St. Valentine

"Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves." - Henri Frederic Amiel

No matter how many hints I drop in the universe about loving fresh flowers, tulips have yet to arrive at my house. So this past Saturday, at the grocery store, I bought an unopened bouquet of pink tulips and have enjoyed them all week in my dressing area. I shall take a picture and post it so you can enjoy their beauty as well.

Life has been a rollercoaster so far this month. Last night, I caught up with a friend who I hadn't seen since before Christmas and my response to her inquiry about life, "Is it still February? Then life still sucks..." So far, not a good month. My emotions seem to have leveled out over the past two days but it doesn't mean they won't spin out again if I don't make some changes. As they happen, I'll share what's working and what's needed.

One already made is an adjustment in my work schedule to attend a yoga class on Wednesday and Saturday mornings - it feels good and it starts my day well. Coming up, gym visits for treadmill and weight workouts - Hope to make this happen with the start of next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me to wake up with my alarm because it has been a struggle.

I'm looking at school - again - for different reasons and ideas. I'm not certain what to do or which direction to go in for my career. When I think my situation now could be the rest of my life, I have a panic attack. Not good. When listing what I want in my position and/or career, I look for travel, freedom and passion. There are several options to combine all of these in a less convential career path. I'm researching and internally debating these options currently.

Presently, I own a house. With a yard. This is new territory for me. I don't know how to do yard work and it shows. So my goal this spring and summer is to learn about plants, gardens, and how to beautify my yard without spending a fortune. I've heard this will help with my fitness goals so I'm excited about that side effect. Otherwise, it just makes me feel silly to not know how to handle my yard. Plus, I know my neighbors are hating me. I do nothing to help in the visual appeal of the street. So that will give me something else to laugh about.

My first project was planting herbs for my window sill from a kit... it went ok. We'll see if they bloom. I ended up with way more soil than needed (I think that's expected) so I'm going to buy something else to pot and use the excess. Plus I've been looking for two planters to go outside my front door and I found beautiful royal blue ones - they're on the to get list for this weekend. Patience and Baby steps as I'm still working on trimming my budget. Once purchased, I will showcase here since I've been slacking on pictures lately.

As mentioned above, still working on the budget, and I'm learning to budget and developing patience for items I want/need. My free time is rare and after I do laundry, sleep, bathe, take care of the dog and the house... then I'm able to shop. So it's frustrating to see what I need/want and not purchase it in that moment because it's pricetag is larger than the amount in my pocket. Especially when I 'technically' have the money in the bank just not in that week's spending amount. I've gone back to giving myself a cash allowance for the week so if I have $20 dollars and I want pots which total at $50, then I have to save the cash for the purchase. So far, I'm doing ok. But these pots are driving me nuts since I don't want them to sell out before I get mine. After such a long search, I want them... have to have them... can't wait to get them. So telling myself to save for them out of my weekly budget pisses me off - even if it's me restricting myself - my bank account thanks me.

Which leads me to a status update on travel savings: over $500, more than 1/6 of my way to my first goal of $3000. And I should receive my tax return (hopefully) this week which will help in all areas of saving and debt reduction. Nice.

Question - If I decide to sell my house before I leave to travel, then paying additional money each month would also be a form of savings since it will help lower the amount owed at the time of closing. Correct? I wouldn't normally think of my house as a savings account but putting additional money towards the principal would help reduce the amount of interest owed overall, decrease the repayment time and allow for additional profit if I sell my home. Not certain I want to sell but if I do, then it would provide me with more cash than I can save plus less headaches while on the road. What would you do? Put the money towards the house or keep with the rest of the travel savings? I'm not talking a huge amount - $100 a month or so. Thoughts? Ideas? Experiences? Please share.

Financing my Dream

Faith is forward motion. –Karen Maezen Miller

Money is always a part of reality... unfortunate, but true. To make my dream a reality, I have to revise my personal lifestyle and daily budget to make it happen. I've been looking at other travelers, talking to friends and crunching numbers. I'm great at research and ideas but not so good at the follow through. I'm not good or used to telling myself "no".

Living the Dream decided on a budget of $30,000 for a little over a year (415 days). It's a flexible plan and it allows for cheaper countries to make up for more expensive countries. I want to travel for a longer time, at a slower pace and experience more of living like the locals. I plan more home stays, work for board, jobs as I move around the world so I can limit my expenses and continue my income. Plus I'm hoping to have another source of income (more on that later) besides whatever I'm earning at my work/stay job.

I need to do more research on:


1. Costs of Visas


2. Transfer Taxes


3. Shipping Charges (Gifts, Souvenirs, Holidays, etc - sending packages home)


4. Health Insurance (Cobra? Travelers? Job Provided?)


5. Pre-Trip Purchases (what do I need?)



How much do these cost? What's my personal needs? What's my comfort level? What am I forgetting?

One thing I've learned is I need an international bank, with partnerships around the world, and offering a 4 digit PIN (I didn't even know PINs came in larger numbers). The most highly recommended bank was HSBC so I've looked into their account choices - I'll be able to link my international account with my current local bank through a money market account. Maintaining my local bank account will allow my parents to have emergency access - I'll have to set that up before I leave - they don't currently have access but it's a small town with a small town bank and they know we're related but if I make it official, it could save some time and make it easier on everyone.

GOAL #1

• $1500 in travel savings to open checking account
• $1500 for Money Market account to meet free account minimums.

TOTAL = $3000

I have over $3000 in savings but I don't want to pull any of that money for travel (yet). My savings are for home or pet or human or car emergencies* and I want to leave them for those purposes until those responsibilities are no longer mine.

So that's my first task - Save $3000 to open my new accounts and begin earning money on my money (every penny helps!). Of course I decide to do this in the worst economy, after my salary has been cut and right before the holiday season. But if I can save money with all this going on, then it'll just get easier from here.

Spending cuts (how I'm going to start living a more frugal life)

1. No high speed Internet at Home - I have a Sprint card and DSL at my office so it was over kill to begin with and easy to let go.
2. Cable TV - This one is going to hurt more but I'll get over it. I can watch at my parents' house or at the gym (it may help me get there more!).
3. Eating Out - I eat out a lot for networking purposes and a lot for convenience as well. Breakfast @ $5/day = $25/week = $1300/year. I don't eat out breakfast every day but pretty often so that will be a huge savings. I'm going to limit my lunches and dinners - those will be harder but necessary.
4. Shopping in my pantry - I love to cook so I'm fine with cutting out my expensive restaurant meals but I'm not much better at the grocery store. I'm the queen of standing in my kitchen, looking at my full refrigerator, saying "there's nothing here to eat". I'm sure I'll be telling stories about my progress in this area.
5. Non-Necessity Spending - shoes, purses, clothing, home decor, etc. I've got a lot of stuff around here... I need to trade, sell, give away or barter some of it to help me achieve my dream. I've already been selling some old clothes at a local consignment store so I'll continue, maybe add some ebay selling, and continue to declutter my life.**

*Such as my car not cranking this morning, keep your fingers crossed that it's just a need for a new battery as we think.

**Some of it will be hard to part with, as I decorated my Christmas Tree this weekend, I loved pulling out my decorations plus I have some nice things (ie. china, crystal, etc.) which were gifts and will have to be stored. That may be another cost I need to factor in my budget.