Operation: Budgeting

Ugh.

That's what I think when I start thinking about budgeting.

Ugh, ugh ugh.

It's not fun, it's not easy, it's not glamorous. But, it's necessary. I know for me, getting started was the hardest part. Now that I have a process and know exactly where my money is going to be at any given moment, it's much easier to keep my spending in check. But those first few months of paychecks and arbitrary spending were brutal.

This isn't necessarily instructions as much as it is Katie's Guide to Budgeting Success. What works for me may not work for you. As some background info, I get paid twice a month via direct deposit into my checking account, I pay my credit card bill once a month out of my checking account, and I pay rent and utilities once a month.

Step 1: Create an account on Mint.com and put in the time to categorize your expenses for the last 3 months. Mint will create categories for you or you can create them on your own, and then you can see your average spending for those categories. This helps you budget realistically. It's easy for me to say "I am going to spend $50 at the grocery store a month" but the reality is, I was spending $200. Re-working my budget was the first step to success.

Step 2: Determine how much of your take home salary you would like to save. I currently have 50% of my take-home salary immediately transferred into my savings account. That doesn't mean it stays there, because I don't think I can live comfortably on 50% of my salary, but by not having it immediately available in my checking account I am more aware of my spending habits.

Step 3: I have all my paycheck deposited into my checking account, but the Monday after my paycheck goes through, I have either 1/3 or 2/3 automatically transferred into a savings  account.

Step 4: Set up all your monthly payments to be deducted automatically. I have set up my rent payment to be mailed on the 1st of every month. I have a payment set up to pay a certain amount towards my credit card bill monthly. Sometimes this is an overpayment, and sometimes it's an underpayment. However, it's my target amount for what I have budgeted to spend monthly. I pay my utlities and my rent at the same time, but you can do the same with utilities, and any other expenses you know you will incur on a monthly basis.

Step 5: Calculate your monthly take home pay, and subtract out what you have budgeted for. For me, I would subtract the amount I pay towards my credit card bill and my rent/utilities. The rest of that money is what I am actually saving.

When I signed up for Mint.com, I created budgets and I know what they are for various categories (grocery shopping, dining out, nails, hair, car repair, travel, etc). I put all of my purchases on a credit card, and the amount I pay towards that each month is what I have budgeted total for all of my expenses. So, even though I didn't spend $100 on traveling in January, I included that in my budget, because I did budget to spend $300 every 3 months.

What about you -- how do you budget? Do you have a spreadsheet? Do you keep track of your spending at all? Do you feel like you are constantly reigning yourself in, or do you spend exactly how you want and still maintain a good budget for yourself?

I'm so curious how other people do it! I know I am constantly checking myself and forcing myself to dig a little further into the freezer rather than going out, or finishing up an old bottle of lotion before going out to buy a new one. So share with me your budgeting tips and tricks!

 PS - I have a jar exactly like this that I keep all my spare change in! It came from one of my best friends from middle school! Does that make me a packrat? It's always sat on my dresser, for as long as I can remember! My friend wrote little notes on pieces of paper outlining all the "blonde" things I did. I guess saving money isn't necessarily blonde, but I'm excited to see how much $$ is in there when I finally empty it out!

A Night In

Last night, I had dinner plans with 2 of my best and favorite friends in the whole world. AC just moved back to Atlanta from Nashville, and Syd was in town from Ft. Worth. After discussing, we all agreed that a girls night in complete with wine, cheese, meat, and a lot of other food was just what we needed. And let me tell you, it was awesome. Between the sickness I'm fighting, my epic weekend, trying to finish up my last week at work, and having about a million friends to see this week, I was really feeling the whole vibe.




I am all about a dinner out on the town, going to fancy restaurants, trying to new places, and general exploration of the city I call home. However, I tend to overlook the thrill that is a fancy night in. We had honey infused goat cheese, peppercorn crusted salami, prosciutto rolls, grapes, raspberries & blackberries, a roasted artichoke, spiced pecans, and wine. LOTS of wine. Talk about delicious! It cost me a lot more than I intended because I was too lazy to go anywhere but the most expensive grocery store I could think of, but it was totally worth it to hang out with my girls in my post-yoga sweatiness and just be. And just eat. A lot. But seriously, next time you think about planning a night out, re-think and plan a night in. It can really be just as fun! And just throwing it out there, but fancy food != fancy clothes. I was basically the definition of that last night.

