The Dog Ate My Wallet

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Sunday Evening Post #52

Day	Amount	Place	Category
Tuesday	$13.00	Safeway	Allowance
	$15.00	copay	medical
	$30.00	chinese food	Eating Out
	$90.00	gas	car
Wednesday	$15.00	copay	medical
	$4.00	trader joes	Groceries
Thursday	$7.00	Safeway	Groceries
Saturday	$22.00	Movie	Allowance
Sunday	$38.00	CostCo	Groceries
	$21.00	Red Robin	Eating Out

We spent money on numerous days this week, though not too much total.

We had friends over for jambalaya and games on Friday, which is part of why there were little grocery shopping trips during the week. On Saturday, we went and saw Dark Knight Rises. On Saturday, I spent the day craving a milkshake, so on Sunday, I made Charles take me out to get one. We also went to a friend’s house for tamales and board games, though we didn’t stay long enough to play anything as I’m not feeling great.

But the house is in great shape thanks to having guests, which makes me feel better about everything.

This is Sunday evening post #52, which means it has been one year since I started these posts. I like ending my weekend with a recap of what we’ve been doing, and I hope you enjoy it too.

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

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

Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

This is on hold for now. However, I did have a chance to talk with the artist I want to work with on Friday, and her life has settled down, so there’s a good chance we can start work on this sometime in June. (When my life settles down a

bit.)

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

Conference attendance paid for. Tickets paid for. The only things left are food and the hotel. I probably won’t have enough in allowance to cover all of it, but it won’t be far off, and the biggest expenses are already taken care of.

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

I plan to be a member of Epsilon class when the application goes up in August. I do need to make sure I’m still connecting with new challengers, though, because a lot of the challengers on my list this last time will be Yakezie Delta class members.

In order to develop relationships with new challengers, I have decided that each edition of What I’m Reading on Saturdays will now include a new challenger.

5) Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $22.11 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100.) Apparently, though, I’ve already earned $5.91 so far this month. No idea why the uptick, but I’ll take it.

6) Be healthier

I walked once on Monday and Tuesday, and twice on Wednesday and Thursday. We went to the dog park on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

One night (but I don’t remember which) we had light salads for dinner.

Date: 22/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

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What I’m Reading: Cheaters’ Edition

I feel a bit cheat-y today. I’ll be honest, I have read very few blogs this week. It just hasn’t been in the cards. However, we’re very close to the light at the end of the tunnel, and I expect to get back to reading and commenting on a regular basis soon.

Our living room is finally clean, having gone through all the boxes of paper to be shredded. The dining room table is clean (well, except for a game of Dominion that didn’t get put away last night), the ladder is out of the hallway. We’re at the point of putting the little plastic plugs in the unused outlets and rearranging the baby’s room. Once our background checks comes back, we’ll schedule the home inspection. I’m starting to be able to breathe easier again.

Plus we had a great group of people over for jambalaya and games last night. I’m feeling good.

So how does that make me “cheat-y”? Well, instead of reading my regular list of blogs to share things with you, today I went to the Yakezie challengers’ forum and grabbed the blogs of the three latest challengers. Then I went to the master list of members and challengers and picked out 3 blogs I’ve never read before. And now I’m going to share them with you.

First on the list is Zero Passive Income. They recently made their 6^th Kiva Loan. We all know I’m a fan of micro-lending and donating to charity, so I think this is absolutely fabulous. I’m a big fan of Kiva myself.

Next is Modern Tightwad. I’ve mentioned before (I think) that my mother is a garage sale queen. She can find amazing deals at them; she can hold one that sells out. If it involves garage sale-ing, you want my mother at your side. This post on Marketing Your Garage Sale is good advice- after all, no one can buy anything if no one shows up.

Then we move on to Add Vodka. I’d wonder why I hadn’t read this blog before, just based on the name, except that I’m a total teetotaler. Daisy is looking forward to Free Time after Graduation. I can’t blame her. And as someone who worked full time and went to school full time for my MBA, I get where she’s coming from about having “just” a job.

