Out of debt!! (Sort of)

Prior to my getting let go from work, I was working hard to pay off my credit card. I was getting close, but it seemed like it was never gonna happen. I was able to pay of my car about a month before I was laid off, so I had that off my shoulders.

Then I was laid off, which is still the biggest blessing that could have happened to me. I can't help but be so happy lately. Anyway with the severance I received, I was able to fully pay off my credit card!!! And put a good chunk into savings!

Whooo hoooo!!!

It feels great to be out of debt like this. Granted I'm not out of the hole though. I still have my student loans which I'll be paying off for a while still, but at least that's "good" credit and I won't have to pay them while I'm back at school in September.

It's a great weight that's been lifted off my shoulders. Things are moving forward in the right direction and I can't wait for it to keep moving forward. I'm like a kid, who cannot wait for school to start soon! I never ever thought I would say that after college, but it's the truth!

For now I'm just enjoying my summer and soaking up the sun!

One Step Forward Two Steps back

The good stuff first. I had my first therapy session yesterday and it went pretty well. It was mostly intake and talking about what I would like to get out of therapy in the long run. I felt comfortable with her and I am hoping good stuff comes out of it. Already she's had two great ideas for me to explore that I never thought of.

First with the job stuff, she told me I should look into shadowing a bakery and maybe working part time there to see if it's something I would really want to do in the long run. Instead of even jumping head first into going back to school, test the waters so to speak. Which is something I really feel like I should have thought of myself. haha. I've already reached out to a few places and will hopefully hear back from them soon.

Next is my weight. I was telling her about how much day to day my weight can change. It's crazy sometimes and I've always felt like it can't be normal. I mean take for example, on Friday I weighed myself and then on Monday morning when I weighed myself I was NINE pounds heavier. That's not even remotely possible to have truly gained that much weight. The amount of calories I would have had to consume to gain that isn't possible for me. So she mentioned I may want to look into having my hormones checked. That when people lose a lot of weight, their hormones can become unbalanced. That actually would make a lot of sense for me. I'm going to make an appointment soon with my doctor to start having that checked out.

With the good comes the bad though. My car alarm has been going off randomly for months. For no reason. It was becoming more and more frequent to the point where I stopped locking my car. I had to get my oil changed so I figured I would have that looked at. $800 dollars later, not only did I need oil, I needed new tires, alignment, and something with my transmission. UGH!! Not to mention, they had NO idea what is wrong with the alarm and I ended up having to take it to a dealership today. Which is going to be another $200. It wouldn't be so bad normally, but a few days before I just booked a trip to Mexico with my friend in April. So in less than a week I've essentially just added $2,000 worth of debt to my credit card. AKA my plan to pay off my credit card in May, is going to take a little longer now.

It's just annoying when these unexpected costs pop up like this. It's a source of frustration and anxiety about paying off my debt. I was doing so good too. I do have some savings that I might dip into a little bit to take some of this weight off my shoulders. But I hate touching it because I want to for when I buy a house or something big. But I think if I take $1,000 from there and hopefully with my tax check in April, I can get back to where I was and back on track.

Making Resolutions (and sticking to them!)

I've never been big on making resolutions. I'm one of those people that doesn't believe in waiting for the "right" time to make changes. If you want to make a change, today is the day to start! Not next week or anything like that. However I'm going to change my tune this year. 2012 wasn't a particularly great year and I'm determined to change that and make 2013 wonderful!!

So here are my resolutions (some of them have already been in the works, but now I MUST accomplish them). This is why I like blogs, it holds me accountable.

* Get a new job. I've been kinda sorta looking, but now it's time to turn it up. It's time for a new challenge for me.

* Pay off my credit card. After getting money from my generous family for Christmas I was able to officially pay off one of my credit cards. (Under no circumstance am I allowed to use it from now on). Now it's on to the next one. I plan on paying it off in the next three months. By May 1 2013, I will have no more credit card debt!

* Once my credit cards have been paid off, my plan is to save $800 dollars a month out of my paycheck. So it all goes to plan I will save over $6,000 this year.

