The Dog Ate My Wallet

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Sunday Evening Post #100

It’s my 100th Sunday Evening Post- which is cool, but I prefer to think of things in years, not round numbers. So there will be a Sunday Evening Post celebration coming up soon, for the 104th edition, which will mark 2 years of my weekly check in, but not tonight.

It’s been a pretty good week. I received and accepted a job offer for a job I’m pretty excited about. I ordered my new Faire dress (as a reward for losing ~60lbs).

We have also been spending money a little bit crazily for our “new” hobby – post-apocalyptic zombie boffer LARP camping. If you can follow that, you are our kind of geek. If you cannot, don’t worry, it is rather extreme geekiness.

Friday was a ton of shopping for that, during which we also picked up the Cheap Ass Game Veritas (we have not played it yet), an Adventure Time graphic novel for SP, and the first 4 issues of the comic Damsels for me. (I miss Ruse. Damsels is in no way going to replace Ruse, but I miss having a comic I read.)

Today we also did some shopping for me- a new swimming suit (SP earned a trip to the water park), also a new suit jacket and a white shell.

Then we went to visit some friends and played the Days of Wonder game Mystery of the Abbey. It’s a lot like Clue, only not quite. And while you are prevented from lying by the rules, it turns out that if you make a mistake, and then pass information based on that mistake on to the other players, it can take a lot longer for the game to end that it perhaps should.

Still, it’s been a good week if an expensive one. But we have the money in savings to completely pay off the new windows (we’re doing a one year same as cash deal), and for 16 weeks, I’ll be getting paid double, so while we have spent some extra money, we will still have very full cash reserves.

Blogging

The purpose of these two goals is, yes, to grow my blogs, but also to support and highlight blogs and bloggers I enjoy. Just like I will be posting 2 new to me blogs every week in my round ups, the point here is to draw attention to blogs that others might not be familiar with. (Blog swaps will not count toward either of these goals.)

Write one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- yes

March- no

April- no

May- no

June – yes.

Publish one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- no

March- no

April- no

May- no

June – yes.

At least one thing is back on track.

Writing

Writing fiction is my side hustle, though I have yet to make any money from it. I’ve found that I devote much more time to the blogs than I do my fiction, though, because I am on a schedule. I feel accountable to my readers to get posts up when I say I will. And because I am a procrastinator, deadlines are a must for me. I get the energy I need to work on something from an impending deadline.

I am hoping to transfer the power of those two things- accountability and deadlines, to my fiction this year.

Submit at least one piece to a paying venue per month.

December: Yes (rejected)

January: Yes (rejected)

February: Yes x4 (2 rejections)

March: No

April: Yes (rejected)

May: No

Complete the first draft of my novella and start edits.

Only one week before I am back at work. I really should try and get some writing done this week.

Finances

A lot of financial goals will actually end up as floating goals- ie they will be things I expect to complete well before the year is out. But I do have some long term financial goals that I think will work for year-long tracking.

Create and track a practice stock portfolio. I will try and get the June post up this week.

End the year “on budget” in the categories I’m tracking.

June Numbers

Category	On Budget
Category	Month	Year
Groceries	No	No
House	No	No
Eating Out	No	No
Allowance – E	No	No
Allowance – C	No	No

Everything is in the “no” category right now. I don’t know that our allowances will ever get back in the yes category for the year. However, in our defense, there are other areas where we have not spent nearly as much as was budgeted – student loans (we paid off my graduate loans in Dec) and school for C (he won’t be back full time until fall).So we’re not in danger of blowing the overall budget, we’re just over in these categories.

Floating Goals

Find a new job. DONE. I start July 1. I am very excited.

Fix the plumbing issues. Once the windows are taken care of, this is my next priority.

Sell the Condo. Our renters are getting divorced (sad), and moving out. The wife will be staying until her job transfers her to another state in September. We’re using the realtor that my mom worked with, and our goal is to get the condo listed in July, and just make a note that it can’t close until September when our renter moves out.

Get an Exterminator. The ants all seem to enter around the windows, so I’m thinking the window replacement might solve this issue. We’ll have to wait and see.

