Frugal Fridays: My Not So Frugal February

Posted on February 28, 2014 by kmichaud87

Today is the last day of February. Whew, the year is already flying by. As I have mentioned before, one of my main goals this year is to build financial stability. Last post I talked a bit about my obsession with budgeting.

Well… I have a major confession. I totally blew up my February budget. Yikes! At first I was nervous, but then I realized these were all big purchases I was planning to make in 2014.

Let’s take a look at my extra expenses:

Travel – I was originally debating taking my Africa trip over Thanksgiving break this year, but then one of my best friends whom I haven’t seen in 3 years (she lives in Montana) told me she booked a plane ticket to Belize in May, I knew I had to buy a ticket too. Luckily, I had been saving money in my vacation fund, thus I had the $730 in my bank account to cover the costs of that large semi-unplanned purchase.
New Camera – I’ve wanted to purchase a new camera for upcoming travel and also for a few projects I have in line for Big Sky Multisport Coaching & Personal Training for awhile. I finally pulled the trigger due to my trip to Belize and the fact that I can write it off as a business expense. I did some research and found out that February is generally a good month to buy digital cameras; I did some scouting around for sales. I found the camera I wanted at Best Buy on sale, plus I was able to cash in some credit card points I’ve had for several years for a $75 gift card. Win, Win! I’m now a proud owner of a Canon Rebel T3i DSLR camera. Now, to figure out how to use it… anyone want to give me lessons? 🙂
LL Bean Boots – I’ve been wanting a pair of LL Bean boots for a couple of years now, but just never pulled the trigger on buying a pair. I had been wearing my Uggs boots around forever, which are ugly and falling apart. I was up in Freeport a couple of weeks ago and decided to check out the Outlet store to see if they had any boots in my size. I lucked out and found the exact pair I wanted in my size. Clearly, I purchased them and have been living in them since due to this crazy winter weather. I found out last week that LL Bean currently has a 6+ week backorder on their boots so I lucked out with my find.

Yes, I’m from Maine. I proudly wear LL Bean!

Other than those three expensive purchases that were semi-unplanned, I stayed well in my budget. Another thing that is worth mentioning is that I increased my monthly student loan payments. When my graduate student loans came out of their grace period, I would have had paid over $500 a month in combination with my undergraduate student loans. Which, at the time, was over a quarter of my monthly budget. I decided to apply for the graduated student loan payment plan to ensure that I could pay my student loans monthly without eating ramen noodles every day!

I did a bunch of calculations recently with various student loan payment plans and realized that I was only paying interest on my graduate student loans and a couple of them even were more than I originally took out! Yikes! I played around with my budget and decided to reallocate some money to increase my monthly payments back to the standard 10 year repayment plan. It will add an additional $100 to my monthly bills, but will pay off in the long run with less interest paid. Of course, I’m hoping to pay a majority (if not all) of my student loans off well before the 10 years is up!

I will fully admit that I am obsessed with budgeting and watching my bank account and net worth increase. However, sometimes you need to make big unplanned purchases. Even though my purchases weren’t completely unplanned, I was a bit reluctant to drop hundreds of dollars for a plane ticket and camera. I will say that I am completely excited to head to Belize and see one of my best friends and hopefully come back with some killer photos.

Until next time…. happy training and keep saving!

Frugal Fridays: The Savings Game

Posted on January 31, 2014 by kmichaud87

Two weeks ago I wrote my first Frugal Friday post on my overall 2014 financial goals. In my 2014 goals post I outlined that I have some big financial goals for the year with the main one to become more financially stable.

The past couple of years have been a bit of a struggle at times. I mainly lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I’m not horrible with money, but I know that I could make improvements in my life so that I’m not totally stressed out over the issue. I’m lucky that I’m not like the average American.

