April 9th, 2010 at 03:53 am
I had a bad night.
I will not do $100 (my weekly goal) from selling my belongings next week. As you know, I have set and reached this goal so far every week this year, often exceeding it.
I am so tired though. I have been doing a double workload at my 9-5, taking Saturday overtime even, trying to put together my fiance's bday, putting together his Easter candy last week, getting my niece a bday gift, and getting my good friend a baby shower gift.
I worked all day last Saturday. Then I put together FI's Easter basket. It was worth it to see how happy he was. Then Sunday I drove 2 hours each way to my parents for Easter. Monday I lugged Ebay shipments into downtown Boston on the subway because I couldn't mail them Saturday. All week I have been working full time, two workloads at work. Due to the floods our homeowners team needed help. So I am helping while at the same time doing my real job.
Tonight is my normal Ebay posting night. Nothing went right. My computer crashed 6 times. My photos wouldn't upload to Ebay. Then my camera couldn't connect to the computer. It took my 4 hours to just get 3 listings and even if they all sell, it's not likely that they will exceed more than $50.
My auctions ending tonight have no bids. But I already made over $100 this week anyway between selling at the used cd store and my earlier in the week auctions. $106.36 to be exact. I'm at $218.81 for the month.
I know I should stay awake and post more but I am so tired.
Tomorrow I have to work both my real job and help homeowners again.
Then I have to drive my roommate home because his car died again. I suspect that I will be a chauffer for parts of the weekend too. He has no money to rent a car. I should just say no.
Then after that, I have to go get FI's last bday present because I forgot to pick it up tonight.
Then I have to come home and bake a cake.
And wrap presents.
Before he gets here at 11 pm.
I feel bad because my BFF downstairs rented a movie for us and was hoping we'd watch it tomorrow. That is simply not going to happen.
My last bi weekly paycheck was $1265. That was an extra $44 for 2 hours of OT that I did last time. Also, I got $60 worth of Target gift card from work merit rewards. Used them to buy most of FI gift and my friends baby shower. Not a lot of cash spent.
My friend is coming over Monday to work on my computer and try to fix it.
I am so tired. I feel like I wasted the whole night fighting with a camera and bad connection. At least I'll have an entire Saturdays worth of OT pay in my next paycheck.
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April 6th, 2010 at 04:42 am
My goal for 2010 was to save $6000.00 cash. Prior to Dec. 2009, I had only had around $500 cash so this dollar amount seemed like a really huge undertaking.
Once I get my tax return, my cash savings account will be up to $5312 or only $688 short of my goal for the entire year. It is currently at $3597. I am getting back $298 from state and $1417 from federal. Should have those checks by May.
I am saving at a much faster rate than I initially anticipated, mainly because my Ebay sales are going so well. All of my Ebay earnings go directly into this account and I've been aiming for $400/month but on average doing slightly better than that.
I think I need to raise my goal but I don't want to go crazy.
I do want to start pounding away at my loan and be rid of it within 2 years. $6000 is half of what I owe on my loan. I'm wondering if I should just stop with the aggressive savings now and pound away at the loan? Clearly, it is not that difficult for me to save $6000 since I did it so quickly.
I am also very proud of my fiance because he told me that between Dec and now he has managed to save $2600 and now has that in savings. He has almost no disposable income or "fun" money at all so this was much harder for him than it was for me.
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April 2nd, 2010 at 06:11 pm
Well, so far I think I've done pretty good. I set aside $150 for his bday and so far, I've spent $60.90 and gotten the following:
1. Used Resident Evil 4 for Cube game - $13.97
(FI likes old games and old systems and you have to get these games used because they don't make 'em anymore)
2. T-Shirt for band he loves from Japan -$30.55
(includes shipping. He loves this band and you can't get their stuff anywhere. They're a metal band from Japan called Versailles Philharmonic Quintet)
3. Hole Punch for Artwork - $6.39
(includes shipping. He makes artwork out of 1/4" inch square pieces of recycled soda cans and other materials and he's been trying to find a 1/4" square shaped punch for a while)
4. New Wii game Tetsunkno vs. Capcom - $9.99
(used some of my earned merit rewards from work so I was able to get this for $9.99... normally it's $49.99)
Total : $60.90
I have $89.10 left. I will need some of it for food. He wants me to make steak tips in cheese sauce w/pasta and a homemade cake ($20) and he wants a chianti to drink with it ($15). So $35 for food.
So $54.10 left.
The theme of his bday this year will be video games. I am going to decorate the dining area like old video game characters. I am making a Pac Man cake. We always listen to classical when we eat, so I might spend $10 to download the Czech Orchestra doing their symphony tribute to video game music and then burn him a copy of the cd.