Publish new photography/flash fiction book. One of my goals for my “down time” is to start working on this project. Sadly, my down time hasn’t been very down.

Refinance the house. DONE.

Earn my Certified Supply Chain Professional designation. DONE.

Rebuild savings to $5-10k. DONE. (Transferred a nice chunk this week to the high yield savings account. That felt really nice.)

Replace all the windows in the house. DONE. I have new windows. They are lovely, though already covered in doggie nose prints.

Date: 24/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

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What I’m Reading: Honest, I Actually Read Blogs This Week

Would you believe it? I actually had time to read blogs this last week. And I even left a comment or two. Shocking, isn’t it? I don’t know if this will continue into next week, as we have a ton of stuff planned, and I have no idea what my schedule will be like starting July 1 with my new job. But this last week, at least, I read blogs. And here are some of my favorite posts.

Lance from Money Life and More gives us the breakdown on his fiancé’s student debt and their current plant to get it all paid off, which is currently based solely on interest rates. This is not a bad way to do things, but I did suggest in the comments that they consider all the terms of the loans- because honestly, federal student loans and private student loans are not created equal.

Over at A Young Pro, Nick talks about 3 Things You Should Do When Starting a New Career. It’s a great list, but can I tell you a secret? You can’t stop doing these things. This is good advice no matter where in your career you are.

Speaking of lists of 3, at This That and the MBA, Christine shares 3 Money Mistakes [She’] Made and How to Avoid Them. I love it when people are honest. Because none of us are perfect. We have all made mistakes, and the main reason for writing a personal finance blog is to help others avoid those same mistakes. (Or at least be able to not feel alone when they find out others have made the same mistakes they have.)

And speaking of money mistakes, I’d say gambling can certainly be one of them. At the same time, I lived in Nevada for over 1o years, and still have friends and family there, so I benefit from people who go there to gamble. (I love that casinos advertise exactly how much – on average – money they take from people – highest in the state 97% payback rate.) But believe it or not, it is possible to gamble responsibly, and Bobby, brother of Sandy from Yes, I am Cheap, gives us some tips to do so.

If you are on Facebook, you’ve probably seen those “Awesome women have…” memes. The latest one I saw was “curves and tattoos”. And while I don’t want to argue with these things, because some awesome women have both those things. And some awesome women have one or neither. One of the things that I think makes an awesome woman (or really, person) is the ability to own the choices she’s made in her life. One of the women I would list as awesome, Kim at Eyes on the Dollar, writes this week about Excuses or Choices?

This week’s “new to me” personal finance blog is a bit of a cheat, because the blogger is already a good friend of mine. You know him as Average Joe, from Average Joe’s Financial Blog. But now he has a new blog, too- Stacking Benjamins –where we get even more of his great stories. This week he gives us speech tips learned in public speaking hell.

This year, we proved we could take June and Larry on a road trip. But most of their travel is much more like this trip the 2 Punk Dogs Maggie & Duke, Traveling Watchdogs, took. Only our dogs go to dog parks instead of getting to visit cool backyards.

Recently, June has developed a talent for escaping through the front door. With Moree, we constantly had to be on guard against escapes, but with the current two, it’s never been a huge issue, until recently. (I swear, I’ve had to go after her 3 or 4 times in the last month alone.) Jodi of Heart Like a Dog has long had an issue like this with her Lab, Delilah (who really seems very much like my Moree in personality). She taught her the command “go check” in the hopes it would help. How is that going? You should Go Check it out.

Remember how in the personal finance blogs I talked about the fact that we all make mistakes? It’s not just money mistakes. We make mistakes with our dogs, too. Over at My Brown Newfies, Jen shares a mistake she recently made- she let the dogs out and then forgot. I know she feels awful about it, so in an attempt to make her feel better, let me share- we don’t even have a fenced yard, so the dogs have to go out on leashes, but there is a spot right next to the back door where we can hook the leashes. More than once, we let Howie out and then forgot- I think maybe for longer than an hour one time. It happens to all of us, especially when they don’t signal.

