July

I had a great experience with the CEO of Carbonite.  I’m still recommending them to friends, even though the service didn’t work on my Mac.  I bought some new tires.  Exciting, I know.  I discovered Alice.com.  Still love them.  I [...]]]> Yes, I know, I didn’t quite get this done at breakneck speed.  But here you go.

July

I had a great experience with the CEO of Carbonite.  I’m still recommending them to friends, even though the service didn’t work on my Mac.  I bought some new tires.  Exciting, I know.  I discovered Alice.com.  Still love them.  I talked a little about collecting.  I also read and wrote about someone who was living on nothing.

August

August was my month of crazy.  Things were busy, but I still managed to blog a bit.  I was surprised at how well my retirement accounts were doing.  I discussed batch cooking.  And still don’t do it.  I learned some cool things about James Smithson and what we know about historical figures based on their bank accounts.  I wondered why I would do something I didn’t want to do.  I stopped saving things for special occasions.

September

I started seriously pondering a new job.  As of January, I’m still in the old job, but I’m hoping things are looking up.  I mocked the term “recessionista.”  I discussed the difference between frugal and cheap and got some good comments.  I wondered if the employed owed something to our unemployed friends.  I asked where people store their bulk purchases.

October

I wondered what was better – big savings or little savings.  I think the answer is both.  I discussed gift purchases as a percentage of your salary.  A friend started pre-spending her bonus.   Personal finance bloggers were called out for being imperfect and no one was surprised.  I got accosted by a charity marketer.  And then, my roommate moved out.

November

I got a small bonus and pre-spent it.  On dental work.  Super fun.  I applied for a job that would mean a pay cut.  Haven’t heard anything on that yet.  I decided to use an FSA for 2010.  I was faced with exposure of my Social Security number and other personal info.  I finished the month on Jury Duty.

December

There was some water damage to my apartment, reminding me that there are perks to renting.  I asked how people deal with unwanted advice.  I discussed information overload.  I think I like information overload.  I demanded what I thought I deserved.  I shared my thoughts on golden handcuffs.  Then I took a short break to enjoy the holidays.

So 2009.  Not a bad year, all in all.  I’m looking forward to 2010.  So far, so good!

April

I thought about retirement planning.  I got a number of comments on a post about the plight of the twenty-somethings.  I ran another ten-mile race.  (And no, I’m not going to try barefoot running – I pick enough glass out of my running shoes to know that’s a bad [...]]]> And we continue on with quarter two.

April

I thought about retirement planning.  I got a number of comments on a post about the plight of the twenty-somethings.  I ran another ten-mile race.  (And no, I’m not going to try barefoot running – I pick enough glass out of my running shoes to know that’s a bad plan for me.)  I got sick of my local pharmacy and started using an online pharmacy.  I went on vacation, which was fun, but probably a bit too much of a splurge in terms of both money and vacation time.  I accidentally invested in stocks, but it turned out to be a good thing.

May

Whether or not to pay for your child’s education is a hot topic.  I learned some people were being offered a year off for a third of their salary.  I tried out a new waxer, had horrible results, then shared my humiliation on the internet.   (And I didn’t even learn from this, since I did it again in October, but I didn’t talk about it the second time.)

June

Did you know you can actually buy happiness?  And then my roommate’s dad got laid off, which was decidedly not happy.  I upped my retirement contributions and felt like a grownup.  I was criticized for bringing my lunch to work by some strange coworkers.  And the summer continued.

January

Well, the year started out with a net worth drop for 2008. I talked about my new Kindle, which I still love, though I’m a little [...]]]> So seeing as we’re already well into 2009, it’s time to start my year in review.  Who’s ready for some time travel?  Here are some highlights from the past year.

January

Well, the year started out with a net worth drop for 2008. I talked about my new Kindle, which I still love, though I’m a little jealous of the newer version.  I thought about keeping your stuff safe and discussed CYA files.  I felt a little survivor’s guilt over still having my job after a number of friends lost jobs.  I screwed up and misdirected an Amazon.com shipment and Amazon.com fixed it for me!

