A Look At My Goals

This is a post solely dedicated to tooting my own horn. Patting myself on the back. "Insert your own all-about-me cliche here.

As of April 1st, The Professor and I have fully funded our Emergency Fund. Go Us, Yay Us!

As of March 17th, The Professor and I bought plane tickets for three to visit family in June on the other side of the continent - completely paid for from our Travel Fund that I started last June. Go us! Yay Us!

As of April 3rd (today, payday) my Car Down-payment Fund is enough so that if the engine fell out of my 215,000-miles-on-her Camry tomorrow and I had to replace it, I could do so with a two year old Corolla and then make payments that were twice the note. Go me, Yay Me!

As of April 1st, The Professor has over half of the way to the money he wants to save for his new Motorcycle. Go Professor, Yay Professor!

As of Feb 21st, I'm making an extra $150 payment on my student loans every month. Go Me, Yay Me!

But the spreadsheets...oh, the spreadsheets. They spread joy. And then they say "Hey, what's next? There's a bunch of empty cells down there". I don't like empty spreadsheets. They make me sad.

So what's next?

Well, there's still a lot left to pay on those balance sheets. And I'm always convinced there's a monster named "Debt" hiding around the next corner. So...


I'm not actually planning on the engine falling out of my car tomorrow. In a perfect world, I'd wait until I had the $20,000 plus to pay for a Prius. The pictures of the new model - hitting your local Toyota dealership soon - make me drool with antici...pation. In reality, I don't know that I'll make it the 18 months that it will take me to save up the rest of the money. But as long as I can wait and get it for $300 a month or less, I'm going to count "Operation: Drool Over The Prius" a success.

The Emergency Fund: I will never really be happy until it's high enough we could both lose our jobs and never worry about replacing him. But that's more of a neurosis than a goal, so we won't count that one.

The Travel Fund: The Professor and I are planning a trip to Ireland for Spring Break of 2010. His, thanks to the University gig, will be free. I'll have to pay for the package by next January, and we're not completely sure how much that will be. I'm guessing about $2000 for 7 days. At my current rate, Excel tells me I'll only have $1300 by the deadline. So I need to find $700 between now and January.

The Biggie: My student loans. Those seem like such a deal-breaker. If I can keep to the plan that I discussed with my spreadsheets, I could possibly have them paid off in December of 2012. That sounds like soooo faaaarrr awaaaaay. But you know what? That's only 3 years and 8 months. And that's less time than I've been married. The past 4 years have gone by fast enough. Too fast, truth be told. So I guess December of 2012 isn't really that far away after all.

Amazon Makes Me Happy

A while back, I got an Amazon Visa, which earns me a point for every dollar I spend; even better, all my Amazon purchases earn me triple points. I use this for all my gas, groceries and bills and pay it off every two weeks so I can get as many points as possible. And those points translate into Amazon gift cards, which I try to balance between fun (usually books or kitchen stuff) and needs (usually food or toiletries).

Today's also Friday, which means an Amazon Friday Sale. Even better? Right now, Amazon's having a grocery sale on certain items - they're 40% off the already (somewhat) discounted prices. And also - just to make it even sweeter - I picked items that qualify for free shipping. I am a happy woman. A happy woman who has earned a glass (or three) of wine.

So here's how my Amazon shopping shaped up today:

Original total: $116.xx

After Super Saver Shipping: $96.xx

After 40% discount on 2 items: $66.xx

After $50 in Gift Cards: $16.32

What I got:

• Mushrooms (part of the 40% off promotion, in the Natural & Organics section): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HP5I46

• Artichoke Hearts (part of today’s Friday Sale): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FDB3YY

• Krinkle Sticks (part of the 40% off promotion, in the Natural & Organics section): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000TYHSZW

• Oatmeal: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FA1M6K

The artichoke hearts made me especially happy – I love using them in dips and pasta dishes, and they’re NOT cheap. What I paid for my entire order is still saving several dollars over what I would pay retail for 12 cans of them.

And next week, I'll have much fun opening up my boxes.

Happy Friday, Indeed!

CVS at Thanksgiving - a new holiday tradition?

The Professor was not nearly impressed enough with my shopping trip this morning, so I'm breaking the silence over here (silence due to my own laziness and lack of insight) to say that for once, I'm glad I'm not cooking for 15 people today, because if I had that to worry about I never would have taken 30 minutes to run to CVS at 8 AM.

What's sad? I didn't even have to set my alarm this morning I was out of bed by 6:45. It's like I don't know myself anymore.

Anyway, CVS has made Thanksgiving worth more than turkey and dressing for me. Maybe the day after Christmas will be just as good.

So, here's my shopping trip in all it's fun:

Clairol Hydriance 8.49
Aussie Conditioner 2.99
Aussie Shampoo 2.99
2 Bic Soleil - 5.99 each
1 CoverGirl pressed powder - 5.99

My coupons:
$2 Clairol Hydriance
(2) $1 Aussie
(2) $3 Bic Soleil
$1 Cover Girl
$2 CVS any razor purchase $10 or more
$2 CVS any hair color purchase
$13 ECB

My total before I handed the coupons over was $35.xx - and I ended up paying $5.40. But the real kicker?
I got back almost $29 in ECB!

So come on, CVS. Give me some awesome deals at Christmas.

Quotable Quotes

For Christmas, The Bestest Friend gave me a Quote Journal. She had added many that meant something to her; that she hoped would strike a chord in me. She hit the nail on the head with all of them. This is a journal to write quotes that strike something in me. After 8 months of not adding anything, today I came across one that is worthy:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Because I need one more reason to drink coffee

I love coffee. I love flavored cream for my coffee. But mostly, I love coffee in all it's caffeinated forms. I rarely buy cream for it anymore (which is why it was such a treat to have half & half at my sister's house last week - I shamelessly took advantage of it). But when I find coupons like this, I usually give in.