* Hit my goal weight! I've come so so far in my weight loss. I am not even close to the person I used to be, but I've gotten a little too comfortable lately and I'm up about 10 pounds right now. Now that's not even close to what I've lost, but I'm not happy. Everything is just way too tight right now. I want to lose these stubborn last 25 pounds already. They WILL be gone this year!

* Run my very first half marathon. Scheduled for the first weekend in May!! CAN"T WAIT!!! It's been on my bucket list forever.

* Run 1,000 miles (running, bike, elliptical, anything). Last year I attempted to run 1,000 miles and ended up falling short over 300 miles. Hopefully I'll hit 1,000 but being able to count all my other cardio!

I love my resolutions and I am confident I'll be able to accomplish all of them!! Here's to a better year for me and for everyone!

Making Resolutions (for the first time)

Happy New Year!

I'm officially back to blogging regularly. My week off was so nice! I got to catch up with a lot of people. Lots of lunches out. Highlight of my week was going to see Jersey Boys on Broadway! It was my Christmas gift for my mom. She's been dying to see it for years. I got amazing seats too. The show was awesome!! I found out a lot about the Four Seasons that I never knew either.

I don't usually make resolutions. I believe if your going to make a change, do it NOW and don't wait. However I am making some this year. One in particular had to start on the 1st.

I am aiming to run 1000 miles this year! About 20 miles a week! EEK! About 30 of us from my gym are aiming to do it. It will be so awesome at the end of the year to say that I ran 1000 miles. I'm about 7 miles in, only 993 to go. lol

Also I plan on hitting my goal weight this year. I hit a plateau that last few months, but I'm back on track and I want to hit my goal by the summer hopefully. Only 25 pounds to go!

Finally I need to get back on track with saving. The last few months I've spent way to much and dipped into my savings account, which I rarely allow myself to do! UGH. My goal, is to save $10,000 this year. About $800 a month. Thankfully I live at home so I don't have to pay rent. I'll use that to save save save!

I have a feeling 2012 is going to be great. I already have so much to look forward too. My trip to Italy in a couple of months! Running my first half marathon in May. My good friend getting married in June! It's going to be great!

How's your 2012 shaping up? Any goals you are working toward?

Eating and Shopping (Two of my favorite things)

My Thanksgiving was wonderful. By Thursday my mother had calmed down and the whole house was ready for my family to invade. It was a great day with lots and lots of food. It was also the first year I didn't have to sit at the kids table! I am 27 and this has never happened. lol

I live in a ranch house. The dinning room and family are connected together. There used to be two little walls between the two rooms. Last year we knocked down the two walls and made the passage way wider. Because of this we were able to connect the dinning room table and the kids table together, so all 20 of us could sit and eat dinner as a family. It was so nice! No one missed out on any conversations.

I ate so much food though. I just couldn't stop myself. I was so full that I thought I may be sick. My mom made her famous pepperoni bread, there was spinach artichoke dip, and cheese and meats platter for our apps. Dinner we had turkey, stuffing (one with sausage, one without) sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, broccoli rabe, green beans.... oh it was delicious. Thankfully I don't like dessert, or I may have actually gotten sick. My aunt made key lime pie and pumpkin pie, my grandma made apple stroudel and there were cookies.

It was a great day. But really long. I woke up at 7:30am to go to the gym and my family didn't end up leaving until 9pm that night. I was asleep by 9:30.

Unfortunately all that food caused me to have severe heartburn. I woke up at 3:30 in pain. I took tums but they didn't help. I figured since I was up, I may as well go shopping. lol. I was so sure that it was going to be packed when I left my house. My first stop was Kohls since I live right near there. I figured I would drive by and see what the parking lot looked like, before I would even go it.

It was a ghost town. I couldn't believe it! There was maybe 8 other people in the store. It was awesome! I got so many good deals, including a gold pair of earrings that were $300 marked down to $50 bucks. I got a Kitchen Aid Mixer for only $130 (after discounts and a rebate)!!! I've been dying to get a mixer for a long time. This was a great deal! Plus with the $15 kohls cash back I got like $105 dollars to use there this weekend.

