-I made a financial goal of tracking all of my spending from for the whole year. I've kept up with the tracking and its actually gotten pretty easy. Its crazy to see some of the numbers for catagories. Once the year is ending, I'm going to reevaluate my catagories.

-I counted up all my overtime hours from January 1st through last week... 316 hours! Plus 18.5 that I'm working towards for this week. My goal is to get 20 hours a week for the next three weeks.

-Just a few updates for today: I worked 7am to 8pm, with a trip to the library on my lunchbreak. Today was a no spender. I packed my breakfast, lunch & dinner. I already have tomorrow's food planned. When I get home tonight, I'm going to take a quick walk, then make the food, then veg in front of the tv for awhile.

I recieved a $24.67 cash back credit on my Amex card! I use it for gas, so that'll go to my next purchase.

I truly enjoyed my short time off. With all the OT I've been doing, I haven't had a decent amount of downtime in a very long time. I did little spending, lots of relaxing and nothing that I needed to do around the house, other than mow the lawn.

My goal this upcoming weekend is to plan most of my Christmas shopping. Over the weekend, I recieved an unexpected $25.00 gift certificate to Amazon.com from my Amazon Chase card. I had put the air conditioning bill on it, then paid it off immediately, but apparently it earned the gift certificate anyway! I'm going to put 1/2 of the g.c. towards a book that I've been dying to get and 1/2 towards a Christmas gift. Plus, I have a $5.00 off coupon from purchasing my Harry Potter book through Amazon. I'm also eligible for another $25.00 gift card from my points which I'll use for a gift. The rest of my Christmas money is already in savings.

I kept my A/C on all weekend, but at a higher temp most of the day, utilizing the fan & being downstairs in the day. At night, I turned the temp down a little more so that I could sleep comfortably. There's a lot of humidity right now & its messing with my sinuses.

I've been doing pretty good money-wise. I just sent off another $284.54 as an extra payment to Student Loan #1. I get paid again on the 15th and the check will include 41.5 hours of overtime, all of which, minus my weightwatchers fee and an unplanned gift expense of $43.00, will go to the loan.

My hair dryer, that was already on my list of things to replace, completely broke last night, so I"m going to buy one today. I have the cash for that earmarked in my personal items catagory in my budget.

This week I'm working between 16 & 18 hours of overtime between Tuesday & Saturday. All of which will go directly to that loan.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey again & all I want to do is to pay this student loan debt off. I really can't wait!

On a side note: I lost 2 pounds this week! For a total of 6.8 pounds.

My goal for this week is pack my lunch every day. I spent 55 cents on a soft pretzel today & I'm picking up some veggies from the grocery store, but I am hoping to make Wednesday through Saturday no spend days.

Yesterday was a no spend day. I worked 7am to 9pm with a ½ hour lunch, earning 5.5 hours of overtime. I was invited out after work, but I declined because I didn’t want to spend money. Plus I wanted to go to bed early. So I came home, made food for today & went to bed. I was back up at 5:45 am (which is a feat, since I am NOT a morning person & my normal work shift is 11am to 8pm).

Today I’m working 7am to 8pm & then I’m heading to a friend’s house for dinner & movie night. I offered to bring stuff, but she refused, so today may be a no spend day too. We’ll see. I hate coming over empty handed.

I’m making some changes in my current goals. The plan was to replenish my emergency fund after it was hit with the hot water heater & air conditioning problems. However, I have $5,000.00 in my ING account earmarked to pay back a first time home-buyer incentive loan at 0% due in Sept/Oct of 2009. I’ve decided that I’m comfortable with having this as a back-up e-fund. So what I am going to do is put all my extra funds directly to student loan # 1. I’m really motivated to pay it off quickly, because it’s in my parents’ names. If for any reason, I have to touch my emergency fund. I will immediately stop paying down the loan & work on rebuilding the e-fund.

I’m getting paid on Tuesday. I have very little overtime in this check, but I’ll be putting 194.55 towards the student loan. Next pay period (August 15th), I’m hoping to have over 40 hours of overtime to put towards the loan. I REALLY want to get this paid off! If anyone has any comments about my plan, please let me know. I’ve thought this through in terms of my comfort levels, but I’d like to hear other opinions as well.

