Category Archives: Saving

Starting Over Again (or I Can’t Ignore My Budget Anymore)

Posted on December 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Starting Over Again (or I Can’t Ignore My Budget Anymore)

For a long time, I was doing really great with keeping a budget and staying on top of things. I knew that I wasn’t doing financially great, but I at least knew exactly what was going on with my money and I was very aware of it all. I was using YNAB for tracking money and it made me feel much better about my money situation.

Of course, there were times that I wasn’t as on top of budgeting as I could be, but I was still aware of a general idea about money. But I always seemed to find my way back and continued to make progress in tracking money and planning ahead.

And then the pandemic hit.

For a little while, my life wasn’t that different and I was still tracking money. But then I stopped working and making money and there didn’t seem to be a reason for me to track. I know that is not the truth and I probably needed to track my spending even more, but it’s hard when all you see is money coming out and nothing coming in. And I have been ignoring my budget for most of this year now.

But now, I’m starting to have steady money coming in again. It’s still not quite steady, but it should be in the next few weeks. I’m getting out of survival mode and starting to be in a position to plan for life again. Not like there is much to life right now with things shut down, but that almost might be exactly why I should start up with my budget again. When I only have limited expenses, it won’t be as crazy as it would be when I have so many different categories of spending.

So I am trying to get back to budgeting again. And because I’ve been ignoring my budget for almost a year, I just need to start over in YNAB. It’s not too weird to do a fresh start in that system, and I’ve done it before. So it will be something I’m familiar with. However, this time I’m also going to be starting over with my budgeting education. I still remember some of the basics of how to use the system, but there is so much that I have forgotten. And I want to start over doing things correctly and not have to do another fresh start in a month or two.

I need to be on top of what I’m spending money on and make sure that I’m not overspending in the few categories that I am spending money in. I know there’s a chance since delivery food tends to be more expensive than when you actually go out to eat with different fees and charges. I also have different bills now than I did earlier this year, so budgeting for those is really important. And I want to know how much money it will be ok to dedicate to things when I can finally go out again.

I know the timing of this makes it sound like a resolution or goal, but I’m actually writing about this now because I don’t know if I want it to be a goal. I don’t want there to be pressure to start my budgeting before I feel comfortable with the system again. If it takes me a week or two to get things back up and running, that’s fine. I don’t have to start a new budget on the 1st. Whenever I start it will be fine.

And hopefully before I know it, I’ll be back to using YNAB regularly and feeling much more secure with my money and how I can manage in the future for other expenses.

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Default ThumbnailA Fresh Budget (or Starting Over With YNAB) Default ThumbnailFinding New Money Issues (or Looking At Doing A Fresh Budget) Default ThumbnailGoing Back To An Old Habit (or Finding Control With Budgeting) Default ThumbnailBudgeting and Spending (or Sharing YNAB With A Cashier) Default ThumbnailWorking on Budgeting (or Spending Money To Save Money) Default ThumbnailGetting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

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Getting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

Posted on March 3, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Back On Track (or Happiness and Budgeting)

My challenge for February was to work on the happiness checklist that I’ve been using for quite a while now. The happiness checklist was originally something that my therapist suggested that I use and I really liked having it. Even though I have a new therapist, I still use it. I think there were even times where my old therapist told me that I didn’t have to keep using it, but I still did. There’s something about reminding myself every day that I did so some things that made me happy that I like having as a part of my day.

I have made a few changes to the things I have on the checklist, but it had been a long time since the last time I had re-evaluated what was on it and if they really were things that did make me happy if I did them. So last month, I worked on seeing what things I wanted to remove, what things I wanted to add, and what might just need to be reworded or changed a bit. It wasn’t a huge challenge or something that would take a ton of work, but I knew if I didn’t focus on it that I wouldn’t do it.

I used some scrap paper to write up some ideas for what I might want on my list and played around with those ideas. I had some ideas about doing a major change, but I realized that I was really just overthinking things and tried to spend a few days focusing on each thing on the list.

And by the end of the month, I really only made 2 changes. I took one thing off the list and replaced it with another and I reworded one other thing to make it feel like it makes more sense and covers more of the things that make me happy in that category. It was such a minor change, but it really felt like it refreshed the list and made a huge difference. It’s silly how those small changes feel so big, but I guess having one thing on the list that I didn’t feel belonged on there affected me more than I realized.

Going along with the idea that small changes can make a big impact on my life, I found another tracking thing that I want to work on for this month. I used to be really good about budgeting and was having a lot of success with YNAB. I started to slack off a bit toward the end of the year for a few different reasons and I told myself that I would get back to it in the new year. But I also did an upgrade on my computer and I had to upgrade to the new YNAB system, which is significantly different from the old one. I did set things up with the new system, but I really haven’t been using it.

