It's official summer has started and the heat is on. We are practicing smart home cooling and so far we haven't had to use the air conditioner. But all is not well in the Roamer home and so we have some pains to discuss. (more…)
I am off enjoying a vacation at my in laws and visiting with a bunch of family. But last week before the trip these were my thoughts. Pain You would think that I have all the time in the world now a days to just put my head down and be super productive. However, I've realized that since I stopped working I have really gotten behind on my consumption of financial articles. And podcasts. I've taken note that it's easier to " interact " on twitter because it just takes a few minutes. Much less time than actually writing up a blog post or reading one and leaving a meaningful comment. (more…)
The weekly pain & gain series has been a nice addition this year that has really spurned me to post more frequently. So I am going to try and finish the year off strong by not missing any posts for the rest of the year. and the rest of the year sounds a lot like this..... " for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home" ah its the Holiday season and the radio has been playing music it seems like non stop. We are hustling and bustling but mostly with unpacking tasks and not necessarily with gobs and gobs of shopping. Which segues nicely to this weeks pain. Pain We have since moved all our belonging to the new apt. However, this doesn't mean we are all done. No…
Man the start of November was one for the books. Maybe I'm over sharing, maybe I'm under sharing, maybe I just want to say the word sharing a bunch of times in a paragraph. But either way sheesh. Nov has been a roller coaster. Pain The 1st Monday of the month I got big news! Serious news. But I'm just not ready to share. It wasn't good news, or was it? But, it is what it is, right? Well the week progressed and then on Wednesday the unexpected happened someone stole a load of our laundry. It was mostly Jr's stuff but since it was a small load I threw in some of Minnie's and my stuff as well. I was so shocked. Who does that?! It was the cherry…
This month is really one of my favorites. I really have lots of fun during Halloween. Pain October has had some un welcome surprises in the automotive department. Like I mentioned we are in the process of getting ready for a move and things have gotten a little harder thanks to car issues. Currently we are down to one vehicle and because of our imminent move this has caused a lot of issues. This automotive issue is being felt with time limitations and later will be felt with our wallet. However, the dollars are less of an inconvenience then the time constraints. Right now we are in serious need of flexibility but instead we are now more constrained. UGH! the timing couldn't be more off. It is frustrating and truly…
If you've read about my travel this past 7 years you know I've moved around alot. And yes moving can be a hassle but it also has lots of advantages. Anyways I like the idea of moving around. I'll blame it on my upbringing. ;) Anyways we've been pretty stable lately and have lived in the same city for almost 5 years. I think we are ready to give this whole live closer to work thing a try, like MMM and Go Curry Cracker did. Pain The pain of moving around is the research is time consuming. It's also not super kid friendly if your trying to see a bunch of properties in one day. Schedules were interrupted and Minnie Roamer missed her naps both Sat and Sun leaving us with…
Pain So I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry I've fallen off my consistent posting schedule. agh! I was doing so good too. Lately I missed a lot of posts, which sucks because it was my goal to have 1 post a week . It's my fault I fell off the horse. But below is the reason why. Excuses, Excuses , Excuses I recently attended FinCon ( financial bloggers conference) for the first time and what can I say I needed some time to recoup and make up for all the family time I missed. Also I needed to make time to process all the info that I got at the conference. It was awesome but also very overwhelming. I have to make a game plan because when…
Kids can't live with them can't live without them. Seriously this week wasn't so bad but this weekend. Sheesh. I was an emotional wreck. Pain You know as the week progresses I like to make notes about what would be my gain and pain... So that I have some ideas to work with. My pain this week was going to be all financial. See I messed up and miss calculated my IRA numbers, which negates last weeks gain :( . I really thought I was going to be able to max it out... But I accidentally had one extra space, I was counting contributions for January as well... Hmm. So anyways that was going to be my pain for the week but then Sunday happen. We, (I?) Had a big…
Happy Labor Day everyone. I hope you all get to celebrate how you see fit. Make sure though you keep and eye on the dollar. I read a post that said most people spend more then what they are getting paid to have the day off. Say what?! So yeah have fun but make sure your asking yourself what the value proposition is? Don't just follow the crowd... if you think it has valued then go right ahead. Just taking the time to ask yourself the question and making sure your actions are in line with your values is where its at. Okay now for this past weeks update. Pain This past week I'd been anxiously awaiting the weekend so I could get to work on switching out my capsule.…
Pain Lots of waste this week. We didn't really follow our food menu and we ended up with lots of spoiled food. I know this is something most American households struggle with and I guess we aren't the exception. It's really disappointing to me. I know some weeks we do really well and other are so bad. It's something I am trying to improve by buying less food. We are still learning but its still chafes me to throw food out. Some people say its better to be safe then sorry and I agree but the question shouldn't be well what's more costly a doctors appointment or a head of lettuce. It just shouldn't get to that point period. Gain This past week we hosted my mother in-law at our…
Well it was a really good idea to start this weekly column. I can see now why so many bloggers do it. It forces you to write and that in turn motivates you to write more. At least that is how it worked for me. This will be the 6th installment of my weekly updates. Pain Most of us can relate to making poor financial decisions because of external factors. Usually due to being caused some sort of discomfort. I think people like to call it emotional spending. I had just that experience this week. I was having a bad day this week. I was mad and stressing. Dammit , I'm going out to eat for my break. I'm going to go out cause I deserve to unwind, and relax. But…
