How extravagant. Try 2 yoga mats and 2 pillows from Walmart. You could have had a futon for under $20.

Just kidding!

Money is made for buying the rewards you want for the work you do. If a $400 (of $4000) audio system is what makes you happy then I don't see why you need to defend that decision to anyone...unless of course you buy it on credit then default and make the rest of us cover those losses...or trade food stamps for cash to but a stereo...

You can use food stamps to buy frivolous electronics? Darn, if I knew that I wouldn't have stolen my mom's wedding ring to pay for it.

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but for someone to come on to my journal thread and tell me that my future's a mess... well, I was crabby this morning. My original reply was beyond rude and probably would've gotten me banned. And yes, I know I could've said nothing but as I said before, I was crabby.

I saw that comment (about your future being a mess) this morning and wished that I could login at work! All 8 posts and he can predict everyone's future. It's kind of comical, but I don't blame you for being crabby. I was crabby after I saw it too! hee hee.

I believe it was Julius Caesar who first said, "Illegitimi non carborundum!"

Keep on keepin' on,
CecilyC

From the tone of the post I read it as being a robot poster.

It just missed the spam link.

Thanks for the support guys. And DH, who needs a pillow, just sit on the floor as nature intended! If that's too hard on your back, bring in a stump from the backyard! True luxury is spending $5 on a camp chair.

The system was actually a little under $800 after tax, really not that extravagant I just have an issue with spending money sometimes, even after I've decided that I'm going to spend it. It was only after I got seriously pissed off when I couldn't hear the dialog in my brand new game that I'd been waiting to buy for a year that I finally got the motivation to do something about it

Other examples of money I have and decided to spend but haven't done yet -

Landscaping rock for the side of the driveway, which has been grass free and ready for months, and the side of the house which already had rock when I bought the place, just not enough. I already know what I'll get and how much it'll be. I have to do this before I sell the house, I might as well get it now so I can enjoy it too, right?

A hydration backpack for skiing, I even picked one out for $30 but haven't actually purchased it yet and I've already been skiing this year. Yes, it's $30, a good price for what it is, I know it'll be really really nice to have for not only skiing but hiking, biking, etc, but there's still that part of me that says "it's a want, not a need, should you really spend money on it?"

I have a confession to make - in the past few months, I have not worked 40 hours/week. Some weeks I've been short only an hour or two. Some weeks I barely got more than 20. Most weeks have been at least 30 hours.

The reason? A lot of it is because of my sleep disorder. But not all of it. Some of it has been laziness, leaving early just because I was at a good stopping point. Some of it has been me taking off work to go to the dentist, take a dog to the vet, etc, and not making up the time in the evening or weekend. The time adds up and as an hourly employee I don't have any paid time off for anything. Then there was my Christmas break - the office was closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then I had a few days off planned. Then I got sick and all together ended up missing 2 weeks of work. That's two weeks of no paychecks.

Fortunately I live cheaply enough that even without getting my full paycheck I've been doing fine, but I haven't been saving as much as I'd like. Well, that ends now. From this week on I will be working at least 40 hours a week on average. If I want to take time off for midweek skiing, a trip to see family, whatever, I will work on accumulating the extra time beforehand. This week will be my first test, I have to take a dog to see a specialist Thursday afternoon so I'll have at least 2 hours to make up.

As for the sleep disorder, I've decided to go to a doctor for it. Again. Nothing has ever come out of my previous attempts except for a confused MD and some strange test results, but I have good insurance and it's pretty clear by now that I'm not going to grow out of it (as my mom thought I would). I wouldn't bother posting that here but it has affected my financial life my whole adulthood so I think it's relevant to this forum.

I'm on the hunt for a new job. There's a chance my job could be going bye-bye March 31st and even if it doesn't the way this company has been handling this whole thing is not inspiring confidence. In fact, out of my team of 5 one is already gone and a second has put in his notice. Even if my contracting company comes to an agreement with the company coming in to take over I don't know if I'll want to stick around.

