decisions

Help me decide: New Glasses!

Posted by Ginna on Dec 8, 2011 | 8 comments

I am in desperate need of a new pair of glasses. Can you help me decide? I went to GlassesUSA.com and chose a few pairs, then tried them on virtually using my webcam (what a genius feature!). Below are five options that I like. Some of them look slightly off since I used the same photo for each example, but you get the idea.

My dear readers, I am trusting this decision in your hands – whichever glasses has the most vote, I will buy! So please help me choose. :)

Option 1:
“The Vintage with a Modern Twist Frame” B&K 203 Black

Option 2:
“The Brown Cat-Eye Frame” iSee 724 Brown

Option 3:
“The Large Tortoise Rectangular Frame” See-Line KD918

Option 4:
“The Two-Stripe Detail Frame” XRay BS24 Black

Option 5:
“The Slight Cat-Eye Oval Frame” XRay MG23 Brown

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The poll will end Sunday, Dec 11 at midnight EST and whichever glasses has the most votes is the one I will purchase. :) Thank you for voting!

Christmas Trees: Real or Fake?

Posted by Ginna on Nov 16, 2011 | 9 comments

Being as it is our first Christmas, we have to decide whether to get a real or fake Christmas tree. I was making a pro and con list and thought I’d raise the question on here. What did you grow up with? What do you own now? What is the biggest factor for deciding against real or fake? Please vote and leave comments on your preference!

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37 days until Christmas!

(photo credit)

Our Car Loan

Posted by Ginna on Nov 2, 2011 | 10 comments

I am sure all you long time readers of this blog are like, “Enough with the life posts — what is going on with your budget?!” (Although let’s be honest, any hard-core personal finance gurus have no doubt dropped off since the last financial post was… oh, forever ago. Seriously, I tried to search the last few posts and got tired of clicking “Older Entries” at the bottom of the page.)

I’ve loved sharing my weekends, trips, recipes, decorations, and random every day thoughts with you all! But it’s probably time I update where my wallet stands. Part of the reason I haven’t been talking about my money is because there isn’t much to talk about. Things have been wonderfully quiet and automatic.

So today I’m going to give a little background on the car loan we have. I got an email from a reader asking: why someone like me (who hates debt and worked so hard to pay off my student loans) would willingly go into another loan?

That’s a great question. The simple answer? Convenience.

My old Honda (may it rest in peace), was rapidly declining at the beginning of this year. It would take a good four minutes to start the engine (took longer in the cold), stall out if you break too fast on the road (resulting in near-accidents on multiple occasions), and would shake uncontrollably when it reached higher than 60 mph (which is just plain annoying). I had owned this car since college, but I think my bi-monthly trips to and from DC in 2009 put a great toll on my sweet car.

And J’s giant Buick wasn’t much better. Both of us owned cars approaching their 20th birthday and we felt that at the age of 25 and 26 it was about time we owned at least one reliable car made this millennium. Plus we had about eight out-of-town trips approaching, and neither of our cars would be up for that challenge.

After a lot of back and forth, we decided to buy a new car after we got married. We chose to finance a newer car as opposed to buying an older model with cash. It took a lot of convincing (on J’s part) since I could hear Dave Ramsey’s voice in my head screaming about that decision. But the truth is that financing a newer car was just easier. We could have spent $1,000 to fix my car, or $2,500 on an older car, but we felt like that would have been a waste when it could take us six months to save for a new car and then would have to go through the whole process of selling, buying and transferring all the title and insurance. We actually had enough savings to buy a reliable car, but didn’t want to blow all of our savings away (which ended up a wise decision when we had to replace J’s car in July) so financing was a safer option. I don’t think that car loans are for everyone, and in the future I will save and pay cash for any cars we get, but in this situation it was a good decision for us. Plus, so far we have only paid $78 in interest, and to me that is worth the security of having one reliable car in our family.

Once we agreed (and ignored Dave Ramsey’s nagging voice), we chose a reliable, modest car (read: no power locks or windows [I know, sad]) and put together a plan on how we could intensely pay it off as soon as possible. Every bonus or extra cash has been added to our loan.

Right now we are on schedule to pay it off at the end of this month (woohoo!). It makes me so excited to have a reliable car and enter 2012 with zero payments and an extra chunk of our budget to use on savings, giving or spending.

