It has been a weird year. In August I had a beautiful, healthy baby girl! However, 8 weeks after she was born (just as I was preparing to go back to work) I started having gallbladder attacks. It was hideously awful. I was still all emotional from the hormones and the massive shift in my universe from having a baby. I was so excited/nervous/stressed about going back to work, and I (so I thought) had this stomach flu that just wouldn’t go away.  Eventually I had surgery, and now I am gallbladder, and gallbladder-attack free!

So, surgery was in December, and after the holidays I went back to work finally feeling more like myself than I had in months. However, 2 weeks into the new year, my husband had to go to connecticut for training for 5 months, leaving me and baby girl (BG) alone.  I feel like every time I started to get back to some sort of normal, life threw me a big old curveball. 

Well, my husband is back from CT, BG is 1 now (still TOTALLY adorable) and walking, talking, and showing off her new little personality.  I am a military spouse, so my husband is still gone quite a bit due to his job, but I’m starting to feel more in-the-swing-of things. I finally got caught up (to some degree) at work, and it helps that BG is much more independant than she used to be.

With that, I still feel like I need to be better-organized so I can maximize my time at work, and make more time at home. Our finances have slid a little, nothing major, but I just feel like we are “catching up” more than we are moving towards our goals lately. It used to be that I’d spend my time dreaming about what to do with our surplus (where to make that extra debt payment or which savings account to build) and now I’m scrambling to make sure we have enough cash to cover the credit cards and avoid carrying a balance.  (Diapers and formula sure seem to add up!)  I am also in the worst physical shape I have been in probably ever.  The gallbladder problems helped me to lose the baby weight (throwing up/experiencing intense pain every time you eat anything fatty sure changes your diet in a hurry).  However, I can practically count on one hand the number of times I’ve made it to the gym this year.  I’m hoping if I can get more organized, I will be able to plan my meals, schedule time to work out, retake control of my finances, and spend less time stressing about work and more time enjoying my little girl.  For some reason I keep living life like my situation is temporary — once C returns from CT it will be better, once X project is done at work, I’ll do better, once . . . and the excuses keep flowing.

Changejar’s new goals:

1. Systematically clean out and organize my home from top to bottom (I am using the book One Year to an Organized Life  as a guide).

2. Organize my office and files at work.

3. Plan out meals, outfits, and events in advance each week.

4. Improve my time management skills, particularly with regards to procrastination.

5. Work out at least twice a week, and do a minimum of crunches and squats on the days I can’t get to the gym.

6. Overhaul my budget to ensure it accurately captures the expenses of my new lifestyle.

7. Plan a special activity to do with my daughter at least once a week. (Even if it’s just a trip to the park).

8. Plan time for just me and my husband at least once a week (when he is not traveling).

9. Update my resume and determine some realistic career goals.

Whew, that seems like a lot. I probably have more, but I think I’ll stop there for now.

Since we do not own a truck, we paid for delivery, and paid the extra $25 to have the delivery guys assemble the crib.  This may seem a bit frivolous, but it was worth it!  We bought a very large, sturdy crib, and there was no way C could do it alone, and with my lovely 3^rd trimester backache, no way I could handle standing there holding up heavy furniture components long enough to help.  The dresser came fully assembled, so all we had to do was put together the light-weight changing table, which C managed to do in about 45 minutes while we watched the LOST series finale event a couple of weeks ago.  The furniture is gorgeous, and cost us $806.72 (including taxes & delivery).  I was very happy with how it all worked out.  I think this will last us through this baby and (if we so choose) again for the next one!  The crib is also convertible to a toddler bed, and can be used as a bed frame for a double bed, so I’m hoping we’ll get quite a bit of use out of it.  The dresser is a classic style, and could really be used for any bedroom, not just a baby’s so I’m pleased there as well.