Saturday:
-Worked 8-5 with a 1/2 hour lunch
-Mowed the lawn myself (my neighbors all pay someone to do what takes me about 20 minutes)
Sunday
-Picked up one of my prescriptions using a gift card I earned for bringing in a new prescription last month. Did not buy anything else, so I still have $17.34.
-Used a coupon for 1 free 22 count of Always
-Bought a 40 pound bad of cat litter for $9.99. They had a sale tag up from the prior week. It rang up at $19.99, but when I showed them the tag, they honored the sale price.
-Weeded the rocks by my front door, trimmed the bush back away from my kitchen window & electrical box
-I tackled the thorny bushes at the back of my property. I didn’t make much headway, but I was able to trim back enough that I won’t get scratched when I mow the lawn.
Today:
-I took my parents to the movies today. $19.00 for the 3 tickets. The last few times we’ve gone, they’ve treated, so it was definitely my turn
-Got 2 free movies from Redbox using online codes
-Made brownies for a work party tomorrow, plus giving $5.00 to the pot for a gift. I used brownie mix that I had at home, so no spending there.
-My car has to be inspected at the end of the month. But my check engine light is on. My Dad & I checked all my fluid levels & sensors, but it’s still on. So I need to take it in, this week or next. Luckily, I have money in my car repair fund
-Today I did some make-ahead meals. I made myself a quick pasta dinner while waiting for my ground beef to finish defrosting and then I made the work brownies, salad & pasta salad to take to work tomorrow, a large batch of sloppy joe to freeze, and I tried a new recipe – Mealoaf muffins, which I’ll freeze as well. They turned out really well. Now I just need to see how they freeze.
-On the upside, its been really cool here, so no A/C on.
-I always struggle with food and eating out, so that’s going to be my main focus this month

I was invited to Atlantic City this weekend, with some new friends, but I declined in an effort to not spend right now.

At least we have a movie night planned instead of the weekly bar night we have usually. I'll bring microwave popcorn from home, one of the guys is supplying the movie. Should be fun.

My goal for the weekend is this: to not use any cash, debit, or credit cards. Today, I am working til 8pm. I'm stopping for gas on the way home (I'm on E). Then I'm heading home to watch a library movies and possibly a re-run of House while I clean & pack some food for work tomorrow.

Saturday, I'm planning on leaving my wallet at home. I'm working 8-5. I'll take a 1/2 hour lunch, but I won't be going anywhere. I just plan on playing on the internet for the 30 minutes.

Then tomorrow night, I plan on hanging out at home. I've been working 6 days a week and for the last 3 weeks, my only day off (Sunday) has been packed with family obligations. So I am planning on completely staying home and vegging on both Saturday night & Sunday. Unless the temperature gets too high for being without A/C, in which case, I'm going to camp at my parents house

I'm want to do some organizing and cleaning this weekend, watch some free movies, catching up on blogs and some financial stuff, and generally relaxing. I really need it.

I have food for dinners at home, but I plan on making a stop at the grocery store at some point. I have $29.36 in Super G gift cards left for this pay period. So I'll stock up on some salad stuff & some essentials.

I was going to make some food to freeze ( I have this meatloaf muffin recipe that I want to try), but if its hot, I won't be turning the oven on. I'll just plan on having a lot of salads and tuna fish and pasta salad

So to recap, I'm buying gas tonight. Then no more spending except my gift card to Super G for groceries.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Well, the A/C went again. The last visit from the repair guy was a last ditch effort to see if it would limp through this summer. Obviously, it won't. I have the cash to get the new unit, but I want to pay myself as soon as possible.

Also, there was a glitch between my hot water heater timer and my brand new hot water heater, so I had the installation guy come back out to take a look. It took him 5 minutes, but it was fixed.

Today I:
-woke up at 6:45 am.
-was at the grocery store by 7:30 am to buy veggies and some staples
-made food to take to work
-called & set up an appointment with the a/c guy
-called & got 1 more car insurance quote. I'm just waiting to talk to the company who has my homeowner's insurance to see if grouping them together would save me a few bucks
-met with the hot water heater guy
-went to work for overtime from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm
-came home & cleaned the kitchen, living room and downstairs bathroom
-made dinner and premade food for tomorrow.

now I'm resting, playing on the internet & reworking my budget a little.


I'm actually going to be under budget for groceries this pay period! Yay I have $17.56 left of my $50.00 gift card that I'm using for this pay period. I'm going to save it for when soda is on super sale again. I like to stock up when its at its cheapest

So other than groceries paid by the gift card, I had a no spend day today.

Tomorrow, I'm working 8am to 8pm (3 hours OT). I've packed breakfast, lunch & dinner to take with me, as well as some snacks.

