Wednesday, January 6, 2010

a small windfall and some good luck!

Alright...so it's a very small windfall, but it's still a windfall. Yesterday, I decided it was high time to return my netflix movie...that I've had since...gulp...before Thanksgiving...yes...you heard me right. I kept forgetting to return the movie. Even though, all it would have required was sticking it into my mailbox, but alas, I forgot until now. Or I would remember at 2 in the morning and that wasn't very helpful either. Anyway, I returned the movie yesterday-so that's one less thing to think about/worry over. Well the netflix movie was in my laptop case, and guess what I found in it....40 dollars! Yay! I'm going to earmark that money and use it to buy my I-Pass either tonight or tomorrow. So what was the good luck, you might be wondering? I found my glasses! They were in my laptop case as well, and here I had torn apart my room at the sorority house before I moved out looking for them! Well I have them now, so I'm happy and that's all that matters. That kind of sounded conceited. I didn't mean my happiness is the only thing that matters, I meant that it is one less thing to stress out over. As some [more like one :-) ] of you have probably figured out...I'm constantly stressed out. Almost 99% of the pressure I put on myself. My parents have always told me that they will be fine if I just pass a class in college, but with me, I demand A's for myself. I guess that's just how I am.

I checked and my loan disbursement money is expected to arrive on the 24th. That means that the school will take out whatever I owe for tuition and then probably a week or so after that the remainder will be deposited into my account. I hate having to use student loans from a private lender (Sallie Mae) but it's the only way I can pay for college. However, I have tried to be very smart about it. I only take out the amount of money that I need. I have never thought...hey! Look! Free money! Let's take out a couple extra thousand...I'll pay it off eventually. Believe me, I know much better than that...and after reading PF blogs...it's terrifying when they talk about their student loans. I'll have enough money to get me through the semester...and my job earns me about $320 a month. Yes, it's definitely not a lot...but I'm a full time student with 18 credit hours, and extremely involved in a service sorority that has somthing going on just about everyday. Last semester was in charge of recruitment and new member education, this semester I'm the secretary and in charge of everyone's grades, and I make sure that they are completing their study tables at the library every week. Also, I need to do at least 35 hours of community service a semester. It doesn't sound like alot of hours, but believe me...it adds up. Add into that studying, homework, and spending some time with the boyfriend. Thank god that he is just as busy as I am! In my last relationship-the guy didn't have a job, was taking 12 credit hours, was extremely lazy, had bad grades, and had no aspirations it seemed. My new relationship is amazing! He is smart (smarter than me), extremely athletic, romantic, sweet, sarcastic (which I love-I'm just as sarcastic), and we have a lot of the same interests. He really makes me feel good about myself and understands how busy I am, something that the other guy didn't. Well enough about my love life.

I'm going back to school on Saturday, which I am looking forward to. I got all of my books ordered yesterday, yay! God-I'm such a nerd! Tonight I'm going shopping with my mom to pick up a few things that I need to get before school starts again-contacts, etc. Alright, well I'm going to go. But I hope everyone is having a great day! I think that once I go back to work I'm going to start making separate things to save for. i.e-student loan pay back, emergency fund, and travel fund-more about the travel fund next time!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Somewhat unnecessary costs....

Well I didn't spend a lot of money this weekend..but there were some costs. Alright, so I'm 21 and up until this summer I have never driven on the expressway. Since then, I've driven on it a couple of times with my dad but not enough to feel comfortable. Anytime I needed to come home from school someone would come and pick me up. This is also because I've never had a car up at school until now. However, the position that I would be holding in the sorority would require a lot of travel around campus and town so I needed to get a car. Over the summer my dad bought me an amazing car-a 1966 mustang...and it is gorgeous and I love it. However, it is a 50 year old car...so there were some problems with it...as expected. So the entire semester went by, I held the position without the car, funnily enough, but now it's finally ready to go! Although...it's killer on gas...but I kind of expected that when we got it. Anyway, on Saturday I drove with my dad the route that I would take to get to school, got into town, filled up the gas tank...and drove home. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous...but I have a lot of anxiety and I constantly worry about things. I've never gone to a doctor or anything for it, but I'm just a worrywart I guess. And getting hit by a semitruck on the way back from springbreak last year didn't help either. I'm feeling a lot better about driving now though. My mom also bought me a gps on Sunday so I won't have to worry about getting lost...which also causes me anxiety. I've got to tell you...if anybody actually reads this...it really sucks to be scared to drive places just because you've never been there. It's caused me to cancel a lot of plans in the past. Hopefully now that I have a gps and more experience on the expressway I'll finally have some more confidence in myself.
Well I filled up on gas..cost: 13.76
and then on the way back home my dad suggested that I take my car to get washed...in 20 degree weather (not sure what the exact temp was...but it was cold!) and so I spent 14.99 to have the interior and exterior cleaned...although i would have been all for just cleaning the outside of the car...but my dad said to get the inside done. Sigh. But he paid the tip at least :)
Total cost for the weekend: 13.76+14.99=28.75.

