The Bauhaushold Report

Coping With the Layoff

2009-01-28T11:09:00.003-06:00

If you're keeping up with my other blogs or following my Twitter stream, then you've already heard the news: the job loss is GO.

When I was told on Monday to sign my severance papers and pack up my desk, I was tempted to fall apart. Even though we knew it was a possibility--even, as much as we hated to admit, a probability--and we had been drawing up contingency plans, I was still in shock, and in the moment, panicking sounded like a pretty good idea. But then I reminded myself of Philippians 4:19, and then of Luke 12:31, and I gave thanks for the abundant blessings I received while I worked for that employer, and that God will see me through this change in plans for our lives. Since then I've pretty much been at peace with the whole thing.

Now while I believe that the Lord orders our steps, I also believe it's a lot easier for Him to do so if we're already in motion. So when I came home I only gave myself an hour to grieve for my job and let it all sink in, and then I got to work. The first step was, of course, filing for unemployment. The next step was contacting my old temp agencies and letting them know I'm available for work again. So far, every good job I've ever had has been gotten through these agencies. I've sent out resumes and job applications. And now I'm checking out the freelance writers' markets.

God knows it's the desire of my heart to be able to work from home and write full time. I know that, although I don't have very much professional experience, I've got the talent and the skill. I've also finally reached a place where I have the self-confidence to back it up. I think. I hope.

That didn't sound very confident, did it?

At any rate, between my last paycheck and my severance pay, we'll be covered for another month, and that should be about the time when our tax rebate and Husband's student loan money start to roll in. Between that and the unemployment, I've got time to research and write some articles and short stories and get my name out there. I'm still taking the copy editing course, too, which will also hopefully lead to some editing opportunities. If I also temp, or land a part-time job to earn benefits, we'll be in pretty good shape.

And if it doesn't work out that way, well, at least history has shown that temping is a good way to get your foot in the door of a great job.

Meanwhile, we're making the most of our leftovers and saving on utilities by, basically, shivering in the dark. It sounds tough, but we're keeping it cozy. Last Friday, just in case, I saw my doctor and she loaded me up with enough meds to last me for months. I also signed up for payment protection on all of our credit cards, so I don't have to worry about those bills for a while.

So I'm confident that, by God's grace, it's all going to work out. And it's hardly as if we're the only one's going through this right now.

And if not, there's always Mexico. ;)

Thursday 13 #2 - Layoff Edition

2009-01-22T10:07:00.004-06:00

13 things we might pursue if indeed I lose my job next week.

1. Buy an RV motor home and run away to be beach bums in Mexico.

2. Freelance writing and copy editing.

3. Self-publishing my novel - we need the proceeds from it now, not in the two or three years it would take to get it published the traditional way.

4. Self-publishing a chapbook of flash fiction (see above).

5. Freelance web design.

6. Starting a family.

7. Becoming a virtual assistant.

8. Finding another lame --but steady -- corporate day job.

9. Podcasting.

10. Giving knitting lessons.

11. Giving guitar lessons.

12. Song writing (Husband's got a talent for composing, and I'd like to take a crack at writing lyrics).

13. Temping.

Join the Thursday 13 here, and leave your link here in the comments!

The winds of change are a'blowin' my way

2009-01-19T17:45:00.002-06:00

Maybe it's my job's uncertain future making me crazy, but I sense the coming of CHANGE. Even if the axe passes me by on this round (and if it does, there's no guarantee it won't catch me a few months down the road), the threat of losing our sole source of regular income -- and our health insurance -- had forced us to consider some possibilities that we probably wouldn't have otherwise. It's time to step back and take a look at how we've been doing things -- financially, creatively, entrepreneurially, and some other -lys that I'm sure I'm forgetting --and how they've been working for us. I think we're coming to a point where we're both ready to throw out the rule books, forget about what anybody else (other than our God) thinks, and just do what's right for us.

I'm one to get unhealthily hung up on rules, on how one is supposed to go about doing something. Take my writing, for example. I've allowed arbitrary "rules," handed down from various professionals about how to tell a story, to stifle my own voice and style. When I gave myself permission to break those rules, or simply to ignore them, my writing vastly improved. From writing to publishing, for pretty much my entire adult life I've studied the "proper" way to get published and been determined to stick to it, convinced that the success of mavericks who did it their own way was simply luck, and not for me.

Lately it's been becoming clearer and clearer to both of us that the wildly successful people ARE the mavericks, the ones who make up their own rules as they go along and blaze new trails to old destinations; and also that following the established, acceptable rules hasn't really done anything for me. For either of us.

I'm not really sure what all of this means yet. This is a slow brew; we're not ready to rush into anything. But I'm positive we're going to be facing change, whether it's forced on us or not. That's a little terrifying. I'm not sure I've got it in me to be too much of a rebel, and I'm going to be counting on Husband to keep after me and not let me give up, and vice versa. But it's also exciting. Suddenly, it seems like just maybe, the possibilities before us are endless.

