I'm Only Twenty Three and I'm Drowning in Debt

A Broken Coffee Maker!? I Might Die

2011-08-18T07:51:00.000-04:00

I spent the better part of twenty minutes this morning trying to fix my coffee maker because I was convinced it was broken since it wasn't brewing coffee. My roommate promptly pointed out I had never turned it on. What a way to start the day.

The BF has left for CT and I am to join him Saturday morning. I don't know what to do with the next two days since he is gone. This is rather exciting. ;-)

I have been doing some extra driving this week because I was convinced something was wrong with my car. My check engine light came on Sunday morning but then shut right off. It hasn't come on since then so I'm calling it a wash. I think all the rain might of tripped the sensor on Sunday. Here's hoping that's all it was.

It Feels Like Fall Today

2011-08-17T07:48:00.000-04:00

I love waking up and it being really cool and crisp ... in October. It has felt like fall the last few mornings here. It's nice don't get me wrong just odd.

I went shopping last night for food and some other little things that we needed around the apartment. I budgeted sixty dollars for this outing and I spent 59.98. That was exciting. I am hoping the food I bought will last a few weeks because with the BF going back to work next Monday he won't be eating so much!

On a side note, I can believe it's already Wednesday! That's really exciting.

There's Something About this Week

2011-08-16T08:08:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is, but there is something about this week that has me on edge. I think it is all the rain we have been having.

My manager is on vacation this week so it's pretty quite at work. It's nice really. Everyone is more relaxed and it's a good change of pace. September is looking like it will be a good month for some sweet overtime. We have booked a small catering event and my job is holding a Yard Sale fundraiser that I get to work, so yay!

This weekend the BF and I are going camping with some guys from his old Boy Scout troop (insert fake excitement here). I don't know why I have to go. He is going down Thursday and I am supposed to meet him there Saturday morning. I really don't want to go though. lol.

Blah I am not feeling it today! Sorry for the lame post!

It's Raining and That Reflects my Mood Today

2011-08-15T07:54:00.000-04:00

This weekend was horrible. Not really but pretty damn close.

Saturday was wonderful. The BF and I stayed in all day and watched stupid movies and made food. It was a good time.

Yesterday, while I was driving to Target, my car sputtered and then my check engine light came on. I'm not stupid, I know the check engine light can mean anything from a lose circuit to some horribly wrong. I drove to my mechanic, who I have been going to since I moved away from home four years ago and who I trust, and on the way there the light turned off. It has been off since then. My mechanic told me that it is probably something stupid and that if the light is off not to worry to much about it. He scheduled me an appointment for next Saturday and he'll take a look for me.

That was scary for me. Even knowing that chances are it was something small I was still scared. I was prepared to move my E fund into my checking account and conduct repairs. I guess that's the moral of this story. I had some extra money, albeit not much, to handle this. That brought some calm over me.

I am still scared and angry at my car. It better hold up.

I love Lazy Saturday's

2011-08-13T10:52:00.000-04:00

I love a good lazy Saturday. That's what today is. There is nothing on the schedule that needs to be done so I'm not doing anything. My plan is to only leave the house for fun, free, things. There is a shopping plaza near us that sometimes the BF and I like to go to and just walk around. I don't know why but that always makes me happy.

Not much to report today. I splurged yesterday and bought Chinese food for dinner :-/ I paid for it in cash so and I'm not to upset about it. The BF and I haven't had takeout in about two weeks so it was nice.

My roommates mother has come to her rescue, again. She told my roommate to go shopping and put it on a credit card and then she would pay it for her. My roommate spend 200 dollars on food. For about $60 I can feed my BF and myself for a little under two weeks. We need to restock milk and some basics during the two week period but $200 baffles my mind. At least I know that her mom will cover her expenses so I am all set on rent ;-)

Have a good weekend everyone!

It's Friday, Firday Gotta Get Down on Friday!

2011-08-12T08:14:00.000-04:00

I do love paydays. I love spending the first forty five minutes of my morning reworking my budget to reflect my actual pay and I love paying bills and balancing my checkbook :-).