I've been running the house fans, but not the a/c since the a/c isn't working. But even if it was, I'd probably have it off, its been so beautiful in the last few days.

My goal for this week is to pack my meals all the way through Saturday. I say that sometimes and I don't follow through. But I will this time. I actually put a sticky note on my debit card. It says "A/C", just as a reminder. When I was saving for the house, I had a sticky with a picture of a house on it. Its a strange little motivation, but hey, it works for me

For entertaiment this weekend, I'm getting a few movies from the library. I've been watching old Poirot movies, which is fun. I have plans to do some organizational and cleaning stuff around the house this weekend. It should be pretty frugal

I opened up a trial size toothpaste this morning that I had gotten as a free sample. I have another one somewhere in the drawer. Its berry flavored, with a hint of mint, which is a little weird, but it was free & it'll last me a good long while I'm going to organize & use all my free samples, before they get lost.

I'm going to be putting together an organizer for my card collection. I keep a stock of cards for birthdays, sympathy, congratulations, ect on hand. But when I go to find them, I can't because they've been shoved into some drawer in the spare room. So I cut the top off a tissue box & I'm going to organize the cards in it tonight. This means cleaning out my desk drawers, but that needs to be done as well.

I'm in the process of reading Green with Envy: Why keeping up with the Jones is keeping us in debt by Shira Boss. I got it from the library awhile ago, but I'm making time to finally read it this weekend. After that, I'm re-reading the last few Harry Potter books so when the new one comes out July 21st, I'll be refreshed!

I am holding off on my impulse to pre-order Mean Lean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich. I LOVE this series. I have all the other books in hardback. But I"m really trying to hold off on it, get it from the Library and just put it on my Christmas list in December. We'll see.

I've been listening to back episodes of Dave Ramsey's show & heard his guest Henry Cloud. I put two of his books on my want list at the library. Boundries, and Integrity. Both should be good reads.

For the weekend, I plan to:
-Deep clean the house
-Finish cleaning the basement after the repairs
-Clean out my car, including vaccuming
-Start updating my resume
-Put some stuff up on Craigslist (I keep putting this off)

Next week I plan to:
-Finalize my car insurance decision
-Work any OT available to me
-Pack breakfast, lunch & dinner every day next week, no exceptions!
-Work on prescription billing issues

$30.00 specialist copay to eye doctor... I have a floater, if anyone knows what that is. Its very distracting at work, but so far, not a sign of a serious problem (which it can be).

I spent nothing on food today. I packed my lunch. YAY!

I am heading to the grocery store after work. I'm going to use on of my gift cards. I'm trying to limit my spending today, knowing I'll be going back next week to stock up on more veggies and fruits.

I am working on my May totals and June goals over the weekend & I'll post them as soon as I have them.

A few posts ago, I made the declaration that I was not going to spend any more money on eating out for the rest of the month. Yup, well that only lasted a few days. I'm in the second day of a migrane and instead of taking meds and staying home, I'm in training at work for a new job that I DONT want to do, that is causing a lot of stress for me AND doesn't get me paid any more. Plus, the tylonol just isn't cutting it.

Today, I ate some food from home & bought take out today. AND I'm planning on doing the same tomorrow.

I've been using some of the leftover money on my birthday visa gift card to pay for the food. Now its gone & I'll be using cash.

On a brighter note, I had a $20.00 gift card to Bed,Bath & Beyond, where I bought a Black and Decker Wet/Dry Vac dustbuter (with 20% off). This way I can clean out my car easily. There are no electrical outlets in the front of my house & I've been pondering how to vaccum out my car easily... I had planned on buying a long indoor/outdoor extention cord & dragging my vaccum outside, but this is a MUCH better idea.

I also got a 3 draw plastic container. I've been wanting one to hold my nails and picture hangers and screws and stuff. I've been using an old tissue box, but this way, things will be much more organized & easy to see.

I also used some cash to buy my mom a pack of those magnetic clasps for jewelry. She's been looking for them for awhile & I saw a pack when I was at the register. She's been buying me a lot of meals recently, so I was happy to get them for her.

I did get 8.5 hours of overtime in last week. I'm probably going to get about 4 to 6 hours in this week. Then I'm going to try to get 4 hours in on Monday (the holiday). And another 4 to 6 hours throughout the rest of next week.

Once June starts, OT will only be able to me on Mondays (my day off). So I'm going to try to take advantage of them for the full month, but we'll see.

