How are your resolutions going?

Oddly enough, a professor asked my class last week how many of us had made resolutions for the new year. Only two other students raised their hands! I was blown away by this. Not to mention dismayed. Does that mean that young people my age have no goals in their life? In light of this, let's take a look at how my goals are going.

Create, tweak and come up with a functioning budget: I came up with a budget that I think will work for me. I'm actually going to post a tweak to it. Last, time will tell if it is functioning. I have full confidences in Version 1.0, but I'm sure there will a couple adjustments. Grade: A (so far)

Keep all receipts: I have about 90% of my receipts from last month. I'm really, really, really, really trying on this one. Grade: A-

Have two thousand invested in a high-interest savings account: Erm. Um. Yeah. Not good on that one, but in the budget I'm using for this month, I'll be contibuting 150 into it. Grade: F

Credit Cards Paid Off: I'm one-third of the way there and planning on paying 300 off this month. Debts will be paid off within four months. Grade: B

Invest 500 into wardrobe: I actually spent fifty dollars on clothes last month and got great deals. I purchased two pairs of pants, two tops and a sweater. Another fifty will go towards clothes this month. Grade: A

Develop dietary and exercise plan that fits my schedule: I've been kicking ass and taking names! Heh. I've been going to the gym in ridiculous amounts. We're talking four to five days a week. Investing in a gym membership was one of the best things I've done for my health. My diet has also vastly improved although working in a restaurant has so many pitfalls. Grade: Exercising is an A and Diet is a B

Never Too Young To Know Your Credit History.

While I wasn't willing to shell out money to find out my credit score, I haven't checked my credit report in eons. Using recommendations over at The Simple Dollar, I went with annualcreditreport.com. All I had to fill out was my name, date of birth, social security number, and previous address. Next, I clicked on using Equifax and was asked two questions regarding my auto loan (who it was through and what category my payment fell into). Voila! I had my credit report right there.

Here's what I learned:

I rock!

Well, more like, I make all my payments on time. Even though I'm only 21, I already have three years and five months of perfect credit history. Nothing outstanding; no stolen identity; nothing to worry about. Well, besides my debt ratio to available credit. Basically, I have a little over 13k for my auto loan and another 5k pulled out for school. I'm not worried over the school debt as it is subsidized and is GOOD debt. As for my auto loan, as soon as I pay off my credit cards, I'm throwing everything at it. Furthermore, I don't have too many credit inquiries nor do I have too many open lines of credit. For the record, I only have three credit cards. I may possibly go down to just two.

I'm happy. Now, off to class I go!

Medical Woes.

Unexpected medical problems are always a lovely surprise, especially when you don't have health insurance. I have to get a series of tests done which are going to cost me a pretty penny. Also, I have to take off work a couple days. I'm a bit nervous about the financial impact of all this. Fortunately, I think I can cover it all out of pocket. We'll see. I'm REALLY avoiding putting it on a credit card. And, as a last resort, if I do, I'll pay it off by the end of this month. Fingers crossed that everything turns out okay.

Food planning is still going jiffy. Although, I'm slacking in the department of inputting my expenses into my accounting software.

October Spooky Spending Report (Not too frightful).

This is my first time creating a spending report for the previous month; bear with me on it. I have 310 dollars left over for the month which is going to go towards grocery shopping (starting meal planning tomorrow), emergency fund, and Old Navy card.

I'm going to break this down by amount of money spent and percentage of income it takes up. The main categories are shown first, followed by the actual breakdown. The 17.2% leftover is that remaining 310 dollars.

Food= 8%
Cell Phone= 4.7%
Gifts= 3.5%
Car= 28.5%
Rent= 27.5% (typically higher)
Clothes= 2.6%
School= 1.8%
Credit Card= 4.9% (not counting huge payment this month, see previous entries)


Cell Phone -85.4 =4.7%
Groceries -55.72 =3.1%
Household-10.52 =0.6%
Fast Food-15.31 =0.9%
Dining Out-60.6 =3.4%
Other-1 =0%
Gifts-62.6 =3.5%
Clothes-45.99 =2.6%
Auto Insurance-203.63 =11.3%
Rent-496 =27.5%
Car Payment-271 =15.6%
Gas -28 =1.6%
Car Expenses-34.99 =1.9%
Credit Card-89 =4.9%
School Expenses-31.81 =1.8%

The Good and the Bad.