I also skipped over some of the online tutorials that I probably should have done before setting it up. I know that I need to learn about the new changes so I can use it properly and I want to get back into budgeting. I have the potential to really do better with budgeting and planning with my money and I don’t want to miss that chance by screwing things up. So this month, I want to work on going through some of the online tutorials and getting my budget set up again. I know this will be a challenge that will require a lot of work this month and will likely require work for a while, but the reward I will get from doing it will be worth it.

I want to know where my money is going and where I can possibly cut back. I want to see what things that feel like splurges are actually within my budget and I don’t have to feel guilty about. And I need to know what everyday things I am probably wasting money on and shouldn’t be indulging on. And the only way to accomplish this is to get back to my budgeting work and have everything set up the way I had it set up in the past.

I hope that I don’t get too frustrated working on the budgeting work. I was dealing with a bit of that when I set up the new system, but I also know I wasn’t giving it a fair shot. So this month is my chance to really try and see if I can make it work again. And if I can’t, then I need to find another way to work on budgeting because this is not something I can avoid doing.

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Default ThumbnailAdjusting Monthly Challenges (or Books And Happiness) Default ThumbnailAnother Therapist Check In (or Showing Off My Happiness Checklist) Default ThumbnailJust A Little Bit More Reflection (or Evaluating My Happiness Checklist) Default ThumbnailBudgeting and Spending (or Sharing YNAB With A Cashier) Default ThumbnailFood And Budgeting (or Combining The Two Things I Often Struggle With) Default ThumbnailGoing Back To An Old Habit (or Finding Control With Budgeting)

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Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

Posted on February 26, 2020 | Comments Off on Not Quite Winning At Taxes This Year (or Owing Money And Seeing Car Accidents)

I try to get my taxes done by the end of February each year. First, I want to get them done so I know what happened with all my crazy tax situations so I don’t have to stress out about them. But also, the place I go to for my taxes has cheaper rates if you do your taxes before March. I’ve been pretty lucky with my tax situation since I have started getting them done locally instead of having my parents’ tax guy do them. There are several weird things about my taxes and what I can deduct so it’s good that I go to someone who specializes in situations like mine. Plus, my tax preparer, Daphne, has become a friend so going in to see her is always fun!

I had my appointment on Monday evening, so I gave myself plenty of time to drive there in traffic. Traffic is always bad and people are always driving crazy, but this time it was just so much worse than normal. I saw 4 car accidents happen right in front of me! Most of them were from dumb mistakes like not looking at their blind spot when changing lanes or turning on an unprotected left when a car was coming straight. I was lucky that nobody hit me, but it made me even more cautious than normal while driving there.

I got to my appointment early because of how much time I gave myself to get there, so I had some time to relax before the stress of seeing what will happen with my taxes. I have been very lucky with getting money back when I pay my estimated payments correctly and with the deductions that I am allowed to take because all my jobs are independent contractor work. But this time, when I was preparing for my appointment I felt like I didn’t have as many deductions as I normally do. So as I prepared my forms I thought that perhaps this time I would owe money instead of getting money back. Fortunately, I still had some money saved from what I set aside with each paycheck, so I had money to pay if I did owe.

I try my best to be super organized with my taxes and paperwork when going into my appointment, and I know that Daphne really appreciates that I do that. It makes her job a bit easier when everything is ready for her to enter it into the system and she doesn’t have to search for something or ask me what I meant by something I filled out. I will also say, the packet that everyone who goes to the office I go to needs to fill out before an appointment helps too. And I have started to organize my things throughout the year in a similar system so when I fill the packet out I can do it quickly.

Because things were so organized, Daphne was able to see quickly that I would owe money. And she and I decided to investigate a bit because it said I owed about $1000 and in the past, it was so different even if I did owe. I thought maybe I didn’t have enough deductions because there were a few things that I usually spend money on that I didn’t in 2019. But when we compared my deductions, I was very close to the same amount in 2018. But then we realized there was a significant difference in my income and how much I paid in estimated taxes.

I made a lot more with both of my jobs in 2019. I had gotten a small raise with my customer service job and I had more hours on my contract with my data entry job. Obviously, both of those things are good and making more money is a good thing. And my estimated payments this past year were the lowest I paid since I started doing them correctly because of my lower income in 2018. So I made a lot more and pre-paid a lot less. Those combined meant I owed the $1000 form said I did. It all made sense once we figured that out.

And I do appreciate that Daphne took the time with me to figure out why I owed this year. Because entering my information was so quick, there was extra time in my appointment to do that investigating work. I’m sure that I could have figured it out on my own eventually, but it was nice to not have that question in my head when I left and feel more confident knowing what happened while I was still sitting there with someone who could explain it to me.

