Offline for a awhile

I have two exams and an all-weekend camping trip in the next week, PLUS BF and I were fooling around and the power connection to my computer broke in its socket, so I won't be updating much in the next week--I only have ~1 hr of computer time left!!

Time to Cash In My Rewards...

I know I said that I would use my rewards/fatwallet/cashback money for Christmas, but honestly, I don't know that I'll make it until then. I think I need to cash them in for my November budget. I have so many field trips and so much school work that I'm just not sure I can work enough to make my budget break even...

So, in that effort, here are the rewards I think I can get:

$125 in AMEX gift cards...taking a hit from $250 for some merchandise. Cash is more valuable to me right now.

$50 in cashback rewards from my Chase card. Gotta love those credit cards!

$115 in fatwallet cashback.

That gives me an extra $290 for November. Along with my existing gift cards, hopefully that will help alot. Classes end Dec. 7 or so, hopefully I will get enough hours in in December after school ends and before Christmas break to make December a happy month budget-wise.

spendah

$5 to have transcript sent to CA board of geologists for my RG exam.

November Budget

This is what I want my November budget to look like:


Category Budgeted Amount
RENT: 750
Car/Rental Insurance: 0
Food 175
Clothes 0
Travel 0
Gifts 150
Car/Gas 75
Cable 60.27
Roth 100
Electricity/Gas 35
Eating Out 50
Water/Sewer 20
Charity 25
Cell phone: 48
Medical 47
Misc 125
Total 1660.27

I switched some things around this month, based on last month's results. For example, I was under budget on groceries, but over on eating out, so I reduced the groc. by $25 and stuck that in my eating out $$. It works out the same either way, but this way is more similar to how I actually spend my money...so I can aim to come under budget in both categories now.

I had to add water/sewer since we are now responsible for that bill. It's only an extra $20 a month, but oy. I could use $20 on something else.

Gas is also reduced--I only spent $75 in October. I don't expect November to be a big driving month since I have field trips EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND. Hopefully camping out every weekend also reduces my misc. spending.

The gift cat. is big, simply because of the TOOL tix for BF for the anniversary. Tix are $140, so that makes up the bulk of that category. I also need to do things like get him a card. My friend whose bday is on Halloween just got a card...sorry, things are tight these days, and she got a huge present from me last year.

He asked me what I wanted, and I want to split or have him cover my plane ticket to his sister's wedding in January. They are running about $300 now--and I don't know proper protocol, but I believe you should pay for your date's travel costs when you invite them to a wedding. This is just my way of getting that. :)

I also will try to use gift cards as much as possible for things like groceries to try to cut down costs.

Looking at my budget, I see that most of it would be hard to reduce further: rent, electricity/gas, sewer/water, medical insurance, and some of the food categories are necessary items. Some of it is almost necessary (but could be argued otherwise): cell phone, cable/internet, Roth, charity. Very little of it (eating out, misc., gifts, some groceries) could be reduced, but with a huge hit to my quality of life. And there's not much of it left--I don't go out, I don't buy clothes, I don't travel often--so I guess this is as good as it can get, without moving to a LCOLA.

In addition, looking at my October spent money, I highly value the misc. money I do spend. $70 was on 7 weeks of swing lessons, which I will love (worth it). Another $32 was on a 2 month supply of my favorite snack ever (white cheddar popcorn). Most of the rest was on Halloween stuff (candy, pumpkin, costume). So, I'm happy about most of my misc. category spending, which was what I was worried about in the first place.

I'm pretty bare bones here, but it really makes me think: four years ago I was living as a grad student, making $1200/month. How in the world did I survive?? (some of that is b/c my rent was $575/mo, utils and landline included...and I rode my bike everywhere). Hrmph.

A little return action...

The Halloween party last night was fabulous. Even though NO ONE ELSE wore a costume. I wore my Claire Bennet outfit, and about half of the people there 'got it.' Oh well. I looked cute in my cheer outfit nonetheless.

AND...I didn't spend a dime. Hoorah!

