Sabrina's Money Madness

I need to make more money

Sabrina — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:57:32 +0000

I am fortunate that not only do I have a job but we’re extremely busy right now which lends itself to a ton of overtime. There is a problem with this though. I can’t count on overtime. It could be gone at any given moment. It depends on upper management and what our budget looks like. We have lost a ton of people lately and the new people have to get up to speed which can take a while. Until then, it’s ot all the way.

I don’t want to work too much ot though. It’s good when I get my paycheck and have extra money to buy ski goggles or whatever else I want, but it’s tiring. It seems like as soon as you go home, it’s time to come back. And don’t get me started on not having a complete weekend off. It’s been hit or miss with those since last summer.

I really just want a new job. If I had a job where I made more money, I wouldn’t have to over-extend myself with all of this extra work. Hopefully something is just around the corner.

My January 2012 savings and debt repayments

Sabrina — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:02:55 +0000

During the month of January I added $100 for a total of $1,735. My goal is $2,300 by May which means that I still have $565 to save. I didn’t add any money to my 10% fund this month so my housing total is $1,400 with $600 to go. I do have more money that should go towards the 10% fund but I haven’t added it to my bank account.

I should easily make my goal before next May at this rate.

My cd code is about to expire

Sabrina — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:42:59 +0000

I was supposed to put some money in a cd this month. My credit union wanted me to lock the money up for too long for a mediocre interest rate so I decided against it.

Then I got a email from one of the banks that I entered a sweepstakes through. They’re offering a $25 gift card with a 1 year cd. With a minimum amount and the shortest amount of time, my effective rate would be almost 4%. Even if I put the same larger amount that my credit union wanted me to put in, I would still make the same amount because of the gift card.

It pays to open the junk mail that I receive from getting on sweepstakes mailing lists. And I had better hurry up and open that cd before the bonus code expires.

What do you mean I didn’t pay my bill?!?!?

Sabrina — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:41:47 +0000

Oh boy, that was not a good phone call, especially since it came from the Department of Education. Actually it came from a collection agency contracted by the dept but whatever.

When we got down to the nitty gritty details, it seems like my payments haven’t posted to my account since August of 2011. My bill is on auto-pay so I never noticed that I hadn’t received a statement. It never occurred to me to look for one since my checks were clearing my bank. After talking to the department, they were having trouble with their system getting payments to post.

I still don’t understand why I didn’t get a letter or a phone call before the collection call but at least I have the situation under control.

Home maintenance is expensive

Sabrina — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:07:02 +0000

I know there is rule of thumb out there that says to save 1% of the value of your home every year for maintenance. But I have several friends who own there own home and they seem to spend much more than that. I’ve heard that it averages out over the years but supplies are expensive.

Right now it’s Winter and we have a lot of snow. So there’s salt for the snow and a snow-blower for my guy friends. Then in spring we get all of the composters, seeds for new flower beds and all of the other yard things. Plus rakes and mowers in the Summer. And that’s just the stuff off of the top of my head for exterior maintenance. I haven’t even touched on interior maintenance.

A condo is looking better and better every day.

This whole jobs process stinks!

Sabrina — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:43:57 +0000

And I’m a internal employee. I’ve been looking for a new job for a while. I finally got 3 interviews within the last 3 months. One job I didn’t get at all. The other 2 have me sitting around waiting.

I’ve been waiting for one job for 5 weeks. The manager was off for 2 weeks to have surgery so I do understand. It will probably be at least 2 more weeks before I hear anything either way. I interviewed for a job last week and was told that they were looking to hire someone late January or early February. My coworker interviewed for the same job and was told it would be mid-February.

Ughhh just let me know either way. You can best believe I’m still sending out resumes though. I’m not giving up the job search until I have a position firmly in hand.

The administrator said “no problem”

Sabrina — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:29:28 +0000

Just a quick update to what I wrote the other day. I wrote the administrator and apologized for the accounts being late. I told him that I was finished with one and working on the other and it should be done by tomorrow. I was expecting him to pitch a fit but he was really cool and said no problem just let me know when they’re done.

Now I’m putting pedal to the medal to get them done by tomorrow.

My work is late

Sabrina — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:09:21 +0000

It’s only partially my fault though. We have a certain amount of time to get the work done which is usually enough. But I have 2 accounts instead of one and they’re both full of problems. I mean just one ridiculous thing after another. I did call the person who is waiting for the work to explain the situation and to let them know that they will have the work by the end of this week.

I just hate to be late though. It makes it look as if I’m slacking in my duties which I’m not. Luckily my boss and the person waiting for the work both know my work ethic and understand that things happen.

Either way, this is not a good look.

I was supposed to go shopping this weekend

Sabrina — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:44:37 +0000

Well the snow is putting a kibosh on that. There was ice on the roads this morning but no snow on the ground. When I got almost to work, I noticed that it had started snowing. It’s been snowing for the last 3 hours and the snow is sticking and piling up.

I need to go make a deposit to my housing account as well as do my usual shopping. I bought a pair of boots 2 weeks ago but I wanted to buy another pair this weekend. I also need a new pair of every day black pants because the zipper on my normal pair went off of the track and the teeth of the zipper are bent, so I don’t think it can be fixed. I’m not going to pay more to get the pants fixed than I paid for the pants in the first place.

I guess I’ll just camp in front of the tv and hope something good is on since I’ll be home-bound for the weekend.

Time to balance the checkbook

Sabrina — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:17:09 +0000

I haven’t balanced my checkbook in almost 2 weeks. Not a big deal right? For me it’s oh so wrong. I keep most of my paycheck in my checking account but it’s in separate “buckets”.

Since my main bank doesn’t have sub-accounts, ala ING, I just keep a separate piece of paper with the name of the “bucket” and the amount. Then when I spend money, it comes out of it’s respective “bucket”. At either the end of the pay period, or the end of the month, I transfer some of the excess money to my savings account.

Right now I have several bills that will be due by Friday that are budgeted to come out of checking. I also have 1 bill that is taken out of Friday’s check but will be paid in advance. I do keep more than enough money in this particular account to make sure I can always cover everything.

Some days I don’t mind playing around with the number, but some days I wish I had a simpler system.