So $44.10 left.
I could potentially use to get him one other small thing. I might get him a gift card to an art store so he can buy supplies as needed. Also, he said he wanted dominoes so I might look into that. Hmmmm...
I made my 1st $100 for April e-bay already. A few good sales. And I am working OT tomorrow. A full day!
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March 29th, 2010 at 03:18 pm
April is going to be a good month for me.
I have not done my taxes yet but I should be getting back around $1000 or so with my income tax refund. I will be doing my taxes this weekend. I'm getting money back so I have no idea why I waited this long but it will be done this weekend. I will likely make a large payment on my loan with that money.
My Ebay/Selling month is off to a fantastic start. I aim for $100/week (or $400 a month) and I am already almost there for the first week of April and April hasn't started yet. But since all the auctions don't end until April 2, technically they will be the first week of April. I find that 99% of the time people pay within minutes of the end of the auction.
There are 3 paychecks that fall in April. Because I budget my bills per paycheck, this leaves me with one paycheck that I do not need to pay any bills out of. (In fact, my bills are currently paid through April 17) and I still have more $$ than usual left my "monthly needs" checking account. Aside from what I need for food & gas, the extra April check will go into savings.
By the end of April, my e-fund/savings will likely be at $4000.
I do have to buy my fiance a birthday present. He's taken up 8-bit art as a hobby recently so it should be an inexpensive b-day. I was thinking about getting him a nice set of colored pencils ($17) that he said were "awesome" while we were at the art store over the weekend. I also picked him up an old Gamecube game he wanted used for $13. (most of the games he likes are old and only available used). I found a t-shirt for his favorite obscure band on ebay. $30 incl shipping). That was a bit pricey (the band is from Japan) but I know he'll love it and probably wear it until it falls apart. He wants me to make steak tips at home for his b-day dinner. ($20 for everything) I am making him a cake shaped like Pac-Man. ($5) I'm downloading a $10 album off itunes of an orchestra playing old school video game music to play while we eat. I'll burn a copy of it for him as an "extra" gift. So far I'm at around $95. I planned $150 for his b-day so I still have some $$ to play with if I see anything else good.
My niece also has a birthday but she is 5 years old and easily amused by a $6 My Little Pony.
My other niece (well, second cousin, technically) just got accepted into Cornell University's summer program to earn college credits towards her dream of becoming a vet when she graduates from high school next year. That has nothing to do with money, I'm just proud of the kid.
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March 29th, 2010 at 03:16 pm
April is going to be a good month for me.
I have not done my taxes yet but I should be getting back around $1000 or so with my income tax refund. I will be doing my taxes this weekend. I'm getting money back so I have no idea why I waited this long but it will be done this weekend. I will likely make a large payment on my loan with that money.
My Ebay/Selling month is off to a fantastic start. I aim for $100/week (or $400 a month) and I am already almost there for the first week of April and April hasn't started yet. But since all the auctions don't end until April 2, technically they will be the first week of April. I find that 99% of the time people pay within minutes of the end of the auction.
There are 3 paychecks that fall in April. Because I budget my bills per paycheck, this leaves me with one paycheck that I do not need to pay any bills out of. (In fact, my bills are currently paid through April 17) and I still have more $$ than usual left my "monthly needs" checking account. Aside from what I need for food & gas, the extra April check will go into savings.
By the end of April, my e-fund/savings will likely be at $4000.
I do have to buy my fiance a birthday present. He's taken up 8-bit art as a hobby recently so it should be an inexpensive b-day. I was thinking about getting him a nice set of colored pencils ($17) that he said were "awesome" while we were at the art store over the weekend. I also picked him up an old Gamecube game he wanted used for $13. (most of the games he likes are old and only available used). I found a t-shirt for his favorite obscure band on ebay. $30 incl shipping). That was a bit pricey (the band is from Japan) but I know he'll love it and probably wear it until it falls apart. He wants me to make steak tips at home for his b-day dinner. ($20 for everything) I am making him a cake shaped like Pac-Man. ($5) I'm downloading a $10 album off itunes of an orchestra playing old school video game music to play while we eat. I'll burn a copy of it for him as an "extra" gift. So far I'm at around $95. I planned $150 for his b-day so I still have some $$ to play with if I see anything else good.
My niece also has a birthday but she is 5 years old and easily amused by a $6 My Little Pony.
My other niece, age 16 1/2, (well, second cousin, technically) just got accepted into Cornell University's summer program to earn college credits towards her dream of becoming a vet when she graduates from high school next year. That has nothing to do with money, I'm just proud of the kid. I would like to put aside $100 or so to give her as a gift before she goes. Knowing her, she'll put it in her college fund. I generally don't give monetary gifts but this is an exception.
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