The question now is do I take a (possible) pay cut to shift over to a different programming language or stay with what I do now? I don't have nearly as much experience with the other languages I'm considering so it'll be harder to sell myself, but I think I'll enjoy the work more and it will open up more career options. Of course, I'm still going to have to work harder on selling myself since I'm technically overpaid for the amount of experience I have, although I have the skills to back it up. I can afford a pay cut and in the long term switching fields will probably pay more.

Ah, decisions, decisions. None of which can be made until I actually start interviewing and get a job offer, of course. Fortunately the job market here is pretty good, in fact we've had a couple of open positions for a while but haven't found anyone qualified to fill them.

I have a crazy idea...

This spring, work on the house - strip the vinyl siding and paint the old stuff that's underneath, fill in the rock areas with more rock, paint the kitchen, stuff like that.

Sell the house this summer and move into my dad's house, put most of my furniture in storage.

With the proceeds from the sale I'll get very close to the amount I need for a down payment for another home, and living at my dad's would allow me to save the rest quickly while I started looking. It's also possible I'd get more than enough out of my house.

The problem is, I'm not sure how much my house could sell for. Zillow puts the value at $115,000, Trulia says $152,000. My mortgage balance is $81,800. If the house sells for $130,000 I should get enough to cover the down payment without even touching my current savings, and similar houses have sold for more in the past few months so that amount could be doable. And yes, I'm subtracting commission/closing costs.

In the meantime, I'm still (slowly) looking for another job. My contract has been extended at least to the end of April, probably to the end of June, and I'm the only person from my team staffed on a project that runs until August - but the project could be cancelled without notice so it isn't exactly job security. One of the leads who's been working with the incoming company says I have nothing to worry about, that it'll take the new people months to get up to speed, and there's still a possibility they'll pick up my contract, but I'm not going to count on it. I've already started interviewing for one company that I'm really excited about. Same pay, better benefits, good corporate culture, and opportunities to shift over to different types of development.

And now - an update on some numbers! As I mentioned in a previous my income this winter was low so I haven't made as much progress as I'd like, but the figures have at least been moving in the right direction. Changes are since I started tracking in June.

My debt:
$81.8k mortgage (-$1.1k)
$24k student loans (-$2k)
$14k car (-$2.3k)
$???? dental debt - I don't have online access to this account and the statement's at home so I'll have to update this later. I think it's down to about $1000 and is interest free.
I've thrown some extra here and there at the student loans and have continued to round up my car payment.

My assets:
$115-135k est home value (+15-35k)
$10k emergency fund
$3.7k down payment (9.27% of goal, was 0 in June)
$700 misc savings (was 0 in June)
$4k retirement (+$3k)

I've been doing much better at working a full 40hr week, even got a little over time the past couple of weeks. Except for holiday weeks, I just don't have enough motivation/determination/discipline to make up all 8 hours when I could have a day off.

I'm committed to go to Europe with a friend in August. Part of me is totally psyched-we're going to two music festivals, one in Germany and another in Slovakia, and there are some bands playing that I've really wanted to see and we'll be sightseeing in between. Part of me wishes I could have waited another year, but my friend is going this year and I doubt I'd have the guts to do it on my own. The good news is he's interested in saving money as well so we've been talking about spending some nights on the train instead of a hotel, figuring out the most economical use of the rail passes, etc. Right now I have a rough estimate of $3000, based on current flight prices of $1600. I'll refine that number as we refine our plans, hopefully flights get cheaper in the next couple of months!

Let's see, the other goals I set:
Take lunch to work 3-4 days/week - Most weeks I've been good about bringing my lunch instead of eating out. I still slip occasionally, but overall this has been a success.

Build an Android app - obviously, this one is way behind schedule. It's also been a big learning experience, when I do my second app it will be much smoother. And faster.

