Master of my Money

Saying Goodbye and Trying Something New

2009-07-01T08:57:00.007-05:00

As much as it pains me, I think it's time to admit to myself that the Not-A-Budget Treasure Map Atlas and Captain's Log isn't going to work out. Cue heaving sigh of sadness at the death of a brilliant and super fun idea.

It's complicated and I don't have the time or the energy (or, apparently, the creativity) to figure out how it works. But I'm sure that it would work if you put your mind to making it work. If you can make it work for you let me know. I will link to you like crazy and point other potential Not-A-Budget Treasure Map makers your way. Hell, I would probably even follow your instructions.

And yes, I did take pictures while I was making my Book and yes they will be posted. Why? Because it's pretty and I want to share it.

So for this paycheck I have decided to try something new. It still technically falls under the Not-A-Budget umbrella of money management techniques, but it's ~~a little~~ 110% more straight forward in how you use it (read: there is only a minimal amount of time involved in making it/making it work). I'm calling it my 3 Column Not-A-Budget Worksheet.

{Painfully Clear} Instructions on how to Make Your Very Own 3 Column Not-A-Budget Worksheet:

Take a piece of paper and fold it into thirds. Or just draw three lines on it. However you choose to go about this step the goal is to end up with 3 Columns on your paper (DUH).
At the top, write down the current amount of money in your bank account. (In the interest of full disclosure I'm going to tell you that I do not have $800 laying around doing nothing in my checking account. ~~I wish I had that much~~ Ahem. It's close.)
At the top of each column write a heading, there are 3 headings total (again - DUH). You can put them in whichever order you want, I put mine in the order in the picture: Need, Want, and then Shouldn't.
In each column you should list things that fall under that category.

In the Need column you should include anything that is a reoccurring payment, like rent and any charitable donations you make. Real Life Example: I sponsor a child through World Vision, so I have to plan for that donation every month.
In the Want column, write down everything that you like to spend money on but could live without if you really, really had too. Real Life Example: Booze and fast women.
In the Shouldn't column, write down the things that you spend your money on and then get home and think "What the hell was I thinking?" or the stuff you just know is a money suck for you. Real Life Example: I need to stop feeling like I have to bring home something from everywhere I visit other than pictures and memories. Not only am I wasting money but I'm also making clutter for myself when I get home. Totally lame.

You might want to make yourself more than one.

I made a general one where I listed LOTS of Needs, Wants, and Shouldn'ts. When I got paid I sat down and made another 3 Column Not-A-Budget Worksheet that was specific to the next 2 weeks of my life (like how I should come home with nothing but really awesome memories from this weekend at the lake with Armini and his family).
The great thing about having the general 3 Column Not-A-Budget Worksheet was that I could reference it to see what bills were going to be due so that I wasn't taken by surprise (I have a unique talent of forgetting to give people money).

Use the worksheet to cross off bills or money that you owe people as you pay the bill/person you owe money too, write down how much something is going to cost you to see if you can work it into your spending that month. I've been using this system for this paycheck and all I have to say is so far so good.

Full disclosure time again: really I've only been using the worksheet for 2 days but somehow I have managed to spend no more than $22 in that time frame which is really good for me.

OH! And don't forget to put saving on your sheet somewhere. Everyone needs an Emergency Fund. Think of it as paying yourself (which means that you can put it in the Need column).

So there. A newer, simpler, streamlined approach to not hemorrhaging money out of my bank account. I think next paycheck I will make mine on some pretty paper, or take the time to decorate it. Just because it's not a Book doesn't mean it can't be pretty.

Oh, and also, I found this post by the Communicatrix (Colleen Wainwright) about her struggles with money (nice to know I'm not alone in the world) and how, maybe - just maybe - the problem should be approached with compassion rather than an iron clad spend no money attitude.

Checking Up on Myself

2009-06-16T13:38:00.003-05:00

One simply cannot set goals unless one also intends to keep track of the progress one makes (or is not making) towards achieving said goals. Right?

Right! So, I thought that I would, for your reading pleasure, take a minute and look at how this paycheck ~~has practically vanished before my eyes~~, I mean ... was spent ~~responsibly~~.

OK, so this might not be pretty, but no progress can be made unless I take the time to look at the system, identify the problems and then march on. And also, posting it for other people to read and shake their heads at helps too. It's motivation so that one day I can write a blog post about how I made a plan for myself and then stuck to it. And the day that happens will hopefully also be the day that I have $10,000 in a bank account somewhere. We all need to have a dream, people.

Alright, so, here it is. My Almost Mid-Week Goal Check Up #1:
{ta-da!}

Think of a new word that means the same as "budget"

Check. It's my Not-A-Budget Treasure Map. I made it, it's pretty cool. I tried to use it last night. It was confusing and didn't work well. Modifications to the design are needed.

Find a way to stop the money hemorrhage that is my bank account

Um ... this didn't happen. Better luck next time!
Part of this has to do with money that is sitting in my bank account waiting for a check to be cashed that I forgot was waiting for the check to be cashed, because I didn't have it written down before I sat down to start moving my money around to it's various savings accounts (related: the fail that was goal #4)

Create consequences for overspending; implement them as needed

The consequences? I get to have a super lame time while everyone else frolics around with money sticking out of their ears because I seem to be the only person alive who can't stick to a freaking budget.
{stops, takes a breath} Ok - so maybe that was an over-reaction.
But seriously, if I have no money, the consequence is to spend nothing until my next paycheck (I may or may not have already had to do this).

Determine savings goals; devise a realistic plan to achieve said goals

I have the savings goals. It's the realistic part that I'm having an issue with.
This is actually the part of the Not-A-Budget Treasure Map that was confusing and caused problems (related: the fail that was goal #2)

Be crafty without destroying my financial house of cards

So far so good in this area.
Although there is a fabric store that's right next to the apartment and they are having a sale, and everyday I have to drive past the signs that say Fabric Sale in really big, bold, friendly letters that make the very fiber of my being vibrate with thoughts of the beautiful things that I would make with all the sale fabric that I would get (right now I have quilts on the brain. And freezer paper transfers. And quilts with freezer paper transfers on them. Oh the crafting!)
When I'm not being a crazy sale fabric coveting weirdo, I've been knitting my sweater and working on the Not-A-Budget Treasure Map Atlas and Captain's Log (although I think my progress is going to have to slow down a little until I figure out how the damn thing works. Because I know it does ~~because I will make it so help me God~~. I just have to figure out how.)

So there you have it. The picture is pretty bleak right now. But I take comfort in cliche sayings like "It's always darkest before the dawn", "It can only get better from here", "Money can't buy you happiness" and "It could be a lot worse".

And it could be a lot worse, I only have one credit card that I use (care credit for all the vet's visits we've been going to lately. However, I have been working extra hard to not let this balance go crazy), I pay my bills on time, I have a plan to try and make things better, and I'm sure that sometime soon I will get this all figured out.

One Year? Really?

2009-06-05T15:49:00.004-05:00

As of today, this little blog is officially "one whole twirl around the sun" old. One year. Wow.

To be 100% honest, I'm a little surprised that this hasn't faded into the background the way that 90% of the things I start do. And for a while there, it did look like it was going to fade. But then ... NO! ... There she is!

It's all very exciting, don't you think?

Also, if you are interested in reading my very first post ever, you can click right here. I don't know what it is about first posts, but I love to read them. I think it has something to do with the "awkward first letter syndrome" that is starting a blog. It's hard to jump in and just start doing it, you know? You feel obligated to write something about yourself, what you do in life, what you want to do with this little corner of the interwebs ...

Chances are, if I have ever read your blog, I have read your first post. And probably I sat there after wards and thought to myself, "Why couldn't my first post have been like that? Why do I fail at life SO HARD?" or something like that.

Wow. That was random and WAY off topic. Anyway. I would like to take a second and just say Thank You to all the lovely people who take the time to read this blog on a semi-regular basis (Hi Taryn and Lisa!). I'm not going to lie, when you guys comment on my posts I do a happy dance. And then I tell Armini all about you and how cool you are and where you live. Then we read your blogs together.

I would also like to take this time to ask you, what would you like to read more of here? Obviously, I am going to be spending more time on the Not-A-Budget Treasure Map idea (update on that nonsense: I think I finally figured out how to work it!). I know that the "ask me and I will tell all" posts seem to be going around the blog-o-sphere like the plague, but I really would like your input. Because ~~I am not above bribing you for comments~~ I value your opinions.

And just to be clear, these are topics you would like me to cover (or cover more than I already have?). Not so much a place to be all like "I would really like it if you could start budgeting and not be in debt anymore", because obviously I'm working on that (helloooo Not-A-Budget Treasure Map!).

And in the coming year, I promise ~~to be awesome~~ ~~your BFF~~ ~~stop leaving the empty ice cream carton in the freezer~~ to work on that "budget thing" and continuing to write stuff where I don't whine all the time.

Love,
Super Careo

PS - And also Ashley, even though she has posted like all of 5 times on this thing. I'm sure that she would be impressed with the fact that this blog has been live for a year. Also, just in case you were wondering, she really did end up moving to California (like, 6 days ago).

Onward and Upward: Tackling the Spring Goals

2009-05-27T15:03:00.005-05:00

(Pssst! Don't have any idea what I'm talking about? I would read about it here and then read Step One in my Effort to rid myself of Teh Craziness here)

ALRIGHT! I've done it! I spent some time with myself and I think that I have taken care of Spring Goal #1 (to find a new word to replace the B----- word, since clearly it doesn't do it for me) and have laid the ground work for #2 AND #3 in one fell swoop.

I must say that I am more than a little pleased with myself. I hardly ever follow through with this sort of stuff. But the idea of making the money management thing fun is what motivated me. Who doesn't love fun? Lame people don't love fun. And I am not a lame person. Mostly.

Anyway. Moving on:

Firstly, I would like to say that if you are reading this, and are at all interested in what I read when I'm online (other than your blog, of course!) I think you would benefit greatly if you went over and checked out Havi Brooks (she's @havi on Twitter), her duck Selma and her blog The Fluent Self because honestly ... WOW.

She makes me want to have a duck. And also to be exactly like her. She is my internet hero. The end.

OK - so, the reason I told you that is to tell you this: thanks to Havi and her brilliant blog, I think she may have helped me overcome my money stuck. Or at least has gotten me onto a path that has significantly less stuck on it (Confused? Seriously, read her blog. Then you will get it). A few weeks ago she decided to stop thinking about her team as a team and start thinking about her team in a new way. Havi decided that she wanted to think about her team as a Pirate Crew on board her Pirate Ship.

As a direct result of reading this post (and all her other posts where she talks about it), I decided to think about my Not-A-Budget in a way that I haven't ever before. I didn't wonder about which notebook I was going to keep track of my expenses in, I didn't look online for spreadsheets that I thought looked cool, I didn't try to make my own, I didn't sit down and crunch numbers in order to figure out how much I can spend in what category of my life ... I didn't do anything except try to think of a fun new name for my Not-A-Budget.

This is turning rather ramble-y, and I apologize, I'm just really excited and I want to share everything with you.

So I thought and thought and I couldn't really think of anything that worked well. Nothing that I thought of made me go "Oh, oh, oh! Yes! That's great! And fun!". But today I thought of something that I think could work for me ... my Not-A-Budget Treasure Map.

Yes, maybe, I was influenced a little by Havi the Pirate Queen - even though I am not calling myself a pirate queen; I prefer to think of myself as more like that lucky person in the movie (that I have made up in my head) that finds the beat up old treasure map in the back pocket of her great, great, great grandfather's coat and is compelled to follow it on the off-chance that there really is something to be found. Life altering adventures (and possibly a steamy romance with the first mate of the ship?) will ensue. Kind of like City Slickers II, only with less 1980's and more water. And more steamy, maritime romance.

But the metaphor works great! When you read a treasure map, you have to go a certain number of paces in a certain direction in order to get to the big red X on the map that marks where the treasure is buried.

Well, for my Not-A-Budget Treasure Map, the big red X is a metaphor for what I want to achieve (a plane ticket to visit Armini in China, a new laptop, a super fancy camera, or tickets to DISNEYLAND), the number of paces I have to take are a metaphor for the days of the month and the directions are replaced with months. BRILLIANT (if I do say so myself).

This revelation has come about in the nick of time too because I am leaving to go to San Francisco in about two months to run a half marathon. And THEN Armini and I going to celebrate his last days in the good ol' U.S of A in Disneyland. All of which is going to cost me money and of which I have exactly none of at this moment in time. If there was ever a time that I needed a Not-A-Budget Treasure Map, now is the time.

