Sorry for going MIA yesterday. My internet at home has been wonky, and I was super busy at work. To be fair, it’s not actually the internet; it’s our router. Well, that’s what Chris thinks anyway. He’s a Geek; he should know.
As part of my stress reduction challenge, I took the RealAge Financial Stress Quiz. Apparently, I’m under a lot of financial stress. I don’t really agree, but it was interesting to read the results.
Generally, I handle money very well. My spending can get a bit out of control, but I rein it in when I know the money really just isn’t there. I also like to think I’m mostly responsible with my money. I make sure I keep my credit card bills under enough control that I can pay them off at the end of the money. I don’t count on money like bonuses and tax refunds to pay bills.
On thing I am really terrible at is budgeting. I don’t really even know how to create a good/ functional budget. Maybe I should make that part of my responsible spending challenge: creating a functional, working budget. I’m also only mediocre at saving money. I’m good at it when I have a lot (like when I was still living at home or before I bought my condo), but when things get a bit tight it’s the first thing to go. Once it’s in the savings account it usually stays there until an emergency or something major (i.e. initial renovations on my condo) comes along; it’s getting the money into the savings account that is a challenge for me.
As part of my responsible spending challenge, I did change my direct deposit so that $50 out of each pay check is deposited into my savings account rather than relying on me to deposit or transfer the money. Plus this way, there’s no temptation to spend it because it’s kind of like it never really existed. I will revisit the amount in a month or two to see if I should do more or less out of each check.
This afternoon I’ve been debating how to spend my potential bonus and potentially large tax refund. I have plenty of things I could use the money for. It’s mostly a matter of prioritizing. Here are some of the things I should/ want to do with the money
- Pay off (or come close to pay off) my car: I only owe about $4,500. If I pay it off that gives me an extra $300 a month.
- Replace the floors in my condo: I currently have dirty, ugly mauve carpet. Not only is it dirty and ugly, but I hate carpet to begin with. I want to do bamboo floors.
- Renovate my master bathroom: While my master bathroom is technically functional, but it grosses me out enough that I won’t use it. It’s not an issue since we have a second bathroom (and said second bathroom has a tub rather than just a shower stall,) but it would be nice to have both bathrooms fully functional.
- Savings: I should be saving at least part of the money.
- House wares stuff: This is things like cute, new dishes, new placemats, window treatments (Yes, after 6 months some of my windows still do not have window treatments.), etc. This is all stuff I want but don’t really need.
- A new camera: Don’t need a whole lot of explanation on this.
- New Clothes: I’ve been very dissatisified with my wardrobe lately, but this is definitely bottom of the priority list. I know this already.
On the food & fitness front:
Lunch was leftover Shrimp in Love from last night and some grapes. Nothing terribly exciting.
The afternoon snack was Musselman’s Totally Fruit strawberry applesauce. This is left from the Musselman’s gift basket I won from The Daily Balance back in December. I got a bit applesauced out so I stowed some of it away in the pantry.
I’m not usually a fan of fruit flavored applesauce, but this stuff was quite yummy. The strawberry flavor was subtle.
Dinner was a beef sandwich from Portillo’s with the added bonus of some avocado. I decided I wanted to give it at least a little nutritional value.
I decided to skip my run last night as my knees were bothering me during the day. I had three miles on the indoor track scheduled for tonight. I’m fairly certain they were just sore because I’ve done some intense runs the last two days, and it’s been a while since I’ve really pushed myself running. However, I don’t want to push it and end up hurting myself this early on. (My quads and hit flexors are also a bit sore, but I’m not as concerned about that.)
Girl Can 