Future Me

This past weekend my bf's sister discovered a website where you can send an email to yourself in the future. I decided to send one which will be delivered on March 31, 2010 explaining where I am now financially and where I want to be in two years.

Dear Future Always the Planner,

Today is March 31, 2009 and our economy is in a deep recession. I have a secure job, but my salary is frozen until further notice. Since I was careful with my money beforehand, my habits haven't changes since this recession hit and I am continuing to work on my financial goals.

Two things are really important to me right now - fully funding my emergency fund and putting away money for retirement. I want to have a 6 month emergency fund. My goal is to save $10,000 this year and $16,000 total. I am also try to take advantage of this downturn and put as much money into my retirement accounts as possible. I hate feeling like I'm losing money, but I also love a deal and index funds are on sale. My hope is that in two years the stock market will slowly begin to climb back up and I'll be happy I put so much away now.

I'm also working to complete my slush fund so it can act as a short-terms savings account and cover unexpected costs as needed. This way I can save my emergency fund for real emergencies - like losing my job.

I hope that when I receive this email I have met the following goals:

1. I have $16,000 in my emergency fund.
2. I have $1,500 - $2,000 in my slush fund.
3. I've continued to put away at least 15% of my salary into my 403b.
4. I have begun saving for a down payment with the bf.
5. That the bf and I are either engaged or married.
   

I also hope that I've enjoyed school and that I only have a semester left. And most importantly I hope I am happy with where I am both financially and personally.

What would you write to yourself 2 years down the road? Or perhaps 5 or 10? The website is really easy to use and only asks that you confirm that it is your own email address so you can't spam using the system.

Talking About Money

Dog Ate My Finances recently wrote about lying and personal finance. In short she was confronted by a colleague who insisted on knowing what her student loan payments are, and even though she has payed them off she made up a number. The post spurred a lot of comments and really got me thinking. Many commenter's told her she should be proud of her accomplishment (and it was a big one) and not lie, fewer said they would lie or at least stretch the truth.

I guess I fall in the middle. I definitely don't see myself lying to my close friends, or even my close colleagues, but there are a ton of people who I may not tell the full truth too. I actually believe you should try to fit in at your place of employment. Merit alone won't get you that promotion, relationships matter. I also helps get things done. For example I've noticed that I respond to different people depending on how they interact with me. Those that are nice and friendly I help out quickly, I will still help out those that are rude, but it never becomes a priority (unless of course it is my boss, but she is always nice and friendly). Being able to bond with your colleagues, even if it is just over student loans, is a good thing.

The other thing I find interesting is that her conversation at work was about student loans, which I think is viewed by our culture as acceptable debt. If the conversation was about credit card debt would it change some of the commenter's minds? Would you lie then?

Talking about money is still such a taboo. While as a whole I think our culture should be more open about talking to money (and maybe we are getting there with the recession), we shouldn't feel like we have to share everything.

BBC's Top 100

As a lunchtime break I thought it would be fun to steal Shtinkykat's idea and see how many of the top 100 best loved books in the U.K. according to BBC.

I've marked "x" in bold next to the one's I've read.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (x)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (x)
6 The Bible - ( )
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x)
8 1984 - George Orwell (x)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (x)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (x)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (x)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare ( ) -complete works! I've read a ton, but not the complete
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ( )
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ( )
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (x)
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ( ) started but never finished
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ( )
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (x)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ( )
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ( )
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams ( )
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ( )
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky ( )
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (x)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ( )
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (x)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ( )
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x)
34 Emma - Jane Austen ( )
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen ( )
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - (x)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ( )
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ( )
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (x)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (x)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (x)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving ( )
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ( )
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (x)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ( )
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood ( )
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (x)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (x)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (x)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert ( )
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ( )
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen ( )
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ( )
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( )
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (x)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley(x)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ( ) started but couldn't finish
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ( )
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (x)
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ( )
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ( ) I've read her other books!
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas ( )
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ( )
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ( )
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (x)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ( )
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (x)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ( )
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ( )
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett ( )
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ( )
75 Ulysses - James Joyce ( ) I never quite finished this one.
76 The Inferno - Dante ( )
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ( )
78 Germinal - Emile Zola ( )
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ( )
80 Possession - AS Byatt (x)
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (x)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ( )
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (x)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ( )
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert ( )
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ( )
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ( )
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (x)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ( )
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (x)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery ( )
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ( )
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams ( )
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ( )
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ( )
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas ( )
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x)