I will be paying the money I owe soon (I’ve got almost 2 months to pay it and I want to work on a few budgeting things first) and then I’ll be done with all my 2019 taxes. But I start paying my estimated taxes for 2020 in 2 months, so I’ll be doing that and working on making sure that I do everything I can to bring down how much I owe.

I left my appointment feeling good even though I do owe money. It’s something I expected and it didn’t upset me. But just like on my drive to getting my taxes done, my drive home was filled with seeing car accidents happen in front of me! I saw 2 very small fender benders that didn’t seem to have much damage. But when I was on the freeway close to my house, traffic stopped and the car in front of me didn’t see that. They hit the car in front of them at full speed and I was very lucky that I was able to slam on my brakes and avoid the cars. I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t follow other cars that closely. Both of the cars in that accident looked like they were totaled and there were pieces of the cars all over the freeway.

I have no idea how to connect the car accidents with getting my taxes done but seeing that many accidents made me think about how sometimes we might get a bit lazy with following the rules you should follow when driving. Sometimes we follow too close, don’t look in our mirrors enough, speed, or think that we have the right of way when we don’t. It was a good reminder to be a cautious driver just like I am cautious with so many other aspects of my life.

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Posted in Saving, Tough Stuff, Work

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2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Posted on January 1, 2020 | Comments Off on 2020 Goals (New Year, Not All New Goals)

Happy New Year! Even though I know that the start of a new year (or a new month or week) doesn’t have to mean a lot, I like the idea of a fresh start and kicking off the time with something new. And that’s exactly what I’ve been able to do for the past few years.

And just like the last several years, I’m going to be using a Volt Planner to do my goal tracking and monthly challenges. They are really beautiful planners and they are laid out perfectly for what I want to. They do keep me organized and I spent some time this past week working on what I wanted my goals to be for 2020. Some of them are new ones, but there are several that I feel like I have tried to do multiple times. But just because I didn’t accomplish a goal in the past doesn’t mean I can’t get it done this year.

My first goal shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I want to do at least 200 Orangetheory classes this year. This goal is one I have been setting each year (or at least I would have a target number of classes I wanted to get to) and it’s a goal that I know I don’t have to think about much. I typically go to 4 classes a week which will easily get me to 200 classes. It also allows for a bit of flexibility if there are a few weeks that I can’t do 4 classes. Of course, something could come up that would prevent me from working out, but I’m not expecting anything to do that so this goal should be one that in a year I can say I was able to do.

My next goal is that I want to cook more often. I have had this goal several times and the reasons for it have always been the same. I know that it is healthier for me to cook at home plus it is a good way to save money. I have the ability to cook, I just don’t have the motivation. I need to work on finding the motivation because I know that it’s the main thing holding me back. I also want to work on finding recipes that inspire me and can become something I cook regularly.

The next goal is one I already have started. I want to continue to work on my home organization and be able to maintain it. I have slowly been going through my house and seeing what I really need and what I might be able to get rid of or donate. I’m also getting things that help me organize what I do keep. For example, my bathroom is tiny and there is no storage space. But I finally found a little basket I can use to keep my cleaning supplies together so they don’t look as cluttered. It’s not necessarily organized, but it looks that way. My big challenge will be organizing my desk, but I’m giving myself plenty of time to work on it.

Next is a bit of a combo goal. I want to get back to my job hunting as well as working on my budget. I’ve been doing ok with my budgeting work. The app that I use has made huge changes and I finally had to switch to the new system. There is a bit of a learning curve with it, but that’s why I want to make budgeting one of my goals. I can see how easy it would be to let this slip, and I don’t want to do that. I do not want to get back into credit card debt and the best way to do that will be to budget carefully. And along those lines, budgeting would be easier if I had more income. And that’s why I need to get back to my job hunting. I am so lucky I have the job I have right now, but it’s not enough. It’s never made me enough money and I can’t keep ignoring that fact.

Another combo goal is to be more social and to have more fun. I have a tendency to be a bit of a homebody. And even though that is something I choose to do, I get a bit lonely when I do that and I crave going out. I need to be more productive in making plans with friends and seeking new ways to go out and have fun. And part of this may be working on expanding my circle of friends and finding different groups to be a part of. It’s not easy making friends at my age, but it’s not impossible either. And I can’t make an excuse to not do it because it might be difficult.