Now on to our three newest challengers.

Jennifer Lynn, the Broke-Ass Mommy, writes about Bitcoin, why they invested, and what’s happened with their investment in the past year. Will she and her family remain invested in Bitcoin? You’ll have to read to find out.

Financially Digital apparently watches reality cooking shows- which happen to be the reality shows C likes to watch most. (I like singing shows, but not Idol.) Anyway, Nunzio Bruno is able to watch the shows and take the lessons the chefs learn and turn them into financial lessons for the rest of us. So the question is, do you have too many cooks?

Mike at Live the New Economy is a career military officer looking to transition to civilian life sometime soon. Recently, he had a situation that required him to leave his iPhone at home while he took the family out to dinner. And he LIKED it. Is he doomed to live in a shack in the middle of Montana? (I would like to point out, having grown up in Montana, and still having family and friends there that I only communicate with via FaceBook, you can be completely wired there. Also, he recommends reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. C had to read that for class this year, and I read along. I think it’s an interesting book, but I don’t agree with his conclusions, and for the most part would argue that the research he’s presenting actually leads to conclusions that are quite the opposite of the ones he reaches.)

Date: 21/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Round Ups Bookmark: Permalink

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More Free Online Education

I’m feeling a bit burned out right now, just with life in general. At the same time, I don’t want to stop any of the projects I’m currently working on. What does that means for readers here? Mostly that while I will try to keep to my usual posting schedule, there may not be a whole lot of quality content.

That said, for today’s post, there is actual content. Surprising, really.

I’ve Written About this Before

You may remember that back in January, I wrote about getting a world class education- for free. That post focused on MIT’s OpenCourseWare initiative, which is fabulous, but I wanted to make sure that my readers knew about the other amazing opportunities that are now available.

First of all, MIT and Harvard have joined forces with edX. Right now the offerings are limited, but this allows students to not just watch lectures recorded years ago, but actually take the class, interact with other students and the professor. These are full on, free classes from MIT and Harvard.

Sadly, the edX page is the least user friendly for seeing what is out there. But there are other online, free opportunities for a great education.

Who Else is Doing This?

Of your other options, first is Udacity. Right now, they only have 11 courses, and all of them are pretty computer science related. Still, if you’re interested in cryptography or need to understand statistics for your job, Udacity has offerings that will work for you. In addition, they let you certify your skills via a test.

The certificate does have a cost, but remember, it’s never been the education you’ve actually been paying for, it’s the degree with that institution’s name on it. No matter what kind of certificate you’re looking at getting, you should expect to pay a fee.

The big news right now, though, is Coursera. Coursera just reached deals with 12 new major institutions, bringing their total to 17. In addition to Stanford, which where Coursera started, students now have access to material from Duke, Johns Hopkins, Rice, California Institute of Technology, UC Berkely, and even University of Washington (right here in Seattle with me). They currently offer 111 courses.

Personally, I’m really interested in Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World, taught by Eric Rabkin of the University of Michigan. It starts on Monday, though, and as I mentioned before, I’m a little burned out. And since this is a personal finance blog, I feel compelled to mention that also starting on Monday, and also from a University of Michigan professor, is the course Introduction to Finance.

I do think it’s important to point out that with Coursera, like edX, you take the course when it’s offered. It’s not like the OpenCourseWare where you can study whenever you want. These are actual classes and include interaction with the professor and other students, even if it’s just online.

How Can They Give it Away for Free?

Remember, universities have never charged you for your education, even though they may claim otherwise. The charge has always been to get official credit, a transcript with that university’s name on it, or a degree or certificate. You were paying to associate yourself with their reputation. It just so happened that their reputation also pulled some of the best educators too them.

Well, now you have access to those educators, too.

