Adulting Like a Boss

This is just another Bluemoon braggy post wherein I come in and say that I am that much closer to my debt being gone entirely.  It will be gone by May 15th at the latest, with an expected actual debtbegone date of May 1.  :-)  I'm so close I can taste it!

My tax refund has been significantly delayed because I'm an impatient moron.  I was delayed in getting my W-2 by several weeks because of the change to the federal transportation benefit.  Once I finally got it a couple of weeks ago, I immediately filed that night.  However, my laptop was scheduled for a reboot for updates, so I was racing against the clock to finish.  It got to the part about my direct deposit info and in my rush, I put in the wrong routing number.  So my refund was sent Thursday, but today the app informed me that the bank had returned my direct deposit (surely because of this error on my part) and they would now be sending me a hard check via mail, which should be mailed out by March 7th.  SIGH.  This is the most trouble I've EVER had with my taxes!

Luckily, it's really only annoying in principal, as I'm not in dire need of the money. Sure, I already have it all allocated in my head (and possibly in a notebook), but it's nothing pressing.  Hopefully I'll have it in my hot little hands by the end of next week.  I'm sure the same fate will befall my state refund, but that's only a hundred bucks or so, so I'm not too crushed about that delay.

I'm also expecting another hard check in the mail this week from our Pocono trip.  It would normally just be our deposit, but that trip turned out to be a bit of a disaster.  It's a shame, too, because the house was really lovely!  Unfortunately, the hot tub ended up being broken the whole time and then the fireplace insert went low on battery and chirped at us for multiple hours on Saturday.  Property manager couldn't get a hold of the owner to figure out how to address it, so we decided to cut our trip short by a day and head out Saturday afternoon.  Beyond that, if it's winter and you're not there to ski, there is NOTHING to do.  I mean NOTHING.  We were so bored.  We "explored" Friday and were tapped out pretty quickly.  That  would have been totally fine if the hot tub worked, and subsequently if we weren't being driven crazy by the incessant chirping of a dying battery.

Luckily, the owner was awesome and is choosing to issue us a full refund!  They sent the check via snail mail and I should get it this week.  It makes the sting of a failed weekend getaway dull a little bit.  :-)  We had some fun, but it's hard to keep your mood in full upswing when the entire reason you chose a vacation house is broken and thusly unavailable.  Better luck to us next time...we were probably due for some bad luck with a rental, as we've generally been pretty lucky.

So I've allocated all of this incoming money pretty carefully.  I did have to amend my plan slightly to include some upcoming routine car maintenance this weekend, but that's life, baby.  :-)  Regardless, it feels good to know that I can pay for said maintenance with real, live money instead of putting it on a credit card and hoping to pay it off later!

I'll also have some increased income in March going forward at least for a couple months.  For one, my trainer is leaving the gym and moving.  So after March I will not be working with him anymore, and thusly will be saving that chunk of money.  I don't have interest in training with the other trainers at the gym, and didn't intend to do this forever, anyway.  So we're going to really focus on how I'll proceed going forward for my last month with him, and then it's on me.

Beyond that, I recently realized that my transportation contributions had built up so much as the result of days off, alternate transportation, etc. that I was carrying around a balance of over $800!  My commute costs about $350 a month, so this was excessive.  I updated my withholdings for March to decrease by a couple hundred each month thereafter for the time being, and I may actually be able to do that for a few months before getting back down to a reasonable balance.  That will be a really nice perk to have that money back in my paycheck instead of automatically allocated to my transportation benefits.  Cheers for extra money!  You know what I'll be doing with it.  :-D

A growing part of me keeps thinking about how absolutely insane it will be when my debt is gone and I just have my ongoing monthly expenses to worry about.  It's crazy to know how much money I'll have available, and I already have a plan for that:  1) increase my retirement contributions from the bare minimum I've been contributing and 2) SAVINGS!  I want to grow my savings for life stuff as well as a down payment on a house down the line.  Can't wait to be at that point where I can legitimately afford to focus on these things...finally!

I feel like such a successful adult sometimes.  Set aside all the financial stuff and I'm just impressed by the small stuff.  I plan ahead and buy things in advance when I am thinking of it or when I have the extra money.  I almost never have those situations where I'm like "OH NO.  I'm out of body wash/loofahs/floss picks/Ibuprofen/vitamins/lotion/nail polish remover/kleenex".  That's because I buy these things in advance and plan to always have a replacement on hand. Is it sad that never running out of razor blades or mouthwash makes me feel like a successful adult?  If it is, then call me the queen of the sads!  :-D

Sure, I'm exhausted because I made a poor choice to stay up late to watch Leo win Best Actor, and no, I'm not on the ball with everything all the time.  But I brush my teeth twice a day and floss before bed, I get my car maintenance done on a routine basis, I go to all the Drs. appts. I'm supposed to on a regular basis, I pay all my bills on time...

Considering that after my divorce I knew jack about paying bills, or the state of my accounts, or how to manage car insurance or inspections  and a million other little things like this....I feel like I am pretty damn awesome these days.  Go me.  :-) Happy Monday to all!