And just to make it that much more fun, I have a blank book at home that I am going to turn into my Captain's Log/Book of Maps (it's going to be like an Atlas of Treasure Maps, and it is going to be awesome).

I have many grand ideas for it ... AND it is in line with my Spring Goal #5 (be crafty without destroying my financial house of cards) because I already have everything that I need to make this happen in my apartment right. this. second. It's enough to make me go "Arg! Ack! Rable Rable!" and many other manner of noises that show just how impressed I am with the fact that this idea came out of my head. By itself. Mostly.

When I get my Captain's Log/Not-A-Budget Treasure Map Atlas made, I will post pictures. Because I know that you are drooling just thinking about how many levels of awesome it's going to be. I might even go so far as to write a post about how to make your very own Captain's Log/Not-A-Budget Treasure Map Atlas so that you too can make all manner of joyful noises at how crafty you are.

What I do after the Captain's Log/Not-A-Budget Treasure Map Atlas is done remains to be seen.

I have the idea right now, not so much the process. But I'm ok with that! I am fine with getting pumped up about it ... hopefully the "Pumped Up-Ness" will help with the "Sticking To It" part that is pretty vital to the whole "It Works!" part, which is the whole point of doing this in the first place.

And as one final thing before I end this post (that is forever long ... geez. Thanks for reading this far!), I just want to throw out a big, old thank you to Havi the Pirate Queen for just being awesome. And for sharing your awesome with the internet.

It's really nice to read about grown-ups who struggle with the same things that I do (because, you know, technically I'm a grown-up too. I just don't feel like it 99.9% of the time) and that there are also grown-ups out there who are dealing with the problems they have in a creative and 100% different way than what I've been trying. Because it not only helps A TON, it also gives me a little peace and hope that maybe someday I will know what the heck is going on.

Some Spring Goals

2009-05-26T15:32:00.005-05:00

As a result of some work related drama, my life feels like it's a little bit out of control. I am in the death grip of Teh Craziness, and I now 100% ready to take the plunge to step up (you know, you've got to get up to get down!) and take control. Or, at least, try to take control (I'm sure you know how Teh Craziness hates to let anyone else drive once it gets behind the wheel; even if it is a really crappy driver). So I am going to be going around my life and tidying things up a bit. I thought that I might start with my money and move on from there.

So, without further ado ...

Spring Money Goals according to SuperCareo
{ta-da!}
Step One in her Effort to get rid of Teh Craziness
{sound of trumpets blaring and wild applause}

Ahem. Moving on:

Think of a new word that means the same as "budget"

Because I can't stick to a B----- to save my life, I have decided that I need to create something totally new, different, and even possibly fun (I know what you're thinking, I'm sure it can be done somehow) to make myself STICK TO IT THIS TIME.

Find a way to stop the money hemorrhage that is my bank account

This is, more or less, directly attached to task #1. However, the more I think about it, it's also directly linked to #3 ... and #4 ... and #5.
So ... I suppose that what I'm trying to say is that this will hopefully be a result of creating and following through with all of my other Spring Goals

Create consequences for overspending; implement them as needed

Which makes me feel like a little kid. Almost to the point that this point is embarrassing to say, er, write so that others can read it.
But seriously, the overspending has. to. stop. NOW. And even if it means I'm going to be the DD for the next two months of my life because I overspent and have no money left over for booze, SO BE IT!
{note to self: in the Not-A-Budget, create a booze allowance}

Determine savings goals; devise a realistic plan to achieve said goals

We all know that I have a tendency to go a ~~little, tiny bit~~ way overboard with my savings goals.
The overboard needs to stop. Realistic saving needs to start. Mama needs a ticket to China (maybe January?!), possibly a new laptop (my clunker is many, many moons old), and this.

Be crafty without destroying my financial house of cards

This is fairly simple - make crafts with the stuff I already have. THEN make the other stuff once I have saved up a little and can afford it.
OH, and also this: when you go to the store to get supplies (yarn, fabric, or what have you) KNOW JUST EXACTLY HOW MUCH YOU NEED. There will be no more "oh, I'll just get X yards, I can put the left over in my stash" thinking. It's wasteful (not just because I'm buying more than I need, but also because {clearly} I'm not using what's already in the stash.)

Seeing this makes me excited to tackle my monetary short-comings and let them know who's boss. Because, obviously, I want to be The Master of my Money! (See how I did that? That is quality writing people. Stick around, it'll only get better from here!)

In honor of these goals, I am going to wipe the Pay-O-Save-O-Meter's clean, re-assign them, and take off. I will keep you posted.

Also, I would like to open the floor for anyone who has an idea for naming my Not-A-Budget.

New Directions ...

2009-05-12T12:01:00.003-05:00

I have noticed, after going back through a number of my posts (mostly the new ones), that my posts are whiny. Really whiny (if you don't want to read whiny posts then I would suggest that you don't click on those links. However, if you would like to bitch about how whiny I have been lately, then click and comment to your heart's content).

And I know that this might sound surprising, but I didn't create Master of my Money with the intention of using it as a place where I could complain. I'm also going to guess that reading a blog where the author mainly bitches and moans about how she has to spend SO MUCH money ALL THE TIME has to get a little boring. Am I right? I mean, if I weren't the one writing the blog I probably wouldn't stick around either, and that's saying something ~~because I think I am the most fantastic writer EVAR~~.

Plus, the complaining makes me sound all "holier than thou" and I do not think that I am better than you. In fact, I bet that you are like 10 times as awesome as me. Seriously. I bet that if we were friends, we would be BFFs and I would totally be that friend that did whatever you wanted because you are just that cool.

The whole reason that I thought up this blog was to write a sort of trial and error type guide to being financially savvy in your 20's. You know, learning how to make and stick to a budget (or discovering that you can't stick to one EVER and finding another way to not spend all your money on things you don't need like yarn or fabric or ~~booze~~). Buying big things like a car (something I'm doing right now! Posts to come!), without going on and on and on about how my old car is SO! LAME! OMG!

So [readers, myself, internet] I hereby swear on a stack of ... hmm ... *rummages around in desk*; I hereby swear on this stack of multicolored post-it notes (it's the only thing I have close at hand) that I will stop whining and start writing posts that actually contribute something of value to the internet and to you.

Promise promise.

You've Got to Cut it, Cut It Good

2009-05-01T10:33:00.005-05:00

And there you have it. The card that I have talked about more than once; the one that I was afraid to cut up. It's done. I did it. This morning at work (which is why the picture is crappy, I took it on my phone).

What finally pushed me over the edge? I was tired of my WILDLY fluctuating balance. I'm tired of having to hide it from myself and my inability to just say no to things that I want but can't afford. Plus, I accidentally picked the wrong checking account to pay my bill online which created a huge mess of bounced check fees, overdraft fees, and getting locked out of the "bill pay" section on the Citi Card website.

And, as an aside, if you bounce a check while trying to pay your account online, Citi won't let you make another payment online for up to 6 MONTHS after the fact (I found this out, finally, after 3 different calls to customer service). Thank the Lord that I talked to a lovely girl the last time I called got to explain the fact that it was a mistake on my part and she got my account reactivated.

But after the whole mess I took a step back, looked at the crazy balance that I now have on my card as a result of a car repair + the damage that I've done as a result of a freshly doubled credit limit and thought to myself "enough is enough". So I cut it up. And even though I'm a little sad that I won't have it around to charge groceries too on those months when I run out of money, I know that my E-Fund was set up for just those kinds of months and that I will be ok. And I'm fine with the fact that this piece of plastic is no longer weighing heavily on my mind.

I'm also pretty excited about the fact that I am no longer enabling myself. There will be no more impulse yarn/fabric/book/dog toys/gift purchases made unless I have the cash for it sitting around in my checking account.

Here's hoping that it stays empty.

Really? REALLY?

2009-04-13T09:02:00.005-05:00

Around these parts, when it rains it POURS. I'm sure that you're sick to death of hearing me whine about all the super fun vet bills I've been paying for. So, instead of complaining about my dogs I have something new to complain about: my car!

I know that it's not really a new complaint, but last week it decided that it had started for the last time. Well - the last time until I took it to the shop to get it fixed.

According to my dad my car was a textbook case of "dead starter". Which in wallet-speak translates into "an easy $400 bill that you will have to pay. BWA HA HA!". OK, maybe not that last part, but that's sure what it sounded like to me in my head.

Good thing I have an E-Fund that is large enough to help me pay for this bill without incurring any more debt (except that I put it on my credit card for now - I'm going to get some points and make a massive payment from my next paycheck). If you don't have an E-Fund set up yet - DO IT NOW. I cannot tell you the happiness that it has created in my life. When I run out of food and money at the same time? My E-Fund is there for me, holding my hand, telling me that it's all going to be OK.

My BFF Hilda and I worked out a budget together the other day, and while I agreed to cut my car fund savings per month (it was a fairly unreasonable amount anyway) I put my foot down and told her that there was no way I was going to stop putting $200 a month into the general E-Fund and $100 a month into the Dog E-Fund. She was not only impressed that I had an E-Fund, she was also completely impressed that I had set up a fund just for the dogs. But, really, can you blame me? I don't know that I can handle another month like March (it was really expensive, dude!) without any help. Probably I would cry and be forced to move back home with my parents where I would probably cry some more.

But, back to my car. The $400 made my heart skip a beat, until I realized that with a new starter:

My car will start up every time I decide that it should. Yay!
I can put off buying a new car. Yay!
This still might be something I can own:

Yay!

Big Big Move

2009-04-08T19:26:00.002-05:00

I'm in the process of packing up and moving (again). I'm relocating to California about a year and a half after I intended to, and money has become a real issue since I don't have a job officially lined up yet.

On the bright side, I have lined up a roommate. But the prospect of being unemployed is a daunting one. I'm the type of person who has grown accustomed to working three jobs at a time, and the economy in my current college town is dying. Not slow. Not yet dead. Actually dying. There are no jobs to be found anywhere, even at the fast food joints. Though college students do receive preferential treatment for employment, the places for menial work specialize in paying high school wages.

So, I am pretty much officially destitute. The good news is, I was hired for a summer internship where all my expenses (like food, room and board) are being covered. I'll be working as a Residential Assistant for a summer program specializing in gifted students, and so for one month of work I'll be receiving about $1,800. I do get the weekends off, during which time I plan to come back to Kansas City and work at my old job in the cosmetics emporium. They'll pay me $8.25 an hour, which isn't great, but I can work 16 to 24 hours a week and have a take home pay of about $115 or so. $460 isn't a lot, but every little bit helps.

I did call them and tell them I would be returning home for a few months and wanted to work. School ends May 6 and I'm not required to report to the job until June 1, so I'll have three and a half weeks to generate some serious income. My goal is to earn $1500 between now and when I actually leave for California.

I am also in the process of selling my car. After checking market values and making reasonable adjustments for the economic situation, I think I can get $2,000 for it. It's six years old, with 140,000 on it, which equals out to a little over 20,000 miles per year, and the car still works fabulously. It looks as though the tenants who took over my duplex in Lenexa will probably purchase it. I'll take the money with me to California and added together with my money from the internship and the cosmetics emporium, I'm hoping to have $5,000 stashed away.

It is a lot of money, especially by my standards, but there are a lot of expenses I'll having coming up. I'll need to make my budget around that figure and excluding any student loans or pell grants because I have no idea what I'm actually going to receive once I enroll in the college out there. And I do have a concern that $5,000 might not be enough. Automatically, $1,000 will have to go towards the deposit. My roommate is currently scouting out places and we're positive we've found the ideal place to meet our needs, but the rent itself is going to be about $650 a piece before utilities, and that's considerably cheaper than the place she had initially picked!

I also imagine it's going to cost about $300 to get my car re-registered. Traditionally, my dad has covered the licensing and registration for my car as my annual birthday gift, but I don't think I should stake on that continuing since I'll be several states away and it won't be the matter of convenience for him it was before. And if my consumption in Emporia is indicative of anything, I need to be prepared to spend about $200 for the utilities. Already I'm aware of $1,500 in pending charges, and moving is going to cost me about $550, which is still way cheaper than I thought initially. It will cost $140 (taxes included) to rent a U-Haul, $150 to buy the trailer to haul the U-Haul and I'm estimating $160 for gas. The remaining $200 or so should cover food and other miscellaneous expenses. Since my dad will likely be the person driving across the country with me, I'd like to be able to pay for his meals as well as my own, and if I have enough left over, pay for his return ticket to Kansas City although he has a free flight through Midwest. Just a kind of, "Thanks, Dad," if I can.

