Chicky Finance

Today Mr. Finance and I will celebrate our second year being married. We’ve been happily together for more than 5 years and married 2 years. Needless to say I love him so much.. Now let’s talk about PF importance of today. Because we just came from COS trip and San Diego getaway, I think we should just enjoy each other tonight and not go to fancy dinner. I didn’t buy any presents for him, should I feel bad? I mean we celebrate our first date every year by going dinner and giving presents each other, should we also celebrate our wedding date?
This morning I wrote him a love letter and I plan to spend quality time with him tonight..But that’s all we can afford at this time. And also tomorrow night we will be going X-Games that should do the trick! (tix were paid last month)
Ps: the wedding garden picture is the exactly the spot we got married!

The ugly truth is;

CC#4:$5,000 interest %0 until November $400 down from last month

Loan: $14,400 interest %8.9 Shocking! $1,578 UP

IRS debt: $4,300 which is $700 down from last month. It feels like I shuffled around the debt this month. Some went down, the loan went up. Being accountable is really important. I am not going to dwell on it, having said that I know rest of the year will be really tight if I want to reach my financial goals.

After we came from our vacation, our spending didn't slow down *sigh* In fact, past Saturday we went to San Diego, Chula Vista to see CORR off road racing. It was awesome, we had so much fun. After that we stopped by Jolla Beach, Windansea which was breathtaking. Obviously houses in that area starts from $1,000,000 and UP Well, after hanging out there we went back to Jolla Beach's downtown to eat something for dinner and check out the night life. There are restaurants, bars and art galleries everywhere but there is no club to actually dance. We are not really bar type nor art gallery although we checked out to see how much people pay for silly pictures (some of them were really out of ordinary). Around midnight we arrived back to our nest and all day sunday we hung out at home.

Shortly our Saturday was expensive but how much?

Traveling is expensive! I already know it but adding up all the numbers and facing the truth was different feeling. All of the numbers are for two people, 5 days.

Plane tickets $358
Car rental 5 days: $300
Gas: $200
Lunch & Dinner: $250
Admissions various sites and museums: $150
Costco: $70
Hotel: $330 for 3 nights + 1 night free used reward points
LAX Parking: $35
Gambling: $20

Total: ~$1,713
I paid only plane tickets, part of admission fees. Mr.Finance paid rest of it. After putting numbers all together I feel really bad :(

I loved Colorado Springs! It was our very first time visiting and we were pleasantly surprised that the city was “big” and was surrounded by very cute smaller towns. Our initial plan was to stay 2 days in COS and 2 days in Rocky Mountain National park. We actually ended up staying 4 days in COS because there was so much to see that we didn’t want to leave. On Saturday we went to Pike’s Peak International Hill climbing race which was spectacular. BTW, I found out that I don’t do very well at 14,000ft at 4am. In order to watch the race we had to be in Pike’s Peak by 5 am in the morning, it was worth it though. The tickets were $80 for two. We also went to Seven Falls during night which was sort of interesting however I also thought it was expensive for the amount of scenery you get. ($21 for two) I felt like it was a tourist trap kind of. We checked out many small towns around COS especially Manitou Springs was so cute that I can pack my stuff right now and move there. The defense industry is huge in COS. Whereever you turn your head there is a defense company such as; Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed Martin. It didn’t seem to me economy is slowing down in COS however I‘ve seen many many houses for sale. We rented our rental car from Dollar for $60 per day for full-size but we ended up having SUV because they didn’t have any full-size car when we got there. Believe it or not we put 800 miles on that car in 4 days, we’ve been all over. The weather was so nice not too hot around 80s just like Socal with wind. We also drove through a little gambling town Cripple Creek. We are not really into gambling but we played for $20 and lost it..The good news is the casino gave us 4 Corona beers for free! From there we went to Royal Gorge Bridge (admission $46 for two). I thought it was really expensive but at the same time it was worth it. Not like Seven Falls. The Royal Gorge Bridge, the highest suspension bridge in the world and you can walk or drive across. Pretty scene...

Overall we accomplished two things with this trip, first we had a wonderful vacation we can remember life time and secondly we made our mind to move Colorado Springs. COS has so much more to offer than OC and it is much cheaper.

