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Archive for December, 2013

Great End to the Year

December 31st, 2013 at 06:52 pm

I cashed out $25 Paypal on Swagbucks today. I met the daily goal all month (and my second goal all but three days). I also cashed out this morning for a month of Netflix from Instagc (taking advantage of the last day of the holiday discount which is 8% in my case. I snagged four months altogether in December). Tango sent me $2 from Media Insiders and I was paid $3 from Pinecone.

We will go to our favorite Chinese restaurant with my friend early this evening. I will definitely not make it to midnight (been up since 4:30 am). I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year!

2014 Budget

December 29th, 2013 at 02:44 pm

I ran the numbers and although my income is somewhat variable due to being self-employed, it was easier to work out than I thought it would be. I figured low and if I make more than what is budgeted, I will give myself a quarterly bonus that will be split between debt repayment and my IRA.

Household (includes entertainment and insurances etc.): $2583 per month

Savings: $325 per month
$26.50 per week to EF (equivalent to 52 week challenge)
$15 per week to short term/sinking fund
$145 per month to IRA (Low I know, but it is what it is)

Debt repayment: $520 per month
Car: $400 per month (payment is $361.15, but I round up)
Student Loans: $120 per month (IBR)

Total: $3428 (after taxes)

New Laptop

December 28th, 2013 at 08:07 am

Thank you all once again for your input on the handbag. As "luck" would have it, my laptop died (It's three years old, had heavy use, and keys missing. Not worth looking into having it fixed). Therefore, the proceeds from selling the handbag will pay for the new laptop I picked up yesterday at Walmart for $328. I put it on my Capital One card mainly because it doubles the warranty. As soon as the handbag sells I will pay it off. If for some reason the handbag doesn't sell, I will take the money from savings to pay for it.

Christmas was nice and quiet here, but we did make a nice turkey dinner.

I am working on my 2014 goals and will post them soon. I hope everyone has a great new year!

Extravagant Gift Dilemma

December 17th, 2013 at 05:14 pm

I do some freelance work for a company based in Vietnam. My boss is very kind and generous. He told me he was shipping me a handbag in an email for Christmas. I didn't think much of it until I had a call from a handbag company out of Colorado verifying this was legitimate since it was purchased out of Vietnam. I said yes, my boss said he purchased a gift and it was bought from a US company who would ship it. The gentleman from the handbag company forwarded me the shipping confirmation and I about had a heart attack!

This is a $350 Michael Kors (sp?) handbag! I am a frugal girl who has never spent more than $20 on a purse and find it wasteful (For me, I don't judge others). I am grateful my boss is so generous and kind, but I hardly ever carry a purse at all and cannot fathom carrying this extravagant one. I don't know what to say or do. I didn't even spend $350 on Christmas altogether!If I say something I feel rude and ungrateful and if I don't I feel like he wasted his money. What would you do? How can I handle this gracefully?

Weekend Update

December 7th, 2013 at 02:19 pm

I have been so busy lately. I am proctoring a mock SAT this morning so a perfect time to catch up online (and write out my Christmas cards)!

Not much has changed on the financial front. I am able to pay all the bills and save my $26.50 a week, but no major progress.

Today will be a very long day. I should be done here around 1pm and from there I have five mystery shops which will net $95.00. I only have one small purchase ($3) to make for one of them and it will be a Christmas gift. Of course I will get reimbursed for it next month. The mall will be packed I am sure, but it is worth it to get paid to go.

I met both of my daily goals all month last month for Swagbucks. It was a challenge and although I will still shoot for the first goal all this month, I am not going to worry about the second. It was too much effort.

That is all that is new around here. I feel behind. I have a ton of wrapping to do tomorrow to get the out of state gifts shipped this week. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

ShareBuilder Cyber Monday Deal

December 2nd, 2013 at 12:05 pm

Today only open a custodial account and receive a $100 bonus after your first trade. Looks like adults can use it too.

From my email:
Today only, open a Capital One® ShareBuilder® Custodial account with promo code GIFTSTOCK13
By Dec. 31, 2013, make just one trade or automatic investment
Bingo! You've earned a $100 bonus to help get that kid off to a good start.
For adults the code is CYBMON13
I just opened one for my son and my grandson.

My other Cyber Monday purchase was a new Kindle Fire (I have one and LOVE it but the screen went black after dropping it). The low end one (8gb) is $139 with ads. I got the 16gb without ads on sale for $134. I used Amazon credits from Swagbucks and paid $92.85 total for the Kindle Fire and a case. I put it on my Capital One card which doubles the manufacturer warranty. The first one that dropped would have been around $50 to fix. I figure I got an updated model and a case for only $42 more.