Staying in my Thanksgiving Budget

I went to the store yesterday to do my major Thanksgiving shopping. I had picked up some sparkling cranberry cider and champagne at Trader Joe's to make a cocktail, and I bought everything else at Ralph's. I'm sure there is some PF blogger out there who used coupons and got their Thanksgiving dinner for 27 people for twelve cents or something, but to them I say, just stop it.

I spent a total of $65.12 at Ralphs, which will feed 7 people with plenty of leftovers. I'll post pictures after Thursday, but that include ingredients for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade caramel apple pie, and a store bought pumpkin pie. The roommate is making green bean casserole as well (yum).

I also bought organic brown and white sugar, which will last me quite a while, as well as four sticks of organic butter, which I hope I don't use all of for one meal. ;)  I also had to buy a pie pan, and since you could only get a throwaway one in three pack, I bought a glass one for $4.89, which I will be able to use in the future. I did get throwaway pans for stuffing and turkey at the dollar tree last week, so that will make my life easier. I don't have a dishwasher, so I'm fine with recycling the aluminum ones when I'm done to save me the effort of having to wash more dishes.

I'm getting excited for tomorrow! Today I'm making the pie and cranberry sauce, to save me some time tomorrow. I did a lot of cleaning yesterday, and tonight the roommate and I are going to rearrange the furniture to allow for guests in our small apartment.

Weekly Money Check Up

From My Pretty Pennies...the usual.

1. The most I’ve spent this last week was on dinner and a few drinks for my sister and me=$42. Sister time=priceless.

2. Today I feel a little stressed toward money. I'm on track for my budget, but I'm also trying to figure out where I'm going to get the funds to pay for my classes and my National Boards retake, so I'm scrutinizing to see where I can find that money. It looks like I'll be able to find enough to pay for one of my classes from my November check, which is $180. :)

3. Money can’t buy happiness. One free/inexpensive thing I did last week that made me happy was going with students from my school to feed homeless people on skid row today. 30+kids chose to spend the first day of their vacation helping others...awesome.

4. I will consider this week a success if I get Thanksgiving dinner on the table while sticking to my grocery budget. I think I can do it!

5. My favorite food at Thanksgiving is stuffing. I make it with sausage, celery, and onion. Yum!

Do This!

Saving Cents in the City posted here about how to get $3 in free mp3 downloads from Amazon. Super, super easy. I got 1901 by Phoenix and Piano Man by Billy Joel.

What are you going to get?

Confession: I Care About Brands

As I've been preparing for Thanksgiving, I noticed that an unfortunate number of my glasses have broken. I've got enough wine glasses, but I also want to have water on the table for my guests. I am down the three glasses, plus four or five that my roommate has with beer logos on them. Not really what I'm going for on Thanksgiving.

I had been thinking of ordering some from the Crate and Barrel Outlet, which is where I got my old ones. I love Crate and Barrel. LOVE. I liked the Otis glasses, which were $3.95 each. But before I ordered them, my sister and I were at Big Lots and saw a set of six glasses in the size I wanted for $6.99. I liked the style and obviously liked the price.

My sister was telling me to get them and I was hemming and hawing. I finally admitted that I wanted the Crate and Barrel ones, even though they were pretty similar to these. Erin pointed out, "If these were at Crate and Barrel you'd buy them. They're the same thing." And she was right. Once they're out of the box, only I will know where they came from. And though I do love C&B, I bought the Big Lots glasses. Because I do care about brands, but I've learned in  the past year that I care about making good financial choices more.

Dilemma

So, for quite a while my plan has been to use any and all extra money each month to pay down my car debt by June. Which is going pretty well, actually.

I also recently made a second goal to get a salary point raise by June as well. I actually think I can get it done by March, which would be great because it would help me pay down my car even faster. I found one free class, one for 15 dollars, and third for $65 that I've already enrolled in. That's three points. I am also on the waiting list for a free two point class during Winter Break, that I really hope I get in to.

But, I am going to have to pay for some of them if I want to get this done. Paying for classes is definitely worth it in the long run...it's an investment because the raise will follow me throughout my career...the sooner I take the classes, the more money I make.

Here's the dilemma. I found out the work I did for National Boards last year can count for three points. I do have to pay $295 for that work. If I get in to all the ones I'm planning on, I just need six more points for the raise. There are some online classes I can take for $180 each (I found a $20 coupon for each class!) that would get me finished by March.

Also, I didn't pass National Boards. :( You need a 275 to pass and I scored a 269. Grrr. Since I'm so close, I want to retake an assessment and a portfolio. If I pass I get an automatic 7.5% raise, plus an additional 7.5% if I complete a certain number of mentoring hours. This is definitely an investment. I'm looking into scholarships, which I got last year, so hopefully I can get this one for close to free, but I'm not sure how that will play out.

For those of you following along with the math, that's a total of  $1,405. Eek. If I can get scholarships for National Boards, I can spend $655. Blech. I can pay for this in the next two months, and if I really had to tap into my e-fund for National Boards, but it means almost no extra money on my car payment...which would make it really difficult to pay it off by June.

I'm torn. Do I hold back on one of the classes, taking the cheaper/free ones piece by piece? This means giving up more of my weekends since the ones I plan to take are online. It also means getting a raise later. Or do I accept that my car might not be paid off until a few months after I planned?

Whine and You Shall Receive

So, I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but my apartment gets really cold during the winter. I know I don't live in a snowy area and some of you will scoff at this, but it's the truth. The apartment is really old, so the insulation is terrible and the heater is in the living room, facing the front door. It's essentially useless. 

On the plus side, our bills stay low all year round.

Anyway, I posted a Facebook status that said, "I am remembering how cold my apartment gets in the winter....brrr! I'm freezing!" I didn't think much of it, just sharing about things no one is interested in...that's what Facebook is for, right?

I got some sympathy, some mockery about being cold in Southern California, and two offers for space heaters. One from a co-worker who doesn't use it, and one from my aunt who is coming over on Thanksgiving. I had thought about buying one this year, and look...without even asking I'm getting two. 

The one from the co-worker is really small and not enough to warm up my whole room, but I have it on my nightstand, and I've been using it for about ten minutes right before I go to sleep, which has been very nice. I don't want to jack up my electric bill too high, so I'm trying to use it sparingly. 

Anyway, I thought it was a good example of asking what people have before you buy things. Or just whining and seeing who offers to help you. :/

Happy Blogoversary!

Yes friends, this is the one year anniversary of my blog! And what better way to celebrate than with data and statistics! (What can I say, I know how to party!)

In the last year I have...
...paid off $5,014.11 in credit card debt
...paid $7,520.06 toward my car loan
...paid $737.62 toward my students loans...
for a grand total of $13,271.79 paid off in one year! When I see it all added up like that, I feel both proud of myself and excited for the day when I will have that much money per year to save and spend.

I've posted 193 blog posts.

I've earned $110 in Amazon gift cards via Swagbucks. Much of this went toward gifts, though I did get myself a few CDs in there too.

I've also created an emergency fund, fully funded as defined by Dave Ramsey's Baby Step 1, though that actually happened after my credit card debt was paid off, since I did it $100 at a time.

And, I've really enjoyed blogging-making me more accountable with my money, having an outlet for writing, and making new friends (well friends whom I've never spoken to or met in real life...but I'll call them friends all the same!)

That being said, if you read my blog, I'd love a comment today...especially you silent lurkers who I know are there. I know I find inspiration and motivation from personal finance blogs, and I hope mine has given back in some small way or another.