Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "vacation"

Hello Again, Four Years Later

Hello Again, Four Years Later

It’s been four years since I posted on this blog, and an amazing amount of life has happened in that time—with the attendant financial changes! In this post, I’m going to catch you up on the highlights. A New Addition to the Family In 2018, we had another baby, DPR2. 90%+ of people who met her remarked that she was an incredibly “chill” baby. Even so, two under 2 (and above 2) require a lot of labor, which is one of … Read entire article »

Filed under: goals

July 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report

July 2015 Money Puddle and Spending Report

This month was a BLOODBATH on the expenses side. (Get ready for a bloodbath next month on the income side!) Our actual accounts look even worse than this reflects, because we made a lot of expenditures that are going to be reimbursed. I’ve included the numbers for both the spending that we expect to be reimbursed and the spending we won’t have reimbursed, though I’ve only counted the spending we are responsible for against the … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

Hello from Seattle!

Hello from Seattle!

Sorry for the loooooong absence, friends! Managing EPF now falls under my ‘work’ time, and I had to cut way back on my work during July so that we could move from Durham to Seattle in time for Kyle to start work today.   SO MUCH has happened in the past few weeks for us and I have many interesting PF topics to discuss in upcoming posts that relate to our move. For today, I’ll just give … Read entire article »

Filed under: transitions

How Do You Decide If You Can Afford a Purchase?

How Do You Decide If You Can Afford a Purchase?

Lately I have been thinking about how to determine whether to make a purchase of a “want” and I’d love some feedback from you all about how you make that decision.  One of the purposes of a budget, in my mind, is to help you make that decision.  A budget gives you guidelines for what you want your spending to be, and then all you have to do when contemplating a purchase is ask yourself … Read entire article »

Filed under: budgeting, spending, targeted savings

When Plans Change

When Plans Change

I have a personal update for you today!  It’s about how our protracted time to graduation has affected our plans, careers, and finances.  I though we had some timelines and plans down, and then they were shot to heck, and now the picture is re-coming into focus.   Grad School   I’ve mentioned in my weekly wrap-ups here that for the past several weeks Kyle has been working around the clock on writing his dissertation.  We were hoping that … Read entire article »

Filed under: career, cars, goals, marriage, personal, savings, spending, transitions

Would You Take a Break from Working?

Would You Take a Break from Working?

As Kyle is drawing closer to graduating, he’s facing a job transition.  His advisor has offered for him to stay in his current lab as a temporary measure until he finds a postdoctoral position at another university.  Academic labs seem fairly flexible in when personnel come and go so between a flexible end date in his current lab and a flexible start date in his next lab, Kyle could choose to go basically immediately from … Read entire article »

Filed under: career

Do I Want a Camera or Subjects?

Do I Want a Camera or Subjects?

I’m “that person” in my group of friends – the one who always has a camera out, taking awkward candid photos.  I estimate that I have tens of thousands of photos that I’ve taken with my two Canon point-and-shoots over the past 7 or 8 years.  (But for all the flak my friends give me about annoyingly documenting everything, they frequently tell me how much they appreciate my efforts and several times have asked for … Read entire article »

Filed under: choices, spending, targeted savings

No Summer Plans Yet

No Summer Plans Yet

Now that the semester is ending (lucky undergrads/professional students!) and spring is in the air, we are getting lots of questions from friends and family about what our plans are for the summer.  We are going to Boston over Memorial Day for a wedding (we are taking our own advice and crashing with a friend!) but we haven’t made any other definite plans.  We have been invited to a wedding over July 4th weekend in … Read entire article »

Filed under: career, grad school, travel

August 2012 Month in Review: Money

August 2012 Month in Review: Money

August actually was not as crazy as I was expecting it to be!  We went on a week-long vacation and it was amazing to have that break from work, but it only cost us about $100 because my parents paid for most of it.  We also are completely moved out of our old apartment as of the 31st and have all of our stuff (in boxes) in our new townhouse.  The move went fairly smoothly … Read entire article »

Filed under: month in review

Family Beach Vacation

Family Beach Vacation

Kyle and I spent last week vacationing in the Outer Banks with my parents and siblings.  My family used to rent a beach house for a week every summer, many times in the Outer Banks, but we haven’t been on this type of vacation together in over 10 years, so it was rather a blast from the past.   My parents had no expectations of financial contributions from us for this vacation, which was wonderful – this … Read entire article »

Filed under: travel