So I had my annual review at work today. Nothing formal like in my last job with questionnaire and crap. Just a quick chat. The good thing that came out of it is that I got a 20% pay rise! It is not as much as you think because when I first took the job my salary was below market average. Now it is average. This definitely make me feel better after my tax payment revelation couple of days ago.
It's time for tax again
Last year I received a huge refund from IRS but after less than half an hour on TurboTax this evening I already found out that I own IRS money this year (I have a feeling that part of it is Leah’s lack of withholding last year and now I am paying for it).
I don’t own a huge amount but that throws the “HDTV in new apartment” plan right out of the window. Not that I was planning to buy one, mind you, but still I was hoping I’ll get a nice small refund instead. It is the eating into my saving part the annoys me.
The tail that wags the dog
Like every Saturday, I went to the gym today. The gym is in the basement of my old apartment building (Don’t ask why after moving out of the building I am still going to this gym. That’s another story.) so there are two elevators that take us to the basement. For the last couple of months, one of the elevator has been out of order so we can only use the other one.
So there I was with another guy and his female friend, and another lady waiting for the elevator to arrived. The door opened and in we went. The lone lady was the first one in and I was last. She pressed the button for the basement floor and the door closed. Nothing unusual there. Then elevator lunged upward a bit and stopped. A few seconds later, the door opened again to show us that we were still at the ground floor.
“What? It is not working?” exclaimed the lady.
“We’ll have to take the stair,” said the other guy.
“I don’t believe I’ll have to walk down the stairs!” the lady complained once more.
When we got to the gym’s reception the lone lady again complained to the manager that the only working elevator was not broken. By this time I was trying very hard to bite my tongue as not to make a sarcastic comment. Come on, if you make the effort to come to the gym to exercise, I don’t think walking down or up a few flights of stairs is going to kill you. No wonder why we have an obesity problem.
Savings
Last year I told myself it would a year of saving. And I ended up buying a laptop and a digital SLR camera! Is this year going to be different? I hope so and I am restricting myself to a few known gadget purchases and big expenses.
First up is the PalmOne’s Treo 650. It is going to be released to Cingular/AT&T this week, according to rumours. Apparently the unlocked version will also be released at the same time. From all the earlier orders it seems like if I buy it from AT&T I would have to convert my account (back) to Cingular then be forced to take a data plan which I don’t really need. So I am going just buy a unlocked Treo 650 and then add a low usage data plan when I have the phone. Cost more initially but I reckon in the long run it would save me more since I am not that data intensive with my cell phone (yet).
Another gadget that I may buy this year is a DVD writer. It would let me back up to optical disk a lot more data as I am using CD-RW right now. Then I can also burn TV shows that the TiVo has recorded using TiVoToGo for archiving or just sharing. Right now I can’t really share any of my TiVo shows unless I transfer them to VHS. Mmm no thanks!
That’s all for gadgets but then Leah and I have two weddings in the U.K. to attend so more money to save for flights, etc. Then there is the apartment moving cost. Leah and I are moving back to Manhattan after two years of ‘exile’ to Hoboken. We got a great deal for an apartment in Battery Park City from a friend who owns one there. We will be moving in March and this time I am not going to move ourselves! We are going to get a moving company to do it for us. So that is another expense! Still I think it is well worth it. Finally we can get decent cable TV (BBC America and SpeedTV especially) and groceries from FreshDirect!
That’s it for the planned expenses so far. Hopefully there won’t be any surprises this year and I can save some money.
Edinburgh Photos
I didn’t take too many photos while Leah and I were in Edinburgh. Here are some of them.
Lost in Colonisation 