And if you're feeling really feisty, you could also maybe turn on an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta, just as "background noise." Right. It was my first viewing of the show (yes, I live under a rock) and needless to say... I won't be recording it. Sorry NeNe & Kim, and the girl who had an over-the-top, antithesis-of-southern baby shower. I don't buy it.

Food Bloggers!

I woke up this morning, and after a few other things, I thought about the massive number of food blogs that I read (listed below) and thought to myself, "katie...these people have mastered the art of eatingwhatsleftinthepantry so why can't you?" Granted, I keep my pantry pretty well stocked. I did go 6 weeks without going to the grocery store, after all. But I find myself buying more of the same and not eating that new food I thought I wanted 2 weeks ago. Dangit.

So today I challenged myself to eat up everything I have in my pantry and in my fridge, and try to make exciting new stuff. Like today, I had some avocados... so I made guacamole. And I ate it with some spinach thats probably going to go bad soon, and some potentially moldy goat cheese (I used it up, and just figured a little dirt got in there, NBD), and some sunflower seeds, and some dried cranberries (leftover from making my own granola). And a grapefruit (leftover from the beach). And that was lunch today. Lunch tomorrow will probably be more of the same, as long as I am alive tomorrow after eating moldy goat cheese today.

But anyway, I challenge you, too, to eatwhatsleftinthepantry week/month/year. That will probably turn into eatwhatsleftinthepantry,fridge,andfreezer for me, but it will be done!

And now, for my favorite food bloggers! (in the order that they appear in my Google Reader)

oh she glows! - lots of running/biking inspiration!
the fitnessista - she's funny and fun and a GA girl!
kath eats real food - very outdoorsy, i dig it!
whole foods story - i just love all the tips and recipes
gourmet mom on the go - great ideas for stuff to do while babysitting!
bakerella - um yum.
choosing raw - i'm not a raw foodist nor do i strive to be, but still very interesting and informative information about food!
eat live run - one of my faves; southern girl transplanted to california and really trying to live her dream. plus she gets to drink great wine and eat great food!
just cook already - a collaborative blog started by a former volleyball teammate. i've gotten some GREAT! recipes from these ladies :)
pioneerwoman - duh.
real simple daily recipe - some are good, some are great, some suck. just depends.
smittenkitchen - really yummy recipes, and her little boy is maybe the cutest little dude i've ever seen. that hair, and those dimples!
the garlic goddess - great recipes, and they are all veggie-friendly!

Like I said.. I'm a little bit obsessed. This doesn't include any of the design, fashion, or local blogs I read, and definitely doesn't include all my other friends who blog! But... they are the food blogs that I am most dedicated to.

Any suggestions? Did I miss someone? I'm always interested in adding new reading material (clearly I don't have enough) so drop me a line if you think there is another blog out there that I am meant to unite with!

Happy Monday!

Books Galore

I remember very vividly one disastrous summer that I read and read and read until my eyes were practically bleeding, and on August 1, or whatever the deadline was to turn in your list of books you had read that summer (I had like 7 pages stapled to the standard copy the library gave you), we came downstairs to find that my sweet pup had CHEWED MY LIST. I was devastated, heartbroken, and distraught. My mom taped and glued as best she could and I still remember taking the tattered shreds of paper that were my reading list to the children's desk at the library and saying, "The dog ate my summer reading list." The memory still haunts me, and I won't be putting any reading lists at doggie height EVER. AGAIN.

So now that you all know how giant of a book nerd I am, I have to tell you that I have started going to the library again. I live in Fulton County, so that's the library I have to go to. I miss my Cobb County Library system, but these are the sacrifices we make to live in the city. I start by looking at the NY Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller List. I like to print it and highlight the books I want to read. Then I mosy on over to the Fulton County Library Search Page to search for the books I want, and find out where they are. You can also create an online account (your library card number including the first letter, and the PW is "changeme") and reserve and renew the books online. It's like a book nerds dream!

But sometimes you just have to go in and browse. I like to know if there are 1 or 2 books that I know I want to get, because I just HATE walking out of the library empty-handed. Recently, I have used my library card to check out these books:

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer - Fascinating, captivating autobiography that allows many insights and even understanding of the world of polygamy.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult - I like any/all Jodi Picoult, and in fact had already read this once, but forgot what happened, so I re-read it.

