11 Simple Economic Lessons to Make You a Smarter Shopper on Black Friday

As a follow-on post to my previous one, here is a good article I came by, entitled 11 Simple Economic Lessons to Make You a Smarter Shopper on Black Friday.

Did you know that Black Friday takes it's name from the fact that it's the beginning of the time of year when a lot of stores go from red to black?

I've never been out for Black Friday, but I hear it's a complete zoo. If that's your thing, enjoy it, but at least go out with a plan, and don't let the retail world win. Happy shopping!

7 Ways to Go Broke This [Holiday] Season

I'm on Dave Ramsey's email list, so every now and then I get his little newsletter. A recent one included this article: 7 Ways to Go Broke This [Holiday] Season. I thought it was a good read and wanted to share with you. Check it out if you're looking for ways to stay financially fit this Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve!

My way to go broke that I'm working to correct on my Christmas gift budget is the "Give presents to everyone in your family". But I'm extending it to include friends. In recent years I've purchased presents for friends who I've realized I don't necessarily need to give a present to. I'm updating my budget to give presents only to those who are very near and very dear to me this year. (Please don't hate me if you got a gift last year and don't get one this year. I'm trying to be smart with my money. It's not personal... not really.)

So, good luck to you as you build your Christmas budget and gift list. Remember, going into debt for months or more is not worth meeting the "obligation" of buying that second cousin a present. = P

PS - I'm getting really excited to share with you all how much debt I've paid off this year and to date since starting the Dave Ramsey Debt Snowball in January 2011! = ) Look for that blog towards the end of December/beginning of January.

DEC 2011 Running Challenge Recap

In December I challenged myself to run every day of the month (click here to view the original blog). Here's the recap on how it all went down:

Days in December: 31
Days Ran: 26
Days Not Ran: 5
Success Rate: 84%

Thanks to Nike+, here's a nice visual of the month's runs:

Not too shabby considering that 2.5 of the days I didn't run were devoted to driving to and from Florida and Indiana (18 hours, one way). 

Overall it was a good challenge. No, I didn't "do" it 100%, but look what trying got me! 53 miles! I'll take it!

Thankful, Day 30

Well, this entry concludes my November goal of posting something I'm thankful for per day of the month.

On this final day of November I'm thankful for my next rotation at work. I start it tomorrow, the first of December. I'll be working with a Lockheed Martin Fellow and for a new company (IS&GS versus EBS). It will be fresh, new, challenging and a great learning experience.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Okay, now let Christmastime commence! = )

December Running Challenge

I've challenged myself to run every day of December 2011. Hello, guilt-free consumption of holiday goodies!

I've decided that if I succeed in running every day in December I will treat myself to a visit to the spa.

The idea to do this spurred from my back injury earlier this month (November 2011). I need to get back into shape and I want to sculpt my core. Note that I'm NOT going for this:

But rather something sculpted but not heavily defined, like this:

To help me stay on track and set up for success I'm going to come up with a daily motivator, be it an inspirational phrase on a stickie note posted on my bathroom mirror or a reminder of what I want to indulge in at holiday parties or a reminder of how I want to look and feel come New Year's Eve.

If you want to do this challenge with me, please let me know! I'd love to cheer you on!

Thankful, Day 26

I'm thankful to have a wonderful friend named Sam who is joining me to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in a few weeks! What? You don't know who the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is? They play classical-metal music. I know, kinda interesting, huh? Here's a snippet of some of their holiday work:

Reindeer Run 5K

I know that for the vast majority of the population it is entirely too early to be thinking about the holidays. But I don't care. I LOVE the holidays, and I'm super excited because I finally found a December race to partake in this year!

When I signed up for the Track Shack Running Series I noted that there isn't a series race in December. Wanting to fill in the gap and do something outside of the series, I searched around. I looked for an Orlando Jingle Dash, Kris Kringle Run, Rudolph Race, Elf 5K - NOTHING turned up.

Until yesterday when my Track Shack Event Guide arrived in the mail. Enter the Vanessa Welch Reindeer Run 5K!