Isn’t this More Work for the Professors?

What do the teachers get out of it? Well, have you heard of Khan Academy? Their motto is “Learn almost anything for free”. (These aren’t college courses, but it’s very useful for your K-12 student trying to get a better grasp of a single concept.) The founder, Salman Khan, has been pushing the idea of flipping the classroom.

What that means is that lectures are the homework, and in the classroom, teachers and students actually have time to work on the problems together, to do projects and focus on what is difficult for the students. So instead of just sitting and listening while in the classroom, and then having to “do” at home, with the help of parents, Khan thinks kids should sit, listen, and probably take notes, while at home. And then, they can “do” in the classroom, where the actual teacher is there to help them.

For college professors, recording lectures for use by OpenCourseWare or Coursera, or any of these initiative, allows them to flip the classroom. Instead of assigning reading in the text book and problem sets for homework, the homework is watching the lecture online. Then in class, the class can actually do projects, work on the problem sets. The teacher is there to help with the practical, and the practical is happening in the classroom, not in your living room or the library.

Remember how in science classes you had to take a lab section, and pay an extra fee for it, because there was no way you could do lab work in class, since the teacher was lecturing? Well, now, you can watch the lectures at home.

Student Benefits

I know, you can easily see how well this will work in math and science courses, but what about the humanities? Are you really going to watch lectures at home and then sit and write your papers in class? Probably not, but how many of your questions about what the teacher lectured about ever actually got answered in the 15 minutes (if you were lucky) the teacher left at the end of the lecture to answer questions? How many times were your ideas for a paper solidified and refined by talking to your peers. Now imagine that your whole class period is devoted to being able to ask the professor questions and to have meaningful discussion with your peers.

For those group projects we all hate, imagine a world where there is class time to work on them, instead of trying to find a time outside of class that will, by some cosmic law, only ever work for 66% of your group, and at least one person who says it will work for them forgets to show up.

And none of this even addresses the most basic benefit of watching the lecture on your computer instead of listening to it in person- you control the volume and speed. Does the professor have her back to you and it’s hard to hear? Turn up the volume. Need a moment longer to write down a complete thought for your notes? Hit the pause button. Did the teacher really just say what I think he did? You can rewind.

I’m as much a nerd as a geek, so I’m not ashamed to say this excites me. It kind of makes me want to go back to school.

We are very lucky to live in a time when educational opportunities are expanding this way. Take advantage. I know I’m going to. In fact, I’m wondering if any of you (I’m looking at you here, American Debt Project) want to take the Introduction to Operations Management class at Coursera with me. It doesn’t start until after FinCon and is only 6 weeks long.

Date: 19/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Tags: Coursera, Duke, edX, free education, harvard, khan academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, salman khan, stanford, Udacity, univeristy of michigan, university of washington Category: Free Things Bookmark: Permalink

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Busy

I’m swamped at work right now trying to create 12 new spaces out of nothing. And amazingly enough, if I don’t write posts, nothing shows up here. (Funny how that works.) I thought for sure that I’d write a post when I got home tonight, but the dogs had a different idea.

Date: 17/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: On the Job Bookmark: Permalink

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Sunday Evening Post #51

Day	Amount	Place	Category
Saturday	$6.00	McDonalds	Eating Out
	$200.00	family loan	misc
Sunday	$21.50	Safeway	Groceries
	$164.00	CostCo	Groceries
	$28.00	Office Depot	Home
	$12.50	Target	Home
	$4.50	Lowes	Home

We tried to spend money earlier in the week. We went out to dinner on Tuesday, but J ended up picking up the check for all of us. On Friday, he brought home pizza and a movie. Saturday morning, J’s parents, who were in town for the weekend, took us all out to breakfast.

So we managed not to spend any money until Saturday afternoon, when we grabbed a snack at McDonalds on our way down to Portland for my great aunt & uncle’s 50^th anniversary party.

