Happy Holidays!

The Holidays are Upon Us! Everybody PANIC!! haha!
Sigh... I truly miss my blog and my coffee adventures. But I'm about to embark on a new adventure! (Drum Roll Please) My boyfriend and I are about to join the ranks of NY Apartment Hunters! We are finally leaving his family's home and hope to move out by the end of January!

It took me a little longer than I wanted to find that 2nd job. I broke my foot in August and didn't want to start looking until after I was all healed up. I ended up finding a retail job around mid-October, and I've been there almost 2 months now! I actually work in Grand Central Station! (pics to come)
On top of that, I received a promotion (and partial raise) at my regular 9-5! I'm hoping to receive the next part of my raise sometime in December, but we'll see. Tricky business that. All in all, it's been exciting and stressful the last few months.

I also got braces in September, which set me back about $3k, even with dental insurance! Yikes!
All together, I'm still about $25k in debt (including credit, student loans, & my braces), but the good news is I've actually been able to save some money and we are going to use that to fund our new apartment! No more subletting! My name will actually be on the lease of a one-bedroom apartment (a real one with a living room and everything) and  maybe even within walking distance of Prospect Park! It will cut my commute in half, a park to run in, no more roommates... and I am beyond thrilled!

Also, I have a plan to get rid of my credit card debt by October 2013!
I just have to keep my weekend job until then... sigh.

I'm a little afraid to weigh myself. Since I got the promotion and started working weekends, I've done nothing but work, and my weight-loss has gone out the window. I was only 4 pounds from my goal weight too! But it will all be worth it to get rid of the weight of my debt! I just have to remember not to go overboard with Christmas or furnishing our new digs!

We haven't even got the place yet but I'm already researching how we'll decorate it! I'm thinking I should document and post about our apartment hunting experience... for those thinking of moving up here. Be Warned! I did move 5 times in one year and I consider myself a bit of an expert in the moving arena but actually signing a lease will be a first for me!

Can't wait to share the fun! Happy Holidays to All!

Obsessions or Purpose?

They say that man makes plans and God laughs. So TRUE!
I've allowed myself to get super distracted this week. I must miss having a purpose to my life because when I somehow (really can't remember what triggered this) rediscovered my love of gardening, I completely let my weight-loss plans slip. I did manage to squeeze in about 3 days of running, but I haven't been watching my calories as much as I should. I thought I may have gained weight, but I actually lost 1/2 a pound! It's about 50% of what I was planning for at this point, but at least I'm still making some kind of progress! (Or that's what I tell myself).

I'm also having a challenge trying to save money (no surprise there). Weekends are my downfall. We end up going out, and although my boyfriend gallantly pays for most of our outings, I invariably end up spending more than my self-imposed $25-a-week allowance. Granted, I knew this was a little 'ambitious' when I allotted that amount, and I knew the beginning would be the hardest, but this is a reallll struggle! So far I'm about $20 behind my Saving Schedule. And it looks like I may have to put off paying off my Evil Chase credit card one more month. Sigh.

Meanwhile, here I am spending hours pouring over gardening books for a house that I may or may not be moving into in 6 1/2 months! Crazy?! Moi?! Ok, maybe a little... but I'm so EXCITED!!
I'm used to having some kind of project to spend my time on and this is my latest obsession! First it was starting my business, then it was weight-loss, then it was getting out of debt, and now.. it's gardening!

Most of my childhood my parents would tell me how we were moving in a year and so I shouldn't get too involved in clubs or commit to anything too long term. This continued for 6 years! Every year I put off starting a garden because I thought we would be moving to another state! So when we finally moved to GA, when I was 16, I immediately started my dream garden. My poor dad ended up spending hours sweating over the GA clay, tilling it all up, so I could fix the PH levels of my garden soil to perfection. I had so many tomatoes, I actually made ketchup! Of course all this only lasted one year before I left for college.

Since I've lived in NY, all of my attempts at having some kind of window garden have failed miserably. (I blame NY) Now that we might (possibly, maybe?) be moving into our own home, I'm thrilled to get a new chance to use my (hibernating?) green thumb! Forget the fact that the space in the back of the house is basically a paved, tiny driveway! I'm a creative person and I can think of a way around this! This IS happening!

Sigh- I must be the most un-cool 28 year old ever! I swear I was born 70 years old. I love cooking, gardening, reading... what self-respecting 28 year-old, born during a technological renaissance, does that?!

So you may be seeing lots of gardening posts in the near future... More to come!

1 Year Later...

Wow! Ok! It's been a little over a year since I last made a post here!
There's so much to catch up on!!

Job:
I'm still doing the photography gig- very boring, but stable and almost zero stress. I was working as a coffee barista for about 10 months while doing the photo thing! This was actually a lot of fun and one of my favorite jobs ever, but it didn't pay nearly enough and the coffee was actually pretty bad. Blegh! But I learned a lot and I'm hoping to do this kind of work again one day!

Business:
I started my jewelry business in early December but only managed to make about 3 sales in 3 months! Boo! Things were starting to pick up but I had an unexpected hiccup in my living arrangements and had to put my business on hold until further notice...

Living:
My boyfriend and I moved out of our crummy apartment in Harlem to move to a pretty decent place in Brooklyn! We really liked the place, even though our commute was kinda long, but our roommate didn't love us so much and we were asked to leave after a year of living there!
Now, we are living with my boyfriend's mother and little sister in Queens (rent-free!) for the next 3-7 months so we can save money and find a great place of our very own! It's been a little tough adjusting but it will be worth it to get a jump start paying off my debt! I'm looking at this as a blessing in disguise!

Debt:
It's been a little disappointing this year, as most of my money ended up going into my jewelry business, which is now on hold, and not my debt. Also, instead of getting a much needed tax refund, I ended up owing the state almost $500!! I wanted to cry let me tell ya! But now that we are living rent-free, I'm going to get another weekend job at the end of July and by the time we move out of my bf's mom's place this December, I'm hoping to have almost 60% of my debt paid off!! In fact, I'm paying off my EVIL CHASE credit card this very month! Woo-hoo! And since I started this blog, I have brought my total debt down to $26,620 from $33K!

Running:
I started the Couch25K program last May and now I usually end up running an average of 3 miles in 33 minutes! And I run 3-5 times a week!! Can you believe it?! I actually achieved my goal of running 1 mile and exceeded it! More than that, I ENJOY running!

Weight-Loss:
This has been a topsy-turvy year for my weight loss journey. I joined a FREE and completely awesome website called SparkPeople.com and, combined with my running program, managed to loose almost 20 pounds in 6 months! Of course, in November, I stopped going to the gym so I could focus on starting my business and ended up gaining back about 8 pounds. However, I started working out again in February and I've lost about 6 of those 8 pounds! All said and done, I've lost 16 pounds and I'm about half-way to my goal weight!

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg folks! There's so much more to tell you, so many new goals (and setbacks)! I can't wait to share it all with you and to start blogging again!