Cheaper is not always better

Yesterday I made muffins to bring to work for my breakfasts all week. Normally I buy Betty Crocker, which makes 12 muffins-always more than enough to last the week. MG and I realized that Pilsburry was a little bit less expensive so we figured, "what's the difference? It can't hurt to use a different brand to save a dime." Well, there's a big difference. They taste the same but that package only makes six regular sized muffins. Six. With a 10 cent difference you can have 6 more muffins. There's no question about what I'll be buying next time.

I also made Thai food yesterday for my lunches at work this week. I'm pretty excited because a)Pad Thai is delicious and b)That means I'll be excited to eat lunch at work meaning I won't be spending money on food this week. Wahoo. I even realized I had more coffee creamer than I thought so I'll have free coffee to get me through all week (and trust me, I'll need it with graduation right around the corner!)

I also worked a whole 18 hours this weekend. Lately they've cut at least one of my shifts early or I haven't worked a whole weekend with Spring Break and Easter etc. so I wasn't used to that many hours but it felt great realizing it's all leading to a bigger loan payment. Who can complain about that? It's a challenge though because it's the big spring clearance sale so jeans are $23.99 (originally $88!) and shirts are only $7.99. On Friday I did get 2 pairs of jeans and 2 tops but I'm returning the jeans because quite frankly, I don't need them! MG came up with a project for me that I'm a little nervous about. Remember when I went through all my credit card and bank statements to see what I spent most of my money on? Well he thinks it'd be a good idea to see how much I've spent at Express since I've started working there. I think if it reaches a certain amount, I will get rid of my Express card or freeze it in a block of ice or something because if I'm trying to save, Express isn't helping.

My no spending challenge ended on Friday night when I spent $20 on gas. I did buy a round of drinks on Sat. night too, which cost me $11. Lastly, I was rushing to work on Sun. and forgot any form of caffeine and a snack for closing. I'm down to $3 for eight days. Technically, I can use what I have and make it through. Next weekend when I'm not working I'll be homeworking at the library so that'll keep me out of spending trouble and I bought enough snacks and stuff for meals to last on my breaks at work so really, I should be fine. Day one of eight starts now!

Day 3

Good morning!
It is Day 3 of my no-spending challenge and so far so good! It has become almost automatic for me to be prepared with meals or some sort of food to eat (popcorn for breakfast has happened), or to just wait until I get home to grab food rather than eating fast food. It's been pretty successful and it hasn't bothered me at all that I can't spend it. I think it helps that it's in two $20 bills so I can't just use a dollar for a vending machine or something like that. I'm sure I'll spend $5 tomorrow night to get into a party (plus maybe another $5 if we go anywhere else) since the BFF is visiting but that still leaves me with $30 for a week and a half. No prob.

I also realized that I don't need to take the 20% of my Express paycheck that normally is direct deposited into my savings to make my budget work. That means $25.31 is going into my savings! I decided that with that money, I'd make a loan payment to get rid of the interest: $13.31 and save the rest. That way when I have a bigger loan payment to make, it won't be consumed by interest and can actually make a dent in the loan itself. I feel like I'm getting back on track and it feels great!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Summer plans

I finally figured out the best solution to saving money this summer as far as my living situation goes. It's a little cramped but here it goes: My parents said they'd contribute $200/month to my rent if I stayed on campus. Yes, living at home is cheaper but the commute would waste 2 hours of my day and precious gas money plus there's the hassle of moving etc. So then MG and I were talking and since we already spend most of our time in his room anyways, we're going to consolidate into his room, split his rent and sublease my room. When we split his rent, that leaves us at about $200/month each including utilities and with the $200/month from the rents, that leaves me with a free summer of living and no commute. Perfect. Now MG's room is pretty small but I think we can make it work and with both of us gone working all the time, we won't have too much time to go nuts in close quarters. Mostly, we're both just really excited to be saving as much as we can and use that 2 hours a day we would waste on commute and spend it job hunting.

