piggy banks and urban dictionaries

Yesterday I received an invitation from sparkpeople.com to be part of the test group for sparksavings.com - a personal finance tool, with all the great resources of the personal healthy living tools that sparkpeople is. It's FANTASTIC. It's prompted me to figure out my financial goals, and start saving - even my pennies.

It also got me to empty my three change collections and count them - I have one old apple cider jug that has a beautiful label on it, straight from the apple orchards. That jug is so pretty it sits on our bookshelves in the living room. That's my "down payment on a house" fund now.

I have another actual piggy bank - it's a blue ceramic pig with orange and red stars all over it - I glazed it at Color Me Mine many many years ago. I had lost it, change and all, when my parent's house caught on fire, and found it in one of the boxes they cleaned and returned. It's my "a new pair of work-pants" fund.

The other change jar is one of those big 3 gallon blue glass water jars. It was given to me by Kim Fisher, my ex-boyfriend's mom, when I was about 18. She gave one to her son too. I decided when I got it that I would save all of the money in there for my one-day-camp. Last night I counted it for the first time and I have almost $300. That's a LOT of pennies.

Today was a co-workers birthday lunch, so we went to Red Robin. Now none of us feel like buckling down and focusing, so we are looking up our names on urbandictionary.com - I didn't think mine would be on there, but lo and behold -

Roya hot ass persian girl who is usually the best looking girl you can find. She is any guy's dream fantasy (hence the definition of her name in Farsi is "fantasy) usually she has dark hair eyes makes her mysterious and sexy.
Holy crap...i just saw a Roya...and DAMN did she look fine!

1. A Devilish Brunette
2. One dark haired beauty who's intoxicating company (hot bod, flashing eyes, sly smile, and dry wit) teases all your fantasies but never fulfills them, and yet makes you always want to see her again. Especially potent in combination with hot-tubs or practice midterms.


mwhahaha.

Maybe I should put "hot ass persian" on my business cards.

Today I *accidentally* woke up Adam before going to work, so we had a few minutes of nice in the morning - it's amazing how time of day affects us. We're both sooo tired by the time he gets home around midnight, that if that is the only time we interact, it drags us down. Having morning time with him is so important, and we haven't gotten much of that at all lately. The city of LA has been laying off so many people, he's stressed about that. They have a huge city meeting today - crossing my fingers.

Trying to think now of ways to make money to save. ;) I've got all that marmalade - where do I sell it?? I've used up my coworkers I think.
I have the two hats for Katy - one is done. Working on number two.
Julie's chairs - I need to print the rest of the fish out and then I'll be done with Chair 3, and can start on Chair 4.
I've also got a scarf in the works for Becky.
Those are my priorities.

Then I can get back into setting up my etsy shop, and trying to use the materials I already own, rather than buy new ones!

money and budgeting

For 7 months now (since March) I have been tracking my expenditures obsessively. I have a system - I keep receipts for about a week, then sit down with my bank acct. webpage open, and my ledger in front of me, and I write down the ammounts and the balances. Then, I open up my handy spreadsheet that I got from Sparkpeople, and I then break down each receipt into categories. For example, I might spend $50.00 at Vons, but I write down if I spent it on snacks, drinks, fresh fruit, meat, spices, etc. I do this for a whole month, and then open up spreadsheet page #2, copy and paste the month's line items, and then sort by category. I then make it pretty so I can go down the list and see exactly how much I spent on what category. Then I open spreadsheet page #3, which is Months-Side-by-Side. This is so I can see trends over the months in my spending, by categories. I have a column where I find out the averages, and that's what I base my budget on. For example, if I end up spending 200 during December for gifts, but I don't spend any the rest of the time, then I am trying to spread out that 200 over a year, so I fit the average in my monthly budget.

My first few months it was a success for me to a) just track everything. It was not an easy habit to get into. After tracking, I was able to see that I was spending way more money than I wanted to on a few clear categories - eating out, for example. I think that first month I tracked I spent nealy $175.00 on eating out. The next month it was much easier to just be conscious of that, and I cut it down to about $70.00. Now I have a $30.00 limit for eating out each month,and I can usually stick inside of that.

