Holiday Traditions

  By E.M. | December 9, 2013 - 7:30 AM |
29 Comments

Hi everyone! Today we’re going to be talking about the various holiday traditions that everyone has. I know my family has had some that have carried on throughout the years, and it is always nice to hear about the holiday traditions of others. This is the first Christmas where R and I are living together on our own, but sadly we haven’t really thought of any traditions. Yesterday my grandma was gracious enough (as usual) to give us this cute little fiber-optic tree she ordered. She had thought it would be bigger, and I told her I would give it back to her as we would eventually like to get a fake actual tree when we move (does that make sense?). In any case, a lot of my family’s holiday traditions revolved around decorating, which we are lacking this year. The tree, the walls, and the lights outside were the biggest things. There was something else too, though. This post was actually inspired by Mr. 1500, who posted a great rant last week on family members asking the age old question, “What do you want for Christmas?” I have a separate post planned on the whole gift giving thing, but … Keep Reading →

Being Grateful – Ninth Edition

  By E.M. | December 7, 2013 - 8:00 AM |
10 Comments

Oh how lovely it is for it to be the weekend already! This week went by fairly fast, which is good and bad. Good because it means we’re closer to the holidays, and only two more weeks until my parents get here; bad because that means less time to shop! Things are about to get a little dicey at work. One of the ladies retired yesterday (after spending 27 years at this job!), which means it’s just myself and one other person. I’ve been getting more and more comfortable with things, but phone calls still trip me up once in a while. We get the strangest questions sometimes, and I don’t always know what to say. It seems like there’s a lot of grey areas and answers can change depending on the day. Next week, I will be working my first Saturday alone. All I can say is, I am definitely grateful that my mom has said she’ll be available for phone calls, and that I have the luxury of being able to ask her things! I’d still rather have one stressful day than have every day be stressful. Besides that, this week was relatively calm. R and I have … Keep Reading →

November Budget Review

  By E.M. | December 5, 2013 - 7:25 AM |
25 Comments

All I have to say is: yikes, November was an expensive month! Between getting my wisdom tooth pulled, birthday presents, and the trip we took to visit my parents, November was brutal. This is probably the worst month I’ve had yet. November Budget     You might notice I didn’t put much toward my student loans. As I said in my last update, I was going to scale back for the holidays. Depending on what Christmas brings, I might just give myself a present and put more toward them. It has slowly been killing me not to make all the extra payments I am used to, even if they are on the small side. I hadn’t even logged in to check in a while, and upon doing so I just had to put $30 toward it. The balances are creeping back up and that’s not a pretty sight. I have $700 to go before clearing the $3k mark on the smaller loan, and I don’t think that’s happening by the end of the year as I had hoped. Gas: This is higher than normal because I factored in my gas payments for the trip. I actually only put $35 in for … Keep Reading →

Thanksgiving Trip: Spending & Highlights

  By E.M. | December 3, 2013 - 7:25 AM | ,
30 Comments

Yesterday I said that I would most likely be flying to visit my parents from now on. That is because the amount I paid in tolls and gas was way more than I expected. I have to admit, I sadly didn’t really budget for this trip at all. I had tried to figure out how much tolls would cost, but apparently things have changed since my parents last made the trip in the summer. I was told there would be two less tolls coming back home, when in fact one doubled and the other was $13! Ugh. I cannot wait to move to avoid tolls. Spending I don’t find myself in denial about spending often at all, as I always try to practice conscious spending, but I have to admit, I didn’t want to add the numbers up. R was kind enough to help out with gas, while I paid for all the tolls (he never carries cash). So without further ado… Tolls: $74.20 Gas: $118.82 Food: $7 Total: $200.02 Ouch! I was not expecting to spend more than maybe $150. I should note that my car is usually great on gas, and this was mostly highway mileage. We did … Keep Reading →

Luxuries Worth Spending On

  By E.M. | December 2, 2013 - 11:30 AM | ,
49 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend, and if you celebrated Thanksgiving, had a great meal and time with family. This weekend was an absolute whirlwind for me. Suffice to say it took us fourteen hours to get home yesterday. R and I were zombies by the time we arrived, but very grateful we had no bad weather and a safe trip. It’s kind of our own fault as it was a holiday weekend and the traffic was to be expected, though it seemed like there was often no reason for the traffic! Which brings me to the topic of this post. What luxuries are worth spending on? Everyone has something they think is worth a decent amount of money, whether it’s a good pair of shoes, travel, or good food. Normally, I don’t have anything I completely splurge on once in a while, but this trip may change that! I have done this drive to my parents’ area three times now, but this was the first time I was actually in the driver’s seat. The other two times, I had also stopped in VA to visit a friend who has since moved, which broke the trip up. … Keep Reading →

Being Grateful – Thanksgiving Edition

  By E.M. | November 28, 2013 - 7:00 AM |
22 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know I didn’t publish my usual weekend “being grateful” post last week; I figured I would save it for today. Makes sense, as we are all thinking about what we are thankful for (I hope). I am grateful for the free pajama pants I got from none other than my grandma. While she is usually a frugal person, I swear shopping is her downfall! I am pretty sure she has 30 pairs of pants, all different colors. She does make yearly donations, but I think she keeps buying. She had purchased these cute pajama pants and never wore them, and I gladly took them. I can always use more, as some of my older ones have developed holes.  I am grateful that I only had to work two days this week. I am also grateful that my boss was understanding that I had made prior plans to visit my parents, otherwise I’d be working Saturday (I had thought I’d be working M-F during training). I am grateful for my cats. They’re silly and adorable, and even when they’re being pains in the butt, they’re a part of our little family. Our life would be a bit … Keep Reading →