some cash in the bank from a home sale (condo purchased, and I now have a tenant!)

There you have it, I'm making progress!

EF up to $20,000 by the end of June 2012.

Come up with a plan to pay for certification expenses through employee reimbursement, grants, and out of pocket. Though I really don't want to pay for any of this out of pocket, I've paid so much for my education already. 1 class will be covered so far, 4 more to figure out. Total cost of these 5 courses: $4250...

Go ahead and do the divorce paperwork already. (We've been legally separated for nearly 5 years).

Figure out the balance of my health savings account. I started this last year, and the amount not used rolls over from year to year, and can be withdrawn for special circumstances. I just need to be more aware of this account, since I'm paying into it.

Every month: Run at least 25 miles, and log 8 or more additional workouts.

Hmm, saving $20,000 should be the easy part.

I'm a free woman, until January 3! I've had too many sugary baked goods today, but we had a great last day of school and it feels so good to be home, knowing I can relax for a while.

I just transferred money over to EF, I have met my short term goal of 10K saved by 12/31/11! I guess it's not truly an emergency fund, though. I pull money out of it for various "big ticket" things that might crop up, like an expensive car repair, a vacation, summer camp for the girls. It is easier for me to save in one fund than several various places. But as long as this account keeps growing, I'm happy. I've got my eye on my next goal now, 20K by June 2012. That is the only financial goal I have set up right now, I think that I will think about goals over the break and update my list. I know that one of them will be in regards to my schoolin, I'm taking a class in January and I may commit to the entire program, if I like it and I determine it will be financially beneficial to me.

Shopping is done. Goodies are all made, too. I even took pictures of DDS by the Christmas tree to post for out of town relatives. This week I will just pick up some party platters (free, I have rebates!), and get a tank of gas. I will make it till the 1st without dipping into savings!!!

Speaking of savings, I am on target to reach my savings goal of 10K by the end of December. I have till 11:59pm, gonna need every minute.

I have some intense meetings this week at work, one a day, so every evening my load will get lighter.

I'm talking about the fabulous endorphin rush that comes after a good run! I had a great run last night and I felt so good afterwards, it really lightened my mood the entire evening. The Last week was a bit tough, with work and home repairs,and I noticed SO and I were getting stuck in a "negative cycle". I would be crabby, say something I shouldn't have, SO would react, and the rest of the evening would be awkward. We would apologize and vow to be nicer to each other. But the next night, something else would crop up, and I would misinterpret something that SO said, get my feelings hurt, and before you knew it, THAT night would be spoiled just a little bit. Yesterday, though, I felt so proud of myself for my run, and felt so good, that the "negative cycle" was broken.

I'm just giving a shout out to any SA friends who are feeling overwhelmed this time of year, or depressed, or just broke, to go break a sweat. Walk, swim, dance, twenty minutes should do it, more is even better. You owe it to yourself! Then come on back afterwards, do your cleaning or just go about your day with a lighter heart!

I've sent off 3 packages. One more to send off. This weekend the girls and I will make one more batch of cookies, this will go to a neighbor and some relatives out of town.

I need to be very careful with my money because the 15th through New Years Eve will feel like an awfully long stretch with gift shopping and impulse buys that can tempt. All I have left to pick up will be gift cards, so that will be an easy purchase, no browsing allowed!

I will be very busy with work today and next week, that will keep me out of the stores. And I have lots of plans with the family and friends during break, none of which involve shopping!

My weekend started on Thursday afternoon. Youngest DD and I went to a neighboring town with her BFF and her mother for a Christmas event. We stayed in a hotel overnight, enjoyed the swimming pool the next morning, and then hit the outlets for some shopping. I bought some more gifts from my list, stayed within my budget during the trip.
After returning home Friday night we were woken up by the house alarm at 3am. Our water heater was leaking, and got into the ceiling, setting off the alarms. Very scary, I ran around and turned off water valves, turned off the gas, and tried to take the batteries out of the fire alarms, and then discovered that the alarms were wired through the house. I found the fuse box and shut off the "smoke detector" fuse. This was new to me, I always thought that smoke detectors were just battery operated, I didn't know that they could be wired and connected to the breaker box...
So Saturday morning we had to improvise- no breakfast with Santa, as we had to wait for an emergency visit from the plumber instead. The water heater will be replaced within the next few days, but the plumber disconnected the water supply from the heater so that we could at least turn our water back on. It has been a weekend of cold showers... I pretend I am Pocahontas bathing in the river in the middle of winter
Sunday after church I did grocery shopping, a bit more Christmas shopping, and went on a cookie baking marathon. I have a box of goodies to send out to relatives, and teacher gifts to send to school with DD.
Today it is back to work, always plenty to do!

