New Year, New Beginnings!

Happy New Year!

I know I've been away for a while, but after my last post my life just got super busy. Let's see....

To start where I left off, my stepmom and my now 6 year old brother (technically, 6 tomorrow!) came to visit. We went to the Georgia Aquarium (highly recommend ANYONE who visits the Atlanta area to check that place out! It's amazing!), went out for Pinkberry, saw a movie and had my cousin's 30th birthday party. An overall busy, yet enjoyable 4 day weekend with family (I had all of that posted in a draft for a new post and thought I would use it! Haha.)

Several Bill Days have come and gone, but I don't feel that it's necessary to try and back track for the last couple months. Instead, I thought I would let you guys in on a little, well, not-so secret secret.

A week before I left for my mini Christmas vacation in Milwaukee, I contacted a realtor. I met her back in August (she was the listing agent for a condo I was interested in) and we hit it off. When I got sick this past fall, I had to put off my search for a new home. I felt sad writing her an email telling her I had to put everything on hold. Needless to say, she was very happy to hear from me. She referred me to a mortgage lender and with my excellent credit I was pre-approved for....well, I'm not really sure of an exact amount. But I told him what monthly payment range I want to stay in, and he told me to search for a home between $70,000 - $75,000. With this being a buyer's market right now, there are a TON of listings out there for that amount and less. I've combed through tons of listings online and I think I'm ready to go out and really look.

I started thinking about how I could combine this blog and my own research on the home buying experience. I am a complete newbie when it comes to all of this home owner stuff. In the last 6 or 8 months now, I have done a TON of research on my options, and I have hardly made a dent in all the information I have found. There are a TON of resources to look at: internet, books, and all kinds of people out there that are more than willing to answer questions.
This may not necessarily be the BEST guide to follow, but it’s what I’m going through right now. I know I’m not the only person out there that has questions on how to start this process, but I have really not found 1 step-by-step guide to owning your home. I’m sure that’s due to the fact that there are SO many details and so many different situations out there. The details are hard to sit down and just write out.

So I hope you guys will enjoy this little home-buying journey I'm about to take you on. I think it'll be fun and hopefully I'll start getting some usable feedback from you guys! :)

For now, time to get back to work!!

October Bill Day 2 or 2

This is going to be a super brief post! I had family in town this weekend and I have a lot to do tonight to make up for lost time this weekend. Bill Day 2 has come and gone, and I wanted to write a quick post on that:

Only 2 days this month (as usual). Actually, until I change my phone bill, Bill Day 2 amounts pretty much will stay the same every day:

Car Payment	$ 265
Phone Bill	$ 105
Total Paid	$ 370

And total breakdown for this month:

Bill Day 1	$ 664
Bill Day 2	$ 370
Total Paid	$ 1034

Total still hurts everytime I see that number! And I'm about to add to that overall debt *hopefully* (yes, hopefully) before the year is up. But I feel that because it's going to be going towards my own place, I'm ok with adding a little more debt. But I'm still scared!

Anywho, more on all of this later. For now, I have a mountain of laundry and mindless TV shows calling my name!

Whoops...

So I've been a bad blogger...I stayed away longer than I meant to (after looking at the last date I posted)! However, I was also very bad about staying away from my beauty channel on YouTube. And don't even get me started on how long I've been away from that blog! Haha.

So a brief update on my life in the last almost-month hiatus from blogging. What really started my hiatus was the weekend I was supposed to do the research on options for first-time homebuyers in Altanta. I still plan on doing that post, and I started my research, but ended up going outlet shopping with one of my Atlanta girls. I was pretty good at the outlet. I didn't buy anything...that is until I hit the shoe store. But in my defense, my doctor has me on a strict flat shoes only "prescription" until I can get to a podiatrist to check the tendons in my right foot. But I did some great bargain buying! I bought 4 pairs of shoes for under $99. Not bad, right? And then a couple days later I got hit with a pretty bad cold. The kind that leaves you feeling sort of feverish for a couple days and you want nothing to do but lay in bed and sleep. I did that. In the evenings anyway. The running around to doctors appointment has taken up all my spare personal time, so i was still going into work.

Hmm..financial updates? My 1 year anniversary with my company came up. I had my review and got a nice little raise. Not quite what I would have liked, but a raise is a raise. And in this economy? I'm lucky to be able to get a raise at all. I may not be making as much money as I would like, but I am thankful for my job. The higher-ups in my department know my potential and in the last year have given me a lot of opportunity to grow in my position. And as a result, I've actually started thinking more about the possibility of law school (I communicate a LOT with attorneys and our legal department pretty much all day). But for now, I'm thinking about getting a Paralegal certificate. Maybe. I'm 26 and I still don't know what I want to do with my life! Is that bad?

Bill Day 1 for October has come and gone. My breakdown for so far this month:
 

Student Loans	$   50
Credit Cards	$ 325
Car Insurance	$   89
Total Paid	$ 664

(Again, Student Loans actually paid this month is $250 thanks to my parents!)

