Friday, December 12, 2008

Going Underground

With my new job 80% of the work is prepping for the class (with 10% grading work and 10% giving lectures).

Sooooo…

Sorry to say, but… I’ll probably not be updating my blog like I have been.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

What have your utilities done for YOU lately?

Considering I live in an area where we have not yet had to turn off our A/C, we pay a good chunk of money to our power company. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that they were giving us $75 in free CFL light bulbs! Free!

While I’m always up for free things, I had put this offer off thinking that it would be complicated or time consuming. Then I got a reminder notice last week with a checklist for me to assess the type of lighting we have in our apartment. From that list, it recommended the appropriate type of light bulb. It had all sort of light bulbs- little ones that look like fake candles- to ones that look, well, like a regular light bulb. They even had flood lights and insect lights.

All I had to do to get my $75 worth of lights was to log on to my electricity account and denote how many of each blub I wanted. Shipping and handling was covered by my power company and they should arrive in six weeks!

How neat is that!?!

Monday, December 8, 2008

December update

In all my excitement of getting my new job last week; I didn’t assess how my financial situation changed over this last month!

As a whole, my net worth is back into the negative three digits- whoo hoo! I haven’t been here since before the September crash! As expected my retirement savings dwindled, but at least it shrank due to external force- rather than through some error on my part.

My key savings accounts I’ve been tracking have once again inched ahead.

2008 Roth IRA 3K- was: 60.3% now: 61%
15K New Car Fund- was: 24.3% now: 24.5%
14K Emergency Fund- was: 18.8% now: 19%
100K DP Home Fund- was: 11.7% now: 11.8%

It’s pretty apparent I will not reach my financial goals for 2008, but then again, being unemployed for a year has a way of hampering personal financial goals. If anything, these small financial advancements are a testament that we, as a married couple, can stay solvent on one salary and even save a little. This year could have been a financial disaster for us, but instead, it focused us on doing what we really want to do and to not spend extravagantly.

That- that is something to be thankful for!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Gainfully employed!

Yes, it’s true! I’ve got a part-time teaching instructor position!!!!

Whoo-hooo!!!!

Monday, December 1, 2008

e-Hope

After eleven months of unemployment, hundreds of emails to department heads and hr people, and lots of deep sighs an email appeared:

“I have a vitae on file for you as someone who is interested in part-time teaching. I'm looking for an instructor for Spring to teach … Are you interested in teaching this spring, or is your plate already full?”

Is my plate full? HA!
Am I interested in teaching in the Spring- you bettcha!

AND…. (drum roll please)… the interview is on Wednesday!

I’m going to spend the next couple days getting ready- I really want this job! I’ll post an update after the interview!