OK so this month has been difficult on the finances and i forgot to include my two day trip to San Francisco at the end of this week into my budget so i am going to have to charge my room for thursday night, at least i can pay it off at the beginning of february.

I am going to go to the oral assessments (interview) for the foreign service. Each year they give the exam, each year i take it each year i pass and each year i sit on this hire list waiting to be called. Whn they called three years ago i had not yet presented my thesis for grad school so they were relunctant to have me go as they could not guarantee my ability to attend the following year. So here i go again for the 6th time. I would love to work with them and hope that i am able to actually get a job with them some day. At least all this has been good practice and i never have nerves a anymore when i go and do this.

i need to spend a little money today for the party we are hosting on the 28th. A friend of mine and I are hosting a southern living at home party and we have a budget of 100 for about 30 people. We have a lot of food and stuff for the party and came in much under budget. We are doing it to support a friend who is trying to get a side business off the ground. And the company gives a great program, if we earn 500 for the party, we each earn it instead of the usual program of splitting the proceeds. I already know what I am getting depending upon the amount we earn and they are fir gifts for people over the next year.

I bought my niece a gymnast sweatshirt yesterday at the gym. They currently live in Europe and there she is a competitive gymnast at the age of 11 but they are possibly moving to the states in the summer and yesterday she went to a local comp gym to see how they work out and such. She was moved into three groups and finally they put her into the high school age team because of her skills. It was hard at first because the equipment is very different. Here they train one certain competitive mats but there they do not. The height and speed she was getting last night was a little scary and she will have to learn not to hit the floor so hard. At first she was going everywhere until she managed to control it. The coaches said she has very strong legs, probably because there the floors are not spring like here. Anyway it was fun to see how far she has come since she began two years ago.

I need to find something for me nephew now since I spent money on his sister, probably a game for his game boy.

Work is going well big project to finish by tomorrow but I think it will be finished today. Work is going toward the re writing of my duty statement so that helps too.

So I am one step closer to a promotion and a raise!! Actually the promotion is set but I need to rewrite my own duty statement and have them figure out the raise. I am hoping to jump to a 3 from a 1 but would be happy with a 2. (position level) and I am still looking for an appropriate job I can apply to work at this place as an employee instead of a contractor. I can't qualify for a house if they see that I am a contractor and the job could end each year in august. ugh!

A raise to get out of debt faster would be nice since I know I can love on this current money any extra will go to pay off debt and raise my emergency fund a little at a time would be great too.

Hit a good sale yesterday at casual corner. They are going out of business and everything is 60 -90% off. I picked up 4 shirts for working out for only 16. normally $60! I need something to inspire me to continue going to the gym right now because I am just not feeling it and it is frustrating. So I thought a couple new shirts might make the difference in helping me get there. Also bought a beautiful purple shawl I had been eyeing for a couple months for just 10 usually 50! Just something to put away maybe as a gift or maybe for me! Who knows! It is something I have always wanted, some beautiful shawls to wear and this one is beautiful. I am also looking for a beautiful black wool wrap but maybe someday I can find a pattern to crochet it. Anyone have one?

Had dinner with my family at applebees for $16 too.

Today did minimal grocery shopping for lunches for the rest of the week. $13 saved 9!

So…need to calculate the totals spend to date this weekend!

edit: tonight is the gymnastics thing for brittany before they go back home on saturday!

Hope everyone is well, thanks for reading!

Had a wonderful dinner with sisters and families Friday night for their birthday and Elmer bought. Nice to see everyone. Had a good dinner out Saturday with friends and a good evening $25 plus horrible, horrible coffee 2.85. Rearranged furniture on Saturday to make my room work better. Not sure if I like it my bed is against the outside walls this way and I am colder at night. Grocery shopping $27 on Sunday after lunch at pf change. Edward bought. Got the stomach flu Sunday night and was out Monday. Trying to catch up!

while sick read the 4 and 5 of the harry potter series in two and a half days.

So ready to have this week over! It is hard to go back to work when you only work 1 day in 10.

Yesterday was a small spend day, 7 for parking, 16.40 for groceries, 1.75 snacks in the afternoon.

I have already read 6 books toward my goal this year. (Vacation at the beginning of the year.) I have to rethink that one. Went to the library to get a library card in my new town, Sacramento, and found that while we have something like 24 libraries there is no real section on frugal living, saving or books on personal finance that you don’t have to be a math doctorate to read! Frustrating! At least you can check out and return to any library in the system and it seems like they have a pretty good new book section. I am going to hit the book stores this weekend and find some books and authors I might want to read then search for them in the card catalog. I am going to try and not buy any books this year. That is where a lot of my spending goes and I really don’t have the room for them or the money to be spent. I might track the dollar cost of each book I check out of the library along with the title in my book tracker to see how much I would have saved. That might keep me in line. And if I do feel the urge to spend on a book it will only be from a used book store.

