Aubergine

It's been a little while since I posted here. Been somewhat busy and not motivated. I have eaten out a LOT in the past 2 weeks. No more! Time to be accountable. I have also spent a bit of money on shoes and clothes, all of which I am returning and getting what I really need instead - a pair of good rain boots. Any ideas?

This morning I got up real early and went to the park with my dog. We were there for about 2 hours. Came back, had some breakfast, and now doggie is snoring by my feet and I am working on some of the stuff that I need to take care of (not right at this moment of course because I am writing here )

Between today and tomorrow, I want to plan my meals and cook for the rest of the week. So the things to do are:

[X] Plan meals
[X] Grocery shop
[X] Cook (freeze if needed etc)
[ ] Sew buttons on clothing items
[X] Finish 1 chapter of the book I am studying
[/] Start on the new book
[/] Look around for new job opportunities
[1 ] Apply to new job opportunities (applied to 1 - better than nothing)
[ ] Run

Today was not a good day. I am in a bad mood. Had a fight with OH (other half). Work was a circus. Is there a silver lining in all of this? I can't really see it. Did not go run as I had planned to, but watched crap TV and wasted at least an hour of my time. Read a bit of the 401K idiot book on the train. Maybe it's too simple? But I am just on the first few chapters. I will give it a go for a few more days.

[X] Finish 2 chapters of class 1
[ ] Work on project
[X ] Run
[X ] Grocery shop for the week
[X] Cook 2 recipes from Jamie Oliver for next week
[ 3 so far] Apply to 10 jobs in the minimum
[XX] Relax a little

Nothing much in terms of updating. I ran, which is always good. I also resisted the temptation to buy lunch. I updated my spreadsheet where I keep track of how much money I am spending and saving and in what category. It's only the 16th of the month and I have spent $120 on grocery! Well, that category also included house hold items, but I have only bought some detergent and paper goods. Need to watch that area.

I hope to go run again tomorrow. I have a lot of things to take care of, so it is not going to be a relaxing weekend. In fact, I don't know when I will have a relaxing weekend. I have been under so much stress lately, I feel my neck and shoulder tightening all the time. I need to learn to manage my time properly.

Well, here is hoping tomorrow will be productive. Good night everyone. Have a lovely weekend!

I just started blogging, and already feel like my blog is getting lackluster. People do not seem to be updating their blogs that frequently either. Or is it just me? If I go a few days without updating, I tend to forget about this blog. So maybe I will try and blog every night just to reflect on the day - money and otherwise. Hope I will not bore you to tears.

Money wise: There were some indirect spending for future travel. Unfortunately these are not necessarily pleasure related travel, but things that need to be done.

I checked out a book from the library called 401K for Dummies. Please don't laugh. Some help is better than no help at all, right? I have been diligently putting money in my 401K plan, but I still feel that so much of it is over my head. I would like to learn more, but do not want to be bored to death. I plan to do a little light reading on it every night. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

Other wise: I need to move from city A to city B pronto. It's not the dire need to move straight away, but I should definitely put much more focus into it and it should be my top priority. But it's daunting because it involves looking for a new job in city B, getting interviews lined up, landing a job that I will love or at least like more than average and then move. That's enough to send me into an anxiety attack!

This week seems to have passed by in a whirl! Anyway I am glad it's the weekend soon. Does't feel like I have achieved much this week, but I did go for a run! I also filled out my taxes using a different software and I get slightly more refunds. How is that possible? I used the same information that I gave to the 1st software. So I guess I know which one I will be using to submit my taxes!!

Here are a few things that I did today so that I can check them off.

[X] Run
[X] Eat a healthy salad for dinner
[X] Clean up my bedroom
[X] Finish the book I was reading
[X] Redo the taxes using a diff software

Sadly there isn't much else to add.

Tomorrow I will:

[X] Verify all information one more time, and submit the tax forms.
[X] Fix an issue - work related

[X] Prepare tax
(have to review and file it using taxAct, which I will by early next week)
[X] Read a chapter on the project I will be working on
[X] Start on the project
[X] Laundry (2 - 3 loads)
[X] Cook the rice pilaf and lamb chops from the bbc recipe
[ ] Go for a run
[X] Eyebrows
[X] Give myself mani/pedi
[/] Menu plan
[ ] Make lunches
[ ] Organize paper works
[ ] Organize clothes/accesories
[X] Clean

All of these doable? Will see.

*********Update*********

Not bad, I will got for a run tomorrow, and will finish the rest of the items tomorrow or the day after. Of course by then there will be other to-do's added.

It's true. I feel that I am not so nice to myself. I feel overwhelmed with too many things that I need to get done, too many things that need to be sorted out. I feel like I never measure up to my own expectations, hence I mostly always feel bad about it. Even when I set out to do something, I get annoyed with myself because it's hard to concentrate on the thing in hand because there are just too many other things I should be doing. I feel like a walking to-do list!

Does anybody else feel like this? Or, is it just me?

This entry is not financial per say, but I am sure that the side effect creeps into my financial life as well.

I got ambitious, and wanted to make a healthy dish. I bought Quinoa thinking it will be delicious (I had never tasted it before), and made a lot of it, with all different veggies (organic) and ingredients. It's awful! And I have a huge pot of it sitting on my fridge, which will be tossed out. Yuck. There goes money down the drain. I think I learned a lesson here : only make a bulk of something that you absolutely LOVE.

has turned out to be very spendy in terms of grocery and meds. However, I don't anticipate any grocery expenses until April, which is only 2 days away anyway. Some of the grocery should also hold until the 2nd week of April, so that's a little consolation. 2nd bout of flue hasn't helped in keeping my medicine expenses any lower. None of the cold medicine seem to work anyway. I guess I will just have to suffer through it. Today has been a very slow day - not as productive as I would have liked it to be. There is still a few hours remaining before turning in, so lets see if I can salvage some of the day. Cheers~!

...but this is not really a beginning. I used to blog under a different name a few years back. I was still paying off my debt then, now I am debt free and working on keeping and saving money. In a way this is where it all started - after visiting this site is when I started to seriously work towards my debt, and getting interested in personal finance. There is still much to learn and strive towards. So may I join you again? You can call me Aubergine.