The average American household debt is:

$15,270 in credit card debt
$149,925 in mortgage debt
$32, 258 in student loan debt

Source: (http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-card-data/average-credit-card-debt-household/)

I have no credit card debt. I only use my card if I can pay in full each month or for big purchases, like my computer for grad school a few years ago, where I used a 12-month no interest card to break the cost into monthly payments. I currently have about $35,000 in student loans (both undergrad and grad) and, of course, no mortgage at this point in my life. One of my long-term goals is to get out of debt as fast as possible!

Updates since the last post two weeks ago:

My car passed its inspection with only $400 of repairs and should (cross fingers and pray) last through December, which is my targeted new car purchase date
One of my goals was to pay off a $1500 student loan (originally $5000 loan) in 2014. I paid for about 95% of my own education (both undergrad and grad) through scholarships, grants, and loans. My parents couldn’t afford to pitch in much, but every once in a while my father will put some money towards my student loans. He decided to give me a late Christmas present and paid my $1500 loan! One goal accomplished and that now frees up an extra $50 a month! 🙂
For the most part I stayed on my budget for the month of January, except for the car repairs since I didn’t realize my inspection ran out in December. Opps!

This past week at my Junior League meeting we had a financial advisor come speak to us about financial wellness. The woman was hysterical and I think she missed her calling as a stand-up comedian. I’d been waiting all year for this meeting because of the topic, but honestly wasn’t expecting to learn anything new. My father enjoys drilling financial stuff into my head and I read a lot of the topic through books and personal finance blogs (my new favorite topic to read about! Let me know if you know any good blogs out there!).

Not only did I love this woman because she made such a dry and scary topic funny, but I also really liked her message. Money is a very sensitive topic for just about everyone. It makes me nervous and at first I was very reluctant to talk about it here on my blog. However, I think as humans, especially women, we need to be more open about the topic so we can educate ourselves and learn ways to take control of it and manage it in our daily lives. The advisor’s message was that money should be viewed as a tool. Money doesn’t define us, but we should use it as a tool and invest in what makes us happy. Obvious, we need to be smart with it. However, we shouldn’t judge people who spend more money on food vs. travel. We all have our own priorities in life.

Her biggest message to us is to pay yourself first. I absolutely agree with her. Investing in your future is important. When I first started my first “big girl” job in 2010, my company didn’t have any retirement plan options because it was so small. During my second year the company began a 401(k) plan. They offered no company match, but I put in 8% of my paycheck each pay period. With my new job I have a 403(b) with company match. With company match and my own contributions I put 12% of my income into my plan each month. I’m young and I have time, but I want to ensure that I have a good solid retirement plan for the future because I can’t predict what the future will unravel. What will my retirement age be? Will I get Social Security? And, if I do, when? Will I have expensive health problems? Financial planning experts suggest that one should put between 10-15% of their yearly gross pay into a retirement plan.

As I mentioned in my last post, I use Mint.com for my budgeting, which I absolutely love. It’s 100% free and you can even download the app on your smart phone to keep track on-the-go. I also recently discovered ReadyForZero, which focuses on keeping track of your debt. There is a free version and a paid version. I use the free version. You can link all your loans and banking accounts to the site and keep track of your debt. You can also use various calculators to figure out when you can pay off your debt if you paid x amount each month.

I currently have a checking account and two savings accounts at my local credit union. I have several big purchase goals this year: a new car, emergency fund, and travel. I use my checking account for bills and everyday expenses. One savings account is for travel and the second as my general savings account. Last week I began researching high interest rate savings accounts. Interest rates still suck in the United States, but I found a good one with Barclays. Yesterday I opened a “Dream Account” with them at an interest rate of 0.95% APY. There are other perks as well, such as additional bonus interest rate percentage if you don’t make any withdrawals in a specific time frame. Originally my plan was to use this as my E-fund, but then I decided to use it as my new car fund.

During the month of February I hope to come under budget so I can put more into my savings accounts. What ways do you saving? What tools do you use to manage your budgets and accounts?

~ Happy Training (and Saving)!

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the websites and/or banks mentioned above. I only discuss them because I personally use them and find them helpful. I was not compensated in any way. All my opinions are my own.

