If you think job hunting is a big pain, you’re right. How many times have you heard people say they were job hunting, only to find out they might have sent out 5 resumes that week. In my opinion, that’s not really job hunting. However, let me just say that I would probably be like that…at least until I got an email from a friend of mine. This friend was one of the people I worked with at my last job when we all got let go back in February. Here is part of the email he sent:
I also applied to each city in Dallas county.
I also applied to each hospital in dallas
I applied to each school district
Hope this will help anyone with job hunting. I applied for 549 positions before I found this one. That is about the average in the job hunting game. I did get 11 interviews out of the 549. If I talked to anyone, I always followed up with an email.
Absolutely amazing!
Logged in to my checking account today and found my stimulus rebate check had been deposited! Straight to the savings account with that bad boy.
It’s not that I don’t want to spend it, because I do. But I think that rather than blow it on a whole lot of nothing I will just sit back and think about what I want. Planning. I can remember many times coming in to some cash and just blowing it with nothing to show for it. I hate that. So this time I will be patient.
My sisters and I bought my Mom a Pajamagram to celebrate Mother’s Day. My Mom is a little hard to shop for - not because she is picky - but because she is frugal and not high-maintenance. I think we can always do good getting her things like PJs, movie tickets, gift certificates for dinner. I know she appreciates flowers, but I am not sure if she likes them.
Anyway, Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!
I’m scared. Simple as that.
My tendency has always been to “not worry” too much about price increases on items (gas, electric, etc), but for some reason I have suddenly gotten scared. Gas prices are scaring me. It makes me want to hang on to any money I get right now. It makes me want to stash that extra money in the bank instead of making those “extra” payments to the credit card companies. I just don’t want to let go of the cash.
I remember when…I hate to have to say that, but I can remember when it took $28.00 to fill up my tank, and yesterday it took $48.00. Same vehicle, just the cost of gas has gone up.
Do we need to start hoarding food and supplies? Are we heading for rougher times than we ever could have imagined? I don’t know, but I know I need to at least admit that I am afraid and figure out what I can do to feel safe again…and that may mean putting the money in the bank and only paying minimums on my credit card debt.
Before I started to become aware that they way I was spending my money and going into debt was affecting my life, I went to Starbucks every day…EVERY DAY! I spent $4.32 every day on a Grande Caramel Macchiatto Extra Hot, Extra Foam. Doing the math, I realize now that I was making the equivilent of a small car payment every month on Starbucks. Check these numbers out:
- Daily - $ 4.32
- Weekly - $30.24
- Monthly - $131.04
- Yearly - $1,572.48
This is what I think about these numbers: there’s nothing wrong with having a vice like this. And if that is how I choose to spend my money, that’s fine. The only thing I think is this: just BE AWARE! Don’t stick your head in the sand and be stupid. Break the numbers down and take a good look at those numbers - and if you still feel okay about it, then go for it! Many people by wine or beer every single weekend and no one thinks anything about it because it looks like it is “grocery money”, but it is still an unnecessary vice…but that is okay! Just know what you are spending your money on - really break it down - and then decide if you still feel okay about it.
We all work hard and deserve some special things in life, so don’t feel guilty for the pleasures you grant yourself, but don’t let them hurt you either, or put you in financial distress.
Note: I still have my Starbucks once a week!
Last Thursday I did a taste test for a well-known pizza company - they said the taste test would take two hours and that they would pay me $50 cash.
Good news: I made $50 and it only took 45 minutes - and I got free food!
$50 more to use to get out of debt! (By the way, did I tell you I hate credit cards?)
This day should go down in history! I actually finished my taxes on time - before April 15th! I even efiled and the IRS accepted it - so it is official!
I don’t think I have file a tax return on time in the last 10 years! Mostly because of odd job and businesses along the way that required a lot more work than I wanted to do - and also because I was just plain unorganized. I am so happy - I can now finish out the year 2008 without thinking about these things again!
And yes…I am getting a tax refund! Money, money, money! And it going towards my debt - one more step to being debt free. I would love to just blow the money, but I just want this debt that perpetually hangs over me to leave. So for me, it is a blessing and I am grateful to have the money to pay off debt.