1. I asked a friend of mine who paints her house all the time to go with us to Lowe’s and pick out supplies.  This way we got exactly what we needed, without buying too much or buying the wrong size/shape/style.
2. My sister had strongly recommended Sherwin Williams Paint, so we took the baby quilt over there, and got a couple of sample buckets ($5 each).
3. We painted little patches with the samples on the wall, let them dry, and checked them out with the quilt and different lighting over the course of a week.
4. We looked online for the best way to measure a room to estimate paint, and decided that 1 can of SW paint would do, as long as we only needed 1 coat.
5. The SW paint was more expensive than the stuff at Lowes, but from our test areas and my sister’s experience, we figured we could do it all in one shot, with one coat – and it worked! (With me being 6 months pregnant at the time, I was deeply grateful we didn’t have to do a 2^nd coat – the first coat wore me out!)
6. We prepped everything a week in advance –wiped off the walls, patched and sanded holes, taping, plastic, etc.  We even taped the perimeter of the ceiling.  Not everyone does this, but we figured being amateurs we couldn’t be too careful. Plus, we can see evidence all over our home that the previous owners didn’t do this and got paint all over the ceiling.
7. We watched a little video on the SW website on “how to paint” and that was immensely helpful! I think we dodged a lot of drips and got a more even paint job from using their tips.
8. Finally painting day came, and within 3 hours C and I were finished!

The room turned out great, and the paint smell completely disappeared within a week. Most of our supplies are re-usable, so we set them in the garage for our next big painting endeavor. The baby’s room is now a pale, sunny yellow and it didn’t cost us a fortune nor end in a mess.

My main reason for announcing this is that I have a story to share. I know I have been MIA for a few months and I apologize. Between the exhaustion and the nausea, the holidays, and work, it’s just been a little too much for me. Things kind of reached their peak last night.

So yesterday, I had a huge scare at work. I work for an academic institution, and I was doing a routine upload of course information to an online course management system, when I realized I had made an error and it looked like the current semester’s courses were listed 2x. I quickly “rectified” this error by deleting (what I thought was) the duplicate set of courses. Crisis averted, no harm done.

Last night, I’m at home by myself. C had to work late, and I foolishly decided to check my work blackberry at about 8 p.m. I got an email from one of the users of the online course system, stating that the previous semester’s data had completely disappeared! I quickly double checked my steps from earlier in the day and realized that when I thought I was “correcting” a mistake, I was actually deleting the entire previous semester’s worth of data!!! I went into a full-fledged panic attack. Though I knew I was at home, and couldn’t take any action til the next morning, I started to hyperventilate and shake. What if I had destroyed an entire semester’s worth of work for the faculty of an entire college?!?

I called my mom, as I was home alone. She calmed me down a bit — “they must have a back up,” “I’m sure it’s fixable,” “people make mistakes,” “don’t worry til tomorrow,” etc. Finally my husband, C came home and basically said the same thing. I was able to calm down and go to bed. At 1 a.m. I woke up in a sweat, seized with panic over the situation yet again. The WORST part was that as I began to panic, I started to panic about panicking. What if my panic attack somehow harmed the fetus? I had read that anxiety was common, especially among first time moms, and that too much could be harmful. So in the middle of the night with hormones-a-raging, my anxiety took on a life of its own. Finally C woke up, and again calmed me down, and around 3:30, I finally went back to sleep. Of course in the morning things looked brighter, but by that point my lack of sleep and nausea from the anxiety had brough my morning sickness to a whole new level of hell. Finally, I ended up calling in sick to work (they do not yet know I’m expecting), and went back to sleep. Once I had slept, and eaten, I called the tech support for the online course system, and they gave me a perfectly simple fix for my problem. I hadn’t actually deleted it, it was just “marked” in their system as deleted so it was no longer displayed to the user. I simply had do a new upload to “unmark” it as deleted and everything went back to normal. I logged into work remotely, ran the upload, and all the data came back good as new.  After 16 hours of heart-pounding, nauseating anxiety, my little problem was handled in less than 5 minutes.

Yep. Gotta love the hormones.

I was compiling a budget analysis spreadsheet for our upcoming visit to the financial advisor and thinking about how much we should each donate to our “office” campaigns, when I realized that (not counting one-time donations) we regularly only give less than .5% of our income to charity each year.  I’m not sure what average families give, but that just seems really low to me.  As such, we are stepping it up.  We have decided to each contribute monthly to a fund through our work campaigns. I will donate  to the American Red Cross, and my husband will contribute to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  This will triple our annual contributions.

We also decided to be come members of our local chapter of National Public Radio via a one-time contribution.  We listen to NPR every day, and value their programming.  We have been members in the past, but with all the moving around (and with me being in between jobs so much these past couple years), we have neglected our membership.

Looking at our budget, I’m proud of all we have accomplished through reducing our debt, and now how ambitious we have become with regards to our planned retirement contributions for next year.  However, I feel that since we finally have our finances under control, we should be giving back to the community a little more.  In addition to the steps I have listed above, we are also looking into future contributions to our former academic institutions.

