Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy Holidays!

My goodness, it's been a busy month. So much for my good intentions of posting at least once a week! I can't say I've had any exciting financial news to report. Here's some off-the-cuff items!

At Thanksgiving, I got one final check for a couple hundred dollars that was the final settlement of my great-aunt's estate.

I've been finding that my cash balance in Pocket Money /Quicken is often way off, by several dollars or more. I'm still pretty good about tracking every penny of my spending so this is starting to make me paranoid. Is there a bug in the program? Is someone stealing money out of my wallet? It's weird.

My year end net worth goal of $600k just isn't going to happen. I'm still saving a good portion of my earnings, but the stock market has been so up and down this year.

I've done all my holiday gift shopping and probably have spent a bit less than usual, though I haven't totaled everything up just yet. I gave small gifts to a few people in the office. I bought my niece and nephew each a sweater, two books, and some wacky wax stuff you can make little sculptures with. My sister and I will give our mom an iPhone for Xmas. I'm not giving my extended family any gifts as I won't see them this year. Sweetie and I are taking a little trip over the holidays that is basically our present to each other. Though of course there have also been veiled mentions of "a few other little things" that have my all anxious about how little those other things are compared to the other little things I bought! But I guess holiday gifts are no fun if you take ALL the surprise element out of it!

Best wishes to all of you and your families for a happy, healthy New Year!

6 comments:

Flavio said...

I enjoy reading the posts here ...happy holidays and a great new year to everyone...

Budget spreadsheets said...

Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing a very informative post.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year! I wish to see & hear more from you this year! Perhaps once a week would be a stretch but once a month will do it!

Keep in touch.

Anonymous said...

anymore new posts coming sometime soon?????

Anonymous said...

Posting any new updates sometime soon? Looking forward to what 2012 goals might be.

Anonymous said...

Madame X- I stumbled across your blog about 6 weeks ago and have spent that time working my way through the blog from the very beginning. Considering I read most of the comments on the more interesting posts, it probably ended up being about the same as reading two pretty decent sized books in total! Anyway, just wanted to thank you for all the effort you've put in here...it truly is inspirational and tells a great tale. I hope someday you comeback to the blog with the same gusto you had for the first 4 years...but if not, it doesn't matter. You've made a great impression either way. Personally for me, you made me set a goal I didn't think would be possible for another few years...maxing out my 401k!

One question which may seem out of place but since I just read this blog from the beginning (and covered everything since 2008 in the last 2 days), I'm very curious to know how things are going with your Mom and if she's learned to curb her spending habits now that she's a couple years down the road from your father's passing. Also, does she still discuss anything with you in regards to her finances?

Congratulations on a great blog and an amazing story. Thanks again for sharing!