About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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May 4, 2010
Revanche and Single Ma’s $5K/5K Challenge
Yesterday I announced a joint 5K challenge that Single Ma and I are taking on and we’d like you to join us!
The goal:
SHE: Single Ma starts training on May 2nd and hits the race starting lines on June 5th.
ME: I will be saving every penny not needed for expenses and aiming for the highest possible amount by June 5th.
The details: She doesn’t expect a perfect race, and I don’t expect a perfect savings run. I know that $5000 is a huge sum, and I really want to hit that goal, but to make it realistic, I’m setting some ground rules.
First: I won’t cheat by skimping on every day necessities in order to artificially win this challenge. For example, if I owe gifts to people, they won’t be sent late because I’m trying to avoid spending. On the other hand, whenever I can use gift cards to avoid using cash, you can bet I’ll be doing so.
Second: Since I do not make well over $5000 in any given month from my day job, savings money has to come from my freelance income.
Third: (The equivalent of walking) I will allow any invoices for work already performed paid during this timeframe to be counted toward the total. The converse is also true: I will not book any money that has been invoiced but not received. So if you owe me money, please pay me during this time! 😉
Fourth: Accountability! I will be posting weekly updates to my savings regimen.
FAQs
Q: “WHY WHY WHY?
A: Well, it should be obvious why SM is doing the 5K – she’s insane! 😉 Nooooo, it’s a great milestone to achieve. As for me, I have some major savings goals for the year and this is one way to concentrate on reaching at least one more early in the year. The more I bank, the better my position will be in as more family challenges crop up this year.
Q: Why match SM?
A: SM’s always been inspirational and I know many of her readers feel the same way. The symmetry was poetic and I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to “run” with her!
Q: What if I can’t save $5K?
A: Not a problem – set your savings goal wherever makes the most sense for you, but make it more than your usual savings rate. The point is to stretch yourself beyond the normal day to day.
Q: How do I have to save for it to count?
A: You can save however you can so long as you’re not lying, cheating or stealing. Small bits, lump sums, getting your cousin Sally to pay back that quarter you lent her when you were both 7 years old, if it’s ethical, it’s fair game! 🙂 Also, no neglecting your responsibilities!
Q: What if I don’t blog, can I still participate?
A: ABsolutely! If you blog, and you’re taking on the financial challenge, please do post the challenge and weekly updates. If you don’t blog and want to send your numbers to me, you are most welcome to comment and/or email me and I’ll keep a spreadsheet with our progress. This is a team effort!
May 3, 2010
In one month, Single Ma of Fabulous Financials fame is going to take the leap into her first 5K race! Having blazed the trail to financial success in her life, she’s refocused her intensity on a new frontier. If you’ve missed her fabulous (of course) tweets in the past few months, she’s been making major changes in her lifestyle, overhauling her eating habits and kicking the crud out of the Couch to 5K program.
She starts official training for the 5K today, Sunday May 2nd. Starting at the same time, I will be “running” alongside her in the saving spirit – I will aim to save $5000 between May 2nd through June 5th.
Will you join us in Financial and Physical Fitness?
Stay tuned for the details!
May 2, 2010
What happened? I dreamed that my staff were plotting an insurrection because apparently my boss was an alky, and they were in trouble for bringing dozens of differently sized exercise balls into the office. ???
It’s been hours since I finally succumbed to the dim sum shrimp punching me in the face and knocking my brain fuzzy. You’ve really gotta watch it with that dim sum – half a chance and the carbs and the fats work their diversionary magic and POW! The shrimp get ya.
In lieu of caffeine, this Hand Ninja helped wake me up with her calisthenics (no idea what the last bit is all about).
Though dim sum is really fun, the only dish that really gets me there are the steamed and baked BBQ pork buns because I love love love BBQ pork and can’t make the buns at home. I might be able to figure it out one day but for now, I’m happy with bringing home the occasional delicious bun treat.
Speaking of treats, our meal was a treat as well. The bill for 4 people after tip was $55 which wasn’t bad considering we had SIXTEEN dishes (mostly small and medium) and works out to less than $14 per person. While I try to spend less than that on food for an entire day, it’s doped me up enough that I probably won’t eat again until late tonight. 🙂
May 1, 2010
I can’t find the picture of my dazzling BBQ pork success so will share a wonderful pork tenderloin made soe time ago. I can also recommend a nice bottle of wine only $5 at Trader Joe’s: Epicuro’s Lazio white wine.
I am up and at ’em! (Always have wondered who ’em was, though.) It’s 8:30 and the chicken stock is bubbling merrily on the stove next to the pot of eggs for the week’s snacks. I’ve just to fetch my mending basket and settle into the perfect curve of my sofa-pillow Fortress of Solitude whilst the breakfast hash browns are baking in the toaster oven.
