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It's hasn't been the best time

June 14th, 2018 at 05:03 pm

I have been away for a while and in the while things have been well not good I have had to take on a lot of debt and now my job does not have the best outlook since the company was taken over so I am not sure how this is all going to work out.

What I have been doing:

-Online jobs here and there so far have made $500.
-Lyft so far have made -150, as I am in the rental program and not able to drive as many hours as I should to make money.

I am going to try to use the money I make from Lyft which I have been trying to drive more to start up some online business or other passive income ideas. As I know I won't last for long and I need some kind of second income should my job end.

If anyone has any ideas let me know. For now I am just holding on my the skin of my teeth. I hate this I really do. I wake up in the morning hopeful and do my best but by the end of each day I am drained. Counting my pennies having to remind myself that I cannot spend money on things since there is nothing left. Cringing every time I put gas in the Lyft car or buy groceries because while I know I have to put gas in the car and I have to eat I can barely afford to do so.

The positive. I still have the house and I am able to pay the mortgage, if I play my cards right I'll be able to make 500 a week on Lyft which is enough to pay the mortgage just on that income and frees up my job money to save, invest and pay off debt.

One check a month

August 5th, 2016 at 07:51 pm

I think I may purchase the car I am currently leasing so I have a year left to save to do a hefty down-payment.

I have been plotting to save one of my checks each month but so far it hasn't gone well. The first month it went to a repair for a household item and credit card debt from house stuff purchases and a little eating out.

This month it's going to the credit card again for an forgotten annual expense, credit card purchases (for the house) and entertaining some visiting family.

I am hoping next month I really really am able to get it down to pay off my damn credit card balance and to put something toward the car. I think I may just bite the bullet and pull out $100 from these checks for house stuff (tools, repairs etc) and let then I'll put the rest to debt. That way I won't feel so pressured out kind of thing. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I now live in a house...

March 8th, 2016 at 11:28 pm

And I'm going to be broke for a while. However it is nice to essentially lock in my bills.

I know what it is going to cost me each month for the mortgage no more rent increases and that is major.

However things like car insurance, electricity, and what on earth I'm going to do a about a car when the lease runs out is variable.

I can handle variable as long as some things are locked in and I couldn't be happier. We got a great deal for the area and even though some upfront costs were involved I'm grateful those things were not "rolled in" to a mortgage I can pay those improvements off as I go and at a zero percent interest rate to boot!

I need to try to find a way though to increase my income so I can lessen my monthly responsibilities so sadly it looks like for the time being I will be locked in to my part time job since it looks like our salaries will not be going up at my main gig anytime soon.

A lot of excitement though that is for sure.

Back at it

August 13th, 2015 at 06:03 am

It was more than time to get back to my old ways, the ones that got me to pay off the last of my "bad" debt and let me grow a decent sized emergency fund.

I have to spent the next two checks knocking out the cc new debt, settling the remainder of the car insurance, paying the registration on the new car and making sure I have at least a month's worth of bills as a back up.

However, once that is done I will be back to my system. I hadn't done it in so long it took me a while to reinterpret it.

Good thing I did though I was off about $20 bucks or so on what I should be paying out to my bills and it was nice to set up my whole buckets system again.

Even though I make less than I did before I'm confident that I can get back on track again especially since this job is one that is suppose to be ongoing. (I say it that way because I don't like to take things for granted.)

It's nice to be saving toward a car too instead of worrying about a payment. I'm going to do my best so I can save enough to get a nice safe car next time with no car payment. Smile

Second major pay day

June 26th, 2015 at 08:42 am

So happy I was able to pay off a huge chunk of current cc debt and put my part-time job check toward rebuilding my emergency fund too. Almost back up to $500 which makes me feel a little better.

Next time I get paid I'll be able to wipe out most of the last of the cc debt which is exciting.

Then I'll have taxes due again but that is okay its like slipping back into revolving cc debt.

I already pulled out my spending money for the next two weeks. I'm almost happy to be back on a budget and to get things back into control and on track again.

Tomorrow I will have to straighten out the Student Loan People again but no biggie. I have to do it every month. I'd rather do that then have to deal with the way they misappropriate the funds.