Today I was able to return some stuff I didn't end up using for my costume.

So new tally:

-$15.51 return to Charlotte Russe for the skirt I didn't wear.
-$27.22 return to Target.

Now I'm only $45.30 overbudget for October. At least $51 was on gift cards this month. So yay! just need to make it 3 more days without spending any more money...

On another note, my November gift giving is going to go crazy overbudget...my BF and I have our 1 year anniversary on Nov. 10. He looooooves TOOL, and their last show is in LA soon. Tix are sold out, and he tried to get tix but failed, so I want to buy some of the tix on ebay. They are EXPENSIVE!! Try up to $200 each! but it'll be worth it 'cause the venue is small and he will be so excited for an up close and personal experience with TOOL. Also, my friend whose birthday is on Halloween (how cool is that?) finally wrote me back and gave me her address, so I'll need to buy and ship her gift soon. Yeah, Target gift cards!

Overboard...It's Halloween!

I totally went overboard this evening while Halloween shopping. Here are my purchases:

$11 hot red knee socks, sports chalet
$11 fake gash wound, spencer's
$27 hot little cheer skirt and red/white baseball T, Charlotte Russe
*$39 face paint, fake bones (makeup wedges), elmer's glue, mounting tape, colored sharpies, pumpkin carving kit, cheerleader's outfit for pom poms and extra skirt in case the slut-skirt was too...slutty. Haven't decided which I'm going to wear. On one hand, Halloween is the only day of the year I give myself permission to slut it up (and even though I'm a 'smart girl', I rather like stepping out of my normal identity once in a while), on the other, the official cheer skirt looks more like the real thing. Oy. Target
$5 pumpkin to carve, albertsons
$27 gas, Von's fuel

*used 2 $25 gift cards, have $11 left on one of them.

This evening I modeled my outfit for my BF, confirmed it's hotness, and wrote "Claire Bennet" and "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" on the back of the t-shirt. Yeah! I heart Halloween.

$88 over budget for October so far...but that's including the $100 I saved to HSBC--I expect I'll have to take that right back out when this credit card's period ends--should be due Dec. 13. I may be able to make that $$ up by then. If not...oh well. I refuse to let $88 ruin my day.

Actually...I suspect that $88 will not go missing out of my budget/bank acct. I've spent around that much on gift cards this month. Hooray for gift cards!

Oh, I suck

Yeah. Waaay overbudget. This is what I mean when I say that I am terrible about restrictive budgets. It's all fine and dandy to have a target, but if I place absolute limitations on myself, I blow it every time. And that leads to feeling like a failure, which makes me less likely to keep track of my spending/budget/etc. later. I know what works for me, and I have over $15K sitting in the bank right now, so I'm not going to sweat going $50 overbudget this month, ok?

$57.54 on groceries today (as opposed to the $40 I was supposed to spend--but ALL of it was on rock-bottom sale or on my list...what was I supposed to do?? AND it includes alcohol for the halloween parties I'm going to this weekend)

a little over $19 on Save Karyn, a GREAT book about a girl who got deep into debt and was very creative about getting out of it. (See sidebar, "Pretty in the City" to link to her current blog). Been dying to re-read this book for a while.

AND I anticipate to fill up on a tank of gas before next Wed., AND I want to buy a cheerleading outfit for Halloween (not slutting it up on purpose, I want to be Claire Bennet from Heroes). I doubt I can do all of that on $20. Not to worry, it'll be close.

Dave Ramsey, how I ...edit thee

Trent over at The Simple Dollar has been talking recently about his future plans, and has mentioned how they've changed D. Ramsey's plan to work for them. Here's a summary of the Ramsey plan:

1. $1,000 to start an emergency fund
2. Pay off all debt (except the home) using a debt snowball
3. 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings
4. Invest 15% of household income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement
5. College funding for children
6. Pay off home early
7. Build wealth by investing

I have done 1, 2, and 3 so far, but that's where I'm stuck. Can I just skip 5 and 6 since I don't have kids or a home? I think not. Dave Ramsey assumes that you've bought a house in his plan--what about us poor young folk who have to save up a downpayment before even dreaming of paying off our mortgages early?

