US meets UK

Paying off Credit Card debt is really the “easy” part of this month for us. With Nick’s Christmas bonus we paid off our flights and the remaining balance.  The trickier part is creating a plan for the rest of our finances.

I checked my student loans since I have previously been paying the minimum amount, but that is pretty silly. Especially considering that three of the loans have an interest rate of 2.47% and one has 6.8%! Wowza. So even though it’s the largest loan of the three, we’ll focus on paying that one off the fastest so we don’t lose any more money in interest.

Changing banks. I’d like to switch to  more rewarding checking and savings accounts. Currently, we’re with Bank of America which has been nothing but trouble since we opened our joint account with them. Changing to a no fee checking will save us $108 a year. Banks I’m looking into? Ally, FNBO and ING. First step though, is changing my name at BofA. Since many of these are online banks, they dislike that I have an additional name now and nothing short of the Spanish inquisition will prove otherwise. So it’s easiest if I change my name at BofA, and then try again to open an account.

Retirement accounts. As much as I’d like to set up a separate retirement account, the max I can contribute to my work 401k is bit toooo much at this point in our lives. My new job will match at 5% so we’ll contribute a lower amount till we pay off that big honking student loan above and then increase the amount.

I can hope for a minimum return of 6% on my investments – so it makes more sense for us to pay the minimums on my other student loans (the 2.47% interest) and increase our investment portfolio and emergency savings account since we’ll still (hopefully) make a profit.

What has helped you most on your journey to becoming financially savvy?

I’m hunting for a cute pair of nude or blush pink shoes… but all I can find that I love are these Badgley Mischkas… which I probably shouldn’t buy.

Any suggestions on where to look? I’ve tried Zappos, DSW, Shop Style, Endless, Piper Lime, Nordstrom, Macys and Nine west…. where am I missing?

I have a year of prime for continuing to have access to my .edu email address, and I have kindle…. which usually means we do a fair amount of shopping on Amazon. Oh… and they have almost everything I could ever want. Living Social has a deal today where you pay $10, to get a $20 Amazon giftcard.

Yes please!

Get your deal here!

It’s been haily/sleety/wintery mixy here in DC which has… sucked. So I’ve been checking flight prices for our June vacation and dreaming about warmer climates. I’ll need a dress for my brother in law’s upcoming nuptials so I wandered over to asos to see what is available. Thre things I noticed? They now have free us shipping ALL.THE.TIME, I no longer have to mentally convert pounds into dollars, and best of all I can order in my US size without having to order up in the UK sizes (it’s painful, truly).

Dresses I liked?

Oasis twill dress

Asos drape dress

Another Asos dress – though short, I wonder if I COULD get away with wearing it since the model is over half a foot taller than me.

One shoulder dress

I’m worried though, that they’re all still a bit too wintery. Any suggestions?

muwahahaha, what a great description. Want to kill 20/30 minutes?

Enjoy!

I get distracted easily, so I figured maybe this year I would focus on one thing each month and use the skills I’ve learned in previous months to build throughout the year.

January: Month of Finance – though I’m officially considering 2011 the year of finance I think January is a good month to start. We’ll have all non student loan debt paid off by February, and by the end of the month I’d like to have decided on where to host our IRA and have maxed out my employer matched contributions.

February: Month of Fitness – the gym will be cleared out by now, and lucky me – it’s a short month! I’ll continue to practice quality food choices and be sure to get moving in January, but Feb will the the month I try new things in the physical fitness arena.

March: Month of Sewing – I’d like to get better at sewing, so this will be the month that I take on challenging and new projects and really devote a significant amount of time towards my new hobby.

April: Month of Cooking – Isn’t this every month? I thought devoting April to new and exciting dishes would be nice. Plus, my sister’s baby is due in April and it would be nice to make her and Jon several meals they can easily reheat for a quick and healthy dinner.

May: Month of the Camera – weather will be nicer, I’ll be outside more often and if I can figure out my camera hopefully I’ll be able to get a few nice back up shots for my brother in law’s wedding in June and of my new nephew.

June: Month of Family: Father’s day is in June, but we’ll also be visiting England to see Nicks family and it would be nice to put an emphasis on not just our familial unit of 2 +2 cats, but seeing more of my family as well.

July: Month of Friends – We live in DC, which isn’t too far from Baltimore. What this tends to mean though, is that we aren’t looking for friends in DC. Sometimes, Baltimore seems too far so we’re hanging out by ourselves in DC.  In this month, I’d like to push ourselves to go to more events, meet more people, nurture the friendships we already have with people in DC, and make the effort to get up to Bmore more, and get our Bmore friends down to DC, too.  This also means staying in touch a bit more with my online  and long distance friends. Being sure to comment on their blogs, to let them know I’m here for them etc.

August: Month of Writing - sure, it’s just blogging. But I started this as a way to keep in touch with my family and friends while I was living in England, then it morphed into a blog for Weddingbee and now? I’m not really sure what it is. But I’d like to get back to the roots of 2008 where I blogged to keep in touch which is something I don’t feel I do enough of on here.  I’d like to have a place where all those people in June and July have a place to check in and see how we are and what we’re up to.