And now on to something that makes me feel better about the world in general. Jan at The Poodle (and dog) blog, always keeps me up to date on my animal news. She shared this story of how the people of one of my favorite cities, Victoria, BC, donated over $16,000 to help pay for an abandoned poodle’s leg surgery. It was enough money that it helped pay for surgeries for other pets in the SPCA’s care, too.

Dachshund Nola hosts the Black & White Sunday Blog Hop that I try to participate in weekly. She is overall one of the cutest little things you will come across on the internet. Like my dogs, she get a little stressed when guests are over. And currently, she has relatives visiting. Luckily, there’s a beach nearby for her to de-stress at. (Which results in adorable pictures that help us de-stress.)

And speaking of cute, you have to go check out Totally Tongues Tuesday at new to me blog Darby’s & Pumpkin’s Daily. I promise you’ll smile.

Date: 22/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Round Ups Bookmark: Permalink

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The Future is Full of Possibility

I know I said I would try and do a stock market post this week. It will not happen. Things are just a little too busy. However, I do have good news to share.

On July 1, I will return to the land of the employed. I am very excited about my new job. It will be with the University, where the benefits are great. I will still be marginally in healthcare (School of Medicine), and I pretty much get to build my own department. Good stuff.

What I’m being paid, I’m a little less excited about. It’s pretty much exactly what I was making before (which certainly isn’t bad), when I was hoping to go up a few thousand a year. When the offer was made, I did ask for more. The response was that it couldn’t happen this year, but given how things go, it could go up substantially as we build this new department. And truth was, I wasn’t going to refuse the job at the pay they offered.

C’s response was that the “raise next year” is pretty standard patter, and I kind of agreed, but I was proud of myself for even asking. I have NEVER done that before.

Today, I got my official offer letter, which mentioned not just my salary but what pay grade I am in. And standard patter or not, they placed this position in the pay grade where there is considerable room to move up. Which means to me, I really am in control of my future.

Obviously my immediate goal will be to make my new department succeed in the limited form it has been conceived in, but then I have plenty of room to grow- my department and my own position/salary.

And in the end, things could not have worked out better. SP was placed with us right before my official last day. I have gotten my 8 weeks maternity leave (and my plan was only to take 6 weeks), and now I go back to work, with 16 weeks still left on my severance. So for almost 4 months, we will be getting double my salary. That’s the last of my student loans paid off and a new kitchen right there.

And after the kitchen is done, I can get the interior of the house repainted, and after the painting, I can replace the flooring…. Okay, I may be getting ahead of myself there.

So that’s where we are. Life is good and the future is full of possibility.

Date: 20/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: On the Job Bookmark: Permalink

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Learning to be Parents: Teaching Money & Responsibility

There are lots of great things about taking in an older child. From the beginning, SP has slept through the night. I’ve never had to change her diaper, and she can feed herself. Plus, when something is wrong, she can tell me what it is. It’s great.

At the same time, it also means we have to figure out some things about being a parent right now, in the first few months, instead of having years to figure them out. Those things include money and responsibility. Here’s what we are doing:

Allowance

We are giving her $5/week. This is money for her to spend on things she wants. So far, she’s used it to buy a wooden doll/fashion design kit from Toys R Us, and a mood ring. We have talked about saving up the money to get larger things that she wants more. And for the most part, she does not ask for a lot, and has at least some understanding of sales tax. (As in she knows that if she has $25, she cannot buy something that is $24.99 and have enough money.)

Chores

Allowance is NOT tied to chores. We are of the opinion that kids need to learn there are things you need to do that no one is going to pay you for. So chores are an expectation, regardless. At the same time, she’s been with us not quite two months yet, and we don’t have set chores. She is expected to help with putting away of her clothes, with setting the table for dinner, and taking care of the dogs, including feeding, taking them out, and picking up after them.

Earning Privileges

SP is a little behind grade level. Not a lot behind, but a little, so we really want to work with her this summer to get her prepared for the next year of school. That means that she does not get to spend her free time this summer parked in front of the TV watching cartoons or playing video games. However, we have learned that she does a lot better with an incentive system. (Math is really hard and she can’t do it, until she learns that if she does do it, she’ll get a chocolate.)

