It's the beginning of a new month which means it's time for a new budget! Have I shared with you all yet how much I love budgeting??? I truly do love it. I think last month though I was a little down about how much I had saved for Chile so far- 56%. But this month that has gone up almost 14% (I did a little rounding because some people can't always handle the number 69). Honestly, when it gets to be the last week of the month I start hoping it goes by super fast so that it can be the first of the next month and I can do my budget.
Last night, it was the first of the month so I dusted off my crappy trusty laptop and opened up my Dave Ramsey software, totally expecting to be rejoicing at my new percentage of savings for Chile. However that's not quite how it happened- in fact I was a bit upset. I did my budget and commenced freaking out. I was only at 53%! How could this be?! I tracked my spending and I hadn't overspent and I had earned more income this month PLUS received a gift of money. No se que paso. I crunched the numbers again and again. I even angrily shut down the Dave Ramsey software and went back to my own excel worksheet thinking I could do the math way better than him. I got to 56% again by cutting out things. I was having an anxiety attack wondering where the money I had earned had gone. I wanted to call my mom but it was 11pm for her and she would have killed me. I called Andres with only one minute left on my calling card- he said he would call me back in a little bit. It was during that "little bit" that it hit me- the money hadn't disappeared, I just forgot that it was already in Chile! That's right, Andres has $750 of mine in Chile (already in chilean pesos) just waiting for me. I added that into the budget and I now have 70% of the $5000 I need to live there. I just need to earn 30% more plus the plane ticket in the three months remaining. Si se puede... yes I can!
So where did this 14% come from this month?
- I spent about $80 under my income (income is tight- I'm usually not able to save too much from it.
- I received a $200 dollar gift from parishioners who were in a Bible study with me. Their gift was totally unexpected and their generosity blows me away. I am so thankful for the parishioners here- and not just because they give me money!
- I had two dogsitting jobs amounting to about $140
- I cashed in a $50 savings bond
- I sold a piece of furniture for $30
This month I'm looking to grow my savings by having two more dog-sitting jobs, by receiving a $90 rebate from my FSA for contacts I bought last month and I hope to start working at the golf course on the weekends like I have the past two summers. Bring on the tips!
I wasn't going to have a second post in one week having to do with money but with everything going on with the government it's just been on my mind a lot and I cannot resist. Also I found a link from Kyle's blog today to a wittily-written blog called "Punch Debt in the Face." I fell in love. Seriously, check out this guy's website. And thus you get another post about money and finances- both personal and government.
Let's start with personal finances. I went to an amazing college where I got a fantastic education... but it also came with a boatload of debt. No bueno. I think I'm going to be really honest on here and give you actual numbers in hopes that a youngin (or a parent of a youngin) might be reading this and learn a lesson. To go to my private university I took out about $65,000 ($15,000 federal, $50,000 private) in student loans. By the time I graduated the total amount was $85,000(!) from the four years of collecting interest. Now that I'm out of college and in the real world that gives me a payment of $740 every month. That's A LOT for a young college grad. In the past 2+ years I have paid about $22,620 on my student loans yet the net amount of them is still $75,000 because about $12,000 has gone toward interest. If I had known this going in I would NOT have gotten student loans. Yes, I would still have wanted to go to my university but I probably would have A) gone to a community college/public university the first two years and B) worked first to save up at least half of the money for tuition before attending. These loans and their payments are going to be with me for the next 10-15 years unless I make extra payments, which I plan to because when I graduated I set a goal to have them all paid off by MAY 2018 (now that it's in writing in the public sphere I expect to be held accountable).
Now having this much debt (as you're applying for student loans people will tell you this is good debt- that is a lie, no debt is good debt) often times heavily weighs on me and can get me down. However, today is not one of those days. Today I have hope for two main reasons. One: I know I can get this debt paid off because I know people who are doing it and when that day comes it will be GLORIOUS! One example of someone I know paying of debt- my parents! My mom has been doing an awesome job of inspiring me because she's done it herself and my dad gives me endless support and says he's so proud of me with how I'm budgeting now. Another example- an RD (resident director) I know from college from when I was an RA (resident assistant). I woke up this morning, checked Facebook, and in the news feed was his post about him and his wife paying off the last of their debt just TODAY! Way to go Vince and Cay! You can read about their debt-free journey here. Two: Confidence in God. A couple of weeks ago in Adoration I was talking to the Lord about how much my debts were weighing on me and on my decision to move to Chile. I remembered Matthew 6:24 that says "You cannot serve both God and mammon [money]." I confessed to God in that moment that I feel like my student loans have me enslaved to money and that while I am money's slave I cannot (fully) serve Him. That was two weeks ago. Then last week I was back in Adoration re-reading my journal entry about that and I had a revelation: even while still having these debts I can have freedom in Christ. And that's partly what helped me to decide (again) to move to Chile. In doing that I would be totally placing my finances and trust in God. And fully trusting in Him gives me freedom and releases me from the slave chains of debt.