I'm reworking my monthly budget. And I'm going to work on setting weekly goals for myself. I'm taking care of that over the weekend.

I also need to shop around for car insurance since my company is increasing my rates and I'm sure I can do better. The company has been good to me, but its getting way too costly.

I was just updating some numbers for myself to see where I stand and decided to share.

January I had a total of $2852.63 in cash savings.

Today I have $9038.44 (not including 401k, IRA, and savings bonds)

Seeing the numbers makes me want to save even more Right now I'm playing on the computer & watching a movie borrowed from the library. I have the heat off, windows open and the lights off. I want to keep my electric bill low, all the extra in that budget catagory goes to the student loans too

I'm going in for overtime tomorrow. Somewhere between 4 & 7 hours. We'll see how I hold up. I'm still feeling a bit ill. If I'm up to it, I have $20.00 in gift cards to Bed, Bath & Beyond, plus a 20% off coupon. Its about a 1/2 hour drive there, but I might go & try to get a few gifts for my gift closet. I have some birthdays coming up soon.

I have about 3500 points in my MyPoints account. I'm thinking about cashing that out too, so I can use a gift card for the birthdays too.

I love listening to Dave Ramsey's show. I like his Baby Steps. I like the straight up, to the point advice he gives. I think he has a common sense approach to finances.

Now, I started paying attention to my finances before I ever heard about Dave. I had made a budget and given myself goals and set out to achieve them in a manner somewhat similar to Dave's.

However, there are 2 things I feel conflicted on... stopping retirement savings altogether and paying off all my debt with only $1000.00 in an emergency fund.

My parents talked to me for years about the importance of retirement savings. Iras, 401k, ect. I can't seem to get my dad's voice out of my head when I think of stopping the contributions. SO I am bringing it down to 5%, which will allow me to still receive the company match.

Since I am a single woman, living alone, I feel the need to have a much higher emergency fund to feel comfortable. I feel that I need a larger safety net because if something happens, such as breaking a leg & ending up in the hospital, I'm the only person I can rely on to pay my bills.

So I have set a higher emergency fund goal. Its not quite 3-6 months of expenses, but its definately more comfortable. PLUS I do have another source of savings that I'm basically pretending isn't there.

When I bought the house, my county had a down payment program that provided me a $5,000.00 loan towards my closing costs. I had the cash, but I accepted their loan because for the first 3 years, it is completely interest free. So I have my $5,000 cash in my ING account, earning interest and waiting to pay off off the loan in September 2008. If there was ever any major problem, I could touch it, but I REALLY wouldn't ever want to. So I really just pretend it isn't there.

I feel comfortable where my emergency fund currently is at $4,600.01 (I need to update my sidebar numbers). So from now on, all my extra income from overtime, bonuses, ect is going straight to my private student loan. This is something that my parents cosigned for and although they do not have a problem with it, I really want to pay it off as quickly as possible. Then I will work on my Federal student loan.

I'm going to be working up a projection to get the Private loan paid off in 2 to 3 years. Definately doable.

I have been stressed and sick and whatnot recently, so although I've been doing overtime, my goal is to destress as much as possible this week.

So in the interest of relaxing, I stopped by the library & picked up a few things:

-Green With Envy: Why Keeping Up with the Joneses is keeping us in debt (by Shira Boss)
-Save Karyn: One Shopaholic's Journey to Debt and Back (by Karyn Bosnak)
-Haunted Honeymoon on dvd (an old Gene Wilder flick, very funny)

I also have the Total Money Makeover to get through.

At the end of the month I'll be cancelling my Netflix subscpription (I've paid through the 25th). So in preperation, I've requested several new(er) movies from the Library. I'm in line behind several people, so hopefully it'll be my turn around the time that I cancel Netflix.

And as for Netflix, I currently have at my house The Good Shepard, The Guardian, and Unhitched.

Financially, I'm still meeting my goal to track all my spending. I've done very well with this. Each day, I write down any spending in a tiny notebook I carry with me. Then each night, I update it into an Excel spreadsheet. Its been a good system so far & my goal is to track for the whole year. I'm almost halfway through!

I also need to redo my budget, I have some changes that I want to make on it.

As for an overtime count:
Last week I did 15.5 hours
This week I've done 11 so far, with a goal of 16.5 plus any Sunday hours available.

Today was a no spend day... the first of the month! I packed all my food & drinks for work today & I have meal plans for Friday and Saturday.

I'll have completed 10 hours of OT by Friday, and if there are any hours available on Sunday, then I'll work then too.

