Maid of Honour July 21, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : saving money, spending , 16comments
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it yet or not, but when I was in Seattle, my friend asked me if I would be the Maid of Honour for her wedding in Hawaii. Of course I said yes, and we proceeded to look at dresses I could wear to the wedding. We checked online, as well as shopped for hours in downtown Seattle. In the end, she really liked the J.Crew Taryn dress in Spiced Wine. She didn’t offer to pay for it (and I didn’t really expect her to), so at a price of $215 US + shipping + alterations, I was really apprehensive.
Then I got a fabulous idea – eBay! I did one simple search, and ended up finding the dress (brand new with tags) in the size and colour I want! It was Buy It Now at $149.99 or Best Offer … so I submitted my offer of $115, and a few minutes later, it was accepted!
My budget for this month is cringing, but $115 is a heck of a lot better than $215!!! My fingers are crossed it will need little to no alterations (I’m usually a 4 petite, but bought a 6 petite because of the sizing chart, and reviews online were saying that the dress fit a bit more snug than normal because of the interior corset).
Bring on the extra income! July 21, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : job, making money , 3commentsSo far this month, I’ve made $980 in extra income through my PT job, and through this blog. :) I’m really happy for the extra income because it will help with the extra bills that I am paying, and for the 2 weddings that we will be attending this summer.
I still have to claim for a few expenses from the Las Vegas trip (probably around $50-60), as well as get a refund for my prescriptions that I claimed on my extended health plan ($100+).
Going forward, I don’t think I’ll be making any money from the PT job until early September. Which is fine, because in August I’m set to get another Google Adsense cheque, and hopefully I can do a few odd jobs with my side business or sell some unwanted items on Craigslist or eBay.
I’m grateful that I have multiple channels to generate income above and beyond my FT job: this blog, design side business, and my new PT job (at the end of the year, all extra non-taxed income I make gets grouped together under the umbrella of my design side business, for income tax purposes – gotta stay legit!).
So this means that starting in the fall, I should be able to bring in an extra $1200/month, which will boost my income by 29% and put me in the $65,000 salary range. Of course, that means I’ll have to pay more taxes at the end of the year, but it won’t put me in a new tax bracket at least.
Girls camping trip July 20, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : entertainment, travel , 9commentsThis weekend is our annual girls camping trip. There are only 4 of us going, so it should be a nice, quiet time. Unless there are other rowdies camping there too. I don’t even really know where we’re going, just that it’s east of my house by about 1.5 hours?
Budget:
$10 camping fee
$25 food (2x breakfast, 2x lunch, 2x dinner + snacks)
$15 fire wood
$30 booze
$20 gas
TOTAL = $100
It’s more than I’d usually pay for a weekend of camping with BF (we never have fires or bring booze), but a camping trip with the girls only happens once a year – and it’s much cheaper than going on a trip anywhere else. Plus, the weather is supposed to be really nice – which I’m excited about, because the last 2 years we’ve gone, it’s been pouring rain!
3 months at the job July 20, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : job , 3commentsToday marks my 3-month anniversary at my job, and that means my probation period is over. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve been around for much longer than that, but most days I feel like time is flying by. I really like it here, and I’m lucky and grateful to have found a job that I enjoy – with co-workers who actually care about me. There is a lot of turmoil going down at the place I used to work at, and I’m glad that I am no longer there. They haven’t even hired for my replacement yet!
My job is also evolving. Right now, I’m doing 2.5 jobs – my job (marketing), the graphic designer’s job (going to hire someone by the end of the summer), and the sales coordinator (I took on 50% of her duties while she is on maternity leave). Going forward, I will be the lead person for our social media campaign – which I am very excited about.
As for my PT job, that will start shortly and will boost my annual gross income by about 25%. I’m not sure how many hours I’ll need to put into it each week, but I’m thinking it will be around 5-10 hours. No set hours – all at my own pace. I really want to get that Macbook Pro I’ve been talking about, so that I can make my job more portable. But I just don’t have the cash flow to do it at the moment. Hopefully by the end of the summer.
Recap: Las Vegas trip July 19, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : job, travel , 8commentsWell this was my third time in Las Vegas. The first time, I stayed at Harrah’s. The second time I was supposed to stay at Harrah’s, but we got moved over to the Flamingo. This time, we stayed off the strip in a Marriott Hotel. The room was gorgeous, although about a $15 cab ride (including tip) to the strip.
And the heat??? It was crazy. 40-45C every day, and at night it was around 30C. I was uncomfortably hot most of the week, but near the end I started getting used to it a bit. And by the time we landed back in Bellingham, I was shivering and wishing I were back in the desert. :)
All in all, it was a great experience. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people at the conference and sales meeting, and I really hope to be able to go to more conferences in the future.
