I went to the eye doctor last week to update my prescription and order new contacts and glasses. I have one pair of contacts left, so I need to reorder. I haven’t had new glasses in years, but the anti-glare coating on my current pair has started flaking off, so they need to be replaced.

Right now I’m going through a little bit of sticker shock!

For contacts, the doctor is saying I should go for daily lenses.  They gave me some free daily lenses to try out, and let me tell you, those things are luxurious.  No need to worry about remembering to pack a contact case or solution, no need to track how long it has been since I last swapped to a fresh pair.

However, do you know how much those things cost?? It’s $650 per year.  Normal 2-week lenses are only $250 for a year.  I am also worried about how much waste goes into the daily lenses.  That’s 730 little plastic blister packs with foil seals.  That’s a lot!  And it seems like such a stupid thing to worry about (especially since I contribute my fair share of waste to landfills), but seeing the pile from just a week of these babies made me feel like a bad global citizen.

I was considering getting a 6-month supply of daily lenses and then just wearing them half-time with glasses, which would at least decrease the cost/guilt slightly.

Unfortunately, it looks like glasses are going to be expensive too!  My insurance will only cover a specific amount for either glasses or contacts, so either way I’ll have to cover a chunk of cash.  Here is the glasses breakdown:

Frames: $250 (The cheapest pair they had were about $200, my favorites were, of course, around the $400 mark)
Lenses: $100 for thicker lenses OR $200 for thinner lenses, + $100 for anti-glare coatings

I could keep my old frames, but in all honesty, they have not fit properly since I bought them.  They look good on my face, but they slide down my nose.  Plus the plastic is discolored in places (and oh my gosh I walk around like that all the time, what is wrong with me).  The lenses would definitely need to be replaced, which I might end up also doing to have a backup pair.

I’ve also been looking at some of the online retailers that promise glasses for $100, but I’m a little wary of them.  Maybe as a backup, but that still means spending the $400 – $600 on the primary pair.

The debate in my mind seems a little silly since obviously I need to see, but at the same time, it makes sense to optimize my spending, especially when we’re talking about over $1000.

Do you wear glasses/contacts?  What kind do you use, and how much do you pay?

To Accomplish, October 2012

1. Workout 5 days per week.
My sister is getting married in a few more weeks, and then we’re going to Hawaii. I need to step it up!

2. Read 10 books.
This is ambitious, given that I’ve been struggling to meet my 8 books per month goal. Still, with a loooong flight at the end of the month and a couple of days of vacation, I should be able to make this. Hopefully.

3. Buy Chad a birthday present.
OK, this is cheating because I’d remember to do it no matter what. But it’s on my To Do list, so it goes here.

4. Get ready for my sister’s wedding.
This involves a bunch of random beautify tasks, such as using those terrible teeth whitening strips, buying nail polish, making sure my makeup still works, etc. I also have to buy jewelry and shoes. And get my dress tailored. Ack!

5. Register to vote.
I attempted to register to vote when we moved here, but thanks to a DMV employee who fulfilled all of the stereotypes of DMV employees, my application was rejected. Since I’d like to be able to vote in the upcoming election, I should really get on this.

6. File my work expense report.
I always forget to do this and I’m pretty sure the people who work for the Travel group hate me. I can’t help it, it involves a.) keeping track of receipts, b.) filling out paperwork, and c.) finding a fax machine. That’s way too many things.

7. Figure out what to do with my stock options.
I got some stock options a long time ago and they’ve just finally vested. Now the question: Do I sell the shares or keep them for future emergencies?

Is it more forgivable if I don’t have internet access at work?  One of my coworkers was just fired for looking at “obscene material” (!!) on his work computer, so now no one can access anything outside our company’s intranet.  We can access company websites, that’s it.  I’ve started taking cell phone breaks (because we can’t have those either, lest someone take a picture of some drawing and sell them to a competitor. Which has happened.) at lunchtime, but it’s really hard to blog on that thing!  It’s hard enough to send a decipherable text message.

So here you go.  An infodump.

Financial

So… we have two incomes again.  This is a magical thing!  The problem? I forget that after a few years of “famine” (and since our household income has been above $100,000 each year thanks to Chad’s grad school stipends, I mean it’s like a famine where you have to eat cheddar and drink apple juice instead of having caviar & wine) it’s not a good idea to gorge yourself on everything you’ve been missing.  We basically spent Chad’s 2012 after-tax income on a new car.  Then we booked a trip to Hawaii (we have a travel fund that should just about cover it, but still!).  We’ve been taking weekend trips and buying brand name groceries.