This month I am now concerned with saving money - and that I can't seem to do that. So I have taken every one of my averaged categories, and made a whole new page where I figured out my ideal spending budget for each thing, I put that at the top of a chart, and as I spend, I can subtract to find out how much less I have for the month. Kind of the same idea as when I used to budget by putting actual cash in envelopes - that way if I ran out of one, I had to literally borrow from another. I was a very visual person. In any case, so now I have my list! I just have to stick with it. And hope that no emergency happens, because I don't really have an emergency contingency plan yet. Ack.

So my categories and budgeted amount per month are
Art Supplies: 15.00
Clothes: 40.00
Dinner Out: 20.00
Fitness: 5.00
For Adam: 25.00
Groceries: 300.00
Household: 60.00
Hygeine: 12.00
Lunch out: 30.00
Medical: 50.00
Pets: 40.00
Recreation: 30.00
Rent: 733.00
Savings: 300.00
Student Loan: 53.00
Vehicle: 290.00
Garden: 10.00
Gifts: 20.00
School: 40.00

I would so love to have a separate bank account for each category. But I suppose I'll just have to be smart enough to do it all on paper and keep track of it. This month I am doing pretty well - I blew 30 dollars extra on clothes at the beggining of the month, so I've had to borrow from some other categories, and I have to pay off my root canal - which I am able to do just a little at a time.

My other project is to sell things I make, of course. It was so much fun to do that at the Good Vibrations Conference, but now I need another publicity boost. ;)

Anyways, if you have a different way of budgeting, let me know. I am always trying to make my system better.

I'm just so very tired of being broke. I feel anxious without savings. I like having a plan.

knitting and my dogs...again!

I am slowly trying to go through my things and either find old projects to work on instead of buying new ones. I have sooo many half finished projects - 4 or 5 pairs of socks, gloves, scarves, beanies, latch hook rugs, cross stitch, oh man. So the other day I was just craving doing tiny clicking bamboo needle knitting, and I found a pair of knee length striped socks that weren't even half done - only about 3 inches of one leg was done! It's perfect. I've been working on it just for a day now, and I've already quadrupled the amount I had, and it's neat because I am obviously such a better knitter now than I was 5 years ago when I started.

I put aside the Juliana project for the time being. It's kind of mindless, what with needing to knit 3 feet of the same damn thing, but on the other hand, you also can't tune out completely or you'll wreck the pattern. So it's something I will resign myself to being an ongoing slow project that I will take with me to conferences and things where it's either knit that or knit nothing.

Yesterday was karate - my stomach was hurting so I didn't feel like I was paying good attention, or giving it my all, strength wise - so I tried to concentrate on technique. We did an exercise where we kicked through rebreakable boards - with two of them together instead of just one. My right snap kick is by far my strongest, and the first three were easy, but that darn brown rebreakable board gets me every time. I will work on this! I will also work on my side kicks and my hooking heel, so that when my next belt test comes along I'll be ready.

My puppy got her rabies shots last weekend, and has had enough cycles of her other shots so that I can start taking her places soon! I can't wait! I've been dying to get her on a leash so we can go walk through Central Park and go to the beach and stuff!!! She's such a sweetheart - she has two very distinct moods. There's the Crazy Eyes mood where here eyes roll back in her head and her teeth come out and she rolls around on her back trying to get her pearly whites on anything that will stay still. You have to watch your ankles when she is in that mood. Her other mood is her sweet, calm, loving mood where she follows me around throughout the house as I putter, and when I take a shower she comes and lies down on the shower step and when I do dishes she lies down on my feet! I love this dog. I can't believe how much I love this dog!

The big dog keeps chewing a hotspot on his back so he now officially has been CONED. This means you have to watch out because he doesn't know how wide or painful he is when he tries to brush by you. This also means I need to separate the two dogs because Juno likes to grab onto Rommel's cone and pull. Juno gets the backyard during the day (Rommel has the advantage of more years of house breaking) and Rommel gets the backyard at night (Rommel doesn't struggle with separation anxiety).

Let's see..what else... Adam graduates in...22 days! The week before he graduates, some of his academy friends, their husbands and wives, and me, will be going out to a fancy dinner. He told me a week ago that I need to decide what I am wearing SOON because he doesn't want to deal with my last minute what-to-wear panicking that I always do for every holiday or event. Hah. He knows me too well.

I've been doing a sparkpeople Sweatsuit to Swimsuit Challenge, and I am pleased to report that I haven't missed a day in 2 weeks! Coach Nicole's Cardio Blast DVD with 6 ten minute workouts have saved me so many times - when it's late and I don't feel like going to the gym and I don't even feel like doign 30 whole minutes of working out, I tell myself I am just going to do 1 ten minute segment, and invariably I end up doing more!