Distance: 5 K/ 3.1 Miles
Date: Saturday, 10 December 2011
Time: 7:30 AM EST
Location: Sea World
Cost: $24 (through 3 December 2011)

I'm definitely signing up. Let me know if you're interested, and we can meet up, carpool and cheer each other on!

January in Review

Before February gets going, I'm gonna be all over it and do a photo-review blog for what went down in my corner of the world in January 2011.

Rang in the new year with some friends who've become close over the last few months: Sam, Alex & Julie, as well as a couple of old book club friends, Casey and Ryan. We celebrated at an indie, dinner-movie theatre called The Enzian during their James Bond theme party. Casey, Julie and I got all dressed up in sparkling formal-wear, and the men all looked snazzy in their suits and ties!

Just 2 days into 2011 I had the pleasure of hosting my best friend from Down Under, Tamara! We had a blast together all week, catching up, playing with Heidi and Ashes, dining out, having PB&Js, playing Euchre and discussing our cultural and language differences. That weekend my Mom flew in town to run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I was supposed to run it with her, but I had to back out due to knee injury... She ran it, had fun, and Tamara and I supported her. The next day we all enjoyed ourselves at Universal's Islands of Adventure. We were blown away by the feature Wizarding World of Harry Potter ride inside the Hogwarts Castle!

During the Tamara visit I had to deal with Heidi having caught some gastro-intestinal parasites. Got her all treated for that, and she's doing MUCH better now. Still hanging around 55#, but she's already healthier.

Through the month I hosted a couple of euchre nights. I taught my new Euchre playing friends how to play bid-Euchre so we could have 6 or 8 people playing one big game instead of breaking into 2 smaller games. It's a lot of fun. I'm really glad I can get that taste of the Midwest down here through Euchre.

The Spring 2011 semester at PSU started on Monday, 10 January 2011. I'm taking 2 classes this semester: IST 552 Data Management and IST 411 Distributed Object-Oriented Programming. I LOVE 411 and am doing well there so far, but I'm praying to pass 552. The class overestimates the students' background knowledge and is very accellerated in pace...

I had a lovely Skype date with Miss Kristin! When I Skyped with her she announced that her and her husband, Aric, were getting a puppy - a Cocka-Poo! They've sinced picked him up from the breeder and named him Hiro, from the main character in the shoe Heroes. I've seen a photo, and he's just adorable! Can't wait to Skype with her again soon to hear all about their transition into puppy parenthood!

On Tuesday, 11 January 2011 my brother, Chucky, turned 22! I sent him a card, a book he requested ("The Art of War"), and a gift card to Target. I wish I could have celebrated with him in person, but when you're on opposite coasts of the country, it's kinda tricky and we make do. Happy birthday, Chuggy! Here's a favorite photo of the two of us, taken at Lana & Geof's wedding back in September 2009:

Last weekend I got to go skiing with a bunch of great friends from work; they are all in the IS Leadershpi Development Program with me. We had a blast! We stayed in an awesome, 5-bedroom cabin, tucked away in the woods, and we had 2 full days of skiing! Here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip:

My parents bought me Dave Ramsey's "The Total Money Makeover" for Christmas. I have sinced read it all the way through and am working to have my own Total Money Makeover. With all the student debt I have, this just made perfect sense. In fact, tonight I'm finalizing my Allocated Spending Plan for February 2011. It'll be interesting to see where my bad spending habits reside (I'm thinking eating out and groceries are my bane, aside from my car loan payment). Anyway, I like being organized and I like budgeting, so to implement his plan has been fun for me so far.

Last Saturday was my first Hackathon, hosted at Sam's house. He made a super cool white board, DIY-style that I got to use while Joel taught me how to do dynamic programming tables (part of my first IST 552 homework assignment). It was a lot of fun boucing ideas off one another for different programming projects and hanging out with like-minded career/student/developer friends. I'm excited for the next one and hope it goes from monthly to bi-weekly! Here's a photo of Sam displaying my dynamic programming table on his home-made white board:

The last big thing I did in January was epic! My friend Alex and I participated in our first Warrior Dash! On top of that, it was his first 5K! He picked a great one! We ran through mud rivers, crawled through mud pits (I'm talking several feet deep pits full of sloshy/suctiony/smooshy mud), climbed rope nettings, scaled balance beams, leaped over fire and swam through a muddy trough with barbed wire just over our heads! It was so adventurous and challenging and fun! I haven't seen my official chip time yet, but my watch clocked me at approximately 35 minutes. That's 5 minutes less than what my goal was!