And the last two go together even though I consider them very separate goals. I want to be more active in union service and I want to focus more on my acting career. I have gotten very involved in union service and it has been an amazing addition to my life. I love what I have been able to be a part of and how much more I understand my union. But I know there is so much more I can do and I want to work toward that. I have more ways to be involved and I want to get more people involved. And along with that, I need to focus on my acting career. That is my goal in life and I need to get things back in order because I didn’t prioritize them enough in the past year. Some of the things I need to do cost money and that was holding me back, but I need to find ways to make it happen because my career is important to me and I don’t want to waste time not doing it.

I think I have a good variety of goals for 2020. Some of them I know will be easier to do than others, but they cover a variety of areas in my life. And even if I only get half of them done this year, my life is going to be so much better with them accomplished.

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Posted in Acting, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Saving, Work

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Finally Being Debt-Free (or Reaching A Goal Can Be Scary)

Posted on December 13, 2019 | Comments Off on Finally Being Debt-Free (or Reaching A Goal Can Be Scary)

One of the first posts I wrote on this blog was about having credit card debt. I was so embarrassed to share that I had debt, but it was a relief to no longer have to keep it a secret or hide it. And because I was so open about the debt, I had friends share with me different things that helped them pay their debt off. I also discovered tricks on my own that I had been using to work on paying it off. And while I had made dents in it, I still had a lot of debt left.

I knew that I needed to pay this off because I was wasting money having to pay interest each month. But I just didn’t have the money to pay it as quickly as I would have liked to. Even though I had been getting things more in control, I always wished I could do more. But I had to just be ok with what I was able to do and know that one day I would be able to be debt-free.

And my intention was to work on paying it off as long as I needed to. I knew my plan would take a lot of time, but it was a plan which is better than I had been doing years ago. And then things changed for me not too long ago.

Without going into a lot of details, I was given the money I needed to pay off my credit card debt. Being able to pay it all off was an amazing gift and I’m so grateful for it. This was something that I have wanted to accomplish for so long and I still can’t believe it finally happened. But I have to say that making that payment online was a very scary moment for me.

I’m not sure why it was so scary, but I think because the debt has been a part of my life for so long it was about letting go of something that felt like a part of my personality. Or maybe it was because I felt like I was doing something that I didn’t earn. While I had been working hard to work on this, the majority of it wasn’t due to my work or effort. It was easy to do and I didn’t have to sacrifice for it. I think that the idea of not earning it comes from some past experiences with weight loss that I’ve had. When I have lost weight due to extreme circumstances, I’m so happy that I lost the weight but it doesn’t feel like I have ownership over it. And from my past experiences losing weight that way, it doesn’t last. And I really don’t want that to happen with my debt.

I know that I’m probably in a better place to be able to maintain my debt-free life than I am with weight loss since I don’t have a medical issue behind it. But it’s still scary that this could happen to me again. So I’m already taking a lot of steps to make sure that I stay on top of things.

Of course, I’m already in the habit of doing a budget and tracking my income and spending. This is something I wasn’t doing when I got into debt. I’m also in a much more stable job, and even though I still need to make more money I have guaranteed money coming in. I’m looking for something better, but I don’t have to lose all my income while I do that which is helpful. And I think I’m just in a different place in my life where I value my money differently and don’t spend the same way that I used to. I don’t stress about getting the best or nicest of things and I work on saving money when I can. I also don’t feel the same need to have immediate gratification with buying stuff so I can wait until it’s on sale or I find a better deal. All those things should be helping me stay debt-free now.

I’m trying to focus only on the positives and be excited that this burden is no longer something I have to worry about. And I’m sure that soon I will be feeling that a lot more. I’m still feeling a bit scared about how this was just finished like it was no big deal when it really is a big deal. But I’m excited to move forward with this new chapter in my life without having to worry about debt and hopefully that will allow me to manage my money better for the things I want to spend it on as well as have a better and less stressed mindset.

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Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

Posted on May 22, 2019 | Comments Off on Saving Money and Trying To Be Green (or Revamping Some Things)

This post is a bit of a mishmash about a few different things, but it weirdly all is about one purchase I made on Amazon. I recently purchased reusable cotton rounds to replace the single use cotton rounds I use twice a day for my face toner. And that purchase inspired a few changes that I’ve been trying to make.

The original reason I bought these reusable cotton rounds was that I realized how many I went through in a day. My bathroom trash can was usually at least half full with them because that’s one of the few disposable things I use in my skin care routine. It’s not that they are super expensive, but it does add up when you go through over 50 in a month. And I had read a few stories online about how they can have different chemicals in them and that they aren’t the most environmentally friendly because of how they are made. It seemed like an easy purchase to make so I did it. They weren’t that expensive, although since cotton rounds aren’t that expensive to begin with it might be a bit of time before I break even. But it wasn’t just about money, so that’s not that important.

