Finance Gets Personal

On Tuesday, I’ll be hosting the Carnival of Money Stories, my very first carnival! (I made it through the wilderness…)

This carnival deals with people’s personal experiences and stories about finance. If you have written a post about this topic in the past month, please submit it here by 5 p.m. Eastern on Monday, June 2.

Writing a blog is making me realize how incredibly fickle I am.

One day, I’m pining for a new mattress, the next day I need a redecorated (well, more like decorated) living room.

This week, I’ve been wanting a new computer. Badly.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as frequently since I switched to Wordpress on a self-hosted server. Well, that’s because my six-year-old iMac likes to crap out everytime I try to write a post. And don’t even get me started on uploading pictures!

So, what am I going to do? But a new $1,800 iMac? I don’t know. I don’t really have the money for that right now (obviously).

So last night I started trying to “fix” my machine. I’m getting rid of all the stuff I don’t need, downloading updates for everything that isn’t running on the most recent version (that my computer will support) and doing weird stuff like removing all the languages except English.

But, a girl can dream…(even a Finance Girl)

On Thursday night, I decided to put some extra effort into getting to work on time.

What does that have to do with finances, you ask?

Everything! Being chronically late can cost mucho dinero in terms of lost raises/promotions, missed appointment fees and the like.

So how did Operation Get Out of Bed go?

It was a mild success, and has potential.

On Friday morning, I was supposed to get up at 7:00, but hit snooze until 7:30. I remember hitting snooze, which is an improvement, and also got up about half an hour earlier than normal (also an improvement). I didn’t hear my cell phone alarm, which was supposed to go off every five minutes starting at 7:15. I also didn’t smell the coffee, because the bedroom door was closed. But I read the paper, ate my waffles, and it was quite enjoyable! I was 10 minutes late for work, which is a major improvement and about standard in my office.

This morning, I made sure the door was open when I went to bed, and made sure my cell phone alarm worked. But I didn’t need the cell phone alarm because I got up the first time my bedside alarm went off! Having the light on a timer at 6:30 is really helpful in waking me up. However, I was still 10 minutes late, so I need to work on figuring out what time I have to leave by to get to work on time.

I must say, getting to work (sorta) on time really makes my whole day go better. And I also understand why people drink coffee now - I’m so awake!

I’ve mentioned before that I have a problem with being chronically late.

I’m not sure exactly what’s causing me to be late almost every day, but I do know one thing: I hit the snooze button in my sleep.

Like this morning, when my alarm clock was set for 7 a.m. I remember waking up at 6:00 a.m. and thinking, “It’s not time to get up yet.” Then, I think I remember hearing the alarm at 7:00 and pushing snooze. The next time I wake up, it’s 8:24, and the alarm clock is still showing that it is in “snooze” mode (which means it should have been going off every 10 minutes or so).

I’m not really sure how to resolve this, but I need to. I’ve always heard advice about putting the alarm clock across the room or down the hall, but that doesn’t work for me because I run to turn it off and get back in bed. So, I have an experiment for tonight:

I programmed our coffee pot to start making coffee at 6:45 a.m. Although I don’t usually drink coffee, I’m hoping the smell/chance of fire will get me out of bed.

I bought a programmable timer for my bedside lamp at Target for $10. I’m going to set it to turn on at 6:30 a.m. I’m hoping this will simulate sunlight and help me get up.

I’m going to set the alarm clock on my cell phone too, just in case.

We get the newspaper on weekends, so I’ll wear something decent to bed tonight that I can go out and get the paper in the morning and read it over breakfast.

I bought frozen strawberry waffles and syrup to eat for breakfast, since I usually just eat a cereal bar in my car on the way to work.

If I’m on time tomorrow, I’m going to reward myself with a glass of wine during intermission of the play we’re going to that night.

Here goes nothing…

Photo Credit: Maker of the day - Matty Sallin, Bacon-cooking alarm clock by pt, used under Creative Commons licensing

I am $15 closer to being out of debt after reading the “wanted” postings on Craigslist.

Although I’ve been selling things on Craigslist, there are some things I hadn’t gotten around to posting, had forgotten about or didn’t think anyone would want.

But then I started reading the wanted listings, and have had a wanted item almost every day.

Day 1: TV Rabbit Ears - $10 (I have some in the basement that I didn’t think anyone would be interested in)
Day 2: Baseball Tee for 2-Year-Old (I have one in the garage that is no longer used)
Day 3: Plastic step stools for potty-training (I have two, but didn’t think they were worth listing)

I emailed each of them with a picture of my item, the price and the parts of town I’d be willing to meet in and waited to hear back.

Although the TV rabbit ear guy had already found one by the time I emailed him, and the potty step stool lady never emailed me back, I made $15 by selling the baseball tee. Hooray!

I am kicking ass on the whole snowflaking thing this week. Here are the snowflakes I’ve applied toward my credit card balance since Friday:

$10 - Decided not to subscribe to Money, despite the awesome senior citizen offer (?) I got in the mail
$30 - Sold a fireplace screen on Craigslist
$15 - The baseball tee
$5.18 - Surprise! The Neutrogena bodywash I bought at CVS is going to be reimbursed under my health care FSA since it treats acne

Not big amounts, but everything helps! I’ll definitely be scouring Craigslist’s wanted section daily…

(This post was included in the Carnival of Snowflakes, hosted at How I Save Money.)

Photo Credit: Wanted - House Clearances - Single Items and Antiques - For Cash… by hugovk, used under Creative Commons licensing

I just got done taking a half-hour telephone survey about panty liners.

Can you imagine being the interviewer who has to ask questions like these?:

“At which of the following times during your menstral period do you use panty liners?”

“Did you read any of the cover articles in the Cosmo issue that included the ad for panty liners? If so, which ones?” (”Yes, I read the article about when your boobs do weird things…”) “Excuse me?”

Ha ha!

Six years ago:
I graduated from one of the country’s top journalism schools with a degree in advertising…
I had held part-time jobs and internships in marketing, graphic design and public relations, where my duties included writing copy for websites and designing ads…
I was accepted into a well-regarded advertising portfolio school in Atlanta with hopes of becoming an art director…
I began a graphic design program at a highly-regarded art school…

Today:
I’m an analyst who was lucky enough to sit in on the meeting discussing our small company’s new logo and website, which is being designed and written by friends and family members of my bosses…

This was not a good day.

Photo Credit: Kern this… by clared23, used under Creative Commons Licensing

Welcome to the new (and dare I say, improved?) Finance Gets Personal.

That’s right, it only took two days and several hours of “page not found” errors to get to this point. I apologize, but my DNS/CSS/!@#*#%$ knowledge is extremely limited.

I’ll probably be making more tweaks as I go along, and possibly adding some minimally-invasive advertising.

Yes, that is me in the picture. Hope it’s not too creepy looking.

Now, time to actually write some posts!

Yea! I finally figured out how to post without my whole computer locking up!
I’m switching from wordpress.com to a self-hosted site, so bear with me.
I should have everything fixed tonight.

I challenge everyone to do one positive thing for your finances this weekend.

It doesn’t have to be big.

Here are a few ideas:

• Shop around for your cable, cell phone, insurance or other services and see if you can get a better rate
• Take your change to the bank
• Post some things for sale on Craigslist
• Open an online savings account
• Start getting things together for a garage sale
• Cut coupons out of the Sunday paper
• Calculate your net worth if you don’t already know it

What will/did you do this weekend?

I’m going to work on setting up a website for my graphic design snowflaking business.

Photo Credit: Un piccolo passo…/ One small step… by aldoaldoz, used under Creative Commons licensing