So, already I know a good $2,050 or so will be committed elsewhere. I'd also like to give myself a little breathing room because my student loans won't come in until August or September, and the rest of that money needs to support me until then. I need to plan on $1,500 in living expenses per month; this means for July and August I'll need $3,000 left over after the move, just to be on the safe side.

It feels good to have a plan, and go about executing it. Like I have some control.

A swing, and a miss.

2009-03-27T15:44:00.003-05:00

First, the good news:

I did do my math right, and I did have a little more than $300 left in my bank account for the ski trip.
Fiddling with my W4 gave me almost $100 extra per check, which will totally cover the cost of my new insurance! You can't miss money that you never had.

Yup. That's it for the good news.

Now, the bad news:

Somehow I messed up when I went to make the payment for my CitiCard (or Citi messed it up?) and selected my checking account that had $15 in it rather than my main checking account, so I ended up overdrawing and somehow got charged twice for the overdraft fee. I am still working to resolve this.
Winter Park ended up costing me a lot more than $300. So I overspent my paycheck ... again (and the $300+ I got for babysitting last week has to go pay of my LOC account at my bank rather than into the car fund to earn interest - grr.)

I am taking this incident in stride for a number of reasons:

I know that this doesn't mean that I will never be able to do this. I must be able to do this.
Most of the overspending came from boozing, which was awesome and super fun, so I can't be too mad at myself because I feel like I got real value out of what I overspent on.
The vet bills are all paid off (except one tiny one) which means that I will have all of my paychecks to start working with from here on out - WEE!
I am really starting to put forth a significant effort to get my spending under control, or at least bring in a little extra cash so that I can create an allowance for myself so that I don't feel like I need to keep spending.

I know I messed up, and while I am frustrated by it, I know that this will pass and I will get everything back under control and then I can move forward. Onward and upward, right? It's odd to be so at peace with myself over this because I never really have been before.

Plus, after many thoughts and hours of hard pondering, I have decided to stop trying to create a budget for myself. Instead, I am going to map out savings goals, what I need to do to get to my savings goals and then work within those parameters. And, like I mentioned above, I am going to give myself a cash allowance from each paycheck to spend how I please (or save in a piggy bank, this money will not be going back into the system unless absolutely necessary) and I am going to have to leave my debit and credit cards at home so that when I run out of money, I'm out and won't have any way to get more to ruin the whole thing (which is one of my downfalls).

Living within my means ... here I come!

I've been a very bad girl.

2009-03-18T09:05:00.003-05:00

Like I mentioned before, as a result of some very bad behavior, I have actually have managed to increase my credit card debt over the last few weeks. One day as I was buying stuff I realized what I was doing to myself (creating another bill that I am going to have to keep paying, interest that will accumulate, money that I can't save to put toward things that I need to live) and I stopped and thought about why I was was spending so much.

I got really bad about charging stuff when the first round of vet bills hit. I really didn't have any other way to pay for stuff. I have gotten very into being crafty (a hobby that requires a certain amount of money in order to have supplies to be crafty with), specifically I am big into knitting and one of my goals for 2009 is to scrapbook the whole year. A lot of things I bought are one time purchases, like a set of alphabet stamps or other stamps for scrapbooking purposes, or knitting needles that I need to make stuff. But a lot of what I bought are things that are not essential to living (or one time purchases either).

So what the heck was going through my head? How did I let myself fall so far off the wagon that I allowed myself to rack up close to $500 on my credit card?

Well, part of it is that Citi decided to double my credit limit. Which means that I can spend without fear of coming close to my credit limit, which means that I can spend without feeling quite so guilty about it.
Every purchase was under or around $30, which makes it much easier to tell yourself "I'll pay this back when I get paid next". The problem is that those $30 add up quickly.
I spend my nights at home alone while Armini is at work so I have a hard time telling myself no when it comes to spending money on my hobby purchases.
Having a paycheck that is consistently $300 more than what I used to get makes me feel like I have money to burn when I really don't. I need to learn how to live within my means again.

Lately my problem is that I have been spending more than I have been earning and Citi has been enabling me with a new and improved credit limit. But it's up to me to use this responsibly. I know this. And something that I need to start working on is telling myself "NO".

I DO NOT need a book on knitting (or sewing, or any of the Twilight books) when I can get it from the library.
I DO NOT need to buy new yarn for projects when I already have quite a bit of yarn that is sitting around waiting for a project that fits them.
I DO NOT need anymore scrapbook stuff until I start using the stuff that I already have (and I have a lot of stuff, I have been collecting all my supplies for a LONG time).

What I do need to do is ...

Start doing things that don't cost money! (like work out, or spend time with friends)
Make a budget (I seem to always be working on this) or think of a way for me to live within my means without a budget (since I can't ever seem to stick to the ones that I make for myself)
I need to learn how to pace my spending, paying down my debt, and my saving so that I have enough to go around and I'm not sitting at home every night during the week being bored and watching TV.

Easier said than done, I'm sure. But this last rash of falling off the wagon has opened my eyes to a few things about myself. Like the fact that when I don't have any money, I spend. Which is odd since when I have a lot of money I would much rather save it. This makes no sense to me, but it's what I do, so I will just have to learn to deal with and work around in the future.

What about you? What situations make you fall of the wagon? I can't be the only person who has this happen every now and then ... right?

Budgeting from afar

2009-03-14T16:03:00.002-05:00

I am currently working for a family that I babysit for in Florida. It has been a wonderful break from spending money and has really let me sit down and take a good hard look at where my money has been going and what I need to do in order to be prepared the next time the universe decides to smack me in the face with more vet bills that you can shake a stick at.

Since I got paid yesterday, I have taken a few steps to make this happen:

Opened up a second savings account at HSBC for a dog E-Fund and put $100 in it.
I put $100 into my Car Fund, which I have been neglecting lately. And if I ever needed to be putting money into it, it's now.
Made a small payment towards my credit card ($89.79).

And then I stopped. One of the problems that I have with spending all of my money in between paychecks is that I try to squirrel away all of my money into my savings accounts, or I end up making a huge payment on my credit card and then I have nothing in my bank account to use on groceries or gas or anything else that I might need/want to spend money on. So this time I took it easy. I accounted for the $224.62 that is going to be coming out of my account for the last vet bill payment, took another $200 for savings, and with the credit card payment I will have $300 left in my account.

At least, if I did my math right, that's how much I will have left in my account.

Something I have never thought about before, is the balance that I need to find between my spending and my savings. I never really thought that it would be something that I would need to work on.

My E-Fund is starting to really bounce back from it's huge depletion at the beginning of January when I used it to pay for all of my deposits for the apartment. Yesterday morning it made it all the way to $701. I am hoping to have it up to $1400 in the near future (that will cover me more or less for two months with no other income). The wonderful part of all of this is that my E-Fund is getting $212 a month automatically from my paycheck, so it grows without me having to lift a finger (which is the only way to save, as far as I am concerned).

The savings are really coming along. I am getting back into the mindset of saving money as being the most awesome thing ever. I have also been inspired by this blog of a Mom who has a budget of $800 for the year for everything (and she has two daughters and a dog or two). Which made me realize that if I could make myself live off of $800 for the year (not including rent) I could save about $20,000 which is almost a brand spankin' new Mini Cooper (!!). Makes you wonder if you could it, doesn't it?

What about you? Have you ever found yourself running out of money between paychecks because you were too quick to save it rather than leave it in a place where you can spend it when you need it? Is this a common problem?

It's Raining Dogs and Vet Bills

2009-03-10T22:32:00.005-05:00

Boy, around here lately it seems like if it rains, it pours. For me, this means:

A never ending line of vet bills that are no less than $100 each (one of which is up around $700)
A car that has, officially and for real this time, entered the last stages of its life.

1. The never ending vet bills
You may have read my last post about how dogs are wonderful but can be a little pricey. Well, as Taryn said, "I think pain killers for animals is ok- it just depends on how long they have left to give, and other stuff like that."* and it made me realize that Bing has a lot left to give (he is only about five years old) and that if the pain killers make him act like a normal dog, then that's what he is going to get.

However, this past weekend while I was in Illinois with Armini and my brother** was watching the dogs, Tim got into Bing's meds and ate what was left in the bottle (around 20 days worth of pain medication). SO, to add to the fact that I have come to terms with the fact that I will be purchasing pain killers forever, and the $500 vet bill that still isn't completely paid off (but will be on the 13th!) ... I have Tim's vet bill from the E-Vet ($700)*** and the bill for HIS medications ($128) for his kidneys and his stomach (to make sure he doesn't get an ulcer) plus any bills that I will have to pay when he goes back to the vet in a week to get his kidney function tested.****

* That's right readers! Comment, and I will quote you, give you some link love and add you to my Google reader. (Taryn, I checked out your blog, it's awesome. I will be back)
** Who will forever now be known as That Punk Kid.
*** I don't have to pay for all of this bill though. Only 1/3rd (parents are taking care of a third and That Punk Kid is taking care of the rest), but I do have to pay for any treatments that he is going to need for follow up care, and heaven forbid, any long term treatments he could need.
**** Cue head explosion.

(PS - I haven't ever done the foot note thing before and I apologize for having so many. I got carried away. Please don't stop reading)

2. The car that has officially entered its final stretch
That's right people. The car = done-zo.

For the last month or so it has been a little dodgy on the whole 'starting every time you put the key in the ignition' thing. Sometimes the engine would catch and then die right away. Sometimes it would have to turn over a few times (or 20 or 30 times) before the engine would catch. It would start eventually though, so really I just tried to keep my eye on the prize and stick to my savings plan.

But this morning I had to get to the airport to catch a flight for a business trip (don't fear reader, Armini is taking care of Tim and Bing, not That Punk Kid) and the car would not start. I tried it like 6 times. I gave it some gas. The engine would turn over but not catch. So Armini and I took his truck (thank the Lord he has a car of his own that turns on consistently) and when I called my dad to let him know about the car trouble his response was "Maybe it's time to start looking for another car". My thoughts exactly.

3. The hitch in my giddy-up
I took $1,000 out of my car fund not too long ago to pay off a huge chunk of my credit card which means that I only have $300 in my car fund right now. I haven't been able to save more than $50 from my last few paychecks due to the vet bills that I have had to pay off. As a result of some really bad behavior, the chunk of credit card bill that I paid off is back again, mostly because I don't have any other way to pay for stuff (also, I was being very bad - which will get its own post because it needs to be examined).

So the long and the short of this is: I have some large bills to pay. I might have a car payment a lot sooner than I thought I would. I am not making enough money to take care of all of these things.

Also, I have my heart set on a car that is probably not one that I will be able to afford:

Behold, the Mini Cooper. Car of my dreams.

ACK. I plan on applying for a loan in the next few weeks, as well as developing a plan for some really aggressive savings plan/budget. At this point I am 99% sure that the plan will be something like this:

Pay bills.
Save the rest.
(have no life until I get the super cool car)
(continue to have no life until super cool car is paid off)

It is going to be awesome.

Dogs are Lovely ... and Come with a Price Tag

2009-03-03T09:17:00.003-06:00

Remember way back when I talked about the joys of pet ownership? Well, that hasn't changed much. In fact, I would go ahead and say that it has gotten WAY WORSE.

A few month ago, Bing started crying whenever you would touch his face. At first we thought that maybe he had a pinched nerve (there were some funky things going on with his eyes at the same time) and so he went on some pain killers and anti-inflammatory medication. The pain went away, and I could tell because his personality changed. He had been hiding under furniture, not playing with Tim or my parent's dogs, very clingy - which is not how he acted when he first came home from the humane society in December of 2007. The change to this quieter, more clingy personality was so gradual that I hadn't noticed (now I know what to look for and as soon as his personality changes, I start to look for the reason).

So this past week I decided that it was time to figure out what the heck is going on once and for all, for the sake of my dog. Two x-ray's later we have determined that he has pinched disk space (which sounds to me like the very beginnings of arthritis) in his neck. Which explains his neck pain. The vet also noticed that his eyes are very irritated looking (something that I have also noticed in the past few weeks), but he couldn't find any clear reason for why they are so red and goopey.

All in all, my dog is on some pain killers (which make him feel SO GOOD - he runs all over the apartment chancing Tim these days, something that he hasn't done in a long, long time) and we are using some eye drops from another vet visit for his eyes, which will warrant another visit as well.

