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Did you ever wonder what I throw in my purse each day for work? Head on over to Wellheeed’s What’s In My Bag? contest to find out!
When I’m not going to work, I like to pare down my existence to almost nothing, and often just take a wristlet. But when I go to work, I have a long list of things that I carry — much longer than I expected!
If I win, I’ll be sure to post what I use it for. Christmas gifts, a more winterish handbag, or maybe I’ll take a vote! You are a bunch of enablers who will support a cardigan or something… 
Right?
If you want me to win (you know you do!), please VOTE FOR ME! You also can vote for someone else of course. You can even vote for everyone. All of the entries are really fun to read!
This blog has been dwindling to mostly a list of goals and to-do lists and the like. Perhaps the occasional shopping post.
I’m not sure what to do about it. Accept it? Set up a reasonable (but consistent!) schedule? Take a hiatus until life settles down? (However, I’m a firm believer that life is always busy, and if something is important to you, you make time for it.)
Anyway, here’s a few financial things of note that have happened lately.
Had an AMAZINGLY great weekend in my hometown. Until today when I missed my (budget airline) flight and had to book a brand new ticket on a different airline. Non-direct. My mom actually picked up the tab, but I gave her $100, and think I should likely send her another $100. I don’t have to, but I do think she would appreciate it, and it feels like the grown up thing to do. I make and save plenty that it seem stingy not to. (The ticket was $330. . .) By the way, I”m never going to speak of this incidident again, and told T that we are going to pretend it never happened (except take away a expensive valuable lesson about budget airlines and being early, which I usually am).
Bought tickets for a concert next month with a new friend: $58 (and she still owes me for the same)
Planned the first birthday party for myself in several years, starting at our apartment then just going out. I did that mostly because I don’t want people to be loud too late — neighbors! We’ll probably spend money on some snacks and drinks. I didn’t say BYOB, but I assume some people will and others won’t.
Signed up for the fitness bootcamp after all. I’ll be paying tomorrow! It’s quite a huge money commitment for someone who claims gyms aren’t worth their monthly fee (!), but I think it’ll be interesting to try something new.
Debated whether or not I can pull off the colored wedding shoe trend, or if I’d just regret it. I think I could do it. . . Ok, this isn’t personal finance (until I buy the dang shoe), but still. What do you think?
I like having a blog, and I like tracking and sharing my financial information. But I’m getting tired of the personal finances focus. I haven’t decided what this means long term, since my blog name is quite obviously financial. But I’m not running my blog as a business,so it really doesn’t matter much.
So, you might be seeing some more posts that have absolutely no financial angle from me. I often throw a sentence or two at the end to tie in finances (because it is pretty easy), but if I have something to say that can’t be tied to finances, I’m going to say it anyway.
Just a warning in case you are on an “all pf, all the time” blog diet.
http://quotations.about.com/cs/tvquotes/a/sex_city_top_4.htm
I’ve had a couple people ask me this recently, and when I first started blogging, I wanted to know too! How do you make progress bars? There is a really detailed article (that I didn’t read) written by a knitter that turns up as the top hit on Google for a “blog progress bar” search.
The real secret is, you can just borrow them from any friendly blogger. And by borrow, I mean copy directly. You might want to ask first and see if they want credit for it, but chances are, they won’t care. I’m not sure who I got my progress bar code from, though MapGirl credits Clutter2Cash for her’s, and it might have been through there.
How do you steal the code? In Firefox, go to View -> View Source, or hit Ctrl-U and you can look at the source code for any page. Then tweak and customize it. Using WordPress.com? Here, I’ll save you a step. I took my code for you (note: not an expert coder). Add a text widget, paste this in, then play with the colors. Let me know if you have trouble with it!
There is also a way to make a little box show up with the amount saved when you hover over it (see Krystal’s bars for example), but I guess I took that out last time I re-did mine.
<b><font color=”#3366FF”> NAME OF YOUR GOAL </font></b><br>
Goal: $16k end of year<br>
Start: $14k<br>
Current: $15,028<br>
<div class=”goal” style=”width:195px;height:15px;background:#A9D0F5;border:solid 1px #555;”>
<div class=”progress” style=”height:15px;background:#3366FF;color:white;width:51%;”><b>51%</b>
</div>
</div>
<div style=”font-size:10px;float:left;”> START </div><div style=”font-size:10px;float:right;”> END </div>
There, now you can display your progress too!
I joined twitter, be my follower! (That sounds so weird.) I’m still getting used to it, need to find a picture. I have been telling myself for a month “Do not join, you don’t need another internet distraction.” But in a moment of non-studying procrastination, I joined. Really, not that big of a distraction. It kind of reminds me in college when everyone used AIM/MSN w/away messages. But more interactive. Also, I added it to my sidebar.
Want to be on my blog roll? Want to add me to yours? I update my blog roll from my Google Reader (so I actually read all the blogs on it!). If you comment a lot and have a blog, I try to add it to my reader and check it out. But I have no organized process for this, so I’m sure I’m missing plenty. Or maybe you have a blog and you don’t comment. Now is your chance! (Ok, any time really is your chance, but now is as good as ever.) Sometimes I’m slow about this, but I promise not to ignore.
