Time off

It is Monday evening and I am full of barely suppressed glee as I've taken the day off tomorrow! Although long weekends are also wonderful I find that having a mid-week break feels absolutely luxurious. It makes the work week feel so much shorter, you get an extra "Friday evening" of unwinding, and it's just a lovely break from routine. This one is a bit special as the reason I've taken off is to celebrate my birthday! It's a rule of mine to never work on my birthday; even if I don't do anything special the fact that I don't have to work is special enough! I've started the evening off right by treating myself to a cheeky pizza (frozen Digiorno, which I love). I'm planning on taking a bath with some of my favorite LUSH products, drinking a glass of red, and watching my favorite Korean television program.

I am truly blessed to have a job that I absolutely love, but man I dream of being able to work part-time. How awesome would it be to work Mon/Tue, have a break Wed, then go back Thurs/Fri? Although I save my PTO for long vacations as I do like to travel, I'm contemplating using some of it to just take one random "mental health" day off every month. At my previous job we were given 26 days of PTO a year, most of which rolled over, plus we would usually get an extra 2-3 added on for doing well on certain workplace goals etc. We got 11 holidays off in addition to that! Really great PTO for the US, especially at a nonprofit. I used to take a day off every other week and still manage a 2 week holiday along the way. Those were the days...

Anyways, I'm off now to enjoy my bath! Hoping everyone is able to treat themselves to some R&R!

Korea plane tix

I mentioned previously that my mom was hoping to visit Korea this year. The timing seemed to work out well as she recently lost her job. That sounds ironic, right? Shouldn't she be buckling down on the dollars as someone who is newly jobless? But mom is one of the many low wage, low skill immigrant workers in this country who are employed by ethnic businesses that don't offer benefits- including paid time off. So being laid off actually meant she had this window open to take a trip, the first in five years. She has the money for the trip saved and should hopefully be able to find another job doing what she has been for the last 10+ years (working at a dry cleaners) fairly easily when she comes back.

Anyways, I had been searching online for plane tickets for her, and everything I saw from Baltimore to Seoul was around the $1,200 range. Reasonable for the distance, but I was able to go last October 2015 for around $950 (flying out from Chicago) and I was hoping to find something closer to that number. Well wouldn't you know it, the day after I almost went ahead and bought tix at $1,150, I saw round trip tickets thru Delta for... $763.16 (including all taxes and fees- no baggage charges for international flights)! The only compromise is that they fly out of Reagan and not BWI, but still totally worth it. Holy cow, what a STEAL of a deal! After a quick phone conference I snatched those babies up. The best part is that my dad, who actually hasn't been back to Korea in about 25 years, decided to go as well! And at that price it was totally manageable. I am so happy for them!

My favorite flight aggregators to search for international deals are kayak.com and skyscanner.com. Please let me know if you use other sites to find good deals!

March beauty treats

In March I allotted $100 for non-essentials: entertainment, clothing, gifts, anything other than eating out (separate category) that wasn't a necessity. Most of the month was spent studying for a licensing exam that I just took (and passed!) this past Saturday, so I ended up spending nothing on entertainment, which is rare. About $25 went toward a birthday present and $3 was spent on three Laura Ingalls books from a resale shop- I'm a sucker for childhood classics. With the rest I was super happy to be able to pick up a few pretty cosmetics.

I absolutely love beauty products. They are my guilty pleasure and what I choose to splurge on. I hoard gift cards, stalk sales, request as gifts, and use mostly credit card points/cashback to fuel this vice. Recently I realized my make up was becoming more like a collection, so I am much more selective about what I buy because I do want to be able to use and enjoy all of what I have.

Everything aligned, starting with it being a low spend month. Ulta was having their annual 21 Days of Beauty, where each day they featured a popular beauty item on sale at a steep discount. Last year they had the Too Faced Sweethearts blushes listed, and I had missed them after hemming and hawing too much. Well, they were back this year at 50% off! I also got 5% cashback by using my Discover card and had a $27 gift card, so I picked up all three blushes and the new Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette. Too Faced is one of my favorite brands, they are of excellent quality and I love the cutesey packaging. Total value (before tax): $126. Total out of pocket (including tax): $62.20. Still too expensive for some, but for me it was well worth it and I have been enjoying these new beauties.