My total vet bill for ONE VISIT which included: two heartworm tests (for Tim and Bing), a physical exam for Bing, a tear test for Bing, two x-rays of Bing's neck, a month's worth of pain killers for Bing and 6 months of HeartGuard for each dog came to almost $500.

$500.

Let that sink in for a moment. Now, scream with me! (I did choke a little on my spit when the lady handed me the bill)

Thank God the office let me split it into two payments for an extra $5, which honestly, is cheaper than an overdraft fee so I'll pay it. But with rent due from my last paycheck as well as the first $250 for the animal clinic, I will have about $10 left over in my account until my next check on the 15th, which will be missing the last $250 from it.

But despite the fact that I had to put my groceries for the next two weeks on my credit card (because I had NO FOOD - no joke), I am pretty proud of myself for budgeting around this fairly unexpected bump in the road. Plus, the follow up visit is free if you go back within two weeks of your first visit, so that's a money saver as well.

Armini thinks that I am totally loony for spending so much on a pooch. My mom told me that she would never pay for prescription pain killers for a dog forever.

If you knew that you could do something for your dog if you just knew what was wrong, would have paid $500 to find out what was wrong? Would you pay for the pain killers for your dog (or cat, or whatever) if you knew that they would live a much happier life?

Am Not Dead. Send Money.

2009-02-26T12:14:00.003-06:00

Well readers, it's been a while since I've posted on here for a number of reasons.

I finally got a feeling of being "master of my money" in real life, which made me feel like blogging about money was no longer something that I needed to do.
I finally got that raise at work and was all like "I have soooo much money now I will never want for anything ever again!"

However, I have discovered that getting a raise does not mean that I will never want for anything else, ever again and that I am in no way shape or form "master of my money":

My first paycheck (after my raise) (which was last week) was totally gone after a week (read: I have negative dollars in my checking account right now). That is a problem.
I have finally figured out what is wrong with Bing and that he will probably need to be on pain killers for the rest of his little doggy life ... also I had to shell out close to $500 this morning for the vet visit + tests + x-rays + medication. Woo!

So, because of the pain of having to write the vet's office two checks this morning and pay them the extra $5 to hold the second one until my next payday, I have decided to get back on this pony and ride. Talking about the problems and trails of managing my money helps me to really do it in real life. Plus - I like to write about it. Yay!

I will update the spend-o-pay-o meters in the next few days. I have gotten rid of a lot of debt (yay!) and one of my New Year's resolutions was to be totally debt free in 2009 ... something that I can definitely blog about and I am already well on my way!

Sorry for the long absence peoples ... I promise not to stay away anymore! Also, I have no idea if Ashely-Michelle will ever post here again (she still live in Kansas BTW [because I know you were just dieing to know what happened with the move to California], she got a scholarship to a great school for a great program and she just couldn't say no. She's still going out there, just not until she graduates).

Keep reading friends ... Hopefully I will get around to reading other blogs soon!

Personalities Pay the Price

2008-12-13T02:40:00.002-06:00

It's depressing that I fell so far behind on being an active part of this blog. I have no real excuse, save for my personal life, but what else is new?

Financially-speaking, I have been doing really well. It's odd how when I stopped obsessively focusing on my money, it seemed to largely resolve itself. What I mean by that is I realized I had several goals that were too overbearing and inadvertently critical of myself. They were certainly achievable, but on the whole, unrealistic. And I made the mistake of tying in my self-worth and self-esteem with the monetary process.

What I mean is, I had the unfortunate habit of setting forth an extremely unlikely goal that left no breathing room for emergencies or a sudden change of circumstance. Then, the unexpected would inevitably occur and throw a monkey wrench in my carefully-constructed plans, torpedoing the whole affair and my self-esteem would plummet lower than the Dow on Foreclosure Day. Absolutely depressing.

So, in order to really become proactive in dealing with the constant disappointment and emotional subterfuge, I first had to scale back on my goals. Instead of immediately determining a future date, amount and reason behind saving, I decided that creating a routine for no other reason than the sake of having a routine would go a long way. Psychologists and addiction specialists will tell you that it takes two weeks to form a pattern (gee, if only I could absorb that into my gym routine) and fortunately for me, my paychecks come on varying weeks. I got into the habit of going to Bank A (where I keep my savings account) to cash out my paychecks, and leaving at least $50 from each check I cashed before moving the rest of the money to Bank B, where I keep my checking account.

The growth of my money in Bank A was definitely slow, but as a good friend often tells me, "Slow growth is good growth." Last I checked, I have over $1,000, and I'm proud of that. I was, after all, a girl given no formal training in money management (to date, I haven't even taken an economics class) who had to learn the hard way how to budget, plan and save. I refer to my savings account as my "Move to California" fund, but it may also pan out to be "AMP's New Car" fund, depending on how much more I really want to sink into my current vehicle (at this point, it needs a new windshield, new wipers, new tires...the list goes on) and knowing at what I have accrued in just a few months makes me excited for how much more I can do in the future.

Even better, all of my living expenses are drafted out of my checking account, which is housed as Bank B. I don't have to touch any of my Bank A money unless the expense is great than $500, because I keep a steady, small, minimum balance in my checking account for protection. That feels like real progress and real empowerment.

My advice to any person starting to uncover financial tips of success is to figure out who you are and how that's effecting your money management. I'm an all-or-nothing, impulsive and rather impatient perspective. In this respect, I like to play the ostrich when it comes to money woes and dig my head in the sand. I don't like how it inspires feelings of failures, but darn if sometimes I find myself reaching for my debit card or my roll of cash when I know I shouldn't be. I either balance my check faithfully every day or I don't touch it for a month, and when I sense I'm off by even a few cents, I come completely unglued. I've noticed, naturally, that retail therapy can provide a great solution.

Having said that, ask yourself what tenets of your personality are shaping the way you manage your money. It's a hard look to take, but evaluating your spending style (big purchases? small? impulsive? planned? angry? happy?) and even your budgeting goes a long way towards revealing what the actual problems are. Very few people are in the position that they just don't care or don't know what they spend. Most are aware of their ups and downs, but haven't quite realized how their personality shapes the behaviors.

I'd also suggest checking out Suze Orman. She has some great suggestions, especially for women, who are often unfairly overlooked in the finance industry.

Spending Breakdown

2008-11-26T13:03:00.001-06:00

Since I am now on a quest to spend way less than I make (which is a pitiful amount) I thought that the best place to start would be with a break down of how I spent my last paycheck - which, if you were wondering, is GONE. I have $1.42 that has not been dedicated to anything left in my checking account. I got paid on November 14, 2008 and $610.91 was put into my checking account (I actually was paid more than this, but a percentage of each of my checks goes strait into my emergency fund and I don't count it at all to ensure that I don't try to spend it).

Fun/Unnecessary to my life spending: $334.40

$7 = ATM fees
Includes bars/ticket to Bears game/costume/NetFlix/iTunes (1 song)
$82.18 = charged to CitiCard

Payments and Savings: $336.49

Includes deposit into car savings/credit card payment/overdraft payment

Things I NEED: $73.59

Includes a doctor co-pay/gas/cold medication

Other: $4.77

Includes turkey for work/coffee for the drive home

Now, while this paints a fairly accurate picture of my spending habits, it is a little skewed because I went out of town during the November 21 - 23 weekend and spent a lot more than normal. However, I think that for the most part this is something that I can work with. For my next few paychecks I am going to have to add heavily to my emergency fund because Boyfriend and I are going to be moving in together and I will have to come up with my half of the rent on a consistent basis, and for those weeks where I don't hit the 40 hour mark I might need a little help and that is where the help is going to come from. So for right now ... this is how my paycheck is going to be put to work.

Average Paycheck = $639.60
Average Automatic Deposit to Emergency Fund = $76.75

Balance = $562.85

Extra Deposit to Emergency Fund = $150

Balance = $412.85

Deposit to Car Fund = $100

Balance = $312.85

Payment to Citi Card = $75

Balance = $237.85

Payment to Mom and Dad = $75

Balance = $162.85

Cash Withdrawal from the Bank (to avoid ATM fees) = $100

Balance = $62.85

The rest of the cash can be used for gas, or can be put into a savings account, or maybe even used to pay off my debt to my parents. I am going to use this 'budget' starting with my next paycheck, which will come to me on the 1st of December. Hopefully I can stick to my guns and to my budget and come out ahead on all this. Getting control of my finances will give me a sense of empowerment that I really could use right now. I'll let you know how it goes.

Running out of Money = Badness.

2008-11-24T12:04:00.003-06:00

I feel constantly that I am missing the mark with this whole budget, don't spend more than you make thing. I have a social life (read: I still go out with my college friends and drink every weekend) and I have recently picked up a few hobbies that require me to spend in order to do them (I have started knitting and sewing which means I need money for yarn and fabric). If I get 40 hours every week, which doesn't happen a lot, I make around $319.80 per week. That works out to be $1,279.00 a month.

Now, I might just be really hard on myself, but I feel like I should be able to live comfortably on that. Not to mention the fact that I earn around $200 extra for babysitting each month. I can't help but wonder why it is that I run out of money like clockwork about a week after I get my paycheck and end up having to use my credit card for things that I absolutely need in order to function (like gas). It's so frustrating to have to tell my friends that I can't go out because I have no money and then have to explain to them that I really have no money and I'm not kidding. Plus, it makes me hate myself for making $200 payments on my card twice a month and then have it count for nothing when I have to use it in between paychecks. So, I think it's safe to say that it might be time for me to do a few things.

Look over my budget and rework it.
Think of a system to stop running out of money in between paychecks.
Ask for a raise.

I have been mentioning getting a raise to my supervisor for a while now. I am only making $9.75 an hour right now (as an almost 24 year old college graduate) and I am doing the work of three people. Yup, I said three (like ... the number. 3. 3 people.) I am doing all the work for my SEO internship, plus helping to answer the phones until our regular receptionist comes back to work at the beginning of December, and learn to be an eMarketing Strategist for when she goes on maternity leave sometime in late December/early January depending on when the baby comes (he is a super baby. He weighs 2.5 pounds more than he should for how far along she is.).

I like my job, and part of the reason that I haven't been more aggressive about getting a raise is that I'm scared that they are going to tell me to take a hike and then I'm going to be stuck making $0 an hour, which sucks way more than making $9.75. But as of December 8, I will have been working here for 8 months so I think it's time for them to consider it. I hope that they'll give it to me and then ask my why I took so long to ask for it. That would make me way happy. But, I just can't support myself on what I'm making now and that's just not fair.

Once I get my budget worked out I'll post it for you to see. And the same with my system for not running out of money. Stay tuned! The next few posts could be really interesting ...

Only One Left ...

2008-10-22T09:24:00.003-05:00

A few posts ago I talked about how I was hesitant to cut up my credit cards because of the feeling that I would be losing something. Specifically a business opportunity (please don't think that I'm emotionally attached to my credit cards - that is not the case). But yesterday I had a moment of clarity and I cut up the Capital One card that I've been hiding from myself in my day planner and which has a balance of $0.00 on it.

I zeroed this card out in August when I went on my get rid of debt spend-o-thon. I can't tell you how good it felt to know that I had finally gotten it taken care of, after like 2 years of paying them tons of money that could have been better spent elsewhere. But the other day I opened my email to find an alert from Capital One saying that I owed them money. And not only did I owe them $3.47 but they had already tacked on a $15 late fee to boot.

I knew that I hadn't charged anything to the card since I had paid the balance in full and so I was concerned right off the bat. When I went to look through my online statements only to find that the reason for the charge wasn't listed was when I decided to call and see what the heck was going on. Turns out that it was a finance charge for the balance that I paid off two months ago. Why they didn't send me a bill for the month of September ... I'm not too sure.

But I was as nice to the guy as I could be and when I asked him to remove the late fee, he did. And I paid my $3.47 and made sure that there was no way that I could be charged a finance fee on my finance fee (which they don't do - or at least I was assured that they don't do) and now the card is completely and totally and forever paid off. Forever. (If it isn't ... someone is going to have a very angry Super Careo on their hands).

And so, after I had made my last ever payment (for real this time) to Capital One, I cut up the card. It was really liberating actually. It's like cutting out a bad spot from your life. Feeling a burden lifted from your shoulders. Knowing that I will be able to put a lot more money to my Citi Card in the coming months so that I might be able to hit my goal of getting all my debts paid off before I move out of the 'rents house (hopefully in January ... or maybe sooner?).

