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.

Productivity

Not feeling as great as I was yesterday, but I still got a LOT done.

Woke up this morning and made my coffee run and ran a few errands. I am a sucker for Starbucks and their delicious fall/winter drinks. Came home and got some more laundry, cleaning and organizing done. So overall, fairly productive day.

As I mentioned in my very first post, I am a freelance makeup artist. For a while, I've been storing my makeup in my kit and kept my personal makeup completely separate. That made for a very messy desk. I have makeup stashed in 2 shallow bins, and basically covering every surface of my desk, which can be sort of a headache. Especially when I need a surface to work on. So I finally picked up a few Sterillite drawer systems to divide up the makeup I use on my clients. When it comes time for an event, I can just grab whatever I need. This way, I can prep for an event a little more efficiently.

Taking lunches will have to restart again later on this week. The Alfredo I made Thursday night turned out horrible, soooo Friday I bought lunch. Tonight, I didn't get a chance to cook anything (didn't get around to making my much needed grocery run today) and Tuesday or Wednesday I'm taking a slightly longer lunch to go in for X-rays. So, not very likely that I will be bringing lunches for at least 2 of these days. But, that's alright. It was worth a try, and I will be challenging myself to home cooked meals for lunch again soon!

Semi-Productive, Plus Fun!

I ruined my everyday blog streak due to not feeling so hot last night when I got home from work. My stepdad made fried rice and I laid in bed feeling sick to my stomach (from the smell, not the taste). I passed out somewhere between 6 or 6:30 and slept almost straight through until about 8:45 this morning. Only to wake up and answer my friend Keisha's texts a couple times then went right back to sleep.

This morning I took it easy. Laid in bed and watched some more Gilmore Girls (I own a LOT of TV on DVD...) and my mother, who has taken to worrying way too much about me right now, made me some Korean cream soup for breakfast. After breakfast I got up and managed to get some cleaning done. Cleaned my bathroom and got some laundry started, then around 3 I headed out to meet Keisha for some shopping and an early dinner. The only thing I purchased were a couple of candles from Bath & Body Works (*pats self on back*). My 2 all time favorite candles - Salty Caramel and Kitchen Spice. I love burning them together. As for dinner, since we were at Atlantic Station, we went over to the Fishooke Grille. I had some Tilapia tacos and a side of grilled shrimp. Delicious! And only $12.

The rest of tonight will be spent doing laundry and organizing and cleaning while I put on some more Gilmore Girls in the background. Hopefully, I'll get all that I need to get done!

Hospital Radiology v. Radiology Clinics & $50,000?

While I enjoyed my leftover chicken tacos (taco salad!), I spent my lunch hour calling around to different radiology clinics today. Found out that the clinic my doctor’s office referred me to is associated with Piedmont hospital (of course....since I go to Piedmont Physicians group), so their fees are expensive. It would’ve cost me $40 out of pocket to get a chest X-ray at Piedmont West Office. I found some alternate places to go to, where I will be spending less than $10 to get an X-ray. Now the question is, can I find one open on a Saturday so that I don’t have to miss work next week? Keeping my fingers crossed.

In housing news, I heard about a program in Atlanta that will give you up to $50,000 for down payment assistance if you buy a place along the “beltine.” http://www.beltline.org/ I looked at some of the condos/townhouses on their website and they are way too expensive. If I’m going to spend $150,000 - $200,000, I’m buying a house. And the $50,000 was the amount they tried to lure people in with. If you’re not planning on spending $250,000 on a condo/townhouse/house, then you’re more likely to get 20% of what you spend. And that whole 20% isn’t a guarantee.  And the "$50,000" isn't really free money, they refer to the amount as a "soft mortgage". It's sort of a loan that you don't pay interest on, and if you don't stay in the condo/townhouse/house for 15 years, you have to pay the money back (at a fairly low rate). That could be good or bad, I guess if they prorated the payback then it wouldn't be so bad, but say you stay in your new home for 8-10 years and then need to move? Then you owe X amount back? No thanks. I'll stick with the government down payment assitance programs with no (or fewer) strings attached.

