Monthly Roundup - September

End of another month! This is the first month that I have not reached my Monthly Challenge goal, and I am upset about this. My goal for this month was $150, and I have reached $128.01 (85.34%).

Here's the summary:

$20.00 – Textbook Sale
$32.90 - Online Surveys
$11.07 - Coupon Savings
$62.30 - Amazon Sales
$1.74 - Interest
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$128.01 (Goal - $21.99)
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I am quite amazed at the amount I made using Online Surveys, although to be quite honest, some of the surveys were done a month or so ago, and I only got the money this month. Another area I am impressed by is “Coupon Savings”. I was a savvy shopper this month and stocked up on some things on sale and used coupons for these things as well. So that’s good. Although I did not actually reach my target goal, I think I am going to still have $150 as the goal for next month and see how it goes. Since I only was operating on a half month’s salary in September, all the challenge money goes towards my expenses, and nothing actually goes towards savings or debt elimination, but all in all, I still feel proud of myself.

My budget is another story altogether. I went over again this month – by $185.52. The main culprits were – losses at the casino, and when my sister was visiting, I paid for her gas, took her grocery shopping at Sam’s Club and treated her to a nice time out. I usually pamper my baby sister - she is a student too, and poorer than I am, so I don’t feel particular guilty about this. I also had very few no-spend days. Here are my “Pamper Account” details:

No-Spend Days: 8
Spend-Only Days: 13
Eat-Out Days: 9
Pamper account total: -$12 (including last month)

This is horrifying! My resolution for next month is: I will spend money ONLY on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (not including regular, fixed expenses such as rent etc.). My hope is that by holding off on getting something I want to buy until the weekends, I will be able to control my cash-flow better. I don’t know if I can actually pull this off, but I will try.

Scary ATM Recepits

I was at the ATM a few days ago to withdraw $10. I had very little money in my account and was struggling to make what I had last a few more days. As the machine was processing my request, I lazily picked up one of the receipts that someone had not bothered to take with them to indulge my voyeuristic curiosity. What I saw made my eyes pop. I would have $19.22 in my account once the ATM spat out my measly $10. The other person had $46,369.85. I would give a great deal to be able to say that receipt was mine! The difference is starker when you actually see the receipt, so after removing all possible identifying info (though there really is none on ATM receipts), here are the couple of receipts, for your viewing pleasure. Click to view them larger.

My Small ATM Scare and Why It Helps To Ask Anyway….

I was going to do laundry over the weekend and needed to get some cash to change into quarters for doing it, so I went to my local ATM. Now, my university directly deposits my monthly stipend into my checking account which is linked to my university ID card. So, at ATMs, I typically use my university ID instead of a checking card. It’s worked pretty well so far, but on Saturday, after I got my $10, and got to the laundromat, I realized that my id was missing – only about 3 minutes had elapsed and I hurried back. The parking lot at the ATM was empty and I was pretty sure no one had been there while I was gone. When I entered the booth, I didn’t find my card and assumed that the machine had reclaimed my card for safe-keeping. So I called the bank customer service to ask what needed to be done. The lady who answered told me that there was nothing she could do – the machine automatically shreds the cards, the cards are reported as lost and new cards are issued. I told her that it was my university ID that was lost, and she said that my university would have to reissue a card to me. I was quite disheartened – my ID works as a free bus pass, and a new one would cost $20. It all was quite depressing. Anyway I told her I’d call the branch office on Monday just in case. She said she was sorry, but she didn’t think it would do any good.

But I called… and apparently the machine does not shred the cards, and I can go there this afternoon and pick mine up. I’m glad I didn’t take the silly CS rep’s word for it and did ask. I saved myself $20 in new card fees. And, I have decided to make a mental note to make sure to check I’ve got my card back from the machine each time.

The Lowest Checking Balance Ever!

Last night I checked my checking account balance online. I wanted to buy some groceries. I knew that my balance was running low, and wanted to check and see how much I could safely spend. Imagine my astonishment when I logged on and saw that my total checking account balance was $ 0.34! I had forgotten about my insurance auto-payment and was counting on there being at least $75 in there. I could have transferred money from my online HSBC savings account, but that would take a few days. So I decided not to buy anything last night, and to deposit all my online survey checks in the morning. I should also be getting $65.40 from a sale I made on Amazon. So, I am okay after all, but it is terribly scary seeing a balance of only a few cents in one's primary checking account. In the end, I did not go grocery-shopping, but instead went home and cooked stuff I had in my pantry - which was just as good.

I Am Bad At Budgeting

Here is a confession - I am horrible at budgeting!!! I think I have a very arrogant and stupidly positive view about my own self-control. I under-budget for a lot of categories every month and I seem to always go over. I thought I'd do a mid-month round up of where I am at:

Over budget by - $115.28 (I'll get about $30 of this back from a return eventually)

No-Spend Days: 3
Spend-Only Days: 6
Eat-Out Days: 5
Pamper account total: -$10.

Hmm... any idiot can see that I am doing it all wrong. !!GROAN!!