My paycheck was $121 more than I had expected :-). I added a little money to my household spending a little because there are some things I need to buy that I have been putting off. The rest went right into my savings account. What a good day it is!

Well It's The End of Another Pay Period

2011-08-11T08:05:00.001-04:00

It's Thursday! And not just any Thursday it's the Thursday before pay day! What started out as what I thought was going to be a bad week for money turned out to be not to shabby.

I managed to control my driving and didn't need to throw some extra gas into my tank, even after the unexpected trip to CT last weekend. I also didn't spend a penny this week.

My E-fund sits just over $300 dollars and I have budgeted adding another $50 to that tomorrow. I am hoping that with all the over time I worked I will be able to add a lot more. My raise won't be on this paycheck which is sad, but it will be on the next one and will have 40 hours of retro pay :-).

I am getting so excited just thinking about being able to tackle this debt. I am also considering a second job to help attack this debt. With the BF going back to work I am going to have a lot more free time on my hands. I only work Monday through Friday most weeks so my weekends are free and I have no problem working at a coffee shop for minimum wage. I don't know yet. I'm going to have to mull it around for a little while and see how the BF feels about it. It would be nice to have a little extra something coming in to snowball...

My Debt Free Plan is Taking Shape

2011-08-10T08:19:00.000-04:00

I spent a good part of last night working on my plan to pay off my debt. With my raise and the BF going back to work it's time I got serious and began to attack this. Because my student loans are below six percent interest I am leaving them be for right now.

Taking a page from Dave Ramsey I have already started to put money into an E-fund. I am going to snowflake every last penny into that E-fund until it reaches $1000 which should be in just over three months.

I am more interested in saving the most money possible in interest so instead of using Dave's traditional debt snowball I am going to modify it. Once my E-fund is complete I am going to throw everything I've got at my Capital One credit card which is charging me almost 18 percent interest. If I can get that up to about $250 a month I should have it paid off about two years after I start attacking it. Then I'll move on to the next and the next. I haven't sat down and did the math yet but I'm looking at somewhere between three to four years to have them all paid off I think.

Plan starts Friday, here I go!

The Good and The Bad ... All In One Day

2011-08-09T07:48:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was a day that was jammed packed with good and bad news all at once.

First the good. My raise went through at work and is being retro applied to my three month anniversary which was in July, so YAY! My manager also told me that if I work eighteen months with him he would recommend me to make the jump into corporate side of the company which is super exciting because the whole reason I took this job was for the chance to make a jump into corporate :-)

And lastly while I was at work yesterday my future mother in law came up to visit the BF and they spent some time shopping. Needless to say I now have a fully stocked fridge, pantry, freezer, and liquor cabinet. I tried to tell her that she didn't have to (via text messages since I was at work) but she insisted and when she insists there is no stopping her.

The Bad. My roommate asked us on Thursday to watch her dog for the weekend while she went to visit her BF, she told us that she would be Sunday night. It's now Tuesday and she is still not home. I have no issue watching the dog at all. I love the little guy it's just the fact of the matter. You ask us to watch him for a set number of days I'm going to hold you to that. If you are going to extend your trip have the courtesy to ask us to watch him longer don't just send me a text saying you will be spending a few extra days. On top of that she still doesn't have a job! Ugh!

The other bit of bad news (there is some good news in it but its selfish of me to put it in good news) is that my executive chef (who is different from my manager) got an offer to transfer within our company to another facility. He is thinking about it and said that he is unsure if he would take it since it would mean a change in his hours. He is the sole provider for this two children so being able to get of work at 3:00PM everyday is important to him. So we will wait and see if he takes this new position. If he does take it it would probably take the company a month or two to fill his spot so their would be some good overtime in the meantime.

