Exercise is expensive - but hey you always pay premium for a good thing :)

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I've been struggling with both my fiscal health, and my personal health. A sense of lethargy has come over me, where I dont'/didn't seem to care how much I was spending or eating. One week became two, two weeks became three, and all of a sudden, I find my bank account at an all-time low, and my weighing scale registering a 14-month high.

I wish I could explain away my financial decisions. While I needed the laptop, a lot of my spending was mindless. While I love cooking, the past few weeks saw a spike in eating non-nutritional junk food. And I mean, not just an occasional cheeseburger but all things carby, cheesy and really junky. Think Cheetos for dinner. Oreos for breakfast. Coke by the litre.

I feel horrible!

So.........taking the suggestions of krystal, ldub and esme, I've decided to (a) focus on only one issue, and (b) break down the issue into sizeable, manageable goals. In the end, I thought about it, and I decided to focus on the weight issue first. The reasoning is simple: I need to feel better about myself, and my health. Losing weight will help me function better - less sluggish, more confident etc., and therefore, in the long-run it will help me be more efficient and productive at work which will hopefully mean more moolah :)

Having said that, I do recognize how incredibly hard it is to get started. While the payoff is great in the long-run, the initial investment in taking care of your body is high (but of course worth it!). I went to the grocery store, and bought healthier options: more protein, fruits and veggies. Somehow a single green pepper costs $3.49 at Safeway! That's uhm..an entire cheeseburger meal at Mickey D's! :( Sheesh. Oh well! What needs to be done, needs to be done.

I also bought myself a weighing scale. It was on sale for $24.99. And I signed up for cardio kickboxing classes about three miles down the road from where I live. I haven't run since I ran the Relay last month, and it shows. I should start running again to train for the Nike half in October, but somehow I'm lacking the motivation. Besides, I wanted to add a social sport/workout to my regimen - and kickboxing will be good for the cross-training portion of my workout. But it's $50 a month.

Another expense that is health-related but necessary is two good pairs of shoes: one for running, another for cross-training. I may cheap out, and just buy the running shoes and use them for cross-training as well. Shoes are something I'm very lazy about. Unlike most girls, I do not have a shoe-fetish and will put off buying them for as long as possible. But it's usually recommended that you replace your running shoes about every 300 miles or so, and my current shoes have logged me about that over the past year. It's seen me through the Nike half marathon last year, as well as the 199 mile relay this year. So I think it's about time for a new pair, yes.

Having said that, shoes are pretty expensive when you're trying ot be get a grip on your budget. I liked a couple of pairs, and both were upwards of $120. I know you can get some good shoes for <$100, and I'm supposed to get a coupon for 20% off at SportsBasement from one of my friends. So hopefully I'll find a good quality pair for a decent price. I don't want to sacrifice quality for the price, so we'll see what the best possible comprimise is.

Now that I'm almost all set, wish me luck! :)

I've gone into hiding because I'm so embarassed with my spendthrift ways the past two months. The budget has been shot to hell. I keep forgetting to update my tracking sheet. I've been making numerous impulse buys. But falling off the wagon was inevitable, right?

I'm also trying to lose weight. Somehow I'm now overwhelmed with both financial and nutritional setbacks..

New York, New York

I went to New York this past weekend to celebrate my best friend's 30th. Another good friend who also turned 30 this month, and the three of us had a grand old time! There is something about Manhattan - the energy is incredible.

Comparing the cost of living between the two cities, it's 19.3% cheaper to live in New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, New York than San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California! WTH!? I thought for sure it would be more expensive.

So naturally, I went on to different calculator to look into this further. And according to Salary.com, New York is 33.1% more expensive than San Jose, CA (Although, if I live in Queens, then NYC is only 5.8% more expensive). Other websites had similar numbers.

Which makes sense since NYC is the most expensive US city, and the fifth most expensive in the world. *sigh*

'We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins' ~ Ellen Ullman

I bought a new laptop today to replace my 4 year old one whose screen got busted. I debated for a month on whether or not to repair the screen, and also whether or not to just use my work laptop for as long as I could. The first option was rejected because of two reasons: (a) most of the IT people mentioned that the cost of repairing the screen is not worth it because (b) it's so old (in fact Dell has discontinued the line), which is why (c) I would probably have bought a new laptop anyway by the end of the year.

The second option was not feasible because I was not being able to do a lot of my personal stuff on my laptop: like saving my personal pictures, downloading games/music etc. So with that in mind, I have been doing a lot of market research, and spent a lot of time choosing between a Dell and a Mac, and then I just went ahead to Fry's this morning, and bought this. Completely different from what I was expecting to buy but the specs seemed good, and the price more reasonable. Let's hope it was a good decision, and works out well.

