Yes, I call them Challenges rather than Goals because I’m a competitive sort of person with myself and think it’ll make me more likely to get stuff done. It’s October which means that my quarterly items from my 101 in 1,001 need to be done too.

• Complete weeks 1-4 of Couch to 5K – No. I hurt my knee, got sick and recovery has taken longer than I’d have liked.
• Update resume - I looked at it and made some adjustments, but I think it needs a major overhaul and I didn’t have time for that this month.
  
• Go through closet and dresser for tossing/donation/sell back – I threw some stuff away and have some more to go through but this didn’t get finished. Oh well.
  
• Save 75% of swim pay and babysitting pay 
• List 2 items on Etsy Nope. And no reason other than I didn’t.
• Track spending and establish budget for November – I have an idea, but October was NOT the month to attempt this. I didn’t think clearly about the travel I’d be doing for work and other things which made October an anomaly in spending. Hopefully! I have a working budget that can be tweaked over the next few months. 
• Start making lists for the holiday shopping season – I’ve started the lists, hand made items getting started and planning baking.
• Submit for reimbursement for LP trip – DONE!
• No shopping for me other than work related stuff for convention. No, I picked up a long sleeve workout shirt for dance class, but am back into a boys XL size! Also I found a yarn that I love for a scarf for ME!
• Send out packages to D, The Bro, and BatGirl - The Bro’s base is no longer accepting packages and the others didn’t go.
  
• Write for 4 of my JoyJuice prompts – I had every intention of doing this, but time just gets away from me and sometimes, the last thing I want to do is think.
  
• Pick Sewing Sunday with friends – October didn’t work out, but November’s is scheduled!
• Bring lunch 4 days a week and only 2 dinners out a week (one with Gia, one with Frank) - Not counting convention days and birthdays, I think I did this!
• Pack up winter hats to send home - I have a few more to do up and then I will. Due to what seems like an extended winter season back home, I’m fairly confidant that they’ll be well received no matter when they get there!
• Make eye appointment – Appt made, and attended! Next I have to pick out new frames for my glasses.

I totally thought I could get more done than I did and although my reasons for much of what didn’t get accomplished are valid, I’m a little disappointed in myself. When I set my challenges for November, I will try to be more realistic.

How did you do this month?

Yes, I call them Challenges rather than Goals because I’m a competitive sort of person with myself and think it’ll make me more likely to get stuff done. It’s October which means that my quarterly items from my 101 in 1,001 need to be done too.

• Complete weeks 1-4 of Couch to 5K
• Update resume
• Go through closet and dresser for tossing/donation/sell back
• Save 75% of swim pay and babysitting pay
• List 2 items on Etsy
• Track spending and establish budget for November
• Start making lists for the holiday shopping season
• Submit for reimbursement for LP trip
• No shopping for me other than work related stuff for convention.
• Send out packages to D, The Bro, and BatGirl
• Write for 4 of my JoyJuice prompts
• Pick Sewing Sunday with friends
• Bring lunch 4 days a week and only 2 dinners out a week (one with Gia, one with Frank)
• Pack up winter hats to send home
• Make eye appointment

I think that’s good for now, I don’t want to get too ambitious. Ha.

What would you like to accomplish in October?

I know that we will likely be moving again in a year or two, and my car should be fine for quite a bit, but you never know so I want to sock some money away there (maybe $1,000 just in case?) but neither is really as pressing as it was earlier this year.

Emergency fund and Six Months are still important to me, but the Six Months is so daunting. Maybe for now I’ll snowball (or sweep) that until I get some of the other stuff caught up. I’ll need my Christmas Gifts money soon enough, you know.

School is totally on the table, but I attended a training that put a whole new idea in my head and it is so completely different that I’m not sure how to approach it. It would be at a totally different (and more expensive) school and may require more undergrad classes before I could even start the Masters.

I have a lot to think about on a personal financial level and a lot to discuss with that guy I like a whole lot on a joint financial level.

Which brings me to another question of how we’re going to merge our finances or if we are even going to at all. I guess that’s a wait and see for now until he finds a job and has income coming in so we can see where we are then.

It’s all very confusing right now!

I should probably start with my usual process when things are confusing and chaotic – pick one thing and just do it. I mean it’s not like I can’t transfer money when I figure stuff out more, right?

The last couple of months it seems like I’ve just been hemorrhaging money. Seriously, I don’t even want to get into what I’ve spent – but in my own defense, most of it was for the move and getting settled into the new place. I shouldn’t be surprised by how fast it adds up, but I always am.