And Another Work Week Begins

2011-08-08T08:19:00.001-04:00

This has been a horrible weekend for spending. My in-laws through an impromptu dinner party which meant an unscheduled trip to CT. In order to pay for gas and food this week I had to put food on my credit card :-( I should have an extra hundred dollars or so come payday this week so I am going to transfer the $40 and change over to the card as soon as I can.

That being said I seriously only have $0.58 in my checking account right now so I guess this is going to be a total no spend week. lol. The BF goes back to work in exactly 14 days and I am singing from the mountain tops! Once he is back to work I can get super serious about paying my debt down.

On a completely unrelated topic I want to quickly comment on S&P's downgrade of U.S. debt. It's about time. I think that the other rating agencies need to do the same. Only by downgrading our countries debt will the message of long term debt/deficit reduction get through to our political leaders. I may be young and I sure as hell hate paying taxes but I understand that if this country is going to have a chance to regaining it's former glory, there are going to need to be hard choices made. Taxes will have to go up and spending will have to be cut. I don't care that it is an election year our leaders need to get off their a$$es and do something because they are gambling with my future and I'm sick of it. I honestly think that the first step to accomplish this is by removing every member of the Senate and House that has served longer than 10 years. Their minds have been clouded by power and it's time they step aside and allow new blood and new ideas into the mix.

Sorry for that rant I promise I wont make a habit of it, I'm just really angry. I hope everyone is having a good Monday!

I need to have a tooth pulled out

2011-08-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

A little over a year ago my dentist noticed a cavity in one of my wisdom teeth. She told me watch it and if it got worse or started to hurt we would have to pull it out. Well two days ago it started to hurt something fierce. So now I am getting ready to call the dentist to have her look at it to tell me to I need to have it pulled. Sounds fairly simple right? Yeah, not so much.

I have a rather bad allergy to most types of anesthesia so in order to pull this tooth I need to schedule a surgery at the hospital which will require an overnight for observation. JUST TO HAVE A TOOTH PULLED OUT. Even if I just wanted to have it filled I would either have to do it with no anesthesia or again do an overnight in the hospital. Ugh. I have rather good health insurance but before that kicks in I need to meet a $1,000 dollar deductible. My company covers $700 of the deductible so I will really only need to come up with three hundred plus 20% of everything over the $1,000. Moral of this story is that August is sucking wind right now.

Time to call the dentist now.

Learning to Live With Less, No As Easy As It Seems

2011-08-05T09:33:00.000-04:00

I broke my no spend days yesterday. It was one of my former coworkers last day at the restaurant I used to work at before she has her baby so I went in to see her. I ordered some food for me and the BF which after tip totaled $25.00 (I drink for free there so it's really a good deal). It wasn't bad and I paid for it with cash, just now I have a little over $10.00 dollars for food for the next week. Oops. I'll figure it out. Ramen might be my friend for the next week. lol.

I'm Going to Need a New Car Soon

2011-08-04T08:37:00.001-04:00

When I started to focus on my debt at the beginning of the year all my friends thought I was crazy. I suddenly stopped going out with them and suggested having stay in nights instead of going out nights. This was completely backwards from their way of thinking which was still stuck in the college mode. Needless to say that I really don't see them much anymore, which I am okay with.

I did see one of my friends last night and I was shocked to find that he was driving a brand new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee which has a starting MSRP north of 30 grand (he really isn't the brightest bulb in the box so I would put good money on the fact that he paid almost full price for it). I honestly couldn't believe it. While we were hanging out he was complaining how hard it was to make all of his bills and how he was working a full time job as well as two part time jobs. I really had no sympathy for him because he didn't need the new Jeep. He was driving a 2008 Honda Civic that was in really good condition but he just bought the Jeep because he felt he deserved it. What kind of thinking is that?! You deserved it? I was so mad at him for it. That being said I offered to help him work out a budget to somehow make it all work for him, so we are doing that later this week.