It's the beginning of the month, which means it's budget time!!! I know to most people, that would not be very exciting, in fact I think most people dread doing their budgets. But I love it! I love working the numbers and as Dave Ramsey says, "telling my money where to go." So tonight I sat down and I made my budget.
Unfortunately, I was not as excited as I normally am... and that's because my savings for Chile are not looking too hot. Now I want to start by saying everything is okay and will be okay, yet the savings are not quite where I want them to be. I'm at 56% of where I need to be by the beginning of August (not including money for a plane ticket). That means I have four months to raise the rest of that. And it's totally possible and doable, I just wish that by this point I was a little more ahead in this area of savings.
And do you want to know the main reason why I'm bummed that I'm only at 56%? It's really a silly, petty reason. When I first started keeping track of my Chile savings in October, I made this big chart that I hang on my living room wall. The chart is titled "Tamarandrés" (our two names combined) and this visual is a great way I stay motivated. Unfortunately for the past two or three months I have not been able to add anything to the chart because my income has been pretty stagnant and also I had some car troubles that actually took money from the Chile savings. So this month I thought I was going to be able to chart some progress but alas, I was not able to.
But I'm not going to stay bummed about this. I'm going to keep trusting in God that He will provide the funds and I'm going to be contenta with what I have been given. AND I am going to work hard this month and be proactive to get some extra income. I already have two dog-sitting jobs for the end of the month lined up, so that will help, and tomorrow I'm going to contact my manager from the golf course last year and ask him to hire me back on for this year's golf season. It SNOWED a lot today (when will winter end?!) so the golf course is not open yet, but it definitely should be by the end of the month.
Here comes the big bucks!
It went rather well at the dentist today. My MN dentist is great. I've been going to him since I was five and I think my dad has gone to him since he was something like 17. So when I found out that I had to get two crowns on my molars that had just had root canals, I went to my MN dentist first while I was home visiting my family. He did one crown (it's all I had money for at the time) in June and then I had to get this second one in Wyoming. Like I said, my MN dentist is great. But one thing he doesn't do is he doesn't use the laughing gas. The WY dentist uses laughing gas. Let me tell you, that makes it so much better. I still felt the Novocaine but I didn't really care! So that was nice. The other nice thing is that it was $100 LESS than they quoted me last week when I made the appointment. Honestly, I'm a cheap-o (we'll say thrifty) and saving $100 of this hard-earned money I'm trying to save for Chile was way BETTER than not being preocupada about the Novocaine.
The other thing is that my dentist is located in the mall. For most women this would be a problem. But for me, I'm strong (like I said, I'm a cheap-o). Walking through the mall doesn't really tempt me, especially since I didn't have any money budgeted for clothes this month. However, there is this new store and I decided to stop in and look because I wanted to see what type and price of clothes they have. And I saw they had a clearance rack full of pretty clothes! Now I don't quite understand how a new store already has clearance items, but since they were good clothes for cheap prices I didn't really care. I ended up getting a really pretty new dress and a pretty new cardigan for... wait for it... $14.28! My receipt says I saved $54.38 off of the original price. Who is the best bargain shopper ever?! Today, it was me. Now like I said, I didn't have money in the budget for this. But it gave me so much joy to get these pretty new things that I took it from my entertainment fund. The clothes will give me more lasting joy than a movie.
The last thing I want to say is that daylight savings time rocks and sucks all at the same time. I'm glad to have more sunlight later into my evenings, but seriously, it's hard for my body to adjust to the time change. Sunday I woke up just fine, but the past three mornings have been a struggle to wake up and even went into work an hour late two of those three days. It's okay because I have a somewhat flexible schedule but I also feel like that's a waste of my time I should be working so I don't have to work so late into the evening. However, it's worth it though because it also means that Andrés and I are an hour closer together! Hip hip hooray for daylight savings!
