Friday, August 26, 2011

Year 2: Electric Boogaloo

I know, I know, I promised to blog more often back in June and it is now nearly September, I am terrible. For years I have wanted a new job, those of you that know me are well aware of that.

I got an incredibly challenging new job in May and while I love it, it has completely taken over my life and messed with my diet and my budget.

I am working 16 hour days and traveling a ton, so I eat whatever I want and have $800 in expenses due in reimbursement which is messing with my carefully balanced budget.

I do not see this schedule slowing down, so now the challenge is how to find time to work out and how best to plan for healthy eating options instead of constant take out and frozen meals. I also have to cut back so I can save a little extra to make these business expenses less of a burden.

It has been just over a year since I started this blog, time really does fly. Year 2 will be a re-visioning of the plan, fitting it to my new life and trying not to run myself into the ground at every level. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy ride!

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm so glad you mentioned the business expenses thing. I've picked up a little side job that I love, but here's a sample of my summer:

    I'm asked to go on Trip 1 as a consultant. I'm told everything is all set; transportation, hotel, food, etc is all paid for. We can't wait to see you.

    A couple of months later, I'm asked to go on Trip 2 as a consultant. It's the exact same meeting as Trip 1. I'm told that I'll have to make my own travel arrangements (and get reimbursed), but that there will be a hotel room waiting for me. When I go to check out of the hotel, I find out that they've only authorized the corporate credit card to be used for the reservation, not the actual stay, so I'll have to pay and get reimbursed.

    The big downside (and this is really my own fault at this point) is that I don't use credit cards for anything. I use my debit card for everything, so now I'm shelling out $600 on a hotel room that I hadn't planned for, I'm out the cash, and waiting for some promised future reimbursement. So much for getting the car worked on this month! (I should just bite the bullet and get a CC for these trips, but I don't want one! Too bad I really like the work!)

    I'm anxious to hear how you handle (and plan for) things like this.

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  2. Exactly Bill, I too am credit card-free so I am using cash/debit. Luckily for me I work for a travel company so my air fare and hotel rooms have been pre-paid, I am covering only meals, cabs and other various expenses.

    I took my savings amount and bought a pre-paid Amex and have been using that, but it has depleted my savings and I will have to replace it with the reimbursement check. I am hoping to build up my savings over the next few months though.

    Of course, then it will be Christmas time, so that plan will fly out the window :)

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  3. Hey! So I spent 6 years paying for my expenses on the road myself, filing expense reports, and then waiting to get repaid. Fortunately I worked for companies that paid very swiftly!

    I don't think I could have done it without a credit card (which got paid every month regardless). One advantage I found in using a credit card was the rewards program. I found one that gave cash back at various rates depending on where the charge happened (1% for purchases, 3% for restaurants, etc) which put some extra cash in my pocket. Of course this only works if you pay the card each month so you avoid interest fees.

    It's possible that you would get reimbursed for items before the payment on the credit card is due. These dollars could sit in your account earning a little interest until they get used to pay off your credit card used only for business expenses.

    In my quicken I had a category for expenses & reimbursements where everything was recorded so it was easy to see if I'd been reimbursed for everything.

    The other thing I found (and this may not apply to you) was that a lot of hotel reward programs offered the option to receive miles in place of their program. Since I was not loyal to any particular brand this gave me extra airline miles for flying on trips.

    Hope this makes sense. I'm trying to type while trying to entertain two 4 1/2 month old babies.

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