Roll over the TSP - haven't done this yet. I was all set to, then realized I didn't know what I'd do with it once it was rolled over. I've been reading about investing and have a better idea now, so I should put this back on the to do list.

Set a schedule - I'm back to using my text file for scheduling chores, projects, milestones for long term projects, etc. Not that I always do laundry when I'm supposed to, but now I reschedule it instead of just plain forgetting

The crazy idea is a go!

As soon as I mentioned it to my dad he started acting like my moving in was a done deal, he's that eager for me to move out of my neighborhood. I met with a real estate agent yesterday and she confirmed that I should have no problem getting what I want for my house. So now I get to spend most of the next few weeks working on the house - painting, decluttering, deep cleaning, new sod, etc etc. Then I get to spend the next however long it takes to sell sweeping and vacuuming dog hair constantly. Basically, for the next couple of months I'm going to be a slave to my house.

But the house should sell, I should get a nice profit for it, and then I get to house hunt for my new home. A place where I can live comfortably for the next 30+ years, a place where I can make changes without worrying about resale, a place that I can settle into and really make it mine. These are the thoughts that are keeping me motivated. And excited.

Bye bye money I estimate I'll spend about $2,500-3,000 working on the house. I've already spent just under $1,400. The good news is it's all stuff I'd be doing even if I wasn't going to try to sell, so if I end up staying I won't really be out any money. Also, I'm going to add at least $10,000 to the value. I'm doing everything (except the gutters) myself which is saving me a LOT, but spending $180 for a dumpster, $325 for rock, $600 for gutters, hardware store trips that cost $50-150 each for paint, wood, etc... The good news is I have savings to cover it, it just kinda hurts to see those receipts adding up That doesn't include the extra I'm spending on food to "pay" my brother for his help.

But it's work that needs to be done no matter what, and if the idea of selling is enough of a motivator to give me a good kick in the butt then so be it. And I really want to sell then buy a house on the edge of civilization. I have debated whether I should stay in my cheap little house for a while longer, but I'm setting my budget so the next place will still be easily manageable and I'll be much happier once I'm out of this neighborhood!

Even if it doesn't sell soon, it sounds like your house will be much nicer to live in until then! Isn't it crazy how you never do any home improvement until it's just about to not be your home anymore?

Even crazier, doing home improvement after you've moved out. That's what we did with our house after we bought a bigger one and decided to rent the old one out. The bathroom in the old house is so much nicer than what we had when we were living there. But for us, it was a matter of logistics. It's a 1-bed, 1-bath house and putting the bathroom out of commission while it was being remodeled was a non-starter for us.

However, we took full advantage of the flexibility when we bought the new house. We did some work on the new house (new flooring, pool replastering) while living at the old house, then remodeled the bathroom at the old house after we moved.

What really makes it funny? I actually enjoy doing a lot of this work. I just get stressed over "doing it right", or timing it just right with the weather, etc etc. Now that I've decided it HAS to get done it's a lot easier to say ok, this is what I'm doing for a couple of months, so let's do it.

All this housework has really made me appreciate that advantages to a small, simple ranch. Sure it's kinda boring to look at, but it makes paint, trim, gutters, and more so much easier to do on my own. Makes me wonder why so many people want those huge 4000 sq ft houses with 30ft high ceilings, that much space makes even basic cleaning a real chore! That doesn't mean I'll go just as boring on my next house, I would like some architectural interest (although it isn't required), but maintenance and repair will definitely at the front of my mind as I house hunt. Along with all the other needs and wants on my list. It's a pretty basic list, I don't need (or want) anything fancy.

I saw my agent Saturday to look at some of the competition nearby and wow, the pickings are slim. All 4 houses that are available within 2 miles are pretty rough; mine is a brand new remodel in comparison. The agent thinks I'll get $140,000 or even $150,000 when I sell. I'm still planning on $130,000 for now, if I get more then yay, bonus.

Great advises to follow. Thanks!