Do you currently donate to a charitable organization? If yes, where? I’d love to hear your stories.

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08 Current Breakdown:

Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,360.84

I made an extra $30 payment to the Undergrad loan this month — Neilson Ratings is paying me to do a week-long TV survey. I’m pretty excited about it!  Hopefully if it works out they will ask me to do more paid research in the future. I have very strong opinions about the tv shows I watch, and am often bummed out because they always seem to get canceled far too early.

Otherwise, not a lot of “debt news” to report this month. Now that my debt is down to the undergrad loan, it’s not as high of a priority.  We are shifting our focus to building up retirement, giving more to charity, and saving for our next home.  More on this in future posts.

Debt at end of September 2009: $14,459.25

Difference: $37,038.08

Current Breakdown: Car loan (at 5.75%): $0.00

Grad School Loan (at 6.55%): $0.00

Undergrad Loan (at 2.125%): $14,459.25

C got a bonus for work this month, and we used 2320.56 of it to fully pay off my graduate school loan.  The debt I have been tracking has now been reduced to my undergraduate student loan, which, at a tax-deductable interest rate of 2.125% is not a huge priority.  We still have other debt of course, the mortgage, my car loan (0%), our washer and dryer (0% for 36 months).  I have decided that for October and November, I will use the extra money I would normally have put towards student loans to pay off the washer and dryer.  Though we have 0% interest for another 2 years, the credit line makes me nervous because if you miss a payment, or are late, or any of a thousand other conditions, the interest rate goes through the roof. I’d rather not have to worry about that, and since we only owe about $1800, I’d rather just pay it off at this point. 

After that, I’m not 100% what I will do about my debt. Now that the higher-interest rate stuff has been knocked out, I think we will shift the focus back to savings/retirement. I would like to max both of our 401k’s for the first time next year. To accomplish this, I will take a chunk of the extra payments we’ve been making to our debt and use it to increase my monthly 401k contribution. We will also start contributing to our emergency fund again.  More details to come in future posts!

In the mean time, I’d just like to take a moment and say, “WOW!” I think it is so amazing how much debt we managed to reduce in a year and 3 months.  I’m proud that we were able to tighten our belts, and find creative ways to make extra money to accomplish our goals. It is also important for me to acknowledge that none of this would be possible if my husband hadn’t made a tough career decision last year that led to him receiving some bonus money that helped substantially in the quest to eliminate our debt.   I only fear that without such a powerfully motivating force, we will struggle more to be as fiscally responsible in the future.  I guess we just have to come up with new, achievable goals that we feel strongly about.

This will bring C’s 401k contributions to about $10,500 for the year.  The money in the savings account will help us pay for our upcoming trip to France. And I’m SUPER excited to be paying off my grad school loan!

A danger I have noticed about shopping online; however, is that it’s so easy, it doesn’t really feel like I spent any money. If I go to a store, and spend some time looking around, get out my wallet, and carry the bags home, I know I shopped and that I had to pay for it.  However, if I buy it on line with already saved credit card info or paypal, it’s so quick and easy that it’s not very memorable, and I often find myself surprised later by the credit card statement. “What? I didn’t go to GAP this month! Oh wait, I did go to GAP.com . . .”

On the plus side, I usually can find better deals online.  For example, I’ve been needing a pair of light gray dress pants all summer. I haven’t been able to find my size or length in store. Yesterday, I found a pair at  theLimited.com, for half off!  I also googled to see if there were any online discount codes, and found one for 10% off! (This basically covered the shipping).  Also, I ‘ve been looking for these black dress shoes, but Macy’s only carries up to size 10.  I found them in 11′s online yesterday.  At Macy’s they are $68, but I found them at shoebuyfor $58, and I got an additional 10% off and free shipping!  Another incentive to shop online is Upromise. Generally most stores won’t give you a % back for shopping in-store, but they will do it for online.  I got 4% back toward my student loan from my Limited purchase and 10% back from my Shoebuy purchase.

I guess to sum things up, shopping online is a great way to find what you need, and very convenient.  Just be sure to note your shopping in the budget right away so that you don’t get any nasty credit card surprises later.  What have your online shopping experiences been like?  Do you also have online-shopping amnesia?  I’d love to hear your stories.