New Year, New Me?

The New Year has come and gone and we are all now in a time of reflection. This is very natural when there is an end to something, whether it be a relationship, a job, or in this case, a year. Now I have never been one for New Year's Resolutions. I know myself and I know that I am a glutton for punishment. Any self imposed limit on anything will cause me to rebel an got the complete opposite way. This is the reason why I try not to go on restrictive diets, do crazy work out plans, etc.


You say low carb, I say eat 5 chocolate bars in one sitting and pass out from a sugar coma. P.S. I don't even like chocolate (I know I'm a freak, judge me later)!!!


I do, however, think that goal setting is a healthy and essential part of life. There are seven basic areas in life where we should all be setting goals; family, social, financial, career, spiritual, physical, and intellectual. These goals must also be S.M.A.R.T in order to be truly long lasting; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.


Some goals are easier than others for people to follow and stick to depending on your personality. For me, for instance, my career goals come very easily and naturally to me as I am a career driven person. I also like to think that family relationships come pretty naturally to me as well, although being part of such a big family definitely causes me to retreat into my shell at times.


This year, I've set the following three goals for myself and would like to have you all hold me accountable.


1. Financial
I will pay off my next four smallest debts by August. These debts include my two Navient (a.k.a. Sallie Mae) loans that I have left as well as my two credit cards. That's right, I want to be credit card debt free by the end of August! As you may now, I started my Total Money Makeover in July of last year and didn't think that I would make it this far this quickly. I'm so excited to see an end in sight!


2. Physical
I will run all five NYRR borough runs (NYC Half, Brooklyn Half, Queens 10k, Bronx 10 Mile, and Staten Island Half) as well as the NYC Marathon. Yup, that will be a total of 82 miles over the coarse of the year, along with the many miles of training. I have already started training for the NYC Half and will be signing of the Brooklyn Half once registration opens this week. Eeeek! I know I can do it, but being someone who loves running only when I'm not stuck to a training schedule, this one will definitely be a challenge.


3. Intellectual
With the craziness of my longer hours and the burnout from my certificate class this fall, my reading has really fallen off. Additionally, I find myself leaning more toward the fluffy fiction genres (think romance novels) to pass the time away easily. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a good romance novel, hand me a Stephanie Laurens novel any day, but I do want to make sure that I'm reading/listening to books that are going to greater enrich my life and my career. My goal in this arena will be to read one non-fiction book a month for the year as well as stay on top of my Podcasts that I love to listen to on my commute (separate blog post later).


So what are your 2016 goals? Have any fallen off already? Hoping this post inspires your to set some realistic goals this year!

Breathing Room

Having breathing room has always been a concept that I struggle with. I am definitely a Type A person who cannot say no. Let's just say I'm a fixer. If there is a problem to be solved, a volunteer event to volunteer for, I am there. Throughout the years, the amount of breathing room I have allowed myself has ebbed and flowed, but I was always in control of how much I had to spare. If I was feeling stressed, no problem, I would just cancel something, do a little rearranging, and voila, breathing room.

That said, it definitely took me a long time to get to that place. That place where I put myself before others, say no to things, and just took an afternoon off. I never quite got it 100% right 100% of the time, but I was working toward that.

Now queue in a new job with an hour and fifteen minute commute each way and pretty rigid hours. Over the past few weeks my breathing room has all but disappeared during the week. Now don't get me wrong, there is no feeling bad for myself here. I am now working for a company that values its employees, does have work life balance, and is way less taxing for more gratifying work. What has really thrown a wrench in everything is my choice to work such a long commute away from home.

So how do I find breathing room in a limited schedule. This is definitely something I am still working on, but here are some things that have helped me over the past few weeks.

1. Having a workout routine
I am someone who holds a lot of my stress physically, not just mentally. When I am stressed, I get muscle spasms that incapacitate me, I get sick, my body generally breaks down and goes on strike. By waking up just 30 minutes earlier and doing a quick workout, I have completely changed the way I feel over the past few weeks. Not only do I feel stronger, but I am more alert, have more energy, and can let things roll off my back much easier.

2. Weeknight chores
Although I get home pretty late compared to how early I go to bed (I'm an old lady with a 9pm bedtime), I have started doing at least one chore every night. It could be a load of laundry, tidying up, getting groceries on my way home, pretty much anything that I would have normally saved for the weekend. This has freed up my weekends tremendously and I find myself enjoying my time with family and friends so much more without having to worry about my list of chores.

3. To Do Lists
Now this is a tough one for someone with an obsessive, Type A personality. Through therapy, I learned to give up my lists a long time ago with the exception of work. I would always find myself over scheduled and write up these insane lists and obsess over every little things I didn't live up to. Pretty much a very unhealthy habit. Over the past few weeks, however, I have started slowly incorporating lists back into my daily routine. I am keeping them painstakingly simple and short to keep myself from spinning out of control, but they have allowed me to organize myself in a way that allows me to get more done during the week leaving my weekends free.

