Long time no see! I guess I took a break from keeping up with finances because my money habits took a quite different turn these past few months. But now that things have calmed I can explain myself.

First, the good news: I got a raise! I passed my 6-month "anniversary" at my company and my boss quietly took me aside to tell me she was pleased with my work and congrats, my salary has been bumped up a few notches. Woo! I decided to celebrate by getting a facial and massage (not-so-good service, unfortunately; next time I should research into spas rather than go to the nearest one) and a handbag, or two...

And then, vacation happened. I usually go to visit my sister in the summer, when her kids are on break and she's not teaching. But my parents, who had planned to take an extended trip throughout Asia during May, generously offered to buy me a plane ticket. Since it is a rare opportunity for our entire family to be together (oh sister, why did you move back to Taiwan?) I agreed. Even though I didn't have to pay for the ticket, there were still all those sundry "vacation expenditures" that just popped up- primarily, the procuring of presents for family. And then the duty free shopping. And then the costs of travel, eating, and more shopping in Taiwan.

After all in said and done, I added up the bills and found that I'd very rapidly spent whatever excess in one monthly salary my raise has earned. Aside from feeling cheated by wasting money on a horrible facial, I don't feel the rest of the money spent was reckless or wasteful- in fact, I would give anything to be able to see my nephews and niece again. So after I pay off- in full!- my large credit card bill this month, then it will be back to normal money habits.

This is pretty preliminary, but I thought I'd list some money goals (and hopefully stick with them):
- Increase net worth to $60,000 by end of year.
- Limit monthly clothing spending to $100.
- Use up airplane frequent flier miles** ok this isn't really "money" but now that American Airlines has set an 18-month expiration date for unused miles, I am going to see if I can arrange some sort of mini-vacation. Or else I will try to gift them to my parent's account. It would be a shame to lose all my miles, it really does feel like losing $$$...