It’s not a half bad beginning to the day.
I’ve queued up an amazing lot of workly things to do, though. The cookery was the easy part. I have loads of prep work for next week, a good chunk of freelancing to tackle, blogging to catch up on, and perhaps a meal or two to eat. Friends are in town, too, though they’re really just here to see each other and I happen to be the middle at which they meet.
P.S. Last week’s chicken soup picture? Will be duplicated today! I’m so excited. I’m making the stock first, then a super sized batch will follow using both weeks’ stock.
Also, I will be making Frugal Scholar’s Broccoli Soup this week with the head of broc bought expressly for that purpose. It will be gorgeous!
April 30, 2010
This month was an amazing turnaround from last month’s bleed-out, and honestly come by, I swear!
I’ve been working my tail off, and it paid off. The positive cashflow was nearly equal parts reimbursements, delayed invoices and missing unemployment checks showing up, freelance income, and day job income.
Cashflow in the month of April opened like a nasty joke with a negative balance of 7668.50, and closed with only a negative balance of less than $600.
I can’t really expect such dramatic progress month to month from here on out, of course, but I have to breathe a small sigh of relief that I’ve made up a lot of ground since the car. I now only owe $1730 on that debt. Soon as that’s out of the way, I can make up ground on all the other savings targets set up for the rest of this year. Exciting!
Now, I’m just happy it’s Friday, it’s payday and I can get some *rest*. Purely thrilled!
April 29, 2010
Have you ever rushed to the store with a soon-to-expire coupon because you didn’t want to “lose” the $15 (off $30 purchase)? Or gone shopping online to take advantage of the stackable coupon codes expiring in a couple days? Specifically, have you spent money because you could “save” money instead of saving on a necessary purchase?
Guilty and guilty.
It’s a habitual behavior, I’ve noticed. If you’re ignoring all coupons, it’s easy to keep on ignoring even the juicy ones. But once you open the floodgates and start matching coupons to sales to cashback sites, it’s on.
Of late, I had to purchase some work clothes because of the Bekins debacle which is the only time I’ve shopped without even considering price. That meant my Bargain Antennae (powered by guilt!) went up, which has cost even more.
My clothes went astray just after I’d already ordered a replacement for the “good” jeans that I detroyed; I went for trouser jeans which are even more elusive than regular jeans. Supply and demand totally kicked my butt: trouser jeans that fit never make it to the sale rack.
After resolving to suck it up and jump on the fattest coupons I could spot, I was too eager and bought the first pair at only 30% off with free shipping ($69). When a 40% off regular priced merch came up, I couldn’t say no. I knew it was only a matter of time before I broke the new jeans. With free shipping: $59.
Confession: Since I won’t wear jeans to work right now, saying they’re for work is a little disingenuous.
*Note: I actually wore them to work once. For a half day, as we had an offsite that included 5 hours of walking for which my knees demand tennis shoes.
At least I won’t buy jeans for more than 3 years as the average life span of my jeans are 2 to 8 years.
Last night, another sale was on and there were two work-worthy tops in the right size, so I spent another $52.
Luckily I had some forethought. Knowing that I was tempted, I’d redeemed CC points for gift cards so all but $11 of the above purchases totaling $180 was not cash out of pocket. Regardless, that’s a lot of money spent just because there were sales and/or coupons. It’s not that I won’t use them – I’ve cycled through three pairs of pants and 5 shirts over the past 12 days – but it’s definitely a slippery road where buying because of a “bargain” becomes a reflex.
April 28, 2010
One of the oddest things about starting this new job is taking on a supervisory role, officially performing the duties I was unofficially in charge of in previous jobs, and going to a salaried position. I’ve never been salaried before and this is a dangerous thing.
I run with workaholics. I always have. This particular set seems to avoid imposing their schedules on me, but when your peers or people you report to are diligently at their desks before and after you arrive …. well, I don’t know about you, but that gives me a touch of indigestion and I feel compelled to at least match their time in the office. That seems silly but most especially in the first six months, I think it’s crucial to do your best work and oftentimes, it has to be made evident via face time while you’re just learning the ropes.
The difference between starting this job and any other job in the last ten years is that while I want and expect to excel, I’m not willing to let the job take over my life. So rather than automatically resigning myself to mimicking their behavior, I’m on the lookout for ways to become extremely efficient and good at my job without having to log 14 hour days. As it is, I’ve naturally worked until almost 6:30 every night even on days where I’ve arrived before 8 am.
Part of that is the settling-in process: I have meetings back to back all day and very little time to do actual work. But every single meeting produces more reading, more meetings and more follow-up I’ve got to do. I expect that a third of the meetings will go away, but that’s only a few extra hours in a day.
The real boss has finally been in the office this week, so that’ll be part of the settling in process as well.
Does anyone else have problems balancing work-life-expectations?