So MY modified Ramsey plan is as follows:

CHECK 1. $1,000 to start an emergency fund
CHECK 2. Pay off all debt (except the home) using a debt snowball
CHECK 3. 6 months of expenses in savings (9K)
CHECK! 4. Save up for new to me car (6K)
5. Max out Roth for year (this should occur every year)
6. Save up for house downpayment (anywhere from 30K to 70K??? Ideally 20% down so no PMI) while still contributing some X% to 401K
7. Contribute max to pre-tax retirement
8. College funds for kids (?)
9. Pay off home early
10. Build wealth by investing

So I guess I have my marching orders...my income for the next...oh, 40 years is tied up in this plan. Hopefully, I'll have a spouse before I need to attempt to save up for a house--having two incomes instead of one should make that 70K fly by. Oh geez. Should I add a step for wedding funds? eeerrmm...let's not get ahead of ourselves.

How am I doing? October Spending Tracking

So it's been roughly three weeks of spending-tracking...how am I doing? I know this is boring, but here's a breakdown of my budget and my spending so far:

I wanted my October budget to look like this:

Rent: $750
Groceries: $200
Travel: $0
Gifts: $25
Gas: $100
Utilities: $110
Eating Out: $25
Camping Gear: $50
School Supplies: $50
Charity: $50
Cell phone: $48
Medical: $50
Misc: $75
Entertainment: $25
TOTAL: $1558

But I changed it to look like this, after looking at it and realizing that I had forgotten some things (ROTH IRA, for one) or vastly underestimated my needs/wants:

RENT: 750
Car/Rental Insurance: 0 (paid for in lump sum already)
Food 200
Clothes 0
Travel: 0
Gifts 50 (changed from $25--forgot had 2 birthdays this month)
Car/Gas 100
Cable 67.5
Roth 100
Electricity/Gas 35
Eating Out 25
Camping Gear 35
School Supplies 35
Charity 25
Cell phone: 48
Medical 106.95
Misc 125
Total 1702.45


Here is how I'm doing on all of this:

Rent: Under budget by $100. Boyfriend negotiated reduced rent this month because landlord hadn't provided the lease and caused us to lose money on something.

Groceries/Food: $136.65 so far. With one week to go, I have more than enough leftover. $63.55 left. should be under budget.

Gifts: $37.95. This includes mailing my sister her care package, and buying my dad his card and gift. I still have another gift to buy and mail, but as she has not provided me her address, I can't really send it, can i? I'll be buying/mailing her gift once I'm provided with an address. $12.05 left. this should stay under budget.

Car/Gas: $49.59 so far. Over half my budgeted amount to go ($50.41). AND I don't have to go to school or work this week due to the fires, so my 3/4 tank of gas can stay intact. Should DEFINITELY be under budget.

Cable/Internet: $60.27 instead of $67.50 for some reason. Under budget by $7.23

Roth: $100. At budget.

Electricity/Gas: $31.51. Under budget by $3.49.

Eating Out: $41.12 OVER BUDGET BY $16.12 so far. Not too worried about this one, as I'm under budget in my groceries category.

Camping gear: $0. Under budget by $35.

School supplies: $31.41. Under budget by $3.86 with a week to go.

Charity: $25. at budget. Donated to Heifer.org. Awesome.

Cell phone: $46.19. Under budget by $1.81.

Medical: $106.95 for health insurance and prescription meds. At budget.

Misc.: $125.92. OVER BUDGET by 0.92. This may get some more entries in the next week--gotta have a Halloween costume! I'm thinking Claire from Heroes...a little bone sticking out somewhere, a cheerleading uniform...voila! Also, a note: Over half of this category ($70) was spent on one thing: swing dance lessons for me with BF. The class lasts for 6 weeks, so technically, I could take $23 of the $70 and apply it to November, but I won't. It's a one-off expense, but if I can swing it (ha ha) when I'm on this strict budget, I should have room for it when I'm working full-time (provided my field schedule stays sane)! After swing is over, I'll look into other classes...pilates, inner tube water polo, skateboarding, yoga...something. I need something active and social in my life.