After Kohls it was still only 5:30. So I headed down to the Jersey Shore Outlets. This was a little more busy, but I had no problem parking and was in and out all the stores pretty. The only store that looked crazy was Burberry. There was a line to get into the store and the line to check out wrapped around the store. There was no way I was going in there. But I got 50% off everything at Cole Haan and since it was before 8am I got an extra 20% off my total. Ann Taylor was 50% off everything. I got the most darling coat. So many good deals. By 8am I was totally done with my black friday shopping!

I had such a good experience. Later on in the day when I was driving around I saw that kohls was a madhouse. I am so glad I went before it got really busy. Me getting hearburn was the best thing to happen to me!! lol

How was your Holiday? Did you do any shopping for Black Friday? Online or in store?

I love money!

This weekend I sold some gold. I had a lot of chains that were too short, broke or just never worn. I also had earrings that were missing mates or weren't really my style. I'm been pretty strapped for cash lately so I decided to try and sell it.

I was really nervous. I had no idea about the process or if I would get ripped off. I went to the place that a few of my friends sold gold to. Which made me feel better. The whole process was fascinating. They checked every single piece to see how many karats something was. They would rub it on a stone and then pour acid over it to see how many karats it was. A lot of what I brought turned out to not be gold at all. I was surprised at some of the pieces.

In the end I had one pile of 14K and another 10K. Total sum of the two?

$700!!!!!!!!

I was in shock!! I couldn't believe how much I got for it! the 14K I got $550 for and the 10K $150. They paid me in cash to. Which was crazy. I went right to the bank to deposit it.

This $700 helps me out so much. My credit card is officially paid off and now I have money to buy the rest of my Christmas gifts. I should have some left over to spend in Italy too! WHOO HOOO.

Also ironically, my car battery died yesterday, so that money came in real handy when buying a new battery! lol

Have you ever sold jewelry before?

Car is FINALLY fixed

My car has been finally fixed today. Cost was over $400!! YIKES! However I'm just happy to finally have my car back. It sucked being carless for almost 3 days!

Turns out I needed both front and back brakes done. My back ones were worn out. My front ones somehow were damaged and warped. Which is what was causing the scary loud noise. Which is also scary to think about. Fortunately since they were damaged my front brakes were covered by warranty!! YAY! I only have to pay for the back ones.

Since I needed new pads and rotors it was going to be expensive. So that SUCKED. On top of this, me getting my hair done this weekend (finally and I cannot reschedule again!), Atlantic city for my BFF's birthday the following weekend (which I have to go to), and going to Baltimore the weekend after that (to try on bridesmaids dresses), makes me VERY broke.

I was so close to paying off my credit card completely, but it looks as though it will take another month or so to do it. I'm really bummed about this. I was just starting to get a handle on my finances.

I'm so happy that I get paid on Friday... lol

Success!!

It's September 1st. I can't believe how fast August went by though.

I'm happy to say that through shear willpower I did not purchase one single item of clothing, shoes or makeup for 6 weeks!! Holy crap!!! I am so happy that I was able to do this. I paid $1000 toward my credit card and it's almost totally paid off!! Hooray!

I think I need to do this more often. However my closet is in a sad state of affairs. There are seriously NO CLOTHES. IT's all hangers. Every time I've gone down a size, I've gotten rid of my clothes that are too big. It's feels great to do it. However not being able to buy any clothes that fit this past month was HARD.

Alreay today I've ordered clothes online from Macy's, The Limited and The Loft!! I went a little crazy!! lol. I also got a pair of rain boots that were 50% off from Kate Spade. I seriously went to town. But I honestly needed it.

I am however not buying ANY summer clothes. Everything that I've purchased is for the fall. I literally own one single sweater right now. I have a feeling it's going to get cold quick this year. I need to be prepared!

Also since I am still losing weight, everything that I'm buying is on sale/I have a pretty awesome coupon. My Limited stuff I got was 40% off and free shipping. The Macy's stuff, 50% off, free shipping again plus a 20 dollar off coupon! The Loft stuff was 40% off and free shipping. Rain boots 50% off!

I am becoming a pretty awesome bargain shopper. lol. This weekend I also plan on hitting some labor day sales. They are the best!