I’m aware this is all very tame.  But for someone who blogs about personal finance, this is rock bottom or a cry for help or SOMETHING.

(These are First World Problems.)

Now I’m itching to make The Biggest Purchase of my life.  I’ve been looking at houses on Zillow, and all of a sudden, I want one.  Badly.  If certain houses on Zillow had a Buy It Now option, I’d probably have 5 or 6 by now.  My brain keeps running the numbers and saying, “If you just wait a little longer…” and I calm down for a day or two and then one of my favorite houses sells and I panic all over again.

Chad and I have agreed not to do anything until after my sister’s wedding.  We at least have to replenish our savings accounts!

Shopping

Remember how I was going to buy quality not quantity and stop shopping at Old Navy?  Yeah, not so much.  You see, I accidentally lost 10 pounds (accidentally- see my explanation below) and then none of my clothes fit.  And of course, I sold off or donated most of my smaller clothes last year, thinking, “There’s no way I’ll be that small again.”  I’ve been wearing most of my too-large clothes anyway, but sometimes it’s hard to ignore that I look frumpy.

Since the whole thing was an accident, I assume that this size is temporary.  I think my body generally prefers to be about 5 lbs heavier, which puts me right back in my bigger clothes.  So I’ve been justifying cheaper shopping sprees.

Also, my personal budget keeps getting eaten up by yoga classes and iPhone apps.

That said, I’ve been enjoying buying some accessories (they always fit!).  My quality-over-quantity purchases this year have been a Kate Spade necklace (it’s reversible!  Which means I got TWO expensive necklaces for the price of ONE exorbitantly expensive necklace!) and a J. Crew purse.  Both were more than 50% off but still cost well above what I’ve ever spent on one item.

Fitness

I started taking a Muay Thai boxing class!  I even did something out of character and bought gloves after 2 classes.  This is something normal people do all the time, but I am so cheap that I won’t buy yoga accessories and I’ve been doing yoga regularly for 3 years now. The gloves are blue and I like to tell people that I bought them because they match my new purse.

It’s a lot of fun, even if I end up with bruises from kicking the pads wrong.

I said above that I accidentally lost weight.  This is an obnoxious thing to say.

The truth: I tend to eat whatever Chad eats.  When Chad went on a diet earlier this year, I was eating less without thinking about it.  I still worked out at the same level, but I was actually eating healthy.  Will this continue once Chad moves on to maintaining?  Maybe, but I’m not holding out much hope.

Work

Work is going well.  My boss is putting me in for a raise!  It’s not a sure thing – I’m just at the cusp of the experience level – but I sent her an updated resume that basically plagiarises the  job postings they’ve had for the next salary level.  Fingers crossed!

So what have you been up to?  I still have 200 unread posts in my Google Reader (this is down from 500!), but slowly & surely, I’m catching up on everyone’s lives!

August isn’t shaping up to be much better since I’ve got 2 parties to plan for my sister’s wedding (shower + bachelorette).  Chad & I are going on our first couple-y vacation since our honeymoon, though, and even if it’s just a long weekend, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it!

1. Work out 4 days per week. Done!
I don’t even know what to say about this any more, but since this is the only goal I consistently meet, I refuse to say anything bad about it.

2. Read 8 books. Fail.
So close!  I read 7, and was most of the way through #8 but opted to watch the Olympics instead.  Four of the books were simplistic YA books, though, so I can’t brag too much.  Never take book recommendations from your 11-year-old cousin.  You will probably get sucked in and then you will be ashamed and you will also want to tell her why love triangles are terrible.

3. Figure out all of the financial stuff that has changed. Mostly!
We’re not outside the Roth limits (yay!), but our tax bill will be ridiculous.  I’ve upped my withholdings, so hopefully we’ll get close to the right amount for 2012.   We renewed our lease at our current apartment complex, mostly because there wasn’t enough time to do anything else.  We spent way too much money on our car, but we’ll be able to replenish our savings by early next year so we can start looking to make an even bigger purchase – a new house.