So, by my count, I have spent $1442.09. With a week to go, I have roughly $260.36 of wiggle room in my budget, mostly because of my reduced rent. I am $17.04 OVER BUDGET but at least $112.53 UNDER BUDGET because fixed monthly bills were less than I thought. Good news.

I have earned $1645.12 in October. So in real terms, not budgeted amounts (I never know how much I'm going to make with this part-time thing), I have $203.03 to spend in the next week. I think I'm sitting pretty, as I've paid my monthly bills and there is not much chance that I'll need $200 worth of groceries, gas, or misc. items in the next week. My challenge to myself is to save $100 of that $203.03 in my HSBC account.

CHECK! I just scheduled a payment for Nov. 2 (when I get my paycheck) for $100. So I now have $103.03 to spend before next Wednesday. Most likely spent on: groceries ($40), gas ($30), and Halloween costume ($33.03).

Spending

Nothing spent yesterday. We hunkered down at home with the fan on to filter the air--the major evac center was not accepting donations because they had enough and the donors were snarling traffic, the air here is FULL of smoke and it is horrible to go outside, and we were ordered to stay home and stay off the roads unless we really needed to, so I didn't get to a store to buy supplies to donate. I am sure there will be more opportunities to donate to the people who lost their homes in the next few days.

We did go out a mile down the road to feed our guests--yummy thai food. Luckily they were open. BF bought dinner, so that saved me some $$.

The wind direction seemed to have changed from the fierce, hot, dry Santa Ana's from the east to gentle offshore winds from the west. Unfortunately, this means that the smoke that was blowing off the coast is now blowing back onto the land. But, most importantly, it means that the advancement of the fire is halted and is now reversing direction--not that that is very lucky for the people in that area, but it is retreating from the most populated areas, including us and the home of our temporary houseguests. They hope to be allowed back home sometime today.

What would you save?

With all the wildfires in the news today/yesterday, a quarter of a million people evacuated from their homes in a hurry, I started really thinking about what I'd grab if I were ordered out of my home.

Aside from my new laptop, the things on my list have NO MONETARY VALUE. and I love that. My 'other things' include: my baby blanket (sewn and put together as a joint project by my two now deceased grandmothers; it was what I came home from the hospital in, and is very much my prized, most precious possession. I still feel the love coming off of it whenever I wrap myself in it.), my pictures, my financial folder/info, and that's pretty much it, besides basic toiletries and clothes. I know EXACTLY what means the most to me.

It's so sad...all of those people huddled on pavement/in gyms/churches/wherever, all the while worried about whether they still have a home to go to in the morning. I guess they aren't getting much sleep due to worry anyway, but it's terrible that they have to sleep on the cold hard ground. I wish very much that this wasn't happening. I am so grateful I'm not evacuated or in danger of losing all of my possessions tonight. I'm so grateful that I can offer a private, comfortable, temperature controlled and smoke-free/air-filtered room, bed, and private bathroom to my pregnant friend and other coworkers (and dog). I can't imagine the worry and pain and discomfort...

Classes were cancelled for tomorrow and work is basically cancelled since half the people can't get into work...so I think I'm going to try and go buy some stuff to donate to the temporary shelters around the county. I know this is going to blow the budget but that's ok. It'll be November's charity.

Evacuation!

No spending on sunday...

$6 groceries Monday
$2 groceries

We're actually housing some evacuees from the wildfires out here in SoCal. Don't worry, we're ok where we are, but thousands have been evacuated from their homes. We're lucky to have 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms and plenty of room to let people (and a dog) stay here.

spending!

I went a little crazy on the Halloween treats...