So that single purchase got me thinking about what other disposable things I use in my day to day life. I’m proud that there aren’t that many things, but there are enough to look at what options I have to replace them. There are a few things I had already done like getting nicer straws so I didn’t use disposable ones (although when I did use those, I used them for a while before throwing them out). And I’ve looked at paper towel alternatives, but I haven’t found any that I like and I still like to use regular paper towels. But it has gotten me to look at what I buy and what I have stored in my house.

As I have been replacing things, I have been able to clear out what I have been storing in my little storage area in my house. It’s been a slow process because I do try to finish out what I have already purchased, but it’s getting there. I am not buying things in bulk and trying to find a place to put them. And I don’t have to think about repurchasing something because I am running out. It’s been a nice feeling when I don’t have to make a trip to CVS in the middle of the night because I desperately need something.

The few purchases that I have made that are more environmentally friendly haven’t always been because of that reason. The cotton rounds were more about being aware of what I am using on my face and I was tired of feeling like I was just throwing out so much every day. I also hated that even the premium rounds I purchased left fuzz on my face and hands. The fact that they were better for the environment was a bonus after I looked into them more. But I guess it doesn’t matter what the motivation was for the purchase, if they are more environmentally friendly that is a good thing. I know we all need to be more aware of the single use things we have in our lives, and I’m slowly doing that and seeing what I can replace.

Just like so many other parts of my life, it’s hard to make the changes until I really become aware of what the problem is. I can’t just look at my house and see what I need to change to save money or have greener options. But once I’ve discovered where the issue is, I have been quick to look into what I can do. I know that not every green option is the best for my financial situation, but not all of them are that expensive if you take the time to shop around online. For example, some of the cotton rounds I found were over $20 and that seemed too much. But I looked around and found them for about $5. I have to be picky right now on what I buy so I don’t just spend money, but again, it will save me money in the long run.

I’d love to hear what other inexpensive changes I can make to be more environmentally friendly. I know there are so many things I don’t know about yet that would be easy swaps. And obviously if they also save me money that would be amazing.

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Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping

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Going Back To An Old Habit (or Finding Control With Budgeting)

Posted on March 22, 2019 | 1 comment

A while ago, I started working hard on budgeting. I had tried so many different budgeting apps and sites over the years and I never felt like they worked for me. I always knew how important it was to budget, but I just couldn’t do it. This changed when I started using YNAB and I figured out how to use it (the first time I used it I was making mistakes that made it difficult for me to understand things).

For a long time, I was using YNAB religiously. I was able to properly budget for the first time in my life and I was so aware of my financial situation. This was so much more than I ever thought I could have and I was so happy. While my money situation isn’t the best, I felt better knowing exactly what it was. There were no surprises about where I would find the money to pay for certain things and I was using my credit card mindfully. While I wasn’t perfect, I knew I wasn’t perfect and I felt better about any mistakes I might have had.

Toward the end of last year, my financial situation got into a really bad place. There was one month I didn’t have money to pay my rent. I am so grateful that my parents were able to help me out, but it was still a very embarrassing time for me and I am ashamed that I had to do it. And when this was all happening, I stopped budgeting.

There was no point in me budgeting when it was just going to show that I was over-budgeted every month. I hated seeing all the red numbers on the budget knowing that I wasn’t really able to change it. I wasn’t budgeting categories like food or fun things. My bills and rent were making me in the red. While I loved having control, this was making me feel more out of control and I was starting to panic. So for my mental health, I had to stop budgeting for a bit.

I’m in a slightly better spot now with money. This is a temporary fix because my contract with my old job is only for a few more months. But the fact that this contract is temporary is the exact reason why I need to get back to my old habit of budgeting.

There is the possibility that the money I make in these few months could cover me for a good portion of the year. The only way to make that happen is to budget and to make sure that I am using my money properly. So I need to get back to doing just that and being just as serious as I was before.

Because I took a break from budgeting, I will have to start things over. It will be too complicated for me to go back to my old budget and update things since I would have to find a way to zero things out. And I can use this opportunity to reevaluate what categories I have for my budget and where I want to make sure my money is going or saved for. Plus, I think starting over will eliminate the potential panic I could feel if I tried to go back to the old budget that caused me some mental distress.

I’m trying to get this set up quickly, but I’m also trying to not rush through it. I want to take my time with getting everything the way I want it to be and to make sure I’m not missing anything. I want to have things as clear as I can for me so that I can see the full financial picture that I currently have and will have. And I also want to take the time to review the best practices for using YNAB so I don’t make any silly mistakes or worry about how to do something.