4. Post at least 2x per week. So much fail.
I honestly was thinking we’d spend our time picking out a car and looking for 0% financing and looking up negotiation techniques.  Instead, we bought a car after swearing we wouldn’t and didn’t have to do any of the research I thought we’d have to do.  So, good for stress levels, bad for blog content.  You will all have to be content with my 3x per month schedule (sorry).

5. Plan my sister’s bridal shower. Mostly!
The party is coming up in August, and I AM GOING INSANE.  We decided to DIY some major parts of it, and it was just a stressful choice.  I’m planning on taking a day off work to get everything done.  It will end up being the cheaper option, but the time tradeoff is not feeling worth it right now.

6. Use massage groupon. Fail.
I didn’t even try, but mostly because I want to use it after the shower.  No point in getting the massage and then hurting my back from sitting hunched over DIY table runners for hours.

7. Go to the farmer’s market. Fail.
I totally forgot about this goal, but we haven’t had a non-working weekend at home all month.  I worked the first 2 weekends, we were out of town on the 3rd, and Chad had to work last weekend.  We’re just lucky there’s food other than condiments in our fridge!

8. Bake at least one recipe I’ve pinned on Pinterest. Fail.
But!  I’m using several images as inspiration, including fruit kebabs, which are kind of like baking except without all of the ingredients and using a stove and stuff.  I’ll definitely be getting my bake on before the shower, though.  Wah.

9. Go hiking at least once. Fail.
I was tempted to give us a “Kinda?” on this goal.  We did go for walks several times per week, and I’ve mentioned the no-weekends thing.  Still, this is technically a fail, and there’s no shame in failing at really easy things on the internet.

We started off with grand plans.  There was a long list of cars we wanted to check out, and we even made the nerdiest spreadsheet of all time, which listed car costs and features.

Chad test drove a couple, and we test drove a few together.  We went to test drive the top car on Chad’s list, a Honda CR-V, one night after work.  On our way there, we promised each other, “We’re not buying a car tonight.”

Fate laughed in our faces.

First of all, it’s a nice car!  And it had some amenities that were on our “desirables” list (again, see the nerdsheet).  More importantly, it had all of the qualities that we deemed important: all-wheel drive (Chad’s requirement), not-too-terrible gas mileage (mine), cargo space (Chad’s, but I agreed it would be nice), big back seat (both), USB hookups (both, and I’m aware that this is such a shallow thing to insist upon in a car).

Knowing that the price on the sticker is a big fat lie, we asked what they really wanted for the car.  The brought back a sheet with a bunch of numbers and also a sheet with the monthly payment (they seemed to think it was really important, but we were all, “whatever” and just looked at the bottom line, the out-the-door price).  We said, “Wow that’s a lot,” and got up to go because we were hoping to test drive a Subaru that same night.

Our salesman told us to wait, scurried off, and came back with another price.  This made us pause, because it was lower than Edmund’s True Market  Value (thanks Tom and StackingPennies for that suggestion!).  Still, we’d made our pact – no buying.  The salesman left and came back again with an even lower price, but we still didn’t want to take the plunge.

The salesman got a little pushy at this point.  We’d mentioned we were interested in the Mazda CX-5, and he just started trash talking the hell out of it.  So I did something I’m not proud of – I whipped out the nerdsheet.  I pointed out that the mid-level CX-5 comes standard with all of the features that we’d have to upgrade to get on the CR-V, so we’d basically be paying more to get the same.

He came back with a higher out-the-door price that had us paying less for the car but included an extended warrantly.  At that point, I slung my purse over my shoulder and said that if we weren’t going to buy the car at the lower price, how could he expect us to buy it at a higher price?  I was really cranky because the Subaru dealer was closed and I’d all of a sudden realized that we were haggling over a car that we weren’t sure we wanted to buy yet.

One more price. It included a stupid prepaid maintenance “club,” but he wouldn’t take it off.  Even so, the cost of the “club” + all of the car stuff was still under the invoice cost listed on Edmunds.com.   It was invoice, you guys. We accidentally negotiated down to invoice. I had Edmund’s open on my phone, and I whispered this to Chad. And then we very politely asked if we could have a few minutes. And we decided to go for it, if they’d give us a cargo tray for the back (it was like $100, probably cost them $30, so not a huge coup).