February

I talked about my cotton handkerchiefs, which are still in use.  I did my taxes.  Fun.  We had the first of what would be many late-night fire alarms and I thought about material possessions.   I talked about workweek cutbacks, a post which got me a few angry e-mails.

March

I love my cats, but pets are not cheap.  I heard about people cheating the food bank. I talked about collections (and thinking about that makes me want to declutter). Going out with friends meant stupid money issues.  I talked about financial blogging and privacy.   Of course, there’s not a whole lot of privacy on the internet to begin with.  And the first quarter ended with a promotion.  Not a bad start to the year!

2009 was a much better year than 2008.  Of course, this is likely due to the market rebound, but I’m definitely pleased with the numbers.  [...]]]> Taking a break from taking down Christmas decorations to post my final 2009 Net Worth Update.  In December, my Net Worth increased 1.44%.  It was a great month for my investments.

2009 was a much better year than 2008.  Of course, this is likely due to the market rebound, but I’m definitely pleased with the numbers.  For 2009, my net worth increased 20.24%.  I like those numbers.  I’ve managed to put a lot of money into my retirement accounts, and they’re finally starting to grow again.  I’ve also managed to put a good amount of money into savings, which makes me happy.

I do want to try to increase my savings this year.  I’m really trying to tighten up my spending and plug any leaks.  I’m also trying to eat healthier though, and after today’s trip to the grocery store, I’m thinking that’s going to be tough to combine with reduced spending.  Of course, my health is more important than money, but it’s going to be interesting to see those bills.

Hope everyone’s having a great weekend and a great start to the new year!

1. Increase savings by 10%.

Close.  9%. Admittedly, I didn’t bother to calculate how much this would be, so I wasn’t working towards it.

2. Fully fund Roth IRA for 2009.

Done!  Now to [...]]]> Around a year ago, I set up my 2009 goals.  Anyone else curious about how I did?  Probably not, but let’s go for it anyway.

1. Increase savings by 10%.

Close.  9%. Admittedly, I didn’t bother to calculate how much this would be, so I wasn’t working towards it.

2. Fully fund Roth IRA for 2009.

Done!  Now to figure out my contributions for next year.  Automatic contributions make this pretty awesome.

3. Save at least half of this year’s “extra” paychecks plus half of any work-related bonus checks.

Done!  I saved a little more than half of the “extra” paychecks.

4. Place a minimum of 10% of my after-tax income directly into savings.

Well… this didn’t go quite as planned.  I was placing 10% of my after-tax income into my savings account, but when my roommate moved out, I had to tweak that a little, so November and December didn’t make it.  I’m still trying to decide what I want to do about next year.  On one hand, it’s awesome to save.  On the other hand, I’m also funding my Roth IRA, my 401(k) (or rather, my TSP), and continuing to grow my emergency fund.  So maybe I can get away with saving less than 10%.

5. No YNAB overages for at least 6 months.

I don’t know how I did it, but I made it.  I got a little spendy during the last half of the year, and I’ll need to watch that this year.

6. Increase Charitable Donations by 50%.

62% increase, baby!  This year, I decided approximately what I wanted to donate to charity and set up a budget category for this purpose.  It ended up being a lot of fun getting to contribute to all sorts of charities.  Of course, once you start donating, you’ll find yourself on all sorts of random mailing lists, which I’m working my way back off of, but all in all, I’m pleased.  I’ve been using Its Deductible, a free site from TurboTax, to track my donations.  One neat thing this site does is figure out just what your tax savings is as you keep donating.

7. Finish 2009 with 80 hours of sick leave accumulated.

Not even close.  I started the year with 33.5 hours of sick leave and am ending the year with 44.5 hours.  I’ll be honest, some of this is because I loathe my job and when I’m feeling a bit under the weather and probably could go to work, I just don’t.  I also had a series of dentist appointments to finish a minor problem that took a number of hours.  I think this is a good goal for 2010.

