Truer words were never said: what teachers really want to tell parents, a nice follow-up article to my earlier post: fighting our own battles.
EUROPE: THE SECOND ROUND
Getting excited about my upcoming trip to Europe!!! That’s all I can think about right now.
We are planning on visiting the following cities/countries:
- Paris, France (Take Two. I am hoping for a better experience this time around.)
- Also hoping to make another day trip to Lyon, France!!!
- London, England (I really enjoyed my last visit.)
- Vienna, Austria
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Brussels, Belgium
Okay time for everyone to be nice.
I am in the hole $15,000 this month because I spent almost $10,000 and my investments nosedived. ARG! *whimper*
INCOME = $0
- STILL not working for all of 2011
- No blog income included (gets donated anyway, hence the exclusion)
EXPENSES = $9190.63
Don’t even look at it.. seriously. I mean.. around $9000?
This was the month for spending like crazy.
The only thing I can say is that in October since we will be in Europe, my spending budget there is $500 plus food and entertainment which BF (the king of super frugal saving) is in charge of handling :P.
I am looking at about $1000 spent for October and that won’t change because I refuse to use my credit card there.
The shopaholic reared her head
Hey, I’m only human. 🙂
Once the $2000 Burberry coat went through, I bought an art piece (a beautiful kimono), a Mackage Gaia coat and a bunch of other things.
Now, I don’t even want to buy anything. My wardrobe feels so complete, it’s sick. I’m in love with it.
*slaps the hands that reached for the credit card so freely*
The good news is that although I spent a lot, it wasn’t a lot of STUFF in the end.
Less quantity, more quality….although it doesn’t make my wallet hurt any less, even though I want to keep and wear every single item I bought.
The other half of that $9000 went to my upcoming month in Europe (see above), and I also spent $600-ish on my parents.
NET WORTH = $156,529.64 — Decrease of -($15,277.09) or 8.9%
It also doesn’t help that my investments dipped this month too.
Oh well. *hangs on*
- Cash = $680.07
- Savings = $4261.02
- Retirement = $38,588.55
- Emergency Fund = $113,000
BEST OF SEPTEMBER 2011
- Waiting for our debts to disappear
- Can you really afford to tithe?
- Does holding or wearing designer anything make you a high maintenance shopaholic?
- Cut everywhere, not just where YOU want to save
Now for some funny stuff.
ViaNot too far off from the truth I think 🙂
And I’ve been reading snippets of articles here and there alluding to all of these studies that people are unhappier after they have children, and many wish they could go back to the way it was BC (before child), although they’d never un-wish having their children now.
On to happier things, doesn’t this look lovely?
I’d think I’d like to make a personalized one for all the cities that I’ve visited. This particular picture was $80 at Home Sense.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Wow, no one even batted an eye that you bought a $2000 coat? Or that your clothing expenditures were as much as your vacation? And that you aren’t paying rent?
I say again: WOW.
If you get the chance, pop up to Amsterdam from Brussels. My boyfriend and I were visiting friends in Brussels in March and they suggested taking the train up for a day or two. Oddly enough, it was somewhere I had never wanted to go (I guess I imagined it would be one enormous, tacky, red light district), but we gave it a shot because train tickets were so cheap (I think it was about $60 US round trip when we bought the day of) and the train ride was only a little over an hour. I’m so glad we went, it ended up being our favorite part of the trip!
We ended up staying for two days and had a great time. People were friendly, food was so cheap (we mostly would stock up on produce and baked goods at farmer’s markets to hold us over until dinner), and also, almost everyone spoke English, which was great for me (Boyfriend speaks many languages, I speak English and preschool Spanish so it was the only part of the trip where he didn’t have to act as a translator).
The weather was glorious, the canals were beautiful, we fed swans, drank delicious coffee, popped into little bars for a quick drink in the afternoon and ate waaay too much cheese. My only regret was that we never got around to renting bicycles. If you have a chance to go, I highly recommend it. Such a charming, laid back, totally walkable city.
Is that some kind of budgeting software you’re using? Â Im looking for a FREE MAC APP for budgeting. Â Ive downloaded a few but haven’t had time to figure them out as Im not a techie and new to a Mac. Â Simplibudget? Monies? Â Casculator? Â Anybody have one that is free and works – don’t want to pay $20-50 or even .99 for an app. Â Ive gotten all for free. or emai lthe developers and ask for something for free or a donation and you’d be surprised about 25% of them have given them to me when I asked and explained my financial situation. Â Even had one $20 app for free from a health oriented site to help with stess relief.
I love Brussels & Paris… We are actually going to try to go up to Brussels for Thanksgiving weekend as it’s only about 2.5 hours from us. If you are going to be along the border of Luxembourg, Belgium or Germany – let me know! Maybe we can meet up & have lunch! [I’m only an hour from Luxembourg City, the southern Belgian border – Arlon area or the Trier area (Rheinland Pfalz area) in Germany]
Western Europe is fine, but when we first traveled from America, very soon I could not tell the difference between the countries some how.
Scandinavia is unique, I agree. I am looking for some traveling expenses I have published on my blog… Virgin Islands alone cost nearly that for two weeks ; -))
Life is a collection of experiences, so you are doing the right thing!
I LOVE that picture with all the city names all over it 🙂 I would totally buy that if I saw it lol
Have a great time in Europe. I can’t wait to read all about it.