Our sales guy was a little slimy.  It’s to be expected (I don’t think people become car salesmen to help others).  So he said we had to finance the car to get the price. Fine. We put down the maximum down payment on the car that he would allow (and we’ll just pay off the rest when the bill comes), and put as much on the credit card as he’d let us ($2500).

We though we were done, but then it was time to bully us into the extended warranty AGAIN. They even offered us 0% financing, but it wasn’t worth the $1800 that the extended warranty would cost.  They had the financial guy take us to his office and refuse to let us leave for AN HOUR. Finally, we just were “rude” and said we didn’t want it and that we were sick of being there and being hounded.  Then they acted all offended, but thankfully stopped badgering us. We signed the papers and picked the car up a few days later.

The best part? When we got home, we read the paperwork, and we could cancel the prepaid maintenance club.  Meaning that we ended up paying $250 under invoice.

I’m not fooled into thinking that spending over $25,000 on a car is “saving,” but I’m happy with the price we paid and the car we got.  The only thing we’re kicking ourselves over is the fact that we probably could have canceled that extended warranty too, which would have saved us another $375.  Still, I could spend weeks lamenting the extra money we could have squeezed out of the dealer, and it’s just not productive. Next time, though, we’ll know.

And that’s how we accidentally paid under invoice for a new car.

This, by the way, is perfectly reasonable.  We were very lucky to have that car, but now that we are back to having two incomes, it’s more than fair that we pass it along.  Unfortunately, though,this means we’re now down one car.

The way I see it, we have a few options:

1. Live with one car.

We did this for over a year when we lived in LA, and on and off while we lived here in VA.  It wasn’t impossible then, but things are a bit trickier now.  Before, we either worked in the same city or one of us could take the Metro. Now, Chad works nearly an hour away, so I would have no access to car all day.  This is not an insurmountable problem, since my job is very close to our apartment.  I could walk or bike many days, or Chad could drop me off and pick me up.

I’ll be honest: Chad is not interested in this idea.  He’s not a personal finance blogger, he doesn’t care how much money we’d save by going down to one car.  All he sees is how inconvenient is would be – and has always been – sharing one car.  We make decent salaries and could buy a new car in cash, so in his mind, there is no good reason to have only one car.

My inner cheapass is quieted only because I know that when we move in a few months/a year, my commute will no longer be 2 miles and then we WILL need a car.  It would probably be easier to spread out these larger costs so we’re not simultaneously wrestling with buying a car and making a down payment on a house.  Which leads us to our other choices…

2. Buy a used car.

I’m afraid that this post is going to make Chad sound like a wanton spendthrift, but he isn’t.  I tracked my spending obsessively for 4 years when we lived in California and saved almost $40,000.  Chad didn’t track anything for those 4 years, and he also ended up with $40,000.  I’m into spending on lots of little things with a complete inability to spend on large purchases. Chad doesn’t spend much money day to day, but he is willing to splurge hard on something he likes.

That entire paragraph is leading up to this confession: we’re getting an SUV. A small one, but still.

I railed against this choice for days.  How it’s socially irresponsible to get anything but a Smart Car.  I offered to take a scooter on the highway every day.  I pulled out EPA Fuel Economies for dozens of vehicles.  I even started throwing hybrids into the mix (then quickly retracted that since the cost of the car is also a huge factor)!

It was no use. Chad wants the cargo space, the leg room (he’s 6’1″), and he’s not willing to give up on that.  Even hatchback sedans couldn’t change his mind (which, you know, good call. Because they are ugly.).

Here’s the thing about late model used SUVs. They aren’t that cheap!  We searched for a little while on CarMax, but there was nothing that met out requirements for space, attractiveness, MPG, and cost.  And that’s when we decided that we might want to make the worst PF decision of our lives (dun dun dunnnnnn!)…

3. Buy a new car.

I bought my car, a 2006 Toyota Corolla, new.  I was right out of school, had just moved to LA, and that was what I thought you were supposed to do.  I didn’t (don’t) know anything about cars, so buying new just seemed safer than buying used.  I got an OK price but terrible financing.  Still, that car probably ended up making me money over the years.  I was so bereft over the crappy interest rate on the loan that I started looking on the internet for financial advice on getting ridof debt.  I discovered MSN Money, The Simple Dollar, and the world of blogging. A monster was born!  Despite being the worst blogger ever, I have done well financially.