Yesterday I sent an additional $75.00 payment to my school loan.

I was paid on the 30th, paid all my bills that I pay out of that check. Then I set aside cash for expected expenses between now & the 15th. Since I received the $50.00 visa gift card for my birthday, I decided to use that for some of my expected spending (groceries & gas) and use that extra $50.00 cash towards the student loan. I also used a 10.00 deposit (received for signing up on e-statements on my checking). I also squeezed another 15.00 from the budget.

So between now & the 15th, when I get paid again, I have:

$18.75 Spending money
$40.00 gas money
$10.00 gift (need to plan for mothers day)
$20.00 oil change (need to do asap)
$20.00 medical (expected 3 month supply of 1 prescription)
$6.03 clothes (which I'll be carrying into June)

Plus I have some money sitting in my house checking, ready for my mortgage, water, ect.

I've been listening to Dave Ramsey pretty regularly, so I decided to get the Total Money Makeover from the library again. I'll be picking it up on my lunch break. I'm excited to re-read it.

My goal for May is to limit my discretionary spending as much as possible. I need to prepare for the loss of overtime at the end of May. I also need to look to find alternate sources of income. Fun stuff

And for any Lost fans out there... did you see last nights episode?!? It was SO good. I hear the season finale is going to be a 2 hour episode! Woo hoo!

I feel happy that, although its been pouring non-stop since yesterday & the wind is really howling, I haven't needed to turn on the heat in a couple of days. Its a litle chilly, but I just put on my slippers & the cozy robe that I bought on sale recently. I can't wait til it turns warm & I can keep the windows open.

I've been working hard at overtime, working nearly 7 days a week. Its something Big that I've been doing to meet my savings goals, but it has been taking its toll on my health. So I'm going to slow it down some & if I don't meet my goals by the time the overtime stops in May, then so be it. I'll find other ways to do it.

I worked 6 hours of OT today & originally I was going to work 7 or 8 hours tomorrow. But since my stomach problems have been acting up, I'm going to see how I feel when I get up, but if I do go in, I'm only going to work 4 or 5 hours. Then I'll doze away the afternoon on the couch

I premade food for tomorrow, so if I do go in, I have food to take & lunch to come home to Dinner will be a veggie burger & baked fries, both of which are in my freezer.

I was asked in my last post what my savings goals are for 2007, so I am here to answer I also updated savings figures to the left.

First, I'd like to say that I've been very fortunate to have overtime available to me since January. This has negated taking on a second job and/or a roommate, which I originally planned to do.

I had several savings goals for 2007:

One of which is to track my spending to the cent for the full year (which I have been doing). Tracking has curbed [some] of my spending.

Another is that I put extra money towards my student loans each month (an average of $200.00 currently).

Here are some specific numbers for my savings catagories. The funds are held in ING & Emigrant Direct accounts.

Emergency Fund to: $6,500.00
Car Repair Fund: $500.00 [done]
Vet Fund (for yearly check & misc)$250.00 [done]
Christmas 2007: 400.00 [done]
New to Me Car Fund (not looking to buy for a few years yet) $2500.00 [done]
House Expense Fund includes:
-HOA fee 2008 $90.00 [done]
-Sewer bill 2008: $200.00 [done]
-Lawn Mower Fund (to be purchased soon) $200.00[done]
-Landscaping (i.e plants) 50.00 [done]
-Deck Furniture $300.00 [done]
Plus I'm using interest for Misc House Stuff: 33.55 total (so far)

I've overexaggerated the amount needed on some of the goals, just to give myself a cushion.

My savings had been good this year due to overtime, an unexpectedly large tax refund, and a small inheritance.

I figured that I'll need to work roughly 100 more hours of overtime to meet my Emergency Fund goal. Definately doable. I've already completed 24.5 hours between last week & this week.

Once I meet my emergency fund goal, I'm going to start paying down the student loans even more aggressively.

Work announced that the overtime will likely go away in late May/early June & the announcement has put me back in focus. I've been a little lax in some of my spending due to the overtime & starting today I'm going to live in my very strict budget that I have set up when there is no overtime. So I'm going to cut down on groceries, eating out & misc spending.

I plan to get a 2nd job and search for a roommate to suppliment my income once the overtime goes away, but in the meantime, I am REALLY going to buckle down. If I start now, then it won't be as much of a shock when my paycheck goes back to base pay only

Also-- I FINALLY got around to playing with my colors. I like the blue, but I may keep playing around with it.

