Buying Busy

In going back to school this year I have discovered two things about education: It is time consuming and it is costly.  It looks a great deal as if the carefree summer I so greatly prize is going to be cut in half by educational activities.  I suppose it's about time; I can't have summer vacations forever.  Eventually, like so many other teachers, I'll have to sell them for something: a second job, more education, extracurricular activities that pay a stipend, etc.  But I look forward so to my summer of freedom.  Mind you, I don't waste it.  I keep busy every possible moment with climbing, reading, cooking, traveling, biking, hanging out with friends, hiking, camping, watching movies, and adventuring as much as possible with as many friends as I can squeeze into my life. 

But this year it looks as if there will be no drastic hair change to look forward to, and only a marginal increase in free time until June is over.  Three days one week are taken up with training for the new Common Core that will be implemented next year.  One week is a trip to Boston for my Teaching American History Cohort (I can hardly complain about that, true.).  Another week will be consumed by a 2 credit teaching creativity class I'm planning to sign up for. (It's for my G/T endorsement, and since I'll be teaching one class of G/T next year, I'll need all the help I can get for that.)  And today, I decided to sign up for a class on the Holocaust for my one remaining free week.  Sigh.  It's all stuff I'm looking forward to learning (with the except of the Common Core training--bleck), but it will cost me hundreds of dollars I don't want to spend, and the opportunity cost in adventure and relaxation time makes me cringe. 

But it will give me knowledge I will need to teach next year.  It will mean that I'll have amassed a great deal of cheap college credit, about $425 for 12 credits, and that I'll be more than half way to changing lanes on my salary schedule.  I may be able to make it up to 15 credits if I really sell my soul.  I'm proud of all that.  I feel like I'm progressing in my career, using my time, becoming a better teacher, and learning things I've always wanted to learn. 

But some part of me is saying that I'm just buying being busier.  By the end of this school year and summer, I will have paid $425 to lose 1/7 of my evenings to class (not counting homework for class), one day of teaching a month, a free weekend during my winter, and a month of my summer.

Sigh. 

I Win!

Ladies and Gentleman, after last month's budget disaster, I am thrilled to report that this month I under spent my income.  Add in that some of my purchases were for school and were reimbursed, and a reward from my internet company, and then my tax return, and I'll actually be putting $150 in savings this month.  And, I'm headed to the mall to go blow $50 as my reward.

I still overspent in a few areas, though in different categories in this month.  I kept my stuff buying under control, though I overspent in groceries and restaurants this month because I had less time to cook.  I still overspent the strict budget I've been trying to follow, but by little enough that the extra space I leave between my budget and my income could absorb it with room to breathe. 

So, if you'll excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, I'm off to the mall. 

Failure and Excuses

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I did not meet my budgeting goals this month.  I did not meet my budgeting goals this month by several hundred dollars.  This is the result of several factors.  Some are my fault.  Some are not.  I'm going to tell you about it, partially because I'm sitting in a very boring session of the UAGC conference (most of which has been wonderful), and partially because I figure if I tell you, I'll be too embarrassed to overspend again next month.  For your convenience, I have categorized and itemized my expenses and excuses.

What was my fault:
1.  I spent too much money on going out to eat.
2.  My power bill was too high.
3.  I bought too much stuff.

My Excuses:
1.  Going Out to Eat:  I have been looking for friends since I moved up to Salt Lake.  This month I finally made friends that want to hang out, climb hard, and laugh a lot.  Unfortunately, they also like to go out too eat at very nice places.  After the first time, I started just getting side orders or dessert while they got steaks.  I now have the reputation as the girl "who never eats anything."
2.   Power bill:  I give up!  I keep my apartment at 65 or 60 degrees all day, and I have things like my router, computer, tv, dvd player, etc. on plug strips that I only turn on when I need them.  When I was gone for a week at Christmas, I even turned off my water heater.  After all that paranoia, my power bill is still over $70 for a one bedroom apartment on the second floor.  I give up.
3.  Stuff:  I was doing so well.  I had shopped at thrift and discount stores and craft stores to get several things I'd been craving for the apartment forever.  Halfway through the month, I had spent my "stuff budget," and resigned myself to not spending any more money on stuff.  Then I found the deals.  One was a fantastic area rug such as I have been drooling over for years, brand new, soft on the feet, matching everything in my living room, covering up my old carpet with cigarette burns in it, for only $50.  The other was a Groupon deal on one of those things you tell yourself "I really want to try that someday, but don't want to spend the money.  If I ever find a deal on that, I'm totally doing it."  There went $40.  Between those two, I overspent my stuff budget by nearly $100.  Ouch.

But even with my going out to eat, my high power bill, and my splurges on stuff, I would have been ok.  My budget had some wiggle room to accommodate unforeseen circumstances, deals, and splurges.  I could overspend the budget somewhat without overspending my income.  What blew my spending out of control were the following big-ticket items I maybe should have seen coming, but didn't.  Even if I had, I would still have had to pay most of their expense out of my savings, even if I didn't spent a penny on stuff or going out to eat.

What wasn't my fault:
1.  I had to renew my car insurance: $360
2.  I had to change my oil, rotate my tires, etc. $60
3.  I had an opportunity to pick up 2 cheap credits toward my Gifted and Talented endorsement by attending this conferencing I'm blogging through at the moment.  My school was generous enough to pay for my registration fees (over $200), but the credit is mine to purchase.  I absolutely don't mind paying for it, it's more than fair, and I'm still getting a very good deal on the credits.  It is, however, another $75 I didn't see coming.