We’ve test driven a few cars recently, and can I just say that new cars are NICE these days?  My car is 7 years old and I always thought it was a big deal that it had a 6 CD changer and nice speakers.  The cars we’ve been testing have iPod hookups and touchscreens and even refrigerated glove boxes.

Yes, they probably had us test drive those types of cars so they could sucker us into the upgraded packages.  IT WORKED.

Even though I still yell at Chad about how much cheaper a used car would be, no matter how ugly he thinks it is, I secretly want all of the nice new car stuff.  And of course, now I’m ashamed because I used to think I was above all that, but instead I’m just as shallow as all the normal people.  My financial asceticism does not extend to Bluetooth, apparently.

If it’s not totally obvious by this point, we are seriously considering going new. We have the cash to pay for it (although I may still go for financing if I can get one of those sweet 0% loans), and my hope is that we will be able to keep it for years and years, or at least until society starts breaking down because there’s no more oil left.

So!  My hope when I put this out into the intertubes was to get some others’ inputs/experiences.  Did you buy a new or used car?  How did you decide?  How did you haggle? And if the loan interest rate is 0.9% and my savings earn 0.84%, does it make sense to pay cash?

Sometimes it’s hard for me to find the motivation to “give up” my days off since I then feel like I need another day to recover. I have to remember when I skip parties, I’m missing out on more than eating a pint of ice cream in my sweat pants.

Do you ever have trouble finding the motivation to be social? What did you do for the 4th (even if it wasn’t a holiday for you)?

To Accomplish, July 2012

1. Work out 4 days per week.
I’m participating in a 10,000 steps per day challenge, just to change things up!

2. Read 8 books.
There’s got to be at least 1 goal that I will definitely fail!

3. Figure out all of the financial stuff that has changed.
Some of this is pretty basic. I’d like to figure out how Chad and I should handle taxes (I’m sure we’ll be jumping brackets); I need to confirm we’re not going to be phased out of our Roth IRAs (hopefully not), and just in general, we need to figure out what our monthly budget is going to look like.

Then there are the other, bigger questions. Chad’s commute is too long, so we probably want to move. But to where? And should we buy or rent? We also legitimately need a new car (post on this coming soon). We’re also thinking of doing some traveling soon, but how much can we afford (especially given house+car thoughts)?

4. Post at least 2x per week.
I’ve justified my absence from this blog by saying that there was nothing going on for us, financially. Even otherwise, we didn’t do much traveling or spending or eating out, mostly because I was worrying about money. I’d loosened up this year, but that only made me want to post less – I should not admit to buying $100 Kate Spade necklaces on the internet!

Now, though, there are no excuses!

5. Plan my sister’s bridal shower.
Since I’m the only bridesmaid who is nearby and had financial means, the planning of the bridal shower has fallen to me. I’m getting to deal with the bitchy bridesmaids, the bridesmaid who emails and says she has no money, and my mom, who is extremely opinionated about what these things should look like. Yay!

6. Use massage groupon.
If I can get an appointment. I may also push this off until August, because I get the feeling I’ll need some stress relief after finishing the above party planning.

7. Go to the farmer’s market.
I’ve been bugging Chad about this one for a while, but for some reason, waking up early enough on the weekends is too hard and putting on real clothes is even harder. With my work schedule, we probably won’t get to this one until the end of the month, but I’m committed to making it happen!

8. Bake at least one recipe I’ve pinned on Pinterest.
I’ve determined that Pinterest is just where I put aspirational things (elaborate cakes, DIY projects, and clothes) that I will never use. A friend and I were joking about it, and she said we should have a monthly Pinterest baking thing, where we pick one recipe and each bake it. I love it as a way to keep in touch (she just moved to Seattle, so I think she’s trying to maintain her connection to here), and I’m willing to endure baking for that!

9. Go hiking at least once.
Chad and I booked our annivarsary getaway – we’ll be going to Shenandoah and hiking Old Rag, which someone said is one of the best hikes on the East Coast. Chad and I are good hikers, but we’ve been slacking lately. Hopefully we can get in at least one hike, and a few longer walks before we go!

All of this is completely unrelated to the actual topic of this post, which is just to review my performance on goals.  You will note that I haven’t posted about goals in 2 months (worst blogger ever?), but I always set goals, even if they don’t make it to the blog.  In the hopes of slowly easing myself back into the blogging habit, here is a review of how I did.  July goals will hopefully follow soon.