Right now, our incentive system is that two pages done correctly in her workbook earns one ½ hour episode of whatever she wants to watch. (Right now it’s Ruby Gloom.) Four pages in the workbook is a piece of chocolate.

She really wanted to go to Wild Waves (a theme/water park) so we made a deal that if she saved up “6 chocolates”, we could go. It took less than three weeks for her to voluntarily do 24 pages in her workbook and earn the trip to the water park. We go next week.

In addition, one hour of reading to herself (or to her stuffed animals) or one hour of writing will earn her one hour of video game time. She’s really enjoying Fable III at the moment. She likes writing, so she chooses that option more often (she also gets to write on my old laptop, with the network connection disabled), but she does choose to read sometimes.

We do the reading/writing in the longer blocks, because if she’s actually motivated, it takes her only 10 minutes or so to do two pages in the workbook.

Earning Upgrades

This is something we have just instituted and are still working the kinks out of. Essentially, she can chose to earn additional money toward something by doing math tests (or similar work) that C creates or chooses for her.

For example, we bought her new tennis shoes this weekend. She needed new ones (growing child and all) so we were definitely getting them. Of the pairs that fit her and were comfortable, the least expensive were $25. They were also quite cute. However, there were two other pairs she liked more. One pair cost $31 and the other $41. She was told that we could get her the least expensive pair, but that if she really wanted one of the other pairs, she could choose to earn upgrades toward the shoes.

Today, she did a 30 question math test put together by C. Each right answer was worth $0.05 for a total of $1.50). If she got them all right, she would get an additional $1.50. If she got them all right in 3 minutes or less, she would get another $1.50. This meant there was a possibility of $4.50. She ended up earning $1.30.

Unlike allowance, this is never money she will hold in her hands, but it is extra money we will spend to upgrade things we might buy for her anyway. I think the next time it’s really in use will be when we go to Faire. We will decide on how much we intend to spend on costuming for her, but she will have had the option to have earned “upgrades”. (We’ll also go two different weekends, so if she sees something she really likes that first weekend that she doesn’t have the money for, she will have the ability to earn more upgrades before we go again.)

So this is our current plan for teaching about money and responsibility. What do the other parents out there think? And do you have any better ideas for us?

Date: 18/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Kid Money Bookmark: Permalink

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Sunday Evening Post #99

Today was C’s first Fathers’ Day. SP and I made Reeses’ Crumble muffins last night to have for breakfast this morning. We took the dogs on a walk and played some Uno. Then C went out for his scheduled D&D game. SP and I cleaned the kitchen and proceeded to make almost 8 dozen cookies (44 white chocolate chip, 44 butterscotch chip). Then we took the dogs to the dog park, came home and she got a nice long bath. By the time her bath was done, C was home. We had pizza for dinner and then watched Flash Gordon- yes, the movie from 1980. The Queen soundtrack is awesome (because it’s Queen). The rest of the movie is awesomely bad.

Blogging

Write one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- yes

March- no

April- no

May- no

June – yes. It’s not really a full on guest post. I was one of many people who gave a quote for Stacking Benjamin’s post on How to Be a Great Saver

Publish one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- no

March- no

April- no

May- no

June – yes. In case you missed it, on Tuesday I had a guest post from Pamela at Hands On Homebuyer.

At least one thing is on track.

Writing

I am hoping to transfer the power of those two things- accountability and deadlines, to my fiction this year.

Submit at least one piece to a paying venue per month.

December: Yes (rejected)

January: Yes (rejected)

February: Yes x4 (4 rejections)

March: No

April: Yes (rejected)

May: No

Complete the first draft of my novella and start edits.

I skipped writing altogether this week. Today should have been critique, but I stayed home since it was C’s first Fathers’ Day.

Finances

Create and track a practice stock portfolio. Will try to get June’s post up this week.

End the year “on budget” in the categories I’m tracking.