One time they lectured me about the way I send in extra payments and how it wasn't convenient to them. I found that somewhat hilarious.

Anyway hope I can sleep soon gotta get up and do it all again tomorrow.

Small tasks turns into an open ended contracting gig

June 19th, 2015 at 07:38 pm

Good news is it looks like I may have found some place I can rest my laurels on for a bit so thats good.

I'm still waiting for them to revise my contract. I had to take a cut in pay too which is irritating but since I am now an LLC I can figure out some ways to make that less painful.

I am still trying to make my goals so its going to be rough. I need to pay off some debt racked up on a credit card from a recent trip, pay off car insurance in full because it's just easier that way and saves us another 12 bucks or so.

Then I have to make sure I take out enough for taxes, finally set up a real retirement account, and then save up for a car and a house.

It's crazy but I'm sure I'll level out. I'll update my totals soon but very very good news is I'm now down to 5 students loans and maybe soon 4.

The student loans make it hard for me to justify getting another car loan. I have to figure out a way to save up enough money to get a car in cash that is not crappier than the one I already own. I'm really determined not to get another car loan if I can help it.

My dad mentioned something about possibly being able to get some grants as an LLC to help pay off student loans etc so I'll look into that to see if I can't expedite the process. All pretty exciting!!

Update: Column has been updated to reflect new balances. Which were just depleted by a quarterly tax payment that was due the same week I started at a higher rate. This will be rectified soon though.

Good news!

June 17th, 2014 at 07:06 am

Looks like I might get picked up for other temp work at my job. This is amazing.

I just spent a lot of money though on this trip so my next check will have to resolve that. I just thought to myself how cuckoo to know I'll have money for a bit longer.

I tried to figure it out and I think what I'll do is:

Save money for the next car insurance lump sum.
Pay off my Old Medical Bill and raise money for Dental work.
Pay off the Hotel Stay.
Set myself up with payments for next year's once a year bills (car registration etc.)

Still do my 26 week challenge, still send an extra 20 each week to my lowest student loan. And pay myself car payments.

It feels sort of impossible but I do my best. I'm trying to get out from a pile of debt soon and buying all that stuff didn't help. I'm sure after this vacation though and the relaxation and enjoying the things I spent my money on I will get right back on track. It feels like I am not getting ahead but I'm a lot better off than I was with careful planning I should be right where I want to be in no time.

I also need to stop being so hard on myself! I have done a lot with a little.

Pretty Close to that 6 month goal and various other updates

June 13th, 2014 at 09:46 am

Things are going well except for my urge to splurge on coffee out on a regular basis. Guessing its part of stressing out from not knowing what's going to happen with the project and whether I'll be picked up for another.

I'm just a hair shy of hitting my 6 month of expenses goal because I was able to save up enough money to pre-pay car insurance. This is great because it means I can live off the crappy pay from my part-time job if I absolutely had to.

Been getting alot of snowflakes in which I've been putting toward paying off my student loans. I have also been using smarterbucks to see if that helps. So far it hasn't so much but every little bit helps. I'm just not sure how long it would take to get to the $10.00 cash out amount.

My EF is almost at 4K which is amazing considering I had to pull from it twice in the past 12 months for emergencies.

It appears that I finally have a positive net worth which is nutty to me but also awesome. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep it in the positive.

I got my registration and called in they stated I could leave the title situation the way it is or pay about 10 bucks to convert it to the state I am in now. I think I might convert it just so that all the paperwork matches up.

It's nice to see things getting taken care of before the potential loss of my assignment. I had never dreamed of getting all the things done that I have in the past year.

I know that if I work hard I can get the rest of my goals accomplished too. Just have to keep working hard and trying!!

What would you do?

May 23rd, 2014 at 09:09 pm

So I'm sitting here contemplating my last 3 paychecks and this time they look like they will be my last until my next job or contract comes up.

I'm think this is what I'm going to do but I'm open to suggestions from here (aside from the obvious find a job suggestion I'm already working on that.)

Here's the situation:

I have 3 paychecks left at approx. $1500 each after taxes each give or take a few hundred dollars.

