The first trip planned is [...]]]> So I haven’t even finished putting away my luggage from my last trip and I’m already making plans for the next one.  Well, the next few.  In the past few days, I have booked hotel rooms for three trips, registered for a race, and will probably register for another one soon.

The first trip planned is just a quick overnight stay.  Since my half-marathon didn’t happen, I wanted to get one in before the summer so that I don’t end up with a mental stumbling block over the distance.  I found one that’s fairly local and has great reviews, so I registered, and then, in the interest of not having to get up at 3am, decided to book a hotel room within walking distance of the start line for the night before.  It will be a nice little treat for me.

The other two hotel stays are also for races – one in Florida and one in California.  The California trip has been planned for months, my friend and I just didn’t have a hotel room yet.  The Florida trip is a replacement for this most recent trip that turned out to be a bit of a bust.   I haven’t registered for the Florida race yet, so for now, the trip is mostly refundable, though I really want to go.  Next up will be looking for flights. 

It feels like a lot of travel, and it is, but at the same time, it’s just a few weekend trips.   It’s not cheap, but I do what I can to make the trips as cost effective as possible, and this is one of the reasons that I try to watch my spending in other categories.  I would rather save on groceries and rent movies rather than go to the theater and then spend my money on fun trips.  Other people don’t like to travel, so they splurge on fancy groceries or cute shoes.  It’s all about the balance.

I kind of like the idea of traveling to run a race.  It gives me an excuse to go to a new destination and something to do while I’m there.  Plus it’s a good way to stay in shape.  Never a bad thing.

Now to just kick the rest of this illness so I can get back to running this weekend!

Sadly, the trip was a bit of a bust.  This was [...]]]> I guess I should have been more clear that I was on vacation over these past few days!  Whoops.  I was just so excited that I forgot to remind everyone to not worry, that I was just out of town and not worrying about blogging.

Sadly, the trip was a bit of a bust.  This was the weekend I was scheduled to run the half-marathon I’ve been planning for for over a year.  Because of all the snow, I’ve been slogging through many treadmill runs, sometimes spending almost two hours on the treadmill.  I overcame that and worked through a few injuries.  I was ready.

And then I caught a stomach virus.  It’s no fun to be sick on vacation.  It’s especially no fun to be sick when you’re supposed to be running a huge race.  I was so upset to not be able to run.  I could hear the fireworks from the start line and it made me so incredibly sad.  But sometimes things just don’t go as you plan.

Other than that, the trip was great, but there’s still kind of a dark cloud over it all.  Thankfully, no one else got sick.  I was so worried that someone in my traveling party would end up sick the day that we were all scheduled to fly home.  As my mom put it, they still might get sick, but at least now they’re all home.  Being sick on vacation is bad.  Being sick while traveling is much worse. 

Because the race was a no-go, I decided to take advantage of the “book now and save” offer that was in the hotel room.  There’s another race in October that I really want to run.  So I called and booked a hotel room.  I can cancel it later for a full refund, but the discount was pretty great, and it’s nice to take that first step towards committing.  My race partner did end up running the race and she did amazing, so I’m happy for her, and she’s willing to come back with me for the October race.   I just hope it all works out.  After all, what are the odds of getting sick again?

So now I’m looking for a local half-marathon to run so that the half-marathon distance doesn’t become my albatross.  I think there’s one in June that looks good.  Plenty of time to get healthy and train.

I think my new favorite sport is the winter biathlon.  Cross country skiing combined with rifle shooting?  Awesome.  Ski really hard, then stop and shoot at a target.  Miss, [...]]]> Is anyone else sad that the Olympics are over?  I found myself watching more sports over the past few weeks than normal, like most people, I think.

I think my new favorite sport is the winter biathlon.  Cross country skiing combined with rifle shooting?  Awesome.  Ski really hard, then stop and shoot at a target.  Miss, and you have to ski a lap.  Someone said that a good way to try to approximate just how hard it is to shoot after all that skiing is to go for a run, stop mid-run and try to send a text message (without using auto correct).  With all that adrenaline pumping, it’s hard to stay still and aim correctly.  Besides, it’s really the only sport that’s also a survival skill.

This year, P&G based their ad campaign around Olympic Moms.  I believe they had something setup in Vancouver for all the US Olympians and their families, but the commercials were all about mothers of Olympians.  It was sweet, and as part of their coverage, they interviewed moms and asked them about the sacrifices made for their children’s training.  It was amazing what some of these families have been through – parents living apart so one parent can be with the training child, spending thousands and thousands of dollars on coaching and lessons and costumes and competitions.  It was amazing.

I think every parent thinks their kid is the best, but listening to how much money these people were spending on their kids made me wonder how you know when to stop.  Or if to stop.  Clearly, all these athletes who made it to the Olympics definitely shouldn’t have stopped and have achieved a huge goal (even if they didn’t win).  I found myself contrasting it with Toddlers and Tiaras, a ridiculous TLC show where parents pay crazy amounts of money for their kids to be in pageants.  I know, it’s a totally different situation.  Even if your kid turns out to not be a world class skier, just getting them outside and getting exercise is a positive thing.  Plus it looks like fun.

I’m impressed by the families who have made such crazy sacrifices for their kids.  But as the P&G commercials say, when those moms see their kids win, it’s worth every penny.

