Did I make it to the gym?

I did make it to the gym last Friday! Yay! I've also been twice this week and plan to go tomorrow (Friday). So far, so good. If I can make this a habit I'll be happy ;)

To be, or not to be...healthy

Not long ago, a wealthy someone I know passed away due to complications caused by diabetes. He still had another good 30 years or so to live, if he had only taken care of himself. This, to me, was a wake-up call...but I have just started to act on my feeling.

I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be wealthy and unhealthy, unable to enjoy what I've worked hard for. Therefore, I have decided to exercise on a regular basis. The goal is not to change my body, I don't think I need to lose weight...just want to be fit.

Last week was the first time I went to the gym in several months...since Zumba, which I quit going to. I went twice, Tuesday and Thursday. This week I went Monday and Wednesday, and plan on going tomorrow. The goal which is reasonable, is to go three times a week. I know this isn't much, but it's better than the non-exercise life I've been living! Oh, and now I'm actually using the gym membership I've been paying on month after month, even when I didn't use it!

Exercise, it makes me feel good ;)

Thrift Store Shopping

Yesterday I decided to go to ditch the gym and visit a local thrift store. Reason being, the night before, I was up reading blogs about people's finds that they either keep for themselves or sell on eBay...that was my inspiration.

Upon arriving, I looked at the stuff they keep in cases to avoid theft, then off to the furniture, dish ware, shoes, and then clothes. What I found was a pair of shoes for myself and two to sell, two down vests for winter, a cashmere knee length coat for my mom $15, three great Kirkland (Calphalon style) pans w/lids in super condition for "my guy" who was just telling me he needed some, and best of all..............a gold "road runner" pin weighing 8 grams with a ruby for an eye!! This pin cost me a whopping $3.00 and is worth $200-$300. I researched it online and found an identical one! I feel the store was calling my name for this reason alone ;)

Score!

Now I just need to get these shoes listed so I can feel good about spending $80 there to cover everything else I bought, although $15 was for the pans which my guy will reimburse and the rest I am confident will come from the sale of the pair of $20 shoes I purchased.

I think I will be visiting the thrift store a bit more often.

UPDATE: My guy was really happy with the pans :) and I was reimbursed. Not that he wouldn't pay me, because he agreed before I purchased.

Savings goal

Now that I'm debt free, I want to save money and have decided on an achievable monthly savings goal. The target is to save at least $1,000 per month.

So far this month, already $850 has gone into savings! The breakdown is:

$250: Paycheck overage

$550: Caretaking in September (just got the check today)

$ 50: eBay

Currently I'm waiting on a check for $160 for transportation services in September which will bump the total to $1,010! Plus, two more paychecks this month and more eBay which means at least $1,500 in savings this month...that's the plan. Really though, every month will be different and this month seems unusually high.

Besides that, I can't think of any other income I could possibly throw at the savings. Honestly, I never thought I would be able to save that much money.

I feel blessed.

Loose change

Just dumped some change into my big ol' pot and thought I would snap a pic. This is what it looks like inside...

I wonder how long it will take me to fill it up! Actually, I don't think I'll wait that long before taking it to the bank. Better to earn interest than just let it sit there :)

Confession...

In my last post I stated that I wanted to let my Branch Manager know that I would not be saving money in the Credit Union because American Express was offering a higher rate at 1.30%.

Yesterday I went to her branch and got to sit and chat. Talking with her is enjoyable and I found it interesting when she told me she learned a lot about finances by hearing other people's stories over the years. She would think, I want to have that, or, I'll never do that.

So, I told her about the Amex deal and that I took all the funds except $1,000 out of my savings account and made the transfer to the new account. She understood and said, "So you're here for confession?" I thought that was really funny :) and told her that it sure seemed that way!

I had to explain to her that the reason I wanted to let her know is to avoid thoughts of me falling off the wagon and using up my savings when this isn't the case.

No big deal, but I feel better :) I guess it was confession! LOL!

American Express Savings

Recently American Express has been sending me flyers and emails regarding opening a 1.30% interest rate High Yield savings account with them. Ok, so first I thought...right, I don't want that. But, after looking at my last bank statement received and seeing that I am only getting .25% on my savings of almost $6,000 I figured it would be worth it.

I took the bait and just opened the account a few minutes ago which is managed online similar to ING accounts.

After using a savings calculator online to see what the difference would be on one year of having $5,000 in an account, I see it isn't much, but every little bit helps right?

Looks like this for one year:

$5,000.00 @ .25% = $9 interest

$5,000.00 @ 1.3% = $46 interest

Therefore, I would be getting an extra $35 in "free" money. Worth it in my book, and actually it will be a bit more because I will make regular deposits into this account.

Crazy as it sounds, I feel sad to have to tell my Branch Manager that I will be pulling the funds out of my account and why, the next time I go to put money in there to transfer it to Amex. No, I don't HAVE to tell her, I WANT to.

Really hoping savings interest rates get better, in the meantime this will help a bit.

Children and Savings

When I was a young girl, I liked selling things and making money. I would be out with a typical lemonade stand, pushing a cart around and selling candy to the neighborhood kids, selling different beverages which parents thought was coffee (it wasn't)...anything to make money. The problem is...I never saved it. Most likely it was spent on penny candy from the corner market! Oh, which by the way, I always counted the pieces I received...if I paid 50 cents, I wanted 50 pieces, or whatever it came to before tax.

Seems like I always knew I wanted to make and save money but didn't have any teachers or role models to follow or look up to in this regard. However, when I was about 10 years old, I asked my mom to take me to the bank because I wanted my own savings account. She took me, and I got one. Unfortunately I never had more than about $10 in it and eventually closed it.

If I had proper direction, I could have had a LOT more saved! My mom is not a saver, and my dad isn't either although I thought he was. I wanted it, I craved it, but didn't know how.

When I was 15 years old I went out and looked for a job because of wanting to buy my own things, and got hired making $4.25/hr. Unfortunately I didn't save money then either, but I sure did have the coolest clothes I could afford!

The savings only started a few years ago and I emptied it when I did the Dave Ramsey thing and got out of debt. It was around $1k. So, now, I start again.

All this brings me to the reason I even posted this. Today I visited a branch of a bank I have an account with, not my primary credit union. While there I heard a lady behind me ask who to talk to about setting up a savings account. The teller told her where to go, and shortly after I heard someone ask how old he was, and a boy's voice said, "Twelve."

This made me remember wanting to set up an account when I was so young. It made me smile and feel really good that this boy was getting a savings account at a young age. My only hope is that someone teaches him how to save and it benefits him in the future.

Hindsight is 20/20

Savings Interest Rates

You know what really irks me? Current interest rates on savings accounts. My basic savings account is only at .25%! Yes, a quarter percent! I have another "special"savings account which is fluid, but if I take money out then I don't get interest on the remaining amount for a quarter, or something like that. Anyhow, that savings account gives me 1%, and with the small amount of just over $400 in that account, I earned a whopping 89 cents this quarter.

On the other hand, my basic savings account has close to $6,000 and this quarter I earned $2.76 at a .25% interest rate.

This "special" savings account requires a set amount to be transferred into it on a monthly basis from my checking account. Besides this, I am only allowed to change this set amount and add money to it once a year. When it was "open" this year, I kept the transfer amount at a measly $30 per month because it was so close to my debt free date and I didn't want to take any chances.

I'm thinking that at my next opportunity I will transfer a chunk of my savings to this "special" account and increase the transfer amount to at least $100 per month.

Oh, how I wish the rates would go up. Yes, I know I need to put money in other places, like maybe a CD or Money Market account, but feel like I have lots to learn before I can do this.