Almost half of our spending came from giving my youngest cousin a “loan”. She got a new job, went to give two weeks’ notice at her current job, and was told she didn’t need to come back, so she’ll have two weeks with no paycheck, and she needs to buy some new work clothes, as she’s going from pumping gas (literally) to working in an office. She only asked for 4100. I gave her $200, that way she has a buffer. She swears she’ll pay it back out of her first paycheck. Whether she does or not isn’t something that either C or I are concerned about.

I want to mention that my post about professional societies earlier this week lead to someone from APICS sending me an email with a little bit more information. It was very helpful and I am quite grateful that he took time out of his day to contact me.

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

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

Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

bit.)

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

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

In order to develop relationships with new challengers, I have decided that each edition of What I’m Reading on Saturdays will now include a new challenger.

5) Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $22.11 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100.) Apparently, though, I’ve already earned $5.84 so far this month. No idea why the uptick, but I’ll take it.

6) Be healthier

I walked twice on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday, I walked once, and experienced “Thursday the 12^th”, ie the day before Friday the 13^th. That morning I grabbed my walking shoes, but it turns out I didn’t grab an actual pair of shoes. Instead I grabbed one shoe each from my two pairs of tennis shoes. And to make it even better, I grabbed both left shoes. I also forgot my badge that morning. So, I walked once and then came home early. On Friday, I worked from home, so instead of walking on my breaks, I cuddled doggies.

We went to the dog park 4 times this week, despite the mugginess.

Date: 15/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

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The Shortest Job

I was short on ideas (once again) for what to write about tonight, so I asked on twitter for someone to give me a topic. Lance from Money, Life & More suggested I write about what’s in front of me- which is a mostly messy desk. I kind of listed everything (well, no everything) on my desk, and then it occurred to me, I always really like those “things you don’t know about me” posts, but have never bothered to type one up myself because, well, I’m a pretty open book. Most things I could reveal about myself in one of those posts, I’ve already mentioned in another blog post somewhere. But there’s one thing I haven’t mentioned before, and I think it will make a great post.

The Shortest Job I’ve Ever Had

Back in 2001, I quit my job as a medical receptionist. It was a high stress job and I was constantly sick, or at least, constantly calling in sick because I was just so stressed. I knew I needed to leave, but I also knew I should have a job lined up before I did. The problem was, at the time, I was planning on going in to the Peace Corps by the end of the year. I didn’t want to lie to anyone about how long I would be there, so while I had some interviews… Well, for the first time in my life, I interviewed for a job and wasn’t offered it.

Then one night while watching TV a great idea popped right up on the screen. I could tell people’s fortunes over the phone.

You remember those commercials, don’t you? Well, those companies were always hiring for new people. You didn’t even have to go anywhere. You got to work from home and just logged in via your phone when you wanted to start receiving calls and logged out when you were done. You did have to work a minimum of 2 hour blocks to get paid, but hey- this was perfect.

It was a job I could do around everything else I needed to do, and I wouldn’t feel guilty leaving it when it was time for me to go. All I needed was to come up with my fortune telling alias and a dedicated phone line. As a role player, I had tons of great names to choose from, and given that this was in the age of dial up modems, I just used the phone line that was dedicated to the computer. Done.

Let me be honest- I worked the phones one night, for maybe 45 minutes, and it broke me.

I do read tarot. I’m actually pretty good at it, even over the phone, partly because it’s as much about listening to people as it is the cards. The problem was with the people who called. I think I took 3 phone calls. I remember 3 phone calls. The first was a woman in an abusive relationship- I ended that call giving her an 800 number for abused women. The next was a guy in the middle of a nasty custody battle who just wanted to know when he’d see his kids again. And the third? Another woman in an abusive relationship.

Maybe if my degree had been in psychology I would have felt comfortable advising these people, but their problems were nothing I had any personal experience with at 25, and it was just too depressing for me. I never logged in again.