You know that expression that says that if you love something then you should let it go? Well, I'm pretty sure that Capital One really loved it when I was late on payments or got my balance down a little bit only to charge something and send it right back up to within $10 of my credit limit. And for a time I liked being able to do that. But the time has come ... time to be free.

Paying Bills = Love

2008-10-09T13:21:00.003-05:00

There's a radio station in town that is running a contest where the winner gets one of their bills paid for them. You fax in your bill and then they pull your name out of a hat (or whatever) and then they call you and tell you all about how you have one less bill to pay. Now, I like this idea but I do have issues with the radio spots they run promoting it. I think it goes something like this ...

Announcer: Everyone hates paying bills.
Girl: Oh maaaaan. Another bill?!
Announcer: Except for this one guy in our accounting department.
Guy: YES!! Another one paid off!!
Announcer: Won't you let us help him by paying your bills?

Now, normal people would probably hear this and think "I also hate to pay bills. That accountant is such a weirdo!" And that's what I thought the first million times I heard it. But then I actually took the time to absorb what the 'weirdo' accountant was saying.

Guy: YES!! Another one paid off!!

I don't like bills ... in fact I would even go so far as to say that I hate bills. But one thing that I like about bills is paying them off. Which is what the weirdo accountant is excited about. So ... does that mean that I love bills? If paying them down equals love ... then yes. I do love bills.

I think that we could all take a lesson from this radio spot however. Even though it's on the station that plays Pink and the Jonas Brothers, even though their morning show personalities make me want to drive off the road and into a light pole on my way to work ... their account has the right idea about personal finance. You should be excited to pay down your debt. You should be excited when you rip open your credit card/mortgage/car loan bill every month. Not because of the number in the minimum payment square but because of the number in the total balance box and the fact that each month when you pay more than the minimum (you are, right?) it drops.

Making credit card payments is one of the things that I really look forward to doing every month. When I get my paycheck one of the first things that pops into my head is "How big a payment can I make with this?"

There is nothing in this world that makes me feel as light and happy as I feel when I zero out a credit card balance.

One step forward, two steps back

2008-09-15T08:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I was doing so good at paying off my debts and not racking up any more. But I back slid. For a while I thought that I might just not mention it on here, but I think it's important for me to share my triumphs as well as my mistakes. I mean, nobody's perfect and this is a blog about my journey to financial freedom. So here's what happened.

I ran out of money at the end of the month (shocking, I know) and was on a business trip where I would be unable to collect my pay until I returned home. I had no money to pay for my parking at the airport, so I charged it on one of my cards. Then I was getting ready to go on another trip and need to buy some stuff to get ready to go (i.e. shoes to go with my dress, make-up and some other skin care things) and since I didn't have any money, I had yet to deposit the check, I charged that too. All in all, the damage done amounts to $285.91. However, I am currently working on getting my parking paid for by my company and that was about $93. This morning I scheduled a $150 payment, which almost covers my new debt.

Instead of letting myself get overly depressed about it, I decided to respond pro-actively. I took my credit cards out of my wallet and put them in my day planner where I can't get to them to charge on them. I know what you're thinking, "Why don't you just cut them up?" and part of me would say that you're right. But there's another part of me who just can't let go because I keep thinking that I might need them. A while ago I wanted to start selling Beijo bags, which are totally awesome purses made out of vinyl and the whole reason why I got a second credit card, and I still would really like to do it. I feel like cutting up these credit cards would be the end of that opportunity. Maybe one day I will feel like I can cut them up without the feeling of something lost, but until then I'm just going to hide them so that I won't be tempted to charge on them anymore.

My Net Worth ... Is Depressing.

2008-08-26T18:24:00.002-05:00

I was poking around on other blogs and got the idea to find out what my net worth is. I joined this nifty little site called Networth IQ. It has all sorts of forms you fill out about what you make, and how much debt you have vs. savings, cash, and retirement funds and any assets you may have. I entered in all the information that I have from my debts (which are getting smaller by the day) and what I currently have stashed away in my bank accounts. And this *drum roll please* is what I came up with:

It's sad isn't it? So I have decided to add another bar to my pay-o-save-meter's with a new goal. My new goal is to get my net worth up to at least $1,000 by the end of the year. And I am going to set up a Roth IRA so I can start saving up for retirement. I just thought I would share that little bit of joy with you.

Also, I paid off my Capital One credit card in full yesterday. I now only have one credit card left to pay off before I start picking away at the money that I still owe my darling parents. My Citi Card is going to be down to $1,077 and some cents by the end of the week, depending on when my payment posts. And by next weeks it should drop another $74, which is all I have left over from my $1,000 pay off my debts spend-a-thon. I decided that I would split the money and take care of my Capital One card since it was under $400. YES!! I LOVE paying credit cards in full. It just makes me feel so alive. And I think I'm starting to really like the way a 0 looks when it's listed under the cloumn 'money you owe us'.

"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." -- Norman Schwarzkopf

2008-08-18T14:36:00.004-05:00

This morning while I was driving to work, I made a decision. And it was a hard decision. For a number of reasons. But now that I sit here and think about it really hard, I think that it is by far the best decision that I could make right now.

I have decided to take $1,000 and use it to pay down my CitiCard balance of $1,593.13. I decided to do this for a number of reasons.

I am tired of paying this bill. I have been willingly forking over cash to CitiCard for far too long.
The interest. It isn't killer, but it's not 0% either.
I feel like I never make any headway on paying this card down, and I am tired of it.

In a month and a half of saving, I have managed to pull together close to $1,100 for my car fund. I was looking at all my my debts the other night, in an effort to manage them, and realized that I could pay off a large chunk of my Citicard balance if I would be willing to sacrifice the money from my car fund.

At first I was totally against the idea. I mean, I need a new car. And I have a goal to reach! But then I stopped to consider the points I listed above and decided that I would rather have only one bill to pay (the car payments) each month, even if it meant that it was a little bit more expensive than it would have been if I have kept the $1,000 in the savings account. But I think that at this point in my life, getting rid of my debts is the most important thing to do.

It's just another case of the have to's taking priority over the want to's. I will let you know how it goes.

The Have-To's vs. The Want-to's

2008-08-15T08:23:00.005-05:00

I want to move out of my parent's house. But before I can do that there are a few things that have to happen. Like paying off my debts and possibly getting a raise. It's frustrating for me because I think I'm ready to head out into the real world and take care of myself, regardless of what my parents have to say about my financial life. One of my mom's favorite sayings is "you have to do the have-to's before the want-to's" and I think this is a case where this saying can be applied to life as well as my money.

I want to move out. But, I have to get my debt under control and prove to myself that I can manage my money so that I can pay rent and eat in the same month. I actually did sit down the other day and fill out a budgeting sheet to see how it would all work out if I were to move out on my own tomorrow. With what I'm getting paid (which works out to about $18,000 a year) I could live in one of the apartments near my office, but there are a number of things that I would have to go without. Like cable, or turning up the heat in the winter. I would also have to limit my grocery spending to less than $100 a month, which is do-able. But as much as I would like to trim down I don't really want to go on the 'starve yourself' diet.

Plus I have two dogs. They are going to have to go out and go potty at some point, I would have to drive home during lunch to walk them and might even have to hire someone to take them out again in the afternoons. I wouldn't be able to go from work to a babysitting job without letting them out which means that I would have to cut back on my babysitting hours and/or leave work earlier before a job to take care of them. Not to mention the fact that I would feel guilty for leaving them alone for so long during the day. And they have to eat too - which can get to be pretty expensive.

And the list just goes on and on and on. The money never stops coming out of my pocket. There is no way that I could move out tomorrow and live comfortably. It's something that I know I could do, but not something that I want to.

In January my friend and future roomie's lease runs up on her apartment. If I can just stick it out with Mom and Dad for a few more months I have the chance to pay down (and ultimately pay off) my credit card bills and the money that I owe parents. I can move out debt free and have the ability to do what I want to with my money (like saving it ... or spending it on fun things) instead of what I have to do with my money (like paying credit card bills). Not to mention that when you rent a house with an $800 a month rent and a roommate you only have to pay around $400 a month. And that sure beats paying upwards of $600 for a one bedroom apartment.

So as much as my parents and I argue about rent or chores (yes ... I have chores) I have to say that it's the best option for me at this point in my life. Besides, if I change my mind the apartment complexes will still be there and I'm sure that I could find a place somewhere.

New Tracker Jiggy's!

2008-08-05T10:15:00.002-05:00

I figured out how to yank the code from another blog and use it here ... it only took me 15 minutes or so to change the colors and all the values! I am quite pleased with myself and really you should be too. You may also notice that since yesterday, I have paid off 9% of my debt and that the debt total went up. I decided that adding in the last bit of debt I paid off recently wouldn't kill me and I wanted to take some credit for the hard work I've been putting forth to get all my bills paid off.

In fact, I will be zeroing in on the exact amount of my debt (the number over there is a rough estimate) this coming month after my next round of bills are paid. So be looking for updates on that.

I would also like to take a moment and plug the blog that I got this code from. It's called Clutter2Cash and it's a very nice blog. Thanks for the code!

I'm Not Dead

2008-08-04T16:49:00.003-05:00

I know that this blog has fallen into neglect but nothing much has really been happening on the financial front for me in the last few weeks. I've been living at home (despite all my efforts to get out) and saving and paying down my debts like crazy. I have been doing really well with all my money that I even had the ability to buy a plane ticket to New Orleans to visit a high school friend who is there for the summer, and still make my savings goal. Granted, I had a huge graduation gift to help out with it, but I would have been able to do it even if I hadn't received it.

Now, you may have noticed a new little thing on the blog - my money tracker. I made it myself in paint because I couldn't find any blog tools that would give me the HTML to make a spiffy one. I apologize for the smallness, I will try to make it bigger.

If you've been reading this blog at all you know that I have actually paid off some of my debt that is not accounted for in the 'total debt' part of my tracker jiggy. Instead of going back and figuring out exactly how much I owed since the start of the year, I thought that I would just start from today. This is reflected in my savings account totals also. So, as I continue to pay down debt (credit cards and money that I owe my parents) I will update my tracker and you can cheer for me.

Even though I gave myself a year to get all those paid off, I would like to think that it will take me much less time so that all that moo-lah can go into a bank account instead of into someone else's pocket.

Car Update:
While I am waiting to save up some for a car, it's looking like the purchase will be made around the end of the year. Today my driver's window went on strike and is refusing to open. I would love to meet its demands but so far none have been made. Stay tuned for updates.

The Car Payments Breakdown

2008-07-01T10:33:00.002-05:00

Well, my new paycheck is in my bank account and it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and start paying up my pretend car payments. I sat down the other night with a pen and some paper and with the help of a calculator, I figured out how much money I would have to save each month to reach my savings goals in the next 2-3 years. I looked around online and found the calculations that you would have to do in order to figure out how much interest you would expect from $X in your account but I couldn't figure out how often my interest is compounded which is a problem. So, bearing in mind that all of my numbers completely ignore the interest I'll get, here's what I found.

To save up $10,000 in 2 years, I would have to put $350 into my bank account each month.
To save up $15,000 in 3 years, I would have to put $430 into my bank account each month.

I was told that you usually put about 15,000 miles on your car each year ... which means that I will hit my goal of 200,000 miles on my car within the next 2.5 years. My friend and I were talking about my pretend car payments, which she thinks is a very good idea, and wondered aloud to me about the affordability of these monthly amounts. She also pointed out to me that I wanted to move out of my parent's house in the near future and asked if I would be able to keep up with my new savings plan.

My response was that, as I have mentioned before, just about all of my big bills (rent, utilities, groceries and my basic dog care expenses like dog food) are going away at the end of this month. So I figure that I will take out the money that I need for gas and going out type stuff and I will save the rest.

So there you go. I will be putting $430 into my bank account monthly until I can't afford it anymore, and then I will drop it to $350 or $300 depending on what I can afford. I might even go so far as to put money from each paycheck of the month into my bank account. So if I live with Mom and Dad for only 3 months, I will have 6 months of savings in the bank. How about them apples?

The car breakdown (hehe, I'm punny)

2008-06-25T11:28:00.003-05:00

Well, here's the skinny on my vehicular situation. I have decided to drive the thing for 1-2 more years or until it hits 200,000 miles. Which is only 40,000 miles away. Here's how I am planning to skimp and save to get the money saved up to pay for most (if not all) of my new wheels.