$26.54..groceries. $25 was on the gift card; 1.24 of own money

$6.18...Subway (lunch for tomorrow while on field trip)...$4.52 on gift card; 1.66 of own money

$29.71...halloween candy/decoration/vitamins/poncho for field trip...$5.14 on gift card; $24.57 of own money

Spending

Nada today...

Another Paycheck

I haven't really figured out what my hourly pay is. I thought from my last paycheck that it was ~$21. Today, I was paid for the past two weeks (October 1-15), and my hourly pay was around $22.82. Hey, it's more than I was expecting, so I'll take it!

So my total October income is $1645.12 (I count the last two weeks of the month toward the next month, since we don't get paid until then. For example, Oct 16-31 hours are paid November 3 or so, so that money is for November. My current budget totals a little over $1700, but this month my rent will be $100 less than normal, so I actually will be making MORE ($1645.12) than I have budgeted to spend ($1603) for October! Hallelujah! I will have to figure out if I want that money to sit in my bank account as part of my cushion, or if I should put it in savings.

Hear hear! for not dipping into savings...and possibly ADDING to it while I'm in school!

Spending

$31.22 in snack foods--my favorite, actually--I ordered a case of 24.
$13.53 in groceries. A chicken (4 dinners) plus 3 frozen dinners.

Spending: Going Green

I spent nothing today. In keeping with the green aspect of blogs today, here are 10 things I've done recently to reduce my impact on the Earth:

1) I live in a solar-power supplemented housing complex.
2) I moved closer to work.
3) I take the trolley to school every day.
4) I placed CFL's in all light fixtures in my house.
5) BF and I agreed to turn down the temperature on our water heater.
6) BF and I agreed to turn off the A/C for the most part and use a programmable thermostat when we do.
7) I drive an old, old compact car that still passes smog-emissions tests and gets great gas mileage.
8) I've bought most of my furniture and clothes second-hand. I HATE that alot of people buy EVERYTHING new. What for??
9) I go to the library to check out books and DVD's instead of buying more crap.
10) I refuse to work for an oil company. As a geologist, these jobs are a dime a dozen and pay extremely well. Even though some of these companies tout their commitment to alternative energy research, I just can't bring myself to work for a company whose main profit is so DIRECTLY tied to the destruction of habitats, ecosystems, and the atmosphere. I'd be recommending where they drill into and strip the Earth if I worked for one of them. And I just could not live with myself while doing that.

I could be better and eat locally grown, organic foods, and less processed foods, as well as bike everywhere, but baby steps, people...

I wish to add to my list "Go to farmer's market on way home from work." this will help my footprint.

Happy Greening!

Blugh. I Feel Disgusting. Or, I'm addicted to saving.

After doing my rounds of blog-reading that I do every day (see left side bar), I feel gross and fat and awful. Everyone's been saving so much--as much as half of their gross pay? and I've saved almost nothing for the past two months. I reduced my 401K contributions to 0% and am not transferring ANYTHING to my HSBC account. Usually, I'm contributing anywhere from 4 to 12% to my 401k, and transferring nearly half my take home pay (~$1500) to my savings account.

My saving grace is that $100 to my Roth every month. It's in my budget, and I think I can keep it up. But I still feel like it's just not ENOUGH. I need everything to be increasing-401k, savings, AND Roth. Sigh.

I guess I'm getting greedy. The first 8 months of this year has been focused on saving up money to use while in school--the aim was to make $500/month and use $1000 of savings each month. Fortunately, my company not only took on the tuition and books costs, but is paying me more than I thought--$21/hr at 20 hrs/wk is $1680. So, I figured out I didn't have to use the saved up money--I could probably make enough to support myself while working part-time. Now, I not only want to keep all the money I've saved, but add more on top of that?

Whew. I'm asking for too much, aren't I? I want to keep my standard of living without making many sacrifices AND save money...I KNOW people out there live off of less than $1680/month AND save. I am TOTALLY addicted to saving. The question is, what am I willing to give up in order to do it?