The Captive Queen of Scots by Jean Plaidy - I'm only 75 pages in. This book is TOUGH to read, and long. The words are small, and I feel like I've read 200 pages rather than only 75, but it is interesting, and my love for historical fiction makes it tough to put down.

Second Glance by Jodi Picoult - Ok 2 Jodi Picoult books were right next to each other... what else was I supposed to do? I haven't started this one yet, but it's waiting patiently on my nightstand. I'm sure I'll pick it up one Tuesday afternoon and have it finished by Wednesday morning.

What are you reading lately? I'm always looking for more recommendations! I'm also thinking about hosting a book swap. My bookshelves, as you can see, are chock full of a wonderful variety of books, and I'd love nothing more than to trade a few books for a little while. I don't know if I could part with my books forever, although maybe if I was getting a few in return it wouldn't be all that bad.

We could do a girls wine night paired with a book review/swap. Everybody brings 3 books and leaves with 3 "brand new" ones. I think it would be a blast! Boys are welcome too, but I don't think they 'd find much of interest in my book collection... maybe others have a more boy-friendly collection, but not I. Anyone interested?

Lenten Sacrifices & A Yummy Recipe

So for Lent, I decided to give up grocery shopping. This may seem silly, but I have somewhat of a grocery store addiction. I wish I could show you my pantry... it's STILL slightly out of control, and Lent is now halfway over. You should have seen it before Lent started. And don't even get me started on my freezer. But, as Lent has progressed and I have attempted to a) eat healthier and b) eat up the things I have in my kitchen, I have had to do some improvising. I am a creature of habit, so changing up what I eat with what and how I prepare things has been tricky.

A few nights ago, I was rummaging through my freezer trying to figure out what I could come up with for dinner and I came across a lone pork chop. Oh yeah! I remembered those pork chops. They came in a pack of 2, so I know there's another one in there somewhere just waiting for me to find it and eat it. That will be a good day. In the mean time, I cooked up this pork chop on the stove. It was about an inch thick (woah baby!) so it took a little longer, but was worth the wait. I also made some rice pilaf & steamed broccoli to go with it.

How I cooked my pork chop:
1. Defrost in a bucket of hot water in my sink because I forgot to take it out of the freezer before I left for work.
2. Sprinkle some celery salt, garlic powder, and some other mix that I had on each side. Generously, people.
3. Heat a skillet with some oil in it and 2 tbsp. BUTTER - this is a crucial ingredient! Get the skillet reallllllly hot.
4. Cook on side 1 for about 7 minutes
5. Cook on side 2 for about 7 minutes.
6. If you're me, get impatient and cut into pork chop only to see that it isn't done and you can't eat yet.
7. Cook on side 1 for about 3 more minutes.
8. Cook on side 2 for about 4 more minutes.
9. Cut into it some more because you are paranoid about eating pork after this whole swine flu outbreak.
10. Realize you are crazy and just take it off the heat and eat your freakin' food.

So, you could probably cook it in approx. 5 steps, but it took me 10. It's fine, I like to do things my way.

Then, I was on a roll so I kept cooking. I really wanted some chicken tortilla soup, and I didn't really like the recipes I was finding on the internet (and I didn't really have ALL the ingredients...) so I improvised.

Katie's Chicken Tortilla Soup
about 2 chicken breasts worth of meat (more or less is ok just use whatcha got)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of rotel
1 can of corn
1 can of mexican corn (but only if you like it spicy!)
1.5 packets of taco seasoning (you can use just 1 or you can use 2, I use it out of a large canister so I don't know how much it actually was.. enough to taste right!)
1/2 c. rice

Sour cream to put on top later
Shredded cheese to put on top later

Dump it all in a crock pot. If you don't have 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, use 1. If you don't have cheddar cheese soup, don't use it. It'll be fine, I promise.It might even be better, who knows! I know my soup was a little thicker than I would have preferred, so I tried to add in more chicken broth at the end but it's still kinda thick. Oh well, it tastes AWESOME. And I didn't even eat any when it was done, just put it all in individual soup containers, froze half and refrigerated half and called it a night. Who knows when I'll eat 9 containers of soup, but eventually they will get gone.