They put our paychecks up online at work a few days before we get paid. So I checked mine today & my paycheck on Friday is going to have 683.90 in overtime money! All of which is going straight to savings! Plus 130.00 from another monthly bill that I only pay 8 months of the year! So it'll be a total of $813.90 to savings on Friday.

I only worked 3.5 hours of OT last week, but I"m going to do between 14 and 20 hours this week (depending if we are open on Sunday). I am $1810.86 away from my 2007 savings goal (to be completed by 12/2007). I would have been a lot closer, but I have been throwing some of the extra money at my student loan. Once the savings goal is completed, I'm going to put all extra income towards paying down my student loan.

And here's a few quick updates:
-I spent .55 today for a soft pretzel, although I packed my lunch & snacks today
-Yesterday, I had dinner out with my parents & spent $16.65.
-I had 4 no heat days and I'm back to using the heat, but I am keeping it low.

A digital camera has been on my wish list for a long time. Its definately not something I could put on my birthday wish list (too expensive), so its been sitting on the sidelines. I have no camera at all. The crappy one that I got for opening an account with a local bank died after the first use. And the bank was crappy too, so no shock there.

its sad, but I google cameras on a daily basis. I REALLY want a Sony Cybershot. The version that I like (not the most extravagent) retails for around $150.00. I have been looking at alternatives, so if anyone has suggestions, please let me know.

I've earmarked all my overtime money to savings and when I meet that goal, then its going to my student loan. So I've been thinking of ways to come up with funds for the camera without using the OT.

So I've decided to take the $40.00 of my 'found' money (see today's earlier post) and start off my camera fund. We'll see how it goes from there.

Ironically, one of the things I'd like to do with the camera is take pictures of things I'd like to sell on Craigslist. I defintately wouldn't make enough from the sales to justify the camera, but I'd like to get rid of some stuff since its clutter.

I am SO anti clutter. I came from a home overrun with stuff and junk and space-wasting crap. Its REALLY bad. And I just can't take it. So while I may let a pile of clothes grow in the corner of my bedroom, and I may leave the sales inserts on the coffee table for a few days, for the most part I am organized. And that comes from being clutter free. Now I just have to get rid of some stuff from the basement and I'll be all set

I just realized that today is my 1 year Blogiversary! Its great to see what's changed in the last year. I've taken a more active approach to finances, bought a house, changed jobs and much more!

I've learned a lot from the people on this site and I've gotten a lot of support. So thank you all! This is a great group to be a part of!

AND as a nice surprise, I found $40.00 today! I was cleaning out some old photos/memorabilia that I had taken from my great aunt's house and I found the money tucked into an envelope. (She was known for hiding money all over the place). Since my mom is the beneficiary of the estate, I called her to let her know I found the money & she told me to go ahead & keep it. I'm turning around & using it as part of my contribution to Easter Sunday brunch. It was a planned expense, but now I'll be putting that $40 I had planned to use into savings.

Also, in an effort to be more healthy, I've been walking some. But on rainy days I've been doing nothing. Since I'm into video games, I've been toying with buying this game called Dance, Dance Revolution, which requires you to step around on this dance pad (its a VERY active game). My friends had bought the game a year ago & never play it, so I borrowed the game and the dance pad from them. Well, the pad was broken, so I sucked it up and bought a new pad online for $13.00. I'm taking the money out of my 'Entertainment' budget. As soon as it arrives, I'm going to use it as an alternative to walking! I'm very excited because the game is fun

I've taken a break on the overtime this week (just to give myself some 'time off'). I'm started back today and will get in enough next week to make up for the time off this week. I still have that goal of an average of 10 hours of overtime per month.

Oh, and one last thing! While yesterday was a no spend day, today was not. I ordered that dance pad and I had lunch out. All within my budget. My mini goal is to have no spend days all next week!

Today is a no spend day! And I'm working 6 hours of OT. When I get home tonight, I'm going to be premaking food for the week and cleaning. I feel better when I'm organized, so I've been working hard at keeping my house clean & planning my food.

I've made a meal plan for the week. Since I'm pretty much working 7 days a week, I'm planning a lunch out each week. Just to give myself a break from working 10 hour days then coming home to cook. Its all within my budget, and my diet. As long as I plan ahead

I'm going to get my March totals together. I've been keeping up my goal of tracking ALL spending for the year. 3 months down, 9 to go!

