Day	Amount	Place	Category
Monday	$31.75	Mud Bay	Pets
	$53.75	Safeway	Groceries
	$90.00	CostCo	Groceries
Tuesday	$348.50	VW Service	Car
Thursday	$30.00	Medical Copays	Medical
	$14.75	Safeway	Groceries
Friday	$15.00	Medical Copays	Medical
	$31.50	Pet License	Pets
Saturday	$16.50	WoW	Allowance
	$69.00	Shoes	Allowance
	$96.75	CostCo	Groceries
	$17.50	Safeway	Groceries

It has been a crazy week here. I was very glad to have Monday off to recover from FinCon12 and get some of our needed shopping done, since I knew C wouldn’t do it while I was away. Of course, that meant I had a short work week for a crazy week at work.

I am hopeful that Monday we’ll be making an offer for the director level positions we’ve had open for a year, and that at least that one item can get off my list. We’ve also had a brand new position approved by our work force planning committee and this week, comp finally came back with a suggested pay grade. That means I get to start the hiring process for that position.

We also started budget season at work this week- which wouldn’t be bad except that we’ve been on a spend rate plan for the last 4 years and everyone- including the finance department, got about 2 weeks notice that we’d be having a budget process this year. There have been technical issues combined with short notices, and I’m helping out with another area under our VP because it’s the unit I did budget for for 5 years and they just got transferred to our VP and have no budget person of their own. I’m going to be back in deep on Monday morning.

To go along with all of this, C has been sick- as in almost having an eardrum burst sick. So he’s on meds and is not super useful around the house.

In good news, we have a friend moving up to the Seattle area who has stayed with us a few nights this week. On Friday, he got a job. Not a great job, but it’s better than nothing. And his wife had two interviews on Thursday, so we’re hoping she’ll have something soon, too. It will be really nice having them up here.

On Friday, we had a mini BBQ and then 6 of us sat around and played Last Night On Earth (it’s a zombie board game). That was actually a really nice way to end my week.

Today, I haven’t even gotten dressed. I’ve sat around and watched football. And it’s been heavenly. C is feeling better and is making us a roasted bell pepper soup for dinner.

 

 

We are over half way through 2012. I revised some of my goals because life took some turns I wasn’t quite planning on when I came up with them.

1)      Be paid for publishing one piece of fiction

Submissions so far: 2

Responses: 1 rejection 1 acceptance

The anthology I had a piece accepted to is now available to buy on Amazon. It’s called Conquest Through Determination.

2)      Pay All Adoption Expenses in Cash & Still Pay for C’s College Out of Pocket

We’re doing good here. This was helped tremendously by getting 3x as much in life insurance from the MIL than expected. Our savings is still growing, and we’re in really good shape

3)      Attend FinCon12. Pay for the trip with money from allowance/side projects saved/earned BEFORE the conference starts. Goal: $600

FinCon was awesome. Not all of the money came from allowance/side projects, but it was still easily affordable, so I’m calling this a win.

4)      Become a member of Yakezie (6 month anniversary is Jan 21)

I did not make Epsilon class. My Alexa ranking had gone too high. I think there will be one more class this year, so we’ll see if I can get my numbers back down to under 200k. I need to join the teams again, as that helps tremendously. And now that we’re done with all the house stuff for the adoption, I should have more time to participate.

Current ranking: 266,109

It’s started going back down!

Thanks this week to Len Penzo dot Com and Budgeting in the Fun Stuff for linking over here.

5)      Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $28.81 at the end of August, with $0.18 made so far this month. (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100.)

One of the things that FinCon really brought home for me is that I’m not actually in this for the money. For now, I’m leaving the AdSense blocks up, but they’re getting moved further down the page. I’ll keep tracking, but making money isn’t why I blog.

6)      Be healthier

Weight was up after FinCon, but that was to be expected. It wasn’t enough that I am worried about it.

I haven’t gone over my calorie count any day this week, and for the most part, I’ve gotten at least some walking in every day. On the interview days, it was harder to fit in, but I needed it.

Yesterday I bought myself some new athletic shoes. I don’t know if Sketchers no longer makes the balance ball shoes or if DSW just no longer carries them, but these have normal soles.

In an odd turn of events, my new shoes are NOT men’s shoes. They’re actually women’s. Easy Spirit makes size 11 shoes that fit me and are quite comfortable. I’m looking forward to many walks, and possibly some NIA in my new shoes.