Updates,Things Off My List, Taxes Done, and Re-Evaluating Goals

I've still been busy with the boring aspects of life and work, but have been able to accomplish a few things this week. The biggie was getting my taxes done and even though I have to give my Trustee almost all the money (as per his order in my BK case) at least I don't owe any money to the state and IRS. I really would have liked to have kept the return and split it between my Efund and Car down payment fund, but 'tis not to be. it would have been a big help.

I've been fiddling with my March budget numbers. My first month at a zero based budget was not the rousing success I wanted it to be, but hey, I think I did OK, not great, but OK. Next few months will get better as I get more comfortable with all the numbers and how to apportion out my money.

I've noticed a common theme out in the PF blog world. Many of us are hitting this wall when it comes to our goals for 2008. I'm a little frustrated that I'm not making measurable progress to many of my goals, so I think it's time to sit down and re-evaluate my goals and what it will take to achieve them. I don't think we as people, can really say that after only 59 days of the new year, that we have failed in our yearly goals. I just think we need to re-examine our goals and our methods for reaching them. Sometimes all it takes is a change of plan to get to our goals.

I have realized one thing. I like a challenge in my life. I joined Krystal's at Give Me Back My five Bucks Lunch Challenge. Things like this bring out my competitve nature and it will keep me in line with my plan to not spend money on food while at work. I will admit, I walked out of the house this morning without packing my lunch. I will treat myself one last time to a purchased lunch (and I'm hoping the office will buy us pizza today) and then it's back to the packed lunch program.

March Money Madness and Musings

For March I'm planning a series of posts about me and about my debt how I got here, what good things I did, what stupid things I did, how the Bankruptcy has changed my life (and in some good ways as well) and where I am going now and forward.

I thought that some coherent posts about me were in order. A number of my earlier posts were nothing but ramblings and I can see how much stress I put myself under. Not good. I'm going to use the March Money Madness to not only tell my story, but give me some more structure in my finance life so that I can learn from my mistakes and never have to go through this again.

March goals to be posted later this week as well!

The Eye Twitch and What It Has Done To Me.

I've been a bit absent from blogging dealing with some family issues. The issues are probably no more or no less than what anybody else faces, but since they are my issues, they are my big deal. And when I get family stress I do a couple things. Over shop for food, cook way too much food, eat too much food and get an eye twitch. I'm resisting most of the former, but do have the eye twitch I'll get back into the swing of things later this week. I'm sooo far behind on updating my blog roll and links. Not having reliable internet access at home is one issue, but I could do a lot more to get on track and time to do it.

Just a couple things. My thanks to Oh My Aching Debts for the kind words in her blog about me. One thing we do in the blog sphere is to be here for each other! But THANK YOU anyway.

I also got tagged by Saving Diva and have to follow up and that as well, I'm just behind the curve right now.

For March I'm planning a small series of posts about me and about my debt and what makes my eye twitch. I looked into my achieves and I have to laugh at the frazzled posts I wrote explaining me and my history. Now that I'm a little more sane, I will try to write in some sort of coherent manner, my story. And explain about the eye twitch :)

Stupid Purchases

Graceful Retirement put up a post about her blog and her lack of regular posting or worrying about posting about the mundane aspects of life . I don't mind reading about the mundane aspects of life, or the things we tried and did not succeed at. We try things and either we are successful or we are not. It shows we are all human! Plus I like to read about just us regular folks.

I totally admit, I sometimes I get annoyed when I read blogs and I hear about folks who got $100 worth or groceries for $50, or they are already over half way to their Roth IRA max for the year and this is only February, or they went under budget on groceries,or they made an unexpected killing on E-Bay or they resisted Starbucks for three months, or they are sooo upset that they went over their gas budget by $2 or what ever! It seems like we never hear about the over budget mishaps (unless it's a major thing like an unexpected car repair), or they blew their entertainment budget drinking Margarita's at happy hour. I'd like to reach through the Internet sometimes and give them a little bit (OK big) shake. Sometimes.

I'm human, I make mistakes, I will make mistakes. I'm admitting to two really stupid purchases these past couple months.

In October, my vacuum cleaner died. It was about 11 years old and died. I loved my Eureka Canister vac. It did it's job and did it well. Silly me went and replaced it with a small Shop Vac. The Shop Vac was on sale for $35 (give or take a few $$) and while it does suck up the animal hair and large dust balls around the house, it is not exactly cut out to be a carpet vacuum cleaner. Plus is spews out fine dust and that gets everywhere. What the hell was I thinking when I bought this sucker? Who remembers at this point? Point being, this was a wasted purchase and a waste of $35 and I still broom swept the carpets to get up pet hair.