I opened a high interest savings account with HSBC Direct. I'm currently getting 3.5% APY.

When I learn how to do math I will let you know how much I should expect to earn from said account during the year.

I am planning, starting with my next paycheck, to put $200-300 in this account as a pretend car payment.

I say $200-300 because that's what I'm hoping would be my car payment if I got a car today and I don't know how much I will be able to put away right now. There is more math that needs to be done.

I still have to sit down and work out a budget. I've been trying, but since I'm living with my parents several notable parts of my current budget disappear. Like: rent, utilities, and my grocery bill. It's making budgeting a little too easy and because of that I feel like I need to be wary. Is there something that I haven't considered? I also may be moving out of my parent's place in the near future (one can only hope) and that may change things too. So, my new monthly budget will be coming soon. Stay tuned!

Conservation - a necessity not a need

2008-06-19T09:21:00.003-05:00

Well, Ashley-Michelle had a psychic moment the other day when she posted about conservation being a good way to go with this blog. I may may start doing quite a bit of it in the coming months.

My car, a '96 Ford, has broken down one too many times and I am now seriously considering replacing it. We did find out that the reason it didn't start last night was because due to corrosion around the battery wires, which has been fixed, but it's been in and out of the shop pretty much every other week for the last couple of months.

So with that said, I will be embarking on one of two possible paths with my money. And they are as follows:

Take the plunge and replace my car with a used one
Deal with a crappy car for two more years or so while I do some serious saving for car payments (there is no way that this car will last long enough for me to save enough to pay for a new car in cash)

I will let you know what I decide to do in the next few days. My mom and I are heading over to Car Max to ask questions and look at some cars that I might be interested in purchasing. I just have to decide how much more I am willing to put up with from my Ford.

I will also be posting with an updated budget based on whatever path I go down. There are obviously some changes that will need to happen. Any input or ideas would be appreciated. But please, lets keep the brand bashing to a minimum.

How to avoid spending money

2008-06-18T08:24:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I had some returns to make. They were things that I had purchased and decided I really didn't need. Like the AE tank I talked about in a previous post and some underwear from Victoria's Secret that I had bought a looooooong time ago and had just been sitting in my closet. You might want to know how this relates to not spending money. Bear with me, I'm getting to that.

The return to AE was quick and painless. I did have to stand in line for a while but since there weren't any banners around me telling me how cheap clothes were, I didn't have a problem not stopping and looking around. It also helped that I was on my way to a babysitting job and didn't have much time to begin with.

But then I walked over to Victoria's Secret, and with horror realized that I was about to walk into their semi-annual sale. The very same event where I purchased the undies that I was about to return.

For those of you who don't know me well, I LOVE Victoria's Secret underwear. Especially their Pink line. And my friend has been raving about her Vicki's bra and it makes me want one. I've also read that Ipex bras are the shit. And I need new bras. So you might understand why going into the store was such a problem.

I stood outside and wondered to myself, "How in the world am I going to make it in and out of this place without at least one new pair of underwear in my hot little hands?" I took a deep breath and plunged in. I pretty much ran to the back of the store to get in line by the registers. But I did make it out without buying anything, and I am quite proud of myself. Even thought I had to run through the store to keep myself from spending.

So, you may be asking yourself, how do I avoid spending money? Well, this is my advice to you:

Stay out of the store!

If there is nothing in the store that you need to live or if it's a store where you will be really tempted to spend the money you don't have, don't go in. It sounds simple, but I honestly had never thought of it that way until I walked out of Vicki's bag free. I was a little sad as I was walking back to my car because that means, more or less, no more mindless wandering around the mall.

But then I realized that I really don't go to the mall anymore unless there is a reason to. Either I need something or someone else needs something. So either way, I'm on a mission and that helps me to keep my money where it belongs, in my wallet.

Peanut Butter Practicality

2008-06-17T23:04:00.002-05:00

Sometime tomorrow, I'll update with the remaining three tips for college grads, but today, given that both myself and Super Careo are fur-mamas, I thought I'd share an ingenius money-saving tip.

So, most of us eat peanut butter. It's kind of an American tradition. And a large majority of Americans own dogs. Although the in-home care for pets has gotten better over the years, there are still a number of minor health issues that many fur-parents tend to miss. A big one is the importance of glucosamine in pets, especially larger breeds and animals pre-disposed to arthritis.

My Savannah, a German Shepherd-Brittany Spaniel mix, has suffered from arthritis for about seven years. The last year has been especially rough for her, so I started feeding her glucosamine tablets at the urging of the vet. I did notice it seemed to help quite a bit with her joint and bone pain, caused by the stress of her condition. Still, my vet suggested that I switch to a specific company.

The only problem is, the tablets aren't flavored, and both my dogs are notoriously finicky eaters when it comes to treats. Seriously, my Pomeranian loves to eat broccoli, but don't count on seeing him gobble down any treats designed to address his tartar and plaque build-up. Oy.

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to take a spoon and coat the glucosamine tablets with a small amount of peanut butter. Because watching the weight of an arthritic dog is so critical to maintaining their health and comfort, I always did a very small amount, just enough to make the tablet seem like a treat. When I noticed that the jar of peanut butter itself was just about too empty to use in making a sandwich, it occured to me there wasn't any reason why I couldn't just start using the tablet to scrape a small amount of peanut butter off the side. True enough, it's worked like a charm!

So, I suppose perhaps a good direction to take this blog is conservation of resources, as well as money management. I, for one, feel great that I'm not tossing out a jar of peanut butter that is too little to put on a sandwich, but just right to entice a dog to take her medicine.

Seven Steps for Financial Success for the Post-College Graduate

2008-06-15T10:40:00.003-05:00

As biased as I think msn.com can be when it comes to many of their articles (of the political persuasion, anyway) I have to admit that their "Money & Finances" section is pretty darn handy.

Just today, I read Your Five-Minute Guide to Money in Your 20's. Given that Super Careo and I are approaching our mid-20s, I also decided to read some other articles about what, apparently, makes a twentysomething successful, financiallly-speaking. So I've compiled Seven Steps for Financial Success for the Post-College Graduate, the first four of which I'll share in this entry.

Step One: Get a Job

For most people, this is a no-brainer. However, a lot of individuals make the critical mistake of selecting a job that is financially a disaster, or simply is below their skill set. So chuck the lazy attitude, and prepare for these four tips:

1. A suit, a hair cut, and a new pair of shoes are a financial must. This will make all the difference in the world in a job interview. Let's face it; not everyone can show up to their job interview in dirty clothes and nail the position a la Christopher Gardner, the protagonist of "The Pursuit of Happyness." Still, they don't have to cost an arm and a leg. Consider going to a local beauty college, which will do hair cuts at a reduced price and generally offer free consultations. For suits and shoes, check out discount outlets, the Goodwill or consignment stores such as Plato's Closet, which offers popular clothing at a great markdown. Even stores such as Kohl's can be a good investment, because they frequently have clearance specials marking clothing down by 80 percent.

2. Don't waste your money by selecting a resume kit. There are many free versions offered on-line, including Resumizer, The PC Man and The How-To Resume Builder. However, even going to employment giants like Monster and CareerBuilder can be beneficial, because in addition to helping you find gainful employment, they'll actually build a basic resume and cover letter for you. Also remember you can always ask a trusted friend, particularly if they specialize in Human Resources or English, to help you punch it up a bit.

3. Don't be afraid to use your connections. If you're a college graduate, make sure to contact your alumni chapter. Were you in a sorority, fraternity, or any kind of ordained membership? Those affiliations can help open doors in the post-education world.

4. Don't accept jobs that might pay more in the beginning, but have nothing to do with your degree or your intended plan. This can lead to professional stagnation and later, job apathy.

Step Two: You're Hired!

Okay, congratulations are in order. You are officially a working-class adult, fully fiscally responsible, right? Wrong. The immediate afterglow of the first working job is when many twentysomethings make their first mistakes. A few tips to remember:

1. Your paycheck isn't as big as you think it is. You're getting more money, but Big Brother is also taking more of what you earn, something that early budget-makers forget when calculating out their expenses. Still, PaycheckCity offers a great calculator which helps to determine how much take-home pay you actually receive.

2. Be aware of what your job means for your tax return. If you're like me and have never handled your taxes, it's a good idea to enroll in a tax class (many community centers and community colleges offer them at reasonable rates under "Continuing Education" banners) so you have a better idea of where your money is going, and how. This will also help you plan for deductions.

3. A career, as much as a penny stock or an IRA, is an investment. It's important that you manage it better than any other investment, which includes showing up on time, completing your work under deadlines and setting higher expectations for yourself that aren't unreasonable.

Step Three: Banking

Securing a job doesn't mean that it's time to stash money away in a cookie jar and hope for the best. The days of saving pennies for a rainy day have pretty much passed, so a financially-responsible person needs to begin investigating banking. These days, it isn't uncommon for parents to set up bank accounts for their child, either to begin saving for college when they're very young or to offer them a start into the world after they've become an adult. Either way, especially if someone is starting out in a new place, it's important to select a bank with the same methodical investigation as any other major investment.

1. Don't just take the first bank you come across. Like with any other major investment, it's important to do your research and find out which bank offers you the best plan for your individual lifestyle. AllBusiness.com offers the following tips:

a. Fees. Many banks are charging more for previously complimentary services, such as bank statements, overdraft protection, customer inquiries and so on. Therefore, it's important to determine what your bank charges for these services and respond accordingly. For example, many banks are now going to "paperless" bank statements, preferring instead to send their clients e-mails, and some banks, such as Commerce in Kansas City even offer monetary incentives for their clients to go digital. Investigate which areas will allow you to cut corners--but be cautious; never skimp on overdraft protection or statements, period. Murphy's Law proves that just when you think overdrafting can never happen to you, it will and banks do make mistakes, meaning it's important you receive and examine your statement, whether by postal mail or e-mail.

b. Minimum Balances. The upside to having a minimum balance is that it does help with more effective budgeting, but only if you're informed enough to know that there is a minimum balance to begin wtih. I fell into this pit with both my savings account and my checking account, which I keep at two separate banks. Unfortunately, at both my checking and savings account, I failed to read the fine print and only after I spent several thousands in fees (enough that really, I should probably have a wing of the bank named after me at both locations) did I discover what my tellers had glossed over during the process of opening my accounts: each requires a minimum balance of $100. What's worse, some banks will charge even higher amounts for falling just a few pennies under $100 than if you were to bounce a mortgage check, so be cautious. When opening a new account, ask the teller directly what expectations are with the account such as minimum balances, and if you ever feel that you're being silver-tongued, take the paperwork home before you sign anything. Opening a bank account shouldn't feel like purchasing a used car.

c. Direct Deposit. All banks offer this fine feature, which automatically deposits your paycheck into your bank account, but some banks will also give you an incentive for signing up for it.

d. ATMs. Hopefully, by the time you graduate, you've learned your lesson on the ATM disaster of taking too much money out at a time and the like. Still, many people rely on the ATM for instant, fast cash. So if you're a person who has an ATM machine that won't burn a hole in your pocket, consider the number of locations within your vicinity, as well as the bank's policies for ATM machines. Most banks will offer free ATM withdrawals to their own customers, while charging fees anywhere from $1.50 to $5.00 for non-bank customers.

e. Locations. As with the ATMs, locations can be important. Perhaps you realize that the check you wrote yesterday might bounce if you don't rush and put $50 in cash into your account on your lunch break. If your bank is within walking distance to your job, this is a relatively easy fix. Unless you prefer online banking, at which case location is a moot point.

f. Online Banking. Many banks are offering online banking for their drive-thru wary customers, but there are several concerns when operating this way, the main being identity theft. Therefore, the best approach is a hybrid one: still complete your transactions, such as check cashing and cash withdrawals, in person, but consider signing up for your bank's online bill pay or banking tracker, if those are services that they offer. Following your account's activity online is another way to manage your ledger and stay consistent with how you track your expenses, purchases and financial gains, and also ensure that the bank isn't making clerical errors on their side.

2. Talk to your co-workers or other individuals you might know about their own banking experiences. How long have they been banking with their individual place? Have they been hit with a multitude of hidden fees, or did they notice a strong return on their savings? Consider visiting a local branch of the banks they use and see how you are treated. If you notice frustrated customers or bad service, then reconsider starting an account there. If your friends or family have an account a particular bank, ask them about their experience.

