where the moon shines

So my 3-4 year-old LCD monitor is actually 22 inches in size, not 19. We brought it into the Qube service center this afternoon. Looks like they can fix it, we’ll either pay 1000 pesos for just repair, or 1500 if any piece has to be replaced. We’ll go back for it in three days.

Three more days without my PC. I’ll survive.

But I’ve got projects I can’t work on because of this hitch:

- My blog overhaul. There’s been malicious attacks on both Verabear.net and The Newbie Photographer. The latter has been completely disabled so I need to rebuild. For this one, I’m thinking of taking this down to be built it up gain . I can’t do that on an iPad, nor on my dad’s work laptop.

- Organizing our photos. I took (or should I say ‘am taking’?) Kayla Lamoreaux’s Finding Photo Flow class. It’s really great. I haven’t gone through all the class content and haven’t really begun work on my cluttered photos (digital clutter of course).

- Project Life. Okay, it’s not my PC or the monitor that’s keeping me from this one…

Just found out that my nephew AJ has a new puppy! I don’t know what breed of dog 6-month old Sake is, but he’s so adorable! I’ll take a photo soon and post, I’m sure his new family won’t mind. Sake, that’s a cute name isn’t it? I think my Zune senses him. He’s lying in front of the door as if waiting for something, or someone.

Also early this afternoon, my Dad asked about flash drives that go as much as 4G in capacity. I told him he should get a portable external drive instead so he can have all of his files handy. Later on though, I realized he can just use online storage. There are free options like SkyDrive and Oystor that would be sufficient for his needs. He would need to be online to access them though, and I guess that’s the only downside of it for him. Everything’s found online these days, and there are many solutions for mobility like the iCloud.

So many things online, I wish I could just telecommute for work. And still earn as much if not more than I do now. Hope. Long ago, job hunting has been brought online, even teaching, freelance, nursing, and physician jobs can be found online. But those jobs are still offline, if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t I love a job that would just all be online? Haha. I feel so at home online, maybe it’s because I find so many inspiration all over the place.

Okay, sounds like I’m rambling? Yes I am. Trying to distract myself from looking at bags at the Cath Kidston website. I fancy this:

I was supposed to be married by the end of this year. Well, we didn’t really go out and announce anything to anybody, but it was something we had talked about plenty of times.

December would have been a good month. His brother’s family would be home for the holidays. My BFF Jo would be home from Dubai too for the first time since getting married last year. Yes, December 2011 would have been a good month.

But we didn’t get anywhere with planning.

And it’s really okay.

Because that only means I can still ask the boyfriend for a ring. Haha!

And I was looking at gemstone rings that are oh so lovely! I tell ya, these are pretties!

Here are my two favorites:

The first time I saw Princess Diana’s (and now Catherine’s) ring, I coveted it. I want one like it. But I haven’t found just the one yet. Maybe I’ll get Ruth’s jeweler to make me an affordable version of it. Hmm.

This post has also gone up on The Newbie Photographer and Between the Covers. One more post won’t hurt right?

This has got to be the biggest Christmas giveaway this season! Even if it took me awhile to do the required tasks (mostly Liking and Following), the prizes at stake got me going on. hehe

Check out the massive Prize List:

The Prizes

One Winner of $100 Paypal Credits
One Winner of $50 Paypal Credits
Three Winners of $25 Paypal Credits
Five Winners of $10 Paypal Credits
Twelve Winners of $5 Paypal Credits
Three blog makeovers – special prize for bloggers who do the optional task only

And it wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support from sponsors:

Major Sponsors of GEORYL’s Christmas Giveaway

GEORYL | Techie She | Chika Bits | Dens Online | Stay at Home Wife and Mother | Work at Home Wife and Mother | Travel Yums | The Food, The Place and the Bad Trips | Mitigating Life’s Uncertainties | Blogger’s Notebook | Zowanderer | The Packrat Wifey | Enairrah’s Travel Thoughts | Enairrah’s Notes and Rumblings | A Wife’s Online Abode | Tinkerputt’s Turf | Simple Happiness | Impulsive Shopper | Momsdrive Online Finds | Nanay Blogs | Make Money Online | Samu’t Sari | The Traveler’s Journey | Khakiness | Walk With Me

Contest ends on December 23, and announcement of winners will be done on Christmas Day, December 25. Winners must have valid Paypal accounts to receive the prizes.

Congratulations Sheryl, for yet another successful project

The Belle de Jour Power Planner 2012 was launched last month, October16th, at an all-day event at the Eastwood. In keeping with the travel theme of the planner, the fair was dubbed Take Flight. We don’t usually go to events like that, but Alfred and I went out on a hot Sunday afternoon to check it out.