After that, I registered with all the temp agencies in town. And for those of you wondering, no, I never joined the Peace Corps. C and I broke up and I moved out. I realized during that time that I felt like my life was on hold, not until I got my assignment, but until I got back. I decided that wasn’t the attitude I should be going in with. I pulled myself out of the process. C and I got back together (the Peace Corp thing wasn’t actually the issue, though it may seem like it here) and we moved to Seattle, Labor Day weekend, 2001.

Date: 12/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: On the Job Bookmark: Permalink

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Joining a Professional Society- But Which One?

I promised a post of substance, though it might be the kind of substance you’re getting sick of from me. Once again, I am looking at some options, weighing the costs and benefits and trying to make a decision. This time, though, I could really, really use your input. I hope you’ll give me some.

I have been in my current position two years. My title is Operations and Administrative Programs manager. My target length of stay in any one position, at this time, is 3-5 years. Three years in is generally when I start casually looking for new opportunities, and I usually find them. For the record, my last position (at my current company) was the longest I’d ever stayed in a single position, and that lasted 5 years, with me actively looking for a new position for two of those years.

However, within my current company, there aren’t really any Associate Director type of positions for me to go to. If I were to look at job categories within my company, I’d be looking in the Professional Administrative category, and maybe in Finance. However, we don’t even have an Operations category to look at.

If I were to leave my current company, and especially if I were to decide to leave health care, the Operations part of my job is the most marketable and easily transferrable. Because of that, I had made the decision last year that this year I would join one of the professional societies for operations management and perhaps get some certifications to add after my name.

I know from working on the hiring side that I much prefer to see that someone already has the certifications versus has just taken the test and is waiting for results. It makes me feel more like they care about their work, not just getting this next job. So, it makes me want to have my certs before I start job hunting, even casually.

This is where the decision making comes in. Would you believe that there is not a single professional society for operations management? My research brings up 3 groups with international reach as professional societies. I need your help in deciding which one to join, so here are the pros and cons, as I see them, for each group.

Association for Operations Management (APICS)

Pros: APICS has been around since 1957. They are the most established of the three organizations and offer two internationally recognized certifications. Their testing has long been established and you can schedule a computer based test at a testing facility near you (much like I did with the GMAT). You can take their certification tests without actually being a member.

Cons: APICS focus remains clearly on manufacturing. Their certifications are in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) and Supply Chain Professional (CSCP). While I test well, and with some studying don’t doubt my ability to pass either exam, neither is exactly what I am looking to do in Operations, though the CSCP would not be difficult to apply to my work.

I have worked for a manufacturer and I’m not totally against going back that direction, unless I want to work for Boeing, my options in the Seattle area are going to be much greater if I’m focused on the service industries.

Membership Cost: $200/year. It gives you discounts on the certification tests and APICS run events.

Production and Operation Management Society (POMS)

Pros: POMS was formed in 1989, so it’s not stuck in the idea that Operations is all about manufacturing. In fact, they have special “colleges” you can join that include Healthcare Operations Management, Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management (I’d love to go work for one of the humanitarian organizations in this area), and Product Innovation and Technology Management (my MBA focus was on Technology & Innovation Management), and Service Operations.

Based on the officers listed, they are truly the most international of the organizations.

Cons: They offer no certifications. In fact, most of the educational materials they link to are free not matter what, like MIT Open Courseware (which I’ve talked about before).

Membership Cost: $125/year, +$25/year for any of the colleges I wish to join.

The Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society (MSOM) which is part of the Institute for Operations Research and the Mangement Sciences (INFORMS)

Pros: While INFORMS has only been around since 1995, it grew out of Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), around since 1952, and The Institute for Management Science (TIMS), around since 1954. It seems to be the most academically oriented of the societies, which suits me because I’m an academic at heart. MSOM is only one of their societies, so membership in this group gives me access to areas beyond just Operations, to include the Health Applications Society and Decision Analysis. In addition, there are special interest groups within MSOM, including Healthcare Operations Management and Service Management.

