It's been...

swell, fun, amazing, and life changing. Okay, maybe not life changing.

It's been a challenging semester; as always working full time and attending full time. A balancing act, you never quite learn. This blog has helped me in more ways then I originally thought.

My very first post. What have I accomplished over the course of the semester?

1. Stop impulsive spending - Yes. I can say with confidence this is under control. I now take the time to evaluate whether I need what I want. It's really helped my spending, and honestly I find myself getting more creative. That's the best part, the creativity.

2. Get 3 months worth of bills in savings - No. I had a few hundred dollars in my savings account, but my damn car needed repair for new registration. But I am working on building it again. I'm confident that I'll be able to bulk it back up here shortly.

3. Reduce budget - Yes and No. I've saved on my grocery budget since I've started cooking more. But gas for the car has gone up with recent prices, and the constant commute; however that will also reduce over the summer, and again once fall semester starts.

It's been a struggling semester, but another step closer to graduation.

Thank you for being a part of this. I plan to keep this blog going throughout the semester, although it might merge with my personal blog.

Cheers,

Ms. Manda

Swimming in dough....

Not. I did save some money over the last 2 weeks with cooking, and only cooking one meal.

I made chili 2 Sundays ago, and still have 2 servings left in my freezer. Who knew chili could be so versatile, yummy and filling? Oh everybody?!

I usually go grocery shopping weekly, but this week I only had to grab a few items; cheese, bread and juice. I didn't spend more then $10. It was awesome.

I'm going to continue tracking my food spending for the whole month of March; compare it to February and see. I'll be doing this manually and with the help of Mint.com; I love Mint.

Every time I save money, this is what I think of. Scrooge McDuck. :)

While, I'm doing this, I also want to focus on getting to work 30 minutes early each day; might not seem like much, but trust me that's 30 more minutes of sleep. Why you may ask?

30 minutes x hourly wage x 5 days = $32.50

That's about $65 before tax extra per pay check. Or about about $100 extra a month. A hundred extra dollars. Count me in.

So those are my goals for March; they are a little late. The month caught me by surprise.

Cheers,
Ms. Manda

Making the Most of My Time and Money

Until today I was working 2 jobs for a total of 30+ hours a week, taking 16 credit hours and 15 hours a week for PRSSA. Whew, busy girl. While gathering all my financial information for this blog, I had to examine my income.

Job 1

25 hrs/week

$13/hr + quarterly bonus

$1,300 gross monthly income + $390 quarterly bonus

Job 2

8 hrs/week

$10/hr

$320 gross monthly income

Total gross monthly income $1620

I started looking into my schedule and discovered that instead of working at Job 2 on Mondays and Wednesdays for 4 hours, I should work for 3 hours at Job 1.

Job 2

4 * 10 = $40 gross day

8 * 10 = $80 gross weekly

32 * 10 = $320 gross monthly

Job 1

3 * 13 = $39 gross day

6 * 13 = $78 gross weekly

24 * 13 = $312 gross monthly

It's not a significant enough to continue working more hours for same amount of money. This schedule has my work days ending earlier, allowing me more time for studying and extracurricular commitments.

Now that my gross monthly income is set at $1,612, I need to work on bringing my expenses down. That's for another post.

Cheers,

Ms. Manda