And I'll end this post with some recent financial news I received this week? My minimum payment on my student loans went DOWN from $157 a month to $115 a month! And best news yet: I am officially under $40,000 debt as of this month!

September Bill Day (2 of 2)

Along with payday, Bill Day 2 for September has arrived. Almost, anyway. Only two bills this time of month:

Car Payment	$  265
Phone Bill	$  105
Total Paid	$  370

Which leaves my monthly total at:

Bill Day 1	$   663
Bill Day 2	$   370
Total Paid	$ 1,033

I don't think I've ever looked at how much the grand total is every month. Sort of shocking, really. Haha. I mean, I guess I've always known what the total comes to because I kept a running total of how much money was coming out of my account every month. But I never really looked at it as one big lump sum. Does that make sense?

I was getting ready to write a nice big check to put into my savings account, but then I remembered that I will probably be owing Piedmont Hospital a nice chunk of money next week. I despise knowing something is wrong with me. Mostly, I dislike knowing that something's not working right, but spending all this money sucks too! So far I have spent about $100 in the last 2 weeks on doctor's visits and prescriptions, and another $20 on over the counter drugs. Blegh. Can't I spend my money on something fun? Anyway, after next week (getting a Pulmonary Function Test), I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have any other doctors visits for a month. Although that may not necessarily mean a good thing. It would confirm my doctor's diagnosis that I have something chronic. Stupid Atlanta environment!! My next scheduled visit is on the day that my stepmom and baby brother come to Atlanta. It his first time visiting, and we're all very excited.

I'm off to watch a silly Jackie Chan movie with my parents. And start my research on the topic I'll be blogging about tomorrow. It'll be my first serious business type blog. So that's something to look forward to....whoever reads this thing....

Mindless TV

Tonight was Grey's night! I am a diehard fan of Grey's Anatomy, and tonight's episode was amazing! Actually, I'm a little embarrassed to admit that over the last couple years I have started to become a religious fan of several different shows. But, my top 3: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Grey's Anatomy, and Glee.

In other news, I started looking at condos online again. Except I started looking in a different area. I'm not so focused on the part of Atlanta I was originally looking in...I've sort of ventured out of that zip code range, and looked at a few others. I've actually found one that I think is PERFECT for me, but unfortunately, I think they've accepted an offer. I just need to get off my butt and go out there with a realtor one of these days. But that means I need to get pre-approved for a mortgage, which I don't really want to do until I find a place that I know I would love to buy. It's a vicious circle. I think this weekend maybe I'll post on the different loan/down payment assistance programs that I'm currently researching. But until then......I think it's early(ish...for me anway!) to bed for this one.

Uneventful

Not a very eventful day for me today. I almost feel like an update doesn't make much sense, but I'm trying get into the habit of a post a day. So let's start with work. I walked into my building this morning to be greeted by a bunch of cheery directors/VP's congratulating us on a job well done thus far this year (continuation of bonus day?). Along with the the cheery attitudes and thanks for the hard works, they gave us a $3 voucher towards something in the cafeteria. Perfect, since I had forgotten to take out more cash and the whole bringing my lunch to work thing has been a total bust this week.

After work, my friend Eric treated me to dinner. We haven't had a chance to really hang out in a while, so he demanded some "Eric time" yesterday, which usually really just consists of a meal, running an errand or two and a trip to Pinkberry for frozen yogurt. Haha. We went over to Taco Mac in Buckhead and had a nice, albeit quick, dinner before I had to head home to help my mom out with some life insurance stuff.

And now? It's almost midnight and I'm nowhere near tired. So I think some more organization is in order. I'm determined to clear some workspace on my desk, instead of leaving it cluttered with makeup and hair products. Hah! So here's hoping....

Bonus Day!

Yesterday I spent a nice quiet evening finishing up laundry and getting some more cleaning done. Something about not being very mobile the last few weeks that got me into a cleaning frenzy when I could finally breathe somewhat comfortably again.

So today is bonus day!! Unfortunately half of my bonus went to taxes. Blegh. The rest went towards groceries, a few necessities, and Dumbo on Blu-ray! Yes, I'm not afraid to admit that I love Disney movies. I blame my Disney obsession on my parents. As a kid I was always envious of kids who had ALL the Disney movies. My brother and I had a few of them, but I always wanted a Disney collection. Hence my alarmingly large collection of kid movies. That and I am sort of a kid at heart. My youngest brother (20 years my junior) and I would have movie nights. So I got into the habit of buying kid movies and have continued after my move from Milwaukee to Atlanta. I use the kids in my life (brother, nieces, friends' children) as my excuse, but I enjoy them probably as much as they do.

Other than that, not much else to report. Bill day 2 of 2 is coming up soon. And for the second time in this post, blegh.