Coming up next, why do we want to move from Orange County to Colorado Springs?

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This is what’s going on. Our company (I suspected anyways because I have access to the financials) is having hard time due to economic slowdown. They want to decrease their expenses as a result, they are laying off employees. Me? I am one of those lucky ones because accountants are the back bone of any company. If I lose my job, that’s a really serious sign that indicates the company is going under. Having said that I feel extremely uncomfortable working in at this company at this point. Can you imagine you come work as usual and before you leave for lunch you find out that you've just lost your job. It is insane. Last night when I came home I was emotionally drained that's why I could not write anything. I dont know if those people have enough EF to feed their family, pay their mortgage and survive until they find their next job...

My next step is to come up with a plan that is aggressive at the same time realistic so that I can give my resignation and move on for better.

This month as I wrote before financially will be tough. Having said that I keep my promise to donate $10 to a different charity I pick every month. I've been reading Budget Mama's blog since almost she started her blog and seeing her sacrifices everyday for her son really touches my heart. Her son has special needs and most their expenses and debt stems from the condition her son has.

I came across http://www.autism-society.org/ . After going through their website I decided to donate my $10 share to Autism Society of America. I am hoping that my donation and others' will help support autism education, awareness, advocacy, research, and most importantly, enable the oraganization to assist families living with autism. Budget Mama, Thank you for being inspiration for all of us!

Yesterday the same thing happened. I was too busy to spend money! I bring my lunch everday and from work I go straight to home and study. Yesterday I had a tennis class which was really really fun. (pre-paid) I believe tonight 4 friends we'll play tennis again but this time we need to pay for tennis court $11 an hour divided by four, my share is 3 bucks not bad for relaxing and getting work out with friends.

Sadly, Just removed my PF blog friend from my link love. I am kind of sad because I was following her journey along the way. She was one of people who inspired me for blogging about money. She's deleted her blog completely because her husband didn't want her to blog. I wonder if it is why I also waited so long to tell Mr.Finance about my blog. Just because I was afraid of his reaction? He seems handling ok. In fact he was joking with me a couple days ago by asking "ohh I see you are taking your money blog seriously you havent gone to hairdresser so long" :) My roots are teriible at the moment. Anyways, make the long story short I wish Michelle (the bright side of debt) was back, blogging with us again.

I needed a vacation so bad you can not even imagine but since Mr. Finance and I don’t want to spend money we didn’t make any plans for the long July 4th weekend. Boy weren’t we lucky? We got a phone call from one our good “well-off” friend and he invited us Laughlin and Havasu. He has a very very nice boat so he said he is planning to take his boat to Colorado River and Havasu Lake. Just a side note, he is a type of guy who likes to treat people. So the minute we’ve gotten the invitation we knew that we would not spend any money on this trip. As a matter of fact, we hopped into his car (pulling the huge boat behind) and drove all the way to Laughlin on Thursday night. Our other friend has a house up there so our accommodation was absolutely free. On Friday our friend took us a nice buffet (he paid) and then we were in the boat all day Friday. Sunbathing, swimming you name it. We even watch the fireworks from boat right by where they launch fireworks. Saturday we went to Havasu Lake, we went under famous London Bridge; watch the naked girls partying in the famous sand bar. BTW, I need to work on my abs. I am so jealous of these girls. We stayed at the lake until 11pm at night. We even swam under the stars. It was really romantic and water temperature was 70+ degrees. Anyways on Sunday we clean the friend’s house and took off around 4pm, arrived home around 9pm. Whole weekend was so relaxing and I didn’t spend a penny. Mr. Finance didn’t spend anything either. We offered several times to pay for things but our friend didn’t let us to pay. Isn’t it nice to have generous friends sometime?

Since Monday I’ve shifted my focus on career and CPA exam. Yesterday surprisingly I have not spent a penny because I was busy studying or brainstorming about my career direction. I only realized I had a zero spend day while I was going bed. Isn’t that crazy? I mean normally when I decide to have “zero spend day”, I am so conscious about the fact that I must not spend money all day long. And yesterday no effort no spending; I like that. I will keep studying; we shall see how it is going to turn out at the end of the week.