My mom always cautions me about sales by saying, "Even if the savings are incredible and you only spend ten dollars, you are still spending ten dollars." I think that's a great mindset to have when shopping. I'm happy about my steal of a deal because I was able to stay within budget.

Finding $$

The other day I pulled out my wallet in search of a spare CTA (public transit) card for visiting friends. I hadn't used the wallet in ages as I've gotten used to carrying around a more conveniently sized card case. At any rate I "found" about $20 in dollar bills. Is it just me or is one of the best feelings ever finding money- even when it's your own!

I have found other people's money on a couple occasions. Once I was in high school and picked up $10 laying on the ground at the mall. Another time I found maybe $150 in the couch cushions of a lounge at Johns Hopkins, where I was working as a counselor for the CTY program. No one ever reported it missing/inquired so I got to keep it. And fairly recently I spotted a $100 bill on the ground at an airport, but I could tell immediately who had dropped it and she sure was relieved to have it back! That made me feel good too.

I've lost money as well, most memorably on a high school trip to Disney World where I lost my wallet, which must have had close to $200 in it. Man oh man was that the worst feeling ever. I kept thinking about how hard my parents had worked so I could have that money.

One thing I never used to do was pick up coins. I see lots of coins lost or abandoned on the sidewalk or on the bus/train, mostly pennies but occasionally some silver shine as well. These days I've realized how much change can add up, and will pick up whatever I see. As I explained in this recent post I use a credit card for 98% of my purchases, so it takes me a long time to gather coins. I can't wait until I have enough to take to one of those machines and get a gift card in return (no fees!) I know a lot of you snowflake that extra money to put toward bills etc., but I tend to squirrel them away for treats.

Here's to hoping that you find more than you lose!

My student loans

I graduated in 2009 from a private university in Atlanta with a BA in Sociology and Religion. I graduated in 2011 from a private graduate program in Chicago with a MSW degree. I mention that these institutions are private to indicate that the cost of attending was significantly higher than if I had chosen to attend public schools. Whether my decisions were wise, for the degrees I received...well, that's another post :)

I graduated with a mix of Perkins/Stafford loans that totaled roughly $47,000. Not too shabby, considering I got 6 years of private education out of it. I was lucky to have received plenty of grants and scholarships along the way. I'd say 90% of my friends graduated with loans that had one more place value. But for a new graduate who had never had debt and was very fearful of it, that number sure looked big enough to me.

My mom gifted me with $9,800 at my MSW graduation. This cash was the result of a LOT of scrimping and saving on her part, and I immediately put $4,500 toward student loans. The other half I used to travel for a full month later that year to Korea, Vietnam, and China, and gifted 1k to my grandparents while I was in Korea. I didn't start aggressively paying off my student loans until about two years postgrad. Before then it was more important to me to build up my Emergency Fund. Still, about four years after my graduation I had managed to get the loans down to $27,000. And then my amazing mom stepped in again, and offered to pay that off for me. I am now paying her back, sans interest.

It's been almost a year since my lender became Bank of Mom, and after my payment this month I'm down to an even $20,000 owed. That would mean I paid off more than $27,000 in 5 years; a lot more actually, considering the amount that went toward interest. I'm too lazy to look up the exact numbers.

I could be even further along in my repayment but I chose to prioritize other goals alongside paying down my student loans, namely traveling. In the past five years I have visited China, Vietnam, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Korea twice. I have absolutely no regrets about those trips and would do it this way all over again. I am thankful to my mom for her generosity and sacrifice, and am proud of the progress I have made on my student loans. My goal is to have them fully paid off in the next three years.

**I am aware that loan forgiveness programs exist for social workers, but after some research realized they weren't for me.