Time Flies....

Half a year since my last post. I don't think anybody even reads this thing anymore....

What happened? Well I started getting paranoid about writing posts. At that time, I really wanted to blog about looking for a new job and things happening with my family but I got paranoid about people figuring me out and decided to keep things to myself. Without wanting to write about what was going on in my life made me feel like I had nothing to write about for a few weeks. A few weeks turned into a month and then 2 months and then I kind of forgot about this thing. I still read the blogs I follow on my google reader but I was no longer excited about writing posts hence the lul. So I am back for now. Got a bit of a writing bug and I also have time now that it's close to Christmas and I am taking things easy.

What's happened in the last half year?

1. I got promoted at work! but I just mentioned earlier I was looking to leave! What gives? The thing is I was doing work, etc. that was not part of my job description and really the role of a level that was above me. It frustrated me that I didn't have the correct title & recognition and I made it known. I got answers that they were doing the best they could to make everything right but nothing was really changing so I started looking elsewhere to leave. Well a few months ago, I got called into my bosses office and he told me I was finally getting promoted and would have the right title, salary and recognition. I am still doing the same thing I was a year ago which tells me that I should have gotten promoted a year ago like I had asked for. What have I learned? Corporations wouldn't think twice about doing what's best for the company and I shouldn't feel any different. Earlier in the year when I was looking elsewhere for a new job because I felt bad and guilty about it because I like my boss and coworkers but at the end of the day, I was being taken advantage of and I shouldn't have felt bad about it. I am still early in my career and I chalk this up as a learning experience.
2. I lost ~10lbs! I remember posting on here when I first joined the gym. Well it's taken a lot of work but I am now about 10lbs lighter and back to my old clothes! I still want to loose another 5 and I'll be super happy but being able to fit into my old clothes feels good again. It was easy staying in shape in the warmer months. Now that it's cold, I want to hibernate in my house all the time and I need to keep motivating myself to bear the coldness and make it to the gym.
   

Speaking of the gym, it's time for me to get ready to go there.

The good news & the bad news

So I googled how to change those little icons that appear beside your website & was able to do it :) Go me! It looks great in FireFox which is my browser of choice. BUT, I tested it out in Internet Explorer and it works however, it looks like half of my first post is blocked off in white space. It has nothing to do with the icon thingamagiggie because even when I remove the code for it, it still doesn't work.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why this is happening. I spent almost an hour looking @ the HTML code & fiddling around with it to no avail. Another reason not to use explorer. I am debating re-uploading the template again this weekend when I have more time :(

*edit: it's fixed! There was an updated version to the template I am using with the fix on it.

2009 Budget

So I decided that I need to up the beauty budget to $10. Why? Because a haircut would easily have me waiting months before I could save up for it, if I stayed at the $5 budget. I know I'll also have to buy some sunscreen @ some point. I buy a more expensive one for my face. ~$29. So yeah if I kept it @ $5, I'd go over the yearly budget really quick. So a combined beauty and clothes budget of $30 seems reasonable. Phew, this budget doesn't give me the hives like the previous $20 for clothes & $5 for beauty budget. & combining the two makes sense. I know that there will be months where I won't buy clothes but will want a pedicure (beauty), so with a combined $30, I could work with that.

I decided I'll try & track my monthly budget on the right hand side. So I am all ready for Jan 2009.

The rest of budget works out like this.
Eating out: $100. Ugh, ugh, ugh. This is my Achilles heel if you will. I am good about brown bagging my lunch to work. I think I can count the number of times I've actually had to go out & buy my lunch for 2008 in one hand. Pretty good right? YES! but going out for dinner is another story. Going out to a restaurant for drinks or dinner w/ the bf happens @least once a week & that's where I fall down.

Entertainment: $50. I think this is more then enough. I don't go out as much as I used to so that's reasonable. Plus I think I'll roll this over so I can save up for extravagant months where I am a party animal ;)

Misc: $50. You never know right?

Gas: $150. This is hard to budget as it depends on gas prices & I have no say in it. Sure I could take the bus again but right now I drive to work & I think that's staying as is (knock on wood).

Groceries: Perhaps I should group this with eating out but a budget of $100 here. I am happy with this area and don't mind spending the $100. I almost always brown bag & am vegetarian so sometimes pay premium for things like veggie burgers & whatnot.

Above is everything I see as being variable for the month. Here are my fixed costs for the month: Rent: $800, Cell phone Bill: $40, Membership fees: $60. I think that's it @ a whopping $900!

So to recap that is

• $30 - Clothes & Beauty
• $100 - Eating out
• $50 - Entertainment
• $50 - Misc
• $150 - Gas
• $100 - Groceries
  
• $720 - Rent
• $40 - Cell phone bill
• $60 - Membership fees
• $1300 - Total

That's not too bad actually. That's a little over half of what I take home monthly. So it should leave me around the same amount to save. The thing is I know over the past year I have not been saving over a 1000 per month. Perhaps as I keep tracking this on a monthly basis I'll see areas where I am faltering & will be able to correct it.

Progress bars

Trying to decide what I should add on the progress bar on the right hand side. Perhaps a monthly budget tracking tool but I might get annoyed with having to change it monthly.

Perhaps I should track savings instead. Not sure it's the best idea when I don't have a good savings method in place. i.e. right now I just have a savings account & some cash in stocks.

Also I couldn't find a widget on blogger that allowed me to track progress so I had to google how to do progress bars in HTML and add it myself. Perhaps another reason why I am not so keen on having to update it monthly.