INFORMS has regional chapters, including one based out ofSeattle.

They offer one certification, the Analytics Professional (CAP).

Cons: This is the most academic of the organizations and seems to have less relevance to actually working in Operations. The focus of INFORMS, at least, is on operations research. MSOM is just one small part of their overall group.

TheSeattlechapter appears like it may not be very active. They still list a May 8 meeting as their upcoming meeting and their “past meetings” list skip for Feb 22, 2012 back to October 20, 2010. That’s a big gap.

While the CAP seems more interesting to me than the APICS certifications, I have moved out of analytics and into management. I am not certain I want to go back. In addition, the CAP isn’t actually offered yet. First testing for it won’t begin until April 2013, and it will only be offered at an INFORMS conference inSan Antonio. And even if I could be inSan Antonionext April to test for it, it’s not yet an industry recognized cert.

Membership Cost: $152/year. There may be an additional fee for joining MSOM. I can’t get to the part of the website that would tell me that without filling out their forms.

Right now I’m thinking I join either POMS or INFORMS, but perhaps still take the CSCP exam from APICS, paying full price. What do you think my best course of action would be?

Date: 10/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Tags: APICS, career planning, INFORMS, MSOM, operations management, POMS, professional societies Category: On the Job, self-promotion Bookmark: Permalink

Article

Sunday Evening Post #50

Day	Amount	Place	Category
Thursday	$15.00	PT Copay	Medical
	$7.00	Qdoba	Eating Out
Saturday	$32.00	Safeway	Groceries
Sunday	$50.00	CostCo	Groceries

Okay, so spending this week is a little disingenuous because I kept cash out from the money my brother paid us this month to cover a lot of little things. We went to the Farmers’ Market on Thursday and spent at around $20. Also, on Thursday morning, I spent around $20 on office snacks, since a lot of my staff wasn’t thrilled about having the mid-week day off. (I actually love having Wednesdays off, but most of my staff would rather have a three day weekend.) We had drinks and Irish Nachos at a local pub where we saw one of our favorite bands play on Friday night, running us $25. On Saturday, C and J went on a dump run that also cost roughly $20. So that’s around $85 more in spending- but none of it was ever in our bank account to begin with.

Even with that, though, we’re under $200 for the week. And that’s pretty nice.

We will be spending more, probably tonight, as we buy the last few things we need for the home inspection- drawer/cabinet child proof kits, the little plastic things you put in unused outlets, no slip decals for the tub.

And with that, I think we’re pretty much ready for home inspection. We need to do some general tidying, borrow a crib from friends, but yeah, I think we’re there. And that feels good.

We have now test driven all three (four) cars we’re looking at. In the “we could make this work” category are the Prius and the Imprezza. Both are smaller, but would fit our current dogs in the back. They are also not quite as expensive. Plus, the Subaru dealer and the Toyota dealer don’t charge “destination” fees. If price wins out, it will be the Imprezza.

In the “handles current and possible future situations” category are the Prius V and the Jetta SprtWagen. Both have backs big enough for our current dogs, with enough room in case we got a bigger dog in the future. (As we currently have our smallest dogs ever, that’s not inconceivable.) With the Jetta, we’d be best served waiting for the 2013 models so that we could custom order- we don’t need a giant sunroof. But the Prius V was actually the most comfortable car to drive for both C and I, though getting used to the shift on the dash would take some time. Still, both these cars are going to run $26-28k. We have to do some research about battery life and maintenance costs for the new Priuses. If we go with the Jetta, we’ll have to figure something out for winter as we only have a one car garage.

We won’t be buying until escrow for the MIL is closed, though, as we don’t know if we’ll need to pay off the HELOC on her condo or not. That makes a $13k difference in finances, so it’s a pretty big deal.