May Goals – how I did

1. Work out 4 times per week. Done.

2. Read 8 books. Fail.
I’m STILL slacking on my 100 books challenge – I got through 5 in May. I confess, I just haven’t made reading a priority this year. Part of it is work stuff, part of it is other interests crowding it out, and part of it is just sheer laziness.

3. Buy Mother’s Day presents. Done!
I can’t really take credit for this one. We got my mom a fancy tea set that she wanted, but my little sister went above and beyond and had a hot dinner prepared for them when they returned home from a sailing trip that weekend. She even made them a pie! I am not the best daughter.

4. Cook using two ingredients I’ve never used before. Done!
I roasted an artichoke for the first time, and discovered: I don’t really like artichoke! Still love the hearts, though.
The second ingredient was quinoa, but I cooked it in the most boring way possible since I’d never had it before and wanted to get a feel for the flavor & texture. The box has sat in our pantry ever since, but I’ve got plans. Oh yes. (Thanks to MPP for the recipe link via Pinterest!)

5. Book travel to California. Done!
We ended up spending a little over $900 on our plan tickets out there, and some ridiculous amount on food and drinks once we got there. We also managed to see the Titanic exhibit, which was neat but probably not worth the $25 each it cost to get in.

6. Take advantage of overtime. Done!
OT has been a no go for most of the year (we’re a government contractor, so I actually think this is a good thing!). I ended up having to charge way more extra time than I’d expected. Turns out, when you’re offsite supporting other activities for a week, you have a ton of crap to do when you get back. July will also require massive amounts of overtime, and you know what? I think I’m going to be so sick of work by the time it’s done.

7. Use massage Groupon. Fail.
I never got around to scheduling it. I still have time (until February of next year), but I could definitely see myself putting it off until I have to scramble to get one of the last appointments!

June Goals – how I did

1. Work out 4 times per week. Done.

2. Read 8 books. Fail.
I made it through 6. Lame.

3. Help Chad prepare for interviews. Done!
One of Chad’s interviews involved a half-hour technical presentation and individual interviews with 4 other people. And then he didn’t get the job because of something that they could have known just by reading his resume! Luckily, though, I think all of the work we did helped him on the other interviews he had. He ended up getting an offer, as I’ve already shared.

4. Enjoy California. Done!
This was partly because Chad received and signed the job offer just before we left, so we were a bit freer with our spending than we might have been otherwise. While more money spent doesn’t alway correlate to more fun, it definitely helped that we didn’t even really have to think about it.

5. Bake something and bring it into work. Fail.
I did bake – mini blackberry pies (I deep-fried some of them, and they were magical), but there weren’t enough to share. (I said as I stuffed fried pie and ice cream into my face.)

How are you doing on your goals?

By contrast, I’ve often felt stymied by literary analysis and film theory etc. (what do you mean there’s no right answer?).  I ignore investing advice because the stock market is so random – or at the very least, unpredictable.

And I hate waiting for things.  I hate not knowing the future.  I hate not having a plan.

Chad graduates in 2 weeks.  At this point, he’s interviewing for jobs, but not knowing is driving me crazy!  We always said if he can’t find work here, then we’ll move.  Of course, at what point do we give in and look elsewhere?  What do we do if one of us finds a job in a new place and the other doesn’t?  Most importantly, how do I set up a budget without having any information about what our finances are going to look like?

In my saner moments, I know that the worst case is that we keep on as we have, with Chad pursuing… something, while I keep working at my job.  My job is awesome, it pays me very well, and I’m lucky to have something that can support our family.  Best case is that Chad finds something here that pays well and we do all the grownup things we’re supposed to do next: house, baby, etc.  And there are a million other possibilities, such as we move to a new state or a new country or we quit our jobs and travel for a few years (not that that last thing is in serious contention, but you never know!).

I know some people would love to have wide open possibilities.  I just find it terrifying. I want a plan!

I guess I just need to wait a few more weeks, and by then we’ll probably know what will happen.  Until then, I’ll just have to be content with making plans for every eventuality.

Do you prefer to plan out the path of your life, or do you like to being freer to do what you please?

Also, good thing I didn’t make any blogging-related goals this year. I’d be 5 months into failing them by now.

