Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "travel"

December 2017 Budget Report

December 2017 Budget Report

Our December was dominated by our Christmas/New Year’s vacation to southern California. We took two weeks off! We stayed with Kyle’s parents, and it was amazing to have more adults around to help take care of DPR. Kyle and I were able to go out on our own a couple times and even have free hours at home when she was playing with her grandparents. I can appreciate even more the value of having family … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

October and November 2017 Budget Report

October and November 2017 Budget Report

The big event of the last two months was our trip to Virginia for my sister’s wedding. We were gone for ten days at the end of October. It was quite a spendy occasion between the travel and the attire, but well worth it of course. Absolutely nothing went wrong at the wedding! I plan to write a whole post on my expenses as a bridesmaid (this was the first time I’ve been in a … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

Lifestyle Inflation: Ubering to the Airport

Lifestyle Inflation: Ubering to the Airport

I realized last month that Uber has become my default mode of transit to and from the airport – to the point that it doesn’t even cross my mind that there are other possibilities! Confession: We spent $175.64 getting to and from the airport last month (4 rides), which is as much as we spent on one plane ticket! I can’t believe I’ve let my lifestyle inflate to this degree – I’m so embarrassed!     This lifestyle … Read entire article »

Filed under: lifestyle creep, travel

November 2016 Budget Report

November 2016 Budget Report

Over Thanksgiving, our family spent 11 days with Kyle’s parents in southern California. It was a wonderful and restful trip. Kyle had to use or lose a bunch of vacation days so we planned a long Thanksgiving trip and a long Christmas trip. After paying for our flights for both of those trips this month, it was a wonderful break to be hosted by Kyle’s parents and have all of our food and so forth … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

How I Work on the Road

How I Work on the Road

As a solopreneur who is also a bit of a homebody, I don’t have a typical off-site office from which I work. Most of the time, I work from my living room – at my standing desk, at our table, or on the couch. However, I also travel (fly) for work. I am a professional public speaker on the topic of personal finance for early-career PhDs, and delivering talks at universities almost always involves 2+ … Read entire article »

Filed under: self-employment, travel

December 2015 Budget Report

December 2015 Budget Report

We took an extra long Christmas break this year because we skipped out on traveling for Thanksgiving. Kyle used up all but one of his vacation days! We spent several days up through Christmas Eve with Kyle’s family in California, took a Christmas morning red-eye, then spent Christmas and several days following with my family in Virginia, and returned to Seattle for New Years Eve. The month was fairly normal spending-wise except for the 11 … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

November 2015 Budget Report

November 2015 Budget Report

Good things about this month: I had two speaking gigs and finalized one last booking for 2015 college basketball has started we celebrated Thanksgiving twice with local friends we saw a friend from Durham while he was in town for a conference there have been some sunny days   We did a pretty good job with our spending, too, even with Thanksgiving! We booked our Christmas travel and are really looking forward to that trip.   Sources of Income   Our budget is based on two … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

October 2015 Budget Report

October 2015 Budget Report

October was our third full month living in Seattle, so our expenses are becoming more regular/predictable, which is great.   I traveled three times in October for my business, all three times to California. The weather in Seattle quickly transitioned in October from summer-ish to winter-ish (at least, that’s how it feels to us!), so my jaunts to warm, sunny California reminded me of the importance of our goal to move there sooner rather than later.     Other than … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

The Ceremony of Graduation

The Ceremony of Graduation

This past weekend, Kyle and I participated in our university’s graduation ceremony. This was the fourth time we’ve celebrated finishing our PhDs, and definitely the least fun or important of any of them. Just shy of a year ago, Kyle defended and we had a big family dinner. About nine months ago, I defended and we hosted a party for our friends and family. Eight months ago, my parents threw us a party where they … Read entire article »

Filed under: grad school

April 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report

April 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report

This month, I transitioned from living in the DC area with my parents to living in Durham with Kyle again. So we had a half-month of my DC expenses (public transport, gas to get between the cities) and a half-month of our normal Durham expenses. We had a nice fat income because we were both working full-time in March and fairly low-ish expenses. We still were not focused in April on keeping our discretionary spending … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review