So that’s where we are. Moving forward. Not as fast as I’d like, but making progress. I really am looking forward to when I can stop the “hurry up” part and start the “waiting”. Remind me of that in 9 months, though.

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

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

Make money publishing my next art/fiction book

bit.)

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

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

In order to develop relationships with new challengers, I have decided that each edition of What I’m Reading on Saturdays will now include a new challenger.

5) Make money from my blogs.

AdSense earnings: $22.11 (They won’t send me any money until I hit $100.) Apparently, though, I’ve already earned $5.82 so far this month. No idea why the uptick, but I’ll take it.

6) Be healthier

I walked twice on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesday, as I was getting ready to take my walk, my boss came into the office and asked what I was still doing there, so I went home instead.

We went to the dog park on Tuesday and Wednesday. We went again on Friday. It was too warm to go yesterday or today.

I mowed the lawn on Saturday.

We got lots of fresh veggies at the Farmers’ Market, and that lead to us having chicken cacciatore for dinner last night as well as an arugula, fennel, orange salad with mint.

Date: 08/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Tags: goals, weekly spending Category: Everyday Finances, Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

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What I’m Reading: Hurry Up and Wait Edition

You know how everyone complains about “hurry up and wait” when they are in the waiting stage? Well, we’re still stuck in the hurry up stage (I know, it doesn’t seem like we’re doing that much hurrying), and I’m kind of looking forward to the waiting stage. I think this weekend and the following week really are key. We’re almost there. Almost, but not quite.

And that not quite is driving me crazy, knocking me off of my routine. Friday was the first time I read any blogs this week. I did very little commenting, and I often have to wonder if people have forgotten who I am on twitter. I need to get myself back to center, back to basics, and that is one of the (so many) reasons I loved Find your one inch over at Daily Money Shot. One inch- if I let myself think in terms of just one inch, instead of an empire, I can do that.

That said, I really do need to remind myself of the things I should be grateful for, and remember that everyone does everything at their own pace. I shouldn’t have to try and match my pace to someone else’s ideals. Down in Frugal Portland (where I will be next Saturday for a 50^th Wedding Anniversary BBQ and mini-family reunion), Kathleen is also remembering to be Grateful.

One of the things I’m grateful for? That C and I are not struggling despite him being unemployed for over 3 years now. Sam at Financial Samurai has posted a number of articles on unemployment, and he’s never been hostile, but for the first time, I think he’s finally getting it. He’s not talking to the young woman with a specialized degree whose wealthy parents still support her, he’s not posting an article written by someone else who spent time unemployed, but actually got a new job after not too long (considering the current recession). He took a trip for himself to the unemployment office, and it really hit him- Empathy for the Unemployed.

Recovering from financially hard times can sometimes be just as tricky as surviving the hard times themselves, especially if your credit rating had took a hit. At femmefrugality, she gives us a good strategy for dealing with those issues- a Goodwill letter.

I was able to link those 4 in a somewhat sense making bit of narrative. Not this next one. But that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be linked in order to be something I want to highlight. Dr Dean of the Millionaire Nurse Blog presents the list of the 10 Things Amazon Doesn’t Want You to Know with his own commentary, and one thing added on.

And finally, we welcome our newest Yakezie challenger to the game. Jake at Moola Mind (great name) writes about what he learned from the Steve Nash trade to the Lakers. This is a post you can follow even if, like me, you don’t follow basketball.

Date: 07/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Round Ups Bookmark: Permalink

Article

Not Here Tonight (or Tomorrow Night)

I’d meant to get a post written this afternoon. It didn’t happen. We went to the local Farmers’ Market instead. We have game night tonight with one of C’s friends from school.

Tomorrow we’re going to a pub to hear a local band play.

That means no real substantive post until Tuesday, though I do intend to get a Sunday evening post in there, as well.

Date: 05/07/2012 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Uncategorized Bookmark: Permalink

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