2014 Goals: A Year of Adventure, Stability, and Growth

Posted on January 7, 2014 by kmichaud87

This year I decided to pick three words that I hope will describe the upcoming 365 days in 2014. Adventure. Stability. Growth. These three words have multiple meanings to me, but in summary the words are synonymous to the goals that I will work towards achieving this year.

2013 started off a bit rough, but as the months passed on, I started to move my life in the right direction – where I wanted to go. You can read my 2013 recaps HERE and HERE if you missed them last week.

2014 Goals:

Professional:

Grow in my job – I have been in my current job for just over 3 months now and I really love it thus far. Throughout my public health graduate studies, I would have never thought that I would find a job in healthcare technology. It was a topic that never really interested me; however, now that I work in the field, I love it. Not only is healthcare technology important in the United States, but globally, where my heart lies in global health and international development. My job is challenging and rewarding. Each week I am learning new skills that will only improve my work quality and also aid in my future career development. In 2014 I look forward to working hard, learning new skills, and furthering my future career path.
Grow my business – If you have read my blog for a while you have probably noticed the changes over the past couple of months. I plan to officially launch my new business in a couple of weeks. I started my own coaching and personal training business because it is my passion and I find great satisfaction in helping people achieve their goals. I don’t plan to make a million dollars in my business, but a few extra dollars to help pay my student loans would be nice. I have some interesting plans and opportunities in the future so stay tuned for future developments! 🙂
Learn French – This has been one of my goals from early fall 2013. I want a future career in global public health and international development, thus I need to become bilingual, or at least competent at a second language. I’ve been slowly practicing my language skills via software programs, but I will continue in 2014 with french lessons at The Language Exchange in Portland. I don’t naturally pick up language quickly, so this is going to be a tough goal, but it is necessary and important for my future career goals.

Personal:

Become more financially stable – The last couple of years have been a bit tough financially. Last year I took a risk with my career and it did not pan out as well as I hoped. The last couple of years were also riddled with unexpected purchases, i.e. lots of car repairs and health bills. My graduate student loans also kicked in and I quickly realized that about a third of my monthly income goes directly to SallieMae and Nelnet. Awesome. With my new job I received an increase in pay from my old one. I need to buy a new car some point this coming year and thus I have begun to put some cash away for that big-ticket item. I’m still driving my little car until it dies for good (or is going to cost me a zillion dollars to fix). I also plan to stash some money away again into my emergency fund since it became low due to said expensive car repairs. For the past few months I have created budgets and reviewed my spending habits to determine where I can cut back. Going into 2014 I feel pretty comfortable with my monthly budget and I have been researching ways to live more frugally. Stay tuned for that journey.
Travel – It’s ironic that one of my main goals is to save more money and live frugally, but I also seek adventure outside the US. I haven’t been to a new country in a couple of years and thus, 2014 is the year I discover a new part of the world. My mind has gone crazy with ideas, but I yet to commit to anything yet. I may travel to South America with a friend, go on a medical mission to a developing country, or take a solo trip to Southeast Asia or Europe. I love daydreaming about traveling the world and I know this year will be the year of an adventure. Anyone looking for a travel buddy? 🙂
Volunteer more – This past fall I joined the Junior League of Portland, Maine and have met some pretty fabulous and inspiring women. The organization is built on giving back to the community, which is one of the main reasons I joined. I look forward to volunteering around the community with the JLP, but I also hope to give back to my community in other ways. I have been researching various organizations related to my career interests and will be making contact soon so hopefully I can help in any way needed.
Read a book once a month (or more) – I love to read and you periodically will have book reviews on my blog. For a collection of old book reviews click HERE. I’m an avid reader and I usually read daily, whether job related papers or pleasure reading. My goal in 2014 is to finish a book at least once a month; however, I would like to read more than just 12 books a month. Heck, in the past 5 days I have almost finished all three Hunger Games books. 🙂 I have a stack of half-finished books so I will start my reading list there.