Sigh. It's almost painful to look back the last 10 years. I was married back then, young, with a toddler. I was mostly staying at home with my daughter and taking care of our home and rental house. If we still had that rental house, well, we'd have a lot of money right now. No use looking back with regret, though. AS a couple we had good intentions with the moeny we made but never really stuck to one path of financial growth. I was fortunate to be able to stay home with my children while they were young, and I was able to earn my master's degree. My spouse had a wife who took care of the homefront while he was away for work most of the year, and I could drop everything to be with him on work trips when suitable. So the money didn't get wasted, it went to where we wanted it to go. Would I do things differently? Yes. But not a whole lot differently. And not if it meant I couldn't stay home with my kids and I couldn't support my spouse while he was doing his job. Those things were important to our family.

These next 10 years will be different. I am no longer married, and now I have a child in elementary school and middle school. I have a career now, and I'm working on additional certification to expand my career options in the next few years. I purchased a home all on my own, that I rent out. I'm responsible for my bills and savings. I've done great saving on my own, and I plan on continuing down the same path in the next 10 years.
I want to double my salary in the next 10 years. That means I will have to look beyond teaching. I can become a specialist of some sort, or branch out into the private sector for work with children with special education needs.
I am still going to relocate somewhere tropical within the next 10 years. Hopefully sooner, as I want my children to be young enough to enjoy it as a family. I should be able to find a teaching position out there, especially with the additional certification I am going to earn.
So I will keep paddling along, with my long-term goals in mind. Good choices are what will get me to my dreams!

I'm trying hard not to take money out of savings to cover the expenses for the end of the month. There were some things that cropped up that I didn't really take into consideration before stuffing money into my savings account, like dance performance tickets for my daughters' show, reptile cage for the lizard my daughter "won", and of course holiday gift "deals". All of these expenses have left me with very little extra cash. It's a bad habit of mine, I tend to put too much away and underestimate my expenses.

I also have a service request at the rental house, something is wrong with the washer. Fortunately the home warranty became effective on Nov. 27, whew! I have been keeping careful record of expenses and income on the condo so that I am accurate come tax time.

It was super tough to get up this morning, but now that I've got some coffee running through my veins I am getting back into the morning routine.

I really enjoyed the weekend. Besides spending time with family and doing lots of shopping, I got to enjoy some beautiful weather after Thanksgiving. It was t-shirt weather all weekend, and I finished up my miles for the month by running outside Saturday. I also hung up the Christmas lights, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather.

We've got a busy week ahead of us, both at work and at home. Busy means that we will get lots accomplished, though, and that always feels good!

I'm trying to get my stuff together at work and home so that when it is time to start my class after the New Year I will be prepared. I need to do well in these classes. They are the start of potentially new opportunities for me in my career, more choices.

I wrote down who I will be shopping for, so now I have a game plan. I might be able to knock it all out this weekend. I'm going to use one of my rewards credit cards and pay it off at the end of the month. I want to get the shopping done with and then stay out of the stores!

My kids shopping is complete, I need to just stop looking! There are so many things I know they would enjoy, I just don't believe in too much "stuff". I know that kids like to play, create, pretend, and generally be busy with different things (you should see my classroom!), I just "try" to keep the actual material goods toned down a bit.

I did get the winter coats for the girls, so glad I waited! With the Old Navy sale I picked up 2 winter coats that are very, very cute, 2 pairs of gloves,a pair of boots for older DD, and 2 shirts for myself for $71! Now both girls are set for the winter weather.

I registered for a spring class this weekend. I had to pay for it, but my work will reimburse me after I submit a C or better grade. It is one of five that is required for a certification I want to earn. Then I have to complete a number of practicing hours. All in all it should take about 1.5-2 years to earn the full certification, if I'm still working full time. Sooner if I switch to a job where my work hours can count towards practicing hours. Seems like a long time but I think it will be very useful in the classroom, and make me much more marketable if I choose to branch out to private agencies.

I finished Christmas shopping for my girls this weekend, and haven't even started on anyone else! I'm liking the online shopping, I tend to spend way less than when I go into an actual store.

I have really savored the long weekend so far and it has been a pretty cheap weekend for the most part. Friday I woke up, exercised, and did the grocery shopping for the week. We were under budget for groceries (yay!) because we have plenty of food in the house to pull together additional meals. We met up with friends for happy hour and enjoyed several hours of company on the cheap. Most of the group was military, and I know they appreciated the day off and recognition on Veteran's Day.

Saturday I did a couple hours of planning for the school week and then spent some time with SO before taking her to the airport for a work trip. The rest of the day went by quickly, picking kids up and dropping them off with friends, picking them up again.

Today I plan to exercise again, more school planning, get my cleaning done for the week, and do some cooking. It should get up to 69 degrees today, nice outside weather. I will take the kids and dog somewhere to enjoy the fresh air. I should be nice and tired by the end of the day, that way I will sleep well!