It is interesting that some things are on there twice, like The complete works of Shakespeare and Hamlet as well as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe.

I've only read 43 out of the 100! As a former English major it is time to get my read on!

Am I Really Frugal?

I have been thinking a lot about frugality since I wrote the post on frugal vs. cheap. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary frugal is: 

characterized by or reflecting economy in the use of resources

According to Wikipedia frugality is:

acquiring goods and services in a restrained manner, and

resourcefully using already owned economic goods and services, to

achieve a longer term goal

When it comes down to it I don't believe that I am always frugal. I eat out more than I should, I splurge on new clothes every once in a while, I buy unnecessary items like nail polish and chocolate, and I'm not always good about reusing what I already have. 

Yet, I'm always striving to be frugal by living below my means and trying to stay within my budget. My motivation is to be financially secure and able to meet my life goals, and I'm constantly worried about having enough money for retirement. Maybe it is not healthy to be thinking so much about retirement in your 20s, but if this worry causes me to try and be frugal, it can't be all that bad. 

So no, I'm don't think I'm always frugal, but I'm always trying to get there. This has created a nice balance where I'm not overspending but still enjoying my money. I mean what would life be like without its little splurges every now and then. =)

Carnivals

This week I participated in two carnivals. My post on Learning How to Budget is up at Money tld who is hosting the Money Hacks Carnival. I also participated in is the Carnival of Twenty-Something Finances over at Pimp Your Finances for my post on going public. Sadly Pimp Your Finances referred to me as a "he" (I'm a she). I guess I must be doing something right when it comes to protecting my identity.

Book Reviews

In April I'm going to be starting a new series of book reviews. At least twice a month I'm going to review a different personal finance book. This is a way for me to expand my personal finance knowledge and share with you some of my favorites. The first book I'll be reviewing is Bank on Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future by Pamela Yellen. 

If you have any other suggestions, please let me know! 

A Busy Life

While I am as excited as can be to go back to school and to have a way to pay for it, I'm a little nervous about how busy I'll be. I am still going to be working full-time and hopefully still running and occasionally volunteering (though I will have to give up the tutoring). My goal is to finish this program in 2 1/2 years. 

I'm a little nervous about maintaining balance in my life. Balance is probably one of the most important things in my life, without it I'm a miserable person. I've learned that too much time on one activity and my brain craves a break. 

So how am I going to maintain balance while working full-time and going to school part-time? Right now I'm considering only taking two courses my first semester to ease myself into it, but at the same time I like to get things done and would love to only take two courses my last semester. 

What do you think? For those of you who are currently working full-time and going to school part-time how do you do it? For those who did so in the past, do you any have advice? 

Paying For School

Thank you to everyone who congratulated me on getting into school. I believe this program will fill a gap in my knowledge that I did not receive from my first masters and will teach me certain things that I am not getting from my job. Overall I'm very excited.

The next step is figuring out how I'm going to pay for school. When I was applying for a doctorate (which didn't work out) I would get overly stressed just thinking about paying for school. In fact I think it was part of the reason I was so sick last winter. 

I am amazingly calm about paying for this program. In fact it is looking like I am only going to have to pay for the student fees and books. Amazing I know. This time around I applied to a city college, and as a resident of New York the amount per credit is minuscule compared to private colleges. My company offers tuition benefits that can almost be as good as my retirement benefits. I say "can almost be" because the tuition benefits are not that helpful when applying to schools that cost over $20,000 a semester. However, they are amazing if you go to a less expensive school. So thanks to work I will only have to pay for student fees and books. This is yet another reason to celebrate.