I am married, and he works full time. I have a part time essentially minimum job that will cover my basic expenses plus about $20 if I increase my hours which is very possible to do, so bills would be covered after the contract job goes away and if I pay off my car insurance in full for the 6 months.

I do have an emergency fund that can cover four months of expenses if I do not pay off the car insurance and 6 months of expenses if I do pay off the car insurance in full.

So from the three checks I need to take out bills and car insurance.

That about $820 for bills, $880 for car insurance pre-pay and $300 total from the checks to cover spending expenses so $2000 gone leaving $2500.

Usually I put a whole bunch of this money to retirement and other goals but since these are the last 3 checks it might be best to stretch this cash to make not having gainful employment a little easier.

I could save another 6 months of car insurance pre-pay money from here so that I know I would be good for a year on car insurance and then save the rest to do the dental work I need done. So that would be -$1100** leaving $1400 for dental work (and we have dental insurance.)

I also have some things like car registration etc coming up that I need to pay but I have saved up funds for them.

If you were in this situation what would you do?

(** Car insurance is very expensive here and we've shopped around everywhere else its double the amount. We have low deductibles because its easier to pay out a bit extra each month to insurance than to come up with $1000 since my job situation is what it is.)

Net worth reflection

May 21st, 2014 at 01:58 am

I am about $400 away from hitting my 6 month goal for funds and about $300 from having a positive net worth. Having a positive net worth will not last long unless I can keep gainful employment but I will happy just to see the number. When I started tracking my finances in 2011 my net worth was -25K, and last year at this time it was -16K.

Things are looking up!

Car issues, keeping up with frugality and reflection on total debt

April 30th, 2014 at 11:31 pm

I got in a minor car accident this weekend. My car wouldn't stop in the parking lot for some reason so it hit another car. Such a bummer. Went in the store and found the person then exchanged info. I'll pay the deductible on the car insurance to keep my car checked out.

Right after that I called the dealership about getting my car fixed up for the recall and the parts are not in yet thats a bigger bummer.

Been feeling really down lately so work has been slow going. Started doing that thing where I internet browse items I cannot afford.

This time was a little different though. I realized because I have paid off as much as I have I am that much closer to actually affording those things if I wanted. That was kind of nice.

My grocery budget is busted so we are shopping out of the pantry until midnight tomorrow when I get paid. I have made a solid commitment to not touch the credit cards and have stuck to it. It is not fun but it is nice to know I don't owe anything to any body right now aside from my established loans and the bills. All extra money is going to the hotel stay for our trip and saving some spending money for the trip as well.

I wanted to pay the car insurance bill in full again but I'm not sure I can do it. I will need some help or have to take money out of the savings to close the gap. I think I might just do that it will be easier to cover things if I don't have the bill hanging over my head. The first priority is the car though. The car payment is much more a month to month than the insurance and if I'm not mistaken owning the car should even lower the insurance a bit.

It of course once again depends on the job situation. I am trying to commit to fitness as well so I have something else to focus on other than stress and it might mean I'll look good on the trip too.

I realized not that long ago when stressing out about debt that I have not only done a great deal in eliminating debt in the past year but have actually basically halved my debt since I got out of school and started working.

When I got out of school I had 7K worth of credit card debt, 21K worth of student loans and I got my car which was another 14K for a grand total of: 42K.

Now it is actually a little over 20K with no credit card debt (save for 400 on a 0% interest card that is being paid off each check), under 18K worth of student loans and a little over 2K on the car.

That made me feel really good. Not bad for a permanent temp!

Interesting article on financial goals

April 21st, 2014 at 10:49 pm

Recently when figuring out which stock I should invest in next in my IRA I stumbled across this article: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/17/goals.aspx

I'm glad it did because it made me feel better and calm down a bit.

In the past few weeks I've gone $931 in the negative. But its not a biggie. Both were interest free, one on a 0% credit card and the other out of savings. I am now only $799 in that hole as of the last paycheck. While it was a bummer it was a wake up call as well.

I'd be so headstrong and exclusively focused on my goal of paying off my car that I forgot that life is still going to happen in the meantime.

