Month: September 2017

Day 63: Doing what I want

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

“A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.” -Bob Dylan

I read this quote about a month ago and it really defines what success is to me. I want to be able to wake up in the morning and have my day belong completely to me and then go to bed at night. Like a Saturday, but every day.

I suppose I do live this quote right now in my own way now. I work a job I’m pretty happy at and do my own projects on my own time. Sure there’s room for improvement (hence the blog…), but I think the general spirit is there. If I get done thing things I want to do and work towards the goals I want to accomplish, then that’s success. It doesn’t feel big, but that’s still a success in it’s own right.

Sometimes I feel like I want to get everything done at once, and I get frustrated I’m not moving faster.  Rarely do things happen as quickly as I expect them to, so it’s okay if they don’t happen right away as long, as I keep working. Things take the time they take.

Until tomorrow.

Day 62: Monthly Check-in

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Gah! I’ve sort of neglected this project the past few weeks. It’s been busy! I took a cooking class and a ceramics class and have been going to a whole bunch of events after work. It’s been two months already since I started so it’s time for my second monthly check-in!

  1. Work on my Novel – I cut out the whole middle part of my novel, so that was sort of a set back, but I feel it will be stronger in the end. (And make more sense!) I’ve been working on it pretty steadily, so I’m pretty pleased with my progress here.
  2. Ballet – I haven’t done much here! I had some really special events come up, so I skipped class for the past month. It’s not great, but I’ve planned out my week this week so hopefully I’ll get back on track!
  3. Promotion –  A position opened unexpectedly in my department and I applied! It’s looking good so far, but we’ll see what comes of it. I’m not sure if it’ll be a good decision in the end or not, but I guess we’ll find out. Stay tuned!
  4. Get out of credit card debt – Still chugging away. I think by end the end of the year I should be out of one and then I can start seriously paying off the second. (Ugh!) But hopefully if I do get that promotion, I’ll be able to pay it off more aggressively. 🙂
  5. In a relationship – I joined Bumble. It’s still early stages, but at least I’m making an effort. I don’t want it to take away from my other goals, so I think I’ll limit how much time I spend on Bumble and going on dates. It is a very time consuming thing.

So there’s my second monthly check-in. Sixty two days in and I’m a little farther along with all my goals except Ballet. It’s almost October so perhaps that will be my October goal. I’ll also try to blog more.

Until tomorrow.

Day 55: Septuple Failure

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Sooooooo I know my challenge last week was to exercise, but I did not go at all this week. It was really, truly terrible. I find exercising SO HARD, but on top of that I’ve had to look for a new roommate the past couple of weeks, which has been taking up a lot of my time. I thought it would be easy to find a new roommate, but interviewing people and showing them the room is pretty time consuming. Not to mention sifting through the dozens of messages I received. Time consuming and exhausting.

I won’t promise myself I’ll go this week since I’m still searching, but I will at least try to go once or twice this week. Better than nothing. Will report back.

Until tomorrow.

Day 48: Another Challenge

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Of all the goals I set for myself the one I have the most trouble with is EXERCISING. I have no idea why except that I have never really had an exercise routine, but I can barely even start one before it falls apart. Also, I do all my exercise alone, which means accountability is really, really hard.

This week I’m going to try my best do exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY (except Thursday because I have my art class and I paid a lot of money for that and could not possibly bring myself to skip it). I’m exhausting already thinking about it, but if I do it for at least three or four days, that’s better than nothing and if I do it all the days, then I’ll know what it feels like to lead the exercise level life I wish I did. That’s all for now. Starting tomorrow I’ll be a fit, but fatigued machine.

Until tomorrow.

 

Day 47: A Half Week in Review

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Soooo….I did a half week in Finance. Not what I wanted to do, but good enough. I like these week long challenges and this is the first in a series (next one will start on Monday!). Perhaps I’ll make them rotating challenges so that I’m constantly working on the things I want to be working on. It’s definitely a good way to keep myself accountable!

I noticed I have spent less money since the beginning of the month, which is good! I’ve been keeping an eye on everything I’m spending and have made a conscious effort to spend less on food and random cups of coffee. (Yay me!) It’s only September 9th, but that means a third of the month is almost done!

I haven’t been tempted to buy much recently, although I may need to take a peek in a bookstore soon. 🙂 The main lesson which helped me is Time vs. Stuff. Buying less stuff or rather buying stuff that is of equal value to the time I spent earning what it costs will help me cut out extraneous purchases from my life. Honestly there’s not a whole lot of things I would happily spend ten or twenty hours working towards. I really think I’d much rather spend time working towards experiences than things (not really news to anyone….) but it’s hard to remember sometimes.

Until tomorrow.

Day 44: Side Hustle

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Side Hustle! Everyone should have one in this day and age. Maybe it’s my millennial mind speaking, but I feel like jobs can be touch and go nowadays. It’s nice to have some extra income, but it’s also nice to have an extra stream of income if your job is made unexpectedly obsolete. Or if you decide your boss is terrible or your coworkers are terrible or if your commute is terrible and you just can’t stand them anymore.

I am currently working on two side hustles: this blog and my book. While it’s my dream to be a writer without another job to support myself, I’m a realist and I won’t let myself believe it until I’m well past the mark of success. In the meantime, having a hobby I enjoy is nice and some extra cash wouldn’t hurt too.

Perhaps it’s too transparent to say I want to monetize this blog someday, but it’s true. Even if it’s only a little extra, at the moment I enjoy it and every bit helps. (Doesn’t everyone hope to monetize their blog someday?!?! Perhaps not?)