I wear contacts. Honestly, the only time I wear glasses couple hours before I go to bed. Having said that it is almost insane how much a pair of glasses can cost nowdays. I came across zennioptical.com where they sell their own manufactured frames. Seems like they have a good selection of frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic)lens, tinted suglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens. They claim that the secret to Zenni’s frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget. Sounds like pretty good deal.

Money wise July will be tough for me due to spending too much money things in the beginning of the month without really realizing. The debt is always in my mind which started bothering me a littlebecause it prevents me focusing on other important things in my life. I am looking forward to getting my paycheck every month which is not good. That’s why I added different columns on my blog such as; july goals, today’s menu and today’s study plan. Chicky Finance is still PF blog no doubt about it but at the same time thinking about money all the time I don’t think is good idea for my insanity.

BTW, I had a wonderful holiday, super luxury without spending any $$. Are you curious now? Then wait for the next post!

Straight forward! I must improve my writing skills. I usually write my posts during work hours; as a result, I’m not really careful with my grammar, run on sentences and vocabulary. Also if you consider English is my second language, I need to seriously proofread my posts before putting online. Sometimes I notice my mind is running faster than my fingers which cause many mistakes in my writing. Well, I promise fellow readers I will be much more careful and try to use more “fancy” words.

Back in the days when I was working for a retail store as a store manager, I had many responsibilities besides managing people. One of them was to design and order business cards and brochures for the store. I am telling you I am such a creative person; I don’t know why I am an accountant. Anyways, after designing printing materials the last thing I want to do is shop around town to find a printing shop. So what I did is order online, delivered to the store. I could usually find coupons online and take advantage of any promotions they are running.

Today I came across vistaprint.com, which offers wide array of printing services including: business cards, checks, rubber stamps, announcements, and save the date magnets! Also when you go to their website on the left column there is a section called “Free Products”. Personally before I try their any products I would order free products to see their quality and delivery speed. I think it is the best way to test their service. On their website they claim that high-quality graphic design and custom printing convenient and affordable for everyone. Next time I will definitely order some samples and try their service to see if they suit my needs.

This is going to be my first post after I consolidated CC#4 and #5.

The ugly truth is;
CC#1: PaidOff
CC#2: Paid Off
CC#3: Paid Off
CC#4:$5,400 interest %0 until November
Loan: $12,822 interest %8.9

As of today Total Debt:$18,222 I've managed to eliminate $7,748 CC debt since January'08!

What do you think your chance of involving in an accident with a helicopter? Not likely right? According to studies helicopters crash ninety times more frequently than airplanes. Mr. Finance has a pilot license, he loves flying but at the same time it is a kind of business you have to be extremely careful, paying attention every detail. Aviation accidents occur; when I see one on TV, I always think how people’s life will be affected after the accident. There are actually lawyers who just specialize in this area and in fact there is a website where you can find a helicopter accident attorney if you ever need. Helicopteraccidentattorney.com has user friendly interface, some statistical data and nice database where you can find an expert lawyer in this niche area.

I've been feeling down since last friday so I didn't want to bore you all. Just stayed quite and read fellow bloggers' posts last three-four days. I noticed that when I dont feel well, I don't interact with people. I think it is because I dont want to give negative energy to others, instead I try to heal myself and come back with full energy. My mood is much better now...

Ok back to the real subject of this post. How did I do with my goals in June?

*Run Second 5K in June No You know how genuine I was about this one until I got the spot we have to run. However, I jogged every other day almost 5-10K with my dog.

*Lose 7lb NO!!! In July this will be my priority.

*Study for CPA audit section Check! I mean I am doing alot better. I should accelarete my study speed though.

*Start playing tennis Check! Last wednesday I start taking tennis classes. In fact I will be playing tennis today after work. The class is 5 weeks for $85. The instructor is great, people seem fine. I plan to continue this class as long as possible. Health is everything, really. I will be including $85 on my monthly budget from now on.

*Start job search more aggresively Check! I am more top of things, polishing up my resume,checking out several websites for job. However, there is definetly room for improvement

*Make an extra $100 Check! This one is sweet. I made total $216.09 extra(other than FT job)

*Reduce debt to my sister for $100: No I could only lower for $40 I could only write two articles for her new website. Each piece was $20.

July goals are coming up soon!