Back from training. I always go into training classes a bit wary. I’ve done really great classes and really awful classes, and thanks to those awful ones, I tend to dread going. Thankfully, this class was great! I really wanted to get some blog entries written over the week, but there just wasn’t time with class, travel, homework (I thought I was done with that!) and life.
The one thing I don’t like about training classes is how much money I end up spending. I always end up buying my lunch, and I do my best to balance cost and nutritional value. Inevitably, one day I end up eating out with a group of people, and going where the masses want to go. It’s a good way to meet others and totally worthwhile, but after three days of added transit costs and meals out, I’m starting to feel like I’m spending too much money.
Add to that the fact that starting tonight, a group of my friends from college are coming into town to run the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Race this weekend, which will also end up resulting in a number of meals (and drinks) out. But I guess that’s what dining out budgets are for. It’s fun to go out with a group of people I haven’t seen in a while and get to have a nice, leisurely meal. Thankfully, for the most part, my friends are happy at less expensive places and don’t feel the need to go out for a fancy-schmancy meal. We do well at a pub where we can get a little loud and have a good meal.
And once they leave, it’s back to normal life. Hopefully my budget won’t be too out of whack by the time it’s done. I’m lucky to have the flexibility to not have to worry if I do go over budget, but I just don’t like to because it screws up my goals!
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
My wife and I ate out at a Thai restaurant last night. Appetizer, glass of wine, and two entrees added up. Since she landed her new job, we haven’t been so good about preparing meals at home.