How it Feels to Not Worry

Since I got this new job, I've not found myself worrying about my personal finances. It's uplifting and strange. I had gotten very used to pinching pennies and freaking out all the time.

I know I am still in a lot of debt, and I know that I need to knuckle down and pay it off, but I'm not worried any more.

True, I'm sad that I'm not working full time in my preferred field, but I have to say that this whole decent income this is not half bad.

I know that I need to keep it under control and not let the extra money go to my head.

I think that once I get out of debt all the way I'm going to feel really really good. This is a pretty big win right now. I like that I am not scared all the time about money.

So how are you doing? Have you had any big wins?

Last Day Off

Today was my last day off until April. 

It scares me to think that starting Monday I'll be working 60 hour weeks at two different jobs. Lets also tack on one of the scariest things. My husband took a new job in Florida, 5 and a half hours away. He'll be working down there 5 days a week and coming back on weekends. 

I'm quite terrified, but we're committed to making it all work. This means that we're going to have some serious changes to our budget and the way that we handle our money. I'm hoping that we'll be able to make more progress on some of the joint goals that we have over the next few months. 

I'm sure going to miss him, though. 

Tides are Turning

I've had a really bad 8 months. Lets not kid around here. It's been pretty horrible. 

There have been times when I've wanted to pack in this blog, to give up on any goals and dreams that I'm trying to pursue, and just hide with the covers pulled over my head. 

But I feel like I'm getting close to a shift. I'm about to go back to having two jobs again. I'll still be working in professional theatre, but I'll be doing that part time while I work a new full time job at a strong and steady web company. 

I'll be doing online technical support. The pay is good, and the company seems really nice. It means that I'll be able to get a strong grip on my finances. I may even be able to pay my non-student loan debt off as early as September. This is a huge deal to me. It also means I can pay off my student loan on time. 

It means I'll be back to sixty hour weeks until April when I will drop back to 50 hours. 

The other reason I feel like the tides are turning is that something good and random may have fallen into my lap. I've been looking at doing voiceover work for a while and haven't gotten round to getting my demo recorded. Today one of my friends, an actor around town told me that he had referred his agent to me about a small acting gig that she was looking for someone to do. 

This is a little out of the ordinary for me, I don't act primarily, but I have in the past. So I called her, she asked me to come in and do an audition tape, and she's sending it to the client today. I should find out tomorrow whether or not I get it, but she does seem pretty confident, which was nice. I had a lot of fun doing it. 

If this pans out, it's a foot in the door to more work. I'm going to be sending this agent my headshot and resume, and my demo if I ever get it recorded. We'll see if anything good comes of it!

So it feels like things might finally be working out. Now all I have to do is remain calm while I wait for that phone call!

Back Down to One Job

Today I quit my other secondary job and now I work just one job. I'm very relieved! I'm glad that I did that extra work for a few months and made the extra money because it did enable me to pay off my car and medical bills early, but I'm also very glad that I'll be able to get some rest and work on writing and this blog more. 

I know that I could use the extra money to pay my debt down more quickly, but I would rather do that freelancing. My emotional well-being is worth it!

October Goals and a Poll

This has been a hard week for me. I have a lot going on in my personal life that is taking a lot of time, attention, energy and stress. Having said that, I can't exactly throw my finances out of the window so here is the plan for October.

October is another blissful 5 Week month, which means that I get an "extra" paycheck that doesn't factor into my budget. I always agonize over what to do about these. With my first two checks for Job #3 coming in too, though, I've realized that I could do one pretty huge thing this month.

I can pay off my car.

My car has my biggest monthly debt payment. It's $200 a month, and without that to pay I would make enough at Job #1 to cover all of my minimums. That would mean that every other penny can pay down my debt or be saved. This means that I can feasibly quit one of my other two jobs any time I want because I won't need them to pay my bills.

I'm very excited about this prospect. It's only be two months early, but I think it would be the absolute best thing to do this month.

My other goal for October is to come up with a better savings plan. I need to really go through and look and analyze everything to make sure I'm saving up the right amounts for the right things. I also need to give my savings a raise, as well as figure out my check from Job #2.

Maybe you can help. I'd like feedback here.

My base pay at Job #2 is very low. I make a small amount hourly and the rest is commission, which can be hit or miss. These checks are normally under $100. Nowhere in my budget do I have money allocated to gas or entertainment or clothes. I'm thinking that what I should do is save part of the money and spend part of it, and let the checks from Job #3 go exclusively towards debt.

So, here are my options:

A. Put half of the check in savings and spend half.
B. Put my base pay only in savings and spend commission.
C. Put my commission in savings and spend my base pay.
D. Some other option I haven't thought of yet.

Generally, my base pay is higher than my commission, but it's hit or miss as to whether that is always the case.

Please let me know what you think in the comments! I'd love to have my readers decide this one for me.

And Another One...

One of the golden rules of Personal Finance is to spend less than you earn. Because of all the various and sundry things that happened to my finances in the last year, I decided to get a second job to help me get out of debt faster. I also needed to make more money because my minimum payments were higher than what I was earning, due to having to add in a car payment. 

I started my second job in July, working as a sales associate in a store. I was working there Saturdays and Sundays, but had to cut back to just Saturdays because I wasn't getting to see my husband enough. 

So that left me with a very very small secondary income and when an opportunity came by to interview for another part time job, I took it. I ended up getting the job and so tomorrow I will be working from 9pm-3pm at the new job and then from 3:30pm - 9:30pm at my regular job.

My schedule is my regular job Monday - Friday with additional morning hours (6 each day) at my new job on Thursdays and Friday's, and then Saturdays at the store. 

I now have three jobs. I know that it'll be financially worth it, but this is going to be really really hard. Please excuse me while I pass out.