I must admit though, I wasn’t really after the planner, but an online vendor was having a booth at the fair and I so wanted to check them out in person.

Off we went. Walked around and missed the entrance to the fair, and walked around some more before finding it. Straight to the Suelas booth we went. I picked a pair of shoes and then we moved on to see the rest of the tents.

Since there was 20 pesos off the price of the planner, I decided to go ahead and get one. 2012 would be the 6th year that Viviamo, the company behind BDJ, is crafting these special planners for the modern Pinay. This is my first one, ever.

I got it before I ever saw photos of the 2012 Starbucks planners – which I think I want to get too. I skipped on the 2011 planner but I got one as a gift. (You can read about my Starbucks planners here, and here)

It’s just the right size, not too thick and not too heavy.

I love that it has a, what do you call it? A band to keep it closed when it gets too thick.

Purchase comes with a BDJ card, which I think can be used with vendors to get discounts, or to access events. It’s also a membership card.

It came in a pocket page that looks like a temporary insert. I’m looking at keeping it there though. A pocket for loose paper and other stuff I tend to collect.

And the inside pages are great! I can totally see it being a Smashbook of sorts! Check out some of the inside pages on their site here. I only took a photo of this first page with a nice message:

It also has sooooo many discount coupons! All those discounts more than make up for the cost of the planner itself. For just these, the BDJ Power Planner should be in every girl’s list of unusual gifts for her.

I’m still not sure if I will use this or give it away. See, I’m not a very organized person and a ‘power’ planner really isn’t my thing. I’ve recently started making lists and like doing them and ticking things off the list, so maybe I’m changing too. So yes, I will probably keep this and use it. So will I skip Starbucks Christmas this year? Maybe not. I can never have too many notebooks anyway.

I probably should start a Personal Finance category on this blog. I think about it sooooo much.

Why?

I earn a significant amount of money. It should be more than enough for a single woman living with her parents, or even for a kid-less couple. Even with the car payments, there should still be enough to save.

As it goes though, I hardly save. There’s always just enough left over. And I hate that feeling of always having to look forward to the next pay day. Counting the days until my bank account is replenished. That is just not the way I want to live.

Back in 2010, I wrote this piece to Start Saving Now! For awhile I did it diligently. I followed my own advice and I built up my savings account. Later that year, I bought my iPad. I also switched jobs which disrupted my cash flow for a month. I was okay, but it meant that my savings account was dented (and it still hasn’t fully recovered).

Remember that show on Discovery, where a financial expert goes into the home and helps the couple sort out their financial issues? I can’t remember the title of the show and I don’t see it anymore so perhaps it’s been discontinued. One of the techniques she teaches couples is to stop using their credit cards, and set their weekly/monthly budget in jars.  I did a version of that. I set a two-week budget and I have to stay within that budget for all expense types. It really helped me save. I didn’t use jars though, I still kept my money in the bank and withdrew money as I needed. It was the recording that kept me in line with the budget. I used my Starbucks planner (that I had with me almost everywhere) to record everything.

Another variation of the jar system is Dave Ramsey’s Envelope System. The idea is to budget your paycheck, have an envelope per category, take the money from the bank and fill up the envelopes. When the money is gone, it’s gone. You can’t fill it up again.   What happens if the two-week period or the month is over and you still have money in the envelopes? The article doesn’t say, but I would either add them to my savings, or add it to the following payout’s budget. The latter would be specially helpful when saving up for a big purchase that won’t fit in your monthly allocation.

I think I will do the envelope system this time around. I’ll take the money from the bank and stow away my credit and debit cards so I won’t be tempted to spend more than what I have in my envelopes. Hmm.

These Receipt Organizers from Beabi would be perfect (both images credited to the Beabi website):

You can even keep change in these because they zip up. They’re reusable and would definitely last longer than your normal paper envelopes.

But more than what envelope to use, the most important thing is to define my expense categories. Will I include clothing there? I don’t buy clothes every month though. If your work includes a uniform and you know you will need to get repairs done or get a new one every few months, you should factor that in somehow. If I were to allocate an annual budget for nursing uniforms for example, maybe it would be good to plan how much that would be and then set aside money each month to build up to that budget. In my case, setting up a clothing budget every two or three months might already be a good idea to help me build up my wardrobe.

I’m excited at the idea. Before I figure out my categories though, I’ll have to sell this to the boyfriend. We both have to be doing this, not just me.

What about you? Do you follow a system for budgeting your personal finances?