I will admit that I really liked the places I saw on there. They’re upscale and most of the units have been updated with hardwood floors and granite/stainless steel in the kitchens. I especially like the ones in the Buckhead/Lindbergh areas, which is an area I would love to live in, but it’s a little far from work (I work in between downtown and Marietta). One or two of those condo communities has a 1 or 2 bedroom that I looked at online before...for considerably less money (somewhere in the $50,000 to $80,000 range), but I’m still not sure. I still LOVE the original condo community I’ve had my eye on. But because that area is more of a mix of suburban and urban, it’s pretty expensive. But I’m keeping my eye out for any other short sale/foreclosed properties until then. But before anything else, I need to focus on my health and then go back to looking for a new place. I was sad to email the realtor that I started working with to tell her I had to put things on hold, but you gotta do what you gotta do!


Off to make some Rotini with Alfredo sauce for dinner!

Asking Questions...

This not being able to breathe thing? Yeah, needs to go away.

It's amazing what asking questions can do to make you feel better when you start stressing about an issue.

This weekend I think I'm going to spend the weekend at my cousins' house. I think the case may be that I'm allergic to something in my mom's house. When I'm out of the house, my breathing is still pretty labored, but not as bad as when I'm inside the house. It's horrible. My theory is, if my breathing gets a LOT better this weekend, then it's very likely it's something in this house. It's just REALLY inconvenient that this all happened so quickly, and that if I'm reacting to something in the house, then I need to work on moving out a lot faster than I have been. I'm currently staying at my mom's while I'm condo hunting, saving money on paying rent. That scenario will require sitting down and talking to my dad and stepmom and trying to figure out what I'm going to do.

Anyway, today I called my insurance company during my lunch. Found out some great info, like my insurance will cover 90% of my X-ray costs, and if I send out my blood work order to a lab service, then all of that will be 100% covered by insurance. And if I get my doctor's office to write a blood work order for sometime after my follow up appointment and actually GO to the lab location, I don't have to pay the doctor fees to have my blood drawn. The woman I spoke with also let me know that if I go to a radiology clinic not associated with my doctor's office/a hospital, then my fees will be a lot less. Definitely recommend if anyone has to go through with diagnostic stuff, that they call their insurance company or use their website to figure out what's covered.

And so much for saving money today. I needed to get out of the house, so I went and got some fast food for dinner, and then went to Best Buy and picked up Season 2 of Glee and Season 7 of Grey's Anatomy. But hey, I got a $10 gift card from Best Buy for buying both of those. :) Leftover chicken tacos for lunch again tomorrow. I'm still going pretty strong with bringing lunches to work! :)

The M word...

Curse you, Atlanta, and your filthy air!!

So turns out I am a 26 year old woman with the lungs of a 65 year old woman. The doctor I saw today (who is not actually MY doctor, but someone filling in for her) talked over my symptoms with me. To be honest, they aren't completely sure what is going on with me. But they did give me some type of breathing test (I had to breathe into a little tube hooked up to a computer) and well, that's when she told me I had, uh, overly mature lungs. After the breathing test, she started talking about chests X-rays, and follow up appointments, and blood work, etc, etc. My head started to spin. All these procedures she wants to do, and they all will most likely require more than what my insurance will cover. Needless to say, I'm a little worried. Regardless of cost though, I will get them done. For now, they sent me home with prescriptions for Advair and Albuterol and an order to get a chest X-ray done next week, and a follow up appointment two weeks from tomorrow.

Now my ultimate worry with all this? Well obviously, first I'm hoping and praying that whatever they find is NOT serious. Nothing that will require any sort of life altering treatment (i.e. surgery). But the next worry? The "M" word; Medical bills. I pay an arm and a leg every 2 weeks to make sure that I'm covered in case of emergencies. But with all this testing they want to do, I'm worried I'm going to have to pay a lot more in medical bills. I know I have co-pays and all of that fun stuff, but yeah. Still worried.

In other news: I broke my "no spending money on food" spree I was doing so well on. I brought my main lunch (a simple turkey sandwich on wheat bread), and a coworker bought me some sympathy french fries. And dinner? Chick-fil-A with my brother. But I DID make food for tomorrow's lunch. Chicken tacos and black bean/corn salsa. After all, didn't I say I was going to focus on bringing lunches to work? Not dinner? Because if that's the case...then I'm still on a roll!! lol :)

September Bill Day (1 of 2)

Bill day comes twice a month for me. Actually, since my bills automatically pull from my checking account, bill day is technically any given day during the month. But typically they fall within a few days of each other twice a month. So twice a month, I declare it bill day.

