I now remember why moving to Arizona sounded so appealing that December 5, 2007, afternoon. The week forecast for my area of Central Texas does not include temperatures above freezing until Saturday. I work outside guys. Outdoors, unprotected from the wind/sleet/snow/rain/elements that mother nature will combine and throw at me, outside! And I'm on callt his weekend, when it finally becomes a balmy 40 degrees all weekend. EEK! All of you in Oklahoma where it is expected to be in the 0's - feel free to roll your eyes at my pansiness. Is that even a work, pansiness?

Today is an off day - all day no work. So of course I promptly slept in until 8 am. Drinking my cup of coffee right now, typing this. I'm going to get another cup of coffee and read out of my current reading book. Then I have a few errands to run today, such as changing my license address. Shh, don't tell TxDPS that I've lived here 8 months and haven't done that yet. And finally go get my public library card so I can check out books again, to read more (see Resolutions of the year). After that, who knows, the world is my oyster, or something like that.

What I'm doing to boost my debt payoff for this week:

1. Coupon clipping. Some tips I've learned... Family dollar often has laundry detergent, basic toiletries, etc for cheaper than grocery stores or Wal Mart and they take manufacturer coupons. Wal Greens also has their own coupons this week. Deal of the week: Sun Detergent buy 2 for 4.99

2. I've taken up selling Scentsy candle warmers for extra money. I can put as much time or as little time as I have available. So far, I've made my money back.
January goal: $1000 total in sales = $250 in commissions. Interested in being a consultant - email or call me - info can be found on my website (click link)

You would think that 9 years of college education, with several courses in personal finance, accounting and general business management, that I would maybe be a little smarter with money. During my early 20's, I poorly handled my financial life and now, in my later 20's, I'm having to clean up some of the debt I incurred while pursuing my doctoral degree. 2009 found me graduating from graduate school and beginning an internship position (read: cheap labor), but I was determined to knock out debt and have an emergency account in place, a la Dave Ramsey. Grade for this effort (remember, I've been a perpetual student, everything is graded) was a B-, I did okay. 2010, is going to be full force. So, in the interest of accountability to all 5 of my readers (I'm still semi private for multiple reasons), here is the beginning stats and my goals. I plan to also list out what I'm doing to reach my goals and any money saving tips you've got are welcome. (While I also pay for much of the boy's expenses, I'm leaving his debt out for now. I may add his in later as my debts are paid.)

January beginning worth:
Emergency fund: $450.00 cash
Savings Account: $127.50

Total Debt:
Wells Fargo Credit Card: $3453.85
Compass Credit Card: $5219.33
Citi Credit Card: $20,395.82
Student Loans: $207,416.30
Total: $ 236,485.30

If anyone knows how to add a running total ticker to the sidebar, I'd love to have the instructions. Thanks!

2009 in review...
What a year its been. A lot of "I'll never do..." has actually occured. I never thought I'd end up where I'm at, doing what I"m doing, but life has turned out better than I could have ever picked for myself. It's been a pretty good year.

2010 promises to be an even better year.
I'm going to continue to get a handle on our financial picture and keep paying off debt. I'm happy to report that the end of 2009 found me writing 2 checks (or actually online paying) to completely pay off almost $1500 in debt at one time. WooHoo! I'm going to be more transparent in our debt recovery process. I'm going to actually post more often, especially to have better accountability with our debt recovery efforts. We've both pledged to become more active in our church here, not just going every Sunday (except when I'm on call - it doesn't work out for me) but do more to be involved and study deeper. We want to live more simply and not be so rushed (that's mostly me, crazy job I have). Play more games together and watch less TV.

What about you? What are you going to do with 2010?

Its been a month since I last posted. Oops! December has been over the top-absolutely overwhelming-exhausting-full of guests-tons of fun! A quick synopsis of everything.

- LAS VEGAS! But only for 5 days (6 nights), but there was Cowboy Christmas shopping, NFR rodeo, AAEP Convention, the boyfriend, my friends, his friends, piano bars, cowboys, "slushies", Ricky and the RedStripes, fancy dinners by a pharmaceutical company, and very little sleep. My work had an office pool if we were going to get married while we were out there or not. For the record, it was a not (my parents couldn't make it and I won't get married without my family)

- Came back in time to be on call and get the stomach flu/bug/virus/projective vomiting mess that's going around central Texas. (Sorry if that's TMI).

- My parents came to help put up my Christmas tree and last minute decorating/cleaning/cooking (the week before Christmas - Thanks mom and dad!)

-Christmas with me, mom, dad, brother, brother's girlfriend, grandma, boyfriends brother, his wife and their son. So much fun, family, food, presents, love, card games and dominos.

- My family left and his stayed for a week. They left this morning :(. Lots of staying up late playing card games and cooking and talking and laughing. I wish they didn't live so far away in Idaho, or we could visit more than twice yearly. Boyfriend misses his family terribly.

- Off today, on call tomorrow for New Years.

-December has been a whirlwind and I'm kind of ready for it to end and ready to begin fresh with 2010 tomorrow. Today's agenda is running errands, cleaning and relaxing before tomorrow.

Coming Next: A reflection of 2009 and a look forward to 2010 (I promise before 2010 actually occurs)

Really Houston Intercontinental airport? Really? Houston gets 1/2 an inch of snow in an 8 hour period of time and you aren't "prepared" so you have to cancel flights for 2 days!??! Really?

My flight from AUSTIN tomorrow was cancelled due to HOUSTON getting snow today. ahem Continental ahem. I now have to buy another ticket for $100 more on an airline that isn't afraid to fly out of a different city the day after it snows.

Got to get to Vegas. Got to get to Vegas.

This pup, my 9 month old Australian Shepherd dog, "Eli" was hit by a car on Monday. Or rather, more correctly he was hit by 3 cars before someone stopped to help him. A nice man from a local plumbing company stopped his van to block traffic so he could run get me neighbor and move him off the road. They called me at work and I ran home and got him, to bring him back to check him over. Other than banging his head/nose up pretty severely and whole body soreness, he is ok. Today, he's back to normal. I thank God for small miracles.




My boyfriend takes me on a biweekly date to Nami's, a hibachi grill and steakhouse. We've taken my parents twice, my brother and his girlfriend and some recently visiting friends. A recent picture of the 2 of us...



We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. Lots of food and relaxing.. Plus my mom helped me make some basket testers for my Scentsy since I haven't had much time. Several parties open right now, hopefully a good first month before Christmas. (Sorry no pics)

Finally the boy left this morning driving to Las Vegas. I will fly in on Saturday morning at 8:30 am, just in time for a full day of shopping at Cowboy Christmas. Also on the agenda is the Finals, AAEP Convention, more Finals, lots of good friends in town, Cowboy Christmas, Las Vegas, a John Wayne chaplain?, Trade show and fun! Pictures to come next week!