My goal is to have this up and running by next week for sure. I’ve been trying to get the budget part set up for the past day and I keep looking at it to make sure that it’s how I want it to look. There are adjustments that I’ve been making to make sure I don’t forget anything that I will need. I also have been trying to simplify things since I think that having too many categories can be an issue too.

It’s nice to be getting back on track with my money and budgeting. I can’t control that many things in my life, but this does bring me a small sense of control over what really is a bit of an out of control situation. And maybe I’ll be able to prevent the issues that I had at the end of last year by being more aware about things. I know that there were things that I probably did wrong that made my money situation worse than it needed to be.

Ideally, I will find a new job this year (yes, I’m still searching and applying for jobs almost every day) and that will help my financial situation to get to a place where I don’t have to worry about money as much. But having more money doesn’t mean I won’t budget things. I will just be able to budget for things that are more fun than bills and paying off my credit card. I would love to save for a trip or buying some things I want to have. And ultimately I’d like to find a way to start budgeting for buying a condo one day.

But for now, I just want to get back into a habit of budgeting so that when I’m ready to budget for fun things I already have the skills I need to do that.

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It’s Tax Time (or Seeing My Tracking And Organizing Pay Off)

Posted on March 6, 2019 | Comments Off on It’s Tax Time (or Seeing My Tracking And Organizing Pay Off)

I don’t think anybody looks forward to doing their taxes. It can be scary and overwhelming and a lot of the time you have no clue if you are going to owe money or get money back. I think this year is even crazier because there are so many new laws that affect taxes and people have no idea how it will affect things for them. The stories I have been seeing online all talk about how tax refunds are much lower than they usually are or people who normally get money back are owing for the first time.

I know that my situation is a bit different from many others. First, all of my income is 1099 or independent contractor work. I don’t have any taxes taken out of my paychecks and I have to make sure I save money. I also pay estimated taxes 4 times a year to cover what is assumed to be my tax bill for the year. I have only been doing this for a few years, but I am very careful about this and make sure I stay on top of it all. And it has been working out well for me the past few years. If I owe money, it’s less than what I saved up to cover my taxes. And last year, I actually got money back!

I had a pretty good feeling that I would be getting a little money back this time. My estimated taxes were based on the money that I made in 2017, and I made less money in 2018. So my estimated payments actually had me overpaying my taxes. I also knew my health insurance is always a weird thing with my subsidy not being the correct amount. I felt pretty certain that I was paying more than I should for it, but I wasn’t totally sure because again there are so many new rules this time.

Before I had my appointment to get my taxes done, I got a call regarding my appointment. The person who does my taxes had an appointment come up the afternoon I was going to come in and I was given 2 options. First, I could pick another date and I would still be charged the February rate (which is the cheapest rate). Or, I could email in the worksheets we do before the appointment so a majority of the information would be already in the system before I arrived. I picked emailing in my worksheet since I already had done all the work. My appointment was only going to be 30 minutes short (usually they are 90 minutes) and I knew getting all of that information already in the system would easily cut the appointment down by 30 minutes or more.

There was still some work that we had to work on together when I went in for my appointment. There were a few things I wasn’t totally sure I did right and there were a few sections that needed a bit more information. I brought everything in with me and I had everything we needed, I just didn’t do it ahead of time since usually it’s all done at the appointment.

And while everything was getting figured out, I did learn that the new tax rules weren’t going to affect me like they affect a majority of people who get their taxes done. Since I am a sole proprietor/independent contractor, I can still write off my business expenses. If you are an employee, the costs of doing business cannot be deducted (for example, teachers can no longer write off buying supplies as a deduction). But for me, all of my expenses can still be written off like they have in the past. That’s a good thing since I have to pay a decent amount of money in cyber security insurance (required by my job since I take credit card information and put it into our secure online server) and I pay for things like a separate phone line just for work. I didn’t have as many deductions as I have had in the past, but it was still a lot of them.

Every year that I get my taxes done, I learn new things about how to organize and track things. I finally have it down to a system that I am extremely happy with and it made me doing my worksheet much easier this year compared to before. And I know that my tax preparer appreciates all the work I do and knows that I have everything ready for her if she needs to see it. She also mentioned she only allowed me to email in my worksheet ahead of time and have a reduced appointment time because she knew how on top of things and organized I am.

While it’s nice to have my organization appreciated by my tax preparer, it’s even better to see that work pay off. And as I expected, I am getting money back this year! And it’s actually a lot more money than I was expecting. A good chunk of that money is from overpaying for healthcare and that’s only because I tracked my business deductions so well. My taxable income gets reduced by those expenses and my financial responsibility for my insurance is based on taxable income and not the full income I have. That is a difference between being an employee and an independent contractor and I didn’t know that. I assumed it was based on my pre-tax income and that’s why I had my income set the way I did last year. I don’t know if I’ll adjust it for this year since I’d rather overpay and have that money go toward anything I owe in taxes than to underpay and owe a lot of money.