Anyway, the running total so far this month:

Student Loans	$ 50
Credit Cards	$ 325
Car Insurance	$ 89
Total Paid	$ 663

(Student Loans actually paid this month is $250. My parents are helping me pay back my loans for my undergrad degree. Once I'm enrolled in grad school, I was told I'm on my own for that one. I won't complain though! I'll take whatever help they'll give me.)

I hate Bill days. There’s just something about seeing my bank account hemorrhage all that money away that makes me sad. But soon enough, once my debt is under a little more control, then maybe I’ll be down to one bill day a month! Here’s to hoping….

Not much else to report. Still going strong on day 2 of my "no spending money on food" week. Took leftover Korean to work, which always goes over well. I have learned to bring extra Korean because everyone always wants to taste it. lol. It's good to know that mom's cooking is appreciated by everyone! And for dinner tonight is a simple hamburger. Made with lean beef and tofu and a little onion mixed in. It's actually very delicious. You end up eating less beef (beef has a tendency to make me feel really sick), but it still tastes like a real burger. Yum!

Doctor appointment tomorrow. I've been having respiratory issues since I got back from Wisconsin last week. I have these sort-of anxiety attacks that make it really difficult for me to breathe. But they aren't real anxiety attacks, which I am unfortunately familiar with due to my severe testing anxiety I had to deal with in college. These mini attacks only last briefly whereas an actual anxiety/panic attack lasts much longer. I finally bit the bullet and called the first doctor's office near work that is covered by my insurance. Did I mention that until now, I haven't found a regular family doctor? Yeah....I meant to, but it didn't really happen. lol. Wish me luck! More on that tomorrow, I'm sure.

Always Remember....

So I was on a roll with these daily postings for 2 days, and then I failed.

This weekend has been pretty busy considering I really would have preferred it to be a complete rest weekend. I did a great job taking my lunch into work on Friday, and then ended up not eating it (though I had it for lunch yesterday!). For lunch Friday, my office treated us to a pizza day for our last celebratory day of national payroll week. Then Cheesecake Factory for dinner and drinks on Friday night with my friend Keisha. Saturday I sort of stayed in bed for the better part of the afternoon and watched my beloved Gilmore Girls - forgot how much I loved that show in high school! Then went to a wedding for a childhood friend, where we were served hors d'oeuvres and some Korean food for dinner . And today I cleaned, ran errands and met my brother and a bunch of his friends for a quick lunch at Chipotle. Yum! So over all, I really didn't do too badly about eating out this weekend. I spent $36 total between drinks and eating out. *pats self on back*

Errand-wise, I would say I did pretty well. I'm attempting to shop sale only items, though I caved and bought my favorite hand soap for full price because I'm picky about how things smell. But otherwise I picked up 4 - 12 packs of Diet Coke for $10 (after the $3 in "extra bucks") from CVS, and 2 bottles of contact solution for $12 from Target. And I bought a funny Halloween card for my youngest brother and a guy that I've been talking to (again) lately.

Note to self: set up a lunch date with my friend Stephanie, who has agreed to teach me her couponing skills! She has gotten into the habit of posting her awesome finds (like....$100 something worth of groceries for $40!) on facebook and I'm jealous. I mean, I don't have a husband and a baby to shop for, but hey! I'll take the savings in whatever way I can get!

Dinner tonight: more delicious Korean food with my brother and his new roommate. Mom made us a bunch of food before she headed out to a church event. Think I'm going to steal some pre-leftovers before the boys get here so I have something yummy to take for lunch tomorrow, which marks Day 1 of 10 taking lunches to work :)

Now onto something completely unrelated but nonetheless important to me, considering I am an American. I'm not going to post some sappy poem, song or comment about it being the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 but it is definitely something that has affected me, though not nearly as much as anyone who lost someone dear to their heart. I was a sophomore in high school, sitting in my Geography class when I first heard what happened. My teacher turned on the classroom TV and we watched in silence (and in my case, complete disbelief) the replay of the first tower being struck by a plane, closely followed by the replay of the second tower being struck. As the day went on and we heard about the crashes in Virginia, my emotions went from disbelief to fear, scared that something would also happen in Chicago. Thankfully, nothing major happened in Chicago that day. My heart goes out to anyone that lost friends and family during that hard time 10 years ago and I am thankful to say no one that I personally know was a victim of 9/11. I have nothing but respect for the people who helped in whatever way they could, whether it was actually physically going out there to help with search and rescue, to donating money and time to help those in need. It is truly inspirational when you see a community/city/state/country/etc., stand together to help one another. And

Money Saving Challenge 1: Home Cookin'!