The moral of this story is this, I know that I will need a new car soon. The one I am driving now is coming up on being fifteen years old and while it still drives pretty good I have had to sink almost seven grand (thank you mom and dad for fronting most of that money and then forgiving the debt as my birthday and Christmas gift last year) into it over the last few years. I've decided that once the next major thing breaks (which I think will be the transmission) I am going to have it towed back to my parents house because they want it back and I am going to by a new (used but new to me) car. I will most likely buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee or something similar to that because even though they are expensive and eat a lot of gas, commuting to and from my job in the winter is going to be rough and I feel safer in a bigger car.

I spent most the wee hours of the morning looking at prices for new (used) cars and I realized that while I want one really really bad I'm better off waiting another year or so before I attempt to purchase one (that is if my current car agrees). There's no way I could swing a loan right now. That fact depressed me but also inspired me to continue to pay off my credit cards and to save save save.

The Roommate Situation

2011-08-03T08:24:00.001-04:00

In order to successfully pay all the bills that come with our apartment my BF and I have a roommate. She has lived with me since we were sophomores in college, but we really don't get along. I find her to be really annoying and absent minded and I'm sure she thinks I'm controlling and a micro manager. Even with those things we make terrific roommates, we rarely fight about things and we each have a set list of things to clean that get done without any problems.

When we got our first apartment almost three years ago together (in a time before the BF and I had met) I insisted that all the household bills be in my name. I pay each bill as it comes up and she reimburses me her share at the end of the month when she gives me the money for rent. This deal has worked out really well and she has always managed to give me the money on time and without any problems. I am a little concerned about the end of August though.

A few months ago there was a change of management where she works and she got laid off in a series of events that were completely her fault. Her new manager said that we don't need your position anymore and asked her to transfer to another area she said no so he laid her off. I know that she is coming to the end of her savings and when this has happened in the past her mom has bailed her out, but I'm pretty sure her mom cut her off since she has graduated college. If she can't come up with her share of the rent I really don't know what I'm going to do. I am pretty sure that I can float this month by just fine it's just it will completely wipe out my E-savings and that really makes me mad.

This just further highlights how stupid I was a few years ago and how much I need to kick my savings into overdrive to really feel secure.

It's Only August 2nd and I love This Month Already

2011-08-02T08:22:00.002-04:00

My BF got an email from his manager yesterday telling him to report to work on August 22!!! In a little over twenty days we will once again have a second income!!!!!!! My share of the rent will decrease as will my share of the food budget and almost every other area!!! Words can not describe how excited I am to start having a second paycheck coming in. With him paying all his own bills again and contributing to the various budget amounts I can finally kick my E-savings into overdrive!!! It is a good day today!

Oh Hey It's the First of the Month!

2011-08-01T17:10:00.000-04:00

So No Spend Monday went right out the door as soon as I woke up. I forgot that it was the first of the month and I needed to pay my rent and my student loans for August. I like to pay my loans of the first of every month because I save up the previous month to pay the current month and I like paying them all at once. It gives me much more of a happy feeling. On the bright side those are the major bills for the month and they are over and done with. I've readjusted my No Spend Days to include Thursday this week.

I did good going to work today too! I left ten minutes later than I normally do (not willingly though, I couldn't find my car keys for the life of me). Since I left late I had to drive straight to work and it wasn't the end of the world. I got to work on time and I didn't any extra gas like I normally do. On the flip side to that I have been having an off day at work. I dropped some stuff and made some really good messes. I really want to blame it on the fact that I didn't get drive around and relax. I'm going to leave late again tomorrow and I'll see how it goes. If it's another weird off day I'm going right back to driving around and I'll just have to deal.

Hope everyone is having a good Monday!!

End of July Round Up: Net worth = $-51,716.20

2011-07-31T16:20:00.001-04:00

My net worth as of today stands at $-51,716.20 which is a change of $806.33. At least it is going up right?

Complete debt breakdown is as follows:

Capital One: $4,851.48
Bank of America 1: $2,977.79
Bank of America 2: $1743.93 (need to watch this one because of fraud)
Citi Cards: $3830.08

Student Loan 1: Somewhere in the area of $2,600 I need to call to confirm
Student Loan 2: $21,797.00
Student Loan 3: $17,252.62

I did some good saving this month thanks in part to the good overtime I had so yay!