I was so relieved to see that the work I put into tracking and organizing was worth it. It does take time to file everything properly so I have it ready at tax time, but the money I got back easily paid for the time I took to do that. And it will be nice to get a refund this year. I really need the money and a lot of it will be going toward bills. I will also use it to pay off my Disneyland pass since I had to set it to be monthly payments this time. I’d rather just have it paid and not have to have it taken out of my credit card each month. I don’t know if I’ll use it for anything else fun since I should be responsible and put it toward bills, but I’ll see how things go.

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An Almost End Of The Year Review (or Looking Back At My Goals)

Posted on December 28, 2018 | 1 comment

I know there are still a few more days left in the year, but I wanted to get my end of the year recap done before the new year started. I feel like it’s a nice transition to have a clean break from year to year and I didn’t necessarily want to spend the beginning of the new year going through the past. So I figured with a few days left I would have a good idea on where I would stand with my goals by the end of the year.

My first goal I had this year was to do 199 Orangetheory workouts. That one I accomplished and I’ll finish out the year with a few more! I should be at 206 workouts by the last day of the year unless something happens that prevents me from going to one of my planned workouts. But even if I didn’t go for those classes, I will still be ahead of the goal! I did 4 workouts a week almost every week which made it easy to make it to over 199. I thought I’d have more 3 workout weeks over the year but I didn’t have that many. I tried to look back at my schedule and I don’t think I had any 5 workout weeks (I could be wrong) which is what I thought I’d need to do a few times to make sure I made it to my goal. I’m so glad that this goal ended up being relatively easy to accomplish since it seemed like one that would be tough for me.

And I’m lucky that first goal was easy for me to accomplish because it ended up being the only goal I really did accomplish that I had set for myself. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but for some of these goals I didn’t meet there is a reason. But I still need to hold myself accountable for why I didn’t do what I was hoping to do.

The next 2 goals I had are somewhat related. I wanted to find a 5K race to do and I wanted to get a new PR on my mile time. Neither of those happened and if I’m being totally honest I really don’t care too much that they didn’t happen. Doing 5K races was a big part of my life for a long time, but that was also a while ago. I didn’t have Orangetheory when I did a bunch of races every year and I think having a regular workout has made me not feel as motivated to find races. I had a few races that I kept doing, but once they stopped having races each year I didn’t try to find a replacement. And with wanting to get a new mile PR time, I really thought I’d be able to do much more running this year than I have been able to do. This is due to multiple factors like getting sick, my hormonal nausea, and other things that have prevented me from using the treadmill as much as I wanted to do. Getting a new mile PR used to be so important to me and a sign of my progress, but I’ve had to learn new ways to measure my progress and the mile time has lost some of the importance it used to have.

The next goal I failed on is one that I feel like I have the most excuses for. I had a number in my head that I wanted to get my debt below. I was making real progress toward this for the first part of the year and I was so excited about it. But then I didn’t have as many hours with one of my jobs as I thought I would have and then that job wasn’t able to offer me a new contract like we expected. Being down one job meant that I didn’t have the money to put toward paying my credit card that I used to and I had to start using my credit card for more things than I would have liked to. Losing a job and using my credit card to pay for regular expenses is how I got into debt. I’m trying to stop this before it gets as bad as it did before (and I’ll have more on that in my 2019 goals), but it did increase how much I owed on the card. It’s unfortunate, but it’s my reality. I wasn’t expecting to lose a job and I don’t make enough money right now to really have savings to cover a job loss. I know this is bad and I want to fix this, but for now I have to just focus on finding a new job so I can get back to paying down my debt.

And my last goal I had for 2018 was to keep doing what I’ve been doing with my eating disorder recovery. While I wouldn’t say I necessarily failed at accomplishing this, but it didn’t go the way I planned it would. I did keep doing what I was doing and I’ve found new things that do work for me and I’ve dropped things that I found weren’t working for me anymore. I had the hope that I would feel like I made more progress by this point, but I also know that recovery is a weird journey and it’s not always easy to judge progress.

Even though I really only accomplished one of my goals I set for the year, I don’t see that necessarily as a bad thing. Instead, I feel like I had a minor failure to plan with my goals which is a newer issue for me. I think I need to allow myself to alter and change my goals throughout the year. If I had that as the plan, I would have switched out my running related goals before the year was half over to something else that was fitness related. Maybe I would have had a goal to be able to use a certain weight for an exercise or I would have changed it to a goal on the rower or bike. But I felt like my goals were set for the year and I didn’t want to alter them. That is something I will be changing as well as adding to my monthly challenge planning reminder to look back at my goals for the year to see what steps I need to make and if there are any changes that should happen.