I am still trying to figure out what to do about going back to school. I already have one masters in international and intercultural management and for work purposes I am thinking about going back for a masters in Public Health, that would be paid for, if I can get hired on instead of being a contractor with my current job before schools starts in August. But I am not really sure I want a MPH. I am interested in the MBA program at UC Davis but I am not really sure about spending that amount of money again in school loans. It would cost around 40 grand or so. Since I work for a public health agency they will not pay for an MBA.

I am interested in doing financial management and counseling on the side but I worry about doing it without more of a degree. I love working with people to set up budgets to work with and walk them through saving money, setting up retirement programs, and talking to them about ways they can save for their future but am not sure I want to do it full time. Working with a couple of friends right now is fun, but I don’t think I want to do it full time or it might loose it’s allure for me.

Anyway I would love the advice of anyone who will pass it along to me!

was a realtively quiet day at work, just a core meeting and then a bobmshell about our open house. let's leave that one alone.

spending today equals lunch out with my friend melissa at chinese 7.49 and parking for 7.00 so 14.49 added to monthly total of 53.84.

going to sis house to have dinenr with all the family as my otehr sis is visiting til next saturday. speghetti and i hope to bring some home for lunch tomorrow if i can. If not i am going to hit the store on my way home and make some sauce. i have little of anything left in the freezer that i can take for lunch.


went to the gym last night for the first time in a long time and while i know i have been losing what little energy and strenght i had it was enough to shock me. I will go again tonight maybe. I took a two mile woalk at lunch to the restuaurant and back so that should account for something and my bad foot injured in the peace corps is really bothering me a lot lately. might have to go back to the doc for that one, but is has been 4 years since i came home with the injury so i guess i'll see.

while i have been reading and participating a bit i just have not had the time or energy to post.

But here are my goals for 2006. They might seem like a lot but most of these i already do i am just increasing some things a little to see some changes.

Read 15+ non fiction books
Read 50+ fiction books
Look for new recipes
Cook and freeze more
Obtain permanent job in current situation/employer
Stay within my budget and track all expenses for the year
Emergency fund to 10000
Gas/parking less than $250 EACH MONTH
Entertainment less than $250 EACH MONTH
Personal spending/groceries less than $250 EACH MONTH
DCP equal 1.5%
401k to 5%
Pay 50 % renters insurance in February
Pay 50% renters insurance March
Pay off car insurance in February (less than $200)
Save $500 per month into emergency fund (minimum, should be closer to $750)
Save for trip to Nashville to visit Jerry
Save for trip to the Netherlands to visit sister and her family
Gym 4 to 5 times a week and track eating by day
Use library twice a month and end purchase of books on impulse

spending so far in 2006:
$7 Tower cafe on 1/1
$6.5 movie 1/2 Narnia, excellent movie
$3.85 1/2 jamba juice not sure if i liked this *treat* would maybe have one more but awfully sweet
$15 gas
$7 parking
39.35 total from 2 categories entertainment and transportation

Pizza $60 for my entire family (11 adults 4 kids at my house), actually came out of Decembers budget because we were supposed to do it in December and i had pulled the money already.


So let's track the goals and see how they go for 2006! There will be more as there always are but this is the beginning.

while i have been reading and participating a bit i just have not had the time or energy to post.

But here are my goals for 2006. They might seem like a lot but most of these i already do i am just increasing some things a little to see some changes.

Read 15+ non fiction books
Read 50+ fiction books
Look for new recipes
Cook and freeze more
Obtain permanent job in current situation/employer
Stay within my budget and track all expenses for the year
Emergency fund to 10000
Gas/parking less than $250
Entertainment less than $250
Personal spending/groceries less than $250
DCP equal 1.5
401k to 5%
Pay 50 % renters insurance in February
Pay 50% renters insurance March
Pay off car insurance in February ($200)
Save $500 per month into emergency fund (minimum, should be closer to $750)
Save for trip to Nashville
Save for trip to the Netherlands
Gym 4 to 5 times a week and track eating by day
Use library twice a month and end purchase of books on impulse

spending so far in 2006:
$7 Tower cafe on 1/1
$6.5 movie 1/2 Narnia, excellent movie
$3.85 1/2 jamba juice not sure if i liked this *treat* would maybe have one more but awfully sweet
$15 gas
$7 parking
39.35 total from 2 categories entertainment and transportation

Pizza $60 for my entire family (11 adults 4 kids at my house), actually came out of Decembers budget because we were supposed to do it in December and i had pulled the money already.


So let's track the goals and see how they go for 2006! There will be more as there always are but this is the beginning.