my-financial-journal

[my-financial-journal]

Brownie

January 29, 2020 

Ended up not getting that brownie on Monday. I dragged it out long enough that it was time to go home by then. Saved me $3 but I was sad. I consoled myself by promising a brownie on Tuesday (yesterday) since I had class after work. Wasn’t really craving it yesterday but did get KFC instead, which I chowed down in the car faster than I probably should have. 

Thinking about it right now on my lunch break. Should I... or should I not?

[my-financial-journal]

Starbucks Brownies

January 27, 2020

Nearly gave into the temptation to walk to the Starbucks on the corner block for a brownie on my lunch break. Resisted but it was very, very difficult. When I get a proper working oven I must learn how to make them. Its like they put crack in it or something, because I am definitely addicted. 

edit: its period time. gonna go get me a brownie. 

[my-financial-journal]

Disneyland

January 27, 2020

My boyfriend’s mom is so super duper sweet and I absolutely adore her. On New Year’s Day she took me and the boyfriend to lunch at Downtown Disney and then got us Annual Passes to the theme park. It was unbelievable. She also got us each a gift card to use inside the park so we wouldn’t have to spend our own money. I think I’ve been to Disneyland every weekend since then. I wanna be like her when I grow up. 

[my-financial-journal]

December + January

January 27, 2020

Yikes. I lost sight of my accountability goal for almost 3 months. It was so easy to let life get ahead of me and take me on a wild roller coaster ride.  Work and school have both picked up in intensity and I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve had time to stop and breathe for myself. 

I’ve also been knitting non-stop most of December and January so it was less time spent lurking on the computer. Someone actually paid me to make him a scarf, which I gladly did. He gave me $50... but in Amazon credit! I don’t have the heart to tell him I don’t use Amazon anymore. Oh well, I’ll save it for the next wave of textbook buying. I’ve gotten textbooks from Amazon before. Not ideal, they’re on the end of the scale that is fast and cheap. 

Some great news: I’ve pretty much paid off the balance on my CFU from tuition payment for this quarter, and then some additional. That brings it down to nearly zero, except for a textbook I returned that they have not yet refunded me for. Frustrating. I talked to a CS rep twice and was told that it takes 2-3 weeks to process a return and refund. How even??

Bad news: Registration for next quarter opened up a couple days ago and I’ll have to pay $1900 sometime. Likely when I can muster up enough will to press the “pay” button. Seeing those red numbers in my budget app really kills the mood.

[my-financial-journal]

Month Summary

Nov 4, 2019

Wow its been a whole month. Here were some big things in October:

-Spent almost nothing at Las Vegas; whew. Aside from M&Ms and some souvenirs like casino chips, 

-Destiny 2: Gave into peer (Discord) pressure and bought the $25 Forsaken DLC for additional raids and content. Did not know the DLC would go on sale for $15 a week later. Steam refused my request for a refund saying I had more than two hours played. 

-Shark steam mop: Bought one from Walmart, returned it because it was the wrong model. Ordered the correct model online, they shipped us a slightly different model. Returned that one, and frustrated, just ordered directly from the manufacturer’s website. Turns out they take PayPal, which was amazing because the total came out to $149 and I’d wanted 5% back on such a large purchase. 

-Donations: Started a new line on YNAB called “Charitable Donations”. Makes me feel better about myself. I set up a small recurring donation to my school (why not) and the biggest one was: A03 won the Hugo Award for Best Related Work! So A03 made a special Hugo pin with the A03 logo, available for a $75 donation. I did it. I mean, I spend a fair amount of my nighttime hours on that site so... I wanted to support them. 

-Halloween party: Spaghetti Factory overcharged me by at least $40 when I picked up our catering. Immediately called them as soon as I realized and got it sorted out and they corrected it. They’d advertised each tray to feed 8-10 people but it was dinky little trays so we had to go out and get more food last minute. 4/10 would not recommend. We definitely will not be back there. 

-Etsy: Spent almost $200 on Etsy, ordering gifts. Originally was ordering one or two things for the boyfriend, but ended up getting a few more things, for his mom, myself, and the bestie since it was all from the same seller anyways. In hindsight I probably did not not need another handcrafted unique keychain key holder... Etsy takes PayPal though!! 5% back on all that. 

-Going overboard on CC spending since discovering how many places take PayPal. But its all in the name of 5% back on the Freedom. Need to curb my spending though, since I’m racking up debt really fast with the “no APR till 2021″ mentality. 

-Enrolled in classes for next quarter; paid $1900 in tuition. Practically hit the limit on that credit card... credit score is probably going to tank this month. 

[my-financial-journal]

Vegas

Oct 1, 2019

Heading to Vegas this Friday... without room in the budget for it. The textbooks and spending on jeans were not anticipated but since I saved on the textbooks, whatever is leftover will be for Vegas I suppose. We’ll see how far $31 can stretch over a Vegas weekend. 

[my-financial-journal]

Textbooks

Oct 1, 2019

Got super lucky with the two required textbooks. One was being sold on ebay for about $60 bid with $15 for shipping (wtf shipping) but it was still lower than the $95 price tag at all the other sites. It was 87$ to buy outright but I bid hoping no one would contest me and I was lucky. 

