My husband is going to help his grandma to move her stuff to New York. She has decided to move to NY. I think her families have requested her to move up there–where everyone (her sons) is pretty much. My husband’s grandma is going to live in a nursing home. She is almost 80 years old I think.
My husband’s dad called him today to find out about grandma’s moving plan. And he mentioned something about my husband’s aunt plan on moving to NY as well. She lives in our state but different city; about 45 minutes from where we live.
My husband’s families have always been asking my husband to move to NY.
I thought about it. I did like the idea. But then something struck me. How the heck are we going to haul all our pets? And how are we going to afford a house in NY? If I move to NY, I am not about to live in the boonies. No way. If I move to the city, I want to live in the city.
We are in a debt reduction mode and we just talked about a plan to eliminate all debts–mortgage included–by year 2015. We owe $145,000 on our mortgage. With our current plan, it is highly possible to eliminate that by 2015–and we will still be able to save my bonuses and both of our raises.
Where in NY will I find a job that gets me $100,000/year? Just for me. And as for my husband, I would very much like him to make way more than me. Ok, how about $150,000/year? Then it would be very possible for us to afford a house in the $500,000 – $750,000 somewhere close to the city in NY. But if no one can guarantee these salaries then forget it. Forget about living in the city. I am happy and very content living in the smaller city where we make over $100,000/year and we live on one salary—and!! and!! with our current plan, we should be able to retire with millions before we hit 60!!! How awesome is that.
I love where we live right now. We live so close to work–mine is only 5 minutes drive. We make good salaries. We own a house–that will be paid off in year 2015. The weather is nice all year round–no snow, no sleets, nothing crazy. The beach is only 20 – 30 minutes away. We are surrounded by water. It’s super. I love it here. I really do. The one thing I absolutely love about this place is that it is so laid back here. I don’t have to worry about catching up the subway or bus. I can park my car where ever I want. I can go the groceries whenever I want. I don’t have to be on anyone’s schedules. Everyone is nice and warm. I just love it here.
I love New York–to visit. I adore New York–for its glamorous life. However, the place where I am now is where I belong until I am ready to retire. I am not moving to New York. By that time, I will be moving to Savannah, Georgia–where I can sit back and relax in one of their pocket parks.
Well tonight was interesting.
My husband and I went to a religion class at our church. It was good. I enjoyed it. My husband did not really want to go at first but then he went with me. There were free foods before the class began. It was like getting free dinner so that’s a plus. I plan on coming to the next class again next week.
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I called my mom and dad. They’re so excited that I am going to go home visit. We talked for about 20 minutes. We exchanged news and stories. It was nice. I am going to call my mom again next week.
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I started thinking of what I should get for my husband’s families and my bestfriend for Christmas. I am thinking I should get them some fruits this year. Like a basket of fruits from Harry and David or something like that. It’s healthy and they will eat them. It’s not going to get wasted–I hope not. I hate getting cheap Christmas gifts that get unused. What’s the point??? I’d rather not get anything really. Or maybe I am picky. Maybe. Anyways. I don’t expect anyone to give me anything this Christmas. My own Christmas list is quite long and I will get some of them for myself. Just need to remind myself not to go overboard. Christmas shopping is dangerous. I will need to think about what I need to get for my families as gifts when I go home. I might send them first to my sister’s house that way I don’t have to haul them accross the globe.
Ah almost 11 PM. Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is Thursday already!!! I have a facial appointment tomorrow at 4 so I will try to get out of my office earlier than 4. Yay. The weekend is almost here. So exciting.
It’s Friday.
We have no plans for tonight. Just chilling out at home. My husband is running right now. I just had dinner–left over from last night. I wanted to go have some dim sum but I changed my mind. I just wanted something quick and I happen to have some left over so I just heated it up and ate it. Maybe tomorrow morning we’d have light breakfast somewhere.
I opened a new bank account today with local credit union. I opened a joint checking and saving account. I will have my direct deposit with this bank. Two people at work recommended it to me. My husband and I opened a saving account with another credit union a long time ago but we closed it. So far, my husband is planning on closing his Compass bank account and he will switch to our new credit union bank. We do not like Compass bank!!! They suck.
Tomorrow, saturday, my husband’s college football team is playing in town. I think he might like to go. I have some cash so I will see if we could scavenge 2 cheap tickets. If not, he’ll probably watch it from home. Or a sport bar. Either way does not matter.
I need to do some home improvement shopping in the morning. I’ll go early to beat the crowds.