One coworker thinks that when a couple gets married, each person should put a percentage of [...]]]> The office is a bit slow today, so my coworkers got into a big conversation about marriage (I think it may have started with Tiger Woods).  That morphed into a conversation about family finances, and it was very eye opening.

One coworker thinks that when a couple gets married, each person should put a percentage of their income into the family accounts and then keep the rest for their own use.  (He did admit that if one person is a high paid exec and the other person is a teacher or in some other profession where they’re making less, then that situation changes.)  I’m a fan of that idea.

One coworker said that everything should be combined, no exceptions.  I see the value in this, but I do think that in a relationship, couples need their own money.  A few years back, my dad started getting an “allowance.”  He knew that he was allowed to spend from the family fund, but felt guilty taking money from the family to buy something for himself.  Now he has his own money, which makes him happy.

One coworker was raised that the husband pays for everything.  That makes sense – if the wife is a stay-at-home mother.  But this coworker (a female) thinks that the husband should always be the breadwinner for the family, no matter how much the wife makes.  I thought that was fairly ridiculous and unfair. 

Two coworkers then started debating the percentage idea as if they were married to each other (with no kids).  What then qualifies as a family expense and what is a personal expense.  If the husband wants a new tv that the whole family will use, is that out of his money or the family money?  His reaction was that if it was out of his money then she wasn’t allowed to use it and he was taking the power cord with him when he left.  I’m pretty sure he was joking, but it did open up some of the conflicts that could come up with separating finances. What about vacations?  She said that if it was his idea to go on vacation, he should pay and he laughed.  Clearly these two people should never get married.

It was interesting to hear these coworkers debate about finances and to see just how different everyone’s views are.

And I couldn’t come up with anything.

Of course, that’s good.  But it makes for some boring blogging.  Clearly, I need to go out on some sort of a spending binge. [...]]]> I was trying to come up with an idea for today’s posts, so I tried to think of some stupid financial thing that I did recently.

And I couldn’t come up with anything.

Of course, that’s good.  But it makes for some boring blogging.  Clearly, I need to go out on some sort of a spending binge. Completely blow my budget.  Buy something totally ridiculous.

I am going on vacation next week, so there is of course the potential for all of this.  (Note to would-be burglars – I have a house sitter coming.  Thwarted.)   But for now, things are good.  I really do think that a lot of it is situational.  We had a crazy snowstorm.  While I wasn’t stuck inside, my world got very small for over a week.  There was nowhere to go, no money to spend.  I made a point of not doing any online shopping because I didn’t want to blow the budget.  So here I sit, nearing the end of the month and sitting pretty, budget wise.

Of course, I’m not cured of my spending woes. I”m sure I’ll blow my budget soon enough!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a [...]]]> Last week managed to get away from me.  Work got kind of crazy when people finally caught up after all the snow.  While it was kind of fun to have a few snow days, we’re definitely paying for it now.  I’m hoping this week isn’t quite as bad.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a number of e-mails from the various online banks I use for my savings accounts.  Once again, they have all dropped their interest rates.  I’ve become fairly numb to it at this point.  It used to really bug me when I found out rates were dropping again, but now it’s pretty much expected.  Rates on my ING Direct savings account have dropped three times this year alone!  On some level, it’s just nice to be making any interest on my money, though I do miss the days of the 5% interest rates.

I think what bugs me the most is the low rates on CDs.  I just had another CD from my CD ladder mature and I didn’t even bother to lock it into another CD.  I realize locking in a low rate is better than locking in no rate at all, but it’s just a little frustrating.

Does that mean I’m less likely to save?  Heck no!  If nothing else, it means I need to try harder to save since I won’t be earning as much interest.  And someday, those rates may go back up again.  Maybe not this year or next year, but eventually.

So don’t let it get you down, savers!  Keep saving!

Anyway, the end of Fat Tuesday means that today is officially the beginning of Lent.  I was raised Catholic, so for me, the idea of giving something up (or doing something to better [...]]]> Hope everyone enjoyed Fat Tuesday yesterday.  I celebrated by running sprints at the gym.  I don’t do anything the normal way, it seems.

Anyway, the end of Fat Tuesday means that today is officially the beginning of Lent.  I was raised Catholic, so for me, the idea of giving something up (or doing something to better myself) during this 40 day period is not unusual, but I know a lot of non-religious people who choose to use this time period to also try to do something good.  Maybe they give up coffee or try to not spend any money.  Maybe they vow to hit the gym three times a week.  The hope is that if you can do something for 40 days, you can keep it up after the 40 day period has ended.

I wasn’t going to do anything this year.  And then something opened my eyes. 

Last night, on my way home, I was stopped by a couple.  The man told me his story of looking for money to get a hotel because the shelter was full.  He told me that his girlfriend was pregnant and that he had just lost his job.  He admitted it was embarassing, but any help I could provide would be great.

Was he telling me the truth?  I don’t know.  But either way, I gave him all the cash I had on me (a whopping $4). 

Typically, I don’t give money to people on the street.  But as I was walking home, I started to think about it.  Maybe this guy was totally scamming me.  But let’s say even 50% of the people panhandling for money are scamming.  That means that 50% really do need that money.  And I only gave the guy $4.  How often do I waste $4 on something ridiculous>

So I’m thinking that for Lent, I’m always going to try to have a few dollars on me and give money to panhandlers as I pass.  I don’t care if they need it for food or shelter or if they just want to get a drink.  Either way, it brightens someone’s day and it reminds me just how lucky I really am.