As my bf keeps telling me, it's now time to buy that lunch box, get some new pencils and notebooks and head back to school. =)

Frugal vs. Cheap

I try my best to be frugal, though in no way am I a coupon clipper, make your own laundry detergent kind of gal. Instead I watch what I'm spending, compare prices for big items, and do my best to stay within my budget. 

There is a danger in frugality. The danger is crossing that line from being frugal to being cheap. 

• Frugal is splitting a salad and appetizer when you go out to eat, cheap is under-tipping or not paying your half for that meal. 
• Frugal is making dinner at home, cheap is mooching off other people and never contributing.
• Frugal is buying clothes on sale, cheap is stealing clothes from your roommate.
• Frugal is going to the library, cheap is stealing books (and its illegal!)
• Frugal is eating out less often, cheap is never ever eating out.
• Frugal is turning off unused lights, cheap is living by candles. 

You get the drift. I do my best to be frugal, but my biggest fear is one day becoming cheap. This is the reason I plan. If I know I'm going to have an expensive weekend with friends I plan on a low spend weekend beforehand. Saving money and being frugal doesn't mean you can't have an occasional all out expensive weekend. You just have to plan for it. 

I Got Into School!

I got great news today. I got into the program I applied too! I'll be starting part-time in Fall 09. 

I'm beyond excited. =)

What You Think About Going Public

I received quite a few comments about my post on going public and so decided to write a follow-up.

Your responses varied from those who had friends that read their blog (and therefore kept some finance details secret) to those who kept it secret from everyone (and bared all). Some were more comfortable with friends rather than family reading their blog and another liked the privacy of being anonymous but wouldn't mind being outed.

But when it comes down to it we all love the freedom that anonymity gives us. I know I do. Before I was outed only two people I knew read my blog, bf and one close friend. Since then I've shared my blog with my family and a few more friends. I have decided to keep my financial information on this blog for two reasons. First, not every detail is on this blog anyway and second, putting this information out there keeps me accountable. I love updating my sidebars so much that I think it motivates me to save more. By putting this information out there I'm accountable to myself, but also to my readers. I probably won't post my weekly spending anymore and I'm not sure about my monthly spending, but my financial goals, budget and sidebars are staying put.

p.s.- I never found out who it was and the person didn't say anything mean - in a way I think it was an honest mistake. Just an honest mistake that totally freaked me out.

AIG Bonus Controversy

I have to say I don't get it. Everyone is in an uproar about the AIG bonuses (and yes I do think they are despicable and so this I get). But what I don't understand is how for many of our Republican representatives the AIG bonus are proof the stimulus isn't going to work. Can anyone explain this to me? I really don't understand the rationale behind this logic.

On another note the house passed a bill to tax the AIG bonuses by 90%. What do you think? Good idea or bad idea. On one hand it seems like the perfect way get around the legally binding contracts. On the other hand I wonder why we are spending so much time talking about what is actually a small amount (160 million) of the total TARP money (700 billion) when we have other things to worry about. Like... fixing our economy. Yes what AIG is doing just totally sucks, but is it really worth all this time and energy?

What is your take on this?

Why It Feels Like Things Will Never Get Better

I just read a fascinating post over at Behavior Gap about Representativeness.

It helps explain all the doom and gloom about the economy:

Representativeness refers to our tendency to try to make sense out our environment by looking for patterns in the recent past and then projecting them into the future. Up until six days ago, (see what I mean by short term) we had all forgotten that good things happen. We had decided that because the news was all bad two weeks ago it, will be bad forever. When it is snowing outside, it is hard to believe that it will ever be spring.

You can check out the full post here.