I feel like there is so much more I want to talk about, but really I'm just pining for my knitting and my puppy. My knitting is sitting on my desk next to me, and it's so hard not to do that, but I really need to go back to work. Ah! I am so glad this weekend is a three day weekend!

oh hey, my little sister is having her Gold Award Ceremony this weekend! HOW AMAZING IS THAT? REALLY AMAZING, that's what!

lazy sunday

Yesterday my sister and I were in San Diego for the 1st ever Sparkpeople convention. As a seasoned conference and convention goer, I definitely have some tips for them for the next time, but as it was it was exciting, energizing, and I am really glad I got to be there for the first one.

I also had a chance to finish knitting all of the pieces of the askew tank top - now all I need to do is block it. I've never blocked anything before in my life, so I'm sort of procrastinating. I started working on the Julianna berreco pattern with the yarn that I bought on ebay. I don't have enough yarn to actually finish this project, though, so at some point I'll need to buy more. It's sort of slow going, but very satisfying - I love alpaca, and this color red ("redwood mix") is deep and again, satisfying.

Adam and I have been enjoying an incredibly lazy Sunday. He had to work yesterday and I was in SD, so today all that I've done is make breakfast, get lunch, pick up dry cleaning, and bake cookies. Oh, and knit. A lot. I woke up at 6am and started knitting. it's now 3:30 and that's pretty much all I've done.

My plans for today include working out, making dinner, and making lunches. But for the moment, I am still totally content with my knitting! I need to be aware of the fact that I tend to get very restless on Sunday evenings if I haven't gotten out of the house, but I am hoping that a trip to the gym and grocery store will do it for me. :p

Okay, I've spent enough time away from my Julianna. Back to knitting!

I want to move it move it

My Spring Fling Festival was a blast, and it's DONE and I can breath again! I have an event this Wednesday, one next tuesday, and one the week after and then it's back to semi-normalcy!!! Yay!

I joined a women's health challenge and am excited to have joined yet another thing. This summer I really want to be more active - I want to run, swim, bike, yoga, and do karate. I think today after work I'll go to the dry cleaners, then go home, grab my bike and library books and ride there..get some new books, and then do my yoga video. Later tonight I'll go to the gym and run and swim. I miss swimming, but don't really enjoy swimming at the gym since there's too many non-swimmers in the pool. I am thinking about taking a swim-for-fitness class this summer at Goldenwest. 6:30-7:45am two mornings a week..I can do that!

Yesterday I cooked spagetti for Adam's lunch, I thawed a veggie stew I'd made and frozen, and made white rice to go with it for A's lunch tomorrow, and then I also made Hungry Girl falafel. YUMMY! I love Hungry Girl. This weekend I am going to the Sparkpeople convention allll day Saturday in San Diego, and so I need to get ready for that too. I slept in accidentally this morning and was 1 1/2 hours late for work. Today is Monday, yes oh yes it is. I also got the craving to knit socks.
Basically, I'd like to be almost anywhere but sitting at a desk right now. Ahhh. Getting restless and it's only 3:40!

I like my life

Today I registered for the Sparkpeople Convention happening on May 2nd, in San Diego. It's a very full day which starts out with a "fun run" at 7am, and then speakers, panels, prizes, stretching routines, etc. etc. The website Sparkpeople is SO innovative and amazing, that my expectations are already pretty high for their convention. I am really, really, really excited (I am also really excited about the STUFF you get for registering..t-shirt, totebag, fitness dvds...) I can't wait til May. :)

I am incredibly good at my job, and every time I have a mandatory meeting for one of my overnight trips it comes back to me just how satisfying it really is doing something that I enjoy this much and that I am this proficient at. Event planning, especially when you are talking about taking groups of 40+ adults with developmental disabilities, is not for everyone. I am uniquely suited to it, I think, and I LOVE it. LOVE IT LOVE IT. So last night was our meeting for the Hollywood trip in two weeks, and I am finally excited for it. We'll be going to Griffith Observatory, staying at the Ramada in West Hollywood, seeing a movie at Grauman's Chinese Theater, and then spending the 2nd day on a Movie Stars tour and going to Universal Studios. It's going to be totally cheesy and wonderful. :)

I baked my 2nd loaf of bread in the bread machine yesterday - smells wonderful, tastes good, but is a funny looking loaf. They've both been really SHORT. I don't know if that's how they are supposed to be or if I am doing something wrong.

