What is today?

Brownie points if you knew the answer. It is the anniversary of my marriage to M!!! 🙂 You guys, it is an interesting ride on the slightly surreal side. lol. I love, LOVE my partner in crime and I can’t wait to keep marking off and celebrating this day as the years roll along! I don’t have much work to do at the lab today so I decided to bite the bullet and get out early. M has been wanting to get me a bicycle for the longest time and to see me ride said bicycle. I’m deathly afraid of falling and hurting myself. That’s almost like the story of my life sometimes i.e. not taking risks because of being scared of getting hurt. I digress. Anyways, yesterday, I decided to face my fear and I got on the bike. In short order, I was reminded why I was always  nervous of getting on one of those. BUT I am going to put my  mind to practicing how to ride a bicycle. Yes, M says I’ve got perfect posture so I hope not to disappoint him. 🙂

So much has been going on and everytime something struck my mind, I’d go “damn, that would be nice on my blog” Sadly, I never followed through. The odd thing though is when I do get to typing, the words start flowing and suddenly it’s almost like an avalanche. I’ll give a brief update on things.

  1. With respect to our new apartment, we are simply loving it. Our power bill was ridiculous: $28. I almost wanted to go over to PC to show him that I wasn’t lying when I said I knew how to keep costs down. We still haven’t had to use the heater or the air conditioner. My little heater/air conditioner which cost me less than $5 is still going strong and I think that was one of the better investments I’ve made. Rent is rather steep, but definitely affordable. However, we just need to find our groove and not be so tight towards the end of the month, if you know what I mean.
  2. With respect to expenditures, We’ve not done very well. I will say that moving away from the former house has reduced our spending simply because we are not rather removed from those fast food places we were drowning in. It was less than 5 mins to the mall where they have all sorts of tempting goodies waiting. lol. Now, it’s like pulling teeth for both of us to just casually up and go to, say, McDonalds. Before, we’d be on the road fast than you could recite “The sun shall soon shine”. lol. Expectedly, our grocery spending has gone up. I can’t give exact figures because I haven’t been tracking. Neither can I tell you how much M spends eating out or I do. I suspect at some point, we will both need to sit down and decide how to trim off the fat in order to say more. Right now, we are getting by, but in the event of a job loss, we will be unhappy campers.
  3. With respect to savings, M’s been pretty good about feeding the money pot. lol. I cannot wait to get that thing over to the bank because it’s more than likely got over $200 in it! I’ve been doing my share although not as much as M because I’m all about the plastic. Nevertheless, I still do some saving over the internet. How, my ING Direct savings account of course! The interest rate is dropping, but I don’t care too much because my primary goal for that account is to accummulate and turn it over. If I keep up and/or increase my current rate of contribution and reduce my spending, I will be on track to open a short-term CD. Right now, I don’t even think about that savings account because as far as I am concerned, it is our untouchable emergency fund in the event of an emergency. I’m going to try to get M a savings account too (me earning $25 if he opens it with a referral from me has nothing to do with this blatant solicitation).
  4. With regards to retirement and financial planning, I’ve done nothing. I had an appointment with a Fidelity advisor, but lab work conflicted with said appointment. Since then, I’ve just done my light reading, but it is still very much at the back of my mind.

That’s pretty much it. M & I are going to hang out and do what young and very much in love couples do: wrestle and learn how to defend myself using nut-cracking (that’s illegal in the UFC), arm-breaking, choking, etc techniques. M’s converted me to an appreciat(or)(er) of the mixed martial arts family. It’s just a damn shame that his show (the Ultimate Fighter) comes on the same time my show (Top Chef, Chicago) comes on. My only consolation is that he really does let me free reign with the TV so I can’t complain too much. Thank God for re-runs. I’ve gotta run folks. Digest this post and come back for more!