Spending: New ideas

Saturday:
$12 pizza
$25 gas

today:
$25 to heifer.org (Charity)

Ah. I always feel good after I give to charity. Today I gave my $25 budgeted amount to buy a share of water buffalo to an Asian subsistence farmer. Feels nice.

I also did the math, and my income for October is roughly ~$5 below my total budgeted amount for October. This was only possible because my landlord dropped my rent by $100. I'm psyched! If I keep this up, I won't have to dip into savings...one can hope! I'm already halfway through the semester!

I only worked ~25 hours this week and last...and boy have I enoyed the reduced work hours. I can't really say where all those hours WENT, though...frittered into oblivion, like I used to do with my money.

I've been kicking around the idea of using the same money principles to my time and my health management. I want to create a how-i-spend-my-time diary, as well as a food diary, and figure out how I can intersect my health, time, and money into a stream-lined system where I am getting the most out of all 3. Sound hard? I think so. It seems that one is always at the expense of another: go get a $1 burger, you eat frugally with little time, but reduce your health. Buy organic health food from Whole Foods--spend lots of time cooking and lots of money, but eat healthily.

Some things everyone NEEDS:

1) Exercise. Running seems to be the most frugal. I have bad knees, though, so I do alot of walking. Also, my apartment complex has a tiny workout room with an elliptical machine--I need to start using that. I'm paying for it, after all.

2) Eat, hopefully healthily. I do the very basic things but I am doing terribly at eating healthily. Like, I will buy multi-grain breads and skim milk, but today I ate pizza for breakfast and dinner. agh. On the other hand, I paid $12 for pizza and got 3 meals out of it--$4 each meal. That is NOT bad once justified financially.

3) Time to yourself. I take baths when I need this and this is time that is NOT to be interrupted by BF. Also, I spend alot of time reading, taking amateur photos, and checking out new music. These are all very worthwhile solo hobbies.

4) Time with friends/family. All my friends I've made here have moved away, save one, and I hate talking on the phone, so unfortunately I've neglected this category. I don't go out with friends 'cause it costs money and I don't have many opportunities, so I end up bored here. I need to make an effort to contact people through email and myspace more...

5) Mental stimulation. learning. I need this, FOR SURE. Right now, classes are doing a good job of keeping me learning.

Spending on My Day Off

$45.36 in Groceries
$8.95 for mailing present to sister
$2.78 in eating out (sudden, freakish craving for Burger King; i could not help myself)
$36.11 in returns
$21 sewer/water bill

Spending Today

Ah, I had a good night last night/today so far. I took a weekend off from my 10 weekends of field trips to study for my mineralogy test and to have a little break before the string of field trips...

Today I have some spending to do: groceries, mailing a package to my sister, and going to Target to return some stuff/buy some random stuff.

There is good news and bad news...last night I checked the mail, and I had a bill for sewer and water service from my landlord. why haven't we been paying this the first few months here??

My BF called our landlord, and apparently he just hasn't noticed that he's been paying that bill. It's only $40, but very annoying to have to add that to our list of bills. usually the landlords pay sewer/water, in my experience!

Anyway, the good news: despite numerous attempts and reminders, we still haven't gotten a copy of our lease. this caused us to lose $60 in refunds from that property company that was a scam. When my BF told this to our landlord, he agreed to knock off $200 from our rent next month! Yay! $100 that I don't have to earn part-time. :) That's around 5 hours that I don't HAVE to work to break even. Er, make that 4 since I now have to pay for sewer/water.

Spenda

zero for yesterday. Went out for a wonderful dinner under the stars and sky w/ BF, surrounded by some of the oldest buildings in my city, for our 11th month anniversary (got a free dessert for this!).

A good talk with BF turned to a great talk, really in depth about what we both want. Now is as good of a time as any to reveal the recent happenings: BF has submitted his phd statement of purpose to a professor that will probably be his advisor. He's flown out to meet with him, and they get on like a house doused in lighter fluid and a match. complete success! The hitch is--this professor is moving to another university this winter. Another university in another country.