To Accomplish, May 2012

1. Work out 4 times per week.
So… I’ve lost 10 pounds since the beginning of the year, mostly because Chad has been dieting. I tend to eat the same foods that he does, in the same quantities, so when he cut back, so did I. This is cool, because I am a girl and thus have unrealistic desires for my body weight. However, my working out has tapered off a bit since we went to Miami. I’m still technically meeting my four-days-per-week, but sometimes I count standalone yoga or Pilates as a workout. I’ve almost given up on running altogether, which is Very Bad. For May, my hope is to get back on the wagon and kick some butt again.

(Also? It’s sort of annoying that I lost weight now, because I sold off all of my smaller-size clothes just last year. Not cool, body.)

2. Read 8 books.
I’m slacking on my 100 books challenge – in April I only got through 4! Hopefully I’ll catch up over the summer when our schedule normalizes again.

3. Buy Mother’s Day presents.
This is one of those things I always leave until the last minute… thank goodness you can just pick a florist 2 days before!

4. Cook using two ingredients I’ve never used before.
I tried brussel sprouts for the first time a week ago (roasted in olive oil) after years of avoiding them because of the negative things I always heard. Guess what? They were awesome! This has inspired me to look for new foods (I’m mostly thinking produce) that I haven’t cooked with before, either because I’m not familiar with them or because I have no idea how to cook them. Hopefully these will be a pleasant surprise as well.

5. Book travel to California.
My big sister is getting a PhD this summer (thus beating me forever in the scholarly competition we’ve had since elementary school), so we’re flying out to California to see it.  Unfortunately, flight prices are higher than I’ve ever seen them, and I used to live in California and flew home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the busiest travel times of the year. Good thing I budgeted $2000 for this trip – we’ll definitely need it!

6. Take advantage of overtime.
My bosses have cut way back on authorized OT this year, which has been a bit of a blessing, really. Still, I have an opportunity to earn a little extra, and I fully intend to take advantage.

7. Use massage Groupon.
I’m thinking some time after I get my overtime, since I’ll probably need the stress relief.  Worth it.

I wasn’t around for the initial resume review, but there were a ton of applicants, even with the specific qualifications.  I’m speculating, but it’s likely that there were keyword searches involved.  The posting requested one particular certification, and anyone who didn’t put this on their resume was probably filtered out without a human even glancing at their resume.

Lesson #1: Read job postings before you apply. Insert keywords if you’re doing the whole tailor-your-resume-for-each-job thing, but really, if the job posting specifically says “Include this on your resume,” you want to do it!

In addition to the sheer volume, D was amazed at the number of very overqualified people applying.  I’m talking people in their late 30s and 40s applying for a job that was most recently held by someone who hasn’t even gone through a quarterlife crises yet!  It actually made me sad, because this demonstrates how very bleak the job market is right now.  We’ve interviewed a couple of the overqualified people, but some of them have specifically asked about chances for promotions. (In the interview! Don’t do that.)

My “favorite” applicant so far has been the one who emailed D, saying,”I don’t know much about [our company, our business, and our project], but I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring.”  He does at least know D, but given the number of times I’ve heard the story, I don’t think that guy is getting an interview!

Lesson #2: Networks matter. Since the job posting was internal, D has done a lot of coordinating with applicants’ current management, in some cases asking these other managers to pick their best workers from the stack of resumes. (Luckily, these managers support the movement of their employees – this counts as a pretty decent promotion & jump in responsibilities!)  Those who were recommended got interviews.  One of my favorites was recommended above and beyond all of the other applicants from one department, and her manager wrote her a letter of recommendation.  That’s impressive.

In contrast, I spoke to a guy who had applied (he didn’t know I was involved in the process at all), and he said he hoped he got an interview.  He also said that his current manager really dislikes him and that they butt heads a lot.  Guess who was not recommended for the job?

Lesson #3: Your work also matters.  This is linked to #2.  A few of the interviewees are people we’ve worked with very closely before.  The ones we’d seen in action and the ones who distinguished themselves, they not only got interviews, but they were probably a lot more seriously considered afterwards.  It’s one thing to say you go above and beyond, it’s another thing when you’ve gone above and beyond to help the very people you’re interviewing with. Likewise, if you tend to do the bare minimum, the expectation is that you’ll continue to do so. D’s goal was to find someone who would work hard (since they’ve had unmotivated employees before and everyone hated them).

