This Thing Called Life

     After adding up my total for money wasted this month on Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, the bars, and fast food, I realized I had to stop. $371.65 could have paid off some debt I owe and it also could have been an extra car payment. Looking at my life at this moment made me realize I want things in life that I will have to work hard for and be strict with my spending. By 2022, I want my own house on a few acres so I can have people over for a bonfire and just enjoy life. I would also like to have a better paying nursing job so I can eventually buy a truck. I've always been a hard worker and a go-getter so I really need to be  aware of what I am spending my money on and make sure it is not on useless things like fake hamburgers or sugar loaded coffees. From here on out until I reach my 2022 goal, I will be pinching pennies and saving as much money as possible.

     Working two jobs is something I never thought I would have to do again since I'm a nurse. When my former boyfriend was living with me he paid rent so instead of saving money, I put that money towards other bills and debt to get them paid off quicker. When he left me I was at a loss for words and now I'm realizing I need more money in order to stay afloat and stay ahead. I stress constantly due to my anxiety and now searching for another job has me even more stressed out. I need so many things for myself and for my house. There is no way I can afford to pay my bills and buy things I need (like a windshield for my car) with the amount of money I'm making. I'm not sure if I want to get a second part time nursing job like at a nursing home or if I want something different like waitressing or retail. My main goal is to get my car paid off, knock out my student loans, and buy the things I need and save some then I will quit the second job. I have worked so hard to get to...

     It is now Wednesday and all I can think about is finances. Why the hell did I up and quit my job? My dad did say I could make the same or more landscaping with him but what am I supposed to do during my off time? Like this week for example. We off from school for a summer break. I wanted to pick up shifts at my job before I quit. The drive was ridiculous and working short every weekend and trying to meet the demands of the administrators and family members was frustrating. But I really should of thought it through before just impulsively quitting. I deferred my car payment this month which is embarrassing and I also missed a month on my car insurance which I didn't know about. That is part of the reason I signed up for auto pay right out of my account but somehow that got messed up and each month I have to call them. That is probably why I missed a payment. I have other things going on in my life and making phone calls tends to get pushed onto the back burner. I...

     Being a full time student always means cash is tight. I work every other weekend and my AMAZING boyfriend sends me some extra money here and there to buy groceries and get by. I always pay my bills before I eat out or spend it on school supplies and such. In the winter time, my power bill is outrageous. It will run anywhere from $150-$280. When the first hint of warm weather rolls around, the heat is shut down and when it gets warmer, the windows go up. It pays off to open the windows because I checked my power bill statement and my bill is only $35! Is this real? I had to do a double take. My house is comfortable to. It isn't like I'm sweating just sitting down and have all of my ceiling fans going. There is a decent breeze. This makes me happy. That means I will have some extra money left on payday to get a new bathing suit and maybe even get my hair trimmed. Saving money and having small bills due (none are better lol) makes me feel great. It depends on the p...

     Sitting here on my laptop filling out surveys makes me realize I would be 95% happier if I could actually start paying off some of this debt. I do surveys and stuff on Cashcrate but I want to be able to pay multiple bills at one time. I know I complain about this all the time but it seriously frustrates me. I have a lot of bills that aren't priorities like my car payment, car insurance and such. I want to start paying off my medical bills and I would love to pay off my community college. I send $10-$15 here and there when I can but I'm starting to wonder if that strategy is even worth it. What if I just saved up the total amount I owe for these places that aren't charging me interest (thank you). Some are charging me interest but I try not letting it bother me. I'm also very frustrated because my personal property tax was just sent to me, a nice $129. Where the hell am I going to find that? My money tree? Yeah, okay. The crazy thing is that I thought nursing sc...

     I decided to look at my bank account statement for the month of April and I even glanced at this month too, even though it has just started. I decided to add up all of the money I've wasted on fast food and at other places like my bras from Victoria's Secret ($63.60) during this month and last month. So Aprils total amounted to $208.79. I went to Dunkin Donuts A LOT. I'm sorry but I love their caramel lattes. That is where the main source of spending went, aside from Victoria's Secret. Other than that, I went to McDonald's a few times for apple pies and a McFlurry, 7-11 for junk food (I am so bad), and a few other fast food places probably on the way home from school or during lunch since I was too lazy to pack something or just didn't have enough to buy groceries that week. My total for May so far amounts to $51.75. It is only the 5th day....what the hell? It is all fast food once again. The grand total between last month and this month is $260.54! That is...

     Today I received an email from my loan officer regarding my school loans. Since I was supposed to graduate last month and didn't, I had to update my enrollment status. I decided to look at my account details and see exactly how much my loan for them was....a whopping $19,933.70. I almost threw up. That is a lot of money. I'm already paying $50 a month on my Sallie Mae loans for school, and now seeing this number makes me nervous. It sucks that I am trying to have a career and make more money to take care of myself and buy myself nice things but for the next 5-10 years of my life it will all go back to paying off my student loans. I am proud to be going to school but at the same time, I see why people don't want to go to college or trade school. Everything in this country costs so much money and it seems like we are being financially punished for wanted a trade or a career with skills. So with all of this being said, I really want to try and work more to start se...

