Posts (page 2)
So I have taken on a project at work which is to be done on my own time. It is proving to be a much more difficult project than I had originally thought. The project is to create demonstrational videos for the new project that my company is releasing. I am using Adobe Captivate, and it is not that it is hard to use, but I cannot film the actions on my computer and the voice recording at the same time because I get nervous about what to say and mess up and then it seems unprofessional. So I have to create the slides for the project first and then add my voice to them. I am taking so many slides and then I have to organize them all and then I have to record my voice to them. I suppose this is proving to be a good thing for our when our program releases, because I am pretty much going through this program with a fine tooth comb and finding all of the bugs. That is the really frustrating part, I am trying to take the slides and then something breaks and I have to wait for Jonathan to fix it before I can continue. I have worked on this project for only 9 hours so far, but I was home sick on Monday and didn't get to do any of it, and then I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working outside of work to get caught up on the day I missed so all in all I have had a very full work week and it is driving me batty! Hopefully I will be done with these retched videos soon so that I can have my free time and my sanity back.
Tonight I spent the night working on demonstrational/instructional videos for my companies new control panel for our email marketing/lead management/MLS search/chat programs. (pretty much everything but our websites).
It is sucky to be spending my Saturday night working, but it is a neat feeling to be able to do something to help us earn a little extra money. Because Jonathan is a proficient web developer, he is able to get side work pretty much whenever, but there isn't really anything that I can do to help us earn extra cash (great place to insert joke about prostitution/exotic dancing). GoMe! (a little encouragement to myself)
So I have been complaining about not reading enough lately so Jonathan decided to find me a book to read. I remember him telling me that there was a book he knew that I would like so I told him that I would read that one. The book ended up being Stranger in a Strange Land.
The book is about a man who grows up on Mars, raised by Martians, and is brought back to earth. The main portion of the book is about his adaptation to earth, and to understand what it means to be human and also teach his friends to be/think in Martian. It is really interesting and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading fiction and doesn't mind some philosophy thrown in.
If anyone else has read it, please let me know what you thought about it.
Just wanted to let everyone know that we have made it through our first month of budgeting. We went over in some areas, completely forgot about some areas, and came in under in some areas. On an exciting note, we have finished the month with still having our $1000 emergency fund intact. We have a better idea of what to do this month, so hopefully things will turn out better.
I am still really excited about paying off our debt and getting our financial life in order. I am really looking forward to owning a home, and I am committed to being able to purchase one here in Southern California (that is unless God has somewhere else for me to go).
God has been really faithful on his end of the bargain in respect to providing. He has been giving me opportunities to earn extra money. One of these opportunities is that now for every one of my clients that rehosts with my company I get a 5% commission on it (which is at least $20 per person). We also had a competition at work to see who could get the most rehosting orders last month (Feb) and I won :) Also, my boss wants to have videos put throughout our new control panel and he wants me to do them, except I am really busy at work, so he is going to let me do them on overtime.
These blessings that God has been bestowing upon me are really (at least) two fold. One is the money and two is the fact that normally I pretty much hate my job, and I have been praying for something to make it better, and this certainly gives it more perks. (there are things about my job that I enjoy already like working on the websites, but my dislike for working with the clients, who are mostly mean, is able to shadow the enjoyment.)
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I love you all!
Birthday Cupcakes:
So, I made homemade mac and cheese tonight for the first time and I have to say it was quite yum. The only sad part was that the recipe was for 8 servings and there was only Jonathan and I to eat it. (I didn't look at the number of servings until I had already started making it so I couldn't half it or quarter it or anything like that). It is really easy to make and only took me an hour to prepare (it would probably take less time if it wasn't my first time making it) and baked for 30 mins. If anyone would like the recipe let me know!
The first step in the book is to make a budget (which I just finished doing) then to save $1000 for an emergency fund. We are going to use some of our tax return for that. The second step is a "debt snowball" which I think is a really awesome concept. You list all of your debt from lowest payoff to highest (not counting your home or anything above 50% of your yearly income). Then you put as much money as you can toward your smallest debt while paying the minimum on the rest each month. Once you pay off the first one you apply everything you were paying off on that one toward the minimum of the next one and so on and so forth. If for some reason you use money from your emergency fund you are supposed to stop step 2 and go back to step 1.
I am really excited to get all of our debt paid off. We don't have very much (minus the car) but any is too much :) I really think that if we are able to discipline ourselves to stick to our budget we will really be able to get our debt paid off and start saving.
Step 3 of the book is to add to your emergency fund until you have enough for 3-6 months expenses. Which would be a really nice emergency fund in my opinion. There are more steps but I haven't finished the whole book yet. It started talking about saving for retirement and college for kids and I wasn't as excited to read about that as I was to read about getting rid of debt and saving for emergencies. I am going to push through and get through it though. This is so awesome.
To anyone reading this, I give you my permission and ask that you would keep me accountable to stick to my budget and to stick to paying off debt and to stick to saving.
Thank you!
What are you saving up for?
Submitted by Star.
Jonathan and I are slowly saving up for a home and at the same time trying to pay off our credit cards, which we are almost done with :)