The plan was for me to go along to wherever he gets his PhD, but I guess since it's now an international endeavor, it's time to test the mettle of our relationship a little bit. I really want to go--it's in New Zealand! I looooove NZ; I was there for a month long field trip in grad school. The only issue is, how solid is this relationship? What do we each want? The conversation turned to children--as in, do you want any and when? He wants to have one of the parents at home for the first 3-4 years of their lives. I don't know if a) i want kids, b) would be happy being a housewife, or c) alternately, could handle being the sole provider for the entire family (if he stayed at home). so there's a lot of talking going on right now, even though that (kids) is at least 3 years away.

Anyway, we're figuring things out. Honestly, it's really up to him. I want to go to NZ with him, I'm not of a solid opinion one way or another about kids, he's the one with the firm needs, so it's his call on whether he wants to continue a relationship and invest time in someone who may not want the same things he does. I guess I'm in the same boat, but since I don't really care one way or another (that's not true; I kind of see the argument both ways: kids/no kids; and can't make up my mind--it's more like i care too much), I have it a little easier.

But I like all this talking. I think it shows that we can communicate, and that the important issues are being discussed before we jump into a major inter-continental move together. I think it bodes well for any sort of long-term future commitment (ie marriage). so life is happening, whether or not i'm ready for it. all i know is that I'm better with him than without him.

spending: I am a fool

$3 in trolley tix (forgot my student ID w/ the trolley pass sticker due to stripping down necessary items for camping; got caught without a ticket by the guard; was ordered to go buy a ticket; UGH!)

$13.10 for mailing the sleeping pad I no longer want; have to go pick up my new one tonight!!

$15 in groceries/household items--ziplock baggies and paper towels are EXPENSIVE! BF was supposed to grab the extra from some field work he did from work, but he didn't.

$70 for 7 weeks of swing dance lessons w/ BF--we've talked about doing this FOREVER

Today was a disaster. I haven't been sleeping well lately...but I did get a 'very nice' from my tough professor today. And my sister sounds wonderfully sane and happy. :)

Spendicity

Last night I helped my BF finish his statement of purpose for his PhD application. With my help, it was polished to a gleaming shine that I could see through the computer screen. I have to say that I'm extremely proud of him (and myself). I hate writing, but I really love editing. It brings out the perfectionist critic in me. yeah, I'm anal and detail oriented. I know.

$2 on snacks. I was jonesin' for some white cheddar popcorn. Sue me.

...no, don't.

Camp spending

Oh yeah, and we each had to contribute $20 to the dinner and campground fees. I did take home some yummy homemade veggie spaghetti sauce, though!

Spenderama: Camping

Well, camping went greatly smooth. My gear works well, even if it was a little windy and I didn't stake down my tent correctly. lots of good scenery.

today was my dad's birthday and I TOTALLY FORGOT it, so i ran around getting a card and gift (ouch, guilty daughter). Also, I was basically exiled from the house (bf is needing some time to himself), and of course that meant I spent money:

$6 at subway (used gift card)
$25 in gas
$7 in In and Out for bf dinner
$4 for a card
$1 for bananas (groceries)
$25 in gift card to home depot
$1 gum

Total: $69 (ugh)

Wow I feel gluttonous. I did, however, need the gas and card/gift card and bananas. BF's dinner was spur of the moment and I'm feeling bad for him lately, so I can't justify the cost but I don't care that I made it. The gum was an impulse buy--it was on sale and I love this gum. The subway could have been avoided but I used a gift card. so really, I don't think i did too badly.

Note to self: run numbers in excel and calc my spending.

Spending: Surprise, you're going camping!

On wednesday, I found out suddenly that I'm going camping this weekend, starting tomorrow morning. I've been rushing around ever since getting everything together, from borrowing a sleeping pad (mine is still in the mail), to shopping for food today. so, I won't have any posts for the next few days, but I also won't have much spending to report (we do have to contribute to a dinner fund).

spending:
$13.52 for snacks, water, and other goodies.
$8.16 at Subway for lunch for today and tomorrow while I'm on the field trip. Paid for with my petty cash in my wallet (I use it for things i'm not usually allowed to have, purchases not strictly in my budget).


