Yoga Pants Life

Thank God it’s Friday! Though, I’m almost too tired to enjoy it. In fact, I actually stayed home from work this morning – I had a lot of flu-like symptoms yesterday: chills, exhaustion, sore throat, sinus issues, sore muscles, etc. I think most of it can be explained by allergies, crazy weather (it was in the mid 80s and windy last week and now it’s California-cold and windy) and an increase in running mileage (super pumped about that!) As for the exhaustion, I’ve been house sitting and haven’t slept in my own bed for two weeks…and the dogs, sweet as they are, love to bark at 2:30 in the morning.

I’m hoping to make it in to work this afternoon, but I’m still having allergy issues and can barely keep my eyes open (am currently chugging coffee to see if that helps and plan on stopping at CVS to get some daytime allergy meds) I love house sitting for the W family, but I’m ready to be back in my own bed, cuddling with my kitties (I’m going to miss the shorter work commute though (and a Starbucks down the streeet.) A lot.

Anyway, moving on to finances…I’m not sure if I should be happy or concerned about my February progress. On the one hand, my emergency fund went up by $1000 (and landed me solidly in the 2 months of spendy/3 months of bare bones expenses category) and that’s great…but it was mostly due to a tax return and I should have added $500 more than I actually did (I’ll get to that in a second.) I’ll be adding another $1000 this week thanks to overtime (which, somehow gets taxed at 50%!!??) and a bit from a side job (along with my $200 bi-weekly deposit.) If I look at where my emergency fund was a few years ago (it was literally coin-based…and nearly maxed out credit card-based) or even a few months ago, I’m doing great.

**Pro tip: This is not a sufficient emergency fund…unless your emergency is the sudden need to buy some Cheez-its from the vending machine (don’t worry, we’ve all been there.)

However, if I look at how much I spent, I feel like I failed. Between new running shoes (my other ones were over a year old with a lot of miles,) birthday shopping (new clothes and a North Face fleece and jacket,) restocking my essential oils (use them every day,) and a the ridiculous amount I spent on takeout, I spent over $500 (I’m not even adding in groceries, an oil change or gas to this total) That’s $500 that could have gone in my emergency fund. That’s $500 I could have saved in my Chicago fund. That’s $500 I could have invested in my taxable investment (aka, non-retirement) account.

Maybe I should stop looking at saving and spending as an all or nothing thing, but if I want to be 100% debt-free and retire early (so I can live out my ‘wearing all yoga pants, all the time’ dream) I really need to reign in my spending and really start scrutinizing every purchase. I truly believe that savings has less to to with income and more to do with spending rate (though, earning more certainly should help one save faster.) The 10 days I was without a debit card in early 2015, I managed to spend less than $120 on gas and groceries (I commute 90 miles round-trip a day and gas in CA isn’t cheap.) There’s NO reason I shouldn’t be able to do that now.

As for investments, I haven’t checked, but I suspect I lost quite a bit last month and that’s ok. I’m not planning to touch it for many, many years and I’m actually looking at it as an opportunity to invest a bit more while everything is low (though I’m more focused on building my 6-12 month ’emergency’ fund than on investing…which I’m sure a lot of people would disagree with, but I’m doing what I feel is right for me.) My goal for the next week is to only spend money on gas and groceries (oh and some allergy meds.) Time to keep chugging coffee and eat a little chicken soup before I see if I have it in me to go to work.