My husband and I will want to go out for a dinner at some point or a vacation. There will be a birthday for someone whom I usually buy a gift. And then every once in a while we will want to go out and have fun.

I had neglected that part of my budget heavily as the time neared for my assignment to be over. I just wanted to throw every last time toward car repayment so I can have it paid off ASAP.

Well I have done a fantastic job at that for sure and if I could somehow manage some full paychecks and I can put another chunk of money toward that. But I still have to make up more of this 799 dollar deficit. I still need to budget for future things I know are going to happen so they don't end up on a credit card racking up interest or taking away from being able to pay off my loans.

And beside all that my original goal was to make sure I'd be able to pay off the car by the end of 2014 which was achieved. Then I got all ambitious, and it went from that to trying to make sure the car was paid off before December so it wouldn't take away from Christmas (which I am already saving for.) Then it turned into maybe I can pay off the car in time for me to pay for the registration, which morphed into I have to pay off the car before my assignment ends. Which ultimately lead to me being stressed out beyond belief for about the last month and a half.

I read the article realized how overzealous I had become and took a step back making payment plans and goals realizing that while they would be more difficult to reach while underemployed it wouldn't be impossible.

I also started researching ways to get some more side income to insure I can stay on track. All in all I have learned to just sit back and stick to the established plan. While its fine to reevaluate or pay some extra. It is not an all consuming omnipresent thing anymore.

The car will be paid off before the end of 2014. Anything extra is a bonus. Christmas will happen, we will be able to take our trip. Everything will be okay. I just need to stick to the plan and everything will be fine! Smile

Payday

April 18th, 2014 at 09:31 am

Well not an exciting paycheck for sure.

I charged up a stay for our upcoming trip on the 0% card so I made my first payment to that.

I had a deficit in my bill account because I forgot I needed an extra month cushion, I used most of my check eliminate that deficit.

I have another deficit in a monthly expenses savings account which I was only able to contribute a dollar toward in this check but its still better than nothing. Next check I should be able to put more.

I was able to keep all my savings including retirement savings goals which was nice.

I was able to set aside a little money for our anniversary, plus some money for a b-day gift I will be sending out shortly.

I did not have enough to pay a lot extra on the car but I could make it an "even" amount.

Next check's goal is to make sure I am able to cover the bills and fill that other deficit.

This check and the next are going to be short checks due to the lack of hours as of late but no worries. I may have been hit by a truck load of bills all at once but I have a plan for making sure they get paid off even if I am just merely underemployed.

What a Difference a Year Made

April 11th, 2014 at 06:32 am

Every now and then I am bummed I can't make super high payments to debt. I have become obsessed with paying off my car. And seriously considering what I can do for a side hustle that will ensure I bring in at least $1000 every month. If I could make that happen I could ensure that I am able to pay my bills without depleting my monthly bill fund while underemployed.

I decided that I should look back and see where I was before I buried my self in my debt sorrows.

At this point last year I had:

Income
1 contract job slated to end soon and a part-time position that paid nearly minimum wage

Revolving Credit Card Debt
476 10.24%
1470 19.8%

Car Loan
7779 10%

Student Loans
19513

Emer Fund
413

Monthly Goals Fund
Half a month worth

Retirement
614


Now:
Income
Same

Revolving Credit Card Debt
None

Car Loan
2,400 10%

Student Loans
18147

Emer Fund
3036

Montly Goals Fund
4 months worth

Retirement
2483


Debt

A year ago: 29238

Now: 20547

Difference: -8691

I have come a long way since last year. I need to be proud. I need to remind myself that I am doing all that I can. And seeking additional income is a fine way to make sure that I am still able to do so. Since I still have my part time job closing that gap is all the less difficult. I am both frightened and excited for the future. It is so full of possibility and opportunities abound. If I am even half as successful at adding extra income as I have been at eliminated debt in the past year it would be a blessing.

Nothing about this has been easy but if it were everyone would be doing it right? Wink

Starting to dream about quitting my part time job

March 24th, 2014 at 05:50 am

My part time job is starting to get in the way of my assignment in a big way. And now I may have to take some time off to help my husband after his surgery. I'm at the point now where if they try to be inflexible about this I will just go ahead and quit. I am sure not going to tell my husband that I have to go tend to my part time job and he is just going have to be on his own.