So now I have zero plain frozen chicken, I am down 3 cans of soup and a couple cans of corn, and I used up a half-used container of chicken broth that was in the fridge. Oh yeah and I only have like 2c. of rice left. So, I'd say that was a pretty successful day of sticking with my Lenten sacrifice. But... I really miss the grocery store.

New Shoes

Now that I have been living in the world of "wake up and go to work Monday through Friday every week no matter what" for 4 months, I remembered what I missed about not working in a traditional office. There are a lot of great things about being a personal assistant, but the most important of these things is clothing and attire. As a personal assistant I wore whatever I wanted to work. Jeans, ok! Sweatpants? Probably only on the day when Phipps Plaza was on my list of places I had to go. Mainly because that's just my luck. But I could wear them, and I could be happy with my sweatpants and flip flops and sneakers and tshirts.

But now, I go to work every day. I sit in a cube. I have a desk and post-it notes and a computer and a boss who sits down the hall and likes to startle me just when I think no one is paying attention to me. So clearly, my wardrobe has changed (although apparently not that much). And now I need work appropriate shoes. The ones I had to start quickly bit the dust after wearing them every single day, and I realized on more than one occasion that uncomfortable shoes NEVER GET MORE COMFORTABLE. But, shoes are expensive. Or at least more expensive than I want them to be. And I learned my lesson, and will not be purchasing $8 Payless shoes to wear to work every day.

But, it's like a catch-22, because I didn't want to spend the money to buy new shoes, so I keep wearing out more and more of the shoes I have, until now today I am left with no functioning brown shoes, black shoes that make that clicking sound every time I walk on the tile floors because I wore out the tip on the heel, and white stripper shoes that really aren't work appropriate. Or comfortable.

I have been perusing Aldo, Zappo's, Dillard's, Bloomingdale's, and a bunch of other shoes places I think with the hope of magically finding free shoes. Obviously that didn't happen, and I decided I was just going to suck it up and order shoes from Zappo's. I did it. After having them in my shopping cart for almost 2 weeks, I just hit PURCHASE today. 3 new pairs of work appropriate shoes will be at my door in probably 2 days. My feet are doing a happy dance and my wallet is crying, because shoes are expensive.

Hopefully these are the last non-fun shoes I buy in 2010. Plain black and plain brown are just no fun, although I did make a small attempt to spice it up with brown crocodile. It's the little things people, the little things.

Blondes Have More Fun!

I'm cheap, especially when it comes to things like my hair, which I don't feel it should be necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on. And shoes, which are merely going on my feet for me to use and abuse, so why buy the expensive ones when the cheapies will do? Although, I am learning to appreciate nicer shoes now that I am working and walking around more than just to an interview and back home in my heels. I learned this lesson today, but maybe I will blog about that tomorrow.

Today I am hear to tell you about the best deal EVER on hair cuts, dyes, perms, highlights, and anything else you could imagine you would want done to your hair. I started my hair adventures at the Aveda Institute, where I met and fell in hair-stylist-love with my wonderful Alexandra. It took me a few tries to find her, but once I did I never went to anyone else. Alexandra graduated from beauty school, and for a while even did my highlights in the middle of her apartment kitchen!

Then, Alex did what she never should have done - she started working at Van Michael Salon in Buckhead where for the first year or so that she was there, highlights by her cost me..................................ten dollars. $10!!!! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!

I couldn't. It was my favorite thing in the entire world. I felt like the world of hair was at my fingertips. Perm? What the heck, why not, it's only ten bucks! And I could tip 100% and still be way under budget! The work is done by students, and they only do 2 haircuts a week, on Mondays at 4pm and 6pm, but if you plan far enough in advance, it's so easy to schedule a cut, color, whatever your little heart desires! And, I'm pretty sure this isn't any of their first runs at doing hair. Like I said, Alexandra already had graduated from beauty school at Aveda. This was like the final step for her!

Unfortunately for me (and for my budget), Alexandra is now slowly but surely working her way up the ranks at Van Michael, so she now costs a lot more than $10. I've promised myself I will go to her every other time I need my hair done, because my cheap self cannot justify a $100 hair fix, despite how much I love Alex and how she knows just how to fix my hair so it's perfect.

So call, schedule your appointment, and let a cheap and fabulous haircut be your new best friend!