It's Officially Christmas Season!

It's Black Friday, and that means that Christmas Season is officially here! I have Ella Fitzgerald Holiday playing on my Pandora radio, and I just brought all the Christmas decorations in from my storage closet.

So, today is dedicated to getting my apartment all dec'd out for the holidays. I'm also going to work on my 2010 Christmas Letter and maybe wander out into the shopping madness for some Christmas cards. I'm also going to work on some blogs that I've been meaning to put together. Lots of photo work to be done, too. Lastly, I plan to end my evening with a cup of marshmallows with hot chocolate, a slice of pumpkin cake, and watching The Blindside and/or reading on my book.

Happy Black Friday!

Lately

Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk at Lake Eola, downtown Orlando, FL
Last week's walk was a blast! I was happy to raise $150 to support the Alzheimer's Association. Heidi and I ended up missing the puppy costume contest due to lack of event organization, but it was still great fun. I really enjoyed letting people say hello to Heidi, who did super well - even with the little ones, and the older ones who likely suffered from some degree of Alzheimer's. Saturday was for you, Grandma.

Halloween at Wall Street, downtown, Orlando, FL
I dressed up as a black cat and went out with Jessica, her friend, Heather and her boyfriend. It was great fun to check out all the costumes. Typical Halloween, minus all the drinking.

Completed October Challenge with a 100% Success Rate
So proud of myself! Thanks to all who supported me!

New Nike+ Challenge
I'm doing a the Walt Disney World Half Marathon on 8 January 2011. I start my training (a Nike+ plan) this week. I'm cross-training with yoga and cycling.

Devoting Time to Etsy Shop: amara | 86
Ramping up for the holiday season. Christmas tree skirts, Christmas stocking sets, and the best-selling 13" MacBook sleeve. Let me know if you have a need; I am accepting custom orders.

Finished The Hunger Games Trilogy
Loved it. The new Harry Potter?

Family News
          Mom - also training for the half marathon in January; we're running it together! Hoping to beat 2 hours!
          Dad -keeping busy; went to do some target practice with Grandpa tonight.
          Chucky - he's never been happier! He's LOVING BUD/S! Pray for him as Hell Week approaches.
          Sam - he's never been happier, either! He LOVES college life and his new wrestling family!
          Heidi - just a few weeks shy of her first birthday. I'm having a party for her at the dog park this Sunday. She's hit that obstinate "teenager" phase with some destruction, but overall she's doing great!
          Ashes - surviving Heidi and being super affectionate when I read in bed at night.

amara | 86 HBC Mission Statement

Okay. This is my last task for Etsy's Holiday Boot Camp (HBC) Week 1: write a mission statement.

Thoughts: I love to be make crafts. As in sewing projects, I enjoy the process of seeing the many pieces come together. I want to share my passion with people, and don't mind making a few bucks while I'm at it! Last year I got the hang of things but my Etsy shop, amara | 86, fell to the wayside when I got Heidi. Now that she's a bit older, I can start investing time into my shop. I have a few new ideas for projects up my sleeve, too! So here's my mission statement:

Through my passion of creating hand-made goods, specifically with yarn, thread, and fabric, I will fill my Etsy shop, amara | 86, with new items for others around the world to enjoy. I will map out my days between now and 31 December 2010 to set aside time to work on my creations. I will be inventive and run with fresh ideas. I will stick to Danielle's HBC weekly check lists. I will be an Etsy Success!

January 2010

Being the list-lover that I am, I've decided to start listing the high-lights of each month. Bonus: this will make it easy for me to recap things at the end of the year. Ta da!

January 2010

Christmas & New Year's Break - long visit home with family and friends; NYE brought in with parents and grandparents over Oliver wine. Took on a second role at work just prior to vacation!

Retro Game Night with BC - first book club social of the year!