Goals for this week are as follows:

Open a new checking account for the BF (I failed at this last week because I overslept)
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will be no spend days again.
Reduce how much driving I do, I want to end this week with at least a quarter of a tank of gas.

FRAUD ALERT!

2011-07-31T10:59:00.001-04:00

At 6:30 this morning I got woken up by my phone ringing. My mind went to panic mode because really, who calls that early unless something is drastically wrong? There was nothing serious wrong just Bank of America calling to ask me about some strange activity on one of credit cards.

Apparently last night there was a one dollar charge from Napster that was approved by BOA. It was strange so they put an alert on my account for any other unusual transactions. Around six this morning another charge from Napster tried to go through in the amount of a couple hundred dollars. BOA declined that transaction and called me. They have since closed the account, posted a refund for first Napster charge, and are issuing me a new card. I was very impressed at how fast BOA reacted to this and how quickly they just closed the account and issued me a new card so kudos for them.

However, I am concerned as to how my account got accessed in the first place. The card that was used is linked to my iTunes account and to Netflix. I don't use it for anything else and it never leaves my house so my running theory is that one of those two services got hacked.

In other news, catering last night went really well. It ran a little bit later than I expected it to but that was fine because I was being paid for it. The house that we were working at was absolutely beautiful and unnecessarily large. For two people it was three floors and had an apartment over the garage. There was a three tiered deck and an Olympic sized swimming pool. Their kitchen was my dream kitchen and had everything you could ever want and need in a kitchen. In short I guess, I want this house. lol. Maybe someday.

Lastly, all the numbers have been crunched and revised debt and net worth with be up tomorrow most likely. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

It's Payday!!

2011-07-29T08:15:00.003-04:00

Yay!!! It's finally another payday and my check was higher than I expected :-) This is the last paycheck for the month so I need to sit down and punch all the numbers together for my net worth. I am not expecting any miracles here because my absent minded BF told me yesterday that he didn't have enough to pay his phone bill which I thought he did. With our budget being so tight I wasn't able to pull any money out anything to cover it so I threw it on a credit card. He is going to pay me back with interest out of his first paycheck. Since I had to pay it I also took the liberty of changing his plan around a little bit (he really doesn't need unlimited text to everyone and their mother) and all in all I saved him about 11 dollars a month. I could've saved him an extra seven if he had let me drop his insurance that he doesn't need.

Other than that little issue I am excited to say goodbye to July and hello to August. I have some good overtime opportunities within the first two weeks and I'm chugging along with funding my E-savings account with the extra money :-)

Oh Hey Thursday!

2011-07-28T08:18:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's already Thursday and that means the end of another pay period! I get paid tomorrow so everything extra in my accounts will be transferred to my savings at the end of today. My no spend days were a complete success this week. I haven't spent a dime since I got back from my future in-laws on Saturday. ~~My car still has just over a half a tank of gas in it which means that I can most likely shave a few dollars off my gas budget for the upcoming paycheck and that makes me happy~~. Never mind I forgot I picked up a catering job this weekend and have to drive an extra twenty miles.

July is almost over and I have to say that it has been a really good month. Everyone at work has been taking vacations this month except me (because I am still new and my vacation doesn't kick in until next April and I like to take my vacations in the winter) so I have been lucky enough to have about eight hours of overtime every week this month on top of the holiday that was this month so I've been making some pretty good money.

I'll admit that instead of using the money to beef up my E-Savings I used most of it to add some extra food to my pantry. With the BF out of work until mid to late August we have been living off pasta and canned items for most of the summer so it was nice to have some extra food to enjoy.