Those three items alone crashed into the roof of my monthly budget to the height of nearly $500.  Ouch, ouch, ouch.  One of my teachers will a flair for the dramatic once stood in front of us and demanded, "Do you know what the most sensitive part of the human body is?" Staring around the room defiantly he paused, then reached into his back pocket and help up his wallet.  "This.  There are more nerves connected to a person's wallet than to any other other part of the body.  Threaten a man's wallet and he gets upset and hurt very quickly."  It's true.  Here I am, turning off lights and water heaters and ordering side dishes and saving receipts, only to have a $500 sock to the gut.  It's disappointing, discouraging, and a bit embarrassing.

There are 11 more months until my car is paid off on my current budget plan.  If I have unforeseen expenses like this every month, I'll never make it.  But today is payday, so it's time to take a breath, fill up my gas tank with the last of my gas money for this month, and start a new excel page for February.

Here goes nothing.

How I feel about this session of the conference.  Most of the sessions have been absolutely fantastic and useful and inspiring.  But in every conference there's always at least one disappointing session.  This time the disappointing session just happens to be the longest session at the conference: 4.5 hours.

The Race

I bought my car, Kami, in May of 2009.  When I bought her I had the goal of paying her off within two years.  Some travel, overspending, moving expenses, educational expenses, and miscellaneous expenses later, it's been two and a half years and I still owe several thousand dollars.  Since my rent is now twice what it used to be, and my commute is longer, and I'm taking classes, I don't quite have the amount of disposable income I had a year ago.  This means that if I pay a great deal extra on my car payment, I am no longer able to put any money in my savings account, which has also been depleted by the travel, the overspending, moving, classes, etc.  If I were a shrewd financier, I would say that I should be throwing all my money into my savings account, because that earns interest, whereas my car loan is a no-interest loan (I know, I got a steal).  I did the math once, however, and if I followed that oh-so-crafty plan, I'd come out of that five year loan about $100 richer in interest.  $100 is not worth having a loan hanging over my head for extra years.

So I've decided to get rid of this loan.  I'm going to throw all disposable income at it, neglecting my meager savings, and try and have it paid off by the end of the year.  After that I should be able to build up my savings account much more quickly, without having to split my income between my loan and my future.

This is pretty much my car, except mine is "carmine red," which I've given up claiming is red.  My car is purple. Sigh.
Picture Source

The race has begun.  Can I control my spending, budget my money, and minimize incidental extra expenses for months and months?  Can I pay off my car loan before those incidental extras (renewing car insurance, registering my car, spring break, etc.) eat too far into my already reduced savings?

I mean to try.  I'm saving receipts, I'm making careful grocery lists, I'm using Excell spreadsheets, and I'm ignoring the long mental list of "stuff I want."

So, bring on the next eleven months.  When the world ends/doesn't end at the end of 2012, I plan not to owe the bank a cent.

Restoring My Honor

Every year during my high school days, my high school would host a novice debate tournament.  From my sophomore year on, I attended it as a judge, but my own novice year I was a competitor.  As usual, my mom handed me a couple of dollars to buy food at the tournament, since I'd be there for lunch and probably dinner.  This time, however, I lost the money.  When lunch came I couldn't find those precious dollars anywhere, and I was hungry.  Science had proven that if you don't eat enough your brain slows down and your concentration suffers--consequences I couldn't afford at a debate tournament.  Clearly, this was an emergency.  Then it occurred to me that this tournament was at my own school, and that my very own locker was just around the corner, in that corner was a little colored cardboard box, and in that box was some money.

Enter moral dilemma:  The money wasn't really mine. I was a member of Key Club, and we had been "trick or treating for UNICEF."  The money in that little cardboard box was the donations I had collected from my friends and peers.  The box was printed with facts about how it only took something like four cents to buy enough vitamin A to prevent a child from going blind.  But I was hungry!  If I didn't eat, I was sure I was going to lose my debate rounds, and for such a silly unforgivable reason as losing a few dollars!  I couldn't let that happen!  So I sneaked down to my locker, opened the little box, and stole $3.14 from charity.  I'd bring money to replace what I was taking on Monday, I told myself.

Monday morning, I forgot.  It's ok, I told myself, The fundraiser goes until Halloween. I technically have two weeks to bring the money.

I put it off, I forgot, I didn't have exact change, I forgot.  Halloween came and went.

The next year, I wasn't part of the Key Club UNICEF drive, but I saw my friends wandering around with the same, bright orange boxes asking for donations to save children.  A voice in the back of my head reminded me that I owed $3.14 to a good cause, and I resolved to bring the money to donate to the drive.  I forgot, I put it off, I didn't have exact change, I forgot.

The same thing happened my junior year, and again my senior year.  I graduated from high school having never paid my debt.  No big deal, right?  I just stole money I had collected from people in the name of charity and let kids go blind.

Every once in a while, at college, I'd see tables for UNICEF set up around campus and immediately would be struck by an attack of conscience.  But I also never carried cash, and was just as forgetful as ever.

This morning, eleven years to the month of taking that money from my locker, I cleansed my honor.  I went to the UNICEF website and made a donation that reflected the original debt plus a whole lot of guilty-conscience money.  The satisfaction I feel is a bit like the feeling of actually getting ALL of the ring around the sink drain cleaned and scrubbed off, and the sink looks back at you pearly white like it hasn't been in years.

I challenge people to duels now, 'cause I've got honor again!  My unstained honor will not be smirched again!

Crap.  I owe that one kid from high school $25.  Do you think he has a website and except credit cards?