Running a lot - training for a marathon (this was a pre-Heidi 2010 resolution that has since been tweaked from "run a full marathon by the end of the year" to "run a full marathon within the next 15 months" - spring is a great time for marathons in Florida)

Bowling with BC - I did terribly but had a ton of fun anyway because of the cool folks in company

Big Daddy's & Pub Crawl with BC - even though we didn't get to do karaoke (fail!), this was still my favorite night out in Florida yet! "I feel wine!"

Ingeborg's Visit -  Norway Night, Hue and BC, Lake Eola, lunches and dinners, Joel's birthday at the Citrus Club, Dear John pre-screening, Girls' Night!

Heidi - she's my girl! Lots to be learned about being a puppy momma, but totally worth it in every way!

-Amanda

New Tunes

Tonight I had some Best Buy money burning a whole in my pocket. I corrected this problem and bought the following CDs:


a fine frenzy







the flaming lips







goldfrapp

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Bennett for the Christmas present. It had been a long time since I'd strolled the store looking for a few CDs; it was fun to browse them. I was in need of some new music, so this was perfect.

-Amanda

Christmas Letter 2009

Merry Christmas!

2009 was an adventurous year for me! Looking back I can see how much I’ve grown and how wonderful the last twelve months have been:

In January, as a sort of graduation gift to myself, I bought a 2009 Honda Fit Sport. When I moved to Orlando, Florida that little car did me well. Even better than the fuel efficiency was the company I had during the trip. My family helped move me into my lovely apartment, which has become home for me and my cat, Ashes; being so far from Indiana isn’t quite so bad with that fur ball around to keep me company.

I moved to Orlando for my new job with Lockheed Martin. I am a systems engineer on the Test Team for the Assured Identity program. Our job is to upgrade the current Lockheed Martin employee badge system to smart cards. My job is to find and report defects in the new system as it’s being developed. Until recently I was on the Test Team full-time. Just last week I began a transition to take on a second role part-time. For this new role I gather and analyze metrics and represent the business area. I’m being challenged, and I really enjoy my job!

Indeed, the weather and nearby beaches are nice, but Orlando has given me so much more for which I am thankful! I’ve made several friends and found a fantastic church. I played on a Lockheed Martin sand volleyball team, and I am catcher for a Lockheed Martin softball team. Also, I joined a gym, a camera club, two running clubs and I even founded a book club!

I love to read and wanted to meet other readers around town, but no existing book clubs I found were working out, so I just started my own: The East Orlando Twenty-Something Book Club. Through the book club I’ve met other bookworms, and we have heaps of fun! We’re a pretty social bunch: trips to Busch Gardens, the beach, book sales, movie nights, bowling, and, of course, the actual book discussions. We read one book a month, but, in addition to that, I usually read another one or two books. The next book on my list is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Here’s the latest on the family: Mom always keeps busy whether she’s gardening, quilting or running. She’s been running up such a storm that, believe it or not, she currently holds the Bennett Family Half-Marathon Record Time! Dad is continually studying his hobbies: photography and weaponry. His Navy background gives him a leg-up on the competition at the shooting range. Chucky has buzzed his hair and is aiming to become a Navy SEAL! With his wrestling history he will go far in that endeavor! Speaking of wrestling, Sam just signed with Northern Illinois University for a wrestling scholarship! I can’t wait to see him wrestle under the lights at State!

I sure do miss my family and friends who are far away, but, lucky for me, I’ve had many visits with them! Here are a few of the year’s highlights: Mom’s visit during Spring Break, running the Indianapolis 500 Mini Half-Marathon with Mom and Dad, Kristin & Aric’s wedding in Iowa and their visit for the Fourth of July, Mom’s summer visit, hanging out with my fellow Boilermakers and my Aunt Joan in nearby Melbourne, Sam’s fall visit, turning 23, Lana & Geof’s wedding, enjoying the Colts’ season with friends, Purdue’s Homecoming and reunion with college friends, all sorts of Halloween fun, and a surprise visit home for Thanksgiving!

That brings us to Christmastime! “And so I’m offering this simple phrase, to kids from one to ninety-two, although it’s been said many times, many ways, a very Merry Christmas to you!”

Amanda Bennett

Defining December

Define: to state meaning and identify essential qualities.