4 out of 7. Not great, but not bad.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so an A+ on this project would have been nice (Really, I could have told you all that I did all seven and you would never know.  One of the joys of blogging.), but I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out.  As I have said before, the end of 2009 kind of got away from me, so while in previous years, I already had my new goals laid out by the time the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, this year, I still have some thinking to do.

Looking forward, I’m not expecting great things for November.  I have finally decided to pony up [...]]]> Pretty much no change in my net worth over the last month.  It went up 0.13%.  Not much to write home about.  My investments dropped a bit, but the savings from the extra paycheck this month made up for that.

Looking forward, I’m not expecting great things for November.  I have finally decided to pony up the money for a professionally fitted mouth guard to help with my nighttime teeth grinding.  I’ve been using an over the counter guard, but it’s just not doing the trick.  I only get one set of teeth, so it’s a worthwhile investment.

I also am planning to purchase some Continuing Legal Education courses.  I need to take them to keep my law license, and my options are typically to buy CD/DVD classes or travel halfway across the country to take courses in the state in which I’m licensed.  Since my office won’t help pay for them, I choose the cheap (though boring) route, and one of the companies that offers the courses is having a 20% off sale for the month of November.  This is the first time I’ve seen them offer that kind of sale, so I’m probably going to drop around $500 and get that much closer to my required hours.  I am pretty sure that I can deduct the expense on my taxes, but I can’t say that helps all that much.

So November probably won’t be great, but at least it’s planned expenses and things I need, rather than splurging on shoes (which I also need, but that’s another conversation for another day).

Nothing really of note this month.  I’m hoping that October is even better. It’s a three paycheck month, so that should help quite a bit.  Especially if I continue to spend wisely.

I’m not sure what happened, but September was a big month for groceries.  I [...]]]> During September, my Net Worth increased 1.97%.  Movin’ on up, baby!

Nothing really of note this month.  I’m hoping that October is even better. It’s a three paycheck month, so that should help quite a bit.  Especially if I continue to spend wisely.

I’m not sure what happened, but September was a big month for groceries.  I guess it was all that stocking up.  I’m hoping that reflects in this month’s spending and I can spend less this month.  Crossing my fingers.  I’m trying to do more cooking, which for me, ends up being more expensive than subsisting on sandwiches and soup.  But it tastes so much better.

Hope September’s numbers were just as good (or better!) for everyone else.

August was a ridiculous spending month for me, which I am not proud of.  I was over in just about every budget category.  [...]]]> A surprising net worth increase again this month.  In August, my net worth increased 1.75%.  Yet again, this is mostly thanks to increases in my investment accounts (which includes my contributions to retirement). 

August was a ridiculous spending month for me, which I am not proud of.  I was over in just about every budget category.  Some of this was due to poor planning (not setting aside enough for my car registration), some was unpredictable (the cat needing surgery), some was just overspending (deciding to stock up at the Lush sale). 

Clearly, I can solve all of those problems.  The cat’s surgery came out of my “small emergency” fund, so I was prepared for that in a way.  I can and will be better about my planning in terms of things like my car registration.  I’m usually good about those things, but I last registered my car 2 years ago, and while I knew the registration was due, I hadn’t bothered to go back and find out how much it cost so I would know what to set aside.  Definitely a failure in planning.

As for the overspending… some of it was situational, some could have been prevented.  Having to buy my lunch out a bunch due to training didn’t help, nor did my sister’s visit or my trip to Chicago for my friends’ wedding.  But I also went to the mall and bought a new pair of shoes (while I did need new dress shoes, the purchase could have waited).  I also didn’t need to replace my SIGG bottle with a Kleen Kanteen for the office.  I could have made do with a cup or a glass.

But no matter the reason, the money is spent, and that means I have less to spend in September.  I’m planning for September to be a great month in all respects.  My parents come in on Wednesday and leave on Sunday, but after that, it’s back to healthy eating (I rejoined Weight Watchers for the millionth time), sticking to my running schedule to prepare for the Army Ten Miler in October, and sticking to my budget.  I figure if I’m running a lot, I won’t have time to spend money, right?