Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is only a couple days away (where did this year go…)! In an effort to bring the year to a close on a positive note, I’d like to outline the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:

• My health.
• My loving family and supportive friends.
• Being gainfully employed with great benefits.
• Slowly building my savings and retirement funds.
• Being weeks from completing my Master’s degree (whoop!).
• Living in a part of the city that I love in an awesome apartment.
• Being relatively young and having fun milestones to look forward to personally and professionally.
• Having been able to afford to travel for pleasure this year.
• I could go on, but I'll stop here.
  

I don’t often take the time to think about how many things I really have to be thankful for, so I plan to do this more often in the future. In general, I think it’s so easy to get caught up with focusing on what we don’t have and goals that haven't met instead of focusing on the considerable abundance many of us have in our lives. Life isn't perfect and things don't always work out as planned, but that's what makes it interesting!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Happy Dance for Annual Salary Increases

I recently received my annual salary increase which should be reflected in my next paycheck. I accordingly increased my retirement contribution to my 403b so I will still be meet the minimum threshold to be eligible to receive a 'match' contribution from my company. I really try not to increase my 'lifestyle expenditures' when I receive salary increases and allocate the money to different pots and pretend like the increase doesn't exist. I'm not the only one that needs the incentive of these little mental tricks, right?

My increase was actually reflected a bit late this year, so I will receive a small windfall from retroactive pay from my new salary. This small windfall will go straight to my travel fund which I’m still in the process of beefing up for my fall travel plans. This small windfall and annual increase called for a brief happy dance which I did during the day yesterday when no one was watching. Hey, I need to work exercise into my daily routine anyway and every little bit counts right? : )

September 2010 Goals

It's about time I get back into setting my monthly goals, so here are my goals for the month of September:

1. Apply for December 2010 graduation. I'm in the final stretch of graduate school, so I have to talk to my academic advisor and fill out the paper work to apply for fall graduation. It's amazing how fast two years fly by!
2. Save for fall travel 'spending money.' Though I paid for both trips I plan to take this fall (a 7 day cruise and a long weekend in Paris), I still have to set aside more money in my travel fund for spending money. I plan for most of my travel money to be spent on food. I truly have enough stuff; I can do without souvenirs, my main souvenirs will be photos : )
3. Order all of my FICO scores. I did check my credit report earlier this month via Annual Credit Report , but I haven't checked all of my credit scores this year. I will order them all and take a look at them.
4. Borrow some French language software from the library and start practicing. I'd love to purchase Rosetta Stone, but since that doesn't fit in my budget, I'll have to settle for borrowing some language software from my local library. It's been a long term goal to learn to speak French conversationally for a while and I've forgotten most of the French I learned to fulfill my foreign language requirement in college, so language software from the library will have to do for now. Once I feel more comfortable with basic conversation, I'll start attending French conversation Meet-ups. I never had the nerve to attend language Meet-ups in the past, but I plan to change that in the near-future!
5. Start exercising 3 times a week (again). Some how exercising has fallen by the wayside for the past few weeks (okay, months), so it's time to get back on track again. I'll do the 30 Day Shred though I don't think I'll to do it for 30 consecutive days, I'll alternate with Pilates and Yoga stretching. I'd also like to take at least drop-in dance class; one of the advantages of living in a city like D.C. is that there are quite a few dance studios.
6. Henna my hair. Henna which is traditionally used in Pakistan and other parts of the world to decorate skin is also used by many women as a natural dye and conditioning treatment. It coats (doesn't penetrate) your hair in red which will show up in varying degrees depending on your hair color and how long you leave on the henna. I can't tell any difference in my hair color which is very dark, but it was a great conditioning treatment! It's a little messy/time consuming, but I plan to do a henna treatment once a month. I have to order the henna (I used this brand the last time) and set aside a Sunday to do it.
7. Take clothes donation to Goodwill. I sorted through my clothes earlier this summer and set aside a bag of items I no longer need to take to Goodwill. I'm tired of looking at that bag in my hallway, so it has to go!

Happy Friday folks!

Non-Summer Travel Blues

I have done very little travel this summer. For the past few summers, I have gone on a few family weekend trips and at least one trip with my friends. I didn't realize how conditioned I was to think that summer means that it is time to travel! As I've mentioned previously, I do actually have a few travel plans for the fall and elected to pool my money toward those plans and turned down most of the travel plans offered up to me by both friends and family over the past few months. I even slowed down on visits to my hometown; it has been the norm for me to go home more frequently during the summer months since college. I didn't mind the idea of no summer travel at the beginining of the summer, but as the summer flies by (alarmingly fast might I add), I kind of wish I had some travel plans between now and the official end of the summer to look forward to. I might try to squeeze in a day trip somewhere close but that will be the extend of my travel until the fall. I love taking advantage of things going on locally, but personally, there is nothing like a nice trip (outside of the immediate area where you live) to look foward to.

Does anybody else that opted out of traveling this summer feel the non-travel blues as well?

My First Sewing Project

I've had the goal of learning to sew for years (literally!) and decided that 2010 is the year that I start working toward this goal. I made the shorts above as a project at a beginners sewing workshop I took here. The 2-hour class cost $40 plus the cost of fabric (which they sold at the store) and included usage of a sewing machine and materials like thread, measuring tape and scissors. At the end of the class you have a project completed. I opted to make shorts instead of pants as the instructor initially suggested.

I definitely plan to go back and take a few more classes to master the basics and am toying with the idea of eventually taking some classes in knitting as well. The imperfections may not be apparent from the photo above, but I'll definitely need to work on mastering sewing on a machine in a straight line : ) Threading a bobbin without help will also take a little practice.

So what is the value in spending my money on things like sewing classes when I have no aspirations of becoming a Project Runway contestant?

• As a creative person, it's worth it for my personal happiness level to learn skills that are both useful and creative. Sewing fits those requirements.
  
• I hope to master sewing well enough to do most of my clothing alterations and even make some basic items for myself like skirts. This would save me a lot of money over time because as a petite lady, a lot of my pants and other clothing require alteration before wear. As a result of the extra money required to purchase pants, I rarely buy them these days.
  
• I like the idea of giving more hand-made gifts. Hand-made gifts can also be cost-effective in many cases if the materials required to make the gift are inexpensive. For instance, I could make a baby blanket for the next family member or friend that is expecting.
  

Learning to sew proficiently won't happen overnight, but I feel positive that it's an attainable goal with some instruction and a little practice. I plan to track how much money I spend on learning to sew and on the cost of materials during and after the 'learning' process.