Health & Athletic:

Injury Prevention – I plan to focus a lot this year on injury prevention and prehab. I was struck with a lot of hip/knee/IT-band issues last triathlon season and I don’t want a repeat this year. Now that I’m confident that my chiropractor and I have identified the underlying cause of my chronic right hip issue, I know where to target my prehab exercises. Much of my issues are fascia-related, which often take 12-18 months to fully heal and thus it will be a long-term goal to return to normal human movement patterns.
Weight – I’ve mentioned before that I’ve struggled with disorder eating in the past. I still have relapses often and thus I need to focus on living healthy and forgive myself when I make mistakes. I’m so use to negative talk about my body image that sometimes it is often tough to shake a stick at it. I’m slowly accepting my body and learning to create a healthy body image through exercise and a “diet” that works for my body. I’ve played with different “diets” (note: I use the term diet to refer to food in general, not your typical diet to lose wieght) over the past couple of years and have discovered what works and doesn’t work for me. I will continue on this journey over the next 12 months.
Triathlon – I announced my tentative 2014 race schedule about a month ago. You can view it HERE. My “A” race is Timberman 70.3 in August with a few local races spattered in between. I tried to keep my race schedule light this year to save money (racing is expensive!), making sure I keep my body healthy, and also to enjoy other fun things in Maine, like hiking, rock climbing, and go to the beach with friends just for fun (apparently brining your wetsuit to swim is frown upon with “normal” people). I would love to qualify for Age Group Nationals. If I qualify for this coming season then I won’t go because Timberman is so close, but I would consider 2015 depending on the locale. My very, very far-reaching goal who be to qualify for 70.3 Worlds at Timberman but the chances of that happening would be that of me winning the lottery (and I would actually have to purchase a lottery ticket to do so)!

So what are your 2014 goals? Anything fun and exciting? Want to travel together?

~ Happy Training!

Travel Throwback Thursday: Italy

Posted on December 12, 2013 by kmichaud87

Canals of Venice

Over winter break 2006-2007 I had the opportunity to take a two-week travel course to Italy for English credit as an undergraduate. It was the first time I ever left US soils and I was quite excited. Italy was a place I have dreamed about traveling to for a long time. The history, the art, the music, the food… it was all something I wanted to experience firsthand.

San Marco Square in Venice

We began our adventure with a several day stay in Venice, where we spent New Year’s Eve. Venice in December/January, as you can imagine, is quite cold. Nevertheless, the “Floating City” is a stunning place to visit and someday I hope to go back in the summer. I got to indulge in my first real Italian pizza, pasta, and gelato. Mmmmm… can you say amazing?

New Year's Eve Celebration in San Macro Square

New Year’s Eve Celebration in San Marco Square

We took a quick day trip to Verona, the fabled city of Romeo and Juliet to visit Juliet’s balcony, but it was closed on January 1st for the holiday. The main attraction in Verona was probably the million lingerie shops.

The Duomo in Florence – I climbed all 400+ steps to the top (highly recommend for amazing views!)

After a few days in the northeast region of Italy we ventured by train south-west to Florence. Florence was by far my favorite place. The weather was warmer and Florence is situated in the heart of Tuscany… wine country. Too bad I didn’t like wine at the time.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

A few of my friends and I took the train out to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Pisa, itself, does not have much to see, but the food was good and cheap. On the way back we stopped on a whim in a small town called Lucca. With its walled city and charming little town shops, it was my favorite stop. While in Florence I took a trip to Cortona, where the novel, Under a Tuscan Sun was set. The old part of the town is built on a hill. We had to take a very scary bus trip up the side of the hill on some very windy roads. The views of the valley were beautiful and someday I hope to take a trip back during the summer when the sunflowers bloom.

The town of old Cortona

Cortona Valley

Sunset from the Piazzale Michelangelo

After Florence we headed to Rome to finish up our tour. Rome has a tremendous amount of history, but it is very much influence by the modern world. Rome was fun, but it was too touristy and modern for my likings. I had the best cheese pizza at some hole-in-the-wall place in Rome that I wish I could remember its name. One of my favorite memories of the whole trip was taking the train down to Pompeii for the afternoon. If you ever go to Italy, I highly recommend stopping in Pompeii for the afternoon! We were going to stop in Naples on the way back, but Naples is one of the most dangerous cities in Italy and we decided to forego it and head back to Rome.