I’m curious: What is your view on car loans? Have you ever had a good justifiable reason to finance a car? Or do you side with Dave Ramsey and think all car loans are evil?

(photo credit)

Moving Twice in One Year? Aye aye aye!

Posted by Ginna on Aug 25, 2010 | 3 comments

I mentioned last week that my roommate got engaged the day after I did. It has been absolutely fantastic planning a wedding together and I’m so excited for them and honored to be apart of the wedding party. There is just one tiny little glitch: they are getting married this January and I will have to move out.

We are planning our wedding in April, so there are really three options:

1. Find a roommate who needs a temporary roommate and sublease before the wedding.

2. Stay with J’s family who have graciously let me live with them before the wedding.

3. Get my own place and pay a little extra until J moves in after the wedding.

None of these options are ideal because moving is always a pain. However, I am leaning towards Option 3 to just get a place a few months before the wedding. It would be the least financially responsible plan, but I think it may be the most sane one since I don’t want to move out of my current apartment in January to a temporary home, continue planning a wedding, then move another time in April after the wedding. J also agrees that would be the best plan since he is living at home and can help with the rent until he moves in. Since J and I will be paying for the majority of our wedding ourselves, the next few months will be very tight in trying to save for the wedding before paying for an apartment and all those little moving expenses. (Also, in case you are wondering, it is not an option for J and I to live together before the wedding. Call us old fashion but we really want the first time we live together to be when we’re married.)

I’ll make sure to update you on our budgets very soon!

*Photo: Right after I got engaged, I grabbed my keys and scribbled “I’m Engaged!” on the chalkboard in our kitchen before heading to my hometown to celebrate with my family. After finding out my roommate got engaged, I promptly scratched out and wrote “we’re” as soon as I got home. :)

How much & how often do you pay for your car insurance?

Posted by Ginna on Aug 4, 2010 | 26 comments

For the last few years I’ve been fortunate because my dad has had me on his car insurance plan, therefore I only had to pay $32 a month. But as life goes, all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately, it’s time for me to grow up and start my own big-girl car insurance. :(

I’ve been shopping for car insurance for the last few weeks and think I found a safe deal for my car. However, I cannot decide how to pay my car insurance! Each month? Every six months? Every three months? I don’t know whether it would be better for me to save each month a specific amount then pay it off half a year, or just automatically pay it each month.

So two little question for the masses:
1. How much a month do you pay for your car insurance?

2. How often do you pay your car insurance? Do you like getting it out of the way each month? Or would you rather pay it off in one large chunk?

Please comment below! Thank you!! :)

(photo credit)

My journey & reasons for moving to NC in a month.

Posted by Ginna on May 3, 2010 | 21 comments

Like I alluded to in yesterday’s post, I have decided to quit my job and move to North Carolina. Here are all of the details that led me up to that decision. I’ll try to be brief, but make no promises because there’s a lot I haven’t been sharing!

The Quest to end Long Distance
Unless this is the first post you are reading or you’re one to gloss over the personal details of this blog, you probably know that I am in a long distance relationship with a boy named J. LDR’s always need an expiration date. You either have to break up or move, but you can’t continue long distance unless there’s a good reason. The end for us was always J’s graduation this past December. We started 2010 with the goal to live in the same town by summer. Ideally he would find a job up near me since I already have one, but for about three months that proved dead end after dead end. No one seemed to be hiring in the DC area and if they were, the competition was fierce with overqualified candidates in the mix. In the middle of February, I told him to look for jobs in NC, where both of us are from and there are more contacts available. I love the state and have so many friends there anyway, so I would move towards him if he found something there first. About a month ago he got a job and that’s when I started to look.

My Job Search
I have been looking for jobs fairly aggressively since March. At first the search was pretty depressing because I was going after listed jobs that no doubt had hundreds of other applicants. Then I took a different approach: I figured out the companies I wanted to work for, sent them my resume (whether they were hiring or not), and ending up with six phone interviews with three different companies and two networking calls.

Last week, during my four day weekend, I managed to land three in-person interviews and one networking lunch. Of the three official interviews: one I hated, another I could tolerate, and one I absolutely fell in love with. The third one is my dream job at a dream company. I literally have to tell myself to stop day dreaming about it.