Monday
Picked up my boss, and headed down to Bellingham. We met up with 2 other co-workers and flew Allegiant to Vegas. We made it to our hotel around 4pm. My room had a king size bed, down pillows & duvet, and beautiful French doors that separated the bedroom to the sitting area. We ended up having dinner at Rosemary’s Restaurant. It’s a little out of the way (okay, a lot out of the way), but the food was FANTASTIC, and the service was excellent too. It’s pricey though. I had the wilted spinach to start, followed by the rack of lamb, and finished it off with creme brulee. My drink of choice for the night was mojitos. :)
Tuesday
We had our annual sales meeting during the day (with catered breakfast & lunch). Then in the evening, we went to Timpano in the Venetian for dinner (had lobster ravioli), and went to see the Blue Man Group. We were supposed to go indoor sky diving, but some people were over the weight restriction. I personally have always avoided the Blue Man Group because it looks kind of lame, and it was. So not impressed.
Wednesday
Conference all day. Egg-white omelet & juice for breakfast in the hotel, and burger & fries for lunch. My boss and I hit the outlet mall, but didn’t buy anything. Then we went to In-N-Out Burger for the very first time. DELICIOUS! I got a cheeseburger and fries, animal-style. I didn’t really care for the fries, but the burger was awesome, especially with the caramelized onions. Felt kind of bad that I ate burgers & fries twice in one day, but I wasn’t going to say no to my first trip to In-N-Out.
After dinner, I met up with a couple of friends who were down for the week as well. I only spent about an hour with them – enough time to drink a yardstick margarita! I was exhausted by 11pm, so I went back to my hotel.
Thursday
Conference all day. Egg-white omelet and juice for breakfast at the hotel, and a piece of pizza and salad for lunch. For dinner, we went to El Segundo Sol. It was so good, and I highly recommend this place. Fresh guacamole & chips, plus margaritas! I ordered the mahi mahi tacos for dinner. Afterwards, we walked the strip and had a lot of fun.
Friday
Conference all day. Egg-white omelet and juice for breakfast at the hotel, and a piece of pizza and salad for lunch. For dinner, we just picked up a wrap at a fast food place at the airport. Our flight was delayed by about 90 minutes because the previous 2 Allegiant flights to Bellingham were delayed due to overheating. I was home by 2am.
Spending Recap: July 12-18, 2010 July 19, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : spending , 3commentsI was away Monday-Friday in Las Vegas. Everything was paid for – all my food and entertainment, except the $6 I lost at the slots. :) I did buy gas and I bought coffee for my co-workers, etc … but all of that will be expensed so I didn’t even include it in this breakdown.
Also, BF and I bought a fish tank & all accessories. We did our research beforehand and thought it would cost about $150. It ended up costing around $170 (ended up buying more gravel than we thought, and went with live plants instead of plastic). Also, we are going to buy one more fish this evening.
Monday 12th – Las Vegas
No Spend Day
Tuesday 13th – Las Vegas
No Spend Day
Wednesday 14th- Las Vegas
$6.87 Walgreens
Thursday 15th- Las Vegas
$6.00 slots
Friday 16th- Las Vegas
No Spend Day
Saturday 17th
$166.29 groceries
$130.74 fish tank & all accessories
Sunday 18th
$40.06 fish, snail, live plant, gravel
TOTAL = $349.96
Spending Recap: July 5-11, 2010 July 19, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : spending , 1 comment so farYikes, I forgot that I hadn’t posted this last week. Better late than never!
Please note that for the Seattle weekend I brought down about $100 US that was unused from the trip to Mexico. That $$ will not account for any daily spending as it was already accounted for in a previous trip budget (and does not affect my current budget as I didn’t actually take any money out of my bank), if that makes sense. Also, my friend and I still haven’t tallied up how much we owe each other for the trip, as we both paid for different things. This should be sorted out this week, and then I will add it to that week’s spending recap.
These spending recaps are to account for daily discretionary spending that affects my current monthly budget.
Monday 5th
$9.21 Canada Post
+$12.16 Amazon (book sold)
$6.21 Subway
$4.98 butcher (2 pieces of pork)
$10.16 farm market
$9.98 bakery
Tuesday 6th
$7.96 Dairy Queen (oops!)
Wednesday 7th
$6.21 Subway
$19.98 Superstore
Thursday 8th
$39.23 gas
Friday 9th
No Spend Day – Seattle
Saturday 10th
No Spend Day – Seattle
Sunday 11th
No Spend Day – Seattle
TOTAL = $101.76
Busy bee! July 8, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : blog, job, travel , 4commentsSorry for not being around to blog much lately. I’ve been SWAMPED at work with so many projects, and will be out of town next week while in Vegas. I’ve got some great ideas to blog about, so stay tuned.
Oh, and did I mention that this weekend I’m going to Seattle with a girlfriend to watch 2 baseball games, drink wine, and shop? I’m so excited! Well, not for the shopping part. I’ve got nothing that I need (or much money to spend), but I do want to try to find a nice dress to wear for the wedding in Hawaii (and versatile enough to wear to another wedding that I’m attending this summer). Budget will be around $50-75.