June Numbers

Category	On Budget
Category	Month	Year
Groceries	Yes	No
House	Yes	No
Eating Out	No	Yes
Allowance – E	No	No
Allowance – C	Yes	Yes

Things are going a little out of control here. It doesn’t seem like we’re spending that much, but then I go to pay the credit card, and in the 2.5 weeks since I last paid it, over $2k of charges have hit. Part of it was car care and our Memorial Day weekend trip, but sometimes it adds up surprisingly fast, even when you think you’re paying attention.

Floating Goals

Find a new job. I am one of the top two candidates for a job I’m really interested in. I’ll know late Monday if I get it or not. If not, I did also have a good first interview for another position on Friday.

Replace all the windows in the house. DONE. I have new windows. They are lovely.

Fix the plumbing issues. Once the windows are taken care of, this is my next priority.

Get an Exterminator. The ants all seem to enter around the windows, so I’m thinking the window replacement might solve this issue. We’ll have to wait and see.

Publish new photography/flash fiction book. One of my goals for my “down time” is to start working on this project. Sadly, my down time hasn’t been very down.

Refinance the house. DONE.

Earn my Certified Supply Chain Professional designation. DONE.

Rebuild savings to $5-10k. DONE. (Transferred a nice chunk this week to the high yield savings account. That felt really nice.)

Date: 16/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

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How Health Insurance Works: Secondary Coverage

Secondary coverage is also known as double coverage and results from being covered by two different insurance policies for the same thing. This pretty much only happens in health insurance as no one pays for two homeowner’s policies.

The three most common circumstances that result in double coverage are:

You purchase a supplemental plan – this is most common with Medicare, and you see AARP and others advertise their supplemental plans all the time. Supplemental plans are never meant to be primary coverage and cost less because they are purchased for the sole purpose of covering expenses the primary insurance does not cover. (Please note: most of what I say is not going to apply to insurance coverage like that provided by Aflac, which is a supplemental insurance, but is enough different that I don’t really know much about it.)
Two working adults in the family both choose to cover the entire family through their work policies – this is somewhat straight forward if you are one of those adults. Your primary plan is the one through your work and your secondary plan is the one through your spouse. It’s a little more confusing with kids, and you do have to specifically designate which plan is the primary. However, because you are already getting a discount through your work (maybe), and because either plan could be primary and could become primary if the other plan went away, you do not get a discount on the plan that ends up providing the secondary coverage.
College students who are covered under their parents’ insurance but also purchase coverage through their school. Their parents’ plan is always the primary plan, which is one of the reasons that colleges are generally able to offer coverage (beyond the student health center) for such affordable rates to all of their students.

If you have double coverage, that often means understanding two sets of rules from two different insurance companies. That can be beyond confusing. But here are some basic rules that should hold true regardless of insurance plans.

1) Most doctors’ offices will only bill your primary insurance. Some might make exceptions for Medicare supplemental plans, but some won’t. There are some Medicare supplemental plans that Medicare will bill directly, but it is a limited number. Also, if you happen to have both plans through the same carrier (say you and your spouse work for the same company), than the insurance company will often bill itself.

But other than those exceptions, expect your medical provider only to bill the primary insurance. You will have to bill the secondary insurance yourself.

2) Rule one holds true even if you have a deductible on the primary insurance and none on the secondary. You need to pay the deductible.

3) Your secondary insurance cannot be billed until after your primary insurance has either paid or refused to pay (such as when you have a deductible or received a service not covered by your primary insurance).

4) Billing your secondary insurance yourself generally requires at least three pieces of paperwork- a claim form from the insurance company, the explanation of benefits from your primary insurance company stating what they have and have not paid, and the bill from your doctor’s office showing what you have paid.

I do not always recommend having secondary coverage. In fact, when C and I were both working, he did not cover me on his insurance, and I did not cover him. Our general medical expenses were not high enough that it was worth double paying for insurance. But in some cases, especially college students who can get the secondary coverage through their school for incredibly low costs, I recommend it highly.

Just remember, you will still likely have to pay out of pocket for what your primary insurance does not cover. And it could be 6 months before you receive any reimbursement, so you have to make sure you have that money available.