Sidebars progress meters are back and updated. Aren’t they so much fun to update?
I want a new profile picture and site header. But no time (or do I mean motivation?) to work on this yet. I almost wish I didn’t switch from blogger to wordpress. I can’t edit my CSS (not that I really know much about it) for free and blogger has more templates available now (I think). Oh well. I’m not switching again!
Several bloggers thank their top referrers and commenters on a monthly basis. I’ve never done this, and I don’t know if I’ll be doing it monthly, but I do want to say thanks to those who have sent readers my way! These are my top referers this quarter (however wordpress defines a quarter):
1. An English Major’s Money, whose superb writing skills and unique entries make her blog stand out.
2. Give Me Back My Five Bucks, where Krystal has frequent and entertaining updates: a recent debate about bridesmaid “duties”, and lots of talk about job searching.
3. Well-Heeled, who not only has been working hard to further her career, but also manages to find great deals on cute shoes!
4. Chicky Finance, who describes her journey out of debt with upbeat posts.
5. Need To Be Debt Free, where I’m always a little baffled at his approach to finances, but admire the strength they’ve had to try to get on track.
6. Not Living On Ramen, where E.C. is starting a new adventure participating in Teach For America!
7. Saving My Bacon, who I admit, I haven’t actually read yet. Oh no!! Will subscribe now and check her out!
8. World of Wealth, where Meg writes well thought out posts on a variety of personal finance issues. I admire her ambition for success and the fact that she already has two real estate investment properties!
9. Frugal Bachelor, who always has unique things to say about personal finance topics. Lately his posts are smattered with mentions of his recent adventures traveling around the world. His style may not be for everyone (sort of the anti-”Simple Dollar” in tone), but I find it quite amusing.
10. Fabulously Broke in the City, always entertaining with pretty much the best link round ups out there (food+money+fashion+decorating+whatever). Even when I’m not included!
Thanks guys! Also, thanks to everyone on my blogroll, and everyone who comments regularly! Or anyone who comments at all! I really appreciate it! And as you read this (or as, this goes live) I’m likely sweating my butt off at the Grand Canyon!!!! Have a great weekend everyone!
I would like to dedicate today’s post to my boyfriend, who I call T. As I write this, he’s reading through my blog, which I finally decided to disclose to him today (well, last night, as this is published later). It was sort of an impulse decision to do it today, and I think it went smoothly. I hope. I don’t know just yet, but it seems fine. If my blog vanishes, you’ll know I was wrong (kidding…)
As I mentioned before, we haven’t actually disclosed exact finance numbers, which is one reason I was hesitant. He now knows my numbers, thanks NetworthIQ, and I don’t know his. I don’t care for now. He’s much more private, and I can respect that. In fact, he probably would a better code name than “T”, like a randomly generated sequence of numbers and letters. How is f3jz98os? Ah, it’s good one of us is obnoxiously careful.
It feels nice to share! A little weird, but nice. However, it feels weird to dedicate a post to him, so I won’t be doing this again. Posting will continue as though this never happened, starting tomorrow.
Other than that, I’m on track to meet my grocery budget this month (yay) and might even come in under on gas (due to dropping prices, not any sort of efforts on my part). I’ll wait until July is over to do an official round-up, but it hasn’t been a bad month, despite a little bit of over zealous online shopping.
I haven’t really felt like writing about money for the past couple days. I feel like I learn a lot from blogging (or rather, from reading other’s blogs and thinking about what you all have to say), but I also think that I’m stagnating in my personal finance knowledge. Would it be a better use of my time to find a new area, outside of personal finance, that I don’t know enough about, and start focusing my energy on that?
I think almost anyone, particularly those just out of college, can benefit from writing a personal finance blog. I have learned so much being part of the community, about how others spend their money and about how I want to spend mine. I never had a spending or debt problem, but I also didn’t focus on my money. It went where it chose, not where I directed it. But now what?
This isn’t to say I know all. I have budgeting down, and I understand how to set and meet realistic goals as they relate to money. I know how to allocate my money to spend in line with my priorities. However, there are a lot of areas I haven’t touched on. Real estate. I’m pretty weak on investment knowledge. Taxes. The the “drugstore game”. International money issues. Money as it relates to sociology. I could always learn more about career development. I don’t know. I don’t think blogging is work. T says he could never blog because he isn’t disciplined enough. But I’ve seen him study his work for school for hours on end, and he’s never been unprepared for a test or class. I don’t think it takes discipline to blog (unless you want to have a really professional blog), it’s just something I do. It takes time though. Is this the best way to spend my time?
On to money updates…
Car repairs were just $40 for an oil change and a nail removal from my tire. I think it is pretty amazing that you can get a nail in your tire and the tire is essentially just fine. The check engine light is still on, but I’m feeling hopeful it will go off soon. We’ll see. I’ve been lucky this year. The car place said they charge to read the code, and it took 2 hours to read it. That is insane. I’ve done it at autozone (free), and it took 5 minutes!