     Being a student automatically puts you at risk for bad credit. Due to the debts I have from my previous community college semesters, switching cable and internet companies, and other miscellaneous bills, my credit has been effected. Credit Karma is a decent tool to see a range of where your credit score falls into. Mine according to Equifax is a 617 and the other company they use says it is a 627. I'm not on the completely horrible side, but I'm sort of knocking on the door. I'm truly trying to pay it off. Whenever I have extra money even if it is just $10, that is $10 less that I will owe whoever I decide to send it to. Being an adult sucks sometimes. If I knew back then what I know now, I wouldn't have wasted my paychecks from my first job on the stupid things I did. I also wouldn't have wasted so much time at community college. I would have saved as much as possible to get me out of financial ruts. The biggest part of life is living and learning. I have lear...

     I have been working and paying bills since I was 15. I've never been scared to get my hands dirty and work hard for the things I want. When I met my current boyfriend I was working two full time jobs. When I applied to nursing school and got accepted quicker than expected, all of that changed. I tried continuing to work both jobs and go to school at night but that reflected in my grades and GPA. When my boyfriend offered to pay rent and help me financially I initially hated the idea because I had been financially dependent on myself for so long. I was used to paying all of my bills and pinching every penny to make my ends meet. I got accustomed to doing everything for myself and depending on no one to help me. Financial stress has always been my stressor. Even when I worked both full time jobs there would still be times when I didn't think I'd be able to eat that month or pay my power bill, but somehow I made it happen. When my boyfriend started paying my rent, ...

     For the last two weeks I had picked up extra shifts at both of my jobs in hopes of making enough money to actually pay all of my bills due at the end of each month instead of playing the "which bill is more important to pay" game. Well those hopes were lost quickly because guess who is short $300? This girl.      I've been applying for jobs closer to home and ones that pay the same or even higher. Between both checks I received $378. My car note is $280. That leaves me with $98 to split up and put towards my credit card bill ($25 minimum), my school loan payment ($25 minimum), and $38 left to go towards my furniture payment or my phone bill which is $46 total. Somehow I still need to find $115 for my car insurance, $131 for cable and internet, and the remainder of my phone bill. So needless to say that every penny of this paycheck is going straight towards bills and I will have no gas money or grocery money.      Si...

     Looking at my savings account and seeing the small amount of money that is in it, only tells me that I'm nowhere near where I need to be financially for school. Originally when I first started community college, I told myself I wanted to pay completely out of pocket for all of my pre-requisites, nursing school, and my Bachelors degree.  That probably could of happened if I had been saving like I should have been. My account is down some because I paid for this nurse aide course but it is also low because I had to pay $300 for some car repairs. I always get mad at myself for not saving as soon as I started working when I was 16. I would be set financially right now if I had. Instead, I scramble every semester to pay for my credits, books, and other supplies. Just because I go to community college and not a university doesn't mean it's not expensive. Each semester I pay over $1000 by the time I pay for everything. That ads up. Thankfully, I don't have any stu...

     The last time I calculated how much I needed in order to pay for my A.A.S degree out of pocket was a lot. I think it was around $15,000. I jut went back onto my community college website and re-calculated my costs. It was near $11,000. I guess the last time I added it up I was being really cautious just in case I needed to pay more for certain things like books or my uniforms. This is kind of good news. It's still a lot of money but it isn't as much. I only have 6 pre-reqs left before I can apply to nursing program. I really hope I get accepted. I plan on getting my BSN from Sentara if you're employed with them it's about $9,000 and if you aren't it's about $13,000. My first semester of college I told myself I would do whatever I could do to pay out of pocket for school and materials and stay away from student loans. I really need to start saving more money in order for me to do that. I only have about $1500 in my savings now and that will pay for my micro-...

     The weather today is pretty gross. Hopefully the sun will decide to come out after hiding for 2 whole days. It's May so bring on the warm weather. I just paid my tuition for the nurse aide program and I've already ordered my books! 19 days and counting. I am truly thankful for everyone who reads my blog and deals with me talking about school all the time. It means a lot. I like to talk about for two reasons; One, because I hope to inspire other people to go and for the ones that went and quit to return. And two, because I'm proud of myself. I could be wasting my money on rent, alcohol, shopping and other things, but I'm spending it on my education.      Education is important to me for many reasons. My father dropped out of high school but luckily back then, you didn't need a high school diploma or GED to flip burgers at McDonalds like now. My father is actually a very successful person. He started working with the city 30+ years ago and sti...

