Last night I was folding laundry and I noticed something unusual.  There was some blue marks/stains on some clothes that were not previous blue.

The victims:  1 pair of khaki cargo shorts, 1 polo shirt and 1 of Bird’s cream-colored tops

The culprit:  Bird thinks it was one of her blue skirts that has never been washed before

I, of course, didn’t know that when I threw everything in the wash.  I washed it all on cold (which I thought was the thing to do for multiple colors – but what do I know about laundry?)  

I guess I’m just practicing the One-in, One-out method since I bought all those clothes last week.  Although technically, I bought 4 shirts and now I’m out a pair of shorts and a shirt, so maybe I should go through my closet and purge some more.  The shorts I don’t really care about (they kind of looked like Punch Debt’s) but the shirt was one I really liked.

The financial twist:  It seems like such a trivial thing, but I just ruined at least $50 worth of clothing.  That just sucks.

Lesson learned:  Bird should do all the laundry.

I can’t remember if I’ve written about this or not, but every month on the first payday (last Friday), Bird and I set aside our monthly savings.

• $500 to the Down Payment Fund
• $300 to the Grad School Fund
• $200 to the Car (Replacement) Fund
• $100 to the General Savings Fund
• $100 to the Travel Fund
• $100 to the Vanguard Investment Fund

Based on these amounts, we’re saving a little over 20% of our income every month.

Any budgetary leftovers at the end of the month get thrown into one of these categories as well (usually travel)!

Bird and I had a great weekend and one of the best parts is that it didn’t even cost us that much money.

Friday night, Bird and I biked over to her parent’s house for some BBQ and basketball.  We had a fabulous dinner and then enjoyed some March Madness.  Biking home in the dark was kind of crazy (and cold), but a fun adventure as well.

I spent Saturday morning watching English soccer games and cleaning the house while Bird worked on her schoolwork.  I also set up my first facebook advertising campaign on Saturday morning.  I was advertising Mr. Rebates (I’ve also added a banner to this site), but after 5,000 some impressions, I received zero clicks.    It was my first try at pay-per-click advertising and it was fun and I’m definitely going to try it again.  Later that evening we had a wedding reception to attend.  The couple had gotten married in February with a small family ceremony and then had their reception for friends this weekend.  From a financial standpoint, we spent around $50 on a wedding gift.   It was fun to see some friends we haven’t seen in a while, but we didn’t stick around all night because we had to get to a birthday party.

A very special golden birthday party for one of Bird’s best friends.  Everyone was required to wear gold (I wore a gold tie to the wedding) and the house was decked-out with gold decorations.  Have I ever told you how much of a fan I am of themed-parties?  We had so much fun catching up with old friends and making new ones.  This party was for sure the highlight of the weekend.

On Sunday morning, I tried to go out and get back into book selling.  It’s been so long since I’ve been book hunting, unfortunately, the whole city had the same idea as me.  The local used bookstore was packed…I couldn’t believe it.  I couldn’t even get near the shelves so I headed to the thrift store.  Didn’t find any winners.  On the way home, I drove through the used car section of a local dealership.  It was kind of fun to dream about our next car (3-5 years from now, I think).  At home, I watched the Liverpool v. Sunderland soccer game and then after lunch we took Bird’s parent’s dog for a walk around a local lake.  It was a gorgeous day and it felt great to get out and get some fresh air.  When we got home we threw open the windows and enjoyed it even more.

We have Up in the Air from netflix, but for some reason, we just weren’t in the mood for it, so we continued our journey through Arrested Development (we are now on the final disc and will be sad to see it come to an end!).  Then there was more basketball (yay, Duke) before we headed to Target for groceries.  We got sidetracked by sunglasses (which is another post) and ended up spending $99 at Target.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  How was yours?

The plan for tonight is to bike over to Bird’s parent’s house where we will be grilling out and then watching the basketball tourney.

Did I mention that I’m first place right now in my bracket pool thanks to Butler beating Syracuse last night?  I’m not playing for any money, but there’s some pride on the line as I’m in a pool with both my brothers and some of their friends.

That’s gonna be my wild and crazy Friday night — party with the in-laws.

And Go Duke!

Today is payday and it’s the day that my $700 bonus got added to my paycheck.  After taxes, I netted just over $379 more than usual.  I know I complained last week about getting a bonus and not a raise, but today I’m even more appreciative of the bonus because I survived another round of layoffs yesterday.  My department lost 4 more employees in what was the third round of layoffs in the last 1.5 years.

In other news, my work from home dream has been officially put on the backburner because the department doesn’t have the budget for it, however, I did finally get issued a laptop as sort of a consolation.  Now I can work from home during blizzards rather than having to risk my life and waste my time trying to get to work.  This is a small step in the right direction and I’m thrilled about it.  It’s also one small step towards working from home which I think will still happen eventually, just not any time soon.

We’re going through some changes:

In early January, my position at work kind of transformed into a new role.  It’s not a new position and it didn’t get me a raise or anything, they just switched up the team and I got a new role.  At first I thought I was going to love it, but now, as our busy season begins to pick up, I realize there is going to be a learning curve and that it might not be all rainbows and butterflies.  Last week was particularly bad and Bird and I even started brainstorming about what I might like to do for a different job.  I’d mostly just like to figure out what I’d like to do career-wise.