December 2008 was a very critical month in my life. It was the hardest month, no doubt. The long story made short: I broke up with the man I loved for God. Still, there were many other things happening in December, and it is of those things I will write.

I was asked to be in some photos for a women initiative lead by Alka Harriger. The program is called SPIRIT, and I'm excited to see its efforts results in C&IT at Purdue.

Adam and I celebrated Ed's birthday and saw the Nutcracker together. It was a beautiful ballet performance.

Late on 6 December I broke up with Adam, and our lives were drastically altered from where we thought they were heading.

Dead Week at Purdue had never been so true to its name. I managed, and busied myself with my forensic research paper due at the end of the week, which I received a high mark for. Through the week I met with several students bound for Australia come the spring semester. It was really fun to chat about Australia after having not so much for several months. I wish them all the best! I ended up moving home to Anderson at the end of Dead Week.

Sam did really well at the Pendleton 6-Way wrestling meet. I taught my grandma, brother, dad and mom how to play backgammon that weekend. During the same weekend my family celebrated my great-grandmother's 88th birthday. She seems to be enjoying her new living arrangements at Crown Pointe.

Mom and I spent a lot of time shopping up until Christmas. It was a nice way to spend time with her before my two finals. Mid-week of Finals Week I went up and stayed with Alex. Adam and I met up and had a lovely dinner at La Scala, then we hung out with Alex and Feras. The next evening Alex and I went to Vienna to see a Chicago photo exhibition of a friend of his, played backgammon and enjoyed some tea. The following day Alex, Feras and I caught the Colts' game at Hunter's Pub - I really like that bar. Friday I had lunch with Toni, and we had really great conversation. I'm going to miss Toni! That afternoon I met up with Roy for tea. It was so nice to catch up with him; it had been a couple of years. That night I met up with some friends to celebrate Christmas. We had lots of junk food and played Robo Rally, which happens to be a very fun, if not nerdy, game!

Over the weekend I celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family, the next morning I graduated, took a day off, then went skiing with Chucky, Christmas Eve party at Grandma's, Christmas Day festivities, and Christmas dinner at my Grandma's. That weekend Sam performed very well at the Ben Davis Invitational wrestling meet. He is still undefeated this season! That Sunday was my Open House. Monday Mom and I hit up several post-Christmas deals and made plans for New Year's Eve.

For New Year's Eve we all went to my Uncle David's for drinks, food and family time.

Many thanks to the friends and family who've helped me along through such a hard month. I couldn't have done it without you.

-Amanda

Christmas Parties

Just a quick post on the Christmas parties of 2009. It was yet another crazy holiday season, haha. The Saturday before Christmas I celebrated with my mom's extended family. Highlights: everyone was happy with their presents from the White Elephant Exchange, I made Jello (finally; it only took me 3 or 4 years). The next morning was my commencement, Monday I must have been lazy, Tuesday I went skiing/snowboarding with Chucky and Nick, Wednesday I went last-minute-Christmas shopping with my mom and brothers (wild). And that brings me to Christmas Eve.

Grandma had all of the awesome hors dourves, naturally, and my mom made a cute cookie Christmas tree:



Dad had made cute, personalized decks of cards for Ashley and Tori, so we got to visit briefly with them:



Christmas Day was spent with my parents and brothers. We watched It's a Wonderful Life (a favorite part of my holiday), and exchanged gifts.

I got some great shots with my brothers and the Christmas tree:





Christmas Dinner was spent at my Grandparent's house, which means more time with them and more great food! We all had a blast trading presents. I can't wait to try some of the chai tea my aunt made!

Here's a shot of mother dear and me:



So, wudja get? Wudja get? My big Christmas gifts this year were a nice and big jewelry box (which I've managed to fill almost completely) and a sewing machine (quite a surprise)! Here is the jewelry box I got:



And here is the sewing machine I got (Mom's kind of disgruntled that my first sewing machine is so nice, tee hee). I'm excited to learn to sew - Mom is teaching me. We're going to make pillows that match our respective bed sets! I'll be sure to post about it all when we get started on the project.



Everyone had a pleasant Christmas, and I'm thankful for all of the kind and thoughtful gifts. Most of all I enjoyed spending time with my family.

-Amanda