September: Month of Exploration – I’d like to explore our surroundings more. See more of DC, more of Virginia and Maryland and who knows where else. Visit more museums, more cafes, more mountains, more everything.

October: Month of No Shopping – Well… except for food. But other than that I’ll be avoiding Amazon, H&M, Forever 21, Ruche, Target,  Modcloth and Asos.  Byeeeeeeeee.

November: Month of Cleanliness – Our apartment tends to get cluttered and our closet ends to get messy. We live in a  small space and I’d like to start a routine that I can get used to. One that involves light cleaning throughout the week instead of massive binge cleanings during weekends when I could be having more fun.

December: Month of Giving – Not just because it’s Christmas, but I thought it would tie in nicely. I’ll be looking for volunteering options, charitable donations and giving to others this month.

What are your resolutions?

I’ve seen a few of these and I thought they were quite nice. What happened in 2010? Good thing I blogged about it, because otherwise it would have been tough to remember exactly when!

January

In 2009 I stopped being a vegetarian, and in 2010 I really started to explore and cook with meat. I made beef bourguignon, Nick became a permanent resident (for 2 years) and he tried to get an MD license (FAIL), SnOMG and SNOMAGEDDON came to Baltimore/DC, I made lots of marshmallows.

February

A month of rants apparently. I ranted about Jenna’s formspringers, about the injustices facing same sex international couples, and corporate greed. Nick left for England for a month.

March

I went to Vegas with the bees and it was faaaaabulous – yet I have no photos and no posts. FAIL. I sucked at life while Nick was away and broke my brain trying to figure out our taxes. I started to look for apartments in DC to shorten my commute. I wrote two posts the entire month.

April

Nick was back! We moved to DC, we took a trip to NYC for Bridal market and we spent some time with bee friends.

May

We tried to pick a paint color to counteract the easter egg motif we moved into… and truthfully I’m only satisfied with the color we picked for the kitchen (a deep purple). I encouraged people who enjoy photography to volunteer with local shelters and we attended one of the most amazing weddings ever (Mrs. Hamster/ Big Apple Nosh) with several bee ladies and gents.

June

We headed to Virginia Beach with friends, I wore many inner tubes and jumped in the pool. We also visited Ocean City for my cousin Megan’s super fun wedding. I was tan.

July

I turned 26. I wrote about the cost of sustainable food, several times.I killed ducks. I made tasty shrimp kabobs. I went to NYC to visit a special Swan and Penguin.  I talked myself out of buying a house (thank god) and prayed airline prices would fall so we could go to England for Christmas (we did!). I started to want a dog. I was pale?

August

Nick and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I canned with Kristen for the first time, I avoided tea baggers in DC and I practiced using the depth of field on chickens (not recommended).

September

September saw many LGBTQ youths bullied into ending their lives, people told them “it gets better”.  I discovered Zuni chicken, I held a baby, liked it, freaked out and felt supported by an article in the New York Times. I almost had a new job, I didn’t get it and Bryn and Smithy cheered me up. I am content and happy with renting.

October

I could finally announce that my sister was giving birth, and that I was going to be an aunt! I waffled over holiday cards. I kicked off Smartphone vs. Dog, I loved my tree, I remembered what I used to look like in college. We helped two friends get engaged. We went to the Rally to Restore Sanity and or Fear, we never carved our pumpkin.

November

We had friends from England visit and had a blast, I didn’t blog often. I considered accent chairs and hoped to maintain my weight through the holidays.

December

I won Smartphone vs Dog… but decided not to get a dog. Boo. Wrote about hampers and champers and could finally tell the world that my sister is having a boy! I helped to throw her a baby shower that I have yet to blog about (oops). I was ordered to add items to my wish list for christmas, and learned I have the patience of a four year old. We went to England for a surprise Christmas trip, and we finally figured out our immigration plans.

whew!

WHAT A HARD SECRET TO KEEP! We decided on December 1st to go to England for Christmas. You only live once right? We bought our tickets, but decided to keep it a surprise. Little did we know that trains don’t run on Christmas morning, so we waited until the 23rd to ask Nick’s brother for a ride from the airport. We were having such a difficult time keeping it to ourselves, we didn’t want to burden him with the secret for longer!

Everyone was well and truly shocked and we were so happy to be with everyone! I foolishly forgot to tote my camera around the first several days, so I only have pictures from the last few. I lost my point and shoot, so carrying around a dSLR is a bit of a pain, even if mine is tiny. Plus, I’m still learning so it takes me 4856837 as many shots to get one I semi-like.

Photos missing of actual Christmas day (so much excitement), Boxing Day (so much lounging), Shopping Day (so much Primark), dinner in Lancaster night, coffee at the midland in Morecombe, tasty curry from BarBar Elephant (I ate my jalfrezi without a thought to a photo). I had so much fun with Nick’s family that I’m not sure if I even had the photos, if it would accurately convey how great our visit was.

I took my old walk around the village

said hello to the horses and sheep I had missed

took in picturesque views

we played the HILARIOUSLY FUN Just Dance 2 on the wii

Ate almost 2 of these

Visited with adorable and fun godsons

And dined on fish and chips with dandelion and burdock on our last night

What did you do for Christmas? Any surprises?