Learning How to Budget

There is no denying it, having a budget is important. My budget keeps me focused on my goals and tracks where I spend my money. Remember how surprised I was to find out I spent over $1,500 in gifts in 2008, the only other category I spent more money in was dining out.

It is not surprising then that almost all personal finance bloggers have some sort of budget. What might be surprising is that no two are exactly alike. How do I know this? Have I looked at every single person’s budget? No, but budgets are as personal as your sense of style; no two people have exactly the same wardrobe, do they? Okay so maybe there are a handful of people who do have the same wardrobe, and perhaps there are a handful of people who have the same budget (and I’m not talking about those of you who share a budget with someone else). Still, similar to your financial balance, no one size fits all with budgets.

Budgets are also living documents. They change as your situation changes and as you struggle to figure out what works best for you. I started budgeting when I was studying abroad. I wasn’t working and I only had a certain amount of money to get me through the semester. My budget was basic and not complete. I was only allowed to spend a small amount from Monday-Thursday so that from Friday-Sunday I could enjoy the country I was in or travel. It was simple and worked.

I didn’t start seriously budgeting again until I went to graduate school. I had an awesome frugal roommate who taught me how to manage my money (sometimes without even realizing she was teaching me). In graduate school I still used the pen and paper method to budget, and it wasn’t until I was in my current job that I actually started budgeting in excel.

I am proud to say that I’ve taken the budgeting skills I’ve learned and passed them on. These are the steps I ask my friends to follow when they are ready to start budgeting.

1. Track your spending for a month.
   It is important that you don't cut back this month. So do exactly what you would if you weren't tracking your spending or thinking about saving so you have an accurate picture of how much you spend.
   
   
2. Figure out what is really important to you.
   Prioritize. Decide what it is that you can't give up. Perhaps it is important you buy lunch everyday so you can socialized with coworkers, or maybe you can't live without your cup of coffee from that one coffee place.
   
   
   
3. Decide how much you want to save each month.
   Take a guesstimate and choose an ideal number. Once you have finished tracking your spending you may find that you can save more, or maybe it's less. The important thing is that you start thinking about saving right away.
   
   
   
4. Make a list of your fixed expense.
   Include your rent, mortgage, student loans, other debt payment, internet, cable, utilities, newspaper subscriptions, etc.
   
   
   
5. Develop your goals.
   Do you want to pay off your credit card? Save for retirement? Travel across the country? Figure out your goals and write them down.
   

After you have finished tracking your spending for a month it is time to create your budget.

1. Budget for your fixed expenses first.
   Make sure you have enough money for them and schedule payments to match your pay days.
   
   
2. Add your savings into the fixed expense portion of your budget.
   Think of savings as a bill. It is something that should be paid at the beginning of every month. The key to being successful is to leave your money in your savings account. This money shouldn't be used to buy a new pair of boots that you had to have. You are saving for a reason (remember your goals) so the next time you want to take money out of your savings account, remember that reason.
   
   
3. Break up your non-fixed expenses into categories.
   The way you decide to do this is completely up to you. You may want to identify a certain amount to be spend on groceries, household items, etc. Or you may want to have a lump sum you can't go over but you can spend on anything.
   
   
4. Be prepared to tweak your budget.
   Your budget is a living document. You may end up tweaking it every month, or you may love it just the way it is from the start. Either way it is yours to do with as you like. Just use it!
   

Have You Changed Your Habits?

As the Great Recession continues the media is telling us that as a nation we are finally saving more than we are spending. Yah! We are on our way to being more financially secure. Suze Orman would be proud. But wait, we are also being told that by saving we are hurting the economy. Saving money is bad? That can't be right. With all of this conflicting advice, whose are you taking?

I'm especially talking to those of us who have a secure job, not those who are worried about unemployment (I hope you are throwing everything you can into a savings, because that is what I would be doing).

