I am so happy it is Friday. It's been a pretty quiet week with work. I took Monday off for DD's tennis matches and then my boss has had the last 3 days off. DD and her partner made it to the sub-districts playoff's (the only one's from their team). It was double elimination and her goal this year was to win one of the matches, but it wasn't to be. These girls from the other district are always so good. She has made it to these play off's every year (even as a varsity freshman) but pretty much always got demolished by these "north girls". It was just survival mode and hopefully get a few points here and there. This year was much improvement. They won several games and made the other teams work for their match wins. Lots of great shots. So, 4 years of tennis is done and I think DD is a bit relieved and is ready for a break.
Does anyone out there us the YNAB budgeting system? I'm giving the trial version a go. I have like 25 days left. I'm just not sure I will pay for it - I know me, and I'll have a week where I can't find the time to enter every transaction and then I'll stop doing it. I like the concept though, but really - it's not much different than the way I budget on my own anyway. I've made myself a spreadsheet very similar before, but again, it's on me to keep it up and I'm not very diligent.
It's been hot here this week. I went and bought the replacement a/c unit. I haven't used my Lowe's credit card since last summer, (and my credit scores seems to have stuck at 692 for months now) so I put it on the card and will get 6 months to pay, no interest, on the $299 unit. I see they did up my credit limit from $300 to $1300 - though I have no plans to use up any of that!
Just got a notice from my employer provided health insurance company that our plan will no longer be offered when our renewal comes up in July. Gee.....how surprised am I? Not. Obamacare is a joke. And we have really good insurance through work. My boss just went to a meeting with our benefits company and they said there are so many small companies (which apparently make up like 95% of all employers in the US) who's plans have already had to renew this year that are not in compliance and the laws keeps changing weekly, they can't keep up. They said there are already small companies (those with less than 50 employees) that have already amassed $150,000 fines by the government! There is seriously something wrong with this country. I can't imagine how much this new plan is going to cost my company when they finally figure out what will comply....or what kind of plan we will end up with. Probably astronomical deductibles.
DD is supposedly being switched to a server starting next week, but first they asked her to do them a favor. They are getting a weekday host to replace her, but needed a server to fill in at their other restaurant this Sat and Sun....30 miles away. She already worked all week, but is doing it. Then for some reason her co-workers thought she was permanently getting switched to the other location and DD was like "Noooooo....that better not be what's happening". Then one of the assistant mgr's said he thought that too. A few minutes later one of the owners came in and she talked to him and said there was no way she was driving 30 miles each way for a part time job, when she has a job 1 mile from home! She'd just stay a host, if that was the case. He said, no, it was just for this weekend only. It's a very rare occasion that DD ever sleeps through her alarm, but she did this morning! She's lucky I got up when I did or she would have been late. She had to get ready and out the door in 15 minutes.
I need a vacation from work! I have 3 weeks available to use right now and by the end of summer I'll have earned another week. But, no money to actually go anywhere and staying home with DH for a week wouldn't do anything to help me relax. So bleh! Guess for now I'll stick with days here and there and some long weekends.
I got a stupid photo speeding ticket. $124. It doesn't go on my driving record/insurance, so not sure if I want to take the time to see if I can go get it reduced. By the time I drove downtown, paid for parking, all the time involved I'll probably have 3 hours into it.
On a brighter note, a hummingbird finally showed up at my window hummingbird feeder. It was so neat to see one sitting (it has a little perch) and not in motion for a little bit. When they have always come to my fuchsia bush, their wings are always abuzz.
I have been a YNAB user for years. It works great for me and keeps me honest about the hows and whys of our spending. With the phone app, it make it easy to input your spending as you go along. I don't use it (prefer to enter my transactions one by one), but you can always download information into the program from your bank as well.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with downloading my bank info, is that I now use a PayPal debit card so that I can earn 1% cash back. Everything shows up on my bank statement as "PayPal" so nothing gets categorized. I used to use Mint (and liked it well) but now that is all out the window of being able to use it. At this point I'd rather earn the $20-25 a month in cash back, so I have to enter/categorize everything myself, which is a pain. I don't have a smart phone, so can't use that feature, either. I like the YNAB idea of getting yourself to the point of living off of last month's income and will try to incorporate that into my budget/plan.
DeleteAhhh ... I see what you mean. When I found YNAB we were fairly fresh out of debt and sort of floating along, so it really helped me get focused on future and long-term goals. After so many years it's primarily a habit I don't even think about much about entering transactions. The concept of living on last month's income is probably the most critical factor, in my opinion, and you don't need the program to get there on your own.
DeleteI had a baby hummingbird visit one of my planted flowers last night. It was the cutest thing ever!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a baby one before. We've had one visit our window feeder a few more times and I just love that I can now see them being still for a few moments.
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