Contemplating Goals

I've been thinking about about my goals for September. I know it is going to be a difficulty month to save money because I've had to put some necessary shopping (for food) done in August on my September budget.

I'm so glad I traveled this month and I had such an amazing time, but now my budget has to recover. I was able to cover the money that I spent over budget with my emergency savings fund, and now I want to build that fund up again quickly.

This won't be easy. My bf and I have been together for one year on Monday! His birthday is the following weekend and I need new running shoes. These are all big purchases, true his gifts are coming out of my gift fund, but the shoes which run about $100 will have to come out of my monthly budget.

It is going to be a tight month and I need to think about realistic goals. I'm also feeling the countdown to the new years and want to focus on my yearly goals.

I have a lot to think about this long weekend, how about you?

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Getting Back Into Running

As you probably recall I'm currently training for a marathon. I have to say that before my vacations my training was going fantastic. I felt great and I was sticking to the majority of my runs. When I was in Oregon I still managed to keep up the running, and while missing one or two the week before I left for Hong Kong, I still did pretty well.

As you can imagine the running was not kept up those two weeks I was away. I did manage to run on a treadmill (and I hate treadmills) twice, but that's it.

My first run back was horrible, I should have taken another puff on my inhaler before I left the house because I only made it three miles before I couldn't breath anymore. It was not fun and I was not psyched to run again.

I took Monday off since I was dealing with jet lag and went to yoga on Tuesday, so it wasn't until yesterday that I ran again. I'm happy to announce that it went incredibly well. I only went 5 miles and I struggled in the beginning with a foot cramp and then a side cramp, but I ended incredibly strong and once again felt awesome. I'm excited to run again tonight.

Why do I mention this on a blog about personal finance? I find that when I'm training I spend less money. I'm focused on my goal so I'll choose to go for a run then go out for dinner or drinks. When I do go out for drinks I rarely have more than one, since most likely I have a run the next day. And I also find that when I have one strong goal, I tend to be focused on my other goals away.

Getting back into running will hopefully help me focus on reigning in my finances after my vacations. The next few months are not an easy time to be frugal, this weekend is my bf and my 1 year anniversary. His birthday is next weekend, my birthday is in November and of course Christmas. It is going to take a lot of focus to continue to save money and reach my goals. I hope the running will help.

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I Love This Time Of Year

I love the bustle and excitement that comes with the beginning of the school year. Every year it feels like a new beginning, another chance to have a productive and better year. Of course, it always felt like this while I was in school, and now that I work at one I still get excited. In fact it is more of a marker to me then the actual New Year.

So here is hoping that this school year is filled with accomplishments and productivity!

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Vacation Spending

So how did my vacation spending go? Well I spent more than I hoped, but luckily I have my emergency fund to cover everything that went over.

I brought $650 in cash with me and pretty much spent it all.

Another $135 went to getting my passport renewed. I decided to buy a custom made three-piece suit for $300. I also ended up spending $26 in a gift shop in Tokyo and $57 for train tickets to the airport (I didn't have enough yen with me).

When I add in the 1% fees that my bank charges and a couple cents here and there the total is approximetly $1170. Not horrible for two weeks.

Sadly though, I didn't have much money left in my emergency fund so I decided to try to budget most of my spending money out of my montly budget. Considering my monthly budget for liquid expenses is $750, and I had already spent $300 before I left, I'm not doing so well.

So my emergency fund is taking a hit. Luckily I put in extra money last month from my raise, so I'm hoping that with the money I put in for September it will still be growing. Not as fast as I would like, but still growing.

Sigh. I don't regret spending any of the money that I did, I just with my e-fund was already at $10,000. But I guess that is the crux of personal finance, it is a slow process. In fact if it all happened over night we wouldn't need these blogs. And then I would have missed out on reading all of yours and becoming part of this community, and that would definitely be a shame. =)

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A Costly Mistake

I was supposed to leave for Hong Kong on Saturday afternoon. I say "supposed to" because I didn't. An unplanned and researched part of my trip cost me both time and money.

My passport expired in September. I knew I would have to renew it when I returned from Hong Kong, but I never thought I would need to renew it before. As I went to check into my flight I found out that to travel to Hong Kong your passport needs to be valid for 6 months after you date of departure. 6 months!? I was way under. After trying to figure out how I could get into the country (working off the thought that if I can get in I can go to the US embassy to renew my passport), it got too late. I missed the flight. In tears I rescheduled. I was lucky enough to not be charged for the rescheduling (the tears might have helped). 

I rescheduled it for the following Monday at 2:45. In the meantime I had to go to the passport agency Monday morning, hope they would see me, and rush to the airport. I spent that weekend in a fit of nervousness with a constant stomachache, more embarrassed than anything else. 

The passport agency doesn't guarantee it will see you unless you have an appointment, so I got there early and got into the line for no appointments. It took a while, but they did see me. They couldn't expedite my passport, so I had to return at noon and hope I got is quickly so I could rush to the airport and make my flight. Luckily, I did.

The cost of poor planning? 

$135 for my passport

2 days in Hong Kong

The good news is that I made it and the rest of the trip was amazing.

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I'm Back!

I'm back, and only a little bit jet-lagged (I got back Saturday so I've had some time to recover). I have tons of updates, but sadly no time to post at this moment. I return to work this morning, so hopefully I'll be able to give you a full update tonight.