My assignment has noted that they would like to pick me up for future assignments and there are already some plans in the works. Which is promising although I have been told that before.

On the one hand it seems silly to quit after putting up with it for so long and beside that it would be nice to have some income other than savings when my assignment does end (assuming I do not have unemployment.) But after working two jobs for more than a year now its really starting to take a toll on my well-being.

I feel like I am at the half way point though. Almost done with the car payments. Starting to finally save toward fun goals etc and losing the part time job would mean I'd have to take money much more money out of my regular check to fund my emergency fund which would live little breathing room to save for all those other things that I just started saving for. It would be tight unless I had overtime in each check. So now its a matter of living even more frugally than I already am or continuing to give up all my time to have that little bit of extra money.

I will stick with it if they agree to keep my hours low, and give me the time off to care for my husband. But if they don't it may be time to part ways with them. I do have other companies that I can do work for doing small temp jobs. And I may be able to make it by on unemployment.

Either way I think I'm going to set a tentative end date of this December. If everything goes well and I'm still working two jobs after this conversation with them than I will keep working with them squirreling away enough money to hit the 12 months worth of expenses mark which I could save up by then if I did it aggressively I'm already a quarter of the way there if I don't count my emergency fund. If I hit my mark in December I will quit my part time job and regain my sanity.

Goals accomplished and on track

March 7th, 2014 at 08:44 am

As of tonight I have 3K in my emer fund plus, 4 months of expenses and I will be able to pay off my car by the end of this year even with the income from my part time job.

Even though my temp gig is ending soon I am so happy that I stuck it out and have made what I thought was the impossible possible.

I also hit 2K in my retirement account which feels really nice. I also need to find something else in invest in there. All in all I am pretty happy right now. It wasn't easy to get to this point so now I guess the challenge/focus is to keep the income coming into so that I can pay bills and keep saving while underemployed.

Also got rid of some old stuff for cash which was nice.

Yey for payday and good habits

January 24th, 2014 at 08:03 am

With no more balances on the credit cards I've quite enjoyed paying in cash and sticking to a budget. Something I never thought I would say!

Just got paid and despite choosing to save over making as big of an extra car payment I feel great. My EF is finally at 2K again and my savings account is getting ever closer to that 4 months worth of expenses goal. Things are progressing toward ending in my project but the likelihood of being called back for another seems good. Whether that happens soon I don't know.

My resume is out there and I'll network but now that my financial habits seem to be well established I think its finally time to start to focus more seriously on health goals. I've used what I've learned to sticking to financial habits to set some doable and easy to keep up fitness goals.

I'm thinking they will serve me well if I stick to it.

It's funny to think how far I've come in a year. I went from not having any savings and no job to a part-time job to this wonderful project that I took on which has allowed me to pay off my credit card balances, create an EF, increase retirement contributions and develop a budget that even allows me to save toward goals like paying off my car loan early.

This whole experience has just been fantastic and I know that no matter what happens I will stick to the plan. So refreshing to be here. The first step is always hard but to be here after a year feels fantastic. Thank goodness I took the initiative to make it all happen.

One last dilemma I have though is that if I have a month left I know I can use the next paycheck toward debt. And the last one toward bills.

My goal is to pay off the car but the student loans are not really shrinking. I might have 700 extra to put toward a debt in the next check (after taking out money for retirement, goals, etc.)

So knowing the situation would you:

A - Put the money toward paying the car currently at 5305 with 10% interest

B - Put it toward the smallest of the student loans (1K) with 6.55% interest

*All my student loans are federal loans

Shucks

January 2nd, 2014 at 06:13 pm

Well it turns out I didn't have as much as I thought I did in the next check to pay off my new camera. It's okay though I'll just do it in two payments it won't be due until the end of this month anyway.

Other than that no hickups in the plan. Still putting money away paying off loans etc. Looks like I'll be employed til Feb. The goal is to save up another months worth of expenses and send more extra payments to the car.

Jan is a wash due to the new toy but Feb should be good maybe after all this there will be another job. One can only be hopeful!

