I’m in a super depressed mood today. I should be excited, after all, it is payday. Except for one HUGE issue. Even though I logged 91 hours on my last time card, yes that’s my normal 80 hours plus 11 of overtime, and have worked for close to the last 3 weeks straight, my last FULL day off being MLK day, I’m still staring at my bank account and wondering how the hell I’m going to survive the next 2 weeks….when I turn in another timecard that’s going to have I think 90 hours on it.
Let’s see… Payday was today…
That’s + $914.41 into my bank account. (Previous balance was ~$400)
…but rent is due, that’s $502.50 for my half of the apartment
…and so is my car payment, $185.65
…and I need to pay my student loans… $158.12 to one loan from my checking account. My other loan is payed differently, I’ll touch on that in a second.
Which leaves me with $68.14 from this paycheck.
And that’s not including the $100 I sent towards the balance on one credit card. The others have later due dates and will have to wait the 2 weeks until they get paid. As will my cell phone and internet bills, I think. Though I’ll have to crunch the numbers on when they’re due, because they might need to go on one of the credit cards so they’re paid on-time.
And notice at no point was I able to save any of my paycheck. If I were following the normally recommended method of putting 10% of my normal pay into my savings account, that’d be $77 a paycheck, and as you can see, after paying bills I DON’T HAVE THAT! I have ~$370 for the next 2 weeks to buy groceries and whatever else comes up with. Oh and if I go under $300, I start to incur service fees on the account because it’s not at the stupid-high minimum balance.
2009 killed me in terms of finances. Because Emalee and I broke up in late 2008, and she moved out, I was stuck with an apartment I couldn’t afford. Plus add to that the furloughs that I had to do in Q1 & Q2 of 2009, and the fact that I got virtually NO overtime last year means my savings account, which had $1700 or so in it to start 2009, which expanded to well over $3,000 after I got my tax return, has been run dry. I ended 2009 with $256.52 in there. That’s how bad 2009 was for me. And I haven’t been able to rebuild it at all. There’s just been no money to do that. Even with having a roommate, theoretically less in the amount of bills, etc.
And it’s not really things like credit-card debt that’s my mega issue. It’s that I have a certified shit-ton in student loans.
As of right now, I still owe $15,658.58 on my federal student loans. That’s the loan I referenced above that I paid from this paycheck. I have another student loan, a private one, that I still owe them $35,493.93, which comes out to about $479.30 a month. The good news is that on this loan, going into college, the parents agreed to help pay part of it. So I get a good chunk of the money that goes to that loan from them at the moment.
The other stuff I currently owe on at the moment:
Credit Card Balances: $139.39 on one, $1,035.53 on the second one, and $31.60 on the third one.
Car: $4,312.85
Everything else is the recurring expenses I have every month.
And I’ve cut-out just about everything I could. I’ve stopped eating out as much as I possibly can, though with my schedule, sometimes that’s not something I can avoid doing. Avatar was the last movie I’ve seen in ages in a theater (previously was the current Harry Potter) AND I went to the 2D version because it was $9 as opposed to the $15 for the 3D or $20ish for the IMAX.
So yeah, I don’t go out, I don’t practically do anything anymore that requires spending money. I work my ass off and have practically nothing to show for it.
Ugh! I’m so sick of this. Anyone have contacts in NYC or LA that they’re willing to share with me?
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