May

• Disaster preparation
• I tried to re-start couponing
• I continue to love YNAB
• I applied snowflaking to other things
• Can the rich spend irresponsibly?

August

• Pets are expensive, but worth it
• The budgeting got a bit stressful, but I worked through it
• How to save the economy and lose weight
• I started to feel the pinch in my grocery budget

September

• I got a roommate!
• But then I had to figure out what to do with the extra income
• Common money mistakes
• I still haven’t tried a spend nothing month, but it impresses me nonetheless
• A quick review of some of the government bailout plans

October

• I decided to not look at my investments for a while
• It’s hard to stay calm during this economic situation
• Sometimes the best charity is unplanned
• I took a disasterous road trip, but it turned out to be not that bad
• I reviewed AAA and their battery service
• Layaway is back!
• Emergency fund guilt

November

• I started my new website
• I blew my budget

December

• I created some goals for 2008
• Earned a bit of money selling off old textbooks
• I am a sucker for advertising

January

• I explained my stance on credit cards
• You know, I still hate hidden fees
• My financial future totally changed when I discovered YNAB

February

• I tried to save money by cooking more
• Credit reports - check yours
• I had a bad houseguest and discussed money and emotions
• I stuck to my grocery budget (for possibly the only time all year)
• My dismay at my investment drop is now kind of laughable
• I got to sit at the boardroom table at the Federal Reserve

March

• I offered up suggestions on choosing a charity
• Some things are more important than money
• Roth IRAs and Emergency Funds
• I decided to look for a new job (and still don’t have one)
• Sold some stuff on eBay

April

• I ran a 10 mile race (in the rain)
• I wrote about my budget busters
• Figuring out the cost of my lunch

That’s right, someone attempted to scam me.  Conveniently, I’m smarter than they think and they certainly didn’t catch me.

Yesterday, while skimming my mail (mostly junk - don’t these people have better things to spend their money on?) I came across an envelope from Domain Renewal Group.  Now, I have never purchased a domain through Domain Renewal Group, and I know that none of the domains I own are due to expire for at least four months.

I opened the envelope and was presented with a piece of paper that looks a lot like a bill.  It gives me the option to renew for 1, 2, or 5 years, as well as purchase the associated .net and .org sites.  The kicker here is that they are asking $30 for one year and $50 for two years, significantly more than I’m paying now.

Now, if I open the whole letter and read it, not just the payment stub, they do say that they are offering me the chance to switch to their company for domain registration for their “best savings.”  And of course, they warn me that if I don’t renew, I could lose my site.  They are careful to say that it’s my option and that I don’t have to renew with them, but that I should check out prices and make a decision.  If I followed those instructions, I would see that I’m in a fine spot now and don’t need to make any sort of changes.

But I am the type of person who reads bills when they come in.  Every bill.  I look at the cable bill to see if there are any changes.  I review my cell phone bill to be sure there are no excess charges.  I reconcile my credit card statements to be sure that every charge is, in fact, a charge I made.  So of course, I’m going to read this “bill” and realize what it is.

Unfortunately, not everyone takes the time to do that.  I think a lot of people open the envelope, see the payment stub on the top, and just fill it out and send it in, not realizing that what they’re doing is transferring their domain registration to a different, more expensive company. 

A quick search on the web will show you that Domain Renewal Group has been doing this sort of thing for a while under a number of different names. 

I’m sure that most of the regular readers of this blog are the sort to scrutinize their bills and would probably catch this before sending in a payment, but it’s always important to point these things out.  Even if you don’t have a domain name.  Watch out for other “bills” that appear in your mailbox.

Reading other PF blogs and writing my own has been a very educational experience.  Even though my net worth might not reflect all I’ve learned, thanks to the recent fun in the stock market, but I feel much more confident about my money management than I did a year ago. 

I’m using a budget, with great success.  I’ve got a nice little cushion in my day to day account.  I’m planning ahead for expenses, so I’m not so worried about the months when the insurance bill shows up.  As part of this, I’m also tracking my expenses and seeing some surprising trends that I didn’t realize existed.  I’m already making plans for next year’s budget so that I can continue to improve my money management.

Thanks in part to the budget, I’m saving a lot more than I was.  My savings account has grown by leaps and bounds.  Okay, so they’re small leaps and bounds, but it’s growing. 

I have also opened a number of sub accounts in ING Direct to help me reach my savings goals.  That was something that I learned entirely from the PF blogosphere, and it has been a big help.  Along those lines, I’ve put money from some of those accounts into various CD ladders.  Might as well make my money work for me as much as it can, right?

I have experimented with a number of different budgeting resources, from my old standby, Microsoft Money, to online programs like Mint, and ended up finding YNAB and realizing that I’m an old school spreadsheet girl at heart.  I have also learned that budgeting is not a one size fits all sort of thing, so it’s great that there are so many options out there.  You just have to be patient and experiment until you find one that you like.

I moved my blog from a free site to my own host, and have even earned money by blogging!  Okay, so it’s not much, and the blog is almost, but not quite paying for itself, but it sure felt like a milestone.  I’ve also been able to give a bit more to charity thanks to the blog income (again, not much, but every penny helps).

Perhaps most importantly, I have met a number of amazing people online, through other blogs and comments here.  I’ve learned so much from all of you, and I hope you’ve gotten something out of this blog as I stumble through the world of personal finance.  It’s nice to know that we’re not all going it alone out there.