I'm all excited. I met with the bank guy about opening an ira to switch my 401k over to. I knew what I wanted going in, but after talking for a little bit, and answering a couple of questions he had some good recommendations.

I'm getting the account set up, now I"m waiting for paperwork from the 401k, once that happens, I'll request the check & then give the check to the bank.

Now that I'm getting that settled, what I need to do is think about opening a Roth IRA for this year. Its one of my goals for the year & definately doable. I just don't know if I want to wait until I have the money set aside, or if I want to start making monthly contributions until I get to the annual limit... decisions, decisions

The best part of the meeting was when the Financial Services guy told me it sounds like I've "really got my act together". Its always good to hear feedback about my plans

It was on my financial goals list this year. I wanted to get it done in January, but I prioritized overtime above making the appointment. NOW I'm finally getting around to it.

I have an appointment with my bank to set up an IRA. Once its set up, I'll submit the paperwork to my previous employer to move my 401k over. I'm excited because I also want to talk about contributing for 2007. I hope to make the contribution limit by April of 2008. To be honest though, its all dependant on overtime. If it keeps going, I might make it, if not, I'm going to have to get that 2nd job to make that goal.

I had this whole nice entry about budgeting & paying bills... then I lost it before I published it. And yes, it was human error

ANYWAY... I really like it when people show how they budget & pay their bills...its always interesting to see other people's processes, so here's mine.

I get paid bimonthly on the 1st and 15th. I have 2 checking accounts, which get direct deposit. ONe is for regular bills (gas, groceries, spending, student loans, medical, personal, car insurance, gifts, oil change, cell, cat, and clothes), the other for house bills (mortgage, cable, netflix, water, sewer, electric, trash).

On the first, I take 1/2 of my monthly budgeted amount for gas, groceries, spending & mortgage. Then I pay 1/2 of my bills. On the 15th I take the other 1/2 of my monthly gas, groceries, spending & mortgage & I pay the rest of my monthly bills.

This way, I pay everything on time, because A,B,C are paid on the 1st and X,Y,Z are paid on the 15th. It works nicely for me.

Sometimes I move money from one catagory to another, but I never had to dig into my savings. So if I'm under budget on gas, I may use the leftover for groceries.

Well, thats my system & it works for me!

Overtime Update: My goal has been 10 hours a week. I had 14 last week and only 6 hours this week, but it balanced out. It looks like our overtime is going to extend through April too (this has never happened in our department before). But its GREAT for me!! Mostly I'm sacking the money away, but I would really like a better digital camera (than the freebie I got from the bank). Its something that I've been wanting for a long time, so I'm going to put some of my overtime towards it. And I'm going to do a lot of research to find the best price out there

NO spending today. I packed my food for work. Yesterday I worked a 1/2 day of overtime, then ran some errands. I spent the rest of the day organizing. I finally finished organizing & cleaning my basement. Then I organized all my financial papers. Things are a lot easier to find now

I"m going to officially join weight watchers online tonight. I made the decision yesterday, but I'm going to join tonight. Then I'm going to preplan my food for the week & premake some of the food tonight. I was going to do premake more food yesterday, but I got distracted by the paperwork.

Yesterday was a no spend day. Today I packed all my food for work, but I am stopping at the grocery store on the way home. Just a quick stop, will do the bigger shopping once I have a meal plan in place for the week.

I'm working 11am to 3 pm tomorrow, so I'll pack a sandwich for lunch. I may go to the matinee movies tomorrow, which I'll pay for out of my enterainment budget. If not, maybe I'll get to the movies next weekend.

My mini-goals for this week are to pack my lunch/dinner & snacks every day this week and to work a minimum of 10 hours of overtime. (My workweek runs Monday through Sunday)

I worked 40 hours of overtime in February and I"m going to beat that figure for March.

Yesterday I packed my food for work. I'm working so much overtime, I'm taking both my lunch AND dinner at work. I didn't spend a dime on food at work. However, I did stop at the grocery store for some salad stuff. Spent $12.01.

Today I packed again & I'm heading straight home after work, so today will be a no spend day.

I've been doing ridiculous amounts of overtime. Its getting to the point where people are teasing me for working so much. I'm averaging about 10 hours a week. I've already met my 10 hours for this week, but I"m thinking about coming in Sunday for a few extra hours. Probably 11-3.

I increased my 401k witholding, while I have the OT & I'm looking to keep it there even when the OT runs out.