The Colosseum at night

The Palantine, or old city of Rome

While in Rome, we also adventured into the Vatican. If I had planned my trip better I would have tried to have attended mass at St. Peters, but no such luck this time. Italy is truly a beautiful country with its rich history and culture. Someday in the future I hope to go back and take a bike tour of Tuscany. 🙂

Pompeii

Mt. Vesuvius in the clouds

St. Peters in the Vatican

~ Happy Training!

Travel Throwback Thursday: Montana

Posted on November 7, 2013 by kmichaud87

Montana is my favorite place for multiple reasons. The first being the people. You can’t beat the Montanans. They are absolutely some of the nicest people on the planet. The second is the environment. The state is stunning! You have the Rockies in the West, Yellowstone to the South-east, and the prairies as far as the eye can see. Montana is an outdoorsmen’s dream. You can spend the summers hiking in the mountains, rock climbing the local crags, or floating the Madison River. In the winter you can ice climb, ski, or just enjoy one of the many local microbrews by the fire!

During the summer of 2008 I had the opportunity to spend the summer conducting biomedical research at Montana State University in Bozeman. It is by far one of my favorite summers to date. Not only did I fall in love with the town, but I made some of my best friends there that I still stay in touch with today. I have also gone back to Montana multiple times to visit. Someday I would love to make a permanent move there, but I know that won’t happen any time soon. But a girl can dream!

Montana is known as “Big Sky Country,” which if you are good at putting two and two together… is what I named my coaching company after! You can read a little more about that here…

Now, for all the pictures you all really want to see!

Ferry Lake in the Bridger Mountains

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park

Seeing your first bison is super cool, but after being stuck in a 3-hour traffic jam in Yellowstone because the herd enjoys hanging out in the road is not so cool…

Rock climbing in Gallatin Valley!

The view from Big Sky during the winter

At the Black Foot Reservation on the way to Alberta, Canada

Fishing and no I didn’t catch anything…

More rock climbing in Gallatin Valley

On one of the many nights I enjoyed a good beer downtown Bozeman… I met a new friend 🙂

Hiking in Gallatin Forest (in the rain) with some of my labmates

Have you been to Montana? I highly recommend visiting at least once in your life. The people, the food, the beer, and the views are incredible year-round. And if you ever need a tour guide, let me know! 🙂

~ Happy Training!

How to Make a PushPin Map

Posted on November 6, 2013 by kmichaud87

I love to travel… to experience the beauty of a new location, the excitement of a new culture, and the tastes of new foods. I’m working towards a career in international public health so I know I’ll be doing a lot of international travel in the near future.

Geography has always been a big interest to me. I once considered double-majoring in it as an undergrad (I also thought about history, political science, and economics too…. clearly I have a vast array of interests…). In middle school I won a contest on the state capitals and I could probably name a majority of them still today.

I’ve always wanted a world map on my wall that I could place pins in for where I have been and where I hope to go in the future. I found a couple of them online that I liked, but my wallet did not like the price tag!

You can buy this one for $120! From PushPinTravelMaps

I figured that I could make one at the fraction of the price! Now, I just could have easily got a map and pinned it onto a cork board, but I wanted something that looked a bit more sophisticated.

I began my search for a World Map online. Holy cow they are expensive! I found one at maps.com for $22.00. Sold!

Next I went to Home Depot for some supplies. The map is 32″ x 50″ and thus would not fit on a cork board that I was hoping to recycle for the backing. I discussed my options with my father and I decided that I would get a tri-fold poster cardboard and roll-up cork-board for the backing. I picked up some pre-stained molding for the frame. My supplies only cost about $20 total.

The supplies…

I then had my father help me cut and make the framing. It’s a bit harder than I thought it would be and thus it’s not the most professional finish, but it will work!