Another change, that we’re excited is that we are moving.  Come Saturday, we’ll be moving back to the suburbs.  Our tenant has moved out of the townhouse I own with a friend, so Bird and I will be moving in!  I’m so, so, so excited about this.  Besides the worse commute, it’s all upside.  Can’t wait to actually have more space!  Well, it’s not all upside, our rent/mortgage payment is going way up.  I don’t even want to tell you about that.

Probably the best news of all is that Bird got a new job.  In fact, her last day at her old company was Friday and she has this week off to do nothing (pack for the move).  She’s actually going back to the company where she used to work but in a completely unrelated position.  It will be much closer to our new house.  Her commute is going to be awesome.  Unfortunately, she is taking a paycut, but it will be more than made up for by the fact that her stress levels are going to go WAY down.  She was almost a completely different person when she came home on Friday!

Another reason she is so happy is because she is loving Grad school after week one.  She started last week (she only has one class on Wednesday nights) and without the stress from her job, she can really focus on learning.  I’m so happy for and proud of her for doing this though I miss her on Wednesday nights now!

So we got a new job role, new house, new job, new school all in the span of a few weeks here.  It’s going to be crazy, but we’re excited about it all (except maybe my new role….still feeling that one out.)

I received $110 in Christmas money from various relatives.  I have decided to save that money and put it in our house downpayment fund at ING.  After moving this money over from my checking account, the fund now stands at $17,331.

I just got this crazy bright graphic in an email sent out from our VP.

Here’s wishing you and yours a very happy New Year’s Eve and an even better 2010.

Minneapolis is buried under snow this morning and apparently there is much more to come.  Sounds like a perfect Christmas Eve to stay in bed and read a good book, right?  Well, it would have been if I didn’t have to go to work.  Me and like 4 other people in this city.

Fortunately, the roads did get plowed this morning due to a lull in the storm.  With the roads plowed (and almost no one  on them), the commute wasn’t too bad at all.  Much better than I was expecting.

I’ve now been in the office for an hour and I’ve seen one other person.  I have a feeling it’s going to be a slow day.  Guess I’ll have to see if anyone is on Twitter to make the time pass.  Here’s hoping for an early release!

As you can probably guess, I won’t be posting over the next few days as I’ll be either hanging out with family or doing the aforementioned staying in bed with a good book while I watch the flurries come down outside.

Yeah, that’s right, I took PTO on Monday so I’m staring a long weekend right in the face.  Three more hours to go until three days off!

Tonight

Bird and I carpooled to work today so after I pick her up we are going out for pizza which will probably run around $30.  Then we are off to the Sara Groves Christmas concert tonight with a couple of friends.  Did I tell you that we LOVE Christmas music?  We do!  Tickets were $18 a piece, but Bird paid for all 4 of them and we are expecting to get paid back by our friends, but you never know.  So $72 for now, but hopefully only $36 in the end.  After the concert we are invited to a friend’s birthday party taking place at a bar down in Dinkytown by the U of M.  We’d love to attend but it will depend on how late the show goes vs. how late the party goes vs. how we’re feeling.  If we go, that will probably be another $20 or so.

Saturday

I always write that I hope Saturday involves sleeping in, but it never does.  Bird has a Christmas cookie baking/swapping extravaganza planned with her cousins for most of the day, so I will be free to do what I choose.  Perhaps I’ll go book hunting, but most likely I will play around on the internet.  This blog sure could use a few tweaks.  And the apartment could use some cleaning.

Saturday night we have dinner reservations here to celebrate that one year ago we got engaged (actually on the 20th, but you’ll see below that we have plans for Sunday).  I’m not sure if that’s something that usually gets celebrated, but what the heck, why not.  We love Levain and this is a really good excuse to go there.  It’s not even the place we went the night we got engaged, but as it turns out, we like Levain more than the other place.  Dinner is probably going to cost about $80-$100. 

Sunday

After church, we’re headed to Bird’s uncle’s place for my in-laws side of extended family Christmas.  Last year was my first year there and it wasn’t so bad.  I’m sure it will be just as not-so-bad this year.  They are smart and always plan Christmas for the Sunday before, so that the guys can watch football while the women hang out in the kitchen.  It’s a wise plan and works out well.  I’m still getting to know that side of the family, but I know one of her uncles is a financial advisor.  We are going to try and talk to him a bit about what we should be doing with our money as we save up for a downpayment.  I’m thinking we’re doing okay with ING Direct at 1.3%, but I’ll let you know if he has any great insights.  On Sunday night when we come home, I’ll be trying to find a place to watch the Vikings game.  Let’s hope it goes a little better than our last Sunday night game.  This should be a no spend day!

Monday

I took Monday off because I needed to use a PTO day or it wouldn’t rollover.  I tried to get Christmas Eve, but it was not available.  I am going to do my remaining Christmas shopping on Monday.  And get my car washed.  And maybe book shop.  And work on Bird’s Christmas present.  And then have dinner made when Bird comes home from work!    It will be a full day, but I’m hoping it makes more sense to shop on Monday than it does on Saturday.  This will definitely not be a no spend day, but I’m hoping to keep my Christmas shopping under $200.  At this point I am only shopping for my brothers, parents, and maybe Bird’s parents. 

What are you doing this weekend?  Do you have your shopping done?