I've been throwing all my extra income straight into savings, but I think I'm going to put some of it to paying down my student loan. I really want to get that one down since my parents cosigned for it. They don't mind it, but it bothers me that they're associated with that debt. I have always been aggressive with the payments, but less so since I bought the house. Its time to step up on those payments!

Just a quick update on my February #s. I'm still totalling the spending, but I've already calculated the amount I've transferred into savings: $1,344.61!

Some of this was my state tax refund (122.00) & an inherited insurance dispersement ($470.00). The rest is all from my overtime and any misc. savings. This is a great number!

I know I way overspent on eating out this month. So my goal for March is to make up for it.

I'm continuting with my overtime, I did 21 hours in January & 40 hours in February. I'm trying to do about 10 hours a week through the end of March. Every little bit helps!

Well, the ice storm is headed this way, set to start a little after 1pm here. I'm at work (yes, on a Sunday). I leave at 1. I'm hoping to stop at Lowes right before the storm to pick up some salt. Then if it hasn't started snowing, I'm going to the grocery store. I just want a few veggies, so I'll be able to go through the quick lane.

Its a miracle, but my work is still offering overtime & will continue to do so through the end of March. I'm hoping to do 10 hours a week during that time.

I will have 357.00 to add to savings from Wednesday's paycheck. I also have $478.32 from an inherited insurance payment, which will also go directly to savings.

When I have my taxes back, that will also go directly to savings ($936.00)

I've roughly figured that if I continue to do overtime through march and I put all the overtime into savings, then after that,I will have less than $1500.00 to save by the end of the year to meet my goals. Which would be awesome.

However, I am not going to let myself get burnt out. If I can't do the 10 hours without overstressing myself, then I won't. But I am really going to try to do so, with the minimum amount of stress.

Here's an update on some of my goals in no particular order.

1. Track all expenses for the full year [done so far--down to the penny]
2. Limit soda intake/purchase [very limited- also switched to generic soda for the few purchases]
3. Stick to weight watchers [fell off the wagon a bit due to stomach problems, getting back on track with a modified version]
4. Find part time job/ find roommate for additional income. [Pending due to unlimited overtime being offered at work]
5. Increase 401k witholding [pending for annual review, will increase with raise]
6. Maintain $0 balances on credit cards [done, will continue]
7. Use library for entertainment. [done, also using free subscription to Netflix]
8. Cancel XM radio [pending, gave myself 3 month extension as a reward for large amounts of overtime]

Today was a no spend day. I had a goal of packing my lunch for 3 weeks straight, but I'm going to break it tommorrow (not even a full week in). Our work team is haveing a little lunch out. At one of my favoritre restaurants. So I'm going to get a fried chicken salad (which is HUGE) & have 1/2 for lunch & the other 1/2 for my dinner tomorrow. I'll bring breakfast & snacks to work & I"m planning on having water at the restaurant.

Then I'll be sticking to my packing lunch resolve for the rest of the 3 weeks, adding 1 day on at the end.

I'm only going to make 5 hours of overtime this week. Mainly due to snow issues. So I will not be getting to preorder Harry Potter 7. I'm going to hold off on that mini reward for next week. There is overtime available again next week. So if I do 10 or more hours of overtime next week, I will let myself preorder. I like these mini-rewards. This system seems to work for me

On the other side of things, I couldn't bring myself to pack today. I haven't been to the grocery store in a while. So I bought food, but I'm DEFINTATELY going to pack tomorrow & I'm going to hit the grocery store on Saturday. I'm hitting Walmart to stock up on my snacks & veggies. The Walmart has the best veggie prices in the winter & always has the best prices on muffin mixes, microwave popcorn, generic Dr Pepper (2 liters for 49 cents), and other goodies. I also need ketchup, worstershire sauce, some salad dressing, and wheat pasta. I'm trying to make a list & STICK TO IT. I tend to go overboard at Walmart. But at the same time, its a little out of the way, so when I go, I really want to stock up on the cupboard stuff.

I went to the dollar store today, I was looking for a toilet bowl brush, which they were out of. But I found really cute socks & snack cakes and some bath stuff! I came very close to buying all of them... but then I put the basket down & walked away. I didn't NEED any of it. Except maybe the socks...but I'm sure I can find a better deal. Just because they were in pretty colors, doesn't justify buying them at $1.00 each pair.

I'm really going to buckle down with the eating out. I have been doing really badly this month. I made it 3 weeks in a row with packing my lunch in January, so thats my goal---starting tomorrow, I want to go 3 weeks of packing all food, snacks & drinks. Definately doable!