annual money freak out post

With the turn of the new year, the Social Security "tax hike", and the fact that my Wells Fargo loan comes out of forbearance next month, I decided to take a look at my finances. OH BOY. I make roughly $1500 a month after taxes. I pay out $1012 to all my various bills. I mean, I have enough left over to live and I'm definitely better off than some people, but ouch. Let me just break it down a littler further for you.

• I pay $125 per month on old credit card debt, plus at least $25 on my current (low limit, credit rebuilding) credit card. 
• I pay $256 to student loans. Thank god for Federal loans and their income-based repayment plan, because without that I would be in big trouble. Private loans give you NO wiggle room, save for forbearance, therefore it is my opinion that private lenders are the devil. 

This is a cautionary tale, kids. DON'T GET A CREDIT CARD. And if you do, make sure you have the means to pay it back every month. Also don't go to school. You'll be paying that shit back for the rest of your life. Is it really worth it? Is it?! 

I'm kidding, of course. Go to school. But be smart about it, because you're paying THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for every year that you're there, and those thousands of dollars are racking up a thousand more dollars in interest.  

So here's to 2013, the new budget I need to make, and all those sad shoes and purses that are stuck at the store because I certainly won't be able to buy them.

previously, on lost.....

Ok, this post isn't about LOST. It's about tv in general. For pretty much my whole life, I've lived in a residence that had cable/satellite. I love tv, simple as that. At this point in my life it's become a comfort to me, just having the tv on in the background. I lived with my parents for 19 or so years, where there was free cable. I lived in a dorm for a year, where there was free cable. I then moved in with my boyfriend at the time for about 5 or 6 months, in which time I did not have cable (although I spent most weekends at home, and went to visit my grandma who had cable quite often), so it wasn't too bad. I then moved to various different apartments in Ames, where thanks to college-town living, I enjoyed the luxury of free cable & internet which was undoubtedly added to the price of our rent...but it was nice to not have to deal with setting up different services and paying a million different bills.

And when I finally graduated and moved to Des Moines to work at my first full-time job.....the free cable era of my life ended. I am now faced with the tough decision: cable or internet? Or cable or less money to spend on food/clothing? Since my apartment building has a contract with one internet and cable company, I cannot look for cheaper solutions. I can have $40/mo internet, $40/mo cable, or $80/mo for both. So I chose internet, where I can find most of the shows that I watch easily, and stream them on my tv.

So what's the big deal? Well, a few of the shows I love are on the precipice of cancellation because the Nielsen ratings are too low. This is absurd! In this day and age, Nielsen is obviously outdated. So many people who used to watch tv are now opting to cut out the cable bill and watch all their favorite shows online. There is this huge demographic of people that ARE watching said shows (Parks & Rec, anyone?), but can't afford to watch them on tv as they air. And before you tell me that NBC is available for free if you have an antenna, I know, and I do, but it only tunes into ABC, FOX, and a few other weird local stations. I can't get NBC, which I religiously used to watch on Thursday and Saturday nights, and I can't get the CW, which I realize is targeted to a younger age group, but I don't care, I need to watch The Vampire Diaries!

In conclusion, I miss having cable, I miss watching commercials (yeah, really), I hate bills, and Nielsen needs to get with the 21st century! If they counted how many times I've watched (and rewatched) all the seasons of Parks & Rec, there's no way it would be doing so poorly in the ratings.

budget update!

This update will be brief, as I need to get ready for work in about 20 minutes (yeah, sometimes it takes me longer than 20 minutes to formulate a semi well-written, witty post).

Well, I pretty much failed. I mean, I stayed within the amounts I set for each of the categories I decided on (except for food, which I went over on), and I even stayed under the amount on some categories (like "other necessities"). I used that fact to justify my disgusting shopping addiction. Oh, I need some toilet paper and dish soap? I'll just go to Target! And then find some dress I need, and a purse that I must have, and travel sized products just because they're small and fit in my purse, and oh, season 6 of The Office is on sale! That's basically what happens. Target is evil! When I was dirt poor, I didn't even look at those sections. I kept my blinders on and went straight to what I needed, and then straight to the check out. This month I have to wrangle in my urges to shop needlessly. I should probably set a budget for that kind of stuff. That being said, yesterday I got my tax return, and immediately bought a purse from Zappos and a plane ticket. The plane ticket was kind of a necessity, but the purse was definitely not. But I guess, sometimes you just gotta treat yo self.

mo' money, mo' problems: part 2

Remember that budget thing I was talking about trying last month? Well, I'm trying it out. I got my monthly & bi-monthly checks from my jobs at the end of March/beginning of April, and then began rigorously crunching the numbers to get something financially responsible put together. Here's what I came up with:

• First & foremost, BILLS. Those terrible, annoying things that happen every month. Blegh. Rent, utility bills, Netflix bill, car insurance, and estimated dollar amount in gas I will use per month. I know gas isn't technically a bill, but I have to have it to get to class/work, so I think it counts. 
• $100 for food
• $50 for other necessities (toilet paper, soap, etc.)
• $50 to my savings account
• $50 in cash (This is part of my genius idea to help curb my impulse spending. I tend to save my cash & use my debit card, so I'm going to try and leave my debit card at home most days and only carry cash. I'll let you know if this plan works out....)
• After all of that, there's still a little money left over. I like to think of it as a cushion in case I go over in any of the other categories. And yes, that's already happened :/

This budget may be modified next month, depending on how this month pans out. I feel really optimistic that this will help me manage my spending! It would be amazing to have savings again, just in case there's a month that I need extra money. 

mo' money, mo' problems

 
I think someone wise and famous said that once, but I don't believe them. I currently have no money, and I have tons of problems! I can't imagine what it's like to have extra money, and to not be living paycheck to paycheck. This is mostly my fault; stupid credit card spending when I was younger and not being able to save anything, ever. Right now I have 1 1/2 jobs (half, because one job is currently only temporary), which is enabling me to pay for things I have to pay for, like rent, utility bills, and car insurance. I'm going to throw gasoline in that category too. Whatever is leftover is divvied up between groceries and other necessities (soap, toilet paper, etc.). There is usually a little leftover after that, because I'm a very frugal (see: cheap) grocery shopper...but instead of saving it I go out to eat, or buy a new shirt. I justify buying that shirt by telling myself that I haven't had any discretionary income for so long that I deserve to treat myself to something (don't get me wrong, it's still cheap Target/F21 stuff). Then I immediately get buyer's remorse after I leave the store, not because I don't like the item, but because I know that I have such limited funds and I should be saving. Budgeting is so hard for me! I'm going to try and get better at it, though. I need to physically write down how much money I'm going to allocate to each category. And then make sure I actually stick to that budget.

How do you guys budget your money? Any tips for someone who makes too many impulse purchases? Travel-sized/purse-sized products are my weakness. Help me save money so I can make real, adult purchases someday!