I want to finish my Moose at Sunset cross stitch - I am so freaking close to being done. When I finish, it will be the first humongous cross stitch project that I ever actually saw to completion. I have a smaller geisha girl who is beautiful, and to most people she looks done, but I never technically finished some of the top embroidery and cross hatching. The Moose at Sunset don't need added embellishment. ;)

After Moose, I think I'll start on the Bear Catching the Salmon, to keep going with the Alaskan theme. I did send away for the missing instructions for my Yoruban Women, so I could finish that too..but I'm just not feeling it right now.

At some point I'd like to get out those granny square bags I was making and SELL some. Now that the weather is improving, I really, really, really want to get a booth at the craft fair in LB and sell all my stuff. I have made a necessary promise to myself that I just can't buy more material or even make many more things without first selling what I have. My art room is full to overflowing. It's time to get the items moving.

I think I might sell some of them at the Spring Fling Festival I am holding for Project Independence. I'll donate a percentage of what I make to PI, that way everyone wins.

Okay. It's nearly 5. I can leave now. To the dry cleaners, then HOME, for hopefully a LOT of sleep tonight. SO TIRED! Also, very into capital letters today, apparently.

My world is slowly coming together - yesterday I left my very detailed to-do list at the grocery store, and after a minute of panicking, realized that some of my habits are actually established and I didn't need the list. So that was good. But I didn't feel quite right til I got to work today and printed out a new one. ;)
I woke up at 6:45 this morning and met Emily at the park with the dogs and went jogging for about half an hour. We've done this three times this week and it makes me SO HAPPY to start my day out that way.
I have tracked my food and fitness on sparkpeople every day this week, I have joined a team where we save money to pamper ourselves and in two days I have about 2.50 for each goal. Today at work we are having a "Hungry Girl" Potluck and I am really excited about it. I've managed to get at least 6 of my coworkers on sparkpeople, and I am pleased with the resulting obsessions.
Tonight I really want to ride my bike, and i have checks to deposit, so I am going to ride my bike down to the Washington Mutual... I just googled it, it's only a mile and a half - I can do that! I am excited to start switching my thinking over to "can I ride my bike there?" every time I want to go somewhere.
I have dinner in the crockpot (a spark people recipe) and not very many things on my to do list for today. I am looking forward to an evening at home with my cross stitch and catching up on Top Chef.

I am supposed to start a life drawing class in two weeks. I don't know if I will be taking it. I can't see fitting another thing into my schedule. I don't know. I think I will drop it. It will only put off this particular goal for 4 months, and there is an overwhelming feeling of relief when I think about not having to be out of the house Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday AND Thursday til 9:30pm.

This weekend I am looking forward to: sunshine, warmth, cross stitching, hanging out with Robert on Sunday and having enforced do-nothing-time, riding my bike, and doing the bolsa chica cleanup on Monday. Woohoo.

saturday saturday saturday

Today has been going in strange fits and bursts. Slept in til 9am, which was nice... had a very leisurely morning. Then went out for sushi with Adam, and got home and have been cleaning up and organizing my art supply room ever since.

Organizing my art supply room is an incredible challenge. I've been reading a bunch of de-clutter, organizing books in preparation... so I decided that I need to do it in small stages. Today I took two trash bags - one was trash and one was giveaways, and went through the room to get rid of either of those two things. I did a pretty good job - emptied a drawer and a bunch of plastic tubs. There's some actual counter space! I think the next big job is going to involve buying a few larger bookshelves to store everything, so they aren't in cardboard boxes all over the floor.

Have I mentioned that I have discovered cooking grains and legumes? I am addicted. I love boiling up a pot of barley or lentils, and adding something else to it and having that for a very filling, healthisome meal. I was reading a message board on sparkpeople.com about cutting costs, and I was realizing that decreasing the meat intake by using grains and legumes like that is actually a good way to save money. I've been getting WAY better at just buying ONE zucchini and ONE squash which we will *definitely* eat, rather than buying 4 and having 2 of them go bad. For the last week and a half I have always had a big pan of roasted veggies cooked, with some grains, and I grilled some chicken and have some ham so Adam can add meat to it also. I am sure I will get tired of that same grilled veggie taste, but right now I'm a fan. Last week the main herb was rosemary, this week I did thyme.