Best laid plans and all that

2009-01-15T17:34:00.001-06:00

I would very much appreciate prayer from those who pray, and good thoughts from those who don't, about my job. There are going to be more layoffs by the end of the month, and everybody is under the microscope to see if they can be let go. Word is they're starting with those who aren't working on anything billable, and I still am, so maybe the axe will pass me by. Still, it's going to be a stressful rest of the month. And by the by, their severance package sucks. So, yes. Job-keeping vibes and prayers would be awesome. Thank you kindly.

X-posted on all my blogs. I need all the prayer I can get.

Sometimes, you have to open your own doors.

2009-01-14T16:04:00.003-06:00

I made what I hope will turn out to be a smart move today by signing up for a six week Intro to Copy Editing course at Mediabistro. I've felt for two years now like I've been wasting an opportunity by not taking advantage of my employer's Educational Assistance plan, and I'm wasting it no longer.

The experts I read all say that one of the keys to building wealth is more education. I sure hope they're right. Do I expect this one class to qualify me to immediately start making more money? Of course not. It's just an introductory course, and I'm not quite that delusional. But I do expect it to qualify me to take on some freelance work, and to improve my abilities as both a blogger and fiction writer, not to mention give me some muchly needed confidence in marketing myself as such. If this course is truly all it's cracked up to be, then down the road I'll probably take the intermediate and advanced courses, and throw some copy writing classes into the mix.

As much as I appreciate the insight into human nature and the improved ability to build believable characters that my undergrad psych degree has given me--along with the not insignificant salary bump that having a completed degree in anything has given me--I still look back on my formal education with regret. I wish I had used that time to earn a degree in a more creative area of study that I could feel truly passionate about. I had reasons at the time for settling on psychology as my major--some of which were outside of my control--but settle is definitely what I did. Now is the time to start doing something about that, and to start laying the groundwork for a career path that I can really get excited about.

Maybe one online course won't do all of that by itself. But it's certainly a start.

IBC must stand for "Is Bad at Communication"

2009-01-12T14:15:00.003-06:00

Right now, I'm not a happy bank customer. Before I launch into my tirade, I should first give you some background: back in November and December, when my Christmas savings weren't stretching as far as I'd hoped they would, I made the agonizing (and ultimately foolish) decision to put some Christmas purchases on my Paypal Buyer Credit account. As I pulled out my Paypal debit card, I cringed at the thought of raising my credit even more, but at least, I thought, I'd be able to pay off the balance fairly soon and not rack up a ton of interest. And so I swiped my Paypal card with confidence.

Except, dear reader, my Paypal account did not pull from Buyer Credit for its backup funding, like it was supposed to do. Instead, it pulled it out of my checking account. You know, the one I use to pay all my bills. The one that's usually emptied out the day after payday. Can you say "overdraft fees"? I knew you could!

One of the principles of personal finance that I've learned while keeping this blog is that it never hurts to ask--in this case, that meant asking for a courtesy refund of at least some, if not all, of the fees. My husband, a former bank customer service rep, insisted that we follow up on this principle, because in his experience, courtesy refunds were the norm.

I was nervous, because this took more than just a phone call. It meant I would have to go down to my regular branch and meet with a manager in person to explain the situation. But, with plenty of prodding from Husband, I went in armed with printouts from both my checking account and from Paypal, my budget, and my receipt tracker to show how very responsible I am (trying to be). The assistant manager was very sympathetic and promised to turn in my request for approval--apparently what used to take a phone call is now a very drawn-out and complicated process--and then gave me his card and told me to call him back in a couple of days if I didn't hear from him.

So I waited. And I didn't hear from him. And then I started calling. Every day. And every day, he was either out, or in a meeting, or with a customer, and messages were left for him, and he never called me back. By now I'm cursing this bank's utter lack of customer service, and there's talk of closing our account once all of the checks clear.

Then finally, today, after I somewhat tearfully told the receptionist that I only wanted someone to call me back and tell me the answer, even if it was no, he returned my phone call. There were apologies, there were excuses, and there was an answer: no refund. But! The manager said that he resubmitted my request to someone higher up on the food chain who could override the first decision, but that person is on vacation and won't return for another week. Sigh.

So, we're back in wait-and-see mode. I understand that the banks are having it as rough as anyone right now and are having to tighten their belts, but Husband, the former banker, thinks that this is utterly ridiculous; both the fact that it took so much time and so many phone calls on my part to get a response, and the fact that they said no refunds, at all. So regardless of what happens with this second request, we'll probably end up closing the account over this. Which is sad, because I've had this account for years, and until now I've always been pretty happy with them, and this ill will could have been avoided if only they'd returned my frickin' phone call the first time. Or even the second, third or fourth, for that matter.