$46.67 (half of this for Electricity): $23.34
$16.34 (half of this for Gas): $8.17
$100.00 Roth IRA contributions

Income: $1068.72

I also received my paycheck for the end of September. They stopped taking out my 401K and my medical insurance contributions, and my hourly rate bumped up to a little over $21! That's amazing, I was only expecting around $19.50/hr.

Sah-pend!

Nada. That's all for today.

Spending

Nada. Costs coming up:

-shipping costs for sleeping pad
-shipping costs for sister's present


Will probably get take-out this week w/ boyfriend, but am not sure if he's paying or not.

Spending

Get paid tomorrow!!

October 1:
$8.14 for modeling clay and some batteries for my apartment complex's gate key
Category: School supplies

$59.95 for prescription. My copay is usually $25 but I'm getting an extra 3 months of medicine by paying on my own. Paying $60 a month for 3 months is worth not having to go to the doctor until April!
Category: Medical

Emergency Funds on top of Emergency Funds

I realized the other day that I have a zillion options if I were to ever get in financial trouble. Even with me being in school and having less income, if something were to happen where I needed money quickly (hello VA tax dept., why are you sending me notices about my 2004 taxes when I didn't live there that year?) and didn't want to dip into my official Emergency Fund with HSBC, I have plenty of options:

1) I could work extra hours for a few weeks (I've been averaging about 18 hrs/wk, but could put in up to ~25 if I cut down on my studies a bit. This could work short-term for 3-4 weeks. (extra ~$125/wk, $500/mo)

2) I have over $200 in cash in my wallet right now. ($700 available)

3) I have a cushion of about $1200 in my checking account. ($1900 available)

4) I have roughly $100 in coins in a jar/my car. ($2000 available)

5) I have ~$500 worth of gift cards for drug, grocery, and retail stores (mostly target) that I could use for food and toiletries instead of my paycheck, freeing up $$ to pay back whatever it is. (we'll count $200 of these since I wouldn't spend all $500 in a month--$2200)

6) could cut cable out completely. (over a month, this would free up ~$50. $2250/mo)

7) could finally sell my CD's back. I probably wouldn't get more than $25 for the lot, but it's something nonetheless. ($2750)

Finally, could tap into my official EF, currently over $15,000. If I didn't have money for food, I would then tap my Roth. My 401K would only be touched if I were to become homeless (not likely with my friends around).

Ah, so I essentially have the option not touching my EF in an emergency that costs less than $2250/mo. I have roughly $1500 in actual cash right now to put towards that emergency, and the potential to earn/get/cash in about $775 more.

It feels nice to have so many fail-safes in place, just waiting to back me up. yay, I have options!

I don't know why I am worried, but I feel like things are going too well...my budget is good, I think I can scrape through my part-time days without touching my EF, and everything has been running smoothly. Why do I have a sense of impending doom?

Lespenderama

Zero for Saturday. I stayed up until 7 am studying for my exam on Friday night, and 5 am on Saturday night. It's just so wierd--I can't for the life of me concentrate during daylight hours, but my brain kicks into learning/high gear around 11 pm.

It's like I feel that I should be going out and doing things during the day, or maybe the pressure just isn't on when I feel like the day/evening stretches before me.

Unfortunately, this schedule means I'm sleeping until noon or 1 every day. It's going to be HELL getting back into the swing of things tomorrow.

Today (Sunday), I have to go pick up my prescription from the drug store (I'm doing a little experiment to see if I can extend/postpone my doctor's appt by ordering extra prescriptions). We'll see if it works. I could possibly get an extra 3 months (until April) just from a pharmacy screw-up. I hate going to doctor just to renew a prescription. such a waste of time and money!!

also, I have to buy some groceries: salt, bananas, milk, veggies, fruit, other staples and fresh food to get me through the week.

and, finally, modeling clay for my big exam.

Wish me luck! I'll probably be studying til 3 am tonight.