To replace the Shop Vac, when I had my post Christmas shopping meltdown, I ended up at the K-Mart and bought this little bag less canister vacuum. It's very cute, it's yellow and I hate it. It does not do a great job sucking up the animal hair from the carpets (something I am a freak about, I have pets, but I don't need pet hair all over my floors) and it's little. I thought the little would be OK. I don't have a ton of storage space, but this little (did I say it was little) vac fills up after about 5 minutes of use. I do have to give it credit, it seems to do an excellent job sucking up dirt, the dirt canister gets full, it just does not really get all the animal hair out of the carpet.

This means I know have two fairly useless vacuums. My solution, save up some $$$ and buy a decent canister vacuum in a month or two (I don't like uprights). I will probably keep the Shop Vac but probably sell the little one on Craig's list. Until then, I'll use the little yellow vac, and borrow the neighbors "real" vacuum every so often to help de-hair the carpets.

Human, yes I am.

Making Bringing Your Lunch To Work Easier

I bring my lunch to work most days and have been pretty good about bringing my lunch to work for years. Not everyone does this or is good at it. What do I mean by being good at it? It means making sure your lunch makes it to work with you without exploding all over your carry bag or getting squished in your briefcase.

To make bringing your lunch a more pleasant experience I recommend the following ideas:

1) Get yourself a lunch bag. Some of you might be too young to remember metal lunch boxes, but I carried one as a kid for a really long time,-until junior high when it was "uncool" to have a lunch box. I never had a sqashed sandwich with my Spiderman lunch box and I also had a really cool Spidey thermos as well. Take yourself to the CVS, Walgreens, Target, Wally Mart, K-Mart, or where ever and hop over to the cooler isle. For around $6 (if not less) you can probably find a nice insulated lunch bag. I recommend one with some structure-like a plastic bottom or sides. Many of the lunch bags also come with a little blue gel cooler pack, you can probably pick up one for $1 or less. My current lunch box is square, insulated and has a plastic bottom. This will also help to keep your lunch from spoiling until you get to work and pop it in the fridge or until lunchtime at your desk.

2) Get your self some decent containers for your leftovers that become lunchovers: Best purchase I made in December was to get a new set of Rubbermaid containers in three sizes, they are great for storing leftovers, are microwave safe and most importantly, they don't leak! Which is great if you are bringing soup to work and accidentally tip over your bag. I also have a square container that is the perfect size for a salad. I like salads with things in them and this container holds the perfect amount for a filling lunch. The containers also fit nicely into my lunch sack, which was one reason I bought the set. I think I paid $18 for a set of 18 containers and a storage stand. The old take out food plastic containers just did not stand up to the repetitive use (tops split, containers split, not all were microwave safe!). Also make sure you have things like foil, plastic wrap, wax paper, etc to wrap sandwiches in.

3) If you have a place at your office, pick up some salad dressings or fun condiments to enhance your leftovers: I'm lucky, I have an office kitchen where I can keep a couple bottles of salad dressing, hot sauce, a pepper grinder and other things that can spice up my leftovers. Cost to me was minimal (I spend about $5 a month on croutons, salad dressing, etc) and it makes a world of difference to spice up the food.

4) Remember to bring home your lunch sack so you can clean it and restock it!. Sounds easy cheesy, but I sometimes stick my lunch bag under my desk and forget to bring it home. It can get sort of gross if you forget this on a Friday and don't bring it home until Monday.

There is nothing worse than making a yummy sandwich only to get to work and find your juice bottle or apple flattened it out or the egg salad went "off" after sitting in your bag since 7:30 AM. Hopefully the above helpful Betty Crocker reminders will make it easier to bring your lunch to work!

The Snowflakes are Falling!

Well, at least they are here in New England today! I grabbed the mail on my way into the office and found two checks for house photos, total $30, but they have been deposited and will be added to my car fund on Monday.

I've also joined Snowflake Revolution to give myself more motivation to stick to my fiscal goals. I like challenges and this is one I'm looking forward to.

Once I get some free time later today, I'll be updating my site with a couple new blog links, the Snowflake Revolution Badge and maybe some other stuff.

And the Offers Keep Coming In

In the mail this week, a total of three new credit offers. Two for car loans, one for another credit card. Both car loan offers were "You Must Redeem This Great Offer by February 22nd". Hum, wondering if they are trying to rope people into the Presidents Day Sales I'm seeing on TV.