Two days in a row! I'm on a roll! Haha.

I wasn't feeling too well today, so I trudged through a day of work and came home and crashed for about 4 hours. I blame the not-feeling-well on the junk food our department paraded on a cart through the halls today. Twice. It's national payroll week! Did you know? Since I'm technically in the payroll department, I get to be part of the celebrating all week.

So this afternoon (before the onset of upset tummy from junk food), after playing some Wii with my coworkers (another perk of National Payroll Week), I wandered aimlessly in one of the cafeterias to figure out what I wanted to get for lunch. My usual is to just head for the chicken tenders because there's never really a line, but today I settled on a yummy tuna salad on sourdough (I always forget about the deli!).

So, $4 spent, and I've decided I'm going to challenge myself to make my owns meals everyday for a couple of weeks. Weekdays, anyway, I often leave weekends for catching up with friends/family, which usually means lunch or dinner and/or drinks somewhere. I've actually already cut back on purchasing a lot of meals on the go, but I've never really made it a point to challenge myself, and now I have this blog to sort of force my hand. So in preparation for tomorrow? The easiest thing I could cook at 11:00 at night: whole grain rotini and some frozen meatballs with a marinara sauce. And tomorrow night's chicken is going to soak overnight and all day in a delicious marinade made of tequila and Italian dressing. Yum!

To blog, or not to blog....

So where to begin? I have no idea. I know the blog title seems sort of...weird? Cheesy? I don't even know. But it will make sense at some point in this first entry. Sitting down to write again is weird to me. The last time I wrote a personal blog entry was in college, and the last time I really kept up with a blog? High School. Yup.

I guess introductions are in order? Hah. I'm a 26 year old "young professional." I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sort of. I'm actually from a lot of different places. My dad has a "7 year itch," where he decides to pick up and move the family somewhere new every 7 years. In my 26 years of life, I have lived in South Korea (I was born there, and we moved after I turned 1, but it still counts!), Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin (2 different cities/houses), and last year I picked up and moved myself to Atlanta.

I work in the HR department for a large retailer housed out of Atlanta. I'm  not exactly doing my "dream job," but I've got my foot in the door! Anyone else notice that it's hard to get into a field....specifically HR....when you don't know the right people? I'm actually very lucky to have found this job in the rough economy here, but I'll save that little bit of info for a different day when I have nothing to write about. Haha. I'm also starting to slowly but surely start up freelance makeup. That's really where I get into trouble with my money - makeup. And I always try and justify my spending on makeup with the "but I'm a freelance makeup artist, I NEED this stuff!" Hopefully, I can rid myself of these excuses soon!

I was inspired to start this blog by the influence of the amazing Natalie McNeal. I read her book, The Frugalista Files, on a recent trip back home to Wisconsin for a friend's wedding and sort of fell in love with the idea of documenting my journey of becoming debt-free. I'm a very visual and hands-on type of person, so what better way than to document my progress? I don't expect to gather a huge number of readers, so who knows, I'll probably add some little tidbits of info from my personal life. In the end, it's very likely this blog will be more like a diary for me. Haha.

As far as my debt goes....I'm just going to come right out and say it. I have a lot of debt out there, but I have a lot of nosy people in my life that will probably stumble on this blog. And to avoid the "disappointed/angry conversations, I'm not going to tell you all the exact amounts of debt I have. Maybe eventually I'll put on a brave face and post my numbers, but for the time being, I will keep a corresponding file on my computer that will have the actual debt/payment amounts listed, and maybe later on I'll add them to the posts. I will, however, be sure to let you in on how much I'm paying monthly. For now, just know that I have a fair amount of debt out there. I have credit card debt, student loans, a car payment, and quite possibly a mortgage payment in the near future. I know, I know....adding even more debt to my name by attempting to buy a place, but have you seen rent prices in Atlanta? They are very high, and buying a condo or townhouse....the mortgage payment would be most affordable. So, now that I'm not such a stranger, let's see how this whole blog thing works out...