$1 off Coffee Mate

I'll be giving in soon.

Weekly Shopping: Publix

I didn't buy much food at Publix this week - some chicken breasts and pork chops, some bananas and plums. The best deals I got this week were on non-food items.

1) Lysol products aren't on sale, but the Publix circular (which you can pick up in the store) has a coupon to get $3 off when you buy three. There's also several Lysol coupons out there - I had a bunch of 50 cent ones (that got doubled). So I bought 2 toilet bowl cleaners ($2.19 each) and 1 all purpose cleaner ($2.69). Total cost for all three: $1.07.

2) Kotex tampons are buy 1 get 1 free this week, for $2.95. There's some $1/1 coupons here, which makes this a sweet, sweet deal at 48 cents a box.

I was overbudget by $6, but I'm not gonna sweat it. I may have spent $46, but I saved $44 - and over $20 of that was coupons.

Check Fiddledeedee! for some more Publix Deals!

Car Maintenance Fund (Or, my ING Sub-Accounts Addiction)

Having an 8 year-old car means realizing that you're probably going to shell out a few hundred dollars a year in maintenance costs over and above the cost of oil changes and air filters. After I had to hack into my emergency fund last year to pay for some transmission work last summer, I decided to start my car maintenance fund. Because I'm a procrastinator, it took me until this past February to actually do it. Basically, I dump $2o into a savings account every pay period. It's enough money to add up to a nice (small) cushion when I need work done on my car, but not enough that it hurts the rest of the money juggling I do between accounts. I don't tap into it for my oil changes, but it's there in case I need anything much bigger done to my car.

A couple of weeks ago, I took my car in for some maintenance work before our Tropical Trip. My car has 197,000 miles on it and has never had a tune up. It was time. I also needed new wiper blades, a new headlight, an oil change...oh and my battery was corroding around the connectors so they cleaned it for free. Woo-hoo! for free stuff! .

Total bill: $465. Yuck.

I put it on my credit card (everything goes on the credit card). Friday I got paid, and so I checked into all my various accounts to check on things and pay my bills. I thought I had enough money left over from last month to pay the credit card off like I do every pay day. But I was a couple hundred short. I was going to have to carry a balance for more than two weeks? Cue the Panic Music.

Then I remembered: I have that separate account just for this kind of work. I haven't tapped into that money yet, so I have the cash there to make up the difference. Part of my heart died a little when I hit the key to transfer the money, but now I'm glad that I have it there to transfer.

CVS Sales Cycle

A couple of weeks ago, CVS started testing out a new sales cycle: Friday-Thursday (instead of Sunday-Saturday). It's not in efffect everywhere yet, but I happen to be in one of the test markets.

I'm afraid that by the time I do my weekly shopping on Sunday mornings, the good sales items will have already been snatched up on Saturdays, leaving me...nothing. I'm not doing as many CVS deals as I was 6 months ago - as my mom says, there's only so much toothpaste a household of two needs to have on hand at any given time. But when the goodies come along, I'd like to be able to participate.

There's some more details here on the slickdeals forums. If you're in the new market, pipe up and let us all know!

On Vacation: It's Cheaper To Go To The Tropical Storm

The trip had been planned for months. Every year, The Professor and I travel down to the coast to visit the sister with the hot tub, the pool, the close-by-beach, the full wine rack and the screened in back porch that's oh-so-perfect for morning coffee and laptop usage. I go because I actually like my sister a little, but those are some of the perks I get from displaying all that sibling affection on an annual basis.

This year, a lady named Fay has intervened. The tropical storm's been sitting close enough for literally days to make rain and wind the normal background sound.

The kids are out of school, which means we haven't done the shopping that was planned around the carpool route. We might hit up the spice store today, but we're not going to make it to the Farmer's Market - which really isn't all that bad, because my sister is brilliant and went before we came. And we still have tons of produce - and we're leaving for home tomorrow.

We missed our night out due to power outages and - more importantly - the pub we had in our sights closed down for the night. So Sis saved on babysitter charges and The Professor and I saved on buying drinks for hours on end. Instead we made margaritas at home and played Go-Fish with the 6 year old. (The six-year-old niece did not have any margaritas.)

Entertainment? Oh, we've had plenty. The Hurricane Center puts out updated storm tracking maps every 3 hours. With my sister and I both keeping an eye on various websites and radars and projected paths, that takes up more time than you would probably like to think about.

The best part about coming down here, though, is that this isn't the type of vacation where The Professor and I are trying to be on the move every minute of the day. And my sister gets that - she's good with the fact that we just come down here and sit around her property for a few days. An entire day with nothing planned means an entire day with no pressure and the fun of sitting around talking to my sister. Or playing Go-Fish.

Ebates

I signed up for Ebates today. I don't buy as much stuff online as I used to, so I've never paid much attention to them. But:

• Christmas is coming up (yes, I'm already making my lists);
• I had to make a hotel reservation today for tomorrow night;
• Drugstore.com is currently giving 12% rebates on Ebates;
• There was a $5 sign up bonus.

You have to have $5.01 in rebates to get a check - the $5 sign-up bonus and the rebate from the hotel reservation (3% rebate) will get me $6 and some change for making the reservation that I needed anyway. AND!

You and I can both get bonuses. If you use my link, we'll both get $5. Or just go to Ebates and sign up the old-fashioned way - you still get $5 for signing up.

Any way you look at it, that's another snowflake for my Car Fund.