I just love buying clothes now! I have so many options to choose from!

Tightening my purse strings

I've said this many times before... I love online shopping!! Lately though it's been really out of control. I was ordering something at least once a week! Two weeks ago, I spent over $200 at Nordstrom (hello anniversary sale)and almost $300 at Bloomingdales. I bought both of those within days of each other. Cut to me having a panic attack and slight buyers remorse. That was WAY too much money!

However when the packages came, they were just to pretty to return!!



Hello my new favorite shoe for the fall.

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Hello shoes I will rarely be able to wear... lol



Hello new fav pair of shades!!



This was my favorite purchase of all!!! It is just so damn pretty!!! I am obsessed with it!!!!

These purchases happen about 2 weeks ago when they were on sale. Still expensive, but at least on sale...

Since that week, I've decided NO shopping at all until September 1. Online or in store. That means, no clothes, shoes, accessories or makeup. I will only buy essentials like food or soap if I need too.

So far, it hasn't been terrible. When it's slow at work, it's been a little rougher, because I usually kill time by looking at websites. I just need to find other ways to keep me occupied. I know I can do this though!

The good thing is I don't really need anything. I have enough summer stuff to keep me happy. Come September 1st, I will be able to buy clothes again, but they must be for the fall!! I literally have not one item of clothing that will fit me for the cooler months. They are all too big! (YAY) I will not allow myself to be tempted to pick up last minute summer deals. Fall and Winter allowed ONLY!

I'm hoping this month off from shopping, will allow my to pay off my credit card finally. Every time I get close, I seem to splurge like this. Come Mid September it should be totally paid off. Then my plan is to pay it off in full every month from then on.

I'll give you an update on how successful I was come September 1!

Mo Money

As of today, my credit card has been officially paid off!!!!

Whooo Hooo!!!!!!

It all started when I studied abroad. While it was one of the best experiences of my life, it was expensive. I traveled a lot and each time I would use my credit card because it was easier. After that it just kept on building up. Now my debt wasn't a lot, but it was something that I've been trying to slowly pay off for the past 2 years.

And now I'm done!!!!!! It feels great to have one less bill to worry about. Now I'm sure I will need to use my credit card again, but I plan on either paying it off in full each month or within 2 months. We'll see if that works or not.

I still have student loans, but I'm not worried about paying them off right away. I have a pretty low interest rate and the payments are deducted each month from my checking account, so I don't have to worry. Plus student loans are considered good credit to have.

Now I can focus more on building up my savings account and hopefully being able to buy a house one day soon!

Random Thoughts

I told you all about my spring cleaning. Apparently my cleaning out my closet was a green light to go on a shopping spree. I bought 2 pairs of capri pants, 4 tops, one beach dress and a pair of lounging shorts. All online, and all in one day. Geez. I have NO self control sometimes. Anyway I really needed some more summer clothes. I feel like all I own is winter stuff and with this insane heat NJ as been having, I needed it.

Speaking of shopping I also bought the new Sookie Stackhouse book and the Jen Lancaster books. Both released today. I am so excited to read both of them. I can’t wait to see what happens next to Sookie and what hilarious tales Jen will be telling.

I don’t normally talk about my job here but I had my performance review the other day and it was excellent!!!!!!! I couldn’t be happier and I can’t wait to see my next pay check and the little bit of extra money I’ll now be getting!

Not so good news? NJ Transit has raised their ticket prices. My monthly train pass is going up a whopping 80 dollars!!! Ugh. Not very happy about this at all.

My mom owns a timeshare. We have one week that is going to expire at the end of August. I wasn’t really planning on going on vacation this summer because I want to try and visit my brother in India come the fall. However it would be stupid to just let this week go to waste. Also it seems most of my friends don’t want to go away anywhere and spend a lot of money. This means I don’t really have anyone to go away with.

I’m not really sure what to do. It would be nice to just go to Florida or something but I don’t really want to go by myself. Or maybe I could try and sell the week on craigslist or something. But that could get messy. I just need to look into this more. I keep on procrastinating it for some reason but something needs to be booked soon. Any suggestions??