I am loving being involved with sparkpeople. I set it as my homepage so any time I get online I am reminded about the different little goals I've set for myself.
I posted an add for the calking mattress we're trying to sell on craigslist, again... this is driving me crazy. It's a GOOD mattress - we've had it less than a year. It's just to damn big for our house, and I want to get rid of it so I can get a smaller bed, but nooo one is buying it. Geez. Only 350 for a calking here people!

As soon as I get rid of that bed, I can get a queen and actually make blankets and quilts and even put the round chair in the bedroom which will clear up more space in the art supply room, and we can work on getting a new couch and coffee table and a puppy and.....
So many projects. So not enough time. Or money. And now I am rambling.
Time to get out some crocheting.

today

tonight - I picked up tshirts for bowling blast (work), went to the grocery store, went home, made chicken/bellpepper/onion kebabs, grilled them, swept, wrapped up joel's bags, did dishes, cleaned the fridge, watered the garden, made asparagus, went to karate, went to the gym and went swimming.

Now I am tired. very, very tired. I believe it is time for bed. I bought a bunch of barley, lentils, and split peas at the store - I am suddenly very excited about cooking grains and legumes. The lentils I made the other day - plain old lentils with nothing in them - have been hitting the spot all week. I can't wait for barley.

I drank all my water today, got some exercise, and kept up with sparkpeople. I kept up with house chores and remembered to hang my keys on my new hook so I don't spend ten minutes every day looking for them. I remember Char always saying that success is a series of small good habits practiced every day. So all these little things- remembering to hang up my keys and water the garden.....success. All success.

the post that's taken me 5 hours to write and post!

Got home last night and Adam was already asleep. Poor guy. He's beat. I stayed up til about 11 puttering around and doing the things on my list. I am not burning with quite the fervor I was, but I think it's just because I'm hungry. My goal is to make it for two weeks doing this taskpane stuff on outlook and the sparkpeople. In two weeks I am allowed to change my goals, but I want to give it enough time for habits to develop.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage.asp?id=ROYABOYA is my sparkpage. If you are at all interested in doing anything like this - join up (it's free) and add me or befriend me or something! It's a very cool site.

I made these bowls for a custom order last night. I may have broken my spinning wheel in the process. I am afraid to even look. I need to download an Ashford template or something and relearn my wheel. I can use it, but not optimally.

Tonight after I get off work I am going to run to the grocery store, buy brown rice, skewers, some veggies - go home and grill the chicken, feed the fish, sweep the house, package Joel's bowls, then go to karate. After karate I am dropping off the bowls at Julie's, then coming home and running with Adam at 9. I am going to water the garden, feed the dog, and maybe work on my mom's white hat. Then tonight I think I get to sleep early!!! WOOHOO!
Other things I can always work on: putting photos in my jewelry box, cleaning off the dresser, organizing the art supply room.
Tomorrow is the doctor's appointment, and maybe lunch with Jake Matilsky (!!!!) and then dealing with the afteraffects of the doctor's appointment.

I am kind of tired, but still motivated to keep going with my to do list. I think I am literally just not getting enough sleep, so as long as I fix that, I should be good to go. Emily and I are talking about starting to go to the gym early before work next week, which would be wonderful. We shall see.

tired at 10:30pm

proud of:

doing every single thing on my list tonight, and then some. The only thing that is left is photographing and listing Joel's felted bowls, but they are busy felting right now so I can't do it anyway! I even hauled my shivering self out to the backyard and watered the garden...complete in my eskimo-eewok-old-timey-flighter-pilot hat from tia julie.

tomorrow I work, have karate, and deliver the bowls. I also want to learn how to do the tassles I want to make for the white hat my mom ordered. I also want to put away dishes, eat leftovers, and make some progress on organizing my art supply room.

one day I will also sleep.

Ooh, tonight I went to Julie's, finished sanding one chair and did the primer. I am SO EXCITED to actually start painting. I will start on that this weekend. I should start logging hours, too -to see exactly how long each piece takes. So far buying paint took about 1 1/2 hours, I sanded and primed for another 2 1/2. Both are slightly overestimated.

Adam got home and fell asleep. We were going to run tonight - now I need to do ten minutes of some sort of exercise without him so I can cross that off my sparkpeople goal list too. Then, bed!