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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

20 Things Tuesday

It doesn't roll of your tongue exactly like "20 things Thursday" but who cares, I have a lot of ground to cover.


1. New York City really is the city that never sleeps. I've had two official waitress shifts so far and I have not been home before midnight yet. And yes, I work at 8am the next day. 

2. Waitressing is bringing in some big bucks though so at least it's worth the long hours. Wednesday was my first night and I get $102 in tips. Sunday, I ended up working all day and was the only waitress for the NBA finals game that night so I got $250 in tips. Yup, my student loans for July are almost paid for with those shifts alone.

3. I thought I made a lot less but apparently waitressing pays $5 an hour. Maybe that was just my training hourly wage but either way, I got $70 for training so with all that, my loans are more than paid off for July.

4. Remember my plan about what to do when I make more money than what I budget for? Well clearly with this side job I will almost always have extra money each month. I realized I had to set a monthly deadline of when my waitress money needs to go back to loan payments for the following month. Whatever I make between the 26th and the 25th of the following month, it needs to cover my loans first and the rest is split with the 50% debt, 25% saving and 25% me. This is about the paychecks I receive in that time span plus the cash tips I can bring home at night (if people tip with credit, it goes through my paycheck so I don't take that much cash home, at least not yet I haven't).

5. My parents were in town all weekend. It was WONDERFUL!! I showed them around the city Friday (yay summer Fridays!) and we did some shopping and went to the confirmation party of a family friend Saturday. They are the best folks around and I'm bummed I only see them a few times a year.

6. My birthday is in 10 days and while my parents were in town I got these:
7. They also gave me a gift that keeps on giving...a 6 month payment plan to help me with my loans and savings. Each month I normally pay them $53 for my portion of the phone bill. From June-Dec, however, I don't have to pay them and they will also pay me $150. $100 goes to a loan payment to speed it up some and $100 goes to savings. With a deposit and first month's rent for the new, furniture-less apartment lurking around the corner, I need to save all I can get.  THANKS MOM & DAD!!

8. Online shopping is way too tempting and evil. For real.

9. When your parents offer to take you to Target, don't forget your list so you forget major things you meant to get. Aka extra flip flops since they're $2 and I blow through them in the summer and new headphones since I use them all day every day and the padding has fallen off the right ear...not very comfortable.

10. But when your parents offer to take you to Target, it is always awesome and helpful.

11. I've done a great job of sticking to the food in my cabinets as often as possible. Yes, there are tons of great NY restaurants near me but I have to bypass them unless an emergency or special occasion. Fortunately I get free meals when I work long shifts waitressing so I don't always have to bring food.

12. I've also done a much better job of eating healthy, yet inexpensive produce. Yes, I do have mac and cheese some nights but yesterday when I stopped at the grocery store I only bought produce (apples, lettuce, avocado) and I brought a delicious salad for lunch today.

13. I recently bought this salad tupperware from Target:
I had lettuce, canned salmon and avocado with balsamic vinaigrette in the dressing container. It was great but on the commute in, dressing leaked out so I only got half of what I packed and the salad was a little dry. Not sure how to combat that but overall the container is awesome!

14. Working out has become a real hobby for me. I'm mixing up classes (sculpting, Zumba etc) with running and I've lost 3 pounds since last week when I first tried on the bathing suit. Don't worry, I'm being healthy!

15. I've bumped up my level of running for training to be able to run 2 min straight. I rotate walk 3, run 2 for 25 minutes. 2 minutes is a short period of time but I used to struggle with running 30 seconds so it's rewarding to see the improvement.

16. My apartment building has a laundry room in the basement. It reminds me of Friends when Ross and Rachel have a laundry date. I'd show you the clip but I couldn't find it. I'm surprised at how cheap it is!...did I really just say that about something in NYC? It's $2.25 for wash and $1.10 for dry. I have a few things I dry on tumble mode and the rest I dry normally so that works out perfectly.

17. I made a few waitressing friends at work and one of them keeps bringing me books to borrow. How awesome is that? And they're interesting! Currently I'm reading Confessions of a Carb Queen and it's fascinating!

18. Working is a good alternative to going out and spending money. I'm never bored. I work Thurs, Fri and all day Sunday but I do have all day Saturday off. What should I do?!

19. My parents helped me move all my stuff from my aunt and uncles while they were in town. I haven't had much time to unpack so my room looks like this:
I don't know if you can see the hangers and clothes rack in the corner but it fell the first night I put it up. Perfect. My million dollar room doesn't even come with a closet so a new, better quality clothes rack is in the mail. It better work because my work clothes can't exactly stay crumpled on the floor like they are now.

20. Lastly, here's a shout out to Chubby Chicks Run Too, she's getting a blood transfusion today and catching up on her blog reading while she is at the hospital all day. Hopefully this cures some of her boredom!

More regular posts will follow, I promise!

    2 comments:

    1. 16. I know which episode you're talking about! :)

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    2. your parents sound awesome! i want a gift that keeps on giving! ps. i had to come find your blog when you said you love sixlets.. they are my fave and no one knows what they are when i tell them lol

      ReplyDelete