Update: Things are better

December 28th, 2013 at 04:37 am

The part time job calmed down and they are way cutting my hours. And we got a week off from the temp job due to some project hold up.

The great thing is the missing money is not going to affect me at all because of my planning I had already taken the money for bills out of the last check.

I am optimistic again. And Christmas is paid off. Time to plan for the future and get back on track.

Christmas grrr

December 13th, 2013 at 06:55 pm

I am still working at my temp job which is lovely. But I decided to do a little extra for Christmas which has put my put extra payments toward my car plan on hold.

But good news is I'm still contributing to my IRA, toward my EF and x amount of expenses month fund while keeping my cc balance manageable. I put some Christmas things on there for the reward points. It was great to see that high balance disappear just as quickly as it was charged with now rewards all for myself. I'm hoping that I can get my EF back to at least 2K again before the end of the year and fund my savings account for 4 months of expenses. That would be grand!

In the meantime I'm working in my resume to get my next gig all lined up so I can keep this financial stability going into the new year! And trying to restore balance by getting back to the gym. Need something to get all this energy out.

After three years I am finally making some goals

November 21st, 2013 at 07:26 pm

There are things that I want to do financially, a lot of things. But my debt and infrequent income have not allowed me to hope or dream for much of anything other than ensuring that my bills are paid on time.

Now with a little cushion in the bank, cc debt paid off and being at the tail end of my car loan I think its about time I started making some solid plans. Just strive to make money and focus on paying off debts and increasing savings.

I want to be able to reasonably afford a new car when I'll need one and save up a nice down payment on a house while paying down debts and socking away money in my retirement fund. It may be a lot to ask but at least now it seems within the realm of possibility. My cash system has finally worked correctly and I haven't picked up a credit card to charge anything that I couldn't already afford/had budgeted for with cash.

Even though its coming to the end of my current assignment I feel hopeful. My part time job will cover some expenses unemployment or brief temp assignments will cover the rest. I won't be easy but it never is. And at least this time I have a cash buffer and a plan. I'm so glad I sacrificed to pay off the debt. I feels so much lighter to know cc payments should no longer derail my efforts to pay down my loans.

I'm going to do the best that I can but for once I feel secure and that is really saying something for 3 years of not knowing how the next month will go.

Discretionary spending is part of the budget too!

November 13th, 2013 at 04:11 pm

I just bought a personal finance book that helps me figure out how to save money with my irregular income. Now that my credit card debt is paid off I wasn't quite sure what to do next.

The answer seems to be save. But I have charged some things to the card the past two weeks. I felt like a failure til I read this book and realized. I wasn't setting aside enough money for what I actually spend each month.

So I calculated out that number and its isn't that much in the grand scheme of things but I'd like to lower it. For now while I still have steady cash flow I'm finally going to accurately allocate money toward my spending trends each month (groceries, eating out, entertainment, shopping - as in buying clothes, a kitchen tool etc)

I'm hoping now that I'm not trying to put every penny toward those other credit card payments by giving myself an realistic "allowance" I can now not feel deprived and use everything that is left over to reach my goals while sitting being able to put gas in my car or have one coffee a week if I choose.

I do worry that I will not save enough before my assignment ends but I haven't finished the book yet either.

My goals for this week's paycheck are:
-Pay off the groceries I charged to the credit card because I ran out of money
-Give myself an allowance so that next week's groceries won't end up on the credit card.
-Plug those holes that have left me just short of the 3 month expense goals.
-If anything is left over apply it to your other financial goals.

And for myself I'd like to finish reading that book. A part of me wishes I had come across it before but in reality I'm happy I did enough on my own and got to a positive point where I realized now that my credit card debt is gone I need to come up with a system so that I don't mismanage my new found "extra money."

Looking at the big financial picture I really haven't done too badly for myself. But I can always do better. This whole financial security thing seems to really suit me lol.

Looking at the big picture once again.

November 6th, 2013 at 10:26 pm

Now that the credit card debt really is gone I have started to get some clarity on what I should do next. I started looking into money advice for people with irregular income like myself.