     In a previous blog entry, I mentioned the survey site Cashcrate.com. I've been using this site for some time now. It does take a while to to earn the minimum payout of $20, depending on what surveys you get,  but it is all worth it. With each check I earn from this site, I put it directly into my college savings fund. It starts to add up after a while. Taking surveys is perfect for teens looking for extra income, stay at home moms, or people like me with a desk job who have LOTS of free time.If you have things you're trying to slowly save up for like a new summer wardrobe or new shoes, this is perfect for you.      The good thing about this site are the choices. You can do surveys, complete offers, watch videos, and you even earn 3 cent for checking in everyday! If you love shopping, sign in and shop to receive money back from stores you purchase from.  I know it doesn't seem like much for some, but to me, some money is better than...

Even though the new year is still 5 days away, I have already started on some of my goals. I almost have $200 saved up for my wisdom teeth removal, I'm slowly introducing my body to my elliptical  again and I have been drinking a lot of water. I saw this awesome idea on Tumblr. It was a poster board that someone wrote their goals on and I plan on doing that as well. I feel like I will be more likely to achieve my goals if I write them down and can see them on a daily basis instead of writing them somewhere on paper and losing it due to my disorganization. Since I am off this whole week for Christmas, I decided to also go ahead and get some things ready for my next semester of college. I set up my planner and labeled my notebooks for each class. I need to get binder tabs for my different classes since I plan on using one binder for all classes instead of one binder for each. For the first time in a long time I think I'm excited for a new year and what is has in store. Getting an...

My next semester of college starts in January and I cannot wait. For the new year I won't be making too many resolutions because I'm happy with my life at the moment. The only things I really want to work on in the new year is to get back in shape and start exercising and stuff again. I stopped due to the fact that it stressed me out since I would still worry about how I looked in my clothes and to other people. I stopped caring but it is time to start caring again. For the new year I also want to focus on school. It's not like I wasn't focused on it before but I want to make EXCELLENT grades and even if I don't like the classes I must take in order to apply to the nursing program, I will still pretend I do so that they aren't as miserable. And as always, I want to keep putting money into my savings for school to avoid taking out loans and asking the parentals. Nothing makes me more proud than to brag about how I paid for my school out of my own money instead of...

      I haven't written in a while. Mostly because I have been trying to find other FREE blogging sites where I can still earn some extra money for college. I really like this website because the layout is so simple. It sucks they are taking away the ads. Even though I'm only earning a couple cents each month from my blog, it's better than nothing. Plus I love writing for my readers.      The other day I went ahead and decided to plan out the rest of my semesters for community college since I will continue working full time. I will be taking these pre-req courses until 2014. But I'm glad I planned ahead because I'm not stressing over which classes to pick when the time comes. I saved my Anatomy & Physiology classes for last because they are the hardest. The Spring 2013 semester starts in January so I will be taking English 112 and Psy 201. I'm very excited.      It's so weird that I get excited to learn at college be...

     The phrase "Same shit, different day" couldn't be more true. I am truly starting to see why some people live so recklessly and do some pretty crazy shit. It's because they don't want to live a dull life like 85% of the rest of Americans. It gets so old doing the same routine 5 days a week and my weekends are consisted of nothing but sleeping and cleaning since I have no friends. I wish January wasn't so far away. I have never been more ready for such a big change in my life. Even though I have had no luck finding a part time job that will fit with my school schedule, I will make it through. I have no choice. Nursing school is so important to me. And the best thing that I have gotten out of my community college experience, is the fact that I have NEVER relied on my parents for money to attend.      Paying my own way through college has made me realize that money is no joke and failing is not an option. In the few semesters I attended college,...

     Celebrities and other people who make millions and billions have no idea how lucky they are. They will never have any financial stress unless they completely waste that money and do dumb stuff with it. Most of them though, have more money than they could spend in a lifetime. They have no idea how hard it is for "average" people to make ends meet by working a job or multiple jobs, instead of a great paying career.I do appreciate those celebrities and CEOS who are passionate for certain causes and organizations, especially when they create their own to help people out, like bullying or cancer. But for those celebrities who spend $15,000 on a dress or leave a bar/night club with a $100,000 tab, think about what "average" people could do with that money. To them, that money is nothing, to me and other average joes, that it just like winning the lottery. It must be a great feeling to wake up and not have to stress about how they will pay the light bill or put food o...

Even though I'm only going to be starting my second semester, I have already thought of a few things that make community college better than a University. But don't get me wrong, there are some things that just won't measure up to the actual college "experience" that you would get by going to a University. The Good: Flexible Schedules. They offer Days, Nights and Weekends The cost. You can spend $30,000 on your entire education plus your degree, instead of a University where just one year will cost that much or more You can pay as you go. You don't need to have all of your tuition before your start classes. Every time I mention that I am the one paying for my education all by myself, it makes me feel AWESOME. If you go to a local community college, you will know your way around since your a local and there will most likely be people you know in your classes as well The Bad: No dorms or parties, so you won't get that actual college "exp...