By this point all I want is to not have to call them anymore. Here's hoping that this time they follow up and let me know when the answer comes back, without me having to hound them for it.

Monday catch-up and a disclaimer

2009-01-12T10:10:00.007-06:00

Last week was pure insanity. My day job kept me so busy that by the end of the day my head was spinning, and blogging was totally off the menu. Now that things have calmed down, I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Things of significance that happened last week, that I will expound upon later: payday, a phone upgrade, and a trip to the Salvation Army thrift store to stock up on workout clothes.

Over at Get Rich Slowly, there's an interesting debate going on over the ethics of accepting paid posts. Obviously, I'm in the camp that sees nothing wrong with it as long as you're honest about it, and about the product. Of course, I'm also in the camp that thinks that just because you have a blog doesn't automatically make you a journalist and require you to be held to the same standards as a newspaper, and I've never even tried to set this up as a journalistic blog.

For the record, I don't accept any paid offers that require me to give a positive review. If I don't like your product, or if I'm not familiar with it, I'm not going to write about how great it is just to get a paycheck. At any rate, I've never been coy about the fact that I do paid posts on this blog. I haven't done any in several months, but I intend to start again soon. Frankly, I don't know what else I could do to provide myself with a secure and steady stream of extra income, and I'm not in a position to get by without one right now.

So, as I've said before, if paid posts offend you on principle, then this is not the blog for you, and it will not hurt my feelings if you move along to something more to your liking. That's the awesome thing about the internet--the ability to cater it to your personal likes and dislikes and create your own experience. If you don't want to experience paid reviews or advertorials, then it's easy enough to take this blog off your menu. Clickity-click, and I'm gone, easy as pie*.

*Eating one, that is**. Baking one's not so easy, unless you're Sandra Lee.

**Mmm, pie.

Thirteen steps to getting my finances back on track.

2009-01-01T00:01:00.002-06:00

Call it a list of resolutions if you want. I prefer to call it a plan of action.

1. Keep up this blog again. Blogging makes me diligent.

2. Start tracking our spending again.

3. Do some financial housecleaning to shore up any holes that are leaking money.

4. Have serious discussion with husband about the Food Problem and how we can both solve it.

5. Start paid blogging again. It's an easy source of extra income which is sorely needed right now.

6. Stock and market my Etsy shop. Another income stream, hopefully.

7. Use expected tax return and student loan money to repay our emergency fund and pay off as much debt as possible.

8. When we have a positive cash flow again, start another debt snowball.

9. Create extra snowflakes by digging up some clutter to sell on eBay.

10. Read and stay involved in the personal finance blogosphere to keep myself inspired.

11. Look for passive income streams to create even more snowflakes.

12. Remember every--and I do mean every--little bit helps.

13. Keep at it and stay vigilant. DO NOT become complacent again.

I hope all of you reading this have a happy and prosperous new year!

Let's review, shall we?

2008-12-29T12:38:00.001-06:00

Can you frickin' believe this year only has two days left in it? I can't. It went by in such a blur. And yet, so much happened in it, most of it thankfully good. It started out great, with a positive cash flow and beefed up savings and the realization that our credit was improved enough to buy a home instead of renting one. And then the house hunt began, and failed, and we had to fire our realtor, and then it started again with a new fantabulous realtor, but it still took forever, and it was exhausting, and somewhere in the middle of all that our dog died, and we were as devastated as a couple who has no children and personifies their pets into babies can be, and then my car gave up the ghost for good, it was all very emotional and stressful and exhausting, and I burned out. On house-hunting, on blogging, on grieving...on pretty much everything. Go away, world, I wanted to say. Please let me take a long, long nap until I can deal with everything again. But I couldn't, so instead I cut some things out of my routine so I could have some energy left over for the non-routine things that were happening in my life. This included blogging. Unfortunately, very VERY unfortunately, it also included keeping a close watch on my finances.

In August, we finally found our house. Nobody told me escrow was going to be so much work. Then in September, the work was over, and we moved in. Oh, did I say the work was over? How silly of me. The work will never be over. This is the true price of home ownership. But it's worth it. I feel like I've said this before, here or elsewhere, but it bears repeating. Owning a house is hard work from the day you submit your offer, and it never stops. But I love my house and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Did I mention that my car died? It did. For good, as far as I'm concerned, because I'd have to pay more than it's worth on Edmund's to get it running again, and that's just silly, especially when for the same amount I can put a down payment on something fairly inexpensive that gets much better mileage. So that's what we did, in October, after it became apparent that having one vehicle just wasn't working for us (remind me to rant about the Tulsa bus system sometime). We found an '05 Chevy Aveo that's very cheap to fill up, for a reasonably cheap price, and made our down payment, and now we have a reasonably cheap car payment.