3. Research the different account options. Whether you need online banking access, a free, no minimum balance checking account or a business account, do your research to see which bank offers the best options for your lifestyle. Read the information online and compare you options. You should also think about what specialized financial services you may need in the future. If you need the ability to transfer money worldwide or you require a business loan in future, find out if your bank offers these type of services

4. If you work for certain employers such as a major airline, large school district or other large corporation, they sometimes operate their own credit unions. These credit unions may provide you with extra benefits and options versus a regular bank. However, as with researching a bank, it's important to be completely informed as to what they're offering and to what extent, as well as the potential drawbacks.

Step Four: Housing

Nobody likes living at home with Mom and Dad. In fact, I know three college graduates who are residing with their parents, and actually have a curfew. Having not had a curfew since I set my own at 17, I think it's an unfortunate reality, but in this economic market, who can really blame them? Still, not everyone has that luxury. For example, in six months, I'll be moving across the country and obviously, living with my 'rents isn't really an option, and for about 70 percent of college graduates, this is the reality.

1. Make sure that your bank account is taken care of first thing. Many landlords or rental authorities require the first and last month's rent to be paid upfront with a certified check or money order.

2. Find your apartment. The process can be a long one, but it doesn't have to be difficult. It's a matter of common sense. Claes Bell suggests the following:

*Be informed. Before you even begin the application process, you should be upfront with questions and as well informed as possible about the property. Know where your potential landlord stands on pets, qualifications for tenants and other possible deal breakers. If you do have any potential red flags, such as lack of current employment, need for a co-signer or having a checkered credit history, mention those things at the beginning.

*Do a walk-through. Once the application process is done, the next step for a diligent renter is a thorough walk-through of the apartment, preferably with a property manager or owner, to make a note of any pre-existing damage. Make an itemized list of things that are wrong with the apartment, such as tattered blinds, a faulty doorknob or a leaky faucet, and have the agent sign it, otherwise there's a danger later that you could have to pay for it, warns Tracey McCartney, Executive Director of the Tennessee Fair Housing Council in Nashville.

*Get Renter's Insurance. If you already have an auto policy with an insurer, you may be able to get renters insurance through them. Either way, a renters policy is inexpensive, essential protection against theft, natural disaster and liability. If the apartment complex burns down, for example, the complex's insurance will pay for your apartment damage, but not your stuff. And if it's something in your apartment that burns stuff down, the apartment's authority company may try to come after you, whereas renter's insurance can protect you from that.

*Read the Lease. It seems common sensical, but most people don't read what they sign. Remember that scene in "Farenheit 9/11" when Michael Moore proved most representatives of Congress had failed to read The Patriot Act before they signed it? The same is true of the general public. However, the lease's fine print can spell a number of things out, such as if you want to have a significant other move in, move out early or arrange for a sublease. According to McCartney, you should never rent from a place that won't give you time to read the lease or offer you a copy to take home.

*Negotiate.. If you see something on the lease you don't like, don't be afraid to negotiate. Most landlords or property managers will have standard terms on things like security deposits and the term of the lease, but, depending on their circumstances and the market you're looking in, they may be willing to change their terms to get you into their property. In some situations, they may even be willing to negotiate the rent, so make sure that you have a list of things you may want to ask for prepared ahead of time. That way, when it comes time to hash these things out with a landlord, you won't forget anything in the heat of the moment. This is also a good time to address the issues you found during your walk-through. Whatever the case, do not sign the lease until you know who is responsible for what financially, and who to call in the future with issues. The next six to 12 months could either reward you for your due diligence or make you wish you'd been more thorough.

3. Budget for your expenses. Bell suggests that those preparing to enter their own apartment need to have the financing for six things:

a. Application fee or deposit holds the apartment while renter's background is checked.

b. Broker's fee if renter uses a third party to find the apartment.

c. Security deposit is usually one month's rent, refundable at the end of the lease.

d. First month's rent needs to be paid.

e. Insurance to cover renter's belongings.

f. The last month's rent.

4. If you're looking to lower the cost of living independently, investigate a roommate. Ask around at work--newly-separated individuals or married people in the middle of a divorce can make for good roommates because they're used to residing around another person and paying bills. Consider checking Craigslist or other online sites, but never be afraid to ask for references upfront. Meet the potential roommate in a public place and consider bringing along a friend for the initial interview. Always check the references out first and if you can, obtain a copy of their credit history. Once you have selected a roommate, outline the responsibility of chores and bills, and get it in writing. Have the roommate sign a lease or a sublease, agreeing to all the terms.

My First Real Budgetary Breakdown = Success!

2008-06-13T13:20:00.007-05:00

So, I vowed a few days ago to adhere more strictly to my budget with this upcoming paycheck. Like many people in my age bracket, I have a tendency to over-spend, but generally speaking, my indulgences have been on food (read: over-spending at the grocery store, or at restaurants) or cosmetics. Fortunately, my last day at ULTA was yesterday, and my boyfriend was kind enough to stock me up on my favorite line, Benefit, during his most recent visit.

In any case, I received my paycheck from the hotel yesterday, for $402.10, which I knew had to be properly placed and used for my bank accounts, bills and other expenditures from Olathe to Merriam. And thanks to an awesome article hosted on MSNBC.com, I even managed to save on my gas during the two and a half hours I was running errands.

My first stop was at Brotherhood Bank, where I keep a savings account. I deposited $52.10, and then received the rest in cash. I allowed myself to skimp on the $100 deposit because my paycheck is a little smaller due to trading shifts with Rachel last week, and because I'll be making an additional deposit this upcoming Friday from my cash-only job delivering fliers.

Oh, yes. I have a job that pays me that I have not calculated into my budget, because the hours are uncertain and inconsistent. Although it pays $12 an hour, it seems unwise to expect a bare minimum output, because I know as soon as I do that, Dixie is going to cut my hours like she did last summer. Anyway, the pay will be around $120, and $50 will be put into my savings account.

My next stop was my checking account at Commerce Bank. I deposited $200 of my cash because due to the ordeal of losing my bank card, I've written three checks over the last few days with the total being somewhere in the $120 range for groceries, debt and other needs. Although when I last checked my account balance a week ago it was over $200, it just seems better safe than sorry. In fact, I have a theory that with all the late fees and everything else that I've had to pay to Commerce in the last two years, they should name a wing of the bank after me. This is, of course, what happens when you fail to read the fine print and discover that your bank requires a minimum balance of $150 not to screw you over.

In any case, that left me with $150. So after I finished up at Commerce, I drove to the gas station to get gas, which I luckily found for $3.82, because it recently hit $4, much to the outrage of the greater Kansas City area. I put $30 in my gas tank, which used to fill it up but now only gives me half a tank, knocking my cash flow to $120.

After I finished pumping gas, I set off to Sprint to pay my bill. Because I downloaded a few ringtones and went over my minutes (slightly) my bill was a little higher than average, but at $40, right within my allotted budget. I even put forth an extra dollar, as a kind of downpayment on next month's bill, because I happened to find it in my wallet and wanted to deal with whole numbers. I left Sprint with $80 in my pocket.

I also needed to pick up Savannah's arthritis medicine, and her vet is located right next door to the Sprint building. For a month's supply, I had to cough up $43. Because her medicine alone exceeded my allocated budget, I recognize I'll have to recalibrate some things, but I was also glad I hadn't deposited $100 into my savings account. I forked over the cash, albeit begrudgingly, and rescheduled Little Bit's wellness exam for June 30.

My next stop was PetSmart, also conveniently located next door, so I didn't even have to drive and saved my car's gas consumption by walking. I picked up the dog food and courtesy of both my PetPerks card and some coupons, I only had to spend $20 on dogfood, instead of the usual $25. I also picked up some dental treats, bringing my grand PetSmart total to $30.

Although I had very few dollars left, I still needed to go to both ULTA (to pick up Barrick's birthday present) and Wal-Mart. Due to the nature of what I purchased at ULTA, I had to write a check and spent $79. At Wal-Mart, I spent $13, which I charged to my card.

The breakdown is as follows:

1. Gas
Total Allowance: $140
Total Used: $30
Total Remaining in Budget: $110

2. Grocery
Total Allowance: $160
Total Used: $13
Total Remaining in Budget: +147

3. Cellphone
Total Allowance: $40
Total Used: $40
Total Remaining in Budget: 0

4. Dogs
Total Allowance: $50
Total Used: $73
Total Remaining in Budget: -23

5. Miscellaneous
Total Allowance: $100
Total Used: $79
Total Remaining in Budget: +21

Dollars remaining for monthly budget: $261
Total debts to be resolved: $136
Total flow within budget: $125

So, it's about $75 short of my ideal $200 balance at the end of each month, but this is also independent of both my ULTA paycheck (which is automatically deposited into my checking account) and the paycheck from the hotel which will arrive on the 27th.

Still, I'm fairly proud of myself. I'm going to go over on my Miscellaneous expenses this month, just because I've spoiled Barrick for his birthday. I purchased him a bottle of
Burberry Brit cologne ($35; discounted courtesy of my employment status at ULTA) which also included a complimentary bath wrap, a Fossil watch ($33; discounted because I grabbed it from eBay), and the accomodations for our hotel stay in Las Vegas next month ($120).

Thankfully, I paid for the watch and the hotel stay prior to committing a budget, so it's really only his cologne that is setting me back, as well as whether or not I decide to engrave the watch ($20) and/or purchase him a copy of "Robot Chicken: Star Wars" ($10). But that would still fall within my allotted "Miscellaneous" allowance, because his cologne, engraved watch and DVD would only be $63.

Whatever the case, I feel so functional, it's almost impossible to believe that not only am I actually spending my money, but I'm doing it in a reasonable fashion. In fact, after this month, I'll have more money left over, because I recently found out that my employment at the hotel makes my gym membership free. Needless to say, I'll be cancelling my exclusive membership and jumping on the hotel's bandwagon.

My New Long Term Goal

2008-06-13T09:03:00.003-05:00

While reading Get Rich Slowly this morning, which I've decided might be my new favorite website, I cam to the conclusion that I need a long term goal. A goal that I don't plan to reach for several years ... like 20 or something like that.

I want to retire no later than 50.

There. It's written down, plain and simple. And thanks to the great stuff over at GRS I think that I might be able to do it. I mean ... really do it. I want to be able to spend a big part of my life doing what I love to do the most - NOTHING.

I want to be able to sit around and stare at a wall if that's what I decide I feel like doing that day. I want to be able to get on a train and be gone for a week without worrying about whether or not I got my time out sheet to the secretary on time. I want to be able to do whatever I want when I want and I think the best way to make that happen is to take my destiny into my own hands and make this happen.

So how do I plan on doing this? Well, that's the hard part. And God only knows how much money I am going to need as I get older. As my grandmother so aptly put it in my 23rd birthday card I might end up being "one of the chosen ones" who lives FOREVER. My grandfather is going to be 102 years old next month and he is healthy as a horse and shows no signs of leaving us anytime soon. The reason my grandmother gave me such a happy birthday sentiment is that they are going to outlive their retirement savings. And Nana needs lots of pain medication and those cost a lot of money ... Papa doesn't need any medication. Like I said, he's healthy as a horse.

Ok, considering that I will be putting quite a bit more thought into this when I have the chance to sit down and really map out my plan, here is what my plan is (more or less):

spend less than I make and save the rest
invest!
start a 401k (I really hope Clickspeed offers them) or an IRA, some sort of retirement account
pay off all debts and cut up all credit cards (which I'm already working on)

I am going to spend some time this weekend talking to my dad about stocks that I might like to get into and maybe opening a mutual fund or something ... I don't know. Like I said, I need to spend some time really thinking this through. But that's the basic idea. I want to be done with working and being a grown up by the time I'm 50. Just in time to enjoy my glory years.

Also, I would like to tell everyone that I am going to be paying off my Macy's account in full this afternoon. I only owe them $94 and some cents and then I am done with them forever! YAY!! I am so happy because while I have never really had a problem remembering to pay my other credit card bills, for some reason Macy's always fell through the cracks. I have had to pay a bunch of late fees on this account and I'm sure that part of the reason my credit score is low is because of this damn Macy's card.

The only reason I got it in the first place was because in order to get your employee discount you have to charge what you buy. Those sneaky bastards knew exactly what they were doing when they made that policy. Sure, they give you a paycheck, but then you really are giving the whole thing back to them in interest and late fees. Bah Humbug is what I say to that sir.