'They say money talks, but the only thing it ever says to me is goodbye.' ~Paul Waner

Maybe my problem is that I actually just like spending money. A part of me wants to be that girl who can just whip out her cash, debit or credit card and pay for something without ever feeling worried or guilty. When we go out for dinner, I don't want to watch what I order and hope that I won't be guilted into paying for more than my share. Everytime I fill up on gas, I don't want to have to mentally calculate how I can make this fill-up last longer than the last. When I let a friend use my credit card for a particular discount, I don't want to have to hassle her to pay me by the time the bill comes so I can avoid paying interest. Not that I wouldn't do it, I just don't want to have to do it.

It's hard continuously checking your inner princess.

'The outlook is for a muted third quarter, and also fourth quarter. It's not getting any worse in our opinion'~ Kurt Barnard

It's that time of the month again! :) When I confess to the world how well I did the previous month. March saw some income come my way which is the only reason the numbers look better than they are. The reality is that I spent a LOT of money last month. As I explained in an earlier post, I've had some car issues, some shopping sprees etc.

So basically I blew the lid off my budget.

Anyway, in an effort to present more meaningful data, and since March 31 also marked the end of a quarter, I thought I'd post the quarterly trends to see how I'm doing on average.

Since the picture isn't very clear, here is the breakdown of my expenses:

• Home: 33%
• Auto (insurance, repairs, maintenance and parking): 12%
• Gas: 6%
• Groceries: 5%
• Shopping (includes everything from gifts, clothes, to haircuts, to household items etc): 22%
• Dining Out: 8%
• Entertainment (going out, events, tickets etc): 6%
• Health (meds, copayments etc): 2%
• Miscellenous (includes donations, dry cleaning etc): 6%

I definitely see a lot of room for improvement... heh, it's a little disheartening to realize that after all my justification for my shopping trips, it's still the largest category of expenditure (minus housing costs). Definitely can and should do better!

'Eight Ways to Begin' ~ Section title from Chatzky's MMNE

So I just finished reading the first two chapters. She talks of eight quick-fixes that we can do right away, so I thought I'd list them out and compare my own progress/views about them!

1. Sign up for an automatic savings plan - and have $100 transferred per month. Check. I started doing this in earnest this year. So far so good. I've even snowflaked part of my tax refund and bonus into this account. Pretending I don't know about the money has been easier than I thought.


2. Make a will. Not yet done. I have to admit, wills freak me out. Everytime my dad brings up issues about wills and stuff, I cannot bring myself to discuss it or even think about it. But obviously this needs to change. I will get around to doing it. But just for the record - everything I own, I want it to go to my parents and sister. What I did do last year before I went on vacation to China is make a list of all my accounts and (if any) passwords, and give a copy each to my dad and my sister. That way, should anything ever happen to me, at least they know where to look.


3. Think before you buy. Check. I do think. My problem is I will most likely still buy something. For instance, I still dont' have an mp3 player (forget the ipod!) even though I really really want one. But even though I havent' forked over the $150 for a nano, I've easily spent twice that on clothes these past two months.


4. Protect your credit score. Check. I am notorious for checking my limit and credit scores every so often. In fact, I actually have a pretty good credit score (above 700) because I am never late for payments, always pay more than minimum (and usually pay if off in full) and when I do have a balance, I make sure to keep it at less than 30% of the total credit limit available.


5. Use debit as opposed to credit card. Getting there. This year, I started using my debit card for all day-to-day purchases. I use my credit card for all the non-planned spending - like my car repair bill, impromptu shopping (the second spree, as opposed to the first) etc. Occasionally I slip up and use the credit card, unthinkingly charging stuff on it because it's so easy! But...I'm getting better, I think.


6. Pay off high-rate credit card debt using your savings. Unsure how I feel about this. Well, I don't really have credit card debt anymore... and I did focus on reducing it as opposed to building a nest egg. But now that I'm earning on my own, and I'm a lot more financially independent in my decision-making than I used to be, I feel like it's more important to have a nest-egg of 3-6 months living expenses. Right now I owe my best friend $365 (which I will pay back next month), my dentist bill (at 0% interest, I'm comfortable taking my time paying it off - still pay three times more than the minimum though!) and my giant huge student loan. The interest rate on tht is higher than what I get from my savings account, but (a) I make more than the minimum payments on it, and (b) like I said, I want the security of having an emergency cash fund should I need it... BUT Chatzky suggests otherwise, so I might see how I feel about this by the end of the book...


7. Contribute to 401K. Need to do. ASAP.


8. Insurance. To be honest, I don't quite get this section so I must do some research before I comment on this.

The book is shaping up to be an interesting read - lots of food for thought :)