That said, now that we are getting settled, I need to get back on track. I’m going to start setting my weekly goals challenges again and start saving again like it’s my job.

Time to refocus.

First up? No using my American Express unless I sit down and send the same amount to it as a payment for the next 30 days.

(And pack and work and have some sort of life…no pressure.)

Here’s the thing: I hate car shopping. There’s too much “guessing” involved. I want to know how much I can spend and go from there. I want to know what they’ll give me upfront for my car and how much money I have to work with before I find a car I love. Too bad that’s not always how it works.

(See, I know that I’ll be sad if I had to “settle” on a car I liked when there was one I loved out there.)

So Wednesday, I called my credit union to talk about a car loan and see how much I could borrow with what I could afford to pay every month. This was a pretty painless process and I even got preapproval contingent on providing documentation that one of the items on my credit report was incorrect. (A topic for a different post.)

Now I had a number to work with and this considerably cut my anxiety level. I also had general parameters for what I wanted in my new(er) car. I wanted low mileage, good gas mileage and reviews, decently low maintenance costs, power windows and locks, and an AUX jack for my iPod.

I started poking around local car dealership web sites and found a few that I wanted to test drive.  An ’09 Ford Focus, an ’08 Nissan Sentra and an ’08 Toyota Corolla. Basically I was looking at the same car from different companies. It would come down to which dealership could work with me best.

First, (and it turned out only) I drove a ’08 Nissan Sentra – I’ve already owned 2 and loved both of them. When we got back to the dealership we talked numbers…And oddly, we found a number that we could agree on! (The whole time I was willing to walk away and I think that was helpful.)

To make a long story shorter, I finished the paperwork, picked up my car and was on my way on Saturday.

It still doesn’t feel real that I got approved for a loan, found and negotiated a price for a car all by my self. I was sure that with my credit score, they’d never say yes to a loan by my self, that the dealership would never offer me enough for a trade in to even try and that something would horribly go wrong.

But there I am, driving my new(er) car out of the lot.

I DID IT!!! I’m so flippin’ proud of myself, it’s not even funny…

What are you most proud of yourself for currently?

• Bring lunch all but one day (Ladies Lunch!) – Nope. I went out for lunch on Thursday because I had to get paperwork to the bank. And it was delicious!
• Take printer to get fixed (under warranty) – Yes! Hopefully I’ll have it back this week.
• Make dinner at least 2 nights. (And not just sandwiches or cereal.) No. Sadly, but in my own defense, I was sick and it was hot so I sort of skipped dinner a lot of nights.
• Dinner out only two nights. (After dance class with Gia and maybe sushi or pizza one night.) See above. I really only ate a salad for dinner last night and dinner at a party Sunday.
• List clutch on Etsy. – I’m working on the copy for it…sometimes it just doesn’t come together.
• Sort and box up movies, spices, dresser and maybe my closet for the move. Closet doesn’t get boxed, but it can be sorted and purged. Extra spices packed, dresser and I started sorting and purging the closet and dresser. Also I started to box up other kitchen supplies, but am not even close to being done with that! (I still need some of it…)
• Finish book I’m reading and choose another to read before bed. This one was a little slow getting started, but it’s definitely picked up! Hopefully, I’ll have it done tonight.

So that’s it for me. How did you do this week? If you blogged it, please feel free to leave the link in the comment section!

#weeklygoals

No, I’m not writing about the song by the Barenaked Ladies (although it’s one of my favorites) I’m talking about what I would do if I actually won a million dollars: (after hiring an accountant/investment manager)

(If it was given in one lump sum.)

1. Pay taxes (estimated at 40%): $400,000 (NYS is greedy, better figure high and go from there!)
2. Invest $100,000 in a combination of IRAs, Mutual Funds, and Other.
3. Give money to family, friends, others who need it more than I do. $100,000 invested and paid with proceeds $50,000 paid first  year.
4. Start an Creative Kids foundation and give money to programs that promote and teach crafting/creativity to kids. $100,000
5. Put a decent down payment on a  house. $50,000 and put $50,000 into a “House Trust” for taxes, upgrades etc. This would be the location for my own business to be run and part would be taxable to the business
6. Take a series of kick ass trips to places I want to visit – Prague, Ireland, Israel, oh whatever strikes my fancy. $50,000
7.  Purchase a newer car (I don’t believe in buying new cars, but a nice, newer to me car would be great…)$20,000
8. $45,000 for a first year salary for my business
9. $35,000 Play money for me to just play with.

If it was paid out over 20 years, I’d still have to work for a few years and then I’d bank a lot of that money and start my own thing after awhile.

What would you do with $1,000,000?