On Sunday, after church, my husband and I are going to take a River cruise!! I am so excited. It’ll be nice and quiet. Just me and my husband. We’ll go on the cruise and have a nice lunch together. I am looking forward to it.
Cruise $0 (we bought the tickets long time ago on silent auction; we got it for real cheap)
Gas $20
Foods $30 – 40 (with tips)
Total: $50 – 60
Now talking about money, we have $3375 saved in my Emigrant Direct saving. I have $195 in my new saving account with the local credit union. My intention is to increase the saving with local bank to $6000 and eventually increase my Emigrant Direct saving up to $6000 as well ($12,000 = about 4 months of living expenses). I like Emigrant Direct since it is giving me 3% interest as of today. But since it is an online account, I do have little problem in accessing it in time of emergency. I don’t think the credit union gives any good interest rates at all but at least it is convinience when I need it (they have various ATM locations and many branches in town).
March 2009, I should be receiving between $10,000 – $13,000 in bonus (after tax) from work. If my mom sends us some money to fix up the house, then we could save all my bonus!!! I am hoping that I will get at least $200/month raise for year 2009 (after 2% increase in my retirement account).
Ok. My husband is here now. I will spend some time with him.
So I decided to make a little treat for my American-born Korean husband. I made him some Scallion pancake. I saw the recipe in a cooking book I borrowed from the library yesterday. He said he used to eat them a lot when he lived with his Korean family. I ate it several times as well during various visits to his grandma’s house. My Scallion Pancake turned out well. It’s so good eaten with the soy dipping sauce (I mixed it with little bit of sugar and chopped scallions). So I have everything ready downstairs and I am just waiting fo rmy husband to come home from his bicycling activity. I hope he likes my scallion pancakes.
For dinner tonight, I have several dinners made ahead of time yesterday so we should be good until the end of this week.
Something bothers me a little bit. When I took my little sister to the mall (Build A Bear store to be exact) last weekend, she told me that her mom told her to tell me that I could buy her (my little sister) a DS. At first I didn’t know what a DS was. I asked her what it was and she explained to me. A Nintendo DS. The thing that surprised me was she actually had the courage to ask something.
I took her to Walt Disney World last month. It cost me some couple hundreds dollars to do that. I should have done that as part of her birthday present. Anyways. Now I feel that she’s taken advantage of me–well, a little bit. Sure she is only 10 but I just don’t like the idea how she started asking me to buy her stuff. If I was her close relative, sure maybe I would understand more but I am not. I am a volunteer.
I didn’t know how to react to some of her actions sometimes. I am not used to it. I am not used to having someone to ask me for something. And I am just so used to get everything for myself. Ok yeah, I always provide my husband with a mile long list of things I want for Christmas every year but this is to my husband and he knows I can get those with my own money if I want it to. My point is, I wanted to explain to my little sister that money is not everything; that it has to be earned; that there are way many more important things she can have other than tangible possesions. I was having a hard time doing this. So I joked to her by saying, I want a DS too!! And I left the conversation right there. I didn’t mention or ask her about her wish anymore that day. Next birthday, we’re going to a waterpark. Or maybe I’ll just get her an outfit. Or $20 gift card to a bookstore. But you know what though, considering what she has now and what I had when I was her age…. she has it tougher than me.
I remember when I was young (lived with my parents), I would get anything I wanted, I mean anything!!!–from toys to whatever. But this does not mean that I will spoil my little sister. I will be generous but not overly generous that she takes advantage of me. When she turns 18, I’d like to give her a special gift. This is also the age when we won’t be Big Sister Little Sister anymore. For now, I’ll just try to be the best Big Sister she’ll always remember. And my hope is that oneday when she is old enough, she’ll continue the circle by being a Big sister to someone else.
The internet at home was not working for 2 evenings. It was a bummer but we survived.
I am excited that this is a long weekend. We have Labor Day on Monday so no work for me. Wooohoo. I get to spend an extra day with my husband.
One of our neighbors is having an estate sale. I bought a huge beautiful Venetian mirror for $160. It’s huge. And very, very pretty. I plan on displaying it in the entrance hallway. Today we went to the estate sale again and wanted to get a lovely vintage sofa but we decided to wait tomorrow morning when they open at 8 to see if it’s still there. They will be offering 50% off tomorrow.
Today my husband and I had dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. It was pleasant as always. After that we went to Ross. Then we went to the mall to return something at Belk. We ended our trip by going to Babies R Us. We just looked around. I saw the baby bedroom set that I like. I sure hope to purchase them one day. We both were surprised by the price of some of those things they sell. Well, I guess this is why we need to start saving agressively!!!