I think the reason that I'm freaking out about spending money is that I need to have the 300 set aside for rent...which isn't a problem and then $40 for an ipass, and gas! now that I'll be driving. I know that I'm ok with that aspect. What worries me is I need to find out what my interest is on my credit card when my next bill comes because my balance is going up daily it seems. I need to pay off this credit card ASAP! I'm taking all of the pinecone research checks that I've gotten in the past couple of months (I always forget to cash checks...oops) and put it all towards the credit card. I'm going to start making multiple payments during the month. I'm excited that school starts again this coming Monday. I'm taking 6 classes, 18 credit hours-and I'll also be working. Originally, I was going to only work 8-9 hours a week because my increase in my schedule. However, I'm just going to suck it up and go into work 10 hours a week...even if it means starting at 8am three days a week. I'm going to suck it up and be an adult. Alright...I feel a little better now. And I called the CC company to make sure that my payment went through today...and it did! One less thing to worry about! I can do this...I know I can!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Bills....debt reduction one step at a time...

Ouch! Well that just hurt a little...a good hurt I guess...but a little painful nonetheless. I just paid my credit card bill. The balance hadn't gone up since I last posted which is good. I just paid $100 towards my credit card. The minimum balance was only $35 and for a very brief moment I was soooo tempted to just pay the $35 and go on my merry little way until the bill came again next month. However, I have spent the entire morning reading PF blogs and it really inspired me to pay as much as I knew I could for the month.

Looking back at the purchases that I've made on my credit card makes me so mad at myself sometimes. Initially when I first got my card I had told myself that I should never use the card for something that will be gone in 24 hours...i.e...food and drinks. The sad thing is the drinks part is actually coffee versus actual alcohol. I'm 21 and in a sorority, but it would probably surprise you to learn that I only went to the bar 3 times last semester, and I only drank maybe a total of 8-9 times that semester. Honestly, I've spent more time at the library and doing community service than anything else this semester. Anyway, that whole concept of not using the credit card for food became a thing of the past. Also, it drives me crazy to think that I put a coach wristlet on the card also at one time. The wristlet only cost $50 which was awesome, and I use it everyday but I could have easily paid for it out of my checking account. Instead by now I've probably paid for that wristlet twice over what with interest rates and all. Well I guess we all make mistakes.

I probably wouldn't have felt so blah about making the 100 payment if I hadn't already transferred 160 to my mom last week. About a month ago one of my wristlets got stolen (not the one I put on the credit card, that one was paid in cash) and I lost my blackberry, credit card, debit cards, driver's license, etc. Basically my whole life. Luckily my keys weren't in there at the time and no charges were made to my cards but I cancelled all of them and had them replaced. The hardest thing to lose was my phone since it basically had my whole life planned out. My days usually run from 9am-11pm everyday at school...no joke. So I need to be able to keep myself organized. Oh well..I digress. Anyway, I went to Sprint and in order to get a new phone right away I used my dad's upgrade (with his permission) and had $160 billed to my family's account (with my mom's permission-the parents pay the phone bill until we get out of college-) and I was able to get a new blackberry. Well the phone bill came and it was over $400 because of my phone, so I told my mom that I would give her the $160 for the new phone, and so I did.

Besides that though, I have really not been spending any money. I’ve been sick all week so New Year’s Eve was a complete bust and I had to cancel my plans. I had a falling out with my highschool friends a couple of years ago so I don’t really hang out with anyone when I am at home. My best friend stays up at school with her fiancĂ© to work, so she isn’t at home during break. My other friends from college are at home or working, so it’s been a very boring break…but it’s also been a very cheap break. I don’t think I’ve spent hardly any money which is good. I probably would have even added some more money to the CC bill but I need to have at least $300 put aside to pay for my first month of rent at my new apt. that I am subleasing (long story). The good side about the sublease is that I’ll be saving around $82 more than from my other rent. I use student loans to pay for my tuition and living (rent, food, etc.) however, we all know that the money doesn’t usually come right away and I don’t want to have to ask my parents for help to pay my rent for the first month. On the plus side I have plenty of food so I won’t really need to go shopping for a while when I get back to school. Ok…well that’s about it for now. As always, I’m sure there will be more later. I think I’ll come up with a list of goals that I want to have for this year and post them either tonight or tomorrow.
-Lauren