By the end of the summer (well, beginning of August if I leave for NJ) I will have paid off $1000 of this pain in the ass loan and will have at least $1000 saved for future loan payments, a place to live once we move out etc. That's only with the accounting job so if I include Express, it will be even more. I have a conundrum however. If I am earning all this money, is it better to put it towards loans right away or to keep some so when I actually receive bills I have the money to pay it off? I feel like I need to find a happy medium of that so I can reduce the amount I'll pay but I can also keep up with the payments when they become mandatory. Tough call. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Ramen

I purchased Ramen today. A six-pack even. We bought other groceries of course (everything on sale or with a coupon) but Ramen is a sign that we're REALLY saving as much as possible. If anyone has suggestions on how to spice up Ramen or make it more filling, PLEASE let me know!

I'm excited though because I just got next week's Express schedule and I have plenty of hours. I did the math for that pay period all ready and I'll have about 25 hours. This means I can complete my budget, put $36.50 in savings and make a loan payment of $84. YES! That means I can actually pay off all the interest and get rid of some of the actual balance. YES! I know this is over two weeks away but I'm already excited to make a dent with savings and loans! I just need to make sure that with all the hours I'm spending at Express I don't buy a THING!

Pay Day

It's payday again! hooray! Although, yes, this is the paycheck that's much smaller thanks to my escapade to South Padre but totally worth it. I normally require $405/paycheck to make ends meet for the month but that's not happening with this one. Surprisingly though, everything will work out. It hasn't been my turn to by groceries for a while so I've had money set aside for that and the utility bills will be much less now that we've been able to turn off the heat for about a month now so I can easily make ends meet despite the smaller paychecks. What a relief! The only bummer is that there will be no savings deposit and no loan payment for this pay period. I'm very glad I made a loan payment last paycheck because my interest is much more manageable at this point. In 2 weeks from now, it will be an uncomfortable number but more manageable than it could have been.

Now remember when I wrote about how credit cards are bad etc? Well after looking at the bills, they still are. I haven't used them in a while but the balance is still there. So my allowance just got cut in half so I could put $50 towards my Express card. I'm putting $10 for CUSA and that leaves me with $40 for 2 weeks. We still have a little bit left on a gas gift card so I think I can do it. Every other Wed, I have to give myself a new challenge and every week I usually fail in some way but this pay period, I'm determined to make that $40 last and maybe even have a little left over at the end to put towards my credit cards. Wouldn't that be great? Besides grocery shopping tonight, Day 1 of no unnecessary spending starts NOW!

Welcome back

Easter weekend was so enjoyable. Both sets of Matt's family came to visit and it was relaxing and nice to have so much family around. Another enjoyable aspect of the weekend was not spending a dime. We didn't go out at all so it was an easy way to save money :) I even applied to a reporting job out there and it pays really well. My hopes aren't up but it would be a huge relief. Even to get an interview ANYWHERE would help! MG has also been applying to jobs up the wazoo and although we both know there's still time for someone to offer either of us a job, we're starting to lose hope that all this work is actually worth something. MG did, however, get an e-mail this weekend from a job in Denver asking for more information from him. YAY! It was a long, taxing document of question after question but if it's job potential, it's worth it! It just gets difficult when you're also balancing homework and part-time jobs. Oofta! We're exhausted!

It's been a while

Yup, it's been a couple of days. The thing is, nothing exciting has been happening financially. Still no word on the job front so it's very likely I'll be headed to NJ for the year. That will result in at least $5000 put towards loans as mandatory payments and an extra $10000 to save for a house down payment or to put some extra towards loans. Also, if I have a part time job while the kids are in school or something, that will all go to student loans so I'm really hoping to make a big dent.

Otherwise, my allowance has been lasting me up until this point and nothing too major has happened. I take that back. I did purchase a graduation present for Matt. I don't exactly have the money but I'll be paying it off with chunks of my allowance. It cost about $80 but it was a fantastic deal and I know he'll really appreciate it. We're going to WI for Easter weekend so I shouldn't need to spend much there. Then I just have until Wed. for payday. Not bad. I'm just bummed I can't make a loan payment this paycheck :( Major bummer.

I quit my internship this week. I wasn't learning anything new anymore and it was getting to be more and more work with absolutely no pay, which I can't afford anymore. It's helped my resume but I can move on now. I can use that time to job hunt, put in some extra work hours or just relax and enjoy the rest of my senior year.

Happy Easter everyone!