It seems like so far I've done well. I have lived off of way less than my means and saved almost 3 months of expenses plus an emergency fund.

The advice I had never encountered before was to take into account your other expenses which is a good idea. I had never formulated much of a budget on items such as groceries, eating out etc. Just restricted my spending to a certain amount which I never seem to hit.

I have had mint tracking my expenses for quite some time and have a list of bills that I do have to pay throughout the year even if they happen once a year (renter's insurance, excise tax/registration etc etc).

Now I just have to insure I budget for those as well. I have probably have another month of work or so. I'll figure out my numbers once my printer ink arrives and see what else I can be doing to ensure that I stay afloat while I have little to no cash flow.

For the first time in a long time I feel full of possibilities rather than worried about how I am going to make it through. That is encouraging and a very nice place to be indeed.

Countdown to midnight

October 17th, 2013 at 07:32 pm

I am so happy to report that first the first time in a long time I will be getting a paycheck from which I have not already spent a penny out of.

I am so excited to see how much I'll have left over after the bills and how much I can apply to my credit card to wipe out that pesky debt once and for all.

If I wipe it out I will have one less payment when my job ends which means this time I will have enough money left to afford groceries. I am just so excited.

More training to come on my contract job really happy that is going to go on longer. If it goes on long enough then maybe I can build a nice big fat EF before its all said and done. Smile

The Rain just won't stop

September 13th, 2013 at 08:09 pm

I'm feeling pretty bleak today after seeing all the flood damage some of which is not that far from my tiny apartment.

Although I am happy that we did not move to a condo as we had planned because most of the places we looked at are underwater now and we are save and dry.

I'd like to move into a house someday but I feel like we have other bills we have to take care of before we do that. Husband seems to just want to move into a bigger apartment and stay there but if we have a family I'd much rather be in a house. It's equity you own it. Paying rent is like money that you piss away each month here. It's not like back home where you could write it off as part of your taxes.

I have gotten no word yet as to whether my assignment will go on but I sort of wonder if my office is underwater at the moment. Some days its hard to stay positive and this is one of them.

I've been sick for a while now so doing normal daily routines has been a struggle as has going into my other job. Right now I need to shove some food in my mouth so that I can get some more work done.

I'm just stressed out beyond belief. I try not to be but it happens at the end of every assignment something always seems to come along and wipe out my money whether its a choice I made like paying off my credit card thinking I had another week of pay to replenish the hole, or some kind of emergency. Right now I'm out a few thousand due to my medical emergency but otherwise I'm okay financially. I should have more money in the bank but what can I do.

I'm hoping that I get word soon one way or the other so I can be more emotionally prepared. It's nice to be able to post on here its almost therapeutic like.

As far as the financial situation goes nothing has changed. My credit card has still been tucked away and I'm using my cash envelope system. Next week I will get paid and be able to replenish some funds but I still have to pay off bills and pay off that credit card I foolishly racked up a balance on. Hope all is well out there in the stratosphere.

Here's the beginning of the road.

September 12th, 2013 at 08:24 pm

Today is my first day. I don't know if I'll stick to this blog but I sure hope so. Things have not been easy for me but with the help of my now loving husband we've been fine.

I'm currently working 2 jobs and it's been stressful and to add to the mess my husband is now doing the same for when my assignment ends. My second job is approximately minimum wage I work there still because I can't rely solely on unemployment.

Last time I was unemployed long enough that I had used up my claim which is when I got my part-time position. When I was finally approached about a contract position in my field I had not been gainfully employed for 9 months. That was a scary time for both myself and my husband but we made it through.

Financially I am doing okay but I still have one last credit card to pay off, a car loan, and student loans. Until this position I had no savings. Now that I do have savings don't feel that its enough.

I learn more everyday and this website has already taught me a lot and helped me set clear financial goals.

I hope this blog will help others like me to figure out what to do with our finances. Unlike most temps can't count on having a steady income. They have to make due with what they can get and hope they gained enough experience to be hired by the company or land another great assignment.

It's a really rough place to be financially but with some common sense and support (either a stash of cash for yourself, unemployment or someone who can help you out in the interim) you can stay sane as you navigate though.