If you have any questions about how health insurance works, feel free to leave them in the comments or email me at erinshanendoah@erinshanedoah.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them in a future post.

Date: 13/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: HealthCare Bookmark: Permalink

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How to Sell Your House at a Loss and Come Out Happy

At the time, we could give directions by telling folks to look for the house between the crack house and the one boarded up by the slumlord. But I loved it!

This is a guest post from my friend Pamela at Hands On Home Buyer. She recently re-launched her site, and I am excited for the opportunity to help it grow.

I bought my first home, a three story Philadelphia duplex for $70,000 in 1990. Ten years later I sold it for $74,000 after spending more than $30,000 in renovations and maintenance.

By all accounts it was a horrible loss. But I was happy and still don’t regret my choices.

Here’s why.

A house is a home, not an investment

Until the recent mortgage crisis, it was blasphemy to say buying a home was a poor investment.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t true.

By the time you consider mortgage interest, closing costs, repairs, maintenance, selling expenses, and property taxes, you’re probably losing money on your house, even in a rising market.

But most people only look at what they paid for the house and what they sold it for.

So my situation wasn’t unique. And it was exactly what I expected.

Welcome to my first home

My Philadelphia neighborhood was “distressed.”

We had eight vacant houses on our block alone. I kept a collection of empty crack vials on my fireplace mantel. Helicopters flew over every night to harass the owners of the local chop shop.

But my neighbors and I were committed to our block.

We closed the street for our annual block party. We painted the front porches on some of the vacant houses to spruce them up. We took slumlords to court. We fought back against the drug dealers. And we created a fine community.

My years on St. Bernard Street were some of the happiest in my life.

I felt needed. I was part of something bigger than myself. And I saw real change.

By the time we left our block, only two houses remained vacant and the appearance of the block was dramatically improved.

As for the finances? After making extra payments toward my mortgage for years and carrying no other debt, I walked away with enough money to make a 10% down payment on my next (more expensive) house in a new city.

My housing success story

My current house is in a college town with steadily appreciating house prices. We continue to have one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation.

After leaving Philadelphia, I bought my current house in a popular downtown neighborhood for $100,000. Today it would likely sell for twice that.

So this time, I’m going to come out way ahead, right? I’ll finally get my profitable real estate investment.

Not so fast.

Although I’m paying my 20 year mortgage off in less than 15 years, I’m still paying a bit of interest. My property taxes are among the highest in the nation and I pay more toward taxes each month than I do my mortgage payment.

I’ve had to replace a roof, insulate, put in a new furnace and hot water heater, and do a gazillion little jobs just to keep the place in good shape.

If you’re curious, you can look at the numbers I crunched two years ago when I was curious about whether I’d make a profit on this house. And, if anything, I estimated down on my repair costs.

So although I’ll walk away from my next sale with a bigger check in my hand, I’m still not making a profit the way investors talk about it.

But once again, I’ll walk away happy.

The best reason to buy a house

The best reasons to buy a house have nothing to do with money. We own houses because we want to express ourselves, provide stability for our children, have animals, or to gain a feeling of personal security. And that’s just fine.

If you want to make an investment through your housing choices, move to a city with a high income compared to rental costs and invest the extra money after paying rent in stocks or bonds.

Somehow I don’t think most people would find that satisfying. I know I wouldn’t.

But what do I know? I walk away happy even when I know I’m losing money.

Date: 11/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Guest Post Bookmark: Permalink

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Sunday Evening Post #98

These are the pictures I took right after the accident on the iPhone. I have better pictures of the damage on our real camera

Here’s where things stand in our life. On Saturday evening, we were rear-ended. No airbags deployed, both cars drove away. It was very much the other drivers fault. However, the damage to our car is NOT minor, as the truck that hit us had its bumpers replaced with ram plates (seriously) and it actually cut the metal of my car. We don’t think there’s frame damage, but we have to accept it as a possibility.

To that end, we are all sore. We ended up taking SP to urgent care today because she was still sore (and because when you foster, it is always better safe than sorry). Assessment was as expected- she’s sore. Give her pain killers and fill a sock with rice, put it in the microwave, and then put it on her back.