Field Trip!

The next few weekends I am super busy. While I'm so excited to have all these things going on, I'm a little worried about money. I'm hoping that my money saving that I've been doing will help me manage everything well this month! My goal is to still be able to save some money at the end of the month. I hope that my tax refund comes in soon! That way I won't have to worry about anything!

I have a weekend in Atlantic City (bachelorette party), and a weekend visiting a friend and Connecticut to worry about. Also in two weeks I am taking my cousins to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I have lived in NJ my entire life and I have never been there!! I am soo excited!!

My grandparents on my mom's side both came to America and stopped at Ellis Island. I'm hoping I can find their names when I go! Also on my dad's side my great grandfater came over so it would be interesting if I could find that name too.

I tend to be a bit of a geek when it comes to history like that but I think it's so cool!

Do any of you have family that passed through Ellis Island?

Occupy your time

It's almost the end of February and I reached my goal of saving $800 this month!! What I'm doing is I'm putting the money in my savings account. Once it's there, I'm not allowed to touch it That way I won't give in to temptation.

The only problem is this past week has been kind of slow at work. After I check all the blogs, gossip sites and my e-mail about 50 times I start to browse online stores. This is bad.

When I do this I have such an urge to just go ahead and buy something. Of course if it's in my budget I will buy something, but the whole point of this project is to curve my spending. I can't keep on looking online or I will spend more money that I really need to spend. I've even gone as far as putting items in the shopping cart and then just exiting the window. lol. I'm a mess.

Anyway are there any websites that you frequent that can help occupy my time so I resist the urge to spend? I really need suggestions!!!

Setting Goals

I’m pretty bad at saving money. I’m just always tempted to splurge and spend it on something.

While in the last 2 years I have saved money, it’s not nearly as much as I wanted to put away. Since the apartment hunt didn’t work out and I haven’t seen anything worth responding to on craigslist I decided to do a little experiment.

My goal is to put away the total amount that my rent would have been if I had moved. That’s about $800 dollars a month. It will be a good test to see how good I am at budgeting, and if I really can move out and still go out and have fun. Now I know in reality moving out would cost way more than $800. I didn’t factor in any bills or food. I just wanted to do a solid number.

Bonus, if I am able to do this I will have put away a lot more money. This can be used as a cushion if I do move out, or as a down payment on a car since mine seems to be slowly dying on me. It would be a used car, but I am tired of the one I’m driving now. I’m convinced it’s bad luck. Seriously, I’ve had so many problems with it it’s unbelievable. Anyway more on my car later…

Or even better, I can use SOME of the money I saved and buy myself a little treat! I have to start thinking of something I can do to treat myself if I do this. Any suggestions??

The only problem is I’m so bad at resisting temptation. Especially at work, when I get bored I shop online. I’m constantly buying clothes, books and makeup online! It’s bad. While I still plan on going out with friends and buying stuff, it won’t nearly be as much as I’m used to doing. This will be a HUGE test for me. One I’m determined to stick with!

I’m starting with this month February. My goal is to save $4000 by the end of June!! I hope I can do this. I’ve been pretty good at putting some money away. But this is really kicking it up.

Wish me luck!

I just wanted a little more

I got my performance review yesterday. I have been waiting for months to get this back and yesterday was the day. I was really nervous about what would happen because this was my first official review with the company. Last year I hadn’t been at the company very long so I didn’t really get a review. It was more like a 3-month check in type of thing.

It ended up being really good! I thought it would be this long review that happened but it took a total of 15 minutes to go over. I don’t want to get into the specifics but there were only a few things that I wasn’t crazy happy about. For one item, he told me would have been a higher score but he had sent in the review to HR before I started working on the one particular project that would have bumped that score up. Oh well. It was still pretty good.

Now about my raise. It was not great in my opinion, mostly because I make so little money to begin with. It ended up being about a 3.5 percent raise. He told me that he wanted to give me more but because of the way things are right now it just couldn’t happen. He also said that I was on the higher end of the spectrum with raises and a lot of people received less then me. Which made me happy. I just wish 3.5 percent didn’t equal so little in regards to dollars per hour.