The good news is that, when our tax return comes in, and along with it our new home buyer's tax credit, we'll be able to pay the car off. The bad news is that this payment, small as it is, pushed our finances to their limit. The ugly news? We've been using credit cards to make things stretch, and we weren't keeping an eagle-eye on how much we were stretching things. And so the year ends with us even deeper in debt than when I started this blog, living paycheck to paycheck, and struggling to make ends meet. Again. A year ago, I never thought I'd be in this position again, but here I am, and it sucks.

At least I learned a valuable lesson about how I just can't relax and get complacent about this stuff. Thankfully, this year only has two days left in it. It was an awesome, exhilarating, exhausting year, and I'm sorry it's ending on such a down note. But the new year is only three days away, and with it, a blank slate, a new drawing board, on which I can start over completely from scratch.

Bet you can guess what my New Year's Resolution will be.

New Year, New Mission

2008-12-22T14:51:00.003-06:00

Do you know what's worse than getting burned out on blogging? Getting financially burned because not blogging means you become lazy and complacent and no longer diligent. I've got things so screwed up, y'all. Not "losing my house" screwed up or anything, but it could easily become that if I don't start being really dadgum careful right now. So, yeah. I'm gonna start blogging here again in the New Year. Hopefully with a brand new look to start things out right.

What's the plural of hiatus?

2008-08-20T10:08:00.003-05:00

First, some good news for a change: We have a house! It's a three bedroom 1971 brick ranch with a small kitchen and a big back yard and walk-in closets and YAY, it's OURS! Well, it's in escrow, so it's not really ours yet. But everything has been agreed upon, inspections and appraisals have taken place, minor repairs are being asked for, and in just eight more days we'll sign the deed and then it will officially belong to us the bank that will be taking our money for the next 30 years for the privilege of living in it. I cannot wait.

So, as you can imagine, we're pretty busy. So busy I can barely keep up with it all, let alone keep y'all up to date as well. What's more, just the thought of blogging these days leaves me cold. Too much pressure, man! And there's also the fact that I've been kind of ambivalent about this particular blog for a while now. So, as with Sparkle Motion, I'm declaring an official hiatus until life settles down a little and I figure out what I want to do. You can head over there to find out all of the places you can still keep up with me in the meantime.

Thank you for reading. I hope I made it worth your while.

Excuses. I'm full of 'em.

2008-07-23T09:28:00.003-05:00

Our finances--and our emotions--have been all over the place lately, with more lows than highs, and I just haven't had the heart (or the energy) to blog about it. Sorry.

But here's a quick recap.

Two weeks ago: my car died. Ees kaput. Deader than Elvis. The only way to "repair" it would be to replace the engine, which would cost more than the car's Blue Book value on a good day. Husband doesn't want to pay cash for a cheap beater to replace it, and we can't take out a car loan until this house buying business is over with.

So for now I'm having to make due with borrowing my mom's van, and renting an economy car on days when she can't loan it to me. Meanwhile, we got Husband's truck running, but after sitting around undriven for three years (yes, really), it needs some work before it's really driveable. And before we can get the work done, we have to get it legal. So it's going to be another week or two before I can start driving it to work.

Oh, the fun we're having with the car situation.

And then, last week: we failed to get the house we wanted. The seller was willing to negotiate as far as contributing to down payment and closing costs, but not on the price, and even with those concessions he was asking more than the house was worth, so we walked away. The transportation sitch has kept us from being able to have another look at our second choice or check out other houses, but we'll finally get to do that this Friday.

Other things happened, too, all at once, the way these things usually go. Lightning knocked out our satellite receivers and screwed up our electrical wiring; thankfully, as renters we didn't have to cover the costs to repair any of that, but it was still hella discouraging. I also finally received a bill for my ambulance ride last November, to the tune of $2,200. According to my insurance, I'm only responsible for about $700, which is a lot better than two grand, but still, that's a great big bill right there.

We laughed at the absurdity of it all until we cried, and then we cried until it felt so absurd that we had to laugh. But we hung in there, and prayed, and believed that it would all work out for the best, and everything would be okay.

And then, over the weekend, our prayers were answered: we got a letter from an old creditor saying that they owed me a substantial amount of money, some bit of unclaimed property from years and years ago that's been sitting there earning interest all this time. This, of course, seems a little too good to be true, so I'm not going to put any eggs in that basket until I actually see the money in my checking account. But if it is indeed a reliable basket, its holding enough money to do exactly one of the following:

A) Buy a car

B) Repair Husband's prosthesis and make it wearable again

or...

C) Completely pay off our credit cards.