So, once I get Macy's paid off I will only have 3 credit accounts left to pay off and a debt that I owe my parents but they aren't charging me an interest which is nice. And this is what they are:

Citi Card: $1,593.28
Capital One: $462.37
UMB (my bank's overdraft protection): $444.00
Mom and Dad: $1,790.00

I plan on paying down UMB first since I actually might need that sometime in the future (although I am going to do everything in my power to avoid needing to use it), then Captial One, Citi Card, and finally paying back my parents. Then it'll be all profits. WONDERFUL!

J.G. Wentworth Commericals - Working for You

2008-06-09T21:50:00.000-05:00

I thought about something as I was walking into Macy's today to pay another $65 on my bill (which brings my total owed to $94.32 ... YAY!). For some reason the J.G. Wentworth commercial popped into my head. You know, the one where the people stick their heads out of their windows and yell "It's my money and I need it now!". Now, I don't have a structured settlement or an annuity, but it did occur to me that I was walking into the store to give my money to someone else. And not only that, but the fact that I had been paying them interest for far too long on the amount I had on my credit card.

I wanted to run into the store and scream at the top of my lungs ... "It's my money and I don't want to give it to you because I want to use it for other things!" This is my loose translation of the J.G. Wentworth commercial as it applies to my situation. But seriously, I could think of a million things to do with my $65 that did not include giving it to Macy's.

It really motivated me to hit my goals of paying down my debt aggressively over the next two months. I don't want to give anyone any more of my money unless I want to. I never thought that a commercial could be so empowering.

My Monthly Budget Outline

2008-06-09T13:43:00.000-05:00

So, it goes without saying that my impending move to California has brought up the balancing act of budgeting, finances and how in the world I'm going to justify the purchase of a new wardrobe.

After looking over the black-and-white ink of my ever-dwindling bank account, my tight-fisted father looked over at me and said, "You realize you're broke for the next six months, right."

No, it wasn't a question.

So began the process of numbering out my budget. It's going to cost me approximately $1,300 to move in December. That includes the cost of the U-Haul I will have to rent to transport my worldly material goods from my duplex in the suburbs of Kansas City to a tiny apartment in the sprawl of Chico, California, the gas that will go into that U-Haul and if I'm feeling particularly generous, the cost of the Dad's plane ticket to return back to Kansas City.

The first way to accomplish this is to pencil out a monthly budget complete with a six-month plan.

So, my income after taxes is around $928 from my primary job as a front-desk clerk at a hotel. Although I make $10.50 per hour, I'm estimating my actual hourly earning as $8.50 to be more careful, and estimating it as working 32 hours a week, although it's usually closer to 40. It's safer to go with averages, after all.

My budget is as follows:

1. Gas.

It takes about $40 to fill up my tank, and I generally have to fill it up once a week. Therefore, it's save to average $160 for gas, monthly.
========================================================
Allowance: $160.

2. Groceries.

There was a time when all I lived on was Lean Cuisine, because I've always been conscientious of my weight. Now, because I'm too apathetic to cook and I really don't like to eat that much, my groceries have been pretty much reduced to staples. I purchase organic milk, tea bags, organic honey, wheat bread, naturally processed eggs (in paper containers rather than Styrofoam, of course), creamy peanut butter and generally a few Lean Cuisines or Weight Watchers Smart Ones. I've noticed that the Weight Watchers Smart Ones taste better and are generally cheaper individually, but when you're buying bulk, Lean Cuisines are frequently less expensive. A grocery run, on average, costs me about $80, and I try not to go more than twice a month.

======================================================
Allowance: $160.

3. Cell phone.

My cellphone, when I'm responsible, only costs me around $20 a month. Given that I'm in a long-distance relationship with a man who is allergic to calling me during my night time and weekend allowance (he uses AT&T, and I'm on Sprint) and have several friends that I talk to frequently that have not yet converted to Sprint, it's not uncommon for me to exceed my allotted 300 anytime minutes and suffer an overage charge. So I'll allow $40, to be on the safe side.

======================================================
Allowance: $40.

4. Miscellaneous.

I have a gym membership that I absolutely love, and it only costs me $40 a month. I'll also throw entertainment needs of $60, which includes purchasing clothes, make-up, books and eating out. I don't include seeing movies, because I don't have to pay for those, courtesy of my press pass.

==========================================================
Allowance: $100.

5. Pets.

I have two dogs, who are aged six and 10 respectively. Given their advanced ages and my own background in vet sciences, I prefer to feed them a mixture of Purina One Senior Protection, which delivers several essential nutrients and vitamins to protect their aging systems, and Purina One Healthy Weight Formula. Generally speaking, mixing the two, 11-pounds of dog food together keeps them fed for two weeks, and each bag costs about $12. So food runs me around $25 a month.

My 10-year-old is also arthritic, so weight loss is critical to ensuring her long-term viability. Additionally, to treat her arthritis, I need to keep her supplied with glucosamine tablets (I'm partial to peanut butter-flavored brands, because the dog can be tricked into believing they're treats) and her prescription medication.

========================================================
Allowance: $50 (for food, treats and medication).

6. Savings

I have a Savings Account which requires a minimum balance of $100 at all times. Currently, I believe it is at $200. Starting with my paycheck that arrives on Thursday, $100 per paycheck will be placed in my Savings, because that's where I intend to focus the financing of the move. In six months, I will have generated $1200 just by depositing that small increment of my paycheck.

======================================================
Allowance: $200.

So, my total monthly budget is at $710. This still leaves me with about $200 to keep in my checking account for "emergencies."

The Joys of Pet Ownership

2008-06-09T10:41:00.001-05:00

It has come time for me to head over to Petsmart and purchase a ton of dog essentials for my puppies. I thought I might detail them out here. I also wanted to take some time and compare the prices from the store or the vet and the 1-800-petmeds website which claims to sell the things I need cheaply and without charging shipping. These are the things that I need for the dogs ...

*Heatguard (to protect against heart worms): Luckily the dogs fall into the same weight category which means I can buy a year's worth and have six months for each dog.
*Advantix or something similar (to protect against fleas and ticks, well worth the money to avoid the hassle): Unfortunately, the dogs don't fall into the same weight category which means that I have to buy a box for each dog. Bleh.
*It's also time for them to go into the vet and get tested for heart worm and they both need their teeth cleaned which is a couple hundred for both of them.
*They also need to get groomed, which usually runs around $75 for both of them. At least, that's how much it was at my old groomer.

I will have to spend a little time looking up prices and calling my vet to see how much they'd charge me for this stuff। That information will be forth coming as soon as I have the time to sit down and do it.

EDIT/UPDATE: I called my vet and checked out some prices online, and it turns out that everything I need to get is cheaper at my vet's office! What's more ... I called and got the boys scheduled for their teeth cleaning in two weeks. Now get this - I saved a TON of money by staying with my Lawrence Vet rather than just going to one of the vets over by my parents' place. On average the cost for a teeth cleaning in town was $350 PER DOG plus they wanted to keep the dogs overnight to observe them.

My Lawrence vet charges $152 per dog and I get to take them home with me that night. Which I love because when you pick them up they're still a little doped up from the anesthesia and it's so funny to watch them wander around the house. So, I will get to spend the same amount to get both of my dogs' teeth cleaned as it would to get just one done here in Overland Park. I guess it's a good thing that I called around!

You might think that I would be upset about taking a day off to go to Lawrence and deal with 3 dopey dogs (my mom was so impressed with the savings that I'm taking one of the family pets with me to get her teeth cleaned too) when I could spend the day working. It really isn't all that bad! My boyfriend gets back into town the night before after being out of town for 2 1/2 weeks and so I will get to spend the day with him and get this dog stuff taken care of at the same time. Now all I need to do is get them groomed and I won't have to spend money on them again for another couple of months.

Spending with my budget

2008-06-07T20:34:00.000-05:00

So now that I have a budget, I have gone out into the world with my money and spent a little bit of it and so far I think I'm doing alright. The first thing that I've been doing is spending cash ... not using my debit card or writing checks (expect for paying bills of course) but actually using cold hard cash. I read some where that using cash makes you realize what you're actually spending.

And it makes sence when you stop and think about it. When you buy a $60 sweater and pay for it with a card, all you see really is a small piece of plastic and some paper that you're asked to sign. When you pay for the same sweater with cash, you have to pull three $20 dollar bills out of your wallet and hand it over to the clerk. Handling the money kind of makes you think about the other things that you could be spending it on. Like paying down debt or paying for the gas bill that month, or even putting the money into a savings account so that you can earn some interest on it.

Since I have such a small amount of money to spend on clothes I've decided that the time to reign in my expensive clothing habits. I have decided that I will only buy clothes when they are on sale. So today I had some extra time before I had to babysit so I went into American Eagle to see if they had anything that was on sale and cute. I managed to find a pair of my favorite style jeans on sale for $20 ... I don't know how much they are regularly but I do know that the other jean styles that were on sale were $30. So, since I was saving a little I decided that I would let myself get a shirt off the sale rack, hopefully for super cheap. The shirt I ended up buying was $15, but with a cardigan it's something that I can wear to work and can sex up a little to wear out on the town too. I may have spend almost my whole budget for the month today, but I feel like what I got was good stuff.

Also, I'm getting ready to pay off one of my smaller debts in full in the next few weeks. I am SO EXCITED!

Budgeting tid-bits

2008-06-06T08:25:00.001-05:00

So yesterday, while I was laying out my grand scheme on how I was going to save money and how I as going to spend it, I forgot a few things ...

I have two dogs and they have needs that often require money. These include:
*grooming (every few months or so)
*vet care
*food and treats
*anything that needs to be replaced (usually leashes every few years ...)

I also forgot to lay down a plan or allow any money to pay off my bills.
*I am going to continue to pay down my big card debt with the minimum payment (~$30)
*For the 3 smaller ones I want to keep paying them off in increments of $50 or so (depending on how much I can spare) until they are gone.

I think that about covers it.

Also - I have a friend who will be joining me as an author of Master of My Money. She should start writing here in a few days so get excited! She is quite the opposite of me financially. She doesn't like to spend money at all and is a self proclaimed "cheap chick". She is also getting ready to move out to sunny California in December which will bring an even more interesting twist to the blog as we get to follow her on her journey out to the wild (and more expensive) west.

Intro and Budgeting

2008-06-05T11:45:00.001-05:00

So ... let me open this up by telling you a little about myself. I am 23 and have just gotten out of college. I have a full time job, but it's hourly pay. I'm technically still an intern but I hope that by doing some really hard work and learning all I can I might be able to secure a salaried position some time in the near future. I plan on living with my parents (ugh, I know) until I have the funds that I will need to move out and get a place of my own. The area where I live is a little on the pricey side, and if you want to live in a nice area, the lowest price I've found for a one bedroom apartment is $549 and that's before you add utilities and pet rent (I have two small dogs).

I decided that since I enjoy reading other personal finance blogs I might try my hand at it and see if maybe I can do it myself. Now, I don't think that I will be able to offer much in the way of advice but support is something I can definitely lend. This blog would be more of a chronicle of my own personal savings and my journey to eliminate the small amount of debt I have racked up and create a nice savings account. Maybe I'll even venture into the world of investing! Or start a retirement account! The possibilities are endless.

Now, if I've picked up anything from my time reading about other people dealing with their money it's that the first step is to form a budget. I also know that the best way to save is to pay yourself first and live on what's left over. I think that it's also really important to set goals for yourself. So - let's jump right in.

My Savings Goal: I want to have at least $1200 in my savings account by July 31. (I currently have $150 in savings)
My Debt Goal: I want to have all of my small debts (2 under $500) paid off by July 31 and my big debt ($1600) at least halfway paid down by August 31.
My Budget:
My monthly income is about $1,560 before taxes.
I want to save at least 12% of that a month which would be about $187.20, again before taxes.
So, given these two things, that leaves me $1,372.80.

I think I can live on that very nicely ... but there need to be some allowances made for spending. I get paid twice a month so each of these allowances will be taken out in half's from each of my paychecks (which means that I can take out $50 from my first paycheck for gas and going out and $50 from my second paycheck for the total $100)
Allowances:
I will allow $100 to be spent on gas monthly ($1,272.80)
I will allow $100 to be spent on going out to bars and having fun with friends ($1,172.80)
I will allow $50 to be spent on clothes ($1,122.80)
And for good measure I'll throw in an extra $50 for any unexpected things that may come up over the course of the month ($1072.80)

Ok. According to this budget I should have about $1,000, give or take, just sitting in my bank account at the end of every month. That would be pretty cool, let's see if it really works. Since I've already been paid once this month, I am going to put this budget into effect starting next month. Wish me luck!