Wyozozo's Personal Finance Blog

My dad has decided since he has to postpone his annual trip to NJ (when he usually spends a month) the two of us need to take another vacation! (Luckily I have PLENTY of vacation time at work!) He let me decide where our destination is to be and I picked Niagara Falls...yes, I'm honeymooning with my father! As it happens we apparently will also be traveling through all the flood ravaged states too. I want to travel around the Great Lakes, up to Niagara Falls, up to Canada and return to the states at either Michigan or Minnesota. While gone we will pay homage to commercialism at the Mall Of America!

I've been checking out roadsideamerica.com to find all the weird and unusual sites we can visit enroute!

On a financial note, I finally checked my rewards on my debit card and found I had $30 waiting to be deposited into my account so that has been done. I've sold 10+ books on half.com and have another to mail on Monday.

Now that I know what my COLA increase is I upped my ING deposits. One of those accounts for my trip to Russia next year. The trip is paid for so this is just my spending money account.

My new position at work gives me the opportunity of OT and so far I've put 9 hours. This week I accumulated 2.5. I'm hoping for some next week as that's the last I'll work during this time period. The last 2 weeks on this timesheet will be vacation. (Yes, we have odd time periods at my job. Has to do with law enforcement standards.)

I will be flying out of Salt Lake City for a trip over Thanksgiving. I purposely scheduled the flights so that I could drive down the day before flying out and return home the day after flying back. The weather and roads in WY can be tricky in November. So anyway, I decided to check on room prices last night to see what was availabe. I found a nice and conveniently located Quality Inn on line for $52.79 a night. I know that a lot of times you can beat the posted rate by calling the motel directly so I did. Imagine my surprise when the best rate I could get direct from the property was $59.99. Needless to say I booked my reservations through the motel's web site. The nice thing is they offer free long term parking, free airport shuttle and a complimentary breakfast.

In the manifesting money department;

I've been diligently putting money away for this trip and to date have $700 saved. Imagine my surprise when I got my credit union statement in the mail and I realized I had accumulated $300+ that I had TOTALLY forgotten about!! It will stay there, quietly earning interest as my new emergency fund. I deposit $50 a month directly from my paycheck so I never miss it...obviously!LOL

I was going through some papers I needed to deal with (file, toss, etc) and came across a $10 Amazon GC that I have no idea as to it's origin. But I'll put it to good use!

Our County Commissioner's have finally decided on our COLA...7%. I'll wait until I get my paycheck at the end of the month to see what that translates to and then decide what to do with this windfall. Actually I shouldn't complain...as a single person I'm exempt from having to pay a percentage of my health benefits. All others have to start ponying up a monthly contribution. Some to the tune of 11% so the COLA doesn't even cover what they have to pay out.

Sold 2 more books through half.com, so that money will go to the $20 challenge when it's deposited into my account.

This weekend ended up being a no spend time as I never left my house. It felt good not having to be anywhere!

My total sales from half.com is now up to $39.19! Not bad from only 5 books. Here's hoping more sell...especially since our COLA at work is up in the air! I live in the richest county in Wyoming and they want to offer us a paltry 3% COLA!!! To say the employees are a tad bit upset is an understatement. Both city governments gave their employees at least an 8% COLA in addition to adjusting their salaries.

And added $2.20 to my $20 challenge! Total is now at $108.12.

and many more to go! But the total for the two I sold comes to $12.25! This will be added to my challenge money!

And a side note: IT SNOWED HERE TODAY!!! It even stayed on the ground long to enough to turn the grass white! Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is June isn't it??

Yup, that's me!! I just cleaned out the cabinet underneath my bathroom sink and tossed all the partially used bottles of hair products I had. What a waste of good money. Of course when I bought it I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, only to be disappointed in the results on my hair.

So, while it was wasteful, I did free up a lot of space and now know what works for me!

Hair products are as 'evil' as kitchen gadgets! LOL!!

After reading a post here earlier today, I got motivated and started listing some books on half.com. So far I have 84 books listed. I would love to find 84 messages in my inbox saying someone wants to give each one a new home!

I went in tonight and increased my automatic deposit to ING! Now I'll be putting $50 a month in there. We are projected to receive an 8% COLA raise this year, starting in July. If that materializes I'll increase my deposit again. I'd like to be able to put the entire 8% in there.

Just dumped the change from my billfold and added $1.63 to my challenge bank.

$90.78
+ 1.63
______
$92.41

Almost to the 3 digit mark...

...with money left over!

I started with $950 in my vacation fund. Lost $200 + $20 in bank charges when two of the checks I deposited bounced! That will be dealt with! I still have $354 left in the account and that's where it will stay as I am anticipating taking my much desired cruise next May. This will make a nice starting point for a fund for that trip.

