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.

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!!

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!

Weekend Update

I had an okay weekend money-wise. I am about a $100 over budget this month (I am awful at calculating how much I think I will spend on things). I did sell a piece of furniture on Craigslist for $25, and got paid $49 by my old English partner. I also bought groceries, did laundry and went out with friends. Points to be proud about: only FOUR eat-out days this month. And only a deficit of $1 in the pamper account.

School starts tomorrow. This means less time for myself. It also means many more hours of work and more pay. However, starting September, I'll pay the full rent again. No more automatic $50 towards the Monthly Challenge. So, my Challenge goal for next month is only $100.

Monthly Challenge - July

End of July! I have reached and surpassed my second Monthly Challenge goal of $150.

Here's the summary:

$50.00 - Rent Reduction
$69.01 - Amazon Sales (-S&H)
$18.92 – Pay Per Post
$23.30 - Online Surveys
$120.00 – Research Participation
$35.00 – Craigslist Sales
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$304.13 (Goal + $154.13)
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Since I found a new tenant for the other apartment in the house I live in, my landlady has given me $200 off my rent next month. Since this already surpasses my $150 challenge, I shall raise my August challenge to $400. I hope I reach it! This money will go towards paying for Fall semester miscellaneous fees at my university.

Monthly Challege - June

June has ended, and thankfully I have reached, and even surpassed my first Monthly Challenge goal of $150.

Here's the summary:

50.00 - Rent Reduction
48.77 - Amazon Sales (-S&H)
15.00 - Gas Grill
25.00 - Dog-sitting
19.00 - Online Surveys
35.00 - Found Cash
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$192.77 (Goal + $42.77)
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Welcome

Hello Dear Reader,

This past New Year, I resolved to reduce my debt. I have a stupendous amount (or what seems like a lot) of credit card, and car loan debt. I was not at that point sure what to resolve to. It was a vague "I-want-to-reduce-my-debt" at the time. But this is what I wanted at the time:

* Be credit-card debt free ($16,728.19)
* Pay off my car loan ($10,095.17)
* Have a $1,500 emergency savings fund ($0 currently)

Now don’t get me wrong, I have other goals too, related to retirement, investing, travel funds and property-buying. However, being a graduate student with limited financial resources, I limit myself to these goals for now. I will eventually expand.

My goal is to have all this under control in three years time. This is a lofty goal given that I am a graduate student who is a full-time student, and works 20 hrs a week on a 9-month work-contract. After tax is withheld, I get a measly $1,219.89 per month. This money goes into payment of rent, car, credit-card minimum payments (I can't afford more, but hope to change this), groceries, gas, phone, and other stuff. I would gladly work more if I could, but can't for reasons that can't be overcome, and that limits my income.

Not having a detailed plan at the time, this is the progress I made in 4 months –

* Credit-Card Debt : $15,886.50 (- $841.69)
* Car Loan : $9,283.87 (- $811.30)
* Emergency Savings : $105.00 (+ $105.00)

How did I achieve this? The answer is – I am not sure! However, a few things that I changed since 01/01/2008 are:

* I kept track of every single cent I spent
* I eat out less often now
* I cancelled my Netflix subscription
* I downgraded my cell-phone plan
* I did not charge anything new to my credit cards

Then, around early April, I began seriously investigating debt management. I read several PF blogs, met with a financial counselor, asked my parents to lend me some money and paid off three smaller credit card balances. I also created a very elaborate spreadsheet that helps me budget, track expenditure, bill payments, debt repayments and the progress made. Then I decided to start a blog myself and be accountable. This blog is my attempt at managing my personal finances and being debt-free eventually. Since I will be a student for two-and-a-half more years, progress will be slow and painful. I imagine that cataloging my own expenditure and income in such a public way would also be painful. But I think I would like to feel the pain. It might make success that much more sweet!

Here is a chart of what I have accomplished money-wise so far:

* Please note that the chart tracks my progress starting 04/01/2008

It is terribly painful to see myself make such infinitesimal changes each month. At times I think I ought to give up until I get a job and worry about all this then. But since just making the minimum payments on my credit cards wipes out most of my money, managing my finances is very important. The greatest virtue I must own now is patience.

Amat victoria curam!