Oh, man. What a choice. We really, really need a car, and Husband would really, really like to walk again (and I'd really, really like him to, also). But after much deliberation, we both decided that the best thing we could do for our future was option C--getting completely rid of our nasty, evil consumer debt and freeing ourselves from indentured servitude to the credit card companies. Once that's done, we'll be in a better position to be able to afford the other things. Even if we end up having to borrow for them, paying off the card should improve our credit enough that we'd get much better rates that we would otherwise.

So, things are finally looking up again. In fact, with the prospect of being debt free looming just ahead, things are looking higher than they've ever looked before, and that's great, because I really need to be on a high right now.

Speaking of extra income streams...

2008-07-07T15:12:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend, Get Rich Slowly posted The Non-Conformist's Guide to Making Money, a guest post by Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Nonconformity.

I found it an interesting--and encouraging--read. Apart from inspiring me to get back on the pro-blogging wagon, it also made me want to hurry up and promote my Etsy shop. It's going to be a while yet before I'm ready to leave the 9 to 5 Cube World, but when I do, I'm confident that I'll find plenty of ways to help keep us in the black.

I signed up for Social Spark!

2008-07-07T14:15:00.003-05:00

It's no secret that I sometimes use this blog to pull in some extra income, mainly via paid posts. The idea of accepting compensation to blog about something is a bit controversial for some; mainly, I think, for those who confuse personal blogging with professional journalism. But being that this is a personal blog, and a blog about personal finance (among other, related things), which includes finding extra streams of income, I think paid blogging fits right in.

I only do it part time, because I only have a limited amount of time to devote to it, and also because I can get a little burned out on blogging as a whole if I do too much of it at someone else's pace. But the money is good. As an established, if not wildly (or even just kinda) popular, blogger, I pull in an average of $30/hour. Considering I only devote about an hour a week to it, for me that's also an extra $30/week. That may look like chump change, but you'd be amazed at how much progress I've made paying down my credit cards already just by applying these little weekly paid blogging "debt snowflakes" to my balance. Of course, those who devote more time to it make significantly more.

I started out doing it through PayPerPost, where last year I made over a thousand dollars--a teensy fraction of what some of the full-time Posties pulled in. So it's only natural that I signed up for SocialSpark, the newest venture from Izea, Inc., the people behind PayPerPost. SocialSpark is Izea's attempt to once again revolutionize the paid blogging market by turning it into a social network, thereby gaining even more exposure both for bloggers and the products they advertise.

What I like most about this new network is that, unlike PPP, I don't have to keep refreshing the opportunities page all day long in the hopes of grabbing a good one before it's snapped up by my competition. With SocialSpark, I just reserve a slot, and they e-mail me to let me know when they're ready for me to write my post--after which I have twelve hours to get it written and posted. And if I see an opportunity I like that doesn't have any openings, with SocialSpark I can contact the advertiser and request that they open a new slot just for me.

This is my first post for SocialSpark, so it remains to be seen if it will work out as well for me as its predecessor did; but I have high hopes for it, and high expectations for how it will change the paid blogging biz.

Life transitions are crazy-making.

2008-07-07T13:47:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty psyched about our debt consolidation, and I can't wait to see how much money it will actually save. It's not reflected on any of my online account pages yet (not that I've been obsessive about refreshing them or anything), but if I stick to the snowball method and keep paying as much to that card as I'm paying to my debts each month now, I should notice some fairly rapid progress in paying it off. This also comes just as my student loan forbearance ends and I have to start making those payments again, so that works out pretty well. I would consider adding my loan into the mix, too, but I think that when my husband graduates I'll be able to consolidate both our loans together.

Anyway.

I'm rambling because there's just so much going on and so much to think about right now. It's a little overwhelming, and no way can I organize my thoughts on it all.

We made an offer on a house. It's the prettier of the two houses we were considering. We came in pretty low, so we expect to be countered, if not rejected outright. However, this house has some potential structural problems, and we're still trying to get the disclosure from the seller. If he hasn't addressed them, and doesn't plan to, then the house will turn into a money pit, and we'll have to walk away. Our second-choice house is already looking more and more attractive, though, especially considering it's priced $20,000 under value to start with.

I need to sit down and draw up a to do list, because there's a lot to put on it. This week is going to be one of the busiest I've had in a long time. Besides meetings with loan officers and realtors and insurance agents, we have to attend a home buying class and a counseling session to be eligible for city First Time Homebuyer funds. I want to be excited, but mostly, I'm just exhausted.

Time to go look at home insurance quotes. Whee.

Tidying up

2008-07-03T17:31:00.003-05:00

I did some financial housecleaning today. It's been way too long since I've done that, but the timing was just right to receive some much needed debt consolidation. Just in time, too, what with our impending mortgage and utilities payments.

I had a great offer from one of my creditors to transfer my balances, for 4.9% interest until the balances are paid off. This came just as the card we use primarily for gasoline (but also used to pay for our honeymoon) jumped from 0% to 14.99%. That's really quite a jump. It was time to finally take all of the advice I've seen to consolidate debt. Now I'll only have one credit card to worry about paying off, and a much lower minimum payment than what all of my payments currently add up to. Talk about debt relief.