So much good this week, but don't worry I still have a pain to complain about. Pain Minnie Roamer is not resting during her standard nap time. She does once in a while but is now predominantly taking her siesta during our drive to work and to see papa Roamer. So instead of resting at 1 pm at home. She is resting at 3 in the car. This is a real pain because that time was usually used to spend 1 on 1 time with Jr. Roamer while he's in summer vacation. But during his school time. I could use the time to rest, work on ZTL hw., a blog post, and even read. But that only works if I'm not behind the wheel of a car. She is only…
Rollercoaster weeks seems to be the thing right now. We accomplished a lot but we also faced some difficult challenges. Pain My goals for this blog are to discuss traveling, parenting, and finances all how they relate to me. I realize I haven't really been touching on parenting too much and that's because that is my biggest challenge. This week, actually probably more like over a month, parenting has proved quite challenging. We have good days and then we have terrible days. But this week was really exposing as some of my poor parenting decision came full circle to bite me in the butt. I keep thinking I should probably take a break from reading all these finance articles and instead focus on parenting ones. Or at the very least…
That was almost me the crazy crane lady. Pain Last Monday I shared with you the unexpected turn of events with my Craigslist ad. People wanted to put in orders. Well that wasn't exactly what I had planned but I decided that yes I would venture into this world of pre-order items. It was for a wedding and I decided I would not gouge them for using the "W" word. But the Short lead time could not be ignored. Not only that there were lots of special requests and no time. After hearing the order request I ran a few number and determined that yes I could do that, but it would be tight. I was being optimistic. However, after 17 messages back and forth and still no solid commitment…
Another weeks come and gone. Let's see what happened over at the Roamer household. Pain This pain is brought to you by none other then my life oppressing job. I was suffering from pangs of anxiety for sure. You see I had a meeting with a client towards the end of the week, and to say that I wasn't fully prepared would be an understatement. Usually the team puts everything together by Monday but this was my 1st time and I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Not only that other departments hadn't prepared early either but I got focused and found the people to tap to get my answers . Could I have prepared sooner and avoided all the stress? Maybe. But that's not…
Weekly columns are a nice quick way to give you all some updates on whats happening here at the Traveling Wallet HQ. This is specially useful if I can't seem to get a full post out on specific idea topic. I have seen lots of bloggers take part in a weekly update sort of post so I am going to give it a shot myself. I actually have been wanting to do one since tax season where I was going to talk about the awesome refund and whine about an unexpected charge but that one never made out into the public. I want to end on the happy note so I will discuss our pains and then our gains. Also since I am currently in the midst of a 3…
September Our San Francisco Vacation and other July Expenditures August Mini Retirement Update: July countdown July Capsule 8: Spring & 2 years of capsule wardrobesMini Retirement Update: June and growing worries. June Capsule 7: Winter and a wrap dress Mini Retirement Update: Slowly moving forward May Capsule 6 & A 10 x 10 Challenge Where have you been? Our travels so far Mini Retirement Monthly Update: Too much in my house April Capsule 5: Summer, No purchase necessary Mini Retirement Monthly Update: Passports? Yes, please! March My one goal this year February Home Tour & 2016 purge review January Expenses and the uber frugal month wrap up January 2017 2016 Goals: Year End Review Net Worth Update: Our growth in 2016 Uber Frugal Month Challenge, Well why not? December 2016…
Last year we saved $72,360. (Deep breath) You have to give it a moment to let it sink in. (more…)
I started off the year taking a big bite with my goals. But that's me, I always think I can move mountains and 2015 was no different. The year started with me taking on 20 goals . To which I promptly added 4 more once I had printed them out on paper. (I always seem to forget something before I press print.) But more then halfway through the year I had to admit that I just wasn't feeling some of the items I had written down. (more…)
The one gift you always hope to receive before the holidays is more time off. Of course, that's paid time off. What you don't hope for is that you walk in at the start of your shift on Monday right before the holidays to receive a big fat lay off. Poor timing. It definitely wins the award for that. ..and while I was still in utter shock I was also trying really hard not to smile and shout, "see ya later suckers!!" . ( Of course Mommy would never say such bad things. Felt like I should address my kids there for some reason. Ha ha ha) But I didn't smile and I didn't utter any self aggrandizing phrases. Actually for all my joy, I was very much insulted. "You?!....…
At some point this trimester I realized I needed to focus my efforts. It's not that it's impossible to work on multiple things at once. It was more the fact that I needed to do a lot of learning. See sometimes you have all the foundational knowledge to accomplish something you just need to take up the challenge to push yourself farther, harder. But that wasn't the case for a lot of what I was trying to do. I didn't have the background. So one task would split into several other smaller things that I needed to learn first. In essence my one goal might actually require me to jump 5 hurdles before even being able to address my goal. I knew that on some level. That was part of…
Do you get home from a long day at work and walk around wondering what is for dinner . Just to throw your hands in the air with exasperation say " F it "and jump back in the car looking for your favorite eats. Well you might not know but you are suffering from a sickness that result in a chubs belly and endless amount of money being flushed down the drain. I know it sounds terrible. Would you like to get the cure! It's actually easy ( no pills involved) all you have to do is grab a pen and paper ,then start making some lists. That's right a few list will get you back to sexy waist and pockets of money* (Cut infomercial) Ahh, it's the beginning of the month…