I am happy to be making a little more money each week, especially since we are not allowed overtime anymore. And I am happy that my review was way better then I was expecting. I just wanted to get a little more money. I guess I should be happy that I even got a raise.

Spice up your life!

I want to thank you for all your suggestions! I’m not really sure how to have the money automatically taken out when I get paid, so for now as soon as I do get paid I will put the money aside manually.

What doesn’t help is the fact that as soon as I decided to start saving more my best friend plans a weekend ski trip!! However I am not deterred. I put all the numbers together and will still be able to put money aside and go on this trip!!

I’m really excited. Even though I actually can’t ski (stupid knee) there are a lot of other things for me to do. There are eight in total going on this trip and there are 2 or 3 others that won’t be skiing either. So I will have company. Plus they have Snow Tubing and I will defiantly be doing that!

This is will be a good little mini-vacation and also it will help break up the monotony in my life right now. My weeks lately have been blending together because I always do the same thing, week after week, month after month. This will hopefully ad spice to my life and I can finally feel like a normal 20-something. Seriously sometimes I feel I’m 80 because my life is so boring.

Speaking of adding spice to my life. Lately I have been thinking of joining an online dating website. This makes me really nervous, because a) I’ve heard mixed reviews and b) I have terrible self-esteem and the fear of rejection makes me have a slight panic attack.

So what do you think?

I need some pros and cons about joining a site. On the one hand I feel like I’m to young to be resorting to this yet. On the other, I haven’t met any new or interesting guys in a lonnngg time. This is what happens when you move back home and every time you go out it’s like a high school reunion.

Tightening the purse strings

In an effort to save up more money I decided that after each paycheck I will put $200 in my savings account. Here's hoping that I keep it up!! Now I know that $200 isn't a lot but I seriously make no money and that's the best I can do right now. I'm hoping that if and when I get my raise I will be able to bump up that number. But for now with my hourly rate, plus student loans, train passes and credit card statements this will have to do.

Also if I do well with budgeting, at the end of each month if I have some money left over I will put it all in my savings. Sure that means I need to really watch what I spend and no more online shopping but it'll be worth it when I slowly see my savings rise and I can finally afford to move out of my mom’s house.

Do you have any tips on saving money?? If so I need all the help I can get.

I think I have an addiction…

to online shopping! I can’t seem to stop myself. During the day, the amount of time I do actual work would be about 15 percent. The other 85 percent of the day is consisted of me surfing the web. After about an hour I’ve read all my blogs, checked out facebook and my e-mail about 20 times. There is never anything new in there, but I keep on checking. To fill up the rest of my time I peruse and inevitably end up buying a lot of stuff. My biggest weakness would be Sephora. I AM OBSESSED with all things makeup and beauty, so a website like Sephora is the Promised Land to me. I spend at least 50 bucks a pop when I buy from there (can you say free shipping?) and my checking account is starting to dwindle. I decided that I would no longer buy stuff online unless I really really needed it.

Well that lasted about a day. It lasted until I saw that Nordstrom was having a really big sale. Their “Anniversary Sale” to be exact. I thought to myself I could at least see what they might have to offer. Then I reasoned that I am in need of some new shirts to wear to work. 200 dollars later and I can now expect some fabulous new clothes by Monday. 200 DOLLARS!! I NEVER spend that much money on anything in one shot, well expect for my bags but that’s another problem for a different day. I never spend that much money in a 20 minute period of time. When I actually go to the mall to go shopping it takes me forever to decide if I'm going to purchase something “pricey”. With online shopping I apparently have no trouble spending that much money. On a side note I was originally only going to spend $149 dollars, but then I saw that if you spent $200 dollars you got free shipping. In order to avoid paying 14 dollars on shipping I decided to spend another 51 dollars. lol. I am every merchant’s dream. I fall for those schemes all the time!

Anyway I could have used that 200 dollars toward on of my bills, or better yet I could have put it in my savings. But instead I keep on doing this. Don’t get me wrong I love treating myself once in a while, but this needs to stop. It’s just so damn tempting when I have nothing else to do! I need to have better while power!