It's also perfect timing for helping with our mortgage application. I've been gathering mortgage quotes from various lenders, but I think the lender our real estate agent recommended is going to be the way to go. I turned in our application this afternoon, and I'm pretty confident we'll get the loan we need.

This ball's a-rollin'! I'm so excited. Tomorrow we're viewing the house and putting in our offer. Eeeee! Everybody cross your fingers and say a prayer for us to get the house!

House Hunt & Puppy Quest Update

2008-07-03T11:14:00.002-05:00

This week has been one of the most hectic weeks I've experienced in a while. Apart from work being way more busy than you'd expect on a week when a third of the company is on vacation, I've been spending all of my "free" time making phone calls and filling out paperwork and doing research for our potential house.

That's right, we found a house! We found two houses, even! One that we love, that's listed at the very tip top of our budget, but that, with the exception of an extra bathroom, is everything we want in a house; and one that is less expensive, and is also everything we need, but that needs some work to update it and make it pretty, and is our backup in case we don't get the first house.

As for the first house, we're meeting our agent there tomorrow to go through it once more and put together an offer. Hopefully, next week I'll be able to report that they've accepted our offer and we're in escrow limbo. Also next week, I'll do up a big post about everything we've learned about how to buy a house when you're a first time home buyer with a single income and very little savings, without getting yourself in deep, deep trouble.

In other news, we're not eligible to adopt a puppy from the rescue shelter unless/until we get our cats vaccinated, which we were planning to do anyway before moving them into the city. The only reason we haven't done so yet, or at least haven't done so in a long time, is because they're totally indoor cats and are never exposed to other animals. Also, they're both pretty young and healthy, and our unhealthy, elderly dog was our priority. At any rate, they're both going to get bundled up and taken to the vet soon. That should certainly be interesting.

I Need a Better Budget

2008-06-30T16:03:00.001-05:00

It took me forever to figure out a way to track my personal budget electronically that my ADD-enhanced brain could handle. After trying out other people’s spreadsheets and budgeting programs, I finally found one that was simple enough to work for me. It’s just a simple, basic spreadsheet that I keep in Google Docs, and thus far, for the most part, it works.

But it works for now because my finances are really pretty simple. Normally I tend to live by the rule, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Just starting the process of buying a house, however, is beginning to give me a pretty good idea of how complicated my finances are about to become. So I’m thinking it might be time to consider upgrading to something a little more hard working in the budget software department.

A popular one that I’ve seen a lot of people touting, but that I hadn’t yet tried, is You Need A Budget. I recently got a chance to try out a full trial version of YNAB Pro, and I’m pretty impressed. It has four categories: Register, Budget, Scheduler, and Reports.

The Register section is for tracking your spending, and works just like a check register. I don’t know how good I’d be at using this feature, since I’ve never been able to get into the habit of using my actual check register. The big, ADD-friendly advantage this has, though, is that it automatically plugs the numbers into the “Spent” column of your budget and calculates your remaining balance for that category. That part’s pretty nifty, and saves enough extra steps that I might be able to get myself to do it.

The Budget section is, of course, where you budget your funds. It’s pre-filled with every category you could possibly need, but just in case it missed one, it lets you add your own custom categories. It also lets you delete lines you don’t need so you can streamline your budget. For each month there are three columns – Budgeted, Spent, and Balance. Enter your budget in the first column, natch, and if you use the register properly, it does the rest for you. The only drawback of this section, from my standpoint, is that you can’t break it down into a bi-monthly budget. This has always been my biggest hang-up in trying to use budget software, as I get paid twice a month and have difficulty translating that into a one-month worksheet.

The Scheduler could really come in handy for someone with ADD, or simply a tendency to forget stuff. You can schedule your payments, and when the time comes it will subtract them from your budget for you. If your bill payments are all automated, this could be really useful in keeping you from forgetting to account for a payment.

Finally, the Report section is also just what the name suggests. It lets you view your spending by category pie chart or by column, and you can track your balances at a glance by a handy bar chart.
To simplify things even further, you can import any existing Excel worksheets into the program, instead of having to start over from scratch (although it didn’t let me import a Google Doc spreadsheet that I had downloaded in Excel format). You can also import bank transactions directly from your bank’s web site.

Overall, I think this budget software is all it’s cracked up to be. It’s streamlined, intuitive, and very ADD-friendly. I probably won’t be investing in a licensed copy unless/until they add a bi-monthly budget option, but if it already had one, I’d at the very least be willing to shell out the $20 for the basic version. In a nutshell, re: YNAB Pro: I approve.

I think I just drooled on myself a little.