This is a great way to start what is going to be an incredibly busy week. I have a 2^nd interview on Tuesday, at a time that requires us to have 2 cars (because I won’t be done before C needs to leave to pick SP up from school). That means that Monday, we need to get the car into the shop and go pick up a rental, and try to get C into his doctor, because his back is bothering him, too.

Tuesday night is also an event at SP’s school that we need to attend.

Wednesday, our new windows get installed (yay!), which means our dogs are going to stay with friends for the day.

Thursday will be a kind of break, but C will be making the base for jambalaya. Friday, I have another interview at 9am, while C takes SP to her last day of school. She gets off at noon, and we’ll both pick her up. Then we’ll have a social worker visit that evening followed by friends over for jambalaya.

Saturday is graduation at C’s school, and some friends have asked him to attend. Next Sunday is his first fathers’ day.

So yeah, this is a really great time for our car to be in the shop.

Blogging

Write one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- yes

March- no

April- no

May- no

I will have a blurb published on a friend’s blog here soon. I think I am going to count that for June.

Publish one guest post per month.

January- yes

February- no

March- no

April- no

May- no

Have someone who is writing a guest post for me. I need to check in on it.

Writing

I am hoping to transfer the power of those two things- accountability and deadlines, to my fiction this year.

Submit at least one piece to a paying venue per month.

December: Yes (rejected)

January: Yes (rejected)

February: Yes x4 (2 rejections)

March: No

April: Yes (rejected)

May: No

Complete the first draft of my novella and start edits. I didn’t write this week. I don’t know that I’ll write next week. I really need to be back on a regular schedule.

Finances

Create and track a practice stock portfolio. “Should” get to that post this week. Most likely won’t.

End the year “on budget” in the categories I’m tracking.

June Numbers

Category	On Budget
Category	Month	Year
Groceries	Yes	No
House	Yes	No
Eating Out	Yes	Yes
Allowance – E	Yes	No
Allowance – C	Yes	Yes

I love the start of the month because of all the “yes”es.

Floating Goals

Find a new job. Two interviews this upcoming week. One is a second interview. Also, last week I applied for a job at my old company, not something I was expecting to do, but it was an opportunity I could not ignore.

Replace all the windows in the house. Wednesday. My new windows are being installed on Wednesday.

Fix the plumbing issues. Once the windows are taken care of, this is my next priority.

Get an Exterminator. The ants all seem to enter around the windows, so I’m thinking the window replacement might solve this issue. We’ll have to wait and see.

Publish new photography/flash fiction book. One of my goals for my “down time” is to start working on this project. Sadly, my down time hasn’t been very down.

Refinance the house. DONE.

Earn my Certified Supply Chain Professional designation. DONE.

Rebuild savings to $5-10k. DONE. (Transferred a nice chunk this week to the high yield savings account. That felt really nice.)

Date: 09/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Sunday Evening Post Bookmark: Permalink

Article

Left Hand, Meet Right Hand

I accept that I am current receiving money to look for work- not to actually work, just to look for work. And I accept that even though I have paid into unemployment my entire working life and this is the first time I’ve drawn on it, there are hoops to jump through. I get that, I really do. But when jumping through those hoops, I’d really like it if, when one person tells me to figure out which hoops I want to jump through and only jump through those (say, the green ones) someone else at the office then did not get to hand me a blue hoop and tell me I must jump through it.

Today I had to attend an unemployment orientation meeting. The meeting was 2 hours long, and then I had to stick around for a 1:1 session with one of their counselors. A good portion of the meeting was spent talking about taking control of our job searches, deciding what was right for us, and only going after those jobs. We were specifically told not to apply for jobs we knew we did not want, because if we turned down an offer (or even an interview) for one of those positions, it could jeopardize our benefits.

I agree with that. I do not have my resume posted out on the job boards where just anyone can find it, and I have been very selective in what I apply for. I have more than met my requirement of three job search contacts a week, so I am not worried about how targeted my search is.