The professor in the other class finally concluded that the prior edition was okay to use this quarter so instead of paying $95 out the ass for the 9th edition, the 8th edition was significantly cheaper. Paid $13 with $4 for shipping. Sweet sweet relief at saving about half of expected textbook costs. 

Neither book was rented so I’ll be able to keep them in case I need to refer to them later. Both sites take PayPal so I’ll even be able to get that sweet, sweet 5% back. 

[my-financial-journal]

New Jeans

Oct 1, 2019

How fortunate that Old Navy was having a %50 off all jeans sale when we were at the Irvine Spectrum, looking at jeans. Jeans went from $35 to $17.5 and I got 3, ended up at a total of $56.54. Pretty good for 3 pairs of jeans since I’ve had literally no other pants besides work pants. 

[my-financial-journal]

Textbooks

Sept 26, 2019

Wow I forgot how much textbooks can cost a student. My two classes this quarter require textbooks that are about $100 each... do I suck it up and pay? Or try to wing it without? 

I can’t even spin it on my cc for the points, because the 5% category on the CF doesn’t start till next Tuesday and I’m awaiting my new CFU card. 

Probably will try to wing it until Oct 1 and put everything on the CF. At least it won’t be hard to hit the minimum spend. 

I can’t even begin to imagine how much I’m going to pay for textbooks for the next year. 

[my-financial-journal]

Wasted Food

Sept 19, 2019

Just threw out the last two Porto’s meat pies that I was keeping at work but went stale. There’s more at home too. Ugh, what a waste. Next time I don’t buy a dozen. 

[my-financial-journal]

Chase Freedom

Sept 16, 2019

Finally saw the Q4 categories for the CF so hopped the fence and applied today. No better time since the promo is the higher one they offer. So that’s $200 CB or 20,000 UR points for spending $500 before the middle of December. As long as the winter quarter class schedule comes out before then, I can just use it to pay for one class and get the bonus ez. 

I wasn’t planning on using the CF since I already have the CFU and its a flat 1.5% for everything. Buuuut the Q4 categories are pretty good; department stores, PayPal, and Chase Pay. Its so easy to spend in those categories and Walmart accepts Chase Pay! So I may just buy more groceries and gifts this holiday season. Im sure thats what they intended anyways. 

[my-financial-journal]

Birthday

Sept 16, 2019

Ended up designating Souplantation for the birthday lunch with friends on Saturday, as everyone (including me) is a broke af mf-er and no one ever objects to Souplantation. Emailed everyone a lunch coupon and turned out to be $23 for 2. Best friend picked up the cake and wouldn’t let me pay her for it, and we played card/drinking games at my house long enough for it to be dinner time. Ended up at a very nice and authentic Japanese restaurant and since we could only split the check 3 ways, put 5 people’s meals on my credit card for $112. The boyfriend’s and I accounted for over half of that at around $65. Sushi is expensive, yo. 

I was given Porto’s gift cards totaling $150, coincidentally. It was a bit of a wake-up call to how obsessively I’ve been talking about the bakery lately. Went to Porto’s with the boyfriend and his mother for dinner the very next day. Spent a $50 gift card and boyfriend’s mother covered the rest. 

She also gave me a red pocket and hot damn that was unexpected and very nice of her. I’m extremely grateful because that helps so much and it’s going to go straight into paying my car registration in October. 

[my-financial-journal]

Birthdays

Sept 5, 2019

Spent about $100 last Saturday for a friend’s birthday. I still cringe when I think about it because not only did I buy him his birthday cake, but we chipped in for his share of the escape room and I paid the boyfriend’s share. I didn’t know an escape room would cost that much. To be fair, it was done very well and we all had fun (and escaped!) 

But its going to be instant noodles until the next paycheck. 

[my-financial-journal]

Gym Membership

Sept 5, 2019

I’d been considering getting a gym membership but was on the fence about it. I think the only reason I didn’t immediately get in my car and drive to the 24 Hour Fitness down the street was that the reviews on Google and Yelp were absolute trash. I didn’t want the LA Fitness because I’d be limited by their very limited hours. 

Fortunately, I figured out there’s a small gym at my office building, available 24/7 to all tenants. Saved me that year contract I was considering at Planet Fitness. Now if only it weren’t so far... 

[my-financial-journal]

Forgot My Lunch

Sept 4, 2019

And thankfully I had an instant microwavable meal in the freezer as backup. Two and a half successful weeks so far without going out to buy lunch. I think it helps that there aren’t many places to eat in area, thus saving me the temptation. 

I’ve been craving fruit lately but not wanting to grocery shop (aka spend money) but someone brought a box of peaches for the office so I’m having one. Are you supposed to peel peaches? 

[my-financial-journal]

Student Loan Deferment

Sept 4, 2019

Good news: It was approved!!

Bad news: It starts when classes start, and ends when classes end, meaning I’m only deferred on two payments. Classes begin after my payment due date for September, and end before the one in December so Im only deferred for the ones of October and November. Still, small mercies I suppose.

No word back yet on whether I’ll need to submit a loan deferment request for every quarter I’m enrolled... that would be extremely annoying. 

[my-financial-journal]

Lunches

Aug 23, 2019

Woohoo! Made it the whole week without going out to buy lunch at all. Brown-bagged it everyday. The only unnecessary expenses this week were my one Jamba Juice morning and treating my mom to a tea last night. Under $10 so far this week. Lets see if that still holds true tonight too.