Today I worked on my budget for April. Since I started a new job just a bit over a month ago and make half the money I was originally making, I am still trying to get used to managing my money. The good thing is that the bills haven’t changed, just the income I have to work with.
I did have a pleasant surprise today when I found an extra $80. I decided to take my own advice and re-evaluate my gasoline money. Since we started putting our gas on our debit card, I was able to look back through the month and calculate how much money we spent on gas. I took that amount and multiplied it by 12 months and divided it by 52 weeks so I could figure a weekly budget (I break everything down per month, then by week so I can see exactly when I have to pay my bills). Here are my actual figures for March:
$430.05 x 12 months = $5,166.00 divided by 52 weeks = $99.24 p/week for gas. I then round that up to the nearest $5.00 (in this case, that would be $100.00 p/wk)
I had been budgeting $510 p/month for gas, so now I have managed to free up $80!
March 26, 2008 – 11:43 am
Here’s my thought for the day:
You go to work 40 hours a week.
You do the work.
You get the money (your paycheck)…
…and then you let your money control you!!!
It is vicious cycle, and until we learn to tell our money (budget) what to do instead of letting our money dictate to us what we can do, we will never win. We will never win the war on debt, we will never win the war on building wealth, and we will never be financially free.
Rock bottom - what is it? Where is it? How do you know how close you are to it so you can finally get around to making some changes. We here all the time about how people have to hit rock bottom before they stop drinking, stop smoking, lose weight, leave an abusive spouse, etc. There are times for some of us when we have to hit rock bottom financially.
You reach out to someone in pain financially. Maybe in the past you even helped them - but they keep doing the same things over and over again. Running up credit cards again, buying a car they can’t afford because they need reliable transportation. The truth is that we really aren’t helping those people by giving them money and bailing them out time after time. Sometimes they have to feel the full pressure of what they have done and the choices they have made - and it can be every bit as painful to watch as it is to be the person suffering.
I have a friend who is 45 years old. She was out of debt five years ago, but then took on a rent payment she couldn’t afford and some other things. Funny thing is that she never went out and used her credit cards for fun. Her debt was much more subtle, and at first, seemed logical and manageable. There were things I saw that she was doing along the way, and I tried to talk to her about her finances, but she would get bitter and angry just at the mere mention of her money. She didn’t want help - at least she didn’t want to learn how to manage her money with a budget. There were two things she wanted: to make more money and for someone to give her some money to get her out of her situation. The job thing always had an excuse, and she lacked the confidence to go out and make more money…someone was always holding her back. And as far as people giving her money, only her mother still does that, and apparently she is beginning to withdraw in that area. too.
Anyway, to sum up the problems I see my friend doing that has contributed to her large debt are:
- she doesn’t have a budget and she doesn’t plan her bills out (a financial plan)
- because she doesn’t have a budget she is always bouncing checks
- because she is always bouncing checks, there are overdraft charges
- because she has a credit card where she banks, the bank was nice enough (that’s a joke!) to link her overdrafts to her credit card: in other words, if she bounces a $25 check, the bank charges her a $7.00 fee. In order to keep her balance from being negative, the checking account charges her credit card an amount to cover the check and the fee ($32), plus they ROUND UP to the nearest $100. So in other words, she now has a $100 charge on her credit card PLUS she now has an extra $68 in her checking account. WooHoo! Time to go to dinner - after all: she deserves it! The thought to at least put part of that $68 back on her credit card never crosses her mind!
- The other thing she does is that when people go to a restaurant with her, she volunteers to put the restaurant’s bill on her credit card and just let the people who were gonna pay cash hand her the money! More debt!
My friend hasn’t hit rock bottom yet, and I will feel sorry for her when she does, because as I sit her looking at what she goes through financially every week and how hard it is for her, I can’t even imagine how much worse rock bottom is gonna be.
This is just one area that we should all examine ourselves in and see if this is something we do. At least if we can recognize it, we can start fixing it.
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