To Stay or Leave?
I came back to town Tuesday overwhelmed. I needed to make a decision by this past Saturday whether I was going to move or not because my landlord needs one month’s notice. If I moved out by June 1, then I would live with one of my best friends in NC who needs a roommate at the end of May (so could be perfect). The choice was either to move out in hopes that one of the interviews will turn into a job, or be stuck until at least July 1st and risk giving up a great job that would need me to relocate soon and also getting stuck having to pay a month’s rent and missing out on NC housing I would have June 1st. My decision affected my currnet roommate, who told me she was flexible, but that one of her friends has a vacant room at the end of May (also, potentially perfect). I needed to let my landlord and both of the “roommates” know by this past Saturday.

I was hopping to hear from one of the jobs before this past weekend, but Friday came and went and I didn’t get an answer. My Dream Job emailed me that they were checking my references on Friday, which is a good sign according to some Twitter peeps.

Decision Time
I couldn’t sleep last week and kept going back and forth about my decision. Do I move and hope that I get one of these jobs? Should I stay at my current job and just be patient that something will eventually come along? Do I risk everything I have now–my $41,000 salaried job–for something that is not guaranteed? Do I stay and risk giving up a cheap NC apartment and potentially a good job if I can’t move in time? Am I choosing unemployment in this challenging economic market?

Believe me–it was a really tough decision.

My Rat-Inspired Epiphany
Friday evening my roommate was out and none of my friends were available, so I was stuck alone with my torturous thoughts. I couldn’t stand it so I walked downtown where there was distraction. However, when I got there I never felt more lonely. Usually I like shopping alone, but I was surrounded with people who had someone. Be it a spouse, a child, a friend, a sibling… everyone I saw was with someone and it only made me more depressed.

Still confused, I walked back home with plans to watch a dependably happy romantic comedy and sip a large glass of wine. As I was about to sit down for a nice meal of Mexican leftovers, I saw the most horrifying black creature scurry across the hardwood floors from my couch to a chair in the corner. I shrieked and jumped on my coffee table, trying to figure out what to do. I took a large gulp of the wine in my left hand and speed dialed my sister with my right hand. I told her about the rat slash mouse slash diablo-incarnate, and she recommend I call someone to help. Is there anyone to come over? No, I answered. Your neighbors? Don’t really know them. Your guy friends? They’re out of town or busy and 30 minutes away. Your coworkers? None live near me. I told her I’d figure something out and she wished she wasn’t six hours away so she could help. I ended up calling my landlord then hibernating in my room for the rest of the night.

But I realized how pathetic I was—I had no one I felt comfortable calling. Not that a mouse was a huge crisis, but if I were living near J, I would have a handful of kindred spirits who would come to my rescue in a heartbealt. And that’s when I realized it: If I am surrounded by the people who love me unconditionally, then I can survive anything, including unemployment. It may not come to that (and I really really hope in the next month I get a job)… but if it did it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Home is Where the Heart Is
It will be such a blessing to be close to my family. This time last year my mom was first starting her chemotherapy and just thinking about last year’s summer months make me shudder. It was so hard being far away during that time. Thankfully she is doing better now, but I realized so much last year that my family means the world to me and I’m so ready to be within an hour’s drive.

I’m also so ready to be a real girlfriend in the same town as my boyfriend. A few months ago one of my coworkers said she had a friend she wanted to set me up with at a party. I couldn’t believe it. “I’m not single!” I told her. I’m done being independent and I’m ready to have my support system close by. I feel like an anti-feminist quitting my job and moving essentially for a boy… but just thinking about being near him makes me happy.

Next…?
So this is where I am today: I have one month to find a job, pack up my DC life and move back to the familiar to brave the unknown. I know, that sounds dramatic, but to me giving up such financial and emotional security is dramatic. I also give you permission to call me a PF-blogging failure. I am fully aware that all of my financial goals and possibly savings may go out the window, but I’ve already planned an unemployment budget if that’s what ends up happening. I plan to give my notice in a week or so at my current job.

I’m really optimistic about last week’s interviews. Of course my optimism scares me because I don’t like the alternative, but I am really hopeful that something will work out in the next few weeks or months. I am equally nervous/scared/excited about the possibilities but I can’t wait to share with you what ends up happening. :) Thanks for reading this looong post and joining me along on this journey back to the SOUTH!!!

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**By the way, thank goodness I have not seen any traces of the diablo rat since Friday night. Me thinks God placed it there to give me some direction, then took it away. Perhaps? ;)