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.

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.

The weekend was rather bleh.

Friday night I had $1366 in checking and $3300+ in savings.

Friday night. I went to see my favorite author at a book signing. I stupidly bought his new book for $25 so I could have him sign it. I regret it and feel incredibly guilty for buying a want which I should not have bought. The signing was fun and it was a free event. I should not have bought the book though. I also bought a coffee for Fiance and I. It was good but a regrettable $8 purchase. I also bought a copy of the book for a friend who was running late, but she paid me right back that night in cash. Still, a $33 "wants" night. Bad.

Before the signing, fiance bought us dinner…well, he bought us each a drink and a thing of chicken fingers that we split.

I also bought new earplugs Friday night but it turned out I didn't need new ones. I had a pack I forgot about. So another waste of $5.

Also, because I went out, I could not list any new auctions. So I can either do it tonight and have them end in 5 days instead of 7, or I can skip a week. I made $112.45 with the last batch (the first one for April). Ugh.

I worked OT all day Saturday. No one else who said they were coming in showed up. It was a long day, making survey phone calls which is not my normal job at all. I never have to call people. I couldn't ship my Ebay items out because I had to work before the PO opened, but my fiance took the handful of items where the people paid before 8 AM on Saturday morning and mailed them for me. And wouldn't let me pay him back for it. *shrug* I still have items to ship for people who paid mid-day on Saturday. I state in my auctions I ship the first Saturday after payment received so now I feel like I've lied to my customers.

Saturday afternoon was bad. I got a bill from a dentist I have never heard of for some work I never did. Clearly, someone used my name and info to go to a dentist. Ironically, I haven't gone to the dentist for work I need done yet because I know it will run me around $2000 for the work I need. Now what do I do? Do I pay this bill just to prevent it from going on my credit score while I fight it? I don't know. It's $200. Not worth ruining my credit for. But also, IT'S NOT MINE. I have to call the billing office in a bit when they open and find out who used my info.

Fiance felt bad for me because of the bill from the dentist so he took me to dinner Saturday night. I had a $9 burger and a $6 glass of wine. I don't like selecting anything more than that when someone else is paying. It was nice until the family who came in after us had wretched screaming children that they allowed to just scream through the entire dinner. My mother would never have let me and my brother do that. What is wrong with people these days? I feel bad that he bought us food twice this weekend. He has less $$ than I do, but I think he cares less about it.

After dinner, we walked around downtown and I saw a jacket I loved in a store. It was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for for like 3 years. I have had the same winter jacket for the last 5 years. It is falling apart. It's really ugly but was functional. This new one was warm and heavy and the design was a hard to find pattern I really like. It was the best looking jacket for me I ever saw. I tried it on and it fit perfect. It was handmade by a local designer and being sold in a small boutique I like to support.

But it was $99 so I did not buy it. I can get another winter coat at the thrift store.

We walked around the rest of the night, I took my fiance for coffee (cost around $10 at the coffee shop for both of us to get a treat and coffee). The coffee was really good and it was a small mom and pop store. I had an apple pie flavored latte and FI had a chocolate chip cookie one.

I debated in my head the jacket. I decided I wanted the jacket badly enough to get it. Even though I still felt really guilty about it and the book. I have $3300+ in savings and will be bringing that up to $5000 with my tax refund in a few weeks and I had $1285 in my checking at this point with no bills due until 4/25 (and another paycheck in between).

I figured I would get several years out of the jacket and hopefully would get over the guilt within a few months. It is very rare that I care about clothing. I have not actually bought new clothing in over 2 years. I have gotten a few new things for Christmas from my mom.

It was gone when I went back. Now I am sad. I wish I didn't feel so bad about buying myself things. It's not like I was going to charge it. Probably for the best though. No one needs a $99 jacket.

I kept fiance's Easter basket under budget. I suppose it's frivalous that I made him an Easter basket but I'd rather use my fun money for him. I like seeing him happy. Anyway, I set aside $40 and only spent $35. Also, his bday for next weekend is still way under the $150 I planned.

Easter day was a big waste of money. Wasted over a quarter of a tank of gas sitting in Boston traffic to go to my parents house and big. 2 1/2 hours in stop and go traffic each way. It was awful. Barely got to spend any time with my family.

Good news though. My sister in law's step-father is a Ford mechanic and he drove my car and said it doesn't need any work that he is aware of. It was shaking because I had the defrost on. He turned the defrost off and it stopped shaking. Wow. That was good to know.

Overall, just a weekend that went by too fast and cost too much money.

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.

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.

I got approved for a credit card through Sovereign Bank, less than a month after getting my horrible BoA "loan" (which it wasn't…it was a line of credit w/a variable rate…it was at 22% but I digress) BT'd to a Discover loan (which is an actual installment loan with a fixed 10.99% rate).

I also got my line of credit on my Best Buy card raised (there is no balance on the card, and probably never will be, but more credit = better utilization scores).

So in less than a month I transferred $13,000 off the BoA line of credit… that line of credit is still open and is a credit line of $23,300. I got approved for a $15,000 loan from Discover which has since been paid down to $12,500 AND got approved for an $1800 increase with Best Buy and a $5000 Sovereign card.

My utilization has never been better.

I should be rid of unsecured debt within 2 years. Then I may or may not start overpaying my car loan depending on how much I have in savings. It will be almost done at that point anyway.

Unsecured debt and building up savings are my priorities right now. (The car is at like 2% interest so I'm just not that concerned).

@At this point my unsecured debt totals:
$12,500 on the Discover Loan at 10.99%

@My savings totals:
$3055 (I really REALLY need to work on this)

My March Ebay totals came to $387. Short of my $400 goal. I might take some stuff to Bullmoose (cds, video games) to sell on Saturday to try and make up the extra to get to $400 from selling stuff before April 1st. I don't need that much so it could happen.

April Ebay I am going to start off with a collectible item which I think could bring over $100 by itself. We shall see.

I might lower my goal for April to $350 but I hate lowering my standards.