My friend asked me an interesting question today: should I stop contributing to my 401K and pay off my car?

That kind of boggled my mind, but she figures that if she's probably going to lose a large portion of the money if she puts it in her 401K, then she might as well pay off her car loan. Hmmmm...not a bad thought. But she'd also give up her company matching contribution to her 401K. I told her that that alone would mean that she's leaving some money on the table. And currently, she's only putting 4% into her 401K, so she isn't at the maximum match that he company will contribute.

She's going to stick with the 401K. I think that's a good choice.

Does anyone have a different opinion?

School is kicking my ass right now. I have an exam this week, another one next week, and a 10 page essay due the following week. I really want to be hitting the gym, but it's not going to happen. Maybe once or twice this week. That kind of sucks. I need to be taking advantage of what $65 a month buys me!!

I only take one class at a time, but the classes are only 8 weeks long. That's a LOT to cram into 8 weeks. I never thought that it would eat up this much of my free time. And December 2010 seems so far away.....

Just bitching here. :-/

My boyfriend has decided that I skipped the chapter about style and fashion in the How To Be Gay handbook. So, he insisted that we go shopping for a some clothes. We were going to a restaurant for Restaurant Week in DC on Saturday and I could use some new clothes, so I went along with it.

At Gap, I got a pair of khakis and a sweater. If you spent over $75, they took $20 off, so my total was $67.95. My bf gave me a $15 gift card, so I paid $52.95 total.

At Target, I got a belt for $24.36. It's reversible, though, so it's really two belts in one. For some reason, that justifies the price in my mind.

At DSW, I got a pair of shoes that were about $80 with 40% off, so I paid a total of $50.36.

So, that's a grand total of $127.67 out of my pocket. For one outfit!!!! That seems a little insane to me. And the shoes don't fit all that well. They're a little big, so I may take them back (even though I hate returning clothes).

I got my big fat check from ebates.com yesterday! It's for $61.03. I did all of my Christmas shopping online and most of it was through ebates, so that's why it's higher than it normally will be. And I know that it's cash back on money that I already spent, but it still feels good to get a check.

If you don't use ebates or another service like it, you can sign up with my referral link and we'll both get $5. If you're going to do any shopping online, you might as well get a little cash back for it, right? :-)

I went back to the gym last night for the first time since September. I've gotten soft and it's definitely time to work off some lbs. And those four months I didn't go at all but still paid $64.95 a month was a complete waste of $259.80. Jeeeez.

So, I'm going to go more often. And I figure that $3 per visit to the gym is something that I would pay, so I'm going to shoot for 20 visits a month and not go less than 10 times a month. That way I'll be paying something like this:

• 20 visits = $3.25/visit
• 10 visits = $6.50/visit

If someone wanted to charge me $6 to get into a gym, I would probably just walk away, but I figured this is a good goal for my return to the gym. We'll see how it goes.

I just joined youdata.com. It's a website that let's you earn a small amount of money to watch ads and visit websites. You don't have an unlimited number of ads to watch or websites to view, but they do feed them to you periodically. As soon as I joined, I was presented with a bunch and earned $2.42. Not bad for a few minutes on the couch!!

They pay you the money from your account every week via PayPal. So, PayPal probably takes out their fees which would reduce the amount you get. I'll keep doing it for awhile to see how it turns out and let you know.

I just reached enough points in my account at Opinion Outpost to request a check. You have to have 500 points before you can request money. I got 512, so I'll be getting a check for $51.20. Not bad for just filling out some online surveys, huh?

That made today a little nicer :-)

ING dropped their interest rates again. This time to 1.85% APY. That's the fourth drop since December. I'm so frustrated.

I love that ING is so easy to use. But, I think it may be time to start hunting for a bank that offers a higher interest rate. Everyone is dropping their rates, but there has to be someone that's offering something higher. Argh.....

So, I had a great time with my friend that was in from out of town this past weekend. Sure, we probably spent too much money, but it was definitely worth it. Well, except for the $15 I wasted to park in a parking garage for 2 hours. I had to drive to meet my friend for lunch before I took him to the airport. I didn't think that parking would be a problem because President's Day being a holiday, but it was much busier downtown than I expected and I had to park in a garage. Argh!! Parking in DC isn't very fun.

So, I'll never see that $15 again.....

I'm a little behind on this one because my company took a LONG time to cut me a tuition check. I've updated the number on my sidebar. It's scary to think that Ive reached half of the amount that my company's tuition program is capped at. I'll be paying for everything in 2010!!! Eek.

My friend got to town yesterday. It's so good to see him!! We grabbed some lunch and went to the Hirshhorn and to the National Gallery of Art. As a DC resident, I don't really ever go to the museums unless I have company. What's best about the Smithsonian is that it's all free! Well, it's paid for by tax dollars, but it feels free. And free feels great! Then we had dinner at a friends place and played Cranium. I had never played it before. It's pretty fun.