And last but not least, I will be sitting down with my manager in a few days for my three month review. When I was hired I managed to negotiate a dollar pay raise after three months based off a good review and my manager told me I had nothing to worry about we just had to have the sit down and I needed to sign the paperwork. This should happen either tomorrow or early next week. Oh and it gets even better. For staff Christmas gifts the management puts forth three or four ideas in July for us to vote on and whatever gets the most votes is what the will get us for Christmas. Well, this year the staff voted for a four to six percent "cost of living" pay increase and the management team agreed. This will go into effect January 1. Something to look forward to :-)

Hope everyone has a good Thursday!!!!!

My Weak Spot Number 2 - Driving Around but Not Going Nowhere

2011-07-27T08:26:00.002-04:00

There is nothing like waking up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee... :-)

I live about ten miles from my job so, if I take the back roads to get there I have about a twenty minute commute. In reality I have about a forty minute commute (it will be about ten minutes longer once the college comes back from summer break because I drive my BF to and from campus) because I like to drive around.

Driving around is one of the few things that I enjoy doing because I work in a really pretty area of the state and just a few minutes in either direction and you are surrounded by forests. It give me a moment to relax before I walk into work and start a crazy day cooking. I still manage to keep my gas usage under one tank on most weeks. This week is a little tighter than normal because we visited my future in-laws last weekend about fifty miles away. I have gotten a lot better about just aimlessly driving around to nowhere. I used to do it whenever I would get bored, now it's just as I am going to work.

I have started leaving my house about ten minutes later each day in an attempt to curb how much time I do spend driving around and so far it has been okay. I think next week I will add an extra ten minutes and see how that leaves me feeling. My BF says that if I am going to get serious then one tank of gas really should last me two weeks going to and from work and a week and half once I start bringing him to campus (which he reimburses me ten to fifteen dollars a week depending on how many times I have to drive to and from campus).

On a side note, I feel like the transmission in my car is getting ready to give out. I can feel it shifting kind of hard although everyone that drives with me in my car says it is in my head. Either way I hope my E-fund is funded before it gives out so I will have some give way with the repair.

These Damn Kids!

2011-07-26T18:13:00.001-04:00

There is this women at my job that is always yelling about how the "kids" who work the night shift with us are irresponsible and do nothing but slack at their job. At first I thought she was just exaggerating the whole thing. Being that I am not that far off from the age of seventeen and eighteen I thought that there was no way these guys were that lazy but now the more and more I think about it, she is right.

We are having a special meal served on Thursday night and the uniform is being changed to red, white, and blue for that night only. When one of our servers found out about this he stormed into the directors office and seriously flipped out because he was going to have wear his own personal clothes that night. Our director tried to explain that we were going to have polo's for those who needed them but this kid just kept having a melt down. The director wrote him up and suspended him for a week.

I don't understand where people get off thinking that it is okay to just flip out like that. We weren't asking for the server to provide anything more than a pair of jeans. We are supplying the rest of the uniform for that night. When I was working my first job I would have never thought to flip out on my manager like that. It wasn't something that I was taught to do. Working in a state that has an over 10% unemployment rate is a special privilege in today's world and these "kids" don't understand how lucky they are.

Coffee, My Weak Spot

2011-07-26T08:26:00.000-04:00

I love coffee.

Absolutely love it.

There was a time, when I was in college, that I would drink four or more medium coffees from Dunkin Donuts in a day. When I sat down last December and did my very first budget for January I was shocked to learn that I was spending almost $90 dollars a week on my coffee habit. Of course, I didn't have that much extra spending cash so I was using my credit cards to pay for most of it. I couldn't believe it.

The very next day I went out and bought a small coffee maker and a can of coffee for my house. The first few months were rough as I was still drinking a large amount of coffee however, after slowly reducing how much I drank I am down to two cups every morning and that is it. Instead of spending almost $90.00 dollars a week on coffee that I had to finance with credit I am spending just about $6.00 every two weeks that I am paying for in cash.

It is the little things that make me happy I guess.

On another note, no spend Monday was a success. If I can make it through the next two days without spending anything, and can manage to keep my driving to a minimum, I'll have an extra ten dollars come payday to add to my emergency fund.