I had an amazing time and I have lots of pictures to share. I also have a personal finance related story about how poor planning cost me time and money. 

I'll write again tonight with more details! I can't wait to catch up reading all of your blogs. =)

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See You In Two Weeks

I'm off! My flight leaves tomorrow and I'm sure I won't get a chance to post again. While I'll miss all my fellow pf bloggers I'm so excited to get on that plane. Okay never mind, I'm so excited to get off that plane (it is a 17 hour flight).

I'll be traveling to Hong Kong, Tokyo and mainland China. We have places to stay and the plane tickets are bought so I have a budget of $900, though I'm hoping that I don't spend more then $700.

I'll take lots of pictures and post when I get back. =)

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My Knitting Project

All summer I've been working on this throw that I'm giving my bf's mom as a gift to say thank you for the Hong Kong trip. I finally finished! What do you think?







Added 8/8/08: I just noticed you can see the paint discoloration on my wall! Long story, but it's not a stain, just a different paint color. I need to repaint my place!

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My Decision

I've figured out how I will handle money while I'm abroad. I'm going to bring $500 in cash, have another $400 available in my checking account for withdrawal, and put all big purchases on my credit card.

Rather then try to save every receipt while traveling I'm going to work to spend under a certain amount. I have almost $1000 that I can spend, but my goal is to only spend $700. Now while I don't want to go crazy and overspend I also don't want to feel denied while I'm traveling. I save money so I can travel. I have a free place to stay in both Hong Kong and Tokyo and the plane tickets have already been paid for. The money I have is purely for doing touristy stuff, eating, and buying gifts.

I'm actually hoping to buy my Christmas gifts while I'm there. My fingers are crossed that I'll be able to find inexpensive and nice gifts. 

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Your Money Abroad

As I'm preparing for my big trip I'm trying to figure out the best way to use my money abroad (i.e. the way with the least transfer fees). The little web searching I've done seems to veer in the direction of using credit cards and atms. I'm going to spend some time on the phone tonight calling my banks and finding out about fees, but in the meantime how do you travel internationally when it comes to money?

Do you bring cash? Only use credit cards? Withdraw from local atms?

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Update Time!

After watching my net worth decline last month I was very happy to see I'm back up. Check out my NetworthIQ badge. 

I was able to save quite a bit thanks to my raise:

I'm now only $1,316 away from my goal of $5,000 for my emergency savings. I'm hoping to save as much over my goal as possible.

I had a fully funded travel fund, but after traveling to the Northwest I'm left with $317. While I had a great time and I'm so happy I had the money, it is sad to see it drop so far.

I only have to save $65 for my gift fund to be complete! This is good timing too, since gift buying time is around the corner.

I was able to add a little bit to my Boston Terrier fund again. It is nice to start saving in it again. 

Thanks to my contributions my retirement savings went up, but my other investments went down. 

As for my student loans and mortgage, it is a slow-go but I keep hacking away.

Overall I'm very happy about my accomplishments this month.

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July Goal Update

Here is a quick update on my July goals:

Goal #1: Stick to my marathon training schedule.
I wasn't perfect, but I did manage to run 88 miles this month. Pretty good considering I was on vacation for a week.

Goal #2: Plan as much of my trip as I can into my regular budget.
I ended up using quite a bit of my travel money for this. But I've also decided it makes more sense to plan my regular budget into my August trip because I'll be gone for two weeks.

Goal #3: Finish the blanket!
So sad. I'm not quite there. I am close though and my goal is to finish it this weekend. Wish me luck!

So technically I failed on all three, but I'm pretty happy where things stand right now.

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A New Budget

As I mentioned before I received a raise. It amounts to having an extra $315 a month to work with. I am definitely very psyched!

However, with more money it means it is time to rework my budget. I have two things to consider:
1. My goal of saving $10,000 by January 2010
2. The $530 (or $540) a month I will begin to pay in January 2009

So what does this mean to me? It means that I'm going to stock away every cent I can into my emergency fund before January 2009. This extra $315 is definitely going to help. However, I've also decided to start funding my Roth IRA again (if you recall I stopped to focus on meeting my emergency fund goal). I'm going to start with a small amount each month, $100, with the hopes of adding more as I become more comfortable with the amount in my emergency savings.

Right now I live on $750 a month for liquid expenses. This includes groceries, dining out, entertainment, transportation, small gifts, clothes, hobbies, fitness, charity etc. What I end up spending my money on each month changes, but the goal is the same: stay under $750. For example this month I've already spent $20 on a metro card and $26.20 to support a friend (and charity) who is training for a marathon.

This leaves me with $2365 for fixed expenses. Here will be the breakdown of this until January 2009:
Mortgage: $1183.08
Student Loans: $225.65
Roth IRA: $100
Emergency Fund: $605
Gift Fund: $30
Boston Terrier Fund: $20
Travel Fund: $40

This leaves me with $161.27 to pay my Internet, Electric, Cell Phone and NYTimes Sunday Subscription.

Any money left over goes into savings, though in the summer due to air conditioning this happens less often.

In January things will obviously change. One of my priorities is to increase the percentage I am contributing to my 403b. In January it will be harder to save so I'm hoping I'll have a nice cushion in my emergency fund.

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