But then, I had to meet with the counselor. First, he handed me a piece of paper that said what the current market value of the work I do (Administrative Services Manager) in our area, and then he handed me two jobs he thought I should apply for.

One of those jobs is one I have looked at, considered, and decided not to apply for. However, it is with a company I expect to be getting a direct contact to soon (via a recruiter I’m working with), so I can at least see myself making contact with the company, which should count.

The other position, however, listed their pay range, and it was literally 1/3 of what the current market value paperwork said I should be getting. I mentioned that I could not apply for a position that paid that little, nor do the rules of unemployment require me too, in fact, they actively discourage me from doing so. His response? Companies sometimes try to lowball you. Contact the company and set up an informational interview. If they like me well enough, they’ll adjust the job to my salary.

I said nothing, though what I really wanted to explain was that though the job had a similar title to what I do, when they have been paying 1/3 of what the fair market value of the work I do is, I think it is very clear that these are NOT the same jobs. And it does not matter how much they like me, it is a rare company these days that has the ability to TRIPLE the salary they are offering. Me contacting this company is only going to waste my time and theirs. And that doesn’t just not help my search, it actually hurts it.

Honestly, I had expected something along the lines of recommending some jobs I should apply for, but when one person spends nearly two hours telling me that I have to take control of my job search and focus it, and only apply for positions I really want, it becomes extra annoying when one of that person’s colleagues then tells me I am expected to apply for a position that is clearly not right for me, especially when unemployment’s own rules tell me I should NOT be applying for that job.

So yes, I expect hoops. I accept that I will have to jump through them. But I have the right to expect for all the unemployment counselors to give consistent information, and to respect my time. I also have the right to take control of my job search, as long as I am following the rules. And that’s what I will be doing.

Date: 06/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: On the Job Bookmark: Permalink

Article

It Is Time to Spend Money

It is hard for me to even write the title of this post. Now should not be the time to spend money. I am not working, and while job hunting is going quite well, I don’t have an offer on the table, which means no guarantee of any new job, let alone a new job that pays more than the last one (which is the goal). And yet, now is very much the time to spend money.

First, there is SP. Truth is, she doesn’t cost very much, and at least for now, the state will send us a few hundred every month to help defray her costs. But we need to work on making her room her own. We need to let her know we won’t let her go without the things she needs. And the truth is, when are we, as a whole family, all going to have time off together like this again? That means that while there are plenty of free experiences to be had, there are also some we’re going to pay for- like our trip last weekend. There’s the possibility of a Y membership, summer camp, and all sorts of other things.

Our child, like all children, came into our lives when it was her time to do so, not according to any kind of schedule we might wanted to have set. No matter how counter intuitive it is, it is time to spend money.

Next, there’s me. I’ve lost about 60lbs. I still have about 15lbs to go. But I am job hunting. Most of my “old” clothes make me look like I’m a kid playing dress up; they just hang off of me. I need to look professional for my interviews. That means spending money on clothes (though Value Village is a fabulous thrift store for those purposes). It also means spending money on my hair and nails so that I present an overall professional picture.

There’s also the fact that I promised myself a new dress for Faire this year, as a reward for my weight loss. It is time to buy that dress. I did decide I was going to go with the $240 option instead of the $420 option, but I do feel it is important to keep the promises we make, even, or perhaps especially, when we make them to ourselves.

And finally, it is time for C to return to school. We have the money in savings to pay for his summer class and for his classes this fall. In this case, there is a chance we might get some financial assistance. We need to fill out a FAFSA, which will show we make too much money to qualify for aid, but then we can contact his school and find out if there is anything we can do to modify the FAFSA results since I am no longer working. It will be nice if he then qualifies for something, but if he doesn’t, it’s still not a big deal. We planned for this. We saved for this.

Of course, none of this even takes into account the new windows we’re getting for the house. Yes, it is time to spend, even if it does not seem like the ideal time. Because this is why we make budgets. This is why we plan and why we save.

Date: 04/06/2013 Author: Erin Shanendoah Category: Budgets, Everyday Finances Bookmark: Permalink

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