-23DID

It's a Brand New Work Week

2011-07-25T09:12:00.001-04:00

Well, it's Monday morning which means the work week has started. Before I head off to work I wanted to write down some mini goals for this week.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday will be no spend days this week.

I splurged on a pizza last night for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking for the BF and myself. In one quick online transaction I spent 30 dollars. I felt horrible as soon as I made the purchase but we haven't eaten take out in a while so after thinking about it I am semi-okay with it now. I also didn't have put money on my laundry card this week like I had planned on so I had a spare fifteen dollars that got redirected into MISC expenses.

I am going to finish my monthly budgets for the remainder of 2011 by Saturday.

With this new job, my income has stabilized greatly. My overtime is scheduled in and not sporadic as it was before so that should make forecasting for the rest of the year a little easier. By projecting so far out I am setting up goals for myself along the way. It will make saving seem more fun for me.

The BF and I will open a new joint checking account for him under my account umbrellas.

My BF is still in school and works during the academic year for the college. We decided that he could take this summer off from work as long he was okay with a little crazy belt tightening. So far it has worked out just fine and we should make it through until he starts work again during the last week of August. However, his checking and savings accounts have less than ten dollars in them and his bank has started to charge him a monthly maintenance fee for not having a set amount in the accounts. We had the talk a few nights ago about closing his accounts and moving his money over into my accounts. He is little nervous about it because he doesn't want to overspend and ruin my budgets so I set up a compromise. He can have my spare savings account which doesn't get much action because I haven't had anything big to save for recently and we will open him a checking account under my umbrella. He seemed down with that idea so now we just have to close his accounts and open a new one. I should also mention that we changed all my accounts to joint accounts a few months ago so adding a new one is really easy.

Well, that's it. Three minor goals for the week that in the end will either save money, or inspire me to save more money.

Goals for the Remainder of 2011

2011-07-24T16:42:00.000-04:00

With only just over five months remaining in the 2011 I have realized that I never set any finical goals for myself this year. I guess that my overall goal was to just scape by month to month and hope nothing bad happened. Well, that is going to change. Below are three goals that I want to accomplish before 2011 is over.

Open and Fund my 403b at my New Job
About three months ago I changed jobs. My new job has better benefits and was willing to pay me two dollars more an hour after the training period. At my last job I never opted to open an retirement account with them because I told myself that I couldn't afford it. Not anymore; I can't afford to not start to save for the future. Last week I met with the 403b plan administrator and opened my first retirement account. I still don't feel that I can fully fund it so I am starting slow, with only ten dollars a pay period. My employer will match fifty percent of that so that's fifteen dollars a pay period or thirty dollars a month. I know it's not much but at least it is a start.

Save Five Percent of my Take Home Pay for an Emergency Fund
A little over a year ago I got into a car accident that required a lot of expensive repair work. I had no savings and with my credit cards maxed out, no way to pay for it. My parents thankfully stepped in and fronted me the money so I could get the repairs and get back to work but that scared me. Ever since then I have been telling myself that I need to start an emergency fund but I never have. Starting with August's budget I have set aside five percent of my take home pay to fund an Emergency Fund. Taking a page from Dave Ramsey I want to fund the Emergency Fund up to 1,000 dollars before I redirect all my attention to paying down my debt. I have projected that this will happen sometime in early 2012. Five percent isn't a lot to start with but until I have managed to adjust to this new budget that I am trying out I feel that it is the safest bet for right now. I will most likely look into changing it after I have run it a few months.

Get Better at Tracking my Expenses
I am fantastic at tracking all my reoccurring month expenses. I can tell you the due date to all my credit cards and I have never missed a payment. It's all that little stuff in the middle that really gets me. The day to day transactions are the hardest for me to keep track of. That is going to change. I have set up a binder for me to go into every night and just simply right down what I spent each day. It is very much like a check book register just bigger. I am hoping that by keep a better track of my day to day expenses I will become more aware of what I am spending and maybe think twice before going through with the transaction.