And of course writing. It’s a lot of work and it may take years for something to come of it. (Or never…) But I think that’s usually the case with a side hustle unless you already have a set of skills which you can apply as a second job (piano teacher, graphic designer etc.) It’s definitely a risk that all my hard work and time will amount to nothing, but that shouldn’t stop me. And if I earn some extra $ on the side to help me pay off my debt and work towards my other financial goals, that works too.

I also have a farfetched plan to make candles, but that’s another story for another day. 🙂

Until tomorrow.

Day 43: The Dreaded Credit

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Ugh. So I was dumb and dug myself into a hole of credit card debt when I was unemployed. Basically I put everything which wasn’t rent on a credit card. Which is dumb! But also, what else am I supposed to do when I don’t know where my next paycheck is coming from.

Thankfully, I found a full-time job which I mostly like and offers me sweet health benefits and a steady paycheck! That means it’s time to start digging myself out of the trouble I got myself into. And I’ve been steadily working on it. I’m almost done paying off my lowest balance credit card and should be done by the end of the month. (Yay!)

It’s been hard, but I’m so excited to get to 0. I keep an excel chart (of course) of how much I pay off each month and if I hit it then I get to mark it green and if I don’t then I mark it red. It’s a little bit like crossing of a to-do list, which gives me the little bit of reward I need to be happy. 🙂

Then it’s on to the next one! Hopefully I’ll be able to pay off more of it if I get an increase and a promotion, but I’m not counting on it. It’ll be so exciting to be free of debt. Yay for financial freedom!

Until tomorrow.

Day 42: Expense Tracking

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

Now that I’ve written down all my goals, it’s time to track what I spend money on each month. I like to use excel because I find it helpful to physically input everything I spend rather than pulling information directly from my bank account. Here’s a sample of my Budget Spreadsheet for your viewing pleasure.

Basically I input everything that goes in and out, where the money came from (Checking, Credit or Cash) and place it into a category, so I know how much I’m spending on things. I use the following categories, but of course everyone’s lives are different so you’ll have different spending buckets.

Necessities: The big stuff. Rent, water, power, gas. Stuff that I have to spend money on to get to work, have a place to live and eat.

Entertainment: This is anything I do for fun from art classes to going to see a movie.

Food: Grocery bills are counted under necessities, but Food is any extra food I buy out and about that I don’t absolutely need. I’ll admit this bucket has been taking more and more of my paycheck as I’ve settled into my job from being a contractor for awhile.

Shopping: Anything I buy which falls under the clothing/skincare/gifts basket.

Exercise: I could put this under entertainment since you don’t have to spend money to exercise, but I think it falls between an extraneous cost (yoga is NOT cheap) and a necessity (My health is important to me.)

Travel: Blah. This also eats up a large chunk of my paycheck when I do buy things for travel (hotels, airfare!!! or a rental car). I don’t use it often, but I like to have it separate.

I suppose I could break it out into more categories, but this works for me. It allows me to see if I’ve overspent each month and what most of my money is going to (Food! Eek!). Some months are better than others. I suppose the next step would be to track my spending habits over several months to see what my long term patterns are. I’ll work on that.

Until tomorrow. Budget away!

 

Day 41: A Week in Finance

~ joypetite ~ Leave a comment

It’s the beginning of September! And it’s time to talk about finances! Personal finance, not like the great big world of Finance (capital F). I do think a good place to start for anything is to write down your goals. I prefer pen and paper because I find it really gets into my brain, but whatever works.

Today I was reading the Refinery29 Budgeting Slideshow and I stumbled across their financial goal tracker. I have a less pretty, less organized version of this, but who doesn’t love a good worksheet, right? So here’s what I have:

Near Term Goals (2 months)

  • Increase savings to 1000
  • Have no more debt on Credit Card 1
  • Buy my black dress!

I think I’m well on my way to these. I have a weekly deduction from my checking account to my savings account and I’ve calculated that I’ll have paid off all of Credit Card 1 by the end of October. Yay me!

Maybe then I can buy that black dress I’ve been eyeing forever.

Short-term Goals (Less than 2 years)

  • Pay off Credit Card 2
  • Save enough to go on a European vacation
  • Have a second stream of income

I’ve calculated it out again and after I pay off Credit Card 1 (which has been quite a struggle), it should take another year to pay off Credit Card 2 if everything continues as it has. That means no raises and no huge emergency purchases. (Fingers crossed!) I’d like to go on a nice vacation without worrying about how much money I’m spending and I’d also like to pay for most of it in cash. And I’m also working on having a second stream of income with this blog and potentially my book. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but every little bit helps! Here’s hoping!

Mid-term Goals (2-10 years)

  • Buy a house
  • Own a horse
  • Go on one super fancy vacation
  • Max out my retirement every year

These are getting sort of out there and they seem kind of hard to imagine given my present circumstances, but a girl can dream, can’t she? .

Long-term Goals (10+ Years)

  • Have a million dollars saved?

Honest 10+ years seems so far off I can’t even imagine who I’ll be or what I’ll want by then. Financial independence is a must though, so that’s what I’m aiming for. A million dollars is a lot, but dreams, right?

So there they are. The big picture. Tomorrow I’ll get into the nitty gritty of all the budgeting goodness.

Until tomorrow.

P.S. I’m not 100% sure I’m labeling these days correctly, but oh well.