I have a secure job and though I won't be getting a salary increase, I'm not at all worried about losing my job. I also find myself fascinated by this recession and as a result I'm learning a lot about economics and how the financial world works, or rather how it didn't work. But whose advice am I taking? No ones. Besides being obsessed with the recession, I haven't changed a thing. I still pay myself first and save towards my goals. I still allow myself a certain amount of money to spend each month and work as hard as I can to stay in or around that amount. And, I'm still going out to dinner and occasionally splurging. But then again, I wasn't overspending to begin with. I'm not going to try and save more when I'm already comfortable with how I'm doing and I'm not going to spend money I haven't planed on spending (though I do love the new term "stimulating the economy" - kinda takes the guilt away doesn't it). Good habits should last a lifetime right? Should I be trying to save more money?

So here is my question to you: If you are not worried about a job loss, have you changed the way you are spending and saving?

Would You Go Public?

I had a blog scare last week. Someone actually put my real name into a comment. As you can imagine I freaked out. Do I take down the blog? Do I go public? Do I just pretend it never happened?

I always figured that if someone I knew came across my blog it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who I was, but I also assumed that they wouldn't publicly out me. 

I've spent the last few days thinking about my blog and its future. I've also thought about how I write and what I write about. And honestly, there really isn't anything in my blog that I wouldn't tell a friend. In fact, overall I'm open about money with my friends. If one of them were to ask me my salary I wouldn't lie or feel uncomfortable telling them, and like most of you I love talking money. So maybe going public wouldn't be the worst thing.

But then again I'm very open on my blog about my income, savings and debt. I wouldn't want my colleagues to find my blog, not because I write about work, but because they could find my salary. And what about future employers? Having all my cards on the table may not be a good thing.

So I've decided to keep my blog, hide a few more personal details, and hope that I can stay anonymous. 

A Mini Blog Hiatus

I'm trying to figure some stuff out so in the meantime I'm going to take a mini break from blogging (hopefully not longer than a week).

p.s- Whoever left the anonymous comment on the post below please contact me at alwaystheplanner at gmail dot com 

Qvisory

My recent post Why Orgazination is Your Best Friend is up at Qvisory. If you haven't yet explored qvisory you should, they have a bunch of contributors and a lot of great posts!

Weekend Spending

Every month I've been changing the way I budget to see if I can find what works best. This month I'm focusing on only spending $150 a week (which gives me a little over $21 a day). Well I completely blew it last week and went $75 over. This means this week I'm trying to make it on $75. It should be a good challenge. =)

I don't have the numbers for everything I spent last week but I do for the weekend:

3/6/09:
$40 dinner with friends

3/07/09
$7 refilling my metro card
$5 tickets to Hoboken, NJ
$20 in Hoboken, NJ

My bf paid for everything on Sunday and helped out with dinner on Friday. I definitely got the better end of the deal this weekend only spending $72. My problems lied in the fact I spent a lot in the beginning of March on clothes ($55) and on groceries. I also donated $25 to a local charity.

This upcoming weekend I plan on treating the bf. =)

My Favorite Type of PF Blogs

I love pf blogs. If I'm not careful I could waste hours at work reading them. I've found that there are basically three types of personal finance blogs. The first type is the purely informational and advice drive, the second is purely personal and the third does both.

My favorite blogs are those that do both. While I enjoy reading the advice and the personal finance information, I also enjoy the relationships we create with each other. I'm sad that I will no longer be able to watch Chicky Finances progress. I'm so excited about Sallie Niece's engagement, and Escape Brooklyn's actual escape. Who doesn't love the Budgets are Sexy's posts and I can't help but love Fabulously Broke in the City's unique view on fashion and personal finance. I can't wait to hear about FruGal's wedding, I enjoy the way Stacking Pennies looks at the world, and World of Wealth's honesty. 

These are just a few of my favorite blogs and I love discovering new ones. What are you favorites? Any suggestions of who I should check out? 