I Feel Financially Depressed

This is a sad, miserable post. Please do not read unless you wish to be depressed too!

I just updated my “debt-o-meters” sidebar and am struck by how slowly I am inching towards paying my debt off. Over the summer, I got paid fewer times and very irregularly, but I managed not to rake up more debt and save some money in my freedom account, but by the end of the summer I was exhausted. My August pay was only for half the month and most of my August snowflakes went towards paying my semester bill (my grad program pays for tuition, but I have to pay for misc fees which come up to approximately $350/semester). A few days ago, I looked at my pitiable bank balance and decided that I needed to dip into my savings account in order to survive the month. So, I transferred $150 from my HSBC account to my checking account. I am perilously near crossing my budget limit thanks to a shopping and casino trip with my sister (it was fun, but I lost at the casino). I know that I spent the money because of an unwise choice that I made, but it has been almost a year since I bought myself any new clothes.

I do make some sensible decisions too, but I feel that this adds to my depression. Take for instance the case of my housing. Early last year was when I started to become even remotely aware of my financial situation. For three years I had lived in a lovely apartment – not extremely expensive, but pricey enough for me to decide that I could not continue to live there anymore. I decided to find the cheapest apartment possible and send the savings towards my debt. I found such an apartment soon – they were the cheapest rooms in town. I would have a large living room, a cupboard-sized space for a bedroom (space enough for a bed and night-stand and nothing else), and a large kitchen. All utilities paid except internet. The downside – the rooms were in the basement of a prehistoric house, I had to share the restroom (no tub, just a shower stall) with another inhabitant of the other side of the basement, no laundry facilities on-site, the basement also turned out to be much damper than I had imagined it would be. Pretty miserable conditions really. I might have found a roommate for a better apartment, but having had some quite negative experiences with roommates before, I decided not to. Anyway, I was saving a large chunk of money, and I was willing to put up with the crappy apartment. I moved in. A month later Murphy struck and my car (which was an old old old piece of junk) died. I decided to invest in a much newer car, took out a loan and guess what? The difference in my rent just about covered my car payment – so a year and a half later, there hasn’t been even a fraction of the movement that I had hoped to see in my debt-reduction. But I am okay with that – I have a lovely car that I can use for another ten years at the very least.

And then something happens to depress me even further - I stayed a couple of days at a friend’s place last week and simple luxuries such as a bathtub, and a bedroom with space for a TV in it, a window that actually lets some light in, ceilings that I cannot touch even if I tried to, and other such things made me want to move right out of my crappy apartment. In a year’s time, I will be off on internship and will be making more money. I could stop trying so hard and allow myself a bit more luxury right now. I make and save so little right now that in the long run all this frugality is only going to knock off 5-6 months off my debt-reduction payment. I show all the signs of depression in the financial area of my life – I feel hopeless, stuck, tired, frustrated and angry (with myself more than anyone else). I wish dearly that I could somehow fast-forward a year of my life!!!

I Successfully Passed My Qualifiers

Two weeks ago, I took my Ph.D. qualifying exams. In my department, this is a day-long (8 hr) written examination - 5 essay questions. I am a BIG procrastinator and although I had been collecting prep materials all summer, I only actually studies for two weeks. This was an extremely stupid and dangerous thing to do since the questions could be asked on absolutely ANY area of psychology (my major). However, I did some real heavy-duty studying those last two weeks and felt okay about my answers the evening of the day I took them. But I still was trying not to hope for too much since I was horribly under-prepared. However, on Saturday my major professor called me to congratulate me on passing my exam. I am ecstatic!!! I still don't know how much I scored on each question, but I don't really care - I passed, and that is all that is required to make me an official Ph.D. candidate so that I can go on to work on my dissertation.

What does this have to do with finances? For me, quite a lot actually. A couple of years ago, my major professor went on a year long sabbatical. The procrastinator that I am, I took this as an excuse to not do any research at all. As a result, other than classes and clients, in all other areas, I am about a year behind my cohort members. In order to go on internship and graduate on schedule, I need to propose my dissertation by Oct 15th. This would not be possible unless I passed my qualifiers. Had I failed, I would be stuck here a year longer - meaning very low pay for another year and postponing debt repayment and savings for a whole year!!! That is another reason I am thrilled to have passed. Now if only I can get my proposal done in a month!!! Wish me luck!

Monthly Challenge - August

I have reached and surpassed my third Monthly Challenge goal of $400.

Here's the summary:

$50.00 - Rent Reduction
$200.00 - New Tenant Bonus
$12.40 - Online Surveys
$60.57 - Amazon Sales
$12.00 - Old Navy Refund
$50.00 - Cell Phone Rebate
$6.30 - Piggy Bank Coins
$13.50 - Won at the Casino
$0.75 - Coupon Savings
$30.00 - Craigslist Sales
$49.00 - English Partner
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$484.52 (Goal + $84.52)
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P.S. I may have reached my snowflake goal, but was nerly $200 over my August budget - I think I live in some fantasy land when it comes to budgeting!