The good: The CapitolOne card is paid off in full. That was my highest interest card, second-highest balance and the one I tended to always be a day late on. I'm not counting it in this month's expenses/income because it came out of the financial aid money and the purpose of daily tracking is to find out what a typical month looks like for me so that I can create a budget. I will count it in my three month total though.

The bad: All the electricity went out in my house last night and no one discovered it until this morning (house owner is out of town and I was at the boyfriend's). The person who discovered it grabbed nearly everything out of the fridge and freezer. There are still some things in the freezer that were mine that I won't be eating. All vegetarian products. Besides that, the only thing she left in the fridge that was mine was lettuce and asparagus which is still good. There is an electrician here now, but not sure how much it will cost. This is one of those times I'm glad I don't have my own place. I don't have to foot this bill.

The good: I cleaned out my bins and shelf in the fridge. I also realized that I failed to mention that I cleaned out my pantry last week. I discovered lots of food I didn't realize I had and tossed the stuff that was bad. I'm currently eating popcorn I didn't know I had. Furthermore, I've started cleaning out my bedroom. Normally, I keep it quite tidy... but with the onslaught of starting my upper-division courses and practically living at the boyfriend's, it has turned into a chaos zone.

The bad: Browsing through the mail, I found that I got an evelope from Wells Fargo thanking me for joining their rewards program... I never did that. Wtf? As long as there is no yearly fee, I don't care. But, I didn't sign up for this service. It makes me fearful that someone stole my identity; who would sign up for a rewards program with that info though?

Embarassing Disclosure, pt. II.

As promised, here are the stats on my credit cards**. Ugh. It's pretty horrid. Actually, quite horrid.

*Amount due/Interest Rate/Total Line*

Capitol One
Predicted: 480/24%/500
Actual: 540.65/25.9%/500

Old Navy
Predicted: 350/20%/900
Actual: 361.97/21%/900

Wells Fargo:
Predicted: 1050/15%/1100
Actual: 1086.78/16.7%/1100

The plan of action:

-Make sure I start paying my bills ON TIME. My worst attribute is consistently being a day to two days late on payments. I never remember bills are due until the day of. With my Wells Fargo, I can go to an ATM an instantly remedy the problem. The other two I pay online and it takes a day or two to process. Then, because my limits are near the max, the incurred late fee causes an overdraft fee.
-Pay off the highest interest card first (Capitol One). This also happens to be card I tend to pay late most consistently.
-Stick to not using cards. About a month and a half ago, I discontinued using credit cards. They are on a shelf at home.
-Next, pay off Old Navy card, and finally Wells Fargo.


**According to last month's statements. I've already made payments to Old Navy and Wells Fargo this month.

Embarassing Disclosure.

Thanks again for all the advice on what I should do with the remainder of my financial aid. I never even thought about the fact that FAFSA looks at my savings.

Here's the embarassing part, I couldn't offhand tell you what the balances are on the three cards I have, nor could I tell you what the interest rate is on all of them. I have a vague general idea, but part of my purpose with creating this blog is to sort out all the odds and ends that I never thought of before. I have work looming within the next hour, but tomorrow (along with studying for a midterm that is that day) I will find out my balances and interest rates. It isn't that I don't look at my bills; I just have never stopped to really remember any of the information.

To test what knowledge I do have, here is the balances/IR/max balance possible that I think I remember are on those cards:

Capitol One: 480/24%/500
Old Navy: 350/20%/900
Wells Fargo: 1050/15%/1100

My worst habit when it comes to credit cards is that I always manage to pay them A DAY LATE. I'll pay them online like a day in advance, yet they don't show until the day after. Erg. I really, really, really, really, really, really, need to improve on paying my credit card bills on time.

What should I do with my financial aid money?

I spent money today, but it came out of money that had been earmarked in advance it. There were a few necessities that I've been needing to buy and have been unable to out of lack of funds. Rather, it hasn't been a lack of funds, but that I didn't want to spend any money until I knew I was completely in the green. Thus, I'm not counting that money as being taken out of this month's income/expenses.

I go to deposit my financial aid check tomorrow. Woot. I'm debating exactly how to portion it. I want to do half in savings for an emergency sort of fund and half to pay off my highest interest credit card. I'm playing with roughly 800 dollars. Opinions?

10-14- Sunday
Tips: +126.00

Total: +126.00