It’s so funny to think about how happy I am to have goals I failed at because it has given me a lot of insight into myself and how I can make the next year even better. And I’ve got some interesting goals in mind for 2019 that I’ll be sharing next week that have been inspired by me not reaching my goals. Sometimes you need a setback to help you think clearly and I think that’s exactly what I had this year.

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Building Upon My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Work On Shopping)

Posted on October 2, 2018 | Comments Off on Building Upon My Monthly Challenge (or Continuing To Work On Shopping)

Last month, I said my monthly challenge was to not do any online shopping. I did allow myself some exceptions to the rule if necessary, and I’m happy to say that I only did that twice. Both times I shopped online this past month was on Amazon, but only one of those was for me. The first time was sending my friend some supplies they needed after getting home from inpatient treatment. I would have preferred to bring it in person, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do that soon enough. And the second time I did online shopping was for some household goods (batteries, paper goods, office supplies). And I did do price comparisons to make sure getting them online was the right choice.

Even though I didn’t completely eliminate online shopping, I feel like I did reduce it a lot. And it changed my shopping habits as well. For the stuff I ordered online for myself, I didn’t buy things right away when I needed them. None of the things I needed were urgent, so I just added them to my Amazon cart and saved them up until it was the end of the month. It was much more mindful than I have done online shopping before and I really did notice a difference in what I was considering buying when I knew that I wasn’t necessarily going to be getting it soon. While my shopping wasn’t out of control, I knew I needed to cut back and I’m happy that I was able to accomplish that in September.

I’m going to continue working on limiting my online shopping. I know it won’t be completely eliminated, but I can work on making sure that I’m not ordering things whenever I think of them. I think adding them to my cart and waiting a few weeks was the right choice. I do have other gifts for people I need to order online this month, but it’s really not the same as ordering for myself so I’m not as worried about it. And since they are gifts, I’m just getting that one thing and not seeing what else is something that can be bought.

And going off of that idea, I was inspired for this month’s challenge. I have become so much more mindful of my shopping online. Now I want to be more mindful of my in store shopping as well. And a majority of my in store shopping is for groceries and household things, so the easiest way I think I can be mindful is to always have a list.

I’m actually pretty good at making lists when I’m shopping for household things. I usually shop at CVS and I have been taking advantage of their coupons for a long time. But I have learned that I can combine the coupons you get when you shop along with coupons that various brands put out and with the overall discount coupons I get in the mail (like when you get 30% your shopping trip from CVS). I’m not a crazy coupon person, but it does make me happy when I see the percentage of savings on the bottom of the receipt and it is over 50%. It happens more often than not and it’s nice to know that things I am buying are cheaper than what others may be paying for them.

And I used to do grocery store lists and still occasionally do them. If I’m making something new or have food planned out, I make a list because I hate forgetting one thing that I really need. But I don’t always have a plan and do a lot of routine shopping. I know that I will eat certain things each week and I usually don’t even think about it as I pick up those things each week. But then I also know that there are plenty of times that I just get those things and don’t necessarily think about different meals or what my schedule will be like that will make my meals a bit weird.

I don’t necessarily want to make this about meal planning, although I do think that will be a bit of a side effect of doing this. But I do want to write down what I am going to buy even if it is just stuff I usually get each week. I want to think about what I’m going to do before getting into the store. I can’t guarantee that I will only get the things on the list because sometimes I see something that is new or inspires me. But at least it will give me a plan to try to follow.

In a perfect world, I will make the list for shopping for whatever I am getting before I leave my house. I do try to do that when I can, especially when I’m doing multiple errands back to back. I’ll make a list of each place I’m going to and what I will be getting at each store. I think writing it down really is the best for me because it does help me remember it. But if I’m out and going to do some shopping, I can just make a quick list on my phone. I do have some list apps, but it’s also easy enough to do it as a text or email to myself.

I’m also planning on using this for shopping for clothes and other goods too. When I need to go to a store to buy some new clothes or replace something, I also end up doing a lot of wandering around the store and seeing what else catches my attention. I’m doing much better not buying things that weren’t a part of the plan, but maybe making what I need to buy as a list will help me not waste the time wandering around. I still want to give myself the freedom to do window shopping and see what inspires me, but I want to also make those moments more mindful and for me to be aware that I am choosing to do that.

I’m so glad that I’m going to continue working on my shopping habits this month. I was pleasantly surprised by how last month went and how easy it ended up being. I only hope that this month goes the same way.

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