2008-06-26T16:17:00.002-05:00

Nicole at Baking Bites shows how to make your own home-made Drumstick (tm) style ice cream cones. Only better!

Spill coffee on your wooden table.

2008-06-26T13:33:00.004-05:00

We're always on the lookout for non-toxic, natural alternatives to all the chemicals in our lives. This is especially important to my cancer survivor husband. I've been a little worried about this, wondering how, after we move, are we going to handle all of the paint jobs, furniture touch-ups, etc. that seem to go along with home ownership?

So I'm pretty happy to have stumbled upon this Ask Metafilter article on non-toxic wood treatments. I'm especially intrigued--and a little squicked--by all of the info on shellac, where it came from and all of its uses:

Pharmaceutical - shellac is used to coat enteric pills so that they do not dissolve in the stomach, but in the lower intestine, which alleviates upset stomachs. Its also used as a coating on pills to "time release" medication.

Confectionery - shellac is used to provide protective candy coatings or glazes on candies like Reese's Pieces, because of its unique ability to provide a high gloss in relatively thin coatings (like a French Polish). It was used at one time on M&M's. It is approved by the FDA as a food safe coating when dissolved in pure ethanol (not denatured).

Hats - shellac is used to stiffen felt used to make hats. It allows the makers to shape the felt into brims, bowl shapes, etc.

Food Coatings - because of its FDA approval, shellac is used to coat apples and other fruits to make them shinier.

Electrical – shellac mixed with marble dust is used by lamp manufacturers to glue the metal base to glass incandescent bulbs.

Fascinating, huh? But then, there's this:

If you use shellac, you have the added advantage of being able to tell your friends you painted it with an excretion of the female Coccus Lacca beetle, harvested from the bark of the trees where she deposits it to provide a sticky hold on the trunk, necessary during mating with the non-stick capable male.

Bleah. But as someone else over there pointed out, honey is a bug excretion, too, and a mighty tasty one at that.

At any rate, now I'm having visions of inexpensive unfinished bookcases naturally died with coffee and sealed with beetle juice dancing in my head, and no pesky carcinogens to ruin my fun.

I can has hows now plz?

2008-06-26T12:31:00.003-05:00

New real estate agent seems pretty great so far--no trouble at all getting an appointment with her on her end, she's really flexible, which is just what we need. We just had to figure out some transportation for Husband, and now we're good to go a-hunting tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to come back to work afterwards to make up the hours I'll miss, but it's worth it if it can speed this process up. We're so tired of being houseless!

We're especially eager to hurry up and move since we put in an application to adopt a puppy. We didn't think we were ready yet--it's been 8 weeks since we lost Fizzgigg, but it still feels like it just happened--but we saw a report on the local news about a bunch of Bichon Frises getting rescued from a puppy mill and brought to a local rescue shelter, and it just felt like the right thing to do. The shelter told us that they only place puppy mill survivors in homes that already have an established adult dog, though. I'm not sure why, but I think it has something to do with them being freaking terrified of people because of all of the abuse and neglect and whatnot, and the other dog makes them feel more secure. So anyway, we're not eligible for one of the rescues, but they offered to process our application anyway and put us on the waiting list for a puppy, and we agreed.

I still get sad thinking about another dog in Fizz's place, but at the same time, the prospect of a puppy is helping me feel a little better. I haven't had an actual puppy to raise in... oh, ever. The only family dog I can remember getting as an actual puppy was when I was six. So it's exciting, the idea of raising a dog from scratch and knowing its entire life story. Scary, considering what a little holy terror Niblet was when she was a kitten (and still is, sometimes, seven years later), and remembering that baby animals can be as irritating at times as they are cute (or maybe that just goes for kittehs). Even so, I'm looking forward to it. Even more, I'm looking forward to being able to give it its very own yard to play in.

So that's the news of us for today. Hopefully, by Monday I'll be able to give you a positive update on the house hunt.

What I've Been Up To Lately

2008-06-23T14:46:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned last month (o.O), we've officially started our house hunt. But we didn't get very far out of the gate before we got tripped up and had to take a step back to compose ourselves. Unfortunately, the real estate agent we were going with--who is a great guy and and a very knowledgeable agent--is just too busy right now to accommodate our weird schedule. After the second time he's had to cancel an appointment on us--we had cleared Friday afternoon to go look at houses, but he got tied up in closing rigmarole with other clients and couldn't take us--we're stepping back to take a deep breath and decide whether we want to stick with this agent or try out my sister's favorite realtor.

So that bit sucks. We did get to go out one afternoon a few weeks ago, and found a house we both really liked, but we were dithering on the location, and while we were doing that somebody else snatched it up. So much for that.