Of course, I had big plans for a giant anniversary post.  However, due to illness and out of town guests, I saved the post for last night.

When, of course, my internet decided to go down.  (As a side note, I was contacted by a research group asking me to rate Comcast in a number of areas - I’ve never had such fun taking a survey before.)  

I’m going to try to get the post up later today or perhaps by tomorrow.  This whole “job” thing might get in the way, unfortunately.

The latest expense?  I signed up for a gym membership.  Now, I spent quite some time weighing my options on this one, and I think it was the right decision, even given the costs.  I was lucky enough to have a 3 month temporary membership to this particular gym, so I got to try it out quite a bit and decide if I really was going to use it regularly.  I go every day on my lunch break, and occasionally on the weekends (if the weather’s nice, I prefer to run outside).  I really like the classes offered at lunch, and definitely see a difference in my body since I’ve been working out.  It also makes the day go so much faster, and it’s nice to not have to worry about working out later in the evening, when all I want to do is go home, make dinner, and crash on the couch.

So all in all, not a bad expense.  During the summer, I like to run outside in the evenings, but last winter, I gained a bit of weight because I’m not comfortable running outside in the dark after work (and since I don’t get home til around 6 or later, it’s definitely dark this time of year).  I’m hoping to prevent that this year.  

It’s not that I can’t afford it, and I’m working on cutting back on other spending areas, such as groceries, and I’m continuing to budget yearly expenses so that I save 1/12th of the expense every month, which is a huge help.  I am a bit worried what happens if my roommate decides to move out next spring once she graduates.  I currently live just outside of Washington D.C. because it’s cheaper and I love the neighborhood, but she’s itching to live more in the city, so it’s a distinct possibility.

Sure, I could always just get another roommate, but I have to be honest - the idea of just taking in a random person as a roommate freaks me out a bit.  My current roommate is a friend from college, so I know her and I trust her.  I’m not sure I would be as comfortable with a stranger.

I’m trying to not worry about it too much right now - it’s months away, and whatever happens happens.  I just need to be sure I’m not adding more bills to my monthly expenses.  The gym membership is a good one, and one that I think is justifiable, but I have to be sure that I’m not making excuses as to why I need other things as well.

I have run out of stamps.

Now, I don’t work all that far from the post office, but I just hate going to the post office.  At my old bank, I could buy stamps from the ATM. I have yet to find a place where I can do that here.  I hate having to go and wait in line just to buy stamps.  Yes, I know there are usually vending machines at the post office, but my luck, they’re out of order or out of the stamps I need or I don’t have proper change so I either end up with way too many stamps or a whole lot of dollar coins.  Neither of which I particularly need.

I also know that I can order stamps online for a $1 service fee.  But it feels funny to buy less than $10 worth of stamps and pay an extra $1 when I could just walk to the post office.

So instead, I called the dentist.  ”Can I pay this bill over the phone?”  ”You sure can!”

Bam!  42 cents saved.

(Of course, I have a letter to respond to and a thank you note to mail, so I will have to hit the post office soon anyway.   But not today!)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to do a bit more cooking, even if it’s just throwing together pasta, chicken, and veggies.  It’s easy, fast, and cheap.  But I’ve noticed that with all this cooking at home, my grocery bill is actually going up.  Why?  Because good quality ingredients aren’t cheap.  Plus I’m not exactly planning my meals so as to make these meals cheap.  Rather than buy one chicken and cooking it and using it for multiple meals, if I need chicken to chop up and put into something, I just buy chicken breasts.  Plus I don’t have a fully stocked pantry, so I find that I’m buying things that most people already have in their cupboards.  But I’m just easing into the cooking.  I’m trying to pick recipes that sound good and that will make good leftovers.

Over the next few months, I’m going to try to work to get better at meal planning.  It’s tough, since my roommate and I aren’t really into any sort of routine.  Neither of us is regularly home for home for dinner any day of the week, so we can’t even cook together.

But even if it is more expensive, it’s fun to cook from scratch.  Somehow, everything always tastes better when I worked to make it.  Of course, that could have to do with the fresh ingredients as well.  Plus I like knowing that I’m not putting all sorts of preservatives into my body.  

So for now, I’m going to work on eating healthy and trying to make cooking at home a more frugal endeavor.  I’m having fun going through all the cookbooks I have.  I just struggle to decide what to cook next.

Many soldiers and civilians have made huge sacrifices in service to their country, and today we remember their heroics.

Today, I want to thank all of the soldiers out there, both those still serving and those no longer in the service, and I want to also thank their families for all they have given.  We are in your debt.

So then why haven’t I done it yet?  Well, first off because a lot of my computer time is being taken up by NaNoWriMo (just about at the halfway point).  Also, even with all my tips on staying healthy, I’ve managed to catch a cold, so I’m trying to get a lot of sleep.  (Thank you, plague filled co-workers.)  But mostly, I’m lazy.  My most updated budget spreadsheet is on my flash drive which is in the other room.  

But the good thing about this?  I know I’m doing fine with my budget.  I haven’t spent a whole lot of money yet this month, but I know that every expense so far fits right in with where I’ve budgeted.  It’s becoming a habit.  It’s taken almost a year, but I’m finally in the habit of thinking about spending money before I spend it.

It’s a weird feeling, to be honest.  I’m getting a little antsy about not having updated my budget.  I’m sure I’ll get to it later today or tomorrow.  But it’s really great that it’s no longer a concern - that I can stay within my budget without constantly having to use a spreadsheet.