Lesson #4: Those boring interview tips are actually kind of right.  You know what?  I’m an engineer, and I understand why people ask about promotion potential and upcoming vacations. These things are important to you, and when will you get another chance? (The answer to this is when you get offered the job, by the way.  I definitely had classmates in college who couldn’t wrap their heads around why they shouldn’t bring this stuff up in an interview!) But I also have read those tips, and I know it’s bad form to ask them.  When I’m asked those no-no questions, I wonder how the interviewee has managed to not read anything in preparation for the interview.

Lesson #5: The interview does matter.  Your resume can be amazing, but if you can’t intelligently talk about all the things on it, it might as well be blank.  Thinking about questions – even if this leaves the room in silence while you speak – is a good thing.  Asking for questions to be repeated is as well!  Relate questions to the experience you can talk about best.  Even if you have something that sounds really impressive, if you can talk more clearly about something that doesn’t sound as cool, go for the boring thing.  Your interviewer can tell when you’re BSing!  And bonus points for those little interview best practices – another one of my favorite applicants wore a suit, brought extra copies of his resume, sounded so prepared every time he opened his mouth, and also sent a nice follow-up email.  His resume was great and he’s a hard worker, but he totally wowed me in the interview!

I’ve given D my opinion on the interviewees, but I’m not involved in the actual decision.  I actually prefer it that way – picking a couple of favorites is easy, picking The One Who Should Be Hired is a whole other thing that I’m glad is not my responsibility!

So from a money standpoint, everything is cool, but how did I do on my goals?

1. Work out 4 days per week. Done!
The most impressive thing about this is that I actually managed to exercise while we were on vacation, although I think the credit goes to Chad for this one.

2. Read 8 books and review. Fail.
I got through 6, and 5 if I don’t count the copy of The Richest Man in Babylon from our work library, which inexplicably turned out to be a British book about tRMiB instead of the story itself. I don’t know how that even happens at an American company, but there you go.

3. No bread or refined sugar for 1 week. Kinda?
This was really hard.  I actually have a terrible sweet tooth and crave sugar all. the. time.  Have you ever eaten something and felt sick afterward because it was TOO sweet?  I have never felt that way ever. My downfall was making cake balls for my friend’s going away party – I “taste tested” (read: justified eating) one, and I ate one from stress the next day.  I also ate one peanut M&M, which sounds like a crazy thing to even remember or care about, but I took it from a coworker’s candy jar sort of mindlessly as we were chatting, and I think that was the worst violation of all.  After all, willpower is one thing (and willpower against cake balls isn’t even a real thing), but mindlessly eating candy is a habit I should not have.

Bread, surprisingly, was not that hard to give up (I made lettuce wraps or salads out of sandwich items), but I definitely gorged on French toast after it was all over!

4. File taxes. Done!
We shoved everything into TurboTax and let it go.  We ended up with a huge refund due to my poor planning and not changing my withholdings after Chad left his job last year.  I won’t pretend the money isn’t a nice surprise, but still feel sort of silly for letting it be so huge.

5. Apply at the animal shelter. Fail.
I have no excuses, other than being a terrible person.

I’m not sure if I mentioned it on the blog or just on Twitter, but I repeated my challenge to ban all shopping until I’d worn everything in my closet. I’m getting down to the wire (although technically I’ve broken the ban by buying emergency underwear when I forgot to pack panties for a weekend vacation), and both the itch to shop and the itch to purge are in full force. Yes, I am aware that those 2 things are somewhat contradictory.

Here is part of the problem:

Those are my 3 magenta clutch purses. Not shown is a larger magenta tote. I would say that 4 magenta purses is too many, especially when 3 of them are so very similar!

In my defense, 3 of said purses were gifts (2 of the clutches were from the same person!). And they do all serve slightly different purposes: one is fancy, one is casual, and one is a luxe suede that could go either way. I’ve gotten compliments on all 3.

It’s clear that I need to let at least 2 of these go, but I tend to be really sentimental about gifts. If someone put thought and effort into choosing a gift for me, how do I just throw it in the Donate pile?

My sentimentality made sure these purses made it through my last purge, but decluttering my closet for real means being a stone-hearted biatch.

And the worst part of all of this? I don’t even really like the color!

Do you hang onto gifts, even of they’re no longer “right?” What would you do if you had my purse problem?