Now I am at home. Relaxing. I am getting tired and ready for bed. I bought a beatiful bedding set at Ross. It was only $24.99. Can you believe it??? I love it. I’ll wash them tomorrow so I can use it for the weekend.
Ok. Time to sleep.
My husband really wants a baby. There is no way stopping him now.
I am kind of in the middle. I do want a baby but if I can wait, I’d do it later. I am 30 years old. My husband is 28.
I thought we were going to wait until we pay off our CC debts and completely finish our house. But I guess this will take us a while. I am hoping to have the baby in 2010. That would be the ideal situation. This will give us more than $5000 in our HSA account. And if we save my bonuses (2009 + 2010), we should have about $20,000. Not to mention if we save 2008 + 2009 my husband’s part time job income. We should get about another $10,000 for those 2 years.
If we are trying this year, we’ll have the baby in 2009. This means, less money saved. If we start early 2009, baby will arrive in late 2009. This equals $10,000 (my bonus) + $5000 (my husband’s part time job) = $15,000 saved possibly by the end of the year. If we start in mid 2009 and baby born in 2010, that would be perfect. Or at least better timing.
I know for a while I thought I wanted the baby more than anything but now I feel I am going backward. I am just very nervous. I am nervous about our money not being enough before the baby is born. Just today, I talked to one of my coworkers who has 2 kids under 4. She said she pays $320 a week for daycare for her 2 babies. I was like WHOAAAAA. That’s like our mortgage payment!!!!!!!!!! holly cow.
Today, I did ask my HR about the company’s maternity leave policy. I am not sure when my husband wants to start the baby. He does not say. He keeps on mentioning the baby. I hope he is just going through a phase. I’ll see if he still wants it by the end of the month because I don’t mind if we don’t have one at all.
Tonight, we are going to sit down and look at our budget and talk about everything else.
Will write again tomorrow.
My husband is having baby fever. He wants a baby. When I asked him if he wanted to have a baby he answered my question with another question: do you want to have a baby?
I think he does want one now.
We have been talking about it for the last few days and we decided that it is time for us to prepare for a baby. I am thinking, we can start next year after we get everything in order. I am going to see my doctor in 2 months and I am going to tell her about our plan so she can help us prepare for the baby.
I am a bit nervous to be honest. I know my husband and I have been talking about having a baby–in general– since years ago but we never really quite sure when to start. Just few days ago we thought ok this is the time to prepare for one.
Plans? Well. First, we need to finish the house as much as possible. Then we need to save money. I figure if we really really, really try, we can save $10,000 – 12,000 a year. This coming September or October, my husband is going to start his part-time job and usually he brings in $500 – 600 a month. So that is extra that we can save for the baby. This part-time job lasts until about February..March.. April I think…Next March 2009 I should be getting my bonus from work ( at least $10,000 cash take-home). And we will be visiting my families in my home country and from what my mom said, she and dad are going to give me a nice chunk of money. Part of me wants to really keep all the money for “just in case” especially now we are thinking of having a baby. I mean, that is HUGE commitment. I don’t want to pop one out just for fun. My husband and I will have to be responsible for it–emotionally, physically, and financially. I want to have a fun and relax pregnancy time. I don’t want to stress out about anything.
Anyways. Tonight we painted the family room. I picked the color. I wanted it to be a neutral color. I picked this color from Benjamin Moore: Oak Ridge. It turned out it’s quite greeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!!!!!! Oh well. We bought 2 gallons too!!!! It’s going to have some left over. But I am sure we can use it for other rooms in the house. I am think I want to paint the guest room/future baby room light beige. Something neutral. Or Ivory. I love blue and I wish I could paint the whole house blue. We already painted the living and master bedroom light grey blue—SOOOO pretty btw!!!! Love them.
I figure we won’t be able to finish the house 100% before the baby is born so we’ll do as much as we can with the money we have. We need to paint the dining room, the hallway, and the guest room. Oh and the bathroom. My husband is redoing the kitchen right now and it should be finished before the end of the year. The powder room downstairs will need to be finished this year as well as the dining room (this is minimal). Everything else just needs a new coat of fresh paints. I am thinking we should be done with the basics by Summer 2009. This will give us enough time to work on the house. Other than that, I just need to buy few pieces of furnitures and home decors that I can always find along the way—easy and fun stuff.
I am excited. I hope my husband is as excited as I am.
This is awful.
I miss my family so much. We live thousand miles apart. They are in a different country and I am all alone (well, except with my husband) in this country. I just finished chatting with them on Yahoo. They updated me on what is going on in my family.
Oh I miss them.