Don’t be too impressed by the existence of a $400 car fund, by the way. In theory, that money is going to eventually grow into enough for a new car, so it isn’t all tagged for repairs. With that in mind, $400 is quite pathetic.
After the repair, I stopped at Target to get a couple little things for T. Our anniversary is coming up (4 years!). We don’t do big and expensive gifts (though a little bigger on Christmas), but I did want to get some small, useful things. I’m a little embarrassed to say exactly what, because it sounds unromantic and lame… It was workout shorts, junior mints, and I plan to get champagne and we’ll go out to eat. And maybe wear something special, but that I already own. I forgot to get a card, but I think I’ll just make one. He’ll be happy with that, and with the low key gifts. The best part of a card is what you write on it anyway. We are saying that our vacation in August to Vegas and the grand canyon as part of the celebration, though really, we would have gone anyway. Only three more weeks! I’m very excited!
I stole this title. Not only from the reality show on TLC, but from fellow blogger Chicky Finance. Well, I didn’t steal, I copied it to write about the very same topic she did.
I have been itching to tell T about this site for awhile, but I have been frozen, unable to take action. I sit beside him, and think, I should just show him. Do it now! But I didn’t. The words wouldn’t come out.
Finally, tonight, we were on the phone and I was able to blurt out, “I have something I need to tell you.” I immediately said it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t about him. He asked what it was about, and I couldn’t say it right way. It probably took a good 15 minutes to get it out.
Chicky advised to be sort of nonchalant about it. I couldn’t do that. I definitely made a big deal out of it, because it was a big deal to me. Everything I’ve ever written in my life has been a secret, private, locked up. I couldn’t be casual. I had to be neurotic, because, I guess that is me. (I don’t advise being neurotic about it, but if you have to, it does work).
T was patient, more patient than I may have been. It was really difficult for me, and I can not explain why. Finally, I confessed I had an anonymous blog on the internet. Then it was out there! I couldn’t take it back.
He asked if he could read it, I said maybe later, but not right now. He asked what it was about, and I didn’t tell him. He asked if people read it, I said yes. He asked how I knew, and I said they leave comments. He seemed surprised, and asked how many. I said not that many, it wasn’t popular or anything.
Anyway, there it is. It is out there, it seems to be ok. He did warn me that the government could read and monitor it, and use it against me (yeah, he thinks that). But sheesh, I’m not posting about my illegal activities up here, I obviously keep those totally confidential and off the web. (Note to government: That is a joke, I do not really have illegal activities, except maybe minor speeding here and there.)
Why now? A couple things have come up that would require some sort of elaborate lie if I wanted to keep it a secret. I may have kept this private, but I couldn’t flat out lie. The other reason is, when we move in together, when we take certain next steps in our relationship, I’d either have to quit or fess up. The most normal and sensible option seemed to just be open. So I did it.
Someday, I may be completely normal and sensible.
I feel caught in my web of lies!
No, not really. But I think the time has come to tell T about this blog. It started really as a hobby and I sort of anticipated it dying after a month or two. I mean, I’ve always loved to write, but how much could I write about personal finance? Read any of my early entries and you can see how much effort I put into it. (Heck, even read some of my current entries!) But it hasn’t died yet. I don’t see it dying any time soon. So… now what?
I have many good qualities, but being a completely open book simply isn’t one of them. I occasionally keep weird random secrets about things that don’t even matter. Like a book I’m reading, or a store I visited, or something totally weird. Not secrets, per se, more of a “if they don’t ask, don’t bring it up” sort of thing (and no one has asked “Do you write a blog?), for no reason whatsoever. This isn’t to say I don’t try to be better about this. I do try to be open., though it goes against my nature. I guess I’m afraid of being made fun of for it, even though I know his character and I know he wouldn’t. I don’t know where I got this neurosis, but it is in my head that writing=weird, and writing on the internet for strangers to read = extra weird. And you know, maybe it is, but everyone is a little weird.
My desire for privacy is very much ingrained in me. Middle child syndrome? Perhaps. I’ve always had secret hiding spots for my diaries, poems and other writings when I was a kid. I don’t like to share my goals/dreams with people until I know that I’m really going to go after them. I simply don’t like people to know all my thoughts.
Maybe he secretly already knows. One day we were talking about some TV show, I think “The Office” as we were walking together, and he said something like “Why don’t you start a blog about it?” My heart jumped into my throat, and I wondered where it came from. Maybe I was just being opinionated about something random. Sometimes when my dad gets on a political rant, I tell him he needs to start a blog, “www.creedthoughts.com” (reference to the Office, again, which he loves).
It just is reaching a point where I should retire my blog or tell him about it. (Or maybe that point was like… 9 months ago.) Of course, this means revealing the nitty gritty details of my finances, which we haven’t exactly done, but isn’t a big deal since we’ve talked about it in non-detail enough.
So how do you do this? How do you say, “Honey, I’ve been writing a personal finance blog. For the past year.” Advice appreciated!
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