Evolving Personal Finance » weekly update
Weekly Update 41
I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but I just feel like I had a great week! I took some confusing data from my projects that are making me think deeply about my system. I completed my certification to use a tunneling electron microscope. Kyle and I attended an AMAZING home basketball game (a bit unexpectedly – last minute tickets). I couldn’t see worth anything but I love the atmosphere. We went to a great party last night – lots of time hanging out with our friends and the best round of telephone pictionary I’ve ever been part of. I got back in the gym for a heavy weights workout. I went shopping yesterday for the first week of our reduced-grocery-spending month. I went to 5 stores in 2.5 hours and spend over half our … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 40
Um… Thanksgiving happened. We drove to my parents’ house on Wednesday night and came back to Durham Saturday night. I had a lot of nice time with family but not as much as I would have liked with friends. :/ I also gave lab meeting last week, which went fine. I have several ideas of things to try out in the immediate future so I should be keeping busy. Posts I Liked Tie the Money Knot explores the spender-saver dynamic in marriage through two example couples. J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy asks his readers eight in-dept questions about how they are doing now in comparison with four years ago. Jordann from My Alternate Life squares her consumerist tendencies with her minimalist lifestyle. Daisy from When Life Gives You Lemons reveals how she accomplishes so … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 39
I haven’t done one of these in quite a while, but this week I guess I was particularly inspired by all the great posts I read! We finally had a housewarming party so I guess our new place is now officially open for (social) business. We also watched our first basketball game of the season at a friend’s house. We took a look at this year’s TV schedule and it seems that our workarounds from previous seasons will not be as effective. Previously, we were able to watch nearly all the games without cable but this year there are only a few available. So we might need to add cable back in January through April so that we are able to 1) watch all the games and 2) have our basketball-watching … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 38
We have had a pretty busy week and especially weekend! I started the week off with some dental work that put us out $198 on top of our regular checkup the previous week. This week I also had a really great meeting with my partner with whom I am working on a tax resource for grad students. It really helped clarify my understanding of the various documents that grad students receive and how it can seem so confusing. I’m happy to be working on this project and will share it here when the resource is complete (early 2013). My parents are visiting us this weekend to see our new townhouse, which means we finally got it unpacked and straightened up! (Kyle did 99% of the work!) The last time they were … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 37
I was sick early in the week and had to miss some work, so that sucked. I also derailed my normal way of eating because I didn’t feel up to cooking as much so I ate cheap carbs in place of some of my normal meat and vegetables. Kyle and I had a nice Saturday. We served snack at an ESL ministry at a nearby church and then went on a hike and out to dinner … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 36
I’ve had a really great week, actually! I worked late on Monday and Thursday as has become my routine and accomplished a lot at work this week. I also worked a full day on Saturday, which was probably my best day ever for generating my product. Kyle and I went to the theater on Tuesday evening. The show was actually delayed an hour, which has never happened before, so we walked around nearby and had a great conversation in the intervening time. We received reminder calls on Tuesday that we had a dentist appointment on Thursday. We didn’t even remember that we had made an appointment six months out as we had just planned to go back after one year. So we spent some money out of our Medical account that we … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 35
We are falling into a normal routine for this school year and our new place. We finally got our TV/entertainment area set up in the townhouse so that is an accomplishment. I’m now spending Monday and Thursday evenings at work while Kyle is at some activities, which gives me time to hit the gym and put in a few extra hours in the lab. On Friday we had plans to see an outdoor movie but it’s was rained out. Last night I went out with some of my girlfriends who I haven’t seen much recently and it was great to spend some time with them. Leading up to the end of this month I was trying to figure out why out checking account balance had dwindled so far. We should have … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 34
I tried out a new work schedule this week; I’m staying at work the two evenings per week that Kyle has activities that I don’t share. Not that surprisingly, I got a lot more done and I felt great about it! Working longer days increases productivity better than linearly. Also, a bunch of awesome things happened at work: I attempted an experiment that worked on the first try! I wrote a portion of a grant proposal and my advisor said he liked the figure I made. My coworker sent me a paper about a method I can use for an idea my advisor wants me to explore and I’m really excited to try it out. I started to transition to the Primal lifestyle a few weeks ago and it’s going fantastic. I’ve changed the … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 33
Last Sunday we went to a wedding and on Monday we visited Niagara Falls. The rest of the week was normal working stuff until Friday evening. Now, Kyle and I are not exactly social butterflies so we don’t go out every weekend night or anything, but it happened that we were invited to literally five different social events on Friday night! We managed to get to three of the five events and had a really great evening (full of free food, too). Yesterday we were invited to a lake house about an hour outside of Durham with all the rest of the Triangle graduate Christian fellowship groups. The owners are doctors at UNC and often host large groups and retreats and stuff – they are incredibly hospitable! We had a … Read entire article »
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Weekly Update 32
We are in Canada! Hamilton, ON, to be precise. We are attending a friend’s wedding basically all day today and tomorrow we are visiting Niagara Falls! This past week was full of work and unpacking. We had a major disappointment, though. Because of this wedding we’re attending, we weren’t able to participate in our university’s process for qualifying to buy season tickets to the men’s basketball games, and our exemption request was denied. Attending the home games has been a major portion of our social life and entertainment for the past five years so we are very disappointed to not be able to do that this year. We’ll still watch the games on TV with our friends, but it’s just not the same as being there in person. A very, very … Read entire article »
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