Today, I think we're grabbing some lunch and we might see a movie. Tonight will be dinner at Lauriol Plaza. They don't take reservations and it's Valentine's Day, so we expect a pretty long wait. We'll have some drinks at the bar to pass the time. And we may go bar hopping afterward if people are up for it.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

My boyfriend and I decided that we wouldn't get each other anything really expensive for Valentine's Day. So, I got him a card and a $30 gift card to Target so that he can buy a new video game. Pretty simple. Pretty cheap.

A friend of mine is coming into town this weekend, too. That might actually make the weekend a lot more expensive. We're all going out to eat on Saturday and Sunday, but on Friday, we're cooking at home and staying in. That should help reduce expenses from eating out. It may cost quite a bit of money when friends come into town, but I totally think that it's worth it. And I haven't seen this guy in a couple years, so it will be great to finally catch up with him in person. I'm really looking forward to it!!

After thinking it all over, I've decided to not go to Bonnaroo (for now). The cheaper ticket tiers are all sold out, so the only tickets left cost $282.60 a piece. I think I'll just save that money and all the money that I would have spent going and go on a couple different trips. It sucks, but it's probably a good decision since I don't even know what the class I'll be taking in June is like.

Of course, I could change my mind at the last minute and just hit to rode down to Manchester.....

We went to the Washington Auto Show yesterday. I thought that it was a bit disappointing because they didn't have a lot of the really cool concept cars that they usually have. And it cost $12 to get in. It was nice to do something different, but I think I would have rather have spent the time outside since it was so nice out. Is it finally spring?!?! Is this weather going to stick around?!?! I hope so. I'm done with the cold!!

After the auto show, we had a cookout with some friends, so it was a nice cheap meal. I've been going out to eat a lot less, which my wallet is very appreciative of :-)

Bonnaroo tickets go on sale at noon today. I can't decide if I'm going to go this year. Actually, I don't even know if my school schedule will even allow me to go this year. But the lineup looks good and they always add acts as it gets closer to the festival.

The big drawback is the price. They sell tickets in three blocks and each block has a different price. So, the first block of tickets is sold at $224.50 a ticket and when those are sold out, the next block is sold at $234.50 a ticket and when those are gone, all the other tickets are sold at $249.50 a ticket. And then every ticket sold has a $23.10 fee added onto it. And shipping is $10 per order. That's a lot of money!!

Even if I got a ticket from the first block, the total would be $257.60. But if I wait until the first two blocks are sold out (which will happen very quickly), the total will be $282.60. All that money and I don't even know if I could go. I also don't know if I could sell the ticket and recoup my cost. Ah....decision, decisions.

Actually going to the festival means a lot more money than just the ticket, too. I'd have to get all the food together, pay gas to get down there (it's 10 hours away), and pay for things in the festival like food and drinks (it's way too long of a walk to go back to your car to eat....you may miss some bands that you really want to see).

But on the other hand, it's a 4 day festival (actually like 4 and a half days because there's some acts on Wednesday night) and it's tons of fun. Maybe I'll buy a ticket just in case. And if I get a cheap ticket from the first block, then I have a better chance at making my money back if I have to resell it.

Is that a bad decision?

I just got an offer on one of my credit cards for an interest free balance transfer. There's no interest until March 1, 2010. Not a bad deal, huh? This is a card that I've paid off and don't really use. I'm contemplating doing it, but I don't think that I should. I pay my credit card off every month, so I would just transfer my balance at the end of the month and then throw that money into my ING account to earn interest. And there's a 3% fee on the balance transfer, so if I transferred $3,000, I would pay a $90 fee.

Also, I'm hoping to move in the next 6 to 8 months or so. It's probably not such a good idea to be putting a high balance on a credit card. Mortgage lenders don't really care if it's interest free, it's still debt.

So, there you have it. I'm not going to do it. It's very tempting, though!!

I just logged into my ING Direct account and saw that the interest rates have dropped again!!! That's the third time since December. The APY is now down to 2.20%. This is so disappointing because the rates were considered high back when I joined. I guess everyone is cutting their rates, so I can't really complain. But still....

Is anyone taking advantage of the free Grand Slam Breakfast at Denny's today? I heard that the lines are insane! It goes through 2pm this afternoon. It would be interesting to see how many people get in on this. Considering the economy, but imagine it's going to be quite a few.

I had a great weekend up at my father's house. It was so good to see him. And it didn't cost too much. I spent about $200, including gas money. It's amazing how much less it costs to go out in a small town as opposed to DC (or any city). A beer costs almost half a much!!

I'm looking forward to going up there again this summer....when there's not 4 feet of snow on the ground!