As has been the story of my life lately, just as I have begun to struggle with and try to get some breathing room in my life, my church has started a new series on the topic. I am so excited to see what I can learn from God's message about having a little more wiggle room in my life.

How do you find breathing room?

October Review

Now that the Halloween madness has subsided and the sugar coma is starting to set in, it is time to review my progress for the month.

I must admit, although I'm pretty good about sticking to the budget throughout the month, the last week of the month is usually where I go a little crazy when I see the extra money. I know that my "little crazy" is now pretty tame compared to some, but $20 here or there can really add up and go a long way. Luckily, I was really able to stick to me guns and pay off way more than I thought I would be able to.

Here is the tally on the extra I was able to pay off on my own:
Ann Taylor: $387.70
Bob's Furniture: $380
Navient: $350
Total extra: $1,117.70

My mom and I were also able to make more pasteles this month and we brought in an additional $670 which was sent off to the same Navient (aka Sallie Mae) loan that I was able to apply my own extra funds to. Thanks to all of these blessings, I have now paid off 7.28% of my debt since beginning my Total Money Makeover in July.

Above is a snippet of my November totals showing what I will have in extra funds at the end of month, God willing, as well as my progress so far. Words cannot describe how excited I am!! If all goes as planned for this month, I will not only be able to pay off another student loan, but I will also be able to make a significant dent into my next smallest credit card payment.

Check back at the end of the month to see how I've done.

Grocery Haul

So even though I am no longer doing a no spend month, I am still working on cleaning out all of the food reserves that I had in my freezer. Because of this, I have really only been going grocery shopping every two weeks for the essentials and maybe here and there to fill in any gaps. I wanted to share with you what my grocery haul looks like this week for the meals that I have planned.

Grocery Haul: $23

1 lb pre-cut Kale	$1.99
1 lb organic Baby Spinach	$4.49
2 dozen Eggs	$4.59
1 gallon Almond Milk	$3.99
1/2 lb hard Genoa Salami	$2.64
1/2 lb Light Cheddar	$2.75
12 Bananas	$2.53

I am very lucky to have a family shared membership to BJ's Wholesale here in Jersey City; I previously mentioned my membership in 10 Things I've Bought That Save Me Money. As you can see from the prices I've paid for groceries, I literally get twice as much food as I would at the regular supermarket for the same price. There are certain things that I won't buy there because they do end up being more expensive, and other that I buy even though they are the same price just because of the convenience of already being there (case and point, the deli items). The bananas were actually purchased at my local ShopRite which is right next door because I don't particularly like BJ's bananas.

Buying produce in such large quantities means that you really need to know how to store it to make it last. Without proper prep, you will have tons of spoiled greens, fruits, and veggies by the end of the week. Since the kale comes in a large non-resealable bag, I pack it into two separate ziplocks. I line each bag with paper towels and squeeze out the excess air to keep the kale dry and crisp for two weeks. The spinach comes in a resealable container so I dump it out into a big bowl and line the container with a paper towel. I dump half of the spinach back in, fold the towel over it and then dump the other half on top. I then place another paper towel on top of the top half and make sure to store it upside down in the fridge. You would be surprised how properly prepping and storing your produce will extend their life.

Meal planning is also essential when you're living on a budget. Not only does it help to save money because no food goes wasted, but it also saves a lot of time and effort during the week since your meals are already planned out. I am lucky in that my job provides us with fresh fruit daily and also free lunch on Thursdays; this really helps with my planning for the week. My mom also leaves me dinner every night, a very big perk of my semi living-at-home situation. With all of the above, and my freezer and pantry reserves, I will be able to make my breakfast green smoothie and hard boiled eggs (breakfast every day), four sandwiches (two a week), and four salads (two a week), plus all of my meals on the weekends for the next two weeks.

Not bad for $23, if I do say so myself.

Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Now that the weather has cooled down, I'm so happy I can resume my normal Sunday afternoon baking. While I've always loved to cook, baking is definitely my strong suit; I think it has something to do with the very precise measurements. If you've ever tried to fudge a recipe without knowing the proper substitutes, you will know exactly what I mean.

This Sunday, I was looking through my freezer that I've been trying to clean out slowly and found some frozen pumpkin puree. Whoopee! Fall is my favorite season not only because of the crisp cool weather, sweaters, and scarves, but also because of pumpkin everything!!! Pumpkin everything also usually means stopping by the Starbucks several times a week to indulge my sweet tooth. As you can imagine, this is not very budget friendly, so I decided to take to Google and find a recipe for muffins that I could take with me to work for that afternoon fix.

Pumpkin Walnut Muffins
Serves 12

This recipe was adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup all- purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray your muffin tin with non -stick spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt, the whisk together. In a medium bowl, which the eggs and sugar until combined. Whisk in the pumpkin and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently mix together. Gently fold in the walnuts.
3. Pour the batter evenly into each muffin cup filling each one almost to the top. Bake for 25 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
4. Place the muffins on a cooling rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

These muffins were definitely a hit in my house; there were only six left by the time I got around to snapping a picture. If using chocolate chips like the original recipe calls for, I would probably cut down the sugar because the muffins were pretty sweet as is. If I decide to make this recipe into a bread, I will definitely cut down the sugar to 1/2 cup of each. I'm also thinking of incorporating some zucchini next time I make them. 

Hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think once you've given them a try.

My Budgeting Process

The foundation of any financial plan should always be a budget, and yet so many people don't actually sit down every month to make one. I was definitely one of those people before beginning my Total Money Makeover. Each pay period, I would sit down, pay all of the bills that were due until my next pay check, and whatever I had left over was what I had to spend on groceries, personal care, etc. until the next pay check. I found myself in an endless cycle of too much month at the end of my money.

Did you know that 70% of American households live paycheck to paycheck? Did you also know that 50% of American households also make $50k or more (40% of these folks making over $100k) each year? This means that there are people that you walk by on a regular basis that you think are well off and put together that are walking around with the same money troubles as you and me.

In this post, I'm going to walk you through how I budget. This budget is not original by any means and it was actually developed from a template provided by GazelleInTents. They are YouTube vloggers that I follow on a regular basis and really offer a lot of inspiration and motivation, so check them out when you have a moment. I will begin by saying that I have hidden a few rows such as the breakdown of my income (I have a few different income sources), tithes/offerings, and a few personal items that are included in my budget. For the most part, however, what you see below is pretty much the bulk of it.

Every month I begin with the same basic template and add in all of the special items that are going on that month. For bills like my gas and electric, I look back at the previous year's bill to estimate and others are just set expenses that I previously determined a budget I want to stay within range of. Some months I have to adjust my budget in certain areas to have leeway in others, but ultimately, at the end of the month, I will have "zero" dollars left over.

Next all of my debt is lined up and are sorted by due dates. I keep a small grid with my debt snowball next to the debt section of my budget to always have for reference. As you can see from the picture above, I have crossed out the student loan that I was able to pay off previously. This month I am forecasted to pay off two of my smaller debts which you can see are highlighted by the red text. I'm so excited that as of last month I am under six figures in debt!

Finally is the section with the month's miscellaneous expenses and the sinking funds that I will begin to fund in the future. For those of you who don't know what a sinking fund is, essentially it's just a savings account for expenses that you know are going to come up such as holidays, birthdays, car maintenance, etc. Currently I don't have anything in any of my funds, but one which was a leftover balance that I had prior to beginning my makeover and decided to keep there.

For me, the most exciting part of my budget is those last two boxes where I have listed the total debt paid off since I began the program. It's been growing a little every month and I just feel so proud of myself when I see that figure month over month.

Tune in at the end of the month where I will let you know how I have done.

New Beginnings

Another blog where I give thanks...

As I begin the second week at my new job, I couldn't be more thankful for this new opportunity God has afforded me. Whenever you begin a new job, it's always easy to be thankful for the new, but often times it's hard to be thankful for the old, especially if the old wasn't the best of situations.

The view from my old office.

As I moved through my first week at work, I became more and more thankful for my previous position. While I definitely still believe that my current manager hiring me was a bit of a stretch, and I am very grateful to him for seeing the potential within me, it is becoming more apparent how much the knowledge I have previously gained is going to and has already benefited me. Not only the knowledge needed for my profession and what I will be doing on a day to day basis, but things as simple as carrying oneself professionally, writing clear and concise emails that anticipate the person's next question, and actually being able to interpret emails. I don't know if it's just me, but I have always been shocked when a manager applauds me for doing my work and doing it thoroughly. Is this something that is truly lacking in today's work force?

I am thankful for my former manager for allowing me to jump in on anything and everything that came across my desk, guiding me where necessary, but allowing me to take the lead on so many different project. I am thankful for the opportunity to partner closely with the HR Department in such a way that allowed me to make an seamless transition into the Corporate HR space. I am thankful for my friends, to whom I will be forever indebted to for making my job situation tolerable enough to allow me to make it through for the period of time necessary to gain all of the experience I was able to. I am just plain thankful.

I walk past this lovely lady everyday on my way to work. 

As I go into my new role, I am thankful for my coworkers who are eager to teach me the ropes and are also willing to let me jump in where I can. I am thankful that they appreciate my contributions and recognize where my previous experience can lend a helping hand on a current situation. I am thankful for a manager that does not micromanage my day and instead allows me to work through the things that are coming across my desk and touches base with me every so often. I am thankful for a manager that is truly interested in what I can bring to the team and how I can grow my career in my current situation, not only because it is what the business needs, but because he genuinely cares about his team and the dynamic of the group as a whole.

I am thankful for the small things, like the fact that I am working for a company that truly values its employees and shows the appreciation in hard concrete ways. You don't always take a job for what is available to you, but it definitely goes a long way when a company goes above and beyond with its employee incentives. I am thankful that although I am now facing an hour long commute in each direction each day, it is an easy one and it affords me the time to pray and listen to my personal growth podcasts every day.

But most importantly, I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to continue my personal growth and take the next steps on the path that was predestined for me and my ultimate goals.