Since I've returned home I've had 5 no spend days, which feels great! Also, since I wasn't at home and didn't touch my other account (where my paycheck is deposited) I was able to pay off my first credit card!!!

The only cards with balances (which are relatively small) are clothing cards as there is not much shopping available where I live so I do online ordering. I have 3 more to go but they should be paid off in the next few months.



The picture is me as an obvious tourist in NYC!! LOL I'm holding Morris, the stuffed moose, that traveled with me and was the subject in many a photograph. Oh, by the way...Wicked was awesome!!!!

I've been very good at not spending for the past 3 days but that is coming to an end today. I NEED a haircut and I'm getting one! I also need color so it will run approx. $40-$50 but will last me several months.

On the plus side, I'm depositing $950 into my vacation account today. This is all from checks and birthday money I've been saving for a few months.

I was sitting here watching Oprah and they were talking about all the waste that is generated by ATM receipts. I'm guilty of this too. I request one and then toss it in a day or two after I've checked my account online. I think I will try and only request a receipt when I make an ATM deposit.

This is the result of my new haircut!

...I found the color settings? LOL Since I'm trying to have a no spend day, I thought I would come here and play with them. I don't think anyone can tell I like the color purple either!!!

Yeah right! But I could possibly receive a small stipend. According to the article on the home page, I qualify for inclusion in the class action suit because I used my credit/debit card in Norway in 2001. I went ahead and ordered copies of my bank statements for the period of time I was over there. Once I receive them I will fill out the claim form and submit it. Any amount will be nice and I will consider it "found" money.

This could be a nice start to the New Year if indeed I do receive something from this!!

UPDATE: I ordered the necessary bank statements. It will cost $12 for the copies of the two statements so I hope I recoup that if I'm entitled to any money.

Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I found a $5 check in my mailbox from Staples. I'm assuming it's a rebate check from something I bought!


Total is now at $85.23!

I had last Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I spent $0 all three days! Instead I stayed home and tackled a room that had slowly turned into a dumping ground for everything I was too lazy to find a home for! I didn't get it completely organized by I did go through everything and find a home for each item. Not everything now has a place in my home! Once I've finished sorting my books, the room will be done.

I sold some clothes through a forum I belong to and I received the money order today...$25.10 added to my challenge money!! Total now stands at $80.23! Ever closer to my monthly goal of $250.

I'm probably not doing the $20 challenge in the way it was designed. My goal in this challenge was to save $20 or more a month in unconventional ways. Loose change I didn't spend or found while out and about, things sold on forums, etc.

So with that in mind, I received $5.15 for an item today and I found 0.01 which brings me to $47.42.

I've been saving my little dribs and drabs in a cute little bank which I will empty each month and deposit in my credit union savings account.

Obviously I forgot all about this blog and this challenge!! So, I sat down today and counted the change I'd put in my jar in the few weeks and came up with $42.27. That is now my starting balance for this year. The rest of the change apparently went into my mass change bottles so I don't have a count on it. But I do save change religiously!

This year my goal is to save $250 a month towards a trip I want to give myself for my 50th birthday next year. I know should be able to do this painlessly.

I did increase my ING direct deposit to $25 a month last year and I'd like to make it a little more this year. It's nice that it's in an account that I can't access easily so it stays there! lol

My goal is to make this year a year of no needless spending. I have way too much stuff already and I don't need to be constantly adding to it. I would like to be able to say all I've bought this year is necessities...we'll see how that goes.

Thursday and Friday were no spend days and it looks like today will be too! woo-hoo!

Put $0.78 in my change jar and the mailman brought 2 $10.00 Lowe's gift cards! These were the freebie for trying the Complete Home Trial membership. These however, may be used during my annual spring trip to Denver to purchase a much needed ceiling fan for my bedroom. The fan still won't cost me anything by using them!

I've had 3 no spend days in row...unfortunately it was due to being sick! I'm finally back to work and I did buy lunch out, but we Chinese and for $7.00 got enough WonTon soup for both lunch and dinner tonight.

Well, it's my first post in this catagory and I did pretty good today!

Received two $10.00 Circuit City gift cards for trying buyers advantage through MyPoints! Couldn't believe how fast those showed up!

Put $1.54 in my change jar.

...or should I say steps?

I started a new savings account today. It will begin with a monthly automatic deposit of $10.00. Not much but it's a start. When and if I get a cost of living raise I'll adjust the deposit amount. This account is in addition to the one I have at my credit union that has a $50.00 monthly deposit made to it.

I started a new change jar. I have saved my change for years but I wanted a new jar so I could keep track of what I put in it each week.

I'll be changing my Netflix membership to the lowest package. One DVD at a time is enough for me, plus I'll probably be better at watching them when they come if I only have one in the house at a time.

My goal is to be debt free in two years and save enough to pay cash for a trip abroad I've been wanting to take.