Apart from that, I've begun revamping my web site (a redesign for this blog is next on my list), which entails re-self-teaching myself CSS and various other web languages. I also revamped my Etsy shop and added some new items, and have still more stuff to add once I get a sunny afternoon free to take pictures. And I've been writing. I think I'm only 20,000 words or so from the end of my novel. That looks like a lot, until you hold it up next to the 70,000 words (or somewhere thereabouts) that I've already written.

Finally, I took a much needed vacation, in which I didn't go anywhere, slept as much as I pleased, got lots of "me" time, and discovered a thrift shop where the clothes are expensive but the price tags are so very not. We're talking brand names that I gave up thinking I'd ever wear a long time ago, and nothing over $5.99. No, I'm not telling you where it is. I don't want you snurching all the good stuff out from under me. But today, I feel stylish and cute and like I belong in a cotton commercial. It's the fabric of our lives!

Let the hiatus be ended. I come bearing links.

2008-06-23T14:03:00.003-05:00

Hidey-ho, boys and girls! Since I've been absent for so long, I'll waste no time giving you the goods.

Austin journalist Omar Gallaga (possibly better known to you as OmarG of Television Without Pity Smallville recap fame)has recently done an article on using coupon sites and other web sources to save money on groceries. Scroll to the bottom of the article to find a good list of links to appease your frugal soul.
Relatedly, the same Omar just finished hosting a live chat with coupon expert Rochelle Hamby of divagirlsdeals.com. She answers questions on gaming the coupon system and getting the most for your many, many (too many) grocery dollars, and lists even more coupon and bargain resources.
Still on the topic of the Food Problem, Kris over at Cheap Healthy Good recently (okay, practically a month ago; but I've been meaning to blog it ever since) posted on How 60 Minutes a Week Can Save Hundreds of Dollars on Food, with even more stellar advice on getting the most bang for your coupon-buck, and be sure to catch her follow-up post on Eating Healthy While Clipping Coupons: The Dos & Don'ts.
Finally, in these belt-tightening times it's just as important--and also as much of a challenge--to save on fuel for your vehicle as is is fuel for your body. Freeshipping.org can help out with that by providing free shipping coupons to over 750 retailers, making it make that much more sense to save your gas, stay home and shop online.

That's all I've got. Unless you also want excuses as to where the hay I've been for the last month. I don't really have any of those, either. I just felt a little burned out on blogging--especially on blogging-for-hire--so I put this blog on the back burner while I decided whether or not I wanted to continue it. And the decision I reached is that, indeed, I do.

So although, like with my other blog, posting will remain a little sporadic while I try to finish the rough draft of my novel, I will be posting here again. And I will try my very hardest not to let it descend into all rants about our nightmare house non-hunt (which is a whole 'nother post), although as things currently stand, that certainly is tempting.

It's good to be back!

Sound the trumpets: the hunt is ON!

2008-05-22T11:15:00.004-05:00

Thanks to all the craziness this month, which still has yet to let up, we have yet to actually begin our house hunt. I've been searching online, but we've postponed meeting with a realtor twice, and we don't have any houses lined up to see live and in person.

This might be a good thing, since we don't really know what we're doing. I ordered Home Buying For Dummies, which shipped yesterday, so hopefully we'll get it in time to at least skim this weekend. Meanwhile, through my online perusing I found a nice townhouse just a few blocks from where I work. I think Husband has his heart set on an actual house with a yard, but all I can see are the dollar signs. This condo is affordable(depending on the dues and maintenance fees, natch), well below our spending budget, and the location is fantastic. It's a decent neighborhood, with plenty of shops and eating places in walking distance, and several grocery store options within a few miles. The biggest plus for me is that I could walk or bike to work, allowing us to get by with only one car.

I'm also considering the fact that the asking price for this place is low enough that we could possibly borrow the entire amount that we initially applied for and have enough left over to pay off our credit cards. Between virtually eliminating my huge commuter gasoline bill and eliminating our credit card payments, even with condo fees I think we'd still come out ahead in our monthly budget. So while it might be a hard sell for Husband, I still want to check this place out. Hopefully, I'll be able to get us in to see it this weekend.

Bauhaushold Blahs

2008-05-19T12:40:00.003-05:00

The Bauhaushold has not been doing so great lately. For starters, we lost one of our own: our furbaby Fizzgigg passed away the first of this month. The rest of us have been slow in recovering from the huge wound left by the tiny guy's absence, a process not helped along by Husband and I both coming down with bronchitis last week. Since then, a whole course of antibiotics has downgraded it to a chest cold, but even so, we feel yucky.

So this is why I haven't been blogging lately. I just haven't had the will, nor the energy, to keep up with all of my blogs, and this one received the brunt of my neglect. Sadly, my finances have been equally neglected all month, and that is so not good. So I need to get back to finance blogging, because that will make me feel obligated to be diligent about my finances once again. It's probably a false sense of accountability, but it's accountability nonetheless. Thankfully, Wednesday is a payday. I'll be able to start from there with a clean slate.