My First Financial Mistake

Last week Living Almost Large posted about her first financial mistake. This got me thinking about my first mistake. Like most it was right after college. I got a job at a law firm with the plan that I would work for one year and go to law school. Because I was only planning on working for a year I decided not to contribute to my 401k. In all honesty I didn't really understand 401k and to this day I can't tell you if my company offered a match. The worst part was that I was living at home so I could have easily afforded it. 

I'm sure you can tell where this story is going. I applied to law school but decided not to go. I spent another year in this job, not contributing to my 401k and then went to graduate school (where contributing to a 401k was not an option). So I did not start contributing to an employee sponsored retirement plan until the end of 2006 (and I graduated 2002). I did put a little money in a Roth IRA, but no more than $3,000. 

I consider this my first and biggest financial mistake because out of everything it will hurt me most long term. The good news is that I'm contributing now and will contribute until I retire. 

Why Organization is Your Best Friend

There is nothing more important in personal finance than organization. Knowing where your money is going is key to meeting your financial goals. 

The first step is to know how much you are spending. My suggestion is to take one month and track where your money goes. Don't cut back in this month. Your goal should be to make an honest assessment of your spending habits. 

Next (or at the same time) you should be gathering information about all your accounts. If you are comfortable with it set up online access so you can see your accounts in real time. Consider using Quicken Online or Mint (both free services) to manage your money. 

Use the information you gathered from tracking your spending to make a budget that works for you.  If you are trying to cut back do so in stages, going cold turkey only works for a small minority. Most importantly make sure what you are spending matches up with how much money you have to spend. 

Some of the benefits I've found are:

• I've stopped incurring overdraft fees.
• I know where my money is going.
• There are no more surprises on my credit card. 
• I always have the money to pay off my credit card at the end of the month.
• I save money every month (and pay off debt every month).
• I have a real sense of control over my finances. 

You don't have to be super organized or type A to find a system that works for you. Some people use cash set aside in envelopes or money jars, others let programs like Mint and Quicken do all the tracking. The only thing that matters is you find a system that allows you to know where your money is going. And remember organization is your best friend when it comes to your money. 

It's All About the Balance

Personal finance and frugality is a delicate balance between saving and spending. Deny yourself too much and you will be miserable, but spend too much and there is a greater risk of debt, which causes many of us to be miserable too.

I love personal finance blogs, books, and plans. They all provide their own perspectives and tools, many of which I use. But a plan that works for one person may not work for another. The struggle is finding what works for you, and being flexible enough to change something if it isn't working. How I budget now is completely different when then when I first started. If there was one plan that worked for everyone there would be no need for personal finance blogs. 

While I do think the first step is to know where your money is and where it is going, from there it is up to you. 

I find that when I deny myself too much I end up over-splurging and all that frugality was for nothing. So my challenge is to find the balance that works for me. Too much frugality and I go stir crazy, but I have to be careful because it is so easy to overspend. So when I find myself wanting to go out to eat, I find a new inexpensive place to try out. When I'm urging to buy new clothes I find something on sale. 

How do you balance your goals and your wants?

Goal Update

I actually made goals for February, but I also forgot about them. 

Goal #1: Stay on budget.
DONE! Everything I spent over budget was planned for. This is the first time I've made this goal in a long time. Thank you February! 

Goal #2: Write the personal essay for my application & research other grad programs.
DONE! They were completed and mailed on Friday!

Goal #3: Figure out what tax software I'm going to use - either Turbo Tax or TaxAct. Do my taxes! 
I used Turbo Tax and my refund has already hit my bank account.

Goal #4: Keep to my running schedule.
FAIL. I need to focus on working out a bit more.

Goal #5: When I go out to eat try new places.
This was mixed, both at new places and the usual. FAIL

Goal #6: Make $100 in supplemental income. 
I only made $43.94. =) FAIL